Tag Archives: Mexico

Alternet: More than revenge: Here’s why Trump is really targeting his own former officials | Opinion

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During President Donald Trump’s first three months in office, his administration has targeted dozens of former officials who criticized him or opposed his agenda.

In April 2025, Trump directed the Department of Justice to investigate two men who served in his first administration, Miles Taylor and Chris Krebs, because they spoke out against his policies and corrected his false claims about the 2020 election that he lost.

Further, Trump revoked the security clearances for advisers and retired generals who publicly criticized him during the 2024 election campaign.

On their face, such moves appear to be a coordinated campaign of personal retribution. But as political science scholars who study the origins of elected strongmen, we believe Trump’s use of the Justice Department to attack former officials who stood up to him isn’t just about revenge. It also deters current officials from defying Trump.

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But to carry out a power grab, incumbent leaders also need allies who will stay silent or, better yet, endorse their attempts to consolidate control.

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Recall that Trump only left office in January 2021 because key Republican officials defied his attempts to overturn an election he lost.

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In authoritarian contexts, loyalty is not an intrinsic quality. Authoritarian leaders do not necessarily select those with whom they have long work experience that leads to mutual trust.

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Instead, the challenge for authoritarian leaders is finding people to do their bidding. And the best people for this job are those who never would have earned their position in politics without the leader’s influence.

Unqualified appointees who can’t ascend to political power based on their merits have little choice but to stick with the leader. These people appear loyal, but only because their careers are tied to the leader staying in power.

www.alternet.org
More than revenge: Here’s why Trump is really targeting his own former officials | Opinion

https://www.alternet.org/trump-revenge-2672110754

Salon: “I feel like I’ve lost my country”: Americans who oppose Trump are now looking for the exits

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As President Donald Trump ushers in his so-called “Golden Age” for the nation, some Americans are jumping ship. Yale University history professor Marci Shore is relieved to be one of them. 

She and her husband, historian Timothy Snyder, had long been on the fence about leaving the United States, Shore told Salon, with professorships at the University of Toronto available to them for at least two years should they have wished to take them. Trump’s reelection in November and the proverbial smoke before the fire in the immediate aftermath made it clear to her that now was the time to pull the trigger. 

“I felt like this country had everything right in front of them, and people chose this — a lot of people chose this, and that was heartbreaking,” she said. “And I also felt like, ‘I don’t want to come back to this.’ I don’t want to, and maybe I’m not devoted enough. Maybe I’m not enough of a patriot. But I felt like, ‘I don’t want this. I don’t want this for my kids. I don’t want this environment.'”

Shore is a part of a small but burgeoning group of Americans who have lost faith in their country since Trump’s reclaimed the presidency — who have lost hope that a good future is still possible there …

?url=httpswww.salon.com20250518i-feel-like-ive-lost-my-country-americans-oppose-are-now-looking-for-the-exits

https://www.salon.com/2025/05/18/i-feel-like-ive-lost-my-country-americans-oppose-are-now-looking-for-the-exits

Also here:

“I feel like I’ve lost my country”: Americans who oppose Trump are now looking for the exits
Professional relocation consultants say they’re fielding more calls from Americans trying to leave the country

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/i-feel-like-i-ve-lost-my-country-americans-who-oppose-trump-are-now-looking-for-the-exits/ar-AA1EZvhK

Raw Story: DHS bid to fix ‘crucial misstatement’ in court causes violation of judge’s order

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This was summed up by legal expert Roger Parloff, who said, “In correcting an earlier (crucial) misstatement about Guatemalan OCG, whom government removed to Mexico and who is now hiding in Guatemala due to fear of persecution, government inadvertently identified OCG’s name, violating court order and heightening the danger OCG’s in.”

Parloff added, “Complicated background, but OCG is a name plaintiff in the DVD class action, which is trying to prevent aliens from being removed to 3d countries without an opportunity to raise and litigate claims of fear of persecution and torture.”

DHS today is just a bunch of total f*ck*ps!

DHS bid to fix ‘crucial misstatement’ in court causes violation of judge’s order

https://www.rawstory.com/dhs-fix-crucial-misstatement-mexico

Independent: Police admit they mistakenly pulled over a college student. But she still faces deportation

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When police in Dalton, Georgia pulled over Ximena Arias-Cristobal, officers accused the 19-year-old college student of making an illegal right turn at a red light.

She told officers she didn’t have her international driver’s license on her, according to a police report, and she was taken into custody.

Then she was moved to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center roughly four hours away, and now she faces the possibility of being removed from the country along with her family.

