Latest news with #Gaetz
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Matt Gaetz educational qualification: From law school to MAGA stalwart
Matt Gaetz Matt Gaetz, the firebrand Republican from Florida, has reemerged in the national spotlight—not from the House floor, but from behind a news desk. Now a prime-time host on One America News Network, the former congressman blends legal training and political experience to deliver searing critiques of US foreign policy. Gaetz's call for Israel to abandon its nuclear arsenal, and his suggestion that Donald Trump deserves a "Trump Peace Prize," underscore his growing role as a media provocateur shaping the MAGA movement's evolving stance on the Israel–Iran conflict. Gaetz, a prominent Republican figure, has carved a distinctive path in US politics, leveraging his educational background and legal expertise to rise from Florida's state legislature to national prominence. Known for his fiery rhetoric and alignment with former President Donald Trump, Gaetz's journey reflects a blend of academic rigor and political ambition, culminating in his recent role as a media host on One America News Network. Born in Hollywood, Florida, Gaetz's career trajectory showcases a commitment to public service, shaped by his formative years in education and law. His academic foundation and early professional experiences laid the groundwork for a polarizing yet influential career, marked by his tenure in Congress and his outspoken commentary on issues like the Israel-Iran conflict. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Eat 1 Teaspoon Every Night, See What Happens A Week Later [Video] getfittoday Undo Academic roots in Florida Gaetz's educational journey began at Florida State University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in interdisciplinary sciences in 2003. His time at FSU honed his analytical skills, preparing him for the complexities of legal and political challenges. He pursued further studies at the William & Mary Law School, graduating with a Juris Doctor in 2007. This prestigious legal education equipped Gaetz with the tools to navigate legislative frameworks and advocate for conservative policies. Early legal and political career After law school, Gaetz returned to Florida, joining the law firm Keefe, Anchors & Gordon in Fort Walton Beach. His legal practice focused on real estate and litigation, providing him with practical experience that informed his later legislative work. In 2010, at age 28, Gaetz entered politics, winning a special election to represent Florida's House District 4 in the State House of Representatives. Serving from April 13, 2010, to November 8, 2016, he championed conservative causes, including tax cuts and Second Amendment rights, earning a reputation as a fierce debater. Congressional tenure and national rise On November 8, 2016, Gaetz was elected to the US House of Representatives for Florida's 1st Congressional District. As a member of the House Armed Services Committee from 2017 to 2025, he gained insight into national security, later informing his critiques of US foreign policy, including the Israel-Iran conflict. Gaetz's alignment with the Freedom Caucus and his role in high-profile events, such as the ousting of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on October 3, 2023, cemented his status as a MAGA stalwart. His vocal opposition to Middle East regime-change wars, as expressed on his One America News Network show in 2025, reflects his congressional experience and skepticism of military overreach. Transition to media influence Since leaving Congress in 2025, Gaetz has hosted a prime-time show on One America News Network, where he continues to shape conservative discourse. His educational foundation and legislative tenure inform his commentary, blending legal precision with political fervor to challenge establishment narratives. Is your child ready for the careers of tomorrow? Enroll now and take advantage of our early bird offer! Spaces are limited.
Time of India
11 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
‘Trump Peace Prize': GOP's Matt Gaetz says Israel giving up nukes could win Trump Nobel; MAGA split over Iran
Matt Gaetz (AP photo), Donald Trump (AI image) Matt Gaetz, the former Republican Congressman from Florida, said Thursday that Israel should also give up on its nuclear weapons and if US president Donald Trump could get it done, he would win the Nobel Peace Prize. 'If Trump pulled that off,' he said, 'they wouldn't just give him the Nobel Peace Prize — they'd rename it the Trump Peace Prize,' Gaetz said on his prime time show on One America News Network he hosts now. The Republican sharply criticise US involvement in the Israel–Iran conflict. He argued that what's being sold as a war to stop Iran's nuclear programme was another push by Israel for regime change in the Middle East — one that looks a lot like the lead-up to the Iraq war. 'Israel didn't kick their regime change habit with Iraq or Libya or Syria. It seems they need another fix,' Gaetz said. 'I wish this was really about Iran's nuclear programme, but it's not.' Gaetz further said Iran, unlike North Korea, didn't currently have nuclear weapons, long-range delivery systems, or re-entry capability. 'North Korea could launch a nuclear weapon at the US today. Iran can't even get their bird in the air,' he added. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Scam Exposed: What They Won't Tell You about zero trust! Expertinspector Click Here Undo Gaetz served on the House Armed Services Committee for eight years and claimed to have seen the intelligence briefings himself. He pointed out that North Korea had issued open threats against US cities like Los Angeles and Seattle, but the US wasn't bombing their missile sites. Gaetz said that the current war push was politically motivated and hypocritical — especially because Israel's own nuclear programme remained off-limits to international inspectors. 'There's a secret nuclear programme in the Middle East — and it's Israel's,' Gaetz said. 'They won't allow inspectors, they operate in full secrecy, and everyone in Washington knows it.' He said he didn't blame Israel for wanting a nuclear deterrent, but called it unfair to push the world towards war over one country's suspected weapons while ignoring another's. 'To drag us into a regime change war over secret nuclear weapons when your ally also has secret nuclear weapons — that's hypocritical.' Gaetz played old Fox News clips showing support for the Iraq invasion, where anchors described Saddam Hussein as an urgent threat and promised a quick, decisive victory. 'I saw how wrong they were,' he said. 'I went to the funerals. I saw the graves. We paid the price. Iraq war cost America $3 trillion and contributed to the rise of ISIS and China's global power." He also aired a recent clip from Tucker Carlson's show where Senator Ted Cruz couldn't tell the population of Iran while defending military action. Gaetz used it as an example of how disconnected Washington leaders were from the wars they supported. 'It's easy to back war from a Senate office or Fox News studio. No one's firing missiles at you there,' Gaetz said. 'But real people — soldiers — will have to fight and die. And many will.' The Israel–Iran war has caused divisions within Trump's MAGA circle. Gaetz, Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Steve Bannon have all warned against US involvement. In contrast, Fox News hosts like Sean Hannity and Mark Levin, along with Senators Lindsey Graham and Cruz, support Israel's actions. Trump himself has not made things clear. He has demanded Iran's 'unconditional surrender' but also said, 'Maybe we won't have to fight. I'm not looking to fight. But if it's a choice between fighting and them having a nuclear weapon, you have to do what you have to do.'
Middle East Eye
2 days ago
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
Trump promised not to go to war. His most ardent supporters want him to keep his word
"This war isn't about Iran's nuclear weapons for Israel, it is about one thing: regime change. Hear me now: this is not going to stop at some bombing campaigns around Iran's nuclear programme. That's just the appetiser, not the entree... Does America really want to be Israel's dance partner to this siren song?" If those words sound like they came from a progressive, Bernie Sanders-aligned, anti-imperial voice, they did not. Those are the words of former congressman, Matt Gaetz, one of the most loyal supporters of US President Donald Trump and his Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement since its inception. Gaetz - since resigning from the House of Representatives after a slew of ethics violations - now has his own show on the far-right TV channel One America Network. "When you call someone a modern-day Hitler, it is a permission structure to kill them," Gaetz went on to say after playing a clip of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu telling ABC News that Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is a "modern-day Hitler". New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Gaetz then went on to interview his former colleague, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, another vocal and often controversial "America Firster". "Matt, I see it just as you do, and you laid that out so well," she said. "We've watched for decades propaganda news. I'll call out Fox News and The New York Post. They're known to be the neocon[servative] network news... the American people have been brainwashed into believing that America has to engage in these foreign wars in order for us to survive. And it's absolutely not true." Greene has been urging the Trump administration to stay out of Israel's attacks on Iran since they began last Friday. On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump told senior aides he had approved plans to attack Iran but had not yet given the final order to carry them out. A new paradigm? The questions and posture that challenge the American establishment's penchant for war have not, in recent memory, been as organised, as targeted, or as influential as the voices of MAGA's most well-known cast of characters. Take Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News pundit, who appeared on Steve Bannon's War Room show on YouTube earlier this week. Bannon himself is a former White House strategist from Trump's first term in office, and remains one of the most influential people in the MAGA circuit. "I grew up in a world that espoused violence. That's what the US government does," Carlson told Bannon. "If you think - and I said this to an Israeli official - if you think I'm anti-Israel, man, you have lost the plot," he said of the anti-war stance he's adopted. "Let's have a rational conversation about what our aims are here. And maybe you can convince me that we need to support a regime change war in Iran. Tell me how that plays out in a country of 90 million people. Have you thought it through? Do you even care? And the answer is no," Carlson said. State Department pushes 'peace' narrative as Trump threatens Iran Read More » "You may have a plan for regime change, it's fine, but you got to bring the American people on," Bannon agreed. As of Wednesday, that