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      First group of white South Africans arrive in US after Trump grants refugee status

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      The first group of white South Africans granted refugee status by Donald Trump’s administration has arrived in the US, stirring controversy in South Africa as the US president declared the Afrikaners victims of a “genocide”.The Afrikaners, a minority descended from mainly Dutch colonists, were met at Dulles international airport outside Washington DC by US deputy secretary of state, Christopher Landau, and deputy secretary of homeland security, Troy Edgar, with many given US flags to wave.Reuters reported that the group numbered 59 adults and children, citing a state department official, while Associated Press said there were 49.At Dulles airport, Landau told the assembled white South Africans: “It is such an honour for us to receive you here today … it makes me so happy to see you with our flag in your hands.He invoked his family’s history, saying: “My own father was born in Europe and had to leave his country when Hitler came in … We respect what you have had to deal with these last few years.”He added: “We’re sending a clear message that the United States really rejects the egregious persecution of people on the basis of race in South Africa.”On the same day the group arrived in the US, Trump’s government also ended legal protections that had temporarily protected Afghans from deportation, citing an improved security situation in the country, which is ruled by the Taliban.One consideration for resettling Afrikaners not Afghans was that “they could be easily assimilated into our country,” Landau told reporters at the airport.Trump suspended the US refugee settlement programme in January, leaving more than 100,000 people approved for refugee resettlement stranded. Then, in February, he signed an executive order directing officials to grant refugee status to Afrikaners, whose leaders ruled during apartheid while violently repressing the Black majority.“It’s a genocide that’s taking place,” Trump told reporters at the White House, when asked why white South Africans were being prioritised for resettlement above victims of famine and war elsewhere on the continent, echoing a far-right conspiracy theory that has also been amplified by his South African-born billionaire adviser Elon Musk.Trump added that the Afrikaners’ race “makes no difference to me”. He said South Africa’s leaders were travelling to meet him next week, but that he would not attend the G20 leaders’ meeting in Johannesburg in November unless the “situation is taken care of”.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionSouth Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, said at a conference in Ivory Coast that he had told Trump by phone that he had received false information about white South Africans being discriminated against, from people who disagreed with government efforts to redress the racial inequalities that still persist three decades after white minority rule ended.“We think that the American government has got the wrong end of the stick here, but we’ll continue talking to them,” he said.White South Africans typically have 20 times the wealth of Black people, according to an article in the Review of Political Economy. The Black South African unemployment rate is 46.1%, compared with 9.2% for white people.Laura Thompson Osuri, executive director of Homes Not Borders, a refugee care nonprofit in the Washington area, stood in the airport check-in area with a sign reading: “Refugee. Noun. A person who has been forced to leave his or her country due to persecution, war or violence. Afrikaners are not refugees.”Osuri said of Trump’s policy: “It’s for showing: ‘Look at us. We do welcome people as long as they look like us.’”Democrats also condemned the Afrikaners’ resettlement. Maryland senator Chris Van Hollen told a thinktank event: “To watch the Trump administration apply what I call their global apartheid policy … is just an outrageous insult to the whole idea of our country.”Meanwhile, the Episcopal church said it was ending its decades-long work with the US government supporting refugees, after it was asked to help resettle the white South Africans, citing its “commitment to racial justice and reconciliation”. More

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      Trump officials ‘created confrontation’ that led to arrest of Newark mayor

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      Trump administration homeland security officials were responsible for starting the confrontation on Friday at a New Jersey immigration jail that led to the arrest of Newark’s mayor as well as threats to detain three members of Congress, the representatives said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union.The Democratic Congress members Bonnie Watson Coleman, LaMonica McIver and Rob Menendez – all of New Jersey – visited the controversial Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention center known as Delaney Hall on Friday to inspect the facility. As they waited to enter Delaney Hall, Newark’s mayor Ras Baraka arrived – and as he left the property, he was arrested outside by Ice officials accusing him of trespassing, leading to a commotion at the entrance of the jail.There evidently was shoving and pushing between federal immigration officials and the members of Congress, which Watson Coleman, McIver and Menendez blamed on the immigration officials.On CNN’s State of the Union, the Congress members said immigration officials had ample opportunity to deescalate the situation before someone called in and instructed masked agents to arrest Baraka.“They created that confrontation, they created that chaos,” McIver said.Since the ordeal on Friday at Delaney Hall, homeland security officials have accused the Congress members of staging a “bizarre political stunt” there while also accusing McIver of “bodyslamming” authorities at the scene.McIver rejected those allegations.“I honestly do not know how to bodyslam anyone,” McIver said. “There’s no video that supports me bodyslamming anyone.“We were simply there to do our job – there for an oversight visit.”For their part, officials have threatened to arrest the three members of Congress in connection with Friday’s commotion at Delaney Hall. Watson Coleman told CNN on Sunday that those threats stemmed from the Trump administration’s “determination to intimidate people in this country”.The Delaney Hall facility was recently reopened by Ice, as the agency continues to expand its detention network to assist in the Trump administration’s aspirations to carry out mass deportations. The facility operator says it has the capacity to detain 1,000 people.Delaney Hall is owned by Geo Group, a massive, private prison company with Ice facilities throughout the US. The Trump administration in February gave a 15-year contract worth $1bn to Geo Group to operate Delaney Hall.However, the new contract comes amid legal challenges to Ice detention in New Jersey. Newark’s municipal government recently filed a lawsuit against Geo Group claiming that the company did not have the proper permits to operate the facility.There is also a separate legal battle playing out in a federal appellate court related to private immigration detention in the state. In 2021, New Jersey governor Phil Murphy signed a law barring immigration detention in the state. Another private prison company, CoreCivic, which runs the only other immigration jail in the state, sued New Jersey’s state government.CoreCivic received support from the Biden administration in its suit, and a federal judge ruled in favor of the company. The state challenged the federal judge’s decision, and a federal appellate court heard arguments for the case only recently. More

