ICE Race Soldiers Arrested a Law Abiding, Non-White, US Citizen—Twice—During Alabama Construction Site Raids. Now He's Suing
/An Alabama construction worker is challenging the Trump administration's warrantless construction site raids after he says he was arrested and detained by federal immigration agents—twice—despite being a U.S. citizen with a valid ID in his pocket.
In a federal civil rights lawsuit filed today in the Southern District of Alabama, Leo Garcia Venegas is seeking to stop "dragnet raids" that target Latinos like himself, without any probable cause besides their ethnicity.
"It feels like there is nothing I can do to stop immigration agents from arresting me whenever they want," Venegas said in a press release by the Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm that filed the suit on his behalf. "I just want to work in peace. The Constitution protects my ability to do that."
Venegas and the Institute for Justice argue that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) policies allow immigration agents to illegally raid private construction sites, detain workers without reasonable suspicion, and continue detaining them even after they offer evidence of citizenship or legal status. All of this, they say, violates the Fourth Amendment's protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. [MORE]
Contrary to Blight House Rhetoric, More than a Third of ICE Detainees Have No Criminal Record or Pending Charges, data shows
/Nearly 17,000 immigrants without a prior criminal record are currently detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a group that accounts for the largest share of those in custody, according to government data released last week.
While the Trump administration said it would primarily focus enforcement on undocumented immigrants with serious criminal convictions, detentions have surged since President Donald Trump took office in January, with a sharp increase in those who had neither convictions nor pending charges.
The population of ICE detainees has more than tripled since 2024, as the Trump administration implemented arrest quotas for federal agents as part of its crackdown on undocumented immigrants. At the time, the government said that ICE would be targeting the “worst of the worst,” focusing on undocumented immigrants with either criminal convictions or pending criminal charges.
During the first few months of the administration, the number of ICE detainees in all categories increased steadily — the most pronounced change being in detainees with pending criminal charges. At the end of April, ICE maintained that 75% of those arrested were criminals.
Since setting a goal in May to arrest as many as 3,000 people each day, there has been a steep climb in detainees with no criminal record, the detained population of convicted criminals or those with pending criminal charges has continued to climb at relatively the same rate.
These detainees — who made up less than 10% of the population in ICE detention — now account for nearly 40% of those currently being held by ICE. [MORE]
DHS Collected and is Keeping DNA from U.S. Citizens Without Due Process
/For years, the federal government has been amassing DNA profiles of noncitizens. But recently released Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data reveal that officials knowingly collected the DNA of approximately 2,000 American citizens and added it to a national genetic surveillance database used by law enforcement.
This genetic collection was made possible by a March 2020 rule change to the 2005 DNA Fingerprint Act, which removed the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) discretion to exempt detained noncitizens from DNA collection. This drastically expanded the number of DNA samples the DHS collects and uploads to the federal database known as the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS).
Between 2020 and 2024, the CBP alone—which is only one of the many agencies under DHS—added between 1.3 and 2.8 million people to CODIS, compared to just 30,000 detainees added between 2005 and 2020, according to Georgetown Law's Center on Privacy and Technology. Of this total, CBP provided CODIS with the DNA of between 1,947 and 2,131 U.S. citizens. [MORE]
Wife of Murdered Man Aboard Venezuelan Ship Unlawfully Bombed by Trump Says Husband Was a Fisher, Not a Drug Dealer
/From [HERE] A woman who identified herself as the wife of one of the at least 17 people extrajudicially murdered by US military strikes on boats off the coast of Venezuela said her slain husband was a fisher, contradicting the Trump administration’s claim that the vessels were trafficking cocaine and other drugs.
The New York Times reported Sunday that the unnamed woman said her husband left one day and never returned to her and their four children. The US has attacked at least two Venezuelan boats this month, prompting allegations of criminality.
