Blog Betty (Thomas Friedman is a Great Man was an online novel): 7/27/25

Wednesday, July 30, 2025

Donald Chump is trying to speed up climate change

Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Propaganda Pig Approved Tulsi." went up a few hours ago.

Chump continues his war on science. Abigail Dillen (ROLLING STONE) reports:

President Donald Trump's administration has officially put Americans on notice that it will be doing nothing to address climate change. Actually, worse than nothing, the Environmental Protection Agency also announced that it will soon be taking back everything it had done to date to address the biggest source of climate pollution in the country.

Specifically, Lee Zeldin, the EPA administrator, is proposing to reverse the "endangerment finding" that is the predicate for rules requiring polluting industries to rein in their greenhouse gas emissions. To hear Zeldin tell it, he is exposing some elaborate, bureaucratic ruse to bilk taxpayers. In fact, the endangerment finding is a simple affirmation that greenhouse gas pollution is causing climate change and therefore endangering people. And, of course, it sits atop a mountain of scientific evidence.

As a lawyer who has been working on climate change for the last 20 years, it's hard to overstate how much it changed everything when the EPA finally recognized the scientific consensus and took meaningful action to tackle greenhouse gas pollution from cars at last.

A quick history: By the 1990s, the terrifying inaction of the U.S. government was driving an ambitious push to compel the EPA to act. In 1999, a group of environmental organizations petitioned the agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from new motor vehicles. The EPA denied the petition primarily on grounds that greenhouse gases were not pollutants within the scope of the Clean Air Act. The petitioners took the EPA to court, and in 2007, the case made its way up to the Supreme Court. In the landmark decision, Massachusetts v. EPA, the court ruled that greenhouse gases are indeed pollutants that the EPA has the authority to regulate and the obligation to regulate if, in the EPA's judgment, they endanger human health and welfare.

Once the EPA was required to make that judgment, it had to face up to the climate science that was by then incontrovertible. In 2009, the EPA found that "elevated concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere may reasonably be anticipated to endanger the public health and to endanger the public welfare of current and future generations." Based on this finding, the EPA began setting standards for tailpipes, power plants, and oil and gas fields - the big three when it comes to greenhouse gas pollution in the U.S.

It is a point of pride at Earthjustice, where I am privileged to work, that we were part of the legal team that litigated Mass v. EPA, along with several subsequent cases concerning the EPA's authority to regulate climate pollution under the Clean Air Act. Over time, the Supreme Court had several opportunities to backtrack, but it never did. Instead, the court repeatedly affirmed the decision that our national clean air statute is capacious enough to address the biggest pollution threat ever.

He doesn't care. He's an obese old man with female health problems. He'll be underground in five years. He's eating himself into a grave. So he doesn't care what happens to anyone else. The world becomes uninhabitable? He'll be dead, he doesn't care. In fact, he probably likes the idea. If all civilization dies in the next decade or two just means people won't live on this planet forever remembering how much he destroyed it.

Same topic, Ella Nilsen and Andrew Freedman (CNN) report:

In one of its most significant reversals on climate policy to-date, the Trump administration on Tuesday proposed to repeal a 2009 scientific finding that human-caused climate change endangers human health and safety, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced. If successful, the repeal could strip away the federal government’s most powerful way to control the country’s planet-warming pollution and fight climate change.

The repeal was based in part on a hastily produced report — authored by five researchers who have spent years sowing doubt in the scientific consensus around climate change — that questions the severity of the impacts of climate change.

The 2009 scientific finding at the heart of this repeal has served as the basis of many of the Environmental Protection Agency’s most significant regulations to protect human health and environment, and decrease climate pollution from cars, power plants and the oil and gas industry.

Zeldin on Tuesday spoke proudly of his agency’s move to repeal the endangerment finding as the “largest deregulatory action in the history of America,” speaking on “Ruthless,” a conservative podcast, and referred to climate change as dogma rather than science.

“This has been referred to as basically driving a dagger into the heart of the climate change religion,” Zeldin said.

In addition to reversing the endangerment finding, the EPA’s proposal also seeks to repeal rules that regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, since they stem from the finding. The Biden EPA sought to tighten those standards to prod the auto industry to make more fuel-efficient hybrids and electric vehicles.

The text of the proposal said that while greenhouse gas emissions have continued to rise in the atmosphere, it has been “driven primarily by increased emissions from foreign sources,” and has happened “without producing the degree of adverse impacts to public health and welfare in the United States that the EPA anticipated in the 2009 Endangerment Finding.”

The US is the world’s second largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and historically has emitted more planet-warming pollution than any other country. Many rigorous scientific findings since 2009 have showed both climate pollution and its warming effects are not just harming public health but killing people outright.

VOX notes:

What will the impact be? If the EPA proposal takes effect, it would spell the end of nearly all US climate regulations, including those governing emissions by vehicles, factories, power plants, and more. That change would come even as the US is beginning to face more severe effects of climate change and as the world struggles to fend off warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions.

Is this a done deal? No. The EPA announced its proposal on Tuesday, but before it can reverse the finding, the plan will go through a review process, including a public comment period. It’s also all but certain to be challenged in court by environmental groups.

I know it's depressing. Remember that Rashdia Tlaib, Jill Stein, Butch Ware, Margaret Kimberley, Norman Solomon and so many others brought us here. They worked to destroy Kamala Harris. They are the reason that Donald Chump is in the White House. Never forget that.

"The Snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Wednesday, July 30, 2025. Chump doesn't have trade deals (though many in the media humor him), Pam Bondi can't stop lying, nursing mothers and Maine police officers among the latest targeted by ICE, and much more.

Prices continue to increase under Donald Chump. Tariffs are taxes and those are costs passed onto consumers. "American companies big and small are suddenly facing much higher costs leaving them to decide whether to swallow that cost and lay off workers or pass it on to you the consumer," Stephanie Ruhle noted last night on MSNBC's THE LAST WORD WITH STEPHANIE RUHLE.

Frameworks are not contracts, Dan Nathan pointed out, "We just don't have a lot of detail about that."

At SUBSTACK, economist Paul Krugman writes:

First off: two more of my inequality primers are now free at the Stone Center web site. The list so far:

Why did the rich pull away from the rest?

The importance of worker power

A Trumpian diversion

Oligarchs and the rise of mega-fortunes

Now, on to current events.

Trump has now announced a trade “deal” with the European Union that looks a lot like the “deal” he made with Japan. I use scare quotes because there is little sign of a quid pro quo. The United States is imposing a 15 percent tariff that is lower than previously threatened, but still vastly higher than we had before Trump. Overall U.S. tariffs seem likely to settle roughly at the level that prevailed after the infamous Smoot-Hawley tariff of 1930.

