Chump's back on the mainland since Friday's snapshot -- although, he might think he's back in the country since his stupidity or dementia led him to announce he would be in Russia on Friday (he was in Alaska). He's back and probably sad since it turns out he couldn't erase the Epstein scandal from the news cycler. Laura Mitchell (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER) reports:
National Center on Sexual Exploitation survivor services coordinator
Teresa Helm has called for the release of federal documents tied to
Jeffrey Epstein’s case. She stressed the need for greater
accountability, particularly following Virginia Giuffre’s death. Helm
argued that political motivations should not hinder the pursuit of
justice.
Giuffre,
who accused Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, died by suicide at 41. Her
settled lawsuit against Prince Andrew was a key moment in exposing
sexual exploitation.
Following
FBI and DOJ claims that no “incriminating client list” exists, demands
for document disclosure have grown. Giuffre’s family stated, “Virginia
was a fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex
trafficking. She was the light that lifted so many survivors.”
It's not going away and Chump's distractions and efforts to fool the American people are just not working. Grand jury testimonies don't get released and also aren't very detailed and this one wouldn't have featured any details not already in the public square.. The grand jury is what decides whether or not a case should move forward, not a body that determines guilt or innocence. It was all an effort to distract by Chump. And, as Steven Harper notes, even the judge was straight forward about that:
Trump has tried desperately to walk away from the Epstein conspiracy
theories that he had pushed to energize his MAGA base. But nothing has
worked. As the MAGA core cracked, pressure mounted and he made a hollow
pledge: Trump ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek the courts’
permission to release grand jury materials relating to Epstein and
Maxwell.
As
I observed previously, that was a head fake toward transparency
because: 1) grand jury materials are a tiny slice of the Justice
Department’s files on Epstein; and 2) the courts could refuse to release
anything at all.
And
the courts have done just that. So far, Bondi is now 0-for-2 in her
effort to obtain judicial release of the Epstein-Maxwell grand jury
materials.
Bondi’s
latest rebuke came on August 11 in New York. In a blistering opinion,
Judge Paul A. Engelmayer called out Trump’s subterfuge. The court observed that the “special circumstances” required for releasing Maxwell’s grand jury materials are not present:
The
Government’s invocation of special circumstances, however, fails at the
threshold. Its entire premise—that the Maxwell grand jury materials
would bring to light meaningful new information about Epstein’s and
Maxwell’s crimes, or the Government’s investigation into them—is
demonstrably false.
The court continued:
A
member of the public familiar with the Maxwell trial record who
reviewed the grand jury materials that the Government proposes to unseal
would thus learn next to nothing new.
Turning the government’s words back on it, the judge ruled:
A
“public official,” “lawmaker,” “pundit,” or “ordinary citizen” “deeply
interested and concerned about the Epstein matter,” Motion to Unseal at
3, and who reviewed these materials expecting, based on the Government’s
representations, to learn new information about Epstein’s and Maxwell’s
crimes and the investigation into them, would come away feeling
disappointed and misled. There is no “there” there.
Judge Engelmayer’s most insightful and telling passage was also his most direct:
The
one colorable argument under that doctrine for unsealing in this case,
in fact, is that doing so would expose as disingenuous the Government’s
public explanations for moving to unseal. A member of the public,
appreciating that the Maxwell grand jury materials do not contribute
anything to public knowledge, might conclude that the Government’s
motion for their unsealing was aimed not at “transparency” but at
diversion—aimed not at full disclosure but at the illusion of such.
Judge
Engelmayer’s powerful condemnation is remarkable. He blasted Bondi’s
attempt to use the court as a vehicle for Trump’s deflection,
distraction, and diversion playbook.
Then there's the con game James Comer and many other Republicans in the House of Representatives are attempting: Elie Honig (INTELLIENCER) explains:
At bottom, the House’s investigative effort is unserious. If this were
truly about seeking meaningful answers, Comer could have started with a
subpoena to Alexander Acosta — the disgraced former U.S. Attorney (and
former Trump Cabinet secretary) who was presented a case involving at
least three dozen child victims and chose to let Epstein off the hook for petty state-level charges and a 13-month sentence, much of it served out of custody. In the process, Acosta’s office misled
Epstein’s victims, assuring them in writing that the matter was
“ongoing,” even after the softball deal had already been executed.
