Author Archives: M

MSNBC: The Latino pressure that preceded the Dodgers turning around ICE

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Before the Los Angeles Dodgers’ June 14 home game against the San Francisco Giants, Dominican American singer Nezza performed — defiantly, she said — “El Pendón Estrellado,” a Spanish-language rendition of the “Star-Spangled Banner.” She said a team official explicitly demanded that she perform the national anthem in English but that she refused. (The Dodgers did not release a statement regarding Nezza’s performance or confirm her story that she violated the team’s wishes.)

Nezza’s performance, a protest against what Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been doing in Los Angeles, arose out of her imagining her parents “being ripped away from me,” she said. Not surprisingly, Nezza’s performance was polarizing, with some cheering and others expressing outrage. Among the responses was an editorial from CALÓ News demanding that the Dodgers support a community under attack from the federal government.

“Dodgers, your silence speaks volumes,” CALÓ News wrote Tuesday. “The Latino community of Los Angeles has shown up for the Dodgers. Where are you now that we need you?”

That question seems to have been answered Thursday when the team announced that it had turned away ICE agents who had attempted to enter Dodger Stadium’s parking lot. “They were denied entry to the grounds by the organization,” the team wrote on X.

The Latino pressure that preceded the Dodgers turning around ICE

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/the-latino-pressure-that-preceded-the-dodgers-turning-around-ice/ar-AA1H7CXz

Sun Herald: Defiant Mayor’s Call to Resist ICE Raids Sparks Outrage

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Chicago officials reportedly expected a rise in workplace immigration raids as federal tactical teams prepared to deploy across several Democratic-led cities. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson urged residents to push back against the enforcement efforts linked to President Trump. Johnson encouraged peaceful protest and affirmed that police and city staff would protect First Amendment rights. Johnson’s call for “all of Chicago to resist in this moment” has drawn sharp criticism on social media.

Awesome response! Resist! And keep up the good work!

Critics argue that Johnson’s rhetoric incites violence against federal officers.

The pigs have only themselves to blame. They’ll get no tears or sympathy from me.

Johnson said, “I am counting on all of Chicago to resist in this moment. Because whatever particular vulnerable group is targeted today, another group will be next.”

Meanwhile, back at the ranch:

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul condemned federal actions as unlawful and undemocratic, stressing the importance of working with local leaders to protect community safety.

Defiant Mayor’s Call to Resist ICE Raids Sparks Outrage

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/defiant-mayor-s-call-to-resist-ice-raids-sparks-outrage/ss-AA1H7qHk

Army Times: Her Medal of Honor was once revoked. Now her base is being renamed.

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In 1917, an Army review board rescinded the Medal of Honor that had been awarded to Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, an Army surgeon and former prisoner of war, more than half a century earlier. Walker refused to send the medal back, wearing it proudly for the remaining two years of her life.

So her family has a sense of how she’d respond to President Donald Trump’s June 10 announcement that nine Army bases renamed in 2023 – including one honoring her – would revert to their original names, initially given to commemorate Confederate Civil War generals.

Of the nine bases given new namesakes two years ago, only Fort Walker commemorated a Union hero from the Civil War.

…

Long after Walker’s death, her act of resistance was rewarded: President Jimmy Carter formally reinstated her Medal of Honor in 1977. That restoration took place because of a petition championed by other Walker family members.

Marra said she suspected the recent renaming would prompt another petition.

Her Medal of Honor was once revoked. Now her base is being renamed.
Fort Walker, named in 2023 after Civil War Union surgeon Mary Walker, will revert back to Fort A.P. Hill. For her family, the retraction feels familiar.

https://www.armytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2025/06/20/her-medal-of-honor-was-once-revoked-now-her-base-is-being-renamed

Newsweek: Man who came to US as young child faces deportation after over 30 years

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Karem Tadros, who has lived in the United States for more than 30 years after immigrating from Egypt with his family, who are all U.S. citizens, faces deportation to an unspecified country following his release from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in New Jersey, he told Newsweek in a Friday phone interview.

