” width=”224″ height=”168″ align=”right” hspace=”10″ alt=”President Donald Trump’s budget proposal includes allocating $1.1 trillion to defense spending while reducing non-defense federal spending by $163 billion” title=”President Donald Trump’s budget proposal includes allocating $1.1 trillion to defense spending while reducing non-defense federal spending by $163 billion” />Recommendations include new consolidated wildfire service, more tasks in state hands, less science.

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In the rural Methow Valley in northeast Washington state, parents have few options for child care. There are only two licensed programs in the community — one of which is a Head Start center. About 40 miles northeast in the town of Okanogan, 30 percent of the town’s limited child care spots are provided by the local Head Start center.

Nationwide, Head Start has long played an outsized role in the rural child care landscape, existing in 86 percent of rural counties. If the federal program is eliminated, as President Donald Trump has reportedly proposed in his forthcoming budget, there will be massive consequences in many of the rural communities that voted for the Republican ticket. About 46 percent of all funded Head Start slots are in rural congressional districts, compared to 22 percent in urban districts. In some states, 1 in 3 rural child care centers are operated by Head Start.

In this swath of the Evergreen State, nestled just south of the Canadian border and east of the Cascade Mountains, Head Start fills a critical child care void: Even with the federal program, there is only enough licensed care for about 1 in 3 children under the age of 5. The program also provides vital services that many in the rural region might lack otherwise. Enrolled families can receive developmental screenings, home visiting programs, mental health services, parent support programs and dental care, all part of the federally funded program’s wraparound service model.

“Those federal grant funds make a huge difference in places where other programs cannot afford to operate,” said Katie Hamm, former deputy assistant secretary for early childhood development at the Administration for Children and Families. “If Head Start closes, it’s not like [families] have another option.”

Several of the congressional districts that stand to lose the most Head Start spots if the program is eliminated are rural districts that helped put Trump in office, according to an analysis by the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank.

Since its launch in 1965, Head Start has served more than 40 million low-income children through a free preschool program and a counterpart for infants and toddlers, known as Early Head Start. 

While Head Start quality varies, research has found positive benefits from the program. Children who have attended Head Start are more likely to graduate from high school and enroll in college and are less likely to experience poor health. Head Start has been found to have a positive impact on self-control and self-esteem and on parenting practices.

The program’s two-generation approach of helping children and their parents is invaluable in rural communities, said Jodi DeCesari, executive director of Washington’s Okanogan County Child Development Association, which runs nine Head Start centers for more than 200 children. “We’re helping families get employment, we’re helping families get their GED. … We’re helping families lift themselves out of poverty and become more self-sufficient,” said DeCesari. “In the long term, that benefits our community.”

Although Head Start has received bipartisan support over the years, the program has been slowly starved of funding under the second Trump administration. Compared to this time last year, the federal government has sent $1 billion less in Head Start funding to states, according to an analysis by the Senate Committee on Appropriations. This comes after reports of funding freezes and mass terminations at the regional and federal levels.

In Georgia, Mindy Binderman, executive director of the Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students, said Head Start programs are now experiencing delays because of an executive order requiring that all requests for federal funds include a detailed justification statement. This practice can be especially destructive for programs in rural areas, experts say, where Head Starts may not have other funding sources from local philanthropies or government sources to tide them over. One of the first programs to temporarily close earlier this month due to a delay in funding was a rural Head Start network outside of Yakima, Washington.

In Montana, a largely rural state, the uncertainty over Head Start’s future is causing fear as the program’s teachers worry their jobs could soon disappear, said Ashley Pena-Larsen, Head Start program director at Montana’s Rocky Mountain Development Council Inc. In rural areas, it’s already a struggle to find qualified teachers, and Head Start programs often have to compete with higher-paying positions in local school districts. Pena-Larsen fears the lack of certainty will compel teachers to search for jobs elsewhere. “When you already have a workforce that’s stretched thin, you don’t want to come into an environment where you’re unsure about your career. Are you wanting to start a career in a field that’s potentially dying?” she said.

Back in Okanogan, with summer heat looming, DeCesari is unsure what will happen when she submits a request to shift some funds to buy a new air conditioning unit at one of her centers. Usually that request would eventually end up at the regional office in Seattle, but that was one of the offices that was abruptly shuttered. “It’s been really chaotic,” DeCesari said. “I feel like everything is in question right now.”