This week, Republican Representative Anna Paulina Luna — the same person who introduced legislation to engrave Trump’s face on Mount Rushmore — publicly raised the possibility
of Acosta’s testimony. “At any time, he can be called to testify,” she
noted correctly. When Congress returns, we’ll see if Comer heeds Luna’s
words or pretends he never heard them.
And then there’s the House subpoena
to the Justice Department, calling for the release of “the full,
complete, unredacted Epstein Files.” (The House later came to its senses
and agreed to necessary redactions of victim names and identifiers.)
Comer
might not have thought this one through; his document subpoena places
another Trump loyalist, Attorney General Pam Bondi, in a bind. The AG
can choose to produce the requested documents to Congress. But she has
conspicuously declined to disclose them so far, even though she could
have released the vast bulk of the files on her own accord. Or Bondi can
resist and challenge the subpoena in court. But that would make the AG —
who claims to be all about “transparency and lifting the veil” — look flatly obstructionist.
These are not the “worst of the worst,” yet these immigrants are treated worse than murderers and child molesters.
Trump has pardoned all these types of criminals. Right now, after talking to a Trump lawyer, super sex predator Ghislaine Maxwell is serving out her time in a luxury prison in Texas. And all she had to do, presumably, was give Trump some names on a silver platter, which she likely gladly did in exchange for a few favors. I’ll bet that in a month or two her pardon will be forthcoming — in exchange for her testimony against some of those names.
Yes, our president and his Justice Department are
really going after the “worst of the worst.” Watch out all you
jaywalkers out there. If you’re brown, Trump will hunt you down. You are
a hardened criminal, after all. Ask Kristi Noem, the head of Homeland
Security.
Whether it's Epstein, Maxwell or ICE agents, Chump is always on the side of the crooks.
Crooks. That's ICE for you. They're untrained and they don't respect the law because they don't know the law. Chump and Noem hired them because they're so stupid. How stupid are they? They fired on a family today. They fired guns at a family. That's how damn stupid they are. They are a danger to the people and they need to be taken off the streets immediately. KTLA reports:
A Saturday morning confrontation between federal immigration agents
and a local family in San Bernardino escalated into gunfire and a
seven-hour standoff before ending without arrests, according to both
advocates and police.
The incident began at about 8:40 a.m. on Aug. 16, when Immigration
and Customs Enforcement agents stopped a man near 1030 N. Mountain View
Avenue, according to the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice.
The advocacy group said the agents, who did not present a warrant,
fired three times at the man’s vehicle before he returned home with his
family and called 911.
Clark County officials gathered to address students’ safety concerns from traffic to immigration fears.
Las Vegas Valley residents had the chance to hear from elected officials at Manny Cortez Elementary School.
“It is no secret that many families who are part of our immigrant
community are afraid right now.” said Brenda Zamora, CCSD VP Board of
Trustees.
Stories of ice agents showing up to California campuses have created an
increased fear that kids who go to school may not come home.
Wow. And an earlier generation thought they had it bad with duck-and-cover drills in the 50s. Kids today have to worry that they or their parents or their classmates or their classmates parents might be grabbed at schools. Think it can't happen? It has happened. In fact, it happened again this week. Thomas Smith (NEWSBREAK) reports:
Federal immigration authorities have taken into custody a 7-year-old
New York City public school student, making her the youngest-known local
student detained under the second Trump administration.
Dayra, an Ecuadorian student at P.S. 89 The Jose Peralta School of Dreamers
in Queens, and her mother were separated from her 19-year-old brother
during an immigration check-in on Tuesday at 26 Federal Plaza, according
to the family and advocates. Her last name is being withheld because
she is a minor.
“We were all very scared,” said Patricio, Dayra’s
mother’s boyfriend who lives with the family, in Spanish. “Because we
knew they were going to arrest them.”
The thugs of ICE The American people are seeing this. And they're seeing who the heroes are -- the people fighting back, the activists working to end this persecution, the clergy staing this is not right and this is not acceptable. Aleja Hertzler-McCain (NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER) REPORTS:
San Diego Auxiliary Bishop Felipe Pulido noticed the way a father held
his young daughter and stood close to his wife and teenage daughter in
the courtroom. The love and care they had for each other was palpable on
Tuesday (Aug. 12), when Pulido accompanied the asylum-seeking family
for an immigration court hearing.
