By CLAIRE RUSH and GARY FIELDS

WASHINGTON (AP) — Community celebrations being planned to commemorate the nation’s 250th anniversary next year are at risk of being significantly scaled back or canceled because of federal funding cuts under President Donald Trump’s administration, according to multiple state humanities councils across the country.

The councils have been working on programming for America250, an initiative marking the milestone anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. But the Republican administration’s deep cost-cutting effort across the federal government has led the National Endowment for the Humanities to cancel its grants for state humanities councils. That has left them with less money for programming to plan for the celebration, ranging from themed K-12 school curriculums to special events at public libraries.

“I cannot imagine how we’re supposed to have a national commemoration that’s meaningful for people where they live without the humanities being supported,” said Gabrielle Lyon, executive director of Illinois Humanities, the state’s humanities council.

“What is it going to mean for small towns and rural communities who were expecting the possibility of having grants to do special exhibits, special commemorations, their own programs, and speakers and performers? All of that is now extremely tenuous. And those are exactly the kinds of things people have been looking forward to.”

Trying to reshape history

The head of Washington state’s humanities council said the NEH funding cuts appeared at odds with Trump’s focus on the commemorations. Earlier this year, the president signed an executive order creating a White House task force to plan a “grand celebration worthy of the momentous occasion of the 250th anniversary of American Independence.”

“The organization that’s positioned to do that for America is the National Endowment for the Humanities,” said Julie Ziegler, CEO and executive director of Humanities Washington.

The White House and the NEH did not respond to requests for comment. America250, the initiative established by Congress to help orchestrate the commemorations, did not comment for this story.

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The humanities funding cuts come as Trump has targeted cultural establishments from the Smithsonian Institution to the Institute of Museum and Library Services in executive orders. The moves are part of his goals to downsize the federal government and end initiatives seen as promoting diversity, equity and inclusion. The order directed at the Smithsonian, for example, said it has “come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology.”

To comply with the orders, federal agencies have scrubbed images and information designated as DEI material from websites pertaining to certain parts of American history. That ranges from a webpage highlighting baseball trailblazer Jackie Robinson’s military service to the National Park Service removing content about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. Both were restored after a public outcry.

“I think that what’s happening is the administration is trying to shape the history that we’re going to tell in a way that’s unprecedented,” said James Grossman, executive director of the American Historical Association. “The expertise of professional historians is being set aside in favor of a narrow, ideologically driven idea of the American past.”

DOGE places 80% of NEH staff on leave

State humanities councils across the country have been discussing how to present the myriad histories that make up the U.S. for the 250th commemoration events. But leaders of those councils say the loss of money from the National Endowment for the Humanities means some events are now unlikely to take place.

The NEH is a federal agency that awards money appropriated by Congress to a variety of recipients, including state humanities councils, museums, universities and historic sites. The money supports educational programs, research and preservation, among other things.

This month, the Trump administration’s Department of Governmental Efficiency, overseen by billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk, placed roughly 80% of NEH staff members on administrative leave, according to the Federation of State Humanities Councils.

The NEH also sent letters to state humanities councils across the country saying their federal grants had been terminated. The halt in funding came during the middle of the fiscal year for thousands of organizations and is causing widespread changes in their programs, including planning for the 250th anniversary.

‘Heartbreaking’ budget cuts

Georgia Humanities, the state’s humanities council, has been planning various events for the 250th anniversary, said president Mary McCartin Wearn.

They include a statewide “digital book club” in partnership with the state’s public library service, a program for speakers to travel across the state to give lectures and presentations, and a Smithsonian Institution program known as Museum on Main Street, which brings traveling exhibits to small towns and rural areas.

But the council has now lost $740,000 in federal funding that had been awarded to it, placing those programs in jeopardy, said McCartin Wearn, who has been fielding calls and emails from people asking about the status of their programming for the anniversary events.

“It’s really something that is heartbreaking, because it is a moment for reflection about who we are and who we want to be,” she said.

