Trump's Call to Reopen Alcatraz Prison Meets California Scorn
President Donald Trump's call to reopen Alcatraz, the famed San Francisco-area prison closed more than 60 years ago, drew swift backlash from California Democrats and surprise from visiting tourists.
Governor Gavin Newsom's office dismissed the idea, which Trump introduced in a social media post Sunday, as a 'distraction.' Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the plan is 'not a serious one.' Scott Wiener, a state senator representing San Francisco, likened the idea to a 'domestic gulag right in the middle of San Francisco Bay.'
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Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Sending money to family in foreign countries may be taxed more
Jun. 9—Families hoping to send money to loved ones in other countries may be hit with additional fees from a tax and spending bill proposed by the Trump administration that would slap a 3.5% tax on remittances sent by anyone who is not a U.S. citizen. The "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" passed through the House in May and is now being debated by the Senate. The budget bill has several proposed tax changes, which include taxing money sent from an estimated 40 million non-US citizens — including green card holders, temporary workers and undocumented immigrants — to family and friends in other countries. The bill had a 5% tax but was reduced to 3.5%. The bill is another way the Trump administration is hoping to dissuade immigrants, both documented and undocumented, from coming into the country and moving money out of the U.S. economy. Republicans believe the bill would increase the average take-home pay of U.S. citizens, while Democrats believe the bill and increased taxes are "a transfer of wealth from the working class to the rich," said Daniel Garcia, spokesperson for the Democratic Party of New Mexico. What is a remittance? Remittances refer to sending money from one person to another and is typically done between family members from one country to another. A person living and working in the U.S. would send money to family members typically living in a developing country, where this money is a source of income that contributes to the country's gross domestic product (GDP). Payments are typically sent using an electronic payment service or a money transfer app. Banks, credit unions and money transfer services charge a fee for processing remittances, and fees average 10%, according to the International Monetary Fund. Cryptocurrency exchanges are not as heavily regulated and can be a way to avoid additional taxes and surcharges. "Taxing remittances would amount to a form of double taxation, since migrants already pay taxes in the country where they work," Esteban Moctezuma Barragán, Mexican Ambassador, wrote in a statement. "Imposing a tax on these transfers would disproportionately affect those with the least, without accounting for their ability to pay," Barragán added. However, some believe the 3.5% tax fee would give financial support to public services and is the most "pro-worker, pro-family and pro-American legislation we've seen in decades," said Amy Barela, chairwoman of the Republican Party of New Mexico. "Let's be clear, this measure is not about targeting individuals," she wrote in a statement to the Journal. "It's about ensuring the 3.5% fee, although modest, would also have a very meaningful impact in helping offset costs associated with public services, border security, and community infrastructure — relieving some of the financial pressure on hardworking New Mexicans who continue to bear the burden of an imbalanced system." Crucial source of revenue Mexico is the second-largest receiver of personally wired money behind India, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. In 2024, Latin America received $160.9 billion, with the U.S. accounting for 96.6% of all remittances to Mexico. They also make up 20-30% of GDP in countries like El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti and Honduras. "Remittance is a very important source of revenue in our government," said Patricia Pinzón, consul of Mexico. "This would affect Mexican families and the economy in general, but I would say the basic needs of Mexican families is the most worrying thing." However, "whatever happens in one economy will affect the other," said Pinzón. "Our economies are so interrelated that everything that happens here has a consequence in Mexico," she said. "Mexicans will not stop sending money; they'll just look for alternative ways to send it." Mexican migrant workers sent 16.7% of their labor income back to their families, and more than 80% of the income remains in the U.S. economy. The average amount of remittance sent to Mexico is roughly $350 every one to two months, which "could seem like nothing for the U.S., but it's money that a whole family lives on and covers their basics in Mexico," Pinzón said.
Yahoo
19 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump says more troops will be deployed. Where do things stand with California protests?
Protests in Los Angeles continued to escalate late Monday, after the first contingent of National Guard troops, deployed by President Donald Trump, arrived to the city on Sunday. Late Monday news broke that Trump planned to deploy additional National Guard members to quell violent protests. Images out of L.A. showed scenes of chaos — Waymo self-driving cars lit on fire as masked protesters waved Mexican flags. At least five cars were set ablaze, according to a CBS News report. The Google-owned taxi service said they don't believe protesters intentionally targeted their vehicles but paused its service in the areas where it faced disruption. The LAPD announced they made 50 arrests during the demonstrations over the weekend. As Fox News' Bill Melugin reported, the charges included attempted murder with a Molotov cocktail, and assault with a deadly weapon on an officer. 'Five officers and five LAPD horses have sustained minor injuries, and crowds were using hand held radios to communicate law enforcement movements to each other,' Melugin reported. There was a brief reprieve in the violence early Monday, although city residents continued navigating street and freeway closures amid protests. Among the demonstrators was an interfaith group that sung hymns in front of the police, as CNN showed Monday morning. ICE agents stood behind LAPD officers. Trump announced Saturday night he would deploy 2,000 National Guardsmen to Southern California to protect federal buildings and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers who were carrying out raids on migrants in the country illegally. On Monday, the Trump administration moved to also send 700 Marines to quell the protests. The troops were scheduled to arrive over the next 24 hours. 'You watch the same clips I did: cars burning, people rioting, we stopped it,' Trump said, speaking at the White House. 'If we didn't do the job, that place would be burning down just like the houses,' he added, referring to the wildfires in Los Angeles in January. 'I feel we had no choice ... We did the right thing.' While Trump says he felt his administration didn't have a choice and 'did the right thing,' California Democrats argue the president escalated the situation. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who opposed the deployment of National Guard troops, criticized Trump for sending soldiers to California in a post on X. 'U.S. Marines have served honorably across multiple wars in defense of democracy,' Newsom said. 'They shouldn't be deployed on American soil facing their own countrymen to fulfill the deranged fantasy of a dictatorial President,' he said. 'This is un-American.' Hours later, in a separate post, Newsom said he 'was just informed Trump is deploying another 2,000 Guard troops to L.A.' He claimed the first set of National Guard members Trump sent to California didn't receive food or water and only roughly 300 of them are actively deployed while the rest await their next orders in federal buildings. 'This is Reckless. Pointless. And Disrespectful to our troops,' Newsom added. Newsom urged the Trump White House to rescind the National Guard deployment on Sunday. By Monday, his administration had filed a lawsuit against the federal government. Newsom and California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced they sued the Trump administration for sending the National Guard without the governor's authorization or request during a press conference Monday. 'Donald Trump is creating fear and terror by failing to adhere to the U.S. Constitution and overstepping his authority. This is a manufactured crisis to allow him to take over a state militia, damaging the very foundation of our republic,' said Newsom. 'Every governor, red or blue, should reject this outrageous overreach,' the governor added. According to Bonta, this marks California's 24th lawsuit against the Trump White House over the past four months. Newsom urged Californians to protest peacefully. During Monday's press conference, Bonta also cautioned violent demonstrators against breaking the law to avoid arrests. L.A. Mayor Karen Bass claimed the ICE raids last week and the military presence in the city sparked increased violence over the weekend. 'If you dial back time and go to Friday, if immigration raids had not happened here, we would not have had the disorder that went on last night,' Bass said on CNN's 'The Situation Room.' 'If they see ICE, they go out, and they protest, and so it's just a recipe for pandemonium that is completely unnecessary. Nothing was happening here. Los Angeles was peaceful before Friday.' Vice President J.D. Vance told the governor to do his job. 'That's all we're asking,' he added. Trump patted himself on the back for deploying the National Guard in a post on Truth Social. 'We made a great decision in sending the National Guard to deal with the violent, instigated riots in California,' he said. 'If we had not done so, Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated.' He criticized Newsom and Bass for not accepting the federal government's help nor expressing any gratitude for it. 'Instead, they choose to lie to the People of California and America by saying that we weren't needed, and that these are 'peaceful protests,'' he wrote.
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Lopez: Why this overheated invasion of L.A. looks so ugly and feels so personal
I was driving while listening to the news Sunday when I heard House Speaker Mike Johnson justify President Trump's move to send National Guard troops to Los Angeles. 'We have to maintain the rule of law,' Johnson said. I almost swerved off the road. Maintain the rule of law? Trump pardoned the hooligans who ransacked the Capitol because he lost the 2020 presidential election. They clashed with police, destroyed property and threatened the lives of public officials, and to Trump, they're heroes. Maintain the rule of law? Trump is a 34-count felon who has defied judicial rulings, ignored laws that don't serve his interests, and turned his current presidency into an unprecedented adventure in self-dealing and graft. And now he's sending an invading army to Los Angeles, creating a crisis where there was none. Arresting undocumented immigrants with criminal records is one thing, but is that what this is about? Or is it about putting on a show, occupying commercial and residential neighborhoods and arresting people who are looking for — or on their way to — work. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned that U.S. Marines were on high alert and ready to roll, and in the latest of who knows how many escalations, hundreds are headed our way. What next, the Air Force? I'm not going to defend the vandalism and violence — which plays into Trump's hands—that followed ICE arrests in Los Angeles. I can see him sitting in front of the tube, letting out a cheer every time another "migrant criminal" flings a rock or a scooter at a patrol car. But I am going to defend Los Angeles and the way things work here. For starters, undocumented immigration is not the threat to public safety or the economy that Trump like to bloviate about. It's just that he knows he can score points on border bluster and on DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), so he's going full gasbag on both, and now he's threatening to lock up Gov. Gavin Newsom. Read more: Reopen Alcatraz as a prison? Yes, but Trump shouldn't stop there To hear the rhetoric, you'd think every other undocumented immigrant is a gang member and that trans athletes will soon dominate youth sports if someone doesn't stand up to them. I can already read the mail that hasn't yet arrived, so let me say in advance that I do indeed understand that breaking immigration law means breaking the law, and I believe that President Biden didn't do enough to control the border, although it was Republicans who killed a border security bill early last year. I also acknowledge the cost of supporting undocumented immigrants is substantial when you factor in public education and, in California, medical care, which is running billions of dollars beyond original estimates. But the economic contributions of immigrants — regardless of legal status — are undeniably numerous, affecting the price we pay for everything from groceries to healthcare to domestic services to construction to landscaping. Last year, the Congressional Budget Office concluded that a surge in immigrants since 2021 — including refugees, asylum seekers and others, legal and illegal — had lifted the U.S. economy "by filling otherwise vacant jobs," as The Times reported, and "pumping millions of tax dollars into state, local and federal coffers." According to a seminal 2011 study by the Public Policy Institute of California, 'many illegal immigrants pay Social Security and other taxes but do not collect benefits, and they are not eligible for many government services." In addition, the report said: 'Political controversies aside, when illegal immigrants come, many U.S. employers are ready to hire them. The vast majority work. Estimates suggest that at least 75 percent of adult illegal immigrants are in the workforce.' Trump can rail against the lunatic radical left for the scourge of illegal immigration, but the statement that 'employers are ready to hire them' couldn't be more true. And those employers stand on both sides of the political aisle, as do lawmakers who for decades have allowed the steady flow of workers to industries that would suffer without them. Read more: What happened during three days of protests over immigration raids in downtown L.A. On Sunday, I had to pick up a couple of items at the Home Depot on San Fernando Road in Glendale, where dozens of day laborers often gather in search of work. But there were only a couple of men out there, given recent headlines. A shopper in the garden section said the report of federal troops marching on L.A. is "kind of ridiculous, right?" He said the characterization by Trump of "all these terrible people" and "gang members" on the loose was hard to square with the reality of day laborers all but begging for work. I found one of them in a far corner of the Home Depot lot, behind a fence. He told me he was from Honduras and was afraid to risk arrest by looking for work at a time when battalions of masked troops were on the move, but he's got a hungry family back home, including three kids. He said he was available for any kind of jobs, including painting, hauling and cleanup. Two men in a pickup truck told me they were undocumented too and available for construction jobs of any type. They said they were from Puebla, Mexico, but there wasn't enough work for them there. I've been to Puebla, a city known for its roughly 300 churches. I was passing through about 20 years ago on my way to a small nearby town where almost everyone on the street was female. Where were the men? I was told by a city official that the local economy was all about corn, but local growers couldn't compete with American farmers who had the benefit of federal subsidies. So the men had gone north for work. Another reason people head north is to escape the violence wrought by cartels armed with American-made weapons, competing to serve the huge American appetite for drugs. In these ways, and more, the flow of people across borders can be complicated. But generally speaking, it's simply about survival. People move to escape poverty or danger. They move in search of something better for themselves, or to be more accurate about it, for their children. The narratives of those journeys are woven into the fabric of Los Angeles. It's part of what's messy and splendid and complicated about this blended, imperfect corner of the world, where many of us know students or workers or families with temporary status, or none at all. That's why this overheated invasion looks so ugly and feels so personal. We're less suspicious of our neighbors and the people we encounter on our daily rounds than the hypocrites who would pardon insurrectionists, sow division and send an occupying army to haul away members of our community. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
