Author Archives: M

LA Times: ‘Are you from California?’ Political advisor said he was detained at airport after confirming he’s from L.A.

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Veteran Los Angeles political consultant Rick Taylor said he was pulled aside by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents while returning from a trip abroad, asked if he was from California and then separated from his family and put in a holding room with several Latino travelers for nearly an hour.

“I know how the system works and have pretty good connections and I was still freaking out,” said Taylor, 71. “I could only imagine how I would be feeling if I didn’t understand the language and I didn’t know anyone.”

Taylor said he was at a loss to explain why he was singled out for extra questioning, but he speculated that perhaps it was because of the Obama-Biden T-shirt packed in his suitcase.

‘Are you from California?’ Political advisor said he was detained at airport after confirming he’s from L.A.
Longtime L.A. political consultant Rick Taylor was returning from a weeklong vacation in Turks and Caicos with his wife and daughter when he was held by Customs and Border Protection for 45 minutes without reason.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-06-27/are-you-from-california-political-advisor-said-he-was-detained-at-airport-after-confirming-hes-from-la

Newsweek: Are ICE agents using facial recognition phone app? What we know

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Immigration agents have been given access to a facial recognition app to identify people in the field, according to leaked emails.

The emails, exchanged between Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) staff and contractors, allow officers to instantly compare biometrics like faces and fingerprints against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) databases, according to 404 Media.

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The emails say that the biometric tool is best used “to identify unknown subjects in the field,” which, along with the contributions from staff at Enforcement and Removal Operations, suggests that it is being used in the Trump administration’s attempts to ramp up the removal of migrants without legal status.

Are ICE agents using facial recognition phone app? What we know
One former ICE agent, who requested anonymity due to concerns about repercussions, told Newsweek ICE has always had that tech.

https://www.newsweek.com/ice-face-recognition-app-deportations-phone-immigration-2091619

Guardian: Federal agents blast way into California home of woman and small children

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Security footage shows agents setting off explosive device and shattering window of family home in Huntington Park

Federal agents blasted their way into a residential home in Huntington Park, California, on Friday. Security-camera video obtained by the local NBC station showed border patrol agents setting up an explosive device near the door of the house and then detonating it – causing a window to be shattered. About a dozen armed agents in full tactical gear then charged toward the home.

Jenny Ramirez, who lives in the house with her boyfriend and one-year-old and six-year-old children, told NBC through tears that it was one of the loudest explosions she heard in her life.

“I told them, ‘You guys didn’t have to do this, you scared my son, my baby,’” Ramirez said.

Ramirez said she was not given any warning from the authorities that they wanted to enter her home and that everyone who lives there is a US citizen.

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The agents told Ramirez that they were searching for her boyfriend, but did not tell her why, according to NBC. Ramirez told the news station that he was involved in a vehicle collision with a truck carrying federal agents last week. She said it was an accident and unintentional.

Of course, ICE & CBP “enhance” the tale:

A spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection told NBC: “Jorge Sierra-Hernandez was arrested because he rammed his car into a CBP vehicle, causing significant damage and obstructed the work of our agents and officers during the course of a law enforcement operation.”

The spokesperson said agents were “assaulted” during this incident and “additional rioters threw rocks and other objects at our personnel”.

Poor babies, got the reception they deserved!

Customs and Border Protection did not immediately return the Guardian’s request for comment.

Federal agents blast way into California home of woman and small children
Security footage shows agents setting off explosive device and shattering window of family home in Huntington Park

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/27/california-home-raid-huntington-park

Alternet: Military officer slams ‘racially motivated’ policy that enables Army to kick out Black men

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The U.S. Army is now rolling out a new policy that disproportionately impacts Black soldiers, and one officer is questioning the motivations behind the announcement.

Military.com reported Friday that the Army is now planning to prohibit shaving waivers, requiring all soldiers to adhere to strict new grooming standards. Previously, soldiers who suffered from the skin condition pseudofolliculitis barbae (PFB) were allowed to ask for a waiver to bypass requirements to stay clean-shaven, as PFB patients can often have painful bumps and scarring from the use of a razor.

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Under the new policy, which is slated to take effect in the coming weeks, Soldiers who request shaving waivers for more than 12 months over a two-year period could be kicked out of the Army.

According to the American Osteopathic College of Dermatology, up to 60% of Black men suffer from PFB. And Military.com reported that Black Americans make up roughly one in four new Army recruits over the past several years even though they make up just 14% of the U.S. population.

