The Biden administration will support a U.N. treaty this week that will create a new cybercrime convention that includes China and Russia — which has not sat well with some lawmakers and critics. 

Since 2001, the global governance around cybercrime has largely been coordinated by the Budapest Convention, a product of the Council of Europe that includes 76 countries. It does not include Russia or China. However, under the U.N.’s new cybercrime convention, these two adversarial nations will be welcomed into the global cybercrime governance fold.  

The move, confirmed by top officials familiar with the issue, has been met with concern from those who fear that a new global alliance on cybersecurity involving two of the nation’s most adversarial nations could spell trouble.

CYBER-ATTACKS AGAINST AMERICANS AT ALL TIME HIGH OVER PAST TWO YEARS

“We recognize that defending human rights and core principles of internet freedom is not easy,” a group of Democratic lawmakers on the Hill wrote last week to top officials in the Biden administration, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, Jake Sullivan. “Russia, China and other regimes opposed to democratic freedoms are always working to create international legitimacy for their actions and worldview … Unfortunately, these efforts – while laudable – are insufficient to fix fundamental flaws in the convention.”

IRAN TRIED TO INFLUENCE ELECTION BY SENDING STOLEN MATERIAL FROM TRUMP CAMPAIGN TO BIDEN’S CAMP

The decision to support the new treaty came after months of deliberations between the Biden administration and others, including hundreds of nongovernmental entities involved in human rights and other relevant issues. According to a senior administration official, the U.S. “decided to remain with consensus,” arguing the U.S.’s sway on global “rights-respecting” cybersecurity policy will be greater under the new convention.

Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, Oct. 22, 2024. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/Pool via REUTERS)

To help address concerns that have been raised about the convention, the Biden administration plans to develop a risk management plan and will engage with nongovernmental stakeholders to help refine it. 

A “consensus proceeding” took place Monday, and the resolution was approved without a vote. According to Politico, it is expected to be adopted by the General Assembly later this year. 

A person tries to log into a laptop.

Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump announced on Monday that he would be nominating New York GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik to be the next U.N. ambassador in his administration.

The White House declined to comment on the record for this story.

President-elect Donald Trump said his election victory “gives me a very big mandate to do things properly” in a newly released video by Indonesia’s president. 

Prabowo Subianto could be heard congratulating Trump, adding, “Wherever you are, I am willing to fly to, to congratulate you personally sir.” 

“We had a great election in the U.S…. Amazing what happened, we had tremendous success. The most successful in over 100 years they say. It’s a great honor and so it gives me a very big mandate to do things properly,” Trump told him at one point in the conversation. 

Subianto also told Trump, “We were all shocked when they tried to assassinate you, but we are very happy that the almighty protected you sir.” 

TRUMP EXPECTED TO NAME SEN. MARCO RUBIO AS SECRETARY OF STATE 

“Yes, I got very lucky. I just happened to be in the right place in the right direction otherwise I wouldn’t be talking to you right now,” Trump responded. “I got quite lucky actually, somebody was protecting me I guess.” 

Subianto, a former Indonesian military general and defense minister, was sworn in as the country’s eighth president on Oct. 20. 

TRUMP LIKELY TO MAKE SEVERAL BORDER SECURITY MOVES ON FIRST DAY, SAYS EXPERT 

Former President Donald Trump pumps his fist as he arrives to speak at a campaign event at Nassau Coliseum on Sept.18 in Uniondale, N.Y.  (AP/Alex Brandon)

“Whenever you are around you let me know and I’d like to also get to your country sometime, it’s incredible, the job that you are doing is incredible,” Trump told Subianto during the call. “You’re a very respected person and I give you credit for that, it’s not easy.” 

“Please send the people of Indonesia my regards,” he added. 

Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto shake hands during a signing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing, on Saturday, Nov. 9.  (Florence Lo/Pool Photo via AP)

In a statement on X alongside the video, Subianto said, “I am looking forward to enhance the collaboration between our two great nations and to more productive discussions in the future.”

WASHINGTON —  The morning after former President Trump won a second term on a promise to deport millions of immigrants, a line formed outside a Riverside County legal aid organization before it had even opened its doors.

Legal permanent residents wanted help applying for citizenship. Asylum seekers who had given the federal government their home addresses wondered whether they should pack up and move.

A woman in the country illegally told the organization that her children had refused to go to school because they feared she would be detained while they were away. A man said he had stayed home from his landscaping job.

“It’s all hands on deck right now,” said Luz Gallegos, executive director of the TODEC Legal Center. “We have to prepare for the worst.”

Trump has listed mass deportations and the curtailing of temporary legal status for millions of immigrants as among his top priorities. His newly appointed “border czar,” Tom Homan, said Monday that the Trump administration will prioritize deporting people who are living in the country illegally and pose a threat to public safety. He also said officials will increase workplace raids as part of a crackdown on labor and sex trafficking.

“If sanctuary cities don’t want to help us, then get out of the way, because we’re coming,” Homan said in an interview on “Fox & Friends.”

California leaders and immigrant rights organizations are responding with promises of legal action and assurances to protect immigrant residents from Trump policies. Gov. Gavin Newsom last week called a special session of the Legislature to safeguard the state’s progressive policies, including on immigration. California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta has vowed to defend the state’s policies in court.

