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MOSCOW (AP) — An appellate court in Russia’s far east on Monday reduced the prison sentence for an American soldier convicted of stealing and making threats of murder, Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

Staff Sgt. Gordon Black, 34, flew to the Pacific port city of Vladivostok to see his girlfriend and was arrested in May 2024 after she accused him of stealing from her, according to U.S. officials and Russian authorities. A month later, a court in Vladivostok convicted him and sentenced him to three years and nine months in prison. Black was also ordered to pay 10,000 rubles ($115 at the time) in damages.

Black lost one appeal in a regional court that upheld his sentence, but the judge in the 9th Court of Cassation on Monday agreed to reduce his sentence to three years and two months in prison. Black’s defense had asked the court to acquit him of making threats of murder and reduce the punishment for theft, a request the judge partially sustained, according to the RIA report.

Russia has jailed a number of Americans in recent years as tensions between Moscow and the West grew. Some, like corporate security executive Paul Whelan, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and teacher Marc Fogel, were designated by the U.S. government as wrongfully detained and released in prisoner swaps.

A few others remain jailed in Russia on drug or assault convictions. They include Robert Gilman, 72, who was handed a 3 1/2-year sentence after being found guilty of assaulting a police officer following a drunken disturbance on a train, and Travis Leake, a musician who was convicted on drug charges and sentenced to 13 years in prison in July 2024.

Black was on leave and in the process of returning to his home base at Fort Cavazos, Texas, from South Korea, where he had been stationed at Camp Humphreys with the Eighth Army.

The U.S. Army said Black signed out for his move back home and, “instead of returning to the continental United States, Black flew from Incheon, Republic of Korea, through China to Vladivostok, Russia, for personal reasons.”

Under Pentagon policy, service members must get clearance for any international travel from a security manager or commander.

The U.S. Army said last month that Black hadn’t sought such travel clearance and it wasn’t authorized by the Defense Department. Given the hostilities in Ukraine and threats to the U.S. and its military, it is extremely unlikely he would have been granted approval.

Black’s girlfriend, Alexandra Vashchuk, told reporters last year that “it was a simple domestic dispute,” during which Black “became aggressive and attacked” her, stealing money from her wallet. She described Black as “violent and unable to control himself.”

U.S. officials have said that Black, who is married, met Vashchuk in South Korea.

According to U.S. officials, she had lived in South Korea, and last fall she and Black got into some type of domestic dispute or altercation. After that, she left South Korea. It isn’t clear if she was forced to leave or what, if any, role South Korean authorities had in the matter.

A second school-age child who was hospitalized with measles is the third measles-related death in the U.S. since the virus started ripping through West Texas in late January.

The child died Thursday, according to state health officials. The child was 8 years old, according to a statement from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. A spokesperson for UMC Health System in Lubbock, Texas, confirmed the child was unvaccinated and being treated for measles complications.

The U.S. now has more than double the number of measles cases it saw in all of 2024, with Texas reporting another large jump in cases and hospitalizations on Friday. Other states with active outbreaks — defined as three or more cases — include New Mexico, Kansas, Ohio and Oklahoma. The virus has been spreading in undervaccinated communities.

The multi-state outbreak confirms health experts’ fears that the virus will take hold in other U.S. communities with low vaccination rates and that the spread could stretch on for a year. The World Health Organization said last week that cases in Mexico are linked to the Texas outbreak.

Measles is caused by a highly contagious virus that’s airborne and spreads easily when an infected person breathes, sneezes or coughs. It is preventable through vaccines, and has been considered eliminated from the U.S. since 2000.

Here’s what else you need to know about measles in the U.S.
How many measles cases are there in Texas and New Mexico?

Texas’ outbreak began more than two months ago. State health officials said Friday there were 59 new cases of measles since Tuesday, bringing the total to 481 across 19 counties — most of them in West Texas. The state also logged 14 new hospitalizations, for a total of 56 throughout the outbreak.

More than 65% of Texas’ cases are in Gaines County, population 22,892, where the virus stated spreading in a close-knit, undervaccinated Mennonite community. The county now has logged 315 cases since late January — just over 1% of the county’s residents.

New Mexico announced six new cases Friday, bringing the state’s total to 54. New Mexico health officials say the cases are linked to Texas’ outbreak based on genetic testing. Most are in Lea County, where two people have been hospitalized, and two are in Eddy County.

