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      A private prison firm wants to detain immigrants in this Kansas town. Its residents are pushing back

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      It was a lovely May evening in Leavenworth, Kansas, but instead of strolling along the Missouri River or gardening, a group of locals sat on squeaky folding chairs at the public library to discuss their mission: how to stop a private prison behemoth from warehousing immigrants down the road.This was happening in a famously pro-prison town, home to one of the oldest federal penitentiaries, and where Donald Trump won more than 60% of the vote in 2024. Besides the military and the Veterans Affairs medical center, prisons are the largest employer in this community, 30 miles north-west of Kansas City. With federal immigration detention facilities around the country packed due to the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts, the private prison industry is experiencing a boom. Stock prices of companies such as GEO Group and CoreCivic soared as they gained scores of contracts.But when CoreCivic applied earlier this year for a permit in Leavenworth to reopen a prison with a troubled history to hold immigration detainees, city officials balked. And local residents – including some former prison employees – pushed back.That evening at the library, the citizens waited to hear whether a federal judge would decide if Leavenworth had the right to tell CoreCivic to buzz off. Regardless of what happened in court, organizers of this “teach-in” were preparing attendees for the next possible round of the fight. Over homemade chocolate chip cookies and sun tea, they talked about how to get letters published in the Leavenworth Times and reminded attendees to politely pester elected officials.Local organizer (and cookie baker) Rick Hammett suggested to the crowd that political and corporate interests had stirred fears of immigrants ahead of the 2024 election cycle to benefit private prisons.“To be profitable, private prison firms must ensure that prisons are not only built but also filled,” Hammett said. “Which is how you end up with a scare tactic over migrants to drum up a reason to put people in jail.”In early June, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported the most immigrant arrests in a single day in its history: more than 2,200 people.Ashley Hernandez, an organizer for the Sisters of Charityof Leavenworth, lamented that CoreCivic has portrayed those who oppose the Ice detention facility as “out-of-town” agitators. But this room is full of locals, she noted. “They’re the outside organization.”The Sisters of Charity is a Catholic convent – they prefer the term “community” – that has been in Leavenworth longer than the prisons – even before statehood. Part of the Sisters’ mission is to “advocate for justice and systemic change” for exploited and marginalized people, Hernandez later explained.View image in fullscreenThe nuns “understand the history of injustices that have gone on in that prison, and they’ve never been OK with that”, she said.Leavenworth’s landmarks hint at a progressive past that dates to at least the 1850s, when Kansas opposed slavery and fought for admission to the US as a free state. The effort’s most radical proposal was the “Leavenworth constitution” which asserted that “all men are by nature equally free and independent”. Leavenworth’s city hall has statues of Lady Liberty and Abraham Lincoln; a nearby park has a plaque for women’s suffragist Susan B Anthony, who spent time here with her newspaper publisher brother. The landscape is dotted with little reminders that people who don’t have power can always fight for it.Many locals remember what happened when CoreCivic previously ran the detention center, housing mostly pretrial detainees for the US marshals from 1992-2021. They recall guards who were permanently injured by prisoner attacks and understaffing that undermined security, according to a federal audit.Mike Trapp, a local writer and activist who reserved the room for the library teach-in, said he’s seen some softening recently among his neighbors who were Trump voters. Even those who support the mass deportations “are on our side in not trusting CoreCivic to do the right thing”, he said.Scandals plagued the facility during its final years of operation – beatings, stabbings, suicides and alleged sexual assaults, according to court records. Leavenworth police said they were blocked at the gate from investigating crimes inside. The facility finally closed in 2021 as the Biden administration shifted away from private prison contracts.The city changed its ordinance since CoreCivic initially opened a prison here, just six miles south of the federal government’s own massive medium-security penitentiary, which has been operating since 1903. The rules now require a new prison operator to seek a city permit. CoreCivic paid a fee and applied for a permit in February to reopen its facility, now called the Midwest Regional Reception Center. But the firm quickly reversed course as residents’ opposition mounted.CoreCivic argued in court filings that because it retained employees in Leavenworth, it never really closed – and didn’t need a permit to reopen the facility. City leaders responded by suing in federal court, and then state court, seeking to block CoreCivic from repopulating the facility. In filings, the city argued the company previously ran an “absolute hell hole”, and the infamous American prison town did not want this one.In an editorial in the Kansas Reflector, critics of reopening the prison fumed: “CoreCivic has repeatedly shown that it is incapable of running a humane facility. Now, the company flouts city approval to move forward with an ICE center based on false promises.”View image in fullscreenSome in Leavenworth opposed the new facility because they feared undocumented immigrants could be released locally, leading CoreCivic to repeatedly promise that any agreement with Ice would strictly prohibit that.In early June, a state district judge sided with the city and issued a temporary injunction, saying the company needed a permit.David Waters, a lawyer for the city, said the case is about following the permitting process and not about “immigration policy, writ large”.A week later, CoreCivic filed a motion asking the district court judge to reconsider, arguing that the city failed to prove reopening the facility would cause “irreparable” future harm or that the company needed a permit.Leaders at CoreCivic have dismissed critics, saying the company has had more than 1,600 applicants for 300 jobs with a starting salary of $28.25 an hour, plus benefits.