SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
A Muslim teen with dreams of becoming an engineer brought a clock he made to his Texas high school on Monday.
Then this happened: the teen, 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed, sporting a NASA t-shirt, was arrested, handcuffed, and suspended for three days. The ACLU says the arrest has sparked questions about racial profiling.
"They arrested me and told me I committed a crime of a hoax bomb--a fake bomb," the freshman at MacArthur High told News 8.
Mohamed showed his creation to his engineering teacher at Monday morning, according to reporting by the Dallas Morning News. "He was like, 'That's really nice,'" Mohamed said. "'I would advise you not to show any other teachers.'"
The clock made a beeping sound during his English class, and when he showed it to her, that teacher said: "that looks like a bomb." He was taken out of class during a later period by the principal and a police officer. The Dallas paper continues:
The bell rang at least twice, he said, while the officers searched his belongings and questioned his intentions. The principal threatened to expel him if he didn't make a written statement, he said.
"They were like, 'So you tried to make a bomb?'" Ahmed said.
"I told them no, I was trying to make a clock."
"He said, 'It looks like a movie bomb to me.'"
They led Ahmed into a room where four other police officers waited. He said an officer he'd never seen before leaned back in his chair and remarked: "Yup. That's who I thought it was."
He was taken to police headquarters where he was interrogated. Local news NBC-DFW continues:
"I tried making a phone call to my father. They said, 'You're in the middle of an interrogation. You can't have a phone call,'" he said. "I really don't think it's fair, because I brought something to school that wasn't a threat to anyone. I didn't do anything wrong. I just showed my teachers something and I end up being arrested later that day."
Irving Police Chief Larry Boyd said late Wednesday morning that no charges would be filed against Mohamed, though, as WGCUreports, police seemed to be unable to believe that the student had simply brought in something he made to show his teacher.
"He would simply only tell us that it was a clock," said police spokesman James McLellan. "He didn't offer an explanation as to what it was for, why he created this device, why he brought it to school."
Terri Burke, executive director of the ACLU of Texas, stated Wednesday that "Mohamed's avoidable ordeal raises serious concerns about racial profiling and the disciplinary system in Texas schools. Instead of encouraging his curiosity, intellect and ability, the Irving ISD saw fit to throw handcuffs on a frightened 14 year-old Muslim boy wearing a NASA t-shirt and then remove him from school.
"We should not deprive our children of liberty when they haven't broken the law, and we should not suspend them from school when they haven't broken the rules. The State of Texas in general, and Irving ISD in particular, need to take a long, hard look at their disciplinary policies to ensure that blanket prejudices and the baseless suspicions they engender don't deprive our students of an educational environment where their talents can thrive," Burke continued.
Glenn Greenwald writes Thursday that the arrest was hardly an aberration, but "highly illustrative of the rotted fruit of this sustained climate of cultivated fear and demonization" that has existed since 9/11.
Greenwald goes on to describe the arrest as "the natural, inevitable byproduct of the culture of fear and demonization that has festered and been continuously inflamed for many years." Mohamed's arrest was not surprising, he says: "You can't have a government that has spent decades waging various forms of war against predominantly Muslim countries -- bombing seven of them in the last six years alone -- and then act surprised when a Muslim 14-year-old triggers vindictive fear and persecution because he makes a clock for school."
Support for the teen has flooded social media, with many taking to Twitter with the hashtag #IStandWithAhmed. In addition to the support Mohamed got via Twitter from scientists, his arrest also got the attention of President Barack Obama and presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, with Obama inviting the teen to bring his clock to the White House:
\u201cCool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It's what makes America great.\u201d— President Obama (@President Obama) 1442422734
\u201cAssumptions and fear don't keep us safe\u2014they hold us back. Ahmed, stay curious and keep building. https://t.co/ywrlHUw3g1\u201d— Hillary Clinton (@Hillary Clinton) 1442416421
Trump and Musk are on an unconstitutional rampage, aiming for virtually every corner of the federal government. These two right-wing billionaires are targeting nurses, scientists, teachers, daycare providers, judges, veterans, air traffic controllers, and nuclear safety inspectors. No one is safe. The food stamps program, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are next. It’s an unprecedented disaster and a five-alarm fire, but there will be a reckoning. The people did not vote for this. The American people do not want this dystopian hellscape that hides behind claims of “efficiency.” Still, in reality, it is all a giveaway to corporate interests and the libertarian dreams of far-right oligarchs like Musk. Common Dreams is playing a vital role by reporting day and night on this orgy of corruption and greed, as well as what everyday people can do to organize and fight back. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. |
A Muslim teen with dreams of becoming an engineer brought a clock he made to his Texas high school on Monday.
