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Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

T R E 4 5 O N

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

This is dead girl, live boy, a goat, two wetsuits and a dildo territory.  oh, and pink furry handcuffs.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

You cannot love your country only when you win.

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Immigration

You are here: Home / Archives for Immigration

Government-Sanctioned Manslaughter by the Trump Crime Cartel

by Anne Laurie|  July 13, 20251:23 pm| 110 Comments

This post is in: Immigration, Republican Venality, Trump Crime Cartel

"What would Germany look like without Jews?"

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— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 3:33 PM


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BREAKING: A farmworker at a Southern California cannabis farm has died, the United Farm Workers says, a day after being injured during an immigration raid by federal officers.

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— NBC News (@nbcnews.com) July 11, 2025 at 5:36 PM

Per the NYTimes:

… The farmworker, Jaime Alanís, fell several stories to the ground from a greenhouse on Thursday, when federal agents raided a state-licensed cannabis farm in the agricultural region of Ventura County, Calif.

Mr. Alanis‘s condition had been the subject of confusion among officials, relatives and the media. On Friday, leaders with the United Farm Workers union said that Mr. Alanís had died on that day, and The New York Times and other media outlets reported that…

On Saturday evening, a lawyer retained by the family through the Mexican consulate said in a text message that Mr. Alanis had died on Saturday afternoon. The lawyer, Jesus Arias, added that the family decided to “disconnect” after tests for brain function yielded “no good results.” Mr. Arias said arrangements were being made to transfer Mr. Alanis’s body to his family in the Mexican state of Michoacán.

Elizabeth Strater, vice president for the United Farm Workers union, said in an interview on Friday that during the chaos of the raid, Mr. Alanís “fell 30 feet or more, and experienced devastating spinal and skull injuries.”

An official who was briefed on the situation said Mr. Alanís was from Michoacán, had been working at the farm for more than a decade and had been trying to flee from agents when he fell. He is in his late 50s.

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said on Friday that Mr. Alanís had not been in federal custody and denied that the agents involved in the raid were the reason he climbed the greenhouse. “Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30 feet,” she said in a statement. Agents called for help, she added, “to get him care as quickly as possible.”

In a statement, Teresa Romero, president of the U.F.W., said that several farmworkers had been critically injured in the enforcement actions, and that others, including U.S. citizens, remained unaccounted for. She said those citizens who were detained “were forced to delete photos and videos of the raid from their phones” before being released…

Sounds like ICE killed a guy and then held american citizens hostage at gunpoint until they agreed to destroy the evidence

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— Hemry, Local Bartender (@bartenderhemry.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 6:03 PM

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The UFW can confirm farm workers were critically injured yesterday during chaotic raids in Ventura County, CA. Other workers, including US citizens, remain unaccounted for.
UFW staff is on the ground supporting impacted families.
Our full statement below. ⬇️

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1/

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— United Farm Workers (@ufw.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 2:41 PM

The UFW can confirm farm workers were critically injured yesterday during chaotic raids in Ventura County, California. Others, including US citizens remain totally unaccounted for. 3/

Our staff is on the ground supporting families. Many workers-including US citizens, were held by federal authorities at the farm for 8 hours or more. US citizen workers report only being released after they were forced to delete photos and videos of the raid from their phones. 4/

The UFW is also aware of reports of child labor on site. The UFW demands the immediate facilitation of independent legal representation for the minor workers, to protect them from further harm. Farm workers are excluded from basic child labor laws. 5/

It is unfortunately not uncommon for teenagers to work in the fields. To be clear: detaining and deporting children is not a solution for child labor. 6/

These violent and cruel federal actions terrorize American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families. 7/

There is no city, state or federal district where it is legal to terrorize and detain people for being brown and working in agriculture. These raids must stop immediately.
8/

Government-Sanctioned Manslaughter

I sat in the courtroom for this hearing on Thursday and listened to the federal government bend over backwards to try and justify their roving patrols as not at all racist and unconstitutional
They failed spectacularly. Miller’s rhetoric is predictable &dangerous, but also the gov is full of idiots

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— Mel Buer (@melbuer.bsky.social) July 12, 2025 at 2:52 PM

I don’t know what gods, if any, Stephen Miller follows. But it has been my lived experience, since I was a tiny child, that Sekhmet, Goddess of Consequences, will not be outrun.

