NEWS OF THE DAY
From Across the Nation
Watch list suit: A Muslim civil rights organization said Tuesday it plans to file a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the federal government’s terror watch list system, including a newly disclosed program in which air marshals have secretly monitored air passengers with no known terrorism links. Gadeir Abbas, senior litigation attorney with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the group will file the lawsuit Wednesday in federal court in Greenbelt, Md., on behalf of more than 10 Muslim travelers who allege they faced harassment at airports and suffered other consequences because of being placed on a terror watch list.
Visa overstays: More than 700,000 foreigners who were supposed to leave the United States during a recent 12-month period overstayed their visas, the Homeland Security Department said Tuesday. President Trump has focused border security efforts on erecting a multibillion-dollar wall with Mexico. But the latest annual figures underscore how visa overstays are a big driver of illegal immigration. An estimated 40 percent of the roughly 11 million people in the country illegally stayed past their visas. There were 701,900 visa overstays from October 2016 through September 2017 among visitors who arrived by plane or ship — more than the population of Vermont or Wyoming.
No immunity: A federal appeals court in Phoenix has ruled that a Border Patrol agent who fatally shot a Mexican teen on the other side of the border doesn’t have immunity and can be sued by the boy’s family for violating his civil rights. The ruling on Tuesday has wide implications and came almost two years after the agent’s attorney argued he was immune from a civil lawsuit because the U.S. Constitution didn’t extend to 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, who was in Mexico when agent Lonnie Swartz shot him about 10 times through a border fence. The Border Patrol has said Elena Rodriguez was throwing rocks at Swartz, endangering his life. Hate crime: A Kansas man who opened fire a suburban Kansas City bar, killing an immigrant from India and wounding two other men, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court to three consecutive life prison sentences for what federal prosecutors said was a hate crime. Adam Purinton, 53, of Olathe, did not speak in court Tuesday as he was sentenced for the Feb. 22, 2017, shooting at Austins Bar & Grill in Olathe that killed Srinivas Kuchibhotla, a citizen of India who had stopped at the bar with a co-worker, Alok Madasani, both 32, for an after-work drink.
New tariffs: The Trump administration announced Tuesday that it will go ahead with imposing 25 percent tariffs on an additional $16 billion in Chinese imports. Customs officials will begin collecting the border tax Aug. 23, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said. The list is heavy on industrial products such as steam turbines and iron girders.