Both the NIJC and the HIAS are matching all donations right now (the NIJC for their emergency fund specifically), so this is an *extra* good time to donate whatever you can to them. Both help immigrants, refugees/asylum seekers, undocumented persons, and detainees in the US immigration system. (HIAS also does assorted other things worldwide, and is suing the Trump administration right now.)
Great news!!!!!! Harvard is the wealthiest University in America, if they can't stand up to Trump then no one can.
MIT and Princeton have also signalled they won't go along with the admin's demands.
It also makes me happy to see that my University is one of the nine that are suing the Department of Energy to get their research grant money back. Even if the Trump admin refuses to comply again with another court order, it is important to try, to be seen trying, to not roll over.
(As far as I know NSF grants *still* haven't been unfrozen even though that was one of the earliest court cases that the Trump administration lost - this is why when Republicans say the deportations are about "people breaking the law" they aren't serious.)
Anyway. If you were *trying* to destroy a country, you wouldn't do it any differently from what these goons are doing. Every large institution needs to resist.
Reblogged
Just an extremely Normal thing to say
Reminder they want to increase the budget for ICE from 3.5 to 45 billion dollars.
Reminder the majority of that will be for building new detention centers.
Reminder ICE are *currently* detaining tourists who can pay for a plane ticket home and people with visa issues that were already resolved, because they have to make quota so Trump can brag about the numbers going up.
Reminder most of these people were already in the immigration system - that's why they were easy to detain.
Reminder this is all at taxpayer expense.
Reminder these are people.
Vs the judges ordering ms13 members back to the USA and the administration telling said judge to pound sand because they don't have jurisdiction?
MS13 members according to who? We know the points system they used. Tattoos are 4 points 'gang clothes' aka street clothes are 4 points, 8 points is enough to get you disappeared to supermax prison in El Salvador with no hearing.
Like one of the 'gang tattoos' in the DHS handbook is literally just some British guy's tattoo with his daughter's birthday on it. Another guy was wearing a Chicago Bulls hat - in Chicago - and that was considered evidence of 'gang affiliation.'
Like I get it. Trump's your guy. He says he's going after the criminals. He says these are the criminals. You believe him.
Maybe you looked into CECOT, the notorious mega prison where they are warehousing these supposed gang members, and said no way are they just sending innocent people to a place like this without double and triple checking. No way.
Each of the 256 cells can house an average of 156 inmates.[19] The cells are equipped with four-level metal bunks with no mattresses or sheets,[20] two toilets, and two washbasins.[18][19][21] The cells are lit by artificial lights 24 hours per day. Each cell is provided with two Bibles, and CCTV cameras and armed guards monitor each cell.[18] Solitary confinement cells can hold prisoners for up to 15 days and are only furnished with a concrete bed, a toilet, and a washbasin. The solitary cells are pitch black except for one small hole in the ceiling that allows some light inside.[22]
But they are. They are sending innocent people rot in a foreign mega jail. And then saying oops, we can't bring this one guy back even though it was an "administrative error" to send him there; even after the Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that we have to try to bring him back. They probably can't bring him back, he's probably already dead. There are only 850 guards there to watch close to 40,000 people.
(You say MS13 gang member, I say apprentice in the Sheet Metal Workers union, married to a US citizen, with three children who are also US citizens - and unlike you I can prove what I just said).
But this admin doesn't care. They don't care if they send innocent people to rot. They just want the headline. You can't trust what they say, do you understand that?
It probably sounds so crazy to you that the Trump administration would simply lie and find innocent people to disappear forever just so Trump can look tough on crime in a news headline. If he's lying about this, what else is he lying about?
But it's true. Recently 60 Minutes did a report on the 238 Venezuelans sent to rot in El Salvador, and 75% of them had no criminal record at all. Only a dozen had been convicted of violent crimes. Most of them just had tattoos.
Listen, it's not too late. Stop believing what this administration tells you.
Reblogged king-in-yellow
You want to call your House rep now and tell them Trump needs to be impeached immediately for defying a Supreme Court order (re: Kilmar Abrego Garcia), which functionally voids our constitution and means no one in America has rights anymore.
I am not exaggerating.
As of now, anybody can be disappeared, no due process, no recourse. Trump is openly disregarding a Supreme Court order and says he’ll send US citizens to El Salvador.
This is not a drill.
Call your House rep and tell them they must impeach. Tell them if they cannot bring themselves to impeach, they must resign. A more open and shut case to impeach is not possible. Trump and his administration are saying openly, in public, that anybody can be kidnapped by ICE, even in error, and disappeared permanently.
