'We Rely on Hispanic Labor': ICE Raids Trigger Economic Alarm Bells in Trump States

.Communities in two red states that voted for President Donald Trump in the 2024 election have found themselves being unexpectedly hurt by his mass deportation agenda."

"The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that construction trade groups in southern Texas have been sounding the alarm about aggressive immigration raids on work sites that are leading to serious delays of projects, which in turn are raising prices for buyers and lowering profit margins for sellers."

"Things have gotten so severe, wrote the Journal, that materials suppliers have started laying off workers and one concrete company filed for bankruptcy due to a drop off in sales that it blamed on the immigration raids."

"Mario Guerrero, chief executive of the South Texas Builders Association, said that the raids were 'terrorizing job sites,' and grinding economic activity to a halt...'They are basically taking everyone in there working, whether they have proper documentation or not,' said Guerrero, who acknowledged backing Trump in the 2024 election."

Continued at link:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/red-state-ice-raids

Ghislaine Maxwell invokes Fifth Amendment in House deposition

Source: MS NOW

(MS NOW) Convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell pleaded the Fifth Amendement virtually before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Monday as part of a high-profile inquiry into Jeffrey Epstein’s activities and the federal government’s handling of related files.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year federal prison sentence for her role in aiding Epstein’s sexual abuse of underage girls and is in custody at a federal prison camp in Bryan, Texas.

The co-conspirator was expected to invoke the Fifth Amendment on a “blanket basis” and refuse to answer substantive questions during the deposition, according to a letter from Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., sent to Committee Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky.

“Ghislaine Maxwell took the fifth and refused to answer any questions. This is obviously very disappointing,” Comer told reporters on Monday morning. “We had many questions to ask about the crime she and Epstein committed, as well as questions about potential co-conspirators. We sincerely want to get to the truth to the American people and justice for the survivors. That’s what this investigation is about.”

Full article at link:

Read more: https://www.ms.now/news/ghislaine-maxwell-invokes-fifth-amendment-in-closed-deposition

'There Was Never a Wall': Man Beaten Nearly to Death by ICE Refutes Self-Harm Claim

"A Mexican man beaten within an inch of his life last month by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents is on the mend and on Saturday spoke out to refute what one nurse called the agency’s 'laughable' claim that his injuries—which include a skull shattered in eight places and five brain hemorrhages—were self-inflicted."

"Alberto Castañeda Mondragón told the Associated Press that ICE agents pulled him from a friend’s car outside a shopping center in St. Paul, Minnesota—where the Trump administration’s ongoing Operation Metro Surge has left two people dead and thousands arrested—on January 8."

"The 31-year-old father was thrown to the ground, handcuffed, and then savagely assaulted with fists and a steel baton...'They started beating me right away when they arrested me,' he said."

"Castañeda Mondragón was then dragged into an SUV and taken to a holding facility at Ft. Snelling in suburban Minneapolis where he says he was beaten again. He said he pleaded with his attackers to stop, but they just 'laughed at me and hit me again.' "

“ 'They were very racist people,' he said. 'No one insulted them, neither me nor the other person they detained me with. It was their character, their racism toward us, for being immigrants.' "

Continued at link:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/alberto-castaneda-mondragon

Thanks for the hearts, much appreciated.

'Beyond Crazy': FBI Summons State Election Officials to Secretive Meeting After Trump Threat to 'Nationalize' Midterms

"On Tuesday, election officials in all 50 states received an email from Kellie M. Hardiman, who identified herself as an 'FBI Election Executive'...Hardiman said the officials were invited to a call on February 25 with 'your election partners' at the FBI, the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the US Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), and the Election Assistance Commission (EAC)."

"The email has heightened fears that the Trump administration is meddling in the midterms or planning to do so; he has suggested on multiple occasions that the elections should be 'canceled' outright. Republican strategists are reportedly increasingly worried that the GOP could lose control of both the US Senate and the House."

"Although the Constitution plainly states that elections are to be run by state governments, Trump earlier this week said Republicans should 'nationalize' elections and 'take control of the voting in at least 15 places' led by Democrats."

"Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar told Berg he’d never heard of a conference call like this. He said he wrote back to Hardiman: 'Is this real? Given what’s occurred over the last two weeks, I am concerned'...'I was just like, What is this?’ It’s the strangest thing in the world that the FBI is reaching out to us and trying to coordinate election security,' Aguilar said. 'It’s never happened in the past. The casualness which they did… it was just beyond crazy.' "

Article at link:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/fbi-secret-election-meeting

'Fuck You, Susan Collins, Fuck You, Cowardly Press' - jojofromjerz

"I’d say I’m disappointed in you, but disappointment implies suspense, and you forfeited that luxury years ago when you turned moral courage into a cheap party trick you perform for cameras and immediately abandon the second it asks you to grow a spine. What you’ve perfected instead is a kind of performative beige cowardice, a career-long commitment to pearl-clutching paralysis, a ritualized routine of tut-tutting concern followed by immediate retreat, like a frightened prairie dog popping up just long enough to announce she’s deeply troubled before scurrying back into the burrow of inaction. This shit doesn’t shock or surprise anyone anymore. You barely register. You’re just there—hovering uselessly near the action like a bad smell everyone’s learned to tolerate, forever fogging the room with sanctimony, submission, and that signature Susan Collins musk of moral mayonnaise. There’s nothing left to be disappointed by—only the familiar spectacle of you arriving right on cue to exhale a statement, evacuate responsibility, and leave behind the faint, oily residue of someone who stands perfectly still, wringing her hands while waiting for someone else to do the right thing."

