Army pausing flights near DC after two commerical airliners had to abort landings
All helicopter operations near the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport were halted following Thursday's two close calls, two Army officials told the Associated Press Monday.
The stoppage also comes months after 64 passengers and three crew members were killed when a Black Hawk helicopter collided with a passenger jet at the same airport on January 29.
The Army officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the unit is continuing to fly in the greater Washington, D.C., region. The unit had planned to gradually increase the number of flights over the next four weeks, according to an Army document viewed by AP - but now has paused them.
The two close calls on Thursday unfolded as air traffic control directed a Delta Air Lines Airbus A319 and a Republic Airways Embraer E170 to conduct a 'go-around' to allow a 'priority air transport.'
Both commercial airlines were forced to abort their planned landings to make way for an Army helicopter to head to the Pentagon Army Hospital, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA are investigating the latest close call.
Following the deadly January crash, the FAA imposed restrictions on helicopter traffic in the area, including permanently banning non-essential helicopter operations, eliminating helicopter and fixed-wing mixed traffic and permanently closing a route along the Potomac River to helicopter traffic, among others.
Exceptions are allowed for life-saving medical support, active law enforcement operations, active air defense, and presidential and vice presidential helicopter travel.
It was not immediately clear whether the Black Hawk involved in Thursday's incident was operating under those guidelines.
With contributions from the Associated Press.
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Chicago Tribune
an hour ago
- Chicago Tribune
‘Father of all U.S. abolitionists' honored; 250th birthday is Thursday
Charles Osborn, whom William Lloyd Garrison called 'the father of all U.S. abolitionists,' has a new marker on his grave at Quakerdom Cemetery in Jackson Township. He now has his old gravestone, too, returned after a 64-year stay at the Porter County Museum. 'What we have here is the person who was one of the key national voices who said slavery must be abolished,' said Larry McClellan, professor emeritus at Governors State University and historian on freedom seekers in the Chicago and Northwest Indiana region. 'The guy who got us thinking in this country about the evils of slavery' needs to be recognized, he said. The commemoration of Osborn's work to end slavery comes as President Donald Trump on Tuesday posted on Truth Social that the Smithsonian museums were 'OUT OF CONTROL' for emphasizing the negative parts of American history, including 'how bad slavery was,' according to the Associated Press. The White House is ordering a wide-ranging review of the Smithsonian museums and exhibitions ahead of the country's 250th birthday, to align the institution's content with President Donald Trump's interpretation of American history, according to the Associated Press. Osborn was born Aug. 21, 1775, in North Carolina at a time when the Colonists were upset with the king of England but had not yet drafted the Declaration of Independence, which includes the line, 'all men are created equal.' Osborn died Dec. 29, 1850, after fathering 16 children – seven with his first wife and nine with his second – and spurring an abolition movement that ultimately resulted in the official end of slavery in the United States. Jackson Township Trustee Jan Meyers, a member of the William Henry Harrison Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, led efforts to restore Osborn's grave and honor his memory. 'This Thursday, he will be 250 years old, which is why I thought we should have a birthday party,' she said at Sunday's presentation on Osborn at Westchester Public Library's Baugher Center in Chesterton. Osborn's grave now shows the original marker, a plaque placed in 1958 and a new marker. The 1958 plaque, also placed by the DAR, originally stood on a boulder that replaced the original marker, which had been exiled to the museum. It was cleaned and refurbished before being reinstalled. Kevin Pazour, the museum's executive director, carefully laid the heavy tombstone in the car to be transported to the cemetery, Meyers said. 