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National

Armed with subpoenas, lawsuits and immigration SWAT teams, the Trump administration has declared war on sanctuary cities. 

The big picture: President Trump and his administration have used every available tool to try to crack down on local governments that refuse to hold unauthorized immigrants in criminal custody, block immigration agents from working in county jails or deny federal authorities access to immigrants' records. 

Where it stands: Just this year, the Trump administration has: 

Asked the Supreme Court to strike down California's sanctuary laws and filed three additional lawsuits challenging sanctuary-style laws.

 Suspended Global Entry for New Yorkers, after the state allowed undocumented residents to get driver's licenses. (New York sued in response.)

By the numbers: Immigration and Customs Enforcement has delivered 13 subpoenas demanding information about unauthorized immigrants from local law enforcement in Connecticut, New York, California and Oregon. 

Former ICE director Thomas Homan told Axios that during his 34 years working in immigration enforcement, DHS never had to subpoena another law enforcement agency. 

Most of the information being subpoenaed is already available to ICE through the FBI, John Sandweg, former ICE director under President Obama, told Axios. The move is "symbolic of how deep the relationships between DHS and state and local law enforcement has broken down," he said. 

100+ Customs and Border Protection agents, some with special technical training, are being dispatched to help ICE agents with arrests in certain cities.

 "It takes a lot more resources when you lose the efficiency of working inside the jail or getting called to the jail to pick [unauthorized immigrants] up," Homan said. 

How we got here: Trump signed an executive order shortly after taking office that called for cutting off federal grants to sanctuary cities, but that move was blocked by federal courts. 

Last year, however, a federal appeals court allowed the administration to prioritize localities that cooperate with immigration enforcement when it distributes community policing grants.  

What they're saying: Proponents argue that sanctuary cities allow law enforcement officials to focus on serious crimes, and say they make it easier for unauthorized immigrants to report crimes without fearing deportation. 

Opponents say the policies lead to more non-criminal unauthorized immigrants being arrested, because ICE agents go out into communities rather than focusing on immigrants in jail. 

"If you really do care about the immigrant community, let us in the jail," Homan said. 

What's next: The Supreme Court has not yet decided whether to hear the dispute between the Trump administration and California.

If it does, Trump will be up against a 1997 precedent in which the court ruled the federal government can't force state or local governments to enforce federal laws.

Trump has declared war on sanctuary cities

The administration has tried to crack down on local governments that don't cooperate with immigration law enforcement.

Illustration of a catapult loaded with a stack of lawsuit papers

Politics

Immigration

Cities

2024 will be an election year like no other, as President Biden seeks re-election amid economic uncertainty, two wars and questions about his age. His likely foe, former President Trump, faces felony charges and vows revenge on his political enemies. Meanwhile, Americans generally are dissatisfied with those choices and are divided over immigration, race, education and more.

Politics & Policy

Pro Rata

Axios Pro Rata

Founders Fund has raised $3 billion for a pair of new funds, so expect a slew of headlines about how "Peter Thiel's venture capital firm" is now flush with cash.

Behind the scenes: Thiel is essential to Founders Fund, but he's not autocratic. Instead, Axios has learned that he's one of three people with veto power over most FF investments, and is unable to do a deal without approval of the other two. 

Driving the news: FF raised $1.2 billion for its seventh flagship fund, and $1.5 billion for its first growth-stage fund. The total increases to $3 billion once commitments from FF's own partners are included.

The growth fund is expected to write checks of at least $100 million, with return expectations of at least 3x. If an existing portfolio company is seeking a large check, but FF doesn't believe the new money can return a triple, it won't invest.

Return expectations for the flagship fund are at least 5x.

Between the lines: The FF process is quite different from how most venture capital firms approve new deals — which typically involves majority or super-majority votes by general partners.

FF has seven investing partners, three of whom are general partners. That latter group is Thiel, Keith Rabois, and Brian Singerman.

For deals under $1.5 million, any two investment team members can cut a check. This includes general partners, partners, and FF's five principals.

For deals between $1.5 million and $5 million, it takes one partner plus one general partner.

For deals between $5 million and $10 million, it's one partner and two general partners.

