I am somewhat frightened to report this

[AverageOldGuy]

I'll try to keep this as general as I can in hopes of avoiding attacks by the Trump junta.

Just talked with an individual whom I know very, very well. S/he is involved in pro bono work with a white shoe law firm, whom I will not identify.

They do a good bit of immigration work pro bono. One of their cases involves a non-citizen immigrant who is in the US legally and who years ago started helping local police as well as federal authorities by reporting on gang activity and individuals.

This person filed for legal status in 2020 and since then, has been meeting all his deadlines, minding his own business, keeping his nose clean, and helping the authorities.

Today he received a new immigration form with instructions to fill it out and report to a certain location to discuss his case. Alarm bells went off when he brought the form to the lawyer.

So -- this is what they are doing: Anyone who has applied for legal status is getting this new form. When they show up to process it, they are arrested and deported, regardless of the fact that they have the older form and have been meeting all the requirements laid on them when they first applied for legal status.

Of course, if asked about this bait-and-switch, ICE will deny it. Is there any way to get this story before the press and Democrats in Congress?

Frankly, I am very worried about my own safety and I may come back later and delete this item.

No.

I will not delete this.

Let it stand.

Goddam it, we cannot stand silent!!!!!

[Ocelot II]

1. Send this info to the media. If you don't think NYT would report it,

try The Guardian. Or Rachel Maddow.

[SheltieLover]

5. Propublica! Can report anonymously!

[Amaryllis]

54. Also JOsh Marshall at Talking Points Memo:

He puts this in all his articles:

To share confidential tips about events unfolding in the federal government you can contact me on Signal at joshtpm dot 99 or via encrypted mail at joshtpm (at) protonmail dot com.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trumps-already-lost
Here is an article from yesterday.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

2. Examples of this tactic have been in the media

[dutch777]

7. Yes, exactly except maybe not being a confidential police informant. He should contact his police handlers...

...maybe a couple of cops accompany him to his "interview".

[WestMichRad]

10. Not just a couple of cops should accompany him.

A whole team of people: his lawyer, neighbors, reporters and photographers, citizens… and he should refuse to be isolated from them. I’d bet that ICE won’t try to detain him if it could become a public spectacle.

[quakerboy]

42. you'd lose that bet

There are already photos. To some extent the spectacle is the point. Intimidation.

Lawyers and press have no power in the authoritarian system. Ice is happy to ignore them

And as far as I can tell ice is primarily the people who couldn't cut it in real law enforcement, so it's unlikely they shy away from the chance to exercise power over them

They are trying to not talk to much right now. We are still working out if there is any power in the courts that can actually harm the administration. Until that question is resolved, they are staying mildly careful about what they say publicly. But they are clearly doing what they want, regardless of law, ethics, or publicity.

[MadameButterfly]

47. That is the key. Is there any power i the courts that can actually harm

the admisistration. If there is, the dams will break. if not....

[WhiskeyGrinder]

11. lol sorry but what do you think the cops would do?

[Ms. Toad]

9. Yup. Anyone who isn't aware of their strategy of shooting fish in a barrel hasn't been paying attention.

Because they aren't hitting the numbers Trump wants - or just because they think it is fun - they have been targeting any immigrant who doesn't have a rock solid legal status that they can easily find.

People entering the country at checkpoints and airports.
People showing up for status checks.
Students here on a visa.

Most of these don't fit the immigrants Trump says he was going to target. But they are fish in a barrel.

[Attilatheblond]

13. Trump, failing at everything, wants/needs to rack up a body count of deportees he can boast about

and use to distract people from the realities of his many failures.

Tatoos? deport
Brown? deport
Spoke/prayed in public? arrest & see if you can find excuse to deport
Walking while wearing sports team tees or hats? deport
Small, ill, female? deport
Born in the USA? deport

He doesn't want anybody here except rich guys who pay him and those who are woefully ignorant, racist, and willing to break laws for him. The miserable man who should be in a padded cell thinks he owns everything.

[Lulu KC]

3. NYT

https://www.nytimes.com/tips

[jrthin]

4. Maybe get this out on Youtube, and other social media sites.

[calimary]

60. Any other site that you know and trust would work.

The more this can spread, the better!

[usedtobedemgurl]

6. I am pretty sure I read, here, about

Cases like this. I think articles were posted. Find the articles and those newspapers may want to do additional stories.

[marble falls]

8. Write a sypathetic Congressmember, your own Rep even if they are MAGA, a Senator, the local news ...

... put it on social media, tell your neighbors, your pastor/Rabbi/Immam/Averdic teacher/councilor, your state legislator, your governor, your mayor, be at the next town hall, get in the streets .....

We can talk back a lot of different ways.

