Posts by Newspaper Staff

President Donald Trump announced a trade deal with the European Union on Sunday that will require imports from the 27-nation bloc to face a 15% tariff.
Trump had previously threatened tariffs of 30% on European goods. Trump announced the the deal after a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
“It’s a good deal for everybody,” Trump told reporters after the meeting at his golf resort in Turnberry, Scotland.
Trump has been on a roll recently, announcing deals with Indonesia (19 tariff on imports), the Philippines (19% tariff on imports) and Japan (15% tariff on imports) earlier this week.
Trump said the EU will buy $750 billion in energy from the U.S. and agreed to invest $600 billion in the U.S.
“We have a trade deal between the two largest economies in the world. It’s a big deal, it’s a huge deal, it will bring stability, it will be predictability,” von der Leyen said. “It’s a good deal, it’s a tough deal.”
It’s the biggest deal Trump has reached so far.
U.S. total goods trade with the European Union were an estimated $975.9 billion in 2024. U.S. goods exports to the European Union in 2024 were $370.2 billion. U.S goods imports from the European Union totaled $605.8 billion in 2024. The U.S. goods trade deficit with the European Union was $235.6 billion in 2024, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
By comparison, U.S. trade goods with Japan totaled an estimated $227.9 billion in 2024.
Trump has been working to reorder global trade through tariffs to give U.S. companies an advantage at home.
Economists, businesses and some publicly traded companies have warned that tariffs could raise prices on a wide range of consumer products.
Trump has said he wants to use tariffs to restore manufacturing jobs lost to lower-wage countries in decades past, shift the tax burden away from U.S. families and pay down the national debt.

Two victims remain in serious condition Sunday and a Michigan man is facing terrorism charges related to stabbing 11 people at a Walmart in Traverse City on Saturday afternoon in an apparently random attack.
Minutes after the attack began inside the store, 42-year-old Bradford James Gille was cornered by a number of civilians in the parking lot, including one armed with a pistol. Local authorities then took him into custody, according to Grand Traverse County Sheriff Michael D. Shea.
Shea held a press conference on Sunday regarding the incident.
“Aid was immediately provided to the victims by responding law enforcement, citizens, and other emergency responders,” he said. “For all of those people that were involved, first of all, I commend them. It’s not very often that we have citizens that are willing to step up and take action.”
All victims were taken to the local hospital, Munson Medical Center. The victims range in age from 29 to 84 and include one Walmart employee.
While two victims remain in serious condition as of Sunday afternoon, all are expected to survive.
Gille is currently charged with 11 counts of assault with intent to murder, along with the one count of terrorism. He is awaiting trial in the Traverse County Jail.
“Any time there is a mass incident like this, where it is something that appears to be a very random act of violence . . . it is, we believe, in some ways done to affect the entire community, to put fear in the entire community,” said Grand Traverse County Prosecutor Noelle Moeggenberg at the press conference. “So, that is why we are looking at that terrorism charge.”
Gille has previously had encounters with law enforcement, including charges for controlled substances.
If sentenced on all charges, Gille could face life in prison. Authorities say he acted alone.
Shea said that during interviews with Gille, it was not yet apparent what his motive for the attacks were.
The FBI is also involved in the investigation. Dan Bongino, deputy director of the FBI, responded to the incident on social media.
“FBI personnel are responding to provide any necessary support to the Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Office in their investigation,” Bongino said.

When hackers stole a rural school district’s computer system last year, students in the middle of midterm exams were left frustrated, but concerns went far beyond testing.
Cafeteria staff scrambled to help students who depended on school meals. Parents searched for childcare when district officials canceled classes. Seniors worried about college application deadlines while transcripts were inaccessible.
A report from the Center for Internet Security found such attacks are becoming more sophisticated, more frequent and more damaging to K-12 schools. CIS runs the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center with the goal of better overall cybersecurity posture for governments at all levels through coordination and collaboration.
The 2025 CIS MS-ISAC K-12 Cybersecurity Report found 82% of K-12 organizations experienced cyber incidents. Of the nearly 14,000 security events, 9,300 were confirmed. It also found that attacks surge during high-stakes periods such as exams, disrupting education and forcing officials to make difficult decisions.