Adam Davis, executive director of Oregon Humanities, said his state had already run trainings at rural libraries and begun conversations about “freedom, equality, how we remember key events, why we monumentalize or memorialize big things, and how we should do that.”

“You can celebrate the 250th by having a commercial at the Super Bowl and waving a big flag,” Davis said. “You could also do things like get community members talking to each other about the core values in the country and what we hope for, and you can build trust and strengthen the fabric of our democracy.”

Without the funding, he said, “the scale is going to be quite different.”

A diminished telling of the nation’s history

Miranda Restovic, president and executive director of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, said the state’s role in the nation’s history makes the 250th anniversary “a really wonderful opportunity.” However, the funding cuts, which amount to $600,000 this fiscal year, put her organization in “contingency planning mode rather than continuing to think creatively about how we celebrate that important moment for our nation and our history.”

In a state that has shaped American history, cuisine and culture, the group’s plan for the 250th anniversary was to “nudge” people around the state to design programs that would show off the distinct flavors of their communities.

“We were planning to lean into us as a grant maker and support local initiatives that celebrated the 250th so that people can tell their own story,” Restovic said. “We are likely not going to be able to do that.”

Brenda Thomson, executive director of Arizona Humanities, said she had been imagining dramatic readings of the Bill of Rights, theater productions, parades, book readings and festivals as activities that communities would be putting on “with a heightened sense of pride” for the 250th anniversary.

She said the $1 million cut to her organization will mean curtailing those activities in a way that will not allow the telling of the nation’s full story. She lamented what would be lost.

“How do you know what you’re doing if you don’t know where you came from,” she said.

Rush reported from Portland, Ore.

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The Gophers men’s basketball program has added to its backcourt in consecutive days.

Western Michigan point guard Chansey Willis committed to the U on Monday, following combo guard Langston Reynolds from Northern Colorado on Sunday.

Willis, who is listed at 6-foot-2 and 190 pounds, averaged 16.8 points and 5.8 assists in 24 games last season. He shot 43% from the field, 28% from 3-point range and 72% from the free-throw line.

Willis might have two years of eligibility remaining for Minnesota, following the start of his college career at Saginaw Valley State (Division II) as a freshman and Henry Ford College (a junior college) as a sophomore. Within the last year, current college players have not had years spent at junior college count against their NCAA eligibility.

Willis, a Detroit native, was the state of Michigan’s Gatorade Player of the Year in 2022.

The Gophers now have four scholarship spots still available for next season.

247Sports first reported Willis’ commitment to the U.

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Kilmar Abrego Garcia alleges he was arrested in 2019 and accused of affiliation with the notorious MS-13 gang based on two pieces of evidence.

First: a tip from an unidentified informant that Abrego Garcia vehemently denied.

Second: the fact he was wearing a Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie.

This undated photo provided in April 2025 by CASA, an immigrant advocacy organization, shows Kilmar Abrego Garcia. (CASA via AP)

That wasn’t enough evidence to detain or charge Abrego Garcia, according to a petition filed last month. Later that year, he married his wife and gained protected legal status.

But nearly six years later, the sparse facts of that arrest were enough for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain Abrego Garcia. On March 15, the Maryland father of three was deported to a high-security prison in El Salvador, where he remains today.

The Trump administration since has said Abrego Garcia’s deportation was an “administrative error.” The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the administration must “facilitate” his return to the U.S., but neither party has established a clear timeline or plan to achieve that goal.

Abrego Garcia’s case illustrates ICE’s expanded ability to profile individuals for gang affiliation based on their clothing and tattoos. According to his petition, authorities utilized a “Gang Field Interview Sheet” to tally potential identifiers ahead of his 2019 arrest. When this document was presented to ICE, the only physical traits listed were his Bulls hat and sweatshirt.

This is not an anomaly. For years, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has internally labeled sports merchandise featuring the Bulls and Michael Jordan as a possible indicator of a connection to a variety of gangs, including MS-13 and Tren de Aragua.

