Straight Arrow News: Washington state agency shared license, vehicle info with ICE: Report

A Washington state agency, the Department of Licensing, provided Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies with access to private driver’s license and vehicle information, KING 5 said in a report published on Friday, July 11. This is the case even though Washington has laws in place prohibiting local agencies from sharing personal data with the federal government if they’re using it for deportations.

A similar finding was revealed in 2018. After protests against the department sharing personal data with federal agencies, as well as legislative pressure, the Department of Licensing canceled a lot of those agreements.

KING 5 found that some of these accounts were quietly reinstated, including ones with ICE, Border Patrol and other Homeland Security entities. The news outlet wrote that this has led to a “dramatic” surge in data searches since the election of President Donald Trump, who campaigned on mass deportations.

Federal officials’ use of the Department of Licensing accounts increased by 188% since Trump was elected to a second non-consecutive term in November 2024. ICE’s account,for instance, showed searches for driver and vehicle records went from about 540 in November to 1,600 in May 2025.

The Department of Licensing said in emails to KING 5 that they are following state and federal laws, and attributed the increase in account use to significant variability” in monthly searches and a shift across “two presidential administrations with two different immigration ideologies.”

Jennie Pasquarella, the legal director of a nonprofit representing immigrants called the Clemency Project, expressed her concerns about the reopening of these accounts to KING 5.

“As ICE is ramping up their enforcement actions in our state, the last thing we want is for them to be able to search a treasure trove of information about home addresses,” she stated. “It is critical that we ensure that information is walled off so that people don’t fear accessing it.”

It’s time to roll some head in Olympia. Remove the unauthorized illegal access and fire those who permitted it.

https://san.com/cc/washington-state-agency-shared-license-vehicle-info-with-ice-report

Mediaite: MSNBC Contributor Suggests Masked ICE Agents Could Face ‘Lawful Exercise’ of ‘Right of Self-Defense’ Against Them

Yes!!! Just shoot the unidentified scumbag bully boys!!!

MSNBC contributor Joyce Vance said Saturday that by wearing masks when enforcing federal immigration laws across the country, ICE agents could face “lawful” violence against them by people who mistake the raids for a kidnapping.

On the latest Velshi from MSNBC, Vance joined host Ali Velshi and fellow guest, author Lucan Way, a Toronto political science professor, to discuss the mass detainment and deportations by ICE under the direction of border czar Tom Homan and President Donald Trump after a judge’s order blocking some of those practices was issued on Friday.

Vance, who is co-host of the #SistersInLaw podcast along with Jill Wine-Banks and Barbara McQuade, is a former United States attorney, and spoke first on the legal implications of statements from ICE director Homan.

Velshi then asked specifically about ICE agents wearing masks, which the administration has said is for the safety of the officers, who have already faced many acts of violence and extreme threats.

Velshi asked Vance, as a former prosecutor, about the legal basis for masking agents making arrests in the ongoing raids.

“There are very serious legal restrictions around the use of, for instance, FBI agents as undercover operatives. Very strict rules regarding how it’s done, what they can do, what they can’t do,” Vance said. “But you know what I’ve never seen: a federal agent working a case due is pull a mask up so nobody knows who they are and go out and terrorize a civilian population.”

Earlier in the show, Velshi argued, “we’re witnessing a police state taking shape before our eyes,” and suggested, as did professor Way, that soon ICE will be turned to rounding up any political opponent or critic of Trump, whether it has anything to do with immigration or not.

Vance, for her part, called the practice of wearing masks “not normal” and a “danger sign,” and dismissed the idea that it might be for the safety of the ICE agents. Instead, she argued, they are less safe, because people might mistake the masked officers in these giant raids for kidnappers and become lawfully violent.

“When you’re masked like that and people don’t know who you are, someone might exercise their lawful right of self-defense to protect themselves, thinking they’re being kidnapped,” she said. “So the notion that this is for law enforcement’s protection is utterly ludicrous. And we need to do away with that.”

VELSHI: You’re a prosecutor, I want to ask you, there are legitimate reasons why some enforcement agencies, some police agencies, go undercover or, you know, do things in shadows to achieve certain things. I would assume that’s specific and, you, know, it needs to be, needs to comport with some laws.

