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Exxon CEO Darren Woods speaks at an international energy conference.
(Photo: Mark Felix/AFP via Getty Images)
Prosecute the Climate Criminals
A new website and project calls for accountability.
Jul 22, 2024
Imagine a time, in the not-too-distant future, when an international tribunal convenes to ask the question: Who is responsible for climate disruption? Who knew about the dangers of burning oil, gas, and coal, with their atmosphere-altering properties, but did nothing about it? Or worse, which individuals worked to promote disinformation, block changes, and delay action?
We are all responsible for climate change, especially those of us who live in industrialized countries with a higher standard of living based on a century of low-cost, easy-to-extract fossil fuels. But not all contributions to climate disruption are equal: Some take the bus while others fly private jets. And some people have considerably more political power and wealth to influence the paths we have taken and, regrettably, not taken.
We now know that certain corporations, like ExxonMobil and Shell, hold oversized responsibility for running out humanity’s clock and limiting our present options. There are individuals, often presiding over powerful transnational corporations and institutions, with the clout of medium-sized nation-states. These are the “apex predators” in the climate inaction ecosystem. Future generations will know their names: They are the climate criminals.
We want the public to learn the names of these climate criminals and understand how they are largely to blame for the devastating climate impacts happening all around us.
These alleged climate criminals deploy their power to promote climate change denial while knowing the science documenting the harms of emitting billions of tons of carbon and methane into the atmosphere. When a scientific consensus emerged in the last two decades, the climate criminals sowed doubt to foster societal paralysis and inaction.
When the public began to awaken to the harms of greenhouse gas emissions, the climate criminals worked to capture our political system to thwart any efforts to regulate carbon pollution. They insidiously used their power to block less-polluting alternatives to oil, gas, and coal.
As each year has passed, the opportunities for averting the worst disruptions of climate change have diminished. The climate criminals use their power to run out the clock on climate change. They have brought us to the point of living through rising climate disruption with unprecedented rising temperatures, droughts, wildfires, floods, and rising ocean temperatures and sea levels.
Today, on Climate Emergency Day, we are releasing the names of the 2024 North American Climate Criminals: Individuals we have identified who are actively engaged in “crimes-in-progress.”
The 2024 Climate Criminals include leaders of energy companies, major financiers of fossil fuel projects, insurance companies, think tanks and foundations that fund climate change denial, and communications firms that spin disinformation and distraction.
A new project called the Climate Accountability Research Project (CARP) received over 300 nominations for climate criminals and prepared extensive dossiers on over 150. In selecting the 2024 Climate Criminals, we identified 40 individuals recently involved in jeopardizing our shared future. A committee of activists and researchers narrowed the list down to 24.
Most of the 2024 Climate Criminals, unlike their recent predecessors, do not deny the existence of human-created climate change. They leaped from outright denial to distracting delay in a nanosecond. Today’s climate criminals exercise their considerable clout to deflect responsibility, block meaningful action, and promote “greenwashed” solutions. They have staked their future on unrealistic, expensive, and unscalable technological fixes to distract us for a few more years while they squeeze riches from the fossil fuel stone.
The 2024 Climate Criminals have been personally enriched by their climate crimes. Their combined wealth is at least $29.8 billion, with an average of $1.7 billion. Three are billionaires: Kelcy Warren (worth $7.1 billion), Jamie Dimon ($2.3 billion), and Harold Hamm ($18.4 billion). Their combined annual compensation is $232 million, with an average of $11 million.
Even those at foundations, think tanks, and national lobbying associations are paid hefty salaries. Michelle Bloodworth, CEO of America’s Power, has been paid over $4 million since 2017 to lobby on behalf of the moribund coal industry. She hopes a Trump administration will declare coal plants as “critical infrastructure” and keep them spewing. Brian Hooks was paid over $5 million between 2020 and 2022 by one Koch-funded organization—and millions more through decades of work at the Koch Foundation and other Koch-funded climate-denying and action-delaying organizations.
Several 2024 Climate Criminals were involved in writing the environment and energy sections of the Project 2025 “Mandate for Leadership,” a public policy blueprint spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation that dismantles environmental protection and reduces investment in renewable energy while expanding Arctic drilling and Western coal mining. It would remove the U.S. from international climate change agreements.
