Friday, June 27, 2025. Chump's wars on the economy and immigration are intertwined.
Let's start with Andrea Guadalupe Velez. Tom Wait (CBS NEWS) reports:
Andrea Guadalupe Velez, who is a U.S. citizen, expressed her relief after spending the past two days in a federal detention facility.
"It's been hard," Velez said. "I didn't know all this media coverage was happening and I'm just relieved that I'm outside."
Velez's mother and sister recorded federal agents carrying Velez away during an immigration enforcement operation. Her family had just dropped her off at the shoe store and had barely even driven a block before the arrest began. Velez said she remembered masked men suddenly surrounding her.
"It was just a day of work and everything happened so fast," Velez said. "They didn't identify themselves, so I was kind of scared. I was like 'what's going on?' ... I wasn't doing anything crazy. I was just going to follow orders, and they decided to pick me up, and that was kind of shocking."
Can you imagine that? You're a US citizen. And you're going about your business. And thanks to Convicted Felon Donald Chump, you are terrorized. Do not call that an arrest. When law enforcement arrests a person, they identify themselves. Dani Anguiano (GUARDIAN) notes:
Andrea Velez, 32, had just been dropped off at work by her mother and sister, the pair said, when they saw agents grab her.
“My mom looked at the rear mirror and she saw how my sister was attacked from the back,” Estrella Rosas told ABC7. “She was like: ‘They’re kidnapping your sister.’”
[. . .]
In other video, an agent can be seen lifting Velez off the ground and carrying her away. Witnesses told media, including CBS Los Angeles, that the agents never asked Velez for identification, and that she did nothing wrong.
“The only thing wrong with her … was the color of her skin,” Velez’s mother, Margarita Flores, told CBS Los Angeles.
She was kidnapped. She was racially profiled. I'm dictating the snapshot right now and flashing on what's probably already started but if not? It soon will.
Chump's evil. He's far from the only evil in this land. As the terror mounts and continues, you damn well better believe that lower evils in this country are going to be harming immigrants and threatening them and forcing them into labor. We're going to see an underground emerge -- a very ugly one. The only way that stops is if Chump stops this bulls**t program. If you need an image to visualize, think of the community behind the sheets that Liam Neeson's truck pulls up to in ABSOLUTION.
Please register what I said in the paragraph above.
Last summer, I addressed what a Chump presidency would mean for immigrants and those who might look like immigrants. I said racial profiling would take place. I said American citizens would be caught up in the drag net. And while I did the job that lazy ass 'progressive' media -- THE PROGRESSIVE, THE NATION, DEMOCRACY NOW!, et al -- were supposed to be doing, the Socialists as those outlets instead trashed Kamala Harris, worked to defeat her. It was all about suppressing turnout -- that was the point of Uncommitted, that was their goal. And they did it. At least 15% of the people who voted for Joe Biden in 2020 did not show up to vote in 2024.
Uncommitted lied about Kamala. Don't forget that. I'm not talking about the GOP or MAGA, I'm talking about a segment of the Socialsit left (largely DSA). In "Media: How Amy Goodman harmed immigrants and helped elect Chump," Ava and I explained:
Let's just focus on one garbage outlet:
Democracy Now! is broadcast daily across the United States and Canada as well as in countries around the world. Our program is on Pacifica, NPR, community, college and satellite radio stations; on PBS, public, community and satellite TV; and viewed by millions of people online each day.
That awful program has a larger audience than THE NATION -- even including the paltry number of issues the print magazine sells -- or any other left outlet.
And how did the program handle immigration from August through the end of October? That would be the general election campaign. How did they handle it?
In August, they did three stories on immigration policy. Two attacked Kamala Harris and the third one attacked Kamala and attacked Chump stressing that they were no different. In September they did no segments on immigration policy. In October?
Two.
They did two stories on immigration policies. One stressed that Kamala was competing with Chump for who could be the worst on immigration. The other was showing some of the documentary SEPARATED -- about what Donald did his first term as president. Neither Amy nor her two guests brought up what Donald was saying he would do if re-elected.
There was no noting, for example, that he was saying he would deport immigrants, round them up and deport them, that he would deport American citizens with them (to keep families together, you understand), that he would end birthright citizenship.
