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By LISA MASCARO and MARY CLARE JALONICK, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is muscling Pete Hegseth’s nomination as defense secretary toward confirmation Friday, prioritizing his vow to create a “warrior culture” at the Pentagon over allegations of heavy drinking and aggressive behavior toward women.

With votes expected late in the evening, the Republican-led Senate is determined to install Hegseth, a former Fox News host and combat veteran, and round out President Donald Trump’s top national security Cabinet officials. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe won confirmation within days of Trump’s return to the White House.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune opened Friday’s session saying that Hegseth, as a veteran of the Army National Guard who served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, “will bring a warrior’s perspective” to the top military job.

“Gone will be the days of woke distractions,” Thune said, referring to the diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives being slashed across the federal government. “The Pentagon’s focus will be on war fighting.”

The Senate’s ability to confirm Hegseth despite a grave series of allegations against him will provide a measure of Trump’s political power and ability to get what he wants from the GOP-led Congress, and use the potency of the culture wars to fuel his agenda at the White House.

Next week senators will be facing Trump’s other outside Cabinet choices including particularly Kash Patel, a Trump ally who has published an enemies list, as the FBI director; Tulsi Gabbard as director of the office of national intelligence; and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, the anti-vaccine advocate at Health and Human Services.

So far, Trump’s nominees are largely on track.

Democrats, as the minority party, have little power to stop Hegesth, and instead have resorted to dragging out the process.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said during the debate there are few Trump nominees as “dangerously and woefully unqualified as Hegesth.”

Hegseth faces allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman at a Republican conference in California, though he has denied the claims and said the encounter was consensual. He later paid $50,000 to the woman.

More recently, Hegseth’s former sister-in-law said in an affidavit that he was abusive to his second wife to the point that she feared for her safety. Hegseth has denied the allegation, and in divorce proceedings, neither Hegseth nor the woman claimed to be a victim of domestic abuse.

But Republican senators have stood by Hegseth, echoing his claims of a “smear” campaign against him.

A Princeton and Harvard graduate, Hegseth represents a newer generation of veterans who came of age in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He went on to a career at Fox News as the host of a weekend show, and was unknown to many on Capitol Hill until Trump tapped him for the top Defense job.

Hegseth’s comments that women should have no role in military combat drew particular concern on Capitol Hill, including from lawmakers who themselves served. He has since tempered those views as he met with senators during the confirmation process.

All but two Republicans, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, have stood by Hegseth amid an avalanche of pressure from Trump’s allies — and their own fellow GOP senators — to back Trump’s nominees or face recrimination.

Murkowski said in a lengthy statement ahead of a test vote on Hegseth that his behaviors “starkly contrast” with what is expected of the military.

“I remain concerned about the message that confirming Mr. Hegseth sends to women currently serving and those aspiring to join,” Murkowski wrote on social media.

Collins said that after a lengthy discussion with Hegseth, “I am not convinced that his position on women serving in combat roles has changed.”

But one prominent Republican, Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, herself a combat veteran and sexual assault survivor, came under harsh criticism for her skepticism toward Hegseth and eventually announced she would back him.

“It’d sure be helpful if Republicans stood together to confirm Trump’s cabinet,” fellow GOP Sen. Mike Lee of Utah posted online ahead of Friday’s voting.

Hegseth would lead an organization with nearly 2.1 million service members, about 780,000 civilians and a budget of $850 billion.

During a fiery confirmation hearing, Hegseth dismissed allegations of wrongdoing one by one, and vowed to bring “warrior culture” to the top Pentagon post.

Hegseth has promised not to drink on the job if confirmed.

In exercising its advise and consent role over Trump’s nominees, the Senate is also trying to stave off his suggestion that the GOP leaders simply do away with the confirmation process altogether, and allow him to appoint his Cabinet choices when the Congress is on recess.

Trump raised the idea of so-called “recess appointments” during a private White House meeting with Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson. But that is an extreme, and potentially difficult, step that some GOP senators want but several other senators on both sides of the aisle are trying to avoid.

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and CHRISTINE FERNANDO, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s new Justice Department leadership issued an order Friday to curtail prosecutions against people accused of blocking reproductive rights facilities, calling the cases an example of the “weaponization” of law enforcement.

Justice Department chief of staff Chad Mizelle said in a memo obtained by The Associated Press that prosecutions and civil actions under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act or “FACE Act” will now be permitted only in “extraordinary circumstances” or in cases presenting ”significant aggravating factors.”

Mizelle also ordered the immediate dismissal of three FACE Act cases related to 2021 blockades of clinics in Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Ohio. One man was accused of obtaining “illegal access to a secure patient space at a Planned Parenthood facility in Philadelphia without staff permission or knowledge” and barricading himself in a restroom, according to court papers.

The news comes after Trump pardoned several anti-abortion activists convicted of blockading abortion clinic entrances in violation of the FACE Act, which is designed to protect abortion clinics from obstruction and threats.

By JOSH BOAK, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Like most presidents, Donald Trump faces an economy that seldom bends to political ambitions.

The Republican has promised strong growth, high tariffs, income tax cuts and booming oilfields. But despite the solid job market and low 4.1% unemployment rate, he has to contend with headwinds like inflation, a budget deficit, increased tensions over trade, the fallout from his plans to curtail immigration and a persistent wealth gap.

Each of these issues could help to shape how voters feel about a president they returned to the White House with the specific goal of fixing the economy.

For his part, Trump wants to blame all the challenges before him on his predecessor, Joe Biden, who in turn blamed Trump in 2021 for the problems his own administration had to tackle.

“This begins with confronting the economic chaos caused by the failed policies of the last administration,” Trump told the World Economic Forum on Thursday.

