| | Pierre Damas Bel stepped out of his vehicle this Monday and died by suicide after being fitted with an ankle monitoring device, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Temporary Protected Status ruling that cleared the way for the Trump administration to deport him. The Trump administration has been targeting Haitian communities across the country to intimidate and stigmatize them, using ankle monitors and dehumanizing imagery sent over official government channels. According to his father and his pastor, this treatment affected Pierre greatly: he felt embarrassed and humiliated by his ankle monitor before he died. The Trump administration is now aiming this same social stigma at Haitians across the country, building on the Trump campaign’s earlier vilification of them by targeting people in Springfield during the election. Pierre’s tragic death shows how this hateful rhetoric leads to suffering, and why we must persistently oppose the bigotry that thrives in our politics and religion. By silently assenting, we have allowed this suffering to spread: people are now targeted in communities across the country, from New York City to the Rio Grande Valley. We’ve already seen numerous reported deaths from the mass deportation campaign this xenophobic rhetoric has justified. Instead of turning away from this violent approach, we’ve seen ICE celebrating record detentions in July. As Christians, we cannot be silent as communities are torn apart by deliberate violence. Pierre Damas Bel was vilified by the president and vice president for years. The federal government turned against his community, arresting and deporting its pastors and community leaders. He was targeted by immigration officials and humiliated by authorities who wanted to make an example out of him, treating him as a social menace. This young man was killed by the cruel bigotry now spreading in every community in our country. We can no longer be lukewarm with the lives of our neighbors; by avoiding conflict in our pews, we are sacrificing the most vulnerable among us. | | |
| | The Trump administration’s deportation regime continued its cruel work, despite mounting evidence of its harms. Ohio college student and athlete Pierre Damas Bel died by suicide Monday morning after being forced to wear an ankle monitor by immigration officials, which Bel described as causing him “a feeling of shame and humiliation.” Bel, who was Haitian, lost his TPS protections at the end of July after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to end the status for about 300,000 Haitians. Haiti is currently reeling from a brutal gang massacre that left 47 people dead and more than 50 others kidnapped. The American Prospect reports on a recent third-country removal flight by ICE that took about 71 people to Sierra Leone, the Central African Republic and Ghana. The report describes verbal and physical abuse by the security guards, as well as an apparent intent to send many of the detainees onward from these third countries to their countries of origin, in violation of protections against exactly that. ICE officers and agents arrested roughly 50,000 people in August, continuing the record pace set in July. ICE is in the midst of a nationwide arrest surge that is not as visible as aggressive enforcement efforts earlier in the year, like Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota. ICE is set to spend up to $2 million on four-legged robots as part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. ICE said the robots aren’t attack dogs; the agency said they’re intended to help keep officers out of harm’s way and assess dangerous situations before agents enter them. The planned purchase comes as the Department of Homeland Security faces criticism over another unusual law-enforcement tool: electric-shock gloves. ICE awarded a contract worth more than $16.7 million for over 6,000 pairs. The gloves look like an ordinary pair of gloves but can deliver an electric shock. Last week, a group of Democratic senators sent ICE’s acting director a letter calling on the agency to cancel the contract and instead focus on de-escalation and training.
It was another turbulent week in foreign affairs, with conflicts and other developments around the world. A U.S. missile hit a home in southern Iran where dozens had gathered to celebrate the wedding of a fisherman’s daughter, according to a rights group and Iranian media. Iranian state media said four people — two women and two children — were killed and more than 60 were wounded. The strike came amid the latest round of American bombardment in southern Iran, which the U.S. military said was targeting air defenses, radar systems and maritime assets. Oil giant Chevron confirmed that it will expand operations in Venezuela after President Donald Trump announced an ambitious deal to develop the nation’s oil reserves and give the Pentagon a stake in the profits. The company plans to invest more than $7 billion over the next five years, with the goal of more than doubling its current production to about 600,000 barrels a day. Two Palestinian teenagers were killed during a raid by settlers and Israeli forces in the West Bank. Since the beginning of 2026, at least 79 Palestinians, including 19 children, have been killed in the West Bank by settlers or Israeli forces, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Congo’s authorities said Monday that the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in history has topped 6,000 cases with 2,911 deaths. More than 1,360 people have recovered from the virus, in what authorities said was an “encouraging” development. The World Health Organization has said the outbreak remains out of control and is on track to surpass the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola outbreak, the deadliest on record, which killed more than 11,000 people, primarily in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Thousands remain missing and the delivery of aid has been hampered by treacherous conditions after flash flooding in Nepal and Tibet. A week after the disaster, survivors who fled up mountainsides are still being collected by army helicopters and evacuated. Republican members of Congress are publicly backing U.S. President Donald Trump in his trade war with Canada and blaming Prime Minister Mark Carney's government for walking away from negotiations. While some Republicans are quietly concerned that an escalation of costly tariffs could worsen their re-election prospects in the midterms in November, most are outwardly expressing support for the president's trade strategy.
