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Knewz: MAGA fumes as Newsom mocks Trump with Bibles
Gavin Newsom has once again gotten under the skin of conservatives, this time by selling signed copies of Bibles on his merchandise site, Knewz.com can reveal. The California governor’s team has been mimicking Donald Trump for weeks, leaving his supporters raging and failing to see the irony of it all.
This time, Newsom and his handlers took it up a notch by listing Bibles for sale on his website. (The Bibles were marked as sold out.) The site also includes several other items mocking Trump slogans like a “Newsom Was Right About Everything” cap, a “Trump Is Not Hot” tank top and a T-shirt labeled “The Chosen One” featuring an image of Kid Rock, Tucker Carlson and the late Hulk Hogan with a halo looking over Newsom. There’s at least one person who will not be purchasing any of these items: Fox News personality Will Cain. On an episode of The Will Cain Show, the host went off on Newsom for purportedly selling Bibles. “He seems to have found ground, legs with the left by mocking President Trump,” Cain cried on TV. “Like the ChatGPT personality, he’s just borrowing now from President Trump, copying his style with X posts, now he’s even going for his own MAGA style merch.”
…
Newsom’s antics have already reached the White House, as earlier this month, Trump took to Truth Social to call out his fellow politician. He raged, “Gavin Newscum is way down in the polls. He is viewed as the man who is destroying the once Great State of California. I will save California!!! President DJT.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/maga-fumes-as-newsom-mocks-trump-with-bibles/ss-AA1MxApp
Guardian: Texas attorney general wants students to pray in school – unless they’re Muslim
Ken Paxton, who is running for US Senate, is urging schools to say the Lord’s Prayer as a Republican law goes into effect
Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general running for US Senate, has long believed in school prayer. Now, he’s prescribing precisely what type of prayer he wants the state’s 6 million public school students to recite.
“In Texas classrooms, we want the Word of God opened, the Ten Commandments displayed, and prayers lifted up,” Paxton said in a statement on Tuesday, encouraging students to say “the Lord’s Prayer, as taught by Jesus Christ”.
The press release included the full text of the Lord’s Prayer as it is written in the King James version of the Bible, the latest example of Paxton and other Texas officials seeming to endorse Christianity over other faiths.
“Twisted, radical liberals want to erase Truth, dismantle the solid foundation that America’s success and strength were built upon, and erode the moral fabric of our society,” Paxton said. “Our nation was founded on the rock of Biblical Truth, and I will not stand by while the far-left attempts to push our country into the sinking sand.”
Paxton’s statement was released as Senate Bill 11 went into effect across Texas; it’s a piece of Republican legislation allowing schools to set aside time for “prayer and reading of the Bible or other religious texts” during the school day. Critics have condemned the bill as an attempt to imbue a secular public education in the state with the practice of Christianity, in violation of the US constitution’s separation of church and state.
“They’re blowing right through separation of church and state,” said Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism.
“They have no respect for other faiths. And in fact, that includes a lot of Christians who don’t agree with this far-right version of Christianity. They’re trying to indoctrinate children into this agenda and it’s outrageous, and it’s breaking one of the most important constitutional principles we have in this country with the first amendment and the separation of church and state.”
Beirich added that Paxton, along with figures in Washington DC, such as the House speaker, Mike Johnson, were “people who believe that this country is a Christian nation, that Christianity should have primacy”.
Paxton’s office did not respond to a request for comment about whether he was trying to push Christianity on Texas’s public school students.
It is instructive, however, to revisit how Paxton once reacted to a report of Muslim students praying in a Dallas-area school. In 2017, the attorney general’s office published an open letter to the superintendent of schools in Frisco, Texas, expressing “concerns” over Muslim students at Liberty high school using a spare classroom to pray during school hours.
“It appears that the prayer room is ‘dedicated to the religious needs of some students’,” the letter stated, quoting an article in the school’s newspaper, “namely, those who practice Islam.”
