The Terrorism Warning Lights Are Blinking Red Again | What Americans Really Think About Immigration | Releasing Migrant Linked to Terrorism into the U.S.

Wray is not the only senior official issuing warnings. Since he became commander of United States Central Command (CENTCOM) in 2022, General Erik Kurilla has been pointing out the worrying capabilities of the terrorist groups his forces are fighting in the Middle East and South Asia. These include al Qaeda, the Islamic State (also known as ISIS), and especially Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K), the ISIS affiliate that operates in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Christine Abizaid, the outgoing director of the National Counterterrorism Center, described “an elevated global threat environment” while speaking at a conference in Doha last month. And in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee just last week, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, speaking about the possibility of a terrorist attack on the United States, said that the “threat level … has gone up enormously.”

Trump’s Vows of ‘Revenge’ Against His Opponents Gain Volume  (Ro Garver, VOA News)
Former President Donald Trump has been increasingly clear about his intention to use the power of the presidency to seek revenge on those he considers his political enemies if his bid to retake the White House is successful in the November elections.
Trump’s promises of retaliation are not new. Since entering the political arena in 2015, he has used the politics of grievance to motivate many of his supporters. While addressing a crowd last year at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump declared, “I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”
However, in the days after he was found guilty of 34 felony counts in a New York state court last month, a case in which he has not yet been sentenced, Trump’s promises of revenge have not been made on behalf of his supporters, but as a reaction to his own personal legal difficulties.
Political scientist James A. Morone, a professor at Brown University, told VOA that Trump’s explicit pledge to use the power of the federal government to persecute his political enemies has no clear parallel in the country’s history.
“This is really unprecedented for a president to be doing this,” Morone said. “And really, the historical precedents are quite the contrary.”
Even after the Civil War, Morone said, there were no prosecutions of prominent former Confederate officials and military officers. Former Confederate President Jefferson Davis was arrested and charged with treason, but he was never prosecuted, and the charges against him were eventually dropped, allowing him to return to private life as a U.S. citizen.
Morone said that Trump’s rhetoric is particularly worrisome because it sends a message to current and future public officials who may feel they need to demonstrate their loyalty to him.
“Every time he gives a speech or an interview that says, ‘Revenge is coming. Revenge can be good,’ they’ll be sitting around thinking, ‘OK … let’s think of what we can do to put ourselves in good standing as Trump warriors,’ ” Morone said.
“You could easily imagine it leading to real harm,” he said.

California Public University Academics End Pro-Palestinian Strike Under Court Order  (Steve Gorman, Reuters)
Thousands of University of California academic workers who went on strike at six campuses protesting administrators’ response to pro-Palestinian protests returned to the job on Monday under court order, but their union vowed more protests to come. An Orange County Superior Court judge late on Friday granted a temporary restraining order sought by the university, which asserted that the walkout stemmed from non-labor issues and that it violated the no-strike clause in the union’s contract. University officials had originally petitioned the California Public Employment Relations Board, but the panel twice rejected their requests for an injunction. Unionized academic researchers, graduate teaching assistants and post-doctoral scholars walked off the job over what they called unfair labor practices in the university’s handling of pro-Palestinian demonstrations in recent weeks.

Biden Administration Tries to Plug Loophole That Released Migrant Linked to Terrorism into the U.S.  (Julia Ainsley, NC News)
The Biden administration is giving immigration judges and asylum officers more access to classified information to help them determine which migrants might have ties to terrorism or pose a threat to public safety. The change in policy follows an April 11 NBC News story that revealed an Afghan migrant on the terrorist watchlist was released on bond by an immigration judge in Texas after prosecutors from Immigration and Customs Enforcement withheld information about a possible connection to terrorism because the evidence was classified. Instead of arguing that the man was a national security risk, the prosecutors argued he was a flight risk, two sources familiar with the case said. Mohammad Kharwin, 48, was caught crossing the border in 2023, but released because the Border Patrol lacked biometric information connecting him to the terror watchlist.

What Americans Really Think About Immigration  (Jerusalem Demsas, The Atlantic)
Activists may not want to hear it, but the truth is immigration is a political loser. This is the sort of political analysis we’ve heard from centrist and liberal political operatives wary of repeating the mistakes of 2016. That was the year the British public voted to leave the European Union, sending shockwaves through the West. The Brexit vote was largely seen as driven by xenophobia—Leavers warned that remaining in the EU would allow migrants to flow unchecked across the channel. And across an ocean, many heralded Donald Trump’s victory as proof that the American public was hostile to newcomers and would no longer tolerate significant levels of immigration.
But just last week, the Biden administration issued a rule seeking to make it harder for people to request asylum in the United States. It’s a decision made in the context of the president’s tough reelection chances and reflects the hope some have that cracking down at the border could gain him some political points.
Attitudes toward immigration—particularly in the U.S.—are a lot more complicated than many political commentators would have you believe. Vaguely cracking down at the border often doesn’t address the very real concerns people have about how immigration policy is working. Views of immigration are highly contingent on the method of entry and the perceived scarcity of jobs and housing—not to mention the country of origin of the incoming immigrants and the intangible feeling about whether the country “controls” its own borders or if people are gaming the system by coming illegally.