Wisconsin Right Now

A federal judge on Monday temporarily paused a Biden administration program that would grant a path to citizenship for the spouses of American citizens. District Court Judge J. Campbell Barker paused the new Biden administration effort until a final ruling is made. The program in question allows illegal immigrants who have married an American citizen to avoid deportation and start the path to citizenship. The halt comes after a coalition of 16 states filed a lawsuit to challenge the program. Proponents of the policy say it helps repair the immigration system and helps the migrants in limbo in the U.S. Critics say it incentivizes illegal immigrants even more than they already are and that the policy violates the U.S. Constitution and breaks federal law. “Under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the federal government is actively working to turn the United States into a nation without borders and a country without laws. I will not let this happen,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton...

  Federal prosecutors on Monday began laying out what they say is election fraud in 2016 by former President Donald Trump. Trump, 77, is the first former U.S. president to be charged with a felony. Prosecutors and defense attorneys presented their opening statements to the jury of five women and seven men. Prosecutors said Trump corrupted the 2016 election, The Hill reported on Monday. "This case is about a criminal conspiracy and a cover-up," Manhattan prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said. "The defendant, Donald Trump, orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 election, then covered it up." Trump will spend four days a week in court in New York for the next six to eight weeks on state charges that he disguised hush money payments to two women as legal expenses during the 2016 election. Judge Juan Merchan has not scheduled trial days on Wednesdays. On Monday, his defense attorneys said he had done nothing wrong. "President Trump is innoce...

  A report released Monday by the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee says the influx of migrants across the country's southern border could cost taxpayers $451 billion. The fourth report released by the committee says that the tab includes housing, education, property damage done by migrants, law enforcement, and health care costs. A report from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services showed that "emergency services for undocumented aliens" added up to $7 billion in fiscal 2021 and $5.4 billion in fiscal 2022, with migrants receiving at least $8 billion in improper Medicaid payouts (10% of the nation's total of $80 billion). Migrants are also putting a strain on the nation's criminal justice infrastructure, with the cost adding up to $8.95 billion in fiscal 2022. "It is unconscionable for Secretary Mayorkas and President Biden to force the American people to pick up the tab for the crisis their border policies created," Commit...

A federal judge on Monday struck down the Biden administration's controversial mask mandate for planes, airports and trains. U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle called the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) mandate “unlawful” for overstepping its authority and not following normal rulemaking procedures. "But the mandate exceeded the CDC's statutory authority, improperly invoked the good cause exception to notice and comment rulemaking, and failed to adequately explain its decisions," she wrote in the ruling. Last month, a bipartisan group of senators passed a resolution 57-40 that would repeal the federal mask mandate on airplanes and federally regulated public transit. Critics of the mandate praised the judge’s ruling. They had argued it was not necessary and conflicted with the Biden administration’s decision to lift Title 42, a Trump-era immigration rule that allowed border agents to immediately expel illegal immigrants to slow the spread of CO...