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--:-- Steve Inskeep: Immigration officers have clearance to make arrests in schools and churches, places previously considered off-limits. We're getting them out of the country. They're going to be gotten out of the country first. How do the new rules change law enforcement?
--:-- Leila Fathil: I'm Steve Inskeep with Leila Fathil, and this is Up First from NPR News.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: The president's pick to lead the Pentagon faces one more round of criticism. Pete Hegseth denied many accusations about his personal conduct and also spoke of his redemption. Now his former sister-in-law has sent an affidavit adding to the allegations. How's that affect his nomination?
--:-- Leila Fathil: Also, Israel launched a military operation in the occupied West Bank. How, if at all, does that fit in with the ceasefire that finally arrived in Gaza?
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day.
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--:-- Steve Inskeep: To get matched with a therapist, visit BetterHelp.com slash NPR for 10% off your first month.
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--:-- Steve Inskeep: President Trump's administration is rolling out its immigration actions day by day. The federal government is broadening the number of people targeted for deportation and widening the locations where agents may arrest them.
--:-- Jimena Bustillo: I'm NPR immigration policy reporter Jimena Bustillo. She's in our studios.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Jimena, thanks for coming by.
--:-- Jimena Bustillo: Good morning.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Okay, we've heard things the administration is saying, and gradually we're finding out how far they will go. Just a few weeks ago, December 16th, an advisor to the president was on NPR and was played a prediction about, quote, businesses being raided and, quote, kids not in your schools.
--:-- Jimena Bustillo: And Mary Louise Kelly asked Jason Miller what he thought. Jason Miller, is he wrong?
--:-- Jimena Bustillo: And I chuckle not because I'm taking the issue lightly because it is such a bat, you know what, insane comment for this gentleman to make.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: So dismissing the idea of people vanishing from schools, what are we learning now?
--:-- Jimena Bustillo: Well, the administration has now cleared the way for arrests in schools. The old rule said that schools, as well as places of worship, health care facilities and a list of other areas were off limits to arrests of people suspected of being without legal status.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Now, the acting secretary of Homeland Security has rescinded those guidelines, which the Trump administration says limits law enforcement from doing its job.
--:-- Jimena Bustillo: My colleague Brian Mann spoke with Bishop Matthew Hyde, who leads the Episcopal Diocese of New York. And Hyde disputes the idea in the administration's announcement that criminal migrants were, quote, hiding in schools and churches.
--:-- Jimena Bustillo: This ministry is sanctuary It central to who we are Our congregations and our service programs welcome everybody This is what our faith calls us to do
--:-- Steve Inskeep: But we don't know yet how immigration enforcement agencies are planning to ramp up their operations.
--:-- Jimena Bustillo: Okay, so we'll keep watching that to see how far it goes.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: What else is the administration saying about immigration?
--:-- Jimena Bustillo: The department also issued two notices to start the process of implementing some of Trump's executive actions. One includes phasing out humanitarian parole programs.
--:-- Jimena Bustillo: This includes the program that granted permission for certain people from Nicaragua, Cuba, Haiti, and Venezuela to be in the U.S. It's not really known what will happen to the hundreds of thousands of people currently living with humanitarian parole.
--:-- Jimena Bustillo: This also accelerates a Biden-era decision to not renew the legal status of those under the program.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Another action set in motion is restarting full implementation of Remain in Mexico.
--:-- Jimena Bustillo: This was a program from Trump's first term that required migrants to wait in Mexico while their asylum claims were being adjudicated in the U.S.
--:-- Jimena Bustillo: Mexican President Claudia Scheinbaum told reporters yesterday that there needs to be a conversation with U.S. federal agencies.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: I appreciate the one thing you said. You said one of these moves about humanitarian parole accelerates a Biden decision.
--:-- Jimena Bustillo: Biden's administration was also deporting people. This is a thing the United States does under any administration. But the terms are changing.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And you mentioned when you were on the program yesterday that some people are suing over the new rules. Who else is suing now and why?
--:-- Jimena Bustillo: The main target of the lawsuits continues to be Trump's executive action that aims to reinterpret the 14th Amendment.
--:-- Jimena Bustillo: This is the amendment that grants citizenship to nearly every person born on U.S. territory. It says all persons born or naturalized in the U.S. and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Trump wants to change this widely understood meaning of those words and make citizenship dependent on the status of one's parents and whether they're here in the U.S. legally, illegally, or on visas.
