
Trump urges Commanders and Guardians teams to reverse name change
Washington
US President Donald Trump on Sunday called for Washington's football and Cleveland's baseball teams to revert to their former names, which had long been criticized as racist.
'The Washington 'Whatever's' should IMMEDIATELY change their name back to the Washington Redskins Football Team. There is a big clamoring for this,' Trump wrote on Truth Social.
'Likewise, the Cleveland Indians, one of the six original baseball teams, with a storied past,' he wrote.
'Our great Indian people, in massive numbers, want this to happen.
Their heritage and prestige is systematically being taken away from them. Times are different now than they were three or four years ago.
We are a Country of passion and common sense.' Trump went on to say he may 'put a restriction' on the Washington team if they did not revert.
'I won't make a deal for them to build a Stadium in Washington. The Team would be much more valuable, and the Deal would be more exciting for everyone,' Trump wrote.
The Redskins name was retired in 2020, in what was seen a major win for Native American activists who had long seen the team's name as an offensive slur against the indigenous people of the US. The team played as the Washington Football team for two seasons and rebranded as the Washington Commanders in 2022.
Cleveland dropped the name Indians in 2020, before announcing the switch to Guardians in 2021.
Many sports teams reconsidered their names amid a protest movement against racism, sparked by the 2020 death of George Floyd, a black man, in police custody.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Al Jazeera
12 minutes ago
- Al Jazeera
Florida governor announces deportation flights from Alligator Alcatraz
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has revealed that deportation flights have begun to depart from a remote detention facility known as Alligator Alcatraz, as the Republican leader seeks to put his state at the forefront of President Donald Trump's immigration agenda. Speaking from the south Florida site on Friday, DeSantis framed his efforts as a model for other states seeking to partner with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). 'I'm pleased to report that those flights out of Alligator Alcatraz by DHS have begun,' DeSantis told reporters. ' The reality is this provides an ability to enhance the mission, to increase the number and frequency of deportations. And so what's been done here has really been remarkable.' A representative for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Garrett Ripa, also confirmed that 'two or three removal flights' had already been conducted from the Alligator Alcatraz facility and that more were planned. He indicated that those flights contained ' up to a hundred individuals who were illegally present in the state of Florida'. Delegating resources President Trump campaigned for re-election last November on the promise that he would undertake the 'largest deportation operation in American history'. But with more than 11 million undocumented people believed to be living in the United States, critics have pointed out that his ambitions may outstrip the amount of detention space and resources the government has available. That has led the Trump administration to seek additional resources from state and local authorities, as well as assistance from foreign governments. He has also deployed the military to assist in immigration enforcement operations, a task traditionally outside its scope. Part of Trump's toolkit has been deputising state and local leaders through Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. While the federal government is solely responsible for immigration enforcement, Section 287(g) creates a loophole that allows ICE to enter into written agreements with state and local authorities to perform specific immigration-related functions. Speaking alongside DeSantis on Friday, Larry Keefe, the head of Florida's newly established State Board of Immigration Enforcement, said his team has already taken advantage of such arrangements. 'Just within the last couple of days, the federal government has issued credentials to over 1,200 Florida sheriff's deputies and over 650 FDLE [Florida Department of Law Enforcement] agents and other state and local law enforcement agencies,' Keefe said. 'We have more than doubled our capability and capacity to effect arrests.' Florida at the forefront Florida, however, has been testing the limits of what it is able to do independently in terms of cracking down on undocumented immigration within its state lines. Earlier this year, for instance, the Florida's Republican-led government passed a law, known as SB 4-C (PDF), that imposes stiff criminal penalties on adult undocumented immigrants who knowingly enter the state. But federal courts placed an injunction to prevent the law from taking effect, on the basis that it preempts the federal government's authority over all things immigration. Still, President Trump has hailed the aggressive immigration efforts in Florida, his adopted home state, where he maintains a residence, Mar-a-Lago, as well as golf courses. Earlier this month, he visited Alligator Alcatraz, applauding its fast-paced construction. 'This is what you need,' Trump said at the time. 