Tag Archives: Guatemala

Miami Herald: ‘Evil is Powerless’: ICE Official Announces More Arrests

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The U.S. Department of Justice has launched a targeted operation focusing on “egregious criminal alien offenders.” The operation is part of the “Make D.C. Safe and Beautiful” program, aiming to improve public safety through enforcement actions. President Donald Trump’s administration emphasized its commitment to reducing crime in the capital, and the latest efforts saw the arrests of 189 undocumented immigrants in Washington, D.C.

Director of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations in Washington, D.C. Russell Hott stated that the operation targeted high-crime areas. The action resulted in arrests of individuals allegedly connected to violent criminal organizations, including MS-13 and the 18th Street gang.

And again I have to ask, “How many of these 189 “criminals” were guilty of anything worse than a traffic violation? And how many were actually convicted in a court of law? ICE is all about numbers, not quality or accuracy.

MSN

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/evil-is-powerless-ice-official-announces-more-arrests/ss-AA1Fmyc2

Reuters: US judge orders Trump administration to facilitate return of Guatemalan deported

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A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Friday to facilitate the return of a gay Guatemalan man who said he was deported to Mexico despite fearing he would be persecuted there, after officials acknlowledged an error in his case.

US District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston issued the order days after the Justice Department notified him that its claim that the man had expressly stated he was not afraid of being sent to Mexico was based on erroneous information.

The Justice Department said last week that upon further investigation, officials were unable to identify any Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who had asked the man, identified as “OCG” about fears he had for his safety.

…

According to his lawyers, OCG is a gay man who fled Guatemala in 2024 after facing death threats based on his sexuality.

He entered the United States through Mexico in May 2024.

Murphy said that while an immigration judge in February found OCG deserved protection from being returned to Guatemala, authorities two days later wrongly placed him on a bus to Mexico, where he had recently been raped and kidnapped.

US judge orders Trump administration to facilitate return of Guatemalan deported
A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Friday to facilitate the return of a gay Guatemalan man who said he was deported to Mexico despite fearing he would be persecuted there, after of…

https://nypost.com/2025/05/24/us-news/us-federal-judge-brian-murphy-orders-trump-administration-to-facilitate-return-of-guatemalan-migrant

Latin Times: Mexican President Welcomes Tax Cut On Remittances For Migrants, Vows to Keep Fighting

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Trump’s proposed 5% tax on remittances was lowered to just 3.5% by the Senate, Sheinbaum said

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said that the U.S. lowered its proposed tax on remittances from 5% to 3.5%, but that officials will continue working to lower it further.

During her daily press conference on Thursday, Sheinbaum welcomed a move by U.S. lawmakers to reduce the proposed tax rate to 3.5%, but said she would keep pushing for its full elimination. She argued that the tax would harm not just Mexico, but many countries in the region and beyond.

The tax is a total disgrace. It mostly will hurt poor poeple / lower income earners in the U.S. who are trying to help even poorer members of their families overseas. This tax will be paid on top of the income and social security taxes that have already been paid on the amounts being remitted.

Mexican President Welcomes Tax Cut On Remittances For Migrants, Vows to Keep Fighting
In 2024, Mexico received a record $64.7 billion in remittances, accounting for nearly 4% of its gross domestic product, according to the country’s central bank

https://www.latintimes.com/mexican-president-welcomes-tax-cut-remittances-migrants-vows-keep-fighting-583665

The Atlantic: The Rushed, Blundering Effort to Send Deportees to Third Countries

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Many of those sent to countries that aren’t their own are at heightened risk for abuse.

The Trump administration has acknowledged a new error in a case challenging its attempts to send deportees to any country that will take them. Another immigrant who had earned protected status was rushed out of the country and put in danger—and U.S. officials have offered little more than a shrug.

This time, the immigrant is a gay man from Guatemala who fled death threats and twice tried to seek refuge in the United States. First, he was denied and deported home. He tried again last year and says that while traveling through Mexico, he was held for ransom and sexually assaulted.

The man, identified in court documents as O.C.G., won his case in February when a U.S. immigration judge granted him withholding of removal, shielding him from deportation to Guatemala because of the risk of harm he faced there. The Trump administration promptly sent him to Mexico instead. Threatened with prolonged detention, O.C.G. left Mexico and went back to Guatemala—the country the judge had said he shouldn’t be sent to—and is now in hiding there.

The Trump administration originally claimed that O.C.G. did not express fear of being sent to Mexico, which would have potentially stopped his deportation. But on Friday, the government acknowledged that its claim was based on an erroneous data entry, and that it has no record to support the assertion. Then, over the weekend, the government compounded its mistake by briefly disclosing the man’s full name in court documents, violating confidentiality rules. The Atlantic is not publishing his name, because his lawyers argued in court that identifying him could put his life in danger, especially while he is in hiding.

It’s a long read but interesting.

Frankly, deporting people to third countries where they have no roots, no family, and don’t know the language is an abomination. So many of these people came to the U.S. looking for a better life for themselves and their families, and now we’re kicking them around the world like a bunch soccer balls.

