Tag Archives: President Donald Trump

CNN: US did not use bunker-buster bombs on one of Iran’s nuclear sites, top general tells lawmakers, citing depth of the target

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The US military did not use bunker-buster bombs on one of Iran’s largest nuclear sites last weekend because the site is so deep that the bombs likely would not have been effective, the US’ top general told senators during a briefing on Thursday.

The comment by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, which was described by three people who heard his remarks and a fourth who was briefed on them, is the first known explanation given for why the US military did not use the Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb against the Isfahan site in central Iran. US officials believe Isfahan’s underground structures house nearly 60% of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile, which Iran would need in order to ever produce a nuclear weapon.

US B2 bombers dropped over a dozen bunker-buster bombs on Iran’s Fordow and Natanz nuclear sites. But Isfahan was only struck by Tomahawk missiles launched from a US submarine.

So what we heard from King Donald was largely lies and hot air — par for the course.

US’ top general tells lawmakers | CNN Politics
The US military did not use bunker-buster bombs on one of Iran’s largest nuclear sites last weekend because the site is so deep that the bombs likely would not have been effective, the US’ top general told senators during a briefing on Thursday.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/27/politics/bunker-buster-bomb-isfahan-iran

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.

…

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

Insider: Gavin Newsom demanded $787M from Fox News in his defamation lawsuit. The number isn’t a coincidence.

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  • Gavin Newsom alleges Fox News defamed him by misrepresenting a call with Trump.
  • He asked for $787 million in damages, echoing the amount Fox News paid to settle Dominion’s lawsuit.
  • Newsom’s lawsuit also cites a defamation suit Trump filed against CBS.

Newsom alleges Fox News defamed him by calling him a liar when he denied speaking with President Donald Trump on June 9.

Around that time, Trump had sent National Guard troops to Los Angeles over Newsom’s objections. Demonstrators had held protests around the city in opposition to the president’s immigration policies.

At a press conference on June 10, Trump said he spoke to Newsom “a day ago.”

In fact, Newsom says, they spoke for 16 minutes around midnight on June 7 Eastern time (or June 6 Pacific time), the day Trump first sent the troops.

Newsom posted phone records on social media showing the timing of their call. But his lawsuit says Fox News host John Roberts misled readers about the timing in his own social media posts, anyway. The lawsuit also says Jesse Watters, a Fox opinion host, falsely called him a liar.

“Why would Newsom lie and claim Trump never called him? Why would he do that?” Watters said, according to the suit.

The chyron on the screen at the time read “Gavin lied about Trump’s call,” the lawsuit says.

Gavin Newsom demanded $787M from Fox News in his defamation lawsuit. The number isn’t a coincidence.
The California governor’s lawsuit against Fox News cites its settlement with Dominion, as well as Donald Trump’s case against CBS.

https://www.businessinsider.com/gavin-newsom-lawsuit-fox-news-cites-dominion-trump-2025-6

Newsweek: Are ICE agents using facial recognition phone app? What we know

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Immigration agents have been given access to a facial recognition app to identify people in the field, according to leaked emails.

The emails, exchanged between Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) staff and contractors, allow officers to instantly compare biometrics like faces and fingerprints against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) databases, according to 404 Media.

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The emails say that the biometric tool is best used “to identify unknown subjects in the field,” which, along with the contributions from staff at Enforcement and Removal Operations, suggests that it is being used in the Trump administration’s attempts to ramp up the removal of migrants without legal status.

Are ICE agents using facial recognition phone app? What we know
One former ICE agent, who requested anonymity due to concerns about repercussions, told Newsweek ICE has always had that tech.

https://www.newsweek.com/ice-face-recognition-app-deportations-phone-immigration-2091619

Newsweek: Families face $2,150 bill from Trump’s immigration policies—Study

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Families could see their annual expenses rise by $2,150 due to President Donald Trump‘s hardline deportation policies, according to a new report by FWD.us.

The additional costs stem from stricter rules, including work permit cancellations, mass deportations, and reduced legal immigration, which are expected to drive up prices for everyday goods and services nationwide.

Families face $2,150 bill from Trump’s immigration policies—Study
An expert told Newsweek that removing immigrant workers leads to shortages in goods and services, which pushes prices higher.

https://www.newsweek.com/prices-rising-trump-immigration-policies-2091532

Reason: How DHS Facial Recognition Tech Spread to ICE Enforcement

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More government agencies are using facial recognition for enforcement than ever before.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is using a smartphone app to identify people based on an image of their fingerprints or face, 404 Media reported Thursday, based on a review of internal ICE emails. The expanding and repurposing of this sophisticated technology, ordinarily used by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) when people are entering or exiting the country, is now being used on people living in the United States to meet mass deportation and arrest quotas imposed by President Donald Trump.

The app, Mobile Fortify, enables users to verify an unknown person’s identity in the field through contactless fingerprints and facial images on ICE-issued phones, according to an email sent to all ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations personnel and obtained by 404. According to the emails, Mobile Fortify can identify a person by comparing a photo of their face across two databases—Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Traveler Verification Service database of people’s photos taken when entering the United States, and Seizure and Apprehension Workflow, described by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as an “intelligence aggregator” that brings together information related to searches and seizures. For fingerprint matches, the app uses DHS’s centralized Automated Biometric Identification System, which “holds more than 320 million unique identities and processes more than 400,000 biometric transactions per day,” according to the agency.

