Department Of Health And Human Services

Halfway to Chains: What’s Already Been Enforced Under Project 2025

November 4, 2025 By MKE Community Journal Leave a Comment

Republican Project 2025 (Photo by Douglas Rissing)

By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

They said it would never happen here. Yet here we are. Forty-eight percent of Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s fascist playbook for dismantling American democracy, has already been put into motion. Nearly half of this regime’s roadmap to erase civil rights, gut public programs, and reimpose racial hierarchy has been realized, with Black America once again standing at the edge of the abyss.

Project 2025 was never just a “policy plan.” It was a declaration of war on pluralism itself. A promise by Donald Trump, Russell Vought, and Stephen Miller to chain the machinery of government to white nationalism, Christian dominance, and patriarchal control. The American Civil Liberties Union warned that it would replace the rule of law with right-wing ideals, reviving 19th-century bans on abortion, dismantling civil rights enforcement, and weaponizing federal agencies against immigrants and protestors. Now, the chains are tightening. The Center for Progressive Reform reports that 251 of the 532 Project 2025 actions have been executed. Entire agencies that were once meant to serve and protect have been hollowed out, their missions inverted. Within the Department of Justice, Trump’s appointees have revived the death penalty, reinstated the racist China Initiative, and authorized aggressive prosecutions of local officials who refuse to enforce his version of “law and order.” Civil rights enforcement has been stripped bare; instead of protecting citizens from discrimination, the DOJ now protects power from dissent.

At the Department of Education, Title IX protections for women and LGBTQ students have been rolled back, and the Office for Civil Rights dismantled. Public education is being replaced with privatized indoctrination, pushing “parental rights” that serve as a Trojan horse for white Christian control. Even special education programs have been gutted, leaving millions of disabled children abandoned in the name of “efficiency.” The Department of Health and Human Services, which was once a guardian of public welfare, has been turned into a moral police force. Abortion access is being criminalized, Planned Parenthood defunded, and data on gender identity erased from health surveys. The new public health priorities are “fertility awareness” and “family discipline,” language straight from the Heritage Foundation’s patriarchal gospel. In housing, Trump’s HUD has repealed fair housing protections and reintroduced policies that penalize single mothers while rewarding “marriage stability.” The echoes of Jim Crow are unmistakable. Homes and neighborhoods once opened through decades of civil rights struggle are being closed again under the pretext of “local control.”

Project 2025’s architects have already unleashed the machinery of cruelty on immigrants and communities of color. Thousands have been rounded up under ICE raids that blur the line between citizen and foreigner. It’s a calculated terror tactic meant to normalize the surveillance and detention of Black and brown bodies. Families have been separated again. Birthright citizenship is under attack. ICE, that iron emblem of modern slavery, now casts a shadow over the same soil where slave patrols once hunted the enslaved. This is not accidental. It is the vision of Russell Vought, who co-authored the 900-page “Mandate for Leadership,” the Project 2025 manifesto. As Trump’s budget director and now his ideological enforcer, Vought believes in purging the federal government of “unfaithful” employees, which means anyone who resists his religious and racial orthodoxy. Stephen Miller, the same architect of family separation and Muslim bans, is back to oversee deportations, surveillance, and the silencing of dissent. Their fingerprints are everywhere, from the federal hiring purges to the empowerment of police forces granted immunity from prosecution. Nearly half of the Project 2025 vision has already been achieved, and it is remaking America into a parody of its democratic promise. The Environmental Protection Agency has reversed greenhouse gas regulations, the Department of Agriculture has reinstated draconian work requirements for food aid, and the White House itself now dictates loyalty tests for every federal employee. This is not governance, it is occupation.

The Center for Progressive Reform notes that Trump’s government shutdown in October 2025 was not a failure of management but a strategy. A deliberate effort to dismantle public programs while blaming “big government” for their collapse. He used the shutdown, as the report states, “as an excuse to advance his goals of slashing programs that benefit millions of Americans.” In this America, cruelty has become the operating principle. The poor are starved to feed the rich, the immigrant is caged to comfort the fearful, and truth itself is outlawed. He once warned that if we do not confront the truth of who we are, we will be consumed by it. Project 2025 is the truth of America unmasked. A nation willing to trade freedom for dominance, justice for vengeance, and compassion for control. Nearly half of the chains have already been forged. They rattle in our schools, our hospitals, our courts, our homes. And while they may not yet bind every wrist, they are ready. The architects of Project 2025 have made their intention plain. To enslave the will of a free people through law, bureaucracy, and fear.

