February 25, 2017
New Trump Deportation Rules Allow Far More Expulsions
New guidelines include people in US illegally charged with or even suspected of a crime, and would send border crossers back to Mexico regardless of origin.
NY TIMES
Documents released on Tuesday by the Department of Homeland Security revealed the broad scope of the president’s ambitions: to publicize crimes by undocumented immigrants; strip such immigrants of privacy protections; enlist local police officers as enforcers; erect new detention facilities; discourage asylum seekers; and, ultimately, speed up deportations.
For now, so-called Dreamers, who were brought to the United States as young children, will not be targeted unless they commit crimes, officials said on Tuesday.
Mr. Trump has not yet said where he will get the billions of dollars needed to pay for thousands of new border control agents, a network of detention facilities to detain unauthorized immigrants and a wall along the entire southern border with Mexico.
But politically, Mr. Kelly’s actions on Tuesday serve to reinforce the president’s standing among a core constituency — those who blame unauthorized immigrants for taking jobs away from citizens, committing heinous crimes and being a financial burden on federal, state and local governments.
Despite those assertions in the new documents, research shows lower levels of crime among immigrants than among native-born Americans.
February 23, 2017
February 21, 2017
| Homeland Security memos outline broad plans to bolster deportation efforts |
| Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly signed sweeping new guidelines for measures to more aggressively detain and deport illegal immigrants. The documents detail plans to hire thousands of additional enforcement agents, speed up deportation hearings and expand the pool of immigrants prioritized for removal. |
| By David Nakamura • Read more » |
February 20, 2017
President Trump’s personal lawyer and a former business partner met with a member of the Ukrainian parliament to discuss a peace plan for that country that could give Russia long-term control over territory it seized in 2014 and lead to the lifting of sanctions against Moscow.
- Amid scrutiny of President Trump’s possible ties to Russia, his lawyer advanced a plan for resolving its conflict with Ukraine.
- While there is nothing illegal about such efforts, a proposal that seems to tip toward Russian interests may set off alarms.
February 18, 2017
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| Trump says he ‘inherited a mess,’ blasts media and detractors | |||||||
| In a sprawling news conference, President Trump seemed to acknowledge widespread reports of turbulence emanating out of his West Wing, only to claim that his White House — which so far has been marred by staff infighting, a controversial travel ban, false statements, and myriad leaks — was operating seamlessly. | |||||||
| By Ashley Parker and John Wagner • Read more »
It was “insane,” a “marathon rant” at the media, and “a press conference for the ages.” These were the terms that Fox Business Channel’s Charles Gasparino, the home page of the New York Post, and Fox News’s Shepard Smith used, respectively, to describe the performance that Donald Trump put on during a press conference in the East Room of the White House on Thursday.
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February 17, 2017
Michael Flynn, who resigned as the national security adviser this week, contradicted the contents of intercepted communications collected by intelligence agencies, current and former U.S. officials said. The Jan. 24 interview potentially puts Flynn in legal jeopardy, as lying to the FBI is a felony, but any decision to prosecute would ultimately lie with the Justice Department.
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February 16, 2017
The U.S. government said the series of ICE raids last week netted at least 683 “criminal aliens,” but advocates point to a sharp discrepancy between what ICE says it’s doing and what immigrants are reporting in cities across the nation.
“The U.S. government said the series of ICE raids last week netted at least 683 ‘criminal aliens,’ the first major immigration enforcement wave under President Trump. But a growing chorus of activists, lawyers and lawmakers have pointed to a sharp discrepancy between what ICE says it is doing and what immigrant families are seeing and reporting in cities across the nation:
- In Chicago, a student called her high school teacher to tell him that ICE had raided her home the night before, arresting her father, an undocumented immigrant whose criminal record included only traffic violations, the teacher said.
- In Centreville, Va., a woman told officials at London Towne Elementary School that a student’s father had been arrested after dropping their son off at school that morning.
- In the Baltimore parking lot of a Walgreens, ICE agents arrested a barber and a local business owner who advocates said also had no criminal records.
