From ABC News,
Border Patrol chief ordered to meet with judge daily on Chicago immigration crackdown.
We now have a federal district judge micromanaging the day-to-day operations of an executive branch agency. Apparently, she doesn’t like his tactics,
With Bovino appearing before her dressed in uniform, Judge Sara Ellis of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois ordered him to meet with her in person each weekday at 6 p.m. local time, to report to her on the immigration activities in Chicago that he is spearheading.
What has he or the Patrol done wrong? Judge Ellis concedes,
My role is not to tell you that you can or cannot enforce validly passed laws by Congress.
Then what is her role? To question the manner in which the law is enforced, apparently. She doesn’t like the use of tear gas in dispersing hostile crowds.
Chief Bovino wasn’t given the opportunity to confirm or deny any “code red” order, because Judge Ellis never stopped talking for the entire hearing.
I’ll file this next item under good news on the shut down. From The Hill newspaper,
Vance: Troops will get paid at end of week.
The Hill reports,
JD Vance told reporters after the Tuesday Senate Republican policy lunch that 1.3 million military service members will get paid at the end of this week, despite the government shutdown that has dragged on for 28 days.
“Will the troops get paid on Friday? Yes, we believe that we can continue to pay the troops on Friday.”
The UK Guardian counters,
Trump’s move to pay troops amid shutdown sets dangerous precedent, experts warn:
Experts see move as Trump’s latest attempt to shift power of the purse away from Congress and into executive branch.
The Guardian adds,
But experts who spoke to the Guardian warn that he is doing so in a way that is almost certainly illegal.
Yet, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison put out this press release today,
Attorney General Ellison sues Trump administration for illegally suspending SNAP benefits.
To recap: during a federal government shutdown, moving around money (and accepting private donations) to pay our military members is illegal, experts say. But AG Ellison tells us that not moving around money to keep paying out the food stamps benefit is a criminal act.
Ellison has made suing Trump his entire life. In all of the press releases he’s issued in the past seven years as Attorney General, Trump is mentioned by name 119 times. I’m not kidding.
Senate Democrats have voted 13 times to keep the government closed since the shutdown began on October 1. Any one of those votes would have reopened government and kept the food stamps flowing to those starving children wandering our streets.
At least the Senate is getting something done this month. So far, this month, they have confirmed two appeals court judges and six district court judges. The Senate has another one scheduled for tomorrow.
But the lawfare keeps coming, From the Associated Press (AP),
Judge extends order barring the Trump administration from firing federal workers during the shutdown
Senate Democrats won’t allow the government to reopen. Federal workers are banned from doing their jobs that they are not getting paid for (except the military). If they do show up and try to make the thing work somehow (pro bono), then they are breaking the law.
Federal workers are not showing up, not doing the work, and not getting paid, But somehow, a judge has ruled that they can’t be “fired” during the shutdown.
But don’t worry, help is on the way! From The Hill,
Democrats possibly open to GOP plan to pay all federal workers during shutdown
Under this bipartisan plan, the government will still be shut down. Government workers will not work, but will still get paid. This arrangement returns us to the status quo ante.
I give up.