One thing DeCesari is certain about is that if Head Start goes away, there will be an immense ripple effect throughout the local economy. In addition to providing child care and wraparound support, DeCesari’s organization employs more than 100 people and invests millions in the local community through buying food at local grocery stores and hiring companies that help run the organization’s buildings and buses.

But she worries most about the broader impact on Okanogan families if Head Start disappears. “Families benefit from our services,” she said. “Without Head Start, I think we’re really going to see a generational loss.”

Contact staff writer Jackie Mader at 212-678-3562 or mader@hechingerreport.org.

This story about Head Start was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

The post As federal dollars for Head Start slow, rural parents left without other options appeared first on The Hechinger Report.

It started slowly. 

Earlier this year, Diane Medler, executive director of the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce, also known as Discover Kalispell, said that the organization began to notice an increase in people unsubscribing from their email newsletter, mainly from Canada. Sometimes, a message would explain why: We no longer plan to visit Kalispell or the Flathead Valley due to the ongoing tensions between the United States and Canada. 

But as the scope of President Donald Trump’s trade war with Canada and other long-time allies has expanded, the impact on visitation to Montana — a cornerstone industry in places like the Flathead Valley — is now coming into focus with declining border crossings and increasing hotel cancellations. 

For years, Canada has been one of the most significant sources of visitors to northwest Montana. The bond between the Flathead Valley and Alberta was so tight that many Canadians purchased second homes there. The COVID-19 pandemic and the extended border closure changed all that, but Medler said visitation had been slowly returning to its pre-pandemic levels. Discover Kalispell tracks credit card spending data in the Kalispell area to see where visitors are coming from. From 2023 to 2024, Canadian spending in Kalispell increased by 10.8%. 

However, earlier this year, Trump imposed stiff tariffs on the United States’ northern neighbor — as well as others — and offered that Canada should join the U.S. as  the “51st state.” In January, Canadian spending in Kalispell dropped 13% compared to the same period last year, and the following month it fell 36%, according to the Kalispell chamber.

At Roosville, the border crossing north of Eureka and the closest major port to the Flathead, passenger vehicles coming south were up 11% in January compared to the same month last year. However, those trips decreased by 14.8% in February and 26% in March. 

Hotel bookings have also taken a hit. Across the state, hotel bookings by Canadians have dropped by 71%, according to data provided by Medler. She also said that hotels in the Kalispell area reported that some Canadian youth sports teams planning to compete at tournaments in the Flathead Valley have also canceled their reservations. 

Canadian tourists have made up a smaller piece of the visitation pie in recent years, following the tourism boom in the Flathead during and after the pandemic. According to Western Montana’s Glacier Country, before the pandemic, Canadians made up about 14% of visitors to Montana; following COVID-19, it’s been about 8%.

However, Medler said Canadian visitors often spend significantly more than others, even compared to those from other parts of the United States. Besides hotels and restaurants, Canadians have traditionally liked to make major purchases in the U.S. when the exchange rate is in their favor or hit the box stores in Kalispell for groceries, clothing and other items. 

Nationally, the U.S. Travel Association has warned that the drop in Canadian visitation could have a major impact on the tourism industry. Canada has long been the top source of international visitors to the United States, with 20.4 million visits in 2024, generating $20.5 billion in spending and supporting 140,000 American jobs. Even a 10% drop in Canadian visitation could result in $2.1 billion in lost spending and the loss of 14,000 jobs. 

But Medler said the Canadians contribute more than just money; they also contribute to the community. She said she’s concerned that the personal connections between the Flathead and Canada, already frayed by the pandemic border shutdown, will fray even further amid tensions between the two countries’ governments. 

“Montana and Alberta have been so close for so long; we share the world’s first international peace park,” she said, referring to the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park established in 1932. “Canadians don’t feel like they’re from a different country. They feel like neighbors.”

Racene Friede, CEO of Western Montana’s Glacier Country, said that from Jan. 1 to mid-April, inquiries to their website and call center in Missoula from individuals outside the United States, not just Canada, decreased by 29%. 

