Hello Dante? What Level Is This?

[ti-amie]

https://www.wired.com/story/michael-wal ... mo-public/

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

Unless that watch was bought on Canal St here in NYC that's $60k on her wrist.

[ponchi101]

Look to me like a Rolex Daytona (the one Alcaraz uses). If it is the gold one, it goes for around $50K.
I like the hair styling. That must be a... $500 job? Very fitting to visit a prison.

[dryrunguy]

Oops. Oh well... He's just another brown person, so... (behind a NY Times paywall, so here is the full text)

U.S. Says Deportation of Maryland Man Was an ‘Administrative Error’

Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who was in the U.S. legally, is now in prison in El Salvador, and federal courts have no jurisdiction to order his release, the Trump administration said in a court filing.

A Maryland man who was in the United States legally was deported to El Salvador and imprisoned there because of an “administrative error,” Trump administration officials said in a court filing on Monday, adding that American courts lacked the jurisdiction to have him released.

The man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, had lived in the United States under protected legal status since October 2019. His wife and 5-year-old child are both U.S. citizens.

On March 12, Mr. Abrego Garcia was stopped by immigration agents who told him inaccurately that his status had changed, according to court documents. Mr. Abrego Garcia had “withholding from removal” status, which means he was the subject of a deportation order but was allowed to stay in the United States because of the likelihood that he could be harmed if he returned to El Salvador.

Three days later, Mr. Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador, and he is now being held in its sprawling Terrorism Confinement Center, a so-called mega prison known as CECOT. In the court filing, Trump administration officials said there was nothing they could do to correct the error, given that Mr. Abrego Garcia was no longer in U.S. custody. His deportation was first reported by The Atlantic.

Mr. Abrego Garcia’s inadvertent deportation is the latest twist in a pitched battle between immigration lawyers and the White House over the administration’s efforts to deport migrants to El Salvador under both traditional and highly unorthodox procedures.

Mr. Abrego Garcia was placed on one of three flights to El Salvador on March 15 as the Trump administration was hastily ramping up its efforts to use a rarely invoked wartime statute, known as the Alien Enemies Act, to deport scores of Venezuelan immigrants accused of being members of the street gang Tren de Aragua.

Two of the planes were sent to El Salvador under the authority of the act, administration officials have said. But the third — the one on which Mr. Abrego Garcia was traveling — was supposed to have been transporting only migrants with formal removal orders signed by a judge.

The Trump administration now admits that Mr. Abrego Garcia’s removal was an “administrative error.” Moreover, Justice Department lawyers said in court papers that there was little they could do to get him back from El Salvador, and have urged the judge overseeing the case to reject his family’s petition to bring him home, arguing that the White House cannot force the Salvadoran government to release him and that U.S. federal courts have no jurisdiction to order his release.

While Mr. Abrego Garcia’s case is separate from those of the Venezuelans who are challenging the administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act, it raises some similar issues. Lawyers for the Venezuelans have persistently argued that their clients have had no opportunity to challenge accusations that they are gang members, and several have ended up in the same Salvadoran prison without any way of protesting their plight or returning to the United States.

During a briefing at the White House on Tuesday, Karoline Leavitt, Mr. Trump’s spokeswoman, defended the deportation of Mr. Abrego Garcia, telling reporters the administration had evidence that he was a convicted member of the Salvadoran street gang MS-13, even though he has never gone to trial or pleaded guilty.

Ms. Leavitt dodged when she was pressed further on the issue of a conviction, but again asserted that Mr. Abrego Garcia was a member of the gang. His lawyers have rejected any suggestion he was a gang member.

Officials from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency tried to deport Mr. Abrego Garcia in March 2019, according to court documents. During those proceedings, they claimed a confidential informant had told them that Mr. Abrego Garcia was a high-ranking member of MS-13.

Mr. Abrego Garcia appealed the claims that he was a danger to the community and filed a petition for asylum. He was granted “withholding from removal” status in October 2019 by an immigration judge, which protected him from being deported to El Salvador. That status was active — and ICE agents were aware of it — when Mr. Abrego Garcia was placed on a deportation flight last month, according to court documents.

