Latest news with #Honduran
Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Federal agents blast way into California home of woman and small children
Federal agents blasted their way into a residential home in Huntington Park, California, on Friday. Security-camera video obtained by the local NBC station showed border patrol agents setting up an explosive device near the door of the house and then detonating it – causing a window to be shattered. Around a dozen armed agents in full tactical gear then charged toward the home. Jenny Ramirez, who lives in the house with her boyfriend and one-year-old and six-year-old children, told NBC through tears that it was one of the loudest explosions she heard in her life. 'I told them, 'You guys didn't have to do this, you scared by son, my baby,'' Ramirez said. Ramirez said she was not given any warning from the authorities that they wanted to enter her home and that everyone who lives there is a US citizen. The raid comes as federal agents have ramped up immigration enforcement in Los Angeles and across southern California over the last few weeks. Huntington Park is in Los Angeles county. Immigrants have been swept up in raids at court houses, restaurants and straight off the street. Some of the people targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) have been US citizens. In one incident, Ice agents detained a Honduran woman seeking asylum and her children, one of which was a six-year-old boy who had been diagnosed with leukemia. The agents who raided Ramirez's home in Huntington Park on Friday also reportedly sent a drone into the house after setting off the explosive device. The agents told Ramirez that they were searching for her boyfriend, but did not tell her why, according to NBC. Ramirez told the news station that he was involved in a vehicle collision with a truck carrying federal agents last week. She said it was an accident and unintentional. A spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection told NBC: 'Jorge Sierra-Hernandez was arrested because he rammed his car into a CBP vehicle, causing significant damage and obstructed the work of our agents and officers during course of a law enforcement operation.' The spokesperson said agents were 'assaulted' during this incident and 'additional rioters threw rocks and other objects at our personnel'. Customs and Border Protection did not immediately return the Guardian's request for comment. In a separate incident in Huntington Park on Friday, a man was arrested for apparently impersonating an Ice agent, according to another report by the local NBC station. Police said they arrested the man after he parked in a disabled zone. In his vehicle, they allegedly found a firearm and documents that appeared to be from Homeland Security Investigations and CBP. The man was arrested over possession of an allegedly unregistered firearm and later released on bail.
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Health
- Yahoo
ICE detains boy, 6, battling leukemia inside L.A. courthouse; mother suing for release
A Honduran woman who is seeking asylum in the United States has filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of her and her family's detention at a Texas facility. The woman, along with her 6-year-old son who is battling leukemia and his 9-year-old sibling, were detained after the three attended their May 29 immigration hearing in Los Angeles. Attorneys for the family say they could be deported at any time, despite their attempt to seek asylum in the U.S. The 6-year-old, identified as N.M.Z in a habeas corpus complaint, was diagnosed in Honduras with acute lymphoblastic leukemia when he was 3 and has undergone two of the required two-and-a-half years of treatment, according to the court filing. Due to his detention, he missed a scheduled medical appointment on June 5. The mother is now suing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security and the Trump administration for her immediate release, along with the release of her two children. The mother claims the government violated many of their rights, including the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment. This is the first lawsuit challenging ICE arrests of children pursuant to a new ICE directive encouraging courthouse arrests. 'A federal district court has already ruled that the ICE courthouse arrest policy announced last month is illegal and unconstitutional and I think applying it to children is particularly abhorrent and unconscionable,' said attorney Elora Mukherjee, a Columbia Law professor and member of the team representing the family. Attorneys noted that DHS determined the mother was not a flight risk when she was paroled into the country, and that her detention was unjustified. They also argued that she was not given an opportunity to contest her family's detention in front of a neutral party. 'The horrors that this family has suffered should never be felt by a child in need of medical care. Arresting immigrants as they step out of a courtroom is a heinous display of disregard for humanity. This family came to the United States seeking safety, but inhumane policies are preventing them from seeking necessary medical care for their child,' Kate Gibson Kumar, an attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project, said in a statement provided to KTLA. The Texas Civil Rights Project said the family was placed in expedited removal, which allows for rapid deportation without a court hearing. The family's attorneys fear they could be deported before their lawsuit is heard. This mother and her children were granted legal entry to the U.S. during the Biden administration. The Trump administration has set a goal of 3,000 immigration arrests per day, or 1 million people per year, claiming that it is targeting violent criminals. ICE data obtained by the Cato Institute show that more than 93% of immigrants arrested this fiscal year were never convicted of any violent offenses. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to our request for comment at the time of publishing this article. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
