Reuters: Trump administration defends immigration tactics after California worker death

“Padilla said he had spoken with the UFW about the farmworker who died in the ICE raid. He said a steep arrest quota imposed by the Trump administration in late May had led to more aggressive and dangerous enforcement.

“‘It’s causing ICE to get more aggressive, more cruel, more extreme, and these are the results,’ Padilla said. It’s people dying.'”

Federal officials on Sunday defended President Donald Trump’s escalating campaign to deport immigrants in the U.S. illegally, including a California farm raid that left one worker dead, and said the administration would appeal a ruling to halt some of its more aggressive tactics.

Trump has vowed to deport millions of people in the country illegally and has executed raids at work sites including farms that were largely exempted from enforcement during his first term. The administration has faced dozens of lawsuits across the country for its tactics.

Department of Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem and Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said on Sunday that the administration would appeal a federal judge’s Friday ruling that blocked the administration from detaining immigrants based solely on racial profiling and denying detained people the right to speak with a lawyer.

In interviews with Fox News and CNN, Noem criticized the judge, an appointee of Democratic former President Joe Biden, and denied that the administration had used the tactics described in the lawsuit.

“We will appeal, and we will win,” she said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”

Homan said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that physical characteristics could be one factor among multiple that would establish a reasonable suspicion that a person lacked legal immigration status, allowing federal officers to stop someone.

During a chaotic raid and resulting protests on Thursday at two sites of a cannabis farm in Southern California, 319 people in the U.S. illegally were detained and federal officers encountered 14 migrant minors, Noem said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.” 

Workers were injured during the raid and one later died from his injuries, according to the United Farm Workers.

Homan told CNN that the farmworker’s death was tragic but that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were doing their jobs and executing criminal search warrants.

“It’s always unfortunate when there’s deaths,” he said.

U.S. Senator Alex Padilla said on CNN that federal agents are using racial profiling to arrest people. Padilla, a California Democrat and the son of Mexican immigrants, was forcibly removed from a Noem press conference in Los Angeles in June and handcuffed after trying to ask a question.

Padilla said he had spoken with the UFW about the farmworker who died in the ICE raid. He said a steep arrest quota imposed by the Trump administration in late May had led to more aggressive and dangerous enforcement.

“It’s causing ICE to get more aggressive, more cruel, more extreme, and these are the results,” Padilla said. “It’s people dying.”

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-administration-defends-immigration-tactics-after-california-worker-death-2025-07-13

Mediaite: ‘Bring It!’ Trump Border Czar Tom Homan Unleashes on Heckler at TPUSA Event: ‘You’re Such a Badass, Meet Me Off Stage!’

Great job on the part of a protestor who “owned” Tom “Pugsley” Homan by getting in his face with a fake picture portraying him as a MS-13 member, faked in the same manner that his corrupt subordinates and White House cronies had tried to frame Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

Well done, guy!!!!

Trump border czar Tom Homan ripped into a heckler on Saturday during remarks to the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit, saying the man doesn’t have “the balls” to serve his country among other things, in a video that went viral on social media.

Homan spoke at TPUSA’s event on Saturday about the immigration and enforcement policies of President Donald Trump and the administration, praising the courage of ICE agents in enforcing immigration laws, deriding criticism from Democrats, and expressing anger over repeated acts of violence against law enforcement carrying out the administration’s massive round-ups and deportations.

As he was speaking to the crowd, a voice shouted out asking Homan if he belongs to the ultra-violent drug gang MS-13.

The man who was shouting was holding a poster-sized manipulated image depicting Homan with an MS-13 tattoo on his knuckles, a clear reference to the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

The heckler was dressed in MAGA gear, apparently using the MAGA gear as cover to get past security and into a position where he could make his protest.

Homan responded forcefully, to the delight of the crowd, and a clip of the moment went viral from several different accounts on X.

“Are you an MS-13 member? It says so–” the heckler shouted, getting drowned out by the crowd before the rest of the reference to the image he was holding could be heard.

