Tag Archives: Supreme Court

Axios: Trump ramps up deportation spectacle with new stunts and ICE funding

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The MAGA movement is reveling in the creativity, severity and accelerating force of President Trump’s historic immigration crackdown.

Once-fringe tactics — an alligator-moated detention camp, deportations to war zones, denaturalization of immigrant citizens — are now being proudly embraced at the highest levels of the U.S. government.

  • It’s an extraordinary shift from Trump’s first term, when nationwide backlash and the appearance of cruelty forced the administration to abandon its family separation policy for unauthorized immigrants.
  • Six months into his second term — and with tens of billions of dollars in new funding soon flowing to ICE — Trump is only just beginning to scale up his mass deportation machine.

Trump on Tuesday toured a temporary ICE facility in the Florida Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” where thousands of migrants will be detained in a remote, marshland environment teeming with predators.

  • MAGA influencers invited on the trip gleefully posted photos of the prison’s cages and souvenir-style “merchandise,” thrilling their followers and horrifying critics.
  • Pro-Trump activist Laura Loomer drew outrage after tweeting that “alligators are guaranteed at least 65 million meals if we get started now” — widely interpreted as a reference to the Hispanic population of the United States.

Citing the millions of unauthorized immigrants who crossed the border under President Biden, Trump and his MAGA allies have framed the second-term crackdown as a long-overdue purge.

  • The result is an increasingly draconian set of enforcement measures designed to deter, expel and make examples out of unauthorized immigrants.
  • Some newer members of the MAGA coalition, such as podcaster Joe Rogan, have expressed deep discomfort with the targeting of non-criminal undocumented immigrants.

…

Denaturalization of U.S. citizens — once a legal backwater — is gaining traction as Trump and his MAGA allies push the envelope on nativist rhetoric.

  • The Justice Department has begun prioritizing stripping naturalized Americans of their citizenship when they’re charged with crimes and “illegally procured or misrepresented facts in the naturalization process.”
  • But some MAGA influencers are pushing to weaponize denaturalization more broadly — not just as a legal remedy for fraud, but as a tool to punish ideological opponents.

…

Trump ramps up deportation spectacle with new stunts and ICE funding
Once-fringe tactics — an alligator-moated detention camp, denaturalization of citizens — are now being embraced.

https://www.axios.com/2025/07/05/trump-migrants-alligator-alcatraz-denaturalize

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

Raw Story: Travesty’: Ex-presidents issue rare rebuke of Trump as major agency axed

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Obama:

A pair of former U.S. presidents issued a rare rebuke of President Donald Trump on Monday in a farewell meeting to former employees of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Former president Barack Obama called Trump’s decision to shutter the agency “a travesty.” He also credited the agency with both saving lives and creating economic growth across the globe.

Bush:

Former president George W. Bush chided Trump for gutting a program within USAID known as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which he credited with saving 25 million lives across the world.

“You’ve showed the great strength of America through your work — and that is your good heart,’’ Bush said in a pre-recorded message. “Is it in our national interests that 25 million people who would have died now live? I think it is, and so do you.”

Our resident fascist:

Trump has raged against USAID since the day he took office for his second term. One of the first executive orders Trump signed described U.S. foreign aid offices as being “not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values.”

He then sent Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to investigate USAID’s spending and recommend ways to reduce the agency’s financial prowess. Musk described USAID as “a criminal organization” and “a viper’s nest of radical-left Marxists who hate America.”

And one of the fascist’s royal suck-ups:

The pressure had its intended impact. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who previously described USAID as an agency with “amazing achievements,” swiftly recommended cutting 83% of programs under the agency’s umbrella.

Travesty’: Ex-presidents issue rare rebuke of Trump as major agency axed

https://www.rawstory.com/usaid-2672503313

Newsweek: Supreme Court to hear JD Vance case

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The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a Republican-led challenge to a federal campaign finance law provision that limits how much political parties can spend in coordination with candidates. The case, which centers on free speech claims, involves Vice President JD Vance, who was a U.S. Senate candidate in Ohio when the lawsuit was initiated.