Friede said the Trump administration’s actions are impacting Montana’s hospitality industry in other ways, too. She said several hotels and conference centers in the state have reported an increase in cancellations because federal employees are having to cancel trips for conferences due to budget cuts. 

Despite the loss of Canadian travelers and other economic uncertainties, Friede said she remains “cautiously optimistic” that Montana’s tourism industry will have another strong year and that domestic travelers will make up for the decline of international visitors. That could still change. 

“It’s a year of unknowns,” she said. 

Rob Ratkowski, airport director for Glaicer Park International Airport, said he’s anticipating a flat summer travel season with numbers on par with last year. He said the airlines that fly in and out of Kalispell have not altered their plans for the upcoming travel season due to changing trends, and traffic was actually up 13% between January and March. Ratkowski said the number of passengers coming and going through Glacier Park International during the shoulder season has increased dramatically in recent years, something he attributes to the Flathead Valley’s growing population. 

The post ‘A year of unknowns’ for Montana tourism appeared first on Montana Free Press.

When Jill Baker’s email pinged late on a Wednesday night in early April, she had no idea that her role as the director for Humanities Montana was about to fundamentally change.

“I received the letter from DOGE [Department of Government Efficiency] through the acting chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities at 10:25 pm on Wednesday, April 2. The letter was dated April 2, and our grant was terminated April 2, so there wasn’t even an opportunity to close out our grant and to be reimbursed for expenses that had happened prior to April 2,” Baker told the Daily Yonder in an interview.

Humanities Montana is one of 56 regional humanities organizations that bring humanities programs to underresourced communities including in rural areas. In 2024, over 17,000 people attended a Humanities Montana program, with more than half residing in a rural county.

Funding was cut to all 56 regional humanities organizations, as well as the national office in Washington, DC. State humanities across the country are scrambling to continue running their programs. In Alaska, a note on their program’s website states, “Late on the night of April 2, the Alaska Humanities Forum received a letter from DOGE officials informing them that their NEH operating grant approved by Congress had been illegally terminated effective immediately.”  Wisconsin Humanities also has an announcement on its website, noting that “the loss of NEH funding will likely result in Wisconsin Humanities closing its doors soon.” 

Humanities Montana has brought experts in history, journalism, and poetry to speak to rural Montanans who would otherwise struggle to access such programs. Through their Montana Conversations program, they also bring trained facilitators to lead workshops and conversations that strengthen community resilience.

“Our mission is to bring untold stories that can help bring people together and find the humanity in one another,” Baker said. “In this moment, that’s a real challenge in and of itself. My worry is that without the public humanities, our divides will grow, we’ll have less opportunities to gather together and have simple civic conversations, to learn from one another.”

Humanities Montana has received general operating support grants through the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for over 50 years. The NEH funding provided most of their operating budget; in 2023, the NEH made up 80.9% of their $1,011,229 budget.

The sudden cut in funding meant they had to cancel all scheduled programs for the year immediately. Like with most federal funding, Humanities Montana needed to spend the allocated money and then submit invoices to be reimbursed. The way their funding was cut meant that they will not be compensated for the funds they have already spent, and they won’t be able to allot any more money for programs going forward.

“We need to pivot pretty quickly to private fundraising, and that changes our business model completely. So we’re pausing those programs and making a plan to move forward in a different landscape,” Baker said.

On With the Program

One person who isn’t ready to pause is the current Montana Poet Laureate and award-winning Métis storyteller, Chris La Tray. He is committed to attending all the events he had been scheduled for through Humanities Montana and has since added even more, regardless of the organization’s ability to pay. He has been working to raise the money through private donations.

La Tray, an enrolled member of the Little Shell tribe of Chippewa Indians, wasn’t surprised by the funding cuts, even if he was angry about them. 

“The way those grants work, it’s like what they learned writing treaties with Indian tribes; just because you say you’re going to do something doesn’t mean you have to. It’s a pretty cruel kind of bait and switch,”  La Tray told the Daily Yonder.

A poet and the author of Becoming Little Shell, a memoir about his journey to embracing his Indigenous heritage, La Tray’s commitment to continuing his program is borne from seeing firsthand how important his work is, especially in rural areas.

