Report: DHS pulls taxpayer dollars from group linked to LA riots
The group was slated to receive $450,000 from the from the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services subagency between October of 2023 and September of 2025. The funds were earmarked for 'citizenship instruction and naturalization services.'
In March, DHS sent a letter terminating the remainder of the groups contract which had not yet been paid out, to the tune of $100,936. DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs shared the contract termination letter in a post on X Sunday afternoon. The group had already been awarded two separate grants of $250,000 under the Biden administration in 2021 and 2022.
Angelica Salas, the group's executive director, who spoke at one of the ICE protests over the weekend, has seen her compensation nearly double in recent years. At the end of the 2022 fiscal year, Salas earned $125,500. In the 2023 fiscal year, which is the most recently available data, Salas earned $201,654.
Yet, the federal funds are far from the only taxpayer dollars funneled to the immigrant rights group. Out of the $44 million noted as received by CHIRLA in the group's 2023 IRS Form 990 , over $33 million total was received from government grants. Over the weekend, President Donald Trump took control of 2,000 California National Guard troops and deployed them to Los Angeles to quell the civil unrest.
Barragan also said that the president was 'causing tensions to rise.' 'It's only going to make things worse in a situation where people are already angry over immigration enforcement,' Barragan added.
'We are having an administration that's targeting peaceful protests, people that are there to protest. The president is sending in the National Guard because he doesn't like the scenes. He doesn't like the scenes of people peacefully protesting,' Barragan stated.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem didn't directly answer a question from CBS host Margaret Brennan on Sunday when asked whether or not she would support the calling up of active duty service members to deal with the rioters in Los Angeles. Noem told Brennan that the National Guard troops sent to LA were 'there at the direction of the president in order to keep peace and allow people to be able to protest, but also to keep law and order. That is incredibly important to the president,' Noem added.
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Reuters
26 minutes ago
- Reuters
Trump says Putin may not want to make a deal on Ukraine
WASHINGTON/LONDON/KYIV, Aug 19 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he hoped Russia's Vladimir Putin would move forward on ending the war in Ukraine but conceded that the Kremlin leader may not want to make a deal at all, adding this would create a "rough situation" for Putin. In an interview with the Fox News "Fox & Friends" programme, Trump said he expected that Putin's course of action would become clear in the next couple of weeks. Trump also again ruled out American boots on the ground in Ukraine and gave no specifics about the security guarantees he has previously said Washington could offer Kyiv under any post-war settlement. "I don't think it's going to be a problem (reaching a peace deal), to be honest with you. I think Putin is tired of it. I think they're all tired of it, but you never know," Trump said. "We're going to find out about President Putin in the next couple of weeks ... It's possible that he doesn't want to make a deal," said Trump, who has previously threatened more sanctions on Russia and nations that buy its oil if Putin does not make peace. Ukraine and its European allies have been buoyed by Trump's promise of security guarantees to help end the war during an extraordinary summit on Monday but face many unanswered questions, including how willing Russia will be to play ball. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hailed Monday's talks at the White House with the U.S. president as a "major step forward" towards ending Europe's deadliest conflict in 80 years and towards setting up a trilateral meeting with Putin and Trump in the coming weeks. Zelenskiy was flanked by the leaders of allies including Germany, France and Britain at the summit and his warm rapport with Trump contrasted sharply with their disastrous Oval Office meeting in February. But beyond the optics, the path to peace remains deeply uncertain and Zelenskiy may be forced to make painful compromises to end the war, which began with Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. Analysts say more than 1 million people have been killed or wounded in the conflict. While the Washington talks allowed for a temporary sense of relief in Kyiv, there was no let-up in the fighting. Russia launched 270 drones and 10 missiles in an overnight attack on Ukraine, the Ukrainian air force said, the largest this month. The energy ministry said Russia had targeted energy facilities in the central Poltava region, home to Ukraine's only oil refinery, causing big fires. "The good news is that there was no blow-up (at the White House). Trump didn't demand Ukrainian capitulation nor cut off support. The mood music was positive and the trans-Atlantic alliance lives on," John Foreman, a former British defence attache to Kyiv and Moscow, told Reuters. "On the downside, there is a great deal of uncertainty about the nature of security guarantees and what exactly the U.S. has in mind." Ukraine's allies were to hold talks in the so-called "Coalition of the Willing" format on Tuesday to discuss the way forward. NATO chiefs of defence will also discuss security guarantees for Ukraine on Tuesday, a source close to the matter said, without mentioning further details. Russia has made no explicit commitment to a meeting between Putin and Zelenskiy. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow did not reject any formats for discussing the peace process in Ukraine but any meeting of national leaders "must be prepared with utmost thoroughness". "It doesn't smell like peace yet. I think Putin will not go for it, he is not that kind of person," said a 63-year-old resident of Kyiv, Oksana Melnyk. "I really wanted it all to end peacefully, but, unfortunately, a lot of our people died and it is very bitter.' Putin has warned that Russia will not tolerate troops from the NATO alliance on Ukrainian soil. He has also shown no sign of backing down from demands for territory, including land not under Russia's military control, following his summit talks with Trump last Friday in Alaska. Trump has not specified what form any U.S. security guarantees could take. In Alaska he backed away from insisting that Russia agree to a ceasefire before any peace negotiations kick off in earnest. Neil Melvin, director, International Security at the Royal United Services Institute think-tank, said Russia could drag out the war while trying to deflect U.S. pressure with a protracted peace negotiation. "I think behind this there's a struggle going on between Ukraine and the Europeans on one side, and the Russians on the other, not to present themselves to Trump as the obstacle to his peace process." "They're all tiptoeing around Trump" to avoid any blame, he said, adding that on security guarantees, "the problem is that what Trump has said is so vague it's very hard to take it seriously".
Reuters
26 minutes ago
- Reuters
Markets, Trump in delicate policy dance
ORLANDO, Florida, Aug 19 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has faced little opposition in his drive to rip up the global economic rule book, whether from his fellow Republicans, political opponents or institutional guard rails. The only exception has been "the market". But now even investors are holding their fire, enabling more risk to build up in the financial system. Wall Street's reaction to Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs on April 2 was so ferocious that the president did something he had rarely done: he backed down. Trillions of dollars were wiped off the value of U.S. stocks amid a 10% nosedive from April 3-4. The only two-day selloffs since the 1930s that were bigger occurred during the Second World War, "Black Monday" in 1987, the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, and the pandemic in 2020. The stock market bottomed out on April 7 after Trump paused most of his country-specific tariffs. Wall Street has not looked back since, with the S&P 500 rebounding 35% to a new all-time high. This episode suggests that "the market" is one of the few true checks on Trump's apparent pursuit to re-shape the U.S. – and indeed the world – economy. The only problem is that the president has continued to pursue unorthodox policies in recent months - including challenging the independence of the Federal Reserve, firing statisticians and slapping tariffs on countries for non-economic reasons – and investors have failed to tap the brakes. The so-called "Trump put" -- the idea that the president won't let the markets fall too far -- is essentially a funhouse mirror version of the famous "Fed put", the long-held belief that, in the event of a crisis, the central bank will step in to restore stability. Trump seemingly did just that in April, but it was to clean up a mess of his own making. And one could argue that it was actually investors who came to the economy's rescue by putting pressure on the president to reconsider policies considered ill-advised by most economists. Trump and markets are therefore now in a curious dance. Investors appear to believe that markets can ultimately stop Trump from pushing the envelope too far on tariffs or other policies. But as a result, investors are not over-reacting – or reacting at all – to the latest controversies around the Bureau of Labor Statistics firing, his attacks on Fed Chair Jerome Powell, his pressure on Intel's CEO to resign, or the outsized tariffs slapped on Brazil and India. This, in turn, has powered the markets to new record highs, emboldening Trump to push the envelope even further. So even though the market has the power to rein in the president's economic policy excesses, it's not using it. Why hasn't the market pushed back? As the cliche goes, equity investors are paid to be optimistic. It's in their interest to keep the train hurtling along provided there aren't any immediate obstacles to derail it. There are, of course, a few pretty large hurdles on the horizon for the U.S. economy, including the highest tariffs since the 1930s