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The Guardian
14 minutes ago
- The Guardian
US sees spate of arrests of civilians impersonating Ice officers
Police in southern California arrested a man suspected of posing as a federal immigration officer this week, the latest in a series of such arrests, as masked, plainclothes immigration agents are deployed nationwide to meet the Trump administration's mass deportation targets. The man, Fernando Diaz, was arrested by Huntington Park police after officers said they found a loaded gun and official-looking documents with Department of Homeland Security headings in his SUV, according to NBC Los Angeles. Officers were impounding his vehicle for parking in a handicapped zone when Diaz asked to retrieve items inside, the police said. Among the items seen by officers in the car were 'multiple copies of passports not registered under the individual's name', NBC reports. Diaz was arrested for possession of the allegedly unregistered firearm and released on bail. The Huntington Park police chief and mayor accused Diaz of impersonating an immigration agent at a news conference, a move Diaz later told the NBC News affiliate he was surprised by. Diaz also denied to the outlet that he had posed as an officer with border patrol or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice). At the news conference, police showed reporters paper they found inside his car with an official-looking US Customs and Border Protection header. The arrest is one of several cases involving people allegedly impersonating immigration officials, as the nationwide crackdown on undocumented immigrants intensifies. Experts have warned that federal agents' increased practice of masking while carrying out immigration raids and arrests makes it easier for imposters to pose as federal officers. Around the country, the sight of Ice officers emerging from unmarked cars in plainclothes to make arrests has become increasingly common. In March, for instance, a Tufts University student was seen on video being arrested by masked Ice officials outside her apartment, after her visa had been revoked for writing an opinion article in her university newspaper advocating for Palestinian rights. And many federal agents operating in the Los Angeles region in recent weeks have been masked. In late January, a week after Trump took office, a man in South Carolina was arrested and charged with kidnapping and impersonating an officer, after allegedly presenting himself as an Ice officer and detaining a group of Latino men. In February, two people impersonating Ice officers attempted to enter a Temple University residence hall. CNN reported that Philadelphia police later arrested one of them, a 22-year-old student, who was charged with impersonating an officer. In North Carolina the same week, another man, Carl Thomas Bennett, was arrested after allegedly impersonating an Ice officer and sexually assaulting a woman. Bennett reportedly threatened to deport the woman if she did not comply. In April, a man in Indiantown, Florida, was arrested for impersonating an Ice officer and targeting immigrants. Two men reported to the police that the man had performed a fake traffic stop, and then asked for their documents and immigration status. Mike German, a former FBI agent and fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, told the Guardian last week that the shootings of two Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota, by a suspect who allegedly impersonated a police officer, highlights the danger of police not looking like police. 'Federal agents wearing masks and casual clothing significantly increases this risk of any citizen dressing up in a way that fools the public into believing they are law enforcement so they can engage in illegal activity. It is a public safety threat, and it's also a threat to the agents and officers themselves, because people will not immediately be able to distinguish between who is engaged in legitimate activity or illegitimate activity when violence is occurring in public,' he said.
The Independent
20 minutes ago
- The Independent
Bill Maher roasts Trump fans who say ‘God saved' him from sniper bullet — but did not spare Corey Comperatore
Comedian and political commentator Bill Maher took aim at Donald Trump supporters who credit God with saving the president during the July 2024 assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. On Sunday's episode of the Club Random podcast, Maher questioned his guest, actor Esai Morales, on why God would spare Trump, but not Corey Comperatore, a Trump supporter and former firefighter who was killed in the incident. 'I'm religious, but I'm not religious. You know what I mean?' Morales said. 'And people go, oh, I'm spiritual as a fad, but I just know something, somebody out there in here all around loves me enough that has not allowed me to destroy myself.' 'But what do you say to the person who gets eaten, that why didn't the God love him?' Maher asked. ' You know what I mean? What about all the people who have the s****y outcome?' 'A very good point,' Morales admitted. Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, fired an AR-15 rifle at Trump from a rooftop during the Butler rally on July 13. He injured Trump's ear and killed Comperatore while also wounding two others. Crooks was shot and killed by a member of the Secret Service Counter Sniper Team shortly after the attack. On the podcast, Maher dismissed claims that the Trump assassination attempt was staged. Morales admitted he briefly wondered if it might have been staged because Trump fell and then quickly got back up. 'Yeah, but OK, a bullet did go,' Maher said. 'That's my point. It couldn't have been staged. And, you know, people say, 'God saved Trump.' Where was the God for the other guy?' This isn't the first time Maher shared his opinions on Trump's assassination attempt. A few hours after the shooting, Maher posted a video from a Minnesota stage, stating he would not make jokes about the incident. 'I unequivocally denounce [the shooting], I don't care what you think about that. Not funny,' he said at the time, 'I'm sure that there will be jokes that people will make because they hate him so much that they wished it went he other way. Not for me.' Maher went on to call Trump 'the luckiest motherf***er that has ever walked the face of the Earth,' and wrongly assumed the then-unidentified shooter was a liberal before any motive was confirmed. 'Whoever did this, the shooter has done so much damage to the left,' Maher said. '[The left] has lost a lot moral high ground in the 'you're the violent people' and the 'liberals don't shoot people, liberals don't solve it that way.'' Before the shooting, Crooks had searched for information on Trump, Joe Biden, and other public figures, as well as gun-related websites. His parents had reported him missing hours before the rally. Investigations revealed bomb-making materials in his vehicle and home, and a remote detonator was found on his body. But a month after the shooting, Maher found the humor in the assassination attempt, calling it 'one of my favorite days from 2024.' 'It'd be different if he [Trump] got killed. No tragedy happened — well, for one guy,' Maher said about Comperatore on Matt Friend's podcast Friend In High Places. 'A guy shoots at Trump, the guy behind him gets shot and killed — that's so Trump,' Maher continued. 'It's just so, it's just so on brand to have the other guy …. he never goes to jail. He never loses money in bankruptcy. It's always somebody else holding the bullet or the bag.'
Reuters
24 minutes ago
- Reuters
Schumer says Democrats will force reading of 940-page megabill on Senate floor
June 28 (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Saturday said Democrats will force the Republicans' 940-page tax and spending bill to be read out loud in full on the Senate floor. "Republicans won't tell America what's in the bill. So Democrats are forcing it to be read start to finish on the floor," Schumer said in a post on X. "We will be here all night if that's what it takes to read it."