In a subsequent press release, Paxton’s office stated: “Recent news reports have indicated that the high school’s prayer room is … apparently excluding students of other faiths.”
Again, “recent news reports” seemed to refer to a single article in the high school newspaper.
But that article, written by an 11th-grader, made no mention of the room being off-limits to students of other faiths. Rather, the article quotes the principal observing how “the trademark of what makes Liberty High so great” is the “diversity” of the faiths and cultures on campus.
“As long as it’s student-led, where the students are organizing and running it, we pretty much as a school stay out of that and allow them their freedom to practice their religion,” the principal said.
Had Paxton’s office checked with the school district before publishing its open letter, school officials would have noted the spare classroom was available for all students – not just Muslims – to practice their faith.
Paxton, it seemed, had tried to create a culture-war controversy out of thin air.
“It is unfortunate that our state’s top law enforcement officer would engage in a cheap Islamophobic publicity stunt that could very well result in increased bullying of Muslim students and the creation of a hostile learning environment,” the Texas chapter of the Council of American-Islamic Relations (Cair) said in a statement at the time.
That Paxton once fearmongered about Muslims praying in class but is now encouraging students to say the Lord’s Prayer is consistent with his particular brand of Christian nationalism or dominionism, which seeks to erode any wall between church and state, establishing a government run according to a far-right interpretation of Christian scripture.
During his time in public office, Paxton has received considerable financial support from a coterie of ultraconservative west Texas billionaires who, as ProPublica reported, have made the state into “the country’s foremost laboratory for Christian nationalist policy”.
On Thursday, Paxton announced he would appeal a “flawed ruling by a federal judge” that stopped another Christian nationalist piece of legislation from going into effect, this one requiring Texas schools to display the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms.
“The Ten Commandments are a cornerstone of American law, and that fact simply cannot be erased by radical, anti-American groups trying to ignore our moral heritage,” Paxton seethed in another statement.
“There is no legal reason to stop Texas from honoring a core ethical foundation of our law, especially not a bogus claim about the ‘separation of church and state,’ which is a phrase found nowhere in the Constitution.”
Paxton’s wife publicly accused him of disobeying the seventh commandment – “Thou shall not commit adultery” – earlier this summer while stating in a divorce petition that he had had an extramarital affair.
His Christian nationalist statements this week, Texas political observers have noted, might be an attempt to repair his reputation, and to shore up ultraconservative support in his battle to unseat John Cornyn in the US Senate.
If his agenda, and the GOP’s broader Christian nationalist agenda, is allowed to move forward, Beirich said, it will be “absolutely punishing for people of other faiths”.
In a statement to the Guardian, the Texas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, was wary of Paxton’s insistence that students say the Lord’s Prayer in public schools: “Although protecting religious freedom in schools would be a noble pursuit, Attorney General Paxton’s rhetoric and his history of anti-Muslim bigotry raises the obvious suspicion that his embrace of religious liberty will not extend beyond his own claimed faith.
“If Attorney General Paxton wants schools to set aside time for praying and reading scripture, that must include time for Texas Muslims to read the Quran, Jewish students to read the Torah, and on and on,” the group added.
“Only if students of all faiths can freely worship on the same terms without any coercion or favoritism from the government will the Constitution be upheld.”
Texas attorney general wants students to pray in school – unless they’re Muslim
Ken Paxton, who is running for US Senate, is urging schools to say the Lord’s Prayer as a Republican law goes into effect
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/07/texas-ken-paxton-christians-muslims
Knewz: Gavin Newsom launches new mock nickname for J.D. Vance
California Governor Gavin Newsom has escalated his online feud with J.D. Vance, leaning into his new nickname for the vice president — “Just Dance Vance.” Knewz.com has learned that Newsom’s communications team recently posted a meme of Vance’s face edited onto the body of Australian break-dancer Rachael “Raygun” Gunn, who became a viral sensation after scoring zero points in the 2024 Olympic breakdancing competition.
