Today is Thursday, Sept. 4, the 247th day of 2025. There are 118 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Sept. 4, 1949, more than 140 people were injured following a performance by singer Paul Robeson in Peekskill, New York, as an anti-Communist mob attacked departing concertgoers.

Also on this date:

In 1781, Los Angeles was founded by Spanish settlers under the leadership of Governor Felipe de Neve.

In 1944, during World War II, British troops liberated Antwerp, Belgium.

In 1957, Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus ordered Arkansas National Guardsmen to prevent nine Black students from entering all-white Central High School in Little Rock.

In 1972, U.S. swimmer Mark Spitz became the first to win seven medals at a single Olympic Games, winning a seventh gold at the Munich Olympics in the 400-meter medley relay.

In 1972, the longest-running game show in U.S. history, “The Price is Right,” debuted on CBS.

In 1974, the United States established diplomatic relations with East Germany.

In 1998, Google was founded by Stanford University Ph.D. students Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

In 2016, elevating the “saint of the gutters” to one of the Catholic Church’s highest honors, Pope Francis canonized Mother Teresa, praising her radical dedication to society’s outcasts and her courage in shaming world leaders for the “crimes of poverty they themselves created.”

In 2018, the Senate Judiciary Committee began confirmation hearings for future Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh on a day that saw rancorous exchanges between Democrats and Republicans.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Golf Hall of Famer Raymond Floyd is 83.
• Golf Hall of Famer Tom Watson is 76.
• Actor Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs is 72.
• Actor Khandi Alexander is 68.
• Actor-comedian Damon Wayans Sr. is 65.
• Baseball Hall of Famer Mike Piazza is 57.
• DJ-musician-producer Mark Ronson is 50.
• Actor Wes Bentley is 47.
• Actor Max Greenfield is 46.
• Singer-actor Beyoncé is 44.
• Actor-comedian Whitney Cummings is 43.
• Actor-comedian Kyle Mooney (TV: “Saturday Night Live”) is 41.

By MARY CLARE JALONICK

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican senators say they are prepared to change the chamber’s rules to get around the Democratic blockade of President Donald Trump’s nominees and are discussing a proposal to make it easier to confirm multiple nominees at once.

The Democrats’ obstruction is “historic and unprecedented,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said after meeting with his conference on Wednesday. “It is not something we can sustain.”

Republicans have been talking about options for changing the rules since early August, when the Senate left for a monthlong recess after a breakdown in bipartisan negotiations over the confirmation process. Democrats have blocked nearly every single one of Trump’s nominees, forcing majority Republicans to spend valuable floor time on procedural votes and leaving many positions in the executive branch unfilled.

GOP senators discussed one proposal in a private meeting on Wednesday that would enable them to confirm large tranches of nominees “en bloc,” or several at once, if a majority of senators agree, according to multiple senators who attended the meeting.

Currently, the objection of a single senator forces multiple votes on most nominations. The rules change would likely only apply to executive branch nominations, not lifetime judicial appointments, and would exclude many of the most high-profile positions, such as Cabinet nominees, that require a longer debate time.

The rules change would require several floor votes and the support of a simple majority, so at least 51 out of the chamber’s 53 Republicans. But most GOP senators appear to be on board.

“Expect us to move forward with a plan that would enable us to clear the backlog of nominees,” Thune said after the GOP conference meeting. “It just flat has to happen.”

Republicans said after the meeting that they discussed proposals that they knew they would have to live with under Democratic presidents, as well.

“You always worry about what’s going to happen when the shoe is on the other foot, but this is historic obstruction,” said Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the No. 2 Republican.

The latest standoff comes as Democrats and Republicans have gradually escalated their obstruction of the other party’s executive branch and judicial nominees over the last two decades, and as Senate leaders in both parties have changed the rules every few years to confirm more nominees without bipartisan support.

In 2013, Democrats changed Senate rules for lower court judicial nominees to remove the 60-vote threshold for confirmations as Republicans blocked President Barack Obama’s judicial picks. In 2017, Republicans did the same for Supreme Court nominees as Democrats tried to block Trump’s nomination of Justice Neil Gorsuch.

While Senate Republicans blocked many of President Joe Biden’s nominees, forcing similar delays in confirmations, Democrats have blocked almost all of Trump’s picks. It’s the first time in recent history that the minority party hasn’t allowed at least some quick confirmations.

The delays have infuriated Trump, who told Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer to “GO TO HELL!” in a social media post after negotiations broke down over the process in early August.

Schumer said then that a rules change would be a “huge mistake,” especially as Senate Republicans will need Democratic votes to pass spending bills and other legislation moving forward.

Schumer said in a Wednesday statement that Republicans’ proposed plan “guts the Senate’s constitutional role of advice and consent, weakens our checks and balances, and guarantees that historically bad nominees will only get worse with even less oversight.”

But Republicans say they are loosely basing their plan on legislation proposed by Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar in 2023, as Republicans blocked Biden nominees, to streamline Senate confirmations by allowing up to 10 nominees to be considered at the same time.

“The slowdown of the confirmation process that we’ve seen in the Senate under the last several administrations is preventing key officials from taking up their positions,” Klobuchar said at the time. “This commonsense reform will help improve efficiency and make sure we’re able to fill positions that are vital to our national security, economic success, and more.”

Republicans said their proposal could go beyond 10 nominees at once, however — potentially clearing the way for Republicans to move more than 100 pending nominations in the coming weeks.

Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., said Republicans are hoping to move “sooner, not later — we need to get caught up.”

By MATT BROWN and KEVIN FREKING

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House rejected a resolution to censure Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., and remove her from a committee that oversees immigration and national security as she faces federal charges stemming from a visit to an immigration detention facility.

The House voted 215-207 to table the measure, a sign that some were uncomfortable moving forward with censure while McIver’s case is still pending in the courts. A trial in her case has been scheduled for November.

Democratic lawmakers unanimously voted to table the resolution, which was sponsored by Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La. Five Republicans joined them and two others voted present. As the resolution was being read, some Democrats were incensed. “Liar,” some shouted; “Shame,” yelled one Democratic lawmaker. Many Republicans streamed out of the chamber before the vote concluded. Democrats cheered and hugged at the final tally’s reading.

“The censure attempt against me has failed. Rightfully so. It was a baseless, partisan effort to shut me up,” McIver wrote on social media after the vote. “I was not elected to play political games — I was elected to serve. I won’t back down. Not now. Not ever.”

Republicans sought to punish McIver for a confrontation with federal law enforcement during a congressional visit to a new immigration detention facility in Newark, N.J. McIver has pleaded not guilty to federal charges accusing her of assaulting and interfering with immigration officers outside the facility.