New York Post
14 hours ago
- Politics
- New York Post
Warning to NY: Don't make the mistake we did in San Francisco by electing Zohran Mamdani
Take heed, New Yorkers, and learn from San Francisco's mistakes: The City by the Bay has discovered to its sorrow that charismatic leaders like Zohran Mamdani can dazzle — but their decisions can be disastrous. Just a few years ago San Franciscans, too, supported magnetic populists, then watched as their neighborhoods fell off a livability cliff. Advertisement Regrets, we have more than a few — and many we want to mention. In 2017 London Breed, a brash and captivating city supervisor from the projects, became acting mayor when the mild-mannered Mayor Ed Lee died. With big promises of housing creation, downtown revitalization and racial equity — as well as her hard-partying charm — she whipped up the crowds, winning the mayoralty outright in a special election. Advertisement But during her tenure, San Francisco went from thriving to diving. Massive tent encampments took over large swaths of the city thanks to her lax policies, and the financial district and retail centers hollowed out. 'I am the mayor, but I'm a black woman first,' she shouted in a 2020 speech, as violence spiraled nationwide after the death of George Floyd. 'I am angry.' Advertisement That same day, looters and vandals were running roughshod over Union Square stores and small businesses in Chinatown. Far-left public defender Chesa Boudin one-upped Breed's progressive leanings when he joined her in city government. Boudin thrilled local social-justice activists when he ran for district attorney in 2019, as opposition to President Donald Trump and the Black Lives Matter movement gained steam. He quickly eliminated cash bail, reduced incarceration and put pressure on law enforcement instead of on criminals. Advertisement Soon Honduran cartels and dealers flooded Fog City with fentanyl, and drug tourists arrived from all over the country to overstay their welcome on our permissive streets. Overdoses spiked, and property crimes like shoplifting, looting and car smash-and-grabs became the norm. Jennifer Friedenbach, the firebrand executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness, spearheaded the push to pass a 2018 'tax-the-rich' ballot proposition that promised to raise hundreds of millions for affordable housing. Her influence was enough to persuade Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff to back the measure. Prop C passed but did nothing to solve the exploding homelessness problem. Instead, high net-worth companies like Stripe and PayPal, which contributed heavily to the city's tax revenues and provided vital jobs, simply packed up and left. Life in San Francisco got ugly, fast. The police force shrank from nearly 2,000 officers in 2020 to under 1,500 in 2024. Businesses fled and tourism dwindled. Advertisement An online 'poop map' made our filthy streets a national punch line. A city that was once so vibrant and full of civic pride became an embarrassing warning to the rest of the country: Do not do what we they are doing. Now, San Francisco is in intense repair mode. Voters ousted Boudin in 2022, and his replacement, Brooke Jenkins, has focused on increasing arrests and convictions. Advertisement In 2024, the calm and measured political outsider Daniel Lurie defeated the bombastic Breed in her bid for a second term. His 100-day progress report heralded a drop in crime, the removal of tent cities and an uptick in visitors. As for Friedenbach, her coalition's sway is sagging. Calls for her dismissal from the oversight committee that controls the Prop C funds are intensifying. San Franciscans are allowing themselves to feel cautious optimism about their future: 43% of residents now believe the city is on the right track, nearly double what it was a year ago. Advertisement Pessimism persists, and it's warranted, but green shoots of hope are taking root. That's why so many San Franciscans watched New York City's Democratic primary election with both fascination and despair. They know too well that electing compelling characters like Mamdani can have dire consequences. Our merry band of socialists here are celebrating Mamdani's win, but the majority of San Francisco residents, workers and business owners send this warning: The politics and policies he espouses can turn a flawed but marvelous city into one that is unrecognizably horrifying. Advertisement So be careful, New York. It's easy to fall for simple-sounding solutions delivered by a smooth talker in seductive speeches. But once that person takes the reins, and the pie-in-the-sky promises become dangerous reality, the process to remove him is long and arduous — and fixing the wreckage is even harder. Erica Sandberg is a freelance journalist and host of the San Francisco Beat.