'A lot of bodyguards and a lot of cops in the form of alligators.' Critics have denounced the facility as an exercise in cruelty, with reports emerging of poor conditions inside Alligator Alcatraz. Some immigrants have said they faced floodwater, poor sanitation, clogged toilets and clouds of mosquitoes as they stayed in fenced-in units where the lights were never dimmed. Environmental groups and Indigenous members of the local Seminole and Miccosukee tribes have also criticised the facility for its location in the middle of the Everglades wetlands, a sensitive ecosystem prone to seasonal flooding. Utilising an old airfield Built across eight days in June, Alligator Alcatraz sits atop the site of the former Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Ochopee, Florida. That set-up has been a benefit for plans to also use the facility for deportation flights, DeSantis said on Friday. He described transferring immigrants from their detention cells to planes with relative ease. 'One of the reasons why this was a sensible spot is because you have this runway that's right here,' DeSantis explained. 'You don't have to drive them an hour to an airport. You go a couple thousand feet, and they can be on a plane and out of here.' He added that the site already has runway lighting and 18,927 litres — or 5,000 gallons — of jet fuel on site. That, he hopes, will help pave the way for the number of deportation flights to increase in the coming weeks. ' The cadence is increasing,' DeSantis said. 'We've already had a number of flights in the last few days.' Alligator Alcatraz — named for a forbidding island prison in the San Francisco Bay that closed in the 1960s — has the capacity to hold up to 3,000 people, according to Florida officials. DeSantis has long positioned Florida as the 'blueprint' for what Republican leadership in the US could look like, and in 2023, he launched a short-lived presidential campaign to challenge Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Increasing the pace In his remarks on Friday, DeSantis briefly acknowledged the shortcomings in Trump's mass-deportation plans, playing up the efficiency of the Alligator Alcatraz system. 'ICE has been understaffed — you know, is not scratching the surface of what would need to be done to get to where you have the largest mass deportation in history,' he said. 'So you've got to increase that tempo. You have a limited amount of time to do it. I think we've got to assume we've got these four years under the Trump administration to really get the job done.' DeSantis also brushed aside concerns that the isolated facility cuts immigrants off from their legal representation and their right to be heard before a court. He pointed out that he plans to have immigration judges on site. But he also questioned whether undocumented people should be allowed the same due process rights as US citizens and immigrants with legal status. 'To me, it's like, if you are subjected to a traditional criminal process, there's a whole a bunch of due process that goes into that,' DeSantis said. By contrast, DeSantis argued that the immigration process 'should be a pretty simple process. You either have a right to be here or you don't.'


Al Jazeera
2 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Photos: US military expands enforcement role at Mexican border under Trump
Published On 25 Jul 2025 25 Jul 2025 United States troop deployments at the border with Mexico have tripled to 7,600 and include every branch of the military – even as the number of attempted illegal crossings plummets. In addition, President Donald Trump has authorised funding for an additional 3,000 Border Patrol agents, offering $10,000 signing and retention bonuses. The military mission at the border is guided from a new command centre at a remote Army intelligence training base located alongside southern Arizona's Huachuca Mountains. There, a community hall has been transformed into a bustling war room, where battalion commanders and staff use digital maps to pinpoint military camps and movements along the nearly 3,200-kilometre (2,000-mile) border. Until now, border enforcement had been the domain of civilian law enforcement, with the military only intermittently stepping in. But in April, large swaths of the border were designated militarised zones, empowering US troops to apprehend immigrants and others accused of trespassing and authorising additional criminal charges that can mean prison time. The two-star general leading the mission says troops are being untethered from maintenance and warehouse tasks to work closely with US Border Patrol agents in high-traffic areas for illegal crossings – and to deploy rapidly to remote, unguarded terrain. 'We don't have a [labour] union. There's no limit on how many hours we can work in a day, how many shifts we can man,' said Army Major-General Scott Naumann. 'I can put soldiers out whenever we need to in order to get after the problem, and we can put them out for days at a time. We can fly people into incredibly remote areas now that we see the cartels shifting [course].' The Trump administration is using the military broadly to boost its immigration operations, from guarding federal buildings in Los Angeles against protests, to assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Florida. There are also plans to hold detained immigrants on military bases in New Jersey, Indiana and Texas. Dan Maurer, a law professor at Ohio Northern University and a retired US Army judge advocate officer, said that Trump is aiming to follow through on his campaign promise to crack down on undocumented border crossings. 'It's all part of the same strategy that is a very muscular, robust, intimidating, aggressive response to this – to show his base that he was serious about a campaign promise to fix immigration,' said Maurer. 'It's both norm-breaking and unusual. It puts the military in a very awkward position.'


