Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Trump delays effort to end DACA protections
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will not try again to immediately terminate President Barack Obama’s program that protects young immigrants living in the country illegally, after the Supreme Court’s decision to invalidate Trump’s first attempt to make good on a crackdown that is at the core of his political identity.
Instead, officials said that the administration would conduct a “comprehensive review” of the program, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, while it imposes new limits on the protections against deportation that have allowed about 650,000 immigrants to live and work in the country legally.
Immigrants who have already had DACA protections will be allowed to renew their status under the program for one year, rather than two, officials said. And they said that first-time applicants to the program would be rejected.
Officials declined to say how long the review would take or whether it would be completed before the general election in November, although the decision to allow one-year renewals suggested that Trump and his aides did not envision making another attempt to end the program before the vote.
The announcement appears to be contrary to an order by a federal judge, who ruled last month that the administration must immediately begin accepting new applications for the DACA program. Officials said they expected court challenges from immigration advocates, given the Supreme Court’s decision and the judge’s order.
Polls show that a majority of the American public does not want immigrants who were brought to the
United States illegally as young children to be deported.
Democratic convention:
More than 100 police agencies are withdrawing from agreements to send personnel to bolster security at next month’s Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee, in part because they’re concerned about a recent directive ordering police in the city to stop using tear gas to control crowds, the city’s police chief said Tuesday.
A citizen oversight commission last week directed Milwaukee’s police chief to publicly account for why the department used tear gas during protests in late May and early June after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and to change Milwaukee’s police policies to ban the use of tear gas and pepper spray. The Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission said in its order that police Chief Alfonso Morales could be fired if he fails to comply.
Morales did not say which agencies would not be coming or how many officers were still expected. The original plan was to have 1,000 officers on hand from outside agencies to assist with security. Morales said utilizing the National Guard or enlisting federal assistance was under consideration.
The convention, scheduled for Aug. 17-Aug. 20 at the Wisconsin Center in downtown Milwaukee, has been scaled down to a mostly virtual event, with only about 300 people expected to attend in-person. Despite the event’s smaller scale, police are preparing for potentially large protests in and around the venue.
U.S., Iran tensions:
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard launched missiles
Tuesday targeting a mock aircraft carrier in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a drill that included such a barrage of fire the U.S. military temporarily put two regional bases in the Mideast on alert amid tensions between the two countries.
The drill — and the American response to it — underlined the lingering threat of military conflict between Iran and the U.S. after a series of escalating incidents last year led to an American drone strike killing a top Iranian general in Baghdad. Tehran responded to that strike by firing ballistic missiles that wounded dozens of American forces in Iraq.
Iranian commandos fastroped down from a helicopter onto the replica in the footage aired Tuesday from the exercise called “Great Prophet 14.” Anti-aircraft guns opened fire on a target drone near the port city of Bandar Abbas.
Ballistic missile fire detected from the drill resulted in American troops being put on alert at AlDhafra Air Base in Abu
Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and Al-Udeid Air Base, the forward headquarters of the U.S. military’s Central Command in Qatar, the military said. Troops sought cover during that time.
Afghanistan cease-fire:
The Taliban said Tuesday that they would observe a three-day cease-fire this week during the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, as Afghanistan’s president suggested the long-delayed talks between his government and the insurgents over ending the war could start in a week.
The developments promise to inject new optimism into a peace process that was floundering with disagreements over a prisoner swap and increased insurgent attacks, even as the United States continues to withdraw troops from Afghanistan.
Afghan officials greeted the announcement with a note of caution.
“The Afghan government welcomes the announcement of a cease-fire by the Taliban in Eid days, but the Afghan people wanted a lasting cease-fire,” said Sediq Sediqqi, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s president, Ashraf Ghani. “The Afghan government has taken all necessary steps to show its commitment for the peace process and calls on the Taliban to show commitment too. The Afghan people are tired of war, and it must end.”
Book by Strzok:
Former FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok, who played a key role in the Russia investigation but whose pejorative text messages about Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign made him a target of the president’s wrath, is releasing a book on his concerns the president could be compromised.
“Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump” is due out Sept. 8, publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books & Media said.
The book will offer an insider’s view on some of the most sensational and politically freighted investigations in modern American history, including into whether the 2016 Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to sway the presidential election. The book adds to the list of firstperson accounts from other senior FBI and Justice Department officials during the Trump era.
Deadly shark attack:
Authorities in Maine said Tuesday that the shark that killed a woman in a rare attack off the state’s coast was a great white.
Julie Dimperio Holowach, 63, of New York City, was fatally bitten off Bailey Island on Monday while swimming about 30 to 40 feet from shore, the Maine Department of Marine Resources said.
Great whites aren’t common in Maine, which is the northern tip of their range.
There had previously only been one recorded unprovoked shark attack in Maine, and it was 10 years ago off Eastport, authorities said.