"The Snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
Thursday, October 23, 2025. Chump's war on immigrants is targeting a lot of US citizens, harming pregnant women, harming special needs children, harming us all just like Chump's wrecking of the economy is harming all the American people.
Let's start with Katie Phang.
She's speaking with Robert Held about how ICE is attacking Americans -- Americans like attorney Robert Held. Sabrina Franza (CBS NEWS) reported earlier this month:
A Chicago area attorney is telling the story of his detention inside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, where immigrants have been taken pending deportation proceedings amid the Trump administration's ongoing crackdown on illegal immigration in the Chicago area.
On Saturday, at least five protesters were arrested outside the ICE facility in Broadview and charged in federal court. While several other people had been detained during protests there in recent weeks, those five were the first to face federal charges.
Robert Held, 68, was among the protesters who were detained but not charged with a crime. He said he was never one to regularly attend protests, but that changed recently.
"I started showing up about two weeks ago, roughly, because I'm outraged about what the administration and several agencies of this administration are doing; not just to immigrants, but to people with lawful status and people that were born here as well"
On Saturday, he and other protesters were in front of the ICE gate on public land when agents sought to clear the area. Agents shouted orders for people to move.
"I was backing up and filming what was happening, and eventually decided I needed to clear the street, and when I ran off the street, I was chased and arrested by federal authorities," he said.
Held continued filming as he was down on the ground, taken away in handcuffs, placed in a vehicle and taken into ICE custody.
"The vehicle was driving back into the facility, and they stopped. They opened the door and Greg Bovino, the chief enforcement officer of the Border Patrol, looked straight at me and he said, 'Now what do you want to say to me?' I didn't respond to that, but my sense was – and it was pretty obvious based on his tone and language – that he was trying to show his authority over me," Held said.
To say that ICE is out of control and lacks supervision is to repeat what has been obvious all year lone.
Heather Knight and Kellen Browning (NEW YORK TIMES) report:
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested on Wednesday that local police could arrest federal agents if they break California law while conducting immigration raids that are expected this week in the San Francisco Bay Area.
With Border Patrol agents due to arrive, Ms. Pelosi issued the stark warning along with Kevin Mullin, a fellow Democratic representative, who represents the small slice of San Francisco that Ms. Pelosi doesn’t. President Trump has said several times in recent weeks that he wanted to send federal forces to the city.
“While the President may enjoy absolute immunity courtesy of his rogue Supreme Court, those who operate under his orders do not,” they wrote in a statement on Wednesday. “Our state and local authorities may arrest federal agents if they break California law — and if they are convicted, the President cannot pardon them.”
No one is above the law. Starting arresting ICE. They're thugs and no surprise most of them should never have been hired. William Vaillancourt (DAILY BEAST) reports:
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has allowed some recruits who haven’t been fully vetted into its training program as it tries to boost hires.
The Department of Homeland Security outfit later found out that recruits in training had either failed drug tests, had criminal histories preventing them from joining, or didn’t meet physical fitness or academic criteria, one current and two former DHS officials told NBC News.
One recruit at the ICE training facility in Brunswick, Georgia, the current DHS official said, had been charged with strong-arm robbery and battery over a domestic violence incident.
The
same official and the two former officials also said that some recruits
in the six-week training course hadn’t completed one element necessary
for background checks: submitting their fingerprints.
ICE’s vetting and drug test policies, the former officials said, have not been adhered to as strictly as it was before the agency sought to increase its staffing.
In the days since an estimated 7 million people protested across the country against the the attacks on democratic rights and threat of dictatorship by the Trump administration, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) launched new raids and major kidnapping operations in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, and in Wilder, Idaho.
Using aggressive and dangerous tactics, including indiscriminate sweeps and the deployment of military-style force against immigrant communities, the latest ICE actions are part of the Trump administration’s escalation of arrests, detention and mass deportations. These measures are also being intertwined with the mobilization of the National Guard to suppress public opposition to the assault on immigrants.
On Tuesday, dozens of federal agents from ICE, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and other police agencies descended on Canal Street in Manhattan’s Chinatown. According to ABC7 New York, at least nine people were arrested during the raid, which targeted street vendors who were accused of selling counterfeit goods.
The New York raid was offensive on so many levels including the fact that Kristi Noem's ICE wrongly kidnapped four US citizens. Cy Neff (GUARIDAN) explains:
The New York state attorney general, Letitia James, rolled out a “Federal Action Reporting Portal” form urging New York residents to share photos and videos of federal immigration enforcement action across the state, just a day after a high-profile ICE raid rattled Manhattan’s Chinatown and prompted hundreds to come out in protest.
A US congressman revealed in a Wednesday press conference that four US citizens were arrested and held for “nearly 24 hours” after Tuesday’s raid. Protests broke out in New York on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings.
