Rosa Gutierrez Lopez was frightened and desperate when immigration authorities told her to buy a plane ticket because she had to leave the U.S. by last December 10. The 40-year-old undocumented immigrant from El Salvador had been living in the United States since 2005, working in restaurants and other jobs in northern Virginia.  With three American-born children, she had been granted deferred action by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after being picked up in 2014 for being in the country illegally. Subsequently, she checked in with ICE each year and her application for deferred action was renewed – in large part, her lawyer says, because her young children are American citizens and one of them suffers from Down Syndrome. In 2017, however, the first year of the Trump administration, Rosa noticed a difference when she reported to ICE for her annual check-in. “I was told to report to a different …

Undocumented, Rosa Gutierrez Lopez had been ordered to leave the country by December 10th when she sought refuge at a Bethesda, Maryland church to avoid being deported back to El Salvador and leave her three American-born children behind. As Bill Rodgers reports for VOA, she is the latest publicly-known sanctuary case in a movement that has expanded since the Trump administration took office two years ago. …

A global anti-corruption watchdog says the United States has dropped four spots in its list of nations’ anti-corruption efforts and is now no longer listed in the top 20 for the first time. Acting U.S. Representative at Transparency International, Zoe Reiter, calls a four point drop in the 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) a “red flag.” She says it comes at a time when the U.S. is experiencing “threats to its system of checks and balances” and an “erosion of ethical norms at the highest levels of power.” “If this trend continues, it would indicate a serious corruption problem in a country that has taken a lead on the issue globally,” Reiter says. The United States scored a 71 in the perceptions index after scoring 75 the previous year. “The expert opinion captured by the CPI supports the deep concern over corruption in government reported by America in our 2017 …

U.S. and Taliban negotiators say they have agreed on a draft framework for a peace deal aimed at ending 17 years of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan’s conflict. The framework was hammered during six days of talks last week in Qatar. Analysts say there are many obstacles on the road to a sustainable peace deal for Afghanistan. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports. …

The U.S. has imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PdVSA, in an increased effort to pressure Nicolás Maduro to relinquish power to Juan Guaidó, now recognized by the U.S. and a number of other nations as the country’s legitimate president. VOA’s diplomatic correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department. …

Accused Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman said in court on Monday that he will not testify in his own defense at his U.S. trial. Guzman announced his decision after prosecutors rested their case against him in federal court in Brooklyn. After excusing the jury, U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan asked Guzman directly whether he understood it was his decision, not that of his lawyers, to testify or not. “Yes, but they counseled me about it and I agree with them,” Guzman answered. Had Guzman, 61, testified, it would have provided a fitting climax to an already dramatic trial. However, Guzman’s decision was widely expected, as testifying would have exposed him to cross-examination by prosecutors. Guzman was extradited to the United States in January 2017 to face charges that he trafficked massive quantities of cocaine, heroin, marijuana and other drugs into the United States as leader of the Sinaloa …

U.S. lawmakers and nuclear arms control leaders are set to hold a news conference Tuesday to discuss limiting the power of U.S. presidents to launch a nuclear strike. Democratic Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts and Congressman Ted Lieu of California are seeking to limit the ability of “President Donald Trump or any U.S. president to launch a nuclear first strike without a declaration of war by Congress,” a statement they released Tuesday said. The statement cited the incident in 2018 when the president taunted North Korea over the size of his nuclear button. After North Korean leader Kim Jong Un used part of his New Year’s message to remind the world he has a “nuclear button,” Trump responded in a tweet: “Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one …

The nation’s immigration courts were severely backlogged even before the government shutdown. Now it could take years just to deal with the delays caused by the five-week impasse, attorneys say. With the shutdown finally over, the courts reopened Monday morning to immigrants seeking asylum or otherwise trying to stave off deportation, and hearings were held for the first time since late December. Court clerks scrambled to deal with boxes and boxes of legal filings that arrived after the doors opened. Over 86,000 immigration court hearings were canceled during the standoff, the biggest number in California, followed by Texas and New York, according to an estimate from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. It estimates the courts have more than 800,000 pending cases overall. The shutdown over President Donald Trump’s demand for funding for a border wall to keep out migrants has only added to the delays in the …

The White House says President Donald Trump wants to avert another partial U.S. government shutdown but remains committed to erecting new barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border, something most Democratic lawmakers still reject. “The president doesn’t want to go through another shutdown — that’s not the goal,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Monday at a press briefing, where she urged Democrats to “get serious about fixing the problem at the border, including funding for a border wall.” Federal agencies have reopened after the longest shutdown in U.S. history. Late last week, Trump signed a stopgap three-week funding bill designed to give congressional negotiators a window to craft a package enhancing border security. The bipartisan conference committee, comprised of appropriators from both legislative chambers, is to begin consultations on Wednesday. But the partisan fault line over border wall funding that sparked the shutdown persists. “Democrats sharply disagree with the president …

