This Week in Democracy – Week 72: Senate GOP Votes to Fund ICE, as Report Shows It Feeds Migrant Children Food With Worms
Zeteo's weekly round-up, documenting the growth of authoritarianism in Trump's second term.
Today, Senate Republicans passed a $70 billion bill to fund Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for three years.
The latter is the same agency that just this week faced a number of troubling reports – from worms in the food fed to detained children to dozens of children re-separated from their parents. That’s not even mentioning that it’s the same agency that’s killed U.S. citizens and that half of Americans said earlier this year they want to see abolished.
But, as we know, in Donald Trump’s America, the lives of citizens, polling, human/children’s rights don’t matter. (In a bit of good news today, a judge did rule that the Trump administration must restart processing of asylum and immigration applications it had halted last year.)
From the horrific reports about ICE to more illegal boat strikes to dangerous new hires by the Trump admin, here’s what the president and his cronies did this week that harmed democracy, undermined the Constitution, and hurt societies worldwide:
Saturday, May 30 – More Than 200 People Now Killed in Trump’s Boat Strikes
U.S. Southern Command announced that, at the direction of Commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, the U.S. military conducted a strike on a boat in the Eastern Pacific, killing three people.
It followed a strike the day before that killed three others, bringing the total number of people killed by the Trump administration’s likely illegal strikes to more than 200.
Sunday, May 31 – Children Served Food With Worms in ICE Detention
Children are being served meals with live worms, bugs, and mold in ICE detention, CBS News reported in an explosive piece about the horrific conditions at the ICE facility in Dilley, Texas.
Nearly half of the more than 6,300 children detained by federal agents during Trump’s second term – 97% of whom have no criminal record – are being held at this detention center.
Monday, June 1 – Tina Peters Claims Democrats Will ‘Cheat’ Hours After Prison Release
Tina Peters, a former Colorado county clerk who was convicted of tampering with voting machines following the 2020 presidential election, was released from prison early after serving less than a quarter of her nine-year sentence.
Hours later, Peters went on fellow election denier Steve Bannon’s podcast and picked up right where she left off, saying without evidence, “I know the Democrats are going to cheat” in the midterm elections this fall.
Tuesday, June 2 – Dangerous New Trump Admin Hires
Trump named Federal Housing Finance Agency Director and staunch MAGA ally Bill Pulte, who is being investigated for targeting the president’s perceived enemies, as the acting director of national intelligence.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported that the Trump administration has hired a convicted Jan. 6 rioter to work inside an office at the Pentagon responsible for managing highly classified military operations.
But that’s not all: Reuters reported that Trump’s Justice Department hired Kurt Olsen, a White House official who participated in efforts to overturn the 2020 election, as a senior attorney who will report to a prosecutor building a criminal case against Trump’s enemies.
Wednesday, June 3 – Trump Attacks Kaitlan Collins … Again
While speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump once again attacked CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, calling her a “corrupt reporter” who “never smiles” and has “hatred in her eyes.”
Later, when she asked Trump whether the DOJ’s $1.776 billion weaponization fund was dead or on hold, Trump told Collins she “should be ashamed of yourself.”
Thursday, June 4 – Re-Separating Families and Canceling ICE Reporting Requirement
AP reported that despite a legal settlement meant to reunify migrant families separated during the first Trump administration, the government has re-separated dozens of children from their families, including deporting some people who were legally prohibited from being removed from the country.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported that ICE acting director David Venturella sent a memo to employees announcing the elimination of a guideline that required the agency to report deaths that take place less than 30 days after people are released from ICE custody – a policy meant to ensure the agency doesn’t release people in an effort to avoid deaths in custody.
Friday, June 5 – Trump Admin Tried to Classify 2.7 Million Living People as Dead, Whistleblower Says
The Washington Post reported that the Trump administration planned to mark 2.7 million living people as dead, according to a whistleblower who worked at the Social Security Administration for 25 years and refused to help reclassify the people after agency lawyers warned doing so could violate federal law.
The move, which the whistleblower says was possibly meant to intimidate immigrants and affect their finances, included some U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents.
Did you miss previous weeks of ‘This Week in Democracy’? Catch up here. And check out more of Zeteo’s reporting from this week below:
