Organizers call it a “non-violent journey of resistance through Los
Angeles” and said it is part of a 30-day “Summer of Resistance” campaign
designed to push for an end to ICE raids and deportations they say
have “tore families apart.”
Upwards of 2,000 people have registered to participate in the run,
which will include a stop at downtown's Metropolitan Detention Center on
Alameda Street, which has been the site of multiple clashes between
people protesting immigration-related arrests and law enforcement
officers.
Carly Gomez (ABC7's EYEWITNESS NEWS) spoke to participants. Claudia Bustillos told her, "I showed up to represent those of us who, our parents came as immigrants to give us the opportunity to have a better life in the United States." Brisa Aguilar explained, "Whatever is
happening right now, it feels like the Holocaust all over again, and
it's not fair on justice." And event organizer Fayia Ramage notes, "I
was welcomed to the city by immigrants, and also by the running
community, and it felt like the way to create space just for people to
really come together and, yeah, the whole promise of the event is that
it's rooted in love and unity, but also a really powerful display of the
fact that we won't back down when it comes to supporting the people in
the city."
Approximately 100 demonstrators
gathered Friday in West Michigan to denounce the opening of the North
Lake Correctional Facility, an immigrant detention center in Baldwin.
The detention center was opened on June 16, and, with a
capacity of 1,800, the facility has been called the largest detention
center in the Midwest, as well as the subject of several earlier
protests this year.
The Independence Day event was
organized by local immigrant advocacy groups, including No Detention
Centers in Michigan, Cosecha Michigan, GR Rapid Response to ICE, and
Lakeshore Rapid Response to ICE.
The date was an intentional choice: July 4, the media release noted, is a day for “reflecting
on freedom as an ideal and spending time with family and loved ones.”
As such, advocates gathered outside the facility to highlight the
apparent disconnect between Independence Day and mass incarceration.
Speakers used the event to emphasize
the controversies surrounding the GEO Group— the federally contracted
private company that operates the North Lake facility.
As the nation’s primary prison
operator, GEO has been scrutinized for influencing immigration and
criminal justice policy in ways that expand incarceration for profit.
In particular, the GEO Group has
closely aligned itself with President Donald Trump. Trump’s first term
saw 237 new contracts between GEO and the federal government.
Furthermore, nearly 71% of the GEO Group’s funding is sourced from ICE. The Trump Administration’s emphasis on mass detention only serves to benefit the GEO Group.
Again, targeting immigrants is big business and a lot of people are getting rich off of it. Jesús Jank Curbelo (EL PAIS) reports, "More than 20,000 migrants have been arrested in Texas
by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since Donald Trump
returned to the U.S. presidency last January. This makes Texas the state
with the most arrests in the last five months. The figure is double the
number recorded in Florida (9,080) and triple the 5,860 registered in
California, which rank second and third on the list." Liam Archacki (THE DAILY BEAST) notes Donald Chump is excited by his new budget bill which provides a lot of money to destroy lives across America and bragging about it on social media, "One of the most exciting parts of the 'ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL ACT' is that it includes ALL of the funding and resources that ICE needs to carry out the Largest Mass Deportation Operation in History." Again, this is big business. Don't forget that. People are getting rich by creating this misery. How much money are we talking? Josh Kovensky (TPM) explains, "All in all, the bill directs around $170 billion through 2029 to various forms of immigration enforcement, according to an analysis by the American Immigration Council and TPM’s own read of the legislation. ICE, responsible for enforcement, detentions, and removals, will oversee much of the spending." Hoping for strong judicial pushback? Pema Levy (MOTHER JONES) notes, "On the 249 anniversary of the country’s declaration of independence
from tyranny, the Trump administration was in court asking a judge to
let it send eight men to South Sudan, a war-torn country where they face
a significant possibility of torture or death. The government wished to
subject these men, and then untold thousands more, to such a fate
without the guarantee of due process promised in the Constitution. And
on America’s birthday, they got their wish. A federal judge in Massachusetts declined to halt the deportations.
He lay the blame at the feet of seven Supreme Court justices who had allowed the removals to move forward the previous day." Wait! Wait! Pema's wrong! She writes "seven" and we have three on our side!!!! No, we don't. Elena Kagan went over to the dark side. She concurred with the the six right-wingers. THE WALL STREET JOURNAL's editorial board has noted Kagan's 'lucky' streak but I haven't seen our YOUTUBE left or the various rags -- THE NATION, THE PROGRESSIVE, etc -- take Elena to task.
KABC notes that a West Hollywood car wash was targeted by ICE on Friday an The West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce issued a statement in response:
On
this day that marks the birth of our nation and its founding ideals of
liberty, opportunity, and justice for all, we at the West Hollywood
Chamber of Commerce are deeply troubled by the news of the ICE raid that
occurred in our community at one of our businesses. These enforcement actions-carried out on the Fourth of
July-have sown fear, disrupted families, and shaken the trust that is
vital to a thriving local economy. We
are a city built on diversity, creativity, and the contributions of
immigrants from all walks of life. Our businesses depend on a workforce
that reflects this diversity, and many of our members-whether small
business owners or employees-have close ties to immigrant communities.
Regardless of political affiliation, we believe in treating every
individual with dignity, compassion, and due process under the law.