Randy Rose, vice president of security operations and intelligence at the Center for Internet Security, said cyber attacks at school can have “huge, broad implications.” He pointed to the unnamed rural school district highlighted in the report. Like many other schools, it serves as a central hub in the community and school disruption can create a cascade of community problems.
“Schools are really central to a community. So when they’re impacted, it’s far beyond just kids in classrooms,” he told The Center Square. “We’re talking about their kids who only eat when they’re in school. So if they’re out of school, there’s no food. There are parents whose lives are disrupted because they’re unable to work, and a lot of those parents don’t have jobs where they can take time off. So if they’re not working, they’re not making money, which has an impact on the local economy.”
Many districts have some form of insurance to cover cyber attacks, but those policies vary widely in what they cover after a breach, Rose said.
“Insurance will cover things like initial incident response. In some cases, they’ll cover ransomware payments. Sometimes they won’t,” he said. “Sometimes they’ll require you to have a particular provider that does ransomware negotiations with the actors. But sometimes they stop short of actual recovery and future implementation.”
What insurance doesn’t cover usually ends up on local taxpayers.
“If you’re having to pay massive amounts of money for restoration and ransomware payments, guess whose taxes are going to go up next?” Rose said.
It can get more complicated when foreign state-backed groups are involved. Some policies might consider that an Act of War, which isn’t covered.
Recovering from cyber attacks can take time, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report from 2023. That report found the loss of learning after an attack “ranged from 3 days to 3 weeks and recovery time ranged from 2 to 9 months.”
The GAO report found financial losses to school districts ranged from $50,000 to $1 million. The GAO also noted that the “precise national magnitude of cyberattacks on K-12 schools is unknown.”
Experts said many attacks are not reported. The issue isn’t limited to schools. It can affect the vendors that districts hire. In 2022, a cyber attack on Illuminate Education, an education technology company based in California, affected more than 1 million students, including students in New York, California, Connecticut, Washington, Oklahoma and Colorado.
Josh Bauman is the technology director at Festus R6 School District, located in Festus, Missouri. The district serves about 3,500 students at five schools near the Mississipi River and the state’s border with Illinois. It’s about 35 miles south of St. Louis. Outside of school, he hosts a K-12 Tech Talk podcast on cyberattacks, talking with school officials who have reported breaches. Most of the people on the podcast change details to protect the identity of the schools involved.
He said simple things such as public-facing school calendars can give hackers an advantage. Since they know what’s happening at the school, they can use information to make strikes more damaging, hit at key times, or wait until no one is in the building.
Bauman said that ransomware attacks have morphed into double extortion-style attacks. First, the hackers will gain access, start extracting data, and then encrypt machines. They’ll then ask for a ransom to get the machines back. If the school district pays, the hackers will threaten to post all the information they downloaded to the dark web unless they get another ransom payment.
The latest trend has been hackers impersonating school vendors, which is also often public information that can be found on a district’s website, to switch accounts and steal the money.
Bauman said that as the threats evolve, so must schools. In the case of a key vendor, for example, school officials may ask the company to come to the school in person to change any payment or account information.
But unlike building a new cafeteria, gymnasium or upgrading sports facilities, money that goes into IT to prevent attacks isn’t very flashy. Rarely is it something that district’s are eager to spend money on, but some insurance policies require schools to have things like multi-factor authentication or procedures in place before they’ll offer coverage, Bauman said.
A 2023 report from S&P Global Ratings found that cyberattacks have not affected schools’ credit quality or resulted in long-term operational problems. Successful attacks can prove costly, requiring technology investments, ransom payments, legal fees, cyber security consultant fees and costs associated with credit monitoring services for affected people, according to the S&P report. That report found 50% of providers paid to get data back.
One more problem: When Bauman and other technology directors discuss prevention efforts with school boards, those discussions often occur during public meetings streamed on the web.
“We don’t want to be in a public setting and say, ‘Oh, hey, we’re using product X, Y, Z to protect our edge,’ and keeping in mind that the bad guys know our calendars, and if we’re streaming our board meetings, it’s a huge threat vector, we have to be very careful about what we say and where we say it,” Bauman said.

