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By Ali Bianco |
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THE CATCH-UP |
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On stage in Texas, President Donald Trump and more than a dozen GOP speakers touted a southern border that they said has officially been closed and a stop to an immigration threat that’s become a marquee of Trump’s campaign promises dating all the way back to 2016. Back in D.C., Trump will return home to a different kind of immigration chaos. A cloud of uncertainty is hanging over Washington and the greater DMV as yesterday’s deadline for Salvadorans to learn the fate of their temporary protected status came and went with no clear answers. What was widely expected to be an expiration date for the immigrants, who in many cases have lived and worked in the U.S. for decades, became a giant question mark. DHS said in a statement only that it would make an announcement on TPS “at the appropriate time” and protections would remain in place for now. Now Salvadoran TPS holders wait in limbo — wondering whether in one fell swoop the Trump administration may eliminate legal status for tens of thousands immigrants who form the backbone of the DMV workforce. The elimination of TPS has rocked many communities across the country, but the biggest impact for Washington would stem from Salvadorans losing theirs. The DMV region is home to the biggest Salvadoran community in the country. Several TPS workers make up critical parts of D.C.’s hospitality and restaurant industry, not to mention the small business owners who’ve made pupusas a district staple, said Paul Schwalb, head of the local UNITE Here chapter. DHS was expected to publish a notice to the federal register yesterday on the fate of the program. But late notices have become more common under the second Trump administration. Though TPS holders appear to maintain status for now, they’ll have to wait for DHS to post an official notice of an extension or notify 60 days ahead of termination — or they could announce that they lapsed their internal deadline for a decision, triggering an automatic six-month extension. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser wrote to Secretary Markwayne Mullin last week urging an extension, calling Salvadorans “integral” to the district’s economy, according to a letter shared with Playbook. And there’s a slew of organizations — from the American Business Immigration Coalition to the James Beard Foundation — pleading for DHS to issue another extension and pushing Congress to pass broader immigration reform to protect these communities, per a new release obtained by POLITICO’s Sam Benson.
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A message from Anthropic: How a small lab is giving more patients next-day answers. A kidney disease diagnosis is hard enough without a long wait for answers. As case loads grow at Arkana Labs, they’re using Claude to help process referral paperwork with 97–98% accuracy, so patients still get results the day after a biopsy. Learn more. |
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The uncertainty is just the latest turn in what’s become a sweeping push by the administration to eliminate the protections for multiple countries, leaving those immigrants without status or many other avenues to remain in the country legally. With the Supreme Court upholding the move, hundreds of thousands of TPS holders, most recently Haitian immigrants, have become the new faces of the administration’s mass arrests and detentions that have gone viral and whipped Democrats into a frenzy. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who’s emerged as one of the most outspoken Democrats on immigration, told Playbook that eliminating their status is “both the wrong thing to do from a humanitarian perspective” and “backfiring politically on the administration.” “You can’t protect people’s status via press release,” Rep. Suhas Subramanyam — the northern Virginia Democrat whose district includes Loudoun County, where thousands more Salvadorans live — told Playbook. “I see immigrants with proper visas and proper permanent residence documentation getting targeted by ICE … It's going to create a crisis here.” Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) noted the lack of clarity risks tearing apart mixed-status Salvadoran families in the region. “They have American spouses, American kids, they've been paying taxes all these years,” he said. “For all purposes other than having a citizenship paper — they're Americans.” With no indication yet for when the administration might announce its decision, those impacted in the DMV are forced to wait and see what happens — in what could be one of Trump’s most significant shakeups to the Washington area yet. “What Trump is trying to do is literally remake the physical landscape of Washington D.C. in his image,” Van Hollen said. But if the DMV loses Salvadoran immigrants, “he's attacking the fabric of our community.” Good Thursday afternoon. This is Ali Bianco. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Send me your thoughts at abianco@politico.com. |
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A message from Anthropic:  
Claude helps diagnose equipment, translate for crews, and log every job. Learn more. |
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7 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW |
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1. DOWNLOAD FROM DALLAS: Delegates from Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin serenaded VP JD Vance with chants of “48” during a closed-door breakfast this morning in Dallas, according to four people in the room, POLITICO’s Meredith Lee Hill and Alex Gangitano scoop. “Vance, continuing a theme that [Trump] laid out Wednesday, told the attendees that 2026 presented a stark choice between common sense Republicans and the ‘crazy people’ on the left, according to the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss the closed-door event. 2. RED-LIGHT REDISTRICT: The Supreme Court today blocked GOP efforts to use a new, redistricted map in Missouri, handing Dems a win following a week of back-and-forth contradicting opinions between state and federal courts, POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein and Aaron Pellish report. The high court’s ruling, which came with no noted dissents, clears a path for Democratic Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver to hold onto his district. Election officials will now scramble to finalize ballots, past the original Tuesday deadline, so workers can begin preparing them to be mailed out before Sept. 19. 3. APOCALYPSE NOW: AI threats that sound like science fiction nightmares are much closer to today’s reality, Anthropic warned today — and some may already be here, POLITICO’s John Sakellariadis reports. “In a lengthy new report out Thursday, Anthropic said that criminal hacking gangs, Chinese security bureaus, Russia-linked spies and Yemen-based arms manufacturers, among others, have exploited a web of fraudulent accounts and online services to access some of the company’s advanced AI assistants, known as Claude. And they’re using those tools to attempt attacks or design weapons that previously lay beyond their capabilities.” The company also said it “disrupted several potential plots this year by scientists who used its leading artificial intelligence models to conduct research that could have helped develop biological weapons,” per NYT’s Dustin Volz. Meanwhile: OpenAI held meetings with top power companies to talk about securing the electrical grid, as the company’s products become embroiled in cyberattacks, POLITICO’s Aaron Mak scoops. CEO Sam Altman met with energy execs at Edison Electric Institute’s meeting in Colorado yesterday to offer OpenAI’s cyber services for protections, but it comes following revelations that AI platform Hugging Face was hacked by hundreds of AI agents, which has raised alarms about possible attacks on critical infrastructure. On the Hill: Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who chairs Senate Homeland Security’s Disaster Management subcommittee, is investigating OpenAI’s handling of the Hugging Face breach and demanding a response from Altman by Oct. 1, Axios’ Andrew Solender and Maria Curi report. And the Senate Commerce Committee could take up AI regulation when the chamber comes back next week, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told Playbook’s Dasha Burns in the latest episode of “The Conversation.”
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POLITICO's Decoded Summit The future of AI policy is being defined in power centers from coast to coast. Join POLITICO's Decoded Summit – Washington, D.C. on Sept. 16 for conversations on AI regulation, global competition, enterprise adoption, and more.
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4. ONE YEAR LATER: Turning Point USA is spending the day honoring their founder, Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed a year ago during an event at Utah Valley University. The organization is heading back to the campus for a “deliberate act of remembrance” that has divided students at Utah Valley. That’s just one way his death is still rippling across the campus, NYT’s Jack Healy reports from Orem. But in death Kirk has attracted a new following, people who have now come to regard him as larger-than-life, yet also on an intensely personal basis, NYT’s Robert Draper writes in a reflection of Kirk’s influence among conservative youth. More on Kirk: “The infinite online afterlife of Charlie Kirk,” by WaPo’s Gene Park: “One could interpret Kirkification as a form of endless afterlife, shattering Kirk’s essence across infinitely rearrangeable pieces and condemning him to perform anything everywhere all the time. He died, but the machines absorbed and remembered everything about him.” 5. IMMIGRATION FILES: “Appeals court rejects ICE detention policy, setting stage for SCOTUS,” by POLITICO’s Kyle Cheney: “A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected ICE’s effort to detain millions of people without bond, comparing it to the ‘historical stain’ of Japanese internment during World War II. … It’s the ninth loss in a row for ICE at federal appeals courts, all of which have now ruled on the policy. The Supreme Court is all but certain to take up the issue in its next term.” 6. WAR REPORT: A new wave of fighting has erupted along Yemen’s Red Sea this morning, with the Iranian-backed Houthis pushing to control an alternative route than the Strait of Hormuz — the Bab al-Mandab Strait, per WaPo’s Rachel Chason and colleagues. Another strait closure could be a serious setback and risks widening the conflict with Iran, while Hormuz remains a point of contention. It’s the latest sign that Iran could be trying to escalate the war, WSJ’s Georgi Kantchev and colleagues write. Meanwhile, oil prices continue to climb back up to where they were before the summer started, per AP. 7. MILLER TIME: “Ex-DOGE aide Katie Miller attacked OpenAI while invested in rival xAI,” by WaPo’s Cat Zakrzewski and Aaron Schaffer: “For nine months, conservative podcaster Katie Miller has used her social media megaphone to denounce the AI chatbots ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini — accusing them of liberal bias, endangering children or lax security in nearly 500 posts … Miller has not told her followers that she holds a significant and, until recently, undisclosed financial interest in the outcome. She holds more than $1 million in Elon Musk’s xAI … Miller said in a text message that her social media posts are not related to her purchase of stock in the company.”
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TALK OF THE TOWN |
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THE AUGUST FROM HELL — The month of August tied July 2023 as Earth’s hottest month on record, and tied the record for the oceans’ hottest month as well, per NYT. “Across the lower 48 states, the average temperature last month was 75.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the highest on record for August and 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average.” ANOTHER LATE NIGHT CRACKDOWN — Jimmy Kimmel said his late night show can’t air his interview with Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico following threats from the FCC. He said in his monologue last night that he’ll release it only on YouTube, per The Wrap. MEDIA MOVES — Ana Marie Cox and Brad Slager have both joined Mediaite as columnists. Cox previously founded Wonkette and Slager has worked with Town Hall media. TRANSITIONS — Paige Willey is joining Invariant as a principal. She previously worked for Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the White House National Economic Council. … Allison Herren Lee and Andrew Feller have joined Labaton Keller Sucharow to lead the firm’s new whistleblower representation practice. They both previously worked at the SEC. … Kuang Chiang has joined Eversheds Sutherland as a partner in the competition, trade and foreign investment team. She previously worked at Morrison Foerster. WEDDING — Halle Sarkisian, staff director of the House Veterans’ Affairs Economic Opportunity Subcommittee, and Will Berglund, deputy legislative director at J.A. Green and Company, got married Friday at the Basilica Oratory at Corpus Christi, with a reception at George Peabody Library in Baltimore. Pic, via Dennis Crider 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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Spencer Cox on America’s political divide In the latest episode of On the Road, Jonathan Martin sits down with Utah Gov. Spencer Cox to discuss his new book, Off Ramp, the future of the Republican Party, immigration reform and what he says it will take to rebuild trust and community in American life.
Watch now. |
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