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USA Today: Lawyer details ‘horrendous conditions’ faced by 11th grader detained by ICE

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“This kid has been sleeping on a cement floor for five days, no access to a shower; he’s brushed his teeth twice,” said Marcelo Gomes da Silva’s immigration attorney.

Sleeping on a cement floor in a windowless room. Only brushing your teeth twice in five days and never getting to shower. Being mocked by a guard.

These are among the “horrendous conditions” that Massachusetts high school junior Marcelo Gomes da Silva endured while being held by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, according to his lawyer Robin Nice.

Gomes Da Silva, 18, was arrested by ICE agents on May 31 when he was stopped on his way to volleyball practice with friends in his hometown of Milford. Federal officials said they targeted da Silva’s father, Joao Paulo Gomes-Pereira, who they say is an undocumented immigrant from Brazil, but they detained Gomes da Silva − who came to the United States at the age of 7 with his parents − when they realized he had overstayed his visa.

According to Nice, Gomes Da Silva was subsequently detained for five nights in cells that are intended to hold detainees for hours before being transferred. The cells lack access to basic amenities like beds and showers.

“The Burlington (Massachusetts) facility is not a detention center, it’s a holding cell,” Nice told USA TODAY after a June 5 hearing in Gomes da Silva’s case, which has drawn nationwide attention and fervent local opposition to his detention and possible deportation.

“It’s deplorable,” she added.

Nice first raised the issue in a federal immigration court hearing on whether he would be granted bail.

“He’s being held in just awful conditions no one should be subjected to: sleeping on a cement floor for just a few hours per night,” Nice began, before she was cut off by Immigration Judge Jenny Beverly, who noted the hearing was not the proper venue to raise the issue.

Shackles, teasing, and solitary confinement

Nice provided more details on her client’s confinement in a press conference after the hearing, in which the judge set a $2,000 bond for Gomes da Silva’s release, and in a subsequent interview with USA TODAY.

“This kid has been sleeping on a cement floor for five days, no access to a shower, he’s brushed his teeth twice. He’s sharing a room with men twice his age,” Nice said at the press conference outside the Chelmsford, Massachusetts federal immigration court.

At one point, Gomes da Silva was taken to a hospital emergency room because he was suffering severe headaches and vision loss stemming from a high school volleyball injury days earlier. When he was transferred to and from the hospital, he was handcuffed and kept in leg shackles and then moved to a different room, Nice said.

“He got back to the holding facility at 4 am and then was put in what I would refer to as solitary confinement: it was a room without anyone else, and all of these rooms that people are held in, there is no window,” Nice said. “There is no yard time, because it’s not set up for that.”

“If you are detained in the Burlington ICE facility, you do not see the light of day,” she said. “You don’t know what time it is.”

The isolation that da Silva subsequently endured made him so “desperately lonely” that he took to banging on the walls of his cell to get someone to come talk to him, Nice told USA TODAY. The guards, who he said mostly ignored him, nicknamed him “the knocker” in response.

When Gomes da Silva was held in the room with a larger group, one of the guards played a cruel practical joke on the detainees, Nice said:

“He said when ICE opens the door it means either someone’s coming in or someone’s getting released, so everyone perks up when they open the door. So he sees in a little slit in the door window, one ICE officer motion to another and says ‘watch this,’ and so one ICE officer opens the door to the cell and just stands their for a minute and then says, ‘psych!’ And closes the door. And everyone had just perked up,” Nice recounted.

The isolation in the ICE holding facility extended beyond its walls, Nice said. There was no way for her to call her client there, and he could only make one call for two minutes per day − and not even every day.

Nice wasn’t able to get in to see Gomes da Silva until the fifth day of his confinement. He was so shut off from the outside world that he didn’t know his varsity volleyball team had lost in the semi-finals of the state tournament, even though the match drew media coverage.

ICE did not respond to USA TODAY’s request for comment on Nice’s allegations.

In a statement on June 2, Patricia Hyde, acting field director for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations’ in Boston defended Gomes da Silva’s detention and said the agency intends to pursue deportation proceedings.

“When we go into the community and find others who are unlawfully here, we’re going to arrest them,” Hyde said. “He’s 18 years old and he’s illegally in this country. We had to go to Milford looking for someone else and if we come across someone else who is here illegally, we’re going to arrest them.”

‘Nobody deserves to be down there’

Later on June 5, Gomes da Silva himself addressed reporters after posting the $2,000 bond and being released.

“Nobody deserves to be down there,” da Silva told reporters. “You sleep on concrete floors. The bathroom — I have to use the bathroom in the open with like 35-year-old men. It’s humiliating.”

Gomes da Silva also said they were given only crackers for lunch and dinner. Nice told USA TODAY he was also fed what he described as an undefined “mush” that was “like oatmeal, but not oatmeal.”

A twice-weekly churchgoer, Gomes da Silva asked the guards for a bible but was not provided with one.

Beside him were U.S. Reps. Seth Moulton and Jake Auchincloss, both Democrats from Massachusetts, who said they returned from Washington, D.C., on Thursday to speak with da Silva and to inspect the detention center.

Consequences of an immigration crackdown

The Trump administration has sought to ramp up deportations of undocumented immigrants, including those like da Silva who were brought here as children and have no criminal record. ICE reported holding 46,269 people in custody in mid-March, well above the agency’s detention capacity of 41,500 beds.