In return we got a vague promise of higher European investment in the United States. When Japan made a similar promise last week, administration officials asserted that this would mean hundreds of billions flowing into rebuilding U.S. industry. Japanese officials, however, say that the money will consist almost entirely of loans and loan guarantees. This strongly suggests that Japan will, if it does anything at all, simply be sticking Trump’s name on money flows that would have happened anyway. There’s every reason to suspect that the same will be true of whatever the EU does.

And like the Japan deal, this deal seems to place lower tariffs on cars made in Europe, which have very little U.S. content, than on cars made in Canada, which contain many American parts. Add in the punishing tariffs on steel and aluminum, and Trump’s trade policy seems, if anything, to be tilting the playing field against U.S. manufacturing.

When I point out that Trump’s idea of trade deals seems counterproductive even in terms of his claimed goal of boosting manufacturing, I get some pushback from readers along these lines: “Oh, yeah? If you’re such an expert on trade negotiations, tell me what deal you think you could have made.”

OK, I can answer that. If I had been in charge of negotiating with the European Union, I would have been able to get a deal with the following components:

· Very low tariffs on U.S. exports of manufactured goods to Europe, on the order of 1 percent

· Near balance in bilateral trade, with U.S. exports to Europe close to 90 percent of our imports from Europe

· U.S. companies allowed to operate freely in Europe, earning hundreds of billions a year in profits

· European corporations investing more than $150 billion a year — real investment, not loans — in the United States

Why do I believe that I could have negotiated a deal like that? Because that’s what U.S.-EU international transactions actually looked like in 2024. So that’s what we could have gotten by doing nothing.

Paul Krugman discussed the economy with THE NEW REPUBLIC's Greg Sargent -- here for audio, here for transcript. Excerpt:

Krugman: The U.S. runs a trade deficit overall. We buy more stuff from abroad than we sell. That’s not because U.S. goods are uncompetitive, really. It’s basically because the U.S. has been an attractive investment destination, which keeps the dollar strong. And it’s just arithmetic that the inflow of capital to the U.S. equals the trade deficit. I know arithmetic has a well-known liberal bias, but you can’t really reduce the trade deficit unless you reduce the flow of investment into the U.S. It’s not really about tariffs at all. Other things Trump is doing—making the U.S. looks like a crazy place—may end up reducing that flow of investment, but the tariffs won’t do that at all. So that’s the broad macroeconomic picture. And then if you look at the micro—sorry, economist talk—but if you look at what it’s actually doing to industries, Trump is in general putting higher tariffs on the goods that we use to produce manufactured goods than he is on the consumer goods that are produced with those inputs. So he’s actually raising the costs of U.S. manufacturing more than he is giving them protection from foreign competition.

So the overall thrust of his strategy is actually anti-manufacturing. During Trump’s first term, a bunch of studies went through trying to figure out the impact of the tariffs on manufacturing, and they all came to the conclusion that Trump’s tariffs on overall cost the US some manufacturing jobs. And we thought, Well, he won’t make that mistake again. But he is. He’s making that mistake again, but five times bigger.

Sargent: How long would you give this? In fairness, how long should we wait? How many years do we have to wait until we can say definitively that Trump has failed to restore manufacture in the U.S. with his regime? How long do we have to wait?

Krugman: I would say.… I mean, it’s never going to happen. But if you look at it, maybe here’s a point of comparison. Biden had the Inflation Reduction Act, which had nothing to do with reducing inflation but was a lot about promoting green manufacturing and so on. And you could see within two years, it was obvious that the IRA was generating a huge boom in investment in manufacturing in the U.S. So I think to give Trump more than two years to show that this is actually doing something positive would be holding him to a different standard. If you don’t see this in two years, then it’s a failure. I have no question. There’s just nothing in there.

If you actually looked at the trade deal with Japan and now with Europe, who was hopping mad, screaming, This is a terrible deal? It was a lot of industry groups. The auto industry was in hysterics over last week’s Japan deal because it was just clear to them. They said, Stuff that we have a stake in, which includes manufacturing in Canada and Mexico, is being disadvantaged relative to cars from Japan, which is not us. Anyway, I don’t think we’re going to see anything. Now if we can talk about the other provisions of the deal later on, it turns out they’re completely empty. If we’re not seeing a boom in manufacturing investment by the end of Trump’s term.… To even wait that long would be giving him more time than people gave Biden, and Biden’s policy actually did boost manufacturing.

Sargent: It’s just so crazy. This is just never talked about. These two things are never talked about together. On the one hand, Trump is doing all these tariffs to supposedly try and spur manufacturing this country. Meanwhile, they’re functionally doing all they can to wipe out the nascent green energy manufacturing industry in the U.S., which is actually something that competes well with China if it works over the long haul. The whole thing is so ridiculous. Why don’t more people point that basic disconnect out: that they’re wiping away the manufacturing jobs of the future while imposing tariffs to create manufacturing jobs? Why don’t we hear that said more often?

Krugman: Yeah, the media is really—well, not only on this—dropping the ball. And I have to say, I don’t think it’s the reporters. I think that the reporters at major news organizations may not all be top-ranked economists but they do know enough about it to know that the whole switch in policy [is] actually toward reduced manufacturing and wiping out a lot of jobs. They’re editorial decisions. To cast this as a win for Trump, that’s an editorial decision. I’m sure that wasn’t the reporter’s idea of how to portray it. And we can talk.… That’s a whole other discussion. Basically, for the most part—not my department, but this is crazy—the fact that we’re actually going backward and undermining a lot of the industries of the future barely [gets] reported.

Sargent: And never in the context of Trump and Vance’s constant rhapsodizing about manufacturing. You mentioned that there were other things in the deal that are empty, I want to quickly touch on those. You wrote in your piece that the promised $750 billion in spending on U.S. energy and the $600 billion increase in investment in the U.S. are probably illusory or nothing. What’s the deal with that? The whole thing is starting to look awfully like a pretty big scam as so much that Trump does is.

Krugman: I should say, by the time people hear this, there will have been a second Substack post which is already in the can for the day after we had this conversation looking into those things. So yeah, the Europeans said we’re going to do $600 billion of investment in the U.S. Take them in two pieces. Not clear that that actually helps, but the question you should immediately ask is, How are they going to do that? Europe is not China. The Chinese government can tell companies or banks, Send the money there, but Europe doesn’t work that way. Europe is a market economy like ours. And this was a deal with the European commission in Brussels, which isn’t even a government. The European commission negotiates trade deals, but it has absolutely no authority over domestic economic policies within European countries.

This morning, Ben tries to make sense of it all for MEIDASTOUCH NEWS.

