Politics and views in the United States

Olympian David Hearn is indicted for allegedly damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. The Trump Administration addresses the aftermath of recent Supreme Court rulings and a new holiday honors people who were killed protecting civil rights.

Transcript

Welcome to 2026 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

This was a delivered act to damage the reflecting pool at the National Mall that members of the National Park Service worked hard to restore.

U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., Janine Pirro, says a grand jury has indicted former Olympic athlete David Hearn of Maryland on one count of destruction of federal property.

Hearn was one of several people arrested after President Donald Trump said, with little proof, leftist vandals slashed the Lincoln Memorial reflecting Poole's new sealant.

Hearn denies the charge, and evidence, including news pictures, showed the sealant coming loose on its own.

After the Supreme Court's ruling on birthright citizenship, the Justice Department says it's targeting what it calls birth tourism when a pregnant former national comes to the country on a temporary visa, specifically to have a child who is then a citizen.

Giving birth here isn't illegal, but Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche stress is doing it specifically so the child will be a citizen is visa fraud.

Everybody should agree it's a violation of our laws.

If you're intent in coming here, if you're pregnant, is to have a child to become a United States citizen because of our now laws.

A Migration Policy Institute study finds less than 1% of the more than 3.5 million births in the U.S. each year might fit the definition of birth tourism.

But Trump says even the reading of the 14th Amendment that makes it an issue is flat wrong.

It was a month after the Civil War ended that it went through.

That's because it was meant for the babies of slaves.

It wasn't meant for rich people from China that came over in Gulf Streams.

The Department of Homeland Security is incentivizing what it calls self-deportation after the court ruled the administration could end temporary protected status for Haitian and Syrian refugees.

DHS is offering $2,600 and a free plane ticket if they leave voluntarily.

Homeland Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen says TPS was always supposed to be temporary.

You had an opportunity while you were here to possibly try to change your status.

Now that the court ruling has went out, you no longer have that option.

You have to go back to a country that either take you or back to the country you came from.

Migrant and human rights advocates say it's unsafe for them to return home and say Haiti and Syria are still dangerous places with thousands killed in the streets each year.

The court's TPS ruling could severely impact health care since migrants make up a big part of that workforce.

Federal data show more than 20,000 Haitian TPS holders work in hard-to-fill nursing assistant and caregiver positions.

A third of the 350,000 Haitians in the program work in health care.

This July 5th, some Americans will commemorate those who died protecting civil rights.

Cities nationwide will hold tours, voter registration drives, and discussions in honor of what's called Martyrs Day.

John Jay Professor of Constitutional Law Gloria J. Brown Marshall is helping organize the events.

It has us celebrate on July 4th, but also bring to mind that those freedoms they were celebrating on July 4th came with a price.

And we need to recommit to the ongoing work of freedom because that work is not completed.

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

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