#Immigration raids

[socialjusticeinamerica]

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Shondiin Silversmith at Arizona Mirror:

As U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement intensifies its efforts to apprehend and deport undocumented immigrants throughout the country, concern is rising among Indigenous communities residing in urban areas about reports of Indigenous people being detained in the Valley. Since President Donald Trump issued his executive order for an increase in ICE raids, Navajo tribal leaders have received alarming reports that their tribal members are being detained, heightening uncertainties over the implications these actions have for their communities and the safety of their people. “We now know that Navajo people and enrolled members of other tribes are being detained in Phoenix and other cities by ICE,” Navajo Nation Council Speaker Crystalyne Curley said during a committee meeting on Thursday. “The reports that we have received indicate that we need to coordinate an operation or some type of response to help our enrolled tribal members here on the Navajo Nation.” On Thursday, Navajo tribal leaders reported that they have received calls and text messages from Navajo people living in urban areas who have been stopped, questioned or detained by ICE. Those reports sparked outrage among Navajo Nation Council members and prompted a detailed discussion of the topic during a Naabik’íyáti’ Committee meeting. “These raids have sparked significant fear, especially among tribal members in urban areas who face challenges with documentation,” the Navajo Nation Council said in a press release. A verified number of the Navajo people who have been detained was not shared during the committee meeting.  State Sen. Theresa Hatathlie joined the committee meeting virtually and shared her report and concerns in Navajo. Hatathlie represents the Legislative District 6, which encompasses the Navajo Nation. 

[...] “Despite possessing Certificates of Indian Blood (CIBs) and state-issued IDs, several individuals have been detained or questioned by ICE agents who do not recognize these documents as valid proof of citizenship,” the Navajo Nation Council stated in a press release. Curley called for immediate assistance from Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren. “Our people are reaching out to us directly, and their needs are urgent,” Curley said. “We must act swiftly to ensure their safety and well-being.” She said that the Navajo people depend on the tribe for solutions and that Nygren’s response to the issue has been insufficient.  “We need clear records and tracking systems to understand the scope of these issues,” Curley said. “We cannot wait for another incident. We need emergency protocols now.” 

[...] The committee also stressed the need for collaboration with state and federal governments, as well as other tribal nations, to address the broader implications of these raids. Plans include a toll-free hotline, community outreach to educate citizens on their rights and legal support for those affected by ICE actions.

Saddening to see Diné (Navajo) people being detained in ICE sweeps.

[aliencatwafers]

Be weary

While the Tik Tok ban is taking a lot of attention, it’s being used as a distraction and stunt to draw attention away from the mass deportations and raids set to happen this week.

I’m not saying the ban isn’t important, it reflects censorship and is being used by Trump to gain favor with people so he can say he brought it back. But, don’t let the ban distract you from the oppression immigrants and undocumented people go through, and that they are being heavily targeted this week. It’s common for governments to pull stunts to hide an atrocity happening. For instance, the terrible debate between Trump and Harris last year hid the fact that Gaza was being bombed and refugee camps were being invaded from the American populace. Governments love to do something to draw American attention away from what the government wants to do but knows they won’t have mass approval or don’t want attention. This is happening again with the Tik Tok ban and planned unbanning going at the same time frame as the mass deportations planned.

Trump is a very dangerous man and I am sickened that he is in office and people support him. I’m not shocked but am extremely disappointed that the country picked an incompetent hateful fascist that reflects racist rhetoric. He is destroying communities and will leave so much damage. The nation built off immigrant labor rejects the same people that built this nation (the US was built off exploited Indigenous, Black, Asian, Latin, queer, trans, disabled, women labor).

Remember: DO NOT HELP ICE!!