Here are five economic forces that could shape the first year of Trump’s presidency:

For voters, the price still isn’t right

Whipping inflation is easier said than done.

In AP VoteCast, an extensive survey of last year’s electorate, 4 in 10 voters called inflation the “single most important factor” in their choice for president. About two-thirds of this group voted for Trump — a sign he owes his victory in large part to the high cost of groceries, gasoline, housing, autos and other goods.

Going forward, monthly reports on the consumer price index will be a clear measure of whether Trump can deliver. But inflation has actually increased in recent months. Consumer prices were increasing at a healthy 2.4% annual rate in September, compared with 2.9% in December. Economists say inflation could worsen if Trump imposes tariffs and uses deficit-funded income tax cuts.

Republicans often hit Biden hard on egg prices. But Democrats could use similar attacks on Trump. Over the past year, coffee costs have risen just 1% for U.S. consumers, but the International Monetary Fund has the price of the actual beans climbing 55% in a sign that lattes, espressos and plain old cups of joe could soon cost more.

Then there’s housing. Voters are still frustrated by high mortgage rates and prices staying elevated due to a shortage of properties. Shelter is 37% of the consumer price index. Price increases for housing have eased, but shelter costs are still rising at 4.6% a year, compared with annual increases averaging 3.3% before the pandemic.

Trump is betting that more energy production can cut into inflation rates, but domestic production is already near record levels, according to the government.

Which tariffs are really coming

Trump says 25% tariffs are coming for Mexican and Canadian imports as soon as Feb. 1. He’s also talked about additional tariffs of 10% on Chinese goods. His stated goal is to stop illegal border crossings and the flow of chemicals used to make drugs such as fentanyl.

For Trump, tariffs are a diplomatic tool for his policy goals. But they’re also a threat possibly meant to jumpstart trade talks. They’re also a revenue raiser that he claims could bring trillions of dollars into the treasury.

Trump did increase tariffs during his first term, with revenue collection more than doubling to an annual rate of $85.4 billion, which might sound like a lot but was equal to just 0.4% of the gross domestic product. Multiple analyses by the Budget Lab at Yale and the Peterson Institute for International Economics, among others, say the threatened tariffs would increase costs for a typical family in a way that effectively raises taxes.

What really matters is whether Trump delivers on his threats. That is why Ben Harris, a former Biden adviser who is now director of economic studies at the Brookings Institution, says voters should focus on average tariff rates.

“Trade is really tricky” Harris said. “But in broad terms, look at what he does and not what he says.”

What happens with the national debt

Trump likes to blame inflation on the national debt, saying Biden’s policies flooded the U.S. economy with more money than it could absorb. But about 22% of the $36 trillion outstanding total debt originated from the policies of Trump’s first term, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a fiscal watchdog.

Paul Winfree, a former Trump staffer who is now president and CEO of the Economic Policy Innovation Center, warned in a recent analysis that the U.S. is getting too close for comfort to its fiscal limits. His analysis suggests that if Trump can preserve 3% growth he could extend his expiring 2017 tax cuts while keeping the debt sufficiently stable by cutting spending $100 billion to $140 billion a year.

The risk is that higher borrowing costs and debt can limit what Trump does while keeping borrowing costs high for consumers. Lawmakers who once viewed the debt as problem years away increasingly see it as something to address now.

“One of the biggest vibe shifts I’m picking up on now among policymakers is they’re beginning to realize the long-term is today,” Winfree said.

Winfree said the key number to watch is the interest rates charged on U.S. debt — which will tell the public if investors think the amount of borrowing is problematic. Interest on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note is at roughly 4.6%, up a full percentage point since September.

Immigrants are still needed to fill jobs

Trump’s executive orders are a clear crackdown on immigration — and that could be a drag on economic growth and cause monthly job gains to slow. Trump often frames immigration as a criminal and national security issue by focusing on people crossing the border illegally.

But economies that can’t add enough workers are at risk of stagnating — and the U.S. labor market at this stage needs immigrants as part of the jobs mix. About 84% of America’s net population growth last year came from immigrants, according to the Census Bureau. That’s 2.8 million immigrants.

“They not only work in the economy, but they spend in the economy,” said Satyam Panday, chief U.S. economist at S&P Global Ratings. “Their spending is somebody else’s income in the economy.”

If Trump were simply to put immigration back at his 2017 and 2019 averages of 750,000 immigrants annually, growth could slow from an estimated 2.7% last year to 2% going forward, Panday’s analysis found. The construction, agriculture and leisure and hospitality industries would probably struggle to find employees.

In other words, it’s worth monitoring the monthly jobs report and immigration flows.

Mind the wealth gap

Trump is going to have to figure out how to balance the interests of billionaires with those of his blue- collar voters. His inaugural events included several of the world’s wealthiest men: Tesla’s Elon Musk, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and LVMH’s Bernard Arnault. Each is worth roughly $200 billion or more, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index.

Scott Ellis, a member of the group Patriotic Millionaires, said it’s worth monitoring just how much their wealth increases under Trump. This year, as of Friday, Arnault’s net worth has risen $23 billion, Bezos is up by $15 billion, Zuckerberg is up by $18 billion and Musk’s wealth has risen by $6 billion. Those are all monthly increases.

By contrast, the most recent available Census Bureau data show that the median U.S. household wealth rose $9,600 in 2021-2022, to $176,500.

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By JAMIE STENGLE, Associated Press

DALLAS (AP) — President Donald Trump has ordered the release of thousands of classified governmental documents about the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which has fueled conspiracy theories for decades.

