SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
alex padilla
Senate Dems: Whistleblower Says DHS Voter Fraud Hunters Were Ordered to Break Laws
“Donald Trump and his administration are obsessed with election conspiracy theories and operate under the wrong assumption that they are above the law—they are not."
Sep 14, 2026
US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla on Monday accused the Trump administration of directing federal immigration officers to violate state laws in an aggressively quixotic campaign to identify supposed “unlawful voters,” warning that the operation could ensnare American citizens and undermine the November midterm elections.
At a press conference, Padilla (Calif.) and Schumer (D-NY) cited a whistleblower disclosure alleging that US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) personnel were instructed to access sensitive state voter records by misrepresenting their identities and falsely claiming authorization to obtain individual voters’ information.
According to the disclosure:
An anonymous federal whistleblower disclosed that USCIS headquarters has directed USCIS Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate (FDNS) officers to use individuals’ personal information to search state voter registration systems—likely resulting in thousands of violations of state laws. If necessary, officers are even told to lie and misrepresent themselves as voters on state election agency websites. USCIS leaders are directing officers to generate law enforcement records against so-called “unlawful voters” based on adding “magic” to data which in many cases will be inaccurate. Tens or hundreds of thousands of people in all 50 states, including naturalized US citizens, are being swept up in this rushed effort in the lead-up to Election Day.
The New York Times noted that the whistleblower disclosure "offers an inside view of what the Department of Homeland Security is calling the 'Unlawful Voter Initiative,'" which the paper revealed earlier this month.
According to the whistleblower, hundreds of FDNS employees were abruptly pulled from their regular immigration and national security work to investigate alleged noncitizen voting—a practically nonexistent occurrence.
For example, a Brennan Center for Justice analysis of around 23.5 million votes cast during the 2016 election cycle found 30 suspected cases of noncitizens voting, or 0.0001% of all votes cast. A 25-year-audit in Republican-controlled Georgia found zero votes cast by noncitizens.
The two senators said in a joint statement that the whistleblower's allegations "are especially alarming because they come just weeks before the November 2026 midterm elections."
"The administration is publicly asserting, without evidence, that large numbers of noncitizens are unlawfully registered to vote and deploying federal law enforcement resources to investigate those claims," they added.
Schumer warned that the US Department of Homeland Security "is sending hundreds of officers who should be focused on our security on a wild goose chase to prove [President Donald] Trump’s long-debunked election conspiracy theories—and DHS is telling officers to lie to do it."
"This new DHS initiative is nothing more than an unlawful order by the government to silence the voices of Americans," he added.
Padilla said that “Donald Trump and his administration are obsessed with election conspiracy theories and operate under the wrong assumption that they are above the law—they are not."
“The whistleblower’s disclosure outlines shocking allegations of unlawful and unethical conduct that includes potentially thousands of violations of state law and the use of highly questionable data, which they refer to as ‘supplemental magic,’ to falsely flag naturalized US citizens as ineligible voters in federal law enforcement records," the son of Mexican immigrants continued.
"At the same time, USCIS is directing employees to ignore the law in search of voters’ personal information because this administration’s unlawful attempts to coerce states to hand over their voter rolls have been rejected by the courts," Padilla said. "I thank the whistleblower for the bravery and integrity to come forward with these shocking reports and for standing up for the rule of law."
Padilla added that US Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin "must be transparent and shut down this sham ‘investigation’ now."
On Sunday, Padilla and Schumer sent a letter to Mullin and USCIS Director Joseph Edlow accusing DHS of prioritizing "manufacturing evidence for election conspiracy theories, rather than FDNS’ fraud detection and national security mission."
"The disclosure shows how DHS is deploying federal law enforcement resources to go around those judicial rulings and gather state voter information by any means, regardless of state laws," the senators continued. "Further, the administration’s continued claims of election fraud signal its intent to use this unreliable evidence of 'unlawful voters' in ways that can disenfranchise eligible voters, disrupt state and local election administration, and subject election officials to additional unwarranted threats of prosecution."
The lawmakers demanded that DHS and USCIS "be transparent about what they intend to do with the unreliable records they are generating, immediately stop this initiative and related activities, and remove any TECS or other law enforcement or administrative records generated from it."
The legal nonprofit advocacy group Democracy Defenders Fund—which is representing the whistleblower—said Monday that its client "feels it is their duty to come forward and reveal potentially unlawful conduct related to the 'unlawful voteri nitiative.”
"Our client is understandably extremely concerned about retaliation by administration officials should their identity become known," the group continued. "As such, we ask that reasonable steps be taken to maintain their anonymity throughout the whistleblowing process."
"The whistleblower makes this disclosure out of concern that law enforcement records used against individuals, including US citizens, being created through potentially unlawful means and based upon unreliable information," Democracy Defenders Fund added. "That is a dangerous abuse of the power of the federal government. We respectfully submit this disclosure for inquiry and investigation."
League of Women Voters of the United States CEO Celina Stewart said in a statement that “if these reports are true, this is not merely alarming. It is a five-alarm fire for American democracy."
"Allegations that federal workers were pressured to fabricate evidence and falsely frame citizens as criminals strike at the heart of the Constitution and the rule of law," she continued. “The power of government must never be used to manufacture suspicion, silence dissent, or, as reported, create false justification for investigations. Yet these reports suggest an effort to further fuel unfounded narratives about our elections while placing eligible voters at risk of intimidation and government scrutiny."
