Van Hollen told Rubio, “I have to tell you directly and personally that I regret voting for you for Secretary of State.”
Rubio responded, “Your regret for voting for me confirms I’m doing a good job.
Such a typical FU response from one of King Donald’s cronies.
A Georgia police officer resigned from his job on Friday after erroneously pulling over a teenager, causing her to spend more than two weeks in a federal immigration jail, and leaving her facing deportation.
The officer, Leslie O’Neal, was employed at the police department in Dalton, a small city more than an hour north of Atlanta.
His arrest of college student Ximena Arias-Cristobal not only led to a domino effect that could lead to her deportation – it also engendered anger and criticism, especially given the circumstances of her immigration-related detention.
Though Dalton’s municipal government did not provide any information about why O’Neal resigned, his wife posted his resignation letter on Facebook, which said he believed the local police department did not adequately defend him.
“The department’s silence in the face of widespread defamation has not only made my position personally untenable but has also created an environment where I can no longer effectively carry out my duties within the city of Dalton without fear of further backlash from the community,” O’Neal wrote in the letter.
A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Friday to facilitate the return of a gay Guatemalan man who said he was deported to Mexico despite fearing he would be persecuted there, after officials acknlowledged an error in his case.
US District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston issued the order days after the Justice Department notified him that its claim that the man had expressly stated he was not afraid of being sent to Mexico was based on erroneous information.
The Justice Department said last week that upon further investigation, officials were unable to identify any Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who had asked the man, identified as “OCG” about fears he had for his safety.
…
According to his lawyers, OCG is a gay man who fled Guatemala in 2024 after facing death threats based on his sexuality.
He entered the United States through Mexico in May 2024.
Murphy said that while an immigration judge in February found OCG deserved protection from being returned to Guatemala, authorities two days later wrongly placed him on a bus to Mexico, where he had recently been raped and kidnapped.
A federal judge on Wednesday said that the Trump administration had “unquestionably” violated his order by deporting several migrants to South Sudan — a country from which none of the migrants are from — without due process or a reasonable opportunity to raise concerns of their fear of the war-torn nation, an action he said could amount to criminal contempt of court.
U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy upbraided attorneys from the Justice Department, accusing them of ignoring the “long history” of legal precedent surrounding due process rights as well as recent orders from the U.S. Supreme Court when they sent seven men to South Sudan with less than 24 hours notice.
Murphy last month issued a preliminary injunction barring the government from deporting migrants to third countries without giving them a “reasonable opportunity” to raise concerns about that country and the possible violence they could face.
Murphy scheduled a hearing after an emergency motion filed by attorneys for the plaintiffs informed the court that at least two of their clients had been notified on Monday evening that they were being removed to South Sudan and were transported out of ICE facilities at around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday morning.
“The department’s actions in this case are unquestionably violative of this court’s order,” Murphy said at Wednesday’s hearing. “It is plain to me that an ‘opportunity to be heard’ of only several hours that were not during business hours, where you couldn’t raise consult with your attorney or your family is insufficient. It was impossible for these people to have a meaningful opportunity to object to their removal to South Sudan.”
Murphy emphasized that even the Supreme Court justices recently confirmed that 24 hours of notice is “plainly insufficient” for the purpose of due process, stating, “I don’t see how anybody could think these people had a reasonable chance to object.”
When it comes to immigration, President Donald Trump’s second term is getting off to a rocky start. Despite promising the “largest deportation operation in history” and forcing thousands of other federal law enforcement officers to drop their normal work and join forces with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, deportations are nowhere near the record levels he has threatened. With no realistic prospect of hitting 1 million deportations per year, as promised, the Trump administration is instead turning to a new idea: paying people to leave on their own and threatening draconian punishments if they don’t. But as with any “deal” Trump offers, anyone considering the offer should read the fine print first.
… “maybe someday, with a little work, they can come back in if they’re good people,” and DHS announcing in a statement that the program “may help preserve the option for an illegal alien to re-enter the United States legally.”
A federal judge has ordered a hearing on the alleged unlawful deportation of a 2-year-old U.S. citizen. District Judge Terry Doughty expressed concerns about the circumstances of the child’s removal and the government’s alleged failure to protect her rights. Doughty noted that the child’s mother intended to take them back to Honduras, providing a handwritten note as proof.
