Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Archives - ... on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing

Minnesota Prosecutor Probes ICE Arrest of Saint Paul Resident as Possible Abduction

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Original article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents approach a house before detaining two people on January 13, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

Officials, said one observer, “are finally starting to call the terror ICE is inflicting on communities what it actually is: kidnapping.”

Prosecutors in Minnesota are investigating whether some of the most infamous images of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities earlier this year actually captured a kidnapping, when US citizen ChongLy “Scott” Thao was filmed being taken from his home by federal agents in freezing temperatures, wearing only his underwear with a blanket wrapped around him.

Ramsey Country Attorney John Choi, whose jurisdiction covers Saint Paul, where Thao was arrested in January, said at a press conference Monday that he has requested information from the Department of Homeland Security about the man’s arrest.

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“There are many facts we don’t know yet, but there’s one that we do know. And that is that Mr. Thao is and has been an American citizen. There’s not a dispute over that,” Sheriff Bob Fletcher said at the press conference.

The officials said they are investigating whether the agents could face criminal charges for kidnapping, burglary, and false imprisonment.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrived without a warrant at the home Thao shares with his son, daughter-in-law, and four-year-old grandson on January 18 and forced their way in, brandishing their guns at the family as they handcuffed Thao.

They did not allow Thao’s daughter-in-law to get proof of his citizenship. The 56-year-old has been a US citizen for decades after his mother fled Laos in the 1970s.

“We believe there was no legitimate legal reason for the federal agents to enter that home, it was not supported by probable cause,” said Choi.

Without giving him a chance to get dressed, the agents then hauled Thao out of his home into the 14°F temperatures as his neighbors yelled and blew whistles at the officers, demanding his release.

[X post “Not found” }

ICE arrest of US CITIZEN probed as kidnapping
ChongLy ‘Scott’ Thao seized Jan 18 — agents smash down door, drag him out at gunpoint in underwear
‘Potential case of kidnapping, burglary and false imprisonment’ — officials pic.twitter.com/alsaq46bAz
— RT (@RT_com) April 14, 2026

They drove him around for nearly an hour before arriving at a remote area and demanding that he get out of the car and show his ID—which he hadn’t been allowed to bring. They determined he was a US citizen with no criminal record and drove him back home.

Fletcher said federal agents switched the license plates of the vehicle used during the arrest, violating Minnesota law and leaving authorities with no knowledge of the identities of the officers who arrested Thao.

“There’s no dispute that he was taken out of his house, forcibly taken out of his home, and driven around,” said Fletcher at the press conference. “Is that good law enforcement, to take an American citizen out of their home and drive them around aimlessly, trying to determine what they can tell them?’”

One observer said the officials “are finally starting to call the terror ICE is inflicting on communities what it actually is: kidnapping.”

“If regular people did this, they’d be in prison,” they said. “So why aren’t the agents?”

In keeping with the Trump administration’s response to widespread condemnation of its immigration crackdown and the conduct of its federal agents, DHS told The New York Times that Choi’s investigation into the arrest was “a political stunt to demonize ICE law enforcement.”

The agency has claimed the officers were looking for two convicted sex offenders, one of whom has reportedly been in state prison since 2024.

Choi said Monday that there is no evidence the federal agents had a judicial warrant to enter Thao’s home. The arrest took place days before a whistleblower group reported on an ICE memo which claimed that according to the DHS Office of the General Counsel, “the US Constitution, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the immigration regulations do not prohibit relying on administrative warrants” in order to enter a home to make an arrest.

Legal experts have said the memo directly contradicts the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.

Original article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Orcas discuss how Trump was re-elected and him being an obviously insane, xenophobic Fascist.

Post author:dizzy
Post published:15 April 2026
Post category:Donald Trump Fascism new authoritarianism
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84% of Democrats and 55% of Independents Support Impeaching Trump a Third Time

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Original article by Jessica Corbett republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

A man holds a sign calling for the impeachment of President Donald Trump during a “No Kings” protest in Howell, Michigan, on March 28, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images)

“The American people understand that Donald Trump poses a direct threat to our Constitution and to the rule of law and must be impeached and removed from public office,” said the head of Free Speech for People.

After just 14 months of President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, polling released Monday found that a majority of likely US voters support impeaching him a historic third time—which one pollster called “an unprecedented result this early in a presidential term.”