“Every eligible voter deserves to participate in our democracy free from fear, harassment, or wrongful investigation," Stewart added. "The federal government has a duty to protect constitutional rights, not undermine them through unreliable data, flawed processes, or political pressure."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Padilla Unveils Bill to Stop Trump From Selling Access to 'Market-Moving Social Media Posts'
"Americans deserve a government that works for them, not one that’s for sale to hedge funds and Wall Street banks."
Aug 04, 2026
US Sen. Alex Padilla on Tuesday introduced legislation aimed at blocking President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and future occupants of their offices from profiting by selling early access to official or personal social media posts that could move financial markets, calling the practice a blatant abuse of public office for private gain.
Padilla's (D-Calif.) Stop Corrupt Trading Act would prohibit any sitting president or vice president—and any business in which they hold a substantial financial interest—from selling advance or exclusive access to presidential social media announcements. It would also establish civil penalties for the sale of nonpublic government information through such services.
“This is out in the open—Donald Trump is the most corrupt president in American history," Padilla said in a statement introducing the legislation. "Despite already being the richest president in history, President Trump’s number one priority in office is to make himself richer while everyday Americans struggle to make ends meet."
“Selling access to his market-moving social media posts is just one example of the brazen corruption we’ve seen coming out of the Oval Office—and I am fighting back to put a stop to it," he added. "Americans deserve a government that works for them, not one that’s for sale to hedge funds and Wall Street banks that can afford the subscription fee.”
Padilla's bill comes days after the Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) launched a premium service offering subscribers expedited access to the president's Truth Social posts, a move that ethics watchdogs and government accountability advocates have warned could provide wealthy investors with an unfair advantage if presidential statements affect stock prices, tariffs, or other market-sensitive policies.
US House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) responded to TMTG's move by announcing an investigation into what he called an "insider-information scheme."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Insane Corruption': GOP Senators Ripped for Deal to Confirm Trump Lackey Todd Blanche
"Blanche has demonstrated over and over that he is purely a vessel for Trump to punish his enemies and reward his 'allies,'" said US Rep. Daniel Goldman.
Aug 03, 2026
Democratic lawmakers and anti-corruption campaigners reacted with disgust on Monday after two holdout Republican senators struck a deal to move forward with Todd Blanche's confirmation as US attorney general.
Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) said they would support Blanche's confirmation after he formally rescinded the $1.8 billion slush fund that had been set up to pay political allies of President Donald Trump who had purportedly been harmed by a "weaponized" justice system under former President Joe Biden.
"We want to express our gratitude to Mr. Blanche and his staff for working with us on this, and we look forward to voting to advance his nomination out of the Senate Judiciary Committee soon," the two Republicans said. "From the outset, we were clear that we needed a written document addressing our concerns."
However, a Monday report in The Washington Post noted that Blanche's written statement rescinding the fund "appeared to fall short of what Cornyn and Tillis were demanding last week," as they had originally insisted that "they needed to see revisions to the original settlement agreement" struck between Trump and the US Department of Justice (DOJ) that created the fund in the first place.
The deal also left in place a plan to give Trump and his family immunity from scrutiny for past tax returns filed with the IRS, though Blanche clarified on Sunday that this would not shield them from future IRS audits.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) slammed his Republican colleagues for the agreement to confirm Blanche, noting that its "tax immunity deal still gifts Trump an unprecedented, unconscionable benefit worth $100s of millions."
"Republicans should reject it—and Blanche," wrote Blumenthal. "Lipstick on this rancid grift is no excuse to confirm him."
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) criticized the Blanche deal for being "full of loopholes" that wouldn't prevent Trump "from using taxpayer money to pay off January 6th insurrectionists" in the future.
"Todd Blanche has always been Trump's personal lawyer—and this 'deal' proves he's unfit to serve as attorney general," Padilla added. "Congress must pass my legislation to permanently ban any payouts to J6ers."
Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) described the deal to confirm Blanche as "insane corruption" that would do nothing to stop the president from looting the US treasury.
"Republican senators cave to Trump again," Beyer wrote. "They'll make his personal lawyer the attorney general without stopping Trump's 'license to steal' lifetime audit protection. Trump and his family will get millions of taxpayer dollars thanks to Republicans' failure."
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) shredded Tillis and Cornyn for taking Blanche at his word that the slush fund was fully rescinded, and he predicted that the former Trump lawyer would try to bring it back if the president ordered him to do so.
"Blanche has demonstrated over and over that he is purely a vessel for Trump to punish his enemies and reward his 'allies,'" wrote Goldman. "The Capitol police who were beaten and assaulted during J6 can’t even get disability but Trump wants to give those who assaulted them millions of dollars—and Blanche will make sure that happens."
Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, similarly argued that there is nothing stopping Blanche from turning around after his confirmation hearing and reestablishing the $1.8 billion slush fund.
Gilbert further noted that Trump under the deal gets to "keep tax immunity for himself, his sons, and the Trump Organization, potentially saving the president millions in taxes owed to the American people."
Gilbert urged senators to reject Blanche's nomination when it comes up for a vote, or otherwise risk having the DOJ turned into a "Trump revenge agency."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Blindly Endorsing' Trump Crimes, Senate GOP Kills Venezuela War Powers Bill
"Senate Republicans continually fall in line behind Donald Trump, no matter how reckless, no matter how unconstitutional," fumed Sen. Chuck Schumer.
