Tag: ice

Taxpayer-Funded Immigration Group Chaired by DOJ Employee Wants To Abolish ICE, Defund Police

A left-wing group battling the Trump administration to maintain lucrative taxpayer-funded immigration contracts has called to defund police departments and abolish the federal agency that deports illegal aliens.

Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef), a nonprofit chaired by Department of Justice employee Marisa Arrona, has received $17 million in federal funding since last year to provide legal services to illegal aliens facing deportation, according to federal records. ImmDef is a subcontractor for a $769 million program to provide services to minors apprehended at the border without parents.

ImmDef and its allies are desperately fighting against the Trump administration in an attempt to maintain funding for that program and others that provide services to illegal immigrants. ImmDef has accused the Trump administration of “playing games with children’s rights and their safety” and says the program is needed to “protect due process” rights for illegal immigrants facing deportation.

But ImmDef has gone far beyond merely providing legal services to illegal immigrants facing deportation. The group, founded in 2015, has called for the government to “dismantle the systems that seek to deport our clients.” During the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, ImmDef called for dismantling “the police state by defunding and decreasing police budgets.”

ImmDef says it is “high time we abolish the immigration prison system and abolish ICE” and sold “Abolish ICE” face masks during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. In September 2020, ImmDef circulated the since-debunked MSNBC report that a doctor at an ICE facility in Georgia performed unnecessary hysterectomies on female detainees. “#AbolishICE,” ImmDef wrote on a social media post at the time.

According to former federal immigration judge Matt O’Brien, funding for groups like ImmDef highlights Democrats’ efforts to “funnel taxpayer funds into the coffers of these radical groups” in support of an “anti-borders agenda.”

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California Democrats Push Privacy Bills to Help Migrants Hide from ICE

California Democrats are drafting bills that would hinder federal immigration officials from using commercial data to locate illegal aliens for deportation.

Records show that federal authorities have contracts with several data analytics firms including LexisNexis and Thomson Reuters, according to Politico, and state Democrats are floating bills to tighten up what information such services can sell and how they do it with an eye toward precenting ICE from using the info to the greatest extent they can.

Without stating any direct proof, Democrats in the state are worried that federal authorities are using personal location data to aid in tracking migrants.

The worry was summed up by Shiu-Ming Cheer, deputy director of immigrant and racial justice at the far-left California Immigrant Policy Center, who told Politico, “It really does seem like looking at technology and the use of information has been this sort of second frontier in terms of immigration enforcement.”

The fear is spurring a new avenue for blue state Trump resistance.

Extreme, left-wing California Attorney General Rob Bonta, for instance, recently insisted that data needs to be protected from Trump’s administration.

“This location data is deeply personal,” Bonta said in a statement. “Given the federal assaults on immigrant communities, as well as gender-affirming healthcare and abortion, businesses must take the responsibility to protect location data seriously.”

Democrat state Sen. Josh Becker exclaimed that Trump is “establishing a vast surveillance network” and he is introducing a bill that would force data brokers to publicly disclose whether they collect and sell user data, including immigration status, sexual orientation, union membership, and government ID numbers.

He claims his bill is “especially necessary now as we see the reality of mass deportations of immigrants and the targeting of the transgender community.”

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Immigration Detention Facilities At Maximum Capacity: ICE Official

U.S. immigration detention facilities have reached capacity at about 47,600 beds, a top-level U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official said on March 12 in a call with reporters.

The federal government is now seeking more bed space for detained illegal immigrants, added the official, who requested anonymity as a condition of the call.

ICE is now expanding its capacity with support from the Department of Defense, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Currently, ICE has funding to support an average bed space of more than 41,500 detainees, the official said, adding that ICE is working with lawmakers to obtain more funding to increase capacity.

Throughout the 2024 campaign and after taking office, President Donald Trump vowed that there would be a mass deportation of illegal immigrants. Trump said that such a move is needed after the high volume of illegal immigration under the previous administration.

