Tag Archives: immigrants

LA Times: Westlake Home Depot raided again, reigniting fears of more sweeps despite judge’s order to stop

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After weeks of relative quiet, Border Patrol agents raided a Home Depot in Westlake on Wednesday as a top federal agent warned, “We’re not leaving,” and posted images of half a dozen border agents running from a Penske truck through the parking lot.

As many as 16 immigrants were reported rounded up and arrested in what U.S. Border Patrol Sector Chief Greg Bovino called “Operation Trojan Horse.” The early morning raids revived fears of more widespread sweeps that organizers had hoped would ease with a federal judge’s order, affirmed by a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel, that immigration officials cannot racially profile people or use roving patrols to target immigrants.

“For those who thought Immigration enforcement had stopped in Southern California, think again,” acting U.S. attorney Bill Essayli posted on X, shortly after the raid. “The enforcement of federal law is not negotiable and there are no sanctuaries from the reach of the federal government.”

A day laborer, who identified himself as Ceasar, said around 6:45 a.m. a yellow Penske truck pulled up to the laborers who had gathered in the parking lot. The driver told them in Spanish he was looking for workers.

Several of the men gathered around the truck and then someone, it was unclear who to him, rolled up the back of the truck. Masked agents, one wearing a cowboy hat, jumped out and started chasing people. People scattered.

“This is the worst feeling ever,” said Ceasar, who has been going to the home improvement store to pick up work for several years.

Video on social media captured the moment the back of the rental truck opened. When Penske Truck Rental was asked about it, they said they were aware of the incident.

“The company was not made aware that its trucks would be used in today’s operation and did not authorize this,” said Penske spokesman Randolph P. Ryerson. “Penske will reach out to DHS and reinforce its policy to avoid improper use of its vehicles in the future.

He added: “Penske strictly prohibits the transportation of people in the cargo area of its vehicles under any circumstances,” the statement said.

One worker who escaped was still shaken by the experience an hour later. He identified himself as Raul, and said he saw at least eight people get arrested.

“That’s one of their cars,” he said pointing to a silver Toyota sedan.

The Home Depot had been one of the scene of the first raids in June that kicked off a more than month of operations in Southern California in which civil rights lawyers say federal agents indiscriminately arrested immigrants. The raids gutted businesses, spread fear and tore apart families.

On July 11, a federal judge temporarily blocked federal agents from using racial profiling to carry out indiscriminate arrests after the ACLU, Public Counsel, other groups and private attorneys sued over the practices saying that the region had been “under seige.”

Department of Justice attorneys argued the order hinders them from carrying federal immigration enforcement, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal upheld the order.

For the past weeks since the restraining order kicked in in early July, Bovino has shared photos of arrests of undocumented immigrants, stating that some had active arrest warrants. With others, he referenced a lengthy criminal history, marking the arrests as more targeted than they had been prior.

But organizers say a similar operation to the raid unfolded on Monday at a Home Depot in Hollywood that was the site of a massive raid in June. That operation also sparked concerns about violations of the TRO.

Maegan Ortiz, the executive director of the nonprofit group Instituto de Educación Popular del Sur de California, known as IDEPSCA, said they began receiving word about an immigration operation at the Home Depot in Hollywood around 6:50 a.m. on Monday.

Westlake Home Depot raided again, reigniting fears of more sweeps despite judge’s order to stop

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ar-AA1K1YKo

Raw Story: ‘Family separation on steroids’: Expert lays into Trump plan to target newborn babies

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President Donald Trump’s administration has drawn up a draft of guidelines to block non-U.S. citizens from having children on U.S. soil and becoming citizens.

The Constitution details “birthright citizenship” in the 14th Amendment, saying that anybody born on American soil belongs to the nation. The Trump administration has tried to block that with an executive order.

Speaking to MSNBC, Slate legal analyst Mark Joseph Stern said the guidelines are a backdoor effort to reinstate the family separation policy from the early days of the first Trump administration. In that case, the government took children from their parents when they came into the U.S. In some instances, the children were given to a host family, while others were thrown in a “detention center.”

“For months, federal courts have prevented the U.S. government from even beginning to plan the implementation of this executive order, finding that it violated the 14th Amendment,” said Stern, noting that the Supreme Court then stepped in to allow it.

