Latest news with #USMexicoBorder
RNZ News
2 days ago
- Business
- RNZ News
Defence spoke to tech company behind US-Mexico border security towers
Defence Minister Judith Collins. Photo: RNZ/Calvin Samuel The government is interested in how New Zealand might compete in supplying international markets with high-tech military systems. New documents released under the Official Information Act show the Defence Minister Judith Collins told a defence industry event in May that "delivering defence equipment needs to be done faster. We also need to be smarter". One way being looked at was to give "selected advanced technology firms access to NZDF test ranges and military use cases to prototype and experiment", her speech notes said. "The centre-of-gravity could lie in the areas where New Zealand can genuinely compete, such as space, autonomous systems, and sensors, which are also areas that have dual-use applications and, by association, large international markets." Dual-use is tech with both civilian and military or spying capabilities. Collins also said New Zealand had no intention to buy autonomous killer drones. The papers show the Defence Force has been in Australia looking at counter-drone systems and has had talks about an operating system used in hundreds of autonomous sentry towers on the US-Mexico border. Previously, Judith Collins, when asked if lethal drones might be deployed against enemy soldiers, did not rule it out and said it was the nature of warfare that sometimes people were injured or killed. However, in notes for the industry speech, the minister said while surveillance and reconnaissance drones were part of the defence capability plan, "so-called 'killer drones' (lethal autonomous weapons systems)" were not: "There is no intention for New Zealand to purchase this capability." Other documents show the Defence Force went to an airshow in Australia in March focused on the sort of counter-drone systems that Budget 2025 said were a priority to buy in the next four years . A briefing said Anduril was a big player in counter-drones, and that NZDF had discussed the US firm's operating system called Lattice, an artificial-intelligence system that can detect and distinguish between animals, humans and vehicles, from 3-15km away. The NZDF's main partner militaries in the US, Australia and UK are all increasingly using Anduril systems; New Zealand's strategy depends on staying interoperable with those forces. Donald Trump hired Anduril in 2019 to roll out over 300 border security towers that now cover about a third of the US southern border. The Australian Air Force has a deal with Anduril Australia to deliver counter drone services, and the UK has been buying advanced attack drones from Anduril to send to Ukraine. Another Anduril platform, called Menace, integrates Lattice with software from Palantir, another US high-tech firm that has pivoted to do much more defence work, to "increase operator lethality and survivability". Anduril, which calls its systems an "arsenal of democracy", was reported by Reuters as linking up with Palantir, ChatGPT creator OpenAI and Elon Musk's SpaceX, among others, to provide a "new generation of defence contractors". Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
ICE bars detained immigrants from getting bond hearings
The Trump administration wants to make millions of immigrants who entered the United States without legal authorization ineligible for bond hearings. This means they would need to remain in immigration detention as they fight deportation proceedings in court, which can take months and in some cases years. A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson told NBC News in an email Tuesday that the recently issued guidance "closes a loophole" in immigration law that had long been applied mostly to detain those who had recently arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border. 'All aliens seeking to enter our country in an unlawful manner or for illicit purposes shall be treated equally under the law, while still receiving due process,' the ICE spokesperson wrote. 'It is aligned with the nation's long-standing immigration law.' The Washington Post first reported about the new ICE memo instructing immigration officials to keep immigrants detained 'for the duration of their removal proceedings.' 'I don't think it's beyond anyone's notice that we are starting to see policies to keep people detained and keep people detained longer,' Vanessa Dojaquez-Torres, practice and policy counsel at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told NBC News. 'We're seeing the administration's goal of detaining and deporting more people grow,' Dojaquez-Torres added. The new guidance seems to give immigration authorities broader discretion to detain other types of immigrants — such as those who have lived in the U.S. for decades and have U.S. citizen children, and may potentially have legal pathways to remain in the country. Bond hearings help detainees show to immigration judges that they 'are not a flight risk or a public safety risk,' Dojaquez-Torres. Under the new policy guidance, 'the judge doesn't even have the power to hear your bond case,' Dojaquez-Torres said. 'It doesn't matter if you're the best person in the world, a judge won't be able to hear your case… If they are agreeing with DHS' view.' In a Tuesday post on X, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said President Donald Trump and his administration plan on "keeping these criminals and lawbreakers off American streets." "Now thanks to the Big Beautiful Bill," which set aside $45 billion to build new immigration detention centers, "we will have plenty of bed space to do so," DHS wrote on social media. Rebekah Wolf, director of immigration justice campaign at the American Immigration Council, told NBC News the organization has already received reports from across the nation of some immigration judges who are already 'accepting the argument' from DHS and ICE. 'And because the memo isn't public, we don't even know what law the government is relying on to make the claim that everyone who has ever entered without inspection is subject to mandatory detention,' Wolf said. There have also been reports of other immigration judges who have disagreed with the new guidance and have granted a bond hearing since the policy went into effect last week, Dojaquez-Torres said. In these cases, 'ICE has appealed and refused to release people in the interim until the appeal has been finalized.' In the memo, ICE acting Director Todd M. Lyons, who oversees the nation's immigration detention facilities, wrote that the new policy will likely face legal challenges, The Washington Post reported. This article was originally published on