The justices took up an appeal from Vance and two Republican committees, contesting a lower court’s decision that upheld the spending limits. The challengers argue the restrictions violate constitutional protections by capping party spending influenced by input from supported candidates.

How dare they deprive the wealthy of their God-given right to purchase election results!

DNC Chair Ken Martin, DSCC Chair Kirsten Gillibrand, and DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene said in a statement: “We refuse to sit on the sidelines as Trump’s DOJ and the Republican Party attempt to throw out longstanding election laws for their own benefit. Republicans know their grassroots support is drying up across the country, and they want to drown out the will of the voters.

Supreme Court to hear JD Vance case
The case, which centers on free speech claims, involves VP Vance, who was a Senate candidate in Ohio when the lawsuit was initiated.

https://www.newsweek.com/supreme-court-jd-vance-campaign-finance-ohio-case-2092657

Charlotte Observer: ‘Victory’: DHS Praises SCOTUS Ruling on Deportations

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The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled to allow the Trump administration to fast-track deportations to third countries like Sudan without notice or a chance to contest. The 6-3 ruling drew dissent from Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, who warned it risks torture or death for deportees.

This is simply inhumane. And it will come back to haunt us big time.

…

Sotomayor wrote, “The government has made clear in word and deed that it feels itself unconstrained by law, free to deport anyone anywhere without notice or an opportunity to be heard.”

As some countries have refused deportees, the administration has utilized third-country agreements. Immigrant advocates warned the Supreme Court ruling weakens due process and risks deportees’ safety.

 Sotomayor wrote, “Apparently, the court finds the idea that thousands will suffer violence in far-flung locales more palatable than the remote possibility that a district court exceeded its remedial powers when it ordered the government to provide notice and process to which the plaintiffs are constitutionally and statutorily entitled.”

‘Victory’: DHS Praises SCOTUS Ruling on Deportations
More for You

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/victory-dhs-praises-scotus-ruling-on-deportations/ss-AA1HMtgW

The Hill: Opinion: The Supreme Court’s injunctions decision returns America to the constitutional horrors of Dred Scott

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In ordinary times, someone could read the Supreme Court’s decision on the legality of so-called “universal injunctions” as just the latest example of an old dispute: the proper way to interpret the Constitution and the jurisdiction of federal courts. Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s majority opinion saying the federal district courts do not have the authority to issue such injunctions is a classic in the genre of “originalism.” 

In contrast, the dissenting opinions by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson read the law through the lens not just of its origins but with an eye to how an interpretation would affect the world beyond the courtroom. They understand that these are not ordinary times and do not want to disable the judiciary from responding when fundamental rights are at stake, in the face of an ongoing assault on the rule of law itself. 

To put it simply, with its decision in Trump v. Casa, the court has become an accomplice in President Trump’s ongoing assault on our constitutional republic. The decision has effectively removed the federal courts as a check on the Trump administration.  

But it also does grave damage to the court itself — Trump v. Casa now takes its place among the high court’s most infamous rulings. As Stephen Lubet says, it returns us to the world of its discredited Dred Scott decision, which found that the rights of Black people depended on where they lived. Just like Blacks in the antebellum world who had one status in free states and another in slave states, immigrants and others may now find themselves in a legal nether land. 

The Supreme Court’s injunctions decision returns America to the constitutional horrors of Dred Scott
With its decision in Trump v. Casa, the court has become an accomplice in President Trump’s ongoing assault on our constitutional republic.

https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/5376627-supreme-court-universal-injunctions-ruling

Raw Story: Bullying misstep threatens to leave Trump presidency ‘dead in the water’: WSJ

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Instead of letting the Republican Party’s Senate leadership wheel and deal with the megabill budget hold-outs, Donald Trump inserted himself — and now has been called out by the editorial board of the conservative Wall Street Journal for his bullying which, it wrote, could put his presidency at risk.

