Washington, DC — Relying on previously “unreported internal federal agency documents and footnotes in the Office of Management and Budget’s apportionments database,” a new must-read investigative piece in NOTUS, “How the Trump Administration Diverted Resources to Support Mass Deportations” adds new evidence to show why the Trump/Miller anti-immigrant crusade is making all of us less safe – and why ICE, CBP, and Stephen Miller shouldn’t have another dime for mass deportation via reconciliation.

The NOTUS piece (excerpted in more detail below) finds:

[There are] “at least six programs or accounts, largely related to national security, across the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice and State where spending, staff or other resources were directed toward immigration and deportation operations, deviating from Congress’ original intention. These are funds and resources being used on top of the $75 billion boost in funding that Republicans included for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in their budget reconciliation bill last year.”

Find key excerpts from the NOTUS story by Anna Kramer, “How the Trump Administration Diverted Resources to Support Mass Deportations” below:

“State Department funds for countering foreign election interference. Senior staff at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The Department of Homeland Security budget for an office focused on weapons of mass destruction. Training programs for prison guards. Those are just some of the federal resources that the Trump administration has redirected to support the president’s mass deportation agenda without congressional input.

NOTUS identified at least six programs or accounts, largely related to national security, across the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice and State where spending, staff or other resources were directed toward immigration and deportation operations, deviating from Congress’ original intention. These are funds and resources being used on top of the $75 billion boost in funding that Republicans included for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in their budget reconciliation bill last year.

‘As somebody who joined DHS in 2005, shortly after it was formed, this feels like the biggest reorienting of federal resources toward a single end since 9/11,’ said Theresa Brown, a former DHS official in the Obama and Bush administrations. ‘We’re not creating a new department, but we are telling the entire federal government: This is now your No. 1 mission.’

The Trump administration has said it views immigration enforcement as a whole-of-government operation. Previously unreported internal federal agency documents and footnotes in the Office of Management and Budget’s apportionments database provide a new window into which federal resources have been redirected to make that happen.”

Washington, DC — According to a detailed post from Univision national correspondent Lidia Terrazas, a U.S. citizen named Brian Morales was racially profiled, threatened with a fraud charge, and summarily deported to Mexico this week despite his repeated protestations that he was a U.S. citizen.

As Terrazas reports, Morales was born in Denver, CO but grew up in Mexico and remains a Spanish-dominant speaker. Having recently returned to the U.S., Morales was detained during a traffic stop near Fredericksburg, TX along with other members of a construction crew in what likely amounts to a classic Kavanaugh stop and example of racial profiling.

Morales alleges that three different CBP agents didn’t believe him when asserting he had a birth certificate, Social Security card, and other documentation proving he was a U.S. citizen. Instead, they intimidated him and threatened him with a fraud charge and five years’ imprisonment if he didn’t sign a voluntary departure order. He complied and then was summarily deported to Mexico.

According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice: 

“This administration’s disdain for our fundamental rights has no bounds. The continued examples of U.S. citizens being detained and deported are a built-in feature of the Trump and Miller mass deportation crusade and the culture that prioritizes speed and quotas instead of accuracy, accountability or dignity. Brian Morales needs to be returned to the U.S. immediately and all of us need to demand an end to the out-of-control mass deportation machinery. Our constitutional rights are under siege.”

The arrests and deportations of U.S. citizens like Mr. Morales – as well as earlier examples such as Dulce Consuelo Díaz Morales, a Maryland-born mother detained after federal immigration officials accused her of faking her Maryland birth certificate, and others, also underscore the role that racial profiling and “Kavanaugh stops” are playing out across the country.

As Justice Sonia Sotomayor recently highlighted and Bloomberg Law detailed in “Sotomayor Faults Kavanaugh Over Immigration Stops Concurrence,” “Those hours that they took you away, nobody’s paying that person. And that makes a difference between a meal for him and his kids that night and maybe just cold supper,” and warning that assumptions these encounters are brief or harmless ‘blink reality.’”

Washington, DC — Ezequiel Veliz is a doctor in a medically underserved, rural part of a red state married to a U.S. citizen. After being “forced out of his hospital job by a federal visa pause,” he was detained by CBP and is now facing potential deportation.

