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Held in solitary confinement for nine days.

German Tourists Detained for Weeks, Then Deported From U.S.
Amid President Trump’s border crackdown, German news media have closely followed the treatment of two tourists who say they tried to enter the United States legally.

Chained, detained for weeks and eventually deported, two German tourists trying to enter the United States were recently tangled in a system responding to President Trump’s push to sharply restrict entry and deport people en masse.

The cases of Jessica Brösche, held for 46 days, and Lucas Sielaff, held for 16, and accounts of their rough handling by immigration officers, have grabbed headlines in Germany as a sign of what being caught on the wrong side of the White House’s immigration policy could mean for European travelers.

Tourists from most European countries, including Germany, generally enjoy visa-free travel to the United States for up to 90 days. But Mr. Sielaff and Ms. Brösche were stopped, separately, at the San Ysidro border crossing between San Diego and Tijuana, told that they were being denied entry and sent to a crowded detention center, according to their own accounts and those of their friends.

Mr. Sielaff said he was denied a translator and had trouble understanding what was happening to him. Ms. Brösche’s friends said she was kept in solitary confinement for nine days. By their accounts, both were flown back to Germany without a clear understanding of why they were detained in the first place.

“Sometimes I just wake up because I have nightmares of this situation and what happened,” Mr. Sielaff, 25, said in an interview. “And I just try to go for walks and calm down.”

The family of a tourist from Britain, Becky Burke, 28, says she has been held for more than two weeks in Washington State, similarly caught up in the system but unsure why.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, did not respond on Thursday to requests for comment on their cases.

Cont'd: https://archive.is/MDDcs

 

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Posted

Understanding this is easy: all of our former allies are now our enemies.  We will treat their citizens as if they were citizens of an enemy state.

Also, expect reciprocal treatment sooner than you think.  You might want to get that Europe travel out of your system in the next 30 days.  It may soon become very difficult for Americans to enter countries that we have a hostile relationship (which will be.....all of them except for Russia and a handful of others).

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Posted
12 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Understanding this is easy: all of our former allies are now our enemies.  We will treat their citizens as if they were citizens of an enemy state.

Also, expect reciprocal treatment sooner than you think.  You might want to get that Europe travel out of your system in the next 30 days.  It may soon become very difficult for Americans to enter countries that we have a hostile relationship (which will be.....all of them except for Russia and a handful of others).

I'd been planning to travel abroad this summer. Not now.

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Posted

If this keeps up, and I have no reason to think it won’t, we’re going to see a dramatic drop in international travel to the US. It would not shock me in the least if second tier airports, like AUS, lose their transatlantic flights or, at the least, see a big drawdown in frequency. 

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Posted

Yet another German citizen, in addition to the other two from the story above:

US resident ‘violently interrogated’ on way home from Luxembourg
Fabian Schmidt, a permanent resident in the US since 2008, was detained after returning from the Grand Duchy, his mother has said

A green card holder living in the US for almost two decades was detained by American immigration authorities and “violently interrogated” after returning from Luxembourg, his mother has said.

Fabian Schmidt, a German citizen and green card holder living in New Hampshire, was detained at Logan International Airport in Boston over a week ago on his return from Luxembourg, Newsweek reported on Saturday.

The 34-year-old electrical engineer has been living in the USA since 2007 and has held a permanent residence permit since 2008.

On his return to the USA, Schmidt was told by officials from the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that his green card had been “flagged”.

He was reportedly questioned intensively for several hours without being told why. His mother told Newsweek that her son was “violently interrogated” by two officers, stripped naked, placed under a cold shower and pressured to surrender his green card.

Schmidt was deprived of sleep, food and water - as well as his prescribed medication for anxiety and depression, according to the news report. He eventually collapsed and was admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was diagnosed with the flu.

The US CBP denied the allegations, with assistant commissioner of public affairs Hilton Beckham telling Newsweek: “These claims are blatantly false with respect to CBP.”

