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1 Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin Appears At Pentagon For First Time Since Hospitalization
One month after he was admitted to the hospital, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin held a news conference at the Pentagon yesterday for the first time since he was released. Austin apologized for the situation that unfolded when neither the public nor other top officials were notified that he was in the ICU until days later. “I want to be crystal clear. We did not handle this right. And I did not handle this right,’ Austin said while addressing the scandal. He went on to apologize “to my teammates and to the American people,” and said he should have told the president about his cancer diagnosis. He offered what he said was “an explanation and not an excuse,” and said that the news shook him when he was diagnosed in December, and that his first instinct was to keep it private. The 70-year-old Austin took the opportunity to tell men to get checked, saying “If your doctor can spot it, they can treat it and beat it,” then added that the side effects that resulted in his admission to Walter Reed on January 1st were “highly, highly unusual.” Austin also said that the Pentagon is conducting an internal review into how his medical crisis was communicated, as is the Pentagon’s inspector general.
2 Negotiators Say They Have A Deal On Immigration, Senate May Vote Next Week
Negotiators in the Senate say they’ve finally struck a deal to strengthen US immigration and asylum laws, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said yesterday that senators plan to release the “full text” of the package as early as today and “no later than Sunday.” Schumer also said that he plans to hold the first procedural vote on the package “no later than Wednesday.” While the deal was struck by a bipartisan group of negotiators, it still has an uncertain future in the Senate next week in addition to pushback from House Speaker Mike Johnson if the Senate passes it. It’ll need 60 votes to break a filibuster in the Senate, which would take Republican support.
3 ICE Arrests 171 Non-Citizens Across The Country
A different type of immigration problem than the border crisis in the headlines has been eased around the country. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced yesterday that it arrested 171 unauthorized noncitizens with a variety of criminal records during a recent enforcement push. ICE Acting Director Patrick Lechleitner told reporters yesterday that the enforcement action took place in 25 major cities in America, and said the arrests involved “some very bad individuals that we wanted to take off the streets.” Lechleitner said the people arrested included convicted felons and individuals with active warrants out for their arrest, and that there were over 100 sex offenders among them, including some charged or convicted of sexual assault involving children. It's not an unusual operation; last year, ICE arrested 73,822 noncitizens with criminal records. Officials with the agency say they need more resources to continue targeting criminal noncitizens. ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations head Daniel Bible said the agency is using new technology to make things easier, but said that “Depending on what cities you go to, you know, like the New York’s and Miami’s, there’s – there’s a high volume so it’s taken a while to actually get people scheduled.” The arrested noncitizens will now go through the immigration system to be deported.