Monthly Archives: March 2025

USA Today: Trump slashes homeland security civil rights jobs in ‘Black Friday’ cuts

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Former DHS immigration detention ombudsman: “I think we’ll see people die in custody as a result.”

Homeland Security is eliminating those employees whose job is to keep them operating honestly and legally:

In a move aimed at reducing “roadblocks” to its immigration crackdown, the Trump administration has fired most employees within the Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and two separate DHS ombudsman offices, a senior DHS official confirmed late Friday.

The actions come amid other changes at DHS that critics say will curtail oversight of immigration efforts by President Donald Trump even as legal challenges intensify over their constitutionality.

A senior DHS official told USA TODAY that the RIF or “reduction in force” efforts were done “to eliminate redundant and counterproductive roles while reallocating resources to frontline enforcement, where they are most effective.”

…

Michelle Brané, who served in the Biden administration as the immigration detention ombudsman within DHS, called the cuts a “recipe for disaster.”

Brané said she believes roughly 200 people lost their jobs in what she called “Black Friday” cuts.

“They’re eliminating all the oversight bodies within the Department of Homeland Security at a time when they are being more aggressive than ever and making more mistakes than ever,” Brané said. “I think we’ll see people die in custody as a result.”

Trump slashes homeland security civil rights jobs in ‘Black Friday’ cuts
A senior Homeland Security official says the offices established to protect against abuse were cut because they are “roadblocks’ to enforcement.

Trump slashes homeland security civil rights jobs in ‘Black Friday’ cuts

Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez launch a progressive airstrike on Trump’s billionaire-backed demolition of democracy

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Fear and Loathing: Closer to the Edge
Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez aren’t just holding rallies — they’re launching a progressive airstrike on Trump’s billionaire-backed demolition of democracy. Their Fighting Oligarchy…

https://www.facebook.com/FearAndLoathingCloserToTheEdge/posts/639846732017966

Vietnam Veterans and Friends Against Trumpism
Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez aren’t just holding rallies — they’re launching a progressive airstrike on Trump’s billionaire-backed demolition of democracy. Their Fighting Oligarchy…

https://www.facebook.com/VietVetsforDems/posts/1714510345934210

Miami Herald: ‘Deport every person under the sun’: ICE detains Cubans during immigration appointments

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Anything to get the numbers up, so that Trump & cronies can claim to be doing something!

Federal authorities in South Florida have recently detained at least 18 Cubans during scheduled immigration appointments, local attorneys say, highlighting that a group that has historically enjoyed special immigration benefits is not immune to the Trump administration’s intensified mass deportation efforts.

Among the Cubans recently detained is Beatriz Monteagudo, 25, her friend Johan Ariel told the Miami Herald. The pair texted each other daily. But the last message he received from Monteagudo was March 10. The Cuban woman, who got an I-220A after entering the U.S. in January 2024, was heading to her required check-in appointment in Miramar.

Ariel quickly grew worried that he hadn’t heard from her following the appointment. When he searched the ICE detainee locator service online, her name showed up. Then came Monteagudo’s call.

When she called Ariel from the detention facility, she told him she was with about 18 others who had also been taken into custody after showing up for their routine appointments. Monteagudo told him she wasn’t told why they were there, aside from officers mentioning the laws had changed.

That’s a blatant lie. No laws changed. Trump and ICE are now retaliating again people who have properly complied with the process up to this point. Most of these Cubans crossed the border after they had arranged appointments to do so with immigration officials.

To date, neither Monteagudo nor Ariel have gotten answers, he says. And this week, Monteagudo, who was living in Miami, was transferred to a detention facility in San Diego.

Transferring detainees to remote prisons is a favorite ICE tactic to make it difficult / impossible for family members and attorneys to assist the detainees.

‘Deport every person under the sun’: ICE detains Cubans during immigration appointments
Beatriz Monteagudo and Laura de la Caridad Sanchez are two Cuban women detained by ICE after routine appointments in Miramar. More than a dozen others were also possibly detained.

‘Deport every person under the sun’: ICE detains Cubans during immigration appointments

Huffington Post: Angry Federal Judge Calls Trump’s Action On Migrant Flights ‘Frightening’

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Justice Department lawyers once again faced an angry federal judge on Friday as they sought to defend President Donald Trump’s decision to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 and usher migrants out of the country without a court hearing. 

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg vowed to determine whether or not the Trump administration knowingly violated his Saturday order to return hundreds of Venezuelan migrants that were, at the time, being flown to an El Salvadoran prison, where they presently remain.

Earlier this week, Trump prompted a rare rebuke from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts when he called for Boasberg to be impeached. 

At the hearing, Boasberg slammed the government’s language in some of its recent court filings as “intemperate and disrespectful,” adding that he could not recall ever encountering such a tone from U.S. government lawyers. One such filing accused the judge of “continuing to beat a dead horse” with his requests for more information from the Justice Department, which only responded in part, alleging that the judge’s orders were “immaterial.”

“I will get to the bottom of whether they violated my order, who ordered this and what the consequences will be,” Boasberg said during an approximately 90-minute hearing.

