US Senate begins voting on Trump tax-cut and spending bill
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Arab News
an hour ago
- Arab News
Pro-Palestinian Georgetown student can remain free, US appeals court rules
WASHINGTON: A pro-Palestinian Georgetown University student from India, detained by President Donald Trump's administration but then released on a judge's order, can remain free while fighting deportation efforts, a US appeals court ruled on Tuesday. A three-judge panel of the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 against the administration's request that Badar Khan Suri be returned to immigration detention. The 4th Circuit said it found no grounds to overturn the decision by US District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles to order Suri's release. 'To allow the government to undermine habeas jurisdiction by moving detainees without notice or accountability reduces the writ of habeas corpus to a game of jurisdictional hide-and-seek,' Judge James Andrew Wynn wrote on Tuesday. Habeas corpus refers to a procedure under which the legality of a person's incarceration can be challenged in court. Suri, 41, was arrested in Virginia in March and then moved by the US government to Texas, where he was released in May after the ruling by Giles. Suri is a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown's Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, part of the Jesuit university's School of Foreign Service. The Trump administration has attempted to deport foreign pro-Palestinian student protesters while accusing them of being antisemitic, threats to American foreign policy and extremist sympathizers. Suri has denied the US government's allegations that he spread Palestinian militant propaganda and antisemitism on social media. Protesters, including some Jewish groups, have said the US government has conflated criticism of Israel's military assault in Gaza with antisemitism and advocacy for Palestinian rights with support for extremism. Human rights advocates have raised free speech and due process concerns over the administration's actions toward these students. Other pro-Palestinian students who were arrested by the government and subsequently released under judicial orders include Columbia University students Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi and Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk. Suri's wife, Mapheze Saleh, is a US citizen. Saleh is from Gaza, according to the Georgetown University website, which said she has written for Al Jazeera and Palestinian media outlets and worked with the foreign ministry in Gaza. Saleh was not arrested.
Asharq Al-Awsat
an hour ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Trump Escalates Feud with Musk, Threatens Tesla, SpaceX Support
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to cut off the billions of dollars in subsidies that Elon Musk's companies receive from the federal government, in an escalation of the war of words between the president and the world's richest man, one-time allies who have since fallen out. The feud reignited on Monday when Musk, who spent hundreds of millions on Trump's re-election, renewed his criticism of Trump's tax-cut and spending bill, which would eliminate subsidies for electric vehicle purchases that have benefited Tesla, the leading US EV maker. That bill passed the Senate by a narrow margin midday Tuesday. "He's upset that he's losing his EV mandate and ... he's very upset about things but he can lose a lot more than that," Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday. Though Musk has often said government subsidies should be eliminated, Tesla has historically benefited from billions of dollars in tax credits and other policy benefits because of its business in clean transportation and renewable energy. The Trump administration has control over many of those programs, some of which are targeted in the tax bill, including a $7,500 consumer tax credit that has made buying or leasing EVs more attractive for consumers. Tesla shares dropped more than 5% Tuesday. The Tesla CEO renewed threats to start a new political party and spend money to unseat lawmakers who support the tax bill, despite campaigning on limiting government spending. Republicans have expressed concern that Musk's on-again, off-again feud with Trump could hurt their chances to protect their majority in the 2026 midterm congressional elections. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pushed back on Musk's criticism that the bill would balloon the deficit, saying, "I'll take care of" the country's finances. Musk spearheaded the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), aimed at cutting government spending, before he pulled back his involvement in late May. Trump on Truth Social on Tuesday suggested Musk might receive more subsidies "than any human being in history, by far," adding: "No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE." Trump later doubled down, telling reporters with a smile, "DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon." In response to Trump's threats, Musk said on his own social media platform X, "I am literally saying CUT IT ALL. Now." He later added that he could escalate the exchange with Trump but said, "I will refrain for now." CHALLENGES TO TESLA The feud could create new challenges for Musk's business empire, particularly as the electric automaker — his primary source of wealth — bets heavily on the success of its robotaxi program currently being tested in Austin, Texas. The speed of Tesla's robotaxi expansion depends heavily on state and federal regulation of self-driving vehicles. "The substance of Tesla's valuation right now is based on progress towards autonomy. I don't think anything is going to happen on that front, but that is the risk," said Gene Munster, managing partner at Tesla investor Deepwater Asset Management. Analysts expect another rough quarter when the EV maker reports second-quarter delivery figures on Wednesday. Sales in major European markets were mixed, data showed Tuesday, as Musk's embrace of hard-right politics has alienated potential buyers in several markets worldwide. The elimination of the EV credit could hit Tesla's earnings by as much as $1.2 billion, about 17% of its 2024 operating income, J.P. Morgan analysts estimated earlier this year. The Electrification Coalition, an EV advocacy group, on Tuesday urged the US House to revise the Senate bill. Shares of smaller EV players Rivian and Lucid Group lost 2% and 3.8%, respectively, on Tuesday. Gary Black, a longtime Tesla investor who manages money for the Future Fund LLC, sold his shares recently as car sales declined. He told Reuters he is considering when to reinvest and that eliminating electric vehicle credits would harm Tesla. In a separate post on X, Black said: 'Not sure why @elonmusk didn't see this coming as a result of him speaking out against passage of President Trump's big beautiful bill.' The US Transportation Department regulates vehicle design and will play a key role in deciding if Tesla can mass-produce robotaxis without pedals and steering wheels, while Musk's rocket firm SpaceX has about $22 billion in federal contracts. Tesla also gets regulatory credits for selling electric vehicles, and has reaped nearly $11 billion by selling those credits to other automakers who are unable to comply with increasingly strict vehicle emissions rules. Without those sales, the company would have posted a first-quarter loss in April. Trump had in early June threatened to cut Musk's government contracts when their relationship erupted into an all-out social media brawl over the tax-cut bill, which non-partisan analysts estimate would add about $3 trillion to the US debt. Asked if he was going to deport Musk, a naturalized US citizen, Trump told reporters as he left the White House on Tuesday: "I don't know. We'll have to take a look."
