Politics Current Events March 13-18

Immigration agents arrested a U.S. citizen and created warrants after an arrest, lawyers say in court​

Chicago attorneys were in federal court Thursday accusing federal agents of violating immigration law and the constitutional rights of at least 22 people since January.​



“… Attorneys say these actions violate the Nava Settlement — a 2018 class-action lawsuit filed in response to unlawful arrests by ICE agents who used traffic stops and other tactics to make arrests without a warrant. Under the agreement, ICE officials can conduct a warrantless arrest if they believe an individual is likely to escape but they must provide evidence. But in the motion filed Thursday in federal court in Chicago, attorneys said federal agents since January “failed to assess whether there was probable cause that an individual was likely to flee before a warrant could be issued.”

… The 22 cases include Chicago resident Julio Noriega, 54, a U.S. citizen who, according to court documents, was arrested, handcuffed and spent most of the night at an ICE processing center in suburban Broadview. He was never questioned about his citizenship and was only released after agents looked at his ID.

“I was born in Chicago, Illinois and am a United States citizen,” Noriega said in his statement, adding that on Jan. 31, after buying pizza in Berwyn he was surrounded by ICE agents and arrested. Officers took away his wallet, which had his ID and social security card. “They then handcuffed me and pushed me into a white van where other people were handcuffed as well.”

In another case Abel Orozco-Ortega was detained outside his home in suburban Lyons without a warrant, just as he was arriving home from buying tamales. Federal agents were looking for one of his sons, who is about 20 years younger. But arrested Orozco-Ortega instead.

In his statement, Orozco-Ortega, 47, said an agent who identified as a police officer approached his car and asked to see a driver’s license. Orozco-Ortega was arrested shortly after showing a “Temporary Visitor’s” driver’s license, which used to be given to non-citizens in Illinois.

Instead of releasing him, federal agents allegedly kept him in the back of the vehicle, and purportedly created an administrative warrant while Orozco-Ortega was handcuffed, said Fleming, the National Immigrant Justice Center attorney. Orozco-Ortega has been detained at the Clay County Jail in Indiana for about a month.

“[Federal agents] have seemingly developed a pattern or practice of trying to evade the [Nava] settlement by arresting people with … quote, unquote, administrative warrants that they are creating in the field, as they’ve already had the person detained,” Fleming said. …”
 

ICE has ‘disappeared’ 48 New Mexico residents, attorneys say​



“In the first week of March, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says it arrested four dozen New Mexico residents as part of immigration raids in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Roswell.

Now those people are unaccounted for, according to an American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico civil rights complaint filed Sunday, which alleges all 48 “have been forcibly disappeared.”

“What we know is people in our community are gone, workers are gone, family members are gone, our neighbors are gone,” said Marcela Diaz, founding executive director of Somos un Pueblo Unido.

According to ICE’s own announcement, it arrested most of those people not for criminal convictions, but for violations of civil immigration law, such as illegal entry or re-entry after deportation. …”

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🤔 Maybe Trump and MAGA have overstated how many illegal immigrant criminals there are wandering free in the United States — they seem to be having a hard time finding them, for some reason, so are going after whoever they can get their hands on.
 

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Decision, likely tied to severing of grants at Columbia University, appears at odds with Trump officials’ priorities “​


“… The NIDDK-sponsored Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) and ongoing DPP Outcomes Study (DPPOS) are major studies that changed the way people approach type 2 diabetes prevention worldwide. The DPP showed that people who are at high risk for type 2 diabetes can prevent or delay the disease by losing a modest amount of weight through lifestyle changes (dietary changes and increased physical activity). Taking metformin, a safe and effective generic medicine to treat diabetes, was also found to prevent the disease, though to a lesser degree.

The DPPOS has continued to follow most DPP participants since 2002 …”
 

ICE has ‘disappeared’ 48 New Mexico residents, attorneys say​



“In the first week of March, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says it arrested four dozen New Mexico residents as part of immigration raids in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Roswell.

Now those people are unaccounted for, according to an American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico civil rights complaint filed Sunday, which alleges all 48 “have been forcibly disappeared.”

“What we know is people in our community are gone, workers are gone, family members are gone, our neighbors are gone,” said Marcela Diaz, founding executive director of Somos un Pueblo Unido.

According to ICE’s own announcement, it arrested most of those people not for criminal convictions, but for violations of civil immigration law, such as illegal entry or re-entry after deportation. …”

——
🤔 Maybe Trump and MAGA have overstated how many illegal immigrant criminals there are wandering free in the United States — they seem to be having a hard time finding them, for some reason, so are going after whoever they can get their hands on.
I almost “liked” this post; but, there’s nothing in it to like.
 

“… Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the E.P.A., has said he wants to eliminate 65 percent of the agency’s budget. That would be a drastic reduction — one that experts said could hamper clean water and wastewater improvements, air quality monitoring, the cleanup of toxic industrial sites, and other parts of the agency’s mission.


The E.P.A.’s plan, which was presented to White House officials on Friday for review, calls for dissolving the agency’s largest department, the Office of Research and Development, and purging up to 75 percent of the people who work there.

The remaining staff members would be placed elsewhere within the E.P.A. “to provide increased oversight and align with administration priorities,” according to the language shared with The New York Times by staff members who work for Democrats on the House science committee.

… The E.P.A.’s science office provides the independent research that undergirds virtually all of the agency’s environmental policies, from analyzing the risks of “forever chemicals” in drinking water to determining the best way to reduce fine particle pollution in the atmosphere.

It has researched synthetic playground material made from discarded tires; found that hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, can contaminate drinking water; and measured the impact of wildfire smoke on public health. The office also helps state environmental agencies figure out how to address algae blooms, treat drinking water and more. …”
 
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