News Summaries in June 2025

“What is the Next Chapter for Birthright Citizenship After the Court’s Ruling?”, New York Times, June 30, 2025

Now that the Supreme Court has rejected nationwide injunctions ordered by judges at the federal district court level, what is the future of birthright citizenship? The injunctions were handed down to block an executive order issued by President Trump on his first day in office restricting the right enshrined in the Constitution for more than 160 years granting U.S. citizenship to all children born on U.S. soil. The U.S. Supreme Court did not rule on the constitutionality of the executive order in its ruling handed down June 27 dealing with district court-level injunctions. But by blocking such injunctions, it did clear the way at least temporarily for the executive order to be applied in a majority of states, said Times reporter Miriam Jordan. The birthright citizenship restrictions do not take effect immediately in the 22 states that sued over the executive order. In the 28 states that did not challenge the executive order, including Arkansas, Mississippi, North Dakota and Texas, the order can go into effect but only after a 30-day delay that gives time for more legal maneuvers. The justices left room for other ways to successfully challenge the executive order. One of them, they suggested, might be a class-action lawsuit. A judge would first have to approve the “class” filing the lawsuit to certify that the members have standing to file the action together. An advocacy group in Maryland has asked for class certification to include every pregnant woman or every  child born to a family lacking permanent legal status, regardless of where they live. Babies born to immigrants without full legal status in the 28 states that did not challenge the executive order could be deprived of U.S. citizenship, creating newborns who are stateless and subject to deportation. Some babies could acquire the foreign citizenship of their parents, but only if the country involved permitted that. Those that do include Mexico, Brazil and Poland. A baby born in a state like Texas that supports the Trump executive order would not qualify for a U.S. passport or the health and social benefits available only to citizens. If a child was born to two parents who were undocumented “the government could decide to deport all of them if it had a basis for deporting the parents,” said Jordan. But Yale Law School professor Cristina Rodriguez said she did not foresee the government trying to deport babies independent of their parents. Under Trump’s order children of parents with visas to study and work in the U.S. would not get automatic U.S. citizenship though it’s possible they could have the same status as their parents as temporary legal immigrants, which would protect them from deportation. What happens if the Supreme Court eventually invalidates the birthright citizenship order? It’s possible thousands of children born in the next few months will not have U.S. citizenship even if that occurs. They might retroactively be granted citizenship but that would require a bureaucratic process, legal analysts said. 

 “Catholic Bishops Rallying Against Mass Deportation,” New York Times, June 30, 2025

Roman Catholic bishops across the United States are increasingly speaking out against its treatment of migrants as President Trump escalates his mass deportation plan. “For many years, many bishops focused their most vocal political engagement on ending abortion, rarely putting as much capital behind any other issue,” said Times reporter Elizabeth Dias. “But now they are invoking Pope Leo XIV’s leadership and Pope Francis’s legacy against Mr. Trump’s immigration actions and making the humane treatment of immigrants a top issue.” That includes protesting Trump’s domestic policy bill in Congress, attending court hearings to deter Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, and urging compassion for humans instead of political allegiances. The sight of ICE agents grabbing people in Costco parking lots and at carwashes “rips the illusion that’s being portrayed, that this is an effort which is focused on those who have committed significant crimes,” Cardinal Robert W. McElroy of Washington told the Times. McElroy’s late appointment by Pope Francis as archbishop of Washington was an attempt to counter Trump’s immigration agenda. “This draconian, heavy-handed meanspirited way that the country is dealing with immigrants today, it is not fair, it is not human, it is not moral,” said Archbishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe, N.M. “It’s something we have to really be earnest about and do everything we can within the law to make our voices heard.” Pope Leo has not directly weighed in on the deportation campaign. But since the beginning of his papacy he has called for the need to protect the dignity of citizens and immigrants alike. Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Mexico, said of the ICE raids in his city “this is not policy, it is punishment, and it can only result in cruel and arbitrary outcomes.” More than one-third of the Catholics in the United States are Hispanic. Priests say families are not coming to Mass because they are afraid. But many Catholics support Trump. A majority of Catholics voted for him in 2020. His support from Hispanic Catholic voters grew from 31 percent in 2020 to 41 percent in 2024, according to the Pew Research Center. Vice President JD Vance, a convert to Catholicism, said in a recent interview that immigration “at the levels and at the pace that we’ve seen over the last few years” was destructive to the public good. “That’s not because I hate the migrants or I’m motivated by grievance. That’s because I’m trying to preserve something in my own country where we are a unified nation.”  

“US Says Haitians Can Be Deported Days After Ruling Haiti Unsafe for Americans,” The Guardian, June 27, 2025

More than half a million Haitians are facing deportation from the United States now that the Trump administration has announced that they can’t continue in the Temporary Protected Status program after September 2. The “environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home,” a Department for Homeland Security spokeswoman said June 27. “Depart Haiti as soon as possible,” the US embassy had warned US citizens there just three days earlier. Haiti in recent months has been devastated by violent gang warfare that has driven hundreds of thousands from their homes. “I’m still in shock, but I’m totally disgusted,” Tessa Petit of the Florida Immigrant Coalition told Newsweek. “This is a complete lie stating that the situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home. This is a lie.” The TPS program was created to offer shelter to those whose countries are torn by civil strife or devastated by natural disasters. The US state department has advised Americans not to visit Haiti because “crimes involving firearms are common in Haiti. They include robbery, carjackings, sexual assault, and kidnappings for ransom. Kidnapping is widespread, and US citizens have been victims and have been hurt or killed…Mob killings and assaults by the public have increased, including targeting those suspected of committing crimes.” The Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said the decision to end protection “restores integrity in our immigration system and ensures that temporary protected status is actually temporary.” Guardian  reporter Tom Phillips noted that “Haitians were first offered TPS status after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince in 2010, claiming tens of thousands of lives.” 

“US Citizen Arrested During Ice Raid in What Family Describes as ‘Kidnapping,’” The Guardian, June 26, 2025

Thirty-two-year-old Andrea Velez, a US citizen and graduate of Cal Poly Pomona, was arrested by federal immigration agents June 24 in downtown Los Angeles just after she was dropped off for work by her mother and sister. “My mom looked at the rear-view mirror and she saw how my sister was attacked from the back,” Estrella Rosas recounted in an interview with ABC7. “She was like: ‘They’re kidnapping your sister.’” Video showed agents surrounding her as a crowd gathered in the street and police officers stood by. Rosas and her mother screamed for help. “She’s a US citizen,” Rosas said tearfully, pleading for help. “They’re taking her. Help her, someone.” Guardian reporter Dani Anguiano said another video showed an agent lifting Velez off the ground and carrying her away. Witnesses reportedly said the agents never asked for identification and said that she had done nothing wrong. “The only thing wrong with her…was the color of her skin,” her mother, Margarita Flores, told CBS Los Angeles. “The incident comes as numerous US citizens have been swept up in the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants,” Anguiano wrote. “People have reported they are being targeted for their skin color and for attempting to aid immigrants being detained by immigration agents.” According to a government report, Ice between 2015 and 2020 erroneously deported at least 70 US citizens, arrested 674 and detained 121. The family of Velez didn’t know where she was for more than a day after her arrest. Attorneys for the family finally tracked her down. They haven’t been told what charges she faces, but a Department of Homeland Security official told the press that she was arrested for assaulting an Ice officer. 