A child died of measles in Texas in late February — Kennedy said age 6 — and New Mexico reported its first measles-related death in an adult on March 6.
How many cases are there in Kansas?

Kansas has 24 cases in six counties in the southwest part of the state as of Wednesday. Kiowa and Stevens counties have six cases each, while Grant, Morton, Haskell and Gray counties have five or fewer.

The state’s first reported case, identified in Stevens County on March 13, is linked to the Texas and New Mexico outbreaks based on genetic testing, a state health department spokesperson said. But health officials have not determined how the person was exposed.
How many cases are there in Oklahoma?

Cases in Oklahoma remained steady Friday: eight confirmed and two probable cases. The first two probable cases were “associated” with the West Texas and New Mexico outbreaks, the state health department said.

A state health department spokesperson said measles exposures were confirmed in Tulsa and Rogers counties, but wouldn’t say which counties had cases.
How many cases are there in Ohio?

Ohio reported one new measles case Thursday in west-central Allen County. Last week, there were 10 in Ashtabula County in the northeast corner of the state. The first case was in an unvaccinated adult who had interacted with someone who had traveled internationally.

In central Ohio, Knox County officials reported two new measles cases in international visitors, for three cases in international visitors total. Those cases are not included in the state’s official count because they are not in Ohio residents. A measles outbreak in central Ohio sickened 85 in 2022.
Where else is measles showing up in the U.S.?

Measles cases also have been reported in Alaska, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, and Washington.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines an outbreak as three or more related cases. The agency counted six clusters that qualified as outbreaks in 2025 as of Friday.

In the U.S., cases and outbreaks are generally traced to someone who caught the disease abroad. It can then spread, especially in communities with low vaccination rates. In 2019, the U.S. saw 1,274 cases and almost lost its status of having eliminated measles. So far in 2025, the CDC’s count is 607.
Do you need an MMR booster?

The best way to avoid measles is to get the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. The first shot is recommended for children between 12 and 15 months old and the second between 4 and 6 years old.

People at high risk for infection who got the shots many years ago may want to consider getting a booster if they live in an area with an outbreak, said Scott Weaver with the Global Virus Network, an international coalition. Those may include family members living with someone who has measles or those especially vulnerable to respiratory diseases because of underlying medical conditions.

Adults with “presumptive evidence of immunity” generally don’t need measles shots now, the CDC said. Criteria include written documentation of adequate vaccination earlier in life, lab confirmation of past infection or being born before 1957, when most people were likely to be infected naturally.

A doctor can order a lab test called an MMR titer to check your levels of measles antibodies, but health experts don’t always recommend this route and insurance coverage can vary.

Getting another MMR shot is harmless if there are concerns about waning immunity, the CDC says.

People who have documentation of receiving a live measles vaccine in the 1960s don’t need to be revaccinated, but people who were immunized before 1968 with an ineffective measles vaccine made from “killed” virus should be revaccinated with at least one dose, the agency said. That also includes people who don’t know which type they got.
What are the symptoms of measles?

Measles first infects the respiratory tract, then spreads throughout the body, causing a high fever, runny nose, cough, red, watery eyes and a rash.

The rash generally appears three to five days after the first symptoms, beginning as flat red spots on the face and then spreading downward to the neck, trunk, arms, legs and feet. When the rash appears, the fever may spike over 104 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the CDC.

Most kids will recover from measles, but infection can lead to dangerous complications such as pneumonia, blindness, brain swelling and death.
How can you treat measles?

There’s no specific treatment for measles, so doctors generally try to alleviate symptoms, prevent complications and keep patients comfortable.
Why do vaccination rates matter?

In communities with high vaccination rates — above 95% — diseases like measles have a harder time spreading through communities. This is called “herd immunity.”

But childhood vaccination rates have declined nationwide since the pandemic and more parents are claiming religious or personal conscience waivers to exempt their kids from required shots.

The U.S. saw a rise in measles cases in 2024, including an outbreak in Chicago that sickened more than 60.

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AP Science Writer Laura Ungar contributed to this report.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visited the epicenter of Texas’ still-growing measles outbreak on Sunday, the same day a funeral was held for a second young child who was not vaccinated and died from a measles-related illness.

