Tag Archives: Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Guardian: Ice arrests of US military veterans and their relatives are on the rise: ‘a country that I fought for’

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As Trump urges more deportations, veterans are seeing their parents, children and even themselves detained

The son of an American citizen and military veteran – but who has no citizenship to any country – was deported from the US to Jamaica in late May.

Jermaine Thomas’s deportation, recently reported on by the Austin Chronicle, is one of a growing number of immigration cases involving military service members’ relatives or even veterans themselves who have been ensnared in the Trump administration’s mass deportation program.

As the Chronicle reported, Thomas was born on a US army base in Germany to an American citizen father, who was originally born in Jamaica and is now dead. Thomas does not have US, German or Jamaican citizenship – but Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agency deported him anyway to Jamaica, a country in which he had never set foot.

Thomas had spent two-and-a-half months incarcerated while waiting for an update on his case. He was previously at the center of a case brought before the US supreme court regarding his unique legal status.

The federal government argued that Thomas – who had previously received a deportation order – was not a citizen simply because he was born on a US army base, and it used prior criminal convictions to buttress the case against him. He petitioned for a review of the order, but the supreme court denied him, finding his father “did not meet the physical presence requirement of the [law] in force at the time of Thomas’s birth”.

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In another recent case, the wife of another Marine Corps veteran was detained by Ice despite still breastfeeding her three-month-old daughter. According to the Associated Press, the veteran’s wife had been going through a process to obtain legal residency.

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In March, Ice officials arrested the daughter of a US veteran who had been fighting a legal battle regarding her status. Alma Bowman, 58, was taken into custody by Ice during a check-in at the Atlanta field office, despite her having lived in the US since she was 10 years old.

Bowman was born in the Philippines during the Vietnam war, to a US navy service member from Illinois stationed there. She had lived in Georgia for almost 50 years. Her permanent residency was revoked following a minor criminal conviction from 20 years ago, leading her to continue a legal battle to obtain citizenship in the US.

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In another recent case, a US army veteran and green-card holder left on his own to South Korea. His deportation order was due to charges related to drug possession and an issue with drug addiction after being wounded in combat in the 1980s, for which he earned the prestigious Purple Heart citation.

“I can’t believe this is happening in America,” Sae Joon Park, who had held legal permanent residency, told National Public Radio. “That blows me away – like, [it is] a country that I fought for.”

Ice arrests of US military veterans and their relatives are on the rise: ‘a country that I fought for’
As Trump urges more deportations, veterans are seeing their parents, children and even themselves detained

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/28/us-military-veterans-detained-trump

Daily Beast: Trump Frees Felon to Keep Deported Maryland Dad Locked Up

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The White House is so hellbent on keeping Kilmar Abrego Garcia behind bars, it has released a convicted human smuggler.

The Trump administration has freed a convicted human smuggler in its desperate bid to convict Kilmar Abrego Garcia of the same charge.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported Abrego Garcia in March—a move the Department of Justice (DOJ) admitted was an error—before a federal judge forced the administration to return him. Abrego Garcia was placed in federal custody on a human smuggling charge as soon as he set foot on U.S. soil again.

Despite President Donald Trump’s pledge to focus mass deportation efforts on criminals—the “worst of the worst”—the DOJ has now released three-time felon Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes from federal prison and transferred him to a halfway house in exchange for his testimony against Abrego Garcia, an undocumented father from Maryland.

Which likely will make him an unreliable witness because he has been paid / rewarded for his testimony. When it’s all over, Kilmar Abrego Garcia will walk free.

“It’s wild to me,” Lisa Sherman Luna, executive director at the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, told the Washington Post. “It’s just further evidence of how the government is using Kilmar’s case to further their propaganda and prove their political point.”