“When I started working with Humanities, I said, let’s make the list of all the little places that nobody ever goes to, and let’s make going there a priority,” La Tray said.

Since announcing that he planned to continue his programming regardless of payment, La Tray has been working with schools and community centers to find alternative ways to fund his work, finding private donors who have offered to step in.

For La Tray, the work is just too important to stop. “There’s a little school just on the eastern edge of the Fort Belknap Reservation who asked me to come do the commencement address at their high school graduation, and there’s six graduating seniors,” he said. “They have eighth-grade and kindergarten graduates as part of this. It’s not even 20 kids, and it’s a nine-hour drive away from me. And they started asking, right as Humanities was collapsing, and how am I not going to do that, you know?”

With more than half his work taking place in rural Montana, La Tray and Bake believe these cuts will hit folks in rural areas the hardest. 

“For example, one of the places that we have had speakers is Petroleum County, population 500 in the whole county. Humanities Montana speaker, Mary Jane Bradbury, did her program talking about the history of Nancy Russell, and 80 people showed up in a county that has 500 people. I just think that shows the power of the humanities to bring people together, to gather, to share the hunger to learn,”  Baker said.

Samantha French, the director of the Blaine County Museum in Chinook, Montana, is worried about losing such a valuable resource for her community.

“It’s so affordable to go through the speakers bureau, it’s a $75 copay. Humanities Montana funded all of the speakers’ other expenses, their mileage, their lodging, and that’s not something that’s feasible to do for a lot of small museums,” French said.

The Blaine County Museum holds its speaker series in the winter as a way to build community during the dark months. French said that it brings people from all walks of life, and they typically have between 15 and 30 attendees on a weekday night, out of a population of 1,200.

That’s where Humanities Montana programs were just invaluable, because they appealed to a really broad breadth of age groups and kinds of people,” French said. Humanities Montana also gave the museum $500 to fund its book club, which brought people to the museum and library with which neither institution had previously interacted with. After the programming was finished, the books were turned into kits that can be borrowed by other libraries in the state.

French recognizes the effects losing this program will have on Chinook and other rural Montanans. “There’s already so little here, and unfortunately, with the nature of these federal cutbacks, it really does impact the people who are the most disadvantaged,” she said. 

“Rural people in rural communities are disadvantaged. We really have very few resources. We have very little access to transportation, healthcare, and healthy food. We truly need what was there. So yeah, it makes a big impact.”

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The post Cuts to National Endowment for the Humanities Hit Rural Montana, Other States Hard appeared first on The Daily Yonder.

BROWNING — Box fans whirred as dozens of people crowded into the Medicine Bear Lodge homeless shelter on a 100-degree day last July. 

“Hi Bum!” and “Hey Auntie!” were among the greetings people shouted into Director Marcedes Old Person’s office as they grabbed plates of meatloaf and green beans. 

Leaning on the doorframe of Old Person’s office, one man poked his head in to ask if he could stay for the night. Old Person, who’s on a first-name basis with nearly everyone who comes in, shook her head no. 

“I have to hire a night watchman,” she told him, dabbing her glistening forehead with a tissue.

“Really?” he interjected. “You got the room …”

Located on the Blackfeet Reservation in north-central Montana, the Medicine Bear Lodge can sleep 40 people — 20 men and 20 women. Despite its capacity, however, the shelter hasn’t been able to fully operate in more than a year due to a lack of money. 

“But whose fault is it?” Old Person asked in a recent interview with Montana Free Press. 

It’s the question at the center of broiling frustrations in the close-knit tribal community.

The Blackfeet Reservation is home to 10,309 people, 33% of whom live below the poverty level. Like in every tribal community across Montana, access to housing is limited, and federal funding for low-income housing doesn’t come close to meeting community needs. 

Shelter closures have plagued other tribal communities, too. Homeless shelters in Poplar and Wolf Point on the Fort Peck Reservation have struggled to stay open through the years. In the winter of 2019, community members built plywood huts to help keep people warm.

Once able to provide shelter for dozens of people, a lack of money has crippled Medicine Bear Lodge, effectively reducing it to a soup kitchen serving one hot meal a day. Community members for months have voiced frustration and urged investment in the shelter, saying people experiencing homelessness have nowhere to go. 