There's
no question that there is a need for plainclothes officers in certain
law enforcement scenarios, but this is not that. These authoritarian
thugs in masks and unmarked vans are causing dangerous panic and
confusion, and the possibility of a misunderstanding puts both officers
and civilians at needless risk. There is
zero need for these hyper-aggressive tactics when we're talking about
unarmed mothers taking their children to school, college students
walking to class, or people just trying to do the right thing by showing
up to court hearings and immigration check-ins.
Emma de Paz was selling breakfast to day laborers outside a Los
Angeles Home Depot on June 19 when immigration agents showed up. Some of
them chased workers through the parking lot. Others rounded up the food
cart vendors. De Paz was handcuffed, forced onto her knees, and driven
to a federal detention center downtown.
She called her brother, Carlos Barrera, from the facility.
"They
didn't ask if she had papers or not. They just grabbed her and put her
into one of the vans," Barrera said, recalling his conversation with his
sister, who has since been transferred to a desert detention center 90
miles away. "They had no reason to arrest her. They didn't have a
warrant."
Though his sister is undocumented, Barrera said the agents could not
have known that before detaining her or many of the 29 other people they
rounded up that morning.
"She has dark skin. They assumed she was Hispanic, and they took her," he said. "It's the racial factor."
You have to illegally profile to meet Chump's goals and we noted that back in July and August and September and October -- long before the election. That would be the outcome if Chump was put back into the White House. Let me note this from Ava and my "Media: Are they trying to elect Donald Trump?:"
The war on
Civil Rights and education doesn't matter to them, the attempt to
destroy LGBTQ+ rights doesn't matter to them, the attack on Latinos
doesn't bother them, the attack on women's health does not bother them,
the assault on overtime pay doesn't bother them. No issue, apparently,
is important but what happens in Gaza.
Grasp
for a moment what Trump plans to do with Latinos. He wants to round up
immigrants. That means he has to arrest them in the first place. How
does that usually happen? It generally involves profiling. Oh, how we
on the left especially miss Michael Ratner's strong voice today. So
since our country shares a border with Mexico, Latinos will be targeted
with profiling. Latinos -- American citizens and others -- will be
stopped on a regular basis. It will be "let me see your I.D." over and
over. And some will be deported by mistake under Donald Trump's plan
and, yes, he plans to break up families again with deportation. As
former US President Barack Obama explained in a speech in Nevada on
Saturday, "He wants you to believe that if you elect him, he will
just round up whoever he wants and ship them out and all your problems
will be solved." But that doesn't seem to matter too much to in
left media. For them, it's all about the Palestinians. Here's a tip
for the Gaza Freaks: You haven't seen anything yet.
Put
Donald back in the White House and you'll see what happens when a US
president actively seeks out a genocide. And have you noticed that while
Amy Goodman can't leave her status as a Gaza Freak behind, other
Americans have. Because they're dismayed that our country's at risk and
our lives are at risk and the Gaza Freaks are only focused on Gaza.
Good luck, under a Donald Trump presidency, building up a successful
movement to save the Palestinians -- especially after you've turned off
the bulk of Americans with your refusal to see the needs of those of us
in this country as even just a little bit important.
Andrea Vélez, a 32-year-old marketing designer, was detained
by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on June 24 as she was
going to work in downtown Los Angeles. On June 12, Brian Gavidia, 29,
was working at a trailer yard in Montebello, California, when he was
assaulted and restrained by ICE officers. Just over a week earlier,
Elzon Lemus, a 23-year-old electrician, was stopped, pulled from his
car, and handcuffed on his way to work in Nassau, New York. In addition
to sharing the experience of being detained by immigration agents, the
three have something in common that has raised the controversy over immigration raids to a new level: they are all U.S. citizens of Latino origin. ICE has no authority to detain them.
“Now
that ICE is having to meet higher quotas for arbitrary arrests than
ever before, we’ll see more and more cases like these,” Nareen Shah,
director of Government Affairs for the American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU), told EL PAÍS. “The problem is that even when people claim to be
U.S. citizens and can prove they are, we’ve still seen cases where
they’re detained,” Shah said.
[. . .]
The law does not allow a person’s race, ethnicity, or
occupation to be used as the sole basis for believing they have violated
federal immigration law. Objective evidence, such as a criminal record,
must be provided, but in none of the recent cases did the detainees
have a criminal history.
“Because of the color of their
skin, their accent, or their ethnicity, they become targets in what is
reminiscent of what happened in the Third Reich,”
denounced Fred Brewington, Elzon Lemus’s attorney, at a press
conference in which his client denounced the treatment he received by
ICE agents, despite having assured them he was a U.S. citizen. “I am a
victim because of my race and ethnicity. Just because of my skin color
and because I am Hispanic, they made me feel like I was a criminal,”
Lemus said.
The Gaza Freaks are silent now. They certainly haven't apologized for their work sabotaging Kamala Harris' run and destroying our country in the process. It's a real shame that Latinos in this country -- citizens and immigrants -- are no longer safe. But the bigger shame is that the obsessed Gaza Freaks brought us to this point and they want to now act like they're not responsible. They told people not to vote for Kamala. By the way, where are they today? Palestinians are still being killed in Gaza. Chump didn't change that, did he? And, if you paid attention, Palestinians in Gaza knew he wouldn't. They repeatedly and regularly told outlets like ALJAZEERA just that. But over here in the US, Gaza Freaks didn't want to listen to the Palestinians. And now, as we see from their silence, Gaza Freaks don't really want to save them. Palestinians were apparently just a passing fad for a lot of pathetic people with pathetic lives to pretend their lives had some meaning which explains the death of protests on US campuses and all the high profile Gaza Freaks who were constantly on camera in the lead up to the 2024 election now becoming publicity shy.
