Controversial statue torn down in 2017 re-emerges at golf course in Texas
A statue of Confederate general Robert E Lee that was removed from a park in Dallas is now on display in a golf course in West Texas.
The bronze sculpture of both Lee and a soldier on horseback was removed from the park in Dallas in 2017, and later sold in an online auction.
It now resides at the Lajitas Golf Resort in Terlingua, in the west of the state.
The statue was removed from a Dallas park in 2017. Pic: AP
The 27,000-acre resort is owned by Dallas billionaire and pipeline guru Kelcy Warren and managed by Scott Beasley, the president of Dallas-based WSB Resorts and Clubs.
They received the statue as a donation in 2019.
The sculpture by Alexander Phimister Proctor from 1935 was among statues of the confederate leader placed around the country that ended up being removed from public view after violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.
It had been kept in storage in a former naval air station in Dallas until its sale in 2019, city council documents show, with local media reporting it went for $1.4m (£1m).
The community of Terlingua in Texas has a tiny population of just 100, and sits close to the Rio Grande.
Data shows the village has no black residents.
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Club manager Mr Beasley told the Houston Chronicle that the sculpture is only there so it can be preserved, calling it “a fabulous piece of art” and says that critics are “uneducated”.
“I would say that of the 60-plus-thousand guests we host each year, we’ve had one or two negative comments,” he added.
However, Black Lives Matter Houston activist Brandon Mack does not believe that the statue is just there to be preserved or serve as “an appreciation for art”, adding that the same arguments are not made of other offensive symbols throughout history.
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The confederacy was a military force in 19th-century America, that fought the government to uphold the institution of slavery during the US civil war, and were largely seen to be white supremacists and a symbol of racism.
It was eventually defeated, but flags, symbols and regalia can controversially still be seen in some parts of the country today, particularly in southern states, from which the army operated.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
A farmer who fell from a greenhouse roof during an anti-immigrant raid at a licensed cannabis facility in California this week has died of his injuries.
Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first person to die as a result of Donald Trump’s Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) raids.
His niece, Yesenia Duran, posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe to say her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to his wife and daughter in Mexico.
The United Food Workers said Mr Alanis had worked on the farm for 10 years.
“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorise American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the union said in a recent statement on X.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities on Thursday.
Mr Alanis called family to say he was hiding and possibly fleeing agents before he fell around 30ft (9m) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.
Agents arrested 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, the DHS said in a statement.
Mr Alanis was not among them, the agency said.
“This man was not in and has not been in CBP (Customs and Border Protection) or ICE custody,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.
“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30ft. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”
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Four US citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers”, the DHS said, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.
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In a statement, Glass House, a licensed Cannabis grower, said immigration agents had valid warrants. It said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation.
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” it added.
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