Call your senators, too, and tell them to support impeachment (it goes to them once it passes a majority House vote).
"Hello, my name is _______ and I am a constituent from _______. My address is ________.
I am reaching out today to urge Representative ______ to call for the impeachment of President Trump due to his refusal to comply with the Supreme Court's April 10th decision regarding Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was unlawfully deported and has been charged with no crime. As Justice Sotomayor stated, this inaction implies the government's ability to 'deport and incarcerate any person, including U.S. citizens, without legal consequence, so long as it does so before a court can intervene.' This precedent is unconstitutional, highly illegal, and grounds for impeachment. Every individual, regardless of immigration status, must be guaranteed a right to due process.
Representative _____, I urge you to stand on the right side of history today by calling for President Trump's impeachment. This administration can not be allowed to continue unilaterally defying the checks and balances that are intrinsic to our government."
You can also find your representative and senators and their phone numbers on https://5calls.org/
Please don't be afraid of calling. Your job would just be to be a data point, not to sound perfect. Here's some info on why calling is effective.
If you need more courage, read a little bit about the prison where they sent Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Sheet Metal Workers union apprentice married to a US citizen with three kids:
Whatever you're imagining, it's worse.
Reblogged
Just an extremely Normal thing to say
Reminder they want to increase the budget for ICE from 3.5 to 45 billion dollars.
Reminder the majority of that will be for building new detention centers.
Reminder ICE are *currently* detaining tourists who can pay for a plane ticket home and people with visa issues that were already resolved, because they have to make quota so Trump can brag about the numbers going up.
Reminder most of these people were already in the immigration system - that's why they were easy to detain.
Reminder this is all at taxpayer expense.
Reminder these are people.
Reminder, they are going back where they came from
They are not.
Arrests and detentions are UP, deportations are DOWN. Biden deported more people in December.
These people are being held in detention centers for very long periods of time. The Trump administration plans to use the 45 billion for ICE to build even more detention centers. A Texas for-profit prison company sent a letter to their shareholders when Trump won the presidency, they expect huge profits in the coming years.
It's not feasible to ship 20 million people back where "they came from" without good diplomatic relationships with those countries. You have to coordinate with foreign governments to land the airplanes.
What they're doing instead is putting detainees in temporary detention centers that don't meet legal requirements for a prison. In horrible conditions. For weeks and months. And it will only get worse.
All that manufacturing Trump wants to bring back to the US? Expect a lot of those "tiny tiny screws" to be screwed in by immigrants held in detention centers.
I have sources, if you want to know more about why I think this way.
This tattoo thing is scary... another piece of evidence they used for another Venezuelan man was that he was wearing a Chicago Bulls hat. A Chicago Bulls hat. In Chicago. Someone should tell the Chicago Bulls that they can't sell their hats to Latino men anymore or they'll be accused of belonging to a criminal gang....
This really is the new Qanon, taking totally innocuous things and making them scary symbols of a secret conspiracy so the (MAGA) cultists will see evil gang members everywhere they look. Dems are all pedophiles and Latino men are all gang members, right? So definitely don't talk to any of them and find out they are regular people who might tell you something different from what the cult is telling you...
Of the 238 Venezuelan men sent to supermax prison in El Salvador, btw, the majority (75%) had no criminal record. Only a dozen had been convicted of a violent crime. None of them had a hearing to confirm they really were gang members.
And now the Trump administration is blowing off a 9-0 Supreme Court decision that it has to "effectuate the return" of Kilmer Garcia Abrego, a Sheet Metal Union apprentice with three kids who was shipped off to El Salvadore because of an "administrative error."
Just evil, evil, evil. No process before these people were shipped off and no way to bring them back. If it's even possible to bring them back, if they aren't dead already. This isn't a normal prison, you understand? It's a gigantic compound where people are warehoused 10 and 20 to a cell with no sheets or mattresses, lights on 24 hours a day, average of 6.5 square feet per person per cell, no books except the Bible, no education except Bible study, only leave the cell for one half hour per day for exercise, no rehabilitation, no natural light, no one who's thrown in there ever comes out again. These conditions would be illegal in the USA.
All of this sounds exaggerated, but it isn't. Easy to look around and conclude nothing has changed because the USA is such a big country and you don't personally know anyone who's been affected (yet) by the lawlessness of the current government. But it is coming, it won't stop with the immigrants and students and scientists and federal workers and judges and lawyers.
April 19th is the next day of action, US citizens find a protest near you.
