Category: National

(SOUTH TEXAS, Texas) — President Donald Trump has threatened mass deportations of immigrants, potentially expanding the “expedited removal” program to conduct raids in neighborhoods and workplaces. This program would allow for the quick deportation of individuals who entered the U.S. without proper documentation and have been here for less than two years.

Trump has pledged to tighten immigration laws and roll back Biden-era policies that he believes have encouraged a rise in undocumented immigration.

On Monday, Trump signed executive orders enhancing operations of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, in sensitive areas, expanding expedited deportations for undocumented immigrants, and aiming to end birthright citizenship.

Educators and organizers are grappling with what this means for their communities, and schools are determining the best way to support students and families.

ABC News visited a school in South Texas to meet with students and faculty preparing for the potential impacts of President Trump’s immigration policies.

While in South Texas, a student named Maria, a high school junior, shared with ABC News that she came to America from Mexico on a special visa last fall. Born and raised in Mexico, the 15-year-old lives with her grandmother, who is her legal guardian, in South Texas.

“It’s an honor for me to study here,” Maria said. “And my parents, more than anything, they did it in search of something better for me and my future…to have more opportunities and be able to speak a second language.”

When Maria first arrived, she knew very little English and was placed in a special set of classes to help integrate her into the Texas public school system.

She expressed that she misses her family in Mexico but wants to become a Spanish teacher. She must stay in America to do that, but with Trump’s plan, her goals may be cut short.

“We found out through TikTok, later on Instagram or things like that,” Maria said. “And just like in anything else, there are people who find ways to make the news entertaining…even if it’s something bad. We try to focus on the positive to drown out the negative.”

In 1982, the Supreme Court ruled that all children, regardless of immigration status, can access public education.

While students like Maria are here legally on unique accommodation, there is growing concern about the potential impact an immigration crackdown could have on educational institutions.

The boundary lines for Maria’s school district run along the U.S.-Mexico border. The debate over immigration is finding its way into the classroom, as administrators in Southern Texas believe many of their students come from mixed-status families — some in the household have documentation allowing them to legally reside in the U.S., while others do not.

“When you come to our school district, you will be asked the name, of course, and some type of identification of your child and what can we do to service your child? Our business will never be to ask ‘what is your status in this nation?'” Norma Garcia, director of multi-language at Harlingen Consolidated Independent Schools, said.

District leaders are enhancing mental health support for students and organizing informative sessions for families. These sessions will connect families with experts, such as immigration attorneys and local border patrol agents, to help address their questions and concerns.

However, not all school districts share the same outrage. In Oklahoma, the Department of Education Superintendent Ryan Walters supports the incoming administration’s push for more decisive immigration action.

He claims that the influx of non-English-speaking students has strained the education system. As a solution, he proposes a rule requiring schools to collect information about a student’s or their parent’s immigration status and then share that information with federal authorities.

“Right now, our schools are being required by the federal government to educate all those children of illegal immigrants and never ask them if they’re here legally, never ask them where they’re from,” Walters told ABC. “Never collect any of this information. And so what happens is, is we have situations where one district, we had over 100 students a week that came in in the middle of the school year that we believe are illegal immigrants.”

Oklahoma is suing the former Biden administration and federal agencies for millions of dollars to recover those alleged costs. So far, no other states have joined this newly filed lawsuit.

“We’ve got to do what’s best for the American people, the American taxpayer, and shut down the border, send illegal immigrants back home,” Walters said. “And the best way for us to do that right now is to work with the Trump administration, get them the information they need.”

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(AQUEBOGUE, N.Y.) — A commercial poultry farm on Long Island, New York, is being forced to kill thousands of ducks after health officials detected cases of bird flu.

The owner of Crescent Duck Farm in Aquebogue — about 66 miles west of New York City — reportedly first saw signs that his flock was ill last week, according to the Suffolk County Department of Health. Tests confirmed the detection of bird flu on Jan. 17.

The farm, which is the last commercial duck farm on Long Island, was forced to cease operations and begin the process of euthanizing its entire flock of more than 100,000 ducks, according to ABC-owned station WABC. The process will reportedly take a little over a week.

“Unfortunately, when you have a situation like this where you have a flock that’s infected, the remedy is to put the entire flock down,” Suffolk County Health Commissioner Dr. Gregson Pigott told WABC.

As of Friday, no farm workers were reported ill and health officials have begun interviewing potentially exposed workers as well as providing testing and preventive medications to high-risk individuals, according to the release from the health department. Pigott told WABC the medications include Tamiflu and Tamivir.

The health department said it is also providing education to the farm owner on preventative measures such as proper hand hygiene and the use of appropriate personal protective equipment.