In April 2024, four of our 2024 Climate Criminals attended a dinner at Mar-a-Lago of fossil fuel executives, organized by climate criminal Harold Hamm. Trump allegedly asked for $1 billion in campaign donations in exchange for rolling back U.S. President Joe Biden’s regulatory policies. Chevron CEO Mike Wirth, ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods, and American Petroleum Institute CEO Mike Sommers were reportedly also at the dinner. Hamm also co-hosted another fundraising luncheon for Trump with climate criminal Kelcy Warren on May 22, 2024.
This Climate Criminals educational campaign aims to shift the national conversation about who is responsible for climate disruption. We want the public to learn the names of these climate criminals and understand how they are largely to blame for the devastating climate impacts happening all around us. During the next heatwave, name the climate criminals out loud. Next flood or wildfire smoke in your eyes? Damn those climate criminals.
We support nonviolent protests against the climate criminals when they show up to be recognized at a charity gala or speak at a conference. We urge people to take public action at www.climatecriminals.org with a petition urging the International Criminal Court to investigate and prosecute these climate criminals.
When we understand the role of Climate Criminals in narrowing our options as citizens and consumers, we won’t tolerate insults like those dished out by Exxon CEO Darren Woods. Woods recognizes that our societies are failing to meet climate change mitigation goals, but instead of taking responsibility for his company’s leading role in causing climate change, he blames consumers. “The dirty secret nobody talks about is how much all this is going to cost and who’s willing to pay for it,” Woods told Fortune in March 2024. “We have opportunities to make fuels with lower carbon in it, but people aren’t willing to spend the money to do that.”
The real dirty secret is that it’s Darren Woods and his fellow climate criminals who’ve been running out the clock, engaging in denial, and blocking the development of the green technologies that we need to preserve a livable planet. They are responsible, and they need to be held to account.
An Unconstitutional Rampage
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. |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Chuck Collins
Chuck Collins is a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies where he co-edits Inequality.org. His near future novel "Altar to An Erupting Sun” explores one community’s response to climate disruption. He is author of numerous books and reports on inequality and the racial wealth divide, including “The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Spend Millions to Hide Trillions,” “Born on Third Base,” and, with Bill Gates Sr., of “Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why American Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes.” See more of his writing at www.chuckcollinswrites.com
Tara Steckler
Tara Steckler is a researcher with the Climate Accountability Researcher Project (CARP), host of www.climatecriminals.org.
climate accountability research projectclimate denialclimate justiceextreme weatherexxonknewfossil fuelsgreenwashingproject 2025climate emergency
Imagine a time, in the not-too-distant future, when an international tribunal convenes to ask the question: Who is responsible for climate disruption? Who knew about the dangers of burning oil, gas, and coal, with their atmosphere-altering properties, but did nothing about it? Or worse, which individuals worked to promote disinformation, block changes, and delay action?
We are all responsible for climate change, especially those of us who live in industrialized countries with a higher standard of living based on a century of low-cost, easy-to-extract fossil fuels. But not all contributions to climate disruption are equal: Some take the bus while others fly private jets. And some people have considerably more political power and wealth to influence the paths we have taken and, regrettably, not taken.
We now know that certain corporations, like ExxonMobil and Shell, hold oversized responsibility for running out humanity’s clock and limiting our present options. There are individuals, often presiding over powerful transnational corporations and institutions, with the clout of medium-sized nation-states. These are the “apex predators” in the climate inaction ecosystem. Future generations will know their names: They are the climate criminals.
We want the public to learn the names of these climate criminals and understand how they are largely to blame for the devastating climate impacts happening all around us.
These alleged climate criminals deploy their power to promote climate change denial while knowing the science documenting the harms of emitting billions of tons of carbon and methane into the atmosphere. When a scientific consensus emerged in the last two decades, the climate criminals sowed doubt to foster societal paralysis and inaction.
When the public began to awaken to the harms of greenhouse gas emissions, the climate criminals worked to capture our political system to thwart any efforts to regulate carbon pollution. They insidiously used their power to block less-polluting alternatives to oil, gas, and coal.