Paul Krugman today:
Interest rates on long-term government debt rose sharply even as the perceived risk of a recession, which normally pushes rates down, rose. And the dollar went down against other currencies even though interest rates went up.
These moves weren’t normal for an advanced country like the United States. However, the combination of rising interest rates and a falling currency as the economy slumps is something often seen in emerging markets facing a financial crisis.
In other words, the USA is being treated as a Third World Crackpot Dictatorship by the entire world and our economy, which runs on foreign countries buying up government debt (US bonds) on the basis that they are a stable investment, is in real danger of totally collapsing.
Reblogged
Just an extremely Normal thing to say
Reminder they want to increase the budget for ICE from 3.5 to 45 billion dollars.
Reminder the majority of that will be for building new detention centers.
Reminder ICE are *currently* detaining tourists who can pay for a plane ticket home and people with visa issues that were already resolved, because they have to make quota so Trump can brag about the numbers going up.
Reminder most of these people were already in the immigration system - that's why they were easy to detain.
Reminder this is all at taxpayer expense.
Reminder these are people.
No money for food, or education, or healthcare, but billions upon billions for prisons, slave trading, and camps that are on track to become extermination facilities. Oh and apparently even shipping natural born US citizens to El Salvador prisons, there's money for that in Trump's budget.
Extremely precise and concise way of putting how a great deal of this atrocity is functioning.
An example is the story about this Columbia University student:
It was March 5 when she received an email from the U.S. Consulate in Chennai, India, indicating that her visa had been revoked. The notice did not provide a reason, saying only that “information has come to light” that may make her ineligible for a visa.
Confused, she emailed Columbia’s office for international students the following day seeking guidance. An official informed her that the revocation would take effect only if she left the country and that she could remain in the United States to pursue her studies for the time being, according to emails reviewed by The Times.
The next morning, on March 7, Ms. Srinivasan was on a call with an official from the international student office when the federal agents first knocked on the door of her apartment, which is off campus but operated by Columbia. The official told Ms. Srinivasan to call campus security, while her roommate engaged with the agents from behind the closed apartment door.
(Bold emphasis mine)
3 days. Day 1 her Visa was revoked with no explanation. Day 2 she contacted the international students' office and was told revocation hadn't taken effect and she could stay in the country. Day 3 federal agents came to her door looking for her anyway. 3 days is all it took for the government, with no warning or explanation, to label this person as "illegal" and come to arrest her.
There are many people getting caught up in this who are here legally.
Same with the 6300 people just added to the social security administration's 'death file' and told to self-deport in 7 days.
They entered the country legally under a Biden era program and they still had time left on their work visas. Being added to that file means they can't use credit cards or open bank accounts.
Meanwhile, because DOGE is working with DHS to "automate" deportations, citizens, green card holders, and Canadians (in Canada) were also added to the death file and told to self-deport.
You should understand just how ghoulish this all is.
The ONLY thing this administration has to offer their supporters is the deportations, they crashed the stock market and are busy doing other things that will make life for the average US citizen worse and more expensive.
Once they run out of criminals to deport, who's next? Non criminal immigrants. Once they run out of immigrants with no criminal history, who's next? International students. Once they run out of international students, who's next? LGBTQ people, according to project 2025.
You should know these people are careless, and they aren't going to stop with the immigrants. They are reorienting our entire government around this project to 'deport' people, they will need to keep finding more and more people to deport.
This is... the first I heard about the "death file".......
Under the new name, the SSA is classifying immigrants as dead with false dates, multiple sources said. This would essentially invalidate their Social Security number and access to government benefits. The agency wrote in March that an "erroneously reported" death will stop benefits, can cause "financial hardship" and is "long and challenging" to fix.
The first group to be added to the "ineligible master file" was a group of over 6,000 immigrants who came into the country through former President Joe Biden's parole program, according to two sources. This detail was first reported by The Washington Post.
(Bold emphasis mine)
I see. So the short scope of this (the flimsy reasoning that makes no sense) is putting pressure on immigrants to leave by cutting them off from.. essentially any service provided by the federal government. (As if "self deporting in 7 days" as they are demanding, incredibly short notice while your records are already in the trash, is a feasible thing for most people. Which brings me to the next point—)
The long scope (the real actual reason not said out loud) is that if a person's on federal record as deceased ... it only makes it easier for them to disappear and have no answers as to where they are detained or deported to. Cause y'know, says right here on Social Security's record they were reported deceased on x date.
I don't think I need to explain the implications of that... and they wanna expand the budget for this to 45 billion.
