— Secretary Markwayne Mullin (@SecMullinDHS) May 25, 2026
In an article published by NJ.com on May 22 and updayed four days later
At the Delaney Hall immigration detention center in Newark,
detainees are so desperate, they’re going on a hunger and labor strike.
On Friday morning, at a small rally organized by Gabriela
Soto — a rising immigrants’ rights advocate who’s married to Martin Soto, a
Peruvian man detained at Delaney since February — several men held at the
center spoke to the crowd via video chat.
One man said he and the nearly 300 others in his unit at the
facility had decided to “stop eating and stop working” indefinitely until the
inhumane conditions inside the facility improve. “But that’s not all we
demand,” he said. “We are also doing this to demand freedom.”
“We’re not treated like people,” he continued. “We’re
treated like animals.”
One man
decried the lack of adequate medical care inside the
facility.
He said in the months he’s been held there, he’s fallen ill
three times and has never been seen by a doctor despite repeatedly asking to
each time.
A spokesperson for ICE and the GEO Group, which operates the
facility on behalf of the federal government, did not return requests for
comment.
The GEO Group- privatization? Of course. Continuing
Emanuel Rodrigues, a Brazilian man who’s been in forced
“medical isolation” at Delaney for more than 100 days, recently told me
detention center staff “do not care” about detainees’ health or well-being.
When it was his turn to speak, detainee Jordi Alvarado
reiterated the long list of complaints he and others at the facility made in a
recent letter pleading elected officials for help.
Inside Delaney, Alvarado said, “conditions are substandard
and human rights violations are commonplace.”
“And those who speak out [against the abuses], as we’re
doing now, are harshly punished for it, berated, and placed in solitary
confinement for days,” he said in Spanish.
“We have to be very careful, everything we say and do is
closely monitored, at all times,” he warned us. And then, almost as if on cue,
his face abruptly disappeared from the screen of the iPhone advocates had used
to call him.
On the blacked out screen, a message popped up. “Call
paused.” And shortly after, “Call ended.”
Hours after the rally, Sally Pillay, of Eyes on ICE NJ, a
grassroots coalition of dozens of immigrants’ rights groups, informed
journalists the group had “lost all contact with phones and tablets for people
detained inside.” Cell service returned shortly after 5 p.m. Friday.
On Memorial Day, New Jersey senator Andy Kim visited the facility. Outside
ICE had brought out an armored vehicle, and lined in front
of that was a wall of armed officers creating a barricade.
Kim said that the protesters present “kind of lined up in
front of them” and that he “tried to get in between the ICE officers and the
crowd to de-escalate.”
“ICE officials told me that they were going to push through
the crowd with their vehicle and they wanted to get some vehicles out of
there,” he said. “I tried to arrange a situation where people would not get
hurt, where there wouldn’t be a confrontation. Unfortunately, ICE just
continued on.”
He said he “immediately saw people getting tackled and
brought to the ground” and that ICE “started pushing through with their
vehicles.”
Kim said he again ran up to try to put himself between the
ICE agents and the crowd to prevent things from escalating when the agents
“started shooting at us with pepper balls and using pepper spray.”
“I tried to do whatever I could standing in the
middle to keep people safe,” he said.
That's one heck of a political stunt, trying to create order
from chaos and de-escalating a situation Immigration and Control Enforcement
was escalating. Of course, this sort of thing probably could have been expected
from an agency led by Kristi Noem's replacement, who only a short time ago was
a United States senator.
In many cases, it's critical to check original sources and not omit a critical response.
Jake Tapper just put Senator Cory Booker on DEFENSE, pressing him to explain why Democrats are REFUSING to fund the United States Department of Homeland Security while security concerns remain high.
Tapper pinned the standoff directly on Senate Democrats.
of the security of our home, there have been a number of
attacks — ISIS inspired bombing attempt in New York City outside Mamdani’s
house. A shooting target at an ROTC class at Old Dominion and on and on and
on.”
“Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security is still
shut down because Senate Democrats are blocking the funding bill over the Trump
administration’s immigration crackdown.”
“Given the security concerns you just expressed and given
the fact that that honestly, Secretary Noem has been fired, Tom Homan took over
from Greg Bovino and Noem in Minnesota you could argue Democrats won the
debate.”
“Isn’t it time for Democrats to reopen and refund DHS?”
BOOKER: “So, first of all Democrats have tried multiple
times to try to get TSA, CISA, the Coast Guard funded. Republicans have refused
time and time again to fund…”
TAPPER: “Yeah, they want the whole agency funded.”
"Cory Booker (pu)t on DEFENSE" as to "why Democrats are REFUSING to fund the United States Department of Homeland Security while security concerns remain high" is, well, highly misleading. And that goes beyond the reality that security concerns are high now because of the war Donald Trump launched in violation of the 1973 War Powers Resolution (and international law, for what that's worth), without consulting our allies in the Gulf or Europe and apparently without considering the ramifactions of is reckless action.
Booker's response after "they want the whole agency funded" was
They want the whole agency.
ICE is still out there doing reckless things in communities.
ICE is still arresting and detaining American citizens. ICE is still having
unmasked people jump out of unmarked cars abducting people from the streets,
barreling into homes. Even Americans, even veterans are being swept up in ICE's
chaos.
I will not approve another dollar for ICE, given all that
they're doing, but we should be funding those TSA agents that keep us safe,
CISA, Coast Guard. And for Republicans to refuse to do it is unacceptable.
Out of time, Tapper then concluded the interview.
That was a good response from Booker; as good or better than most Democrats would give. And I'm not saying that because he's one of the two best Senators from my state. However, there was an even better response New Jersey's senior senator could have made.
Objection- assumes facts not in evidence. Tapper's question "isn't it time for Democrats to reopen and fund DHS?" was less accusatory, implying that it is the fault of Democrats that the federal government isn't open and their responsibility to end the impass they've allegedly created.