USA TODAY has previously reported on allegations of conditions in ICE detention similar to what Gomes da Silva and Nice described.

In March, four women held at the Krome North Processing Center in Miami said they were chained for hours on a prison bus without access to food, water or a toilet. They also alleged they were told by guards to urinate on the floor, slept on a concrete floor, and only got one three-minute shower over the course of three or four days in custody.

The allegations come after two men at Krome died in custody on Jan. 23 and Feb. 20.

Lawyer details ‘horrendous conditions’ faced by 11th grader detained by ICE
“This kid has been sleeping on a cement floor for five days, no access to a shower; he’s brushed his teeth twice,” said the teenager’s attorney.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/06/05/marcelo-gomes-da-silva-ice-conditions/84057203007

Minneapolis Star Tribune: The Trump administration is turning up the pressure on Minnesota

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Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, said the Republican White House is ‘actively against’ the state amid growing list of federal investigations, funding freezes.

President Donald Trump’s administration has adopted an aggressive posture toward Minnesota in his second term, launching a series of investigations into the state’s laws, canceling federal dollars with no warning and conducting sweeping law enforcement raids without any advance word to local authorities.

A probe into Minnesota’s affirmative action laws, announced last week, is the latest salvo in an escalating battle between the White House and the Democrats who run the state. The relationship is noticeably more hostile than in Trump’s first term.

The Justice Department’s newest challenge to Minnesota hinged on a policy issued by the state Department of Human Services requiring supervisors to provide justification if they hire a non-diverse candidate. The protocol has been in place since 2002, tied to a state law passed nearly four decades ago, according to the state agency.

The White House has been aggressive in challenging blue-state policies out of step with its agenda. Since Trump returned to office in January, his administration has launched investigations and court challenges to Minnesota’s laws. It also has made moves that directly affected the day-to-day operations of the state, including canceling funding without warning and slowing or halting communication between agencies.

“They are actively against us,” said DFL Gov. Tim Walz, who has become a prominent foe to Trump since his stint on the national Democratic ticket last year.

Walz avoided public clashes with Trump’s first administration but now openly admonishes the president and his allies.

The DOJ is pursuing four probes in Minnesota ranging from state laws surrounding transgender athletes, college tuition rates for undocumented students and, on the local level, a policy instituted by the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office directing prosecutors to consider race in charging decisions and plea deals.

In announcing the probe of Minnesota’s diversity hiring policy, U.S. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said last week the Civil Rights Division “will not stand by while states impose hiring mandates that punish Americans for their race or sex.”

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison called the DOJ’s investigations “garbage” and “nonsense” pursuits without merit during an interview Monday with the Minnesota Star Tribune. He said he believes the Trump administration is targeting predominantly Democratic states.

“We’re probably more targeted than a red state,” Ellison said.

Another major blow to Minnesota by the feds came in late May when the same Justice Department division moved to dissolve Minneapolis’ federal consent decree, the long-awaited agreement brokered between the DOJ under the Biden administration and Minneapolis meant to usher in sweeping changes to the city police department. In their dismissal, DOJ officials under Trump described such court-enforceable agreements as federal overreach and anti-police.

Some city officials and advocates decried the timing of the announcement, just days before the fifth anniversary of George Floyd’s death.

Such major decisions have sometimes come with no warning at all. The Trump administration abruptly froze and canceled some funding streams to Minnesota earlier this year, including grants to track measles, provide heating assistance and prevent flooding.

On Monday, Ellison joined a lawsuit against the Trump administration seeking to unfreeze more than $70 million for Minnesota schools. Ellison said Trump’s Education Department recently cut the funding “without warning.”

“They don’t cooperate,” Ellison said. “Even during Trump [term] one, it was common for us to be in touch with federal partners. Now, they don’t. It’s like they want to catch you by surprise.”

The hostilities go beyond investigations and court challenges to Minnesota’s laws. The state’s communication with the federal government has ground to a halt, Walz said. When state officials asked for a meeting with a local Veterans Affairs official, they were told it would take six to eight weeks to get an answer.

“If I want to talk to him now or my administration wants to talk to him, we have to put in a request to D.C. It has to be approved by the White House in addition to the VA, before he is able to engage in any meaningful conversation with us,” Walz said.

Federal law enforcement agencies didn’t warn state officials before they raided a Mexican restaurant in south Minneapolis in June, Walz said. That raid prompted confrontations between protestors and law enforcement on E. Lake Street after misinformation spread that an immigration sweep was under way.

An exception is the local U.S. Attorney’s Office and FBI, which worked with state law enforcement to arrest suspect Vance Boelter after the assassination of Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband last month. Walz said the state has “fantastic relationships” with those two agencies.

But Trump refused to call Walz after the assassinations of the Hortmans and the serious wounding of state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife. Trump said it would be a waste of his time and then proceeded to insult the DFL governor. Vice President JD Vance did speak with Walz, however.

For his part, Walz also has been outwardly antagonistic toward Trump, comparing his administration to “wannabe dictators and despots” and accusing him of using federal immigration agents as a “modern-day Gestapo.” The Department of Homeland Security referred to Walz’s comments as “sickening.”

The broader breakdown in communication with the federal government is a notable change from Trump’s first term, when Walz could more easily reach administration officials. Walz told a group of States Newsroom editors in June that Vice President Mike Pence called him every couple of weeks during the COVID-19 pandemic to try to deliver masks and other relief.