Jan 14, 2026
US Senate Republicans on Wednesday defeated the latest in a series of war powers resolution aimed at blocking President Donald Trump from further unauthorized military attacks on Venezuela, a result that came after the president pressured a pair of GOP lawmakers who previously voted to advance the measure to flip.
Vice President JD Vance's tie-breaking vote was needed to overcome a 50-50 deadlock on the resolution introduced last month by Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) “to block the use of the US armed forces to engage in hostilities within or against Venezuela unless authorized by Congress” as required by the 1973 War Powers Act.
Two GOP senators who voted earlier this month to advance the resolution—Josh Hawley of Missouri and Todd Young of Indiana—voted against the legislation on Wednesday. This, after Trump publicly lambasted five Republican senators who voted to advance the bill, ensuring its temporary survival.
Paul and fellow GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined Democrats and Independents who caucus with them, Sens. Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, in voting for the resolution.
"The chances of us getting into an endless war are even greater."
Hawley said he was swayed by Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who told the senator “point blank, we’re not going to do ground troops" in Venezuela following the bombing, invasion, and kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife earlier this month.
Young shared a letter from Rubio stating that Trump will “seek congressional authorization in advance (circumstances permitting)” if he decides on any “major military operations” in Venezuela. He also warned on social media that "a drawn-out campaign" in the Venezuela "would be the opposite of President Trump's goal of ending foreign entanglements."
The resolution's co-sponsors accused their Republican colleagues of enabling Trump's lawbreaking and endless wars.
"Senate Republicans continually fall in line behind Donald Trump, no matter how reckless, no matter how unconstitutional, no matter the potential cost of American lives," Schumer said at a press conference following the vote. "They go along with the president, who is defying what the Constitution requires."
"The chances of us getting into an endless war are even greater, because when the Republicans rubber-stamp everything [Trump] does, the restraints go away," Schumer continued. "Donald Trump said he's not afraid of putting boots on the ground in Venezuela when asked how long it would take—one year, two years, three years, even that wasn't long enough; he said much longer—that's not ambiguous."
"So why wouldn't our Republican colleagues just do what Congress is supposed to do, assert our authority, and let's have a debate?" Schumer added. "What has happened tonight is a roadmap to another endless war because this Senate, under Republican leadership, failed to assert its legitimate and needed authority."
Senate Republicans just BLOCKED the bipartisan War Powers resolution to end the illegal war in Venezuela. They voted for forever wars, and against the best interests of the American people.
— Senator Jeff Merkley (@merkley.senate.gov) January 14, 2026 at 4:07 PM
Other Democratic senators also decried Wednesday's vote, with Alex Padilla of California saying that the "Senate Republican majority just walked away from their constitutional duty and chose to rubber-stamp Trump’s ‘act now, plan later’ military intervention in Venezuela."
"They are blindly endorsing the actions of a president who cannot articulate a clear mission or long-term strategy in the region, putting American troops in harm’s way, and gambling with billions of taxpayer dollars," he continued. "Trump campaigned on ending endless wars, not starting new ones. He lied to Congress and the American people, cozying up to Big Oil while hiding behind claims of combating drug trafficking just after pardoning another head of state found guilty of helping smuggle 400 tons of cocaine into our country."
“If Senate Republicans were truly ‘America First,’ they would stand up for the Constitution they swore to defend and reclaim Congress’ authority instead of once again surrendering it to an out-of-control president," Padilla added.
Advocacy groups also condemned the Senate vote.
BREAKING: The Venezuela War Powers Resolution has failed in the Senate.J.D. Vance broke a 50-50 tied vote on a point of order to discard the resolution.70% of the U.S. opposes this war.This government isn't representing them. It's representing the oil & arms industries.
[image or embed]
— CODEPINK (@codepink.bsky.social) January 14, 2026 at 3:51 PM
"What we saw was an effort to dissuade senators from exercising their jurisdiction over war by threatening political careers and offering nonbinding assurances the administration hopes Congress will rely on, even though its actions give Congress no reason to do so," Demand Progress senior policy adviser Cavan Kharrazian said.
"Congress’ war powers don’t rest on trust," he added, "they rest on law, and legal obligations don’t disappear because of promises."
Robert Weissman, co-president of the consumer watchdog group Public Citizen, said in a statement that “Donald Trump and Senate Republican leadership can bully their way out of a war powers resolution but that doesn’t change the basic facts: Trump’s bombing of Venezuela and abduction of its leader was wrong, unconstitutional, and a screaming violation of international law."
"Trump has dropped all pretense that this is anything other than a military action for oil and empire," Weissman continued. "Neither has any support among the American people, whose opposition to intervening in Venezuela will only grow—especially as US oil companies demand taxpayer subsidies and guarantees as a condition of investing in Venezuela."
“The so-called America First president has become the America Bombs First president, making the world a far more dangerous place," he added. "Shame on Republicans for failing to stand up, yet again, to what they know are authoritarian and unconstitutional actions.”
Keep ReadingShow Less
Shutdown Belongs to GOP, Say Dems, After Trump Responds to Talks With 'Racist AI Video'
Republicans, said one Democratic lawmaker, "would rather see the government shut down than negotiate a bipartisan deal to save your healthcare, to keep the government open, and to keep federal workers working, which is exactly why we are here.”
