WASHINGTON — Leading immigration advocates and experts sounded the alarm Wednesday on the Trump administration’s sweeping efforts to undo state laws allowing some immigrants to pay in-state college tuition in the states where they reside. 

The U.S. Department of Justice has sued 24 states, Washington, D.C., and the University of Delaware since President Donald Trump retook office over laws or policies that allow noncitizen students who meet certain requirements access to in-state tuition, regardless of their immigration status.  

The lawsuits are part of a larger push from the administration to curb any benefits that could extend to immigrants more broadly.

Leaders of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration and TheDream.US defended the state laws during a virtual press conference, while warning of the setbacks noncitizen students face to accessing affordable higher education when these policies are struck down. 

The groups also released a joint report Wednesday charting the landscape of such laws and the DOJ’s legal challenges against the policies. 

The administration’s challenges “limit opportunities for thousands of students and undermine the social and economic well-being of communities across the country,” said Miriam Feldblum, president and CEO of the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization. 

“When access to in-state tuition is taken away, many undocumented students cannot bridge the gap between in-state and out-of-state rates,” Feldblum added. 

Gaby Pacheco, president and CEO of TheDream.US, called the Trump administration’s efforts “coordinated assaults on tuition equity.”

They are “just one part of a larger pattern of legal and policy barriers and restrictions being put in place that threatens Dreamers and immigrants’ educational opportunities, their stability, their safety and their futures,” she said. 

TheDream.US grants scholarships to immigrant youth, including individuals under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, who are also known as Dreamers. 

DACA is intended to help people brought into the country without legal documentation as children. The program, created in 2012, protects participants from deportation and allows them to receive work permits and obtain driver’s licenses.

Six state laws blocked

In six of the lawsuits the DOJ filed — targeting Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas — courts have already struck down the laws. 

But in a blow to the administration’s efforts against Virginia’s in-state tuition policies, a federal judge earlier this week scrapped the DOJ’s challenge, upholding the Virginia law.

Lawsuits are also pending in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont and Washington state.

Debate over 1996 law

The DOJ’s challenges center on the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which bars a state from offering in-state tuition benefits to people not lawfully present in the country if that same benefit is not granted to U.S. citizens from another state. 

Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate of the DOJ’s Civil Division has noted that “colleges cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens” and that the agency “will not tolerate American students being treated like second-class citizens in their own country.”

Thomas A. Saenz, president and general counsel of MALDEF, which has sought to intervene on behalf of affected students in cases targeting the laws, described “extraordinary” aspects of the DOJ’s “litigation campaign,” including that “the administration uses very sharp tactics to attempt to prevent anyone from coming in to defend the state tuition-equity laws.” 

Saenz also pointed out that all of the state tuition-equity policies across the country were enacted after the 1996 law was enacted. 

“What that means is that they are using a provision that was on the books when all of these legislators acted to create laws like the Texas Dream Act,” Saenz said, pointing to the Lone Star State’s 2001 law — the first of its kind in the country — that has since been blocked.

He added that “no administration prior to this one has ever gone to court contending that that 1996 law somehow renders these tuition-equity laws passed beginning in 2001 unconstitutional or preempted.” 

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate voted to confirm Keith Sonderling as secretary of Labor on Wednesday, marking one of the few Trump administration picks to get through the upper chamber recently after a North Dakota senator put a hold on “any and all” nominees. 

But the Senate left town late Wednesday for its weeks-long campaign break and is not scheduled to return until after the midterms in November. 

Dozens of President Donald Trump’s nominees remain held up amid Sen. Kevin Cramer’s outrage over a Biden-era rule dealing with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wetland easements that Cramer says harm his state’s property owners.

Those nominees on hold include Kari Lake, the 2024 Republican nominee for a U.S. Senate seat in Arizona, as ambassador to Jamaica and Sean Kaufman to serve as assistant secretary for preparedness and response for the Department of Health and Human Services, among others. 

Senators also have a slew of unfinished business to address once they return from their recess for the lame-duck session, and the consideration of nominees would compete with other matters for floor time, potentially dragging out the timeline even longer.

Sonderling — confirmed as Labor secretary, 47-41, along party lines — took on the acting agency head role in April after former Oregon U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned amid misconduct allegations.

Aside from Sonderling, Cramer — generally a stalwart Trump ally — has only allowed Chris Klomp’s nomination to serve as deputy secretary of HHS to move forward. 