Then this happened: the teen, 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed, sporting a NASA t-shirt, was arrested, handcuffed, and suspended for three days. The ACLU says the arrest has sparked questions about racial profiling.
"They arrested me and told me I committed a crime of a hoax bomb--a fake bomb," the freshman at MacArthur High told News 8.
Mohamed showed his creation to his engineering teacher at Monday morning, according to reporting by the Dallas Morning News. "He was like, 'That's really nice,'" Mohamed said. "'I would advise you not to show any other teachers.'"
The clock made a beeping sound during his English class, and when he showed it to her, that teacher said: "that looks like a bomb." He was taken out of class during a later period by the principal and a police officer. The Dallas paper continues:
The bell rang at least twice, he said, while the officers searched his belongings and questioned his intentions. The principal threatened to expel him if he didn't make a written statement, he said.
"They were like, 'So you tried to make a bomb?'" Ahmed said.
"I told them no, I was trying to make a clock."
"He said, 'It looks like a movie bomb to me.'"
They led Ahmed into a room where four other police officers waited. He said an officer he'd never seen before leaned back in his chair and remarked: "Yup. That's who I thought it was."
He was taken to police headquarters where he was interrogated. Local news NBC-DFW continues:
"I tried making a phone call to my father. They said, 'You're in the middle of an interrogation. You can't have a phone call,'" he said. "I really don't think it's fair, because I brought something to school that wasn't a threat to anyone. I didn't do anything wrong. I just showed my teachers something and I end up being arrested later that day."
Irving Police Chief Larry Boyd said late Wednesday morning that no charges would be filed against Mohamed, though, as WGCUreports, police seemed to be unable to believe that the student had simply brought in something he made to show his teacher.
"He would simply only tell us that it was a clock," said police spokesman James McLellan. "He didn't offer an explanation as to what it was for, why he created this device, why he brought it to school."
Terri Burke, executive director of the ACLU of Texas, stated Wednesday that "Mohamed's avoidable ordeal raises serious concerns about racial profiling and the disciplinary system in Texas schools. Instead of encouraging his curiosity, intellect and ability, the Irving ISD saw fit to throw handcuffs on a frightened 14 year-old Muslim boy wearing a NASA t-shirt and then remove him from school.
"We should not deprive our children of liberty when they haven't broken the law, and we should not suspend them from school when they haven't broken the rules. The State of Texas in general, and Irving ISD in particular, need to take a long, hard look at their disciplinary policies to ensure that blanket prejudices and the baseless suspicions they engender don't deprive our students of an educational environment where their talents can thrive," Burke continued.
Glenn Greenwald writes Thursday that the arrest was hardly an aberration, but "highly illustrative of the rotted fruit of this sustained climate of cultivated fear and demonization" that has existed since 9/11.
Greenwald goes on to describe the arrest as "the natural, inevitable byproduct of the culture of fear and demonization that has festered and been continuously inflamed for many years." Mohamed's arrest was not surprising, he says: "You can't have a government that has spent decades waging various forms of war against predominantly Muslim countries -- bombing seven of them in the last six years alone -- and then act surprised when a Muslim 14-year-old triggers vindictive fear and persecution because he makes a clock for school."
