Tag Archives: immigrants

Inquisitr: Trump Admin’s New Crackdown Demands Immigrants Prove ‘Good Moral Character’ Beyond Just Staying Out of Jail

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New USCIS rule gives officers sweeping power to judge applicants’ morality, from traffic tickets to tax returns

When it comes to immigrants who want to become citizens of the United States, the second-term government of Donald Trump has turned on the moral compass. Although “good moral character” has long been an essential part of the naturalization process, the DOHS is now looking into more detailed areas of an applicant’s life as opposed to just checking boxes, as has been routine for so long. 

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a new directive on Friday directing officers to give much more weight to whether an applicant’s character truly embodies American values, which go beyond just avoiding jail time.

As a result, immigrants who wish to become citizens after getting a green card will have to submit to a more extensive and private assessment of their contributions, behavior, and even violations of traffic laws!

For many years, the term “good moral character” has been a part of U.S. immigration law. Naturalization applicants already had to prove they were not “habitual drunkards,” d–g traffickers, or convicted murderers.

Even so, the Trump administration wants officers to start digging deeper.

The memo encourages officers to perform a “holistic assessment” of an applicant’s life rather than just relying on a mechanical checklist that looks for serious crimes. Community involvement, caregiving responsibilities, lawful employment, time spent in the United States, tax history, and academic achievements must now be taken into account throughout the review process.

To put it simply, you might rack up moral points by raising your children, filing your taxes, and helping out at the local food bank. Yet, because of the increased scrutiny, even legally allowed behaviors that were previously thought of as trivial, such as constantly reckless driving, harassment, or “aggressive solicitation,” can now be used against you.

Officers have more discretion as a result of this change. However, they also have more freedom to reject applicants for reasons that are not going to be clear to them at the time of application or even after it gets rejected. 

According to the USCIS memo, “acts that are contrary to the average behavior of citizens in the jurisdiction where aliens reside” may be taken into account. It also means that a person’s bid for citizenship may be seriously limited by a poor driving record in California or unpaid child support in Texas — all pointing to their so-called “moral character.” 

The goal is to raise the standard for what it means to be an American. The policy seeks to “restore integrity” to the naturalization process, according to agency chief spokesman Matthew Tragesser, who spoke to ABC News. According to him, “U.S. citizenship is the gold standard of citizenship — it should only be offered to the world’s best of the best.”

Donald Trump’s larger political message (that citizenship is a privilege rather than a right and ought to be saved for people who actively uphold American values instead of just adhering to the law) is made possible by this framing.

The new policy, which puts stricter standards and gives immigration officers greater flexibility, is also in line with the administration’s ongoing attempts to restrict possible paths to citizenship.

Critics perceive a more cynical element at work, though. Joe Biden-era USCIS official Doug Rand contends the new rule was created to scare new applicants away. Rand claims that the administration is, in essence, discouraging legal immigrants from applying for citizenship by broadening the definition of “bad moral character” to include minor, non-criminal behavior.

Rand told ABC News, “They’re trying to increase the grounds for denial of U.S. citizenship by (…) torturing the definition of good moral character to encompass extremely harmless behavior.”

Between 600,000 and 1 million immigrants become citizens of the United States each year, the Irish Star reports. 

Years of legal residency, civics and English proficiency exams, and strict background checks are already part of the complex process. Now, staying true to constantly changing standards is more vital than avoiding crimes when defining “good moral character.”

Trump Admin’s New Crackdown Demands Immigrants Prove ‘Good Moral Character’ Beyond Just Staying Out of Jail
The Trump admin tightens citizenship rules, expanding ‘good moral character’ reviews for immigrants.

Washington Post: A night in D.C. after Trump’s National Guard deployment

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Spend the night with us in one of D.C.’s nightlife hubs, as federal police roam, crowds are smaller, bartenders worry and clubgoers try to enjoy themselves.

The sunlight dimmed along this stretch of U Street to the familiar soundtrack of a city ready for the weekend: rumbling buses taking home tired commuters, high heels clacking along sticky sidewalks and chattering crowds ready to order their first round.

Then a group gathered on a street corner with pots and pans, jingling them as the darkness grew closer. They whooped and cheered for a few minutes, a brief moment of joyful resistance seeking to counteract the image of the crime-ridden city described by the president.

Among the clubgoers in miniskirts and sweat-soaked T-shirts, there were federal agents hopping in and out of unmarked cars. A protester held a sign reading “America has no kings.” Police officers were met with boos and phones ready to record.

