Tag: ICE

  • Minneapolis, MINNEAPOLIS! by Susu Jeffrey

    Minneapolis, MINNEAPOLIS! by Susu Jeffrey

    Minneapolis, MINNEAPOLIS! 

    The unprecedented ICE surge has the hallmarks of an occupation in some neighborhoods, as masked and heavily armed agents drive around in large SUVs, tussle with protesters and observers, and break into people’s cars and houses to make arrests.  —Axios

    By Susu Jeffrey / Original to Wings of Change / March 2, 2026

    What an honor when The Nation nominated Minneapolis for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize! The initial butterfly-in-the-stomach thrill dissipated with the thought of what President Trump would do (next) if we got his award. The revenge-dealing, super bully apparently stays awake imagining schemes on his social media site while we make new signs for the next NO KINGS demonstration and grocery lists for shut-in neighbors.

    NO HATE, NO FEAR! IMMIGRANTS ARE WELCOME HERE!
    In Minneapolis hard times make good neighbors. If we want to eat tomatoes or reroof our buildings we need to pay local people willing to do the work. The law of economics requires low wage, compliant workers in Minneapolis like every other American city. We need childcare, eldercare, healthcare, farm workers, meat packers, independent restaurants and all the oil that lubricates western society where the dream of a richer future is the hook.

    The Americana rainbow of Minneapolis is like “Eat Street,” (Nicollet Avenue and 26th Street) where Alex Pretti was shot to death by federal agents. My favorite restaurant is across the street from the people’s Alex Pretti memorial. They serve Vietnamese pho soup and cream cheese wontons or you could go donuts-coffee and local bands, Mexican, Vietnamese-French-bread sandwiches, Greek, Middle East, Malaysian, pizza or burgers and fries. Minneapolis has the population of a stew, a toothsome mix of ingredients harmonizing in one pot.

    Why Minneapolis?

    Why did President Trump decide to sic ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and Border Control (Customs and Border Control) on the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul? Minnesota is the state that ranks 28th among the 50 United States hosting “illegal aliens”? Trump has a perfect zero political success rating here; he does not study history (for example George Floyd) and he has difficulty separating his ego from reality.

    Since the 1934 truckers strike where two people were shot dead by zealous enforcers (sound familiar) the Minneapolis model of citizen support for everyday people’s rights has echoed across the nation. The appalling executions of Renee Good and Alex Pretti caused Gov. Tim Walz to label the president’s agents “untrained, aggressive” and noted that Trump “picked the wrong state to make an example of.” (CBS nightly news). This comment from the vice-presidential candidate who charmed his way through the 2024 campaign like a fatherly and practical human being who doesn’t lie.

    Part of the Minneapolis social scene is political activism. Minneapolis-based peace groups were associated with the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize nomination for the Campaign to Ban Landmines and the 2017 prize to ICAN, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

    Furthermore Minnesota has the highest voter turnout in the nation. The midterm elections are coming up in November this year. Statistically the president’s party loses congressional seats in the midterms.

    Since December 1, 2025, the 3,000 Gestapo agents of Operation Metro Surge made 4,000 arrests (they had a 2,000 per day quota) which the existing incarceration and judicial systems could not process. Among the innocent victims were two Native American children (to which rez would they be extradited), 5-year-old Liam Ramos in his blue bunny hat, and an Asian man wearing handcuffs, boxer shorts and plastic slip-on shoes in minus 9-degree weather who lived in a house formerly occupied by a man already in prison.

    ICE Agent Who Shot Renee Good Self-Deports

    Jonathan Ross and his second wife
    Image: Daily Mail

     

     

    Masked agents remove several large storsge boxes from Jonathan Ross home
    Masked agents move household items from the Ross home. Image: Daily Mail

     

    Agent Ross, 43, of Chaska, Minnesota, an upscale southwest Minneapolis suburb, fled his half-million-dollar home with his family after shooting Renee Good to death on January 7. He was quickly identified. Two nights after Ross killed Renee Good a Special Response Team in masks was seen removing boxes including electronics and family photos from Ross’s home. Ross told neighbors he was a biologist. Neighbors described him as a hardcore MAGA supporter. His father labelled him a “conservative Christian.”

