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USA Today: Immigrants forced to eat ‘like a dog’ in detention centers

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Forced to eat the day’s only meal “like a dog,” with their hands shackled behind their back. Detained for days with nothing but shoes for a pillow and no other bedding ‒ just cold, concrete floors and constant fluorescent lighting. Medical care that denied a man with diabetes insulin for a week and may have contributed to at least one death.  

A Human Rights Watch report says three Miami immigrant detention facilities have subjected people to conditions so inhumane they have become, at times, life-threatening. Many ICE detention facilities are becoming overcrowded and conditions are deteriorating, according to the July 21 report.

The report, which drew from the testimonials of 17 detainees, examined conditions since President Donald Trump took office in January. Investigators say conditions at the Krome North Processing Center, Federal Detention Center and Broward Transitional Center flout international law on holding people in immigrant detention and federal government standards.

The conditions for people held in the detention facilities “are not the way that any legitimate, functioning government should treat people within its custody,” report author and editor Alison Leal Parker, deputy director of the Human Rights Watch’s US Program, said.

While the facilities have had issues predating this administration, Parker said Trump administration officials have been unwilling to uphold standards to properly treat immigrant detainees. The conditions indicate the system is “overwhelmed, overcrowded and chaotic,” she said.

Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, said claims of subprime conditions at Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers are “FALSE.”

“All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers,” McLaughlin said in an emailed statement. “Ensuring the safety, security, and well-being of individuals in our custody is a top priority at ICE. ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens.”

Southern, Republican-led states have emerged as key partners in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Florida stood up a tent city called “Alligator Alcatraz.” Georgia is expanding its largest ICE detention center. And Louisiana is hosting the most dedicated ICE facilities outside Texas.

Time at all three facilities

Entrepreneur Harpinder Singh Chauhan, 56, spent time at all three facilities during nearly four months as a detainee, beginning in February. 

The British national, who first entered the country on an E-2 investor visa in 2016, opened small businesses in Florida. One of them failed ‒ a franchise of Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, which also bankrupted many other franchisees. He and his wife were seeking permanent residency through a valid EB-5 visa petition when their business collapsed.

While Chauhan was never convicted of crimes, he was ordered to pay restitution to Florida for tax issues, court records show. In February, he was turned over to ICE after a routine probation check-in.

At the Krome facility, he spent days in cold, crowded processing cells without beds or showers. He said he was denied medical care, including insulin for his diabetes and an inhaler for his asthma. He used his shoes as a pillow. 

During a tuberculosis outbreak, he said the facility had no soap. Instead, staff made detainees use shampoo to wash their hands. Detainees jokingly said everyone had “Krome’s disease,” a play on Chrohn’s disease, a chronic gastrointestinal illness, Chauhan recalled.

Detainees were beaten for protesting their treatment, and one man was hogtied, the report said. Officials also used solitary confinement as punishment, according to women who spoke to Human Rights Watch. In June, detainees at Krome signaled “SOS” to news cameras from the yard over conditions.

The report said women were placed at Krome, a privately operated men’s facility, where they were crowded in small holding cells without gender-appropriate care or privacy. USA TODAY reported on similar conditions inside Krome, where one man died ‒ an incident Human Rights Watch suspects may have been linked to medical neglect.

Akima, a private Alaska Native Corporation that operates Krome, didn’t respond to USA TODAY’s request for comment. But in response to a Human Rights Watch letter summarizing findings and questions, the company said it couldn’t comment publicly on the specifics of its “engagement” with the government, according to the report.

‘Like a dog’

Midway through his detention, on April 15, Chauhan was placed inside a crowded Federal Detention Center holding cell awaiting transfer without a meal for the day. Styrofoam food containers sat full for hours on other side of the federal prison’s bars.

In the evening, he and others finally received food. But with their hands shackled at their waist, they were forced to eat by putting their faces to bite into potatoes rolling around, rice and dry chicken, he said.

“You’ve got to kind of prop it up with your knees and then eat out of it like a dog,” Chauhan said. Another 21-year-old detainee interviewed by Human Rights Watch also described being forced to eat like an animal.

The 25 to 30 men forced to eat this way were transferred from the facility several hours later, Chauhan said.

Less than a week later, at Broward, Chauhan collapsed in the heat awaiting dinner and was taken to a hospital, with no information given to his family. He had not had his insulin for nearly a week. A 44-year-old Haitian woman, Marie Ange Blaise, died at the facility in April, following a medical emergency that was not treated urgently, according to Human Rights Watch and advocates.

“We strongly believe her death could have been prevented,” Guerline Jozef, director of the nonprofit Haitian Bridge Alliance told USA TODAY at the time. “We will continue to demand accountability and protection for people in ICE custody.”

GEO Group, which operates Broward, denied the report’s allegations, including questions about Chauhan’s account.

The facility has around-the-clock access to medical care, as well as access to visitations, libraries, translation services and amenities, Christopher Ferreira, a spokesperson for the company, said in a statement. Support services are monitored by ICE, including on-site personnel, and other organizations within DHS.

A ‘dark time’ in US

Chauhan was ordered deported and boarded a flight back to the United Kingdom on June 5. His family, including two adult children, stayed in Florida to close what remains of their businesses.

Now living outside London, Chauhan said he plans to keep paying his Florida debt. Even though his family is ready to leave, he hopes to one day return to America.

“Every nation goes through a dark time,” he said. “I feel this is just a test.”

Immigrants forced to eat ‘like a dog’ in ‘overcrowded and chaotic’ detention centers
A Human Rights Watch report said three Miami detention facilities subject people to inhumane, at times life-threatening, conditions.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/07/24/trump-immigration-detention-conditions-dog/85338970007

Knewz: Trump Impeachment Campaign Makes Major Moves in House

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In a powerful show of public dissent, nearly one million Americans signed a petition calling for the impeachment of President Donald Trump. Knewz.com has learned that the signatures were collected by advocacy organizations Free Speech For People and Women’s March and delivered to the leadership of the House Judiciary Committee following a press conference by Representative Al Green of Texas.

Backed by a growing protest movement and a formal campaign known as “Impeach Trump. Again.” led by constitutional lawyers at Free Speech For People, the effort accuses President Trump of a sweeping list of constitutional violations and abuses of power. Supporters of the movement argue that Congress must now act decisively to defend the democracy. Speaking to reporters outside the United States Capitol, Rep. Green expressed his appreciation to Free Speech For People, Women’s March and the nearly one million individuals who had signed the petition calling for President Donald Trump’s impeachment. He emphasized that the widespread public support demonstrated the urgency and significance of the issue, which Congress could no longer afford to ignore, he said. “His abuse of power, disregard for the Constitution, authoritarian dictatorship activity and violations of the War Powers Clause demand a response. Impeachment and removal from office is the remedy provided in our Constitution to protect democracy from an authoritarian president whose threat to democracy has become an assault on democracy. This is why the article of impeachment filed in June is the first in the foundation to remove an authoritarian president — but not the last,” Rep. Green said in a statement.

Tamika Middleton, the Managing Director of Women’s March, accused President Trump of “trampling” on the Constitution and attacking “our communities with cruelty and impunity.” She said in her statement, “Nearly one million people demanding impeachment is proof that we will not back down. Congress must act now to protect our freedoms and our futures.” Alexandra Flores-Quilty, the Campaign Director for Free Speech For People, told reporters outside the U.S. Capitol, “What this campaign shows is that nearly 1 million Americans across the country refuse to let Trump and his allies destroy our democracy. … It’s up to Congress to do their job, defend the Constitution and impeach and remove Donald Trump from office for his grave abuses of power.”

According to reports, Rep. Green introduced articles of impeachment against Trump for violating the War Powers Clause of the Constitution following the military attack on Iran without congressional authorization and forced a floor vote on the articles. Seventy-eight members of the House voted in favor of advancing the articles of impeachment introduced by Rep. Green — nearly four times the number who had previously gone on record supporting such action against President Trump. With close to one million petition signatures now submitted in support of impeachment, advocates argue that Congress faces growing public pressure to act on its constitutional responsibilities. “The Framers designed the constitutional remedy of impeachment to deal with a president who would attack the Constitution, trample on the rule of law and engage in High Crimes. … The American people are demanding that Members of Congress abide by their oath to protect and defend the Constitution and impeach and remove Trump,” said John Bonifaz, the co-founder and president of Free Speech For People.

According to the Impeach Trump Again campaign, the allegations against the president span a wide range of constitutional and legal violations. These include unlawfully bypassing Congress’ authority to declare war, deploying military forces against civilian protesters and engaging in the illegal detention, deportation and removal of U.S. residents, migrants and asylum-seekers — sometimes to foreign prisons. He is also accused of attempting to deport immigrants for peaceful protest, defying court orders and undermining judicial authority. Additional charges involve using presidential power for personal retribution, dismantling independent oversight bodies, imposing unauthorized tariffs and accepting prohibited foreign and domestic emoluments. The campaign further alleges he repeatedly overstepped local, state and federal boundaries by abusing emergency and pardon powers, interfering with the judicial process and corruptly dismissing criminal charges against political figures including New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Other serious accusations include denying citizens their birthright, obstructing efforts to secure elections, allegedly planning the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza and engaging in corrupt activities during the 2024 presidential campaign.

Trump Impeachment Campaign Makes Major Moves in House
In a powerful show of public dissent, nearly one million Americans signed a petition calling for the impeachment of President Donald Trump.

https://knewz.com/trump-impeachment-campaign-makes-major-moves-in-house

The Intercept: State Cops Quietly Tag Thousands as Gang Members — and Feed Their Names to ICE

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Gang databases are often racially biased and riddled with errors. States and cities send their flawed information to immigration authorities.

Police gang databases are known to be faulty. The secret registries allow state and local cops to feed civilians’ personal information into massive, barely regulated lists based on speculative criteria — like their personal contacts, clothing, and tattoos — even if they haven’t committed a crime. The databases aren’t subject to judicial review, and they don’t require police to notify the people they peg as gang members.

They’re an ideal tool for officials seeking to imply criminality without due process. And many are directly accessible to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

An investigation by The Intercept found that at least eight states and large municipalities funnel their gang database entries to ICE — which can then use the information to target people for arrest, deportation, or rendition to so-called “third countries.” Some of the country’s largest and most immigrant-dense states, like Texas, New York, Illinois, and Virginia, route the information to ICE through varied paths that include a decades-old police clearinghouse and a network of post-9/11 intelligence-sharing hubs.

Both federal immigration authorities and local police intelligence units operate largely in secret, and the full extent of the gang database-sharing between them is unknown. What is known, however, is that the lists are riddled with mistakes: Available research, reporting, and audits have revealed that many contain widespread errors and encourage racial profiling.

The flawed systems could help ICE expand its dragnet as it seeks to carry out President Donald Trump’s promised “mass deportation” campaign. The administration has cited common tattoos and other spurious evidence to create its own lists of supposed gang members, invoking the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to send hundreds to El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center prison, also known as CECOT. Gang databases The Intercept identified as getting shared with ICE contain hundreds of thousands of other entries, including some targeted at Central American communities that have landed in the administration’s crosshairs. That information can torpedo asylum and other immigration applications and render those seeking legal status deportable.

“They’re going after the asylum system on every front they can,” said Andrew Case, supervising counsel for criminal justice issues at the nonprofit LatinoJustice. “Using gang affiliation as a potential weapon in that fight is very scary.”

Information supplied by local gang databases has already driven at least one case that became a national flashpoint: To justify sending Kilmar Abrego Garcia to CECOT in March, federal officials used a disputed report that a disgraced Maryland cop submitted to a defunct registry to label him as a member of a transnational gang. The report cited the word of an unnamed informant, Abrego’s hoodie, and a Chicago Bulls cap — items “indicative of the Hispanic gang culture,” it said.

The case echoed patterns from Trump’s first term, when ICE leaned on similar information from local cops — evidence as flimsy as doodles in a student’s notebook — to label immigrants as gang members eligible for deportation. As Trump’s second administration shifts its immigration crackdown into overdrive, ICE is signaling with cases like Abrego’s that it’s eager to continue fueling it with local police intelligence.

Nayna Gupta, policy director at the American Immigration Council, argued that this kind of information-sharing boosts ICE’s ability to target people without due process.

“This opens the door to an incredible amount of abuse,” she said. “This is our worst fear.”

In February, ICE arrested Francisco Garcia Casique, a barber from Venezuela living in Texas. The agency alleged that he was a member of Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan gang at the center of the latest anti-immigrant panic, and sent him to CECOT.

Law enforcement intelligence on Garcia Casique was full of errors: A gang database entry contained the wrong mugshot and appears to have confused him with a man whom Dallas police interviewed about a Mexican gang, USA Today reported. Garcia Casique’s family insists he was never in a gang.

It’s unclear exactly what role the faulty gang database entry played in Garcia Casique’s rendition, which federal officials insist wasn’t a mistake. But ICE agents had direct access to it — plus tens of thousands of other entries from the same database — The Intercept has found.

Under a Texas statute Trump ally Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law in 2017, any county with a population over 100,000 or municipality over 50,000 must maintain or contribute to a local or regional gang database. More than 40 Texas counties and dozens more cities and towns meet that bar. State authorities compile the disparate gang intelligence in a central registry known as TxGANG, which contained more than 71,000 alleged gang members as of 2022.

Texas then uploads the entries to the “Gang File” in an FBI-run clearinghouse known as the National Crime Information Center, state authorities confirmed to The Intercept. Created in the 1960s, the NCIC is one of the most commonly used law enforcement datasets in the country, with local, state, and federal police querying its dozens of files millions of times a day. (The FBI did not answer The Intercept’s questions.)

ICE can access the NCIC, including the Gang File, in several ways — most directly through its Investigative Case Management system, Department of Homeland Security documents show. The Obama administration hired Palantir, the data-mining company co-founded by billionaire former Trump adviser Peter Thiel, to build the proprietary portal, which makes countless records and databases immediately available to ICE agents. Palantir is currently expanding the tool, having signed a $96 million contract during the Biden administration to upgrade it.

TxGANG isn’t the only gang database ICE can access through its Palantir-built system. The Intercept trawled the open web for law enforcement directives, police training materials, and state and local statutes that mention adding gang database entries to the NCIC. Those The Intercept identified likely represent a small subset of the jurisdictions that upload to the ICE-accessible clearinghouse.

New York Focus first reported the NCIC pipeline-to-immigration agents when it uncovered a 20-year-old gang database operated by the New York State Police. Any law enforcement entity in the Empire State can submit names to the statewide gang database, which state troopers then consider for submission to the NCIC. The New York state gang database contains more than 5,100 entries and has never been audited.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice, which did not respond to requests for comment, has instructed its intelligence bureau on how to add names to the NCIC Gang File as recently as 2023, The Intercept found. Virginia has enshrined its gang database-sharing in commonwealth law, which explicitly requires NCIC uploading. In April, Virginia authorities helped ICE arrest 132 people who law enforcement officials claimed were part of transnational gangs.

