DL Open Thread: Monday, August 18, 2025
Federal agents detained a food delivery driver as he emerged from a Northwest Washington coffee shop Saturday morning, an incident captured on video by numerous witnesses — including a Washington Post reporter — that showed the officers tackling him to the ground, holding him down and appearing to use a stun gun before driving him away in an unmarked black vehicle.
After video of the incident spread widely online, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman identified the man as Cristian Enrique Carias Torres, a Venezuelan national who she saidillegally entered the United States in 2023 and was ordered removed by an immigration judge later that year.
The spokeswoman, Tricia McLaughlin, said he had “repeatedly failed to appear for multiple court dates in Maryland related to a long list of traffic crimes” for which he had active warrants. She said he resisted arrest. No information was available Sunday to determine whether he had applied for any form of protection from deportation.
Before anyone gets too critical, they’re just Federal employees doing their jobs, right?:
Video from both sides of R Street — captured by Zampaglione and the Post reporter who came upon the scene — shows six masked law enforcement officers, including at least one wearing an Immigration and Customs Enforcement badge, detaining the delivery driver.
“They really just snuck up on him,” said Zampaglione, 30. “I was born and raised in D.C., and I’ve never seen anything to this effect.”
In her statement, McLaughlin said “because of this increase in violence against them and doxing of their spouses and children,” officers often wear masks to protect themselves and their families from being targeted. She said that federal agents at the incident “did identify themselves and had their badges clearly visible.”
But during the arrest, witnesses — including the Post reporter — asked the officers to identify themselves numerous times. All but one, who was wearing the ICE badge, refused.
“Oh, are you guys the cops?” one agent, who was wearing a hat and a mask, responded. “Then shut the f— up.”
As the agents climbed into their vehicles and prepared to drive away, one witness yelled, “You’re ruining this country!”
“Liberals already ruined it,” one officer responded.
There’s more. But these ICE agents are out-of-control and encouraged to bust heads with impunity. Which reminds me–more haters are on the way, courtesy of Rethugs:
Three Republican-led states said Saturday that they were deploying hundreds of National Guard members to the nation’s capital to bolster the Trump administration’s effort to overhaul policing in Washington through a federal crackdown on crime and homelessness.
West Virginia said it was deploying 300 to 400 Guard troops, while South Carolina pledged 200 and Ohio says it will send 150 in the coming days, marking a significant escalation of the federal intervention.
Trump has declared war against American cities, and has nationalized the military to carry out this war.
Yet Another Democratic Sellout:
Mayor Craig Greenberg of Louisville, elected to lead a blue city in a deep-red state, is trying to keep it that way with a rare gambit for a Democratic mayor. He has agreed to the Trump administration’s request to place a 48-hour hold on immigrant inmates at the city’s jail that would allow the Department of Homeland Security more time to detain them.
The new policy, a reversal of a 2017 city ordinance that limited how the police could work with immigration authorities, seems to have achieved the mayor’s goal for now. Louisville was removed this month from the Department of Justice’s list of sanctuary cities, counties and states that are being threatened with litigation.
But the mayor’s decision has also generated blowback from Democratic leaders and immigrant rights organizations in a city with a rich history of opening its arms to refugees and where Kentucky’s two headlining industries — horse racing and bourbon — rely heavily on labor from immigrants, including many who are undocumented.
“Any day that we allow the administration to bully us is not a good day,” said Nima Kulkarni, a state representative who represents the area around the Churchill Downs horse racing track and is an immigration lawyer.
Pam Bondi, the U.S. attorney general, has celebrated Mr. Greenberg’s decision. “This should set an example to other cities,” she wrote on social media. “Instead of forcing us to sue you — which we will, without hesitation — follow the law, get rid of sanctuary policies, and work with us to fix the illegal immigration crisis.”
Hey, we all know how well accommodation worked out for those who cooperated with the Nazis rather than fight them. Except, perhaps, Louisville’s mayor.
So, Putin Owned Trump:
This time, when President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine arrives in the Oval Office, he will come with backup.
An array of European prime ministers and presidents are flying in for the meeting on Monday to make sure that a viable, defensible Ukraine survives whatever carving up of its territory is about to happen at the negotiating table.
But they are also there to make certain that the trans-Atlantic alliance emerges intact. President Trump’s instant reversal on the critical issue of obtaining a cease-fire before negotiating over land or security guarantees has left many of them shaken, and wondering whether Mr. Trump had once again been swayed by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. (One need not wonder.)
By most accounts, the European officials want to ensure that Mr. Trump has not pivoted too close to the Russian side, and does not try to strong-arm Mr. Zelensky into a deal that will ultimately sow the seeds of Ukraine’s dissolution. And they want to safeguard against the risk of the United States, the linchpin of European security since NATO’s creation in 1949, undermining that interest.
The foremost concern, the diplomat said, was to avoid another scene like the one that took place in February when Mr. Zelensky met with Mr. Trump in front of television cameras at the White House.
At that meeting, Mr. Trump berated the Ukrainian president, saying “you don’t have the cards” in the war — essentially telling a weak foreign power to bend to the demands of a far more powerful one. The president did so again on Friday night, after Mr. Putin flew back to the Russian Far East, telling a Fox News interviewer that Ukraine was going to have to realize that Russia was a more “powerful” country, and that power meant Mr. Zelensky was going to have to make concessions.
If Trump’s Actions Haven’t Driven You Crazy, This Policy Just Might. Literally:
But just months after Trump returned to the presidency this year, his administration paused new rules issued in President Joe Biden’s final months that were designed to strengthen mental health protections and hold insurance companies accountable when they unlawfully denied coverage. That pause came after an industry group that advocates for large employers on issues related to employee benefits filed a lawsuit seeking to block the new rules.
What’s more, Congress has curtailed funding for the Employee Benefits Security Administration, or EBSA, a small agency in the Department of Labor that enforces mental health parity in most employer-sponsored health insurance plans. The squeeze is largely due to the expiration of temporary supplemental funding Congress approved just weeks after Biden was elected president but before he took office.
While the impact of these changes is hard to measure, federal employees, policy experts and front-line workers warn that suspending the rules and cutting enforcement funding could have serious consequences. They say it could mean longer waits for help when patients challenge insurance decisions, fewer investigations of insurers and employer health plans over possible violations of federal mental health protections, and more people going without care they’re legally entitled to.
Yet Another Trump Threat To Elections. Perhaps an idle rant, likely not:
President Donald Trump said on Monday he would sign an executive order ahead of next year’s midterm elections, saying he would lead “a movement” targeting mail-in balloting and voting machines across the country.
“I am going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS, and also, while we’re at it, Highly Inaccurate, Very Expensive, and Seriously Controversial VOTING MACHINES,” he wrote in a social media post.
Why Do Rethugs Bow At The Altar Of Laura Loomer? Does she have kompromat on all of them? Or, at least, Rubio?:
A day after conservative activist Laura Loomer posted videos on social media of children from Gaza arriving in the U.S. for medical treatment and questioning how they got visas, the State Department said it was halting all visitor visas for people from Gaza pending a review.
The State Department said Saturday the visas would be stopped while it looks into how “a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas” were issued in recent days. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday told “Face the Nation” on CBS that the action came after ”outreach from multiple congressional offices asking questions about it.”
Rubio said there were “just a small number” of the visas issued to children in need of medical aid but that they were accompanied by adults. The congressional offices reached out with evidence that “some of the organizations bragging about and involved in acquiring these visas have strong links to terrorist groups like Hamas,” he asserted, without providing evidence or naming those organizations.
A Substantive Interview With Gov. Meyer. Featuring good questions and follow-ups by the interviewers–Sarah Petrowich and Tom Byrne. Worth your time.
I Stand With Kathleen Jennings On This: Unilateral Surrender Is Not A Viable Strategy:
Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings sent a letter to Nemours Children’s Hospital earlier this month urging its officials to “reconsider” a decision to stop accepting new patients into a clinic serving transgender youth.
In June, Nemours implemented the policy to end hormone and puberty blocker therapies for new transgender youth patients. Hospital officials previously said they made the decision in response to “evolving communications and actions from federal agencies directed at healthcare providers related to gender-affirming care.” (Threats and intimidation.)
Jennings’ letter, which was addressed to Nemours CEO Dr. R. Lawrence Moss, warns of harm that could come to transgender youth who face reduced care – particularly to their mental health. It also struck an aspirational tone, stating that “history is replete with physicians and scientists who risked life and liberty to uphold patient care.”
“While I recognize that you may worry about being placed in a precarious business position, I worry that your decision makes our state less caring, less healthy, and less safe,” the letter stated.
The letter is the state’s latest in a string of actions to support gender-affirming care for youth in Delaware, which has grown scarce following threats from the Trump administration that it would pull Medicaid funding from hospitals that offer such treatment.
Just before Nemours made its decision in June, Gov. Matt Meyer signed an executive order that provided legal protections to people providing such treatment so that they cannot be prosecuted in other states absent a court order from a Delaware or federal judge.
What do you want to talk about?