Schmidt was later transferred to ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) regional headquarters in Burlington, Massachusetts, and then to the Donald W. Wyatt prison in Rhode Island, where he remains at the time of writing.

His family, including his partner and their eight-year-old daughter, both US citizens, have reportedly not received an explanation. They state that Schmidt’s green card was recently renewed and that he has no outstanding legal issues. His partner is working with a lawyer and the German consulate to secure his release on bail.

Schmidt has a minor criminal record, with one charge of marijuana possession of less than 30 grams, dropped in 2015, and one charge of drink-driving dating back more than ten years ago, which has since been settled.

According to legal experts, green card holders can be deported for certain offences, even if they are minor or time-barred. However, Schmidt's case appears to be extreme and raises questions about the treatment of legal residents in the US.

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Posted
10 hours ago, bolverk said:

image.png.ccef39b662623f4f25e5f2b78b9b181e.png
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/16/us/brown-university-rasha-alawieh-professor-deported.html

A kidney transplant specialist and professor at Brown University’s medical school has been deported from the United States, even though she had a valid visa and a court order temporarily blocking her expulsion, according to her lawyer and court papers.

Dr. Rasha Alawieh, 34, is a Lebanese citizen who had traveled to her home country last month to visit relatives. She was detained on Thursday when she returned from that trip to the United States, according to a court complaint filed by her cousin Yara Chehab.

Judge Leo T. Sorokin of the Federal District Court in Massachusetts ordered the government on Friday evening to provide the court with 48 hours’ notice before deporting Dr. Alawieh. But she was put on a flight to Paris, presumably on her way to Lebanon.

In a second order filed Sunday morning, the judge said there was reason to believe U.S. Customs and Border Protection had willfully disobeyed his previous order to give the court notice before expelling the doctor. He said he had followed “common practice in this district as it has been for years,” and ordered the federal agency to respond to what he called “serious allegations.”

Customs and Border Protection did not respond on Sunday to questions from The New York Times about why Dr. Alawieh had been detained and deported. Lebanon is not included on a draft list of nations from which the Trump administration is considering banning entry to the United States.

A hearing in Dr. Alawieh’s case is scheduled for Monday.

Court documents related to the case were provided to The New York Times by Clare Saunders, a member of the legal team representing Ms. Chehab, who filed petitions to prevent her cousin’s deportation, and then to request that her cousin be allowed to return to the United States.

Ms. Chehab’s petitions name several members of the Trump administration as defendants, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, Peter Flores.

Thomas Brown, a lawyer representing Dr. Alawieh and her employer, Brown Medicine, said that while the doctor was in Lebanon, the U.S. Consulate issued her an H-1B visa, which allows highly skilled foreign citizens to live and work in the United States. Brown Medicine, a nonprofit medical practice, had sponsored her application for the visa.

According to Ms. Chehab’s complaint, when Dr. Alawieh landed at Boston Logan International Airport on Thursday, she was detained by Customs and Border Protection officers and held at the airport for 36 hours, for reasons that are unclear.

Ms. Saunders, the lawyer, said in an affidavit that she went to the airport Friday and notified Customs and Border Protection officials there — before the flight to Paris was scheduled to depart — that there was a court order barring the doctor’s expulsion. She said that the officers took no action and gave her no information until after the plane had taken off.

Dr. Alawieh graduated from the American University of Beirut in 2015. Three years later, she came to the United States, where she held medical fellowships at the Ohio State University and the University of Washington, and then worked as a resident at Yale.

Before the new visa was issued, she held a J-1 visa, a type commonly used by foreign students.

There is a shortage of American doctors working in Dr. Alawieh’s area of specialty, transplant nephrology. Foreign-born physicians play an important role in the field, according to experts.

Fear over immigration status could “harm the pipeline even more,” said Dr. George Bayliss, who works in the Brown Medicine kidney transplant program with Dr. Alawieh.

Her patients included individuals awaiting transplants and those dealing with the complex conditions that can occur after a transplant, Dr. Bayliss said. He called Dr. Alawieh “a very talented, very thoughtful physician.”

