Category: National

(WASHINGTON) — The State Department is freezing immigrant visa processing for 75 countries in an effort to clamp down on applicants it deems likely to become a public charge.

The directive instructs embassies and consulates to halt decisions beginning Jan. 21 while the department reassesses its vetting procedures under existing immigration law, according to an internal memo first reported by Fox News Digital.

The effort comes months before the United States is set to co-host the 2026 World Cup with nearly 2 million tickets sold to fans around the world. The Trump administration previously said “any athlete or member of an athletic team, including coaches, persons performing a necessary support role, and immediate relatives, traveling to the World Cup” would be exempt from travel bans.

The suspension of immigrant visas will not apply to applicants seeking non-immigrant visas, or temporary tourist or business visas, who make up the vast majority of visa seekers, the State Department said. As such, the suspensions announced would not apply for those seeking to travel to the World Cup in the U.S. this summer.

A State Department spokesperson confirmed the agency is pausing immigrant visa processing for the 75 countries.

“The Trump administration is bringing an end to the abuse of America’s immigration system by those who would extract wealth from the American people,” State Department principal deputy spokesman Tommy Pigott said in statement Wednesday. “The State Department will use its long-standing authority to deem ineligible potential immigrants who would become a public charge on the United States and exploit the generosity of the American people.”

Countries affected by the pause include Somalia, Russia, Afghanistan, Brazil, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Nigeria, Thailand and Yemen, according to the internal memo. The full list of countries was not immediately available, but ABC News has reached out to the State Department for more information.

“Immigrant visa processing from these 75 countries will be paused while the State Department reassess immigration processing procedures to prevent the entry of foreign nationals who would take welfare and public benefits,” Pigott added Wednesday in the statement.

Notably, Somalia has drawn scrutiny from the Trump administration in recent days following reports of fraud in Minnesota’s social services system. A self-proclaimed independent journalist posted a video last month alleging child care fraud in Minneapolis’ Somali communities. Several state and local officials have disputed the accuracy of the video, and authorities said at the time none of the centers featured in the video were accused of fraud.

Federal authorities are investigating the allegations in the state’s social services system, while Minnesota officials have disputed the claims of fraud.

President Donald Trump recently criticized Somali immigrants, describing them as “garbage” and saying he doesn’t want them in the United States during a Cabinet meeting last month.

The Trump administration announced Tuesday it would end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Somalis in March, effectively forcing as many as 2,400 people out of the U.S., despite the president’s remarks last month that Somalia was “barely a country.”

In November, the State Department circulated a cable to consular offices worldwide directing staff to apply stricter screening measures under the “public charge” provision.

Under the guidance, officers are required to deny visas to applicants considered likely to depend on public assistance.

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(WASHINGTON) — In an 11-page court filing, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and Acting U.S. attorney Lindsay Halligan blasted a federal judge Tuesday for what they called an “inquisition” against Halligan for continuing to represent herself as U.S. attorney for Eastern District of Virginia, after another judge found she was not legally allowed to serve in the role.

Halligan, a former White House aide who was appointed interim U.S. attorney by President Donald Trump, secured indictments against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, only to have them thrown out when U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie determined in November that she had been unlawfully appointed without being either Senate confirmed or appointed by the federal judiciary.  

Last week, U.S. District Judge David Novak ordered the Justice Department to explain why Halligan was still using the title after her office issued an indictment in which she was identified as U.S. attorney in the document’s signature block.

In their court filing on Tuesday, Bondi, Blanche and Halligan slammed Judge Novak’s order.

“The Court’s thinly veiled threat to use attorney discipline to cudgel the Executive Branch into conforming its legal position in all criminal prosecutions to the views of a single district judge is a gross abuse of power and an affront to the separation of powers,” the filing said. “The bottom line is that Ms. Halligan has not ‘misrepresented’ anything and the Court is flat wrong to suggest that any change to the Government’s signature block is warranted in this or any other case.”

“Contrary to this Court’s suggestion, nothing in the Comey and James dismissal orders prohibits Ms. Halligan from performing the functions of or holding herself out as the United States Attorney,” said the filing. “Although Judge Currie concluded that Ms. Halligan was unlawfully appointed under Section 546, she did not purport to enjoin Ms. Halligan from continuing to oversee the office or from identifying herself as the United States Attorney in the Government’s signature blocks.”

The DOJ officials said Judge Novak had a “fixation” on Halligan’s signature block, which was “untethered from how federal courts actually operate.”

They argued that the court has no authority to strike her signature from the block. 

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(PROVIDENCE, R.I.) — Footage newly obtained by ABC News appears to show the moment that the man suspected of opening fire at Brown University in December fled the Ivy League campus following the tragic incident.

