Inside Trump’s Strategy to Push Out Immigrants, and How Tech Giants Targeted Teens at School

Summary

The Headlines – June 5, 2026

Podcast by The New York Times

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Episode Overview

In this episode, host Tracy Mumford guides listeners through three in-depth stories:

1. The Senate’s overnight push to fund President Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown—and the less-publicized bureaucratic maneuvers designed to make life harder for immigrants.
2. The revelation that major tech companies—including Meta, Snap, TikTok, and YouTube—strategically targeted students in schools to boost engagement, which has led to widespread lawsuits from U.S. school districts.
3. The passing of Marjane Satrapi, the influential author of Persepolis, and a look at her legacy.

The episode weaves sharp reporting with direct quotations from journalists and those affected by these policies and practices.

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1. Trump Administration's Strategy to Push Out Immigrants

Main Theme:
A breakdown of both headline and little-known efforts by the Trump administration to tighten immigration—going beyond widely-covered ICE crackdowns to include rule changes affecting everyday life for many immigrants.

Key Points & Insights

• Senate Funding Marathon

  • The Senate passed $70 billion for Trump’s immigration crackdown after an all-night session, using a filibuster-proof process.
  • Democrats objected, citing opposition to expanding ICE powers, but were overruled.
  • The measure moves to the House, where it’s expected to pass swiftly.
    (01:07)

• Behind-the-Scenes Bureaucratic Changes

  • The real transformation, reporters say, is less visible: small, technical changes mean big impacts for immigrant communities.
  • Example:
    • A woman from El Salvador, legally employed at Boston’s Logan Airport for nearly 30 years, lost her job overnight when the administration changed rules regarding who could access secure airport areas.
    • Dozens of similar cases are reported nationwide. (02:16)

• Broader Policy Shifts

  • Reporter Nick Nahumas details a “fundamental transformation” in U.S. immigration policy:
    • Green card holders now excluded from government-backed loans.
    • American children of noncitizen parents lose eligibility for daycare subsidies.
    • Many immigrants can no longer acquire commercial truck driver’s licenses.
    • Refugees cut off from Medicare and ACA subsidies.
    • Asylum seekers face new hurdles in obtaining work permits.
  • “What we're seeing is the Trump administration trying to pull every lever to make life harder for immigrants in the United States and compel them to leave the country. It's really a fundamental transformation of how welcoming the United States is to immigrants.” – Nick Nahumas (03:28)

Notable Quotes

• “We're here to complete our oath of office, which is to provide security and safety for the American people.” – Alberta Separatist Activist (00:58)
• “The administration is making changes across the board [...] It’s really a fundamental transformation of how welcoming the United States is to immigrants.” – Nick Nahumas (03:37)

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2. Tech Giants Allegedly Targeted Teens During School

Main Theme:
A wave of lawsuits shines light on how major technology companies intentionally sought to boost engagement by targeting students during school hours, making teaching more difficult and facilitating compulsive phone use by kids.

Key Points & Insights

• Lawsuit Wave

  • Over 1,400 U.S. school districts are suing Meta, Snap, TikTok, and YouTube for policies they claim worsened student distraction and reliance on devices.
  • The companies were forced to disclose thousands of internal documents.

• Strategic Targeting Exposed

  • YouTube’s internal 2015 memo acknowledged weekly usage gaps, highlighting the potential of increasing weekday (i.e., during school) usage.
  • Snap referred to in-school mobile engagement as “under the desk time”.
  • Snap sent alerts to students to post during class (e.g., about their backpacks).
  • Meta, via programs, paid teens to act as “ambassadors” within schools—handing out swag or promoting products online.
  • Google reportedly ignored evidence of YouTube’s use for non-academic content during class for years.