“We are all outraged,” he added, “and none of us know why this happened.”

In a Sunday letter to members of the university community, Brown’s administration advised foreign students, ahead of spring break, to “consider postponing or delaying personal travel outside the United States until more information is available from the U.S. Department of State.”

This one is frankly quite different.  She was on a non-immigrant visa and was found ineligible for admission when she presented herself for admission at a port of entry. 
 

Reporting on this stuff is notoriously bad with muddled and confused terms.  Under U.S. law, arriving at an airport is the same as arrival via a land crossing or boat.  She was not deported, she was denied entry.  A non-immigrant visa is explicitly NOT a right to entry, is is a right to present yourself for admission to an immigration officer.  

That’s not a comment on the substance of the denial or the timeline as laid out.  Just a statement of fact that there are very different rights and due process involved when removing someone from the United States (even if that person entered illegally) versus denying someone entry to the United States. 

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Posted

Also relevant on this and the deportation language: When a person is denied entry at an airport, it’s the airline (not the government) that is on the hook to take the person back on the next available flight to the departure origin. Airlines can also be fined, although that usually doesn’t happen if the person had a valid, checked visa. They will levy a fine if someone shows up with an expired visa or passport or something. 
 

 

Posted

We are fucking tossing out German nationals on our way to becoming the next Nazis 

Well done simulation, your sense of humor is still there I see. 

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Posted
57 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

This one is frankly quite different.  She was on a non-immigrant visa and was found ineligible for admission when she presented herself for admission at a port of entry. 
 

Reporting on this stuff is notoriously bad with muddled and confused terms.  Under U.S. law, arriving at an airport is the same as arrival via a land crossing or boat.  She was not deported, she was denied entry.  A non-immigrant visa is explicitly NOT a right to entry, is is a right to present yourself for admission to an immigration officer.  

That’s not a comment on the substance of the denial or the timeline as laid out.  Just a statement of fact that there are very different rights and due process involved when removing someone from the United States (even if that person entered illegally) versus denying someone entry to the United States. 

Turns out she had also attended the funeral of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah while she was in Lebanon. She also had photos of him and Iran’s supreme leader on her phone. These are not smart things for her to have done.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/17/us/brown-university-doctor-deported-hnk/index.html

 

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Posted
7 hours ago, 956 Worldwide said:

My suspicion is that the family decided to try to use the justified anger over current behavior to try and exploit public opinion. 

Yep, and to the media’s credit, upon further review, they didn’t fall for the banana in the tailpipe, and this is now backfiring in her family’s face, big-time. Her reputation is now ruined in the West. 

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Posted
7 hours ago, 956 Worldwide said:

I don’t think she herself is a terrorist

You brown, you a terrorist.

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Posted
On 3/17/2025 at 9:30 AM, Brisketexan said:

Understanding this is easy: all of our former allies are now our enemies.  We will treat their citizens as if they were citizens of an enemy state.

Also, expect reciprocal treatment sooner than you think.  You might want to get that Europe travel out of your system in the next 30 days.  It may soon become very difficult for Americans to enter countries that we have a hostile relationship (which will be.....all of them except for Russia and a handful of others).

Yeah, wife and I have a trip to Spain (via Mexico City) in September.  Really hope things don't go off the rails even more by then but I'm sure they will.

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Posted

If you're brown and a citizen, watch out. ICE may black bag your ass anyways

https://www.wbez.org/immigration/2025/03/13/chicago-attorneys-accuse-federal-agents-of-violating-immigrants-rights-and-take-legal-action

The 22 cases include Chicago resident Julio Noriega, 54, a U.S. citizen who, according to court documents, was arrested, handcuffed and spent most of the night at an ICE processing center in suburban Broadview. He was never questioned about his citizenship and was only released after agents looked at his ID.

