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Trump rethinking next week’s planned immigration raids, report says

This image released by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shows a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) officer guarding suspected illegal aliens on August 7, 2019. (AFP file photo)
This image released by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shows a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) officer guarding suspected illegal aliens on August 7, 2019. (AFP file photo)
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Updated 19 January 2025

Trump rethinking next week’s planned immigration raids, report says

Trump rethinking next week’s planned immigration raids, report says
  • “President Trump has been clear from day one ... he’s going to secure the border and he’s going to have the deportation operation,” Homan told Fox News ahead of Trump’s inauguration on Monday

WASHINGTON: President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration is reconsidering plans for immigration raids in Chicago next week after details were leaked, Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan told the Washington Post in an interview on Saturday.
The new administration “hasn’t made a decision yet,” said Homan, the former acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the report. “We’re looking at this leak and will make decision based on this leak,” he added.
ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Officials and rights advocates had said Trump’s administration would launch sweeps in multiple US cities almost as soon as he takes office on Monday, with Chicago considered a likely first location.
Dulce Ortiz, president of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, told Reuters that as many as 200 ICE agents were expected to start raids in the Chicago area on Monday at 5 a.m., aiming to catch people heading into work or starting their day.
The enforcement had been expected to continue for several days, she said. An ICE spokesperson referred questions to the Trump transition team, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Reuters reported Friday that agents would also conduct raids in New York and Miami. The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that ICE would stage a week-long operation in Chicago with potentially hundreds of agents.
Trump said in an NBC News interview on Saturday that launching the mass deportations he promised in his election campaign would be a top priority. But he declined to identify the cities targeted or when deportations would start.
“It will begin very quickly,” said Trump. “We have to get the criminals out of our country.”
Homan himself had appeared to confirm the raids earlier on Saturday, telling Fox News that “targeted enforcement operations” would quickly pursue some of what he said were 700,000 migrants who are in the US illegally and under deportation orders. He indicated the efforts would occur in several cities.
“President Trump has been clear from day one ... he’s going to secure the border and he’s going to have the deportation operation,” Homan told Fox News ahead of Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
Homan said the agency had carefully planned the operation and identified specific individuals for enforcement.
“Every target for this operation is well-planned, and the whole team will be out there for officers’ safety reasons,” he said.
Asked how the detention operations would be received in so-called sanctuary cities, which have pledged not to use city resources for federal immigration raids, Homan said sanctuary city policies were “unfortunate.”
In the case of targeted individuals who are already in local jails, he said the cities’ stance creates a threat to public safety. Cities would “release that public safety threat back into the community....and force (ICE) officers into communities,” Homan said.
He urged public officials of those cities to assist in the deportation raids, but added, “We’re going to do this, with or without their help. They are not going to stop us.”


Indonesian police clash with protesters against parliamentarians’ salaries

Indonesian police clash with protesters against parliamentarians’ salaries
Updated 25 August 2025

Indonesian police clash with protesters against parliamentarians’ salaries

Indonesian police clash with protesters against parliamentarians’ salaries
  • Protesters marched through the streets around the parliament building, calling for a salary cut for parliamentarians

JAKARTA: Police fired tear gas and used a water cannon to push back hundreds of demonstrators trying to break into Indonesia’s parliament building on Monday to protest against what they called excessive pay and perks for legislators, witnesses said.

Some protesters, clad in dark clothing, threw rocks and set off fireworks at riot police in the capital Jakarta.

At least one motorcycle was set ablaze by protesters.

Protesters marched through the streets around the parliament building, calling for a salary cut for parliamentarians, according to a press release by Gejayan Memanggil, one of the groups organizing the protest formed by students in the Yogyakarta province.

This month, local media reported parliamentarians were paid upwards of 100 million rupiah ($6,150) a month, including a substantial housing allowance. While Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s largest economy, that remuneration is far above the average income in the archipelago of 3.1 million rupiah.

Demonstrators also protested against what they termed policies that benefit conglomerates and the military, the press release said.

Some were seen on television footage carrying a flag from the Japanese manga series “One Piece,” which has become a symbol of protest against government policies in the country.

Jakarta police spokesperson Ade Ary Syam Indradi told reporters 1,250 police personnel were deployed to maintain security around the building.

The parliament’s speaker and deputy speakers of parliament, as well as a spokesperson for Prabowo, did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

Parliament speaker Puan Maharani told local media she would accommodate all aspirations from the public.


