NASHVILLE — More than 100 people have been taken into custody by federal immigration officials in a joint operation with the Tennessee Highway Patrol, leaving many in Nashville’s immigrant community uncertain and worried.
“None of us have ever seen anything like this,” Lisa Sherman Luna, executive director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, said Friday.
The operation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a reminder of how local and state law enforcement jurisdictions are crucial to President Trump’s plans for mass deportations. Florida officials recently touted a joint operation with ICE that resulted in 1,120 immigration arrests.
The Highway Patrol said Friday that it made 588 stops in the joint operation with ICE, which took custody of 103 people for suspected immigration violations.
The stops “led to the recovery of illegal drugs and firearms — taking dangerous elements off the street and making Tennessee safer,” the Highway Patrol said. One person was wanted in a killing in El Salvador, the agency said.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee recently signed a law creating a division of immigration enforcement with the state’s Department of Safety and Homeland Security, which includes the Highway Patrol. He is one of a number of Republican officials pledging to use state resources to carry out Trump’s plans.
Meanwhile, city officials in the Democratic stronghold of Nashville have disavowed involvement and been critical of the arrests. Nashville Law Director Wally Dietz said the state-federal operation, which began May 3, caught everyone in city government by surprise.
Responding to concerns about Nashville police presence outside an ICE office, Dietz said Wednesday that the city “routinely receives requests for extra patrols for a variety of reasons and responds to the extent resources are available.” He said he didn’t know who was detained and that, when he requested more information from the Highway Patrol, he was told to file a public records request.
The Highway Patrol said stops are based solely on driver behavior. “We do not enter neighborhoods or stop vehicles based on who someone is — we stop based on what they do behind the wheel,” it said.
But immigrant rights supporters contend that the patrols have focused on parts of the city where the majority of residents are people of color.
“All signs point to this being racial profiling intended to terrorize the heart of the immigrant and refugee community,” Sherman Luna said. “What we’ve heard is that THP is flagging people down for things like a broken taillight or tinted windows.”
Sherman Luna believes some of those being detained would be allowed to stay in the country if they were able to receive competent legal representation at an immigration hearing. Instead, she has heard that people are agreeing to be deported out of fear that they could spend months or years in immigration detention.
About 9% of the Nashville metropolitan area population of about 2 million are immigrants, with many from Mexico and Honduras, according to the Migration Policy Institute’s analysis of census data. The city also has a large Kurdish population living alongside refugees from Sudan, Myanmar and other countries.
“It’s a strategy to strike fear into our vibrant, diverse, beautiful neighborhoods,” Sherman Luna said.
Great Britain’s Jack Draper beat Vit Kopriva to reach the last 16 of the Italian Open but his frustration boiled over during a straight-set win.
Although the fifth seed won 6-4 6-3 in Rome, he was made to work hard to close out the victory and at one point hit the court multiple times with his racquet.
Draper, who came into the tournament on the back of reaching the Madrid Open final, held serve throughout and took the first set in 41 minutes, saving one break point.
But it was by no means plain sailing in the second as Czech qualifier Kopriva saved four break points to cut his deficit to 3-2.
After Draper gave him the game by sending a drop shot into the net, he struck the clay four times with his racquet before slamming it on to the floor by his chair.
The 23-year-old left three divots in the centre of the court – and his racquet in tatters – and received a warning from the umpire.
Kopriva went 40-0 up in the following game but the world number 92 spurned the chance to break back as he sent a straightforward backhand long.
Draper regrouped to hold his serve and take a 4-2 lead, before setting up the chance to break Kopriva for the second time in the set – and the third overall.
Again Kopriva proved stubborn opposition by saving two match points, the second after a bad bounce on one of the divots left by Draper forced an error from the British number one.
But Draper clinched victory at the third time of asking, having hit twice as many winners as Kopriva (21-10), although Draper did notch up more unforced errors (37-27).
Draper will next play France’s world number 83 Corentin Moutet, who upset ninth seed Holger Rune in the last 16 in a match lasting nearly four hours.
May 11 (UPI) — U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Sunday that the administration of President Donald Trump would keep the 10% baseline tariffs on global imports for the “foreseeable future.”
“We do expect a 10 percent baseline tariff to be in place for the foreseeable future,” Lutnick told CNN’s Dana Bash during an interview on “State of the Union.”
Bash interviewed Lutnick as the second day of trade talks between the United States and China was happening in Geneva, which Trump said Saturday marked a “total reset” in relations.
“The team is in Switzerland meeting with their counterparts from China, and they are hard at it. There’s a lot to accomplish,” Lutnick said of the negotiations. “There’s both a lot to take care of and get off the table, and they’re working hard at it. At the end of the day, they felt good, the president felt good, and I’m going to leave it to them.”
Lutnick noted the success of the Trump administration’s negotiations with Britain, which finalized a long-in-the-works trade deal with the United States. When asked whether the framework of that deal, with Britain keeping 10% tariffs, would be expected to continue, Lutnick said the U.S. will not be negotiating lower than 10% for any country.
“The Chinese and our representatives are meeting now. So, let’s just leave what’s possible with China to what happens on Monday, Tuesday, and next week,” Lutnick said.
“But the rest of the world is open for business, right? Remember, we have a low tariff on the rest of the world while we negotiate. But our expectation is that these countries are going to open their markets, their tariffs are going to come down, the ability for us to export and grow our economy is going to be better than ever before.”
Bash also asked Lutnick about remarks from Trump last week that the decline of imports caused by his tariffs is a good thing for Americans. Lutnick insisted that Americans “are the consumers of the world” and so imports would continue.
“Don’t buy the silly arguments that the U.S. consumer pays,” he said. “Businesses, their job is to try to sell to the American consumer. And domestically produced products are not going to have that tariff. So, the foreigners are going to finally have to compete.”
Kanye West’s new single “Heil Hitler” is not getting the warm reception on streaming services that he’d imagined.
West, now know as Ye, has teased the incendiary single for days on livestreams, but to little success on music streaming platforms. The rapper released it on Soundcloud on Thursday, only for it to vanish a day later.
The rapper posted on X to lament the song’s fate in the digital marketplace.
“‘Heil Hitler’ by Ye has been banned by all digital streaming platforms,” he wrote. (The song is currently not available on Spotify or Apple Music.)
West then compared his fate to that of Randy Newman, whose song “Rednecks” controversially uses an epithet for Black people to satirize racism.
“‘Rednecks’ by Randy Newman remains streamable,” West wrote. “They’re literally keeping the n—-s down.”