"And there you were, up to your troubled eyeballs in Trump’s Temu Versailles, standing in the Oval Office as it now exists—a shrine to indulgence smeared wall-to-wall in fake gold and ego discharge, every surface glistening as if lacquered with gold-plated piss, a room marinated in insecurity and rot, the décor screaming LOOK AT ME in the visual language of a man addicted to glitter, mirrors, and the sound of his own name—smiling for all the world to see, clutching a red MAGA hat like a sad polyester security blanket, like a grievance-glazed talisman, like a cheaply stitched comfort charm for someone pathologically allergic to backbone. I’d say shame on you, Susan, but shame requires a functioning internal compass, and your capacity for it appears to be about as deep as your convictions, which is to say it doesn’t exist at all."

"Behind the Resolute Desk slouched Donald Trump, folded inward like an over-cooked shrimp, skin the color of a dropped mango left to rot on asphalt, posture broadcasting the defensive agitation of someone who knows exactly what’s in those files and despises the fact that the world refuses to stop asking."

"His Oval Office probably smells like literal farts and soiled pants, the unmistakable funk of a body and a soul decaying at the same speed, hot air and human rot fermenting under fake gold like the world’s saddest chemical weapon."

"Then Kaitlan Collins asked a question."

Continued at link:

https://open.substack.com/pub/jojofromjerz/p/fuck-you-susan-collins-fuck-you-cowardly?r=r38w4&utm_medium=ios

'Immigrants Delivered $14.5 Trillion Surplus to US Economy Over Last 30 Years: Report'

"A groundbreaking new report released Tuesday details how immigrants in the United States over the last three decades have contributed a massive surplus to the nation’s economy, resulting in a total of more than $14 trillion over that period due to the fact that immigrant families generate significantly more benefits to fiscal health than they take away in the form of benefits received or downside costs."

"The white paper by the libertarian free-marketeers at the Cato Institute, not a left-leaning outfit, builds on an existing model developed by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) to create a first-of-its kind analyses to determine 'how immigrants, both legal and illegal, and their children affect government budgets' in a cumulative manner."

"Looking at 30 years of data, the 95-page report—titled 'Immigrants’ Recent Effects on Government Budgets: 1994-2023'—discovered that immigrants overall 'generated a fiscal surplus of about $14.5 trillion' over those years. In part, the NASEM-Cato model shows:"

"Every year from 1994 to 2023, immigrants have paid more in taxes than they received in benefits...Immigrants generated nearly $10.6 trillion more in federal, state, and local taxes than they induced in total government spending...Accounting for savings on interest payments on the national debt, immigrants saved $14.5 trillion in debt over this 30-year period...Immigrants cut US budget deficits by about a third from 1994 to 2023, and fiscal savings grew to $878 billion in 2023."

Continued at link:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/do-immigrants-drain-the-us-economy

'ICE Employees Vent on Reddit, Saying They're Not Getting Paid and Still No Insurance Despite Promises'

"US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is facing an unusual wave of internal backlash after employees began publicly accusing the agency of failing to pay salaries and activate health insurance weeks after recruitment."

"Despite a historic recruitment drive that added 12,000 agents in recently, the agency's administrative backbone appears to be buckling, with employees desperate enough to turn to the Reddit to detail their struggles."

"In raw, unfiltered Reddit posts now spreading beyond law-enforcement circles, ICE officers describe going a month or more without a paycheque, struggling to secure medical cover for sick children, and watching promised bonuses quietly stall."

"One officer reported being unable to cover medical costs for a sick child due to a coverage gap, while others claim five-figure signing bonuses have not materialised. This benefits breakdown comes at a critical time as the agency ramps up enforcement activity, leaving front-line staff questioning the government's ability to manage the very workforce it spent millions to recruit."

Continued at link:

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/ice-employees-vent-reddit-saying-theyre-not-getting-paid-still-no-insurance-despite-promises-1775650

'Judge Incredulous as Trump Lawyer Asks Him to Create New Law for Mark Kelly Retribution Crusade'

(TPM) "WASHINGTON, DC–Federal District Court Judge Richard Leon expressed shock Tuesday that the Trump Justice Department was asking him to break new First Amendment ground, the better to punish Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) for speaking out against the administration."

“ 'You’re asking me to do something that the Supreme Court has never done — that’s a bit of a stretch, is it not?' the George W. Bush-appointed judge asked DOJ’s John Bailey."

"The Trump administration tried during the hearing to argue that the diminished speech rights that apply to the active duty military — meant to preserve obedience and discipline — should apply to Kelly, who is retired, as well."

“ 'That’s never been done before,' Leon said."

Continued at link:

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/judge-mark-kelly-hegseth-rank

'Progressive prosecutors launch 'FAFO' group to push for accountability after Pretti shooting'

(MS NOW) "At a news conference Tuesday, Krasner previewed the district attorneys’ newly formed group (Fight Against Federal Overreach) and denounced abusive immigration officials as 'wannabe Nazis' - perhaps referring to the Gestapo similarities, or the numerous social media posts from DHS invoking white supremacist imagery and language."

“ 'This is a small bunch of wannabe Nazis — that’s what they are. In a country of 350 million, we outnumber them,' he said."

"Krasner vowed that 'there will be accountability now, there will be accountability in the future, there will be accountability after Trump is out of office' — and he didn’t mince words as he closed out his remarks."

“ 'If we have to hunt you down the way they hunted down Nazis for decades, we will find your identities, we will find you, we will achieve justice, and we will do so under the constitution and the laws of the United States.' "

Full article at link:

https://www.ms.now/opinion/fafo-minneapolis-pretti-prosecutors-ice-trump-krasner