CNN: Court orders Trump administration to return another wrongly deported man

A federal appeals court in New York on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of a Salvadoran man deported last month to his native country just minutes after the same court ruled he shouldn’t be removed from the US.

An order issued by judges from the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit stated the government must facilitate the return of Jordin Melgar-Salmeron, 31, “as soon as possible.”

Melgar-Salmeron, who was deported in May, is at least the fourth individual to have been wrongly removed from the US, despite court rulings or protected status, amid the administration’s vast deportation efforts.

The judges also stated the government must file within a week a supplemental declaration addressing Melgar-Salmeron’s current physical location and custodial status and include what steps the government will take, “and when, to facilitate his return to the United States.”

https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/25/us/court-trump-wrongly-deported-man-hnk

Tampa Free Press: National Guard Joins DEA In California Desert To Bust Illicit Marijuana Grow

National Guard troops deployed to California to quell the anti-deportation riots were later mobilized to help federal agents bust dozens of illegal migrants working at illegal marijuana farms.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) confirmed that their agents, working in conjunction with multiple federal agency partners, arrested at least 70 illegal migrants allegedly working at multiple illegal marijuana farms in California’s Coachella Valley. National Guard troops assisted DEA, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agents in the massive raid.

Roughly 315 National Guard troops mobilized to respond to the anti-ICE violence were redeployed to the Coachella Valley area to help federal agents with the operation, according to newly filed court documents obtained by the LA Times.

Using nationally mobilized National Guard troops for law enforcement purposes is a clear violation of the federal Posse Comitatus Act.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/national-guard-joins-dea-in-california-desert-to-bust-illicit-marijuana-grow/ar-AA1HlkRx

Newsweek: Former HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra: They Created a Crisis in LA To Cover for a Catastrophe in D.C. | Opinion

This month, Californians filled the streets of Los Angeles to peacefully demand justice for SEIU President David Huerta—who was violently detained by ICE during an immigration protest—and for so many hardworking immigrant families across our state. The response? Tear gas. Rubber bullets. National Guard troops unnecessarily deployed to flex federal muscle. And a United States senator literally wrestled to the ground for daring to ask basic questions.

This wasn’t just an overreaction. It was a message: fall in line—or face the consequences.

At the same time, in Washington, the Trump administration is dismantling the very systems that keep our families safe and healthy. They’re firing scientists, defunding cancer research, slashing Medicaid, and replacing trusted experts with conspiracy theorists. It’s not just policy failure. It’s a campaign of calculated neglect—and political retribution aimed at states like ours that dare to push back.

In just six months, the Trump administration has launched a full-scale assault on these safeguards. They’ve gutted funding, laid off thousands of career scientists, and shuttered key public health teams—all while claiming these cuts are about “efficiency.”

Let’s be clear: this isn’t streamlining. It’s sabotage.

This administration didn’t just fire the experts tracking avian flu, which has now infected dozens of people in California and is spreading rapidly through livestock. They disbanded the FDA team investigating the lead-contaminated applesauce that poisoned more than 500 children. They cut NIH programs working to prevent cancer and Alzheimer’s. They even fired the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel—weeks after a measles outbreak, as pregnant women and children remain vulnerable to viruses like COVID-19—only to replace them with vaccine skeptics.

https://www.newsweek.com/former-hhs-secretary-xavier-becerra-they-created-crisis-la-cover-catastrophe-dc-opinion-2089591

The Nation: The Supreme Court Just Cosigned One of Trump’s Most Lawless Immigration Moves

Deporting people to countries where they might be tortured or killed? All good, according to the six GOP justices.

Deporting people to countries where they might be tortured or killed? All good, according to the six GOP justices.

I always knew that Donald Trump’s unhinged cruelty toward immigrants would find aid and comfort among the Republicans on the Supreme Court. But I held out hope that his brazen violations of lower-court orders might give the Republicans pause before greenlighting Trump’s continued terror campaign against people who didn’t happen to be born here.

On Monday, that small sliver of hope was dashed. The Supreme Court issued a ruling from its emergency docket allowing Trump to send immigrants to third-party countries—even ones where they might be tortured and killed. The Republican order violates this country’s constitutional grant of due process, international human rights laws, literal treaties to which this country is a signatory, and basic human decency. In other words, it was a bog-standard Republican Supreme Court ruling.

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/supreme-court-trump-deportations

NBC News: Trump administration accuses judge of ‘unprecedented defiance’ of Supreme Court in immigration dispute

The Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to clarify a decision Monday that paved the way for the government to quickly deport criminal immigrants to “third countries.”

 fight over the fate of six migrants the Trump administration wants to deport to South Sudan flared up again on Tuesday as the Justice Department accused a federal judge of “unprecedented defiance” of a Supreme Court decision the previous day.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer filed a motion at the Supreme Court seeking clarification of the Monday evening decision that lifted nationwide restrictions on the administration’s ability to send convicted criminals to “third countries” they have no connection to.

Immediately after the Supreme Court action, Massachusetts-based U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy, who is presiding over the litigation, said in a docket entry he did not believe that a May 21 order he issued that prevented the six people being sent to South Sudan had been blocked by the justices. The detainees are currently being held in a U.S. facility in Djibouti.

Murphy’s understanding was that the high court had blocked only his earlier ruling that set nationwide rules giving those affected a “meaningful opportunity” to bring claims that they would be at risk of torture, persecution or death if they were sent to countries the administration has made deals with to receive deported immigrants.