Welcome to the first Friday night in D.C. since President Donald Trump announced he was placing the local police under federal control and sending in National Guard troops to a city where 9 in 10 voters cast ballots for his opponent. The next morning, the White House would announce that the overnight operation yielded 52 arrests and the seizure of three illegal firearms. Twenty-two multiagency teams were deployed throughout the city.

Trump justified the exertion of executive power to reduce crime by depicting the city as a lawless wasteland, despite violent crime reaching 30-year lows. But many of those gathered around the bars and clubs in Northwest Washington on Friday night said they felt more unsettled by the federal presence than any other safety concerns.

Washington Post journalists spent Friday night in a popular section of U Street — a nightlife hub that is among the areas of the city with the highest number of crimes reported this year. Earlier this summer, D.C. police implemented a youth curfew over concerns about rowdy crowds in some areas.

Nearby, two nights earlier, a mix of local and federal authorities pulled over drivers for seat belt violations or broken taillights while onlookers chanted: “Go home, fascists.”

On Friday, crowds were smaller, bartenders and club managers said, and they wondered if patrons were staying inside to avoid federal authorities. And yet, there were still people ready to party.

The largest police response The Post witnessed Friday night was over a claim of a stolen bike. It was around 8:30 p.m., and the sky was ink blue.

One couple heading home from an event at a nearby synagogue looked on with furrowed brows. They spotted a few D.C. police cruisers blocking traffic and agents donning vests labeled “HSI” — Homeland Security Investigations. They hadn’t seen that before, not here.

A pair of French tourists, in D.C. for the first time and looking for a bar, paused when they saw the police cruisers and growing crowd. Earlier, they had strolled by the White House and marveled at the Capitol, and now they were trying to make sense of the flashing lights.

They had loosely followed the week’s headlines and were still thrilled to be visiting.

“We’re on vacation, so we try to cut [out] the news,” Solène Le Toullec said, and they walked on.

At the sight of local and federal law enforcement throughout the night, people pooled on the sidewalk — watching, filming, booing.

“Get out!”

“Go!”

“Quit!”

Such interactions played out again and again as the night drew on. Onlookers heckled the police as they did their job and applauded as officers left.

…

Click the links below to read the rest:

A night in D.C. after Trump’s National Guard deployment

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-night-in-d-c-after-trump-s-national-guard-deployment/ar-AA1KFJnn

Washington Post: Trump claims credit for fixing Social Security as it barrels to insolvency

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Many of the president’s claims were misleading and ignored months of turmoil at the embattled agency.

President Donald Trump marked the 90th anniversary of Social Security on Thursday with an Oval Office signing of a proclamation that the safety net was “more resilient than ever before,” thanks to him. He claimed improvements to the program’s customer service. He also misleadingly declared that he had checked off his campaign promise to eliminate taxes on benefits for seniors.

But Social Security is barreling toward insolvency faster than before because of Trump’s tax bill and immigration policies, according to experts. The agency has faced tumult since the U.S. DOGE Service came in with a grand scheme to root out fraud and overhaul the program, causing disruptions and frustrations within the agency.

And despite the repetition of “no tax on Social Security” from Trump and his allies, the law ultimately signed by the president did not eliminate taxes on seniors’ benefits.

The Oval Office event — largely ceremonial — offered the president a chance to repeat his commitments to older Americans on the anniversary of President Franklin D. Roosevelt signing the Social Security Act into law. Trump was joined by Commissioner Frank Bisignano, who has led the agency since May.

“I made a sacred pledge to our seniors that I would always protect Social Security, and under this administration we’re keeping that promise and strengthening Social Security for generations to come,” Trump said.

However, Republicans have not yet provided a solution to put off Social Security’s impending shortfalls.

Natalie Ihrman, a Social Security spokeswoman, said the agency is “committed to working with Congress and other stakeholders to strengthen these vital SSA programs and continue to provide secure retirement and support in times of disability for millions of Americans.”

The trust fund will be insolvent by 2033, the program’s trustees said in June, if Congress doesn’t act. And after the passage of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, the chief actuary said the law could hasten Social Security’s insolvency date.

In addition, experts have warned that Trump’s efforts to deport undocumented immigrants — who pay into the system but are barred from receiving benefits — will further deplete the program.

Penn Wharton’s budget model has projected that if the government deports 10 percent of undocumented immigrants annually over the next 10 years, Social Security will lose $133 billion in funds over that period of time.