“That’s okay! That’s okay!” Homan said. “I’ve got a question for you. Why don’t you come up here and hand me that picture? Bring it! Bring it! U-S-A! U-S-A!”

The crowd joined in on the chanting, and after a few seconds Homan continued.

“This guy wouldn’t know what it’s like to serve this nation. This guy ain’t got the balls to be an ICE Officer. He hasn’t got the balls to be a Border Patrol Agent,” Homan said as the crowd continued to cheer. “This guy lives in his mother’s basement – the only thing that surprises me, you don’t have purple hair and a nose ring. Get out of here, you loser!”

After another pause as the man was being escorted out by security, Homan added: “And you’re such a badass, meet me off stage in 13 minutes and 50 seconds. I guarantee you, he sits down to pee. Guaranteed.”

Homan remarked on sanctuary cities, saying they’ve told him he’s not welcome there but he goes anyway. He then addressed the heckler again.

“Assholes like this guy think they’re going to vilify men and women of ICE, that they’re gonna intimidate or scare us,” he said. “I’m not going anywheres, either is the men and woman of ICE. We’re gonna do the job that President Trump gave us to do.”

Did clueless Pugsley Homan have any idea how badly he was “owned” in that exchange?

Mediaite: Stephen Miller Through Spox Over Trump-Blocking Court Order In Late-Night Victory Dance

After a circuit judge issued an order restraining ICE’s unconstitutional behavior, the White House’s chief fascist, Stephen Miller, is having a major meltdown.

Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) raged through a spokesperson at White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller over a new ruling blocking Trump deportation forces from certain arrests and detentions, calling Miller a “fascist cuck” through a spokesperson.

Biden-appointed Federal District Court Judge Maame E. Frimpong ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to halt indiscriminate arrests and stops in California on Friday, just after Trump border czar Tom Homan sparked outrage by claiming the right to detain people based on attributes like “physical appearance.”

Miller reacted to the news by posting an angry reaction to X/Twitter, writing:

The ruling has just been issued. A communist judge in LA has ordered ICE to report directly to her and radical left NGOs — not the president. This is another act of insurrection against the United States and its sovereign people.

That post prompted a MAGA troll-style rebuttal from Newsom’s official press office account:

This fascist cuck in DC continues his assault on democracy and the Constitution, and his attempt to replace the sovereignty of the people with autocracy. Sorry the Constitution hurt your feelings, Stephen. Cry harder.

The term “cuck” is a widely-used MAGA slur, but in this case may refer to derogatory rumors about Miller’s marriage.

Izzy Gardon, Newsom’s Director of Communications, told Mediaite that “We were inspired by the White House’s use of the term.”

Newsom used the official governor’s account to post a slightly more measured reaction earlier in the evening:

Justice prevailed today.

The court’s decision puts a temporary stop to federal immigration officials violating people’s rights and racial profiling.

California stands with the law and the Constitution — and I call on the Trump Administration to do the same.

The Trump administration has vowed to appeal the ruling.

“No federal judge has the authority to dictate immigration policy — that authority rests with Congress and the President. Enforcement operations require careful planning and execution; skills far beyond the purview (or) jurisdiction of any judge. We expect this gross overstep of judicial authority to be corrected on appeal,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson said in response to the decision.

Suck it up, fascist loser Stephen Miller, it’s only just begun!

The Hill: [Bimbo #2] Noem on blocked ICE operations ruling: Judges are ‘getting too political’

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi [Bimbo #2] Noem criticized a ruling from a federal judge that bars the Trump administration from using “unconstitutional” immigration enforcement efforts in parts of California, saying judges are “getting political” and that it is “not their job.”

During an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” [Bimbo #2] Noem was asked about the Friday ruling from U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, an appointee of former President Biden. The order granted two temporary restraining orders preventing officials from targeting individuals for removal on the basis of race, language or employment and requiring the Department of Homeland Security to grant detainees access to legal counsel. 

“Well, this federal judge’s ruling is ridiculous. We never ran our operations that way,” [Bimbo #2] Noem said.