Walz said he worries about how the federal government would treat Minnesota in a natural disaster. Critics have noted a contrast in how Trump treats blue and red states; he promised full support for Texas following deadly flash floods but criticized elected Democrats in California who sought federal help after wildfires devastated Los Angeles.

“The way California was treated on wildfires, that worries all of us,” Walz said. “How are we going to be treated when these things happen?”

It’s King Donald vs. America! King Donald will lose!

The Trump administration is turning up the pressure on Minnesota
Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, said the Republican White House is ‘actively against’ the state amid growing list of federal investigations, funding freezes.

https://www.startribune.com/in-trumps-second-term-walz-says-federal-government-is-actively-against-minnesota/601420489

Miami Herald: ‘Tone Down’: Shots Fired at Border Patrol, Sparking Fury

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A shooting at a Border Patrol facility in McAllen, Texas, has prompted White House Press Secretary Karoline [Bimbo #1] Leavitt to urge Democratic lawmakers to moderate their criticism of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has reported a nearly 700% increase in assaults on ICE officers. [Bimbo #1] Leavitt also called on progressive lawmakers to engage directly with ICE and CBP personnel to foster greater respect and understanding.

Your masked Gestapo thugs are getting the reception that they have earned.

A shooting at a Border Patrol facility in McAllen, Texas, has prompted White House Press Secretary Karoline [Bimbo #1] Leavitt to urge Democratic lawmakers to moderate their criticism of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has reported a nearly 700% increase in assaults on ICE officers. [Bimbo #1] Leavitt also called on progressive lawmakers to engage directly with ICE and CBP personnel to foster greater respect and understanding.

Respect is earned, not accorded on demand. Your masked Gestapo thugs are coming up way short when it comes to earning respect.

[Bimbo #1] Leavitt added, “These are honorable Americans who are just simply trying to do their job to enforce the law. They go home to their families every night, just like we all do, and they deserve respect and dignity for trying to enforce our nation’s immigration laws and to remove public safety threats from our communities.”

There is nothing honorable about running around with masks on and kidnapping people. They are scum. They are pigs.

… Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) said, “What is deranged and cruel and outrageous is that, literally, we are seeing ICE agents — I assume they‘re ICE agents. They say they are. They don‘t have any identification. They‘re wearing masks. They‘re in plain clothes. They are coming and kidnapping and disappearing people on the streets of the United States.”

‘Tone Down’: Shots Fired at Border Patrol, Sparking Fury

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/tone-down-shots-fired-at-border-patrol-sparking-fury/ss-AA1IJQUo

Alternet: Trump just made a big mistake — and he has no one to blame but himself | Opinion

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The Epstein scandal is the best thing to happen to the cause of freedom and democracy in a very long time. I don’t remember the last occasion when liberals could hope to break the grip that Donald Trump has had, not only on the Republicans but on the Washington press corps. With this story, there’s finally daylight between him and his base. MAGA is facing a crisis of faith and with that, there’s hope.

Which is why I was genuinely stunned yesterday to see former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dismiss the Epstein scandal as just another distraction. “Whether it’s Jeffrey Epstein or Alcatraz, it’s all off the subject of what they’re doing with this budget that’s harmful to meeting the kitchen-table needs of the American people,” she said.

MSNBC’s James Downie put it well: “The public is pissed about Epstein in no small part because he was a rich guy who got away with heinous crimes, because he deliberately cultivated rich friends,” he said. “That’s an inequality story. The only way it could be closer to ‘kitchen-table issues’ is if the files were tucked in a goddamn pocketbook!”

Aside from that, she’s missing the bigger picture. The Epstein scandal has grown so fast that Trump now risks forfeiting the one thing that made him invincible in the eyes of many – that made it possible for him to credibly claim that he could shoot someone and never lose a supporter. That one thing is him being the exception to the rule.

In this case, the except to the rule of Epstein.

Fact is, the president was intimately involved with the disgraced financier and child-sex trafficker. (You can read about their history in today’s Times.) But the MAGA faithful never believed it, or if they did, they didn’t believe Trump deserved the same level of scrutiny. Why?

Because the cult of MAGA is animated by a conspiracy theory, one that holds that Trump was sent by God to fulfill a prophecy, as a hero who saves America from a secret cabal of powerful (Jewish) pedophiles who traffic young girls for sex to untouchable elites. In MAGA lore, Epstein came to represent this shadowy, malevolent confederacy. The idea was that Trump would get reelected in 2024 and bring them all to justice.

So even if there was concern about old pictures and videos of Trump palling around with Epstein, Trump couldn’t be that bad, because QAnon – the conspiracy theory’s name – said that Trump was MAGA’s champion. Enemies like Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and George Soros were guilty and deserving of death, but Trump? He was the exception to that rule, the exception that would make America great again.

As long as MAGA believed in him as their savior, there was little he could do to lose their trust. He could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue. He could lead a paramilitary takeover of the US government. He could literally betray some supporters with the understanding that their sacrifice was for the greater good of saving little girls from monsters.

But then Trump made a mistake. He took MAGA’s faith for granted. He and US Attorney General Pam Bondi believed they would go wherever he told them to, even if the US Department of Justice concluded that there was no list of Epstein clients and there was no blackmail ring. They pulled back the curtain to reveal that Trump is not only a mere man, but a con man. And if MAGA believed him, well, that’s on them.

