Tag Archives: California

USA Today: Trump is on a collision course with millions of Americans. He’s not backing down.

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The White House is doubling down on President Donald Trump’s signature campaign promise and escalating efforts to deport undocumented immigrants, targeting Democrat-run cities and heightening tensions with powerful liberal governors from California to New York.

The pressure-cooker campaign comes after the massive “No Kings” protests on June 14 that drew millions of Americans out to the streets to oppose Trump’s administration, which has made immigration enforcement a top priority. The protests included about 5 million people nationally, according to organizers, and many attendees specifically cited concerns about immigration enforcement.

A week before, fierce protests in Los Angeles sparked by aggressive detentions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents led to clashes, tear gassing, scattered looting and multiple vehicles being set on fire. The vast majority of attendees were peaceful, however.

To quell the protests and protect ICE agents in California, Trump called up thousands of National Guard troops over the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom − referred to by Trump as “Newscum” − and has told federal agents they have his unconditional support to continue aggressive enforcement.

Trump has also invoked military powers usually reserved for wartime, declaring that Biden-era immigration policies facilitated an invasion. And the president is pushing to dramatically expand detention centers and deportation flights while finishing the U.S.-Mexico border wall.

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While border crossings have dropped dramatically, videos of masked federal agents chasing people across fields or grabbing them off city streets have horrified many Americans, and liberal leaders across the country say construction sites, farms and some entire neighborhoods are falling silent as undocumented workers stay home to avoid detention.

Some critics accused Trump of causing chaos with ICE raids, then using the community response to justify even harsher measures.

On June 19, federal immigration agents were briefly blocked at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles by protesters trying to stop detentions.

Trump remains undeterred and is pushing Congress to pass a funding measure that would allow him to hire 10,000 new ICE agents, 5,000 more customs officers, and 3,000 additional Border Patrol agents.

Trump is on a collision course with millions of Americans. He’s not backing down.
Immigrant-rights advocates have reported harsher enforcement in rural farming communities and big cities alike.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/06/21/trump-immigration-enforcement-no-kings/84245929007

USA Today: LA isn’t burning. ICE has terrorized many into an ominous silence. | Opinion

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The threat of ICE raids on commencement ceremonies was credible enough that our Los Angeles school district devised plans to protect students from being kidnapped as they received their diplomas.

Apparently, according to Attorney General Pam Bondi and President Donald Trump, “California is burning.” Here in Los Angeles, however, we know too well the smell of a serious conflagration ‒ and also the stench of political gas when politicians try to justify corrupt assertions of authoritarian power.

We are protesting now not because we are lawless, but because what is happening is a racially selective application of immigration laws that should have been reformed years ago. We are protesting because we still believe in decency, human dignity and respect for hard work and family.

Some protesting among us have succumbed to anger, while others have opportunistically caused mayhem the way some revelers do when the Lakers or the Dodgers win a championship.

Meanwhile the president and his ministers of cruelty, hysteria and lies are opportunistically causing far more mayhem, disrupting businesses and communities and devastating families and insulting our brave troops by gratuitously deploying them to our streets, pitting them against American civilians, trying to use the selfless members of our military as an authoritarian flex.

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LA isn’t burning. ICE has terrorized many into an ominous silence. | Opinion
California is not burning. We are protesting the racially selective application of immigration laws and unjust ICE raids.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2025/06/23/ice-raids-california-los-angeles-immigration/84174179007

Sun Herald: Trump’s ‘Trash Heap’ Remark Sparks Backlash

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President Donald Trump ordered U.S. Marines and National Guard troops to Los Angeles during immigration protests, labeling the city a “trash heap.” He claimed the military is needed to prevent violence. Critics have voiced concern over projected deployment costs of approximately $134 million.

Critics, like Tad Weber of The Fresno Bee, criticized Trump’s characterization of the city. Reflecting on a visit, Weber writes, “Far from a ‘trash heap,’ Los Angeles was as vibrant and busy as ever.” Weber added, “By characterizing Los Angeles as a “trash heap,” Trump violated Rule No. 1 for the president: Be America’s cheerleader. The president should extol, not denigrate, our nation’s cities.”

Trump’s ‘Trash Heap’ Remark Sparks Backlash

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-s-trash-heap-remark-sparks-backlash/ss-AA1HcXve

SF Gate: Portrait of a California family torn apart by ICE

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‘They always get picked up on their way to work’

When U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested a longtime Oxnard worker, Albino Mandujano Eutimio, in May, the sudden action changed the lives of his family, who continue to reel and adjust in his absence today.

“He called me from the detention center and asked if I could take my brothers, Nico and Lalo, to handle his jobs while he’s detained,” his daughter, Adriana Mandujano, told SFGATE. Leaving no time to grieve, she had rides to arrange, bills to pay, and urgent plans to make to support her father, now held at the Desert View Annex in Adelanto.

Her father was detained in the morning, on his way to retrieve a machine he had left at a job site the day before. It was a strategy that ICE has used before. 

