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CNN: Florida lawmakers allowed into ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ say detainees packed into cages

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Deep in the hazardous and ecologically fragile Everglades, hundreds of migrants are confined in cages in a makeshift tent detention facility Florida’s Republican governor calls “safe and secure” and Democratic lawmakers call “inhumane.”

Two days after filing a lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for being “unlawfully denied entry” to inspect conditions at the facility dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” members of Congress and state representatives were given a limited tour Saturday to inspect conditions after calling the lack of access a “deliberate obstruction meant to hide what’s really happening behind those gates,” according to a joint statement from lawmakers.

They said they heard detainees shouting for help and crying out “libertad”— Spanish for “freedom” — amid sweltering heat, bug infestations and meager meals.

“They are essentially packed into cages, wall-to-wall humans, 32 detainees per cage,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who represents Florida’s 25th Congressional District, said during a news conference following their tour.

The families of some of the detainees have also decried conditions in the facility, while Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials defend it as offering higher detention standards than many US prisons.

Lawmakers Shown Empty Cells

On the tour, the lawmakers said they were not allowed to visit areas where migrants are currently being detained but instead were shown cells not yet being used.

Wasserman Schultz said each cage contained three small toilets with attached sinks, which detainees use for drinking water and brushing their teeth, sharing the same water used to flush the toilets.

When they toured the kitchen area, Wasserman Schultz said government employees were being offered large pieces of roast chicken and sausages, while the detainees’ lunch consisted of a “gray turkey and cheese sandwich, an apple and chips.”

“I don’t see how that could possibly sustain them nutritionally or not make them hungry,” Wasserman Schultz said. “And when you have hungry people, obviously their mood changes.”

Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost, who was also on the tour, said the lawmakers were concerned about reports of unhygienic conditions due to toilets not working and “feces being spread everywhere,” but were denied access from viewing units where migrants are currently detained.

They were also not permitted to view the medical facilities, with officials citing HIPAA laws, despite lawmakers being allowed to examine the medical facilities at other detention facilities, he said.

“It is something everyone, whether you’re Democrat, Republican or anything, should be deeply ashamed of,” Frost said. “Immigrants don’t poison the blood of this nation. They are the blood of this nation.”

US Rep. Darren Soto said lawmakers also witnessed evidence of flooding, highlighting serious concerns of what could happen to detainees if there’s severe weather during what forecasters said may be a busy hurricane season.

“What we saw in our inspection today was a political stunt, dangerous and wasteful,” Soto said after the tour. “One can’t help but understand and conclude that this is a total cruel political stunt meant to have a spectacle of political theater and it’s wasting taxpayer dollars and putting our ICE agents, our troops and ICE detainees in jeopardy.”

About 900 people are currently detained at the facility, Wasserman Schultz said during the news conference but it has the capacity to hold 3,000 people, with room for more, according to Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.

The wife of a 43-year-old Guatemalan man currently detained at “Alligator Alcatraz” told CNN her husband is enduring harsh conditions similar to those described by lawmakers who toured the facility. After more than two weeks in detention, she said, he has yet to see a lawyer.

“There are too many mosquitoes … He’s in a really bad condition. The power goes off at times because they’re using generators,” the woman told CNN in an interview Tuesday.

“The detainees are being held in tents, and it is very hot there. They’re in bad conditions. … There’s not enough food. Sick people are not getting medication. Every time I ask about his situation, he tells me it’s bad,” she said.

The Guatemalan woman said she, her husband, and their 11-month-old baby went fishing on June 25 in the Everglades. A Florida wildlife officer approached them and asked for documents. Her husband had a valid driver’s license, she said, but when the officer realized she didn’t have any documents proving she was in the country legally, the officer called immigration authorities who detained the whole family.

After spending seven-and-a-half hours in what she describes as a “dirty holding cell,” she and her baby – a US citizen – were released, but her husband was detained. She now wears an ankle bracelet.

Her husband later told her he remained in detention at the Dania Beach Jail, near Fort Lauderdale, for eight days, before being transferred to “Alligator Alcatraz.”