Support for the teen has flooded social media, with many taking to Twitter with the hashtag #IStandWithAhmed. In addition to the support Mohamed got via Twitter from scientists, his arrest also got the attention of President Barack Obama and presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, with Obama inviting the teen to bring his clock to the White House:
\u201cCool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It's what makes America great.\u201d— President Obama (@President Obama) 1442422734
\u201cAssumptions and fear don't keep us safe\u2014they hold us back. Ahmed, stay curious and keep building. https://t.co/ywrlHUw3g1\u201d— Hillary Clinton (@Hillary Clinton) 1442416421
A Muslim teen with dreams of becoming an engineer brought a clock he made to his Texas high school on Monday.
Then this happened: the teen, 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed, sporting a NASA t-shirt, was arrested, handcuffed, and suspended for three days. The ACLU says the arrest has sparked questions about racial profiling.
"They arrested me and told me I committed a crime of a hoax bomb--a fake bomb," the freshman at MacArthur High told News 8.
Mohamed showed his creation to his engineering teacher at Monday morning, according to reporting by the Dallas Morning News. "He was like, 'That's really nice,'" Mohamed said. "'I would advise you not to show any other teachers.'"
The clock made a beeping sound during his English class, and when he showed it to her, that teacher said: "that looks like a bomb." He was taken out of class during a later period by the principal and a police officer. The Dallas paper continues:
The bell rang at least twice, he said, while the officers searched his belongings and questioned his intentions. The principal threatened to expel him if he didn't make a written statement, he said.
"They were like, 'So you tried to make a bomb?'" Ahmed said.
"I told them no, I was trying to make a clock."
"He said, 'It looks like a movie bomb to me.'"
They led Ahmed into a room where four other police officers waited. He said an officer he'd never seen before leaned back in his chair and remarked: "Yup. That's who I thought it was."
He was taken to police headquarters where he was interrogated. Local news NBC-DFW continues:
"I tried making a phone call to my father. They said, 'You're in the middle of an interrogation. You can't have a phone call,'" he said. "I really don't think it's fair, because I brought something to school that wasn't a threat to anyone. I didn't do anything wrong. I just showed my teachers something and I end up being arrested later that day."
Irving Police Chief Larry Boyd said late Wednesday morning that no charges would be filed against Mohamed, though, as WGCUreports, police seemed to be unable to believe that the student had simply brought in something he made to show his teacher.
"He would simply only tell us that it was a clock," said police spokesman James McLellan. "He didn't offer an explanation as to what it was for, why he created this device, why he brought it to school."
Terri Burke, executive director of the ACLU of Texas, stated Wednesday that "Mohamed's avoidable ordeal raises serious concerns about racial profiling and the disciplinary system in Texas schools. Instead of encouraging his curiosity, intellect and ability, the Irving ISD saw fit to throw handcuffs on a frightened 14 year-old Muslim boy wearing a NASA t-shirt and then remove him from school.
"We should not deprive our children of liberty when they haven't broken the law, and we should not suspend them from school when they haven't broken the rules. The State of Texas in general, and Irving ISD in particular, need to take a long, hard look at their disciplinary policies to ensure that blanket prejudices and the baseless suspicions they engender don't deprive our students of an educational environment where their talents can thrive," Burke continued.
Glenn Greenwald writes Thursday that the arrest was hardly an aberration, but "highly illustrative of the rotted fruit of this sustained climate of cultivated fear and demonization" that has existed since 9/11.
Greenwald goes on to describe the arrest as "the natural, inevitable byproduct of the culture of fear and demonization that has festered and been continuously inflamed for many years." Mohamed's arrest was not surprising, he says: "You can't have a government that has spent decades waging various forms of war against predominantly Muslim countries -- bombing seven of them in the last six years alone -- and then act surprised when a Muslim 14-year-old triggers vindictive fear and persecution because he makes a clock for school."