‘Just Dance Vance’
Newsom’s team first rolled out “Just Dance Vance” during debates over Republican redistricting strategies. GOP officials in states like Texas and Indiana have been under pressure from President Donald Trump’s allies to redraw congressional maps in their favor ahead of the 2026 midterms. In a recent post on X, Newsom’s office wrote, mocking President Trump’s signature pattern of tweeting in all caps, “NOT EVEN JD ‘JUST DANCE’ VANCE CAN SAVE TRUMP FROM THE DISASTROUS MAPS ‘WAR’ HE HAS STARTED.”
Newsom’s team doubles down on Vance’s nickname
The nickname gained traction again after reporter Nick Sortor posted that Vance would join Trump’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington. Sortor hinted at another potential Oval Office clash, recalling the tense February exchange in which Vance told Zelensky to “offer some words of appreciation for the United States of America and the president who’s trying to save your country.” Newsom’s team replied with the meme of Vance’s face on Gunn’s body, captioned, “A highly anticipated ‘showdown.’”
Tensions rise between Newsom and Trump
The barbs came at a time of escalating tensions between President Donald Trump and the California governor. In June, Trump ordered thousands of National Guard troops and hundreds of Marines to Los Angeles to counter large protests against his mass deportation campaign. Newsom condemned the move, arguing that Trump’s true goal was to advance “the deranged fantasy of a dictatorial president.” The episode deepened their already hostile relationship, which has increasingly played out on social media. While Trump often calls the governor “Newscum,” Newsom has hit back by calling the president “tiny hands” in his posts. The back-and-forth has expanded to include other figures in Trump’s inner circle, with Vance becoming Newsom’s latest target.
Newsom’s “creepy” obsession with Trump
The White House brushed off Newsom’s tactics as an unhealthy fixation. “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but Gavin’s obsession is getting a little creepy at this point,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told Newsweek. Newsom, on the other hand, defended his approach, insisting that he is simply mirroring Trump’s own behavior. “I’m just following his example. If you have issues with what I’m putting out, you sure as hell should have concerns with what he’s putting out as president,” he said in a statement.
Gavin Newsom launches new mock nickname for J.D. Vance
Gavin Newsom has escalated his online feud with J.D. Vance, leaning into his new nickname for the vice president.
https://knewz.com/gavin-newsom-launches-new-mock-nickname-for-j-d-vance
Newsweek: Donald Trump suffers big legal blow over migrant deportations
President Donald Trump was blocked by a federal appeals court from using an 18th-century wartime law, the Alien Enemies Act, to deport Venezuelan migrants his administration says belong to the criminal gang Tren de Aragua.
Newsweek contacted the White House for comment by email after office hours.
Why It Matters
Trump has, through executive order, invoked the Alien Enemies Act by arguing that there is an invasion of the U.S. by foreign criminal gangs that his administration has now designated as terrorist groups.
The court decision bars deportations from Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
What To Know
The 2-1 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit found that there was not an “invasion or predatory incursion” by a foreign power as required by the 1798 statute to justify its invocation in the case of this group of migrants.
The Alien Enemies Act is a wartime law passed in 1798 as part of the Alien and Sedition Acts under President John Adams. It grants the U.S. president the authority to detain, restrict or deport foreign nationals from a country that is at war with the United States.
Unlike other provisions in the Alien and Sedition Acts, which expired or were repealed, the Alien Enemies Act remains in effect today.
The act was only used three times before in U.S. history, all during declared wars: in the War of 1812 and the two World Wars.
On April 19, the Supreme Court instructed the Trump administration to pause the deportation of a number of Venezuelan men in custody using the 1798 law.
The Trump administration unsuccessfully argued that courts cannot second-guess the president’s determination that Tren de Aragua was connected to Venezuela’s government and represented a danger to the United States, meriting use of the act.