Kennedy said in a social media post that he was working to “control the outbreak” and went to Gaines County to comfort the families who have buried two young children. He was seen late Sunday afternoon outside of a Mennonite church where the funeral services were held, but he did not attend a nearby news conference held by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about the outbreak.

Seminole is the epicenter of the outbreak, which started in late January and continues to swell — with nearly 500 cases in Texas alone, plus cases from the outbreak believed to have spread to New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas and Mexico.

The second young child died Thursday from “what the child’s doctor described as measles pulmonary failure,” and did not have underlying health conditions, the Texas State Department of State Health Services said Sunday in a news release. Aaron Davis, a spokesperson for UMC Health System in Lubbock, said that the child was “receiving treatment for complications of measles while hospitalized.”

This is the third known measles-related death tied to this outbreak. One was another elementary school-aged child in Texas and the other was an adult in New Mexico; neither were vaccinated.

It’s Kennedy’s first visit to the area as health secretary, where he said he met with families of both the 6- and 8-year-old children who died. He said he “developed bonds” with the Mennonite community in West Texas in which the virus is mostly spreading.

Kennedy, an anti-vaccine advocate before ascending to the role of nation’s top health secretary earlier this year, has resisted urging widespread vaccinations as the measles outbreak has worsened under his watch. On Sunday, however, he said in a lengthy statement posted on X that it was “the most effective way to prevent the spread of measles.”

The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine has been used safely for more than 60 years and is 97% effective against measles after two doses.

Dr. Manisha Patel, CDC incident manager, said in a Sunday news conference that the MMR vaccine is the best way to protect against measles. She also told parents in Gaines County that it was important not to “delay care” for a child who is sick with measles.

“Call your doctor and make sure you’re talking to a health care professional who can guide you on those next steps,” Patel said.

CDC teams arrived in early March, Patel said. But Kennedy’s social media post noted that CDC employees have been “redeployed,” and the nation’s public health agency never relayed it had pulled back. Neither the CDC nor the state health department included the death in their measles reports issued Friday, but the CDC acknowledged it when asked Sunday.

The number of cases in Texas shot up by 81 between March 28 and April 4, and 16 more people were hospitalized. Nationwide, the U.S. has more than double the number of measles cases it saw in all of 2024.

Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy from Louisiana, a liver doctor whose vote helped cinch Kennedy’s confirmation, called Sunday for stronger messaging from health officials in a post on X.

“Everyone should be vaccinated! There is no treatment for measles. No benefit to getting measles,” he wrote. “Top health officials should say so unequivocally b/4 another child dies.”

Cassidy has requested Kennedy to appear before his health committee Thursday, although Kennedy has not publicly confirmed whether he will attend.

A CDC spokesperson noted the efficacy of the measles vaccine Sunday but stopped short of calling on people to get it. Departing from long-standing public health messaging around vaccination, the spokesperson called the decision a “personal one” and encouraged people to talk with their doctor. People “should be informed about the potential risks and benefits associated with vaccines,” the spokesperson added.

Misinformation about how to prevent and treat measles is hindering a robust public health response, including claims about vitamin A supplements that have been pushed by Kennedy and holistic medicine supporters despite doctors’ warnings that it should be given under a physician’s orders and that too much can be dangerous.

Doctors at Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock, where the first measles death occurred, say they’ve treated fewer than 10 children for liver issues from vitamin A toxicity, which they found when running routine lab tests on children who are not fully vaccinated and have measles. Dr. Lara Johnson, chief medical officer, said the patients reported using vitamin A to treat and prevent the virus.

Dr. Peter Marks, the Food and Drug Administration’s former vaccine chief, said responsibility for the death rests with Kennedy and his staff. Marks was forced out of the FDA after disagreements with Kennedy over vaccine safety.

“This is the epitome of an absolute needless death,” Marks told The Associated Press in an interview Sunday. “These kids should get vaccinated — that’s how you prevent people from dying of measles.”

Marks also said he recently warned U.S. senators that more deaths would occur if the administration didn’t mount a more aggressive response to the outbreak.

Experts and local health officials expect the outbreak to go on for several more months if not a year. In West Texas, the vast majority of cases are in unvaccinated people and children younger than 17.

