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      ‘I would not feel safe’: Americans on the sorrow – and relief – of leaving Trump’s US for Europe

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      The scramble began in November as news broke that Donald Trump had been re-elected. Benjamin and Chrys Gorman had long said they would leave the US before seeing Trump inaugurated again, giving them exactly 76 days to sell their home, cars and most of their belongings and move four people, three dogs and two cats to Barcelona.“I was saying: we’ve got more time than that, it won’t go that fast,” said Gorman. “My wife said no, we need to be out of here – not just on inauguration day, but a few days before. And she was so right.”Within hours of taking office, Trump signed an executive order defining sex as only male or female. The change was to be reflected on official documents, sowing confusion over what it meant for Americans with the non-binary identification of “X” in their passports.Relief gripped the Gormans as they watched it play out from afar. “Our kid’s passport has an X gender marker,” said Gorman. “So we managed to escape just in time.”View image in fullscreenSince Trump’s return to power, relocation firms from London to Lisbon and Madrid to Milan say they’ve seen a surge in inquiries from Americans. Undaunted by the gains made by the far right across the continent, many Americans cite a desire to escape the US’s increasingly polarised climate and an administration whose wide range of targets has included immigrants, diversity measures and political opponents.Statistics suggest that the barrage of interest is translating into action; in the first two months of the year, US applications for Irish passports were at their highest level in a decade – up 60% from the same period last year. In the first three months of the year, France reported a rise in the number of long-stay visa requests from Americans, while in March, the number of Americans who had solicited British citizenship in the 12 months before surged to its highest since record-keeping began in 2004.While the figures remain relatively small given the size of the US population, the movement has been galvanised by a steady drip of celebrity announcements. Rosie O’Donnell said in March that she had moved to Ireland, describing it as “heartbreaking to see what’s happening politically” in the US, while Ellen DeGeneres recently cited Trump’s re-election to explain why she and her wife, Portia de Rossi, had moved to the Cotswolds in 2024. Earlier this month, Jimmy Kimmel revealed that he had acquired Italian citizenship, saying that the US under Trump was “just unbelievable”.Across Europe, governments and institutions have sought to capitalise on the exodus, launching programmes aimed at attracting stateside talent or, in the case of one enterprising Italian village, seeking to bolster its population with disgruntled Americans.Among the first was France’s Aix-Marseille University, which in March put out an offer of “scientific asylum” for researchers reeling from Trump’s crackdown on academia. Three months later, the university said it had received more than 500 inquiries for the 20 spots.View image in fullscreenThose selected included Lisa, a biological anthropologist who was preparing to move her husband, a school teacher, and two children across the Atlantic. “When Trump was re-elected, the feeling was: ‘We gotta go,’” she told the Guardian earlier this summer. She asked that her last name not be used to protect her university in the US from reprisals.The sentiment had strengthened as she watched the Trump administration take aim at universities, dismantle research funding and undermine science. “We’re months into this presidency, and a lot has already happened. I can’t imagine what’s going to happen in another three and a half years.”The opportunity to swap the northern US for southern France was welcome, but not without its drawbacks. “It is a big pay cut,” she said. “My kids are super gung-ho. My husband is just worried that he won’t find a job. Which is my worry too, because I don’t think I’ll be able to afford four of us on my salary.”In January, as thousands of Trump faithful turned up in Washington DC for a televised viewing of his inauguration, Deborah Harkness knew the time had come to act on her longstanding dream of moving to southern Spain. “As soon as he was inaugurated, I started making plans,” she said.Months later she was in Málaga, watching as Trump’s administration sought to drastically reshape the judiciary, public broadcasting, higher education and immigration. “What frightens me most is how normalised it’s all become,” she said. “The chaos, the cruelty, the disinformation – that’s how authoritarianism takes hold.”The view was echoed by Monica Byrne, who in 2023 left North Carolina for Cork, Ireland. Trump was a factor in her decision, but only in that she saw his rise to power as a symptom of the bigger issues facing the US. “I didn’t know whether Trump specifically was going to come back, but I knew fascism was,” she said. “So it was more about the abject failure of the Democrats and knowing they weren’t going to protect us from fascism generally.”View image in fullscreenTrump’s re-election cemented her decision to remain abroad and enrol in a master’s programme in Ireland. “I get frustrated when people say: ‘You’re very lucky or you must be happy you’re not there,’” she said. “There is some degree of that, but 90% of the people I care about and love are in the States and are affected.”In Barcelona, Gorman and his family have been slowly settling into the rhythms of the city. “So many things have just been shockingly better,” he said. “For example, my wife was saying that the other day she was walking along La Rambla and a car backfired. And she was the only person who ducked.”While they were thrilled to have left behind the gun violence and shooter drills of the US, the challenge was now in explaining to their loved ones that they were unlikely to return home once Trump’s term ends. “I don’t foresee this movement ending with the end of the Trump administration … I think that the rot is much deeper,” said Gorman.“If he wouldn’t have a huge base of support, Trump is just, you know, your crazy uncle yelling things on a porch. That base of support needs to be addressed. Why was there support for this kind of fascism?” he added. “And that’s a much deeper question. I would not personally feel safe going back to a country that doesn’t fully reckon with its fascist impulses.” More

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      ‘No-holds-barred fight’: California’s governor takes off his gloves to punch back at Trump

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      In the opening weeks of Donald Trump’s second term, Gavin Newsom wagered that peacemaking was best: a tarmac greeting for Air Force One, an Oval Office visit and a podcast slot for Maga’s biggest names. But then Trump came for California, and its governor dropped the niceties.With a flood of all-caps social media posts, a counterpunching redistricting proposal and a string of lawsuits challenging the new administration, Newsom is not just taking on Trump, he’s stealing his tactics: fight, fight, fight.“We’ve got to wake up, disabuse ourselves as Democrats,” Newsom said on a podcast last week. “I’m sick of being weak. I’m sick of being effete. I’m sick of being non-consequential. It’s not good enough to say it – it’s time to do.”Newsom has charged on to the national stage as a recast political brawler willing to wield power as ruthlessly as the other side. On Thursday, he signed redistricting legislation establishing a special election to ask voters to temporarily redraw the state’s congressional boundaries and give Democrats as many as five additional US House seats in next year’s midterm elections.The ballot measure is a direct attempt to “neuter and neutralize” Texas’s partisan gerrymander, engineered at Trump’s behest, to safeguard Republicans’ fragile House majority. At a bill-signing ceremony on Thursday, Newsom cited the president’s claim that he was “entitled” to five additional congressional seats in the Lone Star state: “That should put chills up your spine.”Now the California referendum transforms an off-cycle election year into a high-stakes national showdown that could determine control of Congress – and set the stage for 2028. For Newsom, who’s term-limited and widely viewed as a presidential contender, the success – or failure – of this 11-week sprint could carry major consequences for his political future.The November special election gives voters in deep-blue California a chance to strike back at Trump, who has relentlessly tormented the state since returning to the White House. But by temporarily overriding California’s independent redistricting commission – long a point of pride in the Golden state – Democrats are being asked to “compromise their own values,” said Kim Nalder, a political science professor at California State University, Sacramento.“That’s been a guiding light for a lot of Democrats – the whole ‘they go low, we go high’ idea,” she said. “One of the risks is that the Democratic party – and Newsom himself – become associated with this all-out brawl, no-holds-barred fighting, rather than having a particular set of political principles that they stand by no matter what.”How Californians will decide remains uncertain. A Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll released on Friday shows 48% of registered voters in the state support Newsom’s redistricting plan, compared with 32% who oppose it. Another 20% are undecided, providing an opening for either campaign to make their pitch.“If Proposition 50 passes, and Californians succeed in adding more House seats, and is partially, if not completely, responsible for flipping the House next year, he’s a hero, plain and simple,” said Bill Whalen, a Hoover Institution fellow who was a speechwriter for Pete Wilson, the former Republican governor of California.Even if the initiative falls short in November, Whalen believes Newsom still benefits. “He still gets credit among those same Democrats for fighting the good fight,” he said. “I don’t see how he fails.”The all-out political war between the president and California’s governor erupted earlier this summer, when Trump seized control of California’s national guard and deployed US marines to Los Angeles, over Newsom’s objections, to suppress protests against the federal immigration crackdown. The raids are ongoing, and Trump has targeted the state in other ways: an attempt to strip federal funding from UCLA, and tariffs that threaten California’s economy – the fourth largest in the world.Newsom has argued that Trump was not just a threat to his state – but to the entire 249-year-old American project. While his approach might offend virtue-minded Democrats, he says the moment demands it.“Yes, I’ve changed,” he said recently in a local news interview. “The facts have changed. We need to change.”In recent weeks, as Newsom has stepped up his attacks on Trump as a “weak” and a “failed” leader, his social media team has trolled the president online – unleashing a jumble of unfiltered, stream-of-consciousness rants, AI-generated political fan art and schoolyard taunts, some of it signed with the governor’s initials, GCN, meant to parody the president’s own chaotic posting style.View image in fullscreenNewsom says he’s simply holding up a mirror. “If you’ve got issues with what I’m putting out,” he told reporters last week, “you sure as hell should have concerns about what he’s putting out as president.”The posts have gone viral – racking up millions of views, thousands of comments and driving a flood of engagement. They’ve also caught the attention of the right. Fox News hosts, Kid Rock, JD Vance and even Trump himself have all taken the bait, provoking what the governor’s staff gleefully dubbed “Maga meltdowns”.“JESSE WATTERS KEPT CALLING ME ‘DADDY’ (VERY WEIRD, NOT INTERESTED, BUT THANK YOU!)” his office clapped back, in an 188-word tweet about Fox News’s breathless coverage of Newsom’s furious posting streak.“Gavin Newsom can mimic Donald Trump all that he wants to,” Vance told Fox News host Laura Ingraham, “they’re still going to lose unless they get better policies that actually serve the American people.”Trump, for his part, weighed in on his own social media platform, Truth Social, vowing to save “the Once Great State of California” from “Newscum”.“Triggered?” Newsom replied with a wink.The Berkley poll suggested that California voters back his gloves-off strategy with the president by a nearly two-to-one margin, with just 29% saying they’d prefer a more cooperative approach. The tougher posture lands especially well with younger voters: 71% of Californians under 30 say they approve.In a blitz of media appearances last week, Newsom escalated his rhetoric.