In response to Tapper, the question should be reversed. He should be asked "isn't it time for Republicans to reopen and fund DHS?" That rhetorical question probably would be mean with silence. Once Tapper regains his footing, the priority should be to point out that Republicans control the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the presidency. If the government isn't working, it's on the Republicans. It's their government!
Make sure that viewers understand that it is Republicans who are creating the long lines at the airport. Moreover, Booker- or any Democrat- earns extra credit if he or she turns the question against Jake Tapper himself. Why are you even asking that question, Jake?
Republicans have understood for a long time that Americans do not like the media, ever since a Nixon Administration speechwriter (either Pat Buchanan or William Safire) had Vice President Spiro Agnew refer to the "nattering nabobs of negativism" who have "their own 4-H club- the hopeless, hysterical hypchondriacs of history." (There is disagreement over whether Agnew initially was referring to the media or to Democratic politicians but it was taken up by conservative critics of the press as a blueprint.)
Although they no longer appreciate awesome alliteration, Americans like and respect the media even less than they did at that time. Democrats, seemingly unaware of the relationship between the voters and professional journalists, seem to believe that the former have some regard for the latter. Moreover, they act as if they believe the GOP myth that the media is partial to Democrats.
They must not continue to be fooled. The very promient Jake Tapper, with Alex Thompson, wrote "Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again." Evidently, they have not gotten around to writing a similar book about incumbent president Donald Trump, whose physical and mental decline is threatening not only our constitutional republic, but world stability.
Washington Democrats also mistake political epedience for dmocratic tradition.. Much tradition is good; much needs to be reversed. The obvious answer to Jake Tapper's plea that Republicans "want the whole agency funded" is that not all of it should be. The eerily-named Department of Homeland Security was created in the wake of the 9/11/01 terrorist atttacks, and should not have been. It has become a monstrosity, a ridiculous behemoth, lumping together Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, Transportation Security Administration, FEMA, and twelve other operational and support components.
Enough- actually, much too much. It's time to split off ICE, either with or without Customs and Border Protection, and not crush innocent airport travelers because congressional Republicans are unable or unwilling to rein in President Trump's anti-immigrant crusade. And it's time for Democrats to challenge media members who treat those Republicans with kid gloves and know they'll never get any pushback from the other side.
The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis
protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol
agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo
Gutierrez....
Ochoa is a Border Patrol agent who joined CBP in 2018.
Gutierrez joined in 2014 and works for CBP’s Office of Field Operations. He is
assigned to a special response team, which conducts high-risk operations like
those of police SWAT units.
He then quotes Wheeler as emphasizing
Alfredo Mancillas Jr. was found in St. Paul last Tuesday,
passed out drunk in his illegally-parked car, covered in his own vomit....
The two heavily masked ICE agents who snatched Brad Lander
last June are “a Pakistani Muslim immigrant who lives in Brighton Beach” and
“an Indo-Guyanese gentleman who lives in South Ozone Park.”
There are a lot of reasons Stephen Miller’s goons wear
masks. To terrify the communities they invade. To make it harder to shame them.
To make it harder to tie them to other crimes they may have committed....
But there is accumulating evidence that a big reason these
goons hide their faces is to hide that the white nationalist project Stephen
Miller is pursuing — like virtually everything else in America — relies on
brown people to do the hard work. Miller can only sustain the myth of white
self-reliance by hiding the faces of those who murder white men at his behest
in the streets of Blue cities....
They’re trying to hide how much even their deeply racist
project is helpless without brown labor.
I think this misunderstands the way right-wingers look at
race. Some are pure bigots in the David Duke/Nick Fuentes mold. They hate
anyone who isn't white and Christian. And even those who don't fall into this
category want to live in an America in which white male heterosexual Christians
run pretty much everything.
But the people hoping to build a white ethnostate are always
in tension with those on the right who proudly point to everyone of color who
seems to have "escaped" from "the liberal plantation." The
organizers of Trump's campaign rallies seemed happy to have the candidate speak
with "BLACKS FOR TRUMP" signs in the background. Trump embraced Kanye
West before West became too toxic. And Republican candidates of color --
Herschel Walker in Georgia, Mark Robinson in North Carolina, Royce White in
Minnesota -- have won Republican primaries throughout the Trump era. In the
Florida governor's race, Byron Donalds leads all other candidates in Republican
primary polling by more than 30 points, and in polling of the Ohio GOP
gubernatorial primary, Vivek Ramaswamy's lead is more than 50 points. Most
Republicans enjoy pointing to these figures and accusing liberals of being
"the real racists."
Wheeler's framing implies that Miller's non-white immigration agents are laboring in a state of pseudo-enslavement, or at least doing the work reluctantly because there's nothing else available. That's belied by what the ProPublica story tells us about one of the agents....
This is an accurate reading of the right and a critically important point to make. Some are "pure bigots" while a larger number are proud to trumpet (pun intended) support of their cause by blacks so they can accuse liberals of being "the real racists," as SM recognizes.
But there is something else going on. Whites generally, and conservative whites specifically, are tired of accusations of racism directed toward them, or what they perceive as such criticism. They are happy and relieved whenever individuals such as Herschel Walker, Mark Robinson, Royce White, or Byron Donalds rear their black head, as long as those individuals are on their side. They believe that proves they are not racist and legitimizes their conservative viewpoints. It's not only progressives, liberals, moderates, and centrists who want to be recognized as open-minded; the right does, also.
That was key to Barack Obama's success. Of course, few conservative Republicans- as the vast majority of Republicans are- would vote for him because they were, obviously Republicans. However, that left many moderates, and especially centrists, who comforted themselves by voting for the man who would become the first black President. It frees them, as SM argues, to accuse Democrats themselves as being "the real racists." Then in an off-year election, they could vote Republican, having already done their part to prove they were open-minded.
Yet, SM is wrong insofar as he's maintaining that we are overemphasizing race in considering the ethnicity of the killers of Alex Pretti. He says the apparent killers "shared the mindset that compels white men to become immigration officers."
