Wednesday, August 20, 2025

Remember When?

 Remember when Americans were so xenophobic Trump was leading the nation on being anti-immigrant? And there was nothing anybody could do about it?

Remember when Americans were so anti-crime Trump took over the streets of Washington, D.C.:

Dear PoPville,

This morning, at 6:15AM, a cop car with sirens followed by 3-4 large military vehicles were heading north on 8th St SE and one of the military vehicles loudly t-boned a vehicle heading southwest on North Carolina Avenue SE. From my viewpoint, this was clearly not an intentional stopping/crashing of a vehicle.

Following the crash, a group of national guard hopped off to go see what had happened.

I’m curious if the person in the car is okay…”

Another reader writes: “Driver was conscious but they were using jaws of life to open her door.

All I can say is I have two elementary school age kids and I am beyond horrified that this is what back to school looks like for the 125,000 children of the district. DC and our fellow citizens have to push congress to decline to authorize further occupation after 30 days. This is state sponsored violence and terrorism of civilians.”
But nobody could do anything because “crime.”

Until they started wondering who the criminals were: the people?
Jemmy Jimenez Rosa, 42, returned earlier this month from a family vacation in Mexico with her husband and their three young daughters. She was traveling with a valid U.S. Green Card — one that was just renewed in July.

Her family says she was detained on August 11 and has been in custody ever since.

Marcel Rosa, a U.S. citizen, says he handed over all the passports and his wife’s Green Card when they landed at Logan. He says an officer pulled Jemmy aside for additional questioning. She was taken into a room alone.

“I walked in, and my wife’s head was just down, and you could tell her whole spirit was just crushed,” he recalled.

Rosa says the officer brought up a decades-old marijuana case. At age 20, Jemmy pleaded guilty to misdemeanor possession and served probation.

Jemmy was held at Logan for four days without access to her medication, a phone call, or even a shower, according to her family and their attorney. Rosa says his wife suffers from high blood pressure, is diabetic and takes medication to treat mental health conditions.

“They would not allow us to see her. They wouldn’t allow us to tell her she even had an attorney,” [her attorney] said. “She has her green card renewed multiple times. She’s allowed to travel multiple times, and now she gets sandbagged at the airport.”

Meanwhile, this week Pomerleau challenged Jemmy’s decades-old conviction in Massachusetts district court, arguing she didn’t have proper legal counsel when she entered her plea 22 years ago. A judge and prosecutor agreed. Her case was dismissed. Jemmy’s record is now clean.

But as of Tuesday, August 19th, she still remains in ICE custody. And the Rosa family still waits for answers.
(Portland, Maine:)
A local pastor who came to the U.S. seeking asylum nearly a decade ago and lives in Westbrook was taken into custody by immigration officials last week, according to his family.

Michel Tshimankinda was leaving with his wife from her workplace on Aug. 14 when agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, descended on them in the parking lot, demanding identification, his daughter said in an interview Monday.

Jobel Tshimankinda said her parents told her they handed over their IDs and were escorted back to their home in Westbrook, where agents detained her father.

Hours later, she said, the family received a call from a correctional facility. It was her father.

ICE spokesperson James Covington said in a statement Tuesday morning that Michel Tshimankinda was detained Wednesday through “targeted enforcement operations in Portland” and that he had overstayed a temporary visa in 2016. Covington said it was part of the Trump administration’s focus on increased immigration enforcement.

“Unlike the previous administration, President Trump and (Department of Homeland Security) Secretary Noem will not turn a blind eye to violations of U.S. immigration laws,” Covington said. “They remain dedicated to prioritizing safety and protecting the integrity of our nation’s immigration laws by arresting and removing illegal alien offenders in a safe, secure and expeditious manner.”

Jobel Tshimankinda said that, before coming to the U.S., her father had been a pastor for several years in Botswana, where the family was able to temporarily escape violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She said her family arrived in the United States around 2016 on temporary visas, immediately applying for asylum before their documentation expired. She said that allowed them to obtain legal identification and work permits.

“We made sure to do it the right way,” she said.

Covington, in the statement, didn’t mention whether Michel Tshimankinda had applied for asylum and he wasn’t able to provide further information Tuesday on whether that would have mattered to ICE.

“Obviously, there is a lot of fear surrounding this,” Jobel Tshimankinda said. “But I also think that it’s really unfortunate in a place where freedom is the tagline, it doesn’t feel like that sometimes.”
Or the government?
[New Jersey Attorney General Matthew] Platkin has joined 19 other states and the District of Columbia in a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its withholding of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds earmarked for public safety, including funds intended to support crime victims. The Trump administration has withheld the funds from some states in order to compel them to cooperate with its immigration crackdown.
Overreach is a helluva drug.
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