“We’re fighting fire with fire,” he said on The Siren podcast. “And we’re going to punch these sons of bitches in the mouth.”The response was telling: no ​Democratic moralizing, no rebuke from party leaders, no pressure on Newsom to apologize. Instead, his team promoted the interview to his legions of new followers and supporters replied with MAGAesque AI images of the governor as a superhero.“People are just not used to seeing this kind of rough around the edges, non-poll-tested messaging coming from Democrats,” said Olivia Julianna, a 22-year-old Democratic activist from Texas and social media influencer who interviewed Newsom for the episode. “It’s real, it’s raw, it’s authentic, and it shows that he’s a fighter.”As Democrats brace for the loss of up to five US House seats in her state, under the redistricting plan approved by the Texas legislature on Saturday, Julianna said voters alarmed by Trump’s increasingly brazen power grabs are desperate for leaders who offer more than just fighting words.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“We want to feel like someone is standing on the frontlines ready to go to battle for us,” she said. “And that’s what it feels like Gavin Newsom is doing.”Newsom’s new fight-fire-with-fire strategy isn’t always trained on Trump.When the Bed Bath & Beyond chair announced on Wednesday that he wouldn’t reopen stores in the state, calling it “overregulated, expensive and risky”, Newsom’s press office fired back. “After their bankruptcy and closure of every store, like most Americans, we thought Bed, Bath & Beyond no longer existed,” it said. “We wish them well in their efforts to become relevant again.”He’s also taken on his own party. Earlier this year, Newsom declared the Democratic brand “toxic” in an interview with provocateur Bill Maher – a diagnosis backed by polling and voter registration trends, but striking language for the leader of the largest blue state who could seek that same party’s nomination.He enraged progressives – already wary of his record on housing and homelessness – when he questioned the fairness of transgender athletes competing in women’s sports. The comments, during a conversation with rightwing agitator Charlie Kirk on the inaugural episode of the governor’s podcast, This Is Gavin Newsom, marked a split from other top Democrats on the issue and rattled some of his LGBTQ+ allies.In response to a Guardian story about the loss of care for trans youth in California, a Newsom spokesperson said critics should point the finger at Trump, not at a governor whose “record supporting the trans community is unmatched”.“Everyone wants to blame Gavin Newsom for everything. But instead of indulging in Newsom derangement syndrome, maybe folks should look to Washington,” the spokesperson said – invoking a pejorative phrase, “derangement syndrome”, used by Trump supporters to mock the president’s detractors.While his sharper tone has angered some on the left, the redistricting gambit has managed to unite progressives and establishment Democrats – sending Newsom’s once-stalled approval rating soaring.His redistricting plan has drawn praise from across the party, including Barack Obama, who called it “a responsible approach”, the former House speaker Nancy Pelosi and the entire congressional delegation of California Democrats. With the ballot initiative in motion, he challenged other blue state leaders to follow suit, laying down the gauntlet for fellow Democratic governors with presidential ambitions as Trump expands his push to secure Republican advantages in states such as Indiana, Ohio and Missouri.That aggressive posture – in effect becoming an “anti-Trump troll” – has been cathartic for many Democrats, Nalder said.“Democrats nationwide have been feeling like the Trump administration has been punching their values and their party and democracy itself in the face repeatedly day after day and they’re just ready for somebody to punch the bully back,” she said. “And Newsom right now looks like he could be that guy.”View image in fullscreenNewsom’s campaign faces mounting opposition from Republicans, including those not in Trump’s Maga camp. The popular former Republican governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, a longtime Trump critic and advocate of independent redistricting, has promised to TERMINATE GERRYMANDERING”.Former House speaker Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, has also vowed to pump money into what some observers predict could quickly become one of the most expensive contests in Golden state history.“The voters of California have a say,” he said in an interview on CNN. “If you truly believe in your power of your own vote, you should vote against this.”Newsom has raised more than $6.2m from 200,000 donations in the week since he officially launched the ballot campaign at a rally in Los Angeles last week, according to his team.There, Newsom stood side by side with labor leaders, members of the teacher’s union and the head of California’s Planned Parenthood. His redistrticting plan even earned the endorsement of Sara Sadhwani, a Democrat who served on California’s 2020 independent redistricting commission. Making the case for tossing out her work, she declared: “Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures”.As Newsome spoke at the Japanese American National Museum’s National Center for the Preservation of Democracy earlier this month, federal agents, armed and masked, fanned out across the complex. Newsom said their presence could not have been coincidental, though a Trump administration official called the accusation “misinformed”.The next day, the governor’s office filed a freedom of information request seeking details on the administration’s involvement in the decision to send border patrol agents to that location.It was just more fuel for Newsom’s argument: his campaign is not just about congressional districts, but a referendum on Trump – and American democracy.“Donald Trump, you have poked the bear,” Newsom says in a new ad for the redistricting campaign, as the camera flashes to the grizzly on the state’s flag. “And we will punch back.” More

