Tag Archives: Congress

Kansas City Star: Court Upholds Restraining Order in Blow to ICE

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Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has criticized President Trump’s aggressive ICE raids, arguing they harm the city’s economy by spreading fear among immigrants. She notes significant business losses in Latino neighborhoods like Boyle Heights. Bass condemned the use of National Guard and Marines to quell protests, calling it excessive.

Earlier this month, a federal court upheld a restraining order against indiscriminate ICE arrests in Southern California. Bass joined a lawsuit to stop the raids, highlighting their impact on families, while adopting a bolder leadership approach amid recovery from January 2025 wildfires and her 2026 reelection campaign.

…

Bass said, “Let me just say that, because we are a city of immigrants, we have entire sectors of our economy that are dependent on immigrant labor. We have to get the fire areas rebuilt. We’re not going to get our city rebuilt without immigrant labor.”

Bass added, “And it’s not just the deportations, it’s the fear that sets in when raids occur, when people are snatched off the street. And I know you are aware that even people who are here legally, even people who are U.S. citizens, have been detained.”

Bass stated that “what I think we need is comprehensive immigration reform. I served in Congress for 12 years.” She stressed the importance of immigrant labor in post-crisis recovery and noted that ICE raid fears impact both undocumented residents and U.S. citizens.

,,,,

Court Upholds Restraining Order in Blow to ICE

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/court-upholds-restraining-order-in-blow-to-ice/ss-AA1Khr9r

Washington Post: Patient seeking care at NIH hospital detained by ICE

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NIH officials called immigration authorities after scrutinizing the patient’s identification presented to security at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center.

Federal immigration authorities detained a woman seeking medical care at the National Institutes of Health’s flagship research hospital, according to an internal document and an NIH official briefed on the situation.

The woman, an existing patient, drew scrutiny at a security station to enter the campus of the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, when she handed over a state driver’s license that failed to meet new federal security ID standards.

That prompted NIH officials to check for warrants and discover she had an order for removal. They then called U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The woman was to receive care through the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, according to the official and the document. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

A spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees NIH, confirmed the detainment.

“We are grateful to NIH security for apprehending an illegal alien attempting to enter the NIH campus Thursday,” Andrew Nixon, the spokesman, said in a statement. “Like any taxpayer-funded service, NIH clinical trials are for people here legally, whether they be citizens or those with proper visas that allow them to participate in clinical trials and/or treatment at the NIH. We are grateful to our law enforcement partners for acting swiftly to protect patients and staff at NIH Clinical Center.”

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately return requests for comment.

The document and official did not have the woman’s name or the date of her detention. Details of the woman’s immigration history were not immediately available; immigration judges typically issue orders of removal after authorities present evidence that a noncitizen should be deported.

Maryland allows undocumented immigrants to receive driver’s licenses, although it’s unclear if the woman presented a Maryland license. Congress mandated that states implement Real ID, a set of security standards for driver’s licenses designed to limit forgeries. Real IDs, or other acceptable forms of identification such as passports, are needed to enter most federal buildings, according to DHS.

Hospitals have historically been considered sensitive locations off limits to immigration enforcement. When enforcement actions happen in these settings, they may deter people from seeking care, especially for people who are undocumented, immigrant advocates and health experts have said.

President Donald Trump has directed ICE to ramp up the detention and deportations of immigrants. In the early days of Trump’s second term, officials revoked a directive that had essentially prevented ICE from detaining immigrants around sensitive areas such as schools, hospitals and churches.

Matthew Lopas, director of state advocacy at the National Immigration Law Center, said incidents like the reported detention at NIH raise serious concerns about immigrant access to health care.

“Hospitals and clinics should be places of healing, not fear. This kind of enforcement does not just impact undocumented patients. It undermines public health for everyone,” said Lopas, whose organization published a guide for doctors and hospital administrators on how to protect patient rights when immigration authorities visit medical facilities.

