Tag Archives: deportations

Newsweek: Economic Warning as More Than Half-Million People Could Leave US This Year

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The U.S. could see hundreds of thousands leave the country this year thanks to President Donald Trump‘s immigration agenda, but experts believe his aggressive campaign of deportations and entry limitations could shrink the foreign-born labor force to the detriment of the economy.

In a paper recently published by the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute (AEI), researchers estimated that U.S. net migration could end up between a negative 525,000 and 115,000 this year, which they said reflects “a dramatic decrease in inflows and somewhat higher outflows.” This compares to nearly 1.3 million in 2024, according to Macrotrends, and 330,000 in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic brought global travel to an abrupt standstill.

If their lower-end forecasts prove correct, it would represent the first time the U.S. has seen negative net migration in decades.

Given much of the American labor force consists of foreign-born workers—19.2 percent, per the Department of Labor—and immigrants also make up a significant share of the spending market, such a decline could put downward pressure on the labor force and consumer spending and reduce GDP this year by up to 0.4 percent.

This echoes the findings of another paper, published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas last week that estimates the decline in immigration could mean a 0.75 percent to 1.0 percent hit to GDP growth this year.

“The drop in migrant inflows, and the drop in the foreign-born population more broadly, will have adverse effects on growth in the U.S. labor force, which will spill over into almost every sector of the economy,” Madeline Zavodny, one of the authors of Dallas Fed paper, told Newsweek.

This is exacerbated by the country’s low birth rate—already a source of economic unease—which is leading to a shrinking share of the population in the “working-age” bracket.

“The U.S. population is aging,” Zavodny said, “and we rely on new immigrants to help fuel growth in the labor force and key sectors, from agriculture to construction to health care.”

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson, in response to some of these fears, told Newsweek: “President Trump’s agenda to deport criminal illegal aliens will improve Americans’ quality of life across the board. American resources, funded by American taxpayers, will no longer be stretched thin and abused by illegals.”

“President Trump is ushering in America’s golden age and growing our economy with American workers,” she added.

Bullshit!!!

Giovanni Peri, a labor economist and professor at the University of California, Davis, said that the jobs impact of a sustained decline in net inflows will be felt the strongest in lower-skilled areas such as construction, agriculture, hospitality and personal services, and roles where American-born workers are unlikely to offset declining migrant inflows. As a consequence, he told Newsweek, prices in these sectors will likely increase.

Stan Veuger, senior fellow in economic policy studies at AEI and one of the authors of the working paper, similarly said that the agriculture, leisure and construction sectors will be hit hardest by the drop in labor supply. He added that, on the demand side, a drop in foreign-born workers will impact real estate, as well as the retail and utilities sectors, the most.

“Large firms may be able to attract some more workers to replace them, usually paying higher wages,” Peri said, “while smaller firms will be more at risk of staying in business as they have smaller productivity and margins.”

Zavodny also said that small businesses will suffer the most—given these traditionally struggle to access temporary worker programs such as H-2A and H-2B visas—but that large employers will be affected too, and that “everyone will lose part of their customer base.”

The American Immigration Council estimates that the country’s foreign-born population possesses about $1.7 trillion in spending power—of which $299 billion comes from undocumented immigrants—and paid $167 billion in rent in 2023.

As outlined in AEI’s paper, lower spending will reduce business revenues, prompting layoffs and putting another form of pressure on the labor market besides the declining workforce.

Despite the potential economic fallout, Trump shows no signs of relenting on his campaign promises regarding immigration, with deportations in full swing and the president having recently signed the GOP reconciliation bill that frees up about $150 billion to help enforce that part of his agenda.

“I would hope so, though I am not optimistic,” said AEI’s Stan Veuger, when asked whether the impact on economic growth could prompt a reconsideration of the administration’s stance.

“I think the people driving immigration policy in the White House do not care about the economic [or humanitarian] impact of their immigration policies.”

Giovanni Peri, a labor economist and professor at the University of California, Davis, said that the jobs impact of a sustained decline in net inflows will be felt the strongest in lower-skilled areas such as construction, agriculture, hospitality and personal services, and roles where American-born workers are unlikely to offset declining migrant inflows. As a consequence, he told Newsweek, prices in these sectors will likely increase.

Stan Veuger, senior fellow in economic policy studies at AEI and one of the authors of the working paper, similarly said that the agriculture, leisure and construction sectors will be hit hardest by the drop in labor supply. He added that, on the demand side, a drop in foreign-born workers will impact real estate, as well as the retail and utilities sectors, the most.

“Large firms may be able to attract some more workers to replace them, usually paying higher wages,” Peri said, “while smaller firms will be more at risk of staying in business as they have smaller productivity and margins.”

Zavodny also said that small businesses will suffer the most—given these traditionally struggle to access temporary worker programs such as H-2A and H-2B visas—but that large employers will be affected too, and that “everyone will lose part of their customer base.”

The American Immigration Council estimates that the country’s foreign-born population possesses about $1.7 trillion in spending power—of which $299 billion comes from undocumented immigrants—and paid $167 billion in rent in 2023.

As outlined in AEI’s paper, lower spending will reduce business revenues, prompting layoffs and putting another form of pressure on the labor market besides the declining workforce.

Despite the potential economic fallout, Trump shows no signs of relenting on his campaign promises regarding immigration, with deportations in full swing and the president having recently signed the GOP reconciliation bill that frees up about $150 billion to help enforce that part of his agenda.

“I would hope so, though I am not optimistic,” said AEI’s Stan Veuger, when asked whether the impact on economic growth could prompt a reconsideration of the administration’s stance.

“I think the people driving immigration policy in the White House do not care about the economic [or humanitarian] impact of their immigration policies.”

Economic warning as more than half-million people could leave US this year
Predicted decline in net migration will have impact that one economist said could “spill over into almost every sector of the economy.”

https://www.newsweek.com/economic-warning-half-million-leave-us-2100225

Salon: Stephen Miller can’t make America white. LA is paying for his impotent rage

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Mass deportations were never going to work, so Trump and Miller resort to authoritarian theater

Donald Trump loves authoritarian theater, but let’s not forget that Stephen Miller is also to blame for the violence and chaos in Los Angeles. Last week, the right-wing Washington Examiner reported that Trump’s deputy chief of staff called a meeting with the top officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to “eviscerate” them for falling far short of the ridiculous goal he set of 3,000 deportations a day. In their desperation to keep Miller happy, ICE has already been targeting legal immigrants for deportation, mostly because they’re easy to find, due to having registered with the government. ICE agents stake out immigration hearings for people with refugee status and round up people here with work or student visas for minor offenses like speeding tickets, all to get the numbers up. But these actions were not enough for Miller.

“Why aren’t you at Home Depot? Why aren’t you at 7-Eleven?” he reportedly screamed at ICE officials. One ICE leader protested that the agency’s lead, Tom Homan, said they’re supposed to be going after criminals, not people who are just working everyday jobs. Miller reportedly hit the ceiling, furious that arrests aren’t widespread and indiscriminate. Trump has repeatedly implied he was only targeting criminals, but as Charles Davis reported at Salon, that conflicts with his promise of “mass deportations.” Undocumented immigrants commit crimes at far lower rates than native-born Americans. The expansive efforts to find and arrest immigrants in California, which kicked off the protests, appear to be a direct reaction to Miller’s orders to grab as many people as possible, regardless of innocence. 

But Miller doesn’t seem to care about crime. Or, perhaps he thinks having darker skin should be a crime. For Miller, the goal of “mass deportations” has never been about law and order, but about the fantasy of a white America. His desire to deport his way to racial homogeneity has always been not only deeply immoral, but pretty much impossible. His impotence shouldn’t breed complacency, however. As the violence in Los Angeles shows, petty rage can lead to all manner of evils. 

The term “white nationalist” is often used interchangeably with “white supremacist,” but it has a specific meaning. White supremacists think the government should enshrine white people as a privileged class over all others. White nationalists, however, want America to be mostly, if not entirely, white — a goal that cannot be accomplished without mass violence. That Miller appears to lean more into the white nationalist camp is well known. In 2019, the Southern Poverty Law Center reviewed a pile of leaked emails Miller had sent to media allies that illustrated his obsession with white-ifying America. He repeatedly denounced legal immigration of non-white people and endorsed the idea that racial diversity is a threat to white people. He longed for a return to pre-1965 laws that banned most non-white immigrants from moving to America.

