#undocumented migrant database

[mariacallous]

President Donald Trump’s administration has reportedly taken a drastic new step to force out undocumented Latino immigrants: marking 6,000 of them as dead.

People familiar with the strategy shared details with The Washington Post and The New York Times on Thursday, saying Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has directed the Social Security Administration to add the names and Social Security numbers of more than 6,000 immigrants, most of whom are Latino, into a database used to track dead people, stripping them of their ability to access benefits or work in the U.S.

The move is part of a Trump administration scheme to target immigrants who are undocumented but have Social Security numbers, which allow them to access benefits like Medicaid, unemployment insurance and federal student loans.

“President Trump promised mass deportations, and by removing the monetary incentive for illegal aliens to come and stay, we will encourage them to self-deport,” White House spokesperson Elizabeth Huston wrote in a statement. “He is delivering on his promise he made to the American people.”

A White House official told the Post that of the 6,000 immigrants targeted, nearly 1,000 are collecting Medicaid, 41 are collecting unemployment insurance and 22 are receiving student loans.

A source told the Times that the list included a 13-year-old and seven other minors.

The Social Security Administration acknowledged in a blog post last month that being incorrectly put on its “Death Master File” could be highly damaging not only to that person’s well-being, but to that of their families too.

“Instances when a person is erroneously reported as deceased to Social Security can be [devastating] to the individual, spouse, and dependent children,” the SSA’s post said. “Benefits are stopped in the short term which can cause financial hardship until fixed and benefits restored, and the process to prove an erroneous death will always seem too long and challenging.”

[misfitwashere]

May 23, 2025 

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

MAY 24

READ IN APP

I’m going to take an early night tonight, but I want to record three things that jumped out at me today because they seem to tell a story.

After S.V. Date of HuffPost noted last week that the White House had published fewer than 20% of Trump’s speeches, the White House has stopped publishing a database of official transcripts of President Donald J. Trump’s announcements, appearances, and speeches altogether and has taken down those it had published. Instead it will just post videos. And yet it is publishing just a few of the videos of the president’s term: so far, fewer than 50 videos of the first 120 days of his term, according to Brian Stelter of CNN.

A presidential administration traditionally publishes the president’s words promptly to establish a record. The Trump White House, in contrast, says removing the transcripts will enable people to get a better sense of Trump by watching his videos. But it’s likely closer to the truth that Trump’s appearances since he took office have been erratic, and removing the transcripts will make it harder for people to read his nonsensical rambles.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “The Trump White House is the most transparent in history,” but of course, it’s objectively not. White House officials have made it impossible to tell who is making decisions at the Department of Government Efficiency, for example, or who gave the order to render migrants to El Salvador. Now the president’s words, too, will be hidden.

Trump’s erratic behavior was on full display this morning when he announced that he will impose a 50% tariff on goods from the European Union on June 1, suggesting he is frustrated because his promises of a new trade deal have failed to materialize. Trump had threatened to stop negotiating and simply dictate terms, and that is apparently the direction he’s moving. “I’m not looking for a deal,” he said this afternoon. “We’ve set the deal—it’s at 50%.” Trump also threatened a 25% tariff on Apple products unless the company begins to make the iPhone in the U.S.

Elisabeth Buchwald of CNN reported that three major European stock market indexes fell after Trump’s threat. U.S. stock market indexes fell for the fourth day. They rose from their lowest point after the White House said Trump’s tariff comments were not a formal statement of policy.

So the president of the United States can tank world markets, only to have his own staff inform the media that his comments should not be taken seriously.

The third story is that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has denied North Carolina’s request that it honor a commitment made by President Joe Biden to pay for 100% of the costs for removal of debris after Hurricane Helene devastated the western part of the state in September 2024. That storm killed 107 people in western North Carolina and destroyed or damaged 75,000 homes, as well as destroying roads and leaving mounds of debris.

As Zack Colman of Politico reported yesterday, the storm hit in the last weeks of the 2024 presidential campaign, and Trump undermined FEMA’s response, lying that it was not present and telling North Carolinians that the Biden administration could not help them because it had taken money from FEMA for undocumented immigrants. None of what he was saying was true, but MAGA mouthpieces picked up his criticisms and exaggerated them, claiming that the federal government intended to steal people’s land, that Biden had directed the storm to western North Carolina, and that 28 babies had frozen to death in FEMA tents—all lies, but lies that slowed recovery as riled-up people who believed them refused assistance, threatened officials, and demanded investigations.

Trump suggested he would respond more effectively to voters in North Carolina, and two of the hardest-hit counties there, Avery and Haywood, backed him in 2024 by margins of 75.7% and 61.8%, respectively, similar to those it had given him in 2016 and 2020.

Once in office, though, Trump began to talk of eliminating FEMA. Now the White House has told North Carolina residents they’re on their own as they try to dig out from Hurricane Helene.

Taken together, these stories from today seem to provide a snapshot of this moment in American history. They show an erratic president whose own officials discount his orders even as power is concentrating in the executive office and who won election through lies that are now being exposed as his policies disproportionately hurt the very people who backed him most enthusiastically.

—

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Luckovich

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

May 23, 2025

Heather Cox Richardson

May 24, 2025

I’m going to take an early night tonight, but I want to record three things that jumped out at me today because they seem to tell a story.

After S.V. Date of HuffPost noted last week that the White House had published fewer than 20% of Trump’s speeches, the White House has stopped publishing a database of official transcripts of President Donald J. Trump’s announcements, appearances, and speeches altogether and has taken down those it had published. Instead it will just post videos. And yet it is publishing just a few of the videos of the president’s term: so far, fewer than 50 videos of the first 120 days of his term, according to Brian Stelter of CNN.