 

“White House Sues Judges Over Deportation Rule,” New York Times, June 26, 2025

The Trump administration has sued 15 federal judges in Maryland to prevent them from following a rule requiring a one-day delay of the federal government’s expulsion of an immigrant facing removal from the country. U.S. Justice Department lawyers argued that the rule intrudes on the powers of the White House to “enforce the nation’s immigration laws.” Under the rule adopted in May by George L. Russell III, the chief judge in Maryland’s federal district, any immigrant challenging their removal by filing a habeas corpus petition is automatically granted a temporary order providing for a delay of at least one day. Russell said the rule is intended to give immigrants facing deportation their day in court before being hastily expelled from the U.S., said Times reporter Alan Feuer. The 22-page lawsuit filed June 24 by the Justice Department targets Russell and the 14 other judges who serve on the federal bench in Maryland. It complained that the administration has faced an avalanche of injunctions from judges since President Trump took office in January. “Specifically, defendants have instituted an avowedly automatic injunction against the federal government, issued outside the context of any particular case or controversy.” Feuer wrote that “the spectacle of the Trump administration suing an entire district court made clear just how ugly and bizarre the relationship between the executive and judicial branches has become. Mr. Trump and his top aides have repeatedly – and personally – attacked federal judges in case after case, blaming them for ruling against him with little acknowledgement that the rulings have often come in response to policies that probed, if not overstepped, the boundaries of the law.” The lawsuit is in keeping with the Trump administration’s effort to delegitimize the federal bench, said Georgetown Law School professor Stephen I. Vladeck. “I think we are seeing an unprecedented attempt by the federal government to portray district judges not as a coordinate branch of government but as nothing more than political opposition.” That Russell put the rule in place emphasizes that “the administration has completely lost the trust of the judiciary – and rightly so,” said Alan Rozenshtein of the University of Minnesota Law School. The Trump administration lawsuit asks that all of the judges it is suing recuse themselves from the case and that the federal appeals court over them appoint a judge from a different district to preside. 

“Mexico’s President Threatens to Sue Over SpaceX  Debris from Rocket Explosions,” The Guardian (Agence France-Press), June 25, 2025

 

Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, is threatening a lawsuit against Elon Musk’s SpaceX company because of falling debris and contamination from rocket launches near the U.S. border. Last week a SpaceX rocket exploded on the south Texas coast near the Mexican border. Sheinbaum said at a news conference June 25 that Mexican officials are carrying out a “comprehensive review” of the impact of the rocket launches on the neighboring Mexican state of Tamaulipas. Despite objections from conservation groups worried about the impact on sea turtles and shorebirds, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has approved an increase in yearly launches of SpaceX Starship rockets from 5 to 25. In another legal scrap between Mexico and a giant U.S. corporation, Sheinbaum’s government has sued Google for renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.

“Costa Rican Court Orders Government to Free Migrants Who Were Deported by US,” The Guardian (Agence France-Press), June 25, 2025

A Costa Rican court has ordered the release of foreign migrants locked up in that country after they were deported there by the United States. Some 200 people from Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, Africa and Asian countries were taken to Costa Rica in February under an agreement with the Trump administration. Among them were 80 children. The Costa Rican court gave immigration officials 15 days to process the “determination of immigration status of the deportees” and their release, Agence France-Press said. The migrants were originally detained at a facility on the border with Panama 220 miles south of the Costa Rican capital of San José. Human rights groups criticized the detentions. In April, officials allowed them to move freely outside the center. Some have accepted voluntary repatriation, but about 28 of them have remained at the center, 13 of them minors. The court also ordered authorities to decide what type of health, education, and general social assistance they would need from the government. The decision came one day before a scheduled visit to Costa Rica by U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. She is scheduled to meet with Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves and to tour an immigration detention center near San José.

“Florida Builds ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Detention Center for Migrants in Everglades,” New York Times, June 23, 2025

The state of Florida appears set to begin construction of an immigrant detention center in the Everglades in south Florida, a project critics said is poorly planned and aims to build  an unaccountable system. Plans call for turning an airfield into a holding center costing about $450 million per year to run. Referred to as “Alligator Alcatraz,” the center won’t cost much for security because it is surrounded by swampland filled with dangerous wildlife including alligators and pythons, said James Uthmeier, Florida’s attorney general. “The project is sure to appeal to President Trump, who talked repeatedly during his first term about building a moat along the southern border filled with alligators or snakes,” said Times reporter Hamed Aleaziz. Florida can request some reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a Trump administration official said. Florida aims to add 5,000 beds for detained migrants at the facility and possibly other smaller facilities as well. Mayor Daniella Levine Cava of Miami-Dade County notified the state that more time is needed to evaluate its plans for the land. But the Trump administration plans to have at least some tents up at the facility in July. Trump border czar Tom Homan said the number of detention beds will determine how many immigrants can be deported. Mark Fleming of the National Immigrant Justice Center said “that fact that the administration and its allies would even consider such a huge temporary facility on such a short time line, with no obvious plans for how to adequately staff medical and other services, in the middle of the Florida summer heat is demonstrative of their callous disregard for the health and safety of the human beings they intend to imprison there. It simply shocks the conscience.” Immigrant advocates said the facility would be unaccountable because it would be outside the scope of the federal government. 

“’I’m Scared to Death to Leave My House’: Immigrants are Disappearing from the Streets – Can U.S. Cities Survive?” The Guardian, June 23, 2025