As each year has passed, the opportunities for averting the worst disruptions of climate change have diminished. The climate criminals use their power to run out the clock on climate change. They have brought us to the point of living through rising climate disruption with unprecedented rising temperatures, droughts, wildfires, floods, and rising ocean temperatures and sea levels.
Today, on Climate Emergency Day, we are releasing the names of the 2024 North American Climate Criminals: Individuals we have identified who are actively engaged in “crimes-in-progress.”
The 2024 Climate Criminals include leaders of energy companies, major financiers of fossil fuel projects, insurance companies, think tanks and foundations that fund climate change denial, and communications firms that spin disinformation and distraction.
A new project called the Climate Accountability Research Project (CARP) received over 300 nominations for climate criminals and prepared extensive dossiers on over 150. In selecting the 2024 Climate Criminals, we identified 40 individuals recently involved in jeopardizing our shared future. A committee of activists and researchers narrowed the list down to 24.
Most of the 2024 Climate Criminals, unlike their recent predecessors, do not deny the existence of human-created climate change. They leaped from outright denial to distracting delay in a nanosecond. Today’s climate criminals exercise their considerable clout to deflect responsibility, block meaningful action, and promote “greenwashed” solutions. They have staked their future on unrealistic, expensive, and unscalable technological fixes to distract us for a few more years while they squeeze riches from the fossil fuel stone.
The 2024 Climate Criminals have been personally enriched by their climate crimes. Their combined wealth is at least $29.8 billion, with an average of $1.7 billion. Three are billionaires: Kelcy Warren (worth $7.1 billion), Jamie Dimon ($2.3 billion), and Harold Hamm ($18.4 billion). Their combined annual compensation is $232 million, with an average of $11 million.
Even those at foundations, think tanks, and national lobbying associations are paid hefty salaries. Michelle Bloodworth, CEO of America’s Power, has been paid over $4 million since 2017 to lobby on behalf of the moribund coal industry. She hopes a Trump administration will declare coal plants as “critical infrastructure” and keep them spewing. Brian Hooks was paid over $5 million between 2020 and 2022 by one Koch-funded organization—and millions more through decades of work at the Koch Foundation and other Koch-funded climate-denying and action-delaying organizations.
Several 2024 Climate Criminals were involved in writing the environment and energy sections of the Project 2025 “Mandate for Leadership,” a public policy blueprint spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation that dismantles environmental protection and reduces investment in renewable energy while expanding Arctic drilling and Western coal mining. It would remove the U.S. from international climate change agreements.
In April 2024, four of our 2024 Climate Criminals attended a dinner at Mar-a-Lago of fossil fuel executives, organized by climate criminal Harold Hamm. Trump allegedly asked for $1 billion in campaign donations in exchange for rolling back U.S. President Joe Biden’s regulatory policies. Chevron CEO Mike Wirth, ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods, and American Petroleum Institute CEO Mike Sommers were reportedly also at the dinner. Hamm also co-hosted another fundraising luncheon for Trump with climate criminal Kelcy Warren on May 22, 2024.
This Climate Criminals educational campaign aims to shift the national conversation about who is responsible for climate disruption. We want the public to learn the names of these climate criminals and understand how they are largely to blame for the devastating climate impacts happening all around us. During the next heatwave, name the climate criminals out loud. Next flood or wildfire smoke in your eyes? Damn those climate criminals.
We support nonviolent protests against the climate criminals when they show up to be recognized at a charity gala or speak at a conference. We urge people to take public action at www.climatecriminals.org with a petition urging the International Criminal Court to investigate and prosecute these climate criminals.
When we understand the role of Climate Criminals in narrowing our options as citizens and consumers, we won’t tolerate insults like those dished out by Exxon CEO Darren Woods. Woods recognizes that our societies are failing to meet climate change mitigation goals, but instead of taking responsibility for his company’s leading role in causing climate change, he blames consumers. “The dirty secret nobody talks about is how much all this is going to cost and who’s willing to pay for it,” Woods told Fortune in March 2024. “We have opportunities to make fuels with lower carbon in it, but people aren’t willing to spend the money to do that.”
The real dirty secret is that it’s Darren Woods and his fellow climate criminals who’ve been running out the clock, engaging in denial, and blocking the development of the green technologies that we need to preserve a livable planet. They are responsible, and they need to be held to account.