Remember: If you know an immigrant, NO YOU DON’T

Remember: Protect your neighbors and make sure they’re safe during this time

Remember: Legality is NOT morality

Remember: Pay attention to what the government puts in front of you, and ask yourself if something else is happening behind the scenes

Everyone always says that they would’ve fought the Nazis and help to hide the Jewish people if they were born in Nazi Germany. While what’s happening now is a different time period, take that pride that you’d do better than the Germans who allowed Nazis to get away with this, and actually do better. See humanity in immigrants and ask what they need. The government isn’t going to help you. Once they hurt everyone else, they will go after you. Speak up while you still can. Help vulnerable communities while you still can. Even reblogging is still activism by spreading awareness.

Do not let Trump get away with this.

Do any help you can.

Do what you can.

[monstrousliarstold]

[krookxed]

It's all a bunch of smoke and mirrors

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

January 18, 2025

Heather Cox Richardson

Jan 19, 2025

Shortly before midnight last night, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published its initial findings from a study it undertook last July when it asked eight large companies to turn over information about the data they collect about consumers, product sales, and how the surveillance the companies used affected consumer prices. The FTC focused on the middlemen hired by retailers. Those middlemen use algorithms to tweak and target prices to different markets.

The initial findings of the FTC using data from six of the eight companies show that those prices are not static. Middlemen can target prices to individuals using their location, browsing patterns, shopping history, and even the way they move a mouse over a webpage. They can also use that information to show higher-priced products first in web searches. The FTC found that the intermediaries—the middlemen—worked with at least 250 retailers.

“Initial staff findings show that retailers frequently use people’s personal information to set targeted, tailored prices for goods and services—from a person's location and demographics, down to their mouse movements on a webpage,” said FTC chair Lina Khan. “The FTC should continue to investigate surveillance pricing practices because Americans deserve to know how their private data is being used to set the prices they pay and whether firms are charging different people different prices for the same good or service.”

The FTC has asked for public comment on consumers’ experience with surveillance pricing.

FTC commissioner Andrew N. Ferguson, whom Trump has tapped to chair the commission in his incoming administration, dissented from the report.

Matt Stoller of the nonprofit American Economic Liberties Project, which is working “to address today’s crisis of concentrated economic power,” wrote that “[t]he antitrust enforcers (Lina Khan et al) went full Tony Montana on big business this week before Trump people took over.”

Stoller made a list. The FTC sued John Deere “for generating $6 billion by prohibiting farmers from being able to repair their own equipment,” released a report showing that pharmacy benefit managers had “inflated prices for specialty pharmaceuticals by more than $7 billion,” “sued corporate landlord Greystar, which owns 800,000 apartments, for misleading renters on junk fees,” and “forced health care private equity powerhouse Welsh Carson to stop monopolization of the anesthesia market.”

It sued Pepsi for conspiring to give Walmart exclusive discounts that made prices higher at smaller stores, “​​[l]eft a roadmap for parties who are worried about consolidation in AI by big tech by revealing a host of interlinked relationships among Google, Amazon and Microsoft and Anthropic and OpenAI,” said gig workers can’t be sued for antitrust violations when they try to organize, and forced game developer Cognosphere to pay a $20 million fine for marketing loot boxes to teens under 16 that hid the real costs and misled the teens.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau “sued Capital One for cheating consumers out of $2 billion by misleading consumers over savings accounts,” Stoller continued. It “forced Cash App purveyor Block…to give $120 million in refunds for fostering fraud on its platform and then refusing to offer customer support to affected consumers,” “sued Experian for refusing to give consumers a way to correct errors in credit reports,” ordered Equifax to pay $15 million to a victims’ fund for “failing to properly investigate errors on credit reports,” and ordered “Honda Finance to pay $12.8 million for reporting inaccurate information that smeared the credit reports of Honda and Acura drivers.”

The Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice sued “seven giant corporate landlords for rent-fixing, using the software and consulting firm RealPage,” Stoller went on. It “sued $600 billion private equity titan KKR for systemically misleading the government on more than a dozen acquisitions.”

“Honorary mention goes to [Secretary Pete Buttigieg] at the Department of Transportation for suing Southwest and fining Frontier for ‘chronically delayed flights,’” Stoller concluded. He added more results to the list in his newsletter BIG.