Up to that point, it really didn’t matter how much reporting there was about the actual relationship between Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, because MAGA could explain away those facts as part of the QAnon prophecy. The (Jewish) media is part of the evil conspiracy against America, so naturally they are going to try to bring its savior down. Now that Trump has triggered a crisis of faith, things are different.

You can see the difference in Trump’s reaction to the latest by the Wall Street Journal. It reported Thursday that he gave Epstein a “bawdy” note on his 50th birthday in which he drew the outline of a naked woman. He signed his name at the bottom as if the signature were her public hair. He included imaginary dialogue in which Trump says, “We have certain things in common, Jeffrey.” Trump concluded with saying: “Happy birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret.”

If you’re willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, which is what MAGA has been doing for the last decade, there’s nothing to see here. But if you’re unwilling – if, in fact, you feel betrayed by a leader who said he’d reveal the secrets of America’s enemies but instead chose to protect those secrets – this might look like what it seems to be: Two grown men joking about their fondness for sex with underage girls.

It used to be that Trump could gut it out knowing that the rightwing media apparatus was behind him all the way. They could altogether shout down legitimate mainstream reporting. But the rightwing media apparatus – which includes men like Steven Bannon, Tim Pool, Tucker Carlson and Benny Johnson – made itself as powerful as it is by advancing Trump, in one way or another, as the leader of the cult of MAGA. In their view, he was never supposed to put himself in league with the Jewish conspiracy, yet that’s what he did, and now that he’s done so, these rightwing media personalities can’t accept it.

Therefore, Trump is in a position he has never been in. He must earn back trust from the MAGA faithful, trust that he used to safely assume was his. That’s why he ordered the attorney general to seek the release of grand jury testimony in the Jeffrey Epstein case. But in doing so, he opened space for more questions by the press corps, more demands by the rightwing media personalities, and more opportunities for his most loyal supporters to second-guess the purity of his intentions.

That’s not a distraction. That’s the whole ball game. Fortunately, many Democrats are taking advantage of it. They’re calling for the release of more documents, raising awareness of Trump’s hypocrisy and in general, they’re sewing doubt by hyping the idea that he’s hiding something. Nothing else has cracked Teflon Trump, but this might.

Pelosi ought to know better.

https://www.alternet.org/alternet-exclusives/trump-maga-epstein-2673383670

Fox News: Democrats fume over new plan to house illegal migrants in New Jersey, Indiana military bases

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Democrats said that move is ‘inhumane’ and would ‘jeopardizes military preparedness’

Military bases in both New Jersey and Indiana will soon be used by Homeland Security to house illegal immigrants, drawing a furious response from Democratic lawmakers.

Parts of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey and Camp Atterbury in Indiana will be repurposed and used as “temporary soft-sided holding facilities,” the Defense Department told Fox News Digital, citing a decision by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

New Jersey Democrats blasted the decision, warning it would harm military readiness and urging Republicans to join them in helping reverse it. Both bases were previously used to house thousands of Afghan refugees following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

“This is an inappropriate use of our national defense system and militarizes a radical immigration policy that has resulted in the inhumane treatment of undocumented immigrants and unlawful deportation of U.S. citizens, including children, across the country,” the group of Democrats said in a joint statement.

“Using our country’s military to detain and hold undocumented immigrants jeopardizes military preparedness and paves the way for ICE immigration raids in every New Jersey community. We have the greatest military in the world and using it as a domestic political tool is unacceptable and shameful.”

The statement was made by Reps. Herb Conaway, LaMonica McIver, Donald Norcross, Rob Menendez, Frank Pallone, Bonnie Watson Coleman, Josh Gottheimer and Nellie Pou as well as Sens. Cory Booker and Andy Kim. 

It is unclear when either site will open and a decision will depend on operational requirements and coordination with Homeland Security, the Defense Department said. 

Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst is a joint military base operated by U.S. Air Force, Army and Navy — the only tri-service base in the country. Spanning 42,00 acres, it’s home to 45,000 military and civilian personnel, making it one of the largest and most strategically important on the East Coast.

Camp Atterbury is an Army and Air National Guard base near Edinburgh that spans 34,000 acres and has been used for training brigades and hosting large-scale operations. 

Under the Trump administration, Homeland Security has been using detention facilities to house migrants while they await asylum hearings or deportation. 

The lawmakers said that Hegseth wrote to Conoway informing him of the decision. Hegseth wrote in the letter that the move would not negatively affect military training, operations, readiness, or any other military requirements, per NJ Spotlight News. 

New Jersey is already home to Delaney Hall and the Elizabeth Detention Center which are being used as immigration detention facilities, although they are privately operated. Delaney Hall was the scene where Democrat Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested and charged with trespassing in a clash with federal immigration officials in May. Rep. LaMonica McIver, D‑N.J., was later federally charged for allegedly interfering with federal officers during the same incident.

The news comes two weeks after President Donald Trump signed the Big Beautiful Bill into law, which allocated between $150 billion and $170 billion towards immigration enforcement over the next several years, $45 billion of which was carved out to expand immigration detention facilities. The funds are part of the Trump administration’s efforts to carry out the largest deportation operation in the nation’s history. 

Earlier this month, the Trump administration opened an immigration detention camp in Florida’s Everglades that is surrounded by alligators dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.”

