This looks like pretty sweet revenge for the Tucker Carlson-Nick Fuentes imbroglio: The Heritage Foundation has a released a report highly critical of Trump's deportation policy

"You tarnish us, we'll tarnish you. And after all we've done for you, too."

 

 ... Howell, a former Homeland Security official in the first Trump administration, criticizes the lack of data being shared by DHS to back up its claims that 600,000 deportations will be carried out by the end of the year. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the main agency responsible for these removals, has stopped publishing the monthly data to show this progress. There hasn't been a monthly release since Trump took office. "Without access to the data, it is impossible to ascertain how the DHS is supporting its varying claims of deportation and self-deportation numbers," the report says. ...

More.

Even at 600k per year, the Trump administration will fall short of removing 11 million illegal aliens by 8.6 million by the time it is over.

And they'll waste $85 billion while doing it.

"The American people voted for mass deportations. They're getting mass communications instead," the report's author Mike Howell tells Axios.

Mad King Ludwig rages against the machine: When Trump pardoned the J6ers, figuring out who deserved it and who didn't was just too hard for him, and so is figuring out Obamacare

 He has no clue what to do about Obamacare, so he proposes murdering it.

It's his solution for everything else, so why not?

Kill the lawfully allocated federal spending, kill the federal workers administering it, kill the agencies they worked for, kill the inspectors general making sure you comply with the federal laws you break with every breath, kill Greenland, kill Canada, kill the Houthis, kill the Iranians, and kill the drug boat operators.

Are Venezuelans next? Nigerians? And how many U.S. citizens swept up in ICE raids will die in custody, like the 20 foreigners who already have? 

Bankrupting the insurance companies overnight as he is suggesting is simply the political equivalent of what Luigi Mangione did to the United Healthcare CEO.

These pronunciamentos he keeps uttering are piling up into one great heap of nothing more than a mountain of irritable mental gestures, if you don't count the actual bodies left behind.

Republicans repealed Obamacare 37 times after 2010, but it's still alive.

They still have nothing.

A sane person observes that the options are limited with a five seat majority in the U.S. House and a three seat majority in the U.S. Senate, but sane does not describe Mad King Ludwig. He is intent on shoving down the throats of the American people whatever he can no less than Democrats did with Obamacare fifteen years ago. The Uniparty, folks.

Everything Trump does is done with the subtlety of a brick. If only he restricted himself to building.

But that is impossible for him, because he has desires . . ..

 

 

 

 

 

Erick Erickson repeats the myth that Trump cannot turn out the vote unless he is on the ballot

 Seen here:

“Lame duck status is going to come even faster now,” Erick Erickson, the popular conservative blogger and radio host, wrote on social media. “Trump cannot turn out the vote unless he is on the ballot, and that is never happening again.” 

Turnout for Democrats was YUGE yesterday.

Trump did that:

In Virginia, 59% of the electorate said cuts to the federal government had affected their finances, and two-thirds of those voters backed Spanberger, who is on pace to win by 14 percentage points, the largest victory for a Democrat in a Virginia governor’s race in decades. A full 37% of the electorate said they cast a ballot to oppose Trump, with 99% of them voting for Spanberger. 

Irony alert: Masked ICE, DHS, CBP employees who get to hide their identities roam the streets with facial recognition capability to gather images and fingerprints of citizens

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

 

You thought you were voting for deportations of illegals, and you got an Obama-style police state instead.

If you see ICE, CBP, DHS on the street, turn around and go the other way, and vote against these bastards.

You Can't Refuse To Be Scanned by ICE's Facial Recognition App, DHS Document Says

... On Wednesday 404 Media reported that both ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are scanning peoples’ faces in the streets to verify citizenship. 

... The app can also scan peoples’ fingerprints and provide information based on those, and uploads location data “so ICE can identify where the encounter took place.”