Well, sure, that is accurate. But it is too easy, implying that it is a white mindset that impels such injustice or brutality. One of his readers comments "there's a lotta men who are hungry, and lack, a sense of belonging and meaning in their lives, and a sense of control and power, and being given a gun and being made part of a group with a mission can be very attractive, whatever their ethnicity." Less elegantly or thoughtfully, another realizes (emphasis his) "ALL ethnicities have assholes." And I would add: "and bigots."
These all are valid critiques of Wheeler's primary thesis, as is the one from another commenter who notes that many border patrol agents
are Hispanics whose families have been there for generations, if not since Texas was Mexican. Even more recent arrivals may despise those trying to come in now as poorer and somehow less worthy than they, their parents or grandparents were. Also, they are more likely to feel directly threatened by competition for jobs by the newcomers than most.
Doubtless, Border Parol has always been far more aggressive on the southern border than elsewhere and coverage of the aggression and illegality has been limited and localized
It's typical that it never occurred to Trump, Miller, Noem and the rest that South texas Border Patrol aggressiveness and disregard for law would appal residents of Minneapolis, nor that people in the rest of the country, including rred areas, would be outraged and disgusted by it, not cowed by it.
This seems to me a far more likely explanation for Stephen Miller "relying on brown people to do the hard work" of "maintaing the myth of white self-releance." Yet, all of this- Marci Wheeler's speculative theory, Steve M's cogent rebuttal, and the wise remarks largely buttressing the rebuttal- pertain only to the perpetrators.
Closing the circle would require consideration also of the victims, as it does in the matter of Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and their co-conspirators..
This, the left does not want to dwell on. And in a dirty little secret, centrists generally would be even more loathe to address it.
And that is this: Renee Good and Alex Pretti are both white. Obvious? Yes. Mentioned? No.
It was a fundamental tenet of the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 that brutal law enforcement was not only focused on blacks but was directed virtually exclusively toward "people of color." It needn't have been stated; we all just knew that blacks were the sole targets of police officers acting badly.
Unlike today and especially during campaign 2024, actual critics of the protest were few.. Conservatives much preferred the slogan "Blue Lives Matter" to substantive condemnation of the movement. There was some, but relatively muted, criticsm of the blue lives matter argument. By contrast, the slogan "All Lives Matter" was consistently attacked as being racially insensitive, if not racist.
This was a response not only from the left. Moderates and centrists who should have known better, many of them probably knowing better, went along for the ride.
We now know better, yet still refuse to acknowledge it. ICE is practicing racial profiling, but much less out of racial bias than because it has implemented quotas and stopping people who appear to look Latino gets the numbers up. We've learned also that if an individual gets in the way, such as by filming an ICE agent or border patrol officer, being white will not spare the activist from harassment or worse..
So race, as Marci Wheeler believes, is a factor. It usually is. Nonetheless, as Steve M. and most of his readers evidently believe, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and thuggery is just thuggery.
Te following is the applicable portion of the interview of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on Sunday,February by George Stephanopoulos on ABC's This Week.
STEPHANOPOULOS: They
are being released across the country as well by judges. And the president said
he was going to prioritize those who had criminal records, but about 70 percent
at least of those who have been detained don't have criminal records.
BLANCHE: Well, just
-- hang on. The fact that they're here illegally is a crime. And so when you
say they don't have criminal records, they are -- by their presence being here
without status, having come into this country illegally or overstayed
illegally, that is a crime. And so, we have to be careful.
And you're right, there is a schism in the law right now
about whether an illegal alien can be held pending their proceeding or whether
they need to be released on bail. We very strongly believe that they should be
held and there's a bunch of appellate cases.
So that's another example of something where a number of
district court judges have reached a conclusion that we very much believe is
contrary to law and there will be an appellate court and ultimately, probably
the Supreme Court that will be asked to interpret that. So -- so, we should be
-- we should wait before we withhold judgment until the appellate courts have
had their opportunity to weigh in.
The tweet is interesting. A close reading of INS v. Lopez-Mendoza (1984) would suggest that, consistent with Doar's interpretation, that mere presence of an immigrant illegally present in the USA is not a criminal offense. In her majority opinion, Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court Sandra Day O'Connor ruled against Lopez-Mendoza, stating "the mere fact of an illegal arrest has no bearing on a subsequent hearing."
Nonetheless, in his dissent, Justice White noted "unregistered presence in this country, without more, ante at 468 U.S. 1047, does not constitute a crime, rather, unregistered presence plus willfulness muist be shown." Without referring to this case itself, the the Immigrants' Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union in 2010 explained
The act of being present in the United states in violation of the immigration laws is not, standing alone, a crime. While federal immigration law does criminalize some actions that may be related to undocumented presence in the United States, undocumented presence alone is not a violation of federal criminal law. Thus, many believe that the term "illegal alien," which may suggest a criminal violation, is inaccurate or misleading....
Undocumented presence in the United States is only criminally punishable if it occurs after an individual was previously formally removed from the United States and then returned without permission. (8 U.S. Code Section 1326) (any individual previously "deported or removed" who "enters, attempts to enter, or is at any time found in" the United States without authroization may be punished by imprisonment up to two years). Mere undocumented presence in the United States alon, however, in the absence of a previous removal order and unathorized reentry, is not a crime under federal law.
Deputy Attorney General Blanch, therefore, probably was wrong when he said of the "millions and millions and millions of undocumented illegal aliens (who have flooded our country" that "the fact that they're here illegally is a crime."
To give Blanch his due- those this was not what he stated- individuals who have "flooded our country illegally" are not guilty of a mere civil offense. In that same 2010 report, the ACLU noted
Entering the United States without being inspected and admitted, i.e., illegal entry, is a misdemeanor or can be a felony, depending on the circumstanstances. (8 U.S. Code, Section 1325.) But many undocumented immigrants do not enter the United States illegally. They enter legally but overstay, work without authorization, drop out of school or violate the conditions of their visas in some other way. Current estimates are that approximately 45% f undoumented immigrants did not enter illegally. See Pew Hispanic Center, Modes of Entr for the Unauthorized Migrant Population (May 22, 2006).