Jon Luke Evans. That's our next topic. Donald Chump's war on immigrants and the various lives he's destroying. Patrick Whittle (AP) reports:

The chief of police in a Maine resort town has called for an investigation into the arrest by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement of one of its officers, who the chief said was federally approved to work in the country in May.

ICE arrested Old Orchard Beach Police Department reserve officer Jon Luke Evans, of Jamaica, on July 25. The agency said Evans was illegally present in the U.S. and unlawfully attempted to purchase a firearm.

You read that right. Chump's gestapo is now arresting police officers. Daniella Silva (CNN) adds:

The Old Orchard Beach Police Department said in a statement on Monday that as part of its standard hiring process, Evans completed an I-9 federal immigration and work authorization form to verify that he was legally able to work in the U.S.

Police Chief Elise Chard said in the statement that the town reviewed multiple forms of identification and submitted the forms for Evans to the Department of Homeland Security’s E-Verify Program. The system is operated by the Department of Homeland Security in partnership with the Social Security Administration to let employers know if a prospective employee has legal authorization to work in the U.S.

“The Department of Homeland Security then verified that Evans was authorized to work in the U.S.,” Chard said. “The form was submitted and approved by DHS on May 12, 2025.”

“Evans would not have been permitted to begin work as a reserve officer until and unless Homeland Security verified his status,” she said.

“In Old Orchard Beach, reserve police officers are part-time, seasonal employees who must meet the same background checks, pass the same physical agility tests, and receive the same medical evaluations as full-time police officers,” Chard said.

More and more, the question around the country becomes: When's ICE coming for you?

AP notes another horror story:

A Marine Corps veteran’s wife has been released from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention following advocacy from Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican who backs President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown.

Until this week, Mexican national Paola Clouatre had been one of tens of thousands of people in ICE custody as the Trump administration continues to press immigration officers to arrest 3,000 people a day suspected of being in the US illegally.

Jillian Frankel (PEOPLE MAGAZINE) adds:

Since late May, Paola, who was still breastfeeding 4-month-old daughter Lyn when she was arrested, had been held at a facility about three hours from her family, who live in Baton Rouge, La.

Now she's back home with husband Adrian, 26, and their two children, including nearly 2-year-old son, Noah.

The couple spoke with PEOPLE from Louisiana, as their young kids cooed and laughed in the background, one day after they were reunited when ICE freed Paola from detention.

Her case is one of an increasing number around the country drawing attention to federal immigration policies. President Donald Trump successfully campaigned last year on cracking down on illegal immigration, but some of his deportations have stirred major debate.

Paola, though no longer held in Monroe, La., is required to wear an ankle monitor for the remainder of her legal proceedings.

Again, when's ICE coming for you?

US Senator John Kennedy was able to work to free her. But ICE frequently tries to do run-arounds when it comes to Congress. For example, William J. Ford (MARYLAND MATTERS) reports:

Six members of Maryland’s congressional delegation were turned away Monday when they showed up to inspect a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Baltimore where they said people are being temporarily held for deportation or awaiting court hearings.

Democratic Sens. Angela Alsobrooks and Chris Van Hollen and Reps. Johnny Olszewski Jr. (D-2nd), Sarah Elfreth (D-3rd), Glenn Ivey (D-4th) and Kweisi Mfume (D-7th) entered the George H. Fallon Federal Building, where the ICE detention facility is located.

In a joint statement, the lawmakers said the visit was part of their oversight responsibility as members of Congress, and that they were “exercising our legal authority … to inspect the Baltimore federal holding facility, and, if necessary, speak directly with detainees.”

But they were denied entry by an ICE official who told the lawmakers that it was an office, not a detention facility, and that they were not authorized to to enter, even though they wrote the head of ICE and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem last Monday to alert them to the visit.

Despite the claim that it’s just an office, Alsobrooks said previous visits by congressional staffers, and a court brief filed by Maryland Attorney General, indicate that immigrants are being held for several days at a time in “hold rooms” at the facility. Those rooms are designed to hold detainees for up to 12 hours while awaiting a court appearance, but are not meant for longer stays, lawmakers said.

“They are breaking the law in there,” Alsobrooks said. She said the official they encountered refused to say who gave the order to bar lawmawkers from the building.

Senator Angela Alsobrooks' office issued the following regarding the above incident:

“It was abundantly clear that the people working in this facility have been instructed to hide the horror of the inhumane treatment of the people in their custody.” – Senator Alsobrooks

We will not let this cover-up continue – we will continue pushing for accountability and the humane enforcement of our immigration laws.” – Senator Van Hollen

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Senator Angela Alsobrooks, Senator Chris Van Hollen, and Representatives Kweisi Mfume, Glenn Ivey, Johnny Olszewski, Jr., and Sarah Elfreth (all D-Md.) conducted oversight on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Baltimore and on the President’s draconian and inhumane tactics he is employing – throwing innocent people in jail, housing undocumented people in awful conditions, snatching people off the street, and more. The lawmakers were denied access to the facility despite it being within their constitutional authority to conduct Congressional oversight.

After the visit, Senator Alsobrooks remarked:

“It was abundantly clear that the people working in this facility have been instructed to hide the horror of the inhumane treatment of the people in their custody.”

She continued:

“And the man behind it all – Donald Trump – clearly does not care about any of us.

“His inhumanity is not limited to the people of these facilities.

“We recently had the awful flood in Western Maryland. People’s lives were disrupted and their homes and livelihoods taken away. And what is the response of this Administration: deny Maryland disaster relief. You know why?

“Because he couldn’t care less, really, about any of us.”

Senator Van Hollen remarked:

“Donald Trump told the American people that his Administration’s immigration policy would focus on ‘the worst of the worst,’ detaining dangerous criminals. That’s a targeted approach that we could support, but it was a lie. In reality they are pursuing a cruel mass deportation agenda where scores of people – the vast majority of whom pose no public safety threat – are held under inhumane conditions at places like this Baltimore ICE office and shipped off without any due process. Congress has a legal authority and responsibility to conduct oversight, but the Trump Administration refuses to let the American public see the truth. We will not let this cover-up continue – we will continue pushing for accountability and the humane enforcement of our immigration laws.”

###

The gestapo agents of ICE make whatever threats that they want and break whatever laws they want. Imagine being told in the United States that "you have no rights." 18 year old high school student and United States citizen Kenny Laynez doesn't have to imagine it. ICE bullied him and told him "you have no rights." Cristian Benavides (CBS NEWS) reports:

Video Laynez recorded of the arrest shows an officer telling him, a U.S. citizen who was born and raised in the country, "You got no rights here. You're an amigo, brother."

"It hurts me, hearing them saying that I have no rights here because I look like, um, you know, Hispanic, I'm Hispanic," Laynez told CBS News.

