Peace & Justice History for 6/21

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryjune.htm#june21

DHS issues new guidance for lawmakers visiting ICE facilities after tense confrontations

The fact is ICE and the DHS want to not have accountability because they are clearly breaking the law. Random people not in uniform or showing identification with masked faces is not detaining or arresting. It is out right kidnapping. And any movement of that person from that point on is trafficking. So this is a lawless government who feels it is above the laws and doesn’t have to answer to any other branch of government. Scary times. Hugs

https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/19/politics/dhs-ice-visits-congress-lawmakers

By Shania Shelton, CNN

3 minute read

Published 10:16 AM EDT, Thu June 19, 2025

Mayor Ras Baraka of Newark confronts ICE agents at a demonstration outside an immigrant detention centre in Elizabeth, New Jersey in May 2025. The Mayor arrived at the gates of Delaney Hall to inspect the previously vacant prison that is being converted into an immigrant detention center.

Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images

After a spate of tense encounters involving lawmakers at Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities, the Department of Homeland Security is asking members of Congress to provide 72 hours of notice before visiting detention centers, according to new guidance.

Under the annual appropriations act, lawmakers are allowed to enter any DHS facilities “used to detain or otherwise house aliens” to inspect them as part of their oversight duties. The act outlines that they are not required “to provide prior notice of the intent to enter a facility.”

The agency’s new memo also seeks to differentiate ICE field offices from detention facilities, noting that “ICE Field Offices are not detention facilities” and therefore do not fall under the appropriations act provision.

Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee, called the move “unprecedented” and an “affront to the Constitution and Federal law.”

“This unlawful policy is a smokescreen to deny Member visits to ICE offices across the country, which are holding migrants – and sometimes even U.S. citizens – for days at a time. They are therefore detention facilities and are subject to oversight and inspection at any time. DHS pretending otherwise is simply their latest lie,” Thompson said in a statement.

Previous DHS language for lawmaker visitations said “ICE will comply with the law and accommodate Members seeking to visit/tour an ICE detention facility for the purpose of conducting oversight.”

The recent memo now says the department “will make every effort” to comply with the law and accommodate members, while listing circumstances like “operational conditions, security posture, etc,” that could impact the time of entry.

CNN has reached out to DHS for comment and further information.

The recent changes come as Democratic lawmakers have had run-ins with law enforcement after showing up at the facilities as they push back against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

Rep. LaMonica McIver exits the grounds at Delancey Hall ICE detention prison, Friday, May 9, 2025, in Newark, N.J,

Angelina Katsanis/AP/File

Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver was indicted last week on federal charges alleging she impeded and interfered with immigration officers outside a New Jersey detention center as McIver and other Democratic lawmakers, Reps. Robert Menendez Jr. and Bonnie Watson Coleman, tried to visit the Newark facility last month.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested at the scene after attempting to join the three members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation in entering the facility. He was charged with trespassing, which was later dropped.

Other lawmakers have faced similar treatment in recent weeks while protesting President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.

Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla was forcefully removed from a news conference in Los Angeles last week and coerced to the ground after attempting to ask Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem a question.

He interrupted Noem as she was giving remarks at the FBI headquarters in Los Angeles on the administration’s response to the anti-ICE protests in the city. He was quickly removed from the room, brought to the ground by law enforcement, and placed in handcuffs during the rapidly unfolding incident.

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander is placed under arrest by ICE and FBI agents outside federal immigration court on Tuesday, June 17, 2025, in New York.

Olga Fedorova/AP

In another instance, New York City comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander was arrested at Manhattan’s immigration court on Tuesday after he tried to escort a migrant whom officers were attempting to arrest.

Multiple videos showed the New York politician standing next to a man and locking arms with him as federal officers approached. The officers asked Lander to step aside so they could arrest the man, and when he and other bystanders tried to block the arrest, a scuffle broke out between them.

CNN’s Holmes Lybrand and Karina Tsui contributed to this report.

The truth in the middle east.

https://liberalsarecool.com/post/786624221780623360/after-reflecting-further-on-piers-akermans-recent

Liberals Are Cool

After reflecting further on Piers Akerman’s recent assertion that my analysis of the situation in the Middle East was “utter bullshit” and not tethered to reality, I realised how angry that made me feel. As a white, elderly, Anglo-Saxon male, I believe I have earned the right to be most distressed by Western privilege and the arrogance which so often distorts reality, much like a fairground mirror. It paints Palestinians as irrational terrorists and Iranians as fanatical mobs, erasing the colonial fingerprints smeared across their histories. That is the real bullshit.

