Trump denies Musk was part of Pentagon briefing on China; Boeing to build ‘F-47’ fighter for Air Force: Live updates

In a move gutting a government office responsible for conducting oversight of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, the Trump administration fired nearly the entire civil rights branch of the Department of Homeland Security on Friday, The New York Times reports.

The more than 100 staff members were informed they would be placed on leave for 60 days to find another job within the administration or risk being fired in May, according to five current and former government officials. The president also shut down the ombudsman for Citizenship and Immigration Services, another office responsible for overseeing the administration’s legal immigration policies.

This is Trump’s latest effort to eliminate civil rights divisions and oversight mechanisms in government agencies. However, the closure of the Homeland Security Department’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties stands out, especially considering the lack of transparency regarding the administration’s immigration crackdown.

The president is committed in his second term to ensuring that his administration consists of loyalists who will not attempt to obstruct his agenda.

The university will give police new powers to arrest students, ban face masks at protests, and appoint a university official to oversee changes at its department of Middle East, South Asian and African Studies and Center for Palestine Studies.

President Donald Trump’s administration requested that the federal judge overseeing the challenge to Trump’s executive order aimed at the law firm Perkins Coie recuse herself from the case, alleging a “pattern of hostility” toward the president.

Justice Department lawyers said U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell’s impartiality could “reasonably be questioned.” They referenced her previous rulings against Trump and comments made in cases involving his supporters related to the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“This Court has not kept its disdain for President Trump secret,” the lawyers wrote in a court filing. “It has voiced its thoughts loudly—both inside and outside the courtroom.”

Last week, Howell temporarily blocked the Trump administration from enforcing much of its order against the Democratic-linked firm Perkins Coie, determining that it likely violated the U.S. Constitution.

The Trump administration has escalated its criticism of federal judges in recent weeks as courts have at times sought to limit Trump’s broad use of presidential power.

With reporting from Reuters

Dropkick Murphys’ Ken Casey has broken his silence after branding a Donald Trump supporter in the audience a “cult” member for waving around a MAGA hat.

The lead singer of the punk band, known for their 2005 signature hit I’m Shipping Up to Boston, confronted a fan during one of three performances at the MGM Music Hall beside Boston’s Fenway Park over St Patrick’s Day weekend.

James Liddel has the story.

“A Member of Congress is organizing political violence and terrorism,” the controversial Georgia congresswoman wrote on X Thursday in response to a live stream titled TeslaTakedown.

The stream included several speakers on Wednesday, including Crockett, who discussed plans for non-violent political protests against Elon Musk’s billion-dollar Tesla enterprise.

Madeline Sherratt reports.

ACLU attorney Lee Gerlent and Judge James Boasberg both agree that a major question about this case is how the administration determines who is a member of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which the Trump administration has classified as a foreign terrorist organization.

“This is a very dangerous road we’re going down where the Alien Enemies Act can be invoked against a gang,” Gerlent said.

“The policy ramifications of this are incredibly troublesome and problematic and concerning,” Boasberg said. “It’s an unprecedented and expanded use of an act that has been used … in the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II when there was no question there was a declaration of war and who the enemy was.”

Gerlent also says several people on the flights were returned to the United States because the Salvadoran government wouldn’t take them. There will be incoming affidavits on the docket about those people.

The administration has said that the third plane contained immigrants who were not deported under the Alien Enemies Act. All had final orders for removal from the U.S., according to the Justice Department.

Boasberg asks why, then, were Venezuelans deported to El Salvador. The Justice Department can’t say, just that they had orders for removal.

Boasberg asks if the administration is prepared to tell the court that everyone on the flights was a member of Tren de Aragua.

The Justice Department says they don’t have authorization to do so, and any challenges for their detention would have to be raised in a habeas petition.

Boasberg says under the government’s arguments, if a Chinese fisherman comes into U.S. waters, and the president calls that an invasion and orders the detention of all Chinese fishermen, “that’s fair game, nothing we can do, right?”

“Even you … would agree that’s alarming,” he tells the Justice Department.

The hearing has now concluded.

A judge has rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to block a preliminary injunction that prevents the government from suspending funds to refugee resettlement groups.

And here’s the background to the case :

And multiple times in the century since.

Here’s Josh Marcus to explain:

At the hearing regarding the El Salvador deportation flights, Judge James Boasberg is asking government lawyers, essentially, how this all works.

“Are you going to tell each person that’s going to be deported” that they have rights to challenge their detention by filing a habeas corpus petition?, he asks.

He also reminds the government that there is a court — the Alien Terrorist Removal Court — set up explicitly for this reason, and it’s never been used before.

Who was the chief judge of that court, until recently? Boasberg, of course.

The plaintiffs argue the idea that immigrants being removed have the option to challenge their deportation is “illusory.”

Boasberg is asking what removal proceedings could look like under the president’s use of the Alien Enemies Act, but lawyers for plaintiffs aren’t sure, as we are in “uncharted territory.”

At a minimum, there should be an opportunity for a hearing, and the government could establish a kind of board or court to hear challenges rather than summarily removing people without due process, attorneys for plaintiffs said.