Klomp’s bid, which advanced out of the Senate Finance Committee in late September, has yet to reach a vote on the Senate floor. 

“No other holds have been lifted, because my landowners need results, not commitments,” Cramer said in a statement shared with States Newsroom. 

The GOP senator’s hold only covers Trump’s nominations and does not include military promotions. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., conducted one of the most highly publicized blanket holds in recent years on hundreds of military promotions for most of 2023 in protest of a Pentagon abortion policy.

A “hold” on a nomination in the Senate is an informal practice, used by members of both parties, where a senator signals their intent to object to confirming a nominee via unanimous consent. 

Those unanimous consent agreements allow the Senate to fast-track consideration and take up nominees without the need to hold a roll-call vote. 

Wetlands rule

Cramer’s hold began in August over a 2024 federal wetlands rule enacted under then-President Joe Biden’s administration, which Cramer blasted as “illegal” and “an affront to private property rights,” per the statement to States Newsroom.  

Cramer said the rule stands in violation of those rights by creating enormous setbacks for drain tile from wetland easements, North Dakota Monitor reported. 

The regulation affects the Prairie Pothole Region, a wetlands area in the northern Great Plains that encompasses a large portion of North Dakota and is a key habitat for wildlife, including ducks and geese. 

Parts of Iowa, Montana, Minnesota and South Dakota are also included in the region.

Cramer said the rule “needs to be thrown out and farmers need clear guidelines to end the threat of harassment from the federal government.” 

He added that “the White House knows all of this, but the ball is in their court to act, not mine.”

Some movement

However, Cramer has been willing to incrementally lift the holds as he sees progress from the Trump administration, with Sonderling and Klomp as examples.

Part of that progress includes a September announcement from the Department of the Interior that the Fish and Wildlife Service, or FWS, would “incorporate feedback from North Dakota farmers, ranchers and conservation partners as it updates and expands an innovative Prairie Pothole Wetland pilot project addressing landowner concerns — particularly with wetland easements purchased prior to 1976.” 

Cramer said that “from the beginning, I told the White House I would be as flexible as they would be.” 

He added that “since then, we’ve had two meaningful meetings where North Dakota’s farmers educated the administration on the land grab the FWS has perpetuated in the Prairie Pothole region.” 

In response to a request for comment on Cramer’s holds, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers doubled down on Trump’s nominees, saying the president is “nominating talented patriots to successfully carry out his America First agenda.” 

Rogers added that “under President Trump’s leadership, these nominees will continue to deliver major wins for the American people.” 

WASHINGTON — Republicans on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee used a hearing Wednesday to continue voicing opposition to transgender athletes competing in women’s sports, which the top Democrat on the panel called a distraction from cost-of-living issues voters are more concerned about.

Republicans, vying to defend their majority in the House and Senate in the midterm elections less than six weeks away, have pursued a broad anti-trans agenda alongside President Donald Trump’s administration. Republicans on  Wednesday framed the issue as protecting women’s sports. 

“Biological women should not be asked to accommodate men who, for reasons of identity or otherwise, choose to compete in (the) women’s category instead of (the) men’s or co-ed category,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley, chair of the Judiciary panel. 

“Women were last to get the vote, to participate in professions, to serve on juries, get credit cards in their own names and so much more,” the Iowa Republican said. “Women should not again be asked to cede their opportunities just to make men comfortable.” 

The GOP-led panel brought in advocates, who spoke out against transgender athletes’ participation in sports that align with their gender identity. 

Dems absent

Democrats on the panel largely sat the hearing out, drawing the ire of GOP members.

In the only statement by a Democrat during the hearing, the panel’s ranking member, Sen. Dick Durbin, used his opening remarks to question his GOP counterparts’ priorities amid Americans’ affordability concerns. 

“If you ask the American people, ‘What are the priority issues you hope Congress will address as soon as possible?’ the issue of this hearing would not be in the top 10, maybe not the top 20,” the Illinois Democrat said. 

“People are concerned about the cost of living, they’re concerned about the ability to pay for the college education of their kids, they’re concerned about their utility bills, they’re concerned about their grocery bills — they want to know what we’re doing about it,” he added. 

Republicans on the panel noted Democrats’ absence.