“Trump’s mass deportation project is actually a demographic engineering project,” Adam Serwer of the Atlantic explained on a recent Bulwark podcast, pointing to the administration’s expulsion of legal refugees of color while making exceptions to the “no refugee” policy for white South Africans. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau defended the exception by claiming that “they can be assimilated easily into our country.”

But it’s clear this language is code for “white.” By any good-faith definition of the word, thousands of non-white people targeted for deportation have also assimilated. They have jobs. They get married. They have kids. They are part of their communities. 

Sure enough, a sea of MAGA influencers have responded to the Los Angeles protests like parrots trained quite suddenly to say “ban third world immigration.” 

Charlie Kirk from Turning Point USA followed up by praising Steve Sailer, a white supremacist who peddles debunked “race science” falsely claiming skin color and ethnicity controls IQ. The Groypers, a Hitler-praising group that doesn’t even pretend not to be racist, was ecstatic to see MAGA leaders edge closer to openly admitting to being white nationalists. 

Miller’s whites-only dreams aren’t going to happen, though it’s unclear if he’s delusional enough to think otherwise. White non-Hispanic Americans are 58% of the population, according to the Census. That means nearly 143 million Americans — most of whom are citizens— fall outside the strict parameters of what white nationalists like Miller would see as “white people.” Even if the Trump administration met its unlikely goal of deporting 11 million people, this would still be a racially diverse country by any measure. And it’s becoming more diverse: the non-white population is younger and having more children. 

If it feels gross to treat human beings like a math problem, that’s because it is. But that’s what we’re dealing with: an administration, led by a would-be strongman and his little deputy, that can’t engineer American demographics, no matter how hard they might try. MAGA Republicans flip out when liberals correctly point out that diversity is America’s strength. But what really makes them crazy is knowing, deep down, that diversity is America’s inevitability. 

This impotent rage factor is important for understanding what’s happening in Los Angeles. Trump and Miller can’t achieve their whites-only dreams, so they’re lashing out violently at communities, like in southern California, that remind them of their powerlessness in this department. 

Make no mistake: the Trump administration is the instigator here, and not just because they sent ICE in to start nabbing people willy-nilly. As Judd Legum of Popular Information carefully detailed on Monday, the violence began because Trump called the National Guard. Before that, the protests had been relatively small and contained. The Los Angeles Police Department released a statement commending the protesters for their cooperation and peacefulness, which led to a demonstration “without incident.” 

Trump started the chaos by sending in the National Guard. He wants violent visuals for right-wing media to run on a constant loop to serve his authoritarian agenda. When the protesters in Los Angeles didn’t give Trump the imagery he wanted, he deliberately escalated and lied about the reasons. Now he is celebrating his victory because of the violence he unleashed. He’s not subtle, and it’s a failure of the media every time they report on the “violence” without noting that Trump was the instigator.  

Small, weak men can cause a lot of damage. No one should be complacent about either the violence in Los Angeles or the thousands of lives being destroyed by these deportation schemes. But it’s also important to not be cowed by Trump and Miller’s theater, which they put on in no small part to conceal the myriad ways they will never be as all-powerful as they promised their supporters they would be. Understanding this can help people find the courage needed to fight back, because the best shot that MAGA has at winning is if their opponents give up the struggle. Already the administration’s overreach is creating a backlash: 

Stephen Miller can’t make America white. LA is paying for his impotent rage
Mass deportations were never going to work, so Trump and Miller resort to authoritarian theater

https://www.salon.com/2025/06/11/stephen-miller-cant-make-america-white-la-is-paying-for-his-impotent-rage

Reuters: ICE may deport migrants to countries other than their own with just six hours notice, memo says

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U.S. immigration officials may deport migrants to countries other than their home nations with as little as six hours’ notice, a top Trump administration official said in a memo, offering a preview of how deportations could ramp up.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will generally wait at least 24 hours to deport someone after informing them of their removal to a so-called “third country,” according to a memo dated Wednesday, July 9, from the agency’s acting director, Todd Lyons.

ICE could remove them, however, to a so-called “third country” with as little as six hours’ notice “in exigent circumstances,” said the memo, as long as the person has been provided the chance to speak with an attorney.

The memo states that migrants could be sent to nations that have pledged not to persecute or torture them “without the need for further procedures.”