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      Quakers march 300 miles to protest Trump’s immigration crackdown

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      A group of Quakers were marching more than 300 miles from New York City to Washington DC to demonstrate against the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants.The march extends a long tradition of Quaker activism. Historically, Quakers have been involved in peaceful protests to end wars and slavery, and support women’s voting rights in line with their commitment to justice and peace. Far more recently, Quakers sued the federal government earlier this year over immigration agents’ ability to make arrests at houses of worship.Organizers of the march say their protest seeks to show solidarity with migrants and other groups that are being targeted by Donald Trump’s second presidency.“It feels really daunting to be up against such critical and large and in some ways existential threats,” said Jess Hobbs Pifer, a 25-year-old Quaker and march organizer, who said she felt “a connection” to the faith’s long history of activism.“I just have to put one foot in front of the other to move towards something better, something more true to what Quakers before us saw for this country and what people saw for the American Experiment, the American dream,” she said.Their goal was to walk south from the Flushing Quaker Meeting House – across New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Pennsylvania – to the US Capitol to deliver a copy of the Flushing Remonstrance, a 17th-century document that called for religious freedom and opposed a ban on Quaker worship.Quakers say it remains relevant in 2025 as a reminder to “uphold the guiding principle that all are welcome”.“We really saw a common thread between the ways that the administration is sort of flying against the norms and ideals of constitutional law and equality before the law,” said Max Goodman, 28, a Quaker, who joined the march.“Even when they aren’t breaking rules explicitly, they’re really engaging in bad faith with the spirit of pluralism, tolerance and respect for human dignity that undergirds our founding documents as Americans and also shows up in this document that’s really important in New York Quaker history.”The Quakers, whose formal name is the Religious Society of Friends, originated in 17th-century England.The Christian group was founded by George Fox, an Englishman who objected to Anglican emphasis on ceremony. In the 1640s, he said he heard a voice that led him to develop a personal relationship with Christ, described as the Inner Light.Fox taught that the Inner Light emancipates a person from adherence to any creed, ecclesiastical authority or ritual forms.Brought to court for opposing the established church, Fox tangled with a judge who derided him as a “quaker” in reference to his agitation over religious matters.Following the faith’s core beliefs in nonviolence and justice, Quakers have demonstrated for the abolition of slavery, in favor of the suffrage movement, against both world wars, and the US role in the wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan, said Ross Brubeck, 38, one of the Quaker march organizers.They also joined protests against the World Trade Organization in Seattle and the Black Lives Matter protests after the 2020 killing of George Floyd.“Quakers have had a central role in opposition to repression within the United States since its founding,” said Brubeck, who was marching along a trail in New Jersey with companions waving an upside-down American flag, intended to serve as a signal of distress.One the most well-known Quakers was William Penn, who founded Pennsylvania following the faith’s emphasis on religious tolerance. The group became influential in cities like Philadelphia.But members of the group have also faced scorn for refusing to join wars due to their belief in pacifism and nonviolence. Some were persecuted and even killed for trying to spread their religious beliefs.Earlier this year, five Quaker congregations filed a lawsuit challenging a Trump administration move giving immigration agents more leeway to make arrests at houses of worship.Trump has insisted that immigrants are an existential threat to the US. Immigration into the US, both legal and illegal, surged during Joe Biden’s presidency, and Trump assailed that influx before winning November’s election.Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has launched a campaign of immigration enforcement that has pushed the limits of executive power and clashed with federal judges trying to restrain him.“Immigrants are the ones experiencing the most acute persecution in the United States,” Brubeck said. “The message to Trump is that the power is not his to make.” More

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      To my newborn son: I am absent not out of apathy, but conviction | Mahmoud Khalil

