How Trump’s justice department is testing separation of powers

From the attorney general stumping for Republican candidates to federal agents raiding the home of a Democratic congresswoman up for re-election, the department is violating long-standing norms…

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/oct/18/trump-justice-department-us-midterms

 

Inside the Latest Pursuit of Ilhan Omar – Mother Jones

According to what US officials and other people with knowledge of the federal government’s investigation told the Wall Street Journal, the goal is to construct a case to strip the Minnesota congresswoman of her American citizenship and deport her from the US. Omar became a US citizen in 2000, five years after arriving from a refugee camp in Kenya after she and her family fled the Somali Civil War...

 https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/10/inside-the-latest-pursuit-of-ilhan-omar/

 

Supreme Court Allows Trump to Use Flawed Database to Vet Voter Citizenship – Mother Jones

While the impact on the midterms might be minimal, Justice Jackson warns some eligible voters could be disenfranchised…

 https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/09/supreme-court-save-database/

Trump asks Supreme Court to restore states’ access to citizenship database before election - POLITICO

In a lawsuit brought by voting rights and privacy rights groups, U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan ruled in June that the SAVE database was error-prone and had resulted in states removing citizens from the voter rolls. Sooknanan, a Washington-based Biden appointee, said the system had “trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens” and threatened their right to vote...

 https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/08/trump-asks-supreme-court-to-restore-states-access-to-citizenship-database-before-election

 

Michigan voter ID, proof of citizenship amendment loses at state, U.S. Supreme Court

A proposed amendment to the Michigan Constitution that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote in the state has exhausted its options to get on the November ballot through the judicial system. Justices with the U.S. and Michigan supreme courts both decided against the measure Thursday. 

The amendment would also require a voter to show photo ID either at the polls or within six days of an election have their ballot counted…

 https://www.michiganpublic.org/politics-government/2026-09-03/michigan-proof-of-citizenship-voting-amendment-loses-at-state-u-s-supreme-court

US could ask parents to prove citizenship or immigration status to obtain passports for children

Proposal offers look at how state department could enforce Trump order targeting what it calls ‘birth tourism’…

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/01/parents-citizenship-passports-children 

 

Republicans are using taxpayer dollars to let private detention contractors profit

 https://www.youtube.com/shorts/e24RdG7AkOo

 

Weekly Roundup: How Protest Became Terrorism in Trump's America (Bradley Onishi and Daniel Miller; Straight White American Jesus podcast)

This week, Brad Onishi argues that a series of seemingly separate headlines point to a single political project: the construction of a white Christian homeland. 

He examines the unprecedented sentencing of the Prairie Land protesters under domestic terrorism charges, the Trump administration's growing use of "Antifa" as a catch-all label for political dissent, Supreme Court decisions affecting Temporary Protected Status, and the continued targeting of Haitian immigrants. 

Together, Brad argues, these developments reflect an effort to criminalize protest, narrow who belongs in America, and reshape citizenship around the ideals of white Christian nationalism. 

Brad also breaks down new efforts to restrict voting through the SAVE Act, analyzes the rhetoric of figures like Stephen Miller, Megyn Kelly, and Rep. Tom Emmer, and reflects on what Zohran Mamdani's growing political influence reveals about the future of the Democratic Party.

Interview: 

https://www.straightwhiteamericanjesus.com/episodes/weekly-rondup-how-protest-became-terrorism-in-trumps-america?hsLang=en

Judge blocks Trump admin’s database of Americans’ Social Security numbers and citizenship status - POLITICO

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from creating a database of millions of Americans’ private information — including Social Security numbers and citizenship status — saying the administration has fed knowingly inaccurate data to states that are now “actively” and “haphazardly” purging purported non-citizens from voter rolls.

“The federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote,” U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan wrote in a 75-page ruling. “This Court cannot stand idly by while that happens.”…

 https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/22/americans-private-information-database-ruling-00969935

 

House GOP leaders plan housing bill vote despite Trump ultimatum - Live Updates - POLITICO

House Republican leaders are forging ahead on a bipartisan housing affordability bill Wednesday — without the partisan elections bill President Donald Trump demanded to be attached over the weekend...

 https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2026/05/18/congress/housing-bill-trump-save-america-00926454

‘I don’t want to be part of a dictatorship’: the Americans queueing up to renounce their citizenship

The renunciation experience varies. Sinclair said the US vice consul was “maybe a little snippy … there was an air of contempt. Like, ‘Oh you idiot, why are you doing this? Why would anyone renounce their US citizenship?’” Mary couldn’t get an appointment in her home city of Toronto so booked Halifax, Nova Scotia, and “did what they call a ‘vacation renunciation’”. She describes it as the purest anticlimax: “I was all set, I had my cute outfit on and all my lines memorised. I walked into this consulate that looks like the third floor of a department store, it didn’t look governmental at all.” Michael, 57, was similarly struck by the shabbiness of the consulate in Amsterdam – the noise, the chaos, the fact that nothing worked, “the feeling of instantly being back in America”...

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/28/americans-queueing-up-renounce-citizenship-dictatorship 

 

Report exposes a Trump scheme to override midterm vote with bogus crisis

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak__tRF8PnM

 

Do nearly 1 in 10 Americans lack the ID the SAVE America Act would require to vote? - PolitiFact

The SAVE America Act would require two things: documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote and government-issued photo ID to cast a ballot. 

