WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging executive actions tightening border security — and the prospect of additional measures restricting refugee flows — mark a sharp shift away from Washington’s elusive efforts to forge comprehensive immigration legislation.
“We do not need new laws,” Trump said Wednesday during remarks at the Department of Homeland Security. “We will work within the existing system and framework.”
The centerpiece of the measures Trump signed was an order to jumpstart construction of his promised US-Mexico border wall. He also ordered cuts in federal grants for immigrant-protecting “sanctuary cities” and a boost in the number of border patrol agents and immigration officers, pending congressional funding.
Sometime this week, Trump is expected to pause the flow of all refugees to the US and indefinitely bar those fleeing war-torn Syria. The president’s upcoming order is also expected to suspend issuing visas for people from several predominantly Muslim countries — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — for at least 30 days, according to a draft executive order obtained by The Associated Press.
The actions, less than a week into Trump’s presidency, would fulfill pledges that animated his candidacy and represent a dramatic redirection of US immigration policy. They were cheered by Republicans allies in Congress, condemned by immigration advocates and triggered new tension with the Mexican government.
Trump was expected to turn back to the economy on Thursday, signing a notice to Congress that he plans to start bilateral trade negotiations with most of the countries in the Trans-Pacific Partnership pact, according to a White House official. On Monday, Trump moved to pull the US out of the 12-nation Pacific Rim agreement, which he said would be damaging for American workers. Instead, he said he wanted to negotiate with countries individually.
The official insisted on anonymity in order to confirm the executive action ahead of Trump’s announcement.
For years, lawmakers in both parties have worked to pass immigration legislation that would provide some form of legal status for people living in the US illegally, most recently in 2013. Given the growing political power of Hispanic voters, Republicans had feared the opposition from some in the party would deeply damage their prospects of winning back the White House. But Trump’s ability to win on a hard-line immigration message has recalibrated the party’s view.
Trump is unveiling his immigration plans at a time when detentions at the nation’s southern border are down significantly from levels seen in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The arrest tally last year was the fifth-lowest since 1972. Deportations of people living in the US illegally also increased under President Barack Obama, though Republicans criticized him for setting prosecution guidelines that spared some groups from the threat of deportation, including those brought to the US illegally as children.
As a candidate, Trump tapped into the immigration concerns of some Americans who worry both about a loss of economic opportunities and the threat of criminals and terrorists entering the country. His call for a border wall was among his most popular proposals, and supporters often broke out in chants of “build that wall” during rallies.
Immigration advocates and others assailed the new president’s actions. Omar Jadwat, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said Trump’s desire to construct a border wall was “driven by racial and ethnic bias that disgraces America’s proud tradition of protecting vulnerable migrants.”
How Trump plans to pay for the wall project is murky. While he has repeatedly promised that Mexico will foot the bill, US taxpayers are expected to cover the initial costs. The new administration has said nothing about how it might compel Mexico to reimburse the money.
In an interview with ABC News on Wednesday, Trump said, “There will be a payment; it will be in a form, perhaps a complicated form.”
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto responded, “I have said time and again, Mexico will not pay for any wall.” Pena Nieto was expected to meet with Trump at the White House next week, but a senior official said Trump’s announcement led him to reconsider the visit.
Asked about Mexican resistance to his plan to require the payment, Trump said in the ABC interview, “He has to say that. He has to say that. I’m just telling you that there will be a payment.”
Congressional aides say there is about $100 million of unspent appropriations in the Department of Homeland Security account for border security, fencing and infrastructure. That would allow planning to get started, but far more money would have to be appropriated for construction to begin.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, in an interview Wednesday on MSNBC, said Congress will work with Trump on the upfront financing for the wall. Asked about estimates that the project could cost $8 billion to $14 billion, Ryan said: “That’s about right.”
Trump has insisted many times the border structure will be a wall. The order he signed referred to “a contiguous, physical wall or other similarly secure, contiguous and impassable physical barrier.”
To build the wall, the president is relying on a 2006 law that authorized several hundred miles of fencing along the 2,000-mile frontier. That bill led to the construction of about 700 miles of various kinds of fencing designed to block both vehicles and pedestrians.
