The Trump administration has cut three offices designed to help migrants saying they are a “roadblock” to immigration reform.
The offices were all part of the Department of Homeland Security, which is the agency responsible for pushing enforcement of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.
DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a Friday statement that it was implementing a “reduction in force” for three offices: the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, and the Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman.
Alex Lang , Rebecca Santana22 March 2025 18:00
Trump says he was ‘told’ that Venezuelans deported to El Salvador ‘went through a very strong vetting process.’
Ariana Baio22 March 2025 17:45
Trump has issued a presidential memo asking Attorney General Pam Bondi to “take all appropriate action” against law firms to file challenges to the Trump administration’s actions.
In the memo, Trump said the lawyers and law firms engage in “unethical” behavior by filing frivolous lawsuits that seek to delay the president’s agenda – rather than challenge its legality.
He asked Bondi to investigate these and refer attorneys to disciplinary action whether it’s terminating a federal contract with a law firm, reassessing security clearances, bringing claims of unethical behavior and more.
Ariana Baio22 March 2025 17:00
Lawyers for Donald Trump’s administration are considering whether his invocation of an 18th-century wartime law allows federal law enforcement officers to enter homes without a warrant.
The president has deployed the Alien Enemies Act to rapidly deport, without due process, alleged members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang, designated a foreign terrorist organization. Officials, however, have admitted that many of the immigrants flown to a prison in El Salvador last weekend don’t have criminal records.
Trump is relying on the law for only the fourth time in U.S. history. It was most recently used to detain Japanese Americans, including U.S. citizens, during the Second World War.
“Terrorists don’t get to hide behind closed doors,” said an official with the Department of Justice in a statement to The Independent from the White House.
Alex Woodward22 March 2025 16:30
Companies that speak out about social justice or protecting the environment are under threat like never before, writes Alan Rusbridger. With Trump in charge, we need to celebrate dissenting voices – not silence them
Alan Rusbridger22 March 2025 16:00
President Trump demanded that Maine Governor Janet Mills apologize to him after she clashed with him during a governors’ meeting at the White House over allowing transgender athletes to compete.
“While the State of Maine has apologized for their Governor’s strong, but totally incorrect, statement about men playing in women’s sports while at the White House House Governor’s Conference, we have not heard from the Governor herself, and she is the one that matters in such cases,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The Department of Education found that Maine violated Title IX protections by allowing a transgender girl to play in women’s and girls’ sports. It comes after Trump signed an executive order banning trans athletes from competing on the team that aligns with their gender identity.
At the heated meeting last month, Mills told the president, “we’ll see you in court” after clashing over the issue.
“Therefore, we need a full throated apology from the Governor herself, and a statement that she will never make such an unlawful challenge to the Federal Government again, before this case can be settled,” Trump wrote.
Ariana Baio22 March 2025 15:30
The Department of Homeland Security said it would revoke legal protections for approximately 532,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who have come to the United States since October 2022 under a humanitarian parole program.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said they would lose legal protections on April 24 – 30 days after the publication of the notice in the Federal Register.
Under the humanitarian program, migrants could come to the U.S. legally if they were from war-torn countries or those facing political instability.
Ariana Baio22 March 2025 15:00
Here are some highlights:
Trump says he was ‘told’ that Venezuelans deported to El Salvador ‘went through a very strong vetting process.’
Trump says Musk was at Pentagon for DOGE not China briefing
Trump says Tesla protests are worse than January 6 insurrection
Trump says he’ll pay stranded astronauts’ overtime pay
Oliver O’Connell22 March 2025 14:30
Oliver O’Connell22 March 2025 14:00
Despite the pressure food banks find themselves under, with funding down from pandemic highs and inflation high, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has chosen to pause and review existing programs, canceling some $500 million in deliveries.
Such an interruption can have serious consequences for people reliant on food banks — one in every six Americans — and especially those in rural areas.
Food banks across the country — already facing huge cuts to locally grown food assistance — learned this week that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is canceling $500 million in expected food deliveries, further disrupting help at a time when need continues to rise.
Vince Hall, chief government relations officer at Feeding America, the country’s largest hunger-relief organization, said some local food banks and food pantries were told that USDA deliveries of commodities such as cheese and meat are being canceled at least temporarily. Many others were not notified by federal officials that their deliveries were not coming, he said.
Hall characterized the USDA’s decision as a pause to review existing programs and said his organization is hoping the administration will resume purchases and deliveries “with minimum disruption on the flow of food.” Groups working in rural areas, which rely more on government food than gleaning, would be especially hard hit by a lack of commodities, he said.
Oliver O’Connell22 March 2025 13:30