But local police this week admitted the officers made a mistake.

After a review of dash cam footage from the traffic stop on May 5, “it was determined that Ms. Arias-Cristobal’s vehicle appeared similar to the offending vehicle but was not the vehicle that made an improper turn,” according to a statement from the Dalton Police Department.

Police and prosecutors dismissed the charges against her, but Donald Trump’s administration intends to remove her from the United States, where she has lived since she was four years old.

Arias-Cristobal’s parents did not have legal permission to enter the United States from Mexico in 2010 when she was a toddler, and she did not qualify for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which ended the year before her family entered the country, according to family friends.

Police admit they made a mistake. But she could still be deported
Ximena Arias-Cristobal remains in ICE custody despite police and prosecutors dropping charges

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/ximena-arias-cristobal-georgia-deportation-b2750397.html

Independent: White House backed down on China’s tariff after president was told they would hurt ‘Trump’s people’ the most

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Several White House staffers had to warn the president that his tariffs would impact ‘Trump’s people.’

The White House eased tariffs imposed on China after several staffers were forced to warn President Donald Trump that his penalties would cause his supporters – or “Trump’s people,” – to suffer economically, according to a report.

While Trump was reluctant to lower tariffs against Beijing too quickly, several White House staffers – including Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and other aides – warned him the penalties were placing his own supporters in danger, sources told the Washington Post.

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“The key argument was that this was beginning to hurt Trump’s supporters – Trump’s people,” one person briefed on the talks said. “It gave Susie a key window.”

White House eases China’s tariff after learning it would hurt ‘Trump’s people’ most
Several White House staffers had to warn the president that his tariffs would impact ‘Trump’s people.’

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/china-tariffs-trade-trump-friends-b2751003.html

The Nation: Don’t Be Fooled by Trump’s Loudmouth Immigration Policy

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As a candidate he promised a “massive” crackdown. But since taking office his actions, though designed to be as frightening as possible, have fallen far short of that.

A desperate family, rushing their sick child to a Texas hospital, is forced back into Mexico… And a young Salvadoran, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, becomes one of the best known of millions of migrants, receiving his Maryland senator while remaining imprisoned—uncharged, untried in the US or in his homeland.

The Trump administration has shown it is willing to test both public tolerance and long-established legal principle. It has repeatedly labeled millions of undocumented residents of the United States “terrorists” and “criminals.” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and “border czar” Tom Homan use exaggerated threats to create a country where an almost entirely law-abiding population—of construction workers, hotel cleaners, home healthcare workers—can be treated with brutality and summary justice.

Throughout his 2024 campaign, Donald Trump promised a swift and enormous federal effort to round up and deport millions of people living long-term in America. Signs calling for “Mass Deportation” were held up in cheering crowds at Trump rallies all over the country. Meeting almost no resistance or reply from Democratic candidates for high office, Republicans were able to define the battlefield, equating millions of workers, students, and homemakers scattered across American communities with cartel drug mules, rapists, and members of the notorious MS-13 gang.

Don’t Be Fooled by Trump’s Loudmouth Immigration Policy
As a candidate he promised a “massive” crackdown. But since taking office his actions, though designed to be as frightening as possible, have fallen far short of that.

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/trump-immigration-crackdown

LA Times: Authorities arrest over 100 people on Tennessee roads in support of Trump’s deportation plan

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More than 100 people have been taken into custody by federal immigration officials in a joint operation with the Tennessee Highway Patrol, leaving many in Nashville’s immigrant community uncertain and worried.

“None of us have ever seen anything like this,” Lisa Sherman Luna, executive director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, said Friday.

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But immigrant rights supporters contend that the patrols have focused on parts of the city where the majority of residents are people of color.

“All signs point to this being racial profiling intended to terrorize the heart of the immigrant and refugee community,” Sherman Luna said. “What we’ve heard is that THP is flagging people down for things like a broken taillight or tinted windows.”

Sherman Luna believes some of those being detained would be allowed to stay in the country if they were able to receive competent legal representation at an immigration hearing. Instead, she has heard that people are agreeing to be deported out of fear that they could spend months or years in immigration detention.

Authorities arrest over 100 people on Tennessee roads in support of Trump’s deportation plan
More than 100 people have been taken into custody by federal immigration officials in a joint operation with the Tennessee Highway Patrol, leaving many in Nashville’s immigrant community uncertain and worried.

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2025-05-11/authorities-arrest-over-100-people-on-tennessee-roads-in-support-of-trumps-deportation-plan

Daily Mail: Another politician’s visas revoked by Trump administration

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The petty little children in the White House have revoked the visas of the governor of Mexico’s Baja California state and her husband.