clip had some 7,000 views. Carlson then interviewed Bannon on his show on YouTube, and the one-hour and 18-minute conversation generated one million views in less than 24 hours. Bannon outlined the three pillars on which he says Trump was elected: "Stop the forever wars, seal the border and deport the illegal aliens - the illegal invaders - and redo the commercial relationships in the world around trade deals." Reneging on one of them would potentially undo the others, Bannon said, with a stark warning. "I'm a big supporter of Israel, yes. And I'm telling people, hey, if we get sucked into this war - which inexorably looks like it's going to happen on the combat side - it's... going to thwart what we're doing with the most important thing, which is the deportation of the illegal alien invaders that are here. If we don't do that, we don't have a country," he said of Trump's plan to deport at least one million undocumented immigrants every year, as well as foreigners who may have civil or criminal violations. Bannon also cautioned that joining and expanding the war on Iran could mean "the end of Israel, because of the way these decisions have been made". Carlson, expressing remorse for supporting the invasion of Iraq in 2003, said optics and public opinion should be critical to guiding the White House's decisions. "[Abraham] Lincoln told us, what you need is popular opinion to have your back. And we don't do enough about educating the American people on what reality is," he said. Much like the allegation that Iraq had a weapon of mass destruction, Bannon said Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who was handpicked by Trump, confirmed to lawmakers in a public hearing in March that Iran was not assessed to be close to building a nuclear bomb. "They don't have a programme. They haven't had a programme," Bannon emphasised. Trump takes on his base In a new interview with Texas Senator and longtime war hawk Ted Cruz, posted on Wednesday on YouTube, Carlson repeatedly challenged him on Iran's population, its makeup, and precisely how the Bible says that Christians must support Israel (which Cruz cites as his reasoning). "I was taught from the Bible, those who bless Israel will be blessed, and those who curse Israel will be cursed. And from my perspective, I want to be on the blessing side of things," Cruz, a Republican who did not support Trump until he became president in 2017, told Carlson on his show. Carlson asked him where in the Bible it said that, and Cruz said he doesn't remember. "You don't have context for it. You don't know where in the Bible it is, but that's like your theology? I'm confused. What does that even mean... We are commanded, as Christians, to support the government of Israel?" "We are commanded to support Israel," Cruz responded, as the two continuously cut each other off. "God is talking about the nation of Israel." "Is that the current borders, the current leadership?" Carlson asked. US Senator Ted Cruz faces backlash for not knowing basic facts about Iran Read More » "Yes, nations exists, and he's discussing a nation," Cruz said. The Iran hawks in Congress, all of whom are also staunch supporters of Israel, have been lobbying the White House to join Israel's war. Many of them take cues from pro-Israel lobbying groups, which have also dispatched members of proxy think tanks like the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) to go on channels like Fox News and advocate for full US military engagement. As the debate rages, Trump himself was on the defensive in an interview with The Atlantic. "For those people who say they want peace - you can't have peace if Iran has a nuclear weapon. So for all of those wonderful people who don't want to do anything about Iran having a nuclear weapon - that's not peace," he said. "Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb, very simple. Regardless - Israel or not Israel - Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb," he added. On Monday, he took aim directly at Carlson. 'I don't know what Tucker Carlson is saying. Let him go get a television network and say it so that people listen,' Trump told reporters, implying that Carlson no longer had the viewership and reach he had as a mainstream media broadcaster. And as of Sunday, the US was not yet operationally engaged in the war, Trump told ABC News. "We're not involved in it. It's possible we could get involved. But we are not at this moment involved," the president said. But that's not what Cruz appeared to let slip in his discussion with Carlson. Iran is "trying to murder Donald Trump," Cruz said. "We're carrying out military strikes today." "You said Israel was?" Carlson asked. "I've said we - Israel is leading them, but we're supporting them," Cruz responded. "Well this is you breaking news here," Carlson responded, alluding to a White House spokesperson who denied US operational involvement in a post on X. "We're not bombing them, Israel's bombing them," Cruz said. "You just said we were." "We are supporting Israel," Cruz said. The US president has been cryptic in his messaging on what course of action he will take next in Iran, giving mixed signals regarding being open to talks but saying it's too late to talk and then also saying that the US may strike, but they may not. Trump's MAGA base, however, has not yet given up in trying to dissuade the American president from what they think will become another costly entanglement in the Middle East - and a potential fracture in the Republican Party's voter base.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Sent Them To Hell. Now He's Erasing Them Altogether.
The only information Ysqueibel Yonaiquer Peñaloza Chirinos' family has received about him in the past three months came from former Republican congressman Matt Gaetz. Gaetz probably didn't mean to help. But last month, as part of a propaganda video for the far-right One America News Network, he took a tour of the infamous El Salvadoran prison to which President Donald Trump has sent hundreds of U.S. immigrants for indefinite detention, without charge, trial or sentencing: El Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, or CECOT. By the time Gaetz arrived, the men Trump had rendered to the prison had already been there for two months. It happens quickly: The OANN camera pans across a cluster of cells Gaetz says are being used to hold the people Trump sent to El Salvador. Many chant 'Libertad!' Some press their hands together in prayer, pleading. Peñaloza's face flashes on screen, framed by two metal bars. He looks mournful, almost crying, and does not say anything. But he does what most others are doing, opening and closing his fingers over a closed thumb, making what his lawyers say is an internationally recognized hand symbol for distress — a flashing 'send help' request popularized by domestic violence advocacy groups during the COVID-19 pandemic. Immigration policies aren't just politics — they're personal. At HuffPost, we explore the human stories behind the headlines, reporting on how immigration laws impact real people and communities. Support this vital coverage by Peñaloza's mother, Ydalys Chirinos-Polanco, spotted him in the video. She already knew he was at the prison — Peñaloza's olive branch tattoo was visible in the initial March 15 footage of the U.S. CECOT detainees — but she hadn't seen him since then. Peñaloza's only encounter with the law in the United States had been a traffic ticket, she said. 'I felt a lot of pain,' Chirinos recalled to HuffPost on a video call Wednesday, speaking in Spanish and through tears. 'But at the same time — a lot of happiness to see that he is alive and that he had the strength to stand up.' A month later, she hasn't seen any more of her son. In his absence, the U.S. government has worked to remove Peñaloza, who is Venezuelan, from domestic immigration court entirely. Six days after Gaetz's prison tour, an immigration judge granted the Department of Homeland Security's request to dismiss Peñaloza's case. As far as the United States immigration court system is concerned, he does not exist. At least 24 people sent to CECOT have had their immigration cases dismissed in their absence, Michelle Brané, the executive director of Together & Free, a nonprofit working to identify and track CECOT detainees, told HuffPost. The actual number may be higher — and it is unclear how many cases have pending dismissal requests from DHS that have not received rulings from immigration judges, who are technically Justice Department employees rather than members of an independent court system. Some immigration judges are pushing back. Last week, one such judge denied a DHS motion to dismiss a CECOT detainee's immigration case, saying the Trump administration had 'essentially rid itself of its opposing party.' But that is a rare exception to the trend. The dismissal of immigration cases for the CECOT detainees is yet another example of the Trump administration working to erase any trace of them in the United States, even though hundreds had ongoing legal cases here when they were disappeared. Without that legal toehold in the U.S. immigration system, CECOT detainees risk falling not only outside the purview of U.S. law but outside of any legal recognition whatsoever. There was no hearing in Peñaloza's case to discuss the dismissal — a May 30 court date was canceled ahead of time — and no discussion of where Peñaloza is, or how he got there. Instead, in a two-paragraph filing in April, attorneys for Immigration and Customs Enforcement said only that the 25-year-old 'was identified as an Alien Enemy and removed from the United States.' It was a perverse legal argument. Because Trump had removed Peñaloza without legal process, he was no longer present in the United States, and therefore, was not entitled to any legal process, the government claimed. On May 15, an immigration judge granted DHS's motion, stating that 'the Court does not have the authority to demand DHS return Respondent to the United States.' Peñaloza's legal team plans to appeal, and lawyers for CECOT detainees are involved in several lawsuits on their behalf. While dismissing cases, some immigration judges have said that the proper venue for legal challenges are habeas corpus lawsuits — and despite the Trump administration's open defiance, federal judges have advanced such lawsuits nationally, most notably earlier this month. 'Imagine having to explain to someone's mother, as a United States immigration attorney, that their son has an immigration hearing, and the government attorneys fighting his case say that they have no means of being able to connect you with your client — when the United States government has paid for the detention of that individual in a third country,' Margaret Cargioli, directing attorney of policy and advocacy at Immigrant Defenders Law Center and Peñaloza's attorney in the United States, told HuffPost. Like other attorneys for CECOT detainees, Cargioli argues that because the Trump administration made an arrangement with El Salvador to imprison Trump's expelled migrants, her client is still in the 'constructive custody' of the United States, and is still owed his day in court. 'It's astounding that I could not get any information about Ysqueibel to provide to their family during immigration court hearings, and that by sheer bravery on his part, he pressed his face against the bars of a dangerous prison to let his loved ones know that he's still alive,' she said, referring to the Gaetz video. The Trump administration defended the handling of these cases. 