The car was pulled over for having too many people sitting in the front seat. Two passengers were undocumented, according to Laynez, and officers are seen on the video using a Taser. The teens' two co-workers were both detained, and Laynez says he has been unable to contact them.

"We're not resisting. We're not committing any crime to, you know, run away," Laynez said, recalling the arrest.

Laynez's phone continued recording after he was detained, capturing an exchange in which an officer tells another, "They're starting to resist more. We're gonna end up shooting some of them."

Another officer replies, "Just remember, you can smell that too with a $30,000 bonus."

Florida Highway Patrol did not comment.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection told CBS News in a statement that the individuals "resisted arrest" and said immigration agents are facing a surge in assaults while doing their job. The statement made no mention that a U.S. citizen had been detained.

ICE lies. Over and over. And they get caught lying above.

Diamond Walker and Valentina Palm (PALM BEACH POST) reported:

Kenny Laynez's cellphone camera captured every undocumented immigrant’s nightmare on video when it happened to him on the morning of May 2. One problem: He is a U.S. citizen. Here's more to know about what happened.

Kenny Laynez, a U.S. citizen, was driving with his mother and coworkers to their landscaping jobs when they were pulled over on Singer Island by Florida Highway Patrol and Border Patrol agents. Officers dragged them from the car, grabbing necks, twisting arms, using a Taser, and later joked about raises and promotions.

Laynez, who was born and raised in West Palm Beach, was held for six hours at a federal facility in Riviera Beach before being released. His mom, who is Guatemalan and has legal status in this country, was not detained. His coworkers were taken to the Krome Detention Center in Miami and later released on bail.

“I have rights. I was born and raised here," Laynez told the officers, according to a copy of the video shared by the Guatemalan-Maya Center of Lake Worth Beach.

"You don’t have any rights here. You are a ‘Migo,’ brother,” said the officer, who hurried him into a van. "Migo" is short for "amigo," the Spanish word for "friend, " an apparent reference to Laynez's ethnicity.

There's no resisting arrest on the recording. ICE is lying. They are the new gestapo. They break the law and act with impunity.

Donald Chump's war on immigrants continues to include Cubans. Now we have a long history with Cuban Americans at this site. I don't believe you come to this country -- or go to another -- seeking a new start while dragging your grudges over here with you. Meaning, don't you turn Florida into a staging ground for your war on Castro or whomever. I'm not the voice of Cuban immigrants or Cuban Americans. But I do think that we need to realize something: Donald Chump has turned his back on Cubans. No voting group has done more for the Republican Party -- especially in the state of Florida. And their thanks for that? One attack on Cuban immigrants after another. Cuban-Americans have every right to feel outraged. This is not how you thank your base. Nick Mordowanec (NEWSWEEK) reports:

A Cuban immigrant detained and held in Florida's "Alligator Alcatraz" facility after about 25 years of legal U.S. status had his court hearing canceled last minute and without provided cause, according to his attorney.

The abrupt cancellation of a scheduled immigration court hearing on July 23 for 31-year-old Gonzalo Almanza, a green card holder and U.S. permanent resident since 2000, ties to debate over due process, detainee treatment, and legal access at the recently opened immigration detention center in Florida's Everglades region.

Almanza's case echoes broader legal struggles facing migrants and permanent residents as lawyers and civil rights groups challenge the facility's operations in court, arguing detainees are denied basic rights and access to counsel.

No record currently exists for Almanza within the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) database.

Almanza, who arrived in the United States at the age of 6, has been detained at the Alligator Alcatraz facility since July 11.

His wife, Aschly Valdez, said Almanza was taken into custody by immigration authorities because of a past racketeering charge, despite ongoing efforts to fulfill legal obligations and restitution.

On the bromance of Chump and Epstein, there are many new developments. I think Pam Bondi's lying is one of the important ones that's not getting enough attention. Does Pam Bondi just lie every time she opens her mouth? Dan Ruetenik (CBS NEWS) reports:

Attorney General Pam Bondi was questioned about the gap during a July 8 Cabinet meeting with President Trump. She said the missing minute was the result of a nightly reset of the video that caused the recording system to miss one recording minute every night, and attributed that information to the Bureau of Prions.

"There was a minute that was off that counter and what we learned from [the] Bureau of Prisons was every year, every night, they redo that video," Bondi said. The equipment was old — "from like 1999, so every night is reset, so every night should have that same missing minute," she said.

Bondi said the department would share other video that showed the same thing happened every night when the video system reset. That video, however, has not yet been released.

Experts in surveillance video, including video forensic professionals, told CBS News that a nightly reset would have been unusual and was not something they encountered in most video systems.

One thing that is clear, forensic experts say, is that the version of the recording released by the FBI was edited and not raw, as the government stated. Bondi, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino and others have said publicly that the video would be released unaltered.

When the DOJ and FBI shared the video with the public, they said in a news release that it was the "full raw" video, and that "anyone entering or attempting to enter the tier where Epstein's cell was located from the SHU common area would have been captured by this footage."

Jim Stafford was one of several video forensic analysts who looked at the video for CBS News using specialized software to extract the underlying coding, known as metadata. He said the metadata showed that the file was first created on May 23 of this year and that it was likely a "screen capture, not an actual export" of the raw file.

He also told CBS News the metadata showed that the video was in fact two separate videos stitched together. It was also slightly sped up, so the video covering 11 hours runs approximately 10 hours and 53 minutes in length.

CBS asked the FBI and Justice Department for a response, but they declined to comment. The Bureau of Prisons said they "had no additional information to provide".

She lied ny on-stop about the video she released. Who can trust a word out of her mouth at this point? In February, the files were on her desk, she was soon to release them. July 6th there was nothing, per Bondi, to release. As this month winds down we learn that in May she met with Chump and warned him that he was in the files. Who can trust her?

The one other thing I'd add is former Senator Claire McCaskill's correct in the video below from this morning's MORNING JOE.

Let's wind down with this from Senator Alex Padilla's office:

WATCH: Padilla pushes back against indiscriminate ICE raids and the militarization of Los Angeles

A one-pager on the Registry bill is available here.

LOS ANGELES, CA — Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, hosted a press conference in Los Angeles alongside immigration advocates, impacted families, and community leaders to announce legislation to expand a pathway to lawful permanent residency for millions of long-term U.S. residents. Amid the Trump Administration’s indiscriminate immigration enforcement in California and across the country, the bill would offer a forward-looking, strategic update to our outdated immigration system to counter President Trump and Stephen Miller’s demonization of undocumented immigrant communities.