It's as though they all just wanted to destroy their own lives and take the rest of the world down with them.
Republicans in Congress stabbed the country in the back. It was a week long assault. And though many tried, no one was able to stop the country from being repeatedly shanked. It's depressing as hell, let's not sugarcoat. Nicole Lafond (TPM) observes:
But you can’t spin Americans about their health care. Failed attempts to
repeal the Affordable Care Act in 2017 fueled a Democratic midterm wave
the following year. And these cuts, which are going into effect, will
do a great deal of tangible damage: $1.1 trillion stripped from the
health-care system, including nearly a trillion from Medicaid. Yes, the
prototypical Republican politician cares almost nothing about health
insurance for the working class and poor — this outpost of socialism in
our capitalist economy — but they’ll understand very soon that
insulating their constituents from these cuts will not be simple. They
may fantasize about a world where Medicaid cuts merely torment Blue
America, those big cities stuffed with the urban poor who generally
don’t back their candidates. But Medicaid is what keeps rural America
afloat, especially the underfunded hospital systems. There’s a reason
Thom Tillis, the Republican senator from North Carolina, backed away
from the reconciliation bill: He saw the suffering that was coming.
The victory is Trump’s after all.
A
handful of Senate and House Republicans have spent the better part of
the past month doing performative belly-aching in public about how badly
they did not want to pass the legislation that is now headed to White
House. For what it is worth, some Senate Republicans like Sen. Lisa
Murkowski (R-AK) did ultimately get changes they favored — like revising
the waivers for SNAP cuts to include 10 states with the highest
payment-error rates and increased spending on the rural hospital fund —
shoved into the final version of the bill before voting for it.
House Republicans can claim no such dignity (and neither can Murkowski, who, after voting for the bill, played dumb about where it was headed).
And he does own it and so do all the disgusting bits of trash that voted for.
But that's not the only news of the week.
That's Speaker of the House Hakeem Jeffries. [CORRECTION: Minority Leader of the House Hakeem Jeffries. Wait until the mid-terms, then he'll be Speaker. I got ahead of myself.]
He fought. He showed leadership.
You may remember, or maybe you don't, how people were squealing and whining and attacking him a month or two back. 'Oh, we needed someone other than Hakeem! Oh, he's worthless!'
No, he wasn't and, no, he isn't.
It was normal to feel depressed over the results of 2024. We were all reeling. That's Democrats across the country, that's Democrats in Congress. We needed to regroup and we needed to figure out how to fight.
You want to attack another Democrat? I think we have better things to do in most cases.
You want to call out someone, go for it. But it isn't in interesting that earlier this year the call was not -- and is still not -- for Fetterman to go, the call was to oust Hakeem as Speaker.
Let's pretend, as we always have to, that the attacks on Hakeem had nothing to do with race.
They do underscore that some of the people trying to speak on our behalf are too damn stupid to speak.
'So and so had a rally! He is the face of the Democratic Party! He is who we need!'
And it's almost always a "he," isn't it?
Patty Murray is and has been one of our great senators. She's a work horse who gets things done, not a show horse. Members of Congress like her -- there are very few of them -- are much needed. We need members great at crafting legislation. We need members great at so many tasks.
That does include public speaking at a rally.
But that's not the only thing needed.
This is a depressing time. We've never faced anything like this before.
Anyone says otherwise is a liar.
Go one minute and 18 seconds into the video below.
Ben of MEIDASTOUCH is right to be outraged and dismayed over Alligator Alcatraz. Who does that? In American history, no one. No one is that much of a sociopath that they thought cruelty was a good look.
And no one would put together an administration like the current one. "Snake oil salesmen, grifters and crooks needed" -- is that how the ad ran? Matthew Chapman (RAW STORY) reports:
Alina
Habba, the former defense attorney for President Donald Trump currently
serving as his top federal prosecutor in New Jersey, has been under
professional investigation for a year in a matter that could strip her
license to practice law, NOTUS reported Thursday.
The
issue stems from a widely-reported incident in which Alice Bianco, a
waitress at Trump's Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club, reported sexual
harassment by a fellow employee. Habba allegedly posed as an outside
attorney advising her to accept a $15,000 hush money deal, when in
reality she was operating on behalf of Trump's club to minimize the
amount they would have to pay out.
Habba, who also represented Trump as a private citizen in various matters before he was elected, paid an undisclosed amount of money to Bianco to settle the matter last year, but it didn't end her legal troubles.
"The New Jersey Supreme Court’s Office of Attorney Ethics has been
looking into allegations that Habba mistreated the employee — becoming
her lawyer only to convince her to accept a hush money deal for a paltry
sum, all to ingratiate herself with Trump," NOTUS wrote. "The complaint
closely adheres to allegations already made in state court — with a
complaint backed by dozens of text messages — that Habba befriended
Alice Bianco in the summer of 2021 when the 21-year-old waitress had
just found an employment lawyer to file a sexual harassment lawsuit.
Text messages show that Habba privately disparaged the other lawyer and
offered herself up instead, drafting a $15,000 nondisclosure agreement."
