IPNEWS: President Donald Trump says deportation for the first batch of immigrants would begin January 22,2025. In his first television interview in the Oval Office since returning to the White House, he told Fox News he “might have to” cut funding for sanctuary cities, rebuffed concerns over IKTOK and CRITICIZED Bind’s pardon’s.
Immigration agenda: Trump’s crakdown on immigration is in full force. The acting secretary of defense directed 1,500 ground personnel to the southern border. A new justice Department memo outlines plans to challenge sanctuary city laws by threatening to prosecute officials who resist.
• Laken Riley Act: The House voted Wednesday to pass the act, a GOP-led bill to require detention of undocumented migrants charged with certain crimes, handing an early legislative win to Trump and congressional Republicans.
• Sharp words for Putin: In the latest in a string of critical comments about President Vladmir Putin, Trump warned he would inflict heavy economic pain on Russia if the country’s president doesn’t quickly end the war in Ukraine, saying: “We can do it the easy way, or the hard way.”
Justice Department issues memo threatening to prosecute officials who resist immigration crackdown
A new Justice Department memo outlines the Trump administration’s plans to challenge sanctuary city laws by threatening to prosecute state and local officials who resist the federal immigration crackdown, according to a copy of the document obtained by CNN.
The memo from acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove also says that federal prosecutors who decline to prosecute those immigration cases will be reported immediately the Justice Department for investigation and potential prosecution.
The three-page directive shows how the Trump team has spent weeks trying to craft memos that they hope have a better chance of withstanding legal challenges.“Federal law prohibits state and local actors from resisting, obstructing and otherwise failing to comply with lawful immigration-related commands and requests,” the memo reads. “The U.S. Attorney’s Offices and litigating components of the Department of Justice shall investigate incidents involving any such misconduct for potential prosecution.” The memo instructs the department’s civil division to help identify state and local laws and policies that “threaten to impede” Trump’s immigration initiatives and to challenge those laws in court.
Bove’s memo calls the changes interim policy guidance while the department awaits the confirmation of Pamela Bondi as attorney general.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Monday moved to remove protection against deportation from hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans in the U.S., part of President Donald Trump’s expanding immigration crackdown.
The decision means about 348,000 Venezuelans with Temporary Protected Status, more than half of all Venezuelans in the program, could be deported and lose work permits in April, according to a government notice.
The notice said the protections were contrary to U.S. interests and no longer justified by conditions in Venezuela.
Trump, a Republican, took office on Jan. 20 vowing to crack down on illegal immigration and humanitarian programs he says go beyond the intent of U.S. law. Trump tried to end most enrollment in the temporary protection program during his first term but was stymied by federal courts.
The status is available to people whose home country has experienced a natural disaster, armed conflict or other extraordinary event.