“Not one member on the other side of the aisle has had the respect for women to come in here and ask questions, to figure out how we get this right, how we stand up for fairness, for safety, for an opportunity for young women across the country,” GOP Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama said at the hearing. “It’s absolutely absurd.”

But Durbin pointed to a similar 2024 hearing that saw NCAA President Charlie Baker tell senators that of the more than half-million total athletes in NCAA schools, he knew of fewer than 10 who were transgender. 

“We can all agree that we want to be fair and safe in women’s athletics, but this vendetta against a small number of people in the trans community affects everyone, including cisgender girls who can be subject to inappropriate gender verification checks,” Durbin said. 

At a press conference after the hearing, GOP Sens. Ashley Moody of Florida, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Darline Graham of South Carolina and Britt, along with several athletes and advocates, continued to blast the inclusion of trans athletes on women’s sports teams. 

“It shouldn’t be complicated,” Moody said. “Men do not belong in women’s sports. Women’s sports exist for a reason, and if we’re going to have women’s sports, we must protect women’s sports.”

Hot topic

The issue has been the subject of intense debate in recent years.

The House passed a bill in January 2025 that would bar trans students’ participation in women’s school sports teams consistent with their gender identity. 

But Senate Democrats blocked an effort in March of that year aimed at imposing such a ban and codifying Trump’s 2025 executive order on the issue. 

The U.S. Supreme Court in June upheld state laws banning transgender athletes from participating on women’s and girls’ sports teams.

The court’s decision — which has no impact on states without such bans — marked a major setback for transgender rights across the nation. 

Meanwhile, a major bipartisan bill to regulate college athletes’ compensation and establish additional protections for women’s and Olympic sports continues to advance in the Senate.

Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Republicans have made clear that the bill would not preempt state laws regarding the participation of trans athletes in women’s sports.

WASHINGTON — Education experts and advocates on Tuesday urged Congress to repeal an incoming national school voucher program over concerns that it will divert critical funds away from public schools to private institutions.  

U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono convened a Democratic-led panel to sound the alarm on the sweeping program, which marks a key pillar of President Donald Trump’s and congressional Republicans’ efforts surrounding school choice. 

The Hawaii Democrat blasted the federal initiative, set to launch in early 2027, as a “tax break for wealthy families whose children are already enrolled in private schools, disguised as support for education.” 

At least 30 states have already opted in to the program, which allocates up to $1,700 in federal tax credits for people donating to organizations that provide K-12 scholarships for education-related services at private or public schools. 

The program is baked into the GOP’s “big, beautiful” bill that Trump signed into law in 2025. The U.S. Treasury Department is slated to release proposed regulations by the end of this month. 

Repeal attempts

Hirono and Arizona Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, joined by more than two dozen of their colleagues, introduced legislation in April to repeal the program. 

Wisconsin Democratic U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore introduced a companion bill in June with Reps. Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon, Maxwell Frost of Florida, Adelita Grijalva of Arizona, Mark Pocan of Wisconsin and dozens more original cosponsors. 

But any measure to roll back the program faces a dismal path in the GOP-controlled House and Senate.

The umbrella term “school choice” centers on alternative programs to a student’s assigned public school. Opponents say these efforts drain critical funds and resources from school districts, while advocates argue the initiatives are necessary for parents who are dissatisfied with their local public schools.

Augustus Mays, vice president of partnerships and engagement at the nonprofit policy and advocacy group EdTrust, said “our conclusion is clear: This is not free money or a targeted investment in students with the greatest needs.” 

“It is an uncapped federal tax subsidy that steers public resources toward private education with few safeguards,” he added. 

Mays pointed out that “a voucher does not guarantee access or quality,” noting that private schools are not bound by the same civil rights protections and obligations extended under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA. 

Diverting funds?

The Education and Treasury departments have said that the credit “does not divert money from local or state taxes, which make up the large majority of school funding,” according to a fact sheet. 

The agencies have also pointed to examples of education expenses the scholarships can be used for, such as “tuition for students to attend private schools of choice, tutoring at public schools, and support services for students with disabilities.” 

But Jessica Levin, litigation director at the advocacy group Education Law Center, said it’s a “major misconception” that “this is free money without cost to public schools” or that “currently underfunded public schools will benefit from the voucher program.” 

“Tax credit voucher programs are funded with public dollars because the money sent to scholarship granting organizations is money that would otherwise have been paid in state or federal taxes and gone into the state or federal treasury,” Levin said.