As DEMOCRACY NOW! and Amy Goodman ignored these stated plants, these threats, the ACLU pointed out:
It is tempting to regard these threats as overblown and calculated merely for political campaign purposes. But in recent months, Trump has repeatedly sought to rationalize his plans for mass deportation, blending military and national security rhetoric with xenophobia. When asked about the legality of using the military against civilians, Trump retorted that, in his view, "these aren’t civilians."
Still Amy Goodman ignored the topic.
She and her enablers might try to insist there was a third segment in October: Tim Walz's debate. No, that's not true. First, as we've noted the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) had claimed Tim as their own and their own victory to the press and on their official Twitter feed. That's why they treated Tim Walz's bug-eyed, flop sweat performance as a victory. And second, the footage from the debate and the segment itself focused on the lie that Haitians in the US were eating cats and dogs. This was not about the actual policies Chump was proposing.
The Latina American voter on Tik-Tok got fed a bunch of nonsense by the media. She regrets her vote. She and others should regret the media they consumed.
It's worth noting that while Amy Goodman could only do five segments on immigration policy (again, two slamming Kamala, two saying Kamala and Chump were the same and one focusing on what Chump did in his first term), she had plenty of time for other topics during that same three month period.
105.
That's the number of segments she did on Gaza during the same three month period, 105. Many of those trashed Kamala. In fact, those same three months featured at least 33 segment with Uncommitted (at least 33, many of her guest didn't disclose on air that they were part of the Uncommitted 'movement' that urged people not to vote for Kamala).
So now Chump's been president for a week. And the biggest issue right now? His attacks on immigrants. Again, in the three month lead up to the election, Amy Goodman did 105 segments on Gaza. She only did five segments on the immigration policies of the two candidates -- four of the five slammed Kamala.
Is it really the Tik-Tok voter's fault?
Or is it the crap ass, beggar (send money, send money!) media?
At what point, on the left, will we see others writing about this?
No time soon. That's for sure. They're too busy protecting one another and too busy plotting in secret on what their next media push will be. They don't do journalism, they're an in-house outlet for a tiny club and they decide who to pimp and what to ignore.
It really asn't changed. Look at the month of June which is alsmot over. You'll find three immigratns that Amy Goodman did a segment on. Three.
'There's more than three!'
You're right. There's a ton of Arab immigrants that Amy's covered in the month of June. But Arab immigrants are not the most targeted. In California, for example, it has been Latinos followed by Asian-Americans. Across the US, it is Latino immigrants more than any other group. But you won't find that reflected in Amy Goodman's coverage.
She's far from the only one who needs to be serving up public apologies. There's the disgraced James Zogby who has seen one door after another shut in his face this year. As should have happened.
Here's that idiot and back stabber speaking after the DNC convention but before the election as he praised 'Uncommitted' and the efforts to stop people from voting for Kamala Harris, "I think we’ve reached a tipping point in terms of the degree to which we’ve become empowered and are therefore able to ensure that what we want can’t be ignored. We were able to gain even more traction precisely because we were slighted and ignored."
Are you at that tipping point?
No.
No, you're not.
What you did harmed the country. What you did put Latinos at huge risk.
'Joe Biden is evil! Kamala Harris is evil! Genocide Joe! Genocide Joe!'
James, where are you and the other little bitches now?
Oh, that's right, cowering in the shadows.
You don't dare protest in the streets, there are no large scale campus protests.
You've all pretty much gone into hiding. Palestinians continue to die in Gaza. But there's no Genocide Don nick name. No, you're too scared of him. You all cower in fear and hide.
`Back in 2024, you did nothing but sew division at a time when we should have all -- on the left -- been rallying behind Kamala to save this country.
Some Democrats have done some stupid things in 2025 -- some elected Democrats. I've avoided it as much as I can. My attitude it we need no David Hoggs dividing us right now. We need to come together because if we don't win in the mid-terms, this country is over.
So I'm trying to focus on what Dems do right and find something else to cover when a Dem does something stupid. Now attacking people because of the color of their skin or the gender they sleep with or things like that? I'll call you out, Seth Moulton and won't care that you're a Democrat.
Democrat.
I don't give two s**ts about you Socialista -- like Zogby -- who pretend for public consumption that you're Democrats. You rat f**ked our party and gave the election to Chump.
Zogby and his rag-tag gang of Socialists (at least Rahsida's come out of the political closet finally) owe the American people an apology. They especially owe all immigrants and those being perceived as immigrants an apology.
People can't live their lives freely right now.