Los Angeles Times
17 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Vampires, reggaeton, Hollywood glamour: Get to know Isabella Lovestory
The esoteric inspiration for Isabella Lovestory's latest record, 'Vanity,' comes from an unlikely source: the folkloric vampire. 'I feel like I am the vampire,' she said between bites of tajadas, or fried plantains, inside the Rincon Hondureño restaurant in Los Angeles. 'And I'm chasing a beautiful woman, which is me.' Legend has it that vampires can't see themselves in the mirror, so they remain unaware of their own image; as a result of that constraint, they spend their entire lives in pursuit of beauty. This 'fantastical, mythical' creature is something of an obsession for the Honduran experimental pop artist, and this trope is subliminally captured throughout the 13 tracks on 'Vanity,' which drops June 27. 'Vanity' is Isabella's second full-length record in three years, following her grimy, neoperreo debut, 'Amor Hardcore.' But that record operated with textures best found in dark basements and sweaty alleyways; this one is brighter, crafted from a mood board of mid-2000s club hits and John Waters movies. Four-on-the-floor 808 beats give way to booming tresillo rhythms, and at times, on songs like 'Bling,' Isabella poses the question: What if 'The Fame'-era Lady Gaga was Latina? It's equal parts electroclash and reggaeton, a post-genre blend that sounds beamed in from a dystopian future. 'It's like a poisonous lollipop,' she said. 'I'm always interested in contrast and tension, and I never want to be just one thing. I always wanna have that contrast.' It's also deeply descriptive, with a fitting focus on the self's visage. On the title track, Isabella likens herself to 'una botella de perfume / un objeto hecho de espuma,' that is also a 'fantasía que no puedo controlar.' Other songs, like the phonk music-adjacent 'Perfecta' and 'Gorgeous,' speak of being perfect like a mannequin and 'elegante como una esmeralda andante.' The lyrics are ripped out of a dream journal, conjured from evocative memories of love and lust. By all accounts, Isabella Lovestory, born Isabella Rodríguez Rivera, is her own self-sustaining pop star. Born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, she immigrated to the United States as a teen, attending high school in Virginia before relocating to Montreal at 17. It gives her music a worldly quality, reflected in multilingual tracks like 'Eurotrash,' which Rivera sings in English, Spanish and French. This, along with her practice-based arts education, injects a punk ethos into her artistry and makes her — in her words — 'scrappy as hell.' When I asked Rivera what she is responsible for in her camp, she laughed and said, 'Everything.' That includes all image-related facets of her artistry, from making her album artwork to editing her videos. And in that lies another interesting tension: the idea of self-sustaining pop celebrity, straddling these two worlds of DIY inventiveness and image-heavy exposure. It's something she likens, at multiple points, to performance art, this idea of projecting forward someone you're not. 'Isabella Lovestory is a very complex persona,' Rivera said. 'I think it's more like an expression of my inner world … like I have a little projector and Isabella Lovestory's a hologram of what goes on inside my heart.' This interview has been edited for length and clarity. The storytelling on your albums is immersive. How do you feel like 'Vanity' is expanding the Isabella Lovestory cinematic universe? For this one, I'm showing a more vulnerable side and a softer side that I haven't shown before. The last record, 'Amor Hardcore,' was more reggaeton, and I was experimenting with what I could do with that sound. It had a more old-school vibe, I was like a rebellious-teenager-badass-b—. And this one, I'm still a badass b—. [Laughs] But I think I'm showing more of my sweeter side, my more vulnerable, dreamier side. It's more of a very deep look into the mirror. Is that the thesis statement for the record?I think so. It's kinda like 'Alice in Wonderland' in that way. Where you fall into a rabbit hole, and you enter a mirror, and there's no way out. It's psychedelic. You have different layers and different sounds, but it's all part of one tunnel. Is that what you're trying to say about the concept of vanity? That it's a rabbit hole? Exactly. I think it's a never-ending evil cycle, but it's also very beautiful. Sins are part of our experience as people in this world. I'm ridiculing it in a way, where I let it take over me, but I also take it over. Being a pop star is so new to me, you know? I became a public