A presidential administration traditionally publishes the president’s words promptly to establish a record. The Trump White House, in contrast, says removing the transcripts will enable people to get a better sense of Trump by watching his videos. But it’s likely closer to the truth that Trump’s appearances since he took office have been erratic, and removing the transcripts will make it harder for people to read his nonsensical rambles.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “The Trump White House is the most transparent in history,” but of course, it’s objectively not. White House officials have made it impossible to tell who is making decisions at the Department of Government Efficiency, for example, or who gave the order to render migrants to El Salvador. Now the president’s words, too, will be hidden.

Trump’s erratic behavior was on full display this morning when he announced that he will impose a 50% tariff on goods from the European Union on June 1, suggesting he is frustrated because his promises of a new trade deal have failed to materialize. Trump had threatened to stop negotiating and simply dictate terms, and that is apparently the direction he’s moving. “I’m not looking for a deal,” he said this afternoon. “We’ve set the deal—it’s at 50%.” Trump also threatened a 25% tariff on Apple products unless the company begins to make the iPhone in the U.S.

Elisabeth Buchwald of CNN reported that three major European stock market indexes fell after Trump’s threat. U.S. stock market indexes fell for the fourth day. They rose from their lowest point after the White House said Trump’s tariff comments were not a formal statement of policy.

So the president of the United States can tank world markets, only to have his own staff inform the media that his comments should not be taken seriously.

The third story is that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has denied North Carolina’s request that it honor a commitment made by President Joe Biden to pay for 100% of the costs for removal of debris after Hurricane Helene devastated the western part of the state in September 2024. That storm killed 107 people in western North Carolina and destroyed or damaged 75,000 homes, as well as destroying roads and leaving mounds of debris.

As Zack Colman of Politico reported yesterday, the storm hit in the last weeks of the 2024 presidential campaign, and Trump undermined FEMA’s response, lying that it was not present and telling North Carolinians that the Biden administration could not help them because it had taken money from FEMA for undocumented immigrants. None of what he was saying was true, but MAGA mouthpieces picked up his criticisms and exaggerated them, claiming that the federal government intended to steal people’s land, that Biden had directed the storm to western North Carolina, and that 28 babies had frozen to death in FEMA tents—all lies, but lies that slowed recovery as riled-up people who believed them refused assistance, threatened officials, and demanded investigations.

Trump suggested he would respond more effectively to voters in North Carolina, and two of the hardest-hit counties there, Avery and Haywood, backed him in 2024 by margins of 75.7% and 61.8%, respectively, similar to those it had given him in 2016 and 2020.

Once in office, though, Trump began to talk of eliminating FEMA. Now the White House has told North Carolina residents they’re on their own as they try to dig out from Hurricane Helene.

Taken together, these stories from today seem to provide a snapshot of this moment in American history. They show an erratic president whose own officials discount his orders even as power is concentrating in the executive office and who won election through lies that are now being exposed as his policies disproportionately hurt the very people who backed him most enthusiastically.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Rachel Leingang at The Guardian:

To hear Donald Trump tell it, America’s cities are in dire shape and in need of a federal intervention. “We’re going to rebuild our cities into beacons of hope, safety and beauty – better than they have ever been before,” he said during a recent speech to the National Rifle Association in what has become a common refrain on the campaign trail. “We will take over the horribly run capital of our nation, Washington DC.” Trump has for years railed against cities, particularly those run by Democratic officials, as hotbeds for crime and moral decay. He called Atlanta a “record setting Murder and Violent Crime War Zone” last year, a similar claim he makes frequently about various cities.

His allies have an idea of how to capitalize on that agenda and make cities in Trump’s image, detailed in the conservative Project 2025: unleash new police forces on cities like Washington DC, withhold federal disaster and emergency grants unless they follow immigration policies like detaining undocumented immigrants and share sensitive data with the federal government for immigration enforcement purposes.

Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, an extensive document breaking down each part of the federal government and recommending changes to be made to advance rightwing policy, was created by the Heritage Foundation, with dozens of conservative organizations and prominent names contributing chapters based on their backgrounds. This part of the project is another Republican attempt at a crackdown on so-called “sanctuary” cities, places around the country that don’t cooperate with the federal government on enforcing harsh immigration policies.

[...]

The threat of withholding federal funds

Republicans, cheered on by Trump, have worked to make immigration a key issue in cities across the country by busing migrants from the US-Mexico border inland, to places run by Democrats like New York, DC and Chicago, overwhelming the social safety net in these cities. The idea of using federal funds granted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) to force immigration changes are included in a chapter about the Department of Homeland Security, written by Ken Cuccinelli, Trump’s former deputy secretary of homeland security.

The chapter’s initial recommendation is to dismantle DHS entirely, create a border-focused agency comprised of other immigration-related organizations and farm out the rest of its components to existing agencies (or privatize them, in the case of the Transportation Security Administration). It’s not directly clear whether the aim is to use all Fema funds – including those that help cities and states in the immediate aftermath of an emergency like a tornado or flood – or large grant programs for things like emergency preparedness. One line in the chapter says “post-disaster or nonhumanitarian funding” could be exempt from the immigration policy requirements. The chapter also suggests that cities and states should take on more of the burden of financially responding to disasters.

[...]

One of the conditions Project 2025 suggests is requiring states or localities to share information with the federal government for law and immigration enforcement, and specifies that this would include both department of motor vehicle and voter registration databases. This is of particular interest in many cities because 19 states and Washington DC allow undocumented people to get drivers licenses, the Niskanen Center, a thinktank that delved into the project’s immigration aims, points out. These licenses help with public safety by decreasing the potential for hit-and-runs and increasing work hours, among other benefits, the center writes. If a city or state is forced to choose between issuing licenses and then sharing this information for use by immigration authorities, or accessing emergency funds for their whole population in a crisis, it’ll be tough for them to deny Fema money, said Cecilia Esterline, an immigration research analyst at the Niskanen Center.