The censure resolution recounted how McIver is alleged to have interfered with Homeland Security Investigations officials’ ability to arrest an unauthorized visitor. It said she is alleged to have slammed her forearm into the body and forcibly grabbed an HSI officer. The resolution also said body camera and other video evidence supported the allegations made in the federal indictment.

The measure said such actions did not reflect credibly on the House and that her continued service on the House Homeland Security Committee was a significant conflict of interest. The committee’s portfolio includes oversight of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which operates the detention center that McIver tried to enter.

The effort had the backing of GOP leadership. Some Republicans expressed dismay with the outcome.

“We have a member of Congress who assaulted an ICE officer. I don’t even know what we’re doing anymore,” said Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida.

Donalds said he did not know why some Republicans broke ranks to back the motion to table the censure resolution.

Democratic Rep. Yvette Clarke, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said the McIver vote was “a breath of fresh air in such a toxic environment.”

McIver won a special election last year after Democratic Rep. Donald Payne Jr. died in office. She won a full two-year term in November.

McIver was joined by two other New Jersey Democrats, Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez, during a visit to a privately owned 1,000-bed facility that ICE is using as a detention center. Newark’s mayor, Democrat Ras Baraka, was arrested after officials determined he was not authorized to enter. That charge was later dropped. Baraka is suing over what he said was a malicious prosecution.

Parts of the confrontation can be seen on a nearly two-minute video clip from the visit released by the Department of Homeland Security.

The video shows McIver on the facility side of a chain-link fence just before Baraka’s arrest on the street side of the fence, where other people had been protesting. She and uniformed officials are seen going through a fence gate, and she joins others shouting that they should circle the mayor. The video then shows McIver in a tightly packed group of people and officers. At one point, her left elbow and then her right elbow push into an officer wearing a dark face covering and an olive green uniform with the word “Police” on it.

McIver was indicted on three counts of assaulting, resisting, impeding and interfering with federal officials. Two of the counts carry a maximum sentence of up to eight years in prison. The third is a misdemeanor with a maximum punishment of one year in prison.

Higgins said he would not have moved forward with the resolution if McIver had withdrawn from the Homeland Security panel pending a resolution of the federal charges against her. He said it was a conflict for her to serve on a panel with oversight authority over the agencies at the center of her criminal investigation.

“We didn’t expect it to fail. We knew it would be close, but it’s quite disappointing,” Higgins said.

The House has censured members on 28 occasions before, but the punishment has increasingly been delivered on a partisan basis in recent years.

Democrats retaliated just hours before the McIver vote with the introduction of a censure resolution against Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., who has been accused by a beauty pageant titleholder of threatening to release intimate videos and private images of her after she ended their romantic relationship, according to a report filed with law enforcement. Mills has denied the allegations.

Mills is also facing an ethics investigation into whether he violated campaign finance laws or held federal contracts while in office.

Democratic efforts to put the spotlight on Mills seemed to serve as a warning to Republicans that they were prepared to undertake similar censure resolutions in response to the targeting of McIver.

“There are colleagues on the other side of the aisle that have very serious charges against them, and we don’t want to have to unpack that for the American people,” Clarke said.

By STEVE KARNOWSKI and MARK VANCLEAVE

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday met with families and victims of a deadly shooting at a Catholic church in Minneapolis, and heard a heartfelt plea for action from at least one of those families.

Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, visited the Annunciation Catholic Church one week after an attacker opened fire during the first Mass of the school year for students of the nearby Annunciation Catholic School.

According to Vance’s office, the vice president and second lady Usha Vance met privately with family members of victims, the pastor of the parish and the school principal. They included the parents of the two children who died, Fletcher Merkel, 8, and Harper Moyski, 10, and families of some of the 21 people who were injured.

The couple also visited the church sanctuary, where the shootings took place, to pay their respects to the victims and their families, and laid bouquets at a memorial outside. They paused to read messages chalked on the church steps, including. “God Heals The Broken Hearted,” “We Love you,” and “Show Love.”

“I have never had a day that will stay with me like this day did,” Vance told reporters.

Parents plead for action

The Vances also went to Children’s Hospital, where several victims were treated, and met Lydia Kaiser, who is recovering from surgery. Her parents urged Vance to use his position to find real solutions to gun violence.

“We disagree about so many things,” her father, Harry Kaiser, a gym teacher at the school, told reporters, reading from a letter he wrote to Vance. “… But on just this one issue of gun violence, will you please promise me — as a father and a Catholic — that you will earnestly support the study of what is wrong with our culture — that we are the country that has the worst mass shooter problem?”

The parents did not take questions. But mother Leah Kaiser cited a proverb quoted by Principal Matthew DeBoer and many others in the days since the shootings, “When you pray, move your feet.” It’s an expression of the idea that thoughts and prayers are not enough.

“Vice President Vance, you have enormous authority,” she continued. “Please use this moment to move your feet and transcend our political divides to promote peace and unity and hope. This is what the people of the United States will hold you accountable to.”

Vance refuses to comment on Minnesota gun laws

Some family and neighbors gathered nearby as the Vances arrived at the church, holding signs calling for bans on assault weapons. One read, “Pro-Life = Pro-Gun Safety.” Another referred to comments by Pope Leo on Sunday, “Listen to the Pope, End the Pandemic of Arms.”

“It keeps happening over and over and over, and nothing changes,” said Kacie Sharpe. Her 8-year-old son, Trip, considered Fletcher his best friend, and was sitting nearby when he was shot and killed. “And it’s the most helpless feeling in the world to know that you can’t send your kids to school and have them be safe.”

Vance later declined to weigh in on how Minnesota lawmakers or Democratic Gov. Tim Walz should respond to the tragedy, including the governor’s stated intention to call a special session of the Legislature to address gun and school safety.

“I would just say, take the concerns of these parents seriously,” Vance told reporters. “I think all of us, Democrat, Republican and independent, want these school shootings to happen less frequently. Hopefully there’s some steps that we can take to make that happen.”

The meeting at the church lasted roughly an hour and 45 minutes. As Vance left, his motorcade rolled past a few dozen protesters, several holding signs saying, “Hate Won’t Make America Great.”

Young victim undergoes surgery

Vance also spoke by phone with one of the children who was injured, 10-year-old Weston Halsne, who had surgery at Children’s on Wednesday to remove a bullet fragment from his neck and was unavailable for an in-person visit the hospital said.

“The procedure went well, and Weston is expected to make a full physical recovery,” the boy’s family said in a statement.

Weston, a 5th grader, didn’t realize he was hit at the time. He told reporters after the shots blasted through the windows that he ducked for the pews, covering his head.

