Tag Archives: Texas

Newsweek: Mom in US for 22 years detained by ICE despite ongoing visa application

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A Georgia mother of three who has lived in the United States for more than two decades was taken into custody by federal agents on April 13, just a few blocks from her family’s home.

“She was a major part of our family, she did a lot for all of us, and it feels like our world has been thrown off its axle,” Guillermo Chavarria, 25, the oldest son of Jessica Flores Marin, 44, told Newsweek.

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Flores Marin entered the U.S. with Guillermo in 2003 through Texas. While Guillermo qualified for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which granted him temporary protection from deportation, his mother remained undocumented. Despite this, she built a life in the U.S., paying taxes and eventually buying the family’s first home in 2014.

In December, she began the application process for a T visa, which protects victims of certain crimes who cooperate with law enforcement. Her unexpected detention occurred while the family was gathering paperwork for her case.

Mom in US for 22 years detained by ICE despite ongoing visa application
Jessica Flores Marin, 44, was taken into custody by federal agents on April 13, just a few blocks from her family’s home.

https://www.newsweek.com/jessica-flores-marin-detained-ice-visa-immigration-2078460

Latin Times: Venezuelans Deported To El Salvador Are Getting Cases Dismissed And Advocates Say It’s To ‘Complete Their Disappearance’

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At least 14 cases have reportedly taken place over the past weeks

Venezuelans deported to El Salvador are increasingly seeing their cases dismissed, a development advocates claim is a way to complete their “disappearance” from the U.S. legal system and further complicate their return from imprisonment in the Central American country.

NBC News reported that at least 14 asylum cases have been dismissed over the past weeks. “It seems the government’s intention in dismissing these cases across the country is to complete the disappearance of people to El Salvador, to end their legal proceedings, and to act as though they weren’t here seeking asylum in the first place,” Lindsay Toczylowski, executive director of Immigrant Defenders Law Center, told the outlet. She is representing Andry Hernandez Romero, who was involved in such a case before being sent to the CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador.

Venezuelans Deported To El Salvador Are Getting Cases Dismissed And Advocates Say It’s To ‘Complete Their Disappearance’
At least 14 migrants deported to El Salvador have seen their asylum cases dismissed in the U.S. Advocates say the goal is completing their “disappearance” of the country’s legal system

https://www.latintimes.com/venezuelans-deported-el-salvador-are-getting-cases-dismissed-advocates-say-its-complete-their-583953

Daily Mail: America’s energy revolution goes from boom to bust after Trump’s tariffs and sneaky move by Saudi Arabia

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Oil bosses have warned that America’s energy boom is over, as Trump’s tariffs raise production costs and crude prices fall thanks to an increase in production from Saudi Arabia.  

The shale revolution of the last few years delivered huge volumes of cheap oil and gas that powered the US economy and broke dependence on foreign imports from places such as Iran, Russia and Venezuela.  

Production hit record highs under President Joe Biden, but is now falling under Trump.

The situation presents a direct contradiction to the President’s pledges to ‘drill baby drill’ and assert America’s ‘energy dominance.’ 

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‘Saudi is trying to regain market share and they’ll probably get it over the next five years,’ Sheffield explained. 

America’s energy revolution goes from boom to bust after Trump’s tariffs and sneaky move by Saudi Arabia

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/article-14757637/america-shale-boom-bust-trump-tariffs-opec.html

Deadline: Paramount Offers Millions To Trump To End $20B ’60 Minutes’ Suit & Let Skydance Merger Go Through

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Donald Trump and Paramount don’t have a deal yet to settle POTUS’ months old $20 billion 60 Minutes lawsuit, but the Shari Redstone ruled media company has put some serious millions on the table in the hopes to make this roadblock to a merger with Skydance disappear.

“It’s very early days,” a source close to talks between Trump’s lawyers and Paramount’s attorneys and execs tells Deadline. “An opening offer has been made, but more negotiations are underway,” the source confirmed, but would not go into specifics beyond saying “right now, it’s an eight-figure discussion.”