Take Iran: a democracy overthrown in 1953 by Anglo-American operatives for the crime of nationalizing its oil. The CIA’s coup reinstated the Shah—a tyrant whose torture squads (trained by SAVAK and Mossad) disappeared thousands. When Iranians finally revolted in 1979, the West recoiled not at the Shah’s brutality but at the loss of a pliant client. Now, the same powers that strangled Iranian democracy lecture its theocrats on human rights—a grotesque pantomime.

I am sorry to say that Netanyahu embodies this hypocrisy. He rails against Iran’s “aggression” while annexing Palestinian land, arms settlers who burn olive groves, and starves Gaza into submission. His hysteria over Iran’s nuclear program (still unproven after decades of sanctions) mirrors the WMD lies he helped sell in 2003. Remember his cartoon bomb stunt at the UN? Pure theatre. What truly terrifies him isn’t ayatollahs with centrifuges but a regional order where Israel isn’t the unchecked hegemon.

The West has perfected a sinister alchemy of psychological inversion—an Orwellian recalibration of language that transforms resistance into terrorism, domination into peace, and sovereignty into existential threat. When Hamas fires rockets, it’s decried as barbarism, while Israel’s 56-year occupation of Palestinian land vanishes from view like morning mist. Apartheid walls that carve up stolen territory are rebranded as “security measures”, their concrete brutality softened by bureaucratic euphemisms. Iran’s civilian nuclear program sparks apocalyptic warnings, while Israel’s arsenal of 90 thermonuclear warheads—never inspected, never acknowledged—sits quietly in the Negev desert. This linguistic jujitsu doesn’t merely describe reality; it manufactures it, ensuring Western audiences see only mirrors and shadows where power and oppression stand plain as day.

I urge you to consider that none of this emerged in a vacuum. The US and UK engineered the Middle East’s instability—from Sykes-Picot’s arbitrary borders to arming Saddam against Iran, then crying havoc when blowback came. October 7th didn’t erupt from ancient hatreds; it was the predictable eruption of a people caged, humiliated, and drone-struck for generations. To focus solely on Hamas’ atrocities while ignoring Israel’s 56-year occupation is like condemning a burning man for screaming.

There can be no meaningful progress without first confronting uncomfortable truths. The West must reckon with its destructive legacy—the CIA’s 1953 coup in Iran that strangled democracy, the 1967 war that birthed an occupation now in its sixth decade, and the 2003 invasion of Iraq based on fabricated WMD claims. These aren’t ancient histories but open wounds that continue to shape regional dynamics. Pretending otherwise isn’t diplomacy; it’s willful blindness.

Netanyahu’s hysterical warnings about “existential threats” must be exposed for what they are—not genuine security concerns but a naked fear of justice. His real nightmare isn’t Iranian centrifuges but the collapse of the apartheid system that preserves Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean. Every settlement expansion, every Gaza blockade, and every racist nation-state law reveals the true project: not coexistence but permanent domination.

We must fearlessly reject the false symmetry of “both sides” narratives. While Israelis live with the psychological trauma of potential violence, Palestinians endure the daily reality of military checkpoints, land theft, and indiscriminate bombardment. Comparing Hamas rockets to Israel’s occupation is like comparing a slingshot to a tank battalion—technically both weapons, but existing in fundamentally different universes of destructive power. True peace begins when we stop equating the oppressed with their oppressors.

The future demands more than temporary ceasefires. It requires dismantling the myths that let the West play both arsonist and firefighter. Otherwise, we’re just counting the days until the next explosion.

Some The Majority Report clips on war, right wing violence, and on the gerontocracy issue in politics.

IOKIYAR, & More, In Peace & Justice History for 6/16

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryjune.htm#june16

Peace & Justice History for 6/15

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryjune.htm#june15

LAPD Targets Australian Reporter On Camera

Federal prosecutors now charging immigrants who don’t submit fingerprints under dormant 1940s law

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/14/trump-administration-alien-registration-act-00403535

The Alien Registration Act requires non-citizens to register with the federal government. That provision hadn’t been enforced in 75 years.

Demonstrators protest against the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies on June 9 in Louisville, Kentucky. | Jon Cherry/AP

By Hassan Ali Kanu

06/14/2025 07:00 AM EDT

Federal officials have begun carrying out President Donald Trump’s orders to enforce a World War II-era criminal law that requires virtually all non-citizens in the country to register with and submit fingerprints to the government.

