NewsFlash

Green card holder from New Hampshire 'interrogated' at Logan Airport, detained

A New Hampshire man with a green card was detained by immigration officers at Logan Airport and is being held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Donald W. Wyatt detention facility in Central Falls, Rhode Island. Fabian Schmidt’s family said they are unsure of why he is being held. They said he has a recently renewed green card, and no active issues in court. Schmidt had been visiting Luxembourg and flew back to the U.S. on Friday. His partner had gone to pick him up at Logan Airport, and waited four hours before calling authorities. “It was just said that his green card was flagged,” said Astrid Senior, his mother.

She said she didn’t hear from her son directly until Tuesday, when she learned he’d been hospitalized. Senior described Schmidt being “violently interrogated” at Logan Airport for hours, and being stripped naked, put in a cold shower by two officials, and being put back onto a chair. She said Schmidt told her immigration agents pressured him to give up his green card. She said he was placed on a mat in a bright room with other people at the airport, with little food or water, suffered sleep deprivation, and was denied access to his medication for anxiety and depression. “He hardly got anything to drink. And then he wasn’t feeling very well and he collapsed,” said Senior.  He was transported by ambulance to Mass General Hospital. He didn’t know it at the time, but he also had influenza.

On Tuesday, Schmidt was transported to the regional headquarters for ICE in Burlington, Massachusetts, and then transferred to the Wyatt facility. The family, including his partner, who is a cardiologist in Nashua, have acquired attorneys and been working with the German consulate in hopes to have him released on bail.

MORE at https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2025-03-14/green-card-holder-from-new-hampshire-interrogated-at-logan-airport-detained

SEE RELATED - https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/03/16/mass-deportation-ice-detains-non-criminals/82304354007/


[So it's not just the TJ border crossing that's a problem.  Be careful when traveling to the USA if you are not a citizen.]

Brown Medicine doctor deported despite federal court order.

A federal court order that would have halted the immediate deportation of a Rhode Island doctor was issued Friday evening while the doctor’s departing plane sat on the tarmac at Boston Logan International Airport, said a family friend and colleague. But the plane ultimately took off, carrying Dr. Rasha Alawieh out of the country for reasons still unclear to her family, her lawyer and Brown Medicine colleagues such as Dr. Basma Merhi. “They did not do anything to stop the plane,” said Merhi, who was learning details of the event through information relayed by Alawieh family members. “So, clearly, they wanted to deport her regardless of if there was a judge’s order or not. She didn’t do anything wrong.”

Alawieh had been studying and working in the U.S. for the last six years and had been in Rhode Island, working for Brown Medicine in the Division of Kidney Disease & Hypertension, since last July. She worked at Rhode Island Hospital evaluating potential transplant recipients and followed the progress of those patients after their procedures, Dr. George Bayliss, the transplant division’s medical director, said Saturday. Customs officials at Logan detained Alawieh, 34, on Thursday as she was returning from a two-week trip home to Lebanon to visit family, said Merhi and lawyer Thomas S. Brown, who handles immigration and visa issues for doctors affiliated with Brown Medicine. Brown said Alawieh was returning to the U.S. on an H-1B visa she had recently acquired at the American consulate in Lebanon...

Despite repeated requests from Dr. Alawieh’s family members and a volunteer attorney, CBP refuses to provide any justification for their detention, refuses to allow the attorneys to talk to Dr. Alawieh, and refuses to provide assurances that Dr. Alawieh will not be deported to Lebanon.”...Later Friday, U.S. District Judge Leo T. Sorokin issued an order saying Alawieh could not leave Massachusetts without 48 hours' notice to give the court time to “consider the matter.”...

Merhi said Saturday that Alawieh had been given a two-minute phone call when her plane landed in Paris. She called her mother and told her not to worry. She is being held there at the airport in a detention facility until she flies on to Lebanon on Sunday, she said. “They are treating her like a terrorist,” said Merhi. “It is ridiculous. She is an accomplished doctor, she is treating patients, who is treated like a criminal. And she is following all the rules. She is not doing anything wrong. And her Visa is valid.”