As Congress heads into August, conflicts and scandals are poised to derail a seemingly quiet end to the summer in Washington, with the investigations into and debates about former President Joe Biden’s mental decline, Jeffrey Epstein and Russiagate just heating up.
The investigation into Biden’s mental and physical fitness continues, with more witnesses expected to appear before the House Oversight Committee in the coming week.
So far, three witnesses, including Annie Tomasini, who served as an assistant to the former president and deputy director of Oval Office Operations, former First Lady Jill Biden’s chief of staff, Anthony Bernal, and Dr. Kevin O’Connor, Biden’s physician – all pleaded their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.
The committee may have had a breakthrough on Thursday when Ron Klain, who served as former President Joe Biden’s chief of staff during the first half of Biden’s presidency, testified in a marathon hearing. Unlike the other witnesses, Klain appeared voluntarily.
Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., told Newsmax Friday that Klain answered every question, admitting that Biden’s “memory had deteriorated a little bit” and “wasn’t as sharp” in the lead up to the former president dropping out of the race for reelection. However, Comer added that Klain told the committee that he believed Biden was still competent to lead.
Comer added that the investigation has been easier by the number of Biden aides and staffers “writing books” or mentioned in tell-all’s regarding the former president, including a book written by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, “Original Sin,” which the congressman quoted as claiming, “Five people were running the country, and Joe Biden was at best a senior member of the board.”
During Comer’s interview, he segued into another ongoing investigation gripping the nation, the Epstein files. The congressman announced on Thursday that he has issued a subpoena to Ghislaine Maxwell for a deposition, which will occur at the federal prison in Tallahassee, Fla., where the former close associate of Epstein is being held. Comer said the subpoena is issued for Aug. 11.
U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche spent two days, Thursday and Friday, interviewing Maxwell, adding that the Department of Justice will release information regarding the interview “at the appropriate time.”
Comer also announced that the committee is preparing to subpoena more individuals, including former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to uncover more on the Epstein case. Those listed include big names, spanning multiple presidential administrations, such as James Comey, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder, Merrick Garland, Robert Mueller, William Barr, Jeff Sessions and Alberto Gonzales.
As President Donald Trump was preparing to leave on an overseas trip to Scotland Friday, he was asked if he had considered pardoning Maxwell to get her to talk. The president didn’t appear to rule the possibility out.
“I’m allowed to do it, but it’s something I have not thought about,” Trump told reporters.
Questions continue to swirl around Trump’s involvement with Epstein as the Wall Street Journal is doubling down on claims that the president was included in a book of messages for the late, disgraced financier’s 50th birthday, reportedly compiled by Maxwell.
Senior Democratic Virginia Sen. Mark Warner is showing no signs of backing down, holding Trump and his administration accountable for not disclosing files on the Epstein case. Warner claims that the latest, emerging scandal accusing former President Barack Obama of “manufacturing” intelligence information that the Trump campaign and Russia colluded on influencing the 2016 presidential campaign is merely a means to be a distraction from the Epstein files.
Warner took aim at Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who appeared at a White House press briefing Wednesday, highlighting the explosive claims against Obama, accusing the administration of engaging in a “coup” to undermine the election.
“Tulsi Gabbard has been on the outs with Trump since she undermined him on Iran intelligence. So it’s no surprise she’s doing everything she can to help him distract from Epstein files. But America isn’t looking away,” Warner posted on X.
It would appear the latest scandals may be causing a distraction and potential delays in implementing the president’s agenda, including the confirmation of over 100 presidential appointees. Trump has been urging Senate Majority Leader Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., to cancel the August recess and confirm his nominations.

Roy Cooper will lead the North Carolina Democrats’ effort to win a U.S. Senate election for the first time since 2008.
The 68-year-old former two-term governor, four-term attorney general and 14-year state lawmaker indicated Saturday night he will file in December to succeed Republican Sen. Thom Tillis. The state’s senior senator on June 29 said he would not seek a third term.
His comments gave confirmation he had decided to the first report by Politico on Thursday morning. As he took the stage at the party’s state convention, he asked for those running in 2026 to stand, and after they did to be seated.
He said, “Hey, I’m not sitting down am I?” To roars and a standing ovation from the audience.
