Up First from NPR - Troops In Central Gaza, Military Detention Centers, Harvard Hearing

Episode Date: July 22, 2025

Israel has expanded its military ground operation into central Gaza, the US Homeland Security Department is preparing to use military bases in New Jersey and Indiana for immigration detention, and attorneys for Harvard University are in federal court over the administration's attempt to cut billions of dollars in research funding and contracts. 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 Hannah Bloch, Anna Yukhananov, Steve Drummond, Janaya Williams and Alice Woelfle. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. And our technical director is Carleigh Strange. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Israeli ground troops have pushed into central Gaza. Previously, ground troops were not active there out of concern for hostages. Will crossing this line ramp up pressure on Hamas to accept a ceasefire deal? I'm Steve Inskeep with Sasha Pfeiffer, and this is Up First from NPR News. The Trump administration is planning to use military bases in Indiana and New Jersey to detain people accused of lacking legal status. Beds are important. Last week I woke up one morning we had less than 200 beds.

We'll fill them by half the day. Are there risks to using military resources for immigration enforcement? And Harvard University appeared in federal court to ask a judge to reverse the government's freeze on its grants and contracts. Stay with us, we'll give you the news you need to start your day. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things and other currencies. With WISE, you can send, spend, or receive money across borders, all at a fair exchange rate. No markups or hidden fees. Join millions of customers and visit Wyze.com.

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For the first time in 21 months of war, Israeli ground troops have pushed into central Gaza. Israeli's military radio reported that a ground operation began yesterday. Palestinians staying in several areas there have been ordered to evacuate. Central Gaza is also where many international aid organizations are, including the World Health Organization. With us now is NPR's Emily Fang, who is in Tel Aviv. Good morning, Emily. Good morning, and thanks for having me on.

Why is the Israeli military entering central Gaza now, and why is that noteworthy? So Israel's military wants to ramp up pressure on Hamas to accept a ceasefire deal, and they're trying to show they're willing to cross lines that they had not been willing to cross before. Now previously Israeli ground troops had not really been active in this area called Der Al-Balakh because they were concerned about potentially endangering hostages kidnapped by Hamas and its attack on Israel on October 7th, 2023, who might be in the area. But Israel and Hamas have been negotiating a ceasefire and there is international pressure building from US President Trump and also foreign ministers from more than 25 countries, which issued a statement yesterday calling for an end to the war. Because of this grand offensive, the director of United Nations office says its premises in central Gaza have already been hit in this new offensive. This was a house for the staff of the World Health Organization, which says its male staff

were handcuffed, stripped, and screened at gunpoint and one of their staff remains detained. We asked Israel's military about what happened here. They said they had ordered evacuations, that they were responding to gunfire, and that quote, suspects involved in terrorist activity may be required to temporarily remove certain items of clothing. Who this grand offensive impacts most immediately however are the tens of thousands of Palestinians who are living where this grand offensive is taking place.

The United Nations says that with this latest evacuation order, nearly 88% of Gaza is no longer accessible to civilians because it's now an Israeli militarized zone. And that means about 2 million civilians are squeezed into just about 12% of the area of the Gaza Strip. Emily, NPR has been doing a lot of reporting about limited access in Gaza to food, housing, basic necessities. How is that squeeze you described affecting people's daily lives? Well, they're getting pushed even more into a smaller fragment of the Gaza Strip, where

these services you described have completely collapsed. I spoke to Jan Egeland about this. He is secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council. He has, he says, about 70 colleagues in Gaza and they've been told by the Israeli military over the months to first move south in the Gaza Strip, now to central Gaza, and most recently, We now have to leave Deir Ebala with the population.

Our aid workers are herded around like cattle. And with barely any food now allowed into Gaza, our NPR producer, Anas Baba, has been reporting that people are quite literally fainting from hunger in the streets and some people are dying. Egeland says the Norwegian Refugee Council has food ready to go into Gaza. My organization has now had trucks, relief supplies, life-saving relief supply, ready to go across the border crossings for 145 days and we've been blocked every single day.

