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.
Former Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona joins supporters of the Department of Education workers during a clap-out event in front of the Department of Education building in Washington D..C., March 28, 2025. Via Arthur Jones II/ABC News.
(WASHINGTON) — Dozens of emotional Department of Education employees took part in a final “clap-out” in Washington, D.C., after losing jobs amid the Trump administration’s agency restructuring.
The administration slashed about 50% of the department’s workforce as part of President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon’s strategy to abolish the department and send education decisions to the states.
The departing civil servants, who have either been terminated, retired or voluntarily bought out, have each been given about 30 minutes to retrieve their belongings this week — before exiting the building to clapping colleagues who were screaming “thank you!” outside the offices in Washington, D.C.
The last education chief, former Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, visited his old office to celebrate employees affected by the workforce shakeup.
Clapping, shaking hands and cheering them along, Cardona told the civil servants, “Thank you for your service.”
“These public servants that are walking out right now deserve a thank you. They deserve respect. They’ve worked hard — not just during the time that I served as secretary but before that,” Cardona, wearing plain clothes, told reporters in a brief statement outside agency headquarters.
“I’m here, for the staff here, to say thank you,” he added.
DeNeen Ripley shook Cardona’s hand and told him her entire transportation division was eliminated. Ripley has worked at the department over 30 years and said she is taking an early retirement now.
“It feels like a death,” Ripley told ABC News. “It feels like a bad divorce of sorts, it just feels heartbreaking.”
Despite the massive overhaul and almost 2,000 employees lost, McMahon has stressed the Department of Education will continue to administer its statutory functions that students from disadvantaged backgrounds rely on, including grants, formula funding and loans.
“The president made clear today that none of the funding will stop for these [programs],” McMahon told ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott after Trump’s executive order signing last week, which directed McMahon to use all necessary steps permitted under the law to abolish the agency she’s been tapped to lead.
“I think it is his hope that even more funding could go to the states. There will be more opportunity for it. And, you know, he means what he says. And so there’s not going to be any defunding or reduction in funding,” she added.
A dream job “snatched”
Washington, D.C., native Leondra Richardson and a crowd of emotional colleagues across the department left the near-defunct agency’s headquarters for the final time Friday.
“It was a dream job,” Richardson told ABC News. “And that dream was snatched from me by the new administration.”
Richardson said her entire office, the Office of the Chief Data Officer, was folded earlier this month by the “reduction in force” implemented on March 11.
Sydney Leiher, a midlevel career public servant, said she felt forced out and doesn’t know what’s next for her. After leaving with her belongings, including a beach volleyball and Trader Joe’s sack, Leiher stressed the reforms are not only unjustified but also unpopular.
“It’s definitely emotional,” Leiher said, holding back tears. “I feel bad for all of the people in the Chief Information Office who have to, like, gather all of our laptops and equipment — like, they don’t want to be doing this either.
“It’s just a really sad day. But seeing the support out here from all of other Department of ED staff and then also, like, other federal agencies and then the public just makes it shows to me that, like, people do not want this, and like, this is not popular, and this shouldn’t be happening,” Leiher added.
Richardson and Leiher both worked in the same division, the OCDO, that was shuttered. Without the office, Richardson said there will hardly be anyone left at the federal level to collect data to show student improvements or delays.
The Trump administration has claimed it is making cuts to rid the government of bureaucratic bloat, but Richardson told ABC News her IT job was not policy based or bureaucratic. Leiher, an analyst who worked on artificial intelligence machine learning, told ABC News that she took this job after returning from the Peace Corps. She added that civil service work shouldn’t be about politics.
“I believe in public service,” Leiher said. “I believe in a nonpartisan civil service. We’re important, we matter.”
Meanwhile, departing civil servants such as Dr. Jason Cottrell, a data coordinator in the Office of Postsecondary Education, the largest grant-making division in the department, said he believes students are being put in jeopardy as the Department of Education is diminished.
“Our nation’s students are going to suffer,” Cottrell said. “I think of the doctoral students that are, you know, trying to do research on cancer or, you know, learning or whatever it may be, and without the funds to support them, they are going to — it’s going to be hard for them to succeed without those funds, and we’re not going to gain that knowledge that we need.”
The farewell ceremony at the department comes as “clap-outs” are set to continue across the country next week at regional offices in places such as Cleveland, Dallas and San Francisco. But these moments hit especially close to home for Richardson, who detailed how she overcame a teenage pregnancy while growing up east of the river in the Southeast quadrant of the city.
She said it’s so close yet so “far away” from the federal government.
“I hate that I can’t be a voice or inspiration to the young girls growing up in Southeast D.C. that I wanted to inspire,” Richardson said, adding that she “wanted to give a chance to, you know, show that there’s another way and you can make it forward.”
“You can make a big impact and a big difference in the country coming from where we from,” she said.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump is set to address a joint session of Congress on Tuesday — his first speech to Congress of his second term.
His speech will be his fifth public address before a joint session of Congress, and comes at a time when Republicans hold a trifecta with a GOP president and majorities in both the House and the Senate.
Here’s what you need to know about the speech and how to watch.
When is it?
Trump will address a joint session of Congress at the Capitol on Tuesday, March 4, at 9 p.m. ET (8 p.m. CT; 6 p.m. PT).
