entering the country on a visa and overstaying the visa is a civil violation, though it can result in serious immigration consequences. Entering the United States illegally can be a felony, depending on the circumstances. Being present undocumented is not illegal. The crime is how they came into the United States.
I looked at the Criminal Complaint filed in Western District of Texas. He was charge with resisting arrest. Anyone other than a person in the country without papers etc. would have entered a plea, received a deferred or suspended sentence and set free, all within a very short time. He was appointed a Lawyer. Where was his lawyer for the past year and four months? Was he keppt in custody because of the Tren de Aragua tattoo? This situation has a bad odor to it. We only have one side to it and the Feds are not talking.
On the subject of deportation, here's something I posted on social media this morning:
***
I haven’t posted anything remotely political on social media in over four years, and I don’t plan on making a habit of it. I’ve long since given up on the idea of social media saving the world but maybe posting this will make me feel a little better.
I’m going to tell you about some recent events. The parts I did not witness were recounted to me by highly credible sources.
I’m not going to tell you how to think of these events, or who is to blame, but if you think any part of it is okay, keep it to yourself. I’m not going to debate with you.
The person identified as “V” in these stories is my housekeeper. She’s not a secret agent, but I don’t know whether she wants her name all over Facebook so I’m not giving her name.
Feel free to repost.
STORY #1
V has two cousins in Vista, California. One of them is married and has a baby. They are all native-born American citizens with papers to prove it.
All four were rounded up by ICE and brought to a detention camp in Laredo, Texas. After a few days they were brought before a judge (I’m not sure whether it was a federal judge or an administrative law judge), released, and sent back to California.
V’s cousins have retained lawyers and have filed suit. I have no details on the basis of the suit or any opinion regarding the merits or likely outcome.
STORY #2
I recently received an email from a law school classmate, who passed on an email from her friend in Los Angeles. The friend requested help on behalf of a family of undocumented Venezuelan migrants. The mother and father are in their twenties. Their son is 5 years old. I agreed to help and enlisted V.
The family had been in LA for around 3 months. Given the current political situation, they decided (sensibly) to self-deport to Venezuela.
The family crossed the border to Tijuana, along with another family consisting of a mother and father in their twenties, a boy aged 5, and a girl aged 10.
One of the men worked in law enforcement in Venezuela and fell afoul of the Maduro regime.
One of the women suffered an attempted rape, or an actual rape, in Tijuana. (It was initially described to me as an attempted rape, but later I heard mention of a pregnancy test, so I’m not sure.)
The families took a bus from Tijuana to Mexico City. V met them at Terminal Norte, the bus station that handles buses from Mexico City to points north. V reported that there were many people getting off buses that appeared to be in similar situations.
V took the families to my apartment. We got some food into them, they took showers, did some laundry, and relaxed for a few hours. They were all grateful for the help. The kids were friendly and precocious. One of the 5-year-old boys told me all the countries he had passed through, and recounted the nationalities of everyone in the room.
(The families spent time in Colombia after fleeing Venezuela. Two of the kids were born in Colombia and are therefore Colombian citizens.)
The initial plan was for the families to stay in Mexico City for a while and get passports at the Venezuelan consulate. They only have photocopies. I do not know what happened to the originals; I suspect they were lost on the trip north. V, who is one of the most kind and resourceful people I have ever met, took the following steps:
1. She made some phone calls and found a short-term rental apartment.
2. She investigated getting the men jobs at Mercado La Merced so that they could earn some money for the trip south.
3. She spoke with a friend at the Mexican Foreign Ministry, to see whether (a) the friend had any contacts at the Venezuelan consulate who could expedite the papers; and/or (b) there was any prospect of being granted asylum in Mexico. The answer in both cases was “no.”
4. She got a doctor to examine one of the boys, who had an abscess on one leg. The doctor drained the abscess, gave the parents some antibiotic ointment, and put a surgical bandage over the wound to keep it clean.
5. She got more food into them, including a cake for the kids, who enjoyed it.
One of V’s sons is a Mexican federal prosecutor who handles narcotics cases and knows a thing or two about interviewing witnesses. He talked to the families and was convinced that they were telling the truth about their situation.