Annie Ramos is a college student majoring in biochemistry, a Sunday School teacher of younger children and a newlywed, married to a U.S. Army staff sergeant preparing for deployment. After accompanying her husband to his base, she was detained by ICE last week and sent to immigration detention. While public outcry helped secure her release yesterday, why was she targeted in the first place?

Meanwhile, Stephen Miller and allies continue to build a surveillance state to further their mass deportation agenda, with new reporting highlighting how ICE is using spyware tools inside the country.

See below for more details on each of the above examples:

• New York Times, “Doctor in South Texas Community Detained by Border Patrol,” noting, “A Venezuelan-born family physician who had been caring for Americans with chronic illnesses in an area facing a doctor shortage was detained by Border Patrol agents in Texas late Monday … Dr. Veliz treated people with diabetes, hypertension and other ailments, and was named resident of the year in 2025 at UT Health, Rio Grande Valley. He had entered the United States legally and was forced to withdraw from his position after losing his work permit because his immigration status ended. He had been trying to transition to a new visa, according to documents he submitted to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.”
• Associated Press: “Wife of US soldier released from federal immigration detention,” noting, “The detention of 22-year-old Annie Ramos, the Honduran born-wife of a U.S. Army staff sergeant preparing to deploy, prompted public backlash from critics of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign who warned it demoralized troops during an ongoing war … ‘All I have ever wanted is to live with dignity in the country I have called home since I was a baby,’ [Annie] Ramos said in a statement to the AP after her release. ‘I want to finish my degree, continue my education, and serve my community — just as my husband serves our country with honor.’”
• NPR, “ICE acknowledges it is using powerful spyware,” noting, “Immigration and Customs Enforcement is using spyware tools that can intercept encrypted messages … [ICE acting director Todd] Lyons’ confirmation that the agency is using spyware comes as ICE has ramped up its use of surveillance technologies to find people in the U.S. without authorization as part of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign. Those tools have also been used extensively on American citizens who have protested ICE’s activities.”

Washington, DC — As America’s Voice has been stating, the mass deportation crusade makes everyone less safe (see our recent fact sheet on the topic here). In addition to the majority of Americans in recent polling who now agree that ICE operations are making us “less safe.” Law enforcement and medical professionals from Minnesota and across the nation are also expressing their rebuke of the Administration.

According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:

“Whether you are an American citizen or a hard-working immigrant, the anti-immigrant agenda of this administration makes every one of us less safe. Now, local law enforcement leaders are making it powerfully clear that the flood of untrained and unchecked federal agents are not only harming our communities, but eroding the trust between citizens and their local law enforcement. Yesterday, law enforcement leaders in Minnesota made clear in no uncertain terms that sending thousands of over-militarized, masked and armed immigration agents to American communities raises the likelihood of violence; stokes fear and conflict; and harms community policing and law enforcement. Meanwhile, the administration’s choice to divert federal money, manpower, and investigative resources into their mass deportation crusade compounds the danger. We must find a better way that upholds our values and promotes unity instead of division.”

Among the key voices speaking out about how the mass deportation crusade is making us less safe, endangering lives and violating Americans’ rights include:

• Chief Axel Henry of the St. Paul Police Department noted that city employees had been subject to “traffic stops that were clearly outside the bounds of what federal agents are allowed to do … We watch the news and we see very, very angry groups of people out protesting, but the people that we’re dealing with as police chiefs are the people that are scared to death, that are afraid to go outside [Not because their status is in question, but because people] … are getting stopped by the way that they look, and they don’t want to take that risk.”
• Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna S. Witt: “The trust is fragile right now, and it is an essential element to public safety. Today that trust is being damaged, broken by the questionable and sometimes unethical actions of some — some — federal agents, particularly in these last recent weeks.”
• Mark Bruley, chief of the Brooklyn Park, MN Police Department said that off-duty department officers were among those targeted by ICE and asked to provide proof of citizenship, noting: “I wish I could tell you this was an isolated incident,”…“If it is happening to our officers, it pains me to think of how many of our community members are falling victim to this every day. It has to stop.”
• Janna Gewirtz O’Brien, a member of the executive board of the Minnesota chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics noted, “violence and the threat of family separation” could affect her young patients for many years to come…Chemical weapons have no place in our neighborhoods or schools. They can have life-threatening effects on children,” she said. “It’s only a matter of time before a child dies.” Gerwitz O’Brien was one of the medical experts speaking at a press conference yesterday (see coverage in the  Minnesota Reformer, “Minnesota doctors say immigration crackdown is forcing patients to hide, endangering lives”).
• Former ICE Chief of Staff and CBP Counterterrorism Official Jason Houser: “Immigration enforcement in the United States has drifted away from its core purpose. What began as a public safety function—focused on serious threats and guided by professional judgment—has become something far more volatile: politicized, disconnected from local realities, and increasingly dangerous for everyone involved.”