The executive order Trump signed Thursday also aims to declassify the remaining federal records relating to the assassinations of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The order is among a flurry of executive actions Trump has quickly taken the first week of his second term.

Speaking to reporters, Trump said, “everything will be revealed.”

Trump had promised during his reelection campaign to make public the last batches of still-classified documents surrounding President Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas, which has transfixed people for decades. He made a similar pledge during his first term, but ultimately bended to appeals from the CIA and FBI to keep some documents withheld.

Trump has nominated Kennedy’s nephew, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to be the health secretary in his new administration. Kennedy, whose father, Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated in 1968 while running for president and has said he isn’t convinced that a lone gunman was solely responsible for the assassination of his uncle, President Kennedy, in 1963.

The order directs the director of national intelligence and the attorney general to develop a plan within 15 days to declassify the remaining John F. Kennedy records, and within 45 days for the other two cases. It was not clear when the records would actually be released.

Trump handed the pen used to sign the order to an aide and directed it to be given to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Only a few thousand of the millions of governmental records related to the assassination of President Kennedy have yet to be fully declassified. And while many who have studied what’s been released so far say the public shouldn’t anticipate any earth-shattering revelations, there is still an intense interest in details related to the assassination and the events surrounding it.

“There’s always the possibility that something would slip through that would be the tiny tip of a much larger iceberg that would be revealing,” said Larry J. Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics and author of “The Kennedy Half-Century.” “That’s what researchers look for. Now, odds are you won’t find that but it is possible that it’s there.”

Kennedy was fatally shot in downtown Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, as his motorcade passed in front of the Texas School Book Depository building, where 24-year-old assassin Lee Harvey Oswald had positioned himself from a sniper’s perch on the sixth floor. Two days after Kennedy was killed, nightclub owner Jack Ruby fatally shot Oswald during a jail transfer.

In the early 1990s, the federal government mandated that all assassination-related documents be housed in a single collection in the National Archives and Records Administration. The collection of over 5 million records was required to be opened by 2017, barring any exemptions designated by the president.

During his first term, Trump boasted that he’d allow the release of all of the remaining records on the president’s assassination but ended up holding some back because of what he called the potential harm to national security. And while files have continued to be released under President Joe Biden, some still remain unseen.

Sabato, who trains student researchers to comb through the documents, said that most researchers agree that “roughly” 3,000 records have not yet been released, either in whole or in part, and many of those originated with the CIA.

The documents released over the last several years offer details on the way intelligence services operated at the time, and include CIA cables and memos discussing visits by Oswald to the Soviet and Cuban embassies during a trip to Mexico City just weeks before the assassination. The former Marine had previously defected to the Soviet Union before returning home to Texas.

There are still some documents in the collection though that researchers don’t believe the president would be able to release. Around 500 documents, including tax returns, weren’t subject to the 2017 disclosure requirement. And, researchers note, documents have also been destroyed over the decades.

By TARA COPP

WASHINGTON (AP) — Pete Hegseth, President Donald Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, paid $50,000 to the woman who accused him of sexual assault in 2017, according to answers he provided to a senator during his confirmation process that The Associated Press has obtained.

The answers were provided to Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren in response to additional questions she had for Hegseth as part of the vetting process.

Hegseth attorney Timothy Parlatore declined to comment on the dollar figure Thursday. Hegseth told police at the time that the encounter had been consensual and denied any wrongdoing. He told senators during his confirmation hearing last week that he was “falsely accused” in the 2017 incident and completely cleared.

The news of the payment amount comes the same day the Senate advanced Hegseth’s nomination along a party-line vote. Two Republicans, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, broke with Trump and voted Thursday against Hegseth, who also has faced allegations of excessive drinking and being abusive to his second wife, which he denies.

The most serious accusation came from the woman who told police she was sexually assaulted by Hegseth in a California hotel room in 2017 after he took her phone, blocked the door and refused to let her leave, according to an investigative report released in November.

The report does not say that police found the allegations were false. Police recommended the case report be forwarded to the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office for review.

Monterey County District Attorney Jeannine M. Pacioni said her office declined to file charges in January 2018 because it didn’t have “proof beyond a reasonable doubt.”

AP reporter Eric Tucker contributed from Washington.

By CHRISTINE FERNANDO, Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) — President Donald Trump announced Thursday he would pardon anti-abortion activists convicted of blockading abortion clinic entrances.

Trump called it “a great honor to sign this.”

“They should not have been prosecuted,” he said as he signed pardons for “peaceful pro-life protesters.”

The people pardoned were involved in the October 2020 invasion and blockade of a Washington clinic.

Lauren Handy was sentenced to nearly five years in prison for leading the blockade by directing blockaders to link themselves together with locks and chains to block the clinic’s doors. A nurse sprained her ankle when one person pushed her while entering the clinic, and a woman was accosted by another blockader while having labor pains, prosecutors said. Police found five fetuses in Handy’s home after she was indicted.

Trump pardoned Handy and her nine co-defendants: Jonathan Darnel of Virginia; Jay Smith, John Hinshaw and William Goodman, all of New York; Joan Bell of New Jersey; Paulette Harlow and Jean Marshall, both of Massachusetts; Heather Idoni of Michigan; and Herb Geraghty of Pennsylvania.

In the first week of Trump’s presidency, anti-abortion advocates have ramped up calls for Trump to pardon protesters charged with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which is designed to protect abortion clinics from obstruction and threats. The 1994 law was passed during a time where clinic protests and blockades were on the rise, as was violence against abortion providers, such as the murder of Dr. David Gunn in 1993.

Trump specifically mentioned Harlow in a June speech criticizing former President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice for pursuing charges against protesters involved in blockades.