Medicine Bear Lodge needs several full-time employees to operate 24/7, including at least three male and three female resource aides — one for each shift. But the shelter’s $100,000 annual federal grant isn’t enough. Old Person said it covers supplies, food for the once-a-day meal and her salary. Blackfeet Manpower, a tribal workforce program, provides the shelter with two cooks. 

As Medicine Bear Lodge survives on a shoestring budget, Old Person said looming federal cuts could threaten its existence.

“It’s really sad,” she said. “It’s a community struggle.”

During a cold spell last January and February, Manpower supplied enough staff to keep the shelter open 24/7. But when the temperature rose, the shelter closed again, limiting its operations again to the daily hot meal. 

The shelter’s brief opening highlighted for many its vital role in the community. Marlee Wells worked at the shelter on behalf of Manpower at the time. She said she didn’t realize how badly the community needed Medicine Bear Lodge until she saw the many elders who relied on it. 

“I had an elder cry because he didn’t have a place to go,” she told Montana Free Press in March. “He asked me if I could talk to people to keep it open, and I told him I would try really hard.”

FUNDING CHALLENGES

The Medicine Bear Lodge opened in 1986 first as a soup kitchen and later as a place to house community members. It was established by Old Person’s father, Carl Cree Medicine, and Joe Bear.

Managing the shelter grew harder as the men grew older, and in 2012 the original building was condemned because of asbestos. The Blackfeet Tribal Business Council around that time designated a new building (its current location) for the shelter and hired Marcedes Old Person to get it running again. The tribe would provide funding for salaries to operate the shelter. 

Old Person, who worked in law enforcement for 40 years, came out of retirement to do the job. She was drawn to it because she’d been working with the houseless population all her life.

“The street people are my type of people,” she said in a July 2024 interview. 

When she first took over, Old Person said she crowdfunded about $8,000 for the shelter. She used the money for things like food and hygiene supplies. At the time, she said many tribal employees donated a portion of their paycheck to the fund. 

Old Person wanted Medicine Bear Lodge to be a place where people felt safe. Where they could wash up, clean their clothes and eat a good meal.

“That’s how you turn people’s lives around,” she said in July. “You make them feel worthy.”

But through the years, Old Person said, securing adequate funding has been difficult. The last time the shelter received money from the tribe for salaries was in 2022 when the tribe appropriated $60,000 to Medicine Bear Lodge, according to Old Person.

While the tribe initially oversaw the shelter, in 2022 oversight shifted to Blackfeet Manpower. People hoped the shelter would receive more personnel support and achieve stability under that program. 

Federal American Rescue Plan Act funds in 2021 and 2022 provided a big boost. The shelter used those federal dollars to hire staff and finish ongoing infrastructure projects, according to the director and a tribal official. Outfitted with two large trailers — one for men and one for women — the shelter could for the first time sleep 40 people. Each room had a bed, mattress, closet and desk. At the time, Old Person said the shelter employed six resident aides, two cooks, a resource officer and several security workers. 

“Everyone was pretty excited,” she recalled. 

But when the federal ARPA funds ran out about two years ago, Old Person said she had to lay off everyone on staff. Medicine Bear Lodge has not been fully operational since then. 

Manpower Acting Director Roberta Gordon told Montana Free Press this March the shelter “cannot operate” on the annual $100,000 federal grant alone.

“The impact, of the lack of funding, on the community is detrimental to those who are homeless,” she wrote.

Without a place to go, she said some people put their lives at risk by staying in unsafe, abandoned buildings. Others may seek shelter with family members whose homes are already full, which Gordon said “creates a hardship for all involved.” A 2018 Community Health Survey identified housing as a priority concern among Blackfeet Reservation residents. It also revealed that 32% of the nearly 500 people surveyed lived in overcrowded homes, meaning there were more than two people in a bedroom. 

As the Trump administration announces sweeping cuts to federal spending, Old Person said she worries every day whether the grant holding the shelter together will disappear. Those funds come from the Community Services Block Grant, a program within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that provides money to states, territories and tribes to assist low-income families and individuals. While the White  House has not yet sent a formal HHS budget to Congress, Politico reported that an April 10 proposal outlined sweeping cuts that would eliminate dozens of programs, including those focused on low-income Americans. 