Padilla’s Renewing Immigration Provisions of the Immigration Act of 1929 would update the existing Registry statute of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) by adjusting the Registry date to meet current circumstances so that an immigrant may qualify to apply for lawful permanent resident status if they have lived in the U.S. continuously for at least seven years before filing an application, do not have a criminal record, and meet all other current eligibility requirements to receive a green card.

This overdue update would provide a much-needed pathway to a green card for more than 8 million people, including Dreamers, forcibly displaced citizens (TPS holders), children of long-term visa holders, essential workers, and highly skilled members of our workforce, such as H-1B visa holders, who have been waiting years for a green card to become available. According to 2023 FWD.us estimates, if the undocumented individuals covered in this bill eventually became citizens, they would contribute approximately $121 billion to the U.S. economy annually and about $35 billion in taxes.

Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is co-leading the legislation in the Senate, and Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.-18) is leading companion legislation in the House of Representatives.

“Americans know there’s a better path forward than the Trump Administration’s cruel scapegoating of hardworking immigrants and fearmongering of California communities,” said Senator Padilla. “We believe that if you’ve lived here for over seven years, paid taxes for years, contributed to your community for years, and you don’t have a criminal record, then you deserve a pathway to legalization. My bill is a commonsense fix to our outdated immigration system and the same kind of reform that Republican President Ronald Reagan embraced four decades ago, calling it a ‘matter of basic fairness.’ This legislation creates no new bureaucracies or agencies — it’s simply an update to a longstanding pathway to reflect today’s reality and provide a fair shot at the American Dream for millions of Dreamers, TPS holders, and highly skilled workers who have faced delays and uncertainty for decades.”

“Recently, we have seen devastating arrests of immigrants who have spent their lives in this country, building communities and families in the United States, without any due process. Most have never committed any crime. Protections for these hard-working individuals are long overdue. It’s common sense that immigrants who pose no safety threat and contribute to our country should be able to call America home with certainty; additionally, it’s also common sense that the small percentage of undocumented immigrants who do commit violent crimes should be removed. Expanding the registry pathway to citizenship is a practical solution to provide stability to immigrants who have worked and contributed to our country for years. It’s part of the solution, and I look forward to working to pass this bill into law,” said U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Durbin, Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“When Donald Trump ran for president, he pledged to deport violent criminals. Instead, masked, heavily-armed agents, often refusing to identify themselves, are aggressively, sometimes violently, targeting day laborers, busboys, farmworkers, and some of the hardest-working people in this country. It’s outrageous and deserves the condemnation of every Member of Congress. We need to control our borders, but we also need a straightforward reform solution for those who have resided peacefully for a long time in America,” said Representative Lofgren. “My colleagues and I are reintroducing our registry legislation to simply update a historically-bipartisan provision that provides lawful permanent resident status to vetted immigrants who have been a part of our communities for years. Providing stability to our communities and our workforces – versus terrorizing them – will make our country stronger.”

The bill is cosponsored by U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

Section 249 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, also known as the Registry, gives the Secretary of Homeland Security the discretion to register certain individuals for lawful permanent resident status if they have been in the country since a certain date and meet other requirements. Section 249 was first codified in 1929 and Congress has modified it four times, most recently during the Reagan Administration in 1986. No changes have been made since 1986, and the cutoff date for eligibility remains January 1, 1972 — more than 50 years ago.

Specifically, the Renewing Immigration Provisions of the Immigration Act of 1929 would:

Amend the existing Registry statute by moving the eligibility cutoff date so that an immigrant may qualify for lawful permanent resident status if they have been in the U.S. for at least seven years before filing an application under Registry.
Preempt the need for further congressional action by making the eligibility cutoff rolling, instead of tying it to a specific date, as it is now.

Padilla continues to lead the charge to pass commonsense immigration reforms that strengthen communities, protect long-term residents, and unlock America’s economic potential. He was joined today by community members impacted by the Trump Administration’s cruel immigration raids, including Alejandro Barranco — a veteran and the son of Narciso, who was violently detained by masked Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents in Orange County.

“As the son of a hardworking immigrant, I never imagined our family’s story would become national news. Yet the violent and unjust treatment my father endured on June 21st is one that countless others are experiencing across this country. My father, a man who has spent over 30 years working to provide for our family, was beaten and detained by men with no identification—simply for doing the work that makes this country great. This attack wasn’t just on him; it was on every immigrant who has ever sacrificed for the American dream. It’s long overdue for this country’s broken immigration system to be fixed, or more families will continue to be torn apart. I stand with leaders like Senator Padilla to fight for a pathway to citizenship for people like my dad, whose contributions make America stronger,” said Alejandro Barranco.

“I ask the American people: if you trust us to pick your crops, help build your homes, take care of your children and elderly parents, play with sons and daughters in the same sports teams, why won’t you trust us to be part of the American dream? A path to citizenship is the only solution that will protect us and the nation. Only a path to citizenship will allow us to live free in this our home, the United States of America,” said Angelica Salas, Executive Director for Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA).

Senator Padilla is a leading voice in Congress for providing long-term undocumented immigrants with pathways to citizenship or permanent legal residence. As Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids and mass deportation assaults intensified in Los Angeles, Padilla marked the 13th anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy by urging Congress to take immediate action to deliver permanent protections for millions of families, parents, and individuals who are increasingly at risk amid President Trump’s mass deportation agenda. He also delivered remarks on the Senate floor ahead of the anniversary, pushing for permanent protections for Dreamers rather than the indiscriminate ICE raids stoking fear in Los Angeles communities. Padilla previously introduced the Citizenship for Essential Workers Act, which would create a pathway to citizenship for immigrant essential workers, including Dreamers, as his first bill in Congress.

Senator Padilla has been outspoken in criticizing Trump’s mass deportations and unprecedented militarization and escalation of tensions by deploying National Guard troops and active-duty U.S. Marines to respond to overwhelmingly peaceful protests in Los Angeles. He recently introduced the VISIBLE Act to require immigration enforcement officers to display clearly visible identification during public-facing enforcement actions. He also led the entire Senate Democratic Caucus last month in demanding that President Trump immediately withdraw all military forces from Los Angeles and cease all threats to deploy the National Guard or active-duty service members to American cities. Padilla spoke on the Senate floor following his forcible removal from Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s press conference, where he was thrown to the ground and handcuffed after attempting to ask a question.

Video of Senator Padilla’s opening remarks from today’s press conference can be viewed here and downloaded here. His closing remarks are available to watch here and can be downloaded here.

Additional photos from today’s event can be found here.

A one-pager on the bill is available here.

Full text of the bill is available here.

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The following sites updated:

Tuesday, July 29, 2025

Doesn't creepy Jay Leno have a wife to take care of?

We're all supposed to feel sorry for fat and ugly Jay Leno because Mavis has dementia. Why?

Every time I turn around that man's doing everything but taking care of his wife.