A Trump administration crackdown zeroing in less on undocumented migrants with criminal records and more on those deeply integrated into the American labor force is delivering a gut punch to the economy of California and the wallets of immigrant families, according to Cindy Carcamo, Dianne Solis, and Alfredo Corchado of The Guardian. “We are now seeing a very significant shift toward enforcement at labor sites where people are working,” said Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute. The change is happening because the Trump administration isn’t getting the big deportation numbers it wants by focusing on those with criminal records, he said. “It shouldn’t be this dead right now,” said Alexa Vargas, the owner of Vibes  Boutique in Santa Ana, California, whose store has seen a 30 percent drop in sales recently. “People are too scared to go out. Even if you’re a citizen but you look a certain way. Some people don’t want to risk it.” California is particularly hard hit because immigrants make up a larger percentage of the workforce but the economic impact is national in scope. In California, foreign-born workers make up 62 percent of agricultural labor and 42 percent of construction workers, according to the American Immigration Council. About 85 percent of sewing machine operators in garment factories are foreign-born and 40 percent of entrepreneurs. Nationwide, about 25 percent of workers in construction and agriculture are foreign-born. “More than half of drywall hangers, plasterers and stucco masons are foreign born,” the Guardian reporters said. “And in science, technology, engineering and math…nearly a quarter of workers are foreign-born, said the [immigration] council.” The chilling effect of immigration raids is hitting communities from Dallas to El Paso to Wisconsin farm country. In the town of Waumandee, dairy farmer John Rosenow said he can’t find U.S. citizens tough enough to do dairy work. “Yes, we want to get rid of the people who are bad actors,” he told The Guardian. “But the people I know, the people who are working in the dairy farms, are just hard-working people, getting things done, doing jobs Americans don’t want to do.” Raids on agricultural workers in California’s San Joaquin valley, referred to as the food basket of the world, are ”going to disrupt the harvest and food chain,” said melon grower Joe Del Bosque. “These people are hard workers.” In the Dallas area, a worker from Guatemala said he had stayed away from construction sites for days. “There’s too much fear, too much to risk. I fear tomorrow, tonight. I may be deported and who loses? My family back in Guatemala.”       

 The Cruel and Cowardly Supreme Court

     The June 23^rd decision without comment by the U.S. Supreme Court to allow deportations of migrants without due process to prison systems in third countries where they face torture and abuse is a shocking display of indifference to cruelty by our nation’s most powerful judges. Any residual sense that the Supreme Court will -- at the moment of truth, when it is most needed to protect the nation’s constitutional values, when it is  most needed to protect us – - strike down the worst instincts of an executive branch with an appetite for lawless and brutal displays of authority seems increasingly unlikely.

       Compounding the sense of a Court both arrogant and cowardly is the fact that it issued its decision without explanation.  

   At issue was the ruling of a lower federal court judge in Massachusetts after the Trump administration in May put eight deportees on a plane headed to South Sudan, an unstable region torn by civil war with brutal prison conditions. The judge, Brian Murphy, said the men were entitled to due process before deportation, meaning they should have the opportunity to argue in court that they likely faced torture at their destination and so should be sent elsewhere. Pending a review of his decision, they’ve been held at a U.S. military facility in Djibouti en route to South Sudan.

   At issues are deportations to “third countries” – in other words not the U.S., not their native countries that won’t accept them, but to other countries with which they have no connection that are willing to accept them at the behest of the U.S. government. “The Supreme Court’s ruling leaves thousands of people vulnerable to deportation to third counties where they face torture or death, even if the deportations are clearly unlawful,” Leila Kang, an attorney that represents migrants in the case, said in a statement reported by the New York Times.  In a dissent Justice Sonia Sotomayor said, “Congress expressly provided noncitizens with the right not to be removed to a country where they are likely to be tortured or killed.” The Supreme Court has long recognized that people must have a chance to explain why they should not face “grievous loss”, she said – so the plaintiffs have a right to be heard because they would face such a loss in losing their right to challenge the deportation. 

    The Trump administration issued a statement bordering on gleeful. “Fire up the deportation planes,” it said.  An administration attorney argued, according to the Times, that the lower court judge had thwarted the ability of the government to remove some of the worst illegal aliens. All eight of the deported men had been convicted of violent crimes. He said their deportations are especially challenging because their home countries often don’t want them. “As a result, criminal aliens are often allowed to stay in the United States for years on end, victimizing law-abiding Americans in the meantime.” 

     The Supreme Court  is allowing the deportations to go ahead pending a Trump  administration appeal of Murphy’s ruling.  That pause of his ruling continues until appeals court consideration of the legality of the deportations, including by the Supreme Court, is resolved. 

     So why conclude the Supreme Court is cruel and unwilling to defend the Constitution if the deportees involved are violent criminals? Because our Constitution bars cruel and unusual punishment – being sent to a brutal prison in South Sudan is certainly that. One reason for the constitutional prohibition is that innocent people get imprisoned. Apart from that, however, our founding fathers did not believe there is no end to the pain and suffering a violent criminal must endure. In the case of the Trump administration, it is sloppy about whether deportees have actually committed violent crimes. Many of the Venezuelans deported without due process to El Salvador’s brutal CECOT super-prison have not committed violent crimes, according to press reports. 

   The Supreme Court certainly knows the danger. There was no need to pause the lower court’s ruling pending the appeals process. Contrary to the argument of Trump’s attorney, the violent criminals on their way to South Sudan were detained and were not free to victimize law-abiding Americans. How likely is it that the Supreme Court, having allowed third nation deportation to continue pending the appeals process,  means to rule against it in a final decision?

    The Court shows some willingness to resist the Trump administration, ordering it for example to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia after he was mistakenly deported. But it doesn’t show enough to live up to its responsibility to defend the Constitution. Its failure to hold Donald Trump accountable for inciting the January 6, 2021 attack on the lawful transfer of power is the starkest example of that. This latest decision bypassing due process and opening the door to torture abroad is the most recent reminder. 

   Why won’t Justices live up to their responsibility? Partisanship and naivete are part of the answer, but so is fear. Judges in today’s divided America get death threats. Their families are threatened. Trump’s attacks on the judiciary play no small part in fueling the threats. In such an America, the job on the Supreme Court calls for bravery. But instead we get cowardice, and cowardice begets cruelty, which begets cowardice, which begets cruelty.

   Most of us have a default mode that accords a level of respect for the Supreme Court. It is the nation’s highest judicial authority. We are conditioned to look to it for moral authority and justice, however many times it might disappoint us in that regard. We weather the disappointments because we are taught in a democracy that we can’t always have our way.  Congress will make laws and the Supreme Court will issue decisions we don’t always agree with, but we cooperate because we believe in democracy and we want people to cooperate when we do get our way. 

    So what do we do then when the Supreme Court so clearly falls short of moral authority and justice by failing to defend the rule of law and the Constitution? We follow its decisions but we recognize that this Court is one unusually susceptible to pressure and use that to our advantage. We protest. We demonstrate. We send it the message that the majority of Americans reject its timidity in defending the Constitution.  They want the rule of law. They want due process. They want Supreme Court Justices worthy of the name. 

--John Reichard

Posting this out of chronological order.

“In Brazil, a Familiar Question: Is the President Too Old to Run Again?” Washington Post, June 14, 2025

 

Two-thirds of Brazilian voters are worried about the health of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, recent polls say, raising doubts about the wisdom of his likely decision to run for a fourth term at the age of nearly 80. Political advisers and allies who spoke to Post reporters Terrence McCoy and Marina Dias on the condition of anonymity said the once wildly popular Lula is largely the same but is slower to make decisions, far more irritable and struggling to keep  up with the changes in his country. “His likely decision to renege on an earlier promise to step aside after his current term has drawn uncomfortable comparisons with former U.S. President Joe Biden, whose determination to run for reelection despite his visible enfeeblement remains a matter of intense scrutiny and recrimination inside the Democratic Party," the reporters wrote. They also said he was comparable to Biden because he hasn’t cultivated a political heir. However, they added that in public Lula “still appears sharp and in command of the facts. The famously charismatic politician speaks forcefully and moves with the vigor of a much younger man.” An aide said he is obsessed with strengthening his leg muscles to avoid the enfeebled gait of an old man. Lula at one time was imprisoned on corruption charges after two successful terms in office, but after his release he successfully positioned his 2022 campaign for a third term as a bid to ward off the authoritarianism of Jair Bolsonaro. However, more recently his approval ratings have fallen to record lows. With fewer than 18 months to go before the next election progressives say the leftist president has left them with few options. But they still think he’s their best bet in 2026. “It won’t be easy to win with Lula,” said Emidio de Souza, a close ally. “But it would be impossible to win without him.”  

