Politics

The number of people arrested and deported for being in the US illegally has dropped under President Joe Biden after his administration narrowed its enforcement focus to those who may pose a threat or have criminal backgrounds, marking a shift from the policies under the Trump administration. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the Biden administration

Rep. Matt Gaetz privately sought blanket preemptive pardons for himself and his congressional allies during the final weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency, two people familiar with the discussions told The New York Times. The Florida Republican’s request was viewed by White House officials as a nonstarter, the people told the Times, and was ultimately never

It’s been one week since the federal investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz burst into the public sphere, and almost all of Gaetz’s colleagues in the House Republican conference are keeping quiet. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said he’d speak to Gaetz about the matter, though it’s not clear that’s happened. The Republicans Gaetz has attacked

Justice Stephen Breyer, who may be nearing the end of his Supreme Court tenure, expressed concern on Tuesday about the standing of the high court and the possible erosion of public confidence in its decisions. In an expansive, two-hour lecture at Harvard Law School, Breyer bemoaned the common practice — by journalists, senators and others

Walking around my Brooklyn neighborhood as the country comes out of a long, Covid-depressed winter, I notice nearly everyone engaging in a curious pandemic ritual: as we stroll past brownstones, we all pull our masks up as soon as we see one another coming. “Science is real,” the yard signs on the block declare, and

The Biden administration has yet to name a point person for the $178 billion Provider Relief Fund, according to a senior administration official. Congress created the fund last year to help hospitals and other health care providers struggling due to the coronavirus pandemic. Under the previous administration, the role fell to a deputy secretary, but

Less than one week after perhaps the most egregiously anti-transgender bill in modern US history passed the Arkansas legislature, it was vetoed in a surprise move by Governor Asa Hutchinson, a staunch Republican with a poor record on LGBTQ and civil rights. Less than one day later, the General Assembly voted Tuesday to override the

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms issued an executive order Tuesday that directs the city’s chief equity officer to implement “a series of actions to mitigate the impact” of Georgia’s new election law imposing a series of voting restrictions. The city of Atlanta does not have authority over state election law, so the administrative order cannot

Arkansas became the first state in the US to prohibit physicians from providing gender-affirming treatment for trans people under age 18 after the state’s General Assembly voted Tuesday to override the governor’s veto of an anti-trans bill that he called a “vast government overreach.” The state’s Republican-controlled House voted 71-24 to override Republican Gov. Asa

A crucial decision this week by the Senate’s parliamentarian could have sweeping ramifications for Joe Biden and future presidents to ram their agendas through the chamber along straight party-lines, putting Democrats on the cusp of pushing the rules further than they’ve gone before. After top Democratic aides privately strategized on a novel plan for weeks,

Retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, who led a review of security failures around the January 6 insurrection, said Tuesday that the US Capitol attack was fueled by a “information operation” led by former President Donald Trump that involved feeding Americans “a little BS” and then allowing them to act on those beliefs. Speaking during an

Democratic Rep. Alcee Hastings, a civil rights activist and the longest-serving member of Florida’s congressional delegation, has died, his chief of staff Lale M. Morrison told CNN on Tuesday. He was 84. In January 2019, he announced that he was being treated for pancreatic cancer and planned to remain in Congress during the treatment, calling