Trump admin sends flight carrying undocumented immigrants to Guantanamo, says White House

The Trump administration started sending migrants to the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba, on Tuesday as part of a crackdown on undocumented immigration, the White House said.

“I can confirm the first flights from the United States to Guantanamo Bay with illegal migrants are under way,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday morning. “Trump is not messing around, and he’s no longer going to allow America to be a dumping ground for illegal criminals from nations all over this world.”

The flight to Guantanamo Bay comes as the federal government seeks to ramp up its mass deportation plans. Since President Donald Trump took office, the White House has announced agreements to resume direct deportation flights to Venezuela and to send undocumented immigrants from any country — and perhaps Americans with criminal convictions — to El Salvador, which operates the largest maximum-security prison in the hemisphere.

Guantanamo already houses a migrant processing facility where Cubans, Haitians and others apprehended at sea await the outcome of their asylum cases or to be resettled in a third country. The State Department has been in charge of running the center, with assistance from the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon.

—Miami Herald

Trump launches antisemitism probe at Columbia University and other colleges over Gaza protests

NEW YORK — The Trump administration has opened a federal civil rights probe into reports of antisemitism at Columbia University and several other colleges in the wake of last year’s Gaza protests, the Education Department said.

The investigation announced late Monday cited an executive order by President Donald Trump to combat antisemitism — which included, among other measures, steps to revoke the visas of international students involved in pro-Palestine protests that could have a disproportionate impact on the Morningside Heights university.

“Too many universities have tolerated widespread antisemitic harassment and the illegal encampments that paralyzed campus life last year, driving Jewish life and religious expression underground,” said Craig Trainor, the department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights.

Columbia last spring became a hotspot of pro-Palestine protest activity when an encampment supporting Gaza launched a national wave of demonstrations, which college administrators struggled to contain. The protests sparked tensions between protesters and some of their Jewish classmates.

—New York Daily News

Can Elon Musk shut down a federal agency? Yes, if presidential rule replaces constitutional governance

WASHINGTON — Can Elon Musk close a federal agency, send its employees home and halt spending programs that were approved by Congress? Yes, at least for now.

That question and answer have shaken Washington because they highlight the stark difference between conservative constitutional governance and one-man rule led by the president.

Musk described the U.S. Agency for International Development, which distributes humanitarian aid abroad, as "a criminal organization. "It is a "viper's nest of radical left Marxists who hate America," he wrote on X, his social media platform. "Time for it to die."

President Donald Trump agreed, saying it has been "run by a bunch of radical lunatics. And we're getting them out." Their criticisms could have prompted the Republican-led Congress to sharply cut funding for USAID or perhaps vote to eliminate the agency entirely. But Musk and Trump moved to shut it down, at least temporarily, without involving Congress.

—Los Angeles Times

Netanyahu prepares for Trump meeting with fragile grip on power

Talks between Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday are set to determine the course of Israel’s war against Hamas and, potentially, the prime minister’s ability to remain in power.

In the first visit by a foreign leader to Trump’s White House, the two will discuss the ongoing truce in Gaza, which the U.S. President’s Middle East envoy has indicated he wants to make permanent. That would help with larger regional moves high on Trump’s agenda, such as the normalization of ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia and ending Iran’s perceived nuclear threat.

The future of Netanyahu’s ruling coalition hinges on being able to claim victory in the war against Tehran-backed Hamas, and at least one of his key political allies insists that’s impossible without a return to fighting. Whether or not Netanyahu can square those domestic objectives with the goals of his chief international ally could decide the political fate of Israel’s longest serving leader.

“We’ll deal with critical issues facing Israel and our region: victory over Hamas, achieving the release of all our hostages and dealing with the Iranian terror axis in all its components,” Netanyahu said on Sunday before leaving for the U.S.

—Bloomberg News