LA Times: Authorities arrest over 100 people on Tennessee roads in support of Trump’s deportation plan

More than 100 people have been taken into custody by federal immigration officials in a joint operation with the Tennessee Highway Patrol, leaving many in Nashville’s immigrant community uncertain and worried.

“None of us have ever seen anything like this,” Lisa Sherman Luna, executive director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, said Friday.

But immigrant rights supporters contend that the patrols have focused on parts of the city where the majority of residents are people of color.

“All signs point to this being racial profiling intended to terrorize the heart of the immigrant and refugee community,” Sherman Luna said. “What we’ve heard is that THP is flagging people down for things like a broken taillight or tinted windows.”

Sherman Luna believes some of those being detained would be allowed to stay in the country if they were able to receive competent legal representation at an immigration hearing. Instead, she has heard that people are agreeing to be deported out of fear that they could spend months or years in immigration detention.

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2025-05-11/authorities-arrest-over-100-people-on-tennessee-roads-in-support-of-trumps-deportation-plan

New York TImes: Trump Has Made Claims About Abrego Garcia’s Tattoos. Here’s a Closer Look…

Gang experts say the tattoos on Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s knuckles are unlikely to signify gang membership. The president says otherwise.

Mendacious King Donald used an altered photo in his claim that Kilmar Abrego Garcio had MS-13 tattoos:

President Trump has claimed that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March, is a member of MS-13, the Salvadoran-American criminal gang, and that the tattoos on Mr. Abrego Garcia’s knuckles prove it.

In a post nearly three weeks ago on Truth Social, Mr. Trump’s social media platform, he gave his version of a primer on those tattoos, showing a photo of Mr. Abrego Garcia’s hand, with one small tattoo on each finger: a marijuana leaf, a smiley face with X’s for eyes, a cross and a skull.

Above each of those black tattoos was a letter or a number — M, S, 1 and 3 — in a sans-serif font that clearly had been superimposed onto the photo. “He’s got MS-13 tattooed onto his knuckles,” the president wrote in his post.

In other photos, however, including ones shared by Mr. Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, the letters and numbers do not appear on Mr. Abrego Garcia’s knuckles.

https://archive.is/FL4VB#selection-695.0-695.170

MSNBC: Trump-appointed judge calls Trump’s Alien Enemies Act invocation ‘unlawful’

President Donald Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act has faced intense preliminary litigation in courts around the country, leading to rulings such as the Supreme Court’s insistence that people potentially subject to the act must receive due process. But a new and significant ruling from a Trump-appointed judge Thursday gets to the heart of the matter, deeming the president’s invocation itself “unlawful.”

But U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. said that Trump’s invocation “exceeds the scope of the statute and, as a result, is unlawful.” The judge said the administration therefore can’t use the act to detain Venezuelans, transfer them within the U.S. or remove them from the country. The ruling applies to a class of plaintiffs in the Southern District of Texas.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-appointed-judge-calls-trump-s-alien-enemies-act-invocation-unlawful/ar-AA1E0Asw

Alternet: Trump’s clown car cabinet is driving off a cliff | Opinion

UPS, the United Parcel Service, just announced that it is laying off 20,000 employees and closing 73 of its buildings by the end of June. It attributes the downturn to reduced shipping volume from its largest customer, Amazon, due to Trump’s tariffs.

When a division of Amazon considered telling consumers the truth, by posting the costs tariffs added to the price of each imported product, the mere possibility set the White House on attack mode. Trump immediately called Amazon owner Jeff Bezos, who reassured him Amazon would never do such a thing, while Karoline Leavitt accused Bezos of a “political and hostile” act just for thinking about it.

When a presidential team of incompetent egoists calls truth-telling a “hostile act,” we’re in trouble.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-s-clown-car-cabinet-is-driving-off-a-cliff-opinion/ar-AA1E5ReC

MSNBC: Rubio’s new role is a dangerous step in Trump’s effort to consolidate power

Whatever the reasons for Waltz being marginalized, Trump is rearranging the deck chairs on a badly listing ship and trying to do it in a way that doesn’t look bad for him. Part of that involves him consolidating two of the most important roles in the federal government — secretary of state and national security adviser — and giving them to Rubio. 

That’s the kind of loyalty Trump rewards. In order to cover the incompetence of his administration, the president is now consolidating power even further, giving two powerful positions to one sycophantic subordinate.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/rubio-s-new-role-is-a-dangerous-step-in-trump-s-effort-to-consolidate-power/ar-AA1E4kyv

Independent: Trump administration plans to send migrants to Libya’s ‘horrific’ detention centers

Libya serves as a hub for migrants trying to get to Europe, and the country has several detention facilities for refugees and migrants

The Trump administration has developed plans to send migrants to detention centers in Libya on a military flight, according to Reuters.

The flight could depart as soon as Wednesday, officials told The New York Times. The nationalities of those set to be on the flight were not immediately apparent.

Libya is in the middle of severe conflict, and human rights groups have called its migrant detention centers “horrific” and “deplorable.”

The State Department advises the American public against going to Libya “due to crime, terrorism, unexploded land mines, civil unrest, kidnapping, and armed conflict.”

But it’s an ok place to dump unwanted immigrants?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-migrants-libya-detention-centers-b2746147.html

Mediaite: ICE Agents Storm D.C. Restaurants and Demand To Interrogate Employees: ‘Pretty Unnerving’

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided several Washington, D.C. restaurants on Tuesday in a crackdown on undocumented immigrants, according to The Washingtonian.

