ICE and Vance both lied about what happened. The head of the school was there, the teachers were there, and the mother was there. Yet they took the child. Why? Is the bonus on a child worth putting a five yr old in jail, because that is what being detained by ICE is, jail. The father they took was here legally following the proper steps for citizenship. But the racist don’t want brown kids here they don’t want brown fathers or mothers here. ICE sent the boy and his father to Texas so the mother and others couldn’t help either of them. Hugs
What is shocking is how ill informed some people in the US are. This is part of the dumbing down of the US education system. So many right wing / or maga people are so uneducated and wrong because they believe the misinformation fed them along with the hyper US is always correct and never wrong they are fed by the right wing media that is designed to mislead the maga public ready to accept / follow an authoritarian government meant to make their lives harder while making the lives of the very wealthy even more wealthy. Just listen to the arrogance the person asking the question has even though they are totally incorrect on everything they claim / write to Belle. Hugs
Look up Scott and healthcare. He was CEO of a HMO health denying company that defrauded Medicare / Medicaid for the greatest dollar amount ever defrauded from the programs. He is a very wealthy man because while his company paid a fine he was able to retire with a huge pay out golden parachute. He has no clue what the average person lives like and hates the lower incomes. When he was governor he did everything he could to transfer state wealth to the upper incomes / his business cronies while making the lives of the working people / lower incomes harder while removing social safety nets. Hugs
even though I get some good giggles from them, but so many mostly use them for opinion over fact. However I knew this one needs to be here.
(WP won’t load or paste; it’s a little blue box about the state of existence of the US Congress. It’s shorter than this sentence, and you simply must see it!)
Well, never mind; WordPress doesn’t like it, I guess. I’m reading a substack called The F—–g News, and it’s there. Here’s where to go to read today’s effing news, and see the meme that WordPress doesn’t like. There is lots of news there, as well, both regular (bad,) and good news.
OK now be nice … who says I don’t have a life or people I talk to daily outside of the blog … I do have to care for Ron’s cat! 😂😋😝😜🤣😎😍 Hugs
As a white old man with a beard and a military veteran I dream of what I would say to an ICE thug that would demand I prove my where I was born. Sadly they simply wouldn’t ask me! I am too white! The fact is this is entirely a racist push to remove nonwhite people. But one thing I can do is put my whiteness in front of the brown / black people to defend them by legally demanding ICE be held accountable. I am not in an area where that is happening as I am in a red state in a mostly white area. But if you have the opportunity to use your white privilege please do. Yes I know Fox anger stations claim that doesn’t exist but then why are criminal ICE thugs not asking white people for their papers? Hugs from Scottie.
Under Bari Weiss leadership CBS twice reported that the murderer of Renee Good Jonathan Ross had internal bleeding based only on what the tRump admin told her to report for them. Despite other at the network disputing it and asking her not to report an unconfirmed fact. She got her job after a hard right white supremacist billionaire bought the network and put her there to support the tRump crime administration. Hugs
I think many of these ICE thugs would do this regardless because their dream is a white US ethnostate with their corrupt demented cult leader in charge even after his bloated body dies. Hugs
The event was not an isolated episode. The Washington Post on Friday reported the January 3 death of Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55, while in ICE custody, citing a medical examiner who believes his death to be a homicide. A fellow detainee said he witnessed Luna Campos being choked by guards.
Such incidents have come to characterise what is now the most aggressive immigration enforcement surge the city – and perhaps the country – has seen in decades.
The day before Good was killed, Washington announced the deployment of roughly 2,000 federal agents to the Minneapolis–St. Paul area. In the days following her death, an additional 1,000 officers from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) were deployed to the city, with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) hailing its “largest immigration operation ever.”
Caught in the chaos of a raid, Minneapolis City Council president Elliott Payne said the presence of heavily armed agents in combat gear felt “like an occupying force”.
Rather than de-escalate, Trump has threatened to go further. On Thursday, he raised the possibility of invoking the Insurrection Act to deploy troops in response to civil unrest.
“If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT,” Trump wrote on social media, promising to “quickly put an end to the travesty”.
A minor pretext for a massive show of force
The starting point of the escalation was relatively innocuous. The Trump administration initially alleged financial irregularities involving Somali-run daycare centres in Minnesota as justification for the first raids. Minnesota is home to the largest Somali community in the United States, estimated at around 84,000, most of whom are US citizens.
