Stephen Dinan

Russell building named for segregationist senator remains; decision to change falls to Schumer

While Robert E. Lee's statue has been pulled down from the U.S. Capitol and lawmakers voted to expunge Confederate generals' names from military bases, the Senate still honors Richard B. Russell, a segregationist senator, with his name on its most prestigious office building.

January 3, 2022

52,000 Afghan evacuees released into U.S. in 2021

More than 50,000 Afghan evacuees have been processed and released into American communities over the last four months, the Department of Homeland Security said Friday as it announced the closure of another of the camps that had been erected at military bases to house the Afghans.

December 31, 2021

ERA Now becomes ERA Later as drive to add constitutional amendment for women’s rights falters

Virginia's incoming Republican attorney general expects the courts to toss the state's lawsuit trying to add an Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution -- but if judges don't kill it, he may do it himself.

December 30, 2021

Critical race theory takes aim at immigration law; courts wrestle with Hispanic disparity in cases

Forget drugs or fraud. The most common type of case federal prosecutors bring is against illegal immigrants who try to reenter the country after having been ousted -- and almost all of those charged are Hispanic.

December 28, 2021

Fight to clean voter lists gains ground after 2020 election

The Public Interest Legal Foundation went to Pennsylvania with a list of tens of thousands of people who were likely dead, but still on the state's voter rolls in the weeks before the 2020 election.

December 26, 2021

Trump asks justices to prevent Jan. 6 committee from getting his documents

Former President Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to step in and block the House committee investigating the events of Jan. 6 from gaining access to some of his presidential documents.

December 23, 2021

Nearly 50,000 Afghans resettled in U.S., 25,000 remain at military bases

All Afghan evacuees have been processed and released from the Marine Corps base at Quantico, the Biden administration announced Thursday, shutting down the second of eight bases that had been housing the refugees who were rescued as part of the August airlift.

December 23, 2021

Biden, Democrats face trouble with independents

President Biden and fellow Democrats head into a congressional election year seriously "out of step" with Americans on dozens of key issues, according to a Republican-leaning polling outfit, which has a year's worth of data to prove it.

December 23, 2021

ICE to deploy body cameras on special agents

ICE said Tuesday it will begin to deploy body cameras on special agents, to be followed eventually by deportation officers, in a move the Biden administration characterized as bringing "transparency" to the agency.

December 21, 2021

Secret Service says pandemic fraud totals nearly $100 billion

The U.S. Secret Service said Tuesday that fraudulent coronavirus pandemic benefit claims are "nearing $100 billion," and the agency named its first-ever national coordinator to oversee its investigations.

December 21, 2021

‘Potential terrorist’ nabbed jumping border in Arizona

Border Patrol agents say they nabbed a "potential terrorist" trying to jump the border Friday, adding a national security dimension to the border chaos that's erupted in southwestern Arizona this month.

December 20, 2021

GOP policy chief wants party to have solutions in 2022

Backers of a socialized health care system are eager to point to Canada and European countries as models for how good it can be. Rep. Gary Palmer likes to point to them as evidence for how bad it can be.

December 20, 2021

DHS to plug gaps Biden left in Trump’s border wall

Homeland Security announced Monday it will re-start construction on President Trump's border wall, moving to plug "gaps" left in place after President Biden ordered all work to stop on his first day.

December 20, 2021

DHS to add 20,000 guest-worker visas for seasonal jobs

Homeland Security said Monday it will add 20,000 new slots to a seasonal guest-worker program this winter, including thousands of visas set aside for people from countries responsible for much of the illegal immigrant surge.

December 20, 2021

COVID-19 funds used to make snow, rent band and buy tote bags; wasteful spending revealed in report

The federal government's coronavirus spending spree turned out to be a snow job -- literally.

December 20, 2021

Foreign-born population soars to new record under Biden; highest rate of immigrants since 1910

The U.S. has had a massive surge in immigration this year, with as many as 1.5 million newcomers and a record 46.2 million foreign-born people, according to a report for the Center for Immigration Studies.

December 20, 2021

Democrats in bind over amnesty as immigration groups demand payoff

Democrats face intense pressure from immigrant-rights advocates who say the party must deliver on a broad amnesty program.

December 19, 2021

Illegal immigration ticks up; DHS border numbers show worst November on record

The Biden administration oversaw the worst November on record for illegal border activity, with Customs and Border Protection recording nearly 174,000 encounters with illegal immigrants.

December 17, 2021

Parliamentarian rejects Democrats’ bid to stick immigration legalization in budget

The Senate parliamentarian ruled Thursday that Democrats can't stick a legalization program for illegal immigrants into President Biden's budget bill, putting the party in a political bind as it tries to move forward.

December 16, 2021

Biden halts plan to pay illegal immigrant families separated at border

The federal government has pulled out of negotiations to pay massive settlements to illegal immigrant families separated at the border during the Trump administration, attorneys for the families said Thursday.

December 16, 2021