In his comments Thursday, Trump repeated a baseless claim that immigrants were getting benefits and asserted that nearly 275,000 immigrants were removed from the agency’s rolls. The agency did not provide information about the president’s claims that immigrants were getting benefits, but it said, “SSA updated the Social Security records of about 275,000 individuals no longer holding legal status, ensuring people ineligible to receive benefits are not improperly paid.”

Most federal public benefits — such as Social Security — are available only to U.S. citizens and certain categories of legal immigrants.

Trump also praised himself for keeping a campaign promise to eliminate taxes on Social Security.

“I signed One Big Beautiful Bill and allowed no tax on Social Security for our great seniors,” Trump said.

But the law didn’t create an exemption on taxes on Social Security benefits. It added a temporary $6,000 deduction for seniors who earn as much as $75,000 a year, or $12,000 for joint filers earning as much as $150,000.

Ihrman of SSA said the law “provides historic tax relief to America’s seniors.”

The White House Council of Economic Advisers estimates that 88 percent of older adults will not pay taxes on their benefits because of the bill, up from 64 percent under previous law.

Howard Gleckman, senior fellow at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, said the council’s estimate relies on the assumption seniors would use their standard deduction to reduce their tax liability on Social Security benefits rather than their total income. The policy center has estimated that about half of recipients will pay at least some income taxes on their benefits.

“What he’s saying is just wrong,” Gleckman said of Trump’s claim.

Trump and Bisignano also touted achievements in customer service, specifically claiming recent reductions in wait times for the 1-800 phone line and at field offices as well as the elimination of scheduled maintenance times for the website.

Bisignano came into the agency in May after the cost-cutting U.S. DOGE Service implemented changes that led to customers complaining of dropped calls, the website repeatedly crashing and thousands of workers leaving the agency.

One of Bisignano’s early efforts to address the overwhelmed phone line was to move field office workers to answer calls.

Advocates have said it is harder to tell what customer service is like since the agency has taken down many of its public-facing performance metrics.

To trumpet the phone performance, the agency has said it reduced the “average speed to answer,” which does not count the time callers wait for a call back, even though the agency rolled out the callback feature last year.

The agency also said it cut wait times at field offices, a statistic repeated by Trump on Thursday.

That is misleading, according Jessica LaPointe, president of Council 220 of the American Federation of Government Employees. After the agency rolled out a new system of assigning appointments to people walking into field offices in December, the time people wait in the lobby of field offices went down because they were no longer getting their issues handled when they showed up.

“Now you wait 20 minutes in the lobby to get to the window and then you’re given an appointment and you are waiting then months to get your business finished, from start to finish,” LaPointe said.

Trump claims credit for fixing Social Security as it barrels to insolvency
Many of the president’s claims were misleading and ignore months of turmoil at the embattled agency.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/08/14/trump-social-security-90th-annniversary

Also here:

Trump claims credit for fixing Social Security as it barrels to insolvency
Many of the president’s claims were misleading and ignore months of turmoil at the embattled agency.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ar-AA1Ky5eX

Related article:

Social Security predicted to run out of money sooner due to Trump bill

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/social-security-predicted-to-run-out-of-money-sooner-due-to-trump-bill/ar-AA1K6mMw

Daily Beast: U.S. Citizen: I Was Seized by ICE and Held for Days Without Water

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Andrea Velez spent two days in a Los Angeles detention center despite telling ICE officers that she is a U.S. citizen.

An American citizen has told how she was held by ICE for 48 hours, claiming she was denied water despite proving her legal status.

Andrea Velez, 32, had just arrived at work in Downtown Los Angeles on June 24 when agents grabbed her and forced her into a car.

Velez told NBC4 News Los Angeles that an immigration raid was going on when she was slammed to the ground. Velez, a graduate of Cal Poly Pomona, who works in fashion was taken into custody while her mother, Margarita Flores, screamed at agents to stop.

“She’s a U.S. citizen,” Velez’s mother, an immigrant from Mexico, said through tears. “They’re taking her. Help her, someone.”

Velez said she was sitting in a detention center and was given nothing to drink for 24 hours. In total she spent two days in detention. She said that the ordeal has left her unable to physically return to work.

“I’m taking things day by day,” she told the station.

The incident had been notorious from the beginning. LAPD officers were called to the scene because it was reported as a “kidnapping” but did not intervene when it became clear it was an ICE action—even though it was against a U.S. citizen, ABC& Los Angeles previously reported.

Velez was charged with assaulting a federal officer while he was attempting to arrest a suspect. A federal criminal complaint alleged that the agent was chasing after a man but Velez stepped into the agent’s path and extended her arm “in an apparent effort to prevent him from apprehending the male subject he was chasing.” The complaint added that her arm hit the agent in the face.

