Tag Archives: Georgia

Inquisitr:Disabled Man Detained by ICE Allegedly Locked Up in Isolation Without Water and Food—And The Reason is Heartbreaking

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Rodney Taylor is a Liberian-born who was detained by ICE as part of Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. He was at Georgia‘s Stewart immigration detention center, where he recently spent three days in a “restrictive housing unit,” or so termed by CoerCivic. However, you would be surprised to know why he ended up there. It is because of a very simple complaint.

According to The Guardian, Rodney refused to enter his cell because it was flooded with above an inch of water due to a leak. It is important to note, he didn’t just complain needlessly. The Liberian-born man had battery-powered microprocessor-controlled prosthetic legs, which could have been damaged if they got wet.

“They don’t see you as an individual, but as someone being deported,” Taylor lamented, taking a jab at the Trump administration’s mass deportation policies. His incident shows how ill-prepared the President and his minions are. Even his fiancée, Mildred Pierre, commented on how the administration’s action made his mental health worse during the last six months, calling it “receiving blow after blow.”

Not only the flood incident on April 25, but he has continued to face various incidents over his stay at the detention center, which included the screws of his prosthetic legs coming out. This made him fall several times and caused injury to his hand.

Although he was sent to a clinic, he couldn’t fit new legs as those were delivered without a charger for the battery. His fiancé, Pierre, bought a charger for those. However, at that time, they were asked to wait two months for the clinic appointment, as they were not adept with Taylor’s model of prosthetics.

Pierre, concerned for her fiancé, spent months “trying to figure out – who do I call? who’s going to listen?”

“I am afraid for Rodent,” she wrote to Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff’s office on Saturday, following the flooding incident. However, ultimately, nothing changed, as the guards at the detention center handcuffed him and placed him in solitary confinement. On Tuesday, Stewart’s assistant warden released him.

However, when he was locked up, he was denied any water to drink and was not allowed to charge the battery in his prosthetic legs. The representative for CoerCivic is now saying that Rodney “is being regularly monitored by facility medical staff, with all known medical issues are being addressed, and our staff continuing to accommodate his needs.”

He also denied that the detention center had any solitary confinement, saying it “does not exist.” 

Disabled Man Detained by ICE Allegedly Locked Up in Isolation Without Water and Food—And The Reason is Heartbreaking
Rodney Taylor, a Liberian-born man, became the victim of the immigration crackdown. However, when he complained about flooding in his cell, which could have potentially damaged his prosthetic legs, things turned really harsh for him. He has since criticized the Trump administration’s policy.

NBC News: ICE efforts to poach local officers are angering some local law enforcement leaders

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An email to officers whose agencies partner with ICE has even some sheriffs who support the Trump administration and its immigration crackdown seeing red.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is newly flush with billions from the “One Big Beautiful Bill” spending legislation and under pressure to rapidly hire 10,000 new agents. But one tactic it recently tried to do that hiring — aggressively recruiting new agents from some of its most trusted local law enforcement partners — may have alienated some of the leaders it needs to help execute what the Trump administration wants to be the largest mass deportation in US history.

“We’re their force multipliers, and this is the thanks we get for helping them do their job?” Polk County, Florida Sheriff Grady Judd said in an interview with NBC News. Judd said he’s not happy about a recruitment email sent by ICE’s deputy director to hundreds of his deputies and he blamed Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who oversees ICE.

“Kristi Noem needs to get on her big girl pants and do what’s right. She needs to make sure that there’s an apology,” said Judd, who also made clear that he wants to “support President [Donald] Trump’s mission.”

NBC News spoke to local law enforcement leaders in four states whose agencies participate in 287(g) and whose deputies were being targeted for ICE recruitment.

The recruitment email those agencies’ officers received, sent earlier this week, appears to have targeted law enforcement officers whose agencies participate in ICE’s 287(g) program, under which local officers are deputized to help in immigration enforcement.

The email from Sheahan, which NBC News has obtained, reads in part, “As someone who is currently supporting ICE through the 287(g) program, you understand the unique responsibility we carry in protecting our communities and upholding federal law. Your experience in state or local law enforcement brings invaluable insight and skills to this mission —qualities we need now more than ever.”

The email also touts potential $50,000 signing bonuses as an incentive for joining ICE and links to a government recruitment website featuring an image of Uncle Sam, the headline “AMERICA NEEDS YOU,” and the possibility of up to $60,000 in student loan repayment beyond those signing bonuses.

“ICE actively trying to use our partnership to recruit our personnel is wrong and we have expressed our concern to ICE leadership,” the Pinellas County, Florida Sheriff’s Office said in a statement to NBC News.

