Slate: Trump Promises to Keep Terrorizing Blue Cities. It Might Come Back to Haunt Him.

Donald Trump won the presidency in part on promises to deport immigrants who have criminal records and lack permanent legal status. But his earliest executive orders—trying to undo birthright citizenship, suspending critical refugee programs—made clear he wants to attack immigrants with permanent legal status too. In our series Who Gets to Be American This Week?, we’ll track the Trump administration’s attempts to exclude an ever-growing number of people from the American experiment.

President Donald Trump’s immigration raids have disrupted life in Los Angeles in a way the mayor is comparing to COVID; they’ve created a climate of fear that’s driving people into hiding and hurting local businesses. This week, the president promised to expand those raids in blue cities, all in a futile attempt to hit 1 million deportations by the end of the year. After suggesting last week that ICE would stop targeting the agriculture and hotel industries, which disproportionately rely on immigrant labor, the administration also walked back that guidance.

And a troubling trend is emerging: As Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts get more aggressive and reckless, several elected officials who attempted to conduct oversight or question what is being done have been arrested.

“Overwhelmingly, Americans do not want ICE raids that focus on those without criminal records. That’s why polls show that Trump is losing voter approval on these key issues,” Mukherjee said.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/06/donald-trump-brad-lander-ice-raid-los-angeles.html

Alternate: ‘MAGA hates Fox News’: Trump goes on Truth Social rampage against ‘crooked’ network

President Donald Trump is known for watching Fox News constantly in the White House, but at times, he accuses the right-wing cable news outlet and its sister channel, Fox Business, of not supporting him enough. And in a Thursday morning, June 19 post on his Truth Social platform, Trump claimed that Fox News distorted the results of the 2024 presidential election.

“The Crooked FoxNews Polls got the Election WRONG, I won by much more than they said I would, and have been biased against me for years,” Trump posted. “They are always wrong and negative. It’s why MAGA HATES FoxNews, even though their anchors are GREAT. This has gone on for years, but they never change the incompetent polling company that does their work. Now a new FoxNews poll comes out this morning giving me a little more than 50% at the Border, and yet the Border is miraculously perfect, NOBODY WAS ABLE TO COME IN LAST MONTH.”

Trump continued, “60,000 people came in with Sleepy Joe in the same month last year. I hate FAKE pollsters, one of the Worst, but Fox will never change their discredited pollster!”

Definitely deranged!

https://www.alternet.org/trump-fox-news-truth-social

Axios: Trump’s border czar: Immigration raids at farms, hotels to continue

Following a week of immigration whiplash, President Trump’s border czar Tom Homan confirmed Thursday that immigration raids will continue in the agriculture and hospitality industries.

While workers at places like farms, restaurants and hotels will be targeted, people with criminal backgrounds will be a priority for immigration enforcement officials, the border czar said.

Criminals will be a priority? That’s just lip service. All they care about are the numbers.

“We’re going to continue to do worksite enforcement operations, even on farms and hotels, but based on a prioritized basis. Criminals come first,” Homan told reporters.

https://www.axios.com/2025/06/19/trump-immigration-raids-farms-hotels-border-czar

Alternet: ‘Ineffective security theater’: Lawmaker blasts Kristi Noem ahead of Michigan visit

Michigan state senator Mallory McMorrow (D) strongly criticized Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem Thursday ahead of Noem’s visit to Michigan.

“Kristi Noem is headed to Michigan to fearmonger about border security with… Canada,” Mallory said on the social platform X.

“The Trump administration’s mass deportation boondoggle is nothing but security theater that actually make us LESS safe,” she added.

McMorrow continued: “All to the tune of an additional $1 TRILLION in your taxpayer dollars.”

In a video attached to her X post, the Michigan lawmaker said immigrants are being arrested even when they show up to their court hearings and try to follow the legal pathway to immigration. She called Noem’s immigration actions “ineffective security theater.”

McMorrow accused the Trump administration of going after people “who have committed no egregious crimes” “Like an 18-year-old student just three credits away from high school graduation here in Michigan,” she added.

On Wednesday, NBC reported that seven Senate Democrats who supported Noem’s confirmation as DHS secretary in January are now expressing regret and disillusionment with her performance.

https://www.alternet.org/kristi-noem-michigan

Washington Examiner: ICE sweeping up ‘essential workers’ as raids spread nationwide

Illegal immigrant workers in the agriculture and hospitality industries continue to be targeted for arrest by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement following President Donald Trump’s recent decision not to exempt them from his deportation operation.

On Monday, 84 workers who lack legal immigration status were arrested at a southwest Louisiana racetrack, the agency announced Wednesday.