For deals over $10 million, two partners and all three general partners must approve. 

The same rules apply whether it is a brand new deal or a follow-on investment for an existing portfolio company.

General partners must meet with company founders, either in person or virtually, before making their final decisions. That means any startup receiving more than $10 million must have met or at least spoken with Thiel, Rabois, and Singerman.

Singerman tells Axios that while individual vetoes do occasionally happen, they're rare:

"It's not like a deal is being worked on and then I get an email asking if I'll go along with it. We're discussing it as it progresses, which includes talking to the founders, and usually have reached a consensus so the vote becomes a formality... Sometimes we begin with only one of the three of us in support, and all end up in support, or sometimes it goes the other way."

Lauren Gross, a partner and chief operating officer, adds that the firm evaluates its deal process bi-annually, and sometimes makes small changes. 

"The voting really is usually the least relevant part, the part we under-index," she says. "It's more about the internal debate, which is where 95% of the work happens."

The bottom line: Peter Thiel is one of the most consequential figures in Silicon Valley, even if few have publicly followed his support of President Trump. But he doesn't deserve all the credit (or blame) for Founders Fund investments.

Peter Thiel's Founders Fund isn't really Peter Thiel's Founders Fund

Thiel is essential to Founders Fund, but he can't make decisions unilaterally.

Photo illustration of Peter Thiel, Keith Rabois, and Brian Singerman from Founders Fund.

Illustration: Photo Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios. Photos: Charles Eshelman, Steve Jennings, and Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Business

Peter Thiel

Technology

Top stories & latest news on the Federal Reserve, real-time data, plus the biggest shifts happening in the U.S. and global economy.

Economy

After a record economic expansion, the coronavirus pandemic sent the U.S. economy into a recession as unemployment soared to staggering heights. The country now faces urgent questions about how much stimulus is needed for reeling consumers and businesses, and what a recovery might look like.

Economy & Business

Sports

Axios Sports

Universal Tennis Rating (UTR) is a rating system that could revolutionize the sport at every level — from country club play, to college recruiting, to the very top of the professional tours.

How it works: The current ATP (men) and WTA (women) rankings are based on point accumulation, which benefits pros who get easier draws or play more matches and junior players whose parents have enough money to travel to tournaments.

By contrast, UTR is calculated based on the strength of who you play and the score (games won), not the result. It takes into account the past 30 matches — or however many that person has played in the past 12 months.

Players are rated on a scale from 1 (raw beginner) to 16.5 (Rafael Nadal has a 16.19 rating), and anyone can register and start working on a rating for free.

Like a golf handicap, it's a simple number that gives players a way to judge results other than win-loss and can show improvement when a weaker player does better than expected, but still loses, to a better player.

UTR pays no attention to age or gender, so it allows play between genders and mixed doubles matches to count just like any other result would.

The big picture: UTR was originally launched in 2008 to help match junior players more fairly in local tournaments. It has since evolved into something much bigger.

College recruiting: UTR is now the primary method that college coaches use to recruit players, since it allows them to more accurately compare kids from different regions.

Country clubs: The current USTA system, which ranks people by 0.5 increments forces country club pros to make difficult decisions about who makes teams, who gets relegated, etc. As more clubs start using UTR to track players and host tournaments, it could help solve that.

"I'll predict that within a year, just as it is understood that any remotely serious golfer has to maintain a handicap to play in an event, any semi-serious tennis player, kid or adult, will have a UTR rating."

Stewart Verdery, Washington Golf & Country Club (Arlington, Va.)

What to watch: UTR ratings have begun popping up on broadcasts next to names like Roger Federer and Serena Williams, giving rise to the theory that UTR could become a "mainstream" ranking system and perhaps even replace the ATP and WTA rankings.

The other side: That isn't part of the plan, according to UTR CEO Mark Leschly: "I think they tell different stories. The ATP tells a 12-month story of how far you went in major tournaments. With us, it's how you're competing."

Plus, most players and tournament hosts are content with the current system because it's designed to reward players for participating in as many tournaments as possible.

The bottom line: UTR has emerged as a widely-accepted ranking system at the pinnacle of tennis.