The Trump administration has offered no hard evidence – such as drugs or weapons recovered from the targeted boats – to support its assertion that the vessels were smuggling narcotics. While the area where the boats were bombed is a notorious drug-running route, it is also frequented by migrants, human traffickers, and people selling subsidized Venezuelan gasoline in nearby Trinidad and Tobago.
Stephen Miller, President Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff who reportedly once pushed for drone strikes on unarmed migrants, played a key role in directing the strikes on the boats, according to reporting by The Guardian.
The attacks on the boats came amid the US deployment of numerous US warships and thousands of sailors and Marines off the coast of Venezuela, a country Trump has repeatedly threatened with regime change in the face of defiant anti-imperialist resistance from Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The US has a more than century-long history of meddling in the affairs of Venezuela, one of the world’s leading oil producers. [MORE]
Like All Criminals and Cops, Cloutlaw Trump Engages in Obviously Unlawful Conduct Until a Court Stops Him [which usually takes a while]: Oregon Sues to Stop his Illegal Portland Troop Deployment
/From [HERE] Oregon and the City of Portland sued President Donald Trump Sunday to stop his order sending federal troops into the city, calling the move “patently unlawful” and a violation of the U.S. Constitution.
The plaintiffs argue that Trump’s order rests on false claims and illegally commandeers state forces for federal law enforcement.
“Defendants’ deployment of troops to Oregon is patently unlawful,” the complaint reads. “Defendants’ purpose in federalizing those troops — to integrate them into federal law enforcement activities in Portland — also violates the Posse Comitatus Act.”
They warn that Trump is trampling state sovereignty to punish a Democrat-led city he has long targeted.
“Defendants’ actions violate the Tenth Amendment’s guarantee that the police power — including the authority to promote safety at protests and deter violent crime — resides with the states, not the federal government,” the complaint adds. “By singling out a particular disfavored jurisdiction for political retribution, these actions also eviscerate the constitutional principle that the states’ sovereignty should be treated equally.”
The lawsuit landed just as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a memo confirming that 200 members of the Oregon National Guard have been “called into Federal service effective immediately for a period of 60 days.”
The order directs that guard members operate under U.S. Northern Command, underscoring the seriousness of Trump’s push to put state forces under federal control in Portland despite state leaders’ objections.
Oregon and Portland are asking a federal court to immediately block the order and bar Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth from deploying National Guard members in Oregon. [MORE]
Liberal 2nd Circuit Ct Upholds NY's Obviously Unconstitutional Law that Prevents Citizens From Carrying Guns for Self Defense on Public Transportation and Bans Guns Merely b/c a Place is Crowded
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NY’s new law violates the 2nd Amendment because there is no longstanding historical tradition of regulating peaceable public carry on public transportation, in churches, all government buildings and schools regardless of their nature as required by the new Supreme Court holding. Also, the ban on guns is unconstitutional because the Court explained that merely because a place is crowded does not make it a “sensitive place” worthy of stripping people the right to defend themselves with a handgun.
The Court explained, “When the Second Amendment’s plain text covers an individual’s conduct, the Constitution presumptively protects that conduct. The government must then justify its regulation by demonstrating that it is consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. Only then may a court conclude that the individual’s conduct falls outside the Second Amendment’s “unqualified command.”
The sensitive places doctrine is an exception to the general right to the peaceable possession and carry of arms. The Court is guided by the history around the time of the creation of the 2nd Amendment to determine whether a gun is valid because the right to carry arms is considered to be a “pre-existing right.” Said history according to the Court and legal scholars is that carrying “common weapons” was an offense only when done in a manner “apt to terrify” people. [MORE] The Court ruled that there must be a “longstanding” history of “laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings.” [MORE]
A three-judge panel for the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has upheld the “sensitive area” provision of New York State’s Concealed Carry Improvement Act (CCIA).
