Community Outrage Continues Over ICE Raid At San Diego Restaurant

Here are the morning’s top stories on Thursday, June 5, 2025…

• The fallout from the recent ICE raid on a San Diego restaurant continues as union leaders condemn the raid on Buona Forchetta, calling it cruel and an attack on workers.
• A second man has been identified as a suspect in the bombing of a fertility clinic last month in Palm Springs. Authorities arrested him late Tuesday and say he supplied large amounts of chemicals that were used by the FBI’s primary suspect to make explosives. 
• The Trump Administration says California’s high speed rail program has “no viable path” to completion. They want to pull federal funding within 37 days. But supporters of high speed rail want to fight the move.

San Diego Labor Leaders Rally After ICE Raid On South Park Restaurant

The fallout from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid on a South Park restaurant continued Tuesday as local labor leaders held a rally in front of the federal courthouse in downtown San Diego to condemn the raid.

“A wave of terror has been unleashed by this administration,” said Christian Ramirez, policy director with SEIU USWW. He said what happened at Buona Forchetta on Friday is reminiscent of a dictatorship.

The warrant, unsealed on Monday afternoon, alleges that workers at Buona Forchetta are being exploited and working 12-hour shifts without breaks. It also alleged that 19 of the workers there, or around 50%, used fraudulent green cards to obtain work.

According to the warrant, Homeland Security received the initial tip about workers using fraudulent green cards on Nov. 1, 2020, and a follow-up tip on Jan. 31, 2025. Buona Forchetta said it is still reviewing the allegations made in the warrant.

Suspect Arrested In Connection To Palm Springs Fertility Clinic Bombing

A second man has been identified in the bombing of a fertility clinic last month in Palm Springs. Authorities arrested him late Tuesday and say he supplied large amounts of chemicals that were used by the FBI’s primary suspect to make explosives.

Prosecutors allege Daniel Park, of the Seattle area, mailed some 180 pounds of ammonium nitrate to Guy Edward Bartkus that were used to bomb the clinic in what the FBI considers an act of terrorism. Bartkus died during the explosion.

Bill Essayli, who’s the U.S. attorney for California’s Central District, said investigators found lab equipment and bomb ingredients at Bartkus’ house in Twentynine Palms. “Park spent approximately two weeks visiting Bartkus’ residence in 29 Palms in late January and early February of this year, spending time together running experiments in Bartkus’ garage,” said Essayli.

The FBI declined to say how the two men knew each other. Park is charged with providing material support to a terrorist and could face up to 15 years in prison.

California High-Speed Rail Is A ‘Track To Nowhere,’ US Says In Move To Pull Funding

California’s high-speed rail project is a “story of broken promises,” a “waste of Federal taxpayer dollars” and a “Sisyphean endeavor.” Or so the Trump administration’s Transportation Department said, which on Wednesday announced it was pulling $4 billion in federal funding from the woefully protracted, over-budget project that the state first broke ground on more than a decade ago.

“What started as a proposed 800-mile system was first reduced to 500 miles, then became a 171-mile segment, and is now very likely ended as a 119-mile track to nowhere,” Drew Feeley, acting administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, wrote in his scathing report to the state’s high-speed rail authority. “In essence, [the project] has conned the taxpayer out of its $4 billion investment, with no viable plan to deliver even that partial segment on time.”

The clawback of high-speed rail funding, originally granted by the Biden administration, should come as little surprise to state officials. Republicans have excoriated the massive infrastructure project almost since its inception in 1996, casting it as the epitome of government waste and inefficiency. After unsuccessfully attempting to cut its funding during his first term, President Trump in February vowed to personally investigate the project, directing transportation officials to conduct a compliance review.