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Good morning. It's Wednesday, April 9th. I'm Shemitza Basu. This is Apple News today. On today's show, the point system determining who gets flagged for deportation, what happens when unaccompanied minors cross the border and need a lawyer, and what to know about the upcoming deadline to get your real ID card. But first, President Trump's latest round of tariffs went into effect overnight, bringing our total levy against China to at least 104%. Trump acknowledged that so far his tariffs have been met with a lot of angst, but insisted that he knows what the hell he's doing. He also said he would soon impose tariffs on pharmaceuticals, lamenting that America doesn't make our own medicines. The reaction from Wall street to Trump's tariff plan has been unequivocally negative. On Tuesday, the markets closed down for the fourth consecutive day in a row. And the Wall Street Journal reports that many CEOs are starting to break their silence, with people from JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon to billionaire hedge fund manager and Trump backer Bill Ackman sharply criticizing the moves and Republican donor and billionaire Ken Griffin calling them a huge policy mistake. The policy has also led to some infighting inside the White House, with basically three different camps emerging. Here's how Justin Sink, a White House correspondent for Bloomberg News, described the competing schools of thought.
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So on one side, the most hawkish side, you have folks like Peter Navarro and Howard Lutnick, the Commerce secretary, who really believe that tariffs can propel manufacturing back to the United States and help sort of settle historic trade deficits between the two countries.
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They're the ones who say this isn't about negotiating with other countries, that this is, as Navarro put it, a national emergency triggered by trade deficits caused by a rigged system. Then in the middle, you've got Treasury Secretary Scott Besant, who says tariffs will force other countries to come to the table and offer major concessions.
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And then you've got Elon Musk over the side, and he's, while a close advisor of the president, also somebody who is a businessman and whose sort of immense wealth is tied up in the stock market.
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Musk, who is the world's richest man, has lost an estimated $31 billion since Trump announced his tariffs, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires index. His company, SpaceX, has said new trade barriers will negatively impact how its Starlink communications service can operate in foreign countries. And although Tesla makes all of the cars it sells in the US within the United States, it does get parts from other countries. And this has led To Musk and Navarro, Trump's top trade counselor, openly feuding on X. Navarro called Musk a, quote, car assembler, not a car manufacturer, calling attention to how Teslas are made. Musk defended Tesla and called Navarro, quote, dumber than a sack of bricks. Here's sink again.
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I do think that Musk has been pretty straightforward about the fact that he does not believe in these tariffs. He does not think that they're a good idea. We have seen reporting that he brought that case to the president directly before they were announced. So I think even, you know, engaging in this public spat is both him sort of genuinely expressing his opinion, but also looking to rally support behind his cause.
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While this spat is taking place on social media, Trump says he's open to talking to world leaders to strike deals that he says will be better for America. Specifically, he's indicated he feels confident a deal could emerge with South Korea. He also spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week. And and Cink told us next week Italy's Prime Minister, Giorgio Meloni will meet with Trump to talk tariffs, too. The big outlier here, though, is China.
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While other countries are coming to the table offering him new stuff, Beijing has sort of stood up and said, no, we're not playing that game and in fact, we're going to hit you back with these tariffs.
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Chinese officials called the U.S. tariff policy, quote, blackmail yesterday and said Beijing would fight to the end. In response to Trump's overnight moves against China, China plans to implement an additional 34% tariff on all U.S. goods starting Thursday. On social media, Trump wrote China also wants to make a deal badly, but they don't know how to get it started. We are waiting for their call. It will happen.
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I think it's unlikely that phone call is going to come and then Trump's going to have to sort of make a decision. Is he going to push forward with this maximalist effort? Because it's going to have real impact on sort of consumer goods that Americans are buying back at home.
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Foreign let's turn now to the 238 men from Venezuela that President Trump deported to El Salvador last month with no due process, despite a judge's order blocking their deportations. According to 60 Minutes, around 75% of these men had no criminal records in the US or abroad. And of the roughly 22% who did have criminal records, most of their offenses were nonviolent, such as theft, shoplifting, or trespassing. And yet the administration has stood by its decision to deport them. And we're starting to learn more about its system for justifying many of these deportations. According to recent court filings in a case brought by the aclu, the government is using a point system to designate people as possible members of the Venezuelan gang Trende Aragua and mark them eligible for deportation under the Alien Enemies act to be deported. The bar is quite low on the scoring scale. That goes up to nearly 90 points. A person with as few as six points could be flagged for deportation. And in many cases, according to the New York Times, people have reached that number in part based on wearing certain clothing the administration believes to be connected with the gang. Things like a Michael Jordan Bulls jersey or, quote, high end urban streetwear, or.
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Wearing sports attire from U.S. professional sports teams with Venezuelan national last names on them.
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That's NPR immigration reporter Sergio Martinez Beltran. Clothing deemed suspicious by the government is worth four points, and certain tattoos are worth four points as well. Martinez Beltran told us about the types of tattoos the government is looking for.
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They include AK47s, trains, clogs, crowns, stars, roses, the Jumpman logo, which is used to promote the Jordan basketball sneakers.