“I was born in Chicago, Illinois and am a United States citizen,” Noriega said in his statement, adding that on Jan. 31, after buying pizza in Berwyn he was surrounded by ICE agents and arrested. Officers took away his wallet, which had his ID and social security card. “They then handcuffed me and pushed me into a white van where other people were handcuffed as well.”

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Posted
6 minutes ago, Captainant said:

If you're brown and a citizen, watch out. ICE may black bag your ass anyways

https://www.wbez.org/immigration/2025/03/13/chicago-attorneys-accuse-federal-agents-of-violating-immigrants-rights-and-take-legal-action

The 22 cases include Chicago resident Julio Noriega, 54, a U.S. citizen who, according to court documents, was arrested, handcuffed and spent most of the night at an ICE processing center in suburban Broadview. He was never questioned about his citizenship and was only released after agents looked at his ID.

“I was born in Chicago, Illinois and am a United States citizen,” Noriega said in his statement, adding that on Jan. 31, after buying pizza in Berwyn he was surrounded by ICE agents and arrested. Officers took away his wallet, which had his ID and social security card. “They then handcuffed me and pushed me into a white van where other people were handcuffed as well.”

If only there was some way we could have seen this coming. 

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Posted (edited)

 ICE is disappearing people in New Mexico

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/new-mexico-ice-arrests-aclu-complaint-b2717442.html

Civil rights attorneys are sounding the alarm after 48 New Mexico residents “disappeared” after their arrests by federal immigration enforcement agents this month.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement “has not indicated where any of them are being detained, whether they have access to counsel, in what conditions they are being held, or even which agency is holding them,” according to a federal complaint from the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico.

They have been “effectively forcibly disappeared from our communities,” attorneys wrote.

At least 48 people ICE described as “illegal aliens” were arrested in a week-long series of operations in Albuquerque, Roswell, and Santa Fe earlier this month, according to the agency. But only 21 people had final orders of removal from the country.

“This is not just a procedural issue — it’s a serious human rights violation,” according to Rebecca Sheff, senior staff attorney at ACLU of New Mexico.

“When the government takes people into custody and then their whereabouts are unknown and they are unreachable, it places these individuals outside the protection of the law,” she said in a statement. “Families are left in agonizing uncertainty, desperate to contact their loved ones and ensure their safety. Enforced disappearances are prohibited by both our Constitution and international human rights standards.”

Edited by Captainant
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Posted
6 hours ago, Captainant said:

 ICE is disappearing people in New Mexico

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/new-mexico-ice-arrests-aclu-complaint-b2717442.html

Civil rights attorneys are sounding the alarm after 48 New Mexico residents “disappeared” after their arrests by federal immigration enforcement agents this month.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement “has not indicated where any of them are being detained, whether they have access to counsel, in what conditions they are being held, or even which agency is holding them,” according to a federal complaint from the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico.

They have been “effectively forcibly disappeared from our communities,” attorneys wrote.

At least 48 people ICE described as “illegal aliens” were arrested in a week-long series of operations in Albuquerque, Roswell, and Santa Fe earlier this month, according to the agency. But only 21 people had final orders of removal from the country.

“This is not just a procedural issue — it’s a serious human rights violation,” according to Rebecca Sheff, senior staff attorney at ACLU of New Mexico.

“When the government takes people into custody and then their whereabouts are unknown and they are unreachable, it places these individuals outside the protection of the law,” she said in a statement. “Families are left in agonizing uncertainty, desperate to contact their loved ones and ensure their safety. Enforced disappearances are prohibited by both our Constitution and international human rights standards.”

As far as I know, no one has released the names of the people we stuffed in a Salvadoran prison. Just a nameless mass of people we are assured were illegal gang bangers. Terrifying. 

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Posted
3 hours ago, 956 Worldwide said:

As far as I know, no one has released the names of the people we stuffed in a Salvadoran prison. Just a nameless mass of people we are assured were illegal gang bangers. Terrifying. 

The same people who believe the nine most terrifying words in the English language are “I’m from the government and I’m here to help” also believe that their government is trustworthy enough to deport people and incarcerate them indefinitely in foreign prisons. 