[Amaryllis]

12. Yes, Pro Publica has safe ways to send things like this:

https://www.propublica.org/getinvolved/send-propublica-story-tips

If your tip is especially sensitive, we’ve compiled a list of the most secure methods to get in touch, including Signal and postal mail.

Do you have a lead we should investigate? Have you seen something that troubles you? Are there documents or other materials we should see? We need your help to do important journalism.

Take a look at our active questionnaires to see if we are already working on any projects relevant to you. If not, filling out this form is the easiest, most efficient way to get in touch with us. We are the only ones who read what you submit.

You can also reach out to a ProPublica reporter directly. Our staff pages include our emails, encrypted contact options such as Signal numbers or ProtonMail addresses and information about what we cover.

Keep in mind: ProPublica stories are always about holding the powerful to account. That means we focus on systematic issues and widespread injustices. We read everything you submit, but our newsroom is still too small to send a personal response to everyone. Don’t let that discourage you.

[yellow dahlia]

40. Good link to save - ProPublica. Thanks. n/t

[Quakerfriend]

14. This makes me sick. And, as another poster said this

is because they can’t meet their number.

I believe they want to deport (or imprison 1.5 mil/yr).
However, they don’t have the resources to track them down. Many entered legally and overstayed their visas. They will never find them without the $$$ and man power to do so. Easier to trick them into coming to them- but, why those who are here legally??

I guess their announcement several weeks ago stating that all illegals had to register with DHS didn’t work!

[Hekate]

19. Why the ones who are legal? Because they have already shown they are compliant, so they will show up...

And as someone else said, shooting fish in a barrel.

Makes me sick too.

[hadEnuf]

34. It's also known as a honey pot. Attract as many flies as you can, then close the lid. Gotcha!

Cops do this kind of stuff a lot and it's legal, not considered entrapment.

The problem is that Trump and ICE are proceeding like what they are doing is perfectly legal. It's not, and federal judges and even the SCOTUS have said it is not. But Trump and his Nazis are laughing at the SCOTUS' milquetoast "enforcement" and they are now arresting judges. The SCOTUS should be going wild on this stuff, but of course Trump is their "boy", so....

[MadameButterfly]

48. If there were indeed enough rapists and murders to deport they wouldn't have to

go after legal immigrants or gay hair stylists with tattos about autism.

So much for this being about doing immigration legally. Following the laws gets you deported.

[Karadeniz]

15. I had noted that strategy. Really low life.

[SSJVegeta]

16. Thank you

[Fla Dem]

17. Was his lawyer able to help him at all. I would like to think the lawyer would be better versed

in this than people trying to help on DU. And if he is anxious about being involved, what about all the DU'ers that might offer assistance? Might ICE now consider us as accomplices?

Again, his lawyer and the pro bona law firm should know how to advise him going forward. Bringing this case to DU "could" cause DU to be shut down if we offer assistance or advice. Look I'm not saying that would happen, but we really don't know do we? The poster, AOG, was afraid to bring this case to DU but he did, and does that now make us complicit if we offer advice? I hope not.

[Cirsium]

28. Of course we are all at risk

Various representatives from the Trump administration have made it crystal clear in various ways at various times that we are all the enemy if we object in any way to anything they are doing, that we are going to be dealt with and that there are no holds barred. No courts, no laws, no state governments, no legislatures will stop them.

Are they bluffing? Are they joking? Are they just clowns, so therefore not a worry?

Or maybe we shouldn't get "stressed out" about it because "that's what they want us to do?"

[mzmolly]

18. OMG

😭 what have we become under this regime?

I’m sorry that you’re frightened. 2026 can’t come soon enough.

[TBF]

23. 2026 is a year away - protesting NOW, pressure NOW is what we need. nt

[mzmolly]

43. Agree. I'm talking about taking back the house/senate.

[TBF]

61. I know, my dear, just commenting that it may not be soon enough

we need massive people in the streets now. He's moving too fast, shutting too much down. Take care.

[mzmolly]

62. Agree.

That's not enough, alone.

[Cirsium]

27. No magic there

There is nothing magical about 2026.

[mzmolly]

44. Except winning congress

and hopefully the Senate and perhaps an effective impeachment at that time.

[Cirsium]

45. That is the hope

Authoritarians can not merely be voted out of power. Nor is it merely an election that puts them in power. Elections are like leaves tossed on a tidal wave.

[mzmolly]

46. K

[Cirsium]

55. Pretty serious

I think it is pretty serious.

[mzmolly]

56. As do I.

Last edited Wed Apr 30, 2025, 01:26 PM - Edit history (1)

But I will not give up hope that the 26 elections can make a big difference.