West’s song is a bleak cut even beyond the ragebait title. He lashes out at his ex Kim Kardashian over their custody arrangement: “With all this money and fame, I still can’t get my kids back / With all this money and fame I still can’t see my children.”
West seems upset that he “became a Nazi, yet b—, I’m the villain,” and closes the song with a sampled Hitler speech.
West’s attempts to get back into the media have been tumultuous — he was recently banned from Twitch minutes into his first livestream, and walked off the set of Piers Morgan’s talk show after the host misstated his follower count on X.
“I’m a gift, bro. Why do all you people in media act like you haven’t played my songs at your weddings, or graduations or at funerals or when your child was born?” West said. “It just shows the hate that you put out for people that put out love. There’s so much love in the art that I put out. This is what you get for now, we can circle back when you can count.”
THE World Snooker Championship may be over, but fear not, the World Seniors is here to fill the void!
16 players, including multiple legends of the sport, competed for the iconic crown at the Crucible.
1
Four-time World Seniors champion Jimmy White will feature at the CrucibleCredit: Alamy
Last year, Brazil’s Igor Figueiredo made history by becoming the first player from outside of Europe to lift the prestigious World Seniors trophy.
The 47-year-old beat Ken Doherty 5-2 in the blockbuster final, and he returned to the Crucible as defending champion this week.
‘The Darling of Dublin’ was once again in the field, looking to secure a unique Grand Slam by adding the World Seniors crown to his World Professional, World Amateur and World Under-21 titles.
But he suffered a shock first round exit.
SunSport brings you all the information on the huge tournament.
When was World Seniors Snooker Championship 2025?
The World Seniors Snooker Championship got underway on Wednesday, May 7.
The tournament concluded on Sunday, May 11.
The Crucible Theatre in Sheffield will host.
World Seniors Snooker Championship 2025 schedule and results
Wednesday, May 7 From 12pm (All times BST) Round One
Even on Mother’s Day — the day dedicated to relaxation and pampering for moms — the Sparks will take the hardwood in Torrance, sweating through defensive sets, refining footwork and hitting jumpers.
It’ll be a shortened practice, but practice nonetheless. There’s no time to pause. The WNBA season opener is less than a week away. The grind of pro basketball never lets up, and neither does the grind of motherhood.
Odyssey Sims’ latter role often kicks in when she steps off the court. When the final whistle sounds, her 5-year-old son, Jaiden, usually waits nearby — her best friend, “Mama’s baby.” He shares her wide grin. They move as one, even at the Sparks’ training camp.
“I’m used to bringing my son with me all the time,” Sims said. “He loves coming to the gym. … He has his moments where he’s like, ‘Mom, I’m ready to go.’ I’m like, ‘Son, it’s 10 o’clock, we haven’t even started.’”
Balancing a career and family requires strategy, support and sacrifice — a daily reality for moms nationwide. For Sparks players Sims, Dearica Hamby, Emma Cannon and Maria Kliundikova, that balancing act plays out under the public eye and pressure of elite competition.
With limited hours in the day and demands pulling from all sides, the two worlds inevitably intersect. Children at practices and games are common, as are FaceTime calls squeezed in during late-night hotel stays.
Sparks forward Dearica Hamby, left, poses beside daughter Amaya before the 2025 WNBA draft in New York.
(Pamela Smith / Associated Press)
“There’s a lot of pressure,” said head coach Lynne Roberts, who has two twin boys, 9-year-olds Miles and Henry. “To be as good as they are, it doesn’t just happen in practice. They’ve got to do it all the time and juggling being a mom, I’m in awe of them.”
Compared with most WNBA teams, the Sparks feature an unusually high number of mothers — a rarity in a league in which about 10% of the 156 active players are parents. For those few, having children reshaped their perspective on life, career and the game itself.
“They changed me, made me a better person,” Cannon said. “Life without them is crazy to even imagine. I’m grateful enough to even be called a mother.”
Cannon wears her children on her sleeve — literally. Her left leg is a canvas of tributes: Dior, her 3-year-old son, is inked behind her knee in flowing cursive. Above that, the initials of her newborn twins, Sage Ja’Nae and Suede Ja’Cole, are paired with their birth date. Crowning it all is a tender portrait — three small hands clasping hers, a portrait of family and togetherness etched in ink.
“All three were in the tattoo parlor with me when I got them done,” Cannon said.
At 35, Cannon is a 14-year basketball veteran — yet still a newcomer to parenting. She and her wife, Tia, had always discussed having children after basketball, but that reality came sooner than expected. As the seasons passed, the urge to wait faded. Before long, their family began to grow.
Emma Cannon arrives to the arena in Las Vegas with one of her children before an Aces game last season.
(David Becker / NBAE via Getty Images)
“Once we had Dior, we wanted him to have siblings because we were raised with siblings as well,” Cannon said. “So once that happened, God blessed us with twins.”
But amid the joy are the nonstop demands of a professional basketball career. Each player admits to feeling some degree of “mom guilt” — the emotional weight and anxiety of striving to meet the expectations of parenthood, even when they’re doing their best. That guilt intensifies under the strain of juggling multiple roles, trying to give both their families and careers the attention they deserve.
“To be honest, I feel guilty whenever I don’t have my child,” said Sims, a single mom who finds comfort in bonding with Jaiden. “It’s guilt in a sense because I feel like you cherish every moment, kids are growing up fast. So that couple of hours away feels like a day, days sometimes feel like a couple of months.”
This feeling of guilt is not unique to Sims.
Cannon, too, felt the emotional weight of separation during the team’s first preseason game in San Francisco on Friday — her first time traveling this season without her newborn twins and son. The absence was disorienting, but regular calls home provided some comfort, allowing her to stay connected despite the distance.
At the heart of this guilt is often separation anxiety — a reality shaped by the travel demands of playing in the WNBA. The Sparks will play 24 games on the road this season, logging thousands of miles by air and ground. The team tries to minimize time away, typically flying out the day before a game and returning immediately after — unless they’re on an extended trip.
Yet, despite the best efforts to stay close, the distance is always deeply felt.
In the beginning, being apart was emotionally challenging for Hamby. She and her daughter share a deep bond, training and walking red carpets while matching outfits. When Hamby left for trips, Amaya would ask, “Why are you leaving? Why go?”
“Every day,” Hamby said, reflecting on the guilt. “Amaya is texting me like, ‘Come home.’”
But as Amaya has grown older, she’s become more understanding of her mother’s commitment to basketball.
Hamby also acknowledges that, despite the pressures of her job, being a professional athlete offers unique opportunities to be present in her children’s lives. In the offseason, she’s hands-on — packing lunches, getting them ready for school and showing up for every practice and game. It’s her way of making up for the time basketball takes away.
