Tag Archives: White House

Miami Herald: Supreme Court ruling on TPS stuns South Florida, leaves Venezuelan families in fear

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A U.S Supreme Court ruling that allows the Trump administration to strip deportation protections and work permits from hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans — including many Miami area residents — sent shock waves through South Florida and across the Sunshine State on Monday.

“That the U.S. would terminate the protections for Venezuelans now, when nothing has improved back home, is just unbelievable,” said Betsy Diaz, a Venezuelan-American in Hialeah whose two daughters, five grandchildren and several other relatives will lose the protections.

In a two-paragraph order, the nation’s highest court on Monday granted an emergency request from the White House to roll back a lower court judge’s order that kept in place Temporary Protected Status for about 350,000 Venezuelans. It was part of an ongoing lawsuit in federal court in San Francisco challenging the Trump administration’s February decision to revoke the protections granted to Venezuelans and other nationals from certain countries in turmoil.

The court provided no explanation for why it had lifted the lower court judge’s order, which prevented the Trump administration from removing the protections while the litigation is ongoing.

Supreme Court ruling on TPS stuns South Florida, leaves Venezuelan families in fear

“Unbelievable,” said a Venezuelan American grandmother in Hialeah

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/immigration/article306751681.html

Tampa Free Press: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz Says ICE Is ‘Trump’s Modern-Day Gestapo’ In Commencement Speech

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Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz compared the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel executing the Trump administration’s immigration agenda to the Gestapo in a Saturday commencement address at the University of Minnesota law school.

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Walz, the failed Democratic nominee for vice president in 2024, suggested during the speech that Trump is using ICE to implement his immigration agenda in similar fashion to how Nazi German dictator Adolf Hitler used the Gestapo secret police to target opponents, according to RealClearPolitics.

“Donald Trump’s modern-day Gestapo is scooping folks up off the streets,” Walz claimed. “They’re in unmarked vans, wearing masks, being shipped off to foreign torture dungeons—no chance to mount a defense, not even a chance to kiss a loved one goodbye, just grabbed up by masked agents, shoved into those vans, and disappeared.”

“To be clear, there’s no way for us to know whether they were actually criminals or not, because they refused to give them a trial,” Walz continued. “We’re supposed to just take their word for it.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz Says ICE Is ‘Trump’s Modern-Day Gestapo’ In Commencement Speech

Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz compared the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel executing the Trump administration’s immigration agenda to
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz Says ICE Is ‘Trump’s Modern-Day Gestapo’ In Commencement Speech

Independent: Trump posts fake video of him hitting Bruce Springsteen with a golf ball as their spat grows

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The president has fiercely criticized Bruce Springsteen after the rocker called his administration ‘corrupt’

President Donald Trump has posted a fake video of him hitting a golf ball at singer Bruce Springsteen amid a tense public feud.

Trump posted a video to Truth Social Wednesday showing real footage of him and Springsteen that has been manipulated to depict the president striking the rock star with a golf stroke.

This immature child is our president? If Springsteen had posted a video of him striking Trump with a golf stroke, the Secret Service would be on his case investigating him.

Trump posts fake video of him hitting Bruce Springsteen with a golf ball

The president has fiercely criticized Bruce Springsteen after the rocker called his administration ‘corrupt’

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/trump-bruce-springsteen-golf-ai-video-b2755425.html

Independent: Furious Democrats call for investigation into Musk’s bid to help build Trump’s ‘$500 billion’ Golden Dome project

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Forty-two members of the opposition write to Pentagon’s Inspector General to raise conflict of interest concerns over SpaceX’s potential involvement in anti-missile project

A group of 42 Democrats has written to the Pentagon’s Inspector General demanding an investigation after it was reported that Elon Musk’s company, SpaceX, could win a lucrative contract to help build President Donald Trump’s new “Golden Dome” anti-missile defense system.

Senators Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, and Tammy Duckworth have responded by expressing their concerns in a letter to acting Pentagon Inspector General Steven A Stebbins, demanding transparency about the bidding process.

“Mr Musk’s formal or informal participation in any process to award a government contract raises serious conflict of interest concerns, including the possibility that SpaceX is a top contender for the Golden Dome contract because of Mr Musk’s position in the government,” they wrote.