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      Yaba Deen,* it has been two weeks since you were born, and these are my first words to you.In the early hours of 21 April, I waited on the other end of a phone as your mother labored to bring you into this world. I listened to her pained breaths and tried to speak comforting words into her ear over the crackling line. During your first moments, I buried my face in my arms and kept my voice low so that the 70 other men sleeping in this concrete room would not see my cloudy eyes or hear my voice catch. I feel suffocated by my rage and the cruelty of a system that deprived your mother and me of sharing this experience. Why do faceless politicians have the power to strip human beings of their divine moments?Since that morning, I have come to recognize the look in the eyes of every father in this detention center. I sit here contemplating the immensity of your birth and wonder how many more firsts will be sacrificed to the whims of the US government, which denied me even the chance of furlough to attend your birth. How is it that the same politicians who preach “family values” are the ones tearing families apart?Deen, my heart aches that I could not hold you in my arms and hear your first cry, that I could not unfurl your clenched fists or change your first diaper. I am sorry that I was not there to hold your mother’s hand or to recite the adhan, or call to prayer, in your ear. But my absence is not unique. Like other Palestinian fathers, I was separated from you by racist regimes and distant prisons. In Palestine, this pain is part of daily life. Babies are born every day without their fathers – not because their fathers chose to leave, but because they are taken by war, by bombs, by prison cells and by the cold machinery of occupation. The grief your mother and I feel is but one drop in a sea of sorrow that Palestinian families have drowned in for generations.View image in fullscreenDeen, it was not a gap in the law that made me a political prisoner in Louisiana. It was my firm belief that our people deserve to be free, that their lives are worth more than the televised massacre we are witnessing in Gaza, and that the displacement that began in 1948 and culminated in the current genocide must finally end. This mere belief is what made the state scramble to detain me. No matter where I am when you read this – whether I’m in this country or another – I want to impress upon you one lesson:The struggle for Palestinian liberation is not a burden; it is a duty and an honor we carry with pride. So at every turning point in my life, you will find me choosing Palestine. Palestine over ease. Palestine over comfort. Palestine over self. This struggle is sweeter than a life without dignity. The tyrants want us to submit, to obey, to be perfect victims. But we are free, and we will remain free. I hope you feel this as deeply as I do.Deen, as a Palestinian refugee, I inherited a kind of exile that followed me to every border, every airport, every form. Borders mean something to me that they may not mean to you. Each crossing required me to prove my docility, my identity and my very right to exist. You were born an American citizen. You may never feel that weight. You may never have to translate your humanity through paperwork, countless visa applications and interview appointments. I hope you use this not to separate yourself from others, but to uplift those who live under the same circumstances that once constrained me. But I won’t pretend this citizenship protects you. Not completely. Not when you have my name. Not when those in power still see our people as threats.One day, you might ask why people are punished for standing up for Palestine, why truth and compassion feel dangerous to power. These are hard questions, but I hope our story shows you this: the world needs more courage, not less. It needs people who choose justice over convenience.It is nothing but the dehumanization and racist disregard for Palestinians that renders their lives forgettable and that dares describe Palestinian fathers who love their sons as “terrorists”. Perhaps that is why the world so quickly forgot the killing of four-month-old Iman Hijjo in Gaza in 2001. Why did Ahmed Abu Artema’s beloved son Abdullah die hungry for bread? Who recalls the children lost in the Flour Massacre? Where is the justice for the fathers in the West Bank who carefully dress their sons for prison? Why does liberty not visit the bodies of Palestinian children whose limbs are missing, whose ribs are exposed under thin skin and who are born lovingly only to die under an Israeli bomb?On this first Mother’s Day for Noor, I dream of a world where all families are reunited to celebrate the incredible women in their lives. Many years ago, on one of our very first dates, I had asked your mother what she would change in the world if she could. Her simple response was: “I just want people to be nicer to each other.” Deen, you were born to a mother as gentle as she is fierce. I pray that you live in a world shaped by that kindness. I hope, with all my heart, that you will not witness the oppression that I’ve known. I hope that you never need to chant for Palestine, because it has long been free with dignity and prosperity for all. Should that day come, know that it was ushered in through the courage of those who came before you. I am certain that in this new world, you and I will visit Tiberias together, drink from the river and marvel at the sea. There, in a free and just Palestine, you will see the fruits of our struggle.Deen, my love for you is deeper than anything I have ever known. Loving you is not separate from the struggle for liberation. It is liberation itself. I fight for you, and for every Palestinian child whose life deserves safety, tenderness and freedom. I hope one day you will stand tall knowing your father was not absent out of apathy, but out of conviction. And I will spend my life making up for the moments we lost – starting with this one, writing to you with all the love in my heart.*Yaba Deen: “Yaba” (يابا ) is an affectionate term meaning “dad” in Arabic. In Palestinian Arabic, yaba is often used self-referentially to center the father-son bond in the greeting itself. So when a father says “yaba”, he’s using a tender, fatherly voice to address his child, somewhat like saying: “From your dad, Deen” or “My son, from your yaba (dad)”.

      Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. More

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      Rümeysa Öztürk, Tufts student held by Ice, vows to continue legal action after jail release

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      A Tufts University student from Turkey has returned to Boston, one day after being released from a Louisiana immigration detention center where she was held for more than six weeks after being arrested for her political speech.Rümeysa Öztürk told reporters at Logan Airport on Saturday that she was excited to get back to her studies during what has been a “very difficult” period.“In the last 45 days, I lost both my freedom and also my education during a crucial time for my doctoral studies,” she said. “But I am so grateful for all the support, kindness and care.”A federal judge ordered Öztürk’s release Friday pending a final decision on her claim that she was illegally detained following an op-ed she co-wrote last year criticizing her university’s response to Israel and the war in Gaza.She filed a lawsuit challenging her detention now assigned to US district judge William Sessions in Burlington, Vermont. He granted her bail after finding she had raised substantial claims that her rights were violated.Öztürk said she will continue her case in the courts, adding, “I have faith in the American system of justice.”“Today is a tremendous day as we welcome you back, Rumeysa,” Ed Markey, a Democrat senator from Massachusetts said. “You have made millions and millions of people across our country so proud of the way you have fought.”Appearing by video for her bail hearing the previous day, Öztürk, 30, detailed her growing asthma attacks in detention and her desire to finish her doctorate focusing on children and social media.Judge Sessions ruled that she was to be released on her own recognizance with no travel restrictions. She was not a danger to the community or a flight risk, he said, while noting that he might amend the release order to consider any conditions by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or Ice, in consultation with her lawyers.Sessions said the government offered no evidence for why Öztürk was arrested other than the op-ed.The US justice department’s executive office for immigration review did not respond to an email message seeking comment.Öztürk was one of four students who wrote the opinion piece last year in campus newspaper The Tufts Daily. It criticized the university’s response to student activists demanding that Tufts “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide,” disclose its investments and divest from companies with ties to Israel.On 25 March immigration officials surrounded Öztürk in Massachusetts and took her into custody. She was then driven to New Hampshire and Vermont and flown to a detention center in Basile, Louisiana.Her student visa had been revoked several days earlier, but she was not informed of that, her lawyers said.Öztürk is one of several international students detained by the Trump administration over their pro-Palestinian advocacy on campus.Öztürk’s lawyers first filed a petition on her behalf in Massachusetts, but they did not know where she was and were unable to speak to her until more than 24 hours after she was detained. A Massachusetts judge later transferred the case to Vermont.A state department memo said Öztürk’s visa was revoked following an assessment that her actions “‘may undermine US foreign policy by creating a hostile environment for Jewish students and indicating support for a designated terrorist organization including co-authoring an op-ed that found common cause with an organization that was later temporarily banned from campus”.A department of homeland security spokesperson said in March, without providing evidence, that investigations found that Öztürk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, which the US has designated as a terrorist group.This week a federal appeals court upheld Sessions’ order to bring Öztürk back to New England for hearings to determine whether her constitutional rights, including free speech and due process, were violated, as her lawyers argue.Immigration proceedings for Öztürk, initiated in Louisiana, are being conducted separately in that state and Öztürk can participate remotely, the court said. More

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      New Jersey mayor to continue fight against Ice detention center after arrest

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      Speaking out after his arrest on Tuesday, the Newark mayor Ras Baraka said his city would continue its fight in court against the company that runs an immigration detention facility in New Jersey.“I know there are some protests that other people are planning, and if I feel obligated to be there, I will,” Baraka told the Rev Al Sharpton on MSNBC Saturday afternoon. “This doesn’t stop the city’s contention with the Geo Group, and we’re going to continue in court with them.”Baraka was arrested Tuesday morning after joining three members of Congress at a protest and press conference outside a new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention facility located in Newark known as Delaney Hall.He was arrested by homeland security agents and taken into custody at a separate facility in Newark. The mayor was released about five hours later and charged with trespassing.Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told CNN Saturday morning that “there will be more arrests coming” after the protest at the facility, saying that the arrests of the three Democratic members of Congress who were there – Bonnie Watson Coleman, Rob Menendez and LaMonica McIver – are “on the table”.McLoughlin told CNN that the lawmakers “put law enforcement at risk, this actually put the detainees as well at risk” and said that DHS have “body-camera footage of some of these members of Congress assaulting our Ice enforcement officers”.Newark sued Geo Group after the company won a 15-year $1bn contract with Ice to run Delaney Hall, saying that the company was renovating the facility without proper permits and that city inspectors had been barred from entering the center.Federal officials and representatives from Geo Group denied the allegations and told the New York Times that the company had the proper permits, saying that Baraka’s arrest was a “publicity stunt by the mayor”, who is also running in the state’s gubernatorial race.“The mayor has been informed that he is more than welcome to enter the facility, as long as he follows security protocols like everyone else,” McLoughlin told the Times.At the protest Tuesday, Baraka joined Coleman, Menendez and McIver, who were allowed into the facility as part of an oversight visit.In a video reviewed by the New York Times, a homeland security agent told Baraka he could not enter the facility like the Congress members, or he would be arrested.Baraka, who was in a crowd of people, told Sharpton that he left the entry gates “several times”, and he was ultimately arrested outside the facility gates. Baraka insists that he “didn’t do anything wrong”.Baraka told Sharpton that DHS was “treating us just like a regular case”.“I was put in the cell, I was given a mug shot, fingerprinted, charged with a federal crime of trespassing,” Baraka said, adding that the police were “treating [him] pretty good”.Baraka emphasized that the federal government wasn’t sharing information about who was being kept in the detention facility.“We don’t know what’s going on in there, we don’t know who’s in there. They don’t allow inspectors. They’re not complying with local laws,” Baraka said. “They feel like they don’t have to go to court.” More

