Sorted by date Results 76 - 100 of 170
WASHINGTON (AP) — Unbowed by a public rebuke from his attorney general, President Donald Trump on Friday declared he has the "legal right" to intervene in criminal cases and sidestep the Justice Department's historic independence. At the same time, it was revealed federal prosecutors have been ordered to review the criminal case of his former national security adviser. A day after Attorney General William Barr said the president's tweets were making it "impossible for me to do my job," Trump declared he had the right to ask the agency to i...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Exacting swift punishment against those who crossed him, an emboldened President Donald Trump ousted two government officials who had delivered damaging testimony against him during his impeachment hearings. The president took retribution just two days after his acquittal by the Senate. First came news Friday that Trump had ousted Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the decorated soldier and national security aide who played a central role in the Democrats' impeachment case. Vindman's lawyer said his client was escorted out of the W...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is coming out Thursday with new visa restrictions aimed at restricting "birth tourism," in which women travel to the U.S. to give birth so their children can have a coveted U.S. passport. Visa applicants deemed by consular officers to be coming to the U.S. primarily to give birth will now be treated like other foreigners coming to the U.S. for medical treatment, according to State Department guidance sent Wednesday and viewed by The Associated Press. The applicants will have to prove they are coming f...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Homeland Security investigators who uncover child exploitation initiated more than 4,000 cases around the world in the 2019 budget year, resulting in thousands of arrests and the identification of more than 1,000 victims, according to new data obtained by The Associated Press. Their caseloads are growing because of the ease with which offenders can post graphic images of children online. “With the dark web on there, the content is becoming more prevalent and more horrific,” said Matt Wright, the chief for the Child Exploitatio...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday said Chad Wolf, a longtime Homeland Security official, would be the new acting head of the department, the fifth person in the job for this administration. But Trump's casual announcement, made in response to a reporter's question outside the White House, temporarily created more uncertainty about who was in charge of the sprawling department. There have been weeks of speculation over whom would be named the next leader, and Kevin McAleenan, the current acting secretary, has agreed to stay on t...
WASHINGTON (AP) — A day before the acting Homeland Security secretary is set to leave his job, it remains unclear who will be tapped to run the sprawling agency tasked with national security, disaster response and protection of the president and his family. Kevin McAleenan, the fourth person to hold the job in the Trump administration, had told colleagues that he would be departing Thursday. While he could choose to stay on, a goodbye party to fete him was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. "I'm not going to discuss any pre-decisional personnel...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan has agreed to testify Wednesday before a House committee on global terrorism. McAleenan had challenged a subpoena sent to him by the House Homeland Security Committee. He had said he could not attend the hearing because it would be held on his second-to-last day in office, and he was focused on the transition. In the end, he agreed to appear. Chairman Bennie Thompson sent McAleenan a letter Tuesday that said the subpoena had been withdrawn. The hearing is on terrorism, but i...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Kevin McAleenan, a career civil servant who became the unlikely point man for President Donald Trump's hardline immigration policies, is stepping down as acting Homeland Security secretary after six months on the job. McAleenan told The Associated Press he was leaving on his own terms — a contrast to other top administration officials pushed out during Trump's tenure. But his departure ends an awkward period of leadership — one in which McAleenan delighted Trump by getting border crossing numbers to fall yet remained an outsi...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan left an immigration policy conference Monday without speaking after protesters shouted him down. McAleenan was scheduled as the keynote speaker at Georgetown University Law Center during an annual immigration law and policy conference held by the nonprofit immigration think tank Migration Policy Institute. He was expected to take questions from the audience, made up mostly of immigration policy experts, lawyers and advocates. As he took the stage, a handful of protesters m...
WASHINGTON (AP) — It was just last week that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump. It was triggered by a whistleblower's complaint about a July 25 phone call where Trump prodded Ukraine's new president to dig up dirt on the family of his potential Democratic rival, Joe Biden. A lot has happened since then. Here are the highlights from this week: CHINA, IF YOU'RE LISTENING ... Trump declared at the White House that "China should start an investigation into the Bidens." He said he hadn't previ...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department said Thursday the federal government will resume executing death-row inmates for the first time since 2003, ending an informal moratorium even as the nation sees a broad shift away from capital punishment. Attorney General William Barr instructed the Bureau of Prisons to schedule executions starting in December for five men, all accused of murdering children. Although the death penalty remains legal in 30 states, executions on the federal level are rare. "The Justice Department upholds the rule of law ...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Go back where you came from. President Donald Trump's tweet on Sunday did more than take a shot at four Democratic lawmakers of color. In just a few words, Trump summed up the backbone of his agenda — one aimed at reducing the number of immigrants in the U.S. through fear and force. "Go back" was also behind his denunciation of Mexicans as rapists and murderers when he announced his first presidential campaign. It was behind his plans for a border wall, his travel ban and his attempts to end protections for migrants who cam...