As Doar points out, Section 1325 applies to individuals entering the USA illegally for the first time and Section 1326 pertains to persons re-entering illegally (or previously denied permission to enter), as they have since enacted in the late 1920s. (The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 made the law tougher/more punitive.) Although estimates vary, it appears that the number of persons who have overstayed their visa (or Master Card) constitutes a very minority of the total number here on an unauthorized basis. Unlike the foreigners who have entered or re-entered illegally, they are guilty only of a civil offense.
Civil vs. criminal and misdemeanor vs. felony are critical distinctions. Of course, that leaves us with such problems as apprehension in schools and at courthouses, separation of children from their parents, camera phobia, excessive force, wearing of masks, warrantless home raids, and quotas (almost always bad things). Confronting tyranny is a tall order.
Among them is that the Administration is not in the least pulling back from its harsh, objectively inhumane, actions. The evidence includes the upcoming raids on Springfield, Ohio. Bunch notes
On Tuesday, some 350,000 Haitian refugees are slated — under
a Trump regime order — to lose the temporary protected status (TPS) that was
granted to them by the Biden administration and has allowed them to stay
legally in the United States after fleeing an epidemic of gang violence and
murder in their Caribbean homeland.
Advocates for the large Haitian diaspora are fighting
Trump’s revocation in court, so there is a chance the move can be forestalled.
However, top officials including Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, have said the
Department of Homeland Security has plans in place to immediately swarm the
industrial epicenter of Haitian migration — Springfield, Ohio — with a massive
force of federal agents to begin deportation raids.
You probably remember Springfield from its prominence in the
2024 presidential campaign. Over the last decade, a surge of Haitian migrants
into a once nearly comatose factory town — some 12,000 to 15,000 people, or now
a quarter of the small city’s population — revitalized Springfield yet
triggered a moral panic among some white neighbors who shared utterly unfounded
rumors of animal abuse.
As of 3/31/25, approximately 1,297, 635 individuals from 17 nations were residing in the USA- fewer now, no doubt- due to Temporary Protected Status, which is
a government beneift granted by the Secretary of the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) to eligible foreign-born individuals who are unable to return
home safely due to conditions or circumstances preventing their country from
adequately handling the return.....
The DHS Secretary can extend TPS after a review of country
conditions. A decision concerning an extension should typically be made at
least 60 days before the TPS designation is set to expire. The Secretary can
extend the TPS designation for a six, 12 or 18-month period or decide to cancel
the designation.
TPS now applies to individuals from 12 nations. The Administration is now in the process of taking away the designation from Venezuela and Nicaragua. Bunch denounces ICE
zeroing in on so many Venezuelans, who came to America to
escape the rule of a man the Trump regime has now arrested as a criminal
dictator of a nation that the U.S. State Department has deemed violent and
unsafe? Why deport the thousands of Latinos who worked tirelessly to rebuild
New Orleans after it was decimated by Hurricane Katrina?
Not only is Trump’s mass deportation not nabbing many
violent criminals, but his unholy war is undoing the very foundation of the
story that America tells itself to live — that our willingness to accept the
huddled masses fleeing political violence or persecution made us an exceptional
nation. It was always an uneven narrative, but the regime’s masked men are now
erasing it in service of unapologetic white supremacy.
But we have been willing to accept those huddled masses with TPS, which lacks a "lawful path to permanent residence (a green card) or citizenship." The beneficiaries could mow our lawns, construct or clean buildings, pick crops, wash dishes or serve food at our restaurants. Low wages, few benefits, and arbitrary termination from employment are common.
What these individuals could not, and cannot, obtain is citizenship.In 2020, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services explained
Citizenship is the common thread that connects all
Americans. We are a nation bound not by race or religion, but by the shared
values of freedom, liberty, and equality.
Throughout our history, the United States has welcomed
newcomers from all over the world. Immigrants have helped shape and define the
country we know today. Their contributions help preserve our legacy as a land
of freedom and opportunity. More than 200 years after our founding, naturalized
citizens are still an important part of our democracy. By becoming a U.S.
citizen, you too will have a voice in how our nation is governed.
The decision to apply is a significant one. Citizenship
offers many benefits and equally important responsibilities. By applying, you
are demonstrating your commitment to this country and our form of government.
Elizabeth Bruenig of The Atlantic (subscription required) recently reminded us that the USA was founded on "the idea that a nationcould be baound not by race, ethnicity, or language but by fidelity to a set of principles- liberty, equality,self-governance, and inalienable rights."
It's an idea expressed, in one way or another at one time or another, by such notables as Ronald Reagan, Joe Biden, and Lindsey Graham. Yet, it's something we need to be reminded of as the promiscuous implementation of Temporary Protection Status belies the ideal.
It belies the ideal because as we invite people(s) from other countries in, they are not invited to be Americans, not even second-class citizens. They are given a work permit and escape from an ongoing armed conflict, environmental disaster,or extraoridnary and temporary conditions.
They are not asked to give a commitment to this country or to those principles which Bruenig and others cite as foundational principles of America. And in return, they can have their Temporary Protected Status yanked from them whenever the federal government chooses, as the Trump Administration is feverishly attempting.
In the 1984 "America" written by Sammy Johns, Waylon Jennings sang "and my brothers are all black and white, yellow too, and the red man is right; to expect a little from you, promise and then follow through, America."
Promise and then follow through. That's exactly what we don't do with TPS, and no Administration can promise to do because it all can be done.
In some instances, temporary protection status is probably appropriate. However, there should be less of it and more of a program of true citizenship. Individuals would be given an opportunity to work toward citizenship, and over a shorter period of time than has been proposed in the past. Applicants would be assisted in this goal which, if achieved, would beneift this country. If they decided not to participate significantly, their continued presence would not be welcomed. If they chose to be Americans, to be a part of our continuing experiment, they would be a valuable addition.