Reblogged
Just an extremely Normal thing to say
Reminder they want to increase the budget for ICE from 3.5 to 45 billion dollars.
Reminder the majority of that will be for building new detention centers.
Reminder ICE are *currently* detaining tourists who can pay for a plane ticket home and people with visa issues that were already resolved, because they have to make quota so Trump can brag about the numbers going up.
Reminder most of these people were already in the immigration system - that's why they were easy to detain.
Reminder this is all at taxpayer expense.
Reminder these are people.
No money for food, or education, or healthcare, but billions upon billions for prisons, slave trading, and camps that are on track to become extermination facilities. Oh and apparently even shipping natural born US citizens to El Salvador prisons, there's money for that in Trump's budget.
Extremely precise and concise way of putting how a great deal of this atrocity is functioning.
An example is the story about this Columbia University student:
It was March 5 when she received an email from the U.S. Consulate in Chennai, India, indicating that her visa had been revoked. The notice did not provide a reason, saying only that “information has come to light” that may make her ineligible for a visa.
Confused, she emailed Columbia’s office for international students the following day seeking guidance. An official informed her that the revocation would take effect only if she left the country and that she could remain in the United States to pursue her studies for the time being, according to emails reviewed by The Times.
The next morning, on March 7, Ms. Srinivasan was on a call with an official from the international student office when the federal agents first knocked on the door of her apartment, which is off campus but operated by Columbia. The official told Ms. Srinivasan to call campus security, while her roommate engaged with the agents from behind the closed apartment door.
(Bold emphasis mine)
3 days. Day 1 her Visa was revoked with no explanation. Day 2 she contacted the international students' office and was told revocation hadn't taken effect and she could stay in the country. Day 3 federal agents came to her door looking for her anyway. 3 days is all it took for the government, with no warning or explanation, to label this person as "illegal" and come to arrest her.
There are many people getting caught up in this who are here legally.
Same with the 6300 people just added to the social security administration's 'death file' and told to self-deport in 7 days.
They entered the country legally under a Biden era program and they still had time left on their work visas. Being added to that file means they can't use credit cards or open bank accounts.
Meanwhile, because DOGE is working with DHS to "automate" deportations, citizens, green card holders, and Canadians (in Canada) were also added to the death file and told to self-deport.
You should understand just how ghoulish this all is.
The ONLY thing this administration has to offer their supporters is the deportations, they crashed the stock market and are busy doing other things that will make life for the average US citizen worse and more expensive.
Once they run out of criminals to deport, who's next? Non criminal immigrants. Once they run out of immigrants with no criminal history, who's next? International students. Once they run out of international students, who's next? LGBTQ people, according to project 2025.
You should know these people are careless, and they aren't going to stop with the immigrants. They are reorienting our entire government around this project to 'deport' people, they will need to keep finding more and more people to deport.
Tonight, Trump signed a memorandum to the secretaries of defense, interior, agriculture, and homeland security calling for a “Military Mission for Sealing the Southern Border of the United States and Repelling Invasions.” The memorandum creates a military buffer zone along the border so that any migrant crossing would be trespassing on a U.S. military base. This would allow active-duty soldiers to hold migrants until ICE agents take them.
By April 20, the secretaries of defense and homeland security are supposed to report to the president whether they think he should invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act to enable him to use the military to aid in mass deportations.
April 20th - Hitler's Birthday - for the military to round people up and put them in the private detention centers built in advance in Texas for exactly this reason. But I'm sure the date is a coincidence.
Reblogged vriskarlmarx
I cannot emphasize how much I want israeli soldiers to kill themselves
I'm sure everyone on this post already knows it, but there was never any evidence that Hamas used 'sexual violence' on October 7th. As in, they couldn't find any evidence even when they really went looking for it:
I know this is the least of the issues here but it really was a disgrace for the NYT to publish that article at all.
Reblogged
Just an extremely Normal thing to say
Reminder they want to increase the budget for ICE from 3.5 to 45 billion dollars.
Reminder the majority of that will be for building new detention centers.
Reminder ICE are *currently* detaining tourists who can pay for a plane ticket home and people with visa issues that were already resolved, because they have to make quota so Trump can brag about the numbers going up.
Reminder most of these people were already in the immigration system - that's why they were easy to detain.
Reminder this is all at taxpayer expense.
Reminder these are people.
Cruelty Squad has ceased to be satire. If anyone had tried to make a dystopic cyberpunk story and have this as a plot point, they would have been told off for being too unsubtle and on the nose.
