Central American country to receive up to 25 migrants a day expelled as part of Trump’s immigration crackdown

The Costa Rican government has agreed to receive up to 25 deported migrants a week from the United States, the latest deal in the Trump administration’s unprecedented efforts to deport scores of people to “third countries”.

With the new agreement, Costa Rica seeks a closer alliance with Donald Trump’s government, which has been securing cooperation from other Central American countries in accepting deportees from other nations who have been detained by US immigration agents.

Philippines has received an assurance from Iran that it will allow ​the safe passage of Philippine-flagged vessels, fuel ‌and Filipino seafarers through the Strait of Hormuz, Manila's foreign ministry said on Thursday.

The assurance came after Philippine foreign minister ​Ma. Theresa Lazaro spoke with her Iranian counterpart Abbas ​Araqchi, with the two top diplomats tackling energy supply security ⁠and the safety of Filipino seafarers.

Judge invalidates Trump executive order, but Congress also cut off all funding.

A federal judge ruled that Trump’s executive order defunding NPR and PBS violated the First Amendment and issued a permanent injunction stating that executive branch agencies cannot enforce it.

The Trump order’s “instruction that all federal agencies stop funding NPR and PBS constitutes a penalty for engaging in speech disfavored by the President and cannot be lawfully implemented by any executive department or agency,” Judge Randolph Moss, an Obama appointee in US District Court for the District of Columbia, ruled yesterday.

The ruling against Trump in the case filed by NPR, PBS, and several stations may not have much practical impact. Trump’s May 2025 executive order was followed by Congress rescinding the entire Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) budget of $1.1 billion for fiscal years 2026 and 2027.

Exclusive: Pressure intensifies for Gabbard after president’s displeasure with Iran war testimony

Donald Trump has privately asked cabinet officials in recent weeks whether he should replace his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, venting frustration that she shielded a former deputy who undercut his rationale for war with Iran, according to two people briefed on the discussions.

It is not clear that Trump will actually fire Gabbard over the episode. Currently, there is no standout candidate to take the job, and advisers have cautioned that creating a high-profile vacancy before a successor is ready could cause unhelpful political distractions.

But Trump’s discussions marks an ominous development for Gabbard, given the president tends to poll his advisers when he starts to seriously consider whether a personnel change is necessary. The two people spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

The Internal Revenue Service will maintain a policy barring pastors and churches from endorsing political candidates following a surprise ruling in a high-stakes court battle.

In a March 31 opinion, Judge J. Campbell Barker in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas dismissed a lawsuit filed by the National Religious Broadcasters and others that challenged an IRS rule known as the Johnson Amendment.

The Johnson Amendment was introduced by former President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1954 when he was serving as U.S. Senate majority leader. It bans all tax-exempt organizations like churches and charities from “directly or indirectly” participating in politics, specifically in endorsement or opposition of candidates.

Democrats sued Wednesday to block Donald Trump’s latest executive order restricting mail voting, arguing that the U.S. Constitution empowers states and Congress, not the president, to determine who is eligible to vote by mail.

The lawsuit marks the second round of battles over the president’s power to control elections. Trump’s opponents handily won the first round last year, blocking his initial executive order intended to reshape election procedures by convincing multiple federal judges that it was likely unconstitutional.

Trump on Tuesday announced that his administration would compile lists of who is eligible to vote in states and that the U.S. Postal Service would only mail ballots to those who met that criteria. Critics note that there’s little time to comb through voter rolls before ballots start going out for this fall’s elections, in some places as soon as September, and question whether the administration’s list would be reliable.

Most Americans support the rule that anyone born in the US is a US citizen, and a majority of supreme court justices are skeptical of Trump’s efforts to restrict it

The US president himself was in the room – the first sitting president to attend oral arguments at the court – coming face to face with justices that he has long berated and pressured to fall in line with his agenda. His attendance was a striking signal of just how significant this case is.

The egalitarian, universal rule that anyone born in the US is a US citizen was enshrined in the 14th amendment of the US constitution in 1868, and was affirmed by the supreme court 128 years ago. A ruling in favor of the Trump administration would cataclysmically redefine what it means to be an American.

In practical terms, it would mean that an estimated 250,000 babies born in the United States each year would be stripped of their citizenship. Some would be stateless. Legal experts warn that this outcome could pave the way for casting off citizenship from millions of people who already have it.

Four states have now signed such legislation as Trump’s Save Act languishes in Senate with little chance of passage

The governors of Florida and Mississippi signed legislation on Wednesday to require documented proof of citizenship to register to vote and to begin a process that will eventually unenroll voters who have not provided citizenship documentation.

Four states have now passed proof-of-citizenship laws for voting this year, after South Dakota and Utah’s governors each signed proof of citizenship bills into law in March.

The changes come as Donald Trump’s signature restrictive voting bill, the Save America Act, languishes in the US Senate with little chance of passage. The president is left weighing his options about how to move forward with its provisions, which include documented proof of citizenship requirements to register and strict photo ID requirements to vote.

Donald Trump has privately mused about firing his Attorney General Pam Bondi and replacing her with EPA administrator Lee Zeldin, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

Frustrated by the backlash and anger in his base over the administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, Trump has asked people about replacing Bondi, who faces a deposition later this month on Capitol Hill related to the congressional investigation into the late sex trafficker, the sources said.

He has also fumed that she hasn’t investigated enough of his political opponents.

House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Republican leader John Thune said Republicans would pursue a two-track strategy to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security, days after Johnson had dismissed a Senate-passed stopgap bill as “a joke.”

The plan called for the House to move the Senate-approved measure that funds most of DHS now, excluding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and then use budget reconciliation to fund those enforcement agencies over the coming weeks or months, according to a joint statement from Johnson and Thune posted on X Wednesday.

The development came as DHS continued operating in a partial shutdown that began in mid-February and snarled airport security, with President Donald Trump separately signing a memo to pay Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees amid the standoff.

The Department of Homeland Security is pausing the purchase of new warehouses intended to house immigrants as it scrutinizes all contracts signed under former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, according to a senior Homeland Security official.

The development comes just days after the new Homeland Security Secretary, Markwayne Mullin, was sworn in last week to lead a department that was steeped in controversy during Noem’s tenure but also central to President Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. News of the pause was first reported by NBC News.

The Supreme Court seemed poised Wednesday to reject Donald Trump’s restrictions on birthright citizenship in a consequential case that was magnified by his unparalleled presence in the courtroom.

Conservative and liberal justices questioned whether Trump’s order declaring that children born to parents who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens comports with either the Constitution or federal law.

Arguments lasted more than two hours in a crowded courtroom that included not only Trump, the first sitting president to attend arguments at the nation’s highest court, but also Attorney General Pam Bondi and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and in seats reserved for the justices’ guests, actor Robert De Niro.