February 17, 2017

AP: Trump Considering Using National Guard for Immigration Raids

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From the AP:

The Trump administration is considering a proposal to mobilize as many as 100,000 National Guard troops to round up unauthorized immigrants, including millions living nowhere near the Mexico border, according to a draft memo obtained by The Associated Press.

The 11-page document calls for the unprecedented militarization of immigration enforcement as far north as Portland, Oregon, and as far east as New Orleans, Louisiana….Governors in the 11 states would have a choice whether to have their guard troops participate, according to the memo, written by U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general.

….Requests to the White House and the Department of Homeland Security for comment and a status report on the proposal were not answered.

The White House may not have commented when the AP called them, but now that the story has been published they’re suddenly outraged:

Hmmm. This is not true. But has it ever been true? Perhaps we wouldn’t need to parse the verb tense so closely if it were any other press secretary, but I think we should with Sean Spicer. And if it’s not true, what’s up with the memo? Is it a forgery? Was it written by one of those scurrilous “Obama holdovers” who infest the federal government and are trying to make Trump look bad at every turn? Inquiring minds want to know.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

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Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

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