Across the country, Americans are facing fear with courage and division with unity. In response to the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant agenda, communities nationwide are standing together in remarkable ways. From workplaces and schools to houses of worship and courtrooms, people are choosing action, solidarity, and compassion. These stories reveal the deep wells of resilience, creativity, and moral courage that define who we are as a nation. Read below for twelve inspiring examples of resistance:

1. EMPLOYERS STOOD THEIR GROUND: From a Kenner, LA store manager who locked Border Patrol agents out of his store and told them to “go somewhere else,” to workers and business owners across the country who refused to be complicit in the administration’s enforcement agenda – many employers chose the dignity and safety of their employees over intimidation tactics.
2. PROTECTED THE PATH TO SCHOOL: As federal agents began targeting schools that were once protected spaces – parents, teachers, and neighbors organized efforts like “walking school buses” to escort children to class safely. In Charlotte, NC, for example, residents organized volunteer patrols with PTA members standing guard at school entrances, ensuring students could reach school without fear of ICE raids along the way.
3. FED NEIGHBORS IN NEED: When fear kept immigrant families at home, away from food stories, communities responded with groceries. And while being threatened themselves, when wildfires struck, immigrants took action to clear roads and deliver food to their affected neighbors.
4. YOUNG PEOPLE LED THE WAY: The next generation stepped up with remarkable courage and organizing power, including through school walk-outs to protest ICE raids around the country – from Hillsboro, OR to Raleigh, NC. In Boyle Heights, CA a student-led group delivered care packages to families too afraid to leave their homes.
5. SUPPORTED LOCAL BUSINESSES: Communities patronized immigrant-owned businesses facing economic pressure from anti-immigrant enforcement actions, including in Chicago, IL where a cyclist group helped local vendors, and in Fort Bragg, CA where “Solidarity Crawls” encouraged people to shop at locally-owned businesses displaying “We Stand With Immigrant Families” stickers. 
6. POPE LEO XIV AND FAITH COMMUNITIES TOOK ACTION: Religious leaders and faith groups demonstrated solidarity for marginalized brethren, including New Orleans, LA pastors who launched a fundraiser to cover bills and groceries for immigrant families, the San Diego Diocese which assembled volunteers to accompany immigrants in court, a Chicago, IL priest who walked 800 miles to step up, and Pope Leo XIV who condemned U.S. immigration policy and called migrants and refugees “messengers of hope.” These faith leaders brought moral clarity to the national conversation, refusing to let the administration’s actions go unchallenged.
7. VETERANS SPOKE OUT: Veterans across the country stood up for immigrant neighbors, including Chicago, IL veterans who stood against Trump immigration raids on Veterans Day. In Boston, MA, protesters honored veterans and rallied for immigrant rights at a Memorial Day demonstration, and a disabled veteran who was detained in an immigration raid in Camarillo, CA demanded an investigation. These veterans demonstrated that those who served our country understand the true meaning of defending all neighbors and protecting the values of inclusion and justice.
8. JUDGES DELIVERED JUSTICE: Legal advocates and judges pushed back against unlawful enforcement tactics across the country. In Maryland, a federal judge ordered the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from ICE custody declaring his case “demands judicial intervention,” while in Colorado a federal judge ruled ICE’s conduct “unlawful” and blocked warrantless arrests, and in Washington, D.C. a federal judge ruled that ICE must allow members of Congress to make unannounced visits to immigration detention facilities. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the administration’s mandatory detention policy, calling it a move that “upends decades of practice” – proving that when we stand up for each other, we can win.
9. MOBILIZED NATIONWIDE: Americans flooded the streets in massive numbers, with over 700 immigration-related demonstrations across all 50 states by March alone – more than a quarter of all protest activity across the country. Throughout the year, Americans marched with U.S. flags in their hands and hope in their hearts, reclaiming patriotism as a force for inclusion.
10. RURAL COMMUNITIES DEFENDED IMMIGRANTS: Across small towns and rural America, communities rose up to protect their immigrant neighbors, including in Boone, NC where 135 residents gathered on short notice to protest ICE raids. In New York state, rural Americans stood up to “White House Border Czar” Tom Homan in his hometown of 1,500 people, and lawmakers representing small towns found out that Trump’s extreme agenda wasn’t playing well in their districts – facing furious constituents at town halls demanding better for their neighbors.
11. WARNING NETWORKS FORMED: Across the country, neighbors organized warning networks to protect immigrant communities from militarized enforcement actions. In Chicago, IL, residents ran migra watch shifts, trailed ICE caravans, and blew whistles to alert neighbors – creating a formidable defense network that became a blueprint for cities nationwide.
12. IMMIGRANTS CELEBRATED BELONGING: Despite challenges, immigrants continued to claim their rightful place in American life with joy and pride, including new citizens who celebrated their first July 4th as Americans, immigrant communities volunteering as first responders, and organizing cultural festivals that demonstrated their deep civic engagement. These moments of celebration and service reminded us why this fight matters – because America is strengthened by those who choose to call it home.

