22 May 2025

Federal judge blocks immigration authorities from revoking international students’ legal status

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By JANIE HAR, Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A judge in California blocked the Trump administration Thursday from terminating the legal status of international students nationwide while a court case challenging previous terminations is pending.

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The order by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White in Oakland bars the government from arresting or incarcerating the plaintiffs and similarly situated students; from transferring any of them outside the jurisdiction of their residence; from imposing any adverse legal effect on students and from reversing the reinstatement of the legal status until the case is resolved. Students can still be arrested for violent crimes.

White said the government’s actions “wreaked havoc not only on the lives of Plaintiffs here but on similarly situated F-1 nonimmigrants across the United States and continues do so.”

22 May 2025

Trump administration files motion to end protections for immigrant children in federal custody

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By VALERIE GONZALEZ

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — The Trump administration filed a motion on Thursday to end a policy cornerstone that since the 1990s has offered protections to child migrants in federal custody, in a move that likely will be challenged by advocates.

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The protections in place, known as the Flores Settlement, largely limit to 72 hours the amount of time that child migrants traveling alone or with family and detained by the U.S. Border Patrol can be kept in U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody. They also ensure the children are kept in safe and sanitary conditions.

The Flores settlement is named for a Salvadoran girl, Jenny Flores, whose lawsuit alleging widespread mistreatment of children in custody in the 1980s prompted special oversight.

This is the second time the federal government under Trump has attempted to end the policy. In August 2019, the first Trump administration asked a judge to dissolve the agreement. Its motion eventually was struck down in December 2020 by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Under the Biden administration, oversight protections for child migrants were lifted for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services after new guidelines were put in place last year.

The Department of Homeland Security is still beholden to the agreement, including Customs and Border Protection, which detains and processes children after their arrival in the U.S. with or without their parents. Children then are usually released with their families or sent to a shelter operated by HHS, though processing times often go up when the number of people entering increases in a short time period.

Even with the agreement in place, there have been instances where the federal government failed to provide adequate conditions for children, as in a case in Texas where nearly 300 children had to be moved from a Border Patrol facility following reports they were receiving inadequate food, water and sanitation.

Court-appointed monitors provide oversight of the agreement and report noncompliant facilities to Chief U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee of the Central District of California. CBP was set to resume its own oversight but in January a federal judge ruled it was not ready and extended the use of court-appointed monitors for another 18 months.

22 May 2025

Who’s on first? Three of the newest additions to the Twins’ roster

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The Twins spent this spring evaluating players such as Jose Miranda, Edouard Julien and Austin Martin as they looked to fill out the roster. The first two made the team out of camp. The latter did not, beginning his season in Triple-A, where he has spent most of it recovering from two hamstring injuries.

But all along, the Twins knew they would need more than just the 26 players they left Fort Myers, Fla. with, and a look at their current roster proves just that. Injuries and underperformance have opened opportunities for other players, some of whom weren’t even in the organization this spring.

“One of the first things that (manager Rocco Baldelli) says every spring training to everyone in the clubhouse is ‘Hey, at some point we’re going to need a lot of you guys. Don’t think because you didn’t start the season on the 26-man roster, you’re not going to help contribute,’ ” starter Pablo López said. “Lo and behold, a couple of weeks later, we have guys in the lineup that were not part of Opening Day, but were part of that philosophy, that mentality that we’ve been building that everyone in here competes, everyone in here can contribute.”

Ryan Fitzgerald, who made his major league debut over the weekend after parts of seven seasons in the minor leagues, was optioned back to Triple-A on Thursday, a day after scoring a game-winning run against Cleveland. That move paves the way for shortstop Carlos Correa to return from the seven-day concussion injured list this weekend against Kansas City.

Here’s a look at three of the newest Twins who remain on the roster, how they got here and how they fit in:

Kody Clemens

Clemens, the most impactful of the new additions, arrived in late April, acquired in a trade after rookie Luke Keaschall broke his forearm. He had been designated by assignment just days earlier by the Philadelphia Phillies after getting little playing time through the first few weeks of the season (seven plate appearances).

He’s a left-handed hitter like Julien but offers better defense and more positional versatility. And he certainly has made the most of his playing time.

Playing more consistently, he said, has helped him get into a good rhythm. And, already, he’s had some big moments, walking off Cleveland on Wednesday and hitting a home run at his father’s old stomping grounds, Fenway Park, with both of his parents — MLB legend Roger and wife Debbie — in attendance.

Clemens, who has played primarily second base for the Twins with some first and corner outfield thrown in, is hitting .318 with a 1.070 OPS and three home runs in 17 games since coming to Minnesota.

“In the past, you show up, you’re going to pinch hit,” Clemens said. “If I don’t produce, then I’m not going to play for five days. Knowing I’m getting consistent at-bats is nice. Knowing that if I do strikeout the first at-bat, I’m going to get another at-bat. The pressure is off.”

Jonah Bride

Like Clemens, Bride was acquired in a trade for cash in April. He had been designated for assignment by the Miami Marlins after beginning his season 4 for 40 (.100). A year earlier, Bride, who debuted in 2022 with the Oakland Athletics, hit 11 home runs in 71 games and posted a 123 OPS+, a number 23 percent better than the league average hitter.