In the majority were U.S. Circuit Judges Leslie Southwick, a George W. Bush appointee, and Irma Carrillo Ramirez, a Joe Biden appointee. Andrew Oldham, a Trump appointee, dissented.
“A country encouraging its residents and citizens to enter this country illegally is not the modern-day equivalent of sending an armed, organized force to occupy, to disrupt, or to otherwise harm the United States,” the judges wrote.
In a lengthy dissent, Oldham complained his two colleagues were second-guessing Trump’s conduct of foreign affairs and national security, realms where courts usually give the president great deference.
What People Are Saying
Lee Gelernt, who argued the case for the American Civil Liberties Union, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying: “The Trump administration’s use of a wartime statute during peacetime to regulate immigration was rightly shut down by the court. This is a critically important decision reining in the administration’s view that it can simply declare an emergency without any oversight by the courts.”
What Happens Next
The case appears set to return to the Supreme Court in what is shaping up to be a decisive battle over Mr. Trump’s ability to use the Alien Enemies Act, the New York Times reported.
Donald Trump suffers big legal blow over migrant deportations
The Alien Enemies Act was only used three times before in U.S. history, all during declared wars—in the War of 1812 and the two World Wars.
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-legal-blow-deportation-migrants-alien-enemies-act-2123573
News Nation: ICE officer attacked while trying to take man into custody: Sheriff
A federal immigration officer was attacked and injured while trying to take a man into custody in Florida, according to local authorities.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said the incident unfolded Tuesday morning in Lakeland.
Two Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers had followed Denis Corea Miranda, 21, because he had a warrant for deportation, according to the sheriff’s office.
Authorities said Miranda was in a vehicle with two other people, who were also allegedly in the country illegally. Miranda was in the passenger seat of the vehicle.
An ICE officer walked to the passenger side of the car and informed Miranda that they were going to take him into custody. It was at that point that a fight began, Judd said.
“I’m told that the fight lasted about five minutes,” he said, later emphasizing that five minutes is a “very long tussle.”
Officials said Miranda was on top of the ICE officer when the second officer sprayed Miranda with pepper spray. Miranda then ran into the woods, according to Judd.
The ICE officers chased after Miranda but said they lost him in the woods. The Polk County Sheriff’s Office was then called to assist, launching a helicopter, drones and sending out K-9 teams.
“They were just overwhelmed. The issue is ICE needs help,” Judd said, explaining that the officers were also monitoring the two other people in the car.
The ICE officer who got into a fight with Miranda was taken to a nearby hospital to be treated for a shoulder injury and is expected to recover.
“To my knowledge, this is the first time we’ve had an ICE agent injured in the line of duty, and he was significantly injured, he had to go to the hospital,” Judd said.
An employee at a nearby business eventually encountered Miranda hiding among several steel drums, according to officials. Judd said Miranda asked the employee for water, but the employee felt something was off.
The employee went inside and called 911, alerting law enforcement officers to Miranda’s location. Authorities said Miranda was arrested soon after.
An employee at another nearby business told NewsNation affiliate WFLA she saw deputies with their guns drawn.
“You could tell that it was kind of like a manhunt situation,” she said. “So my first response, honestly, was like we need to lock the doors.”
Judd referenced a photo showing deputies taking Miranda, who was smiling, into custody.
“We have him under arrest. He’s smiling,” the sheriff said. “I bet we’ve wiped the smile off his face.”
According to the sheriff’s office, Miranda faces a slew of charges, which all have been upgraded to more serious felonies due to Florida’s recently passed immigration legislation.
The charges include battery of a law enforcement officer, resisting with violence, resisting without violence, false imprisonment, and burglary of an occupied structure.
Judd said the two other people who were in the car with Miranda cooperated with law enforcement and were taken into ICE custody.
The employee said she is glad the situation wasn’t worse, and also glad Miranda didn’t come into her business.