Washington, DC — The Supreme Court ruling yesterday offered a green light to the Trump administration’s efforts to deport immigrants to third countries – including war-torn areas – and without due process constraints or basic accountability. As U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a dissent, “The government has made clear in word and deed that it feels itself unconstrained by law, free to deport anyone anywhere without notice or an opportunity to be heard.”

The dangerous overreach by President Trump and Stephen Miller does not stop there. The terrifying reality of their disdain for the core pillars of our democracy is playing out in communities across America, as masked ICE agents lacking identification are – often violently – targeting, detaining and deporting students, workers, community members and even U.S. citizens.

According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:

“Masked men with guns in unmarked cars. No identification. No warrant. Tearing our neighbors, co-workers and friends off the streets. No due process. Now, they will not only be kidnapped from our streets, but could be deported to a dangerous third country with impunity and without due process.

This is Trump and Stephen Miller’s increasingly vigilante America. They are demonstrating utter contempt for due process and the rule of law.  Americans are recoiling as they experience militarized ICE raids and unidentified agents in masks and tactical gear tackle and ensnare long settled residents with families, jobs, lives and stakes in America. What is playing out before our eyes is at odds with democratic norms and basic American values and interests.”

Below find recent coverage on the continued impact of Trump’s anti-immigration policies: 

• CNN, “Masked ICE officers: The new calling card of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown,” including: “It has become the new calling card of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown: Federal officers, often masked and not wearing uniforms or displaying badges, arresting people outside courtroom hearings, during traffic stops and in workplace sweeps.”
• Los Angeles Times, “‘Who are these people?’ Masked immigration agents sow fear in L.A., vex local police,” including: “They show up without uniforms. They show up completely masked. They refuse to give ID,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said during a news briefing after the Dodger Stadium incident. “Who are these people? And frankly, the vests that they have on look like they ordered them from Amazon. Are they bounty hunters? Are they vigilantes? If they’re federal officials, why is it that they do not identify themselves?””
• KTLA, “Masked men in U.S. Border Patrol vests take Santa Ana father after repeatedly hitting him,” including: “In a video circulating on social media, a group of masked U.S. Border Patrol agents is seen striking and subduing a man in Santa Ana before forcing him into the back of an unmarked car on Saturday.”
• NPR,  “A journalist known for covering immigration is arrested by ICE”, including: “A journalist originally from El Salvador, known for covering immigration in the U.S., was detained by U.S. Immigration officials after covering a protest in Georgia.”
• The Guardian, “ ‘I’m scared to death to leave my house’: immigrants are disappearing from the streets – can US cities survive?” including: “immigrants with legal status and even US citizens have been swept into Donald Trump’s dragnet.”
• Truthout: “Trump’s ICE Agents Are Arresting US Citizens. GOP Budget Would Hire 10,000 More,” noting that, “billions of dollars for ICE and border patrol in Trump’s budget bill would supercharge the chaotic crackdown.”

