Latest news with #AlienSeditionAct
CBS News
31-03-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Protesters march through downtown Dallas for the Mega March 2025
Thousands of people hit the streets of downtown Dallas Sunday to protest anti-immigration policies and ICE raids under the Trump administration. People gathered at the National Cathedral of Our Lady Guadalupe on Ross Street with a message and mission for the Mega March 2025. "Any one of us can be snatched up in the middle of the night. What kind of feeling is that? How is that a way to live? Anyone of my family members may not be here tomorrow because they're undocumented. That's not okay in any way, shape or fashion," Gabriel Rosales said. Rosales hopes the march brings attention to the need for comprehensive immigration reform. "Create a pathway for citizenship," Rosales said. "It should be based on their contribution to this economy and the fact that they're not in criminal justice court. The majority of our people are hardworking people." Organizer Domingo Garcia, with the League of United Latin American Citizens, asked participants to wear white, a symbol of peace. He believes immigrants are important for the country's economy. "You think the price of steaks and eggs is high? Imagine what happens if all those immigrants that are working, those chicken farms working out there, and those cattle ranches are gone? Then you're really going to be looking at high food prices, and you're also going to be looking at possible shortages," Garcia said. Organizers said the movement is much more than a march. They have plans for the future, which possibly includes a lawsuit. "It's going to be filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration on the Alien Sedition Act and the use of that to try to pick up people," Garcia said. "We believe if you're an alien, an immigrant, and you're committing a crime, yes, go, but those that are not committing crimes who have been here dozens of years who have American families, they go to church here, they pay taxes. They never committed a crime. They should have the opportunity for the American dream." The demonstrators marched to Dallas City Hall, where they had a rally with both English and Spanish speakers.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Federal prosecutor from New Mexico resigns over Trump ‘politicizing and weaponizing' the DOJ
Alex Flores (Courtesy photo) After Donald Trump was reelected as United States president last year, Alex Flores had no plans to leave his job at the federal Department of Justice. But after Trump's second inauguration, Flores said it quickly became clear to him that the administration 'is politicizing and weaponizing the department, turning its powers on political enemies, punishing dissenters and turning its mission on its head,' he told Source NM in an interview on Thursday. Flores, who lives in Albuquerque, resigned from the United States Attorney's Office for the District of New Mexico on March 7, but made sure to outline his work in response to the infamous directive by Elon Musk to list five work accomplishments. In his last week at work, Flores wrote in his resignation letter, he 'reminded my fellow prosecutors that although we have now witnessed certain senior government officials engage in gross, politically motivated abuses of power, each of us can stand firm by our oath. By doing so, we safeguard New Mexico's citizens and preserve our own honor.' Flores told Source NM the request from the independent Office of Personnel Management for five work accomplishments stood out as 'highly unusual' based on his experience in the Marine Corps and at DOJ. Every federal employee is required to report their work to be held accountable to a chain of command, he said. 'The idea that an external entity, not even belonging to the U.S. government, would demand work updates was asinine,' Flores said. 'I think that the purpose of that organization has not been to increase the efficiency of government, but instead to gut and handicap government.' He said no one thing caused him to leave, but rather the cumulative effect of the department's promise to punish law firms that provide legal support to the president's political opponents; its discontinuation of the Civil Rights and Public Integrity sections' work; and its elimination of due process protections for whole classes of people being deported under the Alien Sedition Act. But one situation that 'really got under my skin,' Flores said, was when federal prosecutors implemented Trump's policy by questioning Native Americans' U.S. citizenship in court. 'The United States' connection with the children of illegal aliens and temporary visitors is weaker than its connection with members of Indian tribes. If the latter link is insufficient for birthright citizenship, the former certainly is,' the Trump administration argued in a case challenging his birthright citizenship executive order. Flores is married to and a father of enrolled members of New Mexico Pueblos. 'I found it unconscionable that we were citing that kind of law in legal arguments,' he told Source NM. Earlier in Flores' legal career, he clerked for then New Mexico Supreme Court Justice Edward Chávez until joining the Marine Corps in 2014 as a prosecutor and then an instructor on the law of war. He took the job at the DOJ in February 2020, during the first Trump administration, according to his resume. 'I have only ever worked in public service, in government, and so it was a natural continuation on that path,' he said. Flores worked for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Mexico for five years, where he led the Indian Country Crimes Section, a team of six prosecutors who handle cases in and affecting Native sovereign lands in New Mexico. He said he personally prosecuted nearly 200 federal felony cases and supervised the prosecution of approximately 200 to 400 felony cases. Flores said he will continue service in the military reserves and is joining a plaintiffs' law firm in Albuquerque called Singleton Schreiber, where he will focus on personal injury lawsuits, environmental injury, mass tort claims and wildfire litigation. The Indian Country Crimes Section's mission had not fundamentally changed when Flores left earlier this month, he said, and his departure was not about what was happening to the section. 'Good people remain in the department and remain in government doing the good, critical and necessary work,' Flores said. 'This was a very personal decision, and even though I could not go on serving in this administration, I am glad, heartened and grateful that other people are staying.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
