Here’s the latest…..
ICE vs the Federal Judges…
Courts across the country have overwhelmingly rejected the Trump administration’s effort to round up thousands of immigrants and lock them up without a chance for bond — even if they have no criminal records and have lived in the United States for years.
But the Trump administration has slow-walked or outright defied judges’ orders demanding the release of people scooped up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at an increasingly rapid clip.
Sometimes, ICE has raced detainees across state lines in ways judges say are designed to thwart legal proceedings. Other times, they’re detaining people for days or weeks after judges have ordered them released. ICE officials have at times ignored other arms of the federal government trying to ensure compliance with court orders. And sometimes the administration has given judges bad or incomplete information.
A POLITICO review of hundreds of cases brought by ICE detainees across the country shows judges increasingly furious and exhausted by the Trump administration’s tactics.
“There has been an undeniable move by the Government in the past month to defy court orders or at least to stretch the legal process to the breaking point in an attempt to deny noncitizens their due process rights,” U.S. District Judge Michael Davis, a Clinton appointee from Minnesota, said in a recent order.
As a result, judges have issued more detailed and prescriptive orders to head off potential loopholes or hair-splitting results. And when all else fails, they threaten to hold administration officials in contempt.
Asked about the deepening conflict with courts, Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin reissued previous statements criticizing “activist judges” for trying to “thwart President Trump from fulfilling the American people’s mandate for mass deportations.” The statement didn’t directly address judges’ complaints about their orders being violated.
These issues have reached a crescendo in Minnesota, where the administration’s deportation hammer has fallen hardest in recent weeks, flooding the courts and overwhelming even the Trump Justice Department’s own attorneys.
Here’s how the administration’s noncompliance plays out:….
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Jeffries slams Republican DHS offer as ‘woefully inadequate’
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Tuesday a GOP counterproposal on Department of Homeland Security funding is “woefully inadequate” and shows the White House “is clearly not open to” several key Democratic demands.
Speaking four days ahead of a DHS shutdown deadline, Jeffries said the Republican offer did not satisfactorily address a need for judicial warrants, detention center standards, independent investigations and excessive-force standards. Asked about whether the Trump administration would support a prohibition on masks for federal agents, Jeffries said, “That’s an open question.”
“They don’t appear to be open to … ensuring that ICE agents are identifiable in a manner consistent with every other law enforcement agency in the country,” Jeffries said.
Also speaking Tuesday morning, Senate Majority Leader John Thunesaid he believed there was still room for compromise, with support from at least seven Senate Democrats needed for any shutdown-averting stopgap measure.
“There are things I think on probably both sides that are non-negotiables,” he said. “But I do think there are a number of things in the range of common ground.”
Speaking on the Senate floor, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumerstruck a more cautious tone than Jeffries, saying Democrats “need to see more from Republicans very soon.”…
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DHS demanded list of ongoing investigations from its watchdog
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has requested a list of all ongoing investigations by the agency’s watchdog, her top lawyer confirmed in a letter to Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), after the lawmaker expressed concern the department may seek to quash oversight of its practices.
The letter from Department of Homeland Security (DHS) general counsel James Percival comes after Duckworth said DHS’s Office of Inspector General had received “repeated tacit threats” in the form of a reminder about a provision of the law that allows the secretary to kill ongoing inspector general investigations….
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Clergy say Jesus’ teachings leave Christians no choice but to resist ICE
Christian clergy are deploying spiritual infrastructure — from organizing prayer circles to acting as human shields — to resist the Trumpadministration’s immigration agenda.
Why it matters: The clergy members who spoke with Axios argue that Trump’s immigration crackdown contradicts core biblical teachings about protecting the vulnerable, putting them at odds with the Christian nationalists who back the administration’s policies.
- “I feel a huge responsibility as a Christian pastor to say, not in my name,” Rev. Rebecca Voelkel, director of the Center for Sustainable Justice at Lyndale United Church of Christ in Minneapolis, tells Axios.
- Voelkel said the “kind of Christianity” practiced by Christian nationalists “is diseased and distorted.”
- “I feel compelled to both resist ICE violence and the kind of Christianity that baptizes it.”
The big picture: Most faith leaders say their work isn’t about Democrat vs Republican policy, but rather about resisting state-authorized violence….
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