Asharq Al-Awsat
2 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Trump Tours ‘Alligator Alcatraz' as He Pushes for More Deportations
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday toured a remote migrant detention center in the Florida Everglades dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" as his Republican allies advanced a sweeping spending bill that could ramp up deportations. The facility sits some 37 miles (60 km) from Miami in a vast subtropical wetland teeming with alligators, crocodiles and pythons, fearsome imagery the White House has leveraged to show its determination to purge migrants it says were wrongly allowed to stay in the country under former President Joe Biden's administration. Trump raved about the facility's quick construction as he scanned rows of dozens of empty bunk beds enclosed in cages and warned about the threatening conditions surrounding the facility. "I looked outside and that's not a place I want to go hiking anytime soon," Trump said at a roundtable event after his tour. "We're surrounded by miles of treacherous swampland and the only way out is really deportation." The complex in southern Florida at the Miami-Dade Collier Training and Transition Airport is estimated to cost $450 million annually and could house some 5,000 people, officials estimate. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has said he will send 100 National Guard troops there and that people could start arriving at the facility as soon as Wednesday. In promoting the opening of the facility, US officials posted on social media images of alligators wearing Immigration and Customs Enforcement hats. The Florida Republican Party is selling gator-themed clothing. Two environmental groups filed a legal motion last week seeking to block further construction of the detention site, saying it violated federal, state and local environmental laws. The lawsuit, filed in US district court, said construction will lead to traffic, artificial light and the use of large power generators, all of which would "significantly impact" the environment. The groups, Friends of the Everglades and Center for Biological Diversity, said the site is located at or near the Big Cypress National Preserve, a protected area that is a habitat for endangered Florida panthers and other animals. "Putting aside whether intractable political gridlock over immigration reform constitutes an 'emergency,' it does not give license to the state and federal governments to simply disregard the laws that govern federal projects affecting environmentally sensitive lands, essential waterways, national parks and preserves, and endangered species," the groups wrote. Some local leaders, including from the nearby Miccosukee and Seminole tribes, have objected to the facility's construction and the construction has drawn crowds of demonstrators. Trump dismissed environmental concerns on Tuesday, saying in wide-ranging remarks that the wetlands' wildlife would outlast the human species. He said the detention facility was a template for what he'd like to do nationwide. "We'd like to see them in many states," Trump said. HARDLINE POLICIES The Republican-controlled US Senate voted on Tuesday to pass a bill that adds tens of billions of dollars for immigration enforcement alongside several of the president's other tax-and-spending plans. Trump has lobbied fiercely to have the bill passed before the July 4 Independence Day holiday, and the measure still needs a final sign-off from the House of Representatives. The Republican president, who maintains a home in Florida, has for a decade made hardline border policies central to his political agenda. One in eight 2024 US election voters said immigration was the most important issue. But Trump's campaign pledges to deport as many as 1 million people per year have run up against protests by the affected communities, legal challenges, employer demands for cheap labor and a funding crunch for a government running chronic deficits. Lawyers for some of the detained migrants have challenged the legality of the deportations and criticized the conditions in temporary detention facilities. The numbers in federal immigration detention have risen sharply to 56,000 by June 15, from 39,000 when Trump took office, government data show, and his administration has pushed to find more space. The White House has said the detentions are a necessary public safety measure, and some of the detained migrants have criminal records, though US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention statistics also show an eight-fold increase in arrests of people charged only with immigration violations. Trump has spoken admiringly of vast, isolated prisons built by El Salvador and his administration has held some migrants at the Guantanamo Bay naval base, in Cuba, best known for housing foreign terrorism suspects following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. US Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat who represents a district near the Florida facility, said in an emailed statement that 'Trump and Republicans badly need this wasteful, dangerous, mass misery distraction' from a bill that would cause state residents to lose their health care benefits.