The sheriff in Pinellas County is a Republican, as is Polk County’s Judd.

“It was bad judgement that will cause an erosion of a relationship that has been improving of late. And it’s going to take some getting over and it’s gonna take leadership at DHS to really take stock cause hey, they need state and locals,” Jonathan Thompson, the executive director and CEO of the National Sheriffs’ Association, said in an interview with NBC News.

Thompson said that the association has heard from more than a dozen law enforcement agencies about the recruitment emails. He also said that the group has not heard from DHS since the emails were flagged to the association, and that he intends to send a “very stern note” to ICE.

“This is inappropriate behavior of a partner organization,” Thompson said. “We’re all on the same boat. And you just don’t treat friends or partners like this.”

One Florida chief of police who did not want to be named out of concern his department could face retaliation said departments that have partnered with the federal government now fear they could lose their best officers.

“Now you know why everybody’s so pissed,” the chief said.

“This is like the transfer portal in college sports,” the chief said, adding, “We see people leave us because they believe they can make more money at other locations… Law enforcement has always been a calling. Now it’s a job.”

The DHS press office did not respond to questions about local law enforcement concerns but provided NBC News with a statement that it attributed to a senior DHS official: “ICE is recruiting law enforcement, veterans, and other patriots who want to serve their country … This includes local law enforcement, veterans, and our 287(g) partners who have already been trained and have valuable law enforcement experience. Additionally, more than $500 million from President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill will go to increasing our 287(g) partnerships with state and local law enforcement.”

The sheriff’s office in Forsyth County, Georgia told NBC News that the Atlanta ICE office “sent an apology” for the recruitment email.

Not all sheriffs are upset with the recruitment effort. In fact some say they support it.

Thaddeus Cleveland, the sheriff of Terrell County, Texas, said, “I think if someone wants to better their life, better their career, you know, look towards the long years, the long game, retirement, there’s nothing better than the US government to go out and have a successful career.”

Cleveland, who has just four deputies on his staff, admits he can’t compete with the $50,000 bonuses that the agency is offering.

“We may not be able to turn around and hire somebody the next day. It may take a few weeks. It may take a few months. But again, I support, you know, someone wanting to pursue something they’re interested in. I may end up having to work a little more, which is okay.”

Goliad County Texas Sheriff Roy Boyd also said he’s not upset about the recruitment, and noted that his office also has to deal with the state recruiting new troopers from his department.

“We can’t compete with the salaries of the state and the feds,” he said.

ICE efforts to poach local officers anger some local law enforcement leaders
An email to officers whose agencies partner with ICE has even some sheriffs who support the Trump administration and its immigration crackdown seeing red.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/ice-efforts-poach-local-officers-are-angering-local-law-enforcement-le-rcna222335

Law & Crime: ‘Naked attempt to evade clear law’: Federal judge says Trump admin ‘unequivocally’ acted unlawfully in unilaterally shuttering Job Corps

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A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has halted the Trump administration’s effort to shutter the Job Corps training program — the nation’s largest residential career training program for thousands of low-income youth — becoming the second to do so within the span of a month.

U.S. District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich — an appointee of President Donald Trump during his first term — on Friday granted the request for a preliminary injunction blocking the closing of 99 Job Corps centers throughout the nation, reasoning that the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) unilateral closing of the program, which was created and authorized by Congress, violated federal law.

The case stems from the Labor Department notifying the 99 private Job Corps centers across the nation on May 29, 2025, that they would “cease operations” by June 30.

The lawsuit was filed last month by a group of seven student-enrollees in the Job Corps program hailing from Georgia, Mississippi, Oregon, North Dakota, and Michigan on behalf of themselves as well as the putative class of students enrolled at all 99 centers affected by the program’s shuttering.

The complaint alleged that the Labor Department was legally required provide advance notice and an opportunity for public comment before closing any Job Corps center, as required by federal law. By failing to do so, the administration’s actions allegedly violated the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) and the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) of 2014.

The administration asserted that the shuttering of all Job Corps centers was a “statutorily authorized pause — as opposed to a closure,” a claim that Friedrich said did not stand up to scrutiny.

“This argument fails because DOL’s across-the-board shutdown extended far beyond any ‘pause’ contemplated by the statute,” the judge wrote. “The agency suspended operations at all 99 privately operated Job Corps centers without any expectation of future reopenings. And it effected the mass shutdown without complying with any of the statutory requirements that must precede a ‘pause’ in operations. DOL failed to conduct an individualized assessment or develop a performance improvement plan for any of the 99 centers. It instead suspended all operations based on the perceived failures of the Job Corps program as a whole.”