The new ICE policy suggests President Donald Trump’s administration could move quickly to send migrants to countries around the world.

The Supreme Court in June lifted a lower court’s order limiting such deportations without a screening for fear of persecution in the destination country.

Following the high court’s ruling and a subsequent order from the justices, the Trump administration sent eight migrants from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, Sudan and Vietnam to South Sudan.

The administration last week pressed officials from five African nations – Liberia, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and Gabon – to accept deportees from elsewhere, Reuters reported.

The Washington Post first reported the new ICE memo.

The administration argues the third country deportations help swiftly remove migrants who should not be in the U.S., including those with criminal convictions.

Advocates have criticized the deportations as dangerous and cruel, since people could be sent to countries where they could face violence, have no ties and do not speak the language.

Trina Realmuto, a lawyer for a group of migrants pursuing a class action lawsuit against such rapid third-county deportations at the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, said the policy “falls far short of providing the statutory and due process protections that the law requires.”

Third-country deportations have been done in the past, but the tool could be more frequently used as Trump tries to ramp up deportations to record levels.

During Trump’s 2017-2021 presidency, his administration deported small numbers of people from El Salvador and Honduras to Guatemala.

Former President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration struck a deal with Mexico to take thousands of migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, since it was difficult to deport migrants to those nations.

The new ICE memo was filed as evidence in a lawsuit over the wrongful deportation of Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador.

ICE may deport migrants to countries other than their own with just six hours notice, memo says

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/ice-may-deport-migrants-countries-other-than-their-own-with-just-six-hours-2025-07-13

El Pais: Support for immigration reaches historic high in US despite Trump crusade

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Gallup poll shows 79% of Americans favor immigrants, a significant increase from a year earlier and a high point in a nearly 25-year trend

About 8-in-10 Americans, 79%, say immigration is “a good thing” for the country today, up sharply from 64% a year ago and a high point in a nearly 25-year trend. In contrast, only two in 10 U.S. adults say immigration is a bad thing, down from 32% last year.

Support for immigration reaches historic high in US despite Trump crusade
Gallup poll shows 79% of Americans favor immigrants, a significant increase from a year earlier and a high point in a nearly 25-year trend

https://english.elpais.com/usa/2025-07-13/support-for-immigration-reaches-historic-high-in-us-despite-trump-crusade.html

Mediaite: ‘Bring It!’ Trump Border Czar Tom Homan Unleashes on Heckler at TPUSA Event: ‘You’re Such a Badass, Meet Me Off Stage!’

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Great job on the part of a protestor who “owned” Tom “Pugsley” Homan by getting in his face with a fake picture portraying him as a MS-13 member, faked in the same manner that his corrupt subordinates and White House cronies had tried to frame Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

Well done, guy!!!!

Trump border czar Tom Homan ripped into a heckler on Saturday during remarks to the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit, saying the man doesn’t have “the balls” to serve his country among other things, in a video that went viral on social media.

Homan spoke at TPUSA’s event on Saturday about the immigration and enforcement policies of President Donald Trump and the administration, praising the courage of ICE agents in enforcing immigration laws, deriding criticism from Democrats, and expressing anger over repeated acts of violence against law enforcement carrying out the administration’s massive round-ups and deportations.

As he was speaking to the crowd, a voice shouted out asking Homan if he belongs to the ultra-violent drug gang MS-13.

The man who was shouting was holding a poster-sized manipulated image depicting Homan with an MS-13 tattoo on his knuckles, a clear reference to the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

The heckler was dressed in MAGA gear, apparently using the MAGA gear as cover to get past security and into a position where he could make his protest.

Homan responded forcefully, to the delight of the crowd, and a clip of the moment went viral from several different accounts on X.

“Are you an MS-13 member? It says so–” the heckler shouted, getting drowned out by the crowd before the rest of the reference to the image he was holding could be heard.

“That’s okay! That’s okay!” Homan said. “I’ve got a question for you. Why don’t you come up here and hand me that picture? Bring it! Bring it! U-S-A! U-S-A!”

The crowd joined in on the chanting, and after a few seconds Homan continued.

“This guy wouldn’t know what it’s like to serve this nation. This guy ain’t got the balls to be an ICE Officer. He hasn’t got the balls to be a Border Patrol Agent,” Homan said as the crowd continued to cheer. “This guy lives in his mother’s basement – the only thing that surprises me, you don’t have purple hair and a nose ring. Get out of here, you loser!”

