Unaccompanied children detained at the border are first processed by Customs and Border Patrol before being handed over to other US authorities.
Donald Trump’s incoming border tsar, Tom Homan, has said that the US government “can’t find” more than 300,000 migrant children – and that many have been lured into forced labour and sex trafficking.
President-elect Donald Trump and his political allies, including Vice-President-elect JD Vance, have repeatedly made similar claims.
Some experts have accused them of distorting statistics to suggest the children are “lost” and victims of crime, although there is agreement that aspects of the system need to be changed.
The incoming administration has made immigration enforcement a priority, promising to clamp down on the US-Mexico border and conduct mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.
Let’s take a look at the claims of missing migrant children.
What are the Trump team’s claims?
In an interview with Fox News on 26 November – just before a visit to the US-Mexico border in Texas – Homan accused the Biden administration of “bragging” about how quickly children are released from custody, as well as “not properly vetting” adult sponsors in the US.
“Shame on them,” he said of the Biden administration. “They have over 300,000 children that they have released [to] unvetted sponsors that they can’t find.”
“Many are going to be in forced labour. Many forced sex trade,” Homan added. “We need to save these children.”
In his October debate against Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, JD Vance also said that the Department of Homeland Security “effectively lost” a total of 320,000 migrant children.
Concerns over the plight of migrant children were also starkly highlighted earlier this week when authorities in Texas shared an image of a two-year-old girl from El Salvador found at the border clutching a piece of paper with a phone number.
“Putting optics over safety has led to countless children in danger or unaccounted for,” Tennessee Republican representative Mark Green told the New York Post.
“This refusal to protect vulnerable alien children from abuse, exploitation, and human trafficking will be one of the defining failures of the Biden-Harris administration.”
Are the children actually missing?
According to immigration experts and attorneys, the claims largely stem from an August report from the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general’s office, which found that 32,000 unaccompanied minors failed to show up for court dates at immigration courts from 2019-23.
The report noted that 291,000 migrant children received no court notices at all. It also called on the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) to “take immediate action to ensure the safety” of unaccompanied migrant children in the US.
Migrant children “who do not appear for court are considered at higher risk for trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor”, the inspector general’s office reported.
But Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director at the American Immigration Council, a migrant advocacy group, told the BBC the figures are indicative of a bureaucratic “paperwork issue” rather than “anything nefarious”.
“When you hear the phrase ‘missing’, you think that there is a child that someone is trying to find and can’t,” he said.
“That’s not the case here. The government has not made any effort to find these children.”
Many of the children, experts say, may well be at the addresses that are on file with the government, but were simply unable to make their court dates.
“That doesn’t mean something bad happened to them,” Mr Reichlin-Melnick said. “It means you missed a court hearing.”
Mr Reichlin-Melnick added that there are “valid concerns” about exploitation.
“We cannot, however, suggest that all 320,000 of those children are being labour trafficked,” he said.
Eric Ruark, an immigration researcher with NumbersUSA – which calls for tighter border controls – said that the children are difficult to track “because of some combination of apathy, incompetence and bureaucratic inefficiency”.
“Many, hopefully even most, are safe with caring sponsors,” he added. “But the Biden administration can’t actually say one way or the other, and apparently doesn’t care enough to find out.”
What happens to children at the border?
Unaccompanied minors detained at the US-Mexico border go through a complicated process that begins with detention and processing by Customs and Border Patrol, or CBP.
If the child is from a foreign country that is not Mexico or Canada, they are placed into removal proceedings and transferred to the US Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS.
HHS, through its Office of Refugee Resettlement office, cares for the children in a network of state-licensed providers.
The office also seeks to reunify children with family members in the US or with individual or organizational sponsors – who in turn are obligated to ensure they arrive at immigration court dates.
What can the Trump administration do?
Homan and other Trump administration officials have so far not provided many details about how they plan to address the issues that plague the detention of undocumented minors.
Several immigration attorneys contacted by the BBC suggested that the administration is likely to make becoming a “sponsor” for undocumented children much more difficult, even if the sponsor is a member of their family.
In practice, this would mean that more undocumented children are kept in detention.
“They could do what the Obama administration did, and detain them,” said Alexander Cuic, an immigration attorney and professor at Case Western Reserve University.
The controversial “Remain in Mexico” programme could also be applied to children, forcing them to wait across the border for the outcome of immigration proceedings.
