Dozens of children will be reunited with parents
Solid conservative Trump ‘nominates’ Kavanaugh for SC
WASHINGTON, July 10, (RTRS): President Donald Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh for the US Supreme Court on Monday as he aimed to entrench its conservative control for years to come, but the federal appeals court judge faces a tough confirmation fight in the bitterly divided Senate.
While some Democrats promised a stern effort to block the 53-yearold Kavanaugh — who has served 12 years on the most influential US appeals court — Trump’s fellow Republicans control the Senate by a narrow margin and can ensure confirmation if they avoid defections from their ranks.
If confirmed, Kavanaugh would replace long-serving conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy, who announced his retirement on June 27 at age 81. Kavanaugh became Trump’s second lifetime appointment to the nation’s highest judicial body in his 18 months in office.
Kavanaugh is a well-known figure in Washington and has been involved in some of the biggest controversies of the past two decades. He helped investigate Democratic former President Bill Clinton in the 1990s working for independent counsel Kenneth Starr. He was on Republican George W. Bush’s team in the contentious Florida recount fight in the 2000 presidential election, then served as a senior official in Bush’s White House.
“Throughout legal circles he’s considered a judge’s judge, a true thought leader among his peers,” Trump, who named conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch to the court last year, told an applauding audience in the White House East Room.
Kavanaugh Young US citizen Revital Moghaddam, 11, originally from Iran, holds an American flag during a celebration where she received her citizenship papers, conducted by US Citizenship and Immigration
Services (USCIS), on July 9, in Los Angeles, California. (AFP)
SAN DIEGO, July 10, (AP): Dozens of immigrant children under the age of 5 will be released from government custody and reunited with their parents Tuesday after being separated at the border under President Donald Trump’s zero-tolerance immigration policy.
A government lawyer said Monday at least 54 children under the age of 5 would join their parents by a court-ordered deadline, only about half the 100 or so children covered by the order. The Trump administration was working on final background checks for another five children ahead of Tuesday’s deadline.
Parents in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody “for the most part” are being taken to locations near their children and the families will be released, Justice Department attorney Sarah Fabian said in court. She said locations would not be publicly disclosed, but children have been sent to shelters across the country.
More than 2,000 children were separated from their parents by US immigration authorities at the border this spring before Trump reversed course on June 20 amid an international outcry. Last week, US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said there were “under 3,000” separated children in all.
Late last month, US District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego set a 14-day deadline to reunite children under 5 with their parents and a 30-day deadline for older children. The 30-day deadline is up July 26.
American Civil Liberties Union attorney Lee Gelernt sought assurances from the government Monday that advocates would be in position to guide parents when they are released in a foreign land. The parents will be free while their cases wind through immigration court, which can take years, and may be required to wear ankle monitors.