After another pause as the man was being escorted out by security, Homan added: “And you’re such a badass, meet me off stage in 13 minutes and 50 seconds. I guarantee you, he sits down to pee. Guaranteed.”

Homan remarked on sanctuary cities, saying they’ve told him he’s not welcome there but he goes anyway. He then addressed the heckler again.

“Assholes like this guy think they’re going to vilify men and women of ICE, that they’re gonna intimidate or scare us,” he said. “I’m not going anywheres, either is the men and woman of ICE. We’re gonna do the job that President Trump gave us to do.”

Did clueless Pugsley Homan have any idea how badly he was “owned” in that exchange?

‘Bring It!’ Trump Border Czar Tom Homan Unleashes on Heckler at TPUSA Event: ‘You’re Such a Badass, Meet Me Off Stage!’
Trump border czar Tom Homan erupted at a heckler during a TPUSA speech, challenging him to meet “off stage” and mocking him as a coward.
‘Bring It!’ Trump Border Czar Tom Homan Unleashes on Heckler at TPUSA Event: ‘You’re Such a Badass, Meet Me Off Stage!’

LA Times: Abcarian: Do you believe that deported farmworkers will be replaced by Medicaid recipients?

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You know, it’s not just the large language models of AI that are hallucinating.

The Trump administration is promoting the idea that if it deports all the undocumented farmworkers who plant and pick our crops, the labor gaps will be filled by able-bodied adults currently sitting around the house playing video games and mooching off taxpayers for their publicly funded healthcare.

This is absurdity masquerading as arithmetic.

The other day, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced that, contrary to Trump’s own recent statements, the administration is not planning to back off mass deportations of agricultural workers.

“The mass deportations continue, but in a strategic way, and we move the workforce towards automation and 100 percent American participation,” she said during an event at U.S. Department of Agriculture headquarters. “With 34 million people, able-bodied adults on Medicaid, we should be able to do that fairly quickly.”

That figure is grossly misleading, and a thinly veiled effort to vilify Medicaid — Medi-Cal in California — recipients as idle, which, overwhelmingly, they are not. The number of able-bodied Americans on Medicaid who might be able to pick our lettuce and apricots or who might be able to harvest our watermelons and strawberries is closer to 5 million, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

But whether the number is 34 million or 5 million, it’s a fantasy to believe that Americans will do the jobs currently filled by migrant farmworkers.

“Not gonna happen,” said Manuel Cunha, head of the Nisei Farmers League, a grower support organization founded 54 years ago in response to the United Farm Workers labor movement.

In the 1990s, Cunha was involved in a disastrous attempt to get adults off welfare and into the California farming workforce. Growers coordinated with the state’s Employment Development Department, arrangements were made for child care and transportation. And yet, as Cunha told the U.S. Senate’s immigration subcommittee in 1999, only three people showed up to work in the fields. “There was no interest on the part of welfare individuals to work in agriculture.”

And there is no reason to think that would be any different today.

Farm work requires skill and physical tenacity that comes from years of experience. You don’t just plop someone into a peach orchard and tell them to go prune a tree. Or let them loose on a strawberry field and expect them to come back the next day. In 2013, my colleague Hector Becerra decided to experience farm labor for himself, and arranged to spend a day picking strawberries in Santa Maria.

The experience sounded, frankly, hellish. He worked alongside three dozen Mexican migrants “bent at an almost 90-degree angle, using two hands to pack strawberries into plastic containers that they pushed along on ungainly one-wheeled carts.”

He could not keep up with the other pickers, and by lunchtime, Hector wrote, he was sore and exhausted. He lasted little more than seven hours, and then “surrendered.”

Many of California’s thousands of migrant farmworkers have been here for decades. They cannot easily be replaced. “They are skilled laborers and their families are part of our small rural communities,” Cunha told me. “My farmers deserve a workforce that can do the job. Provide them with a work authorization card.”

It was only a few years ago, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cunha recalled, that the country heaped praise on farmworkers. “Everybody said they were the most essential front-line workers. Every worker put their life on the line to feed the world, and today we can’t give them a little piece of paper to be here legally?”