The families decided to continue south the next day rather than stay in Mexico City. People are fleeing north from their home countries and south from the US, and Mexico is caught in the middle. There are now several encampments in Mexico City. I hear that at one of them, in Plaza La Soledad near La Merced, has around 4,000 people in tents. One newspaper article stated that half of them are from Africa. The Mexican authorities have launched their own deportation campaign. The families are afraid (again, with good reason) that the kids who are Colombian citizens will be separated from their parents if they are deported.
V got them on a southbound bus the next day, which wasn’t easy because most of the major bus lines won’t sell you a ticket without proper identification. The destination was Tapachula, the major border crossing between Mexico and Guatemala.
The bus was stopped and searched by the authorities at Tuxtla Gutierrez, in the southern state of Chiapas, about 200 miles from the border. The authorities (presumably the Mexican National Guard, but I’m not sure) were prepared to deport them separately to Venezuela and Colombia.
Somehow, they managed to contact V. V’s ex-husband owns businesses in La Merced that employ a lot of people in Chiapas, and he has contacts there. Somehow, he pulled strings and got the families released. I don’t know or want to know the details.
The families continued on to Tapachula and crossed to Guatemala, where they have no legal status. The boy with the abscess wasn’t getting any better, and they were sleeping in a park somewhere.
V got them some money somehow and convinced them to take the kid to the doctor. He’s taking antibiotics and apparently, he’s on the mend.
V tried to get them help via the Catholic Church, and her son, the federal prosecutor, tried to work the contacts his office has with their counterparts in Guatemala. But as of the last report, they had left Guatemala for Honduras, and from there to Nicaragua. The next stop is Costa Rica.
They have three options for getting back to Venezuela:
1. By sea. The people with the boats are charging $320 USD per head, and it’s unlikely the boats are seaworthy.
2. By land, via the Darien Gap – the southern part of Panamá that borders Colombia. There are no roads through the Darien Gap, so the trip entails walking for five days through the jungle, with all the dangers that entails.
3. Deportation, which as previously noted, would likely entail separation of the two Colombian kids from their families. In the best case, someone would take charge of the kids and get them over the border to Venezuela.
V is attempting to convince them that deportation is their least bad option.
Strong message here. My lawn care/snow removal company employs many Hispanic people so I emailed the owner (we’ve got a 20+ year business relationship) and asked him whether he needed to be concerned about any employees being deported and what we might do to protect them. He replied like a trumper, telling me he had confidence that because none were criminals they would be safe. He really believes that and will do nothing. It makes me so sad.
So this is why I am a Bulwark+ member. Carrasquillo has hit the ground running to share stories and bring context to this issue in a way that's unique. This is strong accurate reporting. Thank you and keep it up.
Who would be useful people to contact about this? My Senators Budd and Tillis wouldn’t be. My congresswoman Valerie Foushee is an excellent representative, but I’m not sure how much power she has in the scheme of things. Venezuela being what it is, if Gitmo is just a way station it would be extremely important to prove that the young man isn’t a gang member before he continues on the path of deportation. Is it possible at all for any media to get into Gitmo to see how the prisoners are being treated?
Sarah - I recall that Gitmo was used to house Haitian refugees back in the '90s but rose to its peak fame/infamy as lockup for detainees in our Global War on Terror®️ (GWOT). The Bush admin believed that, as a military base, it would be inaccessible to civilians such as reporters or attorneys unless invited in via the military or high-level executive admin. Supreme Court did extend some due process rights to detainees; every step was hard-won.
The recent immigration detainees are not GWOT-level "threats." ACLU sued a week ago, seeking for the detainees to have access to legal counsel. Just today: "Nearly a third of migrants flown to Guantanamo deemed 'low threat,' DHS says in court filing"
...NOTE the "low level threat" description isn't that of a bleeding heart (like me) but of a U.S. Army colonel in a federal court filing per this news report:
Interesting to know that having a tattoo makes you a gang member. Does that mean that the Sec of Defense is the head of a criminal gang? I know that a lot of cops have tattoos, but it goes without saying that they, too, are gang members.