“My friend Victor, like, saved me though because he laid on top of me. But he got hit,” he said.

The school has not said when classes will resume or a ceremony will be held to essentially reconsecrate the church so that worship can resume there. The church celebrated its Masses last weekend in the school gym.

Fletcher Merkel’s funeral is set for Sunday at Mount Olivet Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, his family said in a statement Wednesday. Harper Moyski’s arrangements have not been announced.

By MIKE STOBBE

NEW YORK (AP) — Federal officials have agreed to restore health- and science-related webpages and data under to a lawsuit settlement with doctors groups and other organizations who sued.

The settlement was announced this week by the lead plaintiffs in the case, the Washington State Medical Association.

Soon after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, federal health officials deleted or removed information on a range of topics including pregnancy risks, opioid-use disorder and the AIDS epidemic. The move was made in reaction to a Trump executive order that told agencies to stop using the term “gender” in federal policies and documents.

The administration saw it as a move to end the promotion of “gender ideology.” Doctors, scientists and public health advocates saw it as an “egregious example of government overreach,” says Dr. John Bramhall, the organization’s president, said in a statement.

“This was trusted health information that vanished in a blink of an eye — resources that, among other things, physicians rely on to manage patients’ health conditions and overall care,” Bramhall said.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has agreed to restore more than 100 websites and resources to the state they were in, said Graham Short, a spokesperson for the Washington State doctors’ group.

“We expect the sites will be restored in the coming weeks,” Short said in an email.

The case was filed in federal court in Seattle. The plaintiffs include, among others, the Vermont Medical Society, the Washington State Nurses Association and the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care.

The defendants included U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and federal health agencies and officials who work under him.

Federal officials responded to questions about the settlement with this statement: “HHS remains committed to its mission of removing radical gender and DEI ideology from federal programs, subject to applicable law, to ensure taxpayer dollars deliver meaningful results for the American people.”

The case is similar to one filed in Washington, D.C., by Doctors for America and others against the government. That lawsuit also sought to force the government to restore health information to the public, and the two cases overlapped somewhat in the websites they targeted, Short said.

In July, a judge in the Doctors for America case ordered restoration of websites. As of last week, 167 of the websites at issue had been restored and 33 were still under review, according to a court filing.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By DAVID KLEPPER and MARY CLARE JALONICK

WASHINGTON (AP) — The top ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee says a classified meeting planned with a key U.S. spy agency was called off after it was criticized by Laura Loomer, a far-right conspiracy theorist.

The cancellation of Sen. Mark Warner’s visit with career intelligence staffers at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency represents an escalation of the Trump administration’s efforts to block Congress from exercising oversight over the nation’s intelligence agencies.

“Is congressional oversight dead?” Warner, of Virginia, said Wednesday, questioning Loomer’s authority over the intelligence community. “Is she now the secretary of defense and the director of national intelligence?”

Loomer has taken credit for the State Department suspending visas for wounded Palestinian children seeking medical treatment in the U.S. and several staff changes in the administration, accusing some officials of not being not sufficiently loyal to Trump. Loomer has a history of making racist and anti-Islamic attacks on social media, and once shared a video on X that said “9/11 was an Inside Job!”

While not as well known as the CIA or NSA, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency handles the collection and analysis of imaging information, including satellite imagery, used for military and intelligence operations. Its director reports to both the director of national intelligence and the secretary of defense.

Warner said he has had more than a dozen similar meetings with the NGA and other spy agencies under Republican and Democratic presidencies, including during Trump’s first term. He said he was hoping to ask the NGA about its use of artificial intelligence and other matters.

In a social media post Sunday, Loomer detailed plans for the meeting and criticized Warner and Vice Adm. Frank Whitworth, the NGA’s director, who was tapped to lead the agency by former President Joe Biden.

“I’m told NGA is infested with Trump haters,” Loomer wrote.

In a post Tuesday, Loomer took credit for exposing the meeting and called on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to fire Whitworth.

Warner said he believes the meeting was canceled by Hegseth’s office. The Pentagon said the visit was not canceled but rescheduled “to accommodate bipartisan participation in the town hall event.”

Spokespeople for the NGA and for Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declined to comment. Loomer did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Trump has downplayed Loomer’s influence, but a growing list of administration officials have resigned or been dismissed following her criticism.

They include former Food and Drug Administration vaccine chief Dr. Vinay Prasad, who announced his departure in August; Jen Easterly, former head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, who was dismissed from a post at the U.S. Military Academy; as well as Air Force Gen. Tim Haugh, former director of the NSA and the Pentagon’s Cyber Command.

The State Department also announced last month that it would suspend all visitor visas for people from Gaza, pending a review, a day after Loomer posted videos on social media of children from Gaza arriving in the U.S. for medical treatment and questioned how they got visas. The administration announced a new, restrictive visa policy for Gaza this week.

By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump suggested Wednesday that New Orleans could be his next target for deploying the National Guard to fight crime, potentially expanding the number of cities around the nation where he may send federal law enforcement.

Trump has already said he plans to send the National Guard into Chicago and Baltimore following his administration deploying troops and federal agents to patrol the streets of Washington, D.C., last month.

“So we’re making a determination now,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office during a meeting with Polish President Karol Nawrocki. “Do we go to Chicago? Do we go to a place like New Orleans, where we have a great governor, Jeff Landry, who wants us to come in and straighten out a very nice section of this country that’s become quite, you know, quite tough, quite bad.”

Trump now frequently boasts about turning Washington into a “safe zone.” The White House reports more than 1,760 arrests citywide since the president first announced he was mobilizing federal forces on Aug. 7.

But Washington is a federal district subject to laws giving Trump power to take over the local police force for up to 30 days. The decision to use troops to attempt to quell crime in other Democratic-controlled cities around the country would represent an important escalation.

“So we’re going to be going to maybe Louisiana, and you have New Orleans, which has a crime problem. We’ll straighten that out in about two weeks,” Trump said. “It’ll take us two weeks, easier than D.C.”

Trump’s latest comments came a day after he declared “We’re going in” and suggested that the National Guard might soon be headed for Chicago, the nation’s third-largest city, and Baltimore. That’s despite state and local officials, as well as many residents, both places staunchly opposing the idea.

But New Orleans is a predominately Democratic-leaning city in a red state run by Landry, a Republican — and reflection of Trump floating federal intervention along ideological lines.

“Crime is down in New Orleans,” City Councilmember Oliver Thomas, who is also a mayoral candidate, said via text message. “That would seem to be very political or a major overreaction!”