Washington, DC — As the Donald Trump/Stephen Miller assault on immigrant communities, our economy and our safety marches on, America’s Voice continues to ask, “At what cost” to America is the Trump administration willing to go to advance its mass deportation agenda? As a growing chorus of voices – from business leaders to members of Congress – and analysis underscore, the mounting costs include America’s economic vitality and labor force, as well as Donald Trump’s own political standing as a series of polls make clear.

According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:

“Donald Trump’s chaotic mass deportation campaign is not just an economic fiasco but also a political blunder. Leading industry and economic voices from across the nation continue sounding the alarm at the growing harm of the Trump/Miller mass deportation crusade. Trump’s recent flip-flop and backtrack on pausing raids only compounds the confusion and frustration. Yet the costs to America go well beyond economic growth and harm our communities, families and our public safety as well. Despite this, Trump and Miller are moving full steam ahead on their plans to purge our country of immigrants.

Little wonder that Americans are reacting in disgust from watching mass deportation in action, whether it’s learning that a high school soccer star was deported away from his family in Ohio or seeing images of the cherry crop in Central Washington going unpicked due to worker fears and shortages. Trump’s deportations are increasingly unpopular and rightly strike Americans as ‘capricious and unfair’” (as pollster Molly Murphy said in the WSJ story below).

Among the growing chorus of voices highlighting business and economic harms include:

• Associated Press, “ICE raids and their uncertainty scare off workers and baffle businesses,” including: “‘It really is clear to me that the people pushing for these raids that target farms and feed yards and dairies have no idea how farms operate,’ Matt Teagarden, CEO of the Kansas Livestock Association, said.”

• New York Times, “Trump Travel Restrictions Bar Residents Needed at U.S. Hospitals,” noting, “Travel and visa restrictions imposed by the Trump administration threaten patient care at hundreds of hospitals that depend on medical residents recruited from overseas.”
• Axios, “The immigrants caring for the nation’s elderly are losing their jobs,” noting, “The White House immigration crackdown is hitting the long-term healthcare industry, as nursing homes and care providers lose foreign-born employees and struggle to hire … These folks care for the disabled and for the country’s fast-growing elderly population, and they’re already in short supply.”
• Reuters, “Immigration raids in Los Angeles hit small business owners: ‘It’s worse than COVID,‘” noting, [a U.S. citizen who runs a fruit and vegetable grocery] “is not alone in seeing President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigrants in the country illegally devastate his small business. It’s happening across Los Angeles and California … and threatens to significantly damage the local economy.”
• The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA): “Washington cherry growers struggle to find pickers,” noting, “The threat of federal immigration agents raiding orchards in central Washington is causing a labor shortage that has compelled some Washington producers to leave cherries unpicked or delay their harvests until the fruit overripens and is worth less money.”

And the political and polling damage to Trump is mounting as a result, as this Wall Street Journal analysis from Molly Ball, “Trump Is Losing Political Ground on Immigration,” assesses:

“The Trump administration’s aggressive deportation program is testing the political bounds of what Americans will tolerate, spurring a backlash from voters and some Republicans and testing the administration’s resolve.

…’I may have voted for Trump, but I can’t stay silent about what’s happening with ICE in LA,’ Ryan Garcia, a former interim lightweight boxing champion who endorsed Trump last year, wrote on X. ‘We can have borders without losing our humanity.’

…People are reacting to the way Trump’s immigration policies have played out, and they don’t like what they see, said Democratic pollster Molly Murphy.  ‘A majority support the policies, a majority oppose the enforcement,’ she said. People like the idea of tightening the border and cracking down on illegal immigration, but they view the administration’s conduct as capricious and unfair, she said. ‘Trump’s muscularity on immigration has always been a source of strength, but pulling people out of their homes and workplaces and schools seems cruel,’ she said. In her surveys, Americans by a 40-point margin oppose deporting people without due process or in violation of a court order and conducting raids at churches, schools and hospitals.

…in practice, the administration’s approach to the issue has struck many as both erratic and extreme, with high-profile examples of foreign students having their visas revoked, migrants deported in error or without due process, foreign tourists held for questioning, and even some U.S. citizens detained.