We are halfway to chains.

Trump and GOP Drive Shutdown While Families Face Soaring Premiums

October 2, 2025 By MKE Community Journal Leave a Comment

The United States capitol building with a crack and red Government Shutdown stamp

By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

MAGA Republicans have shut down the government once again after lawmakers failed to strike a deal to keep the lights on, leaving hundreds of thousands of workers without pay and millions of Americans facing the possibility of losing affordable health care. At the center of the crisis is a dispute over Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. Democrats are demanding that subsidies be extended and that deep Medicaid cuts be reversed. Republicans, led by President Donald Trump, have rejected those calls and pushed ahead with a funding bill that excludes the protections. The result is a standoff with devastating consequences. Officials told Black Press USA that the shutdown will furlough roughly 750,000 federal employees each day in an already compromised economy, with Trump’s administration warning that many will not simply be furloughed but permanently laid off. A memo from the Office of Management and Budget directed agencies to prepare not only for temporary cuts but for reduction-in-force notices that would erase positions. Entire programs that fall outside of Trump’s priorities are at risk of being dismantled.

Democrats blocked the Republican plan after warning that allowing the subsidies to expire would make health insurance unaffordable for millions of working families. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the fight is about protecting ordinary people from financial ruin. They stated that Trump is ignoring the suffering of Americans and instead is “obsessively posting crazed deepfake videos” while refusing to negotiate in good faith. The financial stakes are clear. According to new research from KFF, premiums for many families are already expected to rise by more than 100 percent if enhanced tax credits are not extended. Nearly 24 million Americans who buy their own coverage could see their costs double or even triple. For low-income enrollers, the losses would be crushing. A worker in Texas making $23,000 annually would see premiums jump from zero to $920, an amount equal to nearly a quarter of their annual food budget. Moderate-income households face even starker realities. A 60-year-old couple in Florida earning $85,000 would lose more than $16,000 in tax credits and see premiums soar by $21,000 in a single year. Their coverage would consume nearly one-third of their income.

The increases come at a time when families are already under strain from inflation. Rising food, housing, and utility costs are combined with health expenses to push working households closer to the brink. The burden will fall hardest on small business owners, farmers, and gig workers, groups that Republicans often claim to represent. KFF analysis also shows that Black Americans, who disproportionately rely on ACA coverage, will be among those most severely affected. Many already live on thinner margins and face higher rates of chronic illness. For those families, the spike in health care costs combined with the threat of Medicaid cuts could be devastating. Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Human Services will furlough nearly half of its staff. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, work to track disease outbreaks will continue, but prevention research will stop. At the National Institutes of Health, patients already enrolled in clinical trials will continue receiving treatment, but no new patients will be admitted to potentially life-saving studies. The Food and Drug Administration warned that its ability to review new drug applications and medical devices will be severely impaired.

The damage extends beyond health care. National parks will remain open with skeletal staffing, risking vandalism and safety hazards. Smithsonian museums will stay open for a few days, but could eventually shut down. Federal contracts will stall, benefit payments could face delays, and agencies from education to environmental services will be hamstrung. Economists warn that the longer the shutdown continues, the greater the impact on the broader economy. Goldman Sachs projected that gross domestic product will fall by 0.15 percentage points each week as the government remains closed, with effects rippling into the private sector and eroding consumer confidence. Wall Street already reacted with early losses as markets opened on the first day of the shutdown.

The political standoff is showing no signs of easing. MAGA Republicans have no appetite to digest Americans enjoying affordable healthcare and have prioritized tax breaks for billionaires instead. Democrats insist there will be no deal without protections for the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid. Both sides know the stakes reach beyond the shutdown. For Democrats, the fight is about protecting vulnerable Americans. For Trump and Republicans, it is about cementing an agenda that weakens federal programs and reshapes health care in the name of cost-cutting. As the shutdown enters its first days, millions of Americans are left in limbo. Families struggling to pay for food and rent now face the prospect of health care costs doubling or tripling. Schumer and Jeffries issued a warning in their joint statement. “President Trump’s behavior has become more erratic and unhinged,” the duo stated jointly. “Instead of negotiating a bipartisan agreement in good faith, he is obsessively posting crazed deepfake videos.”