The people currently in charge of the USA really think they can and should run it like a corporation. One Nation under Copyright.
If there is a silver lining to this, is that by going so completely mask-off the Republican Party has been and is currently shedding supporters both at home and abroad. They are making an all-or-nothing gamble that they can subvert or dismantle democratic institutions fast enough to become the permanent ruling power; and if they fail they'll be stuck with their pants down.
Grit your teeth and don't stop fighting: if you can preserve a core of true democracy, the rest of the world will be right behind you in rebuilding what is being destroyed. This might be the crisis that pushes the US out of the spiral it has been stuck in.
This week's top actions:
Action 1: DUE TODAY -- Oppose the forced registration of aspiring Americans.
In other words this act would require all immigrants in the US over the age of 13 to add themselves to a list or face automatic criminal charges. This is Jewish Badge type stuff, oppose oppose oppose.
Action 2: The house votes this week on the SAVE Act (Call, even if you've called already.)
The SAVE Act would force voters to show a passport, birth certificate, or naturalization papers in person. Critics warned it would block access for millions, including an estimated 69 million women who changed their names after marriage or divorce...Rural and low-income voters without easy access to government offices could also be shut out. The bill now heads to the Senate, where it’s unlikely to clear the 60-vote filibuster threshold. Republicans would need at least seven Democrats to join them (so let's make sure that doesn't happen!!!!!)
Action 3: Congressional recess starts April 14, so urge your elected officials to hold live, in-person events in your district.
Reblogged
Just an extremely Normal thing to say
Reminder they want to increase the budget for ICE from 3.5 to 45 billion dollars.
Reminder the majority of that will be for building new detention centers.
Reminder ICE are *currently* detaining tourists who can pay for a plane ticket home and people with visa issues that were already resolved, because they have to make quota so Trump can brag about the numbers going up.
Reminder most of these people were already in the immigration system - that's why they were easy to detain.
Reminder this is all at taxpayer expense.
Reminder these are people.
what numbers lol
The numbers of people arrested by ICE. They have been posting daily counts on social media to prove they are "doing something" about immigration.
The Department Of Homeland Security website is also bragging right now that under Trump, arrests are up 627%:
ICE are under pressure to increase those numbers, because arresting and deporting "criminal" immigrants is the ONLY Trump campaign promise that is actually popular.
People didn't vote for Trump so he could:
Crash the stock market, blow up longstanding trade agreements, threaten to make Canada the 51st state, rename the Gulf of Mexico, gut biomedical research, end federal funding for wind energy, cut billions of dollars from Medicaid and SNAP, start a trade war with China, fuck around with the IRS and Social Security computer systems, fire tens of thousands of federal workers, extort free legal work out of law firms that represent his opponents by threatening to put them and their clients on a blacklist, and threaten to revoke the broadcast licenses of TV news stations that are "biased" against him (just as an example).
Anyway. To make sure they make their numbers, ICE have been arresting and detaining people who would previously not have been arrested - tourists who can go home, people who've been here 40 years and had an issue in their file that was resolved years ago. Here's some examples:
The really crazy thing is that if you look at the numbers more closely... Arrests and detentions are up, deportations (out of the country) are actually down. Biden deported more people in December.
The underlying reason seems to be, there are fewer people crossing the border with the Biden era asylum and refugee programs closed, therefore fewer people at the border to deport.
What's increasing is the number of people they are arresting who don't have any criminal record. And detaining because they don't have an agreement with the other country to send them back.
As long as this admin is focused on making The Numbers Go Up as their primary goal, they HAVE to keep expanding the radius of who it's okay to arrest. You get me? They have to Find People who have done nothing wrong - more and more people who have done nothing wrong - and taxpayers have to pay to keep those people in jail. That's what's going on right now.
Arresting immigrants is all they have. They aren't doing anything else GOOD for their supporters right now.
Reblogged
Just an extremely Normal thing to say
Reminder they want to increase the budget for ICE from 3.5 to 45 billion dollars.
Reminder the majority of that will be for building new detention centers.
Reminder ICE are *currently* detaining tourists who can pay for a plane ticket home and people with visa issues that were already resolved, because they have to make quota so Trump can brag about the numbers going up.
Reminder most of these people were already in the immigration system - that's why they were easy to detain.
Reminder this is all at taxpayer expense.
Reminder these are people.
Since this took off more than most of my US Politics posts into the void, here's a website with some actions you can take against the ongoing Trump Coup:
The more we don't act now, the harder it will be to act in the future. So I recommend acting now.
