Left-wing lawyers preparing to take on Trump
Left-wing lawyers are preparing to take on Donald Trump’s plans for mass deportations of illegal immigrants.
Civil rights groups and law firms have spent months analysing the president-elect’s statements on the campaign trail as part of plans to challenge those policies in the courts.
Mr Trump has repeatedly pledged to bring about the largest deportation of migrants in history, and said this week that there would be “no price tag” attached to what is expected to be a massive programme involving multiple federal agencies.
On Sunday, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) took out a full-page advert in The New York Times pledging to fight his deportation efforts.
“When you target immigrants, dissidents, and your political opponents – we will challenge you in the courts, at state legislatures, and in the streets,” it vowed.
The ACLU claimed to have brought hundreds of legal challenges to Mr Trump’s “anti-civil liberties agenda” in his first term, winning “landmark lawsuits” on “family separation, the US Census, and immigrants’ rights”.
“Any attempt to roll back the nation’s civil liberties on our watch will be hard fought and met with the full power of our resistance,” it added.
‘Blueprint’ to take on Trump
Immigration lawyers have spent months preparing for Mr Trump to launch a crackdown including large-scale workplace raids, asylum restrictions, and the dismantling of programmes that shield migrants from deportation.
Becca Heller, founder of the International Refugee Assistance Project, said she had a “blueprint” of what an incoming Trump administration would do.
“We had months and months to figure out how to protect people… none of us having any illusions about what we are up against this time,” she told The New York Times.
“Trump has told us what to expect – hate and persecution and concentration camps,” she said, referring to plans drawn up by the Republican’s advisers to build detention facilities which can hold up to 70,000 migrants.
Benjamin Johnson, who leads the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said his organisation had also been preparing litigation to challenge Mr Trump’s immigration promises.
The president-elect’s plans would violate his clients’ right to have their cases heard and properly processed under the law, he added.
Camille Mackler, chief executive of Immigration Arc, told the newspaper: “The Trump team might think they are ready. But so are we.”
Lee Gelernt, a lawyer for the ACLU, said: “We have spent the last nine months planning for this, and are prepared to go to court as often as necessary, just like the first time.”
Several Democrat governors, including California’s Gavin Newsom, have also pledged to fight Mr Trump enacting an immigration crackdown in their states following his election victory this week.
Mr Trump was forced to fight a series of long-running court battles during his first term in the White House, and it is unlikely that his second will be any different.
His “Muslim ban”, which stopped flights from several Muslim-majority countries and is widely expected to be revived, was blocked by the courts before it was finally upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018.
07:24 PM GMT
That’s all for now
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07:24 PM GMT
Pictured: Joe Biden heads to Delaware beach before leaving for White House
07:02 PM GMT
Harris aides ‘commited political malpractice’
Kamala Harris’ aides “committed political malpractice”, pollster Frank Luntz has said.
He told ABC News that the vice president should have focused on introducing herself to voters rather than launching attacks on Donald Trump.
“It was too much defining what Trump was. We all know what Trump is - we experienced him for four years,” he said.
“Whoever told her to focus on him committed political malpractice. You cannot change someone’s point of view on him - it was all about her.”
06:24 PM GMT
The 97pc Latino county where ‘nobody is scared to be a Republican anymore’
When he retired from the army and returned to his rural hometown on the South Texas border, Ross Barrera was judged for being a Republican.
Residents in Rio Grande City, a Democrat enclave which until Tuesday hadn’t elected a GOP candidate in over 128 years, teased the retired military colonel and accused him of abandoning his Mexican heritage.
When he wore his MAGA hat in public, people would shake their heads and try to take him to task about his politics.
Eight years later, the veteran holds up an enormous Trump/Vance 2024 sign as a convoy of trucks adorned with MAGA flags drive by honking their horns and flashing their hazard lights.
Read the full dispatch from Susie Coen, our US correspondent, here.
05:56 PM GMT
How Harris failed to answer ‘the money question’
Kamala Harris lost the presidential election because she failed to distance herself from Joe Biden, Bill Clinton’s former campaign manager has said.
James Carville said that Ms Harris’ claim in October that there was “not something that comes to mind” when asked if she would have done anything differently to Mr Biden was “devastating” to her campaign.
“We are in a 65 per cent wrong-track country, the country wants something different,” Mr Carville told The Bulwark podcast.
“And she’s asked, as is so often the case, in a friendly audience, on ‘The View,’ ‘How would you be different than Biden?’ That’s the one question that you exist to answer, alright? That is it. That’s the money question.
“And you freeze! You literally freeze and say, ‘Well, I can’t think of anything.’”
He added: “When we go back and history unearths this, it’s going to be right there... that’s the most devastating answer you could imagine.”
05:18 PM GMT
Kari Lake to lose Arizona senate race
Kari Lake has lost the Arizona Senate race, projections show.
Democrat Ruben Gallego will beat Ms Lake and replace outgoing independent senator Kyrsten Sinema, according to a forecast by Decision Desk HQ.
Mr Gallego, a former marine and congressman, led his Republican rival by 45,000 votes as of Sunday morning with 89 per cent of the vote tallied.
Other authorities are yet to call the race.
04:06 PM GMT
Eric Trump: Make America great again
Make America Great Again!
— Eric Trump (@EricTrump) November 9, 2024
03:50 PM GMT
Wealthy Democrats race to buy London boltholes
Wealthy Democrats are racing to snap up multi-million pound boltholes in London in the wake of Donald Trump’s US election win.
