Author Archives: M

BBC: New Jersey mayor arrested for protesting at migrant centre

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The mayor of New Jersey’s largest city has been arrested after allegedly trying to force his way into a migrant detention facility.

Newark Mayor Ras Barak, who is running for New Jersey governor, “committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings”, to leave Delaney Hall, a detention facility being run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to acting US attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba.

Barak was accompanied by three Democratic members of Congress, who were not arrested. They say they were there to conduct “oversight” to ensure that the facility is not violating any building safety ordinances.

It is unclear whether Barak faces criminal charges.

…

New Jersey’s Democratic Governor Phil Murphy said he was “outraged” by Baraka’s arrest and called for him to be immediately released.

New Jersey Democratic lawmakers Rob Menendez Jr, Bonnie Watson Coleman and LaMonica McIver were also present during the protest.

City officials allege the private firm that signed a contract with ICE did not obtain proper permits and blocked necessary inspections. The firm has told media they haver the proper permits.

Earlier on Friday, Congresswoman Watson Coleman posted on social media: “We’re at Delaney Hall, an ICE prison in Newark that opened without permission from the city & in violation of local ordinances.

New Jersey mayor arrested for protesting at migrant centre
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was part of a group of Democratic officials seeking to enter the facility housing detained migrants.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy904elvxj3o

Sacramento Bee: ‘Unprecedented’: Judge’s Anti-ICE Ruling Signals Major Shift

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A federal judge in Texas has ruled against the deportation of Venezuelan immigrants Julio Cesar Sanchez Puentes and Luddis Norelia Sanchez Garcia. District Judge David Briones ordered their release from a Texas detention facility, finding that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) failed to provide a lawful basis for their continued detention. The court has found that the allegations against the couple relied on hearsay without personal knowledge from the declarants involved.

The couple entered the U.S. in 2022 in El Paso and were initially detained by immigration officials. After being paroled the next day, the family lived in Washington, DC, with their three children under temporary protected status. Their status was terminated due to an alleged association with the Tren de Aragua gang.

‘Unprecedented’: Judge’s Anti-ICE Ruling Signals Major Shift
More for You

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/unprecedented-judge-s-anti-ice-ruling-signals-major-shift/ss-AA1ElSjI

Guardian: Irish woman detained by US immigration released after 17 days in custody

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An Irish woman who was detained by US immigration authorities because of a criminal record dating back almost 20 years has been released after 17 days in custody.

Cliona Ward, 54, who has lived legally in the US for decades, emerged on Wednesday from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) facility at Tacoma in Washington.

After visiting her sick father in Ireland she had been detained at San Francisco airport on 21 April, causing an outcry in Ireland and the US and a campaign for her release.

Last week a California judge agreed to an application for the original convictions to be formally overturned in a manner that would be recognised at a federal level, paving the way for her release, according to Ward’s lawyers.

The incarceration left Ward traumatised but she was thankful for the support and is now recuperating, her sister, Orla Holladay, wrote on a GoFundMe page. “Cliona is finally in her own bed and we are all ready for some quiet and reflection.”

Irish woman detained by US immigration released after 17 days in custody
An Irish woman who was detained by US immigration authorities because of a criminal record dating back almost 20 years has been released after 17 days in custody. Cliona Ward, 54, who has lived legally in the US for decades, emerged on Wednesday from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) facility at Tacomain Washington. After visiting her sick father in Ireland she had been detained at San Francisco airport on 21 April, causing an outcry…

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/irish-woman-detained-by-us-immigration-released-after-17-days-in-custody/ar-AA1EoD48

France 24: Stockholm is latest city to refuse ‘bizarre’ US request to abandon diversity

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The Stockholm City Council has rejected the US embassy’s demand that it adopt the Trump administration’s anti-diversity policies, with Stockholm’s vice-mayor for planning calling the request “bizarre”. Several European nations and cities have slammed US efforts to force its anti-DEI policies on the continent.

Presumptuous idiots!!!!!!!!!!

In an email to the city’s planning office dated April 29, the US embassy asked that Stockholm officials sign a document promising that contractors would not operate any programmes promoting DEI that would violate current US law.