Well you may throw your rock and hide your hand
Workin’ in the dark against your fellow man
But as sure as God made black and white
What’s done in the dark will be brought to the light

Government-Sanctioned Manslaughter by the Trump Crime CartelPost + Comments (110)

Immigration Open Thread: ICE Is Wearing Out Its Welcome

by Anne Laurie|  July 11, 202511:02 am| 182 Comments

This post is in: Immigration, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity

The LA Times reporting provides an important bit of context for this operation; it was a cannabis farm.
Working in the legal cannabis industry is a deportable offense even for people with green cards, so if they catch people using fake papers, yikes. ICE reportedly had search warrants, too.

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— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) July 10, 2025 at 10:32 PM

First reports I saw on social media last night referred to the raid site as a ‘strawberry farm‘, but per Reuters:

Federal agents conducted immigration enforcement raids on Thursday on state-licensed marijuana nurseries in an agricultural region of coastal Southern California, where they were confronted by throngs of angry protesters.

As word and video images of the raids spread on social media, dozens of migrant-rights activists converged on the area in vehicles leading to face-offs with federal agents in the middle of rural roadways, according to the Santa Barbara Independent, Los Angeles Times and other news media.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents accompanied by National Guard troops in military-style vehicles turned up at two locations operated by Glass House Farms – one in the Santa Barbara County town of Carpinteria, about 90 miles northwest of Los Angeles, and one in the Ventura County community of Camarillo, about 50 miles from L.A.

Glass House Farms, which bills itself as one of the “fastest-growing vertically integrated cannabis companies in the U.S.,” said on X that its greenhouse sites “were visited today by ICE officials,” adding, “The company fully complied with agent search warrants and will provide further updates if necessary.”

An attorney representing clients who work at Glass House said both of the company’s nurseries had been previously visited by ICE in June. National Guard troops were with ICE when they arrived at the property Thursday morning….

Local TV footage from the scene of one standoff showed protesters yelling and gesturing angrily at armed, uniformed federal agents wearing helmets and face masks blocking traffic with yellow crime-scene tape strung across the road…

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In Carpinteria, U.S. Representative Salud Carbajal, a California Democrat, said he was denied access to the scene of the raid while seeking to exercise his oversight authority as a member of Congress, and that company officials later told him 10 workers were taken into custody at that location.

More than 50 ICE agents took part in the operation there, with crowd-control munitions deployed against members of the crowd in a “militarized raid targeting farm workers,” Carbajal said on X.

One of two city council members who were also present fell and injured her arm in a fracas between protesters and law enforcement, the Independent reported…

The Trump administration has shifted its position several times in recent weeks on whether farmworkers will be subject to its campaign to deport all immigrants who are in the country illegally.

Trump on June 14 ordered ICE to halt enforcement activities on farms, but the agency reversed that position days later. On July 3, Trump said he was willing to let migrant workers stay in the country if farmers can “vouch” for them. Days later Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said there would be “no amnesty” for farmworkers from deportation.

About half of U.S. farmworkers are in the country illegally, according to government estimates. The farm sector has warned that mass deportation of agricultural workers would cripple the nation’s food supply chain.

Trump’s immigration crackdown is taking a toll on the U.S. economy.
From small farms to corporate giants like Disney, businesses are scrambling to replace workers after recent admin actions have taken immigrants — both legal and undocumented — out of the labor force.

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— Politico (@politico.com) July 8, 2025 at 6:45 PM

Politico, on Tuesday — “Loss of foreign workers begins to bite US economy”:

From small farms in California, to meat packing facilities in Nebraska to corporate giants like Disney, businesses are scrambling to replace workers after recent administration actions have taken immigrants, both legal and illegal, out of the labor force, including several hundred thousand people who had been given temporary work permits under President Joe Biden.

That’s because foreign-born workers, or their relatives, have become critical in some labor sectors…

The emerging reports are the first signs of what economists and labor market experts had warned would result from Trump’s signature campaign issue, which has so far included revoking temporary legal status for several hundred thousand people who have been allowed to live and work in the U.S. in recent years without gaining citizenship.

Daily operations have been thrown into question for the cattle ranchers in Teagarden’s organization because employers have become reliant on workers who, even if not directly threatened by the administration’s actions, may be related to people who are.

