# Judge blocks Mahmoud Khalil’s deportation after Ice detained pro-Palestinian activist – as it happened



14.55 EDT

Thank you all for following the Guardian’s live blog. Here are some of the top stories of the day.

- **A judge has blocked pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil’s deportation from the US.** New York judge Jesse Furman  on Monday after  confirmed the arrest of the permanent US resident with a green card. A hearing has been scheduled for Wednesday.
- **The US senate on Monday confirmed Lori Chavez-DeRemer to serve as Donald Trump’s Labor secretary** in a vote that drew rare bipartisan support and opposition. In a 67-32 vote, 17 Democrats joined most Republicans to support **Chavez-DeRemer’s** nomination.
- **House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries rejected Republicans’ go-it-alone strategy to avert a government shutdown**, saying Democrats would not back their plan to fund federal agencies through the rest of the fiscal year.
- **Los Angeles district attorney Nathan Hochman says that he opposes the resentencing of Lyle and Erik Menendez,** who were convicted for the 1989 killing of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez.

Read the rest of Hochman’s rationale .

Updated at 18.26 EDT

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15.06 EDT

Wall Street suffers major losses as fears grow over Trump tariff effect
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**Today’s final numbers from Wall Street are out** **and the three main indices have continued to drop.** The S&P 500 fell 2.7%, the Dow Jones dropped 2%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 4% as investors sold shares in the so-called “magnificent seven” – Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Nvidia and Tesla. Tesla’s shares had their worst day since September 2020, falling 15%.

The fall came a day after Trump  questions about a potential recession on Sunday. Asked if he expected a recession, Trump said: “There is a period of transition, because what we’re doing is very big … It takes a little time, but I think it should be great for us.”

Kevin Hassett, the head of the national economic council, told CNBC on Monday that any uncertainty around Trump’s trade policies would be resolved by early April and that the policies were “creating jobs in the US”.

Read more

Updated at 16.55 EDT

15.53 EDT

ACLU warns pro-Palestinian activist's arrest meant 'to intimidate and chill speech'
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The Trump administration’s decision to have immigration authorities arrest pro-Palestinian activist **Mahmoud Khalil** for alleged support of Hamas is an attack on free speech, the American Civil Liberties Union warned.

“This arrest is unprecedented, illegal, and un-American,” said **Ben Wizner**, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project.

“The federal government is claiming the authority to deport people with deep ties to the U.S. and revoke their green cards for advocating positions that the government opposes. To be clear: the first amendment protects everyone in the US. The government’s actions are obviously intended to intimidate and chill speech on one side of a public debate. The government must immediately return Mr Khalil to New York, release him back to his family and reverse course on this discriminatory policy.”

Updated at 15.12 EDT

15.12 EDT

Doge takeover of social security seemed ‘based on myth’, says ex-senior official
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A former chief of staff at the US Social Security Administration (SSA) described how agents of the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) – ’s government cost-cutting operation – were imposed on the agency, assailing senior staff with questions “based on the general myth of supposed widespread fraud” and acting with dangerous disregard for data confidentiality.

In a  filed with a lawsuit on Friday and referring to the Doge agents Mike Russo and Akash Bobba, Tiffany Flick said: “We proposed briefings to help Mr Russo and Mr Bobba understand the many measures the agency takes to help ensure the accuracy of benefit payments, including those measures that help ensure we are not paying benefits to deceased individuals.

“However, Mr Russo seemed completely focused on questions … based on the general myth of supposed widespread social security fraud, rather than facts.”

Flick also said she was “not confident”  agents had “the requisite knowledge and training to prevent sensitive information from being inadvertently transferred to bad actors”, given its agents have “never been vetted by SSA or trained on SSA data, systems or programs”.

“In such a chaotic environment, the risk of data leaking into the wrong hands is significant,” Flick said.

Doge takeover of social security seemed ‘based on myth’, says ex-senior official

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Updated at 15.06 EDT

15.06 EDT

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