Still, reports of ICE showing up at hospitals have been rare.

Last month, a nurses union and immigrant advocates raised concern about the presence of ICE agents who spent days at a Glendale, California, hospital seeking to detain a woman who had been hospitalized while in their custody. The woman had previously been ordered deported, DHS said.

Democratic members of Congress have introduced legislation that would largely limit immigration enforcement actions within 1,000 feet of places such as hospitals, schools and churches. But the measure is not likely to pass given Republican control of Congress.

“We need to ensure that everyone can access essential services without the threat of ICE enforcement looming over them,” the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García (D-Illinois), said in a statement Friday responding to the detainment at NIH.

Patient seeking care at NIH hospital detained by ICE
NIH officials called immigration authorities after scrutinizing the patient’s identification presented to security at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/08/08/nih-clinical-center-ice-arrest

Raw Story: Appeals court rules against Trump admin in big case — and gives deadline to comply

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A federal appeals court ruled over the weekend that Donald Trump’s administration’s moves on government spending are an affront to the Constitution and disclosure laws, according to Politico.

According to the outlet, the three-judge D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals panel voted unanimously to “shoot down a Trump administration bid to make secret a public database of federal spending that researchers say is crucial to ensure the administration is not flouting Congress’ power of the purse.” The court also imposed a deadline, according to the report.

The court reportedly gave “the administration until Friday to put the data back online.”

“Two of the three appeals judges assigned to the matter also signed onto a forceful opinion declaring that the administration’s bid to conceal the data was an affront to Congress’ authority over government spending, one that threatened the separation of powers and defied centuries of evidence that public disclosure is necessary for the public good,” according to the report.

Politico further noted that, “Judge Karen Henderson, a George H.W. Bush appointee, wrote in support of the decision to deny the Trump administration’s request to keep the data under wraps while litigation over the issue goes forward,” and quoted her as saying, “No court would allow a losing party to defy its judgment. No President would allow a usurper to command our armed forces.”

She added, “And no Congress should be made to wait while the Executive intrudes on its plenary power over appropriations.”

Appeals court rules against Trump admin in big case — and gives deadline to comply

https://www.rawstory.com/appeals-court-rules-against-trump

my San Antonio: ‘Really hard’: ICE raids are disrupting award-winning Texas restaurants

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‘Everybody was hoping that it would be more like 2017’

When Adam Orman opened his first restaurant in Central Texas in 2016, a few months before President Donald Trump was first elected to his first term, everything was normal. L’Oca d’Oro began hiring new employees above the minimum wage and its food/atmosphere made it one of the best Italian spots in Austin.

Things were going so well that Orman even opened a new pizza joint, Bambino, in 2024, which also received high acclaim. But earlier this year, when Trump returned to the White House for his second term, Orman told MySA he started to see Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) activity begin to impact his business. 

“Everybody was hoping that it would be more like 2017, that it wouldn’t be as bad,” Orman told MySA. “I never heard of any raids happening at restaurants back in 2017 obviously, there was a lot happening on the border. There was a lot happening with kids with the family separations, and so it was a big conversation in Texas, but it [raids] were not as big a conversation, specifically in the hospitality industry.”

Within Trump’s first week back in January, he vowed to continue his campaign promise to crack down on illegal immigration by signing dozens of executive orders, one of which called for the “immediate removal of those in the United States without legal status.” The order led to ICE conducting “enhanced targeted operations” in major U.S. cities like Austin, which prompted nationwide protests and arrests. 

“I think the big moment for the rest of the community was when they pledged to increase detentions.” Orman said. “It was from like 300 a day to 3,000 a day nationally, and we really saw what that felt like and all of a sudden now everybody was seeing detentions happening in their workplaces.”

Through social media and news coverage, Orman explained that people began to realize that detentions weren’t just happening at work, but also on the street, at traffic stops, court rooms and more. That’s when he noticed his own “employees behavior started to change.” 

