Recent decisions on immigration, public safety, and federal oversight highlight the administration’s expanding influence.
Trump’s 33rd week brought updates on the National Guard, immigration, public policy and legislation. As the unprecedented takeover of Washington, D.C., continues, Trump called for deploying the National Guard to Baltimore and Chicago. This comes after a federal judge ruled that Trump’s deployment of the Guard to Los Angeles in June violated federal law.
As anti-immigrant sentiment continues, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth approved more than 600 military lawyers to serve as temporary immigration judges, following a previous report from The Introspective highlighting that temporary immigration judges no longer need experience in immigration law.
In legislation, House Republicans launched a new panel to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, aiming to review security and intelligence failures that allowed the Capitol to be breached. At the same time, as tensions with Harvard University continue over allegations of antisemitism, a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration’s freezing of nearly $2 billion in grants was unlawful, ordering the money unfrozen.
That same day, Florida became the first state to end all school vaccine mandates, raising concerns as viruses such as measles continue to spread. In response, the states of Oregon, Washington and California announced a health alliance independent of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) called the Western Health Alliance. Meanwhile, more than 1,000 Health and Human Services (HHS) staff called on Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to resign over disinformation.
As the Jeffrey Epstein scandal continues, the House Oversight Committee released thousands of files subpoenaed from the Department of Justice, with many oversight members noting that much of the material was already public knowledge. Meanwhile, victims of Epstein have begun creating their own list of associates linked to the late child sex offender.
National Guard and D.C. Takeover
As the unprecedented takeover of Washington, D.C., continues, Trump has called for deploying the National Guard to Baltimore and Chicago.
“Chicago is a hellhole right now, Baltimore is a hellhole right now,” Trump said Tuesday.
“Now, we’re going to do it anyway. We have the right to do it. Because I have an obligation to protect this country, and that includes Baltimore.”
He later called Baltimore “a very unsafe place” despite crime in the city dropping to historic lows.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker criticized Trump’s comments during a press conference with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, calling the president’s actions “unhinged.”
“No, I will not call the president asking him to send troops to Chicago,” Pritzker said.
“I’ve made that clear already.”
Despite a PBS report highlighting that Chicago is also experiencing historic drops in crime, Johnson said violence in the city stems from nearby states such as Indiana, where many guns have been trafficked to the nation’s third-largest city.
“Chicago will continue to have a violence problem as long as red states continue to have a gun problem,” Johnson said.
In a prior statement, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott criticized Trump, accusing the president of spreading “propaganda.”
“This is the latest effort by the president to distract from the issues he should be focused on — including the roller coaster of the U.S. economy thanks to his policies,” Scott said.
“When it comes to public safety in Baltimore, he should turn off the right-wing propaganda and look at the facts. Baltimore is the safest it’s been in over 50 years.”
He later emphasized the declining crime rates, noting that Baltimore is currently experiencing the lowest number of homicides in five decades.
“Baltimore has achieved historic progress, driving down shootings and homicides to historic lows, thanks to the collective efforts of the brave men and women of the Baltimore Police Department (BPD), my Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, our great partners in the Governor’s Office, the State’s Attorney’s Office, the Office of the Attorney General, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, federal law enforcement agencies, our community violence intervention ecosystem, and — above all — Baltimoreans across the city who have bought into our holistic, evidence-based approach to public safety,” Scott said in a press release.
“We are all in this together. Only together can we continue to build on and sustain these achievements.”
This comes after U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer ruled that Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles in June violated the Posse Comitatus Act, an 1878 law that prohibits military use for domestic law enforcement. Breyer noted that more than 300 National Guard members remain stationed there months after mobilization.
“Moreover, President Trump and Secretary Hegseth have stated their intention to call National Guard troops into federal service in other cities across the country — including Oakland and San Francisco, here in the Northern District of California — thus creating a national police force with the President as its chief,” he wrote.
“In fact, these violations were part of a top-down, systemic effort by defendants to use military troops to execute various sectors of federal law—the drug laws and the immigration laws at least —across hundreds of miles and over the course of several months, and counting.”
