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
- 23 Jan 2025 3:32 PM IST
China says ‘willing to work with US’ for stable ties
China's commerce ministry on Thursday reacted to US President's Donald Trump's threat of imposing 10 per cent tariff on Chinese goods from February 1, saying that these measures "are not good for China, US, and the entire world".
The ministry's spokesperson, He Yadong, asserted China's willingness to work with Washington to "promote stable, healthy development of economic and trade ties", Reuters reported. - 23 Jan 2025 3:27 PM IST
Immigrant detention beds may be maxed out as Trump moves to deport millions
President Donald Trump's inauguration-day executive orders and promises of mass deportations of “millions and millions” of people will hinge on securing money for detention centres.
The Trump administration has not publicly said how many immigration detention beds it needs to achieve its goals, or what the cost will be. However, an estimated 11.7 million people are living in the US illegally, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement currently has the budget to detain only about 41,000 people.
The government would need additional space to hold people while they are processed and arrangements are made to remove them, sometimes by plane. The Department of Homeland Security estimates the daily cost for a bed for one adult is about $165.
Just one piece of Trump's plan, a bill known as the Laken Riley Act that Congress has passed, would require at least $26.9 billion to ramp up capacity at immigrant detention facilities to add 110,000 beds, according to a recent memo from DHS.
That bill — named after a Georgia nursing student whose murder by a Venezuelan man last year became a rallying cry for Trump's White House campaign — expands requirements for immigration authorities to detain anyone in the country illegally who is accused of theft and violent crimes.
Trump also is deploying troops to try and stop all illegal entry at the southern US border. He triggered the Alien Enemies Act to combat cartels. The rarely used 1798 law allows the president to deport anyone who is not a U.S. citizen and is from a country with which there is a “declared war” or a threatened or attempted “invasion or predatory incursion.” Detention infrastructure also will be stretched by Trump's ban of a practice known as “catch and release” that allows some migrants to live in the US while awaiting immigration court proceedings, in favor of detention and deportation.
- 23 Jan 2025 3:23 PM IST
Bid to block Trump's cancellation of birthright citizenship in federal court
A federal judge in Seattle is set to hear the first arguments on Thursday in a multi-state lawsuit seeking to block President Donald Trump's executive order ending the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship regardless of the parents' immigration status.
US District Judge John Coughenour scheduled the session to consider the request from Arizona, Illinois, Oregon and Washington. 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.
The order, signed by Trump on Inauguration Day, 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.
- 23 Jan 2025 10:55 AM IST
Saudi Arabia intends to invest $600 bn in US: Crown prince
Saudi Arabia's crown prince said Thursday the kingdom wants to invest USD 600 billion in the United States over the next four years, comments that came after President Donald Trump mused about returning to the kingdom as his first foreign trip.
The comments from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, reported early Thursday by the state-run Saudi Press Agency, came in a phone call with Trump.
“The crown prince affirmed the kingdom's intention to broaden its investments and trade with the United States over the next four years, in the amount of USD 600 billion, and potentially beyond that,” the report said.
There was no immediate readout from the White House on the call. The crown prince also spoke with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio early Thursday.
On Monday after his inauguration, Trump talked about possibly heading to the kingdom again as his first foreign trip, like he did in 2017.
“The first foreign trip typically has been with the UK but ... I did it with Saudi Arabia last time because they agreed to buy USD 450 billion worth of our products,” Trump told journalists in the Oval Office.
“If Saudi Arabia wanted to buy another USD 450 billion or USD 500 — we'll up it for all the inflation — I think I'd probably go.” The 2017 visit to the kingdom set in motion a yearslong boycott of Qatar by four Arab nations, including the kingdom.
- 23 Jan 2025 10:53 AM IST
Trump threatens to withhold aid for LA if California doesn't change water policies
President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to withhold federal disaster aid for wildfire-ravaged Los Angeles unless California leaders change the state's approach on its management of water.
In a Fox News interview, Trump repeated false claims that the state's fish conservation efforts in the northern part of the state are responsible for fire hydrants running dry in urban areas. He says the blame for Los Angeles' struggles to tame some of the deadly fires lies with Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, a political foe who has called for partnership and mutual respect as the state fights the blazes.
“I don't think we should give California anything until they let the water run down,” Trump said.
The president levelled the threat as he prepares for the first presidential trip of his second term. On Friday, he will visit Southern California in addition to western North Carolina, which is recovering after Hurricane Helene pummelled the area more than three months ago.
Trump in the interview also called for reform of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, claiming it is “getting in the way of everything”.
“I'd rather see the states take care of their own problems,” he said. He did not elaborate on his proposed reforms, only saying that the agency is “going to be a whole big discussion very shortly.”