Lake Research Partners conducted the poll March 26-30 for Free Speech for People, a legal advocacy organization that has launched a campaign to “Impeach Trump. Again.” As part of that effort, FSFP gathered more than 1 million supportive signatures ahead of the latest “No Kings” rallies and has publicly detailed over 25 grounds for impeachment.

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First on that list is that “in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East, Trump is abusing his role as commander of the US military to commit atrocities that violate US and international law.” The president notably spent the weekend threatening to commit more war crimes in Iran if it doesn’t reopen the Strait of Hormuz to all ship traffic—which it only closed in response to the joint Israel-US attack on February 28.

Another key argument for impeachment on the FSFP list is that “Trump has militarized and weaponized federal law enforcement, particularly US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), to punish the opposition party, disrupt local communities, instill fear in the civilian population, and quell lawful political dissent.”

Pollsters noted both of those grounds in their question, asking respondents: “Several members of Congress have recently come out in support of impeaching President Donald Trump for violating Americans’ constitutional rights and the law, including actions by ICE in the US and the war he started with Iran. Do you support or oppose President Trump being impeached?”

Overall, 52% of all voters said they support impeachment, including 84% of Democrats, 55% of Independents, and even 14% of Republicans. Just 40% opposed, including 8% of Democrats, 34% of Independents, and 81% of Republicans.

52% of all voters said they support impeachment, including 84% of Democrats, 55% of Independents, and even 14% of Republicans. Just 40% opposed, including 8% of Democrats, 34% of Independents, and 81% of Republicans.

(Image by Free Speech for People/Lake Research Partners)

“The result is quite striking,” David Mermin of Lake Research Partners said in a call with reporters. “It’s a clear majority. It’s a solid majority. And it reaches across all demographics and across partisan lines as well.”

The 800 respondents represented a variety of perspectives in terms of age, gender, racial identity, education, region, and partisanship. The margin of error is +/-3.5%.

Putting the finding in a historical context, Mermin noted that there were majorities in favor of impeachment in the mid-1970s, when then-President Richard Nixon was approaching impeachment and then resigned, well into his second term. Nearly a quarter-century later, during the proceeding that led to the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton, “most of that period, we did not see majorities in favor of impeaching him, even during that process,” the pollster explained.

“For President Trump, in his first term, there were two impeachment proceedings against him, and in the first one, near the end of 2019… some of the polls disagreed, but there were some polls showing him slightly about 50% approval of impeachment,” he continued. “And then the second proceeding that happened after the January 6th coup attempt, there was a clear majority… during those last few weeks of his term prior to his when he left office in January of 2021.”

As with Clinton, the House of Representatives impeached Trump, but the Senate declined to convict him. Now, both chambers of Congress are narrowly controlled by Republicans who have demonstrated an unwillingness to stand up to the president—including by refusing to advance war powers resolutions challenging his various unauthorized military actions abroad.

Mermin said that “this appears to be the earliest in a presidential term that you’ve seen a majority of Americans in favor of impeachment.”

FSFP co-founder and president John Bonifaz highlighted that the polling comes when there is not even an impeachment proceeding in the House.

Since Trump’s return to office last year, Reps. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) and Al Green (D-Texas) have introduced articles of impeachment against him, though those efforts have not gone anywhere. However, in the lead-up to the November midterm elections, even Trump has acknowledged that Democrats winning congressional races could lead to him being impeached a third time.

“You gotta win the midterms, ‘cause if we don’t win the midterms… they’ll find a reason to impeach me,” Trump told Republicans in January. “I’ll get impeached.”

The new survey shows even higher figures for disapproval of Trump’s job performance: 57% of all voters disapprove of the job Trump is doing, including 92% of Democrats, 56% of Independents, and 16% of Republicans.

Bonifaz said that “this poll confirms what we are seeing across the country: The American people understand that Donald Trump poses a direct threat to our Constitution and to the rule of law and must be impeached and removed from public office.”

Original article by Jessica Corbett republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel's genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism "without qualification". Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/ — Keir Starmer explains that UK is actively supporting Israel’s genocidal expansion and repeats his previous quotation that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Keir Starmer said “I said it loud and clear – and meant it – that I support Zionism without qualification.” here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/

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Post author:dizzy
Post published:7 April 2026
Post category:crap pretend Labour Donald Trump Fascism human rights violations Keir Starmer Labour Party Neo-liberalism plutocracy politics the filthy rich Zionism
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Massachusetts Town Passes Resolution Urging State to Hold ‘Lawless’ ICE Agents Accountable

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Original article by Jake Johnson republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

People participate in a protest against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in front of the State House in Boston, Massachusetts on January 31, 2026. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images)

“I hope Amherst’s resolution kicks off a wave of similar resolutions in cities and towns across the state,” said the measure’s lead sponsor.

