All posts tagged "immigration"

Hero who fought for US dies in 'highly unusual' circumstances hours after ICE arrest

A non-profit organization is calling for an investigation into the events leading to the death of an asylum seeker who fought with U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Mohommad Nazeer Paktyawal, 41, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in front of his family and taken into custody in Dallas, Texas. The father-of-six had been preparing for the school run with his children when he was detained by officers.

Just 24 hours later, the family was told Paktyawal, who had served as an Afghan special forces soldier for more than a decade and fought side-by-side with the US Army Special Forces, had died.

A statement issued by the non-profit organization, AfghanEvac, has called for an investigation into the death, as they say the healthy 41-year-old should not have fallen ill and died so suddenly. Their statement read, "The cause of death is unknown. But one fact is clear: it is not normal for a healthy 41-year-old man to die within a day of being taken into government custody.

"Mr. Paktyawal survived our war in Afghanistan and trusted the United States enough to rebuild his life here. His family deserves answers. The American public deserves answers. The U.S. servicemembers who fought alongside Afghan partners deserve answers.

"AfghanEvac is calling for an immediate and transparent investigation into the circumstances of his detention, medical care, and death, including oversight by the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General and Congress.

"The United States made a promise to the Afghans who stood with us. Honoring that promise requires transparency, accountability, and dignity in how they are treated here at home."

Further information issued by AfghanEvac confirms the veteran was admitted to Parkland Hospital in Dallas at around 11:45pm on March 13. The family was informed he was still alive at 8 a.m. the following day, but was then told of Nazeer's death on March 14 at 12 p.m.

"It is highly unusual for an otherwise healthy 41-year-old man to die less than 24 hours after being taken into government custody," AfghanEvac noted. "His family deserves answers."

A statement from the family stated, "Since arriving in America, Nazeer focused on providing for his family. He worked, supported his children, and tried to build a peaceful life after everything our family had been through. The morning he was taken away, he was getting ready to drive his children to school.

"His children watched as he was surrounded and taken away. That moment will stay with them forever. Later that night we were told he had been taken to the hospital. The next morning we were told that he had died. We still cannot understand how this happened. He was only 41 years old and was a strong and healthy man. His children keep asking when their father will come home."

Trump accused of 'grave human rights violations' by UN panel calling for investigation

A United Nations committee has accused Donald Trump of violating the human rights of immigrants living in the United States.

A statement from the UN's Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination suggested the US should investigate the president and several high-profile politicians, as their language in public could incite hate crimes. The UN Watchdog also noted that Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity could further incite racial hatred across the US. A report released by the intergovernmental organization confirmed further action should be taken by the US government.

It reads, "The Committee was deeply disturbed by the growing use of derogatory and dehumanizing language, and the dissemination of negative and harmful stereotypes targeting migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.

"It underscored that the systematic use of racial profiling and arbitrary identity checks by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) against people of Hispanic/Latino, African or Asian origin has resulted in widespread arrests of refugees, asylum seekers, migrants, and people perceived as such.

"The Committee also raised alarm that the lives and physical integrity of the above vulnerable groups are jeopardized by the excessive use of force and violence by enforcement officers during immigration operations.

"It cited that at least eight people have died since January 2026 during ICE operations or while in ICE custody, including protesters exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association and detained refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants."

A spokesperson for the committee also noted the rhetoric from the government, including from Trump, has affected migrants and asylum seekers negatively.

“Portraying them as criminals or as a burden, by politicians and influential public figures at the highest level, particularly the President,” the Committee said, “may incite racial discrimination and hate crimes.

"Racist hate speech by political leaders, including the President, combined with intensified immigration crackdowns in the United States, notably near schools, hospitals and faith-based institutions, has sparked grave human rights violations."

The panel also suggested an internal review from the Trump administration. They wrote, "The Committee urged the US to conduct a human rights-based review of its legislative measures adopted since January 2025, including by suspending immigration enforcement operations, such as identity checks and arrests, in and around schools, hospitals, and faith-based institutions."

