Center Square

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday to expedite permits and remove local or state government delays for Los Angeles County residents rebuilding after last year’s devastating wildfires.
But local and state officials say they need federal money, not federal control of permits.
The president’s order seeks to bypass city and county building regulations. It also orders an audit of $3 billion that went to California to prevent fires through the federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.
In January 2025, the Palisades Fire, which struck the Pacific Palisades neighborhood in coastal Los Angeles and nearby Malibu and Topanga Canyon, burned 23,448 acres, destroyed 6,833 buildings and killed 12 people. At the same time, the Eaton Fire burned 14,021 acres, destroyed 1,073 structures and cost 17 lives in the Pasadena/Altadena area, which is further inland in Los Angeles County.
“It is the policy of my Administration that federally funded reconstruction projects for homes and businesses in the wildfire-impacted neighborhoods of the Pacific Palisades and Eaton Canyon areas proceed with the maximum speed consistent with public safety, and that Federal assistance not be frustrated by unnecessary, duplicative, or obstructive permitting requirements that prevent families and businesses from rebuilding,” Trump wrote in the order.
Trump’s order says the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Small Business Administration can preempt state or local permitting processes. The order also grants them the power to designate someone to accept self-certifications from builders saying that they complied with local and state health and safety standards.
The Center Square reached out Tuesday afternoon to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who contended Trump has no authority to control local permit processes. She called the executive order “another meaningless political stunt” and an attempt to divert attention from the people killed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents – Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis and Keith Porter Jr. in Los Angeles.
It would be more helpful if Trump provided critical Federal Emergency Management Agency funding that the city requested, Bass said in a statement emailed to The Center Square. She called on the president to speed up FEMA reimbursements and regulate the industries he alone can impact.
“In fact, I’m calling on the President to issue a new Executive Order to demand the insurance industry pay people for their losses so that survivors can afford to rebuild, push the banking industry to extend mortgage forbearance by three years, tacking them on to the end of a 30-year mortgage, and bring the banks together to create a special fund to provide no-interest loans to fire survivors,” Bass said.
In his executive order, Trump said the federal government approved numerous claims for financial support, but homeowners couldn’t use the money because of burdensome and confusing permit processes.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Press Office responded on X to Trump’s executive order, calling on the president to release federal funding instead of taking over the local permit speed. The post noted more than 1,625 home permits have been issued, that hundreds of homes are under construction and that permitting timelines are at least twice as fast as they were before the fires.
“Mr. President, please actually help us. We are begging you,” Newsom’s office said. “Release the federal disaster aid you’re withholding that will help communities rebuild their homes, schools, parks, and infrastructure.”
The Center Square reached out to California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s press office, which replied that the state Department of Justice was reviewing Trump’s executive order.
“If President Trump would like to help Los Angeles families, he should start by releasing long-delayed wildfire recovery funding,” the Attorney General’s Press Office told The Center Square in an email.
The Center Square also reached out to the White House, but did not get an immediate comment.

The growth in U.S. population slowed significantly from July 2024 to July 2025 as President Donald Trump’s border enforcement policies reduced international migration significantly, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released Tuesday.
The population grew by 1.8 million, or 0.5%, the slowest growth in the country since the COVID-19 pandemic. The significant slowdown follows 2024’s high of 3.2 million people added to the country.
Officials at the U.S. Census Bureau attributed the slowdown in growth to a loss of net international migration.
“With births and deaths remaining relatively stable compared to the prior year, the sharp decline in net international migration” led to the change, said Christine Hartley, assistant division chief for Estimates and Projections at the Census Bureau.
South Carolina claimed the spot as the fastest-growing state in the nation. The Palmetto State saw an increase of 79,958, according to the Census Bureau. Most of the state’s growth was attributed to domestic migration gains.
The growth in South Carolina accounted for an increase of 1.5% in its population, compared to Texas with 1.2%.
Five states experienced year-over-year population declines in the country: California, Hawaii, New Mexico, Vermont and West Virginia.
International migration accounted for 1.3 million people added between July 2024 and July 2025, a notable decline from 2.7 million added the year prior.
The Midwest region saw positive net migration for the first time in a decade, the census bureau found.
“While the net domestic migration was a relatively modest 16,000, this is still a notable turnaround from the substantial domestic migration losses in 2021 and 2022 of -175,000 or greater,” said Marc Perry, senior demographer at the Census Bureau.

