Tag Archives: united states

Newsweek: ICE detains green card holder returning from vacation after 23 years in US

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A Filipino immigrant and green card holder with prior criminal charges for distributing controlled substances was detained at an airport and is currently in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody.

Sonny Lasquite was detained after a vacation in the Bahamas by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on July 28 at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina, according to relatives who spoke with GMA News Online.

Why It Matters

Lasquite’s arrest was due to a red flag in the federal system linked to a 2012 narcotics case. ICE records reviewed by Newsweek show Lasquite currently being held at the Stewart Detention Center in Stewart County, Georgia.

Lasquite’s detention illustrated how lawful permanent residents could face immigration enforcement after arrests at ports of entry, raising questions about the consequences of past criminal convictions for long-term residents and the humanitarian impact on families that rely on detained relatives for financial and caregiving support.

What To Know

Lasquite reportedly lived in the U.S. for 23 years and worked as a banquet server in Las Vegas.

From roughly December 2010 to about August 2012, Lasquite “intentionally and knowingly” possessed with the intent to distribute Schedule IV narcotics, including diazepam, alprazolam, zolpidem and carisoprodol, according to court records in the Southern District of New York reviewed by Newsweek.

But records indicate that he promptly took responsibility for his actions and cooperated with the federal government in identifying charged and uncharged co-conspirators. A 2014 sentencing memorandum by former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said that Lasquite helped stop narcotics distribution practices and led to the prosecutions of others.

“You are, as the government points out, the only defendant who cooperated,” Bharara said on September 9, 2014. “You did that at some risk to yourself. I think there needs to be recognition of that and proportionate sentencing between you and the other defendants.

“I feel pretty confident that you’re not going to commit any crimes in the future, and I join the government in wishing you well and hopefully being able to put this behind you.”

The court ultimately sentenced Lasquite to time served and no additional prison time, ordering him to pay $200.

Lasquite has put that time of his life behind him, according to family and friends, who created a GoFundMe on Saturday to raise $30,000 for legal representation, filing fees, and “essential expenses to fight for Sonny’s right to remain in the U.S. and reunite with his family.”

As of Monday morning, nearly $11,600 had been raised from 56 donations. The fundraiser was started by Vivian Hirano, of Las Vegas, who writes that Lasquite “has had no further legal troubles and has been a law-abiding, contributing member of his community” since his 2012 criminal conviction.

Newsweek reached out to Hirano via the GoFundMe page for comment.

“Sonny Lasquite is more than a name—he is a beloved son, brother, uncle and friend whose kindness has touched countless lives,” the GoFundMe says. “For decades, Sonny has lived peacefully in the United States, working hard, caring for his elderly mother, and always putting others before himself. He is the kind of person who never hesitates to help, greet you with a warm smile, or offer comfort when you need it most.”

Aside from Lasquite’s detention causing his mother’s health to “decline under the weight of this stress,” his own health is reportedly taking a toll. Lasquite has purportedly faced medical neglect during detention, including delayed access to his blood pressure medication and proper care for his recent fever, according to Hirono.

What People Are Saying

Immigration attorney Rosanna Berardi told Newsweek on Monday that cases like these are “not new and have been happening for decades.”

She said: “Under current U.S. immigration law, lawful permanent residents—even those who have lived in the country for most of their lives—remain vulnerable to removal proceedings if they are convicted of certain drug-related offenses. This is true regardless of how much time has passed since the conviction or how significantly they have contributed to their communities in the years afterward.

“Because of this, we strongly encourage our clients to pursue U.S. citizenship as soon as they are eligible. Naturalized citizens cannot be deported for criminal convictions in the same way, providing a crucial safeguard against the devastating consequences of removal.”

Vivian Hirano on Sonny Lasquite’s GoFundMe page: “Sonny is the primary breadwinner of his family, providing both financial and emotional support to his loved ones. His income helps cover essential expenses, including his elderly mother’s medical needs and daily living costs.”

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Friday in Illinois called allegations of ICE detaining immigrants without criminal convictions “false,” according to NewsNation: “I’m here today because elected leaders in Illinois are ignoring the law. In fact, they’re being obstructionists when it comes to getting dangerous criminals off of their streets. They’re deciding that dangerous criminals that are murderers, rapists, money launderers, have committed assaults, and that are trafficking children are more important than the families who live in the communities here.”

What Happens Next

Lasquite’s case was pending in immigration custody, and his legal options were constrained by immigration statutes that treat certain controlled-substance convictions as grounds for removal.

