Monday, July 14, 2025. Chump's war on immigrants continues to terrorize communities, destroy jobs and destroy lives.
New York State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani is running to become New York City's next mayor. Born in Uganda, his family then moved to post-apartheid South Africa and, when he was seven, to the United States where they settled in New York City. What is NYC today is a region that first took in immigrants in 1624 when the Dutch made the region its home.
Over the years, NYC has had many, many mayors of all political stripes. Zohran is a Democratic Socialist who wants to make the city stronger and ensure fairness and equality for all New Yorkers. Recognizing the greatness of the city, he has some common sense reforms to help New Yorkers such as a rent freeze.
Rent has been soaring across the country including for New Yorkers. Pew Research notes that rent increased from 12% from 2019 to 2021. Since then, there has not been a decrease in rent and, in some areas, rent has increased 35.8% since before COVID. NYC residents do not need to be priced out of their homes and, as mayor, Zohran wouldn't let them be. His campaign notes, "As Mayor, Zohran will immediately freeze the rent for all stabilized tenants, and use every available resource to build the housing New Yorkers need and bring down the rent. The number one reason working families are leaving our city is the housing crisis. The Mayor has the power to change that."
Eric Adams built his idea of New York City. Zohran wants to build New Yorkers New York City. A city that works for them and embraces them. A city as good as NYC deserves to be.
Some criticize Zohran and/or think he's unelectable. Unelectable? He came from behind to win this year's Democratic Party primary. Criticize? Establishment politician Dean Phillips has criticized Zohran -- not his ideas but Zohran himself. While everyone has a right to an opinion, we need to remember that Dean Phillips (a) does not live in NYC or even New York state, (b) Dean Phillips ran in the Democratic Party's 2024 primary and only won4 pledged delegates to Joe Biden's 3,905, (c) Dean Phillips ran in the Democratic Party's 2024 presidential primary and "uncommitted" got more pledged delegate (37) delegates, (d) Jason Palmer is another name you might not be familiar with but he won 3 pledged delegates in the primary to Dean's four, and (e) via his adopted father, Dean was raised in wealth and knows nothing about struggling to pay the bills.
Dean Phillips has been against corporate pac donations since 2022. If he'd bothered to check, that's a position Zohran shares. Those wanting to build a bridge throughout society are more than wiling to work with Zohran on mutual goals that improve life for NYC residents. Zohran invites Dean Phillips to explore his stands and encourages him to find issues that the two of them can support. Democrats such as Senator Elizabeth Warren and US House Rep Jerry Nadler have looked at candidate Zohran and his positions and endorsed him as have Socialists such as AOC and Rashida Tlaib. Zohran wants to build bridges and make NYC the very best that it can be.
Okay, I'm not endorsing Zohran. I don't endorse in races I can't vote in. I don't live in NYC. The above is written to demonstrate how you can cover the issues in a way that helps Zohran. Don't treat Socialism as a bad thing (passing Summer Lee, a Socialist, off as a "progressive" is a bad thing since doing so is saying "Socialism" is a bad word) and carry at least one position Zohran holds in your coverage so that those who can vote in NYC's mayoral election know what Zohran is offering.
Your screw this up, you really screw up AOC's shot in the party's presidential nomination in 2028.
So stop putting people in political closets -- closets FOX "NEWS" will only out them from -- and get the information out about the candidate in a non-distorted manner.
Turning to the issue of Donald Chump's gestapo police known as ICE. There are many victims of ICE and Chump's immigration war. In a major report, Ava Blando and Simone Jacques (MS. MAGAZINE) explain how women are being harmed:
Multiple men have been arrested in at least three states since President Donald Trump’s inauguration for allegedly posing as immigration enforcement officers to perpetrate sexual violence against immigrant women.
Across the country, so-called “ICE impersonators” are on the rise as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) itself has been violently arresting people without warrants, sometimes in plain clothes using unmarked vehicles. Nearly impossible to distinguish between real and fake agents, men have allegedly lied about their identities to intimidate, kidnap and rape women with precarious immigration statuses, according to survivors’ accounts:
- In Prince George’s County, M.D., police arrested 26-year-old Victor Antonio Reed, who they say raped a Latina woman while posing as an ICE agent.
- In Raleigh, N.C., an immigrant woman says 37-year-old Carl Thomas Bennett kidnapped and raped her while posing as a law enforcement officer and threatening to deport her. He is facing charges for kidnapping, second-degree rape and impersonating a law enforcement officer.
