A federal judge has struck down the Trump administration's $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas, contradicting an earlier federal court ruling upholding the fee hike. The administration announced the much-higher fee as a way of preventing foreign workers from taking American jobs. Schools and states say filling teacher and doctor jobs was already hard enough before the fee hike.
President Donald Trump says he'll nominate Todd Blanche to serve as attorney general, tapping his former personal lawyer who has aggressively pursued the Republican president's agenda while leading the Justice Department in an acting role.
And as he looks forward to celebrating his 80th birthday party Sunday with a UFC cage match, Trump has begun suggesting that the eight-sided, wire-mesh cage could become a permanent South Lawn fixture.
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Trump’s enforcers are poised to ramp up deportations
The Senate completed its work last week, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska the only Republican to oppose it. If the House approves, Trump's signature would all but assure an essentially uninterrupted flow of funds for his immigration enforcement and deportation agenda into 2029.
The Department of Homeland Security is under new leadership after Trump replaced Kristi Noem with new Secretary Markwayne Mullin. He has vowed to keep the department out of the headlines, but the administration is under pressure from anti-immigration advocates to deliver on Trump's campaign promise of the largest deportation operation in American history.
So far, the administration has not hit its goal of 1 million deportations a year, but Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, has promised more to come, including hinting at enforcement in New York, the nation’s biggest city, which is heavily Democratic.
House Majority leader says ICE funding is long overdue. Top Democrat calls it a blank check
“We have to fund border security and immigration enforcement, and it’s sad that Republicans have to do it on our own,” Johnson said.
The Republican-controlled Congress already provided nearly $140 billion for ICE and Customs and Border Protection as part of Trump's tax and spending cuts bill.
Democrats wanted significant changes after the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis — insisting for example that agents be required to display their ID badges and get a judicial warrant before entering private property. Instead, the funding will come with virtually no strings attached.
“We believe that taxpayer dollars should be used to make life more affordable for the American people – not give ICE another $70 billion blank check so that they can unleash brutality on American citizens and violently target law-abiding immigrant communities,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said.
House set to fund Trump’s immigration actions for rest of his term
House Republicans hope to get nearly $70 billion for immigration enforcement over the finish line Tuesday, enough to fund a pair of Homeland Security agencies through the rest of President Donald Trump's time in office.
Speaker Mike Johnson will need near perfect attendance and GOP unity for the final votes. The legislation got sidetracked when Republicans sought to include $1 billion for enhanced White House security amid Trump's new ballroom construction, and a $1.8 billion compensation fund for Trump's allies. Both proved politically toxic and were scrapped.
Now, the bill is focused entirely on fueling Trump's deportation agenda, a topic Republicans hope will carry them to victory in this year's midterm elections. The bill provides $38 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, $26 billion for the Border Patrol and another $5 billion to cover unforeseen costs.
House set to fund Trump’s immigration actions for rest of his term
House Republicans hope to get nearly $70 billion for immigration enforcement over the finish line Tuesday, enough to fund a pair of Homeland Security agencies through the rest of President Donald Trump's time in office.
Speaker Mike Johnson will need near perfect attendance and GOP unity for the final votes. The legislation got sidetracked when Republicans sought to include $1 billion for enhanced White House security amid Trump's new ballroom construction, and a $1.8 billion compensation fund for Trump's allies. Both proved politically toxic and were scrapped.
Now, the bill is focused entirely on fueling Trump's deportation agenda, a topic Republicans hope will carry them to victory in this year's midterm elections. The bill provides $38 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, $26 billion for the Border Patrol and another $5 billion to cover unforeseen costs.
Maine primary tests Platner’s support following mounting scandals
Voters across Maine, Nevada, South Carolina and North Dakota are casting ballots in another day of primary elections in America, but much of the political world will be focused on Maine’s high-stakes U.S. Senate contest.
Neither Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins nor Democratic challenger Graham Platner faces serious opposition for their party’s nomination, but the vote will test Platner’s credibility after his progressive campaign has been rocked by controversy over his past behavior.
Elsewhere, Trump's clout within the GOP will be tested anew in states where he's endorsed primary candidates.
▶ Follow the latest election-related developments
With jet fuel costs soaring 78% higher, airlines profits could drop by half
Oil and jet fuel costs have soared since the U.S. and Israeli war with Iran halted most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. airlines spent more than $6 billion on jet fuel in April, up 78% from a year earlier, according to government data.
Delta, American and United all gained between 1% and 2% overnight, but the airline industry's top global trade group warned that soaring energy costs could nearly halve this year's profits for major carriers, even as they raise airfares, cancel flights and trim schedules.