The incident had been notorious from the beginning. LAPD officers were called to the scene because it was reported as a “kidnapping” but did not intervene when it became clear it was an ICE action—even though it was against a U.S. citizen, ABC& Los Angeles previously reported.

Velez was charged with assaulting a federal officer while he was attempting to arrest a suspect. A federal criminal complaint alleged that the agent was chasing after a man but Velez stepped into the agent’s path and extended her arm “in an apparent effort to prevent him from apprehending the male subject he was chasing.” The complaint added that her arm hit the agent in the face.

Velez denied wrongdoing. She said that during the incident, someone grabbed her and slammed her to the ground. She tried to tell the agent, who was in plainclothes, that she was an American citizen. But he told her she was “interfering” and he was going to arrest her.

“That’s when I asked him to show me his ID, his badge number,” she said. “I asked him if he had a warrant, and he said I didn’t need to know any of that.”

Velez said she repeatedly told ICE officers she was a U.S. citizen. When she was taken into a Los Angeles detention center, she gave officers her driver’s license and health insurance card to prove her citizenship status. She was still locked behind bars.

Velez’s family was unaware of her whereabouts for more than a day until lawyers for the family tracked her down.

Later, the Department of Justice (DOJ) dismissed her case without prejudice, meaning it could be reopened if prosecutors decide to.

Velez’s attorneys told NBC Los Angeles that they are exploring legal moves against the federal government.

Between 2015 and 2020, ICE erroneously deported at least 70 U.S. citizens, arrested 674 and detained 121. It is unclear how many have been mistakenly taken amid the Trump administration’s mass campaign to deport 1 million immigrants per year.

In January, U.S. citizen Julio Noriega was looking for work in Chicago when he was swept up in the mass raids. In May, Georgia college student Ximena Arias-Cristobal was detained after police pulled over the wrong car during a traffic stop. In June, a deputy U.S. marshal was detained in Arizona because he “fit the general description of a subject being sought by ICE.” That same month, a Ph.D. student named Job Garcia was tackled and thrown to the ground by ICE for recording a raid in Los Angeles.

A recent lawsuit claims that at least three American-born children have been removed from the country. The sudden banishment includes a 4-year-old boy with stage-four kidney cancer who was receiving critical, life-saving medical treatment in the United States. He was shipped from Louisiana to Honduras in April.

The Daily Beast has reached out to ICE for comment.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told the Daily Beast: “FALSE. ICE provided Andrea Velez with water, food, sanitary products, and she was given restroom breaks as needed. The media needs to stop peddling lies and smears that have led to a 1000% increase in assaults against our brave ICE officers.”

U.S. Citizen: I Was Seized by ICE and Held for Days Without Water
Andrea Velez spent two days in a Los Angeles detention center despite telling ICE officers that she is a U.S. citizen.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/us-citizen-andrea-velez-i-was-seized-by-ice-and-held-for-days-without-water

Visa Lawyer Blog: New USCIS Policy Seeks to Intimidate Immigrants Applying for Green Cards by Threatening Deportation Proceedings

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Until this month, if your family member was in the U.S. legally, you could file an I-130 on their behalf, and they could remain in the U.S. while it was being processed. In a devious underhanded move to increase their deportation numbers, the Trump regime intends to start deporting family members whose visas have expired while their I-130 filings are being processed.

On August 1st the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced new policies that could make immigrants applying for green cards through family-based petitions more vulnerable to deportation.

The changes appear in various updates to USCIS’ Policy Manual which states that immigration officials can begin removal proceedings for immigrants who lack legal status and apply to become permanent residents through family-based petitions.

According to the Policy Manual, “if USCIS determines the alien beneficiary is removeable and amenable to removal from the United States, USCIS may issue a Notice to Appear (NTA) [in immigration court] placing the beneficiary in removal proceedings. Petitioners and alien beneficiaries should be aware that a family-based petition accords no immigration status nor does it bar removal.”

The new policy went into effect immediately and applies to pending requests for a green card, and those filed on or after August 1st.

While the practical impact of this policy is yet to be seen, it provides immigration officials with more discretion to initiate removal proceedings even where a green card application is pending with USCIS, for those who entered the U.S. illegally, overstayed a U.S. visa, or otherwise failed to maintain their legal status.

These policy changes underscore the importance of maintaining underlying legal status throughout the green card process. Those who lack legal status or who lost their status during the green card process may be most at risk.