Councilmember Jean-Paul Morrell said it is “ridiculous to consider sending the National Guard into another American city that hasn’t asked for it.”

“Guardsmen are not trained law enforcement. They can’t solve crimes, they can’t interview witnesses and they aren’t trained to constitutionally police,” Morrell said in a statement. “NOPD is doing a great job with the existing resources they have. Marching troops into New Orleans is an unnecessary show of force in effort to create a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.”

Landry, though, posted on social media, “We will take President @realDonaldTrump’s help from New Orleans to Shreveport!” while House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, whose district includes the conservative suburbs outside of New Orleans, praised Trump’s efforts in Washington.

“The citizens of New Orleans, and the millions of tourists who come here, deserve that same level of security,” Scalise wrote in a social media post. “We should all be in favor of increased safety for our citizens and lower crime.”

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a statement that people “continue to die in New Orleans because ‘leaders’ refuse to accept the resources that are available to them.”

“If your gut reaction is to reject the President’s offer for assistance without condition, perhaps you’re the problem – not him,” Murill said.

The City of New Orleans struck a more conciliatory tone, staying in a statement, “our federal and state partnerships have played a significant role in ensuring public safety, particularly during special events” and that local officials “remain committed to sustaining this momentum.” New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell was indicted last month on federal fraud charges and is set to be arraigned in the coming weeks.

Trump, meanwhile, has repeatedly railed against Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker for not requesting that the National Guard be deployed.

“We could straighten out Chicago. All they have to do is ask us to go into Chicago. If we don’t have the support of some of these politicians, but I’ll tell you who is supporting us, the people of Chicago,” Trump said Wednesday.

Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have been adamant in saying Chicago doesn’t need or want military intervention. In Baltimore, Mayor Brandon Scott and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore have remained similarly opposed.

In Washington, Mayor Muriel Bowser has said Trump’s decision to take over her city’s police force and flood streets with hundreds of federal law enforcement agents and National Guard troops has succeeded in reducing violent crime — but she’s also argued that similar results could have been achieved simply by having more city police officers in service.

She said Wednesday that Trump’s law enforcement powers in the city don’t need to be extended beyond 30 days, saying, “We don’t need a presidential emergency.”

Associated Press writer Jack Brook in New Orleans contributed to this report.

By SOPHIA TAREEN, Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago community leaders forged ahead Wednesday with preparations for the influx of National Guard troops and immigration agents the city is expecting, advising residents about their rights and organizing protests with fresh urgency.

Details about the operation are scant, but President Donald Trump has amped up the rhetoric about crime in the nation’s third-largest city, saying an immigration crackdown and National Guard deployment are planned despite the objections of local leaders and a federal court ruling that a similar deployment in Los Angeles was illegal.

The preparations seem familiar in the Democratic stronghold that’s often found itself in Trump’s crosshairs.

Still, leaders of schools, churches and community groups — particularly in the city’s immigrant enclaves and Black and Latino neighborhoods — say there’s increased gravity and coordination in preparing for the expected troop deployment and its accompanying deluge of attention.

Here’s how Chicago is preparing.

Protesters say they’re ready

Even without knowing what will unfold, Chicago’s energetic activist networks circulated “emergency protest” schedules, vowing to demonstrate within hours of federal intervention.

Organizers from immigrant rights groups, unions, clergy and anti-violence organizations said they’re working together more than ever.

“We have a stronger broader movement preparing to mobilize,” said Lawrence Benito, head of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. “People still have to go about their lives. We’re making sure folks are prepared and we’re ready to respond.”

Immigrant communities have been on high alert since Trump took office for the second time in January and kicked off a nationwide immigration enforcement operation in Chicago.

Activists say they’ve already offered countless know-your-rights training sessions and have added hours for a hotline where people can report immigration arrests. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson recently signed an executive order reiterating the city’s longtime sanctuary policies, which bar local police from coordinating with federal immigration agents.

Trump’s plans for Chicago

Trump signaled this week that he’s ready to order federal authorities to mobilize and combat crime in Chicago despite the objections of Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. Trump hasn’t given a timeline for the Chicago operation, and he muddied the outlook again on Wednesday by suggesting New Orleans as the next possible location.

Trump’s administration indicated that it would soon expand immigration operations in Chicago, and the Department of Homeland Security requested limited logistical support at the Naval Station Great Lakes outside the city.

The administration deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles over the summer and as part of his unprecedented law enforcement takeover in Washington, D.C., where he has direct legal control. His administration plans to appeal the California deployment ruling.

Trump has often singled out Chicago and other Democrat-led cities. Recently, his administration started playing up the city’s daily crime log, including using shootings over Labor Day weekend as justification for sending in troops.

“I want to go into Chicago and I have this incompetent governor,” Trump said Wednesday.

He and Pritzker have traded barbs for days about the issue. Pritzker, a two-term governor and frequent Trump critic, has been floated as a possible 2028 presidential contender.

“I can’t live in a fantasy land where I pretend Trump is not tearing this country apart for personal greed and power,” Pritzker posted Wednesday on X. At an event later in the day, he told reporters his office had not received any additional information from the federal government.

There has been little outward support for Trump’s plans in Chicago, with only a handful of Republicans and conservative leaders saying they’d welcome the intervention.

Johnson and Pritzker have repeatedly pointed to the city’s drop in crime, and asked for more federal funding for prevention programs instead.

Echoing a trend in other major U.S. cities, Chicago’s violent crime has dropped significantly overall, though it remains a persistent issue in parts of the city.

A damper on Mexican Independence Day celebrations

Chicago is home to a large and thriving Mexican community, and the threat of the troop deployment and immigration crackdown has put a damper on Mexican Independence Day celebrations planned over the next two weeks.

Organizers acknowledged the threat of immigration arrests might keep some people at home, but they’re boosting security measures and inviting more allies. It’s a similar tactic that activists tried for annual May Day protests, when fears about public gatherings were also high.

Teresa Fraga, who is organizing an event in the city’s heavily Mexican Pilsen neighborhood, said the event has hired more security, lawyers and neighborhood patrols.

“It’s a dark cloud that is hanging over our heads,” she said. “But we are planning a safe event.”

Worries in Black neighborhoods

Worries are also high in many of the city’s Black neighborhoods, where organizations have been busy advising residents about what their rights are should they interact with law enforcement.

Dozens of Black churches plan to take part in “Resistance Sunday” this weekend, to disseminate information about legal rights during traffic stops and other encounters.

“We need resources, not troops,” said the Rev. Marshall Hatch, a prominent civil rights activist. “We’re not interested in this charade of troops.”