Friedrich said the nationwide shutdown was “not only unprecedented,” but also” inconsistent with its historic standard of practice.” While earlier “pauses” allowed for the realistic possibility that Job Corps centers would be reopened, here, the administration informed students that they should harbor “no expectation of transfer to another center or return to their current center.”

The court said there was no need to engage in any analysis regarding the difference between a “pause” and a “closure” because “the record unequivocally demonstrates that DOL unlawfully ‘closed’ all 99 privately operated Job Corps centers, in violation of the WIOA.”

“At bottom, DOL’s position is entirely circular: So long as the agency uses the term ‘pause’ and never makes a final decision to ‘formally close’ a center, it is authorized to shutter any Job Corps center indefinitely,” Friedrich wrote. “In DOL’s view, the WIOA’s procedural mandates hinge on the terminology the agency chooses to use, allowing it to sidestep its statutory obligations entirely. That cannot be correct. Because DOL unlawfully ‘closed’ all 99 privately operated Job Corps centers, in violation of the WIOA, the Court finds that the plaintiffs have established a likelihood of success on the merits of their APA claims.”

The plaintiffs are being represented in the case by the Southern Poverty Law Center and Public Citizen. Adam Pulver, an attorney with Public Citizen Litigation Group and lead counsel for the plaintiffs, lauded the ruling.

“The Department of Labor’s decision to abruptly close Job Corps centers across the country, ignoring legal requirements and literally putting vulnerable young people on the street, was callous, and as the Judge today agreed, illegal,” Pulver said in a statement. “The Department’s ludicrous argument to the court, that in shutting down 99 Job Corps centers it was not actually closing those centers, was a naked attempt to evade clear law.”

Federal judge says Trump admin ‘unequivocally’ violated law in shuttering Job Corps
A Trump-appointed judge blocked the administration’s effort to shutter al 99 Job Corps centers nationwide, saying it violated federal law.
‘Unprecedented’: Judge says Trump admin ‘unequivocally’ acted unlawfully in unilaterally shuttering youth job training program

Guardian: Irish tourist jailed by Ice for months after overstaying US visit by three days: ‘Nobody is safe’

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Exclusive: For roughly 100 days, Thomas says he faced harsh detention conditions, despite agreeing to deportation

Thomas, a 35-year-old tech worker and father of three from Ireland, came to West Virginia to visit his girlfriend last fall. It was one of many trips he had taken to the US, and he was authorized to travel under a visa waiver program that allows tourists to stay in the country for 90 days.

He had planned to return to Ireland in December, but was briefly unable to fly due to a health issue, his medical records show. He was only three days overdue to leave the US when an encounter with police landed him in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) custody.

From there, what should have been a minor incident became a nightmarish ordeal: he was detained by Ice in three different facilities, ultimately spending roughly 100 days behind bars with little understanding of why he was being held – or when he’d get out.

Farm worker who died after California Ice raid was ‘hardworking and innocent’, family saysRead more

“Nobody is safe from the system if they get pulled into it,” said Thomas, in a recent interview from his home in Ireland, a few months after his release. Thomas asked to be identified by a nickname out of fear of facing further consequences with US immigration authorities.

Despite immediately agreeing to deportation when he was first arrested, Thomas remained in Ice detention after Donald Trump took office and dramatically ramped up immigration arrests. Amid increased overcrowding in detention, Thomas was forced to spend part of his time in custody in a federal prison for criminal defendants, even though he was being held on an immigration violation.

Thomas was sent back to Ireland in March and was told he was banned from entering the US for 10 years.

Thomas’s ordeal follows a rise in reports of tourists and visitors with valid visas being detained by Ice, including from Australia, Germany, Canada and the UK. In April, an Irish woman who is a US green card holder was also detained by Ice for 17 days due to a nearly two-decade-old criminal record.

The arrests appear to be part of a broader crackdown by the Trump administration, which has pushed to deport students with alleged ties to pro-Palestinian protests; sent detainees to Guantánamo Bay and an El Salvador prison without presenting evidence of criminality; deported people to South Sudan, a war-torn country where the deportees had no ties; and escalated large-scale, militarized raids across the US.

‘I thought I was going home’

In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Thomas detailed his ordeal and the brutal conditions he witnessed in detention that advocates say have long plagued undocumented people and become worse under Trump.

Thomas, an engineer at a tech firm, had never had any problems visiting the US under the visa waiver program. He had initially planned to return home in October, but badly tore his calf, suffered severe swelling and was having trouble walking, he said. A doctor ordered him not to travel for eight to 12 weeks due to the risk of blood clots, which, he said, meant he had to stay slightly past 8 December, when his authorization expired.

