Tag Archives: White House

Newsweek: Texas man with two US citizen children detained by ICE

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A Texas man with two children who are United States citizens was apprehended by federal immigration agents following a traffic stop that turned into a life-altering encounter for his family.

Pablo Jose Morales Petzey, 32, from Guatemala, was detained on June 6 after local police pulled him and his wife over on Highway 6 while they were on their way to a landscaping job. The officer cited a missing license plate, which the family said had fallen off the vehicle unknowingly. The officer called federal authorities after discovering Morales’s immigration status.

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Rodriguez, a U.S. citizen, told Newsweek the arrest has left their family broken, and their two children, 4-year-old Victoria and 3-year-old son Angel, are struggling to cope with the sudden absence of their father.

“My son Angel has autism and struggles to talk. The only words he says are ‘papa’ and ‘mama,’ and now he just looks out the window to see when his dad will return,” Rodriguez said.

“My daughter cries when she thinks of him in the truck when the police told him to get off, and she started to scream, ‘Why are they taking my dad? Why is he all chained up?’ I just told her everything will be OK with a knot in my throat with nothing else to say.”

One more family cruelly separated!

Texas man with two US citizen children detained by ICE
“They took him with handcuffs and a chain,” his wife, Laura Rodriguez, told Newsweek.

https://www.newsweek.com/texas-man-us-citzen-children-detained-ice-2086161

MSNBC: Maddow Blog | ‘No Kings’ protests, special election results leave no doubt about the backlash to Trump

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In elections and special elections throughout the country, results like these have become rather common lately. After last week’s special elections in multiple states, The Downballot reported, “Overall, in 29 special elections this year, Democratic candidates have run 16.4 points ahead of the 2024 presidential results on average.” G. Elliott Morris, the former director of data analytics at FiveThirtyEight, published a related analysis that pointed in the same direction.

‘No Kings’ protests, special election results leave no doubt about the backlash to Trump
Between activism, election results and protest turnout, the prevailing political winds suggest the backlash to the president is real.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/no-kings-protests-special-election-results-leave-no-doubt-backlash-tru-rcna213209

News Nation: US Border Patrol to lead DHS operations in Los Angeles

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President Donald Trump’s mission of achieving the largest mass deportation in history has been snagged by disappointing migrant apprehension numbers, leading to not only a shift in where the operation will focus, but also, in one case, which federal immigration agency is running point, NewsNation has learned.

Multiple sources within Customs and Border Protection tell NewsNation that the U.S. Border Patrol has been designated as the lead agency for the Department of Homeland Security’s operations in Los Angeles. Sources said that Border Patrol El Centro Sector Chief Gregory Bovino is now running point on the ground amid migrant arrest numbers that have proven disappointing to the Trump administration.

Bovino will report to the Department of Homeland Security, the federal agency that both the Border Patrol and ICE fall under. However, the shift in Los Angeles is significant as Border Patrol has never had removal authority as ICE has.

It’s a long article — click on the links below to read the rest:

US Border Patrol to lead DHS operations in Los Angeles

https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/immigration/border-patrol-dhs-ops-los-angeles

Alternet: ‘Ignorant president’: Trump brutally mocked after committing massive gaffe about Britain

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In President Donald Trump faced backlash Monday after suggesting the United Kingdom remains part of the European Union.

During a press briefing in Alberta, Canada, with British Prime Minister Kier Starmer, Trump remarked, “You all know the great PM of the UK, and we just signed a document.” He continued, “We just signed it, and so we have our trade agreement with the EU.”

The comment quickly circulated on social media, with many pointing out that the UK officially left the EU in 2020.

Definitely not “real genius stuff”!

‘Ignorant president’: Trump brutally mocked after committing massive gaffe about Britain

https://www.alternet.org/trump-mocked-britain

Raw Story: ‘Deep brain rot’: Ex-Republican blasts GOP over ‘deranged’ assassin theories

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Former Republicans Tim Miller and MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace were incensed by the behavior of former colleagues over the assassination and threats to Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota over the weekend.

