SunSeeker
SunSeeker's JournalOfficials criticize Biden vetting, but Afghan shooting suspect was granted asylum under Trump
Source: Reuters
The Trump administration on Thursday blamed Biden-era vetting failures for the admission of an Afghan immigrant suspected of shooting two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., but the alleged gunman was granted asylum this year under President Donald Trump, according to a U.S. government file seen by Reuters.
Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national, entered the U.S. on September 8, 2021, under Operation Allies Welcome. The resettlement program was set up by former Democratic President Joe Biden after the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 that led to the rapid collapse of the Afghan government and the country's takeover by the Taliban.
FBI Director Kash Patel and Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, both Trump appointees, said during a press conference on Thursday that the Biden administration had failed to conduct adequate background checks or vetting on Lakanwal before allowing him to enter the U.S. in 2021.
Neither official provided any evidence to support their assertion.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/officials-criticize-biden-vetting-afghan-shooting-suspect-was-granted-asylum-2025-11-27/
If the Biden administration "failed to conduct adequate background checks or vetting on Lakanwal, " why did Trump grant him asylum in April?
Charlotte Observer: Donald Trump's Border Patrol has already failed in Charlotte
Not long from now — maybe only until Friday — Donald Trump’s Border Patrol surge will roll out of Charlotte to take its terror to another city. It will leave behind destroyed lives and fractured communities, but it will have accomplished very little that meaningfully addresses our nation’s immigration issues. We suspect that never was really the goal.
What is? Perhaps the president is still hoping immigration can bring him a political win as his approval numbers head lower than even his worst first term levels. Maybe he’s hoping for a distraction from the relentless drip of Jeffrey Epstein and economic headlines. None of which is happening. None of which will likely happen. Not because of Charlotte. In fact, just two days in, Operation Charlotte’s Web already has failed.
With every unnecessarily smashed window, every sneer at due process, every federal agent’s smirk at those who are horrified by it all, Donald Trump continues to lose. He loses because this immigration enforcement surge is not really about immigration. If the president really wanted to solve our nation’s border issues, he would work toward broader solutions instead of rounding up whomever he can to hit a big number to show Americans.
Make no mistake, Los Angeles and Chicago and Charlotte are about the show. They’re about showing supporters that he’s willing to break rules to get things done and break wills to get what he wants. The progressive protests, the videos of immigrants tackled and dragged, the families torn apart? The willingness to inflict pain is part of his power. The cruelty, as it always has been, is the point. But the problem for Trump is that it’s not working. His poll numbers continue to dive, and his numbers on immigration — once a strength — are now jarringly underwater. Just this month, an NBC poll showed that by a 54-44 margin, Americans think his sending “federal agents and National Guard troops to various cities around the country to fight crime and immigration” is not justified. An Associated Press/Norc poll showed 42 percent of Americans approved of his handling of immigration, a new low. AP/Norc also found that support among Hispanics, a key factor in Trump’s 2024 election win, has fallen 19 points since January.
Read more at: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/article312946812.html#storylink=cpy
House Republicans fail in bid to censure Plaskett over Epstein texts
Source: Washington Post
House Republicans tried but failed to pass a resolution Tuesday to censure and strip a key committee assignment from Del. Stacey Plaskett (D), the nonvoting delegate representing the U.S. Virgin Islands, for texting with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a 2019 congressional hearing.The exchange was included in a recently released trove of documents from Epstein’s estate.
...
They continued texting periodically throughout the day as the hearing was underway. At 12:50 p.m., Epstein asked Plaskett how much longer it would be until it was her turn to question Cohen.
Cohen brought up RONA - keeper of the secrets,” Epstein texted Plaskett at 2:24 p.m., misspelling the first name of former Trump executive assistant Rhona Graff, whom Cohen had mentioned in his testimony. “RONA??” Plaskett responded. “Quick I’m up next is that an acronym,” she added. “Thats his assistant,” Epstein replied, two minutes before Plaskett began asking Cohen questions.
Plaskett defended herself Tuesday, saying she had started to receive “innumerable texts” after the hearing started, including from Epstein, whom she described as her constituent. She pushed back on the idea that she was taking advice from Epstein on how to question Cohen.“ Let me tell you something. I don’t need to get advice on how to question anybody from any individual. I have been a lawyer for 30 years. … I know how to seek information. I have sought information from confidential informants, from murderers, from other individuals, because I want the truth, not because I need them to tell me what to say,” Plaskett said on the House floor.“
The resolution to censure Plaskett fell short during a late-night vote, 214-209. Three Republicans voted present, and all Democrats present voted against it.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/11/18/plaskett-epstein-censure/
Epstein was indeed her constituent, as he had a residence in the Virgin Islands, but he was acting as an informant during that text exchange. To get info on scumbag Trump, you need to talk to scumbags, since those are the only type of people Trump surrounds himself with. Epstein had a lot of information on Trump. Unfortunately, we did not get it all before Epstein died.
Hundreds of Korean workers detained in Georgia to file lawsuit against ICE
Hundreds of Korean engineers who were arrested and detained during an immigration raid at a Hyundai-LG Energy Solution battery plant in Georgia in September are preparing to sue U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), alleging unlawful detention and mistreatment.
According to industry sources and a report by ABC News earlier this week, roughly 200 of those detained in the weeklong ordeal are preparing to file a lawsuit against ICE, alleging racial discrimination, human rights violations and excessive use of force during their arrests and detention. They are seeking compensation for damages.
...
The Korean detainees were eventually released on Sept. 11 without any charges against them, but many say the psychological scars remain.