Norway teen suspected of terrorism after social worker murder

Norway teen suspected of terrorism after social worker murder
Updated 25 August 2025

Norway teen suspected of terrorism after social worker murder

Norway teen suspected of terrorism after social worker murder
  • In 2011, right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people, most of them youths, by setting off a van bomb outside the government offices in Oslo and then opening fire at a Labour Party youth camp on the island of Utoya
  • Norwegian media reported the suspect planned to attack a mosque, but the prosecutor did not confirm this

OSLO: An 18-year-old Norwegian is suspected of terrorism after the murder of a social worker in Oslo which may have been racially-motivated, authorities said Monday.
The woman, who worked in a home helping integrate vulnerable young people into society, was killed overnight Saturday to Sunday at her workplace. According to media, she was stabbed to death.
Lawyers representing the family identified the victim as 34-year-old Tamima Nibras Juhar, born in Ethiopia.
The suspect, a resident at the home, was arrested in Oslo after the attack and has admitted to playing a role in the murder, police said.
Police said Monday the preliminary charges against the suspect had been expanded to include terrorism.
“During his interrogation, he also said he planned to hurt several people,” deputy prosecutor Philip Green said.
“At this stage, we believe he planned to spread terror among part of the population and that’s why he is now the subject of a terrorism investigation,” Green said.
According to the prosecutor, the suspect “expressed hostile opinions toward Muslim people.”
Norwegian media reported the suspect planned to attack a mosque, but the prosecutor did not confirm this.
The teen, who is believed to have acted alone, was to appear before a judge before being placed in detention.
Norway has seen several far-right attacks.
In 2011, right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people, most of them youths, by setting off a van bomb outside the government offices in Oslo and then opening fire at a Labour Party youth camp on the island of Utoya.
In August 2019, Philip Manshaus opened fire in a mosque on Oslo’s outskirts before being overpowered. No one was seriously hurt, but before the attack he killed his adopted Asian half-sister in a racially-motivated act.
Both men were sentenced to 21-year prison sentences, which can be extended as long as they are considered a risk to society.


Trump suggests Americans ‘like a dictator’

Trump suggests Americans ‘like a dictator’
Updated 25 August 2025

Trump suggests Americans ‘like a dictator’

Trump suggests Americans ‘like a dictator’
  • Republican Trump deployed the National Guard to Washington earlier this month to counter what he alleged was an out-of-control crime problem, also taking federal control of the city’s police department

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Monday suggested Americans would like a dictator as he signed orders to tighten his federal clampdown on the capital Washington and to prosecute flag-burners.
In a rambling 80-minute event in the Oval Office, Trump lambasted critics and the media as he complained that he was not getting credit for his National Guard-backed crackdown on crime and immigration.
“They say ‘we don’t need him. Freedom, freedom. He’s a dictator. He’s a dictator.’ A lot of people are saying: ‘Maybe we like a dictator,’” Trump told reporters.
But he then insisted: “I don’t like a dictator. I’m not a dictator. I’m a man with great common sense and a smart person.”
Trump — who attempted to overturn the results of his 2020 election defeat by Joe Biden at the end of his first term — said before winning a second term in November that he would be a “dictator on day one.”
Republican Trump deployed the National Guard to Washington earlier this month to counter what he alleged was an out-of-control crime problem, also taking federal control of the city’s police department.
Trump said he was considering whether to send in the military to the cities of Chicago and Baltimore as he targets a series of Democratic strongholds. He sent the National Guard to Los Angeles — against the mayor’s and governor’s wishes — in June.
The president was particularly disparaging of Illinois governor and vocal opponent JB Pritzker, who has strongly rejected any move to send in troops to Chicago.
“When I see what’s happening to our cities, and then you send them, and instead of being praised, they’re saying, ‘you’re trying to take over the Republic,’” said Trump.
“These people are sick.”
On Monday, he further tightened his clampdown by signing an executive order to investigate and prosecute people who burn the US flag — despite a 1989 ruling by the Supreme Court saying that the act is protected by freedom of speech laws.
“If you burn a flag you get one year in jail — no early exits, no nothing,” Trump said.

Trump announced new measures tightening his grip on security in Washington, ordering Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to set up a specialized unit within Washington’s National Guard for public order, and ending cashless bail.
He also indicated that he would soon be changing the name of Hegseth’s department.
“World War Two, it was called the Department of War,” Trump told reporters. “Between us, I think we’re going to change the name.”
Democrats have repeatedly accused Trump of pushing presidential power way past its constitutional limits, most recently by deploying the National Guard in the US capital.
Billionaire Trump has also clamped down on everything from the federal bureaucracy and “woke” politics to his political opponents.
But the 79-year-old rejected all the criticisms in his angry and wide-ranging diatribe in the Oval Office, speaking for more than 45 minutes before taking reporters’ questions.
Trump rejected opponents who have called him racist by proclaiming “I love Black People” — before describing a Salvadoran man who is set to be deported to Uganda in an immigration row as an “animal.”
He went on a long detour about what he called a lack of gratitude from Pritzker about measures to tackle an invasive fish species in the Great Lakes.
“We have a very, pretty violent fish that comes from China. China carp, Chinese carp. You see them jumping out — they jump into boats and they jump all over the place,” Trump said.
Trump also called his Democratic predecessor Biden a “moron” and dismissed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s brutal 2022 invasion of Ukraine as being the result of “big personality conflicts.”
 