Sep 30, 2025
Anyone wondering "who owns" the looming government shutdown following negotiations between President Donald Trump and congressional leaders that went nowhere on Monday should "look no further" said one Democratic lawmaker, than the racist, artificial intelligence-created video posted by the president shortly after the meeting, which depicted House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries with a Mexican sombrero and fake mustache.
"Democrats came to the White House to keep the government open," said Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.). "The president answered with a racist AI video."
Trump posted the video of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Jeffries, also of New York, after they emerged from the meeting, where Schumer said "large differences" remained between Democrats and Republicans over healthcare provisions in a government spending bill.
"Bigotry will get you nowhere," said Jeffries in response to Trump's posted video, before adding: "Cancel the Cuts. Lower the Cost. Save Healthcare. We are NOT backing down."
Democrats have consistently called for an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies that are slated to expire at the end of the year and to reverse Medicaid cuts included in the Republicans' One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Republicans including Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) have falsely claimed the Democrats are pushing to fund "free healthcare" for undocumented immigrants in their budget proposal to keep the government funded through October.
The Democratic proposal would restore the eligibility of "lawfully present" immigrants for ACA subsidies, but would not change the fact that undocumented immigrants are not eligible for healthcare plans through the ACA or coverage through Medicare, Medicaid, or the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
In the fake video posted on Truth Social by Trump, Schumer was shown making statements he has never made about the Democrats needing to give undocumented immigrants free healthcare so they will vote for the party—which they're also not eligible to do.
Jeffries, who is Black, was also shown wearing a sombrero as mariachi music played in the background.
"This is peak Donald Trump and it’s a goddamn tragedy for our country," said Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.).
The Republicans need at least 60 votes in the Senate to pass their spending bill to keep the government funded through November 21, meaning they won't be able to pass it without at least eight Democrats joining them.
The GOP-controlled House passed the Republicans' funding extension this month, but it failed in the Senate. Johnson has adjourned the House until October 7.
On Monday, Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) posted a video on social media as she arrived at the Capitol for what had been scheduled to be a "voting day" for members of the House.
"Republicans cancelled votes and didn't show up for work tonight," said Stansbury, "because they would rather see the government shut down than negotiate a bipartisan deal to save your healthcare, to keep the government open, and to keep federal workers working, which is exactly why we are here."
Democrats have warned that up to 15 million people could lose their healthcare coverage and 24 million could see their monthly insurance premiums rise by 75%—per an analysis by KFF—under the Republican spending plan.
Schumer said that at the White House meeting Monday, he and Jeffries "laid out to the president some of the consequences of what’s happening in healthcare."
"By his face, he looked like he heard about them for the first time," said Schumer. “It’s in the president’s hands whether we avoid a shutdown or not. He has to convince the Republican leaders."
Republicans are planning to force another vote in the Senate on the House-passed funding extension on Tuesday, ahead of the midnight shutdown deadline.
The Trump administration has said it will unleash a new wave of mass firings in the federal government if the government shuts down.
On social media Monday, The New Republic posted that the "tired punditry of shutdown politics doesn't adequately illustrate Republican villainy."
"This shutdown is happening because the aforementioned party of dictatorship wants it to happen so it can destroy the federal government and vastly reduce the number of things it does for people," said the magazine. "What that means: massive layoffs in many departments and agencies, with the hope of making as many as possible permanent. The Trump White House wants to cut the State Department by 84%, the Department of Housing and Urban Development by 43%, and the Labor Department by 35%. If the government shuts down Tuesday night, it wants to furlough as many people as it can get away with. Except, of course, in two areas: immigration enforcement and defense. There, it’s party time."
Republican leaders, including Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), have claimed Democrats will be responsible for a government shutdown, saying the two parties can negotiate over healthcare after the funding extension is passed.
But, said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), "Republicans are still refusing to come to the table" regarding Democrats' demands.
"They control every chamber in Congress and the White House," she said. "This shutdown is on them."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Trump Has Dismantled Anti-Human Trafficking Programs and 'Repeatedly Sided With Sex Offenders'
"The Trump administration has taken a sledgehammer to our capacity to hold sex offenders to account and undermined support and services for crime victims," said Rep. Jamie Raskin.
Sep 17, 2025
Congressional Democrats and victim advocates took aim Tuesday at President Donald Trump's gutting of federal programs combatcing human trafficking, belying campaign promises to aggressively target perpetrators of such crimes.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, on Tuesday released an 18-page memo "detailing how the Trump administration has repeatedly sided with sex offenders and human traffickers over their victims—often rewarding sexual predators and elevating them to positions of power within the US government while crippling key offices, programs, and grants that combat sex crimes and support survivors."
This seemingly flies in the face of Trump's "Agenda 47" campaign platform, which vowed to aggressively crack down on human traffickers, and the groundswell of Trump supporters' unheeded calls for action and accountability in the Jeffrey Epstein case. Fighting child sex trafficking—both real and imagined—has long been an issue of passionate importance for the MAGA movement.
"Trump began his second term promising to 'make America safe again.' But safe for whom? Law-abiding citizens or dangerous criminals?"
