Tag Archives: Texas

Real Clear Politics: Sen. Alex Padilla: If ICE Agents Don’t Have To ID Themselves, Why Wouldn’t You Think You’re Being Kidnapped?

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California Democrat Sen. Alex Padilla, in response to a question about a group arrested for planning to attack an ICE facility in Texas, told CNN this morning: “I do have concern when there are no requirements for ICE agents or other federal agents involved with the immigration enforcement actions to not even identify themselves.”

“If you’re a member of a working-class immigrant community, and you see unmarked cars roll into your community, people getting out of those cars with no identifiers that they are law enforcement, and literally not just detaining, in your mind, maybe kidnapping,” he warned.

DANA BASH, CNN: Officials are looking for a suspect who appeared to fire a gun at a federal agent during a raid. A few days before that, 10 people were arrested after opening fire outside an immigration detention facility in Texas, injuring a police officer. Authorities say it was a planned ambush.

Earlier this week, a man with a rifle in tactical gear was shot dead after firing at Texas Border Patrol, at least the facility. Are you worried that heated rhetoric around this and around the policies are actually putting law enforcement agents at risk?

SEN. ALEX PADILLA: First, let me just denounce any violence. Any violence against law enforcement is unacceptable.

Do I think heated rhetoric is part of what’s causing this response? Sadly, yes. And we have seen this administration escalate and escalate and escalate in all ways and matters, whether it’s the tactics of — with which they’re going about immigration enforcement. There’s a smarter, more effective way to do this than what they’re doing.

BASH: Well, they say that it’s the Democrats’ rhetoric, some calling ICE agents secret police, comparing them to the Gestapo.

PADILLA: Well, I wouldn’t use those words, but I do have concern when there are no requirements for ICE agents or other federal agents involved with the immigration enforcement actions to not even identify themselves.

I mean, if you’re a member of a working-class immigrant community, and you see unmarked cars roll into your community, people getting out of those cars with no identifiers that they are law enforcement, and literally not just detaining, in your mind, maybe kidnapping.

So that’s why Senator Booker and I have this bill to require that identification for ICE agents or anybody involved with immigration enforcement. It’s for the safety of the officers and agents, as well as safety for the community… and to protect against people exploiting the circumstances, impersonating ICE agents and getting involved with burglary, theft, kidnapping, sexual assault and worse.

BASH: The president, as you know, says that they wear masks to protect their own identity from people who want to go after law enforcement.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2025/07/13/sen_alex_padilla_if_ice_agents_dont_have_to_id_themselves_why_wouldnt_you_think_youre_being_kidnapped.html

Alternet: A cult leader shows how Trump is taking America to a very dark place

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Former FBI agent Michael Fienberg has gone public, pointing out that the agency, under the leadership of Dan Bongino and Kash Patel, is purging itself of people who are not members of the Trump cult (my phrase, not his).

Similar cult-like behavior is on vivid display with the White House press secretary, the head of DHS, and the head of the Department of Justice — among numerous other administration officials and elected Republicans — regularly spouting lies and half-truths that target women, immigrants, and Democrats.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is implying that the children who died in the Texas floods were the victims of a nefarious plot — presumably by Democrats or Jews who operate space lasers — to modify the weather, completely ignoring the fact that Republican-aligned fossil fuel billionaires have been engaged in a half-century-long scheme to sabotage our atmosphere with their carbon dioxide emissions in exchange for trillions of dollars in profits. Some of which, no doubt, have been shared with Greene or her campaign.

Multiple administration officials, elected Republicans, and rightwing media cult leaders on platforms like Fox “News” have been amplifying the racist, antisemitic “Great Replacement Theory,” that wealthy Jews are paying to “replace” white people in America with Blacks, Mexicans, and other people of color. This has led to ICE becoming the largest police force in America, with a budget larger than that of the entire Russian military, soon to be sweeping a neighborhood near you in their never-ending hunt for brown-skinned people.

Donald Trump didn’t need to lure his followers into a remote jungle, like Jim Jones did in Guyana. He didn’t need to physically isolate them from the rest of the world. Instead, Trump built his Jonestown right here at home, within the boundaries of our republic, brick by brick. He did it using over 30,000 documented lies, fear, rage, and the intoxicating promise of belonging.

Today, tens of millions of Americans are trapped inside Trump’s reality-warping cult. And just as Jones’ followers drank poisoned Kool-Aid believing it was salvation, Trump’s followers have swallowed his Big Lies and are now willing to sacrifice our Constitution, our democracy, and our future on the altar of one man’s insatiable ego.

This is an old story in new packaging….

Click the links below to read the rest of the article:

Alternet: A cult leader shows how Trump is taking America to a very dark place

https://www.alternet.org/alternet-exclusives/the-cult-of-trump-2673148656

Daily Mail: Walmart hit by ‘immediate crisis’ as mass firings begin

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Walmart employees are saying they’re losing coworkers overnight. The retailer, America’s largest private employer, is complying with a sweeping Supreme Court decision that allowed the Trump administration to revoke work protections for half a million migrant employees. Walmart staffers are saying the company is responding with quick staffing cuts in stores. They’re worried there aren’t enough workers.

