For immigrant families, a “Christmas of immense pain”
December 26th, 20250 By Araceli Martinez Janeth López, a mother of three kids, is desperate. Her fiancé, Fredy Sandoval, was deported to Nicaragua after being held in detention for three weeks. “I wouldn’t wish on anyone a Christmas like the one we will have this year,” said López, 39, a resident of Paso Robles, located along California’s...
Trump pushes “self-deportation” plan with $3,000 incentive for undocumented migrants
December 25th, 20250 WASHINGTON, D.C. – In an effort to encourage undocumented immigrants to voluntarily “self-deport”, the Trump administration announced on Monday that it is tripling the financial incentive offered to those who choose to leave the United States on their own, increasing the payment from $1,000 to $3,000. The U.S. Department of...
Washington analysts are misreading voters on Israel and Palestine
December 19th, 20250 U.S. voters’ attitudes towards the Israeli Palestinian conflict have changed, but media commentators and political consultants haven’t figured that out. They are stuck in the past with outdated assumptions about the electorate and as a result continue to operate from an old playbook. A feature article in last week’s Washington...
When comedy meets conscience: Tucker Carlson, Theo Von and the question America cannot avoid
December 19th, 20250 Tucker Carlson’s appearance on Theo Von’s podcast This Past Weekend unfolded less like a structured interview and more like a long unguarded conversation that drifted toward subjects most mainstream platforms approach cautiously. Theo Von’s curious and disarming style gave Carlson room to speak without the time limits or tonal...
Dismissing politics as “dirty” is wrong and self-defeating
December 19th, 20250 I’m often struck by how often I meet people who think that all politics are dirty. They view politics as innately unethical, something they should avoid altogether. They stereotype politicians as dishonest and corrupt. I spent decades working in politics, and I can say with confidence that this view is mistaken and deeply unfair....
U.S. Senate passes $900B defense budget, includes Syria sanctions repeal
December 19th, 20250 WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate approved the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), authorizing a record defense budget exceeding $900 billion, including $400 million to fund weapons for Ukraine and a conditional decision to repeal the stringent Caesar Act sanctions on Syria. The legislation passed the Senate...
Trump orders review to label Muslim Brotherhood branches as foreign terrorist organizations
December 5th, 20250 WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Trump has signed an executive order directing his administration to begin the process of formally designating certain branches of the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations. Under this executive order, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent must work with...
Netanyahu’s pardon bid: How the war on Gaza, an ICC warrant and U.S. politics are reshaping accountability
December 5th, 20250 On November 30, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu officially submitted a request for a presidential pardon to Isaac Herzog, the president of Israel. This dramatic move seeks to end his long running corruption trial, a case that has hung over Israeli politics for years and has often reflected the deep fractures within the country....
Trump calls Somali immigrants “garbage”: “I don’t want them in our country; they should go back where they came from”
December 5th, 20250 WASHINGTON, D.C. – In highly hostile and openly racist remarks directed at immigrants of Somali origin, President Trump said during a lengthy administration meeting on Tuesday that he does not want any more Somali immigrants in the United States, claiming Somali Americans “do not contribute anything” and that “about 88 percent...
Trump administration halts immigration and naturalization for applicants from 19 restricted countries
December 5th, 20250 WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Wednesday, citing security concerns and the need to protect “the future of the United States”, the Trump administration halted immigration and naturalization procedures for thousands of applicants from 19 countries currently subject to travel ban restrictions, including Yemen, Somalia, Libya and Sudan. The...
UNSC 2803: The U.S.-Israeli scheme to partition Gaza and break the Palestinian will
December 5th, 20250 United Nations Security Council Resolution 2803 is destined to fail. That failure will come at a price: more Palestinian deaths, extensive destruction and the expansion of Israeli violence to the West Bank and elsewhere in the Middle East. Why UNSC Resolution 2803 is doomed to fail The resolution, passed on November 14, was a...
Our system of checks and balances needs attention
December 5th, 20250 Checks and balances are essential to our representative democracy. Under our system of government, the legislative, executive and judicial branches provide balance and prevent each other from growing too powerful. The American people have supported this arrangement. My concern is that the checks and balances have eroded. The system is...The waning loyalist: How America is turning away while its weapons continue to devour Gaza
There are moments in history when a powerful illusion finally breaks. For decades the illusion of unwavering American devotion to Israel felt unshakeable. It governed policy, shaped public opinion and crafted a political world in which any criticism of Israel was treated as a dangerous trespass. Yet today that illusion trembles. Bit by...
