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- [00:15]
Amy Goodman
From new york, this is democracy now. Residents of Biddeford, Maine fill the streets and protest Monday following another fatal ice shooting. In this case, a 26 year old man. Juan Sebastian Guerrero will go to Biddeford, Maine for the latest. And we'll get an update on the Democratic primary race to unseat Maine Senator Susan Collins. Last term, she was the deciding vote approving 70 billion more dollars for ice. The ice shooting is the second in less than a following the killing of a Houston father, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. We'll speak with Juan Proagno, head of lula, the League of United Latin American Citizens, about the need for an independent investigation.
- [01:21]
Juan Proagno
We do not believe them. They're playing by a playbook. They're using a template in shootings and murders that have happened across the country time and time again. And it is time to.
- [01:37]
Amy Goodman
And we'll talk about the latest election news with Mother Jones correspondent Ari Berman. A federal judge has quashed a DOJ subpoena seeking the names and personal information of Fulton County, Georgia's 2020 election workers. President Trump also plans to discuss so called election integrity in a primetime address Thursday night. All that and more coming. Welcome to Democracy now, democracynow.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. President Trump's announced the US Is reinstating its naval blockade of Iranian ports as the US And Iran move closer to a return to all out war. The US has carried out another night of strikes on Iran with US Central Command saying it targeted, quote, coastal defense systems, missile and drone sites and maritime capabilities. In addition, Trump has notified Congress that the US is again at war with Iran, giving him another 60 days to attack Iran without congressional approval. Iran retaliated by attacking US Military sites in Bahrain and Jordan. In addition, Iran struck two oil tankers from the United Arab Emirates. An Indian crew member was killed, several others injured. While Iran maintains that it controls the Strait of Hormuz, President Trump announced a new plan for the US to begin imposing a 20% fee on oil tankers and other ships passing through the strait. In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote, quote, the USA will be from this point forward known as the guardian of the Hormuz Strait, unquote. Trump gave no details about how this would actually be accomplished. At the White House, Trump claimed the US Would end up controlling the entire strait.
- [03:44]
Juan Gonzalez
They're wired differently and we're not going to put up with it. We are just going forward. We're attacking them tonight. We're taking out all of their capability for anything having to do with the strait, with the Hormuz Strait. And I think in the end we will end up just controlling the whole thing.
- [04:02]
Amy Goodman
Tensions are escalating between Houthi forces in Yemen and Saudi Arabia testing a four year truce. On Monday, the Houthis, who are aligned with Iran, fired missiles at Saudi Arabia's international airport in Abba. Earlier in the day, the Houthis accused Saudi Arabia of bombing the international airport in the Yemeni capital of Sana'.
- [04:22]
Isha Khan
A.
- [04:22]
Amy Goodman
The Saudi backed Yemeni government took responsibility for bombing the airport in Sana', a, saying it was done to prevent an Iranian aircraft from landing. Immigration agents fatally shot a 26 year old Colombian man on Monday as he was driving to work in Biddeford, Maine. The man has been identified as Juan Sebastian Guerrero, the father of a three year old daughter. One witness reported seeing agents drag Guerrero from his car after the shooting. One eyewitness said, quote, he was bleeding profusely from the head. He was talking, he said, I tried to stop. At least four bullet holes were seen in the car's windshield after the shooting. Another neighbor said she heard a woman screaming at immigration agents, you took her dad. You took her dad. Unquote. The woman was with a young girl dressed in bluey pajamas who is believed to be Guerrero's three year old daughter. Another neighbor said, quote, I watched a wife fall to her knees looking at her husband's dead body on the ground. I watched a little girl crying with a little pink backpack on because she's never going to see her father again. Unquote. Senator Angus King's office said the Department of Homeland Security has confirmed Juan Sebastian Guerrero was not the target of any warrant. The Maine Immigrants Rights Coalition said Guerrero was authorized to work in the United States and had been issued a Social Security number. His death prompted protests across Maine, including outside the Maine offices of Republican Senator Susan Collins. The killing of Juan Sebastian Guerrero comes just a week after an ICE agent in Houston fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52 year old Mexican father of three who'd lived in the United States for decades. The killings come amidst a major surge in ICE activity. ICE reported making 10,000 arrests over a five day period in late June. That's 2,000 arrests a day. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is calling for criminal investigations into the deaths of 17 Mexicans in the United States amidst President Trump's sweeping immigrant crackdown. Fourteen of the Mexicans died in immigration detention while three were killed by US Agents, including Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Houston last week. Shainbaum spoke Monday in Mexico City. I want to tell you that today the Foreign Ministry will file complaints with the U.S. department of justice and state prosecutors offices in the United States over The deaths of 17 Mexican nationals, including the most recent one who was practically executed. A federal judge has blasted President Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS, saying it was filed for improper purposes and that it was an attempt to use the court quote to earmark billions of dollars from American taxpayers. The judge also penalized Trump's lawyers, including Attorney General Todd Blanche, for manipulating the judicial process by filing the lawsuit against the IRS over Trump's leaked tax returns. The lawsuit ended in a settlement that granted President Trump immunity from future tax audits and initially created a nearly $1.8 billion so called anti weaponization fund to compensate Trump's allies. An audit would have hit President Trump with a $100 million tax bill if the IRS found wrongdoing. After substantial public outcry, including from Republican officials, the Trump administration eventually abandoned the anti weaponization fund. On Monday, Federal Judge Kathleen Williams stated in her ruling that the government cannot claim that its settlement with President Trump was conducted as a part of a legitimate legal process. Judge Williams requested that a copy of the order be sent to the New York bar where Attorney General Blanche is a member and is currently facing multiple ethics complaints. There was a planned confirmation hearing for Todd Blanche as Attorney General this week in the Senate. Twelve Democratic led states have sued to block Paramount Skydance's $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount Skydance is run by David Ellison, whose father, Larry Ellison, is the billionaire founder of Oracle and a prominent ally and financial backer of President Trump. Under the proposed deal, CNN and CBS News streaming services HBO Max and Paramount plus as well as film and television studios would all be combined under a single entity controlled by the Ellisons. This is California Attorney General Rob Banta.
- [10:09]
Nathan Bernard
This $110 billion proposed merger, the largest merger in Hollywood history, would extinguish competition. It would result in higher prices, lower content quality and fewer movies and TV shows. I'm proud to lead 12 attorneys general across the country to put an end to a merger that, let's just say, it simply breaks the law. It hurts an industry that touches the lives of Americans daily and brings so much to the state of California.
- [10:48]
Amy Goodman
The UK is also weighing whether to sue to take on the proposed merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery. U.S. secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced new plans for the United States to, quote, systematically disable quote, the International Criminal Court, brick by brick. On Monday, Rubio published an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal and posted a short video attacking the tribunal at the Hague.
- [11:20]
Nathan Bernard
The ICC and its friends are waging a war against our country, not with bullets or missiles, but with statutes, compacts and the force of so called international law.
- [11:33]
Amy Goodman
Last year, the Trump administration imposed sweeping economic and travel sanctions on ICC judges and prosecutors after the court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for committing war crimes in Gaza. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a new joint task force with the Justice Department to, quote, identify and prosecute unquotelaks to the press. In a video posted on social media, Hegseth thanked Attorney General Todd Blanche, saying he was, quote, proud that our departments are working together closer than we have ever before, unquote. This comes just days after Justice Department subpoenaed four journalists at the New York Times after they reported on security concerns over President Trump's new plane, which was donated to him by Qatar. In other press Freedom News, U.S. border agents seized the electronic devices of journalist Max Blumenthal after he flew home from a reporting trip to Iran, where he covered the funeral of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Blumenthal, who's the founder of the Gray Zone, said agents also interrogated him. He said, quote, the seizure of my devices was a clear act of intimidation aimed at deterring me and others from doing further critical reporting from Iran about the illegal war ravaging the country. Blumenthal said. President Trump signed an executive order Monday drastically reducing the size of two national monuments in Utah by more than 90%. The Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante national monuments in southern Utah are considered sacred by Native Americans and span More than 3.2 million acres, which is nearly the size of Connecticut. Critics say the order opens up thousands of acres of protected land to developers and the oil and gas industry. South Carolina's governor appointed Darlene Graham Nardon, the sister of the late Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, to replace him and serve out the rest of his term, which ends in January. Senator Graham died over the weekend from an aortic tear. With her appointment, Nordone becomes South Carolina's first female senator. She has never held public office before. In climate news, the National Weather Service is forecasting dozens of temperature records in cities across the US Will be tied or broken today and tomorrow. Meanwhile, a new study finds that a heat wave in England and Wales last month killed about 2,700 people during a three day peak. An estimated 440 people died per day due to heat related causes. This is Claire Barnes, a research associate at the Imperial College in London.
- [14:47]
Nathan Bernard
I think the first important thing to take away from this study is that we are now seeing really dangerous levels of heat. This is not go out and play in the sun weather. This is something we all need to be aware of the risks of. And the other thing we really need to remember is that this is not naturally occurring heat. This has been supercharged by human caused warming.
- [15:06]
Amy Goodman
The operator of the Keystone Pipeline, a company based in Canada called Southbow, has agreed to pay nearly $27 million in civil penalties over the 2022 oil spill which dumped nearly 13,000 barrels of heavy crude oil into a creek in rural Kansas. Under the agreement with the the company would also spend about $40 million to prevent future accidents. The EPA's assistant administrator for its enforcement office said, quote, the oil spill blanketed land and water, rendering the waterway lifeless and useless and requiring extensive cleanup and remediation. The substantial penalty reflects the seriousness of the environmental harm and the Pro Palestinian activist and philanthropist Fergie Chambers has been arrested in Spain after the United States requested his extradition. Chambers is an heir to the multibillion dollar Cox family fortune. For years he's used his inheritance to fund leftist and pro Palestinian groups. According to the indictment, he faces charges including providing funding to Palestinian militant groups. His family denied the charge and said Chambers is a victim of political persecution. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman in New York. Democracy Now's Juan Gonzalez joins us from Chicago. Hi Juan.
- [16:44]
Juan Gonzalez
Hi Amy. And welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world.
- [16:49]
Amy Goodman
We begin today's show with the fatal shooting of Lorenzo salgado Araujo, the 52 year old father, husband, small business owner, originally from Mexico, killed by an ICE agent last Tuesday in Houston, Texas during his early morning commute to work at a construction site. Firsthand accounts from the men who were also in his van that morning, continue to refute claims by ICE officials that Araujo allegedly posed a threat to the agents and attempted to ram them with his van. The three men are currently detained by ICE and are facing deportation. They're all reportedly undocumented from Mexico and had lived in the US for decades. The New York Times reports two of them spoke at length with Democratic Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia, whose district includes Houston, and told her that the shot that killed Araujo was fired into the front passenger side window. One of the men is Araujo's younger brother, Victor Victor Salgado Araujo. The Department of Homeland Security last week acknowledged that Lorenzo Araujo was targeted by mistake and that federal agents were in fact, searching for a different person. This all comes as his family and advocates are demanding an independent investigation amidst fears the Trump administration will attempt to conceal or tamper with evidence. ICE says none of the agents involved were wearing body cameras at the time of Araujo's killing. The New York Times reports there have been at least 22 shootings involving federal immigration officers since Trump returned to office. Six people, including three US Citizens, have been killed. This all comes as the White House has demanded an increase in immigration detentions, ordering ICE officials to make at least 2,000 arrests per the end of June, beginning of July, there were 10,000 arrests in five days. For more, we go to Washington, D.C. where we're joined by Juan Proagno, CEO of LULAC, the largest and oldest Latino civil rights organization in the United States. Juan, thanks so much for joining us. You were there in Houston, now you're in Washington. Can you talk about what we understand at this point happened to Lorenzo Araujo?
- [19:32]
Juan Proagno
Well, Amy, thank you so much for having me. And good morning. Juan. I think, you know, it's been widely reported, my perspective is that ICE was casing Magnolia park, which is a 97% Hispanic community. They were hunting for Latinos. They saw a brown man, a Latino man driving a work truck, and they followed suit. We all know now what the deadly consequences of that are. And ICE has been, you know, walking back every statement that they've made. They said it initially was a target enforcement action. They said that he used his vehicle as a deadly weapon. They said that, you know, the officers acted basically in self defense. And they've now retracted, obviously, that he was not the target. But then they stated that there were two other men that were targeted, and they let slip that those men were of Guatemalan descent. But everyone in that van was actually a Mexican national. There was no damage to the front end of the vehicle, the back end of the vehicle, the side panels. There's a black skid mark from the black SUV that they used to pin that car to the sidewalk. And I think most egregious of all those things was the fact that once he was on the ground prone. We've seen the videos, we've seen his cries for help. He knew that he was dying. They waited almost 20 to 30 minutes to get him an ambulance to take him to the hospital. And in that time, they took all of his personal identifiable information off of his person. So when he was admitted into the hospital, they admitted him as a John Doe. Now, the family was there, Ronaldo was there. He was on site. I've seen the text messages with the FBI and the ICE agent between the two men. And they really just strung him along for hours until finally sending him to the hospital. Family had a hard time even finding him because when they arrived at the hospital, they said that there was no Lorenzo Salgado Arujo in their manifest, in their records. It took several hours more for them to make the connection between the two men. And he wasn't told that his father passed away until 3 o', clock, more than six hours later. And sadly, because he was admitted as a John Doe, they then had to. Family had to go through extra hoops. They had to do a biometric forensics examination to confirm he is who we always knew he was. Lorenzo. And they didn't actually get the final determination, which was that he was killed and it was a homicide until the following day, almost 24 hours later, a really tragic event, and it was a senseless murder on the streets of Houston.
- [22:30]
Juan Gonzalez
And Juan Pro Ano, what's been the involvement of the Houston Police Department in this? Houston Police Chief Noel Diaz was supposed to meet with the FBI.
- [22:44]
Juan Proagno
Well, we've been working very closely with the District Attorney's office with Shaun Tier. You know, I was there at the initial meeting. I found him to be very sincere in his condolences to the family. I found him to be pretty much, very much a straight shooter and honest. And he flat out told me that they would be doing an independent investigation, they would be moving forward aggressively in doing so. But the main limiting factor was going to be cooperation of the federal agencies involved. There are multiple strings of investigations. So now we have the District Attorney General that's doing an investigation. You have the FBI that's doing an investigation. You have the DHS Inspector General that's doing an investigation. And the last investigation to be announced recently was that of Mayor Whitmer. For days and days and days, he refused to act, saying that they had no purview over the shooting because HPD basically was not involved. And while that may be true, the fact of the matter is, is that a resident of Houston was killed on Canal Street. And my understanding is whenever there's a shooting, whenever there's a murder, the police actually investigate. So I'm glad that they are now moving towards a full investigation. But my expectation is, is that their investigation will similarly be hampered by dhs, by the federal agencies. And we already know six days later, a week later, a week now, basically since his senseless death, that they have turned over nothing at all. No evidence, not the van, not his possessions, nothing at all.
- [24:29]
Juan Gonzalez
And why weren't the agents wearing body cameras? Haven't federal authorities promised to equip ICE agents with body cameras?
- [24:41]
Juan Proagno
Well, they certainly have all the money and all the resources in the world to do that $170 billion allocation through the Big Beautiful Bill, another $70 billion to help carry through funding through the end of President Trump's term. My understanding is that certain states have different regulations. In Minneapolis, Minnesota, they're required to actually have body cam footage. This is Texas. It's a red state. They clearly have been slow walking the process and will probably fight it tooth and nail. So it's something that should be a national mandate at this point. Police officers are required to do so. ICE agency has it went from 12,000 to 22,000 employees. There's absolutely no reason from a financial perspective, from a functional or implementation perspective, that they couldn't do this. And certainly our country would benefit from the transparency that would come from this.
- [25:43]
Amy Goodman
And can you talk about Greg Abbott, the well known Trump ally, Texas governor, how he has weighed in on this one? Paranya, he's been silent.
- [25:54]
Juan Proagno
I mean, he has said nothing about it. Paxton has been on vacation in Europe. He has said nothing about it at all. Representative Sylvia Garcia has been an incredible advocate for the family and the Houston community is rallying around her and rallying around the Salgudo family as well. And so what you would expect, Amy, silence from the right, outrage from our progressive Democratic community. And Latinos have been rising up, they've been rising up out in the community. In Houston, we ran a petition that has over 165,000 people who signed it. I'd encourage folks to go to the lulac.org website to do the same. Lorenzo's family has been fortunate enough to raise $500,000 on GoFundMe. But that will not go very far. Lorenzo was the primary provider for his family. He was paying and has paid for his young, three young sons to go through university. And he still has one that's in university. And so I don't believe that there will be justice here. There's nothing that will bring him back. And the only thing that we can hope for is full accountability.
- [27:13]
Juan Gonzalez
And Juan, what about the three men who were in the van with, with Lorenzo Salgado. What's their situation right now?
- [27:24]
Juan Proagno
So they are in, you know, they're in Conroe, Texas. And so, you know, we have been engaged with them. I was actually on with Ruby Powers last night and we were chatting. So she's representing Victor. The other two men have a different attorney. Initially, they were being pressured to sign self deportation orders. We talked with the families and discouraged them from doing so, but it was a significant amount of pressure. My initial sense was that they were inclined to do so, first and foremost because they are undocumented. Second of all, because they have mixed status family households and were concerned about, you know, bringing any additional legal perjury prosecution, if you will, against their own family members. And in a way, it could have been the easy way out for them, but the fact of the matter is that we need them to stay in the United States. They are witnesses to a crime and the only witnesses to what actually happened on that day. Of all the video footage that we've collected, nothing actually shows the actual shooting itself. And so that's one thing that we lack in this particular case.
- [28:41]
Amy Goodman
And Juan Parano, before we go, we're going to go up to Biddeford, Maine for our next segment. But you are the CEO of the largest and oldest Latino civil rights organization in the United States. You represent the whole country. And yet another Latin American immigrant, this person, 26, 6 years old, apparently had work authorization. Not that that should be an issue when it comes to being shot dead in the streets. Was shot dead as he drove. The father of a three year old as he drove to work. Your final comments on reeling from this one in Houston, this killing, to what's happened in Biddeford.
- [29:27]
Juan Proagno
Well, thank you, Amy. I have to tell you that these both have hit me really hard. Lorenzo was one year younger than I am. He was 52. I'm 53. Joan in Bidford. Sebastian is Colombian. My mother's from Colombia. My family is from Colombia. 26 years old, as you said, a father of a young girl, three years old and a beautiful wife. And it's a senseless, senseless tragedy. The same circumstances. Amy, he was targeted, initially targeted by mistake. Okay? The officers were not in any jeopardy at all. They actually were the aggressors here, trying to open the vehicle, as he plainly said he was trying to actually stop. The fear in the community is prevalent. And it's my honest belief, and if you take a look at the numbers, that they are targeting Latino men of all the men of all the people currently in detention, 80 to 90% of them are Hispanic men, predominantly from Mexico, Honduras, Venezuela, Nicaragua. It is the majority, significant majority, and the escalation has been significant. Bidford is a small town. It has 22,000 people. It has about 550 Hispanics. If they are hunting immigrants in Bidford, Maine and in Houston, just imagine what they're doing across the country. It has been under reported since the killing of Renee Good and Alex Preddy. Let's be clear about that. You mentioned early on, right, 2,000 men, 2,000 detentions over the course of a week, 2,000 per day. But we haven't raised this enough. It is a critical moment in this country. We are not leading. This is not leadership. And it is time to demand change.
- [31:42]
Amy Goodman
Juan Peruanyo, we thank you for being with us. CEO of lula, the oldest, largest Latino civil rights organization in the United States, joining us from Washington, D.C. coming up, we go to Biddeford, Maine to talk about the ice shooting of 26 year old Juan Sebastian Guerrero. We'll talk about that. Also the senatorial race where the longtime senator, Republican Senator Susan Collins, whose offices were protested yesterday, was the deciding vote for tens of billions of dollars more for ICE. This is Democracy Now. Back in 30 seconds,
- [32:39]
Juan Proagno
Sam.
- [33:20]
Amy Goodman
Rising stars, fife and drum band babe. No cheatin'. This is Democracy now. Democracynow.org, i'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez as we turn to Maine where immigration agencies fatally shot a 26 year old Colombian man on Monday as he drove to work in the city of Bideford. The man has been identified as Joan Sebastian Guerrero, the father of a three year old daughter. One witness reported seeing agents dragging him from the car after the shooting, which was also visible in CCTV footage. Another eyewitness told the Portland Press Herald, quote, he was bleeding profusely from the head. He was talking, he said, I tried to stop. At least four bullet holes were seen in the car's windshield after the shooting. Another neighbor said she heard a woman screaming at immigration agents, you took her dad. You took her dad. The woman was with a young girl dressed in blue pajamas who's believed to be Guerrero's three year old daughter. Another neighbor said, quote, I watched a wife fall to her knees looking at her husband's dead body on the ground. I watched a little girl crying with a little pink backpack on because she's never going to see her father again, unquote. Maine Senator Angus King's office said the Department of Homeland Security had confirmed that Juwan Sebastian Guerrero was not the target of any warrant The Maine Immigrants Rights Coalition said he was authorized to work in the United States and had been issued a Social Security number. His death prompted protests across Maine, including outside the offices of Republican Senator Susan Collins. Last term, she was the deciding vote in approving 70 billion more dollars for ICE and Customs and border protest. Call her out. Call her out. Throw her out.
- [35:26]
Juan Gonzalez
Throw her out. Call her out.
- [35:29]
Amy Goodman
The killing of Juwan Sebastian Guerrero comes just a week after an ICE agent in Houston fatally shot Lorenzo Sagado Araujo. For more, we go to Maine, where we're joined by two guests. Isha Khan is the wife of Biddeford's mayor, Liam La Fountain. She joins us there. And in Waterville, Maine, we're joined by Nathan Bernard, correspondent for Dropsite News. We welcome you both to Democracy Now. Isha Khan, let's begin with you. Talk about what's happening in Biddeford. What you understood happened yesterday morning. I understand in looking at the video through the day, that there wasn't even a crime scene set up. If you can tell us what you understand. And the protests that have taken place and that are planned for today as well, outside ICE offices in Scarborough.
- [36:24]
Isha Khan
The last 24 hours have been deeply painful and disturbing. Our community is hurting. A child lost her father. A woman lost her partner. And we have lost a neighbor of ours. And we are doing our best to find ways to heal and connect. Yesterday throughout the day, there were various different gatherings. All folks from different backgrounds coming together peacefully, sharing their grief, their questions and their worries. And knowing Maine, it's a small town, people are just disturbed and really shell shocked to know that something like this can happen in our state, a very small state with a very small immigrant population. So this has been a time of grieving, especially in Bitterford. We are a mill city which was built on the backs of immigrants, whether it is Irish Catholics, Armenians. So I think just this hits home for a lot of our community members here in Biddeford.
- [37:30]
Juan Gonzalez
Yes. And can you talk some about that history, that immigrant history in Bidderford? I understand the Albanian Muslims established one of the first mosques in the United states there in 1915.
- [37:45]
Isha Khan
That's correct. So I grew up in Texas and my introduction to Maine was actually just that. Walking around Biddeford, learning about the immigrant community who has helped build and shape this community. As a Muslim myself, this was the last place to find out that the first mosque in United States or in North America was here. Just walking distance from where I live. And I think another thing I'll just mention here, what was so moving And I think just the irony is less than about 100 years ago on the bridge, we were all gathered yesterday. And today, again is the exact bridge where KKK was coming from Saco, the neighboring town, into Bitterford. And it was a Bitterford community who stood side by side with their Catholic and Franco Catholic neighbors fighting against the KKK and the persecution. And that happened again last year night and earlier yesterday, where community from all backgrounds came together here in Biddeford, standing on that same bridge, asking and demanding justice for immigrants who are here today. Biddeford is one of the youngest cities in Maine, and this has just been so devastated. There are so many beautiful kids who play in our neighborhoods. And just hearing from some of the kids who are going to summer school, didn't even want to get off the bus, just fearing that they don't want to be shot in the face. So this is deeply painful. It's an immigrant community and has been for centuries. And as we gather, we're just finding ways to heal and ask for accountability on all accounts.
- [39:36]
Juan Gonzalez
Now, Maine's Democratic governor, Janet Mills and its Republican senator, Susan Collins, are both calling for investigations. But what kind of actions did they take before this, of shooting and holding ICE accountable?
- [39:53]
Isha Khan
I think this is something that Maine has been grappling since the beginning of this year where we have seen just the increased surge in ICE agents and ICE presence throughout our community. And while I can't speak to what their, you know, Senator Collins or Governor Mills are doing, I can say that what I have learned and I have seen is a lot of support from our community around this folks are gathering. In fact, knowing Biddeford and our community, we are a aging, you know, Maine as a whole is an aging population, and a big chunk of our workforce relies on immigrants. In January, when ICE agents started surging, that began to surge. A vast majority of people didn't show up. And we were at a breaking point where our hospitals were not able to operate. And it took Governor Mills, our elected officials, to work together to find ways to make sure our community feels safe. And we were given the impression that ICE is going away. But that was certainly, and it's certainly not the case, and yesterday was a strong reminder of what our elected officials need to do as we continue to move and for the survival of our state as we know it today.
- [41:24]
Amy Goodman
Isha Khan is the wife of the Biddeford mayor. We're also joined by Nathan Bernard, who is a correspondent for Dropsite News. His most recent piece headlined in Letter, Platner Volunteer Network warns Dem's nominee must back same agenda to win our full support. Why bring that in now with this tragedy today? Because of course, what's happening now is happening on behalf of the US Government. So politics really matter right now. Nathan, if you can talk about what we know at this point, you have the information relayed by the independent Maine Senator Angus king that the 26 year old Colombian man had been given an order that he was not the target. Now, it was Angus King who released this and not the federal government originally. And then you have these mass protests in the midst of the senatorial race. And who is senator certainly matters. With Senator Collins being the deciding vote on the tens of billions more dollars that went to ICE and cbp. Can you talk about what the people who are run running right now are saying and doing? Are they participating in the protests?
- [42:47]
Nathan Bernard
Yeah. Yeah. There was a vigil in Portland where several of the candidates, Nerav Shah, Troy Jackson, both attended and gave speeches calling to abolish ice. And Nirav Shaw. I know from the volunteers on the Platinum campaign.
- [43:02]
Amy Goodman
Just to give global context for people who aren't following this closely, Nirav Shah is the. The former health official in Maine. And Troy Jackson is the logger in Maine who has also announced he wants to run.
- [43:21]
Nathan Bernard
Yeah. Nirav Shah was our CDC director during the COVID pandemic. Troy Jackson was the former Senate president, a Democrat who like you said, is a third generation logger. I think there's a lot of angst, there's a lot of frustration with Susan Collins. Not only did she vote to fund ice with another $70 billion, she was the deciding vote for that. And when that $70 billion passed, there was no accountability. I mean, just like we saw in Houston, the ICE agents there were not wearing body cameras. The ICE agents in Biddeford were not wearing body cameras. And just like Eisha was talking about, this is the community. Community is having to watch these folks. Community is having to document ICE's actions. And a big push from the volunteers from the Platner campaign and voters all across Maine are that they don't think there is a way to reform this agency. They think it needs to be abolished. They think that, that no more funding should go to ice. And we see when more funding does come to ice, what happens. The funding was just released. We now have a death, a tragic death in Houston. We have a tragic death in Biddeford, Maine, a big city and a small town in completely different parts of the United States. So I think people want to hold Susan Collins accountable. For her role in this. And when we look at accountability again, DHS in Boston is now going to investigate what happens here in Maine. So we have DHS investigating dhs. It's a situation where all of the candidates, that I shouldn't say all the candidates, the majority of the candidates that are running right now know that if they're going to get the support of the 150,000 voters who just voted for the Platner campaign, a platform of economic populism, progressivism built from the grassroots, that they're going to have to express intent explicitly to end the mass deportation system that we have. So it's going to become a huge issue. It already was a huge issue here in January. There was an enormous rally in Lewiston, Maine, the day that Alex Preddy was killed under very similar circumstances. And we've seen so many instances of this across the country. And I really think that now that this has come to Maine in such a visceral, violent way, that it's going to become a huge issue in the Senate campaign.
- [46:12]
Juan Gonzalez
And Nathan, you talked about back in January, that's when Department of Homeland Security initiated Operation Catch of the Day in Maine. And you talk about the arrest had happened then and also about the change from last year to this year in ICE tactics. Before they were doing well publicized raids with Christy Noem, the head of Homeland Security, actually participating and bringing the media with with her. Now they're actually trying to do it more quietly, but at the same time ramp up the number of arrests per day.
- [46:49]
Nathan Bernard
Yeah, I mean, I believe Amy noted that the agency ICE is looking to make 2,000 arrests a day. And when Operation Catch of the Day happened here in January, when the surge happens, they detained somewhere around 200 people. Only I believe 10 or 11 of those people allegedly had any sort of target. They were the target of any sort of warrant from ice. Many of them were immediately pulled from their families, sent to out of state detention centers. And it happened so rapidly and in that time a very public way. I mean, it's the same as in Minnesota, where it's as much of making a spectacle and a show of these detentions in the most disgusting, gruesome way possible to show that they're getting close to hitting their numbers, that it really hasn't, in my eyes, become any less public. Now, I know that Susan Collins took credit for ending Operation Catch of the Day back in January. She said that this was all going to come to an end. And she took credit for it ending on the back end of that. Again, she funded another $70 billion to ICE without any strings attached. So those things are such at odds with one another. And even after the operation Catch a Day slowed their tactics and operation, there were still hundreds of calls coming in about ICE in our communities. ICE never left Maine. And I think that what happened with Juwan Sebastian Guerrero is a perfect case of showing that they never left and they're just as violent. He was not the target of a warrant from ice. Not that it should matter, but he was literally just going to work in the morning to let his family have a dignified life, to put a roof over his three year old daughter's head, his wife's head. There's so many again going back to community eyewitnesses, accounts that have come out not just on this case but across the months since January that have shown that ICE is still here, they're still active. And with the killing of Guerrero, it's so tragic that, that there's no way, aside from us, the people living in Maine to show what happened here. So the operations never, never slowed really, maybe they become less public, they didn't become less violent.
- [49:38]
Amy Goodman
We will continue to follow this and the so called investigation that's taking place. Nathan Bernard, correspondent for Dropsite News, will link to your latest piece in letter. Platner Volunteer network warns Dems nominee must back same agenda to win full support. And Eisha Khan, we thank you so much for being with us. Wife of the Biddeford mayor speaking to us from Biddeford. This is Democracy now. When we come back, major election news. President Trump is expected to give a primetime address on so called election integrity Thursday night. And the DOJ has quashed a subpoena investigating election result from 2020 in Fulton County, Georgia. Stay with. Contratodo Against Everything by the Puerto Rican singer songwriter Yi Lei performing at our Democracy now studio. This is Democracy now, democracynow.org, i'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. President Trump's Department of Justice continues to investigate the 2020 election results in Fulton County, Georgia, a state President Trump repeatedly falsely claims he won in 2020. Now CBS News is reporting the FBI fired two of its officials after they voiced concerns over the probe, claiming it was politically motivated. Their firings come months after the FBI raided an election office in Georgia's Fulton county, seizing computers and ballots related to the 2020 election. Last week, a federal judge in Atlanta quashed a DOJ subpoena seeking the name, personal information of Fulton County's 2020 election workers. Meanwhile, President Trump has forced out the last remaining members of the Election Assistance Commission, a bipartisan independent agency tasked with certifying voting systems and helping local election officials. The White House fired the Democratic commissioners, Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland, and a third commissioner, Republican Christy McCormick, was given the chance to resign, which she did. The committee's remaining member, Republican Donald Palmer, stepped down in April. Join the Heritage Foundation. Trump's dismantling of the Election Assistance Commission comes less than four months before midterm elections, following last month's Supreme Court ruling granting the president more power to fire members of independent agencies. For more on all of this, or as much as we can do in the next few minutes, we're joined by Ari Berman, the national voting rights correspondent for Mother Jones. Thanks so much for being with us, Ari.
- [53:16]
Nathan Bernard
Thank you.
- [53:16]
Amy Goodman
Start off by talking about the judge quashing the request for information of Fulton county election workers and then going on to the primetime address President Trump's expected to give on Thursday night.
- [53:29]
Ari Berman
Hi, Amy. Well, thank you for having me back on the show. So what happened in Fulton County, Georgia, was the Justice Department was trying to get access to the personal information of thousands of election workers from the 2020 election. And the judge said you can't have that personal information and also you can't bring charges against them because it's too late. It's been now six years since that election. But the disturbing thing here is that Georgia is just a microcosm of what they're planning to do to interfere in the midterms. The raid on Fulton County, Georgia, the taking of 700 boxes of ballots. That is a pretty preview of the type of suppression and intimidation the Trump administration wants to do everywhere in 2026. And we're seeing this with the primetime address the President is planning to give. He's going to lie and say there was rampant fraud and foreign interference in the 2020 election so that he can then say, we have to seize voting machines. We have to stop mail voting. We have to do all the things that he tried to do in 2020 but was unsuccessful. And the bottom line here is they keep lying about the 2020 election so that they can justify massive interference in the 2026 election. It really is that simple. You put all the different moves of the administration together. That is the underlying goal, to build a narrative that will justify some kind of unprecedented intervention in the midterms, to challenge how people vote, how votes are counted and how elections are certified.
- [54:59]
Juan Gonzalez
Now, Ari, you've been covering election news for years now. You're one of the top experts in the country. It have we ever seen any attempt by a federal government to actually squash free and fair elections like we're seeing now. And to what degree do you fear that Trump could be successful?
- [55:21]
Ari Berman
No, Juan, I think it's completely unprecedented what the Trump administration is trying to do. We've never seen the full weight of the federal government mobilized in such a way to try and interfere in free and fair elections and to try to undermine elections, elections in so many different ways, from how people vote to how elections are administered to how elections are ultimately certified here. Now, I do think the problem that the President has is that the Constitution is very clear that states, with oversight from Congress, run their elections, and the president has very little role in doing that. And so, time and time again, what Trump wants to do is blocked in court. Court. His executive orders have been blocked in court. So much of what the Justice Department has tried to do has been blocked in court. So that's the silver lining of this, is that, yes, the President is becoming more authoritarian, more desperate, but that doesn't mean he's going to be any more successful in trying to do this. He can say the 2020 election is rigged. He can say that he wants to seize voting machines or stop mail voting, but ultimately states have the power to run their elections, and that's the, the saving grace of our constitutional system right now. To stand up to what Trump is
- [56:33]
Amy Goodman
doing, what he's going to say on Thursday night, what you understand.
- [56:39]
Ari Berman
Well, what I understand is he's going to allege foreign interference in the 2020 election, which has been extensively studied. There was no evidence of interference in that election. If there was any interference, it was Russia trying to help Trump. But there was no evidence that Iran or Venezuela or China or the other countries that Trump is gonna name interfered in that election. But he's going to say they interfered so that he can create the predicate for then interfering in the midterms. To say, I can now have the power to seize voting machines, I have the power to shut down mail voting, I can try to put in place proof of citizenship to register to vote. He can't unilaterally do any of those things, but he's going to try to claim dictatorial power for himself through the propaganda that his administration is generating to try to lay the predicate for some kind of dramatic intervention of the midterms. And that's something that we all need to be very vigilant about.
- [57:32]
Amy Goodman
And threatening to arrest election officials of any non citizens vote. We have 20 seconds.
- [57:39]
Ari Berman
Well, it's just an example of further weaponization of the Justice Department, from trying to uphold the laws to trying to intimidate election workers into following Trump's agenda. And I think election workers are going to stand up to it. But again, it sets a very chilling precedent.
- [57:52]
Amy Goodman
We want to thank you, Ari Berman, for joining us, national voting rights correspondent for Mother Jones. That does it for our show, a very happy birthday to Karl Marxer. I'll be in Kansas City on Friday and Saturday, July 17th and 18th for the screening of Steal the Story. Please, about the 30 years of democracy now and independent media. I'll be there with the directors of the film Tia Lesson and Carl Diehl at Glendale Fine Arts Theatre in Overland Park. Look forward to seeing people there. We'll also be doing a fundraiser for KKFI Community radio in Kansas City. Really looking forward to being there. You can get more information@democracynow.org the screenings Friday and Saturday night at 7 and Saturday also at 4pm we're hiring for an education program manager, fundraising and outreach interns. Check it out@DemocracyNow.org I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez for another edition of Democracy Now.