Judge denies Trump administration request to end policy protecting immigrant children in custody
U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles issued her ruling a week after holding a hearing with the federal government and legal advocates representing immigrant children in custody.
Gee called last week's hearing "deja vu" after reminding the court of the federal government's attempt to terminate the Flores Settlement Agreement in 2019 under the first Trump administration. She repeated the sentiment in Friday's order.
"There is nothing new under the sun regarding the facts or the law. The Court therefore could deny Defendants' motion on that basis alone," Gee wrote, referring to the government's appeal to a law they believed kept the court from enforcing the agreement.
In the most recent attempt, the government argued they made substantial changes since the agreement was formalized in 1997, creating standards and policies governing the custody of immigrant children that conform to legislation and the agreement.
Gee acknowledged that the government made some improved conditions of confinement, but wrote, "These improvements are direct evidence that the FSA is serving its intended purpose, but to suggest that the agreement should be abandoned because some progress has been made is nonsensical."
Attorneys representing the federal government told the court the agreement gets in the way of their efforts to expand detention space for families, even though Trump's tax and spending bill provided billions to build new immigration facilities.
Tiberius Davis, one of the government attorneys, said the bill gives the government authority to hold families in detention indefinitely. "But currently under the Flores Settlement Agreement, that's essentially void," he said last week.
The Flores agreement, named for a teenage plaintiff, was the result of over a decade of litigation between attorneys representing the rights of migrant children and the U.S. government over widespread allegations of mistreatment in the 1980s.
The agreement set standards for how licensed shelters must provide food, water, adult supervision, emergency medical services, toilets, sinks, temperature control and ventilation. It also limited how long U.S. Customs and Border Protection could detain child immigrants to 72 hours. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services then takes custody of the children.
The Biden administration successfully pushed to partially end the agreement last year. Gee ruled that special court supervision may end when HHS takes custody, but she carved out exceptions for certain types of facilities for children with more acute needs.
In arguing against the Trump administration's effort to completely end the agreement, advocates said the government was holding children beyond the time limits. In May, CBP held 46 children for over a week, including six children held for over two weeks and four children held 19 days, according to data revealed in a court filing. In March and April, CPB reported that it had 213 children in custody for more than 72 hours. That included 14 children, including toddlers, who were held for over 20 days in April.
The federal government is looking to expand its immigration detention space, including by building more centers like one in Florida dubbed " Alligator Alcatraz," where a lawsuit alleges detainees' constitutional rights are being violated.
Gee still has not ruled on the request by legal advocates for the immigrant children to expand independent monitoring of the treatment of children held in U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities. Currently, the agreement allows for third-party inspections at facilities in the El Paso and Rio Grande Valley regions, but plaintiffs submitted evidence showing long detention times at border facilities that violate the agreement's terms.
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The Mainichi
5 hours ago
- The Mainichi
Hijacked satellites and orbiting space weapons: In the 21st century, space is the new battlefield
WASHINGTON (AP) -- As Russia held its Victory Day parade this year, hackers backing the Kremlin hijacked an orbiting satellite that provides television service to Ukraine. Instead of normal programing, Ukrainian viewers saw parade footage beamed in from Moscow: waves of tanks, soldiers and weaponry. The message was meant to intimidate, and it was also an illustration that 21st century war is waged not just on land, sea and air but also in cyberspace and the reaches of outer space. Disabling a satellite could deal a devastating blow without a single bullet, and it can be done by targeting the satellite's security software or disrupting its ability to send or receive signals from Earth. "If you can impede a satellite's ability to communicate, you can cause a significant disruption," said Tom Pace, CEO of NetRise, a cybersecurity firm focused on protecting supply chains. He served in the Marines before working on cyber issues at the Department of Energy. "Think about GPS," he said. "Imagine if a population lost that, and the confusion it would cause." Satellites are the short-term challenge More than 12,000 operating satellites now orbit the planet, playing a critical role not just in broadcast communications but also in military operations, navigation systems like GPS, intelligence gathering and economic supply chains. They are also key to early launch-detection efforts, which can warn of approaching missiles. That makes them a significant national security vulnerability, and a prime target for anyone looking to undermine an adversary's economy or military readiness -- or to deliver a psychological blow like the hackers supporting Russia did when they hijacked television signals to Ukraine. Hackers typically look for the weakest link in the software or hardware that supports a satellite or controls its communications with Earth. The actual orbiting device may be secure, but if it's running on outdated software, it can be easily exploited. As Russian forces invaded Ukraine in 2022, someone targeted Viasat, the U.S.