ICE on Ice

Plus: Suspect in Minnesota shootings arrested, Iran and Israel still fighting, Ross Ulbricht speaks, and more...

Workplace immigration raids on hold. In the face of public protests and an apparent lobbying effort by businesses and members of his administration, President Donald Trump ordered a pause on some workplace immigration raids.

That decision was made after Trump met last week with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, who reportedly impressed upon the president the essential role that immigrants (not all of them with proper documentation, it seems) play on American farms. But the pause seems to apply more broadly. Regional offices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were told late last week to "hold on all work site enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and operating hotels," The New York Times reported on Friday.

That's a sharp pivot for the administration, which had recently ordered ICE to step up its immigration enforcement by specifically targeting workplaces where undocumented migrants might be working. In recent weeks, raids have taken place at nail salons, hardware stores, farms, restaurants, and other job sites. (Last week I wrote about the community response to one such raid in San Diego.)

If we can't have leaders who consistently take pro-liberty positions, then we should hope those who don't will at least sometimes see the error of their ways. Immigration policies aimed at arresting and deporting members of criminal gangs might be broadly popular. Raids targeting individuals who are peacefully exchanging labor for dollars certainly aren't. It's good that Trump is listening to someone other than Stephen Miller about this stuff.

Minnesota shooting suspect arrested: Over the weekend, Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman (D–Brooklyn Park) and her husband were killed, and state Sen. John Hoffman (D–Champlin) and his wife were wounded, in separate attacks carried out in the early hours of Saturday morning. Last night police arrested the man suspected of carrying out what seems to have been a politically motivated attack targeting state lawmakers.

The suspect is Vance Boelter, a 57-year-old man. He was arrested near Green Isle, Minnesota, about an hour west of Minneapolis, and he has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of second-degree attempted murder. 

Israel and Iran still killing people: Israel claimed to have hit a command center for Iran's Quds Force on Monday. Meanwhile, the bodies are piling up on both sides.

In a post on X, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said "there is no intention to physically harm the residents of Tehran" despite the ongoing bombardment of the city. The Iranian government claims that more than 200 people in Iran have been killed since the war began on Friday. At least 21 people have been killed in Israel. 

Iran and the United States were supposed to negotiate during this week's G7 summit, but "that ship seems to have sailed," reports Reason's Matthew Petti.

extremely wholesome interaction pic.twitter.com/lGZNbLd7Um

— ???????????????????????? (@miragemunny) June 15, 2025

What if there was a big dumb parade and no one cared? What was supposed to be the big spectacle of the weekend—the military parade in Washington, D.C., to mark the U.S. Army's 250th birthday (and which fell on Trump's 79th birthday too)—ended up being overshadowed by the war, the Minnesota shootings, and the "No Kings" protests in hundreds of cities and towns. It also just didn't draw many people and seems to have been kind of a mess.

I just got back from the Trump parade and I have to say it was legitimately the worst executed mass attendance event I've ever seen

One overarching thought: how do you spend $80 million and fumble the basics?

Many more thoughts -

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— Doug Landry (@dougblandry) June 15, 2025

The parade was an absurd waste of money—Reason's Billy Binion crunched the numbers and found that it cost about half a million bucks per minute. I did like the idea of having the Army wear throwback uniforms from the eras when America fought wars for good reasons. Or at least for less bad ones. Well, sometimes less bad ones. Look, I am no apologist for authoritarians and not a big fan of military rah-rah-ism, but I am a history nerd and that was pretty cool.

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Scenes from Palm Springs: I've assembled this newsletter from a red-eye flight home from FreedomFest, the annual libertarian shindig. It is not difficult to choose the best moment of this year's gathering: Ross Ulbricht's heartfelt (and at times heartbreaking) speech on Friday evening.

What an honor to have @RealRossU join us for one of his first appearances after release. pic.twitter.com/9Khr4a9KgU

— FreedomFest (@TheFreedomFest) June 14, 2025

A full video of Ross' remarks can be found here. 

Ulbricht had been serving two consecutive life sentences in a maximum security prison before being pardoned by President Donald Trump in January. Libertarians of all kinds had called for his release, but the largest share of credit should go to his mother, Lyn Albricht, who was honored with an award at FreedomFest. In remarks to the event's closing dinner, she discussed her new efforts on behalf of individuals serving excessive and cruel sentences. I wish her tremendous success.

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QUICK HITS

• The Trump administration is effectively nationalizing U.S. Steel (which is a private company, despite how the name sounds). A deal being finalized by the White House would give presidents "a permanent stake in U.S. Steel, significant sway over its board and veto power over a wide array of company actions, an arrangement that could change the nature of foreign investment in the United States," The New York Times reports.
• Matt Yglesias writes that California's high-speed rail project should be scrapped. He's not wrong.
• Is the 25th Amendment useless?
• This guy gets it:

  

  Bluesky (Source: Bluesky)