Noem confirms Ice is processing Kilmar Ábrego García for deportation
In a statement, following Kilmar Ábrego García’s detention today, Department of Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem said that he is being processed for deportation, but didn’t confirm where he would be sent.
She also repeated several unfounded claims about Ábrego:
President Trump is not going to allow this illegal alien, who is an MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser, and child predator to terrorize American citizens any longer.
Key events
Asked whether the Pentagon was preparing for military deployment to Chicago, Trump said they’re ready to go anywhere on short notice to crack down on crime.
We can go anywhere on less than 24 hours notice.
Trump claims people say ‘maybe we’d like a dictator’ – but insists he isn’t one
In comments made in the Oval Office earlier, Donald Trump claimed that some people think they might “like a dictator” – but insisted that he isn’t one.
Referring to critics of his deployment of the national guard to Washington DC and his threats to send the troops to Chicago, the president said:
They say, ‘We don’t need him. Freedom. Freedom. He’s a dictator. He’s a dictator.’
A lot of people are saying, ‘Maybe we’d like a dictator.’ I don’t like a dictator. I’m not a dictator. I’m a man with great common sense, and I’m a smart person.
And when I see what’s happened to our cities, and then you send in troops. Instead of being praised, they’re saying, ‘You’re trying to take over the Republic.’ These people are sick.
He said that, “in a certain way, we should wait to be asked” to bring in troops, but reflecting on the impact of his sending national guard into Los Angeles earlier this summer, he added:
But I think people should want us to be there, because otherwise all they’ll do is complain as we do our job. So we’ll have to think about that.
Trump signs order to criminally charge those who burn US flag in protest
Joseph Gedeon
Donald Trump signed an executive order this morning instructing federal prosecutors to pursue criminal charges against individuals who burn American flags during protests.
The order tells the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, to look at cases where people burned flags and see if they can be charged with other crimes like disturbing the peace or breaking environmental laws.
It’s an attempt by Trump to go around a supreme court decision from 1989, when the court ruled 5-4 in Texas v Johnson that destroying the flag is protected political expression under the first amendment.
That court ruling threw out flag-burning laws in 48 states and made it clear that people have the right to burn flags as a way to express their political views.
“All over the country they’re burning flags,” Trump said in the Oval Office a short while ago when he signed the order. “All of over the world they burn the American flag, and as you know, through a very sad court, I guess it was a 5-4 decision, they called it freedom of speech.
“But when you burn the American flag, it incites riots, at levels we’ve never seen before,” he added.
Still, Trump has long advocated for criminalizing flag burning. In 2016, he posted on social media: “Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag – if they do, there must be consequences – perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!”
Most Americans tend to agree with Trump on this issue. Polling conducted by YouGov in 2020 showed nearly half of Americans support making flag destruction illegal, while about one-third believe it’s permissible. An updated YouGov survey from September 2023 found that 59% of Americans now consider burning an American flag during protests to be “never” acceptable.
US CDC taps vaccine skeptic to lead Covid-19 task force
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has chosen Retsef Levi, a member of its key vaccine panel, to lead its Covid-19 immunization task force, a spokesperson for the health department told Reuters.
Levi had critiqued mRNA vaccines in the past, spreading misinformation that they can cause serious harm and death, especially among children, and called for their immediate withdrawal.
Levi did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Trump signs executive order to end cashless bail in DC
Donald Trump is signing executive orders around ending cashless bail in the nation’s capital. Trump is claiming that this is possible due to his takeover of the city’s police force, citing a public safety emergency.
One of the orders directs the attorney general to identify jurisdictions across the country with cashless bail policies and withhold or revoke federal funds and grants. The president points to Illinois’s policy and spends some time undermining the governor, JB Pritzker: “They threw him out of the family business, and he becomes governor. Now he wants to run for president. I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
Trump repeats false claims about DC homicides, says Congress has agreed to ‘beautification’ funds
The president has repeated inaccurate claims that DC was the most dangerous city in the country until the federal takeover of the DC police and deployment of the national guard.
Trump also says that the 11 days without any murders in the capital is “the first time that’s taken place in years”. In fact, DC experienced a streak without any homicides, that lasted more than two weeks, in March of this year.
The president also said that Congress has apparently said “they’ll give us whatever money is needed to fix up the capital,” referring to his request for billions of dollars to continue his “beautification” project. On Friday, Trump said he’d spoken to top congressional Republicans about the funding request.
Donald Trump is now speaking in the Oval Office, and is about to sign executive orders. We’ll bring you the latest here.
Illinois Democrats slam Trump’s ‘illegal’ plans to send national guard to Chicago
Joseph Gedeon
Democratic leaders across Illinois and Congress are condemning Donald Trump’s reported plans to send national guard troops to Chicago, denouncing what they call an unprecedented abuse of presidential power.
The Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, is set to hold a news conference alongside the state’s attorney general, Kwame Raoul, later on Monday to formally oppose any federal troop deployment in the city.
Pentagon sources confirmed to news outlets that planning is actively under way for the operation, though no final decision has been announced. Pentagon officials also told Fox News ahead of the weekend that up to 1,700 national guard personnel are prepared to mobilise across 19 predominantly Republican states from August to mid-November to support immigration enforcement operations.
Chicago’s mayor, Brandon Johnson, said the targeting of Chicago was “the most flagrant violation of our constitution in the 21st century” and promised court battles if troops arrive. Johnson also said his office received no direct communication from the White House regarding the reported plans.