Trump administration defends tax credit

Meanwhile, Savannah Newhouse, a spokesperson for the Education Department, defended the tax credit, saying opponents of the program are “resorting to fearmongering by falsely labeling it a voucher because the phrase ‘we don’t want families to have more options to succeed in education’ isn’t a winning message,” in a statement shared with States Newsroom.  

“The truth is that this provision does not take a single dollar away from public schools because it is funded by the generosity of private donors that supplement — not supplant — existing education dollars,” she added. 

“A word of advice: resisting change to the failed status quo in education makes you part of the problem, not the solution.” 

WASHINGTON — Three former U.S. Education Department secretaries and the union representing agency workers on Tuesday urged the department’s top watchdog to investigate the cost and impact of mass firings last year. 

Former U.S. Education Secretaries Arne Duncan and John B. King Jr., who led the department during the Obama administration, and Miguel Cardona of the Biden administration and Rachel Gittleman, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, sent a letter including a formal request to Mark Priebe, acting inspector general of the Education Department. 

“We need a full picture of the fraud, waste and abuse carried out by this administration as they continue to play politics rather than doing their jobs to serve the American people,” Gittleman said at a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol.

Democratic members of Congress and other labor leaders also spoke at the press conference, blasting President Donald Trump’s ongoing efforts to dismantle the 46-year-old Department of Education. The mass firings have marked a major part of that effort, which Trump tapped Education Secretary Linda McMahon to spearhead. 

“We may never be able to truly calculate the human cost of all of this, but we at least need to understand the financial cost to taxpayers,” Gittleman added. 

The department announced a reduction in force, or RIF, in March 2025. The U.S. Supreme Court in July 2025 temporarily greenlit those mass layoffs, along with Trump’s plan to dramatically downsize the agency, which he’d outlined in an executive order in March 2025. 

The RIF was delayed while a legal battle played out, but took effect in early August 2025 following the go-ahead from the nation’s highest court. 

Roughly 1,000 department workers were “unlawfully terminated or forced into retirement” that month, Gittleman said. 

The Tuesday letter also called into question another department effort in October 2025 to fire nearly 500 employees that was paused in court and stopped by Congress. 

Gittleman and the former secretaries are also asking Priebe to look into the cost and impact of “the subsequent reinstatements and rehiring of hundreds of employees” at the department. 

In response to the letter, a department spokesperson panned the secretaries’ records.

“It’s interesting that the Education Secretaries who brought you the failures of Common Core, the botched FAFSA rollout, and a campaign to redefine ‘boy’ and ‘girl’ are concerned about the Trump Administration’s efforts to reform a demonstrably broken bureaucracy,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement to States Newsroom. 

The spokesperson defended the RIF, saying it was “implemented carefully and in compliance with all applicable regulations and laws.”  

They added that the agency “will continue our work to return education to the states and improve outcomes for our nation’s students.” 

Dems ‘fighting back’

U.S. Sens. Angela Alsobrooks and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, and U.S. House Education and Workforce Committee ranking member Bobby Scott of Virginia, as well as a handful of other Democratic lawmakers and union leaders, joined Gittleman outside the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday. 

“The Department of Education’s stated mission is to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access — since day one, Secretary McMahon has done everything possible to cause this mission to fail,” Alsobrooks said. 

Van Hollen noted that “we are fighting back, and we’re going to keep fighting back, and we’re going to prevail in the long run because they are trying to dismember the department piece by piece and then shut it down.” 

The administration’s sweeping steps to axe the department include more than a dozen interagency agreements that Education has signed with Health and Human Services, Labor, Interior, State, Justice and Treasury. 

The agreements seek to offload several of Education’s responsibilities to those departments. 

Scott said that the administration had been “illegally creating these interagency agreements, which are extremely inefficient and wasteful, and also result in inconsistent enforcement of federal education policy.” 

A Senate education panel in July advanced a bipartisan bill that would block interagency agreements that transfer programs regarding special education, elementary and secondary education, postsecondary education and Native American education. 

Earlier that month, a House education panel advanced a package that would greatly reduce the department’s responsibilities, standing in sharp contrast to the Senate measure. 

WASHINGTON — With the U.S. Senate set to hold a procedural vote in the coming days on a sweeping bill to overhaul college sports, dueling press conferences Monday underscored the fierce debate over how to tackle the biggest issues plaguing that landscape. 