“We maintain the position that our facility, which we’ve operated for almost 30 years, does not require a Special Use Permit to care for detainees in partnership with ICE,” said Ryan Gustin, senior director of public affairs, in an email.He touted the company’s promises to Leavenworth: a one-time impact fee of $1m, a $250,000 annual fee and an additional $150,000 annual fee to the police department. This is in addition to the over $1m in annual property taxes CoreCivic already pays, Gustin said.The Reception Center originally expected “residents” as of 1 June. The company has posted numerous photos of its warden handing out $10,000 checks to veteran’s causes and the Salvation Army.In legal filings, CoreCivic argued that preventing the opening of its 1,000-plus bed facility would cost it more than $4m a month. In a federal financial disclosure filed in May, the company stated its letter agreement for the Leavenworth facility with Ice authorized payment up to nearly $23m for a six-month period “while the parties work to negotiate and execute a long-term contract”.Gustin said most of the concerns about safety and security of the facility were “concentrated in an 18-month period” over 30 years of operations and attributed staffing shortages to the Covid-19 pandemic and a tight labor market. “As with any difficult situation, we sought to learn from it,” he said.When CoreCivic previously operated the Leavenworth detention center, Tina Shonk-Little was detained there for about 16 months for insurance fraud. She described for the crowd that night at the Leavenworth library how medical and dental care in the facility was scant.“If you had a toothache, they just pulled it,” she said. Her smile bears the scars.View image in fullscreenShe recoiled when Hammett cited public records showing CoreCivic’s CEO earned more than $7m last year. Corporate leaders at CoreCivic and GEO Group gushed on recent earnings calls about the “unprecedented opportunity” they’re facing with Trump in office. Ads and text messages show CoreCivic is offering new guards $2,500 signing bonuses.Across the river in rural Missouri, cash-strapped sheriff’s departments are signing up to hold Ice detainees in small jails for $110 per night, per head, and to transport them as far as Kansas City for $1.10 per mile. Emails obtained through public records requests show that about a week after Trump was elected, CoreCivic leadership began contacting Leavenworth city officials about reopening their facility there.“They don’t want to do better. They are in it for profit,” Shonk-Little said. “They could give two shits about the people. The more people they have, the better off they are because it’s more money in their pocket.”Shonk-Little expressed sympathy for the corrections officers who worked there. “God bless the corrections officers who did what they could with what they had,” she said.Toward the back of the room sat Bill Rogers, a brick wall of a man who spends nearly two hours a day in the gym. He was one of those guards. A few minutes after her speech, Rogers stood suddenly, looking like a frog was lodged in his throat, as his eyes welled with tears.He spoke directly to Shonk-Little: “What courage … to come here. And everything you said was right. It was true. I remember. And as a former officer, I apologize. That’s all I can say.”She responded: “I’m sorry you were treated the way you were treated also.”They hugged.At a coffee shop the next morning, Rogers explained he was a high school dropout and heavy equipment operator who thought $20 an hour, plus benefits, working for CoreCivic sounded like a good gig.“I just needed a job,” he recalled. He started working as a correctional officer in 2016 and initially loved it.“I bet you 85% of those inmates I met? I would have hung out with them on the street. They were just decent people who made a mistake. I really believe that,” he said.Not long after Rogers started, the voluntary overtime shifts became mandatory. A 2017 audit by the Department of Justice found that understaffing was hurting safety and security at the facility. In recent court filings, lawyers for Leavenworth accused CoreCivic of gross mismanagement of the previous facility, resulting in “rampant abuse, violence and violations of the constitutional rights of its detainees and staff”.They referenced one incident in November 2018, when CoreCivic didn’t report the death of an inmate to city police for six days.It’s that death that haunts Rogers’ dreams. Dillon Reed was only 29 when he ended up at the Leavenworth facility on a drug charge, but Rogers remembered he was a funny, sweet kid who reminded him of his adult son.View image in fullscreen“He made me laugh,” Rogers said.Reed had an addiction, and alcohol and drugs were rampant inside the prison, Rogers said. On Thanksgiving Day in 2018, Reed was found dead in his cell. Rogers was working in a different section of the facility, but he was called to remove Reed’s body from his cell. An autopsy later showed that Reed likely died of sudden cardiac death, with a mixture of alcohol and drugs in his system.Rogers still can’t talk about it without getting choked up. Calling an ambulance quickly could have saved Reed, he said.“When that door came open? I didn’t see an inmate. I saw a young man … and I saw my son,” he said. “I don’t care that he was an inmate … he was a human soul. He shouldn’t have died. We had a job to do, and it didn’t happen that day.”In 2020, Rogers was stabbed in the hand and had his head split open with a cafeteria tray by combative prisoners. Later that year, he was so fed up with the lack of security, he said, that when a prisoner came at him, he shoved the man against the wall – and was fired.Some of Rogers’ former detention officer friends will not talk to him anymore, because he’s been speaking out, he said. He said they tell him: “You didn’t do shit when you worked there, and now you’re running your mouth.”Marcia Levering, a former CoreCivic colleague of Rogers, is also speaking out about the attack by a prisoner that nearly killed her. She was working in February 2021, shortly before the facility closed, when a colleague opened the wrong security door. A prisoner who was angry at her beat her senselessly and stabbed her multiple times. She spent two months in the hospital and is now permanently disabled, struggling to pay her rent.“They’re not looking out for the safety of their inmates or staff,” Levering said of CoreCivic. “They’re looking out for their own self-interest, which is taking the taxpayers’ money to line the pockets of their higher-ups.”Lawyers for the city of Leavenworth filed a motion last week asking the state district judge to formalize the temporary injunction. The motion states that the “federal government might apply pressure on CoreCivic to defy or look for loopholes in this Court’s orders”, while noting that the company has “accelerated” activity at the detention center.Meanwhile, residents are planning a march against the detention center on 19 July. They plan to meet 10 days earlier at MoMos to make homemade protest signs.