VANCE: Exactly. There are very serious legal restrictions around the use of, for instance, FBI agents as undercover operatives. Very strict rules regarding how it’s done, what they can do, what they can’t do. But you know what I’ve never seen a federal agent working a case due is pull a mask up so nobody knows who they are and go out and terrorize a civilian population.

And I think it’s important for us at this point to be very plain-speaking when we say that this is not normal, it’s not acceptable, and it’s a danger sign. You know, we are well past the point where we can just identify danger signs and say, oh, there might be problems down the road. The problems are here, they’re in the right now.

And as we see people being pulled off the streets — you know, the danger to law enforcement, quite frankly, is that when you’re masked like that and people don’t know who you are, someone might exercise their lawful right of self-defense to protect themselves, thinking they’re being kidnapped. So the notion that this is for law enforcement’s protection is utterly ludicrous. And we need to do away with that.

MSNBC: How DOGE’s reckless cuts created chaos at the Social Security Administration

Staff reassignments are not going to fix the growing problems at the agency.

The Trump administration’s colossal cuts to the Social Security Administration in the name of “efficiency” are sowing chaos and dysfunction throughout the agency. Even attempts to fix these new problems are akin to rearranging deck chairs on a sinking ship because they fail to address the core problem: staff shortages.

The Washington Post reports the SSA is “temporarily reassigning about 1,000 customer service representatives from field offices to work on the swamped toll-free phone line, increasing the number of agents by 25 percent.” And when the Post reports the phone line is “swamped,” what that means in practice is that people are complaining about dropped calls and previously reported wait times of up to five hours.

But there’s one little oversight: There is no one in place to do the work that the reassigned representatives had to leave behind. According to the Post, “Jessica LaPointe, president of Council 220 of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), said the move will slow responses to the complex cases that the field office employees handle and be only a temporary bandage for the phone problems.”

“The 1-800 number — they do offer a critical role at the agency, but it’s triage, whereas customer service representatives actually clear work for the agency,” LaPointe told the Post. “So it’s just going to create a vicious cycle of work not getting cleared, people calling for status on work that’s sitting because the claims specialists now are going to have to pick up the slack of the customer service representatives that are redeployed to the tele-service centers.”

So how did the SSA end up so shorthanded that it has to rob Peter to pay Paul? Before the second Trump administration, SSA had a staff of roughly 57,000. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the Trump administration’s DOGE operation enacted “the largest staffing cut in SSA’s history,” which involved “indiscriminately pushing out 7,000 workers to hit an arbitrary staffing reduction target.” The Trump administration has also ousted dozens of officials with expertise in running SSA’s benefits and information technology systems.

On top of the problems noted above, reassigning workers adds further inefficiency because they have to do on-the-job training and lean on more experienced co-workers to get them up to speed. And field offices themselves were already beleaguered, dealing with the effects of other reassignments within SSA. “Field office staff are struggling to resolve the most difficult cases, due to disproportionate losses and reassignments in SSA’s regional offices, which provide daily support to their colleagues in the field by answering complex policy questions and troubleshooting system problems,” the CBPP reports.

Trump’s “efficiency” efforts now have a single staff member serving 1,480 beneficiaries, according to AFGE. That’s three times the number of clients that one staffer served in 1967.

On top of all this, the SSA’s new phone system, implemented in May, seems to have problems of its own. Jen Burdick, a Social Security expert and a divisional supervising attorney with Community Legal Services, told The Philadelphia Inquirer that the system’s new artificial intelligence could be exacerbating the problem.

“We spend a lot of time calling Social Security offices on people’s behalf — sometimes 15 times a day,” Burdick told the Inquirer. “We’re on hold for hours, then get AI bots spewing random information you never asked for before hanging up.”

“It really hurts our clients who are in trouble, trying to navigate this difficult system. It’s very upsetting for people,” she added.

Staff shortages seem to result occasionally in callers being rerouted to offices in other parts of the country, the Inquirer report adds, and thus the responding staffer is not always able to answer specific questions.