Johnson and other Black mayors have called Trump’s targeting of Democratic cities racist. And Trump has often used racist narratives about urban crime when talking about the unprecedented deployment of troops in the nation’s capital.

“The president’s threats to send federal troops to Chicago are a clear blatant attack on the Black community and the immigrant community,” the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression said in a statement.

City schools prepare

Chicago’s public school system suggested that families create phone trees to quickly share information and organize walk-to-school groups to “provide safety in numbers.”

“We know that the potential of increased federal presence is creating anxiety and fear about safety at school and safety within the broad community,” Chicago Public Schools wrote in a letter to parents.

Members of the Chicago Teachers Union planned to distribute materials at schools this week with tips on legal rights and creating a buddy system on the school commute.

By COLLIN BINKLEY and MICHAEL CASEY

BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge in Boston on Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to reverse its cuts of more than $2.6 billion in research funding for Harvard University, delivering a significant victory to the Ivy League school in its battle with the White House.

U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs ruled the cuts amounted to illegal retaliation for Harvard’s rejection of the Trump administration’s demands for changes to Harvard’s governance and policies.

The government had tied the funding freezes to Harvard’s delays in dealing with antisemitism, but the judge said the university’s federally backed research had little connection to discrimination against Jews. “A review of the administrative record makes it difficult to conclude anything other than that (the government) used antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault on this country’s premier universities,” Burroughs wrote. The country must fight antisemitism, she wrote, but it also must protect the right to free speech.

The ruling reverses a series of funding freezes that later became outright cuts as the Trump administration escalated its fight with the nation’s wealthiest university. The administration also has sought to prevent the school from hosting foreign students and threatened to revoke its tax-exempt status in a clash watched widely across higher education.

The restoration of federal money would revive Harvard’s sprawling research operation and hundreds of projects that sustained cuts. But whether Harvard actually receives the federal money remains to be seen. The government plans an immediate appeal, White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said in a statement, calling Burroughs an “activist Obama-appointed judge.”

“To any fair-minded observer, it is clear that Harvard University failed to protect their students from harassment and allowed discrimination to plague their campus for years,” Huston said. “Harvard does not have a constitutional right to taxpayer dollars.”

Harvard’s research scientists said they had been watching the case closely, but feared their funding would not be restored anytime soon.

“Many of us are worried that the federal government is going to appeal this decision or find other ways to obstruct the delivery of research dollars, despite the judge’s clear statement that the funding terminations were illegal,” said Rita Hamad, director of a center that researches the impact of social policies on health.

Beyond the courthouse, the Trump administration and Harvard officials have been discussing a potential agreement that would end investigations and allow the university to regain access to federal funding. President Donald Trump has said he wants Harvard to pay no less than $500 million, but no deal has materialized, even as the administration has struck agreements with Columbia and Brown.

Wednesday’s federal court ruling should embolden Harvard’s administration, said historian Kirsten Weld, president of Harvard’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, which also prevailed in a lawsuit over the funding cuts. “We hope this decision makes clear to Harvard’s administration that bargaining the Harvard community’s rights away in a compromise with the government is unacceptable,” Weld said.

Harvard’s lawsuit accused the Trump administration of waging a retaliation campaign against the university after it rejected a series of demands in an April 11 letter from a federal antisemitism task force.

The letter demanded sweeping changes related to campus protests, academics and admissions. It was meant to address government accusations that the university had become a hotbed of liberalism and tolerated anti-Jewish harassment on campus.

Harvard President Alan Garber pledged to fight antisemitism. But, he said, no government “should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.”

Trump officials moved to freeze $2.2 billion in research grants the same day Harvard rejected the administration’s demands. Education Secretary Linda McMahon declared in May that Harvard would no longer be eligible for new grants, and weeks later, the administration began canceling contracts with Harvard.

As Harvard fought the funding freeze in court, individual agencies began sending letters announcing that the frozen research grants were being terminated under a clause allowing grants to be scrapped if they no longer align with government policies. Harvard has moved to self-fund some of its research but warned it can’t absorb the full cost of the federal cuts.

The judge’s order reverses all of Harvard’s federal funding freezes and cuts since April 14, and it bars the government from future cuts that violate Harvard’s constitutional rights or run afoul of federal law.

Burroughs sided with the university’s argument that the cuts amounted to retaliation in violation of its First Amendment rights and that the government put unconstitutional conditions on Harvard’s federal money.

“As pertains to this case, it is important to recognize and remember that if speech can be curtailed in the name of the Jewish people today, then just as easily the speech of the Jews (and anyone else) can be curtailed when the political winds change direction,” the judge wrote.

Burroughs also agreed with Harvard’s claim that the government failed to follow steps prescribed by Congress to cut federal money under Title VI of the Higher Education Act, a federal law that forbids discrimination in education.

The Trump administration denied the cuts were made in retaliation, saying the grants were under review even before the April demand letter was sent. It argues the government has wide discretion to cancel contracts for policy reasons.

“It is the policy of the United States under the Trump Administration not to fund institutions that fail to adequately address antisemitism in their programs,” it said in court documents.

In a separate lawsuit filed by Harvard, Burroughs previously blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to prevent the school from hosting international students.

Binkley reported from Washington, D.C. AP reporter Aamer Madhani contributed from Washington.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he will direct federal law enforcement intervention to Chicago and Baltimore, despite local officials in both places opposing such moves.

Asked by reporters in the Oval Office if he had decided to send National Guard troops to Chicago, Trump said, “We’re going in,” but added. “I didn’t say when.”

Trump has already sent National Guard troops into Washington and federalized the nation’s capital’s police force. More recently, he’s said he’s planning similar moves in other cities, particularly those run by Democratic officials.

Trump said he’d like Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker to call him and say “send in the troops.” Pritzker has opposed the move.

“If the governor of Illinois would call up, call me up, I would love to do it.” Trump said. “Now, we’re going to do it anyway. We have the right to do it.”

He added that he has an “obligation to protect this country, and that includes Baltimore.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the U.S. has carried out a strike in the southern Caribbean against a drug-carrying vessel that departed from Venezuela.

The president offered scant details on the operation.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X that the vessel was being operated by a “designated narco-terrorist organization.”

The press office of Venezuela’s government did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the announcement.

By SAFIYAH RIDDLE, Associated Press/Report For America

The Posse Comitatus Act is a nearly 150-year-old federal law that limits the U.S. military’s role in enforcing domestic laws. At its core, experts say the law reflects America’s long-standing belief that law enforcement should remain in civilian hands, separate from military power.

President Donald Trump has tested the law’s limits in the first few months of his second term, as he expands the footprint of the U.S. military on domestic soil.