Meanwhile, last night, while the leaders in the cryptocurrency industry were at a ball in honor of President-elect Trump’s inauguration, Trump launched his own cryptocurrency. By morning he appeared to have made more than $25 billion, at least on paper. According to Eric Lipton at the New York Times, “ethics experts assailed [the business] as a blatant effort to cash in on the office he is about to occupy again.”

Adav Noti, executive director of the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center, told Lipton: “It is literally cashing in on the presidency—creating a financial instrument so people can transfer money to the president’s family in connection with his office. It is beyond unprecedented.” Cryptocurrency leaders worried that just as their industry seems on the verge of becoming mainstream, Trump’s obvious cashing-in would hurt its reputation. Venture capitalist Nick Tomaino posted: “Trump owning 80 percent and timing launch hours before inauguration is predatory and many will likely get hurt by it.”

Yesterday the European Commission, which is the executive arm of the European Union, asked X, the social media company owned by Trump-adjacent billionaire Elon Musk, to hand over internal documents about the company’s algorithms that give far-right posts and politicians more visibility than other political groups. The European Union has been investigating X since December 2023 out of concerns about how it deals with the spread of disinformation and illegal content. The European Union’s Digital Services Act regulates online platforms to prevent illegal and harmful activities, as well as the spread of disinformation.

Today in Washington, D.C., the National Mall was filled with thousands of people voicing their opposition to President-elect Trump and his policies. Online speculation has been rampant that Trump moved his inauguration indoors to avoid visual comparisons between today’s protesters and inaugural attendees. Brutally cold weather also descended on President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration, but a sea of attendees nonetheless filled the National Mall.

Trump has always understood the importance of visuals and has worked hard to project an image of an invincible leader. Moving the inauguration indoors takes away that image, though, and people who have spent thousands of dollars to travel to the capital to see his inauguration are now unhappy to discover they will be limited to watching his motorcade drive by them. On social media, one user posted: “MAGA doesn’t realize the symbolism of [Trump] moving the inauguration inside: The billionaires, millionaires and oligarchs will be at his side, while his loyal followers are left outside in the cold. Welcome to the next 4+ years.”

Trump is not as good at governing as he is at performance: his approach to crises is to blame Democrats for them. But he is about to take office with majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate, putting responsibility for governance firmly into his hands.

Right off the bat, he has at least two major problems at hand.

Last night, Commissioner Tyler Harper of the Georgia Department of Agriculture suspended all “poultry exhibitions, shows, swaps, meets, and sales” until further notice after officials found Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, or bird flu, in a commercial flock. As birds die from the disease or are culled to prevent its spread, the cost of eggs is rising—just as Trump, who vowed to reduce grocery prices, takes office.

There have been 67 confirmed cases of the bird flu in the U.S. among humans who have caught the disease from birds. Most cases in humans are mild, but public health officials are watching the virus with concern because bird flu variants are unpredictable. On Friday, outgoing Health and Human Services secretary Xavier Becerra announced $590 million in funding to Moderna to help speed up production of a vaccine that covers the bird flu. Juliana Kim of NPR explained that this funding comes on top of $176 million that Health and Human Services awarded to Moderna last July.

The second major problem is financial. On Friday, Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen wrote to congressional leaders to warn them that the Treasury would hit the debt ceiling on January 21 and be forced to begin using extraordinary measures in order to pay outstanding obligations and prevent defaulting on the national debt. Those measures mean the Treasury will stop paying into certain federal retirement accounts as required by law, expecting to make up that difference later.

Yellen reminded congressional leaders: “The debt limit does not authorize new spending, but it creates a risk that the federal government might not be able to finance its existing legal obligations that Congresses and Presidents of both parties have made in the past.” She added, “I respectfully urge Congress to act promptly to protect the full faith and credit of the United States.”