For many, stepping away from their careers, even briefly, and especially during their prime, is a difficult decision, complicated by the perception that motherhood and athletic success can’t coexist.
While the WNBA’s collective bargaining agreement provides some rights and benefits for players with children, many still measure progress against how far they’ve yet to go. Despite protections, players continue to face skepticism from coaches, teams and sponsors, with their commitment questioned simply because they chose to have a family.
Hamby acknowledges that the league has become more supportive of players with a family — a shift from when she had her first child, Amaya, eight years ago. Back then, she felt supported by the then-San Antonio Stars, from coaches to the front office. However, her second pregnancy revealed the challenges that still remain.
After announcing she was expecting her second child, Legend, during the Las Vegas Aces’ 2022 championship parade, Hamby said tensions grew with the organization. She believes her subsequent trade to the Sparks in January 2023 was retaliation for her pregnancy. This allegation prompted a WNBA investigation.
The league determined the Aces violated rules on impermissible player benefits, resulting in the forfeiture of their 2025 first-round draft pick. Head coach Becky Hammon was also suspended for two games without pay “for violating league and team Respect in the Workplace policies.”
In August, Hamby filed a lawsuit against the Aces and WNBA, alleging team officials questioned her commitment and implied she had agreed not to become pregnant during the term of her contract extension. Before her trade, Hamby publicly shared on social media that the ordeal left her feeling “lied to, bullied, manipulated and discriminated against.
Sparks forward Dearica Hamby takes photos with her 8-week-old son Legend during 2023 media day at El Camino College.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
“There’s this misconception — and times are starting to change — but the narrative is still there that you can’t do both, can’t be a successful parent and be successful at your career at the same time,” Hamby said, addressing the stigma that motherhood compromises commitment. “In our sport, you’ve seen that reality change. … My story is an example of that — and so many more moms.”
Sims’ experience was a bit more positive. While with the Minnesota Lynx, Sims became pregnant before the 2020 season and waited several months before telling her head coach, Cheryl Reeve, of her pregnancy in the offseason. Reeve and the organization responded with support, opting not to make the news public and leaving it up to Sims to decide when she wanted to share it.
Neither Sims nor Hamby missed the season after giving birth.
Sims had Jaiden in April 2020, just before the start of the bubble season. After recovering from a cesarean section and sitting out for two months to allow her stitches to heal, she returned to play two weeks into the season in August.
Hamby gave birth to Amaya in February 2017 and was back on the court six weeks later. When Legend was born in March 2023, she halved her recovery time, returning after three weeks — one of the few players in league history to give birth twice and return to play.
Even with her negative experience, Hamby has noticed a growing shift in support under the current CBA, which is set to expire after this season. This includes the improvement of benefits for current and future mothers, aimed at supporting them through different stages of family planning and parenthood.
Players are guaranteed their full salaries while on maternity leave. Teams provide two-bedroom units for players living with their children under 13, and nursing mothers are entitled to “comfortable, safe, private” accommodations.
Family planning benefits are offered to players who choose to focus on their careers during their prime competitive years, postponing children until their late 20s or early 30s. Players with at least eight years of service are eligible to receive up to $20,000 annually — with a lifetime cap of $60,000 — to help cover fertility services such as egg freezing and infertility treatment, as well as adoption or surrogacy.
Still, Hamby feels the agreement isn’t without flaw. Currently, these benefits are only available during a player’s active career. Hamby hopes to see pregnancy-related support extended to include recently retired players — particularly for veterans who chose to prioritize their careers and start families later.
“There are people that want to have kids and they want to do it when they’re done playing, and it’s counterintuitive,” Hamby added. “They think, ‘Hey, we give you these benefits while you’re playing, but when you’re done playing, they’re no longer accessible.’ I don’t think that’s right, because when you decide to do it while you’re playing, you’re frowned upon.”
Additionally, fertility benefits remain out of reach for many: Heading into this season, only 38 players meet the eight-year service threshold, and just 12 have played 11 or more seasons — enough to access the maximum reimbursement. She expects that to change with a new contract.
Other financial increases, particularly regarding childcare, would be a welcome sight for players.
“More money for nannies, man,” Cannon said emphatically. “That $5,000 — that’s one thing I feel has to change, especially if you have multiple children.”
Currently, the childcare stipend is capped per household rather than per child — a limitation that doesn’t reflect the true cost of care. The average weekly cost of a nanny is $827, while daycare averages $343 per week, according to a nationwide survey by the caregiving site Care.com. In high-cost cities like L.A., those numbers are among the highest.
Odyssey Sims carries son Jaiden into the arena before playing a game with the Connecticut Sun in Las Vegas.
(Brandon Todd / NBAE via Getty Images)
Avoiding the thought of out-of-pocket costs when asked, Cannon added with a laugh, “Oh, man, I don’t even want to talk about it.”
The goal is that the next CBA will strengthen support for mothers across the board. That push comes as women’s basketball is projected to generate more than $1 billion globally in 2025, driven by new media rights deals and an uptick in ticket and merchandise sales, according to a March report from financial services and consulting firm Deloitte.
For now, life as a WNBA mother remains a patchwork of challenges and triumphs. Despite the ongoing tug-of-war, none regret embracing motherhood. And when practice ends, each will head off to different Mother’s Day activities. Some have brunch reservations, while others have scheduled photo shoots or nail appointments. Regardless of the activity, the children remain by their sides.
“Being a professional athlete and a mother at the same time has its challenges,” Sims said. “But when you look at your kid every day, when you wake up and realize you’re a parent, it just makes everything worth it.”
The Israeli military has killed at least 13 Palestinians, including several children and women, in Gaza as it continues to starve the besieged enclave.
Among the victims since dawn on Sunday were three Palestinians killed in a drone strike on a vehicle and two killed in a bombing near residential towers located west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Another two people were killed in artillery shelling of a home in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City in the north while the body of a man was recovered near the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza after Israeli warplanes bombed the area a day earlier.
The Israeli military also attacked the Islamic University building in Khan Younis.
فيديو يوثق لحظة قصف الاحتلال الجامعة الإسلامية في منطقة معن شرقي خانيونس جنوبي قطاع غزة. pic.twitter.com/1G8rFhF7Ch
The latest killings in the daily Israeli bombardment of Gaza came as the enclave has seen no food, water, medicine or fuel enter the territory for 70 days due to Israel’s blockade.