“There were people who weren’t showing up for work, or if they were, they were afraid to show up for work, or they weren’t leaving the house to go food shopping, that all these normal things that just got worse,” Orman said. 

By mid-April, one of his Bambino employees who didn’t show up for work one day was detained by ICE. A few weeks later in late May, Orman posted a social media video on how mass deportations and arrests are impacting Austin’s restaurant industry. Within 24 hours of the post, another one of his L’Oca d’Oro employees was detained. 

In both cases, Orman said he was “very involved” in supporting his detained employees by writing letters as they waited weeks for court hearings and even helped raise money to pay their obligor or bond expenses. Although his L’Oca employee chose to self-deport to their home country due to their expensive $15,000 bond, Orman’s Bambino employee was released on bail but remains unable to work until their asylum application is approved. 

“It’s really hard. It’s hard for the staff that’s still here to know that this could happen to anybody on staff,” Orman said. “Both restaurants are not that big, so losing one person makes a huge difference, and then not knowing what the process is going to be once they’ve been detained, not knowing how long it’s going to take, even if they do get released, are they going to be able to come back to work?”

But Orman’s restaurants aren’t the only ones being impacted by ICE detentions. In early July, the National Restaurant Association sent a letter to Trump urging him to remove “individuals who pose a threat to national security and public safety,” partner with the association to implement workforce solutions, and consider deferred action options for “long-serving employees.”

“Today, there are more than 1 million unfilled jobs in the food service and hotel industries,” the letter reads. “Nearly one in three restaurant operators report they lack sufficient employees to meet customer demand, and 77% struggle to hire and retain staff. These shortages limit operating hours, reduce services, and strain restaurant operators and the communities they serve across the country.”

The association also wants the president to “advance long-term immigration reform with Congress to support individuals who contribute to our economy and aspire to build a better future through hard work.” In Texas, the state’s Restaurant Association Chief Public Affairs Officer Kelsey Erickson Streufert told MySA that the organization has seen several reports of immigration enforcement affecting restaurants and industries with large Hispanic populations. She added that this “fear of being caught up” with ICE is “impacting workers and consumers, many of whom are citizens or have legal work authorization.”

“For these reasons, the Texas Restaurant Association has joined the National Restaurant Association and our state restaurant association partners in echoing President Trump’s comments that we can and should do both—maintain a secure border and secure the workforce we need to protect our food supply and lower food prices for all Americans,” Streufert said in an emailed statement. “This remains a top priority for the TRA because we need commonsense worker pathways to prevent higher prices, empty tables and shelves, and more small business closures.”

Orman has been preparing for this moment even before Trump’s re-election by co-founding Good Work Austin in 2019, a coalition of bars and restaurants dedicated to providing healthy workspaces for their employees. The group has since partnered with the Texas Civil Rights Project to host virtual “Know Your Rights” seminars to help restaurant owners and employees fill out I-9 paperwork and manage recent immigration issues. 

Although the possibility of any hospitality work permit relief program for immigrants is still unclear, Orman maintained that he will continue to advocate for and protect his employees no matter what. 

“I think that that provides some sense of security, that we’re not we’re not pretending like everything’s aright and that we are as prepared as we as we can be, and that when something bad does happen to one of our employees, that we’re going to do everything we can to support them and get them out of detention, get them back to their families and get them back to work.”

‘Really hard’: ICE raids are disrupting award-winning Texas restaurants

https://www.mysanantonio.com/food/article/austin-restaurant-ice-raids-20789546.php

NPR: Trump administration has gutted an agency that coordinates homelessness policy

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Meanwhile as Trump whines about the homeless on the streets ….

A tiny agency that coordinates homelessness policy across the federal government has been effectively shut down, with all its staff put on administrative leave.

“The irony here is that the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness is designed for government efficiency,” said Jeff Olivet, the body’s most recent executive director under President Biden.