“Am I going to have enough crew around tomorrow to get the cows milked and cows fed and everything done?” he said. “What’s my contingency plan to do the essentials, if not?”…

The administration exacerbated the situation Monday, revoking legal status for approximately 76,000 people from Honduras and Nicaragua — and eliminating their work authorizations. It had previously done so for Haitians, Afghans, Venezuelans and Cameroonians…

Tightening the labor market through strict immigration enforcement could permanently increase inflation, an Oxford Economics study from June finds, pointing to subsequent increases in production costs and lower output due to limited workers.

Uncertainty in the labor market could contribute to an “economic malaise,” said Stuart Anderson, executive director at the nonpartisan think tank National Foundation for American Policy.

“If you want to have a growing economy, you need to have a growing labor force,” Anderson said. “The idea that you are just going to create more opportunity by having fewer workers available just doesn’t work in practice, because that’s not the way business runs.”…

Immigration Open Thread: ICE Is Wearing Out Its WelcomePost + Comments (182)

Open Thread: Good for Rep. Jeffries

by Anne Laurie|  July 9, 20251:49 pm| 227 Comments

This post is in: Dems Fighting Back, Immigration, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat

Unmask ICE.

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— Hakeem Jeffries (@hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social) July 9, 2025 at 9:03 AM

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"The masks frequently worn by agents make ICE seem like the type of secret police that operates in authoritarian regimes. But they are apparently meant to keep the police secret."

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— Katelyn Burns (@katelynburns.com) July 9, 2025 at 9:22 AM

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It is a telling thing imho that these agents so fear being associated with what they're doing that this where we are.

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— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) July 9, 2025 at 10:41 AM

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this is a great look at the nuts and bolts of actually trying to hire the number of people they say they want to hire.

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— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) July 9, 2025 at 11:24 AM

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This is getting lost. When Stephen Miller shrieks orders for 3000 daily arrests, they HAVE TO go after noncriminals. It's the only way to juice the numbers. So Miller is shifting resources away from serious crimes toward that.
@vermontgmg.bsky.social and me on this:
newrepublic.com/article/1976…

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— Greg Sargent (@gregsargent.bsky.social) July 8, 2025 at 8:29 AM

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Jeffries calls for Hegseth's resignation and says, "when you limit Ukraine's ability to be successful in the war of aggression that Russia has launched against a sovereign country, you undermine America's national security interests. And that's highly problematic."

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) July 9, 2025 at 10:48 AM

Open Thread: Good for Rep. JeffriesPost + Comments (227)

Open Thread: The Dignity of Honest Work

by Anne Laurie|  July 8, 20252:56 pm| 146 Comments

This post is in: Immigration, Republican Venality, Show Us on the Doll Where the Invisible Hand Touched You

ah yes. a great leap, in a forward direction

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— Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li (@sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com) July 8, 2025 at 11:38 AM


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So all my patients who are working three jobs and currently on Medicaid need to get another job. 🙄

— Salty Doc (@silver-denoument.bsky.social) July 8, 2025 at 10:47 AM


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47% of people in the United States. are not working per Paul Krugman. So I looked it up. 18% are seniors over 65. 22% are children under 18. 13.9% are on Social Security disability totaling 53%. Unemployment is at 4% which economists consider full employment. Who is not working?

— J'Net (@jannetteb.bsky.social) July 8, 2025 at 11:10 AM

The GOP doesn’t actually want ‘honest work at an honest price’, they want indentured servants, at least until they’re able to achieve their ultimate fantasy of a return to chattel slavery. Yes, it would theoretically be possible to return to a (mostly) ‘all-American’ farm/factory workforce (even without the simplest & most honest solution, citizenship for the immigrants currently doing those jobs)… but it comes with a cost, and not just that of steeply climbing grocery prices…

This shows a profound misunderstanding of how these jobs work! You are often hired for set periods of time, most of the time, you won't qualify for health insurance or are on something like a 1099.

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— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) July 8, 2025 at 10:29 AM

For instance: farms in the mountain west tend to hire for a period of around 5-6 months, and most people who work the fields and the harvest move to processing in the winter months.

The other thing to note is the pay doesn’t suck! The idea that “pay a little more and Americans will take it”

IS actually kind of dumb. Most entry level farm laborer positions I see start at around $20-24 an hour with guaranteed weekly overtime (typically 8 hours) in low cost of living areas.

If you have a CDL, make it more like $35+. And there’s bonuses and more OT during harvest.

Basically: you can increase the pay of farm laborer positions and you may get a couple more people if you go to $30 an hour or something, but in reality, these positions are already paying comparatively quite well for the skill suite required.

Not to over glamorize the work, obviously. Moving pipe is murderous on your body.