and some of the biggest budget deficits since World War II outside of crisis periods. But until these or other issues present an immediate economic threat, markets can choose to ignore them. By under-reacting to Trump's unorthodox policies, markets may be not only delaying the day of reckoning but amplifying the potential impact. Why? Genuine economic and geopolitical paradigm shifts are underway, and investors are not pricing in the attendant risk. Nobody knows what the ultimate impact of these shifts will be, but we do know that with greater uncertainty comes greater downside risk. Yet equity volatility is currently the lowest it has been this year, and even in the bond market – not known for its optimism – volatility is the lowest in three and a half years, while U.S. corporate bond spreads are the tightest since 1998. Ultimately, the market is unlikely to call Trump's bluff until something truly unexpected or extreme hits. In the meantime, investors can justify this nonchalance by saying that corporate earnings growth is solid, AI enthusiasm is high, economic growth remains decent, unemployment is low, and consumers are still spending. Wall Street is choosing not to put on the brakes, meaning this train will continue rolling on. Whether it's heading for a collision is an open question. (The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters)
Daily Mail
26 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Putin ally mocks European leaders for 'sucking up' to Trump
Top Putin ally Dmitry Medvedev has mocked European leaders for 'sucking up' to Donald Trump and failing to 'outplay' him during the Ukraine summit in Washington. Medvedev, the former President and Prime Minister of Russia, took to X today and said: 'The anti-Russian warmongering Coalition of the Willing failed to outplay [Trump] on his turf. Europe thanked & sucked up to him.' The Deputy Chair of Russia's Security Council added, referring to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky: 'The question is which tune the Kiev [sic] clown will play about guarantees & territories back home, once he's put on his green military uniform again.' His comments come following Zelensky's appearance at the Oval Office with Trump, who praised the Ukrainian leader's 'fabulous' attire as he donned an all-black suit for his first meeting at the White House since their 'explosive' row. The Ukrainian leader arrived in Washington yesterday for talks on his country's war with Russia , but decided against his usual casual combat gear. He was kicked out of the Oval Office in a previous meeting after a shouting match erupted between the two leaders during a press conference, leaving Zelensky to walk out of the West Wing and into his SUV prematurely . At the press conference in February, Brian Glenn, Chief White House Correspondent Real America's Voice quizzed the leader on his refusal to wear a suit. However, at today's meeting Mr Glenn again commented on his attire, telling him: 'First of all you look fabulous in that suit.' Trump gleefully agreed with the reporter, adding: 'I said the same thing, and this is the one that attacked you last time.' Zelensky replied: 'I remember that.' Glenn said: 'I apologize to you, you look wonderful.' In a far more light-hearted encounter than their previous meeting, Zelensky joked that Mr Glenn was in the same suit as the previous press conference. He said: 'You are in the same suit. You see I changed mine.' Earlier this month, Medvedev was reportedly admonished after antagonising Trump into sending two nuclear submarines closer to Russia. After Trump reduced his 50-day deadline for Russia to end the invasion of Ukraine, Medvedev wrote on social media that Trump was 'playing the ultimatum game with Russia…Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war.' The US president responded: 'Tell Medvedev, the failed former Russian president who thinks he is still in power, to be careful what he says. He is entering very dangerous territory.' In response, Russia and China showed off their strengthening military ties as they took part in staged mock combat drills and other war games in the Sea of Japan together on August 3. A statement from China's Defense Ministry said the Joint Sea-2025 drills were launched in waters nearby Vladivostok, Russia's largest port on the Pacific Ocean. Four Chinese vessels, including guided-missile destroyers Shaoxing and Urumqi, participated in the drills, which spanned three days. The exercises included 'submarine rescue, joint anti-submarine, air defence and anti-missile operations, and maritime combat', followed by naval patrols in 'relevant waters of the Pacific'. Russia and China, which signed a 'no-limits' strategic partnership shortly before Russia went to war in Ukraine in 2022, conduct regular military exercises to rehearse coordination between their armed forces and send a deterrent signal to adversaries. Although they were pre-planned, the joint naval exercises came just a day after Trump moved submarines packed with nuclear warheads towards Russian waters following his argument with Mr Medvedev on social media. Vladimir Putin last night told Donald Trump that he would attend peace talks with Volodymyr Zelensky within two weeks - but failed to name