-based satellite company used by Ukraine's government and military. The hack, which Kyiv blamed on Moscow, used malware to infect tens of thousands of modems, creating an outage affecting wide swaths of Europe. National security officials say Russia is developing a nuclear, space-based weapon designed to take out virtually every satellite in low-Earth orbit at once. The weapon would combine a physical attack that would ripple outward, destroying more satellites, while the nuclear component is used to fry their electronics. U.S. officials declassified information about the weapon after Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, issued a public warning about the technology. Turner has pushed for the Department of Defense to provide a classified briefing to lawmakers on the weapon, which, if deployed, would violate an international treaty prohibiting weapons of mass destruction in space. Turner said such a weapon could render low-Earth orbit unusable for satellites for as long as a year. If it were used, the effects would be devastating: potentially leaving the U.S. and its allies vulnerable to economic upheaval and even a nuclear attack. Russia and China also would lose satellites, though they are believed to be less reliant on the same kinds of satellites as the U.S. Turner compared the weapon, which is not yet ready for deployment, to Sputnik, the Russian satellite that launched the space age in 1957. "If this anti-satellite nuclear weapon would be put in space, it would be the end of the space age," Turner said. "It should never be permitted to go into outer space. This is the Cuban Missile Crisis in space." Mining the moon and beyond Valuable minerals and other materials found on the moon and in asteroids could lead to future conflicts as nations look to exploit new technologies and energy sources. Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy announced plans this month to send a small nuclear reactor to the moon, saying it's important that the U.S. do so before China or Russia. "We're in a race to the moon, in a race with China to the moon," Duffy said. "To have a base on the moon, we need energy and some of the key locations on the moon. ... We want to get there first and claim that for America." The moon is rich in a material known as helium 3, which scientists believe could be used in nuclear fusion to generate huge amounts of energy. While that technology is still decades away, control over the moon in the intervening years could determine which countries emerge as superpowers, according to Joseph Rooke, a London-based cybersecurity expert who has worked in the U.K. defense industry and is now director of risk insights at the firm Recorded Future. The end of the Cold War temporarily halted a lot of investments in space, but competition is likely to increase as the promise of mining the moon becomes a reality. "This isn't sci-fi. It's quickly becoming a reality," Rooke said. "If you dominate Earth's energy needs, that's game over." China and Russia have announced plans for their own nuclear plants on the moon in the coming years, while the U.S. is planning missions to the moon and Mars. Artificial intelligence is likely to speed up the competition, as is the demand for the energy that AI requires. Messages left with Russia's Embassy in Washington were not returned. Despite its steps into outer space, China opposes any extraterrestrial arms race, according to Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for China's Embassy in Washington. He said it is the U.S. that is threatening to militarize the final frontier. "It has kept expanding military strength in space, created space military alliances, and attempted to turn space into a war zone," Liu said. "China urges the U.S. to stop spreading irresponsible rhetoric, stop expanding military build-up in space, and make due contribution to upholding the lasting peace and security in space." What the US is doing about security in space Nations are scrambling to create their own rocket and space programs to exploit commercial prospects and ensure they aren't dependent on foreign satellites. It's an expensive and difficult proposition, as demonstrated last week when the first Australian-made rocket crashed after 14 seconds of flight. The U.S. Space Force was created in 2019 to protect American interests in space and to defend U.S. satellites from attacks from adversaries. The space service is far smaller than the more well-established services like the Army, Navy or Air Force, but it's growing, and the White House is expected to announce a location for its headquarters soon. Colorado and Alabama are both candidates. The U.S. military operates an unmanned space shuttle used to conduct classified military missions and research. The craft, known as the X-37B, recently returned to Earth after more than a year in orbit. The Space Force called access to space a vital national security interest. "Space is a warfighting domain, and it is the Space Force's job to contest and control its environment to achieve national security objectives," it said in the statement. American dominance in space has been largely unquestioned for decades following the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union. But the new threats and competition posed by Russia and China show the need for an aggressive response, U.S. officials say. The hope, Turner said, is that the U.S. can take steps to ensure Russia and China can't get the upper hand, and the frightening potential of space weapons is not realized. "You have to pay attention to these things so they don't happen," Turner said.
