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National

Pope Francis met with Vice President Vance for "a few minutes" on Easter Sunday, the Vatican said.

Why it matters: The previously unannounced meeting came one day after the Vatican said Vance had "an exchange of opinions" during a meeting with its top officials on matters including "countries affected by war, political tensions and difficult humanitarian situations," in particular immigration and prisoners.

The pope has publicly criticized the Trump administration's aggressive immigration policies and appeared to take issue with Vance in February over his citing of Catholic doctrine in defending the action.

The big picture: The brief meeting comes as the 88-year-old leader of the world's 1.4 billion Roman Catholics recovers from double pneumonia, which saw him hospitalized for over five weeks after being admitted with bronchitis symptoms.

Details: "I know you have not been feeling great but it's good to see you in better health," said Vance, who was baptized as a Catholic in 2019, per video of the meeting in Vatican City.

The pope thanked Vance for his visit and Vance replied: "Of course, thank you for seeing me."

Vance told Francis he prayed for him "every day" and wished him Happy Easter before leaving.

An aide to the pontiff gave Vance gifts that included chocolate Easter eggs for his three children, a Vatican tie and rosaries.

Flashback: Vance tells Catholic bishops to "look in the mirror" over immigration policy concerns

 Vance tells Catholic bishops to "look in the mirror" over immigration policy concerns

Vance meets with Pope Francis after pontiff's criticism of Trump policies

The previously unannounced meeting came a day after the Vatican said Vance had "an exchange of opinions"  with its top officials.

  Pope Francis meets with U.S. Vice President JD Vance and delegation during an audience at Casa Santa Marta on April 20, 2025 in Vatican City, Vatican. 

Vice President Vance and Pope Francis during an audience at Casa Santa Marta in Vatican City, Vatican, on Easter Sunday. Photo: Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images

Immigration

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

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

World

Some legal scholars are warning that Trump administration's reluctance — or outright refusal — to comply with court orders is setting the stage for a full-blown constitutional crisis. 

Why it matters: In several instances, federal judges have said that the Trump administration is not taking sufficient steps to adhere to rulings. Courts aren't powerless. They can punish the executive branch in an effort to force compliance, experts say.

Case in point: The Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration must facilitate the return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man erroneously deported to El Salvador. Officials have contended that doesn't mean they have to return him, even after losing several appeals. 

"The argument that they're in compliance with the Supreme Court's order and the district court's subsequent orders is ridiculous," said, David Noll, a law professor at Rutgers Law School.

"They're essentially thumbing their nose at the court," Noll said.

The latest: The Trump administration is now facing the possibility of a contempt ruling in Abrego Garcia's case and a separate immigration case.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said Wednesday he had found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in contempt for defying his order to halt deportation flights of alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador.

The administration has defended the deportations, arguing the planes were already over international waters and that his order didn't apply.

And U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis threatened the administration Tuesday with contempt proceedings for resisting her order to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S.

The other side: White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in a statement to Axios earlier this week that "The Administration remains fully compliant with Supreme Court rulings. The Court's decision was clear to any impartial observer: U.S. courts lack the authority to compel the President to force a foreign nation to return an MS-13 terrorist alien."

He added, "As seen publicly yesterday, President Trump discussed the matter with President Bukele, who firmly stated that El Salvador will not return the individual. The issue is resolved."

Here's what to know about the steps judges can take when they determine an order hasn't been followed:

Could a judge hold Trump admin in contempt? 

Federal courts have broad discretion to determine whether a party is in contempt of court, according to the Brennan Center, a nonpartisan law and policy institute.

The process would start with a judge issuing an order to show cause, Noll said, which would essentially direct the government to explain why they appear to not be complying with an order.

In Abrego Garcia's case, he said, the court would likely have to first take steps to develop a record about who is making the decisions.

Context: There are two kinds of contempt proceedings: Civil and criminal. 

Civil contempt, which is outside of the president's pardon power, seeks to force a party to comply, Noll explained. Trump is familiar with the concept.

Criminal contempt, on the other hand, is more about "punishing disrespect" of court authority — but it is subject to a presidential pardon. Trump has experience with this, too. 

Zoom out: The federal government's compliance with court orders is often "imperfect and fraught," according to a 2018 Harvard Law Review article by law professor Nicholas R. Parrillo.

But the federal judiciary is willing to issue contempt findings against agencies and officials, he wrote.

Even when higher courts have intervened "to rescue an agency from incurring a budget-straining fine," contempt findings have a "shaming effect" with substantial deterrent power.

But, but, but: "We don't have a lot of precedent of what happens when ... the power of shame breaks down," Noll said, referencing Parrillo's findings.

In civil contempt proceedings, Noll said, the court has "really wide discretion" to choose remedies, which could include setting fines, freezing assets and, ultimately, ordering an arrest.

Arrests would typically only occur when other remedies have been tried but failed. 

Friction point: "Although civil contempt can involve being jailed until the person complies with the court order, that is enforced by the United States Marshals, who are part of the Department of Justice and thus under the president's control," wrote Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law in a New York Times op-ed.

Retired federal judge Nancy Gertner expressed a similar sentiment to NPR's "Morning Edition," saying, "if Trump wanted to fully not comply, he could direct the Department of Justice not to comply. At that point, you have a full-on constitutional crisis."

Such a directive, Noll told Axios, would be "completely unlawful."

What we're watching: If an improper effort to block the Marshals from conducting their duty occurs, there is a rarely used authority that allows a court to deputize different law enforcement offers to carry out their orders.

But he noted, "You have to really sort of go back to the wild west" or the early 20th century "to find cases where private parties or law enforcement officers other than the Marshals were being used to enforce federal court orders."