ICE detains green card holder returning from vacation after 23 years in US
The Filipino immigrant helped the government over a decade ago to arrest narcotics co-conspirators, receiving a reduced sentence and monetary fine.

https://www.newsweek.com/ice-illegal-immigration-filipino-detained-criminal-2111738

Another article:

Outrage Sparked Over ICE Detention Conditions

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/outrage-sparked-over-ice-detention-conditions/ss-AA1KGVSw

Newsweek: ICE detains woman in green card process and son at Canadian border

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A New Zealand woman and her youngest son, living in Washington, were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on the Canadian border after dropping her other children off in Vancouver.

Sarah Shaw, who is waiting for a green card, and her son Isaac, 6, were arrested despite having some immigration documents. She is now being held in a detention facility in Texas.

Newsweek reached out to ICE and Shaw’s attorney for comment via email Monday morning.

Why It Matters

Since President Donald Trump‘s return to the White House in January, ICE has been seen to take a tougher stance on immigration enforcement, including against those with legal status. This has led to increased uncertainty around international travel for green card holders and those with other long-term visas.

What To Know

A GoFundMe page set up by Shaw’s friend, Victoria Besancon, explained that the mother of three had fully prepared for a quick trip across the U.S.-Canadian border on July 24 to drop off her two eldest children at Vancouver’s airport. They were headed back to New Zealand for a visit with their grandparents.

While crossing into Canada had been fine, on the return trip, immigration officials detained Shaw and Isaac.

Originally entering the U.S. sponsored by her ex-husband, Shaw is now in the process of seeking a green card independently under a domestic violence survivor’s provision. According to the GoFundMe, Shaw had work authorization but not travel permissions just yet, as part of what is known as a “combo card”, while her son did.

Her attorney, Minda Thorward, told NBC King 5 news that under previous administrations, Shaw would likely have been quickly paroled back into the U.S. by Customs and Border Protection (CBP), but that this had clearly shifted under Trump.

Despite Isaac having travel permissions, ICE still holds him in detention, with Shaw also held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas.

Besancon wrote on her GoFundMe page that Shaw works for the Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) and was set to begin grad school soon. The funding, sitting at over $33,000 Monday morning, was to cover legal fees and essentials, after she was forced to burn through savings for legal representation.

Shaw’s case is not the first of its kind, with multiple legal residents reported to have been detained by ICE in recent months. While some have known criminal records or histories, which can be reason to withdraw visas, others have claimed that they simply made mistakes with paperwork and should be released.

What People Are Saying

Victoria Besancon, Shaw’s friend, speaking to NBC King 5: “Sarah had been waiting on some travel documents to be approved. But once her visa and her children’s visas were cleared, she felt comfortable taking them to Canada. We assumed everything was fine.

“The main thing Sarah has expressed throughout this ordeal is just absolute shock and devastation. She truly believed she had done everything that was required of her.”

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, in a recent statement on immigration enforcement: “The fact of the matter is those who are in our country illegally have a choice—they can leave the country voluntarily or be arrested and deported. The United States taxpayer is generously offering free flights and a $1,000 to illegal aliens who self-deport using the CBP Home app. If they leave now, they preserve the potential opportunity to come back the legal, right way. The choice is theirs.”

What’s Next

Shaw is yet to show up on ICE’s inmate detainee locator, with her friends and legal team urging the agency to release her and her son.

ICE detains woman in green card process and son at Canadian border
The mother of three thought she had her paperwork in order when making a quick trip to Vancouver.

https://www.newsweek.com/domestic-violence-survivor-detained-ice-us-canada-border-2111838

Newsweek: Green card applicant arrested by ICE while driving to grocery store

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A Los Angeles doctor has told how she watched on FaceTime as her husband, a Tunisian musician with a pending green card application, was arrested by federal immigration agents on what she called “probably the worst day of my life.”

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents pulled over Rami Othmane while he was driving to a grocery store in Pasadena on July 13, the Associated Press (AP) reported, before he pulled out paperwork he was carrying.

His wife, Dr. Wafaa Alrashid, who is a U.S. citizen and chief medical officer at Huntington Hospital, told the AP she watched events unfold over the video call, “They didn’t care, they said, ‘Please step out of the car,” she recalled.

Confirming the arrest, Department of Homeland Secuity’s (DHS) assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Newsweek via email on Monday that Othmane’s “B-2 tourist visa expired more than nine years ago. He will remain in custody at ICE’s Eloy Detention Center pending his removal proceedings.”

Alrashid said her husband has since been subjected to “inhumane treatment.” The DHS told California news station KABC in a statement that detainees recieve “proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with lawyers and their family members.”

Newsweek contacted the family via GoFundMe for comment on Monday.

Why It Matters

The administration is pushing forward with plans to carry out widespread deportations as part of President Donald Trump‘s immigration crackdown.