--:-- Jimena Bustillo: A group of 18 Democratic state attorneys general, including from New Jersey and California, joined the legal fight to block the move.
--:-- Jimena Bustillo: And a coalition of civil rights and liberties groups also filed a separate lawsuit.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Piers Jiménez-Bastillo, thanks for coming by.
--:-- Jimena Bustillo: Thank you.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: The president's nominee for secretary of defense is once again facing allegations of alcohol abuse and misconduct.
--:-- Deirdre Walsh: Yeah, Pete Hegseth endured a round of questions about his past as well as his qualifications and his nominations made it out of a Senate committee on a party line vote.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: The full Senate has yet to vote. And now his former sister-in-law has added her own views.
--:-- Deirdre Walsh: She submitted an affidavit to senators saying Hegseth caused his ex-wife to fear for her safety.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Unsurprisingly, the affidavit is now public.
--:-- Deirdre Walsh: NPR congressional correspondent Deirdre Walsh is among reporters who obtained copies.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Deirdre, good morning.
--:-- Deirdre Walsh: Good morning, Steve.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Okay, so what in this document adds to what was already known?
--:-- Deirdre Walsh: This is an on-the-record, signed, sworn statement from Hegseth's former sister-in-law, as you noted, Danielle Hegseth.
--:-- Deirdre Walsh: She was married to his brother, Nathaniel. and she states that she was asked to provide the statement by the top Democrat on the panel, Jack Reed.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Senator Reed told me last night he made the request for the details because he didn't think the FBI background check on Hegseth was adequate.
--:-- Deirdre Walsh: Danielle Hegseth says in her personal opinion, Pete Hegseth is, quote, unfit for the job.
--:-- Deirdre Walsh: She says her former sister-in-law, Samantha Hegseth's second wife, who he divorced, feared for her personal safety during their marriage.
--:-- Deirdre Walsh: She often hid in a closet. She said Samantha had a plan about texting her a safe word or code word that meant she wanted someone to fly to Minnesota to help her.
--:-- Deirdre Walsh: Danielle Hegseth also said she personally witnessed Hegseth intoxicated, yelling in her face.
--:-- Deirdre Walsh: She told the FBI that Hegseth abused alcohol numerous times over the years to the point of actually passing out during a holiday gathering.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Well, what does Hegseth say about all that?
--:-- Deirdre Walsh: Well NPR reached out to his attorney Tim Parlatore Parla Torre he has not responded But But Parlatore told NBC which first reported on this affidavit that Samantha Hegseth this ex never alleged any abuse and actually signed court documents acknowledging there was no abuse
--:-- Deirdre Walsh: And she affirmed that as part of Hegseth's background check.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: He maintained, Parlatore, that Danielle was, quote, an anti-Trump far-left Democrat who was divorced from Hegseth's brother and never got along the family.
--:-- Deirdre Walsh: He said she has an ax to grind.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: In Samantha Hegseth's case, she told NBC in a statement there was no physical abuse, she wasn't going to comment on her marriage, and she didn't have representatives speaking on her behalf.
--:-- Deirdre Walsh: It's worth noting that during the public confirmation hearing, Pete Hegseth was pressed about previous allegations about excessive drinking, inappropriate behavior, which he denied.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: In a broad sense, said they were anonymous allegations and so forth.
--:-- Deirdre Walsh: I guess the key question here involves Republican senators. How are they responding to this?
--:-- Steve Inskeep: You know, they're standing behind them.
--:-- Deirdre Walsh: I spoke with several last night after this affidavit became public.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Most said they hadn't read the document, but they questioned the timing, the motivation.
--:-- Deirdre Walsh: Hegseth's nomination is on track for a full Senate vote later this week or over the weekend at the latest.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: I talked to Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker.
--:-- Deirdre Walsh: He told reporters he had grave doubts about Daniel Hegsus' account in the affidavit, but he also admitted he hadn't read it.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: He said he was planning to review it, but he dismissed it as political.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: So far, no Senate Republican has publicly said they're going to oppose Pete Hegsus' nomination.
--:-- Deirdre Walsh: With the 53-seat majority, he can lose three votes and still—
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Three Republican votes and still get confirmed.
--:-- Deirdre Walsh: He's not likely to get any support from Democrats, but he's not going to need them.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Right now, he has the votes.
--:-- Deirdre Walsh: Yeah, I guess we should note the political context as well, that President Trump has demanded this nominee and conservative groups have campaigned pretty strongly and threatened primaries and so forth against Republican senators.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Deirdre, thanks so much.
