Latin Times: Trump Claims International Harvard Students ‘Can’t Add 2 and 2’: ‘How Do They Get In?’

Trump insinuated the same international students that can’t do math are the ones protesting on campus.

While speaking to press inside the Oval Office, President Donald Trump claimed international Harvard students are taking remedial math courses at the prestigious university.

On Friday, President Trump affirmed to a reporter that, while he wants the best and brightest from around the world to attend Harvard and other U.S. universities, many of the international students cannot do basic math.

“A lot of the people need remedial math. Did you see that? Where these students cant add two and two, and they go to Harvard?” Trump prompted. “They’re gonna teach remedial math at Harvard,” the president reiterated.

“Now, wait a minute, so why would they get in? How can somebody that can’t add or has very basic skills, how do they get into Harvard? Why are they there?” Trump continued before alleging the international students in remedial math are the same ones protesting on campus.

“You see those same people picketing and screaming at the United States and screaming. They’re antisemitic or they’re something,” he stated. “We don’t want troublemakers here… When Harvard comes out with a statement that they’re gonna teach some of their students remedial math, that’s basic math, uh, that’s not the deal,” Trump added.

What a bigoted moronic jerk!

https://www.latintimes.com/trump-claims-international-harvard-students-cant-add-2-2-how-do-they-get-583751

Talking Points Memo: GAO Makes Official What’s Been Obvious: Trump Admin Is Breaking Impoundment Control Act

The independent agency embedded within the legislative branch that is designed to review federal spending and make recommendations to Congress on cost savings and waste, as well as investigate policy implementation (the real one, not DOGE), has released a new finding that none of us will find surprising.

As part of its 39 different investigations into various actions the Trump administration has taken in the last four months that could qualify as Impoundment Control Act violations, the Government Accountability Office determined this afternoon that the Trump administration has, in fact, done just that.

Big picture, the non-partisan congressional watchdog is expected to issue more rulings in coming months as it works its way through nearly 40 other similar investigations into whether the Trump administration has violated the 51-year-old law in other ways. The Trump White House has already called the GAO finding “wrong” and GAO opinions are, in general, considered nonbinding recommendations to Congress. Such a finding might matter more in an era where congressional Republicans were not already so willing to choke down all of Trump’s DOGE cuts.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/where-things-stand/gao-makes-official-whats-been-obvious-trump-admin-is-breaking-impoundment-control-act

MSNBC: Judge blocks Trump administration from dismantling the Education Department

There’s no evidence the government’s actions are making the department more efficient, a federal judge wrote.

A federal judge in Massachusetts blocked the Trump administration from dismantling the Education Department, calling out the government’s “efficiency” efforts in the process as anything but. U.S. District Judge Myong Joun wrote that there’s “no evidence” that a massive reduction in force “has actually made the Department more efficient.”

“Rather,” he wrote Thursday, “the record is replete with evidence of the opposite.”

The Biden-appointed judge made that observation when he granted a preliminary injunction, ordering the government to, among other things, halt the reduction in force and reinstate federal employees who were already terminated.

Noting that Congress created the department in 1979, the judge explained that the president can’t shut it down without congressional approval. And yet, he found the government is trying to effectively dismantle it without such approval.

https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/trump-education-department-judge-blocks-efficiency-rcna208572

MSNBC: Trump admin blocks Harvard from enrolling international students, escalating radical fight

The administration has gone from eliminating Harvard’s grants to targeting its tax-exempt status to halting its ability to enroll international students.

Harvard University has faced an unprecedented and radical offensive from Donald Trump and his team, which to date has focused on eliminating federal grants to the school, while simultaneously targeting Harvard’s tax-exempt status.

There is, however, a third element of the offensive. The New York Times reported:

The Trump administration on Thursday halted Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students, a major escalation in the administration’s efforts to pressure the college to fall in line with the president’s agenda. The administration notified Harvard about the decision after a back-and-forth in recent days over the legality of a sprawling records request as part of the Department of Homeland Security’s investigation, according to three people with knowledge of the negotiations.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi [Bimbo #2] Noem personally sent a letter to the university, which she posted to X later Thursday, that read in part, “I am writing to inform you that effective immediately, Harvard University’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification is revoked.”