“But Trump was lying through his teeth, again,” reports TNR. “The lowest
average gas price anywhere in the country Wednesday was $2.71 per
gallon in Mississippi, according to AAA.
The national average gas price was $3.17 per gallon, which is 3 cents
higher than it was a month ago, and 5 cents higher than it was when
Trump took office.”
Or take crooked Pam Bondi -- who really needs to grasp that lipstick doesn't cover herpes sores. Maybe she can get a chair in the Pentagon at Pete Hegseth's Curl Up & Dye and Mister Pete himself can give her a blow out and a make up tutorial? In the meantime, Aurora DeStefano (2PARAGRAPHS) notes:
Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS) put Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice on blast for hiring Jared Wise,
who the Deep South Congressman characterizes as “a disgraced FBI agent
and right-wing extremist charged with encouraging the murder of police
officers.”
Thompson is reacting to reports from multiple sources, including the New York Times, that Wise has been named an advisor to Ed Martin,
the attorney Trump’s DOJ has brought on as the director of the new,
so-called “Weaponization Working Group” at the Justice Department.
In a functioning world, that doesn't happen.
It can be very depressing. But look at the Americans across the country who've taken to the streets to protest this cruel and criminal administration.
And look at the pushback on Chump's war on immigrants.
It's going to take a lot of work but humanity will win. Chump will be gone and history will consign him to a chapter on War Criminals and Despots. He'll be forever remembered as human garbage who could have made the world better but was too greedy and too corrupt to even try.
On a holiday, I usually do that talking post and do it late at night but a lot of you e-mailed about being depressed over what Congress did.
They did what they did and it's outrageous. Be angry. Be depressed. Don't ignore your feelings. But Chump is already yesterday. Today and tomorrow is about reclaiming our country and returning it to democratic values and actual humanity.
Thursday, July 3, 2025. Donald Chump sweats as his disaster bill has yet to pass the House and as the Labor Dept is about to release a jobs report, he continues his war on immigrants, Cuban Americans need to wake up and grasp that the MAGA controlled GOP is no longer their party and that they have been betrayed, plus much more.
Let's start with Chump's attack on the economy. Under
Joe Biden's leadership, the US economy was rebounding and considered the
strongest globally. In six months time, Chump has destroyed it.
Instead of stopping inflation, he has allowed it to continue. He lies
about prices because he's a liar, a cheap, little liar. Paul Berger (WALL STREET JOURNAL) reports:
In the first major speech to Congress of his second term, President Trump vowed to resurrect American shipbuilding.
Four months later, Trump’s ambitious plans to reverse decades of maritime-industry decline are sputtering.
Government
efficiency teams have paused food-aid programs that provide needed
cargoes for the U.S.-flagged Merchant Marine. A senior Republican
senator is warning of cuts to the proposed budget for military
shipbuilding. The staff at a newly created office to coordinate maritime
policy has been cut to two people from seven.
[. . .]
U.S.-flagged
carriers say cuts to food aid programs are hurting the industry. The
closure by the Department of Government Efficiency of the U.S. Agency
for International Development effectively shut down the Food for Peace
program, which provided much-needed cargo—and revenue—for U.S.-flagged
ships. Some industry officials warn that if the program isn’t
resurrected under another government department soon they will have to
start laying up ships and laying off seafarers.
The
Trump administration has no plans to rescue the program. A senior
administration official said the program was wasteful and that the State
Department “is committed to responsibly winding down” the program
despite efforts in Congress to transfer Food for Peace to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture.
He's just a failure, like his father always told him,
AP's Paul Wiseman and Aniruddha Ghosal report some 'good' news for Chump, "President
Donald Trump announced a trade deal with Vietnam Wednesday that would
allow U.S. goods to enter the country duty-free. Vietnamese exports to
the United States, by contrast, would face a 20% levy." Good? Well he
promised 90 treaties in 90 days and the 90 days ends July 9th. That's
six days from now.
This is where we'd insert a clip of THE 11TH HOUR WITH STEPHANIE RUHLE because she had several important discussions on this topic last night. In the two hours she did last night. She did her regular hour and then she did another hour to continue the coverage of the House vote or 'vote' on Donald's bill.
If you're generous Vietnam is the third 'understanding' Chump has with another country. 90 in 90s days. We're six days away from the deadline. The one he imposed upon himself.
Stephanie noted that the mad push by him, this must be done by July 4th!, is an attempt to distract from so many things, so many broken promises, and failures.
This
Navigator Research report covers the latest perceptions of President
Trump and Congressional Democrats and Republicans in the House
Battleground.
The economy continues to lead as the top overall issue, with 41 percent
of battleground constituents identifying either “inflation and the cost
of living” or “jobs and the economy” as a priority.
In a newly added question, we tested “government corruption” as a top
concern. It now ranks just behind threats to democracy and the economy —
making it the third-most prioritized issue overall (28 percent).
Trump’s standing has declined slightly among battleground constituents
and persuadables — even in a sample that leans slightly more Republican
than the national electorate. In February,
his favorability was roughly even; today, he is four points underwater
(48 percent favorable – 52 percent unfavorable). This decline mirrors
his approval on the economy, which now sits seven points underwater (46
percent approve – 53 percent disapprove).
The
Vietnam agreement comes amid a broader administration push to finalize
trade deals ahead of Trump's self-imposed "90 in 90" deadline—a period
of 90 days for 90 targeted trade deals or renegotiations globally.
