Category Archives: US Politics

Man deported to Laos despite US court order blocking his removal, attorneys say

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District judge told Ice to keep Alabama man in US while he showed what judge called ‘substantial claim’ to citizenship

Immigration officials have deported a father living in Alabama to Laos despite a federal court order blocking his removal from the US on the grounds he has a claim to citizenship, the man’s attorneys said on Tuesday.

US district judge Shelly Dick last week ordered US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to keep Chanthila “Shawn” Souvannarath, 44, in the United States while he presented what the judge called his “substantial claim of US citizenship”, court records show. He was born in a refugee camp in Thailand but was granted lawful permanent residence in the US before his first birthday, according to court filings.

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Shutdown stretches into 28th day as Senate again fails to pass spending legislation

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As funding for food aid program is about to be exhausted, Congress fails for 13th time to advance Republican bill

The US government shutdown stretched into its 28th day with no resolution in sight on Tuesday, as the Senate remained deadlocked over spending legislation even as a crucial food aid program teeters on the brink of exhausting its funding.

For the 13th time, Senate Democrats blocked a Republican-backed bill that would have funded federal agencies through 21 November. The minority party has refused to provide the necessary support for the bill to clear the 60-vote threshold for advancement in the Senate because it does not include funding for healthcare programs, or curbs on Donald Trump’s cuts to congressionally approved funding.

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Trump administration will revamp ICE leadership in quest to intensify deportations

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Government intends to reassign multiple directors of field offices as it falls well short of its targets on immigration

The Trump administration is planning to revamp the leadership of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to reports, as the government seeks to intensify its mass deportation efforts.

Multiple news outlets have reported that the government intends to reassign multiple directors of ICE field offices in the coming days, potentially replacing them with border patrol officials.

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Atlanta journalist says he ‘won’t be the only’ one deported by Trump officials

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Emmy award-winner Mario Guevara warns administration ‘has the power’ after he was arrested and sent to El Salvador

Mario Guevara has said he may have been “the first” immigrant journalist whom Donald Trump’s administration deported from the US while working – but the Emmy award-winner added: “I don’t think [I’ll] be the only one.”

“Just be careful because [immigration agents are] very aggressive,” Guevara recently said from El Salvador in a virtual interview with the US Freedom of the Press Tracker, during which he was asked whether he had any message for other immigrant colleagues in the industry. “They showed they are – they don’t care about journalists. They don’t believe in the media.”

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New Yorkers sue state elections board as battle over House maps intensifies

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Lawsuit alleges congressional map illegally dilutes voting power of Black and Latino residents of Staten Island

A group of New Yorkers has filed a lawsuit against the state’s board of elections alleging that its congressional map unconstitutionally dilutes the voting power of Black and Latino residents of Staten Island.

The complaint, filed Monday, is another volley in the battle between Democrats and Republicans to redraw congressional districts in a way that favors their party in advance of the midterm elections.

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Republican Indiana governor calls special session to redraw congressional maps

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GOP-led state is latest that Trump administration has put pressure on to undertake redistricting to favor Republicans

The Indiana governor, Mike Braun, announced on Monday that he is calling a special session to consider redrawing congressional districts in the state, the latest state to work on its maps ahead of 2026.

Indiana is one of several Republican-led states the Trump administration has pressured to undertake mid-decade redistricting to favor Republicans, which began with a push in Texas to redraw lines to add Republican seats.

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Republican senator calls Trump’s military airstrikes ‘extrajudicial killings’

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Rand Paul’s comments come days after president claimed US lawmakers wouldn’t take issue with Venezuelan strikes

The Trump administration’s military airtrikes against boats off Venezuela’s coast that the White House claims were being used for drug trafficking are “extrajudicial killings”, said Rand Paul, the president’s fellow Republican and US senator from Kentucky.

Paul’s strong comments on the topic came on Sunday during an interview on Republican-friendly Fox News, three days after Donald Trump publicly claimed he “can’t imagine” federal lawmakers would have “any problem” with the strikes when asked about seeking congressional approval for them.

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Gavin Newsom confirms he is considering 2028 presidential run

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Democratic California governor and high-profile Trump critic plans to make decision after 2026 midterms

Gavin Newsom, California’s Democratic governor, told CBS News Sunday Morning he plans to make a decision on whether to run for president in 2028 once the 2026 midterm elections are over.

“Yeah, I’d be lying otherwise,” Newsom said in response to a question on whether he would give serious thought to a White House bid after the 2026 elections. “I’d just be lying. And I’m not – I can’t do that.”

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US and China reach ‘final deal’ on TikTok sale, treasury secretary says

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Scott Bessent said plan was part of framework for trade deal but did not share details on transferring app’s ownership

US treasury secretary Scott Bessent claimed on Sunday that the US and China have finalized the details of a deal transferring TikTok’s US version to new owners.

“We reached a final deal on TikTok,” Bessent said on Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan. Alluding to Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, Bessent continued: “We reached [a deal] in Madrid, and I believe that as of today, all the details are ironed out, and that will be for the two leaders to consummate that transaction” during a meeting scheduled for Thursday in Korea.

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Trump told Pence ‘you’ll go down as a wimp’ in January 6 phone call, book says

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Book cites Pence’s notes from call with Trump, who called vice-president a ‘wimp’ if he certified Biden’s 2020 victory

On the day that his supporters attacked the US Capitol because his 2020 re-election run ended in defeat, Donald Trump called his vice-president at the time, Mike Pence, and told him he would go down in history as a “wimp” if he certified the election result, a new book says.