Al Jazeera
3 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Is Trump using Africa as a ‘dumping ground' for criminals?
Activists and human rights groups have accused United States President Donald Trump of using African countries as a 'dumping ground' for criminals he wants to deport after five men were deported from the US to the tiny kingdom of Eswatini. On July 16, a deportation flight carrying five men from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Cuba and Yemen, all of whom have been convicted of crimes in the US, landed in Eswatini, the last African country governed by a monarch with absolute power. The deportations were part of Trump's 'third country' plan to deport people whose own countries are unwilling to take them back. Eswatini is the second African nation that the US has deported criminals to. Also this month, Washington said it had sent eight 'uniquely barbaric monsters' to conflict-torn South Sudan. Last month, the US Supreme Court allowed the deportations of foreign nationals to unrelated third countries. Since then, international rights groups and civil society groups from African nations have raised alarms of human rights abuses. 'The US government sees us as a criminal dumpsite and undermines Emaswati [the people of Eswatini],' Wandile Dludlu, a pro-democracy activist and deputy president of the country's largest opposition movement, the People's United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), told Al Jazeera. As a political party, PUDEMO is a banned organisation in Eswatini. So is Trump planning to use African nations as a 'dumping ground' for deportees? Who are the five men Trump deported to Eswatini? This month, Tricia McLaughlin, US Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary, said the deportation flight to Eswatini had taken away 'individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back'. 'These depraved monsters have been terrorizing American communities but thanks to [Trump] they are off of American soil,' she wrote in a post on X. NEW: a safe third country deportation flight to Eswatini in Southern Africa has landed— This flight took individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back. These depraved monsters have been terrorizing American communities but thanks to @POTUS… — Tricia McLaughlin (@TriciaOhio) July 16, 2025 Without sharing their names, McLaughlin confirmed the five were nationals from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Cuba and Yemen. She said all were convicted criminals – including for offences of child rape, murder, robbery, gang ties and homicides – and had been given prison sentences as long as 25 years. What agreement has the Trump administration made with Eswatini? Trump rode to victory in last year's presidential election on the back of a campaign with mass deportations as its centrepiece. Since then, the Trump administration has been negotiating a third-country deportation agreement with several nations, including Eswatini, which will allow it to deport foreign nationals convicted of serious crimes who have been rejected by their home countries. While the exact terms remain classified, the agreement between Eswatini and the US reportedly emerged after 'months of robust high-level engagements', the kingdom's acting spokesperson, Thabile Mdluli, said. Mdluli also said the kingdom would collaborate with the White House and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) 'to facilitate the transit of these inmates to their countries of origin'. However, 'there are no timelines at present' for their repatriation, she told CNN in an interview. Daniel Akech, a senior analyst for South Sudan at the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera that some African governments are agreeing to receive convicted deportees as a 'goodwill gesture, aiming to improve US ties and be in [Trump's] good books'. But he said they have also 'implicitly dismissed human rights concerns and the lack of transparency on how third nationals' safety is ensured'. Akech said the African Union and the United Nations could partner with receiving countries to monitor the process of US deportations 'to ensure that the deportees are protected and their living conditions are good'. 'The areas where these deportees stay could face conflicts, and this would require plans on how to ensure their safety or safe transfer within the country or outside,' Akech said. What do we know about Eswatini? The mountainous Southern African kingdom is a tiny landlocked nation bordering South Africa and Mozambique and is one of a handful of countries that are still absolute monarchies with absolute power residing with the king, currently King Mswati III. Under British colonial rule, which ended in 1968, the country was known as Swaziland. It was renamed by the king in 2018. Mswati has ruled Eswatini since 1986 when he turned 18, succeeding his father, Sobhuza II, who died in 1982. Now aged 57, Mswati has been criticised for suppressing political dissent. The World Bank said more than half of Eswatini's 1.2 million people live on less than $4 a day. The king is reported to have 11 wives, and his wealth is estimated at $200m to $500m, according to an Associated Press report. Eswatini's economy is dominated by agriculture and small-scale manufacturing as well as its sugar sector, which accounts for a substantial share of its export revenues. The country is one of Africa's largest sugar producers, exporting roughly $477m of sugar and sugar-related products in 2023 – about 23 percent of its total exports. What do people in Eswatini think about Trump's deportation plan? Regional leaders and activists said there is a good deal of anger about it. Dludlu described the 'dumping' of convicted criminals as 'distasteful and fraudulent conduct by His Majesty and his government in the face of the unprecedented public healthcare crisis' in the country. 