- Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Mexican national living in Texas, was shot and killed by ICE agents while driving to his construction job Tuesday morning. This is at least the 23th shooting and eighth death by DHS agents on American streets since Trump re-took office. Although the government has claimed that Mr. Araujo “weaponized his vehicle” against DHS officers, we have seen such claims from this administration fall apart time and again. Family, activists, and members of Congress are calling for an independent investigation of the shooting.
- Over the past week, the administration has announced the purchase of two California detention facilities from CoreCivic, one of the two main private prison contractors, as well as a new facility in Louisiana meant to speed up the deportation of children and families. CoreCivic will continue to run operations at the California facilities for the time being, although that could change as their contracts expire in coming years. The Louisiana facility will be run by a nonprofit arm of another private prison contractor, LaSalle Corrections, and is intended as a short-term holding center/staging area as children and families await their deportation flights in what the administration has described as a “humanitarian effort” to help families seeking to “self-deport”. Critics worry that these moves are simply meant to evade oversight and accountability.
- ICE made a major, but quiet, push across the country in the lead up to the Fourth of July, arresting 10,000 individuals in a five day period. Little is known about the arrests, such as who or where, as ICE has been releasing less data since Trump returned to office. The 2,000 arrests/day during this period exceeds the daily average of arrests during the height of ICE’s surge in Minneapolis earlier this year.
- President Trump said that he would ask the Supreme Court to revisit its recent decision in Trump v. Barbara, the birthright citizenship case. This latest tantrum would seem to be caused by the fact that a hospital along the border advertised its maternity services. It has been 60 years since the Court last agreed to rehear a case and 70 years since it reversed a decision in a case it had already heard. In the meantime, members of Congress are looking at a long-shot possibility of a constitutional amendment to restrict birthright citizenship.
- House Speaker Mike Johnson has promised another House vote on the SAVE Act, one of Trump’s top priorities before the elections. The SAVE Act would require proof of citizenship to register for federal elections; an alternate version of the bill would also severely restrict mail-in voting, but there is little support for that provision. This bill has been a sticking point for the Republican majority in recent weeks. In late June, President Trump refused to sign a bi-partisan bill to ease the national housing crunch until the SAVE Act is passed. A week later, Congressional leadership had to cancel votes and start the Fourth of July recess early due to a revolt among anti-immigrant members pushing for a vote on the bill. Speaker Johnson now plans to push the legislation through yet another reconciliation bill in an effort to circumvent a Senate filibuster.