From Your Site Articles
- Extinction Rebellion Protesters Target Law Firm for 'Defending Climate Criminals' ›
- Majority of US Voters Back Legal Action Against Big Oil ›
- Legal Memo Makes Case for Prosecuting Big Oil Over Extreme Heat Deaths ›
- Climate Deniers Should Not Assume They Will Never Face Justice ›
- 'Climate Homicide': Experts Say Big Oil Should Be Held Criminally Liable for Disaster Deaths ›
Chuck Collins
Chuck Collins is a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies where he co-edits Inequality.org. His near future novel "Altar to An Erupting Sun” explores one community’s response to climate disruption. He is author of numerous books and reports on inequality and the racial wealth divide, including “The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Spend Millions to Hide Trillions,” “Born on Third Base,” and, with Bill Gates Sr., of “Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why American Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes.” See more of his writing at www.chuckcollinswrites.com
Tara Steckler
Tara Steckler is a researcher with the Climate Accountability Researcher Project (CARP), host of www.climatecriminals.org.
Imagine a time, in the not-too-distant future, when an international tribunal convenes to ask the question: Who is responsible for climate disruption? Who knew about the dangers of burning oil, gas, and coal, with their atmosphere-altering properties, but did nothing about it? Or worse, which individuals worked to promote disinformation, block changes, and delay action?
We are all responsible for climate change, especially those of us who live in industrialized countries with a higher standard of living based on a century of low-cost, easy-to-extract fossil fuels. But not all contributions to climate disruption are equal: Some take the bus while others fly private jets. And some people have considerably more political power and wealth to influence the paths we have taken and, regrettably, not taken.
We now know that certain corporations, like ExxonMobil and Shell, hold oversized responsibility for running out humanity’s clock and limiting our present options. There are individuals, often presiding over powerful transnational corporations and institutions, with the clout of medium-sized nation-states. These are the “apex predators” in the climate inaction ecosystem. Future generations will know their names: They are the climate criminals.
We want the public to learn the names of these climate criminals and understand how they are largely to blame for the devastating climate impacts happening all around us.
These alleged climate criminals deploy their power to promote climate change denial while knowing the science documenting the harms of emitting billions of tons of carbon and methane into the atmosphere. When a scientific consensus emerged in the last two decades, the climate criminals sowed doubt to foster societal paralysis and inaction.
When the public began to awaken to the harms of greenhouse gas emissions, the climate criminals worked to capture our political system to thwart any efforts to regulate carbon pollution. They insidiously used their power to block less-polluting alternatives to oil, gas, and coal.
As each year has passed, the opportunities for averting the worst disruptions of climate change have diminished. The climate criminals use their power to run out the clock on climate change. They have brought us to the point of living through rising climate disruption with unprecedented rising temperatures, droughts, wildfires, floods, and rising ocean temperatures and sea levels.
Today, on Climate Emergency Day, we are releasing the names of the 2024 North American Climate Criminals: Individuals we have identified who are actively engaged in “crimes-in-progress.”
The 2024 Climate Criminals include leaders of energy companies, major financiers of fossil fuel projects, insurance companies, think tanks and foundations that fund climate change denial, and communications firms that spin disinformation and distraction.
A new project called the Climate Accountability Research Project (CARP) received over 300 nominations for climate criminals and prepared extensive dossiers on over 150. In selecting the 2024 Climate Criminals, we identified 40 individuals recently involved in jeopardizing our shared future. A committee of activists and researchers narrowed the list down to 24.
Most of the 2024 Climate Criminals, unlike their recent predecessors, do not deny the existence of human-created climate change. They leaped from outright denial to distracting delay in a nanosecond. Today’s climate criminals exercise their considerable clout to deflect responsibility, block meaningful action, and promote “greenwashed” solutions. They have staked their future on unrealistic, expensive, and unscalable technological fixes to distract us for a few more years while they squeeze riches from the fossil fuel stone.
The 2024 Climate Criminals have been personally enriched by their climate crimes. Their combined wealth is at least $29.8 billion, with an average of $1.7 billion. Three are billionaires: Kelcy Warren (worth $7.1 billion), Jamie Dimon ($2.3 billion), and Harold Hamm ($18.4 billion). Their combined annual compensation is $232 million, with an average of $11 million.