This shift is troubling because under previous administrations, green card applicants were not placed in removal proceedings while their green card applications were pending, except for cases involving serious criminal offenses.

USCIS has defended these policies stating that, “Fraudulent, frivolous, or otherwise non-meritorious family-based immigrant visa petitions erode confidence in family-based pathways to lawful permanent resident (LPR) status and undermine the immigration system in the United States. USCIS must ensure that qualifying marriages and family relationships are genuine, verifiable, and compliant with all applicable laws.”

Overtime, USCIS has become increasingly cooperative with agencies like DHS and ICE—moving from an administrative agency to an immigration enforcement agency placing a growing number of immigrants at risk of deportation.

These policies send a clear anti-immigrant message intended to intimidate and drive undocumented immigrants to self-deport. Green card applicants must not fall into this trap and instead seek legal counsel to fully understand their rights.

New USCIS Policy Seeks to Intimidate Immigrants Applying for Green Cards by Threatening Deportation Proceedings
On August 1st the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced new policies that could make immigrants applying for green cards through family-based petitions more vulnerable to deportation. The changes appear in various updates to USCIS’ Policy Manual which states that immigration officials can begin removal proceedings for immigrants who lack legal status and apply…
New USCIS Policy Seeks to Intimidate Immigrants Applying for Green Cards by Threatening Deportation Proceedings

Haaretz.com: U.S. Homeland Security Accused of Posting Antisemitic Dog Whistles in ICE Recruitment Tweets

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U.S. Homeland Security Accused of Posting Antisemitic Dog Whistles in ICE Recruitment Tweets

The posts reflect a larger effort by DHS and ICE, who are seeing a massive budget increase and hiring spree under President Trump, to use nostalgic language and images depicting American ‘culture’ and ‘heritage’ as under attack from outsiders

Over the weekend, the Department of Homeland Security’s X account appeared to reference an antisemitic dog whistle. And it wasn’t the first time that happened this summer.

“Which way, American man?” the department’s official page posted Sunday, over a political cartoon from 1936 called “Uncle Sam at the Crossroads.”

The post, a recruitment ad for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, alluded to the phrase “Which way, Western man?” – the title of a 1978 book steeped in antisemitic conspiracy theories and explicit threats against Jews. As a social media meme, the phrase has been used to ridicule the “woke,” feminism and immigrants.

In its own X post on Wednesday, the Anti-Defamation League called the “Which way” reference “the latest problematic ICE recruitment post from the X account of the Department of Homeland Security.” The ADL cited several problems with it, including the reference to the 1978 book by William Gayley Simpson, whom the organization calls a “white supremacist and antisemite.”

The “American man” post came a month after another controversial post from DHS reading “Remember your Homeland’s Heritage,” with both “H”s capitalized — an alignment that both progressive outlets and X’s own AI chatbot Grok theorized could be an illusion to “HH,” a shorthand for “Heil Hitler” deployed by neo-Nazis.

“HH capitalization … and a painting symbolizing white colonial expansion over Native lands mirrors known white supremacist dogwhistles,” Grok wrote in response to one user.

Multiple Trump administration officials have documented ties to antisemitic and white-supremacist circles and ideologies. Trump’s nominee to head the Bureau of Labor Statistics, announced this week, “has repeatedly appeared in front of the massive portrait of Adolf Hitler’s favorite battleship during media interviews,” the Daily Beast reported.

Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a Jewish Telegraphic Agency request for comment. In a statement to CNN, spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said, “Calling everything you dislike ‘Nazi propaganda’ is tiresome,” and went on to describe the intended message of the “American man” post: “Uncle Sam, who represents America, is at a crossroads, pondering which way America should go.”

The posts reflect a larger effort by DHS and ICE, who are seeing a massive budget increase and hiring spree under President Trump, to use nostalgic language and images depicting American “culture” and “heritage” as under attack from outsiders. As part of its ICE recruitment efforts, DHS has employed numerous works of art depicting frontier life and other American idylls – often without permission from the artists or their estates.

Other images used by DHS, such as John Gast’s 1872 painting “American Progress,” are positive depictions of concepts like Manifest Destiny. DHS itself does not have such a lengthy history: It was formed in 2002 in response to the 9/11 attacks, largely by consolidating offices from other departments.

Critics from groups like the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights say the DHS posts use coded language and motifs popular in online white supremacist communities, with some overlap with Christian nationalism: One video overlays a Bible verse over footage of ICE agents. DHS has claimed to receive 100,000 ICE applications since launching its campaign.

But the latest post is more overt.