Supporters of a bipartisan measure to set national standards for college athletes’ compensation, including the bill’s lead sponsor, GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, argued it would “protect,” “save” and “preserve” college sports. 

However, opponents of the bill, including Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, blasted the measure over concerns that it “essentially ensconces a system of exploitation,” and would provide “an unprecedented antitrust exemption to an industry that is violating the law every single day.” 

Name, image and likeness battle

The college sports world continues to grapple with the fallout from the NCAA’s 2021 guidelines that allowed student-athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness, or NIL, as well as a patchwork of state NIL laws and gender inequity in NIL deals, among other major issues. 

Earlier this year, Cruz and Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington state — the top members of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee — introduced the bill, with Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri and Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware as original cosponsors. 

Cruz likened the college sports landscape to the “Wild West,” saying the bill is designed to “bring order to the chaos” and “put simple common sense rules in place so that college sports remain strong and vibrant for decades to come,” during a press conference he hosted outside the U.S. Capitol alongside Cantwell, Senate colleagues, student athletes and coaches. 

Cruz called for “a big bipartisan vote on the floor of the Senate, and with that momentum to go to the House and have it go to the president’s desk.” 

President Donald Trump has thrown strong support behind what he dubs a “great” bill. 

Patchwork of state laws

The Senate could take a procedural vote on the bipartisan measure as early as this week, where it would need at least 60 senators to advance.

The latest version of the bill would create a national NIL standard that preempts the patchwork of state laws, provide certain antitrust protections to the NCAA, establish a five-year eligibility timeline for athletes and bar professional athletes from competing in college athletics. 

The measure is notably neutral on the classification of athletes as employees.

Meanwhile, Sen. Chris Murphy blasted the measure, saying: “What this bill does at its core is to protect a system of exploitation,” during a virtual press conference earlier Monday with college athletes, professional athlete unions and advocates. The event was hosted by the AFL-CIO. 

“This bill protects the billions of dollars that coaches and sports industry executives are making over the suppression of compensation for some of the most highly valued athletes in the world,” Murphy added. 

NAACP critical of bill

Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, also blasted the Senate bill Monday, saying “what makes this bill so inadequate, and in many ways offensive, is the overture as if it’s going to do something special for historically Black colleges and universities,” during the AFL-CIO’s press conference.

“HBCUs, they deserve direct federal investment, not a political trade-off,” Johnson said.

The NAACP in May urged pushback against GOP-led redistricting efforts in Southern states via college sports, including a boycott of public universities by athletes and supporters.

The Congressional Black Caucus, which rallied behind that call in May, has also opposed the legislation, saying in August the bill “falls short of providing Black athletes with the rights, representation, economic opportunities, and meaningful safeguards they deserve, while also failing to adequately recognize the interests of Black coaches, Black agents, HBCUs, and other professionals whose futures will be shaped by this legislation.” 

Powerful U.S. officials past and present faced families, survivors and first responders Friday at ceremonies to honor the 25th anniversary of the day 2,977 Americans died in terrorist attacks in Virginia, New York and Pennsylvania.

At the Pentagon, Condoleezza Rice, who was serving at the time under President George W. Bush as national security advisor, told the crowd she wanted to share something “deeply personal.”

“Those of us in authority on that day did not see the nature of the danger in time to prevent the attack of 9/11. We did what we knew to do, but by definition, it was not enough. … I will always carry deep personal remorse for the pain that you, the families of the fallen, still feel, and for the trauma that our country endured,” she said.

Speakers at all three Sept. 11 milestone anniversary events recounted stories of courage and loss as people found themselves in an unimaginable circumstance. 

Some also flared with frustration at what they say is a lack of justice for those who planned the attacks.

President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, speaking at the memorial service for the 184 people who died when the hijacked United Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, highlighted the anniversary as a justification for their stagnant war with Iran. 

That nearly seven-month-old conflict has killed 18 U.S. service members, injured over 700 more and taken the lives of thousands of civilians across the Middle East.

“We will never, ever forget. That’s why we fight today. We don’t have a choice,” Trump said. “There can only be victory. We fight hard. We fight to win. We will always remember the victims and the families of September 11, 2001, very famous date, unfortunately.”

Hegseth told the crowd, which was only open to victims’ families, survivors and their families, that Americans were “ignorant of the Islamist threat” 25 years ago.

