ICE Detains Puerto Ricans, Leavitt Declares Birthright "Unconstitutional", Homan Laments "Well-Educated" Chicago
Welcome to our new morning rundown of immigration stories for paid subscribers (which we're thinking of calling the "Daily Shit Show").
Good morning! Welcome to our first installment of our morning recap of the Trump administration’s catastrophes in migrant communities. We’re thinking about calling it the Daily Shitshow. Literally. Any objections? Let me know in the comments. If not, let’s call this Daily Shitshow No. 1. Without further ado, let's jump right in —
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ON TUESDAY …
Here's what Grok came up with when I asked it to "create an image of White House “border czar” Tom Homan feeling dumb in an ICE uniform surrounded by very well-educated Chicago residents" —
Not quite what I had in mind, but it does the job, so we're going with it because Homan literally said this on CNN yesterday:
"Sanctuary cities are making it very difficult to arrest the criminals. For instance Chicago, very well educated, they’ve been educated how to defy ICE, how to hide from ICE,” Homan said. “They call it ‘Know Your Rights.’ I call it how to escape arrest."
DIG DEEPER: “Chicago ‘Very Well Educated’ In Defying ICE, Border Czar Says As Immigration Crackdown Leads To 100+ Arrests” (Block Club Chicago)
LEAVITT DEBUTS. Homan's daily fame bath on cable news was something, but White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt took the cake just after midday at her first-ever press briefing from the podium which she used to declare birthright citizenship unconstitutional. Literally. Her reasoning? The Trump administration said so. Here's the clip —
Moments later at the briefing…
REPORTER: “Can you just tell us how many [apprehended illegal migrants] have a criminal record versus those who are just in the country illegally?”
LEAVITT: “All of them because they illegally broke our nation’s laws and therefore they are criminals.”
Of course, as Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council points out, the Supreme Court unequivocally disagrees with Leavitt and the White House legal hacks who are advising it.
DIG DEEPER. Trump's flaccid executive order on birthright citizenship has already been paused by the courts where it will eventually die. Meanwhile, it will be a distraction, low-hanging fruit for Democrats without a message and pundits without the substance to the actual damage being caused by some of Trump's more low-key (but hugely impactful) immigration policy changes.
On The View …
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) told the hosts yesterday that he and his wife, Gisele, a formerly undocumented immigrant from Brazil, met with the president for over an hour at Mar-a-lago — and that Dreamers came up.
NEWS TIP: The senior senator was not asked on The View for the details of his immigration discussion with Trump. We look to remedy this oversight when we next see the Pennsylvania senator on our beat—
Around the Nation…
IN MILWAUKEE ....Puerto Ricans are born U.S. citizens, not immigrants, but the ICE field officers detained them anyway on Tuesday, sparking a righteous outcry from the boricua community (Telemundo Puerto Rico).
IN MARYLAND .… Barry Simmons reports that ICE detained a 16-year-old yesterday. "They asked me questions: Am I an American citizen? And, (they asked) for my ID. I showed proof to them," said the student (WBALTV).
IN NEW YORK CITY … Newly confirmed DHS secretary Kristi Noem got dolled up in full makeup for a ride-along with ICE agents yesterday morning. DHS sources told us that “three or four Chevy Suburbans full of people [were] not able to do their job because she was there showboating.”
“They’re taking people away from the Joint Terrorism Taskforce, HSI, and the ATF, whose job it is to literally investigate child pornography and other major threats to America, all so they can be social media influencers,” the source continued.
WATCH THIS SPACE: Federal law enforcement officials, including enforcement and removal agents at ICE, are not happy. Despite the flashy removal numbers the Trump administration proudly posts at midnight, agency insiders at DHS have huge capacity concerns as the detentions increase on unfunded mandates from Congress and the White House.
Back in Washington …
ON CAPITOL HILL ... Freshman Senator Bernie Moreno (R-OH) has introduced a new bill aimed at curbing asylum to the U.S. We scooped the bill text which you can read here. The great irony of Moreno's anti-asylum bill is that Moreno was born in Colombia, a nation from which 155,750 people fled in 2023 to apply for asylum in other countries, according to data from the United States Commissioner on Refugees.
NEWS TIP: On Monday, Moreno claimed that all of the Colombian migrants detained by Trump's ramped up enforcement campaigns were criminals. The Colombian government has disputed this. We will be following up with Moreno and DHS for more information about the Colombian detainees.
FARC FARCE: Last Congress, Colombians who confessed to fighting with FARC paramilitary groups during the Cold War were put on terrorists watch lists, allowing Republicans to claim that "known terrorists" were crossing the southern border. This was, of course, the usual overblown falsehoods from GOP, as immigration officials have long confirmed the "known terrorists" were a bunch of harmless old men answering truthfully on their immigration paperwork.
Great immigration reporting ….
RNS: Aleja Herzler-McCain wrote a broad story yesterday about how Trump's anti-immigrant policy march has devastated migrant communities of faith across the country.
WAPO: Terrence McCoy and Marina Dias have an extremely eye-opening story with the testimonials of Brazilian deportees who claim they were abused by immigration agents during the removals process.
Moment of Zen …
We feel it’s important to end each day’s Shit Show (if that’s what we call our daily news rundown) on a positive note by highlighting good news stories on the immigration beat when we can find them, or highlighting migrant excellence, which is all around us, even if it’s often unacknowledged. So today we end with a beautiful, hopeful immigration poem by Celia Martínez, aka ‘Diary of a Romantica’ on IG. Give a listen to hopefully lift your spirits, as it did ours.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Please share links you think we should include in our daily rundown. We’re looking for stories from the immigration shitshow of the Trump administration, plus good news stories / examples of migrant excellence to share. Flag them to us on social media (Nico, me), in our group chats, or by sending them to editor@migrantinsider.com.
What is wrong with Moreno. He is an immigrant also no matter what. I cannot comprehend how anyone can turn their backs on their own people.
1 aye 🤚 for ‘Daily Shitshow’