“I’m not sure even they know what they’re going to do with the kids,” Mr Cuic said of the Trump administration. “But there’s a border problem they’re trying to figure out first, and that’s the first concern before whether they’re going to be harsh to both children and adults.”
When the BBC asked the Trump transition team what plan they have for the undocumented migrant children, spokesman Taylor Rogers said only that “Democrats’ wide-open border policies” have led to the children going “missing”.
“President Trump and leaders in his administration will deliver on their promise to end the invasion at our southern border that puts innocent children in harm’s way,” she added.
Remember Mace is a notorious attention hound, demanding her staff book her constantly on different media. She does any stunt she thinks will gain her attention. She made over 500 tweets in two days about a new trans member to congress and the bathroom ban she was pushing but at no time did she mention anything helping her constituents. She even sent a staffer back an hour or so later to ask the man to repeat what he said to Mace. So she clearly did not feel assaulted then. But after a time thinking how to spin it for more attention she suddenly claimed to have been badly assaulted with damage to both wrists and her arm so bad that she is parading around with her arm in a sling. What a phony. Slandering an advocate for foster youth and trans kids for clicks and views. She never grew up, she is still a high school girl chasing fame on social media. Hugs
This breaking news story will be updated as more information becomes available.
Aformer foster youth and award-winning advocate for children was arrested at the U.S. Capitol tonight — a bizarre twist in an otherwise celebratory day of events — after South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace accused him of assault.
The incident took place outside a House of Representatives office building following an event honoring the anniversary of a landmark child welfare law where Mace, a firebrand Republican, had given a speech. Three witnesses at the scene told The Imprint their accused colleague James McIntyre had done nothing more than shake the congress member’s hand at the House reception, and asked her to protect the rights of transgender people.
But in a post on the social media platform X, Rep. Mace described a violent confrontation.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace
“I was physically accosted at the Capitol tonight by a pro-tr*ns man. One new brace for my wrist and some ice for my arm and it’ll heal just fine,” she posted at 8:43 p.m. “The Capitol police arrested the guy. Your tr*ns violence and threats on my life will only make me double down.”
The arrest stunned onlookers.
A group of McIntyre’s fellow foster youth advocates rushed to the outside of the Rayburn House Office Building to watch the scene unfold. They stood by tearfully as he was searched for several minutes by police, asking officers where he’d be taken and calling frantically for an attorney who could represent him.
McIntyre, 33, has spoken publicly about his excruciating experience growing up in foster care, and is now a leading voice in policymaking in his home state of Illinois. He is also a chapter co-founder of the influential group Foster Care Alumni of America. In 2019, the National Association of Social Workers’ Illinois chapter named him the “Public Citizen of the Year.”
An officer with the Capitol Police Department told a reporter present at the scene that they were responding to a call about an “assault.” McIntyre was then placed into a police van and driven off.
Other attendees have reacted with outrage since McIntyre’s arrest.
“I want to express deep disappointment in the fact that Congresswoman Nancy Mace came to a national foster youth event, told participating youth that it was a safe space — and literally had one of them arrested by Capital police for simply shaking her hand and asking about trans rights,” said Lisa Dickson, a veteran advocate for foster youth from Ohio, in a Facebook post.
Mace is not new to such publicity. In recent weeks, she has been in the news for her successful campaign to bar newly elected Rep. Sarah McBride — a Democrat from Delaware who is transgender — from using the public women’s bathrooms in the U.S. Capitol.
At tonight’s event, Mace, who co-chairs Congress’ bipartisan foster care caucus, joined a group of legislators at a House reception celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Foster Care Independence Act of 1999. The act created the John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood, legislation that significantly expanded federal support for foster youth who leave the system after turning 18 without a permanent home.
Today’s events featured speeches from some of the former foster youth whose advocacy led to the writing and passage of the law known as the Chafee Act.
In her remarks at the House event, Rep. Mace told the crowd that while she was not an adoptee or former foster youth, she had been a victim of sexual abuse as a child. She called the dozens of advocates and foster youth in attendance — McIntyre among them — “the cream of the crop.”
“I look forward to working with each and every one of you. God bless you, I will be praying for you,” Mace said.
As she finished her comments and moved to leave the room, McIntyre approached her near an exit door, witnesses said.
Elliott Hinkle, a former foster youth and advocate for LGBTQ rights, said McIntyre shook her hand, and made a comment about how many transgender youth are in foster care, adding: “They need your support.”
