The Unconstitutional, Unchristian Motives Behind Many ICE Raids; Beware of Falsely Labeled Chorizo and Radioactive Shrimp–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: Aug. 21, 2025

Indy Digest: Aug. 21, 2025

A recent story in The Orange County Register really upset me. The lede:

A father was briefly detained by federal immigration agents Tuesday morning, Aug. 19, after dropping off his child at a Garden Grove elementary school, district officials confirmed.

The incident happened at about 7:50 a.m., before school started, when families alerted staff that a group of masked, unidentified individuals in unmarked cars had surrounded a man on the corner near campus. The man, who had just dropped off his child, was handcuffed and taken away in one of the vehicles, Garden Grove Unified spokesperson Abby Broyles said Wednesday morning.

“This incident understandably caused fear and confusion among the many students and families who witnessed this terrifying event,” Broyles said.

Broyles said the father returned to school later that day and told district officials he had been held inside an ICE vehicle parked at a lot near the school and released within the hour after showing documentation and confirming his identity. He asked that details not be shared to protect his family and the wider school community, Broyles said.

Following safety protocols, the school went into a “Secure Building” alert—a precaution used when immigration enforcement is occurring near campus with the potential to impact students, she said. During this alert, students and staff go indoors, doors are locked and classes continue.

The specifics of this story are deeply troubling—as is the fact that we’ve heard numerous stories about similar incidents happening all across Southern California.

Why was this man stopped and detained? He had just taken his kid to school. Was it racial profiling? How is it that agents—masked, in unmarked vehicles, and unidentified—are plucking people off of the streets in the United States of America? Was the fear and confusion this caused the students and families at the school necessary?

Can you imagine how the detainee’s child felt, knowing their father had been detained?

Many of the people in President Donald Trump’s administration like to wax poetic about the United States Constitution, and the Bible. Let’s look at several passages from these two works.

The Fifth Amendment of the Constitution: “No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” (Emphasis mine.)

The 14th Amendment of the Constitution: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. (Emphasis mine.)

Luke 10: 30-37, as Jesus responds to the question, “Who is my neighbor?”: “Then Jesus answered and said: ‘A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, “Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.” So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?’ And he said, ‘He who showed mercy on him.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’”

The people responsible for these actions aren’t following the Constitution. They’re not being Christians. They’re just being cruel.

—Jimmy Boegle

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More News

• The Democrats’ California redistricting plan is heading to voters. Our partners at Calmatters report: “Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to counter President Donald Trump’s election gerrymander in Texas with his own redistricting play in California is on its way to voters. The California Legislature today approved his proposal calling for a special election on a ballot measure that would suspend the state’s current congressional districts, which were drawn by an independent commission, and replace them with a map intended to favor Democrats. The Assembly passed the measure 57 to 20, and lawmakers on the floor erupted in applause even before they closed the vote. The Senate passed it hours later on a party-line vote, 30-8. Newsom declared a Nov. 4 special election shortly afterward. At a press conference to promote the upcoming campaign for what will appear on the ballot as Proposition 50, he said it was time for Democrats to ‘play hardball’ in response to the Trump administration’s moves to ‘advance their power.'”

• Reason No. 389,282 RFK Jr. should be behind bars, not the secretary of Health and Human Services. ProPublica reports: “Erin McCanlies was listening to the radio one morning in April when she heard Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promising to find the cause of autism by September. The secretary of Health and Human Services said he believed an environmental toxin was responsible for the dramatic increase in the condition and vowed to gather ‘the most credible scientists from all over the world’ to solve the mystery. Nothing like that has ever been done before, he told an interviewer. McCanlies was stunned. The work had been done. ‘That’s exactly what I’ve been doing!’ she said to her husband, Fred. As an epidemiologist at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which Kennedy oversees, McCanlies had spent much of the past two decades studying how parents’ exposure to workplace chemicals affects the chance that they will have a child with autism. Just three weeks earlier, she’d been finalizing her fourth major paper on the topic when Kennedy eliminated her entire division. Kennedy has also overseen tens of millions of dollars in cuts to federal funding for research on autism, including its environmental causes.”

