Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), says all the migrants whom the Trump administration sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador last month are “actually terrorists, human rights abusers, gangsters, and more,” even if they “don’t have a rap sheet in the U.S.” She adds that “we have a […]
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, led by guards through the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador. (NA)  When the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump Administration must “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran migrant illegally deported to imprisonment in El Salvador, I noted it was an important victory for immigrant rights, but also […]
Earlier this month, the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) forged an agreement to share taxpayer data with federal immigration officials. According to a partially redacted memorandum of understanding, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “will come to the IRS with the names and address[es] of taxpayers that they believe have violated federal immigration […]
A bill that Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed into law last week requires residents of that state to obtain the government’s permission and complete 12 hours of firearms training before they can legally obtain semiautomatic rifles that accept detachable magazines. The law, which Polis improbably claims “will make Colorado safer,” imposes broad restrictions on firearm […]
In the wake of what President Donald Trump called “Liberation Day,” Victor Owen Schwartz has been scrambling. As the owner of VOS Selections, a New York-based importer and distributor of wines and spirits, Schwartz is required by state law to list his prices every month on a publicly available database. The day after Trump’s tariffs […]
The Trump Administration changed the name of the body of water between Florida and Texas to the Gulf of America. The Associated Press still calls it the Gulf of Mexico. In response, the Trump Administration excluded the wire service from White House press events. The AP sued three officials within the Trump Administration, seeking to […]
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)—the federal body that regulates America’s nuclear power plants—has long been criticized for stunting domestic nuclear power production with stringent regulations. Nuclear energy developers and states are pushing back. In December, Utah, Texas, and microreactor company Last Energy sued the NRC, challenging the agency’s regulatory authority. Last week, underground nuclear energy […]
Happy Tax Day (if any tax day can be happy) and welcome to another edition of Rent Free. This week’s stories include: Single-stair reform takes a big step forward in Austin, Texas. Parking reform advances in Washington. But first, our lead item on a permitting story from hell that shows just how thin America’s property […]
On April 4, a federal district court ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate and effectuate the return…to the United States” of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a man whom the Trump administration admits that it unlawfully deported to a Salvadoran prison because of an “administrative error.” On April 10, the U.S. Supreme Court largely affirmed the […]
On the campaign trail, President Donald Trump said that he was going to take away visas from “antisemitic foreigners” on college campuses. But his first target, Mahmoud Khalil, is not a visa holder; he is a legal permanent resident and the husband of an American citizen, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents discovered as […]