The outlet reported that Millie’s, Pupatella, Chef Geoff’s, and Chang Chang were among the eateries targeted by the feds. Geoff’s is owned by Geoff Tracy, who is the husband of former CBS Evening News host Norah O’Donnell. At Millie’s, eight or nine agents entered the restaurant as it was opening for lunch.

“They all came in all of the public entrances at the same time,” owner Bo Blair said.

The Washingtonian further reported that agents demanded to speak with the staff at Millie’s, whose general manager called the experience “pretty unnerving”:

The general manager met the agents, who provided a “notice of inspection” and asked to question employees. The manager said they couldn’t, and they did not push back. They asked for I-9 forms, which the restaurant keeps securely at its corporate office, not at the restaurant.

“They made it pretty public that they’re coming back to the restaurant on Monday [to collect the forms], which is pretty unnerving to the staff, obviously,” says the group’s CEO Marisa Casey. She says she is asking them not to come back to the restaurants because the documents are not kept there. “We also don’t want them to go back to our restaurants scare everybody.”

CNN: Tennessee authorities release video of Abrego Garcia at a traffic stop that officials have used to paint him as a criminal

US officials have argued the traffic stop in November 2022, during which Abrego Garcia was not detained, supports their claims that Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13 and involved in human trafficking. The stop resulted in no charges, and there was no mention of human trafficking in the parts of the redacted report that have been made available.

Yet the 2022 traffic stop now could play into the ongoing political debate and legal standoff over Abrego Garcia, who is still in El Salvador while a federal judge demands answers and more evidence from the Trump administration.

So far in the ongoing court proceeding over his custody, his attorneys have said that the US in his 2019 immigration proceedings offered little reason to believe Abrego Garcia was tied to a gang, other than the fact he wore a Chicago Bulls hat and that a confidential informant provided a tip to authorities.

“There is no known link or association between him and the MS-13 gang,” his lawyers told the federal judge last month.

In a statement provided to CNN regarding the bodycam footage, Abrego Garcia’s attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said, his client “has been denied the most basic protections of due process—no phone call to his lawyer, no call to his wife or child, and no opportunity to be heard.”

Sandoval-Moshenberg added that “I see no evidence of a crime in this footage. But the point is not the traffic stop — it’s that Mr. Abrego Garcia deserves his day in court. Bring him back to the United States, return him before the same immigration judge who heard his case in 2019, and let him speak for himself.”

Earlier, a spokesperson for the Tennessee Highway Patrol told CNN that Abrego Garcia was flagged to federal law enforcement, “who made the decision not to detain him.”

According to a Department of Homeland Security statement released last month about the incident, federal officials released Abrego Garcia with a warning for driving with an expired license.

And today Trump’s minions are desperately grasping at straws to deport anyone and everyone they can so as to increase their deportation counts.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/tennessee-authorities-release-video-of-abrego-garcia-at-a-traffic-stop-that-officials-have-used-to-paint-him-as-a-criminal/ar-AA1E3SOn

Telegraph: Trump orders reopening of notorious Alcatraz prison

The refurbished prison would house ‘America’s most ruthless and violent offenders’, US president says

Donald Trump has ordered the US Bureau of Prisons to reopen and expand Alcatraz, the notorious former prison off the coast of San Francisco.

In a message posted on Truth Social, his online platform, on Sunday night, the US president announced his plan to turn the small island into symbol of law and order, to deter “vicious” criminals whom he called the “dregs of society”.

“For too long, America has been plagued by vicious, violent, and repeat criminal offenders, the dregs of society, who will never contribute anything other than misery and suffering,” Mr Trump wrote.

“When we were a more serious nation, in times past, we did not hesitate to lock up the most dangerous criminals, and keep them far away from anyone they could harm. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.

“That is why, today, I am directing the Bureau of Prisons, together with the Department of Justice, FBI, and Homeland Security, to reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt ALCATRAZ, to house America’s most ruthless and violent offenders.”

He added: “The reopening of ALCATRAZ will serve as a symbol of Law, Order, and JUSTICE.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2025/05/05/trump-orders-reopening-alcatraz-prison

More here:

https://www.the-sun.com/news/14165183/trump-reopening-alcatraz-prison-americas-dregs-society

NBC News: Trump, asked if he has to ‘uphold the Constitution,’ says, ‘I don’t know’

Trump said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that he’s following lawyers’ advice as he tries to execute rapid deportations, arguing that giving immigrants due process is time-consuming.

President Donald Trump argued in an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that fulfilling his ambitious campaign promise to rapidly carry out mass deportations may take precedence over giving immigrants the right to due process under the Constitution, as required by courts.

A central part of Trump’s agenda has been implementing the “largest deportation operation” in U.S. history, as he vowed during the 2024 campaign. In service of that goal, his administration has pressed the courts to allow the immediate removal of immigrants it accuses of being members of a Venezuelan gang, without giving them a chance to plead their case before a judge.

In an interview last month with “Meet the Press,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “Yes, of course,” when asked whether every person in the United States is entitled to due process.

Trump, however, isn’t so sure.

Does he remember his Oath of Office? Did he understand it when he took the Oath? What a total dufus!!!

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/rcna204580