Blog

  • Arizona governor vetoes bill requiring local officials to help with federal immigration efforts

    Arizona governor vetoes bill requiring local officials to help with federal immigration efforts


    PHOENIX — Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs on Friday vetoed a Republican-backed bill intended to support the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown by requiring local and state officials in Arizona to cooperate with federal enforcement efforts.

    Under the proposal, local and state officials couldn’t prohibit or restrict cooperation with federal immigration efforts or block the use of federal databases and grant funds related to immigration enforcement.

    It also would force cooperation on immigration detainers — requests from the federal government to hold onto people already in state custody until immigration authorities could pick them up.

    Supporters say the measure is needed to ensure federal authorities can safely and more easily take custody of immigrants, rather than having to track them down later after they have already been released from state prisons or county jails.

    Opponents say the state should leave immigration enforcement to the federal government and that the cooperation required in the bill would be expensive for local governments to carry out and would harm the cooperation local police get from people in immigrant communities.

    They also point out that immigration laws passed by the Arizona Legislature in the past have led to legal problems, such as a 2013 racial profiling verdict against then-Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s office for his signature traffic patrols that targeted immigrants.

    Senate President Warren Petersen, a Republican from Gilbert, said his proposal aims to ensure that Arizona is a “partner and not an obstacle” where President Donald Trump’s immigration efforts are concerned.

    Under the bill, state prisons and county jails would be required to enter agreements with Washington to temporarily house people with detainers. Local agencies would be required to comply with detainers and tell judges who are determining bail when a given individual has an immigration detainer.

    The bill would also require Arizona’s attorney general to investigate alleged violations of the cooperation rules and let the attorney general sue to bring an agency into compliance. Supporters say state-shared revenues to local government could be withheld until compliance is reached. Arizona’s landmark 2010 immigration law also addressed the issue of state and local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

    The law bars state and local governments from limiting the enforcement of federal immigration law and lets residents sue over alleged violations.

    State officials, immigrant rights advocates and an association representing counties say they are unaware of any such lawsuits being filed in the nearly 15 years since it was signed into law.

    A little over a year ago, Hobbs vetoed a bill that would have made it a state crime for noncitizens to enter the state through Mexico at any location other than a port of entry. The Republican-led Legislature then bypassed the governor and voted to put a similar measure on the November 2024 ballot, which then won approval from voters.

    Since Trump won a second term, Hobbs promised to work with his administration on issues like combating fentanyl trafficking, but has acknowledged the worries some families feel about the immigration crackdown.

    Hobbs has vowed to veto all bills sent to her in a standoff with the Legislature until there is a compromise on funding for a state agency that provides services for people with developmental disabilities.

    GOP lawmakers say Hobbs has mismanaged agency funds. Hobbs counters that Republicans are leveraging the crisis for “political warfare.” She has said she is willing to veto even bills that she supports.



    Source link

  • US intelligence contradicts Trump claims linking gang to Venezuelan government to speed deportations

    US intelligence contradicts Trump claims linking gang to Venezuelan government to speed deportations


    WASHINGTON — A new U.S. intelligence assessment found no coordination between Tren de Aragua and the Venezuelan government, contradicting statements that Trump administration officials have made to justify their invocation of the Alien Enemies Act and deporting Venezuelan migrants, according to U.S. officials.

    The classified assessment from the National Intelligence Council, released this month, is more comprehensive and authoritative than an earlier intelligence product released Feb. 26 and reported last month by The New York Times, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the assessment. They were not authorized to address the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

    The new assessment draws input from the 18 agencies that comprise the intelligence community. It repeatedly stated that Tren de Aragua, a gang that originated in a prison in Venezuela, is not coordinated with or supported by the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, or senior officials in the Venezuelan government. While the assessment found minimal contact between some members of the gang and low-level members of the Venezuelan government, there was a consensus that there was no coordination or directive role between gang and government.

    The assessment provided support and extensive sourcing for those assertions, according to the officials. Of the 18 organizations that make up the U.S. government’s intelligence community, only one — the FBI — did not agree with the findings.

    It is not uncommon for intelligence agencies to differ in their assessments on matters of great public interest. But the latest assessment was significant for its near unanimity.

    Several years ago, under former Director Christopher Wray, the FBI assessed that the COVID-19 pandemic most likely originated from a lab leak, though that was hardly the uniform consensus. The position got recent support from a CIA assessment declassified in January.

    The White House and the office of Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, did not respond to messages seeking comment Thursday night.