Here’s what to know about the law.

Posse Comitatus Act stops military from enforcing US law

The criminal statute prohibits military enforcement of domestic law. It also prevents the military from investigating local crimes, overriding local law enforcement or compelling certain behavior.

There are key exceptions. Congress can vote to suspend the act, or the president can order it suspended in defense of the Constitution. The Insurrection Act of 1807 allows the president to deploy troops during invasions, rebellions or when local authorities can’t maintain order.

National Guard members are under state authority and commanded by governors, so they’re generally exempt. However, the Posse Comitatus Act applies to National Guard forces when they’re “federalized,” meaning the president puts them under his control. That’s what Trump did in California over the governor’s objections.

The military is allowed to share intelligence and certain resources if there’s an overlap with civilian law enforcement jurisdiction, according to the Library of Congress. There’s also an exception for the U.S. Coast Guard, which has some law enforcement responsibilities.

Law was enacted after the Reconstruction era

The law was enacted in 1878 following the post-Civil War era known as Reconstruction. At that time, segregationist lawmakers didn’t want the U.S. military from blocking Jim Crow laws that imposed racial segregation.

But the spirit of the law has roots going all the way back to the Revolutionary War, when the nation’s founders were scarred by the British monarchy’s absolute military control, said William C. Banks, a professor at the Syracuse University College of Law.

“We have a tradition in the United States — which is more a norm than a law — that we want law enforcement to be conducted by civilians, not the military,” Banks said.

Courts have rarely interpreted the Posse Comitatus Act, leaving much of its scope shaped by executive branch policy and military regulations rather than judicial precedent.

Steve Vladeck, a law professor at Georgetown University, notes that this lack of legal rulings makes the law unusual.

“There is no authoritative precedent on exactly where these lines are, and so that’s why over the years the military’s own interpretation has been so important,” Vladeck said.

New tests for the law

A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration violated federal law by sending troops to accompany federal agents on immigration raids in Los Angeles this summer. The ruling does not require the remaining troops to withdraw.

Trump administration attorneys argued the law doesn’t apply because the troops were protecting federal officers, not enforcing laws.

Trump also sent 800 troops to Washington D.C., saying without substantiation that they were needed to reduce crime in the “lawless” city.

In Washington, a federal district, the president is already in charge of the National Guard and can legally deploy troops for 30 days without congressional approval.

Trump has since discussed sending the National Guard to other Democratic-led cities like Chicago, Baltimore and New York.

---

Riddle is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

By KONSTANTIN TOROPIN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has approved sending up to 600 military lawyers to the Justice Department to serve as temporary immigration judges, according to a memo reviewed by The Associated Press.

The military will begin sending groups of 150 attorneys — both military and civilians — to the Justice Department “as soon as practicable,” and the military services should have the first round of people identified by next week, according to the Aug. 27 memo.

The effort comes as the Trump administration is cracking down on illegal immigration by ramping up arrests and deportations. And immigration courts already are dealing with a massive backlog of roughly 3.5 million cases that has ballooned in recent years.

At the same time, more than 100 immigration judges have been fired or left voluntarily after taking deferred resignations offered by the Trump administration, their union says. In the most recent round of terminations, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers said in July that at least 17 immigration judges had been fired “without cause” in courts across the country.

That has left about 600 immigration judges, union figures show, meaning the Pentagon move would double their ranks.

The Justice Department, which oversees the immigration courts, requested the assistance from the Defense Department, according to the memo sent by the Pentagon’s executive secretary to his DOJ counterpart. The military lawyers’ duties as immigration judges will initially last no more than 179 days but can be renewed, it said.

A DOJ spokesperson referred questions about the plan to the Defense Department, where officials directed questions to the White House.

A White House official said Tuesday that the administration is looking at a variety of options to help resolve the significant backlog of immigration cases, including hiring additional immigration judges. The official said the matter should be “a priority that everyone — including those waiting for adjudication — can rally around.”

The memo stressed that the additional attorneys are contingent on availability and that mobilizing reserve officers may be necessary. Plus, the document said DOJ would be responsible for ensuring that anyone sent from the Pentagon does not violate the federal prohibition on using the military as domestic law enforcement, known as the Posse Comitatus Act.

The administration faced a setback on its efforts to use the military in unique ways to combat illegal immigration and crime, with a court ruling Tuesday that it “willfully” violated federal law by sending National Guard troops to Los Angeles in early June.

Cases in immigration court can take years to weave their way to a final determination, with judges and lawyers frequently scheduling final hearings on the merits of a case over a year out.

Associated Press writers Will Weissert, Rebecca Santana and Eric Tucker contributed to this report.

By MICHAEL PHILLIS, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration was handed a win by a federal appeals court on Tuesday in its effort to freeze billions of dollars and terminate contracts for nonprofits to run a “green bank” aimed at financing climate-friendly projects.

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency had blasted the Biden-era program as a waste of taxpayer money, tried to claw back funding that had already been distributed and accused the nonprofits of mismanagement.

A lower court said the EPA couldn’t support Administrator Lee Zeldin’s accusations and that the agency was wrong to try and end contracts with the nonprofits without substantiating allegations against them. On Tuesday, a divided federal appeals court ruled 2-1 in the agency’s favor, saying the EPA should not have been blocked from terminating the grants and that the arguments by the climate groups have no place in federal district court.

Instead, the case should be heard in a federal claims court that hears contract disputes, the appeals court ruled in a decision written by U.S. Appeals Court Judge Neomi Rao, who was appointed by President Donald Trump in his first term. The decision was a major loss for the groups who said they can only seek monetary damages in district court. The groups in this case were seeking an order allowing them immediate access to their funds, which total about $16 billion.

“In sum, district courts have no jurisdiction to hear claims that the federal government terminated a grant agreement arbitrarily or with impunity. Claims of arbitrary grant termination are essentially contractual,” Rao wrote in a decision supported by Judge Gregory Katsas, also a Trump appointee.

The appeals court ruling said the nonprofits’ arguments belong in federal claims court because they dealt chiefly with the underlying contracts the groups held with the federal government, not matters of law or the Constitution.

Climate United Fund and other groups sued the EPA, Zeldin and Citibank, which held the grant money on behalf of the agency, saying they had illegally denied the groups access to funds awarded last year. They wanted access to those funds again, saying the freeze had paralyzed their work and jeopardized their basic operations.

In order to provide the parties with an opportunity to appeal, the decision won’t go into effect immediately.

Climate United CEO Beth Bafford said in a statement, “This is not the end of our road.”

“While we are disappointed by the panel’s decision, we stand firm on the merits of our case: EPA unlawfully froze and terminated funds that were legally obligated and disbursed,” Bafford said.