“We’ve seen this across the country over and over and over again, where judges are getting political. It’s not their job,” she added. “I hope they can bring some dignity back to the bench because we’re lacking it now for many of these federal judges.”

[Bimbo #2] Noem said the judge’s ruling is “wrong” and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) does not target individuals on the basis of race, language or employment, adding that they will win their case.

F*CK*NG LIAR!

“It’s been done exactly how law enforcement has operated for many years in this country, and ICE is out there making sure we get the worst off the streets,” she added. “So this judge made a decision that we will appeal and we will win, because he’s wrong. We’ve never targeted individuals based on those qualifications that he laid out.”

F*CK*NG LIAR!

Her statement follows a Fox News interview with President Trump’s border czar Tom Homan, who said that federal immigration agents do not need probable cause to detain people for a short period and that agents can “just go through the observations, get articulable facts, based on their location, their occupation, their physical appearance, their actions.”

“People need to understand, ICE officers and Border Patrol don’t need probable cause to walk up to somebody, briefly detain them, and question them,” he said on “Fox & Friends” on Friday.

His statement comes weeks after protests in Los Angeles and surrounding areas erupted over an uptick in ICE raids.

Stupid sycophantic Trump suck-up!

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5398727-noem-ice-operations-ruling

Mediaite: MSNBC Contributor Suggests Masked ICE Agents Could Face ‘Lawful Exercise’ of ‘Right of Self-Defense’ Against Them

Yes!!! Just shoot the unidentified scumbag bully boys!!!

MSNBC contributor Joyce Vance said Saturday that by wearing masks when enforcing federal immigration laws across the country, ICE agents could face “lawful” violence against them by people who mistake the raids for a kidnapping.

On the latest Velshi from MSNBC, Vance joined host Ali Velshi and fellow guest, author Lucan Way, a Toronto political science professor, to discuss the mass detainment and deportations by ICE under the direction of border czar Tom Homan and President Donald Trump after a judge’s order blocking some of those practices was issued on Friday.

Vance, who is co-host of the #SistersInLaw podcast along with Jill Wine-Banks and Barbara McQuade, is a former United States attorney, and spoke first on the legal implications of statements from ICE director Homan.

Velshi then asked specifically about ICE agents wearing masks, which the administration has said is for the safety of the officers, who have already faced many acts of violence and extreme threats.

Velshi asked Vance, as a former prosecutor, about the legal basis for masking agents making arrests in the ongoing raids.

“There are very serious legal restrictions around the use of, for instance, FBI agents as undercover operatives. Very strict rules regarding how it’s done, what they can do, what they can’t do,” Vance said. “But you know what I’ve never seen: a federal agent working a case due is pull a mask up so nobody knows who they are and go out and terrorize a civilian population.”

Earlier in the show, Velshi argued, “we’re witnessing a police state taking shape before our eyes,” and suggested, as did professor Way, that soon ICE will be turned to rounding up any political opponent or critic of Trump, whether it has anything to do with immigration or not.

Vance, for her part, called the practice of wearing masks “not normal” and a “danger sign,” and dismissed the idea that it might be for the safety of the ICE agents. Instead, she argued, they are less safe, because people might mistake the masked officers in these giant raids for kidnappers and become lawfully violent.

“When you’re masked like that and people don’t know who you are, someone might exercise their lawful right of self-defense to protect themselves, thinking they’re being kidnapped,” she said. “So the notion that this is for law enforcement’s protection is utterly ludicrous. And we need to do away with that.”

VELSHI: You’re a prosecutor, I want to ask you, there are legitimate reasons why some enforcement agencies, some police agencies, go undercover or, you know, do things in shadows to achieve certain things. I would assume that’s specific and, you, know, it needs to be, needs to comport with some laws.

VANCE: Exactly. There are very serious legal restrictions around the use of, for instance, FBI agents as undercover operatives. Very strict rules regarding how it’s done, what they can do, what they can’t do. But you know what I’ve never seen a federal agent working a case due is pull a mask up so nobody knows who they are and go out and terrorize a civilian population.

