Shaheen compels answers on Trump deportations to Costa Rica, Panama
In a letter sent last week, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) invoked a 2023 federal law that the State Department must provide international agreements or non-binding instruments that are the 'subject of a written communication from the Chair or Ranking Member' of either the Senate Foreign Relations or House Foreign Affairs Committees.
'This letter constitutes the statutorily required written communication,' Shaheen wrote.
She raised alarm over the approximately 500 third-country nationals deported to Central America since February — and many back to their countries of origin. Shaheen said that dozens of those deported remain in vulnerable situations in Panama and Costa Rica, at risk of exploitation, statelessness and other harm.
'These individuals included Iranian Christians fleeing religious persecution, Afghan women escaping the Taliban's ruthless crackdown and Russians facing political persecution for protesting Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine,' Shaheen wrote of the initial deportees.
'While some chose to return to their countries of origin, dozens of deported migrants are still in Panama and Costa Rica with no clear path forward.'
The Trump administration has made a crackdown on immigration a focus of the president's second term, claiming to expel violent criminals and illegal migrants, but working to terminate the asylum process, canceling protected status for temporary residents and drumming up criminal allegations against legal visa holders.
After a visit by Rubio to Central America in late January, the U.S., Panama and Costa Rica announced expanded cooperation on migration, with the two Central American countries accepting hundreds of third-party nationals deported from the U.S. Human rights groups warned of those countries becoming a 'black hole' for deported migrants. Those facing deportation to their home countries told human rights groups they feared 'serious risks to their lives or safety. '
In her letter to Rubio, Shaheen also called for information about what steps the administration has taken or is taking to ensure 'that these individuals are not trafficked for sexual or labor exploitation, rendered stateless or sent to a country where they will be subjected to torture or other harm.'
'Human rights groups report that migrants who cannot return to their country of origin due to fear of persecution or death are now living in shelters in or near the city with limited support from charitable groups,' Shaheen wrote.
'This includes several young Afghan women who are without their families. Their legal status and future are uncertain; some who have sought asylum have already been denied. With limited money, little to no Spanish, and unclear legal status, many of these migrants, particularly women and children, are vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.'
Shaheen cited that in Costa Rica, deported migrants, including 100 children, face similar challenges. In June, Costa Rica's Constitutional Court ordered the government to release migrants deported from the U.S. and held in a temporary shelter since February, saying the government had violated the migrants rights.
'For those still in the country and unable to return home, their future remains uncertain,' Shaheen wrote.
'I look forward to your prompt response.'
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Fast Company
25 minutes ago
- Fast Company
The EPA plans to block limits on vehicle emissions. Will that stop the shift to EVs?
IMPACT The Environmental Protection Agency is looking to rescind the 'endangerment finding,' which says greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health. Customers have embraced electric vehicles; policy changes may decrease that interest but will not eliminate it. [Photo: Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images] BY The U.S. government is in full retreat from its efforts to make vehicles more fuel-efficient, which it has been waging, along with state governments, since the 1970s. The latest move came on July 29, 2025, when the Environmental Protection Agency said it planned to rescind its landmark 2009 decision, known as the ' endangerment finding,' that greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health and welfare. If that stands up in court and is not overruled by Congress, it would undo a key part of the long-standing effort to limit greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. As a scholar of how vehicle emissions contribute to climate change, I know that the science behind the endangerment finding hasn't changed. If anything, the evidence has grown that greenhouse gas emissions are warming the planet and threatening people's health and safety. Heat waves, flooding, sea-level rise and wildfires have only worsened in the decade and a half since the EPA's ruling. Regulations over the years have cut emissions from power generation, leaving transportation as the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. The scientific community agrees that vehicle emissions are harmful and should be regulated. The public also agrees, and has indicated strong preferences for cars that pollute less, including both more efficient gas-burning vehicles and electric-powered ones. Consumers have also been drawn to electric vehicles thanks to other benefits such as performance, operation cost and innovative technologies. That is why I believe the EPA's move will not stop the public and commercial transition to electric vehicles, but it will make that shift harder, slower and more expensive for everyone. Putting carmakers in a bind The most recent EPA rule about vehicle emissions was finalized in 2024. It set emissions limits that can realistically only be met by a large-scale shift to electric vehicles. Over the past decade and a half, automakers have been building up their capability to produce electric vehicles to meet these fleet requirements, and a combination of regulations such as California's zero-emission-vehicle requirements have worked together to ensure customers can get their hands on EVs. The zero-emission-vehicle rules require automakers to produce EVs for the California market, which in turn make it easier for the companies to meet their efficiency and emissions targets from the federal