USA Today: Trump administration rolls out a strict new ICE policy

Posted on July 17, 2025 by M

“A new policy rolling out nationally prevents judges from granting a bond to most detained migrants.”

The man walked around the corner of the coral pink detention center building, shuffling a little to keep his shoes on his feet. They’d taken his shoelaces. And his belt.

The 93-degree temperature bounced off the black asphalt as he walked free for the first time in six weeks, after federal immigration agents in California arrested him at a routine court check-in with his American citizen wife.

A year ago, he might have been one of a dozen men released on a day like this.

But a few months ago, the releases from the privately run Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center here slowed to maybe five a day.

Now, releases from the approximately 1,200-bed GEO ICE facility have slowed even further as the Trump administration clamps down on people accused of living illegally in the United States.

A new policy rolling out nationally prevents judges from granting a bond to most detained migrants. Those hearings often end with a judge releasing the detainee if they agree to post a cash bond, and in some cases, be tracked by a GPS device.

The White House argues that mass migration under former President Joe Biden was legally an “invasion,” and it has invoked both the language and tools of war to close the borders and remove people who thought they entered the country illegally.

“The Biden administration allowed violent gang members, rapists, and murderers into our country, under the guise of asylum, where they unleashed terror on Americans,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said at a July 12 press briefing. “Under President Trump, we are putting American citizens first.”

Statistics show that migrants are far less likely to commit crimes than American citizens. And federal statistics show that fewer than half of detained migrants have criminal records.

But because immigration court is run by the Department of Justice and is not an independent judiciary, people within that system aren’t entitled to the same protections ‒ including the right to a speedy trial, a public defender if they can’t afford their own attorney, or now, a bond hearing, according to the administration. For detainees, bond often ranges from $5,000-$20,000, immigration attorneys said.

Migrant rights advocates say the loss of bond hearings means detainees will increasingly have to fight their deportation cases without legal representation or support and advice from community members. In many cases, detainees are being shipped to holding facilities thousands of miles from home, advocates say.

Contesting deportation can take months, and migrant rights groups said they suspect the policy change is intended to pressure migrants into agreeing to be deported even if they have a solid legal case for remaining in the United States.

The Trump administration has not publicly released the policy change; advocates said they first read about it in The Washington Post on July 14. Others said they learned of the policy change when DOJ attorneys read portions of it to judges during bond hearings.

“The Trump administration’s decision to deny bond hearings to detained immigrants is a cruel and calculated escalation of its mass detention agenda, one that prioritizes incarceration over due process and funnels human beings into for-profit prison corporations,” said Karen Orona, the communications manager at the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. “This move eliminates a lifeline for thousands of immigrants, stripping away their right to reunite with families, gather evidence, and fairly fight their cases.”

Out of all of the people detained at the facility, only one man was released on July 15. And like every person released, a volunteer team from the nonprofit Casa de Paz met him on the street outside. They offered him a ride, a cell phone call, and food.

Andrea Loya, the nonprofit’s executive director, said Casa volunteers have seen the Trump administration’s get-tough approach playing out as they speak with those who are released. Like other migrant rights advocates, Loya said she’s frustrated that private prison companies with close ties to the White House benefit financially from the new policy.

“It does not surprise me that this is the route we’re headed down,” she said. “Now, what we can expect is to see almost no releases.”

ICE previously lacked the detention space to hold every person accused of crossing the border outside of official ports of entry, which in 2024 totaled 2.1 million “encounters.” The new July 4 federal spending bill provides ICE with funding for 80,000 new detention beds, allowing it to detain up to 100,000 people at any given time, in addition to funding an extra 10,000 ICE agents to make arrests.

Because there historically hasn’t been enough detention space to hold every person accused of immigration violations, millions of people over the years have been released into the community following a bond hearing in which an immigration judge weighed the likelihood of them showing back up for their next court date. They are then free to live their lives and work ‒ legally or not‒ while their deportation cases remain pending, which can take years.

According to ICE’s 2024 annual report, there were more than 7.6 million people on what it calls the “non-detained” docket ‒ people accused of violating immigration law but considered not enough of a threat to keep locked up. The agency had been attaching GPS monitors to detainees who judges considered a low risk of violence but a higher risk of failing to return to court.

Each detention costs taxpayers $152 per person, every day, compared to $4.20 a day for GPS tracking, ICE data shows.

According to the incarceration-rights group Vera Institute of Justice, 92% of people ordered to show up for immigration court hearings do so.

“We know that detention is not just cruel but is unnecessary,” said Elizabeth Kenney, Vera’s associate director. “The government’s justification of detention is just not supported by research or even their own data.”

Like many migrant rights advocates, Kenney said she has not yet seen the specific policy.

In Seattle, attorney Tahmina Watson of Watson Immigration Law, said the policy ‒ the specifics of which she had also not seen ‒ appeared to be part of ongoing administration efforts to limit due process for anyone accused of immigration violations.

“They have created a system in which they can detain people longer and longer,” said Watson. “Effectively, this means that people who have potential pathways to legality are being held indefinitely. The whole notion is to put people into detention. And I don’t know where that’s going to end.”

No bond, no freedom: New ICE policy keeps migrants locked up longer

Migrant rights advocates say the loss of bond hearings means many detainees will have to fight their deportation cases without legal representation.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/07/16/trump-no-bond-policy-immigration-detainees-ice/85207175007

Rolling Stone: ICE Raids Aren’t Just a Latino Issue – Black Communities Are Also at Risk

Posted on July 17, 2025 by M

“It’s not just Mexican people they are looking for,” one TikToker told her audience, “it’s all immigrants that are obviously not white”

“When ICE detained Rodriguez in February, weeks after filing her green card application, there was no consideration that she’d just given birth two weeks prior. ”I was just taken away from the child. I was leaking breast milk all over. I was still bleeding because I just had a baby and was on medication but I didn’t get those back.‘”

On Feb. 18, two weeks after having her son via C-section, Monique Rodriguez was battling postpartum depression. The Black mother of two, who was born and raised in St. Catherine Parish in Jamaica, had come to the U.S. in 2022 on a six-month visa and settled in Florida with her husband. But after finding herself alone and overwhelmed from the lack of support, she spiraled. “My husband is American and a first-time dad and was scared of hurting the baby. He kept pushing the baby off on me, which I didn’t like. I was in pain and I was tired and overwhelmed. I got frustrated and I hit my husband,” she says. A family member called the police, resulting in Rodriguez’s arrest. Suddenly, a private domestic dispute led to more serious consequences: When Rodriguez’s husband arrived to bail her out the following day, Immigration and Customs Enforcement was waiting to detain her. Despite being married and having a pending Green Card application, she became one of thousands of immigrants deported this year because of contact with police.

Since Donald Trump took office for the second time, ICE has been raiding immigrant communities across the nation. Prior to the raids, Black immigrants, like Rodriguez, have historically been targeted at higher rates due to systemic racism. With a host of complications, including anti-blackness and colorism in the Latino community — which often leaves Black immigrants out of conversations around protests and solidarity — the future is bleak. And Black immigrants and immigration attorneys are predicting a trickle-down effect to Black communities in America, making them vulnerable even more.

On June 6, protests broke out in Los Angeles — whose population is roughly half Hispanic, and one in five residents live with an undocumented person. On TikTok, Latino creators and activists called on Black creators and community members to protest and stand in solidarity. But to their disappointment, many Black Americans remained silent, some even voicing that the current deportations were not their fight. “Latinos have been completely silent when Black people are getting deported by ICE,” says Alexander Duncan, a Los Angeles resident who made a viral TikTok on the subject. “All of a sudden it impacts them and they want Black people to the front lines.” Prejudice has long disconnected Black and Latino communities — but the blatant dismissal of ICE raids as a Latino issue is off base.

For some Black Americans, the reluctancy to put their bodies on the line isn’t out of apathy but self-preservation. Duncan, who moved from New York City to a predominantly Mexican neighborhood in L.A., was surprised to find the City of Angels segregated. “One of my neighbors, who has done microaggressions, was like ‘I haven’t seen you go to the protests,” he tells Rolling Stone. “I said, ‘Bro, you haven’t spoken to me in six months. Why would you think I’m going to the front lines for you and you’re not even a good neighbor?’”