The 2.3 million residents of Gaza are surviving on fast-dwindling supplies and charity kitchens, which have been gradually forced to shut down as they run out of food and hunger spreads.
The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) warned on Sunday that the longer the blockade continues, the more irreversible harm is being done to Palestinians.
“UNRWA has thousands of trucks ready to enter and our teams in Gaza are ready to scale up the delivery,” the organisation said.
Hamas said in a statement on Sunday that Israel is committing a “complex crime”.
Israel’s security cabinet this month approved a plan to fully occupy the Gaza Strip and force another mass displacement of Palestinians.
Israel has also proposed taking over any future humanitarian aid distribution, which would, it said, involve creating designated military zones.
The Humanitarian Country Team, a forum that includes UN agencies, warned that the plan is dangerous and would “contravene fundamental humanitarian principles and appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic – as part of a military strategy”.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Sunday that the country would accept a new US mechanism that would start delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza.
A group of American security contractors, former military officers and humanitarian aid officials is proposing to take over the distribution of food and other supplies in Gaza based on plans similar to those designed by Israel.
The plan has been criticised for bypassing the UN and aid groups with expertise in aid delivery and creating only four distribution points that would force a large number of Palestinians to travel to southern Gaza.
According to the latest figures by Gaza’s Ministry of Health on Sunday, at least 52,829 Palestinians have been confirmed killed and 119,554 wounded by Israeli military attacks since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel, which killed an estimated 1,139 people and resulted in more than 200 people taken captive into Gaza.
Pope Leo XIV called for an immediate ceasefire, entry of humanitarian aid and release of all those held in Gaza during his first Sunday blessing since his election as pontiff.
Israel to pay soldiers more before Gaza expansion
The Israeli military planned to intensify its ground occupation of Gaza on Sunday, pulling the Paratroopers Brigade back from its incursions into Syria to be redeployed to Gaza.
The paratroopers have been operating in the occupied Golan Heights and inside Syria since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad in December.
Israel withdrew the Nahal Brigade from the occupied West Bank – which has also been under assault for months – in its intended and self-proclaimed push to “conquer” Gaza.
But thousands of Israeli reservists and other members of the Israeli military and security agencies, along with thousands of Israelis demonstrating in the streets, have been calling for an end to the war to bring back all captives.
To address the growing dissatisfaction among soldiers, the Israeli government on Sunday approved a “comprehensive benefit plan” for reservists worth about 3 billion shekels ($838m) that is slated to include a series of economic and social benefits.
The army welcomed the plan approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying in a statement that it is a reflection of soldiers’ “exceptional contribution” to Israeli society.
This comes as United States President Donald Trump, who has reportedly had some differences with Netanyahu in recent weeks over the Gaza war and how to engage with Iran, will launch a tour of the Middle East this week.
In a recent TV interview, United States President Donald Trump said he did not know whether he needed to uphold the US Constitution.
Trump was answering a question on NBC News last week about whether undocumented immigrants in the US are entitled to due process.
“They talk about due process, but do you get due process when you’re here illegally,” Trump asked the interviewer, Kristen Welker, NBC’s Meet the Press moderator.
“The Constitution says every person, citizens and noncitizens, deserves due process,” Welker responded.
She then asked Trump whether he agreed with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said noncitizens are entitled to due process.
Trump: “I don’t know. I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know.”
Welker: “Well, the Fifth Amendment says as much.”
Trump: “I don’t know. It might say that, but if you’re talking about that, then we’d have to have a million or two million or three million trials.”
Welker: “But even given those numbers that you’re talking about, don’t you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president?”
Trump: “I don’t know. I have to respond by saying, again, I have brilliant lawyers that work for me, and they are going to obviously follow what the Supreme Court said. What you said is not what I heard the Supreme Court said. They have a different interpretation.”
That was not the first time Trump had brushed aside immigrants’ due process rights.
In an ABC News interview marking Trump’s first 100 days in office, correspondent Terry Moran asked Trump, “But in our country, even bad guys get due process, right?”
Trump answered, “If people come into our country illegally, there’s a different standard.”
During a May 1 speech at the University of Alabama’s commencement ceremony, Trump said, “Judges are interfering supposedly based on due process, but how can you give due process to people who came into our country illegally? They want to give them due process. I don’t know.”
Days later, while announcing that the 2027 NFL (National Football League) draft will be in Washington, DC, Trump said, “The courts have, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, they said, maybe you have to have trials. Trials. We’re gonna have five million trials? Doesn’t work … Past presidents took out hundreds of thousands of people when needed … They didn’t go through any of this.”
Despite Trump’s dismissal of and questions about due process for immigrants, the US Constitution, legal experts and decades of court decisions agree: immigrants, regardless of how they entered the US, legally or illegally, have due process rights.
What those rights look like varies depending on how long a person has been in the US and what their legal status is.
What are due process rights?
Due process generally refers to the government’s requirement to follow fair procedures and laws. The Constitution’s Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments protect “any person” against being deprived by the US government of “life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”.
“People have a right to be heard, and there are certain steps that need to be taken before someone can, say, be jailed,” Kathleen Bush-Joseph, a lawyer and policy analyst at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute, said.
Several court rulings have determined that due process rights are extended to all people in the US, not just US citizens or immigrants in the country legally. The US Constitution and the Immigration and Nationality Act dictate the process the government must use to afford immigrants due process rights.
In immigration, due process generally refers to “appropriate notice [of government action], the opportunity to have a hearing or some sort of screening interview to figure out, are you actually a person who falls within the law that says that you can be deported”, Katherine Yon Ebright, a lawyer at the Brennan Centre for Justice’s Liberty and National Security programme, said.
For example, if the government seeks to deport people who are undocumented, the government generally must give them a charging document known as a “notice to appear”. Eventually, immigrants go before an immigration judge to present evidence and make a case that they qualify for some form of relief against deportation, such as asylum.
Without due process, legal experts say, US citizens could also be deported.
“The whole point of due process is to determine whether you’re the kind of person who can be subject to deportation,” Ilya Somin, a George Mason University constitutional law professor, said. “If there is no due process, then the government can simply deport people or punish them at will … Because how can you show that you’re actually a US citizen if you’re not getting any due process?”
How do due process rights differ for noncitizens compared with US citizens?
Even though all people in the US have due process rights, for noncitizens, the specifics of the process and the extent of protections vary. The term noncitizen applies to people with legal documents as well as those without any documents, including people here on visas, with lawful permanent status or without a legal immigration status.
There is a “sliding scale of different protections that people can have depending on what their [immigration] status is”, Yon Ebright said.