“Of course, this is racially motivated,” an unnamed senior noncommissioned officer told Military.com anonymously out of fear of retaliation. “There’s no tactical reason; you can look professional with facial hair.”

Hegseth & Trump are both racist bigots — two of a kind — so this comes as no surprise.

Military officer slams ‘racially motivated’ policy that enables Army to kick out Black men

https://www.alternet.org/military-trump-policy

Esquire: How U.S. Customs and Border Protection Accidentally Sent a JD Vance Meme into the Viral Stratosphere

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The altered photo of the vice president might’ve revealed his weird, sweaty soul better than Hillbilly Elegy ever could.

This week, a 21-year-old Norwegian tourist named Mads Mikkelsen was detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at Newark Airport, and the most important part of the story is NOT that there’s another guy named Mads Mikkelsen. The most important part of the story is that Mikkelsen claims he was detained and eventually returned to Norway at least in part because of an image CBP agents found on his phone, which is this doctored photo of JD Vance.

Upon his return to Norway, Mikkelsen gave an interview to local newspaper Nordlys, saying that CBP agents threatened him with a $5,000 fine if he did not unlock his phone and allow them to scroll through his photos, and when they saw this hilarious and unsettling image, that was the last straw. The story spread far and wide, and CBP felt the need to address the situation on social media.

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Because the CBP chose to address the story publicly rather than let it blow over, the JD Vance meme has been on the front page of European newspapers and websites all week long, which is the dumbest and funniest and most obvious possible outcome. It is proof that people in power do not understand the Streisand Effect.

How U.S. Customs and Border Protection Accidentally Sent a JD Vance Meme into the Viral Stratosphere
The altered photo of the vice president might’ve revealed his weird, sweaty soul better than Hillbilly Elegy ever could.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a65223992/us-customs-and-border-protection-jd-vance-meme

Newsweek: Families face $2,150 bill from Trump’s immigration policies—Study

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Families could see their annual expenses rise by $2,150 due to President Donald Trump‘s hardline deportation policies, according to a new report by FWD.us.

The additional costs stem from stricter rules, including work permit cancellations, mass deportations, and reduced legal immigration, which are expected to drive up prices for everyday goods and services nationwide.

Families face $2,150 bill from Trump’s immigration policies—Study
An expert told Newsweek that removing immigrant workers leads to shortages in goods and services, which pushes prices higher.

https://www.newsweek.com/prices-rising-trump-immigration-policies-2091532

The Hill: Migrant deaths in ICE custody spark concerns

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  • 8 migrants have died in ICE detention centers since January
  • Migrant rights groups allege insufficient medical care in ICE facilities
  • ICE says every death at a facility is ‘a significant cause for concern’

A Canadian citizen held in a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Miami became the 11th person to die in an ICE facility since October after he was found unresponsive this week.

The agency said Thursday that Johnny Noviello, 49, died in the ICE facility and that his cause of death remains under investigation.

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ICE officials say that any death that occurs in a detention facility is a “significant cause for concern” and that the agency prioritizes the health, safety and well-being of all migrants in ICE custody. Eight people have died in ICE detention centers this year alone — including four in Florida — according to federal data.

Noviello became a legal permanent resident in the U.S. in 1991 but was convicted in 2023 of racketeering and drug trafficking in Florida, ICE officials said this week. He was sentenced to spend a year in prison before he was arrested in May by ICE at the Florida Department of Corrections Probation office. He was given a notice to appear and was charged with being deported for violating state law.

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In 2024, an American Civil Liberties Union report indicated that 95% of deaths that took place in ICE facilities between 2017 and 2021 could have been prevented or possibly prevented. The investigation, which was conducted by the ACLU, American Oversight and Physicians for Human Rights, analyzed the deaths of the 52 people who died in ICE custody during that time frame.

“ICE has failed to provide adequate — even basic — medical and mental health care and ensure that people in detention are treated with dignity,” Eunice Cho, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s National Prison Project and report co-author, said last year. “Abuses in ICE detention should no longer go ignored. It’s time to hold ICE accountable and end this failed, dangerous mass detention machine once and for all.”

The report alleged that ICE had “persistent failings in medical and mental care” that caused preventable deaths, including suicides. It also said that the federal agency failed to provide adequate medical care, medication and staffing.

Of the 52 deaths that the study analyzed, 88% involved cases in which the organizations found that incomplete, inappropriate and delayed treatments or medications contributed directly to the deaths of migrants being held in ICE custody.