Both the avian flu and the limits of the debt ceiling must be managed, and managed quickly, and solutions will require expertise and political skill.

Rather than offering their solutions to these problems, the Trump team leaked that it intended to begin mass deportations on Tuesday morning in Chicago, choosing that city because it has large numbers of immigrants and because Trump’s people have been fighting with Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson, a Democrat. Michelle Hackman, Joe Barrett, and Paul Kiernan of the Wall Street Journal, who broke the story, reported that Trump’s people had prepared to amplify their efforts with the help of right-wing media.

But once the news leaked of the plan and undermined the “shock and awe” the administration wanted, Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan said the team was reconsidering it.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[onlytiktoks]

[gwydionmisha]

US military to send additional 1,500 troops to border

It is illegal for them to detain anyone or help in detention. Some of this is optics, but there is a real slippery slope feel to it. Since SCOTUS abolished rule of law and laws no longer constrain the president, I don't like or trust this.

After all Hegseth has promised to purge any generals with ethics and they confirmed him with Vance breaking the tie. Generals with ethics were what constrained Trump from turning the military loose on peaceful protesters last time he tried to do it.

I was always against raids and the general shittiness of our immigration/CBP militarized system even before I heard the story I'm going to tell here. This has haunted my since the early '90's when a prof told it to me.

So she and her husband are Native Americans, with four tribes between them. The tribes were all Northern plains ones. I can't remember which of them was Lakota, but they were enrolled members of different tribes. As indigenous to the United States as it's possible to be.

So they get jobs teaching down in L.A. and one day, the husband is taking a bus home and the bus gets raided and he has no proof of citizenship on him just normal ID, so they are going to deport him to Mexico even though he speaks no Spanish and his Ancestors have been here since they walked over the land bridge.

She had to rush home and dig through the moving boxes, trying to find all his documentation and she manages to rescue him and bring him home. It was terrifying. They didn't know that they could be deported for looking native to the country in which they and their ancestors had always lived. They started looking for jobs in the North right away.

I've been thinking about it multiple times a day all year. I assumed it would start happening in large amounts as soon as the "mass deportation" sweeps started, that they'd try to deport Native Americans and natural born citizens. Likely even on purpose as they were saying that was what they were going to do since at least the election.

Quakers sue to keep US immigration agents out of houses of worship

[thashining]

"I'm ready"

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Reuters, via The Guardian:

Donald Trump’s incoming presidential administration plans to launch a large immigration raid in Chicago the day after he takes office, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing four people familiar with planning. The raid, expected to start on Tuesday, would last all week, the newspaper said, adding that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) would send between 100 and 200 officers to carry out the operation. Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. But a source with knowledge of the incoming administration’s plans said Ice would intensify enforcement across the country and there would not be a special focus on Chicago or surge of personnel there. “We’re going to be doing operations all across the country,” the person said. “You’re going to see arrests in New York. You’re going to see arrests in Miami.”

Beginning this Tuesday, the Trump Misadministration will conduct large-scale week-long raids targeting undocumented immigrants or being suspected of one.

This is about intimidation of blue cities and blue states, full stop.

See Also:

Mother Jones: New Reports: Trump’s Mass Deportation Raids Will Begin Next Week

[cemeterygrace]

reminders for today:

if you or someone you know might need it in the next few years, purchase plan b. the shelf life of plan b is 4 years, and we might not be able to access it as easily as we can now in the days ahead.

if you are larger/plus size: go online and purchase ella instead of plan b. plan b is less effective if you aren’t under 160 pounds.

if you can, purchase books that project 2025 is looking to ban.

mass deportations are starting. if you see ice vehicles or agents, yell ice raid and la migra as loud as you can.

if someone asks who you voted for, keep your mouth shut. they’re fishing for traitors.

if anyone, anyone at all asks about your neighbors or their legal status in the us, you know nothing. don’t be the reason that their family is separated.

if anyone asks about your religion or lack thereof, keep it vague. this administration will look for any excuse to persecute you.

your friends are trans or queer? for the next four years they’re not. don’t expose anyone’s status as a trans or queer person to anyone else, even if you think you can trust them.

did someone you know get an abortion? no, they didn’t. they were never pregnant.

in short, don’t be a snitch, and keep to yourself these next four years. we’ll make it through this even if it seems hopeless at times.

we can survive this. we’ve survived before, and we’ll survive again.

