Texas Weekly Online

Texas-trans-white
Menu
Menu

Author: shailender

Venezuelan migrants, progressive group sue Trump admin after Noem nixes Biden-era ‘protected status’

Venezuelan migrants, progressive group sue Trump admin after Noem nixes Biden-era ‘protected status’

A Venezuelan civic group and several migrants sued federal immigration agencies this week, alleging the Trump administration unlawfully ended Biden-imposed “Temporary Protected Status” for Venezuelans. The Venezuelan Association of Massachusetts, a progressive group called Democracy Forward, and three migrants filed suit in Boston federal court against the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services challenging what they called President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s “sudden and unlawful termination” of temporary protected statuses. In a statement, Democracy Forward said the plaintiffs objected to an alleged April mass email from DHS to TPS migrants stating: “It is time for you to leave the United States.” The plaintiffs suggested the recipients of the blunt missive have the legal right to remain in the U.S. given their work-permitting and other related documentation they may have applied for. FEDERAL JUDGE FINDS ‘RACIAL AND DISCRIMINATORY ANIMUS’ IN TRUMP MOVE TO CANCEL TEMPORARY PROTECTED STATUS They further argued that TPS revocation requires case-by-case determinations and wrongly disrupts lives and occupations and risks becoming subject to deportation. “As a community-based organization, we have seen firsthand the direct harm this sudden policy inflicts on people who arrived lawfully, complied with every DHS requirement, including the CBP One process, and worked hard to build stable lives for their families,” Venezuelan Association of Massachusetts official Carlina Velázquez and Carlos Martín Medina said in a joint statement obtained by Fox News Digital. Democracy Forward President Skye Perryman added that the “sudden policy shift” exhibits the “Trump-Vance administration’s assault on immigrants who have followed the rules.” “Let me be clear: none of this is about immigration, it’s about cruelty and the targeting of people in vulnerable circumstances,” Perryman claimed. “Our clients used the CBP One app because DHS required it. To now strip them of their rights and threaten them with deportation is a gross violation of the law and public trust.” FEDERAL JUDGE HALTS TRUMP TPS POLICY, ACCUSES DHS OF MAKING MIGRANTS ‘ATONE FOR THEIR RACE’ Migrants fleeing Venezuela – effectively a dictatorship since the late Hugo Chávez’s 1999 election – were granted special protection by former President Joe Biden in 2021 due to humanitarian concerns. Biden then extended TPS in 2023, qualifying about 350,000 more Venezuelan migrants to arrive after the original timeframe imposed. After Trump took office, Noem revoked the 2023 TPS extension, which set the ball rolling on the eventual cancellation of protected status for Venezuelan migrants. In April, Obama-appointed Judge Edward Milton Chen issued an injunction blocking Noem’s move to end TPS. The Supreme Court overruled Chen in a brief, unsigned order in May, allowing Noem’s timeline to resume. While unsigned, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson noted her dissent. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP But Chen then followed up in June with a narrow ruling noting that preexisting work permits and the like should not be canceled retroactively. A three-judge Ninth Circuit panel in Pasadena, California, last heard arguments during a July appeal by the Trump administration during which one judge reportedly called the president’s comments “arguably racist.” In comments to Fox News Digital, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the lawsuit is “a desperate attempt to keep half a million poorly vetted illegal aliens in this country and undermine President Trump’s constitutional authority to enforce America’s immigration laws.” “The Biden administration abused its parole authority to create an industrial-scale catch-and-release scheme, and the Trump administration is correcting that,” she added. “This lawsuit is an insult to the tens of millions of Americans who gave this president a mandate to restore safety and common sense to our immigration system.” 

House Democrat presses DOJ on Ghislaine Maxwell prison transfer, meeting with top official

House Democrat presses DOJ on Ghislaine Maxwell prison transfer, meeting with top official

The ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee penned a letter to the Department of Justice demanding information about Ghislaine Maxwell’s recent prison transfer and meeting with a top Trump administration official.  Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said the recent transfer of Maxwell – a convicted sex trafficker and Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend and alleged accomplice – out of a maximum security prison in Tallahassee, Florida, gives “the strong appearance” that the Trump administration “is attempting to cover up the full extent of the relationship between President Trump and Mr. Epstein.”  In the letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Bureau of Prisons Director William K. Marshall III, Raskin said Maxwell’s new home at a minimum-security federal prison camp in Bryan, Texas, provides “greater freedom for inmates.” He argued that such an “extraordinary transfer” would typically be “categorically off limits to sex offenders.”  GHISLAINE MAXWELL PRISON TRANSFER CALLED ‘HIGHLY UNUSUAL’ BY FORMER FEDERAL PRISON OFFICIAL “These actions raise substantial concerns that the administration may now be attempting to tamper with a crucial witness, conceal President Trump’s relationship with convicted sex offenders, and coax Ms. Maxwell into providing false or misleading testimony in order to protect the President,” Raskin wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained by Fox News Digital. “The transfer also appears to violate both DOJ and Bureau of Prisons (BOP) policies.”  The letter asked for a cache of documents related to why Maxwell was transferred from Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Tallahassee to Federal Prison Campe (FPC) Bryan.  Raskin is also seeking a transcript and recording of Maxwell’s recent, hours-long meeting with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche at the Tallahassee prison.  “These meetings were highly unusual for several reasons. Mr. Blanche, who until ten months ago served as Donald Trump’s personal criminal defense lawyer, met with Ms. Maxwell and her attorney with no line prosecutors present. The meeting took place just days after DOJ leadership fired one of the chief career prosecutors on the Epstein matter,” Raskin wrote, referencing the Justice Department’s firing of Maurene Comey from the Southern District of New York.  Comey – the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey – most recently worked on the prosecution of Sean “Diddy” Combs. Her other high-profile cases include the Epstein and Maxwell prosecutions.  The DOJ confirmed criminal investigations into her father – as well as former CIA Director John Brennan – last month.  Reached by Fox News Digital on Wednesday, a Justice Department spokesperson confirmed the receipt of Raskin’s letter but declined to comment further. REPS. MASSIE, KHANNA SOUND OFF ON WHETHER GHISLAINE MAXWELL SHOULD RECEIVE PARDON, BLAST MIKE JOHNSON In his letter to Bondi and Marshall, Raskin further argued that convicted sex offenders would typically be barred from federal prison camps, which provide “access to the community,” and any transfer would require “multiple levels of review that would ordinarily take months to complete.” He said any approval of a transfer “typically requires new facts or evidence” and even so, “an inmate would then have to join a months-long waitlist for an opening at a camp.” “Ms. Maxwell, however, appears to have short-circuited the entire review process and jumped the queue, receiving a place in Federal Prison Camp (FPC) Bryan within a matter of days,” Raskin wrote. “Neither DOJ nor BOP has provided anything like a satisfactory explanation for providing Ms. Maxwell this uniquely favorable treatment.”  The letter – also signed by all Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee – seeks a list of any administration officials who “were aware of, were involved in, or approved” of the transfer. Raskin also demanded information regarding “any possible benefits to Ms. Maxwell, including transfers, changes to conditions of confinement, pardons, commutation, or changes to DOJ positions in ongoing matters.” Raskin acknowledged that Maxwell was recently subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee to testify. To Bondi and Marshall, the congressman said “there can be no question that your actions have served to send a clear message to Ms. Maxwell in the lead up to any testimony before Congress and the American public: this Administration can punish or reward her as it sees fit for its own purposes.”

Putin lauds ‘heroism’ of North Koreans in liberating Kursk, Pyongyang says

Putin lauds ‘heroism’ of North Koreans in liberating Kursk, Pyongyang says

Call between the two leaders comes days ahead of US President Donald Trump’s summit with Putin in Alaska. Russian President Vladimir Putin lauded the “bravery” and “heroism” of North Korean soldiers in retaking Russia’s Kursk region from Ukrainian forces during a call with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, North Korean state media has reported. Putin told Kim that he “highly appreciated” North Korea’s support and the “self-sacrificing spirit” displayed by its troops during the liberation of the western region, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Wednesday. Kim expressed his “heartfelt thanks” to Putin and said Pyongyang would “always remain faithful” to the spirit of the mutual defence treaty signed by the sides last year, as well as “fully support all measures to be taken by the Russian leadership in the future”, the KCNA said. “The heads of states of the two countries exchanged views on the issues of mutual concern,” the KCNA said. “Kim Jong Un and Putin agreed to make closer contact in the future.” The call, days before Putin is set to meet United States President Donald Trump in Alaska to discuss efforts to end the war in Ukraine, is the latest sign of strengthening ties between North Korea and Russia amid Moscow’s ostracisation on the world stage. “There are a lot of ifs still in the air, but the call suggests there’s a role for Russia, similar to the role South Korea played in 2018, in helping create an opening for US-DPRK relations,” Jenny Town, the director of the Korea programme at the Stimson Center in Washington, DC, told Al Jazeera, using the acronym for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Advertisement “It might not be a focal point of the upcoming meeting, but it is likely to be part of the conversation.” Last month, Kim told Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov that Pyongyang would “unconditionally support” all actions taken by Moscow in Ukraine, according to North Korean state media reports. North Korea has deployed more than 10,000 troops to support Russia’s war and has drawn up plans to dispatch thousands more, according to assessments by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service. In April, Putin announced that Moscow had fully recaptured Kursk, though Ukrainian officials disputed his claim that the entire region had been brought under Russian control. At his scheduled summit with Putin on Friday, Trump is expected to press the Russian leader to agree to a peace deal. On Monday, he told reporters that he will probably know within the “first two minutes” of meeting Putin whether they can reach a deal and that any agreement would involve “some swapping, changes in land” between Moscow and Kyiv. Adblock test (Why?)