Noncitizens are not entitled to government-appointed lawyers during immigration proceedings, for example. And some immigrants who recently entered the US without a legal document do not have to appear before a judge before being deported; these cases are subject to what is called the expedited removal process.
Under expedited removal, certain people can be quickly deported without a court case. However, people who express fear of persecution if they return to their home countries are referred to immigration officers, who determine whether the immigrant is eligible for asylum or other deportation protections. Immigrants who pass the “credible fear” screening are referred to an immigration court where they can present their case.
In the past, people were placed in expedited removal if they were within 100 miles (about 161km) of the border and within two weeks of their entry. In January, Trump expanded expedited removal for anyone who cannot prove they have been in the US for more than two years.
The Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a wartime power that Trump invoked in March, allows the government to deport “alien enemies”. He has used that law to deport people his administration says are members of the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua, without immigration court hearings. The Trump administration has deported hundreds of people under the law.
However, the US Supreme Court ruled against the administration on April 7, saying it must give immigrants notice that they will be deported under the Alien Enemies Act, and give them “reasonable time” to challenge the deportation in court.
Although expedited removal and the Alien Enemies Act limit people’s due process protections, they do not eliminate them. “There are no exceptions to due process,” Bush-Joseph said.
Additionally, noncitizens who are charged with crimes receive the same due process protections as US citizens in criminal court, Somin said.
“All of the protections of the Bill of Rights apply [in criminal court],” Somin said. “There has to be proof beyond a reasonable doubt. He or she is entitled to a jury trial, rights against self-incrimination, right to counsel and so on.”
Why are immigrants’ due process rights making headlines now?
The Trump administration faces several court cases dealing with deportations and immigrants’ due process rights. They include challenges over Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act and the government’s mistaken deportation of a Salvadoran man.
Administration officials have criticised judges and rejected immigrants’ due process protections.
“Due process guarantees the rights of a criminal defendant facing prosecution, not an illegal alien facing deportation,” White House adviser Stephen Miller posted on X on May 5.
The Trump administration’s comments about due process are centred on his promise to carry out the largest deportation operation in US history. The administration’s current deportation pace is below its goal of one million people each year, the Migration Policy Institute said in an April 24 analysis.
Nayna Gupta, policy director of the immigrant rights advocacy group American Immigration Council, said the Trump administration is attempting to “get around those obstacles and those requirements” of due process “just to meet some target [deportation] number”.
To reach Trump’s goal of one million deportations annually, the administration would need to deport people who have lived in the US for years and have no criminal convictions (whom past administrations have not prioritised for deportation).
Past presidents were also required to uphold noncitizens’ due process rights, but deportation processes moved more quickly under administrations that focused on people who had recently crossed the border illegally, Bush-Joseph said. That option is more limited for the Trump administration because undocumented immigration has reached historic lows under Trump.
Trump is correct that deporting millions of people living in the US without legal documents would require millions of court cases, Tara Watson, director of the Centre for Economic Security and Opportunity at the Brookings Institution, said. That has long been the case.
Millions of immigration court cases are backlogged. And the Trump administration has fired several immigration judges who would hear these cases.
The administration’s goal for mass deportation does not change due process rules and standards.
“It is true that due process slows down the machinery of deportation, but due process is also what separates democracies from dictatorships,” Watson said.
Our ruling
Trump said, “If people come into our country without documents, there’s a different standard [for due process].”
All people in the US, regardless of their immigration status, have due process rights, based on the US Constitution and decades of court decisions. That applies whether they entered the US legally or without any documents.
For noncitizens, people’s due process protections vary based on their legal status or how long they have been in the US. Legal experts say, despite due process variations, there are no exceptions to due process requirements for immigrants.
Vito Coppola appeared on the red carpet of this year’s BAFTA Awards and opened up about the upcoming series of Strictly Come Dancing, which will see a number of new dancers
Vito Coppola spoke all things Strictly on the Baftas red carpet
Vito Coppola has revealed his excitement for the upcoming series of Strictly Come Dancing. The 32-year-old Italian dancer has been a popular contestant on the hit BBC dance show since he joined in 2023, winning the competition alongside Coronation Street actress Ellie Leach.
Now, with the show readying itself for a new batch of hopefuls, Vito has told the Mirror how much he is looking forward to the show. Speaking on the red carpet of the BAFTA Awards, Vito told the Mirror the show’s bosses have been keeping any changes to the format very close to their chest.
Vito was speaking ahead of the 78th edition of the ceremony at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London, where Strictly failed to be entered into the Entertainment category following the scandal the rocked the show.
Vito Coppola spoke of a potential Strictly return for Giovanni Pernice
There were a number of incidents involving Go Compare star Wynne Evans, which had followed the case involving Giovanni Pernice and Amanda Abbington.
After Giovanni left the show to join an Italian version of the show, Vito opened up on a potential return.
When asked if there could be a returning professional, he told us: “I mean, in Strictly everything is so unpredictable that you never can predict anything. It could be a new pro, it could be someone from the past, it could be someone I haven’t worked with before.
“There are many pros that when I arrived I hadn’t worked with on the show. So I’m very, very curious. The first thing that I’ll do for sure, if I know or don’t know them, is hug them strong and give them a big kiss on the cheek.”
Specifically in Giovanni, he added: “I don’t know [if we will see him back]. Because, he is now, from what I know, he is now in Italy.
“But I don’t know because with Strictly they are so secret. They are so cryptic and they want to keep it as a surprise for us as well. So I mean, whoever it’s going to be, I’m going to be super excited. I’m like a little puppy you know, always around. I cannot wait.”
Giovanni was caught up in scandal following his 2023 stint with the actress, who made a series of claims about bullying behaviour. Giovanni decided to take a break from the public eye following the scandal.
The actress, known for her roles in Mr Selfridge and Sherlock, said the dancer had created a “toxic environment” and levelled “inappropriate, mean, nasty bullying” charges at him. While Giovanni brushed off any hints of abusive or menacing behaviour and embraced the results of a BBC investigation that upheld “some, but not all” complaints made by the actress.
Speaking of his “dream partner” for the upcoming series, Vito said he’d love to dance with his “crush”. “Jessica Alba. I mean, I don’t know if Jessica’s listening to me, but please, feel free to join me. I promise I will give you the best time ever.”
He also admitted he always thinks the show gets better every year. He also revealed how excited he for his upcoming tour with last year’s winner, Dianne Buswell. He said it’s going “very good” and confirmed rehearsals with all the cast are about to begin.
“We are waiting because we got all the dancers [from across the world]. We are reuniting all of them and after we are starting all together.”
