Finally, something to unite President Donald Trump, his Democratic opponents and the Canadians he’s threatening to annex: a ferociously hungry carp.Invasive carp, sometimes called Asian carp, were introduced in the United States in the 1970s. And they’ve never stopped spreading — and eating everything in their path — since.”They’re eating machines,” said Trisiah Tugade, an aquatic biologist with Canada’s Invasive Carp Program, as she and her team glided along the Grand River — a Lake Erie tributary — looking for fish that specialists fear will devastate the Great Lakes. Because they can eat up 40 percent of their bodyweight daily, invasive carps were initially seen as a tool to control nuisance algae in confined areas, like aquaculture ponds. But they escaped, likely during floods, and made their way north, including through the Illinois River. That has raised the specter of the devastating eater establishing itself in the Great Lakes, the world’s largest freshwater system by surface area. “There is nothing that I have seen that scares ecologists more than looking at what the impacts would potentially be if the species of Asian carp that are in the Illinois River get into the Great Lakes and form a breeding population,” University of Michigan Great Lakes water policy expert Mike Shriberg told AFP. It’s a threat that has got the attention of Trump, who calls the fish “a threat” and specialists on both sides of the border.- Shock treatment -Each year, Canadian experts search for carp in Great Lakes tributaries considered favorable for spawning and feeding — often grassy areas with warmer, shallow water. In the Grand River, Tugade and senior biologist Alex Price oversaw an electrofishing mission.The team lowered two roads into the water that released non-lethal pulsating charges, stunning the fish and allowing them to be brought with nets into a tank onboard. Fish were identified, measured and — if not deemed invasive — released into the muddy water. Since the program’s launch in 2012, only a few dozen invasive carp have been captured in Canadian waters.James Hall, whose Hall’emin Sport Fishing business takes clients out on Lake Erie, told AFP he was one of the first to catch one. “I was wondering what it was, but I knew it was something different,” he said, describing the moment he pulled a carp out of the water a decade ago. Hall said he put the fish on ice and called government’s carp hotline.Invasive carp “have been very rare to catch, which is great,” said Price, while insisting vigilance was essential given the gravity of the threat. “They can breed multiple times a year and produce hundreds of thousands of eggs in a single event,” he told AFP. “Within the first year of life, they can be too big for our natural predators to eat,” he added. – Blown apart? -Shriberg described the Great Lakes as “the great uniters” across US political parties and between Canada and the United States. Defending them against invasive species has been a bipartisan priority in states on their shores, several of which have historically been US electoral swing states — like Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — he said. Trump’s May White House memo confirming his support for efforts against “the economic and ecological threat of invasive carp,” drew cross-party praise.   “We’re in the most politically contentious times that I’ve seen in my lifetime,” Shriberg said, calling Trump’s “quiet” memo an affirmation of the rare bipartisan nature of Great Lakes policy. But that path forward is uncertain. Trump’s trade war and annexation threats have strained US-Canada relations. Earlier this year the president reportedly told former prime minister Justin Trudeau that he wanted to revise treaties governing the Great Lakes.Shriberg noted cooperative management of the waterway has defined US-Canada relations, but said “the Trump administration’s hostility towards Canada … threatens to blow that apart.” If the battle against invasive carp were to fail, the consequences would be both dire and unpredictable, he added. “It would cause dramatic changes in the ecological balance of the water,” Shriberg said.And if they ever became established in the Great Lakes, “I don’t believe that you’d have any chance of actually eliminating the population,” he said.

Leo Garcia Venegas was working at a construction site in Alabama when two immigration agents ran up to him and wrestled him to the ground.”I’m a citizen. I’m a citizen,” he told them. They didn’t believe it. He was handcuffed and detained for an hour before being released — with no apology, according to his lawyers. “The officers have no warrant, they didn’t know who Leo was and haven’t seen him breaking any laws,” said Janae Wilkerson of the public-interest Institute for Justice (IJ), which partnered with Garcia Venegas in filing a class action lawsuit in Alabama last week. “When the officers checked Leo’s Alabama-issued Real ID, they called it fake.”The incident occurred in May, in an area of Alabama where there is hot demand for new homes.In June, it happened again.”I was in one of the houses with headphones on. I felt someone behind me. It was an immigration agent who came through the garage,” Garcia Venegas said in a video produced by IJ.”I told him that I was a citizen. They told me I had to follow them to the car to verify whether I was a citizen or no,” he said.Garcia Venega’s lawyers say the Department of Homeland Security’s current policies allow agents to arrest anyone they believe may be undocumented, until they prove otherwise. That violates the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution, which protects citizens against “unreasonable searches and seizures” and warrantless arrests.”They arrested me twice for being Latino, for working in construction,” said Garcia Venegas, a 25-year-old man born in Florida to Mexican parents. “I live in fear every day that when I get to work it will happen again.”  – ‘Refused to comply’ -President Donald Trump has launched a crackdown on illegal immigration, saying the United States has been invaded by foreign criminals. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are carrying out his mass deportation operation, often armed and wearing masks.Their activities and aggressive tactics have sparked criticism and protests. Even Pope Leo XIV has denounced the “inhumane” treatment of migrants in the United States.In an October 1 statement, the Department of Homeland Security said Garcia Venegas was earlier detained because he had tried to prevent “the lawful arrest of an illegal alien.” “He physically got in between agents and the subject they were attempting to arrest and refused to comply with numerous verbal commands,” the statement said.Federal agents began raiding construction sites in Alabama early this year, IJ said.”We’ll be filing a preliminary injunction next week that will ask the judge to quickly halt warrantless raids on private construction sites” in south Alabama, IJ spokesman Andrew Wimer told AFP.- Fractured ribs – In California, Rafie Ollah Shouhed, a 79-year-old naturalized American born in Iran, is suing the government for $50 million after he was body-slammed during an immigration raid at his car wash in early September, fracturing his ribs, ABC news reported. Also in California, border patrol agents attempted to handcuff Jason Brian Gavidia, a 29-year-old Latino American, with one agent demanding to know the name of the hospital where he was born, video of the interaction shows. He was released, and the government claimed he had been interfering with their work at his auto body shop. “This is not right at all,” Gavidia told The New York Times. “Latinos in general are getting attacked. We’re all getting attacked.””ICE does NOT arrest or deport US citizens,” Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. “Any US citizens arrested are because of obstructing or assaulting law enforcement.”