By JULIE WATSON, Associated Press

The University of California, Los Angeles, reached a $6 million settlement with three Jewish students and a Jewish professor whose suit against the university argued it violated their civil rights by allowing pro-Palestinian protesters in 2024 to block their access to classes and other areas on campus.

The settlement comes nearly a year after a preliminary injunction was issued, marking the first time a U.S. judge had ruled against a university over their handling of on-campus demonstrations against Israel’s war in Gaza.

UCLA had argued that it had no legal responsibility over the issue because protesters, not the university, blocked Jewish students’ access to areas. The university also worked with law enforcement to thwart attempts to set up new protest camps.

But U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi disagreed and ordered UCLA to create a plan to protect Jewish students on campus. The University of California, one of the nation’s largest public university systems, has since created system-wide campus guidelines on protests.

How the university handled dispersing the encampment in the spring drew widespread criticism. One night, counterprotesters attacked the pro-Palestinian encampment, throwing traffic cones and firing pepper spray, with fighting that continued for hours, injuring more than a dozen people, before police stepped in. The next day, after hundreds defied orders to leave, more than 200 people were arrested.

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Trump administration joins lawsuit filed by Jewish students

In March, the Trump administration joined the lawsuit filed by the Jewish students and Jewish professor as it opened new investigations into allegations of antisemitism at Columbia University; the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Minnesota; Northwestern University and Portland State University.

Last week, Columbia agreed to pay $200 million as part of a settlement to resolve investigations into alleged violations of federal antidiscrimination laws and restore more than $400 million in research grants.

The Trump administration plans to use its deal with Columbia as a template for other universities, with financial penalties that are now seen as an expectation for future agreements.

Government finds UCLA violated civil rights of Jewish students

On Tuesday, the Trump administration announced the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division found UCLA violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, “by acting with deliberate indifference in creating a hostile educational environment for Jewish and Israeli students.”

“UCLA failed to take timely and appropriate action in response to credible claims of harm and hostility on its campus,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

The university has said that it’s committed to campus safety and will continue to implement recommendations. The university did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the settlement or the DOJ announcement Tuesday.

UCLA agrees to granting students equal access

As part of the settlement agreement, UCLA must ensure Jewish students, faculty and staff are not excluded from anything on-campus.

The $6.13 million settlement will pay the plaintiffs’ damages and legal fees and go toward eight Jewish organizations.

Pro-Palestinian protesters also sue university

A group of 35 pro-Palestinian students, faculty members, legal observers, journalists and activists also has filed a lawsuit against UCLA, alleging the university failed to protect those who participated in the demonstrations.

During the 2014 protests, at least 15 pro-Palestinian protesters were injured and the tepid response by authorities drew criticism from political leaders as well as Muslim students and advocacy groups.

Twins players are bracing for a week of roster moves with the trade deadline approaching on Thursday evening. Already the Twins have sent Chris Paddack to the Detroit Tigers, and more moves are likely over the next couple days.

It wasn’t a trade, but the Twins made another big move on Tuesday, placing outfielder Byron Buxton on the injured list before the game. Buxton left Saturday’s game early and has not played since as he deals with left ribcage inflammation.

The Twins sent Buxton for magnetic resonance imaging on Sunday and manager Rocco Baldelli said that day the diagnosis was “a good outcome” and that Buxton would “hopefully be back very soon.”

But now his day-to-day injury will have him out for at least 10, and the Twins will have to make do without their most-impactful player. The all-star center fielder is hitting .282 with a .905 OPS and 23 home runs in 85 games while stay relatively healthy. He missed two weeks after colliding with Carlos Correa and suffering a concussion earlier in the season but otherwise has been out on the field most days, the most consistent bright spot on the team.

The Twins have a number of players who can play center in his absence, including Harrison Bader, DaShawn Keirsey Jr. or even Willi Castro, who hasn’t played there much this year but has in the past But Bader and Castro are impending free agents and could be dealt before Thursday.