He obtained paperwork from his physician and contacted the Irish and US embassies and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to seek an extension, but it was short notice and he did not hear back, he said.

“I did everything I could with the online tools available to notify the authorities that this was happening,” he said, explaining that by the time his deadline to leave the US had approached, he was nearly healed and planning to soon return. “I thought they would understand because I had the correct paperwork. It was just a couple of days for medical reasons.”

He might have avoided immigration consequences, if it weren’t for an ill-timed law enforcement encounter.

Thomas and his girlfriend, Malone, were visiting her family in Savannah, Georgia, when Thomas suffered a mental health episode, he and Malone recalled. The two had a conflict in their hotel room and someone overheard it and called the police, they said.

Malone, who requested to use her middle name to protect her boyfriend’s identity, said she was hoping officers would get him treatment and did not want to see him face criminal charges. But police took him to jail, accusing him of “falsely imprisoning” his girlfriend in the hotel room, a charge Malone said she did not support. He was soon released on bond, but instead of walking free, was picked up by US immigration authorities, who transported him 100 miles away to an Ice processing center in Folkston, Georgia. The facility is operated by the private prison company Geo Group on behalf of Ice, with capacity to hold more than 1,000 people.

Thomas was given a two-page removal order, which said he had remained in the US three days past his authorization and contained no further allegations. On 17 December, he signed a form agreeing to be removed.

But despite signing the form he remained at Folkston, unable to get answers about why Ice wasn’t deporting him or how long he would remain in custody. David Cheng, an attorney who represented Thomas, said he requested that Ice release him with an agreement that he’d return to Ireland as planned, but Ice refused.

At one point at Folkston, after a fight broke out, officers placed detainees on lockdown for about five days, cutting them off from contacting their families, he said. Thomas said he and others only got approximately one hour of outdoor time each week.

In mid-February, after about two months in detention, officers placed him and nearly 50 other detainees in a holding cell, preparing to move them, he said: “I thought I was finally going home.” He called his family to tell them the news.

Instead, he and the others were shackled around their wrists, waists and legs and transported four hours to a federal correctional institution in Atlanta, a prison run by the US Bureau of Prisons (BoP), he said.

BoP houses criminal defendants on federal charges, but the Trump administration, as part of its efforts to expand Ice detention, has been increasingly placing immigrants into BoP facilities – a move that advocates say has led to chaos, overcrowding and violations of detainees’ rights.

‘We were treated less than human’

Thomas said the conditions and treatment by BoP were worse than Ice detention: “They were not prepared for us whatsoever.”

He and other detainees were placed in an area with dirty mattresses, cockroaches and mice, where some bunkbeds lacked ladders, forcing people to climb to the top bed, he said.

BoP didn’t seem to have enough clothes, said Thomas, who got a jumpsuit but no shirt. The facility also gave him a pair of used, ripped underwear with brown stains. Some jumpsuits appeared to have bloodstains and holes, he added.

Each detainee was given one toilet paper roll a week. He shared a cell with another detainee, and he said they were only able to flush the toilet three times an hour. He was often freezing and was given only a thin blanket. The food was “disgusting slop”, including some kind of mysterious meat that at times appeared to have chunks of bones and other inedible items mixed in, he said. He was frequently hungry.

“The staff didn’t know why we were there and they were treating us exactly as they would treat BoP prisoners, and they told us that,” Thomas said. “We were treated less than human.”

He and others requested medical visits, but were never seen by physicians, he said: “I heard people crying for doctors, saying they couldn’t breathe, and staff would just say, ‘Well, I’m not a doctor,’ and walk away.” He did eventually receive the psychiatric medication he requested, but staff would throw his pill under his cell door, and he’d sometimes have to search the floor to find it.

Detainees, he said, were given recreation time in an enclosure that was partially open to fresh air, but resembled an indoor cage: “You couldn’t see the outside whatsoever. I didn’t see the sky for weeks.” He had sciatica from an earlier hip injury and said he began experiencing “unbearable” nerve pain as a result of the lack of movement.

Thomas said it seemed Ice’s placements in the BoP facility were arbitrary and poorly planned. Of the nearly 50 people taken from Ice to BoP facility, about 30 of them were transferred back to Folkston a week later, and the following week, two from that group were once again returned to the BoP facility, he said.

In the BoP facility, he said, Ice representatives would show up once a week to talk to detainees. Detainees would crowd around Ice officials and beg for case updates or help. Ice officers spoke Spanish and English, but Middle Eastern and North African detainees who spoke neither were stuck in a state on confusion. “It was pandemonium,” Thomas said.