“The risk to public health is minimal as the virus at this point is not transmissible among humans,” Pigott said in a statement. “A full investigation is underway because there is some potential for transmission of the H5N1 bird flu from the infected birds to individual farm workers who had high-risk exposures.”

SCDH did not immediately reply to ABC News’ request for comment. ABC News left a message requesting comment with Crescent Duck Farm.

Bird flu, or avian influenza, has been causing outbreaks in poultry and dairy cows in the U.S. with recent human cases among poultry and dairy workers.

Human cases have been diagnosed across the country since April 2024, with 67 confirmed in 10 states so far, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of Thursday, no human cases have been reported in New York.

Most human cases have been mild with patients fully recovering. So far, just one death has been recorded in Louisiana in a patient over age 65 who had underlying medical conditions.

The CDC and other public health officials say there is currently no evidence of human-to-human transmission and the risk to the general public is low.

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(NEW YORK) — The Gulf Coast is digging out from a once-in-a-lifetime snowstorm that struck from Texas to Florida, closing airports, crippling roadways and leaving freezing temperatures in its wake.

At least 10 deaths have been attributed to the storm and accompanying cold blast.

In Dale County, Alabama, one person was killed in a house fire after leaving their stove on to keep them warm and a second person was killed in a car accident, according to the local corner.

One person died from hypothermia in Georgia and two people died in the cold in Austin, Texas, officials said.

Southwest of San Antonio, five people died when a tractor-trailer collided with other vehicles on an icy road, the Texas Department of Safety said.

This storm brought more snow to some cities than any other storm in at least the last 130 years.

Florida saw its most snow on record, with 9.8 inches of snow recorded in Milton, northeast of Pensacola.

Pensacola also saw an all-time record for the city with 8.9 inches.

Texas experienced its first-ever blizzard warning. Beaumont, Texas, recorded 5.2 inches of snow — an all-time record.
Mobile, Alabama, saw an all-time record high of 7.5 inches.

In Louisiana, Baton Rouge saw 7.6 inches.

New Orleans recorded 8 inches, marking the most snow in the city since 1895.

And the danger isn’t over. An extreme cold warning is in effect Thursday morning from Mississippi to the Florida Panhandle, with temperatures dropping as low as 12 degrees in parts of the Gulf Coast.

For Louisiana, this is the coldest it’s been in over 100 years, state climatologist Jay Grymes said.

While snow has melted in many areas, the freeze remains a serious threat. Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development Secretary Joe Donahue is urging “everyone to avoid unnecessary travel.”

Many of the areas hit hard by the storm will thaw soon; temperatures are expected to climb to the 50s and 60s by Sunday.

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(SEATTLE) — President Donald Trump’s executive order challenging birthright citizenship will face its first legal test in a Seattle courtroom Thursday.

A federal judge will hear a request made by four Democratic-led states to issue a temporary restraining order against the executive order signed by Trump that purports to limit birthright citizenship to people who have at least one parent who is a United States citizen or permanent resident.

Trump’s executive order reinterpreting the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of birthright citizenship — long promised by Trump on the campaign trail — is expected to spark a lengthy legal challenge that could define the president’s sweeping immigration agenda.

Democratic attorneys general from 22 states and two cities have sued Trump over the executive order, and the president faces at least five separate lawsuits over the policy.

In addition to the hearing in Seattle, a federal judge in Maryland is holding a hearing by telephone on Thursday in a challenge brought by two nonprofit groups and five pregnant undocumented women.

U.S. District Judge John Coughenour — who was nominated to the bench by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 — scheduled Thursday’s in-person hearing in the case brought by the attorneys general of Arizona, Oregon, Washington and Illinois. In a federal complaint filed on Tuesday, the four attorneys general argued that Trump’s policy would unlawfully strip at least 150,000 newborn children each year of citizenship entitled to them by federal law and the 14th Amendment.

“The Plaintiff States will also suffer irreparable harm because thousands of children will be born within their borders but denied full participation and opportunity in American society,” the lawsuit says. “Absent a temporary restraining order, children born in the Plaintiff States will soon be rendered undocumented, subject to removal or detention, and many stateless.”

The lawsuit argues that enforcement of Trump’s executive order would cause irreparable harm to the children born from undocumented parents by preventing them from enjoying their right to “full participation and opportunity in American society.”

“They will lose their right to vote, serve on juries, and run for certain offices,” the complaint says. “And they will be placed into lifelong positions of instability and insecurity as part of a new underclass in the United States.”

Lawyers for the Department of Justice, now under new leadership, opposed the request for a temporary restraining order in a court filing Wednesday.

