Tag Archives: united states

Newsweek: Support for ICE flips

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Public opinion on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has undergone a dramatic shift, as new polling has revealed a reversal in support for the agency.

The polling comes after President Donald Trump sent 4,000 National Guardsmen and 700 Marines to Los Angeles in response to reported violence against law enforcement, specifically ICE agents carrying out deportation raids in the city amid protests of White House immigration policies.

Trump faced criticism over the decision to send in troops, as nationwide protests taking place over the weekend were attended by an estimated 4 to 6 million people, and polls show that public opinion about ICE may be shifting.

According to the latest YouGov/Economist poll, conducted between June 13 and June 16 among 1,512 adults, ICE’s net favorability rating currently stands at a net -5 points, with 42 percent holding a favorable opinion, and 47 percent holding an unfavorable opinion.

That is down from a week ago, when a survey by the same pollsters put ICE’s net favorability at +2 points, with 45 percent holding a favorable opinion, and 43 percent holding an unfavorable opinion.

Both polls had a margin of error of between plus or minus 3.3 and 3.5 percentage points.

Support for ICE flips
President Donald Trump’s recent approval ratings on immigration issues have also dropped.

https://www.newsweek.com/ice-donald-trump-approval-rating-polls-immigration-2087184

2paragraphs: Gavin Newsom Calls Trump “A Truly Disturbed Person” After “Hatred” Comment

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At the White House, President Donald Trump was asked by a reporter: “Will your recent dust-ups with Governor Newsom impact additional wildfire relief out there? They’ve requested 40 billion.”

The President of the United States replied, “Yeah, maybe,” and said of California Governor Gavin Newsom, “The man’s incompetent. He shouldn’t have fires like that.”

This buffoon is our president?

Gavin Newsom Calls Trump “A Truly Disturbed Person” After “Hatred” Comment
At the White House, President Donald Trump was asked by a reporter: “Will your recent dust-ups with Governor Newsom impact additional wildfire relief out there? They’ve requested 40 billion.”
Gavin Newsom Calls Trump “A Truly Disturbed Person” After “Hatred” Comment

MSNBC: Stephen Miller is becoming a victim of his mass deportation policy’s success

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The chief architect of Trump’s mass deportation policy faces internal pushback as the effects of increased ICE raids become clear.

In a meeting last month, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller tore into senior leaders at Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, demanding a massive surge in arrests of undocumented immigrants. As ICE tried to comply with Miller’s orders, immigration activists and other concerned Americans launched a series of protests in defiance of the mass deportation agenda. But it was a different set of protests that got the attention of Miller’s boss, President Donald Trump.

Last Thursday, the administration abruptly paused raids and arrests at hotels, farms and restaurants, a stunning shift in priorities that was clearly contrary to Miller’s orders. But the change was short-lived. The Department of Homeland Security reversed that guidance Monday, according to The Washington Post, allowing the immigration raids on those industries to resume and letting Miller retake control of the policy that has been the focus of his years in both Trump administrations.

Since Inauguration Day, Miller has had carte blanche on immigration policy in his dual role as deputy chief of staff and homeland security adviser. His insistence that ICE make 3,000 arrests per day kick-started a scramble from field offices to meet his demand. But as Vox’s Eric Levitz recently noted, Miller’s own strategy of deterrence at the border has led to a decline in the kind of encounters that would make it easy for ICE agents to rack up those numbers:

Over the past two months, America witnessed the largest decline in its foreign-born workforce since the pandemic in 2020. This contraction was driven partly by a collapse in unauthorized border crossings. Between January 2022 and June 2024, US Customs and Border Protection encountered an average of 200,000 people per month at America’s Southwest border. According to an analysis of government data from Deutsche Bank, that figure has fallen to just 12,000 people per month since Trump’s inauguration.

That has meant ICE has had to expand its list of targets to meet its quotas, including rounding up day laborers in Home Depot parking lots and field workers toiling on farms. The resulting climate of fear has scared more than just undocumented immigrants in these workforces. A Texas farmer recently told NBC affiliate KVEO of Brownsville, Texas, that within the last three weeks, there have been “zero people wanting to come out and be exposed to be able to be picked up whether they are legal or illegal.”

Opinion | Stephen Miller is becoming a victim of his own success
The chief architect of Trump’s mass deportation policy faces internal pushback as the effects of increased ICE raids become clear.

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/stephen-miller-ice-deportation-rcna213491

WhoWhatWhy: Trump Silences Dissent in the Military

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Behind closed doors, the Trump administration is advancing a chilling project: silencing dissent, lowering intellectual standards, and purging independent oversight — all within what was the most powerful military in the world. 