“Although the intended purpose of the Mobile Fortify Application is to identify aliens who are removable from the United States, users may use Mobile Fortify to collect information in identifiable form about individuals regardless of citizenship or immigration status. It is conceivable that a photo taken by an agent using the Mobile Fortify mobile application could be that of someone other than an alien, including U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents,” the document continues.

... “By using the Mobile Fortify app to provide real-time responses to biometric queries, ICE officers and agents can reduce the time and effort to identify targets compared to existing manual processes,” the document says.

ICE Barbie lies about citizen arrests in immigration sweeps

 

Incompetent ICE is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing: DHS estimates only 600,000 to be deported by the end of Trump II's first year, and even some of that is phony

They're wasting their time, energy, and taxpayer billion$ tracking down individuals when they should be cracking down on the employers, but that would take a native intelligence which Trump administration morons like Stephen Miller do not possess.

They're also alienating and energizing the opposition at the grass roots all across the country to turn out and vote against them in November 2026, which is one of the most politically stupid moves of these dunderheads to date.

It's almost like they're being paid by George Soros to do it. 

Reported here:

... The Department of Homeland Security says that it has deported more than 400,000 people since Mr. Trump took office, and that it expects to deport 600,000 in total by the end of Mr. Trump’s first year in office.

Still, those numbers are slightly misleading. The Trump administration counts people who are turned back at the border and other ports of entry as “deportations,” even though they have never lived inside the United States.

 

Earlier this year, Stephen Miller, Mr. Trump’s deputy chief of staff, met with senior ICE leaders in Washington and discussed ways to pick up the pace of enforcement. Soon after, he appeared on Fox News and said the agency would try to hit a goal of 3,000 arrests a day.

 

Since the summer, the agency has typically arrested more than 1,000 people a day. ...

 

Three more years of 1,000 people a day would amount to just over 1 million deportees, out of 11 million or more illegals in country. 

More autocratic rule by national emergency from Mad King Ludwig

Is that national emergency #53? I'm losing count. 

Trump vows national emergency in Washington, D.C. over ICE dispute

 

 

Let's cut to the chase: They need the National Guard to protect ICE from the people

If Trump were really serious about deportations, he'd be going after the employers, which would be far easier than going after eleventy million illegals or whatever it is.

That's how you know this is all fake, all performative. 

It is deportation theatre, from beginning to end.

The goal is 3,000 deportations a day, which over four years is only 4.3 million.

It is unserious policy, for an unserious country, but it is going to cost serious money. 

 

 

They're leaving the dogs, they're leaving the cats . . .

 ICE raids are leaving some L.A. cats and dogs homeless

... Pets belonging to people who are deported or flee are being left in empty apartments, dumped into the laps of unprepared friends and dropped off at overcrowded shelters, The Times found.

"Unless people do take the initiative [and get the pets out], those animals will starve to death in those backyards or those homes," said Yvette Berke, outreach manager for Cats at the Studios, a rescue that serves L.A. ... 

"Pets are like the collateral damage to the current political climate,” said Jennifer Naitaki, vice president of programs and strategic initiatives at the Michelson Found Animals Foundation. ...

TACO Trump chickens out on more than just tariffs, calls off the ICE raids on agriculture, restaurant, and hotel jobs to quell heartland rebellion

Stephen Miller most hurt.

On Wednesday morning, President Trump took a call from Brooke Rollins, his secretary of agriculture, who relayed a growing sense of alarm from the heartland.

Farmers and agriculture groups, she said, were increasingly uneasy about his immigration crackdown. Federal agents had begun to aggressively target work sites in recent weeks, with the goal of sharply bolstering the number of arrests and deportations of undocumented immigrants. ... 

 

Inside the West Wing, top White House officials were caught off guard — and furious at Ms. Rollins. ... 

But the decision had been made. Later on Thursday, a senior official with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Tatum King, sent an email to regional leaders at the agency informing them of new guidance. Agents were to “hold on all work site enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and operating hotels.” ...

More. 

