Andrea Pedro Francisco was scheduled to have surgery in Minnesota to remove an ovarian cyst, but 6 days before the scheduled surgery date, the 23-year-old was arrested by immigration agents and sent to an El Paso detention center. Pedro Francisco came from Guatemala to the U.S. at the age of 16. She has a pending asylum claim, based on violence faced by women and Indigenous people in her home country.

As the cyst grows, it is in danger of rupturing, which would be life-threatening. Pedro Francisco’s attorney has asked ICE to release her on humanitarian parole, a discretionary power the agency has for detainees facing medical issues.

Humanitarian parole is likely Pedro Francisco’s only hope. Her case has caught the attention of international human rights groups, members of Congress, and religious groups from her home state of Minnesota.

Support Andrea through Amnesty International.

(Taken from an email sent to me by Never Again Action.)

Waged on many fronts, the war against immigrants extends to university campuses. Currently, seventeen universities have signed agreements with the Department of Homeland Security promising to aid enforcement actions on campus, as well as curtail activities that support immigrants, including international students. Some, like St Johns University in New York City, have partnered actively with Customs and Border Patrol, creating academic units to study enforcement and “security.” Others sign deadly 287(g) agreements, forcing campus police to collaborate with ICE and CBP. Such arrangements are particularly prevalent in right-wing dominated states like Florida, where both Florida International University and the University of Florida have supported immigration enforcement on campus.

As a result of these programs, many immigrant and international students feel increasingly unsafe on campus. Along with campus labor unions, students and faculty have opposed universities becoming a site for immigration enforcement. At St Johns, this effort has successfully terminated the collaboration between CBP and the university. Other universities are also organizing against the trespasses of these agencies on campus.

(Taken from an email sent to me by Never Again Action.)

Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests in Central and South Texas have climbed to an average of 2,000 arrests per month, according to a New York Times analysis.

This surge is quietly destabilizing families, pushing many toward financial ruin. About 9 in 10 of those arrested locally are men, the American-Statesman found, leaving women and children to replace lost income while navigating systems [that] they’ve never had to manage alone.

Although the immigrants interviewed for this story said [that] they have not received government assistance — many had not applied — local service providers are becoming aware of the increased need for assistance by immigrants without legal status for food and other support.

(Taken from an email sent to me by Never Again Action.)

The first of what should be many cases of prosecutors charging ICE agents dropped last week. The Minnesota Attorney General is charging an agent with a second-degree felony for actions he took during the siege of Minneapolis: pointing a gun at two civilians in a moving vehicle. This is not the most high-profile case but hopefully sets the precedent for holding agents responsible for their violence and law-breaking in the Twin Cities, L.A., Chicago, and elsewhere across the nation.

(Taken from an email sent to me by Never Again Action.)

Last week, ProPublica and Frontline—two of the best outlets for investigative journalism working today—released a documentary called “Caught in the Crackdown,” examining the ICE sieges of the Twin Cities, Los Angeles, Chicago, and other cities, beginning with an incident that happened in a Minneapolis neighborhood a few days after the murder of Renee Good. In the incident, protesters threw snowballs at ICE agents, who responded by aiming tear gas and pepper balls at protesters’ heads and faces. Multiple experts interviewed in the documentary characterize this and other violent incidents as indefensible.

(Taken from an email sent to me by Never Again Action.)

Nearly half of young Americans, 46%, believe that the United States’ relationship with Israel is mostly a burden to the United States, according to a new survey from the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School.

The Harvard Youth Poll, which polled 2,018 Americans aged 18 to 29, found that just 16% of those surveyed described the U.S. relationship with Israel as mostly a benefit.

Respondents were asked about their view of other U.S. alliances, including Canada, which 53% saw as beneficial, and Ukraine, which 21% saw as beneficial. Israel received the lowest perceived benefit of any country tested.

The survey also found that 55% of young Americans believe the U.S. military action in Iran is not in the best interest of the American people.

It comes as attitudes about Israel among young Americans in recent years have grown sharply negative. Earlier this month, a Pew Research Center survey found that 70% of Americans aged 18 to 49 held a somewhat or very negative opinion of Israel. That view was split among partisan lines, with 84% of Democrats in that demographic holding a negative view of Israel, compared to 57% of Republicans.