But what does it say that half the Venezuelans sent to Guantanamo have no criminal records? Does that mean that there aren't any real criminals that the Migra can send there; that they are afraid to deal with real criminals; or are they too lazy to bother actually going after someone who does pose a threat to society when they have someone easily available to pretend to be doing their job?
The excuse for targeting those with tattoos is that some of those are commonly seen on real Tren de Aragua gangsters. There are a half dozen or so of these tattoos that ICE and friends use to justify arrests and detention.
I spent much of my career as a Deputy D.A. and District Judge in a district bordering Mexico. Law enforcement used tattoo recognition, along with many other tools, to identify and arrest
suspects. Law Enforcement also cooperated with Federal agencies by notifying them of possible gang affiliation and incarceration status. Again tattoo comparison was a major tool.
For example: There is a very distinct "crown" tattoo that is singular to Tren de Aragua. Several photos I have seen of persons believed to be Tren gangsters have that tattoo in the neck area or upper chest, but always where the tattoo can be seen.
Sadly innocent arrestees are inevitably caught up in this net and treated as hard core gangsters affiliated with TDA. I have been witness to many injustices against otherwise innocent persons simply due to manner and method of dress, regional accents and so forth.
.
Tattoo comparison unfortunately will be used as a pretext even with absence of any negative history. Obviously this is accelerating every day now and is spurred by an administration intent on reaching numbers goals.
The guy mentioned in the article had two tattoos, neither of them a crown. That should have been recognized by the Migras, but they didn't care as long as they could make up something. It's that kind of attitude and behavior that makes people disrespect law enforcement. And, yes, cruelty is the whole reason that gives these people their joy in life.
Governmental efficiency in action, Daniel. Not that ICE is afraid of actual convicts, nor even lazy. They ARE deporting some convicted criminals from various US lockups, but there are complications with that. Jails have lots of forms & procedures to work thru, they don't just kick people out the (barred) door. That takes time & hassle. Also hard to transport because you need lots of staff & equipment to move dangerous criminals around.
Now, when ICE encounters undocumented people who have NO criminal convictions or even charges, those folks are probably not so hard to deal with. They are fearful but likely cooperate because they aren't violent, dangerous, evildoers. They're not in custody of some other authority, so there's less hassle going directly to deportation.
Of course there's no way to achieve Trump's promised numbers of deportees just with convicts. The real numbers are the people who are no threat to anyone. More of 'em, more compliant, easier to round up and eject. Efficient.
The crisis in your country is because you elected an avowed communist in a free and fair election. You were repeatedly warned that this would be the last free and fair election you ever had for long time if you elected Chavez. You did it anyway. Twenty five years later your country has gone from one of the wealthiest countries in South America to worse than Cuba. No sympathy. Poor decisions have consequences. This lady’s son should have stayed in Venezuela and fought for freedom. He has no inherit right to come to America illegally. America has no real interest in Venezuela. Like Cuba, it can exist as a living museum of the glory of socialism.
And now we have been warned that we just had the last free and fair election that America will have. The Venezuela government is criminal, but the Trump/Musk government is worse. Trump is now trying to partner with the one man who has even more blood on his hands, Putin. They both want to watch Ukrainians die, destroy democracies all over the world, and plunder the riches of their country. If they can, they will send another 70,000 people to Gitmo to swelter in the heat, just to show how tough they are. Meanwhile, Trump is selling Crypto and Musk is firing all the people who are investigating his business crimes, which are many, and then getting more government contracts to do the things the fired the workers were doing. A museum of cruelty and corruption.
Bulwark friends, I'm putting this request here for your consideration.
I ask, if you use the word "illegals" to label our undocumented sisters & brothers, that you please try using a different term.
Consider that words do affect people's thinking. There are many in our society who have violated specific laws & regulations yet I never hear them called "illegals." People who possess & use outlawed drugs; people who have cheated on their taxes; people who exceed the speed limit in their cars - any of those can result in a charge, trial, and conviction. Yet we don't call all of these folks "illegals," nor even those convicted of more terrible & violent crimes.
Why are immigration regulations so uniquely viewed as to make other humans into "illegals"?
