Trump administration issues directive requiring green card applicants to apply outside the US
The U.S. Department Of Homeland Security logo is displayed at a Citizenship and Immigration Services office on January 16, 2026 in San Diego, CA. (Kevin Carter/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration on Friday issued a sweeping policy directive requiring most temporary visa holders and humanitarian parolees living in the U.S. to return to their home countries to apply for and complete their green card applications.
“We’re returning to the original intent of the law to ensure aliens navigate our nation’s immigration system properly,” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesperson Zach Kahler said in a statement. “From now on, an alien who is in the U.S. temporarily and wants a Green Card must return to their home country to apply, except in extraordinary circumstances.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
American religious & Civil Rights leader and politician Reverend Jesse Jackson points as he speaks from a lectern at the headquarters of Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity), Chicago, Illinois, July 17, 1981. (Photo by Antonio Dickey/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Former President Barack Obama reflected on the late Rev. Jesse Jackson’s “legacy of hope” on Friday, telling thousands who gathered to celebrate the late civil rights leader’s life in Chicago that “we are living in a time when it can be hard to hope.”
“I’d always be grateful for that legacy of hope,” Obama said.
“We are living in a time when it can be hard to hope. Each day we wake up to some new assault on our democratic institutions, another setback to the idea of the rule of law, an offense to common decency. Every day you wake up to things you just didn’t think you think were possible,” Obama said.
“Each day, we’re told by those in high office to fear each other and to turn on each other, and that some Americans count more than others, and that some don’t even count at all,” Obama added.
“Everywhere we see greed and bigotry being celebrated and bullying and mockery masquerading as strength; we see science and expertise denigrated while ignorance and dishonesty and cruelty and corruption are reaping untold rewards every single day, we see that and it’s hard to hope,” Obama said.
Obama joined former Presidents Joe Biden and Bill Clinton, and former Vice President Kamala Harris, in delivering remarks at the House of Hope on Friday afternoon in Chicago to honor the legacy of the pioneering civil rights leader, politician and minister, who died on Feb. 17 at the age of 86. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former First Lady Jill Biden also attended the service, along with governors of the states of Illinois, Maryland, California and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.
Throughout his speech Obama characterized Jackson as a “messenger” of God, who repeatedly said, “send me,” as he faced and fought injustices thorough his life – from the Jim Crow South, to the modern civil rights movement.
“But this man Rev. Jesse Louis Jackson, inspires us to take a harder path, his voice calls on each of us to be heralds of change,” Obama said. “How fortunate we were that Jesse Jackson answered that call, what a great debt we owe to him. May God bless, Rev. Jackson. May he rest in eternal peace.”
Friday’s public “Celebration of Life” service will be followed by a private service on Saturday morning in Chicago. The services come after thousands paid their respects to Jackson as he lay in honor at the headquarters of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition in Chicago last week. He was also honored in his birth state of South Carolina on Monday, where he laid in state at the state house in Columbia.
“Jesse Jackson, Sr. marched beside Martin Luther King, Jr. for civil rights for all people. He traveled the world fighting economic and gender inequity. Until his last days, he fought for better healthcare, education, and peace in Chicago, Illinois, the United States, and beyond,” the Jackson family said in a statement on Wednesday. “I hope everyone who joins us to honor his legacy will also continue to champion these causes. That would be the best possible tribute and celebration they could offer.”
“Jesse Jackson, Sr. changed the United States — and the world,” the Jackson family said. “We are deeply honored to know there are people from every walk of life who want to join us to pay their respects.”
During his speech Obama reflected on Jackson’s historic campaigns for president in 1984 and 1988 and the rainbow coalition that he formed, forging the path forward for the Democratic Party. “He paved the road for so many others to follow,” Obama said. “And it was because of that path that he had laid, because of his courage, his audacity, that two decades later, a young black senator from Chicago, South Side would even be taken seriously as a candidate for the presidential nomination,” Obama added.
Harris also credited Jackson with forming the “rainbow coalition,” which became a defining force for the Democratic Party.