Officials believe Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, 48, is seen on a dash camera video recorded from a Brown University shuttle vehicle on Dec. 13 around dusk, walking through a parking lot adjacent to Barus and Holley, the building that includes the Providence, Rhode Island, school’s physics department.

His right hand appears to be in his pocket as he then jaywalks nonchalantly across Hope Street toward an adjacent residential neighborhood.

The Rhode Island Office of the Attorney General confirmed to ABC News that the footage is believed to depict the shooter and that the video was recorded immediately following the shooting.

The video was released in response to a public records request filed by ABC News. Authorities are currently declining to release many additional records associated with the response to the incident.

Neves Valente, a former Brown graduate student suspected to have been motivated by a lengthy grudge, shot and killed students Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov and Ella Cook inside a final exam review session, according to authorities.

Nine others were wounded in the shooting, officials said at the time.

At some point after the shooting, police say Neves Valente traveled to the Boston suburbs and killed Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nuno Loureiro near his Brookline home.

Neves Valente later crossed the New Hampshire state line by a few yards and took his own life at a self-storage facility as authorities sought to take him into custody, according to police.

The video recorded by the shuttle bus was referenced in a Providence Police criminal affidavit against Neves Valente that noted, “This was observed to be at 16:03, immediately after the shooting.”

The footage appears to indicate that the tragedy that occurred inside Barus and Holley was not evident to people on the street outside, with a handful of pedestrians seen casually walking nearby.

A Brown University police car can be seen parked on the curb. Around 25 seconds after Neves Valente fled the scene, another police car can be seen driving down Hope Street. Its blue emergency lights were flashing.

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(NEW YORK) — The NASA International Space Station (ISS) crew that includes a sick astronaut are on track to return to earth Thursday morning.

On Jan. 8, NASA said it was ending the current the ISS mission out of abundance of caution because of a medical situation involving one of the astronauts on board.

“I’ve come to the decision that it’s in the best interest of our astronauts to return Crew-11 ahead of their planned departure,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said during a press conference on Jan. 8.

Crew-11 is scheduled to undock from the ISS at 5:05 p.m. ET Wednesday before splashing down off the coast of California around 3:41 a.m. Thursday, according to NASA.

On Tuesday, the crew prepared by packing cargo, reviewing return-to-Earth procedures and transferring hardware aboard the ISS, the agency said.

They will return to Earth aboard the SpaceX Dragon Endeavor — the same spacecraft that brought them to the station.

An emergency evacuation was not ordered because the astronaut was stable, Dr. James “JD” Polk said during the Jan. 8 conference. The astronaut remains in stable condition, NASA said.

The mission is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which partners with private companies to deliver humans to and from the ISS.

Crew-11 includes two American astronauts, a Japanese astronaut and a Roscosmos cosmonaut. They traveled to the ISS on Aug. 1 and were scheduled to stay until mid-to-late February.

It is the “11th crew rotation mission of SpaceX’s human space transportation system and its 12th flight with astronauts,” according to NASA.

In November, the crew marked a historic milestone for the ISS — the 25th anniversary of the first crew that arrived at the station.

NASA did not say which astronaut was impacted nor did it describe the individual’s condition or symptoms due to privacy concerns.

It was the first time in 25 years that a medical evacuation was necessary, Polk said.

The unprecedented moves comes after NASA announced it had postponed planned spacewalk with the two American astronauts scheduled for the morning of Jan. 8.

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(CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas) — A Robb Elementary School teaching aide testified that she repeatedly urged Uvalde, Texas, school police officer Adrian Gonzales to intervene in the shooting, but said he did “nothing” in those crucial moments. 

Melodye Flores testified on Wednesday that she saw gunman Salvador Ramos before he entered the school and tried to tell Gonzales his location. 

“I told him that he needed to get stopped before he went into the fourth-grade building,” she testified. 

“And what did he say?” prosecutor Bill Turner asked.  

“He, just, nothing,” Flores said. 

“Did you say it more than once?” Turner asked. 

“I did,” Flores said, telling jurors she urged Gonzales to intervene two or three times. 

Prosecutors allege Gonzales, who is charged with child endangerment, did not follow his training and endangered the 19 students who died and an additional 10 surviving students.

Gonzales, no longer an officer, has pleaded not guilty and his lawyers argue he is being unfairly blamed for a broader law-enforcement failure that day. It took 77 minutes before law enforcement mounted a counterassault to end the May 24, 2022, rampage.

Flores testified that she was eating lunch in her classroom when she learned about the shooter over a school radio. She said she ran outside because she knew that some students were on the playground and potentially in danger. 

After warning some students, Flores said she spotted the gunman near the south door of the school. 

“He was wearing all black and a hoodie … that’s when he started shooting,” she said.

Flores said she started running away and tripped, and incorrectly thought she was shot. 