With several states facing outbreaks of the vaccine-preventable disease — and declining childhood vaccination rates nationwide — some worry that measles may cost the U.S. its status as having eliminated the disease.

Measles is a respiratory virus that can survive in the air for up to two hours. Up to 9 out of 10 people who are susceptible will get the virus if exposed, according to the CDC. The first shot is recommended for children ages 12 to 15 months, and the second for ages 4 to 6 years.

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Seitz reported from Washington. Photojournalist Annie Rice in Seminole, Texas, and AP reporter Matthew Perrone in Washington contributed to this report.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

LOS FRESNOS (AP) — Leonardo Baez and Nora Avila-Guel’s bakery in the Texas community of Los Fresnos is a daily stop for many residents to share gossip over coffee, and pick up cakes and pastries for birthdays, office parties, or just for themselves.

When Homeland Security Investigations agents showed up at Abby’s Bakery in February and arrested the owners and eight employees, residents of Los Fresnos were shocked. Abby’s Bakery doesn’t employ violent criminals, and Baez and Avila-Guel are not the people who border czar Tom Homan calls the “worst of the worst” and says are the priority for mass deportations.

“I was surprised, because I know that they’re not taking advantage of the people,” Esteban Rodriguez, 43, said after pulling into the bakery’s parking lot to discover it was closed. “It was more like helping out people. They didn’t have nowhere to go, instead of them being on the streets.”

The reaction in the town of 8,500 residents may show the limits of support for President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. In a majority Hispanic region dotted with fields of cotton, sugarcane, and red grapefruit, Republicans made gains in last year’s elections. Cameron County voted for a GOP president for the first time since 2004. For neighboring Starr County, it was the first time since 1896.

Now, Baez and Avila-Guel, a Mexican couple who are permanent and legal U.S. residents, could lose everything after being accused of concealing and harboring immigrants who were in the U.S. illegally. It’s a rare case in which business owners face criminal charges rather than just a fine.

Los Fresnos, which is 90% Latino, is about a half-hour drive from the U.S.-Mexico border. Hundreds of school bus drivers, painters, retirees, and parishioners from the nearby Catholic church come into Abby’s Bakery each day. Customers with silver trays and tongs select pastries from glass-door cabinets.

Six of Abby’s eight employees were in the U.S. on visitor visas but none had work permits when Homeland Security Investigations agents came to the business Feb. 12. Employees were living in a room with six beds, and shared two bathrooms in the same building as the bakery, according to an agent’s affidavit.

Baez, 55, and Avila-Guel, 46, have pleaded not guilty. They referred questions to their attorneys, who noted the workers were not held against their will and there was no attempt to hide their presence, as a smuggler would. As green card holders, the couple could be deported if they are convicted. They have five children who are U.S. citizens.

The bakery closed for several days after their arrest, drawing about 20 people to protest on an uncharacteristically chilly evening.

Chela and Alicia Vega, two sisters in their 60s who retired from the school district and have known the bakery owners for years, were among the customers filling trays with pastries. Chela Vega said the couple once took a week off from work to drive them to San Luis Potosi in Mexico after their sister died. When a hurricane struck, Leonardo Baez cut down their damaged trees without charge.

For Terri Sponsler, 61, shopping at Abby’s is now a political statement. “With everything going on right now in our country, we need to find ways to protest,” she said.

Mark W. Milum, the Los Fresnos city manager, said Abby’s is an important business that contributes property and sales tax revenue to the $13 million annual municipal budget. Some customers just love the products.

“Other bakeries, they pop up, right?” said Ruth Zamora, 65. “But when you go there, it’s not the same.” of St. Cecilia Church often visited before early morning Mass for the campechana, a flaky, crunchy pastry dough layered with caramelized sugar. His routine was interrupted when plainclothes immigration agents arrived in unmarked vehicles.

“A woman came here crying. She said, ‘Father, Father, they’re taking my brother,’” Briseño said. The priest walked over and saw agents use zip ties to bind employees’ hands.

There is overwhelming bipartisan support to deport people who are in the U.S. illegally and have been convicted of a violent crime, with 82% in favor, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll in January. Support softens considerably for deportations of all people in the country illegally, with 43% in favor and 37% opposed.

Trump and top aides repeatedly emphasize they are deporting criminals. But, as Homan often says, others in the country illegally who are there when officers arrest criminals also will be deported, a departure from the Biden administration’s practices.