“Critic of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega Shot Dead in Costa Rica,” The Guardian (Agence France-Press), June 20, 2025

A retired Nicaraguan army officer who was living in exile in Costa Rica was shot at least eight times and killed June 19 at his apartment building in San José by men pretending to deliver a package. Major Roberto Samcam, 66, was a fierce critic of Nicaragua’s authoritarian and increasingly ruthless president, Daniel Ortega. “Nicaraguan rights groups and exiled dissidents immediately blamed the government and his co-president wife, Rosario Murillo,” said Agence France-Press. Samcam’s  wife, Claudia Vargas, said her husband was a powerful voice who  “directly denounced the dictatorship.” She said his job was exposing human rights violations in Nicaragua. Samcam fled Nicaragua in 2018 to live with his wife in Costa Rica. His adopted daughter, Samantha Jirón, said of  the shooting “it was something we did not expect, we could not have imagined it.” Ortega violently repressed protests that year, resulting in more than 300 deaths, according to the United Nations. In January of last year, Nicaraguan opposition activist Joao Maldonado along with his girlfriend were shot and seriously wounded while driving in San José.  A former ally of Ortega’s, Dora María Téllez, who is living in exile in Spain said that she feels Ortega and Murillo are “initiating a ‘night of the long knives’…due to the regime’s weakening.” The reference is to a bloody purge of rivals in Nazi Germany ordered in 1934 by Adolph Hitler. “They resort to the execution of a retired ex-military officer, who they believe has a voice that resonates within the ranks of the army,” said Téllez in an interview with 100% Noticias, a Nicaraguan news outlet. 

“US Deports Teen Soccer Star to Honduras Days After His High School Graduation,” The Guardian, June 20, 2025

 

A teenage soccer star in Ohio was arrested by immigration authorities four days after his high school graduation ceremony earlier this month and deported to Honduras this week, his family said. Nineteen-year-old Emerson Colindres had no criminal record and was attending a regularly scheduled appointment in Cincinnati with Immigration and Customs Enforcement on June 4 when he was arrested. His parents told the Cincinnati Enquirer that he was deported June 18 to Honduras, where he hasn’t lived since the age of 8. “How is my son going to make it over there?” said his mother Ada Bell Baquedano-Amador. “He doesn’t know anything and the country where we come from is very insecure.” She said “he’s never done anything to anybody, he hasn’t committed any type of crime and he’s always done things the right way.” His teachers and teammates from Gilbert A Dater high school protested at the Butler County jail where he was held until he was moved to an ICE facility in Louisiana this week. His coach at another team he played on said “sadly, he’s not the only one. I think there are a lot of Emersons in the same situation right now. They’re all the same story, someone who was here doing everything they were asked, trying to make a better life for themselves and their family.” High school and college students increasingly are the targets of the Trump administration immigration crackdown, said Guardian reporter Richard Luscombe. Recent data show a rapid increase in the number of people with no criminal record being targeted. “Being in the US without legal status is a civil offense, not a crime,” wrote Luscombe. The Trump administration says only criminals and people with adjudicated final removal orders are targeted. In the case of Colindres and his family, a judge issued a final removal order in 2023 after their application for asylum was denied. They had entered the US without documentation nine years earlier. 

“Volunteers Gather at Immigration Courts to Shield Migrants From ICE,” New York Times, June 20, 2025

 

A growing number of people are showing up to escort immigrants out of immigration courts amid a Trump drive to arrest people after they show up for routine hearings. Times reporter Luis Ferré-Sadurní explains the administration’s tactic this way: “An immigrant appears for a hearing in an immigration court to determine whether they can lawfully remain in the country. Suddenly, the government prosecutor asks the judge to dismiss the case. The dismissal terminates certain legal protections that the immigrant had, allowing ICE agents in the hallway to apprehend the person and place them in an expedited deportation process.” But now in New York more volunteers such as activists, faith leaders, lawyers and everyday New Yorkers are turning up at the hearings, passing out fliers explaining the government’s new strategy and explaining their rights to immigrants. They take down their name, country of origin and case number so relatives can be contacted if they are detained and can look up where they are being held. “Our instructions for our volunteers are to not engage or interfere with law enforcement,” said Camille J. Mackler of Immigrant ARC, which represents immigration legal services providers. Then they try to walk with some migrants out of hearing rooms and past federal officers, especially those at risk of arrest because their case was just dismissed. The officers are armed and many are masked, terrifying immigrants, lawyers say.  One issue is whether volunteers are deterring ICE agents moving in to make arrests. Federal officers are generally permitted to arrest anyone who attempts to obstruct an arrest, which is a federal crime. “Does this excessive accompaniment mean that somebody didn’t get detained?” said Mackler. “Obviously, we would love for that to be the outcome, but more important, the goal would be to make sure that the person isn’t alone.” In New York, the city’s comptroller, Brad Lander, who is a mayoral candidate, was arrested June 17 at an immigration court. He said he was simply trying to escort an immigrant authorities wanted to arrest. However, “video shows Mr. Lander appearing to hold on to (the immigrant) and refusing to let go as officers were trying to arrest the man over Mr. Lander’s protestations,” the Times said. “We really are just there to bear witness in a nonviolent way,” said Mackler. She said volunteers are trained not to act in a way that would provoke or escalate a situation with law enforcement. “But I’m also not going to tell a New York City elected official how he shows up to protect New Yorkers,” she said. 

[Consider this excerpt on the Lander arrest from the June 20 issue of Heather Cox Richardson's Letters from an American: On Tuesday, masked, plainclothes ICE agents assaulted and arrested New York City comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander, the city’s chief financial officer. Lander was accompanying an immigrant to a scheduled court hearing to try to protect him from arrest in one of ICE’s sweeps of those showing up for their court hearings. Lander asked the agents to produce an arrest warrant for the man they were arresting, and was himself arrested.

Homeland Security said it would charge him with impeding a federal officer and “assaulting law enforcement.” As [Philip Bump of the Washington Post] notes, a video of the incident shows that Lander “assaulted the officers in the sense that a bully might accuse you of having gotten in the way of his fist.” Lander was later released, and New York governor Kathy Hochul said the charges against him had been dropped.]