“Many people are in jail over this,” he said in June, adding, ”We’re going to get that taken care of immediately.”

Abortion rights advocates slammed Trump’s pardons as evidence of his opposition to abortion access, despite his vague, contradictory statements on the issue as he attempted to find a middle ground on the campaign trail between anti-abortion allies and the majority of Americans who support abortion rights.

“Donald Trump on the campaign trail tried to have it both ways — bragging about his role in overturning Roe v. Wade while saying he wasn’t going to take action on abortion,” said Ryan Stitzlein, vice president of political and government relations for the national abortion rights organization Reproductive Freedom for All. “We never believed that that was true, and this shows us that we were right.”

SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser thanked Trump for “immediately delivering on his promise” to pardon the protesters, arguing their prosecutions were political.

The legal group Thomas More Society argued the FACE Act defendants they represent had been “unjustly imprisoned” in a January letter to Trump. The group had assured the defendants that Trump would review their cases and pardon them when he took office, according to the letter.

“Today, freedom rings in our great nation,” Steve Crampton, senior counsel for the Thomas More Society, said Thursday, adding, ”What happened to them can never be erased, but today’s pardons are a huge step towards restoring justice.”

Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, among Trump’s most loyal supporters, called the prosecution of anti-abortion protesters “a grotesque assault on the principles of this country” and urged Trump to pardon them while reading the stories of such anti-abortion protesters on the Senate floor Thursday. He highlighted Eva Edl, who was involved in a 2021 Tennessee clinic blockade and whose story has garnered attention from the largest national anti-abortion groups.

Hawley said he “had a great conversation” Thursday morning with Trump about the protesters.

The news of the pardons comes ahead of Friday’s annual anti-abortion protest March for Life in Washington, where the president is expected to address the crowd in a video.

By SCOTT McFETRIDGE

Efforts by the U.S. Forest Service to fight wildfires in California shouldn’t be influenced by politics, President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Thursday at her Senate confirmation hearing.

Responding to questions from a Senate panel, nominee Brooke Rollins also acknowledged that Trump’s plans for mass deportations and tariffs could create hardships for the agriculture industry, but she said his election demonstrated that the public supports such actions.

Trump nominated Rollins, who also served in his first administration, to lead a sprawling agency that oversees farming, forestry, ranching, food quality and nutrition. If confirmed as agriculture secretary, Rollins would take charge of the agency at a time when many farmers have seen their profits plunge and when the Forest Service is joining efforts to fight a wave of wildfires in Southern California.

Given that Trump has threatened to withhold federal disaster aid from Los Angeles unless California officials change how the state manages its water resources, California Sen. Adam Schiff asked Rollins if she would commit to equal treatment from the Forest Service.

“Are you committed to employing the same emergency resources to fight wildfires in blue states as would be deployed to fight wildfires in red states?” Schiff asked.

Rollins responded that she would not support discrimination against any state.

“Obviously, but it bears saying since you asked, 100% yes,” Rollins said. “To watch the devastation in your beautiful state has been heartbreaking for all of us, no matter if we’re from red states or blue states.”

Rollins, 52, is a lawyer from Texas who served as domestic policy chief during Trump’s first term and is now the president and CEO of the American First Policy Institute, which has helped map out plans for the second Trump administration. She graduated from Texas A&M with an undergraduate degree in agricultural development and then earned her law degree at the University of Texas.

Schiff and other Democrats on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee also asked Rollins about Trump’s plans for mass deportations of people in the country illegally. They noted that a high percentage of those who harvest produce and work at dairies could be abruptly deported, causing a giant labor shortage.

Rollins said she supported Trump’s agenda but acknowledged it could be difficult for U.S. farmers.

“The president’s vision of a secure border and a mass deportation at a scale that matters is something I support,” Rollins said.

Even as she supported the president’s planned actions, Rollins said she would support efforts to recruit more workers, such as making temporary immigrant farm worker programs more effective.

“That is my commitment, is to help President Trump deploy his agenda in an effective way while at the same time defending, if confirmed as secretary of agriculture, our farmers and ranchers across this country,” she said.

Republicans as well as Democrats raised the issue of tariffs, which Trump says he will impose to encourage foreign investors to bring manufacturing to the U.S. and to force other countries to make policy changes.

Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat, said farmers and ranchers see little prospect for improving their economic condition other than expanding exports. Bennet implored Rollins to make the case to Trump that higher tariffs would devastate efforts to increase exports.

Rollins said she would always speak up for the needs of farmers and ranchers.

“My role is to defend, to honor, to elevate our entire agriculture community in the Oval Office around the table, through the interagency process and to ensure that every decision that is made in the coming four years has that front of mind as those decisions are being made,” Rollins said.

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By MORGAN LEE and STEPHEN GROVES, Associated Press

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — President Donald Trump’s inauguration-day executive orders and promises of mass deportations of “millions and millions” of people will hinge on securing money for detention centers.

The Trump administration has not publicly said how many immigration detention beds it needs to achieve its goals, or what the cost will be. However, an estimated 11.7 million people are living in the U.S. illegally, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement currently has the budget to detain only about 41,000 people.

The government would need additional space to hold people while they are processed and arrangements are made to remove them, sometimes by plane. The Department of Homeland Security estimates the daily cost for a bed for one adult is about $165.

Just one piece of Trump’s plan, a bill known as the Laken Riley Act that Congress has passed, would require at least $26.9 billion to ramp up capacity at immigrant detention facilities to add 110,000 beds, according to a recent memo from DHS.

That bill — named after a Georgia nursing student whose murder by a Venezuelan man last year became a rallying cry for Trump’s White House campaign — expands requirements for immigration authorities to detain anyone in the country illegally who is accused of theft and violent crimes.