Jory Rand (KABC) notes life for Andrea's family after she was kidnapped by ICE:
In the meantime, Velez's family has been left traumatized, afraid to leave the house and desperate to get her home.
"When my daughter gets out, I don't know how she'll live her life from now on because right now, in these times, the way we are, I think we won't be able to go outside anymore. Because we're already exposed her, and it's a brutal attack because they're basically kidnapping people," she said.
The family hails from Mexico and worked hard for decades to send their daughters to college. Velez graduated years ago and works in fashion. Her younger sister, Estrella, just graduated high school and is set to attend Mount Saint Mary's in the fall.
Andrea's attorney Gregory Russell tells Vivian Chow (KTLA), "They're alleging Ms. Velez assaulted an ICE officer. Now imagine this -- you're just dropped off at work. You're walking on the sidewalk and a 6-foot man in full armor and weapons, with his face shielded, starts charging at you. And that’s what she experienced. Now, who committed the assault here?"
They keep lying, ICE, and insisting that they were the ones assaulted. This is why they're going end up drug addicts and suicide victims: They know they're lying. That's why they won't appear in public without face covering. They know they're lying and it will destroy them and eat them alive in the years to come. They know this is wrong.
And we do too. Earlier this week, two stenographers at USA TODAY couldn't grasp what polling actually meant. What it meant was that Americans were turning against Chump on immigration. We're there now even if USA TODAY's two typists couldn't grasp that reality. Anna Commander (NEWSWEEEK) notes:
President Donald Trump's approval rating on immigration has dipped to its lowest mark amid his second term in the White House, a new poll from Quinnipiac University finds.
Why It Matters
Immigration policy remains a defining issue for Trump's presidency after fueling his 2024 election pursuit.
The president campaigned fervently last year on the promise of mass deportations and appointed Tom Homan as his border czar to execute his agenda.
The administration's approach on deportations—including expanded enforcement raids, the use of military force and legal maneuvering—has intensified partisan divisions and sparked significant public protest, particularly in urban centers like Los Angeles.
Federal immigration raids in Los Angeles this month led to large-scale protests, with demonstrations focused on downtown federal buildings. The unrest prompted Mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat, to implement a curfew for portions of the area after incidents of vandalism.
What To Know
In the new poll released on Thursday, the president has a 41 percent approval rating on immigration, with a 57 percent disapproval mark.
The survey shows that 56 percent of voters also disapprove of the tactics employed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), compared to 39 percent who approve.
The poll was conducted from June 22 to June 24 among 979 "self-identified registered voters" across the country. The poll's margin of error is 3.1 percent.
This has been the trend -- the growing repulsion on the part of American citizens as we watch a masked Gestapo force take to the streets, beat up unarmed people and then kidnap them.
Amy Goodman isn't really telling these stories on her program. THE NATION? I see ten stories on the main page. Not one is about an immigrant or a US citizen mistaken for an immigrant. They do, however, make time for Dave Zirin to cover torn ligaments and to run four stories on NYC's Dem mayor candidate -- written by four Socialists only one of whom has even a toe out of the political closet. Remember, kids, DSA isn't really concerned with immigration. They're like Bernie Sanders on the issue, if forced to, they will mutter a few words but they're not going to make it a priority or a focus.
There are currently 11 articles on THE PROGRESSIVE's main page. How many about what's being done to immigrants?
Zero.
IN THESE TIMES is a Socialist publication. Visit their website and you'll find 19 articles (stop when you get to "Palestine" because articles under that heading and other headings below it are over a month old at least). Of the 19, only one is 'about' an immigrant. In a very long article that finds time to name check Aretha Franklin, Duke Ellington and Dred Scott, Jacob Wheeler works this in:
On June 16, just over a month after the meeting, the facility officially reopened, and the first detainees disappeared behind its walls. The advocacy group No Detention Centers in Michigan says that among them was Mayib Dieng, a Senegalese immigrant whom the group says was arrested last month in Detroit despite a work permit and a pending asylum status. No Detention Centers in Michigan worked with the Detroit-based African Bureau for Immigrants and Social Affairs to raise Dieng’s bond.
The fact that the prison will likely hold mostly non-white immigrants like Dieng stands out in this part of Michigan.
DSA-bible JACOBIN has forty articles on their home page. Not one about a Latino being targeted by ICE. Not one. They do manage, however, to file eight articles on the NYC Dem Mayoral candidate. Like their spiritual hero Bernie Sanders, they have other things to worry about apparently.