She testified that she saw Gonzales drive up to her right after she tripped, and she tried to inform the officer about the shooter’s location. 

“I said that he was heading into the fourth-grade building, and we needed to stop him. We needed to go in and stop him before he went in,” she said. 

“I just kept pointing. ‘He’s going in there, he’s going to the fourth-grade building,'” she told jurors.

“Did you hear anything from this gunman while you were talking to the police officer?” Turner asked. 

“Just kept hearing shots,” she said. 

Flores said that Gonzales did not respond to her warnings.

“I kept telling him that he needed to be stopped,” she said.

“When you told the officer to go in, did he go in?” Turner asked. 

“No,” she said. 

“What did he do?” Turner asked. 

“He just stayed there,” she said. 

Flores said she left Gonzales and tried to help a teacher who had sheltered in her classroom.

On Tuesday, during the testimony of Texas Ranger Ricardo Guajardo, prosecutors played a lengthy interview Gonzales gave to state investigators after the shooting.

In the interview, Gonzales recalled arriving at the school as one of the first officers and learning about the shooting from a coach. 

“I was going over there towards her,” he said. “I see her fall in the dust cloud. So I get to her, and I realized she’s one of the coaches.” 

According to Gonzales, he learned the approximate location and a basic description of the shooter from the coach, though the shooting began before he could act.

Gonzales told investigators that he could not see the shooter, but he tried to notify others over his radio. 

“I notify everybody on the radio, the best I could. And then, you know, as soon as I start walking over there, I see the rounds come out of the window,” he said. 

Gonzales also described trying to enter the school with four other officers, though they retreated after two were hit by gunfire. 

“Everybody flew back, you know, so I think he got hit,” he said. “We kind of moved back.” 

Two months before the shooting, Gonzales taught a course about responding to active shooters, according to testimony from Teresa Zamarripa, the officer manager at Southwest Texas College Law Enforcement Agency.

ABC News’ Juan Renteria contributed to this report.

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(INVERNESS, Fla.) — Two teenagers, whose relatives said were best friends, have died after a sand hole they were digging at a Florida park collapsed and buried them for more than an hour, authorities said.

The incident occurred at Sportsman Park in Inverness, Florida, according to the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office.

“Our hearts are with both families as they grieve the tremendous loss of their sons. We hope the community will continue to respect their privacy and unite in remembering and celebrating both boys,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.

The two 14-year-olds were identified on Wednesday as George Watts and Derrick Hubbard, the Florida District 8 and District 5 Medical Examiners’ offices told ABC News.

The boys were playing in the park on Sunday when a five-foot-deep sand hole they were digging collapsed, trapping them, according to the sheriff’s office.

The sheriff’s office said the emergency was reported about 12:44 p.m. local time.

“The caller reported that two 14-year-old children were lost in the park, and there was a large hole; the caller thought the children were trapped inside the hole,” the sheriff’s office said.

Deputies, firefighters and emergency medical services personnel raced to the park and attempted to rescue the boys after one of their parents pinged their child’s cellphone and pinpointed their whereabouts underground, according to the sheriff’s office.

Rescuers pulled both boys from the sand hole around 1:15 p.m. and began cardiopulmonary resuscitation. They were taken by ambulance to HCA Florida Citrus Hospital in Inverness.

One of the boys, Derrick Hubbard, was pronounced dead on Sunday, authorities said. The sheriff’s office said George Watts was pronounced dead at the hospital on Tuesday afternoon.

“In a tragic accident, we lost our oldest son, George Watts, and his best friend, Derrick Hubbard,” Watts’ mother, Jasmine Watts, wrote on a GoFundMe page set up to raise money to cover the boys’ funeral expenses. “These two boys shared a bond that went beyond friendship — they were inseparable, full of life, curiosity, and dreams for the future.”

The boys were students at Inverness Middle School, the school said in a statement.

“This situation has deeply affected many within our school and district community,” the school said in a statement, adding that counselors, social workers and psychologists were made available to students this week “as we navigate this difficult time together.”

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(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — The family of slain Ohio couple Monique and Spencer Tepe is speaking out about Monique Tepe’s ex-husband, who is accused of shooting the young parents in their home.

“She just had to get away from him,” the Tepes’ brother-in-law, Rob Misleh, told ABC News’ “Good Morning America” of Dr. Michael McKee.

McKee, 39, is charged with premeditated aggravated murder for allegedly gunning down the Tepes at their Columbus home on Dec. 30, according to police.

Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant on Wednesday called it a targeted and “domestic violence-related” attack. She said multiple weapons were taken from McKee’s property and one of those weapons has preliminarily been linked to the crimes.

McKee appeared in court on Monday. He did not enter a plea but assistant public defender Carie Poirier told the judge he intended to plead not guilty. 

Misleh said that Monique Tepe told him that McKee was emotionally abusive.

