Thousands of protesters in Washington and locations across the country rallied Saturday to protest the Trump administration's policy of separating children from their families at the border. The largest event was held outside the White House. From Washington, VOA's Jill Craig has more.
Read More Thousands Protest Trump's Zero Tolerance Policy on Illegal Immigration : https://ift.tt/2tVcBJX
For evangelical Christian leaders like Jerry Falwell Jr., this is their political holy grail.
Like many religious conservatives in a position to know, the Liberty University president with close ties to the White House suspects that the Supreme Court vacancy President Donald Trump fills in the coming months will ultimately lead to the reversal of the landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade. But instead of celebrating publicly, some evangelical leaders are downplaying their fortune on an issue that has defined their movement for decades.
“What people don’t understand is that if you overturn Roe v. Wade, all that does is give the states the right to decide whether abortion is legal or illegal,” Falwell told The Associated Press in an interview. “My guess is that there’d probably be less than 20 states that would make abortion illegal if given that right.”
Falwell added: “In the ’70s, I don’t know how many states had abortion illegal before Roe v. Wade, but it won’t be near as many this time.”
The sentiment, echoed by evangelical leaders across the country this past week, underscores the delicate politics that surround a moment many religious conservatives have longed for. With the retirement of swing vote Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, Trump and his Republican allies in the Senate plan to install a conservative justice who could re-define the law of the land on some of the nation’s most explosive policy debates — none bigger than abortion.
And while these are the very best of times for the religious right, social conservatives risk a powerful backlash from their opponents if they cheer too loudly. Women’s groups have already raised the alarm for their constituents, particularly suburban women, who are poised to play an outsized role in the fight for the House majority this November.
Two-thirds of Americans do not want to see Roe v. Wade overturned, according to a poll released Friday by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. Among women of reproductive age, three out of four want the high court ruling left alone. The poll was conducted before Kennedy’s retirement was announced.
“The left is going to try very hard to say this is all about overturning Roe,” said Johnnie Moore, a Southern Baptist minister who was a co-chairman of the Trump campaign’s evangelical advisory board. The more significant shift on the high court, he said, would likely be the help given to conservatives in their fight for what they call religious freedom.
Tony Perkins, who leads the socially conservative Family Research Council, said abortion was simply “a factor” in evangelicals’ excitement over a more conservative Supreme Court. He suggested that public opinion was already shifting against abortion rights, although that’s not true of the Roe v. Wade ruling, which has become slightly more popular over time.
Perkins agreed with Moore that the broader push for religious freedom was a bigger conservative focus.
Many evangelicals, for example, have lashed out against Obama-era laws that required churches and other religious institutions to provide their employees with women’s reproductive services, including access to abortion and birth control. Others have rallied behind private business owners who faced legal repercussions after denying services to gay people.
Yet sweeping restrictions to abortion rights are certainly on the table, Moore noted.
“There is a high level of confidence within the community that overturning Roe is actually, finally possible,” Moore said. He added: “Evangelicals have never been more confident in the future of America than they are now. It’s just a fact.”
In Alabama, Tom Parker, a Republican associate justice on the state Supreme Court who is campaigning to become the state’s chief justice, explicitly raised the potential of sending cases to Washington that would lead to the overturning of key rulings, including Roe v. Wade.
“President Trump is just one appointment away from giving us a conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court,” Parker said in an interview on the radio program Wallbuilders Live. “And they are going to need cases that they can use to reverse those horrible decisions of the liberal majority in the past that have undermined the Constitution and really just abused our own personal rights.”
Despite Trump’s struggles with Christian values in his personal life at times, skeptical evangelical Christians lined up behind him in the 2016 election, and they remain one of his most loyal constituencies.
The president’s standing with white evangelical Christians hit an all-time high in April when 75 percent of evangelicals held a favorable view of Trump, according to a poll conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute.
The unlikely marriage between the thrice-married president and Christian conservatives has always been focused on Trump’s ability to re-shape the nation’s judicial branch.
On the day she endorsed candidate Trump in March 2016, the late iconic anti-abortion activist Phyllis Schlafly first asked him privately whether he would appoint more judges like the conservative Antonin Scalia, recalled Schlafly’s successor Ed Martin, who was in the room at the time. Trump promised he would.
The president followed through with the appointment of Neil Gorsuch less than a month after his inauguration, delighting religious conservatives nationwide. And the Trump White House, while disorganized in other areas, made its relationship with the religious right a priority.
The first private White House meeting between evangelical leaders and senior Trump officials came in the days after the Gorsuch nomination, said Moore, who was in attendance. He said the White House has hosted roughly two dozen similar meetings since then in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House.
A senior administration official such as Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump or Kellyanne Conway — if not Trump himself — has always been present, Moore added. Each meeting featured a detailed briefing on the administration’s push to fill judicial openings.
“The courts have been at the very center of the relationship,” Moore said.
And now, as the focus shifts toward the president’s next Supreme Court nomination, evangelical leaders who once held their noses and voted for Trump have little doubt he will pick someone who shares their conservative views on abortion, same-sex marriage and other social issues.
Falwell insisted only that Trump make his next selection from the list of prospective nominees he released before his election. All are believed to oppose the Roe v. Wade ruling.
Any deviation from the list, Falwell said, would be “a betrayal.” He noted, however, that he’s in weekly contact with the White House and has supreme confidence that the president will deliver.
“This is a vindication for the 80 percent of evangelicals who supported Trump. Many of them voted on this issue alone,” Falwell said. “Today’s a day that we as evangelicals, and really all average Americans, can say we told you so.”
Read More Evangelical Leaders Downplay Potential Roe v. Wade Reversal : https://ift.tt/2NbfqiI
As Americans debate the Trump administration’s hardened immigration policies, one group of citizens has first-hand experience with the process: the more than 43 million Americans who lawfully immigrated to the country.
VOA reporters in Los Angeles spoke with a range of immigrants from all around the world about the Trump administration’s policies, the treatment of children who enter the United States illegally with their families, and the rights of asylum seekers.
While many remain divided on the issues surrounding illegal immigration and Trump’s handling of it, these foreign-born citizens who make up some 14 percent of the U.S. population said legitimate refugees and asylum seekers should get the help they need.
VOA's Elizabeth Lee contributed to this report.
Fourteen percent of the U.S. population — almost 44 million people — are immigrants. Many are closely watching the immigrant crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, and have strong feelings about the Trump administration's hard line on immigration. Mike O'Sullivan reports from Los Angeles.
Read More US Immigrants Weigh in on Trump's Immigration Policy : https://ift.tt/2tWqSpQ
The U.S. ambassador to Estonia says he has resigned over frustrations with President Donald Trump’s comments about the European Union and the treatment of Washington’s European allies.
In a private Facebook message posted Friday, James D. Melville wrote: “For the President to say EU was ‘set up to take advantage of the United States, to attack our piggy bank,’ or that ‘NATO is as bad as NAFTA’ is not only factually wrong, but proves to me that it’s time to go.”