“Every day, enemies plot to curb our power and kill our citizens, including from Islamic terrorists abroad and at home, but we are ever vigilant,” he said, adding that the U.S. has killed Iran’s leaders and put their Navy “at the bottom of the sea.”

The deeply unpopular war has continued, despite early promises from Hegseth and Trump that it would not morph into the prolonged Middle East conflicts that followed the Sept. 11 attacks.

‘No justice’

At the site in Lower Manhattan where the World Trade Center’s twin towers once stood, families read names of the 2,753 victims who died inside the towers, on the ground and on the two hijacked airliners, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175.

Terry Strada, widow of the late Tom Strada, who died in the north tower, slammed recent presidential administrations of both parties for not holding Saudi Arabia accountable for allegations that the kingdom’s officials knew about the attacks.

“My husband Tom Strada, you are missed more with each year that passes. But how can it be 25 years and still we have no justice for the role that Saudi Arabia played in your murder?” she said to loud cheers from the crowd.

“For 25 years, administration after administration, including leaders in front of us here today, chose to protect the Saudis instead of standing with the 9/11 families,” she said. 

 

“President Trump can still change that. Tell the Saudis to stop lying. Tell them that if they want to be friends with the USA, they cannot continue to deny all of this, all of the pain, all of the destruction that we have all been suffering through. Vice President Vance, thank you for being here today. Please carry that message back,” she said, again receiving loud cheers.

Vice President JD Vance sat in a front row at the ceremony alongside former presidents Bush, Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. 

Former first ladies Michelle Obama, Jill Biden and Hillary Clinton, also a former secretary of state, were seated in the row, as was former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Neither the Embassy of Saudi Arabia nor the White House immediately responded to States Newsroom’s requests for a response.

Painful memories

Families at the site in Lower Manhattan shared memories seared in their minds.

Bob Lee, 67, was a firefighter in the Bronx that day. He remembers how many first responders had to gather together to clean up the dust and debris that had settled around the city.

“When you see the people that were down here, everybody’s eyes was … full of soot and dust, and their eyes were glowing like bright red because all the stuff that was in their eyes,” Lee said. “It was just a crazy scene.”

Lee moved to Kansas City, Missouri, shortly after 9/11. He was 42 at the time and realized he had been exposed to a lot of toxic air.

“I told them I was retiring,” Lee said recalling that he knew a lot of his colleagues would get sick. He was a union representative for his unit in the Bronx. 

“I lost hundreds of those guys. You know, it’s crazy … Quite a few friends have died of cancer.”

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani this week announced that his office had released around 170,000 pages of records that had been closed off over the last 25 years on the level of toxic air pollution people were exposed to in the aftermath of 9/11.

The records suggest that New Yorkers were misled about the air quality and that officials downplayed how dangerous it was to breathe the air. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, close to 50,000 people, including first responders and survivors, developed cancer in relation to the event. 

Christopher Santora, then 23, was a firefighter who responded to the attacks and was enveloped in debris as the towers fell. He lost his life trying to save people that day. His cousin Jason Roettger, 56, was chosen to read the names of people who had died during 9/11 at Friday’s ceremony.

Roettger said it was an honor to be a part of the event and to represent his cousin. He said he’s glad the air quality records were released.

“I think everyone that was here in the city, or even in New Jersey, everyone in this area knew the air wasn’t good,” Roettger said. “Even though the government said ‘No, the air is fine.’ I think everyone knew that that was a lie.”

Wanda Hernandez, 72, lost her daughter Monique de Jesus, who was 28 at the time. She was working at the World Trade Center. 

Hernandez said Friday she was focusing on all the beautiful moments she had with her daughter before that day.

“We went on vacation for my birthday before it happened, like a month before. Yeah. Yeah, we had a good time, you know, and we went to a wedding like a week before it happened,” Hernandez said. “Two weeks, so that was nice. Had a good time. I was a good mother. She was a good daughter.”

‘A vast empty space in the side of the Pentagon’

Over a 13-minute speech Friday morning at the Pentagon, Rice, who also served as secretary of state later in the Bush administration, painted a picture of administration officials caught completely off guard by the attacks, orchestrated by the well-known anti-American extremist terror network al-Qaeda.

“I was at my desk at the White House that day when my executive assistant, a young Army officer, told me that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. ‘What a strange accident,’ I thought,” Rice said.