Obviously and unfortunately, this is all moot now. This is Donald Trump's government and autocratic strategy and acquiesence to his schemes is necessary to maintain, as Bunch recognizes, "the very foundation of the story that America tells itself to live."
It's another "wait, what?" moment from this Administration. We learn that
Attorney General Pam Bondi on Saturday outlined terms to
“restore the rule of law” in Minnesota, just hours after a second person was
fatally shot by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis.
“You and your office must restore the rule of law, support
ICE officers, and bring an end to the chaos in Minnesota,” Bondi wrote in a
letter to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) obtained by multiple outlets.
“Fortunately, there are common sense solutions to these problems that I hope we
can accomplish together.”
In the letter, Bondi pressed Walz to hand over information
about the state’s welfare programs amid mounting scrutiny over a massive fraud
scandal, and she asked that he get rid of immigration sanctuary policies and
let the Department of Justice see voter rolls “to confirm that Minnesota’s
voter registration practices comply with federal law.”
“I am confident that these simple steps will help bring back
law and order to Minnesota and improve the lives of Americans,” Bondi said in
the letter.
One of the three steps the Attorney General proposed is for Minnesota to
allow the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice to accesss voter rolls to confirm that Minnesota's voter registration practices comply with federal law as authorized by the Civil Rights Act of 1960. Fulfilling this common sense request will beteter guarantee free and fair elections and boost confidence in the rule of law.
You might wonder what in the world voter rolls have to do with the "chaos in Minnesota." Allow Connecticult's junior senator to make sense of this:
Pam Bondi just sent a letter to Minnesota officials saying ICE will leave if the state turns over its voter database to Trump.
Guess what? This has never been about safety or immigration. It’s a pretext for Trump to take over elections in swing states. pic.twitter.com/BHrQJUECJY
that the state turn over its voter rolls to the federal government. This has never been about public saety. Minneapolis is a much less safe place today because ICE is there. this is likely bout trying to rig and steal the election. Donald Trump is wildly unpopular. He's not committed to democracy and knows the only way his movement is to retain power, the only way that his corporate allies retain power, his billioner allies retain power this November, is for Trump to steal the election and so he's saying to Minneapolis "if you don't give me control of the voter rolls, then ICE isn't leaving and you can see if he gets away with it in Minnesota, he's likely going to try it in places like Philadelphia and Pheoenix, other key cities in swing states.... the underlying game here may be to steal the 2026 election.
Actually, Murphy was being overly generous to the Attorney General. She offered no quid pro quo and no olive branch at all, avoiding a promise, even a wish, that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents could under any circumstances be withdrwn. She concluded by commenting "Whether state and local politicians stand in the way or not, we will work every day to protect Americans and make Minnesota Safe Again. I request that you joinus in this effort."
Heads we win, tails you lose. However, the Senator correctly identified the Administration's goal as retaining power and its means the acquisitition of voter rolls. In The Guardian, Austin Sarat, a professor jurisprudence and political science, recently explained
Donald Trump touted his accomplishments and suggested that
they were so great that “we shouldn’t even have an election” in November. Not
surprisingly, that comment made headlines.
But it is at best a distraction from the real threat: the
United States will have elections this year, but they will not be free and
fair.
Far more important than his musings about calling off the
midterms was what the president told the New York Times in another Oval Office
interview. As the Times noted, he said that “he regretted not ordering the
National Guard to seize voting machines in swing states after his loss in the
2020 election.”
Talking about the capacity of the national guard to execute
that plan, he explained: “I don’t know that they are sophisticated enough … I’m
not sure that they’re sophisticated enough in the ways of crooked Democrats,
and the way they cheat, to figure that out.”
As the Times observed, “Mr. Trump’s expression of regret …
was ... a warning sign that he had not given up on the idea that voting
machines were dangerous or that they could be seized in an effort to curb
fraud.” We should take that warning seriously.
Sarat pointed out that Robert Kagan, a historian and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, maintains
“There’s no chance in the world that Donald
Trump is going to allow himself to lose in the 2026 elections, because that
would be the end of his ability to wield total power. Unless they got up on the
rooftop and said: ‘We are going to subvert the 2026 election,’ they could not
be more obvious about what their intention is"
The administration’s “wide-ranging efforts seek to expand on
some of the strategies he and his advisers and allies used to try to reverse
the 2020 results”. Moreover, Trump and his allies are much better prepared to
rig the 2026 election or discredit the results than they were in 2020.
This unsurprisingly reflects proposals of Project 2025, of which
One was to transfer the responsibility for investigating and
prosecuting election crimes to the Department of Justice’s criminal division.
Liza Gordon-Rogers, a research associate at the Center for Science and
Democracy, argues that his shift would “significantly jeopardize the United
States’ multi-racial democracy by changing the focus from interference with
voting rights to criminalizing the act of voting itself”.
Project 2025 also called for the federal government to
withdraw from arrangements that in the past have helped election officials do
their jobs. It recommended what Gordon-Rogers calls “substantive cuts to the
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which has provided
essential cyber and physical security support to election offices across the
country to make sure our elections are secure”.
Sarat wrote prior to the killing of Minnesota's Alex Pretti to argue that the Democratic Party has been complacent, evidently confident that the mid-term elections will be business as usual. That may change with the continuing assault on Minneapolis. Senator Murphy concludes
I have been arguing all weekend that the Senate should not pass funding for the Deparment of Homeland Security, first and foremost because this is a rogue agency that's operating outside of the law and it'ss killing American citizens but also because the underlying aim here may be to steal the 202 election. And no Senator, but in particular no Democratic senator, should play a part in that.
In his press briefing on Thursday, Vice President J.D. Vance condemned "many people in the corporate media" for their coverage and added
And I say "attack" ver, very intentionally because this was an attack on federal law enforcement. This was an attack on law and order," Vance continued. "this was an attack on the American people."