Following the 2024 elections, many Black Democratic voters disengaged. Nationally, the Latino community’s support for Trump doubled from 2016, when he first won the presidency. Despite notable increases of support for Trump across all marginalized demographics, Latino’s Republican votes set a new record. “Anti-Blackness is a huge sentiment in the Latino community,” says Cesar Flores, an activist and law student in Miami, who also spoke on the matter via TikTok. “I’ve seen a lot of Latinos complain that they aren’t receiving support from the Black community but 70 percent of people in Miami are Latino or foreign born, and 55 percent voted for Trump.” Although 51 percent of the Latino community voted for Kamala Harris overall, Black folks had the highest voting percentage for the Democratic ballot, at 83 percent. For people like Duncan, the 48 percent of Latinos who voted for Trump did so against both the Latino and Black community’s interest. “The Black community feels betrayed,” says Flores. “It’s a common misconception that deportations and raids only affect Latinos, but Black folks are impacted even more negatively by the immigration system.”

The devastation that deportation causes cannot be overstated. When ICE detained Rodriguez in February, weeks after filing her green card application, there was no consideration that she’d just given birth two weeks prior. “I was just taken away from the child. I was leaking breast milk all over. I was still bleeding because I just had a baby and was on medication but I didn’t get those back.” Rodriguez thought her situation was unique until she was transported to a Louisiana detention center and met other detained mothers. “I was probably the only one that had a newborn, but there were women there that were ripped away from babies three months [to] 14 years old,” says Rodriguez.

On May 29, her 30th birthday, Rodriguez was one of 107 people sent to Jamaica. Around the same time, Jermaine Thomas, born on an U.S. Army base in Germany, where his father served for two years, was also flown there. Though his father was born in Jamaica, Thomas has never been there, and, with the exception of his birth, has lived within the U.S. all of his life. “I’m one of the lucky ones,” says Rodriguez, who is now back in Jamaica with her baby and husband, who maintain their American citizenships. “My husband and his mom took care of the baby when I was away. But there’s no process. They’re just taking you away from your kids and some of the kids end up in foster care or are missing.”

In January, Joe Biden posthumously pardoned Marcus Garvey, America’s first notable deportation of a Jamaican migrant in 1927. His faulty conviction of mail fraud set a precedent for convicted Black and brown migrants within the U.S.

“Seventy-six percent of Black migrants are deported because of contact with police and have been in this country for a long time,” says Nana Gyamfi, an immigration attorney and the executive director of the Black Alliance For Just Immigration. A 2021 report from the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants found that while only seven percent of the immigrant population is Black, Black immigrants make up 20 percent of those facing deportation for criminal convictions, including low-level, nonviolent offences. “If you’re from the Caribbean it’s even higher,” says Gyamfi. “For Jamaicans, it’s 98 percent higher. People talk about the Chinese Exclusion Act, but I’ve recently learned that the first people excluded from this country were Haitians.”

On June 27, the Trump administration announced the removal of Temporary Protective Status (TPS) for Haitians starting in September, putting thousands of migrants in jeopardy given Haiti’s political climate. Though a judge ruled it unconstitutional, the threat to Black migrants remains. “You have Black U.S. citizens being grabbed [by ICE] and held for days because they are racially profiling,” says Gyamfi, referring to folks like Thomas and Peter Sean Brown, who was wrongfully detained in Florida and almost deported to Jamaica, despite having proof of citizenship. “Black people are being told their real IDs are not real.” With much of the coverage concerning the ICE raids being based around Latino immigrants, some feel disconnected from the issue, often forgetting that 12 percent of Latinos are Black in the United States. “A lot of the conversation is, ‘ICE isn’t looking for Black people, they’re looking for Hispanics,’” Anayka She, a Black Panamanian TikTok creator, said to her 1.7 million followers. “[But] It’s not just Mexican people they are looking for, it’s all immigrants that are obviously not white.”

“A lot of times, as Black Americans, we don’t realize that people may be Caribbean or West African,” she tells Rolling Stone. Her family moved to the U.S. in the 1980s, after her grandfather worked in the American zone of the Panama Canal and was awarded visas for him and his family. “If I didn’t tell you I was Panamanian, you could assume I was any other ethnicity. [In the media], they depict immigration one way but I wanted to give a different perspective as somebody who is visibly Black.” America’s racism is partly to blame. “Los Angeles has the largest number of Belizeans in the United States but people don’t know because they get mixed in with African Americans,” says Gyamfi. “Black Immigrants are in an invisibilized world because in people’s brains, immigrants are non Black Latinos.”

The path forward is complex. Rodriguez and Sainviluste, whose children are U.S. citizens, hope to come back to America to witness milestones like graduation or marriage. “I want to be able to go and be emotional support,” says Rodriguez.

Yet she feels conflicted. “I came to America battered and bruised, for a new opportunity. I understand there are laws but those laws also stated that if you overstayed, there are ways to situate yourself. But they forced me out.”

Activists like Gyamfi want all Americans, especially those marginalized, to pay attention. “Black folks have been feeling the brunt of the police-to-deportation pipeline and Black people right now are being arrested in immigration court.” In a country where mass incarceration overwhelmingly impacts Black people, Gyamfi sees these deportations as a warning sign. “Trump just recently brought up sending U.S. citizens convicted of crimes to prison colonies all over the world. In this climate, anyone can get it.”

ICE Raids Aren’t Just a Latino Issue — Black Communities Are Also at Risk

Tensions are mounting between Black and Hispanic communities amid the ICE raids and deportations, but solidarity is the only way to fight back.

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-commentary/ice-raids-latino-issue-black-communities-1235384699

Mediaite: House Democrat Hits Back at ICE After Being Accused of Doxxing Federal Agent and Joining a ‘Violent Mob’

Posted on July 16, 2025 by M

**Tom “Pugsley” Homan, one of America’s ugliest & most patheticly dim-witted apparatchiks ever!**

Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-CA) hit back at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement over the weekend after being accused of doxxing a federal agent and joining a violent mob.

ICE wrote on X Sunday, “Rep. Salud Carbajal was part of a violent mob of protestors attempting to obstruct federal law enforcement as they executed a criminal search warrant at a marijuana facility. He cites “peaceful” protestors, when in fact these rioters were launching rocks at officers, injuring at least one ICE employee who was left bloody.” The federal agency added:

According to agents on the ground, the congressman doxed that same ICE employee by sharing his business card with members of the violent mob.

THIS is precisely the rhetoric that has led to orchestrated attempts to murder officers and a 700% increase in officer assaults.

May the congressman’s constituency always remember he chooses violence over the rule of law.

Carbajal, who represents Santa Barbara County, hit back at ICE on Sunday evening, writing, “This is a blatant attempt to distort what occurred in Carpinteria. DHS and ICE conducted their raid using a disturbing and disproportionate level of force, both on the farm workers they were targeting and the peaceful protesters who gathered to defend their neighbors.” He added:

I witnessed agents, in full military gear, fire smoke canisters and other projectiles into a crowd of peaceful civilians. Just before I arrived at the scene, witnesses told me the agents threw a stun grenade into the crowd. Several civilians were injured, including a child.

This aggressive behavior in a normally quiet part of the Central Coast sparked alarm across our community, prompting a flood of calls and messages to my office from concerned citizens. I went to the scene to seek answers and represent my constituents.

ICE’s claims of “doxxing” and “violent mobs” are familiar deflection tactics designed to distort public perception and to evade accountability for their aggressive actions in our community.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche replied to ICE’s statement, saying, “We take all allegations of inciting violence or doxing of federal employees very seriously—no one is above the law, and members of Congress are no exception. We are reviewing reports from the protest. If substantiated, we will pursue every appropriate legal avenue to protect our law enforcement officers and uphold the rule of law.”

Meanwhile, many on X roasted ICE for suggesting that sharing a business card is doxxing. “That is quite the thin reed to go after the congressman. Sharing someone’s business card is not “doxxing” them, and there’s no evidence that the person who threw the rock was targeting that person or even interacted with the member of Congress,” replied Trump critic and immigration activist Aaron Reichlin-Melnick.

For God’s sakes, sharing a business card is NOT doxxing. If you don’t want your business card passed around, don’t hand it out. It really is that simple, even if some dimwits like Tom “Pugsley” Homan are just too retarded to get. Pugsley must have been scraping the bottom of the barrel for something to whine about.