Los Angeles Ruling
Breyer later dismissed the administration’s defense that constitutional powers allowed Trump to override the Posse Comitatus Act.
“Under this ‘constitutional exception,’ as defendants call it, the President has inherent constitutional authority to protect federal property, federal personnel, and federal functions, so any actions that can be construed as such ‘protection’ are lawful in spite of the Posse Comitatus Act,” he wrote.
“This assertion is not grounded in the history of the Act, Supreme Court jurisprudence on executive authority, or common sense.”
Immigration
With anti-immigrant sentiment ongoing, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth approved more than 600 military lawyers to serve as temporary immigration judges.
“The department remains committed to continuing our support for our interagency partners, bringing the skill and dedication of America’s service members and civil servants to deliver justice, restore order and protect the American people,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement obtained by The Introspective. He added that the Department of Justice (DOJ) requested the agency identify “qualified judge advocates and civilian attorneys for details to serve as temporary immigration judges.”
A previous report detailed the DOJ announcing that temporary immigration judges no longer need experience in immigration law, enabling the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), a sub-agency of the DOJ, to appoint judges with the approval of Attorney General Pam Bondi.
At the same time, a federal appeals court blocked Trump from further utilizing the Alien Enemies Act—also known as the Alien and Sedition Acts—a 1798 law that allows the president to arrest and deport noncitizens during periods of war. This comes after a previous Introspective report detailed Trump invoking the law in March to deport alleged members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang to El Salvador, despite a judge prohibiting their deportation.
“A country’s encouraging its residents and citizens to enter this country illegally is not the modern-day equivalent of sending an armed, organized force to occupy, to disrupt or to otherwise harm the United States,” the court said.
“There is no finding that this mass immigration was an armed, organized force or forces.”
Alien Enemies Act Ruling
In a statement obtained by The Introspective, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) attorney Lee Gelernt, who represented the plaintiffs in the case, called the ruling “an incredibly important win reining in the administration’s view that it can simply declare an emergency without any oversight by the courts.”
“The Trump administration’s attempt to use a wartime statute during peacetime to regulate immigration was rightly shut down by the court,” he said.
“This is a critically important decision reining in the administration’s view that it can simply declare an emergency without any oversight by the courts.”
However, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson dismissed the ruling, claiming Trump did not violate the law.
“The authority to conduct national security operations in defense of the United States and to remove terrorists from the United States rests solely with the president,” she said.
Meanwhile, as Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip continues, the Trump administration suspended visa approvals for Palestinian passport holders.
“The Trump administration is taking concrete steps in compliance with U.S. law and our national security in regards to announced visa restrictions and revocations for Palestinian Authority passport holders,” a State Department spokesperson told CNN.
“Every visa decision is a national security decision, and the State Department is vetting and adjudicating visa decisions for PA passport holders accordingly.”
The policy does not apply to those applying for immigrant visas or to people applying for nonimmigrant visas using a different passport.
Investigations, Harvard University, and Health
House Republicans launched a new panel to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, aiming to review security and intelligence failures that allowed the Capitol to be breached.
“The evidence is irrefutable that there was more politics than there was truth in that,” said Rep. Barry Loudermilk, who will serve as chair of the committee.
“What we saw in the initial investigation, there was a lot more politics involved in decision-making than there ever should’ve been.”
In a press release, Rep. Jamie Raskin criticized the creation of a new committee, mentioning the previous Jan. 6 committee that was led by Democrats.
“They haven’t laid a glove on a single fact presented in the Report of the Select Committee on January 6 and all of their surreal counter-theories — ‘it was really ANTIFA! It was really the FBI!’ — are gone with the wind,” he wrote, adding that the new committee will “examine the constantly growing criminal records of all the hundreds of violent felons, cop-beaters and white nationalists who Donald Trump pardoned and released onto our streets on his first day in office.”