Vance said the CNN headline also left out that the woman was there to "interfere with a lefitimate law enforcement operation in the United States of America" and is "part of a broader left-wing network" that attacks ICE officers and prevents them from doing their jobs.
"If the media wants to tell the truth, they ought to tell the truth, that a group of left-wing radicals have been working tirelessly, sometimes using domestic terror techniques, to try to amke it impossible for the President of the United States to do what the American people elcted him to do, which is enforce our immigration laws," Vance said.
So Vance (presumably) believes Good's misbehavior "was an attack on law and order.... and on the American people." She was allegedly part of "a group of left-wing radicals (who) have been... using domestic terror techniques to try to make it impossible for the President of the United States to do what the American people elected him to do." Previously, he had stated "the reason this woman is dead is because she tried to ram somebody with her car."
Good may have been interfering with a law enfocement operation. However, once she began to pull away, she was removing herself from the situation. That did not satisfy, or even please, Officer Jonathan Ross. But in the Vice President's telling, Renee Good was a left-wing radical who attacked law and order with domestic terror techniques to obstruct the will of our President and of the American people and specifically tried to ram somebody with her car.
She factually was not a domestic terrorist and Vance probably was aware that video would prove that she did not try to ram somebody. But, aware of the political difficulty that would ensue, he did not wish her dead. Oh, that makes so much sense.
Also not wishing her dead was the President himself. Yet, in a Truth Social post of 3:28 p.m. on Pearl Harbor Day, Donald wrote/typed/dictated
I have just viewed the clip of the event which took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is a horrible thing to watch. The woman screaming was, obviously, a professional agitator, and the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and reisisting, who then violently, willfull, and viciously ran over the iCE officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense....
Let me see if I understand this correctly. "No one of the right wishes that person were dead." The leader of the right, Donald J. Trump,illegally orders boats, probably carrying drugs to Trinidad or Europe, blown up along with the occupants. the leader of the right, He (presumably) believes that the ICE officer, in order to prevent being injured or killed, shot a professional agitator who was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, then trying to run over the officer.
If Trump did in fact view the "clip" of the killing, he would know that the Good woman did not try to run the woman over, which would prove very inconvenient for the Administration once it was widely seen. She was a dangerous radical but he's sorr she's decesdl. But he did not wish the Good woman dead, even though if he did watch the clip he claims to have watched, he would know that big trouble awaited- if she had lived.
President Trump and Vice President Vance may not be glad that Renee Good is dead. Call them "relieved."
On Halloween, the Deputy White House Chief of Staff, who reportedly is in charge of immigration policy, appeared on Fox News. Host Will
Cain asked Miller under what federal authority the Trump
administration could arrest Pritzker if the governor tried to arrest ICE
agents.
“To all ICE officers, you have federal immunity in the
conduct of your duties,” Miller said. “And anybody who lays a hand on you or
tries to stop you or tries to obstruct you is committing a felony.”
ICE officers thereby were given a "get out of jail free" card. And on January 7, 2026, one emboldened immigration agent decided to take advantage of Miller's largesse.
Of course, this would be legitimate were Renee Nicole Good attempting to stop the officer or trying to obstruct him. This does not appear to have occurred.
One officer approached the driver's side of the car and may have yelled for Good to get out of the car. Another officer was moving from the front passenger side to the front driver's side, whereupon the motorist steered clockwise, away from the officer, who then fired the fatal shot. Former FBI supervisor Rob
D’Amico said the officer’s attempt to open the door may have
distracted the woman, causing her not to notice the other officer in front of
the vehicle, and that better training could have helped prevent the situation.
“It reminds me of a time that one of the first arrests I
went out in Miami, I actually got in front of a vehicle, and my supervisor
grabbed me after, and I think he was pretty strict with me. He said, ‘Look,
people don’t block vehicles. Vehicles block vehicles,’” he recounted. “Don’t
put yourself in a situation where you then have to employ deadly force if that
vehicle comes at you, because, one, you’re not going to stop it. You’re going
to get hit no matter what.”
Horrible, foolish police work, in which authorities escalate rather than de-escalate a situation, is not necessarily illegal, but it is very important. Few if any in the government (of course) or the media seem interested in the motive of the three ICE officers who approached Good's vehicle. They might find out that that the motorist was partially blocking the roadway and that good police work would entail approaching the vehicle in an unthreating manner and ordering the motorist to leave the area.
The purpose, presumably, would be to clear the area, which Good was trying to do as she began to drive away. And if that was not the aim of the officers, law enforcement was even more irresponsible than the appears from the video.
Apprised of this incident, Stephen Miller's heart leapt. So did J.D. Vance's heart, and that of Donald Trump. Jesus wept.
George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis in May 2020 sparked the
largest racial justice protests in the United States since the Civil Rights
Movement. But the movement went far beyond this nation's borders — it inspired
a global reckoning with racism.
This time last year, countries across the globe had some of
the largest Black Lives Matter protests in their history, all inspired by the
video of Floyd brutal death in police custody on May 25, 2020. Crossing
continents and cultures, Black activists saw Floyd's death as a symbol of the
intolerance and injustice they face at home.
Some of these countries had their own George Floyd — a Black
person whose death by police brutality or racial violence created national
outrage. Everywhere, activists knew there was no going back to the way things
were before they witnessed Floyd's final moments.
President Biden said that when he met with Floyd's young
daughter Gianna, she told him, "Daddy changed the world." These
worldwide protests show how right she was.
Chauvin was arrested, prosecuted, convicted, and imprisoned, as he should have been. However, contrary to Biden's enthusiasm, the movement the crime spawned did not change the world, and it changed the nation in an unexpected way. Exactly one month before the 2024 elections, Chris Stein of The Guardian reported
Since Floyd’s death in May 2020, Republican-led states have
enacted laws expanding the definition of rioting to encompass protesters who
stayed peaceful when others did not, protecting drivers who run over
demonstrators that block roads and enhancing penalties against protesters who
target oil and gas infrastructure and deface monuments. The International
Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL), which tracks the legislation, has found
that hundreds of proposals have been made by state and federal lawmakers nationwide,
and more than two dozen signed into law.