“As an immigrant, I got emotional because of that connection I have
with my own family — I put myself in his shoes,” said the Catholic
bishop, who was born in the Mexican state of Michoacán before
immigrating to Yakima Valley in Washington as a teenager. He finished
high school there, worked picking produce and eventually was ordained a
priest.
Immigrants are facing court appointments with newly heightened levels of fear as the Trump administration has begun
sending agents to detain migrants as they leave the courtroom. If
immigration judges dismiss their cases, they can immediately face
expedited removal proceedings without a chance to make their case for
asylum. Previously, a 10-day response time to the dismissal was
allowed.
Guided by their faith, clergy like Pulido and other representatives from
religious groups are accompanying immigrants to court appointments to
provide comfort and information and, in cases where their worst fears
are realized, to pick up the pieces of a shattered American dream.
Friday, August 14, 2025. As Chump prepares to play footsie with Putin today in Anchorage, he still makes time to try to cover up for Epstein and do his best to give Maxwell everything she wants, and he makes time to declare war on the homeless, and he makes time to declare war on immigrants which no doubt inspired his groupie, shooter Solomon Peña, to go on a violence spree that's now landed him 80 years in prison.
Let's start with some good news before we get into Chump's entanglement with pedophiles and Chump's war on immigrants. This is from yesterday's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED (NPR):
BOBBY ALLYN, BYLINE: He's standing in front of his house in Los
Angeles, talking on the phone with one hand, Starbucks coffee cup in the
other. This is Ben Meiselas.
What's up, man? Good to meet you.
BEN MEISELAS: Good to see you. How's it going?
ALLYN: Good, good.
MEISELAS: Come inside.
ALLYN: He's caffeinated and thinking about his YouTube schedule.
MEISELAS: We will have already had a video up at 4 a.m., 5:30 a.m., 7 and 8:30's coming.
ALLYN: As three Maltese terriers run around me...
(SOUNDBITE OF DOGS BARKING)
ALLYN:
...He takes me to his office behind glass doors - an elevated laptop on
a desk, a camera on a tripod and bright lights on either side. This is
where he does his daily dissections of President Trump's actions and
words. It's all off the cuff, a talent he says he honed as a trial
lawyer.
MEISELAS: The best opening statements that I've ever given were not scripted. The best closing arguments were never scripted.
ALLYN:
He knocks out a 14-minute video of Trump-bashing commentary, sends it
to his team to edit, then grabs his phone to workshop a title for the
latest video from his media company MeidasTouch. They publish minutes
after news happens, faster than most news organizations, and it's all
planned in his group chats.
So you're in your group chat.
MEISELAS: I'm in the group chat right now.
ALLYN: This is the title that's going be on YouTube.
MEISELAS: This will be the YouTube title.
ALLYN: All right, what's title? What did you go with?
MEISELAS: I think I'm going with, seems like it's a disaster Thursday as the walls are closing in.
ALLYN:
Disaster Thursday and walls closing in are in all caps, which he says
adds to some urgency. And it's also like how someone else posts to
social media, Donald Trump. They both look like they're screaming. Soon
after, the video is up.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MEISELAS: Donald Trump is having an awful Thursday morning. He is panic posting.
ALLYN:
It gets more than half a million views. Meiselas, his two brothers and
other contributors are publishing videos like this about every 90
minutes as part of MeidasTouch.
Here's Ben this morning breaking down the news.
Now before we get to the ongoing Epstein scandal, let's note that, yes, Donald Chump is sadly in the White House; however, a would-be Chump has just been sentenced to 80 years in prison. MAGA boy Solomon Peña didn't get his way in an election. What's a MAGA stooge to do? Go on a shooting rampage like they feel their fearful and fat leader Donald Chump would do.
A failed political candidate was sentenced to 80 years in federal
prison Wednesday for his convictions in a series of drive-by shootings
at the homes of state and local lawmakers in the aftermath of the 2020
election.
A jury convicted former Republican candidate Solomon Peña
earlier this year of conspiracy, weapons and other charges in the
shootings in December 2022 and January 2023 on the homes of four
Democratic officials in Albuquerque, including the current state House
speaker.