    The last words Renee Good spoke was to tell Ross “I’m not mad at you” while he circled her car making a video. Then there were shots and Ross is heard saying “f—ing bitch.”

    Renee_Good_DHS_agent_perspective

    Renee as captured by Ross’s camera just before he executed her. Image Wikipedia

    “They had guns. We had whistles,” said Renee Good’s widow.

    On the night of February 17 the Renee Good sidewalk flower bedecked memorial between 33rd and 34th Streets on Portland Avenue South was sprinkled with gasoline and set afire. A volunteer night guard discouraged the arson vandals, preventing damage from spreading.

    Church, State, Media and the Public React

    Catholic Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark, New Jersey called ICE a “lawless organization” and remarked on the importance of human dignity in a televised Christiane Amanpour interview. Pope Leo XIV urged people to “fast from violent language,” especially during Lent and Ramadan.

    National Public Radio’s 1A program (1-1-2026) noted the frequency of the president’s people “ignoring judicial orders. The Trump administration doesn’t follow laws they don’t like.”

    So pooh-pooh to the laws of God and the State. Still, most of us await the arrests of Jonathan Ross and Texas-based Border Patrol agents Jesus Ochoa, 43, and Raymundo Gutierez, 35, for the first-degree murders (intentional killing) of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

    What is To Be Done?

    Vote.

    ICE’s budget has metastasized from $10 billion to $85 billion. “They have the kind of budget you would give to a standing army to fight an actual war,” David Miller wrote on Facebook. Miller advocates “neighborism.”

    Congress controls the budget, “the power of the purse.” Congress can also impeach. Trump was impeached twice during his first term.

    First Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives for “incitement of insurrection” of the January 7th rebellion in and around the Capitol building which was thoroughly filmed. However our 100 U.S. senators failed to reach the required 66 votes getting just 57 votes for inciting an insurrection.

    Then the state of Georgia impeached Trump for his post-election interference: “I just want to find 11,780 votes….” But that effort was dismissed by the Department of Justice  policy of avoiding to prosecute a sitting president.

    On January 28, 2026, the FBI seized those 2020 ballots from the Biden/Trump Fulton County Georgia elections warehouse even though they had been counted and recounted three times, by hand and by machine. Trump’s inability to accept his failed reelection bid bodes ill for the upcoming 2026 midterm elections. It is a nutter world when black and white paper proof translates into Alice in Wonderland technicolor.

    In reality it’s another practice run by Trump at not believing our lying eyes. Here are the videos, here are the ballots. Minnesota is a voting state. Voting is a form of neighborism.

    It feels good to vote, especially in overwhelming numbers, and you get one of those little red I VOTED stickers.

    Voting feels like I-AM-DOING-SOMETHING:

    I AM — SOMEBODY (A chant made famous by Jesse Jackson)

    It is the next step after 100,000 people marched against Operation Metro “Siege.” The crowd was so dense an American flag-carrying friend said it almost felt claustrophobic.

    The comb-overs, Trump, Putin and Netanyahu, plan to divide up the world with their bombs and guys in masks with guns. Look again at those old men hiding their shiny pates, white-knuckled trying to hold onto their fictions. America has been multicultural since the Vikings and the Conquistadores invaded. What would baseball be without immigrants?

    George  Floyd, Renee Good, Alex Pretti

    George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin put him in prison for 22.5 years and that was for “unintentional” murder, murder two. The murder one, intentional killings using three bullets for Renee Good and nine or ten bullets to execute Alex Pretti are proof of intention.

    “Democracy is stronger than fear,” says Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman, who survived an eight-bullet assassination attempt. Hoffman has just returned to his seat in the state capitol.



    Wings of Change is entirely reader supported.
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    To subscribe: Join us on Wings of Change

    In this critical time hearing voices of truth is all the more important although censorship and attacks on truth-tellers are common. Support WingsofChange.me as we bring you important articles and journalism beyond the mainstream corporate media on the Wings of Change website and Rise Up Times on social media. Donate now to sustain Wings of Change.

    Access is always free, but if you would like to help:
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    Join us on Wings of Change

    We still have much work to continue to do as many activists and organizations address current threats to our democracy and unjust actions against people of color and are making plans for the upcoming years. Wings of Change is a part of that work through education, information, and inspiration. Here in Minnesota we are particularly targeted by the Trump regime with ICE immigrant law enforcement illegally arresting and deporting our neighbors who are mostly people of color. In spite of promises to withdraw ICE, the arrests continue. Other cities have been targeted as well, and they will try to target more to fill the detention centers they are building all over the country.