Go deeper: Trump's GOP allies bombard judges with impeachment threats

Editor's note: This story was updated with additional developments.

Trump's GOP allies bombard judges with impeachment threats

How judges can hold Trump admin accountable for defying court orders

The federal judiciary is not powerless, experts say.

Illustration of Donald' Trump peeking from a pile of gavels.

Photo illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios. Photo: Jeff Swenson/Getty Images

Donald Trump

Easter eggflation is striking for the third straight year with prices elevated by the ongoing bird flu outbreak.

Why it matters: The sticker shock is leading some consumers to break traditions, like dyeing eggs, and driving them to swap ingredients in holiday meals.

49% of consumers say egg prices are changing how they celebrate the holiday, according to a Ziff Davis shopping seasonal survey of 1,144 consumers.

The big picture: The average wholesale price of a dozen eggs was $3.13 Friday, up 2% from $3.08 on April 11, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.

This is down more than $5 a dozen from the Feb. 21 national wholesale average of $8.15.

Retail prices, which typically trail wholesale, are beginning to drift downward but bigger declines are expected after the holiday.

The USDA report said demand for shell eggs improved ahead of Easter Sunday but was "driven more by holiday family traditions than price."

Zoom in: Easter is traditionally the second-hottest demand period of the year for eggs, and only trails the busy winter holidays, Brian Moscogiuri, a global trade strategist at Eggs Unlimited, previously told Axios.

Eggs are a big part of Easter traditions and the Jewish holiday of Passover.

Agricultural Secretary Brooke Rollins warned on March 11 that the Easter season has "the highest price for eggs" and prices could "inch back up."

This year major retailers opted out of running their annual holiday egg promotions because supplies only recently recovered, the USDA report said.

Egg hunts switch to alternatives like "potato eggs"

The intrigue: Record-high egg prices in 2023 sprouted the idea of a budget-friendly Easter alternative: painting potatoes instead of eggs.

Potatoes USA, the national marketing and promotion board representing U.S. growers and importers, has been looking to scramble the holiday traditions and has a has a how-to guide on painting the spuds.

"Kids of all ages love that potatoes offer an easy, fun, and affordable way to get creative," said Kayla Vogel, a senior global marketing manager at Potatoes USA, noting decorating potatoes for Easter "just made sense.

Zoom out: Potatoes that are decorated with safe-for-consumption materials "can be enjoyed as a delicious treat once the artwork is complete," Potatoes USA said.

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Axios Science

A treemap chart showing the funding of top U.S. AI companies. The chart is divided into two sections. One shows companies cofounded by immigrants. There are 25 such companies with $119.5b in total funding, including OpenAI ($63.9b), Databricks ($19.0b), Anthropic ($17.0b) and XAI ($12.1b). The other section shows companies not cofounded by immigrants. There are 15 such companies with a much lower $6.4b in total funding.

Axios Visuals: 2025-04-15-ai-founders

Data: Jeremy Neufeld and Lindsay Milliken at the Institute for Progress; Note: Midjourney and Thinking Machine Labs, which was founded by an immigrant, were excluded as they do not currently have outside funding; Chart: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals

More than half of the top privately held AI companies based in the U.S. have at least one immigrant founder, according to an analysis from the Institute for Progress shared first with Axios.

Why it matters: The Trump administration is hammering out its AI policies against the backdrop of intensifying global competition and its own "America first" program and strict border policies.

Zoom in: The IFP analysis of the top AI-related startups in the Forbes AI 2025 list found that 25 — or 60% — of the 42 companies based in the U.S. were founded or co-founded by immigrants.

The founders of those companies "hail from 25 countries, with India leading (nine founders), followed by China (eight founders) and then France (three founders). Australia, the U.K., Canada, Israel, Romania, and Chile all have two founders each."

Among them is OpenAI — whose co-founders include Elon Musk, born in South Africa, and Ilya Sutskever, born in Russia — and Databricks, whose co-founders were born in Iran, Romania and China.

The analysis echoes previous findings about the key role foreign-born scientists and engineers have played in the U.S. tech industry and the broader economy.

What they're saying: "A critical part of the historic story about U.S. AI leadership, and technological leadership in general, is that we're able to draw on the best and brightest from around the world," says Jeremy Neufeld, director of immigration policy at IFP and an author of the new analysis.

"If we're going toe-to-toe in a competition with China, they have a much bigger population than we do. They graduate far more STEM grads these days than we do."

Neufeld says the U.S. ability to recruit and retain high-skilled workers faces "two major headwinds": The U.K., Canada, China and other countries are more aggressively recruiting top talent, and the U.S. has created barriers to immigration, particularly the growing wait times for green cards.

Flashback: A debate over foreign workers erupted among President Trump's supporters late last year, with Musk and others speaking out in support of H-1B visas for high-skilled workers in "specialty occupations."

Other Trump supporters argue the U.S. should focus on training U.S. workers and prioritize their development over foreign workers. 

Last year, the National Science Board, which advises the White House and Congress on science and engineering research and education policy, called for the U.S. to invest more heavily in training domestic STEM workers, while emphasizing that "foreign-born talent has been, and remains, key to U.S. strength in STEM."

What we're watching: Trump signed an executive order in his first days in office directing his administration to develop an AI "action plan" to "sustain and enhance America's global AI dominance." The plan is due this summer.

Editor's note: This story has been corrected to indicate that Ilya Sutskever was born in Russia (not Canada).

Immigrant founders are the norm in key U.S. AI firms: study

OpenAI and Databricks are among the 25 of 42 top AI firms that count immigrants among their founders.

Axios

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