exchemist
Valued Senior Member
Well it nicely captures both the failure to realise they are being shafted and the general ignorance about the world.
American Pogrom (#WhatTheyVotedFor)
- Thread starter Tiassa
- Start date
Pinball1970
Valued Senior Member
Obviously I do not engage with the OP but is "Pogrom" an appropriate word for this thread?Well it nicely captures both the failure to realise they are being shafted and the general ignorance about the world.
We might observe the social media source finally figured out he'd screwed up; the source post for #3786832/34↑ above finally pulled his post.
Cruelty and Priority
The short form, per Aaron Reichlin Melnick↱:
The lede and detail, from Jackie Llanos↱:
This isn't a new point; see #8 above↑ in re the eighteen years, at least, screeching about the border and then doing everything they can think of to forestall a solution. Or, ca. 2024¹:
This is what it comes to, as we push toward nineteen years later; these are the people they're after. For instance, "Christian, who worked as a community liaison for a city council member in a major Texas city, submitted his renewal applications on Dec. 5. He'll be able to go back to his job once the Trump administration renews his work permit."
Or the American dream, itself:
And it's not just them; Yenifer, the behavioral therapist for autistic children, worries about the disruption of the kids' progress.
Republicans complaining of a border crisis, today, should thank their conservative predecessors for refusing their own bills long enough for them to still be able to complain about conservative fears agitated by Republican failure.
This racist cruelty was always so important to American conservatives. It's part of the fundamental character of the people capable of carrying forward what has been bestowed by those who raised them up. Such hatred requires people capable of believing in it.
____________________
Notes:
Llanos, Jackie. "The Trump Administration's DACA Renewal Delays Are Pushing People Out of Work". NOTUS. 20 April 2026. NOTUS.org. 20 April 2026. https://www.notus.org/immigration/daca-status-renewal-delay-jobs
The short form, per Aaron Reichlin Melnick↱:
The Trump admin forced a firefighter paramedic with DACA to resign from his job (and risk deportation) because they didn't process his renewal application, even though he filed FIVE MONTHS before his status was set to expire.
The lede and detail, from Jackie Llanos↱:
A firefighter, a child behavioral therapist, a city council member's staffer and a video game tester are among those who say they've lost their jobs because the Trump administration hasn't renewed their DACA status.
Federal government delays in renewing the immigrants' status are putting them at a higher risk of deportation and financial strain as a result of losing their work authorization, pushing some to have to ask their community for financial help ....
.... President Donald Trump tried to eliminate DACA during his first term. The program has since 2012 granted work permits and reprieve from deportation to undocumented immigrants who entered the U.S. before they turned 16 and have lived here since at least 2007.
More than 505,000 people have DACA, according to the latest data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The program is under further threat as the Trump administration cracks down on immigration: Currently the federal government is only processing renewals, not new applications.
USCIS reported that as of February its median processing time for DACA renewals is 2.3 months in the current fiscal year, the longest since 2016. However, USCIS completes 80% of its cases in 3.5 months, according to the agency. USCIS recommends submitting DACA renewals four to five months in advance, according to its website ....
.... Six months have passed since Vicente, a DACA recipient from Venezuela living in Florida, submitted his renewal application.
The firefighter paramedic said he's called USCIS several times and the agency has not provided a timeline for his approval. He said he had to resign when his work permit expired last week.
"You do everything right, and you still can't even get an answer or any kind of update," Vicente said.
Federal government delays in renewing the immigrants' status are putting them at a higher risk of deportation and financial strain as a result of losing their work authorization, pushing some to have to ask their community for financial help ....
.... President Donald Trump tried to eliminate DACA during his first term. The program has since 2012 granted work permits and reprieve from deportation to undocumented immigrants who entered the U.S. before they turned 16 and have lived here since at least 2007.
More than 505,000 people have DACA, according to the latest data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The program is under further threat as the Trump administration cracks down on immigration: Currently the federal government is only processing renewals, not new applications.
USCIS reported that as of February its median processing time for DACA renewals is 2.3 months in the current fiscal year, the longest since 2016. However, USCIS completes 80% of its cases in 3.5 months, according to the agency. USCIS recommends submitting DACA renewals four to five months in advance, according to its website ....
.... Six months have passed since Vicente, a DACA recipient from Venezuela living in Florida, submitted his renewal application.
The firefighter paramedic said he's called USCIS several times and the agency has not provided a timeline for his approval. He said he had to resign when his work permit expired last week.
"You do everything right, and you still can't even get an answer or any kind of update," Vicente said.
This isn't a new point; see #8 above↑ in re the eighteen years, at least, screeching about the border and then doing everything they can think of to forestall a solution. Or, ca. 2024¹:
Remember that the border crisis Republicans complain about not only dates back to Boehner, over a decade ago, but actually reaches back to conservative refusal of President Bush's bill in 2007. Democrats, in the seventeen years since, have literally been unable to give Republicans the bills Republicans demand, because Republicans end up killing the bills.
("Presidential predictions for 2024?" #378↗)
("Presidential predictions for 2024?" #378↗)
This is what it comes to, as we push toward nineteen years later; these are the people they're after. For instance, "Christian, who worked as a community liaison for a city council member in a major Texas city, submitted his renewal applications on Dec. 5. He'll be able to go back to his job once the Trump administration renews his work permit."
Or the American dream, itself:
For Cesar, a 25-year-old who has lived in the U.S. since he was 2 years old, the lapse in his work permit and DACA status led to losing his dream job as a video game tester in January. It was particularly bad timing, as he and his wife, a middle school teacher, were in the process of buying a house.
"I can't even drive. I can't really do much because I'm scared of being pulled over," Cesar said. "That's like a nightmare I keep having, and my family keeps telling me to stay positive, but there's nothing to be positive about right now."
Being out of work has meant that his wife has had to take on extra hours tutoring and working as a delivery driver. Now, he's occupying his time obsessively checking the USCIS portal to see if the agency has renewed his DACA and work permit. He submitted his renewal Dec. 3, weeks before the Jan. 1 deadline, because the longest he said he had previously waited had been three weeks.
"I just punish myself thinking about all the money we could have had if I kept working and if it was different," Cesar said.
The couple has an immediate concern.
"We're just, like, in survival mode right now trying not to lose the house," he said.
"I can't even drive. I can't really do much because I'm scared of being pulled over," Cesar said. "That's like a nightmare I keep having, and my family keeps telling me to stay positive, but there's nothing to be positive about right now."
Being out of work has meant that his wife has had to take on extra hours tutoring and working as a delivery driver. Now, he's occupying his time obsessively checking the USCIS portal to see if the agency has renewed his DACA and work permit. He submitted his renewal Dec. 3, weeks before the Jan. 1 deadline, because the longest he said he had previously waited had been three weeks.
"I just punish myself thinking about all the money we could have had if I kept working and if it was different," Cesar said.
The couple has an immediate concern.
"We're just, like, in survival mode right now trying not to lose the house," he said.
And it's not just them; Yenifer, the behavioral therapist for autistic children, worries about the disruption of the kids' progress.
Republicans complaining of a border crisis, today, should thank their conservative predecessors for refusing their own bills long enough for them to still be able to complain about conservative fears agitated by Republican failure.
This racist cruelty was always so important to American conservatives. It's part of the fundamental character of the people capable of carrying forward what has been bestowed by those who raised them up. Such hatred requires people capable of believing in it.