The president’s orders also end what Republicans have labeled a catch-and-release system at the border. Currently, some immigrants caught crossing the border illegally are released and given notices to report back to immigration officials at a later date.
Trump’s crackdown on sanctuary cities — locales that don’t cooperate with immigration authorities — could cost individual jurisdictions millions of dollars. But the administration may face legal challenges, given that some federal courts have found that cities or counties cannot hold immigrants beyond their jail terms or deny them bond based only on a request from immigration authorities.
The president also moved to restart the “Secure Communities” program, which was launched under President George W. Bush and initially was touted as a way for immigration authorities to quickly and easily identify people in the country illegally who had been arrested by local authorities.
Immigration actions mark sharp shift in US policy
Immigration actions mark sharp shift in US policy
Indian troops kill 31 suspected Maoist rebels in forest battle
- Counterinsurgency troops cornered nearly 50 suspected rebels in the Abhujmaad forest area along the border of Narayanpur and Dantewada districts in Chhattisgarh state
- Indian soldiers have been battling the Maoist rebels across several central and northern states since 1967, when the militants began fighting to demand more jobs, land and wealth
PATNA, India: At least 31 suspected Maoist rebels were killed in a battle with Indian troops in central India, police said Saturday.
The fighting erupted on Friday when counterinsurgency troops, acting on intelligence, cornered nearly 50 suspected rebels in the Abhujmaad forest area along the border of Narayanpur and Dantewada districts in Chhattisgarh state, said state police Inspector General Pattilingam Sundarraj.
Sundarraj said the operation was launched on Thursday, and the battle began the next day, lasting about nine hours. He said search operations were continuing in the area and that the troops had recovered some arms and ammunition, including automatic rifles. There were no reports of casualties among the troops.
There was no immediate statement from the rebels.
Indian soldiers have been battling the Maoist rebels across several central and northern states since 1967, when the militants, also known as Naxalites, began fighting to demand more jobs, land and wealth from natural resources for the country’s poor indigenous communities. The insurgents are inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong.
Years of neglect have isolated many local villagers, who face a lack of jobs, schools and health care clinics, making them open to overtures by the rebels. The rebels speak the same tribal languages as many local villagers and have promised to fight for a better future especially in Chhattisgarh, one of India’s poorest states despite its vast mineral riches.
Authorities say at least 171 militants have been killed so far this year in Chhattisgarh.
Friday’s fighting was the deadliest clash this year.
In April, government forces killed at least 29 suspected Maoist rebels in in Chhattisgarh, three days ahead of the start of India’s national election.
The rebels have ambushed police, destroyed government offices and abducted officials. They’ve also blown up train tracks, attacked prisons to free their comrades and stolen weapons from police and paramilitary warehouses to arm themselves.
While Biden warns Israel against escalation, Trump suggests striking Iran nuclear facilities
- Biden said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ‘should remember’ US support for Israel when deciding on next steps
- Trump, currently campaigning for another term in power, went so far as to suggest Israel should ‘hit’ the Iranian nuclear sites
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden on Friday advised Israel against striking Iran’s oil facilities, saying he was trying to rally the world to avoid the escalating prospect of all-out war in the Middle East.
But his predecessor Donald Trump, currently campaigning for another term in power, went so far as to suggest Israel should “hit” the Islamic republic’s nuclear sites.
Making a surprise first appearance in the White House briefing room, Biden said that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “should remember” US support for Israel when deciding on next steps.
“If I were in their shoes, I’d be thinking about other alternatives than striking oil fields,” Biden told reporters, when asked about his comments a day earlier that Washington was discussing the possibility of such strikes with its ally.
Biden added that the Israelis “have not concluded how they’re, what they’re going to do” in retaliation for a huge ballistic missile attack by Iran on Israel on Tuesday.
The price of oil had jumped after Biden’s remarks Thursday.
Any long-term rise could be damaging for US Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democrat confronts Republican Trump in a November 5 election where the cost of living is a major issue.
