January 1, Largest Immigration Raids in a Decade

Hello fellow Middle Americans. 

President Trump’s focus on illegal immigration was on full display yesterday. The pressure is mounting on congress to pass new gun control legislation, but there’s very little support among Republicans, despite what you’re hearing publicly.  We also have a report on the president’s visits to Dayton and El Paso yesterday.  CBS News is checking into what seems to be a growing trend of white supremacists inside America’s police departments.  Finally, an accused wife killer is back in the US and behind bars after eluding police for five years.  

Always stay informed…

 – Fraser Dixon  

680 People arrested in Mississippi ICE Raids

(USA Today) – About 70 family, friends and residents waved goodbye and shouted, “Let them go! Let them go!” Later, two more buses arrived.

A tearful 13-year-old boy whose parents are from Guatemala waved goodbye to his mother, a Koch worker, as he stood beside his father. Some employees tried to flee on foot but were captured in the parking lot.

Read more from the USA Today here. 

McConnell, GOP Senate unlikely to act swiftly on guns

(AP) – President Donald Trump is privately calling up senators — and publicly pushing for an expansion of background checks for firearms purchases — but McConnell knows those ideas have little Republican support. 

Read more from the Associated Press here. 

Trump Faces Protests on Visit to Dayton, El Paso

(Reuters) – Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley and U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, both Democrats, accompanied Trump in Dayton and told reporters they urged him to call on Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell to bring the Senate back from its summer recess to work on a House-passed bill that expands background checks on gun buyers.

Read more from Reuters here. 

St. Louis sergeant: There are white supremacists on the police force

(CBS News) – In St. Louis, Missouri, one sergeant whose department has officers at the center of the controversy said that the culture among her department’s top brass is allowing bad cops to slip through the cracks.

“Do you think that there are white supremacists on the police force?” asked CBS News correspondent Jeff Pegues.

“Yes” said Heather Taylor, an almost 19-year veteran on the St. Louis Metro police force.

Millionaire fugitive denied bail

(ABC News) – In 2012, Peter Chadwick, 55, of Newport Beach, California, was charged in the murder of his wife of 21 years, Quee Chadwick, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.

She was allegedly strangled to death by Chadwick on Oct. 10, 2012, after a dispute involving financial issues and a potential divorce, authorities said.

He was arraigned Wednesday and ordered to remain in jail. He is due back in court on Sept. 16.

Read more from ABC News here.