Melville is a senior U.S. career diplomat who has served as the American ambassador in the Baltic nation and NATO member of Estonia since 2015. He has served the State Department for 33 years.
The U.S. Embassy in Tallinn did not immediately comment.
The Trump administration says a judge’s ruling requiring the government to reunite migrant children and their families who were separated at the U.S. border could result in the children being detained longer than currently allowed.
“The government will not separate families but detain families together during the pendency [duration] of immigration proceedings when they are apprehended at or between ports of entry,” the Justice Department said in court filings Friday.
Families could expect to be detained for months or even years because of the thousands of immigration cases backlogged in the court system.
A federal court settlement known as the Flores Agreement does not allow detained minors to be held for more than 20 days.
A U.S. District Court judge ruled Tuesday in San Diego, California, that separated families had to be reunited within 30 days and children younger than 5 returned in two weeks.
“The rulings work together to permit detention of parents with their minor children with whom they are apprehended,” the government said, adding that an “amendment of the Flores Agreement is appropriate to address this issue.”
Officials say about 2,000 children are waiting to be reunited with their parents.
Many Americans have been outraged by the wrenching televised scenes of families being torn apart and children being placed in cages in warehouses.
On Saturday, demonstrations will be held across the country, including Washington to protest the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy on illegal immigration.
American political divisions are deepening, and so is the debate over acceptable political speech. Americans deeply value the constitutionally protected right to speak their mind, but are there limits? White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara explores the debate.
Read More Politicians, Supporters Increasingly Vitriolic Beyond Traditional Boundaries : https://ift.tt/2tFMKq5
Most of the primary elections in the U.S. are over, but a handful still remain in states such as Florida, Georgia and Wyoming. So campaigning by candidates from both parties, Democrat and Republican, continues as they seek support from voters to be elected as their party's candidate to run for office in the midterm elections in November. Mariia Prus looks at how candidates in primary elections go about seeking voter support. Joy Wagner narrates.
Read More Door-to-Door Campaigning a Feature in Primary Elections : https://ift.tt/2MuP9dW
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed energy security at a meeting with Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Khalid Al Falih on Friday in Washington, the department said.
No other details were provided in a department statement.
The United States has pushed for Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries to add to oil supply to counter the U.S. effort to isolate Iran through renewed sanctions.
Saudi Arabia, the biggest oil producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, said it wants to boost production to 11 million barrels a day to offset declining exports from Iran.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said on Friday a report by the Axios news website, that cited sources as saying President Donald Trump wanted the United States to withdraw from the World Trade Organization, was wrong.
"There's no breaking news here ... it's not right" Mnuchin told Fox Business Network, calling the report "fake news."
Axios reported earlier on Friday, citing people who were involved in discussions with the president, that Trump frequently told advisers he wanted the United States to quit the WTO, a move with potentially disastrous implications for global commerce.
"This is an exaggeration" Mnuchin said."The president has
been clear, with us and with others, he has concerns about the
WTO, he thinks there's aspects of it that are not fair, he
thinks that China and others have used it to their own
advantage, but we are focused on free trade. That's what we're
focused on - breaking down barriers."
One person who has discussed the subject with Trump, according to Axios, said the president frequently told advisers: "I don"t know why we"re in it. The WTO is designed by the rest of the world to screw the United States."
The 164-member WTO is the only international organization that deals with the rules of trade between countries and states its key purpose as opening trade "for the benefit of all."
A U.S. withdrawal from it would require an act of the U.S. Congress, and Trump was unlikely to persuade lawmakers to carry out his wish, the Axios report said.
"Sources with knowledge of the situation say the Trump administration will continue to call attention to various ways in which the U.S. encounters what some Trump advisers perceive is unfair and unbalanced treatment within framework of the WTO," the report said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last Friday, the United States told the Geneva-based WTO that appeals rulings in trade disputes could be vetoed if they took longer than the allowed 90 days.
The statement by U.S. Ambassador Dennis Shea threatened to erode a key element of trade enforcement at the 23-year-old WTO: binding dispute settlement, widely seen as a major bulwark against protectionism.
It came as Trump, who has railed against the WTO judges in the past, threatened to levy a 20 percent import tax on European Union cars, the latest in an unprecedented campaign of threats and tariffs to punish U.S. trading partners.
Mnuchin was asked earlier on Friday if new trade tariffs the United States has imposed or threatened might wipe out gains from major tax cuts passed into law six months ago.
"I can assure you that we are not going to do anything that wipes out all those benefits or does anything that has a significant risk on growth," he told Fox Business Network.
Ken Isaacs, the U.S. nominee to lead the U.N. migration agency, was knocked out of the race on Friday after coming third behind Portugal's Antonio Vitorino and Costa Rica's Laura Thompson in a secret ballot of member states in Geneva, delegates said.
Isaacs, vice president of U.S. evangelical charity Samaritan's Purse, had caused controversy after being forced to apologize for tweets and social media posts in which he disparaged Muslims.
The U.S. State Department says Myanmar has joined the ranks of China, Russia, South Sudan, Syria, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and others as the worst offenders in the world for human trafficking and forced labor. But the State Department also recognized 10 heroes who have dedicated their lives to ending the scourge of modern slavery. VOA's diplomatic correspondent Cindy Saine has more from Washington.
Read More Myanmar Joins the Ranks of Worst Human Trafficking Countries : https://ift.tt/2KvwFN3
U.S. and Russian leaders have agreed to meet July 16 to discuss long-standing disagreements on global issues such as conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. elections and NATO's expansion into Eastern Europe. The summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin comes on the heels of the NATO summit in Brussels, but the two leaders have chosen neutral territory to meet. VOA's Zlatica Hoke has more.
Read More US, Russia to Address Differences in Helsinki Summit : https://ift.tt/2yZgz9U
Official Washington is preparing for another major political battle in the months ahead as President Donald Trump prepares to nominate a successor to retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump vowed to appoint reliable conservatives as justices, and the president's next appointment could have an impact on the court and American society that will last a generation. VOA National correspondent Jim Malone previews the fight from Washington.
Read More Washington Girds for Battle Over Next Supreme Court Appointment : https://ift.tt/2KiYnxp
Alec Baldwin is calling for citizens to support and for Congress to protect special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into the 2016 election.
The actor, known for portraying President Donald Trump on “Saturday Night Live,” appears as himself in a video billed as an op-ed piece launched by Trump Crimes Watch. In the video, Baldwin points out guilty pleas stemming from the yearlong probe.
The campaign is coordinated by groups including We Stand United, Public Citizen, The Loyal Opposition and Stand Up America.
Trump and his legal team have repeatedly attacked Mueller’s investigation as overly broad.
Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani has said the president might pardon those ensnared in the Russia investigation once Mueller is finished, if he believes they were treated “unfairly.”
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday turned the focus of his Latin America trip to Ecuador, a country emerging from 10 years of leftist rule with a newfound interest in patching up relations with the United States.