Observe again how quickly Trump is to turn on a dime. The policy changed in less than 48 hours. The last person he talked to can be the most influential, which is not what you want from the leader of the free world. Sometimes he stumbles into the right decision, to be sure, but he can always stumble the wrong way. The tyrant's soul resembles the state which he rules, full of chaos and conflicting desires which he is utterly unable to satisfy.

What brainless idiot decided to send ICE into LA County at 9AM on a Friday morning in armoured vehicles when you lost it last November by 33 points?

Different parties, same dopium: The Trump administration might get less blow back from these immigration raids if they tried just a little bit to appear less like Joe Biden's fascist police state

Acquitted pro-life activist Mark Houck reveals details of ‘reckless’ FBI raid; will press charges

... There were “at least 10, 15 marked and unmarked units right in front of me. Surrounding the side of my house, I have 100 yards to the street, cars lined all the way up to the street, long guns pointed at me, heavily armored vests, ballistic helmets, ballistic shields, a battering ram,” he said.

He said his daughter “took note” of an FBI agent in the back of the house, and there were at least five federal agents on his porch “with M-16s pointed at me and now my wife as she entered the opening of the door.” ...

 

 Agents Use Military-Style Force Against Protesters at L.A. Immigration Raid

... The raid at the clothing wholesaler began about 9:15 a.m. in the Fashion District, less than two miles from Los Angeles City Hall.

It was an extraordinary show of force. Dozens of federal agents wearing helmets and green camouflage arrived in two hulking armored trucks and other unmarked vehicles, and were soon approached by a crowd of immigrant activists and supporters. Some agents carried riot shields and others held rifles, as well as shotguns that appeared to be loaded with less-than-lethal ammunition. ...

Trump ICE arrests: 100k in 20 weeks

 At this rate Trump will arrest just over 1 million illegals in four years, that's it.

If ICE could sustain 2,000 arrests a day from here on out, 2.6 million would be the total, out of many millions more claimed to be in the country illegally.

As with DOGE, campaign promises are easier to make than they are to keep.

ICE arrests under Trump top 100,000 as officials expand aggressive efforts to detain migrants

 Arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement during President Trump's second term topped 100,000 this week, as federal agents intensified efforts to detain unauthorized immigrants in courthouses, worksites and communities across the U.S., internal government data obtained by CBS News shows.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, ICE recorded more than 2,000 arrests each day, a dramatic increase from the daily average of 660 arrests reported by the agency during Mr. Trump's first 100 days back at the White House, the federal statistics show. During President Biden's last year in office, ICE averaged roughly 300 daily arrests, according to agency data.

The latest numbers show ICE is getting closer to meeting the far-reaching demands of top administration officials like White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner who has forcefully pushed the agency to conduct "a minimum" of 3,000 arrests each day. 

On Thursday morning, ICE was holding around 54,000 immigrant detainees in detention facilities across the country, according to the data. The Trump administration is asking Congress to give ICE billions of dollars in extra funds to hire thousands of additional deportation officers and expand detention capacity to hold 100,000 individuals at any given point. Officials are also looking at converting facilities inside military bases into immigration detention centers. ...

Trump's police state goons continue Biden era practice of wearing masks so that they can't be identified, arrest mayor of Newark outside the gate of controversial ICE facility

 

Newark mayor arrested for alleged trespass at New Jersey ICE detention facility

 

 

Looks like Trump & Co. blinked on Friday night after discovering the Supremes were getting involved in their latest Venezuelan deportation operation

 

As legal fight raged, ICE buses filled with Venezuelans heading toward airport turned around, video shows

 

Video from Friday night shows Immigration and Customs Enforcement buses full of Venezuelan migrants headed toward an airport in North Texas before abruptly turning around before the Supreme Court ruled the Trump administration must, for now, refrain from deporting Venezuelan men based in the state under the Alien Enemies Act. ...

As the motorcade was headed for the airport, a last-minute federal hearing on the matter was taking place in Washington.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who has been hearing a case related to the flights to El Salvador, scheduled an emergency hearing for Friday evening — just hours after a bus rolled up to Bluebonnet.

Shortly before that hearing kicked off, ACLU attorneys also asked the Supreme Court to step in.

“We hear they are on buses on the way to the airport,” said Lee Gelernt, the lawyer for the ACLU arguing on behalf of detainees on the verge of being deported under the Alien Enemies Act. ...

 

Trump's deportation fantasies hit the big brick wall of reality

 Meanwhile at ICE, Vitello told agents in January to aim to meet a daily quota of 1,200-1,400 arrests. According to numbers ICE has posted on X, the highest single day total since Trump was inaugurated was just 1,100, and the number has fallen since that day. On Tuesday of this week, arrests of immigrants were over 800, according to a source familiar with the numbers. But last weekend, there were only about 300 arrests, another source told NBC News.

In order to fulfill Trump’s Inauguration Day promise of “millions and millions” of deportations, the Trump administration would have to be deporting over 2,700 immigrants every day to reach 1 million in a year. 

And, as NBC News has reported, arrests do not always equal immediate detentions, much less deportations. Of the more than 8,000 immigrants arrested in the first two weeks of the Trump administration, 461 were released, according to the White House. 

More.

They were supposed to end catch and release on day one. They can't do even that.

 

 

It's deportation theatre at Fox News: The ICE Capades

 

Trump appointment of seasoned former acting ICE director Thomas Homan as Border Czar is in stark contrast to Biden appointment of Harris

This is a serious appointment, unlike Biden's, whose policy was to flood the country with illegals under a novel interpretation of asylum.

In an interview on Fox News Channel's "Sunday Morning Futures," Homan said the military wouldn't be rounding up and arresting immigrants in the country illegally and that ICE would move to implement Trump's plans in a "humane manner."

"It's going to be a well-targeted, planned operation conducted by the men of ICE. The men and women of ICE do this daily. They're good at it," he said. "When we go out there, we're going to know who we're looking for. We most likely know where they're going to be, and it's going to be done in a humane manner." ...

"If you're here illegally, you better be looking over your shoulder."

He also said: "You've got my word. Trump comes back in January, I'll be in his heels coming back, and I will run the biggest deportation operation this country's ever seen."

Reported here by CBS.

By delegating this task to Homan, Trump achieves a measure of freedom to devote himself to advancing his other objectives through the Congress.

The big if in all this is, whether illegal asylees with a piece of paper showing they have a court date may legally remain in the US.

I can well imagine a liberal federal judge intervening to stop deportations of such people, forcing the issue to be litigated. This could tie up deportations for years.

Don't count on this going the way you think it will go because Trump appointed a tough guy.

Biden administration's Kerry Doyle is unlawfully granting illegal immigration amnesty to tens of thousands of the 2 million backlogged immigration cases by simply dismissing them

The Washington Examiner obtained leaked video recordings of virtual meetings that Kerry Doyle, ICE's principal legal adviser, held with the more than 1,200 ICE prosecutors who bring cases against illegal immigrants nationwide, in which she explained in detail who should not be targeted for deportation. Illegal immigrants identified as national security and public safety threats, or those who had crossed the border illegally after Nov. 1, 2020, would be the only cases ICE would pursue. All others would be dropped. ...

“Congress hasn’t passed it, but [Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro] Mayorkas’s chief lawyer at ICE is telling all prosecutors to dismiss cases. Once it’s dismissed, they’re not required to check in with you anymore," said the ICE federal prosecutor who spoke with the Washington Examiner on the condition of anonymity. ...

The tens of thousands of noncitizens who have been cleared from the immigration court dockets over the past eight weeks may now apply to become permanent legal residents, the prerequisite to becoming a U.S. citizen. An illegal border crosser is barred from applying for legal permanent residency as long as his or her case is pending in court. With no case pending, they may apply. Once approved, they may apply for adjustment of status to citizenship after five years.

More.

This is The Swamp in action.

Just say Kristolnicht to libertarianism