Even those at foundations, think tanks, and national lobbying associations are paid hefty salaries. Michelle Bloodworth, CEO of America’s Power, has been paid over $4 million since 2017 to lobby on behalf of the moribund coal industry. She hopes a Trump administration will declare coal plants as “critical infrastructure” and keep them spewing. Brian Hooks was paid over $5 million between 2020 and 2022 by one Koch-funded organization—and millions more through decades of work at the Koch Foundation and other Koch-funded climate-denying and action-delaying organizations.
Several 2024 Climate Criminals were involved in writing the environment and energy sections of the Project 2025 “Mandate for Leadership,” a public policy blueprint spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation that dismantles environmental protection and reduces investment in renewable energy while expanding Arctic drilling and Western coal mining. It would remove the U.S. from international climate change agreements.
In April 2024, four of our 2024 Climate Criminals attended a dinner at Mar-a-Lago of fossil fuel executives, organized by climate criminal Harold Hamm. Trump allegedly asked for $1 billion in campaign donations in exchange for rolling back U.S. President Joe Biden’s regulatory policies. Chevron CEO Mike Wirth, ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods, and American Petroleum Institute CEO Mike Sommers were reportedly also at the dinner. Hamm also co-hosted another fundraising luncheon for Trump with climate criminal Kelcy Warren on May 22, 2024.
This Climate Criminals educational campaign aims to shift the national conversation about who is responsible for climate disruption. We want the public to learn the names of these climate criminals and understand how they are largely to blame for the devastating climate impacts happening all around us. During the next heatwave, name the climate criminals out loud. Next flood or wildfire smoke in your eyes? Damn those climate criminals.
We support nonviolent protests against the climate criminals when they show up to be recognized at a charity gala or speak at a conference. We urge people to take public action at www.climatecriminals.org with a petition urging the International Criminal Court to investigate and prosecute these climate criminals.
When we understand the role of Climate Criminals in narrowing our options as citizens and consumers, we won’t tolerate insults like those dished out by Exxon CEO Darren Woods. Woods recognizes that our societies are failing to meet climate change mitigation goals, but instead of taking responsibility for his company’s leading role in causing climate change, he blames consumers. “The dirty secret nobody talks about is how much all this is going to cost and who’s willing to pay for it,” Woods told Fortune in March 2024. “We have opportunities to make fuels with lower carbon in it, but people aren’t willing to spend the money to do that.”
The real dirty secret is that it’s Darren Woods and his fellow climate criminals who’ve been running out the clock, engaging in denial, and blocking the development of the green technologies that we need to preserve a livable planet. They are responsible, and they need to be held to account.
From Your Site Articles
- Extinction Rebellion Protesters Target Law Firm for 'Defending Climate Criminals' ›
- Majority of US Voters Back Legal Action Against Big Oil ›
- Legal Memo Makes Case for Prosecuting Big Oil Over Extreme Heat Deaths ›
- Climate Deniers Should Not Assume They Will Never Face Justice ›
- 'Climate Homicide': Experts Say Big Oil Should Be Held Criminally Liable for Disaster Deaths ›
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LATEST NEWS
Legal Fight Underway as Trump Invokes Alien Enemies Act of 1798 for Deportations
"Today was a horrific day in the history of the nation," said the leader of one legal group, but "the rule of law prevailed."
Mar 15, 2025
Even before U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday publicly revealed that he was invoking the Alien Enemies Act, legal groups took action, which led to a federal judge temporarily blocking the administration from using the 1798 law for deportations.
Chief Judge James Boasberg of the District Court for the District of Columbia issued "a classwide, nationwide temporary restraining order, blocking removal of any noncitizens in U.S. custody who are subject to today's AEA order for the next 14 days," according to Law Dork's Chris Geidner. Earlier in the day, the judge had issued a TRO for the individual plaintiffs in this case.
Like Geidner, American Immigration Council senior fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick shared updates from the evening hearing on social media. He noted that the ACLU said at least two planes were en route to El Salvador and Honduras. The judge—an appointee of former President Barack Obama—ordered any planes in the air to turn around but said he could not take action for any aircraft that had landed.