“Every New Yorker has the right to live without fear or intimidation,” James wrote in a statement announcing the portal.
“If you witnessed and documented ICE activity yesterday, I urge you to share that footage with my office. We are committed to reviewing these reports and assessing any violations of law.”
The form offers spaces to submit images and video footage of the raid, as well as a place to indicate location information. Before submitting, users must check a box that indicates that “the attorney general may use any documents, photographs, or videos I provided in a public document, including in a legal proceeding or public report or statement”.
Let's take a moment to step away from ICE for another point. Letitia James is doing her job. Chump's trying to prosecute her on chumped up charges. But still Letitia James does her job. What does Chump do? Tear down the White House, tank the economy, try to steal millions in tax payer money and put the US government into a shutdown. That's what he does -- everything but what he's supposed to be doing Mybe he wouldn't be such a fat ass if he didn't sit around all day eating McDonald's and planning his revenge over every real and imagined slight? Again, Letitia James is doing her job. Chump? He's overseeing the second longest shutdown in US history.
Back to Chump's gestapo, AP reports:
Women taken into custody by U.S. immigration agents while pregnant say they received inadequate care in a letter Wednesday that calls on the Trump administration to stop holding expectant mothers in federal detention facilities.
The letter to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is part of a broader campaign in recent months by Democrats and immigrant rights groups to draw attention to what they say is the mistreatment of pregnant women who have been detained in Trump’s immigration crackdown.
The Department of Homeland Security has defended the care given to pregnant detainees, saying they are given regular prenatal visits and nutritional support. The agency did not immediately provide figures on the number of pregnant women in detention, as Democrats have demanded.
The letter sent by the American Civil Liberties Union gives accounts from pregnant women who say they were shackled while being transported, placed in solitary confinement for multiple days and given insufficient food and water while held in detention facilities in Louisiana and Georgia.
Chump lies and reality suffers. AP's reporting reality. That's what ICE is doing. There's nothing noble about it. They're thugs who can't get work anywhere else. And who wouldn't get work if ICE actually vetted them. And there's no oversight of ICE. Krisi Noem is apparently too busy carrying out her alleged extra-marital affair with a Homeland Security employee she supervises and selecting private planes to charge to the US taxpayer.
So we get moments like the one reported last night on PBS' NEWSHOUR:
Amna Nawaz:
As the Trump administration intensifies its crackdown on immigration, an increasing number of U.S. citizens are finding themselves caught up in the sweeping actions.
A recent investigation by ProPublica reveals that more than 170 American citizens have been detained by immigration agents during the first nine months of this push.
Our own Liz Landers recently spoke with the mother of one of these individuals.
Liz Landers:
A 15-year-old boy with disabilities was handcuffed outside of a Los Angeles high school in August after federal immigration agents mistakenly identified him as a suspect. The boy was waiting in a car with his mother while his sister registered for classes inside.
The family is suing the Trump administration, alleging racial profiling, false arrest and assault. Federal officials have denied any wrongdoing and say they were conducting a targeted operation.
For more on what happened that day and why the family is taking legal action, we are now joined by Andreina Mejia, the boy's mother.
Andreina, walk us through what happened that day. What happened when federal agents approached your car?
Andreina Mejia, Mother of Detained American Child: I was on the phone, and something told me to look up, when I just seen this white truck approaching my car, and it looked like coming directly to me, where I'm like, oh, my God, did they lose control? Like, he's going to hit my car.
And I just seen these two men get off from the front pointing their guns at me and my son, like, actually at our car. I had my window a little bit down. They just came one from my side, the other one from my son's side, and they just opened our doors. They took me out. They took my son out.
All I remember me telling my son is like: "Don't make any movement. Just follow instructions," just because, in my mind, I'm like, OK, they're pointing guns. If they see my son trying to reach for something, I don't know if they're going to shoot.
So I was trying to maintain him calm. And after that, I'm just seeing that they pulled him out. And I'm like: "What's going on?"
The guy's like; "Oh, like, we're looking for somebody and your son fits that description."
So, I’m like:
"I mean, who are you guys looking for?" And they showed me a picture. And I'm like: "That's not my son. Like, my son is with me at all times."
So, after that, they let my son come towards me. As my son was approaching me,he started crying and just hugged me. And I didn't really appreciate the comment that the guy did where he just called my son: "Oh, we confuse you with somebody else, but just look at the bright side. Like, you're going to have an exciting story to tell your friends when you go back to school."
I just looked at him. And, as a mom, it hurt me, because I was just thinking, there's nothing exciting about getting guns pointed at you.