“That’s scary to think about because he chose violence with cops. If I wouldn’t have let him in or if he came in before we lock the doors, what would happen, you know?” she said.
According to officials, Miranda, who is from Nicaragua, is believed to have entered the country in 2021. Judd said he was stopped by Border Patrol and was later released with a court date.
Miranda was arrested in July 2024 in Galveston, Texas, for DUI, but was released and never showed up for court, according to authorities.
“This guy just wanted to get away, and he was going to do whatever he needed to do to get away,” Judd said.
Resist!
https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/immigration/ice-officer-attacked-florida-arrest
Guardian: ‘I’m not coming home’: Trump policy holds people in Ice custody without bail
Restaurant worker’s case shows how Trump administration is ‘inflicting the maximum punishment’, experts say
Liset Fernandez spent most of the summer worried about her dad, Luis, but a few weeks ago she got some good news. After Luis was held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) custody for weeks, an immigration judge in Texas granted him release on a $5,000 bond.
Luis, who came to the US from Ecuador in 1994, had been held in detention at a facility in Livingston, Texas, thousands of miles away from his home in Queens. Liset, 17, had taken on extra shifts working a retail job to support her mom and nine-year-old brother. Luis’s co-workers at the Square Diner, a railcar-style greasy spoon in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood for more than 100 years, had raised more than $20,000 to support him and his family.
But when Liset logged on to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) website to pay the bond, she got a message telling her that her dad was ineligible for release. It fell to her to tell her dad that instead of coming home that day, he would remain detained. “It was upsetting for everyone,” Liset said. “His voice sounded completely disappointed.”
Luis was being detained because of a new DHS policy arguing that all people who enter the US illegally are ineligible for bond, regardless of how long they have been here and whether or not they pose a flight risk. In Fernandez’s case, DHS went even further, deploying a rarely used maneuver to pause the immigration judge’s bond ruling while it appealed his ruling. Federal regulations allow the agency to automatically stay an immigration judge’s bond decision while they appeal the case to the board of immigration appeals.
The maneuver means Fernandez will remain detained while his case is pending before the board of immigration appeals. Since the board is being bogged down with appeals, it’s unclear how long it could take to resolve the case, said Craig Relles, an immigration attorney representing Fernandez.
Fernandez’s case shows how the Trump administration is “ratcheting up every aspect of the immigration system” for people who are in the US illegally no matter how long they’ve been in the US, said Suchita Mathur, a lawyer at the American Immigration Council.
“At every step of the way, they’re inflicting the maximum punishment on people,” she said. “It’s all part and parcel of the administration’s effort to make this process so punitive and unbearable that people give up.”
The justice department, which oversees immigration courts, adopted the procedure for automatically pausing an immigration judge’s bond ruling in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks amid concerns about national security. At the time, there were concerns about how it could be used to unjustly detain people. Both Mathur and Relles said they had rarely seen the appeal-and-stay practice used until this summer. Now, they said, the practice is widespread.
Lawyers representing the Department of Homeland Security have been instructed to appeal every decision in which someone is granted bond and immediately pause the judge’s ruling while the appeal is pending, according to an agency official familiar with the matter. They have also been told they will be fired if they do not take such action, the person said.
Asked whether lawyers were being told to automatically appeal in all cases where bond was granted, the Department of Homeland Security said: “Every decision to appeal is based on the facts of the case. No one has been fired for not appealing a case.”
In recent months, federal judges across the country, including in Minnesota, Nebraska and Maryland, have ruled in favor of detained immigrants who have challenged the practice. Appealing the bond ruling and automatically staying an immigration judge’s decision to grant bond, the judges have said, puts the due process rights of detainees at risk.
“The government’s discretion in matters of immigration is deep and wide, but surely its chop does not overcome the banks of due process enshrined in the constitution,” Julie Rubin, a US district judge in Maryland, wrote this month in a ruling granting release of an immigrant who was detained even though an immigration judge had ordered bond. “Invocation of the automatic stay renders the [immigration judge’s] custody redetermination order an ‘empty gesture’ absent demonstration of a compelling interest or special circumstance left unanswered by [the immigration judge].”