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Posted
3 hours ago, 956 Worldwide said:

As far as I know, no one has released the names of the people we stuffed in a Salvadoran prison. Just a nameless mass of people we are assured were illegal gang bangers. Terrifying. 

A day or two ago, NPR interviewed the mother of one of the Venezuelans, and she said her son agreed to sign a deportation form (I don't know exactly what that is, but you probably do), thinking they would send him back to Venezuela with the understanding that "surely, the United States would respect human rights." She claimed he had no criminal record and had never been a member of any gang. Sure, that could very well be a "he's a good kid" kind of thing, but the reporter indicated that the regime had admitted many of them did not have criminal records.

All of the above might not be new news since I haven't followed this particular story closely other than what I've read here on Surly.

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Posted

Detained Canadian shares her story. I have no idea how we got here. I do but am amazed at the insanity of it all.

Like with all this bullshit. Someone is making a shitton of money from it.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/canadian-detained-us-immigration-jasmine-mooney

 

The reality became clear: Ice detention isn’t just a bureaucratic nightmare. It’s a business. These facilities are privately owned and run for profit.

Companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group receive government funding based on the number of people they detain, which is why they lobby for stricter immigration policies. It’s a lucrative business: CoreCivic made over $560m from Ice contracts in a single year. In 2024, GEO Group made more than $763m from Ice contracts.

The more detainees, the more money they make. It stands to reason that these companies have no incentive to release people quickly. What I had experienced was finally starting to make sense.

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Posted
51 minutes ago, crash_davis said:

Detained Canadian shares her story. I have no idea how we got here. I do but am amazed at the insanity of it all.

Like with all this bullshit. Someone is making a shitton of money from it.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/canadian-detained-us-immigration-jasmine-mooney

 

The reality became clear: Ice detention isn’t just a bureaucratic nightmare. It’s a business. These facilities are privately owned and run for profit.

Companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group receive government funding based on the number of people they detain, which is why they lobby for stricter immigration policies. It’s a lucrative business: CoreCivic made over $560m from Ice contracts in a single year. In 2024, GEO Group made more than $763m from Ice contracts.

The more detainees, the more money they make. It stands to reason that these companies have no incentive to release people quickly. What I had experienced was finally starting to make sense.

 

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Posted

D.H.S. Detains a Georgetown University Academic
Badar Khan Suri, an Indian national teaching on a student visa, was deemed “deportable,” a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security said.

The U.S. government detained an Indian citizen who was studying and teaching at Georgetown University, and said he had been deemed “deportable” for violating the terms of his student visa.

The academic, Badar Khan Suri, was detained at his home in Rosslyn, Va., on Monday night, according to his lawyer, Hassan Ahmad. Mr. Suri was “awaiting his court date in immigration court” in Alexandria, La., Mr. Ahmad said. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said Mr. Suri was “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media.” Ms. McLaughlin didn’t provide any evidence to support the claim.

Mr. Ahmad said that Mr. Suri denied all of the allegations made in Ms. McLaughlin’s statement. He believed that the accusations against Mr. Suri were “seemingly based on who his father-in-law was,” but that he was still researching the case. Mr. Suri has no criminal record and has not been charged with a crime, according to Mr. Ahmad. Politico first reported on the news of Mr. Suri’s detention.

Ms. McLaughlin said that Mr. Suri had “close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior advisor to Hamas,” and Secretary of State Marco Rubio had deemed him “deportable.”

Ms. McLaughlin said Mr. Suri was detained under a rarely used provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which the administration is using to try and deport Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia University graduate and legal permanent resident who had a prominent role in the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia.

The measure says the Secretary of State can initiate deportation proceedings against any noncitizen whose presence in the United States he deems a threat to the country’s foreign policy interests. Mr. Trump had said earlier this month Mr. Khalil’s case was the first of “many to come.” Civil Rights groups have said such arrests against immigrants with some form of legal status are a clear violation of the First Amendment.

