Tag Archives: Department of Homeland Security

Associated Press: Immigration official defends tactics against criticism of a heavy hand as arrests rise nationwide

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Todd Lyons, ICE’s acting director, turned emotional when asked to explain why officials wear masks. He said some have received death threats and been harassed online.

“I’m sorry if people are offended by them wearing masks, but I’m not going to let my officers and agents go out there and put their lives on the line, their family on the line because people don’t like what immigration enforcement is,” he said at a news conference in Boston to announce nearly 1,500 arrests in the region as part of a month-long “surge operation.”

Lyons was leaving the room when a reporter asked him about the masks. He returned to the podium.

“Is that the issue here that we’re just upset about the masks?” he asked. “Or is anyone upset about the fact that ICE officers’ families were labeled terrorists?”

Lyons may have been referring to comments by San Diego Councilman Sean Elo-Rivera, who called ICE officers “terrorists” after Friday’s restaurant raid. “This isn’t safety. It’s state-sponsored terrorism,” Elo-Rivera wrote on Instagram.

Gestapo? Terrorists? Thugs? ICE is receiving the reputation it has earned. And I could care less if the poor bully boys are harassed, either online or in public — they’ve earned it.

Immigration official defends tactics against criticism of a heavy hand as arrests rise nationwide
The head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is defending himself against criticism that authorities are being too heavy-handed as they ramp up arrests toward President Donald Trump’s promises of mass deportations.

https://apnews.com/article/ice-agents-masked-boston-deportations-todd-lyons-4fa874908a64b12f1b1ee0be3825fb39

Reuters: US judge blocks Trump from suspending Biden-era migrant ‘parole’ programs

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  • Judge orders resumption of Biden-era parole programs
  • Ruling affects migrants from Afghanistan, Latin America, and Ukraine
  • Trump administration seeks Supreme Court intervention against earlier ruling

A U.S. federal judge on Wednesday ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to resume processing applications from migrants seeking work permits or more lasting immigration status who are living in the country temporarily under “parole” programs.

The ruling by District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston will provide relief to thousands of migrants from Afghanistan, Latin America, and Ukraine who were granted a two-year “parole” to live in the country under programs established by Democratic former President Joe Biden’s administration.

The same judge had previously blocked the Trump administration from revoking the parole status of hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans.

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US judge blocks Trump from suspending Biden-era migrant ‘parole’ programs
A U.S. federal judge on Wednesday ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to resume processing applications from migrants seeking work permits or more lasting immigration status who are living in the country temporarily under “parole” programs.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-judge-blocks-trump-halting-biden-era-migrant-parole-programs-2025-05-28

SF Gate: ICE stormed SF court to arrest 4 asylum seekers, denounced as unlawful

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Four asylum seekers were detained by federal agents on Tuesday at San Francisco Immigration Court, a move the Department of Homeland Security has portrayed as part of a broader return to “the rule of law” but that immigration attorneys have called unconstitutional and unprecedented in U.S. history. 

According to the San Francisco Bar Association, the individuals were arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in two separate sweeps, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, while attending hearings to claim asylum. All four had pending asylum applications.

“It’s a clear violation of the Constitution and due process rights,” Milli Atkinson, an immigration attorney with the SF Bar Association’s Attorney of the Day program, told SFGATE. Association members were at the courthouse when ICE swept in during the morning and were advocating for one of the detainees.

Atkinson added that ICE had already determined at the time of arrest that each individual should pursue asylum before a judge – a legal process outlined by Congress. She argued that the agency is now attempting to reverse course by claiming a change in circumstances, a justification she described as unfounded.

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Under federal law, those eligible for asylum are permitted to stay in the U.S. while their applications are reviewed by an immigration judge. Atkinson said Tuesday’s arrests short-circuited that process. 

ICE stormed SF court to arrest 4 asylum seekers, denounced as unlawful

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/asylum-seekers-arrested-ice-san-francisco-20349387.php

Latin Times: Nashville Mayor Responds to DHS Allegations He Put ICE Agents at Risk by Releasing Their Names: ‘The Interest Here Is Just in Transparency’

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Mayor Freddie O’Connell is also under federal investigation for allegedly obstructing the work of ICE agents

Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell denied intentionally releasing the names of immigration agents, as alleged by Republican lawmakers and the Trump administration, which claimed the disclosure put agents’ lives at risk.