“I called President Bush, who was reading to children at an education event in Florida. He too thought that it must have just been an accident. But within 17 minutes, a second plane hit the World Trade Center,” she continued.

What followed, according to Rice, was a whirlwind as officials rushed to secure locations — Bush to Air Force One, Rice and Vice President Dick Cheney to a White House bunker and CIA Director George Tenet to an undisclosed location. 

Then-Secretary of State Colin Powell was in Peru “and trying to get home.” Those in the White House “Situation Room,” Rice recalled, just heard the “ringing and ringing and ringing” of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s phone at the Pentagon, where he had been hosting a congressional breakfast. 

The late Rumsfeld would end up outside assisting in rescue efforts “as his security detail begged him to flee,” she said.

“I remember turning to a television screen, and the horror and the shock that I felt. There was a smoking crater, a vast empty space, in the side of the Pentagon.”

Fight with hijackers

A morning observance program was also held at the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, to mark 25 years since 40 passengers and crew members died when the hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in a rural field. 

Families read aloud the names of the victims during the ceremony.

Members of Flight 93 fought with hijackers over Western Pennsylvania and forced the flight to crash, which prevented the hijacked aircraft from hitting the intended destination of the U.S. Capitol.

Others expected to speak Friday afternoon included Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.

Gordon Felt, brother of Edward Porter Felt, one of the 40 people who died on Flight 93, was set to speak, along with retired United Airlines Capt. Morrie Wiener, who piloted Flight 93 prior to the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and Jessica Bowron, acting director of the National Park Service.

Mullin ties mass deportation to Sept. 11

Outside of the Department of Homeland Security headquarters in Washington, D.C., Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin used the anniversary to promote the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign, and said that lack of cooperation from so-called sanctuary cities is what could lead to another 9/11.

“It’s a safe haven that incubates terrorist activity and it doesn’t just stay local,” he said.

He specifically called out Democratic-led cities of Seattle, Boston and New York City.

“It shouldn’t be political,” he said. “When we start looking at the 25th anniversary, if there’s anything we should agree on, it should be that. Why should the Department of Homeland Security be controversial? We’re taking care of your backyard.”

Immigration enforcement agencies under the department have been roiled in scandal and carried out alleged illegal orders since Trump’s second term began. 

The events have included allowing deportation flights to take off against a judge’s order, erroneous deportations of individuals with legal protections, and the killing by immigration agents of two American citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, of Minneapolis. 

The latest scrutiny of the department comes after a $20 million no-bid contract was extended in Kentucky to outfit agents with electric shock gloves.

Courage and ‘selfless service’

Despite the lasting pain, speakers Friday noted that relatives of those killed in the attacks found ways to move forward and persevere.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine at the Pentagon said the milestone anniversary was not only about remembering those lost, but “it is also a story of great American courage, selfless service, and those who’ve made the choice to carry those memories forward.” 

“The courage of those extraordinary Americans in Pennsylvania, in New York, and right here on these hallowed grounds, did not end when the smoke cleared and the fires went out, because survivors and families have carried it forward through service, through sacrifice, and through remembrance,” Caine told the crowd.

Vice President JD Vance took to the GOP convention stage in Dallas on Thursday in what served as a re-introduction ahead of a widely anticipated run for the party’s presidential nomination in 2028. 

The former U.S. senator from Ohio sought to rally the GOP base on the second and final day of the unusual gathering, as Republicans vie to retain control of the U.S. House and Senate in the midterms less than two months away, even as President Donald Trump faces anemic approval ratings amid the war in Iran and concerns surrounding the economy. 

Vance repeatedly maligned Democrats as “crazies,” referencing some of the more controversial statements recent primary winners have made. And he urged the enthusiastic crowd to put aside policy differences with GOP candidates to keep “the party of common sense” in power.

“It’s so much more than having good politicians in Washington,” he said. “It’s about sending a message to the Democratic Party that if you send your crazies, we’re going to send you packing.” 

At one point during his speech, members of the crowd chanted “48” — an apparent signal of support for Vance to become the 48th president. Vance responded: “We got to take care of business this November — then we’ll worry about what comes next.” 

‘Birthright’

Vance infused the recent birth of his fourth child into his speech. He and his wife, second lady Usha Vance, welcomed son Alec Neel Vance in July.  