Donald Trump’s war on urban cities is part of the wretched far-right Project 2025 plan, including crackdowns on sanctuary cities.

See Also:

The Guardian: What is Project 2025 and what does it have to do with a second Trump term?

[rogue-ai-cat]

American Politics — What Happened Today That You Should Know

Wednesday, June 18, 2025

Trump is checked out while his administration is seizing control of everything that moves.

While he saluted flagpoles and watched construction crews, his appointees weaponized student visas, Medicaid databases, and federal contracts into surveillance and deportation tools. They're moving with 54-minute deadlines and contempt-of-court defiance to capture every institution they can reach.

Iran is pushing us toward the biggest war in decades, but Trump's too distracted calling Fed chairs "stupid" to notice his own government is both executing authoritarian control and falling apart simultaneously.

The system is fighting back through courts, walkouts, and protest art, but his underlings don't need him paying attention to finish the job. That's why you need to pay attention to them.

Trump claims Iran proposed White House talks while threatening military strikes, but Tehran’s UN mission denies making any such proposal.

State Dept. contradicts Amb. Huckabee’s social media announcement of evacuation flights for Americans in Israel, saying it has no plans to assist departures.

Supreme Court allows Nuclear Regulatory Commission to override Texas and New Mexico governors’ opposition for temporary nuclear waste storage sites.

Michigan Attorney General Nessel and environmental groups file requests for rehearing of Energy Secretary Wright’s emergency order forcing coal plant to stay open.

MT Gov. Gianforte vetoes community solar bill despite supermajority legislative support, citing cost concerns that advocates say contradict experience in 23 other states.

Supreme Court upholds state transgender care bans for minors in 6-3 ruling, with Sotomayor reading rare dissent comparing majority’s deference to past defenses of interracial marriage bans.

Trump administration ends Trevor Project’s specialized LGBTQ+ suicide prevention service through federal hotline, giving nonprofit 30 days notice to shut down program.

EEOC Acting Chair Lucas tells senators agency will follow White House directives and defends dropping transgender discrimination cases to comply with Trump executive order.

FL AG Uthmeier calls to “denaturalize and deport” MN Rep. Omar after she criticized Trump’s military parade.

Texas quietly defunds Abbott’s signature border wall program after spending $3 billion to build only 8% of planned structure full of gaps migrants easily walk around.

Federal Reserve keeps rates steady despite Trump calling Powell “stupid” and demanding cuts to reduce government’s $1.2 trillion annual debt interest costs.

New data shows Medicare and Social Security stop paying full benefits in 8-9 years, earlier than projected, before accounting for Trump’s pending budget bill that would trigger additional Medicare cuts.

Justice Dept. plans to cut two-thirds of inspectors monitoring gun dealers for illegal sales as part of Trump administration effort to “defang and downsize” ATF.

Harvard cancer researcher Kseniia Petrova appears in court after months in custody for allegedly smuggling frog embryos as federal investigator admits he can’t define “biological materials” central to charges.

Senate Democrats walk out of Judiciary Committee hearing on Biden mental fitness as Durbin accuses Republicans of ignoring oversight of Trump administration’s military deployments and Sen. Padilla handcuffing.

FL Attorney General Uthmeier held in civil contempt for defying federal court order halting immigration law, must now file biweekly reports or face fines.

California senators demand Trump officials stop using Medicaid data for deportations after administration gave CMS 54-minute deadline to share millions of enrollees’ immigration status.

US resumes issuing student visas but requires all international applicants to make social media accounts public, warning private accounts may be suspicious.

Feds sue Kentucky Gov. Beshear over in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants living in KY, claiming it gives them preferential treatment over out-of-state U.S. citizens.

FL Board of Governors expected to approve three DeSantis appointees as university presidents after rejecting University of Florida’s choice Santa Ono as too “woke.”

DHS Secretary Noem requires personal approval for all contracts over $100k despite facing 5,100 annual reviews, prompting former acquisition chief to call policy “absolutely nuts.”

Independent National Academies report finds 30% of air traffic control facilities understaffed due to government shutdowns and hiring freezes, urges Congress to provide FAA resources to fix crisis.

Trump personally watches flagpole installation on White House lawn while Iran-Israel conflict escalates and questions mount about potential US military involvement.

FIGHTING BACK

“Dictator Approved” statue appears on National Mall showing gold thumb crushing Statue of Liberty, featuring quotes from Putin and Kim Jong Un praising Trump.

Take Action:

Write to your officials with resist.bot

Call your officials with 5calls.org

Find events at mobilize.us

[yourreddancer]

Heather Cox Richardson

May 23, 2025 Heather Cox Richardson May 24

I’m going to take an early night tonight, but I want to record three things that jumped out at me today because they seem to tell a story.

After S.V. Date of HuffPost noted last week that the White House had published fewer than 20% of Trump’s speeches, the White House has stopped publishing a database of official transcripts of President Donald J. Trump’s announcements, appearances, and speeches altogether and has taken down those it had published. Instead it will just post videos. And yet it is publishing just a few of the videos of the president’s term: so far, fewer than 50 videos of the first 120 days of his term, according to Brian Stelter of CNN.

A presidential administration traditionally publishes the president’s words promptly to establish a record. The Trump White House, in contrast, says removing the transcripts will enable people to get a better sense of Trump by watching his videos. But it’s likely closer to the truth that Trump’s appearances since he took office have been erratic, and removing the transcripts will make it harder for people to read his nonsensical rambles.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “The Trump White House is the most transparent in history,” but of course, it’s objectively not. White House officials have made it impossible to tell who is making decisions at the Department of Government Efficiency, for example, or who gave the order to render migrants to El Salvador. Now the president’s words, too, will be hidden.