With a few final matters, the hearing is now over. Great job by the ACLU and partners in getting this lawsuit filed so quickly, and on Judge Boasberg for understanding the urgency. We'll have to watch to see whether the planes are turned around in time, as at least one is in the air now.
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) March 15, 2025 at 6:54 PM
The national and D.C. arms of the ACLU launched the lawsuit with Democracy Forward, whose president and CEO, Skye Perryman, stressed early Saturday that "the United States is not at war, nor has it been invaded. The president's anticipated invocation of wartime authority—which is not needed to conduct lawful immigration enforcement operations—is the latest step in an accelerating authoritarian playbook."
"From improperly apprehending American citizens, to violating the ability of communities to peacefully worship, to now improperly trying to invoke a law that is responsible for some of our nation's most shameful actions, this administration's immigration agenda is as lawless as it is harmful," Perryman added. The AEA was most recently used during World War II to force thousands of people of mostly German, Italian, and Japanese descent in internment camps.
Lee Gelernt, lead counsel and deputy director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project, called Trump's move "as unprecedented as it is lawless," and said that "it may be the administration's most extreme measure yet, and that is saying a lot."
After the initial TRO, Perryman said that "yet again, the judicial system is essential to protect our democracy. We collaborated through the night with our co-counsel to ensure that the president could not invoke wartime powers to deal with his policy challenges. We are gratified to see the judge's decision and will work on the next stages to ensure those impacted by this dangerous move to invoke wartime powers when the nation is not at war—and has not been invaded—are protected."
After the president’s unlawful and unprecedented invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, a judge issued a nationwide temporary restraining order in Democracy Forward's case with our partners at @aclu.org & @aclu-dc.bsky.social. Full statement to follow.
[image or embed]
— Democracy Forward (@democracyforward.org) March 15, 2025 at 8:12 PM
Following Boasberg's final decision Saturday, the broader TRO, Perryman declared that "today was a horrific day in the history of the nation," but "the rule of law prevailed."
The legal battle stems from an effort to deport five Venezuelans accused of being involved with the gang Tren de Aragua (TdA), but based on Trump's comments on the campaign trail—and his recent designation of multiple cartels as terrorist groups—the president is expected to seek a wider use of the AEA to deliver on his promised mass deportations.
Trump's proclamation, dated Friday but released Saturday, says TdA "is a designated foreign terrorist organization with thousands of members, many of whom have unlawfully infiltrated the United States and are conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States. TdA operates in conjunction with Cártel de los Soles, the Nicolas Maduro regime-sponsored, narco-terrorism enterprise based in Venezuela, and commits brutal crimes, including murders, kidnappings, extortions, and human, drug, and weapons trafficking."
"TdA has engaged in and continues to engage in mass illegal migration to the United States to further its objectives of harming United States citizens, undermining public safety, and supporting the Maduro regime's goal of destabilizing democratic nations in the Americas, including the United States," Trump said. "I proclaim that all Venezuelan citizens 14 years of age or older who are members of TdA, are within the United States, and are not actually naturalized or lawful permanent residents of the United States are liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as alien enemies."
It is noteworthy that Trump's EO invoking the Alien Enemy Act to deport certain Venezuelans without recourse to the protections of immigration law was signed on March 14, but not made public until today (March 15). In other words, they started the organizing these deportations by secret order.
[image or embed]
— Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor.bsky.social) March 15, 2025 at 6:51 PM
The legal fight is far from over. The next hearing before Boasberg is scheduled for Friday afternoon. The groups behind the lawsuit were not alone in sounding the alarm about Trump's invocation of the 18th-century law.
FWD.us president Todd Schulte said in a statement that "the Alien Enemies Act was last used to incarcerate 120,000 Japanese-Americans and tens of thousands of others during World War II. Its use was a mistake and a tragedy."
"There should be no effort to invoke this law today or in the future—against anyone, no matter their immigration status, be they an adult or child, as is proposed in today's declaration," he asserted. "Actions like this have no place in the immigration system or country we should seek to build."