“From what I saw, it was a normal handshake and interaction that I would expect any legislator to expect from anyone as a constituent,” said Hinkle, a consultant who has advised the federal government on issues affecting youth in foster care.
Later, Hinkle said, one of Mace’s aides returned to the reception and asked McIntyre his name and whether he would repeat what he had told the legislator. Two other people who witnessed the interaction confirmed that description of the brief episode.
McIntyre left the celebration, but he was later summoned back to the Rayburn Building by police.
Hinkle said his subsequent arrest “sends a chilling effect of, you’re not actually safe to go to the Capitol Hill and share an opinion that is true for you, that isn’t violent — because right now if you do, a congressperson might say that they were physically assaulted and call the police on you. So how would a young person in care feel safe?”
Michael Fitzgerald contributed to this report.
I hope everyone can see what the rabid right haters are trying to do. Not only gaslight everyone lying that a horrible assault happened and trans people are the fault and guilty party, but that the left endorses it. A woman was assaulted by a pro trans … trying to hint or make it sound like it was a trans man who did it. The log cabin people are the silliest as they claim she is a supporter of the LGBT, notice the last letter. They can not find a real attach on a woman by a trans person so now they are trying to make one up. Normal maga right dirty tricks. Hugs
With new restrictions on gender-affirming care, prisons confiscate underwear from trans people and compel them to cut their hair.
Earlier this fall, Florida officials ordered transgender women in the state’s prisons to submit to breast exams. As part of a new policy for people with gender dysphoria, prison medical staff ranked the women’s breast size using a scale designed for adolescents. Those whose breasts were deemed big enough were allowed to keep their bras. Everyone else had to surrender theirs, along with anything else considered “female,” such as women’s underwear and toiletry items.
This article was published in partnership with the Tampa Bay Times.
The examinations came after people who had been diagnosed with gender dysphoria by the prison system’s own providers were brought into meetings at the end of September and told of the prisons’ new policy, which would make it nearly impossible for them to get hormone therapy and other gender-affirming medical care, according to interviews and emails with more than a dozen transgender women who said they attended the meetings.
Josie Takach, who is incarcerated in a men’s facility south of Tallahassee, said a male doctor told her to lift up her shirt, then glanced at her breasts and wrote something down without saying a word. When she tried to ask a question, a nurse “told me not to ask any questions and to just shut up and do what I’m told,” she recalled.
“It felt like I was being treated less than human,” she said.
The state’s chapter of the ACLU sued Florida’s Department of Corrections, which operates the prisons, in late October, calling the policy draconian and arguing it amounts to an unconstitutional ban on gender-affirming care. The new policy is the latest maneuver in the culture war around transgender people’s civil rights in the Sunshine State. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis championed a raft of anti-trans legislation, including a law passed last year that prohibited children with gender dysphoria from accessing treatments like puberty blockers and hormone therapy. A similar law in Tennessee was the subject of arguments in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court last week.
In Tallahassee Monday, a federal judge held a preliminary hearing in the ACLU case. The state had asked the judge to dismiss the lawsuit altogether, and the ACLU asked him to stop the state from enforcing the new rules. The judge is expected to issue a ruling on these questions in the coming weeks.
The Florida Department of Corrections’ media office did not respond to multiple emails and phone calls with detailed questions, but in court papers responding to the ACLU’s lawsuit, the department’s lawyers argued that the new rules are “a carefully crafted policy that creates an individualized course of treatment for each inmate based on scientific evidence and clinical judgment.”
Under the new policy, the Department of Corrections stated that the prisons will only provide those with gender dysphoria with psychotherapy — and not cross-gender hormones — except “in rare instances … if necessary to comply with the U.S. Constitution or a court decision.” The policy argues that “unaddressed psychiatric issues and unaddressed childhood trauma could lead to a misdiagnosis of gender dysphoria,” and that cross-gender hormones “may be requested by persons experiencing short-termed delusions or beliefs which may later be changed and reversed.”
Florida has the country’s third-largest state prison system, with more than 87,000 people incarcerated at the end of September. Of those, 181 have been identified by the department as transgender, and about 100 received hormone treatment, according to documents state officials filed with the courts in the ACLU case.
The new policy was announced in meetings in several prisons across the state at the end of September. Transgender women who attended the meetings said they were told by officials that everyone identifying as transgender would be “re-evaluated” to assess whether they can have continued access to the care and accommodations they had been receiving, such as permission to grow their hair long. Officials have not told the women whether and under what circumstances they will be allowed to stay on the hormones they have been receiving.