Noting that "Trump and his supporters have gone from demanding the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files to doing everything in their power to prevent their release, openly tampering with potential witness Ghislaine Maxwell and calling the matter a 'Democrat hoax,'" the memo—titled Epstein Is the Tip of the Iceberg—begins by asking: "Trump began his second term promising to 'make America safe again.' But safe for whom? Law-abiding citizens or dangerous criminals?"
The memo notes that in the past seven months, Trump has:
- Gutted federal offices designed to combat human trafficking, domestic violence, and sexual violence against women and children.
- Terminated the programs and grants designed to support the victims and survivors of human trafficking networks and crimes of sexual violence.
- Made it systematically harder for law enforcement to prosecute sex offenders and dismantle sex trafficking networks.
- Repeatedly used the powers of his office to pardon individual sexual predators and give official protection, aid, and comfort to accused rapists and child pornographers.
- Rewarded numerous individuals who have a personal history of sexual predation and domestic violence by appointing them to his administration and elevating them to senior positions within the government.
Senior administration officials including Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Education Secretary Linda McMahon, and former de facto Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) chief Elon Musk have been accused of either committing or enabling sexual crimes or misconduct.
Trump has also been found civilly liable for sexual abuse and has been accused of rape, sexual assault, or harassment by more than two dozen women.
"President Trump in office has repeatedly taken the side of criminal sex predators and violent abusers against their victims, and this pattern goes well beyond his strenuous efforts to bury the Epstein Files," Raskin said Tuesday in a statement. "Trump is systematically dismantling the offices and programs we rely on to combat human trafficking and prosecute sex crimes."k
"Our memo shows how the Trump administration has taken a sledgehammer to our capacity to hold sex offenders to account and undermined support and services for crime victims," the congressman added. "Far from aiding victims and survivors, President Trump consistently sides with their abusers. His all-of-government policy to aid traffickers and sex criminals and abandon survivors has made American women dramatically less safe."
Following whistleblower claims "that the Trump administration concealed information about the safety of unaccompanied Guatemalan children they tried to deport in the dead of night," Sens. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Tuesday called for an oversight hearing to examine the US Office of Refugee Resettlement's "mass child deportation efforts and apparent lies under oath."
"The urgent call for a hearing comes after the disclosure alleged that at least 30 of 327 unaccompanied Guatemalan children the administration attempted to deport without due process 'have indicators of being a victim of child abuse, including death threats, gang violence, human trafficking, and/or have expressed fear of return to Guatemala,'" Padilla's office said in a statement Wednesday.
An investigation published Wednesday by The Guardian also detailed how the Trump administration "has aggressively rolled back efforts across the federal government to combat human trafficking."
Jean Bruggeman, executive director of the advocacy group Freedom Network USA, told The Guardian that “it’s been a widespread and multipronged attack on survivors that leaves all of us less safe and leaves survivors with few options."
Numerous critics have warned of the dangers of Trump's diversion of federal resources and personnel dedicated to combating human trafficking to enforcing mass deportations.
As Raskin told Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel during a charged Wednesday hearing, "When Trump decided that rounding up immigrants with no criminal records was more important that preventing crimes like human trafficking of women and girls, drug dealing, terrorism, and fraud, you ordered FBI’s 25 largest field offices to divert thousands of agents away from chasing down violent criminals, sex traffickers, fraudsters, and scammers to help carry out Trump’s extreme immigration crackdown."
"You ordered hundreds of FBI agents to pore over all the Epstein files," Raskin said, "but not to look for more clues about the money network or the network of human traffickers, pulled these agents from their regular counterterrorism, counterintelligence, or anti-drug trafficking duties to work around the clock, some of them sleeping on their office desks, to conduct a frantic search to make sure Donald Trump’s name and image were flagged and redacted wherever they appeared."
"Put on your big boy pants and let us know who the pedophiles are," Raskin added.
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Trump Is Making Your Life More Expensive': Tariff Chaos Engulfs US Economy
“Poor and working people are paying the price" of the president's tariff policies, said Rep. Pramila Jayapal.
Sep 16, 2025
US consumers are increasingly feeling the impact of President Donald Trump's tariffs, and the head of the Congressional Budget Office said on Monday that they are fueling inflation.
During an appearance on CNBC, Congressional Budget Office (CBO) director Phillip Swagel said that the president's tariffs have pushed up inflation more than the agency initially anticipated, although he emphasized that their impact on inflation so far was "not by a lot, but by enough to show" in the numbers.
Swagel also said that the higher-than-expected inflation was a surprise because there are signs that the US economy has slowed significantly since January.
CNN on Tuesday published an analysis using numbers from the Yale Budget Lab estimating that Trump's tariffs will cost US households an average of $2,300 extra per year, which is nearly three times as much as the $800 US households are projected to receive on average from new tax provisions contained in the Republicans' "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" that passed earlier this year.
The combined distributional impacts of the Trump tariffs and the GOP tax law are also highly regressive. According to CNN's analysis, a household with annual earnings of $38,840 would be $2,560 worse off thanks to the tariffs and the tax law, while households earning $517,700 would be $8,180 better off.
The Washington Post on Tuesday reported that Trump's tariffs aren't just hurting Americans in the US, but those living abroad as well.
As explained by the Post, Americans living abroad have been unable to send mail to the US without paying hefty fines thanks to the chaos being caused by Trump's tariffs. The reason for this, writes the paper, is that Trump earlier this year canceled a policy known as the de minimis exemption, effective August 29, that "allowed the tariff-free flow of goods under $800 into the United States."