Taking effect next month, Trump’s executive order seeks to reinterpret the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of birthright citizenship by arguing a child born in the United States to an undocumented mother cannot receive citizenship unless his or her father is a citizen or green card holder.

While most countries confer a child’s citizenship based on their parents, the United States and more than two dozen countries, including Canada and Mexico, follow the principle of jus soli or “right of the soil.”

Following the Civil War, the United States codified jus soli through the passage of the 14th Amendment, repudiating the Supreme Court’s finding in Dred Scott v. Sanford that African Americans were ineligible for citizenship.

“President Trump and the federal government now seek to impose a modern version of Dred Scott. But nothing in the Constitution grants the President, federal agencies, or anyone else authority to impose conditions on the grant of citizenship to individuals born in the United States,” the states’ lawsuit argued.

The Supreme Court further enshrined birthright citizenship in 1898 when it found that the San Francisco-born son of Chinese immigrants was an American citizen despite the Chinese Exclusion Act restricting immigration from China and prohibiting Chinese Americans from becoming naturalized citizens.

By seeking to end birthright citizenship, Trump’s executive order centers on the same phrase within the 14th Amendment — “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” — that the Supreme Court considered in 1898. Trump’s executive order argues that text of the 14th Amendment excludes children born of parents who are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States, such as people who are unlawfully in the U.S.

While legal scholars have expressed skepticism about the legality of Trump’s executive order, the lawsuit could set the stage for a lengthy legal battle that ends up before the Supreme Court.

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(LOS ANGELES) — A beloved pet tortoise has been found safe in the wake of California wildfires.

The rescue occurred after the family’s Altadena home was destroyed in the Eaton Fire, according to the San Dimas Sheriff’s Station.

In a video the station shared Saturday to Instagram, a deputy was seen bringing the 100-pound tortoise, Rocky, to safety.

Rocky was found in a hole in the family’s backyard, the sheriff’s office said.

The family can be heard cheering and celebrating as a deputy carried Rocky over to them.

“Yay! Rocky’s home!” a woman can be heard saying in the video.

ABC News has reached out to Rocky’s family for comment.

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(SAN ANTONIO) — Seven police officers have been shot one after the other after responding to a call made from inside a home in San Antonio, Texas, police said.

The incident occurred Wednesday evening when police officers received a call from an apartment in San Antonio, Texas, from somebody reporting that their family member was in distress and needed immediate help, authorities said.

However, as police responded to the scene, they were shot one after the other in succession, according to San Antonio Police Chief Bill McManus.

The first officer who responded was shot in the lower extremities with the second officer shot shortly after, police said.

A third responding officer subsequently arrived on scene and was shot before the last officer responded and was struck by a bullet in the upper torso, police confirmed.

No further details were given on the other three.

All of the officers were immediately taken to the hospital where they are being treated for non-life-threatening injuries, authorities said.

The identities of the police officers involved have not yet been released but McManus said that each of them had between four to eight years of experience on the force.

The suspect — a male in his 40s — has also not yet been identified but police said they are working on trying to get the person out of the apartment with the assistance of a SWAT team.

Police said that the suspect involved in the shooting had been arrested on Jan. 18 for two charges of assault and a one DWI charge. He was currently out on bond, McManus said.

No other information was made available and the investigation is currently ongoing.

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(KILAEUA, Hawaii,) — The world’s most active volcano, located in Kilauea, Hawaii, resumed its latest eruption on Wednesday.

Volcanic activity was noted just before 3 p.m. local time in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

The activity marked the fifth episode from the Kilauea volcano since it started to erupt on Dec. 23, 2024.

“Weak, intermittent spatter” was observed earlier in the day, but it was not until 2:57 p.m. that “small spatter fountains” of lava could be seen, marking the beginning of a new phase of the eruption, according to the United States Geological Survey, which assesses the risk of volcanic hazards in the U.S.

Such activity can be monitored through the agency’s volcano livestream on YouTube.

“Small lava dome fountains in the north vent are feeding short lava flows in the southwest part of the caldera,” the USGS wrote in an Instagram post on Wednesday. “Volcanic gas emissions are elevated compared to during the eruptive pause.”

The USGS noted that observable lava flow began at 2:59 p.m. and “seismic tremor” increased at 3:00 p.m.

In an advisory notice posted Wednesday, the agency wrote that “significant hazards” of the eruption include “wall instability, ground cracking, and rockfalls.” It noted that these hazards could be enhanced by earthquakes, which would endanger members of the public that ventured too close to the volcano within the national park.

“This underscores the extremely hazardous nature of Kilauea’s caldera rim surrounding Halemaʻumaʻu crater, an area that has been closed to the public since late 2007,” the USGS wrote.

It also said that it “continues to closely monitor Kilauea and will issue an eruption update tomorrow morning unless there are significant changes before then.”