      This article was published in partnership with The Marshall Project, a non-profit news organization covering the US criminal justice system. Sign up for their newsletters, and follow them on Instagram, TikTok, Reddit and Facebook More

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      Senate holds marathon ‘vote-a-rama’ on Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ – US politics live

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      Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of US politics and the second Trump administration.The US Senate is holding a marathon vote on a sprawling budget that is vital to Donald Trump’s agenda and would see sweeping tax breaks and cuts to healthcare and food programmes if passed.Senators have convened at the Capitol for a process known as “vote-a-rama”, in which lawmakers will propose amendments to the legislation over what is expected to be many hours.Democrats say the bill’s tax cuts would disproportionately benefit the wealthy at the expense of social programs for lower-income Americans.The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (yes, it is formally called this) is expected to add an estimated $3.3tn to the national debt over the next decade. Republicans are rushing to pass the bill Trump’s self-imposed deadline of 4 July.Republicans – who control both chambers of Congress and are generally loyal to Trump – are heavily divided over how deep welfare cuts should be in order to extend tax breaks in the legislation.It is about 2.30am in Washington and it has been over 16 hours since voting began. We are expecting a result in around two and a half/ three hours time. Stay with us for all the latest developments.In other news:

      Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars in support of Trump’s candidacy, has pledged to found a new political party he called the “America Party” and support candidates who did not back the budget bill in future elections.

      The Senate parliamentarian found that Republicans can include a provision that would block Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood in the “big, beautiful bill”.

      Trump signed an executive order overturning sanctions on Syria today and issued a memorandum on US policy toward Cuba.

      The Trump administration sued the city of Los Angeles over policies limiting city cooperation with federal immigration authorities, continuing a confrontation over Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation efforts in the largely Democratic city.

      The Trump administration informed Harvard University that its investigation found that the university violated federal civil rights law over its treatment of Jewish and Israeli students, putting its federal funding further at risk.

      Trump will host Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on 7 July.

      Trump wrote to Fed chair Jerome Powell again urging him to lower interest rates.
      Beginning early on Monday and so far having run for roughly 19 hours, it remains unclear how long the voting in the marathon ‘vote-a-rama’ will last.Republicans can afford to lose no more than three votes in either chamber to pass a bill the Democrats are united in opposition to.If approved in the Republican-controlled Senate, Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act will return to the lower House of Representatives, also Republican controlled, which passed its own version by a single vote at the end of May (215 to 214).In the House, a full vote on the Senate’s final version of the bill could then come as early as Wednesday morning.The senate has adopted an amendment offered by Republican senator Joni Ernst – who represents Iowa – to prevent jobless millionaires from claiming unemployment compensation.Lawmakers voted 99-1 to strike the AI regulation ban from the bill by adopting an amendment offered by Republican senator Marsha Blackburn.Republican Senator Thom Tillis, who announced his retirement on Sunday after voting not to proceed with the megabill, was the lone lawmaker who voted to retain the ban.The Senate version of Trump’s legislation would have only restricted states regulating AI from tapping a new $500m fund to support AI infrastructure.Major AI companies, including Alphabet’s Google and OpenAI, have expressed support for Congress taking AI regulation out of the hands of states.Blackburn presented her amendment to strike the provision a day after agreeing to compromise language with Senate Commerce Committee chair Ted Cruz that would have cut the ban to five years and allowed states to regulate issues such as protecting artists’ voices or child online safety if they did not impose an “undue or disproportionate burden” on AI.But Blackburn withdrew her support for the compromise before the amendment vote.In a statement, the Tennessee Republican said:
      The current language is not acceptable to those who need these protections the most.
      Until Congress passes federally preemptive legislation like the Kids Online Safety Act and an online privacy framework, we can’t block states from making laws that protect their citizens.
      The Republican-led US Senate has voted overwhelmingly to remove a 10-year federal ban on state regulation of AI from Trump’s mega bill, Reuters is reporting. More details soon…Johana Bhuiyan is a senior tech reporter and editor for Guardian US, based in San FranciscoThe US Department of Homeland Security has for the first time built a national citizenship database that combines information from immigration agencies and the social security administration.The database was created in collaboration with the “department of government efficiency” (Doge) in an effort to bridge the gaps between disparate information sources to make it easier to determine whether someone is a citizen, according to NPR, which first reported the details of the database.The database is the result of an expansion of the systematic alien verification for entitlements (Save) program, made up of smaller databases within the homeland security department, and an integration with information from the Social Security Administration.The centralized repository is searchable and can be accessed by state and local election officials to look up the names of anyone trying to vote to determine if they are citizens, according to NPR. Until now, election officials had to ask potential voters for documents verifying their citizenship or rely on a hard-to-navigate patchwork of databases.You can read the full story here:Some more news from the US senate now, where Republicans are – for the most part – still trying to pass Trump’s mega-bill.Maine’s Republican senator Susan Collins has blamed Democrats for tanking her amendment to increase the bill’s rural hospital relief fund, saying they are “hypocrites” for championing themselves as protectors of Medicaid but then opposing her efforts to reduce the impacts of the legislation on rural hospitals.“I was surprised at the hypocrisy of the Democrats on it, had they voted for it would have passed easily,” ABC News quoted Collins as having told reporters this morning.Only two Democrats out of 22 senators supported Collins’ amendment, which would have seen the creation of a new top marginal tax rate used to double the size of the proposed rural hospital relief fund from $25bn to $50bn.Collins added:
      They complained repeatedly about the distribution in this bill of Medicaid cuts, hurting individuals in rural hospitals and tax cuts being extended for people who are wealthy. And yet, when we tried to fix both those problems, they took a very hypocritical approach.
      Rural and smaller hospitals are at risk of bankruptcy because of the steep Medicaid cuts being proposed in the budget bill.Elon Musk has vowed to unseat lawmakers who support Donald Trump’s sweeping budget bill, which he has criticized because it would increase the country’s deficit by $3.3tn.Musk wrote on his social media platform, X:
      Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame!
      And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.
      A few hours later he added that if “insane spending bill passes, the America Party will be formed the next day”.With these threats, lobbed at lawmakers over social media, the tech billionaire has launched himself back into a rift with the US president he helped prop up.Since taking leave from his so-called “department of government efficiency”, or Doge, Musk has sharply criticized Trump’s budget bill, which he has said will undermine his work at Doge by increasing spending.You can read the full story by my colleague, Maanvi Singh, here:

      The Senate bill includes $4.5tn in tax cuts, according to the latest analysis from the congressional budget office, making permanent Trump’s 2017 rates, which would expire at the end of the year if Congress fails to act.

      The Senate package would roll back billions of dollars in green energy tax credits, which Democrats warn will wipe out wind and solar investments nationwide.

      It would impose $1.2tn in cuts, largely to Medicaid and food stamps, by imposing stricter work requirements, making sign-up eligibility more stringent and changing federal reimbursements to states. Medicaid provides government-sponsored health care for low-income and disabled Americans.

      The bill would provide a $350bn infusion for border and national security, including for deportations, some of it paid for with new fees charged to immigrants.
      Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer says Democrats will bring “amendment after amendment after amendment to the floor, so Republicans can defend their billionaire tax cuts.”He said Democrats would offer amendments to “see once and for all if Republicans really meant all those nice things they’ve been saying about ‘strengthening Medicaid’ and ‘protecting middle-class families’, or if they were just lying”.As the marathon session grinds into the early hours of the morning, some lawmakers are finding ways to relax or vent away from the heat of the chamber.GOP senators took breaks from the Senate floor as well.Republican US senator Tommy Tuberville, of Alabama, smoked a cigar on the Capitol terrace at sunset while other GOP senators took calls and chatted in rooms near the Senate chamber.This weekend’s dramatic senate session saw a narrow 51-49 passing of a procedural vote on Saturday night to advance the budget bill and a forced reading of the 940-page bill by Democrats, a political manoeuvre that was deployed to stall its progress.Two Republicans sided with Democrats in voting against opening debate, wanting to change parts of the contentious legislation.One of these Republicans was the North Carolina moderate Thom Tillis, who said the package was a betrayal of Donald Trump’s promise not to withdraw healthcare from people, something he fears could happen if rural hospitals close. The other was Rand Paul of Kentucky.The bill must now clear a formal Senate vote and be returned to the lower House for approval – which Trump wants done before a self-imposed Fourth of July holiday deadline.As my colleague Chris Stein explains in this story, after Tillis declined to vote for the bill, Trump attacked him and the senator announced he would not stand for re-election next year, potentially improving Democrats’ chances of picking up the purple state’s seat.Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of US politics and the second Trump administration.The US Senate is holding a marathon vote on a sprawling budget that is vital to Donald Trump’s agenda and would see sweeping tax breaks and cuts to healthcare and food programmes if passed.Senators have convened at the Capitol for a process known as “vote-a-rama”, in which lawmakers will propose amendments to the legislation over what is expected to be many hours.Democrats say the bill’s tax cuts would disproportionately benefit the wealthy at the expense of social programs for lower-income Americans.The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (yes, it is formally called this) is expected to add an estimated $3.3tn to the national debt over the next decade. Republicans are rushing to pass the bill Trump’s self-imposed deadline of 4 July.Republicans – who control both chambers of Congress and are generally loyal to Trump – are heavily divided over how deep welfare cuts should be in order to extend tax breaks in the legislation.It is about 2.30am in Washington and it has been over 16 hours since voting began. We are expecting a result in around two and a half/ three hours time. Stay with us for all the latest developments.In other news:

      Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars in support of Trump’s candidacy, has pledged to found a new political party he called the “America Party” and support candidates who did not back the budget bill in future elections.

      The Senate parliamentarian found that Republicans can include a provision that would block Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood in the “big, beautiful bill”.

      Trump signed an executive order overturning sanctions on Syria today and issued a memorandum on US policy toward Cuba.

      The Trump administration sued the city of Los Angeles over policies limiting city cooperation with federal immigration authorities, continuing a confrontation over Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation efforts in the largely Democratic city.

      The Trump administration informed Harvard University that its investigation found that the university violated federal civil rights law over its treatment of Jewish and Israeli students, putting its federal funding further at risk.

      Trump will host Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on 7 July.

      Trump wrote to Fed chair Jerome Powell again urging him to lower interest rates. More

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      Trump news at a glance: Republicans scramble to pass ‘one big, beautiful bill’ as deadline looms

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      Senate Republicans are racing to meet Donald Trump’s self-imposed 4 July deadline to pass the president’s massive tax-and-spending “one big, beautiful bill”. In a marathon session, senators convened at the Capitol to propose amendments to the legislation over many hours.Democrats, who universally oppose the bill, are expected to use the process to force their opponents into politically tricky votes that they will seek to wield against them in elections to come.Even if it passes the Senate, the bill will still need to go back through the House, which is being called back to session for votes as soon as Wednesday.Here’s the latest:US Senate Republicans make final push to pass Trump’s one big beautiful billAs the marathon session kicked off on Monday morning, Senate majority leader John Thune sounded optimistic that the measure would soon clear his chamber. “Let’s vote. This is good for America, this is good for the American people, it is good for working families,” he said.Chuck Schumer the Senate minority leader said the bill “steals people’s healthcare, jacks up their electricity bill, take away their jobs – all to pay for tax breaks for billionaires”. He said Democrats would offer amendments to “see once and for all if Republicans really meant all those nice things they’ve been saying about ‘strengthening Medicaid’ and ‘protecting middle-class families’, or if they were just lying”.Republican Senator Thom Tillis said “this bill will betray the promise Donald Trump made,” a few hours after announcing he would not seek re-election in politically competitive North Carolina.Read the full storyDoJ moves to strip US citizenship from some naturalised AmericansThe Trump administration has codified its efforts to strip some Americans of their US citizenship in a recently published justice department memo that directs attorneys to prioritize denaturalization for naturalized citizens who commit certain crimes.The memo, published on 11 June, calls on attorneys in the department to institute civil proceedings to revoke a person’s United States citizenship if an individual either “illegally procured” naturalization or procured naturalization by “concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation”.Read the full storyWhite House says Canada ‘caved’ to Trump demand to scrap tech taxThe United States has said that Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney “caved” to demands from the White House after his government abruptly scrapped their digital services tax on US technology companies, which was set to go into effect on Monday.“It’s very simple. Prime minister Carney and Canada caved to president [Donald] Trump and the United States of America,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a daily briefing.Read the full storyTrump administration reportedly concludes Harvard violated students’ civil rightsThe Trump administration has concluded that Harvard University violated federal civil rights law in its handling of Jewish and Israeli students, and it threatened the school with a potential “loss of all federal financial resources” as a result, according to the Wall Street Journal.In a Monday letter addressed to the Harvard president, Alan Garber, administration attorneys stated that the university was aware Jewish and Israeli students felt unsafe on campus but failed to take meaningful action. The letter, obtained by the Journal, accused Harvard of “deliberate indifference” toward those concerns.Read the full storyTrump signs executive order on lifting some Syria sanctions Donald Trump has signed an executive order to lift some financial sanctions on Syria in a move that the White House says will help stabilise the country after the ousting of Bashar al-Assad.Read the full storyUS dollar has worst first half in more than 50 years amid Trump tariffsThe US dollar has had its worst first half-year in more than 50 years, as the financial markets over the last six months were dominated by geopolitical crises and Donald Trump’s trade war.The dollar has fallen by 10.8% against a basket of currencies since the start of 2025. That is its worst performance over the first six months of any year since 1973, and the worst half-year since the second half of 1991.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

      The US Department of Homeland Security has for the first time built a national citizenship database that combines information from immigration agencies and the social security administration.