'The appropriate process due to an illegal alien terrorist with final deportation orders is removal, plain and simple,' Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told HuffPost in a statement, ignoring a lengthy list of specific questions. McLaughlin said DHS has a 'stringent law enforcement assessment in place that abides by due process under the U.S. Constitution.' But DHS has not released evidence supporting its assertions regarding the CECOT detainees, and around half of the people the Trump administration has sent to CECOT had no final deportation orders at all. Those who did mostly had orders to be deported to Venezuela, not El Salvador. White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said separately, 'Any illegal alien who is deported from the United States receives due process prior to any removal.' But that's simply not true. Human rights groups and lawyers have characterized the Trump administration's renditions of hundreds of people to CECOT as 'enforced disappearances,' in which someone is detained and deprived of their rights without due process while their captors refuse to even acknowledge their detention. Peñaloza is just one of at least 278 people, mostly Venezuelans and some Salvadorans, sent by the Trump administration to the Salvadoran prison earlier this year as part of an arrangement in which the Trump administration is paying the Salvadoran government millions of dollars to detain non-U.S. citizens. Around half of the immigrants in that group were sent to CECOT after they received 'removal' orders in standard deportation proceedings — an unprecedented punishment given immigration proceedings are civil in nature, not criminal. The other people, including Peñaloza, were accused by the U.S. government of being 'alien enemies.' They were declared members of the Tren de Aragua gang, often simply because of common tattoos. The Trump administration considers Tren de Aragua to be not only a gang but also a terrorist group, as well as essentially an invading army that's allegedly working hand-in-glove with the Venezuelan government. In March, Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act, a wartime authority last used in World War II, to allege that the gang was actually 'supporting the [Venezuelan President Nicolás] Maduro regime's goal of destabilizing democratic nations in the Americas, including the United States.' Veteran intelligence analysts who disputed that claim were fired. Suddenly, it only took a low-level bureaucrat's say-so to banish someone from the country and into indefinite detention in one of the world's most notorious prisons, without any review by judges. The same day Trump signed his declaration, the administration began flying hundreds of Venezuelans in U.S. custody to CECOT. A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to halt the removals and turn the flights around, but government officials ignored the directive. The judge opened criminal contempt proceedings against the administration in April, but the administration made no effort to return the expelled men. Officials even defied a Supreme Court order telling them to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran immigrant who multiple government officials acknowledged was wrongfully expelled to El Salvador despite a judge's prior order protecting him from being returned there. The Trump administration finally returned Abrego Garcia to the United States on June 6, nearly two months after the Supreme Court spoke on his case; he now faces criminal charges for alleged conspiracy to transport aliens and unlawful transportation of undocumented aliens. Abrego Garcia was arraigned Friday and has entered a not guilty plea. The U.S. government has never acknowledged the full list of people sent to CECOT, but CBS News, Bloomberg and other media outlets have used leaked lists and court records to establish that the vast majority of people had no criminal record at all, either in the United States or elsewhere around the world. The administration's own records showed the same thing, journalists from ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and the Venezuelan outlets Cazadores de Fake News and Alianza Rebelde Investiga recently reported. And out of 90 cases in which the detainee's method of coming to the United States was known, 50 cases described people who had entered the United States legally — 'with advanced US government permission, at an official border crossing point,' the CATO Institute, a libertarian think tank, found. Peñaloza was one of them. He came to the United States through a pre-scheduled appointment on CBP One, the cellphone app used by the Biden administration to process asylum-seekers. Nevertheless, due to the Trump administration's actions, hundreds of active cases in U.S. immigration courts suddenly ground to a halt, with worrying implications for CECOT detainees' futures. Like other people Trump has banished to CECOT, Peñaloza had a legal right to make a case in the United States for why he should stay here — a right that the government usurped. If a given immigration case is dismissed, 'you don't have legal status and you don't have a way to get it, because you're not in the process,' said Brané, the Together & Free executive director, who previously worked as a Biden administration official focusing on immigration. Should CECOT detainees who have had their immigration cases dismissed somehow return to the United States someday, it's not clear what their next steps would be, Brané said. 