Politics
Video: The Latest Challenge to the Voting Rights Act
OPEN: A court recent ruling recently could deliver a death blow to the Voting Rights Act – a law that has protected Black Americans’ political power the voting rights of minority communities for six decades./////A federal appeals court issued a ruling last month on an Arkansas redistricting case that could drastically weaken the Voting Rights Act, a law that has protected minority communities’ political power for almost six decades. ALT: A recent court ruling could make it harder for people to challenge state’s racially discriminatory voting practices. ALT : The Voting Rights Act has been the single most …. but a recent court ruling could ALT: As voting rights have become a flash issue, a recent court ruling in Arkansas could….. The ruling by the 8th Circuit appeals court, which is almost certain to be appealed to the Supreme Court, would effectively bar private citizens and civil rights groups from suing under section 2 of the law. To understand that, we need to take a quick look back at the law itself… Background on the Voting Rights Act The Voting Rights Act was signed into law in 1965, and was one of the most significant achievements of the civil rights movement. The law rolled back discriminatory Jim Crow laws that were meant to disenfranchise minority communities. Since then, it has evolved, and it’s been under attack almost since it was passed. Why Section 2 is so important This latest ruling affects Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which allows private citizens (and civil rights groups) to fight racially discriminatory voting practices by states. Over the years, dozens of lawsuits have used Section 2 to challenge heavily gerrymandered redistricting maps. But in 2021, when voters in Pulaski County, Arkansas challenged a redistricting that diluted the voting power of Black voters Judge Rudofsky, a Trump-appointed federal judge, ruled that “only the attorney general of the United States may bring suit” to enforce Section 2. That decision, which has since been upheld by the 8th Circuit Court, takes the power to file lawsuits to enforce the Voting Rights Act away from individual voters. Legal experts and commentators say this is a very unusual interpretation of the Voting Rights Act. In his dissent, Chief Circuit Judge Lavenski Smith noted that at least 182 successful Section 2 cases have been brought in the past 40 years, only 15 of which were brought solely by the US Justice Department./// Over the past 40 years, more than 90 percent of successful Section 2 cases were brought by individuals or civil rights organizations///Over the past four decades, fewer than 10 percent of successful section 2 cases were brought by the US DOJ The Arkansas ruling is almost certain to be appealed to the Supreme Court. [Several legal experts I spoke with said tktktkt] But for now, it only affects/applies to states in the 8th Circuit’s jurisdiction — Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. Could it impact any of these states in a way with national resonance? Whether or not the Supreme Court upholds this Eighth Circuit ruling, we’re almost certain to see other challenges to voting rights in the coming months.
Politics
Kash Patel vows to 'do everything' to help GOP senator expose Epstein files
Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s pick to head the FBI, pledged Thursday to work with a top Republican senator on exposing who worked with Jeffrey Epstein in trafficking and exploiting children.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., quizzed Patel about how he would handle the Epstein case. The sex-trafficking financier died in 2019 while awaiting trial. Nearly 200 names that had previously been redacted from court documents in a lawsuit against his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell were made public last year.
However, Blackburn said there is still more to be known, including the names of those who flew on his plane and accomplices.
KASH PATEL FLIPS SCRIPT ON DEM SENATOR AFTER BEING GRILLED ON J6 PARDONS: ‘BRUTAL REALITY CHECK’
“I want to talk to you about the Epstein case. I have worked on this for years trying to get those records of who flew on Epstein’s plane and who helped him build this international human trafficking sex trafficking ring,” she said.
She used her remarks to take a jab at former Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin.
“Now, earlier, I urged then Chairman Durbin to subpoena those records, and I ended up being blocked by Senator Durbin and Christopher Wray. They stonewalled on this,” she said. “And I know that breaking up these trafficking rings is important to President Trump. So will you work with me on this issue? So we know who worked with Jeffrey Epstein in building these sex trafficking rings?” she asked.