White House spokesperson Olivia Wales told Axios the UN's findings were filtered by an "extreme bias" that "continues to prove why no one takes them seriously."

"President Trump is delivering on his promise to make our country safe again: the murder rate has plummeted to a 125-year low, with last year marking the biggest one-year drop in recorded history, crime categories are dropping across the board, and we have the most secure border in history."

Cricket the dog gets last laugh as cruel Trump aide finally gets the boot

Let’s not pretend this was a surprise. Kristi Noem finally got fired, and if there is a God, somewhere out there Cricket the dog is happily wagging her tail.

Because killing Cricket the dog is the act for which this pathetic excuse for a human being will primarily be known to history. Not a stateswoman. Not a security expert. Not an intelligence expert. Not even intelligent. Not even a competent bureaucrat, in an administration full of incompetents.

Noem is, and will always and forever be, the woman who shot her own dog then bragged about it in a book, genuinely seeming to think it would make people think her fit for office.

That tells you everything you need to know about Noem’s judgment, her empathy, and the yawning void where her soul should be. She is an empty shell of a human being, lacquered in phoniness.

Her tenure as Homeland Security Secretary was a daily soap opera about an aged beauty pageant contestant craving a return to the limelight, wailing across all manner of media, social and otherwise, “Look at me, look at me, look at me,” all while inflicting relentless, performative cruelties on citizens and immigrants alike.

Her time as a cabinet secretary was a constantly staged show with a single cast member, filmed for TV, Instagram, TikTok and all paid for by you and me, the great American taxpayers.

Cricket the dog just bit birds Noem didn’t want her to bite. This week, Noem’s own actions came back to bite her, when it was disclosed that an “advertising” company that got almost a quarter-million-dollar federal windfall for a campaign to promote Noem was shadier than her eyelids.

The campaign for the made-up cowgirl was shot at Mount Rushmore. At least Noem’s stone-cold face fit the venue.

She became a running joke. Even when Trump finally dumped her, he gave her an outlandish title: Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas. WTF?

Good luck to … The Shield of the Americas. Whatever that is. Noem wouldn’t know a policy if it hit her in the face — because it would just bounce off anyway.

While migrant children sat in DHS internment camps that would embarrass a third-world dictatorship — filthy, overcrowded, unfit for humans — Noem’s heavily made-up visage was being plastered across a multi-million dollar ad campaign she personally championed.

That pancake-shellacked face, immortalized so devastatingly by South Park, interrupted America’s evening TV like an ICE agent kicking in the door. The irony that she expended more energy on marketing herself than protecting anyone was apparently lost on her. It was not lost on us.

Then came this week’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, perhaps the most satisfying slice of political TV since, well, Trump tripped up the stairs to Air Force One.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-SC), a Republican, took Noem to pieces. All of us who loathed her were cheering him on.

Tillis was smart. He highlighted that which will haunt Noem forever: what she did to Cricket. Tillis scolded Noem, criticizing her for killing a 14-month-old hunting dog: "You decided to kill that dog because you had not invested the appropriate time in training and then you have the audacity to go into a book and say it's a leadership lesson about choices."

My dogs, Freddy and Cooper, are better leaders than Noem could ever hope to be.

Under Noem, ICE agents prowled neighborhoods like an occupying force, targeting people of color in a campaign directed by a white-nationalist alien, Stephen Miller. He was Noem’s real boss, feeding her talking points like a handler feeding a snake.

She oversaw the shooting deaths of two people in Minneapolis, American citizens she viciously and falsely branded as terrorists. She refused to apologize to the families.

She was tone deaf to a fault. Visiting a maximum security prison in El Salvador, she wore a $50,000 Rolex, creating what may be the single most heinous image of an out-of-touch administration, overflowing with golden excess.

