Outrage Watch: Iced Out as the Bombs Bust

The major outrage of this past month—protested in many cities—is the Trump administration’s ruthless “mass deportation” of undocumented immigrants— reminiscent of the rounding up escaped black slaves under the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850.

And the administration has been lying about it. Trump said that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, the Border Patrol and other agencies were going to prioritize arresting and deporting violent criminal immigrants—“the worst of the worst”—but the government’s own data show that only 7-8% of those arrested had records for murder, assault, rape or burglary.

Of the 207,000 persons deported between January and June 2025, 90% either had no criminal records at all or arrests for minor traffic offenses or immigration-related offenses. ICE agents, usually masked and refusing to identify themselves or their agencies, have been kidnapping people from workplaces, courts, street corners and homes to round up Hispanic and other foreign-looking people for detention and deportation, sometimes making arrests violently and in about 1% of cases mistakenly apprehending US citizens or legal residents.

ICE is under orders from White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to capture 3,000 persons a day, prioritizing numbers over criminal severity, leading to a tripling of non-criminal arrests. Deportation Czar Tom Homan told Time magazine that the government has detention spaces for 50,000 persons, which he wants increased to 100,000 (the so-called BBB budget that just passed the Senate provides a windfall increase for detention facilities). Homan also said that workplace arrests would increase at the fastest pace “in all of US history.”

On June 12, Trump ordered a stop on raids at farms, hotels and restaurants after appeals from owners who feared losing “very good, longtime workers.” The move set off a debate in the administration—won in just five days by Miller, who said the policy would interfere with his deportation schedule. The reversal will raise the price of food as crops rot in the fields.

In cruel shifts in policy, Trump is shipping deportees to countries not their own—El Salvador, Libya, South Sudan, Djibouti and Rwanda—hardly stable regimes, and depriving them of due process, the right to challenge their deportation in court. Moreover, Trump has canceled amnesty in cases where a deportee might face torture or death if sent to a hostile country.

Trump’s policies have sown panic in immigrant communities and aroused fierce resistance from neighbors, immigrant rights groups and news media. The administration’s response has been to step up raids in Democratic-run cities and threaten protesters with detention and “sanctuary cities” suspension of federal funding.

All told, it’s an ugly policy unworthy of a nation of immigrants—who, not incidentally, are needed to fill the 400,000 industrial jobs that Americans haven’t taken, not to mention agricultural and hospitality jobs, and to keep Social Security solvent. It’s not only cruel; it’s also stupid.

A crucial test for Trump’s deportation policy is heading toward the Supreme Court: whether he can use the 1789 Alien Enemies Act to arrest and deport immigrants by charging they are citizens of a foreign power that has “invaded” the US.

The Act has been deployed only three times before, during the War of 1812 and World Wars 1 and 2. Trump’s deportation of 238 Venezuelans to El Salvador was the fourth, but unless the High Court is totally in Trump’s pocket, his action will be struck down.

The administration’s handling of the Venezuelans was the first example of what’s now a common policy: shipping deportees off to countries they have no association with. The administration reportedly has approached 58 countries about receiving deportees and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he continues to search for receiving countries.

The administration charged that the Venezuelans were members of the violent Tren de Aragua gang and that the gang was directed by the government of Venezuela, which US intelligence agencies refuted. Using the act was the recommendation of Stephen Miller, who told associates “don’t worry about legalities” in carrying out arrests and deportations.

Disregarding a judge’s order that the immigrants be returned to the US to be granted due process, to have the opportunity to challenge the charges against them, they were delivered to El Salvador’s Terrorist Confinement Center, which has a reputation for brutality.

Contrary to Trump and other US officials who said that the Venezuelans were violent criminals, New York Times investigators who combed through police records in the US, Venezuela and other Latin American nations found that only 34 of the 238 had serious criminal records, 24 had records for minor offenses and the rest had no criminal records at all.

Trump’s lawyers are asserting that courts have no business interfering with Executive Branch “national security” decisions. Regardless whether the Venezuelans were or were not criminals, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said they should remain in Salvador’s terrorist prison “for the rest of their lives.”

The Mad Bomber (I Should Get a Nobel for This!)

Trump constantly complains that he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for one international agreement or another, but that he’ll never get one. Indeed, he couldn’t deliver an end to the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours, as he forecast. And he hasn’t persuaded Israel to stop killing and starving Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

It’d be ironic if he got one for dropping fourteen 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs on Iran’s nuclear sites, but he doubtless won’t get one for that, either.

