The State Department plans to ask all visa applicants (both immigrant and non-immigrant) to hand over their social media handles from the past five years as part of their extreme vetting process, CNN first reported. The Department's proposals are expected to be published in the federal register on Friday.
Big picture: The State Department's move would effect almost 15 million would-be immigrants, according to the proposals. Last fall, the Department of Homeland Security also began collecting social media from immigrants, green card holders and naturalized citizens.
New internal polling conducted for the DCCC by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research suggests that Democratic candidates running in swing districts "must express a willingness to work with the President when his agenda might help the district." The survey also recommends that Democrats "not appear out of sync with what people believe about the economy."
Why it matters: President Trump's election unleashed the far-left wing of the Democratic Party, but moderate Democrats are the party's likely path to the majority. This new polling warns Democrats away from campaigning specifically against Trump and, instead, toward embracing the improving economy with a message focused on the middle class.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement will no longer automatically release pregnant women from detention, but will look at each case individually, the Daily Beast reports.
Why it matters: This yet another example of DHS and the Trump administration toughening up on enforcing immigration laws.
Since 2015, more than 90,000 spouses of H-1B workers with pending green cards have acquired work authorization in the U.S. — a policy the Trump administration plans to end — and 93% of them are women.
Why it matters: Women will be disproportionately affected by the end of work authorization for certain H-4 visa holders — up to 84,935 of them could lose their jobs. Because there are fewer restrictions on the kind of employment H-4 workers can pursue than H-1B workers, these work visas have allowed for the promotion of women entrepreneurship and small business, Leon Fresco, and immigration lawyer who works with H-1B and H-4 holders, told Axios.
President Trump has fired his embattled Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin. On Twitter today he said he's going to nominate Ronny Jackson, the physician to the president, for the role. As Axios' Jonathan Swan wrote on Sunday, Shulkin's days were numbered due to ongoing drama at the department over spending and personnel.
Why this matters via Swan: Trump loves Jackson, thinks he’s a great guy and did a terrific job behind the podium when he delivered Trump’s medical results. Trump regarded that appearance as a triumph, according to sources with direct knowledge. This appointment is yet another example of how personal relationships — and Trump’s personal comfort level — are the whole ballgame.
President Trump's former lawyer John Dowd suggested to Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort's lawyers that Trump would pardon them if they did not work with Robert Mueller's probe into the Trump campaign's relationship with Russia during the 2016 election, the New York Times reports.
Why it matters: The discussion about pardons came as Mueller was closing in on Flynn and Manafort, and could indicate that the White House was intending to influence the former Trump associates' decisions on whether to cooperate with the investigation.
Former Maricopa County sheriff and current U.S. Senate candidate Joe Arpaio is vowing to continue his quest to prove former President Obama's birth certificate is fake. "I'm going to tell you something," Arpaio told an audience at Western Conservative Conference. "We 100% proved that's a fake document."
The big picture: Arpaio is known for his hardline stances on immigration and his claim that Obama's birth certificate is fake was part of that. We rounded up his controversial moments here.
The Department of Homeland Security is considering denying citizenship to immigrants who accept welfare, popular tax deductions or any other public benefits such as food stamps, according to a draft of the proposal obtained by the Washington Post.
Why it matters: Buzz surrounding the proposal has already led some immigrants to drop out of supplemental nutrition programs, the New York Times reported earlier this month. But this is the first time the Earned Income Tax Credit was listed as a possible reason to deny an immigrant permanent residence.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) "holds nothing back" in his latest memoir, The Restless Wave, which covers everything from his time as a presidential candidate in 2008 to his take on the current political environment in Washington, according to the book's publisher Simon & Schuster. The book is set to hit shelves in May.
What to watch: McCain has not been afraid to publicly break with President Trump and other top members of the Republican Party on key issues, such as voting against the Senate's efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act or criticize the president for making what he sees as big mistakes. This memoir promises that McCain will be as candid as ever.
All 22 female senators expressed their "deep disappointment" in the Senate's failure to pass an update to Congress' harassment and discrimination rules in a letter to party leaders Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer, reports Politico. While the House voted in February to revamp the 1995 harassment laws, the Senate has yet to act.
What's next: Right now, there's no plan to bring the measure to the Senate floor, though Schumer said last week that he expected the Senate was "going to get something done in the next little while." And, when asked about the legislation's future, McConnell's spokesman told CNN, "I don't yet have a prediction on when that will be completed."
In a meeting last Wednesday in the White House residence, President Trump told Speaker Ryan that the U.S. military should pay for his border wall, the WashPost's Josh Dawsey and Mike DeBonis report and a source familiar confirms to Axios.
Why it's happening: "Trump has told advisers that he was spurned in a large spending bill last week when lawmakers appropriated only $1.6 billion for the border wall."
Tech companies in and around Toronto have seen a surge in international job applications over the last year, by far mostly from the U.S., according to a new survey. The number doubled and tripled in some of the companies, the result of a deliberate Canadian campaign to attract tech workers from the U.S. and around the world.
Why it matters: The spike in applications and hiring adds to the evidence suggesting that President Trump's immigration crackdown is resulting in a loss of tech workers to Canada.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday will hear arguments from Maryland Republicans that the state’s 6th Congressional District was intentionally drawn by the Democratic-controlled state legislature to cost a GOP incumbent his seat. This comes after it heard a similar case from Democrats in Wisconsin who say the GOP-controlled legislature gerrymandered the entire state map to maximize their majority.
Why it matters: The court's decisions, expected by June, could impose constitutional limits on partisan gerrymandering or allow it to happen with virtually no limits.
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