“2 Politicians of Panama Lose Visas for the U.S.,” New York Times, June 19, 2025

 

The U.S. State Department canceled the visas of a former president of Panama and a former presidential candidate. They said it was retaliation for their criticism of recent agreements between the Panamanian government and President Trump, who has threatened to seize the Panama Canal. “This is a warning to all Panamanians that criticism of the Panamanian government’s actions regarding its relations with the United States will not be tolerated,” said Martín Torrijos, who was president of Panama from 2004 to 2009. Times reporter Frances Robles said cancellation as a form of retaliation for vocal opposition would be an “alarming move considering the State Department generally uses visa revocations to punish foreign officials for acts of corruption or human rights abuses.” Ricardo Lombana, who came in second in Panama’s presidential election last year, said he was informed by email June 18 that his visa also had been canceled. Torrijos and Lombana joined in signing an open letter from a group of about 1,500 people calling the agreements “harmful to national sovereignty.” Panama’s current president José Raúl Mulino said he would stand up for Panama’s sovereignty but then made concessions to Trump, according to his critics. They included accepting non-Panamanian migrants deported by the U.S., agreeing to accept more troops on three former U.S. bases in Panama, and waiving the fees U.S. warships pay to cross the Canal. Lombana told the Times “it seems like the United States of America, or at least the government of the United States of America, didn’t like at all that we have our voice and defend our dignity.” Torrijos said “if defending my country’s interests and rejecting foreign military presence carries with it the consequence of having my visa revoked, I accept this with pride.” 

 

“Spain Blames Missteps and Technical Issues for Vast Power Outage,” New York Times, June 19, 2025

 

The Spanish government said a nationwide blackout in April was not the result of a cyberattack but largely of faulty planning and technical issues. The report on one of the worst power outages in recent European history “largely blamed the national grid operator and private companies for what it said were failures to respond to a surge in voltage that led to small problems in the grid that then snowballed” said Amelia Nierenberg and José Bautista of the New York Times. The outage, they noted, “prompted huge disruptions to daily life, stopping trains for hours, shutting down traffic lights and stalling elevators.” A power plant that could have helped the grid electrical infrastructure, said a Spanish official, Sara Aagesen, the minister of ecological transition. She said the system still needs significant improvement but that Spain is working on strengthening the grid. 

“Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, 95, Dies; Led Nicaragua After Civil War,” New York Times, June 18, 2025

 

Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, the first woman elected president of a Central American country, died June 14 at the age of 95. She was elected president of Nicaragua in 1990 as a unity candidate. “She governed in the style of a mother with a divided family, with love but also firm authority,” said Sergio Ramirez Mercado, a novelist and former Sandinista official who is now in exile and is one of Nicaragua’s leading literary figures. “Her power lay in her ability to reconcile the irreconcilable.” Chamorro “was thrust into the forefront of Nicaraguan politics by the assassination of her husband, Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, a newspaper editor who was critical of leftist Sandinista revolutionaries and a fierce opponent of their nemesis, the Somoza family dictatorship, which began under President Anastasio Somoza García in 1936,” wrote Post reporter Stephen Kinzer. When the revolutionary Sandinista National Liberation Front launched a rebellion that overthrew the Somoza dictatorship, her editor husband disapproved of the Sandinista leftist ideology and would not support it. As the rebellion strengthened and Chamorro’s editorials became fiercer, he was assassinated on Jan. 10, 1978. Ms. Chamorro reluctantly agreed to become a member of the Sandinista junta which took power on July 19, 1979. Her explanation: she and others in the middle class “still thought of the Sandinistas as sons and daughters of our friends, children we could influence or order around.” She resigned when it became clear Sandinistas were determined to adopt a government modeled after that of Fidel Castro in Cuba. Her family was deeply divided during the war of the Contras against the Sandinista government in the 1980s. One son was the editor of the official Sandinista newspaper. Another supported the Contras. Ms. Chamorro believed in “the need for unity in the midst of conflict, of maintaining love in a time of hate,” said Richard Millett, an American historian. “The most remarkable of many remarkable things was her ability throughout the most polarized times of the ‘80s, to get the whole family together on Sundays for dinner.” A clause in the peace treaty ending the Contra insurgency called for a free election in 1990. Ms. Chamorro, a political novice, was the surprise candidate unifying the parties opposed to the incumbent Sandinista president, Daniel Ortega. Asked if she was prepared to govern, she said “Of course I am. I have enormous faith in God. He will illuminate me and show me how to do what my conscience dictates.” She won a stunning 55 percent of the vote. Former President Jimmy Carter, an election monitor, helped persuade Ortega to leave power peacefully.  Chamorro sought to prevent Sandinista violence by allowing some of their officers to continue heading the army and police and did not force them to return homes, businesses and other properties they had appropriated. Critics on the left said she was too friendly to the wealthy and to the United States while those on the right were angered by her compromises with Sandinistas. In recent years her family suffered under the increasing repression of Ortega, who had returned to power. Increasingly frail, she was taken to Costa Rica in 2023 and died there in San Jose. The novelist Sergio Ramirez Mercado said “she made history” because of her unifying influence. “And to the question of who was the best president of Nicaragua in the 20^th century, I would not hesitate to answer that it was her.” 

 

“Wary of ICE Raids, Parents Keep Children from School,” New York Times, June 17, 2025

 

A new Stanford University study found that daily school absences in California’s Central Valley jumped 22 percent after raids on migrants in January. “The findings suggest raids can harm student achievement and  disrupt how schools function, even when they do not occur on school grounds,” reported Dana Goldstein and Irene Casado Sanchez of the Times. Though public schools do not track immigration status, a “majority of students in the region are Latino, many the children of farm workers with uncertain legal status,” they said. The workers help produce about a quarter of the nation’s food, including fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains. Immigrant parents in the Central Valley said that after the January raids they feared being arrested while their children were in school and being deported without them. “Rather than risk separation, some parents kept children home,” the reporters said. If absences continue they could threaten learning and student mental health. The study found that younger children were more likely to miss school than older ones, consistent with a pattern that undocumented parents keep their most vulnerable children home because of a fear of separation. Texas Tech professor Jacob Kirksey said immigration sweeps can have the same impact as Covid, creating a group of students with “a patently different experience with schooling.” Another impact of the absences is that it puts funding at risk since schools are paid according to attendance. Absences in Los Angeles schools went up last week after the Trump administration sent troops to the city in response to protests against deportations. That was the case even through the district tried to assure families that the schools were safe. 

