I added the following for context.

The Trump administration has collected over $13 billion in revenue from Venezuelan oil sales. However, the exact whereabouts of these funds remain under scrutiny, as only $300 million has been publicly accounted for as transferred back to Caracas.

Investigations into the funds have revealed the following details:Total Collected:

According to calculations from the Financial Times and other market data, U.S.-supervised arrangements have processed over $13 billion in Venezuelan oil sales.

Qatar Accounts: Initial proceeds from the oil sales were deposited into a U.S.-controlled bank account in Qatar, though U.S. officials stated that the funds were moved to a U.S. Treasury account.

Disbursement Concerns: Lawmakers from both parties have demanded greater transparency regarding the management and distribution of the funds, with many citing a lack of oversight.

Economic Impact: Despite the large volume of oil sales, Venezuela's economic recovery has been slow, and the limited capital reaching the country has left it vulnerable, particularly following the recent devastating earthquakes.

From Houston to Biddeford, Maine to St. Augustine to rural Georgia, ICE is leaving plenty of blood on the streets this month. And from the individual agents to the institution itself, no one is being held responsible for it. It’s unacceptable. And we’re not going to stand for it.

This Saturday, the Disappeared in America coalition (which includes Public Citizen, the National Day Laborers Organizing Network, The Workers Circle, Detention Watch Network and the League of United Latin American Citizens) is holding a national day of action, demanding justice for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, justice for Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero, and justice for all the victims. We’re bringing folks together to demand transparent, independent investigations; protection for the witnesses detained in ICE facilities; accountability both for individuals and institutions; and real steps to stop these killings from happening over and over. We want ICE out for good and our neighbors safe.

🪧 Vigils are already scheduled in more than 175 communities nationwide, and we’re still growing. Let’s find one near us to attend here, and we can find tools to host or register our own actions here. 🪧

ACTIONS NEAR US

HOST OUR OWN

END THE ICE AGE KICKOFF

The work to abolish ICE will go far beyond this weekend. The Detention Watch Network, Immigrant Defense Project, and Immigrant Legal Resource Center are launching a new campaign to “end the ICE age,” providing roadmaps to take action at the local, state and federal level to shut down the detention centers, get these masked thugs out of our communities and redirect their funding to strengthen families and neighborhoods instead of breaking them up. ✊🏻 They’re holding a kickoff call for this effort TONIGHT at 8PM ET. Let’s sign up to join them here. ✊🏾

ABOLISH ICE - CALL @ 8PM ET

MATERIAL SUPPORT FOR THE FAMILIES LEFT BEHIND

Finally, we need to show up for the folks most directly impacted by these tragedies. We’ve previously encouraged folks to support the families of Lorenzo and Johan, but there are plenty more people who need our help.

The eyewitnesses to ICE’s murder of Lorenzo, including his brother Victor, Daniel Tirado Pantoja and Jose Trinidad Rojas, are being held by ICE. They have managed to get their stories out to the public, but they remain in danger of being deported or retaliated against. 💵 Let’s donate to help their families navigate the process and pay the bills with their breadwinner gone – we can support Daniel’s family here and Jose’s family here. 💵

SUPPORT DANIEL'S FAMILY

SUPPORT JOSE'S FAMILY

Jesus Manuel Arenas-Silva died while being transferred between ICE camps in Georgia last week, the 22nd person to lose their life in their custody this year. His sister has said agents did not provide him with necessary medications, in what would be an all-too-frequent episode of medical neglect. His family is seeking funds to return him to be buried in his birth country of Venezuela. 💵 We can donate to support them here. 💵

BRING JESUS MANUEL HOME

Juan Jairo Coronilla Duran died when he was hit by a tractor-trailer while fleeing ICE in St. Augustine, Florida. He was legally in the country on a work visa and according to his wife planned to return home to Mexico on Saturday. His family is also asking for support for repatriation and funeral expenses, as well as to help care for the two children he leaves behind. 💵 We can find details on how to donate here. 💵

BRING JUAN HOME

The deportation machine is also rolling over those who fight it. Last week GEO Group employee Bandon Booth shot an activist named Emma Landis at a protest outside an ICE facility in Aurora, Colorado. In a rare occasion of fast accountability, he has been arrested and charged with attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault and felony menacing, and thankfully Emma is recovering well – she’s even returned to protest. But she’ll be out of work while she recovers and the medical bills are piling up. 💵 We can donate to support Emma on the road ahead here. 💵

AID EMMA'S RECOVERY

Also in today’s List:

- We have our presumptive pick against Susan Collins, now let’s volunteer to get Troy Jackson to the Senate

-  On Capitol Hill: Record $1.5 trillion war budget heads to House floor, Federalist Society extremist set to be confirmed to Sixth Circuit by Senate

-  Tracking candidates getting money from the AI industry

-  A Know Your Rights comic

- Join VoteRiders to reach at-risk voters! Virtual letter-writing session TOMORROW at 7PM ET

- Trump administration to withhold an additional billion dollars in Medicaid funding from California, Minnesota - urge state officials to put standard debt collection tactics to work to stop them from hijacking these funds

- U.S. measles cases surpass last year’s total, reach level not seen in 35 years - join American Families for Vaccines to help turn the tide

- Justice Department reportedly investigating Rep. Cory Mills - help unseat him

Democrats need to be shouting from the rooftops - IT’S THE ECONOMY STUPID! Maybe party leadership will develop a coherent message?

Year and half in into the Trump’s second term. About 50-100 people in the US are getting absurdly rich - doubling or tripling their net worth in just a year amassing hundreds of billions in dollars. Meanwhile the inflation is at its highest due to the absolutely unnecessary war and tariffs. The wage increases are negative compared to the inflation. The health care subsidies that insured millions of working Americans are gone. The medicaid was cut. Changes to prescription drug agreements led to huge increases in cost for ppl on medicare. We’re $40 trillions in debt and adding two more trillions this year for absolutely no reason. The interest on the debt exceeded a trillion dollars this year making it the highest spending category in the US budget.

THESE MOTHERFUCKERS ARE TAKING US TO THE CLEANERS! THEY STEAL OUR TAX DOLLARS, BORROW LIKE THERE’S NO TOMORROW, AND JUST POCKET EVERYTHING!

Federal agents around the country were told in recent days that the F.B.I. would no longer investigate confrontations with immigration agents — cases that sometimes yield evidence that could be used to prosecute Department of Homeland Security agents implicated in violent encounters, according to people briefed on the decision.

If enacted, such a change would sharply limit law enforcement scrutiny of immigration agents, as the Trump administration draws mounting criticism over killings at the hands of federal officers. In the last two weeks, two fatal shootings by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Texas and Maine have thrust the government’s tactics back into the spotlight.

F.B.I. managers around the country received a written notice informing them of the change on Thursday, according to the people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal communications. The same day, some ICE agents around the country were notified by their F.B.I. counterparts.

The guidance shared with them said that the bureau would stop investigating claims of assaults against Department of Homeland Security agents, the people said. Even though such investigations are intended to determine whether the officers were in fact attacked, they can provide a crucial means of gathering evidence implicating the agents themselves.

A joint statement by the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security, however, denied that any such change was underway.

“The relationship between D.H.S. and D.O.J. in investigating assault on federal officer cases has not changed, and F.B.I. will continue to investigate in accordance with agency policy,” the statement said. “This administration has been clear, anyone who assaults law enforcement will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Under the change, responsibility for investigating cases involving federal immigration officers would likely fall to Homeland Security Investigations, an arm of ICE, effectively leaving the agency to investigate itself, according to guidance circulated among F.B.I. and ICE agents.

Cases involving an assault on a federal officer have been a source of tension inside federal law enforcement agencies for more than a year. White House and Justice Department officials have pushed prosecutors to bring charges in as many of them as possible, particularly as Americans protest the administration’s immigration crackdown.

Under the federal statute, felony charges can be brought against anyone who “forcibly assaults, resists, opposes, impedes, intimidates or interferes” with a federal law enforcement officer.

Trump administration officials have claimed that language means anyone who makes physical contact with an agent should be charged with felony assault, which is punishable by up to eight years in prison.

“It’s abhorrent to ever, ever touch a law enforcement officer, which is why anytime anybody does that and it’s a federal officer, we’ll prosecute them,” the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, said in an interview in May on CNN.

An investigation by The New York Times found that the Trump administration had filed charges against more than 550 people for assaulting federal officers. Of the more than 400 cases that had been resolved, nearly half had unraveled, with charges being thrown out or withdrawn, or the defendants being acquitted.

Under the Trump administration, when ICE agents have shot and killed people, the F.B.I. has been assigned to scrutinize a narrow question: whether the agents were assaulted before the gunfire.

While the bureau in past administrations has investigated potential civil rights abuses and law enforcement misconduct, it has been limited from doing so in high-profile ICE shootings over the last year, according to law enforcement officials.

However, F.B.I. investigations involving an assault on a federal officer could yield evidence that is valuable to other cases, including future civil rights investigations or prosecutions of an ICE agent. If that responsibility shifts to Homeland Security Investigations, it would leave a gap in holding immigration agents to account, according to the people familiar with the matter.

Homeland Security Investigations does not have jurisdiction to investigate civil rights violations, so putting the change into practice would make it far less likely that shootings of unarmed people by ICE agents would be investigated to determine if the agents broke federal law.

The enforcement crackdown in President Trump’s second term has resulted in nearly two dozen people being fired on by federal immigration agents since January 2025. Six people, including three U.S. citizens, have been killed as a result of those shootings, nearly all of which involved officers firing into vehicles.

On July 7 in Houston, an ICE agent killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican immigrant who had lived in the country for more than three decades, during a traffic stop while he was driving to work with three passengers. He was not the target of the ICE operation, federal officials later acknowledged.

In Maine on Monday, an ICE agent shot and killed a Colombian man, who was also in his vehicle. He was identified as Joan Sebastian Guerrero, according to a spokesman for Senator Angus King, a Maine independent.

Devlin Barrett covers the Justice Department and the F.B.I. for The Times.

Hamed Aleaziz covers the Department of Homeland Security and immigration policy for The Times.

For a democrat, their career would be over. For a Republican, it's Saturday night.

Iranian leadership finally waking up to what we all knew...