Trump Week 23: Iran Ceasefire, Legal Fights Escalate, and Deportations Raise Alarm
From Middle East diplomacy to domestic legal fights and immigration crackdowns, the Trump administration’s actions draw scrutiny and stir debate.
Trump’s 23rd week in office brought significant developments on the Israel-Iran war, a wave of legal battles, heightened immigration enforcement, and a failed impeachment attempt. After days of uncertainty, Israel and Iran agreed to a ceasefire. The United States is now scheduled to meet with Iranian officials next week. This follows a prior report from The Introspective detailing President Trump’s airstrikes against Iran.
Simultaneously, the Trump administration filed a lawsuit against every federal judge in Maryland over an order blocking the deportation of undocumented immigrants challenging their removals. The administration also directed California to remove references to gender identity from its public sex education curriculum, as backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies continues.
As anti-immigrant sentiment continues, the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration can deport undocumented immigrants to countries they are not originally from—including Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cuba and Mexico. The decision sparked backlash after reports revealed that U.S. citizens have been deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Meanwhile, Florida announced plans to build a $450 million prison in the Everglades to detain undocumented immigrants.
In Congress, the House of Representatives voted against an impeachment measure over Trump’s handling of the Iran strikes, with 128 Democrats joining Republicans to table the resolution.
Israel-Iran Ceasefire
Following a previous Introspective report highlighting U.S. involvement in the Israel-Iran war, President Trump announced an initial ceasefire between the two countries.
“It has been fully agreed by and between Israel and Iran that there will be a Complete and Total CEASEFIRE (in approximately 6 hours from now, when Israel and Iran have wound down and completed they’re in progress, final missions!), for 12 hours, at which point the War will be considered, ENDED!” Trump wrote on Truth Social, referring to the conflict as the “12-day war.”
“This is a war that could have gone on for years and destroyed the entire Middle East—but it didn’t, and never will!”
However, the initial ceasefire was broken by both sides, prompting Trump to lash out in front of reporters.
“I’m not happy with them. I’m not happy with Iran, either, but I’m really unhappy with Israel going out this morning,” Trump said on Tuesday.
“We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing.”
After continued back and forth between the three countries, a second ceasefire agreement was reached. Trump later announced that the United States would meet with Iranian officials next week, claiming that he had “destroyed” Iran’s nuclear weapons.
“I don’t care if I have an agreement or not,” he said.
“The only thing we’d be asking for is what we were asking for before about, ‘we want no nuclear.’ But we destroyed the nuclear. In other words, that’s destroyed. I said, ‘Iran will not have nuclear.’ Well, we blew it up. It’s blown up to kingdom come. And so I don’t feel very strongly about it. If we got a document, it wouldn’t be bad.”
Iranian leader Ali Khamenei responded by warning the U.S. against any further military action, claiming Trump only got involved because “it felt that if it did not intervene, the Zionist regime would be utterly destroyed.”
“Should any aggression occur, the enemy will definitely pay a heavy price,” Khamenei told The Los Angeles Times.
Maryland Judges and California
The Trump administration filed a lawsuit against every sitting federal judge in Maryland over an order blocking the deportation of undocumented immigrants while they challenge their removals.
“President Trump’s executive authority has been undermined since the first hours of his presidency by an endless barrage of injunctions designed to halt his agenda,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi in a press release.
“The American people elected President Trump to carry out his policy agenda; this pattern of judicial overreach undermines the democratic process and cannot be allowed to stand.”
In a report by NPR, James Sample, a professor at Hofstra University, said the lawsuit reflects the Trump administration’s disregard for legal precedent.
“The judges here didn’t ask to be put in this unenviable position,” he said.
“Faced with imperfect options, they have made an entirely reasonable, cautious choice to modestly check an executive branch that is determined to circumvent any semblance of impartial process.”
At the same time, Trump officials ordered California to remove all references to gender identity in its sex education curriculum or risk losing federal funding. In a written statement, officials argued that including gender identity in the state’s federally funded Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) is “both unacceptable and well outside the program’s core purpose.”
“The content flagged on the first page of this letter provides examples of gender ideology content that does not adhere to the PREP statute; California is directed to remove these and all similar language throughout their curricula and program materials,” the statement read.
In an interview with Education Week, Eva Goldfarb, a professor at Montclair State University in New Jersey, called it another example of the federal government targeting California.
“Even though the federal government does not have any real oversight of school mandates and policies and practices, my worry is that they’re going to find a way to have an impact on school systems around this issue as well,” she said.
A previous report from The Introspective detailed Trump’s earlier threat to pull federal funding from California over policies allowing transgender women to compete in women’s sports.
Immigration
As anti-immigrant sentiment continues to rise, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to deport undocumented immigrants to countries they did not originate from—including Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cuba and Mexico.
In a dissenting opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor accused her colleagues of “rewarding lawlessness.”
“Rather than allowing our lower court colleagues to manage this high-stakes litigation with the care and attention it plainly requires, this Court now intervenes to grant the government emergency relief from an order it has repeatedly defied,” she wrote.
The ruling follows a report from Migrant Insider revealing that more than 70 U.S. citizens were deported between 2015 and 2020—during Barack Obama’s second term and Trump’s first term—with hundreds more detained or arrested.
“That’s not just a bureaucratic mistake — it’s a constitutional violation,” the report stated.
In the same report, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) noted that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has no system to track how many people were deported in error.
“ICE does not know the extent to which its officers are taking enforcement actions against individuals who could be U.S. citizens,” the GAO said.
Meanwhile, Florida announced plans to construct a prison nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz” for undocumented immigrants.