Trump’s erratic behavior was on full display this morning when he announced that he will impose a 50% tariff on goods from the European Union on June 1, suggesting he is frustrated because his promises of a new trade deal have failed to materialize. Trump had threatened to stop negotiating and simply dictate terms, and that is apparently the direction he’s moving. “I’m not looking for a deal,” he said this afternoon. “We’ve set the deal—it’s at 50%.” Trump also threatened a 25% tariff on Apple products unless the company begins to make the iPhone in the U.S.

Elisabeth Buchwald of CNN reported that three major European stock market indexes fell after Trump’s threat. U.S. stock market indexes fell for the fourth day. They rose from their lowest point after the White House said Trump’s tariff comments were not a formal statement of policy.

So the president of the United States can tank world markets, only to have his own staff inform the media that his comments should not be taken seriously.

The third story is that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has denied North Carolina’s request that it honor a commitment made by President Joe Biden to pay for 100% of the costs for removal of debris after Hurricane Helene devastated the western part of the state in September 2024. That storm killed 107 people in western North Carolina and destroyed or damaged 75,000 homes, as well as destroying roads and leaving mounds of debris.

As Zack Colman of Politico reported yesterday, the storm hit in the last weeks of the 2024 presidential campaign, and Trump undermined FEMA’s response, lying that it was not present and telling North Carolinians that the Biden administration could not help them because it had taken money from FEMA for undocumented immigrants. None of what he was saying was true, but MAGA mouthpieces picked up his criticisms and exaggerated them, claiming that the federal government intended to steal people’s land, that Biden had directed the storm to western North Carolina, and that 28 babies had frozen to death in FEMA tents—all lies, but lies that slowed recovery as riled-up people who believed them refused assistance, threatened officials, and demanded investigations.

Trump suggested he would respond more effectively to voters in North Carolina, and two of the hardest-hit counties there, Avery and Haywood, backed him in 2024 by margins of 75.7% and 61.8%, respectively, similar to those it had given him in 2016 and 2020.

Once in office, though, Trump began to talk of eliminating FEMA. Now the White House has told North Carolina residents they’re on their own as they try to dig out from Hurricane Helene.

Taken together, these stories from today seem to provide a snapshot of this moment in American history. They show an erratic president whose own officials discount his orders even as power is concentrating in the executive office and who won election through lies that are now being exposed as his policies disproportionately hurt the very people who backed him most enthusiastically.

[darkmaga-returns]

A new directive revokes President Donald Trump's 2017 executive order (EO 13768), which prioritized deporting undocumented immigrants convicted of or charged with crimes. Trump signed a memorandum that focuses on preventing individuals without legal immigration status from improperly accessing benefits.

The new memorandum strengthens enforcement against fraudulent claims by undocumented individuals, expanding federal fraud prosecution programs and increasing scrutiny of Medicare, Medicaid and other benefits. The SSA will also investigate centenarians with mismatched records and penalize fraud more aggressively.

Officials claim these measures target illegal immigrants, not legal residents or citizens, citing Biden-era policies as allowing improper access to benefits like unemployment, disability and welfare programs.

The administration terminated humanitarian parole programs (like CHNV for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans), affecting over 500,000 migrants, citing abuse and failure to deter illegal immigration. Those still in the U.S. must leave or seek exceptions by April 24 or face deportation.

The government revoked parole and cut off benefits for 6,300+ foreign nationals flagged in the FBI's terror database or with criminal records, arguing parole programs have been exploited to incentivize unlawful entry.

[marta-bee]

News of the Day 6/5/25: El Salvador Detainees

Paywall free.

President Donald Trump and his aides have branded the Venezuelans as “rapists,” “savages,” “monsters” and “the worst of the worst.” When multiple news organizations disputed those assertions with reporting that showed many of the deportees did not have criminal records, the administration doubled down. It said that its assessment of the deportees was based on a thorough vetting process that included looking at crimes committed both inside and outside the United States. But the government’s own data, which was obtained by ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and a team of journalists from Venezuela, showed that officials knew that only 32 of the deportees had been convicted of U.S. crimes and that most were nonviolent offenses, such as retail theft or traffic violations. [...] As for foreign offenses, our own review of court and police records from around the United States and in Latin American countries where the deportees had lived found evidence of arrests or convictions for 20 of the 238 men. Of those, 11 involved violent crimes such as armed robbery, assault or murder, including one man who the Chilean government had asked the U.S. to extradite to face kidnapping and drug charges there. Another four had been accused of illegal gun possession. [...] ProPublica and the Tribune, along with Venezuelan media outlets Cazadores de Fake News (Fake News Hunters) and Alianza Rebelde Investiga (Rebel Alliance Investigates), also obtained lists of alleged gang members that are kept by Venezuelan law enforcement officials and the international law enforcement agency Interpol. Those lists include some 1,400 names. None of the names of the 238 Venezuelan deportees matched those on the lists.

Normally, I try to be moderate, but not this time. The fact they had it all noted down in a database and lied about it is truly infuriating.

More immigration-related news behind the cut. It's depressingly bad I'm afraid, so if you want to stick with that summary and skip the details, I can't say I blame you on this one.

Major, High-Level Changes in the Deportation Push

Stephen Miller is warning ICE to meet a new target number of arrests per day—or else. (X) We’re leaving behind the pretense we’re going after the worst of the worst at this point.

Supreme Court allows Trump to begin removing 500,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela (X) Justice Ketanji Brown was… not a fan. (X)

Trump signs new travel ban for 12 countries (X)

Across the country, unidentifiable law enforcement agents are snatching unsuspecting people off the streets where they live. But just because it’s beyond the pale doesn’t make it illegal. (X)

HUD and ICE are sharing data to identity mixed-status families. (X)

How It's Playing Out in Practice

Increasingly, American citizens are detained by ICE when they don’t believe peoples’ documents are genuine. (X)

ICE, Shifting Tactics, Detains High School Student at N.Y.C. Courthouse (X) He’s part of a trend of arresting immigrants as they appear for routine immigration hearings and check-ins. (X)

The US Is Storing Migrant Children’s DNA in a Criminal Database (X)

Trump Admin Moves to Create ‘Remigration’ Office to Supercharge Deportations. (X) Because that name’s not charged, historically-speaking.

