A Boston federal judge said at a hearing May 29 that she planned to issue a preliminary injunction that blocks the Department of Homeland Security from revoking Harvard’s ability to enroll foreign exchange students.
The comments from U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs came as the Trump administration attempted to walk back its May 22 directive that immediately revoked Harvard’s participation in a federal exchange student program.
Tag Archives: Department of Homeland Security
CBS News: Trump admin. shakes up ICE leadership amid frustration with deportation levels, sources say
ICE leadership has faced intense pressure from the White House to increase arrests of migrants who are living in the U.S. illegally or under one of several temporary immigration programs the Trump administration is seeking to dismantle.
Stephen Miller, the White House’s deputy chief of staff, said Wednesday on Fox News that the administration is pushing ICE to carry out “a minimum” of 3,000 arrests per day — a target that would amount to an unprecedented expansion of immigration enforcement.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-administration-shakes-up-ice-leadership-over-deportation-levels
Talking Points Memo: The ‘Invasion’ Invention: The Far Right’s Long Legal Battle to Make Immigrants the Enemy
The Trump administration is using the claim that immigrants have “invaded” the country to justify possibly suspending habeas corpus, part of the constitutional right to due process. A faction of the far right has been building this case for years.
When top Trump adviser Stephen Miller threatened on May 9 that the administration is “actively looking at” suspending habeas corpus in response to an “invasion” from undocumented immigrants, he was operating on a fringe legal theory that a right-wing faction has been working to legitimize for more than a decade.
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Hard-liners have referred to immigrants as “invaders” as long as the U.S. has had immigration. By 2022, invasion rhetoric, which had previously been relegated to white nationalist circles, had become such a staple of Republican campaign ads that most of the public agreed an invasion of the U.S. via the southern border was underway.
Now, however, the claim that the U.S. is under invasion has become the legal linchpin of President Donald Trump’s sweeping anti-immigrant campaign.
The claim is Trump’s central justification for invoking the Alien Enemies Act to deport roughly 140 Venezuelans to CECOT, the Salvadoran megaprison, without due process. (The administration cited different legal authority for the remaining deportees.) The Trump administration contends they are members of a gang, Tren de Aragua, that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is directing to infiltrate and operate in the United States. Lawyers and families of many of the deportees have presented evidence the prisoners are not even members of Tren de Aragua.
The contention is also the throughline of Trump’s day one executive order “Protecting the American People Against Invasion.” That document calls for the expansion of immigration removal proceedings without court hearings and for legal attacks against sanctuary jurisdictions, places that refuse to commit local resources to immigration enforcement.
So far, no court has bought the idea that the U.S. is truly under invasion….
And therein lies the problem: The Trump regime is off pursuing an unconstitutional tangent to solve a problem that is improperly framed as an “invasion”.
It’s a long well-researched article. Please click on the link below and read the entire article.
MSNBC: Trump admin regulators launch investigation into Media Matters, adding to pattern
If it seems as if there have been a lot of new federal investigations into Democrats and their allies lately, it’s not your imagination.
But it’s important to remember that many of the White House’s political antagonists are, in fact, facing the kind of investigations that Trump has in mind. The New York Times reported:
The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday opened an investigation into Media Matters, a liberal advocacy organization that has published research on hateful and antisemitic content on X, according to two people familiar with the inquiry. The regulator said in a letter sent to the organization that it was investigating the group, which is aligned with Democrats, over whether it illegally colluded with advertisers, according to the people.
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The public has learned in recent weeks that the administration — led by a president whose second-term “revenge tour” has been unsubtle — is also investigating and/or prosecuting a variety of Democratic officials and candidates, including Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New York Attorney General Letitia James and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy.
This dovetails with the president directing the Justice Department to go after Christopher Krebs, who led the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency; which came on the heels of Trump pressing the Department of Homeland Security to investigate Miles Taylor, a former high-ranking DHS official. The president did this not because there’s evidence of Krebs or Taylor having done anything wrong, but because they defied him several years ago. They went on his enemies list, and now he’s exacting revenge.