      The Trump administration is on track to oversee one of the deadliest years for immigrants in detention after the recent deaths of two men – one from Cuba and another from Canada – while in federal custody.

      The US supreme court agreed on Monday to hear a case that could further erode restrictions on money in politics, in a challenge that comes in part from vice-president JD Vance.
      Catching up? Here’s what happened 29 June. More

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      Stanford University will cut $140m from its budget, citing ‘federal policy changes’

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      Stanford University will cut $140m from its budget in the coming academic year, citing “consequences from federal policy changes” including “reductions in federal research support and an increase in the endowment tax”. The news came in a letter Jon Levin, the university president, and Jenny Martinez, the provost, sent to faculty and staff last week.The budget cuts will likely necessitate staff layoffs, deepening the impact of a staff hiring freeze the university announced in February. The university will continue hiring faculty, “although the pace may be somewhat slowed”, Levin and Martinez wrote. The cuts exclude the School of Medicine, which will make its own budget reductions.“We believe deeply in the value of universities, in federal support for basic research, and in the endowment model that underpins financial aid and graduate fellowships. We will continue to advocate for these things,” Levin and Martinez said. “At the same time, we need to be realistic about the current landscape and its consequences.”Stanford has been hit particularly hard by federal changes to research grants and a proposed endowment tax.The university has lost millions of dollars in federal grants this year, according to databases tracking cuts to National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation grants maintained by Noam Ross of rOpenSci and Scott Delaney of the Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health.The university would also keenly feel the impact of an endowment tax such as that proposed by Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” The House of Representatives has passed a version of the president’s budget which would levy a 21% tax on schools like Stanford, up from 1.4%. The Senate is currently debating a version of the bill which would set the endowment tax at 8%. According to the student newspaper the Stanford Daily, a 21% endowment tax would cost the university approximately $750m annually.At $37.6bn in August 2024, Stanford has the third-largest endowment of any university in the United States, after only Harvard and Yale. During the 2024-2025 academic year, the university disbursed $1.8bn of that endowment to support financial aid and academic programs. In preparation for coming federal cuts, Levin and Martinez said the university would increase its endowment disbursement by 2.9%.That increased disbursement is intended to support financial aid and doctoral student funding, Levin and Martinez said, as well as continued research. To lessen the impact of budget cuts, the university said it would limit capital and facilities expenditures to the most critical ones or those with external funding.Stanford has faced growing federal scrutiny this year apart from its finances. In March, the justice department announced it would investigate whether Stanford, alongside three other California universities, was complying with the supreme court’s ban on affirmative action. More

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      Trump signs executive order to lift some financial sanctions on Syria

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      Donald Trump has signed an executive order to lift some financial sanctions on Syria in a move that the White House says will help stabilise the country after the ousting of Bashar al-Assad.The order was designed to “terminate the United States’ sanctions programme on Syria”, a White House spokesperson said, cancelling a 2004 declaration that froze Syrian government property and limited exports to Syria over Damascus’s chemical weapons programme.Some sanctions will remain on Syria, including those mandated through Congress under the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019 that targeted funds for reconstruction and natural gas development, as well as the US declaration of Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism.Trump’s order would mainly direct other members of the administration to consider broader sanctions relief for Syria – and could possibly provide leverage with Syria in talks on normalising ties with Israel and foreign investment in the country’s reconstruction.The order included a direction to secretary of state Marco Rubio to evaluate suspending sanctions under the Caesar Act, permit the relaxation of control on the export of “certain goods”, and lift restrictions on some foreign aid. It also directs Rubio to review Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa’s designation as a terrorist leader and Syria’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, and to consider measures for sanctions relief through the United Nations.“We welcome the cancellation of the majority of the sanctions program imposed on the Syrian Arab Republic, pursuant to the historic executive order issued by President Trump,” said Syrian foreign minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani. “By removing this major obstacle to economic recovery, the doors to long-awaited reconstruction and development are opened, along with the rehabilitation of vital infrastructure, providing the necessary conditions for the dignified and safe return of displaced Syrians to their homeland.”The White House sought to portray the decision as one that would protect US interests, noting Trump’s efforts to “address foreign terrorists”, promote the normalisation of ties with Israel, and prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State.“President Trump wants Syria to succeed – but not at the expense of US interests,” the White House said in a statement.White House officials said that the executive order would maintain pressure on the former leader Assad and his entourage.“The order will remove sanctions on Syria while maintaining sanctions on the former president, Assad, his associates, human rights abusers, drug traffickers, persons linked to chemical weapons activities, Islamic State and their affiliates, and Iranian proxies,” said the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, during a briefing on Monday.The move was widely anticipated after Donald Trump briefly met with Syria’s new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, who led forces that overthrew Assad in December. Sharaa has complained that the sanctions against Syria had made it difficult to stabilise his fragile transition government, citing issues with paying civil servant wages and funding reconstruction. Trump pledged in May to lift all sanctions on Syria following Assad’s removal from power.The executive order would “end the country’s isolation from the international financial system, setting the stage for global commerce, and galvanizing investments from its neighbors in the region as well as from the US”, said acting under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence Brad Smith in a briefing with reporters.Asked about the Abraham accords, the Trump administration’s negotiations for Arab states to normalise diplomatic ties with Israel, a senior administration official suggested that the White House would not push for the recognition of specific territorial claims between Syria and Israel.“We’re going to come to a mutuality of understanding, and you’re going to get there slowly, and there’s going to be metrics and milestones and objectives, and you’re going to start trusting each other,” the official said. “And over this trust, those lines become illusory.” More