Winning back trade privileges that Ecuador's former president, Rafael Correa, rejected were expected to be a central part of the talks for current President Lenin Moreno. Pence, meanwhile, is looking to court Ecuador's support in pressuring Venezuela's socialist government.
"You deserve credit for reversing years of failed policy ... rooting out corruption," Pence told Moreno on Thursday ahead of their closed-door meeting.
Pence arrived in Quito on Wednesday evening from Manaus, Brazil, where he visited a shelter that houses Venezuelans who have fled their homeland's economic and political turmoil.
Moreno was elected last year with Correa's backing but has since broken with his mentor in adopting a more business- and press-friendly stance that has earned him bipartisan praise in Washington as something of a bridge builder in ideologically polarized Latin America.
Under Moreno, Ecuador has distanced itself from Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, for example pulling funding for the Caracas-based Telesur TV network.
But his government nonetheless disappointed Washington by abstaining from a recent vote in the Organization of American States on a resolution that could trigger the country's suspension from that regional group.
The United States has already imposed sanctions on Venezuela, but the Trump administration hopes to persuade more countries in the region to increase pressure on Maduro.
Maduro won a second six-year term in May in an election boycotted by the main opposition parties and widely criticized by the United States and other governments as a sham. The country's crisis has sent more than a million Venezuelans fleeing to Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador.
Maduro late Wednesday called Pence a "poisonous viper," saying the United States and Europe publicly attack Venezuela's democratic shortfalls, but really seek riches from a country with the world's largest oil reserves.
The road "is not what Mike Pence tells us," Maduro said. "We have defeated you and we are going to defeat you, Mike Pence, wherever you are and wherever you travel."
Pence began his Latin American trip in Brazil, announcing $10 million in aid to assist in the absorption of Venezuelan refugees, bringing the sum of U.S. support to partners in the region since 2017 to nearly $31 million.
Speaking with Moreno, Pence raised the issue of Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder who Ecuador has granted asylum while he is wanted by U.S. officials, according to a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Assange is a further sticking point between the two nations, living under asylum inside the Ecuadorean Embassy in London since 2012.
The conversation about Assange was constructive, and the two leaders agreed to keep in closely in touch about the case, the senior administration official said.
Ten U.S. senators from the Democratic Party sent Pence a letter Wednesday urging him to press Moreno on Assange.
Assange and WikiLeaks tried to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election by releasing hacked information, the letter says. It says this year WikiLeaks interfered in the French presidential election and the Catalan independence referendum in Spain.
"It is imperative that you raise U.S. concerns with President Moreno," the letter says. "WikiLeaks continues its efforts to undermine democratic processes globally."
After his talks in Ecuador, Pence is scheduled to fly to Guatemala for a meeting Thursday evening with the leaders of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.
President Donald Trump urged voters Wednesday to fire “liberal Democrat” Sen. Heidi Heitkamp in November, claiming that she promised to be an independent mind but instead has voted in lockstep with her party leadership and against his agenda.
Trump called instead for the election of Republican U.S. Rep. Kevin Cramer, one of his staunchest allies in Congress.
“When Heidi ran for office, she promised to be an independent vote for the people of North Dakota,” Trump said to an arena packed with thousands of cheering supporters in Fargo. “Instead, she went to Washington and immediately joined Chuck ... and Nancy,” a reference to Democratic congressional leaders Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi.
But Heitkamp, one of the most vulnerable incumbents seeking re-election this year, is considered a moderate and one of the least reliably partisan Democratic votes in the Senate. She’s largely backed the oil-rich state’s corporate interests on energy and has opposed some restrictions on guns. She voted to confirm 21 of Trump’s 26 Cabinet-level nominations.
The president, however, noted Heitkamp’s votes against tax cuts he signed into law in December as well as the GOP’s long-sought goal to undo the health care program enacted by President Barack Obama.
“You need a senator who doesn’t just talk like they’re from North Dakota but votes like they’re from North Dakota,” Trump bellowed. “That’s what you need and that is Kevin Cramer.”
Called to the microphone by the president, Cramer thanked Trump for rolling back federal regulations, cutting taxes and, “on behalf of the most vulnerable forgotten people, the unborn babies, thank you for standing for life.”
He pledged to always be with Trump.
“And on these very important North Dakota values, you never have to wonder where I’ll be because I’ll always be with them and with you 100 percent of the time,” Cramer said.
Heitkamp stood next to Trump at the White House when he signed a banking deregulation bill into law, alarming some Republicans who worried he was becoming too close to her. Trump also invited her to join him on stage with Cramer during a past appearance in North Dakota. At that event, Trump called her a “good woman” and said he hoped for her support. Heitkamp has described having a “friendly” relationship with Trump.
Trump urged the election of more Republican senators, saying the current 51-49 GOP majority is a “problem.” Most legislation needs 60 votes to get through the Senate, and Democrats have refused to go along with much of what Trump and the Republicans have proposed.
“It’s a very tough situation,” he said. Trump added that “we have to hold the House and maybe even increase it, and I think we’ll be able to do it.”
To that end, he pointed to primary election results Tuesday night that saw the surprise upset of House Democratic Caucus Chairman Joe Crowley of New York to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old Latina who worked for Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign.
He referred to Crowley, a Trump critic, as a “slovenly man” who “got his ass kicked by a young woman who had a lot of energy.”
Trump said he was happy that Pelosi and California Rep. Maxine Waters would remain the faces of the Democratic Party.
“I mean, (Waters) practically was telling people the other day to assault. Can you imagine if I said the things she said?” asked Trump, who has encouraged violence against protesters at his campaign rallies.
The president also mocked Democrats’ talk of a “blue wave” in November that will help their party take back the House, saying they “keep talking about this blue wave,” but “their blue wave is really sputtering pretty badly.”
Trump also touched on Wednesday’s announcement by Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy that he is retiring after 31 years on the bench, giving the president a second opportunity to put a justice on the high court and cement its conservative wing.
Trump said he has to name someone young enough “that’s going to be there for 45 years. We need intellect ... so many elements go into the making of a great justice of the Supreme Court.”
He claimed that Heitkamp will vote against whomever he nominates to succeed Kennedy, despite her vote to approve Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s first nominee to the Supreme Court. But, referring to the rally, Trump said, “Maybe because of this she will be forced to vote ‘yes.’”
Trump spent the night in Milwaukee. He was set to speak Thursday at the ceremonial groundbreaking for a massive $10 billion Foxconn factory complex in Wisconsin and attend a closed-door fundraiser.
Read More Trump Brands Sen. Heitkamp 'Liberal Democrat,' But She's Not : https://ift.tt/2Ms9vVp
The U.S. House of Representatives failed to pass major immigration legislation Wednesday, after weeks of debate and mixed messages of support from President Donald Trump. The bill’s failure leaves 1.8 million undocumented young people without a solution, while the problem of addressing the family separation crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border that has galvanized American public opinion remains. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.
Read More US House Fails Again to Pass Immigration Legislation : https://ift.tt/2IzmbXY
The retirement of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy gives U.S. President Donald Trump an opportunity to choose a replacement that may better suit his political agenda. Kennedy was considered a moderate voice at the institution that is the final authority in interpreting federal law, including the Constitution. VOA's Zlatica Hoke reports a new justice chosen by the Republican president is up for nomination.
Read More Democrats Expected to Challenge Trump's Choice for New Supreme Court Justice : https://ift.tt/2tySbqE
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis reassured South Korea on Thursday that U.S. commitment to its security "remains ironclad."
The comments came as Mattis met with South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo in Seoul while negotiators from both countries continue toward the goal of a denuclearized North Korea.
Earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump announced the suspension of military exercises with South Korea after he held a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. North Korea had long called for the drills to stop amid fears they were aimed at planning an invasion, which the U.S. and South Korean militaries denied.
Trump's move raised concerns among U.S. allies in the region about the continuing security assistance the United States would provide.
Mattis said Thursday halting the exercises creates a better chance for peace on the Korean peninsula.
But he said the number of U.S. troops stationed there will not change, and that both militaries remain "vigilant and ready to defend against any challenge."
The Pentagon chief travels on to Japan for meetings there with senior officials.
He made an earlier stop in China where he met with President Xi Jinping and raised concerns about militarization and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.
As he campaigns around the country for fellow Republicans, President Donald Trump has left little doubt that he intends to make immigration a central issue in this year’s congressional midterm elections. But that strategy involves a measure of political risk in the wake of the heavy criticism leveled at the administration over its policy of separating children from parents crossing the border, a policy the president reversed last week. VOA national correspondent Jim Malone has more.
Read More Trump Pushes Immigration as Midterm Issue Despite Controversy : https://ift.tt/2Kwoixu
Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt is proposing to yield some of the agency's veto power over mining and other development.
The EPA released Pruitt's proposal Wednesday.
The Clean Water Act allows the EPA to veto permits issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that allow companies to dump waste into waterways. Pruitt is directing his agency to look at surrendering its authority to exercise that veto before permits are applied for or after they're approved.
Pruitt says EPA veto power over dumping waste into waterways could "chill economic growth." He cites Obama-era EPA decisions on Alaska's proposed Pebble Mine. Developers there want to mine gold and copper near a salmon fishery.
Kyla Bennett of the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility accuses Pruitt of shirking his environmental duty.
The Trump administration on Wednesday began dismantling the sanctions relief that was granted to Iran under the 2015 nuclear deal, a step that follows President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the international accord.
The Treasury Department announced it had revoked licenses that allowed U.S.-controlled foreign firms to export commercial aircraft parts to Iran as well as permitted Americans to trade in Iranian carpets, pistachios and caviar. It said businesses engaged in any such transactions have to wind down those operations by Aug. 6 or face penalties under U.S. sanctions. Another set of licenses covering other types of commerce, including oil purchases, will be revoked in coming weeks, with firms given until Nov. 4 to end those activities.
The step had been expected since May when Trump pulled the U.S. out of the landmark agreement under which Iran was given relief from sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear program. Trump said the accord, a signature foreign policy achievement of his predecessor, President Barack Obama, was the worst deal ever negotiated by the United States because it gave Iran too much in return for too little. Trump also complained that the agreement did not cover Iran’s non-nuclear malign behavior.
Other parties to the deal — Britain, China, Germany, France, Russia and the European Union — have criticized the U.S. withdrawal, which has left the agreement at risk of collapse. The Trump administration is stepping up efforts to isolate Iran and its faltering economy from international financial and trading systems.
On Tuesday, the administration said it was pushing foreign countries to cut their oil imports from Iran to zero by Nov. 4. Previously, the administration had said only that countries should make a “significant reduction” in their imports of Iranian oil or be subject to separate U.S. sanctions prohibiting all transactions between their central banks and Iran’s central bank.
A senior State Department official said the administration is now telling European and Asian countries that the U.S. expects their imports to hit zero by the time the grace period ends. A U.S. team from the State Department and the National Security Council is currently in Europe delivering the message, said the official who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter and spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity. The official added that the U.S. is working with other Middle Eastern countries to increase production so the global oil supply isn’t harmed.
Some close U.S. allies are among the largest importers of Iranian crude oil, including India and South Korea. Japan and Turkey also import significant amounts of Iranian oil, according to statistics from the U.S. Energy Information Agency. The biggest importer of Iranian oil last year was China.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has arrived in the Brazilian Amazon to meet with Venezuelans who have fled turmoil in their homeland.
Pence landed Wednesday in the city of Manaus to visit a center for migrants.
Tens of thousands of Venezuelans have fled to Brazil to escape food and medicine shortages and political chaos.
A day earlier, Pence announced that the United States would give another nearly $10 million to support Venezuelan migrants, $1.2 million of which will go to Brazil.
At the same time, the Trump administration is hoping that Brazil and other countries in the region will help to further isolate the socialist government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Maduro recently won a second term in an election condemned as illegitimate by the U.S. and other foreign governments.
Kremlin officials say there is an agreement for Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump to hold a summit in a third country.
The announcement came Wednesday as U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton was in Moscow for talks with Putin and other senior Russian officials.
Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said details about the venue for a Trump-Putin summit would be announced Thursday.
The meeting is expected to take place after Trump attends the NATO summit July 11 and 12 and visits Britain on July 13. Vienna and Helsinki are among the venues being considered.
Earlier, Putin told Bolton that his visit to Moscow increased the chances of a restoration of Russian-U.S. relations.
Putin said relations between the two countries were "not in the best shape."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters "the sad state" of bilateral relations between the two countries would be discussed, as well as a range of international issues.
Bolton had said he hoped his one-day visit would lay the groundwork for what would be the first summit between Putin and Trump.
Trump and Putin have met twice on the sidelines of international summits and have spoken several times by telephone.
Washington-Moscow relations have been strained by Russia's role in the conflict in Syria and Russia's suspected poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain.
Relations between the two countries had already deteriorated over issues such as Russia's seizure of Crimea and Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
House Republicans have one last chance to win the votes needed to pass major immigration reform legislation, that would fund part of President Trump’s border wall, address the family detention crisis and provide a pathway to citizenship for 1.8 million undocumented young people. But as VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson reports, this effort - even though it has been touted as a compromise - could prove difficult to pass.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has arrived in Brazil for a Latin American trip expected to focus on the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Venezuela.
Brazilian officials also want to discuss the separation of Brazilian children from parents who were detained at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Pence landed Tuesday in Brasilia, the capital of Latin America's largest nation. Brazil's Foreign Ministry has said the trip is important, but it's unclear what can be achieved in discussions with Brazilian President Michel Temer. Temer is deeply unpopular and a lame duck ahead of October elections.
Still, the U.S. is hoping to persuade Brazil to do more to isolate the socialist government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Maduro was re-elected last month in a vote condemned as illegitimate by the U.S. and others.
A Texas charitable organization says 32 immigrant parents separated from their children after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border were freed into its care, but they don't know where their kids are or when they might see them again despite government assurances that family reunification would be well organized.