Trump issued executive orders targeting illegal immigration and bolstering security along the U.S.–Mexico border. He has directed ICE agents to step up enforcement actions across major U.S. cities, with top officials including border czar Tom Homan saying they are targeting illegal immigrants with criminal histories or who are a threat to public safety.

Orders and directives that the administration has carried out include declaring a national emergency along the southern U.S. border, halting some refugee admissions, ending the previous “catch and release” policy, requiring people who are seeking asylum in the United States to remain in Mexico while waiting for court hearings, limiting the temporary protected status of people from certain countries, declining to recognize birthright citizenship, and other measures.

The number of encounters with illegal immigrants at the southern border has dropped significantly since Trump took office in January, according to recent data.

Multiple lawsuits have been filed to challenge Trump’s order ending birthright citizenship, and several judges have blocked the order. On March 11, the First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a federal district court’s block of the order and denied a motion from the Department of Justice’s legal team to immediately overturn the district court’s ruling.

Another directive that has been challenged in court is Trump’s decision to send some illegal immigrants to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Earlier this month, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a suit to block transfers to the base, which had been used to house terrorism suspects following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

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New York Blocks ICE From Detaining Illegal Immigrant Accused Of Subway Murder

An illegal immigrant accused of setting a woman on fire inside a New York subway station remains protected under the city’s sanctuary policies, sparking outrage from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. She criticized New York officials for refusing to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, allowing dangerous individuals to remain in the country.

Noem visited the subway station where the brutal attack took place, blaming city leaders for policies that prioritize illegal immigrants over law-abiding residents. She pointed out that the suspect first crossed the border illegally in 2018, was deported under President Donald Trump, but later reentered the country and took advantage of New York’s lax immigration policies.

The suspect had been living in New York for over a year, receiving assistance from programs that provide shelter and food for illegal immigrants. Noem stated that these sanctuary protections make the city a safe haven for criminals, increasing risks for everyday citizens.

Despite a request from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain the suspect, the New York City Department of Corrections refused to comply, allowing him to remain in local custody. Noem called the decision a failure of leadership, saying both Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams are responsible for endangering public safety.

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DHS Chief Kristi Noem Says Leakers of ICE Raids Identified – Face Up to 10 Years in Federal Prison Each

DHS Chief Kristi Noem said her investigators have identified two leakers within the Department of Homeland Security and are preparing to refer them to the Justice Department for felony prosecutions.

“These individuals face up to 10 years in federal prison,” Noem said.

“We will find and root out all leakers. They will face prison time and we will get justice for the American people,” Noem warned.

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Report: ICE Detains Venezuelan Colonel Accused of Torturing Dissidents

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained Rafael Jose Quero Silva, a Venezuelan ex-military official living in the U.S. accused of repressing and torturing students protesting against socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro, El Nuevo Herald reported on Sunday.

Quero Silva, a former colonel in Venezuela’s Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) and commander of GNB’s Detachment 47, was reportedly under FBI investigation on accusations of committing human rights violations against Venezuelan dissidents protesting the Maduro regime in the Venezuelan state of Lara between 2013 and 2017.

At the time of writing, ICE’s Online Detainee Locator System listed Quero Silva as in custody at ICE’s Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami, Florida.

“Two victims reported him to the FBI. I also denounced him, I spoke with FBI agents and they were investigating him,” José Antonio Colina, a retired Venezuelan serviceman and political exile, told El Nuevo Herald, a Florida-based Spanish-language newspaper, on Sunday.

Colina, who leads a group known as Venezuelans Persecuted Politically in Exile (VEPPEX), said that Quero Silva moved to America with his wife and children and that “presumptively” his father-in-law also resides in the U.S. through an “investor’s visa.”

Colina further asserted that Quero Silva was subject to immigration proceedings. He added that he thought it was “pathetic” that an alleged human rights violator would “hide” in the United States after supporting the Venezuelan socialist regime.

Quero Silva moved to the U.S. and requested political asylum alongside his family at some point in 2017, Voice of America (VOA) reported on Monday citing Venezuelan news outlets. Venezuelan politicians and representatives of civil rights organizations accused Quero Silva repressing and torturing dissidents in the Venezuelan state of Lara during two waves of protests between 2013 and 2014.