House Democrat Hits Back at ICE After Being Accused of Doxxing Federal Agent and Joining a ‘Violent Mob’

“ICE’s claims of “doxxing” and “violent mobs” are familiar deflection tactics designed to distort public perception and to evade accountability”

House Democrat Hits Back at ICE After Being Accused of Doxxing Federal Agent and Joining a ‘Violent Mob’

MSNBC: A federal judge’s ruling against ICE should be required reading for every American

Posted on July 16, 2025 by M

Los Angeles is a city under attack. Spurred on by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller’s outrage that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has not been deporting enough people, ICE agents have been sweeping through the city, often clad in full military attire like a conquering army. Photographs and videos document ICE’s “arrest first and ask questions later” approach on a daily basis.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Maame E. Frimpong ordered ICE to stop “conducting roving patrols without reasonable suspicion and denying access to lawyers.” She refused to be taken in by the Trump administration’s fog of deception and disinformation. “The federal government agrees: Roving patrols without reasonable suspicion violate the Fourth Amendment and denying access to lawyers violates the Fifth Amendment,” she wrote. “What the federal government would have this Court believe — in the face of a mountain of evidence presented in this case — is that none of this is actually happening.”

Frimpong’s ruling should be required reading for every American. She modeled the kind of resistance that is essential in the face of the administration’s concerted attack on facts, truths and common sense. Her “believe what you see, not what they say” response sets an example for all Americans who wish to resist an authoritarian takeover in this country.

The Courthouse News Service reports that, at a hearing held Thursday, the government wanted the judge to believe “that the ICE raids were sophisticated operations, based on surveillance and information from other law enforcement agencies targeting specific individuals.” According to CNS, lawyers for the Justice Department argued that ICE could “also stop and question other individuals there who they suspected were immigrants without legal status….” That would be acceptable, a DOJ lawyer argued, based on the “totality of the circumstances.”

The government offered these claims against the weight of the evidence and out-of-court statements. In an appearance last week on Fox News, the administration’s border czar Tom Homan included “physical appearance” in the list of things that ICE takes into account during their patrols in Los Angeles. At the Thursday hearing, the American Civil Liberties Union argued that ICE was engaging in racial profiling, targeting members of the Hispanic community and ignoring people of European ancestry who might be in the country illegally. “The evidence is clear that they’re looking at race,” Mohammad Tasjar, an attorney for the ACLU of Southern California, told Frimpong. Even a lawyer for the government acknowledged that “agents can’t put blinders on.”

During the hearing, as The New York Times reported, the judge “was skeptical of the government’s assertions that it was not violating the constitutional rights of people and that agents were stopping immigrants based on ‘the totality of circumstances,’ rather than relying on race.”

That skepticism was reflected in the 52-page opinion the judge handed down one day later. Frimpong wrote that the migrants who filed suit were likely to prevail in their claim that ICE had no legitimate basis to stop and detain most of the people caught up in its military style operations in Los Angeles. She found that the ICE operation constituted a “threatening presence” that left people fearful that they were being “kidnapped.” The judge ordered that, when conducting such operations, the government must stop relying on factors such as race, ethnicity, speaking Spanish, speaking English with an accent, presence at a particular location, or type of work.

Frimpong seemed particularly disturbed by the government’s failure to “acknowledge the existence of roving patrols at all.” As she put it, “the evidence before the Court at this time portrays the reality differently.” She also noted that the government had failed to provide any evidence that what ICE is doing could pass constitutional muster, despite “having nearly a week” to do so.

This judge’s insistence that reality does in fact matter is particularly important in the face of an administration that time and again demands Americans accept whatever it says.

In the immigration context at least, that ploy seems not to be failing. A recent Gallup poll found that 79% of respondents say immigration is “a good thing” for the country versus just 20% who say it is a “bad thing.” Just a year ago, those numbers were 64% and 32% respectively. The percentage of Americans who want to see a decrease in immigration also sharply declined, from 55% in 2024 to 30% today. And 62% of Americans now disapprove of President Trump’s handling of immigration.

Judge Frimpong’s determined refusal to be deceived by the administration’s smoke and mirrors and her rebuke of ICE’s “roving patrols” shows other members of the judiciary — and the rest of the country — that the White House’s rationalizations of its immigration policy deserve not a shred of deference. It should serve as a wake-up call to all of us and a reminder of the damage the administration’s anti-immigrant crusade is doing to our constitutional order.

A federal judge’s ruling against ICE should be required reading for every American

U.S. District Judge Maame E. Frimpong refused to be deceived by the administration’s smoke and mirrors.

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/ice-los-angeles-judge-ruling-profiling-immigration-rcna218624

Salon: “Cried every night”: ICE traumatizes a child with leukemia

Posted on July 16, 2025 by M

The Trump administration is going after easy targets, including sick children, to meet its deportation quotas

As part of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign, a young cancer patient and his family were detained, despite adhering to every rule of the immigration process. The boy’s lawyer says the family’s experience puts to lie the Trump administration’s claims about deportation.

In May, a 6-year-old boy from Honduras who had been suffering from acute lymphoblastic leukemia since the age of three was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, alongside his family, immediately after a court hearing on May 29. Their case was dismissed at the hearing, per instructions from Trump, who directed judges to dismiss the cases of immigrants who have been in the country for less than two years so that ICE can move to deport them. On July 2, the family was released after significant pressure from the public and media coverage of the detention.

Elora Mukherjee, an attorney who represented the boy and his family, told Salon that the boy and his 9-year-old sister “cried every night in detention.” At the same time, the government pursued an expedited removal, a process by which the government deports someone without a hearing before a judge.

“The Trump administration’s policy of detaining people at courthouses who are doing everything right, who are entirely law-abiding, who are trying to fulfill all the requirements that the US government asks of them — it violates our Constitution, it violates our federal laws. It also violates our sense of morality. Why are we targeting hundreds, if not thousands, of people, including children, who are doing everything right?” Mukherjee said.

Jeff Migliozzi, the communications director for Freedom for Immigrants, an immigrant advocacy organziation, told Salon that “The Trump administration’s aggressive quota of 3,000 daily immigration arrests — a policy pushed by hardliners in the White House like known white nationalist Stephen Miller — is terrorizing communities.”

“The administration is directing resources and personnel from every possible corner of the government to conduct a multi-agency detention and deportation campaign at unprecedented scale,” Migliozzi said.. “This destructive agenda touches every corner of American life and civil society, as more and more people, including those who have been in the US for decades and are pillars of their community, are suddenly snatched by masked agents and taken away to remote detention sites. Street operations are resource-intensive, so the administration has increasingly turned to bait-and-switch tactics to drive up the numbers. ICE is now relying more on arrests at scheduled check-ins and at courthouses. These practices underscore not only the cruelty of this administration’s policy, but of the outdated and unfair immigration system. Here you have people doing everything they can to follow the instructions given to them, and then the rug is pulled out from under them. The result is separated families and shattered lives.”

Despite living in Los Angeles, the family was kept at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas for over a month. The center had been closed under the Biden Administration, but has been reopened as part of Trump’s push to deport as many immigrants as possible.

In detention, Mukherjee said that the boy suffered from easy bruising and bone pain, both symptoms of leukemia, and missed a June 5 medical appointment related to his cancer treatment. His sister barely ate in detention, she added.

In response to a request for comment from Salon, Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, “ICE does not consider a six-year-old child a ‘flight risk’ or a ‘criminal’—that is a disgusting accusation and devoid of any reality. ”

McLaughlin claimed that the family entered the United States illegally and that “Any implications that ICE would deny a child proper medical care are FALSE,” adding that “ICE ALWAYS prioritizes the health, safety, and well-being of all detainees in its care.”

“On May 29, 2025, an immigration judge in California dismissed the family’s immigration case and they were served orders of expedited removal,” McLaughlin said. “ICE took custody of the family following the judge’s decision and pending further proceedings. The child arrived at the Dilley facility on May 30, 2025, and was seen by a nurse during intake. Fortunately, the child has not undergone chemotherapy in over a year and was seen regularly by medical personnel while at the Dilley facility. During this time, the family chose to appeal their case. On July 2, the child, his mother, and his sister were released on parole.”

The Dilley detention facility has been subject to renewed scrutiny as the Trump administration has sought to terminate the Flores Settlement, a 1990s-era policy stemming from the Supreme Court case Reno v. Flores, which set basic standards for the treatment of children in detention and required the government to release children from detention without unnecessary delay.

Recent testimony about conditions at ICE facilities has raised concerns over violations of the agreement, with one girl describing situations in which adults and children were fighting over an insufficient amount of water at one facility.

“We don’t get enough water. They put out a little case of water, and everyone has to run for it,” the girl said in testimony related to conditions in immigrant detention. “An adult here even pushed my little sister out of the way to get to the water first.”

Mukherjee said that the family had followed all the rules in coming to the United States, but were still arrested by ICE. And, despite claims from the Trump administration that they’re focusing their efforts on criminals, neither the small children nor the mother had been accused of a crime. The family arrived in the United States in October, applying for asylum after they faced death threats in Honduras. The names and details of the family have not been released due to the threats they face in Honduras.

