Alligator Alcatraz prisoners are disappearing.
I find it horrific and appalling and frightening… but I deeply regret to say I do not find it shocking. I’ve thought we’ve been on this road since January.
There’s an ad blocker. I disabled it, closed the window, and clicked on the link again. It’s telling me I need to disable my ad blocker. Anyway, is that Des Moines, IA, or Des Moines, WA?
Iowa. From the New York Times, “Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said that the superintendent, Ian Roberts, had received a deportation order from an immigration judge in May 2024. He entered the United States in 1999 on a student visa, ICE officials said, and had no work authorization. Dr. Roberts, who was born in Guyana, had faced weapon possession charges from 2020, the officials said, though they did not provide details.”
And the school district said something different when it announced his appointment a couple years ago:
Dr. Roberts proudly shares that he was born to immigrant parents from Guyana, and spent most of his formative years in Brooklyn, NY. He graduated with a B.S. degree from Coppin State University and received his Ed.D. in Urban Educational Leadership and a master’s degree in education from St. John’s University.
He apparently graduated from Coppin State in 1998, so you would guess he started there 4 years earlier (1994). But ICE said he entered the U.S. in 1999, so I guess he did some time travel.
If Coppin State doesn’t ring a bell: Coppin State University is a public historically black university located in Baltimore, Maryland. It is part of the University System of Maryland and is known for its commitment to the education of black Americans.
It’s Des Moines, Iowa.
I grew up there, and it sounds like this guy must be some variation of George Santos v. 2.0
My mother said, I think he’s gay. No, that wouldn’t matter to her, and she said he was hired over a longtime local resident who had taught in the DMPS system for some time.
Likely he visited Guyana that year, then re-entered the US, where he had been living for years prior.
Unfortunately, it does appear he had padded his resume, but mainly by exaggerating certain accomplishments, not about inventing long periods of time in one country or the other.
I’ve seen posters in suburban California with an illustration of a single mom and two children propping their front door while an ICE official is pushing against the door. It says that ICE naturally requires a judicial warrant to enter their door and that ICE usually has an incomplete warrant or none at all. The part about presenting an incomplete warrant sounds extralegal somehow. Have you personally heard of that type of presentation at a doorway?
My understanding is that there are two types of warrants…..judicial and administrative.
The administrative warrant is all that’s required to detain someone that’s in a public place, but if you want to enter private property - such as a private residence or business- in order to take someone into custody, you need a judicial warrant. Judicial warrants need to be signed by a judge ( as opposed to an ICE official ) and they are harder to get.
There is some gray area regarding certain locations, such as jails and hospitals….and I think in many cases it’s up to the administrators of the locations. I know one local correctional institution has publicly announced that they are not turning prisoners over to ICE without a judicial warrant, but I have a family member that works at another such facility and she says their policy is to honor the administrative warrants.
Thank you Ann! I was delayed getting back yet so appreciate the information you shared.
ICE is going to the Super Bowl! I guess because they are expecting Bad Bunny (born in Puerto Rico, which makes him a US citizen) to bring a bunch of undocumented immigrants with him? Like seriously, has there ever been a problem with the Super Bowl getting mobbed by people from across the border? I was under the impression those tickets were expensive and your average seasonal agricultural worker would not be able to afford them. But according to comments in this article, the Super Bowl is a “safe haven to people who are in this country illegally”:
(Variety article via Yahoo News so it should be free for all to view)
The New York Times said Kristi Noem said on something called “The Benny Show” that “People should not attend the event, she went on, unless they are ‘law-abiding Americans who love this country.’” So foreigners who planned to travel here for the event are no longer welcome? Budweiser beer is usually a prominent sponsor, so executives from its parent company AB InBev, based in Belgium, should not expect to be able to attend? And America is hosting the World Cup next year, and the Summer Olympic Games in 2028. Are we also limiting attendance at those events to “law-abiding Americans who love this country?” And just when and how will it be determined just who loves this country sufficiently?
Web search shows that our Philadelphia Eagles, who are currently undefeated this year, have at least one player who is not a U.S. citizen. So maybe he can’t play if the Eagles get into the Super Bowl again.
More likely, the whole thing is an own-the-libs joke that confirmed Trumpers find funny.
If I’m wrong, is there any hope the NFL would have the cojones to require ICE agents to show a warrant signed by a real federal judge, or at least have paid for a ticket?
It’s just virtue signalling from Republicans that only a very certain pale subset of humanity gets to count as American.
Conservatives have been working for decades for this.
Let me fix that,
It’s just virtue signaling from Republicans that only a very certain pale subset of humanity gets to count as American fully human.
My grandfather held an apartment door shut against a pogrom in Poland, somewhen around 1920. My father, around 7 or 8, was hiding under the bed. My grandmother was standing by with a frying pan, which would have been utterly useless. So would my grandfather’s attempt at holding the door, except that the officer in charge of the pogrom decided they’d done enough for one night and it was time to go home.
My grandmother, I was told, sat down on the bed and said “Jacob, this is no place to raise children”; and insisted that they leave. They wound up, eventually, in the USA; which seemed at the time a better choice.
That’s a real history lesson for me. My bad assumption that the poster was mostly for dramatic effect was wrong, so it’s good that I read this from you.
I don’t know exactly what’s behind the poster. But I have read descriptions of ICE breaking down doors and hauling out people, children included; and your description of that poster reminded me of that bit of family history, and raised the hair on the back of my head.