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      Trump officials create searchable national citizenship database

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      The US Department of Homeland Security has for the first time built a national citizenship database that combines information from immigration agencies and the social security administration.The database was created in collaboration with the “department of government efficiency” (Doge) in an effort to bridge the gaps between disparate information sources to make it easier to determine whether someone is a citizen, according to NPR, which first reported the details of the database.The database is the result of an expansion of the systematic alien verification for entitlements (Save) program, made up of smaller databases within the homeland security department, and an integration with information from the Social Security Administration. The centralized repository is searchable and can be accessed by state and local election officials to look up the names of anyone trying to vote to determine if they are citizens, according to NPR. Until now, election officials had to ask potential voters for documents verifying their citizenship or rely on a hard-to-navigate patchwork of databases.In response to a request for comment, the DHS said: “Integration with the Social Security Administration (SSA) significantly improves the service offered by Save.”Previously, agencies involved in voting were required to use numbers issued by the DHS to look up voter registrations, which they may not have had access to but may have been more likely to possess social security numbers, according to the statement. The citizenship database may also soon integrate state department of motor vehicles (DMV) data, NPR reported.The DHS statement also describes the motivations for the creation of the database: “Under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary Noem, USCIS is moving quickly to eliminate benefit and voter fraud among the alien population.” Voter fraud is rare in the US, experts say; consequences include fines or jail time.The citizenship database is one of the first results of Doge’s efforts to gain access to and merge information on Americans from agencies across the federal government, including the Internal Revenue Service, in the first few months of the Trump administration.Reports indicate Doge is attempting to create a single data hub that enables access to these vast troves of information on Americans in an effort to eliminate the separation of information in isolated or protected silos. The attempt to connect various sources of personal information, which Doge has said is needed to root out fraud, and allow it to be accessed in one place has sparked several lawsuits.In response, union members in Maryland have sued the office of personnel management, the treasury department and the education department for sharing personal information with Doge officials “who had no need to know the vast amount of sensitive personal information to which they were granted access”, according to their suit.“Defendants admit that the [Social Security Administration] granted Doge personnel broad access to millions of Americans’ sensitive PII [personally identifiable information],” US district judge Ellen Lipton Hollander of Maryland wrote in a decision ordering a temporary block on the Social Security Administration sharing information with Doge.“This intrusion into the personal affairs of millions of Americans – absent an adequate explanation for the need to do so – is not in the public interest.”The database in question was created with little engagement of the public, something that is requisite for building these types of mass surveillance databases. The Privacy Act of 1974 requires federal agencies to notify the public if there are new ways they plan to use or collect Americans’ personal information. Legal experts have also questioned whether this sort of a centralized database sidesteps many of the privacy and security protections implemented within each agency.The consolidation of personal information into a mass database is unprecedented and has sparked concern among immigration and privacy advocates. The creation of a centralized repository brings together pieces of information that were previously within the purview of separate agencies, and potentially makes it easier for government officials to look up individual’s data from across the government. Many worry about how else this database could be used.“The premise of noncitizen voter fraud is one that officials, including President Trump, have used as a pretext to discredit and intimidate entire communities,” said Citlaly Mora, spokesperson for immigration legal project Just Futures Law.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“This database is the latest iteration of Doge’s attempt to weaponize the data of the millions of people that live in the US They are building this database without transparency and without consulting the public about how their data will be used, a brazen violation of our privacy rights. Given this administration’s track record of failing to follow proper processes, we should all be concerned.”The rollout of the citizenship database, which is an upgraded version of an existing network of data sources, comes after the New York Times reported that software firm Palantir was selected to help develop a “mega-database” for the Trump administration.In a letter to the company, 10 Democratic lawmakers said the database, which would collect the tax and other personal information on all Americans in a single repository, would potentially be a violation of federal law.“The unprecedented possibility of a searchable ‘mega-database’ of tax returns and other data that will potentially be shared with or accessed by other federal agencies is a surveillance nightmare that raises a host of legal concerns, not least that it will make it significantly easier for Donald Trump’s administration to spy on and target his growing list of enemies and other Americans,” the letter reads.Palantir has repeatedly denied that it was building a master database.It said: “Palantir is neither conducting nor enabling mass surveillance of American citizens. We do not operate the systems, access the data, or make decisions about its use.” More

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      Two more Ice deaths put US on track for one of deadliest years in immigration detention

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      The Trump administration is on track to oversee one of the deadliest years for immigrant detention as of late after the recent deaths of two men – one from Cuba and another from Canada – while in federal custody.A 75-year-old Cuban man died last week while being held by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), CBS News reported, citing a notification sent to Congress. This would mark the 13th death in its facilities during the 2025 fiscal year, which began in October.At least two of those have been classified as suicides.In comparison, Ice reported 12 deaths in the fiscal year 2024.Advocates and immigration attorneys say deteriorating conditions inside an already strained detention system are contributing to the rise in deaths, which has unfolded as the administration aggressively ramps up efforts to deport millions of migrants.Under the past three administrations, the worst year saw 12 deaths in Ice custody. If the current pace continues, the total for 2025 could double those numbers.Critics say the system is collapsing under the pressure of Ice’s target of detaining about 3,000 people each day. As of mid-June, more than 56,000 migrants were being held – that is 140% of the agency’s stated capacity.“These are the worst conditions I have seen in my 20-year career,” Paul Chavez, litigation and advocacy director at Americans for Immigrant Justice, told the New York Times. “Conditions were never great, but this is horrendous.”Among the recent fatalities are 49-year-old Johnny Noviello, a Canadian who was found unresponsive on 23 June at a detention facility in Miami. Another is Jesus Molina-Veya, 45, who died on 7 June while in Ice custody in Atlanta.Molina-Veya, from Mexico, was found unconscious with a ligature around his neck, according to officials. His death remains under investigation.In response to Noviello’s death, the Canadian government has pressed US authorities for more information.“The government of Canada was notified of the death of a Canadian citizen while in custody in the United States. Canadian consular officials are urgently seeking more information from US officials. I offer my sincere condolences to the family,” Anita Anand, Canada’s minister of foreign affairs, wrote on X.Despite the high death toll, immigration enforcement remains a top funding priority for the Trump administration. Border and immigration enforcement have been making up two-thirds of federal law enforcement spending.Under Trump’s proposed “big, beautiful bill”, the US would commit $350bn to national security, including for the president’s mass deportation agenda. More

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      Republican senator denounces Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ in fiery speech

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      “It is inescapable this bill will betray the promise Donald Trump made,” Thom Tillis, the North Carolina Republican senator, said on Sunday night, sandblasting the Senate version of the “big, beautiful bill” that is meant to codify the president’s agenda.Tillis made his speech on the Senate floor on Sunday night, a few hours after announcing he would not seek re-election in politically competitive North Carolina. Observers described it as “fiery” and “savage”. But Tillis carefully avoided direct criticism of the president as he denounced proposed cuts to Medicaid, a lack of rigor in the legislative process and the Senate’s headlong drive to an artificial deadline.Instead, in one of the most forceful Republican denunciations of the bill, Tillis attacked “amateurs” advising the president who have “no insight into how these provider tax cuts are going to be absorbed without harming people on Medicare”.Tillis’s office published an analysis concluding that the Senate budget would have a $32bn impact on the North Carolina healthcare system and threaten insurance coverage for 663,000 Medicaid expansion beneficiaries in the state – about one in 16 North Carolinians.“What do I tell 663,000 people in two years or three years, when President Trump breaks his promise by pushing them off of Medicaid because the funding’s not there any more, guys?” Tillis said in his floor speech.It has become increasingly difficult for lawmakers in the Republican party to break ranks with the president without facing withering blowback from conservative media, “Maga” diehards and Trump himself on social media.“Tillis is a talker and complainer, NOT A DOER! He’s even worse than Rand ‘Fauci’ Paul!” Trump posted on Truth Social after announcing his opposition to the bill. Trump pledged to back a primary challenger to Tillis. When Tillis subsequently announced he would not seek re-election, Trump called it “good news”, and threatened primary challenges against other Republican fiscal conservatives standing in the way of the bill’s passage.Arguments critical of conservative doctrine on healthcare would fall on deaf ears. Instead, Tillis’s rhetoric emphasized the political threat to Republican lawmakers and the president himself if the bill passed in its current form.“I’m telling the president that you have been misinformed,” he said. “You supporting the Senate mark will hurt people who are eligible and qualified for Medicaid.”Tillis referred back to Trump’s promise not to cut Medicaid while campaigning for president.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“The last time I saw a promise broken around healthcare, with respect to my friends on the other side of the aisle, is when somebody said “If you like your healthcare, you could keep it. If you like your doctor, you could keep it,” Tillis said. “We found out that wasn’t true. That made me the second Republican speaker of the House since the civil war.”Tillis signaled he would be willing to support the House version of the reconciliation bill.The procedural vote passed 51-49 Sunday. Budget reconciliation bills are not subject to cloture and the 60-vote threshold limiting debate. Trump has repeatedly pushed a 4 July deadline for passage. More