Trump also is deploying troops to try and stop all illegal entry at the southern U.S. border. He triggered the Alien Enemies Act to combat cartels. The rarely used 1798 law allows the president to deport anyone who is not a U.S. citizen and is from a country with which there is a “declared war” or a threatened or attempted “invasion or predatory incursion.”

Detention infrastructure also will be stretched by Trump’s ban of a practice known as “catch and release” that allows some migrants to live in the U.S. while awaiting immigration court proceedings, in favor of detention and deportation.

ICE uses facilities around the U.S. to hold immigrants

ICE currently detains immigrants at its processing centers and at privately operated detention facilities, along with local prisons and jails under contracts that can involve state and city governments. It has zero facilities geared toward detention of immigrant families, who account for roughly one-third of arrivals on the southern U.S. border.

“There’s a limitation on the number of beds available to ICE,” said John Sandweg, who was acting director of ICE under President Barack Obama. “There are only so many local jails you contract with, private vendors who have available beds. And if the administration wants to make a major uptick in detention capacity, that’s going to require the construction of some new facilities.”

Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the U.S. border with Mexico leverages the U.S. military to shore up mass deportations and provide “appropriate detention space.” The Pentagon also might provide air transportation support to DHS.

Private investors are betting on a building boom, driving up stock prices at the top two immigration detention providers — Florida-based GEO Group and Tennessee-based CoreCivic.

A fast-track budgeting maneuver in Congress called “reconciliation” could provide more detention funding as soon as April. At the same time, the Texas state land commissioner has offered the federal government a parcel of rural ranchland along the U.S.-Mexico border for deportation facilities.

Where could ICE add detention space?

The American Civil Liberties Union estimates that ICE is considering an expansion of immigrant detention space across at least eight states, in locations ranging from Leavenworth, Kansas, to the outskirts of major immigrant populations in New York City and San Francisco, said Eunice Cho, senior staff attorney for the group and its National Prison Project.

The ACLU sued for access to correspondence from private detention providers after ICE solicited feedback last year on a potential expansion. Related emails from detention providers suggest the possible redeployment of a tent facility at Carrizo Springs, Texas, previously used to detain immigrant children, and the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas — one of two major immigrant family detention centers that the Biden administration phased out in 2021.

“Under the Trump administration, Homeland Security will be working to try to detain everyone that it possibly can and also expand its detention capacity footprint well beyond what is currently available in the United States at this point,” Cho said.

Cho added that Congress ultimately holds the purse strings for immigrant detention infrastructure — and that the Pentagon’s involvement under Trump’s emergency edict — warrants a debate.

“How does this detract from our own military’s readiness?” she said. “Does the military actually have the capacity to provide appropriate facilities for detention of immigrants?”

Using the military

Advocates for immigrant rights are warning against a hyper-militarized police state that could vastly expand the world’s largest detention system for migrants. Immigrant detention facilities overseen by ICE have struggled broadly to comply with some federal standards for care, hindering safety for staff and detainees, a Homeland Security Department inspector general found during 17 unannounced inspections from 2020-2023.

During Trump’s first administration, he authorized the use of military bases to detain immigrant children — including Army installations at Fort Bliss, Texas, and Goodfellow Air Force Base. In 2014, Obama temporarily relied on military bases to detain immigrant children while ramping up privately operated family detention centers to hold many of the tens of thousands of Central American families caught crossing the border illegally.

U.S. military bases have been used repeatedly since the 1970s to accommodate the resettlement of waves of immigrants fleeing Vietnam, Cuba, Haiti, Kosovo and Afghanistan.

Groves reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Rebecca Santana in Washington contributed.

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By MICHAEL R. BLOOD and KEVIN FREKING, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California Republicans are pushing back against suggestions by President Donald Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republicans that federal disaster aid for victims of wildfires that ravaged Southern California should come with strings attached, possibly jeopardizing the president’s policy agenda in a deeply divided Congress at the outset of his second term.

With Trump planning to visit the fire-ravaged state this week, resistance from even a few House members to his efforts to put conditions on disaster aid could further complicate an already fraught relationship between reliably liberal California and the second Trump administration.

Several Republicans who narrowly won California House seats in November have expressed dismay that the state relief could be hitched to demands in exchange for helping the thousands of Californians in their districts still reeling from this month’s disaster.

“Playing politics with people’s livelihoods is unacceptable and a slap in the face to the Southern California wildfire victims and to our brave first responders,” Republican Rep. Young Kim, whose closely divided district is anchored in fire-prone Orange County, southeast of Los Angeles, said in a statement.

In an interview aired Wednesday night, Trump said he may withhold aid to California until the state adjusts how it manages its scarce water resources. He falsely claimed that California’s fish conservation efforts in the northern part of the state are responsible for fire hydrants running dry in urban areas.

“I don’t think we should give California anything until they let the water run down,” Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity.

Local officials have said the conservation efforts for the delta smelt had nothing to do with the hydrants running dry as firefighters tried to contain blazes around Los Angeles. They said intense demand on a municipal system not designed to battle such blazes was to blame.

The wind-driven firestorms wiped out whole neighborhoods of Los Angeles County, left thousands homeless and killed more than two dozen people.

Trump said earlier this week that discussions are underway in the White House to bring more water to perennially parched Los Angeles, alluding to rainfall runoff lost to the Pacific and the state’s vast water storage and delivery system.

“Los Angeles has massive amounts of water available to it. All they have to do is turn the valve,” the president said.

California has long been a favorite target of Trump, who also referred to the fires in his inaugural address Monday. In LA, he said, “we are watching fires still tragically burn from weeks ago without even a token of defense.”

