Up First from NPR
DHS job cuts, Travel troubles under Trump, Sudan Civil War latest
Sat, 22 Mar 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
Chapter 1: Why is the DHS cutting civil rights oversight?
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.
Chapter 2: Are U.S. travelers facing increased scrutiny?
That's because what were once seen as minor visa violations are now triggering major scrutiny from immigration officials.
Chapter 3: What are the implications of Sudan's military actions?
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.
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Chapter 4: Is the U.S. experiencing a constitutional crisis?
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...
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, 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.
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Chapter 5: Why are travelers to the U.S. being detained for minor visa issues?
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 is a fiance 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 fiance visa. You know, in the past, border officials would say, OK, 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 detain? 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, eight thousand dollars, 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 U.S. 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. Right.
One concern that people have had is 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 U.S. citizens have very few rights at the border. You and I were coming back into the country could have our phones searched online. And that's even more the case for people who are not U.S. 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.
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Chapter 6: Is it legal for border officials to search phones?
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 U.S.,
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 U.S. Customs Border and Protection Agency to ask them about reports that officials have become more aggressive with international travelers arriving in the U.S., 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.
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