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Trump administration plans to deport 40 Iranians days after mass killings in Iran

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Trump administration plans to deport 40 Iranians days after mass killings in Iran

The Trump administration plans to deport at least 40 Iranian nationals back to Iran as early as Sunday, according to three sources with knowledge of the flight, the first known deportations to the country since President Donald Trump threatened its leaders over their treatment of protesters.

Members of the group being deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement fear for their lives if they are sent back to Iran, according to a relative, a lawyer representing some of the Iranians, a former ICE official and a U.S. lawmaker.

The deportation flight is scheduled to depart from Arizona on Sunday, these people said, just days after the country’s hardline regime crushed mass protests by killing at least 3,000 demonstrators.

Two Iranian men, who are gay, told their lawyer Bekah Wolf with the American Immigration Council that they were set to be deported on the Sunday flight. Homosexuality is illegal and punishable by death in Iran, which executed two gay men in 2022 and is considered one of the world’s most repressive countries for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

“They’re terrified,” Wolf told MS NOW. One of her clients “calls every 45 minutes begging me to save his life.”

“We need a court of some sort to fully hear their claims before they’re sent back to a country where being gay is punishable by death,” said Wolf.

She said her two clients have no criminal convictions and entered the U.S. in early 2025 on asylum claims. Both were in the middle of appeals though did not have stays of removal, Wolf said. Ultimately, Wolf said, “they did not have full hearings of their asylum claims in any meaningful way.”

“They’re terrified,” a lawyer for one of the Iranian nationals told MS NOW. One of her clients “calls every 45 minutes begging me to save his life.”

Both men fled Iran roughly four years ago, after they had been arrested by Iran’s morality police and were awaiting a likely death sentence.

It’s unclear how many people in the group had active asylum claims or were in the U.S. legally.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Thursday.

The planned deportation flight also comes after Trump called Iran’s hardline leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “a sick man” who should “stop killing people,” in an interview with Politico on Saturday. Trump also said Iran was “the worst place to live anywhere in the world.”

When demonstrations sparked by a collapsing economy spread across Iran in early January, Trump urged Iranians to keep protesting and promised “help is on its way.” He has not yet carried out air strikes but told reporters on Thursday they remain possible, noting that the Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group is headed to the region. “A massive fleet heading in that direction, and maybe we won’t have to use it,” Trump said. “We’ll see.”

A relative of a third Iranian being deported said they feared what would happen to one of their family members when they arrived in the country. The Iranian national, who has kids who are U.S. citizens, was picked up by ICE in recent months after living in the U.S. for years.

“I’m worried he could be detained or, worse, killed,” said the relative, who asked not to be named out of fear of what could happen to their family member.

The Iranian national, who arrived as a minor, and lived in the U.S. for years, had a prior order of removal for non-violent offenses, the relative said, and was regularly checking in with ICE. But recently, ICE selected them for enforcement because Iran has now agreed to take deportations from the U.S. after decades of the U.S. welcoming Iranian dissidents, exiles and others.

“It’s completely destroyed our family,” the relative said of the Iranian national’s detainment in ICE custody. “It was so sudden and traumatic.”

The relative was stunned, saying, “the question I have is: how our president is concerned about protesters in Iran but is doing this to people and families here.”

In December, the U.S. deported roughly 55 Iranian nationals on a charter flight, according to Iranian officials. Another rumgroup of 55 Iranians was deported on a charter flight from the U.S. in September.

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David Rohde

David Rohde is the senior national security reporter for MS NOW. Previously he was the senior executive editor for national security and law for NBC News.

Laura Barrón-López covers the White House for MS NOW.

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The Dictatorship

NOT AGAIN: Federal officers shoot another person in Minneapolis… Developing…

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NOT AGAIN: Federal officers shoot another person in Minneapolis… Developing…

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A federal immigration officer shot and killed a man Saturday in Minneapolis, drawing hundreds of protesters onto the frigid streets and ratcheting up tensions in a city already shaken by another fatal shooting weeks earlier.