WASHINGTON (AP) — One-third of the attackers who terrorized schools, houses of worship or businesses nationwide last year had a history of serious domestic violence, two-thirds had mental health issues, and nearly all had made threatening or concerning communications that worried others before they struck, according to a U.S. Secret Service report on mass attacks. The Secret Service studied 27 incidents where a total of 91 people were killed and 107 more injured in public spaces in 2018. Among them: the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas H...
WASHINGTON (AP) — A 12-year-old boy entered the U.S. from Mexico with his brother and uncle, fleeing violence in Guatemala, but is now without them in a packed Texas border facility. Honduran sisters, 8 and 6, were taken from their grandmother when they arrived. An 8-year-old Guatemalan boy was separated from his aunt and cousin. One year after President Donald Trump ended his widely criticized practice of separating migrant children from their parents, his administration is again under fire for a different kind of family separation crisis ...
CLINT, Texas (AP) — The head of the U.S. Border Patrol on Monday slammed as "completely inappropriate" sexually explicit posts about U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and comments questioning the authenticity of a photo of a drowned man and his young daughter in a secret Facebook group for agents. The existence of the group was reported by ProPublica as roughly a dozen members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, including Democrats Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Veronica Escobar of Texas, toured border facilities where attorneys said they h...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Saturday delayed a nationwide immigration sweep to deport people living the United States illegally, including families, saying he would give lawmakers two weeks to work out solutions for the southern border. The move came after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Trump on Friday asking him to call off the raids. But three administration officials said scrapping the operation was not just about politics. They said Immigration and Customs Enforcement leaders had expressed serious concerns that o...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Homeland Security Department's internal watchdog says rotting food, moldy and dilapidated bathrooms and agency practices at immigration detention facilities may violate detainees' rights. The Office of Inspector General made unannounced visits to four facilities in California, Louisiana, Colorado and New Jersey between May and November of last year, according to a report published Thursday. The facilities together house about 5,000 detainees. In an Adelanto, California detention facility, inspectors found nooses in d...
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a surprise announcement that could derail a major trade deal, President Donald Trump says he is placing a 5% tariff on all Mexican imports, effective June 10, to pressure the country to do more to crack down on the surge of Central American migrants trying to cross the U.S. border. He said the percentage will gradually increase — up to 25% — "until the Illegal Immigration problem is remedied." The decision showed the administration going to new lengths, and looking for new levers, to pressure Mexico to take action — eve...
WASHINGTON (AP) — While candidates were focused on campaigning in 2016, Russians were carrying out a devastating cyber-operation that changed the landscape of American politics, with aftershocks continuing well into Donald Trump's presidency And it all started with the click of a tempting email and a typed-in password. Whether presidential campaigns have learned from the cyberattacks is a critical question ahead as the 2020 election approaches. Preventing the attacks won't be easy or cheap. "If you are the Pentagon or the NSA, you have the m...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Wednesday asked Congress for an additional $4.5 billion in emergency funds for the U.S.-Mexico border as it grapples with a surge of Central American migrant families seeking refuge in the U.S. Most of the money requested would be used to increase shelter capacity and care for the migrant families who have been fleeing poverty and violence in their home countries. Department of Homeland Security officials said they would likely run out of money without the extra cash. "DHS projects it will e...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Asylum seekers waiting to get into the U.S. sleep in small tents set up by the border, depending on volunteers and churches to bring them food and clothing. Some scrape together 25 cents to pay a toll to get on an international bridge where they can use a bathroom. They've fled violence-ridden homelands, often arriving at the U.S. border deep in debt, paying $7,000 or more to smugglers. Under President Donald Trump's latest immigration proposal, they could face another demand on their meager resources: a fee to process t...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump wants to explore a twice-rejected proposal to send migrants to "sanctuary cities," but that is not the preferred solution to fix the straining immigration system, the White House said Sunday. Press secretary Sarah Sanders said it was one of many options, though she hoped Congress would work with the president on a comprehensive immigration overhaul. The Trump administration is dealing with an ever-increasing number of Central American migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, an influx that has pushed t...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday he is strongly considering releasing "Illegal Immigrants" into Democratic strongholds to punish congressional foes for inaction on the border— just hours after White House and Homeland Security officials insisted the idea had been rejected as fast as it had been proposed. "Due to the fact that Democrats are unwilling to change our very dangerous immigration laws, we are indeed, as reported, giving strong considerations to placing Illegal Immigrants in Sanctuary Cities only," Trump twe...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Kirstjen Nielsen and other longtime civil servants stood outside the Department of Homeland Security's new headquarters Wednesday in the breezy sunshine — a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a building they'd never work in. Nielsen, homeland security secretary for a few more hours, stood smiling next to her replacement. Both held giant gold scissors, and on a count of three, they sliced through the blue ribbon together. If there were bad feelings or awkwardness, they weren't on display. The event felt more like a graduation tha...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump eased up on his threats to close the southern border as officials across his administration explored half-measures that might satisfy the president's urge for action, like stopping only foot traffic at certain crossings. Facing a surge of Central American migrants trying to enter the U.S., Trump last week threatened to seal the border this week if Mexico did not immediately halt all illegal immigration into the U.S., a move that would have enormous economic consequences on both sides of the border. While...