In reaction to Saturday’s fatal shooting of an American citizen in Minnesota by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, California lawmakers are introducing legislation designed to prevent an escalation of ICE presence in the state.
Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, D-Encino, announced Monday he would introduce two laws that aim to prevent the state’s resources from being used by federal law enforcement agencies and prevent ICE from using state property as staging grounds for federal operations.
“Seeing the violence and the chaos that is a result of these reckless immigration raids, I think everyone should be concerned about it happening in their communities,” Gabriel told The Center Square during an Assembly floor session. “We want to make it crystal clear that ICE and other federal immigration authorities wouldn’t be able to use state lands or state property for their chaotic immigration agenda.”
Gabriel and Assemblymember Juan Carillo, D-Palmdale, are introducing the legislation jointly.
The new legislation, as well as anxieties among California’s lawmakers regarding ICE, follow a federal officer-involved shooting in Minnesota on Saturday that resulted in the death of Alexi Pretti, a 37-year-old in Minneapolis, as reported by The Center Square.
Some lawmakers, while acknowledging the tragedy of the loss of another civilian life in Minnesota, are skeptical of those who blame ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection entirely for the events that unfolded in Minnesota over the weekend.
“Don’t show up to a protest with a gun,” Assemblymember Stan Ellis, R-Bakersfield, told The Center Square on the Assembly floor. “You’re escalating an issue if you’re going to show up to a peaceful protest with a weapon. Obviously it’s a catastrophic event. However, if you’re inciting violence in a tense situation, those men have a job to do, and that’s what they should do.”
There are concerns, too, that the conflict in Minnesota could happen on the ground in communities in California, especially in districts with high populations of immigrants, some lawmakers told The Center Square on Monday.
“We stand in solidarity with our immigrant community,” Assemblymember Gail Pellerin, D-Santa Cruz, told The Center Square during the floor session. “I haven’t seen the bill, but anything we can do to keep ICE under control and away from our streets. They’re causing chaos and confusion, and people are scared.”
However, some conservative-leaning lawmakers are hoping other legislators turn to other issues that they see as more pressing than the activities of ICE in other states, one legislator told The Center Square.
“I don’t like it happening anywhere,” Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Huntington Beach, told The Center Square during a Senate floor session on Monday. “The problem we have with a lot of folks in this building is they’re not focused on major issues here in California. At the end of the day, if they want to do some of that stuff, they should run for Congress.”
In the aftermath of the most recent shooting, border patrol agents deployed to Minneapolis were reported to be slated to leave the city, according to news stories. Gregory Bovino, who led ICE operations in Minnesota, is also expected to leave Minnesota and be replaced as President Donald Trump attempts to deflect public ire away in the days after the latest death, other news outlets have reported.
California’s legislators aren’t the only state officials looking to Minnesota with worry. California Attorney General Rob Bonta, in comments made during a press conference on Monday on another subject, said he hopes the communities affected by the recent ICE-related killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, the two victims of ICE-related shootings in Minneapolis, come together and are able to heal.
“If you have a heartbeat and you are a human being in this country, you’re concerned,” Bonta told reporters in San Diego. “There needs to be some change. It’s not the type of thing I’d like to see on our streets and in our communities.”
Chris Woodward, a Center Square contributor, assisted with the reporting for this story.

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee will hear new accusations regarding the Minnesota fraud scandal investigation.
The hearing, which was originally scheduled for Wednesday, will likely feature fierce partisan debate as senators on the Judiciary Committee grapple with allegations of fraud in Minnesota and beyond. Senators postponed the hearing but did not announce a new date at the time of publication.
The firestorm of fraud allegations first broke out in November when reports were released that claimed millions of taxpayer dollars were stolen from the Minnesota welfare system and used to fund Somali-based terror group Al-Shabaab. Chris Rufo and Ryan Thorpe originally published those reports in City Journal.
Investigations also were opened into taxpayer-funded daycares in Minnesota and across the United States. Funding for some has been paused until vetted.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz chose not to seek reelection amid the fraud allegations in the state. Republican leaders have called for further action, demanding Walz to resign immediately.
“Tim Walz is not some sort of freedom fighter, he’s a guy who has enabled fraud, and maybe participated in it,” Vice President JD Vance wrote on social media. “I don’t care what Tim Walz says, I care about getting to the bottom of this fraud for the American people.”
“Tim Walz should resign in disgrace for enabling the defrauding of millions of Minnesotans,” wrote U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. Cornyn is also a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
With allegations of fraud in Minnesota and across the country, U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., proposed a bill to revoke the citizenship of recently naturalized citizens.
“We cannot allow our welfare system to be defrauded by criminals who abused their citizenship,” Schmitt said on X. “If you swear an oath to be loyal to our laws, and then commit felony fraud or other serious crimes – you lied when you took that oath. If you lied in your oath, you never met the conditions for citizenship and should be denaturalized.”
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee questioned the allegations of fraud in Minnesota and elsewhere. U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., called for investigators to produce “credible evidence” of fraud in the state.
“If you have no credible evidence of fraud, stop penalizing innocent, needy children. Picking on kids is not presidential,” Durbin said in comments referring to President Donald Trump.
Allegations of welfare fraud also have been made in California, Washington, New York and other states.