Family members identified the man who was killed as Alex Prettia 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse who had protested President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in his city. After the shooting, an angry crowd gathered and protesters clashed with federal immigration officers, who wielded batons and deployed flash bangs.

The Minnesota National Guard was assisting local police at the direction of Gov. Tim Walz, officials said. Guard troops were sent to both the shooting site and to a federal building where officials have squared off with protesters daily.

Information about what led up to the shooting was limited, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said.

Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that federal officers were conducting an operation and fired “defensive shots” after a man with a handgun approached them and “violently resisted” when officers tried to disarm him.

In bystander videos of the shooting that emerged soon after, Pretti is seen with a phone in his hand but none appears to show him with a visible weapon.

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O’Hara said police believe the man was a “lawful gun owner with a permit to carry.”

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said during a news conference that Pretti had shown up to “impede a law enforcement operation.” She questioned why he was armed but did not offer detail about whether Pretti drew the weapon or brandished it at officers.

The officer who shot the man is an eight-year Border Patrol veteran, federal officials said.

Trump weighed in on social media by lashing out at Walz and the Minneapolis mayor.

Trump shared images of the gun that immigration officials said was recovered and said: “What is that all about? Where are the local Police? Why weren’t they allowed to protect ICE Officers?”

Trump, a Republican, said the Democratic governor and mayor are “are inciting Insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric.”

Pretti was shot just over a mile from where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good on Jan. 7, sparking widespread protests.

Pretti’s family released a statement Saturday evening saying they are “heartbroken but also very angry,” and calling him a kindhearted soul who wanted to make a difference in the world through his work as a nurse.

“The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He has his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down all while being pepper sprayed,” the family statement said. “Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man.”

Video shows officers, man who was shot

In a bystander video of Saturday’s shooting obtained by The Associated Press, protesters can be heard blowing whistles and shouting profanities at federal officers on Nicollet Avenue.

The video shows an officer shoving a person who is wearing a brown jacket, skirt and black tights and carrying a water bottle. That person reaches out for a man and the two link up, embracing. The man, wearing a brown jacket and black hat, seems to be holding his phone up toward the officer.

The same officer shoves the man in his chest and the two, still embracing, fall back.

The video then shifts to a different part of the street and then comes back to the two individuals unlinking from each other. The video shifts focus again and then shows three officers surrounding the man.

Soon at least seven officers surround the man. One is on the man’s back and another who appears to have a canister in his hand strikes a blow to the man’s chest. Several officers try to bring the man’s arms behind his back as he appears to resist. As they pull his arms, his face is briefly visible on camera. The officer with the canister strikes the man near his head several times.

A shot rings out, but with officers surrounding the man, it’s not clear from where the shot came. Multiple officers back off the man after the shot. More shots are heard. Officers back away and the man lies motionless on the street.

The police chief appealed for calm, both from the public and from federal law enforcement.

“Our demand today is for those federal agencies that are operating in our city to do so with the same discipline, humanity and integrity that effective law enforcement in this country demands,” the chief said. “We urge everyone to remain peaceful.”

Gregory Bovino of U.S. Border Patrol, who has commanded the Trump administration’s big-city immigration campaign, said the officer who shot the man had extensive training as a range safety officer and in using less-lethal force.

“This is only the latest attack on law enforcement. Across the country, the men and women of DHS have been attacked, shot at,” he said.

Walz said he had no confidence in federal officials and that the state would lead the investigation into the latest fatal shooting.

But Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said during a news conference that federal officers blocked his agency from the shooting scene even after it obtained a signed judicial warrant.

Amid the unrest, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats will not vote for a spending package that includes money for DHS. Schumer’s statement increases the possibility that the government could partially shut down on Jan. 30 when funding runs out.

Protests continue in Minneapolis

Protesters converged at the scene of the shooting despite dangerously cold weather.

At midday Saturday, the worst of an extreme cold wave was over, but the temperature was still -6 degrees (-21 Celsius).