Congress created it in 1987, he said, “to make sure that the federal response to homelessness is coordinated, is efficient, and reduces duplication across federal agencies.”

There were fewer than 20 employees and a budget of just over $4 million. But President Trump included it in an executive order last month on whittling parts of the federal bureaucracy to the “maximum extent” allowed by law.

Legally, the homeless agency’s authorization continues until 2028. But DOGE, the cost-cutting team overseen by Elon Musk, told its employees Monday that they’d be put on leave the next day, according to an email from one employee that was shared with NPR.

The agency helped cities manage record-high homelessness

Part of the agency’s mandate is to help states and localities manage homelessness, and Olivet said that under his leadership, it focused on the record-high number of people living outside.

“Even at a time where we saw overall homelessness going up in many places,” he said, “in those communities like Dallas and Phoenix and Chicago and others, we were able to see significant reductions, or at least not increases in unsheltered homelessness.”

The agency also coordinated an intensive push to bring down homelessness among veterans, making sure they were provided housing and healthcare. Over a decade, Olivet said, veterans homelessness dropped by more than half.

“The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness has been vital in shaping effective policy to end homelessness,” Ann Oliva, CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, said in a statement.

But the Trump administration plans to take a dramatically different approach to the problem.

Shutting down the agency will make it easier for Trump to shift homelessness policy

For decades, since the first Bush administration, there was bipartisan support for getting people housing first and then offering whatever mental or addiction treatments they needed. But there’s been a growing conservative backlash to that as homelessness rates have steadily risen.

During Trump’s first term, his appointee tried to steer the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness more toward treatment options than permanent housing. But the executive director is the only political appointee at the small agency, and all others are career staff.

“He was really working against the current,” said Devon Kurtz of the Cicero Institute, a conservative think tank. “Ultimately, the inertia of it was such that it continued to be sort of a single mouthpiece for housing first.”

Kurtz supports a dramatic shift away from a housing first policy, and thinks that can happen more easily without the homeless agency.

It’s not clear if there will be a legal challenge to the move. Democratic members of Congress objected to Trump’s targeting of the agency, calling it “nonsensical.”

“At a time when housing costs and homelessness are on a historic rise, we need an all-hands-on-deck approach to ensuring every American has a safe and stable place to rest their head at night,” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II of Missouri said in a statement to NPR. “Unfortunately, attacks on the [agency], along with damaging cuts to federal housing programs and staff, and the President’s tumultuous tariffs, will only exacerbate this country’s housing and homelessness crisis.”

… the whine continues!

Trump administration has gutted an agency that coordinates homelessness policy
All staff were put on leave at the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. Congress created the entity in 1987 and, among other things, it helped drive down veterans homelessness.

https://www.npr.org/2025/04/16/nx-s1-5366865/trump-doge-homelessness-veterans-interagency-council-on-homelessness-staff-doge

Newsweek: Trump administration suffers double legal blow within hours

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The Trump administration suffered two legal defeats within hours on Friday.

A judge in California ordered the release of a Syrian national it has been seeking to deport while a federal Rhode Island judge blocked the imposition of new conditions on domestic violence programs as part of the president’s campaign against “gender ideology.”

Details of both cases were shared on X by Kyle Cheney, senior legal affairs reporter for Politico.

Newsweek contacted the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice for comment on Saturday outside of regular office hours via email and press inquiry form respectively.

Why It Matters

With Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress as well as the White House the courts have emerged as one of the main impediments to Trump administration policy.

The administration has suffered a number of prominent legal defeats including courts striking down punitive measures introduced by Trump against law firms involved in proceedings against him, blocking a bid to strip thousands of Haitian migrants of legal protection and removing sanctions aimed at International Criminal Court employees.

Release of Salam Maklad

U.S. District Court Judge Jennifer Thurston, of the Eastern District of California, on Friday instructed the release of Salam Maklad, a Syrian from the Druze religious minority who arrived in the United States in 2002 without valid entry documents and claimed asylum, according to court documents seen by Newsweek.