Democrats fume over new plan to house illegal migrants in New Jersey, Indiana military bases
Military bases in both New Jersey and Indiana will soon be used by Homeland Security to house illegal immigrants, furious Democrat lawmakers who oppose the move have announced.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/democrats-fume-over-new-plan-house-illegal-migrants-new-jersey-indiana-military-bases

NBC News: Abused and abandoned immigrant youth on special visas fear the future after Trump changes

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Beneficiaries of the Special Immigrant Juveniles program no longer automatically get work permits and protection against deportation while they wait for the green card process.

Rodrigo Sandoval, 17, just graduated from high school in South Carolina. He gets excited when he talks about what he’d like to do — he’s interested in business administration, graphic design or joining the Navy — but his face becomes solemn when he talks about the future.

“I’ve noticed a lot of changes, especially in the Hispanic community. We live in constant fear of being deported, arrested and all that,” said Sandoval, who came to the U.S. at age 12, fleeing El Salvador due to gang violence that threatened his and his family’s life.

One of his earliest memories is when he was 5.

“It’s one of my traumas because they put a gun to my head. All I remember is crying out of fear,” said Sandoval, who is a beneficiary of the Special Immigrant Juvenile Status classification.

The SIJS classification, created by Congress in 1990 as part of the Immigration and Nationality Act, protects immigrant minors who have been victims of abuse, abandonment or neglect in their countries and gives them a path to permanent residency in the U.S. They must be under 21 or under 18 in some states, including South Carolina, where Sandoval lives.

Last month, the Trump administration ended a measure in place since 2022 that automatically issued the young immigrants work permits and protection from deportation as they waited for their green card applications, which can take years.

“Once they’re approved for special immigrant juvenile status, they’re put on a waiting list, which is currently very, very long. We typically tell clients it’ll probably take more than four or five years,” Jennifer Bade, an immigration attorney based in Boston said in an interview with Noticias Telemundo.

Now after changes under the Trump administration, work permit and Social Security applications must be processed separately, complicating the process for many young people because, in many cases, granting the applications depends on visa availability.

“It’s very strange that they’re in that category because SIJS is about humanitarian protection for young immigrants. There shouldn’t be visa limits for these young people,” said Rachel Davidson, director of the End SIJS Backlog Coalition, a nonprofit organization that advises SIJS recipients and proposes solutions to tackle the backlog in their green card applications.

Verónica Tobar Thronson, a professor at Michigan State University’s School of Law, said many of these young immigrants may not be able to get work permits or renew current ones. “If they don’t have a work permit or an ID, they can’t travel, they can’t enter a federal building, they can’t apply for a Social Security number — they also don’t qualify for student loans if they enroll in college, and in some states, they can’t apply for assistance with medical or social services because they don’t qualify for anything at all.”

In information sent to Noticias Telemundo, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services stated that foreign nationals from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras currently make up the majority of SIJS applicants, “and collectively represent more than 70% of all SIJS applications,” although they did not specify the total number.

USCIS stated to Noticias Telemundo that while it’s not rescinding protection from deportation from those who already have it, it has the “right to rescind the grant of deferred action and revoke the related employment authorization at any time, at its discretion.”

More than 107,000 young SIJS beneficiaries from 151 countries were on the waiting list to apply for a green card as of March 2023, according to data collected by groups such as the End SIJS Backlog Coalition and Tulane Law School’s Immigrant Rights Clinic.

Of the approximately 280,000 SIJS applications approved in the last 12 fiscal years, “more than 139,000 have been filed or approved for adjustment of status,” according to USCIS.

The current processing time for applications for the program (the SIJ I-360 form) is less than five months, according to USCIS. However, the annual visa cap creates a bottleneck because, regardless of the speed of SIJS processing, the number of visas issued remains the same.

Both Rodrigo Sandoval and his 20-year-old sister, Alexandra, have already been approved for SIJS but are on the waiting list to apply for permanent residency. Both Alexandra’s and her brother Rodrigo’s work permits expire in 2026, and according to their lawyer, they still have three to five years to wait before adjusting their status.

Though they currently have protections under SIJS, Alexandra is still worried about what could happen. “If the police stop us and ask for our documents, it’s all over because we risk being deported.”

Hiromi Gómez, a 17-year-old student with SIJS, said it took her nine years to get to apply for a green card, “and I still haven’t received it.” She worries about more recent young immigrants who will have a harder time securing protections due to recent changes.

Khristina Siletskaya is a South Carolina-based immigration attorney who, among other things, handles cases involving SIJS beneficiaries, including the Sandoval siblings. The Ukrainian-born attorney said that despite changes in U.S. immigration policies, “all hope is not lost.”

“This new change that everyone is talking about eliminated the automatic granting of deferred action (from deportation). However, the United States continues to approve cases of special immigrant juvenile status; that continues to operate normally,” the lawyer explained.

Siletskaya and other experts emphasize that the recent changes are a return to the past, because the automatic granting of deferred action and work permits was implemented in May 2022 but did not exist before. Attorneys for young people with SIJS are exploring other legal avenues to assist them in their search for protection.

“Does this mean young people can’t get Social Security? First, you can try the Department of Social Services. Often, you may be able to get Social Security, but it will indicate that you’re not eligible for work purposes,” Siletskaya said. “So young people could at least get emergency Medicaid, but that will depend on each state.”

Regarding work permits, the attorney said there are ways to try to obtain one. The first is to apply for one separately and ask USCIS to grant it. Siletskaya said she has several cases where they’ve initiated this process, but warns that she has not yet received a response in those cases.