This has led not just to increased shipping costs for Americans living abroad, but has also resulted in foreign nations slowing or even outright halting shipments to the US because they are unsure about how to calculate the costs.
"Confusion about the rules have led to issues since the exemption was lifted on August 29," the Post wrote. "At first, national postal services in more than 30 countries temporarily suspended sending some or most US-bound packages. Since then, restrictions have eased, and the Universal Postal Union deployed a tool this week to help operators calculate duties and resume services."
Reacting to fresh revelations about the impact of the tariffs, many progressive Democrats hammered Trump for increasing the cost of living for working-class families.
"Under Donald Trump’s economy: coffee is up 26%, beef is up 14%, oranges are up 17%, bananas are up 6%, chicken is up 6%, chocolate chip cookies are up 5%, potato chips are up 4%, milk is up 4%," wrote Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). "But average worker pay is only up 2%. Trumpflation is eating up your paycheck."
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) added that “from school supplies to gas to groceries, Trump is making your life more expensive."
"Poor and working people are paying the price of his reckless policies," said the congresswoman.
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), a member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, took to the Senate floor on Monday to single out a different Trump policy that he said was also raising prices for US consumers—namely, his attacks on green energy projects.
"This administration is shamelessly working to block one of our best defenses against rising energy bills: renewable energy," Padilla said. "And I say so because renewable energy is absolutely affordable, renewable energy is abundant, and whether you want to admit it or not, renewable energy sources are our future."
The senator also pointed to his home state of California as an example of what can happen when the government encourages the development of green energy projects.
"[California is] harnessing the power of solar and wind and hydroelectric power and nuclear, geothermal, even hydrogen power to our state," he said. "And it’s exactly because of those investments that even in a year like 2024, just last year, when we experienced record heatwaves that we also saw record renewable energy generation, and we kept the lights on."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Top Democrat Launches House Probe Into FBI Role in 'Disgraceful' Arrest of Padilla
Rep. Jamie Raskin described the incident as "the most recent in a string of increasingly flagrant abuses of power by the Trump Administration to deter congressional oversight and intimidate Members of Congress."
Jun 19, 2025
A top House Democrat is launching a probe into the FBI's forcible removal of Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) from a public press conference in Los Angeles last week, the latest in a pattern of arrests and physical assaults by the Trump administration against Democratic politicians.
Padilla was tackled to the ground and dragged out of the Wilshire Federal Building in handcuffs when he attempted to ask Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem a question about the outsized federal response to protests in Los Angeles against increasingly aggressive raids and tactics by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
According to Axios, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, is leading a probe into the incident and calling on the FBI to launch a formal investigation.
In a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel, Raskin demanded that the Bureau "immediately provide answers" regarding the "disgraceful and indefensible assault."
In the aftermath of the arrest of Padilla, the White House has made false claims about the events leading up to the shocking display, many of which are disproved by video of the encounter.
Noem has said that Padilla "burst into the room, started lunging towards the podium, interrupting me and elevating his voice, and was stopped, did not identify himself, and was removed from the room."
However, video of the incident shows that Padilla identified himself, by name, as a U.S. senator. There is no evidence of him "lunging" toward the secretary.
Raskin has described the incident as "the most recent in a string of increasingly flagrant abuses of power by the Trump administration to deter congressional oversight and intimidate members of Congress."
On June 10, the Department of Justice brought charges against Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) for allegedly assaulting law enforcement officers outside an ICE detention facility the previous month. Noem accused McIver of "body slamming" a female ICE officer, but this claim was disproved by a Washington Post review of video evidence.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was also charged for trespassing as part of the same incident, though the charges were later dropped.
But Democratic politicians have continued to be roughed up by federal law enforcement. Earlier this week, New York City Comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander was arrested by masked ICE agents as he escorted a man out of immigration court.
"You don't have the authority to arrest U.S. citizens," Lander said in the video of his arrest.
The agents refused to provide a warrant despite repeated requests from Lander, who is a U.S. citizen. After he was released, the Department of Homeland Security released a brazenly false statement, claiming that Lander "was arrested for assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer," which is also disproved by video evidence.
Raskin called out these incidents and other aggressive actions against political dissenters in his letter. He called on the FBI to disclose whether an internal investigation was underway and whether the officers involved in Padilla's arrest or other incidents like it would face discipline.
"Like it or not, the people of the United States enjoy broad and robust First Amendment rights and now deserve urgent answers from their government about these high-handed authoritarian tactics," Raskin said.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Attack on Padilla Proves We Are Living in an Early-Stage Police State
Dictators can’t be dictators without first cowing the people, terrifying even elected officials, and asserting their absolute and unlimited power to use violence any where, any time, and under any circumstances they choose.
Jun 14, 2025
We’re now living in an early-stage police state.
After California Sen. Alex Padilla was assaulted for saying, “I’m Senator Alex Padilla and I have question for the Secretary,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary and notorious puppy murderer Kristi Noem went on Fox “News” and lied to the American people, saying that he hadn’t identified himself, she didn’t know who he was, and that he was “lunging into the room.”
The violence inflicted on Padilla was the point. And it’s being celebrated in real time by MAGA, Fox, and the Trump administration.
After all, dictators can’t be dictators without first cowing the people, terrifying even elected officials, and asserting their absolute and unlimited power to use violence any where, any time, and under any circumstances they choose.
