Week 2 Recap | Buffalo vs. St. Francis

A former Biden administration official and human rights expert warned Wednesday that harmful MAGA immigration policies have crippled struggling local economies — further damaging Americans.

Michelle Brané, a non-resident fellow at the Cornell Law Migration and Human Rights Program and the executive director of Together and Free, wrote in a Newsweek opinion piece that immigrants working legally have been pulled off job sites, costing them and their employers thousands of dollars fighting legal battles they shouldn't have to.

Brané, who served as the immigration detention ombudsman for the Biden administration and the executive director of the Family Reunification Task Force, shared a story of Jaime in New York, who was detained for almost two months despite showing his work permit. Jaime was pulled from a job during an ICE raid where dozens were arrested.

"Jaime’s detention also harmed his employer, a family-owned business," Brané wrote. "After the raid, the company was forced to reduce output to 25 percent of capacity and could not fulfill orders. In communities already struggling with labor shortages, raids cripple local economies."

Jaime was flown to Texas, where it cost him thousands to fight the legal battle — all because bond wasn't an option for him.

"The almost two months he spent in detention took an enormous emotional toll on him, his family and his community. It also imposed a steep financial burden to taxpayers, local governments and private businesses," she said.

Jaime also had to deal with a "clogged immigration system." Before the detention, he had earned $22.50 an hour and contributed to the American tax system.

"Immigrants contribute $580 billion in taxes per year. Mass detention and deportations shrink that base, harming programs like Social Security and Medicare," Brané argued.

Removing Jaime and other people in the U.S. who work legally creates more damage in communities, she added.

"Mass detention is an expensive illusion of enforcement. It doesn’t make us safer or stronger. It just ensures that everyone—taxpayers, workers and families alike—pays the price," Brané wrote.

Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL) raised eyebrows on Fox Business Tuesday when she endorsed a U.S. invasion of Venezuela — but then she took it a step further, telling anchor David Asman, with no evidence, that Venezuela is "giving uranium" to hostile foreign powers and terrorist groups.

"This is going to be a very major success story, not only for [the Venezuelan people], but for us," said Salazar. "And I salute President Trump for having the fortitude, the courage, the political vision to be doing this. Because [Nicolas] Maduro is the head of a transnational criminal organization. Maduro is not the legitimate president of the country, so we're not invading a sovereign country that has a free and fair elected democratic president. No. This guy is a thug."

"And he's good friends with Hezbollah, and they're giving uranium to Hamas and to Iran and to North Korea and to Cuba and to Nicaragua," she continued. "Come on. It's time for the United States to do what we need to do. And thank god that Trump is doing it."

She went on to say Venezuela has "the largest reserves of oil in the world" and it'll be a "windfall" for America.

While Venezuela does have speculated uranium reserves, and the Iranian government helped carry out exploratory operations in 2009, there is no evidence that Venezuela is even currently mining uranium, let alone exporting it to any of the countries or groups Salazar mentioned.

Despite the questionable uranium claims, Venezuela has seen extreme economic and political repression under Nicolás Maduro, who has assumed the presidency for multiple terms by banning key opposition leaders and holding sham elections. Millions of people have fled the country to escape hyperinflation, hunger, and authoritarian policies.

The United States has sanctioned the Maduro regime for years under presidents from both parties, but Trump has escalated, with not just harsh new sanctions, but reportedly plans for attacks on military assets under the guise of drug strikes.