 


US judge temporarily blocks deportation of Salvadoran man in immigration row

US judge temporarily blocks deportation of Salvadoran man in immigration row
Updated 25 August 2025

US judge temporarily blocks deportation of Salvadoran man in immigration row

US judge temporarily blocks deportation of Salvadoran man in immigration row
  • Lawyers for Abrego Garcia immediately filed a lawsuit contesting his deportation and District Judge Paula Xinis temporarily blocked his removal from the country
  • Attempt to deport Abrego Garcia to Uganda adds a new twist to a saga that became a test case for Trump’s sprawling crackdown on illegal immigration

BALTIMORE: A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the deportation to Uganda of a Salvadoran man at the center of a row over US President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported to El Salvador in March and then sent back to the United States, was arrested in Baltimore on Monday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on X.
Abrego Garcia, 30, who was released last week from a jail in Tennessee, where he is facing human smuggling charges, and allowed to go home to Maryland pending trial, “will be processed for removal to Uganda,” the Department of Homeland Security said.
Lawyers for Abrego Garcia immediately filed a lawsuit contesting his deportation and District Judge Paula Xinis temporarily blocked his removal from the country while she holds further hearings on his case.
Abrego Garcia was required to check in with ICE in Baltimore on Monday as one of the conditions of his release.
Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, one of Abrego Garcia’s lawyers, told a crowd of supporters outside the ICE field office that his client was immediately taken into custody when he turned up for the appointment.
“Shame, shame,” chanted the protesters, who were holding signs reading “Free Kilmar” and “Remove Trump.”
The attempt to deport Abrego Garcia to Uganda adds a new twist to a saga that became a test case for Trump’s sprawling crackdown on illegal immigration — and, critics say, his trampling of the law.
Abrego Garcia had been living in the United States under protected legal status since 2019, when a judge ruled he should not be deported because he could be harmed in his home country.
Then he became one of more than 200 people sent to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison in March as part of Trump’s crackdown on undocumented migrants.
But Justice Department lawyers admitted that the Salvadoran had been wrongly deported due to an “administrative error.”
He was returned to US soil only to be detained again in Tennessee on human smuggling charges.
Abrego Garcia denies any wrongdoing, while the Trump administration alleges he is a violent MS-13 gang member involved in smuggling of other undocumented migrants.
On Thursday, when it became clear that Abrego Garcia would be released the following day, government officials made him a plea offer: remain in custody, plead guilty to human smuggling and be deported to Costa Rica.
He declined the offer.
“That they’re holding Costa Rica as a carrot and using Uganda as a stick to try to coerce him to plead guilty to a crime is such clear evidence that they’re weaponizing the immigration system in a manner that is completely unconstitutional,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said.
The case has become emblematic of Trump’s crackdown on illegal migration.
Right-wing supporters praise the Republican president’s toughness, but legal scholars and human rights advocates have blasted what they say is a haphazard rush to deport people without even a court hearing, in violation of basic US law.


UK migrant arrivals on small boats reach new record

UK migrant arrivals on small boats reach new record
Updated 25 August 2025

UK migrant arrivals on small boats reach new record

UK migrant arrivals on small boats reach new record
  • Record 28,076 migrants reach UK in small boats so far in 2025
  • Labour government pledges asylum system overhaul by 2029
  • Opposition politician Farage proposes mass deportations of migrants

LONDON: A record 28,076 migrants have crossed the Channel to Britain in small boats this year, a 46 percent rise on the same period in 2024, government data showed on Monday, piling pressure on Prime Minister Keir Starmer over his handling of immigration.

The sharp increase comes amid mounting public concern over immigration, which is polling as the public’s top concern, with anti-migrant protests continuing outside hotels housing asylum seekers.

The record was reached on Sunday after 212 migrants arrived in four different boats that day, the data showed.

The Home Office, or interior ministry, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Demonstrations took place across Britain over the weekend following a court ruling last week that ordered the removal of asylum seekers from a hotel in Epping, north-east of London, the latest flashpoint in the immigration debate.

Starmer’s Labour government has pledged to phase out hotel use by 2029 and to overhaul the asylum system. On Sunday it announced reforms to speed up asylum appeals and reduce a backlog of more than 100,000 cases.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, the country’s interior minister, said the changes were aimed at restoring “control and order” to a system she described as “in complete chaos.”

Official data last week showed asylum claims were at a record high, with more migrants being housed in hotels compared with a year ago.

Nigel Farage, leader of the right-wing Reform UK party that has topped recent surveys of voting intentions, outlined plans for “mass deportations” of migrants arriving by small boats.

These would include taking Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights, barring asylum claims, and building detention centers for 24,000 people.

He told The Times newspaper he would strike repatriation deals with countries such as Afghanistan and Eritrea, and arrange daily deportation flights.