Talk of the Town
(WASHINGTON) — The House on Thursday failed to pass a last-minute, short-term extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which is set to expire on Friday.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Trump administration can turn away asylum seekers who approach ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border, reversing a lower court decision that the policy likely violates federal law and international treaties.
“We hold that an alien who is standing in Mexico does not ‘arrive in the United States’ by attempting, and failing, to set foot in the country,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the court’s conservative majority. “An alien ‘arrives in the United States’ only when he crosses the border.”
The 6-3 decision effectively allows border agents to shut the door to migrants fleeing violence and persecution, and deny them even the chance to seek refuge in the U.S.
Federal law says the opportunity to apply for asylum must be afforded to those who “arrive in” the country.
While the policy was voluntarily rescinded in 2021 after a surge of migrants had overwhelmed border crossings, the government now has the ability to reinstate it if necessary. Trump has so far invoked alternate legal authorities to support his current border crackdown.
“A running back does not arrive in the end zone when he reaches the 1-yard line,” Alito wrote. “A guest does not arrive in a house when he knocks on the front door. An army does not arrive in a city by encamping outside its walls. And a letter does not arrive in a mailbox while it remains in the mail carrier’s hand just inches away.”
In a dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, said her colleagues were distorting the procedures set out by Congress to protect vulnerable people.
“The Court today holds that the Executive Branch may circumvent all these mandatory procedures by having U.S. immigration officers stand at the border and physically block noncitizens from setting a foot onto U.S. soil. They may do so even if the asylum seeker is at the threshold of a port of entry designated to receive all noncitizens who seek entrance into the country,” she wrote. “Even if the asylum seeker is certain to be persecuted, or killed, if she is turned away.”
Sotomayor invoked the history of the MS St. Louis from World War II, when European Jews sailed across the Atlantic seeking safety in the U.S., only to be turned away and sent back, where most were killed in the Holocaust. Congress enacted the 1980 Refugee Act, in part, to address that “mistake” of the past.
“The consequences of today’s decision are predictable. More people will die. More people will attempt to cross the border illegally, and some will make it while others will not,” she wrote. “More people will turn back and be subjected to violence because of something they cannot or should not have to change about themselves, such as their race, religious, nationality, or political opinion.”
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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday is taking the first ride on the newly retrofitted Air Force One 747, which was donated by the Qatari royal family.
Trump, taking the retrofitted jet to North Dakota, touted it as “maybe the greatest commercial plane ever built.”
“I said to Boeing, ‘What’s the best one?’ They said this is the best plane ever built, and you’re going to have the privilege of flying it, and I have a privilege also of flying it,” Trump told reporters before boarding the jet — which is approximately 14 years old — at Joint Base Andrews.
ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce, who is traveling with Trump on his trip, asked him about the use of taxpayer dollars to modify the luxurious plane, which likely only will be used by him.
“Well, it cost very little relative to what it would cost if we did it a different way,” Trump said.
The Qatari-gifted jet worth $400 million raised questions from some lawmakers and ethics experts over the unprecedented foreign gift. But Trump on Wednesday gave credit to the Qatari government.
“Frankly, we couldn’t build a plane like this because we wouldn’t be willing to spend the kind of money necessary. They spent top dollar,” the president said.
The U.S. Air Force has been modifying the jet in Texas since September to meet the security, communications and other needs to transport the president. The Air Force had estimated it would cost less than $400 million to retrofit the gift.
The plane is to be used as the new Air Force One until shortly before Trump leaves office, at which time ownership of the plane will be transferred to the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation, sources familiar with the proposed arrangement have told ABC News.
Boeing was already contracted by the United State government to build a new fleet of jets that would serve as the next-generation Air Force One, expected to be delivered in 2028 around the time Trump leaves office.
Trump on Wednesday said the gifted plane was needed, citing the age of the past jet.
“Our Air Force One was 35, 36 years old, and it would be parked next to the new ones like this, and it really didn’t look appropriate for our country. So we’re very proud of this,” Trump said.
Trump is traveling to North Dakota to participate in a Freedom 250 Train Ride and Welcome Ceremony and to tour the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library before delivering remarks in Medora.
“I’m excited about the first flight. It’s something nobody’s ever seen anything like it, even you people, with all your experience and all of your talent, you will never see anything like this,” Trump said just before his departure. “So, they just completed it. They made it appropriate for a president, that means the security and all of the different bells and whistles they put on. Very complex stuff, but it’s really quite something, and this is a plane that the United States of America should have.”
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(WASHINGTON) — After drama and delay, House Republicans narrowly approved a blueprint for legislation to fund immigration enforcement agencies, the first step in the GOP’s plan to reopen the Department of Homeland Security.
The party-line vote, which was held open for more than five hours, was called at 10:39 p.m. on Wednesday after Speaker Mike Johnson and Republican leaders huddled with holdouts.
Reps. Harriet Hageman of Wyoming, Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Andy Harris of Maryland, Michael Cloud of Texas and Victoria Spartz of Indiana flipped their votes to yes after hours of discussion. Rep. Kevin Kiley of California, an Independent who conferences with Republicans, voted present.
The final vote was 215-211-1.
The budget resolution kicks off the drafting process of a bill that Republicans said would provide billions of dollars to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection for the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term.
Trump has set a June 1 deadline for Republicans to fund the immigration enforcement agencies.
Republicans are using reconciliation, a lengthy and complex process, to overcome Democratic opposition.
Democrats have said they won’t support funding for ICE and CBP without reforms to their operating procedures, after two American citizens in Minneapolis were fatally shot by federal agents earlier this year.
DHS has been shut down since mid-February, making it the longest shutdown in U.S. history.
The shooting at the White House Correspondents Association dinner at the Washington Hilton on Saturday rekindled the DHS funding fight. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the funding lapse a “national emergency.”
But it’s currently unclear when House Republican leaders plan to put a Senate-passed bill to fund the rest of DHS on the floor for a vote.
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