Elevated oil prices have sent broader inflation higher, increasing household bills. They've also hiked bond market yields worldwide, which threatens to slow economies and undercut all kinds of investments. The 10-year Treasury yield was holding around 4.55% early Tuesday, up from 4.01% before the Iran war.
The U.S. government will issue its wholesale prices data on Tuesday and consumer prices on Wednesday.
From tennis to T-ball, the White House’s South Lawn is no stranger to sports. But not like the UFC
The White House and its storied South Lawn are no strangers to sporting events. But they've never seen anything like the UFC bout President Donald Trump is hosting to celebrate his 80th birthday on Sunday or the eight-sided, wire-mesh cage complete with an open overhead dome featuring large screens that are surrounded by thousands of arena seats.
Sometimes called America’s backyard, the South Lawn was until now known for low-contact sports and joyful events geared toward children or bipartisanship, like the annual Easter Egg Roll or the congressional picnic.
The same space being used for blood sport, feting a president who relishes it and playing out in a hulking structure featuring a complicated overhead lighting scheme known as The Claw, illustrates yet another of the White House norms that Trump is gleefully laying to rest — or, in UFC parlance, forcing to tap out.
That the president has begun suggesting that he could make the cage-fighting venue a permanent South Lawn fixture further underscores just how far from T-ball the White House has come.
Donald Trump booed by the crowd during the anthem prior to Game 3 of the NBA Finals
Trump was booed loudly by fans inside MSG when he was shown on video screens during the national anthem as he became the first sitting president to attend an NBA Finals game.
Chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!” echoed through the arena as Avery Wilson sang “The Star-Spangled Banner,” but they gave way to boos moments later as Trump was displayed on the jumbo screens giving a military salute. The jeers ended when the U.S. flag followed him on the screens, and fans cheered when New York Knicks players were shown. Mentions of the San Antonio Spurs also elicited vociferous boos.
The president was unfazed. “It was, I think, mostly cheers,” he told reporters after the game before boarding Air Force One to return to Washington. “It was loud, and it was very enthusiastic.”
Trump watched Game 3 from Knicks owner James Dolan’s suite, along with granddaughter Kai, personal adviser Boris Epshteyn and Cabinet secretaries Lee Zeldin, Sean Duffy and Doug Burgum. He sat next to Dolan for the first quarter and spent part of the second talking to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bruce Blakeman.
Trump administration will offer expedited visa interviews at select embassies for $750
The State Department will offer a "premium" expedited service for foreigners seeking business or tourist visas to come to the United States that will set applicants back $750 — on top of the initial fee of $185.
In a notice to be published in the Federal Register this week, the department will unveil a pilot program that will allow visa applicants to pay the $750 to schedule an appointment for an interview within 10 days of the payment at select U.S. embassies and consulates.
The pilot program will run from July 1 to Dec. 31, according to internal documents obtained by The Associated Press and a State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the program has not yet been announced.
The move is a potential effort to ease conditions caused by the Trump administration's push to make entering the United States more difficult. The administration has cracked down on most forms of migration for foreigners — demanding that bonds of up to $15,000 be paid for visa processing in some, mainly African, countries and requiring years of personal history, including social media accounts, to be vetted.
Republican senators warn surveillance program may lapse after Trump intel pick backlash
Republicans are warning the White House that a critical surveillance authority is likely to lapse this week amid bipartisan backlash over Trump's pick to temporarily lead the nation's intelligence community.
Sen. Tom Cotton, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sounded the alarm in a letter over the weekend after a failed procedural vote to extend the program.
The senators urged Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also acts as the president’s National Security Advisor, to prepare “for a potential significant gap in foreign intelligence collection” if the authority expires. Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, set to lapse June 12, allows agencies, including the CIA, National Security Agency and FBI to collect communications from foreign targets overseas without a warrant.
In a response obtained by The Associated Press, Rubio replied to the senators that he understands the “political challenges” but said he is “deeply disappointed” that Democrats are opposing the legislation.
Federal judge strikes down Trump’s $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas
A federal judge on Monday struck down the Trump administration's $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas, contradicting an earlier federal court ruling upholding the fee hike.
The administration announced the much-higher fee as a way of preventing foreign workers from taking American jobs.
But U.S. District Court Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston sided with 20 states and struck down the visa policy, concluding that the executive branch exceeded its authority and violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs how federal agencies develop and issue regulations.
“The Court finds that the Policy imposes a tax on H-1B petitions without the requisite delegation by Congress,” Sorokin wrote.
H-1B visas are meant for high-skilled jobs that are difficult to find American workers to fill. Deep-pocketed technology companies are the biggest users, with nearly three-quarters of approvals going to workers from India. The states argued that using the H-1B program to fill vacancies for much-needed doctors and teachers was already difficult before the higher fee.
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