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Al Arabiya
3 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Judge orders Trump administration to halt random immigration stops, arrests in California
A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to halt indiscriminate immigration stops and arrests in seven California counties including Los Angeles. Immigrant advocacy groups filed the lawsuit last week accusing President Donald Trump's administration of systematically targeting brown-skinned people in Southern California during its ongoing immigration crackdown. The plaintiffs include three detained immigrants and two US citizens one who was held despite showing agents his identification. The filing in US District Court asked a judge to block the administration from using what they call unconstitutional tactics in immigration raids. Immigrant advocates accuse immigration officials of detaining someone based on their race carrying out warrantless arrests and denying detainees access to legal counsel at a holding facility in downtown LA. Tricia McLaughlin assistant secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security said in an email that any claims that individuals have been targeted by law enforcement because of their skin color are disgusting and categorically FALSE. McLaughlin said enforcement operations are highly targeted and officers do their due diligence before making arrests. Judge Maame E. Frimpong also issued a separate order barring the federal government from restricting attorney access at a Los Angeles immigration detention facility. Frimpong issued the orders the day after a hearing during which advocacy groups argued that the government was violating the Fourth and Fifth amendments of the constitution. Immigrants and Latino communities across Southern California have been on edge for weeks since the Trump administration stepped up arrests at car washes Home Depot parking lots immigration courts and a range of businesses. Tens of thousands of people have participated in rallies in the region over the raids and the subsequent deployment of the National Guard and Marines. The order also applies to Ventura County where busloads of workers were detained Thursday while the court hearing was underway after federal agents descended on a cannabis farm leading to clashes with protesters and multiple injuries. According to the American Civil Liberties Union the recent wave of immigration enforcement has been driven by an arbitrary arrest quota and based on broad stereotypes based on race or ethnicity. When detaining the three day laborers who are plaintiffs in the lawsuit all immigration agents knew about them is that they were Latino and were dressed in construction work clothes the filing said. It goes on to describe raids at swap meets and Home Depots where witnesses say federal agents grabbed anyone who looked Hispanic. ACLU attorney Mohammad Tajsar said Brian Gavidia one of the US citizens who was detained was physically assaulted … for no other reason than he was Latino and working at a tow yard in a predominantly Latin American neighborhood. Tajsar asked why immigration agents detained everyone at a car wash except two white workers according to a declaration by a car wash worker if race wasn't involved. Representing the government attorney Sean Skedzielewski said there was no evidence that federal immigration agents considered race in their arrests and that they only considered appearance as part of the totality of the circumstances including prior surveillance and interactions with people in the field. In some cases they also operated off targeted individualized packages he said. The Department of Homeland Security has policy and training to ensure compliance with the Fourth Amendment Skedzielewski said. Lawyers from Immigrant Defenders Law Center and other groups say they also have been denied access to a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in downtown LA known as B-18 on several occasions since June according to court documents. Lawyer Mark Rosenbaum said in one incident on June 7 attorneys attempted to shout out basic rights at a bus of people detained by immigration agents in downtown LA when the government drivers honked their horns to drown them out and chemical munitions akin to tear gas were deployed. Skedzielewski said access was only restricted to protect the employees and the detainees during violent protests and it has since been restored. Rosenbaum said lawyers were denied access even on days without any demonstrations nearby and that the people detained are also not given sufficient access to phones or informed that lawyers were available to them. He said the facility lacks adequate food and beds which he called coercive to getting people to sign papers to agree to leave the country before consulting an attorney. Attorneys general for 18 Democratic states also filed briefs in support of the orders. US Customs and Border Protection agents were already barred from making warrantless arrests in a large swath of eastern California after a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction in April.