Around the same time, Trump also directed the Justice Department to investigate ActBlue, the Democratic Party’s most important fundraising platform.
And did I mention the investigation into former FBI director James Comey? Because that’s underway, too.
Trump and his team are also going after law firms, universities and news organizations they consider political foes of the White House.
What’s more, given Ed Martin’s new responsibilities at the Justice Department, this overtly and abusive partisan pattern is likely to intensify.
So Trump hates everybody?
Axios recently noted, “In the final days of the 2024 campaign, Axios identified a list of perceived adversaries who fit what Trump ominously described as ‘the enemies from within.’ As president, he has taken steps to retaliate against virtually all of them.” That was two months ago. The problem is vastly worse now, and there’s no reason to believe conditions will improve anytime soon.
Alternet: ‘I don’t appreciate being lied to’: Judge threatens Trump admin with ‘serious consequences’
POLITICO writer Josh Gerstein reports a federal judge is demanding the Trump administration explain what looks like misinformation they shared with the court.
Proclaiming “I will not be strung along,” U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes set a hearing this morning to determine if the Trump administration is trying to shutter three important Department of Homeland Security (DHS) oversight offices in defiance of Constitutional arguments that only Congress has that power.
Reyes opted to set a follow-up hearing this morning after back-and-forth between the court and government attorneys at a May 22 hearing.
“I don’t appreciate being lied to,” Reyes said yesterday. “If that is indeed what has happened, there will be serious consequences.”
Attorneys for the Trump administration allegedly told the court last week that the U.S. ombudsman offices for the Citizenship & Immigration Services and the Office of Immigration Detention were still intact despite layoffs of hundreds of DHS employees, part-time employees and contract workers.
But a DHS staffer who department leaders had scheduled for termination submitted to the court an internal document saying “the entirety of the offices were eliminated.”
Reyes demanded DHS leaders immediately file statements to the court, under penalty of perjury, explaining the mixed information.
KRON San Francisco: Father of 4 detained by ICE at citizenship interview after living in US for 12 years
A 31-year-old Danish national who was going through the naturalization process after living in the U.S. for more than 10 years was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials during a routine appointment to finalize his citizenship, according to multiple media reports.
Kasper Eriksen, a green card holder with no criminal record, works as a welder in Sturgis, Mississippi, where he lives with his wife and four children. On April 15, he was unexpectedly taken into custody and later transferred to the LaSalle Detention Center in Louisiana, Newsweek reported.
The 31-year-old, according to his wife, Savannah Hobart Eriksen, first moved to the U.S. as an exchange student in 2009 and returned to Denmark.
He returned to the U.S. legally in 2013 after he and his wife married and he began the legal process of becoming an American citizen. In September 2024, according to the outlet, the Eriksens received word that his application was under review, and, on March 7, an interview for his naturalization application was scheduled.
ICE officials reportedly detained the 31-year-old for failing to file a single document, due in 2015, around the same time the couple lost their first child in a stillbirth. While grieving their loss, they forgot to file Form I-751, the Mississippi Free Press reported.
If he needed to file an I-751 in 2015, then he received only a 2-year green card “with conditions” in 2013. I-751 is the “Removal of Conditions” filing.
So he’s been wandering around the U.S. for the last 9-10 years with an expired Green Card? It never occurred to him that something was amiss?
If he had filed everything on time and followed up as appropriate, he should have been a citizen by 2019 — about 6 years ago.
There must be more to this story. Given the current regime in Washington and its focus on deportation counts, that might not matter much. 🙁
NBC News: U.S. citizen with REAL ID handcuffed and held in immigration raid before being released
The man told Noticias Telemundo that authorities took his ID from his wallet and told him it was fake before handcuffing him.
A U.S.-born citizen who was wrestled into the dirt, handcuffed and detained in a vehicle as part of an immigration raid had a REAL ID on him that was dismissed as fake, the man’s cousin said Friday.
