Jan. 14: Progressive Caucus pledges to block ICE funding without ICE thawing … Polls show soaring opposition to ICE … Homeland (sic) Security whistleblower leaks thousands of ICE agent names … Trump endorses The Fucking News with multi-media “fuck you” to guy calling him out for protecting pedophiles in The Epstein Files™ …
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The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), with some 100 House members, on Tuesday said it will not support new funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Washington-controlled gang terrorizing Minneapolis, MN, without major changes to the agency so that it shoots people in the face with considerably less frequency.
Some Democratic senators shared a similar message Tuesday night, joining protesters outside Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which used to have the reputation as America’s most thuggish law enforcement.
Progressive Caucus Deputy Chair Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who represents most of the besieged city, said members will “oppose all funding for immigration enforcement … until meaningful reforms are enacted to end militarized policing practices.” Omar did not specify whether that would include practices such as last week’s killing of Renee Good, whose car was about to not strike ICE agent Jonathan Ross, as evidenced by the fact that it kept going after he shot her and didn’t strike him.
Funding for ICE and its absentee-parent agency, the Department of Homeland (sic) Security (DHS), was pulled from consideration in the House this week. Most government agencies will shut down without renewed appropriations for 2026 approved by the end of the month.
Shutting down some agencies, such as ICE and the Justice Department, could leave the government unable to carry out basic duties such as rounding up people on the streets, harassing and intimidating protesters, and prosecuting people Pres. Donald Trump doesn’t like.
Trump on Tuesday said that as of next month he’ll shut down funding for states that exercise their right not to help ICE. But instead of fighting back the Chicago way, like Sean Connery in The Untouchables, some Democrats are fighting back the centrist way: When they send one of yours to the hospital, you send one of theirs to Disneyland. With billions in walking-around money.
For instance, the radical, centrist-fringe group Third Way warned congressional Democrats Tuesday that they should be defending ICE. Not for moral reasons, for selfish reasons!
Calling for abolishing ICE, Third Way said, is “politically lethal.” Ignoring the fear-mongering of the media — and also right-wing media — Third Way argues that voters “responded strongly to what they saw as a lack of enforcement under President [Joe] Biden [emphasis added for admission that this was a messaging problem].”
Third Way argues that Americans love immigration enforcement, which is true right up until you ask Americans to think about it. “Immigration laws are meaningless if they are not enforced,” Third Way says in its turd way.
Legal experts will note that law enforcement is a function often carried out by the goddam police. Historians will note that America somehow survived without ICE for 227 years, during which immigrant criminals were deported all the time because, again, the goddam police.
Third Way is so disingenuous that they cite polling from September showing that even Democratic primary voters oppose abolishing ICE. But when you click through — which TFN lives for! — you see that the poll (a) lumped in abolishing ICE with open borders and (2) forced respondents to choose between that and a policy soup that included paths to citizenship and protection for “dreamers” (immigrants brought here as kids).
But also, that poll was taken while Renee Good’s face was intact and her heart and lungs were functioning. A new poll taken after those things ended shows that most Americans now disapprove of ICE.
Ninety-four percent of Democrats, and 57% of everyone, disapprove of ICE’s lawless law enforcement.
Ninety-two percent of Democrats, 59% of independents, and 53% of everyone disapprove of ICE killing Good. Only 35% — Trump die-hards — actually approve (so, to my point Sunday, no, America is not equally divided when they watch Good die).
Third Way, meanwhile, cites a Civiqs poll showing only 42% of people generally support abolishing ICE. A different poll in June found only 27% supported abolishing ICE.
Phrased differently, that means support for abolishing ICE is soaring. And while Third Way acknowledges that “support has grown” in the Civiqs poll, it doesn’t show us the picture of that growing support that you find if you click through — which TFN lives for:
See that massive shift? It started last year. Plus:
Other polling finds more Americans support abolishing ICE than not, 46% to 43%.
More Americans than not say ICE is making us less safe, 47% to 34%.
Most Americans think ICE shouldn’t be allowed to wear masks, 56% to 32%.
What these radical, out-of-step Third Way groups never seem to grapple with is the right’s success winning with policy that most of us hate and figuring out how to win while doing what’s popular and right because it’s right.