MORE HERE - https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/brown-medicine-doctor-deported-despite-federal-court-order-what-we-know/ar-AA1AZjlX


[SO, to echo the advice my old university was giving to green carders and H1Bs (and pretty much anyone in-country on a visa) the last time Trump took office, do not travel outside the USA at present unless it's a matter of life or death. You may not be able to get back in regardless of your immigration status being in order, and your treatment will be less than civilized.]

UPDATE:  ICE maintains the "deleted/trash" file on her phone had photos of terrorists on the ICE list. She said family members had sent them to her and she had no interest in the politics. She did admit to going to the funeral of a local (?) leader/prominent person, who is also on the ICE list, for purely religious reasons.  That was enough for ICE to label her a sympathizer and prohibit her re-entry into the USA. Some of her lawyers have dropped her case like a hot rock.

...In addition to increased arrests, ICE detention facilities are rapidly expanding to meet demand. Documents from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) reveal that plans to increase detention capacity have been underway since September, before the Trump administration assumed office. At least eight states—Michigan, California, Kansas, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Texas, and Washington—have been identified for potential new facilities.

Private corporations such as GEO Group, Inc., CoreCivic, and Management and Training Corporation (MTC) have submitted bids to operate these facilities. Meanwhile, ICE is reportedly exploring options to build 14 medium-sized detention sites, with a capacity for 1,000 detainees each, as well as four larger sites, each capable of holding up to 10,000 individuals. Earlier this month, approval was granted to utilize the Guantanamo Bay Naval base, which received its first migrant detainees on February 5, 2025, after being converted to function as a large-scale detention facility. The Department of Defense has also allowed ICE to use a Colorado Space Force base for detention purposes....

FROM  - https://www.visaverge.com/immigration/ice-detention-expands-as-immigrants-plead-their-cases-in-crowded-courts

SEE ALSO -

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/immigrant-detention-centers-are-capacity-trump-admin-officials-say-rcna196085

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ice-releases-some-migrant-detainees-detention-facilities-reach-109-percent-capacity/


[So, we're building concentration camps. Uh...this will not end well.]

Parents deported to Mexico while seeking brain cancer treatment for young American daughter

The undocumented parents of a 10-year-old US citizen whose family was removed to Mexico say they are desperately seeking a way for either of them to return to the US with the girl so she can continue brain cancer treatment. The girl’s care was interrupted last month, when she, her parents and four of her siblings were detained at a Border Patrol checkpoint in Texas and were subsequently removed from the US to Mexico following the parents’ decision to take their children with them rather than separate, according to Texas Civil Rights Project (TCRP), an immigration nonprofit representing the family. The parents have “no criminal records,” according to Danny Woodward, an attorney with TCRP. All but one of the couple’s children are US citizens, TCRP said.

At the time they were detained, the parents – who asked to be identified only by the pseudonyms “Juan” and “Maria” due to safety concerns – had been taking their daughter to a Houston medical center for ongoing care after she was diagnosed with a brain tumor last year and later underwent surgery. Getting their daughter care meant a five-hour drive from where they lived in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, which lies along the border with Mexico. It also meant clearing a Border Patrol checkpoint inside the state in order to reach the hospital. Such longstanding federal checkpoints are designed to detect contraband and undocumented migrants moving into the country’s interior. In a video statement given to CNN by TCRP, the mother said the trip to Houston – a 350-mile drive – was “routine” until February 3. “This time we were detained and were confronted with the hardest decision to make, which was separate permanently from our children, or be deported together,” the mother said in the statement, as she struggled through tears.

The little girl began experiencing headaches and dizziness the morning of February 3, prompting her parents to follow doctor’s orders and immediately return to the hospital, according to Woodward. With a physician’s letter in hand explaining the girl’s dire condition, the family’s vehicle approached Border Patrol agents at a checkpoint in Sarita, Texas, roughly 90 miles into the journey.  “The family had passed through the checkpoint at Sarita a handful of times going to post-op medical appointments using this letter and for that reason they weren’t concerned,” Woodward told CNN. But instead of the routine clearance, Maria, Juan and the five children were questioned for hours, then were transported south to a federal processing facility, where they spent the night. The next day, they were taken to a nearby port of entry and were walked across the US-Mexico border by immigration authorities, Woodward said. The couple’s oldest child, who is also a US citizen, was not traveling with the family at the time and remains in the US, according to TCRP.

