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Cake day: June 8th, 2023

More than half of the children with deportation orders are representing themselves in immigration courts, according to data from the Department of Justice.

President Donald Trump’s massive immigration crackdown has made headlines for what many view as Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s aggressive tactics and alleged inhumane conditions at detention centers.

But what is less talked about are the hundreds of thousands of children navigating the immigration court system as they face deportation.

Of the 751,861 children with pending removal cases, 57 percent, or 425,093 of them, do not have lawyers, Drop Site News reported Friday.

The independent investigative news site’s figures were sourced from an analysis of data from the DOJ’s Executive Office for Immigration Review conducted by the Vera Institute of Justice.

Nearly two-thirds of children’s removal cases that are still pending were opened in 2023 under Democratic President Joe Biden, according to the new analysis.

Of the children’s cases that were completed last year, 64 percent of them proceeded without lawyers, Drop Site News reported.

Among these completed cases, seven percent of children with a lawyer were allowed to stay in the U.S. with some form of legal relief, compared to less than one percent of children representing themselves, according to the outlet.

The Trump administration has repeatedly accused immigrants and protesters of “weaponizing” their vehicles to “assault” federal immigration agents, a claim used to justify arrests and deadly shootings by officers.

But a Guardian review of 26 cases that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has promoted as evidence of a surge in “vehicular attacks” reveals most of those claims have fallen apart under scrutiny, with the accusations consistently disproven by evidence or rejected in court. Only one of the 26 cases has resulted in an assault conviction, according to court records and information shared by prosecutors.

The findings come as DHS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are facing intense scrutiny over the back-to-back fatal shootings of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas and Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine. In both cases, ICE officers killed the men during attempted traffic stops, with DHS arguing the men had endangered officers and the public with their vehicles – claims that witnesses have rejected.

DHS has repeatedly claimed its officers have faced a “3,300% increase in vehicle attacks” under Donald Trump’s second term, but has not provided evidence to support that figure and has not responded to requests for a list of cases.

To better understand how the government’s vehicle assault allegations have been adjudicated over time, the Guardian reviewed the most detailed list DHS has put out: a February press release asserting agents have experienced “more than 180 vehicle attacks” since Trump took office. The 2,100-word release provided summaries of 23 incidents from across the country from June 2025 to January 2026, saying it was a “non-exhaustive list”.

The Guardian looked at records for each case and contacted local and federal authorities and immigration and defense attorneys for more details. We identified 26 people accused in the cases of using their vehicles to threaten, assault or injure immigration officers. Five of them were shot by officers during the encounters, one fatally.

The review reveals a stunning failure by DHS and prosecutors to prove the government’s initial allegations of violence in those cases.

The review showed:

  • Fifteen of the 26 people accused of vehicle attacks never faced federal criminal charges over the incidents, and 11 of the 26 people did.

  • Eight people who were charged had their cases dismissed, including one person who received a “deferred prosecution”, meaning charges will be dropped if the defendant meets certain conditions.

  • One person has a pending assault charge; one pleaded guilty to assault; and one was convicted of “destruction of government property”, but acquitted of assault.

  • DHS has repeatedly continued to promote people’s cases as evidence of violence long after the original claims fell apart.

  • Cases were dropped or never charged in California, Colorado, Arizona, Illinois, Minnesota, North Carolina, Maryland and Washington DC.

The people on the list who never faced federal charges include one man who DHS claimed was “at large” and one who was fatally shot by ICE during the encounter. The sole guilty plea for assault involves a man accused of reversing his car during a traffic stop and hitting an ICE officer in the leg.

Even when people accused of assault are cleared of wrongdoing, the allegations can have lasting impacts.

Phillip Brown, a US citizen in Washington DC, was accused by DHS of making a “deliberate attempt to run [officers] down” during a traffic stop in October. An officer fired shots at him during the stop, but missed. DHS’s February press release continued to cite his case, even though the government’s story fell apart days after the incident – and the only charge he ever faced was in DC superior court, accused of “fleeing” law enforcement. A judge quickly tossed that charge after learning that a police report had omitted the fact that an officer had shot at him.

Brown has been forced to deal with the double trauma of nearly losing his life and having the government repeatedly spread falsehoods about the encounter, said his attorney, E Paige White.

“The scariest thing is we can’t get the truth from this administration even when it’s staring us directly in the face,” she said, “even when the judges and courts and systems put in place to actually determine what happened make a very clear decision. They refuse to be honest and that’s terrifying.”

Following a pair of deadly shootings by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, the division of the agency responsible for street arrests and deportations issued a new policy mandating a dress code for field operations.

The nationwide policy, shared with The Intercept by a Department of Homeland Security whistleblower and confirmed by multiple ICE officers, details a new set of appearance standards aimed at making it easier for the public and fellow law enforcement officials to recognize ICE officers in the field.

“Law enforcement officers performing field operations shall wear readily identifiable ICE attire, including a ballistic vest during high-visibility operations,” says a guidance memo signed by Acting ICE Director David Venturella. “Appropriate field attire includes khaki or coyote brown tactical type pants, paired with an ICE polo, or dark blue or black polo.”

The memo adds, “Clothing such as jeans, sweatshirts, hoodies, non-collared shirts, or apparel displaying graphics or screen prints is not authorized during field operations.”

Since President Donald Trump returned to office, his administration has implemented a slew of changes to the vetting process for close relatives and other guardians who volunteer to take in undocumented children, from narrowing the list of acceptable identity documents to mandating DNA tests. Crucially, it also dropped a rule that prohibited the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which cares for unaccompanied migrant kids, from sharing information about potential sponsors with ICE.

Those changes have led to prolonged stays in shelters for unaccompanied children. Some advocates say the changes allow ICE to use kids as “bait” to arrest their potential caregivers.

The new information-sharing practice and arrests of potential sponsors will have a chilling effect on families who may not come forward to take children for fear of being detained, said Bob Carey, the former director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement director during the Obama administration.

The Trump administration did not say how many sponsors have been detained as part of these efforts, but an NPR radio affiliate in California cited at least 100 such cases across the country as of March. In comparison, at least 170 sponsors were arrested during the first Trump administration as of late 2018.

Advocates say the new policies also harm children’s mental health by keeping them in shelters for months at a time.

A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to not deport a witness in the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by a federal immigration agent earlier this month in Houston.

U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison issued the directive on Monday after an attorney for Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego, a passenger in Salgado Araujo’s van during the shooting, filed a petition seeking his release from immigration detention.

The order also said Rojas Pliego cannot be transferred to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility outside of the Southern District of Texas while the petition is pending without the court’s permission.

Community leaders will discuss planning a city-wide shutdown of Houston to protest the shooting death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by ICE agents.

A press conference is scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday by community groups and business leaders to announce a day of “No Business As Usual” on Friday, July 24, 6 p.m. at Hidalgo Park.

It comes after several protests over the weekend as groups continue to call for an independent investigation into Salgado Araujo’s shooting death by ICE agents last month.

cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/49717001

Video Source

He is now trapped in a hospital bed in a cervical neck brace, with an ICE agent stationed right at his feet keeping him in custody. His face is completely covered in blood and his teeth are damaged from the assault.

Listen to his own words from the hospital room. He can barely speak, warning that “my neck hurts a lot,” “I can barely breathe,” and “I can’t move it much.”

We cannot turn a blind eye to this violence happening directly in our communities. Read the full report and see the breakdown of the regional surge here:

https://www.eyesonice.net/p/atlanta-metro-area-ice-surge