Trump Supporters Are Going Fuck Around And Find Out They Were Hoodwinked. Post Their Stories Here.
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North Dakota went big for Trump. Now many farmers say they face an uncertain future
Starting this week, American farmers like Sherlock are getting hit with tariffs on food they directly sell to China, including soybeans, corn and wheat — as well as pork, chicken and beef. Those levies are in retaliation for tariffs President Trump put on Chinese goods coming to the United States.
Kirk Siegler
MARCH 14, 2025
Justin Sherlock transfers corn from a storage bin to a grain truck on his farm near Wimbledon, N.D.
Starting this week, American farmers like Sherlock are getting hit with tariffs on food they directly sell to China, including soybeans, corn and wheat — as well as pork, chicken and beef. Those levies are in retaliation for tariffs President Trump put on Chinese goods coming to the United States.
Kirk Siegler
MARCH 14, 2025
Justin Sherlock transfers corn from a storage bin to a grain truck on his farm near Wimbledon, N.D.
He voted for Trump. Now his wife sits in an ICE detention center.
Lauren VillagranUSA TODAY
Bradley Bartell and Camila Muñoz had a familiar small-town love story, before they collided with immigration politics.
They met through mutual friends, had a first date at the local steakhouse, married after two years and were saving to buy a house and have kids. Muñoz was already caring for Bartell's now 12-year-old son as her own.
But last month, on their way home to Wisconsin after honeymooning in Puerto Rico, an immigration agent pulled Muñoz aside in the airport.
"Are you an American citizen?" asked the agent. She answered no, she wasn't. She's from Peru. But she and her husband had taken the legal steps so that one day she might get U.S. citizenship.
Millions of Americans, including Bartell, had voted for President Donald Trump's promise to crack down on "criminal illegal immigrants." But eight weeks in, the mass deportation effort has rapidly expanded to include immigrants whose application for legal status in the country is under review.
Even those married or engaged to U.S. citizens are being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, USA TODAY has learned.
In addition to Muñoz, USA TODAY has confirmed through attorneys, family members and documents that ICE has detained for weeks:
- a woman in her 50s who has lived in the country more than 30 years and is married to a U.S. citizen;
- a woman in her 30s with proof of valid permanent legal residency, whose father and siblings are U.S. citizens, and who first came to the U.S. as a teen;
- a European woman in her 30s engaged to a U.S. citizen who overstayed her visa when she was 21;
- a woman engaged to a U.S. legal permanent resident, with whom she has lived for nine years.
Neither ICE nor its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, responded to multiple requests for comment.
Another detention: Lawyers fight Palestinian advocate Mahmoud Khalil's arrest, call it 'un-American'
Nora Ahmed, legal director of the ACLU of Louisiana, said immigrants in legal limbo of any kind should take precautions if they plan to travel.
"The unfortunate answer is they have to be worried," she said. "If you are not a citizen of the United States, and you are going through an immigration process, your first thought needs to be: How can this process be weaponized against me?"
David Rozas, an immigration attorney representing Muñoz, agreed: “Anyone who isn’t a legal permanent resident or U.S. citizen is at risk – period."
Bartell and Muñoz wore their wedding rings for the flight home, secure in the knowledge that the U.S. government knew they had applied for her green card. She had overstayed her original visa but, they reasoned, she had been vetted from the start, worked on a W-2 and paid her taxes.
Before agents led her away, Muñoz pulled off her wedding ring, afraid it might get confiscated. She shoved it into her backpack and handed it to Bartell.
He shook as he watched her disappear. He thought, "What the f— do I do?"
Looking for something lasting
Overstaying a visa is considered an administrative, not criminal, violation of U.S. immigration law, immigration attorneys say. It can result in a bar to returning to the U.S. for up to 10 years, or it can be lawfully forgiven, under a "waiver of unlawful presence," if the immigrant's spouse or immediate relative is a U.S. citizen.But the U.S. government also has broad authority to detain immigrants, even when they have an application in progress with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
"If an individual is overstaying their visa, they are therefore an illegal immigrant residing in this country, and they are subject to deportation," Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, said in a January news conference.
Bartell didn't see it that way. Not when he met Muñoz in the small Wisconsin town where she had worked lawfully on a temporary visa. Not after they spent months filling out the USCIS paperwork to apply for her legal permanent residency.
He saw her as a funny, caring, hard-working woman who came legally, not one of the "illegals" who the president he supported promised to deport.
The town where they met, Wisconsin Dells – population 2,942 – draws tens of thousands of tourists each summer to a constellation of water parks, including one billed as the nation's largest, Noah's Ark.
Bartell grew up nearby, stayed and got a job with decent pay working maintenance in a factory. For Muñoz, the Dells region was an adventure. As a college student in Peru studying human resources management, she applied and was accepted to a work-study program, secured a U.S. visa and got a job picking up towels at one of the Dells waterparks in 2019.
When COVID-19 hit the following winter, with flights canceled and borders closed, she couldn't get home, and she overstayed her visa. She stayed in the Dells, packing vegetables for a local farm and working food service at hotels. When they met, Bartell gave her his number on a scrap of paper. She threw it away.
But they connected a few days later on Facebook. He invited her to dinner. Muñoz teased that it better not be at McDonalds. On their first date they both confessed: They were looking for a relationship that could last.