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      Who is Kilmar Ábrego García and why has his case become a lightning rod for Trump’s immigration crackdown?

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      The Trump administration has said it plans to deport Kilmar Ábrego García to Uganda, months after he was mistakenly sent to El Salvador, in a case that has become a flashpoint in the president’s wider crackdown on immigration.In a filing, lawyers for Ábrego asked the courts to dismiss the case against him on grounds that it is a vindictive attempt to punish him for challenging his initial deportation to El Salvador.The attempt to deport Garcia to far-flung Uganda – a country he has no known connection to – adds a new twist to a saga that become a lightning rod for Trump’s harsh crackdown on illegal immigration, which has seen rightwing supporters praise the president’s toughness but legal scholars and human rights advocates blast what they say is a haphazard rush to deport people without even a court hearing, in violation of basic US law.Who is Kilmar Ábrego García?Kilmar Ábrego García, 30, grew up in El Salvador and fled at age 16 because a local gang extorted and terrorised his family, court records state. He travelled to Maryland, where his brother lives as a US citizen, but was not authorised to stay.Ábrego found work in construction and met his future wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura. In 2018, he moved in with her and her two children after she became pregnant with his child.In March 2019, Ábrego went to a Home Depot seeking work as a labourer when he was detained by local police, court records state.The records say a criminal informant told police Ábrego was a member of MS-13, an international criminal gang, but police did not charge him and turned him over to the US immigration and customs enforcement (Ice).View image in fullscreenÁbrego, through his attorneys, has denied any affiliation with MS-13. He has no criminal record in either the US or El Salvador.A US immigration judge denied Ábrego’s asylum claim because more than a year had passed since his arrival, but the judge granted him protection from being deported to El Salvador, determining he had a “well-founded fear” of gang persecution there, court records state.Abrego was released and placed under federal supervision. He received a federal work permit and checked in with Ice each year, his lawyers said.Why has he become internationally renowned?In February, the Trump administration designated MS-13 as a foreign terrorist organisation. In March, it deported Abrego Garcia to a prison in El Salvador, violating the US immigration judge’s 2019 order.Ábrego later claimed in court documents that he was beaten and psychologically tortured in the El Salvador prison. The country’s president, Nayib Bukele, denied these allegations.The Trump administration later admitted it had mistakenly sent him to El Salvador’s notorious maximum security prison, but Donald Trump and other officials doubled down on claims that Ábrego was in MS-13.The US supreme court later ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of Ábrego. He was returned in June, and then quickly arrested and charged with trafficking undocumented migrants.That case stems from a 2022 traffic stop for speeding, during which Ábrego was driving with nine passengers. Tennessee police suspected human smuggling, but allowed him to drive on and didn’t charge him.Ábrego pleaded not guilty and his lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the case based on “vindictive and selective prosecution”.At that point he had not seen his family in more than 160 days.Why is he being threatened with deportation to Uganda?A US magistrate ruled in June that Ábrego had a right to be released from jail while he awaited trial, but he remained in a Tennessee jail at his attorneys’ request for about 11 weeks over fears that Ice would immediately try to deport him.Thomas Giles, an assistant director for Ice, testified in July that Ábrego would be detained as soon as he was freed.In response to concerns Ábrego would be deported without due process, a US district Judge prohibited Ice from immediately detaining him upon release in Tennessee.Soon