And then there was the alleged affair with Corey Lewandowski. The old Trump attack dog — the only sort of dog Noem likes, or at least one she hasn’t dragged to the gravel pit yet — was kicked out on Thursday too.

During the Senate hearing, Noem’s husband sat behind her as senators asked point-blank whether she was sleeping with her aide and adviser.

She couldn’t say no. She wouldn’t say no. How could she say no? All while her husband sat behind her, sucking in the fumes from 10 pounds of hairspray hardened hair.

Noem entered office with nothing but blow-dried ambition. She had no intelligence background. No security experience. Nothing that qualified her to run a department tasked with keeping 330 million Americans safe.

She has already written one book about killing things. Chances are, now she’s been kicked out of Trumpland, she’ll write another, about her time in government. Allow me to suggest a title: The Banality of Evil. It’s that or Lassie Go Home.

The old cliché says that when you’ve done your job, and it’s time to move on, you walk off into the sunset. Not Noem. She’s taking the down escalator — the express — to a fire-drenched hell, where she won’t need her special blanket.

And Cricket, looking down from doggie heaven, is having the last laugh.

John Casey was most recently Senior Editor, The Advocate, and is a freelance opinion and feature story writer. Previously, he was a Capitol Hill press secretary, and spent 25 years in media and public relations in NYC. He is the co-author of LOVE: The Heroic Stories of Marriage Equality (Rizzoli, 2025), named by Oprah in her "Best 25 of 2025.”

Lawmaker says one Trump secretary's days are numbered: 'She does not have a long career'

A Democratic lawmaker Wednesday said that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was not likely to keep her job in the Trump administration.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) told MS NOW anchor Chris Jansing that concerns over Noem's leadership have put her in a tough position among lawmakers. Noem has been testifying before congressional leaders this week in Washington, D.C., where she has faced multiple calls to resign and heated confrontations with several leaders, including longtime Republicans, who expressed their frustration and disappointment with her leadership.

Lawmakers have been critical of Noem's response to disasters and accused her of suppressing FEMA disaster relief funding. They have also called for justice following the death of two American citizens in Minneapolis at the hands of federal law enforcement officers, citing aggressive tactics and unlawful activities under her leadership.

"I think the most important thing, Chris, is that DHS is led by somebody with zero accountability, that ICE and CBP are running wild, killing U.S. citizens, detaining U.S. citizens," Jayapal said. "That's what my question line was about. And locking up people who have committed absolutely no crime — 75% of people that have been detained and are being incarcerated in for-profit jails across the country have committed no crime. And Kristi Noem is a test of failed leadership. That's what I said. That's what I believe. And actually, I think that she does not have a long career here. Her corruption at the agency, combined with the lawlessness of these ICE and CBP agents on display for everyone to see, is going to bring her down."

This is the first time Noem has testified under oath with lawmakers since the deaths of two Minneapolis citizens.

"I think it's been over the last month and a half or so as people have watched the courageous people of Minnesota and really seeing Noem, you know, come out, call Renee Good and Alex Pretti domestic terrorists, refused to conduct investigations until we demanded it, and the people of Minnesota demanded it," Jayapal added. "And I think that trajectory has been very bad. I mean, look, she's done something quite remarkable, which is she has turned 50% of the country against ICE. There was a brand new poll out saying that 50% of people across this country believe that ICE should no longer exist. And I think that's, you know, that's sort of a stunning place to be."

People in the U.S. feel misled by the Trump administration, Jayapal explained.

"But I think what Americans are seeing is that... they thought that this was an administration that was going to go after the worst of the worst, and they happened to know and see the people that are being picked up in their neighborhoods, in their cities," Jayapal added. "They see the militarization of the streets by the federal government. They see children being detained and held in camps and separated from their families, and they don't like it. And so, once again, people are being reminded that we are a nation of immigrants. We do value the immigrants that are in our country. We want a fix to the broken immigration system. Legislatively, we do not want the government to go after all of these people on civil immigration offenses, and we certainly don't want our government militarizing our streets, killing U.S. citizens, and detaining U.S. citizens."

