| ➔ IMMIGRATION: Unaccompanied minors: The Hill: Senators and administration officials clashed Thursday over who has responsibility for unaccompanied migrant children detained under the custody of the government after minors enter the country. During a Homeland Security subcommittee hearing, officials said the government lacks authority and resources to track such children, while senators said the Health and Human Services Department bears that responsibility, even after turning minor children over to private sponsors.
> According to a new report released by the Senate Homeland Security Committee’s investigations subcommittee, no agency claims legal responsibility for unaccompanied minors after they’re placed with sponsors in the United States, and no agency ensures that such children attend their immigration court proceedings (PBS’s Frontline).
> The administration does not want migrant parents, once deported, returning from other countries to retrieve their children separated from them at the border. The government prefers to send dislocated children, of which there are hundreds in limbo in the United States, out of the country to reunite with parents or relatives (Bloomberg).
> Justice Department (DOJ) - deportations: The administration requested the restarting of thousands of deportation cases that immigration judges previously suspended, according to statistics provided Wednesday by the Department of Justice Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), which oversees the immigration courts. So far this fiscal year, attorneys for Immigration and Customs Enforcement have sought the reactivation of nearly 8,000 deportation cases that had been pushed off the court’s docket as administratively closed (BuzzFeed News). > Reuters: Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued an order to immigration judges on Thursday to speed up deportations, or show “good cause” for any delays. Critical in showing “good cause” is whether a judge can show that a migrant is likely to succeed in efforts to remain in the United States, either by appealing for asylum or receiving some form of visa or work permit. > DOJ – immigration judges: EOIR announced the addition of 23 new immigration judges, bringing the total to 351. The administration has sworn in 82 new immigration judges since the end of 2017, and it anticipates hiring at least 75 more judges. The department is expanding the number of judges and working to reduce the average time it takes to add them as a way to speed up the legal processing of asylum seekers and illegal border-crossers. > DACA – renewal fees: GoFundMe and the pro-immigration group FWD.us say they are working together to help beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program raise the $495 per-application fee to seek to remain in the United States. A GoFundMe hub, gofundme.com/DACA, has attracted an initial $200,000 in donations to help “Dreamers” afford DACA renewal applications. The administration terminated DACA last year, but the program continues to operate under temporary orders by various courts. *** ➔ ADMINISTRATION: White House pomp: The president’s much talked-about military parade in Washington will be postponed until 2019, the Pentagon announced on Thursday (The Hill). The revised plans became known hours after reports that the pomp would cost $92 million, or $80 million more than an initial estimate (CNBC). The event had been planned for Nov. 10 (days after the midterm elections). The public show of military might, if it takes place, is to feature armored vehicles, aircraft flyovers and period uniforms. Trump confided last summer that he’s long envisioned a spectacular parade in the United States, something like the Bastille Day parade he witnessed in France at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron. “It was one of the most beautiful parades I have ever seen. And in fact, we should do one one day down Pennsylvania Avenue,” he told The New York Times.
© Twitter/AP White House circumstance: In the latest installment of savvy bookselling and public drama instigated by former Trump aide Omarosa Manigault Newman, she went on MSNBC on Thursday to release a tape of the president’s daughter-in-law offering her a $15,000-per-month job with the president’s reelection campaign days after she was fired last year from the White House staff (The Hill).
Manigault Newman says the offer was hush money. Lara Trump, an adviser to the campaign, issued a statement saying the offer was made because the Trump team “cared so much about her personally.”
Lara Trump’s parting shot: “I hope it’s all worth it for you, Omarosa, because some things you just can’t put a price on.”
The president, who in the last week called his former “Apprentice” colleague “a dog” and “a lowlife,” mocked Manigault Newman anew on Twitter (The Hill). > Trump is known as a spontaneous communicator, including with major news outlets. The Wall Street Journal’s Nicholas, mentioned above, wrote that he was surprised on Wednesday to land a 20-minute interview with the president. Nicholas’s behind-the-scenes description of the Oval Office exchange is as interesting as the policy and political topics they zoomed through. Read his reporter’s notebook account HERE.
Justice Department – 3D printed guns: Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday pledged to "vigorously enforce" laws against "plastic firearms that are undetectable," despite the department’s opposition to state efforts to block the publication of blueprints for 3D printed guns online. The administration filed a brief on Wednesday defending public access to such printing plans (The Hill). DOJ - opioids: The administration is using new powers to propose a significant decrease in opioid drug manufacturing next year. Justice officials and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) are proposing an average 10 percent decrease in the manufacturing quotas for six frequently misused opioids in 2019 (The Hill). > Trump urged the attorney general to bring federal suit against opioid makers (The Hill). Environmental Protection Agency – clean water: A federal judge on Thursday issued a nationwide injunction on the administration's delay until 2020 of a Clean Water Rule, known as Waters of the U.S. The delay was backed by the White House and initiated by the EPA under former administrator Scott Pruitt. The decision in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina means the rule is now the law of the land in 26 states where district court judges have not stayed the regulation. The waters rule redefined which wetlands and small waterways are covered by the Clean Water Act (E&E News)
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➔ INTERNATIONAL & TRADE: Russia: White House national security adviser John Bolton will discuss arms control treaties and Iran’s role in Syria in talks with Russian counterpart Nikolai Patrushev in Geneva next week, an administration official said Thursday (Reuters).
> Despite new U.S. sanctions announced against Russia last week, the Kremlin hopes Trump may yet deliver on promises of an improved relationship between the two countries (Bloomberg). Iran: The administration is forming an interagency task force on Iran, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Thursday (The Hill). The purpose: Coordination of multiple issues in play with Tehran, including issues important to other stakeholder nations. The administration continues to refute suggestions that a significant U.S. policy goal is regime change. China: Pentagon says China’s military “likely training for strikes” against U.S. targets (Reuters).
Turkey: The administration warned Turkey on Thursday to expect more economic sanctions unless it hands over detained American pastor Andrew Brunson (Reuters).
> Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin issued a warning to Turkey. “We have put sanctions on several of their Cabinet members. We have more that we’re planning to do if they don’t release him quickly,” he said, speaking about Brunson, who is under house arrest in Turkey (The Hill). > Turkish lira is steady as of Friday, despite new threats from the administration (The Associated Press).
Tariffs: Trump, during an interview on Wednesday, said he expects the administration’s tariffs policy to rescue the U.S. steel industry (The Wall Street Journal).
> Where the White House sees a boom, most economists see a blip (The Associated Press)
David Dollar, Brookings Institution senior fellow: As the trade war worsens, the trade deficit increases. | 