“It seems like there’s a nationwide policy from headquarters instructing them to file these automatic stays,” Mathur said. Such a policy “would raise even more questions about due process. Because if they’re not even conducting individualized analyses before filing these, that’s even more shocking.”
The Department of Homeland Security said Fernandez had entered the country illegally and had two prior convictions for driving while intoxicated. The agency did not provide more information on the cases, but told Tribeca Citizen, a local news site, the charges were from 2003 and 2014.
“Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, if you break the law, you will face the consequences. Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the US,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
But that is not what Fernandez’s co-workers knew of him. At the Square Diner, he was known as a hard worker who would work overtime to support Liset and his nine-year-old son. He was the person who would welcome new employees into the fold, always quick with a joke, and who would cover for someone who needed to step out for an emergency and then give them the earnings they missed. He would FaceTime his kids during long shifts and never say a bad word about customers who were stingy with tips. The only thing he would ever eat at work – sometimes with some teasing – were big salad bowls filled with soup. Usually chicken, but occasionally different types mixed together.
The fact that Luis had been in the United States for so long, was working and paying taxes, and had two children who are US citizens made him someone who was clearly eligible for bond, Relles said.
“The Department of Homeland Security had the opportunity to present any and all evidence indicating that he was a danger, that there were serious infractions in the past. And he was able to meet his burden, establishing that he was not a danger and is not a flight risk,” Relles said.
“He’s human. He has heart,” said one co-worker who asked to remain anonymous because they feared for their safety. “He’s [an] extremely honest person. With money, with food, with anything, you just name it. And the most important thing is the best father.” The co-worker said they had spoken to Luis recently and he was working in the kitchen of the detention center where he is being held. Recently he volunteered to give the other detainees haircuts.
The last time Liset saw her dad in person was early in the morning on 24 June when he came to her bedroom to say goodbye. He had been summoned to appear that morning for a check-in on his asylum application in Long Island. The day before he was set to leave, Luis became suspicious that something might happen to him. He shared the location on his phone with Liset. Still, Liset didn’t think there was much to worry about and said goodbye.
It was a scorching hot day in New York and Liset went to the beach with her cousin to celebrate the end of the school year and the start of summer vacation. While she was there, Luis called her. She could tell from the tone of his voice that something was wrong. He told her not to worry, but that he was going to be arrested. “They’re going to take me, Ice is here, and I’m not coming home anytime soon,” he told her. “If anything happens, make sure you take care of yourself.”
Fernandez is one of thousands of immigrants arrested by the Trump administration as part of its effort to ramp up deportations. Half of the immigrants arrested in the New York City area this year have been arrested, like Fernandez was, at routine check-ins at immigration offices, according to federal data analyzed by the New York Times.
Liset didn’t hear from her dad for a few days. But when she eventually got hold of him, he had been transferred to a facility in Texas. Since he’s been detained, Liset has talked to her dad almost every day, usually for just a few minutes. He’s told her that there are about 20 people in his room and that it’s extremely cold because air conditioners are running 24/7. The first few weeks in detention, Liset said, Luis would share a cup of ramen noodles with two other men for meals.
Liset described her dad as a hard worker who wanted to make sure his family was taken care of financially while also making sure he could spend time with them. Since her mom only speaks limited English, it’s fallen on Liset to take the lead on her dad’s legal case while also taking on more shifts at work.
“This is incredibly draining,” she said.
‘I’m not coming home’: Trump policy holds people in Ice custody without bail
Restaurant worker’s case shows how Trump administration is ‘inflicting the maximum punishment’, experts say
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/30/immigration-custody-bail-trump
Washington Examiner: Border czar says ICE ops will ramp up after Labor Day
Border czar Tom Homan told reporters that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations will expand after Labor Day in sanctuary cities nationwide, including Seattle, Wash., and Portland, Ore.