The fourth and most recent eruption episode began on Jan. 15, but it had paused over the weekend on Jan. 18.

“Each episode of lava fountaining since December 23, 2024, has continued for 14 hours to 8 days and episodes have been separated by pauses in eruptive activity lasting less than 24 hours to 12 days,” the USGS advisory said.

There are about 170 potentially active volcanoes in the U.S., according to the USGS.

ABC News’ Marilyn Heck and Jennifer Watts contributed to this report.

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(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — An alleged portrait is beginning to emerge of the 17-year-old boy who opened fire at his Nashville high school on Wednesday, killing one student and wounding a second student, according to police.

Solomon Henderson, who was armed with a pistol, fired multiple shots in the cafeteria at Antioch High School around 11:09 a.m., Nashville police said.

Henderson confronted a 16-year-old girl, Josselin Corea Escalante, in the cafeteria and shot and killed her, Nashville Police Chief John Drake said at a news conference.

Another victim, a 17-year-old boy, was injured with a graze wound and has been treated and released from the hospital, Drake said.

The suspect died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head while he was in the cafeteria, police said.

Another student was transported to the hospital after suffering a facial injury from a fall, police said.

The suspect rode the bus to school Wednesday morning and later went to the bathroom to “retrieve his weapon,” Drake said.

A motive is not known, police said.

“There are some materials on the internet that we’re looking at,” Drake said.

According to a detailed analysis conducted by SITE Intelligence, the suspected shooter praised mass shooters and showed an affinity for extremist views.

Online material allegedly written by Henderson “detailed the individual’s apparent far-right politics, shaped by fringe online forums,” SITE reported.

“Henderson was highly in fringe online communities, including several known neo-Nazi venues. Across these sites and his writings, Henderson expressed admiration for far-right and incel mass shooters,” SITE reported.

According to the intelligence group, Henderson claimed online that the school shooter in the Abundance Life Christian School attack in December, Samantha Rupnow, followed him on his X accounts. Additionally, documents online allegedly written by Henderson “detail his admiration” of Christchurch, New Zealand shooter Brenton Tarrant, the suspect in the Slovakian gay bar shooting in 2022 and other mass shooters, according to SITE.

The intelligence group reported that Henderson also appeared to “post photos of himself in attire commonly associated with neo-Nazis.”

As the investigation into the school shooting continues, officials said Wednesday it’s not yet clear where the suspect obtained the gun. Police have reached a parent of the suspect, the police chief said.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee wrote on social media, “I’ve been briefed on the incident at Antioch High School and am grateful for law enforcement & first responders who responded quickly. … I join Tennesseans in praying for the victims, their families & the school community.”

The White House said it had been monitoring the shooting.

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(NEW YORK) — Steve Bannon wants more aggressive lawyers to represent him when he stands trial on charges he defrauded donors to an online campaign to fund a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, he argued in a court hearing Wednesday.

“I’ve been smeared by a political prosecution, persecution, for years and going to trial I need people who are more aggressive and will use every tool in the toolbox to fight this,” Bannon said.

Bannon, who was a White House strategist during President Donald Trump’s first term in office, pleaded not guilty in 2022 to charges he defrauded donors to the “We Build the Wall” online fundraising effort.

Prosecutors saw Bannon’s request on Wednesday as a gambit to delay trial.

“If there’s going to be request for delay because of the new attorneys coming in then we would oppose their entry,” prosecutor Jeffrey Levinson said.

Judge April Newbauer did not immediately relieve Bannon’s previous attorneys, but agreed to delay the trial by one week — to March 4 — to give Bannon’s new attorney, Arthur Aidala, time to get up to speed.

“This does not seem to upset anyone’s apple cart,” Newbauer said. “It does give new counsel a bit more time to prepare.”

Aidala pledged to be ready for trial by the date set.

“We will roll up our sleeves and get it done,” Aidala said.

The trial is expected to last about three weeks.

Bannon is accused of defrauding New York-based donors to the online fundraising campaign to build a wall along the U.S. southern border.

Bannon was initially charged with federal crimes, but received a pardon at the end of Trump’s first term.

He is expected back in court on Feb. 11.

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(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) —  A 17-year-old boy opened fire at a Nashville high school on Wednesday, killing one student and wounding a second student, according to police.

The teenager, who was armed with a pistol, fired multiple shots in the cafeteria at Antioch High School around 11:09 a.m., Nashville police said.

The suspect then died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.

One female student was killed. A second female student suffered a graze wound to the arm and is in stable condition at a local hospital, police said.

A male student was also injured in the incident but was not shot, police said. The cause of the injury was not clear.

A motive is not known, police said.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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