Tag: Trump white supremacy

Biden’s Task Force Identified More Than 3,900 Immigrant Children Who Were Separated From Their Families Under Trump

“Our efforts to reunify every family continue,” a senior Department of Homeland Security official said.

The Biden administration has identified 3,913 children who were separated from their parents at the southern border as a result of Trump’s zero tolerance policy as efforts to reunite them ramp up.

Officials believe the latest official government tally released on Tuesday accounts for nearly all separation cases, but said there is still a lot of work required to undo the damage to the families.

“Children were unjustly ripped from the arms of their mothers and loved ones and forced to separate. It is no experience any family should have to live through,” a senior Department of Homeland Security official said on a call with reporters. “Our efforts to reunify every family continue.” Continue reading.

Publicly, she organizes MAGA truck caravans in California — but her wedding photo is on a Nazi Telegram channel

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Since June 2020, the Placer County For Trump Facebook group has organized truck caravans to support Donald Trump in the Sierra Nevada foothills northeast of Sacramento, and the demonstrations have continued beyond the failed Jan. 6 insurrection and Jan. 20 inauguration of President Biden.

The truck caravans and other events, including a March 21 “MAGA Wedding,” have provided a welcoming community for Trump loyalists to rub shoulders with Proud Boys — the nationalist street gang whose members face conspiracy charges in the Capitol siege — while also nurturing relationships between the party base and leadership. The private Facebook group for Placer County For Trump has attracted a robust 4,600 members, drawing energy from a steady run of events, most recently a Memorial Weekend parade from Rocklin, in Placer County, to the state capitol.

Chelsea Knight, one of seven admins for the Placer County For Trump Facebook group and one of the group’s most ardent promoters, is also linked to a channel on the social-media platform Telegram that aggressively pushes Nazi propaganda. The “Mr. and Mrs. Knight” channel on Telegram uses a profile photo of Chelsea Knight and her husband, Victor, that is modified so that both have laser eyes while substituting a backdrop with a full moon and barren mountain-scape. The “Info” field for the channel includes the text “14 things and 88 more,” utilizing two numbers that are significant in the Nazi belief system. “14” references the “Fourteen Words,” a distillation of white supremacist ideology that was coined by the late David Lane while he was serving a prison system for his role in the murder of Jewish talk radio host Alan Berg. “88” is a numerical code for “Heil Hitler,” substituting “88” for “HH” as the eighth letter of the alphabet. “Victorious Knight” and “Mrs. Knight” are the admins of the “Mr. and Mrs. Knight” channel. Beyond the similarities between “Victorious” and “Victor,” the username for “Mrs. Knight” is @Chelsea_Jo_Knight, matching the name of the Placer County For Trump organizer. Continue reading.

Proud Boys member who allegedly shouted about taking the Capitol before breach arrested

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U.S. authorities have arrested three more alleged associates of two right-wing groups in the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol, including one who allegedly shouted, “Let’s take the f—ing Capitol!” an hour before the assault while marching with a large group of Proud Boys around the building.

Charging papers identified Daniel Lyons Scott, 28, of Bradenton, Fla., as the Proud Boys member nicknamed “Milkshake,” who after allegedly yelling about taking the Capitol was admonished, “Let’s not f—ing yell that, okay?” by a Proud Boys leader on a video live-streamed by the group that day. In the same moments, court documents allege, accused leader Ethan Nordean was recorded saying, “It was Milkshake, man, you know . . . idiot!”

Nordean and three other Proud Boys seen near him that day have pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring to obstruct police and the joint session of Congress to confirm the 2020 election results. Continue reading.

Parents of 54 migrant children found after separation under Trump administration

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The parents of 54 migrant children have been found after being separated at the border under former President Trump’s administration, court records reveal. 

Lawyers from the Department of Justice and the American Civil Liberties Union said in a court filing on Wednesday that it still has to locate the families of 391 children, down from the 445 it previously reported in April.

The parents of 277 of the remaining children are believed to have been removed from the U.S. after they were separated from their children, the lawyers wrote. The parents of another 100 children are believed to be in the U.S. and are being searched for. Continue reading.

Trump officials used secret terrorism unit to question lawyers at the border: documents

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Taylor Levy couldn’t understand why she’d been held for hours by Customs and Border Protection officials when crossing back into El Paso, Texas, after getting dinner with friends in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, in January 2019. And she didn’t know why she was being questioned by an agent who’d introduced himself as a counterterrorism specialist.