“Jackson reminded us that the many fights for freedom are interconnected,” she said.
“As he once said, when a barrier falls for one of the locked out, it opens the doors for all, and that is what he told me, and what he taught me, and how he inspired me,” she added.
Meanwhile, former President Bill Clinton, who awarded Jackson the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000, said the late reverand made him a “better president.”
“We did not always agree, but I’ll tell you one thing, he made me a better president, because he was always pushing on things, and he knew that change came from the outside in, and sometimes from the inside out,” Clinton said. “so he knew how to keep pushing and nagging and wearing you up.”
Jackson died after experiencing health issues over the past several years, including a battle with Parkinson’s disease and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a rare neurological disorder.
During his remarks on Friday, Biden called for Jackson’s memory to inspire Americans. “Let us be what Jesse called us to be, a margin of hope. Sometimes it’s the margin [that can] change people’s lives, to change community lives; lift up this country and light the path to being the nation Jesse always believed we can be,” he said.
Several of Jackson’s children also honored their father’s legacy during the service, reflecting on his 1984 and 1988 presidential runs and how he dedicated his career to advancing economic justice and building political power for Black Americans.
Jackson’s son Yusef Jackson, who is also President of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition — the civil rights organization that Jackson founded in the 90s, said on Friday that his father’s legacy will continue in the work.
“This type of work does not pass by blood. It passes by spirit,” he said. “Thus it is in his name that we have committed ourselves, that the rainbow coalition will continue.”
ABC News’ Sabina Ghebremedhin, Tierra Cunningham and Jeana Fermi contributed to this report.
A San Jose teen is facing criminal charges for allegedly manufacturing ghost guns in his bedroom. (Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office)
(SAN JOSE, Calif.) — An 18-year-old is facing charges for allegedly using a 3D printer to manufacture ghost guns in his bedroom, according to the Santa Clara District Attorney’s Office.
Jacob Reyes allegedly had two working 3D weapon printers and 27 finished or almost finished guns in his room in San Jose, California. Some of the guns were modified to act as machine guns, and ammunition was found in the home, according to the DA’s office.
All of the weapons seized from Reyes’ bedroom, except one, were manufactured using the printers, the DA’s office said.
Reyes was arraigned on Thursday on charges related to unlicensed manufacturing of firearms using a 3D printer and felony charges of possession of a machine gun, the DA’s office said.
If convicted, he faces prison time, according to the DA’s office.
“There is a black market of weapons thriving right under our noses,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement. “Once again, the DA’s investigators and their law enforcement partners have taken off the streets an arsenal of untraceable, illegal, and deadly weapons.”
A Frontier Airlines Airbus taxis to a gate at Denver International Airport (DEN) it times in history” due to the ongoing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown. (Photo by Al Drago/Getty Images)
(DENVER) — The fatal collision in which a Frontier Airlines jet struck a person on the runway at Denver International Airport was a suicide, according to the medical examiner.
The man, who died of multiple blunt and sharp force injuries, has been identified as 41-year-old Michael Mott.
Mott was scientifically identified and police said they are talking to friends and family to better understand what had been going on in his life, the medical examiner said at a press conference Tuesday.
Mott was not an airport employee and no vehicle or bicycle was found nearby. Investigators are still trying to understand what he was doing in the area, according to the medical examiner.
The runway where the incident occurred is about 2 miles away from the terminal and is very remote. Police have searched nearby farmland for any notes or items from him, but have not found anything, according to the medical examiner.
Denver International Airport officials said they have had fence jumpers before, but they are typically caught rather quickly. The airport got an intrusion alarm alert on Friday, but when they looked, they saw a pack of deer, which is common in the area. They could not see Mott, officials said.
It took 15 seconds for Mott to jump over the 8-foot fence with barbed wire. It took two minutes from that first moment for him to reach the runway and be hit, according to officials.
If you or someone you care about needs to talk, contact the free National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at 1-800-273-8255.