“What we see is that this administration doesn’t plan to give any kind of grace period to the children of undocumented immigrants. It will render them noncitizens and deportable from the moment of birth,” clarified Stern.

“The administration has also repealed a 14-year-old rule that barred ICE from entering and committing enforcement actions in and around hospitals. So, the government now has a setup where it can send ICE agents into maternity wards, as you said, to monitor births to demand papers from new mothers and fathers, and to potentially take away and deport their children, their infants, from the moment they’re born. If the parents can’t prove citizenship to their satisfaction.”

Under the new memo, there are about a dozen new classifications of people who will have their U.S. citizenship taken away.

“In fact, the trump administration has already started to quietly reintroduce family separation by relaxing restrictions that had been imposed over the last few years to prevent it from happening,” Stern noted. “The government seems ready to take away infants from their parents if they deem it necessary to effectuate immigration laws. And if this order takes effect, that baby would be deportable upon birth.”

Worse, he said, those infants could be taken, denied citizenship, and under Supreme Court rulings, they could be deported to a third-party country in which they or their parents haven’t set foot.

“This would be like family separation in the first administration on steroids, with a hugely disproportionate impact on the youngest and most vulnerable among us,” he characterized.

‘Family separation on steroids’: Expert lays into Trump plan to target newborn babies

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-family-separation

Washington Examiner: Judges get emotional on Trump efforts to end temporary immigration programs

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The Trump administration has faced various legal setbacks in its efforts to implement sweeping deportations and immigration policies, with some of the judges issuing orders accusing officials of racism and unfavorable comparisons in dramatic opinions.

Judge Trina Thompson, a Biden appointee on the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, offered the latest lengthy opinion, aimed at the morals of Trump administration officials trying to end temporary immigration programs for foreign nationals.

Challenges to revoking TPS bring racism allegations by judges

In a 37-page opinion Thursday blocking the administration from ending Temporary Protected Status for Nepal, Honduras, and Nicaragua, she accused officials of “racial animus” based on their statements about criminal migrants.

“By stereotyping the TPS program and immigrants as invaders that are criminal, and by highlighting the need for migration management, [Homeland] Secretary [Kristi] Noem’s statements perpetuate the discriminatory belief that certain immigrant populations will replace the white population,” Thompson wrote in her opinion.

Thompson wrote in her rejection that she “shares” the “concern” of those suing the Trump administration regarding the president’s ability to end TPS at his discretion. The Biden-appointed judge added that her court “does not forget that this country has bartered with human lives” and included a lengthy footnote discussing the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

“The emancipation of slaves saw the same pattern, but in reverse. Many whites were uncomfortable with the idea of free non-white people in their communities, even if they had lived in the United States for generations,” Thompson wrote in her opinion. “Plaintiffs’ allegations echo these same traditions.”

Thompson also alleges that ending TPS for the three countries and requiring those who had the temporary status to return to their home country is the equivalent of freed slaves being removed from the U.S. and sent to Africa.

Earlier this year, Judge Edward Chen, an Obama appointee on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, blocked the Trump administration from ending TPS for Venezuela and accused the Trump administration of similar claims of racial animus in his 78-page opinion.

“Generalization of criminality to the Venezuelan TPS population as a whole is baseless and smacks of racism predicated on generalized false stereotypes,” Chen wrote in his March order.

The Trump administration’s official reasons for ending the Temporary Protected Status for the countries have been that the reasons outlined for initially granting TPS are no longer applicable, and conditions have improved.

Other decisions bring emotional responses

While many dramatic opinions from federal judges blocking the Trump administration’s policies have come in TPS lawsuits, judges have also made fiery accusations in other issues. A ruling by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Friday made another unfavorable comparison about the Trump administration’s policies.

Judge Jia Cobb, a Biden appointee on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, compared the president’s policies blocking the administration from rapidly deporting people who had previously been paroled into the country to the countries that illegal immigrants have fled in her order.

“This case’s underlying question, then, asks whether parolees who escaped oppression will have the chance to plead their case within a system of rules,” Cobb wrote. “Or, alternatively, will they be summarily removed from a country that, as they are swept up at checkpoints and outside courtrooms, often by plainclothes officers without explanation or charges … may look to them more and more like the countries from which they tried to escape?”