The release on Sunday is believed to be the first, large one of its kind since President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday that preserved a "zero-tolerance" policy for entering the country illegally but ended the practice of separating immigrant parents and children. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement offered no immediate comment.
Ruben Garcia, director of Annunciation House in El Paso, said the group of both mothers and fathers includes some from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras who arrived to his group after federal authorities withdrew criminal charges for illegal entry. He didn't release names or personal details to protect the parents' privacy, and Homeland Security officials said they needed more specifics in order to check out their cases.
A Saturday night fact sheet by the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies said authorities know the location of all children in custody after separating them from their families at the border and are working to reunite them. It called the reunification process "well coordinated."
It also said parents must request that their child be deported with them. In the past, the fact sheet says, many parents elected to be deported without their children. That may be a reflection of violence or persecution they face in their home countries.
It doesn't state how long it might take to reunite families. Texas' Port Isabel Service Processing Center has been set up as the staging ground for the families to be reunited prior to deportation.
How the government would reunite families has been unclear because they are first stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, with children taken into custody by the Department of Health and Human Services and adults detained through ICE, which is under the Department of Homeland Security. Children have been sent to far-flung shelters around the country, raising alarm that parents might never know where their children can be found.
At least 2,053 minors who were separated at the border were being cared for in HHS-funded facilities, the fact sheet said.
The chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee hedged Sunday when pressed on whether he was confident the Trump administration knows where all the children are and will be able to reunite them with their parents.
"That is what they're claiming," Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said on CNN's "State of the Union."
The fact sheet states that ICE has implemented an identification mechanism to ensure ongoing tracking of linked family members throughout the detention and removal process; designated detention locations for separated parents and will enhance current processes to ensure communication with children in HHS custody; worked closely with foreign consulates to ensure that travel documents are issued for both the parent and child at time of removal; and coordinated with HHS for the reuniting of the child prior to the parents' departure from the U.S.
As part of the effort, ICE officials have posted notices in all its facilities advising detained parents who are trying to find or communicate with their children to call a hotline staffed 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday.
A parent or guardian trying to determine if a child is in the custody of HHS should contact the Office of Refugee Resettlement National Call Center at 1-800-203-7001, or via email at information(at)ORRNCC.com. Information will be collected and sent to an HHS-funded facility where a minor is located.
But it's unclear whether detained parents have access to computers to send an email, or how their phone systems work to call out. Attorneys at the border have said they have been frantically trying to locate information about the children on behalf of their clients.
Garcia, the Annunciation House director, said his experience has been that telephone contact doesn't provide any information.
"If we bring in 30 cellphones, they're going to call that number, they're not going to reach 30 children," said Garcia, whose organization has been working with federal authorities to assist immigrants for 40 years. "Actually [they're] not going to be able to give them any information on what to expect.''
Customs and Border Patrol said it had reunited 522 children and that some were never taken into custody by Health and Human Services because their parents' criminal cases were processed too quickly. Officials have said as many as 2,300 children had been separated from the time the policy began until June 9. It's not clear if any of the 2,000 remaining children were taken into custody after June 9.
The "zero-tolerance policy" of criminally prosecuting anyone caught illegally crossing the border remains in effect, officials have said, despite confusion on the ground on how to carry out Trump's order. Justice Department officials asked a federal judge to amend a class-action settlement that governs how children are treated in immigration custody. Right now, children can only be detained with their families for 20 days; Trump officials are seeking to detain them together indefinitely as their cases progress. Advocates say family detention does not solve the problem.
Read More Texas Group Takes in About 30 Parents Separated From Kids : https://ift.tt/2yHTNn6
The U.S. Supreme Court, winding down its nine-month term, will issue rulings this week in its few remaining cases including a major one on the legality of President Donald Trump's ban on people from five Muslim-majority nations entering the country.
The nine justices are due to decide other politically sensitive cases on whether non-union workers have to pay fees to unions representing certain public-sector workers such as police and teachers, and the legality of California regulations on clinics that steer women with unplanned pregnancies away from abortion.
The justices began their term in October and, as is their usual practice, aim to make all their rulings by the end of June, with more due on Monday. Six cases remain to be decided.
The travel ban case was argued on April 25, with the court's conservative majority signaling support for Trump's policy in a significant test of presidential powers.
Trump has said the ban is needed to protect the United States from attacks by Islamic militants. Conservative justices indicated an unwillingness to second-guess Trump on his national security rationale.
Lower courts had blocked the travel ban, the third version of a policy Trump first pursued a week after taking office last year. But the high court on Dec. 4 allowed it to go fully into effect while the legal challenge continued.
The challengers, led by the state of Hawaii, have argued the policy was motivated by Trump's enmity toward Muslims. Lower courts have decided the ban violated federal immigration law and the U.S. Constitution's prohibition on the government favoring one religion over another.
The current ban, announced in September, prohibits entry into the United States by most people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen.
In a significant case for organized labor, the court's conservatives indicated opposition during arguments on Feb. 26 to so-called agency fees that some states require non-members to pay to public-sector unions.
Workers who decide not to join unions representing certain state and local employees must pay the fees in two dozen states in lieu of union dues to help cover the cost of non-political activities such as collective bargaining. The fees provide millions of dollars annually to these unions.
The justices seemed skeptical during March 20 arguments toward California's law requiring Christian-based anti-abortion centers, known as crisis pregnancy centers, to post notices about the availability of state-subsidized abortions and birth control. The justices indicated that they would strike down at least part of the regulations.
Protests continue over the treatment of migrants detained for entering the United States illegally, although the Trump administration last week reversed its controversial policy of separating children and parents at the border. Still, thousands of migrants are in detention awaiting their court cases, and many remain separated from their children. Mike O'Sullivan reports from the California-Mexico border that Americans are hearing two conflicting narratives.
Trump administration officials say the U.S. government knows the location of all children in its custody after separating them from their families at the border and is working to reunite them.
A fact sheet on “zero-tolerance prosecution and family reunification” released Saturday night by the Department of Homeland Security also says a parent must request that their child be deported with them. In the past, the agency says, many parents have elected to be deported without their children. That may be a reflection of violence or persecution they face in their home countries.
As part of the effort, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have posted notices in all its facilities advising detained parents who are trying to find or communicate with their children to call a hotline staffed 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday.
A parent or guardian trying to determine if a child is in the custody of HHS should contact the Office of Refugee Resettlement National Call Center at 1-800-203-7001, or via email at information@ORRNCC.com. Information will be collected and sent to HHS-funded facility where minor is located.
The fact sheet doesn’t state how long it might take to reunite families. The Port Isabel Service Processing Center in Texas has been set up as the staging ground for the families to be reunited before deportation.
How the government would reunite families has been unclear because the families are first stopped by Customs and Border Patrol, with children taken into custody by HHS and adults detained through ICE. Children have been sent to shelters around the country, raising alarm that parents might never know where their children can be found.