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“I mean, all the way up to Elon Musk, richest man in the world, former shadow president, two United States senators, Mike Lee and Bernie Moreno, and a bunch of other very prominent right wing media folks, are still up until this moment, trying to claim that this person is a marxist. They invented some rationale that I guess one of the victims had voted against something that Gov. Tim Walz was pushing through with regards to health care for undocumented immigrants or something.”

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“I mean, this is like a deep brain rot, and it is infecting all of their followers,” Miller said. “It’s infecting people all around the country.”

He noted that these kinds of statements only “incite people more.” By claiming the left is behind the violence is “radicalizing people more towards the victims.”

‘Deep brain rot’: Ex-Republican blasts GOP over ‘deranged’ assassin theories

https://www.rawstory.com/minnesota-assassin

Knewz: Kristi Noem’s Pentagon Request Sparks Firestorm

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Knewz.com is reporting that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem reportedly urged Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to authorize U.S. military personnel in Los Angeles to detain civilians amid ongoing immigration-related protests. This request came shortly before President Trump ordered the deployment of U.S. Marines to support operations in the area. The move has sparked legal debate, as it potentially challenges long-standing restrictions on the military’s role in domestic law enforcement.

Noem urged Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to direct Department of Defense forces to either “detain, just as they would at any federal facility guarded by military, lawbreakers under Title 18 until they can be arrested and processed by federal law enforcement, or arrest them.”

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Experts warn Noem’s request could escalate tensions and erode civil liberties by blurring military and civilian law enforcement roles.

Kristi Noem’s Pentagon Request Sparks Firestorm

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/kristi-noem-s-pentagon-request-sparks-firestorm/ss-AA1GLJiF

NBC News: ICE detains Utah college student after brief traffic stop, raising questions

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A sheriff’s deputy in Colorado briefly pulled over Caroline Dias Goncalves before immigration agents detained her. Now county officials are conducting a review.

Caroline Dias Goncalves, a student at the University of Utah, was driving on Interstate 70 outside Loma on June 5 when a Mesa County sheriff’s deputy pulled her over.

The Mesa County Sheriff’s Office did not say why. Relatives told The Salt Lake City Tribune the deputy claimed she was driving too close to a semi-truck.

The stop lasted less than 20 minutes, and “Dias Goncalves was released from the traffic stop with a warning,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release Monday.

Then, shortly after she exited the highway, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents stopped her, arrested her and took her to an immigration detention center.

“She has no criminal record and she was not shown a warrant,” her attorney, Jon Hyman, said in an email.

Dias Goncalves is one of nearly 2.5 million Dreamers living in the United States. The word “Dreamer” refers to undocumented young immigrants brought to the United States as children.

Dias Goncalves was born in Brazil and was brought to the United States as a 7-year-old. She has lived in Utah since she was 12 and has an asylum case pending.

Friends and relatives question how immigration authorities were alerted to her location.

As part of an ongoing “full administrative review,” the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office determined that the deputy who stopped Dias Goncalves was part of a communication group that included local, state and federal law enforcement partners participating in “a multi-agency drug interdiction effort focusing on the highways throughout Western Colorado.”

“We were unaware that the communication group was used for anything other than drug interdiction efforts, including immigration,” the sheriff’s office said. “We have since removed all Mesa County Sheriff’s Office members from the communication group.”

Meanwhile in Georgia:

Dias Goncalves’ immigration detention mirrors that of fellow 19-year-old Dreamer Ximena Arias-Cristobal in Georgia.

Police in Dalton wrongly pulled Arias-Cristobal over last month, putting her on the radar of immigration authorities and making her susceptible to deportation.

Since her release from immigration detention, Arias-Cristobal has been speaking up about the growing risks Dreamers face as the Trump administration steps up the pace of deportations of immigrants who do not have criminal charges or convictions, despite Donald Trump’s campaign promises to prioritize deporting violent criminals.

ICE detains Utah college student after brief traffic stop, raising questions
A sheriff’s deputy in Colorado briefly pulled over Caroline Dias Goncalves before immigration agents detained her. Now county officials are conducting a review.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/ice-detains-utah-university-student-traffic-stop-colorado-rcna213231

Raw Story: ‘Lies!’ Trump DHS officials torn apart over attempt to sweep allegations away

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The Department of Homeland Security is vehemently denying allegations that it engaged in mass racial profiling in its immigration raids, but David J. Bier of the libertarian Cato Institute isn’t buying those denials for an instant.