Angry Federal Judge Calls Trump’s Action On Migrant Flights ‘Frightening’

Angry Federal Judge Calls Trump’s Action On Migrant Flights ‘Frightening’

Raw Story: ‘Political pathogen’ of Trump ‘fever’ may finally be breaking: Ex-GOP lawmaker

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Former Republican lawmaker Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) posited in a new Substack piece that the nearly decade-long fever pervading the GOP thanks to a “virus called Donald Trump” is finally showing signs of breaking.

Kinzinger described this insidious “political pathogen” as causing “a fever so disorienting that many cannot see his malevolence.”

But Kinzinger wrote that the president’s failure to shift the economy into high gear as he promised on the campaign trail has many voters wiping the scales from their eyes.

‘Political pathogen’ of Trump ‘fever’ may finally be breaking: Ex-GOP lawmaker
Former Republican lawmaker Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) posited in a new Substack piece that the nearly decade-long fever pervading the GOP thanks to a “virus called Donald Trump” is finally showing signs of breaking. Kinzinger described this insidious “political pathogen” as causing “a fever so disorienting that many cannot see his malevolence.” But Kinz…

‘Political pathogen’ of Trump ‘fever’ may finally be breaking: Ex-GOP lawmaker

The Telegraph: Only Europe can stop the slide back to the rule of Trumpian tyrants

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Good article except that the journalist appears not to understand the meaning of “sycophant”. Trump is a narcissist, not a sycophant. The sycophants are the suck-ups surrounding him and providing him with the adulation that he craves.

This North Korean level of idolatry for the magnificence of the presidential persona is not normal. It is, indeed, out of character with the spirit of the nation’s historical conception of itself as an egalitarian democracy in which anyone – the child of any family – may rise to the highest office in the land while still remaining, at heart, an ordinary American. Being elected president does not make you a god – or even the bearer of a sacred truth. 

According to the Constitution, it does not even give you the power to do what you like. You are simply the head of the Executive branch of the federal government whose intentions may (indeed, should) be held in check by Congress and the courts. 

I reiterate this point, which I realise that I have made before on these pages, because I still find myself endlessly shocked by the flouting of the basic assumptions of American nationhood which were once ingrained in the consciousness of every schoolchild …

Only Europe can stop the slide back to the rule of Trumpian tyrants
As America swoons before a sycophant, the rest of the West must defend its hard-won values from autocratic incursion

Only Europe can stop the slide back to the rule of Trumpian tyrants

1973: Trump sued by DOJ for systematically excluding Afridan-Americans and Puerto Ricans from apartments he owned

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Vietnam Veterans and Friends Against Trumpism
Vietnam Veterans and Friends Against Trumpism. 32,944 likes · 508,430 talking about this. We are Vietnam Veterans and Friends for Democracy

https://www.facebook.com/VietVetsforDems/posts/1713504176034827

Deportation case judge may have reached limit

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Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, says the Trump administration’s attempt to use the Alien Enemies Act to summarily deport alleged migrant gang members without due process is potentially dangerous for everyone.

“I don’t care how unpopular those people are, because if they can do it to them, they can do it to anybody …” 

The federal judge locked in a dispute with the Trump administration over the deportation of alleged migrant gang members last weekend may be forced to use his authority against the Justice Department, a former court official says.

Chief U.S. District Judge William Boasberg on Friday held his latest hearing with government attorneys to determine whether authorities ignored his temporary order barring the migrant removals while parties argue in court whether Trump can do it under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

“I will get to the bottom of whether they violated my order, who ordered this and what the consequences will be,” Boasberg said Friday.

John E. Jones III, former chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, says Boasberg appears ready to “go off” after DOJ attorneys played “hide the ball” with him this week. He said the judge could deploy sanctions, contempt powers, monetary penalties or even order someone jailed, though he likely doesn’t want to go there.

“What he will do, and he has an obligation to do this as a judge, is to vindicate the order that he handed down, the injunction, and determine whether anybody violated that …” 

Deportation case judge may have reached limit: Ex-court official

Deportation case judge may have reached limit: Ex-court official

Howard Lutnick, Fool: Grannies won’t complain if they don’t receive their Social Security checks

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Presumptuous moron!

Howard Lutnick, Fool
Howard Lutnick, Fool

The fastest way to start a revolution and throw Krasnov out of office is to start withholding the Social Security checks of 70 million Americans.

As the staff cuts at the Social Security Administration leave monthly benefit payments to tens of millions of Americans up in the air — alarming former SSA leaders on both sides of the aisle — Howard Lutnick, the Secretary of Commerce, doesn’t think you should be complaining if your check doesn’t show up.

“Let’s say Social Security didn’t send out their checks this month — my mother-in-law, who’s 94, she wouldn’t call and complain. She just wouldn’t,” Lutnick told All-In Podcast hosts David Friedberg and Chamath Palihapitiya on Thursday. “She’d think something got messed up, and she’ll get it next month.”

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick says his mother-in-law wouldn’t complain if her Social Security check didn’t arrive this month

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick says his mother-in-law wouldn’t complain if her Social Security check didn’t arrive this month