Trump’s new immigration ban could expand to include 32 countries: live updates

The Trump administration is considering expanding its travel ban to 32 countries after the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., last week, CBS News reported.

The new list of countries is not immediately clear. The Department of Homeland Security told the outlet that it would announce the new additions “soon.”

The current travel ban applies to 19 nations.

Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national who was granted asylum earlier this year, has been accused of shooting the West Virginia National Guard members. One of them has died and the other is in serious condition.

On Tuesday, the president halted all immigration applications from the 19 countries that were already under travel restrictions.

Congress members on both sides of the aisle have sharply criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after the Washington Post reported that he verbally ordered to “kill everybody” during the first Venezuelan boat strike in September.

Hegseth has vehemently denied making the spoken order.

The first strike against a suspected drug-carrying vessel in the Caribbean left two survivors. His admiral launched a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s order, the Post reported. But Hegseth said he didn’t ‘stick around’ to see the second strike and only learned about it hours later.

“We don’t kill two survivors who aren’t posing an imminent threat to anybody,” Nebraska GOP Rep. Don Bacon told CNN, adding he thinks if someone executed the strike should be “held accountable” — “and it should be at the top, not at the bottom.”

“Donald Trump is learning the hard way what happens when you pick a Fox News host to lead a massively complex, life-or-death federal agency,” Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer wrote on X.

“Hegseth’s constant failures are exactly what you get from a reckless, insecure, and unqualified Secretary of Defense—it’s embarrassing and dangerous. And now, instead of owning up to his role in this strike, Hegseth is cowardly shifting blame to members of the military.”

Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin similarly said, referring to the Post’s article: “Secretary Hegseth should resign, but additionally, if this reporting is true, President Trump should fire the Secretary, as he did with other underperforming cabinet members in his first Administration.”

The Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday that it launched an immigration operation in New Orleans, Louisiana, the latest target in President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

It’s not immediately clear how many agents were deployed in the Big Easy. ABC News reported over the weekend that about 200 Border Patrol agents were expected to arrive this month.

Locals have been bracing for the operation for weeks, with some local businesses posting signs on their windows that read: “NO ICE ACCESS IN THIS BUILDING.”

Louisiana marks the first GOP-led state that the Trump administration has targeted for its immigration crackdown. However, New Orleans is led by Democratic Mayor LaToya Cantrell.

“Sanctuary policies endanger American communities by releasing illegal criminal aliens and forcing DHS law enforcement to risk their lives to remove criminal illegal aliens that should have never been put back on the streets,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.

A memorandum issued Tuesday by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said that a “comprehensive re-review, potential interview, and re-interview of all aliens from high-risk countries of concern” who entered the U.S. on or after January 20, 2021, was necessary.

Rhian Lubin has the story.

Several Democrats have called out the president’s apparent sleepiness during Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting.

Trump used to frequently refer to his predecessor as “sleepy” Joe Biden. At the Cabinet meeting, however, Trump looked like he was battling to keep his eyes open.

“What exactly is going on here? Anyone else deeply disturbed to see that the President of the United States cannot stay awake during a cabinet meeting?” New Mexico Rep. Melanie Stansbury wrote on X.

California Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu said: “Donald Trump is not fit to be President. Sleepy Don can’t even stay awake at his own televised Cabinet meeting.”

Posting a video of the meeting, California Governor Gavin Newsom succinctly said: “Donald has fallen asleep in his own cabinet meeting.”

Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis defended the tight Tennessee race, saying the party out of power typically performs better in the midterm elections.

“Special, off-year, and midterm elections historically benefit the party out of power because its voters are motivated to vote, while voters of the incumbent party become more complacent,” he wrote on X Wednesday morning.

“This is more glaring for today’s GOP because a chunk of voters who put them in power in 2024 are Trump-specific voters; they will vote GOP down ballot when Trump is running but won’t turn out to vote for a typical congressman in a midterm when Trump isn’t running.”

The Justice Department filed federal lawsuits against six Democratic-led states — Delaware, Maryland, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington — for failure to produce their statewide voter registration lists.

The DOJ filed similar lawsuits against other states earlier this year.

“Accurate voter rolls are the cornerstone of fair and free elections, and too many states have fallen into a pattern of noncompliance with basic voter roll maintenance,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement.

Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said that such information is protected by federal and state law.

“I’m not going to turn over the list to the Department of Justice,” Hobbs said Tuesday. “I’m just not going to hand that over to them.”

Aftyn Behn’s loss in the special election to represent Tennessee’s 7th congressional district definitely provides Democrats with a reason to look forward with anticipation to the 2026 midterms.

It also represents a clear reminder that no outcome is certain.

Matt Van Epps’s victory means that Republicans will notch their majority in the House up by one seat — a seat they’d previously held until the surprise resignation of Rep. Mark Green in July, less than halfway through his term. Green opted for employment in the private sector over further service in Congress, where he was in his second term.

But the comparatively narrow margin in a district Donald Trump had won by 22 points in 2024 is a clear sign that the Democrats are in a relatively stronger position than the party was last year.

• Republican candidate Matt Van Epps won Tennessee’s special election Tuesday, defeating the Democratic state lawmaker Aftyn Behn
• Van Epps, an Army veteran, defeated Behn, a progressive state legislator, in the race for Tennessee’s 7th Congressional seat by nine points
• The race was surprisingly close, with Behn polling just two points behind Van Epps a week before election day
• President Donald Trump celebrated the win on Truth Social and claimed it had been “a great night” for the Republicans, but others in the party are worried
• Behn appeared upbeat following the election defeat and said she would consider running again in the future
• In his victory speech, Van Epps acknowledged the significance of Trump when he said, “Running from Trump is how you lose. Running with Trump is how you win.”
• The result in Tennessee, following Democratic wins in Virginia, New Jersey, New York, and Georgia in November, has made some Republicans nervous ahead of the 2026 midterms

Republicans have spoken candidly about their concerns for the midterms following Tennessee’s special election, which was surprisingly close.

At one point, early polling had Democratic candidate Aftyn Behn just two points behind Matt Van Epps.

But he edged to victory Tuesday night by nine points.

Still, the drop to single digits from Donald Trump’s 22 points in 2024 has worried some Republicans.

“If our victory margin is single digits, the conference may come unhinged,” one House Republican told Politico before the polls closed Tuesday.

“Tonight is a sign that 2026 is going to be a b**** of an election cycle,” another anonymous House Republican told the outlet. Republicans can survive if we play team and the Trump administration officials play smart. Neither is certain.”

“It was dangerous,” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz told Fox News. “We could have lost this district because the people who showed up, many of them are the ones that are motivated by how much they dislike President Trump.”