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Earlier today, The Wall Street Journal reported that Paramount has offered $15 million, but Trump’s team wanted $25 million and an apology from CBS News. When asked by Deadline if the $15 million number that the WSJ reported today plus Trump’s team rejection and threat of a new suit was accurate, another individual with knowledge of the mediation replied, “sounds about right, as where things are at.”

The corruption and shakedown from the Oval Office continues unabated.

Paramount Offers Millions To Trump To End $20B ‘60 Minutes’ Suit & Let Skydance Merger Go Through
They don’t have a deal yet, but Donald Trump is weighing the millions Shari Redstone & Paramount are willing to give him to make his 60 Minutes suit go away

https://deadline.com/2025/05/trump-paramount-settlement-offer-1236412894

Talking Points Memo: The ‘Invasion’ Invention: The Far Right’s Long Legal Battle to Make Immigrants the Enemy

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The Trump administration is using the claim that immigrants have “invaded” the country to justify possibly suspending habeas corpus, part of the constitutional right to due process. A faction of the far right has been building this case for years.

When top Trump adviser Stephen Miller threatened on May 9 that the administration is “actively looking at” suspending habeas corpus in response to an “invasion” from undocumented immigrants, he was operating on a fringe legal theory that a right-wing faction has been working to legitimize for more than a decade.

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Hard-liners have referred to immigrants as “invaders” as long as the U.S. has had immigration. By 2022, invasion rhetoric, which had previously been relegated to white nationalist circles, had become such a staple of Republican campaign ads that most of the public agreed an invasion of the U.S. via the southern border was underway.

Now, however, the claim that the U.S. is under invasion has become the legal linchpin of President Donald Trump’s sweeping anti-immigrant campaign.

The claim is Trump’s central justification for invoking the Alien Enemies Act to deport roughly 140 Venezuelans to CECOT, the Salvadoran megaprison, without due process. (The administration cited different legal authority for the remaining deportees.) The Trump administration contends they are members of a gang, Tren de Aragua, that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is directing to infiltrate and operate in the United States. Lawyers and families of many of the deportees have presented evidence the prisoners are not even members of Tren de Aragua.

The contention is also the throughline of Trump’s day one executive order “Protecting the American People Against Invasion.” That document calls for the expansion of immigration removal proceedings without court hearings and for legal attacks against sanctuary jurisdictions, places that refuse to commit local resources to immigration enforcement.

So far, no court has bought the idea that the U.S. is truly under invasion….

And therein lies the problem: The Trump regime is off pursuing an unconstitutional tangent to solve a problem that is improperly framed as an “invasion”.

It’s a long well-researched article. Please click on the link below and read the entire article.

The ‘Invasion’ Invention: The Far Right’s Long Legal Battle to Make Immigrants the Enemy
This article first appeared at ProPublica, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign…

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/the-invasion-invention-the-far-rights-long-legal-battle-to-make-immigrants-the-enemy

Sacramento Bee: More Than 80 Student Arrests at Columbia University

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Columbia University has faced major repercussions following protests by anti-Israel activists that led to over 80 student arrests. The New York Police Department responded quickly to the university’s request for assistance amid scrutiny from the federal government and substantial funding cuts under President Donald Trump. The campus atmosphere has reportedly shifted dramatically, with many students hesitant to engage in political debate.

Following the protest, students hurried through security checkpoints, avoiding expressions of opinion. Some voiced concerns about discussing sensitive topics due to potential repercussions from university authorities.

Criticism of the university’s response has emerged from within the community, with some arguing that its actions align too closely with the demands of Trump. The rapid police intervention contrasted sharply with NYPD’s previous attempts to engage with student activists.

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Some students have expressed uncertainty about navigating academic responsibilities alongside personal beliefs. As Columbia navigates the challenges, contrasting responses from Harvard University have complicated the matter.