Head of landmine-clearing NGO explains how the explosives still kill in peacetime and why the world is failing to clean up its wars.
Long after wars end, landmines continue to kill. James Cowan – CEO of The HALO Trust, a landmine-clearing humanitarian group – joins Talk to Al Jazeera to discuss the human cost of unexploded weapons in Gaza, Sudan, Afghanistan and beyond. From military neglect to donor fatigue, Cowan warns that the world is quick to fund conflict but slow to invest in recovery. As civilians risk death just walking to school, is the international community failing to clean up after war?
Scarlets: Blair Murray; Tom Rogers, Joe Roberts, Johnny Williams, Ellis Mee; Sam Costelow, Gareth Davies; Alec Hepburn, Marnus van der Merwe, Henry Thomas, Alex Craig, Sam Lousi, Vaea Fifita, Josh Macleod (capt), Taine Plumtree.
Replacements: Ryan Elias, Kemsley Mathias, Sam Wainwright, Dan Davis, Jarrod Taylor, Archie Hughes, Ioan Lloyd, Macs Page.
Referee: Andrew Brace (IRFU)
Assistant referees: Griffin Colby (SARU), Stephan Geldenhuys (SARU)
May 11 (UPI) — High-level trade talks between the United States and China are continuing Sunday in Geneva, marking the second day of negotiations between the two countries in the hope of ending President Donald Trump‘s trade war.
“A very good meeting today with China, in Switzerland. Many things discussed, much agreed to. A total reset negotiated in a friendly, but constructive, manner,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform after Saturday’s negotiations.
“We want to see, for the good of both China and the U.S., an opening up of China to American business. GREAT PROGRESS MADE!!!”
The U.S.-China trade war ignited earlier this year when Trump returned to office and imposed a 10% tariff on Chinese imports, citing national security concerns linked to the American fentanyl crisis.
Tensions escalated rapidly and, by April, tariffs surged to 145% on Chinese goods, prompting Beijing to retaliate with 125% duties on U.S. exports. The tit-for-tat measures have disrupted global supply chains and fueled fears of a global economic slowdown.
China’s Xinhua state news agency published an op-ed Sunday that welcomed the high-level talks but affirmed China’s determination to safeguard its economic interests, whether through “fighting” back with reciprocal tariffs or through negotiations.
“In this context, it is of positive significance for the two sides to sit down and talk, which is a necessary way to resolve differences and avoid escalation of conflicts,” reporter Fan Yu wrote for Xinhua.
“However, the effectiveness of the dialogue depends on the sincerity and efforts of both sides, especially whether the United States can truly be rational and pragmatic. China has always believed that any dialogue and negotiation must be carried out on the premise of mutual respect, equal consultation, mutual benefit and mutual benefit.”
In a separate editorial Saturday, edited by Zhao Yang, Xinhua also criticized the Trump administration for provoking the trade war “without sufficient planning and careful consideration” and asserted that if the two countries were to decouple, the U.S. economy would become poorer, citing data from the Oxford Economics Institute.
“Any US action will trigger a Chinese response. Take technology as an example. Although the US has restricted China’s access to cutting-edge chips, is this effective?” the editorial reads.
“In the fields of chip manufacturing and artificial intelligence, Chinese companies such as Huawei and DeepSeek seem to be able to produce close to cutting-edge technological achievements at a much lower cost than the United States.”
China’s Ministry of Commerce has separately been seeking to strengthen trade with Switzerland, a move also underway by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. It said in a statement that Swiss Vice President Guy Parmelin expressed support for “multilateralism and free trade.”
Switzerland, known for its significant role in international finance and trade, could serve as a pivotal partner in diversifying trade relationships and mitigating the impacts of the U.S.-China trade tensions.
“Very productive meetings alongside U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer yesterday with President Keller Sutter and Vice President Guy Parmelin of the Swiss Confederation,” Bessent said in a statement on social media.
“I am glad that we have agreed on accelerated trade talks, and we expect that a detailed Swiss proposal will be submitted to Ambassador Greer by next week.”
Bessent expressed optimism around Swiss negotiations on the heels of Trump’s recent trade agreement with Britain.
Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim says his players are “not scared of losing” matches, and believes such a mentality is a “big problem” for the club.
The Eagles continue their impressive season in North London.
Two goals from Eberechi Eze was the difference between the sides.
That said, Oliver Glasner’s side dominated this match.
View from SunSport’s Martin Blackburn at Old Trafford
A 17TH defeat of the Prem campaign for United – last time they lost this many in a top flight season, they were relegated 51 years ago.
Goals from Tomas Soucek and Jarrod Bowen saw the Hammers leapfrog Ruben Amorim’s men in the table and the Hammers had Alphonse Areola to thank for keeping a clean sheet.
Yet the Hammers were good value for their win which sees them jump a couple of places in the table.The domestic season cannot end quickly enough for the Red Devils – who drop to 16th – one place and one point above Tottenham, their opponents in Bilbao.
FT: Nott’m Forest 2-2 Leicester
Not the result the City Ground was hoping for.
The point does move them into fifth place in the table, but they are trying to do this the hard way.
A late Buonanotte goal denies Nuno Espirito Santo’s side the win today.
FT: Man Utd 0-2 West Ham
Another woeful defeat for Man Utd.
It has confirmed two things for us today, firstly that Hojlund is a dreadful striker and secondly that beating mid-table sides from around the continent in the Europa League does not mean they are back.
Back to the drawing board maybe.
FT: Man Utd 0-2 West Ham
The referee brings the game to a close.
Another defeat for Man Utd at Old Trafford.
Big confidence boosting win for The Hammers.
Man Utd 0-2 West Ham
90+6. Eriksen puts a pinpoint cross onto the head of Hojlund.
He is six yards out and unmarked as he glances it wide of goal.
FACUNDO BUONANOTTE cut Nottingham Forest down to size late on as Leicester held their Champions League chasing rivals to a draw.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s side knew they had the chance to take a huge step towards playing in Europe’s elite competition after Chelsea lost at Newcastle earlier today.
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Chris Wood looked to have won the game for Nottingham ForestCredit: Getty
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But Facundo Buonanotte weaved through the Forest defence to put a huge dent in their Champions League hopesCredit: PA
But if they thought it would be a cruise against already relegated Leicester then Conor Coady’s headed opener after 16 minutes was a real wake-up call.
Morgan Gibbs-White heard the call loud and clear as he netted just nine minutes later.
And after the break, Gibbs-White turned provider as Chris Wood headed Forest into the lead with his 20th league goal of the season.
However, Leicester still had more to give in this game and made sure Forest knew about it.