after this order, Ábrego’s attorneys asked a federal judge in Tennessee to release him.View image in fullscreenHe was released on Friday and required to stay with his brother in Maryland and be subjected to electronic monitoring and home detention. In a statement on Friday, he said he saw his family for the first time in more than five months.Before he was released, government officials made him a plea offer: remain in custody, plead guilty to human smuggling charges and be deported to Costa Rica, his lawyers said in a filing. He declined the offer.After Ábrego left jail, Ice told his attorneys he would be deported to Uganda and should report to immigration authorities on Monday.Later Friday, the government told Ábrego he had until first thing Monday to accept a plea in exchange for deportation to Costa Rica – where he will reportedly be treated as a refugee and not jailed – or else that offer would be off the table, his defence attorneys wrote.The homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, said the administration would not stop fighting until he was out of the US.With Agence France-Presse and the Associated Press More

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      US immigrant population down by more than a million people amid Trump crackdown

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      The immigrant population of the United States, which has been growing for more than 50 years, has declined by more than a million people since Donald Trump took office in January and defined immigration as a threat to the nation, not one of its strengths.According to a new study by the Pew Research Center, there were a record 53.3 million immigrants in the US in January, when Trump took office for the second time. By June, that number had dropped to 51.9 million.Among all US residents, 15.4% were immigrants as of June 2025, down from the recent historic high of 15.8% in January.The Pew survey also found that 750,000 immigrant workers had dropped out of the US labor force since January, which is now 19% foreign-born.The center pointed to several policy changes that have affected immigrant populations across the US, including Joe Biden’s restrictions on asylum applications in 2024, which led to a significant decrease in border crossings involving immigrants seeking asylum.Additionally, the center pointed to Donald Trump’s 181 executive actions targeting immigration, including the arrival of new immigrants and the mass deportation of noncitizen immigrants.The center noted that the change in the data could be due to a declining survey response rate among immigrants.Mexico remains the largest origin country among US immigrants. As of mid-2023, more than 11 million US residents were born in Mexico, marking nearly a quarter, or 22%, of all immigrants nationally. Nevertheless, immigration from Mexico has declined since 2007 and the Mexican-born population in the US has dropped. From 2010 to 2023, the Mexican share of the US immigrant population dropped from 29% to 22%, according to Pew’s research.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe second-largest immigrant group was from India, at 3.2 million, or 6% of the total immigrant population, as of mid-2023. The next largest immigrant groups were from China, at 3 million, or 6%, followed by the Philippines, at 2.1 million, or 4%, and Cuba, at 1.7 million, or 3%.In July, a Guardian analysis of arrest and deportation data revealed how Trump has “supercharged the country’s immigration enforcement apparatus – pushing immigration officials to arrest a record number of people”.The analysis found that average daily arrests were up by 268% compared with June 2024 and that the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (Ice) was targeting all unauthorized immigrants, including people with no criminal records.The analysis also found that the US has deported more than 8,100 people to countries that are not their home country.Trump’s crackdown on immigration has shown no signs of stopping, with the state department announcing this week that it is reviewing the records of more than 55 million foreign citizens with visas allowing them to visit or reside temporarily in the US for potential revocation. More