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His citizenship process was halted due to his 2006 conviction, telling Newsweek it was for “intent to distribute oxycodone.” He said, “I was on the right path. I made a terrible mistake when I was younger.”

He spent six days in a county jail and was released on bail, completing his probation afterwards, he said. “Because of that, I was detained at Hudson County facility for 13 months. And I was released by the judge on a court date with no supervision, no nothing. So 17 years go by, now it’s 2025, I haven’t seen a single ICE officer since I was detained back in 2008, 2009,” he added.

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On June 16, Tadros was granted a Writ of Habeas Corpus, as U.S. District Judge for the District of New Jersey, Evelyn Padin, found the “petitioner has remained in perfect compliance with the conditions of release dictated in the April 9, 2009 Order of Supervision.”

The judge found it was “unlawful” for the government to keep Tadros detained and ordered his release.

The judge’s order stated that “ICE may identify a third country within thirty to sixty days of this order to which the Petitioner may be removed.” The judge denied the Trump administration’s request to place an ankle monitor on Tadros. He must stay within the tri-state area.

Man who came to US as young child faces deportation after over 30 years
Karem Tadros, who was born in Egypt, has lived in New Jersey for over three decades and now faces deportation to a third country.

https://www.newsweek.com/man-faces-deportation-after-30-years-2088572

NBC News: Judge again blocks Trump administration from halting Harvard’s enrolling international students

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A federal judge directed the Trump administration to restore “every visa holder and applicant to the position that individual would have been” before the ban was enacted.

A federal judge in Massachusetts on Friday further blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to revoke Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students while giving those students additional legal protections.

U.S. District Judge Allison D. Burroughs issued the preliminary injunction after having granted a temporary restraining order against the federal government this month.

The injunction holds that the administration is blocked from yanking Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification, which was based on a May 22 revocation notice the Department of Homeland Security sent to Harvard administrators.

In her decision, Burroughs directed the government to “immediately” prepare guidance to alert Trump administration officials to disregard that notice and to restore “every visa holder and applicant to the position that individual would have been absent such Revocation Notice.”

It also says the student visa holders should not be denied entry to the country as a result of the revocation.

The government must “file a status report within 72 hours of entry of this Order describing the steps taken to ensure compliance with this Order and certifying compliance with its requirements,” Burroughs wrote.

Judge again blocks Trump administration from halting Harvard’s enrolling international students
A federal judge directed the Trump administration to restore “every visa holder and applicant to the position that individual would have been” before the ban was enacted.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/rcna213836

NBC News: Pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil released after months in detention

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Minutes after the Columbia University activist was released, the Trump administration filed an appeal of his release.

Pro-Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil was released from detention Friday evening, ending more than three months of custody in a test of the executive branch’s power to unilaterally act against legal U.S. residents.

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Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin lashed out at “rogue” U.S. District Court Judge Michael Farbiarz, saying he had no authority to order Khalil’s release.

“This is yet another example of how out of control members of the judicial branch are undermining national security,” McLaughlin said. “Their conduct not only denies the result of the 2024 election, it also does great harm to our constitutional system by undermining public confidence in the courts.”

Government attorney Dhruman Sampat had argued that Congress has given the executive branch sweeping powers to determine who could be removed from the county.

The courts should not have the authority to interfere, Sampat said.

With regard to permanent residents, this presumed “authority” is total b*llsh*t!

Pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil released after months in detention
Minutes after the Columbia University activist was released, the Trump administration filed an appeal of his release.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/rcna214163

India Today: JD Vance’s Bluesky account suspended minutes after first post on trans youth care

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US Vice President JD Vance’s Bluesky account was suspended minutes after his first post, which included criticism of transgender medical treatments and Big Pharma. Bluesky has yet to comment on the suspension.

US Vice President JD Vance’s foray into Bluesky was remarkably brief, with his account suspended just minutes after his inaugural post.

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Yet, by 6:30 p.m., attempts to access his page were met with a message: “Account has been suspended.” The Vice President’s posts had reportedly included criticisms of medical treatments for transgender youths and claims regarding pharmaceutical influence on healthcare decisions.