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In one case, a man who was deported was accused of having a crown tattoo that symbolizes his involvement with a gang. But his lawyers say the tattoo is actually just a nod to his favorite soccer club, Real Madrid, which has a crown in its logo. In another case, the Miami Herald spoke to a man who had been granted refugee status by the government after a 17 month background check. But when he finally arrived in the United States, immigration officials detained him over his a crown, a soccer ball and a palm tree, saying they were sufficient evidence he belonged to the gang. And in yet another case, a family that Martinez Beltran spoke to say their loved one's clock tattoo was misconstrued.
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They got a tattoo of a clock that marks the time their son was born. Yet the government has said that that is indicative of an affiliation to Trend.
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Aragua, making the point system even more confounding. Experts who have studied Latin American gangs for years say Trend Aragua does not necessarily use tattoos to identify members. Administration officials have claimed that they are handling these deportations as a national security issue and have largely deflected when asked about releasing more information that supports their claims. Let's stick with immigration and look at the impact of the Trump administration's crackdown on children who cross the border without a parent or legal guardian. Among the many federal contracts that have been canceled by Trump since he took office is one that provides legal representation to children who are under the custody of the Office of refugee resettlement, nearly 26,000 kids total. That decision is now in dispute. Nonprofits representing these kids sued the administration, arguing that an anti trafficking law requires the government to provide representation, And a federal judge in California last week ordered the administration to temporarily restore funding. The government, meanwhile, has argued the funding is discretionary and part of a contract dispute. Immigration attorneys told the LA Times if the funding is cut, it will have a devastating impact on the children, leaving them more vulnerable to rapid deportation. Many of these kids are too young to read or speak, let alone represent themselves in court, according to one immigration attorney. Here's LA Times reporter Rachel Uranga.
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For children especially, legal representation makes a big difference. In fact, Congress set laws back in 2008 to provide children with legal representations to deter them from being trafficked and exploited. We know that if children have their own lawyers, the chances of succeeding in their case go up extraordinarily.
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In the West Los Angeles immigration court, dozens of these cases are heard every month.
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It's a pretty stark scene. The galleys are filled with teenagers, sometimes children who are very young, and they're going into court facing government lawyers who are really well prepared, who know the law and so forth. But many of these children, most who don't speak English, don't understand exactly how the system works.
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Uranga told us about a 16 year old girl named Itzel who came to the US without an adult from Mexico when she was 14. Her mother is addicted to drugs, her father left when she was young and Itzel decided to leave Mexico after members of her family were murdered by a cartel.
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But she can't find a lawyer to help her with the deportation. She doesn't have the funds. Lawyers say she probably has a good case, but without somebody to look at it, review it and file the proper paperwork and present the case before the court, the likelihood of her succeeding is pretty low.
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Her case is one of roughly 33,000 nationwide involving unaccompanied kids that immigration courts are trying to work through. One immigration attorney told the LA Times they will continue to fulfill their ethical duty to help with these cases for now, but without new funding, it's unclear how long they'll be able to continue their work.
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When I went into the courts and I met some of the nonprofits providing legal representation and helping the children navigate through the courts, what they told me is there's definitely not enough of them to help the number of people inside the courts. And like I said, many of the people are there are people who are making really low income. They often can't work because of their status, and if they do, they're working in jobs where they're making menial pay.
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Before we let you go, a few other stories we're following. As damage from record floods in the central US Continues to impact millions of people, the National Weather Service says it will no longer provide automated weather alert translations in other languages. The changes come after the contract with an AI company that provides translation lapsed. The weather services turned to AI in 2023 after determining manual translations were too labor intensive. Nearly 68 million people in the US speak a language other than English. The director of the weather service previously said the AI translations would benefit underserved communities, but the Washington Post reports that could run count to Trump administration policy. Trump declared English the official language of the US and has directed agencies to scrub words like diversity and equity from their websites. A National Weather Service spokesperson confirmed translations are on pause, but gave no further comment. An update to some court cases involving the Trump administration that we've been following. First, the Supreme Court says Trump can proceed with firing more than 16,000 probationary federal workers for now. The court did not rule whether the firings were legal, but said the nonprofits who brought the cases did not have legal standing to do so. NPR notes the ruling will make it harder for groups to challenge government layoffs. Meanwhile, a federal judge in Washington sided with the Associated Press, who sued after Trump barred the organization from the White House press pool and Air Force One. The judge called it political retaliation and ordered the administration to immediately rescind its denial. The case stems from the AP's decision to continue using Gulf of Mexico instead of Gulf of America. The administration has said it's not singling out the ap, but rather narrowing down the number of journalists covering small events and to allow smaller publications to join bigger legacy media. And finally, if you haven't already taken care of this, now is a good time to get your real ID card or risk having your travel plans seriously disrupted. Starting May 7, TSA will require all passengers flying domestically to use a real ID card or an approved alternative like a passport in order to go through security checkpoints to get your real id. Check the rules in your state. They vary, but the basic process involves going to a DMV location and providing documentation that shows your full legal name, your birth date, Social Security number, your lawful resident status, and two forms of proof for your address. You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the News app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next, Rolling Stone traveled to Greenland and spent time talking with locals about what they want for their future as President Trump continues to discuss trying to take over the Danish territory. If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News plus Narrated to find that story. And I'll be back with the news.