Author: Sky York Journal

Sky York Journal This story was originally reported by Amanda Becker of The 19th. Meet Amanda and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy. The residents of Springfield, Ohio, had prepared for the arrival of immigration agents on February 3, the expiration date set by the Trump administration for Temporary Protected Status for Haitians, who account for nearly a quarter of the city’s population. A federal judge intervened at the last minute, pushing the deadline indefinitely. The agents never arrived.  Still, the city has found itself on edge this month and the threat is as unsettling as…

Sky York Journal Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) broke with most of his Republican peers Thursday, using his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security committee to press immigration officials on agents’ violent behavior.  He and ranking member Gary Peters (D-MI) teamed up to ask acting ICE chief Todd Lyons and Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott questions about officers’ use of force as they played a frame-by-frame video of Alex Pretti’s killing. It was an unusual bipartisan display, indicative of Paul’s willingness, at least for now, to buck the Trump administration’s insistence on full-throated support for the agents.  “Because you…

Sky York Journal A federal judge ruled in favor of Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) Thursday, finding that Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth violated the senator’s constitutional rights by attempting to downgrade his rank and retirement benefits.  Hegseth targeted Kelly after he participated in a video warning members of the military not to follow illegal orders; he was one of six lawmakers who participated in the video, which came out amid President Trump’s National Guard deployments and Venezuelan boat strikes.  This week, federal prosecutors tried and failed to secure an indictment against Kelly and the other five members of Congress…

Sky York Journal From what began as a routine traffic stop in Georgia, U.S. Army veteran Godfrey Wade was detained, transferred to a facility in Louisiana, and shipped off to a country he hadn’t known in 50 years. Sixty-seven-year-old Roderick Johnson, a Black U.S. citizen, found himself zip-tied and left outside for hours after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents broke down the door of his apartment and many others in a building in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood. And while driving in Minnesota, an American couple reportedly from Illinois endured an ICE traffic stop wherein the driver was asked to produce…

Sky York Journal From what began as a routine traffic stop in Georgia, U.S. Army veteran Godfrey Wade was detained, transferred to a facility in Louisiana, and shipped off to a country he hadn’t known in 50 years. Sixty-seven-year-old Roderick Johnson, a Black U.S. citizen, found himself zip-tied and left outside for hours after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents broke down the door of his apartment and many others in a building in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood. And while driving in Minnesota, an American couple reportedly from Illinois endured an ICE traffic stop wherein the driver was asked to produce…

Sky York Journal Clay Parikh does not want to talk about who he is working with inside the White House. However, in an extraordinary and extensive conversation with TPM, he had a lot to say about many other things, including his concerns that the “deep state” and a shadowy “cabal” is influencing our elections.  “When they say ‘deep state,’ it’s deep and it’s everywhere,” Parikh said in a phone call late Tuesday evening.  Parikh, who, according to court documents unsealed this week, is currently a special government employee in the executive branch, is also worried about myriad other issues including…

Sky York Journal After the first full year of President Donald Trump’s economic policies, which came with rhetoric aimed especially at growing manufacturing job opportunities through protectionist policies like tariffs, the verdict is in: Meh. “I think it’s definitely fair to say the policies are not helping employment in that industry,” Penn State professor of economics and labor Lonnie Golden told TPM.  The January jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics came in Wednesday morning and showed the nation added just 181,000 jobs between January 2025 and January 2026. That’s about 15,000 jobs a month or fewer than 500…

Sky York Journal This article is part of TPM’s ongoing “Creating the Enemy Within” project, tracking the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on dissent. For years, conspiracy theorists, grifters, and would-be authoritarians in search of a useful internal crisis have howled about a supposed threat hell-bent on destroying the government and the American way of life: antifa.  The howling continues. What’s different now is that leading members of the chorus of “antifa” alarmists have left their gigs as right-wing YouTubers, social media influencers, presidential candidates, and staffers at fringe nonprofits. There, they could weave whatever reality they wanted: America…

Sky York Journal The Trump White House on Monday evening sent a counterproposal to Democrats in response to the sticking points congressional Democrats laid out last week in a public letter and legislative text, outlining their priorities for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reforms in the wake of two recent killings of U.S. citizens by ICE agents. Democrats are not impressed. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) put out a joint statement Monday night, immediately slamming the Republican counterproposal, saying it “included neither details nor legislative text.” “The initial GOP response is both…

Sky York Journal In a mostly soporific Tuesday House Homeland Committee hearing called amid the widespread public outcry over Customs and Border Protection agents’ killing of Alex Pretti, Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) managed to set the whole room astir.  She asked acting ICE Chief Todd Lyons whether he’s religious, reacting with surprise when he responded that he is. “How do you think Judgment Day will work for you, with so much blood on your hands?” she asked.   “I’m not gonna entertain that question, ma’am,” he responded, shaking his head.   “Of course not,” McIver retorted, then: “Do you think you’re going…