Attorneys general from 22 states filed a lawsuit Jan. 21 challenging US President Donald Trump's executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship. Central to the lawsuit is the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, which states that "[a]ll persons born or naturalized in the United States...are citizens of the United States..." The clause was last interpreted by the Supreme Court in 1898 in United States v. Wong Kim Ark as granting citizenship to all babies born in the country. The US follows the jus soli (right of the soil) principle, conferring citizenship based on birth within the country's territory, as opposed to the jus sanguinis (right of blood) principle, which confers citizenship based on whether at least one parent is a citizen.

The Peshawar High Court issued an interim order on Jan. 10 preventing the forced repatriation of around 150 Afghan singers and musicians who fled to Pakistan after the Taliban's return to power in 2021. Justice Wiqar Ahmad, who presided over the case, instructed the government to issue a decision on the musicians' asylum applications within two months. The court said that if the asylum claims are not resolved within 60 days, the interior ministry should grant permission for the petitioners to stay for a period sufficient to reach a final decision. The court also allowed the musicians to apply to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to process their asylum claims.

As the Trump team's plans fall into place for mass detention of millions of undocumented immigrants—perhaps even naturalized citizens—and establishment of a concentration camp system, invocation of the Insurrection Act to mobilize the army for the round-ups has been broached. Sending National Guard troops from red states into blue states to carry out round-ups and put down protests—over the objections of governors who have refused to cooperate—could portend civil war. And despite the absurd fiction that Trump is an isolationist peacenik, the latest ominous appointment to his cabinet is Islamophobe GWOT ultra-hawk Sebastian Gorka as senior director for counterterrorism. There is still time to invoke the 14th Amendment to bar Trump from the presidency—just as Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro, indicted for leading a Trump-style attempted auto-golpe in 2022, has been barred from office. And just as the Congressional Black Caucus sought to bar Dubya Bush from office over considerably lesser matters on Jan. 6, 2001.

The war in Sudan is driving continued refugee flight, leading to a deepening humanitarian crisis in the greater region, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported Nov. 8. The agency said that more than 3 million people have fled Sudan, seeking safety in neighboring countries, since the war began in April 2023. The refugees are faced with challenges of food shortages and continued rights violations such as killings, sexual violence and looting, as well as natural disasters such as flooding.

Donald Trump has for the first time won the popular vote, and now around an openly fascist program, starting with plans for mass detention of millions of undocumented immigrants. While there are signs of an emergent resistance, there are also undeniable signs of a left-MAGA convergence around a mutual embrace of authoritarian populism, exploiting disaffection from Biden-Harris' criminal support for Israel's genocide in Gaza. In Episode 251 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg stakes stock of this grim juncture for the United States and the world. We also revive our call from 2016 for electoral nullification—the electors refusing to seat Trump. The New York judge in Trump's "hush money" case must immediately impose the maximum sentence of four years in prison, bringing on the needed constitutional crisis, and the Electoral College must do what it was designed to do under the Constitution: bar a dangerous demagogue from the presidency.

New UN data shows that more than 1,200 people were killed and 522 wounded in Haiti between July and September. This represents a 27% increase in casualties compared to the second quarter. Figures could get even worse, as a new wave of coordinated gang attacks is terrorizing areas that had previously been spared. About 10,000 people were forced to flee parts of Port-au-Prince, while nearly 22,000 more were displaced in Arcahaie, north of the capital. Gangs also fired at a UN helicopter used by the World Food Program to deliver aid and at US embassy vehicles, while a Catholic charity's hospital clinic was vandalized and set on fire. On Oct. 31, a new UN report projected that 5.4 million Haitians—nearly half the population—will face crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity by February 2025. Despite the ever-rising violence, the US government continues its deportation flights.

Italy's right-wing government, led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, issued a decree Oct. 21 aimed at bypassing judicial obstacles to a controversial deal with Albania to hold and process the claims of asylum-seekers intercepted at sea by Italian forces. The move comes three days after a special immigration court in Rome ruled that the first group of 12 migrants sent to the repurposed military camp at Gjader, Albania, must be returned to Italy. The court found that the migrants' countries of origin—Egypt and Bangladesh—are "unsafe," making their offshore detention illegal. Meloni's decree asserts the executive alone has the power to make such determinations, setting the stage for a showdown between her government and the judiciary. (Politico, DW, BBC News, EuroNews, Jurist, CBC)

Over 40 human rights groups have warned Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk against implementing his plan to temporarily suspend the right to claim asylum. Among the groups are Amnesty International, several asylum law organizations, and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation. In an open letter on Oct. 14, the organizations stressed that the fundamental right to asylum is binding on Poland under international law, as the country has ratified the Geneva Convention, and under EU law as provided by Article 18 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Additionally, Article 56 of the Polish Constitution enshrines the right to asylum. Acknowledging that "[w]e live in difficult times of war and conflicts breaking out all over the world," the statement nonetheless asserted that fundamental rights, as the core values of Europe, are not subject to discussion or restriction.