In addition to people living in the country without legal status, immigrants with valid documentation, including green cards and visas, have been detained. Newsweek has documented dozens of cases involving green card holders and applicants who were swept up in the ICE raids.

What To Know

Alrashid told the AP her husband has lived in the U.S. since 2015, and though he overstayed his initial visa, a deportation order against him was dismissed in 2020. They married in March 2025 and Othmane promptly filed for his green card, Alrashid said.

On learning her husband had been stopped, Alrashid got into her car and tracked his location on her phone, the AP reported. She reached the scene just in time to catch a glimpse of the outline of his head through the back window of a vehicle as it drove away, the agency said.

“Agents blocked his car, did not show a warrant and did not identify themselves,” Othmane’s family said in a GoFundMe set up to raise financial support.

The family said Othmane suffers from chronic pain and has an untreated tumor.

Othmane remains in federal custody at an immigration detention facility in Arizona.

“When they took him, he was wearing shorts and a t-shirt and flip-flops,” Alrashid told a rally of fellow musicians, immigration advocates and activists outside the facility more than a week after his arrest.

“So he was freezing. Also, there are no beds, no pillows, no blankets, no soap, No toothbrushes and toothpaste. And when you’re in a room with people, bathrooms open, there’s no door. So it’s very dehumanizing, it’s undignifying, the food is not great either.”

What People Are Saying

Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Newsweek in an emailed statement on Monday: “Rami Jilani Othmane, an illegal alien from Tunisia, was arrested by CBP on July 13. His B-2 tourist visa expired more than nine years ago. He will remain in custody at ICE’s Eloy Detention Center pending his removal proceedings.

“President Trump and Secretary Noem are committed to restoring integrity to the visa program and ensuring it is not abused to allow aliens a permanent one-way ticket to remain in the U.S.

“The fact of the matter is those who are in our country illegally have a choice—they can leave the country voluntarily or be arrested and deported. The United States taxpayer is generously offering free flights and a $1,000 to illegal aliens who self-deport using the CBP Home app. If they leave now, they preserve the potential opportunity to come back the legal, right way. The choice is theirs.”

Dr. Wafaa Alrashid wrote in a post on GoFundMe: “This is not just an immigration issue—this is a human rights crisis happening in downtown Los Angeles. My husband has been subjected to 12 days of inhumane treatment in a federal building. He is not a criminal. He is a kind, peaceful man with an open immigration petition. He should be with his family, not sleeping on a concrete floor without medical care.”

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement to KABC: “Any allegations that detainees are not receiving medical care or conditions are “inhumane” are FALSE. All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with lawyers and their family members.”

What Happens Next

Othmane will remain in ICE custody, pending further removal proceedings.

Green card applicant arrested by ICE while driving to grocery store
Rami Othmane’s wife, a California doctor, told how she watched it happen over FaceTime.

https://www.newsweek.com/green-card-applicant-arrested-ice-grocery-store-california-2108413

Newsweek: Justice Department Issues Birthright Citizenship Update

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The U.S. Department of Justice has released an update confirming that it plans to ask the Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of President Donald Trump‘s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship.

The announcement was disclosed in a joint status report filed Wednesday, August 6, 2025, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

Why It Matters

The Justice Department’s plan to seek a Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of President Donald Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship—entitled “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship”—marks a critical juncture in the national debate over immigration and constitutional rights.

Signed on January 20, 2025, it directs the federal government to deny citizenship documents to children born in the U.S. to undocumented or temporary immigrant parents.

At stake is the interpretation of the 14th Amendment, which has long been understood to guarantee citizenship to nearly all individuals born on U.S. soil. A ruling in favor of the order could reshape federal authority over citizenship, impact millions of U.S.-born children, and redefine the limits of executive power—making this one of the most consequential legal battles in recent memory.

What To Know

On February 6, 2025, the district court in Seattle issued a nationwide preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of President Trump’s executive order.

The case under review, State of Washington v. Trump, was just one of several ongoing legal challenges in which lower courts have largely rejected the administration’s legal theory. District courts in Maryland (February 5), New Hampshire (February 10), and Massachusetts (February 13), have each upheld that the order conflicted with constitutional protections and halted its enforcement in their respective jurisdictions.

One of those judges, U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin, an appointee of former President Barack Obama who sits on the federal bench in Boston, granted a nationwide preliminary injunction, affirming that the constitutional guarantee of citizenship applies broadly, and finding the policy to be, “unconstitutional and contrary to a federal statute.”

The government appealed the ruling and sought partial stays from the district court, the Ninth Circuit, and the Supreme Court. After the Supreme Court denied a partial stay, the Ninth Circuit requested further briefing and, on July 23, upheld the injunction.