Those details were revealed on Sunday when ABC News published a preview excerpt of an upcoming book by its political correspondent Jonathan Karl. The book, titled Retribution, cites Pence’s notes from the 6 January 2021 phone call with Trump, who was purportedly trying to shame his vice-president into refusing to certify Joe Biden’s victory weeks earlier in the White House.

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‘Islamophobia is endemic,’ Mamdani says of Republicans’ push to deport him

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Two House Republicans push justice department to investigate Zohran Mamdani’s path to US citizenship

Two US House Republicans are pushing the federal justice department to investigate the path to citizenship of Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate favored to win the 4 November election for New York City mayor.

Congressman Randy Fine of Florida and Andy Ogles of Tennessee – both staunch proponents of Donald Trump’s presidential administration – have been leading the push, which has been condemned by Democratic officials and Muslim civil rights groups as “racist and anti-Muslim”.

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Food benefits set to expire for 41 million people as US shutdown continues

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Department of Agriculture says no benefits will be issued in November and it would not draw on emergency reserves

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said on Saturday that food benefits under one of the country’s biggest social assistance programs will not be issued in November amid the ongoing federal government shutdown.

The shutdown was in its 25th day at the time of the announcement, which came after more than 200 Democrats in the US House of Representatives on Friday called on USDA to draw on its emergency reserves to fund November food benefits.

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US judge rules ICE illegally detained man whose daughter is battling cancer

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Detention of Chicago man violates his due process and he must be given a bond hearing by 31 October, judge says

The detention by immigration authorities of a Chicago man whose 16-year-old daughter is undergoing treatment for advanced cancer is illegal, and he must be given a bond hearing by 31 October, a federal judge has ruled.

Attorneys for Ruben Torres Maldonado, 40, who was detained on 18 October, have petitioned for his release as his deportation case goes through the system. While US district judge Jeremy Daniel said in an order Friday that Torres’s detention by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is illegal and violates his due process rights, he also said he could not order his immediate release.

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Gun violence prevention groups disqualified from grants built around their work

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Trump administration altering program that was a lifeline for pioneering non-profits helping reduce gun violence

The Trump administration has released solicitations for a grant program meant to stop gun violence in underserved communities. But this year, the non-profits the grant was built around are disqualified from applying, according to an application notice released by the Department of Justice (DoJ) in September.

The Community Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative (CVIPI), was created in 2022, to support groups working in rural and urban communities struggling to address violence and fund research studying the programs’ efficacy.

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Trump raises tariffs on Canada by 10% in retaliation for anti-tariff TV ad

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Move is response to ad sponsored by Ontario that referenced Ronald Reagan’s support for free trade

Donald Trump announced on Saturday that he will raise US tariffs on Canada by 10% in retaliation for an anti-tariff advertisement sponsored by the Ontario government, which has further strained one of the world’s largest trade partnerships.

The statement, posted on Trump’s Truth Social account, came after several days of public disputes over the ad, which referenced Ronald Reagan’s support for free trade and provoked the US president’s anger.

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Hispanics’ support of Trump plunges since he started second term

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Notable majority feel the country is headed in the wrong direction, and only 27% approve of his job performance

Donald Trump’s standing with Hispanic adults has dropped notably since he took office at the start of the year, according to a new poll.

Polling by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research suggests growing unease among a voting bloc that was crucial to his 2024 re-election victory. The October survey shows that 25% of Hispanic adults now hold a “somewhat” or “very” favorable view of Trump, down sharply from 44% in an AP-NORC poll conducted just before he began his second term.

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Honduran immigrant dies while fleeing ICE, bringing raids death toll to three

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Jose Castro Rivera, 24, was killed Thursday morning after running onto a highway and being struck

A 24-year-old Honduran man died while trying to flee Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Virginia, bringing the death toll among those trying to escape detention in the Trump administration’s mass deportation crackdown to at least three people.

Jose Castro Rivera was killed on Thursday morning after running onto a busy highway and being struck and fatally injured while trying to evade ICE agents, local authorities said.

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Trump officials to send election observers to California and New Jersey

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Justice department targets two Democratic states holding off-year elections after requests from state Republicans

The Department of Justice is preparing to send federal election observers to California and New Jersey next month, targeting two Democratic states holding off-year elections following requests from state Republican parties.

The department announced it was planning to monitor polling sites in Passaic county, New Jersey, and five counties in southern and central California: Los Angeles, Orange, Kern, Riverside and Fresno. The goal, according to the department, is “to ensure transparency, ballot security, and compliance with federal law”.

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Pentagon deploys top aircraft carrier as Trump militarisation of Caribbean ratchets up

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Use of USS Gerald Ford along with fighter jets comes as president plots strikes against alleged cartels on land

The Pentagon said on Friday that it was deploying the United States’s most advanced aircraft carrier to the Caribbean, a major escalation in the Trump administration’s war against drug cartels that provides the resources to start conducting strikes against targets on the ground.

The move will bring the USS Gerald Ford, with dozens of stealth fighter jets and surveillance aircraft, in addition to other warships that accompany the carrier, to the coast of Venezuela as it nears the end of its current deployment in the Mediterranean.

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Democratic senators call on education department to stop ICE raids by schools

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Cory Booker, Ed Markey and others urge Linda McMahon to step in amid violent crackdowns near Chicago schools

A group of Democratic senators have demanded that the Department of Education to stop immigration enforcement activities from taking place close to schools, following several violent crackdowns near school grounds in Chicago.

Although the raids are conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which is under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the senators are making an appeal directly to the education secretary, Linda McMahon.

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