a specific date, fuelling fears he will pull out of efforts to end the war at the last minute. The Kremlin branded a 40-minute phone call between Trump and Putin on Monday as 'frank' and only 'fairly constructive' - moments after the US President said on social media that he and discussed plans for a summit in the next two weeks between the leaders of Russia and Ukraine. Volodymyr Zelensky has also said that he's 'ready' to sit down for face-to-face talks with Vladimir Putin to end the Ukraine war. It follows yesterday's extraordinary Oval Office love-in with Donald Trump that saw the two presidents swap praise and promises, a stark contrast to their explosive meeting in the same setting earlier this year. The meeting was also attended by European leaders, including Keir Starmer, Italy 's Georgia Meloni and French President Emmanuel Macron . But the tensions behind the scenes were seemingly revealed when Trump appeared to be reassuring French President Emmanuel Macron that Russian President Vladimir Putin was serious about making peace in Ukraine. In a hot mic moment on Monday, President Donald Trump appeared to be reassuring French President Emmanuel Macron that Russian President Vladimir Putin was serious about making peace in Ukraine. 'I think he wants to make a deal. I think he wants to make a deal for me,' Trump whispered to Macron in the White House East Room before their meeting started. 'Do you understand that? As crazy as it sounds.' After the meeting, Trump also said that Putin 'had accepted security guarantees for Ukraine'. Macron appeared skeptical that Putin was serious about ending the three and a half year conflict that Russia had started. But he later suggested that Geneva could host a peace meeting between Putin and Zelensky. Meanwhile, the Finnish prime minister also urged caution about the prospects for peace in Ukraine - as he labelled his Russian counterpart as 'untrustworthy'. Despite the meeting, Putin launched 270 drones and 10 missiles in an overnight attack. Speaking after he left Trump's historic talks in the White House with Zelensky and other European leaders, Alexander Stubb said: 'Putin is rarely to be trusted. 'So now it remains to be seen whether he has the courage to come to this type of meeting. 'Does he have the courage to come to a trilateral meeting, or is he once again playing for time?' Stubb's rhetoric was in stark contrast to that of President Trump who hailed the success of Monday's talks in the White House. Mr Trump told reporters: 'If everything works out well, we will have a tri-lat [between himself, Zelensky and Putin] and have a good chance of ending the war.' President Zelensky also said he is ready to sit down for face-to-face talks with Vladimir Putin at the extraordinary Oval Office love-in. It comes as William Browder, an expert on Russian foreign policy, warned that Putin's life depends on the continuation of the Ukraine war. Writing in Monday's Daily Mail, he said: 'For Vladimir Putin, an outbreak of peace means certain death–by assassination, overthrow and execution, or in an international prison cell as a war criminal. 'The Russian president's only credible hope of survival in the gangster state he has himself created is to prolong the "special military operation" in Ukraine or to win in such outrageously successful terms that he can turn his attention to other former client states, other victims. 'Survival, after all, was Putin's objective in launching the invasion in 2022.' French President Emmanuel Macron, however, called for stepping up sanctions against Russia if Putin backtracks on peace in Ukraine. He told reporters: 'President Trump believes we can get an agreement and believes that President Putin also wants a peace accord. 'But if at the end this process is met by refusal, we are also ready to say that we need to increase sanctions.' Monday's meeting, which was praised by Zelensky as the best he had with Trump, saw the two presidents swap praises as they sought to make progress towards peace. However, lots of questions remained unanswered early on Tuesday morning as to what that would look like or how it would come about. Fresh from his Alaskan summit with Vladimir Putin, Mr Trump said he was prepared to provide military support to Kyiv in the event of a peace deal. 'We will give them very good protection, very good security,' the President said. 'There'll be a lot of help when it comes to security. It's going to be good.' Mr Trump refused three times to rule out putting American boots on the ground though any assistance is more likely to come in the form of air support. The hastily arranged scenes at the White House saw a contingent of European leaders, including Sir Keir Starmer , put summer holiday plans on hold to stand with Mr Zelensky. They were locked in talks on Monday night as Mr Trump pledged they would 'come to a resolution today on almost everything, including probably security'. He had earlier spent an hour with just his Ukrainian counterpart, presenting him with a giant battlefield map showing the 20 per cent of the country under Russian control. The 'possible exchanges of territory, taking into consideration the current line of contact' was up for discussion, the President said. Responding calmly to a provocative first question from an American journalist over whether he is prepared 'to keep sending Ukrainian troops to their deaths', Mr Zelensky said he was ready to sit down with Putin. 