OUR PICKSHow Many People Has Trump Deported So Far? | America's History of Fear-Based Governance | After Renee Good Killing, Derisive Term for White Women Spreads on the Far Right, and more

D.H.S.’s Role Questioned as Immigration Officers Flood U.S. Cities  (Hamed Aleaziz, New York Times)
The Department of Homeland Security was formed after 9/11 amid international terrorism threats. Now, its most visible targets are domestic.

How Many People Has Trump Deported So Far?  (Albert Sun, New York Times)
Over the past year, President Trump’s administration has deported about 230,000 people who were arrested inside the country and another 270,000 at the border, a New York Times analysis of federal data shows.
Another roughly 40,000 people returned to their countries after signing up to “self-deport” and receive a stipend through a novel program and app provided by the administration.
That brings the total number of deportations since Mr. Trump took office to 540,000 — fewer than in the last two years of the Biden administration, when border crossings were at record highs. There were 590,000 total deportations in 2023 and 650,000 in 2024.

After Renee Good Killing, Derisive Term for White Women Spreads on the Far Right  (Clyde McGrady, New York Times)
Vocal Trump supporters are demonizing Renee Good, her partner and their allies, with some even using an acronym: AWFUL, or Affluent White Female Urban Liberal.

Before and After the Trigger Press That Killed Renee Good  (Michael Feinberg, Lawfare)
Regardless of whether deadly force was legally justified, Renee Nicole Good’s death was preventable.

Trump’s EPA Could Limit Its Own Ability to Use New Science to Strengthen Air Pollution Rules  (Lisa Song, ProPublica / Grist)
In government records that have flown under the radar, the EPA is questioning its legal authority to revise pollution rules more than once when new science shows unacceptable health risks.

America’s History of Fear-Based Governance  (Heidi Kitrosser, Lawfare)
The Trump administration frequently uses fear as a weapon, whether stoking it, pledging to shield some populations from it, or endeavoring to inflict it on others.
Although Donald Trump, Russell Vought, and their colleagues excel at wielding fear as a tool of governance, they did not invent the practice. In his important new book, The Triumph of Fear: Domestic Surveillance and Political Repression from McKinley to Eisenhower, Patrick G. Eddington explores several earlier periods in American history during which federal officials and politicians regularly stoked fear against, and instilled fear in, disfavored targets.

The Pillaging of the American Arctic  (Kenneth R. Rosen, Foreign Policy
How Alaskans are navigating the Trump administration’s critical mineral drive.

“Heritage Americans” Want to Make Citizenship About Blood  (Sam Kahn, Persuasion)
The movement now driving the Trump administration would replace Constitutional citizenship with ancestral purity tests.