Do you remember the group Blondie? I loved Blondie -- I still do. And when Christ Stein got sick, Debbie Harry put brakes on everything. I didn't see her weighing in this or that current event or guest starring on some bad Tim Allen sitcom.

The only time I saw her, she looked like a bag lady. She was out in public doing errands -- usually groceries -- for Chris Stein. He had the flesh condition and was seriously sick.

And Debbie put everything and took care of him. She didn't even say, "Oh, better jump in the shower and fix my hair so I can go get more of his steroids at the drug store."

No, she just went out looking like a bag lady. And I don't mean that as an insult. One of the most gorgeous women of her time. She put that on hold and focused solely on Chris.

They weren't even married.

Jay married Mavis but he sure has a lot of time to go do what he wants. I guess she's lucky she has dementia and doesn't realize just how much her husband is abandoning her.

Jay wants you to know that he's tired of late night doing politics.

After he was fired, right? After he tanked THE TONIGHT SHOW in prime time and moved back to late night -- which meant Colin got fired -- no one liked him and he finally got fired.

No one likes him today but turns out all he did was politics -- he 'joked' about Bill Clinton more than anyone else. He did hundres of jokes about Monica Lewinsky.

Jay was born racist trash and he'll die racist trash. It's past time White people stopped looking the other way. I was a teenager when I could hear his 'joke' and not how racist he was night after night.

"The Snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Tuesday, July 29, 2025. Donald Chump disgraces the nation overseas, he floats pardoning his friend the convicted pedophile and sex trafficker, the Justice Dept can meet with Maxwell but not with her victims, Chump's cruelty towards the victims of assault is the same cruelty he aims at immigrants, and much more.

Let's start with Ben to give the morning some shape as he brings us up to speed.

There was a time when the United States stood for something around the world. There was a time when if you were being persecuted in another country, you could dream about coming to the United States, a time when the words on the bronze plaque at the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty were something to have hope in, pride in:

Give me your tired, your poor

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore

Send these, te homeless, tempest-lost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door

Today those words are meaningless thanks to Convicted Felon Donald Chump. It's bad enough that he can't stop insulting the US when he's in our country, but in Europe now, he can't stop trashing the United States. He really is garbage trash.

He is destroying this country and everything good we have ever stood for.

At THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, Ara Torosian writes:

As a Christian who smuggled Bibles into my home country of Iran, I became a target of the country’s Islamist regime, which imprisons and sometimes kills those who invite Muslims to convert. After living under house arrest for two years, I fled as a refugee and was ultimately resettled to the United States.

I experienced true religious freedom for the first time in my life in this country, of which I am now a proud, grateful citizen — and that’s why I am shocked by the ways that my government is now treating my Iranian congregants, who have been detained by masked officers, separated from their families and threatened with deportation to a country that would kill them for their Christian faith. What I have witnessed gives me flashbacks to Tehran, and I believe that America must be better.

Two families who are a part of the Farsi-speaking evangelical congregation that I pastor in Los Angeles have been detained in recent weeks. First, a couple and their 3-year-old daughter, who are in the process of seeking asylum because they fear persecution if they were returned to Iran. They were detained at their court hearing in downtown Los Angeles on June 23. The entire family is now being held in South Texas.

The next day, I received a call from a woman in my church. Like me, she had been forced to flee Iran for Turkey when her involvement in Iran’s underground churches was exposed.

When the woman and her husband found themselves in a desperate situation in Turkey last year, they were not offered the option to fly to the U.S. as resettled refugees as I had been in 2010. Instead, they flew to South America, made a treacherous journey north and waited in Mexico for an appointment they reserved on a U.S. government app, CBP One, to be able to explain their situation to officers of the U.S. government.

Once lawfully allowed in with provisional humanitarian status, they found our church — where they could be baptized and publicly profess their faith in Jesus — and legal help to begin their asylum request. They received their work authorization documents and found jobs. Their first asylum hearing in immigration court was scheduled for this September.

When President Trump returned to office, however, his administration both suspended all refugee resettlement and canceled humanitarian parole for those who had been allowed to enter via the CBP One app. Many parolees received menacing letters instructing them to self-deport or face prosecution, fines or deportation. But these letters also noted that these instructions did not apply to those who had “otherwise obtained a lawful basis to remain,” such as a pending asylum application.

That’s why I was so shocked to receive a call from the woman in my congregation informing me that her husband had been detained by masked immigration officers on the street, just a few blocks from our church. I rushed over and began to film the shocking scene: First he was detained by masked officers, and then she was. I asked if they had a judicial warrant, but if they did, they would not show me. The woman experienced a panic attack and was taken to a hospital but discharged into ICE custody; she is now hours away in a detention center in California. Her husband is in a detention center in Texas.

And that's how Chump 'celebrates' immigrants. And that's how he degrades our image around the world.

He appears to be conditioning Americans for him pardoning convicted sex trafficker and pedophile Ghislaine Maxwell. Trina noted last night in response to Chump declaring that he's "allowed" to pardon Maxwell:

No, you aren't allowed to.

Yes, any president can pardon anyone but, no, you are not "allowed" to pardon a pedophile sex trafficker. You're insane if you think so. You'd have to be even crazier than I think you are. And I think you are bat s**t insane, Chump. You pardon Maxwell and you will find out just how disliked you can be. Some MAGA's won't go along with it. Some may. But MAGA's not Chump's problem. The rest of us are Chump's problem. I can tell you I won't go along with it nor would anyone in my church. I can't imagine parents across the country running to stage a parade for you, "Look, it's the orange man! He pardoned Maxwell! Let's give him a parade."

You are not ALLOWED to pardon Maxwell. You're insane if you think the country will stand for that. There will be such a strong push to impeach you and it will be bipartisan.

Pardon Maxwell? Ann responded:

Or how about this? We leave the criminal convicted by a jury of her peers in prison where she's supposed to be and let her serve her sentence? We leave the criminal who has refused to express any remorse at all in the prison she was sentenced to?

How about that.

Epstein and Maxwell's survivors aren't being protected by Chump. Their attacker is. That's who Chump identifies with. Here's Tara Palmeri speaking with survivors Maria and Annie Farmer.

And here's Katie Couric speaking with survivor Jess Michaels.

That's Katie and Tara speaking to the three women.

Not Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. No. Todd gets dispatched by Chump and AG Pam Bondi to visit Maxwell in prison -- to woo her for two days.

Meet with the Convicted sex trafficker and pedophile and offer her limited immunity and the prospect of a pardon. That's the reality of Donald Chump.

Remember that as he works to destroy the lives of children in the US -- especially migrant children.

