The Department of Homeland Security said Friday that it will revoke legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans ... read more
On the night of Saturday, March 15, three planes touched down in El Salvador, carrying 261 men deported from the United States. A few dozen were Salvadoran, but most of the men were Venezuelans the Trump Administration had designated as gang members and deported, with little or no due process. I was there to document their arrival. read more
A new executive order from President Donald Trump aims to expand information-sharing across federal agencies as well as between federal and state governments, but civil libertarians and other experts are warning that the main purpose is to help normalize how the Department of Government Efficiency is handling government data.
An internal Social Security Administration (SSA) memo, sent on March 13 and obtained by Popular Information, details proposed changes to the claims process that would debilitate the agency, cause significant processing delays, and prevent many Americans from applying for or receiving benefits.
An Orange County couple that came to the United States without authorization some 35 years ago, raised three daughters and now have a new grandson were deported to Colombia earlier this week, according to media reports. read more
During the campaign when Trump spouted lies about Haitian immigrants in Ohio eathing the cats, eating the dogs, eating the geese and promised to deport them, I guess some people thought he was going to make exceptions for their friends and relatives, who weren't Haitians living in Ohio:
Trump says he would revoke Temporary Protected Status for Haitian migrants in Springfield if electedwww.cnn.com
Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he would revoke Temporary Protected Status for the Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, and deport them if he is reelected in November.
"You have to remove the people, and you have to bring them back to their own country. They are, in my opinion, it's not legal," Trump said in an interview with NewsNation.
Trump, asked if he would revoke the migrants' Temporary Protected Status, said, "Absolutely. I'd revoke it, and I'd bring them back to their country."
In related news:
"Deport every person under the sun": ICE detains Cubans during immigration appointmentswww.miamiherald.com
Cuba doesn't consistently accept American deportation flights--as many as 42,000 Cuban nationals remain in the U.S. despite having deportation orders. That means that deportation to Cuba is a headache for the federal government. Several Latin American countries have agreed to accept U.S. deportees from other countries, and experts warn that Cubans could also be sent to Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama. Under a deal it brokered with the Biden administration, Mexico already takes back Cubans who arrive at the southwest border. An El Salvador mega-prison recently received hundreds of Venezuelans as part of a deal the Trump administration made with Salvadorean president Nayib Bukele last month.
Lawyers note that for South Florida's Cuban community, many of whom supported Trump's presidential campaign, the rapid immigration enforcement changes may come as a surprise.
"People come out in favor of the face-eating leopards," Prada said. "And then they get surprised when the leopard eats their face."
The detainment of Cubans by ICE in Miramar is stoking fear in South Florida's immigrant community, said Allen, a Miami immigration attorney for over three decades. He said he believes the Trump administration is trying to "intimidate" people and cause panic so they voluntarily return to their home countries.
The panic, however, isn't only affecting immigrants, Allen said. Immigration officers are being pressured for not detaining enough people, and judges and government lawyers are also being strong-armed into rejecting people's efforts to stay in the U.S.
Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social
The first and most important thing to know about last night's Exec order is that it's intended to break current law and allow people throughout the federal gov look at yr tax returns. Beyond that it's intended to compel states to turn over all their data to the fed govt.
2/ Taken together it's intended to create big data sets about targeted citizens for various kinds of harassment, intimidation, prosecutorial abuse etc. Very standard big brother stuff. Much of it is against current law. But more generally, when you pay taxes you give the govt info for ...
3/ for the specific purpose of collecting taxes, not to use for other reasons. This isn't some vague concept. It's the law. Similarly, when you indirectly give medical information, it's for the purposes of either anonymized public health data or for reimbursement through Medicare/Medicaid, etc.
4/ The point is the information is provided for specific lawful reasons and "silo'd" inside the government precisely because it's provided only for that reason. The aim of this new EO is to create thick packets of data on targeted individuals, for a different kind of federal govt that aims ....
5/ to punish or go to war with people who don't do as the incumbent president says or refuse to support the president. It goes back to the foundations of the civil compact itself. We choose elected officials to serve the public and do so impartially. The Trump model is you get executive ...
6/ power and use it to go to war with the people who don't support you.
7/ Final point. In general, I don't like to "AI" every issue. But here it has some relevance. These are potentially very big data sets across many aspects of life, economic transactions, medical records, political activity, educational records. It's very much the kind of stuff you'd want to pour ...