The push comes as the GOP’s standard bearer, Donald Trump,
campaigns for the presidency on a platform that includes suppressing protests.
He has vowed to deploy the national guard “where there has been a complete
breakdown of law and order”, while simultaneously promising pardons for people
convicted over the January 6 insurrection. As president, Trump reportedly
encouraged the military to shoot protesters, and, this year, allies such as the
speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, have said the national
guard should be used against college students demonstrating over Israel’s
invasion of Gaza.
And then Donald Trump was elected President for a second time. Arguably, the Black Lives Matter protests were a miserable failure, having created relatively little change and sparking a major backlash. Inarguably, the rationale for the movement was grossly exaggerated.
While police overreach against black males no doubt has continued, nothing since has compared to the grotesque murder of George Floyd. None has been reported and in the age of Everyone a Photographer, we would know it if it had. Ben Crump would have been at the scene of the crime, surrounded by the distraught family of the deceased. MSNBC, CNN, NewsNation, and possibly even Fox News would run video footage repeatedly. Social media, obviously, would be all over it.
Despite other incidents which shock the conscience and are emblazoned on our minds, other events of abuse have transpired which are not only much more common but cast a light on a very dark side of law enforcement, circa 2025. In a video released by U.S. Representative Herb Conaway (D-NJ)
A Ring camera recording appears to show masked federal
immigration agents at the doorstep of a Burlington Township woman’s house. The
jackets read “POLICE,” and one patch reads “ERO,” but they never identify which
agency they represent. They present no badge and no warrant.
“Can I help you?,” the woman is heard asking the men at her
door.
“Good morning, this is the police, can you come to the door?
Is anyone home right now?,” one of them says.
The woman, who tells the officers she is out of town dealing
with a family death, repeatedly tells them no one is inside. But the knocking
intensifies. The officers insist they are looking for a man, his name redacted
in the recording, and demand to know whether he lives there. The woman says she
doesn’t know him. The questioning continues.
“Do you have a warrant? Show me a warrant,” she says. “What
kind of problem are we going to have?,” one of the men says.
“No, there’s no one home … why do you have a mask on?,” she
says. “It’s cold out here,” comes the response.
The woman, who tells the officers she is out of town dealing
with a family death, repeatedly tells them no one is inside. But the knocking
intensifies. The officers insist they are looking for a man, his name redacted
in the recording, and demand to know whether he lives there. The woman says she
doesn’t know him. The questioning continues.
“Do you have a warrant? Show me a warrant,” she says. “What
kind of problem are we going to have?,” one of the men says.
Lacking a warrant but wearing a mask, they are what we once called "armed intruders," though presumably they are agents of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Of course, that's not to suggest there aren't opportunists roaming neighborhoods while wearing a mask and sporting a jacket with a "POLICE" patch.
In a foreboding observation, Representative Conaway remarks "there was another incident around the same time. It appears they are stepping up operations here in New Jersey." They are in jurisdictions in the nation without the apparent approval or even knowledge of state or local authorities, in what in the past we'd call a national secret police force. Combine that with the the declaration by White House Deputy Chief of Staff that ICE agents have immunity from federal or state prosecution (of questionable legality) and the President Trump's assurance "they can do whatever the hell they want" and masked men can act with virtual impunity.
As far as anyone has noted, we've never had a situation in which local, state, or federal authorities have said law enforcement "can do whatever the hell they want" and would be protected from prosecution. Yet, now we have the President and one of his top advisers saying what even the most inhumane and racist southern sheriff of the 20th century would have avoided saying about blacks.
It's unlikely that a murder as unjustified as that of George Floyd will happen any time in the next several years. And if it does, we will hear of it, see it, and watch as the offender is prosecuted and probably severely punished. Meanwhile, stealth agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement are on the move in much of the country, doing as they wish with no Brown Lives Matter movement on the horizon.
It's official: if you consider yourself Polish-American, Italian-American, or Taiwanese-American, the United States government believes that you should be deported. (We already knew what the Administration wants for Hispanic Americans or African-Americans.)
U.S. Representative Delia Ramirez of the 3rd District of Illinois, a naturalized citizen, is the daughter of Guatemalan parents who had immigrated illegally to the USA. At a Pan-American conference in Mexico City over the weekend, she stated in Spanish, as first reported by the right-wing The Blaze, "I'm a Guatemalan with much pride before I'm an American."
The "I'm a Guatemalan with much pride before I'm an American" was ripe for exploitation. Utah senator Mike Lee rhetorically asked on X "Are you comfortable with this?" and
White House spokesperson Liz Huston said of comments made by
Ramirez: "These Democrats' comments are despicable and underscore their
commitment to putting Americans last. In stark contrast, President Trump is
working tirelessly to secure peace deals, deport illegal alien criminals, and
advance America's interests at home and abroad:...
Conservative commentator Jesse Kelly wrote on X:
"Denaturalize and deport. I'm not even close to kidding."
Conservative activist Charlie Kirk wrote on X: "Any
person who values any other country over America does not belong in Congress.
Period."
Conservative pundit Megyn Kelly wrote on X: "Awesome.
Go home."
Conservative activist Robby Starbuck wrote on X: "She
should be immediately stripped of her elected office and it shouldn't be
controversial in the slightest. If you put a foreign nation first, you can't be
trusted to represent the United States. Period."
Right-wing podcaster and ex-journalist Lara Logan tweeted in part "this lady should be stripped of her citizenship & sent back to Guatemala."