Yomiuri Shimbun
7 hours ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
A Night in D.C. after Trump's National Guard Deployment
The sunlight dimmed along this stretch of U Street to the familiar soundtrack of a city ready for the weekend: rumbling buses taking home tired commuters, high heels clacking along sticky sidewalks and chattering crowds ready to order their first round. Then a group gathered on a street corner with pots and pans, jingling them as the darkness grew closer. They whooped and cheered for a few minutes, a brief moment of joyful resistance seeking to counteract the image of the crime-riddled city described by the president. Among the clubgoers in miniskirts and sweat-soaked T-shirts, there were federal agents hopping in and out of unmarked cars. A protester held a sign reading 'America has no kings.' Police officers were met with boos and phones ready to record. Welcome to the first Friday night in D.C. since President Donald Trump announced he was placing the local police under federal control and sending in National Guard troops to a city where 9 of 10 voters cast ballots for his opponent. The next morning, the White House would announce that their overnight operation yielded 52 arrests and the seizure of three illegal firearms. Twenty-two multiagency teams were deployed throughout the city. Trump justified the exertion of executive power to reduce crime by depicting the city as a lawless wasteland, despite violent crime reaching 30-year lows. But many of those gathered around the bars and clubs in Northwest Washington on Friday night said they felt more unsettled by the federal presence than any other safety concerns. Washington Post journalists spent Friday night in a popular section of U Street – a nightlife hub that is among the areas of the city with the highest number of crimes reported this year. Earlier this summer, D.C. police implemented a youth curfew over concerns about rowdy crowds in some areas. Nearby, two nights earlier, a mix of local and federal authorities pulled over drivers for seat belt violations or broken taillights while onlookers chanted: 'Go home, fascists.' On Friday, crowds were smaller, bartenders and club managers said, and they wondered if patrons were staying inside to avoid federal authorities. And yet, there were still people ready to party. The largest police response The Post witnessed Friday night was over a claim of a stolen bike. It was around 8:30 p.m., and the sky was ink blue. One couple heading home from an event at a nearby synagogue looked on with furrowed brows. They spotted a few D.C. police cruisers blocking traffic and agents donning vests labeled 'HSI' – Homeland Security Investigations. They hadn't seen that before, not here. A pair of French tourists, in D.C. for the first time and looking for a bar, paused when they saw the police cruisers and growing crowd. Earlier, they'd strolled by the White House, marveled at the Capitol, and now they were trying to make sense of the flashing lights. They'd loosely followed the week's headlines and were still thrilled to be visiting. 'We're on vacation, so we try to cut [out] the news,' Solène Le Toullec said, and they walked on. At the sight of local and federal law enforcement throughout the night, people pooled on the sidewalk – watching, filming, booing. 'Get out!' 'Go!' 'Quit!' Such interactions played out again and again as the night drew on. Onlookers heckled the police as they did their job and applauded as officers left. Across the street, security guard Ashley Nash stood with arms crossed outside the fried chicken spot she shepherds, unfazed by the flashing lights and sirens. She welcomed the extra police presence. 'It's needed in these times right now,' she said. Groups in miniskirts teetered past as the sky darkened. Harry Wright, 29, walked out of Service Bar and paused in the evening humidity. The bar's general manager, he scanned the outdoor seating, where friends clustered around tables, ringing in the weekend with cocktails. It was a pleasant sight in what otherwise had been a heavy week. He'd heard from a co-worker who didn't feel safe to walk to work because of the heightened law enforcement presence. He knew the community was on edge. The hospitality and food industries, he said, are 'fueled by immigrants and people of color and queer people, and those are the people who feel the least safe in the city right now.' Trump has described his federal intervention in D.C. as a crusade against crime. In its first week, the main targets have increasingly been immigrants and those experiencing homelessness. Videos of local detainments have reverberated through group chats and social media. 