“We’re all on edge about what he’s doing,” Old Person said of President Donald Trump. “We’re crossing our fingers and our toes but we live day by day.”

Old Person said Medicine Bear Lodge would need about $300,000 to be fully functional. If she was able to hire more employees and open the shelter, she said she can think of at least 20 people who would immediately benefit from having a place to stay.  

“I don’t know [the tribe’s] financial situation,” she said. “All I know is they don’t have the money to put into this program as of yet.”

Blackfeet Treasurer Lionel Kennerly did not respond to several requests for comment. 

In a March 18 Facebook post on the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council’s official page discussing the financial health of the tribe, Tribal Public Relations Officer Martina HeavyRunner wrote, “We are in uncertain times under the Trump administration.”

“We are scrutinizing spending and evaluating programs to ensure we have financial stability for the future,” the post reads. 

At 71, Old Person hopes to retire in a few years. She wants Medicine Bear Lodge to succeed but wonders who would want to take her place with so little financial support. She likes to say she’s “begged, borrowed and bummed” for every dollar the shelter has received through the years. 

“But what do you do?” she asked. “Where do you go when there’s no resources out there?”

The post With federal cuts looming, future of Blackfeet homeless shelter in limbo amid funding challenges appeared first on Montana Free Press.

Border Patrol agents arrested three foreign men in northern Montana in March, alleging their affiliations to the infamous Tren de Aragua gang. Prosecutors charged the men with being in the country illegally.

A month later, the criminal cases against two of the men have been dismissed, and defense attorneys say that they’ve seen no evidence that substantiates a claim of gang affiliation. But those allegations could still seal the fates of the two men, putting them at risk of being sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador. 

“I’ve seen nothing that suggests gang affiliation,” Jennifer Kaleczyc, a Helena defense attorney representing one of the men, told Montana Free Press. “There are no references to it in discovery. And I think it’s irresponsible for a government agency to put out a statement like that that puts people in danger.”

On March 4 in Shelby, U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested two Venezuelan men, Kledyber Gabriel Diaz-Rivas and Porfirio Alexander Suarez, as well as Carlos Alexis Ponce-Lopez of Honduras. All three were charged with entering the country illegally. They were found traveling with an American woman, Kristin Louise Mitchell, who authorities also arrested and accused of harboring the men in the country illegally.

The Havre Border Patrol office posted about the arrest on Facebook, alleging that Mitchell was smuggling the men. The post blurred out the face of Mitchell, a white American, but showed the faces of the other three men. A Border Patrol spokesperson told MTFP that “Mitchell’s face was blurred because she is a U.S. citizen and DHS [Department of Homeland Security] has privacy restrictions relative to that.”

On social media, the Border Patrol also alleged that the men “have been identified as Tren de Aragua gang members.” Multiple TV news outlets recited the agency’s Facebook post and its allegations of gang membership.

The Trump administration has used alleged membership of Tren de Aragua as the impetus to send hundreds of people to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act with little or no due process. The administration has admitted that one man had been sent to a prison there by mistake, and a New York Times investigation found that while some of the men had faced serious criminal accusations, many had no criminal background. Moreover, the investigation found little evidence to support the government’s accusations of gang affiliation for most of the 238 men already sent to the now notorious El Salvadorian prison.

Doug Keller has seen this happen to his clients. A former federal public defender who now defends migrants in Texas accused of state crimes, he described the criteria used for gang affiliation as “flimsy.” He said authorities accused one of his clients of gang membership based on a social media post in which he wore Nike clothing. The Times investigation noted federal government guidelines that included “high-end urban streetwear” and the Micheal Jordan Jumpman logo as gang indicators.

“This is just so truly shocking and outrageous,” Keller told MTFP. “Never in my lifetime I thought it would happen that based on some vague innuendo someone would be sent to another country.”

After reports of the initial arrest, the cases against Mitchell and three men in Shelby took an unexpected turn. Ponce-Lopez was charged with illegal reentry, a felony, meaning he was accused of coming back into the country after being deported previously at least once. But Suarez and Diaz-Rivas entered the country for the first time in 2023 and were charged with “improper entry by an alien” rather than reentry, according to court documents filed in U.S. District Court. That’s a misdemeanor.

