SAN FRANCISCO — The Trump administration’s decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census “threatens the very foundation of our democratic system” because it would cause a significant undercount of immigrants and Latinos that could distort the distribution of congressional seats, a U.S. judge said Wednesday. Judge Richard...
California: Trump Plan to Take Back Rail Money ‘Disastrous’
SACRAMENTO — Leaders of California's high-speed rail project told the Trump administration Monday its plans to withhold or claw back $3.5 billion in federal money for the project was "legally indefensible" and "disastrous policy." Terminating the money "would cause massive disruption, dislocation, and waste, damaging the region and endangering the...
House Targets Family Separations in First Trump Subpoena
WASHINGTON — A House committee voted Tuesday to subpoena Trump administration officials over family separations at the southern border, the first issued in the new Congress as Democrats have promised to hold the administration aggressively to count. The decision by the Oversight Committee will compel the heads of Justice, Homeland...
Trump to California: Send High-Speed Rail Billions Back to DC
First, President Donald Trump tweeted criticism Tuesday of both California's high-speed rail project and the state's participation in a multistate lawsuit challenging his emergency declaration to pay for a U.S.-Mexico border wall. Then, later in the day, the Trump Administration notified the California High-Speed Rail Authority via letter that it would terminate...
California Governor to Draw Down Troops at Border
SACRAMENTO — California Gov. Gavin Newsom plans Monday to withdraw several hundred National Guard troops from the state's southern border with Mexico in defiance of the Trump administration's request for support from border states. About 100 of the 360 troops will remain deployed under California's agreement with the federal government...
Official Who Oversaw Migrant Kids: Separation Causes Trauma
WASHINGTON — The Health and Human Services official responsible for helping to reunite families separated by the Trump administration said Thursday he had warned colleagues that separating children from their parents would cause lasting, serious psychological trauma. Commander Jonathan White of the U.S. Public Health Service testified before a House...
Judge Hearing Testimony on 2020 Census Citizenship Question
GREENBELT, Md. — A federal trial began Tuesday for lawsuits challenging the Trump administration's addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census, a plan that a different court blocked last week. Former U.S. Census Bureau director John Thompson, the first plaintiffs' witness for the bench trial in Maryland, testified...
High Court Lets Military Implement Transgender Restrictions
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration can go ahead with its plan to restrict military service by transgender men and women while court challenges continue, the Supreme Court said Tuesday. The high court split 5-4 in allowing the plan to take effect, with the court's five conservatives greenlighting it and its...
Watchdog: Many More Migrant Families May Have Been Separated
WASHINGTON — Government investigators say many more migrant children may have been separated from their parents than the Trump administration has acknowledged. A report from the Health and Human Services inspector general's office finds that family separations were taking place before the spring of last year, when the administration announced...
Judge Bars Citizenship Question From 2020 Census
NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York has barred the Trump administration from adding a question about citizenship to the 2020 census. U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman said Tuesday that while such a question would be constitutional, U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross had added it arbitrarily and not...