The U.S. apprehended and deported valid visa and green-card holders over the past few months. Newsweek reports that among them was a doctor from Brown University’s medical school. Business Insider says the administration’s hardline immigration policy and trade war are scaring away tourists. Trump invoked a wartime law to deport hundreds of migrants allegedly affiliated with a Venezuelan gang over the weekend. NBC News reports that a judge blocked the law’s use, but not before the deportations had already taken place. The Washington Post’s Meagan Flynn explains how the congressional spending bill could have broad impacts on Washington, D.C. Plus, deadly weather claimed the lives of dozens of people across the country, the U.S. carried out airstrikes against Houthi rebels, and the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournament brackets are set. Today’s episode was hosted by Shumita Basu.
Full Episode
Good morning. It's Monday, March 17th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, the wartime law that Trump used to deport hundreds of Venezuelans, how Congress put D.C. 's budget in limbo, and NCAA tournament brackets are here. But first, it's been just over a week since immigration authorities arrested Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil.
Since then, it's been reported that more people who, like him, were in the U.S. legally, either through green cards or valid visas, have been detained or deported in recent weeks as well. Let's start in Boston with a doctor who was returning to the U.S. from visiting family in Lebanon.
Rasha Alouia, who lives in Rhode Island, was stopped at the airport where immigration authorities told her she would be deported. Her lawyer told the Providence Journal Alouia initially had some challenges applying for her H-1B visa, but those were resolved and she'd been cleared to return to the U.S. legally.
When she was detained, the journal reports that Alawiya had no access to her lawyer or phone. A federal judge issued an order to stop her deportation, but her flight back to Lebanon ended up taking off anyway. A spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection said their officers adhered to protocol.
Also in Boston, the family of Fabian Schmidt, a green card holder from Luxembourg, said he was returning to the U.S. from Luxembourg. His partner was waiting to pick him up for hours, but he never came out. When his family called authorities, they learned he had been arrested by immigration officials. His mother told GBH in Boston they stripped Schmidt naked and violently interrogated him.
The family's been informed he's being held at an ICE facility. A customs spokesperson said Schmidt was detained because of a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge from 2015, a charge that was dropped. It is possible for green card holders like Schmidt to be stripped of their legal permanent residency status, but U.S. law states they need to appear before a judge before that can happen.
Some people being arrested aren't legal residents, they're tourists. In San Diego, two German tourists, Jessica Broesch and Lucas Siloff, were apprehended separately as they each tried to return to the U.S. from Mexico. Both had tourist visas. Siloff's fiancé, Lennon Tyler, told the San Diego NBC affiliate they traveled together often and never had issues re-entering the U.S. before.
They look at his German passport and they become very aggressive and hostile almost immediately. Why are they throwing innocent German tourists in prisons? Why is Lucas sitting in a prison when he's done nothing wrong?
Nikita Loving was traveling with Jessica Broch when she was detained, and she told NBC her arrest stemmed from Broch's plans to tattoo Loving. Broch is a tattoo artist, and she'd been working on various tattoos for Loving for years. Immigration authorities said that plan qualified as work, which meant Broch's tourist visa was invalid.
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