The Illinois State Police, too, have shared their gang database to the FBI-run dataset. They also share it directly with the Department of Homeland Security, ICE’s umbrella agency, through an in-house information-sharing system, a local PBS affiliate uncovered last month.

The Illinois State Police’s gang database contained over 90,000 entries as of 2018. The data-sharing with Homeland Security flew under the radar for 17 years and likely violates Illinois’s 2017 sanctuary state law.

“Even in the jurisdictions that are not inclined to work with federal immigration authorities, the information they’re collecting could end up in these federal databases,” said Gupta.

Aside from the National Crime Information Center, there are other conduits for local police to enable the Trump administration’s gang crusade.

Some departments have proactively shared their gang information directly with ICE. As with the case of the Illinois State Police’s gang database, federal agents had access to the Chicago Police Department’s gang registry through a special data-sharing system. From 2009 to 2018, immigration authorities searched the database at least 32,000 times, a city audit later found. In one instance, the city admitted it mistakenly added a man to the database after ICE used it to arrest him.

The Chicago gang database was full of other errors, like entries whose listed dates of birth made them over 100 years old. The inaccuracies and immigration-related revelations, among other issues, prompted the city to shut down the database in 2023.

Other departments allow partner agencies to share their gang databases with immigration authorities. In 2016, The Intercept reported that the Los Angeles Police Department used the statewide CalGang database — itself shown to contain widespread errors — to help ICE deport undocumented people. The following year, California enacted laws that prohibited using CalGang for immigration enforcement. Yet the California Department of Justice told The Intercept that it still allows the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office to share the database, which contained nearly 14,000 entries as of last year, with the Department of Homeland Security.

“Each user must document their need to know/right to know prior to logging into CalGang,” and that documentation is “subject to regular audit,” a California Department of Justice spokesperson said.

Local police also share gang information with the feds through a series of regional hubs known as fusion centers. Created during the post-9/11 domestic surveillance boom, fusion centers were meant to facilitate intelligence-sharing — particularly about purported terrorism — between federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. Their scope quickly expanded, and they’ve played a key role in the growth of both immigration- and gang-related policing and surveillance.

The Boston Police Department told The Intercept that agencies within the Department of Homeland Security seek access to its gang database by filing a “request for information” through the fusion center known as the Boston Regional Intelligence Center. In 2016, ICE detained a teenager after receiving records from the Boston gang database, which used a report about a tussle at his high school to label him as a gang member. Boston later passed a law barring law enforcement officials from sharing personal information with immigration enforcement agents, but it contains loopholes for criminal investigations.

In the two decades since their creation, fusion center staff have proactively sought to increase the upward flow of local gang intelligence — including by leveraging federal funds, as in the case between the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department and the Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center, which works directly with the Department of Homeland Security. An email from 2013, uncovered as part of a trove of hacked documents, shows that an employee at the Maryland fusion center threatened to withhold some federal funding if the D.C. police didn’t regularly share its gang database.

“I wanted to prepare you that [sic] your agency’s decision … to NOT connect … may indeed effect [sic] next years [sic] funding for your contractual analysts,” a fusion center official wrote. “So keep that in mind…………..”

Four years later, ICE detained a high schooler after receiving a D.C. police gang database entry. The entry said that he “self-admitted” to being in a gang, an Intercept investigation later reported — a charge his lawyer denied.

For jurisdictions that don’t automatically comply, the Trump administration is pushing to entice them into cooperating with ICE. The budget bill Trump signed into law on the Fourth of July earmarks some $14 billion for state and local ICE collaboration, as well as billions more for local police. Official police partnerships with ICE had already skyrocketed this year; more are sure to follow.

Revelations about gang database-sharing show how decades of expanding police surveillance and speculative gang policing have teed up the Trump administration’s crackdowns, said Gupta of the American Immigration Council.

“The core problem is one that extends far beyond the Trump administration,” she said. “You let the due process bar drop that far for so long, it makes it very easy for Trump.”

State Cops Quietly Tag Thousands as Gang Members — and Feed Their Names to ICE
Gang databases are often racially biased and riddled with errors. States and cities send their flawed information to ICE.

Miami Herald: ‘Tone Down’: Shots Fired at Border Patrol, Sparking Fury

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A shooting at a Border Patrol facility in McAllen, Texas, has prompted White House Press Secretary Karoline [Bimbo #1] Leavitt to urge Democratic lawmakers to moderate their criticism of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has reported a nearly 700% increase in assaults on ICE officers. [Bimbo #1] Leavitt also called on progressive lawmakers to engage directly with ICE and CBP personnel to foster greater respect and understanding.

Your masked Gestapo thugs are getting the reception that they have earned.

A shooting at a Border Patrol facility in McAllen, Texas, has prompted White House Press Secretary Karoline [Bimbo #1] Leavitt to urge Democratic lawmakers to moderate their criticism of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has reported a nearly 700% increase in assaults on ICE officers. [Bimbo #1] Leavitt also called on progressive lawmakers to engage directly with ICE and CBP personnel to foster greater respect and understanding.

