WTF Just Happened Today

Thursday, February 11, 2021

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1/ Reports of raids have immigrants bracing for enforcement surge. Officials at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, said the immigration roundups did not represent an increased tempo. ICE described it as a routine “targeted enforcement action” in which roughly 160 people were arrested in six counties around Los Angeles. Of those, 150 had criminal histories. The agency has about 100 fugitive teams constantly working to bring in those wanted on a variety of immigration offenses. These teams have been just as active as they were during the Obama administration. (New York Times)

2/ The Trump administration is turning on Mike Flynn while the CIA freezes out Flynn’s aide. The agency denied a security clearance for a key aide to the National Security Adviser, effectively ending his tenure on the National Security Council and escalating tensions between Flynn and the intelligence community. (Politico)

• Flynn holds call with Pence amid calls for probes of contacts with Russian ambassador. Flynn had urged Moscow to show restraint in its response to punitive sanctions being imposed on Russia by the Obama administration, signaling that the Trump administration would revisit the issue when it took office. (Washington Post)
• Michael Flynn’s debacle. Trump’s national security adviser’s potentially false statements about his pre-inauguration contacts with Russian officials are a major scandal. (The Atlantic)

3/ GOP bill would gut EPA. A House Republican is sponsoring legislation to do away with large portions of the Environmental Protection Agency, including environmental justice and greenhouse gas programs. The Wasteful EPA Programs Elimination Act would save $7.5 billion annually and would leave the EPA with a budget of less than $1 billion. Major EPA climate change programs would be eliminated under the measure. (The Hill)

4/ Trump: Refugees are flooding the U.S. and creating a “dangerous” situation after the judge blocked his travel ban. The percentage of refugees arriving from the so-called seven banned countries — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — has risen considerably since the directive was suspended. However, the weekly total of refugees arriving from the targeted countries has risen by only about 100. All are stringently vetted. Trump made the post at the start of a day of golf with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan at his resort in Jupiter, Florida. (New York Times)

5/ The Justice Department is taking a step back from efforts to protect transgender people under existing law. The department withdrew a request to limit an injunction halting enforcement of existing civil rights laws that provide protections for transgender people. The moves suggests that the federal government’s position on the pending legal questions surrounding transgender people’s rights could be changing soon. (BuzzFeed News)

6/ Hundreds of protests against Planned Parenthood and counterprotests in support o...

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