The fact sheet states that ICE has implemented an identification mechanism to ensure on-going tracking of linked family members throughout the detention and removal process; designated detention locations for separated parents and will enhance current processes to ensure communication with children in HHS custody; worked closely with foreign consulates to ensure that travel documents are issued for both the parent and child at time of removal; and coordinated with HHS for the reuniting of the child prior to the parents’ departure from the U.S.
The Justice Department says it has given House Republicans new classified information related to the Russia investigation after they had threatened to hold officials in contempt of Congress or even impeach them.
A spokeswoman for House Speaker Paul Ryan says the department has partially complied with multiple requests from the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees. House Republicans had given the department a Friday deadline for all documents, but Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong said the department asked for more time.
“Our efforts have resulted in the committees finally getting access to information that was sought months ago, but some important requests remain to be completed,” Strong said in a statement Saturday. “Additional time has been requested for the outstanding items, and based on our understanding of the process we believe that request is reasonable. We expect the department to meet its full obligations to the two committees.”
In a letter sent to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes late Friday, the Justice Department said it had that day provided a classified letter to his panel regarding whether the FBI used “confidential human sources” before it officially began its Russia investigation in 2016. Nunes has been pressing the department on an informant who spoke to members of President Donald Trump’s campaign as the FBI began to explore the campaign’s ties to Russia.
The department has already given top lawmakers in the House and Senate three classified briefings on the informant. But Nunes has said he wanted the entire committee to receive the information.
In the letter, the Justice Department’s acting assistant director of congressional affairs, Jill Tyson, said the department had also given Nunes materials related to oversight of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Republicans have for months questioned whether the department abused that act when prosecutors and agents in 2016 applied for and received a secret warrant to monitor the communications of a Trump campaign associate.
Democrats have criticized the multiple document requests, charging that they are intended to discredit the department and discredit or even undermine special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s Russia ties and whether there was obstruction of justice.
House Speaker Paul Ryan has backed the document requests, and he led a meeting last week with committee chairmen and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to try to resolve the issue. In a television interview two days after that meeting, on June 17, Nunes said if they don’t get the documents by this week, “there’s going to be hell to pay” and indicated the House could act on contempt or even impeachment. A spokesman for Nunes did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday.
Tyson also wrote House Judiciary Committee Chairman Robert Goodlatte, who had subpoenaed the department for documents related to the Russia investigation and also the department’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails in 2016. She detailed progress on those requests and said the department is “expeditiously completing them.”
In the letters, Tyson said the department had built “new tools” to search top secret documents and had diverted resources from other congressional requests.
President Donald Trump put the emphasis on border security Friday, capping off a week when the immigration issue became a political firestorm that swept through Washington. The president reversed his policy of separating immigrant children from their parents on Thursday, but the administration now faces the daunting task of reuniting families and figuring out how to detain them. VOA National correspondent Jim Malone has more
During the hottest hours, when the sun is highest in the sky and the blistering pavement could fry an egg, Rashida Tlaib is relentlessly walking door-to-door in a Detroit neighborhood in search of votes.
And she’s doing so without eating any food or drinking any water during the day.
That’s because Tlaib is a practicing Muslim, which means she is fasting during the holy month of Ramadan.
“I know that my faith comes up more on social media, but at the doors I don’t get it as much,” she told VOA during a break beneath the much needed shade of trees along the street.
Making a connection
While others would stay indoors in the air conditioning during the stifling heat wave, Tlaib views it as an opportunity to build name recognition, as she seeks to represent Michigan’s 13th District in the U.S. Congress.
“People still can’t pronounce my name, but they remember what I’ve done, and they remember that I’ve come to their home,” she said.
Tlaib is no stranger to politics, having served in Michigan’s Legislature. She is the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, but on these streets — in a predominantly African-American neighborhood — she is a local, someone who attended schools in the area.
“It’s that direct connection to the neighborhood that I think people are much more excited about,” said Tlaib, acknowledging that walking from house to house gives her the chance to directly connect with potential voters and to hear about their concerns and needs.
A chance at making history
She is campaigning in one of the poorest congressional districts in the state of Michigan and the country, and her religion and race rarely come up as topics of conversation when she encounters voters.
“For me, the direct door-to-door contact has been about constituent issues,” she explained, adding that most people have welcomed the opportunity to speak with her. “At the doors, I think it’s really how you make people feel, and I haven’t faced much opposition, and I haven’t seen that big push back or opposition yet.”
She says few of the people she meets realize she is on the cusp of making history — again.
“I tell them I’m the first Muslim woman ever elected in the Michigan Legislature, and if I’m elected in this congressional race I’ll be the first ever in Congress.”
Several candidates
“Is she a shoo-in? No. Is she a possibility? Yes. She is a formidable candidate,” said Osama Siblani, publisher of the Dearborn, Michigan-based Arab American News, a weekly publication serving the large Arab-American population in Southeastern Michigan.
He says Tlaib’s candidacy, and two other races prominently featuring Muslim Americans in Michigan, show a new political awakening in the larger Muslim-American community nationwide, where about 100 are running for public office this year, many of them Democrats hoping to be a part of a “blue wave” in the congressional midterm elections in November.
“We were, at one time, people who were in hiding,” he told VOA. “We were changing our names in this country. Despite September 11, despite the Trump era, we are moving forward, we are running for election, we are winning and we are making a significant impact in our society.”
‘Bigger than me’
The significance of the moment is not lost on Rashida Tlaib, who isn’t just representing Muslim Americans, but also is part of a larger group of hundreds of women this year seeking public office across the country.
“Nationally, this is a pretty historic campaign,” she said. “People that are supporting me, from this Muslim woman in Tampa who told me, ‘Please win, because if you win, we belong.’ I told her, “We’ve already won. You absolutely belong.’ It means so much bigger than me.”
But if Tlaib is to win, she’ll need support outside the Arab-American community in Michigan, most of whom don’t live in the district she seeks to represent and can’t vote for her.
Tlaib faces several challengers seeking to replace Congressman John Conyers Jr., who resigned in December amid allegations of sexual misconduct. The winner of the August 7 Democratic primary will likely head to Congress next year because there is currently no Republican running in the November general election.
If Tlaib wins the election, she may not be the only Muslim-American woman in the next U.S. Congress. Fayrouz Saad, a Democrat, is running in a competitive race in Michigan’s 11th district, while Ilhan Omar, the nation’s first Somali-American lawmaker, is campaigning for the Democratic primary election for Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District on August 14.
Read More Michigan Muslim-American Candidate Eyes Historic Win for Congress : https://ift.tt/2KeJR97
President Donald Trump is trumpeting results of his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that get ahead of reality.
He is declaring that North Korea has begun ridding itself fully of nuclear weapons following an agreement with Kim in Singapore earlier this month, even though his Defense Department says otherwise.
Trump also prematurely claimed the return of remains of U.S. servicemen missing from the 1950-53 Korean War.
A look at how his statements compare with the facts:
TRUMP: “The big thing is, it will be a total denuclearization, which has already started taking place.” — remarks Thursday at Cabinet meeting.