Rollins’ claim that growers are moving “toward automation” is as preposterous as assuming native-born Americans will take to the fields.

“As far as automation,” a San Joaquin Valley grower told me, “there is no automation.” He did not want me to use his name because he’s afraid of calling attention to his fields, where workers are currently harvesting.

“If I could replace those 20 people with machines,” he said, “I would.”

But melons, strawberries and tree fruit are delicate. (“If you look at an apricot the wrong way, it will turn brown,” Cunha joked.)

Farmers can use machines to harvest produce like tomatoes that are destined for a cannery, for example. But when it comes to fresh fruit and vegetables, the grower told me, “The American consumer wants perfect fruit and there is no machine that can harvest like human hands can.”

We are at this pathetic moment because President Trump’s brand of authoritarianism is incompatible with good faith efforts to find a workable solution to our dysfunctional immigration system.

When it comes to agriculture, hospitality and construction, we need immigrant workers, most of whom are from Mexico. Our economy cannot function without them. In my view, the raids happening at California farms and Home Depot parking lots are a form of state-sponsored terrorism, aimed at instilling fear and panic in hard-working communities. They have no bearing on Trump’s campaign promise to deport violent criminals.

In May, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers, including Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San José), offered a new version of the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, a comprehensive immigration and labor bill that would offer a path to legalization for some farmworkers, reform and expand the current H-2A guest worker program, allocate funds to improve farmworker housing and require employers to use E-verify for all workers. Similar bills were passed by the House in 2019 and 2021 but died in the Senate at the hands of hard-line immigration critics. This time, Lofgren has said that the Senate will have to take it up first, as her fellow Californian, Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Elk Grove), who chairs the House’s Immigration Subcommittee, does not support it. Don’t hold your breath.

In Trump’s world, there is no appetite for real immigration solutions. As many have noted, the president and his supporters are reveling in the violent theater of it all — the images of masked, armed men terrorizing people in the streets and fields. They see no downside to the cruelty.

Maybe they will reconsider when crops rot in the fields, hotel rooms stay dirty and construction sites are stilled. One day, the bill for this folly will come due.

Column: Do you believe that deported farmworkers will be replaced by Medicaid recipients?
A plan to put able-bodied Americans on Medicaid to work in the fields was tried once before and failed miserably.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2025-07-13/deportation-farmworkers-medicaid-brooke-rollins

Straight Arrow News: Washington state agency shared license, vehicle info with ICE: Report

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A Washington state agency, the Department of Licensing, provided Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies with access to private driver’s license and vehicle information, KING 5 said in a report published on Friday, July 11. This is the case even though Washington has laws in place prohibiting local agencies from sharing personal data with the federal government if they’re using it for deportations.

A similar finding was revealed in 2018. After protests against the department sharing personal data with federal agencies, as well as legislative pressure, the Department of Licensing canceled a lot of those agreements.

KING 5 found that some of these accounts were quietly reinstated, including ones with ICE, Border Patrol and other Homeland Security entities. The news outlet wrote that this has led to a “dramatic” surge in data searches since the election of President Donald Trump, who campaigned on mass deportations.

Federal officials’ use of the Department of Licensing accounts increased by 188% since Trump was elected to a second non-consecutive term in November 2024. ICE’s account,for instance, showed searches for driver and vehicle records went from about 540 in November to 1,600 in May 2025.

The Department of Licensing said in emails to KING 5 that they are following state and federal laws, and attributed the increase in account use to significant variability” in monthly searches and a shift across “two presidential administrations with two different immigration ideologies.”

Jennie Pasquarella, the legal director of a nonprofit representing immigrants called the Clemency Project, expressed her concerns about the reopening of these accounts to KING 5.

“As ICE is ramping up their enforcement actions in our state, the last thing we want is for them to be able to search a treasure trove of information about home addresses,” she stated. “It is critical that we ensure that information is walled off so that people don’t fear accessing it.”

It’s time to roll some head in Olympia. Remove the unauthorized illegal access and fire those who permitted it.

Washington state agency shared license, vehicle info with ICE: Report
Washington state’s Department of Licensing provided ICE with access to driver’s license and vehicle information: Report

https://san.com/cc/washington-state-agency-shared-license-vehicle-info-with-ice-report

Mediaite: MSNBC Contributor Suggests Masked ICE Agents Could Face ‘Lawful Exercise’ of ‘Right of Self-Defense’ Against Them

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Yes!!! Just shoot the unidentified scumbag bully boys!!!

MSNBC contributor Joyce Vance said Saturday that by wearing masks when enforcing federal immigration laws across the country, ICE agents could face “lawful” violence against them by people who mistake the raids for a kidnapping.

On the latest Velshi from MSNBC, Vance joined host Ali Velshi and fellow guest, author Lucan Way, a Toronto political science professor, to discuss the mass detainment and deportations by ICE under the direction of border czar Tom Homan and President Donald Trump after a judge’s order blocking some of those practices was issued on Friday.

Vance, who is co-host of the #SistersInLaw podcast along with Jill Wine-Banks and Barbara McQuade, is a former United States attorney, and spoke first on the legal implications of statements from ICE director Homan.

Velshi then asked specifically about ICE agents wearing masks, which the administration has said is for the safety of the officers, who have already faced many acts of violence and extreme threats.

Velshi asked Vance, as a former prosecutor, about the legal basis for masking agents making arrests in the ongoing raids.

“There are very serious legal restrictions around the use of, for instance, FBI agents as undercover operatives. Very strict rules regarding how it’s done, what they can do, what they can’t do,” Vance said. “But you know what I’ve never seen: a federal agent working a case due is pull a mask up so nobody knows who they are and go out and terrorize a civilian population.”

Earlier in the show, Velshi argued, “we’re witnessing a police state taking shape before our eyes,” and suggested, as did professor Way, that soon ICE will be turned to rounding up any political opponent or critic of Trump, whether it has anything to do with immigration or not.

Vance, for her part, called the practice of wearing masks “not normal” and a “danger sign,” and dismissed the idea that it might be for the safety of the ICE agents. Instead, she argued, they are less safe, because people might mistake the masked officers in these giant raids for kidnappers and become lawfully violent.

“When you’re masked like that and people don’t know who you are, someone might exercise their lawful right of self-defense to protect themselves, thinking they’re being kidnapped,” she said. “So the notion that this is for law enforcement’s protection is utterly ludicrous. And we need to do away with that.”

VELSHI: You’re a prosecutor, I want to ask you, there are legitimate reasons why some enforcement agencies, some police agencies, go undercover or, you know, do things in shadows to achieve certain things. I would assume that’s specific and, you, know, it needs to be, needs to comport with some laws.

VANCE: Exactly. There are very serious legal restrictions around the use of, for instance, FBI agents as undercover operatives. Very strict rules regarding how it’s done, what they can do, what they can’t do. But you know what I’ve never seen a federal agent working a case due is pull a mask up so nobody knows who they are and go out and terrorize a civilian population.

And I think it’s important for us at this point to be very plain-speaking when we say that this is not normal, it’s not acceptable, and it’s a danger sign. You know, we are well past the point where we can just identify danger signs and say, oh, there might be problems down the road. The problems are here, they’re in the right now.

And as we see people being pulled off the streets — you know, the danger to law enforcement, quite frankly, is that when you’re masked like that and people don’t know who you are, someone might exercise their lawful right of self-defense to protect themselves, thinking they’re being kidnapped. So the notion that this is for law enforcement’s protection is utterly ludicrous. And we need to do away with that.

MSNBC Contributor Suggests Masked ICE Agents Could Face ‘Lawful Exercise’ of ‘Right of Self-Defense’ Against Them
The podcast host and former prosecutor told Velshi that ICE agents could face “lawful” acts of fighting back by someone mistaking them for kidnappers.
MSNBC Contributor Suggests Masked ICE Agents Could Face ‘Lawful Exercise’ of ‘Right of Self-Defense’ Against Them

CNN: Trump’s mass deportation is backfiring

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President Donald Trump and his administration continue to bet big on the issue that, more than any other, appeared to help him win him a second term in 2024: immigration.

The administration and its allies have gleefully played up standoffs between federal immigration agents and protesters, such as the one Thursday during a raid at a legal marijuana farm in Ventura County, California.

And as congressional Republicans were passing a very unpopular Trump agenda bill last month, Vice President JD Vance argued that its historic expansion of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and new immigration enforcement provisions were so important that “everything else” was “immaterial.”

But this appears to be an increasingly bad bet for Trump and Co.