The project, inspired by Israel’s “Iron Dome”, was announced by President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the White House on Tuesday. The president promised it would be “fully operational” before he leaves office in January 2029 and capable of intercepting rockets, “even if they are launched from space.”

The independent Congressional Budget Office has warned that the project could cost as much as $524bn and take 20 years to build. Trump dismissed that estimate, putting the price tag closer to $175bn and insisting it could be completed in just three years, beginning with a $25bn grant to kickstart the development. That effort will be steered by Space Force General Michael Guetlein and “the brightest minds” in Silicon Valley, he said without naming the former DOGE leader.

I smell a crooked deal in the works, with the “winning” bidder already selected.

Democrats call for investigation into Elon Musk’s Golden Dome bid

Forty-two members of the opposition write to Pentagon’s Inspector General to raise conflict of interest concerns over SpaceX’s potential involvement in anti-missile project

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/elon-musk-golden-dome-trump-democrats-b2755109.html

Axios Sneak Peek: DOGE efforts face pushback at Social Security

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Some changes implemented by the Department of Government Efficiency at the Social Security Administration are reportedly being rolled back, but the agency is still struggling with fallout from the Elon Musk chainsaw.

The retreat shows the limits of DOGE’s slash-and-burn strategy at an agency that is deeply enmeshed with Americans’ lives.

DOGE efforts face pushback at Social Security

The retreat shows the limits at an agency deeply enmeshed in the lives of Americans.

https://www.axios.com/2025/05/21/social-security-efforts-doge

NBC News: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem struggles to define habeas corpus at Senate hearing

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“Habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country,” Noem said. “That’s incorrect,” a Democratic senator responded.

My God, how stupid is this woman?

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem mangled a response to a question about habeas corpus at a Senate hearing Tuesday, referring to the constitutional right of due process as a “right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country.”

Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., asked Noem about the constitutional protection after noting that White House adviser Stephen Miller told reporters earlier this month that the administration was “actively looking at” suspending habeas corpus, the right to challenge an arrest or imprisonment.

“I want to clarify your position,” Hassan asked. “What is habeas corpus?”

“Well, habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country, and suspend their right to … ,” Noem responded before she was cut off by Hassan.

“That’s incorrect,” the senator said.

“Habeas corpus is the legal principle that requires that the government provide a public reason for detaining and imprisoning people. If not for that protection, the government could simply arrest people, including American citizens, and hold them indefinitely for no reason,” Hassan said, calling it a “foundational right.”

“So Secretary Noem, do you support the core protection that habeas corpus provides, that the government must provide a public reason in order to detain and imprison someone?” she asked.

Noem responded, “I support habeas corpus. I also recognize that the president of the United States has the authority under the Constitution to decide if it should be suspended or not.” 

Uhh … no, he doesn’t.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem struggles to define habeas corpus at Senate hearing

“Habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country,” Noem said. “That’s incorrect,” a Democratic senator responded.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/rcna207986

MSNBC: Trump is making an unprecedented effort to scrub the historical record

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A new Associated Press analysis of President Donald Trump’s many methods for destroying records raises the remarkable possibility that the Trump administration could “leave less for the nation’s historical record than nearly any before it.” It’s a useful lens for understanding how Trump conceals information to evade accountability and undermine democracy.

As the AP notes, there are many different ways that Trump is making it impossible to track what his administration is doing:

The Trump administration is scrubbing thousands of government websites of history, legal records and data it finds disagreeable. It has sought to expand the executive branch’s power to shield from public view the government-slashing efforts of Elon Musk’s team and other key administration initiatives. Officials have used apps such as Signal that can auto-delete messages containing sensitive information rather than retaining them for recordkeeping. And they have shaken up the National Archives leadership and even ordered the rewriting of history on display at the Smithsonian Institution.

This all comes as HuffPost recently estimated that the White House has declined to release transcripts for about 80% of the president’s speeches and interactions with the press so far.

And Trump’s first term involved many extraordinary attacks on recordkeeping, including reportedly routinely discarding papers in the White House fireplace, deriding his staff for taking notes and tearing up documents into tiny pieces. Trump also improperly stored classified material at Mar-a-Lago after he left office.