A report released by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in September 2024 attempted to call attention to concerns about accuracy, oversight, transparency, discrimination, and access to justice as facial recognition tools have quickly proliferated. Although facial recognition technology is now available to the public through commercially available tools, policies governing the federal government’s use of the technology have lagged behind real-world applications. Currently, there are no comprehensive laws regulating the federal government’s use of facial recognition technology and no constitutional provisions governing its use.

“Face recognition technology is notoriously unreliable, frequently generating false matches and resulting in a number of known wrongful arrests across the country. Immigration agents relying on this technology to try to identify people on the street is a recipe for disaster,” Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, told 404 Media. “Congress has never authorized DHS to use face recognition technology in this way, and the agency should shut this dangerous experiment down.“

How DHS facial recognition tech spread to ICE enforcement
Facial recognition technology, originally developed for border crossings, has been expanded to help drive mass deportation efforts.

https://reason.com/2025/06/27/how-dhs-facial-recognition-tech-spread-to-ice-enforcement

Newsweek: Green card-holder with 2 US citizen kids held by ICE for over two months

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Claudio Cortez-Herrera, a green card holder from Mexico who has lived in the U.S. for more than two decades and has two U.S. citizen children, has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials for over two months.

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Cortez-Herrera, 34, has been in the U.S. for over two decades, his fiancee Leticia Ortiz Lopez wrote in an online fundraiser seeking financial assistance for legal fees and child support. He is the father of their two U.S. citizen children, a 2-year-old daughter and a 5-year-old son with autism.

She told local outlet 13 On Your Side that he was on his way to work and “putting in the house payment across the street at the drop box post office, when he got surrounded by 10 ICE agents, and he was taken.”

ICE confirmed in a Facebook post that Cortez-Herrera was arrested by Detroit-based immigration officials on April 23. Newsweek confirmed in the ICE detainee database that he is still in custody, held at the Calhoun County Correctional Center in Battle Creek, Michigan.

In the Facebook post, ICE noted Cortez-Herrera’s previous criminal record, writing, “Convicted in New Castle, Del [Delaware],” noting that his conviction was for “Planning first-degree arson & first-degree reckless endangering.”

Newsweek has been unable to independently verify the conviction.

His wife said in the GoFundMe: “Over 20 years ago, as a teen, he made a mistake. He took responsibility and left that life behind.”

Green card-holder with 2 US citizen kids held by ICE for over two months
Claudio Cortez-Herrera, who has been in the U.S. for decades but served seven months on a racketeering charge as a teen, has been detained by ICE.

https://www.newsweek.com/green-card-holder-2-us-citizen-kids-held-ice-over-two-months-2091660

Alternet: ‘Impossible to cover up’: Trump press conference seen as ‘clear sign of cognitive decline’

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President Donald Trump seemed to stumble when responding to a reporter’s question during a press conference in Florida on Tuesday, where he had traveled for the opening of “Alligator Alcatraz,” a controversial detention facility designed to accommodate migrants.

When asked how long detainees are expected to remain at the detention center, the president replied, “I’m gonna spend a lot. This is my home state. I love it. I’ll spend a lot of time here,” sidestepping the actual question.

The president’s unexpected answer sparked concern, prompting political commentators to question his cognitive well-being.

Journalist Mike Rothschild said: “He’s obviously losing his cognition and coherence in a way that’s becoming impossible to cover up or work around. And the more he declines, the more his sycophants prop him up as doing ‘better than ever.’ It’s an unsustainable situation that could easily end in chaos.”

MSNBC contributor Rotimi Adeoye said: “Clear sign of cognitive decline here.”

‘Impossible to cover up’: Trump press conference seen as ‘clear sign of cognitive decline’

https://www.alternet.org/trump-florida-migrants

ABC News: Trump administration expediting fines for those in the US illegally: Exclusive

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New rule will eliminate the 30-day warning period before fines begin.

The Trump administration is looking to speed up its ability to fine those in the United States illegally — up to $1,000 per day — according to a rule set to be published Friday in the Federal Register that was obtained by ABC News.

Currently, the government can alert those in the U.S. illegally 30 days before it starts issuing fines.

The rule proposed by the departments of Justice and Homeland Security allows the government to immediately start fining those in the U.S. illegally.

Trump administration eliminating warning period for fining those in the US illegally: Exclusive
Trump administration to speed up fines for those in the U.S. illegally — up to $1,000 per day — according to rule to be published Friday in the Federal Register.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-administration-eliminating-warning-period-fining-us-illegally/story?id=123249981

Latin Times: Mass Deportations of Undocumented Immigrants Could Cost California $275 Billion, Study Finds

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According to the study, 2.28 million immigrants living in California are undocumented; they make up nearly 8% of the state’s workforce

Earlier this month, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released a statement in which it said the agency had arrested more than 66,000 undocumented immigrants as well as deported an additional 65,682 people during the first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s second term.

ICE’s stepped-up enforcement has focused heavily on sanctuary cities, including Los Angeles, as the administration seeks to meet its stated target of 3,000 deportations per day.

As immigration enforcement actions intensify, a new study by the University of California, Merced warns that mass deportations could cause serious damage to the state’s economy. The report estimates that removing California’s undocumented immigrant population would result in a $275 billion economic hit and a loss of $23 billion annually in local, state and federal tax revenue.

Mass Deportations of Undocumented Immigrants Could Cost California $275 Billion, Study Finds
A new study by the University of California, Merced warns that mass deportations could cause serious damage to the state’s economy.

https://www.latintimes.com/mass-deportations-undocumented-immigrants-could-cost-california-275-billion-study-finds-585491