'We, for a living, take care of people and work really hard to make others feel welcome in our space,' Wright said. To have loved ones no longer feel 'comfortable and welcome in the city they live in is really, really upsetting.' Around 10 p.m., Perry Singletary stood outside Nellie's, illuminated by the gay bar's blue signage. 'This area in general is just unsafe,' she said, adding that her car was broken into two months ago. 'There's someone being jumped. There's a fight. There's carjackings.' Still, she wasn't sure what else local leaders could do and thought the president's response was 'extreme.' But as she scanned the block and quiet sidewalk, she appreciated the calm. 'It is nice to see a police presence outside, because it's been quiet out here for the last week, and it's usually not,' she said. Outside a Metro station entrance, a group of friends spotted a cluster of khaki-clad U.S. marshals and began to record. One agent pulled out a phone and recorded, too. 'We're out here on the streets of Washington, D.C., to keep the citizens as safe as possible from a mandate down from the president telling us that we're going to keep the city's streets safe, because there's murders, rapists, robbers and all of this stuff going on,' the marshal said. A few blocks over, a gaggle of folks assembled outside a Subway. It was here that a Justice Department employee allegedly threw a sandwich at a federal law enforcement officer late Sunday in a scene that made him a hero in some corners of the internet. He has since been fired and faces felony charges. 'This is the Subway,' said a man in shorts and a cap, having seen the viral clip of the hurled hoagie. Brian Downing, 26, took a selfie with three friends just before 11 o'clock. Visiting from Chesapeake, Virginia, they considered canceling their trip earlier this week when, scrolling through TikTok, they came across a video of a checkpoint two nights before and two blocks north. Law enforcement stopped dozens of cars in front of a popular chain bakery, a veterinary clinic and a high-end outdoor apparel store. At least two people were detained – one man speaking Spanish was loaded into an unmarked pickup. A woman was handcuffed while the crowd, gathered on the sidewalks, booed and yelled at officers to 'read the Constitution.' Others hastily made signs and stood on nearby corners to warn people to steer clear. But Downing and his friends had already booked their Airbnb. Plus, they didn't want to be robbed of a good time. 'Glad to be here,' he said. Four blocks down, Andrew Fraser, 21, waited with a cluster of friends to get into El Rey. They'd also thought about staying in tonight. Considering the heavier law enforcement presence and potential for tensions to spill over, they'd asked: Is it worth it? But, Fraser said, 'we don't want our way of life to be stopped before it has to be.' The tensions weren't going to stop them from celebrating a friend's birthday. Sarah Gammoh, 25, and Stewart Hahn, 31, emerged from a table at The Saloon, a bar where they had just celebrated with loved ones. They married today and were determined to have a good time. 'We didn't let it stop us,' Hahn said. Sarah nodded in agreement, clutching two bouquets of flowers. Around midnight, Mark Rutstein, 51, walked into Crush, the bar he co-owns, and sighed. The dance floor was almost empty. Upstairs, it was maybe a third full. Two nights earlier, they'd closed more than an hour early, after, he said, a heavy law enforcement presence nearby drove people away. And now it was Friday night, and the crowd hadn't materialized. He thought of his 47 employees, his overhead costs and his breakeven. He thought of the president's rhetoric calling D.C. 'one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the world' – a description he feared was keeping visitors away. The immigration crackdown was keeping people away too, he was sure. 'I don't know how local businesses are going to survive this,' he said. Inside Ben's Chili Bowl, tables of friends gorged on fries laden with cheese and half smokes. At a nearby bar hosting a Donna Summer theme night, the dance floor had, at one point, just one person. Meanwhile, Jasmine Curtis, 28, settled into a red camping chair, tinfoil trays of honey jerk salmon, yams, green beans, rice and wings arranged on a plastic folding table in front of her. Occasionally, the block was set aglow with the blue and red of a passing police cruiser. She's been on edge this week, she said, staying home with her two sons amid the heightened police presence. But on Friday she ventured out for her usual perch just off U Street, scooping steaming food into takeout trays for hungry bargoers. It was 2:38 a.m., and she had three more servings to sell.