The Harvard survey was conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs between March 26 and April 3 and had a margin of error of 2.74 percentage points.

Archived

American service members will no longer be required to get a yearly flu shot under a new Defense Department policy described by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth as an effort to “restore freedom and strength to our joint force.”

Calling the Covid-19 vaccine mandate part of an “era of betrayal” that was now “over,” Hegseth said the Pentagon was discarding “absurd, overreaching mandates that only weaken our war fighting capabilities,” such as “the universal flu vaccine and the mandate behind it.”

What stage of imperial decline is this?

The Capitol Police are arresting US military veterans for protesting war and genocide. That’s how sick our society is. Protesting war and genocide lands you in jail while supporting war and funding genocide gets you a job in Congress and the White House.

Video link -> https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/2046329763019833344/vid/avc1/720x1280/baaqPHRMqME2jhLf.mp4

Source -> https://xcancel.com/ProudSocialist/status/2046329821265850775#m

New link has more footage -> https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/2046469562347225088/vid/avc1/706x1280/CWGLJzkJXEUsnEbK.mp4

Rahm Emanuel has joined growing calls for the United States to end subsidies tied to its military sales to Israel, arguing that Israel should purchase weapons on the same terms as other U.S. allies.

“The days of taxpayers subsidizing Israel militarily, that’s over,” Emanuel said during an appearance on Bill Maher’s HBO Max show “Real Time.” “No more financial aid.”

Emanuel is the Jewish former mayor of Chicago who is seen as a likely 2028 Democratic presidential candidate. His comments come months after he said that […] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government bore responsibility for the starvation of Palestinians in Gaza last summer.

Now, as support for Israel hits a record low among Democrats and party leaders increasingly move away from the United States’ longstanding backing of the country, calls to end U.S. military aid to Israel are gaining traction.

Last week, all but seven Senate Democrats voted to block the sales of certain weapons to Israel, marking a doubling in the number of lawmakers backing similar resolutions in just two years.

Emanuel, whose father was born in Jerusalem and who volunteered as a civilian with the Israeli army during the Gulf War in the 1990s, told Maher that Israel should be able to fund its own military — and implied that it might not meet the United States’ standards for being able to purchase U.S.-made weapons.

“Israel is a very wealthy nation. There should be no more taxpayer support for what they want to do and they get the same deal that any one of our allies do,” Emanuel said. “They have to abide by the laws of the United States if they’re going to buy X weapons, and that’s how it should be constructed.”

In January, Netanyahu said for the first time that he wanted to “taper off” U.S. military aid to Israel over the next decade until it reaches zero. His pledge was quickly met with support from South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who said at the time, “We need not wait 10 years.”

Speaking of the joint U.S.-Israeli war in Iran, Emanuel said the move amounted to a “violation of a rule Israel’s had for 78 years,” arguing that Israel had long sought to avoid pulling the United States into conflicts with its neighbors.

“The United States should never spill any blood for the state of Israel’s security,” Emanuel said. “What happened here going into Iran with the United States and Israel fighting together, which has never happened in 78 years, is a major change in policy for the State of Israel, which comes with political risk, and now they’re seeing it.”

On March 14th, the Choctaw Nation Council passed a bill to approve the purchase of a 1.2 million square foot facility that was formerly owned by the retail company BigLots. The facility is located very close to the Choctaw Nation headquarters and the city of Durant, which is located on tribal lands.

Officials became concerned because they heard local sheriffs were in talks with DHS officials to purchase the facility and turn it into an ICE detention center. “Choctaw Nation council members sounded the alarm that the facility is ‘unacceptably close to the nation’s governmental headquarters and community-serving facilities, including childcare and elderly services.’”

Both the city and Choctaw Nation headquarters decided to work quickly to pass an ordinance affirming that they did not want the warehouse to be turned into an ICE facility. After growing concern that this would not be enough, the Council approved the purchase of the facility so ICE can’t have it.

(Taken from an email sent to me by Never Again Action.)

We are sad to learn that Nurul Amin Shah died by homicide. Shah was a visually impaired Rohingya refugee from Myanmar who had come to the U.S. to escape the near-genocidal persecution of the Rohingya in Myanmar.

