The Trump administration is planning to remove nearly 700 Guatemalan children who had come to the U.S. without their parents, according to a letter sent Friday by Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, and the Central American country said it was ready to take them in.
The removals would violate the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s “child welfare mandate and this country’s long-established obligation to these children,” Wyden told Angie Salazar, acting director of the office within the Department of Health and Human Services that is responsible for migrant children who arrive in the U.S. alone.
“This move threatens to separate children from their families, lawyers, and support systems, to thrust them back into the very conditions they are seeking refuge from, and to disappear vulnerable children beyond the reach of American law and oversight,” the Democratic senator wrote, asking for the deportation plans to be terminated.
It is another step in the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration enforcement efforts, which include plans to surge officers to Chicago for an immigration crackdown, ramping up deportations and ending protections for people who have had permission to live and work in the United States.
Guatemalan Foreign Affairs Minister Carlos Martínez said Friday that the government has told the U.S. it is willing to receive hundreds of Guatemalan minors who arrived unaccompanied to the United States and are being held in U.S. facilities.
Guatemala is particularly concerned about minors who could age out of the facilities for children and be sent to adult detention centers, he said. The exact number of children to be returned remains in flux, but they are currently discussing a little over 600. He said no date has been set yet for their return.
That would be almost double what Guatemala previously agreed to. The head of the country’s immigration service said last month that the government was looking to repatriate 341 unaccompanied minors who were being held in U.S. facilities.
“The idea is to bring them back before they reach 18 years old so that they are not taken to an adult detention center,” Guatemala Immigration Institute Director Danilo Rivera said at the time. He said it would be done at Guatemala’s expense and would be a form of voluntary return.
The plan was announced by President Bernardo Arévalo, who said then that the government had a moral and legal obligation to advocate for the children. His comments came days after U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited Guatemala.
The White House and the Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the latest move, which was first reported by CNN.
Quoting unidentified whistleblowers, Wyden’s letter said children who do not have a parent or legal guardian as a sponsor or who don’t have an asylum case already underway “will be forcibly removed from the country.”
The idea of repatriating such a large number of children to their home country also raised concerns with activists who work with children navigating the immigration process.
“We are outraged by the Trump administration’s renewed assault on the rights of immigrant children,” said Lindsay Toczylowski, president and CEO of Immigrant Defenders Law Center. “We are not fooled by their attempt to mask these efforts as mere ‘repatriations.’ This is yet another calculated attempt to sever what little due process remains in the immigration system.”
Santana, Seitz and Gonzalez write for the Associated Press. Gonzalez reported from McAllen, Texas. AP writers Sonia Pérez D. in Guatemala City and Tim Sullivan in Minneapolis contributed to this report.
Federal prosecutors in D.C. filed criminal charges against a man who burned an American flag outside of the White House earlier this week, after President Trump signed an executive order ordering the Justice Department to investigate flag burning.
Jan Carey, 54, of North Carolina, is facing two misdemeanor criminal counts in Washington, D.C., federal court. Neither charge focuses on the fact that he burned a flag, specifically: one of the counts was for lighting a fire “not in a designated area and receptacle,” and another was for lighting a fire “in a manner that threatened, caused damage to, and resulted in the burning of property, real property, and park resources.”
Both charges are punishable by a fine or no more than six months in custody.
In a video of the flag burning captured by WUSA9 on Monday, Carey identified himself as a military veteran and said he was protesting the executive order.
In an interview with WUSA9, Carey said he “immediately thought I need to go burn a flag in front of the White House and let’s put this to the test.”
On Monday, Mr. Trump signed an executive order directing the Justice Department to investigate people who burn the American flag, even though the Supreme Court in 1989 ruled that the First Amendment protected symbolic speech, including flag burning.
Mr. Trump’s order attempts to navigate around the Supreme Court ruling. It said federal prosecutors should prioritize bringing cases against instances of flag burning that violate other “content-neutral laws,” and said the high court didn’t rule out charges if burning a flag “is likely to incite imminent lawless action” or amounts to “fighting words.”
The president has long pushed for criminal prosecutions for burning an American flag, suggesting in 2016 that it should be punished by “loss of citizenship or year in jail.”
“You burn a flag, you get one year in jail. You don’t get 10 years, you don’t get one month,” Mr. Trump said Monday. “You get one year in jail, and it goes on your record, and you will see flag burning stopping immediately.”
Mr. Trump’s order also calls for Attorney General Pam Bondi to litigate a challenge to the 1989 ruling, potentially getting the issue in front of a Supreme Court bench that is far more conservative than the high court was at the time of the original decision. And it suggests alleged flag burners could be charged with inciting a riot.