“That’s going to change.”

Trump has made no mention of the multinational firefighting force deployed to contend with multiple blazes. Firefighters were gaining ground on the two major fires Wednesday when a third blaze broke out north of Los Angeles and quickly burned through hundreds of acres of dry brush.

Johnson, a Louisiana Republican echoing Trump’s complaints, has said there are “serious” problems in how the state is managed. Those include insufficient funding for forestry programs and water storage. He also noted the public dispute between the LA fire chief and City Hall over budget cuts.

Johnson said Wednesday that Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass did not prepare the state or the city for what was to come. He particularly cited a 117-million-gallon reservoir left unfilled for nearly a year. Newsom has called for an independent investigation of the reservoir.

Bass didn’t directly respond to a question about possible conditions on disaster aid, saying in a statement: “Our work with our federal partners will be based on direct conversations with them about how we can work together.”

Some Republicans have suggested that the congressional relief package could become entangled with efforts to raise the nation’s debt limit — and with the House so closely divided, even a few breakaway votes from either party could alter the outcome.

That leaves GOP lawmakers from California in a political quandary: whether to forcefully stand up for their home state, often pilloried by the GOP as representing all that is wrong with America, while Republicans in Congress are eager to show a unified front and parlay their November election wins into what Trump has called a new “golden age” for the nation.

Several California representatives agreed that the federal government must guard against the misuse of funds but argued that the money should not be held up or saddled with restrictions not placed on other states after tornadoes and hurricanes.

The dilemma played out in social media posts by Republican Rep. Ken Calvert, who narrowly prevailed in November in his swing district east of Los Angeles.

“Californians are entitled to receive federal disaster assistance in the same manner as all Americans,” he wrote on X. But, he quickly added, “Some federal policy changes may be needed to expedite rebuilding as well as improve future wildfire prevention. Those kind of policies are not conditions.”

Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley, whose sprawling district runs from east of Sacramento south to Death Valley, told KCRA-TV in Sacramento last week that Johnson’s use of the word conditions was not “especially helpful.” Speaking at the Capitol Wednesday, he said there is a lot of ambiguity about what constitutes conditions for disaster aid.

He said his focus is to make sure the money doesn’t get wasted through government inefficiency.

“We want to make sure the money actually gets to the victims and they can use it to rebuild their homes and to recover,” Kiley said.

Politicians in Washington have feuded for years over how to restrain the growing wildfire threat across the West. Republicans have long complained that inadequate land management practices have exacerbated damage from wildfires, while Democrats have emphasized the role of climate change and the failure of the federal government to address it.

About the only thing they agree on is that the problem persists.

Some lawmakers have noted that disaster aid over the years for Johnson’s home state of Louisiana did not come with conditions. Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries called the idea a “non-starter.”

Republican Rep. Doug LaMalfa, whose largely rural district runs from the Sacramento area north to the Oregon border, said he wasn’t too concerned about talk of conditions.

“Everything has conditions, especially the way California wastes money,” LaMalfa said. “We want to help people and we want to help with that, like we’ve helped with others. But California is very, very irresponsible.”

Trump plans to visit the state to see the damage firsthand on Friday. Newsom hasn’t said publicly if he’ll accompany him on his tour.

With the fragile GOP majority in the House — there are 219 Republicans, 214 Democrats and one vacancy — Johnson cannot afford defections on any vote. And it could be several weeks before a fuller accounting of the state’s recovery needs is ready and a formal request submitted to the White House.

Following major natural disasters, the president typically makes supplemental spending requests, as happened after hurricanes Helene and Milton.

Congress also could provide more disaster aid to California through legislation. Sen. Lindsey Graham, the Republican chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said he would work to include disaster aid in a filibuster-proof bill Republicans hope to craft this year that would pay for some of Trump’s top policy priorities.

Newsom urged Johnson and other congressional leaders to quickly approve assistance for the state, where fires are still burning and strong winds continue to threaten new ones. In an email to supporters from his campaign committee, he warned that “Republicans are holding federal aid hostage” and said Democrats might be able to peel off a handful of GOP votes to push through an aid package.

“In times of natural disaster — from Hurricane Katrina to Hurricane Helene — Americans have always stood together, setting aside politics to extend a helping hand to those in need,” the governor wrote. “Historically, federal disaster aid has been provided without conditions.”

Freking reported from Washington.

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When reports surfaced over the weekend that mass deportations could potentially begin in the Chicago area Tuesday, Martin Ramos informed his boss that he was taking time off from work, stocked up on groceries and decided his kids would skip soccer practice this week.

Ramos — who emigrated from Guadalajara, Mexico, without the necessary work permits — spent the first full day of Donald Trump’s second presidency hunkered down with his family and trying to avoid being picked up by ICE agents. An arrest, he knows, would destroy everything he and his wife worked for and force their two boys into an uncertain future.

“We have to do everything possible to keep our children safe,” Ramos told the Tribune. “What will they do if we get deported?”

ICE agents did not show up at the Joliet factory where Ramos and his wife both work Tuesday, but the fear inflicted upon employees there was evident. A co-worker told Ramos that only 10 out of the typical 40 to 50 workers showed up.

In Little Village, one of Chicago’s largest Mexican immigrant communities, streets were mostly deserted and quiet. Tamale vendors, a hearty group used to braving all kinds of weather, weren’t lined up on the sidewalks. The hardware store parking lots, where day laborers search for work, also were largely empty.

The possibility of mass deportations has terrified some of the area’s roughly 400,000 undocumented immigrants, prompting many to skip work, keep their kids out of school and stay hidden until the promised raids end. Their trepidation only deepened Tuesday, when the Trump administration announced it would permit agents to make arrests at schools and churches.