 “Spanish-Language Journalist to Be Turned Over to ICE After Protest Arrest,” The Guardian, June 16, 2025

 

Authorities arrested a widely followed journalist born in El Salvador covering a “No Kings” protest outside Atlanta June 14 and planned to turn him over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rather than release him on his own recognizance.  At the time of his arrest, Mario Guevara, who frequently covers immigration and customs enforcement raids in metro Atlanta for MGNews, was live streaming on Facebook to more than one million viewers, outdrawing CNN and Fox News combined. Guevara founded MGNews last year. George Chidi of The Guardian reported that “a municipal judge released Guevara on Monday [June 16] on a recognizance bond – customary with misdemeanor charges,” but that “jail staff said he would be transferred instead to Immigration and Customs enforcement officers.” An ICE spokesperson could not immediately confirm whether the 47-year-old Guevara faces deportation. He has lived in the United States for more than 20 years. Guevara was a journalist with Diario CoLatino in El Salvador when he fled El Salvador in 2004 because of threats from leftwing paramilitary groups. He said it took him seven years to get an asylum hearing before a judge. He has worked for Atlanta Latino and Mundo Hispanico in Atlanta since then, winning awards including an Emmy for criminal justice reporting. “His reporting has uncovered corruption at the Honduran consulate in Georgia and documented the effect  of immigration enforcement around Atlanta,” Chidi wrote. During the live stream Guevara can be seen on a sidewalk, then backing away from an approaching police officer. As he backed into the street, two other police officers arrested him. He was charged as a pedestrian improperly entering a roadway, obstruction of a law enforcement officer and unlawful assembly. Police had facilitated an earlier “No Kings” march during the day organized by the activist group Indivisible in the nearby suburban city of Tucker in which thousands of people walked across a highway overpass. The raucous street protest at which Guevara was arrested was in the Embry Hills suburban area, which has a large Latino population. It was organized and led by the Party of Socialism and Liberation. Police said they declared an unlawful assembly after they believed marchers would try to approach a highway on the on-ramp. Ted Terry, a DeKalb County commissioner said he would ask the county to investigate the use of teargas at the event. “The decision to deploy teargas – particularly in a neighborhood context with nearby homes and businesses – raises serious questions about the proportionality and justification of the county’s response to peaceful civil action,” he wrote. 

“With Trump as Ally, El Salvador’s President Ramps Up Crackdown on Dissent,” Associated Press, June 12, 2025

 

The arrest June 7 of constitutional lawyer Enrique Anaya after calling  President Nayib Bukele a “dictator” and a “despot” on live TV is the latest move in a growing crackdown on dissent by the El Salvadoran leader, according to observers.  “They say Bukele is emboldened by his alliance with U.S. President Donald Trump, who has not only praised him but avoided criticizing actions human rights defenders, international authorities and legal experts deem authoritarian,” reported Megan Janetsky and Marcus Alemán of the Associated Press. Authorities have targeted outspoken lawyers like Anaya, journalists investigating Bukele’s alleged deals with gangs and human rights defenders calling for an end to a three-year state of emergency that has suspended fundamental civil rights. “They’re trying to silence anyone who voices an opinion – professionals, ideologues, anyone who is critical – now they’re jailed,” said Anaya’s lawyer, Jaime Quintanilla, who is unsure if his client will ever be released. The 61-year-old Anaya is a respected lawyer and commentator in El Salvador. He holds a doctorate in constitutional law. He has found fault with Bukele’s crackdown on gangs, and his stacking of El Salvador’s supreme court. Bukele and his New Ideals party now control all three branches of government. His resounding re-election victory last year was considered unconstitutional on grounds he was ineligible to run again. He is enormously popular because his crackdown on gangs has made the streets far safer for Salvadorans. “I don’t care if you call me a dictator,” he said this month. “Better that than seeing Salvadorans killed on the streets.” He has imprisoned 87,000 people for alleged gang ties, “often with little evidence or due process,” the AP reporters said. “A number of those detained were also critics.” Anaya was among those who petitioned the country’s electoral court to block a re-election campaign by Bukele on grounds that it was unconstitutional. He was detained based on accusations of money laundering but Quintanilla said his client’s arrest stems from years of questioning Bukele. 

“Mexican Flags Have Become Republican Fodder, but Protestors Keep Waving Them,” New York Times, June 11, 2025

 

Why are many protestors carrying Mexican flags at an American political protest? Conservatives point to the flags as evidence that the demonstrations are un-American. Images of provocateurs waving Mexican flags on top of burning Waymo taxis (which are self-driving) are a prime example of why President Trump called in the National Guard to Los Angeles and why immigration has gone too far, Republicans say. “Look at all the foreign flags,” said Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, on X. “Los Angeles is occupied territory.” However, “protestors said this week that they see the Mexican flag as a symbol of defiance against Mr. Trump’s immigration policies or of solidarity with other Mexican Americans,” according to Shawn Hubler and Orlando Mayorquin of the Times. It has “also become so ubiquitous in recent decades that it is a part of the Southern California landscape,” they add. Those waving the flag at demonstrations this week said there could be a political cost to them for doing so, but that to them the flag was not un-American and represented their Chicano roots rather than allegiance to the nation of Mexico.  Bonnie Garcia, an American citizen whose parents came from Guatemala and Mexico, brought small flags from those countries rather than an American flan with her to a rally, explaining that while she’s proud to be an American, Trump “wants to erase us, and I’m not going to stand for that.” Some on the left, however argue that it’s important to fly the American flag to show that it belongs to all Americans, including those opposed to Trump’s deportation tactics. 

“At Least Seven Dead and 50 Wounded as Colombia Hit with Bombings and Gun Attacks,” The Guardian, June 10, 2025

 

At least 7 people have been killed and 50 wounded in coordinated bomb and gun attacks across southwestern Colombia. The attacks deepened a security crisis roiling the country, said the report by Guardian staff and news agencies. “Police said attackers launched 19 attacks on targets in Cali – the country’s third-largest city – and several nearby towns, hitting police posts, municipal buildings and civilian targets.” The attacks came days after the attempted assassination in Bogotá of a presidential candidate. “Many Colombians are fearful of a return to the violence of the 1980s and 1990s, when cartel attacks, guerilla violence and political assassinations were commonplace,” the Guardian said. A security expert said the attacks likely were the work of a group called the Central General Staff. Elizabeth Dickenson of the International Security Group said the group may be trying to stop a military operation reported to have killed or injured its leader, who is known as “Ivan Morísco.” The report noted that “the attacks come three days after conservative senator Miguel Uribe was shot twice in the head at close range by an alleged hitman while campaigning in Bogotá." Uribe remains in critical condition. His wife María Claudia Tarazona said “no family in Colombia should be going through this. There is no name for this. It is not pain, it’s not horror, it’s not sadness.” 