- In Brooklyn, N.Y., a man told a 51-year-old immigrant woman that he was an ICE agent. She says he attempted to rape her, and he took her phone, purse and jewelry. At the time of publication, he has not yet been arrested.
[. . .]
ICE impersonators are not the only threat facing immigrant women (and all immigrants). Especially under President Trump, who is ushering in a harsh wave of militarized mass detention and deportation, ICE itself poses grave risks to women’s safety, bodily autonomy and human rights.
In mid-March, ICE detained a pregnant mother of five named Iris Dayana Monterroso-Lemus. In ICE custody, Monterroso-Lemus says she endured hunger, abuse and medical neglect; her food had cockroaches in it, and her only prenatal care was 12 unidentified pills a day.
When she was five months pregnant, Monterroso-Lemus gave birth alone, shackled and under armed guard. She experienced a stillbirth in custody after officials allegedly refused to provide medical care while she begged for help. After she gave birth to a stillborn child, ICE deported Monterroso-Lemus to Guatemala, separating her from family in the United States.
In May, ICE detained Paola Clouatre—the wife of an American Marine Corps veteran—after her appointment for a green card. Immigration officials sent Clouatre to a facility hours away from her children, including her 3-month-old breastfeeding daughter.
These are just two of many stories. Tragically, too many women have suffered in ICE custody to include every story here.
Additionally, women who are deported often face abuse in other countries. Many came to the United States to escape gender-based violence, which is prevalent in many parts of Latin America and around the world.
ICE may stand for “Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” but it spells danger for immigrant women and their families.
This is a reign of terror. And the reign was started by Donald Chump and it is carried out by Donald Chump. At SALON, Akina Cox shares:
A few weeks ago on a sunny Friday afternoon, my child’s preschool sent out an alert that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were nearby. I picked them up early from school, passing a Home Depot that had apparently been raided a few hours earlier, sending day laborers and street vendors fleeing. The following day, ICE was seen in the city of Paramount where my friend lives, and I checked for alternate routes to her graduation party held that evening. On Sunday morning, as I was looking for shoes and packing snacks, I heard a rumor that ICE was on the same block as my child’s playdate. I searched for concrete details, scrolling through images of the previous day’s protests in Los Angeles only a few miles away — cops shooting rubber-coated steel bullets at protestors, tear gas wafting down the street like morning fog.
By the end of the weekend I was agitated and frayed, unable to focus. That’s when it struck me: I used to feel like this all the time, when I was growing up in the Unification Church, a doomsday cult known for arranged mass weddings of its members. Founded by the self-proclaimed messiah Reverend Sun Myung Moon, the Unification Church gained notoriety in the seventies when members known as “Moonies” became ubiquitous on city corners, selling trinkets and inviting passersby to a nearby center for a meal. Dinner would turn into a weekend at a rural property, and soon new members would vanish from their normal lives. Accusations of kidnapping were leveled on both sides, with distraught families claiming the Unification Church was keeping their children away from them, and the church alleging families had hired deprogrammers to kidnap them back. Families were torn apart, a situation that was repeated again when church offspring like myself wanted to leave.
While the reach of the Unification Church has diminished over the years, ICE is now on our street corners, arresting our neighbors and loved ones, disappearing them into a legally dubious network of prisons and holding facilities. In observing these actions, I can’t help but notice the numerous parallels between the church and the current administration. Allegations of brainwashing, tax evasion and sexual abuse hounded Reverend Moon despite his growing wealth and political influence. Today the news is filled with stories about President Donald Trump, another alleged tax cheat and sex abuser, and his unprecedented monetization of the presidency for himself and his extended family through dubious cryptocurrency and international real estate deals, and tawdry commercialism that includes selling a $250 Victory 45-47 fragrance.
Most concerningly, both Trump and Moon have used scapegoats to distract their followers from their power grabs. Scapegoats are integral for a cult; they promote social cohesion, both by binding the in-group together over a common enemy, and by widening the gulf between members and outsiders. They cleave the world into a binary of us and them. Scapegoats are vilified as a tacit warning to cult members, an example of what could happen to them if they stray too far from the rest of the flock. The cohesion provided by the scapegoat places cult members in a position of further manipulation, when they don’t look past the easy answers and see their leaders taking advantage of them.