The immigration attorney characterizes the couple’s status in Texas as “living clean, wholesome lives trying to raise their kids.” They “worked in the agricultural sector doing things like packing fruits and vegetables at produce-packing plants” and “had no criminal records or anything to speak of,” Woodward said. ....

MORE - https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/15/us/parents-deported-mexico-daughter-cancer-treatment/index.html

Federal judge temporarily blocks Trump’s ability to quickly deport noncitizens under Alien Enemies Act

A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s ability to use a sweeping wartime authority to quickly deport some migrants whom the US has accused of being affiliated with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. The judge also ordered any planes in the air carrying some of those migrants to turn back to the US. 

Earlier Saturday, the Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which gives the president tremendous authority to target and remove undocumented immigrants, to speed up the deportations of migrants. The law is designed to be invoked if the US is at war with another country, or a foreign nation has invaded the US or threatened to do so.  US District Judge James Boasberg had blocked the administration from deporting five individuals who challenged President Donald Trump’s use of the act. Following a hastily scheduled hearing hours later, Boasberg broadened his temporary block on the administration, granting a request from the plaintiffs’ lawyers to certify a provisional class that covers all noncitizens in US custody who would be subject to Trump’s proclamation. Boasberg, who serves as the chief judge of the federal trial-level court in Washington, DC, agreed that those individuals’ deportations should also be temporarily blocked while the legal challenge proceeds.

“Particularly given the plaintiffs’ information, unrebutted by the government, that flights are actively departing and planning to depart, I do not believe that I’m able to wait any longer,” Boasberg continued. “Any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States.”  The judge said the temporary restraining order will remain in effect for 14 days “or until further order of the court.” He set another hearing in the case for later this month. “I think there’s clearly irreparable harm here given these folks will be deported,” Boasberg said. “A brief delay in their removal does not cause the government any harm.”

The Justice Department has appealed Boasberg’s decisions to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.   

MORE AT - https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/15/politics/judge-blocks-trump-wartime-authorities-alien-enemies-act/index.html

Apparently there were deportations after the judge had ruled there could be no deportations.  If that is true, it means Trump has defied a legal order of the court. Ordinarily, that would be an impeachable offense. However, that's not going to happen. If true, and there are no negative consequences to the perpetrator, it means the government is irreparably broken. Another way to put that would be that we no longer have a democratic republic, we have a dictatorship.

SEE - https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-admin-ignores-judges-order-bring-deportation-planes/story?id=119857181

Apparently there were deportations after the judge had ruled there could be no deportations.  If that is true, it means Trump has defied a legal order of the court. Ordinarily, that would be an impeachable offense. However, that's not going to happen. If true, and there are no negative consequences to the perpetrator, it means the government is irreparably broken. Another way to put that would be that we no longer have a democratic republic, we have a dictatorship.

SEE - https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-admin-ignores-judges-order-bring-deportation-planes/story?id=119857181

The SCOTUS has already ruled that dictatorships are okay by stating that a president cannot break the law while in office.

The SCOTUS has already ruled that dictatorships are okay by stating that a president cannot break the law while in office.

To flesh out your statement for those unaware:


In Trump v. United States, the court’s Republican-appointed justices — including the three Trump appointees — announced a brand new constitutional immunity from criminal liability for presidents’ “official acts,” or anything a president may do using the powers of the office. The court’s decision ensures that future presidents — including Trump himself should he win reelection in November — will know that they can escape criminal accountability for blatantly criminal acts, no matter how corrupt. Even acts that strike at the heart of our democracy, like resisting the peaceful transition of power, could not be prosecuted.