KASH PATEL HAMMERS ‘GROTESQUE MISCHARACTERIZATIONS’ FROM DEMS AMID FIERY FBI CONFIRMATION HEARING
“Absolutely, Senator,” Patel responded. “Child sex trafficking has no place in the United States of America. And I will do everything, if confirmed as FBI director, to make sure the American public knows the full weight of what happened in the past and how we are going to counterman missing children and exploited children going forward,” he said.
Following the exchange between Blackburn and Patel, Durbin requested to respond to Blackburn’s jab at him and accused the Tennessee senator of “falsely” accusing him “of preventing releasing the names of Jeffrey Epstein’s network.”
“My office subsequently reached out to hers to try to identify what records she was actually seeking. We did not receive a response,” he added.
Blackburn fired back and said she had “raised the issue with Chairman Durbin. I had raised it on the floor that we wanted to get these records… You sought not to recognize me.”
Patel’s nomination has sparked early criticism from some Democrats ahead of his confirmation hearing, who have cited his previous vows to prosecute journalists and career officials at the Justice Department and FBI that he sees as being part of the “deep state.”
Democrats had pointed to Patel’s record and a book, “Government Gangsters,” released in 2023 that claimed that “deep state” government employees have politicized and weaponized the law enforcement agency – and explicitly called for the revamp of the FBI in a chapter dubbed “Overhauling the FBI.”
Fox News’ Emma Colton and Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.
Politics
Trump’s orders have upended U.S. immigration. What legal routes remain?
Promising the largest deportation effort in U.S. history, President Trump, in his first days in office, has released a dramatic series of executive orders and other policy changes that will reshape the country’s immigration system — and the experience of what it means to live in the U.S. as an immigrant, particularly one who is undocumented.
There are an estimated 13 million to 15 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., including more than 2.5 million in California.
That includes people who crossed the border illegally, people who overstayed their visas and people who have requested asylum. It does not include people who entered the country under various temporary humanitarian programs, or who have obtained Temporary Protected Status, which gives people the right to live and work in the U.S. temporarily because of disasters or strife in their home countries.
However, many of the people who came to the U.S. using those legal pathways could also be at risk of deportation, because of other actions the Trump administration has taken.
What exactly has the Trump administration done?
Trump has signed multiple executive orders targeting immigration that, as the Migration Policy Institute noted, do one of three things: sharply limit legal pathways for entering the U.S., bolster enforcement efforts to seal off the U.S.-Mexico border or promote aggressive sweeps to round up and deport people living in the U.S. illegally. Some of the orders have already been challenged in court, and advocates said others could be soon.
Among the most consequential orders:
- The president declared a “national emergency” at the southern border, which will enable him to deploy military troops there.
- He moved to end birthright citizenship, which has long been guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. The American Civil Liberties Union and more than 20 states, including California, have sued, arguing the order is unconstitutional. In a ruling issued in one of those cases on Jan. 23, a federal judge temporarily halted the order while the legal challenges play out.
- He suspended the refugee admissions program as of Jan. 27 for at least 90 days. Last fiscal year, the U.S. resettled more than 100,000 refugees, the highest number in three decades.
Has the new administration done anything else that affects immigration?
Yes. Among the significant actions:
- Hours after Trump took office, his new administration shut down the CBP One mobile app. The Biden administration had expanded use of CBP One to create a more orderly process of applying for asylum. Migrants could use the app, once they reached Mexican soil, to schedule appointments with U.S. authorities at legal ports of entry to present their bids for asylum and provide biographical information for screening.
- In a related action, the administration has given Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials the power to quickly deport about 1.4 million immigrants who were granted legal entry to the U.S. for up to two years through two Biden-era programs: migrants who came in through the CBP One program and were granted parole status as they await hearings on their asylum pleas; and migrants fleeing Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti who were granted temporary parole while seeking asylum.
