InevitableSwing

It's by Eduardo Robledo. More works by the artist - https://hechoamano.org/artist/eduardo-robledo

Full text

As the Supreme Court mulls the question of how much — and what type of — notice Venezuelan migrants in Texas should be given before being deported under the expansive powers of a wartime law, a federal judge in Colorado has given her own answer: at least 21 days. In an order issued Tuesday, the judge, Charlotte N. Sweeney, also says that before deporting migrants under the wartime law, the Alien Enemies Act, the government must inform them that they can challenge their removal in court and have a lawyer assist them in the process.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/04/22/us/trump-administration-news/ef5902dd-01b2-5a08-bde2-7d9411e6ac8b

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday unveiled a sweeping reorganization of the State Department, calling the government’s diplomatic agency “bloated, bureaucratic” and “beholden to radical political ideology.”

Mr. Rubio released the plan in the form of an organizational chart and a brief official statement, with few other details. The move is the latest by President Trump’s administration to downsize and reshape the government to a degree unseen in generations, which critics have called a shortsightedly blunt assault on the federal bureaucracy.

In the announcement, Mr. Rubio did not give more information on the ideology or ideas to which he objected, but the chart and a Substack post revealed some of his thinking. The most drastic change is the elimination of the office of the under secretary for civilian security, democracy and human rights, which is charged with advancing American values around the world.

Some elements of that office, including a bureau for democracy and human rights and one for refugees, would be cut and folded into an office for foreign assistance and humanitarian aid, according to the reorganization chart posted on the State Department website.

The department released an internal fact sheet that provided more details on Mr. Rubio’s plan, including reducing the agency’s total number of offices from 734 to 602, or by 17 percent. It also said that Mr. Rubio had instructed senior officials to deliver plans soon to reduce the number of U.S.-based employees by 15 percent.

The New York Times reported on Sunday on a draft document labeled an “executive order” that outlined plans for a drastic restructuring of the department, including cutting the entire office of the under secretary for civilian security, democracy and human rights and many other parts of the agency.

On a new State Department account on Substack on Tuesday, Mr. Rubio wrote that the bureau for democracy, human rights and labor had become a “platform for left-wing activists to wage vendettas” against conservative leaders — including those in Poland, Hungary and Brazil — and to try to promote an arms embargo against Israel.

Mr. Rubio accused the bureau for population, refugees and migration of sending millions of taxpayer dollars to nongovernment groups that had promoted mass migration, including “the invasion on our southern border.” The language echoed Mr. Trump’s, and Mr. Rubio did not provide evidence for any of his assertions.

As a Republican senator from Florida, Mr. Rubio had been an ardent champion of promoting traditional American values abroad and supported the State Department’s work to that end. But as secretary, he has hewed closely to Mr. Trump’s transactional approach to foreign policy.

Diplomats and civil service employees are bracing for internal announcements with more details of layoffs and other cuts as senior political appointees carry out the reorganization. Officials say the plan also involves closing some embassies and consulates.

U.S. officials have said the foreign assistance office would also house the remnants of the United States Agency for International Development, which was gutted in recent weeks by Mr. Rubio and other Trump administration officials, in coordination with the conservative billionaire Elon Musk.

In a statement, Mr. Rubio said the State Department’s size and costs had “soared” over the past 15 years and the new plan would sharpen its focus on “America’s core national interests.”

Mr. Rubio said he would combine overlapping offices and eliminate some programs that were not mandated by Congress. But he did not provide examples, and his statement used murky bureaucratic language: “Region-specific functions will be consolidated to increase functionality,” he said.

Possible paywall - "Trump Administration Live Updates"

A Bluesky summary

A Venezuelan man detained alongside the 238 sent to El Salvador on March 15 seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth. His name isn't among the names of those sent to CECOT that day and no one spotted him among those men. He's just... gone.

The first first paragraphs of an NYT article

An Immigrant Held in U.S. Custody ‘Has Simply Disappeared’

In late January, Ricardo Prada Vásquez, a Venezuelan immigrant working in a delivery job in Detroit, picked up an order at a McDonald’s. He was heading to the address when he erroneously turned onto the Ambassador Bridge, which leads to Canada. It is a common mistake even for those who live in the Michigan border city. But for Mr. Prada, 32, it proved fateful.

The U.S. authorities took Mr. Prada into custody when he attempted to re-enter the country; he was put in detention and ordered deported. On March 15, he told a friend in Chicago that he was among a number of detainees housed in Texas who expected to be repatriated to Venezuela.

That evening, the Trump administration flew three planes carrying Venezuelan migrants from the Texas facility to El Salvador, where they have been ever since, locked up in a maximum-security prison and denied contact with the outside world.

But Mr. Prada has not been heard from or seen. He is not on the list of 238 people who were deported to El Salvador that day. He does not appear in the photos and videos released by the authorities of shackled men with shaved heads.