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Washington Post
24 minutes ago
- General
- Washington Post
Trump administration says it is making plans to return deported Guatemalan man
Lawyers for the Trump administration on Wednesday said officials are complying with a federal judge's orders to return a wrongly deported Guatemalan man to the United States, one of the first public signs of a turnaround by a government that has aggressively resisted returning deportees. U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy in Boston on Friday ordered Trump officials to 'take all immediate steps' to facilitate the man's return to the United States. The man's lawyers had argued that he was deported to Mexico in February without being given the chance to contest it. Authorities there then sent him back to Guatemala. His lawyers said he is gay and had repeatedly fled persecution in both countries last year to seek protection in the United States. The man, identified only by the initials O.C.G., is a plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's moves to deport people to countries where they are not citizens without giving them a chance to challenge their removals. The Department of Homeland Security had previously signaled they would appeal the judge's ruling, but in a court filing Wednesday, government lawyers detailed the steps officials have taken to facilitate his return, including arranging for special permission to reenter the U.S. on humanitarian parole and making plans to transport him on the return leg of a deportation charter flight. Officials did not inform the court about when the man would return and whether he would be detained afterward. The government's disclosures Wednesday are in sharp contrast to the Trump administration's refusals so far to detail publicly its actions in other high-profile cases in which judges have ordered the return of migrants they found were wrongfully deported in recent months. O.C.G. is one of at least three immigrants who judges have said should be returned to the United States. He is the only one who is not detained. The other two men, Kilmar Abrego García, a 29-year-old man married to a U.S. citizen in Maryland, and a Venezuelan man identified in court records as 'Cristian' were deported in March to a notorious megaprison in El Salvador. In early April, a federal judge in Maryland ordered the Trump administration to bring back Abrego García, who was illegally deported to El Salvador in what the Trump administration acknowledged was an 'administrative error.' A judge had barred him from being removed to El Salvador after finding he could face persecution from gangs in that country. Later that month, another federal judge in Maryland ordered officials to return Cristian so that his asylum application could be adjudicated. The Supreme Court upheld the judge's order in Abrego García's case. A federal appeals court upheld the ruling in Cristian's case last week. In Cristian's case on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher in the Southern District of Maryland berated the government for defying her May 20 order to provide information by Tuesday about the 'steps they have taken to facilitate the return of Cristian to the United States.' Gallagher, a Trump nominee, said officials 'utterly disregarded' her order and showed 'zero effort' to answer her questions about plans to return Cristian. She said the government's response 'is the functional equivalent of, 'We haven't done anything and don't intend to,'' she wrote in a three-page order Wednesday. She gave them until Monday to remedy their 'noncompliance.' Department of Homeland Security officials had no immediate comment Wednesday on Gallagher's ruling. Officials also did not comment directly to the Justice Department's status report in O.C.G.'s case. On Friday, DHS indicated it would resist returning him. Agency spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin called Murphy a 'federal activist judge,' said Mexico was a 'safe' option for the Guatemalan man and that officials expected a 'higher court to vindicate us.' She issued the same statement on Wednesday in response to questions about the Justice Department's filings detailing how it was complying with the judge's orders. O.C.G. was one of four plaintiffs who filed the class-action lawsuit in Boston in March. He fled Guatemala last year after facing 'multiple death threats on account of his sexuality,' his lawyers wrote in the lawsuit. He arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border under the Biden administration in March 2024 and sought asylum, but after about a week in immigration custody, he said DHS officers removed him without a hearing. He fled Guatemala again and traveled into Mexico in April 2024, but shortly after arriving, he said he was raped by one of the men who had been helping him reach the U.S. southern border. The complaint alleged the men locked O.C.G. in a room for several days and released him only after his sister paid a ransom. He then fled to the United States seeking protection in May 2024. In February, after a hearing, an immigration judge granted him protection from being deported to Guatemala, and soon afterward, officials put him on a bus to Mexico. In Mexico, his lawyers said the man was given the 'Hobson's choice' of applying for asylum from a detention facility in that country or being returned to Guatemala. He went to Guatemala and into hiding, his lawyers said. Vivian Ho contributed to this report.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump Promises That Harvard Is ‘Getting Their A** Kicked' in Ongoing Feud