The CCIA bans the carrying of firearms in Times Square and on public transportation. Shortly after New York State lost at the Supreme Court in New York Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, the state legislature held an emergency session to pass a response to the historic defeat. Because of Bruen, the Empire State’s “may issue” concealed firearms carry scheme was struck down as unconstitutional. SCOTUS stated that a gun law must be consistent with the text, tradition, and history of the Second Amendment from the founding era. All states had to become “must issue.” The court stated that certain areas could be designated as “sensitive,” such as court and government buildings, but the designation must be used sparingly. It cannot be applied simply because a large number of people gather in a location.
The CCIA did just that and banned firearms in Times Square because of the large number of people gathered there. Many other places were included in the law as “sensitive.” Various lawsuits have emerged, suing New York State over what some have called “thumbing their nose” at the Supreme Court due to the Bruen decision. One of the cases was Frey v. Cheng. The case challenged the CCIA provision that banned the carrying of guns in Times Square and the Subways. [MORE]
Florida Authorities Murdered Victor Jones on 10/1. Despite the Supreme Court Prohibition Against Executing Intellectually Disabled People, He Had to Go b/c He Killed 2 White Folks
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From [HERE] Tonight, We The People of the State of Florida killed Victor Tony Jones, a man who just nine months ago the State recognized as a victim of abuse at the state-run Okeechobee School for Boys. We killed an intellectually disabled Black man with an IQ of under 75, whose execution should have been barred by law.
In January 2025, the Florida Attorney General’s Office sent a letter to Victor, formally recognizing him as a survivor of crimes committed by state officials, making him eligible for the long-overdue compensation. In July of 2025, the State deposited this money into his prison account. These reparations and this apology were mere window dressing, as Governor DeSantis signed his death warrant 53 days later.
Suddenly, once the execution was set, the Attorney General reversed course, refusing to turn over public records relating to Victor’s abuse, at first falsely claiming no records existed. Then, the Attorney General argued that the letter “doesn’t mean he was abused” and remarkably denied that they compensated him. This is unquestionably false, and the State’s formal recognition of the abuse and his classification as a victim would have made a difference to Victor’s jury.
The reason it would have mattered? For decades, the courts dismissed Victor’s testimony of abuse as “not credible.” Prosecutors mocked him at trial, telling jurors he deserved death because he had squandered the “opportunities” Florida gave him when they sent him to a state-run “reform” school. After decades of denying any harm done at these “reform” schools, Florida finally acknowledged one of the most shameful chapters in its history — that it brutalized its young charges and caused them permanent and irreparable harm. This execution exposes the hollowness of Florida’s apology to these victims and deepens its legacy of cruelty and hypocrisy.
We recognize that the 1990 murders of Matilda “Dolly” Nestor and Jacob “Jack” Nestor were horrific and have caused lasting, profound pain for their loved ones. But executing a man whose life was shaped by the lasting effects of state-sanctioned abuse and trauma only compounds cycles of violence while denying the whole truth of Florida’s responsibility. [MORE]
Maurice Hastings Gets Record $25 Million in Wrongful Conviction Settlement. Black Man Spent 38 yrs in Prison After White Cops and Prosecutors Framed him for Rape and Murder of a White Woman
/Maurice Hastings, a Southern California man who spent 38 years in prison based on a wrongful conviction, reached a $25 million settlement in the civil lawsuit he brought against the city of Inglewood two years ago.
The settlement is the largest ever in California for a wrongful conviction, Neufeld Scheck Brustin Hoffmann & Freudenberger, the civil rights law firm that represents Hastings, announced Tuesday.
“This historic settlement is a powerful vindication for Mr. Hastings, who has shown remarkable fortitude first in fighting to prove his innocence, and then in showing that he was framed,” Nick Brustin, one of the lawyers, said in the statement. “Police departments throughout California and across the country should take notice that there is a steep price to pay for allowing such egregious misconduct on their watch.”
