LIVE: US starts sending illegal immigrants back home
Those arrested included a suspected terrorist, four members of a crime gang and many illegals convicted of sex crimes against minors
Cracking the whip on illegal migration, the US administration under President Donald Trump on Thursday (January 23) arrested over 538 illegal immigrants staying in the US while deporting hundreds of others in military aircraft in what the White House called the “largest massive deportation operation in history”.
“The Trump Administration arrested 538 illegal immigrant criminals including a suspected terrorist, four members of the Tren de Aragua gang, and several illegals convicted of sex crimes against minors," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X.
Underlining that deportation flights have begun, she asserted that President Trump is "sending a strong and clear message to the entire world: if you illegally enter the United States of America, you will face severe consequences".
Stay on birthright citizenship ban
Earlier in the day federal judge temporarily blocked Trump's executive order ending the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship regardless of the parents' immigration status.
US District Judge John C. Coughenour ruled in the case brought by the states of Washington, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon, which argue the 14th Amendment and Supreme Court case law have cemented birthright citizenship. "This is blatantly unconstitutional order," the judge told a lawyer with the US Justice Department defending Trump's order.
The case is one of five lawsuits being brought by 22 states and a number of immigrants rights groups across the country. The suits include personal testimonies from attorneys general who are US citizens by birthright, and names pregnant women who are afraid their children won't become US citizens.
Key executive order
Signed by Trump on Inauguration Day, the order is slated to take effect on February 19. It could impact hundreds of thousands of people born in the country, according to one of the lawsuits.
In 2022, there were about 255,000 births of citizen children to mothers living in the country illegally and about 153,000 births to two such parents, according to the four-state suit filed in Seattle.
The US is among about 30 countries where birthright citizenship — the principle of jus soli or “right of the soil” — is applied. Most are in the Americas, and Canada and Mexico are among them.
The lawsuits argue that the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees citizenship for people born and naturalised in the US, and states have been interpreting the amendment that way for a century.
Also read:
Indian couples rush for preterm deliveries to beat Trump’s citizenship deadline
Does return of 18,000 'illegal Indians' from US spell trouble for Modi?
22 US states sue to stop Trump's Birthright Citizenship order
Trump backs H-1B visa, says US needs ‘competent people’
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Live Updates
- 24 Jan 2025 6:49 AM IST
Trump signs executive order on developing artificial intelligence 'free from ideological bias'
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order on artificial intelligence that will revoke past government policies his order says “act as barriers to American AI innovation." To maintain global leadership in AI technology, "we must develop AI systems that are free from ideological bias or engineered social agendas,” the order says.
The new order doesn't name which existing policies are hindering AI development but calls for the development of an AI action plan within 180 days.
Just hours after returning to the White House on Monday, Trump repealed former President Joe Biden's guardrails for fast-developing AI technology, a sweeping executive order signed in 2023.
Until Thursday, it wasn't clear if Trump planned to replace Biden's signature AI policy with his own order. Trump had also signed executive orders on AI in his previous term, which are still on the books.
Much of Biden's 2023 order set in motion a sprint across government agencies to study's AI impact on everything from cybersecurity risks to its effects on education, workplaces and public benefits, with an eye on ensuring AI tools weren't harming people. That work is done.
One major piece that remained — until Trump rescinded it Monday — was a requirement that tech companies building the most powerful AI models share details with the government about the workings of those systems before they are unleashed to the public. (AP)
- 24 Jan 2025 6:48 AM IST
Trump orders release of JFK, RFK and MLK assassination records
President Donald Trump has ordered the release of thousands of classified governmental documents about the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which has fuelled conspiracy theories for decades.
The executive order Trump signed Thursday also aims to declassify the remaining federal records relating to the assassinations of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The order is among a flurry of executive actions Trump has quickly taken the first week of his second term.
Speaking to reporters, Trump said, “everything will be revealed.” Trump had promised during his reelection campaign to make public the last batches of still-classified documents surrounding President Kennedy's assassination in Dallas, which has transfixed people for decades. He made a similar pledge during his first term, but ultimately bended to appeals from the CIA and FBI to keep some documents withheld.