Trump Frees Felon to Keep Deported Maryland Dad Locked Up
The White House is so hellbent on keeping Kilmar Abrego Garcia behind bars, it has released a convicted human smuggler.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-frees-felon-to-keep-deported-maryland-dad-locked-up

Miami Herald: Border Patrol Deployed Amid ICE Staffing Crisis

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Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is reportedly facing staffing issues, resulting in Border Patrol agents operating more in urban areas. Arrests at the border have dropped significantly to an average of around 280 per day from over 8,000 daily in late 2023. Border arrests are at a 60-year low, and ICE has allegedly struggled with staffing and operations, relying heavily on around 20,000 Border Patrol agents.

While in Los Angeles, Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino said, “We’re here and not going away.” Trump-backed legislation to expand ICE staffing has stalled, pushing ICE to depend on Border Patrol to reach its goal of 3,000 daily arrests.

Border Patrol Deployed Amid ICE Staffing Crisis
More for You

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/border-patrol-deployed-amid-ice-staffing-crisis/ss-AA1HDxfF

Associated Press: After decades in the US, Iranians arrested in Trump’s deportation drive

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Mandonna “Donna” Kashanian lived in the United States for 47 years, married a U.S. citizen and raised their daughter. She was gardening in the yard of her New Orleans home when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers handcuffed and took her away, her family said.

Kashanian arrived in 1978 on a student visa and applied for asylum, fearing retaliation for her father’s support of the U.S.-backed shah. She lost her bid, but she was allowied to remain with her husband and child if she checked in regularly with immigration officials, her husband and daughter said. She complied, once checking in from South Carolina during Hurricane Katrina. She is now being held at an immigration detention center in Basile, Louisiana, while her family tries to get information.

Other Iranians are also getting arrested by immigration authorities after decades in the United States. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security won’t say how many people they’ve arrested, but U.S. military strikes on Iran have fueled fears that there is more to come.

“Some level of vigilance, of course, makes sense, but what it seems like ICE has done is basically give out an order to round up as many Iranians as you can, whether or not they’re linked to any threat and then arrest them and deport them, which is very concerning,” said Ryan Costello, policy director of the National Iranian American Council, an advocacy group.

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But over four decades, Kashanian, 64, built a life in Louisiana. The couple met when she was bartending as a student in the late 1980s. They married and had a daughter. She volunteered with Habitat for Humanity, filmed Persian cooking tutorials on YouTube and was a grandmother figure to the children next door.

The fear of deportation always hung over the family, Milne said, but he said his wife did everything that was being asked of her.

“She’s meeting her obligations,” Milne said. “She’s retirement age. She’s not a threat. Who picks up a grandmother?”

While Iranians have been crossing the border illegally for years, especially since 2021, they have faced little risk of being deported to their home countries due to severed diplomatic relations with the U.S. That seems to no longer be the case.

After decades in the US, Iranians arrested in Trump’s deportation drive
Some Iranians are getting arrested by immigration authorities after living decades in the United States.

https://apnews.com/article/iran-immigration-arrests-us-trump-deportations-9a4136657bda3a277125738807848368

Huffington Post: Trump’s Immigration Arrests Are Seeing A Wave Of Resistance

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Recent weeks have seen the Trump administration’s “mass deportation” program kick into overdrive. 

Militarized federal agents are working hard to meet the White House’s sky-high arrest quotas, and the number of people in immigration detention is surging past record highs. That means focusing even more on otherwise law-abiding people who happen to have irregular immigration statuses ― people who pay taxes, show up to court dates and check-ins, work hard to provide for their families, and followed previous administrations’ rules to apply for humanitarian protections. It also means interrogating people at swap meets, and underground parties, or those who just have brown skin. 

The nation disapproves, polling shows. Massive protests around the country ― in both large urban areas and small towns ― have showcased Americans’ fury at having their loved ones and neighbors ripped out of their communities at random. 

Across the country, people are also taking action to slow down what they see as the egregious over-enforcement of immigration law, attempting to starve Trump’s mass deportation machine of fuel and to throw sand in its gears.

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But activists and community organizers have worked for generations to slow down deportations ― and, as it turns out, Trump’s deportation agenda relies upon some crucial choke points. Here they are.

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One key opportunity for bystanders to intervene in the deportation process comes during the actual moments where immigration agents may be making an arrest.