The decision to target the Somali community echoed Trump’s own rhetoric. In December, he said Somalis should not be welcome in the United States, comparing them to “garbage”. DHS reinforced the message in a post on X announcing the end of a temporary protected status: “Our message is clear. Go back to your own country, or we’ll send you back ourselves.”
What followed bore little resemblance to a targeted investigation. Residents reported agents sweeping through residential neighbourhoods and the parking lots of big-box stores, stopping people seemingly at random to demand their immigration status. “Masked men” broke into a north Minneapolis home without a judicial warrant, arresting a 38-year-old Liberian man as his wife and 9-year-old stepdaughter were inside, local public radio outlet MPR News reported.
Operation “Metro Surge” has brought together a rarely seen patchwork of agencies far from the border: three-quarters are from ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, AP reported, working alongside agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP).
This blending of uniforms, mandates and chains of command made it nearly impossible for civilians to know who was stopping them, under what authority, and what rights they retained.
A symbolically progressive city
The scale of coordination reflects a strategy first developed at the southern border. Shortly after returning to office in January 2025, Trump declared a national emergency at the border, triggering a significant mobilisation involving DHS, ICE, CBP, the National Guard and US Northern Command.
With the events in Minnesota, the same emergency logic and the same mix of civilian and quasi-military forces are now being applied hundreds of miles from the border.
Minneapolis is the most dramatic example so far, but not the only one. Federal immigration surges have already taken place or are planned in cities including Chicago, Phoenix, Denver, New York and Los Angeles.
Trump has shown little interest in calming tensions, using florid and almost biblical language to describe the continuing operation.
“FEAR NOT, GREAT PEOPLE OF MINNESOTA,” he wrote on Truth Social. “THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING!”
Immigration attorney Scott Shuchart says Minnesota offered a perfect opportunity for the Trump administration, which was looking for an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act as Trump has threatened to do.
“The administration has been trying to pick this fight, trying to find a place [resisting] enough to have an excuse to declare an insurrection and use more force,” Shuchart said. “Minneapolis was the next target. It’s ideal for them – it has a large Somali immigrant population, and there is [Minnesota Representative] Ilhan Omar, whom Trump hates. His people are very angry and, frankly, racist.”
Unlike law enforcement agents like police, who are trained in de-escalation tactics, ICE officers appear to relish doing the opposite.
“They are escalating rather than de-escalating,” Shuchart added. “They need this. They don’t want unity: disunity is good for them. Trump has never tried to be more popular or to appeal to the other side. By continuing to feel victimised, he empowers himself politically.”
Minneapolis represents both a symbolic and strategic target: it’s a Democratic stronghold, a “sanctuary city” where local authorities limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, and a place still nationally associated with protests against police violence over the killing of George Floyd in 2020. Minnesota is also governed by Tim Walz, the Democrats’ 2024 vice-presidential nominee.
According to DHS, the surge is part of a nationwide push to fulfil Trump’s promise to carry out the “largest deportation operation” in American history. ICE has more than doubled its manpower in less than a year, from roughly 10,000 officers to more than 22,000, driven by an aggressive recruitment campaign.
To staff that expansion, barriers to entry have been lowered. Deportation officers must be US citizens, pass a background check and drug screening, and meet basic physical requirements. The job requires carrying a firearm and explicitly authorises the use of deadly force “when necessary”.
“New recruits often have minimal education and abbreviated preparation. The danger is that it attracts people who are more loyal to Trump than to professional law enforcement,” said Shuchart, citing far-right, pro-Trump militias such as the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys.
That broader lack of professionalism has fed into another flashpoint in the operation: the use of masks by immigration agents. Acting ICE director Todd Lyons said the practice is intended to prevent officers from being doxxed. But it actually “spurs dangerous impersonations, impedes accountability for officers who are engaged in misconduct, and undermines trust in law enforcement”, the Center for American Progress argued in a report released on August 2025, when hundreds of officers from nearly 20 federal agencies were deployed to the streets of Washington.
In a confidential bulletin circulated to law enforcement agencies last month, the FBI even warned that criminals across several states have been posing as ICE officers to commit robberies, kidnappings and sexual assaults.