The latter "conservative activist" is unaware, or doesn't give a rat's ass, that Article I of the Constitution indicates that the only qualifications of a member of the House of Representatives is that he/she is at least 25 years old, a citizen for at least seven years, and be a resident, when chosen, of the state in which he/she is chosen. (Also, Robby's coffee is overrated.)
Similarly off-base is Charlie Kirk's contention that "any person who values any other country over America does not belong in Congress. Period." As long as the Constitutional requirements are met (as they are here) and assuming not extenuating circumstances such as commission of a felony, a congressman's constituents get to determine who belongs in Congress. Period.
Representative Ramirez may herself labor under the same misconception that does Kirk, Starbuck, and others on the right. Such conservatives don't fully appreciate the importance of consideration of whom a particular public official serves. Their criticism won't spur Ramirez, elected by the voters of her district; to resign or self-deport. Similarly, the congresswoman was spinning her wheels when on May 16, she called on Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem, who works for President Trump and President Trump alone, to resign.
Perhaps (not really) that is why the spokesperson for the Noem's DHS tweeted
There is no room in this country for hyphenated
Americanism...Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our
allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any
man who holds any other allegiance.
So if you're proudly Polish-American, Italian-American, or Taiwanese-American: self-deport. If you consider yourself Lithuanian-American, Irish-American, or Filipino-American, self-deport. Ditto if your heritage is Latin American or African. There is no room in this country for you- Secretary Kristi Noem, loyal to a fault to President Donald Trump, says so.
If Delia Ramirez's statement was translated accurately and its context doesn't significantly its meaning, the congresswoman should make it clear that she got caught up in the moment and considers herself Guatemalan-American, not primarily Guatemalan. She should do so despite, in her reply to the controversy, she correctly asserted "we are the living and breathing realization of the idea of America- a place where a multicultural, multiracial democracy can prosper."
As the context of Ramirez's remark is significant, so is the context in which the dispute takes place. The Department of Homeland Security is overseeing an unprecedented attack upon illegal- and sometimes legal- immigrants. It is often carried out by law enforcement agents who wear masks, a highly unusual adornment in a constitutional republic, in a crusade applauded by a President who has commented immigrants "are poisoning the blood of our country."
The condemnation also comes from supporters, and with the approval, of a President whose loyalty to this nation is eminently questionable, though never questioned by media or Democrats. In his first term, ii July of 2018, President Trump dismissed the conclusion of election meddling made by the American intelligence community by maintaining "President Putin says it's not Russia. I don't see any reason why it would be." As then-Republican senator John McCain responded "no prior president has ever debased himself more abjectly before a tyrant."
But then, no then ex-President would refer to his country, as Trump did in October of 2022, as "rigged, crooked, and evil." Or as President in 2024 would call his country, in accepting immigrants, "a garbage can for the world..... like a garbage can." Or the month after being inaugurated for a second term, would tell Cabinet members that Americans are "bloated, fat, and disgusting."
It's amazing that Democrats refuse to mention that Donald Trump hates our country and its people. It will be amazing also that, as the insults of Delia Ramirez roll in, Democrats will refuse to remind Americans that a prominent member of the Administration argues that if they are proud of their cultural heritage that they are not truly American.
It could be called the "State of Limbo" bill instead of the "Dignity Act of 2025." Maria Elvira Salazar, the daughter of Cuban exiles, was born in Miami and is now a U.S. Representative from the area.
We give them dignity. At some point in the future, another legislator would write another law to give them a path to citizenship. Right now, what we need to do is bring peace for these people, allow them to stay, continue working, because they are needed.
I wouldn't bet on another legislator writing a law in the future to give immigrants a path to citizenship. f Salazar believes- a big "if"- another legislator would write a law in the future to give immigrants a path to citizenship, It hasn't happened in the nearly 40 years since President Ronald Reagan enacted a bill giving illegal immigrants amnesty- the latter a term he actually, proudly, invoked. Second-class status legalization without citizenship- was, and would be- very attractive to employers and monied interests.
Salazar continues
All I'm trying to do is bring some common sense, which is the least common of all senses, to this conversation. The economy needs them. They do not have a criminal record. They have not gotten into trouble. They have been here for a long time. They have roots in the country. Let them stay. Don't give them any type of federal programs. And allow them to pay taxes, help the Social Security fund, and let them stay, contribute to the economy with no criminal record. What's wrong with that? We need them!
The economy needs some of them, not "them." It needs a whole lot of immigrants or migrants, legal or illegal, in the agricultural sector. Picking crops is not a common career aspiration for many young people. Elsewhere in the economy, the nation would benefit from fair wages.
The federal minimum wage was raised to $7.25 per hour in July of 2008. Although many states have a higher minimum wage, twenty states have not raised it beyond $7.25. ($7.25 in July 2008 has the same buying power as $10.63 in June, 2025.) Meanwhile, wages have not come near to keeping up with productivity gains nor with the explosion in corporate profits.or CEO compensation.
The bill, co-sponsored by Representative Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) is comprehensive, complex, and would completely overhaul the immigration system. It includes several wise, and a smaller number of unwise, provisions.
Unfortunately, the legislation reflects a concept of immigration common among elites. Salazar imagines "they have roots in this country."
Here illegally, they do not have meaningful roots. They don't have meaningful roots because, through their fault and that of the federal government, they are not citizens. If we the public wishes immigrants to have "roots in the country," we can provide them a relatively inexpensive, uncomplicated, and smooth pathway to citizenship. Our goal for individuals who want to reside in the USA should not be legalization but citizenship.
Individuals in the country illegally should be removed, though not as it is being done in the Trump Administration, simulating a police state. If they are here legally, they should not be relegated to purgatory status. "Legalization" without citizenship should be spurned.
Enforcement of immigration laws is difficult: should agricultural workers be exempt from deportation? should hospitality workers be exempt? But the goal should be clear, and it is not to expand a class of second-class citizens. It should be to identify residents who are considered eligible for citizenship, and then to encourage them to become citizens- to become full-fledged Americans, with the rights and benefits to which we all are entitled.