Civil Rights Groups Say Immigrants Are Being Denied Legal Access at Detention Centers (X)

Trump officials weigh rule to prevent asylum-seekers from getting work permits (X)

Surge of ICE agreements with local police aim to increase deportations, but many police forces have found they undermine public safety (X)

Specific Communities and People Impacted

In LA, health clinics that service immigrants are making house calls on patients too afraid to leave home (X)

Hurricane Season Will Be Even Riskier for Undocumented People This Year (X)

A Missouri Town Was Solidly Behind Trump. Then Carol Was Detained. (X)

‘They are the backbone’: Trump’s targeting of legal immigrants threatens health sector (X)

Only Two Companies Make Parachutes for U.S. Troops. Deportations Would Crush One. (X)

Georgia teen says ICE detention was ‘life-altering’ and ‘like a prison’

Kristi Noem said an immigrant threatened to kill Trump. The story quickly fell apart

[minosbull]

I’m going to take an early night tonight, but I want to record three things that jumped out at me today because they seem to tell a story.

After S.V. Date of HuffPost noted last week that the White House had published fewer than 20% of Trump’s speeches, the White House has stopped publishing a database of official transcripts of President Donald J. Trump’s announcements, appearances, and speeches altogether and has taken down those it had published. Instead it will just post videos. And yet it is publishing just a few of the videos of the president’s term: so far, fewer than 50 videos of the first 120 days of his term, according to Brian Stelter of CNN.

A presidential administration traditionally publishes the president’s words promptly to establish a record. The Trump White House, in contrast, says removing the transcripts will enable people to get a better sense of Trump by watching his videos. But it’s likely closer to the truth that Trump’s appearances since he took office have been erratic, and removing the transcripts will make it harder for people to read his nonsensical rambles.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “The Trump White House is the most transparent in history,” but of course, it’s objectively not. White House officials have made it impossible to tell who is making decisions at the Department of Government Efficiency, for example, or who gave the order to render migrants to El Salvador. Now the president’s words, too, will be hidden.

Trump’s erratic behavior was on full display this morning when he announced that he will impose a 50% tariff on goods from the European Union on June 1, suggesting he is frustrated because his promises of a new trade deal have failed to materialize. Trump had threatened to stop negotiating and simply dictate terms, and that is apparently the direction he’s moving. “I’m not looking for a deal,” he said this afternoon. “We’ve set the deal—it’s at 50%.” Trump also threatened a 25% tariff on Apple products unless the company begins to make the iPhone in the U.S.

Elisabeth Buchwald of CNN reported that three major European stock market indexes fell after Trump’s threat. U.S. stock market indexes fell for the fourth day. They rose from their lowest point after the White House said Trump’s tariff comments were not a formal statement of policy.

So the president of the United States can tank world markets, only to have his own staff inform the media that his comments should not be taken seriously.

The third story is that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has denied North Carolina’s request that it honor a commitment made by President Joe Biden to pay for 100% of the costs for removal of debris after Hurricane Helene devastated the western part of the state in September 2024. That storm killed 107 people in western North Carolina and destroyed or damaged 75,000 homes, as well as destroying roads and leaving mounds of debris.

As Zack Colman of Politico reported yesterday, the storm hit in the last weeks of the 2024 presidential campaign, and Trump undermined FEMA’s response, lying that it was not present and telling North Carolinians that the Biden administration could not help them because it had taken money from FEMA for undocumented immigrants. None of what he was saying was true, but MAGA mouthpieces picked up his criticisms and exaggerated them, claiming that the federal government intended to steal people’s land, that Biden had directed the storm to western North Carolina, and that 28 babies had frozen to death in FEMA tents—all lies, but lies that slowed recovery as riled-up people who believed them refused assistance, threatened officials, and demanded investigations.

Trump suggested he would respond more effectively to voters in North Carolina, and two of the hardest-hit counties there, Avery and Haywood, backed him in 2024 by margins of 75.7% and 61.8%, respectively, similar to those it had given him in 2016 and 2020.

Once in office, though, Trump began to talk of eliminating FEMA. Now the White House has told North Carolina residents they’re on their own as they try to dig out from Hurricane Helene.

Taken together, these stories from today seem to provide a snapshot of this moment in American history. They show an erratic president whose own officials discount his orders even as power is concentrating in the executive office and who won election through lies that are now being exposed as his policies disproportionately hurt the very people who backed him most enthusiastically.

—

Notes:

https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/22/media/donald-trump-media-white-house-transcript-purge

https://www.niemanlab.org/2025/05/no-more-transcripts-of-trump-remarks-on-the-white-house-website-and-the-old-ones-are-gone-too/

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/white-house-purges-transcripts-trump-remarks-website-rcna208059

https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/23/economy/trump-eu-tariffs

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/22/stock-market-today-live-updates.html

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/22/trump-fema-north-carolina-hurricane-helene-00352614

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/fema-denies-north-carolina-request-hurricane-helene-aid-1235347521/

[bllsbailey]

IRS Close to Data-Sharing Deal With ICE

The Trump administration is finalizing an agreement between the IRS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the sharing of data regarding illegal immigrants, according to a report.

The deal would mean immigration officials could use taxpayer databases to confirm the names and addresses of people who are in the country illegally, Politico reported Monday.

Under previous administrations, personal taxpayer information was shared with federal law enforcement only under limited circumstances. Laws prohibit improper disclosure of taxpayer information.