Cooper went on to laud his accomplishments. He introduced the keynote speaker, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who in turn said, “Let’s hear it for Sen. Cooper.”
Cooper is expected to make a more formal announcement on Monday.
Former U.S. Rep. Wiley Nickel since April had been the leading name for Democrats, even as Tillis was not showing intent to exit. Nickel on Friday suspended his campaign, endorsed Cooper and said he was considering a run for district attorney in Wake County.
Sen. Kay Hagan in 2008 was the last Democrat to win a Senate seat in the state. The last Democrats to win midterms were John Edwards in 1998 and Terry Sanford in 1986. Republicans are 5-0 in Senate elections since Hagan’s triumph.
Cooper’s intent was no surprise, and it is likely to mean no competitive primary threats for Democrats in March.
Republicans could be the same. Michael Whatley, the Republican National Committee chairman, is expected to announce his candidacy within days. President Donald Trump has already given his endorsement.
Even before Tillis’ retirement announcement, the seat was one of two for Republicans considered most vulnerable to change in the midterms either within party or to flip blue. Rep. Susan Collins, R-Maine, is in the other.
Cooper, born and raised in the Nash County community of Nashville, claimed gubernatorial wins of Medicaid expansion, cumulative raises of 19% for teachers, and dismantling of the infamous bathroom bill, also known as House Bill 2, that now appears about eight years ahead of its time. The legislation didn’t allow boys and men to enter private spaces of the opposite sex by saying they were girls or women.
His losses are led by universal school choice, photo identification for voting, deregulation and abortion. The national move on the protection of women’s spaces is poised to erode a similar battle he won on HB2.
A lawyer by trade, his “sue until it’s blue” approach put many decisions in courtrooms rather than the Capitol or Legislative Building. The tactic garnered success when the state Supreme Court grew to 6-1 majority Democrats, but lost steam during and after the COVID-19 era as it pivoted to 5-2 Republicans.
Cooper is 13-0 in elections for the state Senate, House of Representatives, attorney general and governor. It’s a far different time for his party than when he won a state House seat in 1986, joining Democratic majorities of 40-10 in the Senate and 84-36 in the House.
Today, it’s Republicans 30-20 in the upper chamber and 71-49 in the lower. Democrats that 21 years ago held 47.6% of voter registrations now (30.6%) trail the unaffiliated (38.3%) and are barely ahead of the Grand Old Party (30.4%).
At a time when elected authority has become questioned as kingship, Cooper holds a state record with 104 vetoes – 52 were overridden – and also doled out 328 executive orders over eight years as governor.
Of four state budgets, he vetoed two, signed one, and allowed one to become law without his signature. He long advocated for big pay raises for teachers and state employees and instead wound up with more veto stamps than signatures and adversary Republicans able to claim giving teachers raises more times than he did.
Cooper left the governor’s office with eight years of promises for 17,708 jobs, along with investments of $31.78 billion. There were collective announcements by Toyota, Apple, FujiFilm Diosynth, Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly, Wolfspeed, Boom Supersonic, Natron Energy and Boviet Solar. Not all made it.
There was also VinFast, the $1.2 billion taxpayer subsidy recipient with one-time plans for a $4 billion plant in Moncure sporting 7,500 jobs. Reports say VinFast is still coming but didn’t start production as intended last summer.

President Donald Trump is set to meet Sunday with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to continue talks on a trade deal.
Ahead of that meeting, policy analysts say that any agreement on trade must include the removal of non-tariff regulations and digital service taxes that largely target U.S. tech and communications companies.
Joe Grogan, president of Public Policy Solutions and former Domestic Policy Council chief in the first Trump administration, told The Center Square in a statement that, “For decades, the European Union has attacked the United States with unfair regulations, taxes and fees. Given America’s tech leadership, our digital policy is trade policy, and any trade deal should address non-tariff barriers like digital services taxes to end the protectionist approach to these American innovators. To pay more than lip service to freedom and free markets, the EU must remove its burdensome bans and regulations on American companies.”
Digital service taxes (DSTs) are taxes levied by countries on gross revenues of international companies rather than on the companies’ profits, according to the Tax Foundation. They are meant to force large U.S.-based companies such as Google, Amazon, Meta, streaming services and others to contribute to a country’s tax base even if they don’t have physical operations in those countries.