“They always get picked up on their way to work,” said Elizabeth Ramirez Barragan, the immigration attorney representing the Oxnard worker and a California immigration legal fellow with the Mixteco Indígena Community Organizing Project, or MICOP. The morning Mandujano Eutimio was arrested, she said, was no accident, adding that “ICE usually conducts raids as early as 5 a.m. because they know that’s when people are heading out to work.”

Mandujano Eutimio, who is undocumented but has been in the country for over 25 years, has built his livelihood by servicing restaurants, shopping plazas, commercial buildings and apartments across Camarillo and Los Angeles, removing graffiti, pressure washing, cleaning windows, deep cleaning, doing carpentry and whatever else clients needed.

California family torn apart by ICE after father taken on way to work
“They know that’s when people are heading out to work.”

https://www.sfgate.com/centralcoast/article/california-family-separated-by-ice-20386381.php

Independent: US citizen caught in ICE raid says arrest was worth it if others got away

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A U.S. citizen who was violently arrested in a California ICE raid and detained for 24 hours said it was all worth it if an undocumented person was able to use that moment to flee.

Job Garcia, a 37-year-old PhD student at Claremont Graduate University, was arrested during an ICE raid last Thursday at a Home Depot in Hollywood, ABC 7 reported.

Video captured an ICE agent telling Garcia, who is a U.S. citizen, “You want to go to jail? Fine, you got it.”

Garcia recalled the horrifying moment he was placed into custody by the officer: “The pressure of like, the knee on my back, and his hand on my neck, I thought like ‘Is this it for me?’”

Footage of the violent arrest, which came as ICE agents detained about 30 people at the store, quickly went viral.

Before he was detained, Garcia and several other shoppers were yelling at the officers as they targeted a man in a truck by smashing his window.

“A split second after that is when he lunged at me. I was still recording, so he pushes me, puts both hands on me, and I pushed his hand off. And then, he didn’t like that, so he grabbed my left hand,” Garcia said.

Garcia said the officers seemed surprised when he told them he was a U.S. citizen, but they still decided to arrest him. He was first taken to a holding area at Dodger Stadium, where he overheard agents discussing how many people they’d grabbed.

“Like, ‘How many bodies did you guys get today?’ And one of them said 31, and they started like, ‘Yay! It was a good day today.’ And they were like, high-fiving each other,” Garcia said.

Garcia said he also overheard officers talking about potential charges they could slap him with.

“At first it was assault of a federal agent, but only later, the narrative started switching because the video was out,” Garcia said.

This underscores the importance of citizen videos — Record! Record! Record!

US citizen caught in ICE raid says arrest was worth it if others got away
Job Garcia was arrested during an ICE raid last Thursday at a Home Depot in Hollywood

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/ice-arrest-usa-citizen-b2774799.html

Associated Press: Vance blames California Dems for violent immigration protests and calls Sen. Alex Padilla ‘Jose’

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Vice President JD Vance on Friday accused California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass of encouraging violent immigration protests as he used his appearance in Los Angeles to rebut criticism from state and local officials that the Trump administration fueled the unrest by sending in federal officers.

Sending in masked thugs to rough people up and kidnap Hispanics off the streets and sidewalks is exactly what the problem is. If JD Dunce is too much of an idiot to understand that, c’est la vie. We can’t fix stupid! And the demonstrations will continue until ICE either cleans up their act or is put back in their kennels.

Vance also referred to U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, the state’s first Latino senator, as “Jose Padilla,” a week after the Democrat was forcibly taken to the ground by officers and handcuffed after speaking out during a Los Angeles news conference by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on immigration raids.

JD Dunce is a pathetic racist pig. He served in the Senate with Sen. Padilla and knows full well what his actual name is.

Vance blames California Dems for violent immigration protests and calls Sen. Alex Padilla ‘Jose’
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Vice President JD Vance on Friday accused California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass of encouraging violent immigration protests as he used his appearance in Los Angeles to rebut criticism from state and local officials that the Trump administration fueled the unrest by sending in federal officers. Vance also r…

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/vance-blames-california-dems-for-violent-immigration-protests-and-calls-sen-alex-padilla-jose/ar-AA1H7TGD

Latin Times: Trump Now Says Farmers May Continue Employing Migrants Under a System Where They Assume ‘Responsibility’ For Them

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“We’re looking at doing something where in the case of good, reputable farmers, they can take responsibility for the people that they hire,” Trump said

President Donald Trump said on Friday that farmers may be able to keep employing undocumented migrant workers without fearing enforcement raids under a system in which they would take “responsibility” for them.

“We’re looking at doing something where in the case of good, reputable farmers, they can take responsibility for the people that they hire, and let them have responsibility, because we can’t put the farms out of business, and at the same time, we don’t want to hurt people that aren’t criminals,” Trump told press on Friday.

Take responsibility … until ICE shows up and takes them away?

