Good evening, and welcome to Raw America. I’m British Chris.
Raw America is bringing you on-the-ground coverage of a detention center five miles from the border wall. Meanwhile, dozens of members of Congress have been accused of sexual misconduct, a swing state is battling with Trump over voter data, and one Republican wants to expel another House Republican over a fight with airport security. Let’s get into it.
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28 Members of Congress Have Been Accused of Sexual Misconduct
The House Ethics Committee just released something that should be required reading for every voter in America.
It’s a list. Twenty-eight investigations into members of Congress spanning several decades, all involving allegations of sexual misconduct. The committee released it as two high-profile cases forced the issue back into the spotlight.
The list includes names from both parties. Matt Gaetz is on it. So are Eric Swalwell and Tony Gonzales, both of whom resigned in recent weeks rather than face expulsion votes. Gonzales admitted to texting sexually explicit messages to a married former aide who later died by suicide.
The committee’s own statement acknowledged there are probably cases that were never reported at all. That’s the part that should haunt people.
It’s a documented record of how long this has been going on and how many times the institution chose to protect itself instead of the people working inside it.
Raw America Reports from an ICE Detention Center
Otay Mesa Detention Center has been at the heart of the controversy at the southern border. Located just five miles from the border wall, the facility has been the site of numerous allegations of human rights abuses: malnutrition, overcrowding, sickness, inconsistent access to legal representation. That’s why we sent Luke De Cresce, our Capitol Hill reporter, to see what the situation looks like on the ground.
In February, Rep. Juan Vargas and Sen. Alex Padilla were both denied entry when they tried to investigate. The denial came from the top brass of the Department of Homeland Security, no less.
Yes. The administration is blocking federal representatives from investigating a prison in their own district.
Every Sunday, advocacy groups from San Diego County hold a vigil on the street outside the facility. The weekly demonstrations raise awareness, funds, and public support for the detainees at Otay Mesa. When Kristi Noem showed up just before she got fired, the protesters were there to disrupt her press conference.
Immigration advocates say Otay Mesa detainees are shipped between similar centers across the country with little notice, keeping their whereabouts hidden from family members. And, if they are ultimately deported, it’s sometimes to a country they have no ties to. Most recently, a group of detained migrants from South America wound up in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Sound ludicrous? That’s part of the issue. The system isolates and exiles detainees (many of whom have no prior criminal record) with no oversight, while the administration denies any wrongdoing.
Yet, the protests at Otay Mesa show us there is still something that can be done. The protesters can’t immediately stop the detentions, but they make the problem impossible to ignore, for both the general public and the administration.
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Michigan Stands Up to Trump’s DOJ
The Trump Justice Department sent a letter to Wayne County, Michigan, demanding ballots, ballot receipts, and envelopes from the 2024 election. Wayne County is home to Detroit, which is heavily Democratic. That’s not a coincidence.
Michigan’s Attorney General Dana Nessel, Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson didn’t comply. They published the DOJ’s letter and their reply, and they came out swinging, saying the request was “as absurd as it is baseless.” Nessel called the inquiry a “circus,” and said her office is “prepared to protect the people’s right to vote.”
This is part of a broader pattern. The Trump administration is still relitigating 2020 while claiming to investigate 2024. FBI Director Kash Patel went on Fox News and said arrests over alleged 2020 election fraud are “coming soon.” The DOJ has sued 29 states and the District of Columbia for refusing to hand over voter registration data.
The DOJ claims its staffers found 350,000 dead people on the voter rolls after reviewing 60 million records. What they didn’t provide is any evidence that votes were actually cast in those names.
And the courts are pushing back. Judges have ruled against the DOJ’s election records demands in Rhode Island, California, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Oregon. The administration is losing in court. But losing in court doesn’t mean it stops trying, and other states need to be watching Michigan’s example closely.
House Republicans Devolve Into Circular Firing Squad Right Now
Republican Cory Mills is drafting an expulsion resolution against Republican Nancy Mace. Yes, seriously.
Mills is facing his own Ethics Committee investigation over allegations of stolen valor, federal contract conflicts of interest, and alleged violence against women. Apparently, his strategy is to go on offense.
His draft resolution reportedly focuses on an airport incident where Mace berated TSA officers and security personnel, repeatedly calling employees “f—ing incompetent” according to an officer’s report from last October.
Mace, who’s running for governor of South Carolina and is herself under Ethics investigation, didn’t take it quietly. She went straight to X and listed Mills’ alleged misconduct right back at him: the stolen valor claims, the domestic violence allegations, the restraining order.
What’s happening in the House isn’t just chaotic. The ethics guardrails that were always loosely enforced are disintegrating in real time, and members are using expulsion threats as political weapons as much as accountability tools. The result is an institution that can barely govern itself, let alone the country.
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I’m British Chris, for Raw America. Thanks for watching. We’ll see you tomorrow.
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The Onion Launches New Effort to Take Over InfoWars. Ben Collins — who is CEO of the satirical website The Onion — announced Monday that his company is planning a new effort to take over far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ InfoWars website. The new deal would involve The Onion paying $81,000 per month to Gregory Milligan, who is the manager of InfoWars’ bankruptcy. The Onion was prepped to assume control over InfoWars in 2024, though Jones argued that the acquisition had been marred by collusion. A judge ultimately blocked the first attempted takeover.
Republican Introduces Bill to Strip Citizenship Away from Members of Leftist Groups. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) on Monday introduced the MAMDANI (Measures Against Marxism’s Dangerous Adherents and Noxious Islamists) Act, which would revoke citizenship for any naturalized U.S. citizen who is a member of groups like Democratic Socialists of America and any of their local affiliates. Roy rolled out his bill with a statement accusing the U.S. government of “mass-importing the third world” and “hostile ideologies fundamentally opposed to American values.”
Virginia Republicans Mount Last-Ditch Effort to Stop Redistricting Measure. Virginians will head to the polls on Tuesday to vote on whether to allow a temporary new redistricting map that would create as many as four new Democratic-leaning U.S. House seats. Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee has already filed a lawsuit challenging voter identification in Fairfax County, which is a predominantly Democratic population center with a large immigrant population. The RNC is alleging that the county’s Driver Privilege Cards issued to immigrants are a “loophole” that would “allow unqualified, non-citizen individuals to vote in elections.” However, Fairfax County already requires voters with DPCs to present another form of ID in order to be added to voter rolls.
Trump Talks About White House Ballroom Just as Much as Affordability. A new report delves into Trump’s obsession with his proposed $400 million White House ballroom. According to the Washington Post, Trump discussed the ballroom roughly one out of every three days in 2026, which is approximately as much as he’s talked about health insurance and affordability. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon — an appointee of George W. Bush — has paused construction on the ballroom for now, saying Congressional approval is required before the building can be constructed.