Maklad went on to marry a man who was granted asylum, which her legal team argued made her eligible for legal immigration status.

On July 9, Maklad was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers after arriving for what she believed was a routine “check-in” meeting and subsequently placed in “expedited removal proceedings” seeking to deport her from the U.S.

Thurston noted that Maklad had no criminal history and wasn’t considered a flight risk, and concluded that “the balance of the equities and public interest weigh in favor of Ms. Maklad.” Consequently she ordered her release from custody and said authorities are blocked from rearresting her “absent compliance with constitutional protections, which
include at a minimum, pre-deprivation notice—describing the change of circumstances necessitating her arrest—and detention, and a timely bond hearing.”

Domestic Violence Funding

Friday also saw Senior District Judge William Smith of Rhode Island rule the Trump administration couldn’t impose fresh conditions on funds granted by the Violence Against Women Act due to the president’s Executive Order 14168 titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”

This funding is distributed by the Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women.

Trump’s order stated that sex is a person’s “immutable biological classification as male or female,” and that the federal government should “prioritize investigations and litigation to enforce the rights and freedoms” associated with this position.

The Office on Violence Against Women updated its policy on what constitutes “out of scope activities,” and therefore should not be funded by its grants, after this order was issued in “approximately May 2025,” according to the court filing.

This added spending on “inculcating or promoting gender ideology as defined
in Executive Order 14168″ to the prohibited list.

The case was brought by a coalition of 17 nonprofit groups which argued adhering to President Trump’s position on gender was impeding their ability to assist victims of domestic violence.

Judge Smith backed the coalition’s position concluding that the fresh requirements imposed by the Trump administration “could result in the disruption” of services for victims of domestic and sexual violence.

What People Are Saying

In the California case Judge Thurston ruled: “Respondents are PERMANENTLY ENJOINED AND RESTRAINED from re[1]arresting or re-detaining Ms. Maklad absent compliance with constitutional protections, which include at a minimum, pre-deprivation notice—describing the change of circumstances necessitating her arrest—and detention, and a timely bond hearing.

“At any such hearing, the Government SHALL bear the burden of establishing, by clear and convincing evidence, that Ms. Maklad poses a danger to the community or a risk of flight, and Ms. Maklad SHALL be allowed to have her counsel present.”

In his ruling Judge Smith wrote: “On the one hand, if the Court does not grant preliminary relief, then the Coalitions will face real and immediate irreparable harm from the challenged conditions, conditions which the Court has already concluded likely violate the APA.

“This could result in the disruption of important and, in some cases, life[1]saving services to victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. On the other hand, if the Court grants preliminary relief, then the Office will simply have to consider grant applications and award funding as it normally does.”

What’s Next

It remains to be seen whether the Trump’s administration will seek to appeal either of Friday’s rulings.

Trump administration suffers double legal blow within hours
The courts have developed into one of the main impediments of Trump administration policy.

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-administration-suffers-double-legal-blow-within-hours-2111192

Washington Examiner: Trump fires IRS commissioner two months into tenure

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One of King Donald’s suck-up losers gets canned:

Analysts noted that Long was a unique choice for IRS commissioner, given his relative inexperience in the field. He served as a real estate broker for 32 years and an auctioneer for 31 years before being elected to Congress as representative for Missouri, a position he held from 2011 to 2023.

His biography on the IRS website listed his only other relevant experience regarding the IRS as a stint as a morning talk show host from 1999 to 2006, “hosting a show on which the IRS was always a hot topic.”

During his time in Congress, he supported legislation to abolish the IRS altogether. After leaving Congress, he lobbied for the controversial Employee Retention Credit, a benefit meant to prevent layoffs during the pandemic. The IRS warned that the program was rife with fraud.

