Good News in Hard Times

If we only focus on the bad things happening and not recognize and focus on the good, we will spiral into a place where we will start to believe that we aren't making a difference. We are. Stay strong. Keep speaking out. Keep showing up. Together, we will beat this regime. 

Some Positive developments in the resistance to ICE:

• After federal agents killed two American citizens, Renée Good, and Alex Pretti, trump apparently decided Steven Miller's scorched-earth approach had gone too far. Since then, the administration has quietly been undoing some of Miller's work.  

• The roving Border Patrol strike forces Steven Miller championed have been disbanded.

• Steven Miller's proposed 50% cut to seasonal worker visas got reversed.

• New DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin is now taking his cues from Tom Homan and CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott rather than Miller. 

• A prosecutor in Minnesota has charged an ice agent, including 2nd degree assault on an in immigrant from Venezuela. This is the snow shovel case where neighborhood video showed that the snow shovel was not part of the encounter and the officer fired a bullet through a closed door, so was not under threat.

• The detention center in the Everglades in Florida is closing. 

• On April 28, the Glenwood Springs planning and zoning commission voted to revoke the Special Use Permit ICE has to operate it's hold room there. 

Some developments on the Judicial Front:

• According to Politico, for this Trump administration (2nd term) - there were 11,600 cases court rulings in immigration cases brought by detainees. 10,400 (90%) were rulings against the administration. 

• The Supreme Court rejected appeals from several of the nation's largest drugmakers that challenged a program that's requires drug makers to negotiate with Medicare on prices. 

• A federal judge dismissed the criminal case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, finding that he was the subject of a vindictive prosecution. 

• Two Jan. 6 officers sue to shut down Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund.

• Nine prosecutors form the “FAFO” coalition – district attorneys across the country are banding together to warn Trump’s goons that their badges won’t protect them from intimidating voters. Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner made it crystal clear: mess with voters and you’ll “find out what ‘find out’ means.”

Some Electorial Developments

• Five of the most extremely conservative incumbent legislators lost their primaries. 

• Keisha Lance Bottoms – the former Atlanta mayor - won the Democratic gubernatorial primary outright with 57 percent of the vote. She could become the first Black woman elected governor in American history this November.

• South Carolina is not going to redistrict for the upcoming election. 

• Thousands marched in Mississippi past Gov. Tate Reeves’s mansion after he attacked Rep. Bennie Thompson for registering Black voters. Thompson fired back: “Between now and November, you better hold on.”

• A federal district court blocked Alabama from using its 2023 congressional gerrymandered map in this year's mid-term elections. 

Other Developments

• Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy voted for the War Powers Resolution.

• Trump’s secret tax shield collapses – Acting AG Todd Blanche tried to quietly declare the IRS could never investigate Trump or his businesses again. Sen. Ron Wyden caught it immediately and called it invalid. The scheme died before lunch.Senate Parliamentarian ruled that Republicans broke the rules trying to sneak $1 billion, including $220 million for Trump’s new ballroom/bunker, into a Secret Service bill. Trump reportedly demanded she be fired. She’s still standing.

• A judge ordered Trump's name be removed from the Kennedy center. 

• The NAACP called for a boycott of eight gerrymandering Southern states by Black athletes, while the CBC helped kill a bill college sports leagues desperately wanted. M

• The federal judge in Miami overseeing Trump's IRS lawsuit reopened the case. She asked for briefings explaining how the entire lawsuit wasn't fraud. She wants to know if Trump had voluntarily dismissed last week specifically to avoid her scrutiny — and ordered Trump's lawyers to explain by June 12th why she shouldn't find that the entire scheme was a fraud perpetrated against her court. The judge's language was pointed and precise. She said she wanted to investigate "grievous allegations" that the deal to resolve the case was "premised on deception." She asserted that she was "empowered to investigate serious misconduct" and demanded answers to two devastating questions: was "the court the victim of a fraud," and did Trump collude with his own government to settle the case specifically "to avoid judicial scrutiny"? The answer to both questions, based on everything that has already been reported, appears to be yes.

Thanks to Carolyn Hohne for compiling this list.