“So this particular family did everything right. They came to the U.S. border after fleeing imminent and menacing death threats in their home country of Honduras. They didn’t cross the border illegally. They waited for permission to enter the United States using a CBP one appointment. At that point, DHS paroled the family into the United States, which necessarily entailed a determination that the family did not pose a danger to the community or a flight risk,” Mukherjee said. “The family did exactly what the federal government asked them to do.”

According to Mukherjee, as soon as the family stepped out of their May 29 hearing, plain clothes ICE officers detained them, a move that she said “clearly violates both the Fourth Amendment and the Fifth Amendment.”

“When Trump was campaigning for president, and since he’s become president, and high-level officials in the Department of Homeland Security constantly say that we are targeting the ‘worst of the worst,’” Mukherjee said. “These are the people who are doing everything right.”

Their release followed a suit filed by the mother of the family, demanding the family’s immediate release. Mukherjee told Salon that the family intends to continue its legal battle to remain in the United States.

“Cried every night”: ICE detains child with leukemia – Salon.com

The Trump administration is going after easy targets, including sick children, to meet its deportation quotas

https://www.salon.com/2025/07/14/cried-every-night-ice-traumatizes-a-child-with-leukemia

Guardian: Irish tourist jailed by Ice for months after overstaying US visit by three days: ‘Nobody is safe’

Posted on July 16, 2025 by M

Exclusive: For roughly 100 days, Thomas says he faced harsh detention conditions, despite agreeing to deportation

Thomas, a 35-year-old tech worker and father of three from Ireland, came to West Virginia to visit his girlfriend last fall. It was one of many trips he had taken to the US, and he was authorized to travel under a visa waiver program that allows tourists to stay in the country for 90 days.

He had planned to return to Ireland in December, but was briefly unable to fly due to a health issue, his medical records show. He was only three days overdue to leave the US when an encounter with police landed him in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) custody.

From there, what should have been a minor incident became a nightmarish ordeal: he was detained by Ice in three different facilities, ultimately spending roughly 100 days behind bars with little understanding of why he was being held – or when he’d get out.

Farm worker who died after California Ice raid was ‘hardworking and innocent’, family says Read more

“Nobody is safe from the system if they get pulled into it,” said Thomas, in a recent interview from his home in Ireland, a few months after his release. Thomas asked to be identified by a nickname out of fear of facing further consequences with US immigration authorities.

Despite immediately agreeing to deportation when he was first arrested, Thomas remained in Ice detention after Donald Trump took office and dramatically ramped up immigration arrests. Amid increased overcrowding in detention, Thomas was forced to spend part of his time in custody in a federal prison for criminal defendants, even though he was being held on an immigration violation.

Thomas was sent back to Ireland in March and was told he was banned from entering the US for 10 years.

Thomas’s ordeal follows a rise in reports of tourists and visitors with valid visas being detained by Ice, including from Australia, Germany, Canada and the UK. In April, an Irish woman who is a US green card holder was also detained by Ice for 17 days due to a nearly two-decade-old criminal record.

The arrests appear to be part of a broader crackdown by the Trump administration, which has pushed to deport students with alleged ties to pro-Palestinian protests; sent detainees to Guantánamo Bay and an El Salvador prison without presenting evidence of criminality; deported people to South Sudan, a war-torn country where the deportees had no ties; and escalated large-scale, militarized raids across the US.

‘I thought I was going home’

In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Thomas detailed his ordeal and the brutal conditions he witnessed in detention that advocates say have long plagued undocumented people and become worse under Trump.

Thomas, an engineer at a tech firm, had never had any problems visiting the US under the visa waiver program. He had initially planned to return home in October, but badly tore his calf, suffered severe swelling and was having trouble walking, he said. A doctor ordered him not to travel for eight to 12 weeks due to the risk of blood clots, which, he said, meant he had to stay slightly past 8 December, when his authorization expired.

He obtained paperwork from his physician and contacted the Irish and US embassies and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to seek an extension, but it was short notice and he did not hear back, he said.

“I did everything I could with the online tools available to notify the authorities that this was happening,” he said, explaining that by the time his deadline to leave the US had approached, he was nearly healed and planning to soon return. “I thought they would understand because I had the correct paperwork. It was just a couple of days for medical reasons.”

He might have avoided immigration consequences, if it weren’t for an ill-timed law enforcement encounter.

Thomas and his girlfriend, Malone, were visiting her family in Savannah, Georgia, when Thomas suffered a mental health episode, he and Malone recalled. The two had a conflict in their hotel room and someone overheard it and called the police, they said.

Malone, who requested to use her middle name to protect her boyfriend’s identity, said she was hoping officers would get him treatment and did not want to see him face criminal charges. But police took him to jail, accusing him of “falsely imprisoning” his girlfriend in the hotel room, a charge Malone said she did not support. He was soon released on bond, but instead of walking free, was picked up by US immigration authorities, who transported him 100 miles away to an Ice processing center in Folkston, Georgia. The facility is operated by the private prison company Geo Group on behalf of Ice, with capacity to hold more than 1,000 people.

Thomas was given a two-page removal order, which said he had remained in the US three days past his authorization and contained no further allegations. On 17 December, he signed a form agreeing to be removed.

But despite signing the form he remained at Folkston, unable to get answers about why Ice wasn’t deporting him or how long he would remain in custody. David Cheng, an attorney who represented Thomas, said he requested that Ice release him with an agreement that he’d return to Ireland as planned, but Ice refused.

At one point at Folkston, after a fight broke out, officers placed detainees on lockdown for about five days, cutting them off from contacting their families, he said. Thomas said he and others only got approximately one hour of outdoor time each week.

In mid-February, after about two months in detention, officers placed him and nearly 50 other detainees in a holding cell, preparing to move them, he said: “I thought I was finally going home.” He called his family to tell them the news.

Instead, he and the others were shackled around their wrists, waists and legs and transported four hours to a federal correctional institution in Atlanta, a prison run by the US Bureau of Prisons (BoP), he said.

BoP houses criminal defendants on federal charges, but the Trump administration, as part of its efforts to expand Ice detention, has been increasingly placing immigrants into BoP facilities – a move that advocates say has led to chaos, overcrowding and violations of detainees’ rights.

‘We were treated less than human’

Thomas said the conditions and treatment by BoP were worse than Ice detention: “They were not prepared for us whatsoever.”

He and other detainees were placed in an area with dirty mattresses, cockroaches and mice, where some bunkbeds lacked ladders, forcing people to climb to the top bed, he said.

BoP didn’t seem to have enough clothes, said Thomas, who got a jumpsuit but no shirt. The facility also gave him a pair of used, ripped underwear with brown stains. Some jumpsuits appeared to have bloodstains and holes, he added.

Each detainee was given one toilet paper roll a week. He shared a cell with another detainee, and he said they were only able to flush the toilet three times an hour. He was often freezing and was given only a thin blanket. The food was “disgusting slop”, including some kind of mysterious meat that at times appeared to have chunks of bones and other inedible items mixed in, he said. He was frequently hungry.

“The staff didn’t know why we were there and they were treating us exactly as they would treat BoP prisoners, and they told us that,” Thomas said. “We were treated less than human.”

He and others requested medical visits, but were never seen by physicians, he said: “I heard people crying for doctors, saying they couldn’t breathe, and staff would just say, ‘Well, I’m not a doctor,’ and walk away.” He did eventually receive the psychiatric medication he requested, but staff would throw his pill under his cell door, and he’d sometimes have to search the floor to find it.

Detainees, he said, were given recreation time in an enclosure that was partially open to fresh air, but resembled an indoor cage: “You couldn’t see the outside whatsoever. I didn’t see the sky for weeks.” He had sciatica from an earlier hip injury and said he began experiencing “unbearable” nerve pain as a result of the lack of movement.

Thomas said it seemed Ice’s placements in the BoP facility were arbitrary and poorly planned. Of the nearly 50 people taken from Ice to BoP facility, about 30 of them were transferred back to Folkston a week later, and the following week, two from that group were once again returned to the BoP facility, he said.

In the BoP facility, he said, Ice representatives would show up once a week to talk to detainees. Detainees would crowd around Ice officials and beg for case updates or help. Ice officers spoke Spanish and English, but Middle Eastern and North African detainees who spoke neither were stuck in a state on confusion. “It was pandemonium,” Thomas said.

Thomas said he saw a BoP guard tear up “watching the desperation of the people trying to talk to Ice and find out what was happening”, and that this officer tried to assist people as best as she could. Thomas and Malone tried to help asylum seekers and others he met at the BoP facility by connecting them to advocates.