In a post on X, Vice President JD Vance defended the deportation, claiming Mr. Abrego Garcia was “a convicted MS-13 gang member with no legal right to be here.”

Mr. Abrego Garcia’s wife and relatives filed their civil suit against the Trump administration on his behalf last month, asking the U.S. government to halt its payments to El Salvador for holding deportees until Mr. Abrego Garcia was returned.

In Monday’s court filing, administration officials balked at that request, claiming the U.S. courts did not have jurisdiction to order such actions and saying Mr. Abrego Garcia’s plight should not stand in the way of the Trump administration’s greater foreign policy goals.

The plaintiffs’ “request would harm the public interest by preventing the executive from implementing a unified course of conduct for the United States’ foreign affairs,” three Justice Department and immigration officials wrote in the filing. “They have made no showing that the removal of Abrego Garcia to El Salvador was something other than an administrative error.”

[ti-amie]

The Trump administration now admits that Mr. Abrego Garcia’s removal was an “administrative error.” Moreover, Justice Department lawyers said in court papers that there was little they could do to get him back from El Salvador, and have urged the judge overseeing the case to reject his family’s petition to bring him home, arguing that the White House cannot force the Salvadoran government to release him and that U.S. federal courts have no jurisdiction to order his release.

But hey bringing the Tate brothers back from Romania was a piece of cake.

Disgusting.

[ponchi101]

How your democracy is beign rested.

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

6,000 living immigrants added to Social Security death database as part of immigration crackdown
The tactic effectively erases their ability to receive benefits or work in the United States.
By Lisa Rein, Hannah Natanson and Maria Sacchetti

At the request of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem, the Social Security Administration this week added the names and Social Security numbers of more than 6,000 mostly Latino immigrants into a database it uses to track dead people, effectively erasing their ability to receive benefits or work in the United States, according to four people familiar with the situation and records obtained by The Washington Post.

The immigrants entered the United States through the Biden administration’s parole programs, which granted temporary work permits to hundreds of thousands of people who did not have a visa or another way to enter the country. Some arrived through border checkpoints, others flew into airports. After taking office, the Trump administration abolished the categorical programs, but the impact is unclear. These are people who are here legally who will never be able to do anything in the U.S. that requires a Social Security Number check ever again.

A White House official — who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the new program — said those who were moved into the Social Security database this week all have ties to terrorist activity or criminal records. The official did not provide evidence of the alleged crimes or terrorist ties but said some are included on the FBI’s terror watch list.

“President Trump promised mass deportations and by removing the monetary incentive for illegal aliens to come and stay, we will encourage them to self deport,” Elizabeth Huston, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement. “He is delivering on his promise he made to the American people.”

The immigrants’ names were placed in the database following two memorandums of agreement signed on Monday by Noem and Leland Dudek, the acting Social Security commissioner, according to the people familiar with the situation. The memos authorize Social Security to place the immigrants in the death file for national security reasons and under the Social Security Act, one official said. Some details about the program were first reported Thursday afternoon by the New York Times.

But some current and former Social Security officials questioned the legality of the practice, saying that adding names of people it knows have not died to the death database violates privacy laws that no longer apply when someone has actually died. Like others interviewed for this story, the current and former officials spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

The action marks the start of a major campaign by the Trump administration to force out potentially hundreds of thousands who are living in the U.S. illegally but who have a Social Security number, allowing them to collect Medicaid, Medicare, unemployment insurance, federal loans or other benefits, the people said. The next target for inclusion in the database will be another 92,000 undocumented immigrants with some kind of criminal conviction, the White House official said, but the effort will expand to undocumented immigrants without criminal histories after that.

The Social Security press office did not respond to a request for comment. The White House official said that, among the approximately 6,000 people transferred to the death database, almost 1,000 are collecting Medicaid, the federal health insurance program for low-income people; 41 are collecting unemployment insurance; and 22 are receiving student loans.

“They have no right to be in the country,” the official said. Listing the immigrants in the database means they will now be treated as dead by many federal agencies, employers, landlords and banks, the official explained. When the immigrants realize their ability to legally earn a livelihood is cut off, the official explained, the administration hopes they will choose to leave the country on their own.

The tactic — using Social Security’s death database as a deportation tool — marks a new strategy and an escalation in the Trump administration’s aggressive campaign to track down and force undocumented immigrants out of the country. Earlier this month, Homeland Security reached an agreement with the Internal Revenue Service to receive the tax data it maintains for undocumented immigrants. The acting IRS commissioner resigned over the decision.

“If you want to know what DOGE is doing at Social Security, this is it,” the White House official said, referring to Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team, which has been charged with downsizing federal agencies. With little evidence, U.S. DOGE Service representatives have argued that U.S. taxpayers have for years funded costly benefits for immigrants living in the country illegally.

Until this month, DOGE was focused on cutting staff and spending at Social Security, as well as rooting out alleged fraud by shrinking phone service — an idea DOGE abandoned after an outcry. But the Musk team’s work on immigration intensified last week, when Social Security received a database of 800,000 people with final deportation orders kept by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a Homeland Security agency.

Some on the DOGE team pushed to revoke the Social Security numbers of a larger group, whether or not they had criminal records, two people with knowledge of the discussion said. But after several discussions, the decision was made to start with those with criminal records and alleged connections to terrorists for inclusion. The names are on a newly created “ineligibility list” that designates them as ineligible for federal benefits. The plan is to expand to anyone the administration has designated as in the country illegally with a Social Security number and include in the database.

The database that the approximately 6,000 people have been transferred to is known as the “Death Master File,” though none of them are dead. The dataset contains more than 85 million records of deaths dating back to 1936. Their inclusion in the list will render the immigrants easily identifiable by many different benefit-paying entities as well as banks and identity authentication companies.

The consequences for the group could be dire, current and former Social Security staff warned. In a March blog post, the agency itself said that being “erroneously reported as deceased to Social Security can be devastating” and “cause financial hardship.”

As Trump officials race to deport those here illegally or whose temporary legal status the administration has canceled, it has embraced aggressive and unconventional tactics. Since taking office, Trump officials have sought to expand the government’s power to expel migrants without a court hearing, forcibly removed hundreds of immigrants to jails in El Salvador and the Guantánamo Bay naval station in Cuba, and conscripted other agencies to arrest immigrants despite their inexperience with immigration laws. The administration has also mistakenly deported a Maryland man to an El Salvador prison and accidentally told some Ukrainians to leave the country, a message officials quickly retracted.

A number of agency employees said the move to add living people to the death database is shocking and unprecedented. One noted that being placed in the death database would immediately terminate Social Security benefits and that, even for those not receiving payments, it will lead to problems with employment.

The death list is shared by Social Security with other federal agencies, and the Commerce Department also sells a regularly updated list to banks, mortgage companies and employers who use it to ensure that Social Security numbers have not been stolen. That means that the Commerce version of the death database will erroneously report that the immigrants have died, potentially leading institutions to sever relationships with them, current and former Social Security official said.

That’s because the death database is often connected to E-Verify, a Homeland Security website that allows businesses to check whether their employees are eligible for work in the United States, the employee said.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... rity-dead/

[ponchi101]

Killed by bureaucracy.
These people are bent on cruelty.

[dryrunguy]

It was my first impression last night when I read this, but I didn't say anything... Then the NY Times posted their assessment this morning, so maybe I was right... This is about encouraging self-deportation. And it will work, at least to some degree. How much remains to be seen.

[ti-amie]

US base commander removed for refusing to lower Greenland and Danish flags at Pituffik Space Base
Friday 11 April 2025, by Financial Times, Politico.eu

US Base commander Colonel Susannah Meyers has been removed for criticising VP Vance — and apparently for refusing to lower Greenland and Danish flags flying alongside the Stars and Stripes at the US Pituffik Space Base.[AN]

Politico.eu: Pentagon fires Greenland base commander after she criticized JD Vance visit
Actions to “subvert President Trump’s agenda will not be tolerated,” U.S. military warns.

BY ELENA GIORDANO

The U.S. military announced Thursday it had removed Col. Susannah Meyers, commander of its Pituffik base in Greenland, stating it would not tolerate any pushback against President Donald Trump’s agenda.