Trump-supporting podcaster Joe Rogan deplored the administration’s actions on a recent broadcast, saying, ‘If you got here, and you’ve integrated, maybe you shouldn’t have snuck in. But you did it, and now you’re not breaking any laws, and you’re a hardworking person—those people need a path to citizenship, man.’”

Washington, DC — Following ICE raids on farms in California and Nebraska and restaurant raids in Washington, D.C. and Tennessee in recent weeks, the Trump Administration Friday announced it would “largely pause raids and arrests in the agricultural industry, hotels and restaurants,” per the New York Times.

Unsurprisingly, there already are questions about how real the supposed “pause” is, given the United Farm Workers’ assertion on Saturday that raids against their community continue and in light of President Trump’s Sunday social media post calling to expand detentions and deportations in Democratic-run cities (a Trump post perhaps related to frustration over the Americans who took to the streets in “No Kings” protests, including many immigrants and others animated by support for immigrant communities).

Yet the fact the Trump administration felt the need to announce the “pause” in the first place is, nonetheless, a notable admission about the reality of immigrants’ contributions to America and the shifting politics and public opinion of the issue.

According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:

“The public has caught onto Trump’s act on immigration and the public and political blowback is building. Look no further than Trump saying he now wants to reverse course to stop deportation of farmworkers, restaurant and hospitality workers. Even if Stephen Miller gets his way and the supposed ‘pause’ isn’t real, the initial announcement from the Trump White House is a telling admission about the political and economic blowback of mass deportation.

Many GOP members are feeling the heat in their districts as entire industries are in jeopardy. Yet the solution can’t be simply fewer raids or delivering favors for key industry allies. What about Dreamers, like the University of Utah student Caroline Dias Goncalves who’s now held in a Colorado detention center as just the latest in a string of similar enforcement directed at young immigrants who’ve grown up in America? What about the U.S. citizens being ensnared and targeted in immigration sweeps via racial profiling that’s endemic to any mass deportation agenda?

The truth is this: we are watching the ham-handedness and harms of the Trump immigration agenda in action and one that highlights a broader reality: immigrants in America are very different from the dangerous ‘invaders’ Stephen Miller wants us to picture. Our country relies on immigrants – in key economic sectors and beyond – and the real reforms we need  don’t look anything like the mass deportations in action.”

Key voices have been highlighting similar points. Notably:

• Read the letter from six House Republicans to Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons detailing the harms of targeting and detaining non-criminal undocumented immigrants (embedded in NPR story here), which notes: “Every minute that we spend pursuing an individual with a clean record is a minute less that we dedicate to apprehending terrorists or cartel operatives.  We stand by President Trump to ensure our border security is restored. However, in order to truly claim success, we need to give absolute priority to every violent offender and convicted criminal illegal alien present in our nation. Diverting limited resources to other objectives puts our national security at risk.”
• Read the New York Times, “Inside Trump’s Extraordinary Turnaround on Immigration Raids,” noting: “The president’s decision to shield farmers and the hospitality industry — a business he knows well from his years as an owner of luxury hotels — reveals the tension between his deportation efforts and concerns about maintaining crucial support in his political coalition … The scope of Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown has unsettled some Republicans as the raids on farms began disrupting operations. More than 40 percent of the nation’s crop workers have no legal immigration status, the Agriculture Department has estimated … Representative Glenn Thompson, Republican of Pennsylvania and the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, said ICE raids at farms were ‘just wrong … They need to knock it off,’ he told reporters this week. ‘Let’s go after the criminals and give us time to put processes in place so we don’t disrupt the food supply chain.’”
• In his New York Times column, “The Polls Are In. Trump Is Not Winning in Los Angeles,” Jamelle Bouie captures that, “a draconian use of force against largely peaceful protesters — in service of a brutal campaign of deportations — has turned the public against him … I expect that the manhandling and handcuffing of Senator Alex Padilla of California during a news conference held by Kristi Noem, secretary of homeland security — a stunning abuse of power — will worsen the president’s position with most Americans … the events of this week have activated many Americans in a way that will prove detrimental to the president’s authoritarian goals … Power, real power, rests on legitimacy and consent. A regime that has to deploy force at the first sign of dissent is a regime that does not actually believe it can wield power short of coercion and open threats of violence.”
• Also on the growing unpopularity of mass deportation and Trump on immigration, read polling guru G. Elliot Morris on Substack, highlighting new Strength In Numbers/Verasight polling and assessing, “Politically, the increasing focus on deportations may be a warning sign for Trump, whose approval ratings on the issue are low and have recently fallen in ours and other surveys.”
• Read Vanessa Cárdenas on the America’s Voice Substack: “Two Visions of Immigration and America,” noting, “I think there’s a better vision that’s aligned with our values and our interests and speaks to the American majority. As a policy direction, it involves a secure and orderly border; a resourced, fair and efficient asylum system; legal immigration channels to sustain our economy; and targeted enforcement against public safety threats paired with a path to legal status, instead of deportation for Dreamers and long-residing undocumented immigrants. And this vision goes well beyond the contours of a policy debate – it also seeks to unite the nation around common sense solutions, not deliberate chaos and cruelty, birthday parades and military deployments to American communities. It recognizes that political dissent and the separation of powers, due process and habeas corpus, aren’t abstract concepts or archaic notions but instead the lifeblood of a democratic system.”