--:-- Deirdre Walsh: Thank you, Steve.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: That's NPR's Deirdre Walsh.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Okay, the ceasefire in Gaza is holding in a fourth day. But Israel has announced a new military operation, this time in the occupied West Bank.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: I'm NPR's Kat Lonsdorf, who was just there.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Hey there, Kat.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Okay, so we're told this military operation focuses on the Janine refugee camp, which is a phrase we use from time to time in this coverage.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: Yeah, so this is a place where Palestinians have lived for many generations.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: It's not tense like you might think of when you hear refugee camp.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: It's basically a city where lots of Palestinian families and kids live with houses and schools.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: You know, Janine has also long been a militant stronghold.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: Attacks that have killed Israelis have been launched from there.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Right now, it's hard to get information on what's happening on the ground there because it's essentially become a closed military zone in the past few days.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: We do know that an airstrike, an Israeli airstrike there, killed at least 10 Palestinians and wounded many more, according to Palestinian health officials.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Israel says this is a counterterrorism operation aimed at strengthening security in the West Bank.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: Palestinian forces have also clashed with these fighters.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And there also have been Israeli military operations there in the past.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: I went into the Janine refugee camp after the last major one in the fall, and that operation lasted weeks and was very, very destructive.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: I feel we need to dwell always on the map here when we say West Bank.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: So there's Gaza, which is a separate area, which was the center of the war between Israel and Hamas, where there's now a ceasefire.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: The West Bank is a separate area, much bigger in size.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: Millions of Palestinians live there.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: A lot of Israeli settlers have also moved in with the sanction of the Israeli government.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: And we have this bit of news that President Trump, after his inauguration, has said he will end sanctions on Israeli settlers in the West Bank
--:-- Steve Inskeep: What does that mean?
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: Yeah so President Biden put those sanctions in place to try to de violent Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: Those attacks have increased dramatically since the war in Gaza began
--:-- Steve Inskeep: There have been some attacks on Israeli settlers, too.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: Even just this weekend, there were Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian villages.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: They burnt cars and other property.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Settlers groups said that this was timed to coincide with the release of Palestinian detainees and prisoners in accordance with the Gaza ceasefire deal.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: President Trump now canceling those sanctions on Israeli settlers, certainly coming after what happened this weekend, really doesn't discourage that kind of violence.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: How is all this affecting life in the West Bank?
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: It's made life throughout the West Bank difficult, even in the areas not directly affected.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: The West Bank consists of a series of checkpoints and designated roads for Palestinians.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: And most of those have been closed by the Israeli military, making travel throughout the area really hard.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And on top of that, many Palestinians in the West Bank worry that Israelis' military focus is shifting over to them now that there's a ceasefire in Gaza.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: I talked to 53-year-old Waleed Amr in Ramallah about this, the day the ceasefire in Gaza went into effect.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: He told me, of course the war is coming here.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: The Israeli government wants to prove something to their people, and the West Bank will become the place where they can prove it, he said.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And of course, there's a new presidential administration, as we mentioned.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: Yeah, I mean, several of President Trump's appointees are very pro-Israel.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Mike Huckabee, who will be the next U.S. ambassador in Jerusalem, has visited Israel several times and argued that the West Bank belongs to Israel.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: Elise Stefanik, who is set to be the next U.N. ambassador, said in her confirmation hearing yesterday that Israel has a right to the West Bank as well.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: So if Israel does make moves to annex the West Bank, it seems likely the U.S. administration will give them the green light to do so.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: NPR's Kat Lonsdorff, thanks so much.
--:-- Kat Lonsdorf: Thank you.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And that's Up First for this Wednesday, January 22nd.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: I'm Steve Inskeep.
--:-- Leila Fathil: And I'm Leila Fathil.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Make your next listen, Consider This.
--:-- Leila Fathil: The team behind NPR's All Things Considered goes deep into a single news story in just 15 minutes.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Listen now on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
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--:-- Steve Inskeep: Today's Up First was edited by Kelsey Snell, Krishnadev Kalamer, Jerome Sokolowski, Olivia Hampton, and Alice Wolfley.
--:-- Leila Fathil: It was produced by Ziad Batch, Chris Thomas, Milton Guevara, and Claire Murashima, who is pointing at me right now.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: That's when I talk, whenever she points. Anyway, we get engineering support from Robert Rodriguez, and our technical director is Carly Strange.
--:-- Leila Fathil: Join us tomorrow.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: This message comes from NetSuite.
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