President Donald Trump assured that Harvard is 'getting their a-- kicked' as the school continues to fight the administration's demands. While addressing reporters in the Oval Office Wednesday following the swearing-in of former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro as interim U.S. Attorney for Washington, DC, the president chastised Harvard for its behavior. 'Harvard's got to behave themselves,' he said. 'Harvard is treating our country with great disrespect and all they're doing is getting in deeper and deeper and deeper.' The president clarified that 'Harvard has to understand the last thing I want to do is hurt them.' 'They're hurting themselves. They're fighting,' he said. Trump went on to compare the oldest university in the nation to Columbia University, which has caved in to the administration's demands on every occasion. 'You know, Columbia has been really—they were very, very bad, what they've done. They're very anti-Semitic and lots of other things,' he said. 'But they're working with us on finding a solution, and, you know, they're taken off that hot seat.' 'But Harvard wants to fight. They want to show how smart they are, and they're getting their a-- kicked,' he declared. Harvard's president, Alan Garber, has urged other universities to not abandon their values in the face of the current administration, stating that 'we need to be firm in our commitments to what we stand for.' Trump promised that he had the institution's best interest at heart, and that he was simply 'looking out for the country and for Harvard.' 'I want Harvard to do well. I want Harvard to be great again, probably, because how could it be great?' he added skeptically. Trump also blasted the university for its 'remedial math' class, saying that the school is 'bragging' about how they're teaching students 'basic mathematics.' 'How could it be great, when you have Harvard announce two weeks ago that they are going to teach remedial mathematics, remedial, meaning they're going to teach low-grade mathematics, like two plus two is four,' he said. The school's new introductory math course is being offered to students who 'have taken a break from mathematics,' and will use techniques taught in high school algebra classes. 'How did these people get into Harvard if they can't do basic mathematics? How did they do it?' he asked. 'Where do these people come from?' he mused, saying that this is why 'we have to look at the list,' referring to a list of every international student currently at Harvard, which he demanded the institution hand over. Trump has also used this new math class to justify banning international students from the university, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announcing Thursday that it would be revoking the school's Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification. 'This means Harvard can no longer enroll foreign students and existing foreign students must transfer or lose their legal status,' the DHS statement read. The ban, which would have affected 6,800 international students enrolled at the university, was quickly blocked by a federal judge the next day, and the school was issued a temporary restraining order. But this didn't discourage the administration. Only four days later, the State Department ordered U.S. embassies to temporarily stop scheduling new student visa appointments as they expanded their screening process for applicants. Most recently, Trump has threatened to withhold $3 billion more of federal grant money from the institution, in addition to the $2.2 billion in federal funding it has already frozen. The administration is also moving to cancel its remaining federal contracts with Harvard, which are worth about $100 million in total.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Politics
- Time of India
US arrests Mexican immigrant for threatening to shoot Donald Trump
Ramon Morales Reyes The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has arrested an undocumented Mexican male immigrant for allegedly threatening to shoot US President Donald Trump. Ramon Morales Reyes was arrested by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a federal agency under the DHS. According to DHS, the man, Reyes, entered America illegally at least nine times between 1998 and 2005. Reyes has criminal records including arrests for felony hit and run, criminal damage to property and disorderly conduct with a domestic abuse modifier, it added. In a letter being attributed to him, Reyes wrote, "We are tired of this president (Trump) messing with us Mexicans - we have done more for this country than you white people. You have been deporting my family and it is time Donald J Trump get what he has coming to him." "I will self-deport myself to Mexico but not before I shoot you precious president in his head. I will see him at one of his big ralleys (sic)," he added. In July 2024, Trump was the target of an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. More recently, a now-deleted Instagram post by ex-Federal Bureau of Investigation head James Comey led to allegations by team Trump that he was calling for the Republican leader's assassination.