Right now, they’re literally advocating the less popular position, arguing that it’s more popular.
Some Democrats say there are other ways to hold ICE accountable — which no one disagrees with, but, um, why not use all? — such as impeaching DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, if not for labeling Good a domestic terrorist before her body was cold, then for a staggering pile of other shit, like saying that habeas corpus is the evil opposite of habeas corpus.
But some Democrats are also defending Noem. Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV) reportedly argued in a closed-door meeting Tuesday that voting to impeach Noem would hurt Democratic chances in swing districts. Lee didn’t say so publicly, because that would hurt her chances in her swing district.
Lee was one of 46 House Democrats who voted last year, along with 12 Senate Democrats, for the Laken Riley Act, which helped unleash ICE by allowing the detention and deportation of anyone even suspected of being an undocumented immigrant who’s merely suspected of committing even a non-violent crime.
And some Senate Democrats aren’t interested in an ICE fight, either, the Bulwark reports. Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) said, “I just think there are ways we can call out this behavior and the kind of level of disruption that’s taking place in city after city.”
I’m not mad at you, dude, but out-calling is my fucking job. Your job is thing-doing. So howsabout you let me fuck the news, and you give thing-doing a shot.
One thing Warner called out was lowered ICE standards. And yet, as I pretty much shrieked on Bluesky Tuesday, that had nothing to do with Good’s death:
Even some of the anti-ICE votes are based on insane reasoning. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) told The Bulwark that “DHS funding, period, is a red line for me until…” Until what?
Until they stop shooting people in the face? Stop gestapoing? Nope. It’s not about ICE showing up at people’s doors. For Booker, it’s about ICE not showing up on Capitol Hill. DHS funding, he said, is a red line until…
“…they start answering Congress’s questions.”
That’s right. Booker is opposing DHS funding because “I’ve sent questions about training and professional standards to them for months now, and they haven’t even responded. So if they’re not in compliance with simple oversight questions, why should they get their resources? They have to answer to Congress.”
How about they have to stop killing people, dragging people from their cars, and terrorizing U.S. cities?
COMING ATTRACTIONS Omar and Rep. Pramila Japayal (D-WA) are holding a field hearing in Minneapolis on Friday about ICE killing Good.
HERE’S WHAT DEMS WILL BE FUNDING Trump stormtroopers in St. Paul, MN, reportedly are going door to door hunting down specific ethnic groups. (h/t)
One resident told the Chicago Tribune that two men — identifiable as federal agents because they didn’t identify themselves — came to her door last week looking for a specific person. When she didn’t know the person in question, they broadened their search to specific kinds of non-white people.
“They specifically asked me if I knew where the Hmong families lived,” she said. Then they asked about Asian families. Remember, people, first they came for the Hmong families. And if Democrats keep funding this, who hmong us is safe?
HERE’S WHAT DEMS WILL BE FUNDING ICE reportedly is pressuring illegally detained protesters in Minneapolis to name names of protest organizers. Democrats either will or won’t fund this.
HERE’S WHAT DEMS WILL BE FUNDING It’s not just undocumented immigrants getting rounded up. It’s not just documented immigrants, either. In fact, it’s not even just citizens getting rounded up.
Four people rounded up by ICE in Minnesota on Friday have been identified as indigenous people. Calling for the release of their tribal members, South Dakota’s Oglala Sioux said they are “categorically outside immigration jurisdiction” and that “Enrolled tribal members are citizens of the United States by statute and citizens of the Oglala Sioux Nation by treaty.”
DHS is refusing to identify the men to the tribe by more than their first names, unless the tribe agrees to a deal on immigration enforcement, at which point they’ll presumably be deported as outdigenous people. Because nothing bad ever happens when a tribe agrees to a deal with the federal government.
The Oglala Sioux were the first South Dakota tribe to ban then-Gov. Noem from their land. After she accused tribes of working with drug cartels, all nine tribes banned her. Meaning, I guess, she could be deported? Anyway, this is what Democrats will or won’t fund.
