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Aug 29, 2025 - World

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainment of J.R. Tucker High School student Armand Momand constitutes a constitutional outrage.Because of his father’s service to the U.S. government in Afghanistan, Momand has legal U.S. immigration status. Yet ICE agents took him into custody Aug. 8 after convictions in an Henrico County court for driving more than 20 miles an hour over the speed limit and disorderly conduct, both misdemeanors. Now, the government that Momand’s father risked his life to serve in fighting terrorism wants to deport his 19-year-old son, despite the young man’s lawful presence in the United States.The deportation debacle ordered by President Donald Trump has turned into a nightmare of lies and unconstitutional behavior.Trump’s demonization of immigrants in the name of nationalism doesn’t get much worse than betraying those who placed themselves in harm’s way to support this country.On its website, ICE lists criminal convictions which would cause the service to detain an immigrant because they pose “a public safety or national security threat.”The list includes burglaries and robberies. It includes kidnapping, homicide, sexual assault, and weapons offenses. It includes drug trafficking, and human trafficking.What the list does not include are Momand’s convictions for reckless driving for going more than 20 miles an hour over the speed or misdemeanor disorderly conduct, a charge which prosecutors reduced from an original felony charge for eluding or disregarding police. To detain an immigrant, federal law requires ICE to have “probable cause” to believe the immigrant has committed a federal crime or is illegally residing in this country.Momand has done neither, his lawyer, Miriam Airington-Fisher, told me in an interview. Public records that I looked at show that a Virginia district court judge gave Momand no jail time for his state convictions on August 8. Yet ICE detained him to consider for deportation. According to Airington-Fisher, Momand is a legal resident of this country who is pursuing permanent legal status and eventually U.S. citizenship. Momand was born in Afghanistan. Momand’s father received a Special Immigration Visa to bring his wife and children to America because he helped the U.S. military during its fight against Taliban terrorists in Afghanistan. The visas granted to Momand’s father and his family come with extensive vetting and reflect the deadly Taliban retribution faced by Afghanis who worked with Americans.Virginia court records show no other criminal history for Momand. Airington-Fisher told me that is because the teenager has none. Ironically, Momand’s continued detention by ICE forced him to reschedule a green card interview set for Aug. 14, Airington-Fisher said.ICE has offered no legal explanation for Momand’s imprisonment to his lawyers or family, Airington-Fisher added. “We received a notice to appear at a hearing to initiate deportation,” she explained.That Aug. 25 hearing was postponed because of a “crowded” court docket, Airington-Fisher told me a day later. Now, to argue for bond, Momand, a legal U.S. resident, must wait until a rescheduled hearing on Sept. 8. He must spend a month in a federal detention center and miss the first two weeks of school. This is what passes for a speedy trial in Trump’s nationalist crackdown on a legal teen immigrant. Momand, his family, and lawyers remain “completely in the dark” about the legal justification for the young man’s imprisonment, Airington-Fisher said. “ICE can’t dissolve his visa status,” Airington-Fisher told me. “We do not believe his detention is legal.” The ICE detainee database shows Momand is being held at the Abyon Farmville Detention Center. On Aug. 19, I asked ICE if Momand had been charged with any crimes, and if so, what crimes. The media office acknowledged my request, but has yet to get back to me with an answer. “You can’t just arrest someone and then figure out whether they did anything wrong,” immigration lawyer Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, a partner with the firm Murray Osorio, said in an interview on Aug. 19. “What was the probable cause to think this person committed a federal crime or was illegally in the country?”Sandoval-Moshenberg represents Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the man ICE seized and was mistakenly deported by the Trump administration to a brutal El Salvadoran prison in defiance of a federal court order.As Momand’s Aug. 25 hearing was being postponed in Virginia, ICE was again detaining Abrego Garcia for deportation three days after a judge ordered his release from custody as he awaits trial on federal criminal charges by the Trump administration. Sandoval-Moshenberg stressed that situations like Momand’s are very different from the Abrego Garcia case, which involves allegations of criminal felonies.Momand’s case deals with basic constitutional rights such as being told of the charges against him and the right to a bond hearing so he could go to school between legal hearings and the constitutional requirement that the government must justify its legal right to deport him.Most of all, Momand’s case involves the Trump administration’s detention of immigrants living legally in the United States without probable cause.Finally, Momand’s case deals with Trump’s disrespect for the Special Immigration Visas meant to protect people who faced death constantly to help America fight ruthless terrorists. This is why the law provides Special Immigrant Visa holders an opportunity to get a green card and an eventual path to American citizenship.Asked about Momand’s detention by journalists, Virginia Gov. Glen Youngkin treated the young man as a dangerous criminal who deserved to be in custody while he is investigated for charges that had already been litigated and resolved. Youngkin got it backwards. And he took the position that misdemeanor convictions in a traffic incident qualify as proof of a national security risk.Under Trump’s indiscriminate immigrant removal policies, immigrants can no longer rely on being in the U.S. legally to protect themselves from being harassed and possibly deported, Adam Bates, senior supervisory lawyer for the International Refugee Assistance Project, told me.“People now do everything they are supposed to, but they get grabbed off the street for doing nothing wrong,” Bates told me. I have met two Afghans who worked with the American government and who currently live in the U.S. One barely eluded capture by the Taliban as he set up forward communications systems for U.S. Marines. The other risked attack each day for translating in public for an American military contractor.They, and others like them, worked knowing the fate of people like Sohail Pardis, an Afghani interpreter beheaded by the Taliban for aiding the American government.The system for granting immigrants who helped America fight terrorism special visas is exhaustive and time-consuming.For the Trump administration to now turn its back on foreigners who risked their lives on America’s behalf to pursue a nationalist deportation policy that demonizes all immigrants is cruel and self-destructive. The policy betrays constitutional and moral principles, not to mention national security. “It is horrific the extent to which we put people in mortal danger to help with our war effort and then toss them aside like used candy wrappers,” said Sandoval-Moshenberg. “It is going to have disastrous long-term foreign policy consequences.”In Virginia, the ICE handling of Arman Momand should also have consequences. If it proves anything, it proves that immigrants are not and have never been America’s enemy.