Al Arabiya
3 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Trump voices shock at devastating scale of Texas flood damage
US President Donald Trump spoke Friday of seeing devastation like he'd never before experienced as he toured parts of Texas hit by devastating flash floods that have left at least 120 people dead, including dozens of children. The Republican leader and First Lady Melania Trump were in the Hill Country of central Texas to meet first responders, victims' families, and local officials, a week after a rain-swollen river swept away houses, camp cabins, cars, and people. 'This is a tough one. I've never seen anything like this,' Trump said at a roundtable meeting in Kerrville, in the worst-affected Kerr County. 'I've gone to a lot of hurricanes, a lot of tornadoes. I've never seen anything like this. This is a bad one.' Trump lashed out at reporters for questioning authorities' response to the disaster and said he wanted to focus on solidarity with emergency workers and volunteers. 'All across the country, Americans' hearts are shattered,' said Trump, speaking at a table draped in a black banner with the message 'Texas Strong.' 'I had to be here as president. The first lady wanted to be here.' He compared the suddenly rising floodwaters to a 'giant wave in the Pacific Ocean that the best surfers in the world would be afraid to surf.' Earlier, the Trumps were met by Governor Greg Abbott near the Guadalupe River in Kerrville, in an area with numerous downed trees and an overturned tractor trailer. They were briefed by Texas Emergency Management and Kerrville Fire Department officials, and greeted by 30 or so rescue workers and Coast Guard members. The search for more than 170 missing people — including five girls who were at summer camp — was in its eighth day as rescue teams combed through mounds of debris and mud. But with no live rescues reported this week, worries have swelled that the death toll could still rise. Trump has brushed off questions about the impact of his cuts to federal agencies on the response to the flood, which he described as a '100-year catastrophe' that 'nobody expected.' On Thursday, Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem, who was with Trump in Texas, defended the immediate response as 'swift and efficient.' But Texas officials have faced questions about why emergency evacuation messages to residents and visitors along the flooding Guadalupe River reportedly were delayed — in some cases by hours. Trump expressed support for a flood warning system in a telephone interview with NBC News on Thursday. The floods — among America's deadliest in recent years — have reopened questions about Trump's plans to phase out the federal disaster response agency FEMA in lieu of greater state-based responsibility. FEMA began its response to the Texas flash floods over the weekend after Trump signed a major disaster declaration to release federal resources. But the president has so far avoided addressing questions about its future. Noem insisted FEMA should be 'eliminated' in its current form at a government review meeting Wednesday. Officials in Kerr County, which sits astride the Guadalupe River in an area nicknamed 'Flash Flood Alley,' said at least 36 children were killed in the disaster at the start of the Fourth of July holiday weekend. Details have surfaced about reported delays to early alerts at a local level that could have saved lives. Experts say forecasters did their best and sent out timely and accurate warnings despite a sudden weather change. ABC News reported Thursday that at 4:22 a.m. on July 4, a firefighter in Ingram, upstream of Kerrville, had asked the Kerr County Sheriff's Office to alert residents of nearby Hunt to the coming flood. The network said its affiliate KSAT obtained audio of the call, and that the first alert did not reach Kerr County's CodeRED system for a full 90 minutes. In some cases, it said, the warning messages didn't arrive until after 10:00 a.m., when hundreds of people had already been swept away. The flooding of the Guadalupe River was particularly devastating for summer camps on its banks, including Camp Mystic, where 27 girls and counselors died.