The court tried to cast its opinion as restrained, emphasizing that it rejected former President Trump’s most extreme claim: that presidents can only be prosecuted for crimes for which they had already been impeached. But as Justice Sonia Sotomayor pointed out in a powerful dissent, there is nothing measured about the opinion or its consequences. The court grants absolute immunity against criminal prosecution for any of a president’s “core” executive acts, which the court went on to define as including any use of the Justice Department—an ostensibly and traditionally independent agency–for criminal investigation. And it grants “presumptive” immunity for any acts within the “outer perimeter of his official responsibility.” While the latter immunity is in theory rebuttable, the court set such a high standard for rebutting it that it may be effectively absolute as well....

As Justice Sotomayor wrote in her dissent:

    "The President of the United States is the most powerful person in the country, and possibly the world. When he uses his official powers in any way, under the majority’s reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution. Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune."




FROM - https://www.aclu.org/news/civil-liberties/supreme-court-grants-trump-future-presidents-a-blank-check-to-break-the-law


[NOTE - This does not mean he can't be impeached. He just can't be held criminally liable. Until the Republican Party decides to support Impeachment, it's highly unlikely to happen. And then we get that other guy moving up to take over as Pres... I'm not sure that's an improvement, really.]

FOR REFERENCE - Impeachment is the most powerful check that Congress has on the executive branch. Trump was impeached by the House twice during his first term, but the Senate voted to acquit him on both occasions. There is no limit to how many times a president can be impeached.

    1) Introduction of articles of impeachment: Any member of the House can introduce articles of impeachment against the president or a federal officer. Or the House can begin the impeachment process based on an investigation.
    2) House Judiciary Committee review: The committee typically conducts the investigation, holding hearings and deciding if the charges against the official warrant impeachment.
    3) House vote: The articles are presented to the full House of Representatives. If the House approves one or more articles of impeachment by a simple majority vote, the official is considered impeached.
    4) Senate trial: The process moves to the Senate, where a trial is held to determine if the official should be removed from office.
    5) Senate vote: At the conclusion of the trial, the Senate votes on whether to convict the impeached official. A two-thirds majority is required for conviction. If convicted, the president or official is removed from office. In some cases, the Senate may also vote to disqualify the person from holding a federal office in the future.]

FROM - https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-impeachment-articles-whats-next-2027278

Arlington National Cemetery has begun wiping from its website histories highlighting Black, Hispanic and women veterans. The change is in line with President Trump's directive to remove references to and support for diversity, equity and inclusion from the federal government. A U.S. official not authorized to talk to media told NPR the removal of links and sections about these groups have been dubbed a "digital content refresh" by top Pentagon officials. The story was first reported by Civil War historian Kevin M. Levin on his Substack newsletter and by Task & Purpose, a publication focused on military news. Articles, photos and videos that are seen as promoting DEI will be removed under the new approach. For example, Gen. Colin Powell was the first Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion was the first corps comprised only of Black women to work overseas during World War II. Their stories are no longer prominent on the website, but can still be found using the search function. Additionally, the Pentagon has marked thousands of photos representing diverse veterans to be removed from the website, according to the Associated Press.

FROM - https://www.npr.org/2025/03/14/g-s1-54054/arlington-national-cemetery-dei-website



War heroes are among 26,000 images flagged for removal in Pentagon's DEI purge WASHINGTON — References to a World War II Medal of Honor recipient, the Enola Gay aircraft that dropped an atomic bomb on Japan and the first women to pass Marine infantry training are among the tens of thousands of photos and online posts marked for deletion as the Defense Department works to purge diversity, equity and inclusion content, according to a database obtained by The Associated Press. The database, which was confirmed by U.S. officials and published by AP, includes more than 26,000 images that have been flagged for removal across every military branch. But the eventual total could be much higher....The Air Force briefly removed new recruit training courses that included videos of the Tuskegee Airmen soon after Trump's order.... In some cases, the removal was partial. The main page in a post titled "Women's History Month: All-female crew supports warfighters" was removed. But at least one of the photos in that collection about an all-female C-17 crew could still be accessed. A shot from the Army Corps of Engineers titled "Engineering pioneer remembered during Black History Month" was deleted. Other photos flagged in the database but still visible Thursday included images of the World War II Women Air Service Pilots and one of U.S. Air Force Col. Jeannie Leavitt, the country's first female fighter pilot.