JD Vance’s Bluesky account suspended minutes after first post on trans youth care
US Vice President JD Vance’s Bluesky account was suspended minutes after his first post, which included criticism of transgender medical treatments and Big Pharma. Bluesky has yet to comment on the suspension.

https://www.indiatoday.in/world/us-news/story/jd-vances-bluesky-account-suspended-minutes-after-first-post-on-trans-youth-care-glbs-2742845-2025-06-19

Newsweek: Anti-Trump Protests Update: ‘National Day of Action’ Planned for July 17

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Another round of national anti-Trump demonstrations is being planned across the U.S. for July 17 under the banner of Good Trouble Lives On, a reference to the late civil rights icon, Congressman John Lewis.

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Good Trouble Lives On demonstrations are being planned for dozens of American cities on July 17 including the likes of New York, Washington D.C, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco with attendees invited to “March in Peace, Act in Power.”

The name is a reference to Lewis, a Georgia Democrat and an advocate of peaceful protests, who famously called for “good trouble” during the civil rights era.

According to its downloadable “Host Toolkit” for organizers, the protests have three main goals. These are demanding an end to “the extreme crackdown on civil rights by the Trump administration,” “the attacks on Black and brown Americans, immigrants, trans people, and other communities,” and “the slashing of programs that working people rely on, including Medicaid, SNAP, and Social Security.”

Good Trouble Lives On is being supported by a range of other groups including the 50501 Movement, which also helped organize the “No Kings” demonstrations.

Anti-Trump protests update: “National day of action” planned for July 17
There have been a series of national anti-Trump demonstrations since the president’s inauguration in January.

https://www.newsweek.com/anti-trump-protests-update-national-day-action-planned-july-17-2088233

Washington Examiner: Judge blocks Trump administration from pulling states’ transportation funding over ICE cooperation

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A federal judge blocked the Trump administration on Thursday from requiring 20 mostly Democratic states to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement in order to receive billions of dollars in transportation funding.

Chief U.S. District Judge John McConnell issued a preliminary injunction that barred the administration from enforcing the new immigration rules for “the States and their governmental subdivisions” while the lawsuit plays out in court. He said that requiring the states to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to receive congressionally appropriated transportation funding violated the Constitution.

“Congress did not authorize or grant authority to the Secretary of Transportation to impose immigration enforcement conditions on federal dollars specifically appropriated for transportation purposes,” McConnell wrote.

Judge blocks Trump administration from pulling states’ transportation funding over ICE cooperation
The judge said requiring the states to cooperate with ICE to receive congressionally appropriated transportation funding violated the Constitution.
Judge blocks Trump administration from pulling states’ transportation funding over ICE cooperation

Newsweek: NYC mayoral candidate arrested by ICE says agents feel overworked

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New York City Comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander has told Newsweek that ICE agents expressed feeling “overworked” shortly after detaining him at a downtown court earlier this week.

“I talked to the ICE agents afterward, and it’s clear to me they are being overworked,” Lander said in an interview on June 19.

“I asked what their shifts were. And they say, we really don’t have shifts anymore,” he added.

Poor crybabies should get respectable jobs.

Lander and other critics called the arrest further evidence of what they described as a drift toward authoritarianism by the Trump administration.

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Newsweek: “Like many Democrat politicians before him, Mayoral Candidate Brad Lander seems to think obstructing federal law enforcement is his ticket to fame. Unfortunately, it’s just his ticket to being arrested.”

More often than not, these bogus “obstructing” charges are dropped. They are nothing more than harassment.

In response for comment to the suggestion ICE agents are being overworked, Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin: “Under Secretary [Bimbo #2] Noem, we are delivering on President Trump’s and the American people’s mandate to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens to make America safe.”

Repeating a lie doesn’t make it true. Arresting and deporting non-criminal aliens does nothing to make America safe.

NYC mayoral candidate arrested by ICE says agents feel overworked
Lander was detained by President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcers on June 17 at a downtown Manhattan immigration court.

https://www.newsweek.com/brad-lander-ice-agents-2088020