Fox News
an hour ago
- Politics
- Fox News
State Department now scrutinizing all visa holders associated with Harvard
Senior State Department officials tell Fox News all visa holders associated with Harvard University are being scrutinized, not just student visa holders. Along with student visas, the State Department will be conducting a substantive investigation into B-1, or business visas; B-2, or tourist visas; as well as others, officials said. The investigation is aimed at identifying potential security vulnerabilities or other abuses of the visa system. The probe could impact hundreds of people associated with the elite school and could reveal if people entering with claimed connections truly have real connections or more tenuous connections. Fox News Digital learned earlier in the day that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is eliminating the student visa program at Harvard University due to "pro-terrorist conduct" at campus protests. The move is a severe consequence in response to what the DHS claims is Harvard's refusal to comply with its requests for behavioral records of student visa holders. "This administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus," DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said. "It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments. Harvard had plenty of opportunity to do the right thing. It refused. They have lost their Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification as a result of their failure to adhere to the law. Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country." Harvard may no longer enroll foreign students in the 2025-2026 school year, and existing foreign students must transfer or lose their legal status to reside in the U.S. before the next academic year begins. "As a result of your brazen refusal to comply with multiple requests to provide the Department of Homeland Security pertinent information while perpetuating an unsafe campus environment that is hostile to Jewish students, promotes pro-Hamas rhetoric, and employs racist 'diversity, equity, and inclusion' policies, you have lost this privilege," Noem wrote in a letter to Maureen Martin, the university's director of immigration services. Noem offered Harvard 72 hours to provide the information requested for an opportunity to regain its visa program for the next school year. She called the move the "direct result of Harvard's epic failure to comply with simple reporting requirements." Harvard, meanwhile, asserted the termination was "unlawful." Last month, Harvard announced it would allow foreign students to accept admission to both Harvard and a foreign university as backup amid the Trump administration's threats to move to block Harvard's authorization to host them. Typically, students must accept enrollment at Harvard by May 1 and can't commit to another university. At least a dozen Harvard students have had their authorization to study in the U.S. revoked over campus protest activity. The Trump administration has already frozen close to $3 billion in federal funding to the university, largely dedicated to research, and launched investigations across the departments of Justice, Education and Health and Human Services. They claim that Harvard has failed to address campus antisemitism and eradicate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in its policies. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Congress this week that the State Department had probably revoked "thousands" of student visas by this point and would "proudly" revoke more. "We're going to continue to revoke the visas of people who are here as guests and are disrupting our higher education facilities," he said Tuesday. "A visa is a privilege, not a right." The crackdown on university policies comes after a wave of pro-Gaza student protests and encampments swept schools across the nation since the beginning of Israel's offensive campaign to eradicate Hamas after the Oct. 7 attacks to pressure university administrations to divest from Israel.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Rubio says US will be revoking Chinese student visas, those with ‘Chinese Communist Party' ties or ‘studying in critical fields'
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday announced the United States will begin revoking visas from Chinese students, including 'those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.' 'The U.S. will begin revoking visas of Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields,' Rubio said on the social platform X. His post did not disclose any additional details, but it comes a day after the Trump administration directed U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide to pause scheduling visa interviews for international students as it mulls expanding 'social media screening and vetting' for applicants. The State Department issued an internal cable Tuesday, signed by Rubio, stating that 'effective immediately, in preparation for an expansion of required social media screening and vetting, consular sections should not add any additional student or exchange visitor (F, M, and J) visa appointment capacity until further guidance is issued [separate telegram], which we anticipate in the coming days,' multiple outlets reported. Earlier this year, the administration revoked the visas of thousands of international students. Immigration and Customs Enforcement later restored more than 1,500 foreign student visa registrations in its reporting system. Last week, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) moved to terminate Harvard University's Student and Exchange Visitor Program, consequently barring the Ivy League school from enrolling international students. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said the international students at Harvard would need to transfer to another institution or risk jeopardizing their legal status. On Wednesday, President Trump suggested imposing a 15 percent cap on the percentage of foreign students that Harvard University and other U.S. higher education institutions can admit. The president, while speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, suggested that international students take up too much of the student body and raised issues over some of the foreign students he called 'troublemakers.' 'These countries aren't helping us. They're not investing in Harvard … we are. So why would 31 percent — why would a number so big,' he said. 'I think they should have a cap of maybe around 15 percent, not 31 percent.' 'We have people [who] want to go to Harvard and other schools, [but] they can't get in because we have foreign students there. But I want to make sure that the foreign students are people that can love our country. We don't want to see shopping centers exploding. We don't want to see the kind of riots that you had,' Trump said. 'And I'll tell you what, many of those students didn't go anywhere. Many of those students were troublemakers caused by the radical left lunatics in this country.' He also said, without elaborating, that he doesn't want 'radical people' coming to U.S. as students and 'making trouble in our country.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