Hastings was tried twice for the 1983 murder of Roberta Wydermyer, the first trial ended with the jury deadlocked, he was convicted after a second trial in 1988. There was no physical evidence to link Hastings to the crime and numerous witnesses gave him an alibi, as well as him maintaining his innocence. Wydermyer had been sexually assaulted and murdered by a gunshot to the head. She was found in the trunk of her car in Inglewood, Los Angeles. Hastings was given a life sentence without the possibility of parole
Hastings had his conviction vacated in 2022. He spent 38 years behind bars after police had framed him for the rape and murder of a woman during a 1983 carjacking.
One of the Inglewood police officers fixated on Hastings and pinned the crimes on him — despite no physical or forensic evidence tying him to the crimes and rapidly mounting evidence of his innocence, Hastings’ attorneys said. This police officer coerced eyewitnesses to identify Hastings, suppressed exonerating alibi evidence, and falsified witness statements. He also admitted he buried critical evidence that would have supported Hastings’ innocence.
Hastings, 72, said in a federal complaint filed in Los Angeles that Inglewood police arrested the true perpetrator, who matched the description witnesses had provided and who had what was likely the murder weapon, as well as some of the victim’s jewelry in his possession, for a series of car thefts. Yet, they didn’t investigate this suspect in connection with the carjacking.
Instead, Hastings said, the detectives somehow made the witnesses change their mind after they hadn’t recognized his photo initially — he’s 6 feet, 5 inches tall and has a prominent gold front tooth, while the murderer was described as 6-foot-1-inch tall with notable white teeth — and hid exculpatory physical evidence from the victim’s autopsy.
Hastings today lives a quiet life in Southern California, where he is active in his church and volunteers distributing meals to people experiencing homelessness, his attorneys said.
“No amount of money could ever restore the 38 years of my life that were stolen from me,” Hastings said in the statement. “But this settlement is a welcome end to a very long road, and I look forward to moving on with my life. I thank God that I’ve made it to the other side of this decades-long ordeal, and I thank my family and legal team for their steadfast support over the years.” [MORE]
Federal Judge Rules Trump Administration’s Push To Deport Critics of Israel Is Unconstitutional. Non-Citizens Also Have Freedom of Speech
/A federal judge in Boston ruled on Tuesday that the Trump administration violated the Constitution with its effort to deport critics of Israel, and affirmed that non-citizens in the US legally have the same right to free speech as Americans.
“This case — perhaps the most important ever to fall within the jurisdiction of this district court — squarely presents the issue whether non-citizens lawfully present here in the United States actually have the same free speech rights as the rest of us. The Court answers this Constitutional question unequivocally ‘yes, they do,” said District Judge William Young, who was nominated by President Reagan.
The ruling was the result of a lawsuit brought by several university associations that alleged the arrest of college students and faculty who participated in pro-Palestine protests violated the First Amendment and had a chilling effect on speech.
“In his 161-page opinion, the judge analyzed the Trump administration’s allegations against several non-citizens, including Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk, and rightly recognized that they were targeted purely for their political views and speech,” Jenin Younis, a civil liberties attorney and legal director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, told Antiwar.com.
“He rejected the argument that non-citizens lack First Amendment protections, correctly observing that it serves as a restraint on government, without respect to the immigration status of the speaker,” Younes added.
In his ruling, Young said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and their subordinates “acted in concert to misuse the sweeping powers of their respective offices to target non-citizen pro-Palestinians for deportation primarily on account of their First Amendment-protected political speech.”
Young said Rubio and Noem carried out this policy “in order to strike fear into similarly situated non-citizen pro-Palestinian individuals, pro-actively (and effectively) curbing lawful pro-Palestinian speech and intentionally denying such individuals (including the plaintiffs here) the freedom of speech that is their right.”
The judge added that the effect of the campaign against pro-Palestinian non-citizens “continues unconstitutionally to chill freedom of speech to this day.” [MORE]
The FreeDumb and Piece President Rejects the Idea of ‘Policing’ Somalia but Continues Dropping Bombs. Trump's War in Somalia Receives Virtually No US Media Coverage Despite Constant US Airstrikes
/From [HERE] President Trump on Tuesday rejected the idea that the US military should “police” African countries like Somalia and Kenya, comments that come as he is overseeing the heaviest US air campaign in Somalia in history.