As the Trump administration increases pressure for mass deportations, these profiling measures could be used at a higher rate — including a current wave of contested deportations of Venezuelan men.

Internal identifiers

An American Civil Liberties Union legal filing last week revealed a checklist the Department of Homeland Security used to validate deportations of Venezuelan men under the Alien Enemies Act. The document listed Bulls and Jordan apparel as one of only three physical identifiers for field agents to detain and potentially deport young Venezuelan men.

A baseball cap on display at the Jordan store by Nike on Oct. 21, 2015. (Phil Velasquez/Chicago Tribune)
Bulls fans wearing team apparel watch a game against the Denver Nuggets on Dec. 12, 2023, at the United Center. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)

This finding was made public in an exhibit filed in J.G.G. v. Trump, a lawsuit by the ACLU that challenges President Donald Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to expedite mass deportations.

An estimated 130 Venezuelans have been deported to the high-security prison in El Salvador over the past month based on alleged connections to Tren de Aragua, an organized crime group in Venezuela. The Trump administration justified the deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, a piece of legislation from 1798 that previously was used as defense for Japanese internment camps during World War II.

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that Venezuelans labeled as “alien enemies” must be allowed to challenge their deportations before being removed from the country, but attempted deportations will begin again this week after the court lifted a temporary block.

The connection with Jordan jerseys, Nike Jordan Brand shoes and Bulls merchandise is included in a filing that ACLU attorney Oscar Sarabia Roman submitted last week as part of an attempt to earn the preliminary injunction to prevent deportations under the act.

The document — which appears to have come directly from the Homeland Security field office in Chicago — lists traits by which field agents are expected to locate and identify potential Tren de Aragua members who could qualify for deportation.

The guide specifies that agents should look for men between ages 18 and 25 who “favor the Chicago Bulls basketball jersey, specifically Michael Jordan jerseys with the number ‘23’ and Jordan ‘Jump Man’ footwear/sneakers.” A tattoo featuring the Jordan logo over the numeral 23 was included alongside seven pictures of other tattoo “identifiers” such as clocks, crowns and AK-47 rifles.

The only two other physical profiling identifiers listed were a preference for “high-end urban street wear” and jerseys featuring Venezuelan athletes.

The Bulls organization declined to comment on the document or any statements by the Trump administration linking Bulls or Jordan apparel to deportations.

Fans watch Bulls player introductions before the season opener against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Oct. 25, 2023, at the United Center. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)

The document doesn’t specify whether agents have been empowered to detain individuals based solely on these physical characteristics. However, a separate document suggests some of the identifiers — including tattoos and clothing — could serve as a basis for issuing warrants for deportations.

Labeled as an “Alien Enemy Validation Guide,” this second exhibit provides a points-based system to determine if an individual can be “validated as a member of Tren de Aragua.” If an individual scores eight or more points, agents are told to issue a warrant for removal under the Alien Enemies Act.

The first three points are mandatory: An individual must be a noncitizen of the U.S. who is over 14 years old and originally a citizen of Venezuela. Anyone who doesn’t fulfill those traits won’t qualify for further examination.

Any individuals who do fulfill those three traits are then assessed by a list of factors, including self-admission, criminal conduct and communications. An officer can award four points if a person “has tattoos denoting membership/loyalty to TDA” and another four points if a “subject displays insignia, logos, notations, drawings or dress known to indicate allegiance to TDA.”

The exhibit doesn’t specify which tattoos and clothing would be considered to “indicate allegiance” to Tren de Aragua. And the ACLU is uncertain whether those identifiers would mirror those detailed in the other exhibit, which would include Bulls and Jordan apparel.

Defining legality

The Department of Homeland Security has reiterated the same statement in defense of the recent wave of deportations.

“DHS has thorough intelligence assessments to determine if an individual is a member of one of these vicious gangs,” the statement read. “These terrorists are a threat to national security and the safety of Americans. The premise that these individuals are not gang members is based on faulty assumptions.”