Since then, more than a dozen transgender people said corrections officers ordered them to cut their hair. Mariko Sundwall told The Marshall Project that she was given a disciplinary infraction and spent 10 days in solitary confinement for refusing to cut her hair before officers put her in handcuffs and led her to the prison barber where her hair was cropped short.
“[Before] my hair was long enough for a ponytail. Now I have a buzz cut,” said Jada Edwards, incarcerated in Dade Correctional Institution south of Miami. “I’m very sad and depressed. I feel like they’re taking away my identity.”
Scores of women also had their breasts examined, according to filings in the suit and interviews with some of the women. A medical provider for the state assigned each transgender woman a rating on the Tanner scale, a system used by pediatricians to assess the development of adolescents during puberty. Several of the women said they weren’t told what stage was required for permission to keep their bras, but that almost everyone they knew had theirs taken away.
Some report hiding bras or sewing makeshift underwear — although now women’s undergarments are considered contraband and could result in disciplinary charges — because they feel naked and exposed without them.
“I feel like I’m 12 years old again, sneaking around wearing a bra,” said Takach, after her female undergarments were confiscated.
The new policy, which requires psychotherapy to treat underlying issues rather than treating the dysphoria, “comes off like conversion therapy,” says Daniel Tilley, the lead attorney from the ACLU of Florida. “We’re trying to change your fundamental nature to get you to stop being who you are.”
Sarah Maatsch, who is incarcerated in a men’s prison south of Orlando, said she was told that the gender dysphoria diagnosis she received from corrections department doctors in 2019 would now be considered a serious psychiatric illness. If she wants to continue her treatment, she said she was told, she would have to move to a more restrictive prison with more psychiatric services, but fewer work and programming opportunities.
“We are all devastated,” said Maatsch. “There are good days, bad days and the very bad days where a part of you hopes you have a heart attack.”
The new policy is the latest change in health care for transgender people in Florida after a 2023 law said any “governmental entity” in Florida “may not expend state funds … for sex-reassignment prescriptions or procedures.” It did not name prisons specifically, but the Department of Corrections’ new policy says it “shall comply” with this law.
Shortly after DeSantis’ anti-trans bills were passed, transgender people in state prisons began reporting that medications were abruptly changed or delayed with little or no explanation.
Courts have held that prisons are required under the U.S. Constitution to provide gender-affirming hormones as needed. Dan Karasic is a psychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco who helped develop international standards for treatment of transgender people and who has testified against bans on gender-affirming care in Florida and elsewhere. He read Florida’s new guidelines at The Marshall Project’s request and called them “a fig leaf on their efforts to ban gender-affirming care. They are really trying to skirt the law, as determined by multiple courts, that gender-affirming medical and surgical care must be provided when medically necessary.”
The Florida prison system’s program to treat prisoners with gender dysphoria began in 2017, after Reiyn Keohane sued the state. The federal judge in the case said that the Department of Corrections’ refusal to provide Keohane with hormones and social accommodations, like women’s clothing and haircuts, caused her “to continue to suffer unnecessarily and poses a substantial risk of harm to her health.” During the course of the lawsuit, the state began providing gender-affirming hormone therapy, access to makeup, women’s clothing and other social accommodations within its prisons.
Behind the scenes, Danny Martinez, the state prison system’s medical director, began revising the state’s gender-affirming care program in 2020, he said in a court declaration in response to the ACLU’s recent lawsuit. As many as one-third of the people on hormones in Florida’s prisons were not attending group or personal therapy sessions, he said. “I observed no decrease, and in fact an increase in grievances to the medical and mental health staff from inmates receiving hormone therapy, indicating to me that the treatment solely based on hormone therapy without additional mental health treatment produced limited success,” he wrote. An email to Martinez seeking comment was not returned.
Martinez said he designed the new program based on a 2022 report by Florida’s Medicaid organization that found “insufficient evidence” that medical interventions for gender dysphoria are safe or effective. The report led to the state’s Medicaid program banning coverage of gender-affirming medical care. But a federal judge, in striking down the Medicaid ban last year, found that the report was “a biased effort to justify a predetermined outcome, not a fair analysis of the evidence,” and the report’s conclusion was “not supported by the evidence and was contrary to generally accepted medical standards.”
So far, none of the transgender women incarcerated in Florida have reported being taken off their hormones, but the looming threat has led to widespread anxiety.