It was a busy week for Congress and the federal government, especially as November’s midterm elections approach. Top U.S. Postal Service officials tasked with issuing new regulations on mail voting expressed concerns in internal meetings about how the rules they were drafting could delay or block ballots from reaching large swaths of eligible voters for the upcoming midterms, but the rules moved forward anyway, according to ProPublica. In a March executive order, President Donald Trump directed the Postal Service to create the new rules, including requiring states to give USPS a list of all voters eligible to receive a ballot in the mail and requiring USPS to use those lists to determine which ballots get sent to voters. USPS officials were tasked with crafting the details of how the new system would work. The U.S. Postal Service could "derail" the midterm election if it continues rushing out "untested" technology as part of President Trump's push to restrict mail-in voting, a newly released whistleblower report warns. With voting by mail for the midterms set to officially start this week, key parts of the USPS plan for carrying out Trump's directives, including requirements for states to comply, remain blocked for now by a court order in the legal fight over the president's executive order. Sen. Ed Markey secured the Democratic nomination in Massachusetts' Senate primary Tuesday, once again fending off a push for generational change as he seeks a third term. Markey, 80, defeated Rep. Seth Moulton, 47, who had attempted to argue that it was time to do away with the "status quo" in his pursuit to oust the octogenarian. Perhaps no other issue defined the race more than transgender rights, and Markey repeatedly hit Moulton for previously saying he would not want his daughters to play against transgender athletes. The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday approved legislation to prevent a government shutdown through the midterms, as both parties opted to defuse a volatile dispute before the November elections that will decide the balance of power in Congress for the final two years of Donald Trump’s presidency. A continuing resolution authorizing government spending until Dec. 11 passed the House by a 370-48 vote, with only 19 Republicans and 29 Democrats in opposition. Had it not passed, lawmakers would have had until the end of September to approve new funding or face a government shutdown. Far-right activist Laura Loomer targeted Florida Democratic Senate nominee Angie Nixon and several other Black women in a string of racist and sexist posts, prompting a public rebuke from former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Loomer’s latest racist tirade follows a similar attack on Rep. Jasmine Crockett last year, when Loomer used racist stereotypes against the Texas Democrat. Two centrist Democrats, Reps. Jared Golden of Maine and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, took the unusual step Tuesday of rescuing House Speaker Mike Johnson’s own agenda in the face of a conservative rebellion. Those Democrats backed a key GOP procedural vote that needed to succeed for Republicans to later bring several bills to the floor. The reason? It helped pave the way for a priority bill for Golden supporting lobstermen. But their vote also allowed Johnson to proceed with messaging votes that Democrats oppose, including a resolution to condemn socialism that Republicans hope to use against Democrats on the campaign trail. The defection of those two Democrats quickly enraged members of their own party — including some party leaders, who were shocked by the two members’ votes, according to CNN. Private schools that provide targeted support to minority students could lose their tax-exempt status under regulations proposed by the U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday. In its announcement, the Treasury Department said the rules would take effect May 31 and apply to as many as 18,000 private schools and universities.
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| | Next Tuesday we will host Engage and Adapt, where we will discuss and talk with the Workers Circle and the Freedom Summer and Justice Revivals. Next Wednesday we will co-host “The Vote Is Sacred” with partners to discuss faith-based campaigns for democracy. Call on Congress to promote peace in Sudan through current legislation in the House and Senate.
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| | Breath Once More Today is a good time to take a nice, deep, cleansing breath. Maybe two. Our senses have been under assault. There has been too much stimuli lately -- just too much. Wars and rumors of war prevail. Sometimes we just need to pause and pray. Today I am sharing this prayer by Charles Eric Lincoln, written in 1944 f and ound in the book “Conversations with God” edited by James Washington, Ph.D. –Rev. Moya Harris, Senior Director of Programs Return, O Lord
By Charles Eric Lincoln Dear Lord, I am bewildered by the angry world.
I do not know the meaning of the flags unfurled.
The noisy skies, the tortured seas:
What sayest Thou, O Lord, to These: I hear the strident call to arms; above the scenes
Of men in desperate debate, their war machines
Defile the skies, pollute the earth.
How much, O Lord, can peace be worth? Hast Thou in merited disgust turned back from man
Who recklessly has broken trust and sinned again?
Forgive our selfish lust for power
And save us in this dreadful hour. Return, O Lord, return and save this wretched race,
Save us, not by Thy justice Lord, but by Thy grace,
Forgive our foolish, pompous way,
And save us from ourselves, we pray. | | |
| | The Truth and Action Roundup is compiled by Sojourners staff: President: Rev. Adam Russell Taylor
Senior Research Associate: J.K. Granberg-Michaelson
Digital Content and Community Specialist: Kassandra Tapia
Chief Program and Impact Officer: Bryan Epps
Political Director: Chad V. Stanton
Senior Program Director: Rev. Moya Harris
Education and Engagement Program Manager: Cortnie Brooks | | |
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