As The Associated Press observes, the president is legally required to “keep up the historical record.” But retention laws are difficult to enforce, which means that a lot of compliance with them effectively relies on the honor system.

Trump’s view of honor systems, of course, is that they are for suckers. And he knows that he stands to benefit from keeping the public in the dark and avoiding mechanisms for accountability.

Opinion | Why Trump is making an unprecedented effort to scrub the historical record

A president hostile to accountability will try to keep the public — and future generations — in the dark.

https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/trump-lowest-historical-documentation-records-president-rcna207710

Newsweek: Woman Faces $1.82M fine for failing to self-deport from US

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A Florida woman has reportedly racked up over $1.82 million in civil penalties after failing to comply with a deportation order issued two decades ago.

The 41-year-old undocumented immigrant from Honduras, who has lived in the United States since at least 2005, was fined $500 per day for each day she remained in the country following her removal order, according to documents obtained by CBS News.

Simply absurd! How many undocumented immigrants have a spare $1.82 mil sitting around? And …

… she … is now the mother of three U.S. citizen children.

Woman Faces $1.82M fine for failing to self-deport from US

The woman, who has lived in the U.S. since at least 2005, was fined $500 each day she remained in the US after her removal order.

https://www.newsweek.com/florida-woman-fined-deportation-immigration-2074184

Talking Points Memo: Trump DOJ Admits It Used Bogus Info In Key Deportation Case

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In an important federal case in Massachusetts over whether deportees can be sent to third countries rather than their countries of origin, the Trump administration admitted Friday to a grievous error and managed to compound it in the process.

It’s a bit complicated so let me boil it down to its essentials:

  • Background: A gay Guatemalan national who had a U.S. immigration judge order barring his removal to his home country because he feared continued persecution was instead deported to Mexico in February by the Trump administration, partly on the grounds that he had told ICE that he didn’t fear being sent to Mexico. That was odd because the man, identified only by the initials O.C.G., had previously testified that he had been targeted and raped in Mexico, his lawyers say.
  • Thursday: The Trump DOJ abruptly cancelled the scheduled deposition of an ICE official “whom Defendants previously identified as giving Plaintiff O.C.G. notice of deportation to Mexico and recording his response of lack of fear,” O.C.G.’s lawyers later told the court.
  • Friday: The Trump DOJ filed a “Notice of Errata” admitting that during the judge’s ordered discovery in the case it had been unable to “identify any officer who asked O.C.G. whether he had a fear of return to Mexico.” A key factual element of the Trump administration’s case had evaporated. But it got worse …
  • Sunday: Lawyers for the deportee – who is now in hiding in Guatemala because he fears persecution as a gay man – filed an emergency motion pointing out, among other things, that the government’s filing about its own error revealed the deportees name and other information, further jeopardizing his safety despite a court order anonymizing his identifying information.

Still with me? In the course of admitting its error, the Trump administration outed the gay man who it had wrongfully deported in the first place.

This is what happens when you staff up with a bunch of sycophantic suck-ups and bimbos instead of competent personnel!

Trump DOJ Admits It Used Bogus Info In Key Deportation Case

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This…

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo/trump-doj-admits-it-used-bogus-info-in-key-deportation-case

Raw Story: ‘Went off the deep end’: Backlash hits sole Republican who demanded Hegseth be fired

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Congressman Don Bacon (R-NE) still remains the only GOP lawmaker who called for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to be ousted from his position — and it could be costing him support, according to a Washington Post report.

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Bacon, a retired Air Force general, has split his constituents with his stance — though he stands firmly outside of his party’s line on Hegseth.

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Bacon is an Air Force veteran who has previously said his lack of support for Hegseth “had nothing to do with anything political … It’s just what’s right.”

His calls to remove Hegseth began after the secretary used an unclassified messaging app to share “highly sensitive details of a planned U.S. assault on Yemeni militants.” The chat included a journalist and later became known as “Signalgate.”

“I could have forgiven it if he had said, ‘I was wrong and I won’t do it again,’” Bacon said. “People make mistakes.” But instead, Hegseth “tried to deny it was a problem,” and he sought to shift the blame to the journalist, he said.

‘Went off the deep end’: Backlash hits sole Republican who demanded Hegseth be fired

https://www.rawstory.com/hegseth-2672113281