Democrats criticized for ‘photo-op' protest at ICE facility
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New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
‘Anybody but Mamdani': 5 Groups Emerge to Raise Millions in Attack Funds
In the blood sport of New York City real estate, where comity can be hard to come by, the developers of some of the city's most prized parcels appeared to be in agreement about one thing when they met in private this week. Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate for mayor, had to be taken down. 'Our goal is anybody but Mamdani,' Marty Burger, the chief executive of Infinite Global Real Estate Partners, wrote in one of two emails sent ahead of the meeting that were obtained by The New York Times. To help, Mr. Burger proposed that his peers start by putting in $25,000 each to a new super PAC, New Yorkers for a Better Future, or to seed other groups. He cited potential ad campaigns attacking Mr. Mamdani; spending plans to boost specific rivals; and other efforts to register and turn out thousands of voters who typically sit out Election Day. A month after Mr. Mamdani's primary victory stunned New York's business elite, its leaders have begun cranking open a powerful gusher of outside spending to try to stop the man whose socialist policies they fear could sour the city's business climate. But with fewer than 100 days to go, they are still very much searching for a unified plan that could work. On Monday, the men whose companies run the Seagram Building and Hudson Yards joined the call for one anti-Mamdani super PAC, while leaders of a different super PAC invited donors to a $1,000-per-person fund-raiser scheduled for Thursday. 'Fighting Mamdani is expensive,' the organizer, Betsy McCaughey, a former lieutenant governor, wrote on the invitation. 'But allowing him to win will cost you more.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
an hour ago
Louisiana GOP senator's office asked ICE to release Marine Corps veteran's wife
A Marine Corps veteran's wife has been released from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention following advocacy from Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican who backs President Donald Trump's hardline immigration crackdown. Until this week, Mexican national Paola Clouatre had been one of tens of thousands of people in ICE custody as the Trump administration continues to press immigration officers to arrest 3,000 people a day suspected of being in the U.S. illegally. Emails reviewed by The Associated Press show that Kennedy's office said Friday that it put in a request for the Department of Homeland Security to release her after a judge halted her deportation order earlier that week. By Monday, she was out of a remote ICE detention center in north Louisiana and home in Baton Rouge with her veteran husband Adrian Clouatre and their two young children. Kennedy's constituent services representative, Christy Tate, congratulated Adrian Clouatre on his wife's release and thanked him for his military service. 'I am so happy for you and your family,' Tate wrote in an email to Adrian Clouatre. 'God is truly great!' Kennedy's office proved 'instrumental' in engaging with the Department of Homeland Security, according to Carey Holliday, the family's attorney. Kennedy's office did not provide further comment. Another Louisiana Republican, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, also intervened recently with the Department of Homeland Security to secure the release of an Iranian mother from ICE detention following widespread outcry. The woman has lived for decades in New Orleans. Kennedy has generally been a staunch supporter of Trump's immigration policies. 'Illegal immigration is illegal — duh,' Kennedy posted on his Facebook page on July 17, amid a series of recent media appearances decrying efforts to prevent ICE officers from making arrests. In April, however, he criticized the Trump administration for mistakenly deporting a Maryland man. The Department of Homeland Security previously told The AP it considered Clouatre to be 'illegally' in the country. An email chain shared by Adrian Clouatre shows that the family's attorney reached out to Kennedy's office in early June after Paola Clouatre was detained in late May. Tate received Paola Clouatre's court documents by early July and said she then contacted ICE, according to the email exchange. On July 23, an immigration judge halted Paola Clouatre's deportation order. After Adrian Clouatre notified Kennedy's office, Tate said she 'sent the request to release' Paola Clouatre to DHS and shared a copy of the judge's motion with the agency, emails show. In an email several days later, Tate said that ICE told her it 'continues to make custody determinations on a case-by-case basis based on the specific circumstances of each case' and had received the judge's decision from Kennedy's office 'for consideration." The next working day, Paola Clouatre was released from custody. 'We will continue to keep you, your family and others that are experiencing the same issues in our prayers," Tate said in an email to Adrian Clouatre. 'If you need our assistance in the future, please contact us." Paola Clouatre had been detained by ICE officers on May 27 during an appointment related to her green card application. She had entered the country as a minor with her mother from Mexico more than a decade ago and was legally processed while seeking asylum, she, her husband and her attorney say. But Clouatre's mother later failed to show up for a court date, leading a judge to issue a deportation order against Paola Clouatre in 2018, though by then she had become estranged from her mother and was homeless. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Clouatre's release. Adrian Clouatre said he wished the agency would "actually look at the circumstances' before detaining people like his wife. 'It shouldn't just be like a blanket 'Oh, they're illegal, throw them in ICE detention.'' Reunited with her breastfeeding infant daughter and able to snuggle with her toddler son, Paola Clouatre told AP she feels like a mother again. 'I was feeling bad,' she said of detention. 'I was feeling like I failed my kids.' It will likely be a multiyear court process before Paola Clouatre's immigration court proceedings are formally closed, but things look promising, and she should be able to obtain her green card eventually, her attorney said. For now, she's wearing an ankle monitor, but still able to pick up life where she left off, her husband says. The day of her arrest in New Orleans, the couple had planned to sample some of the city's famed French pastries known as beignets and her husband says they'll finally get that chance again: 'We're going to make that day up.'
2 hours ago
Sen. Cory Booker in angry outburst says 'complicit' Democrats need a 'wake-up call'
WASHINGTON -- In a rare public outburst on the Senate floor Tuesday, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker took his Democratic colleagues to task, declaring his party 'needs a wake-up call!' Angrily screaming at two of his shocked Democratic colleagues, his words all but reverberating off the chamber walls, Booker blocked the passage of several bipartisan bills that would fund police programs, arguing that President Donald Trump's administration has been withholding law enforcement money from Democratic-leaning states. 'This is the problem with Democrats in America right now,' Booker bellowed. 'Is we're willing to be complicit with Donald Trump!' The surprise Senate spat over bills that have broad bipartisan support — mental health resources and other help for police officers — strikes at the heart of the beleaguered Democratic party's dilemma in the second Trump era as they try to find a way back to power, and also their frustration as Republicans have pushed through legislation and nominations that they vehemently disagree with. Do they cooperate where they can, or do they fight everything, and shut down governance in the process? 'A lot of us in this caucus want to f—— fight,' Booker said with an expletive as he left the Senate floor after the exchange. Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, one of the two Democrats on the floor who tried to pass the law enforcement bills that raised Booker's ire, said she had a different view. 'We can do both,' she said afterward. 'Support our communities, keep them safe, and take on Donald Trump and his bad policies.' Booker's tirade began Tuesday afternoon when Cortez Masto tried to pass seven bipartisan bills by unanimous consent. But Booker objected to five of the seven bills, which would have directed resources to law enforcement agencies, arguing that the Trump administration is 'weaponizing' public safety grants by canceling them in many Democratic-leaning states like New Jersey. 'Why would we do something today that's playing into the president's politics and is going to hurt the officers in states like mine?' Booker asked. Things escalated from there, with Cortez Masto and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., saying that Booker should have objected when the bill was passed unanimously out of committee. 'This is not the way to go about it,' Cortez Masto said. Klobuchar said to Booker: 'You can't just do one thing on Police Week and not show up and not object and let these bills go through and then say another a few weeks later on the floor." 'I like to show up at the markups and I like to make my case," Klobuchar said. Booker responded with a booming tirade. 'The Democratic party needs a wake up call!' he yelled, walking away from his desk and out into the aisle. 'I see law firms bending the knee to this president, not caring about the larger principles,' he said, along with 'universities that should be bastions of free speech.' He added: 'You want to come at me that way, you will have to take it on with me because there's too much on the line.' The arguments points to the tensions below the surface of the Democratic caucus as they head into important moments — both this week, as Republicans push to quickly confirm dozens of Trump administration nominees before the August recess, and this fall when Congress will have to pass bipartisan spending bills to avoid a government shutdown. Democrats suffered a swift backlash from their base in the spring when Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., helped advance a Republican spending bill that kept the government open instead of forcing a shutdown. Schumer argued that shutting the government down would have been worse, and that they were both 'terrible' options. It is unclear whether Schumer and Democrats will want to force a shutdown in the fall if Republicans don't include some of their priorities in spending legislation. Booker did not have specific advice for his colleagues beyond the need to fight harder. But other senators say they will have to find a balance. Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut says he hears both things at home — 'why can't you all get along' and 'thank you for fighting.'
