Stephen Dinan
Articles by Stephen Dinan
Appeals court backs feds in Portland protest fight
A federal appeals court late Thursday halted a lower judge's ruling that the Justice Department said had tied the hands of law enforcement trying to quell riots in Portland, Oregon. Published August 28, 2020
House Democrats move to hold Pompeo in contempt
House Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel said Friday he's starting contempt of Congress proceedings against Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for refusing to work with his committee's investigations of President Trump and his team. Published August 28, 2020
Ted Wheeler, Portland mayor, gets fed up with violent protests: ‘Enough is enough’
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler took aim Wednesday at what he called "a few dozen individuals engaged in violence" who he said have allowed the Oregon city to be wrongly portrayed as a "dark dystopia" by President Trump and others. Published August 27, 2020
Tony H. Pham, new ICE director: History as refugee lends credibility to job
Tony H. Pham, whose family fled Saigon in 1975 and rebuilt their lives in Virginia, winning American citizenship a decade later, told The Washington Times in an exclusive interview that it was "humbling" to be named this week as the senior official performing the duties of director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Published August 26, 2020
Portland protesters sue Trump over DHS deployment to quell riots
Portland protesters filed a lawsuit against President Trump and the Homeland Security Department on Wednesday, saying the deployment of additional federal officers to quell attacks on the federal courthouse was illegal and unconstitutional. Published August 26, 2020
Lezmond Mitchell, Navajo murderer, executed
The federal government carried out its fourth execution this year on Wednesday, putting to death Lezmond Mitchell, who murdered a 63-year-old grandmother and her 9-year-old granddaughter in 2001. Published August 26, 2020
Democrat governors sending COVID patients into nursing homes probed by DOJ
The Justice Department said it is probing four Democratic-led states that pushed nursing homes to admit new residents during the coronavirus, despite heightened risks to the elderly population from contracting COVID-19. Published August 26, 2020
Feds say man who stabbed NYPD officer was illegal immigrant with radical Islamic ties
The man who stabbed a New York City police officer in early June was an illegal immigrant from Bosnia who was motivated by support for violent Islamic extremism, the Justice Department revealed Wednesday in bringing charges against the man. Published August 26, 2020
Kajla wins TSA’s ‘Cutest Canine’
Kajla, a 5-year-old Vizsla who works as an explosives detection dog screening passengers at a Hawaii airport, has been named TSA's cutest canine for 2020. Published August 26, 2020
Smugglers plead guilty after leading three women to death on U.S.-Mexico border
Two Mexican migrant smugglers pleaded guilty Tuesday to contributing to the deaths of three illegal immigrant women, whom they led across the border in February, then abandoned to perish in the jaws of a snowstorm. Published August 25, 2020
DHS’ citizenship agency cuts services to avert furlough
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said Tuesday that it will avert a massive furlough of its workforce -- but the price will be severe cuts to services, including delaying naturalizations. Published August 25, 2020
ICE family detention facilities running at 7% capacity during coronavirus pandemic
The government's facilities that detain migrant children are running at just 7% capacity during coronavirus, officials revealed this week, as Homeland Security and the Health and Human Services Department work to try to prevent a devastating outbreak. Published August 25, 2020
Illegal immigrant nabbed at border dies of coronavirus
An illegal immigrant caught at the border last month while infected with the coronavirus died Monday, Homeland Security said. Published August 24, 2020
Feliz Missael Alva, illegal immigrant, charged with shooting gun during Denver protests
Federal prosecutors hauled an illegal immigrant to court Monday on charges of unlawful possession of a firearm after police said they saw him pull out a handgun and shoot it in the sky, near where police and media helicopters were circling, during racial justice protests in May. Published August 24, 2020
Republicans rally around Donald Trump at RNC convention
President Trump on Monday basked in the adorning glow of the Republican National Convention and declared: "Success brings unity." Published August 24, 2020
Joe Biden counters Republican National Convention programming with Republican supporters
As the GOP kicked off its national convention Monday, Democratic presidential nominee Joseph R. Biden countered with his own Republicans. Published August 24, 2020
Margaret Hunter, Duncan Hunter wife, sentenced after ‘cooperation’ in corruption case
Margaret Hunter was granted a lenient sentence by a federal judge Monday who said she deserved credit for helping prosecutors make a corruption case against her husband, former Rep. Duncan Hunter. Published August 24, 2020
DHS announces reboot of DACA, promises stricter approach to backdoor citizenship
The government's legal immigration agency said Monday that it will give strict scrutiny to DACA recipients who try to use a backdoor path to citizenship, as the Department of Homeland Security finalized plans for restarting the program after a Supreme Court decision this summer. Published August 24, 2020
NASA-funded scientist charged with also working for China
A NASA-funded scientist has been charged with fraud and conspiracy, federal prosecutors announced Monday, saying he was working as a Chinese researcher at the same time he was taking U.S. government money. Published August 24, 2020
Trump Republican National Convention speakers in 2016 see hard times
A striking number of those who were willing to stand up and be counted backing the president in 2016 -- at a time when many in the GOP and elsewhere shunned him -- have struggled to thrive in the ongoing Trump insurgency. Published August 23, 2020