[Cirsium]

57. Who doesn't?

That is not the point. The right wingers don't focus on elections and they don't rely on hope. The mistake we make is promoting electoral politics. The right wingers win at the local level, in the propaganda wars, in the media and they let the elections take care of themselves. They are fighting - and winning - the battle to determine the terms of the debate, and to gain the attention of their audience.

When we focus on elections as though they were a cause of social change rather than an effect of social change, we handicap our efforts. While we are saying "hire us we are the better managers" they say "we are about you, join the movement and make America great." Of course it is bullshit, but it works and we do not have a strong response.

Watching videos here this morning of Trump and his accomplices being interviewed, it is clear to me that they win every interaction with the journalists, providing that the viewer does not know that they are lying.

The right wing propagandists have infiltrated every nook and cranny of society with a supposed "common sense" message and they give people as sense of importance and of belonging. The talking points are developed by lavishly funded tested on focus groups, and then pounded into people's heads from every direction 24/7 for years and years now. We have not developed an effective counter strategy.

MAGA is working all the time, they are at war with us. We focus on selling and marketing our candidates and the party with an approach that mostly appeals to people who are already interested in politics, ad who are upper middle class professionals. Schumer said as much not long ago. They are building community and winning the culture war. That is how they can win despite having very unpopular policies.

Again and again here people are saying, especially in the grifting videos posted, that they are melting down, losing it, flipping out, etc. Only in our eyes is any of that true.

[mzmolly]

58. I did not suggest that winning elections is the only

Last edited Wed Apr 30, 2025, 06:09 PM - Edit history (1)

way to fight.

[Cirsium]

59. Good

...

[wnylib]

64. Excellent post. I'd give it 1000+ recs.

You nailed it on why they keep winning and we don't.

[Cirsium]

66. Thanks

Thanks for the kind words wnylib. Much appreciated.

[wnylib]

63. IF there are midterm elections. What if they get cancelled for "national security" reasons?

I guess that would bring out the protesters.

Or maybe not if they feel intimidated by a bold action.

[pansypoo53219]

20. yeah. they trapped the vermont student who was going for legal american. on npr.

[j.preston]

21. Boosting

I have posted this on TUMBLR (No identification of AOG/OPer). Here in Ohio, our local news channels have "6 on Your Side" for example. Channel 6 investigates local news stories and this might be one your local news might pick up.

Social Media is a bit of a squirrely media source but so many people are on it...However, it is always helpful to post a verifying source. I like to use local media, as people are a bit more (?) likely to trust people in their own communities to provide accurate news. My second go-to is NPR, which also might be a good news source to approach.

[j.preston]

22. Tick-Tock 💥

This came across while I was posting another story...Found at least 5 other sources carrying the story.

This is an IED waiting to explode.


‘We’re citizens!’: Oklahoma City family traumatized after ICE raids home, but they weren’t suspects
Story by Spencer Humphrey/KFOR

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — A woman says her family’s fresh start in Oklahoma turned into a nightmare after federal immigration agents raided their home, taking their phones, laptops, and life savings – even though they were not the suspects the agents were looking for.

The agents had a search warrant for the home, but the suspects listed on the warrant do not live in the house.

The woman who actually lives in the house had just moved to Oklahoma City from Maryland with her family about two weeks earlier.

Las Vegas ice cream truck mistaken for ICE vehicle: ‘I’m an ice cream man, that’s it’

The woman, who News 4 will refer to as “Marisa”, and her three daughters came to Oklahoma looking for a slower, more affordable pace of life.

They rented a house in a seemingly safe northwest Oklahoma City neighborhood.

Her husband stayed back in Maryland a couple of extra weeks, planning to join them this weekend.

“I was like, ‘okay, Oklahoma’s my home now,’” Marisa said.

But any comfort they had disappeared Thursday morning when about 20 men, armed with guns, busted through the door.

“I don’t know who they were,” she said. “It was dark. All the lights were off.”

What is a migrant? What is ICE? 10 terms to help you understand the debate over immigration

Marisa said the men identified themselves as federal agents with the U.S. Marshals, ICE, and the FBI.

“I keep asking them, ‘who are you? What are you doing here? What’s happening,’” she said. “And they said, ‘we have a warrant for the house, a search warrant.’”

She said they ordered her and her daughters outside into the rain before they could even put on clothes.

“They wanted me to change in front of all of them, in between all of them,” she said. “My husband has not even seen my daughter in her undergarments—her own dad, because it’s respectful. You have her out there, a minor, in her underwear.”

Marisa said the names on the search warrant were not hers or anyone in her family.

Homeland Security makes cuts to offices overseeing civil rights protections

She recognized them as names listed on mail still arriving at the house—likely former residents.