Take the case of Bishop-elect Michael Pham, Pope Leo XIV’s first bishop appointment in the United States. On World Refugee Day last week, Pham and other faith leaders visited an immigration court. The ICE agents who in recent weeks have been arresting immigrants showing up to routine hearings in the building “scattered” and did not take anyone into custody, Times of San Diego reported.

In Chicago, two National Guard soldiers appeared in uniform with their mother at her immigration appointment, alongside two members of Congress. The soldiers’ mother returned home without incident. 

Not everyone has the star power to discourage detentions by their mere presence. But at courthouses and ICE check-ins where Trump has taken advantage of a legal maneuver known as “expedited removal” to arrest and deport people without due process, volunteers accompanying immigrants can document arrests and sometimes provide informal legal information to people who might not know about ICE’stactics.

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Spreading information about people’s legal rights during interactions with law enforcement, known as “know your rights” information, has also grown enormously popular.

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Getting Everyone Legal Representation: The data is clear. Legal representation is associated withbetter outcomes in immigration court. 

That’s because the deck is stacked against people in the immigration legal system. Unlike in criminal court, people in the immigration process are not guaranteed free legal representation if they can’t afford it, even if they’re detained behind bars.

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Opposing Local Cooperation With The Feds: Even though immigration enforcement is a federal job, local cooperation is a crucial part of the operation.

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Fighting Trump’s Massive DHS Budget Increase 

You Can Actually Help Kneecap Trump’s ‘Mass Deportation’ Arrests. Here’s How.
The mass deportation agenda relies upon some key choke points.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-mass-deportation-resistance-choke-points_n_685d882fe4b01b4b31df992f

LA Times: Disappeared by ICE in L.A.: How to find detained relatives

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For 22 days, immigration enforcement officials have conducted sweeps in communities across the Los Angeles region, arresting an estimated 722 people between June 1 through the 10 alone.

For families and immigrant advocacy groups, determining the location of detainees has been difficult.

“In some cases it’s been 72 hours where we have not been able to identify where their family member is and when we do sometimes they’re in the [Adelanto Detention Center],” said Flor Melendrez, executive director of CLEAN Carwash Worker Center, a nonprofit labor advocacy group.

“Sometimes it’s too late and [the detainee is] calling from the Cuidad Juárez or Tijuana where they have already been deported, and that’s within 72 hours.”

CLEAN has focused on representing workers in the car wash industry for 18 years, but in the last three weeks the group has shifted to helping families find workers who were taken during a raid and guide them toward supportive and legal services.

“When the children are asking if we are going to bring their parent back home and we have no way to even respond [with] where they are, it’s heartbreaking,” Melendez said.

If someone you know in LA has been disappeared off the streets, click on the link below for specific suggestions and assistance in finding them:

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-06-27/what-to-do-if-relative-detained-immigration-officials

CBS News: Kilmar Abrego Garcia asks to remain in federal custody, and Justice Dept. agrees

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Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man who was mistakenly deported back to his home country and then returned to the U.S. for federal prosecution, may remain in federal custody, after his lawyers and prosecutors sparred over whether he would be deported immediately upon his release while awaiting a criminal trial.

His lawyers asked that a magistrate judge’s order granting him pretrial release not be issued until July 16, when he is scheduled to appear in court again for another hearing. In a filing Friday, prosecutors agreed to the delay. The court must still approve the request.

Abrego Garcia’s lawyers said in a filing with the court that the Justice Department has been giving conflicting statements as to whether the Trump administration will move to deport him before he stands trial.

Give the poor guy his day in court!

Kilmar Abrego Garcia asks to remain in federal custody, and Justice Department agrees
The U.S. agreed to a request by Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s attorneys that his release order be delayed through July 16.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kilmar-abrego-garcia-remain-in-federal-custody-justice-department-agrees

People: Trump Threatens to Arrest 2 Political Opponents in Same Press Conference, Hours After Entertaining Elon Musk Deportation

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President Donald Trump went on several tirades about former friends and political opponents alike on Tuesday, July 1, even threatening to jail a rising political star and a former Biden Cabinet member.