CBS NEWS offers:

A child developed a rash after he was prevented from changing his underwear for four days. A little boy, bored and overcome with despair, began hitting himself in the head. A child with autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder was forced to go without his medication, despite his mother's pleas.

"I heard one officer say about us 'they smell like sh--,'" one detained person recounted in a federal court filing. "And another officer responded, 'They are sh--.'"

Attorneys for immigrant children collected these stories, and more, from youth and families detained in what they called "prison-like" settings across the U.S. from March through June, even as the Trump administration has requested a federal district court judge terminate existing protections that mandate basic rights and services — including safe and sanitary conditions — for children held by the government.

The administration argues that the protections mandated under what is known as the Flores Settlement Agreement encourage immigration and interfere with its ability to establish immigration policy. U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee, who is in California, is expected to issue a ruling on the request after an Aug. 8 hearing.

With the Flores agreement in place, children are being held in "unsafe and unsanitary" U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities such as tents, airports, and offices for up to several weeks despite the agency's written policy saying people generally should not be held in its custody longer than 72 hours, according to the June court filing from immigrants' attorneys. In addition to opposing the U.S. Department of Justice's May request to terminate the Flores consent decree, the attorneys demanded more monitoring for children in immigration detention.

"The biggest fear is that without Flores, we will lose a crucial line of transparency and accountability," said Sergio Perez, executive director of the California-based Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law. "Then you have a perfect storm for the abuse of individuals, the violation of their rights, and the kind of treatment that this country doesn't stand for."

Maxwell and Epstein exploited children and so does Chump -- another thing binding to his friends of many, many years. Most people believe that you protect children in your custody. Chump believes you find further ways to harm and exploit them.

Horror stories. In Houston, US citizen Miguel Angel Ponce Jr. is attempting to drive from his home to work when ICE assaults him.

Anayeli Ruiz (KHOU) reports:

"He says, 'I need to see your ID.' I gave him the ID. When I went back down, he said, 'Get out of the car,'" Ponce said.

"For what?" Ponce said he asked. "'Get out.'"

He says officers then handcuffed him and took him away.

"I pretty much felt kidnapped. [They] told me I have a deportation order, put me in handcuffs, took me to another location. I couldn't call my wife — locked up in the back seat."

Despite showing his ID and insisting he was born in the U.S., Ponce says the officers continued to insist he was someone with immigration violations.

"[He] said, 'You've had an encounter with ICE.' I said, 'No, I've never...' At that point, he slapped handcuffs on me. They're like, 'You have an order of deportation.' That is crazy — because I was born here. I was born in College Station. 'No, you're the one I'm looking for.'"

Mistakes happen? Mistakes happen a lot with ICE and that's because (a) they don't know their job and (b) they don't know the law -- which is also part of their job. Bonuses are being handed out to ICE but, note, no ICE agent's getting in trouble for breaking the law. They're given immunity by Chump. They're basically the gestapo. Margaret Kadifa (MOTHER JONES) reports another horror story:

Three asylum seekers leaving routine court hearings at San Francisco immigration court Thursday morning were arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, including one man who a judge had just said might be mentally impaired.

They’re the latest in a series of ICE actions, where over 30 immigrants have been arrested by federal agents while leaving San Francisco immigration court, at 100 Montgomery Street or 630 Sansome Street—which also has an ICE field office and is where Thursday’s arrests took place.

After a Department of Homeland Security attorney on Thursday moved to dismiss the case of the man, a strategy federal attorneys have recently been using to make asylum seekers easier to remove, immigration judge Patrick O’Brien raised doubts over his mental ability, saying, “it’s obvious to me that there are competency issues.”

The man—who was only fluent in Mam, a Mayan language primarily spoken in Guatemala—had been muttering to himself throughout the morning, O’Brien said.

Later in court, the man was unable to tell O’Brien his address. O’Brien even asked the man at one point if he was on medication.

There appear to be competency issues beyond just a language barrier, O’Brien said. (After a few hours of requesting one, the court had been able to find a remote Mam interpreter to help with the man’s hearing.)

O’Brien then proceeded to ask the Department of Homeland Security attorney for a continuance of the case, rather than a dismissal, due to the man’s possible mental incompetence. The man needed time to find a lawyer and other support, O’Brien said. “He’s clearly not understanding the questions,” O’Brien said. “Is this someone the department really wants to move to dismiss a motion to appear on?”

The DHS attorney agreed, and allowed for a continuance of the case, which essentially means the man will come back for another hearing in a few months. The DHS attorney said she could “renew” the motion to dismiss another time.

But as the man left the hearing room, Mission Local observed about five ICE officers stopping the man and then leading him out a side door. The man’s arrest was the third over the course of three hours Thursday morning.

Arrested on the way out of the court house? It's happening over and over across the country. And heartless trash like US House Rep Nancy Mace get off watching videos of it. Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Nancy Meets A Stranger" went up yesterday.

Isaiah's latest THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Nancy Meets A Stranger." Jesus approaches US House Rep Nancy Mace and counsels, "Glee over someone being deported isn't very Christian." Nancy, apparently ignorant of the teachings of Jesus as well as Jesus himself, barks, "F**k you, hippie. Get out of my way or I'll lie on the House floor that you assaulted me." Isaiah archives his comics at THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS.

She is the Nazi pride in the US as she brags about getting off on watching videos of immigrants reporting to courts for hearings and then, as they leave the hearings, being kidnapped by ICE.

This is apparently the sort of thing that allows the unmarried and unloved Nancy Mace to get off during her endless string of lonely nights, Alexandra Villarreal (GUARDIAN) reports:

Jerome traveled a thousand miles from California to El Paso, Texas, so he could accompany Jenny to her immigration hearing. He and his wife had promised to take her after she had fled Cuba last December, after the government there had targeted her because she had reported on the country’s deplorable conditions for her college radio station.

Everything should have been fine. Jenny, 25, had entered the United States legally under one of Joe Biden’s now-defunct programs, CBP One. By the end of the year, she could apply for a green card.

But a few days before her hearing, Jerome started to feel like something was off. Jenny’s court date had been abruptly moved from May to June with no explanation. Arrests at immigration courthouses peppered the news.

And when Jenny went before the court, the government attorney assigned to try to deport her asked the judge to dismiss her case, arguing vaguely that circumstances had changed.

Instead, the judge noted that Jenny was pursuing an asylum claim and scheduled her for another court date in August 2026 – the best possible outcome.

“She turned around and looked at me and smiled. And I smiled back, because she understood that she was free to go home,” Jerome said.

But as Jenny left the courtroom and approached the elevator to leave, a crowd of government agents in masks converged on her and demanded she go with them. Just before she disappeared down a corridor with the phalanx of officers, she turned back to look at Jerome, her face stricken, silently pleading with him to do something.