The Washington Post reported that ICE access to tax data would be limited to confirming the addresses of migrants with final removal orders. Only Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem or acting ICE director Todd Lyons could submit requests, which must include the name and address of each taxpayer.

Privacy experts have said that disclosing such information would be a violation of the disclosure laws that the IRS operates under, CNN reported.

Congress has enacted some exceptions, such as for help in criminal investigations, to the requirement that taxpayer information remain confidential.

"We've seen that this administration is certainly pulling out all the stops and trying to use every potential lever of the government to find and deport undocumented immigrants," said Theresa Cardinal Brown, a former Department of Homeland Security official under the Bush and Obama administrations, Politico reported.

"That's their stated goal, and that's what they are doing."

Over the years, the IRS has encouraged illegal migrants to file taxes, CNN reported. Doing so provides the agency with their addresses, employers, and earnings.

Illegal migrants have paid nearly $100 billion annually in taxes. Critics of the plan say the sharing of personal information may discourage them from paying taxes.

The administration's demand that the IRS share data with ICE has contributed to the IRS being on its third leader this year, Politico reported.

Current acting IRS commissioner, Melanie Krause, has been receptive to requests from the administration and the Department of Government Efficiency to share tax data, the outlet added.

"If the IRS is willing to do this, it's because of the change of leadership," said Nina Olson, who served for almost two decades as the national taxpayer advocate. "It's unprecedented."

Charlie McCarthy ✉

Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.

© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

[123-er--ed]

'I have to go back': Deported migrant to CNN : Unjust Problems and Anti-Immigrant Policies in the U.S. against Peruvians and Latinos Peruvian and Latin American immigrants face policies and actions that violate human rights, perpetuate discrimination and criminalize migration. These are the main problems:1. Criminalization and Mass Deportations Alien Enemies Act: Used by Trump to justify mass deportations, equating migrants with "enemies" in a non-war context 8.Mandatory Registration: Undocumented persons over 14 years of age must register in a database under threat of fines or jail, facilitating their detention and deportation 10.Operation Aurora: Plan to deport 11 million people, including essential workers and rooted families, using xenophobic rhetoric 86.2. Systemic Discrimination and Institutional Violence Militarized Border Surveillance: Use of drones, thermal cameras and armed forces, even affecting American citizens due to racial profiling 6.Family Separation: Policies such as the cancellation of asylum programs (CBP One) leave families in limbo, as in the case of by Emir Mesa, a Peruvian mother waiting in Tijuana 6.Dehumanizing Rhetoric: Trump calls migrants "animals," reinforcing stereotypes that justify abuse 8.3. Economic and Social Impact Damage to Local Economies: Mass deportations would affect California, where immigrants contribute $8.5 billion in annual taxes 6.Labor Exploitation: Undocumented immigrants are vulnerable to abuse for fear of reporting 10.Direct and Indirect Solutions Direct Actions: Defense and Protection Free Legal Advice:Contact organizations such as the Immigrant Defenders Law Center or the ACLU for representation in deportation cases 64.Create networks of pro bono lawyers specialized in immigration law 4.Community Emergency Plans:Memorize key contact numbers and designate legal guardians for children 4.Store documents (birth certificates, tax receipts) in secure digital clouds 4.Education on Rights:Workshops on how to act during raids: "Do not open the door without a court order" 4.Campaigns on social networks to debunk immigration fraud 10.Indirect Actions: Structural Change Political Pressure and Strategic Litigation:Support ACLU lawsuits against unconstitutional policies, such as the use of the Alien Enemies Act 86.Demand that Latin congressmen propose laws such as the Immigration Reform Act 2025.Transnational Alliances:Collaborate with Latin American governments to pressure the US in international forums (OAS, UN) 13.Denounce trade agreements that do not protect migrant rights (e.g.: USMCA).Solidarity Economies:Create community funds to cover bail or legal expenses (e.g.: National Migrant Aid Fund).Boycott companies that collaborate with ICE in deportations 8.Human Focus: Resistance with Dignity Narratives of Resilience: Make visible the stories of Peruvian migrants who contribute to the US, such as chefs, nurses or artists.Art as Protest: Murals in Latino neighborhoods with phrases such as "No human being is illegal" or "Fear will not stop us."Emotional Support Networks: Therapy groups for separated families, using secure virtual platforms.Global Solidarity Labor Strikes: Coordinate strikes in sectors with a high migrant workforce (agriculture, construction) to demand rights 6.Alliances with Social Movements: Join Black Lives Matter or Climate Justice to show that the migrant struggle is intersectional 13.Conclusion: Towards a Future without Borders The solution is not only to resist, but to build alternatives. As the Peruvian poet César Vallejo said: "There is, brothers, much to do." The struggle must be as diverse as the causes that unite us: from lawyers in courts to grandmothers weaving networks of care. Immigrant justice is not a dream, it is a right that is won with organization, creativity and love.Not one more deportation! Not one less family! 🌎✊

[dankusner]

Red state agendas moving forward

POLITICS

Next Trump term energizing conservative officials to take policies even further right

Red state leaders emboldened by Donald Trump’s presidential victory are not waiting for him to take office to advance far more conservative agendas at home.

Idaho lawmakers want to allow school staff to carry concealed firearms without prior approval and parents to sue districts in library and curriculum disputes.

Lawmakers in Oklahoma plan to further restrict abortion by limiting the emergency exceptions and to require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public schools, while their counterparts in Arkansas are moving to create the felony offense of “vaccine harm,” which could make pharmaceutical companies or their executive officers potentially criminally liable.

But few states have bigger, more aggressive plans than Texas.

Ahead of their biennial session, which begins Jan. 14, the Republican legislators who control both the House and Senate have proposed a multitude of measures that would push the state further right.

Migrants are a particular focus, with bills to create a “Texas border protection unit” and to repeal in-state tuition for undocumented students, requiring colleges to notify law enforcement if they learn a student is undocumented.