And I think it’s important for us at this point to be very plain-speaking when we say that this is not normal, it’s not acceptable, and it’s a danger sign. You know, we are well past the point where we can just identify danger signs and say, oh, there might be problems down the road. The problems are here, they’re in the right now.

And as we see people being pulled off the streets — you know, the danger to law enforcement, quite frankly, is that when you’re masked like that and people don’t know who you are, someone might exercise their lawful right of self-defense to protect themselves, thinking they’re being kidnapped. So the notion that this is for law enforcement’s protection is utterly ludicrous. And we need to do away with that.

TAG 24 News: Trump administration loses it over ICEBlock app: “Sure looks like obstruction of justice!”

On Monday, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi [Bimbo #2] Noem shared an X post that included a clip from a CNN segment about the ICEBlock app, which creator Joshua Aaron told the network was created not to target agents, but rather to allow users to “avoid them altogether.”

“This sure looks like obstruction of justice,” [Bimbo #2] Noem wrote in her post.

It’s no different than holding up a sign that says “speed trap ahead” or “roadblock in half a mile” — it’s constitutionally protected free speech.

And when your Gestapo goons are snatching people off the streets based on their skin color, it’s a matter of self-preservation and self-defense. We are not lemmings.

“Our brave ICE law enforcement face a 500% increase in assaults against them,” she went on to claim, without providing evidence.

Who the fuck cares what happens to masked Gestapo thugs indiscriminately snatching brown people (including U.S. citizens) off the streets to meet their arrest quotas? Fuck ’em!

https://www.tag24.com/politics/politicians/donald-trump/trump-administration-loses-it-over-iceblock-app-3399542

Mediaite: Trump Border Czar Demands Justice Department Investigation Into CNN For Reporting on ICE

Border czar Tom Homan called for a Justice Department investigation into a CNN segment reporting on an app that tracks ICE — apparently under the mistaken assumption that the cable news network itself is tracking law enforcement agents.

“CNN is pushing an app to track ICE agents to help criminal aliens evade being detained,” pro-Trump commentator Benny Johnson said during an interview with Homan on his podcast Monday.

“It’s disgusting,” Homan replied.

“This is horrendous that a national media outlet would be out there trying to forecast law enforcement operations throughout the country,” Homan added. “It’s incredible where we’re at as a country and I think DOJ needs to look at this and see if they crossed that line.”

Total bullshit so far. The app doesn’t forecast anything. It’s hard to believe that Trump’s so-called “Border Czar” is really this stupid, but yes, he is.

Despite Homan’s claim, the CNN report in question was not “trying to forecast” ICE operations, it was reporting on an app that does so.

Well, that’s SLIGHTLY better, except that the app still doesn’t FORECAST anything.

The free app allows users to anonymously plot ICE sightings on a map, which then sends alerts to all users within a five mile radius.

Every logged sighting is accompanied by the disclaimer: “Please note that the use of this app is for information and notification purposes only. It is not to be used for the purposes of inciting violence or interfering with law enforcement.”

Reporting what you’ve seen and sharing that info with others is protected free speech under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, a simple fact which fools like Tom Homan nevertheless find difficult to comprehend.

Center Square: Administration responds to ‘promotion’ of anti-ICE app

An app called ICEBlock designed to help people avoid U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents is now available for download for free in the Apple app store.

The Trump administration said the app is dangerous for federal agents enforcing federal laws.

CNN posted a video interview with the app’s designer, Joshua Aaron, a “musician and developer,” according to the network, Monday morning.

“When I saw what was happening in this country, I wanted to do something to fight back,” Aaron said.

Just like popular navigation apps rely on users’ real-time reports of car accidents or construction and then alert other users taking those routes, ICEBlock relies on users to report sightings of ICE agents and then reflects those sightings on a map. Users can be notified of all of the reported sightings within a five-mile radius.

The app contains a disclaimer that it does not “collect, store or process any personal data about you.”

“One of the core principles in the design of this app is 100% anonymity for our user base,” Aaron told CNN Tech Reporter Clare Duffy. “There is no sign-up process. There is no user data collected. There is no user data even captured by our app.”