    The intelligence assessment’s findings come as the Supreme Court last week ruled that the Trump administration can use the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 wartime law, to deport Venezuelan migrants — but that the migrants must get court hearings before they’re taken from the United States.

    Tren de Aragua has been linked to a series of kidnappings, extortion and other crimes throughout the Western Hemisphere. Those activities are tied to a mass exodus of millions of Venezuelans as their country’s economy unraveled over the past decade.

    The Alien Enemies Act was created to give the president wide powers to imprison and deport noncitizens in time of war. Until now, it has been used just three times, most recently eight decades ago during World War II to justify the detention of Japanese-American civilians.

    The American Civil Liberties Union, which has filed legal challenges to the Trump administration’s use of the law, contends that Trump does not have the authority to use the Alien Enemies Act against a criminal gang rather than a recognized state.

    President Donald Trump invoked the act in March, declaring in a proclamation that Tren de Aragua “is closely aligned with, and indeed has infiltrated, the Maduro regime, including its military and law enforcement apparatus.”

    Attorney General Pam Bondi repeated that assertion Monday night in an interview on Fox News Channel. Bondi defended the invocation of the wartime law and called Tren de Aragua “a foreign arm of the Venezuelan government.”

    “They are organized. They have a command structure. And they have invaded our country,” she said.

    Last month, the Trump administration used the Alien Enemies Act to fly more than 130 men accused of being members of the gang to El Salvador, where the U.S. has paid for the men to be held in a notorious prison. The Venezuelans deported under the act received no opportunity to challenge the orders, and attorneys for many of the men have said there is no evidence they are gang members.

    The Trump administration has argued that the gang has become an invading force and designated it, along with seven other crime groups, as “foreign terrorist organizations.”

    The latest intelligence assessment was first reported Thursday by The Washington Post.

    ___

    Associated Press writers David Klepper and Eric Tucker contributed to this report.



    Source link

  • Idaho police release body camera video of nonverbal and autistic teen’s fatal shooting

    Idaho police release body camera video of nonverbal and autistic teen’s fatal shooting


    Police in Idaho released body-worn and security camera recordings Thursday showing officers fatally shooting a knife-wielding, intellectually disabled teenage boy from the other side of a chain link fence, confirming that they made no effort to de-escalate the situation before opening fire.

    Victor Perez was autistic and nonverbal and had cerebral palsy, though there is no indication the responding officers were aware of that. The 17-year old was removed from life support and died in a hospital a week after the shooting, and a law firm said Wednesday it intends to file a federal wrongful death suit against the city of Pocatello on behalf of his family.

    Perez was in a confrontation in his fenced yard with family members who tried to get the blade away from him on April 5 when a neighbor called 911, reporting that an apparently intoxicated man armed with a knife — Perez, who walked with a staggered gait due to his disabilities — was chasing people in the yard.

    Perez had fallen over and was on the ground when officers arrived. Guns drawn, they repeatedly yelled, “Drop the knife!” but he instead stood up and began to step toward them. Three officers opened fire with their handguns, while a fourth fired a bean-bag shotgun, officials said Thursday.

    The shots came just seconds after the officers got out of their vehicles.

    The city’s release of the videos included text slides that stressed that Perez was approaching the officers, who were on the other side of a chain link fence from him, while holding the knife, and that he was close to two family members who were behind him.

    “Whether or not Perez had a medical condition or was experiencing a mental health crisis was not provided to dispatch or known to officers,” one slide read.

    The shooting has outraged community members who questioned why the officers fired without trying to learn more about the situation, use de-escalation techniques or use less-lethal force. About 200 people attended a vigil Saturday morning outside the Pocatello hospital where Perez died, and another crowd of protesters gathered that afternoon outside Pocatello City Hall, which also houses the police department.

    Police Chief Roger Schei and Mayor Brian Blad have declined to answer questions about the shooting, citing an investigation being conducted by the East Idaho Critical Incident Task Force. The officers’ names have not been released.

    Law enforcement officials say it is not always appropriate for police to use de-escalation techniques, especially when there is danger to the officers or the public or if a subject is not complying with orders.

    But policing experts who have reviewed cellphone video of Perez’s shooting note that there was a fence between the officers and the teen, that they used lethal force instead of Tasers and that they failed to use the basic tactic of backing up to create space between them and Perez.

    Brad Andres, who recorded video of the shooting on his phone after his son called 911, said the police “appeared to be like a death squad or a firing squad.”