Now, just nine months into his second term, Trump has continued to target Latinos by:
— gutting the U.S. refugee system and giving preference to English speakers, white South Africans (i.e., Afrikaners) and Europeans who flee countries they consider to be plagued by excessive migration;
— launching immigration sweeps that target brown-skinned people, according to a federal judge who ordered a stop to indiscriminate immigration detentions and arrests in Southern California;
— ending government programs that promoted diversity, equity and inclusion and closing DEI offices throughout the federal government, while pressuring colleges and universities to do the same;
— relying on stereotype in labeling Colombian President Gustavo Petro "an illegal drug leader" after Petro criticized Trump for launching deadly attacks on boats from Venezuela; and
— trying to gut the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by arguing for a narrow interpretation of the statute that would make it harder for plaintiffs to prove discrimination and more difficult to use race in drawing districts.
After conservative activist Charlie Kirk was murdered last month, the MAGA mob made it clear that they resent it when they're called racist.
I get that. Then they ought to cleanse their movement and scrub out all the racism. It's a big project. They're going to need a lot of soap — and even more humility.
I'm shoe horning that in because otherwise it'll wait for another day that never comes -- there's so much to cover every day. Let's wind down, Senator Patty Murray's office issued the following yesterday:
***WATCH floor remarks HERE***
Washington, D.C. – Today, on the 22nd day of the Republican shutdown, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, joined Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) on the Senate floor during his twenty hour-long and counting speech sounding the alarm on how President Trump is acting like a king, following an authoritarian playbook, and seeking to control more aspects of Americans’ lives.
The exchange between Senator Murray and Senator Merkley, as delivered on the floor today, is below:
“I see the Senator from Washington state is on the floor, and I would be very happy to yield to a question,” Senator Merkley said.
[RINGING THE ALARM BELLS ON TRUMP’S ATTEMPTS TO CONTROL AMERICANS’ LIVES]
“I thank the Senator from Oregon. And first, let me just commend you for what you are doing here, throughout the night, throughout today, calling attention to a really critical issue in this country,” Senator Murray replied.
“So many people come up to me. And you know, because we go back and forth to the West Coast all the time, how many people walk up to us and say, ‘What can I do about this?’ And each one of us has to say, here’s what I can do.
“And I want to thank you for doing what you are doing today, because you’re going above and beyond to point out to people that, as your chart says, authoritarianism is here and it is here now, and we can ignore it or we can speak out. And you have spent all night long, all day, standing on your feet, and at, I’m sure, great personal sacrifice, to fight for everyone in this country and to sound the alarms you’ve been talking about. And so I just personally want to, want to thank you.
“And I want to reiterate something that you have said for all of these hours and actually many times to me over the past few months, the fact that Trump is using his place in government to control every aspect of our life. Whether it’s what our schools are teaching or not teaching, it’s whether or not he’s prosecuting his enemies, which he is doing, it’s cutting off projects and funding to punish the political opposition.
“And as you and I both know, we represent ‘blue states,’ but we have a lot of red counties and cities and neighborhoods, and even within all of our blue districts. And you can’t just randomly say ‘I’m hurting blue without hurting red,’ because these are all Americans. But he is using his power to do that.
“We are seeing him, as you know well, in your home state deploying troops to intimidate Democrats. And I listened to you late last night talk about what is happening in Portland. And the misuse of this kind of power should be frightening to every single American, and we need to stand up and we need to call it out, which is what you are doing today. And even dictating what late night TV hosts is doing is part of this whole picture that you’ve been describing.”
[TRUMP TRAMPLING ON CONGRESS’ POWER OF THE PURSE]
“But I came to the floor today as your partner on the Appropriations Committee,” Senator Murray continued. “We serve on that together, and we all know in this body how important that committee is, because we decide where the funding is going to go in the country. Now I’ve been out on this floor, I’ve been at home, I’ve been everywhere talking about the power of the purse, which sounds kind of like this quaint little phrase, but it is really important for anybody who has a family. You know that the person who writes the checks in the checkbook decides where the money is going to go? Well, that power of that checkbook, that power of the purse, it is, as it is called, lands in this side of the aisle, on this side of the White House and Congress, we have the power of the purse. Why is that? Because we represent our constituents from across the country. I from Washington State, you from Oregon, people from Illinois and Alabama and Florida all come here to be a voice for their constituents on where their taxpayers’ [dollars] are going to go. And within this country, the power of the purse means we have the ability to decide where the money is going to go, because we represent our constituents. That’s what they call on us to do, and I am seeing Trump doing an all-out assault on Congress’ power of the purse.
“So, I wanted to come here today and ask you your thoughts on how this President is undermining the power of the purse, and how it plays into your ringing the bells about authoritarianism?” asked Senator Murray.