Support for the teen has flooded social media, with many taking to Twitter with the hashtag #IStandWithAhmed. In addition to the support Mohamed got via Twitter from scientists, his arrest also got the attention of President Barack Obama and presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, with Obama inviting the teen to bring his clock to the White House:
\u201cCool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It's what makes America great.\u201d— President Obama (@President Obama) 1442422734
\u201cAssumptions and fear don't keep us safe\u2014they hold us back. Ahmed, stay curious and keep building. https://t.co/ywrlHUw3g1\u201d— Hillary Clinton (@Hillary Clinton) 1442416421
"This was an illegal act," said U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis.
A federal court judge on Sunday declared the Trump administration's refusal to return a man they sent to an El Salvadoran prison in "error" as "totally lawless" behavior and ordered the Department of Homeland Security to repatriate the man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, within 24 hours.
In a 22-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis doubled down on an order issued Friday, which Department of Justice lawyers representing the administration said was an affront to his executive authority.
"This was an illegal act," Xinis said of DHS Secretary Krisi Noem's attack on Abrego Garcia's rights, including his deportation and imprisonment.
"Defendants seized Abrego Garcia without any lawful authority; held him in three separate domestic detention centers without legal basis; failed to present him to any immigration judge or officer; and forcibly transported him to El Salvador in direct contravention of [immigration law]," the decision states.
Once imprisoned in El Salvador, the order continues, "U.S. officials secured his detention in a facility that, by design, deprives its detainees of adequate food, water, and shelter, fosters routine violence; and places him with his persecutors."
Trump's DOJ appealed Friday's order to 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Virginia, but that court has not yet ruled on the request to stay the order from Xinis, which says Abrego Garcia should be returned to the United States no later than Monday.
"You'd be a fool to think Trump won't go after others he dislikes," warned Sen. Ron Wyden, "including American citizens."
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon slammed the Trump administration over the weekend in response to fresh reporting that the Department of Homeland Security has intensified its push for access to confidential data held by the Internal Revenue Service—part of a sweeping effort to target immigrant workers who pay into the U.S. tax system yet get little or nothing in return.
Wyden denounced the effort, which had the fingerprints of the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, all over it.
"What Trump and Musk's henchmen are doing by weaponizing taxpayer data is illegal, this abuse of the immigrant community is a moral atrocity, and you'd be a fool to think Trump won't go after others he dislikes, including American citizens," said Wyden, ranking member of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, on Saturday.
Last week, the White House admitted one of the men it has sent to a prison in El Salvador was detained and deported in schackles in "error." Despite the admitted mistake, and facing a lawsuit for his immediate return, the Trump administration says a federal court has no authority over the president to make such an order.
"Even though the Trump administration claims it's focused on undocumented immigrants, it's obvious that they do not care when they make mistakes and ruin the lives of legal residents and American citizens in the process," Wyden continued. "A repressive scheme on the scale of what they're talking about at the IRS would lead to hundreds if not thousands of those horrific mistakes, and the people who are disappeared as a result may never be returned to their families."
According to the Washington Post reporting on Saturday:
Federal immigration officials are seeking to locate up to 7 million people suspected of being in the United States unlawfully by accessing confidential tax data at the Internal Revenue Service, according to six people familiar with the request, a dramatic escalation in how the Trump administration aims to use the tax system to detain and deport immigrants.
Officials from the Department of Homeland Security had previously sought the IRS’s help in finding 700,000 people who are subject to final removal orders, and they had asked the IRS to use closely guarded taxpayer data systems to provide names and addresses.
As the Post notes, it would be highly unusual, and quite possibly unlawful, for the IRS to share such confidential data. "Normally," the newspaper reports, "personal tax information—even an individual's name and address—is considered confidential and closely guarded within the IRS."
Wyden warned that those who violate the law by disclosing personal tax data face the risk of civil sanction or even prosecution.
"While Trump's sycophants and the DOGE boys may be a lost cause," Wyden said, "IRS personnel need to think long and hard about whether they want to be a part of an effort to round up innocent people and send them to be locked away in foreign torture prisons."
"I'm sure Trump has promised pardons to the people who will commit crimes in the process of abusing legally-protected taxpayer data, but violations of taxpayer privacy laws carry hefty civil penalties too, and Trump cannot pardon anybody out from under those," he said. "I'm going to demand answers from the acting IRS commissioner immediately about this outrageous abuse of the agency.”