- ICE has arrested at least one DACA recipient during the raids. ICE says the man, Daniel Ramirez Medina, is a "gang member."
| Trump undertakes most ambitious regulatory rollback since Reagan |
| As the administration targets dozens of Obama-era policies, business leaders are thrilled. But the campaign has alarmed labor unions, safety advocates and environmental activists as the fallout ripples across the country. By Juliet Eilperin • Read more » |
February 15, 2017
Flynn departure erupts into crisis for White House.
The question that legislators are trying to figure out, a Republican said, is if the vice president — like most everyone else — is simply a victim to a rash and erratic president, or if he is deliberately being shut out by senior White House advisers.
February 14, 2017
Pedro Hernandez Found Guilty in Kidnap, Murder of Etan Patz.
A 55-year-old man, Pedro Hernandez, was found guilty on Tuesday of kidnapping and murdering 6-year-old Etan Patz in New York in 1979. Prosecutors alleged that Hernandez coaxed Patz, who was waiting at a bus stop in SoHo, into following him into a basement, where he choked Patz to death and disposed of the body. A previous case against Hernandez resulted in a hung jury after one juror refused to vote in favor of conviction. Patz’s body has never been found.
Report: Trump Aides, Russian Intel Spoke.
According to a report in The New York Times, four current and former American officials contend that members of President Trump's campaign staff and other associates of Trump had repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials during the year before the 2016 election. Three of the officials contend that American law enforcement and intelligence agencies intercepted the communications around the time they were finding evidence that Russia was involved in hacking of the Democratic National Committee. One of the advisers who was allegedly on the calls was former campaign manager Paul Manafort. “This is absurd,” Manafort said in response to the allegations. “I have no idea what this is referring to. I have never knowingly spoken to Russian intelligence officers, and I have never been involved with anything to do with the Russian government or the Putin administration or any other issues under investigation today.” He added: “It’s not like these people wear badges that say, ‘I’m a Russian intelligence officer.’”
Embattled national security adviser Michael Flynn resigns.
The US national security adviser, Michael Flynn, resigned late on Monday night amid a flow of intelligence leaks that he had secretly discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador to Washington and then tried to cover up the conversations.
The resignation, with the Trump era less than four weeks old, is the latest and most dramatic convulsion in the most chaotic start to an administration in modern US history.
It was far from clear whether Flynn’s departure would steady an inexperienced and feuding White House, or resolve the lingering suspicions about the Trump team’s pre-election contacts with the Kremlin.
The White House issued a statement just after 11pm in Washington announcing the resignation, shortly after reports broke that the Trump administration had been warned weeks ago that Flynn might be vulnerable to Russian blackmail.
The resignation comes after reports that Flynn had misled the vice president by saying he did not discuss sanctions with the Russian ambassador to the United States. In his resignation letter to Trump, Flynn defended his conversations with the ambassador but said he had “inadvertently briefed the Vice President Elect and others with incomplete information.”
Justice Dept. warned that Flynn could be vulnerable to Russian blackmail.
The acting attorney general informed the Trump administration late last month of her concerns, current and former U.S. officials said. They also said that although they believed Pence was misled about Flynn’s communications with the ambassador, they couldn’t rule out that Flynn was acting with the knowledge of others in the transition.
February 12, 2017
February 11, 2017
* PRICE IS CONFIRMED, GIVING NEW PUSH TO REPEAL:
Early Friday morning, the Senate confirmed Tom Price as health and human services secretary, and Politico comments:
The bitter opposition to Price’s nomination … served as a preview of the fight to come over the future of American health care. And Price could well start that fight immediately by using his authority as secretary to roll back or not enforce select pieces of Obamacare — the mandated benefit package, perhaps, or the hot-button birth control coverage rules.
While repeal has run into trouble, make no mistake: The undermining and repeal of large chunks of the law is still moving forward, and what happens after that remains a mystery.
February 10, 2017
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The tea party on the left flexes its muscle
Fresh off a big win, Republicans have large majorities in Congress and control the White House. They quickly draw on their political capital to pursue one of the biggest changes to the American health-care system in decades: Getting rid of Obamacare.
But repeal efforts have stalled because, well, Republicans aren't quite sure what to replace it with. Enter a united, fired-up left, which has taken to streets across the nation twice in President Trump's first few weeks in office, and, this week, stormed the town halls of at least two Republican lawmakers.
What's going on here?
This moment looks like a mirror image of the national mood almost a decade ago.