Trump admin orders Smithsonian museums to be reviewed for ‘Americanism’

Trump admin orders Smithsonian museums to be reviewed for ‘Americanism’

The White House has ordered an extensive review of the Smithsonian museums and exhibitions in advance of next year’s 250th anniversary of the United States, with the goal of aligning the institution’s content with President Donald Trump’s interpretation of US history. In a letter sent on Tuesday to Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lonnie Bunch III, the White House laid out in detail the steps it expects the organisation to take so that museum content can be reviewed for a focus on “Americanism”. The federal government will review public-facing museum content, such as social media, exhibition text and educational materials, to “assess tone, historical framing, and alignment with American ideals”, the letter said. “This initiative aims to ensure alignment with the President’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions,” the letter added. In a statement responding to the letter, the Smithsonian said it remained committed to “scholarly excellence, rigorous research, and the accurate, factual presentation of history”. “We are reviewing the letter with this commitment in mind and will continue to collaborate constructively with the White House, Congress, and our governing Board of Regents,” it said. The White House said that the review is in line with the Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History Executive Order, which Trump signed in March. At the time, the Congressional Black Caucus, made up of Black members of the US Congress, described the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict the Smithsonian Institution as “whitewashing our nation’s history”. Advertisement “Donald Trump’s idea that the National Museum of African American History and Culture is guilty of distorting our nation’s history or painting our ‘founding principles’ in a ‘negative light’ is patently ridiculous,” the caucus said in a statement. Visitors browse exhibits at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC, on April 29, 2025 [Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA] “Let’s be clear, Black history is American history. Any rhetoric that opposes this notion is not only factually incorrect but blatantly racist,” the caucus said. “It is the Trump Administration that bans books, words, and phrases that do not fit their narrative. It is the Trump Administration that wants to erase and retell our history,” the caucus added. The White House said the review would initially focus on the National Museum of American History, the National Museum of Natural History, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National Museum of the American Indian, the National Air and Space Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Portrait Gallery and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. The museums under review are all located in Washington, DC, where the president this week ordered the deployment of the US National Guard to tackle a purported crime wave that city officials in the capital have refuted. The museums all offer free admission and attract millions of visitors each year, with the National Museum of American History alone recording 2 million in-person visits in 2024. The Smithsonian has repeatedly denied allegations that it has changed or removed exhibit details in response to pressure from the Trump administration. Recently, the institution removed references to Trump’s two impeachments from an exhibit on the US presidency. The Smithsonian Institution said that a placard was removed for reasons related to consistency and because it “blocked the view of the objects inside its case”. “We were not asked by any Administration or other government officials to remove content from the exhibit,” the Institution said. The Smithsonian Institution, which runs 21 museums and the National Zoo, said at the time that the impeachment section of the museum would be updated in the coming weeks to “reflect all impeachment proceedings in our nation’s history”. Trump was impeached in January 2021, for “incitement of insurrection”, after a mob of his supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Adblock test (Why?)

Will Trump’s India tariffs shut down world’s biggest cut diamond supplier?

Will Trump’s India tariffs shut down world’s biggest cut diamond supplier?