The SEP frequently and rightly calls out the DSA (both are Socialist political parties). At their publication, WSWS, Marc Wells reports:
On June 21, 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents reportedly entered the premises of Riverside Community Hospital (RCH) in Southern California and detained at least one individual. It is unclear at the time of this writing whether the person was a patient, brought in for treatment, or detained while visiting the hospital. That the event took place was confirmed by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
Social media reports suggest that the nurse who attended to the detainee has also been taken by ICE, placed on administrative leave without pay and now faces possible termination. Hospital management is reportedly disciplining staff members who refuse to cooperate with ICE.
Posts from healthcare workers on Reddit’s r/InlandEmpire community, including one dated June 11, foreshadowed the incident, warning of “ICE at Riverside Community Hospital” and reporting two ICE vehicles on-site around 10 days prior. These chilling reports paint a picture of collaboration between federal agents and hospital management that cannot be interpreted as anything less than a grotesque betrayal of both legal and medical ethics.
But, hey, THE NATION's serving up torn ligaments, right? That's almost worth something, right?
Richard Allyn (CBS8) reports ICE raided an apartment complex in Oceanside and arrested two adults while releasing the couple's two children. Neighbor Marlo Cleveland is quoted stating, "They set off flash bangs in the house, they broke [the] window, they sent drones in. One guy had a hand grenade on his vest. What was he going to do with that?"
Paula Ramon (JAPANESE TIMES) picks up the story of Narciso Barranco:
For Alejandro Barranco, a U.S. Marine veteran, it's difficult to process the way his father, a Mexican gardener, was detained in a raid in California as part of President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown in the nation.
"They handled this situation in a very unprofessional manner. These are not the standards of the United States government," Alejandro said in an interview.
Narciso Barranco, father of three marines, was intercepted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents Saturday while trimming a garden at a restaurant in Santa Ana, a city south of Los Angeles.
Kansas Immigration Council held a vigil for immigrants. KSNW reports, "In light of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts across the country, the Kansas Immigration Coalition held a vigil in Wichita Thursday night for families separated by recent detentions and deportations. Over 100 people attended, and some took the microphone to share their personal experiences with immigration in the United States."
Narciso was noted yesterday on Nicole Wallace's MSNBC program.
Suzanna Gambona (NBC NEWS) reports:
Attorneys are pleading for the release from immigration detention of a 6-year-old boy treated for cancer of the blood and bone marrow, who is being held in Texas with his mother and sibling.
The boy, his mother and his 9-year-old sibling, originally from Honduras, were seized after the three attended their May 29 immigration hearing in Los Angeles last month. Attorneys say the family could be deported within days because their attempt to secure asylum in the U.S. was cut short.
Their arrests are among many that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has carried out at immigration courts to shuffle more immigrants into a speeded-up removal from the country known as expedited removal. Many are like the mother and her children and were granted legal entry to the U.S. during the Biden administration.
The Trump administration has directed judges to dismiss the cases of immigrants who have been in the country less than two years, so ICE can more quickly remove them from the country.
Still on this six-year-old child, Dan Katz (TEXAS PUBLIC RADIO) quotes Immigrant Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School's Elora Mukherjee stating, "There were men waiting for them in civilian clothing. The [ICE agents] detained the family for many hours, and it was a terrifying time for the two children and their mother. They were crying in fear. One of the agents at one point lifted up his shirt, which displayed the gun that he was carrying. The 6-year-old boy was terrified to see the gun. He urinated on himself and wet all his clothing. No one offered him a change of clothing for many hours."
That's abuse, let's be really clear, the US government has the child in custody and they are abusing the child. A six-year-old in fear wets themselves? You get the new clothes immediately. You do not take ''hours" to provide the child with fresh clothes. The inhumanity is rooted in the fact that these people do not see the immigrants before them as human. And this allows all kinds of abuse to take place. Sergio Olmos, Wendy Fry, Lauren Hepler and Anat Rubin (CAL MATTERS) speak with immigrants to find out what happens once ICE grabs them:
The men’s stories also suggest that agents are pushing people to sign removal forms before they can call home or speak with an attorney. Ahilan Arulanantham, co-director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law, said those tactics would be “blatantly illegal.”