The new update came in a joint status report filed August 6, 2025, in which the DOJ stated that Solicitor General D. John Sauer intends to file a petition “expeditiously” for certiorari—a legal term that refers to the process by which a higher court (most commonly the U.S. Supreme Court), agrees to review a lower court’s decision—in order to place the case before the Court during its next term, which begins in October.

This means the Justice Department has now formally indicated it will seek a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of President Trump’s executive order; though it has not yet chosen which specific case—or combination of ongoing cases—it will use as the basis for its appeal.

The parties plan to update the court further once those appellate steps are finalized.

Fourteenth Amendment At Stake

Since the adoption of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution on July 9, 1868, the citizenship of persons born in the United States has been controlled by its Citizenship Clause, which states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” Courts have consistently upheld this principle for more than a century, most notably in the 1898 Supreme Court case United States v. Wong Kim Ark.

However, the Trump administration argues that the amendment should not apply to children of parents who lack permanent legal status, a position that has been repeatedly rejected by lower courts.

What People Are Saying

President Trump, during an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, December 8, 2024, said: “Do you know if somebody sets a foot—just a foot, one foot, you don’t need two—on our land, ‘Congratulations you are now a citizen of the United States of America,’ … Yes, we’re going to end that, because it’s ridiculous.” Adding: “…we’re going to have to get it changed. We’ll maybe have to go back to the people, but we have to end it. … We’re the only country that has it, you know.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi told reporters in June 2025: “Birthright citizenship will be decided in October, in the next session by the Supreme Court.”

DOJ attorneys wrote in the filing: “In light of the Ninth Circuit’s decision, Defendants represent that the Solicitor General plans to seek certiorari expeditiously to enable the Supreme Court to settle the lawfulness of the Citizenship Order next Term.”

Jessica Levinson, constitutional law professor at Loyola Law School, said: “You can’t ‘executive order’ your way out of the Constitution. If you want to end birthright citizenship, you need to amend the Constitution, not issue an executive order.”

What Happens Next

The Justice Department must decide which case or combination of cases it will use to challenge lower court rulings and bring the birthright citizenship issue before the Supreme Court. Once it makes that decision, the DOJ will file a petition for certiorari.

The Court is not required to accept every petition, but because this involves a major constitutional question, it is likely to grant review. If that happens, the Court could hear arguments in 2026 and issue a ruling by June of that year.

For now, the Justice Department and attorneys representing plaintiff states—including Washington, Arizona, Illinois, and Oregon—have agreed to submit another update once the appellate process is clarified or if further proceedings in the district court are required. Until then, the order remains unenforceable, lower court rulings blocking Trump’s executive order remain in effect, and current birthright citizenship protections continue to apply.

What part of Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment is so hard to understand? Only a Totally Retarded Dumb-Assed Idiot (TRDAI) could miss the meaning of it:

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Unfortunately there seems to be no shortage of TRDAIs in the Trump regime. 🙁

Justice Department Issues Birthright Citizenship Update
Fight over Trump’s order to deny birthright citizenship heads toward Supreme Court, with 14th Amendment protections at stake

https://www.newsweek.com/justice-department-issues-birthright-citizenship-update-2110176

Alternet: Donald Trump just debunked his own lie — and it should get him sued | Opinion

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Walmart, Apple , and Amazon, the most successful companies in the U.S., base their corporate strategies on data: consumer behavior data, market research, financial, product, and competitive analysis data.

Any CEO who deliberately relied on falsified data, or who demanded cooked books, would be fired immediately — and likely sued by the Board of Directors.

Any CEO of any company who tried to manipulate the appearance of short-term success for his own personal gain, at the expense of long-term viability for the company, would also be fired and likely sued for malfeasance, and worse.

A successful CEO knows that falsifying economic or financial data can lead to charges of securities fraud, wire fraud, and other financial crimes, because false data can ruin investors, corporations, and markets overnight.

Enter Donald Trump, whose self-proclaimed governing philosophy is “running the country like it’s a business.” Debunking the lie of his own manufactured image as a “successful businessman,” last Friday Trump angrily fired the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Commissioner because he didn’t like her data — even as he wears 34 felony convictions for falsifying records.

Dr. Erika McEntarfer, a widely respected statistician, enjoyed bipartisan support, including confirmation votes from Marco Rubio and JD Vance. Appointed commissioner under the Biden administration, she holds a Ph.D. in economics from Virginia Tech, and served at the Census Bureau for two decades under both parties prior to her BLS appointment.

By federal law, McEntarfer’s appointment ends in 2028. Trump fired her anyway because he was embarrassed by jobs data that didn’t match his own hype.

In May, the White House said that April’s jobs report “proved” that Trump was “revitalizing” the economy. In June, Trump posted, “GREAT JOBS NUMBERS.” After the Labor Department released revised jobs figures for those months — a common practice because jobs reports are sample projections that get adjusted when actual employer data come in — Trump fired the messenger.

Trump’s penchant for hiding and falsifying data has put American corporations and the economy in more danger. Just as he scrubbed government websites of climate data to bolster his fossil fuel donors, just as he ordered the Smithsonian to remove an exhibit accurately reflecting his own impeachments, Trump thinks reality is whatever he says it is.

As he fantasizes about returning America to the Gilded Age, where robber barons extracted the earth’s resources for unimaginable profit while laborers worked for starvation wages, he’s forgetting that his oligarch donors need accurate economic data too. At least oligarchs creating real products and delivering real services—as opposed to merely speculating in Trump’s image—need real, reliable, and uncooked data.

McEntarfer should sue

When Trump fired McEntarfer in a social media post, he declared that her numbers were “phony.” He wrote on Friday, “In my opinion, today’s Jobs Numbers were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad,” adding: “But, the good news is, our Country is doing GREAT!”

He said the numbers had been manipulated for political purposes, and announced he fired McEntarfer as a result.

Trump also baselessly accused McEntarfer of manipulating jobs numbers before the November election to advantage Kamala Harris. Trump said to reporters, “I believe the numbers were phony, just like they were before the election, and there were other times. So you know what I did? I fired her, and you know what? I did the right thing.”

When asked what his source was, he said, “my opinion,” confirming that there was no evidence to back up his reckless claims, claims that permanently tanked the reputation of a celebrated career professional.

Presidents not immune from civil prosecution

No doubt Trump slurred McEntarfer based on his own “opinion” to avoid defamation liability, but an opinion that implies a false fact is still defamatory, it is still actionable, and presidents are not immune from civil lawsuits for defamation.

The four legal elements of defamation are easily found here: false statement; publication; negligence in repeating the falsehood; and reputational harm.

More, a president has immunity from civil lawsuits only for actions taken in furtherance of his core constitutional powers. One of the main “core constitutional powers” of a president is ensuring the faithful execution of laws, such that acting to impede the execution of federal law would fall outside core official responsibilities. (As an aside, even under the disastrous Trump v. US criminal immunity ruling, Trump’s J6 conduct would likely have fallen outside his core function, had it proceeded to trial.)

Trump knowingly and intentionally lied about the BLS commissioner in a manner that directly conflicts with the Department of Labor’s statutory mission; as such, it was not a “core Constitutional function.” Announcing that previous labor reports were “falsified” causes immediate reputational harm to the Commissioner, the Department of Labor, and the US economy overall. It directly impedes the accurate compilation of labor data, a charge mandated by the Wagner-Peyser Act of 1933 as well as the Fair Labor Standards Act.

By implicitly directing that all future US data should be falsified to suit his own political narrative, Trump’s statements not only harm America’s economy, but they hinder rather than aid the faithful execution of laws.

As McEntarfer’s predecessor puts it, McEntarfer’s “totally groundless firing” sets a dangerous precedent and “undermines the statistical mission of the bureau.”

“We need accurate Jobs Numbers,” Trump told reporters, suggesting McEntarfer’s jobs numbers weren’t.

“She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified,” he added, suggesting McEntarfer was neither.

Missing the risible irony as he seeks manipulated jobs data for his own political purposes, Trump added, “Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can’t be manipulated for political purposes.”

Donald Trump just debunked his own lie — and it should get him sued | Opinion

https://www.alternet.org/alternet-exclusives/trump-lie-debunked

San Francisco Chronicle: Trump asks SCOTUS to allow profiling in California ICE raids

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Any attorney who files or argues in favor of this appeal should be disbarred!

Any justice who votes in favor of this appeal should impeached and removed!

The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to allow officers to arrest suspected undocumented immigrants in Southern California because of how they look, what language they’re speaking and what kind of work they’re doing, factors that federal judges have found to be baseless and discriminatory.

Last month’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Maame Frimpong, upheld by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, “threatens to upend immigration officials’ ability to enforce the immigration laws in the Central District of California,” D. John Sauer, the Justice Department’s solicitor general, said Thursday in a filing with the Supreme Court. “This Court should end this attempted judicial usurpation of immigration-enforcement functions” and suspend the injunction while the case is argued in the lower courts, Sauer wrote.

The Central District, which includes Los Angeles County and six other counties, has nearly 20 million residents, more than any other federal court district in the nation. It became the focus of legal disputes over immigration enforcement after President Donald Trump took control of the California National Guard in June and sent thousands of its troops to the streets in Los Angeles to defend immigration agents against protesters of workplace raids.