Harvard is setting the example. Columbia’s current administrators are a bunch of wusses sucking up to our wannabe dictator.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/more-than-80-student-arrests-at-columbia-university/ss-AA1FmOl5

Newsweek: Proposal may ban some green card holders from owning land throughout state

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King told Newsweek that “this is about protecting our obligation to keep our power stations, water treatment plants, and gas lines safe from surveillance and espionage.” It seeks to do so byprohibiting noncitizens from designated “foreign adversaries,” including China, Russia, and Iran, among others, from owning land within 25 miles of “critical infrastructure.”

Designating “foreign adversaries” would seem to be a federal power, not permitted to individual states.

The bill exempts American citizens or those with dual citizenship from the ban. The Senate counterpart bill notes that impacted individuals would have to sell and divest their property within two years.

Under the bills, county sheriffs would be responsible for enforcing the new restrictions. If the legislation passes, individuals subject to the prohibition would be required to sell restricted property within two years.

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Xiang Zhang, a professor of genomics at the University of Cincinnati, said at a hearing on Tuesday, as reported by the South China Morning Post: “I never thought that one day, I would have to stand here in front of you to defend myself solely because of my nationality. I never thought that one day, I would lose my house in Ohio solely because of my nationality.”

Proposal may ban some green card holders from owning land throughout state
An Ohio legislative proposal aims to restrict certain property ownership.

https://www.newsweek.com/proposal-may-ban-some-green-card-holders-owning-land-2076488

Associated Press: Trump administration releases people to shelters it threatened to prosecute for aiding migrants

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The Trump administration has continued releasing people charged with being in the country illegally to nongovernmental shelters along the U.S.-Mexico border after telling those organizations that providing migrants with temporary housing and other aid may violate a law used to prosecute smugglers.Here's The Average Price of a 6-Hour Gutter Upgrade in Minneapolis

Border shelters, which have long provided lodging, meals and transportation to the nearest bus station or airport, were rattled by a letter from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that raised “significant concerns” about potentially illegal activity and demanded detailed information in a wide-ranging investigation. FEMA suggested shelters may have committed felony offenses against bringing people across the border illegally or transporting them within the United States.

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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement continued to ask shelters in Texas and Arizona to house people even after the March 11 letter, putting them in the awkward position of doing something that FEMA appeared to say might be illegal. Both agencies are part of the Department of Homeland Security.

Trump administration releases people to shelters it threatened to prosecute for aiding migrants
The Trump administration has been releasing people charged with being in the country illegally to nongovernmental shelters along the U.S. border with Mexico after telling those organizations that providing migrants with temporary housing and other aid may violate a law used to prosecute smugglers.

https://apnews.com/article/border-shelters-laredo-phoenix-trump-releases-afc2f4d2ca786161e7bb4b03f54033fa

Washington Post: Immigrant-detention officer charged with choking handcuffed migrant

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Charles Siringi

A private security officer at an immigrant detention center in Texas was criminally charged last week with choking a handcuffed detainee, who was later transported to the facility’s medical unit.

Charles Siringi is accused of putting his hands around the detainee’s neck and throat and slamming him against walls March 31 in Conroe, Texas, according to a criminal complaint.

Siringi, 66, was charged in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas with deprivation of rights while acting under the government’s authority, resulting in bodily injury. He posted a $10,000 bail Tuesday.

Houston Chronicle: Foreign Texas A&M student’s arrest and immigration hold leads to questions of legality

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A Texas A&M University student with Chinese citizenship faces a federal firearms charge and an immigration hold just a month after the U.S. reinstated student visas for him and more than 1,000 other international students amid an outcry over their terminations.

Liluyue Xu’s case is complicated by the alleged involvement of his potential future father-in-law, a Texas Department of Public Safety official who apparently triggered the chain of events that led to his arrest, Xu’s attorneys said. A DPS agent was the first to send a tip to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in February, saying he suspected Xu of illegally possessing weapons and selling steroids, according to court documents.

Sounds like his girlfriend’s family ratted him out!

Dude, you might want to think twice about marrying into that family. 😀

Foreign Texas A&M student faces federal weapons charge and immigration hold
Liluyue Xu’s case is complicated by the alleged involvement of his potential future father-in-law, a Texas DPS official.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/education/article/texas-am-student-china-charge-20342850.php