Judge Cornelia Pillard, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, said in her dissent that the groups provided evidence that the EPA disagreed with the program’s goals and tried to end it, while throwing around allegations against the groups that it couldn’t substantiate.

The EPA has damaged the green bank program “without presenting to any court any credible evidence or coherent reason that could justify its interference with plaintiffs’ money and its sabotage of Congress’s law,” Pillard wrote.

Associated Press writer Matthew Daly contributed reporting.

---

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

By MATTHEW LEE, AP Diplomatic Writer

President Donald Trump’s administration is piling new restrictions on Palestinian visa applicants, making it nearly impossible for anyone holding a Palestinian Authority passport from receiving travel documents to visit the U.S. for business, work, pleasure or educational purposes.

Palestinian applicants who hold non-Palestinian Authority passports may also face difficulties should they need a U.S. visa.

Since early August, the State Department has tightened what it says are temporary policies to boost its vetting procedures for Palestinians seeking to travel to the United States, meaning that virtually all applications will either be denied or not accepted for processing.

The moves targeting the Palestinians are part of the administration’s global effort to reform how U.S. visas are issued and crack down on illegal immigration — it has already resulted in several thousand student visas revoked, many of them for pro-Palestinian or anti-Israeli activity. As part of that effort, the State Department said last week that it is reviewing all of the more than 55 million current U.S. visa holders to ensure they are properly vetted.

However, the steps taken against Palestinians appear more far-reaching than those directed at other nationalities, many of which include exemptions for official travel to the U.S.

On Aug. 1, the department instructed consular officers to deny visa applications from anyone suspected of having past or present employment or ties to the Palestine Liberation Organization or the Palestinian Authority regardless of their position or purpose of travel.

On Aug. 16, the department suspended a program that had allowed war-wounded Palestinian children from Gaza to come to the U.S. for medical treatment, following an outcry from conservative pundits.

Two days later, on Aug. 18, the department sent a worldwide cable to all U.S. diplomatic posts instructing them to reject all non-immigrant visa request from Palestinian Authority passport holders.

“This action is to ensure that such applications have undergone necessary, vetting, and screening protocols to ensure the applicants’ identity and eligibility for a visa under US law,” according to the cable, obtained by The Associated Press and reported earlier by The New York Times.

The suspension does not apply to Palestinians who hold non-Palestinian Authority passports, but they could still be refused if they are suspected of having PA or PLO ties, according to the Aug. 1 instructions.

Although the suspension does not apply to Palestinians seeking immigrant visas, the cable said that Palestinian officials applying to visit the United States for official purposes are not exempt from the restrictions.

Then, on Friday, in keeping with the guidance issued a week earlier, the department announced that it had denied visa applications from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and about 80 other Palestinian officials who were planning to participate in the high-level meeting at U.N. General Assembly in New York later this month.

“It is in our national security interests to hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace,” the department said in a statement.

It said that to be considered partners for peace, the groups “must consistently repudiate terrorism, and end incitement to terrorism in education, as required by U.S. law and as promised by the PLO.”

The Palestinian Authority denounced the visa withdrawals as a violation of U.S. commitments as the host country of the United Nations and urged the State Department to reverse its decision. There was no immediate comment from the Palestinian Authority on the broader visa restrictions.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge has ruled the Trump administration’s use of National Guard troops during Southern California immigration enforcements protests is illegal.

Judge Charles Breyer ruled Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s administration violated federal law by sending troops to accompany federal agents on immigration raids. The judge in Washington did not require the remaining troops withdrawn, however.

California sued, saying the troops sent to Los Angeles over the summer were violating a law that prohibits military enforcement of domestic laws. Lawyers for the Republican administration have argued the Posse Comitatus Act doesn’t apply because the troops were protecting federal officers not enforcing laws. They say the troops were mobilized under an authority that allows the president to deploy them.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that U.S President Donald Trump’s administration is listening to the Kremlin’s justifications for its invasion of neighboring Ukraine and claimed that Moscow and Washington have come to a “mutual understanding” about the conflict.

Putin said during a visit to China that “the (Trump) administration is listening to us,” as he complained that former President Joe Biden paid Moscow’s arguments no heed.

“Now we see this mutual understanding, it’s noticeable,” Putin said at a bilateral meeting with Slovakian President Robert Fico after talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing. “We are very happy about this and hope this constructive dialogue will continue.”

But Russia faces possible punitive actions by Trump, who has expressed frustration at Putin’s lack of engagement in U.S.-led peace efforts and threatened unspecified “severe consequences.” The American president has made ending the three-year war one of his diplomatic priorities and hosted Putin at a summit in Alaska last month.

Putin attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in the Chinese city of Tianjin with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who are also facing pressure from Trump. The SCO started out as a security forum viewed as a foil to U.S. influence in Central Asia but it has grown in influence over the years.

After the summit, the Russian leader held talks with Xi in Beijing, and on Wednesday he was to attend a massive military parade there commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.

In Beijing, Putin struck an apparently amenable tone about possible progress in some aspects of the discussions to stop the fighting, although his comments reflected no substantial change in Russia’s position. Western leaders have accused Putin of marking time in peace efforts while Russia’s bigger army seeks to overwhelm Ukrainian defenses.

On the key issue of possible postwar security guarantees for Ukraine to deter another Russian invasion, Putin said “it seems to me that there is an opportunity to find consensus.” He didn’t elaborate.

While Putin reiterated that Moscow will not accept NATO membership for Ukraine, he also noted that he had never objected to Ukraine joining the European Union.

He also said Russia “can work with our American partners” at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest and one of the 10 biggest atomic power plants in the world. Its fate has been a central concern of the war due to fears of a nuclear accident.

Putin said Russia could also work with Ukraine on the Zaporizhzhia question — “if favorable conditions arise.”

By REGINA GARCIA CANO and JUAN ARRAEZ, Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Monday said his country was at “maximum preparedness” and ready to respond if attacked by forces that the United States government has deployed to the Caribbean.

His comments during a news conference come as the U.S. government this week is set to boost its maritime force in the waters off Venezuela to combat threats from Latin American drug cartels. The U.S. has not signaled any planned land incursion by the thousands of personnel being deployed. Still, Maduro’s government has responded by deploying troops along its coast and border with neighboring Colombia, as well as by urging Venezuelans to enlist in a civilian militia.

“In the face of this maximum military pressure, we have declared maximum preparedness for the defense of Venezuela,” Maduro said of the deployment, which he characterized as “an extravagant, unjustifiable, immoral and absolutely criminal and bloody threat.”