At a Friday press conference, O’Connell explained that the names were unintentionally included in a report produced under an executive order requiring city employees to notify the mayor’s office of all interactions with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

It’s more a matter of ICE thugs not being able to handle well-deserved examination and criticism:

Unrelated to the name disclosures, O’Connell is now under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) following his public condemnation of ICE operations in Nashville earlier this month. In May alone, nearly 200 immigrants were detained, many without criminal records. The mayor called for the release of their names and charges earlier this month.

If ICE thugs can’t handle the heat, ICE thugs should get out of the fire. Better yet, ICE thugs shouldn’t light the fire in the first place.

Nashville Mayor Responds to DHS Allegations He Put ICE Agents at Risk by Releasing Their Names: ‘The Interest Here Is Just in Transparency’
Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell denied intentionally including the names of ICE agents in a recently filed report.

https://www.latintimes.com/nashville-mayor-responds-dhs-allegations-put-ice-agents-risk-releasing-names-584109

Independent: Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem demand ICE agents increase arrests to 3,000 per day: report

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White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem demanded immigration agents significantly increase daily arrests to 3,000 in a “tense” meeting last week, according to a report.

Miller, President Donald Trump’s top adviser and architect of the administration’s aggressive immigration policies, and Noem told agents they needed to up daily arrests and deportations during the meeting at Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. on May 21, according to Axios.

The figure is approximately triple the number of daily arrests that ICE agents were making at the beginning of the Trump administration, the outlet noted.

Ugly is about to get a lot uglier. We must resist this tyranny!

Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem demand ICE agents up arrests to 3,000 a day
The figure is approximately triple the number of daily arrests that ICE agents were making at the beginning of the Trump administration

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/stephen-miller-kristi-noem-ice-arrests-b2759244.html

Raw Story: ‘No one voted to deport moms’: Pro-Trump town regrets its choice

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A Missouri town that voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump in the 2024 election has come to regret its choice after a beloved neighbor was detained by ICE, according to The New York Times.

In the farming town of Kennett, MO, population 10,000, Times reporter Jack Healy met with residents who “supported in theory” Trump’s tough talk on immigration. Now they’re rallying around a Hong Kong immigrant named Ming Li Hui, who went by “Carol” in her adopted hometown.

“In the 20 years since she arrived from Hong Kong, she had built a life and family in Kennett, working two waitressing jobs and cleaning houses on the side,” Healy wrote. He quoted a Kennett city councilwoman who said, “Everyone knows Carol.”

But Hui has since been arrested and detained by the Department of Homeland Security as she awaits deportation back to her birth country.

“I voted for Donald Trump, and so did practically everyone here,” one woman told Healy. “But no one voted to deport moms. We were all under the impression we were just getting rid of the gangs, the people who came here in droves.”

‘No one voted to deport moms’: Pro-Trump town regrets its choice
A Missouri town that voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump in the 2024 election has come to regret its choice after a beloved neighbor was detained by ICE, according to The New York Times. In the farming town of Kennett, MO, population 10,000, Times reporter Jack Healy met with residents who “supported in theory” Trump’s tough talk on immigration.…

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/no-one-voted-to-deport-moms-pro-trump-town-regrets-its-choice/ar-AA1FF6RR

The Handbasket: State Department set to launch ‘Office of Remigration’

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The concept of remigration has explicitly neo-Nazi roots and has been popularized in Europe.

Secretary Marco Rubio’s State Department published a reorganization chart Thursday morning showing massive cuts to diplomatic offices and functions, plus a few new additions. Rubio’s department also reportedly sent the plan to Congress concurrently. What hasn’t been previously reported is the extensive 136-page document Congress received that includes the more granular details of what the reimagined department would look like— including an “Office of Remigration,” a far-right, anti-immigrant buzzword made popular in Europe for ridding the country of migrants.

Arguably the most alarming piece of the report comes in the section for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM). The report states that PRM will be “substantially reorganized” and that a number of new offices will be created as part of the absorption of USAID. There will be three new offices under the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Migration Matters, “to shift focus towards supporting the Administration’s efforts to return illegal aliens to their country of origin or legal status.” 

One such office will be the Office of Remigration (REM), which will “provide a policy platform for interagency coordination with DHS and other agencies on removals/repatriations, and for intra-agency policy work to advance the President’s immigration agenda.” There will also be offices of International Migration/Repatriation and Refugee Processing.