Senator Merkley responded, “Ringing the alarm bells for the authoritarian power of the purse is one of those fundamental ways that, in fact, the President is concentrating his power. The difference between a democracy—in a democracy the legislature says, ‘here are the programs, here’s how we want to run them, and here’s how we’re going to fund them.’ And it brings together the collective wisdom of a large group that comes from every portion of the nation, like we do here our 100 Senators from 50 states. And we not only bring our geographic differences, we bring our life differences and our life skills and all of that helps us form a pretty complex set of decisions about the programs that need more support because of the challenges we’re facing as a nation at that moment and those that can do with less support. And that’s our responsibility. But all those voices together are just so central to that.
“In an authoritarian nation, all of that responsibility—design the program, fund the program, choose whether the program will happen—it’s all transferred to the executive. So, we’re thinking authoritarians over here, power of the purse with the executive, democracy over here, power of the purse of the legislature. So, Russell Vought, the current head of OMB, he’s a well-trained, clever man, and he’s saying, ‘Well, let’s see how we can actually take the power of the purse. You passed a bill for fiscal year [20]25 and now we’re in. Now we’re not now, we’re no longer in fiscal year [20]25, but let’s say we were, ‘Hmm, well, maybe I can just slow off the funds for the programs I don’t want to fund. That way, the decision is transferred to the executive. Maybe I can freeze them, maybe I can impound them, basically permanently take them off the table, see if I can get away with that. Maybe I can send over a request to have Congress formally undo the programs that they have funded,’ and they did send one of those over, and it was voted and needed a majority vote in both chambers. But the problem with that is, you have a bipartisan vision to serve the entire depth—this job to me is representing the geography of the United States, to serve the entire breadth and depth of our nation with all of our differences, and then on a partisan basis, meaning half the room, they decide what programs to cut. And that means a deal was done in the beginning between Democrats and Republicans, and then it was undone, and the programs that were cut were the programs by and large the Democrats had advocated for. How do you do the next deal in that situation? And then we have Mr. Vought saying, ‘Hmm, what I’ll do is pretend I’m going to spend it, but then in the last 45 days, I’ll send a notification that I’d like Congress to undo it, but there is a waiting period, so therefore I know what I have done is set it up so that before those 45 days are out, the end of the fiscal year comes, and that bucket that goes to that program goes poof into thin air.’ And that’s the fancy term he’s used for the pocket rescission. And so here, we are saying to our Republican colleagues: if you’re negotiating in good faith to serve the interests and concerns that all 100 senators bring here, that a bill forged in that bipartisan manner can only be undone in a bipartisan manner. And we do rescissions in a bipartisan manner. We do undo funding. We take one year two, year three, year funding that turned out not to be needed or better spent elsewhere, and we pull it back and we put it into a different program, but we do that readjustment in the same bipartisan way we did the initial program,” Senator Merkley continued.
“So, we’re saying to our colleagues across the aisle, if the power of the purse means something, and it does—the difference between an authoritarian government and a democracy, then work with us to defend our Constitution. Defend that what we have done together cannot be undone by the executive. And so far, we have not received a ‘Yes, we will defend the Constitution.’ And what I hear is mainly, ‘Yeah, President Trump would never go for that.’ When you hear that, you know you’re trapped in an authoritarian because the vision of our nation is that we the Congress will forge these programs and decide how to fund them, how much and when it’s like, ‘Can’t do that, because Trump would be upset,’ well, that just confirms we are in authoritarianism now, and it’s not just the power of the purse, of course, it’s an attack on due process. It’s an attack on free press. It’s an attack on the freedom of speech. It is the weaponization of the Department of Justice. It is the ignoring the laws that apply to the executive completely, like firing all the IGs, getting rid of all the referees. In the book that I really spent the night trying to use as a framework in order to say, ‘Hey, experts who have studied how democracies die—they don’t die with people with guns anymore. They die when people get elected, and then they follow the authoritarian playbook on how to basically undo the checks and balances and amplify the power.’”
[NATIONAL GUARD DEPLOYMENTS IN OREGON]
“And another piece of that that we should be very concerned about in the Northwest right now, more in Portland, but who knows what happens in Seattle, is trying to carve a path in which Trump has court decisions that say he can put troops into the street whenever he wants, and that is a massively dangerous amplification of authoritarian power. And that’s why what we do this year makes such a such a difference that we have to protest and say, ‘This is not normal.’ We have to ring the alarm bells. We have to praise the 7 million people who got out there and said, ‘No Kings’ in the United States. And that’s such a beautiful, short way of saying, ‘No authoritarianism. We want our republic back, and we’re willing to fight to make that happen,’” Senator Merkley said.
“That’s what you’re doing. And I thank the Senator from Oregon, for all he’s been doing for so long—for so many years, but especially for the last 20 plus hours that you’ve been on the floor, many, too many hours on the floor—reminding us all of why this is so critical,” concluded Senator Murray.
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The following sites updated:
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Argentina and Rural America’s Awakening18 hours ago
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