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Trump's New Travel Ban Is Built on Lessons from First-Term Fights

Trump's New Travel Ban Is Built on Lessons from First-Term Fights

President Trump's new travel ban appears devised to avoid legal flaws that slowed early versions in his first term. But the new order adds an innovation — banning countries with visitors who frequently overstay their visas — that could be a fresh basis for a challenge, immigration legal experts said.
During his first term, Mr. Trump enacted a series of bans that shut the borders to citizens of various countries he deemed problematic, spurring a fierce fight over the moves. Courts blocked his first two attempts at a travel ban, but in 2018, the Supreme Court allowed his third, more carefully drafted, order to take effect.
That order went away not because of a court ruling, but because President Joseph R. Biden Jr. rescinded it in January 2021, after he took office. Mr. Trump's new order, issued late Wednesday, mainly builds on the structure and rationale of the version that survived Supreme Court review last time.
On Thursday, a range of immigration legal advocates said they were still studying its details to assess whether there was sufficient footing for a lawsuit.
'It's a different ban, using lessons they learned from challenges to the first, second and third travel ban about how to justify one,' said Shev Dalal-Dheini of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. 'They took steps to try to protect against litigation.'
That said, she added, 'I don't think it's foolproof.'
The countries Mr. Trump targeted were primarily in Africa and the Middle East. Many of them were selected based on a similar rationale that the Supreme Court upheld in Mr. Trump's first term: Their governments are either dysfunctional or hostile and uncooperative, impeding steps like security vetting.
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Republicans, be so for real. This embarrassing government is what you wanted?
Republicans, be so for real. This embarrassing government is what you wanted?

USA Today

time6 minutes ago

  • USA Today

Republicans, be so for real. This embarrassing government is what you wanted?

Republicans, be so for real. This embarrassing government is what you wanted? | Opinion Is this really what Republicans still want? Are they so scared of trans people having rights or undocumented immigrants receiving due process they chose a government that won't stand up to tyranny? Show Caption Hide Caption Six takeaways from the President Donald Trump, Elon Musk feud From disappointment to threats, here are six takeaways from the public spat between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Anyone could have predicted that President Donald Trump's second term was going to be an absolute disaster. I doubt even Republicans realized it would be this bad. Amid Trump's feud with Elon Musk, our tanking economy and our dysfunctional Congress, it seems that the next three and a half years are going to be rough on the country. I have to imagine that some Republican voters have buyer's remorse but would never admit it. I also realize that, for many Republican voters, a chaotic government is better than one that's run by a Democrat. They would rather watch our country become an international laughingstock than vote for someone who would run a stable, albeit more liberal, government. They would rather have millions lose health care than have a Democrats in power. I'll be the first to admit that Kamala Harris wasn't a perfect presidential candidate, but she was competent. She was energetic. She could ensure the country stayed on its course and continued to be a place where people felt secure. We could have had that. And Republicans in Congress would have done their job. Instead, we have this. So, this far into Trump's chaotic reign, I have to ask. Is this really what Republicans wanted? President Donald Trump vs. Elon Musk. Really? In case you missed it, Trump and Musk have gone from inseparable to enemies in a matter of hours. Musk, who was previously charged with leading the Department of Government Efficiency, has gone on X (previously Twitter) to allege that Trump was included in the Jeffrey Epstein files and whine that the Republicans would have lost the election without him. Trump, in response, has threatened to cancel all of Musk's contracts with the federal government. It's almost entertaining, in the way high school drama is entertaining. If only the entire country weren't on the verge of suffering because of it. Opinion: Musk erupts, claims Trump is in the Epstein files. Who could've seen this coming? If Harris had been elected, I doubt she would have made a narcissistic man-child one of her closest advisers in the first place – not just because Musk endorsed Trump, but because he was and continues to be a liability. She wouldn't have created DOGE and then allowed it to be a threat to Americans. Republicans, however, were unwilling to acknowledge the baggage that came with having Musk on their side. Now we have the president of the United States embroiled in a childish social media battle with the world's richest man. Think about how stupid that makes the country look. Is this what Republicans wanted? Is that what they still want? Surely they knew that the Trump-Musk partnership, like many of Trump's alliances, was going to implode. They are so scared of progressivism that they would rather have pettiness and vindictiveness in the White House. The American economy is not doing well. You wanted this? Trump, ever the businessman, has decided that making everything more expensive is what will make our country great again. His tariffs are expected to cost the average family $4,000 this year, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. I thought Republicans were the party of the working class. I thought they were supposed to care about grocery prices and the cost of living. 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Chinese bioterror suspects' arrests signal communist country plotting 'something worse' than COVID: expert
Chinese bioterror suspects' arrests signal communist country plotting 'something worse' than COVID: expert

Fox News

time21 minutes ago

  • Fox News

Chinese bioterror suspects' arrests signal communist country plotting 'something worse' than COVID: expert

After the pattern of recent covert communist Chinese infiltrations of the U.S. continued with the arrest of two suspected "bioterrorists" in Michigan this week, one expert said it's time to sever relations with China completely. "The only way to stop this is to sever relations with China," attorney and Chinese Communist Party expert Gordon Chang told Fox News Digital. "And I know people think that's drastic, but we are being overwhelmed, and we are going to get hit. And we are going to get hit really hard. Not just with COVID, not just with fentanyl, but perhaps with something worse." Chang was responding to recent news of Chinese nationals Yunqing Jian, 33, and her boyfriend Zunyong Liu, 34, who, over a two-year period, were allegedly smuggling Fusarium graminearum into the U.S. and studying it in labs. Jian was a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan, whose research was funded in part by the People's Republic of China. 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Charles Lieber is not a Chinese national, but was convicted in 2021 of making false statements to authorities and failing to report income from his work with China's Wuhan University of Technology. He also had a contract with China's Thousand Talents Program, which "incentivize [their] members to steal foreign technologies needed to advance China's national, military, and economic goals," according to the FBI. He was sentenced to time served, which was two days in prison, and two years of supervised release with six months of home confinement. He also paid various fines and restitution of more than $88,000. In 2022, Ji Chaoqun, a Chinese national who had been a student at the Illinois Institute of Technology, was convicted after attempting to commit espionage and theft of trade secrets. Chaoqun gathered information from American defense contractors and engineers as part of a plot by high-level Chinese intelligence officials to glean information about U.S. technology advancements. He was sentenced to eight years in prison. In 2024, the FBI filed charges against five Chinese nationals, all students at the University of Michigan, after they were caught allegedly photographing a joint American-Taiwanese training exercise at Camp Grayling, a National Guard training facility in Michigan. Their studies were part of a joint program with Shanghai-based Jiao Tong University. Late last year, a University of Minnesota student and Chinese national named Fengyun Shi was convicted in federal court for illegally taking photos of Norfolk, Virginia, naval bases using a drone. He was sentenced to six months in jail and then deported in May of this year. "We can lose our country, even though we're the far stronger nation, because we are not defending ourselves with the vigor and determination that is necessary," Chang told Fox News Digital. 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Court Rules Trump Can Exclude Journalists From Oval Office
Court Rules Trump Can Exclude Journalists From Oval Office

Bloomberg

time29 minutes ago

  • Bloomberg

Court Rules Trump Can Exclude Journalists From Oval Office

A federal appeals court has ruled that President Donald Trump can exclude journalists from the Oval Office, Air Force One and other 'restricted' spaces based on their editorial decisions, handing the administration a win in its fight with the Associated Press over access. In a 2-1 order on Friday, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit halted a lower-court judge's order that had restored the wire service's ability to participate in a rotating pool of reporters who cover the president's daily movements.

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