The caravan of Central Americans seeking asylum in the United States sought the world’s attention as scores of migrants traveled through Mexico on a journey to escape their violent homelands. Now that the group has arrived at the border, the next steps in their journey will unfold mostly out of public view. The caravan first drew attention in the U.S. when President Donald Trump promised that his administration would seek to turn the families away. The rest of the asylum-seeking process will happen slowly and secretively in immigration courts. The first eight caravan members turned themselves in to U.S. border inspectors Monday at San Diego’s San Ysidro crossing. Short wait expected for asylum seekers Another six asylum seekers trickled in Tuesday, organizers said, leaving about 150 still waiting outside, many with backpacks and blankets. The San Diego crossing, the nation’s busiest, processed about 50 asylum seekers a day from October …

Thousands of Puerto Ricans marched Tuesday to protest pension cuts, school closures and slow hurricane recovery efforts as anger grows across the U.S. territory over looming austerity measures. The Labor Day protest attracted teachers, retirees and unionized workers from both the private and public sectors, as well as the mayor of the capital of San Juan, Carmen Yulin Cruz. Among those who marched through the city’s financial center before the protest grew violent was 56-year-old Juan de Dios del Valle, a government worker who was laid off in 2008 and has since found only occasional jobs as a gardener or janitor. “I’m here to support all those who are mired in poverty,” he said. The event remained peaceful until hundreds of young protesters, many with their faces covered, threw rocks and other objects as they clashed with police, who fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd. Several …

California, 16 other states and the District of Columbia sued the Trump administration Tuesday over its plan to scrap Obama-era auto emissions standards that would require vehicles to get significantly higher gas mileage by 2025. At issue is a move by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt to roll back 2012 rules aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Under those rules, vehicles would have to get 36 miles of real-world driving per gallon (58 kilometers per gallon), about 10 miles (16 kilometers) over the existing standard. “Pollutants coming out of vehicles, out of the tailpipe, does permanent lung damage to children living near well-traveled roads and freeways. This is a fact. The only way we’re going to overcome that is by reducing emissions,” Governor Jerry Brown said in announcing the lawsuit along with other top California Democrats. The rules were set six years ago when California and the administration of then-President …

Texas and six other Republican-governed states on Tuesday sued the Trump administration to try to end a program launched by Democratic former President Barack Obama that protects immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children. The states filed suit in federal court in Texas in the latest twist in an ongoing policy and legal fight over the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that Republican President Donald Trump already has tried to rescind. Trump said in September he would terminate DACA and end its protections for immigrants sometimes called “Dreamers,” but gave the Republican-controlled Congress until March 6 to replace it. Policy differences between Trump and lawmakers in both parties led to Congress failing to act. In the meantime, courts ruled that the program can stay in place for now, although new applications will not be accepted. The program protects around 700,000 young adults, mostly Hispanics, from …

A veterinarian has pleaded not guilty to surgically implanting packets of liquid heroin into puppies to be sent to the United States. Andres Lopez Elorza appeared in a New York court Tuesday after being extradited from Spain. He was ordered held without bail. If convicted on conspiracy charges, he risks spending at least 10 years and potentially life behind bars. Prosecutors said Lopez Elorza stitched packets of heroin into the bellies of Labrador retrievers and other breeds sent on commercial flights to New York City. They said the packets were then cut out of the puppies, who died in the process. “As alleged in the indictment, Elorza is not only a drug trafficker, he also betrayed a veterinarian’s pledge to prevent animal suffering,” said Richard Donoghue, the U.S. attorney based in Brooklyn. “Dogs are man’s best friend and as the defendant is about to learn, we are drug dealers’ worst …

The White House said Tuesday that it expected to wrap up trade talks with the European Union, Canada and Mexico within the 30 extra days of freedom from tariffs that President Donald Trump granted the previous day. “Hopefully, we can get something that works for everybody,” spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters. Trump extended tariff exemptions on aluminum and steel exports from the EU, Canada and Mexico late Monday, just hours before they were to run out.  These are the same tariffs the U.S. has already imposed on China, Japan, Russia and other exporters. The U.S. has finalized a deal on steel exports with South Korea, granting it a permanent exemption, while reaching agreements in principle with Argentina, Australia and Brazil. The White House said it was giving negotiators 30 more days to work out similar deals with the EU, Canada and Mexico. “We’re having some potentially fruitful discussions about an …

Pakistani authorities have charged a U.S. Embassy security officer with trying to obstruct an investigation into a traffic accident involving an American diplomat on Sunday. The case increases diplomatic tensions with the United States, weeks after another American diplomat ran a red light in the capital and was involved in an accident in which a motorcyclist was killed. Police said Sunday’s accident occurred when two motorcyclists collided with a U.S. Embassy vehicle driven by the diplomat. One of the motorcyclists was charged with reckless driving. Police accused the embassy security officer of trying to stop officers from detaining the diplomat. The U.S. Embassy said the American diplomat’s role in the accident had been resolved. On April 7, authorities said, the defense attaché at the U.S. Embassy, Colonel Joseph Emanuel Hall, ran a red light on a main Islamabad road and collided with a motorcycle carrying two people. One was killed and …

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Tuesday lashed out at Republican allies of President Donald Trump who have drafted articles of impeachment against him, saying the Justice Department won’t be extorted or give in to threats.   Rosenstein, speaking at a question-and-answer session at the Newseum, chided the lawmakers who have prepared the document by saying that “they can’t even resist leaking their own drafts” and that they lack “the courage to put their name on it.”   “I can tell you there have been people who have been making threats privately and publicly against me for quite some time, and I think they should understand by now, the Department of Justice is not going to be extorted,” Rosenstein said, in response to a question about news reports on the articles of impeachment.   “We’re going to do what’s required by the rule of law,” he added. “And any kind …

New U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is vowing to bring back the “swagger” to the State Department. “The United States diplomatic corps need to be in every corner, every stretch of the world, executing missions on behalf of this country, and it is my humble, noble undertaking to help you achieve that,” said Pompeo on Tuesday. The chief U.S. diplomat introduced himself to hundreds of the department’s personnel who gathered in the State Department lobby as he arrived for his first full day in Washington. “I feel like I know you. I’ve worked alongside you as a member of the Congress when I traveled,” said the secretary of state. Pompeo takes the helm of the State Department after U.S. President Donald Trump fired then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in March, hours after Tillerson had returned from a trip to Africa. Unlike with Tillerson, Trump is said to have a …

He felt like an invisible force was drawing him into the parking lot, past the four new white crosses in the driveway, the balloons and the flowers, and the letters addressed to the dead. He felt it pulling him into his regular spot, the one where he had been sitting in his car when a stranger, three spaces over, stepped out of a truck carrying an AR-15. He surprised himself by walking into the restaurant and sitting down in his regular booth, which had always seemed like the most comfortable seat in the world — until all of a sudden it didn’t. At 3:25 a.m. on April 22, a Waffle House in Nashville joined the growing list of cherished American places morphed into the site of a massacre. And Chuck Cordero, a regular customer, joined the growing list of survivors left traumatized and struggling with how to move on. Children …