Monthly Archives: June 2025

Knewz: Kristi Noem’s Pentagon Request Sparks Firestorm

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Knewz.com is reporting that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem reportedly urged Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to authorize U.S. military personnel in Los Angeles to detain civilians amid ongoing immigration-related protests. This request came shortly before President Trump ordered the deployment of U.S. Marines to support operations in the area. The move has sparked legal debate, as it potentially challenges long-standing restrictions on the military’s role in domestic law enforcement.

Noem urged Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to direct Department of Defense forces to either “detain, just as they would at any federal facility guarded by military, lawbreakers under Title 18 until they can be arrested and processed by federal law enforcement, or arrest them.”

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Experts warn Noem’s request could escalate tensions and erode civil liberties by blurring military and civilian law enforcement roles.

Kristi Noem’s Pentagon Request Sparks Firestorm

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/kristi-noem-s-pentagon-request-sparks-firestorm/ss-AA1GLJiF

Rolling Stone: Barack Obama Defends DACA Amid Mass Deportations and ICE Raids

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In a post marking the 13th anniversary of his administration’s policy, Obama called out how immigrants “are being demonized and treated as enemies”

Former President Barack Obama took to social media this weekend to mark the 13th anniversary of his administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. He called his administration’s immigration policy, which offered temporary protection and work permits to undocumented immigrants who arrived to the U.S. as kids, “an example of how we can be a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws” while describing how families with similar backgrounds “are being demonized and treated as enemies” under the Trump administration today.

“Thirteen years ago, my administration acted to protect young people who were American in every single way but one: on paper,” his post read. “DACA was an example of how we can be a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws. And it’s an example worth remembering today, when families with similar backgrounds who just want to live, work, and support their communities, are being demonized and treated as enemies. We can fix our broken immigration system while still recognizing our common humanity and treating each other with dignity and respect. In fact, it’s the only way we ever will.”

Barack Obama Defends DACA Amid Mass Deportations and ICE Raids
In a post marking the 13th anniversary of DACA, former President Barack Obama called out how immigrants ‘are being demonized and treated as enemies.’

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/barack-obama-daca-trump-immigration-1235365749

MSNBC: Trump’s pick for FAA chief portrayed himself as a certified commercial pilot. He isn’t.

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After multiple aviation catastrophes and troubling reports of problems at airports across the country, it’s safe to say that many Americans have been hopeful — if not optimistic — that the Trump administration would install a steady-handed, trustworthy leader at the beleaguered Federal Aviation Administration.

The fact that President Donald Trump has selected an individual for the job who seems to have inflated his credentials doesn’t inspire much confidence.

The Air Current, an aviation outlet, appears to have been first to report on Republic Airways CEO Bryan Bedford’s false portrayal of himself as a commercial pilot, and Politico shined more light on the nominee for FAA chief over the weekend.

Lies, lies, lies! He’ll fit right in at the court of King Donald.

Trump’s pick to lead the FAA has portrayed himself as a certified commercial pilot. He isn’t.
Republic Airways CEO Bryan Bedford’s official biography falsely said he holds a commercial pilot rating, according to reports.

https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/trump-faa-nominee-bryan-bedford-commercial-pilot-license-rcna213294

Guardian: Spanish-language journalist to be turned over to Ice after protest arrest

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El Salvador-born Mario Guevara, arrested by Georgia police on Saturday, transferred to Ice officers after bond release

Mario Guevara, a prominent Spanish-language journalist in metro Atlanta who frequently covers Immigration and customs enforcement raids, will be turned over to Ice detention after being arrested by local police while covering the “No Kings” protests.

Guevara, 47, was born in El Salvador and has been in the United States for more than 20 years. He recorded his own arrest Saturday during a raucous street protest in the Embry Hills area of north DeKalb county, an Atlanta suburban neighborhood with a large Latino population. The protest ended with riot police throwing teargas and marching protesters down the street after declaring an unlawful assembly.

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Police charged Guevara as a pedestrian improperly entering a roadway, obstruction of a law enforcement officer and unlawful assembly. A municipal judge released Guevara on Monday on a recognisance bond – customary with misdemeanor charges. But jail staff said he would be transferred instead to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

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Ted Terry, a DeKalb county commissioner, asked the county’s staff to investigate the circumstances around the use of teargas at the event.

“The decision to deploy teargas – particularly in a neighborhood context with nearby homes and businesses – raises serious questions about the proportionality and justification of the county’s response to peaceful civil action,” he wrote.

A spokesperson for Ice in Atlanta could not immediately confirm the conditions of the immigration hold or whether Guevara faces deportation.