“All we can do is take all precautions possible and stay home as long as we can,” Ramos said.

Trump’s inaugural address and the sweeping executive orders he signed afterward fulfill his campaign promise to be tough on immigration, even at the expense of long-standing principles.

The executive orders include plans to end birthright citizenship and deploy troops to enhance border security. The president also discontinued the U.S. Customs and Border Protection One app, which migrants had been using to schedule appointments with U.S. authorities and seek asylum, dashing the hopes of many prospective migrants in Mexico.

On Tuesday afternoon, the new administration officially rescinded the Biden administration’s guidelines that prevented immigration authorities from conducting arrests and raids in “sensitive” areas.

That means that ICE agents can now go inside churches and schools to detain people.

“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” said a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson in a statement. “The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.”

‘People are hiding’

The immigrant community was initially skeptical of Trump’s deportation threats, having faced similar tough talk from other administrations. But sentiment has changed over the last week, said Dolores Castañeda, a community leader and longtime resident of Little Village.

Sunday Mass at St. Agnes of Bohemia Catholic Church was unusually empty, she said. And she personally advised a group of street vendors based on the Southwest Side to stay home during the week until they learn how ICE will operate. Out of 13 street vendors, only one told her that she couldn’t stay home because she depends on the money she earns each day to feed her family and pay rent.

Most vendors declined to speak to the Tribune out of fear that they could be identified and targeted by federal immigration officials.

“People are hiding,” she said. “They call me and ask me what to do, but my hands are tied, I don’t think anyone knows what to do.”

Even though the raids have not materialized, Gov. JB Pritzker said Tuesday that his office heard that ICE will be targeting as many as 2,000 in the city of Chicago alone. Trump has said agents will only go after immigrants accused of crimes, but he has not defined which offenses would be subject to deportation.

“I don’t know whether they’ll effectuate that, or how,” Pritzker said, adding that immigration authorities had not communicated with his office.

Over the past month, community leaders and local officials have been hosting “Know Your Rights” workshops in various languages, giving presentations and handing out pamphlets about what to do if confronted by a police officer or immigration agent. Community members have gathered in public libraries, in plazas and on street corners to prepare.

Jennifer Aguilar, the executive director of the Little Village Chamber of Commerce, said the business group is expecting fear of immigration raids to affect businesses throughout the neighborhood.

Some small businesses in Little Village are keeping their doors closed this week, she said, though the majority have remained open. However, some people are going into work despite their fear because they simply can’t afford not to.

“It’s going to be an effect similar to the pandemic,” Aguilar said. “That’s what we’re predicting.”

A manager of a popular bar on the North Side, who requested that his name be withheld for his safety and that of his workers, said many of his employees had expressed concerns about the potential raids and at least one asked for the week off.

“We will not be able to operate without them,” the bar owner said. “They are an essential part of our business, but we understand their fear.”

Others in the restaurant industry in Chicago are experiencing a bigger impact, he said, because most of their employees are undocumented.

Economic impacts

There were 300,000 undocumented workers in Illinois in 2022, according to the Pew Research Center. At that time — the most recent year for which data is available — those workers made up 5% of the state’s labor force, just slightly above the national average of 4.8%.

The industry with the most undocumented workers in Illinois was manufacturing, according to Pew. The construction industry had the largest percentage of workers who were undocumented.

Business leaders in Illinois and elsewhere have raised alarm about the potential impacts of mass deportations on the economy.

Sam Toia, president of the Illinois Restaurant Association, said rumors Tuesday of immigration checks at Chicago restaurants were unsubstantiated. Still, workers were scared, and Toia had heard of some restaurant employees calling out of work, though he suggested some may have called out because of the extreme cold.

Toia stressed the need to expand work authorizations to more immigrants. He said he supports the deportation of violent criminals but warned of the impacts mass deportations would have on the economy.

“Trump ran on bringing inflation down,” Toia said. “If you’re going to do mass deportations, you will see inflation go through the roof.”

The threatened arrests could have an economic impact across many industries, said Rebecca Shi, CEO of the American Business Immigration Coalition. According to Shi, housing, food and health care have been major contributors to inflation in recent years. Mass deportations, she said, could cause a price surge.

“If law-abiding workers are caught in the raids, there would be ripple effects across the labor market driving upward prices for everyday Americans,” Shi said.

A study released last year by researchers at the Center for Migration Studies laid out ways in which mass deportations could have broad-ranging effects on the U.S. economy. Workers in the U.S. without legal permission contributed $96.7 billion in taxes in 2022, researchers found.

And because around 1.5 million households with at least one undocumented person have mortgages, the researchers said, mass deportations could lead to a significant number of defaults and “(threaten) the US housing market with destabilization.”

‘Mouths to feed’

Marcos Ceniceros, the executive director of the Warehouse Workers for Justice, said the organization has heard from workers who plan to skip work over the next few days.

But the decision to forgo a day or more or more of pay is one with a cost, he said.

“People need to work,” Ceniceros said. “They need to pay their bills and feed their families.”

A Home Depot parking lot in North Lawndale that is usually filled with day laborers looking for work was eerily quiet Tuesday morning. Just a few men stood on the sidewalk, wrapping their faces with scarves, their thumbs out to passing cars.

“There’s usually so many people, but no one came to look for work today. They’re all scared. … But for me, none of what Trump says matters when I have bills to pay and mouths to feed,” said Pedro, a 38-year-old undocumented father of three who came to Chicago from Michoacán, Mexico, three years ago.

His wife works at a factory on Pulaski Road, he said. She also had no choice but to work.