The Mainichi
7 hours ago
- The Mainichi
South Korean and US militaries begin annual summertime drills to cope with North Korean threats
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korea and the United States began their annual large-scale joint military exercise on Monday to better cope with threats by nuclear-armed North Korea, which has warned the drills would deepen regional tensions and vowed to respond to "any provocation" against its territory. The 11-day Ulchi Freedom Shield, the second of two large-scale exercises held annually in South Korea, after another set in March, will involve 21,000 soldiers, including 18,000 South Koreans, in computer-simulated command post operations and field training. The drills, which the allies describe as defensive, could trigger a response from North Korea, which has long portrayed the allies' exercises as invasion rehearsals and has often used them as a pretext for military demonstrations and weapons tests aimed at advancing its nuclear program. In a statement last week, North Korean Defense Minister No Kwang Chol said the drills show the allies' stance of "military confrontation" with the North and declared that its forces would be ready to counteract "any provocation going beyond the boundary line." Ulchi Freedom Shield comes at a pivotal moment for South Korea's new liberal President Lee Jae Myung, who is preparing for an Aug. 25 summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington. Trump has raised concerns in Seoul that he may upend the decades-old alliance by demanding higher payments for the American troop presence in South Korea and possibly reducing it as Washington shifts its focus more toward China. Tensions on the Korean Peninsula remain high as North Korea has brushed aside Lee's calls to resume diplomacy with its war-divided rival, with relations having soured in recent years as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un accelerated his weapons program and deepened alignment with Moscow following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Seoul's previous conservative government responded to North Korean threats by expanding military exercises with the United States and seeking stronger U.S. assurances for nuclear deterrence, drawing an angry reaction from Kim, who last year renounced long-term reconciliation goals and rewrote the North's constitution to label the South a permanent enemy. In his latest message to Pyongyang on Friday, Lee, who took office in June, said he would seek to restore a 2018-inter-Korean military agreement designed to reduce border tensions and called for North Korea to respond to the South's efforts to rebuild trust and revive talks. The 2018 military agreement, reached during a brief period of diplomacy between South Korea's former liberal President Moon Jae-in and Kim, created buffer zones on land and sea and no-fly zones above the border to prevent clashes. But South Korea suspended the deal in 2024, citing tensions over North Korea's launches of trash-laden balloons toward the South, and moved to resume frontline military activities and propaganda campaigns. The step came after North Korea had already declared it would no longer abide by the agreement. When asked whether the Lee government's steps to restore the agreement would affect the allies' drills, the South's Defense Ministry said Monday that there are no immediate plans to suspend live-fire training near the Koreas' disputed maritime border. While the allies have postponed half of Ulchi Freedom Shield's originally planned 44 field training programs to September, U.S. military officials denied South Korean media speculation that the scaled-back drills were meant to make room for diplomacy with the North, citing heat concerns and flood damage to some training fields. Dating back to his first term, Trump has regularly called for South Korea to pay more for the 28,500 American troops stationed on its soil. Public comments by senior Trump administration officials, including Undersecretary of Defense Elbridge Colby, have suggested a push to restructure the alliance, which some experts say could potentially affect the size and role of U.S. forces in South Korea. Under this approach, South Korea would take a greater role in countering North Korean threats while U.S. forces focus more on China, possibly leaving Seoul to face reduced benefits but increased costs and risks, experts say. In a recent meeting with reporters, Gen. Xavier Brunson, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, stressed the need to "modernize" the alliance to address the evolving security environment, including North Korea's nuclear ambitions, its deepening alignment with Russia, and what he called Chinese threats to a "free and open Indo-Pacific."