'This is attracting indignation from Emaswati for naked abuse of their sovereignty and territorial integrity as a nation and people,' Dludlu told Al Jazeera. He said PUDEMO and its supporters demand that the government and the US 'reverse this absurd and illegal yet irrational decision to take criminals from the US when other nations seek fair trade, quality education and other meaningful exchanges'. Dludlu further noted that the incoming deportees will only add to the 'overcrowded prison facilities that are poorly run [in] dilapidated and outdated infrastructure'. Figures show that prisons in Eswatini operate at more than 170 percent of their capacity. Civil society groups – including the Southern Africa Litigation Centre, the Swaziland Rural Women's Assembly and other regional NGOs – have threatened legal proceedings against the Eswatini government over its acceptance of the five convicted criminals. They argued that the detentions violate Eswatini's own Correctional Services Act and other domestic laws and said there is no lawful basis for imprisoning foreign nationals who lack legal ties to the country. Chris Ogunmodede, a foreign affairs analyst familiar with African diplomatic circles, said there are several questions hovering over the agreement made with the Trump administration. These range from the legal justification used to authorise the deportees' transfers, whether the men were informed and given consular access, the duration of their detentions and the terms of the arrangement with the US. He added that Eswatini and South Sudan are 'smaller economies with no geopolitical weight' on which White House officials could easily 'impose their will'. What does the Eswatini government say? In a public statement, Mdluli said the government assured the people of the kingdom that the arrival of five third-country deportees from the US 'poses no security threat to the Nation'. It stated that the five prisoners would be housed in correctional facilities within isolated units 'where similar offenders are kept'. Addressing the bilateral discussions with the White House, she said the 'engagements considered every avenue, including rigorous risk assessments and careful consideration for the safety and security of citizens'. Which other African nations does Trump hope to negotiate deportation deals with? In addition to Eswatini and South Sudan, Trump has discussed third-country deportation deals with the leaders of Liberia, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and Gabon during a summit at the White House this month. Trump reportedly discussed migration, including the need for countries to accept the return of their nationals who do not have the right to stay in the US and the possibility of accepting deported citizens of third countries. Tom Homan, Trump's border tsar, said the Trump administration hoped to forge deals with 'many countries' to accept deported migrants. 'If there is a significant public threat or national security threat, there's one thing for sure: They're not walking the streets of this country. We'll find a third, safe nation to send them to, and we're doing it,' he said. Rwanda has confirmed it is in talks with the Trump administration for a similar deal while Nigeria said it had rejected pressure to make an agreement. Which other countries have considered a third-country deportation policy? United Kingdom The UK has explored third-country deportation policies as part of its efforts to manage irregular migration and asylum claims. Under the previous Conservative government, the UK partnered with Rwanda in 2022 and planned to relocate asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing with the UK committing 370 million pounds ($497m) in development funding over five years in exchange. The plan was first struck down by the UK Supreme Court in November 2023 for violating international human rights norms, given Rwanda's inadequate asylum system and human rights concerns. In response, the government enacted the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act 2024, which declared Rwanda a 'safe country' and limited legal challenges to the policy. After the Labour Party's victory in the July 2024 elections, Prime Minister Keir Starmer swiftly terminated the Rwanda scheme. However, in May, Starmer said he was talking to 'a number of countries' about 'return hubs', where undocumented immigrants could be sent. Israel Similarly, Israel implemented a third-country deportation arrangement targeting African asylum seekers by sending them to countries like Rwanda and Uganda from 2013 to 2018. The government offered $3,500 per person to those agreeing to leave. In 2018, however, Israel's Supreme Court in effect dismantled the policy, ruling it unlawful in part due to the receiving countries' failure to guarantee protections and uphold international obligations under the Refugee Convention. Ogunmodede said the UK's and Israel's deals with African nations amounted to the 'outsourcing of the migration problem'. He added that now, the US under the Trump administration is 'using a carrot and stick approach to getting countries around the world to comply with the things that they want'.