'We support the idea of the United States, of personally President Trump, to stop this war, to make a diplomatic way of finishing this war', he said. 'And we are ready for a trilateral, as the president said. This is a good signal about trilateral. I think this is very good.' The meeting was a complete contrast to the pair's bust-up in February, which saw Mr Zelensky effectively kicked out of the White House, with the US President this time complimenting his opposite number for his 'fabulous' military-style suit. Mr Trump opened graciously, saying it was 'an honour' to receive the Ukrainian President and that the two men have had 'a lot of good talks', making 'substantial progress'. Mr Zelensky responded in turn, saying thank you seven times in his opening speech after he was dressed down by Vice President JD Vance for his supposed ingratitude over American support. In another dramatic day of diplomacy over the future of Europe: Sir Keir joined the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Finland, the EU and NATO in supporting Mr Zelensky in an unprecedented day at the White House. The US President was due to phone Putin directly on Monday to update him on the talks. Any trilateral summit could be held between Putin, Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky as early as this week in Europe. Furious Russian officials on Monday accused Britain of undermining American efforts to end the conflict in Ukraine. Mr Zelensky arrived dressed in a black jacket, shirt, and trousers as he tried to show Mr Trump respect whilst not breaking his pledge to forego a suit until the end of the war. The European leaders were each met by a guard of honour outside the White House as protesters outside waved placards reading: 'Do not abandon Ukraine.' Mr Trump smiled as he personally greeted Mr Zelensky, shaking his hand before putting his arm around the Ukrainian President and ushering him inside. Inside the Oval Office, Mr Zelensky deftly handed Mr Trump a letter from his wife, Olena Zelenska, for the First Lady Melania Trump to thank her for raising the plight of 20,000 Ukrainian children his forces have kidnapped with Putin. But on hammering out a peace deal, Mr Trump admitted it's 'a tough one' saying while he has ended six wars he 'thought this maybe would be the easiest one... and it's not the easiest one.' Of the wars he has ended, he said, none had come after a ceasefire, with a complete and lasting end to hostilities being his goal. That was challenged by both Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz, who pushed for a pause in the fighting before any future meetings. Mr Trump responded by saying he liked the idea of an immediate ceasefire to 'stop the killing immediately,' but that would be left to Mr Zelensky and Putin. At the end of the press conference, Mr Trump revealed he was going to call the Russian dictator straight after the meeting of leaders. 'I just spoke to President Putin indirectly, and we're going to have a phone call right after these meetings today, and we may or may not have a trilat,' he said. 'If we don't have a trilat, then the fighting continues, and if we do, we have a good chance. 'I think if we have a trilat, there's a good chance of maybe ending it. But he's expecting my call when we're finished with this meeting.' There were hopes on Monday night that a summit between the three leaders could take place as early as this week in Europe. While Mr Trump favors Rome, Moscow reportedly prefers Geneva. It marks a remarkable turnaround, as there were growing fears of a cataclysmic breakdown of the trans-Atlantic alliance after Putin apparently succeeded in winning over Washington to his worldview in Alaska last Friday. He appeared to get everything he wanted at the summit in Anchorage, with the Trump administration dropping its desire for an immediate ceasefire to halt the Russian advance and reportedly agreeing that Ukraine should cede all of the Donbas - a huge territory Moscow has failed to take for 12 years. In a separate hot mic moment, a brief conversation between Italy's leader Giorgia Meloni, Finnish president Alexander Stubb and Trump. Meloni starts off by thanking Trump 'for being fair'. Stubb then asks if he does 'this everyday'. They then break into a side conversation where Trump says someone is a 'good golf player'. Meanwhile, Mr Trump blasted back at his 'stupid critics' before on Monday night's gathering, writing on his Truth Social platform: 'I know exactly what I'm doing.' Speaking on board his flight to Washington earlier in the day, Sir Keir insisted that 'we've got to get this right'. He said: 'This war in Ukraine has been going on for a really long time now, three-plus years. 'It's hugely impacted the Ukrainians who've suffered hugely but it's also affected Europe - it's impacted every single family and community in the United Kingdom. 'And so everybody wants it to end, not least the Ukrainians, but we've got to get it right. We've got to make sure there is peace, that it is lasting peace, that it is fair and that it is just.'
