Trump’s Immigration War Hits New International Student Visas

The Trump administration is halting all student visa interviews while it decides on how heavily it wants to surveil the social media pages of applicants, according to an order to all U.S. embassies reviewed by Politico.

“Effective immediately, in preparation for an expansion of required social media screening and vetting, consular sections should not add any additional student or exchange visitor (F, M, and J) visa appointment capacity until further guidance is issued [in a separate telegram], which we anticipate in the coming days,” read the cable, signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

While the cable does not specify what platforms or content the State Department will be targeting, it’s likely that the process will target international students who showed solidarity with Palestine online. However, all student visa applicants are expected to undergo the social media vetting.

This move will impede the visa processes of thousands of students, upturning their education, and delay a massive portion of the student population of many American universities.

Donald Trump’s administration may have condemned a 4-year-old girl with a rare bowel condition to death by terminating her legal status as part of the president’s crackdown on immigration, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.

The young girl, who was identified by her initials S.G.V. by the Times, and her family were granted humanitarian permission to enter the U.S. legally from Mexico in 2023, so that she could receive treatment for short bowel syndrome, which prevents her from absorbing enough nutrients to remain healthy.

Deysi Vargas, 28, was committed to getting her daughter better treatment than they had received in Mexico City, where her daughter had been kept alive but inadequate care prevented her condition from improving. An appointment in Tijuana they’d made through the CBP One app was their best hope.

“God knew she needed better treatment,” Vargas told the Times. “When we got to the entrance, they saw her and asked us if we needed medical help.”

But last month, the family received a notice telling them to leave the country—threatening the child’s access to the care she needs to live.

In a letter requested by the family, Dr. John Asenault, who treats S.G.V. every six weeks at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, said that any interruption in her daily nutrition regimen could prove “fatal within a matter of days.”

Arsenault said that patients such as S.G.V., who use an IV-administered nutrition system at home called Total Parenteral Nutrition, are typically not permitted to leave the country at all.

S.G.V.’s treatment is incredibly complex. She must be hooked up to an intravenous feeding system for 14 hours a night, and must be administered additional nutrition for an hour, four times a day.

The family’s attorney, Rebecca Brown, of the pro bono legal firm Public Counsel, said that she believed the family’s status had been revoked by mistake.

“This is a textbook example of medical need,” Brown told the Times. “This child will die and there’s no sense for that to happen. It would just be a cruel sacrifice.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services declined the Times’ request for comment.

In April, the Trump administration deported a mother to Honduras, alongside her 7-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son, the latter of whom had been diagnosed with cancer. The Trump administration claimed that the mother had requested her children be removed from the country with her, despite her attorney’s insistence that she wished for her children, both citizens, to remain in the U.S.

Trump’s immigration crackdown has already proved deadly: At least seven immigrants in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody died in the president’s first 100 days in office.

Donald Trump has resorted to vague threats against Vladimir Putin in the hopes of getting him to agree to a ceasefire in Russia’s war against Ukraine.

The president posted to Truth Social Tuesday morning claiming that if it wasn’t for him, “lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD,” accusing the Russian president of “playing with fire.”

Trump told the press on Sunday that he was “not happy with what Putin’s doing.”

“He’s killing a lot of people, and I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin. I’ve known him a long time, always gotten along with him, but he’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all,” Trump said. “We’re in the middle of talking and he’s shooting rockets into Kyiv and other cities. I don’t like it at all.”

Trump’s comments follow Russia’s largest drone and missile attack on Ukraine since the start of the invasion in 2022, with a barrage of bombs falling on Kyiv over the weekend. Putin hasn’t officially responded to Trump’s post, but Russian state media mocked the president.

Russian state television also dismissed the idea of an immediate ceasefire, with one host asking, “Why would we stop? The enemy is strong and cunning, and we are winning.” TV host Vladimir Solovyov also belittled the U.S.-European alliance, pointing out that Trump was pushing high 50 percent tariffs against the European Union.

Trump has long been deferential to Putin, irking Democrats and even some Republicans, and Putin probably feels as though Trump can do nothing to pressure him. And why would he? Trump has a long history of giving Putin whatever he wants. Meanwhile, Russia continues to bombard Ukraine no matter what Europe or the U.S. says.

Paul Walzack, a former nursing home executive guilty of tax fraud, got a full and unconditional pardon from President Trump after his mother attended a $1 million-per-person dinner with the president, according to The New York Times. His mother, a major Trump supporter, also happened to be involved in the 2020 plot to publicize Ashley Biden’s stolen diary.

Walzack was found guilty of stealing over $10 million from the paychecks of the nurses and doctors who worked for him to finance a yacht and other luxury items. He was charged in February 2023 on 13 counts of tax crimes, and eventually pleaded guilty and paid $4.4 million in restitution as Trump won back the White House in November.

Walzack initially received no response from the Trump administration regarding a pardon request he submitted around Inauguration Day. But in April his mother, Elizabeth Fago, attended a $1 million entry dinner that included guaranteed face time with the president. The dinner was sponsored by MAGA Inc., a PAC that backs causes and candidates supported by Trump.

It’s not clear whether Fago donated to MAGA Inc., or how much, but three weeks later her son got his pardon.

Walzack and his mother are well established within the MAGAverse. Fago has donated millions of dollars to GOP campaigns. She’s hosted at least three Trump fundraisers and went to the VIP portions of both Trump inaugurations, where she cozied up to the president in photos posted on her Instagram.

Fago was also deeply involved in a scheme to publicize the diary of Ashley Biden, former President Joe Biden’s daughter, after she left it at a beach house in Florida. Aimee Harris, and Robert Kurlander, the individuals who stole the diary, brought it to a fundraiser at Fago’s home in 2020 where it was shown to a Trump campaign organizer. Harris was sentenced to a month in prison, and Kurlander is awaiting sentencing.

This is yet another example of Trump’s flippant use of his executive pardon power. Show him some loyalty, and some money, and you could get out of jail too.

White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett dodged an important question Tuesday about Donald Trump’s latest threat to place a 25 percent tariff on foreign-made Apple products.

During an appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box, a chipper Hassett was asked if there was an off-ramp to prevent an American-manufactured iPhone from costing up to $3,500.

“What is Tim Cook supposed to do?” asked co-host Joe Kernan.

“Right, well, you know, we’ll see how it works out,” Hassett replied. “The bottom line is that what we’re trying to do is onshore as much as we can in the U.S. and make it so the U.S. is not hyper-dependent on imports from China.”

Hassett insisted that an increase in U.S. equipment investments was a sign that supply chains were already adjusting to the president’s sweeping tariffs on foreign-made goods. In reality, Trump’s vacillating tariffs have resulted in uncertainty for the U.S. manufacturing sector and a dip in orders placed with U.S. factories for business equipment.

“In the interim, you know, then we’ll see how things work out,” Hassett repeated, providing no actual answer for how they planned to offset major price hikes for consumers. While Cook could placate Trump by announcing his intention to shift assembly to the U.S., shifting wholesale production could take years.

Hassett downplayed concerns over soaring prices, claiming that CEOs were simply overstating how disastrous the tariffs would be as a negotiating tactic. “Everybody is trying to make it seem like it’s a catastrophe if there’s a tiny little tariff on them right now, to try to negotiate down the tariffs,” he said. “And so, in the end, we’ll see what happens, we’ll see what the end game is, but we don’t want to harm Apple.”