Prosecutors, who had sought a 90-year sentence, said
Peña has shown no remorse and had hoped to cause political change by
terrorizing people who held contrary views to him into being too afraid
to take part in political life.
On Thursday, an NBC News report
identified Antoni in the crowd of Trump supporters outside the Capitol.
Footage archived by ProPublica does not show him crossing any
barricades or demonstrating.
The
White House told NBC: “These pictures show EJ Antoni, a bystander to
the events of January 6th, observing and then leaving the Capitol area.
EJ was in town for meetings, and it is wrong and defamatory to suggest
EJ engaged in anything inappropriate or illegal.”
Wait. The White House said what? Antoni didn't take part "in anything inappropriate or illegal" on January 6th? I thought Chump pardoned all the insurrectionists and wasn't that because he didn't think they did anything inappropriate or illegal? Oops. Looks like the White House inadvertently admitted yesterday that Chump pardoned a bunch of criminals who should have gone to prison. But not Antoni, the White House doesn't consider him to be part of that because he just observed -- unlike the crooks Chump pardoned.
Donald Trump’s former friendship with Ghislaine Maxwell has Americans concerned over whether or not the president will issue a pardon for Maxwell and her 20-year prison sentence.
According to The Daily Beast, representatives from the publication submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney (OPA), where direct correspondence is made with the president about the mitigation of prisoners.
[. . .]
During the last week of July, Maxwell was relocated
to Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Texas after serving three years at
Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Tallahassee in Florida.
During the last week of July, Maxwell was relocated
to Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Texas after serving three years at
Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Tallahassee in Florida.
Our fat liar Donald Chump. Of course he knew, of course he authorized it. You can't be a sex offender and go to Camp Bryan. It's Camp Fed. It can't take sex offenders. Chump's a liar and he gave convicted pedophile Maxwell what she wanted. He wasn't protecting the American people when he did that, he was protecting his own ass.
He has refused to recognize how serious this issue is and he has refused to recognize the many survivors as well as the victims of Epstein. One reason might be due to the fact that Chump's a liar and he lies even to himself. Nikki McCann Ramirez and Asawin Suebsaeng (ROLLING STONE) report:
Donald Trump, Republicans in Congress, and the president's allies across
right-wing media have been trying everything to make public backlash to
their botched handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation go away, amid reports that Trump himself appears in the government's files pertaining to the convicted sex offender.
The administration's attempts to bury the story have been complicated
by some of Epstein's victims, and their families, speaking out as
scandal has intensified. Trump hasn't engaged with them, but just
because the president is publicly keeping his mouth shut about Epstein's victims and their family members doesn't mean he isn't annoyed by them.
In recent weeks, according to two sources familiar with his private
remarks, Trump has repeatedly critiqued the string of media appearances
by Epstein accusers and their families, arguing that some of them are
just trying to make him look bad, or implying that he did something
wrong during his time as one of Epstein's friends
and party companions. At times, Trump has said that some of these
people and family members speaking out are, in his words, clearly of a
"Democrat" political affiliation, while wondering aloud if some of them
are coordinating with prominent liberal attorneys or groups.
Jess Michaels: I have not heard the words "Epstein survivor" out of the White House ever. It's not just that they're ignoring survivors when they're having meetings, when they're discussing, when they're talking with the convicted sex pedophile trafficker. I'm really shocked -- and not -- that this woman has been able to weasel her way into working towards a pardon, working towards leniency.
That was Epstein survivor Jess Michaels speaking on MSNBC's THE BEAT yesterday and Ari also spoke with James Carville about Chump's never-ending Epstein scandal.
Last night on THE LAST WORD, Lawrence O'Donnell noted Senator Chris Van Hollen's townhall and how the constituents want accountability and answers regarding Epstein and Maxwell.
Days
after the Blanche meeting, and without any explanation, Maxwell was
surprisingly moved from her Florida prison to a minimum-security federal
prison “camp” in Texas that is also known as “Club Fed.” This is a prison camp that does not house sex offenders, nor those with the 20-year sentence Maxwell has.
The
unexplained move to this prison “camp” is extremely suspicious and has
raised the appearance of a deal being made by Blanche and Maxwell’s
attorney, a friend of Blanche. Sex offenders are basically barred from
minimum‑security camps. Bureau of Prisons policy requires inmates
convicted of sex offenses to be housed in low-security facilities at
minimum, unless a waiver is approved. Such waivers for sex offenders are extraordinarily unusual.