Levy was part of the legal team representing the father of a girl who’d died the previous month in the custody of the Border Patrol, which is part of CBP. “There was so much hate for immigration lawyers at that time,” she recalled. “I thought that somebody had put in an anonymous tip that I was a terrorist.”

The truth was more troubling. Newly released records show that Levy was swept up as part of a broader than previously known push by the administration of President Donald Trump to use the federal government’s expansive powers at the border to stop and question journalists, lawyers and activists. Continue reading.

Trump going on tour bringing white nationalist MAGA rallies to a state near you this summer

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The one-term twice-impeached former president, Donald Trump, is going on tour, bringing the nation more white nationalist MAGA rallies just months after his last one resulted in a march on the Capitol in an attempted coup that ended in death and destruction and hundreds of arrests of rioters and insurrectionists.

The Republican Party, Axios reports, has made the decision that Trumpism has won, as it abandons its previous “conservative” identity. And Trumpism includes MAGA rallies.

Even if Trump isn’t currently running for office, he will be endorsing candidates desperate for his help. Trumpism is reportedly even stronger within state and local politics than at the national level. Continue reading.

Trump boat parade organizer caught on video yelling ‘white power!’

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Trump fans Dion Cini and Cliff Gephart held their pro-Trump boat parade earlier this month in Tampa, Florida, and they plan to take their parades nationwide, with more events planned for San Diego, Cleveland, and Las Vegas, according to the “Trumparilla” Facebook page.

This Wednesday, Mother Jones shared a video showing Cini at a Trumparilla event yelling “white power!” 

According to Mother Jones’ Ali Breland, Cini yelled the phrase as he was being recognized from the stage by Gephart for his efforts to organize the event.  Continue reading.

Trump looms over Senate’s anti-Asian hate crimes battle

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Ninety-two senators voted last week to advance an Asian American hate crimes bill. But its passage likely depends on Democrats agreeing to soften language that Republicans say ties hate crimes too narrowly to the characterization of COVID-19 as the “China virus.”

Even Republicans who voted to advance the hate crimes legislation sponsored by Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) see it as a jab at President Trump. The bill links his characterization of COVID-19 as the “China virus” to racist and hateful acts.

Republicans also see language in the bill as opening the door to politically correct thought-police squads. Specifically, they are critical of a provision that instructs Attorney General Merrick Garland and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra to issue guidance on “best practices” for language describing the COVID-19 pandemic. Continue reading.

Data leak exposes cops’ donations to Kyle Rittenhouse following Kenosha shooting

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A data breach of a Christian crowdfunding website has uncovered donations police officers and public officials made to Kyle Rittenhouse, the Illinois teen accused of murdering two Black Lives Matter protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, following the officer-involved shooting of Jacob Blake. 

According to The Guardian, the transparency group known as Distributed Denial of Secrets shared the breach information with a number of journalists. Donors who contributed financially to Rittenhouse’s legal fund via GiveSendGo initially opted for anonymity have had their information disclosed.

Despite appearing anonymous after donating to the fund, the breach uncovered the email addresses those users entered when submitting the financial contributions. The publication reports many email addresses linked to the donations have been traced to police officers and other public officials. The use of professional email addresses also raises questions about public resources being used for these types of campaigns. Continue reading.

EXCLUSIVE: Leaked chats show Proud Boys integral to planning for ‘White Lives Matter’ rallies

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Two self-identified Proud Boys have been involved in the internal planning for a set of simultaneous “White Lives Matter” rallies scheduled for Sunday, according to chat logs leaked to the media.

The association with the White Lives Matter rallies, which are promoting overtly white supremacist messages about a supposed white genocide, is a liability for the Proud Boys, a violent proto-fascist group that claims to be non-racist. The leaked chats show that a Proud Boy responsible for organizing the Michigan White Lives Matter rally went to some effort to hide the fact that members of his group are involved in the effort.

The Telegram user “Telly Savalas,” who was the admin for the @WLM_Michigan channel, expressed concern on April 5 about a user named “BamaPatriot 2º” who wrote, “POYB,” with an A-OK emoji. Those are signifiers associated with the Proud Boys. Continue reading.