HERE’S WHAT DEMS WILL BE FUNDING If Democrats vote to fund ICE, they’ll be funding an agency that is no longer providing protections against rape for transgender detainees. The American Prospect reports that recent ICE contracts with private detention centers — an abomination in and of itself — have dropped language that advocates spent years fighting for to ensure that transgender captives are protected from rape.
The contracts were revised to comply with Trump’s executive order forbidding government employees to give a shit about anything related to diversity or the scientifically established complexity of gender and sexual identity. Democrats either will or won’t fund these contracts.
ON SECOND THOUGHT, I’M NOT DONE WITH THIRD WAY Two more points about Third Way’s failure to grapple with (a) messaging reality and (b) the other kind.
As Third Way points out, Republicans will attack Democrats for saying “abolish ICE” even if they never did. In which case saying it doesn’t matter and refusing to say it doesn’t help you. Plus, it’s a lot easier to defend a proud, full-throated position than a mushy, half-assed position you can only defend with half your ass.
Third Way also offers the cautionary tale that “Defund the Police” was “easy to weaponize” and “hardened opposition” to police reform in 2020. Historians will note that Democrats won in 2020.
TAKING ACTION You can find your congressional representatives here and let them know what you think. If you contact Lee’s office, remember to let them know you live in her district, especially if you really do.
TAKING ACTION The ICE List has amazing resources for legal action anyone can take against ICE for being against everyone. You can check it out here.
Even Federal Prosecutors Won’t Support ICE
Staffers at the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland (sic) Security (DHS) are finally getting a chance to do something for justice and security.
Multiple federal prosecutors reportedly have quit the Justice Department rather than help it do injustices.
The New York Times says it was six prosecutors in Minnesota. MS NOW says it was six in the Civil Rights Division. TFN hopes it was six of one, half dozen of the other.
What everyone seems to agree on is that the resignations were precipitated by the Justice Department responding to an armed man shooting a peaceful, unarmed woman in the face by investigating what was left of her, investigating her widow, and giving the shooter moral support and encouragement.
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon reportedly told staff she wouldn’t even consider investigating whether ICE agent Jonathan Ross in any way broke the law by shooting Renee Good three times in the head.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, formerly Pres. Donald Trump’s personal attorney, said there was “no basis for a criminal civil rights investigation.”
BLOWING THE WHISTLE It’s not just prosecutors taking action. And it’s not just neighbors and legal observers blowing whistles to alert people about ICE. A DHS insider has committed what’s believed to be the largest known leak from the apparently not-that-secure department.
The names of 4,500 ICE and Border Patrol agents were leaked to The ICE List by the metaphorical whistleblower. The website also posts tips about immigration goons showing up in neighborhoods or staying at hotels.
ICE List founder Dominick Skinner suggested that the new data dump dumping on immigration goons came because “The shooting [of Good] was the last straw for many people.”
Iran, So Far Away
It’s tempting to think of the protests in Iran as analogous to protests here. But the differences are important.
A huge number of Iranians are sick of living for decades under tyrannical, theocratic rule. Americans, by contrast, just voted for it.
Also relevant, as Pres. Donald Trump considers whether to attack Iran illegally, is why they’re protesting now. A lot of it has been driven by economic hardship, which means that American intervention could trigger a backlash, and even arouse support for the regime, potentially the first time Trump has aroused anyone.
OTOH Iran reportedly has killed more than 2,571 people now and instead of focusing exclusively on economic issues, the government is now carving out the bandwidth to multi-task and execute some folks.
Trump has been promising to help the Iranian protesters, but so far hasn’t. And reportedly U.S. allies in the region are asking him not to. So, as always, he’s gonna disappoint someone.
Stratego
A Tweet Sunday from Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) got me thinking, by which I mean pissed me off. Kim shared Sunday’s video statement from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, after the Justice Department subpoenaed Powell for a ginned-up investigation that’s clearly in response to Pres. Donald Trump’s annoyance at the Fed not lowering interest rates enough:
Powell’s statement was so anodyne — he didn’t even name the bully in chief — that I had to ask myself how Kim possibly thinks this is what fighting back looks like. Powell didn’t identify a single thing he’ll do in retaliation.