Maxwell reportedly told Blanche that
Trump had never done anything in her presence that would have caused
concern. Assuming that this is all Maxwell said, it is a very limited
statement. It does not extend to a myriad of things Maxwell might have known about what Trump did but that were not done in her presence.
This statement certainly does not rule out the possibility that Maxwell
may have some leverage over Trump. The DOJ is certainly acting as
though she does.
Ultimately,
Trump and the Justice Department have entirely ignored the victims of
Maxwell and Epstein, showing no interest in or concern about the women
who as minors were subject to horrific and traumatic sexual abuse
crimes. It is hard to escape the conclusion that President Trump just
wants the Epstein controversy to go away. Even if it takes a pardon of
Maxwell or other actions, he appears ready and willing.
The scandal's not going away. I saw the lie THE NEW YORK POST printed. They're saying people don't really care. They're such liars. Holly Baltz (PALM BEACH POST) explains, "The public is clamoring for more information from the federal government
about whether Epstein had co-conspirators protected by authorities in
his sex trafficking ring of underage girls. The case began in Palm Beach
County in 2006 when a grand jury indicted Epstein on a single charge of
solicitation of prostitution."
Without Zelenskyy at the table, the only “peace” Trump could offer
would be the peace of capitulation. U.S. capitulation to Putin would
send a chilling message to every authoritarian with an eye on their
neighbor’s borders: invade, hold on long enough and the world’s most
powerful nation might eventually reward you.
Kremlin officials have also indicated that Putin hopes to broaden the
talks to include trade, sanctions relief and other issues related to
“economic cooperation” and opportunities for Putin to revive the failing
Russian economy. Such negotiations would dilute the urgency of the
crisis in Ukraine and should be rejected outright as long as Russia
continues to point literal guns, rockets and missiles at our ally.
Anything less is a moral disgrace and a strategic blunder.
Of course, none of this bothers Trump. He’s only concerned about
shifting the political conversation away from his continued refusal to
release the Epstein files and his Justice Department coddling convicted
sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. Without those files (assuming they
haven’t been altered by now), it’s difficult to draw conclusions about
Trump’s possible role in Epstein’s child sex trafficking scheme. But
what is clear is that Trump appears more concerned with keeping his
“special” friendship with the convicted pedophile out of the spotlight
than he is with protecting the lives of innocent people in Ukraine and
beyond.
Whatever he may or may not have done, Donald Trump and his minions in
the Department of Justice are clearly so spooked by what is in the
Epstein Files and what Ghislaine Maxwell knows, that they are willing to
attempt an absurd and obvious dual cover-up: document suppression to
prevent the release of the full files, and what seems to be an
astonishingly transparent clemency-for-favors scheme with Maxwell.
Trump’s involvement with Epstein goes back for decades.
Trump liked to joke about Epstein’s having predilections for women “on
the younger side,” with hints of jocular admiration rather than disgust.
He said
that Epstein was a “terrific guy” and “fun to be with.” When Trump was
recently asked why he and Epstein fell out, it wasn’t because Trump was
offended by Epstein’s rape and abuse of children, but rather because Epstein “stole” underage female staff
from Trump’s employ at Mar-A-Lago. Such conflicts over control of
underage women seem to have been common between the two men: one victim,
Maria Farmer, said
that once when Trump and Epstein were together with her Trump was
staring uncomfortably at her legs when Epstein said “no, she’s not here
for you.”
And now, of course, The Wall Street Journal has published a stunning
story alleging that Donald Trump sent Epstein a letter on his birthday
with a drawn line form of a naked woman and his own signature in the
place of pubic hair, a number of suggestive comments and the sign-off
“Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.” Trump
has furiously denied writing the letter and levied a lawsuit against
Rupert Murdoch and the newspaper, but the Wall Street Journal stands by
its reporting.
There is understandably an environment of fear around the story, and a
lawsuit-happy regime wants to intimidate everyone into silence. But all
of these stories,
while contested, are a matter of public record. And it certainly smells
like one of the biggest cover-ups of one of the greatest crimes in
American presidential history.
U.S. Border Patrol Sector Chief Gregory Bovino led
agents in arresting at least one person Thursday outside a news
conference held by top California Democrats today at the Democracy
Center of the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo.