Emily, you mentioned ceasefire negotiations. How likely is a ceasefire at this point? These talks are continuing and Qatar hopes are higher than they've been in recent weeks. But one main sticking point is that Israel wants to keep a military presence in Gaza. And even if a ceasefire deal is reached soon, it's going to likely leave the biggest questions unanswered. Questions like who is going to administer Gaza in the future and how can the Gaza Strip be rebuilt and made livable for the people there? That's NPR's Emily Fang. Thank you.

Thanks, Sasha. The Trump administration is putting more military resources toward immigration enforcement. Yeah, the Pentagon is making space at two military bases to detain immigrants who are suspected of being in the United States without legal status. The administration also plans to expand Guantanamo Bay, the base there, to house more migrants. NPR immigration policy reporter Jimena Bustillo has reviewed internal memos spelling all of this out, and she's with us in the studio this morning. Hi Jimena.

Good morning, Sasha. This is not the first time that military resources are being used for immigration enforcement under President Trump. So what exactly is being added? The Homeland Security Department is adding one military base in Indiana and one in New Jersey to a list of places to detain migrants. These bases will be available through September. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE, will use their personnel and contractors

and be completely responsible for the care of the people who are detained there, as well as the transportation and security at the locations. No military personnel will be involved here. We reached out to the Pentagon and there was no immediate response to a comment on these plans. But the military has been a big resource for DHS.

They are able to do this because the Trump administration declared a national emergency at the southern border. The emergency declaration allows for the administration to shuffle around resources, such as by taking defense resources and giving them to DHS. Pentagon memos from last week say that these two military facilities will be used on a temporary basis to house what it calls, quote, single adult non-high threat illegal aliens who have links to transnational crime organizations or criminal drug activity. The memo, as we noted, also says that detention space at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base will be expanded, but we heard that back in January. So what's been approved that's new?

Guantanamo, as you know, can currently hold about 200 people at a time, and that will now double to 400. Still, this continues to be a controversial use of the base. And as you noted, when Trump first announced that migrants would be going to Guantanamo, he said he wanted tens of thousands of beds and we're still very far from that. Right. They said 30,000 experts at the time said that this seems unlikely. It seems that it's still a struggle to get to that number. So that space, this obviously will take personnel. What about adding people to help with this?

You know, there's about 700 service members that have been tapped for detention duty in places like Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. The defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has now approved 500 troops to assist ICE in seven other states. So that's a separate initiative. There's no timing on when those additional troops will be called up or when they will serve. Why does the administration want to use these bases? The request to use additional military bases in the expansion of Guantanamo comes as the Trump administration has continued to push to arrest and detain more people in the country without legal status. DHS has nearly 57,000 people in immigration detention, though it only has about 41,000 beds. Here's Border Czar Tom Homan talking to reporters outside the White House last week. Beds are important.

Last week I woke up one morning we had less than 200 beds. We'll fill them by half the day. So we're constantly having to change flight arrangements and move deportations as quick as we can to empty beds. We shouldn't be in that position. The department has sought out contracts with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, local jurisdictions and military bases to detain migrants and more is to come. The Trump administration is expected to be able to scale up its detention capacity due

to an influx of funding from Congress. The recent tax and spending bill set aside $45 billion for immigration detention centers and $30 billion for more ICE personnel, transportation costs, and to maintain existing ICE facilities. That's NPR's Jimena Bustillo. Thank you. Thanks. The case of Harvard versus the Trump administration is now in the hands of a federal judge. Lawyers from both sides made their arguments in court in Boston while supporters of Harvard

rallied outside. Veritas! Veritas! Veritas is a Latin word meaning truth and it's the motto of Harvard University. NPR's Alyssa Nadwarni was outside the courthouse yesterday and joins us this morning from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Good morning, Alyssa. Good morning. What was it like at the courthouse? Well, outside the courthouse about 100 students, staff, faculty members, and alumni gathered to show their support

for Harvard. I talked with James McCaffrey, a Harvard senior studying government. He co-founded Students for Freedom, a group that advocates for university leaders to stand up to the Trump administration. I'm from Oklahoma, a very red state. I'm a very proud American.