'Like all this [Alien Enemies Act] stuff, it's never happened before and they're not following normal procedures,' she said, referring to the Trump administration. The detainees 'were denied due process, they are disappeared, and they are now in this legal limbo where they remain in a prison with no legal protections, excluded from the protection of the law, and they don't know if they'll ever have a chance at a fair trial,' Isabel Carlota Roby, an attorney for Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, told ABC News. Jerce Reyes Barrios, one of the people who faced having his immigration case tossed, was in the final stages of his asylum proceedings when the government disappeared him in March. A professional soccer player and youth soccer coach, Reyes Barrios fled Venezuela last year after being detained and tortured with electric shocks and suffocation for protesting authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro, his lawyer Linette Tobin wrote in a court declaration. While in Mexico, Reyes Barrios made an appointment on CBP One and presented himself to immigration officials at the U.S. border. Immigration officials detained him at a facility in San Diego and accused him of being a member of Tren de Aragua, citing one of his tattoos and a hand symbol he made in a social media post. The tattoo, which shows a crown atop a soccer ball and the words 'Dios,' or 'God,' resembles the logo of Reyes Barrios' favorite soccer team, Real Madrid, Tobin wrote in the declaration. And the hand gesture, she wrote, 'is a common one that means I Love You in sign language and is commonly used as a Rock & Roll symbol.' After submitting Venezuelan documents showing he had no criminal record, as well as letters of employment, a declaration from the tattoo artist, and documents explaining the meaning of the tattoo and the hand gesture, Reyes Barrios was removed from maximum security. His final hearing on his asylum case in immigration court was set for April 17. 'We were completely prepared. Everything had been submitted to the court. Everything was ready,' Tobin said in an interview. But by March, Reyes Barrios was feeling nervous, his lawyer said: 'Just in the seven days before his removal, he was expressing a real concern. I think he had a premonition.' In the following days, he was abruptly transferred from a detention facility in California to one in Texas. And then, he went dark. Shortly after the March 15 deportation flights to El Salvador, Reyes Barrios' family saw a picture of some of the men in CECOT with their hands clasped behind their freshly shaven heads. Their faces were mostly obscured by their arms, but his family thought they recognized Reyes Barrios. Tobin called the ICE office in Texas, Reyes Barrios' last known location. She received confirmation he had been 'removed,' but the person on the phone refused to say where, she said. The family's fears were confirmed on March 20, when Reyes Barrios' name appeared on the CBS News list naming some people detained at CECOT. His family spotted him again in the footage released by Gaetz in May. Less than two weeks after Reyes Barrios disappeared, DHS filed a motion to dismiss his immigration case. The four-line motion did not provide any clarity on his location, condition or the reason the government considered him a so-called 'alien enemy.' Instead, a DHS attorney simply argued, 'The respondent is no longer in the United States. As such, there is authority to dismiss on this ground.' Tobin urged the judge to deny the government's request, arguing 'dismissal is inappropriate' and would 'be affirming and exacerbating DHS' gross and flagrant violations of [Reyes Barrios'] due process rights.' She noted that ongoing federal litigation over the legality of the CECOT transfers could result in her client returning home — only to find that his asylum case had been tossed. Indeed, earlier this month, a federal judge ruled that the government must 'facilitate' the ability of those transferred to CECOT to pursue habeas claims, or challenge the legality of their detention. Reyes Barrios' family texted Tobin emojis of party hats in celebration of the ruling. 'To have the injustice recognized by a court made them very happy,' Tobin said. There have been four hearings for Reyes Barrios' asylum case since he was removed from the U.S. The judge asked the government to provide information in support of its dismissal motion, including confirmation that Reyes Barrios was removed from the U.S. and evidence that he is a member of Tren de Aragua. But at each hearing, the government just restated that it is moving for dismissal, Tobin said. 'They never say anything else. They don't cite to regulations. They don't cite to case laws. They just say, 'Dismiss the case,'' Tobin said. At a hearing last month, Tobin asked the judge to administratively close the case, which would effectively pause proceedings. When the DHS lawyer opposed the request, the judge asked for their reasoning. 'Their response, after a very long pause, was, 'Well, because we're moving for dismissal,'' Tobin recounted. Then, on Tuesday, came a crucial development. In a ruling, the judge in Reyes Barrios' case granted Tobin's motion to administratively close it. As a result, his asylum case is still pending. 'Any opposition to administrative closure involves the Department's preference to dismiss proceedings [...] which the court deems inappropriate under the unclean hands doctrine since the Department essentially rid itself of its opposing party,' the judge wrote in his order, noting several so-called 'Avetisyan factors,' a reference to existing immigration court precedent concerning when it is appropriate to administratively close immigration cases, even if one side disagrees. 'Ongoing litigation questions the legality of the Department's removals under the [Alien Enemies Act],' the judge added. 'The court anticipates the respondent's ability to proceed with his [asylum] application, which he filed on December 3, 2024, although it is difficult to determine the ultimate outcome of his proceedings at this stage given that the respondent never had his 'day in court.'' Tobin celebrated the decision in a statement to HuffPost. 'DHS is feeding the public lies every day, saying that they're deporting violent criminals, monsters, the worst of the worst,' she said. 