Vanessa, a 33-year-old mother of three who lives in Little Village, said her undocumented husband is a carpenter and their family’s primary source of income. He’s not working this week.

If he was picked up by ICE and deported, it would rip apart their family, she said. The fear is too much, but the financial cost of hiding may soon grow even greater.

“Eventually, he’s going to have to get back,” said Vanessa, who asked that her last name be withheld.

Vanessa said her husband is active in the church and community. Her kids are happily enrolled in school. But in the past week, they’ve started thinking about a contingency plan to go back to Mexico if need be.

“I feel like we’re grieving something that hasn’t even happened,” she said. “Or like we’re waiting for something that’s going to happen that we know we’re going to grieve.”

Tribune reporter Olivia Olander contributed.

By BYRON TAU, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s not just criminal prosecutions that worry those who have crossed President Donald Trump. There are more prosaic kinds of retaliation: having difficulty renewing passports, getting audited by the IRS and losing federal pensions.

For the many people who have made an enemy of Trump, his return to the presidency this week sparked anxiety. Some are concerned they could go bankrupt trying to clear their names.

Less than 24 hours after taking office, Trump fired an opening shot, ordering the revocation of security clearances held by dozens of former intelligence officers who he believes sided with Joe Biden in the 2020 campaign or have turned against him. The loss of such clearances can be costly for former officials who work for defense contractors and require ongoing access to classified information to do their private sector jobs.

“Anybody who ever disagrees with Trump has to worry about retribution,” said John Bolton, who served as Trump’s national security adviser and has become a vocal critic of the president. “It’s a pretty long list. I think there are a lot of people who are very worried.”

Bolton was among a half dozen former officials who spoke to The Associated Press about their rising apprehensions about Trump’s potential for vengeance. In the hours before Trump took the oath of office on Monday, the officials noted, outgoing President Biden took the extraordinary step of issuing preemptive pardons for frequent Trump targets such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley and lawmakers and staff who served on the congressional panel that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Biden also pardoned members of his family, saying “baseless and politically motivated investigations wreak havoc on the lives, safety and financial security of targeted individuals and their families.”

The risk of being on Kash Patel’s list

Many of the former officials were listed in an index of “deep state” operatives in a book by Kash Patel, Trump’s nominee to be FBI director. Patel has promised to launch a campaign against what he calls “government gangsters.”

Most of those interviewed spoke about their fears on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to draw more attention to themselves. They are concerned about being on the receiving end of a presidential social media post or being targeted in an online harassment campaign.

They are also worried about being criminally investigated and prosecuted for actions they took as government employees, though few expressed genuine concern about being convicted. All said they were more concerned about having to incur steep legal bills from criminal probes, congressional investigations or defamation suits.

Trump has long been interested in revenge

Revenge played a central role in many of Trump’s remarks after he left the presidency in 2021. He said at a 2023 rally, “For those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”

In his inaugural address Monday, Trump said his “proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier,” and he signed an executive order aimed at ending what he called the weaponization of the federal government under Biden. He alleged that the previous administration took actions “oriented more toward inflicting political pain than toward pursuing actual justice or legitimate governmental objectives.”

But hours after being sworn in, he issued executive orders aimed at settling scores, including the one stripping clearances from 50 former intelligence officers. He also rescinded Secret Service protection for Bolton, whose life has been threatened by Iran.

A White House spokeswoman did not return a request for comment.

In ways big and small, the federal government has tremendous power. It’s the largest single purchaser of goods and services in the world. It can audit, investigate, prosecute and cajole. It controls everything from TV broadcast licenses to passport renewals. It has the power to both add citizens to a no-fly list or to smooth their way through passport control and TSA security checkpoints.

While most of the functions of the federal government have been depoliticized for more than a century, there are many ways a president bent on revenge could upend the lives of private citizens.

“If you have the control of the executive branch and you don’t care very much about whether you’re following the rules or following the law, there’s a lot you could do that’s quite hard to stop,” said Barton Gellman, a senior adviser at the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice.

Simulation examined punishing political foes

Gellman helped run a series of simulations last year aimed at testing the U.S. response to an authoritarian presidency. The aim was to see how institutions — both public and private — would react to a president giving unlawful or unethical orders.

The bipartisan group assembled for the simulation included several former governors and cabinet officials, retired military personnel, ex-members of Congress and many prominent leaders in civil society. Participants played the role of institutions such as the Justice Department, the military and the majority and minority parties in Congress, as well as universities and the press. Some of the scenarios involved a president using the power of the government to punish political foes.

What they found was that the institutions of government would ultimately bend to a president’s wishes. Gellman believes the only check might be that the American people might not stand for it.

“Public opinion might actually be one of the major constraints on Trump. I don’t think a majority of Americans wants to see him abusing his legal powers to try to harm his political enemies. If a pattern like that emerges, I don’t think it will be popular,” Gellman said.

A recent New York Times/Ipsos poll found that 73% of Americans oppose the idea of Trump trying to prosecute his adversaries, including 49% of Americans who consider themselves “strongly opposed.”

Attorneys gear up to help

Attorneys and civil society groups are raising money and organizing on behalf of current and former federal employees who might be in the crosshairs. Norm Eisen, a veteran lawyer and former U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic, said he’s advising individuals who have been targeted by Trump with his colleagues at State Democracy Defenders Fund, a nonprofit watchdog group.

Mark Zaid, a Washington attorney who represents several of the people whose security clearances were revoked this week, has been organizing an effort to help those who might be targeted. That includes lining up attorneys, accountants and even mental health professionals who could offer services for free.

“There’s not a lot we can do in advance,” Zaid said, “other than just be prepared for when or if he acts.”