I believe in freedom of speech. I believe in the American dream. When you're starting to attack freedom of speech, that's anti-American. When you're starting to say we're going to cut your funding, that's un-American. The federal grants that were frozen impact about 900 research studies at Harvard from national security to cancer treatments to children's mental health. And what about inside the courtroom? Tell us what played out there. So inside the courtroom was packed.

There was actually a long line to get in. For arguments, Harvard really stuck with what they had filed in court documents, that the White House violated the university's First Amendment rights and acted in retaliation when it demanded control over the school's viewpoint diversity policies. Now, the more surprising pivot was on the side of the Trump administration. In terms of their legal argument, did they adjust what they're arguing? Yeah. So in court filings, the administration said these grants were canceled because Harvard

violated civil rights law by allegedly fostering anti-Semitism on campus. But in court on Monday, the lone lawyer representing the Trump administration, Michael Velchik, seemed to pivot, arguing that the administration has the right to cancel government grants at any time if it decides that an institution doesn't align with its priorities. He essentially framed the issue as one about finances and told the judge that the government has the ability to simply give the research funding to another institution. He actually singled out Howard University, a historically black college in Washington DC. And Velchuk is actually a Harvard alum himself and he told the court quote, Harvard wants billions of dollars, that's

the only reason we are here. They want the government to write a check. Alyssa, any indication of what the judge is thinking? Well in court, Judge Allison Burroughs, an Obama appointee, appeared to push back on the administration's argument. She asked about the relationship between cancer research and combating anti-Semitism. At one point, she even called the government's arguments, quote, mind-boggling. And after arguments wrapped up, President Trump wrote on Truth Social that Burroughs was, quote, a total disaster, and that when she rules against us, we will immediately appeal and win.

And what's the sense in the legal community of whether that is likely to be how this turns out? Well, both sides have asked for a summary judgment. In court, Burroughs said that she would issue her ruling as fast as possible. Now, that opinion could come after several days or even weeks. But yeah, legal scholars have told us, you know, whoever loses is likely going to appeal. And that means that this case could eventually land at the US Supreme Court. That is NPR's Alyssa Nadwarni in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Thanks for your reporting. You bet. And finally today, actor Malcolm Jamal Warner, best known for his role as the sweet and rebellious teenager Theo Huxtable on the Cosby show, has died. He drowned Sunday in an accident in Costa Rica. Millions of TV viewers in the 1980s enjoyed Warner's role as the only son of Heathcliff and Claire Huxtable. Is this my shirt? Is this the shirt I paid $30 for? Is this the shirt they're supposed to think is important for trail? Later he had starring roles in the comedy Malcolm and Eddie and the medical drama The Resident. And he won a Grammy Award for his spoken word contribution to a 2015 song

called Jesus Children, memorializing the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting. He spoke to All Things Considered in 2023 about discovering other avenues of creative expression later in his life. I found music, I became a bass player, because through the music and poetry, there are ways that I can express myself

that I can't as an actor or a director. Malcolm Jemel Warner was 54 years old. And that's Up First for Tuesday, July 22nd. I'm Sasha Pfeiffer. And I'm Steve Inskeep. The NPR app lets you keep public radio in your pocket. You'll find a mix of local, national, and international news, plus the best podcasts from the NPR network. Download the NPR app in the App Store today. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Hannah Block,

Anna Yukhaninov, Steve Drummond, Janaya Williams, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Ziad Butch, Nia Dumas, and Christopher Thomas. We got engineering support from Stacey Abbott, and our technical director is Carly Strange. Please join us again tomorrow. What she said. You have your job, but you also have a life. And you're not just one thing.

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