'To see judges call out the Government for their illegal actions, 'unclean hands,' and obfuscations gives me some degree of hope that justice will eventually prevail and people who were unlawfully disappeared/deported without due process will finally get their day in court.' In several other cases, immigration judges have been willing to grant DHS's dismissal requests quickly, sometimes without even holding a hearing. After the CECOT deportation flights, immigration lawyers around the country scrambled to keep the cases alive. In addition to Peñaloza, Immigrant Defenders Law Center has seven other clients in CECOT. Three have had their immigration cases dismissed, and one received removal orders in absentia, communications director Renee Garcia said in an email. Perhaps the most recognizable case, due to national news coverage, is that of Andry Hernández Romero, a gay makeup artist who was seeking asylum in the United States and who was targeted for indefinite CECOT detention due to benign tattoos, including two crowns with 'Mom' and 'Dad' printed under them. An immigration judge dismissed Hernandez's case late last month, as NBC News reported. A judge also dismissed the case of Arturo Suárez Trejo, a Venezuelan singer and friend of Peñaloza's, who had appeared in Suárez's music videos in the past, Garcia said. Last month, Judge Jason L. Stern, a Houston-based immigration judge, dismissed Frizgeralth de Jesús Cornejo Pulgar's case despite the government filing a motion for a continuance in the case, Mother Jones reported. Another CECOT detainee whose case was dismissed, Henrry Jose Albornoz Quintero, missed the birth of his child while languishing in El Salvador's infamous prison. Quintero and his wife, Naupari Rosila, came to the U.S. in late 2023, initially sleeping in a car until they saved enough for a deposit on a Dallas apartment. In January, when his wife was seven months pregnant, Quintero was detained during a routine ICE check-in. Rosila found an attorney and raised money for him to be released on bond. Days before a hearing in immigration court, he told her he was going to be deported home to Venezuela. He was sent to CECOT instead. In April, an ICE attorney moved to dismiss the case against Quintero, writing in a two-paragraph filing that 'the respondent was identified as an Alien Enemy and removed from the United States.' Quintero's attorney, John Dutton, told HuffPost the dismissal motion was the first time the Trump administration acknowledged using the Alien Enemies Act against his client. The motion to dismiss was 'morally repugnant,' Dutton wrote in a court filing, describing Quintero as being sent to 'an extrajudicial dungeon in a middle of the night, unannounced, covert operation between our government and a foreign dictatorship, bankrolled, directed and fully controlled by the United States.' 'The government cannot be allowed to erase people from its jurisdiction simply by shipping them abroad,' Dutton wrote. 'If DHS's motion were granted, it would establish a chilling precedent: that DHS may abduct noncitizens mid-proceedings, contract out their indefinite detention to foreign governments, and then declare the case moot due to their own unlawful conduct. This would not be an exercise of prosecutorial discretion. It would be a blueprint for lawless tyranny, a dictatorship. This is not hyperbole.' On May 1, a judge granted the government's motion. Quintero's case was dismissed. 'Regardless of the merits of the respondent's opposition to his physical removal from the United States, this Court does not have jurisdiction to consider constitutional issues,' the immigration judge wrote. 'The requirements for dismissal of the Notice to Appear have been met in this case.' *** Over the phone Wednesday, Peñaloza's mother told HuffPost about her son – that he's hard-working, principled, and respectful. He's a trained refrigerator technician who has worked in construction in the past. He's a good cook who loves making chinchurria— a stuffed, fried intestine dish popular in Venezuela — but can also dress up humble meals like vegetarian arepas or rice with tomato sauce. He's an older sibling who, in years past, would remind his younger sisters to listen to their parents. Part of his income from his time in the United States went to paying for his younger sister's physical therapy education. Valentina Polanco-Chirinos, Peñaloza's 17-year-old sister, briefly chimed in on the call. Her brother was sentimental, she said, and would cry when his mother scolded him. But especially given her mother's travels throughout Venezuela for work, she was grateful for him. He was almost a father figure to her, Valentina said. Peñaloza's mother — who'd just returned from Caracas, where a group of CECOT detainees' family members were petitioning the United Nations — said her son's disappearance to El Salvador in March came as a shock to her. He, like many others who ended up in CECOT, believed while in U.S. immigration detention that he was headed home to Venezuela. She said he'd given all of his clothes away to relatives when he'd left for the U.S., and that she'd set out to buy him a new pair of shoes. When news broke that a handful of deportation flights had landed in El Salvador, she figured they'd been diverted due to weather. Reality set in when she saw that one of the prisoners had her son's tattoo. The United States seems to be moving backward, she said: The CECOT detainees were kidnapped, and they weren't given an opportunity to defend themselves. And her son's immigration case in the United States? If he's eventually released from CECOT, did she think he would want to return and fight for his right to stay in the country? She didn't think so. 'I don't think he would feel safe there.' Lawyers Are Sounding The Alarm About Trump Disappearing People The Trump Administration Is Using A Legal Loophole To Keep Mahmoud Khalil In Custody — Despite A Court Order Kilmar Abrego Garcia Has Returned To The United States People Are 'Disappearing' Since Trump Took Office. Here's What That Means.