____________________
Notes:
¹ See also, Trump 2.0 #552 (2025)↗, "DACA—the 'Dreamers'—were originally a Bush administration proposal, and those extreme leftist Democrats have been begging for a chance to compromise and pass GOP border bills, now, for over seventeen years", and #1571 (2025)↗, "And Democrats have been begging for a chance to compromise with Republicans and pass a shitty GOP border bill for over seventeen years, now. The problem is, Republicans can't seem to come up with a bill racist enough to satisfy Republicans.; "Goodbye 4th Amendment" #15 (2025)↗, "Remember, DACA "Dreamers" come from President George W. Bush, and complaints of border crisis depend on seventeen years of Republicans refusing their own bills."
Llanos, Jackie. "The Trump Administration's DACA Renewal Delays Are Pushing People Out of Work". NOTUS. 20 April 2026. NOTUS.org. 20 April 2026. https://www.notus.org/immigration/daca-status-renewal-delay-jobs
TheVat
Valued Senior Member
Paging James Madison, who identified partisanship as a "disease" in the body politic...and then quickly set about forming a political party and being partisan as hell. The current partisanship on the Right has settled into a caricature of itself, with its three step program for scoring points: break something, then point out the something doesn't work, then say the something was invented by Democrats.
How It's Going (Good Seed Update)
It is easy enough to wonder, amid a pogrom, where the good cops are. Per the bad seeds thesis of police corruption, there ought to be a plethora of good cops ready to actually do the job. Associated Press↱ brings an answer from Hennepin:
It is a difficult situation; County Attorney Moriarity acknowledges there is "no modern precedent" for the federal government's behavior in Minnesota, "So it requires a lot of us to dig in and look at ways to hold people accountable that we probably never thought we would be looking at in our careers."
Hennepin County has been trying to investigate multiple incidents; AP notes charges against ICE agent Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr. for second degree assault, and prosecutors have made "substantial progress" toward his apprehension. Furthermore, county authorities are also investigating the slayings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti: "Although Moriarty hasn’t charged anyone in either killing, she has said she’s confident her office’s investigations will bring transparency, even if doesn’t bring charges."
In the moment, it remains unclear what justice can be achieved amid the wreckage of pogrom.
____________________
Notes:
Fingerhut, Hannah and Tim Sullivan. "Minnesota county charges an ICE officer in a nonfatal shooting during Trump's immigration crackdown". Associated Press. 18 May 2026. APNews.com. 18 May 2026. https://apnews.com/article/minneapo...es-sosacelis-bd78efd7f341a9bd9c1acc2c0037a958
It is easy enough to wonder, amid a pogrom, where the good cops are. Per the bad seeds thesis of police corruption, there ought to be a plethora of good cops ready to actually do the job. Associated Press↱ brings an answer from Hennepin:
A Minnesota county prosecutor on Monday announced charges against an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in the nonfatal shooting of a Venezuelan man during the Trump administration's crackdown in the state.
The officer, Christian Castro, is charged with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime in the Jan. 14 shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said at a news conference. A warrant was issued for his arrest.
"Mr. Castro is an ICE agent, but his federal badge does not make him immune from state charges for his criminal conduct in Minnesota," Moriarty said, adding that Sosa-Celis never posed a threat and that her office received no cooperation from the federal government. "There is no such thing as absolute immunity for federal officers who commit crimes in this state or any other."
Castro, 52, fired through a home's front door and shot Sosa-Celis in the thigh after Castro and another officer chased a different man, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, to the Minneapolis apartment duplex where he and Sosa-Celis lived, Moriarty said, noting that both Sosa-Celis and Aljorna were legally in the U.S.
Federal authorities initially accused Sosa-Celis and Aljorna of beating an officer with a broom handle and a snow shovel during the confrontation. But a federal judge later dismissed the charges, and ICE and the Justice Department opened a joint investigation into whether two immigration officers lied about what happened.
The officer, Christian Castro, is charged with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime in the Jan. 14 shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said at a news conference. A warrant was issued for his arrest.
"Mr. Castro is an ICE agent, but his federal badge does not make him immune from state charges for his criminal conduct in Minnesota," Moriarty said, adding that Sosa-Celis never posed a threat and that her office received no cooperation from the federal government. "There is no such thing as absolute immunity for federal officers who commit crimes in this state or any other."
Castro, 52, fired through a home's front door and shot Sosa-Celis in the thigh after Castro and another officer chased a different man, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, to the Minneapolis apartment duplex where he and Sosa-Celis lived, Moriarty said, noting that both Sosa-Celis and Aljorna were legally in the U.S.
Federal authorities initially accused Sosa-Celis and Aljorna of beating an officer with a broom handle and a snow shovel during the confrontation. But a federal judge later dismissed the charges, and ICE and the Justice Department opened a joint investigation into whether two immigration officers lied about what happened.
It is a difficult situation; County Attorney Moriarity acknowledges there is "no modern precedent" for the federal government's behavior in Minnesota, "So it requires a lot of us to dig in and look at ways to hold people accountable that we probably never thought we would be looking at in our careers."
Hennepin County has been trying to investigate multiple incidents; AP notes charges against ICE agent Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr. for second degree assault, and prosecutors have made "substantial progress" toward his apprehension. Furthermore, county authorities are also investigating the slayings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti: "Although Moriarty hasn’t charged anyone in either killing, she has said she’s confident her office’s investigations will bring transparency, even if doesn’t bring charges."
Minnesota leaders and the Trump administration have clashed over who has the authority to investigate and prosecute federal officers for on-duty conduct, with the administration suggesting that state officials don’t have jurisdiction.
State officials, though, have said they don’t trust the federal government to investigate itself or hold officers accountable.
State officials, though, have said they don’t trust the federal government to investigate itself or hold officers accountable.
In the moment, it remains unclear what justice can be achieved amid the wreckage of pogrom.
____________________
Notes:
Fingerhut, Hannah and Tim Sullivan. "Minnesota county charges an ICE officer in a nonfatal shooting during Trump's immigration crackdown". Associated Press. 18 May 2026. APNews.com. 18 May 2026. https://apnews.com/article/minneapo...es-sosacelis-bd78efd7f341a9bd9c1acc2c0037a958
#pogrom | #WhatTheyVotedFor
It's an inconvenient truth, compared to those who would make excuses:
The State Department doesn't seem to want anyone to know that it has an Office of Remigration.
There's no mention on the department's social media feeds or even on the official website. There aren't many details about when it was established, who is running the office, or what work it is carrying out. When WIRED reached out to ask if the office exists, the State Department wouldn't share specific details about the office and its work.
But the office, created a year ago and seemingly named for a racist far right European plan to expel minorities and immigrants from Western nations, does exist. The office's main purpose, according to one source familiar with the work, is to process payments possibly worth tens of millions of dollars to facilitate the deportations of immigrants to countries they may not even be from. All of this is happening, the source says, with little to no oversight.
The Office of Remigration is at the heart of the Trump administration's dramatically expanded efforts to urge other governments, many with track records of public corruption, human rights abuses, and human trafficking, into accepting immigrants sent from the US, who are not their own citizens. This is a key part of the administration's broader mass deportation efforts, which have repeatedly even seen US citizens deported to other countries.