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      Trump ‘looking at’ suspending habeas corpus, top aide Stephen Miller says – US politics live

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      In response to a question from a blogger for the far-right Gateway Pundit about when the Trump administration could start “suspending the writ of habeas corpus to take care of the illegal immigration problem”, White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller said the Trump administration is “actively looking at” doing so.Federal habeas corpus is a procedure under which a federal court may review the legality of an individual’s incarceration.Miller told the blogger, Jordan Conradson, he had made a point of calling on first: “The Constitution is clear, and that, of course, is the supreme law of the land, that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in time of invasion. So it’s an option we’re actively looking at. Look, a lot of it depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not”.Miller’s use of the word “invasion” reflects the Trump administration’s argument that the US is under invasion from undocumented migrants and so the president is justified in claiming the power to deport anyone the administration brands a suspected gang member, with little to no due process under the rarely-used, wartime Alien Enemies Act.A recently declassified intelligence assessment, however, shows that US agencies do not believe that the gang Tren de Aragua is operating on behalf of the government of Venezuela, as the administration has claimed as justification to use the Alien Enemies Act.Just last week a federal judge in Texas ruled that the law does not authorize the administration to deport such individuals. You can read more on that here:The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that scientists who get federal grants from the National Institutes of Health are being notified that funding for their work could be pulled if they boycott Israel or fail to follow Donald Trump’s executive orders decreeing that diversity is a form of anti-white racism and there are only two sexes, male and female.In one case, a researcher at a teaching hospital in the Boston area, who studies how genes are regulated in lung disease, discovered in the fine print of her grant renewal that she was expected to comply with Trump’s anti-trans order “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth”.The Chronicle has confirmed that at least two institutions have received grant notices ordering them to comply with Trump’s anti-transgender executive order.The fine print of grant awards even bans scientists from promoting “accessibility” for people with disabilities, making DEIA a prohibited term.According to new conditions for NIH grants released last month:By accepting the grant award, recipients are certifying that:(i) They do not, and will not during the term of this financial assistance award, operate any programs that advance or promote DEI, DEIA, or discriminatory equity ideology in violation of Federal anti-discrimination laws; and(ii) They do not engage in and will not during the term of this award engage in, a discriminatory prohibited boycott.The mayor of Newark, New Jersey, Ras Baraka, “was arrested and detained by Ice” on Friday at an federal immigration detention center where he was protesting, a spokesperson for his campaign to be the state’s governor confirmed.Alina Habba, a former personal lawyer for Donald Trump who is now interim US attorney for New Jersey, wrote on social media that Baraka “has been taken into custody” after, she alleged, he “committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the Ice detention center in Newark”.The mayor has been protesting the opening of Delaney Hall, an detention facility run by private prison operator GEO Group, all week, saying its operators did not get proper permits.Video of the mayor being led away in handcuffs was posted on social networks by a local news station.Witnesses told The Associated Press the arrest came after Baraka attempted to join a scheduled tour of the facility with three members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation, Representatives Robert Menendez, LaMonica McIver, and Bonnie Watson Coleman.When federal officials blocked his entry, a heated argument broke out, according to Viri Martinez, an activist with the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice. It continued even after Baraka returned to the public side of the gates.“The agents started intimidating and putting their hands on the congresswomen. There was yelling and pushing,” Martinez said. “Then the officers swarmed Baraka. They threw one of the organizers to the ground. They put Baraka handcuffs and put him in an unmarked car”.Video circulating on Bluesky showed the mayor being dragged inside the gates.“We’re at Delaney Hall, an ICE prison in Newark that opened without permission from the city & in violation of local ordinances” Coleman wrote on social media before the mayor’s arrest. “We’ve heard stories of what it’s like in other ICE prisons. We’re exercising our oversight authority to see for ourselves”.Our colleague Richard Luscombe has more on this developing story:In response to a question from a blogger for the far-right Gateway Pundit about when the Trump administration could start “suspending the writ of habeas corpus to take care of the illegal immigration problem”, White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller said the Trump administration is “actively looking at” doing so.Federal habeas corpus is a procedure under which a federal court may review the legality of an individual’s incarceration.Miller told the blogger, Jordan Conradson, he had made a point of calling on first: “The Constitution is clear, and that, of course, is the supreme law of the land, that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in time of invasion. So it’s an option we’re actively looking at. Look, a lot of it depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not”.Miller’s use of the word “invasion” reflects the Trump administration’s argument that the US is under invasion from undocumented migrants and so the president is justified in claiming the power to deport anyone the administration brands a suspected gang member, with little to no due process under the rarely-used, wartime Alien Enemies Act.A recently declassified intelligence assessment, however, shows that US agencies do not believe that the gang Tren de Aragua is operating on behalf of the government of Venezuela, as the administration has claimed as justification to use the Alien Enemies Act.Just last week a federal judge in Texas ruled that the law does not authorize the administration to deport such individuals. You can read more on that here:Exasperated by the turmoil that has dogged Pete Hegseth’s office in recent weeks, the White House will block the US defense secretary’s choice of chief of staff and select a candidate of its own, according to two people familiar with the matter.Hegseth had suggested giving the chief of staff position to Marine Col Ricky Buria after the first person in the role, Joe Kasper, left last month in the wake of a contentious leak investigation that brought the ouster of three other senior aides.But the White House has made clear to Hegseth that Buria will not be elevated to become his most senior aide at the Pentagon, the people said, casting Buria as a liability on account of his limited experience as a junior military assistant and his recurring role in internal office drama.“Ricky will not be getting the chief position,” one of the people directly familiar with deliberations said. “He doesn’t have adequate experience, lacks the political chops and is widely disliked by almost everyone in the White House who has been exposed to him.”The White House has always selected political appointees at agencies through the presidential personnel office, but the move to block Hegseth’s choice at this juncture is unusual and reflects Donald Trump’s intent to keep Hegseth by trying to insulate him from any more missteps.The intervention comes at a time when Hegseth’s ability to run the Pentagon has come under scrutiny. It also runs into the belief inside Trump’s orbit that even the president might struggle to justify Hegseth’s survival if the secretary does not have a scandal-free next few months.Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order later today discouraging criminal enforcement of regulatory offenses, in a bid to combat the overcriminalization of federal regulations, a White House official has told Reuters.Trump also plans to sign a proclamation to encourage migrants who are in the US illegally to voluntarily depart the country, according to a White House official.The “Project Homecoming” initiative will encourage migrants to leave voluntarily with the assistance of the federal government and financial support, or face enforcement and penalties, according to the official.