• Internal Pushback Ignored

  "It was striking to see these companies discussing ways to reach kids in the classroom, knowing that that was what they were doing, getting pushback from people within the company saying that this might be disrupting the class, and they went ahead and did it anyway."
  — Jennifer Valentino DeVries (04:10)

• Company Responses & Legal Ramifications

  • Google: Claims lawsuit documents are outdated.
  • Meta: School outreach was partly about product feedback.
  • Snap: Denies targeting schools.
  • Companies argue that device habits are the responsibility of parents, schools, and phone makers—not the platforms themselves.
  • A $30 million settlement with a Kentucky district may set the stage for larger, future payouts. (05:48)

Notable Quotes

• "For example, Snap had a strategy document that referred to phone use in schools as under the desk time."
  — Jennifer Valentino DeVries (04:57)
• “Meta had a program where it paid teenagers to act as its ambassadors in schools and hand out swag or post about new products online.”
  — Jennifer Valentino DeVries (05:21)

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3. Remembering Marjane Satrapi, Author of Persepolis

Main Theme:
A tribute to Marjane Satrapi, whose graphic memoirs brought the Iranian Revolution’s human stories to a global audience, emphasizing the universality of the search for ‘home’.

Key Points & Insights

• Life and Legacy

  • Satrapi, who died at 56, was the author of Persepolis, which details coming of age in post-revolutionary Iran.
  • Her work combined comics and memoir, chronicling restrictions on women, the Iran-Iraq war, and her family’s resistance.
  • Her books became an Oscar-nominated animated film.

• Themes: Exile and Belonging

  "It's a human point of view and really, if there is one message, is the humanistic message is that human being anywhere is the same."
  — Marjane Satrapi (07:22)

  • Satrapi often wrote about the pain and perspective of living away from her homeland even after becoming a French citizen.
  • “To me, the word home has only one meaning: Iran.” (quoted by Tracy Mumford at 07:31)

Notable Quotes

• “As an insider, how I lived the thing ... Not at all wanting to make a lesson of history or of politics. Just to say, in my life, from my point of view, that is the way I live the thing.”
  — Marjane Satrapi (06:40)
• “To me, the word home has only one meaning: Iran.”
  — Marjane Satrapi (as cited by Tracy Mumford) (07:31)

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Noteworthy Segments & Timestamps

| Segment | Start Time | |-------------------------------------------|------------| | Senate passes immigration funding | 00:53 | | Effects on immigrant workers | 02:16 | | In-depth: Bureaucratic rule changes | 02:37 | | Lawsuits against tech companies | 03:37 | | Internal documents: targeting schools | 04:10 | | Company responses & legal stakes | 05:48 | | Tribute to Marjane Satrapi | 06:40 | | Satrapi on universal humanity | 07:22 |

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Episode Tone

The reporting is urgent, clear, and sometimes direct—especially regarding policy impacts and corporate behavior. Personal stories offer empathetic context. Quotations from affected people and journalists maintain an accessible, candid tone.

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Summary

This episode of The Headlines offers incisive analysis on the evolving U.S. immigration landscape, the calculated actions of tech companies in the lives of American teens, and the legacy of a singular creative voice lost too soon. It is essential listening for anyone looking to understand today’s headlines and the personal stories behind them.

Transcript

[Planned Parenthood Representative]

This podcast is supported by Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Here's a story that's not getting nearly enough attention. Defunding Planned Parenthood has already caused chaos and harm and access to essential reproductive care is plummeting. Right now, the Trump administration's backers in Congress want to permanently defund Planned Parenthood, forcing even more health centers to close and millions at risk of losing access to care. It takes less than a minute to help. Go to planned parenthood.org defend and make a gift of any size.

[Tracy Mumford]

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Friday, June 5th. Here's what we're covering.

[Alberta Separatist Activist]

We've been sitting here for almost 12 hours listening to nonsense after nonsense. I've had enough.

[Tracy Mumford]

Very, very early this morning, the Senate finally wrapped up a marathon voting session.

[Alberta Separatist Activist]

We're here to complete our oath of office, which is to provide security and safety for the American people.

[Tracy Mumford]

Ultimately, Republicans prevailed in pushing through $70 billion in funding for President Trump's immigration crackdown. They used a special filibuster proof process to do it was which kept lawmakers up working all night. And they effectively muscled it through over the objections of Democrats who'd spent months calling for more restrictions on ICE agents. The measure will now go to the House where it's expected to be passed quickly. Meanwhile, as Republicans push forward on funding ice, the most visible part of President Trump's immigration policy, the Times has been looking at some of the more behind the scenes efforts the administration's been making to squeeze immigrants separate from the high profile raids. There's also been a wave of new rules and regulations to try and cut non citizens off from services and opportunities. My colleagues talked with one woman originally from El Salvador, who for almost 30 years had a job cleaning airplanes at Logan Airport in Boston. The bathrooms, the seats, the aisles. But she was abruptly fired along with dozens of other immigrants who worked at Logan legally.