Since April, law enforcement in Louisiana, Arizona, Montana, Alabama, Texas and Washington, D.C., have charged people with willful “failure to register” under the Alien Registration Act, an offense most career federal public defenders have never encountered before. Many of those charged were already in jail and in ongoing deportation proceedings when prosecutors presented judges with the new charges against them.

The registration provision in the law, which was passed in 1940 amid widespread public fear about immigrants’ loyalty to the U.S., had been dormant for 75 years, but it is still on the books. Failure to register is considered a “petty offense” — a misdemeanor with maximum penalties of six months imprisonment or a $1,000 fine.

In reviving the law, the Trump administration may put undocumented immigrants in a catch-22. If they register, they must hand over detailed, incriminating information to the federal government — including how and when they entered the country. But knowingly refusing to register is also a crime, punishable by arrest or prosecution, on top of the ever-present threat of deportation.

“The sort of obvious reason to bring back registration in the first place is the hope that people will register, and therefore give themselves up effectively to the government because they already confessed illegal entry,” said Jonathan Weinberg, a Wayne State University law professor who has studied the registration law.

But the Trump administration also has another goal. It says one purpose of the registration regime is to provoke undocumented immigrants to choose a third option: leave the country voluntarily, or, in the words of the Department of Homeland Security, compulsory “mass self-deportation.” Those efforts, alongside the administration’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act and a more aggressive approach to immigration raids, are meant to achieve a broader, overarching campaign promise: the largest deportation program in the history of America.

“For decades, this law has been ignored — not anymore,” the department said in a February announcement that it would enforce the law. The department called “mass self-deportation” a “safer path for aliens and law enforcement,” and said it saves U.S. taxpayer dollars.

The Department of Homeland Security did not answer questions about its enforcement policies.

A long dormant law will now affect millions

The Alien Registration Act was passed in 1940, amid fears about immigrants’ loyalties. A separate provision of the statute criminalizes advocacy for overthrowing the government. For about two decades, that provision was used to prosecute people who were accused of being either pro-fascist or pro-Communist.

The registration provision, though, remained largely dormant, and had not been enforced in 75 years. It applies to non-citizens, regardless of legal status, who are in the U.S. for 30 days or longer.

Certain categories of legal immigrants have already met the requirement. Immigrants who have filed applications to become permanent residents are considered registered by DHS, for example. And even some undocumented U.S. residents are already registered: U.S. residents who have received “parole” — a form of humanitarian protection from deportation — are also considered registered.

Still, DHS estimates that up to 3.2 million immigrants are currently unregistered and are affected by the new enforcement regime. The administration has created a new seven-page form that non-citizens must use. The form requires people, under penalty of perjury, to provide biographical details, contact information, details about any criminal history and the circumstances of how they entered the U.S.

After DHS issued regulations to enforce the registration requirement in April, the administration announced that 47,000 undocumented immigrants had registered using the new form.

A legal challenge and a series of prosecutions

The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights and other advocacy groups filed a lawsuit challenging Trump’s move to revive the registration requirement in March.

U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, initially expressed skepticism toward the administration, saying in a recent hearing that officials had pulled a “big switcheroo” on undocumented immigrants. But McFadden in April refused the plaintiffs’ request to temporarily block the policy, saying the Coalition likely lacks the legal standing to sue because it has not shown that it would be harmed by the policy. The group has appealed McFadden’s decision.

In the meantime, the administration has begun to prosecute people for failure to register for the first time in seven decades.

The prosecutions so far have stumbled.

On May 19, a federal magistrate judge in Louisiana consolidated and dismissed five of the criminal cases, saying prosecutors had no probable cause to believe the defendants had intentionally refused to register.

Judge Michael North wrote that the Alien Registration Act requires “some level of subjective knowledge or bad intent” behind the choice not to register. The prosecutions, the judge wrote, are impermissible because most people are simply unaware of the law, and the government “did not provide these Defendants — as well as millions of similarly situated individuals here without government permission — with a way to register” since 1950.

But North also pointed out that the government may have an easier path to proving probable cause in the future, given that DHS created a new registration form in April. And government attorneys have appealed the five dismissed cases.

The Justice Department and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana declined to comment on recent charges filed under the law.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said the office “is aggressively pursuing criminals in the district and will use all criminal justice resources available to make D.C. safe and to carry out President Trump’s and Attorney General Bondi’s direction to support immigration enforcement.”