All Powell did was defend his actions and say he’ll continue doing what he does. But apparently, even just saying words feels like fighting back now. But it’s not. (To Kim’s credit, he voted Monday against advancing the Justice Department funding bill.)
But any single Senate Democrat could stop every single Trump nomination in its cloven-hooved tracks. We know it’s possible because a Republican is doing it to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) is single-handedly blocking all DHS nominees not because an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer shot a woman three times. Not because ICE then denied her medical attention as she lay dying.
Not even because DHS Secretary Kristi Noem then lied about it.
But because Noem has declined to come testify about disaster-relief funding. That’s what Tillis is fighting back against, and what fighting back actually looks like. Meanwhile, Democrats are no-handedly blocking no Trump nominees over Noem defending the murder of Renee Good.
Four Quickies
The Senate will vote today on whether to limit Pres. Donald Trump’s ability to take further military action against Venezuela. If it passes, it would not do what existing law limiting Trump’s military actions also did not do. Trump is pressuring five Republican senators who supported the bill to get back in line, raising fears he could take military action against them. One, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) said Secretary of State Marco Rubio told him Monday that “we’re not going to do ground troops,” which they already did, which was in order to do the regime change they said they were not going to do.
Remember, if you don’t like what federal law enforcement are saying about a shooting, just wait a while! On Friday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) changed its story about an ICE shooting last month. First ICE claimed that a Salvadoran man, Salomon Antonio Serrano-Esquivel, was injured Dec. 24 in Glen Burnie, MD, after the driver of the car he was in got shot ramming ICE cars. Turns out, Serrano-Esquivel wasn’t in the car. He was in the ICE car that got rammed, having been picked up hours before, and unable to protect himself from the impact because he was handcuffed. Of course, whichever car he was in, he’s still a domestic terrorist.
After one week of the revamped CBS Evening News under new, billionaire-approved Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss, fewer people are watching. Almost 5.4 million people tuned in nightly for then-anchor Norah O’Donnell in the same week last year. In new anchor Tony Dokoupil’s first week, he averaged 4.17 million viewers, despite all the free publicity the new newscast is getting for not being good. According to the way Pres. Donald Trump does percentages, that’s an 8,500% decrease.
The White House says it was “appropriate” for Pres. Donald Trump on Tuesday to say “fuck you” and flip the bird to TJ Sabula, a Ford worker and union member who called Trump a “pedophile protector.” In keeping with its history of fascist sympathizing, Ford suspended Sabula for exercising his First Amendment rights. Sabula said “no regrets whatsoever.” And in the spirit of bipartisanship, Mr. President, here at The Fucking News, we appreciate the shout-out.
TCB
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NEWSFUCKING IN THE WILD Hey, Newsfuckers, check out who was the lead story on Crooks and Liars last night! Don’t worry, the venerable progressive pioneer didn’t yoink my work, they have a standing invitation to run my stuff and have always been super great to me. If you missed it, it was my Sunday TFN Bonus Story pushing back on the idea that America was divided in how we saw the Renee Good video.
Also, join me every Monday on The Nicole Sandler Show at 3:30pm eastern, for free, right here. (Although I’ll probably take off on Monday, Martin Luther King Day.)
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Go get ‘em, kids! Remember, that’s the Chicago way…
TFN creator and writer Jonathan Larsen co-created Up w/ Chris Hayes and wrote for Countdown with Keith Olbermann at MSNBC, helped launch CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360° and Air America Radio, and has also worked at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Young Turks.
Here's a copy of the message I sent to my elected reps in Congress:
Defund DHS. It was always a vehicle that would ultimately lead to masked, armed death squads killing unarmed, peaceful civilians. DHS has forced Americans to sacrifice personal privacy to extreme surveillance, denied constitutional rights to due process, and denied 4th amendment right to freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. The Supreme Court has given it's dubious stamp of approval to Kavanaugh Stops. Immigrants are not a threat. Everything about DHS is a threat. Just defund it. Place CBP and (what used to be) INS back in Treasury. Democrats must unite to defund DHS, or force a budget shutdown.
“who hmong us is safe?”
Chef’s kiss. Who, indeed.