Trump is turning one of the country’s most important lifelines for the elderly and the disabled into a mess — all for foreseeable reasons. Indiscriminate mass cuts don’t represent a serious bid at generating efficiency in administering a public benefit. The only thing these cuts do with any efficiency is rip a major hole in the American safety net.

The future doesn’t look so good, either. Trump’s recently passed “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” is only going to make things worse, since changes in the tax code will accelerate Social Security and Medicare’s insolvency. MAGA’s policy vision is all about divestment from the common good — and America’s collective future.

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/social-security-administration-phone-benefits-wait-doge-trump-rcna218252

Real Clear Politics: Sen. Alex Padilla: If ICE Agents Don’t Have To ID Themselves, Why Wouldn’t You Think You’re Being Kidnapped?

California Democrat Sen. Alex Padilla, in response to a question about a group arrested for planning to attack an ICE facility in Texas, told CNN this morning: “I do have concern when there are no requirements for ICE agents or other federal agents involved with the immigration enforcement actions to not even identify themselves.”

“If you’re a member of a working-class immigrant community, and you see unmarked cars roll into your community, people getting out of those cars with no identifiers that they are law enforcement, and literally not just detaining, in your mind, maybe kidnapping,” he warned.

DANA BASH, CNN: Officials are looking for a suspect who appeared to fire a gun at a federal agent during a raid. A few days before that, 10 people were arrested after opening fire outside an immigration detention facility in Texas, injuring a police officer. Authorities say it was a planned ambush.

Earlier this week, a man with a rifle in tactical gear was shot dead after firing at Texas Border Patrol, at least the facility. Are you worried that heated rhetoric around this and around the policies are actually putting law enforcement agents at risk?

SEN. ALEX PADILLA: First, let me just denounce any violence. Any violence against law enforcement is unacceptable.

Do I think heated rhetoric is part of what’s causing this response? Sadly, yes. And we have seen this administration escalate and escalate and escalate in all ways and matters, whether it’s the tactics of — with which they’re going about immigration enforcement. There’s a smarter, more effective way to do this than what they’re doing.

BASH: Well, they say that it’s the Democrats’ rhetoric, some calling ICE agents secret police, comparing them to the Gestapo.

PADILLA: Well, I wouldn’t use those words, but I do have concern when there are no requirements for ICE agents or other federal agents involved with the immigration enforcement actions to not even identify themselves.

I mean, if you’re a member of a working-class immigrant community, and you see unmarked cars roll into your community, people getting out of those cars with no identifiers that they are law enforcement, and literally not just detaining, in your mind, maybe kidnapping.

So that’s why Senator Booker and I have this bill to require that identification for ICE agents or anybody involved with immigration enforcement. It’s for the safety of the officers and agents, as well as safety for the community… and to protect against people exploiting the circumstances, impersonating ICE agents and getting involved with burglary, theft, kidnapping, sexual assault and worse.

BASH: The president, as you know, says that they wear masks to protect their own identity from people who want to go after law enforcement.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2025/07/13/sen_alex_padilla_if_ice_agents_dont_have_to_id_themselves_why_wouldnt_you_think_youre_being_kidnapped.html

KTLA: Border Patrol agent accused of assaulting Long Beach police officer, entering women’s bathroom

These Border Patrol / ICE goons & thugs are multi-talented f*ck*ps!

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent appeared in a Los Angeles County courtroom Friday to face felony charges for assaulting a Long Beach police officer and resisting arrest while off-duty and armed with a department-issued handgun.

Isaiah Anthony Hodgson, 29, faces four felony and three misdemeanor charges related to the incident, which happened Monday at Shoreline Village.

According to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, Hodgson was drunk inside a restaurant when he followed a woman into the women’s restroom. The woman alerted restaurant management and reported that Hodgson’s firearm and magazine were visible.

He fled the restaurant shortly after and was confronted by a security guard who saw the federal agent carrying his magazine in his hand while his gun was tucked into his waistband. That security guard asked him repeatedly to leave, the D.A.’s Office says.

The Long Beach Police Department was eventually called to the scene, and officers approached Hodgson in the parking lot.

“When they arrived, they reportedly observed Hodgson intoxicated and unwilling to cooperate with their commands as they tried to detain him,” a release from the D.A.’s Office states. “As Hodgson resisted arrest, he allegedly became agitated and physical with the officers, injuring one of them.”

He was eventually arrested and released, and made his initial appearance Friday.

He’s been charged with three felony counts for resisting arrest, one felony count of battery on an officer and three misdemeanor gun charges.

If convicted, he could face up to seven years in state prison.

District Attorney Nathan Hochman called Hodgson’s alleged behavior “unacceptable and deeply troubling.”

“No one is above the law, regardless of their position or badge,” Hochman said. “Law enforcement officers have a responsibility to always conduct themselves with integrity and professionalism. Our office will pursue prosecution accordingly to ensure justice is served.”

Hodgson is due back in court on July 17, and is prohibited from possessing firearms or leaving California, and has to attend at least three alcohol counseling meetings a week as a condition of his release.

https://ktla.com/news/california/border-patrol-agent-accused-of-assaulting-long-beach-police-officer-entering-womens-bathroom

CNN: Trump’s mass deportation is backfiring

President Donald Trump and his administration continue to bet big on the issue that, more than any other, appeared to help him win him a second term in 2024: immigration.

The administration and its allies have gleefully played up standoffs between federal immigration agents and protesters, such as the one Thursday during a raid at a legal marijuana farm in Ventura County, California.

And as congressional Republicans were passing a very unpopular Trump agenda bill last month, Vice President JD Vance argued that its historic expansion of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and new immigration enforcement provisions were so important that “everything else” was “immaterial.”

But this appears to be an increasingly bad bet for Trump and Co.

It’s looking more and more like Trump has botched an issue that, by all rights, should have been a great one for him. And ICE’s actions appear to be a big part of that.

The most recent polling on this comes from Gallup, where the findings are worse than those of any poll in Trump’s second term.

The nearly monthlong survey conducted in June found Americans disapproved of Trump’s handling of immigration by a wide margin: 62% to 35%. And more than twice as many Americans strongly disapproved (45%) as strongly approved (21%).

It also found nearly 7 in 10 independents disapproved.

These are Trump’s worst numbers on immigration yet. But the trend has clearly been downward – especially in high-quality polling like Gallup’s.

An NPR-PBS News-Marist College poll conducted late last month, for instance, showed 59% of independents disapproved of Trump on immigration. And a Quinnipiac University poll showed 66% of independents disapproved.

Trump has managed to become this unpopular on immigration despite historic lows in border crossings. And the data suggest that’s largely tied to deportations and ICE.

To wit:

  • 59% overall and 66% of independents disapproved of Trump’s handling of deportations, according to the Quinnipiac poll.
  • 56% overall and 64% of independents disapproved of the way ICE was doing its job, according to Quinnipiac.
  • 54% overall and 59% of independents said ICE has “gone too far” in enforcing immigration law, per the Marist poll. (Even 1 in 5 Republicans agreed.)
  • Americans disapproved 54-45% of ICE conducting more raids to find undocumented immigrants at workplaces, according to a Pew Research Center poll last month.

Americans also appear to disagree with some of the more heavy-handed aspects of the deportation program:

  • They disapproved 55-43% of significantly increasing the number of facilities to hold immigrants being processed for deportation, per Pew – even as the Trump administration celebrates Florida’s controversial new “Alligator Alcatraz.”
  • They said by a nearly 2-to-1 margin that it’s “unacceptable” to deport an immigrant to a country other than their own, per Pew – another key part of the administration’s efforts.
  • They also disapproved, 61-37%, of deporting undocumented immigrants to a prison in El Salvador – the place where the administration sent hundreds without due process, in some cases in error (such as with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who has since been returned).

There’s a real question in all of this whether people care that much. They might disapprove of some of the more controversial aspects of Trump’s deportations, but maybe it’s not that important to them – and they might even like the ultimate results.

That’s the bet Trump seems to be making: that he can push forward on something his base really wants and possibly even tempt his political opponents to overreach by appearing to defend people who are in the country illegally.

But at some point, the White House has got to look at these numbers and start worrying that its tactics are backfiring.

Gallup shows the percentage of Americans who favor deporting all undocumented immigrants dropping from 47% last year during the 2024 campaign down to 38% now that it’s a reality Trump is pursuing.

And all told, Trump’s second term has actually led to the most sympathy for migrants on record in the 21st century, per Gallup. Fully 79% of Americans now say immigration is a “good thing,” compared with 64% last year.

The writing has been on the wall that Americans’ support for mass deportation was subject to all kinds of caveats and provisos. But the administration appears to have ignored all that and run headlong into problems of its own creation.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/13/politics/deportations-backfiring-trump-analysis

Alternet: A cult leader shows how Trump is taking America to a very dark place

Former FBI agent Michael Fienberg has gone public, pointing out that the agency, under the leadership of Dan Bongino and Kash Patel, is purging itself of people who are not members of the Trump cult (my phrase, not his).

Similar cult-like behavior is on vivid display with the White House press secretary, the head of DHS, and the head of the Department of Justice — among numerous other administration officials and elected Republicans — regularly spouting lies and half-truths that target women, immigrants, and Democrats.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is implying that the children who died in the Texas floods were the victims of a nefarious plot — presumably by Democrats or Jews who operate space lasers — to modify the weather, completely ignoring the fact that Republican-aligned fossil fuel billionaires have been engaged in a half-century-long scheme to sabotage our atmosphere with their carbon dioxide emissions in exchange for trillions of dollars in profits. Some of which, no doubt, have been shared with Greene or her campaign.

Multiple administration officials, elected Republicans, and rightwing media cult leaders on platforms like Fox “News” have been amplifying the racist, antisemitic “Great Replacement Theory,” that wealthy Jews are paying to “replace” white people in America with Blacks, Mexicans, and other people of color. This has led to ICE becoming the largest police force in America, with a budget larger than that of the entire Russian military, soon to be sweeping a neighborhood near you in their never-ending hunt for brown-skinned people.

Donald Trump didn’t need to lure his followers into a remote jungle, like Jim Jones did in Guyana. He didn’t need to physically isolate them from the rest of the world. Instead, Trump built his Jonestown right here at home, within the boundaries of our republic, brick by brick. He did it using over 30,000 documented lies, fear, rage, and the intoxicating promise of belonging.

Today, tens of millions of Americans are trapped inside Trump’s reality-warping cult. And just as Jones’ followers drank poisoned Kool-Aid believing it was salvation, Trump’s followers have swallowed his Big Lies and are now willing to sacrifice our Constitution, our democracy, and our future on the altar of one man’s insatiable ego.

This is an old story in new packaging….

Click the links below to read the rest of the article:

https://www.alternet.org/alternet-exclusives/the-cult-of-trump-2673148656

Closer to the Edge: George Retes Was Abducted. ICE Is Hiding Him.

They didn’t arrest George Retes — they abducted him. Let’s call it what it is. On July 10th, 2025, ICE agents smashed through the window of his car, pepper-sprayed him in the face, tackled him to the ground like an enemy combatant, and then vanished him. George Retes is a 25-year-old disabled U.S. Army veteran. He is a U.S. citizen. But that didn’t matter. Not to the badge-wearing cowards who swept through Camarillo, California like thugs on a purge night, armed with the full force of a government that no longer feels bound by law, reason, or humanity.

And now? George Retes is missing. His family has no idea where he is. The local sheriff has no clue, the city police can’t help, the county officials pretend their hands are tied. Every institution that is supposed to keep citizens safe and accounted for is shrugging its shoulders, as if a man can just be snatched off the street and dropped into some Kafkaesque black site without consequence. This is what state-sponsored kidnapping looks like when it wears a federal badge.

The Carrillo Law Firm is now representing George’s family, and they’re not mincing words. This was an abduction. The firm knows the playbook well—they’re already handling a disturbingly similar case involving Andrea Velez, a 32-year-old U.S. citizen who was kidnapped by ICE agents during a prior raid. It took them more than a day just to locate her, because ICE operates like a rogue paramilitary, shuffling detainees like pawns between jails and detention centers, ensuring that families and attorneys are always one step behind.

