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Michigan State University doctoral students attend the university's doctoral commencement ceremony on May 5, 2023. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance) WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security is planning to drastically increase the fee for hiring high-skilled foreign workers within the United States to $100,000, according to a preview of a proposed rule published Monday.  The administration  noted in the Federal Register that it plans to use the fee to “serve as a dedicated revenue mechanism to help recover a portion of the federal government’s costs of administering the lawful immigration system, including activities carried out by DHS” and the departments of Justice, State and Labor. Currently, it costs anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000 for an employer to hire a highly skilled foreign worker through the H-1B visa program. Congress created the program in the 1990s and visas are capped annually at 65,000, with an additional 20,000 for foreign workers who graduate w...

Maigen Sullivan, co-founder of Invisible Histories, speaks at the Department of Archives and History on Thursday, June 15, 2023. In March 2026, the organization moved from Birmingham to Charlotte, North Carolina. (Jemma Stephenson/Alabama Reflector) Key Points Invisible Histories is a non-profit organization that researches and archives LGBTQ+ history. In June 2023, Maigen Sullivan, one of the co-founders of Invisible Histories, gave a talk at the Alabama Department of Archives and History about LGBTQ+ history in the state which sparked attacks against Sullivan and the department. The organization was previously based in Birmingham but recently moved to Charlotte, North Carolina this year for reasons including funding, space, and the hostility within the state.  Before June 2023, Invisible Histories flew under the radar in Alabama.  The non-profit organization, which archives and researches southern LGBTQ+ history, began collecting ...

Megan Hahn teaches class attendees how to use an online health portal at the Swanton Senior Center in Swanton, Ohio. Hahn is a digital navigator with the Northwestern Ohio Community Action Commission. The group’s work is supported by local, state, and federal grants. (Northwestern Ohio Community Action Commission) Key points A federal judge handed digital equity advocates a mixed ruling in their fight against Trump. The win: He blocked Trump’s attempt to unilaterally kill a $2.75 billion Digital Equity Act grant program. The catch: He agreed it’s unconstitutional to use race as a factor to award the money. A federal judge in July gave digital equity advocates a partial victory against President Donald Trump, stopping his attempt to unilaterally kill a multibillion-dollar grant program Congress created. But U.S. District Judge John D. Bates, in a 35-page opinion , also agreed with the administration that it was unconstitutional for t...

President Donald Trump speaks during an event in the Oval Office on August 6, 2026. Trump signed an executive order during the event denying birthright citizenship to children of foreign diplomats after a loss at the U.S. Supreme Court limited an earlier order. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has not slowed his pursuit of central policy goals and personal passions, even after major setbacks at the U.S. Supreme Court and other federal courts. The high court in its 2026 term delivered blows to Trump’s core campaign promises to upend a constitutional provision governing who becomes a U.S. citizen at birth and to swiftly address the growing national debt with “trillions of dollars” raised by taxing imports.  The justices also ruled the president cannot fire, without cause, Fed Board Gov. Lisa Cook and deny her a chance to plead her case. And a lower court blocked Trump from installing his name on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts...

U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill ruled earlier this month that the state of Idaho cannot regulate abortion when a pregnancy threatens a person’s physical or mental health. Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador has appealed the decision. (Otto Kitsinger for the Idaho Capital Sun) A federal court ruling out of Idaho has potential implications for exceptions in abortion bans nationwide and could eventually end up before the U.S. Supreme Court to decide. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill ruled earlier this month that the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides a narrow right for a pregnant patient to obtain an abortion if the pregnancy could be a risk to their health, including their mental health. It’s the first ruling since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health in 2022 to find that the U.S. Constitution includes a right to abortion access in certain situations.   Mary Ziegler, a legal historian and law professor at the University of Californi...

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters in Washington, D.C., pictured in Feb. 3, 2026. (Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — Fentanyl seizures decreased by 39% during the first year of the second Trump administration after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shifted the Department of Homeland Security’s criminal investigations arm to conducting immigration enforcement, according to a report government investigators published Friday.  Agents with Homeland Security Investigations, a subagency of DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, reported an “all hands-on deck” environment toward immigration enforcement began in January 2025, according to the  DHS Office of Inspector General report . “With ICE dedicating more staff hours to immigration investigations, staffing hours for fentanyl investigations declined,” the report said. The report found that the hours dedicated to fentanyl investigations for fiscal 2025 declined by more than 250,000 ho...