"Who's to know where the money goes because there's no real monitoring, or any kind of accountability attached to these payments," the source familiar with the work at the Office of Remigration tells WIRED. "In fact, it was made pretty explicit to us by our leadership that they weren't interested in applying the same levels of accountability as we had traditionally applied to any kind of federal funding that we were responsible for managing to international organizations or NGOs."
In response to specific questions from WIRED, the State Department provided the following statement: "President Trump promised to reverse the Biden-era invasion of illegal aliens and once again make America a country for Americans. Remigration puts these words into action," the State Department wrote in an emailed statement not attributed to a named spokesperson. "The Office of Remigration directly addresses the top priorities of the National Security Strategy: reinstating border security as the primary element of national security and ending mass migration."
There's no mention on the department's social media feeds or even on the official website. There aren't many details about when it was established, who is running the office, or what work it is carrying out. When WIRED reached out to ask if the office exists, the State Department wouldn't share specific details about the office and its work.
But the office, created a year ago and seemingly named for a racist far right European plan to expel minorities and immigrants from Western nations, does exist. The office's main purpose, according to one source familiar with the work, is to process payments possibly worth tens of millions of dollars to facilitate the deportations of immigrants to countries they may not even be from. All of this is happening, the source says, with little to no oversight.
The Office of Remigration is at the heart of the Trump administration's dramatically expanded efforts to urge other governments, many with track records of public corruption, human rights abuses, and human trafficking, into accepting immigrants sent from the US, who are not their own citizens. This is a key part of the administration's broader mass deportation efforts, which have repeatedly even seen US citizens deported to other countries.
"Who's to know where the money goes because there's no real monitoring, or any kind of accountability attached to these payments," the source familiar with the work at the Office of Remigration tells WIRED. "In fact, it was made pretty explicit to us by our leadership that they weren't interested in applying the same levels of accountability as we had traditionally applied to any kind of federal funding that we were responsible for managing to international organizations or NGOs."
In response to specific questions from WIRED, the State Department provided the following statement: "President Trump promised to reverse the Biden-era invasion of illegal aliens and once again make America a country for Americans. Remigration puts these words into action," the State Department wrote in an emailed statement not attributed to a named spokesperson. "The Office of Remigration directly addresses the top priorities of the National Security Strategy: reinstating border security as the primary element of national security and ending mass migration."
Consider, for a moment, a middle-road position that claims to not support something, but, rather, so deplores the opposition to that something that they must oppose the opposition. It's actually more common than the description might seem to suggest; antiliberalism is a lot of things, including ego defense and even a career.
There's an old Simpsons↱ joke, "You know, the one with all the well-meaning rules that don't work out in real life, uh, Christianity." This isn't quite the same, but, rather, the one with all the well-meaning justifications that just don't work out in real life, uh, conservatism. It doesn't matter what other reasons we pretend in order to justify Republican voters and advocates. Even in the time of the Tea Party, this was clear, that they always, regardless of anything else they said, came back to American traditionalist supremacism and populism. It's true back to the time of Atwater and the rise of the Southern Strategy.
Women, nonwhites, nonchristians, nonbinary, the last sixty years, at least, have seen Republicans roll through the traditional prejudices, apparently just fine with never getting the other reasons they might pretend to justify their conservative votes. Now that Trump has rendered government so weak as Republicans have long intended, Republican voters complain. But, at the polls, when it counts, conservative dissatisfaction only reiterates its support for the racism, misogyny, supremacism, conspiracism, and now that the traditionalist culture of sexual predation is on grotesque public display, they're still backing more of the same: MTG was replaced by a maga successor in Georgia; Sen. John Cornyn is dumped by Texas Republicans in favor of a known corrupt maga panderer who literally just helped a friend escape justice for raping a child.
We'll believe their dissatisfaction when it is reflected in their votes. Meanwhile, they hang on because this is what they get out of it all:
Remigration is an extremist idea that has taken hold among far right groups in many European countries in recent years. It falsely posits that Western countries can regain their former glory by deporting all immigrants, including citizens who have failed to assimilate to western values.
For critics, the term is synonymous with ethnic cleansing. "The Trump Administration's so-called 'remigration' efforts are part of an inhumane and coercive agenda, one that targets undocumented immigrants, most of whom have no criminal record, and coerces other countries to accept deportees through threats of tariffs, visa restrictions, and cuts to health and economic assistance," says congresswoman Lois Frankel, a ranking member of the House Appropriations subcommittee on national security, Department of State, and related programs. "Migrants are being sent to these countries where they have no local ties and often do not speak the language."
For critics, the term is synonymous with ethnic cleansing. "The Trump Administration's so-called 'remigration' efforts are part of an inhumane and coercive agenda, one that targets undocumented immigrants, most of whom have no criminal record, and coerces other countries to accept deportees through threats of tariffs, visa restrictions, and cuts to health and economic assistance," says congresswoman Lois Frankel, a ranking member of the House Appropriations subcommittee on national security, Department of State, and related programs. "Migrants are being sent to these countries where they have no local ties and often do not speak the language."
Both Trump and Steven Miller pitched remigration in 2024, before the election; a year ago, Trump followed up on that plan and created an Office of Remigration under the Bureau of Population, Migration, and Refugees.
This is what they voted for. In the end, it is what remains. It's always what remains, and with increasing stridency in the twenty-first century. The story that history tells suggests that it really might be about racism, sexism, and obvious craziness. Even exasperated antiliberal wags trying to fend off exaggerated strawmen have been utterly humiliated by the sort of obvious outcome that was only ever unimaginable because we didn't want to ever believe it was true.
Maybe it wouldn't have been such a terrible idea to hold conservative politics to, y'know, even the most basic standards of integrity. That so many people are unwilling to is not insignificant, and given the generations passing without any change of course, it's not just okay to believe them, but, rather, the reality we have before us.
____________________
Notes:
Gilbert, David. "The State Department Really Doesn't Want to Talk About the Office of Remigration". Wired. 27 May 2026. Wired.com. 27 May 2026. https://www.wired.com/story/the-sta...want-to-talk-about-the-office-of-remigration/
Omens (Late Edition)
We might suggest it sounds ominous—
—but the omens passed over in order to get here suggest it's not so much ominous toward what comes, but affirming of what has already happened.
Look, it's not like we couldn't see this coming, even before Trump, but for whatever reason nobody has ever been able to explain, many people who claim to not support this kind of stuff have also long objected to holding it to the same standards as anything else.
Sympathy or condescension: It's like the question of a blind spot↗: What is an accident that persists for decades? Or, perhaps, Cineas↗: "White extremists are often infantilized and given room to work out their feelings and blow off steam. We are told we need to listen to them, to try to understand their plight and psychology."
And now, here we are. Imagine that. Oh, right, you don't need to. Maybe, if you get a chance to try again in this lifetime, it might be a good idea to actually distinguish between political views arguing about facts, and make-believe masquerading as a political view.
To the one, someone you don't like telling you what God wants; to the other, someone you do like telling you that's just how the world works; to the people who have to suffer for the sake of make-believe, it's all just make-believe.
(¿Daddy Doggy, what did you do in the war? ¡Oh, well, I protected political views against censorship, because it wouldn't have been fair to expect Nazis to make sense!)
Remigration.
(¿Are you proud?)