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      US immigration officials intend to deport Kilmar Ábrego García to Uganda

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      US immigration officials said they intend to deport Kilmar Ábrego García to Uganda, after he declined an offer to be deported to Costa Rica in exchange for remaining in jail and pleading guilty to human smuggling charges, according to a Saturday court filing.The Costa Rica offer came late on Thursday, after it was clear that the Salvadorian national would probably be released from a Tennessee jail the following day.Ábrego declined to extend his stay in jail and was released on Friday to await trial in Maryland with his family. Later that day, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) notified his attorneys that he would be deported to Uganda and should report to immigration authorities on Monday.According to official documents posted online, the DHS told Ábrego’s attorneys on Friday afternoon that the “DHS may remove your client … to Uganda no earlier than 72 hours from now (absent weekends)”.Immigration and Customs Enforcement also directed Ábrego to report to its Baltimore office on Monday, according to records posted online.Ábrego entered the US without permission in about 2011 as a teenager after fleeing gang violence. He was subsequently afforded a federal protection order against deportation to El Salvador.The 30-year-old was initially deported by federal immigration officials in March. Though the Trump administration admitted that Ábrego’s deportation was an “administrative error”, officials have repeatedly accused him of being affiliated with the MS-13 gang, a claim Ábrego and his family vehemently deny.During his detention at El Salvador’s so-called Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot), Ábrego was physically and psychologically tortured, according to court documents filed by his lawyers in July.Following Ábrego’s wrongful deportation, the Trump administration faced widespread pressure to return him to the US, including from a supreme court order that directed federal officials to “facilitate” his return.In June, the Trump administration returned Ábrego from El Salvador, only to charge him with crimes related to human smuggling, which his lawyers have rejected as “preposterous”. His criminal trial is expected to begin in January.Before his deportation, Ábrego had lived in Maryland for more than a decade, working in construction while being married to an American wife.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionAlthough Ábrego was deemed eligible for pretrial release, he had remained in jail at the request of his attorneys, who feared the Republican administration could try to immediately deport him again if he were freed. Those fears were somewhat allayed by a recent ruling in a separate case in Maryland, which requires immigration officials to allow Ábrego time to mount a defense.Separately, in a statement earlier this week, Uganda said that it agreed to a “temporary agreement” with the US to accept some asylum seekers who are deported from the country.Bagiire Vincent Waiswa, permanent secretary of Uganda’s foreign ministry, said: “The agreement is in respect of third country nationals who may not be granted asylum in the United States but are reluctant to or may have concerns about returning to their countries of origin.”Waiswa added: “This is a temporary arrangement with conditions including that individuals with criminal records and unaccompanied minors will not be accepted. Uganda also prefers that individuals from African countries shall be the ones transferred to Uganda. The two parties are working out the detailed modalities on how the agreement shall be implemented.” More

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      Judge blocks White House from defunding 34 municipalities over ‘sanctuary’ policies