People who waited for years to come to this country through proper channels and procedures like my family were “legal aliens” with green cards. After many years, we became proud citizens. Those who ignored those proper procedures, tried to skip the line, broke the law by entering the USA without authorization, and tried to stay here are, therefore, “illegal aliens”. A completely proper use of the English language and not difficult to comprehend. Take your Orwellian newspeak somewhere else.
As you well know, there is no way that the people being deported could have ever gotten legal permission to immigrate. They don't meet the educational or other requirements that were set up to keep people like them from coming here.
And your point is? Doesn’t a sovereign nation have a right to pick and choose its lawful immigrants? Canada and most other countries have more stringent standards on a “merit based” immigration policy. I’d rather take a neurologist from Nigeria then a recent graduate of Hamas from Gaza.
The point is that if you know full well that the immigrants don't have any chance of fulfilling the "legal" requirements, it behooves you to stop yammering about "proper channels."
Okay, how about this: There is no inherent, moral or legal right for anyone, including my own family who came here 55 f…ing years ago, to emigrate to the USA. For those of us lucky enough to make it here legally, kiss the ground every day. For those who jumped the turnstile, got caught and deported …tough s…t.
Nope. As long as you try to make some sort of moral distinction between the two groups, it doesn't work. If you want to feel superior to the undocumented immigrants, remember that they came here knowing that they would never get the safety net support (Social Security, Medicare, food stamps, housing supplements, and all the rest of it) that your family felt entitled to when they arrived.
The third of the American voting public who chose to sit on their hands in protest last election must be aware by now that the “let them eat cake,” era is upon us. Never in US history has a politician so blatantly told the public, “Go Fuck Yourself.” This is rule by a rabid wanna-be king and his pet dumpling musk.
trump has publicly blamed Ukraine for starting the war with Russia and fully embraced Putin’s theology of might is right. He has no regard for the thousands slaughtered in Europe, which comes as no surprise. He is a psychopath and I guarantee he will equally disregard the suffering and death of US citizens, when public outrage finally boils over.
It is going to take the collective resistance of the abstainers, the never trumpers and whatever disillusioned maga faithful manage to escape that cult, to rebel against the lunacy. Unfortunately, very few politicians have shown any semblance of the raw courage the present moment demands. It is up to the people to forget petty differences and political persuasions. It is up to true patriots to unite, hit the streets en masse and defeat the common foe that threatens their very existence. There is not a wait until 2026 or 2028 option. All will be lost long before then, at the current rate of destruction.
This extreme effort to drive all brown people from our country and the war on DEI is flat out racism. Nothing more, nothing less. Trump has always been a racist and Musk appears to be a Nazi which convicts him of racism also. The Republican party has been going righter and righter for years and applauds the racist efforts of our two billionaire government wreckers.
AOC has more patriotism in her little finger than Homan or ANY Republican in Congress has in their entire body. I wish to god she was President instead of the traitor we have now.
Homan needs to be very careful when he uses the word "dumb." All it does is call attention to his own mental and intellectual capabilities such as they are.
This is really really really important info in connection with what is happening in the USA and the new world order.
This is an 8 min video that explains Musk, Theil, Andreessen, & Yarvin ideology of techno feudalism/fascism and how they are fulfilling their fascists goals right here in US at break neck speed.
Please watch, the foreign journalist that reports on Musk & his ilk is in the middle if you want to cut to it. Please comment, we need this info to get out everywhere asap.
I would love to to see the journalist appear on the Bulwark !!!
The world knew this was coming, but didn't expect Americans would be the ones to let them do it. Anyone who lived whilst apartheid was a thing completely understood who white afrikaners were at their core, and why they wanted to flee South Africa when apartheid fell. Perhaps they knew America better than the rest of us and that is why so many chose the USA, maybe they looked at your history of slavery and thought it might come back one day.
This doesn't change the message of the article at all, but I wasn't sure why they detained him in the first place. The Washington Post said he was showing up for a CBP One appointment. Was it because he'd previously tried to enter illegally?
entering the country on a visa and overstaying the visa is a civil violation, though it can result in serious immigration consequences. Entering the United States illegally can be a felony, depending on the circumstances. Being present undocumented is not illegal. The crime is how they came into the United States.
