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US Immigration Crackdown
French company Capgemini announced Sunday it is selling off its subsidiary that provides technology services to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, during global scrutiny of ICE agents' tactics in the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. France's government had pressured the company to be more transparent about its dealings with ICE, whose actions in Minneapolis in recent weeks have raised concern in France and other countries. The government's campaign against immigrants in Minnesota's capital has led to the fatal shootings of two US citizens at the hands of federal immigration officers. Capgemini said in a statement Sunday that it will immediately start the process of selling off its subsidiary Capgemini Government Solutions. It said the rules for working with US federal government agencies "did not allow the group to exercise appropriate control over certain aspects of the operations of this subsidiary to ensure alignment with the group's objectives." It didn't give
A judge on Saturday ordered the US to release a 5-year-old boy and his father from a Texas detention center where they were taken after being detained in a Minneapolis suburb last month. Images of Liam Conejo Ramos, with a bunny hat and Spiderman backpack being surrounded by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Officers, sparked even more outcry about President Donald Trump's administration's immigration crackdown in Minnesota. It also led to a protest at the family detention center and a visit by two Texas Democratic members of Congress. US District Judge Fred Biery, who was appointed by former Democratic President Bill Clinton, said in his ruling "the case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children." A judge had previously ruled that the boy and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, could not be removed from the US, at least for now. Neighbors and school ...
The search for survivors on a commercial fishing vessel that sank off the coast of Massachusetts with seven aboard has been suspended, the US Coast Guard said Saturday. The Coast Guard launched a search and rescue mission early Friday after receiving an alert from the 72-foot Lily Jean about 25 miles off Cape Ann. Searchers found a debris field near where the alert was sent along with a body in the water and an empty life raft, the Coast Guard said. Crews covered about 1,000 square miles (2,589 square kilometers) using multiple aircraft, cutters and small boats over a 24-hour period. However, after consultation between search and rescue mission coordinators and on-scene commanders, the Coast Guard announced Saturday that it had determined that all reasonable search efforts for the missing crewmembers had been exhausted. Officials said there wasn't a mayday call from Lily Jean as it navigated the frigid Atlantic Ocean on its way home to Gloucester, Massachusetts, America's oldest ...
A federal judge says she won't halt the immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota and the Twin Cities as a lawsuit over it proceeds. Judge Katherine M. Menendez on Saturday denied a preliminary injunction sought in a lawsuit filed this month by state Attorney General Keith Ellison and the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul. It argues that the Department of Homeland Security is violating constitutional protections. State and local officials sought a quick order to halt the enforcement action or limit its scope. Lawyers with the U.S. Department of Justice have called the lawsuit "legally frivolous." Ruling looks at chances of lawsuit succeeding The ruling on the injunction focused on the argument by Minnesota officials that the federal government is violating the Constitution's 10th Amendment, which limits the federal government's powers to infringe on the sovereignty of states. In her ruling, the judge relied heavily on whether that argument was likely to ultimately succeed in ...
President Donald Trump said Saturday that he has instructed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem not to intervene in protests occurring in cities led by Democrats unless local authorities ask for federal help amid mounting criticism of his administration's immigration crackdown. On his social media site, Trump posted that "under no circumstances are we going to participate in various poorly run Democrat Cities with regard to their Protests and/or Riots unless, and until, they ask us for help." He provided no further details on how his order would affect operations by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement and DHS personnel, or other federal agencies, but added: "We will, however, guard, and very powerfully so, any and all Federal Buildings that are being attacked by these highly paid Lunatics, Agitators, and Insurrectionists." Trump said that in addition to his instructions to Noem he had directed "ICE and/or Border Patrol to be very forceful in this protection of Federal ...
