Broken Promises on Deportations, Broken Trust in 2026 Elections

They’re Not Deporting The Worst

Two-thirds of the more than 120,000 people deported between January and May have no criminal convictions at all, according to a Marshal Project analysis of ICE data provided to the Deportation Data Project in response to a FOIA request. The only offense for another 8% was illegal entry into the US. Only about 12% were convicted of a crime that was either violent or potentially violent. All this directly contradicts Trump’s claims, echoed throughout his administration, that those being deported are the “worst of the worst.”

In addition, many of those deported for minor violations were convicted five or more years earlier, including 43% of the 1800+ deported with traffic violations, 32% of the 4,800+ deported with DUIs, 40% of the 900+ deported for drug possession, and 77% of the 600+ deported for a marijuana offense.

Four Ways Trump Is Trying To Rig The 2026 Midterm Elections

On Aug. 18, Rachel Maddow did a segment, “Three Ways Trump Is Trying To Rig The 2026 Midterm,” but there were actually four. First was the corrupt redistricting, which Trump has pushed in Texas and is trying to push in Ohio, Indiana, Florida and elsewhere as well. Second was nullifying, delaying or disrupting results “by demanding a new census” (only counting citizens) and that Congressional districts need to be redrawn. Third is that Putin just revived Trump’s old lie that no other country uses mail-in ballots, and so Trump now says he’ll sign an executive order banning mail-in voting (which he doesn’t have the power to do).

However, her guest, journalist and historian Garrett Graff, mentioned a fourth way to rig the elections: deploying ICE officers and national guards to blue cities as has already been done in LA and DC. “You don’t need to discourage all that many people voting in all that many places across the country to radically reshape national politics,” Graff said.