“If they took away my hormone therapy treatment, I would be ready to end my life. I’m at that point,” said Sasha Mendoza, who is incarcerated in a men’s prison near Miami, in a declaration filed in the ACLU case. “It may sound drastic. But FDC just let me start my transition and I was doing so well, and now they are making me stop. I’m halfway there and halfway not there.”
Republicans are against the public having healthcare for some reason. Paxton, Texas leadership, and a good segment of the republican part simply want non-white people / all immigrants to suffer as much as possible. As if just by living they have committed the worst possible crime. Plus dreamers? Look republicans keep passing laws that kids are property so they had no choice being dragged to the US with their parents. Plus they have been here, raised here, never caused problems, added to the economy. Denying them healthcare is stupid and just trying to hurt them. Plus it costs taxpayers more as dreamers need care they must have but can’t afford to pay for. Hugs
PSA: migrants desperately seeking shelter may be in your area. Call ICE asap if seen.
Government run by gang thugs. That is what maga and the maga republicans want. tRump has always been a mob boss wannabe but was never good enough to really do it. He is a school yard bully who never grew up and has only regressed over the years. He thinks might make right, and that who ever can bully or threaten the most gets all the toys and their way on everything. Is this how we think things should be run? Is this for the good of the country? And if this is the way the republicans are going to act then how should democrats respond? Corporate media both print and video are afraid to attack tRump so they ganged up on Biden and the democrats, but they never pointed out that tRump was everything they attacked Biden for being. Now the brownshirts and thugs are making congress people offers they don’t dare refuse. Hugs
In recent days, allies of Trump adopted an approach that is not novel for the president-elect and his followers: Make life extremely uncomfortable for anyone who dares to oppose him. The swarm of MAGA attacks that Sen. Joni Ernst has experienced is a warning of what’s in store for others who express skepticism of his personnel choices.
Read the full article. As I noted yesterday, among the attacks on Ernst are threats to resurface allegations of an adulterous affair.
If you are a bigot who hates gay people then you believe this false idea. If you are a racist you believe that black / brown people are inferior and erode standards. In fact that was said about blacks when the military was first integrated. However that notion got totally destroyed due to the bravery and proficiency of the black divisions in the 1930s and 1940s. Same with gay people. Most people in the military don’t care your sex partner as longs as they are not forced against their will to join you. It is only the bigots, the fundamentalist religious people. It is the Christians like Hegseth who has said that the goal is to make the military Christians who want all the gay people out. Notice it was gays he objected to, not lesbians. The upper military brass has studied this, the idea of LGBTQ+ in the military and all the studies show that the military benefits greatly for allowing the LGBTQ+ to serve openly. Look let’s be honest the military was full of gay people in the 1980s when I was in, both the Navy and the Army. We just stood the chance of getting blackmailed or discharged if a bigot like Hegseth found out. Again all of maga want desperately to return to the fantasy time of the 1950s thinking that was the best of times, but only if you were a white straight cis male. The rest of the population suffered from the unfair laws. Hugs.
New: Pete Hegseth Lamented Don't Ask Don't Tell Change, Women in the MilitaryThe Trump nominee's views on women and LGBTQ+ individuals raise questions about his fitness
Hegseth’s views risk alienating large segments of the armed forces and undermining morale by suggesting that certain groups are inherently less capable of serving. The Department of Defense has long moved toward embracing equality and diversity as pillars of strength. A leader who dismisses these values could jeopardize decades of progress and fail to inspire trust and cohesion among service members.
In a time when military challenges require unity and innovation, the Secretary of Defense must represent the best of modern leadership—respect for diversity, evidence-based policy, and a commitment to national security above outdated biases. Pete Hegseth’s comments reveal a personal belief system with negative views which raises doubts about his fitness to lead the military
This is more gang thuggery. Notice this part: … as he threatened local officials to open the city and its county jail to the will of federal immigration agents. Hugs
The very same weaponizing the government and the DOJ to attack enemies that tRump and the maga right claims is happening under Biden was routine under tRump. Notice the use of the deep state tools to gather information including personal information which should have been protected legally. That is why all these people who claim tRump won’t be vengeful and won’t weaponize the government are just blowing smoke, he will and he has. Hugs
Oh wow, think of all those poor people who voted for tRump because they believe everything he says and think he is a smart businessman. Too bad no one tried to explain to them that tariffs are paid by the consumer, that means the person buying the item. Oh wait yes there were people trying hard to tell them that. In fact the black woman they just couldn’t vote for was saying that very clearly as was everyone but right wing media that is deep into the cult of tRump. Hugs
This man has shown nothing but contempt for all normal behavior and respect for the those in congress. He has done a lot to destroy the post office and to make it unreliable. Remember that he was destroying sorting machines and shortening delivery routes during an election so many mail in ballots never got counted. In deeply rural areas no other mail delivery service covers that area so they depend on the post office. The post office is the only government service mandated in the constitution. Remember DeJoy is a multimillionaire who owns a company that competes with and contracts with the post office that he is in charge of. Sounds like a conflict of ethics that needs real instigating. Hugs
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy covered his ears during a congressional hearing as Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) repeatedly pressed him on postal service oversight. https://t.co/hdpF8bnhu4pic.twitter.com/CpSHfh52PF
As normal Musk is spouting off on stuff he knows nothing about. Homelessness is caused by several factors, a major one being the cost of housing. With hedge funds and wealthy investment companies buying up all the housing in an area and jacking up the rents while providing no maintenance support. They don’t care, a large profit is demanded. The fact that people can not afford to live these days because people like Musk demand ever more profit, a man who has so much money he could waste 44 billion on a whim and not suffer any lowering of his lifestyle. That is what life is like for these clowns. They have no conception of what life is like for the rest of us. By the way, the article he cites as his proof says the exact opposite of what Musk claims. That is why you need to read more than the headlines and look at the pictures. Providing housing does work, but as the article referenced states the programs need the correct amount of funding and supervision. Hugs
The article does not support the contention that providing shelter to people who need it is fruitless or that all unhoused people are criminals. Rather, the article details how the converted hotels in San Francisco were “underfunded and understaffed,” leading to substandard living conditions.
Read the full article. As the linked piece notes, a large percentage of the homeless are children, veterans, queer kids rejected by their parents, and women escaping domestic violence. But they’re all violent, drug-addicted liars, according to Musk, whose tweet currently has 25 million views.
Elon Musk accused the homeless of being violent drug addicts. Many are victims of domestic violence, hard workers with low paying jobs, multiple children to feed and clothe, veterans, students, young adults aged out of foster care, LGBTQ youth kicked out by intolerant parents etc pic.twitter.com/eUbrEECGdd
Delusion run strong in this one. Need I say more. A fox entertainment host is also claiming tRump will buy a large track of property for the US making more states. Hugs
Donald Trump is once again “joking” about annexing Canada into the United States, this time calling Justin Trudeau the “Governor” of the “Great State of Canada.”Totally normal and not crazy at all
Aysha Bagchi USA TODAY (if only USAT were brave enough to state they’re election interference convictions, instead of calling them hush money convictions!)
“President-elect immunity does not exist,” lawyers from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office wrote in the court filing made public Tuesday. “At most, (Trump) should receive temporary accommodations during his presidency to prevent this criminal case from meaningfully interfering with his official decision-making.”
Trump is now arguing that sentencing should be cancelled and the case should be dismissed as a result of his election.
“Burdening the Presidency with a biased prosecution by a local prosecutor would be not only unconstitutional, but also unbearably undemocratic to the people of this country who chose President Trump as their leader,” Trump’s legal team wrote in a motion calling for the case’s dismissal.
Prosecutors float option of not sentencing Trump
Trump is making various legal arguments for getting the case tossed out, including that its continued existence – even with sentencing pushed out past his next presidential term – would improperly interfere with his upcoming presidency.
It “would be egregious and unlawful for this Court to hold the prospect of a 2029 sentencing over President Trump’s head while he continues his service to this Country,” Trump’s legal team wrote in his motion.
But Manhattan prosecutors said in the new filing that there are multiple options short of throwing out the jury’s verdict that would address concerns about interfering with Trump’s upcoming presidency.
If Trump isn’t sentenced before he takes office, remaining steps in the case could be paused until his term is over, prosecutors said.
Or, if Judge Juan Merchan is worried that simply pausing the case would improperly burden Trump’s presidency, Merchan could close the case while still putting a note in the court record stating that the jury’s verdict removed Trump’s presumption of innocence but he was never sentenced and his conviction was neither upheld nor struck down on appeal.
“On the one hand, this remedy would prevent defendant from being burdened during his presidency by an ongoing criminal proceeding,” prosecutors said. (snip-MORE)
Earlier today, the Montana Supreme Court ruled that SB 99, a 2023 Montana law that categorically bans life-saving gender-affirming care for transgender youth, is unconstitutional under the Montana state constitution’s privacy clause, which prohibits government intrusion on private medical decisions. This ruling will allow Montana communities and families to continue accessing medical treatments for transgender minors with gender dysphoria.