He said he would constitutionally declare a “republic in arms” if the U.S. attacked Venezuela. He did not elaborate.

The U.S. Navy now has two Aegis guided-missile destroyers — the USS Gravely and the USS Jason Dunham — in the Caribbean, as well as the destroyer USS Sampson and the cruiser USS Lake Erie in the waters off Latin America. That military presence is set to expand.

Three amphibious assault ships — a force that encompasses more than 4,000 sailors and Marines — would be entering the region this week, a defense official told The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to describe ongoing operations.

The deployment comes as President Donald Trump has pushed for using the military to thwart cartels he blames for the flow of fentanyl and other illicit drugs into U.S. communities and for perpetuating violence in some U.S. cities.

On Monday, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil, citing a United Nations report, told his counterparts in various Latin American countries that the deployment of U.S. maritime forces is built on a “false narrative” as 87% of cocaine produced in Colombia departs through the Pacific and traffickers attempt to move only 5% of their product through Venezuela. Landlocked Bolivia and Colombia, with access to the Pacific and Caribbean, are the world’s top cocaine producers.

Gil added that the narrative “threatens the entire region” and an attack on Venezuela “would really mean a complete destabilization of the region.”

“Let us immediately demand an end to this deployment, which has no other reason than to threaten a sovereign people,” he added during a virtual meeting of members of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States regional group.

Maduro also used his news conference to insist that he was the legitimate winner of last year’s presidential election. But ample and credible evidence has shown the contrary, prompting several countries, including the U.S., to not recognize Maduro as Venezuela’s president.

Maduro, sworn in to a third six-year term in January, added that his government maintains two lines of communication with the Trump administration, one with the State Department and another with Trump’s envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell. He called Secretary of State Marco Rubio a “warlord” pushing for action in the Caribbean to topple Venezuela’s government.

Since the July 2024 presidential election, Venezuela’s political opposition has been urging the U.S. and other countries to pressure Maduro into leaving office. Its leader, María Corina Machado, last month thanked Trump and Rubio for the deployment of the vessels, describing the move as “the right approach” toward Venezuela’s government, which she described as a “criminal enterprise.”

Maduro on Monday, however, warned that U.S. military action against Venezuela would “stain” Trump’s “hands with blood.”

“President Donald Trump, the pursuit of regime change is exhausted; it has failed as a policy worldwide,” Maduro said. “You cannot pretend to impose a situation in Venezuela.”

Garcia Cano reported from Mexico City. Associated Press writer Konstantin Toropin in Washington contributed to this report.

By VALERIE GONZALEZ, Associated Press

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration has started requiring parents looking to reunite with their children who crossed into the U.S. alone to show up for interviews where immigration officers may question them, according to a policy memo obtained by The Associated Press.

Legal advocacy groups say the shift has led to the arrest of some parents, while their children remain in U.S. custody. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not confirm that or answer questions about the July 9 directive, instead referring in a statement to the Biden administration’s struggles to properly vet and monitor homes where children were placed.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is part of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department and which takes custody of children who cross the border without a parent or legal guardian, issued the directive. The agency said the goal is to ensure that sponsors — usually a parent or guardian — are properly vetted.

The memo said sponsors must now appear in person for identification verification. Previously, sponsors could submit identity documents online. The directive also says “federal law enforcement agencies may be present to meet their own mission objectives, which may include interviewing sponsors.”

Neha Desai, managing director of human rights at the National Center for Youth Law, said the change provides U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement a “built-in opportunity” to arrest parents — something she said has already happened.

Mary Miller Flowers, director of policy and legislative affairs for the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, said she knew of a case in which immigration officers arrested the father of a child under the age of 12 who had shown up for an identification check. “As a result, mom is terrified of coming forward. And so, this child is stuck,” Miller Flowers said.

Desai also said the interviews are unlikely to produce information authorities don’t already have. Vetting already included home studies and background checks done by Office of Refugee Resettlement staff, not immigration enforcement.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement said it communicates “clearly and proactively” with parents, telling them they may be interviewed by ICE or other law enforcement officials. It said parents can decline to be interviewed by ICE and that refusal won’t influence decisions about whether their children will be released to them.

“The goal is to ensure that every child is released to a stable and safe environment and fully vetted sponsors by ensuring the potential sponsor is the same individual submitting supporting documentation, including valid ID,” it said in a statement.

However, Desai is aware of a situation in which a sponsor was not notified and only able to decline after pushing back.

“We know of sponsors who are deeply, deeply fearful because of this interview, but some are still willing to go forward given their determination to get their children out of custody,” she said.

Trump administration points to Biden

Tricia McLaughlin, a Homeland Security spokesperson, issued a statement that did not address any arrests or mention the specific changes. Instead, she said the department is looking to protect children who were released under President Joe Biden’s administration.

A federal watchdog report released last year addressed the Biden’s administration struggles during an increase in migrant children arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2021. The Trump administration has dispatched Homeland Security and FBI agents to visit the children.

Another recent change allows ICE to interview children while they are at government-run shelters. That took effect July 2, according to a separate directive that the Office of Refugee Resettlement sent to shelters, also obtained by the AP.

The agency said it provides legal counsel to children and that its staff does not participate in interviews with law enforcement. Child legal advocates say they get as little as one-hour notice of the interviews, and that the children often don’t understand the purpose of the interview or are misled by officers.

“If we don’t understand what the interview is for or where the information is going, are we really consenting to this process?” said Miller Flowers, with the Young Center.

Jennifer Podkul, chief of global policy at Kids in Need of Defense, said some officers lack language skills, trauma-informed interviewing techniques and knowledge of the reunification process.

“It seems like it’s designed just to cast the net wider on immigration enforcement against adults,” she said.

String of policy changes adding hurdles to reunification process

The July changes are among a series of steps the Trump administration has taken to ramp up vetting of parents seeking to reunite with children.

The administration has required fingerprinting from sponsors and any adults living in the home where children are released. It has also required identification or proof of income that only those legally present in the U.S. could acquire, as well as introducing DNA testing and home visits by immigration officers.

Children have been spending more time in government-run shelters under increased vetting. The average length of stay for those released was 171 days in July, down from a peak of 217 days in April but well above 37 days in January, when Trump took office.

About 2,000 unaccompanied children were in government custody in July.

Shaina Aber, an executive director of the Acacia Center for Justice analyzing child custody data, attributes the longer custody times to the policy changes.

“The agency’s mission has been conflated and entangled,” she added. “It seems ORR’s mission has been somewhat compromised in that they are now doing more on the immigration enforcement side, and they’re not an immigration enforcement entity.”