Advocates are urging the Biden administration to bolster protections for immigrants ahead of Trump’s inauguration by redesignating certain countries for temporary protected status and prioritizing pending work permit applications.

In California, they hope to expand programs offering pro bono legal representation to immigrants facing deportation proceedings. They will also push local governments to enshrine sanctuary policies that go beyond the state’s sanctuary law.

Luz Gallegos, executive director of the TODEC Legal Center in Riverside County, is helping immigrants prepare for Trump’s promised deportations.

(Mark Boster/For The Times)

During Trump’s previous term, advocates for immigrants held frequent “know your rights” sessions and encouraged families to establish contingency plans. Parents signed guardianship agreements allowing family members or friends to care for their children if they were detained. Immigrants carried business cards listing their rights (ask to see a warrant, request an attorney, remain silent) and the phone numbers for rapid-response networks that would go to the scene of an immigration arrest.

Now organizations across California are mobilizing the same tactics to prepare for another Trump administration. They are trying to walk a fine line between being realistic about possible federal actions and not adding to people’s fears.

“We take him at his word,” said Angelica Salas, executive director of CHIRLA — the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles. “Members of immigrant rights organizations are completely clear-eyed about the fact that what is coming toward us is cruelty and manufactured pain for political outcomes.”

Salas said CHIRLA has received inquiries from schools, health clinics and labor unions to do on-site “know your rights” sessions. Advocacy organizations are also coordinating to maximize their reach. Last week CHIRLA joined hundreds of organizations in launching “We Are California,” an effort that aims to, among other things, rebuild rapid-response networks.

Nana Gyamfi, executive director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, who is based in L.A., said she particularly worries that Black immigrants will face heightened racism because the Trump campaign stoked lies that Haitian immigrants were eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.

“You can tell people are tired,” she said, “because we know as Black people that the hammer comes down on us harder.”

Joao Morales moved to L.A. from Nicaragua under the Biden administration’s program offering legal entry and temporary work permits to immigrants from certain countries who obtained financial sponsors.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

Joao Morales, 29, moved to Los Angeles from Nicaragua in August 2023 under the Biden administration’s program offering legal entry and temporary work permits to immigrants from certain countries who obtained financial sponsors.

Amid the uncertainty of what another Trump administration could mean for his ability to stay in the U.S., he has been attending meetings organized by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network to teachimmigrants throughout the country to advocate for themselves.

“With everything he has been saying and everything he plans to do to the migrant community, it’s not looking good,” Morales said. “The most important thing is that we unite.”

Still, several organizations expressed concern about how much it will cost to inform immigrant residents, provide legal representation to those facing deportation, resist federal infringement and advance local policies that will bolster protections for immigrants. They also face a more limited landscape of legal options, as the judiciary is more conservative because of judges Trump appointed in his first term.

“We don’t have the courts like we did last time, but we still have the Constitution, we still have civil rights, we still have local laws,” Salas said.

Advocates also plan to push back against efforts to expand immigrant detention facilities and ensure the state utilizes its watchdog powers. A new California law allows county health officers to inspect immigrant detention facilities. But GEO Group, which operates most of the state’s facilities, sued last month, saying the requirement significantly burdens federal immigration enforcement in violation of the Constitution.

“We’ve been here before,” said Talia Inlender, deputy director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA. “And we know how to fight back.”

People who came to the U.S. as children and now have temporary status under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the Obama-era program that protects them from deportation and allows them to work legally, are also concerned about their futures under a second Trump term.

Born in Yugoslavia, Edvin Dapcevic has lived in the U.S. since he was 4. He is an executive who leads a sales team at a major tech company in Los Angeles, and asked that The Times not name the company publicly.

Dapcevic said Trump’s election has forced him to begin thinking about moving to another country, which would mean leaving behind his mother, a permanent resident, and brother, a U.S. citizen.

He noted that tech leaders such as Elon Musk and David Sacks, both South African immigrants who supported Trump’s bid for reelection, have been vocal about the U.S. needing highly skilled immigrants. He said he wishes he could tell them and the president-elect about the hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients such as himself, who have already been vetted and could fill that gap.

“I don’t have a concrete future in this country,” Dapcevic said. “I grew up here, pay taxes, have never been in trouble, never been arrested. I’m forced to identify [what country] might give me a permanent home — and it saddens me to say that America has not done that.”

Riverside residents Monica Gonzalez and Myra Diaz listen to representatives from the TODEC legal aid group.

(Mark Boster/For The Times)

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Last week at TODEC, the legal aid organization in Perris, one of the people who showed up seeking advice was another DACA recipient, Marta, who asked to be identified only by her first name. The 23-year-old from Mexico said she fears being laid off from her restaurant job.

She worries even more about her parents, who are in the country illegally. During Trump’s last presidency, when they were afraid immigration agents would show up at their door, the family put a tinted film over their windows that blocks people from seeing in but allows them to see out.

“The fear of deportation worries us the most,” she said. “He started off strong during his first term, and this time I feel like he might come stronger.”