'It was a quick trip compared to our horse and buggy days,' when Osborn was alive, she said. 'Hang in there, Charlie,' she told the tombstone. 'By getting the stone back and the plaque back, they're better together,' Meyers said. McClellan put Osborn's life in perspective. Osborn was 'one of the really great American heroes that nobody knows about,' McClellan said. 'How do we understand the brutal reality of slavery?' he asked. 'How do we understand people kidnapping other people and selling them into bondage?' They were treated as property, not humans, listed in the same property records as cows, sheep and pigs, McClellan said. About 12 million people from Africa were kidnapped and forced into slavery, most taken to Brazil, but about 400,000 into what is now the United States, he said. 'Those that were running for their freedom, we call them freedom seekers,' but in the 19th century, they were called fugitive slaves, a term now considered derogatory because it treats them as property rather than human beings, McClellan said. McClennen talked about attitudes in the 19th century by noting that some rare minerals in cellphones come from workers in slave conditions. 'Yeah, slavery is bad, but are we doing anything? Probably not,' he said. Similarly, the general consensus among Americans in the 19th century was that slavery was bad – in fact, it had already been abolished in the northern states – but taking action to protest slavery was a smaller subset of people. Americans who actually helped freedom seekers on their journey were an even smaller subset. The Fugitive Slave Act in 1850 provided that any person offering food or shelter to a freedom seeker was subject to up to six months in prison and a fine of up to $1,000, which would be $20,000 in today's dollars. Helping the freedom seekers was an enormous risk. 'A certain chunk of those people were Quakers, and Charles Osborn was involved in all of this,' McClellan said. About 1,700 to 3,000 freedom seekers went through Northwest Indiana, with an estimated 2,500 to 4,500 going through northeast Illinois, he said. McClellan is attempting to document stops along the underground railroad so they can receive historical recognition through the National Park Service. Osborn lived in the Richmond, Indiana, area before moving to the eastern edge of Jackson Township. In 1817, he founded 'The Philanthropist,' an anti-slavery publication, in Ohio. While living in the Richmond area, working with noted anti-abolitionists like Levi Coffin, Osborn traveled across the United States and Europe to promote the abolition of slavery. In his final years, 1847 to 1850, he lived in Jackson Township, McClellan said. 'From time to time, we have folks from Indianapolis tell us nothing happened in Northwest Indiana,' McClellan said. 'They didn't understand this movement of folks.' 'Westville, in terms of the underground railroad, is really fascinating,' he said. Quaker Community and Union Church stood in the Porter County side of the Westville area. 'In 1843, things get really tricky because the Quakers are just not really sure what to do about slavery,' McClellan said. Different factions formed within the church. Some suggested returning slaves to Africa. 'That was a very powerful movement,' he said. Some favored gradual emancipation. Osborn sided with the remaining two factions, demanding immediate and unconditional emancipation and boycotting products from places that used slave labor. In 1843, Osborn founded the Indiana Anti-Slavery Meeting. In Cass County, Michigan, he founded the Young's Prairie Anti-Slavery Meeting. In 1847, when Osborn returned to Westville, he published a pamphlet espousing his views. In 'The Rank of Charles Osborn,' addressing who really started this abolition movement, George W. Julian said Osborn 'was very influential in attacking this before anybody else did.' Osborn's story is one that should be told, McClellan said. 'You are part of a very, very rich set of experiences in Northwest Indiana that almost nobody knows anything about.' Freedom seekers follow historic routes. 'There are some great freedom seeker stories of people coming right through here,' McClellan said. 'The brave families that broke the law to help those' should be recognized, he said. McClellan is seeking help in fleshing out those stories. A Portage woman who said she is a descendant of Osborn and his second wife, Hannah Swain, said Osborn helped found Economy, Indiana. 'I would be delighted to have you help out' with research, she said.