Once transferred, he was unable to take a shower for six days and there were not enough facilities for washing hands, she said. On Friday, he was woken up at 3 a.m. to take a shower because of the number of people waiting for their turn, she said.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Florida detention facility, did not immediately reply to CNN’s request for comment about specific allegations about conditions there.

In a written statement posted on X Tuesday, DHS said, “ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens. All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with lawyers and their family members.”

‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Set Up In Just Eight Days

In little over a week, workers transformed the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport from an 11,000-foot runway into a temporary tent city President Donald Trump toured last week.

Trump raved about the facility’s “incredible” quick construction during his visit and pointed to the detention center as an example of what he wants to implement “in many states.”

The project was fast-tracked under an executive order from DeSantis, who framed illegal immigration as a state emergency.

Sounds like more of a coverup than a tour!

Florida lawmakers allowed into ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ say detainees packed into cages | CNN
Deep in the hazardous and ecologically fragile Everglades, hundreds of migrants are confined in cages in a makeshift tent detention facility Florida’s Republican governor calls “safe and secure” and Democratic lawmakers call “inhumane.”

https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/12/us/alligator-alcatraz-lawmaker-tour-conditions

El Pais: Support for immigration reaches historic high in US despite Trump crusade

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Gallup poll shows 79% of Americans favor immigrants, a significant increase from a year earlier and a high point in a nearly 25-year trend

About 8-in-10 Americans, 79%, say immigration is “a good thing” for the country today, up sharply from 64% a year ago and a high point in a nearly 25-year trend. In contrast, only two in 10 U.S. adults say immigration is a bad thing, down from 32% last year.

Support for immigration reaches historic high in US despite Trump crusade
Gallup poll shows 79% of Americans favor immigrants, a significant increase from a year earlier and a high point in a nearly 25-year trend

https://english.elpais.com/usa/2025-07-13/support-for-immigration-reaches-historic-high-in-us-despite-trump-crusade.html

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

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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!

Gavin Newsom Rages At ‘Fascist Cuck’ Stephen Miller Through Spox Over Trump-Blocking Court Order In Late-Night Victory Dance
Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) raged at Stephen Miller over a new ruling blocking Trump deportation forces from certain arrests, calling Miller a “fascist cuck”
Gavin Newsom Office Rages At ‘Fascist Cuck’ Stephen Miller Over Trump-Blocking Court Order In Late-Night Victory Dance

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

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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!

Noem on blocked ICE operations ruling: Judges are ‘getting too political’

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

LA Times: Abcarian: Do you believe that deported farmworkers will be replaced by Medicaid recipients?

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You know, it’s not just the large language models of AI that are hallucinating.

The Trump administration is promoting the idea that if it deports all the undocumented farmworkers who plant and pick our crops, the labor gaps will be filled by able-bodied adults currently sitting around the house playing video games and mooching off taxpayers for their publicly funded healthcare.

This is absurdity masquerading as arithmetic.

The other day, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced that, contrary to Trump’s own recent statements, the administration is not planning to back off mass deportations of agricultural workers.

“The mass deportations continue, but in a strategic way, and we move the workforce towards automation and 100 percent American participation,” she said during an event at U.S. Department of Agriculture headquarters. “With 34 million people, able-bodied adults on Medicaid, we should be able to do that fairly quickly.”

That figure is grossly misleading, and a thinly veiled effort to vilify Medicaid — Medi-Cal in California — recipients as idle, which, overwhelmingly, they are not. The number of able-bodied Americans on Medicaid who might be able to pick our lettuce and apricots or who might be able to harvest our watermelons and strawberries is closer to 5 million, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

But whether the number is 34 million or 5 million, it’s a fantasy to believe that Americans will do the jobs currently filled by migrant farmworkers.

“Not gonna happen,” said Manuel Cunha, head of the Nisei Farmers League, a grower support organization founded 54 years ago in response to the United Farm Workers labor movement.

In the 1990s, Cunha was involved in a disastrous attempt to get adults off welfare and into the California farming workforce. Growers coordinated with the state’s Employment Development Department, arrangements were made for child care and transportation. And yet, as Cunha told the U.S. Senate’s immigration subcommittee in 1999, only three people showed up to work in the fields. “There was no interest on the part of welfare individuals to work in agriculture.”

