President Trump and first lady Melania Trump made an unannounced visit to American troops serving in Iraq late on Christmas night, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Wednesday.
Why it matters: This is Trump's first visit to a war zone as president, 23 months after he took office. It comes just one week after Trump announced he would be withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria and that the Islamic State's territorial caliphate had been defeated, prompting Defense Secretary James Mattis and anti-ISIS envoy Brett McGurk to resign in protest.
The Trump administration is appealing a ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Jon Tigar that extends a block on a proclamation President Trump signed in November that would bar migrants who illegally cross the border from seeking asylum, CNN reports.
The big picture: The Supreme Court upheld the federal judge's ruling last week with a 5-4 vote ruling against the administration. The administration will be appealing through the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Tigar originally ruled that the order from Trump "irreconcilably conflicts" with current immigration law and issued a temporary restraining order on it.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection ordered medical checks on every child in its custody Wednesday after an 8-year-old boy from Guatemala died, the second death of a child immigrant under the agency's watch this month, the AP reports.
The big picture: CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said Wednesday that the agency has more than 1,500 emergency medical technicians on hand, and that officers are taking dozens of sick immigrant children to hospitals every day. “This is an extraordinarily rare occurrence,” McAleenan told CBS. "It’s been more than a decade since we’ve had a child pass away anywhere in a CBP process, so this is just devastating for us.” The number of children in the agency's care is unknown, a CPB spokesperson said Tuesday, but the agency is reaching out to other government agencies to help with medical assistance.
The weekend and federal holidays are over, making Wednesday the first full business day after the partial government shutdown.
Why it matters: Progress on a spending deal has yet to be made between President Trump and Congress after the shutdown began at midnight last Friday, the AP reports. Trump was still adamant Tuesday that the shutdown will remain until Democrats agree to fund the U.S.-Mexico border. About 25% of the government, or some 800,000 government workers, are directly affected by the shutdown.
The U.S.-led coalition airstrikes against ISIS in Syria are continuing, and the coalition announced that attacks Dec. 16-22 "severely degraded" the group's facilities and "removed several hundred ISIS fighters from the battlefield," per CNN.
Why it matters: It's a sign that the coalition's military strategy hasn't changed since President Trump announced last week that the U.S. would withdraw from Syria. There's also an unspoken message: the coalition doesn't consider the terrorist group to be defeated.
In a short question and answer session with reporters this morning, President Trump said "I can’t tell you when the government is going to reopen," and that the partial government shutdown won't end until "we have a wall, a fence, whatever they’d like to call it."
Between the lines: His comments, per the White House pool report, didn't suggest any real progress in ending the standoff with Democratic leaders. But he may have signaled some flexibility on what would satisfy his promises on the border wall. And when asked whether the $5 billion he wants is nonnegotiable: "It’s complicated … We want the wall money to be increased."
The body of the 7-year-old Guatemalan girl Jakelin Caal, who died while in U.S. custody, was brought home to white balloons and handwritten messages such as “We love you Jakelin” Tuesday, AP's Sonia Pérez D. reports.
"The child's tragic journey began and ended in the village of about 420 people with no paved streets, running water or electricity. Its residents say declining crop yields and lack of work have pushed many in the community to emigrate."
Pope Francis encouraged people in his Christmas message to see differences as a "source of richness" rather than a reason for fear, Reuters reports.
The big picture: The message seemed to reference the rise in populism and political unrest with immigration across the world. He called for reconciliation in places torn apart by conflict and for “fraternity among people with different ideas, yet capable of respecting and listening to one another."
