Politics and views in the United States

Indigenous voters may be impacted by SCOTUS voting rights ruling. A flurry of Southern states move ahead with redistricting and the Trump administration continues its aggressive stance on immigration enforcement.

Transcript

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

They have the poorest counties, the poorest lands, and lack the transportation.

So it's only right for us to fight to give them an opportunity to participate equally in elections.

OJ Siemens, with Four Nations Native Vote, says the Supreme Court gutting a key part of the Voting Rights Act will end up denying indigenous people the ballot.

The group has used VRA lawsuits to force election officials to put satellite polling sites on reservations.

But a new South Dakota law requires IDs proving citizenship for new voter registrations, which will land harder on marginalized groups.

South Carolina Republican lawmakers are moving to cancel June primaries so they can redraw congressional maps, possibly breaking up the state's lone Democratic district, which has a large black population.

Alabama lawmakers gave final approval to new maps breaking up the black-majority Democratic district that includes Birmingham.

That redistricting won't go into effect until 2030 due to a legal agreement to use the current court-ordered map.

Nevada's Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto is one of those who continue to block the Save America Act, a major priority of President Donald Trump.

The bill would require proof of citizenship when registering to vote and a photo ID when voting.

Cortez Masto says it would all but eliminate mail-in voting, which is widely used and popular in Nevada's rural population, and unconstitutionally move the running of elections from the states to White House agencies.

It gives Department of Homeland Security information about our voter rolls that the department has been trying to get across this country for the last several months because they want to be able to go through those voter rolls and decide for themselves who's eligible to vote and who's not.

A new poll confirms that nearly three quarters of Americans think there is too much money in our politics.

The Justice Department is suing New Mexico for its new Immigrant Safety Act, prohibiting state and local agencies from contracting to house detained migrants for the federal government.

Democratic State Representative Andrea Romero supports the new law, in part because despite the rhetoric, 70% of those detained have never been convicted of a crime.

We know that the vast majority of people in there have never committed a crime in their life.

We're spending millions upon millions of dollars a day to just let people sit in cages.

It absolutely is unconscionable what's going on right now.

Justice is asking for an injunction to stop it from taking effect later this month, pointing to a private for-profit detention facility in Otero County, run by ICE and supported by local officials.

Border czar Tom Homan and Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen are on a media blitz threatening immigration sweeps in blue jurisdictions.

Homan says they are going to especially target cities with sanctuary laws.

We're going to do everything we can to arrest as many people we can.

They're the biggest dangers of the community, but anybody in this country is here illegally.

We're looking for them.

We're going to arrest them and deport them.

Trump calls Iran's response to his last peace proposal, quote, totally unacceptable.

The president demanded Iran stop uranium enrichment.

Tehran is calling for an end to the war and reopening the Strait of Hormuz, with nuclear talks to follow.

I'm Zamone Perez for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

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