The Supreme Court itself did not explain its decision and did not specify which of Murphy’s rulings were blocked. But liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who wrote a dissenting opinion, said she did not think Murphy’s May 21 decision was affected.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/trump-administration-accuses-judge-unprecedented-defiance-supreme-cour-rcna214735

Newsweek: Trump admin ordered to return man deported to El Salvador

President Donald Trump‘s administration has been ordered to return a Salvadoran man who was deported minutes after a federal appeals court blocked his removal.

Jordin Melgar-Salmeron was deported to El Salvador on May 7 despite an order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, New York, blocking it.

On Tuesday, the appeals court ordered the administration to “facilitate the return” of Melgar-Salmeron as soon as possible to “ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.”

It also directed the government to return to court within one week to provide details on the current location of Melgar-Salmeron and how it planned to return him to the United States.

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-admin-ordered-return-man-deported-el-salvador-2090058

CBS News: Cuts to FEMA’s storm prep program hammer communities that voted for Trump

A CBS News investigation found two-thirds of counties that have lost funding from this FEMA program supported President Trump in the 2024 election.

The mayor of Central — a community of about 30,000 outside of Baton Rouge — Evans and his family were forced to evacuate their home by boat in 2016 when flooding from torrential rains destroyed 60% of the structures in town.

“Flood water doesn’t discriminate,” said Evans, a Republican and supporter of President Trump. ‘”Any person that flooded is shocked that it would be considered politics to do flood mitigation.”

So when he received word in April that FEMA was canceling a grant program that would provide nearly $40 million for a new flood control system in Central, he was angry. In a press release, FEMA said the program, which provided funding for infrastructure projects in storm-prone communities, was “wasteful” and had become “more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans recover from natural disasters.”

“To me, it’s a brilliant business decision,” said Evans, who said the drainage project in Central would have saved money in the long run by protecting houses that routinely sustain flood damage FEMA ultimately ends up covering. “And then they pulled the rug out from under us.”

Evans and Central aren’t alone. Amid the avalanche of cuts made in the first five months of the Trump administration, none may have red state politicians more up in arms than the cancellation of the infrastructure program, which is formally known as Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, or BRIC for short.

The $4.6 billion initiative was launched under the first Trump administration, and a CBS News analysis of FEMA data revealed that two-thirds of the counties awarded grants voted for President Trump over former Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 election.

In other words, King Donald is giving his own fan bois the royal shaft!

https://www.cbsnews.com/femagrantcuts

Alternet: This obscure Supreme Court decision could impact Trump’s agenda — and restore faith in the court

But there is one recent decision where the court was unanimous in its ruling, perhaps because its holding should not be controversial: National Rifle Association v. Vullo. In that 2024 case, the court said that it’s a clear violation of the First Amendment’s free speech provisions for government to force people to speak and act in ways that are aligned with its policies.

The second Trump administration has tried to wield executive branch power in ways that appear to punish or suppress speech and opposition to administration policy priorities. Many of those attempts have been legally challenged and will likely make their way to the Supreme Court.

The somewhat under-the-radar – yet incredibly important – decision in National Rifle Association v. Vullo is likely to figure prominently in Supreme Court rulings in a slew of those cases in the coming months and years, including those involving law firms, universities and the Public Broadcasting Service.

In May 2024, in an opinion written by reliably liberal Sonia Sotomayor, a unanimous court ruled that the efforts of New York state government officials to punish companies doing business with the NRA constituted clear violations of the First Amendment.

Following its own precedent from the 1960s, Bantam Books v. Sullivan, the court found that government officials “cannot attempt to coerce private parties in order to punish or suppress views that the government disfavors.”

https://www.alternet.org/trump-supreme-court-2672423710

LA Times: Judge in Newsom vs. Trump could soon order L.A. troop deployment records handed over

The Trump administration could soon be forced to turn over a cache of documents, photos, internal reports and other evidence detailing the activities of the military in Southern California, a federal judge wrote Tuesday, signaling a possible procedural victory to the state in its fight to rein in thousands of troops under the president’s command.

If he approves “expedited, limited discovery,” Senior U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer in San Francisco would likely also authorize California lawyers to depose key administration officials and might review questions about how long California National Guard troops remain under federal control.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-06-24/newsom-trump-judge-troop-records

Alternet: ‘Don’t have a smidgen of hope’: [Bimbo #2] Noem to divert FEMA money as flood victims struggle

The New Republic reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem intends to use FEMA funds to build a new detention center in Florida.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier revealed his approval of plans for funding the facility, called “Alligator Alcatraz” with federal money last week. He said on Fox News that the hostile Florida Everglades would act to deter escape from the 39-square-mile site.

“You don’t need to invest that much in the perimeter. People get out, there’s not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons. Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide,” said Uthmeier.

Despite proposed saving from the facility’s isolation, The New York Times reports it will cost $450 million every year to operate the center, and Noem posted on X that this will be funded “in large part … by FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program.”

In other words the money is being stolen from the people for who it was appropriated by Congress — the victims of floods and other natural disasters.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, we are working at turbo speed to deliver cost-effective and innovative ways to deliver on the American people’s mandate for mass deportations of criminal illegal aliens,” [Bimbo #2] Noem’s claimed. “We will expand facilities and bed space in just days, thanks to our partnership with Florida.”

Repeating a lie ad nauseum doesn’t make it true. Only a small percentage of the deportees have criminal records.

https://www.alternet.org/fema-doge-trump-voters