As protests continue in Minneapolis after the Saturday shooting death of a city resident by an immigration officer, the Trump administration is blaming local and state officials for “inciting” them in the wake of fraud investigations there.
Independent and federal investigations are ongoing after billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded fraud schemes were revealed over the past few months, with claims the fraud could range from $9 billion to $20 billion in Minnesota alone.
Republicans have labeled it “one of the biggest fraud schemes in American history.”
As widespread tensions continue to grow on the streets of the Twin Cities, Republicans are beginning to tie the rioting and the fraud together.
“When there was all the focus on the billions and billions of dollars in fraud happening in Minneapolis, suddenly Minneapolis became a powder keg,” said Todd Blanche, U.S. deputy attorney general. “The people who caused it to happen: the governor, the mayor, the attorney general, and [Ilhan] Omar. They incited rhetoric – encouraged rioters.”
Second-term Republican President Donald Trump has also made the connection between the fraud investigations and the riots, which first broke out over the seemingly unconnected enhanced enforcement of federal immigration law by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
“Minnesota is a criminal cover up of the massive financial fraud that has gone on,” Trump wrote on social media on Sunday.
Monday, he added he is sending his border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis to “report directly” to the president. Trump also said that the federal government is conducting a “major investigation” into fraud in Minnesota.
The president said welfare fraud “has taken place” and “is at least partially responsible for the violent organized protests going on in the streets.”
On Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem joined in on the claims from the Trump administration.
“Frankly, this didn’t turn violent until we uncovered the fraud in Minneapolis,” she said. “We were there … for years in Minneapolis. We saw the violence start to happen when the fraud became uncovered—the billions of dollars that were stolen from the American taxpayer under the leadership of Governor Walz and Mayor Frey.”
The fraud claims and investigations in Minnesota have garnered national attention since they first broke in the fall.
Last week, the U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance held a hearing on the Minnesota fraud scandal investigation. Both Democrats and Republicans acknowledged that fraud is widespread throughout government welfare programs.
U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said during that hearing that the federal fraud investigations in Minnesota are just a “pretext” for surging federal agents to the Twin Cities.
“Fraud is not headquartered in one state, for one municipality, much less one ethnic, racial or religious community,” Raskin said. “But, President Trump couldn’t resist the temptation to use fraud in Minnesota as an occasion to mobilize the power of the federal government to bully and intimidate first and second generation Somali Americans who live in that state.”
Republicans say the fraud scandal goes far beyond what is already being reported.
“We’re uncovering layer after layer of fraud in Minnesota,” U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., wrote on social media. “Millions in taxpayer dollars are being misused, and officials are ignoring it while hardworking Americans pay the price.”
On Saturday, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said “accountability is coming” for Minnesota Democrats, many of whom were recently subpoenaed by the U.S. Department of Justice in the midst of an ongoing federal conspiracy investigation.