The town council of Amherst, Massachusetts passed a resolution on Monday urging state and local officials to hold federal immigration agents accountable for violating the Commonwealth’s laws, a move that advocates hailed as a model for lawmakers across the United States.

The resolution—which says agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have “repeatedly committed acts of violence against Massachusetts residents”—passed with unanimous support from the nine councilors who participated in the vote.

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“ICE’s illegal operations have impacted residents of Amherst and surrounding communities directly, and we know that when any of our neighbors have their rights stripped away, none of us can take those rights for granted,” Councilor Jill Brevik, the resolution’s lead sponsor, said in a statement following the vote. “Silence and complying in advance created the environment that has enabled ICE agents to commit crimes and human rights abuses.”

“As a result, it is critically important for our local and state-level leaders to speak loudly and take clear action to fight back and change course,” Brevik added. “The work doesn’t end here, and I look forward to staying engaged. And I hope Amherst’s resolution kicks off a wave of similar resolutions in cities and towns across the state.”

The resolution calls on Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, a Democrat, to “immediately cease all cooperation agreements with ICE,” pointing to specific actions by federal immigration agents that “may be crimes under Massachusetts law, including but not limited to assault and battery, kidnapping, violation of constitutional rights, and assault and battery for the purpose of intimidation, and conspiracy, which may involve senior federal officials” including President Donald Trump.

Among the incidents highlighted by the resolution is ICE’s 2025 abduction of Tufts University PhD student Rümeysa Öztürk, who was targeted for deportation for writing an op-ed criticizing the US-backed Israeli assault on Gaza. Last month, an immigration judge terminated removal proceedings against Öztürk.

The resolution also condemns ICE and CBP agents for “illegally kidnapping an 18-year old with no warrant and detaining him for a week with no access to showers or sufficient food in Worcester County; illegally kidnapping and assaulting a lawful permanent resident in Essex County, stealing his belongings, and threatening his legal status; assaulting a resident of Middlesex County, smashing his car’s windows and dragging him from it; detaining a first-year college student at Boston Logan Airport and forcing her out of the country in defiance of a court order; and repeatedly using unlawfully excessive force in encounters with Massachusetts resident.”

“When our constitutional rights, our civil liberties, and our very lives come under attack by Trump’s lawless agents, we need every public official to stand with the people to fight back,” Jeff Conant, an Amherst resident who helped organize support for the newly approved measure, said Monday. “This commonsense resolution by our town council should serve as a model for every town and city in the Commonwealth and across the nation.”

The resolution demands that state and local officials “take affirmative steps to protect” Massachusetts residents, including by:

Making a public statement confirming the principles that federal officials and agents are subject to state criminal jurisdiction;
Taking affirmative steps to collect evidence of criminal acts committed by federal agents, including through the creation and dissemination of an accessible online tool for citizens to submit evidence; and
Issuing guidelines to local law enforcement to preserve evidence, especially in cases of federal noncooperation with investigations, and beginning investigations where evidence indicates that a crime has been committed, regardless of the power or prestige of the federal officeholder who is suspected of committing said crime.

John Bonifaz, constitutional attorney and president of Free Speech For People—an advocacy group that helped draft the resolution—said that “state and local prosecutors in Massachusetts and across the country have a sworn duty to enforce state criminal laws against federal agents who commit crimes in their states.”

“There is no such thing as absolute immunity for federal ICE agents. While the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution allows federal agents to carry out their lawful duties across the country, they do not have immunity to commit murder, to kidnap, to commit assault and battery, and to engage in illegal detentions,” he continued. “Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell and district attorneys across Massachusetts must enforce state criminal laws against ICE agents for their unlawful actions in this state.”

Original article by Jake Johnson republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

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Post author:dizzy
Post published:24 February 2026
Post category:Donald Trump Fascism human rights violations Neo-liberalism new authoritarianism plutocracy politics the filthy rich
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Reform UK’s ICE-style deportation plan condemned as ‘sadistic’

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https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/23/reform-uk-ice-style-deportation-plan-condemned-as-sadistic

Zia Yusuf of Reform UK at a press conference in Dover. Photograph: Sean Smith/The Guardian

Zia Yusuf sets out proposals and calls migration an ‘invasion’, as rights groups decry ‘grotesque’ measures

Reform UK’s plan to create an ICE-style deportation agency has been condemned as “sadistic”, after the party’s home affairs spokesperson vowed to face down “progressive outrage”.