MORE - https://www.npr.org/2025/03/07/nx-s1-5321003/pentagon-images-flagged-removal-dei-purge-trump


So they have now stooped so low as to dishonor the military dead.           

 

Federal judge blocks dismantling of USAID, saying it "likely violated" the Constitution
From CNN's Katelyn Polantz

A federal judge has indefinitely blocked the dismantling of USAID and cut off staffers from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from sharing sensitive personal data kept by the agency, in a major win for groups broadly challenging Musk’s role in the federal government.

“The court finds that Defendants’ unilateral actions to shut down USAID likely violated the United States Constitution,” Judge Theodore D. Chuang of the US District Court in Maryland said today.

CNN -

SEE ALSO   https://www.cbsnews.com/news/judge-finds-doges-usaid-shutdown-likely-unconstitutional/

 


Chief Justice Roberts says impeaching judges "not an appropriate response" to disagreement, rebuking Trump

Washington — Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare statement Tuesday defending federal judges who have issued decisions against the Trump administration, saying that "impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement" with a court's decision.  "For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision," Roberts said in the statement distributed by the Supreme Court's public information office. "The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose."

Roberts' statement comes after President Trump attacked a federal district judge on Truth Social and called for his impeachment. The judge, James Boasberg, temporarily blocked the Trump administration on Saturday from using the wartime law called the Alien Enemies Act to detain and deport noncitizens. Boasberg had issued an oral order from the bench requiring planes carrying 261 people that were on their way to Central America to return to the U.S. The Trump administration had alleged that 137 of the people on board the planes had ties to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and were removed from the U.S. under the Alien Enemies Act. Despite Boasberg's order, two planes landed in El Salvador, sparking allegations that the Trump administration had defied a court order.

"This Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator who was sadly appointed by Barack Hussein Obama, was not elected President - He didn't WIN the popular VOTE (by a lot!), he didn't WIN ALL SEVEN SWING STATES, he didn't WIN 2,750 to 525 Counties, HE DIDN'T WIN ANYTHING!" Mr. Trump wrote in his post.  The president added that Boasberg and "many of the Crooked Judges' I am forced to appear before" should be "IMPEACHED!!!"

Mr. Trump's targeting of Boasberg, who was appointed to the U.S. district court in Washington, D.C., by President Barack Obama, is an escalation in the ongoing attacks on federal judges who have been overseeing the dozens of challenges to the president's policies. Some of those judges have ordered the Trump administration to put its plans on hold while legal proceedings move forward, sparking condemnations from the president's allies and threats of impeachment. The Justice Department has appealed many of those rulings and sought emergency relief from the Supreme Court in three court fights so far.

Federal judges are appointed for life and can only be removed from the bench if they are impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate. Just 15 judges have been impeached in U.S. history, most recently in 2010. Eight of those 15 have been convicted and removed from office. Elon Musk, a senior adviser to the president, has taken to social media repeatedly to call on the judges to be impeached, claiming they are "evil." In a post last month on X, the social media company he owns, Musk claimed the country is witnessing "an attempted coup of American democracy by radical left activists posing as judges." In another post, he wrote that there "need to be some repercussions above zero for judges who make truly terrible decisions." Republicans in the House have also introduced impeachment resolutions against at least three judges because of rulings they dislike, which were issued in the early stages of legal challenges to Mr. Trump's policies.

In response to the attacks on members of the judiciary, two Republican-appointed judges warned last week that they strike at judicial independence. "Our system of government is premised on three independent branches and a judiciary that can function independently," Judge Richard Sullivan, who sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, said during a call with reporters hosted by the Judicial Conference. "That's what makes it work, and so it's crucial that people understand that." Judge Jeffrey Sutton, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, said it's a "shame" to see judges attacked simply for doing their jobs. "Threats to judges are threats to judicial independence. They've been around for a long time. There's lots of different mechanisms. Threats of impeachment — this is not the first time this has happened," he said. "One thing worth keeping in mind is if we dilute the standards for impeachment, that's not just a problem for judges, that's a problem for all three branches of government."

