Closing summary
We are wrapping up our live coverage for the day, but will return to chronicle the second Trump administration on Wednesday. Here are some of the day’s developments:
Donald Trump’s trade war kicks into a higher gear at midnight, as 25% tariffs on all imported steel and aluminum are scheduled to begin. There was widespread confusion about whether the tariffs would be delayed, or increased, amid conflicting statements from the president and his chief trade adviser, but the White House said that the previously delayed tariffs would begin, even as the stock marker plunges.
The detained Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent resident, remains in federal custody, despite being charged with no crime. Khalil’s wife said in a statement before a hearing on Wednesday in Manhattan that he was forced into an unmarked car by immigration officers who refused to show a warrant.
The Department of Education’s “final mission” starts with laying off nearly half its workforce, its new secretary said. About 1,300 federal education workers received notices of lay-offs on Tuesday.
The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives passed a stopgap funding bill, which would avert a government shutdown if it also passed the Senate before midnight on Friday.
Ukraine agreed to accept a US proposal for an immediate 30-day ceasefire and to take steps toward restoring a durable peace after Russia’s invasion, according to a joint statement by American and Ukrainian delegations meeting in Saudi Arabia. Russia has not commented.
Canada’s prime minister-designate Mark Carney said he would not lift retaliatory tariffs on American goods until Washington does the same.
At Tuesday’s promotional event for Elon Musk’s line of Tesla electric vehicles at the White House, Trump refused to drive one of the cars, and scoffed at the idea that his predecessor, Joe Biden, had done so at a similar event. There is video of Biden doing so, in August 2021, at an event to promote electric vehicles that Musk reportedly was angry at being excluded from over anti-union policies.
Updated
Mahmoud Khalil’s wife says he was forced into an unmarked car by immigration officers
Ahead of a hearing at the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse in Lower Manhattan on Wednesday, the wife of Mahmoud Khalil has released the following statement:
My husband, Mahmoud Khalil, is my rock. He is my home and he is my happy place. I am currently 8 months pregnant, and I could not imagine a better father for my child. We’ve been excitedly preparing to welcome our baby, and now Mahmoud has been ripped away from me for no reason at all.
I am pleading with the world to continue to speak up against his unjust and horrific detention by the Trump administration.
This last week has been a nightmare: Six days ago, an intense and targeted doxxing campaign against Mahmoud began. Anti-Palestinian organizations were spreading false claims about my husband that were simply not based in reality. They were making threats against Mahmoud and he was so concerned about his safety that he emailed Columbia University on March 7th. In his email, he begged the university for legal support, “I haven’t been able to sleep, fearing that ICE or a dangerous individual might come to my home. I urgently need legal support and I urge you to intervene,” he said in his email.
Columbia University never responded to that email.
Instead, on March 8th, at around 8:30 pm, as we were returning home from an Iftar dinner, an ICE officer followed us into our building and asked, “Are you Mahmoud Khalil?”
Mahmoud stated, “Yes.”
The officer then proceeded to say, “We are with the police, you have to come with us.”
The officer told Mahmoud to give me the apartment keys and that I could go upstairs. When I refused, afraid to leave my husband, the officer stated, “I will arrest you too.”
The officers later barricaded Mahmoud from me. We were not shown any warrant and the ICE officers hung up the phone on our lawyer. When my husband attempted to give me his phone so I could speak with our lawyer, the officers got increasingly aggressive, despite Mahmoud being fully cooperative.
Everyone who knows Mahmoud knows him to be level-headed even in the most stressful situations. And even in this terrifying situation, he was calm.
Within minutes, they had handcuffed Mahmoud, took him out into the street and forced him into an unmarked car. Watching this play out in front of me was traumatizing: It felt like a scene from a movie I never signed up to watch.
I was born and raised in the Midwest. My parents came here from Syria, carrying their stories of the oppressive regime there that made life unlivable. They believed living in the US would bring a sense of safety and stability. But here I am, 40 years after my parents immigrated here, and just weeks before I’m due to give birth to our first child, and I feel more unsafe and unstable than I have in my entire life.
US immigration ripped my soul from me when they handcuffed my husband and forced him into an unmarked vehicle. Instead of putting together our nursery and washing baby clothes in anticipation of our first child, I am left sitting in our apartment, wondering when Mahmoud will get a chance to call me from a detention center.
I demand the US government release him, reinstate his Green Card, and bring him home.