Defense attorneys for the two men seized on the distinction and petitioned to have those cases dismissed. Keller said that someone charged with illegally entering the country at the southern border for the first time can’t be prosecuted months later in another state.

“With illegal entry, you have to charge them where they entered,” he told MTFP.

This is different from the charge of illegal reentry, which Keller said can be prosecuted anywhere a person is arrested.

Chief District Judge Brian Morris in Great Falls dismissed the cases against Suarez and Diaz-Rivas April 9. The judge’s order noted that the “venue for those offenses is not proper in the District of Montana” and that the prosecutor didn’t object to the motion.

The cases against Ponce-Lopez and Mitchell, however, remain ongoing. Because Ponce-Lopez allegedly reentered the country after being deported in the past, he faced a felony charge different from the other two men. A press release from U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme’s office April 11 announced not guilty pleas from both defendants, despite Ponce-Lopez having reached a plea agreement four days earlier. He is scheduled to formally plead guilty to illegal reentry on April 22. 

The three men are now scheduled to provide testimony in the case against Mitchell, who has pleaded not guilty to a charge of attempted harboring of illegal aliens. Court documents say that Mitchell has previous convictions for smuggling migrants.

So far, the Border Patrol’s Facebook post appears to be the only public mention of the men’s alleged ties to Tren de Aragua. Nothing in the court record for any of the three men mentions evidence of gang affiliation, nor do press releases about the case. The Border Patrol spokesperson declined to offer any details regarding gang affiliation and wouldn’t comment on what the agency called an active case. Told that two of the defendants’ cases had been dismissed, the spokesperson wrote in an email that “since the cases are all related, comment on a particular case would essentially be a comment on the active case.”

Defense attorney Kaleczyc said that the evidence turned over by federal prosecutors against her client does not mention gang affiliation.

“When I discussed it with [Porfirio Suarez], he was visibly shocked to hear that he was accused of being a gang member,” she said.

The defense attorney for Diaz-Rivas, the second man whose case was dismissed, confirmed to MTFP that he saw no evidence of gang affiliation in the case but declined to comment further.

A U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesperson declined to comment on the case.

Keller said that the lack of gang-related evidence isn’t unusual by itself, because the allegation wasn’t directly related to the charges of illegal entry. But Kaleczyc worries that even with the criminal case dismissed, the gang allegation might be used to imprison her client under the Alien Enemies Act.

Late last month, NPR highlighted a scoring system that the federal government has used to help determine whether someone can be deported under the Alien Enemies Act. Among the incriminating criteria in the checklist are “detailed open-source media (e.g. newspapers, investigative journalism reports) that describe arrest, prosecution, or operations of a subject as a member of TDA,” or Tren de Aragua. Kaleczyc wondered if some of the media’s stories, which relied solely on Border Patrol’s Facebook post, might lend credence to the claim.

“I am worried it’s a possibility,” Kaleczyc said.

On Wednesday, she wasn’t sure what would happen to her client. After being questioned in the case against Mitchell, Suarez is expected to be placed into the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The U.S. District Court of Montana has seen an uptick in immigration enforcement cases this year. Nearly all of them are being heard at the Great Falls federal courthouse, where seven such cases are pending.

One of those cases is against a Mexican man named Jose Carlos Ambrose-Chigo. Court documents say that Ambrose-Chigo had been ordered to remain in Mexico by U.S. authorities at one point, but his current charge is illegal entry — the same charge that a judge dismissed against Diaz-Rivas and Suarez.

But Ambrose-Chigo’s experience is different. In early April, he agreed to plead guilty and faces six months in prison for the charge. He’s set to be sentenced on April 22.

The post The Border Patrol agents in Montana called them gang members. Defense attorneys saw no evidence of that as a judge dismissed their cases appeared first on Montana Free Press.

” width=”224″ height=”168″ align=”right” hspace=”10″ alt=”High ground in Paradise above grazelands” title=”High ground in Paradise above grazelands” />In a win for environmental coalition, wildlife agencies ordered to review livestock grazing impacts on grizzly bears.

