Free Republic

The Postal Inspection Service recently joined a federal task force to locate undocumented immigrants using data from mail and packages, according to people familiar with the effort and records obtained by The Washington Post... The law enforcement arm of the U.S. Postal Service has quietly begun cooperating with federal immigration officials to locate people suspected of being in the country illegally, according to two people familiar with the matter and documents obtained by The Washington Post — dramatically broadening the scope of the Trump administration’s government-wide mass deportation campaign...

The Trump administration is open to arresting Supreme Court judges, as White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told it on Monday morning. “You guys arrested a Milwaukee County Circuit judge for allegedly helping illegal immigrants get away,” Fox News’s Peter Doocy asked Leavitt. “As you guys look at other judges, would you ever arrest somebody higher up on the judicial food chain, like a federal judge or even a Supreme Court justice?” “That’s a hypothetical question, again I defer you to the Department of Justice for individuals that they are looking at or individual cases. But let’s be clear about...

Democrats, after weeks of struggling to find a message that resonates with ordinary Americans while President Donald Trump dominates the news, are beginning to settle on one: the allegation that Trump and his allies are crippling Social Security. Former president Joe Biden used his first public comments since leaving office to criticize Trump’s handling of the popular program. Early Democratic ads are targeting Republican senators on Social Security. Democrats have visited Social Security offices around the country, sometimes getting turned away and going public. Senate Democrats have set up a “war room” to deliver the message...... Since Musk and DOGE...

President Trump has repeatedly shared an image of Kilmar Abrego Garcia's finger tattoos in an effort to link the Maryland man, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador on March 15, to the notorious MS-13 gang. On Monday, Mr. Trump again shared a photo of Abrego Garcia's left hand on social media, alleging he "had 'MS-13' tattooed onto his knuckles." The image shows the characters "M," "S," "1" and "3" digitally added above Abrego Garcia's existing tattoos — a leaf, a smiley face, a cross and a skull — along with labels describing each symbol beneath. Many people online recognized...

President Donald Trump on Thursday offered rare criticism of Vladimir Putin, urging the Russian leader to “STOP!” after a deadly barrage of attacks on Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital. “I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. “Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!”

For Canadian voters, blink and you could practically miss this campaign. Not only is it lightning fast at just five weeks long, but the ho-hum pace of the race means that the tone and tenor haven’t changed much since the election was called in late March. That doesn’t mean Canadians have tuned out, quite the opposite: early ratings indicate they watched with interest as national leaders – including Prime Minister Mark Carney and his key rival Pierre Poilievre – debated in both French and English the last couple of evenings in Montreal. Two men not on stage were nonetheless top...

A Trump administration official in March asked the IRS to review an audit of MyPillow chief executive and conservative political personality Mike Lindell, according to two people familiar with the request and records obtained by The Washington Post. David Eisner, a political appointee at the Treasury Department, wrote to senior IRS staff that Lindell — whom he called a “high profile friend of the president” — had received his second audit letter in two years and “he is concerned he may have been inappropriately targeted.” The IRS referred the inquiry to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, the agency’s...

Election denier and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell continues to refuse to pay more than $50,000 in sanctions he has been ordered to pay to voting software company Smartmatic over "frivolous" election claims. "I'm in ruins," a teary Lindell said through a Zoom screen in a motion hearing in the U.S. District Court in Washington on Wednesday, pleading to Judge Carl Nichols to allow him to wait until after the final judgement comes out to make any payment in the case, which he has already lost. Last month, Smartmatic filed a motion to hold Lindell in contempt, alleging the MyPillow CEO...

El Salvador won’t let Senator Chris Van Hollen have any contact with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident who is being unlawfully detained in a megaprison in the country. Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador Wednesday in search of answers about Abrego Garcia’s whereabouts. The father of three was deported last month due to an “administrative error” by the Trump administration, which continues to claim Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13, despite there being no evidence to prove it.

Former President Biden said the Trump administration has “done so much damage and so much destruction” since taking office, accusing the White House of having “taken a hatchet” to the Social Security Administration (SSA) and “breaking things” as he delivered his first remarks since leaving the Oval Office earlier this year. “Fewer than 100 days, this new administration has made so much — done so much damage and so much destruction. It’s kind of breathtaking it could happen that soon,” Biden said at the national conference of Advocates, Counselors and Representatives for the Disabled (ACRD) in Chicago. “They’ve taken a...

Two weeks ago, the sharp-tongued comedian Bill Maher had dinner with Donald Trump. Maher emerged from the meeting thoroughly charmed. During the opening monologue on his show on Friday, he described Trump as engaged and even likable. Trump made him feel comfortable and listened to. In their conversation, which included “an amazing tour of the whole house,” Trump remained empathetic. “He didn’t get mad. He’s much more self-aware than he lets on in public,” Maher recalled. “Why can’t we get the guy I met to be the public guy?” It’s unfortunate that Maher allowed himself to get played like this.In...

Strolling in bright sunshine across the immaculately raked gravel of Paris's Tuileries gardens, Barbara and Rick Wilson from Dallas, Oregon, were not exactly in disguise. But earlier that morning, on their very first trip to France, Rick, 74, had taken an unusual precaution. Before leaving his hotel, he'd taken a small piece of black tape and covered up the Stars and Stripes flag on the corner of his baseball cap. "We're sick about it. It's horrible. Just horrible," said Rick, as he and his wife contemplated the sudden sense of shame and embarrassment they said they now felt, as Americans,...

A senior executive who objected was marched out of his office and put on leave, while earlier warnings about the agency’s deaths database were ignored... Greg Pearre, who oversaw a staff of hundreds of technology experts, had pushed back on the Trump administration’s plan to move the migrants’ names into a Social Security death database, eliminating their ability to legally earn wages... ...on Thursday, the security guards in Pearre’s office told him it was time to leave.

NEW YORK (AP) — Facing a deadline from an immigration judge to turn over evidence for its attempted deportation of Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil, the federal government has instead submitted a brief memo, signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, citing the Trump administration’s authority to expel noncitizens whose presence in the country damages U.S. foreign policy interests. The two-page memo, which was obtained by The Associated Press, does not allege any criminal conduct by Khalil, a legal permanent U.S. resident and graduate student who served as spokesperson for campus activists last year during large demonstrations against Israel’s treatment...

Some thoughts on a climbdown for the ages. The reaction was widespread relief in America and the world. Americans want their country to be the world’s growth engine but not, as a former Reagan administration official put it, through policies “that risk the collapse of the global financial system.” Donald Trump scared people he hadn’t scared before. He didn’t use to scare his policy allies—small-business people, workers, retirees. He did this week. Fear dampens reflexive support. Politicians need reflexive support from the bottom of their base as a platform from which to move. The president weakened his position. It is...

Unsigned Order here: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a949_lkhn.pdf

Opponents of President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk plan to rally across the U.S. on Saturday to protest the administration's actions on government downsizing, the economy, human rights and other issues. More than 1,200 “Hands Off!” demonstrations have been planned by more than 150 groups, including civil rights organizations, labor unions, LBGTQ+ advocates, veterans and elections activists. The protests are planned for the National Mall in Washington, D.C., state capitols and other locations in all 50 states. Protesters are assailing the Trump administration's moves to fire thousands of federal workers, close Social Security Administration field offices, effectively shutter entire...

The Washington DC housing market is in a standstill as federal employees' cushy salaries are still under threat by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts. More than 25,000 rental properties and 9,800 homes are listed in the DC Metro area, with nearly 10,000 rentals and 500 homes just in the District of Columbia alone as of early April, according to Zillow. And although Spring is always a hot time on the market for sellers, buyers are hesitant to snap up homes as their federal and federally-adjacent jobs are still under the threat of massive layoffs as Musk worked...

When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took the helm of the Department of Health and Human Services in February, he promised “radical transparency” and declared that “both science and democracy flourish from the free and unimpeded flow of information.” But when the Trump administration laid off thousands of employees on Tuesday, the targets included the very people who communicated the health department’s work to Americans....

...White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that the White House “in coordination with” the Justice Department has dismissed more than 50 U.S. attorneys and deputies in recent weeks.. ...“The American people deserve a judicial branch full of honest arbiters of the law who want to protect democracy, not subvert it,” Leavitt said. The Justice Department is an executive branch agency.... ... The integrity of our legal system and the independence of DOJ requires that laws are enforced impartially, which cannot happen when the White House fires career prosecutors to advance a political agenda,” said Stacey Young,...