Carey, however, was not charged with incitement.
From where you stand, it may look like you’re just watching unimaginable stuff go down, and nobody’s stepping in to stop it. In only eight months of his second term, President Donald Trump has managed to undermine the Constitution, disrupt the economy, send military troops to cities without congressional approval and divide the country over immigration, civil rights and more. It seems like there’s nothing regular Americans can do to stop him as he continues to complete the missions of his 2024 campaign, but many political leaders are offering suggestions to fight back in ways never seen before.
From local state officials to journalists and influential internet personalities, these powerful voices are urging folks to rebel against the Trump administration, and here’s exactly how they say it needs to be done.
https://www.theroot.com/these-leaders-are-calling-for-americans-to-rebel-agains-2000058801
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is showing no signs of relenting when it comes to attacking President Donald Trump—this time taking aim at his health.
Newsom posted a video Saturday evening of clips of the president set to the song “I’m A Survivor” by country music singer Reba. The song is popular on TikTok, where it has been used in over 200,000 videos, many of which are satirical and focus on the lyric about a “single mom who works two jobs”.
Newsom’s video features clips of Trump golfing, almost being attacked by an eagle, falling up the stairs to Air Force One, being hit in the face with a microphone, as well as photos of the bruises on his hands that have caused considerable speculation in recent weeks. The clips play as Reba sings ”A single mom who works two jobs / Who loves her kids and never stops / With gentle hands and the heart of a fighter / I’m a survivor.” The caption reads, “He’s trying.”
The president has been seen with bruises on both hands in recent weeks, fueling speculation that his health is declining after being diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed that the bruises were “consistent with minor soft tissue irritation from frequent handshaking and the use of aspirin,” stressing that Trump “meets more Americans and shakes their hands on a daily basis than any other president in history.”
On Tuesday, Trump’s former physician and now-GOP congressman Ronny Jackson swore that the president was “the healthiest president this nation has ever seen.”
The bruises and his four-day absence from the public view this week, sent the rumor mill into overdrive on Friday. with some speculating that he died.
An eventual public appearance in Virginia on Saturday morning put the rumurs to bed, but questions remain about what caused the president’s bruises and his brief disappearance from the public eye.
Newsom hasn’t limited his attacks to Trump. In recent weeks, Newsom has also mocked First Lady Melania Trump’s rumored Vanity Fair cover, made fun of Vice President JD Vance’s “very tiny brain” and told top Trump aide Stephen Miller to stop being so shrill.
On Wednesday, the governor revealed in an interview with Politico’s Christopher Cadelago that Trump’s team had responded to his trolling by sending him endless “Trump 2028″ hats.
“I have two dozen Trump 2028 hats his folks keep sending me‚” Newsom said.
Newsom is now selling his own, including “Newsom 2026″ mugs, red hats that mimic Trump’s own that read ”Newsom was right about everything!” and made-in-USA Bibles in a jab at Trump’s own branded Bibles, which were made in China.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/newsom-trolls-trump-over-bruised-hands-and-golfing-skills
The 22-year-old philosophy student from China did not expect any problems after his 29-hour flight arrived at a Texas airport this month as he was on his way to study at the University of Houston.
His paperwork was in order. He was going to study humanities — not a tech field that might raise suspicions. He had a full scholarship from the U.S. school and had previously spent a semester at Cornell University for an exchange program with no issues.
But the student, who asked to be identified only by his family name, Gu, because of the political sensitivities of the matter, was stopped, interrogated and 36 hours later, put on a plane back to China.
He also was banned from coming back for five years, abruptly halting his dream for an academic career in the United States.
“There is no opportunity for the life I had expected,” Gu said.
He is one of an unknown number of Chinese students with permission to enter the United States who have been sent back to China or faced intense questioning after their arrival, drawing strong protests from Beijing and showing the uncertainty from President Donald Trump’s shifting policies.
His administration has quickly pivoted from a plan to revoke visas for Chinese students to Trump himself saying he would welcome hundreds of thousands of them, partly to help keep some American schools afloat.
The US has put restrictions on Chinese students
Even so, some officials and lawmakers have expressed suspicions about Chinese students, especially those who study advanced technologies such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence, and their possible links to the Chinese government and military. Some lawmakers want to ban Chinese students altogether.
There’s no immediate data available on how many Chinese students with valid visas have been interrogated and repatriated from U.S. airports in recent weeks. U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not respond to a request for that data or for comment on Chinese students being questioned or sent back.