For Kalpesh Patel, Diwali, the festival of lights celebrated across India, might well mark lights out for his eight-year-old diamond cutting and polishing unit. The 35-year-old employs about 40 workers who transform rough diamonds into perfectly polished gems for exports at the small factory in Surat, a city located in the western Indian state of Gujarat. His business has survived multiple speed bumps in recent years. But United States President Donald Trump’s mammoth 50 percent tariffs on imports from India might be the final nail in the coffin for his unit, part of an already struggling natural diamond industry, he said. “We still have some orders for Diwali and will try to complete them,” he told Al Jazeera. Diwali, arguably India’s single biggest festival, scheduled for late October this year, usually sees domestic sales of most goods soar. “But we might have to shut the business even before the festival, as exporters might cancel the orders due to high tariffs in the US,” Patesh said. “It is becoming increasingly difficult to pay the salaries and maintain other expenses with falling orders.” He is among the 20,000-odd small and medium traders in Surat, known as the “Diamond City of India”, which together cut and polish 14 out of every 15 natural diamonds produced globally. The US is their single largest export market. According to the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), India’s apex body for the industry, the country exported cut and polished gems worth $4.8bn to the US in the 2024-25 financial year, which ended in March. That is more than one-third of India’s total exports of cut and polished diamonds, at $13.2bn over the same period. Advertisement Dimpal Shah, a Kolkata-based diamond exporter, told Al Jazeera that orders have already started getting cancelled. “Buyers in the US are refusing to offload the shipped products, citing high tariffs. This is the worst phase of my two-decade-old career in diamonds.” Kalpesh Patel, who runs a diamond cutting and polishing business in Surat, Gujarat, fears that he may not be able to continue his business for long, because of US tariffs on Indian imports [Photo courtesy of Kalpesh Patel] US imposes penalty A 25 percent reciprocal tariff on all Indian goods, which Trump announced on April 2, came into effect on August 7, after talks between the two countries failed to yield a trade deal by then. Negotiations are continuing. Meanwhile, on August 6, Trump announced an additional 25 percent tariff, taking the total tariff rate to 50 percent. He termed the additional tariff that would come into effect from August 27 as a penalty for India’s continued buying of Russian oil, as the US president tries to push Moscow into accepting a ceasefire in Ukraine. For the gems industry, which already faced a pre-existing 2.1 percent tariff, the effective tariff now amounts to 52.1 percent. Ajay Srivastava, the founder of Global Research Trade Initiative (GTRI), a trade research group, termed the Trump government’s additional hike as an act of “hypocrisy”, citing how the US itself continues to trade with Russia, and how China – Russia’s biggest oil buyer – faces no similar penalty. “Trump is targeting India out of frustration as it refused to toe the US line on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and for its refusal to open its agriculture and dairy sector,” he added, referring to broader ongoing trade talks and differences over US demands for greater access to critical Indian economic sectors. Yet, whatever the reasons for Trump’s tariffs, they are hurting a diamond industry already bleeding from multiple hits. India supplies almost all of the world’s cut and polished diamonds, produced in small units across the state of Gujarat [Photo courtesy Ramesh Zilriya, president of the state’s Diamond Workers Association] Diamond sector badly hit More than 2 million people are employed in diamond polishing and cutting units in Surat, Ahmedabad and Rajkot cities in Gujarat — and many have already suffered salary cuts in recent years, first because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and then Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. “The pandemic led to economic slowdown affecting the international markets in Hong Kong and China,” Ramesh Zilriya, the president of Gujarat’s Diamond Workers Union, told Al Jazeera. The “Western ban on rough diamond imports from Russia due to the Russia-Ukraine war and the G7 ban on Russia also affected our business”, he added. Advertisement Russia has historically been a major source of raw diamonds. Zilriya claimed that 80 diamond workers have died by suicide over the past two years because of this economic crisis. “The situation in the international market led to the wages of the workers getting halved to approximately 15,000-17,000 rupees ($194) per month, which made survival difficult in the face of rising inflation,” he said. Once the Trump tariffs fully kick in, Zilriya fears that up to 200,000 people in Gujarat may lose their livelihoods. Already, more than 120,000 former diamond sector workers have applied for benefits. A 13,500-rupee ($154) allowance per child, to support their families, was promised in May by the state government to those who have lost jobs due to the tumult in the sector in recent years. But the tariffs, pandemic and war are not alone to blame for the crisis: Lab-grown diamonds are also slowly eating into the market of their natural counterparts. “Unlike natural [diamonds], the lab-grown diamonds are not mined but manufactured in specialised laboratories and priced at just 10 percent of the natural ones. It is difficult even for a seasoned jeweller to identify the natural and lab-grown with a naked eye. The taste of consumers is now shifting to lab-grown [diamonds], as they are cheap,” said Salim Daginawala, the president of the Surat Jewellers Association. A worker checks the polishing of a lab-grown diamond  in Surat, India, Monday, February 5, 2024 [Ajit Solanki/AP Photo] Decline in exports In the 2024-25 financial year, India imported rough diamonds worth $10.8bn, marking a 24.27 percent decline from the $14bn imported in 2023-24, as per the statistics by the