I looked at the Criminal Complaint filed in Western District of Texas. He was charge with resisting arrest. Anyone other than a person in the country without papers etc. would have entered a plea, received a deferred or suspended sentence and set free, all within a very short time. He was appointed a Lawyer. Where was his lawyer for the past year and four months? Was he keppt in custody because of the Tren de Aragua tattoo? This situation has a bad odor to it. We only have one side to it and the Feds are not talking.
On the subject of deportation, here's something I posted on social media this morning:
***
I haven’t posted anything remotely political on social media in over four years, and I don’t plan on making a habit of it. I’ve long since given up on the idea of social media saving the world but maybe posting this will make me feel a little better.
I’m going to tell you about some recent events. The parts I did not witness were recounted to me by highly credible sources.
I’m not going to tell you how to think of these events, or who is to blame, but if you think any part of it is okay, keep it to yourself. I’m not going to debate with you.
The person identified as “V” in these stories is my housekeeper. She’s not a secret agent, but I don’t know whether she wants her name all over Facebook so I’m not giving her name.
Feel free to repost.
STORY #1
V has two cousins in Vista, California. One of them is married and has a baby. They are all native-born American citizens with papers to prove it.
All four were rounded up by ICE and brought to a detention camp in Laredo, Texas. After a few days they were brought before a judge (I’m not sure whether it was a federal judge or an administrative law judge), released, and sent back to California.
V’s cousins have retained lawyers and have filed suit. I have no details on the basis of the suit or any opinion regarding the merits or likely outcome.
STORY #2
I recently received an email from a law school classmate, who passed on an email from her friend in Los Angeles. The friend requested help on behalf of a family of undocumented Venezuelan migrants. The mother and father are in their twenties. Their son is 5 years old. I agreed to help and enlisted V.
The family had been in LA for around 3 months. Given the current political situation, they decided (sensibly) to self-deport to Venezuela.
The family crossed the border to Tijuana, along with another family consisting of a mother and father in their twenties, a boy aged 5, and a girl aged 10.
One of the men worked in law enforcement in Venezuela and fell afoul of the Maduro regime.
One of the women suffered an attempted rape, or an actual rape, in Tijuana. (It was initially described to me as an attempted rape, but later I heard mention of a pregnancy test, so I’m not sure.)
The families took a bus from Tijuana to Mexico City. V met them at Terminal Norte, the bus station that handles buses from Mexico City to points north. V reported that there were many people getting off buses that appeared to be in similar situations.
V took the families to my apartment. We got some food into them, they took showers, did some laundry, and relaxed for a few hours. They were all grateful for the help. The kids were friendly and precocious. One of the 5-year-old boys told me all the countries he had passed through, and recounted the nationalities of everyone in the room.
(The families spent time in Colombia after fleeing Venezuela. Two of the kids were born in Colombia and are therefore Colombian citizens.)
The initial plan was for the families to stay in Mexico City for a while and get passports at the Venezuelan consulate. They only have photocopies. I do not know what happened to the originals; I suspect they were lost on the trip north. V, who is one of the most kind and resourceful people I have ever met, took the following steps:
1. She made some phone calls and found a short-term rental apartment.
2. She investigated getting the men jobs at Mercado La Merced so that they could earn some money for the trip south.
3. She spoke with a friend at the Mexican Foreign Ministry, to see whether (a) the friend had any contacts at the Venezuelan consulate who could expedite the papers; and/or (b) there was any prospect of being granted asylum in Mexico. The answer in both cases was “no.”
4. She got a doctor to examine one of the boys, who had an abscess on one leg. The doctor drained the abscess, gave the parents some antibiotic ointment, and put a surgical bandage over the wound to keep it clean.
5. She got more food into them, including a cake for the kids, who enjoyed it.
One of V’s sons is a Mexican federal prosecutor who handles narcotics cases and knows a thing or two about interviewing witnesses. He talked to the families and was convinced that they were telling the truth about their situation.
The families decided to continue south the next day rather than stay in Mexico City. People are fleeing north from their home countries and south from the US, and Mexico is caught in the middle. There are now several encampments in Mexico City. I hear that at one of them, in Plaza La Soledad near La Merced, has around 4,000 people in tents. One newspaper article stated that half of them are from Africa. The Mexican authorities have launched their own deportation campaign. The families are afraid (again, with good reason) that the kids who are Colombian citizens will be separated from their parents if they are deported.