Thomas was also unable to speak to his children, because there was no way to make international calls. “I don’t know how I made it through,” he said.

In mid-March, Thomas was briefly transferred again to a different Ice facility. The authorities did not explain what had changed, but two armed federal officers then escorted him on a flight back to Ireland.

The DHS and Ice did not respond to inquiries, and a spokesperson for the Geo Group declined to comment.

Donald Murphy, a BoP spokesperson, confirmed that Thomas had been in the bureau’s custody, but did not comment about his case or conditions at the Atlanta facility. The BoP is now housing Ice detainees in eight of its prisons and would “continue to support our law enforcement partners to fulfill the administration’s policy objectives”, Murphy added.

‘This will be a lifelong burden’

It’s unclear why Thomas was jailed for so long for a minor immigration violation.

“It seems completely outlandish that they would detain someone for three months because he overstayed a visa for a medical reason,” said Sirine Shebaya, executive director of the National Immigration Project, who is not involved in his case and was provided a summary by the Guardian. “It is such a waste of time and money at a time when we’re hearing constantly about how the government wants to cut expenses. It seems like a completely incomprehensible, punitive detention.”

Ice, she added, was “creating its own crisis of overcrowding”.

Jennifer Ibañez Whitlock, senior policy counsel with the National Immigration Law Center, also not involved in the case, said, in general, it was not uncommon for someone to remain in immigration custody even after they’ve accepted a removal order and that she has had European clients shocked to learn they can face serious consequences for briefly overstaying a visa.

Ice, however, had discretion to release Thomas with an agreement that he’d return home instead of keeping him indefinitely detained, she said. The Trump administration, she added, has defaulted to keeping people detained without weighing individual factors of their cases: “Now it’s just, do we have a bed?”

Republican lawmakers in Georgia last year also passed state legislation requiring police to alert immigration authorities when an undocumented person is arrested, which could have played a role in Thomas being flagged to Ice, said Samantha Hamilton, staff attorney with Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta, a non-profit group that advocates for immigrants’ rights. She met Thomas on a legal visit at the BoP Atlanta facility.

Hamilton said she was particularly concerned about immigrants of color who are racially profiled and pulled over by police, but Thomas’s ordeal was a reminder that so many people are vulnerable. “The mass detentions are terrifying and it makes me afraid for everyone,” she said.

Thomas had previously traveled to the US frequently for work, but now questions if he’ll ever be allowed to return. “This will be a lifelong burden,” he said.

Malone, his girlfriend, said she plans to move to Ireland to live with him. “It’s not an option for him to come here and I don’t want to be in America anymore,” she said.

Since his return, Thomas said he has had a hard time sleeping and processing what happened: “I’ll never forget it, and it’ll be a long time before I’ll be able to even start to unpack everything I went through. It still doesn’t feel real. When I think about it, it’s like a movie I’m watching.” He said he has also struggled with long-term health problems that he attributes to malnutrition and inappropriate medications he was given while detained.

He was shaken by reports of people sent away without due process. “I wouldn’t have been surprised if I ended up at Guantánamo Bay or El Salvador, because it was so disorganized,” he said. “I was just at the mercy of the federal government.”

Irish tourist jailed by Ice for months after overstaying US visit by three days: ‘Nobody is safe’

Exclusive: For roughly 100 days, Thomas says he faced harsh detention conditions, despite agreeing to deportation

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/15/irish-tourist-ice-detention

Miami Herald: Exclusive: Hundreds at Alligator Alcatraz have no criminal charges, Miami Herald learns

Posted on July 16, 2025 by M

Hundreds of immigrants with no criminal charges in the United States are being held at Alligator Alcatraz, a detention facility state and federal officials have characterized as a place where “vicious” and “deranged psychopaths” are sent before they get deported, records obtained by the Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times show.

Mixed among the detainees accused and convicted of crimes are more than 250 people who are listed as having only immigration violations but no criminal convictions or pending charges in the United States. The data is based on a list of more than 700 people who are either being held under tents and in chain link cells at Florida’s pop-up detention center in the Everglades or appear slated for transfer there.

A third of the detainees have criminal convictions. Their charges range from attempted murder to illegal re-entry to traffic violations. Hundreds of others only have pending charges. The records do not disclose the nature of the alleged offenses, and reporters have not independently examined each individual’s case.

The information — subject to change as the population of the facility fluctuates — suggests that scores of migrants without criminal records have been targeted in the state and federal dragnet to catch and deport immigrants living illegally in Florida.

Nationally, nearly half of detainees in ICE custody as of late June were being held for immigration violations and did not have a criminal conviction or charge, according to data from Syracuse University. Polls have shown that American voters support the deportation of criminals but are less supportive of the arrest and detention of otherwise law-abiding undocumented immigrants. South Florida’s congressional representatives have called on the Trump administration to be more compassionate in its efforts to round up and deport immigrants with status issues.

“That place is supposedly for the worst criminals in the U.S.,” said Walter Jara, the nephew of a 56-year-old Nicaraguan man taken to the facility following a traffic stop in Palm Beach County. The list obtained by the Herald/Times states that his uncle, Denis Alcides Solis Morales, has immigration violations and makes no mention of convictions or pending criminal charges. Jara said his uncle arrived here legally in 2023 under a humanitarian parole program, and has a pending asylum case.

Reporters sent the list to officials at the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In a statement, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the absence of a criminal charge in the United States doesn’t mean migrants detained at the site have clean hands.

“Many of the individuals that are counted as ‘non-criminals’ are actually terrorists, human rights abusers, gangsters and more; they just don’t have a rap sheet in the U.S.,” McLaughlin told the Herald/Times. “Further, every single one of these individuals committed a crime when they came into this country illegally. It is not an accurate description to say they are ‘non-criminals.’”

McLaughlin said the Trump administration is “putting the American people first by removing illegal aliens who pose a threat to our communities” and said “70% of ICE arrests have been of criminal illegal aliens with convictions or pending charges.”

She added that the state of Florida oversees the facility, not ICE, an argument echoed in court by Thomas P. Giles, a top official involved in enforcement and removal operations.

“The ultimate decision of who to detain” at Alligator Alcatraz “belongs to Florida,” he wrote as part of the federal government’s response to a lawsuit challenging the detention facility on environmental grounds.

A spokesperson for ICE referred reporters to Florida’s Division of Emergency Management, which oversees the detention facility. The Florida agency did not respond to a request for comment.

The records offer a glimpse into who is being sent to Alligator Alcatraz. The network of trailers and tents, built on an airstrip off of U.S. Highway 41, has been operating for a little more than a week. It is already housing about 750 immigrant detainees, a figure that state officials shared with Democratic state Sen. Carlos Guillermo-Smith, one of several Florida lawmakers who toured the site on Saturday afternoon.

The records obtained by the Herald/Times show detainees are from roughly 40 countries around the world. Immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala and Cuba made up about half the list. Ages range from 18 to 73. One is listed as being from the United States. Reporters were unable to locate his family or attorney.

Lawmakers who visited the facility Saturday said they saw detainees wearing wristbands, which state officials explained were meant to classify the severity of their civil or criminal violations. The colors included yellow, orange and red — with yellow being less severe infractions and red meaning more severe offenses, said state Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando.

When the detention facility opened on July 1, President Donald Trump visited the site and said it would soon house “some of the most vicious people on the planet.” He and Gov. Ron DeSantis have said the detention center is creating more space to house undocumented immigrants who otherwise would have to be released due to a lack of beds.

The state has refused to make public a roster of detainees at Alligator Alcatraz, instead offering selective information about who is being detained there. On Friday, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier’s office released the names of six men convicted of crimes to Fox News, and later to the Herald/Times upon request. The charges against the men — all included on the list obtained by the Herald/Times — ranged from murder to burglary.

“This group of murderers, rapists, and gang members are just a small sample of the deranged psychopaths that Florida is helping President Trump and his administration remove from our country,” Uthmeier’s spokesman, Jeremy Redfern, said in a statement.

One of those men is Jose Fortin, a 46-year-old from Honduras who was arrested in 2017 on attempted murder charges. Records show Fortin was deported to his home country in August 2019. A month later, he re-entered the country illegally. Border patrol agents picked him up in Texas.

Another man identified as a detainee by Uthmeier’s office, Luis Donaldo Corado, was convicted of burglary and petty theft after he was accused of being a “peeping tom” — watching a woman through her apartment window in Coral Gables. And Eddy Lopez Jemot, a 57-year-old Cuban man, was accused of killing a woman and setting her house on fire in Key Largo in 2017. The state dropped homicide charges against him in a plea deal this year and convicted him of arson.