George wasn’t even part of the protests that flared up when ICE invaded Glass House Farms. He was doing his job—working security. But ICE doesn’t need cause anymore. They saw a brown-skinned man, decided they didn’t like the way he looked, and treated his military service and citizenship like a clerical error they could correct with handcuffs and brute force. This wasn’t law enforcement. This was a rogue agency acting like the Gestapo, punishing the public for existing while Latino.

We don’t know where George is. His family doesn’t know. His lawyers don’t know. Nobody knows. There are only guesses—Ventura County Jail, the ICE Los Angeles Field Office, Adelanto ICE Processing Center, Mesa Verde in Bakersfield, Otay Mesa in San Diego. Places with reputations for dehumanization, violence, and neglect. Places that turn human beings into numbers and numbers into ghosts. ICE isn’t talking because they don’t have to. They have the cover of bureaucracy and the implicit backing of a government that has decided some citizens are worth less than others. Due process? Habeas corpus? Constitutional protections? Those are bedtime stories for children now.

What ICE is doing isn’t just morally obscene — it’s legally criminal. Under 42 U.S. Code § 1983, every federal agent who strips a citizen of their constitutional rights can be held personally liable. That includes the ICE agents who destroyed George Retes’s car, attacked him, and dragged him away. It includes the supervisors who ordered it, the bureaucrats who processed it, and the cowards who stood by watching. Americans have been tackled, beaten, pepper-sprayed, and hidden away — all under the guise of national security, all while their families suffer in confusion and grief. Every time this happens, a piece of the Constitution is set on fire, and ICE lights the match.

This is terrorism funded by your tax dollars. This is what America looks like when its own government decides that some of us don’t count, that citizenship is conditional, and that veterans who fought for the country can be discarded like defective equipment. George Retes is gone because ICE wanted him gone, and the system is built to make sure nobody answers for that.

The Carrillo Law Firm is demanding answers, but they’re doing more than that — they’re offering to help any family of a U.S. citizen who’s been abducted by ICE, and they’re doing it with no upfront cost. If your loved one has disappeared under the boots of these fascist thugs, call them at 626-799-9375. They know how to navigate this nightmare. They know how to track the untrackable. And when they find your loved one, they know how to burn the bastards who did it in court.

We will not shut up about George Retes. We will not let this go. If ICE can disappear a disabled Army veteran, then none of us are safe. They aren’t deporting anymore — they’re disappearing. And unless we fight back, unless we call it what it is, they’ll keep doing it until no one is left to protest.

https://www.closertotheedge.net/p/george-retes-was-abducted-ice-is

Miami Herald: Here’s Hegseth’s Response to ‘Our Boys’ Fact Check

When asked about the fact check and his language, Hegseth responded, “I say our boys and bombers as a common phrase, I’ll keep saying things like that, whether they’re men or women. Very proud of that female pilot, just like I’m very proud of those male pilots and I don’t care if it’s a male or a female in that cockpit and the American people don’t care. But it’s the obsession with race and gender in this department that’s changed priorities and we don’t do that anymore. We don’t play your little games.”

So says the washed out O-3 turned Fox talk show host who can never give a straight answer to a question.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/here-s-hegseth-s-response-to-our-boys-fact-check/ss-AA1HI6k7

TAG 24 News: Trump administration loses it over ICEBlock app: “Sure looks like obstruction of justice!”

On Monday, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi [Bimbo #2] Noem shared an X post that included a clip from a CNN segment about the ICEBlock app, which creator Joshua Aaron told the network was created not to target agents, but rather to allow users to “avoid them altogether.”

“This sure looks like obstruction of justice,” [Bimbo #2] Noem wrote in her post.

It’s no different than holding up a sign that says “speed trap ahead” or “roadblock in half a mile” — it’s constitutionally protected free speech.

And when your Gestapo goons are snatching people off the streets based on their skin color, it’s a matter of self-preservation and self-defense. We are not lemmings.

“Our brave ICE law enforcement face a 500% increase in assaults against them,” she went on to claim, without providing evidence.

Who the fuck cares what happens to masked Gestapo thugs indiscriminately snatching brown people (including U.S. citizens) off the streets to meet their arrest quotas? Fuck ’em!

https://www.tag24.com/politics/politicians/donald-trump/trump-administration-loses-it-over-iceblock-app-3399542