“You’re going to see a ramp up of operations in New York. You’re going to see a ramp up of operations continue in L.A. and, you know, Portland, Seattle,” Homan told reporters gathered near the White House. “I mean, all these sanctuary cities refuse to work with ICE … we’re going to address that.”
Homan said some other states are complying and working with ICE.
“We don’t have that problem in Texas and Florida, where all the sheriffs are working with us and they’re actually holding people for us and letting us know when someone’s being released,” he said. “So, we’re going to take the assets we have and move them to problem areas like sanctuary cities, where we know for a fact they’re releasing public safety threat illegal aliens to the streets every day. That’s where we need to send the majority of the resources, and that’s where they’re going.”
Homan was in Portland on Aug. 21 to meet with ICE personnel. After the visit, Portland Mayor Keith Wilson reaffirmed the city’s sanctuary status and said city employees, including police officers, will not assist in ICE operations.
“I was in San Diego and Portland in the last week meeting with the men and women of ICE to understand the hate that’s being pushed against them and letting them know the President has their six,” Homan said. “I have their six.”
The Center Square contacted Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office on Friday for comment on what the nation’s border czar had to say.
“Seattle will not be intimidated by the Trump administration’s threats. Suggesting that federal immigration raids or deployments of federal agents could soon target our city is not about public safety – it’s about political theater and an overreach of federal authority,” said Harrell in a statement emailed to The Center Square. “Seattle is a welcoming city, and our policies comply with both federal and state law. Immigration enforcement is the federal government’s responsibility, not the city’s, and we will not allow our police resources to be commandeered for political purposes.
“We are already working closely with Gov. [Bob] Ferguson and Attorney General [Nick] Brown, and have asked the City Attorney’s Office to review every legal option available to protect our residents. We have successfully taken this administration to court before … over its attempts to punish sanctuary cities, and we are prepared to do so again. We will stand firm, protect our communities, and preserve local control over our public safety resources. Seattle’s values are not up for negotiation.”
Homan said enforcement operations across the country are improving public safety for Americans.
“I look at the numbers every morning,” he said. “There’s about 22 pages of data; 70% of everybody arrested is a criminal,” he said. “But the left says, ‘Well, not criminal enough. It’s just a DUI.’ DUIs kill over 10,000 people a year. That’s a public safety threat. I don’t care what anybody thinks.”
As for the other 30% of arrestees, Homan explained, “We arrested thousands of national security threats. Many of them don’t have a criminal history because their whole goal is to lay low ‘til they do their dirty deed. Gang members. A lot of gang members don’t have a criminal history.”
He concluded, “And finally, final deportation orders. People who had due process at great taxpayer expense. They were ordered removed by a federal judge, and they didn’t leave. And we’re looking for them, too, because we’re sending a message to the whole world. It’s not okay to enter this country illegally. It’s a crime.”
Bring it on, asshole! You haven’t yet see the poll numbers bottom out!
Border czar says ICE ops will ramp up after Labor Day
Homan told reporters gathered near the White House. “All these sanctuary cities refuse to work with ICE … we’re going to address that.”
CBS News: Trump administration may deploy National Guard troops across 19 states, including Texas
Associated Press: A Chinese student was questioned for hours in the US, then sent back even as Trump policies shift
The 22-year-old philosophy student from China did not expect any problems after his 29-hour flight arrived at a Texas airport this month as he was on his way to study at the University of Houston.
His paperwork was in order. He was going to study humanities — not a tech field that might raise suspicions. He had a full scholarship from the U.S. school and had previously spent a semester at Cornell University for an exchange program with no issues.
But the student, who asked to be identified only by his family name, Gu, because of the political sensitivities of the matter, was stopped, interrogated and 36 hours later, put on a plane back to China.