After the shooting, an angry crowd gathered and screamed profanities at federal officers, calling them “cowards” and telling them to go home. One officer responded mockingly as he walked away, telling them: “Boo hoo.” Agents elsewhere shoved a yelling protester into a car. Protesters dragged garbage dumpsters from alleyways to block the streets, and people who gathered chanted, “ICE out now” and “Observing ICE is not a crime.”

As dark fell, hundreds of people gathered quietly by a growing memorial at the site of the shooting. Some carried signs saying “Justice for Alex Pretti.” Others chanted Pretti’s and Good’s names. A doughnut shop and a clothing store nearby stayed open, offering protesters a warm place as well as water, coffee and snacks.

Caleb Spike said he came from a nearby suburb to show his support and his frustration. “It feels like every day something crazier happens,” he said. “What’s happening in our community is wrong, it’s sickening, it’s disgusting.”

___

The age of the man who was shot has been corrected to 37, per information from the police chief. The AP previously reported his age as 51 based on a hospital record.

___

Santana reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Giovanna Dell’Orto, Tim Sullivan and Sarah Raza in Minnesota, Jim Mustian in New York, Michael Catalini in New Jersey and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles also contributed.

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Renée Fleming cancels Kennedy Center shows amid Trump-era changes

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Renée Fleming cancels Kennedy Center shows amid Trump-era changes

NEW YORK (AP) — Renée Fleming has withdrawn from two scheduled May appearances at the Kennedy Center, the latest in a wave of cancellations since President Donald Trump ousted the previous leadership and the new leadership’s announcement that the venue would be renamed the Trump Kennedy Center.

The Grammy-winning soprano was to have appeared with conductor James Gaffigan and the National Symphony Orchestra. Her decision is unsurprising; a year ago she resigned as “Artistic Advisor at Large,” citing the forced departures of Kennedy Center Chair David Rubenstein and its president, Deborah Rutter. The center itself referred to “a scheduling conflict” as the reason she dropped out of the May concerts.

“A new soloist and repertoire will be announced at a later date, and the remainder of the program remains unchanged,” reads a statement on the Kennedy Center web site that was posted this week. Fleming did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Lin-Manuel Miranda, Bela Fleck and Issa Rae are among the many other artists who have called off events at the Kennedy Center, which has been part of Trump’s broader attack on what he calls “woke” culture. Earlier this month, the Washington National Opera announced it was severing ties with the Kennedy Center, where it had performed since 1971.

The musical presenters Vocal Arts DC, who earlier this week called off three Kennedy Center concerts because of “financial circumstances,” announced Friday they had found new venues for such scheduled performers as tenor Benjamin Bernheim and pianist Carrie-Ann Matheson. Bernheim and Matheson will appear next month at George Washington University, where the Washington National Opera is staging two operas this spring.

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The Supreme Court’s view of expanded executive power leaves one open question: the Fed

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The Supreme Court’s view of expanded executive power leaves one open question: the Fed

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court for the past year has repeatedly allowed President Donald Trump to fire heads of independent agenciesbut it appears to be drawing a line with the Federal Reserve.

The court has signaled for months that it sees the Fed in a different light. It has said that the president can fire directors of other agencies for any reason, but can remove Fed governors only “for cause,” which is often interpreted to mean neglect of duty or malfeasance.

Last year, the court allowed President Donald Trump to fire — at least temporarily — Gwynne Wilcox, a member of the National Labor Relations Board, and Cathy Harris, a member of the Merit Systems Protection Board, but it carved out a distinction for the Fed. The two officials had argued that if Trump could fire them, he could also fire members of the Fed’s board of governors.

“We disagree,” the court said then. “The Federal Reserve is a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity that follows in the distinct historical tradition of the First and Second Banks of the United States.”

That is now being put to the test in a case in front of the Supreme Court involving Trump’s attempt to remove Fed governor Lisa Cook. On Wednesday during oral arguments, the court seemed inclined to keep Cook in her job.

Allowing Cook’s firing to go forward “would weaken, if not shatter, the independence of the Federal Reserve,” said Justice Brett Kavanaugh, one of three Trump appointees on the nation’s highest court.