Thomas said he saw a BoP guard tear up “watching the desperation of the people trying to talk to Ice and find out what was happening”, and that this officer tried to assist people as best as she could. Thomas and Malone tried to help asylum seekers and others he met at the BoP facility by connecting them to advocates.

Thomas was also unable to speak to his children, because there was no way to make international calls. “I don’t know how I made it through,” he said.

In mid-March, Thomas was briefly transferred again to a different Ice facility. The authorities did not explain what had changed, but two armed federal officers then escorted him on a flight back to Ireland.

The DHS and Ice did not respond to inquiries, and a spokesperson for the Geo Group declined to comment.

Donald Murphy, a BoP spokesperson, confirmed that Thomas had been in the bureau’s custody, but did not comment about his case or conditions at the Atlanta facility. The BoP is now housing Ice detainees in eight of its prisons and would “continue to support our law enforcement partners to fulfill the administration’s policy objectives”, Murphy added.

‘This will be a lifelong burden’

It’s unclear why Thomas was jailed for so long for a minor immigration violation.

“It seems completely outlandish that they would detain someone for three months because he overstayed a visa for a medical reason,” said Sirine Shebaya, executive director of the National Immigration Project, who is not involved in his case and was provided a summary by the Guardian. “It is such a waste of time and money at a time when we’re hearing constantly about how the government wants to cut expenses. It seems like a completely incomprehensible, punitive detention.”

Ice, she added, was “creating its own crisis of overcrowding”.

Jennifer Ibañez Whitlock, senior policy counsel with the National Immigration Law Center, also not involved in the case, said, in general, it was not uncommon for someone to remain in immigration custody even after they’ve accepted a removal order and that she has had European clients shocked to learn they can face serious consequences for briefly overstaying a visa.

Ice, however, had discretion to release Thomas with an agreement that he’d return home instead of keeping him indefinitely detained, she said. The Trump administration, she added, has defaulted to keeping people detained without weighing individual factors of their cases: “Now it’s just, do we have a bed?”

Republican lawmakers in Georgia last year also passed state legislation requiring police to alert immigration authorities when an undocumented person is arrested, which could have played a role in Thomas being flagged to Ice, said Samantha Hamilton, staff attorney with Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta, a non-profit group that advocates for immigrants’ rights. She met Thomas on a legal visit at the BoP Atlanta facility.

Hamilton said she was particularly concerned about immigrants of color who are racially profiled and pulled over by police, but Thomas’s ordeal was a reminder that so many people are vulnerable. “The mass detentions are terrifying and it makes me afraid for everyone,” she said.

Thomas had previously traveled to the US frequently for work, but now questions if he’ll ever be allowed to return. “This will be a lifelong burden,” he said.

Malone, his girlfriend, said she plans to move to Ireland to live with him. “It’s not an option for him to come here and I don’t want to be in America anymore,” she said.

Since his return, Thomas said he has had a hard time sleeping and processing what happened: “I’ll never forget it, and it’ll be a long time before I’ll be able to even start to unpack everything I went through. It still doesn’t feel real. When I think about it, it’s like a movie I’m watching.” He said he has also struggled with long-term health problems that he attributes to malnutrition and inappropriate medications he was given while detained.

He was shaken by reports of people sent away without due process. “I wouldn’t have been surprised if I ended up at Guantánamo Bay or El Salvador, because it was so disorganized,” he said. “I was just at the mercy of the federal government.”

Irish tourist jailed by Ice for months after overstaying US visit by three days: ‘Nobody is safe’
Exclusive: For roughly 100 days, Thomas says he faced harsh detention conditions, despite agreeing to deportation

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/15/irish-tourist-ice-detention

Washington Post: ICE declares millions of undocumented immigrants ineligible for bond hearings

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A memo from ICE’s acting director instructs officers to hold immigrants who entered the country illegally “for the duration of their removal proceedings,” which can take months or years.

The Trump administration has declared that immigrants who arrived in the United States illegally are no longer eligible for a bond hearing as they fight deportation proceedings in court, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post.

In a July 8 memo, Todd M. Lyons, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told officers that such immigrants should be detained “for the duration of their removal proceedings,” which can take months or years. Lawyers say the policy will apply to millions of immigrants who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border over the past few decades, including under Biden.

In the past, immigrants residing in the U.S. interior generally have been allowed to request a bond hearing before an immigration judge. But Lyons wrote that the Trump administration’s departments of Homeland Security and Justice had “revisited its legal position on detention and release authorities” and determined that such immigrants “may not be released from ICE custody.” In rare exceptions immigrants may be released on parole, but that decision will be up to an immigration officer, not a judge, he wrote.

