đŸ”” ICE Wins

Author

Citizen Frank
May 13, 2025

Good evening. It’s Monday, May 12.

 

A federal judge on Monday declined to halt the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from sharing illegal immigrants’ tax information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), clearing the way for continued collaboration aimed at identifying and deporting individuals living in the U.S. without legal status.

The ruling marks a legal victory for the Trump administration and comes just weeks after former acting IRS Commissioner Melanie Krause stepped down over the controversial arrangement.

U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump appointee during his first term, denied a preliminary injunction sought by nonprofit groups who argued that illegal immigrants who file taxes deserve the same privacy protections afforded to U.S. citizens and legal residents. Friedrich had previously refused to issue a temporary order blocking the data-sharing agreement.

Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex trafficking trial escalated on Monday afternoon as Daniel Phillip, a 41-year-old male escort, was called to the witness stand.

In an extremely graphic testimony that lasted about an hour, Phillip was questioned by lead prosecutor Maurene Comey about his sexual encounters with Combs and his then-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura from around 2012 to 2014. According to Phillip, he was paid between $700 and $6,000 on several occasions to have sex with Ventura, as Combs watched and masturbated. On more than one occasion, he witnessed Combs physically abusing Ventura, and in one instance, he was given the drug MDMA.

Phillip was first pulled into Combs’ orbit when he was working as the manager of a male revue show in Manhattan around 2012. One night, his boss asked if he could go to the Gramercy Park Hotel for a bachelorette party because none of his dancers were available. Phillip believed he would arrive at the hotel and perform a strip tease for a group of women. Instead, Ventura opened the door to her hotel room and asked if he was OK engaging with just her. (Ventura, who is expected to testify against Combs later this week, has accused Combs of feeding her drugs and forcing her to engage in sex acts with male escorts. She has also accused him of physically assaulting her.)

President Donald Trump on Monday called on congressional Republicans to unify behind what he hailed as his “ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL,” a sweeping legislative package that merges tax cuts, immigration reforms, and a raft of domestic priorities into a single reconciliation measure.

“This week the Republicans are meeting in the Tax, Energy, and Agriculture Committees on major pieces of ‘THE ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL,'” Mr. Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, urging lawmakers to stand behind House committee chairs Jason Smith of Ways and Means, Brett Guthrie of Energy and Commerce, and Glenn “GT” Thompson of Agriculture. “We must WIN! But now, with the tremendous Drug and Pharmaceutical Cuts, plus massive incoming Tariff Money, our ‘GREAT, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ just got much BIGGER and BETTER. The Golden Age of America will soon be upon us.”

The comments, made just before Mr. Trump’s planned trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, came as his administration unveiled an executive action to lower pharmaceutical drug prices by up to 90% under a new “Most Favored Nations” pricing policy. He also lashed out at Democrats, accusing them of trying to “DESTROY our Country” by offering amendments to the bill prior to his press conference.

Dozens of white South Africans arrived in the United States on May 12 after being granted refugee status under the Trump administration’s new admission program.

About 49 Afrikaners—a white ethnic minority in South Africa—boarded a chartered flight bound for the District of Columbia, which will then fly to Texas, South African Transport Department spokesperson Collen Msibi said.

“One of the conditions of the permit was to ensure that they were vetted in case one of them has a criminal issue pending,” Msibi was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Dozens of clergy members protested outside an ICE facility in Newark, N.J., on Monday, saying they would continue to block the gates accessing the facility until they are arrested.

The group is composed of roughly 50 clergy members from Faith in N.J. and Faith in Action. They linked arms outside the main gate of Delaney Hall Detention Center as they chanted and sang songs.

Several speakers also said prayers for the inmates inside the facility and condemned their detention.

Pope Leo XIV’s oldest brother stood by his decision to share a social media post that referred to California Rep. Nancy Pelosi as a “drunk c–t,” declaring Monday, “I wouldn’t have posted it if I didn’t kind of believe it.”

Louis Prevost didn’t seek forgiveness for the foul-mouthed insult directed at the former House speaker while he predicted to Piers Morgan what the first meeting would be like between President Trump and the new pope.

The wide-ranging interview with the pontiff’s brother and self-professed Donald Trump fan comes as media outlets reported on a tranche of Facebook posts that Prevost, 73, either shared or wrote before his brother — formerly known as Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost — was selected as successor to the late Pope Francis.

Receipts from U.S. tariffs hit a record level in April as revenue from President Donald Trump’s trade war started kicking in.

Customs duties totaled $16.3 billion for the month, some 86% above the $8.75 billion collected during March and more than double the $7.1 billion a year ago, the Treasury Department reported Monday.

That brought the year-to-date total for the duties up to $63.3 billion and more than 18% ahead of the same period in 2024.

Taliban authorities have barred chess across Afghanistan until further notice over concerns it is a source of gambling, which is illegal under the government’s morality law, a sports official said on Sunday.

The Taliban government has steadily imposed laws and regulations that reflect its austere vision of Islamic law since seizing power in 2021.

“Chess in sharia (Islamic law) is considered a means of gambling”, which is prohibited according to the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice law announced last year, sports directorate spokesperson Atal Mashwani told AFP.

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