update - Fed'l judge reverses Kari Lake's dismantling of VoA, issues reprimand

[mandrill]

Trump ally used ICE to deport mother of his child: report


Former modeling agent and longtime ally to President Donald Trump, Paolo Zampolli asked a top ICE official for help "to settle a personal score" and have the mother of his child deported during a custody battle, according to The New York Times.

Zampolli, a now presidential special envoy, introduced Trump to the president's now wife Melania.



He found out that his Brazilian ex-girlfriend, Amanda Ungaro, had arrested on charges of fraud at her work and in custody at a Miami jail — and last year talked to a top official at ICE, David Venturella, to see if she could be placed in ICE detention, citing that she was in the country illegally, The Times reported.

The two had been going through a custody battle over their teenage son and "now he saw an opportunity" to try and get him back, Friday's report stated.


A source familiar with Zampolli's communications and records acquired by The Times revealed that Ungaro was picked up from a Miami jail by ICE agents before she could make bail and later deported. Although this could have happened without her ex-boyfriend's involvement, it raises questions about how members of the Trump administration have used the federal government during Trump's second term to pursue personal vendettas.



Zampolli denied to The Times that he sought special favors or that he had requested federal officials take Ungaro into custody.

The Department of Homeland Security told The Times that Ungaro was detained and deported over an expired visa after being charged with fraud.

“Any suggestion that she was arrested and removed for political reasons or favors is FALSE,” the DHS statement said.

Zampolli has often bragged about his loyalty to the Trumps, and has known the president for more than 30 years. He even recruited Melania, a former model, from Slovenia. Zampolli also had ties to the late financier and convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

"In the city’s modeling scene, Mr. Zampolli also intersected with Jeffrey Epstein, the financier who would later be accused of sexually abusing hundreds of girls and young women," according to The Times. "The men once discussed buying a modeling agency together, and Mr. Zampolli’s name appears several times in the millions of Epstein documents recently released by the Justice Department.



"In one 2011 email, Mr. Epstein warned an Emirati businessman: 'Be careful, zampoli is trouble. Lots.' He added, 'He sells stories to the press.'"

Zampolli has denied having a close friendship with Epstein. He added that his name was not included as frequently as other people, such as professors, celebrities or monarchs.

“At least I was included, because if you’re not on the list, you’re a loser, right?” Zampolli told The Times.

 

[Catwhiskers]

That’s terrible. Imagine deporting someone who is both an illegal alien and a criminal.

 

[mandrill]

 

[mandrill]

That’s terrible. Imagine deporting someone who is both an illegal alien and a criminal.

It's more a question of the guy's motives to take the kid away from her.

 

[mandrill]

 

[mandrill]

Judges keep finding ICE failed to prove arrested migrants were threats


The Trump administration keeps losing court challenges regarding its mass immigration arrests.

In recent months, federal judges have ruled more than 7,000 times that Immigration and Customs Enforcement illegally arrested people without giving them the chance to prove they could safely remain in their communities while their immigration cases played out, a Politico analysis found.



In many of these cases the Trump administration didn’t offer a counterargument when migrants challenged their detentions.

Instead, administration lawyers have been regularly agreeing to bond hearings or the full release of migrants right away, citing a lack of legal opinions or relevant documentation they could use to support the original detentions, the analysis found.

The Independent has contacted the Justice Department and ICE for comment.

Since taking office, the Trump administration has pursued a campaign of mass immigration arrests and detention.

As of early February, according to the most recent government figures, more than 68,000 people were in ICE detention, most of whom lacked a prior criminal conviction.

Many have been in detention for prolonged periods of time based on the administration’s legal theory that most arrested immigrants aren’t eligible for bond hearings, even as cases can take years to move through the system.



This has prompted a wave of emergency habeas corpus challenges, where federal officials must justify before a judge why they are still holding someone in detention.

Between January and mid-February of this year, there were between 300 and 400 such petitions every day, a Politico analysis found.



The Trump administration has used a legal theory to argue nearly all arrested immigrants are not eligible for bond, which has prompted a wave of emergency appeals (AFP/Getty)
Trump administration officials have spoken openly in court of being overwhelmed.

One DOJ lawyer in Minnesota made headlines by telling a judge, “This job sucks.”

Hundreds of federal judges have rejected the Trump administration bond policy, though regional appeals courts have issued contrasting opinions on the practice.



The legal uncertainty comes as the Trump administration is at a moment of apparent realignment in its wider immigration strategy.

Its aggressive, military-style push into Minnesota ended in disaster, with two U.S. citizens shot dead by federal agents and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem getting ousted earlier this month in the ensuing uproar.

Since the administration announced last month it was drawing down the Minnesota campaign, it has not launched another big-city operation such as the ones that hit mostly Democratic jurisdictions including Chicago and Los Angeles last year.



After federal agents killed two protesters in Minneapolis earlier this year, the Trump administration has refrained from launching any new mass urban immigration crackdowns, though it continues to make arrests at a high clip (AFP via Getty Images)
Detentions also declined at a notorious family detention facility in Dilley, Texas, that was the subject of multiple high-profile cases where some families with young children alleged they faced mistreatment behind bars.

The number of families booked into the facility fell by more than 75 percent in February, ProPublica found.


Sen. Markwayne Mullin, the administration’s choice to replace Noem, has suggested his Department of Homeland Security would be less boundary-pushing than that of his predecessor.

“My goal in six months is that we’re not in the lead story every single day. My goal is for people to understand we’re out there, we’re protecting them,” Mullin testified before the Senate on Wednesday.

The administration hasn’t stopped making arrests, though.



Sen. Markwayne Mullin, the Trump administration’s pick to replace ousted Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, has said he wants his DHS to be less controversial (AP)
Immigration officers have arrested more than 1,000 people per day on average this year, according to a New York Times data review, nearly double the rate at roughly the same point last year.

Immigration advocates warn the slowdown in mass operations may only be a blip.

“In the deeper, more conservative states, what they’re doing is going in and opening up these massive detention facilities,” Rekha Sharma-Crawford, a Missouri-based attorney and second vice president at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told The Independent earlier this week. “That’s some writing on the wall that says they are only intent on increasing the number of people that they want to detain.”

 

[mandrill]