Illegal Quotas & Corporate Crimes in Trump's America
What happens in America in 2025 when the President seizes control of the national law enforcement apparatus to violate the Constitution? The people resist.
Across America, the people resist.
In March, Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act and gave the DHS, FBI, DEA, DOJ and ICE a quota of 3000 arrests per day. According to Trump, we are at war with a Venezuelan gang! In reality, he is mandating that these police agencies interfere with people’s constitutional rights as a matter of course with daily quotas.
Locally, my interview with Ms. Margaret Gordon, a powerhouse in the fight for environmental justice and a true champion for community health, exposes the failure of the new District Attorney - Ursula Jones Dixon - to “connect the dots.” Despite decades of concerns about environmental racism and numerous incidents of dangerous air pollution by a local manufacturer, without talking to the victims, the prosecutors or community activists, the new DA dismissed the landmark prosecution of Radius Recycling and two corporate managers who allegedly covered up their environmental crimes. A sad day in Oakland.
🎧 Listen to Episode 15 of Pamela Price Unfiltered now on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you tune in.
Here’s what we’re covering today:
What is the history of the Alien Enemies Act and why does Trump’s use of the Act create a constitutional crisis?
What are the Courts doing to check Trump’s abuse of power by issuing unconstitutional Executive Orders?
What are the people doing to resist Trump’s dangerous use of the Alien Enemies Act and how it impacts our everyday lives?
In Alameda County, how is the uninformed decision making by the new DA impacting public health for everyone in the Bay Area?
What is this Alien Enemies Act?
The original Alien Enemies Act was passed in 1798 when Congress thought we were going to war with France. Before Trump dusted it off and made it an Executive Order, it had only been used 3 times in 226 years.
This is the law used in WWII to justify the internment of 120,000 people of Japanese descent, including those who were born in the USA. Alien enemies were defined as anyone with 1/16th Japanese ancestry.
FDR signed an executive order, Executive Order 9066, to invoke the Alien Enemies Act and folks were rounded up and sent to concentration camps. The government created “military zones” in California, Washington and Oregon, and prison camps were set up in Montana, New Mexico and North Dakota.
The enforcement agencies included the FBI and military troops. Within four (4) months, they were able to incarcerate about 117,000 people of Japanese descent. For 3 years from 1942 to 1945, the US government incarcerated Japanese Americans without any type of due process based solely on their national origin. The internment continued after the war ended until 1951 under the Truman administration.
The Japanese internment is considered historically as one of the most brutal violations of American civil rights in the 20th century.
Given what we know about how badly that turned out, it’s shocking that Trump decided to dust it off and bring it back.
Are We At War or Under Attack?
On March 15, 2025, Trump declared that a Venezuelan gang was “an invading force” and therefore, anyone associated with this gang can be immediately deported without the constitutional due process required under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Venezuela is not cooperating. They are not taking people that Trump says are “alien enemies.” So, Trump needed a place to send the deported immigrants, and he cut a deal with a South American dictator named Nayid Bukele, the President of El Salvador.
Bukele is now the proud warden of Trump’s illegal deportations, at a cost of $6 million in American money. He and Trump have even privately discussed and publicly joked about upping the ante to establish prisons for Americans in El Salvador.
The Aliens Enemies law is supposed to be about a war between two countries or an invasion of the United States by a foreign nation or government. And, it’s important to remember that only Congress can declare war against another country, not the President.
In true Trumpian fashion, Trump is ignoring the actual language of the law and trying to redefine the meaning of the Act by declaring that a gang in a foreign country has invaded the US and is “conducting irregular warfare” against us.
So far, he has been laughed out of court in almost every court that has heard this ridiculous assertion. With one exception so far, the federal district courts have ruled that there is no war, no invasion and no “predatory incursion.” There is simply no evidence that we are “at war” or “under attack” by a Venezuelan gang.
But Trump does not respect the rule of law and could care less if his Executive Orders are unhinged and unconstitutional.
As long as he is in charge of the government, the FBI, DHS, DOJ, DEA and ICE will be suiting up to enforce his Orders.
Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin, a Republican political operative appointed by Trump, said in a statement to Newsweek: "If you are an alien, being in the United States is a privilege—not a right. When you break our laws that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country."
What is the Court’s Response to Trump?
In May, the US Supreme Court took up a challenge to Trump’s Alien Enemies Act Order. The Supreme Court decided that Courts must respond to emergency requests (where illegal removal is threatened in the absence of court action).
In making its decision, the Supreme Court essentially blocked Trump from deporting anyone else without due process.
In a pair of decisions, the Court said that any person who could potentially be deported under Trump’s Order is entitled to due process - at least notice in time to request a hearing - before they are actually deported.
The case is called AARP v. Trump but it is not that AARP that some of us know. The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) had to issue a statement telling folks “hey, it’s not us” and even went to court to get the name of the case changed. In April, the District Court changed the name to WWM v. Donald J. Trump. The use of the AARP was a pseudonym, or a fake name based on the initials of one of the parties to the case.
On June 4, 2025, the original District Court weighed back in the case called JGG v. Donald J. Trump. It is the latest decision in this crazy constitutional crisis.
