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For Immediate Release
December, 06 2012, 02:18pm EDT
Contact:
Jordan Libowitz,,jlibowitz@citizensforethics.org,.
CREW Congratulates November's Scoundrel of the Month: Crossroads GPS
Karl Rove and his dark money minions at Crossroads GPS suffered a series of expensive defeats on Election Day, but thanks to your votes the group is taking home a small consolation prize as November's Scoundrel of the Month. Although Crossroads GPS has a long history of playing fast and loose with election rules, even we were shocked by how brazenly the group violated campaign finance law when soliciting donations to fund ads for specific races.
WASHINGTON
Karl Rove and his dark money minions at Crossroads GPS suffered a series of expensive defeats on Election Day, but thanks to your votes the group is taking home a small consolation prize as November's Scoundrel of the Month. Although Crossroads GPS has a long history of playing fast and loose with election rules, even we were shocked by how brazenly the group violated campaign finance law when soliciting donations to fund ads for specific races.
Federal law requires outside groups making independent political expenditures to disclose the donors who paid for them. Groups like Crossroads GPS normally evade this rule by claiming none of their funds were earmarked for specific races. In complaints filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and the FBI, however, CREW presented clear evidence that Rove and other Crossroads leaders solicited donations tied to individual races, even issuing a matching challenge for Ohio's Senate race.
"Karl Rove has had a tough month, failing to deliver results for his secretive mega-donors and being put into a 'time-out' by Fox News after his election night meltdown. This is yet another strike against him," said CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan. "If the FEC wants to maintain a shred of credibility with the public, it must take swift action against Crossroads GPS for its total disregard for the law."
Karl Rove and his Crossroads cronies can now join the ranks of other former scoundrels currently in the hot seat after the election, including Americans for Tax Reform founder Grover Norquist. Stay tuned for announcements on voting for December's scoundrels.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to promoting ethics and accountability in government and public life by targeting government officials -- regardless of party affiliation -- who sacrifice the common good to special interests. CREW advances its mission using a combination of research, litigation and media outreach.
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ICE Just Deported Two More US Citizen Children
"Trump and Greg Abbott are taking law enforcement who should be focused on keeping people safe and are using them to deport citizens. It's wrong, it’s disturbing, and it hurts public safety."
May 09, 2025
In recent weeks, immigration agents acting on the Trump administration's orders have alarmed rights advocates by deporting multiple U.S. citizen children and entrapping a person marked for deportation by asking him to attend an official immigration-related appointment—and this week, advocacy groups said Thursday, a family in Texas was subjected to both actions once again.
The Texas Civil Rights Project (TCRP), the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, and Grassroots Leadership said they were not able to confirm the whereabouts of three children aged 9, 5, and 4—the youngest two of whom are U.S. citizens born and raised in Austin, Texas—after they were deported to Mexico with their mother, Denisse Parra Vargas.
Parra Vargas and her partner, Omar Gallardo Rodríguez, were stopped on April 30 by the Texas Department of Public Safety in Austin, when authorities saw they were driving a truck with expired license plates. DPS contacted Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when it found the couple did not have legal status in the United States, and Gallardo Rodríguez was deported days later.
Authorities gave Parra Vargas an ankle monitor to wear and told to visit an Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP) office to check in with ICE agents.
"ICE has no authority to detain or deport U.S. citizens regardless of the status of their parents."
According to the advocacy groups, ICE told her if she attended all her ISAP appointments she would be eligible for a work permit. Parra Vargas was also told to attend a hearing for Gallardo Rodríguez at an ICE facility on May 6.
"But her partner had no hearing and instead she and her minor children were detained, including two U.S. citizen children," said the groups.
The family was taken to a facility in Laredo before being deported and sent to the border city of Reynosa, Mexico, where they were at a shelter as of Wednesday.
Daniel Hatoum, an attorney with TCRP, told the Austin American-Statesman that in cases like that of Parra Vargas and her children, "they basically tell the family: 'Either take them with you or we're going to separate them quickly from you.' They then claim that's not really a deportation because they were given the option of going. But it certainly is in a colloquial sense."
The advocacy groups said that while ICE may claim it gave Parra Vargas the "choice" to leave her young children in the U.S., the agency "did not allow for communication with nearby family members who were willing to keep the children and instead detained them for 24 hours in secretive locations before deporting the U.S. citizen children to Mexico."
"ICE was informed by the family and legal advocates that the children were U.S. citizens and ICE knowingly deported them anyway in violation of their own policies and laws," said the groups. "ICE has no authority to detain or deport U.S. citizens regardless of the status of their parents."