Washington, DC — Following this weekend’s historic and volatile military deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles — a deliberate provocation by Donald Trump and Stephen Miller — America’s Voice offers three key points to keep in mind (also see yesterday’s America’s Voice statement, “‘An Excuse to Deliberately Stoke Violence and Force Confrontations Around Immigration’ – America’s Voice Reacts to Trump Deployment of National Guard”).

The following is a statement from Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice

“President Trump and Stephen Miller have deliberately provoked a confrontation, once again using immigration as the tip of the spear for our democracy, unchecked executive power and the militarization of American communities. It is no coincidence that the powder-keg moment they’ve created in Los Angeles coincides with a multimillion dollar military parade to celebrate a sitting President’s birthday. The Trump-Miller axis is trying to change the national focus back to their preferred storylines in a manner pulled from the playbook of authoritarian regimes and that should have no place in American democracy.”

Point 1: Trump and Miller are using immigration as the tip of the spear to advance the militarization of our communities, unchecked executive power, and the undermining of our democracy

Ahead of President Trump’s military parade to honor his birthday on June 14th, his team is forcing the clash and images he was hoping for in Los Angeles. Once again, immigration is being used as the ‘tip of the spear’ for a broader assault on democratic pillars and as an excuse to seize executive powers, bypass democratic norms, and militarize American communities. And it threatens to become worse.

As David Kurtz of Talking Points Memo writes this morning, “It’s too early to say whether this particular incident ends up being the defining episode of the erosion of the line between the military and domestic law enforcement. But it’s understandable why everyone has a hair trigger … The President’s memo was concerningly open-ended. It didn’t specify Los Angeles or California; it applies anywhere. It empowered the defense secretary ‘to employ any other members of the regular Armed Forces as necessary.’”

Point 2: A deliberate pretext to turbocharge mass deportations, including via the $151.3 billion in the big ugly bill in Congress

The Trump administration, Stephen Miller in particular, are using the L.A. protests to justify the $151.3 billion in immigration provisions in the big ugly bill in Congress that would further turbocharge mass deportations. Miller was transparent about this connection in a series of social media posts this weekend, including a stark, “Stand with ICE. Pass the BBB” post interspersed between those highlighting preferred images from Los Angeles.

Point 3: Most immigrants being targeted by the mass deportation dragnet are hard working,  long-residing immigrants who contribute to our communities and want to become American citizens.

As the Trump media machine focuses on their preferred images from this weekend of protest clashes, it’s the latest example of their tried-and-true approach to justify mass deportations. Namely, refer to all immigrants as dangerous “invaders” and gang members; exploit and sensationalize isolated crimes committed by immigrants; and seize on imagery that supports their preferred narratives. All of it is used by Stephen Miller and the nativist diehards in the administration as a pretext to go after any immigrant they can – including Dreamers and long-residing community members who are trying to get right by our immigration law.

The real face of mass deportation has been evident in recent weeks: think of images of militarized ICE agents in masks and tactical gear swarming neighborhoods and brandishing weapons to go after workers, spouses, kids and parents. Recall the community pushback in states across the country against the detention of Ximena in Dalton, GA and the high school student-athlete Marcelo in Milford, MA and Carol, a beloved community member and waitress from Hong Kong in the Trump-supporting community of Kennett, MO. That’s the real story of mass deportation and what Miller is wanting support to enact in the rest of America.