About the event: The news conference was held by Gov. Gavin
Newsom to call for a Nov. 4 special election to decide whether the state
will redraw Congressional maps before the 2026 election. Newsom was
joined by U.S. Senators Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla.
From the Border Patrol: Bovino
spoke to reporters after the operation, calling it a “roving patrol.”
When asked if the location of the patrol was a coincidence, Bovino
replied that “breaking the law is not coincidental. Breaking the law is
breaking the law.” Bovino said at least one undocumented person was
detained during the patrol.
“BORDER PATROL HAS SHOWED UP AT OUR BIG BEAUTIFUL PRESS CONFERENCE! WE WILL NOT BE INTIMIDATED!” Newsom’s press team posted,
purposely mocking Trump’s social media syntax as they have been for
days now. The post also included a video showing mostly masked Border
Patrol agents milling about in full tactical gear.
Newsom also acknowledged the raid during his speech.
“Right
outside, at this exact moment, are dozens of dozens of ICE agents,”
Newsom said, the crowd booing in response. “Donald Trump … you think
it’s coincidental?”
“No!” the crowd fired back.
“We know what Donald Trump knows: He’s going to lose the
midterms. He knows, de facto, his presidency ends in seventeen months,
when Speaker [Hakeem] Jeffries is back in the House,” Newsom continued.
“He’s a failed president. Who else sends ICE at the same time we’re
having a conversation like this? Someone who’s weak. Someone who’s
broken. Someone whose weakness is masquerading as strength. The most
unpopular president in modern history.”
On Monday, a 15-year-old boy with
disabilities was detained by the United States Immigration and Customs
Enforcement outside a Los Angeles Unified School District high school at
9:30 a.m., when he was registering for classes.
KTLA 5 reported
that the boy was placed in handcuffs; he was only released after both
school staff and the Los Angeles Police Department intervened. Latino
students, who are more likely to be profiled by ICE, make up close to 75
percent of the student body at LAUSD.
“The release will not release him from what he experienced,” LAUSD
Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said during a press conference. “The
trauma will linger. It will not cease. It is unacceptable, not only in
our community, but anywhere in America.”
California State Superintendent Tony Thurmond also said in
a press release, referring to the actions of ICE agents, “these
military-style actions against innocent children and their families on
and near school campuses must stop now. Our children deserve to be
protected and cared for at school, not terrified and traumatized.”
Shame on Chump and his jack-booted Storm Troopers. This is not how adults treat children. But, hey, it's how Chump does -- Chump who hangs around with pedophiles. Ali Bauman (CBS NEWS) reports:
New York City leaders are demanding the release of another New York
City public school student who was detained by United States Immigration
and Customs Enforcement.
The student, a 20-year-old immigrant
from Guinea known as Mouctar, is now in ICE custody at a Pennsylvania
correctional facility.
Mouctar attends Brooklyn Frontiers High School, a transfer school "serving students who are over-age and under-credited," according to its website.
Chump has brought so much shame on our country. As Ruth observed earlier today, "He has brought so much shame to the office of president. Sullied is too light of a term to apply to what he has done to the office." The whole world sees this, they see how he attacks immigrants and, worst of all, immigrant children. There is no excuse for it. His actions are the actions we in the US call out when they happen in other countries. But his corruption and his hatred and his criminal ways have dragged this inhumanity into the US government.
This is why the cowards of ICE hide. What they do is inhumane and inexcusable. They know that. The guilt eats at them -- and will destroy them in the coming years. They can lie to themselves right now but their future is self-medication and/or suicide. The lying NEW YORK POST -- you don't link to garbage, you drop it in the trash can -- offers, "Immigration agents who have long gone undercover to make arrests across
the country will soon be rolling in vehicles boldly emblazoned with the
agency’s logo -- leaving agents furious and scared for their lives." They're scared all right, they're consumed with guilt which is killing them. They know what they do is wrong. They know what they do is evil. Those ICE agents who pose as Christian certainly know there actions are against the teachings of Jesus Christ. They live in fear of having to drive marked cars.
Besides entering the United States when he was 15, Diaz Inestroza had done nothing wrong. He had no criminal history. There was no previous warrant for his arrest.