I know American citizens who harvest chase because they have in-demand skill sets. They live basically for free (because the farms bring them in for harvest and pay for hotels, etc.) make 100k-esh a year, and honestly do well for themselves.

Their bodies are also toast by their late 50’s.

(Yes, I still miss Ozark Hillbilly, too.)

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I mean, nationalizing industry, arbitrary personalist rule, forcing the urban city dwellers to the farms.
🤔

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— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) July 8, 2025 at 10:46 AM


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Malthus-ass government.

— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) July 8, 2025 at 10:52 AM

Open Thread: The Dignity of Honest WorkPost + Comments (146)

Late Night Immigration Open Thread: To the Surprise of No One…

by Anne Laurie|  June 30, 202510:11 pm| 71 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, Grifters Gonna Grift, Immigration, Trump Crime Cartel

Bartiromo: "Have you been backing away from [deportations]? Recently you said let's ease up on…farms and hotels."
Trump: "I don't back away. What I do, I cherish our farmers…Let the farmers sort of be in charge. The farmer knows. He's not going to hire a murderer."

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— The Bulwark (@thebulwark.com) June 29, 2025 at 11:14 AM

What the Felon-in-Office ‘cherishes’ is the thought of indentured servants, with no rights that a Big Important Employer (like Mr. Trump at Mar-A-Lago) needs to respect. Per the Washington Post, ICE is arresting migrants in worksite raids. Employers are largely escaping charges. [gift link]:

Trump administration officials have vowed to hold companies accountable for employing people who are in the country illegally — no matter which industry they are in or how big or small they might be.

But the Department of Homeland Security’s enforcement operations have overwhelmingly focused on arresting workers rather than punishing employers.

Since the start of the year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has posted news releases regarding approximately two dozen raids on the “Worksite Enforcement” section of its website. Local news outlets have documented dozens more. The Washington Post was able to identify only one employer charged after the raids ICE has publicized. The Post reviewed court filings and searched for records involving individuals named in corporate records of businesses DHS has raided.

Charging company owners for employing undocumented workers has historically been rare because the government needs to demonstrate that the employer knew of the worker’s illegal status. That is a high burden of proof, and investigations can take months. Neither Democratic nor Republican administrations have made worksite raids as much of a priority in the past. The Biden administration halted large-scale immigration arrests at worksites and focused enforcement on employers.

The raids immigration officers are conducting have largely targeted small businesses such as car washes. Some are carried out in a span of minutes. Two business owners said officers did not show a warrant, even when asked for one, raising questions about whether immigration agents are violating constitutional rights in their effort to drive up migrant arrests.

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“The difference about these raids of the last six weeks is that this is not principally an action against employers,” said Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute. “This is principally an action in pursuit of mass deportations. When they could not produce the number of arrests that they had been hoping for, they suddenly said, ‘Let’s raid employers.’ It was not, ‘Let’s penalize employers.’”

Though the recent raids in Los Angeles outside Home Depots and at a garment factory drew much attention, immigration authorities have conducted enforcement operations in states throughout the country. They arrested 33 workers at construction sites near Ocala, Florida, and 11 at Outlook Dairy Farms near Lovington, New Mexico. The first raid ICE publicized took place at Complete Autowash in Philadelphia eight days after President Donald Trump took office…

Small businesses with limited resources are easier targets than deep-pocketed corporations, immigration experts say. That’s because they’re less willing to challenge government actions or stir up a public commotion. Though immigration officers need a judicial warrant to enter private areas within a business, they can go into any areas considered publicly accessible, such as the space where customers eat at a restaurant. Nonetheless, two business owners whose companies were raided said armed DHS agents had entered areas restricted from the public….

DHS did not respond to questions about how many workplace raids have led to charges against employers. In April, ICE announced it had arrested more than 1,000 workers who were in the country illegally during Trump’s first 100 days and proposed more than $1 million in fines “against businesses that exploit and hire illegal workers.”…

The administration has claimed it is going after the “worst of the worst” and prioritizing the arrest and deportation of people who are a threat to public safety. But former ICE officials said raiding car washes and taco trucks is not an effective strategy for reaching that goal.

“This is the exact opposite,” said John Sandweg, acting ICE director under President Barack Obama. Under the second Trump administration’s approach to worksite raids, “you are much more likely to find non-criminals because professional criminals don’t work at car washes, typically.”