Zia Yusuf, introduced as “the shadow home secretary” at a press conference in Dover, said mass deportations carried out by a planned UK Deportation Command would not trigger the same kind of violent showdowns seen in the US because “policing is done by consent” in the UK. He also described the number of migrants arriving in the country as an “invasion”.

His remarks came as Reform set out plans to tackle immigration, including mass deportations, expanded surveillance powers and a ban on the conversion of churches into mosques.

The party also wants to scrap indefinite leave to remain, replacing it with a renewable five-year work visa and dedicated spouse visa. There would also be a new rule mandating automatic home searches for anyone referred to the Prevent counter-terrorism programme by three “separate, corroborating authorities”, the party said.

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See the original article at https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/23/reform-uk-ice-style-deportation-plan-condemned-as-sadistic

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Post author:dizzy
Post published:24 February 2026
Post category:Fascism human rights violations Neo-liberalism new authoritarianism Nigel Farage plutocracy politics Reform 2025 Ltd (Reform UK)the filthy rich
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What Is Palantir? How a US Spytech Firm Penetrated the British State

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https://novaramedia.com/2026/02/19/what-is-palantir-how-a-us-spytech-firm-penetrated-the-british-state/

The Palantir Technologies logo. (Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto)

From Epstein to ICE to the IDF.

A US spytech firm deeply embedded in the most sensitive areas of the British state is being scrutinised as part of the fallout from the latest tranche of documents related to the financier and child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Palantir Technologies, co-founded and chaired by billionaire Peter Thiel, holds over £670m in UK government contracts across NHS patient data, defence operations, police intelligence databases and nuclear weapons management. The multibillion-dollar US company has also provided military tech to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during the genocide in Gaza, and helped facilitate Donald Trump’s brutal immigration enforcement crackdown across the US.

The most recent dump of Epstein files sheds light on the links between Palantir, Thiel, Epstein and the former British ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson.

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What is Palantir?

Palantir Technologies, worth approximately $300bn, is a software company that pulls together and analyses data from different sources.

Headquartered in Miami, Florida after a recent exit from Denver, Colorado, Palantir describes its software as powering “real-time, AI-driven decisions in critical government and commercial enterprises in the west, from the factory floors to the front lines”. Its products are extensively deployed in military, policing and healthcare contexts.

The name Palantir is inspired by the crystal balls from JRR Tolkien’s epic fantasy trilogy The Lord of the Rings. By looking into a palantír, the evil Lord Sauron is able to see in any direction, at any distance.

Built with CIA funding to support the US ‘war on terror’ following the 11 September attacks, Palantir was founded in 2003 by Peter Thiel, Alex Karp, Stephen Cohen, Jon Lonsdale and Nathan Gettings, but didn’t go public until 2020.

Much of its work has been shrouded in secrecy, but today its flagship products – Palantir Gotham and Palantir Foundry – connect fragmented stores of information, forming them into big, searchable databases that can then be used for analysis, intelligence-gathering, policing and business analytics.

Gotham is Palantir’s defence and intelligence platform, marketed as an “operating system for global decision making” and primarily used by militaries and counterterrorism analysts. It’s built to handle vast datasets and employed by the FBI, CIA, National Security Agency and Department of Defense in the US, and across Europe, including by the Ukrainian military.

In Ukraine, Palantir’s Gotham system is credited with shaping the future of warfare by pulling together images, drone footage and battlefield data to create an operational map to form an “AI-powered kill chain”.

Gotham supports alerts, geospatial analysis and prediction, with the latter drawing criticism from rights groups over the impact of predictive policing and intrusive mass surveillance. A 2019 predicting policing project between Palantir and the Los Angeles Police Department was cancelled after accusations that it reinforced racism and didn’t reduce crime.

Palantir has also built custom tools for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The agency has reportedly spent more than $200m on Palantir contracts to help it identify targets for deportation by integrating travel histories, visa records, biometrics and social media data. In the past month, immigration enforcement agents in the US have kidnapped children and shot dead citizen observers as part of Trump’s brutal immigration crackdown.