Los Angeles Times
4 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
As hurricane season collides with immigration agenda, fears increase for those without legal status
If a major hurricane approaches Central Florida this season, Maria knows it's dangerous to stay inside her wooden, trailer-like home. In past storms, she evacuated to her sister's sturdier house. If she couldn't get there, a shelter set up at the local high school served as a refuge if needed. But with accelerating detentions and deportations of immigrants across her community of Apopka, 20 miles northwest of Orlando, Maria, an agricultural worker from Mexico without permanent U.S. legal status, doesn't know if those options are safe. All risk encountering immigration enforcement agents. 'They can go where they want,' said Maria, 50, who insisted the Associated Press not use her last name for fear of detention. 'There is no limit.' Natural disasters have long posed singular risks for people in the United States without permanent legal status. But with the arrival of peak Atlantic hurricane season, immigrants and their advocates say President Donald Trump's robust immigration enforcement agenda has increased the danger. Places considered neutral spaces by immigrants such as schools, hospitals and emergency management agencies are now suspect, and advocates say agreements by local law enforcement to collaborate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement make them more vulnerable and compel a choice between being physically safe and avoiding detention. 'Am I going to risk the storm or risk endangering my family at the shelter?' said Dominique O'Connor, an organizer at the Farmworker Association of Florida. 'You're going to meet enforcement either way.' For O'Connor and for many immigrants, it's about storms. But people without permanent legal status could face these decisions anywhere that extreme heat, wildfires or other severe weather could necessitate evacuating, getting supplies or even seeking medical care. Federal and state agencies have said little on whether immigration enforcement would be suspended in a disaster. It wouldn't make much difference to Maria: 'With all we've lived, we've lost trust.' Efforts by Trump's Republican administration to exponentially expand immigration enforcement capacity mean many of the agencies active in disaster response are increasingly entangled in immigration enforcement. Since January, hundreds of law enforcement agencies have signed 287(g) agreements, allowing them to perform certain immigration enforcement actions. Most of the agreements are in hurricane-prone Florida and Texas. Florida's Division of Emergency Management oversees building the state's new detention facilities, like the one called 'Alligator Alcatraz' in the Everglades. Federal Emergency Management Agency funds are being used to build additional detention centers around the country, and the Department of Homeland Security temporarily reassigned some FEMA staff to assist ICE. The National Guard, often seen passing out food and water after disasters, has been activated to support U.S. Customs and Border Protection operations and help at detention centers. These dual roles can make for an intimidating scene during a disaster. After floods in July, more than 2,100 personnel from 20 state agencies aided the far-reaching response effort in Central Texas, along with CBP officers. Police controlled entry into hard-hit areas. Texas Department of Public Safety and private security officers staffed entrances to disaster recovery centers set up by FEMA. That unsettled even families with permanent legal status, said Rae Cardenas, executive director of Doyle Community Center in Kerrville, Texas. Cardenas helped coordinate with the Mexican Consulate in San Antonio to replace documents for people who lived behind police checkpoints. 'Some families are afraid to go get their mail because their legal documents were washed away,' Cardenas said. In Florida, these policies could make people unwilling to drive evacuation roads. Traffic stops are a frequent tool of detention, and Florida passed a law in February criminalizing entry into the state by those without legal status, though a judge temporarily blocked it. There may be fewer places to evacuate now that public shelters, often guarded by police or requiring ID to enter, are no longer considered 'protected areas' by DHS. The agency in January rescinded a policy of President Joe Biden, a Democrat, to avoid enforcement in places like schools, medical facilities and emergency response sites. The fears extend even into disaster recovery. On top of meeting law enforcement at FEMA recovery centers, mixed-status households that qualify for help from the agency might hesitate to apply for fear of their information being accessed by other agencies, said Esmeralda Ledezma, communications associate with the Houston-based nonprofit Woori Juntos. 'Even if you have the right to federal aid, you're afraid to be punished for it,' Ledezma said. In past emergencies, DHS has put out messaging stating it would suspend immigration enforcement. The agency's policy now is unclear. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in an email that CBP had not issued any guidance 'because there have been no natural disasters affecting border enforcement.' She did not address what directions were given during CBP's activation in the Texas floods or whether ICE would be active during a disaster. Florida's Division of Emergency Management did not respond to questions related to its policies toward people without legal status. Texas' Division of Emergency Management referred The Associated Press to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's office, which did not respond. In spite of the crackdown, local officials in some hurricane-prone areas are expanding outreach to immigrant populations. 'We are trying to move forward with business as usual,' said Gracia Fernandez, language access coordinator for Alachua County in Central Florida. The county launched a program last year to translate and distribute emergency communications in Spanish, Haitian Creole and other languages. Now staffers want to spread the word that county shelters won't require IDs, but since they're public spaces, Fernandez acknowledged there's not much they can do if ICE comes. 'There is still a risk,' she said. 'But we will try our best to help people feel safe.' As immigrant communities are pushed deeper into the shadows, more responsibility falls on nonprofits, and communities themselves, to keep each other safe. Hope Community Center in Apopka has pushed local officials to commit to not requiring IDs at shelters and sandbag distribution points. During an evacuation, the facility becomes an alternative shelter and a command center, from which staffers translate and send out emergency communications in multiple languages. For those who won't leave their homes, staffers do door-to-door wellness checks, delivering food and water. 'It's a very grassroots, underground operation,' said Felipe Sousa Lazaballet, the center's executive director. Preparing the community is challenging when it's consumed by the daily crises wrought by detentions and deportations, Sousa Lazaballet said. 'All of us are in triage mode,' he said. 'Every day there is an emergency, so the community is not necessarily thinking about hurricane season yet. That's why we have to have a plan.' Angueira writes for the Associated Press.