The Rushed, Blundering Effort to Send Deportees to Third Countries
Many of those sent to countries that aren’t their own are at heightened risk for abuse.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/05/third-country-deportations/682857

Talking Points Memo: Trump DOJ Admits It Used Bogus Info In Key Deportation Case

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In an important federal case in Massachusetts over whether deportees can be sent to third countries rather than their countries of origin, the Trump administration admitted Friday to a grievous error and managed to compound it in the process.

It’s a bit complicated so let me boil it down to its essentials:

  • Background: A gay Guatemalan national who had a U.S. immigration judge order barring his removal to his home country because he feared continued persecution was instead deported to Mexico in February by the Trump administration, partly on the grounds that he had told ICE that he didn’t fear being sent to Mexico. That was odd because the man, identified only by the initials O.C.G., had previously testified that he had been targeted and raped in Mexico, his lawyers say.
  • Thursday: The Trump DOJ abruptly cancelled the scheduled deposition of an ICE official “whom Defendants previously identified as giving Plaintiff O.C.G. notice of deportation to Mexico and recording his response of lack of fear,” O.C.G.’s lawyers later told the court.
  • Friday: The Trump DOJ filed a “Notice of Errata” admitting that during the judge’s ordered discovery in the case it had been unable to “identify any officer who asked O.C.G. whether he had a fear of return to Mexico.” A key factual element of the Trump administration’s case had evaporated. But it got worse …
  • Sunday: Lawyers for the deportee – who is now in hiding in Guatemala because he fears persecution as a gay man – filed an emergency motion pointing out, among other things, that the government’s filing about its own error revealed the deportees name and other information, further jeopardizing his safety despite a court order anonymizing his identifying information.

Still with me? In the course of admitting its error, the Trump administration outed the gay man who it had wrongfully deported in the first place.

This is what happens when you staff up with a bunch of sycophantic suck-ups and bimbos instead of competent personnel!

Trump DOJ Admits It Used Bogus Info In Key Deportation Case
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This…

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo/trump-doj-admits-it-used-bogus-info-in-key-deportation-case

USA Today: How will Trump’s tariffs affect grocery store prices? We explain.

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“The short answer is yes, prices are going to go up,” said David Ortega, a food economist and professor at Michigan State University. “They may not skyrocket for all imported products, but they will go up. Tariffs are a tax on imports, so by definition, they are inflationary.”

While higher tariffs could still be coming after a 90-day-pause, the baseline 10% tariff on all goods, plus higher duties on Chinese products already in effect are a big increase in food costs for American’s budgets, said Thomas Gremillion, director of food policy at The Consumer Federation of America.

“The 10% ‘default’ tariffs alone represent a truly historic federal tax increase, maybe the largest in my lifetime, with a highly regressive impact,” Gremillion said.

How will Trump’s tariffs affect grocery store prices? We explain.
How will Trump’s tariffs or the threat of more tariffs affect grocery store prices?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/how-will-trump-s-tariffs-affect-grocery-store-prices-we-explain/ar-AA1Eco8Y

Miami Herald: ‘Deport every person under the sun’: ICE detains Cubans during immigration appointments

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Anything to get the numbers up, so that Trump & cronies can claim to be doing something!

Federal authorities in South Florida have recently detained at least 18 Cubans during scheduled immigration appointments, local attorneys say, highlighting that a group that has historically enjoyed special immigration benefits is not immune to the Trump administration’s intensified mass deportation efforts.

Among the Cubans recently detained is Beatriz Monteagudo, 25, her friend Johan Ariel told the Miami Herald. The pair texted each other daily. But the last message he received from Monteagudo was March 10. The Cuban woman, who got an I-220A after entering the U.S. in January 2024, was heading to her required check-in appointment in Miramar.

Ariel quickly grew worried that he hadn’t heard from her following the appointment. When he searched the ICE detainee locator service online, her name showed up. Then came Monteagudo’s call.

When she called Ariel from the detention facility, she told him she was with about 18 others who had also been taken into custody after showing up for their routine appointments. Monteagudo told him she wasn’t told why they were there, aside from officers mentioning the laws had changed.

That’s a blatant lie. No laws changed. Trump and ICE are now retaliating again people who have properly complied with the process up to this point. Most of these Cubans crossed the border after they had arranged appointments to do so with immigration officials.

To date, neither Monteagudo nor Ariel have gotten answers, he says. And this week, Monteagudo, who was living in Miami, was transferred to a detention facility in San Diego.

Transferring detainees to remote prisons is a favorite ICE tactic to make it difficult / impossible for family members and attorneys to assist the detainees.

‘Deport every person under the sun’: ICE detains Cubans during immigration appointments
Beatriz Monteagudo and Laura de la Caridad Sanchez are two Cuban women detained by ICE after routine appointments in Miramar. More than a dozen others were also possibly detained.

‘Deport every person under the sun’: ICE detains Cubans during immigration appointments