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The Trump administration has begun its crackdown on immigrant communities in the United States, with the Department of Homeland Security announcing Tuesday it will allow federal agents to conduct raids at schools, houses of worship and hospitals, ending a yearslong policy that banned Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from arresting people at these sensitive locations. This comes a day after President Trump signed a series of executive orders that included declaring a "national emergency" at the southern border, launching mass raids and deportations, restricting federal funds from sanctuary cities, and claiming to end birthright citizenship, which is protected by the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. For more on the fight for immigrant rights, we speak with immigrant rights activists Ravi Ragbir and Amy Gottlieb and lawyer Alina Das. Ragbir received a last-minute pardon from outgoing President Joe Biden that removed the threat of deportation that he has faced for about two decades. "I feel so light and so free," Ragbir says, vowing to continue his advocacy for other people facing arrest and deportation.
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(Second column, 5th story, link)
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On his first day back in the White House, Donald Trump moved to roll back protections for transgender people. In his inaugural address, Trump declared the U.S. government's policy is "there are only two genders: male and female." Chase Strangio, co-director of the American Civil Liberties Union's LGBTQ & HIV Project, describes Trump's executive orders aimed at pushing "a slew of policies that just seek to both eradicate trans people from civic and public life and also push trans people out of federal government." "Trans people are bracing themselves for a lot of negative outcomes here, not just symbolic, but really material ones," says Strangio. "I know the community is scared. I know people are confused. And in this chaos, we just have to come together and build all the forms of resistance we know how to."
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