This development is extraordinary, but it does not appear out of the blue: In mid-April, while canceling nearly $3 million in DHS grants to Harvard, Noem simultaneously demanded that the university turn over records on foreign students alleged to have engaged in “illegal and violent activities.” Failure to cooperate would jeopardize Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification — which allows schools to admit international students.

Evidently, [Bimbo #2] Noem has now followed through on that threat.

This may well be the undoing of Kristi [Bimbo #2] Noem, as she learns that that the tentacles of Harvard’s alumni extend everywhere.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-admin-blocks-harvard-enrolling-international-students-escalating-rcna208587

MSNBC: Judge says Trump administration violated court order with South Sudan deportation flight

It’s the latest instance of a judge calling out the administration’s law-breaking.

A federal judge on Wednesday said the Trump administration violated a court order when it put a group of migrants on a plane to war-torn South Sudan without giving them a proper chance to challenge their removal. It’s the latest example of the administration breaking the law in carrying out Donald Trump’s agenda.

U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Massachusetts last month had ordered the government to apply those safeguards before sending people to countries they aren’t from, or so-called third countries. Murphy said at a Wednesday hearing that the administration had “unquestionably” violated his order with Tuesday’s flight. The Biden appointee raised the possibility of contempt but didn’t make a final decision about that at the hearing.

Murphy had issued a separate order on Tuesday for the government to “maintain custody and control of class members currently being removed to South Sudan or to any other third country, to ensure the practical feasibility of return if the Court finds that such removals were unlawful.”

… a federal appeals court judge wrote Monday, “As is becoming far too common, we are confronted again with the efforts of the Executive Branch to set aside the rule of law in pursuit of its goals.” The judge continued, “It is the duty of courts to stand as a bulwark against the political tides that seek to override constitutional protections and fundamental principles of law, even in the name of noble ends like public safety.”

https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/south-sudan-trump-violated-court-order-rcna208308

Politico: Trump admin deportation flight to South Sudan violated court order, judge rules

It’s the latest rebuke in an escalating clash over Trump’s deportation agenda. Several judges have now accused the administration of defying the courts.

The Trump administration “unquestionably” violated a court order when it put seven men on a deportation flight bound for South Sudan, a federal judge ruled Wednesday, suggesting that administration officials may have committed criminal contempt.

The rebuke from U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy is the latest episode in an intensifying clash between the administration and the judiciary over President Donald Trump’s campaign to carry out rapid deportations while evading court oversight.

Three federal judges have now castigated the administration for circumventing, or outright defying, court orders that have sought to block or reverse aspects of Trump’s deportation agenda. And several others — including a majority of the Supreme Court — have scolded the administration for attempting to violate immigrants’ due process rights.

The hasty deportations fell far short of the due process requirements in Murphy’s April ruling, the judge said Wednesday.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/21/trump-deportations-south-sudan-00362919

Miami Herald: Supreme Court ruling on TPS stuns South Florida, leaves Venezuelan families in fear

A U.S Supreme Court ruling that allows the Trump administration to strip deportation protections and work permits from hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans — including many Miami area residents — sent shock waves through South Florida and across the Sunshine State on Monday.

“That the U.S. would terminate the protections for Venezuelans now, when nothing has improved back home, is just unbelievable,” said Betsy Diaz, a Venezuelan-American in Hialeah whose two daughters, five grandchildren and several other relatives will lose the protections.

In a two-paragraph order, the nation’s highest court on Monday granted an emergency request from the White House to roll back a lower court judge’s order that kept in place Temporary Protected Status for about 350,000 Venezuelans. It was part of an ongoing lawsuit in federal court in San Francisco challenging the Trump administration’s February decision to revoke the protections granted to Venezuelans and other nationals from certain countries in turmoil.

