Jonathan Blitzer

Great news America, first week of next month you’re gaining 10 million jobs

Trump’s war on Big Law leads firms to retreat from ’pro bono’ work for underdogs Major law firms are scaling back the free work they do for advocacy groups fighting the government in the wake of Donald Trump’s attacks on the profession. Interviews with over 60 lawyers and 30 nonprofits show legal aid groups now have fewer resources to defend the vulnerable.

www.reuters.com/investigatio...

Texas Republicans Unveil Gerrymandered House Map, Trying to Please Trump

In plain sight, without any pretext www.nytimes.com/2025/07/30/u...

170. DOJ's (Ridiculous) Misconduct Complaint Against Chief Judge Boasberg DOJ's complaint that Chief Judge Boasberg engaged in "misconduct" would be laughably stupid if it didn't reflect such a transparently obvious and dangerous attempt to delegitimize the federal courts.

www.stevevladeck.com/p/170-dojs-r...

Opinion | The Death of Gaza in Slow Motion

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/30/o...

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/30/o...

Grassley, a Champion of Whistle-Blowers, Spurns Them in a Fight Over Bove

Grassley, a Champion of Whistle-Blowers, Spurns Them in a Fight Over Bove www.nytimes.com/2025/07/29/u...

“No Tax on Tips” Is an Industry Plant Trump’s “populist” policy is backed by the National Restaurant Association—probably because it won’t stop establishments from paying servers below the minimum wage.

Despite its populist trappings, Trump’s proposal to end taxes on tips won’t help the lowest-paid tipped workers. In this week’s @newyorker.com, I report on the industry lobby that has prevented a policy that could help them — raising wages — from gaining traction. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Immigration agents told a teenage US citizen: ‘You’ve got no rights.’ He secretly recorded his brutal arrest Video from Kenny Laynez-Ambrosio, 18, puts fresh scrutiny on the harsh tactics used to reach the Trump administration’s ambitious enforcement targets

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Constitutional lawyer Ruth López of El Salvador awarded ABA International Human Rights CHICAGO, July 28, 2025 — Ruth López, a constitutional lawyer and educator who has devoted her life to defending the fundamental rights of Salvadorans and advancing public transparency, will receive th...

Ruth López, crusading human rights lawyer, wins an award from the American Bar Association. She won’t be at the prize reception in August because she remains jailed by the government of El Salvador for her work exposing state abuse and corruption. www.americanbar.org/news/abanews...

L.A.’s Food Culture, Transformed by Immigration Raids The city is defined by street carts and family-run restaurants. ICE’s vicious campaign has prompted many venders and patrons to stay home.

Cabral predicts that the repercussions of the raids will be dire for L.A.’s food ecosystem, “something along the lines of the pandemic and the fires.” L.A.’s Food Culture, Transformed by Immigration Raids www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

DOJ escalates its attacks on judges who rule against Trump

The IRS Is Building a Vast System to Share Millions of Taxpayers’ Data With ICE ProPublica has obtained the blueprint for the Trump administration’s unprecedented plan to turn over IRS records to Homeland Security in order to speed up the agency’s mass deportation efforts.

Emails show that IRS chief counsel Andrew De Mello said a recent DHS request did not comply with the law.

Two days after refusing the demand to turn over more than 7 million home addresses, De Mello was pushed out of the top legal job.

ICE Agents Invade a Manhattan Little League Field Youman Wilder has coached local kids for twenty-one years—including four who have gone pro. When masked agents tried to interrogate his players, he told them, “You don’t have more rights than they do....

When ICE agents questioned a group of 11- to 14-year-olds who’d just finished batting practice, their coach, Youman Wilder, stepped in. “I’m willing to die to make sure these kids can get home,” he recounted afterward.

An American toddler in foster care, a mom in ICE detention A brief jail sentence turned into over four months in an immigration detention cell for the mother and an extended stay in foster care for son

This week, I wrote about Ingrid Mejia, a Guatemalan egg farmworker who spent more than four months in ICE detention after a traffic misdemeanor, while her 3-year-old son, a U.S. citizen, was stuck in foster care. www.reuters.com/world/us/an-...

The Men Trump Deported to a Salvadoran Prison On March 15, President Donald Trump’s administration sent more than 230 Venezuelan immigrants to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. Last week, the men were released as suddenly as they’d been t...

Extremely grateful for this reporting by @propublica.org about the unthinkable (and inexcusable) horror of the US government disappearing 252 Venezuelans to a notoriously brutal Salvadoran prison with virtually no evidence or accountability: projects.propublica.org/venezuelan-i...

Venezuelan Little League team denied entry into US amid Trump travel ban The team will not be able to play in the Senior League World Series in South Carolina.

Little Leaguers: www.politico.com/news/2025/07...

‘I Want to Clear My Name’: Deported Migrant Takes First Step to Sue the U.S.

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/24/u...

Can't believe I still have to say this, but ... It has been 3,108 days, or 8.5 years, since ICE has had a properly vetted and congressionally-confirmed director as required by law.

DHS begins to fly detainees out of Alligator Alcatraz. Where are they going? Florida’s governor says the Trump administration is running flights from the Everglades detention center, but it’s not entirely clear where they’re going

Florida’s governor says the Trump administration is running flights from the Everglades detention center, but it’s not entirely clear where they’re going

Texas Republicans, including Gov. Abbott, were reluctant to redraw the state’s congressional maps. Then Trump got involved. The governor eventually agreed to include redistricting on his special session agenda after discussing the matter with the president on a phone call.

“In private delegation meetings, most TX members actively opposed the idea. Others said redistricting was inevitable once it received Trump’s backing.”

www.texastribune.org/2025/07/22/t...

Aid Groups Blame Israel’s Gaza Restrictions for ‘Mass Starvation’

The distance between what is in happening Gaza, fully backed with US dollars and political support, and the reaction of American politicians who by and large just don’t seem to care or support it is just completely brain-breaking.

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/w...

El Salvador's new wave of political exiles say history is repeating itself Fear has long simmered among critics of President Nayib Bukele’s concentration of power in El Salvador.

apnews.com/article/el-s...

What Trump and Pam Bondi Are Doing in New Jersey Is a Bigger Deal Than You Think The Justice Department rejected a federal court’s authority to name a new U.S. attorney to New Jersey to replace Alina Habba.

Pam Bondi wants to seize powers that the Constitution grants to Congress and the judiciary, constructing an authoritarian presidency that respects no limits on Trump’s rule.

This administration simply does not believe the other branches have a legitimate claim to power. slate.com/news-and-pol...

MORE: Judge Paula Xinis, who presides over Abrego’s civil case in Maryland, bars the government from taking Abrego into ICE custody in Tennessee following his release from criminal custody.

He must be returned to Maryland on an order of supervision.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Family, supporters urge release of Spanish-language journalist in ICE custody A Spanish-language journalist remains in federal immigration detention after being arrested while covering a protest near Atlanta on June 14.

apnews.com/article/jour...

Unless I've missed something, the Trump administration has not yet appealed (or sought a stay from) the New Hampshire district court's ruling certifying a nationwide class action and issuing a preliminary injunction on behalf of the class blocking the birthright citizenship executive order.

Trump administration completes large-scale prisoner swap with Venezuela | CNN Politics The Trump administration completed a large-scale prisoner swap with Venezuela on Friday, sending about 250 Venezuelans who had been deported and imprisoned in El Salvador back to their home country in...

Amid news of the releases from CECOT was this added info:

"Venezuelan officials on Friday afternoon announced the arrival of a separate flight from Texas delivering its citizens, including several children who had been separated from their families and kept in US care."

www.cnn.com/2025/07/18/p...

Hispanic journalist in Atlanta detained by ICE speaks out Mario Guevara tells the AJC about his month behind bars, and his once positive feelings toward Donald Trump.

“I’m plainly convinced that my situation in this ICE jail is direct retaliation for my coverage,” Mario Guevara told @ajc.com in an exclusive interview from the Folkston, Georgia ICE detention center where he is currently detained, despite a judge's bail order. “I haven’t committed any crimes.”

He lost his wallet, which had his green card, and made an appointment in Philly to replace it. There he was handcuffed & taken away with no explanation. “His wife, who speaks little English, was left behind and kept in the building for 10 hours until she was released to her granddaughter.” He’s 82.