“Which Way, Western Man?” argues that Western and “Nordic” culture is under threat by Jews. The book includes passages on “the Jewish-led and largely Jewish-manned movement of Communism” and “the Jewification of the West.” One chapter is titled “The Necessity of Eugenics.”

The book has since been re-published by National Vanguard Books, a neo-Nazi group that also publishes the white nationalist novel/manifesto “The Turner Diaries.”

Mike Rothschild, a Jewish researcher of conspiracy theories, wrote on X that the post was “a clear reference” to the book, which he described as “a work of staggering racism and antisemitism that argues Jews must be ‘put out and kept out’ of western society.”

The ADL also objected to DHS’s use of the 1936 cartoon by Frank Lea, which depicts Uncle Sam puzzling over signs pointing to “Inflation,” “Depression” and “Opportunity.” The DHS version replaces those signs with ones reading “Cultural Decline,” “Invasion” and “Law & Order.” Text overlaid on the image reads, “America needs you. Join ICE now.”

The alterations, the ADL said, “basically equate migrants in the U.S. with ‘cultural decay’ and ‘invasion.'” The Jewish civil rights group concludes, “A U.S. government agency should not resort to using such language and imagery for any purpose, let alone recruiting people to serve.”

Liberal Jews, largely pro-immigrant thanks to their own families’ immigrant backgrounds, have increasingly spoken out against ICE’s migrant roundup tactics, including raids at houses of worship. A recent detention center opened in the Everglades has also drawn comparisons to concentration camps.

Pam Nadell, a historian whose forthcoming book is a history of American antisemitism, told JTA that when it came to both posts, “I see the antisemitism.”

“Think of who they’re appealing to, who might be likely to want to join ICE and come and get rid of the immigrants,” Nadell said. She also saw significance in using a New Deal-era cartoon but replacing the name of Franklin Roosevelt’s anti-poverty program with “Cultural Decline.” Roosevelt’s critics, she said, were often antisemitic.

“In the ’30s, the attacks on the New Deal, the attacks on Roosevelt, the charges that he was controlled and manipulated by a cabal of Jews, that’s part of the right-wing attack against the New Deal,” she said. “So the fact that they’re replacing that attack with ‘Cultural Decline,’ that’s the same kind of right-wing attack. Back then, it was on the government; now it’s on civil society.”

U.S. Homeland Security Accused of Posting Antisemitic Dog Whistles in ICE Recruitment Tweets
The posts reflect a larger effort by DHS and ICE, who are seeing a massive budget increase and hiring spree under President Trump, to use nostalgic language and images depicting American ‘culture’ and ‘heritage’ as under attack from outsiders

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/u-s-homeland-security-accused-of-posting-antisemitic-dog-whistles-in-ice-recruitment-tweets/ar-AA1KEjV9

Slingshot News: ‘Not Guaranteed’: Secretary Kristi Noem Insults Puerto Ricans, Says She Can Cut Off Their Federal Aid In House Hearing

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The bigoted racist bitch runs her mouth:

‘Not Guaranteed’: Secretary Kristi Noem Insults Puerto Ricans, Says She Can Cut Off Their Federal Aid In House Hearing
Secretary Kristi Noem insulted Puerto Ricans during a recent House hearing, saying that she can cut off their federal aid at any time. She does not have this power, but thinks she does.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/not-guaranteed-secretary-kristi-noem-insults-puerto-ricans-says-she-can-cut-off-their-federal-aid-in-house-hearing/vi-AA1KE3UZ

Sun Herald: Lawsuit Targets ICE Arrests at Court Hearings

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A coalition of immigrants and advocates has filed a class-action lawsuit in D.C. to stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from arresting migrants at immigration court hearings. They argued these arrests, which have increased significantly in 2025, instill fear in asylum seekers and violate U.S. immigration law and the Fifth Amendment. Their complaint cites surprise arrests leading to family separations and heightened fear of persecution.

Democracy Forward President Skye Perryman said, “The Trump administration is weaponizing immigration courts and chilling participation in the legal process.”

Immigrant Advocates Response Collaborative Interim CEO Priyanka Gandhi-Abriano said, “The arrests are a deliberate attempt to intimidate people.”

ICE often arrests individuals after deportation cases have been dismissed, enabling expedited deportations. Advocates alleged that the administration has used courts to intimidate participants in legal processes.

Gandhi-Abriano said, “Our friends, neighbors, and families are told to ‘do it the right way’ — to follow the legal process. They’re doing just that — showing up to court, complying with the law. Despite this, they’re being arrested and detained.”

