ICE officers at airports a ‘test run’ for deployment at midterm polling stations, Steve Bannon says – US politics live | US politics
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Trump may be open to deal on DHS funding – report
Senate Republicans believe Donald Trump may be open to a deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after Monday night’s White House meeting, signaling a shift from his previous refusal to negotiate without taking action on the Save America Act.
Trump is willing to accept a package that does not fully fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), including setting aside some enforcement funding to win support from Democrats, lawmakers briefed on the talks said. Hill reported.
Under the proposal, Republicans would then seek additional ICE funding through the budget reconciliation process and seek to advance elements of the Save America Act into the next bill.
“I think we showed him that we could run a parallel process where we could fund DHS now and put together a second reconciliation bill that would put a down payment on some of the Savings. [America] Take action,” said a person familiar with the meeting.
Supreme court to consider Trump’s authority to limit asylum proceedings
The U.S. supreme court on Tuesday will hear President Donald Trump’s administration’s defense of the government’s authority to turn away asylum seekers after officials deemed U.S.-Mexico border crossings too burdensome to handle more demand, Reuters reported.
The legal dispute centers on a policy called “scaling up” that the Republican president’s administration may try to revive after Trump was ousted by his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden.
The policy allowed U.S. immigration officials to stop asylum seekers at the border and indefinitely refuse to process their claims.
The Trump administration appealed the lower court’s finding that the policy violated federal law.
The policy is separate from the sweeping border asylum ban Trump announced after returning to the presidency last year. This policy also faces an ongoing legal challenge.
Under US law, an immigrant who “arrives in the United States” can apply for asylum and must be reviewed by a federal immigration official.
The narrow legal issue in the current case is whether the asylum seekers stopped on the Mexican side of the border came to the United States.
US democracy has become diminished, experts say
Lauren Gambino
The health of American democracy, as measured by those who study it most closely, has settled into a diminished state; It has stabilized after last year’s sharp decline, but is still well below levels recorded at any point before the start of Donald Trump’s second term, according to a new survey released Tuesday.
Findings of the impartial democracy monitoring project Bright Line WatchThe research, which surveyed hundreds of US academics at American colleges and universities, suggests that the erosion of norms identified after Trump’s return to the White House last year has hardened to a new baseline.
The public also has a pessimistic view of American democracy, but is sharply divided along partisan lines on how well the system works, the latest poll finds.
The report draws on two waves of research. The first was held in late December and early January, a volatile period when the Trump administration stepped up immigration crackdowns in Minnesota and U.S. military forces bombed Venezuela and captured its leader Nicolás Maduro.
Given the seriousness of both events, researchers opted to conduct a second survey in February and early March to account for any changes in perceptions rather than publishing potentially outdated findings.
In preliminary findings, experts’ views of US democracy rose to 60 out of 100, up from a record low of 53 in the first months of Trump’s second term.
Researchers suggest that this increase can be attributed to Democrats’ success in a series of off-year elections; This, the report says, is a sign that “the playing field has not been tilted against the opposition and free and fair elections are still possible.”
After Maduro’s ouster, experts’ scores dropped to previous levels (56) and remained consistent at 57 in the second survey.
Rubio to testify in former congressman’s foreign agent case in Venezuela
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to testify Tuesday in the criminal trial of former congressman David Rivera, accusing him of acting as an unregistered agent of the government of ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Rubio’s testimony will briefly take him from Washington, where he is busy with high-level diplomacy around President Donald Trump’s war in Iran, to the federal courthouse in downtown Miami, his hometown and where his political career began, Reuters reported.
Prosecutors say Rivera, who represented South Florida in the House of Representatives from 2011 to 2013, lobbied politicians to ease pressure on Maduro in 2017 and failed to disclose that he had been paid $20 million by a subsidiary of a Venezuelan state-owned company, in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Both prosecutors and Rivera’s defense attorneys say the politicians he was meeting with at the time included his onetime roommate, Rubio, who later became a Florida senator.
Rubio and Rivera are Cuban-American Republicans who have been outspoken critics of left-wing governments in Cuba and Venezuela throughout their careers.
Former White House strategist Steve Bannon says ICE agents at airports are ‘testing’ rollout of voting centers
Hello, welcome to the live blog of US politics.
Former White House strategist and podcast host Steve Bannon suggested that the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers at airports was a “test run” for their use at polling stations in the midterm elections later this year.
Speaking to conservative lawyer Mike Davis on the ‘War Room’ podcast, Bannon asked:
We can use what’s going on in these ICEs [officers] As we help out at airports, we can use this as a trial run, as a test case to really perfect ICE’s involvement in the 2026 midterm elections, sir?
Davis’ response was:
Yeah, I think we should have ICE agents at polling places because if you’re an illegal alien you can’t vote, right? Voting in federal elections is against the law and is a federal crime.
And so, if you’re an American citizen, you should be glad ICE is there because you’re not going to let illegal aliens cancel your vote.
“Move them out of the line starting today, maybe the lines will get shorter,” Bannon added, according to last night’s news. Top.
Security lines were tightened for hours at US airports on Monday, when free Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screening officers reportedly refused to show up for duty and ICE agents deployed by Donald Trump were seen in a dozen cities.
ICE agents have been seen at airports such as Atlanta, Newark, New Orleans and John F Kennedy in New York. CNN reported Nine other airports where ICE agents were seen.
In other developments:
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U.S. Senate confirms Markwayne Mullin to serve as secretary of the Department of Homeland SecurityIt elevates the Republican senator to a role where he will be among the public faces of Donald Trump’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants. The Republican-controlled chamber confirmed Mullin by a vote of 54 to 45, largely along party lines. More here.
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Donald Trump claimed that there were talks between the USA and Iran the other day in which the two sides had “important points of agreement”.appears to prevent a potentially serious escalation of the conflict. Tehran denied the claim; Trump also suggested a deal to end the war could be made soon. An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said there had been no talks with the US since the bombing campaign began 24 days ago. More here.
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The US supreme court appeared ready to restrict the counting of mail-in ballots if they arrive after election day. this would affect laws in more than a dozen states during a midterm election year. The justices are considering Watson v Republican National Committee, a challenge to a 2024 Mississippi state law introduced by the Republican party. More here.
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California attorney general Rob Bonta says he is suing the US energy department to prevent it from using the Cold War-era law to restart the long-controversial Sable Offshore pipeline system connecting the Santa Ynez offshore platform to California refineries. U.S. energy secretary Chris Wright restarted the pipelines earlier this month using powers Donald Trump gave him through an executive order invoking the Defense Production Act, which supersedes state laws. More here.
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Prediction markets face new bipartisan scrutiny in US Senate as companies like Kalshi and Polymarket continue to struggle Government-led efforts to regulate online betting. A bill was introduced in the U.S. Senate on Monday that would ban federally regulated platforms from allowing betting on sporting events; This would be a major blow to markets where billions of dollars are traded during major events like the Super Bowl and the NCAA’s March Madness. More here.