“Myself and many others were well aware of, kind of, the negative impact that he had on her. And the abuse that he put her through, the torment that he put her through,” Misleh said. “She was willing to do anything to get out of there.”

“She was a very strong person,” Misleh added.

McKee and Monique Tepe were married in 2015 and divorced in 2017, according to divorce records obtained by ABC Columbus affiliate WSYX. They did not have any children together, according to the records.

Spencer Tepe, a dentist, married Monique Tepe married in December 2020, according to their obituary.

“They were some of the kindest and just most inviting people,” Misleh said. “… I think it speaks really loudly that their funeral had over 1,000 people there.”

The Tepes are survived by their two young children who were found safe inside the house on Dec 30.

“We just want justice,” Misleh said.

“We want this person that took so much from, not just us as a family, but so many more people. And obviously the kids, especially. We want this person to pay for what they did,” he said.

“Our hearts remain with Spencer and Monique and their loved ones, and especially the children impacted,” Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther said at a news conference on Wednesday.

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(RIVERHEAD, N.Y.) — Accused Gilgo Beach, New York, serial killer Rex Heuermann will stand trial shortly after Labor Day, a judge said during a Tuesday hearing.

Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to killing seven women whose remains were found on Long Island.

The trial date comes as Heuermann requests to suppress certain evidence and dismiss one of the charges.

Among the statements the defense is trying to exclude is when Heuermann was arrested outside his Midtown Manhattan office in 2023, prosecutors quoted him saying, “What is this about?” and “It’s a mistake.” Prosecutors also quoted him asking the officers and agents, “What did I do?” according to the defense filing.

Also, when court officers reviewed Heuermann’s property after his arrest, he allegedly said of his $6,000 watch, “I guess I won’t be needing that,” according to the court filing.

Defense attorney Danielle Coysh wrote that the statements “were involuntarily made and may not be used in evidence against the defendant.”

The defense is also seeking to suppress evidence seized from Heuermann’s home, office, cars and a rented storage unit, along with DNA evidence. The judge has already denied an attempt by Heuermann to exclude DNA, but now the defense argued the DNA evidence was obtained through an unreasonable search of a Manhattan garbage can, where investigators said they discovered discarded pizza crust that links Heuermann to the murders.

In the same filing, Heuermann’s attorneys are seeking to dismiss the murder charge for the 1993 death of Sandra Costilla. 

Prosecutors linked Heuermann to a hair lifted from Costilla’s shirt, but the defense calls that insufficient.

“This evidence, even if accepted as true, does not establish that Mr. Heuermann killed Sandra Costilla, nor that he acted with the intent to cause her death,” Coysh said. “The prosecution presented no eyewitness testimony, surveillance footage, digital evidence, phone records, fingerprint impressions, confession, or murder weapon linking Rex A. Heuermann to this crime.”’

The judge gave the Suffolk County district attorney’s office until March to respond to the defense’s requests.

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(NEW YORK) — Eric Adams may no longer be mayor of New York City, but the alleged corruption in his administration is extending beyond his time in City Hall.

On Tuesday, federal prosecutors charged Tony Herbert, a former official in the Office of the Mayor, with bribery in connection with two separate pay-to-play schemes.

Herbert was arrested Tuesday morning and due in court later in the day for arraignment.

In the first alleged scheme, the indictment said Herbert solicited and received $11,000  in cash from a security company executive in exchange for pressuring other city officials to give the company security contracts at public housing projects.

In the second, the indictment said Herbert took $5,000 in kickbacks from the director of a funeral home in exchange for approving financial assistance for burial services for low-income families.

“To prevent these schemes from coming to light, Anthony Herbert, the defendant, filed false financial disclosure forms that omitted his receipt of thousands of dollars from both the Security Company Executive and the Funeral Home Director,” the indictment said.

Federal prosecutors said Herbert allegedly abused positions he held from 2022 to 2025 in both the Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit and as citywide public housing liaison.

The indictment quoted Herbert allegedly telling the security executive, “This is what we do, bro. This is what we do. I mean it’s, ain’t nobody gonna do it for us.”

Herbert is charged with bribery, honest services wire fraud, extortion under color of official right, federal program fraud and wire fraud.

“New Yorkers deserve honest and competent public officials,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. “As alleged, at a time when Anthony Herbert was serving as City Hall’s liaison to the City’s public housing residents, he engaged in blatant pay-to-play schemes to enrich himself.”

In addition to the pay-to-play schemes, Herbert is charged with submitting a fraudulent loan application for a purported baked good business to obtain a $20,000 loan under the COVID-era Paycheck Protection Program.

Adams was indicted in October 2024 on federal corruption charges, to which he pleaded not guilty. His case was dismissed in April and he later dropped his reelection bid.

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