Up First from NPR - ICE Student Arrests, HHS Cuts, Stefanik Nomination Pulled, China Trade City

Episode Date: March 28, 2025

The Trump administration has revoked hundreds of visas of foreign students, including PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk who was detained on the street by ICE agents. The Trump administration plans to cut 20,000 jobs from the Department of Health and Human Services. President Trump pulls Elise Stefanik's nomination for UN Ambassador to keep her in the House, protecting the GOP's razor-thin majority. And, NPR looks at how U.S. tariffs are putting pressure on Chinese businesses, with some raising prices and others making trade-offs to stay competitive.Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Today's episode of Up First was edited by Eric Westervelt, Jane Greenhalgh, Jason Breslow, Reena Advani, Arezou Rezvani and Mohamad ElBardicy.It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Milton Guevara, Aowen Cao, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas.We get engineering support from Neisha Heinis, and our technical director is Carleigh Strange.Our Executive Producer is Jay Shaylor.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Protests in Boston over the arrest of a Tufts University student by ICE agents. When immigrants are under attack, what do we do? Get out like that! Is the Trump administration targeting students just for criticizing Israel? I'm Amartinez, that's Michelle Martin, and this is Up First from NPR News. The Trump administration plans to cut 20,000 jobs from the Department of Health and Human Services. We have two goals.

The first is obvious, to save the taxpayer money. And the second is to radically improve our quality of service. Can they really cut that deep without hurting critical services? And President Trump keeps House Republicans' slim majority intact by pulling Elise Stefanik's nomination for U.N. ambassador. Plus, Stevens keep is in China, where he's seeing how American tariffs are changing business in one of the world's largest trading hubs. Stay with us.

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This message comes from Mint Mobile. Mint Mobile took what's wrong with wireless and made it right. They offer premium wireless plans for less, and all plans include high-speed data, unlimited talk and text, and nationwide coverage. See for yourself at mintmobile.com slash switch. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the U.S. has revoked hundreds of visas as part of a crackdown on student activists who opposed Israel's war in Gaza. Outside Boston this week, about 2,000 people took to the streets to call on the government to free Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk. When immigrants are under attack, what do we do? Get out of my house! Immigration agents in plain clothes and face masks arrested Ozturk off the street and plan

to deport her. She's the latest foreign born student taken into custody as the Trump administration goes after university protesters. And Pierce Adrian Florido has been tracking these developments and he's with us now. Good morning, Adrian. Good morning, Michelle. So Adrian, tell us more about Rumeza Ozturk and what happened to her. Well, I'll start with what happened.

It was Tuesday, a security camera captured it. Ozturk is about to cross the street on her way to dinner to break the Ramadan fast with friends. Six agents surround her and one grabs her arm. Ozturk screams, visibly terrified as agents handcuff her and lead her to an unmarked car. She is Turkish and a PhD student at Tufts on a student visa. She's been involved in pro-Palestinian activism. Last year she published an op-ed criticizing her school's leaders for not condemning the war in Gaza or cutting economic ties

with Israel. Okay, so here's the critical question. Do we know if that op-ed is why immigration agents arrested her? Not precisely, but the Department of Homeland Security said that Osturk has, quote, engaged in activities in support of Hamas. DHS has offered no evidence of this. Her lawyer calls those allegations baseless. She says Osturk is a gifted student and Fulbright scholar studying child development. But last night, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he personally revoked her visa after

assessing her activities. The activities presented to me meet the standard of what I've just described to you, people that are supportive of movements that run counter to the foreign policy of the United States. If necessary, and a court compels us, we'll provide that information. But ultimately it's a visa. Judges don't issue student visas. There. But ultimately it's a visa. The judges don't issue student visas. There is no right to a student visa.

Osterk, after her arrest, was quickly flown to a detention center in Louisiana, Michelle, and her lawyer is fighting to free her. And of course, I think many people may remember that Mahmoud Khalil was arrested at Columbia University three weeks ago on similar accusations after the Secretary of State decided to revoke his green card. Now let me remind here that he is a legal permanent resident, not a student visa holder, and he's married to an American citizen. Other students and scholars have also been pursued or arrested. So how wide is this dragnet? Well, yesterday Rubio said that he has revoked hundreds of visas, many of them student visas,

making those people immediately deportable. Now here he is again. We are not going to be importing activists into the United States. They're here to study. They're here to go to class. They're not here to lead activist movements that are disruptive and undermine our universities. I think it's lunacy to continue to allow that. Rubio is delivering on President Trump's promise, Michelle, to deport non-citizens whose activism, he claims, supports Hamas terrorism and is anti-semitic. Trump has taken special aim at universities saying

they're infested with radicalism. He's demanded that schools crack down on protests and is pressuring them with funding cuts and or threats of funding cuts. Student activists say this is all about muscling, dissent, and free speech and that these deportation arrests are about spreading terror and punishing students for their political beliefs and they say deportation arrests are about spreading terror and punishing students for their political beliefs, and they say that the arrests are unconstitutional and lawyers are fighting them. And what might be next for these students who have been targeted? Well, like I said, their lawyers are fighting in federal courts and immigration courts to

prevent their deportations. Some are making constitutional arguments, leaning on the First Amendment right to free speech. The government is also aggressively defending its authority, though, to revoke the legal status of these students and to expel them. That is NPR's Adriene Florido. Adriene, thank you. Thanks, Michelle. The Trump administration plans to restructure the Department of Health and Human Services

and cut 20,000 employees. HHS is the umbrella agency that includes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Medicare and Medicaid, the National Institutes of Health, and a lot more. And here, Selena Simmons-Duffin has been reporting on these plans and what they mean, and she is with us now. Good morning. Good morning, Michelle. So Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced this plan yesterday.