In fact, said Megan Galicia, Diaz Inestroza’s Kansas City attorney, when ICE agents first turned up outside of Diaz Inestroza’s home, they weren’t looking for Diaz Inestroza, who, in 2019, was featured in the Selena Gomez documentary “Living Undocumented.”
“They were looking for someone else,” Galicia said.
What happened next was legal. ICE ran Diaz Inestroza’s plates and pulled his name. They saw he had a history with ICE; he was in the U.S. illegally. That was enough. They obtained and printed a warrant. That day — although Diaz Inestroza hadn’t sped, he hadn’t run a red light, he hadn’t failed to come to a full stop — ICE officers stopped him in his truck and arrested him.
Last week, having been turned down for release on bond, Diaz Inestroza chose to leave the country voluntarily, leaving his pregnant fiancée and three children (two of whom are U.S. citizens) behind.
Imagine an ICE agent right now trying to hide their actions a decade from now, trying to make sure their children don't learn what Daddy actually did, how he destroyed families. Danielle J. Brown (MARYLAND MATTERS) reports:
What started as a discussion on the various arms of immigration
enforcement nearly spiraled into a shouting match Thursday as advocates
and some elected officials pleaded with a federal agent to “be kinder”
when interacting with the immigration community.
“Your agents are terrorizing our communities,” said Baltimore City
Councilmember Odette Ramos, “What you are doing is racial profiling.”
Ramos was addressing Nikita Baker, director of the Baltimore Field
Office with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), who was part
of a panel on immigration and deportation policy at the Maryland
Association of Counties conference in Ocean City.
[. . .]
Ramos’ question lasted four minutes and raised concerns about how ICE
agents were conducting business in her jurisdiction, including
conditions in ICE detention facilities, frustrations about ICE agents
wearing masks and detaining people from common community spaces such as
grocery stores.
“Why is it that the agents are operating in this manner, very
violent, picking up our people … masked and not identifying yourself?”
she asked. “It is really abhorrent that this is happening.”
“I am asking you to resist. I am asking you to stop doing this,” Ramos said, to applause from the audience.
A man was hit by a vehicle and killed as he
attempted to get away from federal immigration officers who were raiding
a Home Depot in Los Angeles county on Thursday morning, according to authorities.
Little
has been disclosed about the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice)
operation that led to the incident, but officials in Monrovia, a diverse
LA suburb tucked into the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains,
confirmed agents had been seen at the store by city police officers
shortly before 10am local time. Shortly after, Monrovia fire &
rescue responded to reports of a pedestrian struck on the 210 freeway, a
large interstate with four lanes in each direction.
The man, who has not been identified, was transported to a local hospital, where he died from his injuries.
Federalizing the D.C. police force carries a 30-day legal limit. The president said yesterday he may extend that.
And
this morning, blocks from the White House, another part of the
president's plan went into action, homeless encampments toppled, and the
people who once sheltered there nowhere in sight. More visible in D.C.,
National Guard troops activated by the president as part of what he
calls an anti-crime agenda.
For more on the D.C. takeover, we're
joined now by Juliette Kayyem, former assistant secretary at the
Department of Homeland Security. She's now at the Harvard Kennedy School
of Government.
Juliette, welcome back. Thanks for joining us.
Juliette Kayyem, Former U.S. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary: Thanks for having me.
Amna Nawaz:
I just want to ask you to react to some of those scenes
we just showed. You have federal agents wearing Homeland Security gear
running a traffic stop with Metropolitan Police, National Guard troops
patrolling high-tourist areas like the National Mall.
I mean, from your experience, is it clear what the intention and strategy is here?
Juliette Kayyem:
So there's two different pieces of this.
One is,
federal law enforcement agencies, FBI, HSI, Homeland Security
Investigations, working with, in tandem Washington, D.C., police. This
is — it's unique. It is not clear what their — what the federal agents'
authority is. It is not clear whether they have — they can arrest for a
petty crime, since that's not a federal crime.
And I think there's
a lot of confusion about what their authority is. Right now, we just
see them walking around. The second is what we call presence patrols
that is being done by the National Guard. Presence patrols are, we are
here. We're an army or a unit that is making its presence known.