THE FACTS: That’s not what his Pentagon chief, Jim Mattis, says. When asked by a reporter Wednesday whether he had seen any sign that North Korea had begun steps toward denuclearization, Mattis replied, “I’m not aware of any. Obviously, we’re at the very front end of the process. Detailed negotiations have not begun.”
At the summit, Kim committed to “complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” but no details were worked out.
In May, before the summit, North Korea demolished tunnels at its sole underground nuclear test site, although outsiders have not inspected the result. Its nuclear program has many other elements, including nuclear materials production facilities, nuclear warheads, ballistic missiles and missile launchers.
Soldiers’ remains
TRUMP: “We got back our great fallen heroes, the remains sent back today, already 200 have been sent back.” — remarks Wednesday at rally in Duluth, Minnesota.
THE FACTS: No remains have been returned, although Pentagon officials say they are prepared to receive them. Although the Singapore declaration said this would happen immediately, U.S. officials have given no indication that North Korea has committed to any specific timetable for the return.
On Thursday, in remarks at a Cabinet meeting, Trump modified his claim, saying, “They’ve already sent back or are in the process of sending back the remains of our great heroes who died in North Korea during the war.”
Aside from uncertainty over when North Korea will return the remains it has collected over the years, it’s unclear whether all will be in a condition to permit their positive identification, or whether they all are even Americans. A number of allied soldiers who fought alongside the U.S. during the war also are missing.
Nearly 7,700 American service members are listed as unaccounted for from the Korean War, of which an estimated 5,300 were lost in North Korea.
Melania Trump is visiting two Texas facilities housing some of the more than 2,300 migrant children sent by the U.S. government after their families entered the country illegally.
The first lady's visit to Upbring New Hope Children's Center on Thursday comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order halting the practice of separating families. However, his policy of criminally prosecuting illegal border-crossers remains.
Mrs. Trump, whose focus is on children, may have helped encourage her husband to act.
The first lady said earlier through her spokeswoman that she "hates" to see families separated at the border. A White House official followed up Wednesday, saying Mrs. Trump had been making her opinion known to the president that he needed to act to keep migrant families together.
The United Nations has begun the process of filling the seat the United States left vacant at the U.N. Human Rights Council now that it has received official notification that Washington is resigning from the council.
The U.N. body wasted no time adjusting to the new reality. It already has removed the U.S. nameplate from the area where the 47-members of the Human Rights Council sit and has placed it among the observer states.
Council spokesperson Rolando Gomez told VOA the seat eventually will be filled by a new member elected by the General Assembly.
"This is new uncharted territory," he noted. "This is something — a first — that has never happened before where a member of the council has withdrawn its membership. So, we are moving the best way we can in following the proper procedures."
Council members are elected from five regional groups — the African, Asian, Eastern European, Latin American and Caribbean, and Western groups. Gomez said the U.S. vacancy will be filled by a country from the Western Group, including Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Israel.
"In theory yes, Israel could assume membership as they are members of the western group," he said. "Any state within the western group has potential to fulfill that vacancy.
The irony of such an outcome is not lost on observers considering that Washington blames what it calls the hypocrisy of the U.N. council and its chronic bias against Israel for its decision to quit the council.
Gomez said the United States can continue to participate and play an influential role as an observer state. He said it is their prerogative to engage or disengage.
"The key difference between a member and an observer is that members can vote, and observers cannot," he said. "... The United States would be able to sponsor resolutions, hold side events, influence language and resolutions. The key difference is they would not be able to vote."
While the United States can continue to exert immense influence as an observer, Gomez noted it is always better to be part of the equation than to be on the sidelines watching.
U.S. President Donald Trump will welcome King Abdullah of Jordan to the White House on June 25, the White House said in a statement on Thursday.
"Trump looks forward to reaffirming the strong bonds of friendship between the United States and Jordan. The leaders will discuss issues of mutual concern, including terrorism, the threat from Iran and the crisis in Syria, and working towards a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians," it said.
For six weeks, South Texas residents watched in disbelief as a “zero tolerance” immigration policy ripped apart migrant families in their communities. Following U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order to reverse course and replace family separation with a policy of family unit detention, some residents breathed a sigh of relief.
Weary from images of children taken from their parents near their homes, South Texans took solace at the prospect of one dark chapter coming to an end.
“Everybody comes over here with the American Dream, but as long as they’re kept together, I guess it’s better than being separated," Rio Grande Valley resident Patricia Baez told VOA.
Though President Donald Trump’s executive order to end migrant family separation was greeted as a narrow humanitarian victory among some longtime residents, moral and legal concerns over the administration’s alternative plan — detaining entire family units — remain.
Legal advocacy organizations like the Texas Civil Rights Project, which has extensively interviewed asylum-seeking parents and other migrants separated from their children in criminal court, say their work will continue.
“I imagine the day we go to court and we ask ‘how many of you had children taken from you?’ and no one stands up, then we will see that families are no longer being separated," said Efren Olivares, Racial and Economic Justice DIrector for the Texas Civil Rights Project. "If we don’t document it, then there’s no way to capture that these families were separated. They go into the black hole of bureaucracy of the U.S. immigration and ORR (Office of Refugee Resettlement) system, and there’s no telling if they’ll be reunited.”
On a rainy evening in McAllen, Texas, hundreds of interfaith residents gathered to pray for the more than 2,000 children forcibly separated from their parents since May, who have yet to reunite.
“We won’t stay silent. We will be a voice for those who need to be heard," Sister Norma Pimentel, executive director for Catholic Charities in Rio Grande Valley told a crowd Wednesday.
"It’s good, but it’s late. There are many families that have already been sent back to El Salvador and other places, while the children remained here, not knowing where they were brought," Carmen Silva, a resident of McAllen told VOA.
Others vowed to hold the president accountable, and send a message of solidarity among South Texas’ diverse community.
“Sometimes this administration will say one thing and do another, so until what he says is realized, it’s important to come here and make sure that we’re out here, showing our voice," McAllen resident Maraj Kidwai said.
For six weeks, South Texas residents watched in disbelief as a “zero tolerance” immigration policy ripped apart migrant families in their communities. Following U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order to reverse course and replace family separation with a policy of family unit detention, some residents breathed a sigh of relief. Others, however, remained less convinced that the worst is over. VOA’s Ramon Taylor reports.
U.S. national security adviser John Bolton plans to visit Moscow next week to prepare for a possible meeting of U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Interfax news agency reported on Thursday, citing sources.
The Kremlin said Tuesday there are no plans for a meeting between Trump and Putin before the NATO summit, Interfax reported. Trump is expected to attend the NATO summit in Brussels on July 11-12.
As Congress mulls over the future of two House immigration bills, migrant families who entered the United States illegally continue to be separated as a result of the Trump Administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy. In South Texas, VOA spoke with activists seeking an end to the practice, along with migrants who were lucky enough to avoid separation. Ramon Taylor reports.
President Donald Trump made a last-minute trip to Capitol Hill to convince lawmakers he backs their attempt to pass an immigration bill. Republican's push to address border security and the fate of 800,000 undocumented young people comes amid growing outcry over the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy toward undocumented immigrants and the separation of families. VOA's Congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.