- 23 Jan 2025 10:15 AM IST
Trump’s new Justice Department puts freeze on civil rights litigation
US President Donald Trump’s new Justice Department leadership has put a freeze on civil rights litigation and suggested it may reconsider police reform agreements negotiated by the Biden administration, according to two memos obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.
Attorneys in the department's Civil Rights Division were ordered not to file any new complaints, amicus briefs or other certain court papers “until further notice," one of the memos said.
Another memo directed attorneys to notify leadership of any settlements or consent decrees — court-enforceable agreements to reform police agencies — that were finalized by the Biden administration within the last 90 days.
It said the new administration “may wish to reconsider” such agreements, raising the prospect that it may abandon two consent decrees finalised in the final weeks of the Biden administration in Louisville, Kentucky, and Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Those agreements, reached after investigations found police engaged in civil rights violations, still need to be approved by a judge. They were among 12 investigations into law enforcement agencies launched by the Civil Rights Division under Attorney General Merrick Garland.
- 23 Jan 2025 8:36 AM IST
Musk-Altman lock horns over Stargate project
In a fiery exchange on X, Elon Musk has locked horns with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman over the Stargate artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure project touted by US President Donald Trump.
This is the latest in a feud between the two tech billionaires that started on OpenAI’s board and is now testing Musk’s influence with the new president.
Dubbed The Stargate Project, the initiative promises to revolutionize AI infrastructure in the US over the next four years. However, Musk’s scepticism and Altman’s sharp retorts highlighted long-standing tensions between the two influential figures, both with deep ties to artificial intelligence.
- 23 Jan 2025 7:56 AM IST
Trump’s threat of tariffs, sanctions on Russia over Ukraine may fall flat
US President Donald Trump’s threats to impose stiff taxes, tariffs and sanctions on Russia if an agreement isn't reached to end the war in Ukraine is likely to fall on deaf ears in the Kremlin.
The US already prohibits the import of virtually all Russian products, and Russia has faced a multitude of US and European sanctions since the invasion began almost three years ago.
Trump has often spoken of his desire to end the war and said on the campaign trail that he could end the conflict within 24 hours of taking office.
That has not happened.
The problem with the threat is that other than a small amount of fertiliser, animal feed, inorganic material like tin, and machinery, Russia currently exports very little to the US that could be subject to tariffs.
Oil had been Russia's largest export to the US, but such trade was zeroed out in 2023.
The US imported a total of USD 2.8 billion worth of these products from Russia in 2024, a tiny fraction of US imports and a precipitous drop from 2023, when it was USD 4.5 billion, and 2022, when it was USD 14.4 billion, according to US government statistics.
And, Russia is already one of the world's most heavily sanctioned nations. Many of those sanctions relate to its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and were imposed under then-President Joe Biden, but others predate Biden.
Some were imposed during Trump's first term in office, and some date back to Russia's 2014 seizure of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.
In addition, "other participating countries" such as Iran and North Korea, the two most often accused of helping Russia in the Ukraine war, are subject to even more US sanctions.
- 23 Jan 2025 7:53 AM IST
Netanyahu may meet Trump in a few weeks: Israel’s UN envoy
Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon said he believes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to Washington to meet newly-elected US President Donald Trump "in a few weeks".
He told a briefing for invited reporters on Wednesday, "I'm sure he would be one of the first foreign leaders invited to the White House." Danon said he expects their discussions to include the current ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and the release of hostages taken during Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack in southern Israel.
Israel President Isaac Herzog will be coming to the United Nations next Monday to attend the UN commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, marking the January 27, 1945, liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp 80 years ago, Danon said.
He will meet with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
- 23 Jan 2025 7:51 AM IST
Trump asks Putin to end ‘ridiculous war’ with Ukraine or face sanctions
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday warned Russian President Vladimir Putin to come to the negotiation table and “stop this ridiculous war” with Ukraine or face a high-level of sanctions and trade tariffs.
“We can do it the easy way, or the hard way — and the easy way is always better,” Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform Truth Social. “It's time to ‘MAKE A DEAL’. NO MORE LIVES SHOULD BE LOST!!!” he added.
The US president said he is not looking to hurt Russia and loves Russian people and had a “very good relationship” with Putin.
“We must never forget that Russia helped us win the Second World War, losing almost 60,000,000 lives in the process,” he wrote.
Trump said he is going to do Russia a “very big favour”, adding, “Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT'S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE. 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,” he wrote.
Earlier, Trump on Tuesday said he is ready to meet Putin anytime, but at the same time warned that he would likely impose sanctions on Russia if the latter does not come to the negotiations table on the issue of Ukraine.
