#iceout

Steve Brodner ·

Tea and Homicide

stevebrodner.substack.com

Sen. Susan Collins, who is facing a firestorm of angry Mainers in the middle of her key election year, claims that she got Markwayne Mullin to change the policy: “I spoke with DHS Secretary Mullin last night and urged him to cease all non-urgent vehicle stops in the wake of yesterday’s deadly Biddeford shooting. I am encouraged that the Dept has agreed to do so.”

… “An impartial investigation into the shooting in Biddeford needs to proceed, as the details surrounding this tragedy are important. It is extremely unfortunate that the agent involved did not have a body-worn camera. In April, measures that I authored in the DHS funding bill became law, including $20 million for expanded use of body-worn cameras, $2 million for de-escalation training, and a 17% increase in the IG’s budget to investigate matters such as this shooting.”

… But Tom Homan was on Fox talking like this was just something they were going to do for a few days until things quieted down: “The officers involved in these shootings are well trained, I wouldn’t even call this a bump in the road. This will be a short term review, so ICE feels comfortable.”

As we head into the weekend, three stories lead the news cycle, all of which point to trouble for Trump and the Republicans in the midterms.

First, the killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by ICE agents in Houston has turned into a full-blown cover-up. The Department of Homeland Security says that it is investigating the killing even as it allows ICE to issue inconsistent statements contradicted by every eyewitness to the killing. (CNN, Men who witnessed deadly Houston shooting say ICE statement is false, attorney says.)

Meanwhile, ICE and DHS are concealing the identity of the ICE agent who killed Salgado Araujo. More critically, the DHS investigation is effectively freezing out state and local authorities from conducting criminal investigations.

Like all cover-ups that have become public, it will collapse of its own weight. The media is on the hunt, the questioning will not cease, and the evidence will emerge in a drip-drip-drip pattern that will inflict maximum damage on ICE, Trump, and Texas Republicans heading into the midterms.

The killing of Salgado Araujo is a moral outrage, full stop. But the facts are as ugly as they can be. ICE was following the wrong van because it was in a Latino neighborhood, looking for subjects identified as “Hispanic” ICE appeared to engage in racial profiling to stop—and then kill—an innocent victim because he “looked Hispanic” while driving in a heavily Latino neighborhood.

Trump created this awful situation in which a person’s neighborhood or ethnic characteristics can place them in danger of being gunned down for failing to stop as an unmarked car attempted to run the victim’s van off the road.

Whatever Latino voters in Texas voted for in 2024, they did not vote to put their lives in danger for the Trumpian crime of “driving while Latino.”

It is time for the people of Texas to rise up to repudiate the racist policies of ICE, Border Patrol, DHS, Trump, Ken Paxton, and Greg Abbott. Although Texas doesn’t register voters by party, the best available modeling shows more voters lean Democratic than Republican. But Republicans simply turn out more reliably.

We need only motivate the Democratic-leaning majority to show up and vote. If we can do that, Texas Democrats can effect sweeping changes in a state long controlled by the minority party.

Perhaps the killing of Salgado Araujo will be the spark that finally convinces Democrats to show up in historic numbers sufficient to overwhelm decades of Republican gerrymandering.

Second, Trump posted on Truth Social that the ceasefire with Iran was “over.” Trump went on to say that Iran has requested that negotiations resume—a claim denied by Iran. See Al Jazeera, Trump hints at further Iran negotiations after exchange of fire over Hormuz | US-Israel war on Iran. (“Iran denies it requested new talks with US as new attacks threaten the full resumption of war.”)

Trump is so desperate to end the war against Iran that he is lying about the status of negotiations—exposing himself to contradiction and humiliation by Iran. Pathetic.

Meanwhile, oil prices are increasing globally, and gasoline prices are increasing domestically. US News, US Pain at the Pump Worsens After More US-Iran Fighting Lifts Oil Prices

Third, in a tantrum unworthy of a toddler, Trump refused to sign the bipartisan bill designed to make housing more affordable for Americans. See PBS News, Trump says he won’t sign bipartisan housing affordability bill. Trump’s refusal to sign the bill is a protest against the failure of the GOP-controlled Congress to pass the SAVE America voter suppression legislation.

Per the Constitution, the bill will become law in ten days after presentment, despite Trump’s refusal to sign. See The Guardian, Bipartisan housing bill to become law in a matter of hours – even if Trump refuses to sign it.

Trump’s refusal to sign the one piece of legislation that addresses the most significant issue heading into the midterms (affordability) is a self-inflicted wound that Democrats should seize upon at every opportunity.

Maintaining perspective on Trump’s multiple efforts to interfere in the 2026 midterms.

On Friday, major media sources focused on several efforts by Trump to intimidate states into adopting SAVE America Act-like provisions. Collectively, the efforts are unlawful and reprehensible. Chances are good that each effort will either be invalidated or ignored by state officials. The fact that we will likely defeat them is not an excuse of ignoring or minizming the threats.

Still, some of the language and narratives used by the media have been imprecise or misleading. Since there are plenty of outlets telling us to be concerned, I will focus on the practical limits of Trump’s efforts.

The first concerns Trump’s firing of the remaining commissioners of the federal Election Assistance Commission (EAC). The EAC serves as a resource for state officials seeking to follow best practices in election administration and security.

The removal of the commissioners is an outrageous step by Trump that should be condemned by both parties. Despite the absence of commissioners, the EAC’s resources are intact and available on its website, Home | U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

Some commentators and elected officials have suggested that the 2026 midterms will be thrown into chaos because of the firing of the commissioners. That is simply not true.

The EAC has no role in conducting, supervising, or certifying state elections. States run elections. Think of the EAC as a law library available to lawyers in the community. If the librarian is fired, the books are still on the shelves. The research terminals still boot up. The catalog still works. Losing the librarian is a real loss because nobody is restocking, updating, or improving the collection, and eventually that starts to matter. But the library doesn’t go dark, and the lawyers who use it don’t suddenly lose access to the law. The same is generally true of the EAC.

In a similar vein is a letter that the DOJ sent to state officials threatening prosecution if they “knowingly” allow non-citizens to register or vote. See CBS News, DOJ threatens criminal action against states that allow noncitizens to vote.

The threat is silly and empty. If a state official knowingly and willfully allows a non-citizen to register or vote, existing law imposes criminal penalties. See 52 U.S.C. § 20511. (Making it a crime to “knowingly and willfully” submit fraudulent voter registrations.)

In essence, the DOJ letter says, “If you violate existing law, we will prosecute you.” Good! The DOJ should prosecute anyone who “knowingly and willfully” submits fraudulent voter registration forms. If the past is any indication, it is almost always Republicans who do so.

The DOJ’s letter is pure bluster. Every state has procedures and protocols in place to prevent non-citizens from registering to vote. It would be impossible for the DOJ to demonstrate that any state knowingly and willfully submitted fraudulent voter applications from non-citizens. The letter is an empty threat.

So, too, is the threat to deny states FEMA funding for election security if they refuse to adopt election procedures specified by the Trump administration. See Military Daily News, FEMA Ties One-Fifth of States’ Terrorism Prevention Money to New Election Mandates.

But, as noted in the Military Times article above, nearly identical rules threatening to withhold Homeland Security grants were overruled:

The funding mechanism itself has also been tested. In December, a federal judge appointed by Trump blocked the administration’s attempt to withhold these same homeland security grants from states that declined to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. . . . Election-law specialists expect a similar fate this time.

The case for overruling the FEMA rules is even stronger than the DHS rules because “the Constitution does not grant the president any specific powers over elections.”

So, like the firing of the EAC commissioners and the threatening DOJ letter, the FEMA restrictions will not likely impact the 2026 midterms or the 2028 presidential election.

We can take nothing for granted and must resist each of the above voter suppression efforts with all our might. But any report that fails to include an assessment of the likelihood that the effort will succeed is doing a disservice to anxious citizens who are seeking responsible reporting from major media outlets.

In short, nothing Trump has done will throw the midterms into “chaos,” nor will the DOJ engage in prosecutions against blue state election officials if non-citizens manage to register and vote, and FEMA will not be able to withhold funds from blue states. The battle against Trump’s voter suppression measures will be hard fought. But if past is prologue, we can add these measures to 60+ losses Trump has already suffered in delusional pursuit to win the 2020 election.

Concluding Thoughts

There has been a spate of articles in the last week analyzing the perceived woes of the Democratic Party.

Lazy journalism. Clickbait. False equivalency. Republicans posing as neutral observers so they can sow discord.

One party in America is attempting to destroy democracy by undermining constitutional order. The other party is attempting to save democracy but has internal differences over the best path forward. Those two parties are not alike. One is an existential threat to democracy, the other is the only hope for saving it.

It takes effort, focus, and discipline to describe on a daily basis the existential threat posed by Trump and the GOP. It is exhausting to write about that threat without causing readers to tune out. But if journalists for major publications don’t want to put in the effort, they should find another profession.

There is only one political story that matters in America today, and it is not the internal growing pains of the party trying to save democracy.

Don’t let the chatter get you down. Your efforts matter more than anything appearing in the pages and on the websites of media conglomerates. Keep up the good work!

It is scary how quickly we stop seeing people. Labels become so loud that they drown out the ordinary, sacred details of a human life. A wife making her husband's lunch after thirty years of marriage. A father leaving before dawn to go to work. Three sons who learned perseverance because they watched it every day at their own kitchen table.