At the same time, amid ongoing tensions with Harvard University over allegations of antisemitism, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs ruled that the Trump administration’s freezing of nearly $2 billion in grant funding violated federal law, writing that there was “little connection between the research affected by the grant terminations and antisemitism.”
“In fact, a review of the administrative record makes it difficult to conclude anything other than that defendants used antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically motivated assault on this country’s premier universities, and did so in a way that runs afoul of the APA, the First Amendment and Title VI,” she wrote.
“Further, their actions have jeopardized decades of research and the welfare of all those who could stand to benefit from that research, as well as reflect a disregard for the rights protected by the Constitution and federal statutes.”
Harvard Ruling
In a statement, Harvard President Alan Garber celebrated the ruling, writing that the judge’s decision “affirms Harvard’s First Amendment and procedural rights, and validates our arguments in defense of the university’s academic freedom, critical scientific research and the core principles of American higher education.”
“Our principles will guide us on the path forward. We will continue to champion open inquiry and the free exchange of ideas, and to build a community in which all can thrive,” Garber wrote.
However, White House Press Secretary Liz Huston said the Trump administration will appeal the decision.
“Just as President Trump correctly predicted on the day of the hearing, this activist Obama-appointed judge was always going to rule in Harvard’s favor, regardless of the facts,” she said.
“We will immediately move to appeal this egregious decision, and we are confident we will ultimately prevail in our efforts to hold Harvard accountable.”
Meanwhile, Florida became the first state to repeal vaccine mandates, with Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo referring to the mandates as “slavery.”
“Who am I as a government or anyone else, who am I as a man standing here now, to tell you what you should put in your body?” he said.
“Who am I to tell you what your child should put in [their] body? I don’t have that right.”
He later emphasized that the state is not banning vaccinations outright, stating that people should be given a choice.
“You want to put whatever different vaccines in your body, God bless you. I hope you make an informed decision,” he said.
“You don’t want to put whatever vaccines in your body, God bless you. I hope you make an informed decision. That’s how it should be.”
Florida’s decision comes as California, Oregon and Washington State launched the Western Health Alliance—independent of the CDC—to provide unified vaccine recommendations for West Coast states, in light of ongoing tensions with the federal government.
“The CDC has become a political tool that increasingly peddles ideology instead of science, ideology that will lead to severe health consequences,” wrote California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek and Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson in a joint press release.
“California, Oregon and Washington will not allow the people of our states to be put at risk.”
Health and Human Services employees later signed a letter calling on Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to resign, alleging he is endangering the health of Americans.
“We swore an oath to support and defend the United States Constitution and to serve the American people. Our oath requires us to speak out when the Constitution is violated and the American people are put at risk,” the letter read.
“Thus, we warn the president, Congress and the public that Secretary Kennedy’s actions are compromising the health of this nation, and we demand Secretary Kennedy’s resignation.”
The letter was signed by employees from every HHS agency, including the CDC, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Jeffrey Epstein
As the Jeffrey Epstein scandal continues, the House Oversight Committee released more than 33,000 files related to the late child sex offender.
“On Aug. 5, Chairman Comer issued a subpoena for records related to Mr. Jeffrey Epstein, and the Department of Justice has indicated it will continue producing those records while ensuring the redaction of victim identities and any child sexual abuse material,” the committee said in a press release, including a link to access the files.
The files were criticized by Rep. Robert Gracia, as many of the documents released were already public knowledge, calling for “real transparency.”
“The 33,000 pages of Epstein documents James Comer has decided to ‘release’ were already mostly public information. To the American people—don’t let this fool you,” he said.
At the same time, victims and survivors of Epstein said they would be completing their own list of Epstein associates who were involved in the abuse.
“We will confidentially compile the names we all know were regularly in the Epstein world,” said Lisa Phillips, one of the survivors, to NBC News.
“It will be done by survivors, and for survivors.”
Phillips later urged the DOJ to release all files related to Epstein, emphasizing how many survivors are afraid of retaliation if they went public with the names themselves.
The Introspective 
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