Sen. Chuck Schumer’s book tour postponed amid funding vote controversy
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(WASHINGTON) — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s three planned book tour events scheduled for this week have abruptly been postponed as of Monday morning.
Schumer, promoting his new book “Antisemitism in America: A Warning,” has been facing backlash over voting for the House-approved government funding bill that averted a shutdown on Friday. Many Democrats, including progressives, had wanted him to vote against the bill and to more strongly protest against President Donald Trump’s and congressional Republicans’ agendas.
Schumer had events planned in Baltimore, New York City and Washington, D.C., this week. Protests were planned outside of all three events.
A spokesperson for Schumer’s book tour told ABC News, “Due to security concerns, Senator Schumer’s book events are being rescheduled.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — An internal Border Patrol memo obtained by ABC News indicates that the Department of Homeland Security could request up to 10,000 U.S. military troops to help with efforts along the United States-Mexico border.
Defense officials, however, said this week that they have not heard of this figure, but did say they expected that there could be additional requests for troops.
“This is just the start. This is an initial step, and we are anticipating many further missions,” a senior Defense official told reporters.
The White House yesterday announced that 1,500 troops would be sent to help with operations at the southern border. Those roles, according to sources, would be to help with processing and surveillance.
The Customs and Border Protection planning memo also says the agency could request military infrastructure and technology.
CBP “may” utilize military bases as holding facilities for those who are arrested by Customs and Border Protection. Defense officials said that DOD had not received any requests for that kind of assistance but would evaluate such requests.
The Navy may also help with enforcing and carrying out coastal border operations, according to the document.
Two U.S. officials told ABC News on Thursday afternoon that the first of 500 Marines bound for the border would be shipping out in the coming hours and Army units would be in transit later in the day. A good number of the Army troops will be military police, but they will not be carrying out law enforcement duties, according to other officials.
In addition, four military cargo planes are being positioned for use in deportation flights — a C-17 and C-130 in San Diego and another C-17 and C-130 at Fort Bliss, Texas. So far only the C-17 to Ft. Deportation flights cannot begin until the State Department arranges details, which could take some time.
The U.S. Northern Command said in a news release Thursday that it is “aggressively” bolstering security at the border. About 1,500 soldiers and Marines are “immediately” deploying to the region to augment the approximately nearly 2,500 service members already there supporting CBP’s mission at the border.
“In a matter of days, we will have nearly doubled the number of forces along the border, effectively implementing the President’s intent while planning and posturing for expanded efforts to protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the United States,” said Gen. Gregory M. Guillot, commander of the Northern Command.
The exact number of personnel will fluctuate as units rotate personnel and as additional forces are tasked to deploy once planning efforts are finalized, Northern Command said. These forces will support enhanced detection and monitoring efforts and repair and emplace physical barriers, the release said.
-ABC News’ Matt Seyler contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Crowds of current and recently fired federal workers gathered at a job fair in Maryland on Saturday to search for new career opportunities as the Trump administration continues its purge of federal workers.
Many were filled with despair and frustration over the cuts, spearheaded by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
Daniel Leckie was a historic preservation specialist for the General Services Administration who got fired in February. He attended the job fair with his wife and 6-month-old baby.
“We’re now just incredibly terrified and scrambling to find new jobs to keep the roof over our head and feed our little one,” he told ABC News.
Leckie said he was fired for being a probationary employee and was just one day away from fully satisfying his probationary period.
Leckie and his wife, Jennifer Hopkins, just bought a new home in Maryland, making their first mortgage payment just a few weeks ago. He was also working toward completing the public service loan forgiveness program.
“I had about maybe two or three months left before I would have satisfied the terms of my student loans. It’s an $80,000 proposition for our family. It’s between this job, the student loan forgiveness that we were counting on and the job that we took included a promotion potential as long as I was performing fully, successfully in my duties, which I was,” he said.
“That’s what we based a lot of our financial future on, including deciding to start a family and taking out a mortgage and becoming homeowners here in the D.C. area,” Leckie added.
William Dixon, a 30-year veteran who has worked in the federal government for 23 years, told ABC News the layoffs are a “stab” against veterans.
“Because after we’ve sat up here and put the sacrifice out, like we don’t even matter, we don’t count,” he said.
Dixon works in logistics for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, but he and his wife, who also works for the Pentagon, are bracing for their jobs to be cut any day now as the Defense Department prepares to make sweeping layoffs.
Dixon said both he and his wife received the email from the Office of Personnel Management asking them to list what they accomplished last week, but they’ve refrained from responding based on guidance from their supervisors.
He did, however, have a message for Musk and Trump.
“Stop. You’re hurting families. You’re hurting people,” he said. “Everybody depends on having a paycheck to take care of their family as well as to build for their retirement as well as take care of young ones. You’re doing nothing but hurting, hurting the whole nation and their families. That’s all you’re doing.”
(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.