But with at least one documented case of a wrongful deportation, the statement doesn’t fully articulate the reality of DHS and ICE directives in the early months of the Trump administration.

As immigration lawyers and advocates grapple with the recent wave of removals, these identifiers raise two questions: Can a deportation be authorized simply due to an individual’s tattoos or clothing? And could that apply to Chicagoans wearing Jordan jerseys or sporting tattoos of their favorite team?

Establishing the legitimacy of identifiers is a key element of disputing a deportation warrant, according to Andres Diaz, an immigration lawyer with The Resurrection Project.

“Tattoos are not an unequivocal way of establishing that someone is a gang member,” Diaz said. “You may have someone that has a lot of tattoos and is in no way affiliated with any gang. Or you may have a gang member that does not have any tattoos or anything that is apparent. Sometimes people get tattoos because they think it’s cool or they’re a fan of the team.”

The Michael Jordan icon looms over the interior of the remodeled Nike store on North Michigan Avenue on Sept. 25, 2012. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)
Air Jordan shoes seen in 2020. (Abel Uribe/Chicago Tribune)

The Bulls are a global brand, instantly recognizable all over the world. Earlier this year the franchise was listed as the NBA’s fourth-most valuable at $5.8 billion, according to a CNBC report.

In 2022, sports retailer Lids said the Bulls sold the most gear of any NBA team during the previous offseason. Jordan’s jersey is the top-selling piece of merchandise in league history. And Jordan Brand shoes are among the most ubiquitous in the sneaker industry, with 60 million pairs produced in 2022, according to Nike.

But despite their popularity, authorities said these pieces of merchandise will continue to be labeled as potential indicators of gang affiliation — even in Chicago, where the footprint of the 1990s Bulls is impossible to escape.

Diaz advises that noncitizens, migrants and others fearful of potential investigation refrain from wearing or displaying any iconography that DHS has defined as an “identifier” — which would include Bulls and Jordan jerseys, clothing and tattoos in addition to Jordan Brand shoes.

After Monday’s Supreme Court ruling, all Venezuelans accused of connection to Tren de Aragua will get an opportunity to defend themselves in court before deportation. But the path to due process for those already removed from the country — including Abrego Garcia — remains uncertain.

Chicago Tribune’s Laura Rodríguez Presa contributed.

By SEUNG MIN KIM and MARCOS ALEMÁN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is hosting Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, at the White House on Monday as the small Central American nation becomes a critical linchpin of the U.S. administration’s mass deportation operation.

Since March, El Salvador has accepted from the U.S. more than 200 Venezuelan immigrants — whom Trump administration officials have accused of gang activity and violent crimes — and placed them inside the country’s notorious maximum-security gang prison just outside of the capital, San Salvador. It is also holding a Maryland man who the administration admits was wrongly deported but has not been returned to the U.S., despite court orders to do so.

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That has made Bukele, who remains extremely popular in El Salvador due in part to the crackdown on the country’s powerful street gangs, a vital ally for the Trump administration, which has offered little evidence for its claims that the Venezuelan immigrants were in fact gang members, nor has it released names of those deported.

Asked whether he has any concerns about the prison there where deportees are being held, Trump told reporters early Sunday that Bukele was doing a “fantastic job.”

“He’s taking care of a lot of problems that we have that we really wouldn’t be able to take care of from cost standpoint,” Trump said. “And he’s doing really, he’s been amazing. We have some very bad people in that prison. People that should have never been allowed into our country.”

Since Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit in February, Bukele — whose government has arrested more than 84,000 people as part of his three-year crackdown on gangs — has made it clear he’s ready to help the Trump administration with its deportation ambitions.

Bukele struck a deal under which the U.S. will pay about $6 million for El Salvador to imprison the Venezuelan immigrants for a year. When a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to turn around a flight carrying the immigrants already en route to El Salvador, Bukele wrote on social media: “Oopsie … too late.”

