This is C.I.'s "The snapshot:"
Over the weekend, Portland, Oregon became the latest city Donald Chump to invade. Luke BroadwaterAnna Griffin and Hamed Aleaziz (NEW YORK TIMES) report:
President Trump declared on Saturday that he had directed troops to be sent to Portland, Ore., saying he had authorized them to use “full force” to quell protests directed at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities.
The order was the latest instance of Mr. Trump’s use of the American military on the nation’s streets, after federal troops were sent to Washington last month in an effort to crack down on crime. Federal agents will begin arriving in Memphis as early as next week, after the president authorized the use of the National Guard there as part of a similar crackdown.
Like Mr. Trump’s other dispatches of federal forces, the Portland directive was quickly opposed by state and local officials, who called it unnecessary.
Gov. Tina Kotek, a Democrat, said in an afternoon news briefing that she had spoken with the president and Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, on Saturday, and that she had told them to stay out. She did not plan to approve the use of the state’s National Guard, she added.
At MOTHER JONES today, Ari Berman notes, "Trump’s legal authority to deploy troops to American cities without state consent is legally dubious at best -- a red line few presidents have crossed. Abraham Lincoln did so early during the Civil War, for instance, in 1861, but that was in response to real crises, whereas Trump has been claiming made-up emergencies to justify his actions. The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 bars the president from using federal troops to enforce domestic laws. In September, federal District Court Judge Charles Breyer ruled that Trump’s deployment of active-duty troops to Los Angeles ;executed domestic law in…prohibited ways'." Yet ICE continues terrorizing people and beating them up.
According to another video of the incident cited by CNN, the woman was seen with her arms interlocked with a man, understood to be her husband, as he was being detained.
One masked agent is allegedly seen grabbing the woman's hair while someone else is heard saying, “Just grab her, grab her and pull her away.
Monica's the woman we noted in Friday's snapshot who was assaulted by ICE:
Want to see something disgusting? Steam this video at THE NEW YORK TIMES of an ICE agent slamming a woman to the ground. Andy Newman and Luis Ferré-Sadurní report for the paper:
A federal agent shoved a woman and pushed her to the floor in front of what appeared to be her two young children on Thursday during a confrontation at an immigration courthouse in Manhattan.
A video shows a wrenching encounter in a hallway of 26 Federal Plaza in which the woman and a girl are desperately clinging to the woman’s husband, who is being detained. Agents pull the hair of the woman and the girl to get them away from the man.
After agents pry the family apart and lead the resisting man away, the woman yells, “You guys don’t care about anything!” in Spanish at an agent who is trying to get her to leave and telling her, “Adios, adios.” She puts a hand on his chest, and he shoves her. When she tries to grab onto him, he pushes her down.
This is not America, let's not pretend that it is. It's hell and it's brought you to be the tedious contributions of Convicted Felon Donald Chump and the corrupt Supreme Court.
These are thugs unleashed by Donald Chump who are not bound by laws -- per the Supreme Court -- and who terrorize people daily. And there is no real legal recourse presently, none at all. Federal courts try to do their job and follow the law -- including the Constitution -- and for that Chump attacks them publicly and the Supreme Court nullifies them.
That's why the mid-terms are so important.
That video was outrageous. And it got attention. Other video that has been outrages has not gotten the amplification it deserves and needs. Luis Ferré-Sadurní (NEW YORK TIMES) reports:
A federal immigration officer was “relieved of his duties” and is under investigation after he shoved an Ecuadorean woman whose husband had been arrested and pushed her to the floor at an immigration courthouse in Manhattan, the Department of Homeland Security said on Friday.
The altercation took place on Thursday at 26 Federal Plaza, the epicenter of President Trump’s immigration crackdown in New York City, and was captured in videos that spread rapidly on social media and beyond. The footage set off an outcry from New York City officials who denounced the behavior of the officer, who has not been identified, and demanded that he be disciplined.
[. . .]