A 9th Circuit panel upheld Trump’s commandeering of the National Guard, rejecting a lawsuit by Gov. Gavin Newsom. But Frimpong, an appointee of President Joe Biden, ruled July 11 that immigration officers were overstepping legal boundaries in making the arrests, and issued a temporary restraining order against their practices.

In a ruling Aug. 1 upholding the judge’s decision, another 9th Circuit panel said federal officers had been seizing people from the streets and workplaces based on four factors: their apparent race or ethnicity, the language they spoke or accent in their voice, their presence in a location such as a car wash or an agricultural site, and the type of work they were doing.

That would justify the arrest of anyone “who appears Hispanic, speaks Spanish or English with an accent, wears work clothes, and stands near a carwash, in front of a Home Depot, or at a bus stop,” the panel’s three judges said. They agreed with Frimpong that officers could not rely on any or all of those factors as the basis for an arrest.

But the Trump administration’s lawyers said those factors were valid reasons for immigration arrests in the Central District.

In April, U.S. District Judge Jennifer Thurston issued a similar order against the Border Patrol, prohibiting immigration arrests in the Eastern District of California unless officers have a reasonable suspicion that a person is breaking the law. The district is based in Sacramento and extends from Fresno to the Oregon border.

“You can’t just walk up to people with brown skin and say, ‘Give me your papers,’” Thurston, a Biden appointee, said at a court hearing, CalMatters reported. The Trump administration has appealed her injunction to the 9th Circuit.

The administration’s compliance with the Central District court order was questioned by immigrant advocates on Wednesday after a raid on a Home Depot store near MacArthur Park in Los Angeles, in which officers said 16 Latin American workers were detained. An American Civil Liberties Union attorney, Mohammad Tajsar, said the government “seems unwilling to fulfill the aims of its racist mass deportation agenda without breaking the law.”

There is ample evidence that many businesses in the district “unlawfully employ illegal aliens and are known to hire them on a day-to-day basis; that certain types of jobs — like day labor, landscaping, and construction — are most attractive to illegal aliens because they often do not require paperwork; that the vast majority of illegal aliens in the District come from Mexico or Central America; and that many only speak Spanish,” Sauer told the Supreme Court.

“No one thinks that speaking Spanish or working in construction always creates reasonable suspicion” that someone is an illegal immigrant, the Justice Department attorney said. “But in many situations, such factors — alone or in combination — can heighten the likelihood that someone is unlawfully present in the United States.”

The Supreme Court told lawyers for the immigrants to file a response by Tuesday. 

The case is Noem v. Perdomo, No. 25A169.

Trump asks SCOTUS to allow profiling in California ICE raids
The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to let officers arrest suspected undocumented immigrants in Southern California because of how they look.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/scotus-immigration-california-20809308.php

CBS News: Border agents directed to stop deportations under Trump’s asylum ban, sources say

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U.S. border agents have been directed to stop deporting migrants under President Trump’s ban on asylum claims, following a federal court order that said the measure could not be used to completely suspend humanitarian protections for asylum-seekers, two Department of Homeland Security officials told CBS News.

The move effectively lifts a sweeping policy that had closed the American asylum system to those entering the U.S. illegally or without proper documents. It’s a measure the second Trump administration has credited for a steep drop in illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border, where officials last month reported the lowest monthly level of migrant apprehensions on record.

Mr. Trump’s asylum crackdown was unprecedented in scope. The proclamation underpinning it, issued just hours after he returned to the White House in January, gave U.S. border officials the power to summarily deport migrants without allowing them to request asylum, a right enshrined in American law for decades. 

Mr. Trump said the extraordinary action was necessary due to what he called an “invasion” of migrants under the Biden administration, which faced record levels of illegal crossings at the southern border until it too restricted asylum last year. 

On Friday, a federal appeals court lifted its pause on a lower judge’s ruling that found Mr. Trump’s decree violated U.S. asylum laws. While the appellate court narrowed the lower court’s order, saying Mr. Trump’s proclamation could be used to pause access to the asylum system, it also ruled the U.S. government could not disregard other laws that bar officials from deporting migrants to places where they could be tortured or persecuted.

Those laws require the U.S. to grant legal protections — known as “withholding of removal” and protection under the United Nations Convention Against Torture — to migrants who prove they would likely face persecution or torture if deported to their home countries. Unlike asylum, those protections do not allow recipients to get permanent U.S. residency or protect them from being deported to a third party country.

Officials at Customs and Border Protection were instructed this weekend to halt deportations under Mr. Trump’s proclamation and to process migrants under U.S. immigration law, which affords foreigners on American soil the right to request humanitarian refuge, the two DHS officials said, requesting anonymity to discuss an internal directive.