Terror. A reign of terror produces horror stories and victims. Here are a few stories of some of the most recent victims. Joey Safchik (NBC NEWS) reports on the arrest of 71-year-old Barbara Stone for the 'crime' of documenting ICE's actions in a San Diego courthouse. She was left bruised by the bullies, held for eight hours and her phone was not returned to her when she was finally released. That alone should bother every American; however, combine it with what THE GUARDIAN's Edward Helmore reported today, "Donald Trump has given 'total authorization' to federal immigration agents to protect themselves after a series of clashes with protesters, including during enforcement raids on two California cannabis farms." In Thursday's snapshot, we noted:
People watch as a chaplain at Cincinnati's Children's hospital is rounded up by ICE and they rightly think, "How is that man a 'violent criminal'?" And they rightly conclude, "He isn't." This does not have the support of the American people. You see it in the polling and you see it in the rising sentiment against Chump personally.
The chaplain's name is Ayman Soliman and, Friday, US House Rep Greg Landsman's office issued the following:
Cincinnati, OH – Today, Congressman Greg Landsman (D-OH-01) released the following statement regarding his ongoing efforts in support of Ayman Soliman:
We spoke at length today with ICE officials – making the case for why Ayman deserves to remain in our community.
We have been working on Ayman’s case for months – well before this became public.
We expect this to be a long process that he and his attorneys will be navigating. At every step of the way – before he was detained, afterward, and going forward – we have been and will continue working hand in hand with his legal team.
We have secured a commitment that Ayman will be able to stay in Ohio for the time being – prior to his next appearances before the immigration court.
While we cannot go into every detail, we are working to ensure Ayman receives due process, are pushing for him to be treated fairly, and are doing everything we can to keep him here at home.
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The victims pile up. Wendy Fry (CALMATTERS) reports:
A deaf Mongolian man has spent more than four months in a Southern California immigrant detention center without the opportunity to communicate with anyone who understands Mongolian Sign Language, according to his civil rights attorney.
“He’s basically been in solitary confinement because he has not had one person actually speak to him in Mongolian Sign Language for the entirety of the time that he’s been in proceedings and detained,” said his attorney, AlegrÃa De La Cruz, director of litigation for the Disability Rights Legal Center.
U.S. Southern District of California Judge Dana Sabraw this week ordered officials at the Otay Mesa Detention Center to provide him with a Mongolian Sign Language interpreter.
The judge also directed immigration authorities to redo two assessments that could affect his request for asylum. One would examine his mental health, and the other would evaluate whether he has a credible fear for his safety if he returns to his country.
Another? Olga R. Rodriguez (AP) reports, "A farmworker who fell from a greenhouse roof during a chaotic ICE raid this week at a California cannabis facility died Saturday of his injuries. Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first person to die in one of the Trump administration’s anti-immigration operations. Yesenia Duran, Alanis' niece, confirmed his death to The Associated Press."
Another? Michelle Breidenbach (SYRACUSE.COM) reports:
Kong Xiong Wang was 18 years old when he arrived at Miami International Airport with a document U.S. immigration officials said was fraudulent.
In 1994, an immigration judge ruled that Wang must return to China, record show.
Instead, over the next decades, he made his way north to a small village on the Susquehanna River in Upstate New York’s Southern Tier.
In Owego, Wang is known as Roger Huang, age 50, a husband and father and the owner of Kam Fung Chinese restaurant for about 25 years.
His is the story of Chinese restaurant owners in towns all over America. Huang works all day in the kitchen while his wife serves General Tso’s chicken and egg rolls in the dining room. Customers have watched their two daughters study their way from restaurant countertops to college.
“This family sure knows how to make awesome food and a friendly atmosphere and it’s always family, theirs and yours,” one Google reviewer wrote a month ago. “Owego New York is blessed.”
Now, for the second time in recent weeks, an Upstate New York community has lost the patriarch of its beloved local Chinese restaurant family.
Another? Chabeli Carrazana (19TH NEWS) reports Nicolle Orozco Forero and her family have been deported from Seattle:
It was supposed to be a routine meeting with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Orozco Forero and her husband had been to all their monthly meetings for the past year and change, since their asylum charge was denied in April 2024.
The family — Orozco Forero; her husband, Juan Sebastian Moreno Acosta; and their two sons, Juan David, 7, and Daniel, 5 — fled Colombia two years ago. Moreno Acosta, a street vendor, had been persecuted by gangs who target vendors for money.