Fourteen farmworkers who work for Lynn-Ette & Sons in upstate New York’s Orleans County were taken into custody by federal immigration authorities last Friday as the White House mulled over whether to target working immigrants or focus on criminals.

The United Farm Workers union told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday that it has recently identified workers in Georgia, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington who were arrested or deported, going beyond the known arrests in California, New Mexico, and Nebraska reported last week.

Rebecca Shi, CEO for the American Business Immigration Coalition, said ICE raids are being reported “across red, blue, and purple states alike.”

“We’ve heard growing concern from our members across multiple sectors,” Shi said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “What we’re seeing is a pattern of sudden, chaotic raids that don’t appear to be narrowly focused on dangerous individuals. Instead, they’re sweeping up essential workers who are doing critical jobs and contributing to their communities.”

Alternet: ‘Embarrassing boondoggle’: Trump’s ‘big beautiful wall’ is now on life support in Texas

Long before President Donald Trump pushed the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act of 2025, he called for a “big, beautiful wall” on the U.S./Mexico border. And of the four U.S. states that shared a border with Mexico, GOP-leaning Texas had the loudest and most vocal support for the wall.

But MSNBC’s Ja’han Jones, in his June 19 column, stresses that Trump’s “big, beautiful wall” now seems to be on life support in the Lone Star State.

“Texas appears to have quietly stopped funding its plans to construct its own border wall with Mexico, which could mark the end of an embarrassing boondoggle designed to bolster one of President Donald Trump’s early campaign slogans,” Jones explains. “For years, conservatives have framed the idea of a border wall as essential to immigration enforcement, despite a chorus of critics denouncing it as costly and ineffective. And Texas Republicans’ decision to defund the project seems like a tacit acknowledgment of that reality.”

https://www.alternet.org/trump-border-wall-texas-msnbc

MSNBC: Maddow Blog | Eager for influence, Trump rejects evidence, claims his support is at ‘an all-time high’

When American presidents are struggling with their public support, they have plenty of credible choices. They can say they’re focused on governing, not polls. They can say they expect to see a turnaround in the near future. They can say that the only polls that matter are election results. They can even argue that they care more about being right than being popular.

What they should not do is make stuff up.

And yet, there was Donald Trump on Tuesday, arguing by way of his social media platform that his approval rating has reached “an all-time high.” The next morning, at a White House event, the Republican echoed the line, claiming that his approval rating is now “the highest it’s ever been.”

It’s really not.

Reminds me of Muammar “My People Love Me” Gaddafi’s last words!

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/eager-influence-trump-rejects-evidence-claims-support-time-high-rcna213952

Alternet: Karoline [Bimbo #1] Leavitt ‘rushes to soothe’ Trump as he rages over new polling

President Donald Trump exploded over a new Fox News poll showing him upside down on approval. The poll — likely to connect with Fox-viewing Trump — reported 46 percent overall approval for his job performance as president and 54 percent disapproving.

Trump blasted the survey on Truth Social: “They are always wrong and anegative. It’s why MAGA HATES FoxNews … . This has gone on for years, but they never change the incompetent polling company that does their work.”

Aww … poor crybaby narcissist!

https://www.alternet.org/news-politics/donald-trump-polling-fox-news

Newsweek: Republicans kidnap Latina girlfriend in new democratic ad

A pro-Democrat PAC has released an ad showing a fictional Republican lawmaker and masked men kidnapping an American citizen while on a date with her boyfriend.

The latest ad, released on Wednesday, features a white man and a Latina woman on a date. Masked men grab the screaming woman as a Republican congressman tells her boyfriend that “she’s coming with us.” He says that they’re taking her to a prison in El Salvador.

When the man protests that “she was born here, she’s a citizen,” the lawmaker replies, “I don’t care, she looks like one of them.” The ad closes with a quote from President Donald Trump, which reads: “The homegrowns are next.”

The quote was from a conversation Trump had with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele in April about the possibility of jailing U.S. citizens.

https://www.newsweek.com/democrat-ad-republican-kidnaps-girlfriend-ice-2087974

Alternet: ‘Dangerous moment’: Analyst says Trump deliberately leaving former aides ‘unshielded’

President Donald Trump’s decision to strip security protections from his own former officials has left them dangerously exposed at a time of escalating global conflict and political violence in the United States, The Bulwark’s Will Saletan argued in a piece published Thursday.

According to Saletan, the convergence of foreign assassination plots and domestic political attacks is not coincidental — and Trump’s policies have made the moment even more perilous. “We’re in a dangerous moment,” he said.

“These two challenges aren’t unrelated,” Saletan wrote. “They’ve converged before. They might do so again.”

https://www.alternet.org/trump-aides-threats