Right-wing activists desperately trying to tranquilize their own terrifying Frankenstein

Rep. Pete Stauber (R-MN) invited Nick Shirley — the right-wing YouTube star who claims to have found widespread fraud in Minnesota’s safety net programs — to the State of the Union last week.

Unfortunately, finding fraud in our safety net programs is like finding a drunk in Dinkytown on a Friday night, but let’s set that aside for today.

One of Shirley’s fellow YouTubers, Tyler Oliveira, released a video last week in which he claimed, “I exposed New Jersey’s Jewish invasion.”

Here was Shirley’s response, the same week he was Stauber’s guest inside the citadel of American democracy: “EXPOSE IT ALL.”

Shirley’s cheer for an antisemite is a symptom of the ongoing crackup of the American right over its longstanding conspiracist problem.

Christopher Rufo’s shoddily reported piece about fraud in Minnesota safety net programs in the right-wing City Journal kicked off much of the mess we’ve been living through the past few months.

Even he must be worried about the right’s crashout, however, because he’s talking about it publicly.

“The Right’s collective brain is getting melted in a vat of slop, conspiracy and algorithm-chasing.”

He’s since added details: “I’ve had multiple people approach me at events with conspiracy theories about Charlie Kirk. The most deranged Epstein conspiracy theories are now mainstream. And multiple people in my personal network have had siblings or children go down the antisemitism rabbit holes.”

Which is funny coming from someone who pushed a preposterous story about Haitian refugees in Springfield, Ohio, eating cats, with the intention of whipping up a pogrom on people whose crime was coming here to work and seek a better life for their families.

(Lest we forget: Vice PresidentJD Vance rationalized the cat hoax: “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do,” he told CNN.)

Rufo is now desperately trying to shoot a tranquilizer dart into the Frankenstein the right created and nurtured.

The problem with a political philosophy based on racial hierarchies — aside from being morally repugnant — is that they’ll come for you eventually. Or, in this case, for your Jewish allies.

John Ganz, a historian who has tracked the right’s Nazi problem for years, explained the obvious flaw with the right’s “Somalis bad/Jews good” formulation last year:

“That ability to keep the coalition by saying: Be as racist as you want, be as hateful as you want — but against designated enemies who are OK. People ask a rational question: Why are those people off the table?

“And then the answer comes back: Well, because Christianity, or because Israel represents Western civilization — or some kind of rationalization like that. And the antisemites say: That makes no sense to us.”

Sure enough, right on cue, Nick Fuentes, America’s most famous neo-Nazi sympathizer, defended Shirley like he was one of his own:

“The conservative movement is falling out of love with Nick Shirley because he expressed support for Tyler Oliviera, who exposed fraud in the Jewish community. They actually believe that the rules just shouldn’t apply to Jewish people. The double standard couldn’t be clearer.”

The ugly discourse is not new. A trope of American history is some people saying other people aren’t real Americans, and that foreign adversaries are dumping their unassimilable people onto our shores — people who are dirty, corrupt, uneducable, violent and loyal to their countries of origin. Or maybe they are drunks or sexual deviants or believe in strange deities.

The ignorant lies change, but the sentiment stays the same.

For instance, on Bloody Monday in 1855, a mob of the American Party — now known by its more colloquial handle the “Know Nothings” — rampaged through Irish and German neighborhoods in Louisville, Kentucky, killing at least 22.

Irish, Germans, Jews, Italians, Chinese, Japanese, Arabs, Haitians, Indians, Afghans, Latinos and many more.

Charlatans have used “scientific” racism and phony anthropology to claim at one time or another that all of these people can’t be real Americans, and we should expel them or stop their immigration here. It’s a tradition as old as Ben Franklin fearing the “Germanization” of Pennsylvania.