But the court largely skirted a key issue: What, exactly, is the legal principle that protects the Fed, but not the other agencies?

Several legal experts say the justices are on shaky ground. The Fed, they argue, is similar in many ways to the Federal Trade Commission or the National Labor Relations Board, agencies Congress intended to be independent but whose officials Trump has been able to fire without pushback from the high court.

“There’s no historical grounds for distinguishing the Fed from other independent agencies that Congress has designed,” said Jane Manners, a law professor at Fordham University. “The whole argument was premised on the idea that the Fed is different. They haven’t explained exactly why.”

Peter Conti-Brown, a professor of financial regulation at the University of Pennsylvania, added, “I’ll say as a legal scholar and as a historian I think that differentiation is hocus pocus.”

Just last month, the court signaled in a separate oral argument that it would likely allow Trump to fire FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter. The conservative majority on the court also suggested it would overturn a 90-year-old precedent that sharply limited the president’s ability to fire top officials at independent agencies.

Chief Justice John Roberts and many of his colleagues support the “unitary executive” theory, which holds that the president should have full sway over the staffing of agencies in the executive branch.

Agency directors, like Slaughter, “are exercising massive power over individual liberty and billion-dollar industries” without being accountable to anyone, Kavanaugh said at the December oral argument.

With the Federal Reserve, however, the Supreme Court’s conservative justices have applied a different view: that the Fed’s monetary policy — the setting of short-term interest rates and management of the money supply — historically hasn’t been overseen by the executive branch.

Some legal experts have likewise drawn a distinction between the Fed and other independent agencies. In a brief filed in the Cook case, Aaron Nielson, a law professor at the University of Texas, and formerly a top lawyer in Texas government, wrote that, “Whereas the modern FTC indisputably exercises executive power, the Fed’s core function is monetary policy, which need not and often does not require executive power.”

The First and Second Banks of the United States were nationwide banks that were the closest the United States had to a central bank in the first few decades after the nation’s founding, and both “conducted early monetary policy,” Nielson wrote, but weren’t executive branch agencies.

But Lev Menand, a law professor at Columbia University and author of a book about the Fed, argued that the Fed does exercise executive power when it regulates the banking system. And monetary policy, when it adjusts the money supply, is part of that regulation, he said.

There are also only three types of government authority, Menand argues: legislative, executive, and judicial, and the Fed belongs in the executive category.

“There is no fourth type of government power,” Menand said. “There is no other place to locate the Fed.”

Still, the justices mostly avoided addressing why the Fed is different during Wednesday’s oral argument, in part, Menand noted, because neither side pushed it. Cook’s lawyers had no reason to question a distinction that appeared to favor them.

And even the government’s own top Supreme Court lawyer, D. John Sauer, acknowledged that Trump could only fire Cook “for cause,” while in the other cases the White House had sought to remove officials for any reason, including policy differences. The distinction made it harder for the White House to argue that Cook should immediately be removed from office.

“There is a long tradition of having this exercise of monetary policy be exercised independent of executive influence,” Sauer said. “And we don’t dispute that that’s what Congress was doing.”

Paul Clement, one of Cook’s lawyers, told the justices, “it’s kind of why this case is, I think, problematic for the government because they could have come in here and said, you know, Fed, schmed, it’s not that different. This is just like the FTC.”

Instead, Clement added, “they come in and say, no, we’re going to accept that the Fed is different, at least for purposes of this case.”

The Supreme Court will initially rule on the narrow question of whether Cook can remain in her position while the larger dispute over her firing is fought in the lower courts. Still, at some point it may have to issue more comprehensive rulings that could include a fuller explanation of why the justices see the Fed as different.

For now, the Fed’s size and impact on the financial markets may be offering it a measure of protection.

“I don’t mean to denigrate any other agency, but there’s a reason that monetary policy has been treated differently, for lo these many years,” Clement said. “And there’s a reason that the markets watch the Fed a little more closely than they watch really any other agency of government.”

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