Another option explored by attorneys is to obtain a work permit based on parole, since a young person with SIJS is often granted parole as they work to adjust their status and obtain a green card.

Following the recent changes to SIJS, a group of 19 lawmakers led by Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem expressing concern about the changes. The letter said it “leaves abused and abandoned youth in legal limbo while heightening their vulnerability to exploitation.”

In the letter, the members of Congress said they had received reports “of an increase in the number of detentions and deportations of SIJS beneficiaries.”

Cortez Masto and other Democrats introduced the Vulnerable Immigrant Youth Protection Act in Congress, seeking to change visa categories for SIJS beneficiaries and prevent delays in adjusting their status, among other things. But the lack of Republican lawmakers supporting it could hamper its passage.

The bill is still in its early stages of discussion in the Senate, according to Cortez Masto’s office, and members of Congress have not yet received an official response to the letter sent to Noem.

Both Siletskaya and other attorneys consulted by Noticias Telemundo recommend that young people with SIJS avoid taking risks and remain cautious.

“Don’t get into trouble. If you don’t have a driver’s license, let your friends drive. Stay discreet, respect the law, stay out of situations where you might be exposed, and wait until you receive your green card,” she said.

Despite immigration changes and other challenges, Rodrigo Sandoval said he wanted to make the most of every minute of his work permit, which expires next year. That’s why he has two jobs: He’s a barber and also works on construction sites to help his family.

“My message to people is to keep fighting and keep dreaming big. I don’t think there are limits because we as Hispanics are fighters. And this comes from other generations,” he said, getting emotional. “The truth is, what we have to do is not give up.”

Abused and abandoned immigrant youth sue Trump administration over deportation fears
Beneficiaries of the Special Immigrant Juveniles program no longer automatically get work permits and protection against deportation while they wait for the green card process.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/abused-immigrant-youth-fear-deportation-trump-rcna219060

Western Journal: Dem Gov Who Bragged About Hiding Illegal Alien in Home Gets More Bad News: A Subpoena

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New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is term-limited and will be replaced next January; considering he has an approval rating somewhere between George Santos and Norovirus, my assumption is that he won’t be seeking higher office for at least a little while.

That being said, he might not be out of the news when his successor gets elected this November — all thanks to a stupid admission he made during what The New York Times charitably described as “a freewheeling discussion at a New Jersey college” back in February.

According to a Friday report in the Times, Murphy is being subpoenaed by interim U.S. attorney Alina [Bimbo #4] Habba, the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey, regarding comments he made about hiding a woman who he intimated might have been an illegal immigrant in his attic.

“FBI agents have since sought to interview at least four witnesses in connection with the comments, two of the people said, with one adding that the governor had been subpoenaed but not questioned,” the paper reported.

“Two of the people with knowledge of the investigation involving Mr. Murphy’s comments indicated that it was separate from any Justice Department inquiry related to New Jersey’s so-called sanctuary policy, which has been upheld by a federal appeals court. There has been no public sign of that inquiry moving forward.”

The investigation began after remarks Murphy made at an event hosted by progressive group Blue Wave New Jersey.

“There is someone in our broader universe whose immigration status is not yet at the point that they are trying to get it to,” Murphy said.

“And we said, ‘You know what? Let’s have her live at our house above our garage.’

“And good luck to the feds coming in to try to get her,” he added, defiantly.

At the time, border czar Tom Homan said that Murphy’s remarks were definitely on his radar.

“I think the governor is pretty foolish,” Homan said. “I got note of it, won’t let it go. We’ll look into it.”

“And if he’s knowingly — knowingly — harboring, concealing an illegal alien, that’s a violation of Title 8, United States Code 1324. I would seek prosecution, or the secretary would seek prosecution.”

Meanwhile a representative for the governor told the New York Post that Murphy had been “misinterpreted” and that no undocumented garage-dwellers were at the governor’s house.

“No one’s ever lived in the home” in the way Murphy described, the spokesperson said, adding that the individual he was referring to was legally in the country, as well.

Well, now that he’s potentially under subpoena, we’ll see how much of that is true — although both sides are keeping tight-lipped about where this is going.

“The governor’s office declined to comment on the federal inquiry on Friday. A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office also declined to comment,” the Times reported.

“A person close to Mr. Murphy said the governor was not aware of any pending investigation against him.”

That being said, it could inject Murphy into a gubernatorial race that the Democrats definitely don’t want him involved in. Murphy won a second term by a slimmer-than-expected margin to MAGA favorite Jack Ciattarelli, a former member of the New Jersey General Assembly who’s running for the GOP again.

The Democrats, meanwhile, went safe with moderate-ish U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a veteran and watered-down wannabe Hillary type. (No bathroom servers, though — yet.)

The poll numbers, however, have already been closer than Dems would like when you consider that they’ve been running away from Murphy and wokeness.

If both of those were to rear their ugly heads in the heat of the campaign season, it’d be a heck of a shame — one Republicans and immigration hawks would welcome, both as an opportunity and as an example of where thoughtless progressive allyship will get you.