government. These collectively pressure automakers to provide a steady supply of electric vehicles to consumers. The new EPA move would undo the 2024 EPA vehicle-emissions rule and other federal regulations that also limit emissions from vehicles, such as the heavy-duty vehicle emissions rule. The possibility of a regulatory reversal puts automakers into a state of uncertainty. Legal challenges to the EPA's shift are all but guaranteed, and the court process could take years. For companies making decade-long investment decisions, regulatory stability matters more than short-term politics. Disrupting that stability undermines business planning, erodes investor confidence and sends conflicting signals to consumers and suppliers alike. A slower roll The Trump administration has taken other steps to make electric vehicles less attractive to carmakers and consumers. The White House has already suspended key provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act that provided tax credits for purchasing EVs and halted a US$5 billion investment in a nationwide network of charging stations. And Congress has retracted the federal waiver that allowed California to set its own, stricter emissions limits. In combination, these policies make it hard to buy and drive electric vehicles: Fewer, or no, financial incentives for consumers make the purchases more expensive, and fewer charging stations make travel planning more challenging. Overturning the EPA's 2009 endangerment finding would remove the legal basis for regulating climate pollution from vehicles altogether. But U.S. consumer interest in electric vehicles has been growing, and automakers have already made massive investments to produce electric vehicles and their associated components in the U.S. – such as Hyundai's EV factory in Georgia and Volkswagen's Battery Engineering Lab in Tennessee. Global markets, especially in Europe and China, are also moving decisively toward electrifying large proportions of the vehicles on the road. This move is helped in no small part due to aggressive regulation by their respective governments. The results speak for themselves: Sales of EVs in both the European Union and China have been growing rapidly. But the pace of change matters. A slower rollout of clean vehicles means more cumulative emissions, more climate damage and more harm to public health. The EPA's proposal seeks to slow the shift to electric vehicles, removing incentives and raising costs – even though the market has shown that cleaner vehicles are viable, the public has shown interest, and the science has never been clearer. But even such a major policy change can't stop the momentum of those trends. Alan Jenn is an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, at the University of California, Davis. The early-rate deadline for Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies Awards is Friday, September 5, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply today.
The Intercept
an hour ago
- The Intercept
What Court Order? Federal Agents Keep Raiding LA Workplaces Despite Ban
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After a month of militarized raids and racial profiling throughout Southern California, Federal Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong of California's Central District, in response to a class-action lawsuit filed by community organizations and detained workers, delivered the Trump administration a major blow. She issued an order that prohibits federal agents from targeting individuals based on their race and ethnicity; whether they speak Spanish or English with an accent; their location such as a car wash, department store parking lot, or other worksite; or their occupation, such as landscapers or street vendors. The Trump administration appealed, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday upheld the temporary restraining order. The order had brought relative calm to the region in recent weeks, slowing what had been near-daily operations to occasional isolated incidents. But the Trump administration's Southern California campaign was not over. 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Since Friday's decision upholding the temporary restraining order, federal agents raided a car wash in Lakewood, detaining two workers on Saturday; a Superior Grocers in Lynwood on Sunday; another Home Depot in Hollywood on Monday, where at least two individuals were taken; and the Magnolia Car Wash in Fountain Valley, Orange County, where agents on Tuesday detained four workers, according to CLEAN Carwash Worker Center. Among those taken in Fountain Valley was a father originally from El Salvador who was the main financial supporter for his mother, according to a GoFundMe page set up by a relative. Instituto de Educacion Popular del Sur de California, or IDEPSCA, which advocates for the rights of day laborers and immigrants, said it is still working to confirm how many people were detained at the Hollywood Home Depot on Monday. 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'They were violating the TRO completely — which it seems like has been the case for the past several Home Depots they've hit this week.' Even after the restraining order was granted, Bovino, who is heading Border Patrol operations across California, doubled down, promising to deliver on Trump's pledge to carry out the largest mass deportation campaign in history with a daily quota of 3,000 arrests per day. 'Different day, different illegal aliens, same objective,' Bovino wrote on his X account on Wednesday, alongside an edited video montage of agents detaining workers at a car wash. 'We're on a mission here in Los Angeles. And we're not leaving until we accomplish our goals.' The Fox News reporter who embedded with agents, Matt Finn, quoted DHS on his X account, saying that 'MS 13 has a chokehold on this area, which is one reason they're carrying out the highly optic immigration raids.' 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He immigrated to the U.S. from Guatemala a year ago to stay with his cousin and to find work. 'I'm nervous,' said the man, who goes to the Home Depot every day to find work. 'I'm nervous because I feel like they're going to come back again,' he said. Even so, the man said he plans to continue returning to the store, the only place he knows where to find a job.