“It’s so bizarre,” Jan Valeskog, Stockholm’s vice-mayor for city planning, told the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter on Tuesday.

The city council said Friday that it would not comply with the embassy’s demands or offer an official response.

“We were really surprised, of course,” Valeskog told The Associated Press.

“We will not sign this document at all, of course not.”

Stockholm is latest city to refuse ‘bizarre’ US request to abandon diversity
The Stockholm City Council has rejected the US embassy’s demand that it adopt the Trump administration’s anti-diversity policies, with Stockholm’s vice-mayor for planning calling the request “bizarre”.…

https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20250509-stockholm-refuses-bizarre-us-trump-request-to-reject-diversity-dei-policies

Reuters: Tufts student detained by US immigration authorities must be released, judge rules

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  • Rumeysa Ozturk ordered released immediately from Louisiana detention center
  • Ozturk was detained after pro-Palestinian campus advocacy
  • Judge said her detention chills free speech of non-citizens

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Friday to immediately release a Tufts University student from Turkey who has been held for over six weeks in a Louisiana immigration detention facility after she co-wrote an opinion piece criticizing her school’s response to Israel’s war in Gaza.

U.S. District Judge William Sessions during a hearing in Burlington, Vermont, granted bail to Rumeysa Ozturk, who is at the center of one of the highest-profile cases to emerge from Republican President Donald Trump’s campaign to deport pro-Palestinian activists on American campuses.

…

Massachusetts-based Tufts has said it plans to help provide Ozturk housing upon her release. In a statement, a university spokesperson said it hoped she would be able to rejoin its community as soon as possible to resume her doctoral studies.

F*ck y** and rot in Hell, unAmerican *ssh*l* Stephen “Goebbels” Miller:

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller called the judge’s ruling another sign of what he considers a “judicial coup” in the United States. Several parts of the president’s hardline immigration agenda have been blocked by judges.

“We cannot individually litigate every single visa that we want to revoke,” Miller told reporters.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/tufts-student-detained-by-us-immigration-authorities-must-be-released-judge-2025-05-09

Techdirt: Here’s Everything Trump Is Doing To Protect Bad Cops, Make Things Worse For Crime Victims

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Trump was never about law and order. He cozied up to cops and praised police brutality, but when push came to literal shove, he sat back and watched his supporters attack law enforcement officers and commit federal crimes for the sole purpose of destroying democracy itself.

Now that he’s back in office, he’s back to pretending he cares about law and order. His recent executive order echoes one issued during his first term: one that demands people start respecting cops (even if he and his followers won’t during insurrections) and suggests there’s a police state ahead of us because they nation can’t be saved without trampling all of our rights.

But it’s not just about cops or law and order demagoguery. What Trump really wants is zero accountability across the board. That’s why his DOJ has revamped its Civil Rights division to protect only the rights Trump actually cares about. Say goodbye to the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments. Say hello to protecting the Second Amendment and shutting down anything the administration thinks might protect the rights of anyone but the whitest, male-est US citizens.

The Marshall Project has published a round-up of the DOJ’s actions during Trump’s ignominious return to the ultimate position of power: Leader of the Free World. To be sure, Trump doesn’t actually want a “free world” any more than he wants free and fair elections. What he does want is the erasure of everything he doesn’t like, even if it means doing considerable amount of damage to the country he claims to be making great again.

The good news is… well, I guess there’s not really any of that.

Here’s Everything Trump Is Doing To Protect Bad Cops, Make Things Worse For Crime Victims
Trump was never about law and order. He cozied up to cops and praised police brutality, but when push came to literal shove, he sat back and watched his supporters attack law enforcement officers a…
Here’s Everything Trump Is Doing To Protect Bad Cops, Make Things Worse For Crime Victims

Another midnight f*ck*p raid by ICE looking for someone who had moved

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These clowns are just too stupid to learn. It’s only a matter of time before innocent people are killed by these ill-trained ill-disciplined cowboys with guns and badges.

A group of teachers were detained and questioned by federal agents on Maui on Tuesday.