It
is not generally used in the military because there's really no task or
purpose for it. There's no mission for it. It's just simply that we are
present. And, in both cases, the concern is, because the mission isn't
clear — ending crime, getting rid of poverty, all of those things are
sort of nebulous in terms of what are the tactics that would justify
federal involvement — it is not at all clear whether the mission will
maintain or you're going to get mission creep over the next couple of
days and weeks.
Amna Nawaz:
Juliette, when the president launched this effort, he
talked about ramping up the use of force, right? He said that the D.C.
police are now allowed to do, in his words, whatever the hell they want,
promising forces would hit harder now.
Does the presence of federal forces, federal agents somehow allow for more force in these interactions?
Juliette Kayyem:
It doesn't.
I mean, and, to be clear, there's
nothing — there's no change in the laws of what engagement is. If
someone spits at a police officer, they're not allowed to shoot them.
That is not — that's not permissible. That is not an appropriate
response.
The president talks like this as a signal of authority,
aggressiveness, and some would even say totalitarianism, or at least the
usurpation of local control by the executive branch.
Where I
worry is, of course, with a undefined mission and unclear integration of
these forces with these forces with now the National Guard, you will
get mistakes. You will get people working and acting outside their
authority. You will get responses to First Amendment activities,
including lawful protests, that violate the First Amendment and
undermines people's rights to free speech. You're allowed to criticize
this activity.
And let's just be honest here. This is a lot of
people who are now not looking and not investigating fentanyl and
domestic violence and terrorism.
On the 26-mile motorcade ride from
the White House to his private golf club in Northern Virginia (one of 18
in his collection), President Donald Trump observed a few tents on
public land and some garbage under an overpass. Perturbed by the
imagery, he issued a sweeping demand via his social media site, Truth Social: “The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY.”
“We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital,” Trump continued in his Sunday post. “Be prepared!”
The command came as he made plans to deploy 800 National Guard
members to DC and temporarily federalize the city’s police department,
which he announced in a rambling 79-minute press conference the next day.
Advocates for homeless people immediately pointed to a fundamental
problem (one of many) with Trump’s order: There aren’t enough shelter
beds in the nation’s capital. Accordingly, how can homeless people
prepare if they have nowhere to go?
“We really don’t know what that looks like,” Andy Wassenich, the
policy director of the local nonprofit Miriam’s Kitchen, which provides
free food and social services in DC, tells me.
Chump has no compassion. He has no courage. He's a petty hate monger who is attacking the most vulnerable. From yesterday's MORNING EDITION (NPR):
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
As part of President Trump's
renewed focus on what he sees as disorder and lawlessness in the
nation's capital, he has said he wants to remove homeless encampments
and force unhoused people out of the city, or at least out of sight.
This is what he said at a press briefing Monday.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT
DONALD TRUMP: There are many places that they can go, and we're going
to help them as much as you can help. But they'll not be allowed to turn
our capital into a wasteland for the world to see.
MARTIN:
We've been trying to understand more about what such an operation would
actually look like, so we've called Amber Harding. She's executive
director of The Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless. That's a
nonprofit here in the district that provides legal services to people
affected by homelessness and works on policy reform. And she's with us
now. Amber Harding, thanks so much for joining us.
AMBER HARDING: Thank you for having me.
MARTIN: So how many people are we talking about, and where do they tend to be?
HARDING:
I think we have around 800 or 900 people who are unsheltered, who are
living outside. We do not have any large tent cities. We do not have
large groups of homeless people in any sort of concentrated way. We have
people who, you know, haven't been able to access shelter housing
resources making do where they can.
MARTIN: White House
press secretary Karoline Leavitt told our correspondent Tamara Keith
that people will be given the option to leave their encampment, taken to
homeless shelters or offered addiction or mental health services. And
that if they refuse, quote, "they will be susceptible to fines or jail
time," unquote. And she cited what she said were preexisting laws that
haven't been enforced. First of all, what's your understanding of this?
HARDING:
If I say to you, Michel, you have to go to shelter or take these
services or, you know, some sort of involuntary treatment even though
you don't qualify for involuntary commitment, and you say no, there's
nothing in the law that says I get to arrest you. That is not something
that exists in our law.
MARTIN: Does the District of Columbia have shelter space for 800 people at the moment?
HARDING:
No, they do not. When this increased federal enforcement notice came
out, there was not a single shelter bed available. But D.C. government
opened 60 additional beds and are looking now to try to find even more
beds.