National Immigrant Justice Center Director of Litigation Keren Zwick said, “We are witnessing an authoritarian takeover of the U.S. immigration court system by the Trump administration.”

Immigration officials have defended the actions as lawful, claiming those with credible fear have still been able to pursue their cases and that targeting court attendees has improved enforcement. Critics warned that the practices risk undermining due process rights.

Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said, “We aren’t some medieval kingdom; there are no legal sanctuaries where you can hide and avoid the consequences for breaking the law.” She added, “The ability of law enforcement to make arrests of criminal illegal aliens in courthouses is common sense. It conserves valuable law enforcement resources because they already know where a target will be. It is also safer for our officers and the community.”

Lawsuit Targets ICE Arrests at Court Hearings

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/lawsuit-targets-ice-arrests-at-court-hearings/ar-AA1KEhLx

Alternet: Trump’s worst crimes and destructions haven’t even happened yet | Opinion

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The worst crimes of Donald Trump and dangers to America from the unstable, monomaniacal, lying outlaw in the White House have yet to come. He is not satisfied with tearing apart our country’s social safety net for tens of millions of Americans (e.g., Medicaid and food program cuts); wrecking our scientific/medical systems, including warning people about pandemics. He is, by wrecking FEMA et al, failing to address the impact of mega-storms, wildfires, and droughts; and allowing cybersecurity threats to increase while giving harm-producing big corporations immunities from the law, more subsidies, and more tax escapes. Recall how he always adds to his attacks on powerless people that “This is just the beginning.”

He just took the next step in his march to madness and mayhem by announcing more concentration camps holding immigrants, arrested without due process, for deportation to foreign countries that want U.S. taxpayer cash for each deportee.

Recent immigrants are crucial to millions of small and large businesses. Consider who harvests our crops, cares for our children and the elderly, cleans up after us, and works the food processing plants and construction sites. Already, businesses are reducing or closing their enterprises – a political peril for Dangerous Donald.

If all immigrants to the U.S. from the last ten years, documented and undocumented, went on strike, our country would almost shut down. Yet Trump, who hired 500 undocumented workers for just one of his construction sites in New York, and had similar laborers at his New Jersey golf course, promises deportations of millions more.

Always bear in mind the self-defined characteristics of corporatist Trump’s feverish, hateful, outlaw mind: (1) He has declared he “can do whatever he wants as President,” proving his serial violations of law and illegal dictates every day; (2) He always doubles down when indicted, convicted, caught, or exposed, falsely accusing his accusers of the exact transgressions they are reliably charging him with; (3) He brags about lashing out at criticism with foul defamatory invectives; (4) He never admits his disastrous mistake; (5) He boasts that he knows more than leading experts in a dozen major areas of knowledge (see, “Wrecking America: How Trump’s Lawbreaking and Lies Betray All”); and (6) He asserts that every action, policy, or program he launches is a spectacular success – the facts to the contrary are dismissed.He is gravely delusional, replaces realities with fantasies, breaks promises that are made to defer any reckoning or accountability, and, like an imaginary King, finds no problem with saying “I rule America and the world.”

His ego defines his reactions, which is why every foreign leader is advised to flatter him. Nobody flatters better than the cunning genocidal Benjamin Netanyahu, who at his last regal White House dinner, held up his nomination of convicted felon, woman abuser, Trump for the Nobel Prize. Netanyahu’s preening comes from a politician whose regime has dossiers on Trump regarding his past personal and business behavior. This helps explain why Trump is letting the Israeli government do whatever it wants in its Gaza Holocaust, the West Bank, and beyond with our tax dollars, family-killing weaponry, and political/diplomatic cover.

The approaching greater dangers from Trump will come when he pushes his lawless, dictatorial envelope so far, so furiously, so outrageously, that it turns his GOP valets in Congress and the GOP-dominated U.S. Supreme Court against him. Add plunging polls, a stagflation economy, and impeachment, and removal from office would become a political necessity for the GOP in 2026 and beyond. In 1974, the far lesser Watergate transgressions by President Richard Nixon resulted in Republican Senators’ demanding Tricky Dick’s resignation from office.

Further provocations are not far-fetched. Firing Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell, sinking the dollar, and angering the fearful, but very powerful bankers are all on the horizon. Will the sex-trafficking charges involving Jeffrey Epstein and vile abuses of young girls finally be too much for his evangelical base, as well as for many MAGA voters? This issue is already starting to fissure his MAGA base and the GOP iron curtain in Congress. Subpoenas have just been issued to the Justice Department by the GOP Chair of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. James Comer of Kentucky – a close friend of Senator Mitch McConnell.