They also would require state police to DNA-test migrants taken into custody, allow troopers to return undocumented immigrants to Mexico if they are seen entering Texas illegally, fingerprint and track migrant children in a database, and bar immigrants who are in the country illegally from accessing public legal services.

“Red state legislatures and governors are champing at the bit,” said Craig DeRoche, a former Michigan House speaker who is now president of the influential conservative Family Policy Alliance.

The group has chapters in 40 states where, he said, conservatives are sending a message to likely members of the incoming Trump administration on a variety of issues:

“Don’t fix it there. Send it back to us so we can fix it here.”

“There’s going to be an extraordinary accountability. And red state governors and legislatures are going to lead on that,” DeRoche said.

A ‘perfect storm’

Of 27 states with Republican governors, 23 are backed by GOP legislative majorities, all of which will reconvene in the new year.

Republicans made gains in the Michigan and Minnesota Houses this election, breaking Democrats’ trifecta control, and they hold a supermajority in Kansas that will allow them to override any veto by Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat.

“The alignment of a Trump-Vance administration and the beginning of legislative sessions is a looming perfect storm of conservative policies in red states,” said Skye Perryman, president of Democracy Forward, a legal group that has marshaled more than 800 lawyers to counter an anticipated onslaught of conservative legal battles on multiple fronts, from reproductive health to labor rights, free speech and public education.

Still, it’s not clear where or how or how fast Trump will try to capitalize on his state allies once he’s back in the White House.

“We don’t know if they will target communities in red states quicker than in blue states,” Perryman said.

What she and others do know: those allies hope to find much success given the momentum of Trump’s win, not just with new proposals but also with some that previously fell short.

Simone Leiro, spokeswoman for the Democratic-aligned States Project, sees GOP lawmakers already pursuing two types of legislation: those that fan the culture wars and those that give more power to corporations.

“It feels like they can get away with a lot more without scrutiny,” she said Wednesday.

Nowhere is GOP activism more visible than in Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott hosted Trump’s incoming “border czar,” Tom Homan, last month at a state-run base established just minutes from where many migrants cross the Rio Grande.

Homan called Operation Lone Star, Texas’s $11 billion border enforcement program, a “model” for national immigration enforcement.

Since the Nov. 5 election, Texas has added more barbed wire along the border and buoy barriers in the river.

A state police unit patrols daily on horseback.

Abbott has asked the Legislature for another $2.8 billion for the program in 2025.

“We’re going to be doing more and faster than anything that’s ever been done to regain control of our border, restore order in our communities, and also identify, locate and deport criminals in the United States of America who have come across the border,” he said during Homan’s visit to Eagle Pass.

Florida tackles issues

Florida also is certain to focus on migrant issues, with Gov. Ron DeSantis requesting $5 million from state legislators to continue transporting undocumented immigrants there to Massachusetts and California — a controversial program that provoked an uproar among migrant advocates.

Yet DeSantis, both before and during his own 2024 presidential bid, worked to position his state as a leader across the spectrum of deep-red issues.

He championed its near-total abortion ban, which last month narrowly survived a ballot measure asking voters to safeguard access to the procedure.

And he pushed restrictions on Medicaid funding for gender-affirming care for transgender individuals.

Despite the latter being blocked in federal court, conservative advocates expect like-minded states to follow Florida’s path.

In Tallahassee this year, the GOP-controlled Legislature banned gender-affirming care for minors — action that was struck down on constitutional grounds.

Lawmakers also voted to require public schools to teach anti-communism, which conservatives elsewhere are now trying to do.

The state’s Education Department recently released a list of over 700 books banned by local districts during the past year, more than twice as many as were targeted the previous year.

“Florida has been an incubator of ideas,” said Charlie Misseijer, state policy director for Moms for Liberty, a conservative advocacy group headquartered in Melbourne, Fla.

Flexing their muscles

Misseijer is working with Moms for Liberty chapters in the Carolinas, Michigan, Pennsylvania and other states to push legislation promoting parents’ rights, including the right to sue school districts over issues such as library books they find objectionable, and school choice bills that allow public taxpayer money to be used by parents who want to send their children to private schools, which leaders in Texas and other states have made a priority.

“The school choice movement feels totally emboldened,” said Jon Schweppe, policy director at the American Principles Project, a Virginia-based nonprofit advocating for socially conservative causes. After four years of being stymied by the Biden administration, whether through agency regulations or legal battles with the Justice Department, the 29 Republican state attorneys general have already begun flexing their muscles.

Since Trump was elected, they have individually and in coalitions defended gun rights, blocked certain policies benefiting immigrants, and defended restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors and transgender students’ participation in girls’ and women’s sports.

The challenges around transgender rights could draw the most attention in coming months.

Recently, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in defense of a state law prohibiting transgender minors from using puberty blockers and hormones.

About two dozen states ban such treatments because officials consider them risky and unproven; the high court’s conservative justices appeared ready to uphold Tennessee’s statute.

Many of the same GOP-led states are suing the Biden administration over recent changes to federal Title IX provisions aiming to protect LGBTQ students from discrimination in schools.

Their effort now will be easier: Trump and his allies were unequivocal before the election that he would roll back such protections.

“We’re not going to let it happen,” Trump declared in reference to transgender athletes playing youth and college sports.

Legalities

The courts have also become more conservative since Trump was last in office, in part because of the 245 judges he appointed to the federal courts during his first term. Three joined the Supreme Court.

The Justice Department is sure to have a much different relationship with red states. The president-elect’s pick for attorney general, Pam Bondi, is a former Florida attorney general who this year chaired the legal arm of the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute.

And his pick to lead the department’s civil rights division, San Francisco attorney Harmeet Dhillon, founded a group that has advanced anti-transgender cases.

Matt Sharp of Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal advocacy group based in Arizona, foresees Republican attorneys general in many states changing tactics after Trump’s inauguration.

