Journalist Steven Thrasher’s second book, The Overseer Class, begins with a quote by James Baldwin from a 1967 essay in The New York Times, where Baldwin writes, “we feared black cops even more than white cops, because the black cop had to work so much harder — on your head.” To see the continuing relevance of that quote, look to the horrific murder of Tyre Nichols in 2023 — a Black man…
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The Supreme Court’s decision to invalidate Louisiana’s congressional map creating two Black-majority districts continues to remind us of how much the U.S. has backpedaled away from the so-called racial “reckoning” of the summer of 2020. The Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana v. Callais undermines another key plank of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, passed more than 60 years ago with the intent of…
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The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has investigated at least two employees of the agency who attended a vigil or spoke to the press regarding the killing of VA nurse Alex Pretti this January by Customs and Border Patrol agents, new reporting finds. Becky Halioua, a VA recreational therapist and union leader in Augusta, Georgia, told CNN that she has been subject to an internal…
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Last week, Republicans in Congress passed a framework for a proposed round of funding for ICE and Border Patrol. The measure was intended to end an impasse over Department of Homeland Security funding, which lapsed over 10 weeks ago. But the budgetary framework, which includes $70 billion for both agencies, came with a twist: No Democratic input needed. Republicans bypassed the normal…
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Last week, Republicans in Congress passed a framework for a proposed round of funding for ICE and Border Patrol. The measure was intended to end an impasse over Department of Homeland Security funding, which lapsed over 10 weeks ago.
But the budgetary framework, which includes $70 billion for both agencies, came with a twist: No Democratic input needed.
Republicans bypassed the normal budget process in a move The Hill said sets a “dangerous precedent” and could lead to one-sided steamrolling to secure unilateral funding for unpopular policies like continuing the US-Israeli War with Iran.
To secure funding without a single vote from any Congressional Democrat, Republicans have invoked an arcane procedure known as “reconciliation,” a legislative maneuver that allows a bill to bypass the Senate filibuster, provided it meets certain criteria. Their reason for deploying it? To sidestep opposition from Democrats, who had declined to fund ICE or CBP without reforms, and the democratic process altogether.
Democrats have been demanding ICE and CBP agents stop wearing masks, use body cameras, and discontinue raids on homes without warrants, among other stipulations, in exchange for funding the Department of Homeland Security. Republicans refused to concede on any of these issues, and a 76-day shutdown ensued.
But this week, Republicans decided to go it alone, and their effort may be successful. As a result, the passage of the budget framework through the reconciliation process is an alarming move for a party that has already demonstrated a clear willingness to discard democratic norms, processes, and guardrails.
The framework also left a lot of questions unanswered, including: Why the additional money for controversial agencies that already received nearly $140 billion from
South Florida has emerged as a hotspot in immigration enforcement nationwide. A recent analysis by The New York Times found that Florida is outpacing other states in immigration arrests, with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office in Miami averaging about 120 arrests a day. This is happening without the militarized-style raids we have seen in other parts of the country…
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