      A federal judge ordered the immediate release of Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts University student from Turkey, whose detention in March for writing an op-ed critical of Israel’s war in Gaza in her school newspaper judge William Sessions ruled “raised significant due process concerns”. Ordering her release, Sessions said her continued detention “potentially chills the speech of the millions and millions of individuals in this country who are not citizens”.

      People in Texas who were told they would be deported to Libya sat waiting on a military airfield tarmac for hours on Wednesday, unsure of what would happen next, Reuters reported. After several hours, they were bused back to the detention center around noon, an attorney for one of the men said. A US official told Reuters the flight never departed. As of Friday, it was unclear if the administration was still planning to proceed with the deportations.

      Pope Leo is “not happy with what’s going on with immigration”, his brother told the NYT, adding: “How far he’ll go with it is only one’s guess, but he won’t just sit back. I don’t think he’ll be the silent one.” Here’s our write-up.

      The major “earth-shattering” announcement Donald Trump teased earlier this week in the Oval Office is a “most favored nation” plan to cut Medicare drug prices, sources told CBS News, a policy he pursued unsuccessfully in his first term. The move would require Medicare to pay drug companies the lowest price paid in similar countries for some expensive, physician-administered drugs.

      Donald Trump said he would be “OK” if Republicans in Congress raised the tax rate on the wealthiest Americans, but warned of political consequences. He wrote on his Truth Social platform: “Republicans should probably not do it, but I’m OK if they do!!!” It comes after the president privately urged House speaker Mike Johnson to raise the tax rate, Reuters reported.

      But, in a sign of just how tricky it may be to get Republicans to vote for raising anyone’s taxes, the tax portion of the GOP mega-bill is at risk of unraveling, three people told Politico, after leaders failed to win enough support for deeper spending cuts. That means Republicans will have to leave out some of Trump’s tax priorities, according to the people.

      A majority of US adults disapprove of Trump’s handling of issues related to colleges and universities, as his Republican administration escalate threats to cut federal funding unless institutions align with his political agenda. According to a poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 56% of Americans said they disapproved of the US president’s approach to higher education, while about four in 10 expressed approval, which is broadly consistent with his overall job approval ratings.

      Large institutional investors massively increased their holdings of Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) in recent months according to SEC filings, with many enlarging their positions by hundreds of millions of dollars. The revelations raise further questions about big business’s desire to curry favor with Donald Trump and his administration via the enterprises he has maintained or commenced.