Bride got off to a quick start in Minnesota, crediting the team’s hitting coaches with encouraging him to lower his hands, which led to some early results.

He had three hits in Wednesday’s 6-5 win over the Cleveland Guardians and is 13 for 43 (.302) since the trade.
Bride, a right-handed hitter, has played a mix of first base and third base (along with a few innings at second) in limited action for the Twins.

The Twins expected Miranda to see time at the corner infield spots but his slow start led to his demotion and the Twins added Bride to the mix just a few days later.

Carson McCusker

The 6’8” outfielder, whom the Twins signed out of independent ball in June 2023, has been turning heads and finally got the call over the weekend when Byron Buxton joined Correa on the concussion injured list.

McCusker, who turned 27 on Thursday, was hitting .350 with a 1.062 OPS in Triple-A this season with 10 home runs in 38 games at the time of his promotion — his first two the majors. He’s had just two at-bats so far, going 0 for 2.

While there may not be much of an opportunity for him right now, particularly with Buxton and Matt Wallner nearing returns, McCusker provides a potentially intriguing power threat for the Twins.

“It’s honestly kind of a lot to take in,” he said over the weekend. “It’s definitely a blessing. It’s kind of crazy looking back where I was to where I am now that I was able to get here and do it.”

22 May 2025

Matt Ehling: This open-meeting law change is a problem. Undo it, legislators

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In the waning hours of this year’s regular legislative session, our state Legislature passed a major change to Minnesota’s Open Meeting Law, even though the provision received extremely limited public discussion.

The original bill that carried the change had only one Senate hearing, was discussed for six minutes, and had no companion bill in the House of Representatives.

There were no House hearings.

While some legislators (primarily Rep. Peggy Scott, a Republican from Andover) attempted to stop the provision from advancing at the end of session, it ended up in an omnibus bill that hit the floor in the last hours of Monday evening, and was ultimately passed.

The change that occurred pertains to the “remote meeting” provision of the Open Meeting Law.  Going forward, local governing bodies such as city councils will be able to meet almost entirely remotely, with all but one member attending from non-public locations. The change essentially takes the remote, emergency meeting exception that applied during the COVID era and allows it to become a new normal, if local governments so choose.

This will degrade local government responsiveness, and imperil local news coverage.

Minnesota’s Open Meeting Law was passed in the 1950s to ensure that members of the public would have physical access to the locations where elected officials meet to conduct business, and also to have notice of where such meetings were being held.  This had a dual purpose of allowing the public to observe meetings in progress, as well as to allow citizens to interact with officials in person before and after those meetings, so that they could ask questions or conduct discussions. This also held a large benefit for watchdog members of the press, who could ask after-meeting follow-up questions, without officials being able to dodge those questions by not returning phone calls or correspondence.

During the 1990s, as telecommunications technology advanced, the Open Meeting Law was modified to permit circumstances in which officials could attend meetings on a remote basis, so long as certain requirements were met. Those requirements included ensuring that meetings were broadcast; that remote attendees provided notice of where they would appear from; and that such attendees appeared from a public place like a library, rather than from a private location like their home (unless certain exceptions, such as a medical situation, applied).

This had benefits:

First, the notice provision gave citizens (and the press) information about where remote attendees would be, so that they could meet with them in person, just as they could otherwise do at the regular meeting location.

Second, the mere existence of the “public place” requirement continued to encourage a culture of in-person government meetings where public officials had to directly encounter constituents and reporters.

The only time when Minnesota law allowed unlimited remote meeting attendance from non-public locations was in the event of a pandemic or other declared emergency, When COVID hit in 2020, those circumstances kicked in, and most government meetings were then conducted remotely, with officials participating from (non-public) home locations.

The move to “all remote” meetings during COVID was an understandable necessity to deal with the pandemic, but it caused collateral problems. For instance, our organization heard repeated citizen complaints about degraded public engagement with elected officials. Citizens lost the ability to encounter their elected representatives in person, and could contact them only via phone call or e-mail. Too many of these messages went unanswered, we were told.  With no “in person” option available, citizens reported that concerns were ignored, and questions went unaddressed. This was particularly frustrating for residents of localities that continued to meet in an all-remote format (due to the long tail of the COVID executive orders) while surrounding jurisdictions went back to regular meeting procedures.

With the Open Meeting Law change that was just passed by the Legislature, these kinds of problems are bound to recur. Now, elected officials will be able to conduct remote meetings on a virtually unlimited basis from non-public locations, if they so choose.  Citizens (and reporters) who were frustrated by their inability to connect with elected officials in the immediate aftermath of COVID will find that the same problems will recur now, since the Legislature has removed the guardrails in the Open Meeting Law that formerly held such problems at bay.

When the Legislature returns soon for a special session to complete its budget work, it will have an opportunity to undo the Open Meeting Law problem it created in the rush to finish the 2025 session. The Legislature should investigate how to permit an appropriate amount of flexibility for remote meeting participants, while reinstating guardrails designed to prevent local officials from disappearing behind the virtual curtain for good.

Matt Ehling is a board member of Minnesotans for Open Government, a non-partisan, all-volunteer nonprofit organization.