 A 2023 national survey found 9% of adult U.S. citizens could not readily access documentary proof of citizenship, and 9% also lack a nonexpired driver's license…

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2026/mar/20/tammy-duckworth/SAVE-America-Act-voter-ID-drivers-licenses-REAL-ID/ 

 

Campaign to amend MI Constitution, require citizenship proof to register to vote, submits signatures

"The real problem is not, in my opinion, this is popular with voters, it's that voters were lied to and mislead," Billingsley said...

https://www.michiganpublic.org/politics-government/2026-03-04/campaign-to-amend-mi-constitution-require-citizenship-proof-to-register-to-vote-submits-signatures 

 

SAVE Tool Keeps Mistakenly Flagging Voters as Noncitizens, Sparking Confusion for States — ProPublica

Widespread Errors: An expanded federal tool for identifying noncitizens on voter rolls is making persistent mistakes, particularly in assessing citizenship for people born outside the U.S. 

 Banned From Voting: In Missouri, state officials told local clerks to temporarily ban flagged voters from casting ballots, even though hundreds turned out to be citizens. 

Texas Confusion: As errors emerged in SAVE data, local clerks said the state hadn't provided them with clear guidance and worried about disenfranchising eligible citizens...

https://www.texastribune.org/2026/02/13/save-voter-citizenship-tool-mistakes-confusion/ 

 

The GOP’s “Show Us Your Papers” Bill Is the Latest Effort to Help Trump Take Over Elections – Mother Jones

The centerpiece of the bill remains a requirement that voters show proof of US citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate, to register to vote. Nine percent of American citizens, roughly 21 million people, don't have ready access to citizenship documents, according to a study by the Brennan Center and other voting rights groups. 

That likely understates the number of Americans who could be burdened by the bill, since most people do not carry around citizenship documents with them. Half of Americans, roughly 146 million people, do not have a passport. And 69 million women who took their partner's last name and do not have a birth certificate matching their legal name could find it much harder to register to vote under the bill...

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/02/trump-wants-to-take-over-elections-save-act-voter-id-suppression/ 

 

US judge blocks Trump order requiring proof of citizenship to vote

"Because our Constitution assigns responsibility for election regulation to the States and to Congress, this Court holds that the President lacks the authority to direct such changes," Kollar-Kotelly wrote in her opinion...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/31/judge-ruling-trump-citizenship-proof-vote

 

Man deported to Laos despite US court order blocking his removal, attorneys say

District judge told Ice to keep Alabama man in US while he showed what judge called 'substantial claim' to citizenship…

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/28/ice-deportation-alabama-laos

 

Trump administration expands ‘good moral character’ requirement to become naturalized citizen | CNN Politics

"It creates a new subjective standard without providing the analysis that will be performed in adjudicating an application for naturalization," Ramos said. "For example, how much volunteer work is enough to tip the scales in favor of the applicant? Who decides that formula, and using what analysis? What will USCIS consider sufficient achievement for someone who doesn't work?" 

And because the directive is broadly written, it makes it more difficult to challenge an individual officer's decision on whether the character standard has been met, said Kathrin Mautino, a California-based immigration attorney. 

"Generally, it will give individual officers more authority to ask about private lives," Mautino said...

https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/20/politics/citizenship-naturalization-trump-requirements

 

Mohsen Mahdawi Fought ICE and Won His Freedom. For Now. (Reveal/More to the Story podcast)

On this week’s “More To The Story,” Columbia University student activist Mohsen Mahdawi discusses being arrested at his US citizenship hearing—and how he convinced a judge to release him.

Just a few months ago, pro-Palestinian college students around the country were getting arrested and detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. But some are now challenging their detentions in court—and getting released.

Last week, Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil, the first known pro-Palestinian activist arrested by ICE under the Trump administration, was let out of a Louisiana prison on bail by a federal judge who called his detainment unconstitutional. That decision followed the release of another previously detained student activist from Columbia: Mohsen Mahdawi.

In April, Mahdawi was scheduled for an immigration interview to obtain US citizenship. But after watching what happened to Khalil, Mahdawi knew he could be handing himself over to federal agents just by showing up. “I had conflicted feelings,” he says of appearing at the immigration office. “Is this an actual interview for my citizenship that I’d been waiting for for over a year? Or is it a trap?”

Soon after Mahdawi took an oath of allegiance to the US, ICE officers surrounded and arrested him, and the Department of Homeland Security accused him of jeopardizing the country’s foreign policy interests. But Mahdawi was prepared. Through his lawyers, he quickly sued the administration over his detainment and was released on bail a couple of weeks later. He says he believes he was detained “to intimidate other students, to make an example of me.”

On this week’s More To The Story, Mahdawi sits down with host Al Letson to discuss his arrest, the accusations that Columbia’s pro-Palestinian protests made Jewish students feel unsafe on campus, and the troubling images that linger from his time growing up in a refugee camp in the West Bank.
Interview: 

https://revealnews.org/podcast/mohsen-mahdawi-columbia-protests-ice-arrest-release-mahmoud-khalil/