“We are not going away,” Noem said in a snarling comment that provoked the question from Padilla. “We are staying here to liberate this city from the socialist and the burdensome leadership that this governor [Gavin Newsom] and that this mayor [Karen Bass] have placed on this country.”
For the record, the job of the federal government is not to “liberate“ cities from the leaders they themselves have elected. That’s what Russian President Vladimir Putin did when he forced all the elected governors of the Russian states (oblasts) to resign and replaced them with men he had appointed. Even suggesting it is deeply and profoundly un-American.
This is the Trump administration once again nakedly asserting that they are above the law, are committed to acting without ethical or moral restraint, and that they have no obligation to honor the constitutionally-defined oversight role of members of Congress. That they are intent on running a dictatorship here in America, not a democratic republic.
They have arrested and are prosecuting a member of the House of Representatives who was simply doing her job at an immigration detention center. They are ignoring explicit orders by federal judges and the Supreme Court. They are literally disappearing people, including American citizens, off the streets of our cities. And now they’ve taken an United States senator to the ground.
This is not what the people who fought and died to create and sustain this country had in mind.
The genius of the Founders was Montesquieu’s idea of three branches of government with checks on each other’s power. It’s essential to democracy.
President Donald Trump (second branch) has been trashing judges (third branch) and has now violently attacked a congresswoman and a U.S. senator (first branch). He’s spitting on the graves of the Framers of our Constitution.
And to emphasize their ignoring the Constitution and its requirement that both Congress and the courts can exercise oversight of the president, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said:
The courts should have no role here. There is a troubling and dangerous trend of unelected judges inserting themselves into the presidential decision-making process.
Similarly, they refuse to respect the right of American citizens to protest that’s laid out in the First Amendment, “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” Trump came right out and said that if anybody in Washington, D.C. tries to protest his birthday parade, he will meet them with violence:
For those people that want to protest, they’re going to be met with very big force. Very big force!
That wasn’t a threat against vandals or even people who might try to disrupt Dear Leader’s birthday celebration: It was a threat against people who may “protest.”
This echoes the behavior of Hitler’s goons in the early 1930s as they set out to violently intimidate anybody—particularly members of Parliament—who may challenge him. Or Bull Connor as he bloodied protestors in Birmingham in the 1950s and 1960s.
Under Trump and Noem, federal agents have been given carte blanche to use violence against nonwhite people (it’s probably no coincidence that Sen. Padilla is a brown-skinned son of Mexican immigrants), including kidnapping them in broad daylight and sending them to foreign concentration camps with no access to due process whatsoever.
Noem could easily have taken the senator’s question, or just said, “I’m happy to meet with you after this press conference.“ Instead, she chose escalation and violence, which is why Democrats are calling on her to resign.
Right now the only people who can stop America’s descent into tyranny are the Republicans in the House and Senate. If just a small handful grow a spine, Trump could be stopped in his tracks.
Now, in response to the violence Noem and the FBI directed against a U.S. senator, the professional propagandists at Fox “News” are peddling rationalizations and repeating Noem’s lie that she didn’t know who Padilla was. FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino issued a statement “thanking” the men who beat Padilla to the ground. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) implied Padilla was trying to inflict violence on Noem and called for him to be censured by the Senate.
It appears that Republicans are circling the wagons, defending the assault on Padilla, Trump’s illegal infliction of armed troops on the streets of Los Angeles over the objections of the governor and mayor, and his and Noem’s efforts to stir up trouble in California that they can then exploit Reichstag Fire-style.
Are there any John McCain Republicans left? Any patriots who revere the Constitution and respect the rule of law? Any who are willing to call out Trump’s brutal dictator-inspired corruption and excesses?
The question is an urgent one, because right now the only people who can stop America’s descent into tyranny are the Republicans in the House and Senate. If just a small handful grow a spine, Trump could be stopped in his tracks.
Will it happen? History suggests that massive public opinion holds the answer to that question. It ended, for example, both the presidency of Richard Nixon and the Vietnam War.
As Abraham Lincoln famously said in his debate with Stephen Douglas:
In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed. Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces judicial decisions.
Saturday will be this era’s most visible expression of public opinion. Stay tuned and stay peacefully active.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Is This the Moment We Become a Fascist Country? Not If We Say No!
Every decent American looking at the images of Sen. Padilla pinned to the ground should think: “That’s not how it’s supposed to work.”
Jun 13, 2025
I think I’ve read five hundred articles in the last four months asking: Is this the moment that we became a fascist country?
A better question to ask is: Is this a teachable moment? And yesterday we had one, so stark in its imagery and so perfect in its timing that it should help us for many years in the drive against authoritarianism.
By now you’ve seen the images of California Sen. Alex Padilla pinned to the ground and handcuffed by federal agents for the crime of Asking Questions at a Press Conference. Every decent American looking at those images should think: “That’s not how it’s supposed to work.” (It’s hard to imagine what Hispanic Americans looking at the scene must think). But what makes the scene so exemplary is what happened right before, and what will happen shortly after.
They allow people everywhere, from many different backgrounds, to join in what till now has always been the basic American message: No Kings. Not George, Not Elon, not Don.
The before: Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, previously best known for gunning down her puppy and for posing in front of caged prisoners in El Salvador, had just finished the most un-American sentence imaginable. She and her various neck-gaitered federal agents in LA, she explained, “are not going away. We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city.”