Reuters
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Democrats' generational divide tested in Arizona special US House primary
WASHINGTON, July 15 Reuters) - Arizona Democrats on Tuesday will choose their nominee to run for a vacant U.S. House seat in September, as the party grapples with demands for generational change and divisions over just how progressive it can be in the era of President Donald Trump. With Democrats' losses in last year's presidential and congressional elections weighing heavily on the party nationwide, it has struggled over how best to appeal to young progressives while luring back working-class voters who shifted toward the Republican Party. The winner of Tuesday's primary is expected to prevail in the September 23 general election in the heavily Democratic district that stretches along the U.S.-Mexico border and includes parts of Tucson. Polls close at 7 p.m. MT (9 p.m. ET/0100 GMT). The front-runner is seen as Adelita Grijalva, who is seeking a seat formerly held by her father, Representative Raul Grijalva, who died in March. She leads a pack of five Democrats. A 54-year-old former county board supervisor, Grijalva has racked up notable backers spanning the party divide. They include environmental groups, labor unions and lawmakers who range from progressive luminaries such as Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York to the moderate Representative Marcy Kaptur of Ohio. But Deja Foxx, half Grijalva's age and emphasizing her youth, has been gaining attention in what some party activists say could be a shock victory for progressives on Tuesday much like Zohran Mamdani's in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary last month. Foxx, 25, won the endorsement of David Hogg, a survivor of a 2018 Florida school shooting who held a high position within the Democratic National Committee until he ruffled establishment feathers by threatening to help finance challengers to Democratic incumbents he deemed insufficiently progressive. A more moderate former Arizona state representative, Daniel Hernandez Jr., is also in the mix. He was an intern in 2011 when his boss, then-Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, was gravely wounded in an assassination attempt. Giffords, however, has endorsed Grijalva. Raul Grijalva won re-election in November, easily beating his Republican opponent by about 27 percentage points. Next year's midterm elections give Democrats the opportunity to capture a majority in the House, which currently is narrowly controlled by Republicans 220-212. Republicans also will hold a primary election for Grijalva's seat on Tuesday. Among the candidates are a construction worker and a man who is on probation following a felony fraud conviction, according to Arizona media reports.
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Democrats' generational divide tested in Arizona special US House primary
By Richard Cowan WASHINGTON Reuters) -Arizona Democrats on Tuesday will choose their nominee to run for a vacant U.S. House seat in September, as the party grapples with demands for generational change and divisions over just how progressive it can be in the era of President Donald Trump. With Democrats' losses in last year's presidential and congressional elections weighing heavily on the party nationwide, it has struggled over how best to appeal to young progressives while luring back working-class voters who shifted toward the Republican Party. The winner of Tuesday's primary is expected to prevail in the September 23 general election in the heavily Democratic district that stretches along the U.S.-Mexico border and includes parts of Tucson. Polls close at 7 p.m. MT (9 p.m. ET/0100 GMT). The front-runner is seen as Adelita Grijalva, who is seeking a seat formerly held by her father, Representative Raul Grijalva, who died in March. She leads a pack of five Democrats. A 54-year-old former county board supervisor, Grijalva has racked up notable backers spanning the party divide. They include environmental groups, labor unions and lawmakers who range from progressive luminaries such as Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York to the moderate Representative Marcy Kaptur of Ohio. But Deja Foxx, half Grijalva's age and emphasizing her youth, has been gaining attention in what some party activists say could be a shock victory for progressives on Tuesday much like Zohran Mamdani's in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary last month. Foxx, 25, won the endorsement of David Hogg, a survivor of a 2018 Florida school shooting who held a high position within the Democratic National Committee until he ruffled establishment feathers by threatening to help finance challengers to Democratic incumbents he deemed insufficiently progressive. A more moderate former Arizona state representative, Daniel Hernandez Jr., is also in the mix. He was an intern in 2011 when his boss, then-Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, was gravely wounded in an assassination attempt. Giffords, however, has endorsed Grijalva. Raul Grijalva won re-election in November, easily beating his Republican opponent by about 27 percentage points. Next year's midterm elections give Democrats the opportunity to capture a majority in the House, which currently is narrowly controlled by Republicans 220-212. Republicans also will hold a primary election for Grijalva's seat on Tuesday. Among the candidates are a construction worker and a man who is on probation following a felony fraud conviction, according to Arizona media reports.
Wall Street Journal
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
New ICE Policy Blocks Detained Migrants From Seeking Bond
WASHINGTON—The Trump administration is attempting to make millions of immigrants living in the country illegally ineligible to be released from detention on bond as they fight their deportation cases, according to an administration official familiar with the matter. The policy shift, issued under what's known as interim guidance by acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons last week, will apply to all immigrants who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, no matter when. Lyons told officers in a memo that such immigrants should remain in detention throughout their deportation proceedings, which can stretch for months or even years, according to the official, who had been briefed on the memo.
