Trump Will Revoke Passports for Parents Who Owe Child Support

The State Department plans to start revoking U.S. passports from anyone who owes more than $100,000 in child support, as Republicans nationwide push stringent voter ID laws.

The Associated Press reports that the revocations could begin as early as Friday and would apply to about 2,700 passport holders. The AP first reported about the plan in February. The department plans to expand it in the future to those who owe as little as $2,500 in child support payments. That would increase the number of people who would lose their passports by thousands.

It’s an expansion of an existing policy that applies only to people who renew their passports. Now, the Department of Health and Human Services will notify the State Department of all past-due child support payments of more than $2,500, and anyone in that group will have their passports revoked.

“We are expanding a commonsense practice that has been proven effective at getting those who owe child support to pay their debt,” Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Mora Namdar told the AP. “Once these parents resolve their debts, they can once again enjoy the privilege of a U.S. passport.”

Anyone who loses their passport under the program will be notified that they can’t travel overseas, and would have to apply for a new passport once their debt is settled. Any American overseas when their passport is revoked will have to get an emergency travel document from a U.S. embassy or consulate.

In February, after the AP first reported on the planned program, the State Department said it had “seen data that hundreds of parents took action and resolved their arrears with state authorities since news broke that the State Department would start proactively revoking passports.”

“While we can’t confirm the causation in all of those cases, we are taking this action precisely to impel these parents to do the right thing by their children and by U.S. law,” the department said.

The program may bring benefits to families who haven’t received child support, but has the added dimension of aiding President Trump’s proposed voter ID law, the Save Act. That bill would require more stringent forms of identification, such as passports and birth certificates, at the polls. Currently, the Save Act is stalled in Congress, but if it passes, many Americans who owe child support could be left without the ability to vote.

America’s latest terribly named and extremely risky military operation is back, baby.

President Donald Trump scrapped “Project Freedom” on Tuesday, just two days after unveiling it, after Saudi Arabia and Kuwait expressed concerns and cut off U.S. access to its air bases and airspace.

Under Project Freedom, the U.S. military planned to escort shipping vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, a key trade passageway that has been closed since the U.S. and Israel began striking Iran in late February.

But a few days and phone calls later, the Gulf countries changed their minds. They lifted the airspace restrictions Thursday afternoon, according to multiple U.S. and Saudi officials who spoke to The Wall Street Journal.

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait had reportedly worried if they helped the U.S. with Project Freedom, Iran would retaliate by striking the Persian Gulf, and that the U.S. may be unwilling or unable to come to their defense after the fact. The Journal called the diplomatic fracas “the biggest dispute in Saudi-American military relations in recent years.”

Adding to the national embarrassment was the fact that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were gloating to press about Project Freedom just hours before Trump tabled the plan.

“As a direct gift from the United States to the world, we have established a powerful red, white, and blue dome over the strait,” Hegseth said in a press conference. “American destroyers are on station, supported by hundreds of fighter jets, helicopters, drones, and surveillance aircraft, providing 24/7 overwatch for peaceful commercial vessels.”

It’s not exactly clear why the Gulf countries changed their mind and agreed to support the plan.

Project Freedom will now see U.S. aircraft and naval destroyers attempt to protect commercial ships from Iranian drones and missiles as they try to sail through the Strait. It doesn’t sound like the most relaxing boat ride.

On Thursday, Tennessee Republicans forced through a new congressional map that eliminates the state’s only majority-Black and only Democratic district, prompting protests in the state Capitol.

In a special session, the Tennessee state House of Representatives voted 64–25–3 to approve the new map, which had only been released to the public the day before. Every Democrat voted against the bill along with Republican Representatives John Gillespie and Mark White, whose districts include parts of Memphis divided in the new congressional map. Three other Republicans abstained.

During and after the vote, protesters filled the crowded chamber, shouting and using loud horns. Democratic Representative Justin Jones burned a Confederate flag after leaving the House chamber. Democratic Representative Justin Pearson’s brother, KeShaun Pearson, was arrested by Tennessee State Troopers during the legislative session.

The Senate later passed the new map 25–5, with every Democrat voting against the bill except state Senator Charlane Oliver, who protested the vote by standing at her desk, unveiling a banner reading “No Jim Crow 2.0, stop the TN steal.”

The new map comes after the Supreme Court gutted the landmark Voting Rights Act last week, allowing racial gerrymandering to take place. It now heads to the desk of Republican Governor Bill Lee, who will sign it into law.

The Trump administration wants to take $2 billion away from global health programs to pay to finish closing USAID.

CNN reports that the administration wants to use the money to pay for legal costs, invoices, and asset sales resulting from its closure of the aid agency last year. Congress originally appropriated $1.2 billion of the funds to go to international development, and the rest to go to programs that take on malaria, tuberculosis, maternal and child health, nutrition, global health security, HIV/AIDS, and other world health issues.

Taking away that $2 billion could lead to 121,000 preventable tuberculosis deaths and 47,600 preventable deaths from malaria, according to estimates from the Health Security Policy Academy. It could also lead to 22.9 million children under 5 losing critical nutrition, and 5.7 million women losing safe places for childbirth, according to a CNN source.

This would add to the rising death toll resulting from the closure of USAID. As of November, an estimated 762,000 people have died because of USAID cuts, including over 500,000 children.

The Trump administration told Congress last month that it has reserved over $19.1 billion of USAID funds to shutter the agency. Democrats are demanding that the White House “put the funds to their intended use to save lives and advance U.S. interests as directed by Congress last year.”

“The Administration should immediately begin using these foreign assistance funds to deliver results for the American people. There is no reason for this FY25 funding to be withheld to cover the wasteful costs this Administration has incurred because it chose to dismantle USAID,” 17 Democratic senators wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought, and acting USAID administrator Eric Ueland.

Disney likes to say it makes dreams come true, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement is making life a nightmare for its workers.

At least 10 crewmembers aboard a Disney Magic cruise were detained by ICE after the ship docked in San Diego late last month, according to immigrant rights groups. The federal agents “stormed onto the vessel” following the five-day trip, wrote The Independent on Wednesday.

While disembarking the ship with her family, passenger Dharmi Mehta said she was stunned to see the ship’s head waiter led away with his hands zip-tied behind his back.

“We got to know him fairly well,” she said at a news conference Tuesday. “He had actually been serving us probably 45 minutes to an hour before he was in restraints.”

Mehta witnessed crewmembers being taken into custody while still wearing Disney uniforms and without their belongings. She said the head waiter had told her he had two daughters, and he was excited to see them once ashore. She called the experience “disheartening and unsettling,” and expressed concern about what would happen to the staff.

The harbor police department told a local NBC outlet it had no part in the raid.

Two days after the raid on the Disney cruise, immigrant rights groups said four crewmembers aboard the MV Zandaam, operated by Holland America, were captured by ICE.

“This is not an isolated incident,” Benjamin Prado of the advocacy group Unión del Barrio said at the Tuesday news conference. “It has become a growing pattern, not only here in San Diego, but throughout this country.”

Prado alleged that the crewmembers were being denied due process and access to their national consulates, crimes the Trump administration has been accused of before.

ICE has alleged the detained individuals are suspected of serious crimes. On Wednesday, spokesperson Sandra Grisolia sent CBS the following:

“HSI San Diego arrested twenty-three crewmembers from multiple cruise ships at the Port of San Diego as part of Operation Tidal Wave. The arrests targeted individuals suspected of involvement with Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), based on information received from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The arrestees were transported to Los Angeles for processing, and their visas were revoked.”