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Alan Armstrong, left, Oklahoma’s newest U.S. senator, participates in a reenactment of his swearing-in at the U.S. Capitol on March 24, 2026, alongside his wife, Shelly Armstrong, and Iowa GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley, president pro tempore of the Senate. (Photo by Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom)  WASHINGTON —  Alan Armstrong , a Tulsa businessman, was sworn in Tuesday as Oklahoma’s newest U.S. senator. Armstrong temporarily fills the seat of  Markwayne Mullin , who was sworn in as U.S. Department of Homeland Security secretary earlier Tuesday.  The Senate on Monday  confirmed Mullin’s nomination to lead the agency responsible for carrying out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.  Armstrong was sworn in at the U.S. Capitol just hours after Oklahoma GOP Gov. Kevin Stitt appointed him to the post Tuesday morning at the Oklahoma state Capitol in Oklahoma City.  Iowa GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley, who serves as president pro tempore of the Se...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 9, 2024. (Photo by Jane Norman/States Newsroom) WASHINGTON — U.S. Supreme Court justices seemed split Tuesday on whether the Trump administration should be allowed to turn away asylum-seekers who present themselves at ports of entry at the U.S.-Mexico border. The question presented to the justices was whether migrants have to fully cross into the United States in order to have the right to apply for asylum and be processed, or if they can apply for asylum when they appear at a port of entry while on Mexico’s side of the border.  The policy requiring a full crossing, known as metering, is defunct, but the Trump administration is asking the high court to make a determination in order to potentially revive the practice for future use at the southern border. “This is an important tool in the government’s toolbox for dealing with border surges when they occur,” Vivek Suri, assistant to the U.S. solicitor general, told the court during oral argumen...

Federal immigration officers were at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Monday, March 23, 2026, to help with airport security as the partial shutdown continues. The airport was telling travelers to prepare for at least four-hour wait times to get through security Monday. (Photo by Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder) Airport security workers missed work Monday at the highest rate since a partial government shutdown began in mid-February, the Department of Homeland Security said, and the Trump administration sent immigration officials to some airports in an attempt to keep lines moving. Travelers reported hourslong security lines at major airports in Atlanta and Houston, while waits of 30 minutes or more were reported at several other hubs Monday. Nearly 3,500 Transportation Security Administration agents, roughly 11.8% of the scheduled nationwide workforce, called out from work Monday. TSA officers have been working without pay since the department that oversees ...

Election workers receive drop boxes for hand delivered mail-in ballots n North Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2024. Nevada is one of 14 states that counts mail ballots received after Election Day. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images) The U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative justices on Monday appeared skeptical of the validity of mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day, in a case that could potentially affect hundreds of thousands of voters during the upcoming midterm elections. The high court heard arguments on whether federal law overrides a Mississippi law that requires mail-in ballots that are postmarked on or before Election Day to be counted as long as they arrive within five business days of the election. Fourteen states have similar laws, which extend a “grace period” to ballots that arrive through the mail after polls close. Several conservative justices raised concerns with allowing ballots to arrive after Election Day, including whether voters could recall ballots once the...

President Donald Trump gives a speech at the World Economic Forum on Jan. 21, 2026 in Davos, Switzerland. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Monday said his administration is in talks with Iran about resolving the war, a claim that significantly tamped down oil prices and spurred market increases in Europe and the United States — though Iran denied any progress in negotiations. Writing on his social media platform, Truth Social, the president said the United States and Iran “HAVE HAD, OVER THE LAST TWO DAYS, VERY GOOD AND PRODUCTIVE CONVERSATIONS REGARDING A COMPLETE AND TOTAL RESOLUTION OF OUR HOSTILITIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST.”  Trump’s 109-word, all-caps  post brought the cost of Brent crude oil briefly below $100 a barrel, after his threat Saturday to bomb Iran’s major energy infrastructure spiked prices. The historic shock to the global energy market has caused gasoline prices to  soar across the U.S. to an average ...

Kilmar Abrego Garcia speaks to people who held a prayer vigil and rally on his behalf outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Baltimore, Maryland, on Aug. 25, 2025. Lydia Walther Rodriguez with CASA interprets for him. (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters) WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is again trying to send the wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the west African nation of Liberia and urging a federal judge to dismiss a bar on his removal, according to legal documents filed over the weekend.  Abrego Garcia, of Maryland, has agreed to be deported to Costa Rica, which will accept him as a refugee, and is fighting his removal to another third country. The Trump administration cannot remove him to his home country of El Salvador, after he was mistakenly deported there in 2025 and kept in a brutal Salvadoran prison.  His erroneous deportation cast a national spotlight on the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement. ...