DHS’s denials came last week in response to a report by the Los Angeles Times that a number of immigrant communities fear that stops and arrests are being done randomly against people based primarily on their appearance.

“Any claims that individuals have been ‘targeted’ by law enforcement because of their skin color are disgusting and categorically FALSE,” DHS posted to its official X account. “These types of smears are designed to demonize and villainize our brave ICE law enforcement. DHS enforcement operations are highly targeted, and officers do their due diligence. We know who we are targeting ahead of time. If and when we do encounter individuals subject to arrest, our law enforcement is trained to ask a series of well-determined questions to determine status and removability.”

But Bier couldn’t help but notice a telling omission from the denial.

“Of course they don’t link to the article which gives the proof that this is happening. DHS LIES,” he wrote, posting a damning passage from the very beginning of the original article:

“Brian Gavidia had stepped out from working on a car at a tow yard in a Los Angeles suburb Thursday, when armed, masked men — wearing vests with ‘Border Patrol’ on them — pushed him up against a metal gate and demanded to know where he was born,” the Times reported. “‘I’m American, bro!’ 29-year-old Gavidia pleaded, in video taken by a friend. ‘What hospital were you born?’ the agent barked. ‘I don’t know, dawg!’ he said. ‘East L.A., bro! I can show you: I have my f—ing Real ID.’ His friend, whom Gavidia did not name, narrated the video: ‘These guys, literally based off of skin color! My homie was born here!’ The friend said Gavidia was being questioned ‘just because of the way he looks.'”

‘Lies!’ Trump DHS officials torn apart over attempt to sweep allegations away

https://www.rawstory.com/dhs-profiling

Alternet: ‘Theft and destruction’: Trump’s escalating self-dealing exposed in new report

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The big lie:

During his 2016 campaign, Donald Trump insisted that if he defeated Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, he would maintain a strict separation between his business activities and the White House. And one of MAGA Republicans’ talking points is that Trump cares so deeply about the United States that he was willing to step away from his business, put his son Eric Trump in charge of the Trump Organization, and take a hit financially in order to be president and “make American great again.”

The reality:

But in fact, President Trump’s net worth has increased substantially since 2016 and continues to increase. Trump, according to his critics, is monetizing his presidency in a wide range of ways,

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The Guardian reporter continues, “He incurred numerous accusations of first-term conflicts of interest, as foreign officials from 20 countries descended on his hotels, while Secret Service agents in Trump’s security detail were made to pay premium rates, pouring at least $10m into his bank account. Such unprecedented disregard for time-honored ethical boundaries was shocking at the time. Now, it looks merely quaint.”

During his second term, Pilkington notes, Trump has monetized his presidency with everything from promoting Tesla vehicles to receiving a jet as a gift from the Qatari government.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) told The Guardian that Trump is operating a “pay-for-play presidency.” And Kathleen Clark, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, laments that Trump and his allies “have mastered the technique of flooding the zone” by “doing so much so fast that they are overwhelming the ability of ethics groups and institutions to respond.”

‘Theft and destruction’: Trump’s escalating self-dealing exposed in new report

https://www.alternet.org/trump-grifter-guardian

Independent: ICE could ‘run out of money next month’ and is already $1bn over budget to carry out Trump’s deportation plans

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The Department of Homeland Security has requested an extra $2 billion to meet its needs by the end of September

Immigration and Customs Enforcement could run out of money as soon as next month amid the Trump administration’s ramped-up efforts to deport unauthorized immigrants.

While there are more than three months left in the fiscal year, one estimate has found that the agency is already $1 billion over budget, according to Axios. Legislators in both parties have raised concerns about the speed at which the agency is spending its funds, which may prompt President Donald Trump to seek additional funds from other agencies to support his deportation efforts.

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The top Democrat on the DHS appropriations subcommittee, Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, said, “Trump’s DHS is spending like drunken sailors.”

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Trump may declare a national emergency to send money to ICE from other parts of the government.

ICE could run out of money next month and is already $1bn over budget
The Department of Homeland Security has requested an extra $2 billion to meet its needs by the end of September

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/ice-dhs-budget-deportations-trump-b2770916.html