In a report released last month, Public Policy Solutions said European countries target U.S. technology and telecommunications companies in three primary ways: they promote “purchases with European digital companies instead of facilitating a free market;” they force U.S. digital companies to pay high fees and taxes; and they place “burdensome regulations and restrictions” on them.
Canada last month considered a digital services tax on U.S. companies but quickly backed off, realizing it would escalate the ongoing trade dispute between the two border nations.
Michael Toth, a research fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin, similarly told The Center Square that eliminating Europe’s digital services taxes and regulatory burdens must be a part of any U.S.-Europe trade deal.
“They’re looking at these American companies like an ATM,” Toth said. “‘So why not tax these businesses in other countries instead of our own.’ It impacts [American companies’] bottom line. It means they have these additional costs just for the privilege of doing business there” in Europe.
Toth said the Trump administration is using the threat of tariffs on European goods imported into the U.S. to help level the playing field.
“What the administration is saying, ‘hey wait a second. Everyone wants to do business with American companies.’ So we have a lot of leverage,” Toth said. “That’s not something our companies should have to pay for. It should be a big part of any deal that comes together.”
Toth also told The Center Square that European countries penalize American companies for not following Europe’s excessively burdensome environmental and other regulations.
“When EU regulators hit Apple and Meta with $800 million in fines last month, a Meta spokesperson called out the European money grab for what it is – ‘a multi-billion-dollar tariff’ on American companies,” Toth wrote in The Hill in June.
“These fines do not take into account the enormous day-to-day compliance costs that U.S. firms must pay for the privilege of doing business in the Eurozone. Staying on top of EU digital rules runs Alphabet, Apple, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft $2.2 billion annually. American companies are forecasted to forgo more than $2 trillion of revenue due to Europe’s massive regulatory burden.”
Toth told The Center Square that these regulations also need to be addressed in any trade deal.
“The administration is smart to hit the reset button,” he said. “The EU markets will then be much more open to American products.”

Texas will become the seventh state to ban the production and sale of lab-grown meat in September.
Florida was the first, followed by Alabama last year. This year, five more states, including Texas, followed.
They did so after the Trump administration took the opposite approach. In 2019, the first Trump administration was the first in U.S. history to begin the process to authorize lab-grown chicken, seafood and beef in the U.S.
In 2023, under former President Joe Biden, the U.S. became the second country in the world to approve the production and sale of lab-grown meat.
Recognizing the importance of the Texas cattle industry and health concerns expressed by Texans, state Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, filed SB 261 to ban the sale of lab-grown meat in Texas. The bill, which includes civil and criminal penalties, received bipartisan support and was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott last month. It becomes effective Sept. 1.
“The introduction of lab-grown meat could disrupt traditional livestock markets, affecting rural economies and family farms,” Perry’s bill analysis states. “There are concerns over transparency in labeling, risk of contamination, and the long-term health impacts of consuming cell-cultured products.” The measure prohibits the production and sale of cell-cultured protein products in Texas “to protect consumers and support traditional agriculture.”
“Cell-cultured protein is made by harvesting animal cells and growing them in a bioreactor to produce tissue-based food products,” the analysis explains.
Earlier this year, the Texas legislature passed a resolution officially recognizing a “State Steak of Texas,” highlighting Texas as “the birthplace of many iconic culinary traditions, including those tied to cattle drives, chuck wagons, and steak houses, all of which have cemented steak as an integral part of the state’s culture and cuisine,” The Center Square reported.
Texas remains the undisputable leader with the most beef cattle in the U.S., representing nearly 15% of the national beef market, The Center Square reported. Texas cattle, including beef and dairy, are Texas’ top agricultural commodity, representing $15.5 billion in market value in 2022, according to state agriculture data.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was the first governor in the country to sign a lab-grown meat ban last year in an effort to protect the state’s cattle and agricultural industry. Alabama wasn’t far behind.
This year, five more states followed. In February, South Dakota’s governor signed its ban into law. In March, Mississippi’s ban was approved. In May, Nebraska’s ban was signed into law. In July, Indiana implemented a two-year ban on lab-grown meat.