The oppression of Black and Indigenous Americans — outrageous in its own right — is a slightly different issue, but needless to say, the “heritage American” crowd has a long history of dehumanizing them and blocking them from full participation in our democracy, too.

In Stauber’s own district a century ago, “Birth of a Nation” — the propaganda disguised as a film — helped unleash a revival of the Ku Klux Klan, and robust chapters were organized in Grand Rapids, Hibbing and Virginia, as Iron Range historian Aaron Brown recounted a few years ago in the Reformer.

Their primary targets were Catholics and immigrants.

J. Patrick Coolican is Editor-in-Chief of Minnesota Reformer. Previously, he was a Capitol reporter for the Minneapolis Star Tribune for five years, after a Knight-Wallace Fellowship at the University of Michigan and time at the Las Vegas Sun, Seattle Times and a few other stops along the way. He lives in St. Paul with his wife and two young children. Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

Fury as Trump plans to 'import' more white South African refugees: 'Call it what it is'

The internet was in uproar on Thursday after a new Reuters report disclosed that the U.S. has planned to admit 4,500 applications from white South Africans as refugees.

The Trump administration has pushed to limit refugee applications from other countries. But an unreported State Department document from Jan. 27 revealed a new target for specifically white South Africans.

People sounded off on the Trump administration's move, questioning the decision.

"Ripping Latinos from their homes while importing whites. Let’s call this what it is: ethnonationalism," user Mina, who self-described as "an American woman with wide-ranging interests," wrote one user on Bluesky.

"Gotta import new racists as the older ones in America have been dying off," user S.T. Jones wrote on Bluesky.

"The Trump/MAGA vision: Make the US the Hungary of North America, a nation of, for and by white Christian male racists," systems analyst Ric Steinberger wrote on Bluesky.

"[turns over ‘days since I muttered a bigoted remark about white South Africans’ counter back to zero]," Ryan Cooper, senior editor at The American Prospect, wrote on Bluesky.

"We need to shut it down until someone figures out just what the hell is going on," artist Luke Russell joked on Bluesky.

Economist ‪Tony Yates‬ reacted, "US policy =Black refugees bad; white refugees good."

Labor economist Aaron Sojourner wrote on Bluesky, "POTUS loves exactly one kind of import."

Trump admin wants to bring in thousands of white South Africans as refugees: report

A new report revealed Thursday that the U.S. has planned to admit 4,500 applications from white South Africans as refugees, according to Reuters.

The Trump administration has limited its refugee applications from other countries. This new target, according to an unreported U.S. State Department document from Jan. 27, showed a push to increase refugees from South Africa, Reuters reported.

" Trump has said the U.S. would only admit 7,500 total refugees from around the world in fiscal year 2026, while a much higher cap of 40,000 to 60,000 was discussed internally last year," according to Reuters. "Only 2,000 white South Africans had entered the U.S. as refugees as of January 31 under a program launched in May 2025, although the pace has picked up in recent months."

More than 67,000 people had expressed interest in moving to America, the South African Chamber of Commerce in the U.S. said in 2025.

Trump demanded a stop to refugee admissions after he returned to office in 2025, citing his policy on stopping legal and illegal immigration.

"But weeks later, he launched an effort to bring in white South Africans of Afrikaner ethnicity as refugees, saying they had been violently persecuted in the majority-Black country," Reuters reported. "South Africa's government has rejected that claim, while some refugee advocates have criticized the Trump policy."

‘Weakest Speaker’: Mike Johnson derided on Capitol Hill after latest Trump surrender

WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security remains shut down, but you wouldn’t know it from walking around the U.S. Capitol, where the Epstein files and President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address are the talk of elected officials.

The silence as the DHS shutdown drags into its third week is, in part, because House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune have, once again, outsourced their constitutionally-mandated spending powers to President Trump.

“I'm getting quite used to this. Republican leadership isn't really leading,” Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA) told Raw Story.