“Under President Trump's leadership, we are working at turbo speed on cost-effective and innovative ways to deliver on the American people’s mandate for mass deportations of criminal illegal aliens,” said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in an interview with CBS News.
“We will expand facilities and bed space in just days, thanks to our partnership with Florida.”
In a statement posted to X, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said the state “will fight alongside this administration to keep Florida safe, strong and free.”
“I’m proud to help support President Trump and Secretary Noem in their mission to fix our illegal immigration problem once and for all. Alligator Alcatraz and other Florida facilities will do just that,” he wrote.
Impeachment
House Democrats voted against a proposed resolution by Rep. Al Green to impeach President Trump over his unauthorized strikes in Iran. More than 128 Democrats joined all 216 Republicans to block the proposal.
“I did not come to Congress to be a bystander while a president abuses power and devolves American democracy into authoritarianism with himself as an authoritarian president,” said Green.
“President Trump’s unauthorized bombing of Iran constitutes a de facto declaration of war. No president has the right to drag this nation into war without the authorization of the people’s representatives.”
The full list of House Democrats who voted against the resolution included prominent members such as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi:
Pete Aguilar (California)
Gabe Amo (Rhode Island)
Jake Auchincloss (Massachusetts)
Wesley Bell (Missouri)
Ami Bera (California)
Don Beyer (Virginia)
Sanford Bishop (Georgia)
Julia Brownley (California)
Nikki Budzinski (Illinois)
Janelle Bynum (Oregon)
Salud Carbajal (California)
André Carson (Indiana)
Ed Case (Hawaii)
Sean Casten (Illinois)
Kathy Castor (Florida)
Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (Florida)
Katherine Clark (Massachusetts)
Emanuel Cleaver (Missouri)
Jim Clyburn (South Carolina)
Herb Conaway (New Jersey)
Lou Correa (California)
Jim Costa (California)
Joe Courtney (Connecticut)
Angie Craig (Minnesota)
Jason Crow (Colorado)
Henry Cuellar (Texas)
Sharice Davids (Kansas)
Don Davis (North Carolina)
Madeleine Dean (Pennsylvania)
Rosa DeLauro (Connecticut)
Suzan DelBene (Washington)
Chris Deluzio (Pennsylvania)
Debbie Dingell (Michigan)
Sarah Elfreth (Maryland)
Cleo Fields (Louisiana)
Shomari Figures (Alabama)
Lizzie Fletcher (Texas)
Bill Foster (Illinois)
Lois Frankel (Florida)
Laura Gillen (New York)
Jared Golden (Maine)
Dan Goldman (New York)
Vicente Gonzalez (Texas)
Maggie Goodlander (New Hampshire)
Josh Gottheimer (New Jersey)
Adam Gray (California)
Josh Harder (California)
Jim Himes (Connecticut)
Steven Horsford (Nevada)
Chrissy Houlahan (Pennsylvania)
Steny Hoyer (Maryland)
Val Hoyle (Oregon)
Hakeem Jeffries (New York)
Julie Johnson (Texas)
Marcy Kaptur (Ohio)
Bill Keating (Massachusetts)
Timothy Kennedy (New York)
Ro Khanna (California)
Greg Landsman (Ohio)
Rick Larsen (Washington)
John Larson (Connecticut)
George Latimer (New York)
Susie Lee (Nevada)
Mike Levin (California)
Sam Liccardo (California)
Ted Lieu (California)
Zoe Lofgren (California)
Stephen Lynch (Massachusetts)
Seth Magaziner (Rhode Island)
John Mannion (New York)
Lucy McBath (Georgia)
Sarah McBride (Delaware)
April McClain Delaney (Maryland)
Jennifer McClellan (Virginia)
Betty McCollum (Minnesota)
Kristen McDonald Rivet (Michigan)
Morgan McGarvey (Kentucky)
Gregory Meeks (New York)
Grace Meng (New York)
Kweisi Mfume (Maryland)
Joe Morelle (New York)
Kelly Morrison (Minnesota)
Jared Moskowitz (Florida)
Seth Moulton (Massachusetts)
Frank Mrvan (Indiana)
Richard Neal (Massachusetts)
Joe Neguse (Colorado)
Johnny Olszewski (Maryland)
Frank Pallone (New Jersey)
Jimmy Panetta (California)
Chris Pappas (New Hampshire)
Nancy Pelosi (California)
Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Washington)
Scott Peters (California)
Brittany Pettersen (Colorado)
Nellie Pou (New Jersey)
Mike Quigley (Illinois)
Jamie Raskin (Maryland)
Josh Riley (New York)
Deborah Ross (North Carolina)
Pat Ryan (New York)
Andrea Salinas (Oregon)
Mary Gay Scanlon (Pennsylvania)
Brad Schneider (Illinois)
Hillary Scholten (Michigan)
Kim Schrier (Washington)
Bobby Scott (Virginia)
Terri Sewell (Alabama)
Adam Smith (Washington)
Eric Sorensen (Illinois)
Darren Soto (Florida)
Greg Stanton (Arizona)
Haley Stevens (Michigan)
Marilyn Strickland (Washington)
Suhas Subramanyam (Virginia)
Tom Suozzi (New York)
Emilia Sykes (Ohio)
Paul Tonko (New York)
Ritchie Torres (New York)
Lori Trahan (Massachusetts)
Derek Tran (California)
Lauren Underwood (Illinois)
Juan Vargas (California)
Gabe Vasquez (New Mexico)
Marc Veasey (Texas)
Eugene Vindman (Virginia)
Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Florida)
George Whitesides (California)