“Democrats have a strong sense of righteousness right now about halting Trump's policy moves — almost in a truly religious sense,” writes The Fix's Aaron Blake.
The common thread between then and now: One party in control of Washington undertaking a massive change to Americans' health care. When Democrats were in Republicans' situation in 2010, they lost control of Congress and haven't regained it since. Republicans must be asking themselves just how close the parallels between 2009 and 2017 are.
| By Amber Phillips |
Come with me on a very brief time travel trip.
It's 2009. Fresh off a big win, Democrats have large majorities in Congress and control the White House. They quickly draw on their political capital to pursue one of the biggest changes to the American health-care system in decades: Obamacare.
That summer, Democrats across the nation go home to their districts and are caught off guard by passionately angry constituents — mostly conservative — at town halls, fearful of how the health care law might change their lives.
“You are a fraud, and you're sentencing this person to death under the Obama plan,” one constituent told then-Rep. John Dingell of Michigan at the time.
Tea party activists in 2013 in front of the U.S. Capitol. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Okay, back to the present moment.
It's — well, you know what year it is. Fresh off a big win, Republicans have large majorities in Congress and control the White House. They quickly draw on their political capital to pursue one of the biggest changes to the American health-care system in decades: Getting rid of Obamacare.
But repeal efforts have stalled because, well, Republicans aren't quite sure what to replace it with. Enter a united, fired-up left, which has taken to streets across the nation twice in President Trump's first few weeks in office, and, this week, stormed the town halls of at least two Republican lawmakers.
People shout to Rep. Jason Chaffetz during his town hall in Utah on Friday. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
There's more. On Friday, protesters literally blocked Education Secretary Betsy DeVos from entering a school. (She did get inside later.) The video is startling:
What's going on here?
This moment looks like a mirror image of the national mood almost a decade ago.
“Democrats have a strong sense of righteousness right now about halting Trump's policy moves — almost in a truly religious sense,” writes The Fix's Aaron Blake.
The common thread between then and now: One party in control of Washington undertaking a massive change to Americans' health care. When Democrats were in Republicans' situation in 2010, they lost control of Congress and haven't regained it since. Republicans must be asking themselves just how close the parallels between 2009 and 2017 are.
If there’s one thing we’re relearning right now, it’s that issues that directly affect people’s lives — health care, public schools — can get people into town halls and voting booths.
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February 9, 2017
Appeals court rules 3 to 0 against Trump on travel ban.
The judges rejected the argument that President Trump’s order should be reinstated for national security reasons and forcefully asserted their ability to serve as a check on his power. Trump reacted angrily on Twitter, posting just minutes after the ruling, “SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!”
The 9th Circuit judges took exception to the administration’s assertion that the president’s order is “unreviewable.” But they are not yet ready to rule on the opposition's argument that the order discriminates against Muslims.
1. The three judges think that they are well within their rights to check the president’s authority on matters of immigration and national security, and the government’s suggestion to the contrary is undemocratic.
2. The court isn’t buying — as Trump has suggested — that the impact of the order was limited to extra vetting for 109 people.
3. The court thinks that the states of Washington and Minnesota have actual harms they can sue over.
“Specifically, the States allege that the teaching and research missions of their universities are harmed by the Executive Order’s effect on their faculty and students who are nationals of the seven affected countries. These students and faculty cannot travel for research, academic collaboration, or for personal reasons, and their families abroad cannot visit. Some have been stranded outside the country, unable to return to the universities at all. The schools cannot consider attractive student candidates and cannot hire faculty from the seven affected countries, which they have done in the past.”
4. The court isn’t sure — at this stage — whether there is proof that the executive order discriminates against Muslims.
5. The court doesn’t think the government needs to immediately reinstate the ban to protect national security.
6. The government says green-card holders aren’t impacted by the order anymore because of guidance from the White House counsel. The court says it can’t take that to the bank.
7. The court wouldn’t even give the government its fallback position — a modification of the earlier judge’s suspension of the ban.
Despite all predictions of a more presidential Donald Trump, he is still tweeting at odd hours, calling people names, promoting his family’s business interests, bragging about crowd sizes, and lashing out at anyone who challenges him. His White House seems just as chaotic and discordant as his campaign was. All of which is according to plan, his team says.
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