Among the various rulings against the Trump administration in district courts, a case regarding the administration’s cancellation of diversity, equity, and inclusion grants at the National Institutes of Health brought another dramatic racial discrimination claim.

“I’ve never seen a record where racial discrimination was so palpable,” U.S. District Judge William Young said in his ruling in June. “I’ve sat on this bench now for 40 years. I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this.”

While the Trump administration has faced dramatic and blistering opinions at lower district courts, it has racked up several wins on the Supreme Court’s emergency docket on various issues, including terminating TPS.

The Supreme Court’s order allowing the administration to proceed with various policies, including immigration policies, has typically been accompanied by fiery dissents from the liberal minority on the high court.

The judges are seeing right through the Trump regime’s disgusting racist agenda!

Judges get emotional on Trump efforts to end temporary immigration programs
The Trump administration has faced various legal setbacks in its efforts to implement sweeping deportations and immigration policies, with some of the judges issuing orders accusing officials of racism and unfavorable comparisons in dramatic opinions. Judge Trina Thompson, a Biden appointee on the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, offered the […]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/judges-get-emotional-on-trump-efforts-to-end-temporary-immigration-programs/ar-AA1JOuJ5

Rolling Stone: Trump Is Hiring ICE Agents to Arrest Immigrants Coast to Coast, Border to Border

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Job listings in 25 cities show where ICE may be ramping up deportations and detentions

Donald Trump is looking to hire 10,000 officers to help carry out his administration’s widespread detention and deportation of migrants with tens of billions of dollars in funds from his “Big Beautiful Bill.” 

Job postings show that in 25 cities from coast to coast, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is hiring deportation officers who will arrest, detain, and deport migrants, and manage migrants’ cases. The listings give insight into where ICE may be ramping up operations. ICE has already been carrying out broad arrests, including at workplaces and courthouses. Agents have been wearing masks and lacking identifying information as they snatch immigrants, sometimes breaking their car windows to drag them out faster. 

ICE has already been carrying out broad arrests, including at workplaces and courthouses. Agents have been wearing masks and lacking identifying information as they snatch immigrants, sometimes breaking their car windows to drag them out faster. 

If you’re big, dumb, stupid, and no older than 36, ICE wants you!

Racists, white supremacists, and the culturally deprived are encouraged to apply!

Trump Is Hiring ICE Agents to Arrest Immigrants Coast to Coast, Border to Border
ICE is hiring in 25 cities, suggesting where Donald Trump may be ramping up deportations and detentions.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-ice-agents-arrest-immigrants-cities-coast-border-1235399216

Raw Story: ‘You don’t have immunity’: Stephen Miller and ICE agents put on notice by legal expert

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U.S. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller walks away after speaking to reporters at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 30, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

Government employees who have been doing Donald Trump’s dirty work during his second term should take note that the president recently admitted they may not have immunity for their actions.

And that includes White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and ICE agents who have been assaulting and snatching immigrants off U.S. streets whether they are in the country legally or not.

That was a warning given by conservative attorney George Conway on MSNBC on Saturday morning where he talked about, among other topics, Trump’s appointees going up to the line and sometimes over thereby breaking the law.

Speaking with the hosts of “The Weekend,” Conway stated, “There’s no check against him anymore, there’s no checks. He actually, by the way, he was a lot more coherent a few years ago than yesterday, but let’s set that aside.”

“His mental acuity,” co-host Eugene Daniels interjected.

“Yeah, no,” Conway replied. “Everything is –– he’s a narcissist. He’s the most profoundly narcissistic individual we’ve ever seen in American politics. It’s all me, me, me, me, me, there is no other to him. The government belongs to him, he talks about his generals. It was always going to be his Justice Department and he was always going to view the Justice Department and the attorney general and everybody who works for the attorney general to the lowest US assistant, US attorney in the smallest district in the country.”

“And let me just say, I mean, it’s working for all these people who want these nice jobs, right, that they’re not qualified for, like Alina Habba and the guy in the Northern District of New York,” he added.

“But you know, Trump said something before the break in his incoherent way that, actually, the people who work for him now should remember,” he pointed out. “He [Trump] said that the people who work for Obama, they’re not protected by the immunity decision. Well, all you people who are getting those jobs right now working for Donald Trump, whether you be the lowliest ICE agent or Stephen Miller himself? You better watch it because you don’t have immunity.”

