Trump signs order aimed at removing homeless from streets
The measure, titled by the White House as 'Ending Crime and Disorder on America's Streets,' calls on Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek to overturn legal rulings the Trump administration says make it difficult for cities and states to force homeless people into shelters and substance-abuse centers, USA Today first reported.
It will also redirect federal funding for homeless programs, many of which aim to provide housing to those in need, to addiction programs and mental health resources, although it was not immediately clear how much money would be involved.
'By removing vagrant criminals from our streets and redirecting resources toward substance abuse programs, the Trump administration will ensure that Americans feel safe in their own communities and that individuals suffering from addiction or mental health struggles are able to get the help they need,' White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said.
The order also seeks to prioritize federal grants to cities and states that 'enforce prohibitions on open illicit drug use, urban camping and loitering, and urban squatting, and track the location of sex offenders.'
Official figures say America's homeless population is more than 700,000 and rising. But advocates say the number is actually much higher.
New York City is one of a few jurisdictions with a 'right to shelter,' meaning in theory that any homeless person has the right to a spot in a shelter.
Trump has made fighting big city crime and disorder a major plank of his second White House term, although most measures show crime is declining. Instead of working with Congress or big city mayors, most of whom are Democrats, he has preferred to enact executive orders, some of which have faced critical scrutiny from courts.
The edict is touted as forming part of Trump's commitment to ending homelessness, according to a White House fact sheet. It comes after an executive order in March directed the National Park Service to clear homeless encampments and graffiti on federal lands.
The Supreme Court ruled in June that that authorities can fine or arrest homeless people for sleeping in public spaces. The ruling, which was approved by a 6-3 margin along ideological lines, overturned a lower court's ruling that it is cruel and unusual punishment to enforce camping bans when shelter is lacking.
________
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
UPI
15 minutes ago
- UPI
Federal Reserve governor Kugler resigns, creating vacancy for Trump
Adriana Kugler announced she will be leaving as Federal Reserve governor on Aug. 8. Photo by Federal Reserve Aug. 2 (UPI) -- One of the seven members of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, Adriana Kugler, announced she is stepping down next week, creating an opening for President Donald Trump to fill. Her term was set to expire in January but Kugler said Friday she will depart in seven days. President Joe Biden appointed Kugler, a 55-year-old labor economist, in September 2023. Governors' terms are for 14 years, and Kugler filled an opening. "The Federal Reserve does important work to help foster a healthy economy and it has been a privilege to work towards that goal on behalf of all Americans for nearly two years," Kugler said in her resignation letter to Trump. "I am proud to have tackled this role with integrity, a strong commitment to serving the public, and with a data-driven approach strongly based on my expertise in labor markets and inflation." Kugler said she plans to return to teaching public policy at Georgetown University in the fall. She was a vice provost for faculty at Georgetown and earned her Ph.D. in economics at the University of California at Berkeley. "I am especially honored to have served during a critical time in achieving our dual mandate of bringing down prices and keeping a strong and resilient labor market," she wrote in the letter. Kugler did not vote on Wednesday when the central bank's Federal Open Market Committee kept the benchmark interest rate unchanged at a range of 4.25% to 4.5% for a fifth consecutive meeting. Two of the 11 committee members who did vote dissented, backing Trump's desire to lower rates. The 12-member committee includes the seven governors, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and four remaining 11 Reserve Bank presidents who serve one-year terms on a rotating basis. "We just found out that I have an open spot on the Federal Reserve Board. I'm very happy about that," Trump said late Friday before boarding Marine One. He later posted on Truth Social that Fed Chairman Jerome Powell "should resign, just like Adriana Kugler, a Biden Appointee, resigned. She knew he was doing the wrong thing on Interest Rates. He should resign, also!" The replacement may ultimately replace Powell, whose term ends in May, though he can remain as a governor until 2028. The president appoints each of the board members and designates one to serve as chair for four years. Trump appointed Powell during his first presidency in 2018. Biden appointed him to another term as chairman. "Trump's influence on interest rates will now be felt earlier and more strongly," Derek Tang, an economist at LHMeyer, an economic consulting firm, told The Washington Post. Contenders to lead the Fed are National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, former Fed governor Kevin Warsh and Fed governor Christopher Waller, each with distinct strengths, The Washington Post reported. Trump has said he wants Scott Bessent to remain as Treasury secretary. Trump has sought to replace Powell, calling him on Truth Social "a stubborn MORON" and "too late" on lowering interest rates. But he can only be fired "for cause," such as malfeasance, neglect of duty or inefficiency, rather than disagreeing with policies. Experts say his removal could disrupt the financial markets.
