The three leading Democratic contenders facing off for #Illinois' open Senate seat on Tuesday have
✅ vowed to extensively reform or eliminate U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,

-- a reflection of how the killings of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota earlier this year have elevated immigration as a top issue for the party in this year's midterm elections.

A strong stance against Donald Trump's immigration policies has worked elsewhere. 💪🏽

💥In New Jersey, Analilia #Mejia won a special congressional Democratic ‌primary in a crowded field on a pledge to abolish ICE, the lead agency sending masked and heavily armed officers into U.S. cities to enforce Trump's aggressive deportation targets.

Such positions might be perilous for Democrats as the general elections loom in November,
though that risk may be less pronounced in Illinois,
a reliable Democratic stronghold where a Republican has not won statewide office since 2014.

Retiring Senator Dick #Durbin, 81, has been a titan in the liberal wing of the Senate for decades and a staunch defender of immigrant rights, pushing for legislation to give immigrants who came to the U.S. as children a pathway to citizenship.

The leading candidates to replace Durbin have taken up immigration reform, especially of ICE,
👉as Trump's approval rating on the issue has declined from 50% a year ago to just 39% at the end of February,
according to Reuters/Ipsos polling.

U.S. Rep. Raja #Krishnamoorthi wants to "abolish Trump's ICE."

Illinois Lieutenant Governor ⁠Juliana #Stratton, who marched with protesters during a deportation blitz in Chicago last fall, has called for eliminating the agency outright.

U.S. Representative Robin #Kelly has gone even further, saying the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, should be "dismantled," and its outgoing secretary, Kristi Noem, impeached.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/backlash-trump-immigration-policies-fuels-illinois-senate-primary-2026-03-13/

Six senators accused Deputy Attorney General #Todd #Blanche this week of having a "glaring" conflict of interest
when he shut down investigations into crypto companies, dealers and exchanges
and eliminated an enforcement team dedicated to looking for crypto-related fraud and money-laundering schemes.

A letter written by Democratic Sens. Elizabeth #Warren, Dick #Durbin and Mazie #Hirono and signed by Sens. Sheldon #Whitehouse, Christopher #Coons and Richard #Blumenthal
cited a ProPublica investigation that revealed
👉Blanche owned at least $159,000 worth of crypto-related assets when he ordered an end to the work.

Durbin, Hirono, Whitehouse, Coons and Blumenthal serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees the Justice Department.

The same senators previously sent a letter to Blanche raising concerns that his actions would help Donald Trump’s financial interests in cryptocurrency.
In their letter sent on Wednesday, they said Blanche’s actions appeared to violate the federal conflict of interest law.

“Last year, we asked for the rationale behind your puzzling decision to scale back the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) cryptocurrency enforcement efforts and urged you to reconsider.
We write now in light of recent reporting that you held substantial amounts of cryptocurrency at the time you made this decision,” the senators wrote.
“At the very least, you had a glaring conflict of interest and should have recused yourself.”

Blanche, the second-highest-ranking official at the Justice Department, signed an #ethics #agreement 💥in February promising to dump his cryptocurrency within 90 days of his confirmation and not to participate in any matter that could have a “direct and predictable effect on my financial interests in the virtual currency” until his bitcoin and other crypto-related products were sold.

❌But on April 7, before he divested, he issued a memo titled
“Ending Regulation by Prosecution”
-- that halted investigations launched under President Joe Biden. In the memo, Blanche condemned the Biden Justice Department’s tough approach toward crypto as “a reckless strategy of regulation by prosecution, which was ill conceived and poorly executed.”

🆘The memo disbanded the agency’s National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, which had won several high-profile crypto-related convictions.
Blanche said the agency would instead target only the terrorists and drug traffickers who illicitly used crypto, not the platforms that hosted them.

Days later, the six senators urged Blanche to reconsider, contending that his decision would otherwise help support sanctions evasion, drug trafficking, scams and child exploitation.

🔥In their latest letter, they said their concerns had been realized.
They cited an independent report that found there was a surge in illicit cryptocurrency activities in 2025,
including crimes tied to
#money #laundering and
#human #trafficking.
They also questioned Blanche’s reasons for the policy shift.
⚠️“Certainly, President Trump’s financial interests seem to have motivated some of his pardons of criminals convicted of cryptocurrency-related crimes,” their letter stated.
⚠️“But the fact that you held substantial amounts of cryptocurrency at the time you made this decision calls into question your own motivations"

https://www.propublica.org/article/todd-blanche-crypto-conflict-senator-letter

@AAKL

For twenty years now, the fundamental #DemocraticParty problem is #Biden and #Durbin and #Schumer et al living in a past that never existed and never ended, trying frantically to preserve that feeling of "comity with #GOP our colleagues across the aisle"

Except that the #Republicans have been pissing on the #Democrat's feet all the while the GOP has been smiling in the Democrats' faces

But the Democrats are too infatuated with their own illusions to smell the piss they're standing in

cc @huffingtonpost

@donray

For twenty years now, the fundamental #DemocraticParty problem is #Biden and #Durbin and #Schumer et al living in a past that never existed and never ended, trying frantically to preserve that feeling of "comity with our #GOP colleagues across the aisle"

Except that the #Republicans have been pissing on the #Democrat's feet all the while the GOP has been smiling in the Democrats' faces

But the Democrats are too infatuated with their own illusions to smell the piss they're standing in

@Nonilex

Entre avortement et peine de mort, le pape Léon XIV a-t-il été pris au piège des interviews improvisées ?

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://tribunechretienne.com/entre-avortement-et-peine-de-mort-le-pape-leon-xiv-a-t-il-ete-pris-au-piege-des-interviews-minute/

[ VIDEO ] « Le dossier du sénateur Durbin doit être considéré dans sa totalité » déclare le pape Léon XIV

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://tribunechretienne.com/le-dossier-du-senateur-durbin-doit-etre-considere-dans-sa-totalite-declare-le-pape-leon-xiv/