Mr Trump’s election triumph this week has sparked a flurry of interest from ultra-wealthy Americans who want to buy prime British property as a “safety net” because they disagree with the president-elect’s rhetoric, buying agents report.
Becky Fatemi, executive partner at Sotheby’s International Realty, said she received five calls in two days from Americans looking to move as an immediate reaction to the election result.
03:22 PM GMT
Bitcoin soars to record high after Trump win
Bitcoin soared to a record new high on Sunday as the price of the digital currency continues to rise in the wake of Donald Trump’s election victory.
The cryptocurrency reached almost £62,000 per coin shortly after 12am GMT, surpassing a previous high of £58,000 on Wednesday.
Its all-time previous peak of £57,000 was reached in March.
The price of Bitcoin has been rising since the election over sentiments that Donald Trump will ease regulations on cryptocurrencies.
Dogecoin, another cryptocurrency backed by Trump ally Elon Musk, surged by more than 15% after Tuesday’s election result was announced.
03:01 PM GMT
Republicans on verge of taking control of US House
The Republican Party is five seats away from taking control of the US House of Representatives, a win that would grant Donald Trump more power to push through his ambitious agenda.
With votes still being counted from the November 5 elections, Republicans had won 213 seats in the 435-member House, according to US exit poll provider Edison Research.
The GOP needs to win just five more seats for a majority in the House, while the Democrats would need to win 13 of the remaining 17 seats to take control.
With Mr Trump already retaking control of the Senate, taking the House of Representatives would give the GOP full control of Congress.
A trifecta of the House, Senate and the presidency will make it much easier for Republicans to pursue Mr Trump’s plans for radical immigration reform, tax cuts and import tariffs.
Donald Trump took control of the House and Senate in 2016, but lost control of the House in the 2018 US midterm elections.
After 2018, the House blocked some of Trump’s plans, including preventing him from building a wall on the US-Mexico border after he had declared a national emergency.
12:04 PM GMT
Kremlin sees ‘positive signals’ from Trump
The Kremlin said on Sunday that it saw “positive signals” from statements made by Donald Trump during his election campaign.
“The signals are positive. Trump during his election talked about how he perceives everything through deals, that he can make a deal that can lead to peace,” Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s press secretary, said.
Mr Peskov however went on to say that it was hard to predict “to what extent he’s [Trump] going to stick to statements that he made on the campaign trail”.
11:44 AM GMT
Labour ‘unlikely’ to accept Farage’s Trump offer, minister says
Treasury secretary Darren Jones has said Labour is unlikely to accept Nigel Farage’s offer to act as a link between the UK and the US when Donald Trump returns to the White House in January.
“I think that’s probably unlikely,” Mr Jones told Sky News.
“My advice to Mr Farage would be he might want to concentrate his efforts on the constituents in Clacton that elected him into office, as opposed to spending his time in the United States,” he added.
The Reform UK leader has said he has “a great relationship” with Mr Trump and would be willing to act as an intermediary for the Government in the name of the “national interest”.
11:18 AM GMT
Trump’s former treasury secretary says he won’t join next administration
Donald Trump’s former treasury secretary has said he will not seek to join the president-elect’s new administration, but that he is ready to offer advice.
Serving as treasury chief during Trump’s first term “was the experience of a lifetime, and I’m happy to advise on the outside”, Steven Mnuchin said.
It was reported on Friday that two prominent hedge fund investors, Scott Bessent, founder of Key Square Group, and John Paulson had emerged as the top contenders for treasury secretary, and that Mr Bessent had met with Trump.
09:55 AM GMT
Watch: Donald Trump Jr mocks Zelensky saying his ‘allowance is about to run out’
Donald Trump’s son has appeared to mock the idea of Ukraine and Volodymyr Zelensky losing US funding when his father returns to the White House.
In a post on Instagram, Donald Trump Jr re-shared a video of Mr Zelensky looking unhappy alongside Donald Trump with the caption: “POV: You’re 38 days from losing your allowance.”
The camera focusses on Mr Zelensky’s face as the video turns to black-and-white and US dollar notes fall in front of the Ukrainian president.
The video was originally posted by Sarah Palin, the former Republican governor of Alaska.
On Saturday, senior Trump adviser Bryan Lanza said that Mr Trump’s priority for Ukraine will be achieving peace rather than helping it regain territory captured by Russia.
Mr Trump has also ruled out giving former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, a pro-Ukraine Trump ally, a role in his incoming administration.
Credit: donaldjtrumpjr/Instagram
09:31 AM GMT
Four things Trump could do with full control of Congress
Donald Trump has claimed an “unprecedented and powerful mandate” to govern in his victory speech.
If Republicans control all of Congress, he will have exactly that.
Rozina Sabur describes here how US funding for Ukraine would almost certainly be ended and plans to fund tough, ambitious immigration policies would push ahead.
09:28 AM GMT
Ultra-wealthy Democrats race to buy London boltholes after Trump win
Wealthy Democrats are racing to snap up multi-million pound boltholes in London in the wake of Donald Trump’s US election win.
Mr Trump’s election triumph this week has sparked a flurry of interest from ultra-wealthy Americans who want to buy prime UK property as a “safety net” because they disagree with the president-elect’s rhetoric, buying agents report.
You can read the full story here.
09:27 AM GMT
Welcome to our live coverage
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of events in the US after Donald Trump’s election win. We’ll be keeping you up to date throughout the day.