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By Eli Okun |
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THE CATCH-UP |
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DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin has intentionally gone “quieter and smarter” about the immigration crackdown. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images |
IMMIGRATION FILES: Is President Donald Trump’s mass deportation drive softening — or just getting better at flying under the radar? DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, three months into helming the department, has intentionally gone “quieter and smarter” about charging forward with the immigration crackdown while keeping it out of the headlines, as one source puts it to POLITICO’s Eric Bazail-Eimil and colleagues. Large-scale immigration detentions are rolling on. But now they’re happening less often in public, and more in conjunction with state and local law enforcement to find immigrants who’ve already been detained. And don’t expect another Minneapolis anytime soon. The administration has pulled back on those high-profile surges of immigration enforcement officers into specific cities, with no plans for a redux before the midterms. When Delaney Hall protests surged in New Jersey this spring, the administration sent Tom Homan to lower tensions rather than more agents. Former Secretary Kristi Noem’s plan to convert warehouses into detention centers has been partly abandoned. Ditto for rapid training that brought thousands of new agents into ICE. The political backdrop is that many Americans had soured on Trump’s handling of immigration, long a top driver of his political success, even as he retained high polling marks for calming chaos and stemming crossings at the border. At the same time, the administration faces intense pressure from the right not to retrench on booting millions of immigrants out of the country. So a less public but accelerating crackdown could thread the needle politically for Republicans. The White House says its deportation numbers keep rising — and any administration with Stephen Miller at the center will never be accused of going light on immigration. The Supreme Court’s recent Temporary Protected Status decision could add hundreds of thousands more Haitians to the pool of immigrants eligible for deportation. Trump’s personal animus hasn’t waned. On Truth Social this morning, he posted pictures of the “Biden Border!” and reposted a lament that Minnesota kindergarteners were wearing hijabs. By the numbers: A new analysis by ProPublica’s Mica Rosenberg and Jeff Ernsthausen reveals unaccompanied immigrant children have been targeted for removal in way higher numbers during Trump’s second term. Compared to the end of his first term, the rate at which these minors (the vast majority non-criminals) are detained and deported has roughly tripled. Court deportation or self-deportation orders for immigrant youth overall, both accompanied and unaccompanied, have roughly quadrupled. And a new facility opening soon in Louisiana could accelerate deportations of families and kids, AP’s Jack Brook reports. ICE signed the contract in late June. The “staging area” near an airport, as the agency puts it, could make it logistically easier to deport children and families. On the Hill, immigration policy played a significant role in the House GOP’s floor collapse amid intra-party fighting last week, CNN’s Sarah Ferris reveals. Republican hard-liners’ revolt against party leadership came because Johnson didn’t put a border security bill they’d demanded on the floor. But his move followed a competing demand from a group of center-right lawmakers, who told Johnson that if he brought the bill up, they’d introduce their own immigration reforms in the opposite direction: pathways to residency, farmworker visas, and TPS protections. It’s another reflection of the difficult political tightrope Republicans have to walk between competing factions — even within the GOP — on immigration. “And while immigration is one of the GOP’s strongest domestic policy issues,” CNN reports, “some Republicans believe that Johnson’s problems with the border bill may end up being the most intractable.” Good Monday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at eokun@politico.com.
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8 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW |
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1. WHAT THEY’RE READING IN ANKARA: Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said U.S. diplomats conveyed that the Pentagon will restart its troop rotation in the country, per Bloomberg’s Maciej Martewicz. Washington hasn’t confirmed that decision, but it would amount to a notable reversal after Euroskeptic leaders in D.C. halted a troop deployment to Poland, the latest in a series of flashpoints within NATO. 2. SCHOOL DAZE: Admissions to top Ph.D. programs for the upcoming school year are down 15 percent, and federal funding chaos is likely the chief reason, NYT’s Vimal Patel reports. As major cuts have been repeatedly proposed and rejected in D.C., the uncertainty and whiplash — among other contributing factors — led universities to offer fewer spots. Scholars warn the knock-on effect will diminish the next generation of academics and damage American innovation over time. The White House claims it’s “funding real science, not left-wing ideology.” 3. NOTABLE QUOTABLE: “Every time I see a crypto guy where they dropped an investigation, I said, ‘You’re lucky I’m president,’” Trump said today at the White House, where he defended his family’s vast cryptocurrency profits during his second term against a growing wave of Democratic attacks. Trump said his sons run the Trump Organization and he’s not involved, instead focusing on his presidency: “This office is a much higher calling.” 4. KNOWING PETER TICKTIN: “He was Trump’s boyhood friend. Now he’s pushing Trump to declare a ‘national emergency’ and seize control of the midterms,” by CNN’s Jeremy Herb and Marshall Cohen: “Ticktin represented Trump in civil litigation and joined [Tina] Peters in the Oval Office last week for a meeting with Trump following her release, though a White House official downplayed their relationship. … Ticktin insisted that evidence proving claims about the 2020 election would become public soon, asserting that Venezuela, China, Iran and others are all involved … Six years after the intensely scrutinized 2020 election, such evidence has never surfaced publicly.”