In a late Sunday afternoon editorial, the editors wrote that the president’s attacks on Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) are not helping and, in fact, are hampering the prospects of getting a deal done.

On top of that, they note, driving Tillis to announce he won’t run for re-election could lead to a lost GOP seat in purple North Carolina — and with it the GOP’s slim hold on the Senate.

Trump is an increasingly senile oaf who just doesn’t know when to zip it. Expect a lot more of this as he slowly slithers into memory-care.

Bullying misstep threatens to leave Trump presidency ‘dead in the water’: WSJ

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-presidency-2672500111

Guardian: The desperate drive to secure passports for thousands of US-born Haitian kids – before it’s too late

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Advocates in Springfield, Ohio – a city thousands of Haitians now call home – fear the fallout of Trump’s DHS revoking temporary protected status for Haitian nationals

Among the group is a small number of charity volunteers working to avoid a potential humanitarian disaster: that thousands of US-born Haitian children could become stateless, or separated from their families.

“In the last several months we realized that the closer we got to the deportations and revocation of statuses meant that all these people who have babies … if they don’t have passports for their children, how are they going to take them out of the country with them?” says Casey Rollins, a volunteer at the local St Vincent de Paul chapter.

“All you have to look at is the previous [Trump] administration.” A Reuters report from 2023 found that nearly 1,000 children separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border in 2017 and 2018 had never been reunited.

Springfield is home to about 1,217 and counting American-born Haitian children under the age of four, with several thousand more dependants under the age of 18. While the number of adults in the Ohio town of 60,000 people legally in the country on TPS is not known, local leaders estimate 10,000 to 15,000 Haitian nationals have come to Springfield, drawn by employment opportunities, since 2017. In April, data provided by the Springfield city school district to the Springfield News-Sun found that the district had 1,258 students enrolled as English language learners in K-12 schools, though that doesn’t mean all are children of Haitian descent.

For three months, Rollins, volunteers at Springfield Neighbors United and others have been working with dozens of Haitians who turn up at charity organizations seeking advice and help every day. One of the most requested issues from parents, Rollins says, is figuring out how to apply for birth certificates for their children, before it’s too late.

“If we can’t stop the deportations, we want to help get them a passport. That way, if they are deported or go to Canada or another welcoming nation, they’d be able to take the child,” she says.

“If it takes three or four months [to complete the bureaucratic process from securing a birth certificate to acquiring a passport], we have got to get moving on this.”

The desperate drive to secure passports for thousands of US-born Haitian kids – before it’s too late
Advocates in Springfield, Ohio – a city thousands of Haitians now call home – fear the fallout of Trump’s DHS revoking temporary protected status for Haitian nationals

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/04/passports-haitian-kids-tps-trump-administration

Law & Crime: ‘Rightfully done and justly suffered’: Judge swats down Jan. 6 defendant’s restitution and fine return request

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A pardoned Jan. 6 defendant and former U.S. Marine who sought to recover fines and restitution he paid after his Capitol riot conviction got swatted down Friday by a federal judge, who reminded him that a pardon does not make one’s conviction or the exaction of monetary penalties “erroneous”  — meaning no refunds.

“As the Supreme Court explained in Knote … once a conviction has been ‘established by judicial proceedings,’ any penalties imposed are ‘presumed to have been rightfully done and justly suffered,’ regardless of whether the defendant later receives a pardon,” wrote U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss in a nine-page order for defendant Hector Vargas Santos, 29, of Jersey City, New Jersey.

Suck it up, Bubba!

‘Not refundable’: Judge swats down Jan. 6 defendant’s restitution and fine return request
A pardoned Jan. 6 defendant and former U.S. Marine who sought to recover fines and restitution he paid after his Capitol riot conviction got swatted down Friday by a federal judge.
‘Not refundable’: Judge swats down Jan. 6 defendant’s restitution and fine return request, reminds him that pardon does not make one’s conviction or exaction ‘erroneous’

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”.

…

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.

…

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.

…

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