May. 1, 2026, 7:02 AM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is arguing that the war in Iranhas already ended because of the ceasefire that began in early April, an interpretation that would allow the White House to avoid the need to seek congressional approval.

The statement furthers an argumentDefense Secretary Pete Hegseth laid out during testimony before the Senate earlier Thursday, when he said the ceasefire effectively paused the war. Under that rationale, the administration has not yet met the requirement mandated by a 1973 law to seek formal approval from Congress for military action that extends beyond 60 days.

A senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the administration’s position, said for purposes of that law, “the hostilities that began on Saturday, Feb. 28 have terminated.” The official said the U.S. military and Iran have not exchanged fire since the two-week ceasefire that began April 7.

An administration official did not immediately respond to MS NOW’s question about what would happen if either side breaks the ceasefire.

While the ceasefire has since been extended, Iran maintains its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, and the U.S. Navy is maintaining a blockadeto prevent Iran’s oil tankers from getting out to sea.

Under the War Powers Resolution, the law that sought to constrain a president’s military powers, President Donald Trump had until Friday to seek congressional authorization or cease fighting. The law also allows an administration to extend that deadline by 30 days.

Democrats have pushed the administrationfor formal approval of the Iran war, and the 60-day mark would likely have been a turning point for a swath of Republican lawmakers who backed temporary action against Tehran but insisted on congressional input for something longer.

“That deadline is not a suggestion; it is a requirement,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who voted Thursday in favor of a measure that would end military action in Iran since Congress hadn’t given its approval. She added that “further military action against Iran must have a clear mission, achievable goals, and a defined strategy for bringing the conflict to a close.”

Richard Goldberg, who served as director for countering Iranian weapons of mass destruction for the National Security Council during Trump’s first term, said he has recommended to administration officials that they simply transition to a new operation, which he suggested could be called “Epic Passage,” a sequel to Operation Epic Fury.

That new mission, he said, “would inherently be a mission of self-defense focused on reopening the strait while reserving the right to offensive action in support of restoring freedom of navigation.”

“That to me solves it all,” added Goldberg, who is now a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish Washington think tank.

During testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, Hegseth said it was the administration’s “understanding” that the 60-day clock was on pause while the two countries were in a ceasefire. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who had asked Hegseth about the timeline, later told reporters that the defense secretary “advanced a very novel argument that I’ve never heard before” and “certainly has no legal support.”

Katherine Yon Ebright, counsel at the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program and an expert on war powers, said that interpretation would be a “sizeable extension of previous legal gamesmanship” related to the 1973 law.

“To be very, very clear and unambiguous, nothing in the text or design of the War Powers Resolution suggests that the 60-day clock can be paused or terminated,” she said.

Other presidents have argued that the military action they’ve taken was not intense enough or was too intermittent to qualify under the War Powers Resolution. But Trump’s war in Iran would certainly not be such a case, Ebright said, adding that lawmakers need to push back against the administration on that kind of argument.

Emily Hung is an associate White House producer for MS NOW.

May. 1, 2026, 6:00 AM EDT

ByRep. Delia RamirezandAndy Kang

As workers prepare to march in the streets on May Day, congressional Republicans are moving to use a budget reconciliation process to add $70 billion in new funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. No legitimate reform is attached. No oversight is required. And many of the people in the crosshairs of this expanded deportation machine are among the workers we march for on May Day.

This term, the Trump administration restarted worksite raids — enforcement actions the Biden administration had mostly paused — and aimed those raids at workers, not the employers exploiting them. Indeed, companies exploiting such workers are almost never held accountable. Thus, workers who fear deportation don’t report wage theft. They don’t report unsafe conditions. They don’t organize. Research on previous enforcement surges found that when immigration raids increase, the willingness of workers to make workplace injury complaints falls, and minimum wage violations rise — not only among immigrant workers but also among everyone working alongside them. The suppression spreads. The terror and its associated chilling effect are not a side effect; it’s the intended effect.

The $70 billion request is outrageous if for no other reason than we have already seen what the Trump administration does when it has unlimited resources and no accountability:  masked agents smashing car windows and grabbing parents in front of their children. The administration wants no guardrails against racial profiling. It wants no accountability for the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Prettitwo U.S. citizens shot dead during this year’s federal paramilitary surge in Minnesota. Republicans want to give ICE billions of dollars more even as it makes no effort to rein in White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, the architect of the administration’s mass deportation operation.

All the reasons above are why Rep. Delia Ramirez helped introduce the Melt ICE Actand they’re why we should see this May Day as not just another protest but as a reckoning. The bill would begin dismantling Trump’s expanded deportation machine. Not reform it. Not alter who oversees it. Dismantle it. Because the problem is not that ICE lacks accountability. It’s that an agency with so much money, so much power and so little oversight is designed for impunity. ICE is designed to be a vehicle for terror, not safety.

ICE’s total funding is already larger than the combined budgets of the FBI; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the U.S. Marshals. The administration has requested enough new funding to support the removal of one million people per year. That is not security. The administration is pushing for a domestic enforcement apparatus operating at a scale our country has never attempted, and $70 billion more would lock in such outrageous and disproportionate spending  for three more years.

To give the funding cover, Republicans will begin to advocate for any number of “immigration reform” bills that fail to meet the moment. Don’t be fooled. Republican efforts to advance these bills are not earnest. They are designed to give members facing competitive races something to point to while big corporations, profiteers and private interests rake in record profits from building out the enforcement machinery and exploiting workers fearing deportation. You fund the machine to hurt immigrants. You hold a press conference about reform to lie to workers.

On May Day, FIRM members in more than 30 states will march alongside labor unions and community organizations that understand what is at stake. They are marching while Republicans’ additional $70 billion hangs over their heads. They are marching because the same Congress that funds the raids and cuts working people’s programs and services also refuses to pass a real pathway to citizenship, which would give workers the legal standing to report abuse, organize and participate fully in the economy.

A true pathway to citizenship advanced in bills like the American Dream and Promise Act and the Renewing Immigration Provisions of the Immigration Act of 1929paired with the Melt ICE Act, is what would actually bring about change — not performative bills that are designed to fail. And not press conferences timed to election cycles. We need legislation that meets the scale of what is being built against immigrant communities and starts tearing it down. To pass immigration reform that truly meets the moment will require the power of the people and legislation endorsed by people-powered movements.

Immigrant workers helped build our country. They are still building our country. This May Day, they are marching for the right to stay in it, and we are introducing legislation to make sure they can.