12/07/2025

SATURDAY | JULY 12, 2025

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Immigration raids in California spark protests

Presidential bid to end birthright citizenship blocked NEW YORK: A US federal judge on Thursday once again barred the Trump administration from enforcing an executive order limiting birthright citizenship nationwide, reported Xinhua. US district judge Joseph Laplante in Concord, New Hampshire made the ruling after immigrant rights advocates implored him to grant class action status to a lawsuit they filed seeking to represent any babies whose citizenship status would be threatened by the implementation of President Donald Trump’s directive. The ruling from Laplante “is significant because the Supreme Court last month curbed the power of lower court judges to issue nationwide injunctions while keeping intact the ability of plaintiffs to seek a widespread block of the order through class action lawsuits, which is what happened on Thursday in New Hampshire”, said ABC. Laplante granted the request from immigration rights attorneys to certify a nationwide class that would comprise only those deprived of citizenship, and issued a preliminary injunction indefinitely blocking Trump’s order from being enforced against born and unborn babies who would be impacted. “The preliminary injunction is not a close call to the court. The deprivation of US citizenship and an abrupt change of policy that was longstanding, that is irreparable harm.” US citizenship is the greatest privilege that exists in the world, he added. Several other judges similarly ruled that Trump’s order was unconstitutional but their injunctions prompted the administration to mount a series of appeals that eventually landed before the Supreme Court. – Bernama-Xinhua NEW YORK: The New York Police Department (NYPD) has fired 31 police officers who should have been disqualified before entering the force, Xinhua reported, citing a local media. The department confirmed that the officers should not have been hired for a host of reasons that went beyond the exams. The officers had lied about their criminal records, use of illegal drugs, whether they had been fired from a previous job and if they had driven with a suspended licence, the NYPD said. – Bernama-Xinhua STATE OF EMERGENCY OVER CANADA WILDFIRES OTTAWA: Canada’s Manitoba on Thursday declared another province-wide state of emergency as wildfires continue to threaten communities, reported Xinhua. “This fire season, Manitoba is seeing over 10 times the number of hectares burning, compared with the average fire season,” said Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew. Several local states of emergency are already in place, including Snow Lake, where mandatory evacuations have begun. – Bernama-Xinhua SYDNEY: Heavy rain and strong winds have lashed parts of New Zealand as a cold front moved east across the country, and authorities warned that conditions could worsen over the next 24 hours, triggering floods and landslides. The northern regions of the South Island and North Island could be severely affected, the country’s weather bureau said. New Zealand’s MetService said the wind would pick up from this afternoon, with gusts of up to 120kph forecast for some regions. – Reuters OFFICERS FIRED OVER FAILED BACKGROUND CHECKS NEW ZEALAND BRACES FOR SEVERE WEATHER

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LOS ANGELES: Federal agents conducted immigration enforcement raids on Thursday on state-licensed cannabis nurseries in an agricultural region of coastal Southern California, where they were later confronted by throngs of angry protesters. As word and video images of the raids spread on social media, dozens of migrant-rights activists converged in the area, leading to face-offs with federal agents in the middle of rural roadways, according to the Santa Barbara Independent, Los Angeles Times and other news media. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, accompanied by National Guard troops in military-style vehicles, turned up at two locations operated by Glass House Farms, namely one in the Santa Barbara County town of Carpinteria, about 144km northwest of Los Angeles, and one in the Ventura County community of Camarillo, about 80km from o Crowds targeted with tear gas during encounter with federal agents Mariale Castellano, deported on May 28, was among the protesters, pleading for the return of her nine-year-old daughter, who is in the United States in the care of a foster family. “I was waiting four to five months for deportation with her but it did not happen,” the 26-year-old said. At the protest, a woman read out a letter, later handed over to the United Nations office in Caracas, asking for “urgent action in favour of the return” of children separated from their parents. Protesters carried white balloons, photos of the young children and signs saying “SOS, USA, release our children”. On June 30, the Venezuelan government denounced the “kidnapping” of 18 children under the age of 12. But the number of children stranded in the United States has increased since then. Protesters at the march also called for the return of 252 Venezuelans deported on March 15 to El Salvador by US President Donald Trump as part of his crackdown on undocumented people alleged to be violent criminals.