The provision is based on a section of immigration law that says unauthorized immigrants “shall be detained” after their arrest, but that has historically applied to those who recently crossed the border and not longtime residents.

Lyons, who oversees the nation’s 200 immigration detention facilities, wrote that the policy is expected to face legal challenges.

ICE did not respond to requests for comment. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott issued similar guidance last week; that agency also did not respond to questions.

The sweeping new detention policy comes days after Congress passed a spending package that will allocate $45 billion over the next four years to lock up immigrants for civil deportation proceedings. The measure will allow ICE to roughly double the nation’s immigrant detention capacity to 100,000 people a day.

Since the memos were issued last week, the American Immigration Lawyers Association said members had reported that immigrants were being denied bond hearings in more than a dozen immigration courts across the United States, including in New York, Virginia, Oregon, North Carolina, Ohio and Georgia. The Department of Justice oversees the immigration courts.

“This is their way of putting in place nationwide a method of detaining even more people,” said Greg Chen, senior director of government relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “It’s requiring the detention of far more people without any real review of their individual circumstances.”

Immigration hawks have long argued that detaining immigrants is necessary to quickly deport those who do not qualify for asylum or another way to stay in the United States permanently. They say detaining immigrants might also discourage people from filing frivolous claims, in hopes of being released as their cases proceed in the backlogged immigration courts.

“Detention is absolutely the best way to approach this, if you can do it. It costs a lot of money obviously,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director for the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors enforcement. “You’re pretty much guaranteed to be able to remove the person, if there’s a negative finding, if he’s in detention.”

In its 2024 annual report, however, ICE said it detains immigrants only “when necessary” and that the vast majority of the 7.6 million people then on its docket were released pending immigration proceedings. Keeping them detained while their case is adjudicated has not been logistically possible, and advocates have raised concern for migrants’ health and welfare in civil immigration detention.

Immigrants are already subject to mandatory detention without bond if they have been convicted of murder or other serious crimes, and this year the Republican-led Congress added theft-related crimes to that list after a Georgia nursing student, Laken Riley, was killed by a man from Venezuela who had been picked up for shoplifting and not held for deportation.

Immigration lawyers say the Trump administration is expanding a legal standard typically used to hold recent arrivals at the southern border toa much broader group — including immigrants who have lived in the United States for decades. Many have U.S. citizen children, lawyers say, and likely have the legal grounds to defend themselves against deportation.

Forcing them to remain in detention facilities often in far-flung areas such as an alligator-infested swamp in Florida or the Arizona desert would make it more difficult to fight their cases, because they will be unable to work or easily communicate with family members and lawyers to prepare their cases.

“I think some courts are going to find that this doesn’t give noncitizens sufficient due process,” said Paul Hunker, an immigration lawyer and former ICE chief counsel in the Dallas area. “They could be held indefinitely until they’re deported.*

ICE is holding about 56,000 immigrants a day as officers sweep the nation for undocumented immigrants, working overtime to fulfill Trump’s goal of deporting 1 million people in his first year. Officials have reopened family detention centers that the Biden administration shuttered because ofsafety concerns, stood up soft-sided facilities such as one in the Everglades, and begun deporting immigrants with little notice to alternative countries such as conflict-ridden South Sudan.

Immigration lawyers say the new ICE policy is similar to a position that several immigration judges in Tacoma, Washington, have espoused in recent years, denying hearings to anyone who crossed the border illegally.

The Northwest Immigrant Rights Project in Seattle filed a lawsuit in March on behalf of detainees challenging the policy, arguing that their refusal to consider a bond hearing violated the immigrants’ rights.

The original plaintiff in the case, Ramon Rodriguez Vazquez, has lived in Washington state since 2009, works as a farmer and is the “proud grandfather” of 10 U.S. citizens, court records show. His eight siblings are U.S. citizens who live in California.

He also owns his home, where ICE officers arrested him in February for being in the United States without permission. In April, a federal judge in Washington found that he has “no criminal history in the United States or anywhere else in the world” and ordered immigration officers to give him a bond hearing before a judge. A judge denied him bond and he has since returned to Mexico, his lawyer said.

But that decision does not apply nationwide, lawyers said.

Aaron Korthuis, a lawyer in the case, said Rodriguez is typical of the type of immigrants who now face prolonged detention as they fight deportation in immigration courts. He called the government’s new interpretation of bond hearings “flagrantly unlawful.”

“They are people who have been living here, all they’re doing is trying to make a living for their family,” Korthuis said in an interview. He said the policy “is looking to supercharge detention beyond what it already is.”