      Trump remains firm that the US is not going to unilaterally reduce tariffs on Chinese goods without concessions from China, the White House said, only hours after Trump floated the idea of reducing the current rate of 145% down to 80% as the two sides prepare for talks in Switzerland. “That was a number the president threw out there, and we’ll see what happens this weekend,” Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

      The US Postal Service named David Steiner as the next postmaster general after the Trump administration pressured the prior leader to resign in March. Steiner is a former Waste Management CEO and has served on the board of FedEx.
      Donald Trump has signed an executive order to establish a national center for homeless veterans with redirected funds previously spent on services for illegal aliens, according to Fox News Digital.The order directs the secretary of veterans affairs to establish the “National Center for Warrior Independence” on the veterans affairs campus in West Los Angeles, Fox reports.Fox quotes the White House: “The new National Center for Warrior Independence will help [LA’s unhoused veterans’] and other veterans like them rebuild their lives.”The center will allow veterans from around the nation to seek and receive care, benefits and services “to which they are entitled”, the White House said.The White House told Fox the goal is to house up to 6,000 homeless veterans at the center by 2028.A girl recovering from a rare brain tumor celebrated her 11th birthday on Sunday, hundreds of miles away from everything she’s known – her friends at school, her community at church, her home, NBC News reports.She is one of four US citizen children who were sent to Mexico from Texas three months ago when immigration authorities deported their undocumented parents.Hoping to find a way for her to resume medical treatment in the US, this morning her family traveled to Monterrey to meet with members of the congressional Hispanic caucus to urge “legislators to advocate for their return under humanitarian parole”.One such colleague is Senator Ed Markey, who called the order for Öztürk’s release “a victory for Rümeysa, for justice, and for our democracy”. He posted on X:
      Rümeysa Öztürk has finally been ordered released. She has been unlawfully detained for more than six weeks in an ICE facility in Louisiana, more than 1,500 miles away from Somerville. This is a victory for Rümeysa, for justice, and for our democracy.
      Senator Elizabeth Warren posted on X: “The Trump administration must release Rümeysa Öztürk right now.”Warren is one of the members of Congress who has been pushing for Öztürk’s release and the restoration of her visa. In March she called Öztürk’s arrest and detention without due process “deeply disturbing” and with colleagues has been demanding answers about the case from the Trump administration since.US district judge William Sessions also found that in addition to the violation of her constitutional rights, Öztürk faced significant risk in Ice custody for an exacerbation of her diagnosed chronic asthma.According to court filings, she suffered multiple asthma attacks in detention that she has struggled to get treated for, and has had her hijab forcibly removed.Öztürk appeared on video at the hearing earlier and told the judge she had suffered 12 asthma attacks since her detention, saying:
      Now they are between five to 45 minutes and they are more intense … longer and harder to stop.
      “We are not allowed to take fresh air when we need to take it … Also there is no divider between the showers,” Öztürk said.“Also the maximum capacity for the room is indicated … for 14 people but there are 24 people living in a small area, spanning … more than 22 hours inside of the same locked cell,” she added.Following Öztürk’s initial testimony, her doctor, Jessica McCannon, testified about her diagnosis of Öztürk’s asthma. At one point, Öztürk had an asthma attack during McCannon’s testimony, which her lawyers had to interrupt. The judge then excused Öztürk and allowed her to temporarily step out of the room to use the bathroom.Addressing the court, McCannon said:
      She is at significantly increased risk of developing an asthma exacerbation if not released, that would potentially require emergency evaluation.
      If not treated appropriately and quickly, patients can suffer morbidity and mortality related to asthma exacerbations.
      The Trump administration is attempting to deport Rümeysa Öztürk under a rarely used immigration statute giving the secretary of state the authority to remove immigrants deemed harmful to US foreign policy. Her lawyers say it is a flagrant violation of her constitutional right to free speech.US district judge William Sessions, in ordering her release, said her continued detention “potentially chills the speech of the millions and millions of individuals in this country who are not citizens. Any one of them may now avoid exercising their first amendment rights for fear of being whisked away to a detention center from their home. For all of those reasons, the court finds that her continued detention cannot stand, that bail is necessary to make the habeas [petition] … effective.”He added:
      This is a woman who’s just totally committed to her academic career … there is absolutely no evidence that that she has engaged in violence or advocated violence. She has no criminal record … therefore, the court finds that she does not pose a danger to the community.
      Monica Allard, staff attorney with the ACLU of Vermont, said of the order for the release of Rümeysa Öztürk.
      After today’s ruling, Rümeysa can return to her community at Tufts and sleep safely in her own bed. Tomorrow, she can wake up and begin the process of healing from this experience while she finishes her PhD in child development.
      Spending over six weeks in detention for writing an op-ed is a constitutional horror story. Her release is a victory for everyone committed to justice, free speech, and basic human rights.
      Mahsa Khanbabai of Khanbabai Immigration Law, who is representing Rümeysa Öztürk, said of the order for her release:
      I am relieved and ecstatic that Rümeysa has been ordered released. Unfortunately, it is 45 days too late. She has been imprisoned all these days for simply writing an op-ed that called for human rights and dignity for the people in Palestine. When did speaking up against oppression become a crime? When did speaking up against genocide become something to be imprisoned for?
      I am thankful that the courts have been ruling in favor of detained political prisoners like Rümeysa. The public plays an important role in upholding our constitutional rights. Please continue to speak up for democracy and civil rights in every space including our elected offices, our universities, and our halls of justice.
      Donald Trump remains firm that the United States is not going to unilaterally reduce tariffs on Chinese goods without concessions from China, Leavitt said, hours after Trump floated the idea of reducing the current rate of 145% down to 80% as the two sides prepare for talks in Switzerland.“That was a number the president threw out there, and we’ll see what happens this weekend,” she told reporters.At the White House press briefing, Karoline Leavitt says secretary of State Marco Rubio is in constant contact with the leaders of both India and Pakistan.With tensions continuing to escalate between the two neighboring countries, Leavitt reiterated that Donald Trump wants to see the conflict de-escalate.A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Friday to release Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts University student from Turkey who has been held for over six weeks in a Louisiana immigration detention facility after she co-wrote an opinion piece criticizing her school’s response to Israel’s war in Gaza.US district judge William Sessions during a hearing in Burlington, Vermont, granted bail to Öztürk, who is at the center of one of the highest-profile cases to emerge from Donald Trump’s campaign to deport pro-Palestinian activists on American campuses.The judge ruled shortly after a federal appeals court rejected the Trump administration’s bid to re-detain Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian campus activist who a different judge in Vermont ordered released last week after immigration authorities arrested him as well.Ozturk’s arrest on 25 March by masked, plainclothes law enforcement officers on a street in Somerville, Massachusetts, near her home was captured in a viral video and occurred after the state department revoked her student visa.The sole basis authorities have provided for revoking her visa was an opinion piece she co-authored in Tufts’ student newspaper criticizing the school’s response to calls by students to divest from companies with ties to Israel and to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide”.Her lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union had argued that her arrest and detention were unlawfully designed to punish her for speech protected by the constitution’s first amendment and to chill the speech of others.Öztürk was moved to a detention center in Basile, Louisiana, even though her lawyer filed a lawsuit in Massachusetts the day she was arrested and a judge there barred her from being moved out of the state without 48 hours’ notice.By the time that order came down, Immigration and Customs Enforcement had already taken her to Vermont, where she was held briefly before being flown to Louisiana.Rather than dismiss her case as the administration wanted, a Massachusetts judge transferred the case to Vermont, saying it could be properly heard there.Sessions then ordered Öztürk transferred to Vermont so she could be available as he weighed ordering her release and considered the “significant constitutional concerns” she had raised.A federal appeals court on Wednesday ordered her transferred to Vermont by 14 May, but Sessions opted to proceed with a previously-scheduled bail hearing to go forward on Friday and allow Ozturk to appear remotely after her lawyers said she was suffering from worsening asthma attacks while in custody. More