While negotiations are nonexistent, simmering anger on the left is palpable.

“They don't really have any agency,” Rep. Joaquín Castro (D-TX) told Raw Story ahead of a House vote this week. “They’ve voluntarily given up power.

“Johnson really is probably the weakest Speaker, at least in recent memory. Everything is just about Trump and what Trump wants, on their side.”

‘Basic safeguards’

The DHS shutdown began earlier this month after Senate Democrats defeated the no-strings-attached funding extension Republicans squeaked out of the House.

The shutdown means members of key DHS agencies, including the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), are working without pay.

Earlier this week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said the White House still hasn’t answered a recent offer shipped down Pennsylvania Avenue, with “crickets” in response.

The stand-off is fueled by Democratic fury over recent immigration operations in Minneapolis, prominently featuring violent action by agents of DHS bodies including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol.

Two U.S. citizen protesters — Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, both 37 — were shot and killed in the city last month, fueling anger already stoked by arrest and deportation efforts including shootings of undocumented migrants.

Democrats are demanding reforms including an end to masking by federal agents and the use of judicial search warrants, measures congressional Republicans, the White House and DHS leaders reject.

“We ought to be able to … agree to basic constitutional safeguards like warrants and no masks, identifying themselves,” Castro said. “Those are not unreasonable requests.”

Reasonable or not, the White House remains mum — which has some powerful Republicans pointing fingers.

In a statement, House Appropriations Committee chair Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), accused Democrats of choosing “to make the security of the American people — and the livelihoods of DHS families — contingent on partisan demands.”

Cole added: “It’s time for my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to return to the basic obligation of governing: keep the nation secure and fund the department charged with doing so.”

Castro, a member of the House Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees, told Raw Story: “We don't want to see any part of the federal government shut down.

“At the same time, they got $150 billion extra dollars within the last few years, and Donald Trump has been willing to move money around departments since he got to a second term. And so they have the money they need for all the functions they need.”

Last May, a $150 billion infusion of money for anti-immigration measures cleared the House by a one-vote margin. It has been widely pointed out that the DHS shutdown is not affecting operations by ICE, as it benefits from that budget measure.

‘Tone deaf’

Larsen lamented DHS letting “ICE agents run amok” as “tone deaf” Republicans refuse to bend on any of the safeguards Democrats are demanding.

Larsen also pointed to lingering scandals over the behavior of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, which have led to calls for her to be fired.

“I think that part of the problem is Kristi Noem,” Larsen said. “It’s like she doesn't want to run the agency, except for herself. It's how it looks like and the administration refuses to even consider that.”

Noem’s use of DHS resources for her own comfort and close relationship with adviser Corey Lewandowski have been the subject of bombshell reporting. But President Trump seems inclined to stick by her.

Mocking Trump administration responses to the shutdown, Larsen, a member of the House Transportation Committee, said: “You have Kristi Noem saying things like, ‘Well, we're not going to put out business relief dollars. We're going to suspend TSA PreCheck [for air travelers], without checking with the White House, and the White House saying, ‘Yeah, TSA PreCheck’ [will continue].”

It added up to a clear Democratic expectation of slow to no progress in reopening DHS, and paying its key employees, any time soon — particularly as Speaker Johnson and Senate Leader Thune leave talks to Trump.

“I don't think the White House believes, or DHS believes, they have leverage on Congress,” Larsen said. “They sure don't seem to have leverage. The White House knows our position, and we know their position. And so it's in their court.”

This vile Trump sidekick is a gift for Dems

Kristi Noem is the political gift that keeps on giving for Democrats.

They need her running the Department of Homeland Security a lot worse than Donald Trump does. And she does run it worse than anyone else.

Democrats don’t require new messaging for November. They need cameras. They need live feeds. They need a 24/7 loop of Noem and her comically transparent paramour Corey Lewandowski blowing up whatever fleeting hope Republicans have of holding power in the midterms — short of stealing the election.