But other detainees left off the attorney general’s list face lesser charges — such as traffic violations, according to attorneys and family members. An attorney told the Herald/Times her client was detained by federal immigration agents after a routine-check in at an ICE field office. Some are asylum seekers.

Solís Morales, the 56-year-old Nicaraguan, ended up in Alligator Alcatraz after he was unexpectedly detained on his way to a construction job in Palm Beach County on July 1, according to Jara, his nephew. He was a passenger in a Ford F-150 when the driver was pulled over by the Florida Highway Patrol for an unsecured load, Jara told the Herald/Times on Saturday.

Solís Morales arrived in the United States from Nicaragua in 2023 under humanitarian parole and has a pending asylum case, Jara said.

Miami immigration attorney Regina de Moraes said she’s representing a 37-year-old Brazilian man being held at Alligator Alcatraz who entered the United States lawfully on a tourist visa in 2022 and then applied for asylum, which is pending.

She said the man, who has a five-year work permit and owns a solar panel business in the Orlando area, was arrested on a DUI charge in 2024. While he was attending a probation hearing on June 3, he was detained by the Orange County Sheriff’s office, which is participating in a federal immigration program known as 287(g). He was transferred from there to Alligator Alcatraz on Thursday, according to information provided to her by the man’s sister.

De Moraes, a seasoned immigration lawyer, said she doesn’t understand why the Brazilian man was transferred to the state-operated detention facility in the Everglades. She asked the Herald/Times not to identify her client.

“He’s not subject to mandatory detention and he’s not subject to removal because he has a pending asylum application,” de Moraes told the Herald/Times. “He has one DUI and he’s not a threat to others. This is ridiculous. This is a waste of time and money. … He’s not the kind of person they should be picking up.”

“They should be picking up people with sexual battery or armed robbery records,” de Moraes said.

Exclusive: Hundreds at Alligator Alcatraz have no criminal charges, Miami Herald learns

Descriptions of the Everglades detention center as a place for violent criminals tell only part of the story.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/immigration/article310541810.html

Washington Post: ICE declares millions of undocumented immigrants ineligible for bond hearings

Posted on July 16, 2025 by M

A memo from ICE’s acting director instructs officers to hold immigrants who entered the country illegally “for the duration of their removal proceedings,” which can take months or years.

The Trump administration has declared that immigrants who arrived in the United States illegally are no longer eligible for a bond hearing as they fight deportation proceedings in court, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post.

In a July 8 memo, Todd M. Lyons, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told officers that such immigrants should be detained “for the duration of their removal proceedings,” which can take months or years. Lawyers say the policy will apply to millions of immigrants who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border over the past few decades, including under Biden.

In the past, immigrants residing in the U.S. interior generally have been allowed to request a bond hearing before an immigration judge. But Lyons wrote that the Trump administration’s departments of Homeland Security and Justice had “revisited its legal position on detention and release authorities” and determined that such immigrants “may not be released from ICE custody.” In rare exceptions immigrants may be released on parole, but that decision will be up to an immigration officer, not a judge, he wrote.

The provision is based on a section of immigration law that says unauthorized immigrants “shall be detained” after their arrest, but that has historically applied to those who recently crossed the border and not longtime residents.

Lyons, who oversees the nation’s 200 immigration detention facilities, wrote that the policy is expected to face legal challenges.

ICE did not respond to requests for comment. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott issued similar guidance last week; that agency also did not respond to questions.

The sweeping new detention policy comes days after Congress passed a spending package that will allocate $45 billion over the next four years to lock up immigrants for civil deportation proceedings. The measure will allow ICE to roughly double the nation’s immigrant detention capacity to 100,000 people a day.

Since the memos were issued last week, the American Immigration Lawyers Association said members had reported that immigrants were being denied bond hearings in more than a dozen immigration courts across the United States, including in New York, Virginia, Oregon, North Carolina, Ohio and Georgia. The Department of Justice oversees the immigration courts.

“This is their way of putting in place nationwide a method of detaining even more people,” said Greg Chen, senior director of government relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “It’s requiring the detention of far more people without any real review of their individual circumstances.”

Immigration hawks have long argued that detaining immigrants is necessary to quickly deport those who do not qualify for asylum or another way to stay in the United States permanently. They say detaining immigrants might also discourage people from filing frivolous claims, in hopes of being released as their cases proceed in the backlogged immigration courts.

“Detention is absolutely the best way to approach this, if you can do it. It costs a lot of money obviously,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director for the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors enforcement. “You’re pretty much guaranteed to be able to remove the person, if there’s a negative finding, if he’s in detention.”

In its 2024 annual report, however, ICE said it detains immigrants only “when necessary” and that the vast majority of the 7.6 million people then on its docket were released pending immigration proceedings. Keeping them detained while their case is adjudicated has not been logistically possible, and advocates have raised concern for migrants’ health and welfare in civil immigration detention.

Immigrants are already subject to mandatory detention without bond if they have been convicted of murder or other serious crimes, and this year the Republican-led Congress added theft-related crimes to that list after a Georgia nursing student, Laken Riley, was killed by a man from Venezuela who had been picked up for shoplifting and not held for deportation.

Immigration lawyers say the Trump administration is expanding a legal standard typically used to hold recent arrivals at the southern border toa much broader group — including immigrants who have lived in the United States for decades. Many have U.S. citizen children, lawyers say, and likely have the legal grounds to defend themselves against deportation.

Forcing them to remain in detention facilities often in far-flung areas such as an alligator-infested swamp in Florida or the Arizona desert would make it more difficult to fight their cases, because they will be unable to work or easily communicate with family members and lawyers to prepare their cases.

“I think some courts are going to find that this doesn’t give noncitizens sufficient due process,” said Paul Hunker, an immigration lawyer and former ICE chief counsel in the Dallas area. “They could be held indefinitely until they’re deported.*

ICE is holding about 56,000 immigrants a day as officers sweep the nation for undocumented immigrants, working overtime to fulfill Trump’s goal of deporting 1 million people in his first year. Officials have reopened family detention centers that the Biden administration shuttered because ofsafety concerns, stood up soft-sided facilities such as one in the Everglades, and begun deporting immigrants with little notice to alternative countries such as conflict-ridden South Sudan.

Immigration lawyers say the new ICE policy is similar to a position that several immigration judges in Tacoma, Washington, have espoused in recent years, denying hearings to anyone who crossed the border illegally.

The Northwest Immigrant Rights Project in Seattle filed a lawsuit in March on behalf of detainees challenging the policy, arguing that their refusal to consider a bond hearing violated the immigrants’ rights.

The original plaintiff in the case, Ramon Rodriguez Vazquez, has lived in Washington state since 2009, works as a farmer and is the “proud grandfather” of 10 U.S. citizens, court records show. His eight siblings are U.S. citizens who live in California.

He also owns his home, where ICE officers arrested him in February for being in the United States without permission. In April, a federal judge in Washington found that he has “no criminal history in the United States or anywhere else in the world” and ordered immigration officers to give him a bond hearing before a judge. A judge denied him bond and he has since returned to Mexico, his lawyer said.

But that decision does not apply nationwide, lawyers said.

Aaron Korthuis, a lawyer in the case, said Rodriguez is typical of the type of immigrants who now face prolonged detention as they fight deportation in immigration courts. He called the government’s new interpretation of bond hearings “flagrantly unlawful.”

“They are people who have been living here, all they’re doing is trying to make a living for their family,” Korthuis said in an interview. He said the policy “is looking to supercharge detention beyond what it already is.”

ICE declares millions of undocumented immigrants ineligible for bond …

archived 15 Jul 2025 00:05:00 UTC

https://archive.is/vMvoj#selection-673.0-847.222

Newsweek: Trump backs ICE crackdown as farmworkers say they feel ‘hunted’

Posted on July 16, 2025 by M

Undocumented farm workers say they are being “hunted like animals” as President Donald Trump expands ICE raids targeting agricultural sites. Amid rising arrest quotas and shifting enforcement policies, workers report living in fear, losing wages, and facing mounting pressure to surrender autonomy in exchange for continued employment.