Respect is earned, not accorded on demand. Your masked Gestapo thugs are coming up way short when it comes to earning respect.

[Bimbo #1] Leavitt added, “These are honorable Americans who are just simply trying to do their job to enforce the law. They go home to their families every night, just like we all do, and they deserve respect and dignity for trying to enforce our nation’s immigration laws and to remove public safety threats from our communities.”

There is nothing honorable about running around with masks on and kidnapping people. They are scum. They are pigs.

… Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) said, “What is deranged and cruel and outrageous is that, literally, we are seeing ICE agents — I assume they‘re ICE agents. They say they are. They don‘t have any identification. They‘re wearing masks. They‘re in plain clothes. They are coming and kidnapping and disappearing people on the streets of the United States.”

‘Tone Down’: Shots Fired at Border Patrol, Sparking Fury

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/tone-down-shots-fired-at-border-patrol-sparking-fury/ss-AA1IJQUo

Latin Times: U.S. Food System in Peril as Deportation Policies Spark Exodus of Undocumented Workers From Industry: Report

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Immigrants make up about 20% of the entire food sector workforce—some 14 million people—including 27% of agricultural workers and 33% of meatpackers

A growing labor shortage triggered by increased immigration enforcement is threatening the stability of the U.S. food system, according to a report by The Guardian. As undocumented workers leave jobs or avoid public life out of fear of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, disruptions are mounting from farms to restaurants nationwide.

In Texas, farmers contacted by the news outlet report that longtime laborers are staying home, fearing arrest and deportation, while in Los Angeles, restaurants and food trucks are shutting down as kitchen and service staff disappear.

“They are scared, there are fewer opportunities, and they are no longer prospering here,” said Elizabeth Rodriguez, director of farm worker advocacy at the National Farm Worker Ministry to The Guardian. “Their fear will soon be seen in the harvest, when the quantities of produce are depleted.”

Immigrants make up about 20% of the entire food sector workforce—some 14 million people—including 27% of agricultural workers and 33% of meatpackers. In restaurants, nearly half of all chefs and nearly a third of cooks are foreign-born, most commonly from Mexico, China, Guatemala, and El Salvador.

“These workers are the backbone of the food chain,” said Mark Lauritsen, a vice president at the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. “Without a stable, skilled workforce, safety and quality can decline, shelves can sit empty and grocery prices could rise even more.”

These jobs are often low-paid and physically demanding. Farmworkers are frequently paid per box of produce, working long hours in extreme heat with limited protections. Nearly half of the most strenuous food industry jobs are filled by undocumented workers.

Amid mounting criticism, officials have suggested the administration is considering exceptions for certain sectors. Tom Homan, White House border advisor, recently confirmed that discussions are underway about policy adjustments for farm and hospitality workers.

President Trump, on his part, has proposed allowing farmers to vouch for migrant workers to avoid deportation.”If a farmer is willing to vouch for these people… I think we’re going to have to just say that’s going to be good,” he recently said at an event at the Iowa State Fairgrounds

U.S. Food System in Peril as Deportation Policies Spark Exodus of Undocumented Workers From Industry: Report
Immigrants make up about 20% of the entire food sector workforce—some 14 million people—including 27% of agricultural workers and 33% of meatpackers

https://www.latintimes.com/us-food-system-peril-deportation-policies-spark-exodus-undocumented-workers-industry-report-587105

Daily Mail: Airline that deports ICE detainees suspends west coast operation after pro-migrant protests

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An airline which has been operating deportation flights for the Trump administration has announced major closures after furious pro-migrant protests at several airports. 

Texas-based budget carrier Avelo Airlines said this week that it will close down its west coast operations at Hollywood Burbank Airport as it struggles financially.

The company said it will reduce its operation at the airport to one aircraft until December 2 and then close the base which currently serves 13 routes.

Avelo said the protests and its contract with DHS did not have any effect on its decision to close the base and have not impacted its business.

‘We believe the continuation service from (Burbank) in the current operating environment will not deliver adequate financial returns in a highly competitive backdrop,’ the company said in a statement.

However, the airport has been the target of several fiery rallies by pro-migrant protesters who have hailed the closure as a response to their calls for a boycott. 

They include Nancy Klein, from Hollywood, California, who organized seven protests with activist groups CA27Indivisible and East Valley Indivisible in Southern California. 

‘This change in Avelo’s business operations is some evidence that being on the right side of history, while being principled and persistent, can make a difference,’ Klein said, adding that another protest is planned at Burbank Airport on July 27. 

The airline signed a contract with the US Department of Homeland Security in April to transport migrants to detention centers inside and outside America. 

It faced backlash from customers and employees over its partnership with the DHS. 

Protests unfolded across the country from outside the Burbank Airport to their hub in New Haven, Connecticut, calling on the airline to end its partnership with the DHS and for customers to boycott the carrier. 

Susan Auerback slammed Avelo for using migrant deportations ‘for their economic benefit’ during a protest at Burbank airport earlier this year.  