____________________
Notes:
Davis, Charles R. "Why did the press ignore a gathering of the world's leading fascists?" The Redoubt. 31 May 2026. TheRedoubt.net. 31 May 2026. https://www.theredoubt.net/why-did-the-press-ignore-a-gathering-of-the-worlds-leading-fascists/
We might suggest it sounds ominous—
Just before he confirmed his attendance at a neo-fascist summit in Portugal, Gregory Bovino, the former U.S. Border Patrol commander who was once the face of President Donald Trump's mass deportations, posted a photo on X showing himself giving a salute familiar to anyone who has heard of Nazi Germany.
It would be easier to dismiss this Hitlerian greeting as an awkward gesture — as some did when X's owner, Elon Musk, gave it at Trump's 2025 inauguration — were it not selected and shared by a man on his way to a racial-purity conference. The "Remigration Summit 2026," so called, was held May 30 at the Salmanha Residence hotel just south of Porto, Portugal, and its organizers were not subtle.
"Weimar conditions require Weimar solutions," argues Afonso Gonçalves, chief organizer of the event. He's the founder of the far-right group Reconquista, so named for the mass expulsion of Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula. That's who Bovino was photographed standing next to after he landed in Europe.
Martin Sellner, an extremist from Austria, is best known for pushing the "great replacement" conspiracy theory — that Jewish elites are seeking to exterminate the white race via mass migration — that has motivated mass shooters from Pennsylvania to New Zealand. He was the other man standing next to Bovino.
Other speakers included a Belgian fascist convicted of Holocaust denial and the founder of a Swiss neo-Nazi group called "Junge Tat" who is quite open about his fondness for "National Socialism."
(Davis↱)
It would be easier to dismiss this Hitlerian greeting as an awkward gesture — as some did when X's owner, Elon Musk, gave it at Trump's 2025 inauguration — were it not selected and shared by a man on his way to a racial-purity conference. The "Remigration Summit 2026," so called, was held May 30 at the Salmanha Residence hotel just south of Porto, Portugal, and its organizers were not subtle.
"Weimar conditions require Weimar solutions," argues Afonso Gonçalves, chief organizer of the event. He's the founder of the far-right group Reconquista, so named for the mass expulsion of Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula. That's who Bovino was photographed standing next to after he landed in Europe.
Martin Sellner, an extremist from Austria, is best known for pushing the "great replacement" conspiracy theory — that Jewish elites are seeking to exterminate the white race via mass migration — that has motivated mass shooters from Pennsylvania to New Zealand. He was the other man standing next to Bovino.
Other speakers included a Belgian fascist convicted of Holocaust denial and the founder of a Swiss neo-Nazi group called "Junge Tat" who is quite open about his fondness for "National Socialism."
(Davis↱)
—but the omens passed over in order to get here suggest it's not so much ominous toward what comes, but affirming of what has already happened.
Look, it's not like we couldn't see this coming, even before Trump, but for whatever reason nobody has ever been able to explain, many people who claim to not support this kind of stuff have also long objected to holding it to the same standards as anything else.
We, broadly speaking, demand nothing from the right, even if we don't share the politics. When illiberal figures behave badly, as they are wont to do — when they give voice to their basest and oft-libidinal desires and hatreds — it is viewed as akin to a mangy dog chewing on a slipper. They are not defying expectations; they can't really be helped.
Whether from sympathy or condescension, far-right politics are interpreted as naturally occurring in a way that left-wing politics are not. Small-minded, reactionary tribalism is the default setting of the world, or so it is thought. It's only news, and only interesting, when someone who purports to be better shows that they're not.
Whether from sympathy or condescension, far-right politics are interpreted as naturally occurring in a way that left-wing politics are not. Small-minded, reactionary tribalism is the default setting of the world, or so it is thought. It's only news, and only interesting, when someone who purports to be better shows that they're not.
Sympathy or condescension: It's like the question of a blind spot↗: What is an accident that persists for decades? Or, perhaps, Cineas↗: "White extremists are often infantilized and given room to work out their feelings and blow off steam. We are told we need to listen to them, to try to understand their plight and psychology."
And now, here we are. Imagine that. Oh, right, you don't need to. Maybe, if you get a chance to try again in this lifetime, it might be a good idea to actually distinguish between political views arguing about facts, and make-believe masquerading as a political view.
To the one, someone you don't like telling you what God wants; to the other, someone you do like telling you that's just how the world works; to the people who have to suffer for the sake of make-believe, it's all just make-believe.
(¿Daddy Doggy, what did you do in the war? ¡Oh, well, I protected political views against censorship, because it wouldn't have been fair to expect Nazis to make sense!)
Remigration.
(¿Are you proud?)
____________________
Notes:
Davis, Charles R. "Why did the press ignore a gathering of the world's leading fascists?" The Redoubt. 31 May 2026. TheRedoubt.net. 31 May 2026. https://www.theredoubt.net/why-did-the-press-ignore-a-gathering-of-the-worlds-leading-fascists/
The Persistence of Surreality (What It Takes)
His Honor, Judge Dudek, is not amused↱:
Legal affairs reporter Kyle Cheney↱ explains:
It is important to remember that immigration judges are not part of the judiciary, but an administrative section of the Department of Justice. Immigration judges do not get to defy the judiciary.
____________________
Notes:
Dudek, Kyle C. "Order". Iastrebov v. Warden. United States District Court Middle District of Florida Fort Myers Division. 11 June 2026,. storage.CourtListener.com. 11 June 2026. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flmd.460010/gov.uscourts.flmd.460010.13.0.pdf
"A federal court is not a testing lab where the Executive branch can pilot a concession to get a case closed, stand by silently while its own administrative process flouts the resulting mandate, and then stroll back in demanding a clean slate. Give me a break."
―Judge Kyle C. Dudek
His Honor, Judge Dudek, is not amused↱:
Petitioner Dmitrii Iastrebov is a noncitizen sitting in immigration detention. (Doc. 1.) Last month, this Court ordered the Government to provide him with an individualized bond hearing under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a). This was after the Government conceded he was entitled to such relief. See Iastrebov v. Warden … (M.D. Fla. May 13, 2026).
What happened next borders on the surreal. Five days later, an immigration judge refused to hold the ordered hearing, claiming Iastrebov is not covered by § 1226(a) and thus ineligible for bond. Instead of defending this Court's mandate, the Government's counsel acquiesced in that refusal and waived any administrative appeal. Now, faced with a renewed habeas petition, the Government casually announces that its previous concession "was in error" and asks this Court to reverse itself and hold that Iastrebov is instead subject to mandatory detention under 8 U.S.C. § 1225.
The Government was right the first time. And its request for a do-over here is not just legally unsupportable, it is a masterclass in litigation cynicism. A federal court is not a testing lab where the Executive branch can pilot a concession to get a case closed, stand by silently while its own administrative process flouts the resulting mandate, and then stroll back in demanding a clean slate. Give me a break.
Why Iastrebov is legally entitled to a bond hearing is a question this Court has already answered in painstaking detail—an explanation that should not have required a sequel … And because the Government has shown that it cannot follow this Court's explicit directions and offers zero assurance that it will comply with the statutory process it previously championed, Iastrebov will be immediately released.
Accordingly, the Renewed Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus (Doc. 2) is GRANTED. Iastrebov is entitled to a bond hearing. But because the Government has shown a complete inability to follow judicial directions, the only remedy that "law and justice require" is immediate release. 28 U.S.C. § 2243. The Government is directed to release Iastrebov within 48 hours of this Order. Respondents shall facilitate his transportation from the detention facility by notifying his counsel when and where he can be collected. The Clerk is DIRECTED to terminate any pending motions and deadlines, enter judgment, and close this case
ORDERED in Fort Myers, Florida on June 11, 2026.
What happened next borders on the surreal. Five days later, an immigration judge refused to hold the ordered hearing, claiming Iastrebov is not covered by § 1226(a) and thus ineligible for bond. Instead of defending this Court's mandate, the Government's counsel acquiesced in that refusal and waived any administrative appeal. Now, faced with a renewed habeas petition, the Government casually announces that its previous concession "was in error" and asks this Court to reverse itself and hold that Iastrebov is instead subject to mandatory detention under 8 U.S.C. § 1225.
The Government was right the first time. And its request for a do-over here is not just legally unsupportable, it is a masterclass in litigation cynicism. A federal court is not a testing lab where the Executive branch can pilot a concession to get a case closed, stand by silently while its own administrative process flouts the resulting mandate, and then stroll back in demanding a clean slate. Give me a break.
Why Iastrebov is legally entitled to a bond hearing is a question this Court has already answered in painstaking detail—an explanation that should not have required a sequel … And because the Government has shown that it cannot follow this Court's explicit directions and offers zero assurance that it will comply with the statutory process it previously championed, Iastrebov will be immediately released.
Accordingly, the Renewed Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus (Doc. 2) is GRANTED. Iastrebov is entitled to a bond hearing. But because the Government has shown a complete inability to follow judicial directions, the only remedy that "law and justice require" is immediate release. 28 U.S.C. § 2243. The Government is directed to release Iastrebov within 48 hours of this Order. Respondents shall facilitate his transportation from the detention facility by notifying his counsel when and where he can be collected. The Clerk is DIRECTED to terminate any pending motions and deadlines, enter judgment, and close this case
ORDERED in Fort Myers, Florida on June 11, 2026.
Legal affairs reporter Kyle Cheney↱ explains:
A federal judge in Florida is excoriating the Trump administration for a "masterclass in litigation cynicism" by accepting immigration judge's ruling that conflicted with (and is legally superseded by) his own.
It is important to remember that immigration judges are not part of the judiciary, but an administrative section of the Department of Justice. Immigration judges do not get to defy the judiciary.
____________________
Notes:
Dudek, Kyle C. "Order". Iastrebov v. Warden. United States District Court Middle District of Florida Fort Myers Division. 11 June 2026,. storage.CourtListener.com. 11 June 2026. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flmd.460010/gov.uscourts.flmd.460010.13.0.pdf
Is the Trump administration taking their lead from fishing, where they often catch and release? Anyhoo, I suspect that the detainee will be released... and then rearrested almost immediately, possibly before leaving the detention centre's car park.
Will the immigration judge in this case be reprimanded? Not being part of the judiciary it's difficult to see how? Or maybe Trump will look to promote him to the Supreme Court.
Will the immigration judge in this case be reprimanded? Not being part of the judiciary it's difficult to see how? Or maybe Trump will look to promote him to the Supreme Court.
Which Part Do You Find Confusing? (#WhatTheyVotedFor)
Salute: U.S. Border Patrol Commander Gregory K. Bovino salutes his troops after a federal court hearing in Chicago.
When Norman Ornstein↱ describes Greg Bovino as an "American Nazi", do at least recall that Ornstein is a fellow at a conservative think tank.
And when attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick↱ declares, "the mask is FULLY off from the man now", at least the oppositional immigration advocate didn't actually call him a Nazi.
Bovino↱, the former Border Patrol commander at large, for his part, waxed romantic about Vlad the Impaler as an early remigrationist¹ and icon of border security.
____________________
Notes:
Salute: U.S. Border Patrol Commander Gregory K. Bovino salutes his troops after a federal court hearing in Chicago.
When Norman Ornstein↱ describes Greg Bovino as an "American Nazi", do at least recall that Ornstein is a fellow at a conservative think tank.
And when attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick↱ declares, "the mask is FULLY off from the man now", at least the oppositional immigration advocate didn't actually call him a Nazi.
Bovino↱, the former Border Patrol commander at large, for his part, waxed romantic about Vlad the Impaler as an early remigrationist¹ and icon of border security.
____________________
Notes:
¹ On remigration, see #47↑, 49↑ above. That is, while the State Department isn't anxious to discuss its Trump-era Office of Remigration, Bovino himself was anxious to be seen overseas at a racial-purity remigration "summit" alongside neo-Nazis and other anti-Semites, as well as white supremacist conspiracy theorists.
To Withdraw the American Promise (#WhatTheyVotedFor)
Once upon a time, Donald Trump announced that the nation was "closed". To the other, at least he never oversaw the dismantling of the Statue of Liberty, recent intimations on that possibility notwithstanding.
There really isn't much of an American promise, anymore. It's like Americans heard the old chatter about slave labor in Dubai and got jealous. Compared to our history, that at least makes sense.
Aside from disposable labor, it's unclear what this outlook on immigration actually wants of immigrants.
We must be careful with our words and construction: As things stand, a future Democratic president is empowered to deport a bunch of white people. To the other, c'mon, liberals aren't supposed to do that kind of thing.
After all, we ought not hold the white South Africans responsible for Donald Trump's criminality. To the other, though, they have benefited from turpitude, and under turpitudinous pretense. That latter is their own. This is, of course, easy enough to rectify: On the record, at their hearing, denounce (or renounce) and then recite against the white-victimhood mythography, except Americans have always been a little creeped out, at least, by those sorts of particular demands, so, c'mon, liberals aren't supposed to do it like that.
Meanwhile, these extraordinary beneficiaries will always know they were shown special favor for corrupt and racist reasons, and we should recall that particular point against sympathy for their inevitable lamentation that they should somehow feel ashamed of being white¹.
Even still, they get to keep all that special benefit that nobody else gets, and there's not much for a liberal to say about ingratitude to those who are returning to South Africa because it's just too dangerous, here, with all the crime and guns and nonwhites.
It's a low bar:
Think of it this way: They came for the green cards. It's one thing that we could see a whole lot of this coming, but, I mean, they came for the green cards. It's one thing to use the things to constrain and manipulate, but unmooring the value of a green card is to cut that leash. The only way it makes sense is that the difference no longer matters.
And in this the difference between sinister and stupid is indistinguishable.
Sure, it would have been hard to project this outcome, even in 2024, because doing this particular thing this particular way is unbelievably obscure. Inasmuch as truth is stranger than fiction, and there are more things in the Universe than we might imagine, this is more an opportunity of circumstance; it doesn't actually have to make sense². But, yes, this is what they voted for. And not just in 2024. They've been at it for generations, now.
____________________
Notes:
Dias, Isabela. "SCOTUS Gave the Government a 'Blank Check' to Weaken Due Process for Green Card Holders". Mother Jones. 23 June 2026. MotherJones.com. 24 June 2026. https://www.motherjones.com/politic...to-weaken-due-process-for-green-card-holders/
Once upon a time, Donald Trump announced that the nation was "closed". To the other, at least he never oversaw the dismantling of the Statue of Liberty, recent intimations on that possibility notwithstanding.