The Hill
16 minutes ago
- The Hill
Government probes Trump prosecutor Jack Smith over alleged Hatch Act violations: Report
The federal government reportedly launched a probe into the actions of special prosecutor Jack Smith who investigated President Trump's criminal cases beginning in 2022. The U.S. Office of Special Counsel said Saturday officials would look into Smith's potential violation of the Hatch Act, which restricts government employees from political involvement, according to NBC News. The office did not immediately respond to The Hill's request for comment. The investigation comes after Trump and his allies have previously alleged that Smith went after Trump without legal standing in an effort to thwart his second campaign for the presidency. Former Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith three days before the president announced his reelection bid. Still, GOP lawmakers said the special prosecutor needs to be investigated. 'Jack Smith's legal actions were nothing more than a tool for the [former President] Biden and [former Vice President] Harris campaigns. This isn't just unethical, it is very likely illegal campaign activity from a public office,' Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) wrote in a Wednesday post on the social media platform X. 'Special Counsel Smith pushed for an out-of-the-ordinary, rushed trial for President Trump, with jury selection to begin just two weeks before the Iowa caucuses. No other case of this magnitude and complexity would come to trial this quickly,' the Arkansas senator added in a separate post. However, Smith has long defended his actions. 'The ultimate decision to bring charges against Mr. Trump was mine. It is a decision I stand behind fully,' Smith wrote in his final report published in mid-January, adding that Garland nor anyone else at the Justice Department pushed him to prosecute Trump. 'To all who know me well, the claim from Mr. Trump that my decisions as a prosecutor were influenced or directed by the Biden administration or other political actors is, in a word, laughable.' Smith ultimately resigned from the Justice Department (DOJ) after Trump's November win and dismissed charges against the president-elect arguing that he believed he would have scored a conviction against the leader if the legal battles played out in court. 'The throughline of all of Mr. Trump's criminal efforts was deceit-knowingly false claims of election fraud-and the evidence shows that Mr. Trump used these lies as a weapon to defeat a federal government function foundational to the United States' democratic process,' Smith wrote. 'Until Mr. Trump obstructed it, this democratic process had operated in a peaceful and orderly manner for more than 130 years,' he added. Earlier this month, Attorney General Pam Bondi fired 20 additional employees tied to Smith weeks before the Office of Special Counsel said it would investigate the prosecutor. The independent agency can only research Smith's actions and seek disciplinary actions for the federal employee. Investigators can then present findings to the DOJ for criminal charges.