Ramping up enforcement
ICE is under extreme pressure from the White House to ramp up enforcement. Top ICE officials, including the newly installed acting director, were re-assigned within weeks of Trump taking office, allegedly over frustrations that detentions and deportations weren't rising fast enough.The reality of immigration enforcement is that targeting convicted criminals requires time and manpower; it can take half a dozen agents to arrest a single person.
An airport checkpoint – like the one at the San Juan airport in mid-February – can quickly round up multiple people whose immigration status may be in limbo.
"ICE is really widening the net in a really chilling way in terms of who they are going after," said Jesse Franzblau, senior policy analyst for the National Immigrant Justice Center. "People who generally don’t fit the profile of who they picked up before are being picked up now."
It took days for Bartell to find his wife after she was detained at the airport.
It was nearly a week before Muñoz appeared in the ICE detention system. Her name finally turned up in an online locator, assigned to a privately run detention center in Louisiana. On a video call, her black curls hang askew. She wears a tan uniform, reflecting her lack of criminal record.
There are nearly 80 other women in the dormitory. The cost to taxpayers for detaining an adult was $282 per day in 2020, according to the American Immigration Council, a nonpartisan research organization.
Bartell worries about his wife. "Emotionally, I'm concerned for her," he said. "It can't be easy being trapped in a room with 100 other people. They don't have anything in there. It's just so wasteful."
They keep in touch on 20-cents-a-minute phone calls. She worries about Bartell's son, whether he is eating well or misses her Peruvian cooking.
The money the couple saved for a down payment on a home has evaporated into attorneys fees and savings to pay a bond for her release, if she's given that chance.
Both of them have been thinking a lot about Bartell's vote for Trump.
"I knew they were cracking down," he said. "I guess I didn’t know how it was going down."
He imagined the administration would target people who snuck over the border and weren't vetted.
But his wife, "they know who she is and where she came from," he said. "They need to get the vetting done and not keep these people locked up. It doesn’t make any sense."
Lauren Villagran can be reached at lvillagran@usatoday.com.
He voted for Trump. Now his wife sits in an ICE detention center.
ICE's deportation actions signal that anyone who isn't a U.S. citizen is 'at risk – period,' immigration attorney says.
www.usatoday.com
Thanks to @MASTERBAKER for the post.
WE said - you need to get your head up out of yo assHe voted for Trump. Now his wife sits in an ICE detention center…
," he said. "They need to get the vetting done and not keep these people locked up. It doesn’t make any sense."…
He voted for Trump. Now his wife sits in an ICE detention center.
ICE's deportation actions signal that anyone who isn't a U.S. citizen is 'at risk – period,' immigration attorney says.www.usatoday.com
A fat, soy-boy farmer. He will vote straight GOP ticket in 2026.North Dakota went big for Trump. Now many farmers say they face an uncertain future
Starting this week, American farmers like Sherlock are getting hit with tariffs on food they directly sell to China, including soybeans, corn and wheat — as well as pork, chicken and beef. Those levies are in retaliation for tariffs President Trump put on Chinese goods coming to the United States.
Kirk Siegler
MARCH 14, 2025
Justin Sherlock transfers corn from a storage bin to a grain truck on his farm near Wimbledon, N.D.
She cute too, he better hope they dont send her to the camp in Guantanamo.He voted for Trump. Now his wife sits in an ICE detention center.
USA TODAY
Bradley Bartell and Camila Muñoz had a familiar small-town love story, before they collided with immigration politics.
They met through mutual friends, had a first date at the local steakhouse, married after two years and were saving to buy a house and have kids. Muñoz was already caring for Bartell's now 12-year-old son as her own.
But last month, on their way home to Wisconsin after honeymooning in Puerto Rico, an immigration agent pulled Muñoz aside in the airport.
"Are you an American citizen?" asked the agent. She answered no, she wasn't. She's from Peru. But she and her husband had taken the legal steps so that one day she might get U.S. citizenship.
Millions of Americans, including Bartell, had voted for President Donald Trump's promise to crack down on "criminal illegal immigrants." But eight weeks in, the mass deportation effort has rapidly expanded to include immigrants whose application for legal status in the country is under review.
Even those married or engaged to U.S. citizens are being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, USA TODAY has learned.
In addition to Muñoz, USA TODAY has confirmed through attorneys, family members and documents that ICE has detained for weeks:
None of the women has a criminal record, according to a USA TODAY review of national law enforcement records. All were in an ongoing legal immigration process and felt comfortable enough boarding a domestic flight. Immigration agents swept each of them up at airport checkpoints in mid-February, in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
- a woman in her 50s who has lived in the country more than 30 years and is married to a U.S. citizen;
- a woman in her 30s with proof of valid permanent legal residency, whose father and siblings are U.S. citizens, and who first came to the U.S. as a teen;
- a European woman in her 30s engaged to a U.S. citizen who overstayed her visa when she was 21;
- a woman engaged to a U.S. legal permanent resident, with whom she has lived for nine years.
Neither ICE nor its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, responded to multiple requests for comment.
Another detention: Lawyers fight Palestinian advocate Mahmoud Khalil's arrest, call it 'un-American'
Nora Ahmed, legal director of the ACLU of Louisiana, said immigrants in legal limbo of any kind should take precautions if they plan to travel.
"The unfortunate answer is they have to be worried," she said. "If you are not a citizen of the United States, and you are going through an immigration process, your first thought needs to be: How can this process be weaponized against me?"
David Rozas, an immigration attorney representing Muñoz, agreed: “Anyone who isn’t a legal permanent resident or U.S. citizen is at risk – period."
Bartell and Muñoz wore their wedding rings for the flight home, secure in the knowledge that the U.S. government knew they had applied for her green card. She had overstayed her original visa but, they reasoned, she had been vetted from the start, worked on a W-2 and paid her taxes.
Before agents led her away, Muñoz pulled off her wedding ring, afraid it might get confiscated. She shoved it into her backpack and handed it to Bartell.
He shook as he watched her disappear. He thought, "What the f— do I do?"
Looking for something lasting
Overstaying a visa is considered an administrative, not criminal, violation of U.S. immigration law, immigration attorneys say. It can result in a bar to returning to the U.S. for up to 10 years, or it can be lawfully forgiven, under a "waiver of unlawful presence," if the immigrant's spouse or immediate relative is a U.S. citizen.
But the U.S. government also has broad authority to detain immigrants, even when they have an application in progress with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
"If an individual is overstaying their visa, they are therefore an illegal immigrant residing in this country, and they are subject to deportation," Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, said in a January news conference.
Bartell didn't see it that way. Not when he met Muñoz in the small Wisconsin town where she had worked lawfully on a temporary visa. Not after they spent months filling out the USCIS paperwork to apply for her legal permanent residency.
He saw her as a funny, caring, hard-working woman who came legally, not one of the "illegals" who the president he supported promised to deport.
The town where they met, Wisconsin Dells – population 2,942 – draws tens of thousands of tourists each summer to a constellation of water parks, including one billed as the nation's largest, Noah's Ark.
Bartell grew up nearby, stayed and got a job with decent pay working maintenance in a factory. For Muñoz, the Dells region was an adventure. As a college student in Peru studying human resources management, she applied and was accepted to a work-study program, secured a U.S. visa and got a job picking up towels at one of the Dells waterparks in 2019.
When COVID-19 hit the following winter, with flights canceled and borders closed, she couldn't get home, and she overstayed her visa. She stayed in the Dells, packing vegetables for a local farm and working food service at hotels. When they met, Bartell gave her his number on a scrap of paper. She threw it away.
But they connected a few days later on Facebook. He invited her to dinner. Muñoz teased that it better not be at McDonalds. On their first date they both confessed: They were looking for a relationship that could last.
Ramping up enforcement
ICE is under extreme pressure from the White House to ramp up enforcement. Top ICE officials, including the newly installed acting director, were re-assigned within weeks of Trump taking office, allegedly over frustrations that detentions and deportations weren't rising fast enough.
The reality of immigration enforcement is that targeting convicted criminals requires time and manpower; it can take half a dozen agents to arrest a single person.
An airport checkpoint – like the one at the San Juan airport in mid-February – can quickly round up multiple people whose immigration status may be in limbo.
"ICE is really widening the net in a really chilling way in terms of who they are going after," said Jesse Franzblau, senior policy analyst for the National Immigrant Justice Center. "People who generally don’t fit the profile of who they picked up before are being picked up now."
It took days for Bartell to find his wife after she was detained at the airport.
It was nearly a week before Muñoz appeared in the ICE detention system. Her name finally turned up in an online locator, assigned to a privately run detention center in Louisiana. On a video call, her black curls hang askew. She wears a tan uniform, reflecting her lack of criminal record.
There are nearly 80 other women in the dormitory. The cost to taxpayers for detaining an adult was $282 per day in 2020, according to the American Immigration Council, a nonpartisan research organization.
Bartell worries about his wife. "Emotionally, I'm concerned for her," he said. "It can't be easy being trapped in a room with 100 other people. They don't have anything in there. It's just so wasteful."
They keep in touch on 20-cents-a-minute phone calls. She worries about Bartell's son, whether he is eating well or misses her Peruvian cooking.
The money the couple saved for a down payment on a home has evaporated into attorneys fees and savings to pay a bond for her release, if she's given that chance.
Both of them have been thinking a lot about Bartell's vote for Trump.
"I knew they were cracking down," he said. "I guess I didn’t know how it was going down."
He imagined the administration would target people who snuck over the border and weren't vetted.
But his wife, "they know who she is and where she came from," he said. "They need to get the vetting done and not keep these people locked up. It doesn’t make any sense."
Lauren Villagran can be reached at lvillagran@usatoday.com.
He voted for Trump. Now his wife sits in an ICE detention center.
ICE's deportation actions signal that anyone who isn't a U.S. citizen is 'at risk – period,' immigration attorney says.www.usatoday.com
Thanks to @MASTERBAKER for the post.
He voted for Trump. Now his wife sits in an ICE detention center.
USA TODAY
Bradley Bartell and Camila Muñoz had a familiar small-town love story, before they collided with immigration politics.
They met through mutual friends, had a first date at the local steakhouse, married after two years and were saving to buy a house and have kids. Muñoz was already caring for Bartell's now 12-year-old son as her own.
But last month, on their way home to Wisconsin after honeymooning in Puerto Rico, an immigration agent pulled Muñoz aside in the airport.
"Are you an American citizen?" asked the agent. She answered no, she wasn't. She's from Peru. But she and her husband had taken the legal steps so that one day she might get U.S. citizenship.
Millions of Americans, including Bartell, had voted for President Donald Trump's promise to crack down on "criminal illegal immigrants." But eight weeks in, the mass deportation effort has rapidly expanded to include immigrants whose application for legal status in the country is under review.
Even those married or engaged to U.S. citizens are being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, USA TODAY has learned.
In addition to Muñoz, USA TODAY has confirmed through attorneys, family members and documents that ICE has detained for weeks:
None of the women has a criminal record, according to a USA TODAY review of national law enforcement records. All were in an ongoing legal immigration process and felt comfortable enough boarding a domestic flight. Immigration agents swept each of them up at airport checkpoints in mid-February, in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
- a woman in her 50s who has lived in the country more than 30 years and is married to a U.S. citizen;
- a woman in her 30s with proof of valid permanent legal residency, whose father and siblings are U.S. citizens, and who first came to the U.S. as a teen;
- a European woman in her 30s engaged to a U.S. citizen who overstayed her visa when she was 21;
- a woman engaged to a U.S. legal permanent resident, with whom she has lived for nine years.
Neither ICE nor its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, responded to multiple requests for comment.
Another detention: Lawyers fight Palestinian advocate Mahmoud Khalil's arrest, call it 'un-American'
Nora Ahmed, legal director of the ACLU of Louisiana, said immigrants in legal limbo of any kind should take precautions if they plan to travel.
"The unfortunate answer is they have to be worried," she said. "If you are not a citizen of the United States, and you are going through an immigration process, your first thought needs to be: How can this process be weaponized against me?"
David Rozas, an immigration attorney representing Muñoz, agreed: “Anyone who isn’t a legal permanent resident or U.S. citizen is at risk – period."
Bartell and Muñoz wore their wedding rings for the flight home, secure in the knowledge that the U.S. government knew they had applied for her green card. She had overstayed her original visa but, they reasoned, she had been vetted from the start, worked on a W-2 and paid her taxes.
Before agents led her away, Muñoz pulled off her wedding ring, afraid it might get confiscated. She shoved it into her backpack and handed it to Bartell.
He shook as he watched her disappear. He thought, "What the f— do I do?"
Looking for something lasting
Overstaying a visa is considered an administrative, not criminal, violation of U.S. immigration law, immigration attorneys say. It can result in a bar to returning to the U.S. for up to 10 years, or it can be lawfully forgiven, under a "waiver of unlawful presence," if the immigrant's spouse or immediate relative is a U.S. citizen.
But the U.S. government also has broad authority to detain immigrants, even when they have an application in progress with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
"If an individual is overstaying their visa, they are therefore an illegal immigrant residing in this country, and they are subject to deportation," Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, said in a January news conference.
Bartell didn't see it that way. Not when he met Muñoz in the small Wisconsin town where she had worked lawfully on a temporary visa. Not after they spent months filling out the USCIS paperwork to apply for her legal permanent residency.
He saw her as a funny, caring, hard-working woman who came legally, not one of the "illegals" who the president he supported promised to deport.
The town where they met, Wisconsin Dells – population 2,942 – draws tens of thousands of tourists each summer to a constellation of water parks, including one billed as the nation's largest, Noah's Ark.
Bartell grew up nearby, stayed and got a job with decent pay working maintenance in a factory. For Muñoz, the Dells region was an adventure. As a college student in Peru studying human resources management, she applied and was accepted to a work-study program, secured a U.S. visa and got a job picking up towels at one of the Dells waterparks in 2019.
When COVID-19 hit the following winter, with flights canceled and borders closed, she couldn't get home, and she overstayed her visa. She stayed in the Dells, packing vegetables for a local farm and working food service at hotels. When they met, Bartell gave her his number on a scrap of paper. She threw it away.
But they connected a few days later on Facebook. He invited her to dinner. Muñoz teased that it better not be at McDonalds. On their first date they both confessed: They were looking for a relationship that could last.
Ramping up enforcement
ICE is under extreme pressure from the White House to ramp up enforcement. Top ICE officials, including the newly installed acting director, were re-assigned within weeks of Trump taking office, allegedly over frustrations that detentions and deportations weren't rising fast enough.
The reality of immigration enforcement is that targeting convicted criminals requires time and manpower; it can take half a dozen agents to arrest a single person.
An airport checkpoint – like the one at the San Juan airport in mid-February – can quickly round up multiple people whose immigration status may be in limbo.
"ICE is really widening the net in a really chilling way in terms of who they are going after," said Jesse Franzblau, senior policy analyst for the National Immigrant Justice Center. "People who generally don’t fit the profile of who they picked up before are being picked up now."
It took days for Bartell to find his wife after she was detained at the airport.
It was nearly a week before Muñoz appeared in the ICE detention system. Her name finally turned up in an online locator, assigned to a privately run detention center in Louisiana. On a video call, her black curls hang askew. She wears a tan uniform, reflecting her lack of criminal record.
There are nearly 80 other women in the dormitory. The cost to taxpayers for detaining an adult was $282 per day in 2020, according to the American Immigration Council, a nonpartisan research organization.
Bartell worries about his wife. "Emotionally, I'm concerned for her," he said. "It can't be easy being trapped in a room with 100 other people. They don't have anything in there. It's just so wasteful."
They keep in touch on 20-cents-a-minute phone calls. She worries about Bartell's son, whether he is eating well or misses her Peruvian cooking.
The money the couple saved for a down payment on a home has evaporated into attorneys fees and savings to pay a bond for her release, if she's given that chance.
Both of them have been thinking a lot about Bartell's vote for Trump.
"I knew they were cracking down," he said. "I guess I didn’t know how it was going down."
He imagined the administration would target people who snuck over the border and weren't vetted.
But his wife, "they know who she is and where she came from," he said. "They need to get the vetting done and not keep these people locked up. It doesn’t make any sense."
Lauren Villagran can be reached at lvillagran@usatoday.com.
He voted for Trump. Now his wife sits in an ICE detention center.
ICE's deportation actions signal that anyone who isn't a U.S. citizen is 'at risk – period,' immigration attorney says.www.usatoday.com
Thanks to @MASTERBAKER for the post.
All these fools would vote for Trump again....period...
Trumps supporters don't measure his success by what he does for them, they measure it by what he does against people they don't like. That's why they see him as being successful. This is why they will never abandon him. His tormenting of others, sustain them.
Trumps supporters don't measure his success by what he does for them, they measure it by what he does against people they don't like. That's why they see him as being successful. This is why they will never abandon him. His tormenting of others, sustain them.
Damn. I hope he got some good fucks in.He voted for Trump. Now his wife sits in an ICE detention center.
USA TODAY
Bradley Bartell and Camila Muñoz had a familiar small-town love story, before they collided with immigration politics.
They met through mutual friends, had a first date at the local steakhouse, married after two years and were saving to buy a house and have kids. Muñoz was already caring for Bartell's now 12-year-old son as her own.
But last month, on their way home to Wisconsin after honeymooning in Puerto Rico, an immigration agent pulled Muñoz aside in the airport.
"Are you an American citizen?" asked the agent. She answered no, she wasn't. She's from Peru. But she and her husband had taken the legal steps so that one day she might get U.S. citizenship.
Millions of Americans, including Bartell, had voted for President Donald Trump's promise to crack down on "criminal illegal immigrants." But eight weeks in, the mass deportation effort has rapidly expanded to include immigrants whose application for legal status in the country is under review.
Even those married or engaged to U.S. citizens are being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, USA TODAY has learned.
In addition to Muñoz, USA TODAY has confirmed through attorneys, family members and documents that ICE has detained for weeks:
None of the women has a criminal record, according to a USA TODAY review of national law enforcement records. All were in an ongoing legal immigration process and felt comfortable enough boarding a domestic flight. Immigration agents swept each of them up at airport checkpoints in mid-February, in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
- a woman in her 50s who has lived in the country more than 30 years and is married to a U.S. citizen;
- a woman in her 30s with proof of valid permanent legal residency, whose father and siblings are U.S. citizens, and who first came to the U.S. as a teen;
- a European woman in her 30s engaged to a U.S. citizen who overstayed her visa when she was 21;
- a woman engaged to a U.S. legal permanent resident, with whom she has lived for nine years.
Neither ICE nor its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, responded to multiple requests for comment.
Another detention: Lawyers fight Palestinian advocate Mahmoud Khalil's arrest, call it 'un-American'
Nora Ahmed, legal director of the ACLU of Louisiana, said immigrants in legal limbo of any kind should take precautions if they plan to travel.
"The unfortunate answer is they have to be worried," she said. "If you are not a citizen of the United States, and you are going through an immigration process, your first thought needs to be: How can this process be weaponized against me?"
David Rozas, an immigration attorney representing Muñoz, agreed: “Anyone who isn’t a legal permanent resident or U.S. citizen is at risk – period."
Bartell and Muñoz wore their wedding rings for the flight home, secure in the knowledge that the U.S. government knew they had applied for her green card. She had overstayed her original visa but, they reasoned, she had been vetted from the start, worked on a W-2 and paid her taxes.
Before agents led her away, Muñoz pulled off her wedding ring, afraid it might get confiscated. She shoved it into her backpack and handed it to Bartell.
He shook as he watched her disappear. He thought, "What the f— do I do?"
Looking for something lasting
Overstaying a visa is considered an administrative, not criminal, violation of U.S. immigration law, immigration attorneys say. It can result in a bar to returning to the U.S. for up to 10 years, or it can be lawfully forgiven, under a "waiver of unlawful presence," if the immigrant's spouse or immediate relative is a U.S. citizen.
But the U.S. government also has broad authority to detain immigrants, even when they have an application in progress with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
"If an individual is overstaying their visa, they are therefore an illegal immigrant residing in this country, and they are subject to deportation," Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, said in a January news conference.
Bartell didn't see it that way. Not when he met Muñoz in the small Wisconsin town where she had worked lawfully on a temporary visa. Not after they spent months filling out the USCIS paperwork to apply for her legal permanent residency.
He saw her as a funny, caring, hard-working woman who came legally, not one of the "illegals" who the president he supported promised to deport.
The town where they met, Wisconsin Dells – population 2,942 – draws tens of thousands of tourists each summer to a constellation of water parks, including one billed as the nation's largest, Noah's Ark.
Bartell grew up nearby, stayed and got a job with decent pay working maintenance in a factory. For Muñoz, the Dells region was an adventure. As a college student in Peru studying human resources management, she applied and was accepted to a work-study program, secured a U.S. visa and got a job picking up towels at one of the Dells waterparks in 2019.
When COVID-19 hit the following winter, with flights canceled and borders closed, she couldn't get home, and she overstayed her visa. She stayed in the Dells, packing vegetables for a local farm and working food service at hotels. When they met, Bartell gave her his number on a scrap of paper. She threw it away.
But they connected a few days later on Facebook. He invited her to dinner. Muñoz teased that it better not be at McDonalds. On their first date they both confessed: They were looking for a relationship that could last.
Ramping up enforcement
ICE is under extreme pressure from the White House to ramp up enforcement. Top ICE officials, including the newly installed acting director, were re-assigned within weeks of Trump taking office, allegedly over frustrations that detentions and deportations weren't rising fast enough.
The reality of immigration enforcement is that targeting convicted criminals requires time and manpower; it can take half a dozen agents to arrest a single person.
An airport checkpoint – like the one at the San Juan airport in mid-February – can quickly round up multiple people whose immigration status may be in limbo.
"ICE is really widening the net in a really chilling way in terms of who they are going after," said Jesse Franzblau, senior policy analyst for the National Immigrant Justice Center. "People who generally don’t fit the profile of who they picked up before are being picked up now."
It took days for Bartell to find his wife after she was detained at the airport.
It was nearly a week before Muñoz appeared in the ICE detention system. Her name finally turned up in an online locator, assigned to a privately run detention center in Louisiana. On a video call, her black curls hang askew. She wears a tan uniform, reflecting her lack of criminal record.
There are nearly 80 other women in the dormitory. The cost to taxpayers for detaining an adult was $282 per day in 2020, according to the American Immigration Council, a nonpartisan research organization.
Bartell worries about his wife. "Emotionally, I'm concerned for her," he said. "It can't be easy being trapped in a room with 100 other people. They don't have anything in there. It's just so wasteful."
They keep in touch on 20-cents-a-minute phone calls. She worries about Bartell's son, whether he is eating well or misses her Peruvian cooking.
The money the couple saved for a down payment on a home has evaporated into attorneys fees and savings to pay a bond for her release, if she's given that chance.
Both of them have been thinking a lot about Bartell's vote for Trump.
"I knew they were cracking down," he said. "I guess I didn’t know how it was going down."
He imagined the administration would target people who snuck over the border and weren't vetted.
But his wife, "they know who she is and where she came from," he said. "They need to get the vetting done and not keep these people locked up. It doesn’t make any sense."
Lauren Villagran can be reached at lvillagran@usatoday.com.
He voted for Trump. Now his wife sits in an ICE detention center.
ICE's deportation actions signal that anyone who isn't a U.S. citizen is 'at risk – period,' immigration attorney says.www.usatoday.com
Thanks to @MASTERBAKER for the post.
The woman wonders if his son misses her cooking.
24K views · 7.3K reactions | From @perfectunion Two-thirds of people in California’s 22nd Congressional district rely on Medicaid. But the majority of the district also voted to elect President Trump in 2024. We went to talk to residents to see what
From @perfectunion Two-thirds of people in California’s 22nd Congressional district rely on Medicaid. But the majority of the district also voted to elect President Trump in 2024. We went to talk to...
www.facebook.com
I hate when people call that dumbass a genius.
She hoped Trump would revive her farm. Now she worries his policies could bankrupt it.
Rebecca Carlson planned to use a USDA grant to hire overseas workers for her cherry harvest. A funding freeze has left her in debt and unsure whether she can hire the workers.
By Shannon Pettypiece
March 22, 2025
Rebecca Carlson and her family on their farm, Overlook Orchards, in Michigan.
Rebecca Carlson planned to use a USDA grant to hire overseas workers for her cherry harvest. A funding freeze has left her in debt and unsure whether she can hire the workers.
By Shannon Pettypiece
March 22, 2025
Rebecca Carlson and her family on their farm, Overlook Orchards, in Michigan.
As the Carolinas burn, Homeland Security head Kristie Noem says Trump administration is going to ‘eliminate’ FEMA
Poor, disaster-prone red states would likely be hit hardest if the federal government withdraws funding
Josh Marcus
25 March 2025
www.the-independent.com
United States Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem
Poor, disaster-prone red states would likely be hit hardest if the federal government withdraws funding
Josh Marcus
25 March 2025
Kristie Noem says Trump administration is going to ‘eliminate’ FEMA
Poor, disaster-prone red states would likely be hit hardest if the federal government withdraws funding
www.the-independent.com
United States Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem
‘A huge blow’: USDA cuts threaten to throw Wisconsin’s local food supply into disarray
This month, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced it is terminating 2025 funding for two pandemic-era initiatives: the Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) and Local Food for Schools (LFS) programs. The initiatives together provided over $1 billion to farmers in 40 states, supplying fresh food to food banks, pantries and schools.
By Nayeli Jaramillo-Plata, CNN
March 30, 2025
amp.cnn.com
This month, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced it is terminating 2025 funding for two pandemic-era initiatives: the Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) and Local Food for Schools (LFS) programs. The initiatives together provided over $1 billion to farmers in 40 states, supplying fresh food to food banks, pantries and schools.
By Nayeli Jaramillo-Plata, CNN
March 30, 2025
‘A huge blow’: USDA cuts threaten to throw Wisconsin’s local food supply into disarray | CNN Business
Federal funding cuts have thrown local food systems in Wisconsin — and across the US — into chaos.
This is truly a cult, basically sacrificed his child for someones misguided propaganda. What's even scarier there are more just like him.
Wall Street is fed up with Trump’s tariffs. Stocks are off to their worst start to a year since 2022
Wall Street has been rocked with volatility this year as Trump’s tariff proposals have kept investors in a cloud of uncertainty. The benchmark S&P 500 index is down 4.6% for the year, its worst start since 2022 and its worst quarter since September 2022.
By John Towfighi, CNN
March 31, 2025
amp.cnn.com
Wall Street has been rocked with volatility this year as Trump’s tariff proposals have kept investors in a cloud of uncertainty. The benchmark S&P 500 index is down 4.6% for the year, its worst start since 2022 and its worst quarter since September 2022.
By John Towfighi, CNN
March 31, 2025
Wall Street is fed up with Trump’s tariffs. Stocks are off to their worst start to a year since 2022 | CNN Business
As Wall Street heads into a new quarter, a flurry of President Donald Trump’s tariffs are set to go into effect. That has traders on edge and has helped put US stocks in their worst first-quarter slump in years.
Trump Admin error sends Legal Maryland Father to Salvadoran Prison - Confirmed that trips are one-way and people mistakenly sent CANT return
The Department of Justice says it has no recourse now that the man is in his home country, where he’d previously feared torture and persecution.
Prison guards transfer deportees from the U.S., alleged to be Venezuelan gang members, to the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, on March 16, 2025. | El Salvador Presidential Press Office via AP
By Kyle Cheney
04/01/2025 05:28 AM EDT
The Trump administration acknowledged late Monday that it had inadvertently deported a man to El Salvador last month despite a court’s determination that he had a legitimate fear of persecution in his home country.
“This removal was an error,” a top Immigration and Customs Enforcement official wrote in a statement to a federal judge.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran, was on one of three deportation flights to his home country on March 15 amid a frantic legal fight over President Donald Trump’s decision to invoke war powers to hasten the deportation of more than 100 Venezuela nationals to El Salvador. In addition to the Venezuelans subject to Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act were other deportees with purported gang ties.
Trump’s use of centuries-old war powers to speed deportations — invoked just three times in American history — has provoked a fierce legal and political battle over the president’s authority.
A federal judge has barred further removals under the Alien Enemies Act while proceedings play out in court. That decision triggered Trump to call for the impeachment of judges who have ruled against his administration. The judge, James Boasberg, is also weighing whether the Trump administration defied his order by deporting some Venezuelans to El Salvador after he demanded the March 15 flights be halted or turned around.
Abrego Garcia was deemed by an immigration judge in 2019 to be a likely member of the MS-13 gang — a decision Abrego Garcia sharply contested and that the government credited to information gleaned from a confidential informant. But the court also agreed at the time that he should not be deported to El Salvador, finding that his fear of being persecuted or tortured was credible.
As a result of that determination, Abrego Garcia was released from custody and has been living in Maryland with his wife, a U.S. citizen, and child.
He was arrested by ICE on March 12 and sent to El Salvador on March 15, where his wife recognized him in a video showing the shackled and shaven prisoners being arrayed by Salvadoran authorities.
The Trump administration now says there’s nothing it can do to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to U.S. custody. The Justice Department is urging a federal judge to reject a petition by Abrego Garcia’s attorneys to seek his return to United States custody, saying the Trump administration has no power to force El Salvador to facilitate that demand — and that the courts have no authority to issue such an order.
The case is before U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, an Obama appointee based in Maryland.
The administration contends that despite the “good faith” error, Abrego Garcia is unlikely to face torture in El Salvador in part because the U.S. government made a broader assessment of El Salvador’s intentions when it deported the larger groups of migrants.
“This court should defer to the government’s determination that Abrego Garcia will not likely be tortured or killed in El Salvador,” Justice Department attorneys wrote. “Although the government erred in removing Abrego Garcia specifically to El Salvador, the government would not have removed any alien to El Salvador … if it believed that doing so would violate the United States’ obligations” under an international anti-torture treaty.
After the error began generating news coverage, Vice President JD Vance responded to a demand for explanation from Pod Save America’s Jon Favreau, a former Obama administration official, who described Abrego Garcia as “an innocent father from Maryland.” Vance mocked Favreau, saying he must not have read the court documents because Abrego Garcia was a “convicted MS-13 gang member.”
The court documents, however, do not describe Abrego Garcia as a convicted gang member. Rather, a judge in 2019 denied him release from detention over a government informant’s claim that Abrego Garcia was a member of that gang. That decision was upheld by the Board of Immigration Appeals.
Trump administration admits ‘error’ in deporting Maryland resident to El Salvador
The Department of Justice says it has no recourse now that the man is in his home country, where he’d previously feared torture and persecution.
Prison guards transfer deportees from the U.S., alleged to be Venezuelan gang members, to the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, on March 16, 2025. | El Salvador Presidential Press Office via AP
By Kyle Cheney
04/01/2025 05:28 AM EDT
The Trump administration acknowledged late Monday that it had inadvertently deported a man to El Salvador last month despite a court’s determination that he had a legitimate fear of persecution in his home country.
“This removal was an error,” a top Immigration and Customs Enforcement official wrote in a statement to a federal judge.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran, was on one of three deportation flights to his home country on March 15 amid a frantic legal fight over President Donald Trump’s decision to invoke war powers to hasten the deportation of more than 100 Venezuela nationals to El Salvador. In addition to the Venezuelans subject to Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act were other deportees with purported gang ties.
Trump’s use of centuries-old war powers to speed deportations — invoked just three times in American history — has provoked a fierce legal and political battle over the president’s authority.
A federal judge has barred further removals under the Alien Enemies Act while proceedings play out in court. That decision triggered Trump to call for the impeachment of judges who have ruled against his administration. The judge, James Boasberg, is also weighing whether the Trump administration defied his order by deporting some Venezuelans to El Salvador after he demanded the March 15 flights be halted or turned around.
Abrego Garcia was deemed by an immigration judge in 2019 to be a likely member of the MS-13 gang — a decision Abrego Garcia sharply contested and that the government credited to information gleaned from a confidential informant. But the court also agreed at the time that he should not be deported to El Salvador, finding that his fear of being persecuted or tortured was credible.
As a result of that determination, Abrego Garcia was released from custody and has been living in Maryland with his wife, a U.S. citizen, and child.
He was arrested by ICE on March 12 and sent to El Salvador on March 15, where his wife recognized him in a video showing the shackled and shaven prisoners being arrayed by Salvadoran authorities.
The Trump administration now says there’s nothing it can do to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to U.S. custody. The Justice Department is urging a federal judge to reject a petition by Abrego Garcia’s attorneys to seek his return to United States custody, saying the Trump administration has no power to force El Salvador to facilitate that demand — and that the courts have no authority to issue such an order.
The case is before U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, an Obama appointee based in Maryland.
The administration contends that despite the “good faith” error, Abrego Garcia is unlikely to face torture in El Salvador in part because the U.S. government made a broader assessment of El Salvador’s intentions when it deported the larger groups of migrants.
“This court should defer to the government’s determination that Abrego Garcia will not likely be tortured or killed in El Salvador,” Justice Department attorneys wrote. “Although the government erred in removing Abrego Garcia specifically to El Salvador, the government would not have removed any alien to El Salvador … if it believed that doing so would violate the United States’ obligations” under an international anti-torture treaty.
After the error began generating news coverage, Vice President JD Vance responded to a demand for explanation from Pod Save America’s Jon Favreau, a former Obama administration official, who described Abrego Garcia as “an innocent father from Maryland.” Vance mocked Favreau, saying he must not have read the court documents because Abrego Garcia was a “convicted MS-13 gang member.”
The court documents, however, do not describe Abrego Garcia as a convicted gang member. Rather, a judge in 2019 denied him release from detention over a government informant’s claim that Abrego Garcia was a member of that gang. That decision was upheld by the Board of Immigration Appeals.
The people who admit they were wrong to send him over there to begin with are absolutely sure they are right about him not being harmed now that he is there. Sure. I'll buy that.Trump Admin error sends Legal Maryland Father to Salvadoran Prison - Confirmed that trips are one-way and people mistakenly sent CANT return
Trump administration admits ‘error’ in deporting Maryland resident to El Salvador
The Department of Justice says it has no recourse now that the man is in his home country, where he’d previously feared torture and persecution.
Prison guards transfer deportees from the U.S., alleged to be Venezuelan gang members, to the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, on March 16, 2025. | El Salvador Presidential Press Office via AP
By Kyle Cheney
04/01/2025 05:28 AM EDT
The Trump administration acknowledged late Monday that it had inadvertently deported a man to El Salvador last month despite a court’s determination that he had a legitimate fear of persecution in his home country.
“This removal was an error,” a top Immigration and Customs Enforcement official wrote in a statement to a federal judge.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran, was on one of three deportation flights to his home country on March 15 amid a frantic legal fight over President Donald Trump’s decision to invoke war powers to hasten the deportation of more than 100 Venezuela nationals to El Salvador. In addition to the Venezuelans subject to Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act were other deportees with purported gang ties.
Trump’s use of centuries-old war powers to speed deportations — invoked just three times in American history — has provoked a fierce legal and political battle over the president’s authority.
A federal judge has barred further removals under the Alien Enemies Act while proceedings play out in court. That decision triggered Trump to call for the impeachment of judges who have ruled against his administration. The judge, James Boasberg, is also weighing whether the Trump administration defied his order by deporting some Venezuelans to El Salvador after he demanded the March 15 flights be halted or turned around.
Abrego Garcia was deemed by an immigration judge in 2019 to be a likely member of the MS-13 gang — a decision Abrego Garcia sharply contested and that the government credited to information gleaned from a confidential informant. But the court also agreed at the time that he should not be deported to El Salvador, finding that his fear of being persecuted or tortured was credible.
As a result of that determination, Abrego Garcia was released from custody and has been living in Maryland with his wife, a U.S. citizen, and child.
He was arrested by ICE on March 12 and sent to El Salvador on March 15, where his wife recognized him in a video showing the shackled and shaven prisoners being arrayed by Salvadoran authorities.
The Trump administration now says there’s nothing it can do to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to U.S. custody. The Justice Department is urging a federal judge to reject a petition by Abrego Garcia’s attorneys to seek his return to United States custody, saying the Trump administration has no power to force El Salvador to facilitate that demand — and that the courts have no authority to issue such an order.
The case is before U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, an Obama appointee based in Maryland.
The administration contends that despite the “good faith” error, Abrego Garcia is unlikely to face torture in El Salvador in part because the U.S. government made a broader assessment of El Salvador’s intentions when it deported the larger groups of migrants.
“This court should defer to the government’s determination that Abrego Garcia will not likely be tortured or killed in El Salvador,” Justice Department attorneys wrote. “Although the government erred in removing Abrego Garcia specifically to El Salvador, the government would not have removed any alien to El Salvador … if it believed that doing so would violate the United States’ obligations” under an international anti-torture treaty.
After the error began generating news coverage, Vice President JD Vance responded to a demand for explanation from Pod Save America’s Jon Favreau, a former Obama administration official, who described Abrego Garcia as “an innocent father from Maryland.” Vance mocked Favreau, saying he must not have read the court documents because Abrego Garcia was a “convicted MS-13 gang member.”
The court documents, however, do not describe Abrego Garcia as a convicted gang member. Rather, a judge in 2019 denied him release from detention over a government informant’s claim that Abrego Garcia was a member of that gang. That decision was upheld by the Board of Immigration Appeals.