This is what I think is the most important story in a while:
Trump Fires Judges Who Blocked Deportations of Student Activists Rümeysa Öztürk and Mohsen Mahdawi
https://www.democracynow.org/2026/4/13/trump_v_judges
#uspol @democracynow #democracynow #fascism
Trump Fires Judges Who Blocked Deportations of Student Activists Rümeysa Öztürk and Mohsen Mahdawi
The Trump administration has fired six more immigration judges in its effort to reshape immigration policy and the immigration courts. Two of the fired judges, Roopal Patel and Nina Froes, had each dismissed high-profile cases brought by the government against international students who had advocated for Palestinian rights, Rümeysa Öztürk and Mohsen Mahdawi. Around 100 immigration judges have been fired by the Trump administration. Firings in previous administrations were rare.
The Trump administration is eroding “the concept of procedural due process, the idea that you get to have a hearing in the United States” by “firing judges that it perceived as being opposed to the administration’s stated goal to deport as many people as possible with the least amount of due process possible,” says Carmen Maria Rey Caldas, a former immigration judge in New York who was fired in August.
The firing of so many immigration judges is also “egregious” because noncitizens are “going to be subject to the ruling of judges that are under pressure,” says Cyrus Mehta, an attorney who represents Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi.
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As Iran Reopens Strait of Hormuz, Are U.S. & Iran Near Deal or Renewed Fighting?
As Iran Reopens Strait of Hormuz, Are U.S. & Iran Near Deal or Renewed Fighting?
President Trump on Thursday repeated his claim that a deal to end the war on Iran is “very close” and that direct talks with Iran could resume in Pakistan as soon as this weekend. Despite the claims, the Pentagon is surging thousands of additional troops to the Middle East, including an additional 6,000 sailors and aviators joining the USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier battle group. Around 4,200 others with the Navy and Marines are expected to arrive near the end of the month. Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, says “we might be, at some point, returning to a hot war” because the Iranians, too, have “preserved a degree of retaliatory capacity.” The main question on the negotiating table is whether the Iranians, who “have been saying for years that they don’t want nuclear weapons,” will curb their nuclear activity, and if so, whether the U.S. would “be willing to provide them with economic incentives and sanctions relief.”
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