Sound familiar? It’s Donald Trump’s playbook: Reward loyalty, punish competence — this time with an armed force, trained to kill, and stripped of oversight.

Military officers, legislators, legal scholars, and defense experts are raising alarms about a series of directives that appear to reshape the US armed forces — from a constitutionally grounded institution into a politically compliant weapon.

Trump Silences Dissent in the Military – WhoWhatWhy
With dissent punished, critical thinking suppressed, and standards lowered — the military becomes easier to control and less able to defend the Constitution. What orders will they follow?

Geekwire: Immigration crackdown rattles tech employers and workers amid ICE raids

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U.S. immigration crackdowns aimed at undocumented workers in agriculture, construction and elsewhere are having ripple effects in the tech world, which employs thousands of foreign-born workers with highly sought-after computer science skills.

Two Seattle startups providing immigration services say the climate is stoking fears and a sense of urgency.

“Anxiety has increased,” said Xiao Wang, co-founder and CEO of Boundless. “The volume of questions, inquiries, and the amount of misinformation that goes on through social media is such that people are increasingly concerned about what is real, what is not real.”

Priyanka Kulkarni, founder and CEO of Casium, also sees corporations that sponsor employees from abroad examining their options.

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Even if the administration’s current policies aren’t directly disrupting the flow of tech workers from abroad, Wang said he’s seeing a “chilling effect” on new immigrants coming to the U.S. and companies recruiting foreign workers.

By turning people away, “there can be a real dampening effect on new job creators, new innovators, new entrepreneurs that will also cause the U.S. to lose its lead in science, technology and the global economy,” he said. “It’s against our own interest.”

Immigration crackdown rattles tech employers and workers amid ICE raids
The Trump administration’s hostility against immigration has caught the attention of the tech sector, stoking anxieties and a sense of urgency.

https://www.geekwire.com/2025/flight-to-security-tech-employers-foreign-workers-anxious-amid-ice-raids-and-immigration-uncertainty

Commonweal: Jacaranda Season in Los Angeles

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A letter from the anti-ICE demonstrations

Every June, I look forward to the blooming of the jacarandas. These quintessential Los Angeles trees line the streets, and gentle breezes send their lavender blooms falling gracefully to the pavement. It’s a sign that the Los Angeles summer will soon be in full swing, with outdoor concerts, plays, films, food festivals, sports, farmers markets, art crawls, swap-meets, flea markets, and family evenings spent eating tacos, desserts, and fresh fruit from street vendors. Families begin to plan their children’s summer stay-cations and celebrate their graduates with carne asadas (Mexican-style barbecue cookouts) and backyard and front-yard parties that fill the street with laughter and music. This month, for the first time since the January fires, a peace began to settle in Los Angeles—until it was abruptly interrupted by federal agents.

What happened is well known: masked men in unidentifiable uniforms indiscriminately raiding streets, schools, businesses, and homes, refusing to spare even young Latino U.S. citizens from detention in their mass deportation roundups. In response to the understandable outrage and protests that followed, Trump—with dubious legality—sent in first the National Guard and then the Marines, inflaming the tense situation even further. Governor Gavin Newsom was exactly right when he said: “Donald Trump’s government isn’t protecting our communities, they’re traumatizing our communities, and that seems to be the entire point.” 

The misleading images of chaos and vandalism—perpetrated by a minority of the otherwise-peaceful protestors—that soon circulated through the news media failed to capture what life has been like here for the majority of Angelenos. Indeed, reporting has mostly neglected the fearful impact such a concentrated police and military presence has on people throughout the city.

…

Jacaranda Season in Los Angeles
In Los Angeles, our protests have been acts of hope and courage, full of moments of joyful resistance expressed by dancing, singing, and blessings.

https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/los-angeles-trump-ice-protests-national-guard-immigration

Latin Times: Former Fox News Favorite Declares Network a ‘Propaganda Hose’ Aimed at Manipulating ‘Elderly’ Viewers

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Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson is accusing the network he once called home of operating as a “propaganda hose” aimed at manipulating its older viewers into supporting war, including the latest U.S. entanglement in Iran.

Carlson, once one of Fox News’ most influential and highest-rated personalities, has increasingly broken from the Trump-aligned right in recent months. His departure from the network in 2023 marked the beginning of a shift, with Carlson growing more outspoken against U.S. foreign policy, particularly military involvement in the Middle East.

Appearing on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast, Carlson condemned Fox News and its primetime personalities, most notably Sean Hannity, for cheerleading Israeli strikes on Iran and pushing for U.S. military involvement.