Boston Globe
4 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Nebraska announces plan for immigration detention center in state's remote southwest corner
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'This is about keeping Nebraskans – and Americans across our country – safe,' Pillen said in a statement. Advertisement The facility can accommodate 200 people with plans to expand to 300. McCook is about 210 miles (338 kilometers) west of Lincoln, the state capital. 'If you are in America illegally, you could find yourself in Nebraska's Cornhusker Clink. Avoid arrest and self deport now using the CBP Home App,' Noem said in a separate statement. Southwest Nebraska will host an immigration detention center. Kevin S. Vineys/Associated Press Noem's agency posted a picture on social media showing ears of corn wearing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement hats, standing in front of a prison fence. The governor said later at a news conference in McCook that the center will have the advantage of being located at an existing facility and near a regional airport. He told reporters he didn't know if the center would house women as well as men or if children could be held there. He said he first learned the federal government was interested in the facility on Friday. Advertisement Pillen also announced he would order the Nebraska National Guard to provide administrative and logistical support to Nebraska-based immigration agents. About 20 soldiers will be involved. And he said the Nebraska State Patrol would allow six troopers to help federal immigration agents make arrests. Adding detention facilities to hold growing number of immigrants arrested The Trump administration is adding new detention facilities across the country to hold the growing number of immigrants it has arrested and accused of being in the country illegally. ICE centers were holding more than 56,000 immigrants in June, the most since 2019. The new and planned facilities include the remote detention center in the Florida Everglades known as 'Alligator Alcatraz,' which opened last month. It's designed to hold up to 3,000 detainees in temporary tent structures. When Trump toured it, he suggested it could be a model for future lockups nationwide. The Florida facility also been the subject of legal challenges by attorneys who allege violations of due process there, including the rights of detainees to meet with their attorneys, limited access to immigration courts and poor living conditions. Critics have been trying to stop further construction and operations until it comes into compliance with federal environmental laws. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced last week that his administration is preparing to open a second facility, dubbed 'Deportation Depot,' at a state prison in north Florida. It's expected to have 1,300 immigration beds, though that capacity could be expanded to 2,000, state officials said. Advertisement Also last week, officials in the rural Tennessee town of Mason voted to approve agreements to turn a former prison into an immigration detention facility operated by a private company, despite loud objections from residents and activists during a contentious public meeting. And the Trump administration announced plans earlier this month for a 1,000-bed detention center in Indiana that would be dubbed 'Speedway Slammer,' prompting a backlash in the Midwestern state that hosts the Indianapolis 500 auto race. Corrections director Rob Jeffreys said the 186 inmates currently at the McCook work camp will be transferred to other state facilities over the next 45 to 60 days. The repurposed facility will be run by the state but will be paid for by the federal government. He said it's already set up and accredited to hold prisoners, so detainees won't be housed in tents or other temporary quarters. The Nebraska plan has already raised concerns In a video posted to social media, state Sen. Megan Hunt, an independent, blasted a lack of transparency about plans for a detention center, citing her unfulfilled request to the governor and executive branch for emails and other records. She urged people to support local immigrant rights groups. 'The No. 1 thing we need to do is protect our neighbors, protect the people in our communities who are being targeted by these horrible people, these horrible organizations that are making choices to lock up, detain, disappear our neighbors and families and friends,' Hunt said. Around a half-dozen protesters sat in the hallway outside the governor's office Tuesday afternoon making signs that said, 'No Nazi Nebraska' and 'ICE = Gestapo.' Advertisement Maghie Miller-Jenkins of Lincoln said she doesn't think an ICE detention center is a good idea, adding the state should tackle problems like child hunger and homelessness. 'This state has numerous things they could focus on that would benefit the constituents,' she said. Associated Press reporters Steve Karnowski in St. Paul, Minnesota, Jack Dura in Fargo, North Dakota, and Scott McFetridge in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this story.