After arriving in the United States, they sought the help of a lawyer with their asylum claim, but when they couldn’t pay his full fee ahead of their hearing, he pulled out. They represented themselves in court and lost the case. With no knowledge of the U.S. court system, they didn’t know they had 30 days to appeal the ruling, either. Ever since, ICE has been monitoring them, requiring they wear a wrist tracker and meet with an immigration officer once a month, sometimes more, according to a family member. (The 19th is not naming the family member to protect their identity.) It’s unclear why ICE has allowed them to stay in the country all this time, though it’s not necessarily uncommon; ICE typically prioritized immigrants with felonies for deportation.
Orozco Forero had seen the reports of undocumented immigrants being rounded up at their immigration appointments. President Donald Trump’s mass deportation effort has led to the detention of about 30,000 migrants with no criminal record, like Orozco Forero, who now make up about half of those detained. Her husband does have a misdemeanor reckless driving conviction for driving under the influence of alcohol on his record, but he completed a court-mandated alcohol course for that and has no other convictions.
Still, Orozco Forero wasn’t worried when she headed to her appointment on the morning of June 18. If ICE planned to detain her, Orozco Forero thought, they would have asked her to come with the boys, right?
And she had been doing everything right: She’d gone to all her appointments, taken documentation to show she was going to school at Green River Community College taking courses in English and early childhood education. She had completed a child care internship that trained her to open her own licensed in-home day care. Her licensure approval was set to arrive any moment, likely that same week, and the day care was just about ready to go.
But that morning, her family was still wary, asking her to share her location just in case.
Shortly after 10 a.m., Orozco Forero texted her family member: “They are going to deport us”
“Nicolle what happened? Nicolle answer me,” they texted back. “What do I do?”
“I can’t speak I feel like I’m going to faint,” Orozco Forero replied. And then: “I’m sorry it wasn’t what we expected.”
One of her children's sick and they've all been deported. And this impacts families in Seattle since she was a childcare provider. Other jobs are impacted as well. Michelle Breidenbach (SYRACUSE.COM) reports, "All over Upstate New York, the U.S. government is arresting the people who repair roofs, landscape yards and raise chickens. Dairy farm workers are refusing to leave company-provided housing, where officers would need a warrant to enter."
We've repeatedly noted here of ICE that your choices are to remain working for them and face a future that's either drug addiction (self-medicating to deal with the guilt) or suicide. That's not me putting a curse on them, that's me noting that this outside of acceptable human behavior and that these are the two responses/possibilities for most people when they transgress the bonds of humanity. Friday, Billal Rahman (NEWSWEEK) reported:
Lives are being destroyed. And the press it gets today? In 20 years, you'll be watching documentaries on this. It will be one of the key and telling factors about the Chump administration. ICE agents who think, "It was twenty years ago, I can live my life," will instead be triggered on a weekly if not daily basis because these stories will be told -- a huge number of stories, many more than are known and shared today.
The American people grow more appalled each day. Thursday, Gallup released the results of their latest poll:
Americans have grown markedly more positive toward immigration over the past year, with the share wanting immigration reduced dropping from 55% in 2024 to 30% today. At the same time, a record-high 79% of U.S. adults say immigration is a good thing for the country.
These shifts reverse a four-year trend of rising concern about immigration that began in 2021 and reflect changes among all major party groups.
With illegal border crossings down sharply this year, fewer Americans than in June 2024 back hard-line border enforcement measures, while more favor offering pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already in the U.S.
These findings are based on a June 2-26 Gallup poll of 1,402 U.S. adults, including oversamples of Hispanic and Black Americans, weighted to match national demographics.
The same poll finds many more Americans disapproving than approving of President Donald Trump’s handling of immigration. Trump’s 21% approval rating on the issue among Hispanic adults is below his 35% rating nationally, with the deficit likely reflecting that group’s low support for some of the administration’s signature immigration policies.
We'll wind down with this from Senator Alex Padilla's office:
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In case you missed it, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, joined CNN’s “State of the Union” this morning to criticize the Trump Administration’s cruel immigration raids in California and across the nation, and pushed for new legislation to require immigration enforcement officers to display clearly visible identification during public-facing enforcement actions.
As Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), enact President Trump’s cruel mass deportation agenda, Padilla’s VISIBLE Act would strengthen oversight, transparency, and accountability for the Administration’s indiscriminate and alarming immigration enforcement tactics that have terrorized communities across California and the nation.