    Sue Ann Martinson, Editor Wings of Change

    “We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions
    to participate in the process of change.
    Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people,
    can transform the world.”

    — Howard Zinn

  • The U.S. Is “On the Cusp of a Police State”: Chris Hedges on Resistance Before It’s Too Late

    The U.S. Is “On the Cusp of a Police State”: Chris Hedges on Resistance Before It’s Too Late

    Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, author, and theologian Chris Hedges returns to Bad Faith to engage in a spirited debate about how to act now that liberal incrementalism has led to incremental fascism.

    Why does it feel like so much left discourse is explaining why we aren’t ready to act?: Insufficient union density, insufficient political consciousness, insufficient organization? Also, Hedges discusses his viral commentary on Epstein’s relationship with Noam Chomsky, why he’s not a Marxist, and more.

    Chris Hedges / Posted By Joshua Scheer / ScheerPost /
    February 18, 2026

    Joshua Scheer:

    In this wide‑ranging and deeply sobering conversation, journalist and author Chris Hedges speaks with Bad Faith’s Briahna Joy Gray and they lay out the accelerating collapse of democratic institutions in the United States and the rapid expansion of state repression — from Cop City to ICE raids to the bipartisan assault on protest itself. Drawing on decades spent reporting from war zones and revolutionary movements, Hedges warns that the U.S. is “on the cusp of becoming a police state,” and that the window for organized resistance is narrowing by the day.

    Joshua Scheer Commentary, continued:

    The discussion confronts the central dilemma facing anyone committed to justice in this moment: If waiting is counter-revolutionary and the state is escalating its violence, what does meaningful resistance look like now? Hedges argues that resistance is not a question of guaranteed victory but of moral obligation — standing with the vulnerable, the targeted, and the disappeared even when the cost is high. He details how the state’s harshest crackdowns — from terrorism charges against Cop City activists to the criminalization of filming ICE — reveal precisely what forms of dissent the ruling class fears most.

    At the same time, the conversation pushes back against fatalism. Millions have taken to the streets in recent years — for Palestine, against police violence, against authoritarianism — and that political energy, Hedges insists, must be organized, sharpened, and sustained. The question is not whether people have power, but whether they recognize it before the authoritarian machinery fully locks into place.

    This is a bracing, historically informed, and morally urgent analysis of where we stand — and what the moment demands.

    Highlights

    1. The State Shows You What It Fears

    “You can always tell what works by how the state responds.” Hedges explains why activists opposing Cop City were hit with terrorism and RICO charges — because their tactics were effective.

    2. Criminalizing Solidarity

    Hedges recounts how activists were charged with terrorism for raising bail money — a sign of how aggressively the state is moving to shut down dissent.

    3. The U.S. Is “On the Cusp of a Police State”

    Hedges warns that the infrastructure for authoritarian rule is already in place, and the shift could happen “very quickly.”

    4. ICE as the Tip of the Spear

    From Minneapolis to Princeton, Hedges describes ICE raids as a testing ground for broader domestic repression — and details local resistance efforts.

    5. The Myth of Powerlessness

    Briana pushes the conversation toward the political potential of mass mobilization:

    Black Lives Matter mobilized 20 million people — more than twice the 3% often cited as the threshold for revolutionary change.

    6. Resistance as Moral Imperative

    Hedges:

    “It doesn’t matter whether you win or lose. You must stand with the Palestinians. You must stand with your neighbors being ripped off the streets.”

    7. The Powell Memo to Palantir

    A historical through‑line from the corporate counterrevolution of the 1970s to today’s surveillance‑state architecture.

    8. Liberal Paralysis vs. Popular Power

    Hedges argues that Democratic Party leadership refuses to call for mass mobilization because they fear their own base more than authoritarianism.

    9. The Danger of Illusions

    Hedges cautions against “Pollyannaish” expectations that resistance will be easy — not to discourage action, but to prepare people for the long struggle ahead.

    10. “Make Their Lives Difficult”

    Hedges describes practical, local forms of resistance — from monitoring ICE to disrupting their operations — as essential groundwork for broader movements.


