Tag Archives: immigrants

The Hill: Why are ICE agents running amok? Because they can. 

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As the Trump administration pushes for more mass deportations, law enforcement officers from the Department of Homeland Security are suddenly everywhere. 

In San Diego, Homeland Security officers conducted a SWAT-style raid on a restaurant, handcuffing 19 employees over an hour and slamming the manager against a wall in the process. Eventually, they arrested four people. The raid was so heavy-handed that the officers had to deploy flashbang grenades to escape from the angry crowd that gathered in response.

Even members of Congress aren’t safe. Last week, Homeland Security officers forced their way into Rep. Jerry Nadler’s (D) New York office without a warrant. When one of the staffers protested, she was handcuffed and detained. 

The cases you hear about are only the tip of the iceberg. Federal officers are fanning out across the country, conducting raids, traffic stops, even scooping people up at courthouses when they appear for immigration hearings and carting them away in leg irons and shackles — harsh treatment that you seldom see even when felons are arrested. 

This heavy-handedness and cruelty isn’t a glitch — it’s intentional, as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and Tom Homan, President Trump’s border czar, attempt to frighten immigrants into leaving the country. Even legal residents and American citizens are getting caught up in the crackdown.

And the worst part is, while things like barging into a congressman’s office and detaining his staffers aren’t legal, there is nothing anyone can do about it. If Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents force their way into your house without a warrant, slap you around and detain your family at gunpoint while conducting an illegal search, you have no way of getting your constitutional claims into federal court. As a practical matter, these agents are above the law and cannot be held accountable for violating your constitutional rights. 

Why are ICE agents running amok? Because they can.

https://thehill.com/opinion/immigration/5335758-homeland-security-raid-immigration

USA Today: Manufacturing down, food expensive and ICE is deporting moms. Happy now, MAGA? | Opinion

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If performative cruelty is the only thing that mattered to you, things are working out great under President Trump. Otherwise, things stink.

Look at Trump’s empty promises. Cruelty is all that matters.

If you voted for President Donald Trump and hoped something good would happen to you, feel free to say: “Oops.” If you voted for him out of a thirst to see immigrants who have committed no crimes suffer and live in fear, then feel free to say: “Yes!”

Because that’s where we are at the start of June 2025. Trump’s promises of a better life for Americans are proving to be empty.

And his promise to round up “millions” of “criminals” and deport them hasn’t materialized, because the claim that there are millions of criminal immigrants in America was a lie in the first place.

Instead, the administration has resorted to grabbing immigrants at courthouses where they’re appearing for hearings – in other words, following the rules – or snatching up and deporting working moms and high school kids.

ICE isn’t just going after criminals. Moms and kids are easy targets.

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official interviewed by the conservative Washington Examiner said Trump adviser Stephen Miller has been demoralizing the agency with unrealistic deportation demands: “Stephen Miller wants everybody arrested. ‘Why aren’t you at Home Depot? Why aren’t you at 7-Eleven?’ ”

So much for going after the “bad guys.”

Meanwhile, an 18-year-old high school junior was recently arrested by ICE agents as he drove with friends to volleyball practice in Milford, Massachusetts.

A school administrator told the Boston Globe the teenager was well-known in the community and had attended Milford Public Schools since kindergarten: “It’s just horrendous. These are babies. They’re kids. I don’t care that they’re 18 – he’s just a kid.”

Communities are watching people they love get rounded up

In the small Pennsylvania town of Honesdale, ICE agents recently raided a pizzeria and detained three employees, rattling the community. Resident Connor Simon told WNEP-TV: “It’s really hard to fathom that the guy making my pizza for 25 years is a gangster and a terrorist, and the person who shows up in an unmarked car wearing a mask and body armor comes to take him away is somehow the good guy.”

And the recent ICE arrest in Kennett, Missouri, of a mother – an immigrant from Hong Kong – has led residents to denounce what happened to the longtime resident who works at a diner.

“I voted for Donald Trump, and so did practically everyone here,” Vanessa Cowart told The New York Times. “But no one voted to deport moms. We were all under the impression we were just getting rid of the gangs, the people who came here in droves.”