Arab News
4 hours ago
- Arab News
State Department lays off over 1,300 employees under Trump administration plan
WASHINGTON: The US State Department fired more than 1,300 employees on Friday in line with a dramatic reorganization plan from the Trump administration that critics say will damage America's global leadership and efforts to counter threats abroad. The department sent layoff notices to 1,107 civil servants and 246 foreign service officers with assignments in the United States, according to a senior department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters. Notices said positions were being 'abolished' and the employees would lose access to State Department headquarters in Washington and their email and shared drives by 5 p.m., according to a copy obtained by The Associated Press. As fired employees packed their belongings, dozens of former colleagues, ambassadors, members of Congress and others spent a warm, humid day protesting outside. Holding signs saying, 'Thank you to America's diplomats' and 'We all deserve better,' they mourned the institutional loss from the cuts and highlighted the personal sacrifice of serving in the foreign service. 'We talk about people in uniform serving. But foreign service officers take an oath of office, just like military officers,' said Anne Bodine, who retired from the State Department in 2011 after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. 'This is not the way to treat people who served their country and who believe in 'America First.'' While lauded by President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and their Republican allies as overdue and necessary to make the department leaner and more efficient, the cuts have been roundly criticized by current and former diplomats who say they will weaken US influence and the ability to counter existing and emerging threats abroad. The layoffs are part of big changes to State Department work The Trump administration has pushed to reshape American diplomacy and worked aggressively to shrink the size of the federal government, including mass dismissals driven by the Department of Government Efficiency and moves to dismantle whole departments like the US Agency for International Development and the Education Department. USAID, the six-decade-old foreign assistance agency, was absorbed into the State Department last week after the administration dramatically slashed foreign aid funding. A recent ruling by the Supreme Court cleared the way for the layoffs to start, while lawsuits challenging the legality of the cuts continue to play out. The department had advised staffers Thursday that it would be sending layoff notices to some of them soon. In a May letter notifying Congress about the reorganization, the department said it had just over 18,700 US-based employees and was looking to reduce the workforce by 18 percent through layoffs and voluntary departures, including deferred resignation programs. 'It's not a consequence of trying to get rid of people. But if you close the bureau, you don't need those positions,' Rubio told reporters Thursday during a visit to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 'Understand that some of these are positions that are being eliminated, not people.' Foreign service officers affected will be placed immediately on administrative leave for 120 days, after which they will formally lose their jobs, according to an internal notice obtained by AP. For most civil servants, the separation period is 60 days, it said. Protesters gather to criticize the job cuts Inside and just outside the State Department, employees spent over an hour applauding their departing colleagues, who got more support — and sometimes hugs — from protesters and others gathered across the street. As speakers took to a bullhorn, people behind them held signs in the shape of gravestones that said 'democracy,' 'human rights' and 'diplomacy.' 'It's just heartbreaking to stand outside these doors right now and see people coming out in tears, because all they wanted to do was serve this country,' said Sen. Andy Kim, a New Jersey Democrat who worked as a civilian adviser for the State Department in Afghanistan during the Obama administration. Robert Blake, who served as a US ambassador under the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, said he came to support his peers at a very 'unjust time.' 'I have a lot of friends who served very loyally and with distinction and who are being fired for nothing to do with their performance,' Blake said. Gordon Duguid, a 31-year veteran of the foreign service, said of the Trump administration: 'They're not looking for people who have the expertise ... they just want people who say, 'OK, how high'' to jump. 'That's a recipe for disaster,' he added. The American Foreign Service Association, the union that represents US diplomats, said it opposed the job cuts during 'a moment of great global instability.' 'Losing more diplomatic expertise at this critical global moment is a catastrophic blow to our national interests,' the AFSA said in a statement. 'These layoffs are untethered from merit or mission.' As the layoffs began, paper signs started going up around the State Department. 'Colleagues, if you remain: resist fascism,' said one. An employee who was among those laid off said she printed them about a week ago, when the Supreme Court cleared way for the reductions. The employee spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation. She worked with about a dozen colleagues to put up the signs. They focused on bathrooms, where there are no security cameras, although others went in more public spaces. 'Nobody wants to feel like these guys can just get away with this,' she said. The State Department is undergoing a big reorganization The State Department is planning to eliminate some divisions tasked with oversight of America's two-decade involvement in Afghanistan, including an office focused on resettling Afghan nationals who worked alongside the US military. Jessica Bradley Rushing, who worked at the Office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts, known as CARE, said she was shocked when she received another dismissal notice Friday after she had already been put on administrative leave in March. 'I spent the entire morning getting updates from my former colleagues at CARE, who were watching this carnage take place within the office,' she said, adding that every person on her team received a notice. 'I never even anticipated that I could be at risk for that because I'm already on administrative leave.' The State Department said the reorganization will affect more than 300 bureaus and offices, as it eliminates divisions it describes as doing unclear or overlapping work. It says Rubio believes 'effective modern diplomacy requires streamlining this bloated bureaucracy.' The letter to Congress was clear that the reorganization is also intended to eliminate programs — particularly those related to refugees and immigration, as well as human rights and democracy promotion — that the Trump administration believes have become ideologically driven in a way that is incompatible with its priorities and policies. ___ Lee reported from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Amiri from New York. Chris Megerian in Washington contributed. ___ Follow the AP's coverage of the US Department of State at
