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Zohran Mamdani and Donald Trump talked again, this time without the fanfare of their first meeting.

Mamdani, New York’s incoming democratic socialist mayor, spoke briefly over the phone with the Republican president before the end of November. Their call, first disclosed by Mamdani on Spectrum News NY1 on Dec. 2, occurred less than two weeks after their surprisingly chummy Nov. 21 Oval Office meeting.

“I’ve always kept it a conversation that’s focused on the welfare of New Yorkers,” Mamdani said on NY1's "Inside City Hall." “And the fact that New Yorkers are still struggling under a cost of living crisis.”

Mamdani, who takes office Jan. 1, didn't specify when the call took place, though he said they spoke prior to a clash between protesters and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on Nov. 29 in lower Manhattan. A spokesperson for Mamdani said they talked before Thanksgiving.

Mamdani said he gave condolences to Trump about the two National Guard members shot in Washington, DC, on Nov. 26, including one soldier who died.

In addition, Mamdani said they discussed building housing and the importance of helping New Yorkers being pricing out of the city.

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The Department of Homeland Security is further clamping down on processing immigration applications after two National Guard members were shot by an Afghan national.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, in a memo on Tuesday said it would pause reviewing all pending applications for green cards, citizenship, or asylum from immigrants from 19 countries listed in a previous travel ban.

President Trump in June announced the travel ban against 12 countries, and partial restrictions against seven others, after a firebombing attack in Colorado.

The citizenship and immigration agency also plans to re-review and re-interview immigrants from these countries, potentially going as far back as 2021, amid sharper scrutiny of those who have followed the legal steps to seek permanent status in the U.S.

"The Trump Administration is making every effort to ensure individuals becoming citizens are the best of the best. Citizenship is a privilege, not a right," a DHS spokesperson told NPR in a statement. "We will take no chances when the future of our nation is at stake. The Trump Administration is reviewing all immigration benefits granted by the Biden administration to aliens from Countries of Concern."

The travel ban applies to citizens of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen and added restricted access applied to people from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. Migrants from all 19 countries are impacted by the pauses of pending applications and review of previously approved ones.

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A federal judge late on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from making widespread immigration arrests in the nation’s capital without warrants or probable cause that the person would be an imminent flight risk.

The US district judge Beryl Howell in Washington granted a preliminary injunction sought by civil liberties and immigrants’ rights groups in a lawsuit against the US Department of Homeland Security.

The lawsuit alleged that since Donald Trump declared an emergency in Washington in August, there has been a pattern of widespread, unlawful immigration arrests. Community members have reported living in fear of being stopped while driving or walking through their neighborhoods and many have avoided going to work, walking children to school or other daily activities in an attempt to avoid checkpoints and immigration enforcement agents.

Officers making civil immigration arrests generally have to have an administrative warrant. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, they may make arrests without a warrant only if they have probable cause to believe the person is in the US illegally and is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained, according to Howell’s ruling.

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Costco is now one of the largest companies to sue the Trump administration over tariffs, hoping to secure a refund if the Supreme Court declares the new import duties illegal.

The Supreme Court is weighing the future of President Trump's tariffs on nearly all imports. Justices seemed skeptical about the tariffs' legality during last month's oral arguments. Lower courts had previously found that Trump had improperly used emergency economic powers to set most of the new levies.

Dozens of companies across industries have filed lawsuits to seek refunds in the event that the Supreme Court finds Trump's tariffs illegal. The list includes makeup giant Revlon, canned-foods maker Bumble Bee and Kawasaki, which makes motorcycles and more. Now Costco has joined the queue.

"This is the first time we're seeing big companies take their heads out of the sand publicly," said Marc Busch, a trade law expert at Georgetown University. For the most part, small companies have been leading the legal action against tariffs, he said, adding, "It's nice to finally see some heavyweights joining in the fray."

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The Trump administration has threatened to suspend Snap food assistance to several Democratic-led states unless they turn over recipient data to the federal government.

The agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, said on Tuesday that the USDA could begin blocking funds as early as next week if Democratic-led states continue to reject federal requests for Snap recipient data – information that includes immigration status and social security numbers.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting, Rollins said the USDA needed the data from each state to “root out this fraud, to make sure that those who really need food stamps are getting them, but also to ensure that the American taxpayer is protected”.

“Twenty-nine states said yes – not surprisingly, the red states, and that’s where all of that data, that fraud comes from. But 21 states including California, New York and Minnesota, blue states, continue to say no. So as of next week, we have begun and will begin to stop moving federal funds into those states until they comply and they tell us and allow us to partner with them to root out this fraud and to protect the American taxpayer.”

In a separate statement to the Guardian, a USDA spokesperson said: “USDA established a Snap integrity team to analyze not only data provided by states, but to scrub all available information to end indiscriminate welfare fraud.

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Donald Trump on Tuesday called Somali immigrants “garbage” and said they should be sent back home in a rant that came as the administration is reportedly increasing immigration enforcement against undocumented Somalis in Minnesota.

In a xenophobic rant during a cabinet meeting, Trump went off on Somalis and Ilhan Omar, the congressional representative who is from Somalia and is a US citizen. He said Somalia “stinks” and is “no good for a reason”.

“They contribute nothing. I don’t want them in our country, I’ll be honest with you,” he said. He called Omar “garbage” and said “we’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country”.

“These are people who do nothing but complain,” he said. “They complain, and from where they came from, they got nothing … When they come from hell and they complain and do nothing but bitch, we don’t want them in our country. Let them go back to where they came from and fix it.”

The New York Times reported on Tuesday that the Minneapolis-St Paul metro area, where most Somalis reside, would see stepped-up deportation efforts this week, focusing primarily on Somalis who have final deportation orders. It would use “strike teams” of ICE agents and other federal officers, bringing in about 100 agents from across the country, the Times reported. Other media outlets, including the Associated Press, have confirmed the reporting.

TVNL Comment:  Just when you think he can't go any lower...

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