Friday News Roundup
Mass Deportation Watch
The Biden Administration expanded the use of AI in immigration enforcement, but despite the efforts of Biden's Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas to place guardrails on the use of that technology, the Trump Administration will probably expand on the use of AI, although with much fewer safeguards to protect immigrants and U.S. citizens from the error-prone technology.
The pro-immigration group Immigration Hub has recently announced that it will expand its political activities with a focus on countering anti-immigration disinformation. Catalyze/Citizens, a group working closely with Immigration Hub, released a new report Right-Wing Playbook: Immigration Ads and Narratives that highlights how Republicans outspent Democrats 5 to 1 on ads about immigration.
Fortunately, the Catalyze/Citizens report ends on a note of hope, although it makes clear that Democrats cannot run away from or ignore the immigration issue in future campaigns.
Additionally, C/C’s data has consistently found that exclusively messaging on border security or a punitive approach to immigration does little to move voters in favor of Democrats. In fact, an ACLU study found that when a Democratic or Republican candidate messaged on a balanced approach to fixing our immigration system (border security + pathway to citizenship), they moved voters in their favor whereas only messaging on a punitive border approach failed to shift voters. The strongest response to Trump and anti-immigrant Republicans is a notable, defining vision for a resilient, vibrant immigration system that recognizes the strength of aspiring citizens, keeps families safe and together, and stands tall with our democracy and economy.
Pandemic Watch
The Pan American Health Organization, which includes the United States as a member, issued an epidemiological alert on Tuesday that urged national public health authorities to be on the lookout for human cases of avian influenza. According to the alert, there have been 61 cases that have been reported since 2022, but 58 of the cases have only shown up as of this year. Out of the 58 cases of bird flu reported in 2024, 57 came from the United States.
Meanwhile, the California Department of Food and Agriculture has confirmed 14 new cases of H5N1 bird flu in livestock at California dairies. As of this Wednesday, the CDC updated its web page on H5 Bird Flu. CDC confirms that bird flu is experiencing a multi-state outbreak in dairy cattle, but thankfully, outbreaks in poultry are sporadic.
For additional background material, check out Zeynep Tukefci’s op-ed essay in the New York Times, A Bird Flu Pandemic Would Be One of the Most Foreseeable Catastrophes in History.
Nomination Watch
Donald Trump has nominated Kash Patel to be the director of the FBI. Kash Patel is a contributor at Real America’s Voice, a right-wing news network that produces Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast, once labeled by academic study as the biggest spreader of misinformation among all major political talk shows. To get a full dose of the crazy conspiracy theories that Patel believes, I highly recommend this Vox article by Zack Beauchamp, who listened to numerous hours of Kash Patel’s conspiratorial ranting on the Steve Bannon podcast so that you don’t have to.
Pete Hegseth’s nomination as Secretary of Defense may now be doomed, but Jane Mayer’s New Yorker article Pete Hegseth’s Secret History is a must-read if you want a full picture of the sordid background.
Sheriff Chad Chronister of Hillsborough County, Florida withdrew himself from consideration as Trump’s nominee for head of the Drug Enforcement Agency, although it’s unclear why. Choosing a local sheriff to run the federal DEA was always a head-scratcher, but it may be that Chronister withdrew because he was not MAGA enough. Anti-MAGA offenses that may have ousted Chronister include arresting a Tampa pastor for holding services during a COVID-19 lockdown and releasing a video that challenged a Florida anti-immigration law. In the most bizarre development in this story, information emerged that the sheriff’s son Zachary Chronister was involved in a knife fight, which the son chronicled in a rap video titled “Slash Yo Face” under the name Zchronik.
Other Highlights
- Nobel Peace Prize winner Amnesty International has released a report concluding that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
- French prime minister Michel Barnier lost a no-confidence vote after left-wing and right-wing parties objected to the social security budget submitted by Barnier. Barnier would be the first French leader in almost 60 years to be toppled by a no confidence vote.
- As of today, Romania’s top court has annulled Romania’s first-round presidential election, citing Russian interference in favor of far-right ultranationalist candidate Călin Georgescu.
- On Wednesday, Brian Thompson, the CEO of insurance company UnitedHealthcare, was fatally shot outside a New York hotel in what appears to be a preplanned, targeted attack. According to the Associated Press, the words “deny,” “defend,” and “depose” were found written on the bullets, words very similar to what plaintiff’s attorneys frequently refer to as "the three D’s of the insurance industry.” I hesitate to say anything more about this murder for fear I might say something I regret, but I think Marisa Kabas’s column Breaking the Norms of Death strikes the right balance between showing empathy for the death of another human being while also understanding how rage against the health insurance industry has numbed our reaction.