“I will never understand why my representatives are working to strip me of my rights and the rights of other transgender kids,” said Phoebe Cross, a 17-year-old transgender boy. “Just living as a trans teenager is difficult enough, the last thing me and my peers need is to have our rights taken away.”
“Fortunately, the Montana Supreme Court understands the danger of the state interfering with critical healthcare,” said Lambda Legal Counsel Kell Olson. “Because Montana’s constitutional protections are even stronger than their federal counterparts, transgender youth in Montana can sleep easier tonight knowing that they can continue to thrive for now, without this looming threat hanging over their heads.”
“We are so thankful for this opportunity to protect trans youth, their families, and their medical providers from this baseless and dangerous law,” said Malita Picasso, Staff Attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project. “Every day that transgender Montanans are able to access this care is a critical and life-saving victory. We will never stop fighting until every transgender person has the care and support they need to thrive.”
“Today’s ruling permits our clients to breathe a sigh of relief,” said Akilah Deernose, Executive Director of the ACLU of Montana. “But the fight for trans rights is far from over. We will continue to push for the right of all Montanans, including those who are transgender, to be themselves and live their lives free of intrusive government interference.”
The Court found that the Plaintiffs were likely to succeed on the merits of their privacy claim, holding:
“The Legislature did not make gender-affirming care unlawful. Nor did it make the treatments unlawful for all minors. Instead, it restricted a broad swath of medical treatments only when sought for a particular purpose. The record indicates that Provider Plaintiffs, or other medical professionals providing gender-affirming care, are recognized as competent in the medical community to provide that care.[T]he law puts governmental regulation in the mix of an individual’s fundamental right ‘to make medical judgments affecting her or his bodily integrity and health in partnership with a chosen health care provider.’
Two justices filed a concurrence arguing that the Court should also clarify that discrimination on the basis of transgender status is a form of sex discrimination prohibited by Montana’s Equal Protection Clause.
Plaintiffs in the case include Molly and Paul Cross and their 17-year-old transgender son Phoebe; Jane and John Doe joining on behalf of their 16-year-old transgender daughter; and two providers of gender-affirming care who bring claims on their own behalf and on behalf of their Montana patients.
On December 4, the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments in a landmark case brought by the ACLU, the ACLU of Tennessee, Lambda Legal, and Akin Gump on behalf of three families and a medical provider challenging a Tennessee ban on gender-affirming hormonal therapies for transgender youth on the grounds the ban violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Today’s decision by the Montana Supreme Court rests entirely on State Constitutional grounds, insulating transgender adolescents, their families, and health care providers from any potential negative outcome at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Incredible news! Montana’s Supreme Court just affirmed that the state’s gender affirming care ban is likely unconstitutional.This makes the state the first state Supreme Court to rule that trans medical care is protected.This applies REGARDLESS of what the US Supreme Court does.
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December 11, 1946 The General Assembly of the United Nations voted to establish the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) to provide health and rehabilitation to children living in countries devastated by World War II. What does UNICEF do today?