Companies employing the detained workers, including LG Energy Solution and Hyundai Engineering, said that they are not involved in the matter, as "the lawsuit is being pursued on an individual basis."
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/foreignaffairs/20251112/hundreds-of-korean-workers-detained-in-georgia-to-file-lawsuit-against-ice
The shutdown deal funds SNAP through Sept. 2026; that means we can't be blackmailed in January.
The deal funds the whole Department of Agriculture (not just the Department of Agriculture's SNAP program) through September of 2026. That is important because the shutdown deal only funds the rest of the government until January 30, 2026. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj41pgpk0wgo
So if and when we get in another shutdown fight over the budget in January, Trump can't starve America's poor to pressure Dems like he did this time.
This video talks about the deal's funding of SNAP until September.
But, no SNAP money is flowing yet because the shutdown deal still needs to be approved by the House and signed by Shitler.
Supreme Court allows Trump administration to temporarily withhold some SNAP payments for November
Source: NBC News
The Supreme Court on Friday at least temporarily allowed the Trump administration to withhold about $4 billion in payments for the SNAP food benefits program that a federal judge had ordered.
The court via an order issued by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson provisionally blocked an order issued by Rhode Island-based U.S. District Judge John McConnell that required the payments to be made by Friday night.
In her order, Jackson said a temporary stay was required so that the appeals court can consider the government's application in full. Jackson is the justice assigned responsibility for appeals from the Boston-based appeals court.
That court had said in an earlier order that it intends to act "as quickly as possible."
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/trump-administration-asks-emergency-pause-judges-order-fully-fund-snap-rcna242545
As a legal analyst explained, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson did it to avoid a longer stay by the full Court:
...
As for why Justice Jackson did it, to me, the clue is the last sentence. Had Jackson refused to issue an administrative stay, it’s entirely possible (indeed, she may already have known) that a majority of her colleagues were ready to do it themselves. I still think that this is what happened back in April when the full Court intervened shortly before 1 a.m., without explaining why Justice Alito hadn’t, in the A.A.R.P. Alien Enemies Act case. And from Jackson’s perspective, an administrative stay from the full Court would’ve been worse—almost certainly because it would have been open-ended (that is, it would not have had a deadline). The upshot would’ve been that Judge McConnell’s order could’ve remained frozen indefinitely while the full Court took its time. Yesterday’s grant of a stay in Trump v. Orr, for instance, came 48 days after the Justice Department first sought emergency relief.
Instead, by keeping the case for herself and granting the same relief, in contrast, Justice Jackson was able to directly influence the timing in both the First Circuit and the Supreme Court, at least for now. She nudged the First Circuit (which I expect to rule by the end of the weekend, Monday at the latest); and, assuming that court rules against the Trump administration, she also tied her colleagues’ hands—by having her administrative stay expire 48 hours after the First Circuit rules. Of course, the full Court can extend the administrative stay (and Jackson can do it herself). But this way, at least, she’s putting pressure on everyone—the First Circuit and the full Court—to move very quickly in deciding whether or not Judge McConnell’s orders should be allowed to go into effect. From where I’m sitting, that’s why Justice Jackson, the most vocal critic among the justices of the Court’s behavior in Trump-related emergency applications, ruled herself here—rather than allowing the full Court to overrule her. It drastically increases the odds of the full Supreme Court resolving this issue by the end of next week—one way or the other.
Josh Marsall: There Is No Democratic Future Without Supreme Court Reform
I’ve made versions of this argument here in the Editors’ Blog and on the podcast many times. But it’s so critical and so beyond dispute I wanted to state it here as clearly as possible. There is no future for civic democracy in this country without reforming the Supreme Court. Putting that more specifically, the only way to recover from Donald Trump’s rapid lunge into an authoritarian American future is a future point at which Democrats regain control of the federal government — a trifecta — and institute a series of laws which cut off the channels Trump has exploited to get us to this point. That doesn’t solve the problem of Trumpism. The core issue is that very large minority of Americans who support his style of autocratic government. But that cuts off many of the paths Trump has used to build a presidential autocracy under the thinnest cover of law. You need, among other things, a federal law to place strict limits on partisan and racial gerrymandering. It’s only one example out of many – you need laws re-instituting true independent agencies, drastically limiting the use of military forces on US territory, barring president’s from claiming budgeting authority, et al. I note this example because it came up today when Kate and I recorded this week’s podcast. But even this comparatively uncontroversial federal statute would certainly be overturned by the Republican justices.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/there-is-no-democratic-future-without-supreme-court-reform
Culver City ice cream vendor returns home after months in ICE detention
Enrique Lozano, who has lived in Los Angeles for nearly 20 years, was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in June while selling ice cream along Culver Boulevard. His arrest, which left his cart abandoned in the street, prompted concern among residents who had known him for years.
...
Community members raised funds, hired attorneys, and launched a campaign supporting Lozano. “When he was taken away, it shook this community,” said Fred Delgado, a Culver City resident.
After four months in ICE detention, Lozano was granted permanent residency through his wife, a U.S. resident, according to his attorney, Ebony Espinoza.
Lozano, who has no criminal record, celebrated his release by giving away free ice cream at Veterans Park to thank those who supported him.
https://ktla.com/news/local-news/culver-city-ice-cream-vendor-returns-home-after-months-in-ice-detention/
Profile Information
Gender: Do not displayHome country: USA
Current location: Southern California
Member since: Sun Mar 20, 2011, 11:05 AM
Number of posts: 57,409