A deliberate media blur
The confusion has been amplified online. High-profile right-wing influencers were granted privileged access to operations, blurring the line between the administration, law enforcement agents and partisan media.
Figures with large followings, including “Dr Phil” McGraw and Libs of TikTok creator Chaya Raichik, were repeatedly invited on ride-alongs and allowed to interview senior officials, producing content that framed enforcement actions as necessary and heroic. ICE’s own social media accounts actively promoted the operation, which the Washington Post has described as a broader “media machine” designed to project strength and deter resistance.
Pro-Trump influencer Benny Johnson went even further, wearing a Border Patrol tactical vest to observe a raid at a Walmart in the Chicago area alongside Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem. In a video posted on X, he praised the operation as “amazing”, highlighting what he called “wild scenes”.
In order to please tRump and stave off the maga thugs republicans in elected office are trying desperately to change reality. Some are doing it to practice what tRump is able to do which is to make people accept his version of reality even when it is completely false and made up. No one but tRump can do that and he has been doing it since he was a kid. He has the ability to convince himself that what he wants to believe is true is true because he wants it. By the fact he was always wealthy or people thought he was it worked and twice he has had the power of the presidency along with the cult behind him. Other republicans don’t have that ability and can not command the maga cult. But that won’t stop them from trying. Hugs.
Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., is leading a congressional subcommittee reinvestigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The Trump administration has promoted a distorted and whitewashed history of that day’s events.
Andrew Harnik/AP
A new Republican-led congressional subcommittee to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol held its first public hearing this week. GOP lawmakers used the opportunity to criticize the Biden administration and, at times, promote conspiracy theories about the riot. An NPR fact check has identified multiple false and misleading claims from the hearing, which coincides with a broader effort by the Trump administration to rewrite the history of the attack.
The hearing unfolded against the backdrop of Trump’s mass pardons for the Jan. 6 defendants almost one year ago. Stewart Rhodes, the former leader of the Oath Keepers who was convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in the attack and sentenced to 18 years in prison, appeared at the front of the audience. Rhodes is one of a small group of former defendants who did not receive a full pardon from Trump, and instead received a commutation. As a result, Rhodes was released from prison but his seditious conspiracy conviction remains on his record.
The official topic for Wednesday’s hearing was “Examining the Investigation into the DNC and RNC Pipe Bombs.” On Jan. 6, just as rioters began breaching the outer perimeter of the Capitol, two bombs were discovered outside the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic national committees, diverting law enforcement resources at a critical moment.
During the Biden administration, the investigation into who planted the bombs stalled, and the lack of an arrest fueled conspiracy theories. Dan Bongino, the conservative podcaster who would later become deputy director of the FBI, said on his show in November 2024 that he was certain the bombs were placed by “either a connected anti-Trump insider or this was an inside job.”
A year later, Bongino told a very different story.
Former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino confirming the arrest of a suspect in the Jan. 6 pipe bomb case at the Department of Justice in 2025.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
While serving as a top FBI official, he appeared at a press conference announcing charges against Brian Cole Jr., a 30-year-old man from Virginia accused of planting the bombs. Cole, who has pleaded not guilty, twice voted for Trump, according to his lawyer. Federal prosecutors allege that Cole confessed and said he believed votes had been “tampered” with in the 2020 election.
Bongino addressed his shifting stance on the pipe bomber case on Fox News in December 2025. “I was paid in the past for my opinions,” Bongino said, “but that’s not what I’m paid for now. I’m paid to be your deputy director.” Bongino left the FBI at the beginning of January 2026 and is set to return to podcasting.
Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., who chairs the subcommittee, has made the pipe bomb case a central focus of his inquiry. He repeatedly criticized the FBI for failing to crack the case for nearly five years and said internal documents “paint a dismal picture” of the investigation during the Biden administration.
In one of the few moments of bipartisan agreement, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., praised the FBI under Director Kash Patel for making an arrest, calling it “a rare bright spot for federal law enforcement over the last year.”
But with the pipe bombing case now moving through the courts — rather than the political arena — lawmakers sometimes veered into claims that did not match the facts.