2 hours ago
Trump moves to shut down NASA missions that measure carbon dioxide and plant health
The Trump administration is moving to shut down two NASA missions that monitor a potent greenhouse gas and plant health, potentially shutting off an important source of data for scientists, policymakers and farmers. President Donald Trump's budget request for fiscal year 2026 includes no money for the Orbiting Carbon Observatories, which can precisely show where carbon dioxide is being emitted and absorbed and how well crops are growing. NASA said in an emailed statement Wednesday that the missions were 'beyond their prime mission' and being terminated 'to align with the President's agenda and budget priorities.' But the missions — a free-flying satellite launched in 2014 and an instrument attached to the International Space Station in 2019 that include technology used in the Hubble Space Telescope — still are more sensitive and accurate than any other systems in the world, operating or planned, and a 'national asset' that should be saved, said David Crisp, a retired NASA scientist who led their development. They helped scientists discover, for example, that the Amazon rain forest emits more carbon dioxide than it absorbs, while boreal forests in Canada, Russia and places where permafrost is melting absorb more than they emit, Crisp said. They also can detect the 'glow' of photosynthesis in plants, which helps monitor drought and predict food shortages that can lead to civil unrest and famine, he said. 'This is really critical,' Crisp said. 'We're learning so much about this rapidly changing planet.' The decision to end the missions is 'extremely shortsighted,' said Jonathan Overpeck, a climate scientist at the University of Michigan. 'The observations provided by these satellites ... (are) critical for managing growing climate change impacts around the planet, including in the U.S.," he said. Crisp and others hope Congress will vote to preserve funding for the missions, which are funded through the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. A bill in the House closely aligns with the president's request and would eliminate the missions, while a Senate version preserves them. But with Congress in recess, it is unclear whether a budget will be adopted before the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1. If it doesn't, Congress could adopt a resolution to continue current funding until a budget is passed, though some lawmakers fear the Trump administration could try to delay or withhold that money. Congressional Democrats warned acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy last month that it would be illegal to terminate missions or impound funds already appropriated by Congress. Experts said the administration's move to eliminate funding aligns with other actions to cut or bury climate science. 'The principle seems to be that if we stop measuring climate change it will just disappear from the American consciousness,' said University of Pennsylvania climate scientist Michael Mann. Crisp and others also are trying to put together a coalition of outside partners — including from Japan and Europe — that could fund and operate the instrument attached to the space station. NASA said it will accept outside proposals through Aug. 29. The free-flying satellite, though, is at risk of being brought down, meaning it would burn up in the atmosphere. National Public Radio first reported that NASA employees were making plans to end the missions. Crisp said advocates are hoping NASA also allows outside control of that satellite, which covers more of the globe, but there are legal hurdles to overcome because it would mean giving control of a U.S. satellite to a group that could include foreign partners. 'We're going out to billionaires. We're going out to foundations,' Crisp said. 'But ... it's a really, really bad idea to try and push it off onto private industry or private individuals or private donors. It just doesn't make sense.'