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      A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from cutting off federal funding to 34 “sanctuary cities” and counties that limit cooperation with federal immigration law enforcement, significantly expanding a previous order.The order, issued on Friday by the San Francisco-based US district judge William Orrick, adds Los Angeles and Chicago, as well as Boston, Baltimore, Denver and Albuquerque, to cities that the administration is barred from denying funding.Orrick, an Obama appointee, previously ruled it was unconstitutional for the Trump administration to freeze funding to local governments with “sanctuary” policies, limiting their cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice).The April ruling came after cities including San Francisco, Sacramento, Minneapolis and Seattle sued the administration over what they claimed were illegal executive orders signed by Donald Trump in January and February that threatened to cut off funding if Democrat-controlled cities do not cooperate.Cities and counties suing the administration contend that the executive orders amount to an abuse of power that violate the constitution. The administration argues that the federal government should not be forced to subsidize policies that thwart its control of immigration.The administration has since ordered the national guard into Los Angeles and Washington DC, both cities with sanctuary designations, under a law-and-order mandate. On Friday, Trump said Chicago is likely the next target for efforts to crack down on crime, homelessness and illegal immigration.“I think Chicago will be our next,” Trump told reporters at the White House, later adding: “And then we’ll help with New York.”The number of people in immigration detention has soared by more than 50% since Trump’s inauguration, according to an Axios review published Saturday, reaching a record 60,000 immigrants in long-term detention or around 21,000 more than at the end of the Biden administration.Separately, the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, last week issued fresh threats to 30 Democrat-led cities and states, including to the governors of California, Illinois and Minnesota, and the mayors of New York, Denver and Boston, to drop sanctuary policies.Bondi said in the letter that their jurisdictions had been identified as those that engage “in sanctuary policies and practices that thwart federal immigration enforcement to the detriment of the interests of the United States”.“This ends now,” Bondi wrote.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionDemocrat leaders uniformly rejected the Trump administration’s assertion. Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz, said in response that Bondi’s order was “some kind of misguided political agenda” that “is fundamentally inconsistent with our founding principles as a nation”.The accelerating confrontation between the administration and Democratic-led jurisdictions comes as the Pentagon began ordering 2,000 national guard troops in Washington to carry firearms.US officials told NBC News that the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, had authorized national guard members who are supporting local law enforcement will probably carry weapons but troops assigned to city beautification roles would not.The official said troops supporting the mission “to lower the crime rate in our nation’s capital will soon be on mission with their service-issued weapons, consistent with their mission and training”, according to the outlet. More

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      Federal judge orders closure of Trump’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ immigration jail

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      A federal judge in Miami late on Thursday ordered the closure of the Trump administration’s notorious “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration jail within 60 days, and ruled that no more detainees were to be brought to the facility while it was being wound down.The shock ruling by district court judge Kathleen Williams builds on a temporary restraining order she issued two weeks ago halting further construction work at the remote tented camp, which has attracted waves of criticism for harsh conditions, abuse of detainees and denial of due process as they await deportation.In her 82-page order, published in the US district court’s southern district of Florida on Friday, Williams determined the facility was causing severe and irreparable damage to the fragile Florida Everglades.She also noted that a plan to develop the site on which the jail was built into a massive tourist airport was rejected in the 1960s because of the harm it would have caused the the land and delicate ecosystem.“Since that time, every Florida governor, every Florida senator, and countless local and national political figures, including presidents, have publicly pledged their unequivocal support for the restoration, conservation, and protection of the Everglades,” she wrote.“This order does nothing more than uphold the basic requirements of legislation designed to fulfill those promises.”No further construction at the site can take place, she ruled, and there must be no further increase in the number of detainees currently held there, estimated to be about 700. After the 60-day period, all construction materials, fencing, generators and fixtures that made the site a detention camp must be removed.The ruling is a significant victory for a coalition of environmental groups and a native American tribe that sued the state of Florida and the federal government. Williams agreed that the hasty, eight-day construction of the jail at a disused airfield in late June damaged the sensitive wetlands of a national preserve and further imperiled federally protected species.“This is a landmark victory for the Everglades and countless Americans who believe this imperiled wilderness should be protected, not exploited,” said Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades, one of the groups that filed the lawsuit.“It sends a clear message that environmental laws must be respected by leaders at the highest levels of our government, and there are consequences for ignoring them.”The alliance plans to hold a press conference on Friday morning to discuss the ruling in detail.Conversely, the ruling is a blow to the detention and deportation agenda of the Trump administration. The president touted the camp, which recently held as many as 1,400 detainees, as a jail for “some of the most vicious people on the planet”, although hundreds of those held there have no criminal record or active criminal proceedings against them.There was no immediate reaction to Williams’s ruling from the Florida department of emergency management, which operates the jail on behalf of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (Ice), or from the Department of Homeland Security.But lawyers for the state told Williams in court last week that they would appeal any adversarial ruling, the Miami Herald reported.In addition, hundreds of detainees were moved from “Alligator Alcatraz” to other immigration facilities at the weekend in anticipation that Williams would order its closure, the outlet said.Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor, announced earlier this month that the state will soon open a second immigration jail at a disused prison near Gainesville to increase capacity. More