[Nick Nahumas]

She lost her job when the Trump administration made a bureaucratic tweak about who could access secure areas at the airport. Her immigration status no longer qualified her. That's one example of all the kinds of tweaks the administration is making to immigration in this country.

[Tracy Mumford]

Nick Nahumas covers the Trump administration for the Times.

[Nick Nahumas]

The administration is making changes across the board so green card holders can no longer get a government backed loan. American children will no longer be able to get daycare subsidies if their parents aren't citizens. Many immigrants won't be able to get commercial trucker's licenses. People like refugees can't sign up for Medicare or receive Affordable Care act subsidies. Many people seeking asylum won't be able to get work permits. Really what we're seeing is the Trump administration trying to pull every lever to make life harder for immigrants in the United States and compel them to leave the country. It's really a fundamental transformation of how welcoming the United States is to immigrants.

[Tracy Mumford]

Across the country. The social media giants Meta, Snap, TikTok and YouTube are facing a wave of more than 1,400 lawsuits from school districts. The districts say the companies have made teachers jobs harder by distracting students. As part of the lawsuits, the companies have had to share thousands of pages of internal documents, including some of their strategies around young users. Digging through them, my colleagues have found that the companies spent years actively trying to get teens to use their products during the school day.

[Jennifer Valentino DeVries]

It was striking to see these companies discussing ways to reach kids in the classroom, knowing that that was what they were doing, getting pushback from people within the company saying that this might be disrupting the class, and they went ahead and did it anyway.

[Tracy Mumford]

Jennifer Valentino DeVries is an investigative reporter at the Times. She says that one of the documents surfaced by the lawsuits is an internal YouTube memo from 2015 where employees noted that Saturdays drew tens of millions more hours of viewing than a weekday. They concluded that, quote, increasing usage in schools Monday to Friday could decrease this gap. Exclamation point, Jennifer says other companies talked about kids in schools as an opportunity as well.

[Jennifer Valentino DeVries]

It was surprising to me just how blatant it was sometimes. For example, Snap had a strategy document that referred to phone use in schools as under the desk time. They sent alerts to students during class time to telling them that they should post about what was in their backpack. Meta had a program where it paid teenagers to act as its ambassadors in schools and hand out swag or post about new products online. And Google knew that kids were looking at YouTube during class and watching videos that were not related to their academics, and they really did not invest in ways to keep that from happening for many years.

[Tracy Mumford]

In response to questions from the Times, a Google spokesman said the documents surfaced in the lawsuits are outdated. Meta said its school outreach program was about soliciting feedback on products, among other things. And a spokeswoman for Snap said, quote, we do not target schools overall. The social media companies have argued that parents, schools and cell phone makers bear responsibility for kids phone habits. Recently, the companies settled for about $30 million with a small school district in rural Kentucky that served as a test case for the broader litigation. Nationwide and it suggests that as more of the lawsuits work their way through the courts, the companies could be on the hook for potentially billions of dollars. And finally, I wanted to show as

[Marjane Satrapi]

an insider how I lived the thing, you know, without wanting to make, you know, a lesson of history or of, I don't know, of politics or whatever. Not at all. Just to say, you know, in my life, from my point of view, that is the way I live the thing.

[Tracy Mumford]

Marjane Satrapi, the Iranian French author behind the groundbreaking graphic novel series Persepolis, has died at 56 years old. Through her books, she introduced millions of readers to the struggles of everyday Iranians during the Islamic revolution. Released in the early 2000s, the graphic novels combined comics and memoir, telling the story of the Iran Iraq War, the overthrow of the Shah, and what it was like for her growing up in a repressive society.

[Marjane Satrapi]

It's a human point of view and really, if there is one message, is the humanistic message is that human being anywhere is the same.

[Tracy Mumford]

The books were later adapted into an animated film, which was nominated for an Oscar. Satrapi was born in Iran in the late 60s, and her family resisted the changes the country was undergoing when she was growing up, especially the new restrictions on how women could dress and what they could do. Her family sent her abroad as a teenager. She then came back to Iran to study art in her 20s, but eventually left for good, landing in France, where she wrote Persepolis. Across all of her work, which included children's books and several feature films, she frequently explored a sense of dislocation, of living away from her home country, but thinking of it constantly. In an essay she wrote for the Times, she said that despite the fact that she became a French citizen, quote, to me, the word home has only one meaning Iran. Those are the headlines. If you'd like to play the Friday news quiz, stick around. It's just after these credits. This show is made by Will Jarvis, Margaret Khadifa, Jake Lucas, Yon Stewart and me, Tracy Mumford. Original theme by Dan Powell. Special thanks to Isabel Anderson, Larissa Anderson, Sam Dolnick, Miles McKinley and Zoe Murphy. Now time for the quiz. Every week we ask you a few questions about stories the Times has been covering. Can you get them all?

[Alberta Separatist Activist]

First up, if we separate as an individual province or become part of the 51st state, either or. But I think we need to stand up.

[Tracy Mumford]

This week, the Times has been reporting on the push by some Canadians to have their province break away and become its own country.

[Alberta Separatist Activist]

We would easily be one of the richest countries in the world. Right off the bat, they have trillions of dollars in resources.

[Tracy Mumford]

For decades, this was kind of a fringe idea. But polling shows that now roughly a third of people in that province support the separatist cause, which is set to come up for a preliminary vote this fall. Your question which Canadian province is it a hint? It's been called the Texas of Canada in part because of its vast oil reserves. The answer?

[Helen Keller International Representative]

This is our moment.

[Alberta Separatist Activist]

Alberta will be free.

[Tracy Mumford]

Alberta, where people are generally more wealthy and more conservative than the rest of Canada and where they felt that they've been paying more than their fair share of taxes as they tried to build support for their secessionist cause. Activists from the province who want to break away have even met with Trump administration officials at least three times in the past year. Next question. The former congressman George Santos is back in the news this week. Santos, of course, has been expelled from Congress and was sentenced to years in prison for fraud until President Trump commuted his sentence last fall. Now the Times has learned Santos is under investigation again for alleged misconduct. Your question what new allegation is he said to be facing? Here are four options. Only one of them is right. A getting unemployment benefits while working full time at an investment firm making six figures B making multiple fraudulent credit card transactions C insider trading on a prediction market or D lying on official government forms. So again, that's getting unemployment benefits he shouldn't have. Credit card fraud, insider trading on a prediction market, or lying on official forms. The answer C insider trading on a prediction market. All of the other options are crimes Santos previously admitted to. But the prediction market allegations, those are new. And weirdly, they all center around this year's State of the Union speech. At the time, there was a lot of speculation about whether Santos would be in the audience and people were placing bets online. According to a person familiar with the situation, Santos decided to bet too, putting down money that he wouldn't go and he didn't. Obviously, this kind of situation is exactly why prediction markets are facing a lot of questions about the potential for insider trading. And last question, the NBA recently rolled out some brand new music. The league is basically looking for a kind of signature sound and to craft it, they brought in the composer behind one of the most distinctive TV show theme songs of the last decade. If you listen closely to the NBA song, there's definitely some shared DNA in here. Your question which TV show did this composer also write the theme for? The answer. The NBA brought in the composer of the succession theme, Nicholas Britell, who actually hosted some NBA players at his home when he was working on it to run his drafts by them. Quick bonus round now. The NBA's new song is, of course, not the only signature tune in pro sports. We're going to play you three quick clips here. You name the sport. That was an easy one. It's football. Fox NFL Sunday, to be specific. Next one, If you got that. I'm clapping quietly for you. That is golf from the Masters. And last one, That is the official FIFA 2026 World cup song. Shakira coming in with another earworm. The tournament kicks off in just a few days, so prepare for that song to be absolutely everywhere. That's it for this week's News Quiz. If you want to tell us how you did, our email is the headlinesytimes.com the show will be back on Monday.

[Helen Keller International Representative]

This podcast is supported by Helen Keller International. This is a moment of growing urgency. Families around the world are facing widening gaps in healthcare and nutrition, but solutions are within reach. Just 75 cents can provide treatment for neglected tropical diseases, and $2 can help protect a child's sight and health. For a limited time, donations are being matched, helping expand that impact. Learn more@helen kellerintl.org theheadlines.