It’s looking more and more like Trump has botched an issue that, by all rights, should have been a great one for him. And ICE’s actions appear to be a big part of that.

The most recent polling on this comes from Gallup, where the findings are worse than those of any poll in Trump’s second term.

The nearly monthlong survey conducted in June found Americans disapproved of Trump’s handling of immigration by a wide margin: 62% to 35%. And more than twice as many Americans strongly disapproved (45%) as strongly approved (21%).

It also found nearly 7 in 10 independents disapproved.

These are Trump’s worst numbers on immigration yet. But the trend has clearly been downward – especially in high-quality polling like Gallup’s.

An NPR-PBS News-Marist College poll conducted late last month, for instance, showed 59% of independents disapproved of Trump on immigration. And a Quinnipiac University poll showed 66% of independents disapproved.

Trump has managed to become this unpopular on immigration despite historic lows in border crossings. And the data suggest that’s largely tied to deportations and ICE.

To wit:

  • 59% overall and 66% of independents disapproved of Trump’s handling of deportations, according to the Quinnipiac poll.
  • 56% overall and 64% of independents disapproved of the way ICE was doing its job, according to Quinnipiac.
  • 54% overall and 59% of independents said ICE has “gone too far” in enforcing immigration law, per the Marist poll. (Even 1 in 5 Republicans agreed.)
  • Americans disapproved 54-45% of ICE conducting more raids to find undocumented immigrants at workplaces, according to a Pew Research Center poll last month.

Americans also appear to disagree with some of the more heavy-handed aspects of the deportation program:

  • They disapproved 55-43% of significantly increasing the number of facilities to hold immigrants being processed for deportation, per Pew – even as the Trump administration celebrates Florida’s controversial new “Alligator Alcatraz.”
  • They said by a nearly 2-to-1 margin that it’s “unacceptable” to deport an immigrant to a country other than their own, per Pew – another key part of the administration’s efforts.
  • They also disapproved, 61-37%, of deporting undocumented immigrants to a prison in El Salvador – the place where the administration sent hundreds without due process, in some cases in error (such as with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who has since been returned).

There’s a real question in all of this whether people care that much. They might disapprove of some of the more controversial aspects of Trump’s deportations, but maybe it’s not that important to them – and they might even like the ultimate results.

That’s the bet Trump seems to be making: that he can push forward on something his base really wants and possibly even tempt his political opponents to overreach by appearing to defend people who are in the country illegally.

But at some point, the White House has got to look at these numbers and start worrying that its tactics are backfiring.

Gallup shows the percentage of Americans who favor deporting all undocumented immigrants dropping from 47% last year during the 2024 campaign down to 38% now that it’s a reality Trump is pursuing.

And all told, Trump’s second term has actually led to the most sympathy for migrants on record in the 21st century, per Gallup. Fully 79% of Americans now say immigration is a “good thing,” compared with 64% last year.

The writing has been on the wall that Americans’ support for mass deportation was subject to all kinds of caveats and provisos. But the administration appears to have ignored all that and run headlong into problems of its own creation.

Analysis: Trump’s mass deportation is backfiring | CNN Politics
President Donald Trump and his administration continue to bet big on the issue that, more than any other, appeared to help him win him a second term in 2024: immigration.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/13/politics/deportations-backfiring-trump-analysis

The Grio: Trump admin ends legal protections for half-million Haitians who now face deportations- critics call it a “death sentence”

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Advocates say sending 500,000 Haitians back to a nation overrun by gang violence and displacement is a death sentence.

The Department of Homeland Security said Friday that it is terminating legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Haitians, setting them up for potential deportation.

DHS said that conditions in Haiti have improved and Haitians no longer meet the conditions for the temporary legal protections.

Safe for whom?

The Department of State, nonetheless, has not changed its travel advisory and still recommends Americans “do not travel to Haiti due to kidnapping, crime, civil unrest, and limited health care.”

Trump admin ends legal protections for half-million Haitians who now face deportations- critics call it a ‘death sentence’
Advocates say Trump’s move to send 500,000 Haitians back to a nation overrun by gang violence and displacement is a death sentence

https://thegrio.com/2025/06/30/trump-admin-ends-legal-protections-for-half-million-haitians-who-now-face-deportations-critics-call-it-a-death-sentence