[devils-yui]

Reposting this from a friend bc I think it is VERY important to know of this, and for immigrants, and other possible victims of the ICE Raids happening right now

Here’s to also a very huge edit, from the list of very helpful people who have been reblogging and providing more info.

I’m not as well informed but I will be relaying the information and tagging each person who added onto this post:

@onthedriftinthetardis -

The phone number in the first photo is ONLY for Orange County, California!

Look up your local ACLU affiliate here

@6feetunderwater -

It always makes me nervous to see a reporting phone number passed around without any links to verify it, so the number in the first pic can be found on the site for the Orange County Rapid Response Network, which is "an interconnected system of non-profit and grassroots organizations, civil rights attorneys, law school clinics, and individuals working together to respond to dehumanizing immigration enforcement activities and policies in Orange County"

@geekerypeekery -

The second warrant is not fake, but is an administrative rather than judicial warrant, and has no constitutional authority to bypass Fourth Amendment protections - in other words, it does not entitle the bearer to enter and search your home. It simply authorizes agents of the issuing department to contact you. Always ask to see the warrant before opening your door!

In addition to the ACLU links, try contacting the National Immigration Law Center https://www.nilc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Warrants-Subpoenas-Facts.pdf

@american-anger -

The phone number listed here is specific to Orange County in California, but you can look up other California counties here:

CALIFORNIA RAPID RESPONSE NETWORKS

@beaniebaneenie -

Unpleasant reminder: within 100 miles of the border (which is home to 200 million people and virtually all major cities in the US), ICE does not need a warrant to enter your home, your car, to search anything, or even to arrest you.

You are not automatically safe just because they don't have a real warrant.

The best and safest thing you can do is learn to have escape routes- quick ways to get out of the house or area you're in if you find out ICE or CBP are around. Those of us who do have documentation? Time for us to step the fuck up.

Film any interaction. Every interaction. If you're able, step into the conversation and be a Karen/Kyle- weaponize your privilege for Good. If you get asked about people? Use positive but vague statements so you a) cannot be caught in a lie, and b) do not give any information away.

"I don't know them that well, but I don't tend to socialize much. They seem great to me."

"I can't remember the last time I saw them."

"Maybe they speak another language, I can't remember details. But I picked up Duolingo during the pandemic and tons of other people did too."

"I'm not sure."

"I'm sorry, I can't help you."

Even if you're somewhere the 100-mile Exception doesn't apply and a warrant is in fact needed? I don't expect ICE and CBP to play by the rules for long, if at all. I fully expect this to get ugly, and fast.

Cheeto has already declared an emergency of national security at the border, and is mobilizing the military to have jurisdiction over a huge swath of the country. It's essentially tantamount to martial law. And it's only been four days.

Gear up for a long, hard fight. This is gonna be a marathon, not a sprint.

— I am leaving all of this as an edit because on the off chance someone does find the posts that have these people specifically reblogging, I don’t want it to be too late. So I’m comprising it all here

Here are a few other people’s reblogs I thought were important:

Thank you @onthedriftinthetardis @6feetunderwater @geekerypeekery @american-anger @beaniebaneenie @bunnychiffon @dubiouslynamed @trisockatops @witchy-disaster for contributing and helping me make this a more well-informed post. Thank you so much

[wildernezz]

hey chat did you guys know there's a whole website with informational videos on the rights you hold when interacting with ICE or witnessing interactions with ICE. all written by immigrants and for immigrants. idk man it'd be a shame if people watched these informational videos y'know.

[goblinzeph]

Know Your Rights: ICE at Your Doorstep