Dem Gov Who Bragged About Hiding Illegal Alien in Home Gets More Bad News: A Subpoena
Gov. Phil Murphy is being subpoenaed by interim U.S. attorney Alina Habba for comments he made about hiding an illegal alien in his home.
Dem Gov Who Bragged About Hiding Illegal Alien in Home Gets More Bad News

Popular Information: Trump manufactures a crisis in LA

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For years, President Trump has dreamed of mobilizing the military against protesters in the United States. On Saturday night, Trump made it a reality, ordering the deployment of 2,000 members of the California National Guard — against the wishes of state and local officials — in response to protests against federal immigration raids on workplaces in and around Los Angeles. By the time Trump issued the order, the protests consisted of a few dozen people at a Home Depot.

The move violated longstanding democratic norms that prohibit military deployment on American soil absent extraordinary circumstances. The last time the National Guard was mobilized absent a request from local officials was in 1965 — to protect civil rights protesters in Alabama marching from Selma to Montgomery.

Trump strongly advocated for using the military to quell racial justice protests in the summer of 2020. He encouraged governors to deploy the National Guard to “dominate” the streets. “If a city or state refuses to take the actions necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them,” Trump said.

Behind the scenes, Trump was even more ruthless. According to a 2022 memoir by former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Trump asked Esper if the military could shoot at people protesting George Floyd’s murder. “Can’t you just shoot them?” Trump allegedly asked. “Just shoot them in the legs or something?”

On another occasion that summer, according to a book by journalist Michael Bender, Trump announced that he was putting Army General Mark Milley, the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in charge of quelling the protests. This reportedly led to a shouting match:

“I said you’re in f—ing charge!” Trump shouted at him.

“Well, I’m not in charge!” Milley yelled back.

“You can’t f—ing talk to me like that!” Trump said. …

“Goddamnit,” Milley said to others. “There’s a room full of lawyers here. Will someone inform him of my legal responsibilities?”

The lawyers, including Attorney General Bill Barr, sided with Milley, and Trump’s demand was tabled. (Trump called Bender’s book “fake news.”)

During a March 2023 campaign rally in Iowa, Trump pledged to deploy the National Guard in states and cities run by Democrats, specifically mentioning Los Angeles:

You look at these great cities, Los Angeles, San Francisco, you look at what’s happening to our country, we cannot let it happen any longer… you’re supposed to not be involved in that, you just have to be asked by the governor or the mayor to come in, the next time, I’m not waiting. One of the things I did was let them run it, and we’re going to show how bad a job they do. Well, we did that. We don’t have to wait any longer.

In October 2023, the Washington Post reported that Trump allies were mapping out executive actions “to allow him to deploy the military against civil demonstrations.”

In an October 2024 interview on Fox News, Trump again pushed for the National Guard and military to be deployed against “the enemy within,” which he described as “radical left lunatics.”

“We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics,” Trump said. “And I think they’re the big — and it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen.”

Were there “violent mobs”?

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump’s mobilization of the National Guard was necessary because “violent mobs have attacked ICE Officers and Federal Law Enforcement Agents carrying out basic deportation operations in Los Angeles, California.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the National Guard would “support federal law enforcement in Los Angeles” in response to “violent mob assaults on ICE and Federal Law Enforcement.”

These claims were directly contradicted by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), which described Saturday’s protests as “peaceful.”

The LAPD statement said it “appreciates the cooperation of organizers, participants, and community partners who helped ensure public safety throughout the day.”

There were some reports of violence and property damage in Paramount and Compton, two cities located about 20 miles south of Los Angeles. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said it “arrested one person over the protest in Paramount” and “two officers had been treated at a local hospital for injuries and released.” As for property damage, “one car had been burned and a fire at a local strip mall had been extinguished.”

Trump’s order, however, says the unrest in California is so severe it constitutes “a form of rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States” that necessitates the mobilization of military personnel. Although any violence and property destruction is a serious matter, local law enforcement appears fully capable of responding to the situation.

Trump’s Unusual Legal Theory

The Posse Comitatus Act generally prohibits using the military for domestic law enforcement without specific statutory (or Constitutional) authority. The most famous exception to the Posse Comitatus Act is the Insurrection Act, which permits the President to deploy the military for domestic law enforcement under specific circumstances. But, historically, the Insurrection Act has “been reserved for extreme circumstances in which there are no other alternatives to maintain the peace.” It also requires the president to issue a proclamation ordering “the insurgents to disperse and retire peaceably to their abodes within a limited time.”

Trump, however, invoked a different federal law, 10 U.S.C. 12406. That provision lacks some of the legal and historical baggage of the Insurrection Act, but it also confers a more limited authority. That is why Trump’s proclamation authorizes the National Guard to “temporarily protect ICE and other United States Government personnel who are performing Federal functions, including the enforcement of Federal law, and to protect Federal property, at locations where protests against these functions are occurring or are likely to occur.” In other words, the National Guard is not authorized to engage in law enforcement activities, but to protect others doing that work. It remains to be seen whether the administration will respect these limitations in practice.

Trump is Confused

At 2:41 a.m. on Sunday morning, Trump posted: “Great job by the National Guard in Los Angeles after two days of violence, clashes and unrest.” At the time, the National Guard had not yet arrived in Los Angeles. Trump had spent the evening watching three hours of UFC fighting in New Jersey.

Trump also asserted, without evidence, that those protesting the immigration raids were “paid troublemakers.”

The National Guard arrived in Los Angeles much later on Sunday morning, when the streets were already quiet.

Trump told reporters on Sunday that he did not consider the protests an “insurrection” yet. About an hour later, Trump claimed on Truth Social that “violent, insurrectionist mobs are swarming and attacking our Federal Agents to try to stop our deportation operations.”