    In one of the scariest moments in modern history, we’re doing our best at ScheerPost to pierce the fog of lies that conceal it but we need some help to pay our writers and staff. Please consider a tax-deductible donation.



    Wings of Change is entirely reader supported.
    Wings invites you to subscribe.
    To subscribe: Join us on Wings of Change

    In this critical time hearing voices of truth is all the more important although censorship and attacks on truth-tellers are common. Support WingsofChange.me as we bring you important articles and journalism beyond the mainstream corporate media on the Wings of Change website and Rise Up Times on social media. Donate now to sustain Wings of Change.

    Access is always free, but if you would like to help:
    A donation of $25 or whatever you can donate will bring you articles and opinions from independent websites, writers, and journalists as well as a blog with the opinions and creative contributions by myself and others

    Join us on Wings of Change. We still have much work to continue to do as many activists and organizations address current threats to our democracy and unjust actions against people of color and activists and make plans for the upcoming years. Wings of Change is a part of that work through education, information, and inspiration. Here in Minnesota we are particularly  targeted by the Trump regime with ICE immigrant law enforcement illegally arresting and deporting our neighbors who are mostly people of color. In spite of promises to withdraw ICE, the arrests continue. Other cities have been targeted as well, and they will try to target more.

    Sue Ann Martinson, Editor Wings of Change

    “We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions
    to participate in the process of change.
    Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people,
    can transform the world.”

    — Howard Zinn

  • Federal Goons in Minneapolis, by Susu Jeffrey

    Federal Goons in Minneapolis, by Susu Jeffrey

    Pictured: ICE agent Jonathan Ross, 43, of Chaska MN, who shot Renee Good to death on January 7, 2026

    Federal Goons in Minneapolis

    By Susu Jeffrey / Original to Wings of Change / February 6, 2026

    The two masked federal officials who shot intensive care nurse Alex Pretti are Texans, Jesus Ochoa and Raymundo Gutierrez. Ochoa, 43, joined Border Patrol in 2018; Gutierrez, 35, has been with Customs and Border Protection since 2018. The January 24 killing of Pretti has been ruled a homicide, that is, an unlawful killing of a person.

    Although Pretti’s autopsy has not been released he was shot perhaps 10 times according to a The New York Times frame by frame review of video footage. Ochoa and Gutierrez were whisked out of Minneapolis soon after killing Pretti as part of the federal brotherhood protective practice.

    Jonathan Ross, 43, who shot Renee Good three times plus a bullet graze while she was sitting in her car on January 7 has a long military career. He served with the Indiana National Guard in Iraq in 2004-5 as a machine gunner on a combat patrol truck.

    In 2007 Ross joined the U.S. Border Patrol and worked out of El Paso, Texas. He moved to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in 2015, working in a deportation unit. Ross is a firearms instructor, on a SWAT team and specializes in tracking down “higher value targets.” Ross lives in “a large house on a quiet street” in Chaska, a southwest suburb of Minneapolis. He is described by his father as a “conservative Christian.”

    ICE is the wealthiest law enforcement agency in the country. Ross’ Minneapolis attorney, Chris Madel. a law enforcement defender, ended his gubernatorial run after the Pretti murder saying “national Republicans have made it nearly impossible for a Republican to win a statewide election in Minnesota.” However Madel said he  still supported President Trump’s cliché about the immigration hunt for “the worst of the worst.”

    The Twin Cities are still overrun with armed, masked enforcers (at least 2000) who are terrorizing citizens into staying at home, and missing school and work. Business is suffering. Nevertheless, thousands and thousands of peaceful neighbors turn out for frequent demonstrations and attended the February 3 political caucuses. Besides the regular protests, neighborhoods are organized to act if ICE comes into their territory, trained legal observers are tracking ICE agents, and people are donating food and other items to distribution centers. People are also delivering food to those who are housebound by choice. Others are driving to and picking up children to and from school. Defying and standing up to ICE in Minnesota is a community effort.

    Susu Jeffrey is a poet and writer living in Minneapolis, Minnesota



    Wings of Change is entirely reader supported.
    Wings invites you to subscribe.
    Join us on Wings of Change

    In this critical time hearing voices of truth is all the more important although censorship and attacks on truth-tellers are common. Support WingsofChange.me as we bring you important articles and journalism beyond the mainstream corporate media on the Wings of Change website and Rise Up Times on social media

     Join us on Wings of Change. It’s only the beginning as we still have much work to continue to do as many activists and organizations address current threats to our democracy and unjust actions against people of color and activists and make plans for the upcoming years. Wings of Change is pleased and excited to be a part of that work through education, information, and inspiration. Here in Minnesota we are particularly  targeted by the Trump regime with ICE immigrant law enforcement illegally arresting and deporting our neighbors who are people of color. 

    Access is always free, but if you would like to help:
    A donation of $25 or whatever you can donate will bring you articles and opinions from independent websites, writers, and journalists as well as a blog with the opinions and creative contributions by myself and others

    Sue Ann Martinson, Editor Wings of Change

    “We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions
    to participate in the process of change.
    Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people,
    can transform the world.”

    — Howard Zinn

  • MEN WANTED, by Susu Jeffrey

    MEN WANTED, by Susu Jeffrey

    MEN WANTED

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    MUST BE PHYSICALLY FIT

    APPLICANT MUST BE ABLE TO OBEY SPOKEN ENGLISH ORDERS

    IMMIGRANTS & PERSONS OF COLOR DISCOURAGED

    ONLINE JOB TRAINING

    GENEROUS PAY — UP TO $50,000
    SIGN-UP BONUS

    HEALTH & SURVIVOR BENEFITS

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    THE DRIVER

    EXCITING OPPORTUNITIES INCLUDING TRAVEL

    CHANCES FOR CAREER ADVANCEMENT

    APPLY TO THUMPER CORP, 1600 PENN AVE  20500


    Image by CALO News



    Wings of Change is entirely reader supported.
    Wings invites you to subscribe.
    Join us on Wings of Change

    In this critical time hearing voices of truth is all the more important although censorship and attacks on truth-tellers are common. Support WingsofChange.me as we bring you important articles and journalism beyond the mainstream corporate media on the Wings of Change website and Rise Up Times on social media

    Please join me on Wings of Change. It’s only the beginning as we still have so much work to continue to do as many activists and organizations address current threats to our democracy and unjust actions against people of color and activists and make plans for the upcoming years. Wings of Change is pleased and excited to be a part of that work through education, information, and inspiration.

    Access is always free, but if you would like to help:
    A donation of $25 or whatever you can donate will bring you articles and opinions from independent websites, writers, and journalists as well as a blog with the opinions and creative contributions by myself and others

    Sue Ann Martinson, Editor Wings of Change

    “We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.”                     — Howard Zinn

  • Tell Congress ICE OUT NOW

    Tell Congress ICE OUT NOW

    Robert Reich asks/implores people to call their Senators and Representatives not to approve Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill (spending bill) unless it includes a stipulation to DISARM ICE.

    RELATED

    The American Gestapo The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich

     

  • Snippets: “The E’s have it” . . . and more

    Snippets: “The E’s have it” . . . and more

    The E’s have it:

    Epstein (transparency)

    Enbridge/oil pipeline builder (Line 5/also Line 3)

    Elbit Systems/Israeli defense firm (Thunberg London arrest)

    Ethnic Cleansing/Humanitarian Disaster (Sudan/Gaza)

    E-ICE (ICE crimes are documented everywhere; their purpose and violence are inexcusable)

    Senator Wyden on the new trillion dollar defense bill

    Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who voted no on the defense spending bill, said, “I cannot support a bill that increases military spending by tens of billions of dollars and fails to include guardrails against Donald Trump and Hegseth’s authoritarian abuses.”

    From Hannah Arendt

    “The ‘apocalyptic’ chess game between the superpowers that is, between those that move on the highest plane of our civilization, is being played according to the rule ‘if either “wins” it is the end of both’; it is a game that bears no resemblance to whatever war games preceded it. Its ‘rational’ goal is deterrence, not victory, and the arms race, no longer a preparation for war, can now be justified only on the grounds that more and more deterrence is the best guarantee of peace. To the question how shall we ever be able to extricate ourselves from the obvious insanity of this position, there is no answer.”
    Hannah Arendt, On Violence

    There are now organizations like ICAN that before Trump and his cartel took over have taken huge steps internationally to ban nuclear weapons. But the Trumpites see only the military as a solution, when in reality it is the greatest threat to world peace. ICAN built the following UN treaty:

    The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW)

    The TPNW was adopted at the United Nations by a majority of nations in July 2017 and entered into force on January 22, 2021. It is the first globally applicable treaty to categorically prohibit nuclear weapons and provides a framework for their verifiable and irreversible elimination. 

    Trump has removed the US from many international arms treaties just as he has removed US participation in prevention of climate change at the recent COP international UN conference about climate change and continued to promote the greatest polluter in the world, CO2, caused by fossil fuel that also drives the military with over 1000 military bases worldwide.


    • What new authoriarian or fascist tripe will be thrown at us by Trump and his administration? As the poet William Blake once said: “Enough! Or too much.” My AI interprets that as: “the power of imagination and challenging conventional morality.” Robert Reich in his most recent Coffee Klatch on Saturday, 12/27/2025 explores the idea that Trump’s excesses and authoritarian dictates have exposed the conventional morality we have been living under, accepting the status quo around racism, women’s oppression and rights, healthcare, housing, and other oppressive systems for so many Americans.

    • As the population if the United States has become more diverse and has many more shades of color, the white supremacists have lost their hold while at the same time they are losing their unilateral hemogeny in the world (collapse of empire) and are trying desperately to hold on.

    • Trump and his cartel think the solution is a superior military that has put us on the edge of more war, especially in Latin America and particularly Venezuela which has two strikes against it. One, it is a socialist country and therefore the opposite of capitalism’s greed in its idiology. Second, and not without significance even though the Trump administration denies it, Venezuela has the greatest reserve of oil in the world. Much of that oil is offshore, but still belongs to Venezuela. 

    • Why is the oil so important? It sustains the military industrial complex and is essential for that hyper-military system that has those 1000 or so military bases worldwide. Those jets and other oil uses from US military bases alone are the greatest CO2 (fossil fuel) sources in the world. You say so what? But if you understand the climate crisis you know that they are destroying the planet with their use of fossil fuel. Yet Trump encourages fracking and major use of fossil fuels and supports the corporations that use them. That, of course, is in direct conflict with those of us who want to save the planet. 

    • The gas and oil companies who economically control our government along with domination from other corporations, most especially including the weapons’ industry, which again is tied into the hyper-military. 

    • So how are all those corporations, internationally those multinational corporations and the financial groups that support them going to make money? They desperately cling to their old and destructive ways. But that creates jobs, they say. But statistics have proved that turning to a green basis for the economy can create just as many if not more jobs. That scares them. Instead of changing their ways because they might lose their power and their money, they continue on the road to destruction instead if using their time and money for new innovations that could help save the planet.

    • US industry has lost its innovative edge. Daily I see that this or that country worldwide has created a new tool to deal with the climate crisis, and China is ahead of the US in the war against climate change. Instead the US is stagnated, caught in a MEGA web that serves no one except the rich while convincing too many Americans who are Trump supporters that there is no genocide in Palestine. Recent examples I have seen online include the Netherlands inventing a tubing they put in the ocean that collects plastic that they then process the plastic to prevent pollution. Other nations have built large areas of solar panels on flat land dedicated to solar power. In Morocco they have developed an inexpensive small solar panel that can be placed on their balconies. There are many more examples but you will not find them described in the mainstream corporate media. 

     “In the end there is no democracy without informed citizens, no justice without a language critical of injustice, and no change without a broad-based movement of collective resistance.”

    —Henry Giroux



    Wings of Change is entirely reader supported.
    Wings invites you to subscribe.
    Join us on Wings of Change

    In this critical time hearing the voices of truth is all the more important although censorship and attacks on truth-tellers are common. Support WingsofChange.me as we bring you important articles and journalism beyond the mainstream corporate media on the Wings of Change website and Rise Up Times on social media  Access is alway free, but if you would like to help:
    A donation of $25 or whatever you can donate will bring you articles and opinions from independent websites, writers, and journalists as well as a blog with the opinions and creative contributions by myself and others

    Sue Ann Martinson, Editor Wings of Change

  • Time to Unmask Trump’s Detention and Deportation Squads

    Time to Unmask Trump’s Detention and Deportation Squads

    It is past time to unmask the violent agents targeting people like Narciso, and halt Trump’s racist, xenophobic mass detentions and deportations.

    Time to Unmask Trump’s Detention and Deportation Squads

    By Amy Goodman & Denis Moynihan/ Democracy Now / Column / June 26, 2025 

    With each passing day, the violence wielded by ICE, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, grows more intense and widespread. One grotesquely emblematic example of this was the recent violent arrest of 48-year-old Narciso Barranco in Santa Ana, California. Narciso, a hardworking immigrant laborer who came from Mexico over thirty years ago, is the father of three US Marines. While landscaping outside an IHOP restaurant on June 21st, he was assaulted by at least seven armed, masked men, who tackled him and repeatedly punched him in the head. They handcuffed him and shoved him into an unmarked SUV. The plainclothes agents wore face masks, bullet-proof vests and military-grade helmets. Some of the vests read, “Police–US Border Patrol” on the back, but to anyone confronted by these gangs, no identifying marks, names, or badges were visible.

    Image Credit: Instagram/@santaanaproblems

    One of Narciso’s sons, Alejandro Barranco, a US Marine Corps veteran, was able to visit his father in jail. Narciso was still wearing the same work clothes that were bloodied in the assault.

    “He looked beat up, he looked rough, he looked defeated, he was sad,” Alejandro said on the Democracy Now! news hour. “Anybody would be scared if they see these guys come up to them, masked, not in uniform, guns out.”

    City of Santa Ana councilmember Jonathan Hernandez, also on Democracy Now!, added, “We are watching violence unfold, racial profiling increase in cities like Santa Ana, where 41% of our residents are migrants, 70% are of Latino descent…agents come into our community, and they’re refusing to identify themselves, they don’t have judicial warrants and these ICE raids are an example of the government’s overreach.”

    In mid-June, President Trump briefly paused immigration raids on farms, hotels and restaurants, ostensibly to ensure these key industries that have supported him in the past continue to do so. “Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace,” Trump wrote.

    Soon after, he reversed himself. The short pause revealed a fundamental truth about undocumented immigrants: the US economy doesn’t function without them. Nevertheless, urged on by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, ICE, Homeland Security and Border agents are snatching and deporting the very workers on whom our economy depends.

    There are some sectors of the economy that are thriving amidst the mass deportations. GEO Group, the private prison corporation, has seen its stock rise by over 50% since Trump’s election. Palantir, the tech and AI firm co-founded by Trump backer, billionaire Peter Thiel, has seen its stock rise over 500% in the past year. It was recently reported that Palantir is building tools to allow near real-time tracking of immigrants in the US. The Program on Government Oversight, POGO, reported that Stephen Miller’s financial disclosure reveals he owns up to $250,000 in Palantir stock.

    Meanwhile, the Republican majority on the US Supreme Court has handed Trump a deportation-related victory. Several immigrants sued the government to stop or reverse deportations to Guatemala, South Sudan and Libya. A federal judge in Massachusetts issued an injunction against these so-called “third party nation removals.” This week, the Supreme Court’s six conservative justices overturned that injunction, without comment. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, writing that the Trump administration’s “flagrantly unlawful conduct,” backed by the Supreme Court, is “exposing thousands to the risk of torture or death.”

    Resistance is active, growing and making a difference. Grassroots pressure and legal battles have won the release of international students targeted for their solidarity with Palestinians, among them Rümeysa Öztürk, Mohsen Mahdawi, and the first such student arrested and threatened with deportation, Mahmoud Khalil.

    Likewise, grassroots, legal and Congressional pressure forced the Trump administration to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the United States. The Maryland father received asylum during Trump’s first term, in 2019, based on credible threats from an El Salvador gang. Then, this past March 12th, he was snatched from a parking lot and sent, against a court order, to El Salvador.

    Under enormous legal and grassroots pressure, the federal government finally returned Abrego Garcia to the US. Despite that victory, upon his return the federal government promptly rearrested him, charging him with human trafficking for allegedly driving undocumented immigrants several years ago. He remains in federal custody in Tennessee, and, if released, ICE will likely attempt to deport him.

    Meanwhile, Narciso Barranco sits in ICE detention, with his two sons still on active duty in the US Marines not far away, at Fort Pendleton. It is past time to unmask the violent agents targeting people like Narciso, and halt Trump’s racist, xenophobic mass detentions and deportations.

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