In JGG, relying on Trump’s unconstitutional order, the DHS flew several hundred Venezuelan people, primarily but not all men, from detention in the US to a Salvadoran prison known as the Center for Terrorism Confinement (CECOT). The prison is well known for human rights abuse and inhumane conditions and it is run by one Nayid Bukele.
The planes took off while the Court was hearing arguments on the case, and after the Court had already issued an order telling the Government not to remove the people from the US. When the judge learned that the people were possibly on the planes already, he made a second order and told the government’s lawyers to ensure that both of his Orders were complied with “immediately.”
Trump’s minions ignored the Orders. Some of them, including Secretary of State Marc Rubio, allegedly even mocked the federal judge on social media.
The Court will now decide whether Trump and our government should be held in contempt for violating the Constitution and multiple Court orders when they literally flew planeloads of several hundred men and a few women from here to El Salvador.
It sounds like a movie, doesn’t it. But it’s really happening here.
What does Trump’s crackdown look like?
Across the country, the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has escalated in a way that feels more like a military operation than law enforcement. From Chicago to Los Angeles, the National Guard has joined ICE and the Dept. of Homeland Security to seize immigrants and silence protests.
In San Diego, an ICE raid in a quiet neighborhood ended in chaos — and in resistance. ICE agents armed with assault rifles stormed a neighborhood restaurant parking lot near homes and schools, looking for undocumented immigrants. But this wasn’t a quiet arrest. It was a full-blown tactical assault.
Agents arrived in unmarked vehicles, dressed in riot gear, faces masked, and carrying long guns — like they were headed into a war zone. And then, as residents and bystanders began to gather in protest, flash-bang grenades were launched into the street. Flash-bangs are designed to disorient, to frighten, and to send a message: stay silent, stay scared.
This wasn’t just an immigration raid. It was an act of intimidation, a show of force in a working-class neighborhood, in broad daylight, targeting people just trying to live their lives.
This is what state-sanctioned violence looks like under Trump’s immigration agenda. Not just arrests — but militarized raids in front of families and children. Not just deportations — but trauma that ripples through entire neighborhoods.
The message from the administration is loud and clear: no space is safe. Not your job, not your church, not your school, not your court hearing, not your neighborhood, not even the street you grew up on.
It’s important to remember — this isn’t happening in isolation. It’s part of a broader campaign to criminalize immigrants, to break community ties, and to make people afraid to speak up or seek help.
What does the resistance look like?
Across America, communities are not going to stay silent. Protestors showed up. Neighbors poured into the street, yelling “shame” and demanding answers. Some tried to block ICE vehicles. Others recorded the whole thing on their phones. What happened wasn’t just witnessed — it was challenged.
In San Diego, residents pushed back. Residents stood their ground, even as flash-bangs exploded at their feet.
The people are sending a message too: we are watching, we are organizing, and we’re not backing down.
This moment is a turning point. It’s not just about what ICE did — it’s about how communities respond when power comes crashing through their front door. It’s about what kind of country we are, and what kind of future we’re building.
Because when government agents treat immigrant neighborhoods and courts like enemy territory, it’s on all of us to say: not in our name.
This is about justice. This is about dignity. And this is about fighting for the soul of this country — one neighborhood at a time.
What happened with the Grand Jury indictment of Radius Recycling?
Last year, an Alameda County criminal Grand Jury issued a criminal indictment against Radius Recycling and two of its corporate managers. The indictment was based on a major toxic fire at the West Oakland scrap metal facility, and evidence presented to the grand jury for about four (4) weeks. The evidence included 50 witnesses, and thousands of documents, including emails and text messages about the August 2023 fire.
The grand jury heard testimony from victims, a public health expert on the impacts of air pollution, lead, particularly on children and firefighters who almost died fighting the fire. Lead air pollution was gathered from the smoke plume from the fire which spread all across the East Bay.
The indictment included ten (10) counts, including multiple strict liability misdemeanors for reckless and negligent release of contaminants. While this was the first time a criminal grand jury indicted Radius and its two corporate managers, it was not the first time that the Alameda County District Attorney’s office investigated Radius. In 2021, the office settled a similar case with Radius for $4.1 million.
As a result of environmental violations by Radius before the August 2023 fire, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) fined Radius Reliance $575,000.
But, on Friday, May 23, 2025, the new appointed DA quietly dismissed this groundbreaking case without any notice or explanation to the public. Before dismissing the case, neither she nor her staff talked to the lead attorney on the case about the merits of the case or the victims directly impacted by the fire who testified before the grand jury.
The new appointed DA also
ignored the community’s concerns about environmental racism and lack of management accountability at Radius, and
did not inform the community advocates following the case of her decision.
In Ms. Margaret’s words, the new DA was “kinda clueless” in refusing to hold a corporation accountable for a clear violation of public health and public safety. Her claim that there was not enough evidence to support a conviction reflects a real carelessness in decision making that undermines justice and public safety, and a lack of concern for everyday people in this community.
Listen to Episode 15 of Pamela Price Unfiltered now on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you tune in.
Ms. Margaret Gordon’s quest for environmental justice for our community and long history of activism for public health gives her the credibility and knowledge to condemn the DA’s decision. Check out her interview on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts!