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Tag: Trump administration

  • Trump Loves to Fire People. This Supreme Court Decision Could Make It Easier.

    Donald Trump’s recent turn as host of the Kennedy Center Honors, a first for any president, was the culmination of his purge, earlier this year, of half the center’s bipartisan board. Like other bodies shaped in his image since his return to power, Trump packed it with Republicans and other loyalists who then, inevitably, named him chairman of the board.

    This extreme makeover is but one data point in Trump’s systematic unraveling of Washington, which has had to endure everything from military deployments and the dismantlement of decades-old programs and institutions to even the armed, hostile takeover of the US Institute of Peace. All this, in addition to the mass firing sprees throughout the federal government, has come to define Trump’s second presidency.

    A linchpin of this smash-and-grab is the belief that, under Article II of the Constitution, the president can fire anyone he’d like—with little consequence or pushback from civic society or the courts. Since his first day back in office, Trump has acted as though Article II makes him the manager of the federal workforce; through it all, the firings up and down the chain haven’t stopped. The casualties, which are too many to name, include: the librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden; Maurene Comey, who says the Justice Department fired her for no other reason than she’s the daughter of former FBI director James Comey; almost all the Democratic appointees on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and other bipartisan agencies; more than a dozen inspectors general; the chair of the Federal Election Commission; and scores of career, apolitical public servants across the federal government in just about all 50 states, which includes the dismissals of thousands earlier this year in a wave of terminations that has come to be known as the Valentine’s Day massacres.

    Against this backdrop, the Supreme Court on Monday heard Trump v. Slaughter, a case that on paper will seal the future of the Federal Trade Commission—but in reality, the dispute is about whether the Constitution truly empowers the president to fire, without restriction, anyone who works in the Executive branch.

    Among them is Democratic FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, whom Trump fired without cause earlier this year, in violation of a statute that requires a finding of “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” A federal judge, bound by law and longstanding precedent, reinstated her—only to be blocked by a Supreme Court that then took up the case and agreed to settle the question for good. To this day, Slaughter remains fired.

    Cristian Farias

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  • Trump says the US has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela

    President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the United States has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela as tensions mount with the government of President Nicolás Maduro.Using U.S. forces to take control of a merchant ship is incredibly unusual and marks the Trump administration’s latest push to increase pressure on Maduro, who has been charged with narcoterrorism in the United States. The U.S. has built up the largest military presence in the region in decades and launched a series of deadly strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean. The campaign is facing growing scrutiny from Congress.“We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, a large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized, actually,” Trump told reporters at the White House, later adding that “it was seized for a very good reason.”Trump did not offer additional details. When asked what would happen to the oil aboard the tanker, Trump said, “Well, we keep it, I guess.”The seizure was led by the U.S. Coast Guard and supported by the Navy, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The official added that it was conducted under U.S. law enforcement authority.Storming the oil tankerThe Coast Guard members were taken to the oil tanker by helicopter from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, the official said. The Ford is in the Caribbean Sea after arriving last month in a major show of force, joining a fleet of other warships.Video posted to social media by Attorney General Pam Bondi shows people fast-roping from one of the helicopters involved in the operation as it hovers just feet from the deck.The Coast Guard members can be seen later in the video moving throughout the superstructure of the ship with their weapons drawn.Bondi wrote that “for multiple years, the oil tanker has been sanctioned by the United States due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations.”Venezuela’s government said in a statement that the seizure “constitutes a blatant theft and an act of international piracy.”“Under these circumstances, the true reasons for the prolonged aggression against Venezuela have finally been revealed. … It has always been about our natural resources, our oil, our energy, the resources that belong exclusively to the Venezuelan people,” the statement said.Half of ship’s oil is tied to Cuban importerThe U.S. official identified the seized tanker as the Skipper.The ship departed Venezuela around Dec. 2 with about 2 million barrels of heavy crude, roughly half of it belonging to a Cuban state-run oil importer, according to documents from the state-owned company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., commonly known as PDVSA, that were provided on the condition of anonymity because the person did not have permission to share them.The Skipper was previously known as the M/T Adisa, according to ship tracking data. The Adisa was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2022 over accusations of belonging to a sophisticated network of shadow tankers that smuggled crude oil on behalf of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group.The network was reportedly run by a Switzerland-based Ukrainian oil trader, the U.S. Treasury Department said at the time.Hitting Venezuela’s sanctioned oil businessVenezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves and produces about 1 million barrels a day.PDVSA is the backbone of the country’s economy. Its reliance on intermediaries increased in 2020, when the first Trump administration expanded its maximum-pressure campaign on Venezuela with sanctions that threaten to lock out of the U.S. economy any individual or company that does business with Maduro’s government. Longtime allies Russia and Iran, both also sanctioned, have helped Venezuela skirt restrictions.The transactions usually involve a complex network of shadowy intermediaries. Many are shell companies, registered in jurisdictions known for secrecy. The buyers deploy so-called ghost tankers that hide their location and hand off their valuable cargoes in the middle of the ocean before they reach their final destination.Maduro did not address the seizure during a speech before a ruling-party organized demonstration in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital. But he told supporters that the country is “prepared to break the teeth of the North American empire if necessary.”Maduro has insisted the real purpose of the U.S. military operations is to force him from office.Democrat says the move is about ‘regime change’Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the U.S. seizing the oil tanker cast doubt on the administration’s stated reasons for the military buildup and boat strikes.“This shows that their whole cover story — that this is about interdicting drugs — is a big lie,” the senator said. “This is just one more piece of evidence that this is really about regime change — by force.”Vincent P. O’Hara, a naval historian and author of “The Greatest Naval War Ever Fought,” called the seizure “very unusual” and “provocative.” Noting that the action will probably deter other ships from the Venezuela coastline, he said, “If you have no maritime traffic or access to that, then you have no economy.”The seizure comes a day after the U.S. military flew a pair of fighter jets over the Gulf of Venezuela in what appeared to be the closest that warplanes had come to the South American country’s airspace. Trump has said land attacks are coming soon but has not offered more details.The Trump administration is facing increasing scrutiny from lawmakers over the boat strike campaign, which has killed at least 87 people in 22 known strikes since early September, including a follow-up strike that killed two survivors clinging to the wreckage of a boat after the first hit.Some legal experts and Democrats say that action may have violated the laws governing the use of deadly military force.Lawmakers are demanding to get unedited video from the strikes, but Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told congressional leaders at a classified briefing Tuesday that he was still weighing whether to release it.The Coast Guard referred a request for comment about the tanker seizure to the White House.

    WASHINGTON —

    President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the United States has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela as tensions mount with the government of President Nicolás Maduro.

    Using U.S. forces to take control of a merchant ship is incredibly unusual and marks the Trump administration’s latest push to increase pressure on Maduro, who has been charged with narcoterrorism in the United States. The U.S. has built up the largest military presence in the region in decades and launched a series of deadly strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean. The campaign is facing growing scrutiny from Congress.

    “We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, a large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized, actually,” Trump told reporters at the White House, later adding that “it was seized for a very good reason.”

    Trump did not offer additional details. When asked what would happen to the oil aboard the tanker, Trump said, “Well, we keep it, I guess.”

    The seizure was led by the U.S. Coast Guard and supported by the Navy, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The official added that it was conducted under U.S. law enforcement authority.

    Storming the oil tanker

    The Coast Guard members were taken to the oil tanker by helicopter from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, the official said. The Ford is in the Caribbean Sea after arriving last month in a major show of force, joining a fleet of other warships.

    Video posted to social media by Attorney General Pam Bondi shows people fast-roping from one of the helicopters involved in the operation as it hovers just feet from the deck.

    The Coast Guard members can be seen later in the video moving throughout the superstructure of the ship with their weapons drawn.

    Bondi wrote that “for multiple years, the oil tanker has been sanctioned by the United States due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations.”

    Venezuela’s government said in a statement that the seizure “constitutes a blatant theft and an act of international piracy.”

    “Under these circumstances, the true reasons for the prolonged aggression against Venezuela have finally been revealed. … It has always been about our natural resources, our oil, our energy, the resources that belong exclusively to the Venezuelan people,” the statement said.

    Half of ship’s oil is tied to Cuban importer

    The U.S. official identified the seized tanker as the Skipper.

    The ship departed Venezuela around Dec. 2 with about 2 million barrels of heavy crude, roughly half of it belonging to a Cuban state-run oil importer, according to documents from the state-owned company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A., commonly known as PDVSA, that were provided on the condition of anonymity because the person did not have permission to share them.

    The Skipper was previously known as the M/T Adisa, according to ship tracking data. The Adisa was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2022 over accusations of belonging to a sophisticated network of shadow tankers that smuggled crude oil on behalf of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group.

    The network was reportedly run by a Switzerland-based Ukrainian oil trader, the U.S. Treasury Department said at the time.

    Hitting Venezuela’s sanctioned oil business

    Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves and produces about 1 million barrels a day.

    PDVSA is the backbone of the country’s economy. Its reliance on intermediaries increased in 2020, when the first Trump administration expanded its maximum-pressure campaign on Venezuela with sanctions that threaten to lock out of the U.S. economy any individual or company that does business with Maduro’s government. Longtime allies Russia and Iran, both also sanctioned, have helped Venezuela skirt restrictions.

    The transactions usually involve a complex network of shadowy intermediaries. Many are shell companies, registered in jurisdictions known for secrecy. The buyers deploy so-called ghost tankers that hide their location and hand off their valuable cargoes in the middle of the ocean before they reach their final destination.

    Maduro did not address the seizure during a speech before a ruling-party organized demonstration in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital. But he told supporters that the country is “prepared to break the teeth of the North American empire if necessary.”

    Maduro has insisted the real purpose of the U.S. military operations is to force him from office.

    Democrat says the move is about ‘regime change’

    Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the U.S. seizing the oil tanker cast doubt on the administration’s stated reasons for the military buildup and boat strikes.

    “This shows that their whole cover story — that this is about interdicting drugs — is a big lie,” the senator said. “This is just one more piece of evidence that this is really about regime change — by force.”

    Vincent P. O’Hara, a naval historian and author of “The Greatest Naval War Ever Fought,” called the seizure “very unusual” and “provocative.” Noting that the action will probably deter other ships from the Venezuela coastline, he said, “If you have no maritime traffic or access to that, then you have no economy.”

    The seizure comes a day after the U.S. military flew a pair of fighter jets over the Gulf of Venezuela in what appeared to be the closest that warplanes had come to the South American country’s airspace. Trump has said land attacks are coming soon but has not offered more details.

    The Trump administration is facing increasing scrutiny from lawmakers over the boat strike campaign, which has killed at least 87 people in 22 known strikes since early September, including a follow-up strike that killed two survivors clinging to the wreckage of a boat after the first hit.

    Some legal experts and Democrats say that action may have violated the laws governing the use of deadly military force.

    Lawmakers are demanding to get unedited video from the strikes, but Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told congressional leaders at a classified briefing Tuesday that he was still weighing whether to release it.

    The Coast Guard referred a request for comment about the tanker seizure to the White House.

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  • Venezuela outrage after US seizes oil tanker: Live updates

    In a sharp escalation of tensions between Washington and Caracas, the United States has seized a large Venezuelan oil tanker off the Caribbean coast, prompting fierce denunciations from the government of President Nicolás Maduro.

    What To Know

    • Initial reports on Wednesday cited U.S. officials saying the Coast Guard carried out the tanker seizure under international maritime law, targeting vessels tied to alleged illicit PDVSA-linked crude shipments.
    • U.S President Donald Trump later confirmed the seizure, hinting that “other things are happening,” but offered no further details.
    • A senior Trump administration official described the move as a “judicial enforcement action on a stateless vessel” last docked in Venezuela.
    • Oil prices jumped on the news: Brent crude rose 0.8 percent to $62.35 a barrel, and West Texas Intermediate climbed to $58.46.
    • Analysts warn the seizure may further strain U.S.–Venezuela relations and deter shippers already wary of handling sanctioned Venezuelan crude.
    • Maduro has long accused Washington of seeking to overthrow him and seize Venezuela’s vast oil reserves; the nation’s production has fallen from over 2 million barrels a day to roughly 1 million.
    • The seizure comes after Trump renewed threats of intervention by land, air, or sea, including a recent U.S. fighter jet flyover near Venezuelan airspace.
    • Caracas condemned the action as “international piracy” and “brazen theft,” accusing the U.S. of trying to control its natural resources.
    • Trump called the tanker the “largest ever” seized by the U.S.

    Stay with Newsweek for all the latest updates on rising tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela.

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  • Federal Reserve defers to Donald Trump by cutting interest rates by 25 points

    The Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States, voted to lower its federal funds rate—the interest rate that banks charge each other to borrow overnight and the cost of credit—by 25 basis points on Wednesday. This is the Fed’s third rate cut in as many months and the lowest federal funds rate in three years.

    The move comes amid lackluster employment numbers and the Supreme Court hearing Trump v. Slaughter, a case in which it is likely to overturn Humphrey’s Executor, a decision that would likely grant the president license not only to remove executive agency bureaucrats but to replace the Fed’s Board of Governors. In view of these pressures, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), led by Fed Chair Jerome Powell, may be preemptively catering to President Donald Trump’s calls to lower interest rates in a bid to avoid replacement if and when Humphrey’s Executor is overturned.

    Trump has been egging the FOMC, the Fed’s key policymaking body, to lower rates since this summer. In June, the president sent Powell a letter saying, “we should be paying 1% Interest, or better!” In late July, with year-over-year inflation at 2.6 percent, well above the Fed’s 2 percent target, Powell and all but two members of the 12-member FOMC wisely held the fed funds target constant. However, in mid-September, the Fed decreased the fed funds rate by 25 basis points, lowering the upper bound rate from 4.5 percent to 4.25 percent.

    Stephen Miran, nominated by Trump and confirmed as a member of the Fed’s Board of Governors in September, shortly before the fed funds announcement, dissented. Per the FOMC’s official statement, Miran “preferred to lower the target range for the federal funds rate by 1/2 percentage point.”

    At the end of October, the FOMC lowered the fed funds rate by another 25 basis points, leaving the upper bound at 4.0 percent. Miran again dissented, preferring a 50 basis point decrease in the federal funds rate. Miran’s dissent was juxtaposed by Jeffrey Schmid, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, who voted against lowering the rate at all.

    On Wednesday, Miran yet again objected to the FOMC’s decision to lower the fed funds rate by 25 basis points, preferring a 50-basis point drop. Schmid also dissented the same way he had in October, voting for no change whatsoever. On Wednesday, Schmid was joined in his opposition to rate cuts by Austan Goolsbee, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. The Wall Street Journal notes that this is “the first time in six years that three officials cast dissents.”

    But two members of the FOMC voting against further rate cuts should not be surprising: Year-over-year inflation has been stubbornly increasing since April. The Consumer Price Index, the most common inflation metric and the one used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, rose from 2.3 percent in April to 3 percent in September. Meanwhile, the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure, increased from 2.3 percent to 2.8 percent. At the same time, the unemployment rate has increased from 4.2 percent to 4.4 percent, while the labor force participation rate decreased slightly from 62.6 percent to 62.4 percent.

    Peter C. Earle, director of economics and economic freedom at the American Institute for Economic Research, tells Reason that the Fed’s decision to continue lowering interest rates in the face of persistently elevated inflation signals that “it has chosen to prioritize labor market softness over the purchasing power of the dollar and broader affordability concerns.” Earle says the latest cut is risky, but defensible, as “inflation projections for this year and 2026 have been revised lower, [while] unemployment forecasts remain steady, and private hiring data suggest a labor market that’s cooling.” More troubling than the decision itself is the phenomenon of “members aligning their votes with rapid, deeper cuts in line with what the President has expressed a desire for.”

    Earle predicts that, “if presidential discretion over the Fed’s Board of Governors expands in the wake of Humphrey’s Executor [being overturned]…the result would be a Federal Reserve more vulnerable to serving the immediate priorities of the executive branch rather than maintaining consistent rules, stable money, and a predictable policy environment.” Such central bank would “weaken the dollar and undermine long-term investment planning,” warns Earle.

    Jack Nicastro

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  • Now the Trump Administration Is Coming After Our Fonts

    He’s the narrow type.
    Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

    If I had to pick a word to describe Calibri, the sans-serif typeface that was the default font for Microsoft apps from 2007 to 2024, it would probably be “inoffensive.”

    Sure, Microsoft’s “extremely readable” font has had its critics over the years, but they’ve mostly just complained that it’s too plain, that it lacks personality. I’d bet that for most people, Calibri became a ubiquitous, thoughtless part of their normal life, from office memos to book reports, and few probably realized it was designed and implemented to be a more readable typeface on digital screens — which it has been. Even Microsoft has said that customers didn’t really have strong feelings about it, unlike with other fonts. Everybody thought it was … fine. But it turns out we were all wrong: According to the Trump administration, this 21-year-old boring font is weak and woke.

    Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday barred the use of Calibri at the State Department and brought back the serif Times New Roman, which was the agency’s official font from 2004 to 2023. This was necessary, he said, to reverse the “wasteful” and distasteful shift to Calibri ordered by his Biden administration predecessor, Antony Blinken. Rubio alleged that change — which provoked little meaningful controversy at the time — was yet another example of woke radicalism run amok, since the change was recommended by the State Department’s now-disbanded DEI office because Calibri is considered to be easier to read for people with disabilities like dyslexia or vision problems. Per the New York Times report:

    While mostly framed as a matter of clarity and formality in presentation, Mr. Rubio’s directive to all diplomatic posts around the world blamed “radical” diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility programs for what he said was a misguided and ineffective switch from the serif typeface Times New Roman to sans serif Calibri in official department paperwork.

    In an “Action Request” memo obtained by The New York Times, Mr. Rubio said that switching back to the use of Times New Roman would “restore decorum and professionalism to the department’s written work.” Calibri is “informal” when compared to serif typefaces like Times New Roman, the order said, and “clashes” with the department’s official letterhead. …

    Mr. Rubio’s directive, under the subject line “Return to Tradition: Times New Roman 14-Point Font Required for All Department Paper,” served as the latest attempt by the Trump administration to stamp out remnants of diversity initiatives across the federal government. …

    Echoing President Trump’s call for classical style in federal architecture, Mr. Rubio’s order cited the origins of serif typefaces in Roman antiquity. 

    Julius Caesar would never have used Calibri, so neither should Donald Trump’s federal government, where addressing the needs of the disabled is nowhere near as important as demonizing diversity and fetishizing trad aesthetics.

    Chas Danner

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  • Immigration enforcement is driving away early childhood educators

    Close to 40,000 foreign-born child care workers have been driven out of the profession in the wake of the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation and detainment efforts, according to a new study by the Better Life Lab at the think tank New America. That represents about 12 percent of the foreign-born child care workforce.

    Child care workers with at least a two-year college degree are most likely to be leaving the workforce, as well as workers who are from Mexico, a demographic targeted by ICE, or those who work in center-based care, the left-leaning think tank found. The disruption has worsened an already deep shortage of child care staffers, threatening the stability of the industry and in turn is contributing to tens of thousands of U.S.-born mothers dropping out of the labor market because they don’t have reliable child care.

    In addition to workers facing detainment or deportation, many people are staying home to avoid situations where they may encounter Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the report found. Agents are detaining people who have not traditionally been the focus of ICE actions, including those following legal pathways like asylum seekers and green card applicants. Child care centers were once considered “sensitive locations” exempt from ICE enforcement, but the White House rescinded that in January. In at least one example, a child care worker was detained while arriving for work at a child care program. 

    “What’s different now is the ferocity of the enforcement,” said Chris Herbst, a professor at Arizona State University’s School of Public Affairs and one of the authors of the report, in an interview with The Hechinger Report. “ICE is arresting far more people, the number of deportations has risen dramatically,” he added. “People are scared out of their minds.”

    Related: Young children have unique needs and providing the right care can be a challenge. Our free early childhood education newsletter tracks the issues. 

    America has long relied on immigrants to fill hard-to-staff caregiving positions and enable parents to work. Across the country, around 1 in 5 child care workers is an immigrant. In Florida and New York, immigrants account for nearly 40 percent of the child care workforce. One study that compared native-born and immigrant child care workers found that nearly 64 percent of immigrants had a two- or four-year college degree, compared to 53 percent of native-born workers. The study also noted that immigrant workers are more likely than native-born workers to have child development associate credentials and to invest in professional development activities.

    Overall, the child care industry supports more than $152 billion in economic activity.

    In Wisconsin, Elaine, the director of a child care center, said her program has benefited greatly from a Ukrainian immigrant who has been teaching there for two years, ever since arriving in the United States as part of a humanitarian parole program. (The Hechinger Report is not using Elaine’s last name or the city where her child care center is located because she fears action by immigration enforcement.) Elaine’s center has experienced a teacher shortage for the past 13 years, and the immigrant, who has a college degree and past experience in social services, has been a steady presence for the children there.

    “She’s their consistent person. She spends more time than a lot of the parents do with the children during their waking hours,” Elaine said. “She’s there for them, she’s loving, she provides that support, that connection, that security that young children need.”

    In January, the Trump administration suspended the Uniting for Ukraine program, which allowed Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion to live and work in the United States for two years. While the program later opened up a process to apply for an extension, Elaine’s employee has encountered delays, like many others.

    The teacher’s parole expired this month. Under the law, she is now supposed to return to Ukraine, where her home city in southeast Ukraine is still under attack by Russian forces. 

    Elaine fears what will happen if the center loses her. “As a business, we need her. We need a teacher we can count on,” Elaine said. “For our teachers’ mental health, to have her leave and knowing where she would go would be really difficult.” 

    Elaine has decided to allow the employee to keep working, and is appealing to state lawmakers to help extend her stay. Several parents have also joined in the effort, writing letters to Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin telling her how much their children love the teacher — and how important she is to the local economy. One factor in granting an extension is that the person offers a “significant public benefit” to the country. 

    The authors of the new report found immigrants are not the only caregivers affected by ICE enforcement this year. There has also been a drop in U.S.-born child care workers in the industry, especially among Hispanic and less-educated caregivers. This could be the result of a “climate of fear and confusion” surrounding enforcement activity, according to the report, as well as a “perceived pattern of profiling or discriminatory enforcement practices.”

    “These deportations have been sold under the theory that they are going to be a boon for U.S.-born workers once we sort of unclog the labor market by removing large numbers of undocumented immigrants,” Herbst said. “We’re finding at least in the child care industry, and at least in the short run, that appears not to be the case.” Some foreign-born and U.S.-born workers have different skills and do not seem to be competing for the same caregiving jobs, he added. 

    Not all workers are leaving the caregiving industry altogether. Some immigrants are shifting to work as nannies or au pairs, Herbst said, “finding refuge” in private homes where they are less likely to come into contact with state child care regulators or be part of formal wage systems. (Already, an estimated 142,000 undocumented immigrants work as nannies and personal care or home health aides nationwide.) That contact with regulators and other authorities may be a reason why center-based early childhood educators are leaving the field in greater proportions now, Herbst said. 

    These findings come at the end of a difficult year for the child care workforce, which has long been in crisis due to dismally low pay and challenging work conditions. More than half of child care providers surveyed this year by the RAPID Survey Project at Stanford University reported experiencing difficulty affording food, the highest rate since the survey started collecting data on provider hunger in 2021. Other recent reports have found child care providers are at a higher risk for clinical depression, and in some cities an increasing number are taking on part-time jobs to make ends meet.

    Across the country this year, early childhood providers have seen drops in enrollment as families pull their children out of schools and programs to avoid ICE. Child care centers are losing money and finding that some staff members are too scared to come to work or have lost work authorization after the administration ended certain refugee programs. Many child care workers have taken on additional roles driving children to and from care, collecting emergency numbers and plans for children in their care in case parents are detained and dropping off food for families too scared to leave their homes.

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

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    Jackie Mader

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  • U.S. seizes oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, Trump says

    The U.S. military has seized an oil tanker off of Venezuela’s coast, President Donald Trump told reporters Wednesday as his administration continues to escalate its military presence in the region.

    “As you probably know, we’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela,” Trump said. “Large tanker, very large, largest one ever seized actually.”

    Trump did not provide details on the matter but said that it was an “interesting day.” He also hinted that more developments may unfold on the matter as “other things are happening.”

    News of the seizure comes after Trump told Politico that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s “days are numbered.” Trump also declined to comment on whether the U.S. could send troops to the country during the interview, which published Tuesday.

    His administration has built up its military force in the region over the last month, including sending the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier to the Caribbean last month. The vessel is host to squadrons of fighter jets and guided-missile destroyers.

    The U.S. has targeted drug cartels operating vessels in the Caribbean since September. Trump has justified the strikes by characterizing the U.S. as being in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels and describing the boats as being operated by foreign terrorist organizations.

    This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

    Doha Madani and Rebecca Shabad | NBC News

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  • Russia pounds Ukraine with deadly strikes as peace negotiations enter crucial stage


    Russia pounds Ukraine with deadly strikes as peace negotiations enter crucial stage – CBS News









































    Watch CBS News



    Russia attacked Kyiv in a deadly drone attack early Saturday, officials said. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that he’s sent an envoy to the U.S. to continue peace negotiations.

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  • Killing Helpless Men Is Murder

    The Washington Post reported yesterday that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth did not merely order the initial strike on a boat off of believed to be transporting drugs, but gave the specific order to kill those on the boat. After the first strike hit the boat, a second strike was ordered to take out two survivors “clinging to the smoldering wreck” caused by the first.

    Jack Goldsmith posted on this report yesterday at Executive Function. His essay, “A Dishonorable Strike,” begins:

    One can imagine stretching Article II of the Constitution to authorize the U.S. drug boat campaign. The wildly overbroad Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) precedents, as I have written before, provide “no meaningful legal check on the president.” And there are dim historical precedents one could cite. Arthur Schlesinger Jr. noted in The Imperial Presidency that in the 19th century presidents unilaterally engaged in “[m]ilitary action against Indians—stateless and lawless by American definition—pirates, slave traders, smugglers, cattle rustlers, frontier ruffians [and] foreign brigands.”

    One might also, possibly, stretch the laws of war to say that attacks on the drug boats are part of a “non-international armed conflict,” as OLC has reportedly concluded. This line of argument likely draws on a super-broad conception of the threat posed by the alleged drug runners as well as the expansive U.S. post-9/11 justification for treating as targetable (i) dangerous non-state actor terrorists off the battlefield; (ii) those who merely “substantially support” the groups with whom one is in an armed conflict; and (iii) activities that provide economic support to the war effort, such as Taliban drug labs or ISIS oil trucks. I don’t think this argument comes close to working without deferential reliance on a bad faith finding by the president about the non-international armed conflict and much greater stretches of precedent than the United States previously indulged after 9/11. Still, the unconvincing argument is conceivable.

    But there can be no conceivable legal justification for what the Washington Post reported earlier today: That U.S. Special Operations Forces killed the survivors of a first strike on a drug boat off the coast of Trinidad who, in the Post’s words, “were clinging to the smoldering wreck.”

    Whether Hegseth was aware of this second strike, or his initial order was properly interpreted to direct it is unclear, but it does not change the bottom line. Goldsmith writes:

    In short, if the Post’s facts are correct, it appears that Special Operations Forces committed murder when the “two men were blown apart in the water,” as the Post put it.

    The post concludes:

    Hegseth has emphasized that he wants to restore the “warrior ethos” in the U.S. military. In the hours after the story, he signaled generic support for the boat strike campaign and chest-thumped that “We have only just begun to kill narco-terrorists.”

    Yet the warrior ethos has always demanded honorable conduct in warfare. The Navy Seals, for example, describe themselves as “a special breed of warrior” but the Seal Ethos thrice emphasizes the importance of honor, including “on . . . the battlefield.” And surely the warrior ethos, whatever else it means, doesn’t require killing helpless men clinging to the burning wreckage of a blown-up boat. The DOD Manual is clear because the law here is clear: “Persons who have been incapacitated by . . . shipwreck are in a helpless state, and it would be dishonorable and inhumane to make them the object of attack.”

    Read the whole thing.

    Jonathan H. Adler

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  • US halts all asylum decisions after shooting of National Guard members

    The Trump administration has halted all asylum decisions and paused issuing visas for people traveling on Afghan passports, seizing on the National Guard shooting in Washington to intensify efforts to rein in legal immigration.

    The suspect in Wednesday’s shooting near the White House that killed Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and critically wounded Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, both of the West Virginia National Guard, is facing charges including first-degree murder. Investigators are seeking to find a motive for the attack.

    Rahmanullah Lakanwal is a 29-year-old Afghan national who worked with the CIA during the Afghanistan War. He applied for asylum during the Biden administration and was granted it this year under President Donald Trump, according to a group that assists with resettlement of Afghans who helped U.S. forces in their country.

    The Republican administration is promising to pause entry to the United States from some poor nations and review Afghans and other legal migrants already in the country.

    The two service members were deployed as part of Trump’s crime-fighting mission in the District of Columbia. Trump has sent or tried to deploy National Guard members to other cities to assist with his mass deportation efforts but has faced court challenges.

    The office of U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, the top federal prosecutor in Washington, said the charges against Lakanwal also include two counts of assault with intent to kill while armed. There were “many changes to come,” she told Fox News.

    Asylum decisions halted

    Trump said the shooting was a “terrorist attack” and he criticized the Biden administration for enabling entry to the U.S. by Afghans who had worked with American forces.

    The director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Joseph Edlow, said in a post on the social platform X that asylum decisions will be paused “until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.”

    Experts say the U.S. has rigorous systems to conduct background checks of asylum-seekers. Asylum claims made from inside the country through USCIS have long faced backlogs. Critics say the slowdown has been exacerbated under the Republican administration.

    Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said his department has paused “visa issuance for ALL individuals traveling on Afghan passports.”

    Shawn VanDiver, president of the San Diego-based group #AfghanEvac, said in response: “They are using a single violent individual as cover for a policy they have long planned, turning their own intelligence failures into an excuse to punish an entire community and the veterans who served alongside them.”

    The suspect

    Lakanwal lived in Bellingham, Washington, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of Seattle, with his wife and five children, former landlord Kristina Widman said.

    Neighbor Mohammad Sherzad said Lakanwal was polite and quiet and spoke little English.

    Sherzad said he attended the same mosque as Lakanwal and heard from other members that he was struggling to find work. He said Lakanwal “disappeared” about two weeks ago.

    Lakanwal worked briefly this summer as an independent contractor for Amazon Flex, which lets people use their own cars to deliver packages, according to a company spokesperson.

    Investigators were executing warrants in Washington state and other parts of the country.

    Lakanwal entered the U.S. in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden administration program that resettled Afghans after the U.S. withdrawal, officials said. Lakanwal applied for asylum during that administration, but his asylum was approved this year under the Trump administration, #AfghanEvac said in a statement.

    Lakanwal served in a CIA-backed Afghan Army unit, known as one of the special Zero Units, in the southern province of Kandahar, according to a resident of the eastern province of Khost who identified himself as Lakanwal’s cousin and spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

    The man said Lakanwal started out working for the unit as a security guard in 2012 and was later promoted to become a team leader and a GPS specialist.

    Beckstrom ‘exemplified leadership, dedication’

    Beckstrom enlisted in 2023 after graduating high school and served with distinction as a military police officer with the 863rd Military Police Company, the West Virginia National Guard said.

    “She exemplified leadership, dedication, and professionalism,” the guard said in a statement, adding that Beckstrom volunteered for the deployment in Washington.

    There was a moment of silence Saturday for Beckstrom and Wolfe before West Virginia University’s football game against Texas Tech in Morgantown.

    More troops headed to Washington

    The administration has ordered 500 more National Guard members to Washington. An Army spokesperson said several governors were planning to support the operation and that specific troop announcements would come from their offices. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the president had asked him to send the troops.

    Nearly 2,200 troops are currently assigned to the joint task force that has operated in the city since August, according to the government’s latest update.

    ___

    Associated Press journalists John Raby, Gary Fields, Stephen Groves Sarah Brumfield, Siddiqullah Alizai, Elena Becatoros, Randy Herschaft, Cedar Attanasio and Hallie Golden contributed to this report.

    Collin Binkley | The Associated Press and Ben Finley | The Associated Press

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  • US halts all asylum claims after National Guard shootings: What to know

    The Trump administration has ordered an immediate halt to all asylum decisions nationwide following a fatal shooting near the White House that left a National Guard member dead and another critically injured.

    Joseph Edlow, Director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), announced late Friday that the agency was pausing all asylum decisions “until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.”

    Officers have been instructed not to approve, deny, or close any asylum application for any nationality, although work on applications can continue up to but not including approval or denial, according to Reuters.

    Newsweek contacted the White House and the USCIS via email for comment outside of regular business hours.

    Loading twitter content…

    Why It Matters

    The asylum freeze marks a significant escalation in Trump’s second-term campaign to restrict both legal and unauthorized immigration, setting up likely legal battles and affecting thousands of awaiting asylum decisions.

    It comes as the US faces scrutiny at home and abroad over its obligations to international asylum and refugee agreements, and underscores the administration’s claim to prioritize national security in the wake of violent incidents involving migrants.

    What To Know

    The USCIS’s latest announcement follows a double shooting that took place near the White House on Wednesday, resulting in the death of specialist Sarah Beckstrom, a 20-year-old member of the West Virginia National Guard.