“Bolsonaro Denies Coup Plot But Admits Discussing ‘Alternative Ways’ to Remain President,” The Guardian, June 10, 2025

 

Although denying he planned a coup, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro admitted in court discussing “alternative ways” of remaining in power after he lost the 2022 election to the current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Those ways, which Bolsonaro said were within the constitution, included deploying military forces and suspending some civil liberties. “A coup is something abominable,” he said. “A coup may even be easy to start. The day after is simply unpredictable and harmful to everyone. Brazil could not go through something like that, and such a hypothesis was never even considered during my government.” Bolsonaro sought to gain political advantage during his appearance before Brazil’s supreme court. He defended his 2019-2023 administration and repeatedly criticized Lula’s third term, said Guardian reporter Tiago Rogero. Bolsonaro sought to sidestep conflict with the lead judge in the case, Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who he previously called a jerk and a scoundrel. He apologized to Moraes and two other justices for saying they had allegedly received between $30 million and $50 million each to rig the election. “It was a vent, rhetoric I used,” he said. “So, I apologise. I had no attention of accusing you of any  misconduct."  Though barred in a separate ruling from running for office, Bolsonaro joked “I’d like to invite you to be my running mate in 2026.” Rogero said that a smiling Moraes said “I’ll pass.” The court has heard testimony from a number of men accused of being the nucleus of an attempted coup. A Bolsonaro aide testified that his boss had edited a draft decree providing for the arrest of several authorities including members of Congress and supreme court justices and the creation of a commission to call new elections. Bolsonaro shortened the document to omit the arrest of the authorities. “Only you would be imprisoned,” the aide told Moraes. The aide also testified that Bolsonaro tried but failed to find some kind of fraud in the electronic voting system in order to convince the armed forces “to do something.” The trial verdict is expected later this year. 

“Valencia’s Flood Was a Catastrophe – Was It Also a Crime?”, Washington Post, June 10, 2025

 

A Spanish judge is conducting an investigation to determine whether the official response to flash floods last Oct. 31 that killed at least 228 people  was not just catastrophic but criminal. “The premise of the investigation is stark: that many of the deaths were preventable,” wrote Chico Harlan, Michael Robinson Chávez and Roser Toll Pifarré of the Post. Judge Nuria Ruiz Tobarra already has placed two politicians involved in the emergency response under investigation. She is considering whether to indict them for reckless homicide and reckless injury. It’s extremely rare to prosecute officials for their actions in frantic moments, the Post reporters noted. “The gross negligence would have to be enormous,” said David Abramson of the New York University Center for Public Health Disaster Science. But the judge noted that the disaster was “foreseeable” because of Valencia’s long history of floods and that the deaths and devastation “all occurred amid the clear inaction of the regional administration.” The mountains and ravines surrounding the city of Valencia put it in the crosshairs for flooding. Spain’s meteorological agency had warned four days earlier that a big storm was forming and at 8:04 on the morning of the flooding issued the warning “Extreme caution! The danger is extreme!” The rain that came was “one of the most powerful bursts in European history,” the Post said. It first hit the town of Utiel about 40 miles west of Valencia and then about 4 p.m. “the skies unleashed over the town of Chiva, about 20 miles away, an area that feeds the ravines leading downhill to Valencia….A torrent of water was rushing toward Valencia’s southern suburbs. In those areas, it hadn’t even rained.” By 6 p.m. people caught in the raging water were fighting for their lives and losing. It wasn’t until 8:11 p.m. that phones began buzzing with the first emergency alert from the regional government warning of the risk of heavy rains. “By then, much of Valencia was already underwater.” The mother of a pregnant 26-year-old who drowned after climbing from her car said an earlier alert might have kept her daughter off the road. Another woman said a quicker alert would have prevented her husband and 24-year-old daughter from going into the basement garage of their apartment building to try to move their cars just as a wall of water suddenly flooded the basement and the floor above.  A 70-year-old woman said that if the alert had come several hours earlier her husband, 74, and two sons, 46 and 42, might still be alive. They could have walked to her sister’s house down the street with a few belongings and taken refuge on the second floor. Instead, when they tried to escape their house the water was churning furiously leaving each of them clinging to the bars of the windows up to their necks in water and pelted by debris. One of the sons lost his dog in the floodwaters and plunged in after it. The other brother let go of the bars to follow after to try to save his brother. Finally, her husband let go as well in a bid to save his sons. Only she was left to survive. She asked her sister why she didn’t let go too, according to the Post account. “It’s not your time,” her sister replied. The biggest fault in the emergency response according to lawyers representing flood survivors was that the inexperienced official in charge waited until 5 p.m. to convene a meeting of emergency responders to establish a command center. The judge conducting the investigation said the problem was not an absence of information because plenty of it was available from many sources. The meeting itself dragged on as leaders from various emergency departments took turns giving briefings. It was only at 7 p.m. that discussions began about an alert, according to one of the participants. The alert itself issued a little more than an hour later advised against any type of travel but did not urge people to move to higher ground. 

“Mexico President Urges Respect for Migrant ‘Dignity’ After LA Unrest,” Agence France Presse, June 9, 2025

 

The president of Mexico June 9 condemned the violence that broke out during protests against immigration raids in Los Angeles. But Claudia Sheinbaum also called on United States authorities to treat migrants respectfully. “We do not agree with violent actions as a form of protest,” she said at her morning press conference. Mexicans living in the United States should “act peacefully and not give in to provocations.” She added however that her government “will continue to use all available diplomatic and legal channels to express its dissatisfaction with practices that criminalize migration and endanger the safety and well-being of our communities in the United States.” She added that Mexicans living in Los Angeles are “honest, hardworking men and women” and observed that “the United States needs them for its economy.” 

“Thousands Protest in Madrid Against President Sanchez’s Government,” The Guardian, June 8, 2025

 

Thousands gathered in central Madrid June 8 to protest what they said was corruption in the government of Spain’s socialist prime minister Pedro Sánchez. Estimates of the number of protestors, who demanded an early general election, varied at between 50,000 and 100,000. The government of Sánchez and his inner circle has faced a series of corruption allegations in recent months. A former member of his Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE) was accused of trying to smear a Guardia Civil police unit investigating a corruption allegation against the wife of Sanchez, Begoña Gómez. The former party member, Liere Díaz, according to leaked recordings, “appeared to offer judicial leniency in return for compromising information on senior members of the unit,” said Guardian reporter Sam Jones. The unit also is investigating the brother of the  prime minister, David Sánchez, and his former transport minister, José Luis Abalos. Diáz denied wrongdoing, saying she was conducting research for a book on corruption. Begoña Gómez has been under investigation into whether she has used her position as the wife of the prime minister in business dealings. Abalos was accused of taking payments in the awarding of contracts for facemasks during the Covid pandemic. David Sánchez is facing trial on allegations of influence peddling but has denied the charges. Pedro Sánchez has called the case against his wife as driven by the far right and baseless. At the demonstrations, the leader of the conservative People’s Party (PP) Alberto Núñez Feijóo, said “Spain needs a revolution of decency and freedom – and we will lead that revolution from the streets and at the ballot boxes.” Sánchez accuses his opponents of conducting a “bullying operation” against him and his wife and of falsely accusing her. 