House Speaker Mike Johnson invited Trump to deliver the joint address to Congress last month so that Trump could share his “America First vision for our legislative future,” the speaker wrote in his invitation.
How can I watch and stream?
ABC News will have special coverage of Trump’s speech from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET on ABC and ABC News Live, which streams on Disney+, Hulu and other digital platforms as well.
“World News Tonight” anchor and managing editor David Muir will lead the coverage and be joined by ABC News Live “Prime” anchor and “World News Tonight” Sunday anchor Linsey Davis, chief Washington correspondent and “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl, chief global affairs correspondent and “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz, chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce, chief justice correspondent Pierre Thomas, chief business, economics and technology correspondent Rebecca Jarvis, senior political correspondent Rachel Scott, national correspondent Mireya Villarreal and multiplatform reporter Jay O’Brien.
ABC News Digital will have wall-to-wall coverage, including a live blog with up-to-the-minute commentary on the major themes of the address and response from ABC News’ team of experts, notable moments and key takeaways from the evening, and a fact check. 538 will have data-driven previews and reactions to the address, too.
What is an address to the joint session of Congress?
Since this speech will be Trump’s first during his second term, it’s not referred to as a “State of the Union” — although both the address to the joint session and State of the Union are effectively the same.
The address is called the State of the Union for the years that don’t include the president’s inauguration.
The speech is a presidential duty mandated in the Constitution, which calls for the president “from time to time to give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union.”
What is Trump expected to say?
Trump, like other presidents, will take the opportunity to discuss his agenda.
Since taking office, Trump has been aggressive in pushing his priorities, which include curbing what he sees as wasteful government spending through federal job cuts.
He will likely discuss those efforts as well as his goals with immigration, foreign policy and the economy.
On Monday morning, Trump posted on his social media network that the speech will be “big” and he will “tell it like it is.”
Who will be there?
Trump’s speech will bring all branches of government together as he is joined by members of Congress and Supreme Court justices.
The speaker of the House and the vice president sit behind the president while he speaks. This speech will mark the first time Vice President JD Vance will be seated behind Trump for the address. During his previous administration, former Vice President Mike Pence was seated behind him.
During his last State of the Union address in 2020, then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi memorably ripped up a copy of Trump’s speech just as he finished.
Invited guests also attend the event. The White House and members of Congress typically invite guests with specific backgrounds and stories that are important to them both personally and politically — people they want to thank, to honor or even to highlight a particular issue.
The White House has not yet released its list of invited guests.
Who is speaking for the Democratic Party?
Each year, the opposing party has a televised response to the president’s message. This year, Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin will deliver the Democratic response following Trump’s address to Congress.
“The public expects leaders to level with them on what’s actually happening in our country. From our economic security to our national security, we’ve got to chart a way forward that actually improves people’s lives in the country we all love, and I’m looking forward to laying that out,” Slotkin, a freshman senator, said in a statement.
Slotkin is a political survivor who won her Senate seat in November by less than 20,000 votes, even though Trump carried the state on the presidential level.
The former CIA analyst and Pentagon official also served two terms in the House, after flipping a suburban Detroit seat in 2018. Trump won her district by 4 points in 2016 and lost it by .5 points in 2020.
Democratic Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, will deliver the Spanish language response to Trump. He’s the first Dominican American — and formerly undocumented immigrant — to serve in Congress.
ABC News’ Benjamin Siegel contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — A top official leading the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney said she was fired from her post one day after refusing to recommend that actor Mel Gibson’s access to firearms be restored, according to a new interview and a statement provided to ABC News on Tuesday.
In an interview with the New York Times, pardon attorney Elizabeth Oyer said the request to add Gibson’s name to a memo of people who should have their gun rights restored came at the last minute, after attorneys for Gibson had written directly to senior DOJ officials citing a recent special appointment he had received from President Donald Trump.
After she refused, Oyer said she received a call from a senior official in Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s office who repeatedly pressed her to reconsider, citing Gibson’s close personal relationship with Trump.
On Friday, Oyer posted on LinkedIn a termination letter from Blanche, which did not include any justification for her firing.
“Unfortunately, experienced professionals throughout the Department are afraid to voice their opinions because dissent is being punished,” Oyer said in a statement to ABC News. “Decisions are being made based on relationships and loyalty, not based on facts or expertise or sound analysis, which is very alarming given what is at stake is our public safety.”
A DOJ official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, disputed Oyer’s account, telling ABC News the spat over Gibson’s gun rights was not a factor in removal.
Gibson’s access to guns is prohibited due to a 2011 “no contest” plea he entered to a misdemeanor charge of battering his former girlfriend.
Oyer, who has led the Office of the Pardon Attorney since 2022, told the New York Times she was recently put on a working group tasked with assembling a list of candidates who could have their gun rights restored. After assembling a list that was then circulated to Blanche’s office, she was instructed to add Gibson’s name, a development that she said was troubling.
“Giving guns back to domestic abusers is a serious matter that, in my view, is not something that I could recommend lightly because there are real consequences that flow from people who have a history of domestic violence being in possession of firearms,” Oyer said.
It is not clear whether the recommendation will move forward now that Oyer has been removed. Gibson notably was seen just this weekend alongside FBI Director Kash Patel attending a UFC fight in Las Vegas.
A representative for Gibson did not respond to a request for comment.
