Up First from NPR - DHS job cuts, Travel troubles under Trump, Sudan Civil War latest

Episode Date: March 22, 2025

The Department of Homeland Security makes cuts to its office for civil rights and civil liberties and other oversight offices, saying these offices slow down enforcement. Immigration officials at checkpoints are detaining travelers to the US over what were once minor visa violations. Sudan's military has retaken the seat of the country's government after nearly two years.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The Department of Homeland Security is making cuts to its civil rights and immigration oversight offices. Saying these offices obstruct immigration enforcement. I'm Sarah McCammon. I'm Ayesha Roscoe and this is Up First from NPR News. Coming up, NPR's Ron Elving on the latest news from the Trump administration. Travelers to the U.S. are worried about being interrogated at checkpoints, searched and detained for days. That's because what were once seen as minor visa violations are now triggering major scrutiny from immigration officials. Also, Sudan's military says it's

retaken the seat of the country's government. Could this be a turning point in the civil war there? Stay with us, we have the news you need to start your weekend. Singapore is one of the busiest cities in the world, but biologist Philip Johns is fascinated by a different inhabitant on the island, otters. At rush hour, downtown, the otters would swim toward each other and there are literally tens of thousands of people who are on their way to work. How ideas, emotions, and creatures coexist. That's next time on the TED Radio Hour from NPR. On the Embedded Podcast. No, no.

It's called denying a speech from a speech. It's misinformation. Like so many Americans, my dad has gotten swept up in conspiracy theories. These are not conspiracy theories. These are reality. I spent the year following him down the rabbit hole, trying to get him back. Listen to Alternate Realities on the Embedded Podcast from NPR, all episodes available now. A lot happens in Washington every day from the White House to Capitol Hill and everywhere

in between. That's where we come in. On the NPR politics podcast, we keep you up to date on what happens inside Washington and what it means for you and your community. The NPR politics podcast. Listen wherever you listen. Here's a question that's become something of a refrain over the last several weeks. Is the U.S. in a constitutional crisis? And it's taken on a new urgency this week amid a showdown between a federal judge, James Boasberg, and the Trump administration over its use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans, it claims belong to a criminal gang. They're tough people, they're bad people.

We don't want them in our country. We can't let a judge say that he wants them. He didn't run for president. President Trump speaking yesterday at the White House, and joining us now is NPR senior contributor Ron Elving. Hey Ron. Good to be with you, Sarah. So to that question that keeps getting invoked, is NPR senior contributor Ron Elving. Hey, Ron. Good to be with you, Sarah.

So to that question that keeps getting invoked, what do you say, Ron, is a constitutional crisis at hand? We do seem to be walking up to it. The phrase refers to a conflict between constitutional powers that has no clear resolution in the constitution itself. Now, Trump suggests that a judge cannot contradict him because that judge didn't run for president. One has to wonder, does Trump understand and accept that the courts are meant to act as a check on the elected branches, the Congress and the presidency? This one deportation case is going to an appeals court next week, but there are more than a dozen court rulings out there against Trump

so far. They're being appealed and at least some of them will probably reach the Supreme Court. So how far is Trump prepared to go in pursuing his version of reality here? So far at least Trump has said he will not defy court orders. He will appeal them and rail against them and call for impeachment of the judge, but he has not yet said he will defy the courts outright. SONIA DARA in the background So sticking with immigration for a second, there were some notable cuts announced yesterday to a division within the Department of Homeland Security or DHS.

What can you tell us about those? MARK FRIEDMAN in the background The DHS is cutting jobs at its Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and in the offices of the Ombudsman for Immigration Detention and the Ombudsman for Citizenship and Immigration Services. The DHS spokesman told NPR Friday that these offices, quote, obstructed immigration enforcement by adding bureaucratic hurdles and undermining DHS's mission, unquote. Well, their job was to provide in-house oversight and restraint on this powerful agency and make sure it stays within the law and follows its own mandates.

That's what watchdogs do. That's what ombudsman offices are for. But here, as with the Inspector General, Trump is fired in various agencies. The new administration sees these watchdogs and guardrails as impediments. And the Trump question is, why should anyone have any authority over these agencies other than the president? People can tell him that this is based in the laws and regulations as written and ultimately in the constitutional separation of powers, but it's not clear he accepts that answer.

Now, I think it's worth noting it has not even been a week since members of the Trump administration and the Doge team took over the US Institute of Peace, which is a congressionally funded think tank. Where is Congress in all of this? That could be the question of the year, Sarah, but let's start with the Institute of Peace. It was created by an act of Congress 40 years ago under President Reagan. Its mission is to prevent or resolve violent conflicts in other countries. The Institute calls itself independent and says its employees are not federal workers.

But the White House says the President considers the Institute to be, quote, one of his agencies, unquote, and it says the Institute employees are rogue bureaucrats. As for the pushback from Congress, well, the Republican Party controls both House and Senate, and it's been very much on board for Trump, and so far at least for Elon Musk as well. The Democrats, meanwhile, are debating how to resist Trump without making bad things happen like a government shutdown, and how to resist without doing damage to their own interests and those of their voters. That's NPR's Ron Elving. Thanks so much for your time, Ron.

Thank you, Sarah. If you have a green card or a valid visa, getting into the U.S. is usually straightforward. Border officials might ask the purpose of your visit and how long you intend to stay and then wave you through. But lately, officers have stepped up their questions and sent some people with apparently minor visa violations to detention centers. Michelle Hackman covers immigration for the Wall Street Journal and joins us now.

Welcome. Thanks for having me. So in your latest article, you mentioned border officials are using aggressive questioning tactics with visa holders and tourists. What are you seeing? Yeah. So we're seeing a lot of cases and it's tough Ayesha because the government in many cases is unwilling or unable to give us all the facts in the case.

But what we're seeing is people with relatively minor visa issues. So let's say they're on a tourist visa and they're house-sitting for someone. Another example, someone who's a fiancé of a U.S. citizen coming in on a tourist visa and border officials saying, wait a second, that's illegal. You should be on a fiancé visa. You know, in the past, border officials would say, okay, there's a problem with your visa. You need to fix it and come back to us. Now people are being sent to detention centers, they're being deported over these really minor violations and it's scary for people.

Obviously, I'm not a lawyer and not privy to everything that ICE knows. But why not just deport someone who has problems with their visas immediately or just turn them around at the airport? Why shackle and chain them and keep them in ICE detention? The reasons that people are being detained for much longer, not entirely clear to me, but often if you are going to be deported, it's something as simple as you need to buy a plane ticket and the government doesn't just let you buy any plane ticket. You have to buy an open plane ticket, which means they can put you on any flight

and those can run, you know, six, seven, $8,000. People don't often have that money and so they're being detained longer so they can collect the money just to buy their plane ticket home. You've reached out to US Customs and Border Protection officials. What are they telling you?

Yeah, so they are pointing to President Trump's executive order that orders extreme vetting. And they're proud of this. They're saying, you know, we're enforcing the laws on the books and we're catching attempted terrorists coming into the country. We're catching people who are breaking our laws. You know, this is not something that they are not proud of. One concern that people have had as border officials going through people's phones and

looking for, you know, social media, stuff like that. Is that legal? Is it legal for border officials to go through people's phones? In our laws and in our precedent, we even as US citizens have very few rights at the border. You and I, coming back into the country, could have our phones searched. And that's even more the case for people who are not US citizens. It's totally legal for agents to search people's phones, to search people's social media accounts.

They're using AI tools to find things on people. So it's a much deeper level of searching than people are aware of. And I think people are being even more scrutinized than they were just a few years ago because of these really recent advances in AI technology Travelers from Asia Africa and South America have a much more difficult time entering the US compared to Europeans in India the current wait time just for an appointment for a tourist visa is more than a year Most Europeans don't even need a visa to come to the US for short stays.

Is the focus on these European tourists being blown out of proportion or? I think you hear about it again because these are wealthier people who have more savvy about going to the media. You're right that people from generally from poorer countries have a much harder time even getting tourist visas. The denial rate is really high. And so I think a lot of cases people don't have access to the U.S. at all are being stopped sort of at that level. And so we don't even hear about it. People abroad may think twice before coming to the U.S.

if they're hearing these sorts of news stories. What kind of impact could this crackdown have on the U.S. economy? It could end up being significant. You know, right now, the industry that I've seen that has been the most alarmed, I would say, are universities, research institutions, the type of places that rely a lot on international exchange. They have foreign professors, foreign students, but it could have a much broader impact. You know, tourism is one of our main industries here in the US. But if people feel like they could face danger or long detention, it could deter some people

from coming here. That's Michelle Hackman. She covers immigration for the Wall Street Journal. Thank you so much for coming in today. Thank you. We reached out to the US Customs Border and Protection Agency to ask them about reports that officials have become more aggressive with international travelers arriving in the US, but did not

hear back from them before this podcast. Sudan's army took control of the presidential palace on Friday after days of intense fighting with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, known as RSF. It's the first time the army has recaptured the palace and the capital since the outbreak of the war almost two years ago. Fighting continues across Sudan, but this is likely to be a key turning point. NPR's West Africa correspondent Emmanuel Akinwotu has been covering this and joins us now. Thanks for being with

us today. Thanks. So if you could just tell us more about what happened in the capital yesterday. So the Sudanese Armed Forces, or SAF, they've been advancing into Khartoum city for the last few months, literally taking it back street by street. And there were days of airstrikes and really intense fighting as the army were approaching the presidential palace, the palace complex. Then yesterday morning, there was footage filmed by soldiers who recaptured it and it was broadcasted on state TV and just flooded social media. Allah Akbar Aziz! Allah Akbar! Allah Akbar!

And they showed these scenes of triumph and just pure relation in the Republican Palace. It's been the seat of power in Sudan for almost 200 years. The grounds were battered, soldiers were pouring in, praying, cheering, walking through broken glass and concrete everywhere, essentially entering the grounds for the first time since April 2023. The army then announced they'd recaptured it officially and that they were advancing through the city. And clearly right now they feel they're closer than ever to taking the capital back. So this seems at least like a major symbolic victory, but how does this change the course of this war?

Is it now closer to an end? Well what it does is it cements the fact that SAF, the army, they have the upper hand, which many Sudanese people will welcome, even if they have very real fears about the army still. This war broke out because of a power struggle between them and the RSF for control of Sudan. Both of these groups essentially launched a coup against the civilian-led government. Most of the atrocities during this war has been committed by the RSF and people are really desperate for them to be removed so that they can at least contemplate returning home.

The RSF's control in central Sudan has essentially been collapsing. They're still moving to form a parallel government, which the US and others have condemned. And they also still control large parts of Sudan, especially in the West in Darfur, where the UN says they're committing a genocide. I spoke to Khalid here, she's the founder and director of Confluence Advisory, a think tank in Sudan. And she said that the bigger picture is still bleak. What we have is an increasingly fragmented country that is facing continued state collapse and a famine of a scale that the world hasn't seen in 40 years or more. And so the military developments are really dwarfed by the humanitarian situation.

And that humanitarian crisis we hear about has been worsening in Sudan. Can you give us the latest? Yeah, it's devastating and it's still getting worse. Famine has been officially declared in about half a dozen areas, and that's likely to rise. A fifth of the country's population before the war have been displaced, 12 million people. And even amid the celebrations at the palace yesterday, there was still a reminder of just how delicate these victories are. The RSF launched a drone attack on the palace grounds amid the celebrations.

Five people died, including three staff from the state broadcaster who are only there really to report on this victory and this recapture. Two military officials were also killed and one of them was a media liaison for the army. In Pierre's West Africa correspondent, Emmanuel Akinwotu, thank you. Thank you. Finally, a moment to remember boxing great and grill master, George Foreman. He became the heavyweight champion of the world twice. He became the heavyweight champion of the world twice. First in his 20s, he then lost his title in 1974 to Muhammad Ali in one of the sport's most

storied matches known as the Rumble in the Jungle. But he regained it in his mid-40s, making him the oldest man to become world heavyweight champion. He went on to become the pitchman for the George Foreman Grill, an electric double-sided countertop appliance that made him richer than his boxing career ever did. My lean, mean, fat-reducing grilling machine with built-in bun warmer delivers great-tasting grill food in minutes. Best of all, it knocks out the fat. Foreman was the father of 12 children, including five sons, all named George Foreman.

That was a pretty good name. His family announced his death Friday night on social media. He was 76. And that's up first for Saturday, March 22nd, 2025. I'm Ayesha Roscoe. And I'm Sarah McCammon. Martin Patience produced today's episode with help from Elena Turek,

Destiny Adams, and Danny Hensel. Our editors are Shannon Rhodes, Miguel Macias, Martha Ann Overland, and Melissa Gray. Michael Radcliffe is our director, with support from technical director Andy Huther. And the engineers who help us out, David Greenberg, Zach Coleman, and Arthur Holliday-Lorrent. Evie Stone is our senior supervising editor.

Sarah Lucy Oliver is our executive producer. And Jim Kane is our deputy managing editor. Tomorrow on The Sunday Story, with the recent arrest of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte for crimes against humanity, NPR's Emily Fang takes a look at the aftermath of his brutal war on drugs. For more news, interviews, sports and music, you can tune in to Weekend Edition on your radio. Go to stations.npr.org to find your local NPR station. Want to hear this podcast without sponsor breaks?

Amazon Prime members can listen to Up First sponsor free through Amazon Music. Or you can also support NPR's vital journalism and get Up first plus at plus dot NPR dot org that's plus dot NPR dot org. This is Tanya Mosley co-host of Fresh Air. You'll see your favorite actors directors and comedians on late-night TV shows or YouTube but what you get with Fresh Air is a deep dive. Spend some quality time with people like Billie Eilish, Questlove, Ariana Grande, Stephen Colbert, and so many more. We ask questions you won't hear asked anywhere else. Listen to the Fresh Air podcast from NPR and WHYY.