“I said, ‘She’s legal. She’s here legally. And you guys just don’t care, do you? Nobody cares about this. You guys just like pulling people away like this,’” Jerome recalled telling the agents. “And nobody said a word. They couldn’t even look me in the eye,” he told the Guardian.

No, they couldn't look anyone in the eye. They're cowards who are breaking the law and they live in shame so they hide behind masks. PASADENA NOW covers yet another one:

Federal immigration officials have detained the husband of Huntington Hospital’s Chief of Medical Staff in downtown Los Angeles, where he has allegedly endured nearly two weeks of harsh treatment and insufficient medical care, according to a civil rights group’s statement released Thursday evening.

Tunisian immigrant Rami Othmane was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on July 13 while driving to a grocery store, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network said. His wife, Dr. Wafaa Alrashid, who oversees more than 1,000 physicians associated with Huntington Hospital, claims immigration officers blocked her husband’s car, did not present a warrant, and failed to identify themselves during the encounter.

Othmane suffers from chronic pain and an untreated tumor and is reportedly being held under inhumane conditions at a federal facility in downtown Los Angeles, NDLON said.

“He is not a criminal,” Alrashid was quoted in the group’s statement as saying. “He is a kind, peaceful man with an open immigration petition. He should be with his family, not sleeping on a concrete floor without medical care.”

The family filed an I-130 Petition for Alien Relative on June 12, initiating a legal pathway toward permanent residency. The petition remains pending, according to the advocacy group.

Jasmine Mendez (LOS ANGELES TIMES) adds:

Rami Othmane was held July 13 while driving to the grocery store. His wife, Dr. Wafaa Alrashid, said agents blocked Othmane’s car and did not identify themselves or present a warrant before detaining him.

Alrashid, chief of medical staff at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, was on FaceTime with her husband during the incident. The couple married on March 5, 2024, and filed an I-130 petition last month to qualify their relationship status to obtain Orthmane’s green card.

[. . .]

“This is not just an immigration issue — this is a human rights crisis,” Alrashid said in a statement. “My husband has been subjected to 12 days of inhumane treatment in a federal building. He is not a criminal. He is a kind, peaceful man with an open immigration petition.”

Remember when the big lie was told that only violent criminals would be targeted? Alicia Victoria Lozano (NBC NEWS) notes:

Immigration officials have been repeatedly spotted outside a Hollywood homeless shelter since May, leading staff to accompany residents from war-torn countries to work, errands and court.

An executive at the shelter that serves people ages 18 to 24 said she saw two Venezuelan men handcuffed and arrested by ICE agents after they returned to the shelter from work.

“There was no conversation,” said the employee, Lailanie, who asked that her last name not be used because she feared retribution from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

She said about half a dozen immigration officers went up to the residents “and put their hands behind their backs right away.”

Homeless shelters appear to be another target in the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration crackdown, which has resulted in nearly 3,000 arrests in the Los Angeles area. They now join Home Depots, 7-Elevens and cannabis farms as locations where the federal government is carrying out its mass deportation effort.

In addition to the Hollywood shelter, service providers have reported seeing immigration enforcement at shelters in North Hollywood and San Diego, according to local media.

Chump Land is one horror story after another. And it's tanking him in the polls. Diamond Walker and Valentina Palm (PALM BEACH POST) report:

“I have rights. I was born and raised here," Laynez told the officers, according to a copy of the video shared by the Guatemalan-Maya Center of Lake Worth Beach.

No one appears to have rights these days, not even basic human rights. Mike Schneider (LOS ANGELES TIMES) reports on Chump's concentration camp in Florida:

Lawyers seeking a temporary restraining order against an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades say that “Alligator Alcatraz” detainees have been barred from meeting attorneys, are being held without any charges and that a federal immigration court has canceled bond hearings.

A virtual hearing in federal court in Miami was being held Monday on a lawsuit that was filed July 16. A new motion on the case was filed Friday.

Lawyers who have shown up for bond hearings for “Alligator Alcatraz” detainees have been told that the immigration court doesn't have jurisdiction over their clients, the attorneys wrote in court papers. The immigration attorneys demanded that federal and state officials identify an immigration court that has jurisdiction over the detainees and start accepting petitions for bond, claiming the detainees constitutional rights to due process are being violated.

“This is an unprecedented situation where hundreds of detainees are held incommunicado, with no ability to access the courts, under legal authority that has never been explained and may not exist,” the immigration attorneys wrote. “This is an unprecedented and disturbing situation.”

Nancy Hiemstra and Deirdre Conlon (NEWSWEEK) add:

Detainees who have managed to communicate with family, friends, and lawyers report appalling conditions. Insufficient and contaminated water. Inadequate, spoiled food. Ignored requests for medical care. Swarms of mosquitoes. Unbearably hot tents that leak when it rains. Severe overcrowding. Facility personnel who berate and threaten them. We have studied immigration detention for over a decade and can say with grim certainty that it's just a matter of time until someone dies at Alligator Alcatraz.

This is what happens when detainees are seen as dollar signs. In our book, Immigration Detention Inc: The Big Business of Locking Up Migrants, we follow the money that coalesces around detention in the United States. Countless companies, state and local governments, and communities are tangled up in the economic webs tied to incarcerating migrants. These entities make money by starving, sickening, and exploiting detained migrants. The less they provide, the bigger their profits.

Let's wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office:

***PHOTOS COURTESY OF CUONG VAN HUYNH AVAILABLE HERE***

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) issued the following statement calling for longtime Seattle area resident Cuong Van Huynh to be allowed to remain in the United States ahead of an immigration check-in, joining a chorus of public statements in support, including from Teamsters Local 117 and MLK Labor:

“Cuong Van Huynh is a hardworking and esteemed member of the Seattle and King County community. Here’s what I know from Van and the people who love him: He works full-time at Swire Coca-Cola and also runs a beloved Banh Mi and chicken wings shop, Honey Bear, with his wife in Federal Way. Van works overtime to support his two sons who are in college studying aerospace engineering and business. He often engages in charitable works across the community and truly embodies the American dream.

“Van came to America as a refugee from Vietnam in 1984. Van was convicted back in 2006 for attempting to purchase marijuana—since then, he has made tremendous contributions to our community. It is beyond wrong to deport a man with an American wife and two American children for trying to purchase marijuana nearly two decades ago, a substance that has now been legalized in Washington state.

“I am joining local unions and community members in calling on the Trump administration to allow Van to remain here in America, his home, with his family. Seattle and King County are better off thanks to Van, his hard work, the family he’s raised here, and the community he’s built. I hope the entire community will join me in standing with Van. This man is a pillar of our community, and he should not be torn away from his family and his home after 40 years.”

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The following sites updated: