News Dump

Francisco Erwin Galicia has been released from ICE custody, his attorney and mother confirmed

Boris Johnson becomes new UK Prime Minister. The UK really had no good options, all the possibilities were horrifically terrible pure evil people, Johnson included.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-49073992

You must be carrying legal identification at every second of the day, and that you need double/triple identification in order to be safe from an abuse of power.....The mother literally gave ICE all his documents and they refused to release him.

When Juan, the former soldier, received a letter from the State Department telling him it wasn’t convinced that he was a U.S. citizen, it requested a range of obscure documents — evidence of his mother’s prenatal care, his baptismal certificate, rental agreements from when he was a baby.    He managed to find some of those documents but weeks later received another denial. In a letter, the government said the information “did not establish your birth in the United States.” Ironically, Juan was a Border Patrol agent. And Juan was relatively lucky, others affected by this have been deported, or denied reentry to the US. This is deliberate harassment. Old documents that are easily lost and often not even kept by the parents because they are essentially unimportant anyway. Expecting to produce them is an attempt to make the process harder than it needs to be. It makes no sense that they reject his state of Texas issued ID but they did. They just wanted to deport him and "assured" everybody that the ID was "fake".
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/immigration/2019/07/22/dallas-born-citizen-picked-border-patrol-detained-three-weeks

ICE wrongly arrested over 1,000 US citizens in recent years
https://thehill.com/latino/385261-ice-wrongly-arrested-over-1000-us-citizens-in-recent-years-report

ICE held an American man in custody for 1,273 days. He’s not the only one who had to prove his citizenship
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-citizens-ice-20180427-htmlstory.html

ICE Detains US Citizens, Sometimes for Years
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a20116355/ice-detain-american-citizens/

U.S. Citizens Targeted by ICE: U.S. Citizens Targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Texas
https://www.cato.org/publications/immigration-research-policy-brief/us-citizens-targeted-ice-us-citizens-targeted

When ICE Tries to Deport Americans, Who Defends Them?
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/when-ice-tries-to-deport-americans-who-defends-them

The rule of law is taking a real beating in America these days. A US citizen being unlawfully detained used to be the fear of tea party imbeciles, but apparently they were only concerned about white citizens.

Trump+Republicans Administration To Eliminate Food Assistance for 3 Million People, Mostly Children
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-23/trump-administration-moves-to-end-food-stamps-for-3-million

Citing Intense Public Interest, Judge Unseals Files in Case of Trump Associate Felix Sater. “I will get Putin on this program and we will get Donald elected,” Sater wrote in a November 2015 email to Cohen, pitching him on a massive real-estate deal in Moscow and implying it could help Trump win the election. “Our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it…I will get all of Putin’s team to buy in on this, I will manage this process.”
https://theintercept.com/2019/07/22/citing-intense-public-interest-judge-unseals-files-in-case-of-trump-associate-felix-sater/

Attorneys for convicted mail bomber Cesar Sayoc claim he watched Fox News 'religiously' and was influenced by Sean Hannity's rhetoric
https://www.businessinsider.com/mail-bomb-cesar-sayoc-fox-news-sean-hannity-radicalization-2019-7

Senators Release Investigative Report Revealing New Ethics Lapses and Detailing the Far-Reaching Influence of Industry Law Firm Groups at EPA's Air Office |  Following a months-long investigation, today, U.S. Senators Tom Carper (D-Del.), top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), top Democrat on the EPW Clean Air and Nuclear Safety Subcommittee unveiled, “Redefining Air: Industry’s Pipeline to Power at EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation.” The report details efforts by former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Assistant Administrator Bill Wehrum and his senior counsel, David Harlow, to achieve policy outcomes to the benefit of several industry organizations represented by Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP (“Hunton”), the law firm at which Wehrum and Harlow worked prior to their tenures at EPA.  The report reveals new evidence of ethical lapses on the part of Mr. Wehrum. The report examines how Hunton creates industry groups like the now-disbanded Utility Air Regulatory Group (UARG), and court filings, public comments and regulatory petitions. The report documents the astounding success Hunton-created groups have had with the EPA Office of Air and Radiation during Wehrum’s tenure.
Although Mr. Wehrum left EPA last month under the scrutiny of intensifying congressional oversight, Mr. Harlow remains at the agency today – as do the Hunton-driven rollbacks that Mr. Wehrum and Mr. Harlow undertook. In addition to Mr. Wehrum and Mr. Harlow’s success in achieving higher-profile rollbacks of air pollution protections sought out by their former Hunton clients, “[t]his investigation also identified numerous technical, often arcane, policy shifts sought by Hunton-represented industry groups that carry major air pollution implications. These policy shifts, and agency actions to implement them, illustrate the close relationship between Hunton and former Hunton employees who now direct this country’s air pollution policy at EPA.” The report also raises ethics questions about the relationship between Mr. Wehrum, Mr. Harlow and member companies of various Hunton-represented industry groups, “includ[ing] whether Wehrum and Harlow have been forthright about their past legal work on behalf of these entities, and whether they have adhered to the ethical requirements of public service. This investigation identifies circumstances in which Wehrum and Harlow may have involved themselves in litigation and other matters to benefit Hunton and former clients; failed to report the existence of former clients from which they should have been recused; and impermissibly met with former clients, including former clients that were not properly disclosed to agency ethics officials.” ||| The report demonstrates that multiple Hunton-created industry groups have sought sweeping regulatory changes that would increase air pollution, exacerbate climate change and reduce the amount of pollution information available to the public.  Among the dozens of changes, Hunton and its industry organizations have asked EPA to weaken greenhouse gas requirements for new and existing coal-fired power plants; to allow the largest polluters to release more toxic air pollution; and to allow upwind power plants to pollute more downwind communities. These Hunton-created industry groups have also made technical and novel arguments that EPA has adopted or is in the process of adopting, such as how to account for certain types of benefits when conducting economic analyses for mercury regulations; how to sideline independent scientists on scientific advisory boards; or even how to redefine what counts as “ambient air” protected by the Clean Air Act in the first place. The report also reveals apparent violations of ethical rules.  Some of these violations have been previously described, while others are being revealed for the first time.  For example, in addition to the apparent violations by Mr. Wehrum and Mr. Harlow of the Trump Ethics Pledge and the Ethics in Government Act regulations by their participation in the development of the DTE Memo which benefited both DTE and UARG, Senators Carper and Whitehouse also identified former clients that Mr. Wehrum failed to disclose to EPA ethics officials or recuse himself from meeting with as required by his ethics agreement. Mr. Wehrum (and potentially Mr. Harlow) also artificially – and perhaps improperly – failed to include individual members of UARG as “former clients” from which he was recused, even though those individual companies financed Hunton’s legal work, and even though Hunton has successfully argued in court that its communications with those companies are covered by the attorney-client privilege. This is not the first time that Senators Carper and Whitehouse have raised concerns about Mr. Wehrum and Mr. Harlow’s engagement with their former clients and Hunton-represented industry groups while at EPA.
https://www.epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2019/7/senators-release-investigative-report-revealing-new-ethics-lapses-and-detailing-the-far-reaching-influence-of-industry-law-firm-groups-at-epa-s-air-office
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/epas-watchdog-is-scrutinizing-ethics-practices-of-agencys-former-air-policy-chief/2019/07/22/469c22be-a8a8-11e9-a3a6-ab670962db05_story.html

Kelly Craft was out of Canada for half her days as ambassador; Trump U.N. nominee’s absences included 60 personal days and the equivalent of seven months in places where she had homes, Democrats say.
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/22/kelly-craft-ambassador-canada-absence-1426702

‘I hope Trump deports you’: Woman goes on racist rant to Spanish speakers at a store
https://www.dailydot.com/irl/i-hope-trump-deports-you-racist-video/

‘No girls born’ for past three months in area of India covering 132 villages - Authorities in Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand state, said the official birth rate was “alarming” and pointed towards widespread female foeticide.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/no-girls-born-india-villages-female-foeticide-sex-selective-abortions-a9015541.html

South Korea says it has fired warning shots after Russian and Chinese military planes intruded into South Korea's airspace
https://news.yahoo.com/south-korea-says-fired-warning-022233672.html

Trump said India asked him to help mediate the Kashmir conflict with Pakistan. India quickly said that’s not true.
https://www.businessinsider.com/india-denies-trump-claim-modi-asked-for-help-kashmir-conflict-2019-7

2,000 Migrants Were Targeted in Raids. 35 Were Arrested.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/23/us/ice-raids-apprehensions.html

Ryan Zinke Is Now Taking Clients From Industries He Oversaw in Trump’s Cabinet
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-23/former-interior-chief-zinke-now-enlisting-energy-mining-clients

He has a birth certificate and a Social Security number. But ICE has detained this U.S. citizen for three weeks.
https://www.texastribune.org/2019/07/23/texas-ice-us-citizen-detained/

FBI's Wray says most domestic terrorism arrests this year involve white supremacy
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/454338-fbis-wray-says-majority-of-domestic-terrorism-arrests-this-year

GOOD: The House on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a measure condemning efforts to boycott and economically isolate Israel over its policies toward Palestinians, an explosive global issue that exposed fissures inside the Democratic ranks. The 398-to-17 vote comes after months of turmoil centering on Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), two Muslim freshmen who have stood accused of anti-Semitism over public remarks they have made referencing Israel and the Holocaust. The congresswomen, repeatedly singled out by President Trump in the last week, opposed the resolution, arguing that it infringes on free speech and the right to participate in boycotts for human and civil rights. Trump renewed his attacks on Omar Tuesday, calling her an “America hating anti-Semite” in a tweet. Omar apologized in February after suggesting that Israel’s American supporters were motivated by money. The Global Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment Movement, or BDS, calls on the international community to withdraw investments and shun the Israeli government, businesses and other institutions to win greater rights for Palestinians living in disputed territories. Its critics argue its goals would fundamentally undermine Israel’s status as a Jewish homeland. “You want to criticize the government? That’s your right. You want to stop buying products from a certain country? That’s also your right,” said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.). “But participating in an international commercial effort that undermines Israel’s legitimacy and scuttles the chances of a two-state solution isn’t the same as an individual exercising First Amendment rights.” Engel said of the BDS movement, “It’s a fraud. It’s Israel-hating. It’s Jew-hating. We’ve had enough of that in the world.” The only opposition voiced on the House floor Tuesday came earlier in the day from Tlaib, who invoked her Palestinian grandmother in opposing the resolution, which she said “attempts to delegitimize a certain people’s political speech and send a message that our government can and will take action against speech it doesn’t like.” “I can’t stand by and watch this attack on our freedom of speech and the right to boycott the racist policies of the government and state of Israel,” she said. Omar and Tlaib last week introduced a measure in conjunction with Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a key figure in the civil rights movement, that “affirms that all Americans have the right to participate in boycotts in pursuit of civil and human rights at home and abroad, as protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution.” The text of the measure does not specifically mention the BDS Movement but points to past boycotts of historical significance, ranging from the Boston Tea Party to the Montgomery bus boycott, as well as attempts to influence affairs abroad including boycotts of Nazi Germany and Apartheid South Africa. The measure, as of Tuesday, had garnered only four additional co-sponsors and is not expected to receive further consideration in the Foreign Affairs Committee or on the House floor. In defending the movement, its co-founder, Omar Barghouti, said in a statement circulated on the movement’s social media accounts that the House effort “would directly undermine the First Amendment” and “includes outright lies about the peaceful BDS movement.” But members of both parties targeted the rhetoric espoused by Barghouti and other BDS leaders, as well as their opposition to a “two-state solution” to the Israel-Palestine conflict in which both parties would negotiate a peace deal allowing them to govern their own sovereign territories side by side. Republicans on Tuesday said the bipartisan resolution — co-authored by Reps. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) and Ann Wagner (R-Mo.) — was a welcome statement but some said it did not go far enough. They called for the House to take up a Senate-passed bill that would allow state and local governments to make their own laws barring public funding for entities that engage in anti-Israel boycotts. “We need teeth — words and action,” said House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), calling for the passage of a House companion to the Senate legislation. The resolution has been a thorn for Democratic leaders for months. Many have been wary of inflaming tensions around Israel after Republicans had used the issue as a cudgel against Democrats — particularly against Omar and Tlaib. Moreover, some want to see more action to challenge President Trump’s stalwart support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government’s pro-settlement policies that many believe are undermining a lasting peace deal. “Rather than divide our caucus, let’s get the Republicans on the record about whether they support the Trump administration’s one-state solution,” said Rep. Ann M. Kuster (D-N.H.), who has sought to dissuade party leaders from taking up the BDS matter. But scores of other members told leaders that they wanted to send a message condemning the movement, and more than 300 lawmakers co-sponsored the resolution taken up Tuesday. Members of the moderate Blue Dog Coalition and Problem Solvers Caucus, in particular, threatened to sign on to a discharge petition for the Senate-passed bill if no action was taken before the summer recess set to begin Friday, according to two Democrats familiar with the discussions. House leaders are still considering whether to bring to the floor a separate resolution supporting a two-state peace accord authored by Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.) and passed through the House Foreign Affairs Committee last week, according to two aides who spoke on the condition of anonymity to freely discuss internal conversations. But bipartisan support for the measure is in doubt, with some Republicans interpreting the legislation as an implicit critique of Netanyahu. Engel on Tuesday said he hoped passage of the anti-BDS measure would put the partisan controversies surrounding Israel to rest. “It’s been like catnip for our friends in the press who cover our work, and frankly, this issue has been politicized in a way that I find ugly, and that’s ultimately harmful to the U.S.-Israel relationship,” he said. “What you see with this measure is a real bipartisan reflection on how his body regards our country’s relationship and support for Israel.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/house-poised-to-pass-resolution-condemning-global-boycott-targeting-israel/2019/07/23/1c24e8f6-ad5b-11e9-9411-a608f9d0c2d3_story.html?utm_term=.6a95acd712bf

"An unprecedented number of unaccompanied migrant children are at risk of spending the rest of their childhoods in federal custody, CBS News learned in an exclusive interview with the head of the Office of Refugee Resettlement."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/thousands-of-unaccompanied-migrant-children-could-be-detained-indefinitely/

Senate approves bill ensuring Sept. 11 victims' fund never runs out of money, sends measure to Trump. The bill makes funding authorization for the program permanent. Rand Paul and Mike Lee (Republicans) voted Nay.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/congress/senate-approves-bill-ensuring-sept-11-victims-fund-never-runs-out-of-money-sends-measure-to-trump/2019/07/23/ee6d9a66-ad82-11e9-9411-a608f9d0c2d3_story.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/senate-vote-9-11-first-responders-bill-tuesday-n1032831

A federal jury on Tuesday convicted Bijan Rafiekian, a former business partner of Michael Flynn, on a pair of foreign-agent felony charges stemming from work the two men did for Turkish interests during the final months of the Trump presidential campaign in 2016. The verdicts, returned by jurors after only about four hours of deliberation, amount to a belated courtroom victory for special counsel Robert Mueller, who investigated the $600,000 lobbying and public work relations contract at the heart of the case and then handed the matter off to other federal prosecutors after Flynn’s guilty plea to a false-statement charge in 2017. Rafiekian, 67, faces up to 15 years in prison on the two felony counts against him: acting as an unregistered foreign agent in the U.S., and conspiracy to violate that law as well as to submit false statements to the Justice Department in a foreign-agent filing. Defendants are typically sentenced in accord with federal sentencing guidelines that result in far less than the maximum. | Whether the verdicts will stand is unclear. During the trial, U.S. District Court Judge Anthony Trenga (Bush Jr appointee) indicated that he was giving serious consideration to a defense motion to acquit Rafiekian on the grounds that the prosecution’s evidence was too weak to sustain a conviction.
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/23/trump-adviser-bijan-rafiekian-convicted-1428176

‘Trojan horse’ anticancer drug disguises itself as fat: Thinking the drugs are tasty fats, tumors invite the drug inside. Once there, the targeted drug activates, immediately suppressing tumor growth.
https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2019/07/trojan-horse-anticancer-drug-delivery-disguises-itself-as-fat/

EU shoots down Boris Johnson's Brexit plan within moments of him becoming Tory leader - In an intervention timed to coincide with Mr Johnson's election announcement, Frans Timmermans, the European Commission's first vice president, told reporters in Brussels that the EU would not renegotiate.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-boris-johnson-eu-deal-tory-leadership-result-brussels-a9016911.html

ACLU lawyers have stopped border agents from demanding ID after domestic flights.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/no-more-identification-checks-domestic-arrivals/594334/

'They Came to the Wrong Community': Neighbors Form Human Chain to Stop ICE From Arresting Longtime Nashville Resident
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/07/23/they-came-wrong-community-neighbors-form-human-chain-stop-ice-arresting-longtime

Mexico facing a guacamole crisis: It has become increasingly common for Mexico City's taquerias to serve fake guacamole in their tacos. The guacamole no longer has any avocado. High demand, measly harvests, and US and Mexican drug cartels are to blame
https://www.dw.com/en/mexico-facing-a-guacamole-crisis/a-49703429

A short time ago, I certified to the US Attorney the House’s vote to hold @SecretaryRoss and Attorney General Barr in contempt for their failure to comply with bipartisan subpoenas issued by @OversightDems. #CultureOfCorruption
https://twitter.com/SpeakerPelosi/status/1153799396997226497

Sen. Bernie Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign has been hit with an unfair labor practice complaint alleging illegal employee interrogation and retaliation against staffers.
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/sanders-white-house-campaign-hit-with-federal-labor-complaint

If public opinion — and today’s BDS vote — is any indication, it’s the college campuses that are living in an ideological bubble.
https://twitter.com/HotlineJosh/status/1153813488453611522

House Democrats may think they have solved their Israel divisions with an overwhelming vote to oppose BDS, but anyone who has been on a college campus of late or talked to many young Jews knows that’s a Band-aide on a giant, sucking wound.
https://twitter.com/jonathanweisman/status/1153807183915540480