In
June, after a trade agreement with China, Trump indicated that "around
15 countries" were negotiating under the threat of significant tariffs
being imposed if deals are not struck in time.
As foreign affairs journalist Olga Nesterova explained, Trump is taxing Americans 20-40% while Vietnam gets products for free.
However,
the country's economy, cost of living and salaries are vastly different
from those in the United States. For example, Numbeo data shows the
cost of a 12-ounce bottle of soda is about 50 cents. The monthly cell
phone bill with at least 10 gigabytes of data is under $6. A one-bedroom
apartment in the City Centre averages under $400 a month.
As
political and media researcher Craig Harrington explained, "Our trade
relationship with Vietnam was growing before Trump, but we still only
exported $13.1 billion worth of goods to Vietnam in 2024 (they exported
$136.6 billion to us). Tariffs aren't the reason we don't export much to
Vietnam, it's because they are poorer than we are."
Meanwhile,
University of Michigan professor of public policy and economics, Justin
Wolfers, noted on X, "'New' trade deal just dropped: US businesses get
tariff-free access to the Vietnamese market, just as they were offered 8
years ago in the TPP, but Trump refused to sign. In addition, Trump's
imposing a 20% tax on Americans who import goods from Vietnam."
The
increase is on the US consumer's side. That's how Chump 'helps'
American buyers. Again, the man's an idiot and he's wrecking the
economy. You are not helping the American people with a 20% increase that will make them pay more for the product.
Private
sector hiring unexpectedly contracted in June, payrolls processing firm
ADP said Wednesday, in a possible sign that the economy may not be as
sturdy as investors believe as they bid the S&P 500 back up to
record territory to end the month.
Private
payrolls lost 33,000 jobs in June, the ADP report showed, the first
decrease since March 2023. Economists polled by Dow Jones forecast an
increase of 100,000 for the month. The May job growth figure was revised
even lower to just 29,000 jobs added from 37,000.
The U.S. economy continues to
send mixed signals. On Thursday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will
report job figures for June that may help clear up the picture.
Economists
surveyed by The Wall Street Journal forecast that 110,000 new payrolls
were added in June. That would be the fewest since February, and it
would be the fourth monthly decline in the past six months. The
unemployment rate, meanwhile, was expected to have climbed to 4.3%, the
highest since October 2021.
President Trump's immigration crackdown is hitting key pockets of the economy, disrupting workplaces and communities around the country.
Why it matters: The sharp fall in immigration this year threatens
to slow down economic growth, particularly in the sectors and cities
that relied on newcomers to the U.S. in recent years.
What they're saying: With
the push against immigration, "the economy will find itself slightly
diminished in the long run and inflation will run a touch higher,"
economist Bernard Yaros writes in a report for Oxford Economics.
There will be fewer workers to produce goods and services, slowing down growth and putting pressure on wages.
Most people -- those with a functional brain -- would look at how the assault on immigration was harming the economy and scale back deportations. But Chump is a senile old man and we all suffer because, as Mike noted last night, "Because Chump can't get an erection anymore, the whole world has to suffer." Nothing does it for him anymore due to the meds he's on and the age he's reached and his obesity. He's impotent in bed . . . and becoming impotent outside of bed. So it's never enough for a Convicted Felon like Donald Chump. Josh Kovensky (TPM) notes the morbidly obese Chump now wants to explore deporting citizens:
Throughout
the campaign, Republicans teased an idea: the next Trump government
would start to remove the citizenship of naturalized Americans.
Stephen
Miller suggested it; the idea appeared in Project 2025. Online
fever-swamp entrepreneurs, like Claremont Institute donor Charles
Haywood, pushed a national “review” of everyone naturalized since 1965.
Now,
the DOJ has taken the first real step towards expanding the
government’s efforts to strip citizenship from those who applied for it
and received it — and has suggested it will be doing so for explicitly
political reasons. It came in a June 11 memo dryly titled “Civil
Division Enforcement Priorities,” written by Assistant Attorney General
Brett Shumate.
Last on the list of five
priorities is denaturalization. The memo directs the government to
“maximally” go after denaturalization cases, and ranks which kinds of
cases should receive the most attention. At the top of the list are
cases against those who “pose a potential danger to national security,
including those with a nexus to terrorism.”
Recently,
denaturalization cases have dealt with a narrow set of circumstances.
Perhaps someone lied on their citizen application, or failed to disclose
something significant enough that, had it been disclosed, the
government would have declined to grant the person citizenship. The DOJ
finds out, and files a civil lawsuit in federal court to revoke the
person’s citizenship. In many cases, this has been applied to war
criminals and people who otherwise concealed crimes that they were in
the process of committing as they applied for citizenship.
But
the June DOJ memo’s language around terrorism and national security
threats is incredibly broad. In the world of the memo, “pos[ing] a
potential danger to national security” is enough to merit a review of
your citizenship application. It raises concerns that the DOJ will seek
to use claims that a person poses such a danger to accuse naturalized
Americans of omitting key information on their citizenship applications,
which ask about ties to groups that commit terrorism or advocate for
the overthrow of the U.S. government. In the Alien Enemies Act removals,
the Trump administration twisted the definition of “invasion” to
summarily deport people it cast as invaders to CECOT; Tufts student
Rümeysa Öztürk’s pro-Palestine op-ed in a student newspaper was enough
for the administration to accuse her of supporting Hamas and revoke her
visa.