The other federal district attorneys whose offices filed charges did not respond to a request for comment.

Michelle LaPointe, legal director at the American Immigration Council, an immigrants’ rights advocacy group, said these initial cases are the “tip of the iceberg.” LaPointe is among the attorneys representing the Coalition in its lawsuit against the administration.

“I don’t expect them to abate just because there were some dismissals,” LaPointe said, pointing to North’s statements about future charges. “They have already stated that they intend to make prosecution of the few immigration-related criminal statutes a priority for DOJ, and it’s very easy for them to at least charge, even if they’re not always gonna be able to sustain their burden to secure a conviction.”

Weinberg, the Wayne State law professor, agreed that the administration will likely continue attempting broad enforcement.

“If they bring a whole lot of prosecutions and end up losing all, they may step back,” Weinberg said. “If they bring a whole lot and win a few, they’ll say, ‘Well, that’s the basis on which we can move further’” and appeal — potentially all the way to the Supreme Court, he noted.

Montana bans Pride flags in schools, but pro-slavery flags are still totally allowed

At the same time this flag allows the flags supported by the right, the Confederate battle flag, the thin blue line flag, the Dresden don’t tread on me flag, along with others. The only political flag not allowed is those supporting the LGBTQ+ community. Hugs

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/05/montana-bans-pride-flags-in-schools-but-pro-flags-are-still-totally-allowed/

The law’s anti-LGBTQ+ sponsor says that schools shouldn’t promote “ideological messaging,” but…

Daniel Villarreal May 27, 2025, 6:57 pm EDT

Montana’s Gov. Greg Gianforte (R) has passed a law prohibiting the flying of Pride flags on government property and public schools. However, the law allows “historic flags,” like the Confederate flag, to be flown even though that flag represents support for Black slavery.

House Bill 819 allegedly restricts any flags that “represent a political party, race, sexual orientation, gender or political ideology.” It also allows the flying of any flags “honoring law enforcement officers, military service members, and public service organizations [that] provide appropriate, nonpolitical recognition of their contributions to public safety and national defense.”

The law was sponsored by 25-year-old state Rep. Braxton Mitchell (R), who introduced a law banning drag shows (including drag storytime events) from taking place on public property. The law remains unenforceable due to a federal court injunction against it.

Justifying his flag ban, Mitchell said during a March 6 state House floor debate, “Government buildings, schools and public facilities serve all citizens and should not be used to promote political, ideological or activist messaging,” according to KTVH.

However, Rep. Pete Elverum (D) pointed out, “What we’re doing here is we’re expressly prescribing what speech is allowed, ‘these flags’, and what speech is not allowed, ‘these other flags’,” adding, “And as for the definition of ‘promoting a certain ideology,’ those [flags] are expressly prohibited, but at the exact same time we’re sitting here with a bill proclaiming to be about free speech, we’re expressly prohibiting some and promoting others.”

Both Utah and Idaho have signed similar laws restricting the flying of Pride flags in schools and government property. The move led the capitol city governments of Salt Lake City,Utah and Boise, Idaho to designate the Pride flags as official city flags, so they can still fly them under the law.

When Mitchell introduced his aforementioned statewide drag ban, he claimed that all drag performances are “sexually oriented,” “indecent,” “inappropriate,” and “harmful” for minors. A federal judge issued an injunction against the ban in October 2023 — saying the broadly written law would encourage “discriminatory enforcement” and “disproportionally harm … anyone who falls outside of traditional gender and identity norms.” The judge’s injunction has stayed in place ever since.

Mitchell supports far-right causes, like pro-gun protests in the face of school shootings, joined the young conservative group Turning Point USA, supported the current U.S. president’s baseless claims of a “stolen” 2020 election, and has shared images of the far-right paramilitary group the Proud Boys on social media, The Daily Beast reported.

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Daniel Villarreal is a longtime, award-winning journalist and editor who has written for NBC News, Newsweek, Vox, Slate, Vice News, The Seattle Stranger, The Dallas Voice and numerous other LGBTQ+ publications. He has spoken at SXSW, Creating Change, Netroots Nation, GaymerX, and is a graduate of GLAAD’s Voices of Color program and of the Poynter Institute’s 2024 Power of Diverse Voices seminar. He is also the founder of QueerBomb Dallas, an annual non-corporate Pride event; CinéWilde, the nation’s longest running monthly LGBTQ film series. He is available for interviews and educational talks.