JD Vance was delivered a “lecture on compassion” by Pietro Paroline, Pope Francis‘ second-in-command this weekend, while many expected to meet with Francis himself.
Vance, who converted to Catholicism with the support of his wife Usha, had a meeting with the Vatican’s second-in-command on Saturday. This followed a significant papal criticism of the Trump administration’s harsh stance on migrants and Vance’s theological defense of it, invoking the ancient Catholic concept of ‘Ordo Amoris’.
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While not specifically mentioning Vance by name in the letter, the Pope refuted the Vice President’s interpretation of ordo armoris, reports New Republic.
The Pope wrote: “Christians know very well that it is only by affirming the infinite dignity of all that our own identity as persons and as communities reaches its maturity.
Monthly Archives: April 2025
KCAU Sioux City: US-born Californian warned to leave country immediately by DHS
A California resident received an email from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warning him to leave the United States immediately.
Aldo Martinez-Gomez was born in San Diego County and has lived in the South Bay much of his life.
“I was born in Paradise Valley Hospital in National City, and I was raised my whole life in Chula Vista,” Martinez-Gomez said
His birth certificate confirms those details, but on April 11, 2025, he received an email from DHS giving him seven days to leave the United States.
Rolling Stone: Trump Attacks the Supreme Court, Says America ‘Cannot Give Everyone a Trial’
Due process is an option in King Donald’s world, and the King apparently gets to choose your option:
Donald Trump slammed the Supreme Court on Monday after the justices temporarily blocked him from deporting Venezuelan immigrants, while asserting that America “cannot give everyone a trial” – a bedrock constitutional right.
Latin Times: Stephen Miller Suggests U.S. Citizens Should Get Reparations for ‘Damages Inflicted by Mass Migration’
Meanwhile Stephen Miller, winner of the Trump administration’s Joseph Goebbels’ Look-Alike Contest, is having a delusional moment:
Stephen Miller, President Trump‘s Deputy Chief of Staff, said that U.S. citizens are owed reparations for “damages inflicted by mass migration.”
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Miller rejected the idea of any compensation for the Abrego Garcia case, saying that the real victims are American citizens affected by the influx of unlawful immigrants into the country:
“Where does our whole country go to get repaid for all of the wealth, all of the prosperity and security that has been stolen from us by decades of uncontrolled, illegal mass migration? We all deserve reparations for what has been stolen from us”
Miller went on to link immigration to a broad range of societal issues, including school performance, crime, and drug overdoses, though he offered no data to support the connections.
“We used to have a functioning public school system in this country,” Miller claimed. “Then we had open borders. Nobody’s learning how to read or write. An entire generation of Americans—multiple generations, in fact—have been robbed of educational opportunities.”
Alternet: Trump giving prisoners fewer rights than they had in World War II internment camps: analyst
President Donald Trump’s refusal to bring a Maryland man, who was wrongfully deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador, back to the United States — despite a Supreme Court ruling — has raised serious concerns among some analysts, who say that such an unchecked use of the Alien Enemies Act is unprecedented.
In a report published in the New York Times Tuesday, reporters note that even during World War II, there was “a check” on the government and individuals who received a hearing under the civilian boards were mostly freed.
“During World War II, the Department of Justice established civilian hearing boards in which ‘registered aliens’ of German, Italian and Japanese descent arrested by the government could argue they were not a danger to the nation, legal scholars said,” the report states.
Alternet: ‘Mind-boggling’: DHS official ripped for saying wrongfully arrested US citizen claimed not to be a citizen
From the How-Gullible-Do-They-Think-We-Are Department:
Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin faced criticism on social media after stating that a United States citizen, who was wrongfully arrested by border authorities in Arizona earlier this month, was subjected to action because he had claimed not to be a U.S. citizen.
“The narrative being pushed about Jose Hermosillo is false. On April 8, Hermosillo approached Border Patrol in Tucson and stated he had entered the U.S. illegally through Nogales. He said he wanted to turn himself in and completed a sworn statement identifying as a Mexican citizen who had entered unlawfully,” McLaughlin wrote on the social platform X on Monday.
Huffington Post: Congressman: It’s ‘Fair To Wonder’ If Pete Hegseth Was Drinking Amid Signal Use
Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) said Monday that it’s “fair to wonder” if Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been drinking alcohol again given his “reckless” use of Signal, a third-party messaging app, to share highly sensitive military plans with national security officials and separately with members of his family.
“When Secretary Hegseth keeps making reckless mistakes with our national security – like leaking war plans in Signal chats or the chaos we’re seeing at the Pentagon – it’s fair to wonder if he actually stopped drinking like he promised during his confirmation,” Gomez told HuffPost in a statement. “People have legitimate concerns about whether his judgment is compromised.”
WCCO Radio: Hegseth had a second Signal chat where he shared details of Yemen strike
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth created another Signal messaging chat that included his wife and brother where he shared similar details of a March military airstrike against Yemen’s Houthi militants that were sent in another chain with top Trump administration leaders, both The New York Times reported and CBS News has confirmed.
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The second chat on Signal — which is a commercially available app not authorized to be used to communicate sensitive or classified national defense information — included 13 people, the person said. The person also confirmed the chat was dubbed “Defense ‘ Team Huddle.”
The New York Times reported that the group included Hegseth’s wife, Jennifer, who is a former Fox News producer, and his brother Phil Hegseth, who was hired at the Pentagon as a Department of Homeland Security liaison and senior adviser. Both have traveled with the defense secretary and attended high-level meetings.
Newsweek: US Citizen Detained After Visiting Canada: ‘Treated Like a Criminal’
“I literally drove my car to Canada for the weekend, and on the way back, I was treated like a criminal,” Atallah, a New Hampshire real estate attorney who has been an American citizen for 10 years, told NBC10 Boston.
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A CBP official has claimed that Atallah’s account is “blatantly false and sensationalized.”
“He asked me, ‘Exit the vehicle right now,’ and he reached for his gun,” Atallah said. “I said, ‘OK, I’m exiting the vehicle, keep your gun at your waist.”
“They handcuffed me, they twisted my arm, my wrist,” he said. “They walked me inside, and I was looking at my wife in the car.”
“It was like a shock for me,” Fakhri said.
The real estate attorney asked why he was being detained, according to NBC10 Boston.
“Even if you ask questions, they say, ‘We don’t know, it’s the government,'” he said.
Atallah says he began feeling unwell and asked for medical assistance. An EMS report indicated he had high blood pressure and required additional care, but he declined treatment after U.S. Border Patrol agents explained the next steps they planned to take.
“They’re definitely going to escort me to the hospital and have an officer guard me and being me back and start from zero,” he said.
ah says CBP agents asked to access his email on his phone, but he refused, citing attorney-client privilege.
“So I had to, under duress, give him permission to look through my email, through my privileged information, and he made me write a statement, signed by me, saying that I gave him permission to look through the email,” Atallah said.
After several requests, Atallah says CBP contacted his sister, an immigration attorney. Nearly five hours later, he and his wife were released—and are now pursuing legal action.
Fox News: Border Patrol morale is ‘going through the roof’ under Trump administration, top official says
U.S. Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks told Fox News Wednesday that morale at his agency is “going through the roof” under the Trump administration.
Speaking to “America’s Newsroom,” Banks said, “We’ve had the handcuffs taken off” and “we’re allowed to actually do our job, which is go out and enforce the law.
“Under this administration, they have literally taken the handcuffs off and allowed us to enforce law instead of policies that were created to contradict the law and so our morale has continued to rise,” he continued.