We’ll hear from Donald Trump shortly, as he signs executive orders.
Ahead of that, the president has been posting on Truth Social, covering several different bases.
On the federal government’s 10% stake in Intel, Trump said that he will make “deals like that” for the US “all day long”.
He also offered a vague preface of what he hopes to talk about at his meeting with the South Korean president Lee Jae-Myung in a few hours:
“WHAT IS GOING ON IN SOUTH KOREA? Seems like a Purge or Revolution. We can’t have that and do business there,” Trump said, possibly referring to the investigation and trial of former South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol on insurrection charges.
And earlier, Trump spent time criticising Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson for his pushing back against the president’s threats to send national guard troops to the Windy City.
Noem confirms Ice is processing Kilmar Ábrego García for deportation
In a statement, following Kilmar Ábrego García’s detention today, Department of Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem said that he is being processed for deportation, but didn’t confirm where he would be sent.
She also repeated several unfounded claims about Ábrego:
President Trump is not going to allow this illegal alien, who is an MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser, and child predator to terrorize American citizens any longer.
DC immigration crackdown causes fear among parents as school year starts
Kira Lerner
Early on Tuesday morning, as parents went to drop off their young children at a bilingual childcare center in north-west Washington DC, they received a message from the administrator saying that unmarked cars were parked directly outside.
Shortly after 8am, federal agents in tactical vests arrested two people unaffiliated with the center, the administrator said.
“While these activities are not connected to our program, we are closely monitoring the situation and taking extra precautions to ensure everyone feels safe entering and leaving the building,” read the message to parents, reviewed by the Guardian.
Foram Mehta, whose son attends the daycare, said she had feared immigration raids there for months, but her fears escalated when Donald Trump sent national guard troops and federal agents to Washington two weeks ago. She said she was concerned about her own safety as a brown person, even though she’s an immigrant in the country lawfully, and also worries for her undocumented neighbors.
In a city already upended by the second Trump administration’s mass firings of government workers, Trump’s decision to take over the city’s police force, send thousands of federal agents to Washington, and ramp up immigration enforcement has left many residents on edge and grappling with how to go about their lives in a city that no longer feels safe. The return to school for most public schools on Monday has cast that in sharp relief.
US attorney general touts more than 1,000 arrests in DC
Attorney general Pam Bondi said today that there have been 1,007 arrests in DC since the beginning of the federal law enforcement surge earlier this month.
She said that on Sunday night alone there were 86 arrests, which included the apprehension of a suspected member of the Tren de Aragua gang.
Following up from my last post, Kilmar Ábrego García’s lawyers have filed a federal lawsuit in Maryland.
At a press conference outside the Ice facility in Baltimore, where Ábrego was detained, his lawyer said this would be to challenge any planned deportation to Uganda.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia taken into Ice custody after he turns himself in
Kilmar Ábrego García, who was wrongly deported to El Salvador earlier this year and released just days ago from criminal custody in Tennessee, has been taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) custody in Baltimore.
Ábrego turned himself into the Ice field office today, after the Trump administration vowed to detain him if he was released from criminal custody. He’s currently awaiting trial on human smuggling charges, and allegations that he is a member of the notorious MS-13 gang.
“To me, happiness is being with my family, and being able to spend simple memories with them,” he said to throngs of supporters outside the Ice facility earlier. “Those moments will continue to give me hope, to continue in this fight.”
US immigration officials said they intend to deport Ábrego to Uganda, after he declined an offer to be deported to Costa Rica in exchange for remaining in jail and pleading guilty to human smuggling charges, according to a Saturday court filing.
Ábrego declined to extend his stay in jail and was released on Friday to await trial in Maryland with his family. Later that day, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) notified his attorneys that he would be deported to Uganda and should report to immigration authorities on Monday.
Ice also directed Ábrego to report to its Baltimore office on Monday, according to records posted online.
We can expect to hear from the president at least a couple of times today. At 10am ET, he’ll sign executive orders in the Oval Office. Then he’ll welcome the president of South Korea, Lee Jae Myung, to the White House at noon ET for a bilateral meeting.
Michael Sainato
A proposed mega-merger of two of the largest railroad companies in the US will hurt jobs, raise costs for consumers and increase the risk of more catastrophic train crashes, according to workers and unions.
Union Pacific proposed a $85bn deal to buy Norfolk Southern last month, which would create the first transcontinental railroad network in the US.
As executives at Union Pacific seek approval from federal regulators the Surface Transportation Board, union leaders warn the deal heightens fears around safety – two years after the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in East Palestine, Ohio, resulted in the release of plumes of toxic chemicals.
“The entirety of the workers” is against the merger, claimed John Samuelsen, the president of the Transport Workers Union. “We’re hoping that the stakeholders in DC that are making determinations are going to listen and understand that when something like East Palestine happens, the chances of that happening under a mammothly merged new entity become greater and greater,” he said.
“Anything that empowers the freight rail carriers makes them more profitable and just increases the levels of power that they can press is dangerous for workers, and actually dangerous for everybody,” Samuelsen added. “They’re already an incredibly difficult employer to deal with. And if they’re twice as big, they’ll be twice as difficult to deal with, and they’re going to move to reduce headcount.”
The two firms expect their merger to create an “annualized synergy opportunity” worth $2.75bn. Samuelsen cited such savings cannot be achieved without reducing the workforce, a longstanding issue in the railroad industry.