The Trump administration, in other words, considers it its right to “liberate” Californians from their elected leadership. And it demonstrated that prerogative by tackling and handcuffing one of the Golden State’s two Senators—a man who had received 6.6 million votes (compared with, say, the 217,000 votes cast for Noem the last time she ran for governor of South Dakota, and second only to his California colleague Adam Schiff for the most votes any Senator has received). No federalism, no respect for other branches of government, just the raw exercise of power through the use of troops and police. I can think of no starker challenge to America’s basic freedoms in my life.
And, happily, it comes at the right moment. Because we are now just a few hours away from what may be the biggest outburst of antiauthoritarian sentiment in America since—I don’t know. Maybe the uprising against the Intolerable Acts in 1774, when King George closed Boston Harbor and began the process of uniting colonial America against his rule.
Tomorrow is No Kings Day, a loosely organized set of protests set for every corner of the nation. Scheduled to coincide with his absurd tank parade through the streets of D.C., it’s now the perfect opportunity to react to the LA mess. If you don’t know where to go in your community, here’s the map. The demonstrations will be different across the country (I’m going to be in a rural corner of Elise Stefanik’s upstate New York district, a red region). But they allow people everywhere, from many different backgrounds, to join in what till now has always been the basic American message: No Kings. Not George, Not Elon, not Don.
And Sen. Padilla has reminded us of how to play it: firm, dignified, and peaceful. Had he started swinging at police he would have lost the day; instead he demonstrated yet again the power of courageous nonviolent resistance. His image now hangs next to those of John Lewis and Rosa Parks in the pantheon of entirely civil and entirely powerful disobedience. It may not be easy tomorrow—one Florida sheriff threatened to “kill” protesters “graveyard dead.” But I have no doubt it will be overwhelmingly peaceful, dignified, and crucial.
Once the day of demonstrations is past and the grind of steady opposition returns on Monday, we’ll be able to think in the slightly longer term.
If you don’t like what the assault on Sen. Padilla represents, then help build the power of states and cities everywhere to run themselves on the energy that falls nearby.
There is a very real chance that President Donald Trump’s plummeting popularity will start changing the political dynamic. We’ll know as we watch the fight over the Big Beautiful Bill (a phrase I confess, given my first name, to feeling some affection for…) It’s the dumbest piece of legislation advanced in my lifetime, on so many counts—in a moment of gross inequity it accelerates the distribution of wealth toward the richest. And it also threatens to, as the Center for American Progress put it yesterday, “crush America’s energy system” by removing the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funding for clean energy just as it began to hit its stride. Solar and wind are what we can build fast—and the BBB will stymie all that. (Here’s an excellent guide to organizing against the repeal of the IRA).
Which, in turn, lets us think a little about the political meaning of different kinds of energy. The best reason to build lots of clean power is to slow catastrophic global heating, and the second best is to spare the 9 million humans who die each year from breathing the combustion byproducts of fossil fuel. (That’s one death in five). But the third best reason is because, by its nature, this is liberating energy, in sharp contrast to coal and gas and oil.
Indeed, fossil fuel has an inherent quality that we focus on too rarely: It’s only available in a few places around the world, where the biology of ancient times (all those plankton and ferns) piled up to create the deposits of coal and gas and oil on which we currently depend. In the real world, that means that the people who control those small and scattered deposits have way too much wealth and power—which they have used to dominate the rest of us.
How did we get to Trump and Noem? No one played a bigger role in degrading our democracy than the Koch Brothers, and they got their power from their sprawling network of refineries and pipelines. Or think about Russian President Vladimir Putin; were it not for oil and gas, he’d have no way to intimidate Europe and the world. Or think about the rulers of the Middle East, so awash in oil cash that they’re able to bribe our leaders with spare 747s. As Samuel Miller McDonald pointed out in his 2024 book Progress, as the 19th century began the richest 1% held just 8.5% of America’s wealth; by the time it ended, the top dogs had 50% of the money, “partly thanks to fossil fuels, which could be easily concentrated, controlled, and transformed into liquid capital by a small management class.”
By contrast, the sun is everywhere, a liberating force precisely because it can’t be hoarded or held in reserves. No one will ever fight a war over the sun (worth thinking about as oil prices spike this morning on news of Israel’s attack on Iran). No one will ever be able to embargo it; decentralized power is a key part of the fight against the centralized power that Trump represents. Gandhi used the spinning wheel as a symbol (and tool) of the fight against centralized British power—it represented the ability of people and communities to make what they need on their own. If Gandhi were alive today, I have no doubt that his symbol would be the solar panel.
Which, of course, is a good reminder that No Kings Day won’t be the last important date on the resistance calendar. One to circle right now is September 21, SunDay—in no small measure because it celebrates the potential freedom that sunlight represents. If you don’t like what the assault on Sen. Padilla represents, then help build the power of states and cities everywhere to run themselves on the energy that falls nearby—register an event at the SunDay website. To inspire you, here’s the Sun of the Week, from the ten thousand now available in the global gallery, and it gets across the message of the moment.
Keep ReadingShow Less
See More
Most Popular
To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good.
News & Opinion
Trending
Common Dreams, Inc. Founded 1997. Registered 501(c3) Non-Profit
Privacy Policy