Late Night Immigration Open Thread: To the Surprise of No One…Post + Comments (71)

Open Thread: Mass Deportations (Still) Aren’t Popular

by Anne Laurie|  June 27, 20254:45 pm| 75 Comments

This post is in: Immigration, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat

This is remarkable. New Quinnipiac poll finds support for path to legalization for most undocumented immigrants has risen to 64%. Only 31% want most of them deported.
That’s a 14 point net swing for legalization since Trump took office.
On immigration generally, he’s at 41-57!

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— Greg Sargent (@gregsargent.bsky.social) June 26, 2025 at 2:07 PM


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Theres an F=m×a issue.
The 31% really, really want mass deportation, will crawl over broken glass to vote for it, and will sulk if they’re not catered to, or even vote out those who don’t deliver.
How many of the rest are equally motivated? For whom the issue is equally dispositive?

— Davis X. Machina (@ogdavisxmachina.bsky.social) June 26, 2025 at 3:34 PM


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The thing is, there is a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants now. The problem is the path requires money, a lawyer and a long wait. This could be remedied by allocating more money & resources into our immigration system. Politicians know this. Many have no interest in making it better.

— Oscar Acosta (@oscaracostajd.bsky.social) June 26, 2025 at 2:59 PM


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After ICE agents enter 2 Diocesan churches, San Bernardino’s Bishop Rojas adamantly speaks out: “Cease these tactics immediately, in favor of an approach that respects human rights.” www.sbsun.com/2025/06/24/a…

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— Rich Raho (@richraho.bsky.social) June 25, 2025 at 9:37 AM


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The Trump administration is arresting more and more immigrants with no criminal records. To maintain the illusion that their focus is criminals, they're ginning up charges including by leveraging testimony from criminals who then get leniency.

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— Philip Bump (@pbump.com) June 25, 2025 at 3:51 PM

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… “Agents are desperate to meet the White House’s high expectations, leading them to leave some dangerous criminal illegal migrants on the streets, and instead look for anyone they can get their hands on at the local Home Depot or bus stop,” the Trump-friendly paper’s Jennie Taer wrote, citing sources inside ICE. Other reports have identified White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller as the official pushing for this shift.

We can see it in public data about ICE detentions. At the end of the Biden administration, most of those in ICE detention who’d been arrested by ICE were immigrants with criminal convictions. More than 90 percent were either convicted or accused criminals. Now, nearly one-third of those arrested by ICE are people with no criminal records or charges at all…

When Trump took office in January, there were 10.3 immigrants with criminal convictions arrested and detained by ICE for every one with no record. Now, there are 1.2 criminals detained for every immigrant with no record.

Partly as a result of this aggressive approach, approval for Trump’s handling of immigration has plunged. Among the Republicans who selected him as their 2024 presidential nominee and overwhelmingly backed his candidacy, though, support remains strong. In fact, as PRRI President Robert P. Jones put it last week: “It’s virtually impossible to write a survey question about the treatment of immigrants that is too brutal for Republicans to support.”

He pointed to three PRRI polls (from 2023, March and May) to bolster that point. Less than half of Americans thought in 2023 that potentially deadly deterrents should be put at the border to stop immigrants. Only about one-third thought this year that immigrants should be concentrated in military-run camps before deportation or that undocumented immigrants should be allowed to be sent to overseas prisons without being able to legally challenge those removals.

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It's not just snowflakes – followers have posted more than once that ICE/CBP retention is in the toilet, they're desperately pulling agents from other agencies (so their morale is now also in the toilet) and ICE internal feelings, from @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social, are apparently awful.

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— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) June 26, 2025 at 5:51 PM

Politics is people, I cry, for the millionth time. It's hard to do a secret police if no one wants to BE the secret police because their life gets destroyed if their neighbors learn what they do

— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) June 26, 2025 at 5:51 PM


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Remember when nativists pretended to care about the costs that one city was choosing to incur to house immigrants who were unable to work because their nativist laws? Now they're paying all that and more to arrest, detain, and house people who were working and paying taxes.

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— David Bier (@davidjbier.bsky.social) June 25, 2025 at 1:54 PM


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Immigration is a universal good deserving of a maximal defense. www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/…

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— The Editorial Board (@editorialboard.bsky.social) June 26, 2025 at 8:40 AM


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What badass investigative reporter is going undercover with one of these ICE goon squads? This is, like, THE story right now. Who trains? What rules of engagement? What propaganda do they consume? How do they recruit, and weed out non-sadists? Would they follow orders to shoot regime enemies?