Newsweek
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Newsweek
Matt Gaetz's Chances of Winning Florida Governor Race, According to Poll
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Former Representative Matt Gaetz is speculated to be considering a run in Florida's 2026 gubernatorial race, but polls suggest other Republicans have carved out early leads. Newsweek reached out to Gaetz for comment via email. Why It Matters Gaetz's entry into the field could upend the competition for the Republican nomination and test the limits of President Donald Trump's power. Gaetz remains popular among many conservatives in the state, but Trump has endorsed Representative Byron Donalds in the race. The election would give Gaetz a chance to return to politics after leaving Congress to pursue his nomination for U.S. attorney general. Gaetz later withdrew from consideration after accusations of sexual misconduct, which Gaetz has denied, that threatened to tank his confirmation. What To Know The latest poll of the Republican field, conducted by the James Madison Institute, did not place Gaetz as a leading figure but highlighted the evolving Republican field where endorsements and name recognition are key factors that could shape the eventual outcome of the race. The poll, conducted by Targoz Market Research from May 5 to 7, indicated that Florida first lady Casey DeSantis has an early lead with 29 percent, compared to Donalds' 28 percent and Gaetz's 10 percent support. When informed about Trump's endorsement, however, Donalds' support grew to 44 percent, while DeSantis' share of the vote fell to 25 percent. Donalds is the only Republican to officially declare his intention of running, although rumors continue to swirl about DeSantis and Gaetz, who has not ruled out a run, NBC News reported on Wednesday. Gaetz's history as a Trump ally and national media figure on One America News Network could give him a base among the state's conservative primary base. A Gaetz victory would be a "long shot," J. Edwin Benton, professor of political science and public administration at the University of South Florida, told Newsweek. Benton said Gaetz would appeal to "very conservative" Republican primary voters, but Donalds is an early favorite due to the Trump endorsement. "I think that Donalds having been endorsed by President Trump would hurt Gaetz tremendously," he said. Former Representative Matt Gaetz speaks to a reporter in Washington, D.C., on April 19, 2024. Former Representative Matt Gaetz speaks to a reporter in Washington, D.C., on April 19, would bring "excess baggage that no campaign needs," and accusations of wrongdoing, even without an indictment, would "weigh very heavily against him," he said. Polling results and campaign fundraising place Donalds as the current frontrunner. He has reportedly raised more than $14 million, according to NBC News. An April James Madison Institute poll showed Gaetz winning 8 percent of Republican primary voters, compared to DeSantis' 28 percent and Donalds' 22 percent. Florida has shifted toward Republicans in recent years. Although former President Barack Obama won the state in both of his runs, it has proven elusive for Democrats ever since. Trump carried it in 2016, 2020 and 2024. In his most recent election, he won by 13 points. Gaetz told The Tampa Bay Times in January he is considering a run. "I have a compelling vision for the state. I understand how to fix the insurance problem, and it's not to hand the keys to the state over to the insurance industry. If I run, I would be the most pro-consumer candidate on the Republican side," he said. What People Are Saying Kevin Wagner, associate dean of research and creative achievement at Florida Atlantic University, told Newsweek: "Matt Gaetz has the advantage of name recognition in Florida, and he would likely have a vocal base of support in a Republican Primary. While he would likely not have a lot of crossover appeal for Democrats, whomever wins the GOP primary will be a strong favorite to win in the general election, as Florida has trended Republican over the last several election cycles. "There are some challenges for Gaetz. He's likely to face other popular and well funded Republican candidates. He is also no longer in the office, and the public can quickly forget about leaders who are not in the news. President Trump's support will be important, and the President has already expressed support for Representative Byron Donalds. Without President Trump's backing Gaetz would face a difficult challenge as he would need strong support from President Trump's voters to win." Former Representative Matt Gaetz told NBC News: "Casey is right about one thing: It's very early. Many tectonic plates can shift in Florida in the next year or so." What Happens Next Gaetz has not formally entered the 2026 Florida governor's race, and no major public poll has included him as a leading candidate. His chances may shift depending on the final field, polling, and the timing of his potential announcement as Florida's legislative session concludes and candidates make their intentions clear.