person, and having my face be my tool and my money maker is crazy to me. It's me dealing with that: the darkness of beauty and the darkness of a saturated world of images that we have to constantly deal with. What's on the mood board for 'Vanity'? What were you listening to and thinking about? I was also watching a lot of Fellini, John Waters and Old Hollywood movies. I love absurd humor and the absurdity in gluttony and beauty, making fun of the stereotypes that we live in. This is what I'm doing with my project. I'm really into fairy tales, but twisted ones, like [in the movie] 'Donkey Skin.' It's absurd, very dark, but it looks so shiny and colorful and so childlike. I felt the fairy tale in 'Fresa Metal.' That song starts with this thunderstorm soundscape, and then you have a 'Dracula'-esque synthesizer come in. It feels like you're setting up a damsel-in-distress narrative. 'Fresa Metal' was inspired by this dream I had, where there was this record label building. And this pop star that was working at the label. But the building was built on an underground basement where vampires lived, and then they capture the pop star, and they kidnap her and make her work underground. I'm not a very logical person, I always failed [at] math, so I just think in images all the time. My ultimate goal is to be a director. When I started making music, it was so exciting to me because I could make my cover art, I could direct my own videos. I could do all my costumes. Ultimately, I want to make a movie, and then do the score, and then star in it. Do you feel like you were treading new sonic ground on 'Vanity' or just expanding upon what you were doing on 'Amor Hardcore'?It's definitely going into new territories. I was scared to show softer sides, because people love aggression; it's what's popping right now. Like Charli [XCX] or Nettspend, it's just really, really loud. So I was scared of doing something that's different. But at the same time, it challenged me to go deeper. I love it to be really colorful in anything I do, and also for it to feel like a roller coaster, which is what I love about K-pop. Something I find interesting about your projects is that they all have intro tracks. What is the importance of an intro track to you? It's an ode to that tradition in old-school reggaeton. The intro track is pure experimentation, because you can have freedom in doing something that stands alone and is not necessarily a track. You can just give the album that cherry on top. When I listen to old-school reggaeton albums, they had so much fun because it was such a new genre back then. Especially in the early 2000s. They had that rawness of doing something for fun, and a lot of curiosity. They didn't have rules on how to make something. I can see that. 'Vanity Intro' has this sonic palette where you're setting up a classic pop record, and then a reggaeton beat comes into the back half, directly smacking things you hear [sound effects like] a perfume bottle. You hear a car screeching. It allows you to have a little mini-movie in your head, which is something super important to me in all the songs: for everybody to create their own little dreamscape of what's happening. In 'Eurotrash,' you use multiple voices and singing styles. How do you approach your vocals? On this song in particular, there's both this seductive whisper and this exaggerated, bimbo breathiness. What I love about old-school reggaeton, again, is they always had these duos: [one with] the raspier, more masculine voice, and [the other with] the high-pitched singing voice. I love to create different characters in a song, and I love contrast in every single way. You've crafted a unique place for yourself in both pop and Latin music. Do you feel like you have contemporaries or imitators?The curse of doing something for the first time, or doing something you don't see happening, is that people will take those very authentic aspects of the underground and curate them with a creative team to make them mainstream years later. Especially as a Honduran immigrant, I feel like there's a lot of erasure. There's not a lot of Honduran people doing stuff, because it's a f— corrupt government in Honduras, and people suffer, the art suffers. There's beautiful talent, there's beautiful music, it's a beautiful country. But I think in moving around so much, I never really had a place where I felt supported by a community in that way. I created my own community myself through the internet, or becoming friends with the outcasts and the underground. It's like a blessing and a curse, you know? But it is my life, and I think I'll always be the underground, quirked-up shawty for sure.