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      Mayor of Newark arrested for trespassing at Ice detention center

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      The mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, was arrested for trespass at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention center in New Jersey on Friday as Democratic members of Congress also attempted to conduct what they say was a visit to the controversial facility to conduct “federal oversight”.News of Baraka’s arrest at Delaney Hall was reported on X by Alina Habba, the acting US attorney for the district of New Jersey, and a former personal attorney and adviser to Donald Trump.“The Mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey this afternoon,” Habba wrote.“He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this state. He has been taken into custody. No one is above the law.”Kabir Moss, spokesperson for the Baraka for Governor campaign, said in a statement that he was taken to a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) office a few miles from the facility and remained in detention. Baraka is currently running for the Democratic nomination as New Jersey’s governor in a competitive race. The primary is scheduled for next month.“We are actively monitoring and will provide more details as they become available,” Moss said.The New Jersey Globe published a photograph of him being led away in handcuffs by officers in jackets marked “Police Ice”. The newspaper does not have a reporter at the scene, but said observers at Delaney Hall said there had been “a scuffle”.Baraka, who spoke out against Trump’s immigration policies in January after an immigration raid in Newark he said Ice agents conducted without a warrant, was at Delaney Hall with Democratic New Jersey Congress members Bonnie Watson Coleman, LaMonica McIver and Rob Menendez.The politicians have accused the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of reopening the detention facility, in contravention of local ordinances and without the necessary permits.It is the largest such facility in the north-eastern US, and was the first to open after Trump’s second term of office began in January, according to the Ice website.Coleman, in a tweet, said the visit was an attempt to establish conditions inside. “We’ve heard stories of what it’s like in other Ice prisons. We’re exercising our oversight authority to see for ourselves,” she wrote.Coleman also told reporters at a press conference outside the facility that the lawmakers had traveled to the facility to see the conditions, according to the Independent.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“Ice is out of control,” she said. “Ice thinks it can intimidate all of us. And it cannot intimidate any of us. And we the people will make sure that this administration adheres to the rules that separate us from dictatorships and other third world countries.”Menendez accused Ice agents of having “put their hands on” representatives Coleman and McIver, reported the New York Times. “They feel no restraint on what they should be doing, and that was shown in broad daylight today,” Menendez said at the news conference.Axios reports that Coleman’s office said that they “arrived at Delaney Hall today at about 1pm to exercise their oversight authority as prescribed by law. After a period of explaining the law to the officials at the site they were escorted in.”Video attached to the tweet shows the Congress members inside the grounds of the center talking to employees. Other clips show them being threatened with arrest for trespass by uniformed officials. More