Venezuela underwent a period of protests in mid-2013 after late dictator Hugo Chávez died from an undisclosed type of cancer in March 2013. Chávez’s death automatically prompted a snap election in April 2013 that current dictator Nicolás Maduro “won” by a roughly 1.5-percent vote difference. Prior to his death, Chávez appointed Maduro as his vice president in late 2012. This effectively allowed Maduro to assume the interim presidency of Venezuela from the moment of his predecessor’s death.

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Congressional Reporter for Vanity Fair Leaks Planned ICE Raids in DC Suburbs, Warns Targets to Avoid Highways

Pablo Manriquez, Congressional reporter for Vanity Fair, posted leaked information on ICE raids planned for the D.C. suburbs of Northern Virginia this week, along with a warning to targets to stay off the highways in the area.

Manriquez posted about the raids and gave advice to targets on how to evade capture:

“ICE RAIDS are planned for Monday & Tuesday in Northern Virginia, per multiple sources who tell us ICE has obtained between 75 and 100 judicial warrants.”

“NOTE: Judicial warrants mean ICE can go into your homes, so plan accordingly.”

“NOTE: Remember that state police have been deputized to help ICE, so highways, etc, are unsafe.”

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IRS Won’t Reveal Addresses of Illegal Aliens After Request from ICE Officials

IRS officials have decided to conceal the home addresses of some 700,000 people suspected of being in the United States illegally, according to a report from the Washington Post.

The decision came on a request from immigration enforcement officials for those locations, and it was the IRS “rebuffing” attempts by the administration of President Donald Trump to gain access to that information for his crackdown on illegals.

The report noted that the Internal Revenue Service had promised “undocumented immigrants” over the years that it would protect their information and it would be safe for them to file income tax documents “without fear of being deported.”

And the IRS said the law doesn’t allow the release of personal information, even to another government agency.

AT the time, the IRS claimed, “There is no authorization under this provision to share tax data with ICE.”

The report said an estimated one-half of the 11 million illegal aliens in the country file income tax returns, filing with individual taxpayer numbers, or ITINs, as they are ineligible for Social Security numbers.

The report credited this population with paying billions of dollars in federal taxes.

The report said the Washington Post got access to a memo in which Department of Homeland Security officials asked the IRS to link the names with a last known address, phone number or email, and the request was a followup to a DHS request weeks ago that would let immigration officials turn over a list of names to the IRS in order to get home addresses.

The publication said five anonymous people familiar with the scenario made those claims.

Then this week a memo asked the IRS “to deploy dozens of highly skilled IRS auditors and criminal investigators to launch probes of businesses suspected of hiring immigrants not authorized to work in the United States,” the report said.

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ICE Raids Texas Bakery: 8 Illegal Aliens Arrested, Owners Charged for Harboring and Aiding Illegals

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raided Abby’s Bakery in South Texas, arresting eight illegal aliens and slapping the bakery’s owners with charges of harboring and abetting criminals.

The bakery owners, Leonardo Baez and Nora Alicia Avila-Guel, admitted to knowingly hiring and sheltering illegal aliens—an act that flouts federal law and contributes to the ongoing border crisis.

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) confirmed that the pair was charged with bringing in and harboring aliens and aiding and abetting the harboring of aliens, offenses that carry serious penalties under U.S. law.

Yet, rather than report them to authorities or comply with federal employment laws, they chose to harbor them, even providing shelter for some of the individuals on their own property.

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Biden Hangover Part 2: NYPD Does The Meme, Arrests Illegals At Anti-ICE Protest

The idea had been percolating online for a week or more: why wouldn’t law enforcement officers simply show up at a rally supporting illegal aliens? Logically, there would likely be plenty of undocumented individuals present.

Turns out, the illegals turned out. So did the NYPD.

The difference between Trump’s first term and this one? Instead of chuckling and saying “That’s a good idea,” concerned parties emboldened by the Trump mandate are taking action.

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