“The officer’s conduct in this video is unacceptable and beneath the men and women of ICE,” said Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, the agency that oversees ICE. “Our ICE law enforcement are held to the highest professional standards and this officer is being relieved of current duties as we conduct a full investigation.”
Ms. McLaughlin declined to elaborate when asked if the officer had been suspended or fired, saying, “That’s being determined pending investigation.”
On Friday, Representative Dan Goldman and Brad Lander, the city comptroller, both Democrats, referred the ICE officer to Pam Bondi, the attorney general, and the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan for felony prosecution. The referral is a recommendation for prosecution, but the Department of Justice has the discretion to decide whether to pursue a case.
And that's probably where it now starts and ends. Homeland Security says they're investigating and they don't do a damn thing and then try to pretend that there's no reason to provide an update. Of course, there is. The simplest one being public trust.
No one should ever be treated the way Monica Moreta-Galarza was treated.
But ICE and Homeland Security will pretend the matter was addressed when it never was.
It can't be addressed. To do so would probably open the US government up to a lawsuit on the part of the ICE agent beating up the woman. That man would then sue if he was held accountable. And he'd note what ICE agents have told me: That they're instructed to do whatever they want and told they will face no consequences.
So watch Homeland Security bury the whole thing while pretending that they're addressing it.
Till Eckert (PRO-PUBLICA) notes:
It wasn’t the first time videos have captured scenes of immigration agents using violent force to carry out the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign. But the videos of this incident — one of which I filmed for ProPublica — seemed to stir something different. In a rare move, the government publicly reprimanded an officer for such conduct.
“The officer’s conduct in this video is unacceptable and beneath the men and women of ICE,” an assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, said. “Our ICE law enforcement are held to the highest professional standards and this officer is being relieved of current duties as we conduct a full investigation.”
I’ve only been in the U.S. as a reporter for eight weeks — so I just barely arrived. I come from Germany and am on the staff at Correctiv, a nonprofit investigative newsroom. I’d been alarmed by videos of masked ICE agents sweeping immigrants off the street, scenes I never thought I’d see in the United States, and I came with the goal of witnessing what was going on for myself. I wanted to report on how the administration’s immigration crackdown was playing out from the front lines.
I’ve only been in the U.S. as a reporter for eight weeks — so I just barely arrived. I come from Germany and am on the staff at Correctiv, a nonprofit investigative newsroom. I’d been alarmed by videos of masked ICE agents sweeping immigrants off the street, scenes I never thought I’d see in the United States, and I came with the goal of witnessing what was going on for myself. I wanted to report on how the administration’s immigration crackdown was playing out from the front lines.
At THE NEW REPUBLIC, Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling writes:
ICE agents across the country have taken to wearing masks in an attempt to shield their identities from public scrutiny as they ransack American communities. DHS has provided federal support to their anonymizing decision, openly acknowledging that officers would continue to violate agency-specific mask bans put in place by state governments.
But the agent who attacked Moreta-Galarza had his full face on display, allowing NPR to identify him as the same officer involved in the arrest of a court observer last month.
“The agent, who was unmasked and had been sitting in the waiting area earlier, yelled at NPR: ‘Stop fucking following me! Why are you fucking following me?’ before turning and yelling the same thing at the court observer,” the radio outlet reported.
The court reporter was then taken into an enclosed elevator bay, taken into federal custody, and ultimately received two citations, according to NPR—trespassing in a secure area and failing to follow lawful commands from an officer.
Monica's not the only one to be assaulted by ICE. And US citizens have been attacked. Rafie Ollah Shouhed was physically assaulted by ICE twice -- here for video. Ashleigh Fields (THE HILL) explains:
A U.S. citizen injured during a Los Angeles immigration raid has filed a $50 million federal tort claim against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and two of its agencies for the use of “excessive force.”
Rafie Ollah Shouhed, 79, said he suffered from multiple broken ribs, contusions and symptoms of a traumatic brain injury after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents allegedly slammed him to the ground earlier this month.
Agents were targeting five people from Guatemala and Mexico during the Sept. 9 operation that took place at his car wash business, according to a DHS statement shared with The Associated Press. DHS said Shouhed was originally arrested for “impeding” a federal officer.
“What can I do for you? Can I help you?” Shouhed recalled saying to the officers, according to the AP.
He was then thrown to the ground by three masked agents and briefly taken into custody, according to the claim. Shouhed was eventually released without charges.
“This was an outrageous and unlawful assault on a 79-year-old American citizen in his own place of business,” V. James DeSimone, Shouhed’s attorney, said in a statement.
“Federal agents body slammed Mr. Shouhed, pinned him to the ground with a knee on his neck, ignored his pleas for medical care, and left him broken and in pain for hours. Their actions violated the Constitution, California civil rights law, and basic human decency.”
ICE is untrained and it's out of control. What just happened Wednesday in Baltimore makes that incredibly clear:
A video showing an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrest in Prince George's County has left a community on edge.
It appears to show ICE officers pinning a man to
the ground in Hyattsville in the middle of an intersection. During the
scuffle, an agent's firearm appears to get loose and once retrieved, the
agent seems to point it toward bystanders.
U.S. citizens, many of them Latino men, have been stopped and in some cases taken into custody by law enforcement officers who are carrying out President Trump’s immigration crackdown and who suspect the men are living in the country illegally.
While many of those detained have immediately declared their U.S. citizenship to officers, they have routinely been ignored, according to interviews with the men, their lawyers and court documents. In some cases they have been handcuffed, kept in holding cells and immigration facilities overnight, and in at least two cases held without access to a lawyer or even a phone call.
How many U.S. citizens have been swept up in the Trump administration’s immigration sweeps is difficult to say. No comprehensive log of such encounters is available from the federal government, and immigration agents are not required to document stops of citizens.
On the morning of September 4, dozens of masked federal agents raided a snack bar factory in the small town of Cato, New York. They claimed there was a “violent felon” in the plant, but proceeded to siphon off and hold anyone who looked Latinx. At least 69 workers were initially detained, with 57 still in custody or deported, though some say that could be an undercount. There are multiple reports of aggression — knees on necks, blows to heads — used during the raid.
The workers were mostly from Central America, especially Guatemala. Some had lived in the region for decades. Many are parents. Even those who presented valid working permits were taken. Sources tell Truthout that around a dozen workers have been deported while others linger in detention facilities across the U.S.
Protests took place over the weekend against ICE. Here for video of NYC's Stand Against ICE Day of Action protest. At THE NEW YORK POST -- no link to trash -- faux reporters Khristian Narizhaya and Rich Calder type that the protesters were paid activists. They offer no proof because there is none and because whores are always promoting themselves so they can get other clients. Khristian and Rich should be busy for days. Kristie Keleshian (CBS NEWS) reports:
Demonstrators marched down Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn and packed Sunset Park for one of eight events held across the city, started by members of the City Council Progressive Caucus.
"Not only our immigrant neighbors should know their rights, but regular U.S. citizens should know their rights because we see this administration is breaking, violating laws all over the place," Councilmember Alexa Aviles said.
"If they were doing things legally, there would be no issues or no problems, so I'm constantly questioning what they're doing," Assemblymember Marcela Mitaynes said.
Demonstrators were told to wear white as a way to show peace in their message.
"We reject this violent Trump agenda, and we want our neighbors to know that they are safe here," Aviles said.
Demonstrator Damien Andrade said he was participating to stand in solidarity with his father, who is undocumented.
"He's also very scared to go outside today, and since we're trying to get him papers and, you know, that process, it takes a very, very long time," he said.
CBS NEWS CHICAGO notes a local protest:
Protesters took to Daley Plaza Saturday afternoon, calling for Cook County State's Attorney Eileen Burke to investigate and close the Broadview ICE facility.
The demonstration was organized by a group called The Coalition Against the Trump Agenda.
A spokesman from the Cook County State's Attorney's Office told CBS News Chicago that their office does not conduct independent investigations into criminal conduct and does not have jurisdiction over federal agencies.
This comes as the protest outside the ICE facility in Broadview continues with clashes between protesters and ICE agents.
In California, Karla Sosa (KERO) reports:
Immigrant rights groups held their largest protest in four years on Saturday, marching from the Bakersfield Museum of Art to the Mesa Verde ICE Detention Center to protest what they claim are inhumane conditions at ICE facilities in Kern County.
Close to 200 people participated in the march, all with the same purpose of raising awareness about detention conditions and immigration enforcement practices.
Reverend Deborah Lee with Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity said this year's protest drew significantly more participants than previous demonstrations.
"Given the context of the racial profiling and the ice attacks on our communities, we have called for a much larger gathering," Lee said.
The protesters are also highlighting concerns about the facilities' impact on local communities and resources.
On protests, remember the upcoming No Kings October 18th rallies. Meanwhile people continue to die in ICE custody. Tim Pulliam (KABC) notes:
People gathered in Westminster on Saturday for a benefit event to help the family of a man who died in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody this week.
Ismael Ayala-Uribe, 39, died on Monday at a hospital after five weeks at the Adelanto detention center. His death is now under investigation.
At Saturday's benefit, the community honored his life through food.
Ayala-Uribe's loved ones organized the pop-up event, selling lunch plates to raise money for his funeral.
Friends describe the 39-year-old as a beautiful soul.
And KTLA's Angelique Brenes adds:
Ayala-Uribe was pronounced dead at 2:32 a.m. on Sept. 22. He had been referred to the hospital the previous day to evaluate an abscess on his buttock and was scheduled for surgery. ICE reported that he was also hypertensive and displayed abnormal tachycardia. The cause of death remains under investigation by DHS.
Ayala-Uribe came to the U.S. as a young child and received Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) protection in 2012. His renewal request was denied in 2016 following a DUI conviction. He was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Aug. 17 during an enforcement action at the Fountain Valley Auto Wash, where he had worked for 15 years, and was transferred to the Adelanto ICE Processing Center on Aug. 22 for immigration proceedings.
America is on the brink of a government shutdown. And without a surprise last-minute deal, the question becomes how long it will last – and how much damage it will cause.
Democrats have so far refused to accept a short-term deal to keep the government open at current funding levels through mid-November, and Republicans have refused to negotiate on Democrats’ demands to restore health care-related funding. President Donald Trump and congressional leaders from both parties have agreed to meet at the White House on Monday, but unless they can come to terms, the government will shut down at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.
[. . .]
A YouGov poll released on Thursday found that 37% of U.S. adults would blame either President Trump or Republicans in Congress if the government shuts down – compared with 25% who would blame Democrats and 26% who would blame both parties equally. A mid-September Verasight poll found that if Democrats vote against a funding bill after Republicans refuse to restore health-care funding, more Americans would still blame Republicans (35%) than Democrats (24%), with 32% blaming both.
In addition to the topics noted prior, there's also a good chance that the government will go into shut down this week. They have until Tuesday night to pass a short term funding bill. At midnight, it's over. Dems were supposed to meet with Chump last week but Chump cancelled the meeting and bluffed and blustered backing off only when polling indicated that the public could blame a shut down on the Republican Party since they control the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Now Chump rushes to meet with the Democrats on Monday.
Dems are concerned about the cuts to healthcare, to cite one important issue. They need to stand up for their concerns.
Without any real messaging, they are already winning.
And if the shut down happens? As soon as Tuesday night turns into Wednesday morning (midnight), Democrats should be in front of every camera pointing out Chump's inability to pull a budget together.
It should, in fact, go something like this.
Minority House Leader Hakeem Jeffries: He had time to golf but didn't have time to work on our nation's budget.
Minority Senate Leader Chuck Schumer: He had time to go after James Comey but he didn't have time to put together a budget.
Senator Patty Murray: He had time to repeatedly attack veterans' health care but he didn't have time to put together a budget.