The question is whether the
administration will apply this kind of nihilistic legal maneuvering to
claim that a naturalized American who failed to disclose support for,
say, a pro-Palestine group misled the government through the omission.
He's a fool and he's a fool whose dementia is getting worse which makes him a very dangerous fool.
The
federal government attempted to deport a stateless Palestinian woman on
Monday for the second time, despite a court order barring her removal
from a Texas district, according to court documents.
The
attempted deportation also came just days after the first stage of her
green card application was approved, her husband Taahir Shaikh told ABC
News, opening up a potential pathway for her to obtain permanent
residency.
Ward Sakeik -- a 22-year-old who is
married to a U.S. citizen -- was detained by the government in February
on her way home from her honeymoon in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Sakeik's
family is from Gaza, but she is legally stateless and has lived in the
U.S. since she was 8 years old. Her family had traveled to the U.S. on a
tourist visa and applied for asylum, according to Shaikh.
Chump and Noem have ignored the U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade's order not to remove Taahir from the district. And lives are being destroyed. "I feel nowhere is safe" -- read THE BOSTO GLOBE article. People are afraid to go out. Businesses are suffering and some are closing. Denise Chow (NBC NEWS) notes:
On a typical weekend, 20,000
people stream through the metal gates at Broadacres Marketplace,
thronging the aisles of the outdoor “swap meet” to hunt for the best
deals, savor snacks and sip micheladas under the desert sky.
Until
late June, Broadacres’ familiar bustle had cemented its place as the
heart of this city’s Latino community. That has been replaced with an
eerie quiet. Hundreds of booths stand barren behind a chain-link fence,
mostly stripped to their skeletal remains and covered in fabric or tarp.
Save for one security guard at the main gate, there’s no one in sight.
Broadacres Marketplace announced
that it would temporarily close on June 21 because of the threat of
raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In a statement online, the
market’s management said the decision to close was made “out of an
abundance of caution and concern for our community.” Broadacres’ owner,
Greg Danz, is president and CEO of Newport Diversified Inc., a company
that also owns two other swap meets in California.
“We
don’t want any of our customers, vendors, or employees to be detained
at our business or for us to be a beacon of shopping and entertainment
while our federal government is raiding businesses and detaining its
people,” the statement read, adding that management does not yet have a
planned date to reopen.
In the state of Washington, a festival's been cancelled due to the assault on immigrants. B-TOWN BLOG reports:
The organizers of the 4th annual Pacific Northwest Folklórico
Festival – set for Saturday, July 26, 2025 at Burien Town Square Park –
announced they are canceling the 2025 event, citing immigration
enforcement activity and a broader political climate they say threatens
the safety and wellbeing of immigrant communities.
In an email to supporters, including The B-Town Blog, Joyas Mestizas,
the Burien-based folklórico dance organization announced the decision
to cancel its upcoming event “in light of the current political
climate,” citing strong opposition to recent U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids.
“We are angry at the ICE raids and racist immigration policies that
tear families apart, and in canceling our event we commit to
prioritizing the safety of our community,” the group wrote.
And we should all be angry at these raids -- carried out by a secret gestapo force -- using private contractors and unleashing on the streets of America -- allowing them to be masked. US House Rep . Pramila Jayapal has angered the Murdoch Outrage Empire by calling these people "terrorists." Guess what, she's exactly right. This is not how we do law enforcement. And we expect trained people, trained in the rights that people have in this country, to be law enforcement. Instead, Kristi Noem and Donald Chump are hiring bullies and telling them to do whatever, to violate any law, that it doesn't matter and that they're masked so they can be punished later on. Wendy Fry and Sergio Olmos (CAL MATTERS) explain:
A lawsuit filed Wednesday by civil and immigration rights groups
accuses federal authorities of unleashing an unconstitutional siege by
snatching workers and U.S. citizens off Southern California streets and
denying them food, water and the right to speak with an attorney.
The federal class action lawsuit aims to immediately stop immigration
agents from conducting military-style raids across L.A. that prioritize
“numbers, pure numbers,” according to the complaint. It also seeks to
get access to counsel for those arrested who are now being held in
overcrowded “dungeon-like” facilities where the conditions are
deplorable and unconstitutional, the filing says.
Federal agents in combat gear, some masked and armed with rifles,
have stormed swap meets, car washes, bus stops, and churches since early
June, grabbing people off sidewalks and dragging away mothers, workers,
day laborers, and U.S. citizens without explanation, the complaint
alleges. Civil rights groups, led by the American Civil Liberties Union,
say the raids have been part of an illegal mass-arrest campaign driven
by the Trump administration’s nationwide deportation quota policy.
“Such seizures look less like lawful arrests and more like brazen, midday kidnappings,” the lawsuit states.
Exactly.
On TABITHA SPEAKS POLITICS, Tabitha likes to play a clip of Florida Hispanics -- largely Cuban Americans -- dancing around before the 2024 election while singing, "I will vote for Donald Trump."
And how did that work out for them? Cuban Americans are being targeted too. So much so that you have two Republican members of the House now calling out the targeting of immigrants. Elizabeth Kuebel (WSSU) reports:
Right now, the family of a Cuban immigrant doesn't know what will happen next, as he sits in an ICE facility.