It happened at a home in Kahului. Teachers said they were woken up by men dressed in black holding guns.

…

She added, “They finally let me go first in the group and when I was brought upstairs and showed the agent my passport, he was taken aback and looked shocked and apologized to me several times.”

The teacher says her landlord was only shown a warrant after the agents searched the home.

She says that landlord was told by ICE that they were looking for a man who had lived there a year ago.

Teachers from Philippines detained during immigration raid
One of the detained teachers, who is a U.S. citizen, said they were held for 45 minutes as agents claimed they were looking for a convicted felon.

https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2025/05/08/teachers-philippines-reportedly-detained-during-immigration-raid

Newsweek: ICE Probe Into Foreign Teachers Sparks Backlash

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A federal immigration enforcement operation targeting Filipino teachers in Hawaii has ignited a firestorm of backlash, drawing widespread outrage from lawmakers and top education officials.

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Multiple Filipino teachers on Maui were questioned by ICE agents as part of a federal search operation.

According to ICE, the warrant was executed on May 6 as part of an immigration investigation. A special agent confirmed that the residents were cooperative during the search.

“The occupants of the location were cooperative and HSI was able to conduct its search without interference or any impediment. For the safety of the agents and the occupants, residents of the home were briefly detained and interviewed in addition to the search. At the conclusion of the search, HSI special agents left the location without any arrests made,” ICE said in a statement.

This is just bigotry and harassment by cops too stupid and lazy to find real criminals to apprehend. What was their probable cause for a warrant? Something along the line of “there’s a lot of fereners living there, gotta go harass them and shake ’em down”?

ICE Probe Into Foreign Teachers Sparks Backlash
“The HSTA is very disturbed and concerned about how these Maui teachers were treated,” the Hawaii State Teachers Association said.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ice-probe-into-foreign-teachers-sparks-backlash/ar-AA1EptXM

Independent: Trump team ordered to move Tufts student from Louisiana ICE jail after it couldn’t ‘take a position’ on her free speech

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A New York-based federal appeals court has ordered Donald Trump’s administration to transfer Tufts University scholar Rumeysa Ozturk from an immigration detention center in Louisiana to Vermont.

The case of Ozturk, a Turkish international student and former Fulbright scholar working towards her doctorate in child development, is among several high-profile cases at the center of the Trump administration’s targeting of international students for their advocacy for Palestine during Israel’s war in Gaza.

In March, Ozturk’s visa was revoked and she was arrested and detained by plain-clothes federal agents outside her apartment in Massachusetts in what her lawyers argue is a retaliatory attempt to deport her over an op-ed she wrote in a student newspaper.

The government has one week to transfer her, according to Wednesday’s order, which arrived less than 24 hours after a hearing in which government attorneys failed to say whether they even agree with the administration’s position that her pro-Palestine speech is not constitutionally protected.

Appellate Judge Barrington Parker, who was appointed by George W. Bush, pressed Department of Justice attorney Drew Ensign on whether Ozturk’s statements — and statements from another international student who was arrested for support for Palestine — amount to protected speech.

“Your honor, we haven’t taken a position on that,” Ensign replied.

“Help my thinking. Take a position,” Parked fired back.

“I don’t have authority to take a position,” Ensign said.

…

“She has been held behind bars for six weeks while her health deteriorates for writing an op-ed,” she told a three-judge appeals court panel Wednesday. “Detention is not the norm with respect to visa revocation, as we had here. The executive branch made a specific decision to detain Ms. Ozturk that was motivated by her speech.”

Trump team ordered to move Tufts student from Louisiana ICE jail after it couldn’t ‘take a position’ on her free speech
Trump team ordered to move Tufts student from Louisiana ICE jail after it couldn’t ‘take a position’ on her free speech – Federal appeals court gives government 10 days to transfer Rumeysa Ozturk to Vermont after DOJ lawyers refused to say if pro-Palestine speech is constitutionally protected

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/trump-team-ordered-to-move-tufts-student-from-louisiana-ice-jail-after-it-couldn-t-take-a-position-on-her-free-speech/ar-AA1Ellat