US immigration judge allows Trump administration to move forward with deportation of Mahmoud Khalil
A US immigration judge in Louisiana has ruled that the Trump administration can proceed with the deportation of Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested in New York City last month, Reuters reports.
We’ll bring you more on this as we get it.
Key events
Closing Summary
Our live coverage is ending now. In the meantime, you can find all of our live US politics coverage here. Here is a summary of the key developments from today:
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Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate and Palestinian organizer, is eligible to be deported from the United States, an immigration judge ruled on Friday during a contentious hearing at a remote court in central Louisiana. The decision sides with the Trump administration’s claim that a short memo written by secretary of state Marco Rubio, which stated Khalil’s “beliefs and associations” were counter to foreign policy interests, is sufficient evidence to remove a lawful permanent resident from the United States. Khalil will appeal his case to the board of immigration appeals, his attorney said at a New Jersey hearing later in the day.
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A federal judge said it is “extremely troubling” that the Trump administration failed on Friday to comply with a court order to provide details on the status of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whom it illegally deported to El Salvador in March. The governments of the United States and El Salvador have subjected more than 200 Venezuelan nationals to enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention, according to Human Rights Watch.
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The Department of Homeland Security ended temporary protected status for about 9,000 Afghans living in the United States. In a statement released today, the agency said secretary Kristi Noem had decided to terminate the protected status, usually granted to people from countries affected by war or disasters, because she believed the conditions in Afghanistan no longer met that definition.
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Democratic senators have called for an investigation to determine whether Donald Trump, any members of his cabinet, or other donors, insiders, and administration officials engaged in insider trading, market manipulation, or other securities laws violations. Elizabeth Warren, minority leader Chuck Schumer and colleagues sent a letter to the chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) asking its chair to find out. The US president posted on social media that it was “a great time to buy” just hours before abruptly pausing his tariff impositions for most countries on Wednesday.
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Trump’s justice department has upended a historic civil rights case into environmental racism against a majority-Black community in Alabama, on the grounds that it violates an executive order banning federal agencies from pursuing programs or initiatives related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), including those relating to environmental justice.
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Luigi Mangione’s lawyers asked a judge to prevent the US government from seeking the death penalty, calling it “politically motivated”. Mangione is accused of shooting and killing the CEO of UnitedHealth Group’s insurance division, in New York last year.
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The Trump administration is planning to slash budgets at both the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (Noaa) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa), according to internal budget documents, taking aim specifically at programs that study impacts from the climate crisis.
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The state department is ordering staff to report colleagues for instances of “anti-Christian bias” during the Biden administration, part of Trump’s aggressive push to reshape government policy on religious expression in his first months back in office.
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A federal judge ruled in favor of the Trump administration, allowing immigration agents to continue entering houses of worship for now. The decision came as part of a lawsuit over a new Department of Homeland Security policy allowing agents access to “sensitive areas” like schools and churches. In related news, Los Angeles unified school district superintendent, Alberto Carvalho, has confirmed that immigration officials attempted to enter two Los Angeles elementary schools this week.
The Social Security Administration has called earlier reporting that it will transition all of its public communication exclusively to X “false”. The agency shared a two sentence statement on X in response to a Wired magazine article which broke the news of the planned changes at the administration.
“This is false. Social Security will continue to communicate through any and all mediums,” it said.
Defense contractors have proposed a plan to the White House to transport immigrants to a maximum security prison in El Salvador where part of the prison will be designated as US territory, Politico reports. The proposal is being spearheaded by former Blackwater executive Erik Prince who has suggested it as a way to skirt US immigration laws. The outlet adds that it’s unclear how seriously the White House is considering the plan.
As Veterans Affairs employees prepare to return-to-office as early as Monday, NPR reports that therapists have been told to tell patients they “cannot guarantee complete confidentiality” due to office sharing requirements.
Many of the department’s therapists were hired during the pandemic to provide telehealth services, meaning there is not sufficient office space for their mandatory return-to-office.
Speaking at the Food and Drug Administration’s headquarters today, health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr called the agency a “sock puppet” for industry and warned of a “deep state”. A week after cutting 10,000 jobs from the Department of Health and Human Services, he added that his aim was to support FDA employees.
“I really want to empower you,” Kennedy said, adding that public health requires “an inspired and engaged workforce. And you’re the leaders in that workforce.”
