DHS allows US Marshals, DEA and ATF to carry out immigration enforcement
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(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Homeland Security is allowing certain law enforcement components from the Department of Justice to carry out the “functions” of an immigration officer, according to a new memo sent by the Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Benjamine Huffeman.
Huffeman’s memo, obtained by ABC News, said the order grants the agencies the “same authority already granted to the FBI.” It said that agents can enforce immigration law.
The agencies listed in the memo are the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, the US Marshals Service and the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
The DEA and ATF have had little experience historically in carrying out immigration enforcement. Historically, the US Marshals only get involved when there has been a migrant who has become a fugitive.
Earlier this week, it was announced federal immigration authorities will be permitted to target schools and churches after President Donald Trump revoked a directive barring arrests in “sensitive” areas.
DHS announced Tuesday it would roll back the policy to “thwart law enforcement in or near so-called sensitive areas.”
Schools and houses of worship were once deemed off-limits, as were hospitals, funerals, weddings and public demonstrations, but no longer after the announcement.
“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest. The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense,” Huffeman said Tuesday.
(WASHINGTON) — Internal communications reviewed by ABC News show that the Trump administration plans to strictly implement an executive order from the president mandating a 90-day freeze on almost all U.S. foreign aid amid a review, a measure that already has sparked widespread concern among humanitarian organizations.
“We get tired of giving massive amounts of money to countries that hate us, don’t we?” President Donald Trump said in a speech during the House Republicans’ annual retreat in Florida on Monday, touting a blizzard of executive actions he had taken since returning to the White House.
In a memo sent to U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) staff over the weekend, a high-level official within the agency stressed their “responsibility” to carry out Trump’s directive and signaled that it would be difficult to secure waivers to continue funding for programs during the pause, which he called “a complete halt.”
“It is important to emphasize that it is no longer business as usual. Every program will be thoroughly scrutinized,” Ken Jackson, USAID’s assistant to the administrator for management and resources, wrote.
Jackson said that the agency’s only exceptions currently in place covered spending on emergency humanitarian food aid and travel for government officials who were returning to their duty stations, adding that employees should be ready “to provide detailed information and justification” for these expenses.
Any waivers for other spending would need to clear multiple hurdles for approval, including proving that the program receiving funding was lifesaving or necessary for U.S. national security.
Failure to comply with the pause or other new policies “will result in disciplinary action,” Jackson warned USAID staff.
A separate memo sent to State Department employees last week which was also reviewed by ABC News instructed officials overseeing projects funded by grants and awards that have already been distributed to issue immediate “stop-work orders,” making exceptions for some travel and administrative expenses, emergency food aid, and foreign military financing to both Egypt and Israel.
An administration official said on Monday that a template for submitting waiver requests had been made available and that the State Department was reviewing numerous applications that had already been submitted, but could not give a timeline for when any decisions would be made.
The State Department officially announced the implementation of the freeze on Sunday.
“Secretary Rubio has paused all U.S. foreign assistance funded by or through the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for review,” the department’s spokesperson, Tammy Bruce, said in statement. “He is initiating a review of all foreign assistance programs to ensure they are efficient and consistent with U.S. foreign policy under the America First agenda.”
By then, panic had already set in among international aid groups that rely on U.S. funding. Sources within the international community said the freeze was so expansive that they could hardly believe it was real.
“The recent stop-work cable from the State Department suspends programs that support America’s global leadership and creates dangerous vacuums that China and our adversaries will quickly fill,” InterAction, the largest alliance of international aid organizations, said in a statement.
“This halt interrupts critical life-saving work including clean water to infants, basic education for kids, ending the trafficking of girls, and providing medications to children and others suffering from disease. It stops assistance in countries critical to U.S. interests, including Taiwan, Syria, and Pakistan. And, it halts decades of life-saving work through PEPFAR that helps babies to be born HIV-free,” the statement continued.
Beyond concern for their work, some organizations and officials have also expressed confusion. Many were caught off guard by the State Department’s implementation of Trump’s order, which they initially believed wouldn’t impact programs funded through congressional appropriations.
“The aid community is grappling with just how existential this aid suspension is – we know this will have life or death consequences for millions around the globe, as programs that depend on this funding grind to a halt without a plan or safety net,” Abby Maxman, the president and CEO of Oxfam, said in a statement to ABC News.
“This decision must be reversed, and funding and programming must be allowed to move forward. But at the very least, the administration must communicate clearly so the aid community can plan for the future and determine how to carry on our lifesaving work,” Maxman added.
Critics of the freeze believe dissent from international aid organizations and U.S. officials has been muted due to fear of retribution from the administration.
In his memo to USAID employees, Jackson stipulated that one of the new policies they must comply with if they wished to avoid disciplinary action was a requirement that all external communication, including with the State Department, first be approved by the agency.