Doughty said, “VML is ostensibly a two-year-old United States citizen. On April 24, 2025, this Court received a Petition contending that VML was being deported, alongside her illegal-immigrant mother, to Honduras.”
However, the judge questioned the identities of those advocating for the child and found that the government could not verify the mother’s claim.
Doughty stated that U.S. citizens cannot be deported, raising significant implications for parental rights and the rights of citizen children. He scheduled a hearing to clarify the situation and examine the legality of V.M.L.’s deportation.
Doughty said, “Of course, ‘It is illegal and unconstitutional to deport, detain for deportation, or recommend deportation of a U.S. citizen.’”
Doughty added, “The Government contends that this is all okay because the mother wishes that the child be deported with her. But the Court doesn’t know that.”
Alexa Sendukas, managing attorney at the Galveston-Houston Immigration Project, said in recent weeks, 18 of her clients sponsoring unaccompanied children have reported ICE officers in plain clothes have visited or called their homes, prompting fear and concern they are being targeted for deportation.
The visits have also been reported in recent weeks across the U.S as an effort to crack down on potential human trafficking, The Washington Post reported.
Sendukas said the visits — which in some cases, clients have told her involved ICE agents asking sponsors for their immigration status — are concerning because sponsors and their homes have already gone through rigorous vetting by contractors part of the Office of Refugee Resettlement.
Most clients have reported that four ICE officers visit their homes, with 3 men and 1 woman, and ask varying questions, from asking how the child is doing in school to wanting to speak to the child and see their bedroom, Sendukas said. She added all the unaccompanied minors have already had removal orders dimissed through immigration court, or are in proceeding to have them dismissed.
But the immigration status of the children’s sponsors, whom the immigration project does not represent, is not entirely known, Sendukas said.
“If ICE does go after undocumented sponsors, we’re looking at the next version of family separation, and it will be devastating,” she said. “We have young children who are going to be irreparably harmed.”
Residents of Sackets Harbor, New York, protested the detention of a mother and her three school-aged children.
A mother and her three children swept up in an immigration raid in the hometown of border czar Tom Homan have been released following an outpouring of support from locals outraged at their detention.
…
The response in Sackets Harbor and the surrounding Jefferson County, located on the shores of Lake Ontario on the western edge of New York’s North Country Region, was one of disbelief and anger — not least because Homan hails from the area and owns a home in Sackets Harbor.
Slimeball liar changes his tune:
In initial statements about the detention of the family, a CBP spokesperson indicated the family was in the process of deportation. But amid the backlash, Homan told a local news channel last week that the family was merely being questioned for their own safety, due to the nature of the allegations against the man targeted in the raid.
Just days after Duke’s Final Four exit, freshman center Khaman Maluach is facing a much greater challenge than any basketball game.
A new policy from U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio threatens to revoke visas held by South Sudanese passport holders — placing the 18-year-old Blue Devil at risk of deportation despite completing a full season as a student-athlete.
It’s a stunning turn for a young man who has already fled war, rebuilt his life in exile, and became one of the most remarkable success stories in international basketball.
From law firms and universities to the arts and the press, Trump has targeted these independent actors and tried to bend them to his worldview — willingly or not.
One by one, he is bending ostensibly independent actors under the weight of his power. So far, Trump has targeted the legal community, universities, the arts, career government employees and the press and brought them to heel in some measure, willingly or not. Law firms with even indirect ties to past investigations of Trump now face punitive measures that could put them out of business.
If Trump prevails by the end of his term, he’ll have influenced who votes in American elections and who does not, who gets to stay in America and who must leave, who pays off their student loans and who gets relief, who gets to question the president and who doesn’t.
He’s facing pushback, but working to sweep it away. A pliant Congress has largely forsaken its oversight role since Trump thundered back into office, leaving the courts as the main impediment to his ambitions. And Trump is challenging their authority with a resolve that has nudged the nation closer to a constitutional crisis than at any point in the last half century.
Pessimistic about government’s ability to hold Trump to account, one U.S. senator said a mass uprising may be the only means of derailing his plans.
“Ultimately, popular mobilization” is the only way to tame Trump, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said in an interview. The nation’s fate may come down to “the people on both the right and the left rising up in protest and demanding reform.”
Trump quickly works to concentrate power and muzzle critical voices