Trump supporters storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Samuel Corum/Getty Images
The claim:
“The Biden FBI did have undercover agents and confidential informants embedded within the rally crowds,” said Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La. “And the Biden FBI did conspire to entrap MAGA Americans prior to J6 and then successfully entrapped several hundred Americans on J6.”
The facts:
Joe Biden was not president on Jan. 6 — Donald Trump was.
At the time of the attack, the FBI was led by Christopher Wray, a Trump appointee.
Joe Biden took office on Jan. 20, 2021, two weeks after the riot, and Wray remained FBI director for the duration of his presidency.
A Department of Justice inspector general report examined the presence of confidential FBI sources in the crowds on Jan. 6 and found that “none of these FBI [Confidential Human Sources] was authorized by the FBI to enter the Capitol or a restricted area or to otherwise break the law on January 6, nor was any CHS directed by the FBI to encourage others to commit illegal acts on January 6.” The report also found no evidence “showing or suggesting that the FBI had undercover employees in the various protest crowds, or at the Capitol, on January 6.”
Higgins’ office did not respond to a request for comment.
Raskin said Trump failed to act decisively to stop the riot and “did nothing to send out the National Guard under his unilateral direct control in the District of Columbia.”
In response, Loudermilk countered that Trump “cannot just send the National Guard unless the National Guard is requested by the legislative branch.”
Referring to former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, Loudermilk said, “There were multiple requests made by the former chief of police for National Guard before the request to call them was given. And that was only after shots were fired in the Capitol. That request was made to the Department of Defense in the one o’clock hour on Jan. 6.”
The facts:
The president has direct control of the D.C. National Guard, and the Capitol Police requested assistance from the guard prior to the breach of the building. Still, troops did not arrive until hours later.
Loudermilk appears to have jumbled the timeline of the National Guard’s response, which is laid out in reports from both the Capitol Police and Department of Defense Office of Inspector General.
At 1:09 p.m. and again at 1:22 p.m., former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund asked the House and Senate sergeants at arms to declare an emergency and formally request help from the National Guard. By that point, rioters had breached the outer perimeter of the Capitol grounds and were assaulting police, but had not yet broken into the building.
At 1:49 p.m., Sund called the commanding general of the D.C. National Guard directly to request the assistance of guard troops at the Capitol.
At 2:10 p.m., Sund relayed that he received formal authorization from the Capitol Police Board.
At 2:13 p.m., rioters broke a Capitol window and began flooding into the building.
At 2:44 p.m., Capitol Police Officer Michael Byrd fired a single shot, striking rioter Ashli Babbitt as she attempted to breach a door to the Speaker’s Lobby, where members of Congress were trying to evacuate. Babbitt subsequently died. National Guard troops did not arrive at the Capitol until 5:55 p.m.
In an email to NPR, Loudermilk’s Deputy Chief of Staff Brandon Cockerham said that the congressman’s reference to a request made “only after shots were fired” was an allusion to a later moment in the timeline, when acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller authorized the mobilization of the National Guard.
“I believe the Chairman meant to use the word ‘authorization’ instead of ‘request’ as he was alluding to the authorized mobilization of the D.C. National Guard which came at approximately 3:04 PM,” Cockerham wrote.
Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, criticized police officers who testified before the previous Jan. 6 select committee, which was led by Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.
“They set out to have a highly pre-scripted hearing, designated to play on the emotions of Americans,” said Nehls. “For example, the hearing with Capitol Police officers Dunn, Gonell, Fanone, Hodges — four Trump haters who gave highly scripted and pre-planned testimonies.”
The facts:
Nehls was referring to testimony by Harry Dunn and Aquilino Gonell, who served with the Capitol Police, and Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges, who served with D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department.
All four officers have publicly criticized Trump, in large part because of the injuries and trauma they suffered defending the Capitol on Jan. 6.
But their politics are not as simple as Nehls suggested.
Fanone, who was dragged into the crowd and repeatedly beaten and shocked in the neck by a rioter with a Taser-style device, voted for Trump in 2016.
“I was looking for a candidate that supported law enforcement,” Fanone told NPR in an interview last year. “I regret the decision. It was clearly the wrong decision in hindsight.”
Fanone suffered a traumatic brain injury and a minor heart attack due to the assaults on Jan. 6.
Nehls’ office did not respond to NPR’s request for comment.
Scottie's Playtime 