“Shot Colombian Presidential Candidate Survives Emergency Surgery,” The Guardian, June 8, 2025

 

The rightwing presidential candidate shot at a campaign event in the capital of Colombia June 8 has survived emergency surgery but is still fighting for his life, according to his wife. Thirty-nine-year-old Miguel Uribe was speaking at a rally in a public park in Bogota. The attacker is believed to be 15 years old and was receiving treatment after being injured in the struggle to detain him. A Glock style pistol was seized. Uribe, a senator with the opposition Democratic Centre party, is “an outspoken critic of Colombia’s leftwing president, Gustavo Pedro,” said Guardian reporter Sam Jones. Petro offered his sympathies to the Uribe family. “I hope Miguel Uribe survives,” he said. “That’s what I want above all else and that’s what society should feel as we join our hearts and energy so that he’ll be OK.” He said an investigation would focus on who ordered the attack carried out by the minor. Spain condemned the attack. Its government said in a statement that “violence has no place in our societies.’ U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the attack was the result of “violent leftist rhetoric coming from the highest levels of the Colombian government.” Uribe’s grandfather, Julio César Turbay Ayala, served as Colombia’s president from 1978 to 1982.

 

“Kilmar Abrego Garcia is Back in U.S. Custody After Being Illegally Deported and Will Now Face Criminal Charges,” Politico, June 6, 2025

 

Kilmar Ábrego García, the wrongfully deported native of El Salvador whose removal was declared illegal by the U.S. Supreme Court, is back in the United States and facing federal human trafficking charges in Tennessee. Ábrego García, who had been deported to the notorious CECOT megaprison in El Salvador, was secretly indicted by a federal grand jury in Nashville in May on felony charges of transporting undocumented immigrants and conspiring  to do so. In 2022, police stopped him in traffic in Tennessee. He  was at the wheel  of an SUV with nine other men, all Hispanic and all without identification, according to the indictment, which was unsealed June 6. The Trump administration for weeks did not comply with the order of a federal court judge that it facilitate his return, a directive unanimously affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court. “At times, Trump and his top aides suggested Ábrego García would never return to the United States,” reported Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney of Politico. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told a congressional hearing in May that “there is no scenario where Ábrego García will be in the United States again.” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said he would again be deported to El Salvador after he serves his sentence in the U.S. if he is convicted of the trafficking charges, the Guardian reported June 6. President Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that it had been the decision of the U.S. Justice Department to bring Ábrego García back. “The man has a horrible past and I could see a decision being made, bring him back, show everybody how horrible this guy is.” The indictment said Ábrego García worked with at least five co-conspirators to bring immigrants into the U.S. illegally and then transported them from the U.S.-Mexico border to various parts of the country. He often picked up immigrants in Houston and made more than 100 trips between Texas and Maryland from 2016  to 2025, the indictment said. It “also alleges that Ábrego García transported firearms and drugs,” said The Guardian’s Maya Yang.  His lawyer Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg accused the Trump administration of having “disappeared” Ábrego García to a foreign prison in violation of a court order. “Now, after months of delay and secrecy, they’re bringing him back, not to correct their error but to prosecute him.” The lawyer said the criminal trafficking charges are “fantastical” – a “kitchen sink” of allegations “all based on the statements of individuals who are currently either facing prosecution or in federal prison. I want to know what they are offering these people.” The interaction between police and Àbrego García who stopped him in traffic in Tennessee was amicable. They saw no reason to bring charges against him at the time.  The New York Times reported June 6 that “questions have already been raised about the criminal case, filed in Federal District Court in Nashville. There was concern and disagreement in recent weeks among prosecutors about how to proceed with the charges, two people familiar with the matter said, leading to the resignation of a supervisor in the federal prosecutor’s office handling the case.” Another Ábrego García attorney, Andrew Rossman, said “today’s action proves what we’ve known all along – that the administration had the ability to bring him back and just refused to do so. It’s now up to our judicial system to see that Mr. Ábrego García receives the due process that the Constitution guarantees.”

“Trump Administration Returns Guatemalan Man It Erroneously Deported,” Washington Post, June 5, 2025

 

The Trump administration returned a deportee to the United States following a court order directing it to do so. The return of the Guatemalan man identified only by the initials O.C.G. “represented a dramatic turnaround a week after federal authorities had vowed to fight a May 23 order by U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy in Boston to ‘take all immediate steps’ to return the man to the United States,” said Post reporter Maria Sachetti. After arriving on a commercial flight in California O.C.G. was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The man had sought asylum in the United States saying he had received death threats in Guatemala because he is gay. An immigration judge eventually granted him protection from being removed to Guatemala but he was then deported to a third country, Mexico, without first being given a chance to argue that he had also been persecuted there. His return to the United States was the first time the Trump administration has been known to return a deportee in response to a court order. Negotiations also may be underway leading to the return to the U.S. from El Salvador of a mistakenly deported Venezuelan man known as Cristian. The administration has not negotiated the return from El Salvador of a mistakenly deported El Salvadoran man, Kilmar Abrego García,  despite a U.S. Supreme Court order saying it must facilitate his return. 

“Comedian Sentenced to Eight Years Over Discriminatory Jokes,” EuroWeekly News, June 4, 2025

 

A Brazilian court sentenced the Brazilian comedian Leo Lins to more than eight years in prison for making discriminatory jokes in a stand-up routine that targeted a variety of groups – blacks, obese individuals, the elderly, people living with HIV,  homosexuals, evangelicals, Indigenous communities, Jews and people with disabilities. “The federal court in São Paulo ruled that the right to freedom of expression is not absolute, and when it comes into conflict with human dignity, the latter must prevail,” said EuroWeekly News. The court said such perfomances add “to the spread of verbal violence in society and promote intolerance.” Lins also has been ordered to pay a fine valued at 54,000 Euros. 

 

“Mexico’s Ruling Party Appears Set to Gain All 9 Seats on the Supreme Court,” New York Times, June 4, 2025

 

Mexico’s ruling Morena party is moving closer to controlling a third branch of government thanks to the new system of popular elections to select judges. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted for Supreme Court judges, five women and four men projected as winners were backed on lists distributed by Morena operatives and supporters. The new system does not permit candidates to specifically state a political party affiliation or political parties to declare their support for a specific candidate. The voting for judges at all levels of the judiciary – a total of 2,600 positions – took place June 1. Only about 13 percent of  eligible voters turned out, according to Mexico’s electoral agency. The vote “transformed the judiciary from an appointment-based system to one in which voters choose judges and magistrates – a hugely ambitious, far-reaching experiment by a large democracy,” wrote Times reporters Emiliano Rodríguez Mega and James Wagner. “This signifies the capture of the Supreme Court by a political party,” said Azul Aguiar Aguilar, a researcher at ITESO, the Jesuit University of Guadalajara. But Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, said “their task is to impart justice, regardless of their political orientation.” Opinions were divided on the use of cheat sheets, which in effect would tie candidates to specific parties. Katia Uriona, the head of an international group of election observers, said “we were not able to verify an intentional, massive distribution of this resource.” But volunteer groups reported seeing voters holding printed sheets instructing them which candidates to pick.