He called out what he described as the network’s deliberate effort to stir pro-war sentiment among “elderly” viewers.

“What they are doing is what they always do, which is just turning up the propaganda hose to full blast and just trying to knock elderly Fox viewers off their feet and make them subject to more wars,” Carlson said.

Former Fox News Favorite Declares Network a ‘Propaganda Hose’ Aimed at Manipulating ‘Elderly’ Viewers
Tucker Carlson turned on Fox News and Trump, accusing both of pushing war propaganda to manipulate elderly Americans.

https://www.latintimes.com/former-fox-news-favorite-declares-network-propaganda-hose-aimed-manipulating-elderly-viewers-585175

Latin Times: ‘It’s Going Overboard. It’s Too Much’: Some California Republicans Are Reacting To Trump’s Immigration Tactics

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Dozens of Californians in the swing region of northern Los Angeles County told the Washington Post that even though they wanted the president to enforce immigration laws, it has gone “too far.”

Following days of protests in Los Angeles over Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) workplace raids, dozens of Californians in the swing region of northern Los Angeles County are saying they wanted President Donald Trump to enforce immigration law, but that now it has gone too far.

The Washington Post recently spoke with four dozen people in the Antelope Valley, a closely divided region in the state about an hour north of Los Angeles, about their views on the administration’s handling of immigration. Some of them said they felt deceived over ICE seemingly targeting all migrants, not just criminals, as Trump promised on the campaign trail.

“It’s going overboard. It’s too much,” said Jesus Martinez, a 36-year-old aerospace worker, who initially supported the president’s decision to send the military to shut down immigration protests in his home state. A former Democrat, Martinez said he supported Trump in 2020 and sat out the 2024 election.

“They said only criminals, and now they’re saying, ‘well, they did come in illegally so they are criminals,'” he added. “Hispanics or Latinos that voted for Trump, they didn’t think he was going to go after kids.”

Others further explained that while they supported increased deportations for migrants with criminal records, they opposed the scope of mass deportation and ICE raids, and to a lesser extent, sending troops to crack down on protesters.

‘It’s Going Overboard. It’s Too Much’: Some California Republicans Are Reacting To Trump’s Immigration Tactics
Dozens of Californians in the swing region of northern Los Angeles County told the Washington Post that even though they wanted the president to enforce immigration laws, it has gone “too far.”

https://www.latintimes.com/its-going-overboard-its-too-much-some-california-republicans-are-reacting-trumps-585245

Newsweek: ICE detains green card-holder returning from visit to son in US Air Force

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Victor Avila, a 66-year-old green card holder who has lived in the United States since he was a teenager, was detained in May by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at San Francisco International Airport after returning from a trip to visit his son, a U.S. Air Force servicemember stationed in Japan, according to local reports and a GoFundMe page.

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Avila was detained May 7 at San Francisco International Airport after returning from Japan. The 66-year-old has been a legal permanent resident since 1967, when he immigrated to the United States from Mexico. He was returning from the trip with his wife, who had not been detained.

According to a GoFundMe page, his wife, four children and six grandchildren are all U.S. citizens, including his son, who serves in the U.S. Air Force.

A longtime resident of San Diego, Avila has worked as a legal assistant at the workers’ compensation law firm Kiwan & Chambers APC for over a decade.

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Avila’s daughter, Carina Mejia, told local outlet ABC 10 News that her father was pulled over in 2009 and arrested for a DUI and drug possession misdemeanor. He served his time and paid the fines for the misdemeanors. She said he has been able to renew his green card two times since that arrest.

ICE detains green card-holder returning from visit to son in US Air Force
Victor Avila, a green card holder for more than 50 years, was arrested after returning from a visit to his son, a U.S. Air Force servicemember stationed in Japan.

https://www.newsweek.com/ice-detains-green-card-holder-returning-visit-son-us-air-force-2087397

Associated Press: US resumes visas for foreign students but demands access to social media accounts

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The U.S. State Department said Wednesday it is restarting the suspended process for foreigners applying for student visas but all applicants will now be required to unlock their social media accounts for government review.

The department said consular officers will be on the lookout for posts and messages that could be deemed hostile to the United States, its government, culture, institutions or founding principles.

… or which might otherwise annoy our pathetic thin-skinned Grifter-in-Chief.

Currently only about half of social-media users have public profiles, and even then they may choose to limit access on a post-by-post basis.

This will not work to our advantage in the long run.

US resumes visas for foreign students but demands access to social media accounts

https://apnews.com/article/student-visas-trump-social-media-6632a2c585245edcd6a63594345dd8c7