(WASHINGTON) — While President Donald Trump’s proudest supporters on Capitol Hill shower him with legislation proposing putting his portrait on a $250 bill, declaring his birthday a national holiday or adding his likeness to Mount Rushmore — a new effort across the aisle isn’t as flattering — as House Democrats take aim at the president’s $TRUMP meme coin.
Since launching a little over a month ago, the $TRUMP coin has tanked in value after early investors dumped the cryptocurrency. Members of Congress have noticed as hundreds of thousands of investors have taken hard hits and billions in value have quickly vanished.
California freshman Democrat Rep. Sam Liccardo told ABC News on Thursday he will introduce legislation to prohibit the country’s top officials and their families — from Congress to the White House — from capitalizing on personal meme coins.
The Modern Emoluments and Malfeasance Enforcement (MEME) Act would prohibit the president, vice president, members of Congress, senior executive branch officials and their spouses and dependent children from issuing, sponsoring or endorsing a security, future, commodity or digital asset.
Liccardo said he believes that the president and first lady Melania Trump cashed in on their meme coins and enriched investors around the world who initially supported the cryptocurrency.
Trump launched the coin in January, days before he took office. A similar Melania coin had been issued a week earlier. Trump in July said he wanted to turn the U.S. into the “crypto capital of the planet.”
While Liccardo’s legislation is not expected to become law over the next two years under Republican majorities in the House and Senate, the freshman Democrat said that the president and first lady made a windfall on their respective meme coins and is working to build support that culminates behind a Democrat majority.
“Let’s make corruption criminal again,” Liccardo, a former federal and local criminal prosecutor, said. “Our public offices belong to the public, not the officeholders, nor should they leverage their political authority for financial gain. The Trumps’ issuance of meme coins financially exploits the public for personal gain, and raises the specter of insider trading and foreign influence over the Executive Branch.”
The proposal would forbid federal officials from promoting a range of financial assets or from participating in any conduct likely to financially benefit themselves, according to Liccardo. The legislation would impose criminal and civil penalties and includes a prohibition that applies to any financial asset, such as the stock of Truth Social.
Liccardo wants to subject violators to criminal and civil penalties while stopping them from profiting from an asset issued before the bill’s enactment — giving it retroactive element intended to address the launch of $TRUMP.
Liccardo said he has a dozen Democratic cosponsors as he prepares to introduce the legislation on Thursday.
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge wants to hear directly from one of the top officials at the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau to learn if the Trump administration is unlawfully gutting the agency or just trying to streamline it.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson — who expressed concern the CFPB might be “choked out of its very existence” — said she plans to hold a hearing next Monday to get testimony from CFPB Chief Operating Officer Adam Martinez and others about the state of the agency tasked with protecting American consumers.
During a lengthy hearing Monday, Jackson grew frustrated with a lack of clear answers from either side about the current state of the CFPB. Lawyers with the Department of Justice argued the relief requested by the federal unions who brought the lawsuit amounted to putting the CFPB into receivership, while the plaintiffs argued the Trump administration was causing irreparable harm by slowly starving the agency.
“According to the plaintiff, the sky is falling. According to the defendant, if I issue the order, the sky will be falling,” Jackson remarked.
Jackson is considering issuing a preliminary injunction to block the dismantling of the CFPB but added she might consider additional relief if the plaintiffs can demonstrate that the government’s actions are causing irreparable harm.
“I think what we’re talking about is interim oversight to make sure that it hasn’t been choked out of its very existence before I get to rule on the merits,” she said.
In a sworn court filing last week, Martinez argued the changes at the CFPB — which has operated under a stop work order for the last month — are simply a “common practice at the beginning of a new administration.” Jackson raised skepticism to the idea that what’s happening at the CFPB is business as usual.
“One of the big defenses of all this is that this is normal, that this is what happens when the new team comes to town, and I’m just not sure that’s true at all, at least not since I’ve been here,” she remarked. “Are you telling me that … when President Reagan took over from President Carter — on top of freezing regulations and enforcement and litigation — fired all provisional employees, shut the building, stopped all work and said the funding should stop?”
Lawyers with the Department of Justice insisted the Trump administration is trying to improve the CFPB, not destroy it.
“You can’t blow it up, but why should you be able to starve it to death?” Jackson asked.
“Acting Director [Russell] Vought wants to have a more streamlined and efficient bureau, not to blow it up,” responded a DOJ attorney.
Elon Musk, however, wrote “RIP CFPB” in a post on X on Feb. 7, the same day workers received termination notices.
The CFPB is an independent agency established by Congress after the 2008 financial crisis under the landmark Dodd-Frank Act. It’s a consumer watchdog aimed at protecting American households from unfair and deceptive practices across the financial services industry.
Its oversight applies to everything from mortgages to credit cards to bank fees to student loans to data collection. By law, the CFPB has the rare ability to issue new rules and to impose fines against companies who break them.
Since its establishment in 2011 through last June, the CFPB said it has clawed back $20.7 billion for American consumers.
ABC News’ Elizabeth Schulze contributed to this report.