In recent days, Trump said he told Chinese President Xi Jinping that “we’re honored to have their students here.” But he also added, “Now, with that, we check and we’re careful, we see who is there.”
The Chinese Embassy said it has received reports involving more than 10 Chinese students and scholars being interrogated, harassed and repatriated when entering the U.S.
“The U.S. side has frequently carried out discriminatory, politically driven and selective law enforcement against Chinese students and scholars, inflicting physical and mental harm, financial losses, and disruptions to their careers,” the Chinese Embassy said in a statement.
They were repatriated under the pretext of “so-called ‘visa issues’ or ‘might endanger U.S. national security,’” the embassy said.
The students and scholars were taken into small rooms for extended interrogation, repeatedly questioned on issues unrelated to their academic work, and forced to wait long hours in cold rooms without blankets or quilts, the embassy said. Some relied on aluminum foil to keep warm, and some were detained for more than 80 hours, it said.
Such acts by the U.S. side “run counter to the statements” made by Trump, the embassy said, accusing some U.S. departments and law enforcement personnel of not “faithfully acting on the president’s commitment.” The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a Friday interview with the conservative news site Daily Caller, Trump said “it’s very insulting to a country when you say you’re not going to take your students.” The interview was published on Sunday.
“I think what we’re doing is the right thing to do. It’s good to get along with countries, not bad, especially, you know, nuclear-powered countries,” Trump said.
One Chinese student had no concerns as he headed to the US
Gu told AP that he liked his Cornell experience so much that he applied for a master’s program to study philosophy in the U.S.
Despite reports of stricter policies by the Trump administration, Gu said he wasn’t too worried, not even when he was first stopped and taken to a room for questioning by a customs officer after landing at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. His belongings were searched, and his electronics were taken away, he said.
After the officer went through the devices, he started interrogating Gu, focusing on his ties to the Chinese Communist Party, Gu said.
He said his parents are party members, but he has never joined, though he — like nearly all Chinese teens and young people — is a member of the party’s youth arm, the Communist Youth League.
The customs officer also grilled him on his connections to the governmental China Scholarship Council, which popped up in his chat history. Gu said it came up in his chats with his schoolmates, but he did not receive money from the Chinese government.
Three rounds of interrogation lasted 10 hours, before Gu was told he was to be deported. No specific reason was given, he said, and the removal paperwork he provided to AP indicated inadequate documentation.
By then, he had hardly slept for 40 hours. The waiting room where he was kept was lit around the clock, its room temperature set low.
“I was so nervous I was shaking, due to both being freezing cold and also the nerves,” Gu said. “So many things were going through my head now that I was being deported. What should I do in the future?”
It would be another day before he was put on a flight. Now, Gu is considering appealing the decision, but that might take years and cost thousands of dollars.
One down, 599,999 to go! But they’ll probably admit thousands of Chinese science and engineering students, who will be much more adept at stealing defense and proprietary information than this unfortunate philosophy student.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Sunday that immigration operations will soon be expanded in Chicago, confirming plans for a stepped-up presence of federal agents in the nation’s third-largest city as President Trump continues to lash out at Illinois’ Democratic leadership.
Noem’s comments came a day after Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson struck back against what he called the “out-of-control” plan to surge federal officers into the city. The Chicago Police Department will be barred from helping federal authorities with civil immigration enforcement or any related patrols, traffic stops and checkpoints during the surge, according to an executive order Johnson signed Saturday.
The Homeland Security Department last week requested limited logistical support from officials at the Naval Station Great Lakes to support the agency’s anticipated operations. The military installation is about 35 miles north of Chicago.
“We’ve already had ongoing operations with ICE in Chicago … but we do intend to add more resources to those operations,” Noem said during a Sunday appearance CBS News’ ”Face the Nation.”
Noem declined to provide further details about the planned surge of federal officers. It comes after the Trump administration deployed National Guard troops to Washington, saying they were needed to target crime, immigration and homelessness, and two months after it sent troops to Los Angeles.
Trump lashed out against Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker in a social media posting Saturday, warning him that he must straighten out Chicago’s crime problems quickly “or we’re coming.” The Republican president has also been critical of Johnson.
Johnson and Pritzker, both Democrats, have denounced the expected federal mobilization, noting that crime has fallen in Chicago. They are planning to sue if Trump moves forward with the plan.
In his order signed Saturday, Johnson directed all city departments to guard the constitutional rights of Chicago residents “amidst the possibility of imminent militarized immigration or National Guard deployment by the federal government.”