ICE declares millions of undocumented immigrants ineligible for bond …
archived 15 Jul 2025 00:05:00 UTC

https://archive.is/vMvoj#selection-673.0-847.222

USA Today: Border Patrol’s pizza box ads spark backlash at local restaurant

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Pizza boxes have been known to advertise movies, TV shows and athletic competitions. But this time, employees at a pizza shop in Georgia got something particularly unique.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has recently confirmed a marketing campaign involving graphic pizza boxes encouraging those interested to join the Border Patrol with a QR code linking to their careers page — but some small businesses receiving the boxes aren’t exactly on board with it.

One such operation is Mojo Pizza N’Pub in Decatur, Georgia, just north of Atlanta.

…

The restaurant’s prep cook, Chad Dumas, said he got a call offering pizza boxes for free without realizing what they would be promoting. When 100 of these boxes showed up, the staff was not pleased.

“I don’t want it in my restaurant that I work for,” Dumas said. “I live in one of the most liberal cities in Atlanta… I don’t want that to go out. It’s propaganda.”

The staff reportedly burned all but a few boxes at an employee’s nearby home.

Border Patrol’s pizza box ads spark backlash at local restaurant
A pizzeria received 100 free pizza boxes advertising the U.S. Border Patrol as part of a new marketing initiative. So what happened?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/small-business/2025/07/13/border-patrol-pizza-box-ads/85085744007

Daily Mail: Walmart hit by ‘immediate crisis’ as mass firings begin

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Walmart employees are saying they’re losing coworkers overnight. The retailer, America’s largest private employer, is complying with a sweeping Supreme Court decision that allowed the Trump administration to revoke work protections for half a million migrant employees. Walmart staffers are saying the company is responding with quick staffing cuts in stores. They’re worried there aren’t enough workers.

‘Anyone else just lose a bunch of employees to Trump policy?’ a Redditor asked in a thread dedicated to Walmart. ‘[My store] just lost 10 employees who were here on work visa.’ Another claimed their store lost 40 staffers at a 400-worker store, representing 10 percent of the workforce. They said remaining employees are now scrambling to keep stores running. Some said their store is turning to elderly employees to fill the gap. ‘Most of our older floor associates are constantly asking for help,’ another added. ‘It’s not really ideal.’

Retail experts told DailyMail.com that the impact on consumers at affected stores is likely temporary and regional. ‘This disruption is real, but it’s more of a speed bump than a roadblock for a company that’s weathered much worse,’ Carol Spieckerman, a global retail expert, said. ‘This is just the latest curveball for Walmart — after navigating inflation , potential tariffs, and economic uncertainty, they’ve become experts at adaptation. The impact won’t be uniform. States closer to the border will feel this more acutely than stores in the heartland.’

‘Immediate crisis’ erupts at Walmart with mass worker firings
Walmart employees are saying they’re losing coworkers overnight.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/article-14799717/walmart-job-cuts-staff-panic-trump-immigration-orders.html

Guardian: Ice arrests of US military veterans and their relatives are on the rise: ‘a country that I fought for’

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As Trump urges more deportations, veterans are seeing their parents, children and even themselves detained

The son of an American citizen and military veteran – but who has no citizenship to any country – was deported from the US to Jamaica in late May.

Jermaine Thomas’s deportation, recently reported on by the Austin Chronicle, is one of a growing number of immigration cases involving military service members’ relatives or even veterans themselves who have been ensnared in the Trump administration’s mass deportation program.

As the Chronicle reported, Thomas was born on a US army base in Germany to an American citizen father, who was originally born in Jamaica and is now dead. Thomas does not have US, German or Jamaican citizenship – but Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agency deported him anyway to Jamaica, a country in which he had never set foot.

Thomas had spent two-and-a-half months incarcerated while waiting for an update on his case. He was previously at the center of a case brought before the US supreme court regarding his unique legal status.

The federal government argued that Thomas – who had previously received a deportation order – was not a citizen simply because he was born on a US army base, and it used prior criminal convictions to buttress the case against him. He petitioned for a review of the order, but the supreme court denied him, finding his father “did not meet the physical presence requirement of the [law] in force at the time of Thomas’s birth”.

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In another recent case, the wife of another Marine Corps veteran was detained by Ice despite still breastfeeding her three-month-old daughter. According to the Associated Press, the veteran’s wife had been going through a process to obtain legal residency.

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In March, Ice officials arrested the daughter of a US veteran who had been fighting a legal battle regarding her status. Alma Bowman, 58, was taken into custody by Ice during a check-in at the Atlanta field office, despite her having lived in the US since she was 10 years old.