What's he trying to do? Well, Secretary Kennedy says HHS is a huge bureaucracy filled with silos and that he wants to streamline things. Here he is in a video he posted to social media. We have two goals. The first is obvious, to save the taxpayer money by making our department more efficient. And the second is to radically improve our quality of service. He says they'll do that by consolidating administrative work like IT and human

resources, but that the restructuring won't affect the work the agencies do. Kennedy draws a direct line between the problems with America's overall health and the way HHS has been set up. I think most Americans would agree with me that throwing more money at healthcare isn't going to solve the problem or would have solved it already. Obviously, what we've been doing hasn't worked. That's why we're making this dramatic overhaul. Okay. So, Selena, these plans were just announced, but what's been the reaction so far?

My inbox was flooded with shocked responses yesterday from Democratic lawmakers, nurses groups, public health groups, advocates for seniors. They say this isn't an overhaul, it's a wrecking ball. I asked former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius for her reaction. She was incredulous that Kennedy thinks he can cut HHS staff so steeply and not affect services. Well that's what I find so incredibly insulting. To me, what they're saying is there are 20,000 people working for HHS who do nothing. She was especially critical of the plan to cut the number of regional offices from 10 to five

and to combine certain agencies. Like she questioned how it would help efficiency to combine CDC, which is in Atlanta, with the Strategic Preparedness Agency, which is in D.C. Do we know yet which agencies are going to be the most affected? It looks like the steepest cuts are coming from CDC and FDA. Also a lesser known agency called the Administration for Community Living, which helps seniors and

people with disabilities live independently. They do work like meal delivery, transportation support for caregivers. Under the plans, that agency will be dismantled and its quote critical services will get spread out over a few different agencies. So employees whose jobs are getting cut could get notices as soon as today with the cuts effective in May. And HHS did not respond to NPR's request for an interview with Secretary Kennedy or give answers to a list of questions about the plans. So presumably some people do support these plans. So what do Kennedy's supporters or supporters of these plans say? Republican lawmakers have been fairly quiet so far, especially compared to Democratic members of Congress who have quickly put together press conferences, quote, sounding the alarm about this

plan. Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, the Republican chair of the health committee, did not respond to NPR's request for comment. What Republicans have said is that the details aren't out yet, that they believe there is administrative sprawl at HHS, and that it can be streamlined, and that they trust Kennedy. That is NPR health correspondent, Selena Simmons-Duffin. Selena, thank you. You're welcome. [♪ music playing, no lyrics, no lyrics.

Republicans on Capitol Hill have worked quickly to confirm President Trump's cabinet nominees. Yes, some have faced contentious battles. Others have sailed right through Senate votes. There was only one pick left to appear in front of the Senate, and that was New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, President Trump's choice to be ambassador to the United Nations, but that changed yesterday when he pulled her nomination saying he's asked her to stay in the House of Representatives.

Here to explain why is NPR political reporter Alina Moore. She's here with me in our studios. Good morning. Good morning. So Elise Stefanik's nomination was expected to be an easy vote. So what happened? Well, Stefanik is a close ally of the president and she's really been seen as a rising star within the party. She was elected in 2014 and at the time was the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. She was a vocal Trump defender during his 2019 impeachment hearing and later rose to a top leadership position within

the party. All of this was supposed to make her confirmation process appear easy. The problem, it turned out, Michelle wasn't Stefanik but House Republicans and their razor-thin majority. You know, on most bills, the party can only afford to lose one or two votes. And, you know, there was a chance Stefanik's departure would only make things harder, which, you know, Trump decided was too risky. He wrote on social media yesterday that Republicans needed to maintain every seat they can. Okay, but Republicans have known about their razor-thin majority as far back as November when Trump picked Stefanik. So why now? Yeah, I

mean, well, since the fall, two other Republicans have left office. Former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, who resigned before the start of the term, and former Florida Congressman Mike Walz, who now serves as Trump's national security advisor. Special elections are underway for both of those seats, and Republicans are easily expected to hold on in Gates' district, but the race for Walz's seat is shaping up to be way more competitive than expected. And, you know, Stefanik won her race by double digits last fall, but, you know, the decision to withdraw

her nomination shows that Republicans just don't want to take any more risks right now in any more races, especially when there's still a long to-do list on Capitol Hill. Trump has done a lot by executive action, but in terms of legislation, it's a different story. Republicans want to make Trump's 2017 tax cuts permanent. They also want more funding for defense and the president's immigration agenda. So again, Michelle, this really is a reminder of just how fragile the GOP majority in the House is right now.

What's been the reaction on Capitol Hill? Well, for her part, Stefanik told Fox News last night that she supported Trump's decision. I have been proud to be a team player. The president knows that. He and I had multiple conversations today, and we are committed to delivering results on behalf of the American people. House Speaker Mike Johnson has invited Stefanik back to House GOP leadership, but it's unclear what role that may be since her old job has since been filled.

And you know, though Johnson expressed enthusiasm about having her back, on the Democratic side, they're framing this whole moment pretty differently. In a statement from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, he said, quote, House Republicans are running scared. That is NPR Political Reporter, Elena Moore. Elena, thank you. Thanks. Just about every day we learn of new tariffs threatened or imposed by the United States.

President Trump ordered tariffs on auto imports this week, sending the stock market falling. Next week, the administration promises new tariff numbers for every country based on a calculation of tariffs that they charge. 20% tariffs are already in effect on goods from China, and Steve Inskeep has been talking with some of the sellers. Hello there, friend. Hi there, friend. So where have you been? Well, we've been visiting the source of your stuff, Michelle. Things like hairpins, pots and pans, toys. You've got a grill, don't you? You got a grill? I do, and pots and pans.

Okay, well, we saw a place where they sell enormous numbers of grills. A lot of that kind of consumer stuff comes to America through a Chinese trading city called YIWU, Y-I-W-U-E-WU, where thousands of wholesalers ship products from nearby factories. Our tour through this area gave us a little bit of news where thousands of wholesalers ship products from nearby factories. Our tour through this area gave us a little bit of news how some Chinese businesses are

responding to those tariffs and also a picture of life. This international trading market is like a shopping mall next to a shopping mall next to a shopping mall and I walked through with our colleague Rina Advani and we recorded as we went. Let's just listen to a little bit of that. There's a lot of umbrellas, they're all made here. So there's an umbrella store, nothing but umbrellas. And there's yoga mats, chess, it looks like parasols,

all sorts of things here you can find. Light bulbs, like a light bulb store, that's what they sell. Shop after shop after shop, and then we settled in at a display room for hardware. I've been going around the store just writing down things that are for sale. Spades, saws, staplers, caulk guns, garden shears, wire cutters, bolt cutters, garden hose nozzles.

OK Steve, sounds like a shopper's paradise, but what did you learn about tariffs? That the Chinese suppliers of our goods are dealing with those tariffs in different ways. The hardware store seller who's selling screwdrivers, jackhammers, any number of things, says she thinks that her tools are in demand and that American consumers are just gonna pay more. She's not changing her prices. Well, that's what economists say will happen with tariffs, that it's a tax that Americans will pay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. She says she's just going to improve the packaging and marketing a little bit. But with that said, we also heard some stories of people who have lost business or agreed to make some tradeoffs. Okay, what do you mean by that? Well, for example, a seller of hairpins and claw clips told us she had an order from Target, and they said, "'Would you pick up half the cost of the tariffs?' She tried to negotiate and they delayed the order.

She's losing the business. We also met a guy who sells thousands and thousands of toys made on 3D printers. He says one of his clients asked for half the tariffs to be paid by him. He said, sure, his business is expanding and regardless tariffs or not, he is raising his prices. So what's the bottom line here? That there is a give and take, I guess.

It seems like suppliers will in fact pay some of the tariffs, but American consumers will too. And it's also clear to us from here that China has some options. They sell all over the world, including outside of the United States, in a rapidly changing marketplace. That's Steve Inskeep speaking to us from Shanghai.

Steve, thank you. You're welcome, Michelle, it's good to talk with you. What do Mudang, the pygmy hippo social media sensation What do Mudang the Pygmy Hippo, social media sensation, Hawk to a Girl, and the President of the United States all have in common? They've all inspired meme coins, which are a valuable, highly volatile type of cryptocurrency. I mean, I definitely would say this is just gambling. Everyone involved would agree with that, I think. But it's a really weird form of gambling.

This Sunday on Up First, understanding the meme coin boom. How does it work? And who are the winners and losers in this gamble? Listen to the Sunday story right here on NPR's Up First podcast. And that's Up First for Friday, March 28th. I'm Michelle Martin. And I'm E. Martinez, ready for more NPR news? I know that you are.

Well, there's a radio show for that. Find NPR's morning edition on your NPR station at stations.npr.org. And for podcasts, local news and the latest headlines take NPR everywhere with the NPR app. You can find that in your app store. And don't forget, Up First airs on Saturday, too. Ayesha Roscoe and Scott Simon have all the news. It'll be right here in this feed or wherever you get those podcasts. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Eric Westerveld, Jane Greenhal, Jason Breslow, Rina Advani,

Arazu Rizvani, and Mohamed El-Bardisi. It was produced by Ziad Baj, Milton Gebara, Owen So, Nia Dumas, and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Hines and our technical director, Stacey Abbott. Our executive producer is Jay Schaler. This message comes from Mint Mobile. Mint Mobile took what's wrong with wireless

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