Twins fill Paddack’s spot with Ohl

Injuries to Pablo López, Bailey Ober and David Festa, plus the trade of Paddack on Monday, have left the starting rotation in flux. With Paddack gone — he has been scheduled to start on Tuesday — the Twins turned to rookie Pierson Ohl, who was making his major league debut.

Ohl, a 14th-round draft pick in 2021, had a 2.17 earned-run average across 66 1/3 minor league innings pitched this year. Most of his season has been spent in Double-A Wichita, but he made seven appearances at Triple-A St. Paul before his promotion. The Twins have had him on a similar schedule to Travis Adams, who pitched on Sunday and has since been sent down, where they are throwing in shorter outings every four days rather than longer starts every five days.

“He’s very comfortable out there on the mound,” Baldelli said of Ohl. “I think he’s a pretty methodical and thoughtful pitcher.”

Briefly

Ryan Jeffers returned to the Twins on Tuesday after missing the past three games on the paternity list. Jeffers and his wife, Lexi, welcomed their second child, a son whom they named Hayes, on Saturday. … The Twins have yet to name a starter for Wednesday game, though it is possible it could be Ober returning from the injured list.

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By JACK BROOK, Associated Press

A Marine Corps veteran’s wife has been released from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention following advocacy from Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican who backs President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown.

Until this week, Mexican national Paola Clouatre had been one of tens of thousands of people in ICE custody as the Trump administration continues to press immigration officers to arrest 3,000 people a day suspected of being in the U.S. illegally.

Emails reviewed by The Associated Press show that Kennedy’s office said Friday that it put in a request for the Department of Homeland Security to release her after a judge halted her deportation order earlier that week. By Monday, she was out of a remote ICE detention center in north Louisiana and home in Baton Rouge with her veteran husband Adrian Clouatre and their two young children.

Kennedy’s constituent services representative, Christy Tate, congratulated Adrian Clouatre on his wife’s release and thanked him for his military service. “I am so happy for you and your family,” Tate wrote in an email to Adrian Clouatre. “God is truly great!”

Kennedy’s office proved “instrumental” in engaging with the Department of Homeland Security, according to Carey Holliday, the family’s attorney. Kennedy’s office did not provide further comment.

Another Louisiana Republican, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, also intervened recently with the Department of Homeland Security to secure the release of an Iranian mother from ICE detention following widespread outcry. The woman has lived for decades in New Orleans.

Kennedy has generally been a staunch supporter of Trump’s immigration policies.

“Illegal immigration is illegal — duh,” Kennedy posted on his Facebook page on July 17, amid a series of recent media appearances decrying efforts to prevent ICE officers from making arrests. In April, however, he criticized the Trump administration for mistakenly deporting a Maryland man.

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Senator’s office requests mother’s release from ICE custody

The Department of Homeland Security previously told The AP it considered Clouatre to be “illegally” in the country.

An email chain shared by Adrian Clouatre shows that the family’s attorney reached out to Kennedy’s office in early June after Paola Clouatre was detained in late May.

Tate received Paola Clouatre’s court documents by early July and said she then contacted ICE, according to the email exchange.

On July 23, an immigration judge halted Paola Clouatre’s deportation order. After Adrian Clouatre notified Kennedy’s office, Tate said she “sent the request to release” Paola Clouatre to DHS and shared a copy of the judge’s motion with the agency, emails show.

In an email several days later, Tate said that ICE told her it “continues to make custody determinations on a case-by-case basis based on the specific circumstances of each case” and had received the judge’s decision from Kennedy’s office “for consideration.”

The next working day, Paola Clouatre was released from custody.

“We will continue to keep you, your family and others that are experiencing the same issues in our prayers,” Tate said in an email to Adrian Clouatre. “If you need our assistance in the future, please contact us.”

Back with her children

Paola Clouatre had been detained by ICE officers on May 27 during an appointment related to her green card application.