There is always SERENDIPITY. Trump, the mercurial egomaniac, offers old and new transgressions to stoke the calls for his impeachment. Does anyone believe that Trump would not start a military conflict, subjecting U.S. soldiers to harm, to distract attention from heavy media coverage of unravelling corruption investigations? Draft-dodging Donald has Pete Hegseth, his knee-jerk Secretary of Defense, waiting to do his lethal bidding, despite possible opposition from career military.

If Trump were to be impeached and removed from office, would he try to stay in office? Here is where a real constitutional explosion can occur. He would have to be escorted from the White House by U.S. Marshals who are under the direction of toady Attorney General Pam Bondi. The Supreme Court has held that the Constitution grants “the sole Power” to try impeachments in the Senate and nowhere else. Thus, the courts would provide no remedy to a lawless president wanting to stay in power.

Then what? The country falls into extreme turmoil. The Defense Department, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security are in the Trump Dump. Tyrant Trump can declare a major national emergency, invoke the Insurrection Act, and hurl these armed forces and police state muscle against a defenseless Congress and populace. (Recall the January 6, 2021, assault on Congress.) The abyss would have been breached.

With our society in a catastrophic convulsion, the economy collapsing, what would be the next steps? Like the Pentagon that anticipates worst-case domestic scenarios on possible violent “blowbacks” against U.S. military actions abroad, Americans should start thinking about the unthinkable. Such foreshadowings may make us far more determined NOW to thwart, stop, and repeal the fascist dictatorship which Der Führer Donald Trump is rooting ever more deeply every day. Little restraint on lawless Trump from the Congress and the Supreme Court, and only feeble, cowardly responses by the flailing Democratic Party (and the Bar Associations for that matter) thus far, make for the specter of violent anarchy and terror.

Trump has fatalistic traits. Armageddon shapes his ultimate worldview. Ponder that for a dictator with his finger on more than the nuclear trigger.

Again, Aristotle got it right over 2300 years ago, “Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.”

Trump’s worst crimes and destructions haven’t even happened yet | Opinion

https://www.alternet.org/trump-s-worst-crimes-and-destructions-haven-t-even-happened-yet

SFGATE: Calif. cannabis farm breaks silence weeks after deadly ICE raid

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Glass House Brands released its first public comment Monday since the California company faced a violent raid from federal authorities last month that left one man dead and hundreds arrested. 

On July 10, federal agents searched two of the company’s Southern California cultivation facilities — one in Ventura County and one in Santa Barbara County — in an operation that quickly descended into chaos. Officers fired tear gas inside the facilities and searched for immigrants as hundreds of protesters gathered outside to protest the Donald Trump administration’s action. One worker fell from a green house and later died, marking the first known death in Trump’s immigration crackdown. 

Following the raid, the Department of Homeland Security announced it had arrested at least 361 people suspected of being in the country illegally, as well as 14 “migrant children,” although the agency hasn’t shared any court documentation behind those figures. 

Glass House, one of California’s largest legal cannabis companies, had not issued any public comment in the weeks following the raid other than a post to X on July 11 confirming it was being raided. 

On Monday, the company broke its silence with a news release that outlined details of the operation, including that nine company employees were detained or arrested. The company said any other people arrested would have been employed by farm labor companies that provide employees for the farm, which is a common practice at agricultural facilities.

Glass House said that it has not been able to determine the identities of the alleged minors but said that if minors were at the facility “none of them were Glass House employees.”

There has been widespread fear in the cannabis industry that federal agents could have been conducting a much broader operation investigating the cultivation of marijuana itself, which is still federally illegal and could lead to federal criminal charges against the company and its staff. Video apparently taken during the raid and posted to social media showed a federal agent saying, “This is not an immigration raid.”

Monday’s news release countered that narrative, saying the raid was led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and that the search warrant was authorized specifically for “evidence of possible immigration violations.” Glass House said that “very few documents were seized pursuant to the search warrant.”

The company did not say if its farming operations have been delayed or stalled, which could strike an economic blow to the public company during the summer harvest season, but did say it has since improved its labor practices to comply with federal immigration law, increased age controls for anyone entering its farms, and signed a labor peace agreement with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The company had previously been accused of working with a “fake union” that never attempted to unionize or represent any employees at the company.

Calif. cannabis farm breaks silence weeks after deadly ICE raid
The raid marked the first death in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

https://www.sfgate.com/cannabis/article/calif-cannabis-farm-breaks-silence-ice-raid-20800994.php