“We’ve brought back the fundamental principle that defending the homeland is the military’s first and most important priority,” Trump told a group of hundreds and generals at the US Marines Corps Base in Quantico, Virginia, who were assembled by US War Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“Only in recent decades did politicians somehow come to believe that our job is to police the far-reaches of Kenya and Somalia, while America is under invasion,” the president added.
Also on Wednesday, US Africa Command announced it launched an airstrike in Somalia’s northeastern Puntland region that it said targeted the local ISIS affiliate. The bombing brings the total number of US airstrikes in Somalia so far this year to 80, as the administration has shattered the record for annual airstrikes in the country, which Trump set at 63 during his first term in 2019.
For context, President Biden launched a total of 51 strikes in Somalia throughout his entire four-year term, according to numbers from New America, an organization that tracks the US air war. President Obama launched 48 strikes in Somalia throughout his eight years in office, and George W. Bush launched 12. During his first term, Trump launched 219 strikes in the country.
The US war in Somalia receives virtually no media coverage in the US despite the constant US airstrikes. AFRICOM has been bombing both the ISIS affiliate in Puntland, where it backs local forces, and al-Shabaab in central and southern Somalia.
DOJ Sues LA County Sheriff’s Department for Purposefully Delaying Concealed Carry Permit Applications
/The Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed suit Tuesday against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, alleging violations of citizens’ Second Amendment rights and becoming the first suit filed by the DOJ in support of gun owners.
On March 27, the DOJ began a Second Amendment investigation after receiving numerous complaints of unreasonable delays in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department related to concealed carry weapon (CCW) permit applications. The investigation, conducted jointly by the Civil Rights Division and Assistant US Attorneys from the Central District of California, reviewed nearly 8,000 CCW permit applications before filing suit.
According to the complaint, some applications have been pending for more than two years. Only two permits were issued between January 2024 and March 2025.
Currently, 2,768 applications for new licenses are still pending, with interviews scheduled as late as November 2026. The DOJ cited 2022 Supreme Court case New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, arguing the court made clear that “the Second and Fourteenth Amendments protect an individual’s right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home.”
Acting US Attorney Bill Essayli for the Central District of California addressed the suit, stating “the right to bear arms is among the founding principles of our nation. It can and must be upheld.” The LA County Sheriff’s Department has not issued a statement on the matter. [MORE]
A New Study Reveals the Sugar Industry has Manipulated Fluoride Science Since the 1930s — Exaggerating Benefits, Concealing Risks and Steering Attention Away From Sugar’s Role In Tooth Decay
/The sugar industry has manipulated scientific research on fluoride since the 1930s — exaggerating its benefits, suppressing concerns about serious side effects and shifting attention away from sugar’s role in tooth decay, according to a study published Monday in the journal Environmental Health.
Internal sugar industry and dental organization documents, analyzed by the study’s author Christopher Neurath, detail how the sugar industry helped shape the public health policies that, for decades, touted fluoride as a “magic bullet” against tooth decay.
The documents also show how the tobacco and chemical industries later adopted those tactics.
Neurath, research director for the American Environmental Health Studies Project, told The Defender that his research builds on work by Dr. Cristin Kearns. Kearns revealed how the sugar industry paid scientists to downplay links between sugar and heart disease and promote saturated fat as a risk factor.
The sugar industry — and the industrial food industry as a whole — “have played a huge role in manipulating not just the science, but the policy,” Neurath said of his findings. “I think this helps to show they are likely culprit No. 1 in the chronic disease epidemic.”
Controversy over water fluoridation exploded after plaintiffs won a landmark lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in September 2024. The ruling — now on appeal — compels the agency to set new rules for regulating fluoride in water because fluoride poses an “unreasonable risk” to children’s neurodevelopment.
