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Trump Ends Family Separations, Still Criminalizes Migrants

What's really in Trump’s plan to stop family separations. WaPo: "A new executive order signed by President Trump lays out steps to end the separation of immigrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border. We see this as a tacit admission by the Trump administration that many of its previous claims about family separations were bunk. Until Trump signed the order on Wednesday, the administration was insisting that it didn’t have a policy of separating families (false), that several laws and court rulings were forcing these separations (false), that Democrats were to blame (false), that only Congress could stop family separations (false) and that an executive order wouldn’t get the job done. Well, apparently there was a policy and Trump can apply a fix without Congress. In any case, Trump’s executive order includes important caveats that may blunt its intended effect. The administration’s proposal is basically to keep children in immigration detention for longer than is currently allowed."

ICE Stages Largest Workforce Raid In History

ICE arrests nearly 150 meat plant workers in latest immigration raid in Ohio. WaPo: "mmigration officials lined up dozens of workers, many dressed in white helmets and smocks, outside a meat-processing plant in rural Ohio on Tuesday afternoon in one of the largest recent workplace raids carried out by the Trump administration. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said 146 workers were arrested as part of a year-long investigation into Fresh Mark, a northern Ohio meat supplier once touted by the government as a partner in preventing hiring undocumented workers. ICE said the company may have knowingly hired undocumented workers, and many are using fraudulent identification belonging to U.S. citizens. ICE officials raided the company’s plant in Salem, Ohio, about 4 p.m. Tuesday. Search warrants also were served at three other locations in the state."

GOP Immigration Bills Near Collapse As Vote Looms

GOP immigration bills on brink of collapse. Politico: "Speaker Paul Ryan’s carefully crafted immigration bill appears headed toward defeat after tensions boiled over in the House ahead of Thursday’s vote. In a rare dispute on the House floor Wednesday, Ryan and House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows argued loudly with each other over what exactly was going to see a vote. At one point, looking down his glasses, Meadows angrily gestured at Ryan. Meadows later told reporters that Ryan was putting the wrong version of a conservative bill up for a vote and that there were two other provisions that were left out of the leadership-backed “compromise“ legislation he'd helped negotiate with moderate Republicans. 'The compromise bill is not ready for prime time,' Meadows said. “There are things that were supposed to be in the compromise bill that are not in the compromise bill that we had all agreed to.' The public spat is the latest sign of how much trouble the GOP’s immigration push is in. But both the 'compromise' bill and the more conservative plan were likely to fail even before the heated exchange between Ryan and Meadows."

Unarmed Teen Shot Dead By Pittsburgh Police

Unarmed 17-year-old fatally shot as he ran from East Pittsburgh paolice. NYT: "An unarmed 17-year-old boy was shot and killed by the East Pittsburgh police on Tuesday night as he tried to flee a traffic stop, law enforcement officials said on Wednesday. The teenager, Antwon Rose II, was a passenger in a car that had been pulled over because it matched the description of a vehicle that fled an earlier shooting in which a 22-year-old man was wounded, the Allegheny County Police Department said in a statement. A video that recorded the fatal shooting and was posted on Facebook shows two people running from police vehicles as three shots are fired. One of the people, later identified as the 17-year-old, appears to fall to the ground. 'Why are they shooting?' the woman recording the video says. 'All they did was run and they’re shooting at them!'"

GOP Wants to Shut Dept. Of Education

Trump Team mulls merger of Education, Labor Departments. Education Week: "The Trump administration is considering a merger of the U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Labor, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the proposal. The plan, which would be part of a broader effort to overhaul the federal government, would require congressional approval. That's likely to be a difficult hurdle. It could be announced as soon as a cabinet meeting scheduled for June 21. The proposal, would fit into the president's push, first outlined in an executive order issued last year, to overhaul the federal government, eliminate what the administration considers unnecessary agencies, components of agencies, and programs, and merge functions. Administration officials are also considering the more limited step of moving some programs in the Labor Department over to the Education Department, sources say. The programs that would most likely get shifted to the Education Department include initiatives in the Employment and Training Agency that deal with workforce training for young people, including Job Corps and YouthBuild."

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