The ruling in Blanche v. Lau is likely to create a chilling effect on lawful permanent residents traveling overseas. Notably, it follows proposed rules by the Trump administration to force immigrants to pursue green card applications from abroad, and make it considerably more expensive for green card holders to apply for US citizenship.
In her dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said the Court's decision undermined the "benefits and security that come with having a green card." In the worst-case scenario, Justice Jackson reasoned, the government could "merely assume" at the border that a green card holder should be demoted to "seeking admission" and only justify that determination with "post hoc evidence."
"I worry that the Court has now handed the Government a massive blank check," Justice Jackson wrote. Green card holders, she added, "are as close to citizenship as one can get absent naturalization…Today, the majority ignores that crucial fact and empowers Government officials to act accordingly."
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick with the American immigration Council noted on social media that the Supreme Court's ruling does not mean that green card holders can simply be ordered deported by border agents. But classifying lawful permanent residents returning from abroad as "seeking admission" could open up a wide range of negative legal and practical consequences for them, including the possibility of detention and, eventually, deportation proceedings requiring a higher burden of proof for defense.
(Dias↱)
In her dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said the Court's decision undermined the "benefits and security that come with having a green card." In the worst-case scenario, Justice Jackson reasoned, the government could "merely assume" at the border that a green card holder should be demoted to "seeking admission" and only justify that determination with "post hoc evidence."
"I worry that the Court has now handed the Government a massive blank check," Justice Jackson wrote. Green card holders, she added, "are as close to citizenship as one can get absent naturalization…Today, the majority ignores that crucial fact and empowers Government officials to act accordingly."
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick with the American immigration Council noted on social media that the Supreme Court's ruling does not mean that green card holders can simply be ordered deported by border agents. But classifying lawful permanent residents returning from abroad as "seeking admission" could open up a wide range of negative legal and practical consequences for them, including the possibility of detention and, eventually, deportation proceedings requiring a higher burden of proof for defense.
(Dias↱)
There really isn't much of an American promise, anymore. It's like Americans heard the old chatter about slave labor in Dubai and got jealous. Compared to our history, that at least makes sense.
Aside from disposable labor, it's unclear what this outlook on immigration actually wants of immigrants.
†
We must be careful with our words and construction: As things stand, a future Democratic president is empowered to deport a bunch of white people. To the other, c'mon, liberals aren't supposed to do that kind of thing.
After all, we ought not hold the white South Africans responsible for Donald Trump's criminality. To the other, though, they have benefited from turpitude, and under turpitudinous pretense. That latter is their own. This is, of course, easy enough to rectify: On the record, at their hearing, denounce (or renounce) and then recite against the white-victimhood mythography, except Americans have always been a little creeped out, at least, by those sorts of particular demands, so, c'mon, liberals aren't supposed to do it like that.
Meanwhile, these extraordinary beneficiaries will always know they were shown special favor for corrupt and racist reasons, and we should recall that particular point against sympathy for their inevitable lamentation that they should somehow feel ashamed of being white¹.
Even still, they get to keep all that special benefit that nobody else gets, and there's not much for a liberal to say about ingratitude to those who are returning to South Africa because it's just too dangerous, here, with all the crime and guns and nonwhites.
†
It's a low bar:
Allen Orr, former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said the ruling lowers the due process standards green card holders are entitled to. "We're giving a border officer the ability to determine if it's a crime of moral turpitude and you might not even be guilty of it," he said. "If the facts are clear and the person is excludable and does not deserve to be in the United States, then take their green card but afford them a process greater than some border officer at the port of entry."
He warned on Bluesky: "The danger of this ruling is that it creates an incentive to use the border as a place where rights are diminished." Orr said it further sends a troubling message to lawful permanent residents. "I already have clients who have green cards who are just afraid to travel," he said, "because the government has said, as a green card holder, you're just now a long-term visitor, we could deny you for anything." The decision, he concluded, "aligns with the goal of excluding and removing people from the United States that are not US-born nationals."
He warned on Bluesky: "The danger of this ruling is that it creates an incentive to use the border as a place where rights are diminished." Orr said it further sends a troubling message to lawful permanent residents. "I already have clients who have green cards who are just afraid to travel," he said, "because the government has said, as a green card holder, you're just now a long-term visitor, we could deny you for anything." The decision, he concluded, "aligns with the goal of excluding and removing people from the United States that are not US-born nationals."
Think of it this way: They came for the green cards. It's one thing that we could see a whole lot of this coming, but, I mean, they came for the green cards. It's one thing to use the things to constrain and manipulate, but unmooring the value of a green card is to cut that leash. The only way it makes sense is that the difference no longer matters.
And in this the difference between sinister and stupid is indistinguishable.
Sure, it would have been hard to project this outcome, even in 2024, because doing this particular thing this particular way is unbelievably obscure. Inasmuch as truth is stranger than fiction, and there are more things in the Universe than we might imagine, this is more an opportunity of circumstance; it doesn't actually have to make sense². But, yes, this is what they voted for. And not just in 2024. They've been at it for generations, now.
____________________
Notes:
¹ see "Supremacism and Priority: Republicans and the American Right Wing" #111↗ (2026), at note 2: "to what degree is that bad feeling his own infliction upon himself? And does he teach it to his son?"
² see "Insulting one's allies - to what end?" #23↗ (2025): "the reason why he or anyone else thinks this is a good idea is entirely internal, as such has no obligation to make sense to anybody, and likely will not make any logical sense"; "His team is sympathetic … because they think they're going to get what they want, but even if they do, they are harmed. If we discount that reality according to some superstition that nobody would do that to themselves on purpose, we're doing it wrong."
² see "Insulting one's allies - to what end?" #23↗ (2025): "the reason why he or anyone else thinks this is a good idea is entirely internal, as such has no obligation to make sense to anybody, and likely will not make any logical sense"; "His team is sympathetic … because they think they're going to get what they want, but even if they do, they are harmed. If we discount that reality according to some superstition that nobody would do that to themselves on purpose, we're doing it wrong."
Dias, Isabela. "SCOTUS Gave the Government a 'Blank Check' to Weaken Due Process for Green Card Holders". Mother Jones. 23 June 2026. MotherJones.com. 24 June 2026. https://www.motherjones.com/politic...to-weaken-due-process-for-green-card-holders/
Why the R-Word Isn't the New N-Word: Racists Be Racist
Judge Algenon L. Marbley↱ of the Southern District of Ohio Eastern Division puts it plainly—
—along the way to enjoining the DHS disruption of applications from disfavored countries. And, oh, the extraordinary cite (p.7), "trump-shithole-countries-comment-admission".
And, yeah, just to be clear: It's racism.
It's not a question about whether anyone is suppressing a political view; it's racism, and not an appropriate basis for governance. This isn't hard, and it never really has been.
____________________
Notes:
Marbley, Algenon L. "Opinion & Order". Doe 1 v. Edlow. United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio Eastern Division. 6 July 2026. storage.CourtListener.com. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ohsd.311540/gov.uscourts.ohsd.311540.24.0.pdf
Judge Algenon L. Marbley↱ of the Southern District of Ohio Eastern Division puts it plainly—
This general hostility to immigration contrasts with an apparent interest in and preference for the migration of white people. Aside from a stated desire for more Scandinavian immigration, President Trump has sought to welcome white South Africans. On February 7, 2025, he signed Executive Order 14161, titled Addressing Egregious Actions of the Republic of South Africa. 90 Fed. Reg. 9497 (Feb. 7, 2025). In that Executive Order, the president determined that "the United States shall promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees escaping [the government of South Africa's] race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation". Id. at 9497. In accordance with President Trump's Executive Order, the overwhelming number of refugees to the United States appear to be white Afrikaners from South Africa, and the White House has touted the plight of "white farmers in South Africa."12 Thus, from October 1, 2025 through May 31, 2026, 6,665 of the 6,668 refugees admitted into the United States were from South Africa.
