The ACLU and other advocacy groups filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging the Trump administration's asylum agreements that allow Honduran and Salvadoran asylum seekers to be sent to Guatemala.
Why it matters: The "safe third country" agreements with Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador would keep more asylum seekers out of the U.S., but critics say the program doesn't inform migrants of their other options and sends them to countries that can't offer security. Only the Guatemala agreement is in effect so far.
U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte issued a preliminary injunction on Wednesday, temporarily blocking President Trump’s executive order which allowed state and local governments to refuse accepting refugee resettlements.
Why it matters: A week earlier, Texas became the first state to say it would not accept refugees. More refugees resettled in the state last year than any other.
28 days after the House voted to impeach President Trump, two articles and seven House managers will officially move over to the Senate for the third impeachment trial in U.S. history.
Why it matters: Barring a last-minute mutiny, Trump will be acquitted — but new information that the trial brings to light could prove politically damaging, both for the president and the Republican senators who have sought to protect him.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Wednesday that House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) would serve among the seven individuals tapped as the House's managers during the Senate's impeachment trial for President Trump.
Why it matters: The managers will present the House's case for impeachment to convince senators to convict the president for abusing his power and obstructing Congress, and ultimately remove him from office.
A lawyer for former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch told MSNBC Tuesday an investigation should be launched into whether she was monitored in Kyiv after newly released records shed new light on events leading up to her ouster.
Driving the news: House Democrats released a trove of documents earlier Tuesday, including phone records of Lev Parnas, an associate of President Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, which appear to indicate he discussed surveilling Yovanovitch in March 2019.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren appeared to reject Democratic presidential rival Sen. Bernie Sanders' handshake after the progressive pair clashed during Tuesday night's debate in Des Moines, Iowa.
Six 2020 candidates offered their positions on issues including beating Trump, climate change, impeachment in the seventh Democratic debate Tuesday night.
Why it matters: The debate is the last before the Iowa caucus — the first real test of candidates' appeal to voters — on Feb. 3, as the top four Democrats stand statistically neck and neck with caucus-goers.
Six candidates squared off at Tuesday night's Democratic debate, which took place in Iowa but began with a global policy discussion on war and America's record in the Middle East.
The big picture: Recent tensions with Iran offered candidates the opportunity to draw sharp contrasts between their stances on foreign intervention. On more personal issues, like the rift between Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, the candidates were more subdued, emphasizing the importance of solidarity against President Trump with just three weeks until the Iowa caucuses.
Former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg painted a strong contrast between himself and President Trump on the debate stage, and how he'd be able to take on Trump during a general election.
"I'm ready to take on Donald Trump because when we get to the tough talk, and the chest-thumping, he's going to have to stand next to an American war veteran and explain how he pretended bone spurs made him ineligible to serve."
"Well, as a matter of fact, I didn't say it. And I don't want to waste a whole lot of time on this, because this is what Donald Trump and maybe some media want. Anybody who knows me knows that it's incomprehensible that I would think that a woman cannot be president of the United States."
Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren took opposite positions on President Trump's North American trade deal, with Warren saying she would vote for it whereas Sanders said he would not.
What they're saying: Sanders has consistently criticized the trade agreement, known as USMCA, because it does not address climate change on any level. Warren argues starting with this trade deal is a modest improvement worth exploring.
As tensions remain high between the U.S. and Iran, former Vice President Joe Biden said he would leave troops in the Middle East to continue fighting ISIS, and accused President Trump of lying about Iran's imminent attack against American embassies to keep troops in the region.
"I think it's a mistake to pull out the small number of troops that are there now to deal with ISIS. What's happened is, now that he's gone ahead, the president and started this whole process moving, what's happening?"
"We -- ISIS is going to reconstitute itself. We're in a position where we have to pull our forces out. Americans have to leave the entire region. And quite frankly, I think [Trump has] flat-out lied about saying that the reason he went after -- the reason he made the strike was because our embassies were about to be bombed."
