In The News

The Economist: America’s Federal Government Shuts Down Over Immigration

January 22, 2018
Immigration policy is the point of contention for US Congress struggling to pass a spending bill: specifically, ending temporary status for young immigrants who were brought to the United States as children and invested in education, careers, homes and community based on a shield us provided by the Obama administration. That status ends in March. That quarrel led to a shutdown of the US federal...

McClatchy: FBI Checks If Russian Money Went to NRA

Peter Stone and Greg Gordon January 19, 2018
A counterintelligence investigation is underway by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation on whether a banker – Alexander Torshin, deputy governor for the Russian central bank – secretly transferred funds to the National Rifle Association to help the Donald Trump presidential election campaign. “It is illegal to use foreign money to influence federal elections,” reports Peter Stone and Gregg...

NPR: US Freezes More Than Half of Aid to UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees

Bill Chappell January 17, 2018
Aid is an essential tool for foreign policy, diplomacy and security. “The State Department is withholding $65 million it planned to send to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, calling for reforms and for other nations to step up their support — especially those that criticize the Trump administration's positions regarding Palestinians and Israel,” reports Bill Chappell for NPR. The US...

The New Yorker: When Deportation Is a Death Sentence

Sarah Stillman January 12, 2018
The Global Migration Project at Columbia University has documented the experiences of US deportees forced to return to their home nations over the past decade: A young man mistakenly deported died in a prison fire; gangs often assume returnees have money and murdered a father and fractured the skull of a 13-year-old; a cartel kidnapped a former police woman. Sarah Stillman, the project’s director...

The Washington Post: The US Ends Temporary Protection Status for 200,000 Salvadorans

Nick Miroff and David Nakamura January 8, 2018
The Trump administration announced plans to end temporary protected status for about 200,000 Salvadorans who live in the United States, setting a September 2019 deadline for the permit-holders to secure another status or leave.” The permit holders left El Salvador after a 2001 earthquake, and Department of Homeland Security officials maintain that the program is intended to provide temporary...

The Guardian: US Will “Take Names of Those Who Vote to Reject Jerusalem Recognition”

Peter Beaumont December 20, 2017
The United Nations is an organization where small and less powerful nations can speak out against the powerful. A letter by Nikki Haley, US ambassador to the United States, could be regarded as patronizing at best and bullying at worst. She warned UN members that she would be “taking names” of countries rejecting Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel. Jerusalem, controlled...

Politico: How Facebook Changed the Spy Game

Asha Rangappa December 19, 2017
Law enforcement agencies strive to thwart propaganda and disinformation campaigns, but social media has opened up a new frontier in shaping public opinion. Facebook reported deleting hundreds of accounts based in Russia and paid to promote polarizing material during the 2016 US presidential campaign. “The rise of social media platforms makes the pervasiveness and impact of these operations today...