Iran and Israel have agreed to a ceasefire, but a lasting peace between the two arch-enemies likely can’t happen: Iran clearly means to have nuclear bombs—enriching uranium to 60 percent purity is far more than is needed for civilian power purposes and its enrichment activities have been conducted in supposedly-impenetrable locations.

“Death to Israel” has been the byword of the Islamic regime’s ambitions since 1979 and it’s entirely likely that US and Israeli attacks have only impelled it to speed up its enrichment pace toward the 90% needed for a bomb.

Indeed, Iran has vowed to accelerate its nuclear program and the Iranian Parliament suspended co-operation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, so no independent on-site inspections can occur.

Though Trump wasted no time before declaring that Iran’s nuclear program was “utterly and completely obliterated,” various experts, including US Intelligence and the Israelis, have said that 880 pounds of enriched uranium might have been moved before the bombing, and satellite images showed trucks lined up outside the Fordow enrichment site.

Iran’s work on a bomb clearly was set back by America’s impressive B2 bomber attacks, but for how long—a few months, a year or several years—it’s impossible to say. But unless Israel fulfills Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s vow to execute regime change in Iran, the danger of Iranian bombs has not been obliterated.

The outrage here is that in 2015 Iran reached an agreement (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) with the US and five other nations that for 15 years it would forego uranium enrichment above 3.67% and would submit to anytime inspections by the IAEA in return for the lifting of sanctions and the release of billions of dollars in sequestered assets. The IAEA reported that Iran was keeping its part of the pact. But in 2018, Trump withdrew from the agreement, calling it “terrible” but promising to negotiate a better one, which he never did.

Off the Reserve: Threats against the Fed

“Project 2025,” among its many recommendations for expanding the power of the presidency, asserted that the President IS the Executive Branch of government and should have power to set policy and hire and fire officials of every department and agency, including those set up by Congress to be “independent.”

And Trump has exercised his powers under the “unitary executive” theory over agencies such as the Security and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission.

But the Federal Reserve has (or had) a special place in the government. Setting interest rates and overseeing the financial system have been deemed too important to be managed politically. Doing so would undermine confidence in the US economy.

Trump has served notice that it’s another norm he will smash. He’s insulted and tried to force out Fed Chairman Jerome Powell because he is unwilling to lower interest rates to stimulate the economy and help Trump politically.  Powell has said he is waiting to see whether Trump’s tariffs and budget deficits will be inflationary before lowering rates further.

Trump announced that his next Fed chairman—whom he may name well before Powell’s term is up to weaken his authority—will be someone who will cut rates substantially. It’s the final—and most serious—seizure of presidential authority over an independent agency. It could well undermine confidence in the dollar, which already has fallen to its lowest level since 1973. Trump essentially has put his political standing ahead of the nation’s financial stability.

A Bunker-Buster of a Budget Bill

Trump’s “Big Beautiful” budget bill will add between $3 trillion and $4 trillion to the national debt, almost certainly adding to inflation and leading Powell to postpone rate cuts.

 Republicans tried to cut the cost by slashing medical and food aid for the poor rather than raising taxes on the rich, who benefit disproportionately from tax cuts in the bill. It’s one of the biggest transfers of wealth from poor to rich in American history.

The bill is deeply unpopular, with approval ratings varying between the low 20 percentages and the mid-30s, and lowest among voters most familiar with its provisions. Trump’s approval ratings on the economy have fallen to historic lows—between 41% and 43% in major polls.

His overall job approval rating average is 46.6. Approval of his bombing Iran is in the mid-40s.

The (Ongoing) Putin Problem

Approval of Trump’s handling of the Russia-Ukraine war is in the low 40s, with a majority of Americans (correctly) believing that Trump is too lenient toward Russia and too harsh toward Ukraine. Trump’s “peace plan” gives Russia all it wants (yet Vladimir Putin won’t agree to it) and is letting him get away with bombing civilians with only a “I’m not happy with Russia” and no sanctions. He talks about giving Kyiv Patriot air defense missiles but hasn’t delivered. This week the administration it was withholding some missiles already pledged to Ukraine, saying America’s reserve needed them more. What Ukraine deserves is weapons that will help defeat Russia’s invasion.