Migrant deaths in ICE custody spark concerns

https://thehill.com/policy/international/5374028-migrant-deaths-in-ice-custody-canadian-citizen-florida

Reason: How DHS Facial Recognition Tech Spread to ICE Enforcement

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More government agencies are using facial recognition for enforcement than ever before.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is using a smartphone app to identify people based on an image of their fingerprints or face, 404 Media reported Thursday, based on a review of internal ICE emails. The expanding and repurposing of this sophisticated technology, ordinarily used by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) when people are entering or exiting the country, is now being used on people living in the United States to meet mass deportation and arrest quotas imposed by President Donald Trump.

The app, Mobile Fortify, enables users to verify an unknown person’s identity in the field through contactless fingerprints and facial images on ICE-issued phones, according to an email sent to all ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations personnel and obtained by 404. According to the emails, Mobile Fortify can identify a person by comparing a photo of their face across two databases—Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Traveler Verification Service database of people’s photos taken when entering the United States, and Seizure and Apprehension Workflow, described by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as an “intelligence aggregator” that brings together information related to searches and seizures. For fingerprint matches, the app uses DHS’s centralized Automated Biometric Identification System, which “holds more than 320 million unique identities and processes more than 400,000 biometric transactions per day,” according to the agency.

A report released by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in September 2024 attempted to call attention to concerns about accuracy, oversight, transparency, discrimination, and access to justice as facial recognition tools have quickly proliferated. Although facial recognition technology is now available to the public through commercially available tools, policies governing the federal government’s use of the technology have lagged behind real-world applications. Currently, there are no comprehensive laws regulating the federal government’s use of facial recognition technology and no constitutional provisions governing its use.

“Face recognition technology is notoriously unreliable, frequently generating false matches and resulting in a number of known wrongful arrests across the country. Immigration agents relying on this technology to try to identify people on the street is a recipe for disaster,” Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, told 404 Media. “Congress has never authorized DHS to use face recognition technology in this way, and the agency should shut this dangerous experiment down.“

How DHS facial recognition tech spread to ICE enforcement
Facial recognition technology, originally developed for border crossings, has been expanded to help drive mass deportation efforts.

https://reason.com/2025/06/27/how-dhs-facial-recognition-tech-spread-to-ice-enforcement

Newsweek: Trump administration terminates legal status for more than 500K immigrants

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The Trump administration has announced the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti, impacting over 520,000 Haitian nationals residing in the United States.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stated that the designation will expire on August 3, 2025, with the termination taking effect on September 2, 2025. This decision reverses an 18-month extension granted under former President Joe Biden‘s administration, which would have extended protections until February 2026.

Trump administration terminates legal status for more than 500K immigrants
For more than a decade, Haitian TPS holders have been legally living and working in the U.S. following the 2010 earthquake.

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-admin-haiti-dhs-legal-status-tps-noem-2091814

Newsweek: Green card-holder with 2 US citizen kids held by ICE for over two months

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Claudio Cortez-Herrera, a green card holder from Mexico who has lived in the U.S. for more than two decades and has two U.S. citizen children, has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials for over two months.

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Cortez-Herrera, 34, has been in the U.S. for over two decades, his fiancee Leticia Ortiz Lopez wrote in an online fundraiser seeking financial assistance for legal fees and child support. He is the father of their two U.S. citizen children, a 2-year-old daughter and a 5-year-old son with autism.

She told local outlet 13 On Your Side that he was on his way to work and “putting in the house payment across the street at the drop box post office, when he got surrounded by 10 ICE agents, and he was taken.”

ICE confirmed in a Facebook post that Cortez-Herrera was arrested by Detroit-based immigration officials on April 23. Newsweek confirmed in the ICE detainee database that he is still in custody, held at the Calhoun County Correctional Center in Battle Creek, Michigan.

In the Facebook post, ICE noted Cortez-Herrera’s previous criminal record, writing, “Convicted in New Castle, Del [Delaware],” noting that his conviction was for “Planning first-degree arson & first-degree reckless endangering.”

Newsweek has been unable to independently verify the conviction.

His wife said in the GoFundMe: “Over 20 years ago, as a teen, he made a mistake. He took responsibility and left that life behind.”

Green card-holder with 2 US citizen kids held by ICE for over two months
Claudio Cortez-Herrera, who has been in the U.S. for decades but served seven months on a racketeering charge as a teen, has been detained by ICE.

https://www.newsweek.com/green-card-holder-2-us-citizen-kids-held-ice-over-two-months-2091660