And he portrayed what he called Republicans’ support for Americans’ “birthright” as a major theme heading into November. 

“I believe that our founders built this nation on a promise that echoes our creator: That every American child is born an heir — is born with a birthright,” Vance said, adding that “that birthright, ladies and gentlemen, is what this November is all about.” 

Several times, Vance accused immigrants living in the country illegally of stealing what should belong to U.S. citizens. He said that Democrats, particularly former President Joe Biden, encouraged that theft.

“My little boy, he is now our fellow citizen, though he doesn’t know it,” he said. “And I think about what the Democrats have said about our shared birthright as Americans, or frankly, the lack thereof.” 

Vance said the birth of his youngest son shifted his focus to the future.

“Now, because we got a new kid around, I can’t help but look at the future of this country through the eyes of the future of my son,” he said. “And I can’t help but think about what it is that we’re fighting for and what it is that we want for all of our children.” 

Vance honors Charlie Kirk

The vice president also paid tribute to his late friend and conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot while speaking on a Utah college campus one year ago Thursday. 

Vance praised Kirk as a devoted husband and father, addressing Kirk’s two young children, saying: “For those of us who loved your dad, we knew him as something even better than a great man. He was a good man.” 

Later in his speech, Vance urged voters to “do what Charlie did: Do not throw the baby out with the bathwater — don’t give the country over to a bunch of crazy people because you happen to disagree with us on a policy issue here or there.” 

‘Trump’s most loyal puppet’

Kendall Witmer, rapid response director for the Democratic National Committee, blasted Vance as “Donald Trump’s most loyal puppet,” noting that the vice president is “working in lockstep to enact an agenda that has hiked prices and made life unaffordable for working families,” in a statement Thursday night.  

“Vance has defended even their most disastrous policies, proving his loyalty to Trump over the American people,” Witmer said. “Vance will continue to gaslight Americans, but voters know the truth: Trump and Vance have tanked the economy, plunged the country into more endless wars, and failed to make life more affordable for everyday Americans.”

Vance is slated to deliver remarks Monday at an industrial manufacturing facility in Olathe, Kansas, during an event hosted by Trump’s super PAC, MAGA Inc. 

On Monday, he will also visit a federal law enforcement facility in Kansas City, Missouri, where he is set to speak on the Trump administration’s sweeping anti-fraud effort, which he has helmed. 

Democratic U.S. Sen. John Fetterman made a surprise video appearance Wednesday at the GOP convention in Dallas, praising Republican Sen. Dave McCormick while vowing the pair of Pennsylvanians would continue working with President Donald Trump to “defend the steel way of life right here in the Steel Valley.” 

The brief, pre-recorded appearance, which wasn’t advertised on the convention’s schedule, showed a deepening rift between Fetterman and mainstream Democrats. The video boosted speculation that Fetterman could switch parties.

“Yes, I’m a Democrat. Why am I here talking to you today? Because, well, I’m a common-sense Democrat,” Fetterman said in the video, where he stood in front of a U.S. Steel mill in Braddock, Pennsylvania, roughly 10 miles outside Pittsburgh. 

Fetterman also distanced himself from a wave of progressive Democrats, some affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America, who have won primaries this year.

“I’m always going to stand with America,” he said. “I’m always going to reject the extremes and socialism and that anti-American way of life.”

In addition to a more ideological divide with Democrats over issues such as Fetterman’s strong support for Israel amid the continuing war in Gaza, Fetterman has taken heat from former aides who told The Wall Street Journal that he is indifferent toward his job.

Wednesday’s video introduced McCormick before the GOP senator took the convention stage. 

Fetterman lauded McCormick as “the kind of senator that gets the job done” and is “going to fight for Pennsylvania.” 

“I have this opportunity to introduce this great American, a great senator, and yes, he’s in a different party, but I’m proud to count him as my great friend,” he added. 

Dems mock video

Democratic members of Congress criticized Fetterman’s cameo at the convention.

“A year ago I labeled John Fetterman ‘Trump’s favorite Democrat,’” U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle, a Pennsylvania Democrat, posted to social media. “Tonight, he yet again proves why.”

Delaware Democratic U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride compared Trump’s presidency to a historic disaster.

“Being a Democratic politician who decides to speak at Trump’s midterm convention is like boarding the Titanic after it hit the iceberg,” she wrote.