V got them on a southbound bus the next day, which wasn’t easy because most of the major bus lines won’t sell you a ticket without proper identification. The destination was Tapachula, the major border crossing between Mexico and Guatemala.
The bus was stopped and searched by the authorities at Tuxtla Gutierrez, in the southern state of Chiapas, about 200 miles from the border. The authorities (presumably the Mexican National Guard, but I’m not sure) were prepared to deport them separately to Venezuela and Colombia.
Somehow, they managed to contact V. V’s ex-husband owns businesses in La Merced that employ a lot of people in Chiapas, and he has contacts there. Somehow, he pulled strings and got the families released. I don’t know or want to know the details.
The families continued on to Tapachula and crossed to Guatemala, where they have no legal status. The boy with the abscess wasn’t getting any better, and they were sleeping in a park somewhere.
V got them some money somehow and convinced them to take the kid to the doctor. He’s taking antibiotics and apparently, he’s on the mend.
V tried to get them help via the Catholic Church, and her son, the federal prosecutor, tried to work the contacts his office has with their counterparts in Guatemala. But as of the last report, they had left Guatemala for Honduras, and from there to Nicaragua. The next stop is Costa Rica.
They have three options for getting back to Venezuela:
1. By sea. The people with the boats are charging $320 USD per head, and it’s unlikely the boats are seaworthy.
2. By land, via the Darien Gap – the southern part of Panamá that borders Colombia. There are no roads through the Darien Gap, so the trip entails walking for five days through the jungle, with all the dangers that entails.
3. Deportation, which as previously noted, would likely entail separation of the two Colombian kids from their families. In the best case, someone would take charge of the kids and get them over the border to Venezuela.
V is attempting to convince them that deportation is their least bad option.
Strong message here. My lawn care/snow removal company employs many Hispanic people so I emailed the owner (we’ve got a 20+ year business relationship) and asked him whether he needed to be concerned about any employees being deported and what we might do to protect them. He replied like a trumper, telling me he had confidence that because none were criminals they would be safe. He really believes that and will do nothing. It makes me so sad.
So this is why I am a Bulwark+ member. Carrasquillo has hit the ground running to share stories and bring context to this issue in a way that's unique. This is strong accurate reporting. Thank you and keep it up.
Who would be useful people to contact about this? My Senators Budd and Tillis wouldn’t be. My congresswoman Valerie Foushee is an excellent representative, but I’m not sure how much power she has in the scheme of things. Venezuela being what it is, if Gitmo is just a way station it would be extremely important to prove that the young man isn’t a gang member before he continues on the path of deportation. Is it possible at all for any media to get into Gitmo to see how the prisoners are being treated?
Sarah - I recall that Gitmo was used to house Haitian refugees back in the '90s but rose to its peak fame/infamy as lockup for detainees in our Global War on Terror®️ (GWOT). The Bush admin believed that, as a military base, it would be inaccessible to civilians such as reporters or attorneys unless invited in via the military or high-level executive admin. Supreme Court did extend some due process rights to detainees; every step was hard-won.
The recent immigration detainees are not GWOT-level "threats." ACLU sued a week ago, seeking for the detainees to have access to legal counsel. Just today: "Nearly a third of migrants flown to Guantanamo deemed 'low threat,' DHS says in court filing"
...NOTE the "low level threat" description isn't that of a bleeding heart (like me) but of a U.S. Army colonel in a federal court filing per this news report:
https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/politics/federal-fallout/nearly-a-third-of-migrants-flown-to-guantanamo-bay-deemed-low-threat-dhs-says-in-court-filing-donald-trump-kristi-noem-immigration-venezuela/65-a747aee6-37e3-4a9f-be73-f9ecf0ed3c1e
Interesting to know that having a tattoo makes you a gang member. Does that mean that the Sec of Defense is the head of a criminal gang? I know that a lot of cops have tattoos, but it goes without saying that they, too, are gang members.
But what does it say that half the Venezuelans sent to Guantanamo have no criminal records? Does that mean that there aren't any real criminals that the Migra can send there; that they are afraid to deal with real criminals; or are they too lazy to bother actually going after someone who does pose a threat to society when they have someone easily available to pretend to be doing their job?