    The second target, staff sergeant Andrew Wolfe, 24, remains in a critical condition.

    Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the suspect, had entered the US in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, a program for Afghans who aided US military forces after having worked with the CIA during the Afghanistan War, according to The Associated Press.

    His asylum was granted earlier this year under the Trump administration, according to a group that assists with the resettlement of Afghans who helped the U.S. in the region, AP reported.

    This is a developing story. More to follow.

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  • Northwestern agrees to $75 million fine to settle Trump dispute

    Northwestern University will pay a $75 million fine to settle allegations of antisemitism from the Trump administration, restoring hundreds of millions of federal funding, officials announced Friday.

    As part of the agreement, Northwestern also said it will continue following federal anti-discrimination laws, review its international admission policies and terminate an agreement reached with pro-Palestinian demonstrators last year.

    The nearly $800 million in federal research funding was abruptly paused in April. The money is expected to be fully restored within 30 days, according to a statement from Northwestern University interim President Henry Bienen.

    “This is not an agreement the University enters into lightly, but one that was made based on institutional values,” Bienen said. “As an imperative to the negotiation of this agreement, we had several hard red lines we refused to cross: We would not relinquish any control over whom we hire, whom we admit as students, what our faculty teach or how our faculty teach.”

    Other universities have agreed to pay fines to restore federal funding, as President Donald Trump pressures institutions to align with his political priorities. He has particularly criticized elite universities as hubs of antisemitism and progressive culture.

    Northwestern’s $75 million settlement, to be paid over three years, is the second-highest amount agreed to by a university. In August, Columbia University pledged to pay $200 million in a similar deal.

    “Today’s settlement marks another victory in the Trump Administration’s fight to ensure that American educational institutions protect Jewish students and put merit first,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. “Institutions that accept federal funds are obligated to follow civil rights law — we are grateful to Northwestern for negotiating this historic deal.”

    The deal will allow Northwestern to draw on all research funding, including overdue payments, lift any stop-work orders on non-terminated grants and protect the university’s eligibility for future grants. It will also close all pending investigations from the Department of Education, Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services related to anti-discrimination laws and race-based admissions.

    As part of the agreement, Northwestern also said it would commit to Title IX — which prohibits sex-based discrimination —  by providing single-sex housing and locker room facilities for women upon request.

    Additionally, it will review its international admissions and develop training “to socialize international students to the norms of a campus dedicated to inquiry and open debate,” Bienen said. To ensure compliance, Northwestern said it will establish a committee on its board of trustees dedicated to the agreement.

    The paused funds had sent shockwaves through Northwestern’s research infrastructure beginning in April. As administrators scrambled to cover expenses, they resorted to a string of budget cuts — including hundreds of layoffs this summer.

    The intense federal pressure led to the abrupt resignation of former President Michael Schill in September. Schill had faced an onslaught of conservative criticism since last year over his handling of Northwestern’s pro-Palestinian encampment and the resulting agreement he reached with demonstrators.

    Northwestern University President Michael Schill resigns amid funding freeze

    In its deal with the Trump administration, Northwestern said it would terminate that agreement.

    Kate Armanini

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  • Northwestern University to pay $75 million to federal government to settle antisemitism claims, restore frozen funds

    Northwestern University will pay $75 million to the federal government over the next three years to end an antisemitism investigation by the Trump administration and restore hundreds of millions of dollars in frozen funds.

    The agreement was announced Friday night by the university and the Trump administration, which froze $790 million in federal funds for Northwestern in April, accusing the school of fostering antisemitism on campus.

    “Today’s settlement marks another victory in the Trump Administration’s fight to ensure that American educational institutions protect Jewish students and put merit first,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. “Institutions that accept federal funds are obligated to follow civil rights law — we are grateful to Northwestern for negotiating this historic deal.”  

    The university said it expects to have all of the federal funding that was frozen fully restored within 30 days as part of the settlement.

    In addition to the $75 million payment to the federal government, Northwestern also agreed to review its international admissions and develop training for international students to learn the “norms of the campus,” and reaffirm steps to protect Jewish members of the community.

    In a statement, Northwestern Interim President Henry Bienen defended the settlement agreement, noting it fought to keep full control over hiring, admissions, and curriculum as part of the deal.

    “As an imperative to the negotiation of this agreement, we had several hard red lines we refused to cross: We would not relinquish any control over whom we hire, whom we admit as students, what our faculty teach or how our faculty teach. I would not have signed this agreement without provisions ensuring that is the case,” Bienen wrote. “Northwestern runs Northwestern. Period.”

    In August, a group of Northwestern faculty wrote an open letter to school leadership, asking them not to make a deal with the Trump administration in order to restore the frozen federal funding.

    “Acquiescence to the administration’s tactics would make Northwestern complicit in an assault on higher education, which is an essential bulwark of civil society. The administration is skirting legal processes and demanding what amounts to ransom from universities; such actions continue its well-documented and dangerous abuse of executive power,” they wrote.

    Since the federal funding freeze, Northwestern has announced a hiring freeze, cutbacks, layoffs and program and benefits changes to cope with its budget shortfall. Former Northwestern University President Michael Schill resigned in September amid the fallout from the funding freeze and antisemitism investigation.

    Several other major universities also have reached deals with the Trump administration in recent months to settle claims of antisemitism and other discrimination on campus.

    Columbia University in New York agreed to a $200 million settlement in July, to be paid out over three years to resolve investigations into alleged violations of anti-discrimination laws. Columbia also agreed to an additional $21 million to settle investigations from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. 

    Cornell University in New York agreed earlier this month to pay $30 million to the federal government to put an end to an investigation into claims of antisemitic harassment and discrimination amid campus protests over the war in Gaza. Cornell also agreed to invest $30 million in U.S. agriculture research.

    Brown University also cut a deal with the Trump administration to restore grant funding in exchange for commitments on women’s sports, antisemitism, admissions practices and a donation of $50 million to workforce development programs.

    The University of Pennsylvania also recently reached a deal with the Trump administration over their policy on transgender athletes in women’s sports.

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  • Letters: Fremont cricket field critics fear the unknown

    Submit your letter to the editor via this form. Read more Letters to the Editor.

    Cricket field critics
    fear the unknown

    Re: “Neighbors up in arms over cricket field plans” (Page B1, Nov. 22).

    It was shocking to read that a few neighbors are opposed to having a cricket field in the proposed Palm Avenue Community Park in Fremont. The main fear is that flying cricket balls could injure a child or elderly person or damage homes or cars. Do baseballs ever fly out of the field and cause personal injury? Balls flying over to the street or neighborhood will be rare and can easily be prevented in the design and construction of the stadium.

    It is more likely the fear of the unknown. People here are not familiar with cricket. Both baseball and cricket trace their origins back to medieval European bat-and-ball games and are more like “cousins.” Cricket fields all over the world are in the middle of cities and residential neighborhoods, and they are safe. It is fun to play and or watch cricket, so let us go for it.

