Stephen Dinan

Humayun Mirza’s long journey to American citizenship

Humayun Mirza was born in British-controlled India, is the son of Pakistan's first president, has traveled on three different passports and studied many countries as a World Bank diplomat. But when his diplomatic visa was due to expire and he needed to decide on a permanent passport, his choices came down to U.S. or British citizenship.

April 7, 2015

Court tosses challenge to 2012 deportation amnesty

A federal appeals court Tuesday tossed a lawsuit trying to halt President Obama's 2012 deportation amnesty for illegal immigrant Dreamers, ruling that neither immigration agents nor Mississippi, who had sued to stop the amnesty, could show an actual injury.

April 7, 2015

Illegal immigrant children surge across border at highest rate since last summer’s peak

The second wave of unaccompanied illegal immigrant children has begun, with more than 3,000 of them surging across the Mexican border into the U.S. last month — the highest rate since the peak of last summer's crisis and a warning that another rough season could be ahead.

April 6, 2015

D.C., Alexandria, Montgomery County demand amnesty for illegal immigrants

Alexandria, the District of Columbia and Montgomery County joined New York City and dozens of other municipalities across the country Monday in demanding a court allow President Obama's deportation amnesty to go into effect immediately, saying they want the tax revenue they think the newly legalized workers would bring.

April 6, 2015

Congress immigration debate turns to guest workers, high-tech visas for businesses

With the push for a broad immigration bill now dead in Congress, business advocates are ramping up their calls for Republicans who run both chambers to at least consider updating the nation's guest-worker programs to help boost the economy.

April 5, 2015

IRS ordered to release list of targeted tea party groups

A federal judge ordered the IRS this week to turn over the list of 298 groups it targeted for intrusive scrutiny as the agency defends against a potential class-action lawsuit by tea party groups who claim their constitutional rights were violated.

April 2, 2015

Takisha Brown, former IRS ethics office lawyer, disbarred by D.C. Court of Appeals

A lawyer who worked in the IRS ethics office was disbarred Thursday by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, which concluded she misappropriated a client's funds from a case she handled in private practice, broke a number of ethics rules and showed "reckless disregard for the truth" in misleading a disbarment panel looking into the matter.

April 2, 2015

Robert Menendez demanded visas for ‘foreign girlfriends’ of campaign donor: Indictment

Sen. Robert Menendez repeatedly used his position of power to try to pressure the State Department to issue visas to a wealthy backer's "foreign girlfriends," including in one case seemingly forcing the department to reverse a denial and issue a tourist visa, according to the indictment handed up against the senator Wednesday.

April 1, 2015

Lois Lerner, former IRS official, won’t be charged with contempt

The Obama administration informed House Speaker John A. Boehner this week it will not prosecute former IRS executive Lois G. Lerner for contempt of Congress, concluding that she did not waive her Fifth Amendment rights to avoid answering questions when she was called to testify nearly two years ago.

April 1, 2015

John Koskinen: ‘Not the IRS’ of years past

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said Tuesday the embattled agency's troubles are a thing of the past, insisting the tax collectors have halted extravagant conferences, no longer pay bonuses to employees who cheat on their taxes, and no longer target nonprofit groups for intrusive scrutiny.

March 31, 2015

IRS ignoring 60 percent of taxpayers’ calls as deadline looms

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said Tuesday that service at his agency has gotten so bad that they are ignoring more than 60 percent of taxpayers' phone calls during this tax season.

March 31, 2015

Benghazi committee demands Hillary Clinton appear to explain emails

The Benghazi investigative committee on Tuesday formally requested former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton give a transcribed interview detailing her decision-making in determining which emails she turned over to the government and why she wiped her email server clean.

March 31, 2015

Immigration activists disillusioned with Obama, Democrats as amnesty afterglow fades

The heady sense of victory immigrant rights activists had last year after President Obama announced his deportation amnesty has faded in recent weeks as the advocates sense they've lost ground among the very Democratic leaders they were counting on to deliver at the national and state levels.

March 30, 2015

Hillary Clinton email release delayed as lawyers sort through them

The Obama administration told a federal court Monday that it needs "several months" more to go through former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's government emails, saying it's proving time-consuming to sort out exactly what information they can release to the public,

March 30, 2015

Harry Reid calls whistleblowers ‘a bunch of whiners’

An inspector general called them courageous, but Sen. Harry Reid said Friday that the government whistleblowers who accused him of using political pressure to try to win special treatment for a Las Vegas casino were "a bunch of whiners."

March 29, 2015

Immigration agency says original amnesty still approving Dreamers’ applications

The administration encouraged Dreamers Friday to keep signing up for President Obama's amnesty, saying the original "deferred action" program he announced in 2012 remains in effect even though the expanded version from late last year has been halted by a federal court.

March 27, 2015

Hillary Clinton wiped email server clean, refuses to turn it over

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has refused to turn her email server over to an independent third party and claims she has wiped the server clean, dealing a setback to the special investigative committee looking into the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack, the probe said late Friday.

March 27, 2015

Charles Schumer declares bid to replace Harry Reid

Sen. Charles E. Schumer said Friday afternoon he already has support of "so many of my colleagues" in his bid to become the next Senate Democratic leader, moving quickly to secure the position just hours after current Minority Leader Harry Reid announced he would retire at the end of this Congress.

March 27, 2015

Catholic bishops demand Obama release illegal immigrant families

Catholic and Lutheran bishops on Friday urged the federal government to release illegal immigrant families who have been detained awaiting deportation, saying it is "shameful" for the federal government to keep them in detention.

March 27, 2015

Harry Reid to retire, will not be seeking re-election; he served for 5 terms

Sen. Harry Reid announced Friday morning he will retire at the end of this Congress, ending a tremendously influential career that has reshaped the Senate he served for five terms.

March 27, 2015