Georgia attempted to implement a ban this year, HB 201, which went nowhere this legislative session. Arizona passed a bill this year, HB 2739, requiring labeling on all cell-grown products.
State legislative action was taken after the first Trump administration’s departments of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service and Health and Human Services’ Food and Drug Administration announced a formal agreement to jointly oversee the production of human food products derived from the cells of livestock and poultry. The regulatory framework directed the FDA to oversee “cell collection, cell banks, and cell growth and differentiation.”
By 2023, the Biden administration continued the Trump administration’s work. Its FDA and USDA approved California-based Upside Foods and Good Meat to sell cell-based chicken products, which are currently being sold in restaurants nationwide.
Upside Foods sued Florida last year arguing its ban is unconstitutional. A federal judge allowed the lawsuit to go forward this April. It remains unclear if the California company or others like it will sue the seven states that have so far implemented bans.
Last month, the second Trump administration continued the efforts it began in 2019 when the FDA and USDA approved a San Francisco-based cell-based seafood company Wildtype to market its products that are currently being served in restaurants. It was approved after agri-giant Cargill and partners invested more than $100 million to launch an “alternative to salmon,” Just Food reported.
Although the U.S. began its process in 2019, Singapore was the first country in the world to officially authorize the production of lab-grown meat in 2020. The U.S. was the second in 2023.
Last year, Israel became the third after an Israeli company, Aleph Farms, received approval to sell lab-grown meat in Israel and the Middle East. Several European countries are also moving toward approving lab grown meat, according to several news reports.

Congress has created several programs to allow illegal border crossers claiming to be minors to remain in the U.S. Despite years of documented abuse of the programs, Congress continues to fund them to the tune of billions of dollars.
One is the failed unaccompanied minor program, with decades of documented reports of abuse and neglect of children, The Center Square has reported. Another is the Special Immigrant Juvenile Petition (SIJP) program that allows illegal foreign national minors already involved in the juvenile court system to remain in the U.S. and obtain a pathway to citizenship.
For decades, the SIJP has been exploited by criminal actors to enable thousands of violent gang members and suspected terrorists to obtain lawful permanent resident (LPR) status and become U.S. citizens, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) says in a new report, “Criminality, Gangs, and Program Integrity Concerns in Special Immigrant Juvenile Petitions.”
Instead of requiring that illegal foreign national minors be vetted, including conducting criminal background checks, locating and verifying family members, and implementing a repatriation process, Congress in 1990 established the SIJP process without any prohibitions. The primary requirement for a SIJP is for a state juvenile court to determine that the minor could not reunify with one or both parents due to abuse, neglect or abandonment.
Congress never included a prohibition for juveniles with criminal records or a moral character standard requirement.
Under current law, nearly all SIJP applicants are approved, allowing them to obtain lawful permanent resident (LPR) status and eventually U.S. citizenship.
The USCIS evaluated more than 300,000 SIJP applications filed between fiscal year 2013 through February 2025 and found that nearly 19,000 applicants had criminal arrests, including 120 for murder.
More than 500 were identified as known or suspected MS-13 gang members whose applications were approved; at least 70 had been charged with gang-related federal racketeering offenses.
At least 200 had been convicted of sex crimes and were registered in the National Sex Offender Registry.
From fiscal 2020 through 2024, 198,414 SIJP applications were approved. Among them, 52% weren’t even eligible because they were over age 18 and legally adults.
The overwhelming majority, 72%, were from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, where cartels and gangs recruit young boys into a life of crime.
The USCIS report also found that many SIJP applicants were gotaways – those who illegally entered the U.S. to evade detection and didn’t file immigration claims. A record more than two million gotaways were reported under the Biden administration, The Center Square exclusively reported.
The USCIS also found that 853 SIJP applicants were known or suspected gang members. Instead of being processed for deportation, their SIJP applications were approved. More than 600 were identified as MS-13 gang members; more than 500 of their applications were approved.
More than 100 known or suspected members of the 18th Street gang, at least three Tren de Aragua members, and dozens of Sureños and Norteños gang members applied for SIJP and were approved.
Of the MS-13 gang member SIJP applicants, at least 70 had already been charged with federal racketeering offenses; many others were charged with having already committed violent crimes in the U.S., the report found.