Asked during a news conference about federal agents who are presumably “taking orders,” Johnson replied: “Yeah, and I don’t take orders from the federal government.”
Johnson also blocked Chicago police from wearing face coverings to hide their identities, as most federal immigration officers have done since Trump launched his crackdown.
The federal surge into Chicago could start as early as Friday and last about 30 days, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss plans that had not been made public.
Pritzker, in an interview aired Sunday on “Face the Nation,” said that Trump’s expected plans to mobilize federal forces in the city may be part of a plan to “stop the elections in 2026 or, frankly, take control of those elections.”
Noem said it was a Trump “prerogative” whether to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago as he did in Los Angeles in June in the midst of protests there against immigration raids.
“I do know that L.A. wouldn’t be standing today if President Trump hadn’t taken action,” Noem said. “That city would have burned if left to devices of the mayor and governor of that state.”
Unlike the recent federal takeover of policing in Washington, the Chicago operation is not expected to rely on the National Guard or military and is focused exclusively on immigration, rather than being cast as part of a broad campaign against crime, Trump administration officials have said.
Chicago is home to a large immigrant population, and both the city and the state of Illinois have some of the country’s strongest rules against cooperating with federal immigration enforcement efforts. That has often put the city and state at odds with the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda.
Johnson’s order builds on the city’s longtime stance, that neither Chicago nor Illinois officials have sought or been consulted on the federal presence and they stand against Trump’s mobilization plan.
During his news conference Saturday, Johnson accused the president of “behaving outside the bounds of the Constitution” and seeking a federal presence in Democratic cities as retribution against his political rivals.
“He is reckless and out of control,” Johnson said. “He’s the biggest threat to our democracy that we’ve experienced in the history of our country.”
In response, the White House contended that the potential flood of federal agents was about “cracking down on crime.”
“If these Democrats focused on fixing crime in their own cities instead of doing publicity stunts to criticize the President, their communities would be much safer,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in an email Saturday.
Critics have noted that Trump, while espousing a tough-on-crime push, is the only felon ever to occupy the White House.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) accused White House official Sebastian Gorka on Sunday of wanting “to deflect from the reality” of the Minneapolis Catholic school shooting by pointing out gunman Robin Westman’s transgender identity.
Gorka, who serves as President Trump’s deputy assistant and senior director for counterterrorism, argued on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Westman had a clear “ideological” motive for targeting the Annunciation Catholic School earlier this week — where two students were killed and more than a dozen other children and adults were injured while they prayed at Mass.
“That’s what terrorism is,” Gorka said of the mass shooting, noting that Westman’s twisted manifesto included antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric and the phrase “kill Donald Trump” was scrawled on one of the shooter’s gun magazines.
The White House official argued that the massacre perpetrated by Westman, who confessed he was “‘tired of being trans,” is part of a disturbing trend of mass shootings committed by people struggling with their gender identity.
“In just a couple of years, we have seen seven mass shootings involving people of transgender nature or who are confused in their gender identity,” Gorka claimed. “That is inordinately high.”
“It’s not about the sexual proclivities of the individual. It’s the fact that nobody seems to notice a very disturbing pattern towards violence,” he later added.
Critics point to high profile shootings have been carried out by transgender or nonbinary attackers in recent years.
The perpetrator of the 2023 shooting at Nashville’s Convent School, which left six people dead — including three 9-year-old students — identified as transgender.
The gunman who killed five people and injured two dozens others at a Colorado Springs gay bar in 2022 identifies as nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, lawyers said.
Additionally a 2019 shooting at a Denver-area high school involved one transgender attacker, and a 2018 shooting at a Rite Aid distribution center in Aberdeen, Maryland, also involved a transgender gunman.
Omar, who followed Gorka on CNN’s Sunday show, criticized the White House official for bringing up Westman’s gender identity.
“It’s really unfortunate that we have people, you know, like him, speaking on this,” the far-left congresswoman told host Brianna Keilar.
“He talked about their transgenderness, and then he says that shouldn’t really matter,” Omar continued.
“These people are all over the place because they want to deflect from the reality.” she continued, “which is that, there was, someone who came into that school, through the window, and assassinated two beautiful angels, as they prayed.”
“This is not the moment to point fingers,” Omar argued, as she called for banning assault weapons and more resources to address mental health issues in response to the shooting.
When asked if Westman’s transgender identity should be investigated as a potential motive for the shooting, the “Squad” rep said it should, along with everything else.
“I’ve always said it’s really important for us to look at every factor, so that we can understand what happened, what signs were missed and have the ability in the future to prevent these kinds of senseless deaths,” Omar responded.