New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, opened an investigation into Shah’s death in March. The Erie county district attorney’s office requested the autopsy as part of its parallel investigation. While such investigations cannot return Shah to his wife and children, strongly enforced accountability may help prevent recurrence of this kind of tragedy.

(Taken from an email sent to me by Never Again Action.)

Reporters at the San Francisco Chronicle reviewed records of each of the 48 deaths that have happened in ICE custody since Trump returned to office. This is the highest rate of death under ICE supervision, ever. Even more tragic and infuriating, these deaths were mostly preventable. Doctors who reviewed the files said that many of the deaths were due to inexcusable delays, missed diagnoses, care workers ignoring emergencies, or workers waiting too long to provide care.

When asked for comment, CoreCivic, GEO Group, and DHS all claimed that detainees receive high standards of medical care. Every single expert consulted by the Chronicle disagrees with that assessment. The Chronicle points out that standards of questionable care by ICE and DHS precede the current administration. This is true, because cruel deterrence policies stretch back decades. The cruelty is, and has long been, the point.

(Taken from an email sent to me by Never Again Action.)

Rosa María Carranza, like over 100,000 other workers, has been paying part of her wages into Medicare and Social Security over many years. Records show she made contributions totaling tens of thousands of dollars. Now, thanks to the current regime, she and many more like her will be “disenrolled” from these programs. That’s a polite term for “kicked off” and it hides the truth that peoples’ payments into these systems are intended to be returned to them in their times of need.

In plain language, the BBB is stealing millions of dollars from people who can least afford it, while depriving them of health care and retirement possibilities.

(Taken from an email sent to me by Never Again Action.)

Individual states are uniquely able to pass legislation reigning in the unconstitutional terror perpetrated by the federal Department of Homeland Security. States like California and Washington have passed legislation either banning the wearing of masks by federal agents (except in cases of medical necessity) or, in the case of the Washington law, allowing anyone detained by a masked agent to sue for damages.

Responding to the duress created by the Trump administration requires our collective creativity. These laws demonstrate legal agility and have, so far, met with success when challenged in court.

(Taken from an email sent to me by Never Again Action.)

In January, the nation’s largest nurse’s union issued a statement demanding that Congress abolish ICE. Hours later, ICE agents killed nurse Alex Pretti, executing him in cold blood. This moment galvanized nurses and other hospital workers in Minnesota and across the nation. As patient advocates, nurses were already being put in horrifying, impossible positions. Now, both union organizing and person-to-person organizing have strengthened hospital workers’ resolve to defend their patients and shield them from terror in their most vulnerable moments.

(Taken from an email sent to me by Never Again Action.)

Only one U.S. university ranks in the world’s top 10 in STEM. In 2020, U.S. and Europe dominated the top 10. But now nine of those spots are held by Chinese institutions.

Raytheon supplies Israel with the bombs it uses to bombard Gaza; it is one of the world's largest arms manufacturers.

May the fire burn all the criminals who profit from killing children.

Video link -> https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/2045069495006294016/vid/avc1/1290x2148/1oiMGeHqCJ2iMh-7.mp4

US source -> https://wgxa.tv/news/local/investigation-underway-after-early-morning-fire-at-raytheon-building-in-warner-robins-engineering-company-specializing-in-us-defense-systems-aerospace-rtx-corporation

Tensions have boiled over in Compton, California, as a worker's death at an Amazon warehouse and the manager's alleged refusal to allow other employees to help him has sparked the latest in a string of warehouse arson incidents across the United States. This marks the seventh such fire in just one week, as public outrage over worker mistreatment continues to manifest in violent acts targeting major corporations.

Why it matters

The rash of warehouse fires reflects a growing public backlash against perceived corporate indifference to worker safety and well-being. These incidents highlight the simmering anger over issues like poor working conditions, inadequate safety protocols, and a lack of compassion from management when tragedies occur. The situation underscores the need for companies to prioritize the welfare of their workforce and rebuild public trust.

The details

According to reports, an unnamed Amazon worker died at the Compton facility after a manager allegedly prohibited other employees from providing aid. This tragedy sparked an immediate response, with a group of individuals setting fire to the warehouse. The Compton incident marks the seventh such arson attack on a company warehouse in the past week across the United States, a troubling trend that authorities are struggling to contain.