December 11, 1961 Two U.S. Army air cavalry helicopter companies arrived in Vietnam, including 33 Shawnee H-21C helicopters and 425 ground and flight crewmen. They were to be used to airlift South Vietnamese Army troops into combat, the first direct military combat involvement of U.S. military personnel.President Kennedy had sent them to bolster the U.S. advisors, in the country since the 1950s, in light of the inability of the Government of Vietnam’s armed forces to resist the Viet Cong insurgency movement and the Army of the Republic of [North] Vietnam. Shawnee helicopter
December 11, 1961 A U.S. Supreme Court decision outlawed the use of disorderly conduct statutes as grounds for arresting African Americans sitting-in at segregated public facilities to obtain equal service. The case began in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where a group of negro Southern University students bought some items then sat at the lunch counter of Kress Department Store. Their polite requests to order food were ignored because the lunch counter was only for the use of whites, and police arrived to arrest them. Convicted of “disturbing the peace,” they were expelled from Southern University and barred from all public colleges and universities in the state of Louisiana. The Court overturned their convictions because there was no evidence indicating a breach of the peace. The decision in Garner v. Louisiana
December 11, 1972 New Zealand Prime Minister Norman Kirk (Labour Party) announced withdrawal of his country’s troops from Vietnam and a phase-out of his country’s draft just three days after taking office. Prime Minister Norman Kirk
Anti-War demo Parliament Buildings in Wellington, 1969 3,890 New Zealand military personnel had served there, suffering 37 dead and 187 wounded. This had given rise to a large and vocal anti-war movement. History of the anti-war movement in New Zealand
December 11, 1984 More than 20,000 women turned out for an anti-nuclear demonstration at Greenham Common Air Base in England, where U.S. nuclear-armed cruise missiles were deployed. Some tried to rip down the fence surrounding the base. Poster of Broken Missile taped to the fence of Greenham Common by a protester, 1982 A Greenham Peace Camp scrapbook
December 11, 1994 In the largest Russian military offensive since its 1979 invasion of Afghanistan, thousands of troops and hundreds of tanks crossed the border into the Muslim republic of Chechnya. Just two weeks prior, a Russian covert operation to undermine the government in Grozny, the capital, had been foiled and Dzhokhar Dudaev, Chechnya’s first elected president, had threatened to have the perpetrators executed.The Chechens had declared their independence from the Commonwealth of Independent States, comprising Russia and most of the countries previously part of the Soviet Union. Chechnya had been a Russian colony since 1859, and in 1943 Josef Stalin deported the population en masse, their return to their homeland not allowed until 1957.
Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who ordered the invasion, would not deal with Dudaev, and had raised him to the rank of chief enemy, ignoring Chechen-Russian history. The main attack was halted by the deputy commander of Russian ground forces, Colonel-General Eduard Vorobyov, who resigned in protest, stating that he would not attack fellow Russians. Yeltsin’s advisor on nationality affairs, Emil Pain, and Russia’s Deputy Minister of Defense, Colonel-General Boris Gromov (esteemed hero of the Soviet-Afghan War), also resigned in protest of the invasion, as did Major-General Borys Poliakov. More than 800 professional soldiers and officers refused to take part in the operation. Of these, 83 were convicted by military courts, and the rest were discharged.
We need more of these laws protecting the representation of minorities and the ideas the fundamentalist right hate, such as female autonomy. The only way to get more states to do this is to elect more progressives, become more vocal over what we want, and to support those who advocate for the full support of equality and inclusion of everyone in society, sometimes called DEI. Hugs
Gov. Phil Murphy, at the Princeton Public Library, signs legislation Monday aimed at barring public libraries and schools from banning books.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, signed a law Monday prohibiting public schools and libraries from banning books and protecting librarians who obey state law.
Murphy’s signing of the Freedom to Read Act comes amid an ongoing push by conservative lawmakers and activists across the country to challenge books they consider inappropriate for minors, particularly those about LGBTQ issues and race. Lawmakers in at least 13 states this year have introduced legislation to disrupt library services or limit their materials, according to an NBC News tally.
“Across the nation, we have seen attempts to suppress and censor the stories and experiences of others,” Murphy said in a statement. “I’m proud to amplify the voices of our past and present, as there is no better way for our children to prepare for the future than to read freely.”
Murphy during an interview in New York on Nov. 22.
In September, PEN America, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting free speech, reported that the number of books being removed from school shelves during the 2023-24 school year had tripled from the previous year, to more than 10,000.
The PEN America report, along with one from the American Library Association released that same month, outlined how frequently challenged books are often about or written by people of color or those who identify as LGBTQ.
In 2023, the American Library Association’s list of the 10 most challenged books nationwide included Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye,” a novel about a young Black girl who grew up after the Great Depression; Maia Kobabe’s “Gender Queer: A Memoir,” a graphic memoir about the author’s exploration of gender identity from adolescence to young adulthood; and George M. Johnson’s “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” a coming-of-age memoir about a queer Black man.
New Jersey -is the third state to sign a law prohibiting the banning of books at public schools and libraries, following Illinois and Minnesota.
The new law is set to take effect in a year from the governor’s signing. However, the state education commissioner and the New Jersey state librarian are permitted to start implementing it immediately “as may be necessary,” the law states.
“Through this legislation, we are protecting the integrity of our libraries that are curated by dedicated professionals and making those resources available to help every student to grow as a critical thinker,” New Jersey acting Education Commissioner Kevin Dehmer said in a statement.
Today the Freedom to Read Act from @AndrewZwicker will be signed into law by @GovMurphy – protecting a reader’s freedom to access information and safeguarding librarians from harassment.
Scottie's Playtime 