Trump has nominated Kennedy's nephew, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to be the health secretary in his new administration. Kennedy, whose father, Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated in 1968 while running for president and has said he isn't convinced that a lone gunman was solely responsible for the assassination of his uncle, President Kennedy, in 1963.
The order directs the director of national intelligence and the attorney general to develop a plan within 15 days to declassify the remaining John F. Kennedy records, and within 45 days for the other two cases. It was not clear when the records would actually be released.
Trump handed the pen used to sign the order to an aide and directed it to be given to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
- 24 Jan 2025 6:47 AM IST
Trump pardons anti-abortion activists who blockaded clinic entrances
President Donald Trump has announced he would pardon anti-abortion activists convicted of blockading abortion clinic entrances.
Trump called it "a great honour to sign this".
"They should not have been prosecuted," he said as he signed pardons for "peaceful pro-life protesters.” The people pardoned were involved in the October 2020 invasion and blockade of a Washington clinic.
Lauren Handy was sentenced to nearly five years in prison for leading the blockade by directing blockaders to link themselves together with locks and chains to block the clinic's doors. A nurse sprained her ankle when one person pushed her while entering the clinic, and a woman was accosted by another blockader while having labour pains, prosecutors said. Police found five fetuses in Handy's home after she was indicted.
Trump pardoned Handy and her nine co-defendants: Jonathan Darnel of Virginia; Jay Smith, John Hinshaw and William Goodman, all of New York; Joan Bell of New Jersey; Paulette Harlow and Jean Marshall, both of Massachusetts; Heather Idoni of Michigan; and Herb Geraghty of Pennsylvania.
In the first week of Trump's presidency, anti-abortion advocates have ramped up calls for Trump to pardon protesters charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which is designed to protect abortion clinics from obstruction and threats. The 1994 law was passed during a time where clinic protests and blockades were on the rise, as was violence against abortion providers, such as the murder of Dr. David Gunn in 1993.
Trump specifically mentioned Harlow in a June speech criticising former President Joe Biden's Department of Justice for pursuing charges against protesters involved in blockades.
- 24 Jan 2025 6:46 AM IST
Trump revokes protections for former Secretary of State Pompeo and top aide threatened by Iran
President Donald Trump has revoked government security protection for former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his top aide, Brian Hook, who have faced threats from Iran since they took hard-line stances on the Islamic Republic during Trump's first administration.
A congressional staffer and a person familiar with the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss personal security details, confirmed the change, but neither could offer an explanation. They said that Pompeo and Hook were told of the loss of protection on Wednesday and that it took effect at 11 pm that night.
It's another sign of steps Trump is taking just days into his return to the White House to target those he has perceived as adversaries.
A day earlier, Trump, a Republican, revoked the security clearance and Secret Service protection from John Bolton, who was fired as Trump's national security adviser during his first term.
Bolton later wrote a book whose publication the White House unsuccessfully sought to block on grounds that it disclosed national security information. Bolton, who has been targeted for assassination by Iran, said in a statement that he was disappointed but not surprised by the decision.
Trump also revoked security clearances for dozens of former intelligence officials who signed a 2020 letter saying the Hunter Biden laptop saga bore the hallmarks of a “Russian information operation.” Trump had soured on Pompeo some months ago, saying publicly that he would play no role in his new administration. In a social media post this week, he fired Hook from his presidentially appointed position on the board of the Wilson Center, a think tank.
- 24 Jan 2025 6:42 AM IST
US active duty troops beginning to arrive in Texas and San Diego to support border security
Active duty military troops will begin arriving in El Paso, Texas, and San Diego on Thursday evening, in what defense officials said is the first batch of the new forces being deployed to secure the southern border.
The Pentagon announced on Wednesday that about 1,500 troops were being sent to the border this week, as the department scrambles to put in motion President Donald Trump's executive order demanding an immediate crackdown on immigration.
US officials said they expect additional troops to be ordered to deploy in the next few days as defense and homeland security leaders iron out requests for more support.