He discussed the recent ruling by a federal judge ordering the Trump Administration to stop carrying out indiscriminate immigration enforcement in Southern California, emphasizing that there is “a mountain of evidence” that agents are illegally arresting people solely based on their race, accents, or occupation. Padilla criticized Trump’s Border Czar, Tom Homan, for dismissing the federal judge’s order and maintaining the Administration’s un-American racial profiling policy.
Padilla also slammed Trump’s plan to enact a 35 percent tariff on Canada and a 30 percent tariff on Mexico, starting on August 1, emphasizing that these tariffs will amount to a tax on the American people by raising prices.
Key Excerpts
On a federal judge’s order to stop the Trump Administration’s indiscriminate, racially biased immigration sweeps:
- “Wouldn’t be the first time the Trump Administration tries to just dismiss a court order, and so it’s our job to ensure that we uphold the law, uphold the Constitution. I mean, Homan has said it very clearly in other interviews: they’re not even asking for significant findings to detain people. They’re going based on appearance. His words, not mine, based on occupation, his words, not mine, based on accents, physical appearance. Dana, what if I was outside of Home Depot, because I like to do some work around the house, not dressed in a suit, would I be a target of ICE enforcement under Tom Homan? Probably.”
- “It’s just wrong. It’s not just due process rights that have become the concern, but racial profiling. When federal agents involved in immigration enforcement are using racial profiling, they’re not enforcing the law. They are breaking it.”
- “He claims to be prioritizing those violent, dangerous criminals. We’ve been hearing this ad nauseam from the Trump Administration going back to the campaign trail. The numbers suggest otherwise: the vast majority of people that have been detained, and even those deported, have no serious criminal conviction history. If it was only going after dangerous criminals, there would be no debate, no discussion. I agree with that. But the fact of the matter is, the vast majority of those being detained are the same people who were deemed essential workers at the end of the first Trump Administration at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s a cruel, cruel irony.”
On the VISIBLE Act and federal immigration agents lacking identification:
- “I do have concern when there are no requirements for ICE agents or other federal agents involved with the immigration enforcement actions to even identify themselves. I mean, if you’re a member of a working-class immigrant community, and you see unmarked cars roll into your community, people getting out of those cars with no identifiers that they are law enforcement, and literally not just detaining, in your mind, maybe kidnapping.”
- “So that’s why Senator Booker and I have this bill to require that identification for ICE agents or anybody involved with immigration enforcement. It’s for the safety of the officers and agents, as well as safety for the community and to protect against people exploiting the circumstances, impersonating ICE agents, and getting involved with burglary, theft, kidnapping, sexual assault, and worse.”
On Ventura County immigration raid leading to the death of a migrant farm worker:
- “Again, if all they’re doing is going after serious violent criminals, that would be one thing, but because of these artificial quotas established by, whether it’s Donald Trump or Stephen Miller or somebody in the Administration, it’s causing ICE to get more aggressive, more cruel, more extreme, and these are the results. It’s people dying because of fear and terror caused by this Administration. It’s not just undocumented immigrants. There’s lawful immigrants that are being rounded up. There’s United States citizens that are being detained. There are military veterans that are being detained.”
On Trump’s tariffs on Mexico and Canada:
- “Both Canada and Mexico aren’t just the largest trading partners for the state of California, they’re among the largest trading partners for the United States of America. And so let’s remember what happens when tariffs take effect. First of all, costs will increase, and the people who pay that price increase are United States consumers. It’s U.S. companies importing products from those countries that will pass along the cost to the American consumer. So in effect, it’s a tax increase on the American people brought to you by Donald Trump.”
Video of Senator Padilla’s full interview is available here.
Earlier this week, Senators Padilla and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) released a video on Instagram calling out Trump’s lies and explaining the facts about how their legislation, the VISIBLE Act, would make Americans and law enforcement officials safer. Padilla also led 13 Democratic Senators in a letter criticizing ICE for engaging in counterproductive, theatrical enforcement activities — including raids on courthouses and restaurants — and requesting information from the agency on its mask and uniform policies.
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Kat's "Kat's Korner: Dusty Springfield, Cynthia Erivo, Counting Crows, Bob Mould" went up Sunday. The following sites updated:
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Making Immigration Great Again1 hour ago
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Idiot of the Week2 days ago
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The Chump s**t show2 days ago
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Nancy Mace, big disgrace2 days ago
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