Trump Targets Birthright Citizenship Again, and Activists Describe Abuse in Israeli Custody

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**Tracy Mumford** (0:32)
From the New York Times, it's The Headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Friday, August 7th. Here's what we're covering.

**SPEAKER_5** (0:44)
We have a few subjects that we're going to discuss. All important, but one in particular important, having to do with birthright citizenship.

**Tracy Mumford** (0:52)
At the White House yesterday, President Trump took aim again at birthright citizenship, signing a pair of executive orders to try and restrict who can automatically become an American citizen.

**SPEAKER_5** (1:04)
We had a very unfortunate decision in the Supreme Court concerning birthright. It was close, but a very, very unfortunate decision. So we're making adjustments.

**Tracy Mumford** (1:16)
The move came just weeks after the Supreme Court rejected the president's previous effort to end birthright citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Trump's new orders are focused in part on limiting so-called birth tourism, where women travel to the US so their newborns can become Americans. And it would put in place other restrictions on who could qualify for citizenship. Trump has long blasted birthright citizenship as a scam that attracts migrants. For now, it's not clear how the orders would be enforced. And one Department of Homeland Security official threw cold water on the birth tourism order specifically, telling the Times that it basically just re-states existing immigration law. Trump's renewed efforts to limit birthright citizenship will almost certainly face new litigation and court challenges. Still, experts say that the Trump administration is fundamentally re-shaping the country's immigration policies, with more than 700 immigration restrictions being imposed since Trump returned to office.
One professor at Cornell University told the Times, quote, The Trump administration is winning its war on immigrants. As a result, the United States has net negative migration for the first time in 50 years.
Now, two other updates on the administration. The Times has learned that the CIA has secretly set up a Cuba task force, turning up the pressure campaign on the Cuban government as President Trump demands that the island make economic and political changes. The task force has begun adding case officers who recruit and manage spies, as well as officers who specialize in covert operations, according to people briefed on the plan. They say the task force is supposed to try and create fissures among the political elite in Cuba, in the hopes of pressuring Cubans to replace leaders the White House sees as anti-American.
For months, the administration has had a crippling oil embargo in place on the island, and Trump has said, quote, I think I can do anything I want with it. They're a very weakened nation right now. The CIA declined to comment on the task force, but this is not the first time the agency has been involved in Cuba. In the 1960s, the CIA set up a task force, whose members oversaw the failed US-backed mission to overthrow the Cuban government, known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion.
And the Trump administration says it's moving forward with a plan to overhaul Head Start, a key federal child care program for preschool-age kids. Right now, Head Start, which is aimed at helping the nation's poorest families, serves about 700,000 children, and it has a lot of regulations, like curriculum requirements for math and literacy, and ensuring kids get regular medical and dental screenings. But the Times has learned the administration plans to remove most of those, even a requirement that kids brush their teeth after meals. The administration says the changes will streamline the program, and it estimates that by scrapping class size limits specifically, Head Start can serve more children.

**SPEAKER_3** (4:38)
Trump administration officials say that what this is really about is lifting onerous federal regulations, sending control of this program back to the states. And sort of a big thing they say, which will probably happen, is allowing hundreds of thousands more children to access the program.

**Tracy Mumford** (4:57)
My colleague Coral Davenport has been covering the proposed changes. She says, last year, the administration tried to freeze funding for Head Start altogether, saying that would end, quote, radical indoctrination of our children.
That effort failed, but the new proposal could still fundamentally change the six-decade-old program.