Yandy Gomez Rodriguez was detained when he showed up to his ICE appointment in downtown New Orleans.
It comes at a time that the federal government is cracking down on
illegal immigration. But Yandy's wife and attorney argue that he has
really been trying to do everything right.
"We've reached a dead
end where we don't know where else to turn, because at this point I
can't say for sure what's going to happen to him," said Robert W. Goeke,
with Casey Cowley attorneys.
Goeke says the Kenner resident has been in ICE custody for more than a month now, since May 16th.
"He
was scheduled to show up to ICE on the sixteenth of May, he showed up
to that appointment, as he had done close 10 times in the past, and ICE
chose to take him in," Goeke said.
Goeke says 8 years prior, Yandy arrived at the border. He's since
married a US citizen, who applied to get him legal status, and together
they have a two-year-old daughter.
Yandy has no criminal record, per his attorney, and worked in the heating and AC business.
"My
daughter is asking all the time, when is my daddy coming, or when she's
talking to him, she says, 'oh come on daddy, come on, come take me,' or
things like that," said his wife, Dianna Heredia.
It's time for Cuban Americans to grasp that MAGA is not their friend. Maybe they can fight to take control of the Republican Party and send MAGA back to its on inbred trailer park, but MAGA is not their friend and will never be their friend. Again, I'm not asking them to come over to the Democratic Party. But I am pointing out that Cuban Americans across the country -- but especially in Florida -- have turned out repeatedly for the Republican Party and now that the MAGA wing has seized control of that party, Cuban Americans are being spit on.
For your own families, you need to stop voting MAGA -- they are not the Republican Party that appreciated your support. Latinos across the country are grasping that and should be grasping it. But, again, Cuban Americans have given the Republican Party Florida. Year after year. And now MAGA spits on them, spits on their family. Fidel Castro may be dead, but Cuban Americans continue to see relatives coming to the US. And in their minds, people leave Cuba due to being persecuted. When Fidel was alive, the GOP was happy to use and platform Cuban Americans in their was with Castro. Castro's dead and MAGA doesn't give a damn about Cuban Americans or Cubans coming to this country. I can't think of a bigger betrayal by a political party then what the MAGA wing has done to Cuban Americans.
The
Pew Research Center is one of the most trusted polling firms in the
country, especially when it comes to Latinos. Last week, it published
findings that should have been a victory lap for Donald Trump and his
tortuous relationship with America’s largest minority.
According
to Pew, Trump won 48% of Latino voters in the 2024 presidential
election — the highest percentage ever recorded by a Republican
presidential nominee and a 12 percentage point improvement from his 2020
showing.
Latinos made up 10% of Trump’s coalition,
up from 7% four years ago. Latino men went with a Republican for the
first time. Trump even improved his share of support among Latinas —
long seen by Democratic leaders as a bulwark against their macho
Trumpster relatives — by a 13-point margin, a swing even greater than
that of Latino men.
These stats prove what I’ve
been warning about for years: that Latinos were souring on illegal
immigration — even in blue California — and tiring of a Democratic Party
too focused on policies that weren’t improving their lives. This gave
Trump a chance to win over Latino voters, despite his years-long
bloviations against Mexico and Central American nations, because Latinos
— who assimilate like any other immigrants, if not more so — were done
with the Democratic status quo. They were willing to take a risk on an
erratic strongman resembling those from their ancestral lands.
Pew’s
findings confirm one of Trump's most remarkable accomplishments — one
so unlikely that professional Latinos long dismissed his election gains
as exaggerations. Those voters could have been the winds blowing the
xenophobic sails of his deportation fleet right now.
All
Trump had to do was stick to his campaign promises and target the
millions of immigrants who came in illegally during the Biden years.
Pick off newcomers in areas of the country where Latinos remain a
sizable minority and don’t have a tradition of organizing. Dare
Democrats and immigrant rights activists to defend the child molesters,
drug dealers and murderers Trump vowed to prioritize in his roundups.
Conduct raids like a slow boil through 2026, to build on the
record-breaking number of Latino GOP legislators in California and
beyond.
Trump has done none of that. He instead decided to smash his immigration hammer on Los Angeles, the Latino capital of the U.S.
MAGA appreciates no one. They make that clear with the budget plan from Donald Dearest.
Here's Lawrence O'Donnell from MSNBC last night.
As of right now, Donald's bill has still not passed. It is an ugly bill that will destroy lives, that attacks the poor and working people, that attempts to decimate whatever's left of the middle class while handing out huge give aways to the already rich. It does so many horrible things. Matthew Chapman (RAW STORY) reports on one thing it will do that I haven't seen covered elsewhere:
An
expert with the libertarian Cato Institute sounded the alarm on
President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" to slash taxes on the
wealthy and cut over $1 trillion from Medicaid, food stamps, and green
energy subsidies, highlighting a lesser-known provision that could
codify one of the president's most controversial deportation policies —
and turbocharge it into overdrive.
Specifically,
posting on X, David J. Bier pointed to a subsection on page 529 of the
bill that deals with the increase in funding for immigration
enforcement.
"In the case of an unaccompanied
alien child who has attained 12 years of age and is encountered by U.S.
Customs and Border Protection, the funds made available under subsection
(a) shall only be used to conduct an examination of such unaccompanied
alien child for gang-related tattoos and other gang-related markings,"
said the section.