The excuse for targeting those with tattoos is that some of those are commonly seen on real Tren de Aragua gangsters. There are a half dozen or so of these tattoos that ICE and friends use to justify arrests and detention.
I spent much of my career as a Deputy D.A. and District Judge in a district bordering Mexico. Law enforcement used tattoo recognition, along with many other tools, to identify and arrest
suspects. Law Enforcement also cooperated with Federal agencies by notifying them of possible gang affiliation and incarceration status. Again tattoo comparison was a major tool.
For example: There is a very distinct "crown" tattoo that is singular to Tren de Aragua. Several photos I have seen of persons believed to be Tren gangsters have that tattoo in the neck area or upper chest, but always where the tattoo can be seen.
Sadly innocent arrestees are inevitably caught up in this net and treated as hard core gangsters affiliated with TDA. I have been witness to many injustices against otherwise innocent persons simply due to manner and method of dress, regional accents and so forth.
.
Tattoo comparison unfortunately will be used as a pretext even with absence of any negative history. Obviously this is accelerating every day now and is spurred by an administration intent on reaching numbers goals.
Another serving of cruelty anyone?
The guy mentioned in the article had two tattoos, neither of them a crown. That should have been recognized by the Migras, but they didn't care as long as they could make up something. It's that kind of attitude and behavior that makes people disrespect law enforcement. And, yes, cruelty is the whole reason that gives these people their joy in life.
Governmental efficiency in action, Daniel. Not that ICE is afraid of actual convicts, nor even lazy. They ARE deporting some convicted criminals from various US lockups, but there are complications with that. Jails have lots of forms & procedures to work thru, they don't just kick people out the (barred) door. That takes time & hassle. Also hard to transport because you need lots of staff & equipment to move dangerous criminals around.
Now, when ICE encounters undocumented people who have NO criminal convictions or even charges, those folks are probably not so hard to deal with. They are fearful but likely cooperate because they aren't violent, dangerous, evildoers. They're not in custody of some other authority, so there's less hassle going directly to deportation.
Of course there's no way to achieve Trump's promised numbers of deportees just with convicts. The real numbers are the people who are no threat to anyone. More of 'em, more compliant, easier to round up and eject. Efficient.
"We could build a factory
And make misery
We'll create the cure
We made the disease"
https://genius.com/Soul-asylum-misery-lyrics
The crisis in your country is because you elected an avowed communist in a free and fair election. You were repeatedly warned that this would be the last free and fair election you ever had for long time if you elected Chavez. You did it anyway. Twenty five years later your country has gone from one of the wealthiest countries in South America to worse than Cuba. No sympathy. Poor decisions have consequences. This lady’s son should have stayed in Venezuela and fought for freedom. He has no inherit right to come to America illegally. America has no real interest in Venezuela. Like Cuba, it can exist as a living museum of the glory of socialism.
And now we have been warned that we just had the last free and fair election that America will have. The Venezuela government is criminal, but the Trump/Musk government is worse. Trump is now trying to partner with the one man who has even more blood on his hands, Putin. They both want to watch Ukrainians die, destroy democracies all over the world, and plunder the riches of their country. If they can, they will send another 70,000 people to Gitmo to swelter in the heat, just to show how tough they are. Meanwhile, Trump is selling Crypto and Musk is firing all the people who are investigating his business crimes, which are many, and then getting more government contracts to do the things the fired the workers were doing. A museum of cruelty and corruption.
This isn't "depotation policy", it is depraved cruelty
Bulwark friends, I'm putting this request here for your consideration.
I ask, if you use the word "illegals" to label our undocumented sisters & brothers, that you please try using a different term.
Consider that words do affect people's thinking. There are many in our society who have violated specific laws & regulations yet I never hear them called "illegals." People who possess & use outlawed drugs; people who have cheated on their taxes; people who exceed the speed limit in their cars - any of those can result in a charge, trial, and conviction. Yet we don't call all of these folks "illegals," nor even those convicted of more terrible & violent crimes.
Why are immigration regulations so uniquely viewed as to make other humans into "illegals"?
Yes, people without legal residency is more precise.
