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The South African
20-05-2025
- Politics
- The South African
Staying or going? Orania residents on being Afrikaner 'refugees'
Residents of Orania – the Afrikaner only town located in the Northern Cape – are responding to US President Donald Trump's offer of 'refugee status' in the US. And for many, that means staying behind in South Africa, and celebrating their 'freedom'. Last week, 49 white South Africans arrived in America as part of the resettlement programme. The group claims to be victims of 'racial discrimination'. On their official Facebook account, Orania town officials posed a question to their followers. 'Refugee or freedom', it asked. In the comments section, residents of the Afrikaner-only town shared that they are mostly interested in staying in South Africa and preserving their culture and freedom. Deon Kotze: 'Freedom. Abroad is not going to offer us freedom. We must consolidate if we want to survive as Afrikaners.' Deon Domingo: 'Freedom. We are not moved by the enemy.' Arthur Spies: 'Every country in the world has different problems, so I say we stay put.' Andrew Lunt: 'Freedom! America is not freedom.' Afrikaners: Vlugteling of Vryheid? Wat sê jy? Posted by Orania on Wednesday 14 May 2025 Speaking to political commentator Matt Gaetz last week, Orania Movement leader Joost Strydom stated that while Afrikaners were thankful for President Donald Trump's refugee status offer, they were interested in establishing a home for themselves in South Africa. He told the One America News Network: 'What we really appreciate is that President Trump called us by our name. We are Afrikaners, we are a distinct people. A distinct group with a distinct language and culture He continued: 'We are very thankful for that…but people need a place. And in that light, we ask for political recognition, specifically self-determination. 'Now we ask if there can be a Trump declaration stating that a national home for Afrikaners is a legitimate pursuit, and that they will support it with their best endevours'. Let us know by leaving a comment below, or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1 . Subscribe to The South African website's newsletters and follow us on WhatsApp , Facebook , X, and Bluesky for the latest news.
USA Today
18-05-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
ICE adopts new tactic: Deport before court, removing people facing criminal charges
ICE adopts new tactic: Deport before court, removing people facing criminal charges Suspects and witnesses are being deported without justice being served, prosecutors and legal experts say. Show Caption Hide Caption Venezuelans in El Salvador prison plead for freedom in video Venezuelans held in a high-security prison in El Salvador shouted 'freedom' and used a hand signal for help in a video published by the far-right One America News Network, a rare glimpse of the detainees since they were sent there by the U.S. in March. This report produced by Jillian Kitchener. DENVER ‒ Some suspects in violent assaults and sex crimes are escaping American justice because they're being deported before they can stand trial, according to a number of prosecutors and legal experts across the country. In one suburban Denver county, the district attorney has tallied at least six criminal cases he's had to shelve or drop because Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained or deported suspects before he could prosecute them. In another case in the city of Denver, a man suspected of attempted murder was released because ICE had deported the witnesses against him, forcing prosecutors to drop the charges. That suspect then tackled an ICE agent trying to detain him outside the jail. And in Boston, a judge was forced to drop charges against a man accused of using a fake name on a driver's license after ICE took him into custody mid-trial and refused to return him. Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden called ICE's actions "troubling and extraordinarily reckless," because the agents prevented him from prosecuting the detainee. Across the country, prosecutors, defense attorneys and legal observers say they've seen an uptick in ICE agents choosing to deport criminal suspects, instead of keeping them in custody and producing them for local court proceedings. "It's not only undermining to the justice system but also impacting community safety," said Adams County District Attorney Brian Mason, who serves a suburban area northeast of Denver. These rapid deportations mean some innocent people are being denied the chance to clear their name in a U.S. courtroom. For crime victims, it means they never see the satisfaction of their assailant behind bars. And it could be making all Americans less safe, legal experts say, when people with criminal backgrounds and no respect for the law cross back into the United States and commit more crimes. "My fear that is that people will get deported, will essentially avoid criminal prosecution, will sneak back into the country ... and live under the radar and never be held accountable and suffer no consequences whatsoever for their actions, and potentially perpetrate more crimes against other victims," Mason said. The Laken Riley Act effect Legal experts say the increase appears to being driven in part by the new federal Laken Riley Act, which requires ICE to detain people living illegally in the United States once they have been accused or charged with certain crimes, including theft or shoplifting. Although the Riley Act, named for a Georgia nursing student killed in 2024 by an immigrant, doesn't require deportations, at least some of the people detained under the law have subsequently been removed from the United States, experts told USA TODAY. Sometimes that means those people are escaping prosecution for assaults, domestic violence or thefts. In other instances, prosecutors have dropped cases because ICE deported the witnesses. The people ICE targeted are accused of living illegally within the United States. In another Massachusetts case, ICE detained a man facing state driving charges and refused to produce him for his trial, prompting the ACLU to ask a federal judge to intervene. The judge ordered ICE to produce the man, and he was found not guilty of the state charges. He was then returned to ICE custody, which had been the prior procedure. President Donald Trump campaigned on tough new immigration policies, and ICE agents nationwide have been conducting high-profile detention operations, which the president said are primarily targeted at violent criminals and gang members. And he has chafed at judicial limits placed on deportations of people targeted because they were accused but never convicted. "Murderers, drug dealers, gang members, and even the mentally insane will make their home in our country, wreaking havoc like we have never seen before," Trump posted to social media in late April. "It is not possible to have trials for millions and millions of people. We know who the criminals are, and we must get them out of the U.S.A. and fast!" ICE as a 'getaway driver' Prof. Michael Kagan, who runs the Immigration Clinic at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas law school, said the deportations-before-prosecution policy risks creating a two-tiered justice system: American citizens are imprisoned if convicted, but someone who commits the same crime while living illegally in the United States could be released with no punishment other than a free trip home. "If you think that it's worth incarcerating a citizen who has committed a crime, it becomes very hard to justify not incarcerating a non-citizen convicted of the same crime," said Kagan, whose clinic provides legal aid to people facing deportation. Kagan said some immigration experts have begun referring to ICE as a "getaway driver" because they believe the new system is ripe for abuse by offenders: "The U.S. citizen has to face trial and serious prison time while the non-citizen could just ask ICE to give him a ride to Mexico and get off free." Nicholas Reppucci, the chief public defender in Charlottesville, Virginia, said he's already seeing less willingness by immigrants to testify as witnesses over the aggressive new approach. "It is having a very significant negative impact, not just for criminal defendants but for complainants or people who have been victimized by crimes," he said. "Inherently, in my option, people are less likely to come to court to have wrongs righted." Mason, the Colorado district attorney, said he previously worked with ICE agents to secure what are known as U visas, which grant crime victims the right to remain in the United States so they can testify in local criminal cases. Now, the collaboration is gone, he said. "If a victim of crime is afraid to come to the Adams County courthouse because she's afraid she'll get detained in the parking lot by ICE, then I can't prosecute that case," he said. "It's not only undermining to the justice system but also impacting community safety."
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘It pains our souls': Venezuelans react to first video of relatives in Salvadoran prison after Matt Gaetz TV report
Sitting on a couch in her home in Maracay, Venezuela, Mirelis Cacique López watches her son Francisco Javier García Cacique on her cell phone in the first video released of a group of Venezuelans sent by the United States to El Salvador's maximum-security prison Cecot. 'Among the boys, I recognized my son,' Cacique López said to CNN. 'We thank God for allowing us to see our relatives, even in those conditions,' she added, insisting that she will continue to pray for their release. The video aired Tuesday on the One America News Network, on a show hosted by former US Republican congressman Matt Gaetz. He visited Cecot and had access to the prison wing housing the group of more than 200 Venezuelans deported by President Donald Trump's administration, many under the controversial use of the Alien Enemies Act, accused largely without evidence of being members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. The report shows a roughly one-minute clip of the Venezuelans behind bars, dressed in white T-shirts and shorts, the Cecot prisoners' uniform. From the moment the TV cameras enter the prison, the detainees react with shouts of 'Freedom, freedom!' and 'Venezuela!' while another group makes a fist with four fingers over their thumbs, a universal gesture asking of help. Yenni Luz Rincón Ramírez identified her brother Jonathan Miguel Ramírez in the video. 'I felt joy because I was finally able to see him after 60 days,' she told CNN from Venezuela. She insisted that her brother's detention is unjust and asserted that he is not a member of Tren de Aragua. Rincón Ramírez isn't the only one who's been able to see a loved one for the first time since the deportations were announced in March. Blanca Martínez told CNN that she learned her partner Miguel Ángel Rojas had been deported to El Salvador through a list published by media outlets. She hadn't heard from him since. So far, neither the US nor the Salvadoran government has published official lists with the names of those deported to Cecot. 'It made me sad to see him there without knowing how he really is,' Martínez said, adding that Rojas suffers from depression and that knowing he is detained at Cecot causes her great anguish. Angie Ríos, a US citizen, told CNN in a telephone interview that she recognized her husband Jesús Ríos in the video. 'I saw him and I heard him,' she said. 'He's the most handsome of all,' she said affectionately about her partner. Ríos added the last time she saw her husband was on March 15. 'He's in survival mode,' Ríos said when she saw Jesús, saying he was one of the detainees shouting 'Freedom!' 'I feel like in that video he's fighting for his voice to be heard.' CNN has not been able to verify whether these individuals have criminal records in the US and has contacted the Department of Homeland Security for comment. Following the release of the video, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro again condemned what he considers to be a kidnapping of Venezuelan citizens to El Salvador. 'I swear that we will rescue the 253 Venezuelans kidnapped in El Salvador, in concentration camps, as seen today,' he said on Tuesday. 'Let us demand that these young people who are kidnapped without trial, without the right to appear before a judge, without the right to a defense, without having committed any crime, be released immediately. And we are ready to pick them up on a Venezuelan plane and bring them back to their families,' he added. CNN has reached out to the Salvadoran presidency for comment on Maduro's statements. In April, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele proposed to Maduro an exchange of people deported to and detained in his country and for what he considers 'political prisoners' of the Venezuelan government. Maduro responded by demanding access to the prisoners for lawyers and family members. In March, El Salvador agreed to detain in Cecot up to 300 immigrants sent by the Trump administration. El Salvador would receive approximately $6 million from the US to hold them there, according to an agreement between the two governments. Osmary Hernández and Caroll Alvarado contributed to this report.
CNN
15-05-2025
- Politics
- CNN
‘It pains our souls': Venezuelans react to first video of relatives in Salvadoran prison after Matt Gaetz TV report
Sitting on a couch in her home in Maracay, Venezuela, Mirelis Cacique López watches her son Francisco Javier García Cacique on her cell phone in the first video released of a group of Venezuelans sent by the United States to El Salvador's maximum-security prison Cecot. 'Among the boys, I recognized my son,' Cacique López said to CNN. 'We thank God for allowing us to see our relatives, even in those conditions,' she added, insisting that she will continue to pray for their release. The video aired Tuesday on the One America News Network, on a show hosted by former US Republican congressman Matt Gaetz. He visited Cecot and had access to the prison wing housing the group of more than 200 Venezuelans deported by President Donald Trump's administration, many under the controversial use of the Alien Enemies Act, accused largely without evidence of being members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. The report shows a roughly one-minute clip of the Venezuelans behind bars, dressed in white T-shirts and shorts, the Cecot prisoners' uniform. From the moment the TV cameras enter the prison, the detainees react with shouts of 'Freedom, freedom!' and 'Venezuela!' while another group makes a fist with four fingers over their thumbs, a universal gesture asking of help. Yenni Luz Rincón Ramírez identified her brother Jonathan Miguel Ramírez in the video. 'I felt joy because I was finally able to see him after 60 days,' she told CNN from Venezuela. She insisted that her brother's detention is unjust and asserted that he is not a member of Tren de Aragua. Rincón Ramírez isn't the only one who's been able to see a loved one for the first time since the deportations were announced in March. Blanca Martínez told CNN that she learned her partner Miguel Ángel Rojas had been deported to El Salvador through a list published by media outlets. She hadn't heard from him since. So far, neither the US nor the Salvadoran government has published official lists with the names of those deported to Cecot. 'It made me sad to see him there without knowing how he really is,' Martínez said, adding that Rojas suffers from depression and that knowing he is detained at Cecot causes her great anguish. Angie Ríos, a US citizen, told CNN in a telephone interview that she recognized her husband Jesús Ríos in the video. 'I saw him and I heard him,' she said. 'He's the most handsome of all,' she said affectionately about her partner. Ríos added the last time she saw her husband was on March 15. 'He's in survival mode,' Ríos said when she saw Jesús, saying he was one of the detainees shouting 'Freedom!' 'I feel like in that video he's fighting for his voice to be heard.' CNN has not been able to verify whether these individuals have criminal records in the US and has contacted the Department of Homeland Security for comment. Following the release of the video, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro again condemned what he considers to be a kidnapping of Venezuelan citizens to El Salvador. 'I swear that we will rescue the 253 Venezuelans kidnapped in El Salvador, in concentration camps, as seen today,' he said on Tuesday. 'Let us demand that these young people who are kidnapped without trial, without the right to appear before a judge, without the right to a defense, without having committed any crime, be released immediately. And we are ready to pick them up on a Venezuelan plane and bring them back to their families,' he added. CNN has reached out to the Salvadoran presidency for comment on Maduro's statements. In April, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele proposed to Maduro an exchange of people deported to and detained in his country and for what he considers 'political prisoners' of the Venezuelan government. Maduro responded by demanding access to the prisoners for lawyers and family members. In March, El Salvador agreed to detain in Cecot up to 300 immigrants sent by the Trump administration. El Salvador would receive approximately $6 million from the US to hold them there, according to an agreement between the two governments. Osmary Hernández and Caroll Alvarado contributed to this report.
CNN
15-05-2025
- Politics
- CNN
‘It pains our souls': Venezuelans react to first video of relatives in Salvadoran prison after Matt Gaetz TV report
Sitting on a couch in her home in Maracay, Venezuela, Mirelis Cacique López watches her son Francisco Javier García Cacique on her cell phone in the first video released of a group of Venezuelans sent by the United States to El Salvador's maximum-security prison Cecot. 'Among the boys, I recognized my son,' Cacique López said to CNN. 'We thank God for allowing us to see our relatives, even in those conditions,' she added, insisting that she will continue to pray for their release. The video aired Tuesday on the One America News Network, on a show hosted by former US Republican congressman Matt Gaetz. He visited Cecot and had access to the prison wing housing the group of more than 200 Venezuelans deported by President Donald Trump's administration, many under the controversial use of the Alien Enemies Act, accused largely without evidence of being members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. The report shows a roughly one-minute clip of the Venezuelans behind bars, dressed in white T-shirts and shorts, the Cecot prisoners' uniform. From the moment the TV cameras enter the prison, the detainees react with shouts of 'Freedom, freedom!' and 'Venezuela!' while another group makes a fist with four fingers over their thumbs, a universal gesture asking of help. Yenni Luz Rincón Ramírez identified her brother Jonathan Miguel Ramírez in the video. 'I felt joy because I was finally able to see him after 60 days,' she told CNN from Venezuela. She insisted that her brother's detention is unjust and asserted that he is not a member of Tren de Aragua. Rincón Ramírez isn't the only one who's been able to see a loved one for the first time since the deportations were announced in March. Blanca Martínez told CNN that she learned her partner Miguel Ángel Rojas had been deported to El Salvador through a list published by media outlets. She hadn't heard from him since. So far, neither the US nor the Salvadoran government has published official lists with the names of those deported to Cecot. 'It made me sad to see him there without knowing how he really is,' Martínez said, adding that Rojas suffers from depression and that knowing he is detained at Cecot causes her great anguish. Angie Ríos, a US citizen, told CNN in a telephone interview that she recognized her husband Jesús Ríos in the video. 'I saw him and I heard him,' she said. 'He's the most handsome of all,' she said affectionately about her partner. Ríos added the last time she saw her husband was on March 15. 'He's in survival mode,' Ríos said when she saw Jesús, saying he was one of the detainees shouting 'Freedom!' 'I feel like in that video he's fighting for his voice to be heard.' CNN has not been able to verify whether these individuals have criminal records in the US and has contacted the Department of Homeland Security for comment. Following the release of the video, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro again condemned what he considers to be a kidnapping of Venezuelan citizens to El Salvador. 'I swear that we will rescue the 253 Venezuelans kidnapped in El Salvador, in concentration camps, as seen today,' he said on Tuesday. 'Let us demand that these young people who are kidnapped without trial, without the right to appear before a judge, without the right to a defense, without having committed any crime, be released immediately. And we are ready to pick them up on a Venezuelan plane and bring them back to their families,' he added. CNN has reached out to the Salvadoran presidency for comment on Maduro's statements. In April, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele proposed to Maduro an exchange of people deported to and detained in his country and for what he considers 'political prisoners' of the Venezuelan government. Maduro responded by demanding access to the prisoners for lawyers and family members. In March, El Salvador agreed to detain in Cecot up to 300 immigrants sent by the Trump administration. El Salvador would receive approximately $6 million from the US to hold them there, according to an agreement between the two governments. Osmary Hernández and Caroll Alvarado contributed to this report.