Trump’s order mobilizing the National Guard, however, likely inflamed tensions — and that may have been the point. Federal and state authorities clashed with protesters in downtown LA on Sunday afternoon. Law enforcement “used smoke and pepper spray to disperse protesters outside a federal detention center in downtown Los Angeles,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

Trump manufactures a crisis in LA
For years, President Trump has dreamed of mobilizing the military against protesters in the United States.

https://popular.info/p/trump-manufactures-a-crisis-in-la

Inquisitr: Kristi Noem Defends ‘Inhumane’ Conditions at Alligator Alcatraz in Latest Interview—Tells Immigrants to ‘Self Deport’

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Kristi Noem and NBC’s Kristen Welker didn’t exactly have a friendly Sunday chat. Instead, their exchange on Meet the Press got heated fast over Florida’s controversial new migrant detention center, grimly nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz.”

This sprawling facility in the Florida Everglades has space for nearly 4,000 people and is already holding about 900. It’s been under a harsh spotlight after Democratic lawmakers visited on Saturday. Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz didn’t mince words, calling it an “internment camp.” She and other Democrats claimed detainees were crammed “wall-to-wall” into cages, forced to drink water from sinks also used for the bathroom, and left sweltering in the brutal Florida heat.

“Our detention centers at the federal level are held to a higher standard than most local or state centers and even federal prisons. The standards are extremely high, now this is a state-run facility at Alligator Alcatraz —” she started before Welker jumped in.

“More than 30 people stuffed into a jail cell?” Welker shot back.

“I wish they would have said that back during the Biden administration and back when the Democrats were in the White House when they were piling people on top of each other on cement floors and they didn’t have two feet to move. They never did that, and that’s why this politics has to end,” she fired back.

Trying to clarify the setup, Noem added, “I wouldn’t call them jail cells, I would call them a facility where they are held and that are secure facilities, but are held to the highest levels of what the federal government requires for detention facilities –” before Welker cut in again.

“Democrats have called them cages,” Welker pressed.

Noem wasn’t backing down. She vowed to let cameras inside to document conditions firsthand, arguing it would show they’re better than facilities from Biden’s time. She even encouraged undocumented immigrants to avoid the centers altogether. Her advice? Self-deport, then come back legally.

Meanwhile, Trump administration Border Czar Tom Homan was on CNN’s State of the Union making his own digs at Democrats for suddenly caring about detention conditions now that Trump is back in charge.

“You didn’t see them complaining about, under Biden administration, people being held in a border patrol parking lot surrounded by a fence and sweltering heat, they ignored four years of open borders, historic migrant deaths, historic Americans dying from fentanyl, historic numbers of women and children being sex trafficked,” Homan said.

All of this comes as Trump’s administration keeps doubling down on aggressive deportation policies, trying to lock down the southern border, and triggering fresh legal challenges in the process.

Because apparently in American politics, even the debate over cages comes with its own round of finger-pointing, whataboutism, and promises to invite in the cameras, just in case anyone wants to watch the argument unfold in 4K.

Kristi Noem Defends ‘Inhumane’ Conditions at Alligator Alcatraz in Latest Interview—Tells Immigrants to ‘Self Deport’
Kristi Noem defends the controversial Alligator Alcatraz detention center in a heated exchange with NBC’s Kristen Welker.

Raw Story: Texas GOP poised to sink Trump DOJ’s plan to ‘screw over Democrats’: report

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The Trump administration’s efforts to make Texas a less competitive state in the midterm elections could be sunk by the state’s Republican party, according to a report by Democracy Docket.

At issue is a request from Trump’s Department of Justice for Texas state officials to redraw their congressional map. The request came in a letter sent by Attorney General Pam Bondi shortly after the deadly flood that killed more than 100 people in central Texas last week.

In the letter, dated July 7, Bondi says four congressional districts in Texas are unconstitutional because they were drawn using “race-based considerations.” Three Democrats currently hold seats in the contested districts: Rep. Al Green, Rep. Sylvia Garcia, and Rep. Mark Veasey. The fourth district is currently vacant, but was formerly held by Rep. Sylvester Turner before he died in March.

However, court testimony obtained by Democracy Docket shows DOJ’s underlying premise for redrawing the districts is false. Republican State Sen. Joan Huffman, who worked on the state’s 2021 redistricting effort, told a court on July 10 that he drew the congressional maps “blind to race.”

Voting rights lawyer Mark Elias said Sunday on Democracy Docket’s YouTube channel that this admission could completely upend Texas’s efforts to “screw over Democrats” in the upcoming 2026 primary election.

“Oh, what a tangled web they have weaved,” Elias said.

Experts have long considered Texas one of the worst gerrymandered states for congressional elections. The Gerrymandering Project, a nonpartisan nonprofit that identifies loopholes in state voting maps, gave Texas an “F” for its congressional election map because it creates a “significant Republican advantage.”

The efforts to make Texas less competitive also come at a time when Republicans are seeking to protect their slim majority in the House of Representatives. Over the last week, Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) and Rep. Mark Green (R-TN) both announced their retirement, which could complicate the Republicans’ ability to pass any legislation ahead of the midterms.

Texas GOP poised to sink Trump DOJ’s plan to ‘screw over Democrats’: report

https://www.rawstory.com/gop-2673149328