In other
words, wrote Bier, "You've heard about how ICE deported a bunch of
adults to a Salvadoran torture prison based on their tattoos. Did you
know that the Big Beautiful Police State Act includes $40 million to
identify 'gang kids' the same way?"
The vote is in the House now. The bill has yet to pass. Here's Senator Tammy Baldwin's office on why the senator voted against the bill
In Wisconsin, the bill will
terminate at least 250,000 people’s health care, reduce or eliminate
90,000 Wisconsinites’ food assistance, and threaten to close rural
hospitals
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin
(D-WI) released the following statement after she voted against the
Republicans’ budget bill:
“Today, I voted against rigging our tax code in favor of the biggest
corporations and ultra-wealthy – all on the backs of working families
who are just trying to get by and want a fair shot at success. As I
travel across Wisconsin, I hear from families who are worried about
paying for groceries, covering the cost of their medications, and
keeping the lights on. Instead of standing up for these working
families, my Republican colleagues jammed through a bill that guts
Medicaid, kicks 17 million Americans off their health insurance,
shutters rural hospitals, and takes food from families in need. And why?
All to rig our already unfair tax code even more to help the rich get
richer. This bill does not solve the problems that Wisconsin families
are facing – in fact, it makes them worse. I am disappointed. I am
disgusted. But, I am also fired up and ready. Ready to keep fighting
alongside every Wisconsinite who believes we can do better to give
hard-working families a fair shot and stop tilting the scales for the
wealthy and well-connected. It’s not the people in Washington with
power; it’s the people across this country. The people who keep speaking
up and speaking out, who are emailing and calling, who are marching in
the streets, and who are telling their stories. This fight isn’t over,
and together, we can still beat this thing.”
Senator Baldwin introduced the following amendments to the bill to
block cuts to Medicaid that would rip away health care from Americans
and also close a tax loophole that allows Wall Street investment
managers to often pay almost half the tax rate compared to most other
Wisconsin workers:
Preventing seniors from having their health care ripped away, including those in nursing homes;
Preventing children from having their health care ripped away,
including those on the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP);
Preventing health care for those battling addiction and substance use disorder from being ripped away;
Preventing cuts to funding for rural Americans, including essential funding for hospitals;
Preventing pregnant women from having their health care ripped away; and
Closing the carried interest loophole that benefits wealthy money
managers on Wall Street, something that President Trump also supports.
The Republicans’ bill, which passed the Senate by a vote of [51-50],
will terminate health care for 17 million Americans, including 250,000
Wisconsinites. In Wisconsin, Medicaid provides care for more than 1.2
million people, including four in seven nursing home residents, one in
three children, and one in three adults with disabilities. While over 12 million rural Americans rely on Medicaid for health care, severe cuts to Medicaid will also jeopardize rural hospitals and clinics’ ability to keep their doors open.
The legislation also makes the largest cut to the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in history. Approximately 700,000
Wisconsin residents rely on SNAP for food assistance.
Over the past several months, Senator Baldwin has been speaking out
against the harmful impact this bill will have on Wisconsinites – in the
press, on the Senate floor, and in Wisconsin communities.
Senator Baldwin hosted roundtables in La Crosse, Milwaukee, Wausau,
Eau Claire, Green Bay, Racine, Waukesha, Superior, Beloit, and twice in
Madison, convening Wisconsinites whose health care coverage is in
jeopardy under the Republicans’ plan to slash Medicaid to pay for
corporate tax breaks.
VIDEO: Senator Baldwin spoke on the Senate floor, condemning the Republicans’ budget bill.
VIDEO:
Senator Baldwin held a virtual press conference with impacted
Wisconsinites ahead of Senate Republicans bringing up their bill for a
vote.
VIDEO:
Senator Baldwin highlighted Congressional Republicans’ efforts to
barrel ahead with a bill that defunds Planned Parenthood on the Senate
floor.
Senator Baldwin slammed
republicans’ planned cuts to Medicaid, which will devastate our
country’s fight against the opioid and fentanyl epidemic and jeopardize
treatment for thousands of Wisconsinites.
###
Stephanie Ruhle did a good job covering the bribery aspects of PARAMOUNT's payout to Chump last night on MSNBC -- again, they haven't posted anything from her two hour broadcast last night. We'll note this from Senator Eliabeth Warren's office:
Warren: “This could be bribery in plain sight.”
“I will soon introduce new legislation to rein in corruption through presidential library donations.”
Washington, D.C. – Today, in response to the news that Paramount Global (Paramount) settled President Trump’s “meritless”
lawsuit against 60 Minutes for $16 million paid to his future
presidential library, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released
the following statement:
“With Paramount folding to Donald Trump at the same time the company
needs his administration’s approval for its billion-dollar merger, this
could be bribery in plain sight. Paramount has refused to provide
answers to a congressional inquiry, so I’m calling for a full
investigation into whether or not any anti-bribery laws were broken."
“This settlement exposes a glaring need for rules to restrict
donations to sitting presidents’ libraries. I will soon introduce new
legislation to rein in corruption through presidential library
donations. The Trump administration’s level of sheer corruption is
appalling and Paramount should be ashamed of putting its profits over
independent journalism.”
In May 2025, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) wrote to
Shari Redstone, Chair of Paramount, with concerns regarding whether
Paramount may be engaging in potentially illegal conduct involving the
Trump Administration in exchange for approval of its megamerger with
Skydance Media (Skydance).