Boston Globe
16 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
Iran is holding at least 4 American citizens, rights groups and families say
The detentions are likely to increase the tense political climate between Tehran and Washington after the United States joined Israel's attack on Iran and bombarded and severely damaged three of its nuclear sites in June. Advertisement Nuclear negotiations with Washington have not resumed since the war in June, but Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said this past week in an interview with local news media that he and the U.S. special envoy, Steve Witkoff, have been communicating directly through text messages. President Donald Trump has said that he would not tolerate countries' wrongful detention of Americans and that their release is a top priority for his administration. Witkoff's office did not respond to a question on whether the detention of dual American citizens was brought up in communications with Araghchi. The State Department has said that it is 'closely tracking' reports of Americans being detained in Iran. 'For privacy, safety and operational reasons, we do not get into the details of our internal or diplomatic discussions on reported U.S. detainees,' it said in a statement Monday. 'We call on Iran to immediately release all unjustly detained individuals in Iran.' Advertisement Iran's mission to the United Nations declined to comment on the detentions. Iran's Ministry of Intelligence said in a statement on Monday that it had arrested at least 20 people who were working as spies or operatives for Israel in cities across Iran. The four detained Iranian Americans had all lived in the United States and had traveled to Iran to visit family, according to the rights groups. The families of three of the Americans have asked that their names not be published for fear it could make their situations worse. Two of the four were arrested by security agents in the immediate aftermath of Israel's attacks on Iran in June, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (or HRANA) and Hengaw, independent rights groups based outside Iran. One is a 70-year-old Jewish father and grandfather from New York who has a jewelry business. He is being questioned about a trip to Israel, according to the rights groups and the man's colleagues and friends. The other is a woman from California who was held in the notorious Evin prison. But her whereabouts is now unclear after Israel attacked Evin in June and the prison was evacuated, according to rights groups and Kylie Moore-Gilbert, an Australian British scholar who was imprisoned in Iran for two years and released in 2020. Iran is also holding another Iranian American woman, who was first imprisoned and prevented from leaving the country in December 2024. She is currently out of prison, but her Iranian and American passports were confiscated, according to her U.S.-based lawyer who asked not to be named to discuss sensitive information. Advertisement The woman works for a U.S. technology company and runs a charity for underprivileged children in Iran. But after the recent war, the Iranian judiciary elevated her case and charged her with espionage, according to her lawyer -- a serious crime that can carry many years in prison and even the death penalty. At least one other Iranian American citizen, journalist Reza Valizadeh, is imprisoned in Iran. He is a former employee of Radio Farda, the Persian-language news outlet that is part of the State Department-funded Radio Free Europe. Radio Farda has said in a statement that he was arrested in October 2024 while visiting family in Iran. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of 'collaborating with a hostile government.' Two senior Iranian officials who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly confirmed that Iran had recently detained two dual American citizens -- the New York man and the California woman. They said it was part of a wider crackdown focused on finding a network of operatives linked to Israel and United States. The crackdown comes as Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has encouraged Iranians in the diaspora to return to Iran. He said recently that he would speak with the ministries of intelligence and judiciary to facilitate those returns, according to local news reports. 'We have to create a framework so that Iranians living abroad can come to Iran without fear,' Pezeshkian said. But Ali Vaez, the Iran director for the International Crisis Group, said recently: 'The Iranian government has a sordid history of cracking down domestically following intelligence failures, and seizing foreign nationals as a cynical form of leverage. And at a time when Tehran and the Trump administration are already at loggerheads over nuclear diplomacy, the arrests could add another significant area of contention.' Advertisement The State Department issued a new warning after the war, telling Americans not to travel to Iran 'under any circumstances.' In a statement in English and Persian, it says that Americans, including Iranian Americans, 'have been wrongfully detained -- taken hostage -- by the Iranian government for months, and years. The threat of detention is even greater today.' The news of the Americans' detentions has rattled the Iranian American community, including several people previously detained in Iran. Many of them are often the first point of contact for families who find themselves navigating the frightening ordeal of having a loved one arrested in Iran. Siamak Namazi, an Iranian American businessperson who was held for eight years in Iran before being released as part of a U.S.-Iran deal in 2023, said that since the war with Israel, the number of Americans detained in Iran has grown. 'Some cases are public; others remain under wraps, often due to poor advice that silence is safer,' he said. 'Securing their release must be a core U.S. priority in any future diplomatic engagement with Tehran,' added Namazi, who is on the board of Hostage Aid Worldwide. In New York's tight-knit Jewish Iranian circles, news of one member's detention spread quickly and brought anxiety. Iran has arrested at least five Jewish Iranians in its postwar crackdown and has summoned 35 more for questioning, according to Skylar Thompson, deputy director of HRANA. Advertisement This article originally appeared in