“We just moved here from Maryland,” she said. “We’re citizens. That’s what I kept saying. We’re citizens.”

She said the agents didn’t care.

“They were very dismissive, very rough, very careless,” she said. “I kept pleading. I kept telling them we weren’t criminals. They were treating us like criminals. We were here by ourselves. We didn’t do anything.”

Marisa said the agents tore apart every square inch of the house and what few belongings they had, seizing their phones, laptops and their life savings in cash as “evidence.”

“I told them before they left, I said you took my phone. We have no money. I just moved here,” she said. “I have to feed my children. I’m going to need gas money. I need to be able to get around. Like, how do you just leave me like this? Like an abandoned dog.”

Justice Department can cut funding for legal guidance for people facing deportation, US judge says

Before they left, Marisa said one of the agents made a comment.

“One of them said, ‘I know it was a little rough this morning,’” she said. “It was so denigrating. That you do all of this to a family, to women, your fellow citizens. And it was a little rough? You literally traumatized me and my daughters for life. We’re going to have to go get help or get over this somehow.”

Now, Marisa said they have, quite literally, nothing.

“I said, ‘when are we going to get our stuff back?’ They said it could be days or it could be months,” she said.

Marisa said she is left with nothing but questions.

“What if I would have been armed,” she said. “You’re breaking in. What am I supposed to think? My initial thought was we were being robbed—that my daughters, being females, were being kidnapped. You have guns pointed in our faces. Can you just reprogram yourself and see us as humans, as women? A little bit of mercy. Care a little bit about your fellow human, about your fellow citizen, fellow resident. We bleed too. We work. We bleed just like anybody else bleeds. We’re scared. You could see our faces that we were terrified. What makes you so much more worthier of your peace? What makes you so much more worthier of protecting your children? What makes you so much more worthy of your citizenship? What makes you more worthy of safety? Of being given the right that they took from me to protect my daughters?”

Marisa told News 4 the agents wouldn’t even leave her a business card.

She said she has no idea who to contact to get her things back.

News 4 reached out to the FBI. A spokesperson said they were simply assisting on this case and directed inquiries to Homeland Security.

A spokesperson for Homeland Security told News 4 they are looking into it and will get back with News 4.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

[dalton99a]

38. +1

[aggiesal]

24. I now carry my Passport card for this reason. n/t

[Cirsium]

25. What "press?"

What "press?" What "representatives?" I am afraid we are on our own.

[OldBaldy1701E]

49. Exactly!

The sooner we start realizing this, the sooner we can try to do something!

As long as we sit and wait for a hero, we are going to slowly perish while the rich sit and grin.

[LiberalArkie]

26. I might guess and any immigrant who has reported on gang activity which might be indicative of the ability to

report on anything to do with white supremacy groups, motorcycle gangs etc. They seem to want the compliant people gone.

[chouchou]

29. I understand. I firmly believe that those sub-human bastards would send Jesus himself to the dungeon...

...if those creeps could get "That's a good boy!!"

[Joinfortmill]

30. So eerily like 1930s Germany.

[wnylib]

65. Yes, it is.

[Bayard]

31. K&R

Thanks for telling us about your friend.

[seta1950]

32. Good for you

Report it to Meidas Touch they are on Bluesky, and they do great work

[proud patriot]

33. Thank you for reporting this

[HereForTheParty]

35. Do we know they will deport him?

Nm

[BobTheSubgenius]

36. Good on you, for your principled stand!

I do not blame you one iota for being worried about your position. I'm scared of simply living in this time period. Not all day, every day or anything, but way, way more than should be expected.

[Figarosmom]

37. So if they are deporting these people

He's got nothing to lose if he just tosses the new form and just keeps on as he has been. There's already cases being reported of people being picked up at their citizenship/nationalization interviews like Mohsen Mahdawi. None of these people are criminals. Just the targeted color. People like me who are of Mediterranean descents will get much browner in the summer and maybe we should start carrying our "papers" too.

[Pinback]

39. "Do You Have a Tip for ProPublica? Here's How to Contact Us Securely."

https://www.propublica.org/tips/

[yellow dahlia]

41. Saving also. n/t

[AverageOldGuy]

50. Thanks to all who suggested tips

Tips have been delivered

[Doodley]

51. Trump views immigrants, LGBTQ, POC, Democrats, and Muslims as less than human.

[samnsara]

52. maybe part of the pro bono work can be to accompany

..these individuals when they report for the paperwork..

[FBaggins]

53. I'm confused

Why is someone who is here legally applying for legal status?

[kerry-is-my-prez]

67. Unless you have your real name, I don't think they can't figure it out.

The moderators/owners of this site have said they would not provide info about their posters - hopefully, that is still true.