That earned him a “Wow!” from Jonathan Capehart.

‘You don’t have immunity’: Stephen Miller and ICE agents put on notice by legal expert

https://www.rawstory.com/stephen-miller-2673765097

Wichita Eagle: Trump Suffers Blow as Poll Reveals Disapproval

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Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Los Angeles have reportedly expanded to target individuals without criminal histories. Officials claimed the broadening of enforcement has sparked fear throughout the community, causing residents to stay indoors and avoid public spaces. Mayor Karen Bass expressed concern over the raids, stating they have created a chilling effect that is affecting families and causing a decline in workforce participation.

A NPR/PBS News/Marist poll published in July found 52% of Americans disapprove of Trump’s current approach to immigration enforcement, a shift from earlier support for stricter policies. In contrast, a Gallup poll in 2024 showed 55% of Americans wanted less immigration.

The raids have drawn criticism from local advocacy groups, who argue they disrupt communities and undermine trust in law enforcement. Federal officials, however, defend the actions as necessary to enforce immigration laws and prioritize public safety. The increased enforcement comes amid ongoing national debates over immigration policy and border security.

Bass said, “Los Angeles is a city of immigrants — 3.8 million people and about 50% of our population is Latino. So when the raids started, fear spread. The masked men in unmarked cars, no license plate, no real uniforms, jumping out of cars with rifles and snatching people off the street.”

Local farmers have reported declines in activity due to the expanded ICE raids. Bass criticized agents’ use of masks and unmarked vehicles, saying it fuels fears of kidnappings.

Bass stated that ICE’s tactics are “leading a lot of people to think maybe kidnappings were taking place. How do you have masked men who then say, well, we are federal officials with no identification?”

…

Bass stated, “Let me tell you, we have a Los Angeles Police Department that has to deal with crime in this city every single day, and they’re not masked, they stay here. The masked men parachute in, stay here for a while and leave. So you enter a profession like policing, like law enforcement, I’m sorry, I don’t think you have a right to have a mask and snatch people off the street.”

Bass added, “It’s not just the deportation. It’s the fear that sets in when raids occur, when people are snatched off the street. Even people who are here legally, even people who are U.S. citizens, have been detained. Immigrants who have their papers and were showing up for their annual immigration appointment were detained when they showed up doing exactly what they were supposed to be doing.”

Trump Suffers Blow as Poll Reveals Disapproval

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/trump-suffers-blow-as-poll-reveals-disapproval/ss-AA1JMJWO

Washington Examiner: Judge blocks ICE deportation strategy for paroled immigrants

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A federal judge on Friday blocked Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s “expedited removal” deportation strategy to detain paroled immigrants as quickly as possible.

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb of the District of Columbia ruled that the Trump administration’s use of expedited removal exceeded the Department of Homeland Security’s legal authority, in addition to being arbitrary and capricious. The order temporarily halts the federal government’s efforts to deport immigrants previously paroled into the United States at a port of entry.

Cobb specifically blocked three actions: a DHS memo dated Jan. 23 directing immigration officials to apply expedited removal as broadly as possible; an ICE directive dated Feb. 18 authorizing officers to consider expedited removal for “paroled arriving aliens”; and a DHS notice dated March 25 terminating the Biden-era parole programs for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans.

The court took issue with the administration’s actions to dismiss parole immigrants’ pending proceedings in immigration court and proceed to arrest them outside the courtroom afterward.

“This case’s underlying question, then, asks whether parolees who escaped oppression will have the chance to plead their case within a system of rules,” Cobb wrote in the 84-page ruling. “Or, alternatively, will they be summarily removed from a country that, as they are swept up at checkpoints and outside courtrooms, often by plainclothes officers without explanation or charges, may look to them more and more like the countries from which they tried to escape?”

Such an incident occurred in June, when New York City Comptroller Brad Lander was arrested for refusing to leave an immigrant whose case was dismissed moments earlier. Lander and his companion were both restrained by masked plainclothes officers as seen in a viral video.

A growing number of Democratic lawmakers have since crafted legislation to bar ICE officers from wearing masks, which the agency says are used to protect its officers from getting doxxed.

Friday’s order is estimated to affect “hundreds of thousands of paroled aliens,” Cobb wrote.