Aug 29, 2025 - World

While the Trump administration has rationalized its escalating hostilities with Venezuela as an effort to combat drug trafficking, several officials within the Trump administration are suggesting there to be an ulterior motive behind the escalation.President Donald Trump ordered eight warships carrying 4,500 troops this week to sit off the coast of Venezuela in what the administration described as an “enhanced counter narcotics operation.” Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro has seen a $50 million bounty placed on him by Trump for what his administration says is his involvement in drug trafficking.Three Trump officials, however, say there’s more to the operation than meets the eye, speaking with Axios under the condition of anonymity and reported by the outlet on Friday.“Leaving Maduro in power in Venezuela is like making Jeffrey Epstein the head of a daycare,” said a Trump official, suggesting regime change may be an unofficial goal of the increased hostilities.Another Trump official likened the operation to the United States’ operation to capture Panama President Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno, who in 1989 was captured after the United States invaded the Central American nation.“This could be Noriega part 2,” a second Trump official told Axios. “The president has asked for a menu of options, and ultimately, this is the president's decision about what to do next, but Maduro should be s------- bricks.”The United States has a long history of enacting regime change in South America, sometimes through direct military intervention, and others, through more covert operations. Perhaps the most prominent example is the United States-backed coup in 1973 that overthrew the democratically-elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende, done so largely at the behest of American mining and communications companies that were stripped of their control of Chile’s labor and resources under Allende’s leadership.A third Trump official told Axios that, while the operation was still largely about combatting drug trafficking, ousting Maduro would also be a favorable outcome.“This is 105% about narco-terrorism,” the official said. “But if Maduro winds up no longer in power, no one will be crying.”