As a journalist with Diario CoLatino in El Salvador, he fled the country in 2004 one step ahead of threats from leftwing paramilitary groups. It took him seven years to get his first asylum hearing before a judge, the journalist told Spanish-language wire service Agencia EFE in the Los Angeles-based publication La Opinión in 2012. He described the arrest of his wife after an error in the immigration system. “The hardest part for me was seeing my three children cry as she was taken away, and me being powerless to give them the comfort and protection they need,” he said in Spanish in the interview.

Spanish-language journalist to be turned over to Ice after protest arrest
El Salvador-born Mario Guevara, arrested by Georgia police on Saturday, transferred to Ice officers after bond release

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/16/journalist-ice-protest-arrest-mario-guevara

Daily Caller: Department Of Transportation Threatens To Defund Cities That Don’t Cooperate With ICE

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Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced Monday that the Department of Transportation (DOT) will withhold funding from states and cities that do not work with the Trump administration on immigration enforcement and riot control.

“Rogue state actors who refuse to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement” will not receive funding from the DOT, Duffy said in a post on X.

“Don’t expect a red cent from DOT, either. Follow the law, or forfeit the funding,” Duffy said.

Yet another illegal withholding of funds that our courts will have to waste time on!

Trump accused these cities of being the “core of the Democrat Power Center,” as he says they “use Illegal Aliens to expand their Voter Base, cheat in Elections, and grow the Welfare State, robbing good paying Jobs and Benefits from Hardworking American Citizens.”

Goofy!

Department Of Transportation Threatens To Defund Cities That Don’t Cooperate With ICE
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced that the DOT will withhold funding from states and cities that do not work with the Trump administration.

https://dailycaller.com/2025/06/16/dept-of-transportation-dot-defund-cities-ice-deportation-riots-los-angeles

Law & Crime: ‘Different in kind’: 4-star generals, admirals serving from JFK to Obama say Los Angeles ICE protests don’t warrant deployment of National Guard to California

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4-star admirals, generals serving from JFK to Obama warn Trump’s deployment of National Guard poses ‘potentially grave risk’

Ahead of a Zoom hearing scheduled for Tuesday at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a group of retired four-star generals and admirals who served under presidents ranging from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama filed court documents warning that President Donald Trump’s federalization of the California National Guard and deployment of U.S. Marines poses “potentially grave risk of irreparable harm.”

Seeking the appellate court’s leave to file a brief and enter the case as amici curiae — Latin for “friends of the court” — the retired generals, admirals, and former U.S. Army and Navy secretaries did not explicitly take Gov. Gavin Newsom’s side in the case. They did suggest Sunday, however, that the Trump administration’s bid for an emergency stay of a lower-court ruling and continued push to quell “violent riots” in Los Angeles amid nationwide “No Kings” protests over ICE raids may not pass legal muster when compared to historical precedents.

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Again, although the retired admirals and generals did not support either party to the case, they implicitly warmed to Breyer’s ruling that the definition of “rebellion” has not been met and that, in the proposed amici’s words, the “recent and ongoing situation” in Los Angeles “appears to be different in kind” from the “extreme circumstances” of the 1992 Rodney King riots and the times when state governors “openly” and defiantly stood against the end of racial segregation during the Civil Rights era.

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The brief concluded that Trump’s injection of the military into “domestic political controversies” — “undermining its ability to achieve its core mission of protecting the nation” — is a case in point as to why troops “should be kept out of domestic law enforcement whenever possible.”

Retired four-star generals sound alarm at 9th Circuit on Trump’s National Guard deployment
Retired four-star generals and admirals warn that Trump’s federalization of the National Guard and deployment of U.S. Marines poses “potentially grave risk.”
‘Different in kind’: 4-star generals, admirals serving from JFK to Obama say Los Angeles ICE protests don’t warrant deployment of National Guard to California

NBC News: ICE detains Utah college student after brief traffic stop, raising questions

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A sheriff’s deputy in Colorado briefly pulled over Caroline Dias Goncalves before immigration agents detained her. Now county officials are conducting a review.

Caroline Dias Goncalves, a student at the University of Utah, was driving on Interstate 70 outside Loma on June 5 when a Mesa County sheriff’s deputy pulled her over.

The Mesa County Sheriff’s Office did not say why. Relatives told The Salt Lake City Tribune the deputy claimed she was driving too close to a semi-truck.

The stop lasted less than 20 minutes, and “Dias Goncalves was released from the traffic stop with a warning,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release Monday.

Then, shortly after she exited the highway, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents stopped her, arrested her and took her to an immigration detention center.

“She has no criminal record and she was not shown a warrant,” her attorney, Jon Hyman, said in an email.

Dias Goncalves is one of nearly 2.5 million Dreamers living in the United States. The word “Dreamer” refers to undocumented young immigrants brought to the United States as children.

Dias Goncalves was born in Brazil and was brought to the United States as a 7-year-old. She has lived in Utah since she was 12 and has an asylum case pending.