- In a notice posted Jan. 21, the administration said it would empower immigration authorities to fast-track deportations of people in the country illegally without a judicial hearing. The ACLU has sued to try to halt the plan.
- The Department of Homeland Security has rescinded long-standing guidelines prohibiting immigration agents from making arrests in “sensitive” locations such as schools, hospitals and churches.
- Benjamine Huffman, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, has declared a “mass influx” of illegal immigrants at the southern border, which authorizes the department to deputize state and local law enforcement officers to conduct immigration enforcement.
- ICE has begun conducting publicized immigration raids in many cities, including New York and Chicago. The administration said it was targeting undocumented people with criminal records. But in a briefing this week, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration views all undocumented immigrants as criminals, because they have violated immigration laws.
So, what are the numbers? Have more people been deported since Trump took office?
ICE authorities this week have been posting daily figures on the agency’s X account citing the number of undocumented immigrants arrested, including 1,179 on Jan. 27 and 969 on Jan. 28. Axios reported this week that ICE made 3,500 arrests during Trump’s first week in office. During Biden’s final year in office, the arrest number was about 350 a week.
It is too soon to evaluate deportation numbers. On Jan. 27, ICE posted on X that: “In one week, law enforcement officials have removed and returned 7,300 illegal aliens.”
If that pace continues, and ICE removes 7,300 immigrants every week for a year, that would result in the forced removal of more than 350,000 people. That figure would outpace removals during the Biden administration. But during the Obama administration, ICE removals peaked at nearly 410,000 in fiscal year 2012. Obama’s enforcement policies targeted undocumented immigrants with criminal records and people who had recently crossed the border without authorization, according to the Migration Policy Institute, while placing low priority on people with established roots in U.S. communities and without criminal records.
What are the current avenues for legal immigration?
- People who have a close family member who is a U.S. citizen can still apply. But if the Trump administration resurrects travel bans barring people from certain countries from entering the U.S., that could limit applications to certain nationalities.
- People deemed to have valuable skills can apply for temporary or permanent employment visas, although in many cases there are years-long waits for such visas. Employers can petition for temporary work visas for foreign nationals for specific jobs. Permanent work visas are capped at 140,000 per year, a figure that includes the immigrants plus their eligible spouses and minor, unmarried children, according to the American Immigration Council.
- Immigrants from countries with low rates of immigration to the U.S. are eligible for a green-card lottery.
- Visas are still available for parents adopting a child from another country.
What’s going on with Dreamers?
While Trump tried to rescind Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, during his first administration, he has not yet touched the program this time around.
The Obama-era program grants a renewable work permit and temporary reprieve from deportation to certain people who came to the U.S. as children. An estimated 537,730 people had DACA protection as of September, with the vast majority being from Mexico, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
The legality of the program remains mired in the federal courts.
What are sanctuary policies, and why is the Trump administration targeting them?
There isn’t one clear definition of a sanctuary policy. The term generally applies to policies that limit state and local officials from cooperating with federal authorities on civil immigration enforcement duties.
California’s 2017 sanctuary law, the California Values Act, prohibits state and local law enforcement agencies from investigating, interrogating and arresting people simply for immigration enforcement purposes. The law does not prevent federal authorities from carrying out those enforcement duties in California. And it does allow local police to cooperate with federal immigration officials in limited circumstances, including in cases involving immigrants convicted of certain violent felonies and misdemeanors.
Under L.A.’s sanctuary city law, city employees and city property may not be used to “investigate, cite, arrest, hold, transfer or detain any person” for the purpose of immigration enforcement. An exception is made for law enforcement investigating serious offenses. L.A. Unified’s sanctuary policy prohibits staff from voluntarily cooperating in an immigration enforcement action, including sharing information about a student’s immigration status.
An executive order issued on Trump’s first day in office threatens to withhold federal funds from sanctuary jurisdictions that seek to interfere with federal law enforcement operations. A memo from the Department of Justice, meanwhile, said state and local officials could be investigated and prosecuted for not complying with Trump’s crackdown on immigration enforcement.
California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta has called the pronouncement “a scare tactic,” and vowed legal action “if the Trump administration’s vague threats turn to illegal action.”
If immigration authorities make mass arrests, does the U.S. have space to detain all the immigrants?
That depends on several factors.
On average, nearly 40,000 people have been locked up in ICE detention centers on a daily basis during fiscal year 2025. There is probably capacity in the system for additional detainees, but how much isn’t entirely clear, according to Eunice Cho, senior staff attorney with the ACLU National Prison Project.
What is clear is that the administration intends to expand the ICE detention footprint. On Wednesday, Trump directed his administration to begin using the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for the detention of 30,000 “high priority” immigrants. The military also is allowing ICE to detain undocumented immigrants at Buckley Space Force Base in Colorado, according to multiple news reports.
ICE operates six detention facilities in California, with capacity for nearly 7,200 detainees, and is pressing to expand. Agency officials are looking for space to accommodate 850 to 950 people within two hours of its San Francisco regional field offices, a development first reported by CalMatters.
The agency is also looking to increase detention capacity in Arizona, New Mexico, Washington and Oregon, according to federal documents obtained by CalMatters.
ICE facilities, which are largely run by private prison corporations, have been dogged by allegations of poor medical care and inhumane treatment. A 2019 law that would have banned private immigration facilities in California was overturned by the federal courts.
Times staff writers Kate Linthicum, Brittny Mejia, Andrea Castillo and Rachel Uranga contributed to this report.
Politics
Sparks expected to fly at Kash Patel’s Senate confirmation hearing to lead FBI
President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, is expected to trade barbs with lawmakers in his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.
Patel, a former public defender, Department of Justice official and longtime Trump ally, will join the Senate committee at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, when lawmakers are anticipated to grill the nominee on plans detailed in his 2023 book to overhaul the FBI, his crusade against the “deep state” and his resume, as Democrats argue the nominee lacks the qualifications for the role.
The president and his allies, however, staunchly have defended Patel, with Senate Judiciary member Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., arguing that Democrats are “fearful” of Patel’s nomination and confirmation due to “what he’s going to reveal” to the general public.
“They are very fearful of Kash Patel, because Kash Patel knows what Adam Schiff and some of the others did with Russia collusion, and they know that he he knows – the dirt on them, if you will – and I think they’re fearful of what he’s going to do and what he’s going to reveal,” Blackburn said on Fox News on Sunday.
WHO IS KASH PATEL? TRUMP’S PICK TO LEAD THE FBI HAS LONG HISTORY VOWING TO BUST UP ‘DEEP STATE’
Patel, a New York native, worked as a public defender in Florida’s Miami-Dade after earning his law degree in 2005 from Pace University in New York City.
Patel’s national name recognition grew under the first Trump administration, when he worked as the national security advisor and senior counsel for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence under the leadership of Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif. Patel became known as the man behind the “Nunes Memo” – a four-page document released in 2018 that revealed improper use of surveillance by the FBI and the Justice Department in the Russia investigation into Trump.
Patel was named senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council in 2019. In that role, he assisted the Trump White House in eliminating foreign terrorist leadership, such as ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2019 and al Qaeda terrorist Qasim al-Raymi in 2020, according to his biography. His efforts ending terrorist threats under the Trump administration came after he won a DOJ award in 2017 for his prosecution and conviction of 12 terrorists responsible for the World Cup bombings in 2010 in Uganda under the Obama administration.
Following the 2020 election, Patel remained a steadfast ally of Trump’s, joining the 45th president during his trial in Manhattan in the spring of 2024, and echoing that the United States’ security and law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, need to be overhauled.
‘JUST LIKE TRUMP’: ISIS MURDER VICTIM KAYLA MUELLER’S PARENTS ENDORSE PATEL FOR FBI FOLLOWING MILITARY OP ROLE
Patel underscored in his 2023 book, “Government Gangsters,” that “deep state” government employees have politicized and weaponized the law enforcement agency – and explicitly called for the revamp of the FBI in a chapter dubbed “Overhauling the FBI.”
“Things are bad. There’s no denying it,” he wrote in the book. “The FBI has gravely abused its power, threatening not only the rule of law, but the very foundations of self-government at the root of our democracy. But this isn’t the end of the story. Change is possible at the FBI and desperately needed.”
“The fact is we need a federal agency that investigates federal crimes, and that agency will always be at risk of having its powers abused,” he wrote, advocating the firing of “corrupt actors,” “aggressive” congressional oversight over the agency and the complete overhaul of special counsels.
FORMER TRUMP OFFICIALS REJECT WHISTLEBLOWER CLAIM THAT FBI DIRECTOR NOMINEE KASH PATEL BROKE HOSTAGE PROTOCOL
Patel adds in his book: “Most importantly, we need to get the FBI the hell out of Washington, D.C. There is no reason for the nation’s law enforcement agency to be centralized in the swamp.”
Trump heralded the book as a “roadmap” to exposing bad actors in the federal government and said it is a “blueprint to help us take back the White House and remove these Gangsters from all of Government.”
Patel has spoken out against a number of high-profile investigations and issues he sees within the DOJ in the past few years. He slammed the department, for example, for allegedly burying evidence related to the identity of a suspect who allegedly planted pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican parties in Washington, D.C., a day ahead of Jan. 6, 2021.
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Patel has also said Trump could release both the Jeffrey Epstein client list and Sean “Diddy” Combs party attendee lists, which could expose those allegedly involved in sex and human trafficking crimes.
Senate Democrats received an anonymous whistleblower report that was publicly reported Monday alleging Patel violated protocol during a hostage rescue mission in October 2020, an allegation Trump’s orbit has brushed off.
The whistleblower claimed that Patel leaked to the Wall Street Journal that two Americans and the remains of a third were being transferred to U.S. custody from Yemen, where they had been held hostage by Houthi rebels, before the hostages were actually in U.S. custody. Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, obtained the whistleblower report.
A transition official pushed back on the report in a statement to Fox News Digital on Tuesday, saying Patel has a “track record of success.”
‘WHEN THEY FAIL, AMERICANS DIE’: TRUMP SOURCE BLASTS FBI, URGES SWIFT CONFIRMATION OF KASH PATEL AS DIRECTOR
“Mr. Patel was a public defender, decorated prosecutor, and accomplished national security official that kept Americans safe,” the official said. “He has a track record of success in every branch of government, from the courtroom to congressional hearing room to the situation room. There is no veracity to this anonymous source’s complaints about protocol.”
Alexander Gray, who served as chief of staff for the White House National Security Council under Trump’s first administration, called the allegation “simply absurd.”
Patel’s nomination comes after six of Trump’s nominees were confirmed by the Senate, including Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth – who also was viewed as a nominee who faced an uphill confirmation battle.
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The Senate schedule this week was packed with hearings besides Patel’s, with senators grilling Secretary of Health and Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday and also holding the hearing for Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination to serve as director of national intelligence.
Patel heads into his hearing armed with a handful of high-profile endorsements, including the National Sheriffs’ Association and National Police Association.
Carl and Marsha Mueller, the parents of ISIS murder victim Kayla Mueller, also notably endorsed Patel, Fox News Digital exclusively reported on Tuesday. Patel helped oversee a military mission in 2019 that killed ISIS leader al-Baghdadi, who was believed to have repeatedly tortured and raped Kayla Mueller before her death in 2015.
Patel “loves his country. He loves the people of this country,” Marsha Mueller told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview via Zoom on Monday morning. “To us, you know, he is a person that we would go to for help. And he is so action oriented.”
“Just like Trump,” Carl Mueller added to his wife’s comments on Patel’s action-motivated personality.
Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.
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