The United Nations chief is warning that the world body faces "imminent financial collapse" unless its financial rules are overhauled or all 193 member nations pay their dues - a message likely directed at the United States and the billions it owes. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a letter to all UN member nations obtained Friday by The Associated Press that cash for its regular operating budget could run out by July, which could dramatically affect its operations. "Either all member states honor their obligations to pay in full and on time - or member states must fundamentally overhaul our financial rules to prevent an imminent financial collapse," he said. While Guterres didn't name any country in the letter, which was reported earlier by Reuters, the financial crisis comes as the US, traditionally the largest donor, has not paid its mandatory dues to the United Nations. The US now owes USD 2.196 billion to the UN's regular budget, plus it will owe USD 767 million for
News that a unit of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would be present during the upcoming Winter Games has set off concern and confusion in Italy, where people have expressed outrage at the inclusion of an agency that has dominated headlines for leading the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. Homeland Security Investigations, a unit within ICE that focuses on cross-border crimes, frequently sends its officers to overseas events like the Olympics to assist with security. HSI officers are separate from the ICE arm at the forefront of the immigration crackdown known as Enforcement and Removal Operations, and there was no indication ERO officers were being sent to Italy. That distinction, however, wasn't immediately clear to local media Tuesday. Italy reacts to U.S. security deployment The reaction among some in Italy reflects not only a worsening perception abroad of the administration's tactics on immigration but also underscores a broader rift between the U.S. under
Dozens of protesters were arrested Tuesday after they occupied the lobby of a Hilton Garden Inn in Manhattan, accusing the hotel of housing federal immigration officers. A person who answered the phone at the hotel declined to comment. An email to Hilton's press office was not returned Tuesday night. It was not immediately clear if immigration officers were staying at the hotel, and Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said that information would not be disclosed. The protest came as President Donald Trump's administration has been carrying out a massive immigration operation that has spurred widespread opposition and led to two deaths in Minneapolis this month. Hotel chains such as Hilton have sometimes struggled to navigate the conflict during the immigration crackdown and responding protests. Protesters packed into the small lobby of the Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Manhattan on Tuesday, wearing shirts that read "Hilton houses ICE" and calling for the .
The fatal shooting of a Minneapolis protester by a federal immigration officer touched off a fierce national debate and prompted some fellow Republicans to question President Donald Trump's hard-line immigration crackdown, but the president on Sunday night continued to blame Democratic officials. After remaining relatively quiet on Sunday, the Republican president in two lengthy social media posts said that Democrats had encouraged people to obstruct law enforcement operations. He also called on officials in Minnesota to work with immigration officers and "turn over" people who were in the US illegally. "Tragically, two American Citizens have lost their lives as a result of this Democrat ensued chaos," Trump wrote on his Truth Social media network. Trump's refusal to back away from his pledge to carry out the largest deportation program in history and the surge of immigration officers to heavily Democratic cities came as more Republicans began calling for a deeper investigation and
Police arrested about 100 clergy demonstrating against immigration enforcement at Minnesota's largest airport Friday, and thousands gathered in downtown Minneapolis despite Arctic temperatures to protest the Trump administration's crackdown. The protests are part of a broader movement against President Donald Trump's increased immigration enforcement across the state, with labour unions, progressive organizations and clergy urging Minnesotans to stay away from work, school and even shops. Metropolitan Airports Commission spokesman Jeff Lea said the clergy were issued misdemeanour citations of trespassing and failure to comply with a peace officer and were then released. They were arrested outside the main terminal at the Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport because they went beyond the reach of their permit for demonstrating and disrupted airline operations, he said. Rev Mariah Furness Tollgaard of Hamline Church in St Paul said police ordered them to leave but she and others .
Two planes carrying Venezuelan migrants out of the US were midair on March 15 when a federal judge in Washington ordered the Trump administration to turn them around. Instead, the planes landed in El Salvador hours later, touching off an extraordinary power struggle between the judicial and executive branches of the US government over what happened and why the judge's order went unexecuted. That fight entered a critical phase on Friday when US District Judge James Boasberg relaunched an investigation to determine whether the Republican administration deliberately ignored his instruction, letting the planes continue onto El Salvador. The judge previously concluded it did and threatened to have the responsible official or officials prosecuted on a contempt charge. The administration has denied any violation. But an appeals court threw Boasberg's decision out. The contempt probe appeared dead until, in yet another twist, a larger panel of judges on the same appeals court ruled on ...