The organizations said they were not able to communicate with Parra Vargas when she was in detention in order to provide her with legal counsel.
The family's deportation comes weeks after an ICE field office in New Orleans deported three American children—aged 2, 4, and 7—including one who has a rare cancer.
The Department of Homeland Security claimed in a statement to the American-Statesman that "the narrative that DHS is deporting American children is false and irresponsible reporting."
But U.S. Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) said the facts show that "two children with U.S. citizenship—born and raised in Austin—were just detained and deported to Mexico."
Two children with US citizenship — born and raised in Austin — were just detained and deported to Mexico. Trump and Greg Abbott are taking law enforcement who should be focused on keeping people safe and are using them to deport citizens. It’s wrong, it’s disturbing, and it hurts public safety.
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— Congressman Greg Casar (@repcasar.bsky.social) May 9, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Sulma Franco, who works with Grassroots Leadership, told the American-Statesman that the parents "were people who were doing all that they could to provide for their families, responsibly, without trouble."
Carlos Enrique González Echeverría at the Mexican Consulate in Austin told the newspaper that Parra Vargas had a deportation order from 2019, when she didn't appear at an immigration court hearing. She was denied asylum in 2016 when she applied at the U.S.-Mexico border after traveling to the U.S. to escape her abusive former partner.
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Mary Boyle, Richard Trumka Jr., and Alex Hoehn-Saric are now listed on the CPSC's website as "former commissioners." The Washington Post reported that Trump moved to fire the commissioners "shortly after" the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency visited the agency on Thursday.
"The Democratic commissioners objected to two DOGE employees being formally detailed to the agency," the Post noted, citing Trumka's account.
Boyle and Trumka said they received emails from the White House late Thursday informing them of the president's bid to remove them from their posts. Hoehn-Saric said in a statement Friday that while he has yet to receive communication from the White House, the acting chair of the CPSC is "preventing me from executing my duties as commissioner based on an assertion that the president is also seeking my removal."
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All three of the Democratic commissioners indicated that they don't intend to leave the agency quietly, following in the footsteps of commissioners at other agencies who have challenged Trump's attempts to fire them, setting the stage for a high-stakes battle at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Trumka, son of the late labor leader Richard Trumka, said Friday that he has "a set term on this independent, bipartisan commission that does not expire until October of 2028." Last week, Trumka defied a Trump executive order instructing federal agencies to submit all proposed rules to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for review.
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Boyle, whose term was set to expire later this year, also signaled that she intends to remain at her post.
"Until my term as commissioner concludes,” Boyle said, "I will insist on following these time-tested principles, and I will use my voice to speak out on behalf of safety."
Consumer advocates voiced outrage in response to Trump's attempt to fire the CPSC commissioners.
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William Wallace, director of safety advocacy for Consumer Reports, said in a statement that "this is an appalling and lawless attack on the independence of our country's product safety watchdog."
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Congressman Jared Golden has been accused of dodging his constituents by refusing to hold town hall meetings with them, and now the Maine Democrat is blaming a grassroots progressive movement for what critics have called his cowardly stance.
Golden isn't alone in refusing to hold town halls. Numerous congressional Republicans have come under fire for avoiding their constituents' wrath by eschewing public meetings with them. However, Golden's right-wing positions on issues ranging from border security to voter ID and his support for some of President Donald Trump's policies and dismissal of his administration's threat to democracy have stoked progressives' ire at the fourth-term congressman.
Indivisible, a grassroots movement comprised of thousands of local groups "with a mission to elect progressive leaders, rebuild our democracy, and defeat the Trump agenda," has been a constant thorn in Golden's evasive side. Maine chapters of the group have called attention to his shrinking from constituents by holding "empty chair" town hall meetings, at which attendees hold up signs asking, "Where's Jared?"
Now Golden is hitting back, accusing Indivisible, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, of being a "dark money group" that divides Democrats and alienates conservatives.
"So he's mad at his own base, the ones who knocked doors to get him into Congress?"
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Sarah Dohl, Indivisible's chief campaigns officer, scoffed at Golden's "dark money" allegation.
"Jared Golden's claims that Indivisible is funded by dark money is pathetic," she told the Portland Press Herald on Friday. "Small-dollar donors are the backbone of Indivisible's budget, and we're proud to be accountable to a nationwide grassroots base, not a single donor or interest."
Former Maine state Rep. Dianne Russell (D-39) took to social media to slam Golden's accusation, writing: "So he's mad at his own base, the ones who knocked doors to get him into Congress? And he's so mad that he is afraid to answer to the same Maine people who knocked those doors? Wow!"
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