Aaron told Duffy that there were already 20,000 users by the time of the interview.

And of course the dumbest woman in America, White House press secretary Karoline “Bimbo #1” Leavitt, is whining:

“I’ll have to go back and watch the clip myself, but surely it sounds like this would be an incitement of further violence against our ICE officers,” Leavitt said. “As you know… there’s been a 500% increase in violence against ICE agents, law enforcement officers across the country who are just simply trying to do their jobs and remove public safety threats from our communities.”

And Faux News can’t pass up an opportunity to make a false accusation against its competitor:

Fox News and others suggested that CNN was promoting the app in its coverage.

“It’s unacceptable that a major network would promote such an app that is encouraging violence against law enforcement officers who are trying to keep our country safe,” Leavitt added.

And the Head Goon himself is getting bent out of shape:

Border Czar Tom Homan appeared on Fox Across America, a national live syndicated radio talk show, later Monday afternoon to speak on the issue. Homan echoed Leavitt’s comments and said it would enable “bad guys” to escape apprehension. He also said he has enlisted the help of the Department of Justice to respond.

“It also puts ICE in an extremely dangerous position because… there’s going to be one guy that’s going to happen soon that’s laying in wait, who’s going to, you know, wait for ICE to show up and attack them. So this is a dangerous, dangerous situation,” Homan told the host. “I’ve sent that information over to DOJ. I asked them to take whatever legal action they can take to take because this is an unprecedented attack, even by a media outlet, on the safety and security of those who are trying to force laws on this country.”

At the end of the day, the First Amendment will prevail!

https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/article_ae793d5f-a990-4867-831f-1fc4d64df1ee.html

Guardian: Throwing their bodies on the gears: the Democratic lawmakers showing up to resist Trump

Republicans may literally own social media platforms, but some Democrats are buying back legitimacy with protests

A flock of Ice agents, some masked, some sporting military-operator fashion for show, smooshed the New York City comptroller, Brad Lander, up against a wall and handcuffed him in the hallway of a federal courthouse in early June, shuffling the mild-mannered politician into an elevator like the Sandman hustling an act off the stage 10 miles north at Harlem’s Apollo Theater.

Like at the Apollo, Lander’s arrest was a show. News reporters and cellphone camera-wielding bystanders crowded the hall to watch the burly federal officers rumple a 55-year-old auditor asking for a warrant.

“I’m not obstructing. I’m standing here in this hallway asking for a judicial warrant,” Lander said. “You don’t have the authority to arrest US citizens.”

“This is an urgent moment for the rule of law in the United States of America and it is important to step up,” Lander told the Guardian after the arrest. “And I think the dividing line for Democrats right now is not between progressives and moderates. It’s between fighters and folders. We have to find nonviolent but insistent ways of standing up for democracy and the rule of law.”

“There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part,” Mario Savio, a student leader in the free speech movement, a campaign of civil disobedience against restrictive policies on student political activity, said 60 years ago during a campus protest. “You can’t even passively take part. And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop.”

Hannah Dugan, a Wisconsin judge, allowed a man to leave through the back doors of her courtroom, allegedly in response to the presence of immigration officers waiting to arrest him. FBI agents subsequently arrested Dugan in her Milwaukee courtroom on 25 April, charging her with obstruction.

The FBI director, Kash Patel, posted comments about her arrest on X almost immediately, and eventually posted a photograph of her arrest, handcuffed and walking toward a police cruiser, with the comment: “No one is above the law.” Digitally altered photographs of Dugan appearing to be in tears in a mugshot proliferated on social media. Trump himself reposted an image from the Libs of TikTok website of Dugan wearing a Covid-19 mask on the day of her arrest.

Three days later …

It’s long read — best to click on the link below and read the article in its entirety.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/30/democrats-trump-resistance

Huffington Post: Trump’s Immigration Arrests Are Seeing A Wave Of Resistance

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 taxesshow up to court dates and check-inswork 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 processvolunteers 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 

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-mass-deportation-resistance-choke-points_n_685d882fe4b01b4b31df992f