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Monday the United States expects significant progress this week in trade talks with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, but the two sides will be tackling “complicated issues”, including how to enforce any deal. The talks, scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday in Washington, will include a meeting between Liu and U.S. President Donald Trump and take place amid worsening tensions between the world’s two largest economies. The U.S. Justice Department on Monday unsealed indictments against China’s top telecommunications equipment maker, Huawei Technologies Co., accusing it of bank and wire fraud to evade Iran sanctions and conspiring to steal trade secrets from T-Mobile US Inc. China, meanwhile, formally challenged U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods in the World Trade Organization’s dispute settlement system, calling the duties a “blatant breach” of Washington’s WTO obligations. U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross insisted at a news conference that the Huawei …

The U.S. Treasury has lifted sanctions on three Russian companies connected to Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, reversing a move which wreaked havoc on global aluminum markets last year. To the Treasury and supporters of the move, it was an example of sanctions working as they should by changing a target’s behavior in nine months under suffocating restrictions on trade. Due to the sanctions, Deripaska, a tycoon who has been close to the Kremlin, agreed to reduce his shareholdings to below 50 percent. Congressional Democrats and some Republicans, however, worry that Deripaska could retain significant influence, even as he himself stays under sanctions. Here is a look at Deripaska, his companies, and possible consequences of the Treasury ruling. Putin ally With his cropped hair and scruffy beard, Deripaska was a familiar face to Russians long before he was dragged into in the U.S. furor over the 2016 election. Amid the economic …

The longest-ever partial U.S. government shutdown cost the country’s economy $3 billion in lost economic activity that won’t be recovered, the Congressional Budget Office concluded Monday. The CBO said its assessment of the effects of the 35-day shutdown on the U.S. economy, the world’s largest, showed that $3 billion in economic activity was lost in the waning days of 2018 after the government closures took effect December 22, and another $8 billion in January, extending to last Friday when the shutdown was ended. However, the CBO said with 800,000 federal workers who were furloughed or forced to work without pay being paid back wages in the coming days and government operations resuming, all but $3 billion in economic activity “will eventually be recovered” in the coming weeks. CBO estimated that about $18 billion in federal discretionary spending was delayed during the shutdown, although most of that is likely to resume …

Confidential information of 14,200 people diagnosed with HIV in Singapore has been leaked, the city-state’s government said Monday. In a statement posted on their website, Singapore’s Ministry of Health said that information about 5,400 Singaporeans and 8,800 foreigners diagnosed with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has been leaked online by an American with a previous record of fraud. “While access to the confidential information has been disabled, it is still in the possession of the unauthorized person, and could still be publicly disclosed in the future. We are working with relevant parties to scan the Internet for signs of further disclosure of the information,” the statement read. The health ministry named the suspect behind the leak as U.S. citizen Mikhy K. Farrera Brochez, who was living in Singapore on an employment pass before he was deported after finishing a jail sentence for fraud last year. Brochez was a partner …

The presidential primary is jolting to life without a traditional mainstay: the big money donor class. More specifically, their contribution checks. With as many as two dozen Democrats potentially running for the White House and no immediate front-runner, the money race in the early days of the primary is largely frozen, according to fundraisers. Though some donors have a preferred candidate, others who are spending are spreading their money across the field to hedge their bets. More often, donors are staying on the sidelines until the contours of the primary take shape. “I’m not aware of anyone who is giving now,” said Andy Spahn, a Los Angeles-based fundraiser and conduit to Hollywood wealth who has been courted by multiple contenders. “People first want to know who will actually be in the race.” The slow flow of campaign cash from the big money donor class coincides with a seismic shift in …

Threatens to Independently Stir the US Political Pot in 2020 …

The Afghan president on Monday assured his people that their rights will not be compromised in the name of peace with the Taliban, days after the U.S. envoy tasked with resolving America’s longest war reported significant progress in talks with the insurgents. President Ashraf Ghani’s remarks came as U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad told the New York Times that American and Taliban officials have agreed in principle to the framework of a peace deal with the insurgents. The newspaper on Monday quoted Khalilzad as saying the “framework deal, which still has to be fleshed out before it becomes an agreement,” will see the Taliban commit to guaranteeing that Afghan territory is not used as a “platform for international terrorist groups or individuals.” The deal, the envoy said, could lead to full pullout of American troops in return for a cease-fire and Taliban talks with the Afghan government. Ghani, in turn, apparently …