Common claims made by SIJP applicants were they were sent to the U.S. to live with a relative, they lived a life of poverty in their home country, they didn’t know one of their parents, their parents mistreated them with no corroborating evidence, their applications were “rubber stamped” by state juvenile courts, and USCIS found a repeated pattern of age and identity fraud, including falsifying names, birth dates and citizenship.
In June, the Trump administration implemented a new policy, eliminating automatically considering deferred action (and related employment authorization) for SIJP applicants who were ineligible to apply for LPR status, among other measures.
The administration and Congress have not terminated the SIJP and continue to fund it.

Warning of a “five-alarm fire for democracy,” Gov. Gavin Newsom Friday suggested the possibility of California redrawing its congressional districts in response to actions in Texas.
“We’re looking at different pathways. There are no maps drawn,” Newsom told reporters as he stood outside the Capitol in Sacramento with Democratic members of the Texas House of Representatives.
The Republican-dominated Texas Legislature is holding redistricting hearings in response to Republican President Donald Trump’s call for new congressional districts. Trump, who discussed the matter with Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, told reporters the GOP could gain five more seats in the U.S. House.
Republicans currently have a narrow majority in the House with 219 seats. Democrats could take control by flipping a few seats. Republicans also face the historic pattern of the party in control of the White House losing control of one chamber of Congress during the first midterm.
In determining the number of congressional seats, all states should play by the same rules, Newsom, a Democrat, said.
“That’s no longer the case, not with Donald Trump, not when he makes a call to the governor of Texas and talks about finding five additional seats so he can hold the line and control the majority of the House of Representatives,” Newsom said.
“The people of California realize what’s at stake if we don’t put a stake into the heart of this administration,” Newsom said. “There may not be an election in 2028.”
In a post on X, Newsom warned of Trump trying to redistrict the GOP to victory in 2026.
Opponents of the administration’s policies can’t afford not to act, Newsom said at the news conference. “We have to fight fire with fire.”
Later at the outdoor press conference, as a fire engine coincidentally rushed by with its siren blaring, the governor added, “It’s a five-alarm fire for democracy.”
Texans are experiencing an assault on their democracy, Newsom said.
If Texas redraws congressional district lines, California has the option of bringing a ballot measure to ask voters to do likewise, Newsom said, but added various pathways are being considered. What might go on the ballot hasn’t been determined, he said.
“This is a fluid conversation that came in reaction to the phone call from Donald Trump to Greg Abbott,” Newsom said.
The governor also criticized the administration for what he called illegal tariffs, threats of conditioning disaster aid on the basis of politics and what he called the “warrantless raids” across California by U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Before Newsom spoke, Texas state Rep. Rafael Anchía accused Trump of trying to dismantle congressional districts that historically consists of African-American and Latino communities.
“It will create great harm, not only to Texas, but all Americans,” Anchía said.
Before Newsom’s press conference, state Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Huntington Beach, said states shouldn’t consider redistricting at any point other than the traditional 10 years between censuses.
“I think it’s a long, slippery slope for a state to do it,” Strickland told The Center Square Friday. He noted it should only be done when there’s a voting rights issue.
“What will happen is every two years, you’re going to have a power grab from all the states within the union, and I don’t think that’s good for democracy,” Strickland said.
When asked if a redistricting attempt in Texas would amount to gerrymandering, Strickland said, “I think gerrymandering happens all the time. The difference between Texas and California is Texas doesn’t have an independent citizens’ commission.”
Since 2010 in California, redistricting has been handled by an independent commission.
“By the way, I think our lines are gerrymandered,” Strickland said. “Republicans get 40 to 42% of the vote, yet we have 20% of legislative seats.
“I think he (Newsom) will have egg on his face” if California is redistricted, Strickland said. He predicted that if Newsom got California four more seats in Congress, those seats would be held by Republicans.
While noting Texas and California shouldn’t do redistricting, Strickland was critical of Newsom for focusing on national issues instead of matters related to the state.
Strickland said he believes Newsom’s attention is on running for president in 2028. The governor hasn’t announced his candidacy, but is widely believed to be eyeing the White House.
“He’s not addressing the issues that the people of California expect us to address: gas prices, affordability,” Strickland said. “Our crime is on the rise.”