But with the pro circuit representing just a sliver of the world's tennis population, UTR could have an even greater impact serving as the glue that binds tennis players of all ages, genders and skill levels together — much like the handicap system has done for golf.

Universal Tennis Handicap could revolutionize the sport

It's already begun popping up on broadcasts next to names like Roger Federer and Serena Williams.

Illustration of a tennis racket being held up with a star imprinted on it

Sign up for a daily look at the news and trends dominating the sports world

This story first appeared in Axios Sports

Shifts in technology and media are changing the way we play, watch and understand sports. Business models are adapting and social change is forcing those in charge of teams and leagues to reconsider decades-old practices.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in Africa working to counter growing Chinese investment in the continent as the U.S. tries to fight China's rising global influence.

Why it matters: China has upped its spending on the continent in recent years while the Trump administration has not and looks to be trying to make up for lost time.

African countries are some of the fastest growing on Earth, a quality which is expected to become increasingly important as developed countries like the U.S. and China deal with aging populations and declining productivity that most asset managers believe will lead to reduced investment returns.

Last year, debt from African countries and other so-called frontier markets delivered the best return for investors since 2012.

What's happening: China has ramped its financing of infrastructure projects like bridges, airports, dams, power plants, and Africa's largest port.

Between 2014 and 2018, Chinese companies invested twice as much money in African countries as American companies, spending $72.2 billion and creating more than twice as many jobs, according to an analysis from accounting firm EY.

And Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed in 2018 to invest a further $60 billion.

Between the lines: Chinese companies are investing in African manufacturing companies as a means of avoiding U.S. tariffs on exports, making products in countries like Senegal and shipping to the U.S. from there.

On the other side: Though the U.S. created the International Development Finance Corporation to increase funding for Africa and other developing nations just last year, the Trump administration's latest budget proposed cutting aid and development funding to African states and is weighing cutting troops throughout the continent.

The Trump administration also recently announced an expanded travel ban that affects nearly a quarter of Africa’s population.

And few have forgotten that two years ago President Trump included African states in his “shithole countries” remark. 

The bottom line: The administration seems to be waking up to Africa's strategic importance in the trade war and in its ambitions to counter China.

Trump's new Africa strategy misjudges risks of Chinese debts

Global powers accelerate plays for influence in Africa

Africa can choose both U.S. and China, Kenya’s leader says in D.C. visit

Waking up to Africa's importance

China has upped its spending on the continent in recent years while the U.S. plays catch up.

Illustration of map of Africa covered in push pins

Africa

A daily look at the news dominating business, finance and markets

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World

China

Conflicts, policies and powers are intersecting and shaping the world. Breaking news and analysis of national security, foreign policy and global crises.

The Trump administration is turning up the heat on one of Big Tech's most important legal protections, as the Justice Department convenes a debate over changing a law that  protects platforms from suits over content their users post.

Why it matters: The threat to remove immunity granted by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is one of a handful of weapons that Washington is mulling using against Facebook, Google, and other tech giants. Trump administration enthusiasm for revoking or revising the protection could give such proposals a boost in Congress. 

Driving the news: The DOJ is convening policy experts for a workshop Wednesday titled “Section 230 — Nurturing Innovation or Fostering Unaccountability?" 

The event features a public morning session focused on whether the law "encourages or discourages" platforms to address online harms like child exploitation.

A private session in the afternoon will examine content moderation, free speech, online conduct and illicit activity, according to a person familiar with the event.

Justice Department takes aim at Big Tech's shield

A DOJ workshop is the latest Washington signal that tech's blanket immunity may be in danger.

Axios

Wednesday's top stories

Trump has declared war on sanctuary cities

Peter Thiel's Founders Fund isn't really Peter Thiel's Founders Fund

Universal Tennis Handicap could revolutionize the sport

Waking up to Africa's importance

Justice Department takes aim at Big Tech's shield

Bloomberg's baggage, and barrage

Bloomberg camp's "dire" warning: Sanders soon unstoppable

Coronavirus may be "at the brink" of a global pandemic

Mike Bloomberg's war on Wall Street

China expels 3 Wall Street Journal reporters

Reports: Barr is considering leaving over Trump's tweets

Sanders requests recount of Iowa recanvass after results show shrunken margin