The dramatic move to revoke her and her husband’s visas comes just weeks after Pilar Avila took a trip to San Diego to promote tourism in Mexico, according to KUSI. It remains unclear what may have provoked the US State Department to suddenly revoke their visas. But the Trump administration has been cracking down on who can obtain visas in recent weeks.

Another politician stunned to discover Trump has REVOKED her visas
Marina del Pilar Avila (main) announced on Sunday that the Trump revoked her and her husband’s (together bottom) tourist visas.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14701489/Baja-California-governor-Marina-del-Pilar-Avila-husband-visas-revoked.html

Moneywise: ‘We want them back desperately’: US border communities losing millions in sales tax revenue as Canadian shoppers avoid US travel due to Trump’s tariffs and ’51st state’ rhetoric

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There’s a long-standing tradition of Canadians crossing the border to shop at outlets and malls in the U.S.

This is especially true in Erie and Niagara County, which are located near the border and feature top shopping destinations such as the Walden Galleria Mall and the Fashion Outlets of Niagara Falls.

But unfortunately, things have changed. Cars traveling across the border into the U.S. are down significantly in 2025, and counties like Erie and Niagara are paying the price through a drop in sales tax revenue.

In February and March of 2025, 35,619 fewer cars crossed the Peace Bridge that connects Canada to Buffalo, NY, compared to the number of cars that crossed the bridge during the same months in 2024. During the same period, 29,537 fewer cars crossed the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls.

So that’s about 65,000 cars of shoppers no longer shopping, per month.

‘We want them back desperately’: US border communities losing millions in sales tax revenue as Canadian shoppers avoid US travel due to Trump’s tariffs and ’51st state’ rhetoric
Did Trump take it a bridge too far?

https://moneywise.com/news/we-want-them-back-desperately-us-border-communities-losing-millions-in-sales-tax-revenue-as-canadian-shoppers-avoid-us-travel-due-to-trumps-tariffs-and-51st-state-rhetoric

CNBC: Trump administration ‘looking at’ suspending habeas corpus for migrants, Stephen [“Goebbels”] Miller says

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  • Senior White House advisor Stephen [“Goebbels”] Miller said that the Trump administration is “actively looking at” suspending the writ of habeas corpus, the right to challenge a person’s detention by the government, for migrants.
  • [“Goebbels”] Miller was answering a reporter who asked about President Donald Trump entertaining the idea of suspending the writ to deal with illegal immigration into the United States.
  • The writ has only been suspended four times since the U.S. Constitution was adopted, and in all but one case, Congress first authorized that action.
  • [“Goebbels”] Miller spoke hours after a federal judge in Vermont ordered the release of Tufts University student Rumeysa Öztürk from the custody of U.S. immigration authorities. She had challenged her detention with a habeas writ.

White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen [“Goebbels”] Miller said Friday that the Trump administration is “actively looking at” suspending the writ of habeas corpus — the constitutional right to challenge in court the legality of a person’s detention by the government — for migrants.

[“Goebbels”] Miller’s comment came in response to a White House reporter who asked about President Donald Trump entertaining the idea of suspending the writ to deal with the problem of illegal immigration into the United States.

Asked when that might happen, [“Goebbels”] Miller responded: “The Constitution is clear, and that, of course, is the supreme law of the land, that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in time of invasion.”

“So, I would say that’s an option we’re actively looking at,” he said.

This comes a day or two after the release of Rumeysa Öztürk, who was detained for 45 days by ICE for writing an op-ed column in a newspaper, never charged with nor convicted of any crime:

[“Goebbels”] Miller spoke hours after a federal judge in Vermont ordered the release of Tufts University student Rumeysa Öztürk from the custody of U.S. immigration authorities.

Öztürk, who had been imprisoned for 45 days after the Trump administration revoked the Turkish citizen’s student visa based on an assessment that she “may undermine U.S. foreign policy by crearting a hostile environment for Jewish students and indicating support for a designated terrorist organization.”

Öztürk challenged her detention with a petition for writ of habeas corpus, which noted that she “has not been charged with any crime,” and which argued that her “arrest and detention are designed to punish her speech and chill the speech of others.”

Trump administration ‘looking at’ suspending habeas corpus for migrants, Stephen Miller says
Multiple court cases challenging the Trump administrations effort to deport undocumented immigrants from the U.S. are based on habeas claims.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/09/trump-deportation-habeas-corpus-miller.html