The Trump administration criticized the ruling, saying it defies a Supreme Court ruling from May that upheld the termination of parole status for more than 530,000 illegal immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.

“Judge Cobb is flagrantly ignoring the United States Supreme Court, which upheld expedited removals of illegal aliens by a 7-2 majority,” DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “This ruling is lawless and won’t stand.”

Whine, bitch, whine!

Judge blocks ICE deportation strategy for paroled immigrants
“This ruling is lawless and won’t stand,” the Department of Homeland Security said in response.
Judge blocks ICE deportation strategy for paroled immigrants

Newsweek: Pastor in US over 20 years held by ICE after failing to obtain green card

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A Maryland pastor who has lived in the United States for more than two decades was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for overstaying his visa, prompting protests from his community and calls for his release.

Daniel Fuentes Espinal, 54, was taken into custody on July 21 while driving to work in Easton, Maryland. ICE said he entered the country legally in 2001 on a six-month visa but never left.

“It is a federal crime to overstay the authorized period of time granted under a visitor’s visa,” the agency said in a statement to Newsweek.

Why It Matters

President Donald Trump has ordered the government to carry out what Republicans call the largest deportation operation in United States history.

In addition to people living in the country without legal status, immigrants with valid documentation, including green cards and visas, have been detained. Newsweek has documented multiple cases involving green-card holders and applicants who were swept up in ICE raids.

What To Know

Fuentes Espinal, a Honduran citizen and father of three, has spent 15 years serving as a volunteer pastor at Iglesia del Nazareno Jesus Te Ama, or Church of the Nazarene Jesus Loves You, in Easton. Known for offering food, shelter and clothing to those in need, friends describe him as a man who “never expects anything in return.”

“Pastor Fuentes Espinal is a beloved pillar of the Easton community, known for giving shelter to those who need a place to sleep and for providing food and clothing to people at their most vulnerable,” family friend Len Foxwell wrote in a GoFundMe campaign that has raised more than $45,000 to help the family and cover legal fees.

Fuentes Espinal was first taken to a detention facility in Salisbury, Maryland, then transferred to Baltimore before being moved to the Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield, Louisiana.

The pastor’s family said he has been trying for years to obtain a green card, spending thousands of dollars and navigating what they called a “bureaucratic nightmare.”

“They have felt for years as if the deck is stacked against them, despite having spent a considerable amount of money and time and effort” seeking permanent residency, Foxwell told CBS News.

Supporters have mobilized quickly. Members of the Easton community gathered Friday carrying signs and American flags demanding his release.

“It’s devastated our community. It’s shocked our community,” Foxwell told CBS Baltimore.

Maryland lawmakers have joined calls for his release. In a letter condemning his detention, Representatives Sarah Elfreth and Glenn Ivey described Fuentes Espinal as “a beloved pillar” of Easton and said that “his arrest and detention by ICE does nothing to further your stated goals of making America safer.”

Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said his team is also working with Fuentes Espinal’s family.

What People Are Saying

A spokesperson for Republican Representative Andy Harris of Maryland, in a statement to CBS News: “Congressman Harris believes due process within the immigration enforcement system is important and that facts should be clear before making any further public comment.”

Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland told CBS News: “The Trump administration is snatching up anyone they can find as they pursue their mass deportation agenda.”

Family friend Len Foxwell told CNN: “This is a family man, a man of faith, a small businessman who was literally just going to work to put in a full day’s work to feed his family.”

What Happens Next

Fuentes Espinal is awaiting a bond hearing. His family says they will continue to fight for his release.

Pastor in US over 20 years held by ICE after failing to obtain green card
Honduran citizen was detained in Easton, Maryland. ICE said he entered the U.S. legally in 2001 on a 6-month visa and never left.

https://www.newsweek.com/pastor-us-over-20-years-held-ice-after-failing-obtain-green-card-2107091

Inquisitr: Immigrants Deported by Trump ‘Forced to Lick Backs of Other Inmates’ by Guards in El Salvador Prison—Survivor Opens Up About Months of Torture

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Immigrants who were imprisoned in CECOT speak up against Donald Trump and the harsh treatment they had to endure at the terrorism centre.

Several detainees who were allegedly unfairly deported by the Trump administration are speaking up against their brutal treatment. The immigrants who were allegedly falsely accused of being Venezuelan gang members are speaking up against the U.S. government.