Buonanotte danced through the usually strong defence before rifling home the equaliser with nine minutes of regulation time remaining.
Servite High football coach Chris Reinert is running around spring practices teaching fundamentals. If he ever takes a moment to look over at the offensive linemen and remembers that four are currently freshmen with varsity experience, he just might smile.
He knows that Elisha Mueller, Brody Black, Keiden Lokeni and Trey Iosua are a building block to make Servite a legitimate player in the tough Trinity League.
Mueller, in particular, could be Servite’s next NFL prospect in the mold of first-round draft pick Mason Graham. He’s 6 feet 4 and closing in on 300 pounds. He’s fierce, competitive and a team player.
“He’s everything you want in an offensive lineman,” Reinert said. “He’s big, physical, nasty and has an attitude.”
Servite doesn’t have its track and field athletes out for spring ball. They’re busy trying to win a CIF championship with all their speed, but come summer, beware. Servite will be competing in seven-on-seven tournaments on June 28 at St. John Bosco and July 12 in the Battle at the Beach at Edison. And remember the people up front will be very good. …
The Southern Section will release its baseball and softball pairings on Monday. …
It’s a big weekend ahead for championships in Southern Section lacrosse and boys’ volleyball. The City Section will hold its volleyball championships on Saturday.
𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚 𝐦𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭. Senior Cooper Schwartz ’25, playing in honor of longtime doubles partner & best friend Braun Levi ’25, paired with freshman Kiran Spurling ’28 to win 7-5, 7-6(5), 6-4.
Data shows that about 80 percent of all toys and 90 percent of Christmas goods sold in the US are manufactured in China.
By Loreben Tuquero│PolitiFact
Published On 11 May 202511 May 2025
Whether you are gift-wrapping a toy car or hanging Christmas ornaments, there is a strong chance you are handling products made in a Chinese factory.
The day after President Donald Trump spoke in an interview about his tariff policies that girls in the United States do not need to “have 30 dolls”, some political commentators discussed China’s influence over the US toy market. The US currently has a 145 percent tariff on goods from China.
“China makes 80 percent of all toys sold in this country and 90 percent of all Christmas goods sold in this country,” former New York Times columnist Charles Blow said during a May 5 appearance on CNN’s News Night with Abby Phillip. “We have a lot of leverage with China. The Christmas and the doll industry is not one of them.”
Blow told PolitiFact his source was an April 29 report in The New York Times. It said, “Factories in China produce nearly 80 percent of all toys and 90 percent of Christmas goods sold in America.”
Data shows those figures are rounded up, but not far off.
Blow’s statement is “directionally accurate but slightly overstated on toys”, said Gilberto Garcia-Vazquez, chief economist at Datawheel, which operates an online economic data platform called the Observatory of Economic Complexity.
He said out of $41bn worth of imports in toys, games and sports equipment in 2024 by the US, $30bn, or about 73 percent, was manufactured in China.
“If you include domestic production – small but non-negligible – China likely supplies closer to 72 percent of toys actually sold in the US, not 80 percent,” Garcia-Vazquez said. The Observatory of Economic Complexity uses data sources from “statistical offices, open data portals or custom union websites”.
Claire Huber, spokesperson for the US International Trade Commission (USITC), provided PolitiFact with an analysis of 2024 data that showed 78.3 percent of toy imports and 85 percent of Christmas-related imports, such as lights, trees and decorations, are manufactured in China. The toy category includes dolls, wheeled toys and scale models.
The data was compiled using the USITC’s DataWeb, which cites statistics published by the US Department of Commerce’s Census Bureau, accessed on May 9.
Garcia-Vazquez also analysed 2024 data for Christmas goods and said 90 percent of US imports in that category came from China.
He said Christmas lights are an exception because “Cambodia has recently overtaken China as the top source”.
The New York Times published an April 27 report that showed 76 percent of “toys and puzzles” and 87 percent of “Christmas decorations” come from China. Bloomberg, citing the trade organisation Toy Association, said “roughly 80 percent of toys sold in the US are made in China”.
Data shows 73 to 78 percent of toy imports and 85 to 90 percent of Christmas-related imports in 2024 came from China, supporting Blow’s point that the vast majority of these goods come from China. We rate his statement True.
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February 14, 2017 at 5:20 am
Hundreds of Uber drivers in Qatar have gone on strike on Monday for the second time in a year, to protest against price cuts, Reuters reported.
The US-based company which began working in Doha in 2014 decided in the past few months to reduce the fare price by 15 to 20 per cent amid growing competition from local companies.
Uber drivers also protest an “upfront” service launched by Uber in November that allows passengers to view the total fare before their journey.
John, an Ethiopian driver who declined to give his second name said “The upfront isn’t fair. If you get stuck in traffic or the passenger makes extra stops during the journey, we receive nothing for that”.
“If they don’t raise fares and treat drivers better we have many other platforms we can go to. I have a family to support,” he said.
Uber is trying to reduce its fares to compete with other local companies Qatar like Careem, which has a larger market share than Uber in most of the 32 cities in the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan region in which it operates.
An Uber company spokesman in Dubai said the company is “committed to dialogue with partner drivers” and had made improving their experience a priority.
Some drivers say they have struggled since oil prices dropped in mid-2014 which led to reducing state finances and to raise the domestic price of gasoline by 30 per cent.
MEXICO CITY — In a packed nightclub in Mexico City, hundreds of young people sang along as a band played a popular song narrating the life of a foot soldier for the Sinaloa drug cartel.
I like to work/ And if the order is to kill / You don’t question it.
And for those who misbehave/ There’s no chance to explain/ I throw them into the grave.
Narcocorridos — or drug ballads — are more popular than ever in Mexico, where a new generation that came of age during the ongoing drug war has embraced songs that recount and often glamorize both the spoils and perils of organized crime.
But the genre is increasingly under attack. About a third of Mexico’s states and many of its cities have enacted some kind of ban on the performance of songs about narcos in recent years, with violators subject to heavy fines and jail time.
Mexico City may be next. Mayor Clara Brugada said she plans to introduce a law that would bar the songs from being played at government events and on government property.
“We can’t be promoting violence through music,” she said.
Musicians perform at the popular Los Guitarrazos event in Mexico City, where narcocorridos, or drug ballads, are common.
The bans, which come amid President Trump’s hyper-focus on drug trafficking in Mexico, have sparked debates here about freedom of expression and state censorship and have raised provocative questions: Do narcocorridos merely reflect reality in a nation gripped by powerful drug gangs? Or do they somehow shape it?