—along the way to enjoining the DHS disruption of applications from disfavored countries. And, oh, the extraordinary cite (p.7), "trump-shithole-countries-comment-admission".
And, yeah, just to be clear: It's racism.
It's not a question about whether anyone is suppressing a political view; it's racism, and not an appropriate basis for governance. This isn't hard, and it never really has been.
____________________
Notes:
Marbley, Algenon L. "Opinion & Order". Doe 1 v. Edlow. United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio Eastern Division. 6 July 2026. storage.CourtListener.com. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ohsd.311540/gov.uscourts.ohsd.311540.24.0.pdf
What It Takes
Attorney Eric Lee↱ observes:
And, yes, that would appear to be precisely what happened in the Matter of Lopez-Davila: While it is true that "the Immigration Judge concluded that the respondent's daughter 'would then become in operation an orphan'", the Board decided "the Immigration Judge's factual findings do not support the legal conclusion that the respondent's removal would result in exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to the child."
Attorney Eric Lee↱ observes:
The immigration "court" system is a cruel farce.
The Board of Immigration Appeals just ruled that a 6-yr-old US citizen child wouldn't suffer the "hardship" sufficient to save mom from deportation where mom's deportation would mean the little girl would become orphan.
The Board of Immigration Appeals just ruled that a 6-yr-old US citizen child wouldn't suffer the "hardship" sufficient to save mom from deportation where mom's deportation would mean the little girl would become orphan.
And, yes, that would appear to be precisely what happened in the Matter of Lopez-Davila: While it is true that "the Immigration Judge concluded that the respondent's daughter 'would then become in operation an orphan'", the Board decided "the Immigration Judge's factual findings do not support the legal conclusion that the respondent's removal would result in exceptional and extremely unusual hardship to the child."
#ThisIsBlood | #WhatTheyVotedFor
And update on the pogrom from Ron Filipkowski↱:
Now we are seeing the results of Trump's policy to mass hire dangerous unqualified chuds with shortened training to send out on America's streets with weapons and de facto immunity from consequences.
Or, had you not heard?
Per Associated Press↱:
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shot a Colombian man in Maine this week is an Army veteran who has struggled with serious mental health issues since early childhood and never should have been given a badge and gun to patrol American streets, several of his close relatives told The Associated Press.
David Brouillette has a history of terrifying and violent behavior, according to those relatives. They accuse him of attacking women in his life over the years, and one shared a voicemail with the AP from last winter in which he told her that he thought someone should slit her throat.
Brouillette's troubling past further challenges how thoroughly the Department of Homeland Security has vetted recruits as it went on a hiring spree to help carry out President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.
David Brouillette has a history of terrifying and violent behavior, according to those relatives. They accuse him of attacking women in his life over the years, and one shared a voicemail with the AP from last winter in which he told her that he thought someone should slit her throat.
Brouillette's troubling past further challenges how thoroughly the Department of Homeland Security has vetted recruits as it went on a hiring spree to help carry out President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.
Something goes here about lowered standards and concomitant expectations, but you might think it's some sort of dark comedy bit for the way it all piles on. Truth is stranger than fiction, to be certain, but just start with this:
Brouillette, 37, told his ex-wife Ashley Brouillette late last year that he had been hired by ICE. She said that because of his long history of psychiatric issues, she thought he was having a mental health episode and she didn't believe him. She didn't realize he'd been telling the truth until this week, when videos began circulating online of the moments surrounding the shooting.
And here's what might be a uniquely American contrast:
David Brouillette doesn't appear to have a criminal record in Maine, as a check with the Maine Department of Public Safety returned no records for him.
But hundreds of family court records obtained from the Augusta District Court clerk's office detail years of allegations of physical and verbal abuse raised by his second ex-wife on behalf of herself and his daughters.
But hundreds of family court records obtained from the Augusta District Court clerk's office detail years of allegations of physical and verbal abuse raised by his second ex-wife on behalf of herself and his daughters.
He has two ex-wives, one of whom accuses him of stalking, harassment, and various abuse of both her and her daughter; David Brouillette told a court it's slander, and in 2021, a judge granted a protective order against him. His eldest daughter says she watched him "struggle with a lot of things", including suicidality. An estranged, unnamed "immediate relative" and the named ex-wife, Ashley, assert that he was diagnosed bipolar and ADD as a child; the unnamed relative asserts he attempted suicide twice at age twelve.
In high school, he was Naval JROTC, bur was rejected the first time he tried to enlist in the Navy. AP reports, "recruiters encouraged him to go off his medications for a year and reapply, which he did, his immediate relative said".
Three years in Maine Army National Guard, and then five years as regular Army, including eight months in Afthanistan, which "destroyed him", according to the estranged relative: "They took someone who was extremely mentally ill and turned him into a killing machine."
To describe David Brouillette, like ICE did, as having "nearly a decade of federal law enforcement experience with required training including use of force training" relies on how you count what or define certain words. AP explains, "After his discharge, Brouillette held a hodgepodge of jobs — some in or adjacent to law enforcement — and was injured in an accident while training to become a firefighter". He worked at a medium-security prison, and then for Maine HHS, "spending less than a year at each", and court documents show that in 2019, Brouillette was a police officer for the Veterans Administration. By 2021, he claimed to be broke, enrolled as a full-time student, and working DoorDash. He enrolled to train as a firefighter, but "was struck in the head by a steel beam while unloading a trailer at a training facility".
Per AP, Brouillette claimed "a concussion and post-concussive syndrome, with symptoms including impaired memory, cognitive deficits, headaches, vertigo and light sensitivity, and was unable to complete the program"; he collected disability for a period, tried to drive a truck for a job, but quit in January, 2025, for health reasons. Shortly thereafter, he passed a real estate exam and was hired to a Bangor agency. And if a child support agency filed a lien against him, their "filing suggests that Brouillette may have been in line for a permanent impairment or disability settlement".
Which almost brings us 'round.
In late 2025, around the time he joined ICE, his ex-wife Ashley said he left a three-minute voicemail mocking her for taking out a restraining order against him. According to the message she shared with AP, he repeatedly called her "disgusting" and suggested that she and the other women and girls in her "bloodline" should die.
"And all of you should have your f——--g throats cut," the voicemail said. "Yeah, you should. Am I threatening that I'm gonna do that? Nope. Nope. But do I think that you should have your f——-g throats cuts? Or should have had them cut? Yep."
"And all of you should have your f——--g throats cut," the voicemail said. "Yeah, you should. Am I threatening that I'm gonna do that? Nope. Nope. But do I think that you should have your f——-g throats cuts? Or should have had them cut? Yep."
And, yes, ICE gave this guy a badge and a gun.