"I think that the Democratic Party has to make a fundamental decision," says the independent Senator from Vermont, "and I'm not sure that they will make the right decision."
"I think when we talk about America is a democracy, I think we should rephrase it, call it a 'pseudo-democracy.'"
That's what Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Sunday morning in response to questions from CBS News about the state of the nation, with President Donald Trump gutting the federal government from head to toe, challenging constitutional norms, allowing his cabinet of billionaires to run key agencies they philosophically want to destroy, and empowering Elon Musk—the world's richest person—to run roughshod over public education, undermine healthcare programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and attack Social Security.
Taking a weekend away from his ongoing "Fight Oligarchy" tour, which has drawn record crowds in both right-leaning and left-leaning regions of the country over recent weeks, Sanders said the problem is deeply entrenched now in the nation's political system—and both major parties have a lot to answer for.
"One of the other concerns when I talk about oligarchy," Sanders explained to journalist Robert Acosta, "it's not just massive income and wealth inequality. It's not just the power of the billionaire class. These guys, led by Musk—and as a result of this disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision—have now allowed billionaires essentially to own our political process. So, I think when we talk about America is a democracy, I think we should rephrase it, call it a 'pseudo-democracy.' And it's not just Musk and the Republicans; it's billionaires in the Democratic Party as well."
Sanders said that while he's been out on the road in various places, what he perceives—from Americans of all stripes—is a shared sense of dread and frustration.
"I think I'm seeing fear, and I'm seeing anger," he said. "Sixty percent of our people are living paycheck-to-paycheck. Media doesn't talk about it. We don't talk about it enough here in Congress."
In a speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate on Friday night, just before the Republican-controlled chamber was able to pass a sweeping spending resolution that will lay waste to vital programs like Medicaid and food assistance to needy families so that billionaires and the ultra-rich can enjoy even more tax giveaways, Sanders said, "What we have is a budget proposal in front of us that makes bad situations much worse and does virtually nothing to protect the needs of working families."
LIVE: I'm on the floor now talking about Trump's totally absurd budget.
They got it exactly backwards. No tax cuts for billionaires by cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid for Americans. https://t.co/ULB2KosOSJ
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) April 4, 2025
What the GOP spending plan does do, he added, "is reward wealthy campaign contributors by providing over $1 trillion in tax breaks for the top one percent."
"I wish my Republican friends the best of luck when they go home—if they dare to hold town hall meetings—and explain to their constituents why they think, at a time of massive income and wealth inequality, it's a great idea to give tax breaks to billionaires and cut Medicaid, education, and other programs that working class families desperately need."
On Saturday, millions of people took to the street in coordinated protests against the Trump administration's attack on government, the economy, and democracy itself.
Voiced at many of the rallies was also a frustration with the failure of the Democrats to stand up to Trump and offer an alternative vision for what the nation can be. In his CBS News interview, Sanders said the key question Democrats need to be asking is the one too many people in Washington, D.C. tend to avoid.
"Why are [the Democrats] held in so low esteem?" That's the question that needs asking, he said.
"Why has the working class in this country largely turned away from them? And what do you have to do to recapture that working class? Do you think working people are voting for Trump because he wants to give massive tax breaks to billionaires and cut Social Security and Medicare? I don't think so. It's because people say, 'I am hurting. Democratic Party has talked a good game for years. They haven't done anything.' So, I think that the Democratic Party has to make a fundamental decision, and I'm not sure that they will make the right decision, which side are they on? [Will] they continue to hustle large campaign contributions from very, very wealthy people, or do they stand with the working class?"
The next leg of Sanders' "Fight Oligarchy' tour will kick off next Saturday, with stops in California, Utah, and Idaho over four days.
"The American people, whether they are Democrats, Republicans or Independents, do not want billionaires to control our government or buy our elections," said Sanders. "That is why I will be visiting Republican-held districts all over the Western United States. When we are organized and fight back, we can defeat oligarchy."