She had entered the country as a minor with her mother from Mexico more than a decade ago and was legally processed while seeking asylum, she, her husband and her attorney say. But Clouatre’s mother later failed to show up for a court date, leading a judge to issue a deportation order against Paola Clouatre in 2018, though by then she had become estranged from her mother and was homeless.

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Clouatre’s release.

Adrian Clouatre said he wished the agency would “actually look at the circumstances” before detaining people like his wife. “It shouldn’t just be like a blanket ‘Oh, they’re illegal, throw them in ICE detention.’”

Reunited with her breastfeeding infant daughter and able to snuggle with her toddler son, Paola Clouatre told AP she feels like a mother again.

“I was feeling bad,” she said of detention. “I was feeling like I failed my kids.”

It will likely be a multiyear court process before Paola Clouatre’s immigration court proceedings are formally closed, but things look promising, and she should be able to obtain her green card eventually, her attorney said.

For now, she’s wearing an ankle monitor, but still able to pick up life where she left off, her husband says. The day of her arrest in New Orleans, the couple had planned to sample some of the city’s famed French pastries known as beignets and her husband says they’ll finally get that chance again: “We’re going to make that day up.”

Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

By PATRICK WHITTLE, Associated Press

OLD ORCHARD BEACH, Maine (AP) — The chief of police in a Maine resort town has called for an investigation into the arrest by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement of one of its officers, who the chief said was federally approved to work in the country in May.

ICE arrested Old Orchard Beach Police Department reserve officer Jon Luke Evans, of Jamaica, on July 25. The agency said Evans was illegally present in the U.S. and unlawfully attempted to purchase a firearm.

ICE said in a Monday statement that Evans had legally entered the U.S. in September 2023 and violated the terms of his admission by overstaying his visa. But Old Orchard Beach Police Chief Elise Chard said in her own Monday statement that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security had verified that Evans was authorized to work in the U.S. in May of this year.

The Old Orchard Beach Police Department and ICE officials did not respond to requests for a status update about Evans’ case. It was unclear on Tuesday if he had access to an attorney.

This image provided by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shows Jon Luke Evans. (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) via AP)

ICE and Chard presented different accounts of Evans’ employment by the town. Chard said the department was notified by federal officials that Evans was legally permitted to work in the country and his authorization document would not expire until 2030.

Chard said the town submitted information via the Department of Homeland Security’s E-Verify Program. E-Verify is an online system launched in the late 1990s that allows employers to check if potential employees can work legally in the U.S. Some large private employers use it, but most do not.

She said the department is “distressed and deeply concerned about this apparent error on the part of the federal government” and will investigate to determine what steps it can take to ensure the town’s compliance in the future. She said the department would also conduct an internal review of the circumstances of the case.

“The Old Orchard Beach Police Department was never officially informed about Evans’ detention, and the department officially learned the details of the matter in a news release issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” Chard said.

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ICE said in a statement that Evans admitted to its officers that he attempted to purchase a firearm for his employment as a police officer with the town. That triggered an alert to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which coordinated with ICE to make the arrest, the agency said in a statement.

Evans was scheduled to depart the U.S. in October 2023 but never boarded his departing flight, the statement says.

“We have a police department that was knowingly breaking the very law they are charged with enforcing in order to employ an illegal alien,” Patricia H. Hyde, the acting field office director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston, said in a statement.

Old Orchard Beach is a popular summer vacation destination in Maine, beloved for its boardwalk, beach and downtown amusement park. It is a highly seasonal community that is most active in the summer, when it swells with visitors and requires a larger police presence than the slower, colder months.

Maine is one of about a dozen states that allow noncitizen residents to work in law enforcement, Chard said. They are part-time, seasonal employees who are assigned a variety of tasks, including community policing and beach patrol by foot and bicycle, she said.

Evans passed physical and medical checks, and a background check, Chard said. He also underwent the standard course of training before being deployed on duty, she said.