And there is no reason to think that would be any different today.

Farm work requires skill and physical tenacity that comes from years of experience. You don’t just plop someone into a peach orchard and tell them to go prune a tree. Or let them loose on a strawberry field and expect them to come back the next day. In 2013, my colleague Hector Becerra decided to experience farm labor for himself, and arranged to spend a day picking strawberries in Santa Maria.

The experience sounded, frankly, hellish. He worked alongside three dozen Mexican migrants “bent at an almost 90-degree angle, using two hands to pack strawberries into plastic containers that they pushed along on ungainly one-wheeled carts.”

He could not keep up with the other pickers, and by lunchtime, Hector wrote, he was sore and exhausted. He lasted little more than seven hours, and then “surrendered.”

Many of California’s thousands of migrant farmworkers have been here for decades. They cannot easily be replaced. “They are skilled laborers and their families are part of our small rural communities,” Cunha told me. “My farmers deserve a workforce that can do the job. Provide them with a work authorization card.”

It was only a few years ago, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cunha recalled, that the country heaped praise on farmworkers. “Everybody said they were the most essential front-line workers. Every worker put their life on the line to feed the world, and today we can’t give them a little piece of paper to be here legally?”

Rollins’ claim that growers are moving “toward automation” is as preposterous as assuming native-born Americans will take to the fields.

“As far as automation,” a San Joaquin Valley grower told me, “there is no automation.” He did not want me to use his name because he’s afraid of calling attention to his fields, where workers are currently harvesting.

“If I could replace those 20 people with machines,” he said, “I would.”

But melons, strawberries and tree fruit are delicate. (“If you look at an apricot the wrong way, it will turn brown,” Cunha joked.)

Farmers can use machines to harvest produce like tomatoes that are destined for a cannery, for example. But when it comes to fresh fruit and vegetables, the grower told me, “The American consumer wants perfect fruit and there is no machine that can harvest like human hands can.”

We are at this pathetic moment because President Trump’s brand of authoritarianism is incompatible with good faith efforts to find a workable solution to our dysfunctional immigration system.

When it comes to agriculture, hospitality and construction, we need immigrant workers, most of whom are from Mexico. Our economy cannot function without them. In my view, the raids happening at California farms and Home Depot parking lots are a form of state-sponsored terrorism, aimed at instilling fear and panic in hard-working communities. They have no bearing on Trump’s campaign promise to deport violent criminals.

In May, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers, including Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San José), offered a new version of the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, a comprehensive immigration and labor bill that would offer a path to legalization for some farmworkers, reform and expand the current H-2A guest worker program, allocate funds to improve farmworker housing and require employers to use E-verify for all workers. Similar bills were passed by the House in 2019 and 2021 but died in the Senate at the hands of hard-line immigration critics. This time, Lofgren has said that the Senate will have to take it up first, as her fellow Californian, Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Elk Grove), who chairs the House’s Immigration Subcommittee, does not support it. Don’t hold your breath.

In Trump’s world, there is no appetite for real immigration solutions. As many have noted, the president and his supporters are reveling in the violent theater of it all — the images of masked, armed men terrorizing people in the streets and fields. They see no downside to the cruelty.

Maybe they will reconsider when crops rot in the fields, hotel rooms stay dirty and construction sites are stilled. One day, the bill for this folly will come due.

Column: Do you believe that deported farmworkers will be replaced by Medicaid recipients?
A plan to put able-bodied Americans on Medicaid to work in the fields was tried once before and failed miserably.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2025-07-13/deportation-farmworkers-medicaid-brooke-rollins

USA Today: Border Patrol’s pizza box ads spark backlash at local restaurant

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Pizza boxes have been known to advertise movies, TV shows and athletic competitions. But this time, employees at a pizza shop in Georgia got something particularly unique.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has recently confirmed a marketing campaign involving graphic pizza boxes encouraging those interested to join the Border Patrol with a QR code linking to their careers page — but some small businesses receiving the boxes aren’t exactly on board with it.