    Subru Bhat
    Union City

    Coal project is bad
    for Oakland’s health

    Re: “Coal project costs mounting” (Page A1, Nov. 26).

    The New York Times article about Phil Tagami’s proposed Oakland coal terminal is very misleading.

    The article says, “a state judge ruled in 2023 that the city had to uphold its deal with Tagami.” However, that ruling only provided Tagami with $320,000 in damages. The disappointed coal developers found a judge in Kentucky whose suggestion of hundreds of millions in damages was rejected by Kentucky’s district court on November 21.

    The article quotes Tagami as denying that the project “makes a difference in the world.” But several mile-long trains every day would be spewing unhealthy coal dust from Utah to Oakland. And when burned, that much coal would cost the world tens of billions of dollars in damages (using the EPA’s social cost of carbon).

    The article says, ”The coal project must now go forward.” Those of us who care about the livability of Oakland will continue to oppose this deadly project.

    Jack Fleck
    Oakland

    Mastering spelling
    unlocks many doors

    Re: “Spelling isn’t a subject we can afford to drop” (Page A6, Nov. 19).

    My attention was drawn to Abby McCloskey’s column.

    As this article asserts, a strong foundation in spelling in a child’s early learning years leads to reading and literacy proficiency down the road. My personal academic experience bears this out.

    In my elementary school years in the 1950s, I had a natural strength in spelling, which was nurtured by my teachers. I still have all of my certificates of achievement, which span local through regional spelling contests that I entered.

    Further, this skill led me toward my love of writing — whether it be in the form of a school essay, poetry or, as you are reading now, my penchant for submitting letters to the editor.

    While “spell check” is a helpful tool, our brains still rely on the visualization of words to connect the dots in our educational journey.

    Sharon Brown
    Walnut Creek

    Immigration judges’
    principles cost them

    As the season of gratitude, peace, joy and hope approaches, recently unbenched San Francisco Immigration Judges Patrick Savage, Amber George, Jeremiah Johnson, Shuting Chen and Louis Gordon have inspired this letter. Although no reason was given for their forced departures, I wasn’t surprised. Having seen several preside over mandatory immigration hearings restored my hope in this country’s future. Unfortunately, the very behaviors that gave me hope put them at risk of losing their jobs. Behaviors like being well-versed in immigration law, diligent in their efforts to fully understand cases from both immigrant and government perspectives, and exhibiting both kindness and respect to all present within their courtrooms.

    The current administration has rendered these judges easily disposable obstacles to any campaign promises conflicting with this nation’s laws, Constitution and system of checks and balances. Fortunately, obstacles like integrity and allegiance to oaths of office can’t be as easily disposed of.

    Linda Thorlakson
    Castro Valley

    Letters To The Editor

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  • Trump says he plans to end immigration from

    President Trump announced Thursday that he would “permanently pause” immigration from “Third-World Countries.” The declaration comes as the Trump administration takes aim at U.S. immigration policies in the wake of the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C. Weijia Jiang has the latest.

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  • Officials instructed to pause all asylum decisions in wake of National Guard shooting

    The Trump administration on Friday directed U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officers to pause all asylum decisions in the wake of the shooting of two National Guard soldiers in Washington, D.C., according to an internal directive obtained by CBS News and two sources familiar with the order.

    The move is the administration’s latest effort to tighten the American immigration system after Wednesday’s attack, which was allegedly carried out by an Afghan man who was granted asylum by U.S. immigration officials earlier this year.

    Asylum officers at USCIS, a branch of the Department of Homeland Security, were instructed to refrain from approving, denying or closing asylum applications received by the agency, according to the internal notice and sources, who requested anonymity to describe an action that has not been publicly announced. 

    On Thursday, the Trump administration said it would start a review of asylum approvals under the Biden administration, citing the shooting of the two National Guard members, one of whom has died. The man accused of shooting the soldiers, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, is an Afghan national who entered the U.S. in 2021 during former President Joe Biden’s presidency and was granted asylum this spring under the second Trump administration.

    The action relayed to USCIS asylum officers internally on Friday amounts to an indefinite pause on asylum adjudications for all nationalities. Asylum cases are filed by foreigners who claim they will suffer persecution if deported or returned to their home countries because of certain factors, including their race, nationality, religion or political views. 

    “Do not enter any decision information for affirmative cases,” a USCIS notice to asylum officers in one office read, referring to asylum cases overseen by the agency. “Defensive” cases, the other type of asylum applications, are filed by those facing deportation and are decided by federal immigration judges at the Justice Department.

    Officers were told the pause applied to all USCIS asylum cases, including those filed by Afghans who arrived under a Biden administration resettlement effort dubbed “Operation Allies Welcome.” They were also told that in-person appointments for asylum applicants to find out what decisions have been made on their cases would be canceled, at least for Monday.

    The guidance said officers could continue asylum application interviews and review cases up to the point of making a decision. “Once you’ve reached decision entry, stop and hold,” the directive said.

    In a statement to CBS News Friday, USCIS Director Joe Edlow confirmed CBS News’ reporting.

    “USCIS has halted all asylum decisions until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible,” Edlow said. “The safety of the American people always comes first.” 

    According to Homeland Security officials, Lakanwal was allowed to enter the U.S. in September 2021 through the humanitarian parole policy, which the Biden administration used to resettle tens of thousands of Afghans evacuated following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. He applied for asylum in 2024 and his application was granted earlier this year, the officials said.

    Following Wednesday’s shooting, the Trump administration has unveiled a series of immigration measures it argues will bolster the government’s ability to mitigate the chances of similar attacks.  

    Officials first announced an indefinite pause on the processing of all legal immigration applications — ranging from citizenship and green card cases, to requests for work permits and asylum — filed by applicants from Afghanistan. 

    USCIS’ director, Joseph Edlow, then announced he had ordered, at President Trump’s direction, a “full scale, rigorous reexamination” of green card cases involving nationals affected by a presidential proclamation that fully or partially suspended travel and immigration from 19 countries. That list, released in June and which the White House referred to as a “travel ban,” includes Afghanistan and other countries in Asia and the Middle East, such as Iran, as well as African nations, including Somalia and Sudan. Mr. Trump’s order also applies to nationals of Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela.

    USCIS published a policy Thursday that allows adjudicators to cite concerns about the inability to properly vet and identify green card applicants from the group of 19 countries as a potential reason to deny their cases.

    “Certain countries (including but not limited to Afghanistan, Eritrea, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, and Venezuela) lack a competent or central authority for issuing passports and civil documents among other concerns, which directly relates to USCIS’ ability to meaningfully assess eligibility for benefit requests including identity, and therefore whether an alien warrants a favorable exercise of discretion,” USCIS said in its guidance.