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      in US Politics

      Trump news at a glance: 55m US visa holders in potential limbo in fresh immigration crackdown

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      The Trump administration is reviewing the records of more than 55 million US visa holders for potential revocation or deportable violations of immigration rules, in a significant expansion of Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.The state department said that all of the foreigners who now hold valid US visas are subject to “continuous vetting” for any indication that they could be ineligible for the document, including those already admitted into the country. Should such evidence come to light, the visa would be revoked and, if the visa holder were in the United States, they would be subject to deportation.Here are the key stories at a glance.Trump administration to review 55m US visa holders for potential rule violationsTrump officials will review records of more than 55 million US visa holders in the latest expansion on the US president’s immigration crackdown.It follows an announcement by the Trump administration on Tuesday that it will look for “anti-American” views, including on social media, when assessing the applications of people wanting to live in the United States.“The state department revokes visas any time there are indications of a potential ineligibility, which includes things like any indicators of overstays, criminal activity, threats to public safety, engaging in any form of terrorist activity, or providing support to a terrorist organization,” a department spokesperson said.Read the full storyCourt throws out $500m civil fraud penalty against Donald TrumpA New York appeals court has thrown out the massive civil fraud penalty against Donald Trump, ruling on Thursday in the state’s lawsuit accusing him of exaggerating his wealth.The decision, which was not unanimous, came seven months after the Republican returned to the White House. A panel of five judges in New York’s mid-level appellate division said the verdict, which stood to cost Trump more than $515m and rock his real estate empire, was “excessive”.Read the full storyPentagon asks civilian employees to aid Ice deportationsThe Pentagon is recruiting civilian employees to join Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign and asking staff to sign up for deployments to immigration enforcement facilities across the United States.Read the full storyCalifornia moves closer to gerrymandered maps after key measures passCalifornia lawmakers on Thursday approved a sweeping redistricting proposal aimed at redrawing the state’s congressional boundaries and creating five potential new Democratic US House seats – a retaliatory strike against the gerrymandered maps Republicans in Texas are working to pass at the behest of Donald Trump.Read the full storyJD Vance previews defense of Trump’s bill for midterms in GeorgiaThe US vice-president, JD Vance, previewed in Georgia on Thursday the lines of attack candidates will use to defend the president’s signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act in the midterms next year, calling it “the biggest tax cut for families that this country has ever seen”.Read the full storyNew details emerge on Trump tariffs for EUWashington will not lower steep tariffs on European cars until Brussels has introduced legislation to reduce its own tariffs on US exports, maintaining pressure on the EU’s automotive industry.While the Trump administration has agreed to lower the current 27.5% US tariffs on European cars and car parts to 15%, details of a framework trade deal published on Thursday revealed the terms and conditions.Read the full storyTrump officials urge Fed to remove governor The Trump administration is ratcheting up pressure on the Federal Reserve to remove governor Lisa Cook, after the economist declared she had “no intention of being bullied” into stepping down.Read the full storyJudge rules ex-Trump lawyer unlawfully serving as US attorney in New JerseyA federal judge ruled on Thursday that Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Alina Habba, has been unlawfully serving as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey.In his order disqualifying Habba from prosecuting three defendants who challenged her appointment, chief US district judge Matthew Brann wrote: “The Executive branch has perpetuated Alina Habba’s appointment to act as the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey through a novel series of legal and personnel moves.”Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

      Donald Trump gave a speech to law enforcement at a park police HQ in Washington DC after announcing he would join federal officers and the military on the city’s streets as part of the forced takeover of the local police force.

      Trump intends to leave Russia and Ukraine to organize a meeting between their leaders without directly playing a role for now, according to administration officials familiar with the situation, taking a step back from the negotiations to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

      The president again called for the release of a former election clerk in Colorado who was convicted for her role in breaching election data in a quest to find fraud, threatening he would take “harsh measures” if she was not let out of prison.

      With Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” set to alter how families and students finance higher education starting in July 2026, a new survey suggests the majority of college students expect to be affected by the bill.
      Catching up? Here’s what happened on 20 August 2025. More