The most recent canary to beat it for daylight out of Noem’s coalmine was her chief spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, who took the job Jan. 31, 2025, calling it “the honor of a lifetime.” In announcing her resignation this week, McLaughlin said the departure had been planned last December.

So, to summarize, McLaughlin had meant to say, “this job is the honor of a lifetime or 10 months, whichever comes first.” But one thing we can all agree upon: You only quit a job like this if everything’s going splendidly.

(It should be noted that McLaughlin had a little baggage of her own. She reportedly was the point person for a $220 million DHS ad contract that allegedly funneled money to her husband’s firm, The Strategy Group.)

But what could possibly not be fulfilling about dealing with the media every day to boast about Noem’s latest achievement? The hits just keep on coming.

NBC News broke the bracing story this week that just days after Noem was confirmed last year, a 23-year-old Coast Guardsman fell overboard into the Pacific. Ships and aircraft surged to find him.

When Noem learned that one of the search planes — a C-130 — was also scheduled to transport detained migrants, she ordered it pulled from the search so it wouldn’t miss the deportation run.

Well, of course, she did.

A young American lost at sea. A rescue under way. Immigration logistics taking precedence. The Guardsman was never found.

What spokesman wouldn’t savor explaining that to the world?

This wasn’t an isolated incident. Under Noem’s leadership, more than 750 Coast Guard flights have reportedly been redirected from search and rescue to deportation runs. Guidance at one air station moved transporting detained immigrants to first priority — and demoted search and rescue, the Coast Guard’s core mission since its founding.

On the bright side for McLaughlin and her team, this fine bit of good judgment did momentarily shift attention from Noem’s scintillating performance in Minneapolis. There, she presided over the deployment of ICE agents with the unabashedly cruel intent of terrorizing immigrants, including those here legally from Somalia and other disfavored ports.

In Minneapolis, to the horror of millions of Americans across party lines, Noem sank to new depths even for her.

After ICE agents killed Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, in cold blood, Noem wasted no time in labeling her participation at a peaceful protest “domestic terrorism,” before an investigation began.

After the same fate befell Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, she atrociously lied that Pretti had "arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and kill law enforcement."

The Minneapolis fallout was so severe that it triggered a public vote of no-confidence from Trump. He effectively fired Noem from her own operation, dispatching Border Czar Tom Homan to take personal charge of the Twin Cities crackdown.

No amount of national political advertising by Democrats could help them like this.

Noem was humiliated when she was sidelined in favor of Homan — a career official she reportedly despises and who favors targeted enforcement over her “insane” broad sweeps. By handing Homan the authority to de-escalate the "Metro Surge" and report directly to the White House, Trump didn't just bypass Noem; he signaled that even he finds her brand of chaos too toxic to manage.

Publicly, that is, not behind closed doors.

Understand that Noem is not freelancing. She’s carrying out the inhumane agenda of Trump and his Minister of Evil, Stephen Miller.

Trump is all about the optics. When the optics turn bad, buses have this annoying habit of running over loyal advisers.

It’s impossible from afar to assess motives in Trump’s snake pit of corruption. But there's at least some plausibility to the oft-rumored notion that one of Trump's rare loyalties rests, for the moment, with Lewandowski, the man who ran his first campaign.

Lewandowski is the “special government employee” who appears to specialize in proximity to Noem. Both she and Lewandowski are married to other people and deny all reports of infidelity. But even in our litigious age, this is one bit of gossip that a wide range of mainstream media feel comfortable reporting without hesitation.

According to recent reporting, Trump frequently entertains listeners with a story about seeing the two take sips from the same can of soda. “You can’t do that, it’s pretty obvious!” he reportedly mocks, channeling his own germaphobia into a critique of their political survival skills. “You can’t do that, everyone’s going to know!”

But the loving couple are still running DHS as their fiefdom. The Wall Street Journal has detailed their constant luxury travel together aboard a government-leased 737 MAX and both residing in proximate DHS-leased housing.

So, no one in the Beltway was shocked that Lewandowski reportedly berated Coast Guard flight staff mid-flight and threatened to fire a pilot over a forgotten heated blanket. It was chivalry.

Understand that if Noem was fired tomorrow — as many Democrats clamor for — not a thing would change at DHS. The cruelty and terror of Trump’s mass-deportation campaign wasn’t authored by Noem. It was executed by her.

Just like she famously executed a puppy she hated and bragged about it in a book.

If you’re a Democrat, don’t you want someone like that to run against?

Leave her be.

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Trump's most lethal sidekick is hunting enemies. She can start with me

The New York Times reports that the Department of Homeland Security has sent Google (owner of YouTube), Meta (Facebook and Instagram), and other media corporations subpoenas for the names on accounts that criticize ICE enforcement. The department wants to identify Americans who oppose what it’s doing.

I’ll save them time.

***

Hello? Kristi Noem?

Robert Reich here. I hear you’re trying to find the names of people who are making negative comments on social media about ICE enforcement.

Look no further. I’ve done it frequently. I’m still doing it. This note to you, which I’m posting on Substack, is another example.

If you want more details, just type “Robert Reich” into an internet browser, followed by YouTube or Facebook or Instagram or X or TikTok or Reddit. Or Substack. Then type in your name, or ICE, or the Department of Homeland Security. That will give you plenty of evidence.

If you read what I’ve said, you’ll find it’s very critical. I’ve done some videos that are very critical of you and ICE, too.

Let me not mince words: I really truly believe you’re doing a sh---y job.

I’ve said and will continue to say that many of the things you and ICE are doing are unconstitutional.

For example: Pulling people out of their homes in the middle of the night without search warrants. Arresting people without giving them due process of law to defend themselves. Putting innocent people into detention camps. Not giving them adequate food or medical care. Not letting their families know where they are. Sending them out of the country to brutal prisons in other lands. Even jailing children. Arresting journalists reporting on protests against you. And murdering two innocent Americans and not allowing a full criminal investigation of those murders.

All this is forbidden by the Constitution of the United States, Madam Secretary. The federal courts keep telling you this, but you and your department keep defying the courts. This is unconstitutional, too.

You’re even violating the Constitution by sending administrative subpoenas to Google, Meta, and all the rest, seeking accounts like mine that criticize what you’re doing.

I have a right under the First Amendment to criticize you without fear of the consequences.

It’s my government, Madam Secretary. You see the possessive pronoun I’m using? My government. It’s your government because you’re a citizen of the United States, not because you’re a government official.

You and your boss are supposed to be working for me and every other American. You swore an oath. The people of the United States hired the two of you to do your jobs, which doesn’t including spying on us or jailing us or trying to intimidate us or murdering us.

I was once a Cabinet officer like you are, Madam Secretary. I had a big office like you do. I had a big staff, like you do. Taxpayers paid for all of it, as they do for everything you’re up to — except when Congress stops the funding, as they have now, because you’re doing so many despicable things.

When I was in the Cabinet, Madam Secretary, I was acutely aware of my responsibilities to the Constitution of the United States. I told myself every day that I had sworn an oath to uphold it. I worked very hard every day to fulfill that responsibility.

I’m not boasting or bragging. I merely did my duty.

I visited communities where my department’s inspectors were attempting to keep people safe, to make sure they were doing what they were supposed to be doing.

I did what federal judges told me to do.

I invited criticism of me and my department. That was an important way to get feedback on what we were doing, to learn if we were making mistakes, to improve the way we served the public. Feedback is very useful in a democracy. You might even say it’s essential to democracy.

What the hell are you doing, Madam Secretary?

Robert Reich

Robert Reich is an emeritus professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/. His new memoir, Coming Up Short, can be found wherever you buy books. You can also support local bookstores nationally by ordering the book at bookshop.org