8/ machine learning/AI models and generate lists of people who might be inclined to oppose the incumbent President and then financial resources, social networks, etc that wld make them powerful opponents. We shld be assuming this kind of administration will already be doing stuff like that ...
9/ with data that can be purchased commercially - the kind of profiles generated by sales data, social media graphs and so forth. But there's a reason why IRS data is so prized and guarded. Sure you can buy a lot of data abt anyone just for a price. But when you layer on IRS data, medical records...
10/ you go to a whole new level. This stuff is deeply inculcated in the career staff at the IRS. Very, very strict need to know barriers to access to tax and financial data. There's been a steady flow of firings and resignations at IRS over the last six weeks as DOGE keeps demanding more access ...
11/ to data and more specifically as they demand that law enforcement and ICE get access to tax records. Now it's important to be clear here. When there's a criminal investigation the appropriate authorities already can get access. But that's the same way that the cops can get a warrant from a ...
12/ judge to search your home. The whole framework of probable cause etc. The analogy here would just be the cops can go into any home they want at any time. The point being DOGE has already been at work on what this EO demands.
skywriter.blue
"And Republicans fear that reductions in staff and field offices will boomerang on them"
Yes, this is starting to happen. Case in point, Republican Mike Lawler who won in a swing district in NY that Biden also won:
House Republican Outraged by Social Security Office Closing in His District: A Slap in the Face'
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) protested the closing down of the Hudson Valley's only Social Security Hearing Office on Thursday, calling it a "slap in the face" to thousands of New Yorkers.
www.mediaite.com
Background:
Trump's Social Security chief rejects Latimer/Lawler effort to keep WP Hearing Office openwestfaironline.com
Donald Trump's Acting Commissioner of the Social Security Administration, Leland Dudek, has rejected a bipartisan effort by Democratic Congressman George Latimer of the New York 16th Congressional District and Republican Mike Lawler of the 17th Congressional District to keep the Social Security Hearing Office in White Plains open.
In a letter to Latimer dated March 19, Dudek said that the people in Latimer's district who need to go to a hearing office can travel to Lower Manhattan, New Haven in Connecticut, the Bronx or Goshen in Orange County for the Social Security services they are seeking. Dudek told Latimer that he would be telling Lawler the same thing in a separate letter to him.
That manifestation of humanity and empathy was criminalized for many, many years
Humanity and empathy are under a full force attack by Trumpers.
Just read anything posted by our Trumpers.
It's all hate and apathy.
#15 | Posted by ClownShack
Elon Musk on empathy: "The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy. The empathy exploit. They're exploiting a bug in Western civilization, which is the empathy response. So, I think, you know, empathy is good, but you need to think it through and not just be programmed like a robot."
https://substack.com/@marypezzulo/p-158894226
In The Cross Section, Paul Waldman notes that the point of the right wing's dehumanization of political opponents is to dismiss the pain they are inflicting. If the majority of Americans are not really human, toying with their lives isn't important--maybe it's even LOL funny to pretend to take a chainsaw to the programs on which people depend. "We are ants, or even less," Waldman writes, "bits of programming to be moved around at Elon's whim. Only he and the people who aspire to be like him are actors, decision-makers, molding the world to conform to their bold interplanetary vision."heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
As Waldman notes, Musk and his team of tech bros at the Department of Government Efficiency are not actually promoting efficiency: if they were, they would have brought auditors and would be working with the inspectors general that Trump fired and the Government Accountability Office that is already in place to streamline government. Rather than looking for efficiency, they are simply working to zero out the government that works for ordinary people, turning it instead to enabling them to consolidate wealth and power.
"Most fundamental to protecting SOCIAL SECURITY is assuring that all who receive it are eligible by citizenship, and by their age and ID verified and quarters paid into the system. This needs nailed down."
Code of Federal Regulationswww.ssa.gov
401.45. Verifying your identity.
(b) Manner of verifying identity "(1) Request in person. If you make a request to us in person, you must provide at least one piece of tangible identification such as a driver's license, passport, alien or voter registration card, or union card to verify your identity. If you do not have identification papers to verify your identity, you must certify in writing that you are the individual who you claim to be and that you understand that the knowing and willful request for or acquisition of a record pertaining to an individual under false pretenses is a criminal offense.
(2) Request by telephone. If you make a request by telephone, you must verify your identity by providing identifying particulars which parallel the record to which notification or access is being sought. If we determine that the particulars provided by telephone are insufficient, you will be required to submit your request in writing or in person. We will not accept telephone requests where an individual is requesting notification of or access to sensitive records such as medical records.
(3) Electronic requests. If you make a request by computer or other electronic means, e.g., over the Internet, we require you to verify your identity by using identity confirmation procedures that are commensurate with the sensitivity of the information that you are requesting. If we cannot confirm your identity using our identity confirmation procedures, we will not process the electronic request. When you cannot verify your identity through our procedures, we will require you to submit your request in writing.
Citizenship is not a requirement to pay or receive Social Security.
#64 | Posted by snoofy
It's a little more complicated than that:
Can noncitizens receive Social Security benefits or Supplemental Security (SSI)?
www.ssa.gov(SSI)?,-December%2030%2C%202022&text=Lawfully%20present%20noncitizens%20of%20the,SSI%20Benefits%20For%20Aliens%20pages.
Generally, only noncitizens authorized to work in the United States by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can get an SSN. SSNs are used to report a person's wages to the government, to determine that person's eligibility for Social Security benefits, to work, collect Social Security benefit, and receive other government services.
www.ssa.gov
And why not check to make sure that person didn't die and their checks weren't being swindled by their care taker.
#57 | Posted by fishpaw
How is DOGE going to check? BTW, funeral homes notify the SSA when somebody dies:
How to report a deathwww.ssa.gov
Funeral homes generally tell us when someone dies. So, you don't typically need to report a death to us.
If a funeral home isn't involved or doesn't report the death for some reason, you should call us and provide the name, Social Security number, date of birth, and date of death for the person who died.
this judge was on fisa court that allowed spying on the trumo campaign.
he has a daughter who works for a group that helps illegals stay in the country
and finds them taxpayer money
makes sense you fckm dopes like this piece of garbage.
GD idiots.
#24 | Posted by shrimptacodan
Reposting this just for you, STD:
Judge Boasberg was SC Justice Kavanaugh's roommate in law school and was first appointed to the federal bench by George W. Bush. Roberts appointed him to the FISA court:
During Boasberg's formal investiture ceremony elevating him to a federal judge, he sat beside Brett Kavanaugh, his close friend and housemate at Yale Law School and then a federal appeals judge in the D.C. Circuit. Kavanaugh conducted the rites at the ceremony.
www.nbcnews.com$3p=e_sailthru&_branch_match_id=1431258110183286659
Sorkel @sorkel3.bsky.social
In recent years, Judge Boasberg has:
- ordered the release of Hillary's emails
- ensured Trump's tax returns never became public
- restricted disclosure from the Mueller investigation
- limited disclosure of grand jury material in the Trump classified docs case.
The resistance, he ain't.
When Biden bragged about defying SCOTUS (in this case we are talking about a single federal judge with an ideological axe to grind, not SCOTUS) over student loan forgiveness, you all cheered it on.
#24 | Posted by BellRinger
I'm just glad some Democrats have figured out that Republicans aren't going to listen to you anymore and there's nothing you can do to stop them.
Keep having your activist judges flail there arms in the air and we will just keep laughing.
#36 | Posted by Bluewaffles
Judge Boasberg was SC Justice Kavanaugh's roommate in law school and was first appointed to the federal bench by George W. Bush. Roberts appointed him to the FISA court:
During Boasberg's formal investiture ceremony elevating him to a federal judge, he sat beside Brett Kavanaugh, his close friend and housemate at Yale Law School and then a federal appeals judge in the D.C. Circuit. Kavanaugh conducted the rites at the ceremony.
www.nbcnews.com$3p=e_sailthru&_branch_match_id=1431258110183286659
Sorkel @sorkel3.bsky.social
In recent years, Judge Boasberg has:
- ordered the release of Hillary's emails
- ensured Trump's tax returns never became public
- restricted disclosure from the Mueller investigation
- limited disclosure of grand jury material in the Trump classified docs case.
The resistance, he ain't.
Suddenly claiming someone died a year and a half ago sounds kind of DOGE-Y to me, and I bet we are going to hear more and more stories like this:
90 year-old veteran wrongly declared dead struggles to restore Social Security benefitswww.9news.com
March 19, 2025
Kind received a letter from his healthcare provider addressed to his estate, notifying him of his own death that supposedly occurred a year and a half ago in October of 2023.
"To the estate of Thomas Kind. We're sorry to hear about the recent loss of Thomas Kind. We want to share some information without placing any extra burden on you at this time," the letter read.
Kind's reaction: "What a bunch of crap."
For the past 10 days, Kind has been unable to resolve the situation despite multiple attempts to contact officials.
"You can't talk to anybody," Kind said. "You can't get through. You sit on the phone for an hour waiting and making requests for customer service. I'm just looking for whoever has some ideas to turn the benefits back on."
The situation is particularly challenging for Kind, who has limited mobility.
"It's tough to have to deal with something like this when I'm here living 24/7," he said. "I can't get out. I don't have a car anymore."
The horror and hits keep coming.
Please STOP the madness, read the link. We need marches and protests!
The SSA is being significantly undermined. Please read beyond the Trump/Musk propaganda. Or don't. As for the rest of us, we are not content with being so smug and gullible:
Between the lines: "People have a lot of trouble with the identification process," says Jen Burdick, a lawyer who provides free legal services for Americans trying to get Social Security disability benefits.www.axios.com
A recent client tried to drop by an office last week and was told to make an appointment by phone. On the phone, they were put on hold for six hours on Monday, five hours on Tuesday and two blocks of time, each three hours, on Wednesday, she said.
These proposed changes are "a way they're trying to use red tape to literally block people from getting benefits," Burdick said.
"At the same time, the agency will expedite processing all direct deposit change requests " both in person and online " to one business day. Prior to this change, online direct deposit changes were held for 30 days.
#2 | Posted by gracieamazed
"SSA recently required nearly all agency employees, including frontline employees in all offices throughout the country, to work in the office five days a week. This change ensures maximum staffing is available to support the stronger in-person identity proofing requirement."
#3 | Posted by gracieamazed
One business day after you get an appointment if you need to go in person. Getting that appointment can already take a long time and even requiring employees to work in the office 5 days a week isn't going to compensate enough to deal with the influx of increased appointments the agency anticipates:
Because the SSA serves a large population that is either older or physically disabled, many cannot access the internet. Under the new system, this would force these populations to visit an office to have their claim processed. The Diaz memo estimates it would require 75,000 to 85,000 in-person visitors per week to SSA's offices to implement the policy.popular.info
SSA offices do not currently have the resources to handle an influx of in-person appointments of this size. In 2023, the most recent data available, there were about 119,128 daily visits, on average, to SSA offices. Eight-five thousand more week visits would be a 14% increase. SSA offices no longer accept walk-ins and the wait time for an appointment, even before these changes, averaged over a month.
The memo anticipates creating a huge surge in demand for in-person appointments as the SSA slashes staff and closes offices. Acting SSA Commissioner Leland Dudek has announced that he will terminate 7,000 workers, about 12% of the workforce. Meanwhile, dozens of SSA offices are being shuttered. Some people need to travel more than 100 miles to get to the nearest location. As the SSA limits services that could be provided over the phone, it is ending in-person services at some offices, converting them to phone-only.
An SSA source told Popular Information that there are "no significant concerns about fraud at intake" because no benefits are being distributed. And there are already multiple layers of identity verification in place before a claim is approved. The source said they believe the new ID verification steps are an effort to "create additional hurdles to filing claims and overwhelm the system."
The memo acknowledges that the policy changes would create increased "challenges for vulnerable populations." This seems to concede that many elderly and disabled people are physically unable to travel to an in-person office. It is unclear how these populations will be able to receive benefits at all.
The combination of fewer workers, fewer offices, and a massive increase in the demand for in-person services could sabotage the Social Security system " effectively denying many Americans the benefits they are due.
All of this is directly acknowledged in the Diaz memo. The memo predicts "service disruption," "operational strain," and "budget shortfalls." It also says preventing people who cannot use the internet or travel to an in-person office from receiving benefits could result in "legal challenges and congressional scrutiny."
Here's a link to a video Anonymous put out a month ago. They seem to be upping their rhetoric:
White rabbit
@jgainmiss.bsky.social
#Anonymous has a very stern and dire warning to both MAGA and to all Americans. Order must be restored and the fascism & oligarchy must be put to an end. We cannot become a country ran by rich people keeping the working class poor and enslaved by cutting education & funding to assist those in need.
bsky.app