‘We will not stand for these mass deportations and we will intervene wherever we can to stop the operation of them,’ she told ABC7 reporters at the scene on April 28. 

‘Protesting an airline that has just decided that this is for their economic benefit to be part of this unjust policy is why we’re here.’

Avelo’s CEO, Andrew Levy, defended the decision at the time, adding that the airline also operated deportation flights under the Biden administration. 

‘We realize this is a sensitive and complicated topic,’ Levy said in a statement. 

‘After significant deliberations, we determined this charter flying will provide us with the stability to continue expanding our core scheduled passenger service and keep our more than 1,100 Crewmembers employed for years to come.’

Avelo said it had made several changes over the past few years to its West Coast operations but they did not produce the results necessary to continue presence there.

Commercial flights to west coast locations are no longer available to buy on the Avelo website.  

The Daily Mail has contacted Avelo for clarity on when commercial listings were dropped, and more information on the DHS operations. 

Boycott Avelo Airlines!

Airline that deports ICE detainees suspends west coast operation
Texas-based budget carrier Avelo Airlines said this week that it will close down its west coast operations at Hollywood Burbank Airport as it struggles financially.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14910985/west-coast-avelo-airlines-suspended-pro-migrant-protests-ice.html

Boycott Avelo Airlines!

LA Times: ICE seizes 6-year-old with cancer outside L.A. court. His mom is fighting for his release

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A Central American asylum applicant arrested outside an L.A. immigration court is suing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security and the Trump administration for her immediate release and that of her two children, including her 6-year-old son stricken with cancer.

The Honduran woman, not named in court documents, filed a petition for writs of habeas corpus, challenging the legality of her and her family’s detention at a Texas facility. She is also asking for a preliminary injunction that would prevent her family’s immediate deportation to Honduras, as her children cry and pray nightly to be released from a Texas holding facility, according to court documents.

She and her two children, including a 9-year-old daughter, are facing two removal proceedings concurrently: a previous removal proceeding involving their asylum request and this recent expedited removal process.

The woman claims the government violated many of their rights, including the due process clause of the 5th Amendment.

Her attorneys noted that DHS determined she was not a flight risk when she was paroled and that her detention was unjustified.

The woman’s lawyers also argued that she was not given an opportunity to contest her family’s detention in front of a neutral adjudicator, and that the family’s 4th Amendment right to not be unlawfully arrested was violated.

The Honduran mother is being represented by several groups, including attorney Kate Gibson Kumar of the Texas Civil Rights Project”So often, you’ll hear all the rhetoric in this country that immigrants should be doing it ‘the right way,’ and it’s ironic in this case because we’re in a situation where this family did it ‘the right way’ and they’re being punished for it,” Kumar told The Times on Friday morning. “They followed the process, went where they were supposed to go and did everything that was asked of them.”

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in San Antonio on Tuesday. Kumar said a Texas judge issued an order late Thursday evening that compelled the government to respond to the habeas corpus petition by July 1.

Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary for public affairs, countered in an email to The Times on Friday morning that the legal process was playing out fairly.

“This family had chosen to appeal their case — which had already been thrown out by an immigration judge — and will remain in ICE custody until it is resolved.”

One of the focal points of the lawsuit is the fate of the woman’s son.

The youth was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia at the age of 3 and has undergone chemotherapy treatments, including injecting chemotherapeutic agents into his cerebrospinal fluid, according to court documents.

He began treatment in Honduras and completed two years of chemotherapy, at which point the mother believes he no longer has leukemia cells in his blood, according to court documents.

The son, however, needs regular monitoring and medical care for his condition, according to court documents.

Last year, the family fled to the United States to “seek safety” after they were subject to “imminent, menacing death threats” in Honduras, according to court documents.

They applied for entrance while waiting in Mexico and received a CBP One app appointment in October to apply for asylum. They presented themselves at an undisclosed border entry, were processed and were paroled in the U.S., according to court documents.

They were scheduled to appear before a Los Angeles immigration court and moved to the area to live with family.

Both children enrolled in local public schools, attended Sunday church and were learning English, according to court documents.

“They’re asylum seekers fleeing from violence, who had an appointment at the border, were paroled into the country and the government made an assessment that they didn’t have to be detained,” Kumar said. “There should be some sort of protection for this family, which is doing everything right.”

The trio arrived at court May 29 for a hearing for their asylum request and were caught off guard when a Homeland Security lawyer asked for their case to be dismissed, according to court documents.

The woman told an immigration judge “we wish to continue [with our cases],” according to court documents.

The judge granted the dismissal and the Honduran mother and two children were immediately arrested by plainclothes ICE agents upon leaving the courtroom in the hallway, according to court documents. The woman had a June 5 medical appointment scheduled for her son’s cancer diagnosis, which he couldn’t attend because of the arrest.

The family was detained for hours on the first floor before being taken to an undisclosed immigration center in the city, according to court documents.

All three “cried in fear” and the young boy urinated on himself and remained in wet clothing “for hours,” according to court documents.