These actions by the Trump administration benefit only the most sadistic among us.

But it’s part and parcel of the harm Trump’s MAGA policies have already caused.

Manufacturing down, food expensive and ICE is deporting moms. Happy now, MAGA? | Opinion
If you voted for President Donald Trump and hoped something good would happen to you, feel free to say: ‘Oops.’

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2025/06/03/trump-deportations-construction-spending-down-economy/83995322007

Wired: The Trump Administration Wants to Create an ‘Office of Remigration’

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“Remigration”—a far-right European plan to expel minorities and immigrants from Western nations—may soon have a dedicated office following a Trump administration reorganization of the State Department.

As part of a sweeping reorganization of the State Department, the Trump administration is creating an Office of Remigration. Remigration is an immigration policy embraced by extremists that calls for the removal of all migrants—including “non-assimilated” citizens—with the goal of creating white ethnostates in Western countries.

The details of the plan are contained in a 136-page notification document sent by the State Department to six Congressional commitees—including the House Foreign Affairs and Appropriations Committees and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee—for approval by July 1, according to a copy reviewed by WIRED.

“The Office of Remigration will serve as the [Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration]’s hub for immigration issues and repatriation tracking,” the document reads. “It will provide a policy platform for interagency coordination with DHS and other agencies on removals/repatriations, and “for intra-agency policy work to advance the President’s immigration agenda.”

The notification says that the Office of Remigration “will also actively facilitate the voluntary return of migrants to their country of origin or legal status,” which is a key aim of remigration ideology.

There are three phases to “remigration”:

On [Martin Sellner’s] site, he lays out a three-phase plan to implement remigration. The first phase, dubbed the “Immediate Stabilization of Asylum Chaos,” has striking similarities to Trump’s current immigration policies.

…

The second phase of Sellner’s plan, following the initial removal of undocumented immigrants, includes the removal of “migrants who entered the country legally and have a residence/work permit, or temporary visa, but are an economical, criminal or cultural burden.”

The final phase targets citizens who are seen as “non assimilated,”and it involves passing laws to “target parallel societies with economic and cultural pressure” and entice citizens to migrate abroad with the use of loans, payments, and other assistance. The plan, Sellner claims, will allow “the wounds of multiculturalism to heal.”

This is like Hitler’s Mein Kampf, all laid out in writing and scarcely anybody is paying attention.

The Trump Administration Wants to Create an ‘Office of Remigration’ to Kick Immigrants Out of the Country
“Remigration”—a far-right European plan to expel minorities and immigrants from Western nations—may soon have a dedicated office following a Trump administration reorganization of the State Department.

https://www.wired.com/story/trump-office-remigration-state-department-europe-far-right

2 Paragraphs: U.S. Congressmen Appear at Conference Featuring Far-Right Star Who Says “Europe Was Always An Entirely White Continent”

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Right-wing Dutch social media influencer Eva Vlaardingerbroek, who delivered the controversial speech ‘The Great Replacement Is Not a Theory—It’s Reality’ at the 2024 CPAC Hungary, is back for the 2025 conference.

(Note: YouTube removed the video of her 2024 speech for violating hate speech guidelines; it went viral on X.) 

The 28-year-old blonde with blue eyes said at the recent Remigration Summit 26: “Europe was always an entirely white continent. It is not unethical to want that Europe stays European.”

[Remigration is a far-right European plan to expel minorities and immigrants from Western nations, returning them to their countries of origin. Wikipedia defines the term as “a far-right European concept of ethnic cleansing via the mass deportation or promoted voluntary return of non-white immigrants and their descendants, usually including those born in Europe, to their place of racial ancestry, often with no regard for their citizenship or legal status.”]

This week WIRED and other outlets reported that the Trump administration is considering adding a dedicated “Remigration” office within the State Department.