Though other judges had ruled against the Trump administration, this month the Supreme Court cleared the way for Trump to use the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th century wartime law, to deport the immigrants. The justices did insist that the immigrants get a court hearing before being removed from the U.S. Over the weekend, 10 more people who the administration claims are members of the MS-13 and Tren de Aragua gangs arrived in El Salvador, Rubio said Sunday.

“We’ve also found cooperation in other countries that are willing to take some of these people, some very dangerous criminals,” Rubio said during a Cabinet meeting on Thursday. Bukele, Rubio added, “has really been a good friend to the United States in that regard. These are some of the worst people you’ll ever encounter.”

Trump has said openly that he would also favor El Salvador taking American citizens who have committed violent crimes, although he added, “I’d only do according to the law.” It is unclear how lawful U.S. citizens could be deported elsewhere. Leavitt said such citizens would be “heinous, violent criminals who have broken our nation’s laws repeatedly.”

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has called for the administration to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident and Salvadoran citizen who had an immigration court order preventing his deportation to his native country over fears of gang persecution. Leavitt said the administration’s job is “to facilitate the return, not to effectuate the return,” but Trump indicated later Friday that he would return Abrego Garcia to the U.S. if the high court’s justices said to bring him back.

“I have great respect for the Supreme Court,” Trump told reporters traveling on Air Force One. Government lawyers indicated in a legal filing Saturday that Abrego Garcia remains in El Salvador but did not detail what, if any, steps the administration is taking to return him to the U.S. In its required daily status update on Sunday, the government essentially stated that it had nothing to add beyond Saturday’s filing.

Stephen Miller, a top White House aide, signaled on Monday that the U.S. president wouldn’t be asking Bukele to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S.

“It’s up to El Salvador and to the government and the people of El Salvador what the fate of their own citizens is,” he said. “We can’t extradite citizens of foreign countries to our country over the objection of those countries.”

While Bukele’s crackdown on gangs has popular support, the country has lived under a state of emergency that suspends some basic rights for three years. He built the massive prison, located just outside San Salvador in the town of Tecoluca, to hold those accused of gang affiliation under his crackdown.

Part of his offer to receive the Venezuelans there was that the U.S. also send back some Salvadoran gang leaders. In February, his ambassador to the U.S., Milena Mayorga, said on a radio program that having gang leaders face justice in El Salvador was “an issue of honor.”

Bukele could also seek relief from the 10% tariff recently imposed by Trump, using the argument that it weakens the economy Bukele is trying to bolster.

César Ríos, director of the El Salvador Immigrant Agenda Association, said “it’s crucial that (the visit) isn’t limited to diplomatic gestures, but rather translates to concrete actions that benefit Salvadorans abroad and at home.”

Populists who have successfully crafted their images through media, Bukele and Trump hail from different generations but display similar tendencies in how they relate to the press, political opposition and justice systems in their respective countries.

Bukele came to power in the middle of Trump’s first term and had a straightforward relationship with the U.S. leader. Trump was most concerned with immigration and, under Bukele, the number of Salvadorans heading for the U.S. border declined.

Bukele’s relationship with the U.S. grew more complicated at the start of the Biden administration, which was openly critical of some of his antidemocratic actions. Trump has also shown some irritation with Bukele in the past, accusing El Salvador of lowering its crime rate by sending people to the U.S.

“He’s just, ‘we’re working with our people that are causing problems and crime,’” Trump said of Bukele at a campaign rally last year. “He’s not working with them. He’s dumping them in the United States and their crime rate, their murder rate, is down 72%.”

Just before Bukele’s arrival in Washington, the State Department updated its travel advisory for El Salvador to Level 1, which is for countries that are considered the safest to visit for U.S. citizens. The advisory notes that gang activity, and the accompanying murders and other violent crimes, has declined in the past three years.

Alemán reported from San Salvador, El Salvador. Associated Press writer Darlene Superville in West Palm Beach, Florida, contributed reporting.