U.S. President Donald Trump is doubling down on his “zero tolerance” policy on illegal immigration, a crackdown that has led to at least 2,000 undocumented children being separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. VOA Senate correspondent Michael Bowman reports, human rights advocates and lawmakers of both political parties are outraged, sparking action on Capitol Hill.
The U.S. Supreme Court Monday has ruled against state Democrats in a case concerning partisan gerrymandering in Wisconsin, sending it back to a lower court for a decision.
Gerrymandering is the process of redrawing lines of a state’s electoral districts in order to gain an electoral advantage. Gerrymandering on racial and ethnic grounds was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1993, in the case Shaw v. Reno.
The Wisconsin case, Gill v. Whitford, concerned the boundaries of the state’s legislative districts. The plaintiffs in the case argued the districts drawn by the state's Republican-controlled legislature following the 2010 midterm elections unfairly favored the party.
The court said that while its decision “expresses no view on the merits of the plaintiffs’ case,” they would send the case to the lower courts in order for the plaintiffs to present evidence "that would tend to demonstrate a burden on their individual votes.”
In October, during oral arguments, Chief Justice John Roberts dismissed attempts to discern partisan gerrymandering as “sociological gobbledygook.”
‘Yet another delay’
“Today’s decision is yet another delay in providing voters with the power they deserve in our democracy,” said Chris Carson, president of the League of Women Voters of the United States, in a statement. “Partisan gerrymandering is distorting and undermining our representative democracy, giving politicians the power to choose their voters, instead of giving voters the power to choose their politicians.”
Separately, the U.S. Supreme Court also sidestepped a definitive ruling in a similar case in Maryland. The court did not immediately block congressional district lines drawn by Democrats to maximize the party's advantage.
The high court could soon decide on whether to take up a similar case from North Carolina.
Redistricting in the U.S. happens every 10 years, and Monday’s decision is regarded as especially important, coming ahead of the next round of redistricting in 2021.
Earlier this year, Pennsylvania's Supreme Court ordered the state to redraw its federal congressional districts, breaking a Republican gerrymander of the state.
One of U.S. President Donald Trump's lawyers said Sunday he is advising him to not pardon anyone linked to the year-long investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election because it would "just cloud" the perception that there was wrong-doing.
Rudy Giuliani, a former New York mayor and part of Trump's legal team, told CNN, "You're not going to get a pardon because you're involved" in the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller. But he said that in the months to come pardons were "certainly not excluded" if Trump concluded "you've been treated unfairly."
“The president has issued no pardons in this investigation," Giuliani said. "The president is not going to issue pardons in this investigation."
“And my advice to him, as long as I’m his lawyer, is not to do it," he said. "Because you just cloud what is becoming now a very clear picture of an extremely unfair investigation with no criminality involved of any kind. I want that to come out loud and clear and not get clouded by anybody being fired or anybody being pardoned.”
Trump has pardoned several conservative icons in recent weeks, but Giuliani said no one being investigated by Mueller "should rely on it."
Even so, he said, "When it’s over, hey, he’s the president of the United States. He retains his pardon power. Nobody’s taking that away from him. He can pardon in his judgment based on the Justice Department, counsel’s office, not me. I’m out of it. And I shouldn’t be involved in that process because I’m probably too rooted in his defense, but I couldn’t and I don’t want to take prerogatives away from him.“
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was jailed last week, prompting new questions whether Trump might pardon him. Manafort is accused of witness tampering in a criminal case that stems from his lobbying efforts for Ukraine years before he was a top Trump aide for nearly five months during the 2016 campaign.
Trump attacked Manafort's jailing, saying on Twitter, "Wow, what a tough sentence for Paul Manafort .... Didn’t know Manafort was the head of the Mob.... Very unfair!"
There is no indication when Mueller's investigation might end. He is probing whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russian interests to help him win and whether Trump obstructed justice by firing former Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey when he was leading the agency's Russia investigation before Mueller, over Trump's objections, was appointed to take over the probe.
In a new broadside against the investigation, Trump tweeted, "WITCH HUNT! There was no Russian Collusion. Oh, I see, there was no Russian Collusion, so now they look for obstruction on the no Russian Collusion. The phony Russian Collusion was a made up Hoax. Too bad they didn’t look at Crooked Hillary like this. Double Standard!" His reference to "Crooked Hillary" is his oft-repeated pejorative for his 2016 challenger, Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Giuliani called for investigation of the origins of the Mueller investigation, contending it was "premised on Comey's illegally leaked memo" about the FBI's director's private conversations with Trump.
"There's a lot of unfairness out there, but we don't know the scope of it," Giuliani said.
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A federal judge has jailed ex-Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort ahead of trial, citing recently filed obstruction charges. This is a developing story, we will update soon with more details Read More Judge Jails Ex-Trump Campaign Chair Manafort : https://ift.tt/2JQepdV
President Donald Trump says "it's possible" he'll meet with Russian President Vladimir this summer.
And he's again making the case that Russia should be allowed to re-join the Group of Seven industrialized nations during in an impromptu interview and gaggle on the White House driveway.
Trump is blaming former President Barack Obama for Russia's dismissal, saying "I think President Obama didn't like him." He says he thinks "it's much better if we get along with" Russia "than if we don't."
Trump is also blaming Obama for Russia's annexation of Crimea — the act that got the country thrown out of the group of industrialized nations. Trump says it's Obama's fault because "Putin didn't respect President Obama."
He claims, "President Obama lost Crimea, just so you understand."
Republican and Democratic lawmakers took to the field Thursday night for the annual congressional charity baseball game. It fell on the first anniversary of a shooting spree at a practice last year that almost killed U.S. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise. Jill Craig was in the stands for the first pitch.
The U.S. Supreme Court eased the rules Thursday for what Americans can wear when they go to vote, striking down restrictions in one state that banned voters from wearing clothes with the name of a candidate or political party when they enter the polling place.
In a victory for free speech, the high court in a 7-2 ruling overturned a law in the Midwestern state of Minnesota that barred clothing representing recognizable political views. The state had said the law was aimed at keeping order at polling places and preventing voter intimidation among partisans.
In his majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts said that while the state's intentions were "generally worthy of our respect, Minnesota has not supported its good intentions with a law capable of reasoned application."
Nine other states have laws similar to Minnesota's. The Supreme Court returned the case to a lower court for consideration of what restrictions might be reasonable.
The Minnesota case stemmed from a 2010 incident in which a voter showed up at a polling place wearing a T-shirt supporting the conservative Tea Party movement with the words "Don't Tread on Me," as well as a button stating, "Please I.D. Me."
The man was allowed to vote, but sued to overturn the law.
Despite increasing partisan polarization, immigrant candidates are beginning to make a run for a range of public offices across the United States. Ahead of the 2018 elections in November, at least 100 foreign-born candidates running for U.S. Congress, including Colombia-born Catalina Cruz in New York. Laura Sepúlveda of VOA's Spanish Service reports.
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