One such operation is Mojo Pizza N’Pub in Decatur, Georgia, just north of Atlanta.

…

The restaurant’s prep cook, Chad Dumas, said he got a call offering pizza boxes for free without realizing what they would be promoting. When 100 of these boxes showed up, the staff was not pleased.

“I don’t want it in my restaurant that I work for,” Dumas said. “I live in one of the most liberal cities in Atlanta… I don’t want that to go out. It’s propaganda.”

The staff reportedly burned all but a few boxes at an employee’s nearby home.

Border Patrol’s pizza box ads spark backlash at local restaurant
A pizzeria received 100 free pizza boxes advertising the U.S. Border Patrol as part of a new marketing initiative. So what happened?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/small-business/2025/07/13/border-patrol-pizza-box-ads/85085744007

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

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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.

MSNBC Contributor Suggests Masked ICE Agents Could Face ‘Lawful Exercise’ of ‘Right of Self-Defense’ Against Them
The podcast host and former prosecutor told Velshi that ICE agents could face “lawful” acts of fighting back by someone mistaking them for kidnappers.
MSNBC Contributor Suggests Masked ICE Agents Could Face ‘Lawful Exercise’ of ‘Right of Self-Defense’ Against Them

KTLA: Border Patrol agent accused of assaulting Long Beach police officer, entering women’s bathroom

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These Border Patrol / ICE goons & thugs are multi-talented f*ck*ps!

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent appeared in a Los Angeles County courtroom Friday to face felony charges for assaulting a Long Beach police officer and resisting arrest while off-duty and armed with a department-issued handgun.

Isaiah Anthony Hodgson, 29, faces four felony and three misdemeanor charges related to the incident, which happened Monday at Shoreline Village.

According to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, Hodgson was drunk inside a restaurant when he followed a woman into the women’s restroom. The woman alerted restaurant management and reported that Hodgson’s firearm and magazine were visible.

He fled the restaurant shortly after and was confronted by a security guard who saw the federal agent carrying his magazine in his hand while his gun was tucked into his waistband. That security guard asked him repeatedly to leave, the D.A.’s Office says.

The Long Beach Police Department was eventually called to the scene, and officers approached Hodgson in the parking lot.

“When they arrived, they reportedly observed Hodgson intoxicated and unwilling to cooperate with their commands as they tried to detain him,” a release from the D.A.’s Office states. “As Hodgson resisted arrest, he allegedly became agitated and physical with the officers, injuring one of them.”

He was eventually arrested and released, and made his initial appearance Friday.

He’s been charged with three felony counts for resisting arrest, one felony count of battery on an officer and three misdemeanor gun charges.

If convicted, he could face up to seven years in state prison.

District Attorney Nathan Hochman called Hodgson’s alleged behavior “unacceptable and deeply troubling.”

“No one is above the law, regardless of their position or badge,” Hochman said. “Law enforcement officers have a responsibility to always conduct themselves with integrity and professionalism. Our office will pursue prosecution accordingly to ensure justice is served.”

Hodgson is due back in court on July 17, and is prohibited from possessing firearms or leaving California, and has to attend at least three alcohol counseling meetings a week as a condition of his release.

Border Patrol agent accused of assaulting Long Beach police officer, entering women’s bathroom

https://ktla.com/news/california/border-patrol-agent-accused-of-assaulting-long-beach-police-officer-entering-womens-bathroom

Closer to the Edge: George Retes Was Abducted. ICE Is Hiding Him.

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They didn’t arrest George Retes — they abducted him. Let’s call it what it is. On July 10th, 2025, ICE agents smashed through the window of his car, pepper-sprayed him in the face, tackled him to the ground like an enemy combatant, and then vanished him. George Retes is a 25-year-old disabled U.S. Army veteran. He is a U.S. citizen. But that didn’t matter. Not to the badge-wearing cowards who swept through Camarillo, California like thugs on a purge night, armed with the full force of a government that no longer feels bound by law, reason, or humanity.