Poll: Trump’s approval rating falls to lowest of his term over prices and the Epstein files
November 22nd, 20250 President Trump's approval rating has fallen to its lowest in his second term, largely due to discontent with the economy and his ties to notorious pedophile sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, which lasted four days and ended on Monday, saw Trump's approval rating fall to 38 percent. On Tuesday, the...
Far-right agitators target Dearborn, residents and leaders push back against Islamophobia
November 22nd, 20252 On Tuesday, Dearborn witnessed limited scuffles between anti-Muslim demonstrators and some local residents during a march called for by Republican gubernatorial candidate Anthony Hudson, even after he walked back his earlier negative remarks about the city, which he had accused of enforcing Islamic Sharia law, citing stereotypical images......
No end in sight to Israel’s wars
November 21st, 20250 In the days after October 7, 2023, then-President Biden cautioned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to make the same mistakes the U.S. made following 9/11. Biden never publicly spelled out his meaning, but it was understood as a warning to Netanyahu: Don’t overreact or overreach, as President George W. Bush had done by...
The American people want Congress to do its job
November 20th, 20250 It caught my attention recently when two senators issued a news release about trying to repeal laws that authorize the president to use military force against Iraq. This is a positive effort for several reasons. It deserves support. First, as the senators, Indiana Republican Todd Young and Virginia Democrat Tim Kaine, point out, the......
Protest outside U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens’ office in Farmington Hills over millions received from AIPAC
November 14th, 20250 FARMINGTON HILLS — Detroit’s branch of CODEPINK, the national anti-war feminist organization, held a protest on Monday outside the Farmington Hills district office of U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, a Michigan Democrat, denouncing her decision to place “foreign interests above the interests of her constituents.” The protest centered on...
Megyn Kelly and the new conservative revolt against Israel first politics
November 13th, 20250 Megyn Kelly has long been known as a sharp interviewer who occupies the moderate space inside conservative media. She built her reputation on tough questions, cool analysis and an ability to challenge anyone who sat across from her. In recent years, however, her voice has taken on a new charge. She is openly rejecting the political...
What Zohran Mamdani’s victory means for the Democratic establishment, and for Trump
November 7th, 20250 A grassroots revolution in America’s most powerful city challenges the old political order from within By Ali MansourThe Arab American News Zohran Mamdani’s stunning and historical election as mayor of New York City is far more than a change in name or a passing victory for a new progressive figure. It is a seismic political...
The end of blind loyalty: Why America must reconsider its ties to Israel
November 7th, 20250 The world has become a witness to unimaginable suffering. In Gaza, entire families have been erased from the registry of the living. Children, once filled with laughter, now silenced by hunger, dust and fear, stare blankly from hospital beds that have no medicine in hospitals that no longer have walls. Every explosion feels like an echo......
FBI raids in Dearborn spark outrage and doubt in the Arab American community
November 7th, 20250 Three young Arab Americans charged with terrorism-related offenses after alleged ISIS-inspired Halloween plot; community leaders decry “reckless hysteria” and “Islamophobic targeting” DEARBORN — Three young Arab Americans, aged between 19 and 20, are facing terrorism-related charges after being arrested by the Federal...
Political violence undermines our democracy
November 7th, 20250 I was in Congress for 34 years. During that time, I attended scores, possibly hundreds of public events. They were held in all kinds of places, in nearly every circumstance that you can imagine. I can recall only one incident of potential violence. There were sometimes heated disagreements, but almost never did people reject the......
The recurring struggle for the soul of America
October 31st, 20250 You Have Your America, I Have My America: Lessons from Gibran and the Struggle for Democracy A century ago, Khalil Gibran wrote a love poem to Lebanon, "You have your Lebanon, I have my Lebanon." He spoke of his affection for the Lebanese people’s generosity and hospitality and Lebanon’s beauty in contrast to its bickering...
Trump administration tightens U.S. citizenship test requirements
October 24th, 20250 WASHINGTON, D.C. — On October 20 the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) started implementing new changes introduced by President Trump’s administration to the oral portion of the U.S. naturalization test. Under the revised rules for the civics test, which measures green card holders’ knowledge of U.S. history,......