Video of the arrest, aired by Noticias Telemundo, showed authorities grabbing Leonardo Garcia Venegas, 25, while at a job site in Foley, Alabama, on Wednesday and bending his arms behind him. Someone off-camera can be heard yelling, “He’s a citizen.”
Garcia had told Noticias Telemundo that “they grabbed me real bad” and the handcuffs were placed “very hard” on him.
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Garcia said he was released from the vehicle where he was held after he gave the arresting officials his Social Security number, which showed he is a U.S. citizen.
Knewz: ‘No Coincidence’: New Report into FBI Actions on Jan. 6
Knewz.com is reporting that FBI Director Kash Patel has announced that new information regarding the January 6 Capitol Riot will soon be made public. The incident involved the arrest of numerous Trump supporters who assaulted law enforcement and threatened public officials in Washington, DC. Investigations into the FBI’s actions during the riot have been ongoing, with US intelligence officials involved.
So let me guess — history is about to be rewritten to read the way Trump wants it to read?
Patel noted that significant information has been uncovered, particularly regarding potential involvement by undercover FBI agents during the riot. He claimed that the event has been politicized by the left. No official confirmation from Patel or the FBI verifies the claims yet.
Yup! As the tale evolves, it appears it was a left-wing (commies? Biden?) conspiracy!
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) wrote, “It’s no coincidence that FBI Director Wray announced his resignation just prior to the release of the IG report exposing activities of FBI confidential human sources at the Capitol on Jan 6. For four years, I pressed for answers on this. Now the malfeasance is finally exposed.”
Or possibly FBI Director Wray just didn’t want to hang around and hob-nob with all the stupid people & sycophants Trump’s been planting in the Department of Justice?
FBI officials provided the Department of Justice with a list of over 5,000 agents involved in investigations related to the Capitol riot. Former President Donald Trump claims he has faced unfair prosecution by the FBI and the Department of Justice under President Joe Biden.
Please call a wambulance for King Donald.
Following Trump’s inauguration, many prosecutors handling riot-related cases have been dismissed by officials appointed by the White House at the Justice Department. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan stated, “This report confirms what we suspected. The FBI had encouraged and tasked confidential human sources to be at the Capitol that day. There were 26 total present. Four entered the Capitol and weren’t charged, which is not the same treatment that other Americans received.“
The FBI did it! The FBI did it! The FBI did it! The FBI did it! The FBI did it! The FBI did it! The FBI did it! The FBI did it! The FBI did it! The FBI did it! The FBI did it! The FBI did it! The FBI did it! The FBI did it! The FBI did it! The FBI did it! The FBI did it! The FBI did it! The FBI did it!
Herr Patel, please come home from the nightclub & sober up!
Associated Press: Trump administration releases people to shelters it threatened to prosecute for aiding migrants
The Trump administration has continued releasing people charged with being in the country illegally to nongovernmental shelters along the U.S.-Mexico border after telling those organizations that providing migrants with temporary housing and other aid may violate a law used to prosecute smugglers.
Border shelters, which have long provided lodging, meals and transportation to the nearest bus station or airport, were rattled by a letter from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that raised “significant concerns” about potentially illegal activity and demanded detailed information in a wide-ranging investigation. FEMA suggested shelters may have committed felony offenses against bringing people across the border illegally or transporting them within the United States.
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement continued to ask shelters in Texas and Arizona to house people even after the March 11 letter, putting them in the awkward position of doing something that FEMA appeared to say might be illegal. Both agencies are part of the Department of Homeland Security.
Raw Story: ‘Another loss in court for Trump’ as teenager released from immigration custody
A Georgia teenager who was detained by federal deportation officers has been released from custody on Thursday, according to a CBS News report.
They claim Ximena Arias Cristobal was released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after a judge granted her bond.
The 19-year-old was held at the ICE detention facility in Lumpkin, Georgia, after a traffic stop led to her arrest.
Her Immigration attorney, Dustin Baxter, said she was granted a $1,500 bond, which is the lowest amount allowed by law.