Los Angeles Times
a day ago
- Health
- Los Angeles Times
Mother of 6-year-old L.A. boy battling leukemia files lawsuit to stop immediate deportation
A Central American asylum applicant arrested outside an L.A. immigration court is suing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security and the Trump administration for her immediate release and that of her two children, including her 6-year-old son stricken with cancer. The Honduran woman, not named in court documents, filed a petition for writs of habeas corpus, challenging the legality of her and her family's detention at a Texas facility. She is also asking for a preliminary injunction that would prevent her family's immediate deportation to Honduras, as her children cry and pray nightly to be released from a Texas holding facility, according to court documents. She and her two children, including a 9-year-old daughter, are facing two removal proceedings concurrently: a previous removal proceeding involving their asylum request and this recent expedited removal process. The woman claims the government violated many of their rights, including the due process clause of the 5th Amendment. Her attorneys noted that DHS determined she was not a flight risk when she was paroled into the country and that her detention was unjustified. The woman's lawyers also argued that she was not given an opportunity to contest her family's detention in front of a neutral adjudicator. They also argue that the family's 4th Amendment right to not be unlawfully arrested were violated. The Honduran mother is being represented by several groups, including attorney Kate Gibson Kumar of the Texas Civil Rights Project, the San Antonio-based Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Service and the immigrant advocacy group Raices Texas. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in San Antonio on Tuesday. An after-hours email to the Department of Homeland Security was not immediately answered. One of the focal points of the lawsuit is the fate of the woman's son. The youth was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia at the age of 3 and has undergone chemotherapy treatments, including injecting chemotherapeutic agents into his cerebrospinal fluid, according to court documents. He began treatment in Honduras and completed two years of chemotherapy, at which point the mother believes he no longer has leukemia cells in his blood, according to court documents. The son, however, needs regular monitoring and medical care for his condition, according to court documents. Last year, the family fled to the United States to 'seek safety' after they were subject to 'imminent, menacing death threats' in Honduras, according to court documents. They applied for entrance while waiting in Mexico and received a CBP One app appointment in October to apply for asylum. They presented themselves at an undisclosed border entry, were processed and were paroled in the U.S., according to court documents. They were scheduled to appear before a Los Angeles immigration court and moved to the area to live with family. Both children enrolled in local public schools, attended Sunday church and were learning English, according to court documents. The trio arrived at court May 29 for a hearing for their asylum request and were caught off guard when a Homeland Security lawyer asked for their case to be dismissed, according to court documents. The woman told an immigration judge 'we wish to continue [with our cases],' according to court documents. The judge granted the dismissal and the Honduran mother and two children were immediately arrested by plainclothes ICE agents upon leaving the courtroom in the hallway, according to court documents. The woman had a June 5 medical appointment scheduled for her son's cancer diagnosis, which he couldn't attend because of the arrest. The family was detained for hours on the first floor before being taken to an undisclosed immigration center in the city, according to court documents. All three 'cried in fear' and the young boy urinated on himself and remained in wet clothing 'for hours,' according to court documents. The trio were placed on a flight to San Antonio along with several other families. The date of the flight was not available. After landing, the family was transported to a detention center in Dilley, Texas, where they have since resided. The children have cried each night and prayed 'for God to take them out of the detention center,' according to court documents. The mother claims that the federal government did nothing to monitor her son's leukemia for days. Her lawyers have also sought the boy's release for medical treatment, a request that was not fulfilled.