Bowman was born in the Philippines during the Vietnam war, to a US navy service member from Illinois stationed there. She had lived in Georgia for almost 50 years. Her permanent residency was revoked following a minor criminal conviction from 20 years ago, leading her to continue a legal battle to obtain citizenship in the US.

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In another recent case, a US army veteran and green-card holder left on his own to South Korea. His deportation order was due to charges related to drug possession and an issue with drug addiction after being wounded in combat in the 1980s, for which he earned the prestigious Purple Heart citation.

“I can’t believe this is happening in America,” Sae Joon Park, who had held legal permanent residency, told National Public Radio. “That blows me away – like, [it is] a country that I fought for.”

Ice arrests of US military veterans and their relatives are on the rise: ‘a country that I fought for’
As Trump urges more deportations, veterans are seeing their parents, children and even themselves detained

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/28/us-military-veterans-detained-trump

Guardian: ‘Ticking time bomb’: Ice detainee dies in transit as experts say more deaths likely

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Guardian reporting reveals confusing and contradictory events surrounding death of Abelardo Avellaneda Delgado

A 68-year-old Mexican-born man has become the first Ice detainee in at least a decade to die while being transported from a local jail to a federal detention center, and experts have warned there will likely be more such deaths amid the current administration’s “mass deportation” push across the US.

Abelardo Avellaneda Delgado’s exact cause of death remains under investigation, according to Ice, but the Guardian’s reporting reveals a confusing and at times contradictory series of events surrounding the incident.

The death occurred as private companies with little to no oversight are increasingly tasked with transporting more immigration detainees across the US, in pursuit of the Trump administration’s recently-announced target of arresting 3,000 people a day.

“The system is so loaded with people, exacerbating bad conditions – it’s like a ticking time bomb,” said Amilcar Valencia, executive director of El Refugio, a Georgia-based organization that works with detainees at Stewart detention center and their families.

Avellaneda Delgado lived most of the last 40 years in the US, raising a large family, working on tobacco and vegetable farms – and never gaining legal immigration status. He was arrested in Statenville, Georgia on 9 April due to a parole violation – and died on 5 May in the back of a van about half-way between the Lowndes county jail and Stewart detention center.

His family say their search for answers has been frustrating, and have hired an attorney to help. Two of Avellaneda Delgado’s six children who lived with their father told the Guardian he had no health conditions before being detained – but somehow was put in a wheelchair during the weeks he spent in jail, and was unable to speak during a family visit. The Guardian learned that he was given medications while in jail.

‘Ticking time bomb’: Ice detainee dies in transit as experts say more deaths likely
Guardian reporting reveals confusing and contradictory events surrounding death of Abelardo Avellaneda Delgado

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/22/ice-detainee-death-georgia

Latin Times: Latino Journalist Arrested While Covering Immigration Protest Faces Criminal Charges

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Mario Guevara has been charged for filming an ICE operation while driving

A Latino journalist arrested while covering an immigration protest in Georgia now faces criminal charges stemming from a different incident, local media reported.

Concretely, Mario Guevara has been charged with distracted driving, failure to obey a traffic control device and reckless driving, Fox 5 Atlanta noted. The charges are related to filming an ICE operation while driving and running a red light, his lawyer said.

Immigration officials then told the outlet that Guevara has overstayed his visa and was ordered to leave the country by an immigration judge in 2012. His lawyers contend that he is authorized to work in the country. Advocates are planning to hold a demonstration on Saturday demanding his release as his lawyers work to secure a bond hearing.

Guevara, who fled El Salvador almost two decades ago, was arrested last Saturday while streaming during a different protest in DeKalb county. Videos of the incident show that Guevara can be heard telling an agent that he is a journalist before being arrested. He was also wearing a vest with the word press on the chest.

The Associated Press detailed Guevara fled El Salvador along with his family in 2004 after being beat and threatened over his work as a political reported. In the U.S., he worked for the largest Spanish-speaking outlet, Mundo Hispanico, before launching his own outlet, MGNews.

“He’s been doing this kind of work for over 20 years and is being detained now,” said his lawyer, Giovanni Diaz, to the outlet. “It’s concerning. He’s a member of the press and didn’t seem to be committing any felonies,” he added.

Latino Journalist Arrested While Covering Immigration Protest Faces Criminal Charges
Latino journalist Mario Guevara, arrested while covering an immigration protest in Georgia, is now facing criminal charges

https://www.latintimes.com/latino-journalist-arrested-while-covering-immigration-protest-faces-criminal-charges-585342