“Don’t want to hurt people that aren’t criminals”? Just what the hell do you think you’ve been doing?

One of Trump’s dumbest ideas yet!

It was not immediately clear how the system would work, and is the latest of several changes of tune regarding the matter.

Understatement! They need to get Trump into a memory-care unit.

Trump Now Says Farmers May Continue Employing Migrants Under a System Where They Assume ‘Responsibility’ For Them
President Donald Trump said on Friday that farmers may be able to continue employing migrants without fear of raids

https://www.latintimes.com/trump-now-says-farmers-may-continue-employing-migrants-under-system-where-they-assume-585388

Associated Press: Many Americans are witnessing immigration arrests for the first time and reacting

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Adam Greenfield was home nursing a cold when his girlfriend raced in to tell him Immigration and Customs Enforcement vehicles were pulling up in their trendy San Diego neighborhood.

The author and podcast producer grabbed his iPhone and bolted out the door barefoot, joining a handful of neighbors recording masked agents raiding a popular Italian restaurant nearby, as they yelled at the officers to leave. An hour later, the crowd had grown to nearly 75 people, with many in front of the agents’ vehicles.

“I couldn’t stay silent,” Greenfield said. “It was literally outside of my front door.”

More Americans are witnessing people being hauled off as they shop, exercise at the gym, dine out and otherwise go about their daily lives as President Donald Trump’s administration aggressively works to increase immigration arrests. As the raids touch the lives of people who aren’t immigrants themselves, many Americans who rarely, if ever, participated in civil disobedience are rushing out to record the actions on their phones and launch impromptu protests.

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Many Americans are witnessing immigration arrests for the first time and reacting
With the Trump administration aggressively trying to increase the number of immigration arrests, raids are now being conducted at all hours and more Americans are witnessing people being hauled off.

https://apnews.com/article/immigration-raids-arrests-ice-los-angeles-0de11b5bc6ef962b79e084fb9e648a87

Sun Herald: Defiant Mayor’s Call to Resist ICE Raids Sparks Outrage

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Chicago officials reportedly expected a rise in workplace immigration raids as federal tactical teams prepared to deploy across several Democratic-led cities. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson urged residents to push back against the enforcement efforts linked to President Trump. Johnson encouraged peaceful protest and affirmed that police and city staff would protect First Amendment rights. Johnson’s call for “all of Chicago to resist in this moment” has drawn sharp criticism on social media.

Awesome response! Resist! And keep up the good work!

Critics argue that Johnson’s rhetoric incites violence against federal officers.

The pigs have only themselves to blame. They’ll get no tears or sympathy from me.

Johnson said, “I am counting on all of Chicago to resist in this moment. Because whatever particular vulnerable group is targeted today, another group will be next.”

Meanwhile, back at the ranch:

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul condemned federal actions as unlawful and undemocratic, stressing the importance of working with local leaders to protect community safety.

Defiant Mayor’s Call to Resist ICE Raids Sparks Outrage

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/defiant-mayor-s-call-to-resist-ice-raids-sparks-outrage/ss-AA1H7qHk

Guardian: Outrage as DHS moves to restrict lawmaker visits to detention centers

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The US Department of Homeland Security is now requiring lawmakers to provide 72 hours of notice before visiting detention centers, according to new guidance.

The guidance comes after a slew of tense visits from Democratic lawmakers to detention centers amid Donald Trump’s crackdowns in immigrant communities across the country. Many Democratic lawmakers in recent weeks have either been turned away, arrested or manhandled by law enforcement officers at the facilities, leading to public condemnation towards Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (Ice) handling of such visits.

Lawmakers are allowed to access DHS facilities “used to detain or otherwise house aliens” for inspections and are not required “to provide prior notice of the intent to enter a facility”, according to the 2024 Federal Appropriations Act.

Previous language surrounding lawmaker visits to such facilities said that “Ice will comply with the law and accommodate members seeking to visit/tour an Ice detention facility for the purpose of conducting oversight,” CNN reported.

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In response to the updated guidance, Mississippi’s Democratic representative and the ranking member of the House committee on homeland security, Bennie Thompson, condemned what he called the attempt by the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, to “block oversight on Ice”.

“Kristi Noem’s new policy to block congressional oversight of Ice facilities is not only unprecedented, it is an affront to the constitution and federal law. Noem is now not only attempting to restrict when members can visit, but completely blocking access to Ice field offices – even if members schedule visits in advance,” Thompson said.

“This unlawful policy is a smokescreen to deny member visits to Ice offices across the country, which are holding migrants – and sometimes even US citizens – for days at a time. They are therefore detention facilities and are subject to oversight and inspection at any time. DHS pretending otherwise is simply their latest lie.”

Outrage as DHS moves to restrict lawmaker visits to detention centers
Elected officials told to give 72 hours’ notice before visiting immigration facilities, with some sites completely off limits

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/19/dhs-immigration-detention-center-visits-new-guidance