Roberts has spoken about the importance of judicial independence before, namely in his year-end report issued to close out 2024. He highlighted four areas that he said threatened the independence of judges: violence, intimidation, disinformation and threats to defy lawfully entered judgments. Roberts is the presiding officer of the Judicial Conference, the policymaking body for the judiciary. Such statements from the chief justice are rare, but it is not the first time Roberts has pushed back against Mr. Trump's comments.

In 2018, after the president complained about a federal judge who ruled against an asylum policy during his first term and referred to him as an "Obama judge," Roberts said the U.S. doesn't have "Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges. What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/john-roberts-trump-judge-impeachment-chief-justice/

SEE ALSO - https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/18/politics/john-roberts-donald-trump-impeachment/index.html

[NOTE:  Roberts was appointed by George "W" Bush and is considered a conservative judge.]

 

Judge blocks Trump's executive order barring transgender people from the military
Updated on: March 18, 2025 / 7:39 PM EDT / CBS News

Washington — A federal judge on Tuesday blocked enforcement of a new Defense Department policy barring transgender people from serving in the U.S. military.  U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes granted a request for a preliminary injunction sought by transgender active-duty service members and transgender people who are in the process of enlisting. The judge's order temporarily blocks Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and the military services from implementing President Trump's executive order and additional guidance that prohibits transgender people from serving in the military.  But the judge put her order on hold until March 21 to give the Justice Department time to seek emergency relief from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Reyes, appointed by former President Joe Biden, issued her decision after holding several hours of hearings earlier this month, during which she sharply questioned Justice Department lawyers about the Defense Department's justifications for the ban. "Indeed, the cruel irony is that thousands of transgender servicemembers have sacrificed — some risking their lives —to ensure for others the very equal protection rights the Military Ban seeks to deny them," Reyes wrote in her 79-page decision, later adding, "The court's opinion is long, but its premise is simple.  In the self-evident truth that 'all people are created equal,' all means all. Nothing more. And certainly nothing less."

Jennifer Levi, senior director of transgender and queer rights for GLAD Law, one of the lead attorneys in the case, called the ruling "decisive" and said it "speaks volumes." "The court's unambiguous factual findings lay bare how this ban specifically targets and undermines our courageous service members who have committed themselves to defending our nation. Given the court's clear-eyed assessment, we are confident this ruling will stand strong on appeal," Levi said in a statement.

The policy arose out of an executive order Mr. Trump issued in late January that directed Hegseth to implement a policy for transgender service members based on troop readiness. The order stated that "adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual's sex conflicts with a soldier's commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one's personal life. A man's assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member."

The executive order also revoked a measure implemented in January 2021 by President Joe Biden that allowed transgender individuals to serve in the U.S. military. In response to Mr. Trump's directive, Hegseth issued a memorandum in early February that halted recruitment of new service members diagnosed with gender dysphoria and paused gender-affirming care for transgender troops. The Pentagon then said in a late February document that the U.S. would begin removing transgender troops from the military within 30 days unless they obtained a waiver. The memo said that individuals with a diagnosis or history of gender dysphoria "are no longer eligible for military service." It also said that pronoun usage when referring to a service member must reflect his or her sex and barred the use of Pentagon funds for gender-affirming care.

The lawsuit before Reyes was filed in late January by a group of more than a dozen transgender active-duty service members, one person enlisted in U.S. Army basic training and five transgender people who were in the process of enlisting. They argued that the ban was unconstitutional and sought a court order blocking its enforcement.


MORE HERE - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/judge-blocks-trumps-executive-order-barring-transgender-people-from-the-military/

SEE ALSO

A federal judge has indefinitely blocked President Donald Trump’s ban on transgender service members, dealing a major defeat to a controversial policy the president resurrected from his first term. In a scathing ruling, US District Judge Ana Reyes said the administration cannot enforce the ban — which was set to take effect later this month. Reyes, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, wrote that the ban “is soaked in animus and dripping with pretext. Its language is unabashedly demeaning, its policy stigmatizes transgender persons as inherently unfit, and its conclusions bear no relation to fact.” “Indeed, the cruel irony is that thousands of transgender servicemembers have sacrificed – some risking their lives – to ensure for others the very equal protection rights the Military Ban seeks to deny them,” she wrote.

