National Populist Newsletter
July 6th-13th
United States
Immigration
ICE arrested more than 54,000 illegal aliens in the last two months, the largest number in five years, even though deportations still lag at 33,000 during the two months. The media is comparing this to Obama’s term when he changed the classification of deportations to include people who were turned away at the border. The Trump Administration claims to have already deported over 250,000 people, but hasn’t stated whether that includes people who self-deported and those interdicted by the Coast Guard. This is a marked improvement from the previous administration. (NBC News)
An ICE memo from Todd M. Lyons, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, wrote a memo to ICE workforce stating the Supreme Court ruling from last month has cleared the way for increasing the speed of deportations and increase the number of foreign nationals being sent to “alternative” countries that have agreed process their deportation. Migrants with pressing circumstances will give just six hours’ notice of their deportation. (The Washington Post)
A Biden-appointed U.S. District Judge, Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, ruled that ICE agents were breaking the law by conducting “roving patrols” of the city and coordinating arrests without “reasonable suspicion” that their targets were in the country illegally. Instead, she ruled, they are relying on improper factors — race, accent, and line of work. This will likely go to the Supreme Court and be overruled. (Politico)
The Trump Administration is cancelling the “Temporary Protective Status” of nearly 76,000 foreign nationals from Honduras and Nicaragua by early September. (CBS News)
Mayor Karen Bass announced a plan to provide direct cash assistance of a few hundred dollars in cash cards to people who have been affected by the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration raids. (The Los Angeles Times)
Sovergnity
The government of Singapore owns five percent of all land in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, making it the largest known foreign owner of agricultural land in the state. The Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, a state-owned sovereign wealth fund known as GIC, is listed in federal disclosures as the sole owner of more than 540,000 acres of Upper Peninsula forestland, much of which has active timber harvesting operations. They are not the only foreign country to own a sizable chunk of land in Northern Michigan. According to federal data, more than 1.9 million acres of the roughly 28 million acres of agricultural land in Michigan are tied to substantial foreign interests. However, watchdogs have raised concerns about the reliability of the information. (Bridge Michigan)
Economy
The government posted a surplus in June of $27 billion, following a $316 billion deficit in May. That brought the fiscal year-to-date deficit to $1.34 trillion, up 5 percent from a year ago. However, with calendar adjustment, the deficit edged lower by 1 percent. Customs duties totaled about $27 billion for the month, up from $23 billion in May and 301 percent higher than June 2024. On an annual basis, tariff collections have totaled $113 billion, or 86 percent more than a year ago. Trump’s tariffs will reduce the deficit and have not produced the economic calamities that many experts believed were on the horizon. (CNBC)
President Trump announced a 30 percent tariff on the EU and Mexico on August 1st after trade negotiations had stalled. Several countries in the European Union are calling for retaliatory tariffs. (The New York Times)
The Department of Labor’s newly created Office of Immigration Policy will help fast-track visas for foreign laborers working in agriculture and hospitality. (The New York Post)
Major Stories
The IRS has announced that churches can endorse candidates from the pulpit without running the risk of losing their tax-exempt status, reversing a decades-old ban. The agency made that statement in a court filing intended to settle a lawsuit filed by two Texas churches and an association of Christian broadcasters. It’s important to realize that many churches, both Evangelical and black, were already politicking in every way but the pulpit. This may embolden other large churches that have so far remained silent to get involved. (The New York Times)
New voter registration numbers show that Democrats’ lead in Pennsylvania has shrunk to just 74,990 over Republicans. Democrats had 916,274 more registered voters than Republicans in December 2016.
Several billionaires, Democrat politicians, and conservative pundits are teaming up to create a Stop Mamdeni movement in New York City and plan on organizing behind a single candidate in September. As someone who’s worked in New York City politics for nearly two decades, they might as well be burning their money right now… at least they’d fight inflation. They should all be working to get Curtis Sliwa and Eric Adams to endorse Andrew Cuomo and strike a deal that would benefit their respective coalitions, especially Republicans. It’s all so insane. (New York Magazine)
2025 is on track to be the least violent year since 1968, and property crime is set to hit an all-time low. (Jeff Asher Substack)