U.S. Congressmen Appear at Conference Featuring Far-Right Star Who Says “Europe Was Always An Entirely White Continent”
Right-wing Dutch social media influencer Eva Vlaardingerbroek, who delivered the controversial speech ‘The Great Replacement Is Not a Theory—It’s Reality’ at the 2024 CPAC Hungary, is b
U.S. Congressmen Appear at Conference Featuring Far-Right Star Who Says “Europe Was Always An Entirely White Continent”

2 Paragraphs: Congressman Slams Homeland Security: “Spare Me the Fake Outrage

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U.S. Representative Dan Goldman (D-NY) stood outside a Manhattan courtroom this week and reported that he observed an immigration court and “plainclothes officers wearing masks arresting and detaining immigrants who were here to appear in front of a judge as part of their court case.”

Goldman, a former federal prosecutor, said: “This is Gestapo-like behavior, where plainclothes officers wearing masks are terrorizing immigrants who are doing the right thing by going to court, following up on their immigrant proceedings and trying to come into this country lawfully, which is through asylum.”

…

Goldman replied: “Spare me the fake outrage DHS. None of these people showing up for court are criminals of any kind. As a prosecutor, I worked with many ICE officers who arrested violent criminals. None of them wore masks. Many of your agents are clearly ashamed to carry out your orders.”

Congressman Slams Homeland Security: “Spare Me the Fake Outrage”
U.S. Representative Dan Goldman (D-NY) stood outside a Manhattan courtroom this week and reported that he observed an immigration court and “plainclothes officers wearing masks arresting and detainin
Congressman Slams Homeland Security: “Spare Me the Fake Outrage”

Alternet: Busted: Major investigation catches Trump administration in a massive lie

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The Trump administration knew that the vast majority of the 238 Venezuelan immigrants it sent to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador in mid-March had not been convicted of crimes in the United States before it labeled them as terrorists and deported them, according to U.S. Department of Homeland Security data that has not been previously reported.’

President Donald Trump and his aides have branded the Venezuelans as “rapists,” “savages,” “monsters” and “the worst of the worst.” When multiple news organizations disputed those assertions with reporting that showed many of the deportees did not have criminal records, the administration doubled down. It said that its assessment of the deportees was based on a thorough vetting process that included looking at crimes committed both inside and outside the United States. But the government’s own data, which was obtained by ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and a team of journalists from Venezuela, showed that officials knew that only 32 of the deportees had been convicted of U.S. crimes and that most were nonviolent offenses, such as retail theft or traffic violations.

The data indicates that the government knew that only six of the immigrants were convicted of violent crimes: four for assault, one for kidnapping and one for a weapons offense. And it shows that officials were aware that more than half, or 130, of the deportees were not labeled as having any criminal convictions or pending charges; they were labeled as only having violated immigration laws.

As for foreign offenses, our own review of court and police records from around the United States and in Latin American countries where the deportees had lived found evidence of arrests or convictions for 20 of the 238 men. Of those, 11 involved violent crimes such as armed robbery, assault or murder, including one man who the Chilean government had asked the U.S. to extradite to face kidnapping and drug charges there. Another four had been accused of illegal gun possession.

Busted: Major investigation catches Trump administration in a massive lie

https://www.alternet.org/venezuelan-deportees

Slingshot News: ‘I Think That’s Outrageous’: Senator Gary Peters Hammers Kristi Noem Over $100k Per Day Spending On Guantanamo Bay Prisoners

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Senator Gary Peters recent exposed DHS Secretary Kristi Noem for spending over $100k per day per prisoner on housing migrants at Guantanamo Bay.

‘I Think That’s Outrageous’: Senator Gary Peters Hammers Kristi Noem Over $100k Per Day Spending On Guantanamo Bay Prisoners
Senator Gary Peters recent exposed DHS Secretary Kristi Noem for spending over $100k per day per prisoner on housing migrants at Guantanamo Bay.

Salon: Stephen [“Goebbels”] Miller’s deportation machine is failing — and he’s furious

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In reality, which still holds some influence in our aggressively-online world, there are about 11 million undocumented people in the U.S., total. And despite all-caps propaganda to the contrary, they as a class “have substantially lower crime rates than native-born citizens,” according to a 2020 study; they even commit fewer crimes, on average, than fully legal immigrants — those who came here “the right way.”