    Late Thursday, Mr. Trump vowed to “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries,” writing on Truth Social that his administration would revoke the citizenship of those it deems “undermine domestic tranquility” and deport any foreigner “who is a public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western Civilization.” 

    The White House has not yet clarified publicly what actions would be taken to execute the president’s announcement.

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  • Bay Area Afghans worried after Trump’s comments on immigration

    There is now frustration and fear after President Trump’s new comments on immigration, including a possible crackdown affecting Afghan residents, following the National Guard shooting in Washington, DC.

    Just days after the deadly National Guard shooting in DC, Afghan immigrants in the Bay Area say they’re feeling new fears following President Trump’s vow to stop immigration requests from what he called “third world countries,” and his call for “reverse migration.”

    Trump’s comments come after authorities identified the suspect as an Afghan national, who once worked with a CIA-backed group, killed one national guard reservist and severely injured another.

    A man who came from Afghanistan to the US in 1981, who asked to remain anonymous, said he is fearing retaliation against him and his community.

    “My message is to others. Please be useful to this country. It is a very lovely country, and we hope that we have accomplished something that we are hoping for peace, prosperity, and happiness,” he said.

    He says Afghans in America are overwhelmingly peaceful and shouldn’t be judged by one person’s actions.

    The president also said he’ll re-examine the status of green card holders from 19 countries including Afghanistan.

    Afghan immigration justice group ANAR warns against using a single incident to justify broad restrictions.

    “What we are seeing right now is a form of large-scale harm and collective punishment in response to a specific incident and this really doesn’t do anything to keep our communities safer or to promote national security,” said Laila Ayub, ANAR Co-Director and an immigration attorney.

    ANAR plans to monitor any new policies and says the US has legal and moral obligations to uphold.

    “This bigger picture affect of restricting pathways for people and really abandoning our united states obligations under domestic and international law to ensure protections of people who are fleeing their homes,” Ayub said.

    Velena Jones

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  • Trump ‘cancelling’ Biden executive orders signed by autopen

    President Donald Trump announced Friday that he was cancelling executive orders signed by President Joe Biden’s autopen.

    Like many presidents, including Trump, Biden used an autopen to sign certain official documents. Republicans have claimed the autopen was used by the people around Biden to circumvent a mentally declining president.

    “Any document signed by Sleepy Joe Biden with the Autopen, which was approximately 92% of them, is hereby terminated, and of no further force or effect,” he wrote on Truth Social. “I am hereby cancelling all Executive Orders, and anything else that was not directly signed by Crooked Joe Biden, because the people who operated the Autopen did so illegally.”

    Biden’s team did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the former president has rejected these claims in the past, saying in June: “Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency.”

    “I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations,” he said then. “Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false.”

    The White House unveiled a new “Presidential Walk of Fame” featuring framed portraits of U.S. presidents, including what appears to be a photo of an autopen in place of Joe Biden’s portrait.

    There’s no public record of how many documents were signed by autopen during Biden’s presidency. President Barack Obama was the first president to use an autopen and signed pardons while on vacation. Biden is known to have used it while traveling, too: CNN reported in 2024 that Biden signed a funding extension for federal aviation programs with the autopen, which an official said was used to avoid a lapse in funding while the president was on the West Coast.

    Last month, House Republicans declared that they viewed executive actions signed by Biden’s autopen “without proper, corresponding, contemporaneous, written approval traceable to the president’s own consent” as void and urged the Department of Justice to investigate the matter.

    “Joe Biden was not involved in the Autopen process and, if he says he was, he will be brought up on charges of perjury,” Trump continued in his Friday Truth Social post.

    Perjury is the crime of lying under oath; Biden has not publicly testified under oath about the autopen. The former president has previously defended his use of the autopen in a New York Times interview.

    An autopen is a mechanical tool used to reproduce signatures for everything from book signings and diplomas to presidential orders. Here’s what you need to know.

    Jane C. Timm | NBC News

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  • Trump’s $1.1 billion tax hike on toys and games

    Asked in April about the potential consequences of hiking tariffs on nearly all American imports, President Donald Trump delivered a memorably blunt assessment.

    “Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls,” Trump said during a cabinet meeting on April 30. “And maybe the two dolls will cost a couple bucks more than they would normally.”

    A “couple bucks” here and a “couple bucks” there…and eventually, that adds up to a massive tax increase.

    Federal data covering the first eight months of the year show that the government collected more than $1.1 billion in tariffs on toys, dolls, and games.

    During the same seven months in 2024, the federal government collected no revenue on imports covered by those lines in the tariff code, because toys, dolls, and similar products entered the country duty-free thanks to trade agreemens that Trump’s tariffs now supercede, explained Ed Gresser, a former assistant U.S. trade representative and vice president at the Progressive Policy Institute, in an email to Reason. (Gresser wrote a post earlier this month pegging the figure at $888 million through July, but he shared more updated figures with Reason for this post.)

    Those higher taxes paid by American importers are likely to be passed along to consumers doing their holiday shopping—and the actual total is likely quite a bit higher, since the tariff data lags by a few months.

    The direct costs of the tariffs don’t even tell the whole story. As Reason has detailed, the tariffs have created headaches for board game and toy companies across the country, as normally reliable supply chains have become more expensive and sometimes totally unworkable amid the White House’s ever-shifting tariff edicts.

    “The U.S. is our least trustworthy trading partner right now—and I say that as an American,” Price Johnson, COO of Cephalofair Games, told Reason last month. “I can’t trust what the policy is going to be tomorrow, let alone next week.”

    Two weeks ago, the Trump administration seemingly admitted that its tariffs were making some goods more expensive. The White House rolled back tariffs on coffee, bananas, and several other items. That was framed as an attempt to lower grocery prices amid rising inflation and deepening skepticism from the American public about the merits of Trump’s tariff plans.

    As Gresser notes, however, the tariffs that remain in place are in many cases bigger tax increases than the ones on goods like coffee and bananas, which have now been removed.

    “The tariff hike on toys is twice as big as that of the banana and coffee tariffs put together, and that on shoes tariff increase alone offsets the entire 238-product exclusion list,” he wrote earlier this month.

    Indeed, some limited reductions on tariffs might be welcome, but they are hardly enough: The Yale Budget Lab estimates that Trump’s tariffs will cost the average American household around $1,700 this year.

    That might explain why retailers are bracing for a less robust holiday shopping season this year. Santa Claus might be able to smuggle toys past the authorities under the cover of darkness and with the help of magic, but many American parents are facing exactly the situation that the president predicted in April: Fewer and more expensive toys this holiday season.

    Eric Boehm

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  • One of the National Guard troops shot in D.C. attack has died, Trump says

    President Trump told reporters Thursday night that Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom has died. Beckstrom was one of the National Guard troops shot in Wednesday’s Washington, D.C., ambush attack. Andrew Wolfe, the other victim, is still in critical condition. CBS News’ Nicole Sganga reports.

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