Elaina Batista, Asst. Social Media Editor
Although Manhattan University recessed for the summer, the world beyond campus carried on.
Immediately after Donald Trump won the election, the president promptly took action, vowing to alter the political landscape of not only the nation, but also the entire world. Since the start of President Trump’s second term, he has signed 196 Executive orders, many of which have to do with foreign policies.
One of the most significant changes the US has seen from this administration is the way it has addressed immigration. Almost immediately after being sworn into office, Trump and his administration overturned former President Joe Biden’s policy which restricted community areas such as churches, schools and hospitals from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This order shifted ICE’s priorities from primarily targeting individuals with criminal backgrounds who entered the country illegally to viewing all undocumented immigrants as criminals regardless of their history. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt elaborated on this concept in a press briefing back in January.
“Of course, the…criminal drug dealers, the rapists, the murderers, the individuals who have committed heinous acts on the interior of our country and who have terrorized law-abiding American citizens, absolutely, those should be the priority of ICE,” Leavitt said. “But that doesn’t mean that the other illegal criminals who entered our nation’s borders are off the table.”
While the administration was making these changes on the domestic level, attention quickly shifted overseas as the United States launched airstrikes in Iran. On June 22, the US military struck three of Iran’s nuclear facilities. According to President Trump, those strikes “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities. However, a US intelligence assessment claimed the attacks only set the country’s nuclear program back by a couple of months, as reported by CNN.
Along with changes to immigration policy and escalations with foreign affairs, on July 4, President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law, which is estimated to increase deficits by $3.4 trillion over the next 10 years, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. The law will increase federal spending by $325 billion, which will mostly be focused on the military and immigration enforcement. The process of getting this bill signed into law, however, was not a seamless process.
Although the Republican Party has the majority over the house, there were still some Republicans who voted against the bill, including Rep. Thomas Massie and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick. The House of Representatives narrowly approved the bill in a 218–214 vote, but its passage was delayed when Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries delivered the longest speech in the chamber’s history. The speech lasted for eight hours and 33 minutes.
More recently, a devastating shooting in Minneapolis on Aug. 27 killed two children and injured 18 others. Police identified the suspect who opened fire outside Annunciation Catholic School as 23-year-old Robin Westman. The gunman opened fire through the windows of a church at the school, killing one 8-year-old and a 10-year-old. Westman was later found dead due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
This shooting resparked the debate over American gun laws, with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison pushing for change on federal gun reform, with specific hopes to re-evoke the Federal Assault Weapons Ban of 1994.
For more information on these issues and and updates on local and national politics week-to-week, search ‘Manhattan Caucus’ on mcquad.org.