Meyers sent an email to base personnel on March 31 distancing herself from U.S. Vice President JD Vance’s visit three days prior, according to the independent news organization Military.com.

In her message, Meyers said she had spent the weekend reflecting on how Vance’s remarks might have affected those stationed at the base, amid a pressure campaign from the White House directed toward acquiring the massive Arctic island from Denmark.

“I do not presume to understand current politics, but what I do know is the concerns of the U.S. administration discussed by Vice President Vance on Friday are not reflective of Pituffik Space Base,” Meyers wrote in the email.

“I commit that, for as long as I am lucky enough to lead this base, all of our flags will fly proudly — together,” the message added.

Late Thursday in the U.S., the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson Sean Parnell announced that Meyers had been removed from her post, explaining that “actions to undermine the chain of command or to subvert President Trump’s agenda will not be tolerated.”

Parnell did not specify the reason for the dismissal in his statement, but included a link to the Military.com article.

Vance traveled to the Pituffik military base with a U.S. delegation on March 28, amid repeated threats from Trump to seize Greenland, a self-ruling Danish territory rich in critical minerals and situated in a key strategic Arctic location.

During the visit, Vance criticized Denmark’s management of Greenland, suggesting that the territory would be safer under U.S. protection due to perceived threats from China and Russia. He argued that Denmark had underinvested in Greenland’s security and infrastructure, and advocated for U.S. control over the territory.

Following the visit, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said: “We are open to criticisms, but let me be completely honest, we do not appreciate the tone in which it’s being delivered.”

Greenland’s new prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, has also said Greenland is not for sale and has called Trump’s aggressive overtures “a threat to our political independence.”

Financial Times: US fires Greenland base commander after JD Vance visit
The US has sacked the commander of its military base in Greenland over her alleged attempts to “subvert President Trump’s agenda” after hosting the American vice-president on the Arctic island.

Colonel Susannah Meyers was removed as commander of the Pituffik Space Base late on Thursday after reports that she had sent an email critical of vice-president JD Vance’s visit to the island last month. “Actions to undermine the chain of command or to subvert President Trump’s agenda will not be tolerated at the Department of Defense,” chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell wrote on X.

Parnell linked to a report by a military outlet that Meyers had sent an email to all personnel on the base days after Vance’s visit saying that she would keep the US, Danish and Greenlandic flags flying despite the vice-president’s sharp criticism of Copenhagen. “I do not presume to understand current politics, but what I do know is the concerns of the US administration discussed by vice-president Vance on Friday are not reflective of Pituffik Space Base,” the email sent on March 31 said, according to military.com.

Greenland has been thrust into the geopolitical spotlight after President Donald Trump has repeatedly said he intends to take over the Arctic island of 57,000 people from Denmark and has refused to rule out using force to do so.

The US has had a military presence on Greenland since the second world war but that has dwindled from a peak of about 15,000 troops and more than a dozen bases to about 150 personnel and just the one base at Pituffik.
Meyers’ removal from Space Operations Command was due to “loss of confidence in her ability to lead”, according to its communications department. “Commanders are expected to adhere to the highest standards of conduct, especially as it relates to remaining non-partisan in the performance of their duties.” Colonel Shawn Lee had replaced Meyers, the statement added.

Democrats and legal experts have expressed concern about the number of US officials being removed from government office due to criticism of Trump and his administration.

Both Denmark and Greenland have said they are willing to work with the US to improve security on the island and in the Arctic. But Denmark, a Nato ally, has publicly criticised Vance’s visit and Trump’s rhetoric, saying that the future of the island is solely for Greenlanders to decide.

Greenland is a semi-autonomous territory in the kingdom of Denmark. A new coalition government was formed earlier this month following elections in which pro-independence parties gained traction. But the party leading the coalition, Demokraatit, seeks a slower path to independence, potentially dashing US hopes that a quick break from Denmark could bring Greenland closer to it. Greenland is keen to have US investment in its nascent mining and tourism industries, and many officials concede it is all but impossible to defend the island without America.

Source: FT.com
https://www.politico.eu/article/us-mili ... nce-visit/

[ti-amie]