the raid, and one of two city council members present fell and injured her arm in a fracas between protesters and law enforcement, the Santa Barbara Independent reported. The Trump administration has shifted its position several times in recent weeks on whether farmworkers would be subject to its campaign to deport immigrants who are in the country illegally. US President Donald Trump on June 14 ordered ICE to halt enforcement activities on farms but the agency reversed that position days later. On July 3, Trump said he was willing to let migrant workers stay in the country if farmers could “vouch” for them. Days later, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said there would be “no amnesty” for farmworkers from deportation. About half of US farmworkers are in the country illegally, according to government estimates. The farm sector has warned that mass deportation of agricultural workers would cripple the nation’s food supply chain. Raids on some California farms in June left crops unharvested, and farmworkers and operators fearful of further enforcement activity. – Reuters

Los Angeles. Glass House Farms, which bills itself as one of the “fastest-growing vertically integrated cannabis companies in the United States”, said on X its greenhouse sites “were visited by ICE officials”, adding that “the company fully complied with agent search warrants and will provide further updates if necessary”. An attorney representing clients who work at Glass House said both of the company’s nurseries had been visited by ICE in June. A local television station reported that about 100 farmworkers were detained in the immigration sweep prior to the protests, and tear gas was fired at crowds during an encounter with federal agents afterward. Local TV footage from the scene of one standoff showed protesters yelling and gesturing angrily at armed, uniformed federal agents wearing helmets and face masks, who were blocking traffic with yellow crime-scene tape strung across the road. Reuters’ requests for information and comment on the situation from ICE and its parent agency, the Homeland Security Department, were not immediately answered. In Carpinteria, US Congress member Representative Salud Carbajal, a California Democrat, was denied access to the location of

Venezuelans demand return of children of deportees CARACAS: Hundreds of people protested in Caracas on Thursday, demanding the return of at least 30 children who remain in the United States after being separated from their Venezuelan parents during deportation.

Protesters at the march calling for the return of 30 children in the US and 252 Venezuelans deported on March 15 to El Salvador by Trump. – REUTERSPIC

Official figures show that between February and the first week of July, some 7,000 people, including about 1,000 children, have been repatriated to Venezuela from the United States and Mexico. – AFP

“Trump, we ask you from our hearts, return our sons, they are Venezuelans,” said Maria Venegas, a relative of one of the Venezuelan deportees being held at El Salvador’s maximum security Cecot prison.

Pro-Palestinian protest leader sues Trump for US$20m over arrest NEW YORK: Prominent US pro-Palestinian campus protest leader Mahmoud Khalil sued the Trump administration on Thursday for US$20 million (RM85 million) over his arrest and detention by immigration agents. administration acted well within its statutory and constitutional authority to detain Khalil, as it does with any alien who advocates violence, glorifies and supports terrorists, harasses Jews, and damages property.”

Constitutional Rights, which is backing Khalil. The Columbia University graduate suffered “severe emotional distress, economic hardship (and) damage to his reputation”, the claim added. Khalil was a figurehead of student protests against the war between US ally Israel and Gaza, and the Trump administration labelled him a national security threat. He called the lawsuit a “first step towards accountability”. “Nothing can restore the 104 days stolen from me. The trauma, the separation from my wife, the birth of my first child that I was forced to miss. There must be accountability for political retaliation and abuse of power.” Homeland Security Department Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said: “The Trump

President Donald Trump’s government has justified pushing for Khalil’s deportation by saying his continued presence in the United States could carry “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences”. Khalil’s detention came amid Trump’s campaign against top US universities in recent months, with the president facing off against Columbia, Harvard and other schools over foreign student enrolment while cutting federal grants and threatening to strip accreditation. – AFP

Khalil, a legal permanent resident in the United States who is married to a US citizen and has a US-born son, had been in custody following his arrest in March. The 30-year-old was freed from a federal immigration detention centre in Louisiana last month, hours after a judge ordered his release on bail. “The administration carried out its illegal plan to arrest, detain and deport Khalil ‘in a manner calculated to terrorise him and his family‘, the claim said,“ according to the Centre for