Mahmoud Khalil, AOC, lawyers speak after his release from ICE custody
Mahmoud Khalil arrived at Newark Liberty Airport after a federal judge ordered his release from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Louisiana.
Israel’s attack on Iran is illegal
Adil Ahmad Haque writes: Israel’s use of force against Iran was and remains plainly unlawful and a manifest violation of the United Nations Charter. The Charter prohibits the use of force except with the authorization of the UN Security Council or in the exercise of the right of self-defense “if an armed attack occurs.” No armed attack by Iran against Israel was occurring on June 12, or was about to occur, or was bound to occur unless prevented by the…
The Trump regime has unleashed an unaccountable secret police force
Garrett Graff writes: Day by passing day, we are watching what amounts to a national police riot by ICE. Social media is filled with disturbing videos of masked ICE officers — or, I should say, people suspected of being or self-identifying as ICE officers, since for the most part they’re not wearing any identifiable police insignia — manhandling people, including the comptroller of New York, US citizens, suspected aliens, and even journalists alike. In recent days, ICE has also begun…
Federal judge appointed by Reagan: ‘I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this’
Politico reports: A federal judge appointed by Ronald Reagan on Monday accused the Trump administration of “appalling” and “palpably clear” discrimination against racial minorities and LGBTQ+ Americans. “I’ve never seen a record where racial discrimination was so palpable. I’ve sat on this bench now for 40 years. I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this,” said U.S. District Judge William Young, a Massachusetts-based jurist who took the bench in 1985. Young’s sweeping rebuke during a court hearing was a reference…
How the Trump regime is emulating the Pinochet regime
HuffPost reports: The only information Ysqueibel Yonaiquer Peñaloza Chirinos’ family has received about him in the past three months came from former Republican congressman Matt Gaetz. Gaetz probably didn’t mean to help. But last month, as part of a propaganda video for the far-right One America News Network, he took a tour of the infamous Salvadoran prison to which President Donald Trump has sent hundreds of U.S. immigrants for indefinite detention, without charge, trial or sentencing: El Centro de Confinamiento…
Stephen Miller overrules Trump and insists ICE be given free rein to meet immigrant arrest quotas
The Washington Post reports: The Department of Homeland Security on Monday told staff that it was reversing guidance issued last week that agents were not to conduct immigration raids at farms, hotels and restaurants — a decision that stood at odds with President Donald Trump’s calls for mass deportations of anyone without legal status. Officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including its Homeland Security Investigations division, told agency leaders in a call Monday that agents must continue conducting immigration raids…
Open door to discrimination: New rules allow VA doctors to refuse to treat Democrats, unmarried veterans
The Guardian reports: Doctors at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals nationwide could refuse to treat unmarried veterans and Democrats under new hospital guidelines imposed following an executive order by Donald Trump. The new rules, obtained by the Guardian, also apply to psychologists, dentists and a host of other occupations. They have already gone into effect in at least some VA medical centers. Medical staff are still required to treat veterans regardless of race, color, religion and sex, and all…
Budget bill would make courts powerless to protect constitutional rights
Arizona Supreme Court Justice Clint Bolick writes: Like a well-armed drone flying beneath the radar, the latest assault on the independent judiciary is dangerous and stealthy. A short and easily overlooked passage in Section 70302 of the behemoth budget reconciliation bill, it created hardly a ripple of attention as it passed in the House of Representatives and awaited action in the Senate. In the past few days, however, the Senate rewrote the provision in a way that arguably makes it…
Racism hidden behind ‘crime’: Most ICE arrests are of immigrants with no criminal convictions
Reuters reports: The number of people booked into immigration detention who have been charged only with immigration violations has jumped eight-fold since President Donald Trump took office, government data shows, undercutting his anti-crime message. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention statistics show the number of detainees arrested by ICE with no other criminal charges or convictions rose from about 860 in January to 7,800 this month – a more than 800% increase. Those arrested and detained with criminal charges or…
Saudi Arabia executes a journalist for committing the ‘crime’ of journalism
The Associated Press reports: A prominent Saudi journalist who was arrested in 2018 and convicted on terrorism and treason charges has been executed, the kingdom said. Activist groups maintain that the charges against him were trumped up. Turki Al-Jasser, who was in his late 40s, was put to death on Saturday, according to the official Saudi Press Agency, after the death penalty was upheld by the nation’s top court. Authorities had raided Al-Jasser’s home in 2018, arresting him and seizing…
Trump’s military crackdown is starting to dent his poll numbers
Rolling Stone reports: As Donald Trump launched his militarized crackdown in Los Angeles, the president and many of his advisers were convinced that deploying troops to the streets of a major American city would be good politics for them. They maintain, three people familiar with the matter say, that immigration was one of Trump’s strongest issues, that it helped get him back in the White House, and that his mass deportation program has polled well since the 2024 campaign. No…
Judge blocks Trump’s election executive order
The Associated Press reports: A federal judge on Friday blocked President Donald Trump’s attempt to overhaul elections in the U.S., siding with a group of Democratic state attorneys general who challenged the effort as unconstitutional. The Republican president’s March 25 executive order sought to compel officials to require documentary proof of citizenship for everyone registering to vote for federal elections, accept only mailed ballots received by Election Day and condition federal election grant funding on states adhering to the new…
Bukele regime blocked extradition of MS-13 leaders to prevent them testifying in U.S. courts
By T. Christian Miller and Sebastian Rotella This story was originally published by ProPublica In mid-April, President Donald Trump sat down in the Oval Office with President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador to celebrate a new partnership. They had recently negotiated an extraordinary deal in which El Salvador agreed to incarcerate in a maximum security prison hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants that the Trump administration had labeled as violent criminals, though few had been convicted of such crimes. The U.S. also…
Families arrested in Los Angeles ICE raids held in basements with little food or water, lawyers say
The Guardian reports: As federal agents rushed to arrest immigrants across Los Angeles, they confined detainees – including families with small children – in a stuffy office basement for days without sufficient food and water, according to immigration lawyers. One family with three children were held inside a Los Angeles-area administrative building for 48 hours after being arrested on Thursday immediately after an immigration court hearing, according to lawyers from the Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef), which is providing non-profit…
National Guard troops and Marines deeply troubled by being deployed ‘against our own communities’
The Guardian reports: California national guards troops and marines deployed to Los Angeles to help restore order after days of protest against the Trump administration have told friends and family members they are deeply unhappy about the assignment and worry their only meaningful role will be as pawns in a political battle they do not want to join. Three different advocacy organisations representing military families said they had heard from dozens of affected service members who expressed discomfort about being…
The challenge posed by lawful but unethical orders
Joshua Braver writes: Would a military officer disobey a lawful but unethical order — unethical in the sense that it violates the officer’s professional code? We may be on the verge of finding out. The Trump administration has sent Marines to the Los Angeles area to join the National Guard troops already there. At the moment, the Marines have been deployed to help protect “federal functions and property,” as President Trump’s memorandum specifies — not to engage in broader domestic…