The trio were placed on a flight to San Antonio along with several other families. The date of the flight was not available.

After landing, the family was transported to a detention center in Dilley, Texas, where they remain.

“Fortunately, the minor child in question has not undergone chemotherapy in over a year, and has been seen regularly by medical personnel since arriving at the Dilley facility,” McLaughlin said.

McLaughlin added that no family member had been denied emergency care.

“The implication that ICE would deny a child the medical care they need is flatly FALSE, and it is an insult to the men and women of federal law enforcement,” she said. “ICE ALWAYS prioritizes the health, safety, and well-being of all detainees in its care.”

The children have cried each night and prayed “for God to take them out of the detention center,” according to court documents.

The mother claims that the federal government did nothing to monitor her son’s leukemia for days.

Her lawyers have also sought the boy’s release for medical treatment, a request that was not fulfilled.

ICE seizes 6-year-old with cancer outside L.A. court. His mom is fighting for his release
A Honduran woman is fighting to prevent her family’s immediate deportation to Honduras as her 6-year-old son battles acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-06-26/mother-of-6-year-old-l-a-boy-battling-leukemia-files-lawsuit-to-stop-immediate-deportation

Daily Express: Kristi [Bimbo #2] Noem explodes over ‘false’ FEMA failure report as flood deaths soar

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The DHS head has been accused of being unprepared to handle the natural disaster, which killed 129 people and left 160 missing, but she denies the claims.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi [Bimbo #2] Noem accused The New York Times of politicizing the deadly Texas floods following the publication of a report that sharply criticized her handling of the catastrophic disaster.

“It’s just false,” [Bimbo #2] Noem said about the damning report on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday. “It’s discouraging that during this time, when we have such a loss of life and so many people’s lives have turned upside down, that people are playing politics with this because the response time was immediate.”

The investigation revealed that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which operates under the DHS, left “nearly two-thirds” of thousands of desperate victims without answers when they placed distress calls during the July Fourth weekend deluge in Central Texas, a disaster that has taken 129 lives while 160 remain missing. It came as an extraordinary throwback photo revealed Noem’s face BEFORE plastic surgery – but she still denies any procedures.

[Bimbo #2] Noem, who critics have nicknamed “ICE Barbie” due to her tendency to dress up for immigration-related photo-ops, has come under intense fire for her management of the event, especially regarding the overhauls she has implemented at the massive federal agency.

Numerous detractors, including Texas legislators, have charged her with being ill-equipped to manage the natural disaster, allegations she has forcefully rejected.

The former South Dakota governor terminated “hundreds of contractors at call centers” as part of cost-cutting measures, along with other modifications, that purportedly weakened the federal emergency response to the calamity.

CNN reports that she is facing allegations of hindering search and rescue operations by instituting a new policy requiring her personal approval for any contracts or grants exceeding $100,000.

She has forcefully denied the findings of the report, which she insinuates was driven by hidden political motives.

“I’m not sure where it came from,” [Bimbo #2] Noem told NBC. “The individuals who are giving you information out of FEMA, I’d love to have them put their names behind it because anonymous attacks to politicize the situation is completely wrong.

“The false reporting has been something that is inappropriate and it’s something that I think we need to clear up.”

In an ironic twist, she proceeded to make a political statement herself, asserting that her management of the natural disaster surpassed what the Biden administration could have achieved.

“This response was by far the best response we’ve seen out of FEMA, the best response we’ve seen out of the federal government in many, many years and certainly much better than what we saw under Joe Biden,” she claimed.

Amidst the devastating aftermath of the floods, there has been growing concern that U.S. President Donald Trump might act on his repeated threats to dismantle FEMA. Nonetheless, [Bimbo #2] Noem addressed these worries, arguing that such fears are unfounded.

“The president recognizes that FEMA should not exist in the way that it always has been,” she remarked. “It needs to be redeployed, in a new way, and that’s what we did during this response.”

Addressing concerns, she also noted that other federal resources can be utilized in addition to FEMA.

Kristi “Bimbo #2” Noem is a pathological liar who couldn’t tell the truth if her life depended on it.

Kristi Noem explodes over ‘false’ FEMA failure report as flood deaths soar
The DHS head has been accused of being unprepared to handle the natural disaster, which killed 129 people and left 160 missing, but she denies the claims.

https://www.the-express.com/news/politics/177412/kristi-noem-fema-report-response

Salon: “Cried every night”: ICE traumatizes a child with leukemia

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The Trump administration is going after easy targets, including sick children, to meet its deportation quotas

As part of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign, a young cancer patient and his family were detained, despite adhering to every rule of the immigration process. The boy’s lawyer says the family’s experience puts to lie the Trump administration’s claims about deportation.

In May, a 6-year-old boy from Honduras who had been suffering from acute lymphoblastic leukemia since the age of three was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, alongside his family, immediately after a court hearing on May 29. Their case was dismissed at the hearing, per instructions from Trump, who directed judges to dismiss the cases of immigrants who have been in the country for less than two years so that ICE can move to deport them. On July 2, the family was released after significant pressure from the public and media coverage of the detention.