The court provided no explanation for why it had lifted the lower court judge’s order, which prevented the Trump administration from removing the protections while the litigation is ongoing.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/immigration/article306751681.html

Raw Story: Furious judge mulls criminal contempt as Trump admin found to have blatantly ignored order

A federal judge found the Trump administration violated his order from last month blocking officials from deporting foreign nationals to countries that aren’t their own without giving them a chance to challenge their removal.

Boston-based federal judge Brian E. Murphy strongly rebuked the administration Wednesday when he ruled on an emergency motion filed by men who may have been deported to South Sudan, a violence-plagued nation they had never visited. It’s not clear whether the court will impose any punishment on Donald Trump’s officials, reported the New York Times.

“The department’s actions in this case are unquestionably violative of this court’s order,” Murphy said.

Homeland security officials told the judge that eight migrants had been deported Tuesday on a flight to a third country but refused to say where they were sent, and Murphy noted the government had given them less than 24 hours notice that they were being removed, which the judge said was “plainly insufficient.”

Two sources told the Times the flight carrying the men – who DHS said are were citizens of Burma, Cuba, Laos, Mexico, South Sudan and Vietnam – had landed in east African nation of Djibouti and that U.S. military personnel were standing by to assist in their detention, if necessary.

https://www.rawstory.com/south-sudan-trump

Law & Crime: ‘Unquestionably violative of this court’s order’: Judge upbraids Trump admin for deporting migrants to war-torn third country without due process

A federal judge on Wednesday said that the Trump administration had “unquestionably” violated his order by deporting several migrants to South Sudan — a country from which none of the migrants are from — without due process or a reasonable opportunity to raise concerns of their fear of the war-torn nation, an action he said could amount to criminal contempt of court.

U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy upbraided attorneys from the Justice Department, accusing them of ignoring the “long history” of legal precedent surrounding due process rights as well as recent orders from the U.S. Supreme Court when they sent seven men to South Sudan with less than 24 hours notice.

Murphy last month issued a preliminary injunction barring the government from deporting migrants to third countries without giving them a “reasonable opportunity” to raise concerns about that country and the possible violence they could face.

Murphy scheduled a hearing after an emergency motion filed by attorneys for the plaintiffs informed the court that at least two of their clients had been notified on Monday evening that they were being removed to South Sudan and were transported out of ICE facilities at around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday morning.

“The department’s actions in this case are unquestionably violative of this court’s order,” Murphy said at Wednesday’s hearing. “It is plain to me that an ‘opportunity to be heard’ of only several hours that were not during business hours, where you couldn’t raise consult with your attorney or your family is insufficient. It was impossible for these people to have a meaningful opportunity to object to their removal to South Sudan.”

Murphy emphasized that even the Supreme Court justices recently confirmed that 24 hours of notice is “plainly insufficient” for the purpose of due process, stating, “I don’t see how anybody could think these people had a reasonable chance to object.”

Associated Press: ‘Unquestionably in violation’: Judge says US government didn’t follow court order on deportations

The White House violated a court order on deportations to third countries with a flight linked to the chaotic African nation of South Sudan, a federal judge said Wednesday, hours after the Trump administration said it had expelled eight immigrants convicted of violent crimes in the United States but refused to reveal where they would end up. The judge’s statement was a notably strong rebuke to the government’s attempts to manage immigration.

In an emergency hearing he called to address reports that immigrants had been sent to South Sudan, Judge Brian E. Murphy in Boston said the eight migrants aboard the plane were not given a meaningful opportunity to object that the deportation could put them in danger. Minutes before the hearing, administration officials accused “activist judges” of advocating the release of dangerous criminals.

“The department actions in this case are unquestionably in violation of this court’s order,” Murphy said Wednesday, arguing that the deportees didn’t have “meaningful opportunity” to object to being sent to South Sudan. The group was flown out of the United States just hours after getting notice, leaving them no chance to contact lawyers who could object in court.

https://apnews.com/article/deportation-immigration-south-sudan-department-of-homeland-security-a09612dbd055c5d1d88902c415bdf3e6