From https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/18/politics/transgender-military-court-ruling/index.html

WASHINGTON, March 18 (Reuters) - Democratic U.S. lawmakers will call on President Donald Trump's administration to restore a program that helps track thousands of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia, and to use sanctions to punish those responsible for the rights violation. As it slashes a wide range of U.S. government programs and most foreign aid, the Republican president's administration has ended a government-funded initiative led by Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab (Yale HRL) that tracked the mass deportation of children from Ukraine, the lawmakers said.

That decision meant researchers have lost access to a trove of information, including satellite imagery and other data, about some 30,000 children taken from Ukraine. "We have reason to believe that the data from the repository has been permanently deleted. If true, this would have devastating consequences," the Democratic lawmakers, led by Ohio Representative Greg Landsman, said in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent seen by Reuters on Tuesday and due to be sent on Wednesday.

FROM - https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-administration-halts-program-track-abducted-ukrainian-children-lawmakers-2025-03-18/

Trump Officials Say Deportees Were Gang Members. So Far, Few Details. - Families and immigration lawyers argue not all of the deportees sent to a prison in El Salvador over the weekend had ties to gangs.

... In a court document it filed on Monday night after the hearing, Robert L. Cerna II, a senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement official, asserted that each of the individuals had been investigated and vetted and that those efforts had involved surveillance data, a review of financial transactions and interviews with victims. But a number of questions were raised by Mr. Cerna’s filing, in which he said an ICE database showed that some of those sent to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act had been arrested and convicted in the United States “for dangerous offenses” and that others had convictions outside the country. Mr. Cerna also acknowledged, though, that “many” did not have criminal records in American courts, though he said that did not mean they would “pose a limited threat.” Still others were said to have been in proximity to Tren de Aragua members during law enforcement raids on vehicles and residences when they were caught in the dragnet.

A growing chorus of families, elected officials and immigration lawyers have begun coming forward in the news media to reject or cast doubt on the allegations. Some lawyers — sent into frantic searches for their clients in detention centers across the country — believe their clients have been singled out simply for their tattoos. Immigration lawyers in New York were able to stop the deportation of at least one Venezuelan who they said had no ties to the gang.

Lindsay Toczylowski, a lawyer with the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, said her client was a young professional in his 30s who worked in the arts industry and had been in detention since he sought entry into the United States last year, when he applied for asylum using an online government app, CBP One. She said her client had come under suspicion because of his tattoos, but his lawyers had not been given the opportunity to counter the claims through a court hearing. He was transferred earlier this month from California to Texas, she said, and by Saturday, he had disappeared from the online detainee locator. “Our client is proof that they didn’t do the due diligence to understand who they were sending to El Salvador at all,” she said, declining to name the young man out of concern for his safety....

“The Trump administration is deporting immigrants without due process based solely on their nationality,” Senator Dick Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, said in a statement on Monday. “Courts determine whether people have broken the law. Not a president acting solo.” More than 260 people deported to El Salvador over the weekend included 137 people removed through the Alien Enemies Act. An additional 101 were Venezuelans were deported under normal immigration proceedings, according to Trump administration officials. Lawyers and legal experts said that even under wartime conditions, detainees are entitled to due process. “The Alien Enemy Act expressly provides for ‘a full examination and hearing’ before noncitizens can be removed under the statute,” Stephen Vladeck, a professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center, said in an email. “Even in the middle of the Second World War, federal courts would hold hearings to determine if alleged alien enemies were, in fact, citizens of countries with which we’re at war.”...

FROM/MORE at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/us/trump-deportations-venezuela-gang.html

See #382 above....

Highest-Ranking Black Medal of Honor Recipient Erased in Pentagon DEI Purge

The latest casualty in the Department of Defense's sweep of all things related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is Charles Calvin Rogers, a Black Army officer who received the Medal of Honor for his gallant defense of a firebase near South Vietnam's border with Cambodia in 1968. He'd spent his entire career challenging discrimination in the Army. The DoD's popular "Medal of Honor Monday" series spotlighted then-Lt. Col. Rogers' story in a November 2021 feature. Over the weekend, the story was taken down and its URL altered to include the letters "DEI" in the web address, a change that author and Afghanistan veteran Brandon Friedman first noted on BlueSky. ...