Coordinating with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) surprised one State Department employee I spoke to who said the people they’ve known to work in PRM are “pretty much the opposite” of those who work for DHS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 

While these plans align with Trump’s open objective of expelling as many migrants from the United States as possible, the use of the word “remigration” is particularly striking as it’s widely used by far-right extremists in Europe. 

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“All of it is pretty awful with some pieces that definitely violate existing law and treaties,” a person who works closely with the State Department told The Handbasket. “But institutionalizing neo-Nazi theory as an office in the State Department is the most blatantly horrifying.”

State Department set to launch ‘Office of Remigration’

https://www.thehandbasket.co/p/state-department-office-of-remigration

2 Paragraphs: Congressman Slams Homeland Security: “Spare Me the Fake Outrage

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U.S. Representative Dan Goldman (D-NY) stood outside a Manhattan courtroom this week and reported that he observed an immigration court and “plainclothes officers wearing masks arresting and detaining immigrants who were here to appear in front of a judge as part of their court case.”

Goldman, a former federal prosecutor, said: “This is Gestapo-like behavior, where plainclothes officers wearing masks are terrorizing immigrants who are doing the right thing by going to court, following up on their immigrant proceedings and trying to come into this country lawfully, which is through asylum.”

…

Goldman replied: “Spare me the fake outrage DHS. None of these people showing up for court are criminals of any kind. As a prosecutor, I worked with many ICE officers who arrested violent criminals. None of them wore masks. Many of your agents are clearly ashamed to carry out your orders.”

Congressman Slams Homeland Security: “Spare Me the Fake Outrage”
U.S. Representative Dan Goldman (D-NY) stood outside a Manhattan courtroom this week and reported that he observed an immigration court and “plainclothes officers wearing masks arresting and detainin
Congressman Slams Homeland Security: “Spare Me the Fake Outrage”

News Nation: Judge: Harvard researcher charged with smuggling frog embryos was unlawfully detained by ICE

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A federal judge in Vermont on Wednesday released a Russian-born scientist and Harvard University researcher from immigration custody as she deals with a criminal charge of smuggling frog embryos into the United States.

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Petrova, 30, is currently in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service in Louisiana. She is expected to be brought to Massachusetts as early as Friday in preparation for a bail hearing next week on the smuggling charge, lawyers said in court.

Another loss for King Donald & his bully boys!

Judge: Harvard researcher charged with smuggling frog embryos was unlawfully detained by ICE

https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/ap-us-news/ap-judge-harvard-researcher-charged-with-smuggling-frog-embryos-was-unlawfully-detained-by-ice

CBS Minnesota: DHS head Kristi [Bimbo #2] Noem accuses Minnesota of harboring “criminal illegal aliens,” defying federal immigration laws

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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is taking aim at Minnesota and its Twin Cities, alleging the deliberate obstruction of the enforcement of federal immigration laws, and protecting “dangerous criminal aliens from facing consequences.”

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Minnesota is designated on the list as having “self-identification as a state sanctuary jurisdiction,” naming Minneapolis, St. Paul and 20 counties: Carver, Cottonwood, Goodhue, Hennepin, Le Sueur, Lincoln, Lyon, Martin, Nicollet, Nobles, Otter Tail, Pipestone, Ramsey, Scott, Steele, Todd, Watonwan and Wright counties.

It’s called the Tenth Amendment, not that the Constitution means much to Homeland Security. If the states, counties, and cities wish to help you, they can. If they don’t, they don’t have to.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey nailed it:

In response to the executive order, Mayor Jacob Frey said he won’t comply, calling it illegal.

“I don’t want our police officers tracking down undocumented immigrants when we need to prevent homicides from taking place and car jackings,” Frey said. “[Trump] can’t require local law enforcement to do certain and specified federal work. That would be against the state law because federal immigration policy is not one of the enumerated policies under state law that police can conduct that business in.”

Minneapolis has an ordinance in place barring law enforcement and public officials from enforcing federal immigration laws.

DHS head Kristi Noem accuses Minnesota of harboring “criminal illegal aliens,” defying federal immigration laws
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is taking aim at Minnesota and its Twin Cities, alleging the deliberate obstruction of the enforcement of federal immigration laws, and protecting “dangerous criminal aliens from facing consequences.”

https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/dhs-kristi-noem-sanctuary-states-warning-minnesota-minneapolis