The officials said it's not yet clear how many more service members would get tapped in the near future, but they would include active duty, National Guard and Reserves, and come from land, air and sea forces. Other defense and military officials this week estimated that the additional number deployed could be in the thousands.
The troops announced Wednesday include about 1,000 Army soldiers from a variety of units and 500 Marines from Camp Pendleton in California.
Officials said Thursday that they expect the bulk of them to be in El Paso — including Fort Bliss — or in San Diego by Friday, where they will get their mission assignments and prepare to spread out along the border. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details on troop movements.
There were already about 2,500 Guard and Reserve forces deployed to the border, and the new 1,500 would add to that total. But officials noted that given the length of the nearly 2,000-mile border with Mexico, it will take additional forces to help put large rolls of concertina wire barriers in place and provide needed transportation, intelligence and other support to the Border Patrol.
As of Thursday there were still no requests for the use of military bases to house migrants or for troops to be used for law enforcement duties. (AP)
- 23 Jan 2025 10:53 PM IST
Will have good ties with China, saysTrump
At Davos, Trump said he will soon meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and it would mainly to stop bullets that hit human bodies.
This is not about economy or natural resources but about stopping the war, he said.
On US-China relations, Trump said Xi Jinping called him and the two countries are going to have a very good relationship.
"I like President Xi a lot but COVID strained our relationship. Hopefully, things will get better, and hopefully,y China will help get the Ukraine war stopped. I am looking forward to working together," he said.
"We just want a level playing field. We have been having a massive deficit with China. Biden allowed it to get out of hand. We have to make it a fair relationship, right now it is not. The deficit is massive, as it is with other countries, lot of Asian countries actually we have deficit and we can't that continue to be," he said.
- 23 Jan 2025 10:21 PM IST
Will ask Saudi and OPEC to reduce oil prices, says Trump
US President Donald Trump on Thursday said a golden age of America has begun with his second term and the entire world would soon be more peaceful and prosperous.
He also said he will ask Saudi Arabia and OPEC to bring down oil prices and asserted that if prices come down Russia-Ukraine war will end immediately.
Addressing the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, through video conferencing, Trump also said his administration has accomplished in four days what other regimes could not get in four years.
Takes a dig at Biden
"My administration is acting with unprecedented pace to fix disasters we inherited from a totally inept group of people," Trump said about the previous Biden administration.
"Throughout the world, food prices went through the roof and I've taken immediate actions to control inflation in America," he said.
"United States has the largest amount of oil and gas in the world and I'm going to use it," he said.
"I promise to eliminate 10 old regulations for every new regulation... I am going to pass the largest tax cuts in the American history to help our people," he said.
At the same time, if a business doesn't manufacture its products in America, there would be tariffs to pay, he warned.
- 23 Jan 2025 3:47 PM IST
Kremlin responds to Trump’s new threat over Ukraine
The Kremlin has claimed that it saw nothing particularly new in a threat by US president Donald Trump to hit Russia with new sanctions and tariffs if it did not agree to end the war in Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Trump had often applied sanctions against Russia in his first term as president. Peskov said that Russia was ready for an equal and mutually respectful dialogue with the US.
In his remarks on Wednesday calling on Russia to end “this ridiculous war”, Trump had said: “If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of taxes, tariffs, and sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries.”
Most available parts of the Russian economy are already under heavy US sanctions.
Earlier, Russia’s deputy UN ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy had warned that Moscow would have to see what Trump thinks a “deal” to end the war in Ukraine actually means, adding that for the Kremlin it is “first and foremost the question of addressing root causes of Ukrainian crisis.”
- 23 Jan 2025 3:37 PM IST
Uncertainty looms over Trump's energy agenda: UBS report
During US President Donald Trump's initial period in office, his commitments to enhance oil production and replenish the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) encountered considerable challenges, according to a UBS analysis.
The analysis emphasised that whilst the President sought to enhance domestic oil output, private enterprises primarily control production levels in the United States. These organisations make decisions based on worldwide demand, oil valuations, and commercial viability.
The document observed that post-Trump's election, no substantial alterations in capital expenditure or drilling operations were evident.
