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Years
Vol. 65 No. 20 | Thursday, May 15, 2025
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Serving San Diego County’s African & African American Communities 65 Years
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION MOVES TO ELIMINATE HABEAS CORPUS By Stacy M. Brown
BLACK PRESS USA SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT
P HOTO: NNPA
Senior White House adviser Stephen Miller confirmed the Trump administration is “actively looking at” suspending the writ of habeas corpus — a constitutional right that allows individuals to challenge unlawful detention. Though framed as a move against undocumented immigrants, historians and legal experts warn that the consequences could be far more sweeping, especially for Black Americans. “The
Constitution is clear,” Miller told reporters. “The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in time of invasion.” Miller cited immigration at the southern border as justification, using language similar to what President Trump has repeatedly described as an “invasion.” But civil liberties advocates and Black historians say suspending this right — a cornerstone of due process — would reopen legal pathways used throughout U.S. history to detain, punish, and silence Black Americans. See HABEAS CORPUS page 2
ARE SAN DIEGANS GETTING THEIR BASIC NEEDS MET?
INSIDE THIS WEEK'S ISSUE:
BOYS & GIRLS CLUB CELEBRATES
ALUMNI HALL OF FAME SEE PAGE 5
New reports unveil the state of housing, childcare, homelessness, and food security for San Diegans By Macy Meinhardt V&V STAFF WRITER, CA LOCAL NEWS FELLOW
As San Diego grapples with skyrocketing living costs, a coalition of nonprofits and elected officials gathered Thursday, May 8 to sound the alarm on the region's most pressing challenges: affordable housing, childcare, homelessness and food costs. Working families and marginalized communities are subjected to the harshest realities of today's cost of living. As rents soar to $2,571 a month and child care deserts leave 190,000 children without options, community leaders warn that the city’s economic future relies on whether policymakers act to protect its most vulnerable residents. “This year, in the face of unprecedented budget challenges at all levels of government, we asked some of our community partners to join us in calling attention to the cost of those basic needs that lower-income working families and households struggle with,” said Stephen Russell, San Diego Housing Federation President and CEO. PATH San Diego Regional Director Hanan Scrapper speaking during the May 8 press conference. PHOTO: Macy Meinhardt/Voice & Viewpoint Staff
See NEEDS page 2
GRACIE MAE STEWART HILL
TURNS 100 SEE PAGE 7
REPUBLICANS BLOCK COUNTY BLACK AMERICA CELEBRATES RESERVE REFORM AS TRUMP BUDGET AFRICAN DESCENT HERITAGE OF
THREATENS MASSIVE CUTS POPE LEO XIV
The proposal from Supervisors Montgomery Steppe and Lawson-Reemer would have aligned the County’s reserve policy with national best practices VOICE & VIEWPOINT NEWSWIRE In a partisan vote, Republican members of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors blocked a proposal to modernize the County’s outdated reserve policy—leaving local communities vulnerable to looming federal cuts that threaten the foundation of services that hundreds of thousands of San Diegans rely on.
The Reserve Reform, introduced by Supervisors Terra Lawson-Remer and Monica Montgomery Steppe, would have aligned the County’s reserve policy with national best practices from the Diego County Administration Building. July 2025. Government Finance Officers Association’s San PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons (GFOA), and ensured critical dollars could Washington walks away from its responsibilibe mobilized during emergencies. The failed vote comes just days after the Trump administration ties,” said Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, who released its federal budget proposal signaling a serves as Chair of the San Diego County Board of 22% cut to non-defense discretionary federal Supervisors. “We offered a commonsense soluspending—triple the scale of the controversial tion to safeguard San Diego’s most vulnerable cuts proposed in 2017. communities. Instead, our Republican colleagues chose polemics and posturing over preparedness.” “Today’s vote wasn’t just a procedural setback—it was a choice to tie our hands while See CUTS page 2
By Stacy M. Brown BLACK PRESS USA SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT
Black America is taking pride in a truth shaking up the Vatican and resonating through the streets of New Orleans: Pope Leo XIV—formerly Cardinal Robert Prevost of Chicago—has Black and Creole roots. The Pope’s factual anthropological roots are not just symbolic. According to genealogist Jari Honora, his maternal lineage traces directly to the Black community of New Orleans’ 7th Ward, with family ties to Haiti, and census records identifying his ancestors as “Black” or “Mulatto.” “By the Europeans’ own ‘1/8th’ rules, we have a Black Pope,” noted author Jari C. Honora/The Historic New Orleans Collection. PHOTO: Andrew Medichini/AP Elie Mystal declared. “Anyway, Pope’s grandfather is Haitian. We kind of got a Black family born in Chicago. “The Holy Father’s ancestors are Pope. ‘End Woke’ is not gonna be happy identified as about this.” Further, New Orleans historian either Black Jari Christopher Honora also speaking to the or Mulatto,” National Catholic Reporter and Black Catholic Messenger, detailed how the pope’s grandHonora said. parents married in 1887 at Our Lady of the See POPE Sacred Heart Church on Annette Street in New page 2 Orleans before migrating north. His mother, Mildred Martínez, was the first child in the
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