Washington state elected officials are intensifying their opposition to federal immigration enforcement efforts following the shooting of a protester in Minnesota by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, along with a leaked ICE memo allegedly permitting agents to conduct raids without a judicial warrant.
Gov. Bob Ferguson at a Jan. 26 press conference renewed his push for a bill to criminalize the use of masks by law enforcement officers, and Attorney General Nick Brown encouraged residents to report ICE activity to the AGO’s bias incident hotline.
“We encourage people to report anything that concerns them,” Brown said. “It is our job, and it’s the job of state and local, both regulatory agencies and law enforcement agencies, to work through the information that we get, to respond to some of the concerns. The more information that we can receive for people expressing their concerns, the better.”
According to ABC News, the internal ICE memo indicated that agents can use administrative warrants and not necessarily rely on a warrant from a judge.
In response, Ferguson said he and Brown cosigned a letter prior to the press conference to Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem stating that they would “use every legal measure to hold the federal government accountable.”
Ferguson also criticized ICE for the recent shooting of a 37-year-old man in Minnesota, who was killed while officers were attempting to arrest him for alleging approaching them with a handgun.
“ICE is, to be blunt, completely and totally out of control,” Ferguson said.
However, Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, posted on X that “MN officials will begin to admit that the recent shooting was ‘legally justified’ but argue, incoherently, that that doesn’t matter.”
His comment was in response to remarks made by Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara that “even if there is an investigation that ultimately proves at the time of the shooting it was legally justified, I don’t think it even matters at this point.”
Ferguson said “we’ll see how things develop” regarding whether to call up the Washington National Guard. He pushed state lawmakers to pass Senate Bill 5855, which would make it illegal for local, state, and federal law enforcement officers to wear masks and allow individual arrested by one wearing a mask to sue. The bill cleared the Senate Committee on Law & Justice and is now in the Rules Committee.
Several other bills have been introduced this session targeting ICE specifically. HB 2641 sponsored by Rep. Tarra Simmons, D-Bremerton, would make it illegal for state and local law enforcement from hiring former ICE officers. The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Community Safety and is scheduled for a public hearing on Jan. 29.
Another bill also scheduled for a public hearing on Jan. 29 is HB 2648, which tasks off-duty law enforcement officers with documenting and reporting suspected federal immigration enforcement.
The Center Square reached out to Interim U.S. Attorney General for Eastern Washington Pete Serrano, who was unable to comment on the press conference.
The Center Square also reached out to the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs for comment. WASPC, which testified against SB 5855 at its public hearing, reiterated a statement by Executive Director Steve Strachan put out in 2025, in which he said that “rhetoric does not change the fact that the focus of local law enforcement is on criminal violations that affect local community safety and quality of life. We have every confidence that our state’s Sheriffs and Chiefs will neither violate state laws nor interfere with U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or federal laws and duties.”

Following a second fatal shooting in Minneapolis involving immigration officials, a prominent law enforcement organization is urging the White House to bring together local, state and federal law enforcement to identify a “constructive path forward” amid rising tensions.
The International Association of Chiefs of Police argues that rising tensions among federal law enforcement officials in communities like Minneapolis are putting a “significant strain on public safety systems.”
The organization is calling on the White House to exercise “its convening authority” to bring together officials from local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to discuss current policies in hopes of lowering tensions between civilians and law enforcement.
IACP underscored the need for proper training in accordance with the law to build community trust.
“In times of uncertainty, officials at all levels play a critical role in de-escalating tensions by using measured, responsible rhetoric that reinforces lawful processes and public trust rather than deepening division,” according to a release from the organization.
The Center Square reached out to the White House to request information on whether the administration planned to convene a discussion with law enforcement leaders. They underscored the desire to coordinate with all law enforcement to remove “criminal aliens.”
“President Trump has made it clear he wants to work with state and local governments to remove dangerous criminal illegal aliens from American cities. The Administration has had tremendous success doing so in states that cooperate. Democrat leaders in Minnesota should cooperate with the federal government to remove criminal illegal rapists, murderers, and pedophiles instead of providing them sanctuary.” Abigail Jackson, White House spokeswoman, told The Center Square.
The IACP request preceded a conversation between President Donald Trump and Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Monday, which the president described as “very good” as the two leaders try to find common ground.
During a press briefing at the White House Monday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt expanded on the Trump administration’s demands for Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey to cooperate with immigration officials.
Leavitt said the White House is demanding that the Democratic leaders “turn over all criminal illegal aliens currently incarcerated in their prisons and jails,” in addition to “any illegal aliens with active warrants or known criminal history of immediate deportation.”
The second demand is that local and state law enforcement “must agree to turn over all illegal aliens who are arrested by local police.” The third calls on local law enforcement to assist federal authorities in “apprehending and detaining illegal aliens who are wanted for crimes.”
“If Governor Walz and Mayor Frey implement these commonsense cooperative measures that I would add have already been implemented in nearly every single other state across the country, Customs and Border Patrol will not be needed to support ICE on the ground in Minnesota. Ice and local law enforcement can peacefully work together, as they are effectively doing in so many other states and jurisdictions,” Leavitt said during the briefing.