Elora Mukherjee, an attorney who represented the boy and his family, told Salon that the boy and his 9-year-old sister “cried every night in detention.” At the same time, the government pursued an expedited removal, a process by which the government deports someone without a hearing before a judge.

“The Trump administration’s policy of detaining people at courthouses who are doing everything right, who are entirely law-abiding, who are trying to fulfill all the requirements that the US government asks of them — it violates our Constitution, it violates our federal laws. It also violates our sense of morality. Why are we targeting hundreds, if not thousands, of people, including children, who are doing everything right?” Mukherjee said.

Jeff Migliozzi, the communications director for Freedom for Immigrants, an immigrant advocacy organziation, told Salon that “The Trump administration’s aggressive quota of 3,000 daily immigration arrests — a policy pushed by hardliners in the White House like known white nationalist Stephen Miller — is terrorizing communities.”

“The administration is directing resources and personnel from every possible corner of the government to conduct a multi-agency detention and deportation campaign at unprecedented scale,” Migliozzi said.. “This destructive agenda touches every corner of American life and civil society, as more and more people, including those who have been in the US for decades and are pillars of their community, are suddenly snatched by masked agents and taken away to remote detention sites. Street operations are resource-intensive, so the administration has increasingly turned to bait-and-switch tactics to drive up the numbers. ICE is now relying more on arrests at scheduled check-ins and at courthouses. These practices underscore not only the cruelty of this administration’s policy, but of the outdated and unfair immigration system. Here you have people doing everything they can to follow the instructions given to them, and then the rug is pulled out from under them. The result is separated families and shattered lives.”

Despite living in Los Angeles, the family was kept at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas for over a month. The center had been closed under the Biden Administration, but has been reopened as part of Trump’s push to deport as many immigrants as possible.

In detention, Mukherjee said that the boy suffered from easy bruising and bone pain, both symptoms of leukemia, and missed a June 5 medical appointment related to his cancer treatment. His sister barely ate in detention, she added.

In response to a request for comment from Salon, Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, “ICE does not consider a six-year-old child a ‘flight risk’ or a ‘criminal’—that is a disgusting accusation and devoid of any reality. ”

McLaughlin claimed that the family entered the United States illegally and that “Any implications that ICE would deny a child proper medical care are FALSE,” adding that “ICE ALWAYS prioritizes the health, safety, and well-being of all detainees in its care.”

“On May 29, 2025, an immigration judge in California dismissed the family’s immigration case and they were served orders of expedited removal,” McLaughlin said. “ICE took custody of the family following the judge’s decision and pending further proceedings. The child arrived at the Dilley facility on May 30, 2025, and was seen by a nurse during intake. Fortunately, the child has not undergone chemotherapy in over a year and was seen regularly by medical personnel while at the Dilley facility. During this time, the family chose to appeal their case. On July 2, the child, his mother, and his sister were released on parole.”

The Dilley detention facility has been subject to renewed scrutiny as the Trump administration has sought to terminate the Flores Settlement, a 1990s-era policy stemming from the Supreme Court case Reno v. Flores, which set basic standards for the treatment of children in detention and required the government to release children from detention without unnecessary delay.

Recent testimony about conditions at ICE facilities has raised concerns over violations of the agreement, with one girl describing situations in which adults and children were fighting over an insufficient amount of water at one facility.

“We don’t get enough water. They put out a little case of water, and everyone has to run for it,” the girl said in testimony related to conditions in immigrant detention. “An adult here even pushed my little sister out of the way to get to the water first.”

Mukherjee said that the family had followed all the rules in coming to the United States, but were still arrested by ICE. And, despite claims from the Trump administration that they’re focusing their efforts on criminals, neither the small children nor the mother had been accused of a crime. The family arrived in the United States in October, applying for asylum after they faced death threats in Honduras. The names and details of the family have not been released due to the threats they face in Honduras.

“So this particular family did everything right. They came to the U.S. border after fleeing imminent and menacing death threats in their home country of Honduras. They didn’t cross the border illegally. They waited for permission to enter the United States using a CBP one appointment. At that point, DHS paroled the family into the United States, which necessarily entailed a determination that the family did not pose a danger to the community or a flight risk,” Mukherjee said. “The family did exactly what the federal government asked them to do.”

According to Mukherjee, as soon as the family stepped out of their May 29 hearing, plain clothes ICE officers detained them, a move that she said “clearly violates both the Fourth Amendment and the Fifth Amendment.”

“When Trump was campaigning for president, and since he’s become president, and high-level officials in the Department of Homeland Security constantly say that we are targeting the ‘worst of the worst,’” Mukherjee said. “These are the people who are doing everything right.”

Their release followed a suit filed by the mother of the family, demanding the family’s immediate release. Mukherjee told Salon that the family intends to continue its legal battle to remain in the United States.

“Cried every night”: ICE detains child with leukemia – Salon.com
The Trump administration is going after easy targets, including sick children, to meet its deportation quotas

https://www.salon.com/2025/07/14/cried-every-night-ice-traumatizes-a-child-with-leukemia