— Rick Perlstein (@rickperlstein.bsky.social) June 25, 2025 at 10:57 PM

Open Thread: Mass Deportations (Still) Aren’t PopularPost + Comments (75)

Late Night Open Thread: Not All Heroes Wear Capes

by Anne Laurie|  June 23, 202512:45 am| 171 Comments

This post is in: Immigration, Open Threads, Trumpery

just saw a group of masked men stuffing masked ICE agents into an unmarked car, who were saying "we're ICE we're ICE!" but the abductors shouted to the crowd "no we're ICE!" no one knew who was ICE, so no one in the crowd said anything.

— derek guy (@dieworkwear.bsky.social) June 21, 2025 at 1:36 PM

An excellent response to JDivan Vance’s kabuki thuggery. Backstory from the Guardian:

Derek Guy was a relatively unknown menswear writer with 25,000 followers on Twitter in 2022. Now, in 2025, Guy has 1.3 million followers on the platform, now called X, where this week both the vice-president of the United States and the Department of Homeland Security posted threats to deport him from the US – the country he has called home since he was a baby.

“Honestly didn’t expect this is what would happen when I joined a menswear forum 15 years ago,” Guy quipped on X on Monday. “Was originally trying to look nice for someone else’s wedding.”

The threats targeted at Guy, a fashion writer known for lampooning the sartorial decisions of rightwing figures, including JD Vance, marked another alarming escalation in the White House’s ongoing project to mass deport millions of immigrants – raising the prospect of an administration wielding deportation as a weapon of retribution against its critics…

By 2025… Trump and Miller were back in the White House, pursuing a campaign promise to “remigrate” millions of everyday people out of America. In recent weeks they appeared to ramp up this ethno-nationalist project, with disturbing footage emerging online of masked, heavily armed Ice and DHS agents abducting Latino people from schools and courthouses, or kidnapping them off the streets, often separating them from their children.

Guy felt compelled to stand up and be counted.

In a long post on X, he recounted his family’s harrowing story of escaping war in Vietnam, a journey that ended with his mom carrying him across the US border while he was still an infant. Guy revealed that he was one of millions of undocumented people living in the US.

“The lack of legal immigration has totally shaped my life,” he wrote. “It has made every interaction with the law much scarier. It has shaped which opportunities I could or could not get. It has taken an emotional toll, as this legal issue hangs over your head like a black cloud.”

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He was sharing his story to “push back against the idea that all undocumented immigrants are MS-13 members”, he wrote. “I know many people in my position and they are all like your neighbors.”

Guy’s post sent far-right influencers on X into a feeding frenzy. “JD Vance I know you’re reading this and you have the opportunity to do the funniest thing ever,” a user named @growing_daniel wrote about Guy’s announcement. (@Growing_Daniel appears to be the founder of a tech startup called Abel, that uses artificial intelligence to help police write up crime reports.)

Vance did see the post, replying with a gif of Jack Nicholson from the movie Anger Management, slowly nodding his head with an intense, menacing look. A short time later, the official account of the Department of Homeland Security joined the fray. The federal agency quote-tweeted a post from another far-right account, which noted Guy’s undocumented status, with a gif from the movie Spy Kids, showing a character with futuristic glasses that can zoom in on a subject from a great distance.

The message to Guy was clear: we’re watching you. Vance and DHS did not respond to the Guardian’s requests for comment about the posts…

For now, Guy – who politely declined to comment to the Guardian about this week’s saga – is still on X, using all of this week’s attention for what he sees as good causes.

“ICE raided a downtown LA garment warehouse, arresting fourteen garment workers,” he wrote. “Many of those detained were the primary breadwinner for young children and elderly relatives. Would you consider donating to help these families?”

He also took time to taunt those calling for his deportation. When an account belonging to a luxury wristwatch dealer chastised him for “disrespecting” immigration laws, Guy responded with a one-thousand word history of how the flow of immigrants and refugees across borders over the past two centuries led to the creation of Rolex, among other luxury watch brands.

He also replied directly to Vance’s post threatening to deport him. “i think i can outrun you in these clothes,” Guy wrote, posting a photo of the vice-president seated at a political conference, his ill-fitting suit pants riding up to his calves. “you are tweeting for likes. im tweeting to be mentioned in the National Archives and Records,” Guy added…

Late Night Open Thread: Not All Heroes Wear CapesPost + Comments (171)

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