• The Trump administration is making some alarming changes to the U.S. citizenship application process. Time magazine reports: “The Trump Administration is introducing more stringent criteria for assessing ‘good moral character’ in U.S. citizenship applications, including screening for ‘anti-American’ views. The policy, issued in a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) memo on Friday, directs the agency to conduct a more comprehensive and ‘holistic’ assessment of applicants’ ‘good moral character,’ including by accounting for applicants’ ‘positive attributes and not simply the absence of misconduct. USCIS on Tuesday said it would also screen for ‘anti-Americanism,’ and in particular ‘antisemitic ideologies,’ including on social media, when considering immigration applications, both for prospective citizens and visa applicants. ‘America’s benefits should not be given to those who despise the country and promote anti-American ideologies,’ USCIS chief spokesperson Matthew Tragesser said in a Tuesday statement. ‘(USCIS) is committed to implementing policies and procedures that root out anti-Americanism and supporting the enforcement of rigorous screening and vetting measures to the fullest extent possible.’”

• The headline from The Conversation: “Data centers consume massive amounts of water—companies rarely tell the public exactly how much.” Details: “A 2024 report from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimated that in 2023, U.S. data centers consumed 17 billion gallons (64 billion liters) of water directly through cooling, and projects that by 2028, those figures could double – or even quadruple. The same report estimated that in 2023, U.S. data centers consumed an additional 211 billion gallons (800 billion liters) of water indirectly through the electricity that powers them. But that is just an estimate in a fast-changing industry. … In general, corporate sustainability reports offered the most access and detail—including that in 2024, one data center in Iowa consumed 1 billion (3.8 billion liters) gallons of water—enough to supply all of Iowa’s residential water for five days.”

• Also from our partners from Calmatters, some good news, maybe: Homelessness, perhaps, is decreasing in the state, at least in some places: “Santa Cruz County … counted 1,473 people this year, down 20% from 2024. But despite that sign of progress, the number of ‘chronically homeless’ people increased—suggesting the county still struggles to house that high-needs population. That category refers to people who have been homeless a year or more and have a disability. Homelessness dropped 4% in Los Angeles County from last year, marking the second year in a row the county saw a decline. Contra Costa County saw a 26% decrease. Santa Clara County, meanwhile, saw an 8% increase from 2023 (Santa Clara County counts every other year). Those numbers come from ‘point-in-time’ counts conducted at the start of the year. Results have been rolling in all summer. Experts caution that those counts are estimates, at best, and likely undercount homeless populations.”

• Today’s recall news involves … meat! And the reason for the recall is very interesting. CBS News says: “A New Jersey-based company, Sabrositos Hondurenos, LLC, is recalling about 32,000 pounds of various meat products with a false USDA mark of inspection, meaning the meats didn’t go through proper federal examination, according to federal officials. In an alert shared Thursday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service said the recalled products are falsely labeled with establishment number ‘EST. 1785,’ which ‘does not exist,’ they said. The items, which include chorizo (sausage), pork chops and ribs, were shipped to retail locations and restaurants nationwide and were produced with various dates before Aug. 20, 2025.“

• And finally … here’s an FDA warning: Do not eat potentially radioactive shrimp! Time has the details: “The Food and Drug Administration has warned the public not to consume certain frozen shrimp products sold at Walmart due to possible contamination with Cesium-137, a radioactive isotope. It said the warning affects the Great Value brand of raw frozen shrimp sold at the superstore, adding that anyone who purchased the products should dispose of them. A statement from the agency said the FDA was ‘actively investigating reports of Cesium-137 (Cs-137) contamination in shipping containers and frozen shrimp products’ shipped from Indonesia. … The FDA added that although it had not confirmed the presence of contamination in any commercial product in the United States, the shrimp products appear ‘to have been prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions whereby it may have become contaminated with Cs-137 and may pose a safety concern.’”

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