Allison McManus, managing director for national security and foreign policy at the Center for American Progress, said that "invoking the Alien Enemies Act is a dangerous abuse of power intended to deprive people of their legal rights. This announcement comes just one day after the president threatened to use the Department of Justice against his critics, raising the likelihood that these powers will be exploited and put the safety of any American who speaks out against this administration at risk."
McManus added that "every American, regardless of their politics, should be concerned that the president is granting himself powers last invoked to detain thousands of Japanese Americans in internment camps during World War II—one of the most shameful times in U.S. history."
Trump Bombs Yemen After Houthis Revive Blockade on Israeli Ships
"U.S. officials are escalating deadly attacks on one of the poorest and most devastated nations in the Middle East, while recklessly pushing the U.S. toward a wider regional war with Iran," said one peace group.
Mar 15, 2025
This is a developing news story... Please check back for possible updates.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced Saturday that he had ordered the military to "launch decisive and powerful" action against the Houthis in war-torn Yemen, a glaring contradiction of what critics have called the Republican's "anti-war charade."
The U.S. bombing follows Trump redesignating the Houthis—also known as Ansar Allah—as a terrorist organization shortly after returning to office in January and comes just days after the group renewed a blockade on Israeli ships.
Shuaib Almosawa reported earlier this week for Drop Site News that "the military spokesperson for the Houthi-led government in Yemen on Tuesday announced the resumption of the naval blockade targeting Israeli ships traversing Yemen's waterways, following the expiration of its deadline for Israel to allow aid into the besieged Gaza Strip."
"In a televised statement broadcast by Almasirah TV channel, Houthi spokesperson, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, said that the blockade on Israeli ships now covers Yemen's waterways in the Red Sea, Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden, and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait," according to Almosawa, a freelance journalist based in the Yemeni capital Sanaa.
Trump's lengthy Saturday post on his Truth Social platform did not explicitly mention Israel or Gaza. He said in part that "funded by Iran, the Houthi thugs have fired missiles at U.S. aircraft, and targeted our Troops and Allies. These relentless assaults have cost the U.S. and World Economy many BILLIONS of Dollars while, at the same time, putting innocent lives at risk."
Almosawa reported Saturday that at least nine civilians have been killed in Trump's new bombing campaign.
According to The Associated Press:
The Houthi media office said the U.S. strikes hit "a residential neighborhood" in Sanaa's northern district of Shouab. Sanaa residents said at least four airstrikes rocked the Eastern Geraf neighborhood in Shouab district, terrifying women and children in the area.
"The explosions were very strong," said Abdallah al-Alffi. "It was like an earthquake."
The United States, Israel, and Britain have previously hit Houthi-held areas in Yemen. Israel's military declined to comment.
Trump noted the bombings under former U.S. President Joe Biden, saying Saturday that his predecessor's "response was pathetically weak, so the unrestrained Houthis just kept going."
The U.S.-based peace group CodePink called out another part of Trump's post, saying that he "claimed that the Houthis have waged an 'unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism' against America and other ships, aircraft, and drones. However, he conveniently ignores critical context behind these actions. The Houthis' attacks on foreign cargo ships began in response to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, aimed at deterring the continuation of Israel's ongoing plan to ethnically cleanse Palestine."
"This campaign ceased when a cease-fire was finally put in place, only to resume due to Israel's ongoing violations of the cease-fire agreement," CodePink continued, noting Israeli strikes that just reportedly killed aid workers and journalists in Gaza. "Instead of confronting the root causes of this violence, U.S. officials are escalating deadly attacks on one of the poorest and most devastated nations in the Middle East, while recklessly pushing the U.S. toward a wider regional war with Iran."
"CodePink and its allies demand an immediate halt to U.S. military intervention in Yemen and across the Middle East," the group concluded. "We call on the government to prioritize peace and justice by immediately ending all military aid and funds to Israel and holding Israel accountable for breaking the cease-fire."
Members of Congress across the political spectrum have a history of criticizing U.S. bombings of Yemen throughout its decadelong civil war as illegal. Justin Amash, a libertarian former Michigan congressman, slammed the Saturday strikes on social media.
"I'll say it again. It is unconstitutional for President Trump to engage in acts of war in Yemen," Amash explained. "It doesn't matter how appropriate you think it is for the U.S. to take on Houthis or terrorists or anyone. Congress has not authorized war in Yemen. Engaging in war there is unlawful."