Despite concerns over his experience, Long was easily approved in the Senate in a 53-44 vote.

Trump fires IRS commissioner two months into tenure
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will serve as interim commissioner until a replacement is found. No reason was given for Long’s removal so soon into his term.
Trump fires IRS commissioner two months into tenure

NBC News: ICE is leaning hard on recruitment, but immigration experts say that could come at a price

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ICE is using signing bonuses and a celebrity endorsement to encourage Americans to join its ranks. Experts doubt that the recruitment will improve public safety.

“If you actually wanted the immigration system to work, you would be hiring thousands of immigration judges, you would be funding prosecutors, you would be funding defense lawyers,” he said. “If what we wanted was a fair and fast system, it would be the complete opposite of this.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is pushing the message that it wants “patriotic Americans” to join its ranks — and that new perks come with signing up.

The agency enforcing President Donald Trump’s plans for mass deportations is promising new recruits maximum $50,000 signing bonuses over three years, up to $60,000 in federal student loan repayments and retirement benefits. ICE announced this week it is waiving age requirements and, on Wednesday, actor Dean Cain, who played Superman in “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman,” announced on social media that he was joining the ranks of ICE as an honorary officer.

“I felt it was important to join with our first responders to help secure the safety of all Americans, not just talk about it, so I joined up,” Cain said. He encouraged others to join ICE as officers, touting the job’s salary and benefits.

The possibility of monetary benefits and the celebrity endorsement have experts concerned. They fear the recruitment push could endanger public safety if it takes local police away from their communities, removes important personnel from other critical missions or cuts corners in the rush to hire.

Immigration and law enforcement experts also said the hiring push does not reflect the public safety threat posed by unauthorized immigrants, as recent data shows many people who have been arrested by ICE during the Trump administration do not have criminal histories. One in 5 people ICE apprehended in street arrests was a Latino with no criminal history or removal orders, according to an analysis of new ICE data by the Cato Institute, a libertarian public policy think tank.

“We’re moving further away from actually keeping people safe through this,” Jason Houser, who held senior Department of Homeland Security positions during the Obama and Biden administrations, told NBC News.

DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment on concerns about recent recruitment efforts and whether they could come at the expense of other critical tasks.

The administration has said it wants to add 10,000 ICE agents to carry out Trump’s promise of mass deportations. That effort recently received an unprecedented influx of funding after the Republican-led Congress passed a bill that includes nearly $30 billion for ICE’s deportation and enforcement operations, tripling the agency’s budget.

DHS recently launched an initiative called “Defend the Homeland” with the goal of recruiting “patriots to join ICE law enforcement” and meet Trump’s goal of deporting 1 million immigrants per year.

The department has since announced new incentives or waived previous requirements to fulfill its goal.

“Your country is calling you to serve at ICE. In the wake of the Biden administration’s failed immigration policies, your country needs dedicated men and women of ICE to get the worst of the worst criminals out of our country,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement announcing the initiative.

On Wednesday, DHS said it was ending age limits to join ICE “so even more patriots will qualify to join ICE in its mission.”

Previously, new applicants needed to be at least 21 years old to join. They had to be no older than 37 to be criminal investigators and 40 to be considered as deportation officers. Asked whether there would be any age limits, DHS referred NBC News to a social media clip of Noem saying recruits could sign up at 18.

The department is also using its monetary incentives to try to lure recruits. The “significant new funding” from Congress will fund perks like the signing bonuses, federal student loan repayments and options for enhanced overtime pay and retirement benefits.

Houser raised concerns over the claim that more ICE officers would directly equate to better public safety.

“ICE now has this new gorge of money. But what is the public safety and national security threat? Is it the individuals ICE is now arresting? Many of them are not criminals; a lot of them have no removal orders,” he said.