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Montana food banks are set to lose more than 300,000 pounds of food after significant cuts to a federal program that purchases healthy foods to distribute to those in need. 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed earlier this week that it canceled $500 million in purchases for the Emergency Food Assistance Program, according to a press release from the Missoula Food Bank and Community Center. 

The Montana Food Bank Network, which distributes food to 330 partnering food banks and other organizations, will lose more than $400,000 worth of food, according to the organization’s Facebook page. 

The Missoula Food Bank will lose 91,000 pounds of food, or $180,000 in inventory, from the cuts, according to the organization. Last year, the food bank distributed 2.8 million pounds of food, including 228,290 pounds from the emergency assistance program. 

The federal program was initially set up to move nutritious food from farms to food banks, Amy Allison, the Missoula Food Bank’s executive director, told Montana Free Press. The food bank receives a variety of food through the program, including nuts, raisins, cheese and other dairy products, she said. 

“Unfortunately this will cause a reduction in the variety we [offer],” Allison said. “We think variety is very important because everyone’s diets should be diverse.” 

The reduction will also significantly impact the food bank’s budget, Allison said. The nonprofit will likely fundraise to try to make up that deficit, which will be “incredibly challenging” if additional federal funding is cut, she said. 

Government funding makes up about 21% of the organization’s budget and losing certain programs funded by federal money would be harmful for the community, Allison said. If money for the food bank’s federally funded Kids Table program, which provides free breakfast and lunch for children during the summer, is cut or reduced, it would have a significant impact on food security in the community, she said. 

Rising grocery prices and increasing financial strain are driving higher demand for food bank services, which Allison said is expected to continue. On multiple days this year, the food bank has served more than 400 families, Allison said.

“We’ve never seen numbers like that, especially on a regular basis,” she said. “With the high cost of living in our community and rising food costs, we’re concerned the demand is only going to increase, especially as layoffs occur and some safety net programs are threatened.”

Even if other federal food program funding isn’t cut, reductions to other social safety net programs will reduce people’s ability to stretch their dollar and increase demand for food banks, Allison said. Despite the situation, anyone in need of food should not hesitate to access the organization’s programs, she said. 

“I want to press the fact that we are still going to be here even when these cuts are made,” Allison said. “We are very strong, have the support of a very generous community and are not going anywhere. Our shelves are not bare, we stock several times per day and no one leaves empty-handed.” 

Allison encouraged those who are able to donate and advocate against cuts like these on the state and federal levels. Donations of food and money can be made at the food bank or online. More information, including how to volunteer, is available on the Missoula Food Bank’s website. 

While it’s unclear how significant the cut to the Emergency Food Assistance Program will be for the HRDC’s three food banks in Gallatin County, the organization is bracing for the change later this year, said Jill Holder, the nonprofit’s food and nutrition director.  

Food from the assistance program makes up about 5%, or 100,000 pounds, of the Gallatin Valley Food Bank’s inventory, Holder said. The program accounts for about 19% of the food distributed by the Headwaters Area Food Bank in Three Forks and Big Sky Community Food Bank, she said. 

“With the high cost of living in our community and rising food costs, we’re concerned the demand is only going to increase, especially as layoffs occur and some safety net programs are threatened.”

Amy Allison, the Missoula Food Bank’s executive director

It’s hard to know how much the reduction will affect the HRDC’s budget, but the organization will ultimately have to find any lost food from different sources, Holder said. 

“That’s where food drives and community involvement are so important to the survival of food banks,” she said. 

The HRDC is holding its annual Spring for Food Drive on Saturday with a goal of collecting 15,000 pounds of food, Holder said. Volunteers at grocery stores across Bozeman and Belgrade will distribute wishlists and collect donations of non-perishable items and hardy produce like carrots, potatoes and apples from shoppers from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Those interested can get volunteer information or make monetary donations online. 

Holder said the food drive, one of the organization’s biggest of the year, will help support the rising number of families relying on food assistance. The Gallatin Valley Food Bank in Bozeman is serving 1,900 to 2,000 households per month compared to the previous average of 1,400, Holder said. That increase is due in part to population growth as well as the rising cost of living, she said. 

The HRDC food banks have enough food and those who need help should come in, Holder said.  

“Sometimes you need help, and sometimes you can give help. That’s the whole spirit of community food banking,” she said. 

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