Said Amaya, the organizer of Guitarrazos, the event at the nightclub in Mexico City where multiple singers performed narcocorridos last week, said government focus should be on improving security, not persecuting young musicians.
“If you change the reality, the music might change,” Amaya said. “But you’re not going to change the reality by censoring songs.”
Drug ballads belong to the genre of corridos, a musical tradition born in the 1800s that helped chronicle life at a time when many people couldn’t read or write.
Each song told a story. There were corridos about the exploits of bandits and outlaws, some of them Robin Hood-esque characters who outwitted oafish authorities and helped the poor. Others narrated chapters of the Mexican Revolution or the U.S. invasion of Mexico in 1846.
In more recent years, as Mexico became a key gateway for the U.S. drug market, enriching some people and claiming the lives of hundreds of thousands of others, musicians have described that, too.
“The entire social history of Mexico is narrated through corridos,” said José Manuel Valenzuela Arce, a sociologist in Tijuana. “It’s an intangible part of our cultural heritage.”
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1.An audience member wears a diamond chain on the dance floor at Los Guitarrazos.2.Drug ballads belong to the genre of corridos, a musical tradition born in the 1800s that helped chronicle life at a time when many people couldn’t read or write.
Valenzuela wrote a book about the newest version of drug ballads, known as corridos tumbados, which combine acoustic guitar, brassy horns and the aesthetic and lyrical content of U.S. gangster rap. Proponents of the music, like artist Peso Pluma, who performs in ballistic vests and sings of diamond-encrusted pistols and shipments of cocaine, have brought the genre to global audiences.
The 25-year-old musician, whose name translates to “Featherweight,” was the seventh most streamed artist in the world on Spotify last year. In 2023, former President Obama included in his top 10 songs of the year a Peso Pluma song that does not touch on drug trafficking.
Musicians dedicated to the genre have long faced backlash from the government, which since the 1980s has tried, at various times, to ban the music.
But the long-standing controversy exploded back into public life this year after a concert in Michoacan state by the band Los Alegres del Barranco, which displayed images of Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, better known as El Mencho, who heads the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. The band played at a venue not far from a gruesome cartel training camp that authorities had just discovered.
The concert outraged many Mexicans, and Michoacan Gov. Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla soon announced a ban on public performances that glorify crime and violence. That was followed by similar measures in other states, including Aguascalientes, Queretaro and Mexico state.
A performer plays his guitar with a beer bottle at Los Guitarrazos, a Mexico City event featuring artists playing the northern Mexican genre corridos.
Days later, the Trump administration announced it was revoking the U.S. visas of the members of Los Alegres del Barranco.
“The last thing we need is a welcome mat for people who extol criminals and terrorists,” Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau said on X.
I’m a firm believer in freedom of expression, but that doesn’t mean that expression should be free of consequences. A Mexican band, “Los Alegres del Barranco,” portrayed images glorifying drug kingpin “El Mencho” — head of the grotesquely violent CJNG cartel — at a recent concert… pic.twitter.com/neSIib7EC4
— Deputy Secretary Christopher Landau (@DeputySecState) April 2, 2025
President Claudia Sheinbaum says she does not support the bans, but also doesn’t support the music. She recently announced a national song competition for compositions about subjects other than drug trafficking.
“More than banning, it’s about educating, guiding, and getting young people to stop listening to that music,” she said.
But the bans have momentum — a recent poll found that 62% of those surveyed support prohibitions on narcocorridos — and they have put the genre’s stars in a tricky position. Their fans demand they play their hits, but doing so is increasingly risky.
Performing in one of the states that had banned the songs last month, artist Luis R. Conríquez refused to play his ballads that romanticize drug traffickers.
Audience members were enraged, forcing him off stage as they flung insults, beer bottles and chairs, and later destroyed his band’s instruments.
A singer performs at Los Guitarrazos, an event featuring artists playing the northern Mexican genre corridos, on Tuesday, May 6, 2025 in Mexico City, Mexico.
Others musicians, such as corridos tumbados star Natanael Cano, have pressed on despite the bans.
The 24-year-old performed at an annual fair in Aguascalientes state this month just days after the local authorities warned musicians not to play narco songs.
He began his set with songs from his repertoire that touch on love and other subjects. But soon fans were pleading for popular songs such as “Cuerno azulado,” which talks about blue-tinted AK-47s and pacts between drug traffickers and the government.
Cano first told audience members they should press their leaders to roll back the bans.
“You have to ask your government,” Cano said. “Don’t come here asking me for it.”
Audience members at a club in Mexico City where musicians performed narcocorridos, a genre many states are trying to outlaw.
But eventually he acquiesced, playing a song called “Pacas de Billete,” or “stacks of cash,” which alludes to “El Chapo,” the Sinaloa drug cartel kingpin Joaquín Guzmán. After the event’s organizers cut the sound, Cano’s team activated their own audio system. Eventually, though, the lights were turned out and the artist left the stage and headed directly to the airport. Local authorities have not pressed charges against him.
A few years ago, Cano was slapped with a $50,000 fine for performing narcocorridos in Chihuahua, one of the first states to enact a ban.
Los Alegres del Barranco, the band that flashed a picture of El Mencho in Michoacan, has tried to skirt the laws in recent days with karaoke events in which they play the music but project lyrics for the audience to sing.
For many stars, the bigger threat may be organized crime itself. Drug traffickers often pay to be featured in songs — Peso Pluma has acknowledged taking money from them — and dozens of the genre’s stars have been killed over the years, sometimes by rivals of the hit men and drug dealers they’ve portrayed. Peso Pluma canceled an appearance in Tijuana last year after he received death threats.
Those who support the bans say they are necessary to keep the next generation of young people from romanticizing violence, and to honor those who have lost loved ones to bloodshed.
“Will we tell the victims and their families that it is better to respect the freedom of expression of those who advocate violence than to take measures to safeguard the lives of Mexicans?” columnist Mauricio Farah Gebara wrote in Milenio newspaper.
But for the genre’s devotees, the bans smack of classism.
A musician plays the double bass.
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1.An audience member records the musicians play.2.An audience member wears a diamond chain bracelet.
It’s a double standard, said a musician named Rosul, who often performs narcocorridos and who attended the lively party in Mexico City last week.
“Netflix can release a series about drug traffickers and win awards and get applause,” she said. “But if somebody from the ‘hood sings about the same thing, it’s an apology for violence?”
Banning the genre, she said, is a losing battle. Young people, after all, hate being told what to do.
“This only makes it more appealing,” she said. “This will only make us stronger.”
Times special correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal contributed to this report.
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