In July 1967, Rogers was deployed to Vietnam in command of 1st Battalion, 5th Artillery, 1st Infantry Division, where he would spend the next two years. On Oct. 31, 1968, his unit was stationed at Fire Base Rita, strategically located near the Cambodian border and the Ho Chi Minh Trail. U.S. and South Vietnam troops were still pushing the North Vietnamese back from their successes during the Tet Offensive earlier that year and disrupting the Viet Cong's ability to move on targets in the South. As the day turned to night, Rogers knew there was increased activity along the border, but he could not fire into Cambodia -- all he could do was wait. He didn't have to wait that long. He couldn't see the enemy approaching the base, digging in and waiting to penetrate the outer perimeter with bangalore mines. At 3:30 in the morning on Nov. 1, the attack finally came.

Amid the call of bugles, North Vietnamese regulars hit the base with a sudden hail of mortars, rockets and RPGs, followed by the first of three massed human wave attacks. As the enemy penetrated their perimeter, Rogers moved through the fusillade of bullets, fragmentation and explosions to get his dazed men back on their guns. They were firing horizontally to prevent the masses of men from overrunning the artillery. Rogers was knocked to the ground by an explosive that peppered his body with shrapnel, but quickly got back up and led a counterattack against enemy soldiers who had reached his howitzers. Though wounded once more in that counterassault, he pressed the attack to repel the enemy. He had just enough time to reestablish his defensive positions before the next wave came at them.

This time, the attack was directed at another area of the base. Rogers directed his artillery gunners at the oncoming enemy before leading another counterassault to clear the communists from that part of the fire base. Encouraged by his leadership, Rogers' men began to rally, fighting through the night as he directed their fire and urged them on.  At dawn came the third human wave, and once again, Rogers moved to counter it. When one of his howitzers was knocked out by a mortar, he jumped in to man the gun like a regular crewman, firing rounds into the oncoming mass of enemies. While loading the howitzer, he was struck by a mortar and could no longer physically continue, but still provided direction and encouragement. With the coming day, the U.S. regained its airpower and the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) was forced to retreat.

On May 14, 1970, President Richard Nixon presented the Medal of Honor to Rogers at a White House ceremony for his gallant leadership in defending Fire Base Rita. He then returned to combat duty in Vietnam. Rogers' storied Army career continued until his retirement as a major general in 1984. He also received the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross, four Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart....




FROM https://www.military.com/history/highest-ranking-black-medal-of-honor-recipient-erased-pentagon-dei-purge.html

The US Institute of Peace has filed suit against the Trump administration after the Department of Government Efficiency’s takeover of the independent organization and gutting of its board.

A lawsuit filed Tuesday in DC district court seeks “the immediate intervention of this Court to stop Defendants from completing the unlawful dismantling of the Institute and irreparably impairing Plaintiffs’ ability to perform their vital peace promotion and conflict resolution work as tasked by Congress.” The suit was filed after DOGE personnel, accompanied by DC police officers, gained access to the US Institute of Peace Monday after being turned away last week. That dramatic escalation followed the Trump administration’s Friday gutting of the organization’s board.

About the US Institute of Peace: USIP, which works to resolve conflict, is not a federal agency. It was created by Congress as a nonpartisan, independent body in 1984, and USIP owns and manages its headquarters.

A declaration filed as part of the lawsuit from the institute’s chief security officer alleges that the one USIP employee who “possesses the technological capability to access the Infrastructure and to grant others access” was traveling to Washington, DC, “at the behest of DOGE … in order to access the Infrastructure and grant access to DOGE as soon as the evening of March 18, 2025.”  Another memorandum of support states that “USIP also has reason to believe that Defendants or those working in concert with them are currently in the USIP building, causing physical damage to the premises and physically accessing and disposing of USIP financial records.” It included a photo taken Tuesday of a trash can full of files, some of which appear financial, marked “SHRED.”

MORE - https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/19/politics/us-institute-of-peace-sues-after-doge-takeover/index.html