And now? George Retes is missing. His family has no idea where he is. The local sheriff has no clue, the city police can’t help, the county officials pretend their hands are tied. Every institution that is supposed to keep citizens safe and accounted for is shrugging its shoulders, as if a man can just be snatched off the street and dropped into some Kafkaesque black site without consequence. This is what state-sponsored kidnapping looks like when it wears a federal badge.

The Carrillo Law Firm is now representing George’s family, and they’re not mincing words. This was an abduction. The firm knows the playbook well—they’re already handling a disturbingly similar case involving Andrea Velez, a 32-year-old U.S. citizen who was kidnapped by ICE agents during a prior raid. It took them more than a day just to locate her, because ICE operates like a rogue paramilitary, shuffling detainees like pawns between jails and detention centers, ensuring that families and attorneys are always one step behind.

George wasn’t even part of the protests that flared up when ICE invaded Glass House Farms. He was doing his job—working security. But ICE doesn’t need cause anymore. They saw a brown-skinned man, decided they didn’t like the way he looked, and treated his military service and citizenship like a clerical error they could correct with handcuffs and brute force. This wasn’t law enforcement. This was a rogue agency acting like the Gestapo, punishing the public for existing while Latino.

We don’t know where George is. His family doesn’t know. His lawyers don’t know. Nobody knows. There are only guesses—Ventura County Jail, the ICE Los Angeles Field Office, Adelanto ICE Processing Center, Mesa Verde in Bakersfield, Otay Mesa in San Diego. Places with reputations for dehumanization, violence, and neglect. Places that turn human beings into numbers and numbers into ghosts. ICE isn’t talking because they don’t have to. They have the cover of bureaucracy and the implicit backing of a government that has decided some citizens are worth less than others. Due process? Habeas corpus? Constitutional protections? Those are bedtime stories for children now.

What ICE is doing isn’t just morally obscene — it’s legally criminal. Under 42 U.S. Code § 1983, every federal agent who strips a citizen of their constitutional rights can be held personally liable. That includes the ICE agents who destroyed George Retes’s car, attacked him, and dragged him away. It includes the supervisors who ordered it, the bureaucrats who processed it, and the cowards who stood by watching. Americans have been tackled, beaten, pepper-sprayed, and hidden away — all under the guise of national security, all while their families suffer in confusion and grief. Every time this happens, a piece of the Constitution is set on fire, and ICE lights the match.

This is terrorism funded by your tax dollars. This is what America looks like when its own government decides that some of us don’t count, that citizenship is conditional, and that veterans who fought for the country can be discarded like defective equipment. George Retes is gone because ICE wanted him gone, and the system is built to make sure nobody answers for that.

The Carrillo Law Firm is demanding answers, but they’re doing more than that — they’re offering to help any family of a U.S. citizen who’s been abducted by ICE, and they’re doing it with no upfront cost. If your loved one has disappeared under the boots of these fascist thugs, call them at 626-799-9375. They know how to navigate this nightmare. They know how to track the untrackable. And when they find your loved one, they know how to burn the bastards who did it in court.

We will not shut up about George Retes. We will not let this go. If ICE can disappear a disabled Army veteran, then none of us are safe. They aren’t deporting anymore — they’re disappearing. And unless we fight back, unless we call it what it is, they’ll keep doing it until no one is left to protest.

GEORGE RETES WAS ABDUCTED. ICE IS HIDING HIM.
They didn’t arrest George Retes — they abducted him.

https://www.closertotheedge.net/p/george-retes-was-abducted-ice-is

Miami Herald: Here’s Hegseth’s Response to ‘Our Boys’ Fact Check

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When asked about the fact check and his language, Hegseth responded, “I say our boys and bombers as a common phrase, I’ll keep saying things like that, whether they’re men or women. Very proud of that female pilot, just like I’m very proud of those male pilots and I don’t care if it’s a male or a female in that cockpit and the American people don’t care. But it’s the obsession with race and gender in this department that’s changed priorities and we don’t do that anymore. We don’t play your little games.”

So says the washed out O-3 turned Fox talk show host who can never give a straight answer to a question.

Here’s Hegseth’s Response to ‘Our Boys’ Fact Check
More for You

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/here-s-hegseth-s-response-to-our-boys-fact-check/ss-AA1HI6k7