Meanwhile Trump, campaigning in North Carolina, offered a far more provocative view of what he thinks a response to Iran should be, referencing a question posed to Biden this week about the possibility of Israel targeting Iran’s nuclear program.
“They asked him, ‘what do you think about Iran, would you hit Iran?’ And he goes, ‘As long as they don’t hit the nuclear stuff.’ That’s the thing you want to hit, right?” Trump told a town hall style event in Fayetteville, near a major US military base.
Biden “got that one wrong,” Trump said.
“When they asked him that question, the answer should have been, hit the nuclear first, and worry about the rest later,” Trump added.
Trump has spoken little about the recent escalation in tensions in the Middle East. But he issued a scathing statement this week, holding Biden and Harris responsible for the crisis.
Biden’s appearance at the famed briefing room podium was not announced in advance, taking reporters by surprise.
It comes at a tense time as he prepares to leave office with the Mideast situation boiling over and political criticism at home over his handling of a recent hurricane that struck the US southeast.
Biden said he was doing his best to avoid a full-scale conflagration in the Middle East, where Israel is bombing Lebanon in a bid to wipe out the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah.
“The main thing we can do is try to rally the rest of the world and our allies into participating... to tamp this down,” he told reporters.
“But when you have (Iranian) proxies as irrational as Hezbollah and the Houthis (of Yemen)... it’s a hard thing to determine.”
Biden however had tough words for Netanyahu, with whom he has had rocky relations as he seeks to manage Israel’s response following the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.
The Israeli premier has repeatedly ignored Biden’s calls for restraint on Lebanon, and on Israel’s war in Gaza, which has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians.
Biden deflected a question on whether he believed Netanyahu was hanging back on signing a Middle East peace deal in a bid to influence the US presidential election.
“No administration has helped Israel more than I have. None, none, none. And I think Bibi should remember that,” Biden said.
“And whether he’s trying to influence the election, I don’t know, but I’m not counting on that.”
Biden said he had still not spoken to Netanyahu since the Iranian attack, which involved some 200 missiles, but added their teams were in “constant contact.”
“They’re not going to make a decision immediately, and so we’re going to wait to see when they want to talk,” the US leader added.
Iran said its attack was in retaliation for the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Hezbollah has been launching rockets at Israel since shortly after the October 7, 2023 attacks.
Twin babies who died alongside their mother in Georgia are youngest-known Hurricane Helene victims
- The twins died alongside their mother when a large tree fell through the roof of their home in Thomson, Georgia, last week
Obie Williams said he could hear babies crying and branches battering the windows when he spoke with his daughter on the phone last week as Hurricane Helene tore through her rural Georgia town.
Kobe Williams, 27, and her month-old twin boys were hunkering down at their trailer home in Thomson, Georgia, with her mother, Mary Jones, who had been helping her take care of the babies. Williams’ father sensed his daughter was fearing for her safety, and she promised her father she would heed his advice to shelter in the bathroom with her babies until the storm passed.
The single mother had been sitting in bed holding sons Khyzier and Khazmir and chatting on the phone with various family members while the storm raged outside.
Minutes later, she was no longer answering their calls.
Jones, who was on the other side of the trailer, described hearing a loud crash as a tree fell through the roof of her daughter’s bedroom.
“Kobe, Kobe, answer me, please,” Jones cried out in desperation, but she received no response.
Kobe and the twins were found dead.
“I’d seen pictures when they were born and pictures every day since, but I hadn’t made it out there yet to meet them,” Obie Williams told The Associated Press days after the storm ravaged eastern Georgia. “Now I’ll never get to meet my grandsons. It’s devastating.”
The babies, born Aug. 20, are the youngest known victims of a storm that had claimed 200 lives across Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia and the Carolinas as of Thursday. Among the other young victims are a 7-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy from about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south in Washington County, Georgia.
“She was so excited to be a mother of those beautiful twin boys,” said Chiquita Jones-Hampton, Kobe’ Jones’ niece. “She was doing such a good job and was so proud to be their mom.”
Jones-Hampton, who considered Kobe a sister, said the family is in shock and heartbroken.