What to know:

ICE raids under Trump have led to injuries, mass arrests, and at least one death

Trump has proposed deferring immigration enforcement to farm owners

Advocacy groups warn that the policy undermines civil rights and worker protections

Many undocumented farm workers have gone into hiding to avoid arrest

Critics liken the enforcement approach to indentured servitude or forced compliance

Nearly 40 percent of farm workers in the US are undocumented

ICE quotas have tripled under the Trump administration

Labor unions say raids are unconstitutional and are executed without judicial oversight

In June, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Houston arrested five undocumented migrants with extensive criminal histories. Among them was 56-year-old Cuban national Adermis Wilson-Gonzalez, convicted in 2003 for hijacking a plane from Cuba to Florida. He was taken into custody on June 29.

On June 13, ICE arrested Arnulfo Olivares Cervantes, a 47-year-old Mexican national and former Mexicles gang member. Cervantes had entered the U.S. illegally six times and faced convictions for attempted murder, drug trafficking, and evading arrest.

Luis Pablo Vasquez-Estolano, 29, also from Mexico, was arrested on June 10. He had been deported six times and held convictions for homicide, aggravated robbery, and drug possession.

Jose Meza, 40, was arrested on June 24. ICE reported Meza had entered the U.S. illegally four times and was convicted of sexual assault of a minor and theft.

On June 23, ICE detained 51-year-old Javier Escobar Gonzalez, who had prior convictions for sexual indecency with a minor, criminal trespass with a deadly weapon, and unauthorized firearm use.

ICE officials say the arrests reflect ongoing efforts to remove individuals deemed threats to public safety.

ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) in Houston is pushing back against criticism of its recent immigration enforcement actions, with acting Field Office Director Gabriel Martinez praising agents for their work in removing individuals deemed threats to public safety. In a statement, Martinez said ICE officers are “targeting dangerous criminal aliens” and highlighted recent deportations across Southeast Texas as evidence of their commitment.

The agency reported the removal of individuals with criminal convictions, including child predators and gang members, as part of its broader strategy to restore what it calls integrity to the immigration system. Martinez emphasized that ICE’s mission is being undermined by “false and malicious rumors,” but insisted that agents remain focused on protecting communities.

The statement follows a series of high-profile deportations and increased scrutiny of ICE’s tactics, particularly in Houston, where arrests have surged in recent months.

Dozens of demonstrators gathered outside the Portland International Jetport on Saturday to protest Avelo Airlines’ partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The airline has been conducting deportation flights out of Arizona since May, prompting backlash from immigration advocates and local residents.

Protesters expressed concern that Avelo, which recently began offering commercial flights between Portland and New Haven, Connecticut, is receiving public incentives despite its federal contract. Organizers called for a boycott and urged city officials to reconsider support for the airline.

Avelo maintains that its ICE-related operations are limited to Arizona and are not connected to its Portland service. However, critics argue that any business involved in deportation efforts should not benefit from public resources.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announced a new initiative to provide direct cash assistance to immigrants impacted by the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration raids.

The funds will be distributed as cash cards valued at “a couple hundred” dollars each and is expected to become available within the next week, Bass said

Newsweek has contacted Bass’ office for comment via email outside of office hours.

President Donald Trump has vowed to carry out the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history to address illegal immigration and border security. However, the policy has sparked concerns about its potential effects on the economy. The GOP’s flagship immigration policy under Trump is causing people to avoid going to work amid fears over workplace raids.

California has become one of the key battleground states for immigration enforcement after President Trump directed ICE to increase operations in sanctuary states.

California State Senator María Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles) issued a forceful statement Friday condemning the treatment of immigrant children detained in Los Angeles, following the release of a video showing two dozen minors handcuffed and led through a federal building. Durazo called the footage “a moral failure of the highest order,” denouncing the practice as cruel and fundamentally un-American.

The senator urged the Trump administration to end what she described as barbaric tactics and emphasized that no child should be shackled or separated from their parents. She praised U.S. District Judge Frimpong’s recent ruling that blocked federal immigration raids based on racial profiling and ordered access to legal counsel for detainees.

Durazo criticized the White House’s decision to appeal the ruling, warning that it signals a disregard for constitutional protections. She reaffirmed her commitment to defending immigrant families and called for policies rooted in compassion and justice.

Florida State Rep. Fentrice Driskell criticized the Alligator Alcatraz migrant detention facility during an interview on CNN, calling the site “inhumane” and a misuse of taxpayer funds. Driskell described overcrowded conditions, sweltering heat, and limited access to sanitation and legal counsel. She said detainees are housed in cages with three toilets per pod and shackled during medical screenings.

Driskell also claimed that some Republican lawmakers privately expressed discomfort with the facility, saying it did not reflect what they had envisioned when supporting immigration enforcement. She questioned the $450 million price tag and suggested contractors with ties to the DeSantis administration may be benefiting.

The facility, located in the Florida Everglades, has drawn criticism from tribal leaders, environmental groups, and immigrant advocates. Driskell warned that the center’s conditions and lack of oversight could have lasting consequences for Florida communities.

Undocumented farm workers say they feel “hunted like animals” as President Donald Trump’s administration intensifies immigration enforcement across U.S. farms, The Guardian reported. ICE raids have disrupted livelihoods, forced workers into hiding, and sparked protests, including one in Ventura County where a worker died after falling from a greenhouse during a raid.

Trump has proposed letting farmers oversee immigration enforcement on their properties, a move critics say strips workers of legal protections and dignity. Labor advocates warn the policy amounts to coercion, with workers forced to rely on employers to avoid deportation.

Despite mixed signals from the White House, the administration has raised ICE arrest quotas and reversed earlier directives to avoid targeting agricultural sites. Officials say the crackdown is necessary to secure the food supply and remove undocumented labor, while critics argue it threatens both human rights and economic stability.

Farmworkers and organizers say the raids have traumatized communities, disrupted families, and risked food shortages. With undocumented workers making up an estimated 40 percent of the U.S. farm labor force, advocates warn that continued enforcement could reverberate far beyond the fields.

Federal immigration agents detained a California woman outside a Home Depot during a workplace raid and used excessive force during her arrest, a family friend told Newsweek.

Alejandra Anleu, a 22-year-old immigrant from Guatemala, was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol agents outside the store located at San Fernando and 26th Street in Los Angeles on Monday, June 30, 2025.

She had been working there when immigration enforcers detained her.

Joyce Sanchez, a 28-year-old U.S. citizen and family friend, told Newsweek: “They used excessive force on a young woman, which was unnecessary.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told Newsweek: “FALSE. On June 30, U.S. Border Patrol encountered Alejandra Anleu, an illegal alien from Guatemala. During the encounter, Anleu freely admitted to being an illegal alien and she was placed under arrest without any injuries reported.”

Footage obtained by Newsweek shows federal agents leading her away without incident.

Federal officials on Sunday defended President Donald Trump’s intensifying deportation campaign, including a controversial raid at two California cannabis farms that left one worker dead and sparked widespread protests. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said the administration would appeal a federal judge’s ruling that temporarily blocked immigration detentions based on racial profiling and restricted access to legal counsel for detainees.

“We will appeal, and we will win,” Noem said on Fox News Sunday, denying that the administration used discriminatory tactics. Homan added on CNN that physical characteristics could be one factor in establishing reasonable suspicion during enforcement actions.

The July 10 raids in Camarillo and Carpinteria resulted in 361 arrests, including 14 migrant minors, according to DHS. Protesters clashed with federal agents, and Democratic Rep. Salud Carbajal said he witnessed officers firing smoke canisters and projectiles into a crowd of civilians. ICE later accused Carbajal of sharing an agent’s business card with demonstrators.

United Farm Workers confirmed that one farmworker died from injuries sustained during the raid. Senator Alex Padilla, who was forcibly removed from a Noem press conference in June, condemned the administration’s tactics. “It’s causing ICE to get more aggressive, more cruel, more extreme, and these are the results,” Padilla said. “It’s people dying”.

Chris Landry, a longtime New Hampshire resident and green card holder, was denied re-entry into the United States after a family vacation in Canada, sparking personal and political upheaval. Landry, 46, has lived in the U.S. since he was three years old and was traveling with three of his five American-born children when he was stopped at the border in Holton, Maine.

“They pulled me aside and started questioning me about my past convictions in New Hampshire,” Landry told NBC News from New Brunswick, Canada. His record includes a 2006 marijuana possession charge and a 2007 suspended license violation—both resolved with fines and no further offenses since.

Despite his legal permanent resident status, border agents denied him entry and warned he could be detained if he returned. “I never expected that I wouldn’t be able to go back home,” Landry said. “It was scary. I felt like I was being treated like a criminal.”

Landry now faces an uncertain future, requiring an immigration judge’s approval to return. The experience has shaken his political beliefs. Once a vocal supporter of Donald Trump’s immigration policies, Landry said, “I feel differently now. I’ve been torn from my family. My life has been disregarded completely”.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection defended the decision, stating that “possessing a green card is a privilege, not a right,” and that prior convictions can trigger mandatory detention or additional scrutiny at ports of entry.