It matters. Because, for instance, Ashley Brouillette had not spoken to her ex-husband since then, until this. After reaching out to his current wife, she spoke with him, and says he acknowledged killing Durán Guerrero: "She said he told her he is now hiding in protective custody," AP reports. "He was asking if I could tell them that he was a good person," Ashley explained, "and not to talk about the abuse and stuff that I had endured while with him and he said that the most important thing is his character right now." Both Ashley and daughter Madison say he told them the shooting was justified. "I don't think he sees himself as a killer," Maidson explained. "I think he thinks that he genuinely did the right thing."
Because, yeah, of course he does.
____________________
Notes:
Brook, Jack, Michael R. Sisak, Amanda Swinhart, and Clare Galoforo. "ICE officer in Maine shooting has history of violent behavior, family and records say". Associated Press. 17 July 2026. APNews.com. 17 July 2026. https://apnews.com/article/ice-davi...ine-shooting-dbc30d6d59e2a95fb470afc188e125c6
What Turns Slowly
News from Associated Press↱:
And, allegedly there is evidence that Castro intends to flee the country.
Note for afar: It is important to understand, this sort of arrest and extradition used to be routine. The underlying constitutional question is in Article IV § 2↱: "A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime."
There really isn't any question; it's just that Texas ... has its own particular priorities.
____________________
Notes:
Vancleave, Mark and Russ Bynum. "Minnesota attorney general sues Texas governor to compel extradition of ICE agent for trial". Associated Press. 18 August 2026. APNews.com. 19 August 2026. https://apnews.com/article/minnesot...stian-castro-461acb1a459bc0ecb41fef5f728df502
News from Associated Press↱:
Minnesota's attorney general sued the governor of Texas on Tuesday, seeking to compel the extradition of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent charged with wounding a man and then lying to justify the shooting during the agency's crackdown in Minneapolis.
Attorney General Keith Ellison is asking a federal judge to bar the sheriff in Cameron County, Texas, from releasing ICE agent Christian Castro, and to order Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to sign his extradition warrant so that Minnesota officers can take custody.
Minnesota officials have clashed with the federal government over who has jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute federal officers for on-duty conduct. Ellison is a Democrat and Abbott is a Republican ally of President Donald Trump.
Castro was arrested in Texas in May on Minnesota charges of assault and falsely reporting a crime in the Jan. 14 wounding of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis. Castro, 52, is accused of firing a gun through the front door of a Minneapolis home, striking Sosa-Celis in the leg with a bullet that lodged in a child's bedroom wall. Prosecutors say Castro then falsely accused Sosa-Celis and another man of attacking an ICE officer with a broom handle and a snow shovel.
Attorney General Keith Ellison is asking a federal judge to bar the sheriff in Cameron County, Texas, from releasing ICE agent Christian Castro, and to order Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to sign his extradition warrant so that Minnesota officers can take custody.
Minnesota officials have clashed with the federal government over who has jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute federal officers for on-duty conduct. Ellison is a Democrat and Abbott is a Republican ally of President Donald Trump.
Castro was arrested in Texas in May on Minnesota charges of assault and falsely reporting a crime in the Jan. 14 wounding of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis. Castro, 52, is accused of firing a gun through the front door of a Minneapolis home, striking Sosa-Celis in the leg with a bullet that lodged in a child's bedroom wall. Prosecutors say Castro then falsely accused Sosa-Celis and another man of attacking an ICE officer with a broom handle and a snow shovel.
And, allegedly there is evidence that Castro intends to flee the country.
†
Note for afar: It is important to understand, this sort of arrest and extradition used to be routine. The underlying constitutional question is in Article IV § 2↱: "A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime."
There really isn't any question; it's just that Texas ... has its own particular priorities.
____________________
Notes:
Vancleave, Mark and Russ Bynum. "Minnesota attorney general sues Texas governor to compel extradition of ICE agent for trial". Associated Press. 18 August 2026. APNews.com. 19 August 2026. https://apnews.com/article/minnesot...stian-castro-461acb1a459bc0ecb41fef5f728df502
Deportation Advocate Faces Deportation
"Milo Yiannopoulos is in ICE custody facing a final removal order, sources say", and, sure, the headline actually managed to surprise me. The detail, per CBS News↱:
Immigration attorney and socmed commentator Aaron Reichlin-Melnick↱ observes:
And it's true, last year Yiannopoulos called for ICE checkpoints in California "at supermarket entrances, gas stations, strip malls, intersections and government buildings, with on the spot detention for anyone who can't prove they are in the US legally". A couple months later, he called for "Total legal immunity for ICE agents when they're on duty." And somewhere along the way he explained that deportation is more important "than debts measured in imaginary money", declaring, "We have got to deport millions and millions of people. Without that, nothing else matters."
And, sure, his rights are just as important as anyone else caught up in the Trump pogrom. The Nazi-sympathizing boylove advocate from Britain might be getting what he wished for, but he does, in fact, still have rights.
____________________
Notes:
Sganga, Nicole and Jacob Rosen. "Milo Yiannopoulos is in ICE custody facing a final removal order, sources say". CBS News. 28 August 2026. CBSNews.com. 28 August 2026. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/milo-yiannopoulos-ice-custody-agency-records/
"Milo Yiannopoulos is in ICE custody facing a final removal order, sources say", and, sure, the headline actually managed to surprise me. The detail, per CBS News↱:
Far-right political commentator and deportation advocate Milo Yiannopoulos is currently in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody facing a final order of removal, according to U.S. officials and agency records.
Yiannopoulos, who is British, was apprehended in the New Orleans area and is being held in a Louisiana ICE holding facility, the U.S. officials said.
Reports indicate Yiannopoulos was in New Orleans ahead of a concert where the artist formerly known as Kanye West was scheduled to perform Friday night. TMZ first reported Yiannopoulos' status ....
.... Yiannopoulos has done work for the political and corporate ambitions of West, who's now known as Ye.
Yiannopoulos, who is British, was apprehended in the New Orleans area and is being held in a Louisiana ICE holding facility, the U.S. officials said.
Reports indicate Yiannopoulos was in New Orleans ahead of a concert where the artist formerly known as Kanye West was scheduled to perform Friday night. TMZ first reported Yiannopoulos' status ....
.... Yiannopoulos has done work for the political and corporate ambitions of West, who's now known as Ye.
Immigration attorney and socmed commentator Aaron Reichlin-Melnick↱ observes:
Milo Yiannopoulos deserves full due process, and like everyone else, should not be subject to abusive conditions in detention. But he appears to be reaping what he has sowed, so I can't find myself sympathetic.
And it's true, last year Yiannopoulos called for ICE checkpoints in California "at supermarket entrances, gas stations, strip malls, intersections and government buildings, with on the spot detention for anyone who can't prove they are in the US legally". A couple months later, he called for "Total legal immunity for ICE agents when they're on duty." And somewhere along the way he explained that deportation is more important "than debts measured in imaginary money", declaring, "We have got to deport millions and millions of people. Without that, nothing else matters."
And, sure, his rights are just as important as anyone else caught up in the Trump pogrom. The Nazi-sympathizing boylove advocate from Britain might be getting what he wished for, but he does, in fact, still have rights.
____________________
Notes:
Sganga, Nicole and Jacob Rosen. "Milo Yiannopoulos is in ICE custody facing a final removal order, sources say". CBS News. 28 August 2026. CBSNews.com. 28 August 2026. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/milo-yiannopoulos-ice-custody-agency-records/