People who waited for years to come to this country through proper channels and procedures like my family were “legal aliens” with green cards. After many years, we became proud citizens. Those who ignored those proper procedures, tried to skip the line, broke the law by entering the USA without authorization, and tried to stay here are, therefore, “illegal aliens”. A completely proper use of the English language and not difficult to comprehend. Take your Orwellian newspeak somewhere else.
As you well know, there is no way that the people being deported could have ever gotten legal permission to immigrate. They don't meet the educational or other requirements that were set up to keep people like them from coming here.
And your point is? Doesn’t a sovereign nation have a right to pick and choose its lawful immigrants? Canada and most other countries have more stringent standards on a “merit based” immigration policy. I’d rather take a neurologist from Nigeria then a recent graduate of Hamas from Gaza.
The point is that if you know full well that the immigrants don't have any chance of fulfilling the "legal" requirements, it behooves you to stop yammering about "proper channels."
Okay, how about this: There is no inherent, moral or legal right for anyone, including my own family who came here 55 f…ing years ago, to emigrate to the USA. For those of us lucky enough to make it here legally, kiss the ground every day. For those who jumped the turnstile, got caught and deported …tough s…t.
Nope. As long as you try to make some sort of moral distinction between the two groups, it doesn't work. If you want to feel superior to the undocumented immigrants, remember that they came here knowing that they would never get the safety net support (Social Security, Medicare, food stamps, housing supplements, and all the rest of it) that your family felt entitled to when they arrived.
The third of the American voting public who chose to sit on their hands in protest last election must be aware by now that the “let them eat cake,” era is upon us. Never in US history has a politician so blatantly told the public, “Go Fuck Yourself.” This is rule by a rabid wanna-be king and his pet dumpling musk.
trump has publicly blamed Ukraine for starting the war with Russia and fully embraced Putin’s theology of might is right. He has no regard for the thousands slaughtered in Europe, which comes as no surprise. He is a psychopath and I guarantee he will equally disregard the suffering and death of US citizens, when public outrage finally boils over.
It is going to take the collective resistance of the abstainers, the never trumpers and whatever disillusioned maga faithful manage to escape that cult, to rebel against the lunacy. Unfortunately, very few politicians have shown any semblance of the raw courage the present moment demands. It is up to the people to forget petty differences and political persuasions. It is up to true patriots to unite, hit the streets en masse and defeat the common foe that threatens their very existence. There is not a wait until 2026 or 2028 option. All will be lost long before then, at the current rate of destruction.
This extreme effort to drive all brown people from our country and the war on DEI is flat out racism. Nothing more, nothing less. Trump has always been a racist and Musk appears to be a Nazi which convicts him of racism also. The Republican party has been going righter and righter for years and applauds the racist efforts of our two billionaire government wreckers.
AOC has more patriotism in her little finger than Homan or ANY Republican in Congress has in their entire body. I wish to god she was President instead of the traitor we have now.
Homan needs to be very careful when he uses the word "dumb." All it does is call attention to his own mental and intellectual capabilities such as they are.
This is really really really important info in connection with what is happening in the USA and the new world order.
This is an 8 min video that explains Musk, Theil, Andreessen, & Yarvin ideology of techno feudalism/fascism and how they are fulfilling their fascists goals right here in US at break neck speed.
Please watch, the foreign journalist that reports on Musk & his ilk is in the middle if you want to cut to it. Please comment, we need this info to get out everywhere asap.
I would love to to see the journalist appear on the Bulwark !!!
https://youtu.be/Gkk-x0DbaLs?feature=shared
The world knew this was coming, but didn't expect Americans would be the ones to let them do it. Anyone who lived whilst apartheid was a thing completely understood who white afrikaners were at their core, and why they wanted to flee South Africa when apartheid fell. Perhaps they knew America better than the rest of us and that is why so many chose the USA, maybe they looked at your history of slavery and thought it might come back one day.
These stories are so important. Thank you Adrian and The Bulwark for reporting them. Real American heroes.
This doesn't change the message of the article at all, but I wasn't sure why they detained him in the first place. The Washington Post said he was showing up for a CBP One appointment. Was it because he'd previously tried to enter illegally?