After touring a new detention facility for detainees of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Florida, Trump sat down with reporters at “Alligator Alcatraz” to answer a few questions.

Asked about New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani — who had just officially earned the Democratic nomination on Tuesday — the president said, “A lot of people are saying he’s here illegally.”

Mamdani, 33, was born in Uganda and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2018. He defeated former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a major election upset as a self-described Democratic Socialist, which also earned Trump’s ire.

“We don’t need a communist in this country,” he said. “But if we have one, I’m going to be watching over him very carefully on behalf of the nation… We’re going to look at everything.”

Trump was also asked about Mamdani’s campaign promises to “stop masked ICE agents from deporting our neighbors.”

His response? “Well then, we’ll have to arrest him.”

Bubba is deranged, needs to be put out to pasture.

Trump Threatens to Arrest 2 Political Opponents in Same Press Conference, Hours After Entertaining Elon Musk Deportation
The president disparaged a rising political star and a former Biden Cabinet member while speaking with reporters on July 1

https://people.com/trump-threatens-arrest-2-political-opponents-in-same-press-conference-11764784

Mirror: Texas man born on U.S. Army Base abroad deported to country he’s never been to and left stateless

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A man from Texas claims that he was locked up in an ICE detention center for months before being sent to his father’s home country, where he has never been before.

A Texas man is currently stranded in Jamaica after getting deported for being born on a U.S. Army base in Germany.

Jermaine Thomas was dragged onto a deportation flight by immigration agents last week over a decade after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that he did not qualify for U.S. citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment.

Thomas was born in 1986 on a U.S. Army Base in Germany, where his Jamaican-born father had served for nearly two decades. However, the military brat says he has never visited the Caribbean island before.

Now, he is stranded there by a fluke without citizenship to any country, rendering him stateless. He is unsure how long he will be trapped there and, in the meantime, is unsure how to find employment, especially since he struggles to understand the native dialect. 

Long article, he almost got deported to Nicaragua instead of Jamaica. Click on links below to read the entire article:

Texas man born on U.S. Army Base deported to country he’s never been to
A man from Texas claims that he was locked up in an ICE detention center for months before being sent to his father’s home country, where he has never been before.

https://www.themirror.com/news/us-news/texas-man-born-us-army-1230810

NBC News: Congress set to hand Trump billions to recruit more ICE agents

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The House-passed version of the Trump budget bill includes $8 billion to hire an additional 10,000 ICE employees over five years, with millions more for signing and retention bonuses.

President Donald Trump is on the verge of getting billions of dollars from Congress to recruit and retain agents to carry out the mass deportation campaign that was one of the central promises of his campaign.

Trump has been on a roll in his efforts to combat illegal immigration and remove undocumented immigrants from the country, and both advocates and critics of his plans say that bolstering border security and interior enforcement will make it easier for him to execute on his vision.

President Donald Trump is on the verge of getting billions of dollars from Congress to recruit and retain agents to carry out the mass deportation campaign that was one of the central promises of his campaign.

Trump has been on a roll in his efforts to combat illegal immigration and remove undocumented immigrants from the country, and both advocates and critics of his plans say that bolstering border security and interior enforcement will make it easier for him to execute on his vision.

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The House-passed version includes $8 billion to hire an additional 10,000 ICE employees over five years, boosting the agency’s ranks by nearly 50%, and $858 million more for signing and retention bonuses. At full employment of 30,000 people, the money would cover about $28,600 per employee. Customs and Border Protection would get $2 billion to spread around for such bonuses to its larger workforce, which currently can range as high as $30,000 for new recruits.

Congress set to hand Trump billions to recruit more ICE agents
The House-passed version of the Trump budget bill includes $8 billion to hire an additional 10,000 ICE employees over five years, with millions more for signing and retention bonuses.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/congress-set-hand-trump-billions-recruit-ice-agents-rcna214990