Aug 29, 2025 - World

Donald Trump's choice as his lead diplomat entrusted with dealing with Russian President Vladimir Putin, when he is not taking part in negotiations to end the war in Gaza, is getting poor marks with European allies as well as U.S. officials.According to a report from Politico’s Felicia Schwartz, real estate investor-turned-international negotiator Steve Witkoff is leaving a trail of frustration and fury due to his secretive meetings with Putin, where he has failed to avail himself of the wealth of experts with experience in Russian negotiations and has refused to share the details being discussed.As the report notes, under Witkoff, “promised follow-up meetings between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy have not materialized, ceasefire demands were dropped, threats of tough action have disappeared,” and the White House seems directionless.According to one U.S. official, “His inexperience shines through, he has the president’s ear, which is evident, but there has been some confusion about what has been said and agreed.”“He’s kind of a rogue actor,” another administration official admitted. “He talks to all these people, but no one knows what he says in any of these meetings. He will say things publicly but then he changes his mind. It’s hard to operationalize that.”The report points out that his U.S. is “sparsely staffed” and that he has refused help in understanding the differences between Russia and Ukraine from experts both inside and outside the government. Politico is reporting, “His staff, to the extent he has any, often doesn’t know where he is or what he is doing, according to four people familiar with the dynamics of the office. They said he spends most of his time at his office in the White House, while the rest of his team is at the State Department.”That led one diplomatic expert to complain, “The thing is, Witkoff isn’t consistently engaged. He will pop in for a visit to Vladimir Putin, say a bunch of stuff, not tell anyone what really happened and then just f--- off to his life again. Meanwhile, the Russians are talking to you about how 'Witkoff says…’ and you don’t know whether they’re right or not, but you can’t get a readout from the Russians.”The report adds, “Witkoff at times appears to struggle to focus on more than one task at a time, the U.S. official and another one of the people said, adding that when a flurry of developments occurs in one portfolio, say Gaza or Iran or Ukraine, other priorities take a backseat. He is not a voracious consumer of his intelligence briefing materials and doesn’t read them every day, the second person said.”You can read more here.

Aug 26, 2025 - World

Comments made by Donald Trump before his meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in the Oval Office both stunned and baffled a panel on MSNBC on Tuesday morningThe day after the meeting, MSNBC’s Jonathan Lemire summarized for his co-host on “Morning Joe” the criticisms the president has made about the lack of freedom –– but they were not aimed at North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, but instead at his guest.The led co-host Joe Scarborough to interrupt after he had asked why Trump is so enamored of the North Korean strongman, who the host called “the world’s worst dictator.”“This shows you just how topsy-turvy the Trump foreign policy is,” Lemire began. “He spent the last couple of days, including yesterday morning before the meeting really bashing South Korea, suggesting that they were sort of that, that there was undue political and religious persecution there, suggesting that––.”“Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait ,wait, wait,” host Scarborough interrupted. “In Korea?”“In South Korea,” Lemire responded.“You get fed to the dogs just for the hell of it just because they don’t like you?” Scarborough asked incredulously.“Yes. Where there are mass executions. of political foes and the like,” Lemire said of Trump's claims.You can watch below or click the link. - YouTube youtu.be

Aug 25, 2025 - World

A retired American general tore into President Donald Trump and said his latest threats to send the National Guard into Democratic-run cities are merely a tactic to distract his base and the media, likening it to "catnip."Major General William Enyart joined MSNBC on Monday afternoon to discuss Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker's (D) blistering speech, hitting back at Trump's plans to send troops to Chicago. "A barnburner of a speech from Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who told the people of Illinois in no uncertain terms that what Donald J. Trump plans to do in his city is, 'unprecedented, illegal, unconstitutional, and un-American,' urging him publicly with the city's business, faith and elected officials, 'Do not come to Chicago,'" noted host Nicolle Wallace. She added that Pritzker made a "salient, indisputable fact" that 13 of the top 20 cities when it comes to homicide rates are led by Republicans. Additionally, eight Republican-led states have the top homicide rates.Enyart said Pritzker made a "spot-on speech." "Trump desperately needs to cling on to power. And I think the reason that he is taking these actions is distraction, distraction, distraction," he said. Enyart then hit back at Trump's claims with statistics of his own."The price of hamburger a year ago today: $5.35 a pound. Hamburger today: $6.98 a pound. That's a 33% increase. Coffee $6.32 a year ago. Today, it's $8.41 a pound, another 30-plus percent. Food prices have gone up every single month, but one, since Trump took office," he noted. Enyart called out Trump for vowing to drive food prices down."Yet another lie. He can't afford to face truth. And that's why he has to have distraction," he railed.Enyart called Trump's use of the National Guard in Washington, D.C., and proposal to do the same in Chicago simply that. "He is doing it in order to provide a distraction to his base and to, frankly, to most of the news media so they'll chase that catnip," he said, calling Trump's tariffs a "failure," along with his negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. "Corn prices have cratered. Corn prices are 40% down from what they were under the Biden administration," he added. Soybean prices for farmers, he added, are down more than 50% since Biden's administration. "China used to buy 60% of their soybeans from the United States farmers. Today? 20%. Brazil took those. Why? Trump's tariffs. His policies are incredibly unpopular, and so he needs to put on a show. He is a mastermind at showmanship, and that's what he is doing."See the video below or at the link here. - YouTube www.youtube.com