‘Anyone else just lose a bunch of employees to Trump policy?’ a Redditor asked in a thread dedicated to Walmart. ‘[My store] just lost 10 employees who were here on work visa.’ Another claimed their store lost 40 staffers at a 400-worker store, representing 10 percent of the workforce. They said remaining employees are now scrambling to keep stores running. Some said their store is turning to elderly employees to fill the gap. ‘Most of our older floor associates are constantly asking for help,’ another added. ‘It’s not really ideal.’

Retail experts told DailyMail.com that the impact on consumers at affected stores is likely temporary and regional. ‘This disruption is real, but it’s more of a speed bump than a roadblock for a company that’s weathered much worse,’ Carol Spieckerman, a global retail expert, said. ‘This is just the latest curveball for Walmart — after navigating inflation , potential tariffs, and economic uncertainty, they’ve become experts at adaptation. The impact won’t be uniform. States closer to the border will feel this more acutely than stores in the heartland.’

‘Immediate crisis’ erupts at Walmart with mass worker firings
Walmart employees are saying they’re losing coworkers overnight.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/article-14799717/walmart-job-cuts-staff-panic-trump-immigration-orders.html

Daily Beast: Texas Officials Slam Trump’s National Weather Service for Botched Forecast

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The government weather forecaster has been hit with huge cuts by the president’s administration.

Officials in Texas are casting blame on the National Weather Service (NWS) for failing to forecast catastrophic flooding that has killed 24 people.

NWS was among the government agencies targeted by the Department of Government Efficiency in its effort to gut the federal bureaucracy, losing approximately 600 staffers.

After the cuts, the agency—which was already understaffed—began to prepare to offer “degraded” forecasting services, facing “severe shortages” of meteorologists, according to an internal document obtained by The New York Times in April.

“The original forecast that we received Wednesday from the National Weather Service predicted 3-6 inches of rain in the Concho Valley and 4-8 inches in the Hill Country,” said Texas Emergency Management Chief W. Nim Kidd at a press conference Friday. “The amount of rain that fell at this specific location was never in any of those forecasts.”

Current tally is 27+ dead, 24+ still missing!

Thank you, Trump, Musk, and DOGE for a job well botched!

Texas Officials Slam Trump Weather Service for Bad Forecast
The government weather forecaster has been hit with huge cuts by the president’s administration.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/texas-officials-slam-donald-trumps-national-weather-service-for-bad-forecast

Straight Arrow News: ICE raids surge, but few employers face charges

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According to The Washington Post, a spokesperson with the Justice Department said in a statement: “Under President Trump and Attorney General Bondi’s leadership, the Department of Justice will enforce federal immigration laws and hold bad actors accountable when they employ illegal aliens in violation of federal law.”

However, almost no business owners or managers are being held legally accountable for hiring unauthorized workers. The Post conducted in-depth investigative work, reviewing legal documents and business ownership records to confirm whether any company owners or managers were charged. The Post found that despite numerous raids, just one employer was charged with a crime.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has not disclosed how many raids have resulted in employer charges. In April, ICE reported more than 1,000 arrests of migrants residing in the U.S. illegally and proposed over $1 million in fines against businesses during Trump’s first 100 days in the White House, The Post reports.

Only one employer charged, so far:

John Washburn, a company manager of San Diego Powder & Protective Coatings in El Cajon, California, was charged with knowingly employing migrant workers who reside in the country illegally. Washburn pleaded guilty, and the DOJ stated that he received one year of probation and was required to complete 50 hours of community service. He did not receive jail time.

Chad Hartmann, the manager of Glenn Valley Foods in Nebraska, will not face charges after federal immigration agents arrested 76 of his workers. According to ICE, an investigation found that about 70 migrant workers who live in the U.S. illegally at the facility were using stolen identities and Social Security numbers to get jobs and benefits. Hartmann said he believed he was hiring people authorized to work in the U.S.

As a result, over 100 real people had their identities misused, causing them serious financial, emotional and legal harm, according to an ICE press release.

It’s unusual for business owners to be prosecuted for hiring migrant workers who reside in the country illegally. To charge someone, prosecutors must prove the employer knowingly hired someone without legal work authorization. Proving what an employer knew in court can be difficult and time-consuming.

ICE raids surge, but few employers face charges
ICE workplace raids have surged under Trump, but employers hiring undocumented workers are rarely prosecuted.

https://san.com/cc/ice-raids-surge-but-few-employers-face-charges

Raw Story: Bullying misstep threatens to leave Trump presidency ‘dead in the water’: WSJ

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Instead of letting the Republican Party’s Senate leadership wheel and deal with the megabill budget hold-outs, Donald Trump inserted himself — and now has been called out by the editorial board of the conservative Wall Street Journal for his bullying which, it wrote, could put his presidency at risk.

In a late Sunday afternoon editorial, the editors wrote that the president’s attacks on Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) are not helping and, in fact, are hampering the prospects of getting a deal done.

On top of that, they note, driving Tillis to announce he won’t run for re-election could lead to a lost GOP seat in purple North Carolina — and with it the GOP’s slim hold on the Senate.

Trump is an increasingly senile oaf who just doesn’t know when to zip it. Expect a lot more of this as he slowly slithers into memory-care.

Bullying misstep threatens to leave Trump presidency ‘dead in the water’: WSJ

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-presidency-2672500111

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

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.

…

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.

…

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.

…

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

…

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.

…

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

…

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

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

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