Senator Ron Wyden: He had time to invade Portland, but he didn't have time to put together a budget.
Senator Maria Cantwell: He had time to demand Microsoft fire Lisa Monaco but he didn't have time to put together a budget.
Senator Tammy Baldwin: He had turn to destroy American farmers while bailing out Argentina but he didn't have time to put together a budget.
US House Rep Alexandria Ocasio Cortez: He had time to work on getting Jimmy Kimmel fired but he didn't have time to put together a budget.
Senator Elizabeth Warren: He's had time to launch attacks on Social Security but he didn't have time to put together a budget.
US House Rep Jasmine Crockett: He made time to terrorize immigrants without criminal records but couldn't make time to put together a budget.
If the country goes into a shutdown, that should be the messaging over and over. How Chump has stuck his big nose into everything -- including in private business, in colleges, in museum, etc, etc -- but he hasn't made time to go the actual work that a president is supposed to focus on.
The showdown all by itself will be evidence of Chump's failure. But Democrats can also use that event to demonstrate all the time he's wasted on everything but helping the American people.
That's how you flip the script.
If you find my language a tad overheated, then masticate on this more anodyne description, which appeared in a Washington Post news story over the weekend: “If Congress fails to fund the government next week, the White House is preparing for a shutdown that would reflect the purest version of President Donald Trump’s vision for the federal government, guided by White House budget director Russell Vought, an architect of the controversial Project 2025 playbook for Trump’s second term.”
What that means, as the Post article and other news stories have sketched out, is massive layoffs in many departments and agencies, with the hope of making as many as possible permanent. The Trump White House wants to cut the State Department by 84 percent, the Department of Housing and Urban Development by 43 percent, and the Labor Department by 35 percent. If the government shuts down Tuesday night, it wants to furlough as many people as it can get away with.
Except, of course, in two areas: immigration enforcement and defense. There, it’s party time. Immigration enforcement funding, as you may recall, grew by bajillions in the big, ugly bill, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (whose usual budget is around $9 billion) a whopping $75 billion more—$30 billion to round people up, and $45 billion to keep them in camps. As for defense spending, the Pentagon had requested $848 billion for Fiscal Year 2026. The bill sends the Pentagon more than $1 trillion.
Washington, D.C. — Today, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair, and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member, issued the following statement on the Supreme Court’s preliminary ruling that allows President Trump to continue withholding billions in foreign assistance approved by Congress—including amounts which he is illegally seeking to cancel through a “pocket rescission.” The ruling is not a final decision on whether the president can unilaterally cancel funding approved by Congress via a “pocket rescission.”
“Congress can—and absolutely should—promptly reject President Trump and Russ Vought’s illegal effort to do an end run around the people’s elected representatives by passing a bill like the one we introduced last week. Republicans should join Democrats to stand up for our power of the purse, rather than allow a president and an unelected bureaucrat who do not respect Congress or the Constitution to continue attacking our power to fight for the people back home that we represent.”
Late last month, President Trump and Russ Vought submitted a rescissions request of $4.9 billion under the fast-tracked process provided by the Impoundment Control Act. But because the funds at issue are set to expire on October 1st and the rescissions request was made with fewer than the 45 days the fast-tracked process affords Congress to consider the request, Trump and Vought absurdly and illegally claim they are able to cancel it unilaterally.
Congress can extend the period of availability of the $4.9 billion in funding that Trump and Vought have sought to cancel in order to reject their absurd gambit, which top Republican lawmakers—as well as the Government Accountability Office (GAO)—have made clear is illegal. The continuing resolution (CR) that Senator Murray and Congresswoman DeLauro introduced last week does exactly that: it extends the availability of the funds at issue to reject the president’s illegal ploy to do an end run around Congress.
Senator Murray’s statement in response to President Trump’s “pocket rescission” request can be found HERE. Congresswoman DeLauro’s can be found HERE.
More information on the CR that Congresswoman DeLauro and Senator Murray introduced last week, which would reject President Trump’s “pocket rescission,” is available HERE.
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