Almost half of the people in ICE custody have neither been convicted of nor charged with any crime, ICE data shows. In late June, internal data obtained by NBC News showed that after six months of aggressive immigration enforcement and promises to focus on deporting violent criminals, the Trump administration has arrested and detained only a small fraction of the undocumented immigrants already known to ICE as having been convicted of sexual assault and homicide.

DHS did not immediately respond to questions about the arrests of those with criminal records compared with those without.

“Arresting people who are not public safety or national security threats because of the current atmosphere of limited resources just simply means that there are fewer resources for prioritizing people who pose bigger threats,” said Kathleen Bush-Joseph, a policy analyst with the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute.

Shifting resources to immigration enforcement

In its push, DHS is recruiting not just those new to law enforcement.

The agency has also faced some recent criticism for aggressively recruiting new agents from some of its most trusted local partners.

Jonathan Thompson, the executive director and CEO of the National Sheriffs’ Association, said in a previous interview that the recruitment efforts targeting local law enforcement were “bad judgment that will cause an erosion of a relationship that has been improving of late.”

“It’s going to take leadership at DHS to really take stock, because, hey, they need state and locals,” Thompson said.

The administration is also shifting current personnel to help arrest undocumented immigrants — including more than 5,000 personnel from across federal law enforcement agencies and up to 21,000 National Guard troops, according to an operation plan described to NBC News by three sources with knowledge of the personnel allocations who detailed the previously unreported plans.

The plan, which is already underway, calls for using 3,000 ICE agents, including 1,800 from Homeland Security Investigations, which generally investigates transnational crimes and is not typically involved in arresting noncriminal immigrants. In addition, it involves 2,000 Justice Department employees from the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Drug Enforcement Administration and 500 employees from Customs and Border Protection. It also includes 250 IRS agents, some of whom may be used to provide information on the whereabouts of immigrants using tax information, while others would have the authority to make arrests, according to the operation plan.

“You have people, literally, whose job it is to go after fentanyl being forced to spend their time arresting grandmas on the streets of Los Angeles,” said Scott Shuchart, who was an ICE official in the Biden administration. “That is a huge and bizarre public safety trade off.”

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson previously said in a statement: “Enforcing our immigration laws and removing illegal aliens is one big way President Trump is ‘Making America Safe Again.’ But the president can walk and chew gum at the same time. We’re holding all criminals accountable, whether they’re illegal aliens or American citizens. That’s why nationwide murder rates have plummeted, fugitives from the FBI’s most wanted list have been captured, and police officers are empowered to do their jobs, unlike under the Biden Administration’s soft-on-crime regime.”

The administration is also shifting some employees with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, during hurricane season, to assist ICE, DHS said in a statement Thursday.

“DHS is adopting an all-hands-on-deck strategy to recruit 10,000 new ICE agents. To support this effort, select FEMA employees will temporarily be detailed to ICE for 90 days to assist with hiring and vetting,” DHS said. “Their deployment will NOT disrupt FEMA’s critical operations. FEMA remains fully prepared for Hurricane Season.”

DHS said on July 31 that it has issued over “1,000 tentative job offers since July 4, marking a significant milestone in its ongoing recruitment efforts.” Some of the offers were to several retired officers.

The agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment about its seeking to recruit local law enforcement or shifting other federal personnel to ICE.

Houser said it will be important to see what kind of standards will be in place for new hires and whether they are being properly vetted and trained.

Houser said that traditionally it has been difficult to recruit such hires. “ICE officers take about 12 to 18 months to come online,” he said.

Shuchart said the Trump administration is “not irrational for wishing they could make things quicker. The question is, are they making things quicker in ways that make sense, or are they taking shortcuts that are dangerous?”

He said that prioritizing increasing the number of deportation officers could be “exacerbating the problems.”

“If you actually wanted the immigration system to work, you would be hiring thousands of immigration judges, you would be funding prosecutors, you would be funding defense lawyers,” he said. “If what we wanted was a fair and fast system, it would be the complete opposite of this.”