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5. ALL IN THE FAMILY: Michael Alfonso has a Trump endorsement and major resources from his father-in-law, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, to win the open Wisconsin congressional seat Duffy once held, AP’s Scott Bauer reports. Along with backing from Speaker Mike Johnson and members of the Wisconsin delegation, that pedigree has positioned Alfonso as the frontrunner in the August primary. His opponents have hammered the 26-year-old for his inexperience (he’s worked in podcasting and construction). The field includes a former hostage in the 1979 Iran crisis, a megadonor-backed furniture executive and a dog musher. 6. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: The NRSC is urging Republicans to get involved in the Michigan Senate race before it’s too late. In a new memo circulated by the NRSC today obtained by Playbook’s Adam Wren, the GOP apparatus is warning that Abdul El-Sayed is the frontrunner in the Democratic primary, despite state Sen. Mallory McMorrow’s withdrawal from the race this weekend — which it dubbed a Chuck Schumer-fueled “attempt to consolidate support for [Rep.] Haley Stevens.” The NRSC memo describes El-Sayed as the “most radical Democrat Senate nominee of the cycle — and one with a credible path to victory.” Nodding to Graham Platner’s ascension in Maine, the NRSC says Democrats will rally around El-Sayed if he wins the primary, and Republicans need to jump in to support GOP nominee Mike Rogers now: “Rogers can and should win this race, but only with the full engagement of the Republican ecosystem from the outset.” Read the full memo A head-to-head poll for a pro-El-Sayed group, conducted before McMorrow dropped out, found the progressive with a 20-point lead over Stevens, per Semafor’s Dave Weigel. 7. THE DOGE EFFECT: “A ballooning problem: Weather warnings face rising risks from budget cuts,” by POLITICO’s Zack Colman: “[Spending cuts] have thinned the network of weather balloons the National Weather Service launches twice daily — and which provide crucial information for severe weather warnings for communities across the country. … Meteorologists say the dearth of weather balloons flying over the Great Plains, Southwest, interior Northwest and Midwest have compromised severe weather forecasts, putting communities at risk of being unprepared for sudden floods, thunderstorms and tornadoes.” NOAA responded that it hasn’t limited its balloons or seen forecasts worsen. 8. YOUNG CASTRO SPEAKS: Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, a behind-the-scenes seat of power in Cuba and grandson of Raúl Castro, gave his first-ever U.S. media interview to USA Today’s Romina Ruiz-Goiriena and colleagues. And as the U.S. pressure campaign bears down, Rodríguez Castro says he’s open to negotiating directly with Trump. He’s spoken with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and he thinks he can be the chief interlocutor with Washington — though he insists he won’t compromise on Cuba’s revolutionary ideals or sovereignty.
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TALK OF THE TOWN |
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FIFA’S HOUSE OF CARDS — Folarin Balogun’s suspended red-card suspension is quickly becoming the talk of not just the World Cup, but international politics. At the White House this morning, President Donald Trump toed the line about just how much he had leaned on FIFA to free up Balogun for tonight’s U.S.-Belgium match, after the striker was sent off in the last game in a decision widely viewed as excessively harsh. Trump said he didn’t tell FIFA head Gianni Infantino, who’s repeatedly buttered Trump up, “what to do” — but did ask for a review of the decision, per POLITICO’s Emilio Perez Ibarguen. Standing beside him, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was more direct. “Thank you for getting rid of that ridiculous red card,” he told Trump. “It was spectacular. There was a reason the FIFA trophy sat here for as long as it did.” Infantino continued to insist in a statement today that nothing untoward had happened, saying he told Trump that FIFA’s “independent judicial bodies” would make their decision autonomously. “That is how FIFA’s system works, and it is a principle that I will always uphold.” But Belgium — and Europe — fumed over what they saw as an unethical insertion of politics to corrupt a sporting call. UEFA said the decision “crossed a red line” and “the integrity of the game is at stake.” Belgium’s soccer association formally challenged the reversal today, per POLITICO’s Ferdinand Knapp, but FIFA has dismissed the appeal, per The Athletic’s Adam Crafton. Are the floodgates open now? The French Football Federation has asked FIFA to overturn a yellow card Michael Olise got in the Paraguay game, per Crafton. And British PM Keir Starmer also intervened to help stop FIFA from changing the time of the England-Mexico match, The Sun’s Jack Elsom scooped. Speaking of England … Trump also said today that he’s played golf with striker Harry Kane, which might help explain his late-night praise for England’s captain. WHITE HOUSE DEPARTURE LOUNGE — Tim Kurth is now director of emerging technologies and government affairs for Intel. He previously worked for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and is a House Energy & Commerce alum. TRANSITION — Aaron Britt is joining Targeted Victory as a director on its public affairs team. He previously worked at the Department of Labor, and is a Hill and Iowa GOP alum. WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Emilie Simons, who leads U.S. and Canada comms for Airbnb and is a Biden White House alum, and Steven Bernitt, CFO of Artisan Builders, welcomed Berkeley Kate “Kiki” on June 10. Pic Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@politico.com or text us on Signal here. Playbook couldn’t happen without our editor Giuseppe Macri and deputy editor Garrett Ross.
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