Rubio Slammed for Expelling South African Ambassador Over Trump Criticism
"It underscores that his critiques of white supremacy in the Age of Trump are perceived as threatening for one simple reason: He's right."
Mar 15, 2025
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has faced a flood of condemnation since announcing on social media Friday that "South Africa's ambassador to the United States is no longer welcome in our great country."
"Ebrahim Rasool is a race-baiting politician who hates America and hates President Donald Trump," the secretary claimed. "We have nothing to discuss with him and so he is considered PERSONA NON GRATA."
In the post on X—the social media site owned by Elon Musk, Trump's South Africa-born billionaire adviser—Rubio linked to an article by the right-wing news site Breitbart about Rasool saying during a Friday webinar that the U.S. president is leading global a white supremacist movement.
As examples of Trump's "Make America Great Again" movement exporting its "supremacist assault," Rasool pointed to Musk elevating Nigel Farage, leader of the far-right Reform U.K. party, and Vice President JD Vance meeting with the leader of the neo-Nazi Alternative for Germany party.
Responding to Rubio on X, North Carolina State University assistant teaching professor Nathan Lean said: "Ebrahim Rasool is a man of genuine decency, moral courage, and is a friend. This makes me absolutely embarrassed to be an American. And it underscores that his critiques of white supremacy in the Age of Trump are perceived as threatening for one simple reason: He's right."
The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) similarly responded: "Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool is a principled leader who fought alongside Nelson Mandela against apartheid and has dedicated his career to democracy, interfaith cooperation, and justice. Baseless attacks like this only serve to divide. We stand by him and his lifelong commitment to building a more just and inclusive world."
Laila Al-Arian, executive producer of Al Jazeera's "Fault Lines," declared that "this administration is virulently and unabashedly Islamophobic, not even trying to hide how unhinged they are as they go after people for speech."
Rasool previously served as ambassador during the Obama administration and returned to the role shortly before Trump began his second term. Earlier this week, Semafor reported on his difficulties dealing with the current administration:
He has failed to secure routine meetings with State Department officials and key Republican figures since Trump took office in January, Washington and South African government insiders told Semafor, drawing frustration in Pretoria.
Rasool is likely to have been frozen out for his prior vocal criticism of Israel, a South African diplomat, based in Washington, told Semafor. "A man named Ebrahim, who is Muslim, with a history of pro-Palestine politics, is not likely to do well in that job right now," said one of them. While South Africa brought a case against Israel to the International Court of Justice in December 2023, accusing it of genocide in Gaza, Rasool is nevertheless widely considered to be among the government's most ardent pro-Palestine voices.
South African political analyst Sandile Swana told Al Jazeera on Friday that the "core of the dispute" with the diplomatic was the genocide case against U.S.-armed Israel. In the fight against apartheid, the U.S. "supported the apartheid regime," said Swana. "Rasool continues to point out the behaviour of the United States, even now is to support apartheid and genocide."
Other critics also pointed to the ongoing court battle over Israel's utter destruction of Gaza and mass slaughter of Palestinians.
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) national executive director Nihad Awad told Rubio: "Your declaration of Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool as persona non grata is a racist, Islamophobic, transparent act of retaliation for South Africa's opposition to Israel's genocide in Gaza."
Imraan Siddiqi, a former congressional candidate in Washington who now leads the state's branch of CAIR, said that "he stood up firmly against apartheid, so it's no coincidence you're punishing him in favor of an openly apartheid state."
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa's office said in a statement Saturday that "the presidency has noted the regrettable expulsion of South Africa's ambassador to the United States of America, Mr. Ebrahim Rasool.
"The presidency urges all relevant and impacted stakeholders to maintain the established diplomatic decorum in their engagement with the matter," the office added. "South Africa remains committed to building a mutually beneficial relationship with the United States of America."
The diplomat's expulsion follows Trump signing an executive order last month that frames South Africa's land law as "blatant discrimination" against the country's white minority. Writing about the order for Foreign Policy in Focus, Zeb Larson and William Minter noted that "his actions echo a long history of right-wing support in the United States for racism in Southern Africa, including mobilization of support for white Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) as well as the apartheid regime in South Africa."
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