ICE is leaning hard on recruitment, but immigration experts say that could come at a price
ICE is using signing bonuses and a celebrity endorsement to encourage Americans to join its ranks. Experts doubt that the recruitment will improve public safety.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ice-recruitment-dean-cain-signing-bonus-noem-immigration-rcna223463

MeidasTouch News: Trump Threatens to Seize Control of Washington DC and ‘Federalize’ the City

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In a controversial escalation, Trump warns he may assume direct authority over the nation’s capital to tackle crime and governance failures, imposing federal control unless local officials act swiftly.

President Donald Trump warned Tuesday that his administration could assume direct federal control over Washington, D.C., if the city’s government fails to take stronger action against crime.

In a post on social media, Trump accused local leaders of being too lenient on young offenders and called for sweeping changes to the city’s criminal laws.

“The Law in D.C. must be changed to prosecute these ‘minors’ as adults, and lock them up for a long time, starting at age 14,” the president wrote.

Trump said his administration was prepared to step in if necessary.

“If D.C. doesn’t get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City.”

The statement comes amid rising political debate over crime in the nation’s capital and renewed discussions about the limits of D.C.’s home rule, which grants the city self-governance but leaves ultimate authority with Congress and the president.

Trump Threatens to Seize Control of Washington DC and ‘Federalize’ the City

https://meidasnews.com/news/trump-threatens-to-seize-control-of-washington-dc-and-federalize-the-city

Washington Post: He left Iran 40 years ago. He may be deported to Romania. Or Australia.

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The withholding of a removal order that Reza Zavvar felt protected him from deportation is now being wielded by the Trump administration to send him to a country he doesn’t know.

Sharp knocks on the front door interrupted Firouzeh Firouzabadi’s Saturday morning coffee. On the porch of her suburban Maryland home were two law enforcement agents and a very familiar pit bull mix named Duke.

“Can you take this dog?” Firouzabadi recalled one of the men saying. “I said, ‘This is my son’s dog. Where is he?’ They wouldn’t say.”

At that moment, her adult son, Reza Zavvar, was handcuffed in the back of an SUV parked two houses down in the Gaithersburg neighborhood where the Iranian-born family has lived since 2009 — apprehended, he later said, that late June day by at least five federal immigration agents in tactical gear who told Zavvar they had been waiting for him to take Duke out for his regular morning walk.

More than a month later, Zavvar, 52, remains in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody,part of a surge of arrests of immigrants with standing court orders barring their deportation to their native countries.

The Trump administration has increasingly turned to sending people to third countries. In court papers, ICE said it plans to send Zavvar to Australia or Romania. He has no ties to either place.

Zavvar left Tehran alone when he was 12, arriving in Virginia in 1985 on a student visa secured by his parents as a way to escape eventual conscription into the Iranian army. He eventually received U.S. asylum, and then a green card.

His family joined him and they settled in Maryland, but in his 20s, Zavvar’s guilty pleas in two misdemeanor marijuana possession cases jeopardized his immigration status. In 2007, an immigration judge issued a withholding of removal order, determining it was unsafe for Zavvar to return to Iran. He built a life, went to college and has been working as a white-collar recruiter for a consulting firm.

…

So he pleaded guilty 27 years ago to a couple marijuana possessions charges (legal today in 24-40 states, depending on purpose of usage) and now ICE wants to deport him to a third country (possibly Romania or Australia).

Click one of the links below to read the rest of the article.

He left Iran 40 years ago. He may be deported to Romania. Or Australia.
Handcuffed outside his Maryland home while walking his dog, Reza Zavvar is among a surging number of immigrants arrested with standing court orders barring deportation to their native countries.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/08/03/immigration-arrests-third-country-removals

He left Iran 40 years ago. He may be deported to Romania. Or Australia.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/he-left-iran-40-years-ago-he-may-be-deported-to-romania-or-australia/ar-AA1JOsY5