Washington, DC — As Stephen Miller and the Trump administration push for 3,000 ICE arrests per day, the overreach and examples of Americans recoiling and communities pushing back is growing.

In particular, the horrific visuals in community after community of swarms of militarized ICE agents and law enforcement in militarized tactical gear, weapons brandished and masks on, only to target parents,  trusted workers and even kids, is generating condemnation and recognition that there’s a better way.  See here for examples of visuals.

According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice: 

“Masked and armed ICE agents  are coming to a community near you. Their approach is to arrest first and ask questions later. This is not who we are and presents a threat of violence to every American – citizen or not. Americans don’t want militarized ICE agents in masks and tactical gear swarming neighborhoods and brandishing weapons to go after workers, spouses, kids and parents. This is not what Americans voted for, as the recent community pushback in states across the country demonstrates – from the story of Ximena in Dalton, GA to the high school student athlete, Marcelo, in Milford, MA to the way the Trump-supporting community of Kennett, MO has rallied around Carol, a beloved community member and waitress from Hong Kong, to the community-led resistance in Minneapolis, MN and San Diego, CA against the militarization of our communities. All of it captures the reality of Americans recoiling from watching the costs and consequences of the deportation dragnet in action and the recognition that we must find a better way.”

Below find key excerpts from recent coverage on examples of Trump’s widening immigration dragnet and community pushback: 

• Ximena Arias Cristobal, the 19-year old TheDream.US scholarship recipient recently detained in Georgia, said on a recent America’s Voice press event: “I am a daughter, a sister, and an avid runner. I have lived in Georgia for 15 years now and I attended Oglethorpe University thanks to TheDream.US Scholarship. Sadly I was detained by ICE at the Stewart Detention Center, a life-altering experience that left a mark on me emotionally and mentally. This isn’t just an immigration issue, it’s a human rights issue. People are being stripped of their dignity and basic freedoms and it is something we can not ignore. I am not just an immigrant, I am a human being, I am a Georgian, and I am an American without papers. No one should have to go through something like this. ”
• NBC News, “ICE arrest of H.S. student sends shock waves through a Massachusetts town,” noting: “Gomes Da Silva was supposed to play the drums at his girlfriend’s high school graduation Sunday. His absence was palpable during Milford High School’s commencement as his bandmates performed without him, sparking a post-graduation protest demanding his release. Hundreds of students still in their graduation gowns, teachers, relatives and other community members marched a mile to Milford Town Hall following the commencement ceremony — holding signs and chanting “Free Marcelo.”
• The New York Times, “A Missouri Town Was Solidly Behind Trump. Then Carol Was Detained,” “Ms. Hui’s detention has forced a rural Missouri county to face the fallout of President Trump’s immigration crackdown, which was supported in theory by many residents in this Trump-loving corner of an increasingly red America…In Kennett, some residents said they had implored state and national Republican lawmakers representing the area to intervene to stop Ms. Hui’s deportation, but had gotten mostly cursory responses. Kennett’s own leaders have not officially weighed in.”
• NPR, “An immigration raid at a San Diego restaurant leads to a chaotic scene,” “Video shared on social media and local news shows armed and masked agents in full tactical gear swarming the area near a popular Italian restaurant called Buona Forchetta late Friday afternoon. A crowd of people gathers, filming and yelling in protest, surrounding cars and detention vans. Then, a momentary explosion of what appears to be a flash-bang grenade sends smoke floating through the street.”
• CBS News, “Minneapolis mayor says Lake Street business raid not “immigration enforcement”,” “Minneapolis mayor says Lake Street business raid not “immigration enforcement”” and featuring quote … “Immigrant advocates say the sheer show of force from law enforcement in one of the most dense immigrant communities in the city puts people living there on edge. ‘They’re trying to scare communities. This affects businesses, this affects our neighbors. It’s a trauma that our community doesn’t need. People are welcome in Minneapolis, when they show up like that, fully militarized, that’s not a good sign for our community,’ said Miguel Hernandez, with the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee. ‘A lot of people’s doors are locked. Businesses are locking up because they’re afraid — what are they looking for? Why are they here? They don’t know.’”