He also was banned from coming back for five years, abruptly halting his dream for an academic career in the United States.
“There is no opportunity for the life I had expected,” Gu said.
He is one of an unknown number of Chinese students with permission to enter the United States who have been sent back to China or faced intense questioning after their arrival, drawing strong protests from Beijing and showing the uncertainty from President Donald Trump’s shifting policies.
His administration has quickly pivoted from a plan to revoke visas for Chinese students to Trump himself saying he would welcome hundreds of thousands of them, partly to help keep some American schools afloat.
The US has put restrictions on Chinese students
Even so, some officials and lawmakers have expressed suspicions about Chinese students, especially those who study advanced technologies such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence, and their possible links to the Chinese government and military. Some lawmakers want to ban Chinese students altogether.
There’s no immediate data available on how many Chinese students with valid visas have been interrogated and repatriated from U.S. airports in recent weeks. U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not respond to a request for that data or for comment on Chinese students being questioned or sent back.
In recent days, Trump said he told Chinese President Xi Jinping that “we’re honored to have their students here.” But he also added, “Now, with that, we check and we’re careful, we see who is there.”
The Chinese Embassy said it has received reports involving more than 10 Chinese students and scholars being interrogated, harassed and repatriated when entering the U.S.
“The U.S. side has frequently carried out discriminatory, politically driven and selective law enforcement against Chinese students and scholars, inflicting physical and mental harm, financial losses, and disruptions to their careers,” the Chinese Embassy said in a statement.
They were repatriated under the pretext of “so-called ‘visa issues’ or ‘might endanger U.S. national security,’” the embassy said.
The students and scholars were taken into small rooms for extended interrogation, repeatedly questioned on issues unrelated to their academic work, and forced to wait long hours in cold rooms without blankets or quilts, the embassy said. Some relied on aluminum foil to keep warm, and some were detained for more than 80 hours, it said.
Such acts by the U.S. side “run counter to the statements” made by Trump, the embassy said, accusing some U.S. departments and law enforcement personnel of not “faithfully acting on the president’s commitment.” The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a Friday interview with the conservative news site Daily Caller, Trump said “it’s very insulting to a country when you say you’re not going to take your students.” The interview was published on Sunday.
“I think what we’re doing is the right thing to do. It’s good to get along with countries, not bad, especially, you know, nuclear-powered countries,” Trump said.
One Chinese student had no concerns as he headed to the US
Gu told AP that he liked his Cornell experience so much that he applied for a master’s program to study philosophy in the U.S.
Despite reports of stricter policies by the Trump administration, Gu said he wasn’t too worried, not even when he was first stopped and taken to a room for questioning by a customs officer after landing at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. His belongings were searched, and his electronics were taken away, he said.
After the officer went through the devices, he started interrogating Gu, focusing on his ties to the Chinese Communist Party, Gu said.
He said his parents are party members, but he has never joined, though he — like nearly all Chinese teens and young people — is a member of the party’s youth arm, the Communist Youth League.
The customs officer also grilled him on his connections to the governmental China Scholarship Council, which popped up in his chat history. Gu said it came up in his chats with his schoolmates, but he did not receive money from the Chinese government.
Three rounds of interrogation lasted 10 hours, before Gu was told he was to be deported. No specific reason was given, he said, and the removal paperwork he provided to AP indicated inadequate documentation.
By then, he had hardly slept for 40 hours. The waiting room where he was kept was lit around the clock, its room temperature set low.
“I was so nervous I was shaking, due to both being freezing cold and also the nerves,” Gu said. “So many things were going through my head now that I was being deported. What should I do in the future?”
It would be another day before he was put on a flight. Now, Gu is considering appealing the decision, but that might take years and cost thousands of dollars.
One down, 599,999 to go! But they’ll probably admit thousands of Chinese science and engineering students, who will be much more adept at stealing defense and proprietary information than this unfortunate philosophy student.