In Obie Williams’ home city of Augusta, 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of his daughter’s home in Thomson, power lines stretched along the sidewalks, tree branches blocked the roads and utility poles lay cracked and broken. The debris left him trapped in his neighborhood near the South Carolina border for a little over a day after the storm barreled through.
He said one of his sons dodged fallen trees and downed power lines to check on Kobe, and he could barely bear to tell his father what he found.
Many of his 14 other children are still without power in their homes across Georgia. Some have sought refuge in Atlanta, and others have traveled to Augusta to see their father and mourn together, he said.
He described his daughter as a lovable, social and strong woman. She always had a smile and loved to make people laugh, he said.
And she loved to dance, Jones-Hampton said.
“That was my baby,” Williams said. “And everybody loved her.”
Two more found dead in Taiwan after Typhoon Krathon
- Around 20,000 homes were still without power Saturday, mostly in the worst-hit southern seaport city of Kaohsiung
- Krathon dissipated into a tropical depression on Friday after slamming into the island the day before
TAIPEI: Two people who went missing amid the destructive wind and torrential rains of Typhoon Krathon were found dead Saturday in Taiwan, doubling the death toll for the storm that lashed the island this week.
Across the island, around 20,000 homes were still without power Saturday, mostly in the worst-hit southern seaport city of Kaohsiung, where the typhoon made landfall.
Krathon dissipated into a tropical depression on Friday after slamming into the island the day before, bringing mudslides, flooding and record-strong gusts.
More than 700 people were injured.
On Saturday, two missing people were found dead in northern New Taipei city, bringing the typhoon’s death toll to four, the National Fire Agency said without providing details.
Heavy rains triggered landslides in several districts of New Taipei and flooded streets, temporarily stranding dozens of students at their schools, officials said.
The defense ministry said around 250 soldiers were dispatched on Friday to the city and nearby Keelung, which also reported landslides, to help clear roads and drain floodwater.
In Kaohsiung and neighboring Pingtung, about 1,500 soldiers were deployed for a second day to aid in typhoon relief work, according to the defense ministry.
Taiwan is accustomed to frequent tropical storms from July to October, but scientists have warned climate change is increasing their intensity, leading to heavy rains, flash floods and strong gusts.
In July, Gaemi became the strongest typhoon to make landfall in Taiwan in eight years, killing at least 10 people, injuring hundreds and triggering widespread flooding in Kaohsiung.
Drought has dried a major Amazon River tributary to its lowest level in over 122 years
- The level of the Negro River at the port of Manaus was at 12.66 meters on Friday, as compared with a normal level of about 21 meters
- It is the lowest since measurements started 122 years ago. The previous record low level was recorded last year, but toward the end of October
MANAUS, Brazil: One of the Amazon River’s main tributaries has dropped to its lowest level ever recorded, Brazil’s geological service said Friday, reflecting a severe drought that has devastated the Amazon rainforest and other parts of the country.
The level of the Negro River at the port of Manaus was at 12.66 meters on Friday, as compared with a normal level of about 21 meters. It is the lowest since measurements started 122 years ago. The previous record low level was recorded last year, but toward the end of October.
The Negro River’s water level might drop even more in coming weeks based on forecasts for low rainfall in upstream regions, according to the geological service’s predictions. Andre Martinelli, the agency’s hydrology manager in Manaus, was quoted as saying the river was expected to continue receding until the end of the month.
Water levels in Brazil’s Amazon always rise and fall with its rainy and dry seasons, but the dry portion of this year has been much worse than usual. All of the major rivers in the Amazon basin are at critical levels, including the Madeira River, the Amazon River’s longest tributary.
The Negro River drains about 10 percent of the Amazon basin and is the world’s sixth-largest by water volume. Manaus, the biggest city in the rainforest, is where the Negro joins the Amazon River.
For locals, the drought has made basic daily activities impossible. Gracita Barbosa, 28, works as a cashier on a floating shop on the Negro River. She’s out of work because boats that once stopped there can no longer navigate the river due to the low water levels. Barbosa can no longer bathe in the river and now has to travel longer distances to collect drinking water.