“Relative to undocumented immigrants, U.S.-born citizens are over 2 times more likely to be arrested for violent crimes, 2.5 times more likely to be arrested for drug crimes, and over 4 times more likely to be arrested for property crimes,” according to the research, published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

That’s why Stephen [“Goebbels”] Miller is so mad: an administration that wants nothing more than to parade millions of brown bodies onto military aircraft and out of the country — a MAGA team that promised its voters nothing less than “mass deportations now” — is having a tough time actually finding the hardened criminals the last folks supposedly let in. In April, the Trump administration deported more than 17,200 people; that’s up 29% from a year but it’s far below the pace necessary to meet the stated goal of one million deportees a year (and per NBC News, more than half of those now in ICE detention have no criminal record whatsoever).

?url=httpswww.salon.com20250529stephen-millers-deportation-machine-is-failing–and-hes-furious

https://www.salon.com/2025/05/29/stephen-millers-deportation-machine-is-failing–and-hes-furious

Daily Mail: Democrat Mayor of Nashville under investigation for helping illegal migrants evade ICE

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When asked about what specifically he was accusing the mayor of doing, the congressman told reporters, ‘Well that’s why we’re going to have an investigation,’ but failed to name any crimes.  

The Democrat has denied any wrong doing while pushing support for the Belonging Fund.

‘The Belonging Fund supports families known to be impacted as a result of activities related to immigration, but the entire point is family supports, cost of living, those kinds of things,’ O’Connell told the local outlet. 

‘It’s not even intended to be about legal services, so it is about people who have identified food insecurity as a result of possibly losing somebody who was an earner in the household, it is about childcare, it is about basic family needs.’

Democrat mayor under investigation for helping migrants evade ICE
A Democrat mayor is under federal investigation, accused of helping illegal immigrants escape ICE.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14754825/nashville-mayor-freddie-oconnell-ice-investigation-migrants.html

Talking Points Memo: The ‘Invasion’ Invention: The Far Right’s Long Legal Battle to Make Immigrants the Enemy

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The Trump administration is using the claim that immigrants have “invaded” the country to justify possibly suspending habeas corpus, part of the constitutional right to due process. A faction of the far right has been building this case for years.

When top Trump adviser Stephen Miller threatened on May 9 that the administration is “actively looking at” suspending habeas corpus in response to an “invasion” from undocumented immigrants, he was operating on a fringe legal theory that a right-wing faction has been working to legitimize for more than a decade.

…

Hard-liners have referred to immigrants as “invaders” as long as the U.S. has had immigration. By 2022, invasion rhetoric, which had previously been relegated to white nationalist circles, had become such a staple of Republican campaign ads that most of the public agreed an invasion of the U.S. via the southern border was underway.

Now, however, the claim that the U.S. is under invasion has become the legal linchpin of President Donald Trump’s sweeping anti-immigrant campaign.

The claim is Trump’s central justification for invoking the Alien Enemies Act to deport roughly 140 Venezuelans to CECOT, the Salvadoran megaprison, without due process. (The administration cited different legal authority for the remaining deportees.) The Trump administration contends they are members of a gang, Tren de Aragua, that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is directing to infiltrate and operate in the United States. Lawyers and families of many of the deportees have presented evidence the prisoners are not even members of Tren de Aragua.

The contention is also the throughline of Trump’s day one executive order “Protecting the American People Against Invasion.” That document calls for the expansion of immigration removal proceedings without court hearings and for legal attacks against sanctuary jurisdictions, places that refuse to commit local resources to immigration enforcement.

So far, no court has bought the idea that the U.S. is truly under invasion….

And therein lies the problem: The Trump regime is off pursuing an unconstitutional tangent to solve a problem that is improperly framed as an “invasion”.

It’s a long well-researched article. Please click on the link below and read the entire article.

The ‘Invasion’ Invention: The Far Right’s Long Legal Battle to Make Immigrants the Enemy
This article first appeared at ProPublica, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign…

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/the-invasion-invention-the-far-rights-long-legal-battle-to-make-immigrants-the-enemy