Since then, numerous communities — and two states — have decided to stop fluoridating their water. [MORE]
Trump Administration Sued Over Massive ‘Interagency Database’ of Americans’ Private Information
/Advocacy groups are suing to block the Trump administration’s creation of vast, centralized databases of Americans’ personal information for purging voter rolls and launching criminal investigations.
The groups filed a federal class-action lawsuit Tuesday in Washington D.C. against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Social Security Administration (SSA), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the heads of those agencies in their official capacity, alleging violations of federal privacy and regulatory procedure laws.
“The federal government’s secretive and unlawful collection and consolidation of Americans’ personal data is a clear example of the constitutional crisis we are living through,” Celina Stewart, CEO of the League of Women Voters (LWV), one of the plaintiffs, said in a press release announcing the lawsuit. “Our federal government is abusing its power to access American’s personal information, and several states are using that private data to harm voters and our individual right to privacy.”
The other plaintiffs are LWV’s Virginia and Louisiana chapters, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), and five individual Americans.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March directing DHS to expand the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’s Systemic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program for use in checking the citizenship of registered voters, incorporate Social Security data, and make it free for state election officials to use. Since then, DOJ has taken voter registration roll data it has collected from some state election officials and shared it with DHS for use with SAVE. [MORE]
Georgia Supreme Court backs landowners' fight to protect historic Gullah-Geechee Community
/Georgia’s highest court on Tuesday sided with Black landowners in a fight over zoning changes that weakened long-standing protections for one of the South’s last Gullah-Geechee communities founded by freed slaves.
The state Supreme Court unanimously reversed a lower court ruling that had stopped a referendum to consider repealing a revised zoning ordinance passed by McIntosh County officials two years ago. Residents of Sapelo Island opposed the zoning amendments that doubled the size of homes allowed in a tiny enclave called Hogg Hummock.
Homeowners feared the change would result in one of the nation’s most historically and culturally unique Black communities facing unaffordable tax increases. Residents and their supporters last year submitted a petition with more than 2,300 signatures from registered voters seeking a referendum in the coastal county, which lies 60 miles (96 kilometers) south of Savannah. [MORE]
79 yr Old Non-White Citizen Files $50 Million Claim Against DHS and ICE Race Soldiers after they Slammed Him to the Ground Causing Brain Injury During LA Raid of His Car Wash Shop
/From [HERE] Rafie Ollah Shouhed, a 79-year-old U.S. citizen, has filed a $50 million federal tort claim against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), alleging he was severely injured by agents using “excessive force” during a raid at his Los Angeles car wash.
Shouhed claims he was thrown to the ground, resulting in multiple broken ribs, contusions, and symptoms of a traumatic brain injury. The incident took place on September 9 while ICE agents were attempting to arrest five individuals from Guatemala and Mexico.
According to Shouhed’s claim, he approached the masked agents asking, “What can I do for you? Can I help you?” before he was allegedly slammed to the ground by three agents and briefly taken into custody. He was eventually released without being charged.
DHS released a statement saying Shouhed was initially arrested for “impeding” a federal officer during the operation.
“This was an outrageous and unlawful assault on a 79-year-old American citizen in his own place of business,” said V. James DeSimone, Shouhed’s attorney. He further claimed agents “body slammed Mr. Shouhed, pinned him to the ground with a knee on his neck, ignored his pleas for medical care, and left him broken and in pain for hours.”
DHS has six months to review the claim and either settle or deny it before a federal lawsuit can be formally filed.
This action comes as tensions between California state officials and federal agencies continue to escalate over immigration enforcement tactics. California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) recently signed a bill banning law enforcement officers from covering their faces, a measure he supported after stating masked ICE agents have been “terrorizing local communities.”
The Trump administration and DHS have already indicated they will not comply with the new state law.
