Decoration Day

Monday, May 26, 2025

Before we turn to the immigration news, some reflections on war and peace:

• “During the final year of the war, the Confederates had converted the planters' horse track, the Washington Race Course and Jockey Club, into an outdoor prison. Union soldiers were kept in horrible conditions in the interior of the track; at least 257 died of exposure and disease and were hastily buried in a mass grave behind the grandstand. Some twenty-eight black workmen went to the site, re-buried the Union dead properly, and built a high fence around the cemetery. They whitewashed the fence and built an archway over an entrance on which they inscribed the words, "Martyrs of the Race Course." Then, black Charlestonians in cooperation with white missionaries and teachers, staged an unforgettable parade of 10,000 people on the slaveholders' race course. The symbolic power of the low-country planter aristocracy's horse track (where they had displayed their wealth, leisure, and influence) was not lost on the freedpeople. … Following the solemn dedication the crowd dispersed into the infield and did what many of us do on Memorial Day: they enjoyed picnics, listened to speeches, and watched soldiers drill. Among the full brigade of Union infantry participating was the famous 54th Massachusetts and the 34th and 104th U.S. Colored Troops, who performed a special double-columned march around the gravesite. The war was over, and Decoration Day had been founded by African Americans in a ritual of remembrance and consecration. The war, they had boldly announced, had been all about the triumph of their emancipation over a slaveholders' republic, and not about state rights, defense of home, nor merely soldiers' valor and sacrifice.” - The First Decoration Day, Prof. David W. Blight.

• Is Peace Possible?, originally published in 1957 by Kathleen Lonsdale (1903–1971), has been reprinted by Maria Popova, dba The Marginalian.

NOW THE NEWS:

• In response to Trump’s lawsuit to cancel the sanctuary city policy of Rochester, New York, Rochester says the feds used a fake 911 call to try to rope in local cops for civil immigration arrests: “Unbeknownst to the City of Rochester at the time, this purported emergency call would prove to be a sham. When Rochester police officers arrived on the scene, there was no emergency nor any sense of exigency or urgency among the many federal law enforcement agents present. Notwithstanding the lack of any emergency, the federal law enforcement agents

  persisted in their attempts to co-opt Rochester police into enforcing federal immigration regulations, by directing police officers to remove the occupants from the van, and by standing by and watching as Rochester police placed those occupants in handcuffs. Upon information and belief, at no point were any of the individuals in the vehicle suspected of committing any crime, and their detention was for civil immigration enforcement purposes only. In short, federal law enforcement agents at the scene unlawfully conscripted local police to engage in federal civil immigration enforcement in violation of the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution. This suit represents the federal government’s formal ratification of the commandeering of local police to enforce federal immigration regulations and policy.”

• ICE arrests at immigration court draw reaction: “Members of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) are reporting a disturbing rise in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests at immigration courts across the country. AILA President Kelli Stump, responded to the reports: “This is a flagrant betrayal of basic fairness and due process. Let’s be clear: people are following the rules by appearing in immigration court as they promised when released from custody, doing exactly what the system demands of them, only to be targeted, arrested, and detained because the government has changed its mind on detention. Immigration courts are being weaponized, judges are coordinating with ICE to dismiss cases and immediately funnel individuals into the fast-track deportation pipeline known as expedited removal. These are not fugitives. They are individuals, many who are seeking protection from torture in their countries, complying with the law. “People who have been following the court rules, including those without legal representation, are being arrested outside courtrooms. One report described a mother taken into custody outside the Baltimore court while holding her days-old infant. This is not law enforcement. This is cruelty disguised as policy. This tactic is not only morally wrong, it’s self-defeating. If the goal is court compliance, these tactics achieve the opposite: they terrify people away from the very process they’re supposed to trust, undermining the rule of law at its foundation. “This is a corruption of our immigration courts, transforming them from forums of justice into cogs in a mass deportation apparatus. The expansion of expedited removal strips more people of their right to a hearing before a judge—as our laws promise. “These arrests are undermining core American values of fairness, integrity, and justice. We need bipartisan solutions that build a functional, humane immigration system—not tear it apart. The courts must be a place where justice is pursued, not perverted.”

• Trump attacks kids: “[T]he Trump administration filed a motion to terminate the Flores Settlement Agreement, which for years has set the standards for the humane treatment of immigrant children in government custody, many of whom arrive seeking refuge and protection. The motion recycles many of the arguments that have been brought forward by the federal government — and rejected by courts — multiple times. If the government's motion is successful, children in federal immigration custody will no longer be entitled to any of the Settlement's basic protections, such as the requirement they be provided adequate food, water, and clean clothes, regardless of whether they're detained with their parents in family detention or alone. As immigrant children and families are under attack, the Flores Settlement is more important now than ever before. Right now, children are being detained with their families in egregious conditions, some children are being held in government custody for months, even when their families are ready to take them home. The Settlement remains the primary — and sometimes the only — tool for protecting these children’s freedom, health, and safety.”

• ‘I’m not a criminal’: Military wife detained, deported at Honolulu airport - “Nicolle Saroukos of Sydney, Australia, was looking forward last Sunday to a three-week vacation in Honolulu with her mom. … It was Saroukos’ third visit to see her husband, Matt, a U.S. Army lieutenant stationed on Oahu. The newlyweds married last December. … “When I did say that I was married to somebody in the U.S. Army, the officers laughed at me. They thought it was quite comical. I don’t know whether they thought I was telling the truth or not,” she said. … Saroukos’ husband is now on leave in Sydney with his wife. He told HNN he waited for hours at Honolulu airport, repeatedly asking officials what happened to her, but no one gave him answers. He was finally told she was taken to the detention center but was not allowed to see or talk to her there. Saroukos said she’s sharing her experience to warn people of the increased risks of traveling to the U.S. “It’s made it physically impossible for me to even ever enter the United States ever again,” she said.”

  

That’s all for today. Comments always welcome. THANK YOU! to all subscribers, free and paid.

Stay woke, and RISE UP on June 14th!

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