Politics and views in the United States.

New files from the Epstein investigation mention Presidents Trump and Clinton, the US moves special ops aircraft into the Caribbean and the Trump Administration is expanding its immigration ban.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2025 Talks where we're following our democracy in historic times.

This is what the Democrats, mostly Democrats and a couple of bad Republicans are asking for.

There are photos of me too.

Everybody was friendly with this guy.

Either friendly or not friendly, but he was around.

President Donald Trump calls newly released documents on dead billionaire sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein a distraction.

The files mention other public figures, including former President Bill Clinton, Diana Ross and Michael Jackson.

Trump isn't accused of specific wrongdoing, but the records show he took more flights than reported on Epstein's private plane.

And previously released emails from Epstein say Trump quote, "Knew about the girls, and “spent time alone with one of Epstein's victims."

Some of those victims are irate at the Department of Justice for delays and for not redacting their names.

The department says the slow vetting process pushed them past the deadline set by a newly passed law.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon is moving more troops and special operations aircraft into the Caribbean and says it's tracking a third oil tanker sailing from Venezuela.

At the UN Security Council, US Ambassador Mike Waltz came close to calling for that nation's leader to be removed.

Nicolas Maduro is a fugitive from American justice and the head of the foreign terrorist organization Cartel de los Soles.

In fact, Maduro and his regime stole the election and the international community has the receipts.

The Venezuelan ambassador says the US government is stealing the tankers and is quote, "Stubborn in its ignorance of international law."

He cited Trump's pardon of former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez convicted of trafficking hundreds of tons of cocaine to the US as proof of hypocrisy.

The administration's halting legal immigration from 20 more countries.

Travel bans now bar people from around 40 nations.

Marata Wauta with the New York Immigration Coalition says this shuts out people who want to follow the rules and become citizens.

This updated policy, along with others already announced, ensures that the Trump administration will have a growing population of those at risk of being funneled into the administration's deportation machine, enriching private companies that profit from the prison industrial complex.

The administration is also conducting a purge of immigration judges, adding to a backlog of almost three and a half million cases.

Most of the fired judges had backgrounds in immigration defense or a record of granting asylum.

Eileen Grinch is with the nonprofit immigrant news outlet, Documented.

We have overpopulated detention centers, we have folks waiting for their cases, and it really creates pressure on folks who are stuck in these places waiting for their moment in court.

The system and everyday folks waiting for their case to be adjudicated.

A new California law limits immigration agents' hospital access without a criminal warrant.

It says immigration status and place of birth are protected health information.

Attorney Sarah Houston with LA's Immigrant Defenders Law Center says ICE has cut people off from their families after a violent arrest or getting sick in detention.

We've heard reports about how ICE will tell doctors and staff, you're not allowed to give the arrestee a phone, they can't contact their family, you can't tell their family they're here.

So they're just by themselves in this basically detention environment when it could be a life or death situation.

The Supreme Court ruled against Trump's unilateral deployment of the National Guard to Chicago.

The emergency ruling isn't binding on other cases, but says the administration failed to prove an urgent need to take federal control of the troops.

I'm Edwin J. Viera for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.