Their approach, he said, “may shift from these attorneys general challenging federal rules and policies, to the Trump administration appealing those policies and rolling them back.”

Doing so will free up conservative states to move forward even more.

“We’ve seen them going hand in hand and will continue to,” he said.

[cogitoergofun]

Florida Republicans who voted to pass the state's imminent anti-immigration law are trying to curb a potentially disastrous mass exodus of undocumented residents by touting the legislation's many "loopholes."

GOP Rep. Rick Roth, a third generation farmer, told NPR on Tuesday that state Senate Bill 1718, which goes into effect on July 1, was designed to "scare migrants." But he admitted that he and his colleagues were unprepared for the destabilization it would cause among the state's more established immigrant communities.

Roth and a handful of other Republicans, including state representatives Alina Garcia and Juan Fernandez-Barquin, are scrambling to allay fears of job losses or deportation, which they say are already driving workers out of the state.

"It's very dangerous for agriculture. We desperately need more legal workers and this is going to make it worse," he warned.

Among the legislation's many provisions is a new mandate for all businesses with 25 or more employees to run new hires through E-Verify, a database that tracks whether individuals are legally able to work in the U.S.

It also limits social services for undocumented immigrants, allocates millions more tax dollars to expand DeSantis' migrant relocation program, and requires hospitals that get Medicaid dollars to ask for a patient's immigration status. Another provision makes it a human smuggling felony to transport an immigrant who has not been "inspected" by authorities into Florida. The latter is striking deep fear among mixed-status families who may travel across state lines together.

But by delving into the bill's details in public forums, Roth said, he hopes to persuade long-time immigrant residents who already have jobs not to flee the state because the law "is not as bad as you heard."

He added: "The bill really has a lot of loopholes in it that gives you comfort. And the main purpose of the bill is to deter people from coming and to tighten the enforcement in the future."

Had the bill been intended to be fully enforced, it would have included funding for enforcement, according to Roth. "So that's why I'm trying to tell people that it's more of a political bill than policy."

During a faith-based event addressing the implications of the new law on Monday, Roth was captured on video urging attendees not to leave the state despite the bill's intimidating language.

"This bill is 100 percent supposed to scare you," Roth said. "I'm a farmer and the farmers are mad as hell. We are losing employees that are already starting to move to Georgia and other states. It's urgent that you talk to all your other people and convince them that you have resources, state representatives, other people that can explain the bill to you."

At the same event, Rep. Garcia, a Cuban immigrant who arrived in the U.S. as a 2-year-old, said the new law has already "done its purpose" of preventing new arrivals across the state.

"This bill really doesn't have any teeth," she added.

Neither representative addressed questions about what undocumented workers might do if they were to get laid off from an existing job after the law goes into effect.

When asked about provisions in the bill that would make it a felony for mixed-status families to travel into Florida together, Roth suggested it would be unlikely that anyone would be charged.

[bilbobagginsomebabez]

gop reps are now begging immigrants to stay and whining they "only meant to scare you" after passing a legally binding human rights atrocity of a bill

Florida Republicans who voted to pass the state's imminent anti-immigration law are trying to curb a potentially disastrous mass exodus of undocumented residents by touting the legislation's many "loopholes."

GOP Rep. Rick Roth, a third generation farmer, told NPR on Tuesday that state Senate Bill 1718, which goes into effect on July 1, was designed to "scare migrants." But he admitted that he and his colleagues were unprepared for the destabilization it would cause among the state's more established immigrant communities.

Roth and a handful of other Republicans, including state representatives Alina Garcia and Juan Fernandez-Barquin, are scrambling to allay fears of job losses or deportation, which they say are already driving workers out of the state.

"It's very dangerous for agriculture. We desperately need more legal workers and this is going to make it worse," he warned.

Among the legislation's many provisions is a new mandate for all businesses with 25 or more employees to run new hires through E-Verify, a database that tracks whether individuals are legally able to work in the U.S.

It also limits social services for undocumented immigrants, allocates millions more tax dollars to expand DeSantis' migrant relocation program, and requires hospitals that get Medicaid dollars to ask for a patient's immigration status. Another provision makes it a human smuggling felony to transport an immigrant who has not been "inspected" by authorities into Florida. The latter is striking deep fear among mixed-status families who may travel across state lines together.

But by delving into the bill's details in public forums, Roth said, he hopes to persuade long-time immigrant residents who already have jobs not to flee the state because the law "is not as bad as you heard."

He added: "The bill really has a lot of loopholes in it that gives you comfort. And the main purpose of the bill is to deter people from coming and to tighten the enforcement in the future."

Had the bill been intended to be fully enforced, it would have included funding for enforcement, according to Roth. "So that's why I'm trying to tell people that it's more of a political bill than policy."

During a faith-based event addressing the implications of the new law on Monday, Roth was captured on video urging attendees not to leave the state despite the bill's intimidating language.

"This bill is 100 percent supposed to scare you," Roth said. "I'm a farmer and the farmers are mad as hell. We are losing employees that are already starting to move to Georgia and other states. It's urgent that you talk to all your other people and convince them that you have resources, state representatives, other people that can explain the bill to you."

At the same event, Rep. Garcia, a Cuban immigrant who arrived in the U.S. as a 2-year-old, said the new law has already "done its purpose" of preventing new arrivals across the state.

"This bill really doesn't have any teeth," she added.

Neither representative addressed questions aboutwhat undocumented workers might do if they were to get laid off from an existing job after the law goes into effect.

When asked about provisions in the bill that would make it a felony for mixed-status families to travel into Florida together, Roth suggested it would be unlikely that anyone would be charged.

"I think people are are extrapolating the situation into the worst case scenario," he said.

Garcia and Fernandez-Barquin did not immediately respond to NPR's requests for comment.