Juan José Ramos Ramos, a Venezuelan, recently spoke up about the harsh conditions he had to endure in CECOT. The 39-year-old was one of the hundreds of immigrants who boarded planes that took them to El Salvador’s maximum security prison.

Trump’s administration has been under fire for its aggressive deportation practices, some of which have not adhered to the law. The President even made the controversial decision of invoking the Alien Enemies Act, which was introduced in the 1700s.

Under the act, the government is given the authority to detain, relocate, and deport aliens deemed to be “dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States.” What followed were mass deportations carried out in disorderly manner.

Hundreds of Venezuelans have been arrested and deported by ICE agents. The immigrants were accused of being members of a deadly gang without providing sufficient proof to support the claims. The men were then admitted into El Salvador’s high-security prison known as CECOT.

Leonardo José Colmenares Solórzano was one of these men who was forced to endure the brutal conditions of the terrorism confinement center. The 31-year-old alleges that he was brutally beaten up by the guards at the prison. The guards allegedly stomped on his hands repeatedly and poured dirty water into his ears.

Solórzano claimed that the guards also forced him to lick the backs of the other inmates. Juan José Ramos Ramos, another Venezuelan who found himself in prison, alleged that Donald Trump is not who he claims to be.

Ramos, who claims he has had a clean criminal record, was arrested by ICE agents on the basis of no conclusive proof whatsoever. The man recalled how his tattoos got him in trouble with the immigration agents. Ramos was simply driving his car when ICE agents spotted a Venezuela sticker on his car and took him into custody.

The Rawstory investigated the alleged unfair deportation of these men and found shocking statistics related to their cases. The outlet reported that 197 out of 238 men who were arrested and deported had no prior criminal record.

What’s even more shocking is that the report alleges that the Trump administration knew about the same. More than half of these individuals had open immigration cases at the time of their deportation.

The common denominator between the men who were arrested was that 166 of them had tattoos on their bodies. Abigail Jackson, who serves as a spokesperson for the White House, addressed the claims in a statement.

She noted how ProPublica, one of the outlets that investigated the matter, was a “liberal rag hellbent on defending violent criminal illegal aliens who never belonged in the United States.” Jackson went on to write about how America is “safer” without the immigrants who have been deported.

Immigrants Deported by Trump ‘Forced to Lick Backs of Other Inmates’ by Guards in El Salvador Prison—Survivor Opens Up About Months of Torture
Immigrants who were imprisoned in CECOT speak up against Donald Trump and the harsh treatment they had to endure at the terrorism centre. Here’s what the detainees said about their time in the prison.

Bradenton Herald: Defiant Mayor Signs Executive Order in Blow to ICE

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Albuquerque, New Mexico, Mayor Tim Keller has signed an executive order mandating city departments to report any Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activities in city facilities. He reaffirmed Albuquerque’s commitment to civil rights and ensured that city resources will not be used for federal immigration enforcement unless required by law. The action comes in response to the ongoing federal enforcement of immigration measures under President Donald Trump.

Keller said, “From day one, I made it clear that we will not be intimidated by harmful federal policies—and we’ve never wavered from our commitment to civil rights and public safety.” He added, “This Executive Order makes it clear that we will not stand by silently as our neighbors and friends are living in fear, and we will protect due process for all people living in our City.”

The order directs city departments to support families impacted by federal actions in housing, healthcare, jobs, and education. Keller stated that immigrants have added $12 billion annually to New Mexico’s economy.

Keller argued the city must serve all residents, regardless of immigration status. City councilors have planned to draft legislation to codify the executive order following recess.

A spokesperson for Keller stated, “The City actively partners with community organizations to ensure that services, including housing, healthcare, employment, and education assistance are accessible to those impacted by federal immigration actions. These services are provided to all residents and neighbors, regardless of immigration status. We do not inquire about immigration status when offering assistance.”

The spokesperson added, “Albuquerque is proud to welcome immigrants and values the rich diversity of our community. Our focus remains on fostering safety, inclusion, and support for everyone who calls our city home.”

A city spokesperson stated that Albuquerque has worked with community groups to ensure affected residents have equitable access regarding essential services.

Defiant Mayor Signs Executive Order in Blow to ICE

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/defiant-mayor-signs-executive-order-in-blow-to-ice/ss-AA1JB3t5