Federal Raids Target Migrant Kids, Split Families

June 13, 2025 By MKE Community Journal Leave a Comment

By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

The Trump administration has reportedly removed at least 500 migrant children from their homes across the United States and placed them into government custody, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. The children, many of whom were living with family members or other vetted sponsors, were taken during so-called “welfare checks” carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agencies. According to CNN, the operations are part of a larger campaign launched shortly after President Donald Trump returned to office, with federal authorities setting up a “war room” inside the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to review data on children who entered the country alone and were later released to sponsors. Officials have used the room to coordinate efforts between agencies, including ICE and the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which oversees the custody of unaccompanied migrant children.

Trump officials claim the effort is aimed at protecting children placed in unsafe conditions or with unqualified sponsors, pointing to cases where children were released to individuals with criminal backgrounds or those involved in smuggling. Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the welfare checks have led to the arrests of some sponsors and the transfer of children into ORR custody. Federal data shows more than 2,500 children are currently in ORR custody. CNN reported that the average stay has grown significantly, from 67 days in December 2024 to 170 days by April 2025. Former Health and Human Services officials say new vetting rules—including income requirements, government-issued ID, and DNA tests—have made it far more difficult for parents and guardians, particularly those who are undocumented, to reclaim their children.

In some cases, reunifications that had already been scheduled were canceled. A recent lawsuit details how two brothers, ages 7 and 14, remain in government care because their mother cannot meet new documentation requirements under the revised policies. Mark Greenberg, a former senior HHS official, stated that the approach puts children in a difficult situation. “To the extent, the goal is to determine whether children are in danger or in need of help, this isn’t a good way to do that because it creates fear that anything they say could be used against their parent or family member,” he said. Immigration enforcement agents reportedly have visited children’s homes and asked about their journey to the U.S., school attendance, and upcoming immigration court appearances. Legal advocates say these visits, which sometimes include the FBI, are not standard child welfare procedures and can create fear and confusion among minors.

An FBI spokesperson confirmed the agency’s role, saying, “Protecting children is a critical mission for the FBI, and we will continue to work with our federal, state, and local partners to secure their safety and well-being.” Multiple outlets noted that the Trump administration has not provided clear evidence that large numbers of children are missing. Instead, it has referenced a Department of Homeland Security inspector general report from 2023 that noted more than 291,000 unaccompanied minors had not received notices to appear in immigration court. Former officials note that these figures do not necessarily indicate that the children are missing; some lacked updated addresses or were affected by administrative backlogs.

Within HHS, officials were instructed to expedite policy changes. Former ORR Ombudsman Mary Giovagnoli stated that a senior ICE official, Melissa Harper, was temporarily appointed to lead ORR. Her short tenure was followed by Angie Salazar, another former ICE official who now frequently communicates with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller. Trump’s team argues the Biden administration allowed thousands of unaccompanied children to enter the country without sufficient oversight. Jen Smyers, a former ORR deputy director, stated that all sponsors underwent thorough vetting, including Department of Justice background checks and reviews of the sex offender registry. “No amount of vetting is a predictor of the future,” she said. The Miami Herald recently reported that a 17-year-old foster child in Florida was removed from his home in shackles and transferred to ICE custody. The boy and his mother had crossed the border without documentation, but he had been living in a state-supervised foster placement. The case raised concerns about the state’s cooperation with federal enforcement and the message it sends to immigrant families. Concerns about federal custody of vulnerable children are not confined to immigration.

In North Carolina, a 7-month-old baby died after being left in a hot minivan by her foster mother, who now faces charges of negligent child abuse and involuntary manslaughter. In Hawaii, dozens of children have been forced to sleep in government offices and hotels due to a shortage of foster placements. In North Dakota, a foster couple has been charged in the death of a 3-year-old after surveillance footage showed the child being repeatedly assaulted. “These cases show what happens when systems meant to protect children fail them,” said Laura Nally, director of the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights Children’s Program. “There’s a growing concern that these welfare checks are being used to carry out mass detentions of sponsors and unnecessarily return children to government custody.”