CBP officials received instructions to process migrants through different mechanisms, including through a fast-track deportation procedure known as expedited removal, according to the DHS officials. While expedited removal allows for relatively quick deportations, migrants processed under the policy are also allowed to apply for asylum if they convince officials that their fears of being harmed if deported are credible.

For months, U.S. border agents had been using Mr. Trump’s asylum ban to swiftly deport those crossing into the country illegally to Mexico, their home countries and, in some cases, third party nations that had agreed to accept them. Internally, officials have dubbed those deportations “212(f) repatriations,” in reference to the legal authority Mr. Trump invoked in his proclamation.

While the lifting of Mr. Trump’s order may reopen the U.S. asylum system, those caught crossing the southern border illegally will likely remain detained while officials vet their claims. The Trump administration has largely stopped the practice of releasing migrants into the U.S. while they await their court dates, limiting releases to cases involving extraordinary circumstances. 

The Justice Department could also try to get Friday’s court order suspended by the Supreme Court, in a bid to revive Mr. Trump’s asylum ban.

In a statement to CBS News late Monday, CBP said Friday’s court order affirmed “the President’s authority to deny asylum to aliens participating in an invasion into the United States.”

CBP said the Trump administration is “committed to ensuring that aliens illegally entering the United States face consequences for their criminal actions.”

“This includes prosecution to the fullest extent of the law and rapid removal from the United States,” the agency added. “CBP will continue to process illegal/inadmissible aliens consistent with law, including mandatory detention and expedited removal.”  

After soaring to record levels in late 2023, illegal border crossings dropped sharply in former President Biden’s last year office, following increased efforts by Mexico to interdict U.S.-bound migrants and an order issued by Biden in June 2024 to restrict access to the American asylum system. But they have plunged even further since Mr. Trump took office for a second time.

In July, Border Patrol encountered just 4,600 migrants along the southern border, the lowest monthly tally ever publicly reported by the agency. It’s also a figure the Biden administration recorded in 24 hours on many days.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/border-agents-directed-to-stop-deportations-under-trumps-asylum-ban-after-court-order

Raw Story: GOP trolled as planes circle major cities with three-word taunt

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Some daring pilots took to the friendly skies over the capitals of Democratic-led states Monday with a three-word taunt meant to troll President Donald Trump and Texas Republicans, according to HuffPost.

Several planes were spotted over Albany, New York; Springfield, Illinois; and Annapolis, Maryland, while trailing banners that said simply, “Mess with Texas.”

Planes towing the message were also seen over Augusta, Maine; Trenton, New Jersey; and Sacramento, California, Politico reported.

The banners were a play on the Texas slogan, “Don’t Mess With Texas,” which is seen as a declaration of state pride.

But the “anonymous group of self-described democracy advocates” altered the slogan in a plea to lawmakers in Democratic states “to help fight what many view as a gerrymandering scheme going down in Texas that will help secure Republicans’ control in the U.S. House after the midterm elections in 2026.”

Some 56 Democratic lawmakers fled Texas for blue states to prevent a quorum as Republicans sought to vote for a redistricting map that could give the GOP up to five new congressional seats. The ploy was orchestrated by President Donald Trump, who told CNBC on Tuesday that Republicans “had the right” to the seats because he swept the state so soundly in the 2024 presidential elections.

The Democrats say they’re hunkered down for the long haul away from home, even as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton issued warrants for the arrests. Texas Sen. John Cornyn (R) asked the FBI to get involved in the hunt in a letter to MAGA director Kash Patel.

https://www.rawstory.com/gerrymandering-2673861437

Inquisitr: ICE Arrests Plummet in Embarrassing Setback for Stephen Miller

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Despite pressure from White House policy strategist Stephen Miller to escalate migrant detentions, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recorded a 19 percent drop in daily arrests from June to July. This surprising downturn shows the limits of their aggressive immigration tactics.

According to the nonpartisan Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), ICE booked an average of 990 arrests per day between July 1 and July 27. That’s down markedly from 1,224 arrests per day during June, representing a nearly 20 percent decline in a single month.

These figures bring into stark relief the discrepancy between on-the-ground performance and Miller’s high-pressure expectations. The former White House deputy chief of staff has relentlessly pushed for 3,000 arrests per day, an unprecedented rate intended to realize former President Trump’s plans for the largest mass deportation effort in U.S. history. Instead, ICE is operating at roughly one-third the pace Miller demanded.

Miller, widely viewed as the architect behind many of Trump’s toughest immigration policies, allegedly threatened to fire ICE field office leaders whose offices ranked in the bottom 10 percent for arrest activity. Such aggressive oversight and internal pressure were intended to turbocharge enforcement, but the data shows the policy has not translated into scaled results.

The TRAC data signals potentially growing internal friction within ICE. Enforcement resources, legal constraints, staffing levels, and logistical complexities appear to be undermining Miller’s push for rapid, large-scale migrant arrests.

Whether administrative resistance, legal challenges, or operational capacity is at fault remains unclear, but the numbers do. A drop from 1,224 to 990 arrests per day means ICE detained roughly 7,758 fewer people in July than would have been expected under June’s pace, despite White House demands to ramp up enforcement.

Critics say the gap between Miller’s strategy and ICE’s actual output underscores a deeper disconnect within the immigration apparatus, between political directives from the top and the reality of enforcement on the ground. They argue this is a cautionary tale about over-reliance on high-intensity quotas that neglect operational feasibility and legal safeguards.

Supporters of Miller’s agenda argue that even the 990-per-day arrest rate in July signals a robust, no-exception enforcement posture, and the decline may reflect fewer available targets or improved border deterrence.

Still, the shortfall is stark. If ICE had met the 3,000-per-day benchmark for July, it would have booked around 90,000 arrests in the month. Instead, at its current pace, it would come in closer to 28,000 arrests total, missing the goal by a factor of more than three.

Even more, the drop comes at a critical time. As summer progresses and border crossings and migration patterns shift, policy advocates emphasize that maintaining, or increasing, enforcement momentum is crucial to sustaining broader deterrence goals.

From a political standpoint, the trend presents a public relations challenge for Miller. Suppose enforcement agencies cannot deliver on his demands. In that case, critics may question the realism of his approach to immigration control and the decision to push staff with threats instead of sustainable support.

Looking ahead, ICE may attempt to recalibrate, temporarily increasing internal operations or focusing on more enforceable cases. But any future uptick will face scrutiny: Is the agency capable of scaling to match Miller’s specified targets, or was the strategy always out of sync with practical limitations?

In sum, the nearly 20 percent drop in ICE arrests from June to July marks a humbling moment for immigration hardliners. Despite intense pressure from Miller to meet ambitious quotas, the agency’s output fell sharply and well below the aggressive benchmarks laid out by the former deputy chief of staff.

Inquisitr: ICE Arrests Plummet in Embarrassing Setback for Stephen Miller

Tampa Free Press: Colorado Judge Rebukes AG [“Bimbo #3”] Bondi, Sides With Immigrant Family Over Paperwork Rule 

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Appeals Court Vacates Immigration Ruling, Finds Agency Erred on Signature Requirement

In a decision concerning immigration procedures, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Colorado has vacated a ruling by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). The court’s ruling, filed on Tuesday, in the case of Cortez v. United States Attorney General Pam [“Bimbo #3”] Bondi, determined that the BIA was incorrect to reject an appeal from a Salvadoran mother and son based on a technicality regarding a signature.

Ana Sofia Cortez and her minor son, M.Y.A.C., who are natives of El Salvador, had their initial application for relief from removal denied by an immigration judge.

Their attorney subsequently filed an appeal with the BIA using the Electronic Courts and Appeals System (ECAS). The BIA, however, rejected the filing, stating that the proof-of-service section on the form was not signed.

The court’s opinion, authored by Judge Hartz, found that the BIA’s requirement for a signature on this section constituted a legal error.

The court highlighted the instructions on the BIA’s own form, which stated that a signature for the proof of service was required “if applicable.” Since the attorney filed electronically through ECAS, the system automatically served the opposing party, making a separate service and, therefore, a signature on that section, unnecessary.

The government, represented by the Office of Immigration Litigation, had argued that the petitioners’ challenge to the rejection was untimely. However, the Tenth Circuit chose not to consider this argument, noting that the BIA had not relied on that specific ground in its decision.

“The BIA’s rejection of Petitioners’ motion for reconsideration was predicated on an error of law and must be set aside,” the court stated in its opinion.

As a result, the court has vacated and remanded the case back to the BIA for further proceedings. This decision allows the petitioners a renewed opportunity to have the merits of their appeal considered. The ruling underscores the importance of agencies adhering to the clear language of their own procedural instructions and forms.

Colorado Judge Rebukes AG Bondi, Sides With Immigrant Family Over Paperwork Rule
Appeals Court Vacates Immigration Ruling, Finds Agency Erred on Signature Requirement In a decision concerning immigration procedures, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Colorado has vacated a ruling by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). The court’s ruling, filed on Tuesday, in the case of Cortez v. United States Attor…

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/colorado-judge-rebukes-ag-bondi-sides-with-immigrant-family-over-paperwork-rule/ar-AA1JXQk8