Three more international students have had their visas revoked, this time at Montana State University. The news comes as the American Immigration Lawyers Association reports that the Department of Homeland Security has terminated the academic records of at least 4,700 international students and scholars.
In an email to the student body today, Montana State University president Waded Cruzado wrote that Homeland Security had revoked the visas of three students enrolled there, KBZK reports.
Citing incoming American Immigration Lawyers Association president Jeff Joseph, the Washington Post reports that more than 4,700 international students or scholars have had their records deleted in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (Sevis). The system flags students who are not in compliance with their student visa requirements to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and could put them at risk for detention or deportation.
Donald Trump has issued a national security memo directing the secretary of defense and other cabinet officials to launch a military mission aimed at “sealing the southern border of the United States and repelling invasions”.
The memo, which is addressed to the secretaries of defense, interior, agriculture and homeland security, directs the interior department to allow the defense department to construct military installations and perform other military activities on the Roosevelt Reservation, a 60-ft wide strip of land along the US side of the US-Mexico border.
A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from freezing federal funds for the state of Maine in response to the state’s policies allowing transgender girls to compete in school sports.
In a 70-page order, US district judge John A Woodcock ordered the US Department of Agriculture to “immediately unfreeze and release to the state of Maine any federal funding that they have frozen or failed or refused to pay because of the State’s alleged failure to comply with the requirements of Title IX”.
Last week, agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins sent a letter to Maine governor Janet Mills “freezing Maine’s federal funds for certain administrative and technological functions in schools”, saying the state had violated the Trump-administration’s Title IX guidance on transgender students.
DoJ terminates environmental racism case against majority-Black community in Alabama
Nina Lakhani
Trump’s justice department has upended a historic civil rights case into environmental racism against a majority-Black community in Alabama, on the grounds that it violates an executive order banning federal agencies from pursuing programs or initiatives related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), including those relating to environmental justice.
The DoJ announced on Friday that it is terminating the environmental justice settlement deal reached in 2023, requiring Alabama’s health agencies to provide Lowndes county residents with adequate sanitation and wastewater disposal facilities – after decades of unlawful and discriminatory neglect which had led to multiple generations dealing with raw sewage, infectious diseases and other public health hazards.
“The DOJ will no longer push ‘environmental justice’ as viewed through a distorting, DEI lens,” said assistant attorney general Harmeet K Dhillon of the justice department’s civil rights division. “President Trump made it clear: Americans deserve a government committed to serving every individual with dignity and respect, and to expending taxpayer resources in accordance with the national interest, not arbitrary criteria.”
In fact, environmental justice is about how ecological hazards and deadly pollutants like lead, emissions from heavy manufacturing plants and highways are disproportionately located in communities of color, on Indigenous lands and low-income neighborhoods. Environmental justice work is not about DEI, it is about tackling systemic racism and other structural inequalities that have done untold health harms to Black, brown and Indigenous communities in the US.
The Social Security Administration will transition all of its public communication exclusively to X, the Elon Musk-owned social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Facing significant staffing cuts, the administration will cease issuing press releases or communicating with journalists.
“The agency will be using X to communicate to the press and the public,” Linda Kerr-Davis, SSA midwest-west regional commissioner told employees in a call Thursday, according to Federal News Network (FNN). “If you’re used to getting press releases and Dear Colleague letters, you might want to subscribe to the official SSA X account, so you can stay up to date with agency news.”
“I know this probably sounds very foreign to you – it did to me as well – and not what we are used to, but we are in different times now,” she added.
The decision comes as federal agencies have significantly reduced their staffing, following the directives of the Musk-led “department of government efficiency”, and as the Trump administration is limiting its contact with reporters. In February, the administration barred the Associated Press from the Oval Office over the outlets decision to use the term “Gulf of Mexico” instead of Trump’s preferred “Gulf of America”. The Associated Press sued to regain access to the White House press pool and a federal judge ruled in its favor this week.
A federal judge has ruled in favor of the Trump administration, allowing immigration agents to continue entering houses of worship for now.
US district judge Dabney Friedrich declined to grant a preliminary injunction to a coalition of Christian and Jewish groups that had sued over a new Department of Homeland Security policy allowing agents access to “sensitive areas” like schools and churches. The judge found that the groups lack standing since few immigration enforcement actions have occurred at houses of worship to date.
In related news, Los Angeles unified school district superintendent, Alberto Carvalho, has confirmed that immigration officials attempted to enter two Los Angeles elementary schools this week:
