Bits n’ pieces from east, west and beyond

East, west or beyond, sooner or later events elsewhere may have a local impact. A recent sampling:

A 33-year-old ICE attorney who quit told The Atlantic he did so because ICE was deliberately neglecting criminal cases and instead focusing on arrest quotas. The criminal cases he was concerned about included drug trafficking, national security threats and human rights violations.

The Dept. of Veterans Affairs announced in a news release a plan for a large scale reduction in force, 83,000, will instead by 30,000 at the end of 2025.

Early this month a federal judge ruled that the Trump Administration cannot deny entry to people crossing the southern border to apply for asylum. The ruling, reported in the Lever, said neither the Constitution nor federal immigration law empowers presidential defiance of Congress’s 1980 law that established a right for people to flee persecution.

A week after flooding in Texas, 120 were confirmed dead and 150 were missing, Mother Jones wrote. There are complaints that the Federal Emergency Management Act had a slow response; the Dept. of Homeland Security’s Secretary slowed the process by requesting personal approval for grants over $100,000, which can take five days. 

Other Noem approval-dependent actions alleged to have been slow included aerial search and rescue, and more support staff for a disaster call center. Noem criticized FEMA’s slow response. Talking to press, Trump said it wasn’t the right time to talk about plans to phase out FEMA. The Washington Post said the Administration is backing away from plans to abolish FEMA.

Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful green card holder, has sued the Trump Administration for $20 million in damages for false imprisonment, malicious prosecution and being smeared as an anti-Semite, various media reported. He’d been held, in violation of his First Amendment rights, for a pro-Palestine speech. As a settlement, Khalil offered to accept an official apology and changes to deportation policies.

Trump-DOGE cuts to USAID could cause 14 million additional deaths by 2030, the medical journal The Lancet says. A third of premature deaths will be for children.

Republican Senators approved $50 billion for a Rural Health Transformation Program, to help rural hospitals survive the cuts when they recently passed Trump’s “Big, Beautiful” budget bill -- which severely reduced funds for Medicaid. The Alliance for Retired Americans says the math doesn’t add up: the $50 billion approved will not adequately address the rural Medicaid loss of $155 billion.

The Labor Dept. has created the new Office of Immigration Policy to deal with farmers’ concerns of a shortage of immigrants to harvest crops, pack meat and serve in jobs like cleaning. Axios says 40% of the ag labor market are non-citizens, and farmers are worried about jeopardizing the food supply. The OIP would streamline issuing visas for temporary migrant workers. But Axios says Trump’s MAGA base prefers “ratcheting up” deportations. Due to the abundance of unauthorized labor, it could take years to have a fully authorized workforce under the OIG.

A recent Gallup poll: of those polled, a record high of 79% say immigration is good for the country. A “strong majority” oppose the “tough-guy, kick-them-all-out” stance on illegal immigration.

CBS News: Florida’s new immigrant detention facility, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” has complaints from detainees: one meal a day, with maggots; no water for showers, and no access to healthcare.

Relevant headlines: Inflation surged in June amid tariffs as Trump declared 'inflation is dead'; FEMA Didn’t Answer Thousands of Calls From [Texas] Flood Survivors [due to contractors being fired and failure to renew contracts with four companies]; [Sen. Josh] Hawley introduces bill to reverse Medicaid cuts he voted for; US economy shrank 0.5% in the first quarter, worse than earlier estimates had revealed [consumer spending “slowed sharply”]; European heatwave, supercharged by climate change, caused 2,300 deaths ; Landmark ruling finds Russia shot down [flight] MH17 with 298 people on board [in 2014], Europe’s top human rights court finds [all 298 passengers and crew died. Russia was declared responsible]; House Republicans Block Release of Epstein Files [Stephen Bannon warns it could cost Republicans 40 House seats in 2026]; Trump’s 30% tariffs would "practically prohibit" EU-US trade [says EU trade chief]; Republicans complain to Canada over wildfire smoke despite supporting planet-heating bill; and, CIA historian: “Trump has put national security in the hands of crackpots and fools.” Immigration headlines: Judges are deporting record numbers of young children under Trump [8,317 kids ages 11 and under, 15,000 were aged four or under]; Senators Introduce a Bill Requiring Immigration Agents to Show Their Faces; Dept. of Agriculture secretary says able-bodied Medicaid recipients should replace immigrant farm workforce [most Medicaid recipients are already employed]; and, Nigeria has "enough problems" and can't take deportees from US.

Wired: The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is now “the USDA Digital Service.”

Blast from the past: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Edmund Burke, 1729-1797, British statesman, author and political philosopher.