Friends and relatives question how immigration authorities were alerted to her location.

As part of an ongoing “full administrative review,” the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office determined that the deputy who stopped Dias Goncalves was part of a communication group that included local, state and federal law enforcement partners participating in “a multi-agency drug interdiction effort focusing on the highways throughout Western Colorado.”

“We were unaware that the communication group was used for anything other than drug interdiction efforts, including immigration,” the sheriff’s office said. “We have since removed all Mesa County Sheriff’s Office members from the communication group.”

Meanwhile in Georgia:

Dias Goncalves’ immigration detention mirrors that of fellow 19-year-old Dreamer Ximena Arias-Cristobal in Georgia.

Police in Dalton wrongly pulled Arias-Cristobal over last month, putting her on the radar of immigration authorities and making her susceptible to deportation.

Since her release from immigration detention, Arias-Cristobal has been speaking up about the growing risks Dreamers face as the Trump administration steps up the pace of deportations of immigrants who do not have criminal charges or convictions, despite Donald Trump’s campaign promises to prioritize deporting violent criminals.

ICE detains Utah college student after brief traffic stop, raising questions
A sheriff’s deputy in Colorado briefly pulled over Caroline Dias Goncalves before immigration agents detained her. Now county officials are conducting a review.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/ice-detains-utah-university-student-traffic-stop-colorado-rcna213231

Raw Story: ‘Lies!’ Trump DHS officials torn apart over attempt to sweep allegations away

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The Department of Homeland Security is vehemently denying allegations that it engaged in mass racial profiling in its immigration raids, but David J. Bier of the libertarian Cato Institute isn’t buying those denials for an instant.

DHS’s denials came last week in response to a report by the Los Angeles Times that a number of immigrant communities fear that stops and arrests are being done randomly against people based primarily on their appearance.

“Any claims that individuals have been ‘targeted’ by law enforcement because of their skin color are disgusting and categorically FALSE,” DHS posted to its official X account. “These types of smears are designed to demonize and villainize our brave ICE law enforcement. DHS enforcement operations are highly targeted, and officers do their due diligence. We know who we are targeting ahead of time. If and when we do encounter individuals subject to arrest, our law enforcement is trained to ask a series of well-determined questions to determine status and removability.”

But Bier couldn’t help but notice a telling omission from the denial.

“Of course they don’t link to the article which gives the proof that this is happening. DHS LIES,” he wrote, posting a damning passage from the very beginning of the original article:

“Brian Gavidia had stepped out from working on a car at a tow yard in a Los Angeles suburb Thursday, when armed, masked men — wearing vests with ‘Border Patrol’ on them — pushed him up against a metal gate and demanded to know where he was born,” the Times reported. “‘I’m American, bro!’ 29-year-old Gavidia pleaded, in video taken by a friend. ‘What hospital were you born?’ the agent barked. ‘I don’t know, dawg!’ he said. ‘East L.A., bro! I can show you: I have my f—ing Real ID.’ His friend, whom Gavidia did not name, narrated the video: ‘These guys, literally based off of skin color! My homie was born here!’ The friend said Gavidia was being questioned ‘just because of the way he looks.'”

‘Lies!’ Trump DHS officials torn apart over attempt to sweep allegations away

https://www.rawstory.com/dhs-profiling

Alternet: ‘Theft and destruction’: Trump’s escalating self-dealing exposed in new report

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The big lie:

During his 2016 campaign, Donald Trump insisted that if he defeated Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, he would maintain a strict separation between his business activities and the White House. And one of MAGA Republicans’ talking points is that Trump cares so deeply about the United States that he was willing to step away from his business, put his son Eric Trump in charge of the Trump Organization, and take a hit financially in order to be president and “make American great again.”

The reality:

But in fact, President Trump’s net worth has increased substantially since 2016 and continues to increase. Trump, according to his critics, is monetizing his presidency in a wide range of ways,

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The Guardian reporter continues, “He incurred numerous accusations of first-term conflicts of interest, as foreign officials from 20 countries descended on his hotels, while Secret Service agents in Trump’s security detail were made to pay premium rates, pouring at least $10m into his bank account. Such unprecedented disregard for time-honored ethical boundaries was shocking at the time. Now, it looks merely quaint.”

During his second term, Pilkington notes, Trump has monetized his presidency with everything from promoting Tesla vehicles to receiving a jet as a gift from the Qatari government.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) told The Guardian that Trump is operating a “pay-for-play presidency.” And Kathleen Clark, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, laments that Trump and his allies “have mastered the technique of flooding the zone” by “doing so much so fast that they are overwhelming the ability of ethics groups and institutions to respond.”

‘Theft and destruction’: Trump’s escalating self-dealing exposed in new report

https://www.alternet.org/trump-grifter-guardian