    “They never once asked, ‘What is the situation, how can we help?’” he said. “They ran up with their guns drawn, they triggered a mentally disabled person to react and when he reacted … they shot him.”



    Source link

  • Cat wanders onto the White House grounds and joins the press corps

    Cat wanders onto the White House grounds and joins the press corps


    WASHINGTON — A gray cat wearing a collar and a name tag that said “Sophie” wandered into the White House grounds.

    After the cat meandered through the North Lawn on Friday morning, news reporters scooped it up and took it into the press area for safekeeping. The feline’s owner was called and went to pick it up.

    This is a photo gallery curated by Associated Press photo editors.

    Sponsored Content by Taboola



    Source link

  • Judge to allow ‘bushy eyebrows’ testimony in Bryan Kohberger’s quadruple murder trial

    Judge to allow ‘bushy eyebrows’ testimony in Bryan Kohberger’s quadruple murder trial


    BOISE, Idaho — A judge says a former roommate of four University of Idaho students who were killed in 2022 can testify about seeing an intruder with “bushy eyebrows” around the time of the crime.

    Defense attorneys for Bryan Kohberger had asked 4th District Judge Steven Hippler during a hearing earlier this month to bar any evidence referencing “bushy eyebrows,” because they say the roommate’s description is unreliable and irrelevant to the case.

    But in a ruling released Friday, Hippler said the testimony can be used during Kohberger’s trial on four murder charges set to begin later this year.

    Kohberger, 30, is charged with murder in the stabbing deaths of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves at a rental home near campus in Moscow, Idaho.

    Kohberger, then a criminal justice graduate student at Washington State University, was arrested in Pennsylvania weeks after the deaths. Investigators said they matched his DNA to genetic material recovered from a knife sheath found at the crime scene.

    When asked to enter a plea to the charges, Kohberger stood silent, prompting the judge to enter a not guilty plea on his behalf.

    The roommate told police she saw someone wearing black clothing and a ski mask inside the home she shared with four roommates sometime before 4:19 a.m. on the day of the killings, according to court documents.

    She was intoxicated at the time, and told police she couldn’t remember any other facial characteristics but that the intruder’s bushy eyebrows stood out in her memory.

    Kohberger’s defense attorneys noted that the roommate also constantly questioned what she saw, that her attention was influenced by sleepiness and alcohol, and that her opportunity to see the intruder was seconds at most.

    Allowing her to testify about bushy eyebrows when she couldn’t provide enough details to allow a police artist to do a composite sketch would be unfair and prejudicial, causing a jury to believe Kohberger is guilty because of his eyebrows, his attorneys said.

    But the judge disagreed.

    “There is a large gulf between a finding that a witness is not competent to testify about what they personally witnessed, and simply allowing impeachment by vigorous cross-examination,” Hippler wrote. “This is a matter for cross-examination.”

    Hippler also said that if Kohberger is convicted, his defense team can’t use his medical diagnoses to explain his “courtroom demeanor” unless Kohberger takes the stand during the penalty phase.

    Prosecutors had asked the judge to bar any testimony during the penalty phase about Kohberger’s autism spectrum disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, as well as the developmental coordination disorder that Kohberger may have experienced in childhood.

    The prosecution team said they didn’t want mental conditions to be used to try to limit Kohberger’s culpability if he is convicted.

    But the defense team said they didn’t plan on doing that at all, and that instead his autism spectrum diagnosis would be used to explain some of Kohberger’s courtroom demeanor, like his tendency to hold eye contact for longer than expected, his ability to sit very still and his stoicism.

    The judge said he hadn’t noticed any strange behavior.

    “Not once has the Court perceived Defendant to be acting in an odd or incongruent manner or otherwise demonstrating signs at counsel table that would warrant any explanation to the jury. His demeanor has been entirely appropriate,” Hippler wrote.

    Introducing evidence about the autism spectrum diagnosis would likely confuse the jury and take up an undue amount of time in an already long trial, he said.

    Still, the judge said, Kohberger’s demeanor might become relevant if he takes the stand to testify. Kohberger’s OCD diagnosis also might be relevant at some point, Hippler said, particularly since the defense team has said it causes Kohberger to experience sleep difficulties that led to a habit of nighttime driving and running to decompress.

    If those scenarios arise during the trial, the judge said the attorneys should bring up the matter to him — outside the presence of the jury — so he can make a decision on whether the evidence should be introduced at that time.



    Source link