While both men were deemed to be deportable under the same statute, Mr. Suri was studying in the United States on a J-1 student visa while Mr. Khalil had a green card.

Georgetown University, where Mr. Suri was a postdoctoral fellow, said in a statement that it was not aware of Mr. Suri “engaging in any illegal activity, and we have not received a reason for his detention.”

“Seeing our government abduct and jail another innocent person is beyond contemptible,” Mr. Ahmad said.

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Posted (edited)

Some alarming insight from the Trump administration officials..

Quote

On Monday, March 17, two days after the men were deported, Acting Field Office Director Robert L. Cerna of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations added support to their families’ statements when he revealed that “many” of those deported did not have criminal records in the United States, although he insisted that the men were nonetheless associated with the Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang. In a sworn declaration, Cerna told the court that if the deportees lack a criminal record, “that is because they have only been in the United States for a short period of time.”

He went on to say: “The lack of criminal record does not indicate they pose a limited threat. In fact, based upon their association with TdA, the lack of specific information about each individual actually highlights the risk they pose. It demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile.”

The official position of the Trump Administration is the lack of a criminal record proves they are more dangerous than somebody with a criminal record because it means we just don't have enough information on them?

Attempting this on migrants and legal tourists today...American citizens tomorrow?

Edited by pacman
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Posted
On 3/18/2025 at 11:56 AM, Chewbacca said:

Yeah, wife and I have a trip to Spain (via Mexico City) in September.  Really hope things don't go off the rails even more by then but I'm sure they will.

Be careful. In the past, before social media, hatred of entire nations would not be as widespread. Europe though pays special and close attention to America. Europeans that I cross paths with, even the ones coming way out this way now, can tell me more about our politics than most people who actually are American. Just enjoy the vacation and take a Canadian hat with you to wear.

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Posted

U.S. Turned Away French Scientist Over Views on Trump Policies, France Says
The French authorities said the academic had been traveling to a conference near Houston when border officials blocked his entry because of conversations found on his phone.

A French scientist was prevented from entering the United States this month because of an opinion he expressed about the Trump administration’s policies on academic research, according to the French government.

Philippe Baptiste, France’s minister for higher education and research, described the move as worrying.

“Freedom of opinion, free research and academic freedom are values we will continue to proudly uphold,” Mr. Baptiste said in a statement. “I will defend the possibility for all French researchers to be faithful to them, in compliance with the law, wherever they may be in the world.”

Mr. Baptiste did not identify the scientist who was turned away but said that the academic was working for France’s publicly funded National Center for Scientific Research and had been traveling to a conference near Houston when border officials stopped him.

The U.S. authorities denied entry to the scientist and then deported him because his phone contained message exchanges with colleagues and friends in which he expressed his “personal opinion” on the Trump administration’s science policies, Mr. Baptiste said.

It was not immediately clear what led the border authorities to stop the scientist, why they examined the contents of his phone or what they found objectionable about the conversations.

Customs officers are allowed to search the cellphone, computer, camera or any other electronic device of any travelers crossing the border, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, although the agency says that such instances are rare. In 2024, less than 0.01 percent of arriving international travelers had their electronic devices searched, according to the agency.

Mr. Baptiste’s office declined to provide further details about the case, and the National Center for Scientific Research did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the American Embassy in Paris declined to comment.

The Agence France-Presse news agency reported earlier on the scientist’s refused entry to the United States.

Mr. Baptiste has been particularly vocal over the past few weeks in denouncing threats to academic freedom in the United States, where funding cuts and layoffs by the Trump administration have targeted institutions of higher education, scientific research and the federal government’s own scientific work force.

Mr. Baptiste has also urged French universities and research institutes to welcome researchers seeking to leave the United States.

“Europe must be there to protect research and welcome the talent that can contribute to its success,” Mr. Baptiste wrote on social media after meeting with his European counterparts in Warsaw on Wednesday to address “threats to free research in the United States.”

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Posted
6 hours ago, bolverk said:

U.S. Turned Away French Scientist Over Views on Trump Policies, France Says
The French authorities said the academic had been traveling to a conference near Houston when border officials blocked his entry because of conversations found on his phone.

A French scientist was prevented from entering the United States this month because of an opinion he expressed about the Trump administration’s policies on academic research, according to the French government.

Philippe Baptiste, France’s minister for higher education and research, described the move as worrying.

“Freedom of opinion, free research and academic freedom are values we will continue to proudly uphold,” Mr. Baptiste said in a statement. “I will defend the possibility for all French researchers to be faithful to them, in compliance with the law, wherever they may be in the world.”

 

Something something free speech something something.

On 3/19/2025 at 9:10 AM, bolverk said:

A day or two ago, NPR interviewed the mother of one of the Venezuelans, and she said her son agreed to sign a deportation form (I don't know exactly what that is, but you probably do), thinking they would send him back to Venezuela with the understanding that "surely, the United States would respect human rights." She claimed he had no criminal record and had never been a member of any gang.

 

He'll definitely be a member of a gang now.

Posted

image.thumb.png.796e356bee81574c90a2738ca8ac964f.png
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/21/us/politics/trump-cornell-student-ice.html

Quote

 

The Trump administration moved early Friday to detain an international student at Cornell University who has led protests on its Ithaca, N.Y., campus, in what appeared to be the latest effort to kick pro-Palestinian activists out of the United States.

A lawyer for Momodou Taal, a doctoral student in Africana studies, said in court papers that he had been notified by email early Friday morning that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was seeking Mr. Taal’s surrender.

Last year, Mr. Taal was among a group of pro-Palestinian activists who shut down a career fair on the Cornell campus that featured weapons manufacturers. As a result, the university had ordered him to study remotely for the spring semester.

Mr. Taal, a great-grandson of Gambia’s first president, Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, is a citizen of both Gambia and the United Kingdom. According to court documents, Mr. Taal, who is here on a visa, said he feared deportation in part because his name had been circulated on social media and in media reports as a potential ICE target.

The move to detain Mr. Taal comes as the Trump administration tries to deport other pro-Palestinian students and academics.

About two weeks ago, Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent U.S. resident of Palestinian descent who recently obtained a master’s degree from Columbia University, was detained in New York. On Monday, the government detained Badar Kahn Suri, an Indian citizen who was studying and teaching at Georgetown University, claiming he had violated terms of his academic visa. Other students have also been targeted.

ICE did not immediately return a request for comment.

Last weekend, Mr. Taal filed a pre-emptive lawsuit to block possible action against him. A hearing had been scheduled in that case for Tuesday in Syracuse, N.Y. A lawyer for Mr. Taal, Eric T. Lee, argued in the lawsuit that his client was exercising his right to free speech and that there were no legitimate grounds for his deportation.

The lawsuit also challenged the legality of Mr. Trump’s executive order to “combat antisemitism” that instructed federal agencies to deport immigrants whose actions could be regarded as “antisemitic or supportive of terrorism.”

Earlier this week, neighbors saw law enforcement agents near Mr. Taal’s apartment building by Cornell’s campus, according to affidavits filed in the lawsuit in the Northern District of New York.

“This does not happen in a democracy. We are outraged, and every American should be too,” Mr. Lee said in a statement.

Lawyers for Mr. Taal are asking the court to delay his surrender to ICE, pending the outcome of the litigation. On Thursday, hundreds of Cornell students and supporters held a rally in support of Mr. Taal, who is also the host of a podcast called “The Malcolm Effect.”

 

 

  • Rage+1 2
Posted (edited)
45 minutes ago, SubliminalHorn said:

Once again, a hearty fuck you to all those that voted for this authoritarian bullshit

Or didn’t vote. Bigger fuck you to them - they allegedly hate the policies, but couldn’t bother to vote 

And a heartier F U to the ones who intentionally voted third party bc “both sides bad” and “Genocide Joe” 

Edited by Js1
  • Hook 'Em 6

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