How is it that we've become comfortable talking about entire groups of people without ever wondering who they tuck into bed, who they're grieving, or what dreams carried them here in the first place? That should shame us. It should make us stop and ask what we've allowed to happen to our own hearts.

This essay was written by conservative, Bill Kristol. (He and I disagree about many things but his post reaches beneath politics and reminds me what decency sounds like.) :

"Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, killed by agents of our government while driving to work early Tuesday morning in Houston, was fond of telling his three sons, “Que siempre le echemos ganas en esta vida.” The Washington Post offers this rough translation: Give it your all, and never give up.

This is a Mexican proverb. But who hasn’t heard similar sentiments expressed by other immigrants from other places at other times and in other languages? We native-born Americans often have it relatively easy. We can be quick to grumble when the going gets tough. It’s often our immigrants who remind us that the better response to life’s challenges is unstinting effort and determined perseverance.

And so it’s often immigrants who remind us about the importance of work.

Ronaldo Salgado, Lorenzo’s eldest son, emphasized yesterday that his father was “a man who understood that good things come to those who put in hard work.”

It’s often immigrants who remind us about family.

Araujo’s son said yesterday that his late father was “a family man” and that yesterday was “the first day without him for all of us, and it is heartbreaking to know that my mom did not make lunch for my dad before going to work—the first time in their 30+ year marriage.” Araujo worked hard throughout his three decades in the United States so that he could support his family and raise their three sons. “He wanted nothing else in life but to provide for his wife and see his sons become great people,” Ronaldo said.

And it’s often from immigrants that we learn about generosity.

According to the Post, Araujo was known as someone whose door you could knock on if you were looking for work, and he would help you. “He deserved to live a quiet life as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a husband, father and a job creator for dozens of men who also wanted the American Dream,” Ronaldo Salgado said.

And it’s from immigrants that we often are reminded about the importance of education.

Araujo and his wife had little formal education, but were determined that their three sons would go to college. Ronaldo told The Bulwark’s Adrian Carrasquillo that his father would remind him and his brothers “that we needed to do well in school so we don’t end up like him in the sun.” As Adrian reported, “Ronaldo, 29, graduated from the University of Houston; Lorenzo Jr., 27, from Tufts University; and their youngest brother is in college now.”

It is these young men who are calling for a full and honest investigation into why a peaceful and law-abiding man was killed while driving to work by agents of our government. It is they who are seeking the truth about what happened and asking the public to come forward with any new video or images that might shed light on their father’s death. It is they who are trying to hold our government to American standards of responsiveness and accountability and decency.

And it is our government that is stonewalling and covering up, refusing so far to provide any information at all about what happened Tuesday morning in Houston. It is our government that appears to be blocking independent investigations by the Justice Department or by local authorities. But not to worry: The Department of Homeland Security inspector general, we are assured, will add this case to the more than 600 complaints of misconduct by DHS employees that his office is now investigating.

We should be grateful that Ronaldo Salgado Araujo came to live here in the United States, to build houses for Americans, and to raise three American sons. Araujo was not yet an American citizen, though he had in the last eighteen months filled out paperwork and provided documentation, references, and fingerprints in an effort to regularize his immigration status. But he had lived as an American, de facto if not de jure, for the last thirty-five years. As his son said, he had sought to live the American Dream and to help others to do so.

His son also remarked, “My father was always a strong man and never wanted us to know if he was in pain. He never complained.”

Our current government, by contrast, is led by weak men who constantly complain, and who benefit from exploiting other Americans’ weaknesses and anxieties. Our current leaders talk endlessly about American exceptionalism, while turning us into an unexceptional country presided over by thuggish apparatchiks.

I dare say Ronald Salgado Araujo was a better American than they are."

--William Kristol

“the truth is, i come from immigrants who came from immigrants who came from stolen people who learned to survive on land they did not steal nor did they inherit. they simply squatted and plotted and peeled themselves a meal, an acre, a home. i come from loopholes and grievances and immigration lawyers who get paid to turn a criminal into an exceptional negro. i come from detention centers, and green land, and busy saintly streets. and maybe this is not my land but who is more deserving of it than me?”

Melania Luisa.

Plantains and Our Becoming. Pg 14

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The Montreal Girl written by some1_around

A Heated Rivalry Podfic read by mistbornhero for 🏒 @iceouthr 🏒

Five times Ilya lied (but not really) to his teammates about Shane, and one time he didn’t have to. Inspired by two Cliff Marlow lines: In the airport, when their game with Montreal gets cancelled and he tells Ilya, “Whoever she is, she’s gonna get over it,” and the scene in the locker room when he says, “Wow, this Montreal girl works you up, brother—you’re straight up blushing, Roz.” Or, the Boston Bears’ perspective of Ilya and Shane’s “secret” relationship over the years