“You can’t condition phone access on anything,” Arulanantham said. “They have a right to call their family. They have a right to call a lawyer.”
He also raised concerns about the treatment the men described in government facilities. “It’s not permissible to manipulate the conditions of detention to encourage people to give up their rights,” he said.
Migrants can challenge the legality of their arrest and detention, he said, but they usually have to be in the country and be able to call a lawyer.
The Department of Homeland Security didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Immigration detention centers are well above capacity, and the men we spoke with were almost immediately moved to an ICE tent camp in Texas and, within days, across the border to an immigration facility in Ciudad Juárez.
Before the Trump administration began its mass deportation campaign, many immigrants arrested away from the border were released on bond with a notice to appear in immigration court. Those with criminal histories were typically held in detention facilities.
Now, Bovino has made clear, he considers anyone who crossed the border without documents – the farm worker, the day laborer, the paletero – a criminal.
Stuart Anderson (FORTUNE) notes, "At a Congressional hearing, Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell said the Trump administration’s deportation policies are one of the reasons U.S. economic growth has slowed. The comment confirms the views of economists who warned it would be challenging to grow the economy with an immigration policy focused on removing workers from the U.S. labor force. According to a recent Quinnipiac poll, 56% of registered voters disapprove of “the way Donald Trump is handling deportations,” and 40% approve." It's harming the economy. You can't ignore that reality. Jordan Rau (NPR) notes, "The long-term health care industry is facing a double whammy from President Trump's crackdown on immigrants and the Republican Party's proposals to reduce Medicaid spending. The industry is highly dependent on foreign workers: More than 800,000 immigrants and naturalized citizens comprise 28% of direct care employees at home care agencies, nursing homes, assisted living facilities and other long-term care companies." Jennifer Borrasso (CBS NEWS) adds, "Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested 14 people during an operation at a Mexican restaurant in Allegheny County on Wednesday, ICE officials said."
We'll wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:
Reports reveal ICE held people for days with little food and water, cramped cells, lack of access to health care
ICE recently changed policy to inhibit Congressional oversight, prevent Americans’ representatives from witnessing ICE’s violations
“We are disturbed that ICE appears to be using the Burlington facility beyond its original design to detain people in inadequate conditions in Massachusetts — and that ICE is undermining public transparency and accountability.”
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) led the entire Massachusetts Congressional delegation in writing to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Todd Lyons and ICE ERO Boston Acting Field Office Director Patricia Hyde, pressing them on whether ICE has been violating agency standards by holding detainees in inhumane conditions at a local processing facility in Burlington, Massachusetts. The lawmakers also warned of the damage from a new ICE policy to shield field offices from public view by preventing members of Congress from making unannounced visits as part of their oversight — a key function of their job to serve their constituents.
U.S. Representatives Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.), Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), Richard Neal (D-Mass.), Bill Keating (D-Mass.), Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), Lori Trahan (D-Mass.), and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) also joined Senators Warren and Markey on the letter.
“We are disturbed that ICE appears to be using the Burlington facility beyond its original design to detain people in inadequate conditions in Massachusetts — and that ICE is undermining public transparency and accountability,” wrote the lawmakers.
New reports reveal that ICE is holding people for days at a time at a field office in Burlington, Massachusetts, an office building designed to process people for no more than a few hours. ICE’s own policy says that, barring “exceptional circumstances,” no one should be detained in a field office holding facility for over 12 hours. But in recent months, ICE has used the Burlington office as a “de facto detention facility,” with conditions made worse by the Administration’s attempts to triple the number of ICE arrests per day.
Conditions at the facility are reportedly abysmal, including inadequate food, drinking water, beds, medical care, hygiene supplies, and more. These conditions appear to violate ICE’s own standards, warranting immediate attention.
Earlier this month, the Department of Homeland Security issued new guidance prohibiting members of Congress from making unannounced visits to field offices, undermining lawmakers’ ability to conduct oversight on ICE’s practices and promote transparency. Meanwhile, ICE continues to dispute individuals’ reports of inadequate and inhumane conditions at field offices across the country.
“In effect, ICE appears to be violating its own detention standards, denying reports of violations, and then preventing the American public’s representatives from witnessing those violations,” wrote the lawmakers.
The lawmakers requested a congressional briefing and pushed for answers regarding the reportedly inhumane conditions at the Burlington facility and ICE’s intentions to rectify this situation, with a deadline of July 10.
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