Landry has reached out to New Hampshire’s congressional delegation for help, while his children prepare to return to the U.S. without him.

A GoFundMe campaign for Jaime Alanis, a 57-year-old California farmworker who died Saturday from injuries sustained in a 30-foot fall during an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid, has raised over $150,000 as of Sunday evening.

Newsweek has reached out to Alanis’ niece, Yesenia Duran, for comment via GoFundMe on Sunday.

Alanis’ death is among the first reported during an ICE raid under President Donald Trump‘s second term. The administration has spearheaded a major immigration crackdown, vowing to carry out the largest mass deportation in U.S. history. The initiative has seen an intensification of ICE raids across the country.

Congress has allocated funding for tens of thousands of additional detention beds in the current tax bill, as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) moves to expand detention capacity and ramp up arrests.

A federal judge on Friday concluded that immigration agents had been “unlawfully” arresting suspected illegal immigrants in Los Angeles and six surrounding counties, marking the latest legal clashes between California and the Trump administration over immigration enforcement. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong imposed two temporary restraining orders (TRO) banning law enforcement from detaining suspected illegal migrants in the area without reasonable suspicion and insisting that those arrested must have access to legal counsel.

Jaime Alanis, a 57-year-old farmworker, died Saturday from injuries sustained during a chaotic federal immigration raid at Glass House Farms in Camarillo, California. Alanis fell roughly 30 feet from a greenhouse roof while reportedly fleeing agents, according to family members. He had worked at the farm for a decade and was the sole provider for his wife and daughter in Mexico.

The Department of Homeland Security confirmed it executed criminal search warrants at the cannabis facility and a second site in Carpinteria, arresting approximately 200 undocumented individuals and identifying at least 10 migrant children on-site. DHS stated Alanis was not in custody and was not being pursued when he climbed the roof and fell.

The United Farm Workers union, which does not represent workers at the raided farm, condemned the operation, calling it “violent and cruel” and warning of its impact on food supply chains and immigrant families.

Protests erupted during the raid, with demonstrators clashing with agents in military gear. Tear gas and smoke forced crowds to disperse. Four U.S. citizens were arrested for allegedly assaulting officers, and the FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for information about a suspect who fired a gun at agents.

Glass House Farms said it complied with federal warrants and is assisting detained workers with legal support. The company denied knowingly violating hiring practices or employing minors.

Democratic lawmakers condemned Florida’s newly opened Everglades immigration detention center after touring the facility Saturday, describing it as overcrowded, unsanitary, and infested with insects. “There are really disturbing, vile conditions, and this place needs to be shut the hell down,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who joined other Democrats in criticizing the 3,000-bed site dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.”

Republicans on the same tour disputed those claims, with State Sen. Blaise Ingoglia calling the facility “well-run” and “clean.” Sen. Jay Collins added that the center was “functioning well” and equipped with backup generators and dietary tracking systems.

The tour followed an earlier attempt by Democrats to access the site, which was denied. Lawmakers have since filed a lawsuit against the DeSantis administration, alleging obstruction of oversight authority.

The detention center, built in days on a remote airstrip, is part of President Donald Trump’s push to expand migrant detention capacity to 100,000 beds. While officials say detainees have access to medical care, air conditioning, and legal services, advocates and relatives report worm-infested food, overflowing toilets, and limited hygiene access.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said any issues “have been addressed” and suggested other states may adopt similar models. The facility remains controversial, with critics calling it a political stunt and supporters touting its efficiency.

Vice President JD Vance encountered heckling and widespread protests during a family visit to Disneyland in Anaheim, California, over the weekend.

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the theme park, the Los Angeles Times reported, voicing their disapproval of Vance’s presence amid ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids across California.

Jane Fleming Kleeb, a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, later confronted Vance inside the park while the Republican walked with his child. Vance’s visit disrupted park operations as security measures increased, resulting in prolonged wait times and temporary ride closures for other guests, according to The Independent.

Newsweek has contacted Vance’s team via email outside of normal office hours for comment.

Trump backs ICE crackdown as farmworkers say they feel ’hunted

ICE raids surge under Trump, leaving farmworkers fearing arrest, injury, and loss of income amid immigration crackdown. This live blog is closed.

https://www.newsweek.com/immigration-trump-ice-raids-green-card-visa-live-updates-2098579

Raw Story: Tom Homan spews insults as he challenges ‘ultra MAGA’ protester to fight

Posted on July 16, 2025 by M

Tom “Pugsley” Homan = low-class thug with no class whatsoever!

Kudos to the protestor who “owned” Pugsley with that parody of what Pugsley and his flunkies had tried to do regarding an innocent detainee!

Pugsley is just too stupid to realize how he was being mocked here.

Trump administration border czar Tom Homan didn’t hold back when faced with a heckler during a conservative conference over the weekend, launching into a profanity-laced tirade that included questioning the protester’s masculinity.

“Are you a MS-13 member?” a man shouted at Homan during a speech at Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit in Tampa, Florida on Saturday. The heckler, ironically sporting Trump gear including an “I identify as ultra MAGA” t-shirt and Trump hat, carried a poster of Homan. He was escorted out to boos from the crowd.

But rather than ignoring the disruption, Homan seized the moment to unleash a stream of insults, the Daily Beast reported.

“Come up here and hand me that picture? Bring it,” Homan challenged, before whipping the crowd into “U-S-A” chants. Then came the personal attacks: “They’ve got morons like this all over the country … this guy ain’t got the balls to be an ICE officer. He hasn’t got the balls to be a border patrol agent.”

The border czar’s verbal assault didn’t stop there. “This guy lives in his mother’s basement. The only thing that surprises me is that you don’t got purple hair and a nose ring. Get out of here, you loser … If you’re such a bada–, meet me offstage in 13 minutes and 50 seconds.”

The crescendo of Homan’s rant came with a crude attack on the protester’s masculinity: “I guarantee you he sits down to pee,” he said.

Misogynist!

Though it’s unknown what sparked the protest, Homan is one of thefaces of Trump’s immigration crackdown, which has sparked massive unrest. The White House has set a target of 3,000 immigration arrests each day as part of a drive for mass deportations across the country.

The administration’s aggressive approach has triggered widespread resistance, particularly in liberal strongholds like Los Angeles, where widespread demonstrations broke out in early June against raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The protests led Trump to deploy 4,000 members of the National Guard and 700 Marines to quell the unrest over the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Despite the growing opposition, Homan remained defiant about the administration’s plans. “We’re going to do the job that President Trump gave us to do,” he declared.

Tom Homan spews insults as he challenges ‘ultra MAGA’ protester to fight

https://www.rawstory.com/tom-homan-2673151677

Trials & Tribulations of King Donald

This revolution will be televised.

Tag Archives: ICE

USA Today: Trump administration rolls out a strict new ICE policy

Rolling Stone: ICE Raids Aren’t Just a Latino Issue – Black Communities Are Also at Risk

“It’s not just Mexican people they are looking for,” one TikToker told her audience, “it’s all immigrants that are obviously not white”

Mediaite: House Democrat Hits Back at ICE After Being Accused of Doxxing Federal Agent and Joining a ‘Violent Mob’

MSNBC: A federal judge’s ruling against ICE should be required reading for every American

Salon: “Cried every night”: ICE traumatizes a child with leukemia

The Trump administration is going after easy targets, including sick children, to meet its deportation quotas

Guardian: Irish tourist jailed by Ice for months after overstaying US visit by three days: ‘Nobody is safe’

Exclusive: For roughly 100 days, Thomas says he faced harsh detention conditions, despite agreeing to deportation

Miami Herald: Exclusive: Hundreds at Alligator Alcatraz have no criminal charges, Miami Herald learns

Washington Post: ICE declares millions of undocumented immigrants ineligible for bond hearings

A memo from ICE’s acting director instructs officers to hold immigrants who entered the country illegally “for the duration of their removal proceedings,” which can take months or years.

Newsweek: Trump backs ICE crackdown as farmworkers say they feel ‘hunted’

Raw Story: Tom Homan spews insults as he challenges ‘ultra MAGA’ protester to fight

Tom “Pugsley” Homan = low-class thug with no class whatsoever!

Kudos to the protestor who “owned” Pugsley with that parody of what Pugsley and his flunkies had tried to do regarding an innocent detainee!

Pugsley is just too stupid to realize how he was being mocked here.

Misogynist!