So far, Trump has avoided the large-scale factory and office raids that characterized his first term and that of Republican President George W. Bush. Scattered reports of smaller operations included the recent arrests of 37 people at a roofing business in northern Washington state.

ICE says it made 32,809 arrests in Trump’s first 50 days in office, or a daily average of 656, which compared with a daily average of 311 during a 12-month period ending Sept. 30. ICE said nearly half (14,111) were convicted criminals and nearly one-third (9,980) had pending criminal charges but did not specify the charges.

People with deep ties in their communities and no criminal records tend to generate more sympathy.

Abby’s reopened after the owners were released on bond.

Chela and Alicia Vega, two sisters in their 60s who retired from the school district and have known the bakery owners for years, were among the customers filling trays with pastries. Chela Vega said the couple once took a week off from work to drive them to San Luis Potosi in Mexico after their sister died. When a hurricane struck, Leonardo Baez cut down their damaged trees without charge.

For Terri Sponsler, 61, shopping at Abby’s is now a political statement. “With everything going on right now in our country, we need to find ways to protest,” she said.

Mark W. Milum, the Los Fresnos city manager, said Abby’s is an important business that contributes property and sales tax revenue to the $13 million annual municipal budget.

Some customers just love the products.

“Other bakeries, they pop up, right?” said Ruth Zamora, 65. “But when you go there, it’s not the same.”

SAN ANTONIO – On Thursday night, a divided San Antonio City Council voted 6-5 to spend $100,000 on helping residents travel out of state to get abortions.

Less than 24 hours later, Attorney General Ken Paxton sued in state court, arguing San Antonio is “transparently attempting to undermine and subvert Texas law and public policy.” The lawsuit alleges that the fund violates the gift clause of the Texas Constitution, and requests a temporary injunction blocking the funding allocation.

The lawsuit is not unexpected: Paxton previously sued the City of Austin over a similar fund.

San Antonio originally allocated $500,000 for a Reproductive Justice Fund in 2023, in response to Texas’ near-total ban on abortion. After much debate, and a private lawsuit, the money was spent on non-abortion related reproductive health initiatives, like contraception, testing for sexually transmitted infections and health workshops.

But this recent addition of $100,000 was narrowly approved to be spent specifically on abortion travel, the San Antonio Express-News reported. Some council members opposed the measure due to anti-abortion sentiment or a fear of being sued, while others said it was a necessary step to support people who were being harmed by the state’s abortion laws.

“I’ve got one job up here, and it’s to protect the people I represent,” councilwoman and mayoral candidate Melissa Cabello Havrda said at the hearing, the newspaper reported. “This is how San Antonio is stepping up when other entities will not.”

A spokesperson for the city did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Paxton, a virulent anti-abortion conservative, said in a statement that San Antonio was “blatantly defying Texas law.”

“Beyond being an egregious misuse of public funds, it’s an attack on the pro-life values of our state,” he said. “I will not stand by while rogue cities use tax dollars to circumvent state law and take the innocent lives of unborn children.”

This battle comes as the Texas Legislature considers Senate Bill 33, which would outlaw the use of taxpayer dollars on abortion-related expenses. The bill, which Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has said is a top priority, was heard by a Senate committee last week and is expected to advance to a floor vote. The bill is expected to face more of an uphill battle in the House.

Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.

AUSTIN – Sen. Ted Cruz warned his podcast listeners on Friday that Trump’s worldwide tariffs could harm Americans, but the senator is willing to wait and see how the tariffs play out.

“There is the potential for upside, but there are enormous risks,” Cruz said on an episode of his podcast, “Verdict with Ted Cruz.”

The tarrifs, announced by President Donald Trump on Wednesday, range from 10% to 50% on goods from almost every country. Trump sees these tariffs as a way to protect American workers by bringing manufacturing to the United States and a way to punish other countries for their own trade restrictions.

However, Cruz said these tariffs could lead to increased prices for American consumers, lost jobs and a potential trade war. If the tariffs stay in place and other countries add tariffs to goods from the United States, Cruz said it could be terrible for Texas and the rest of the country.

“It will hurt jobs and hurt America, and there is a very real risk of that,” Cruz said of a potential trade war.

The Senator also said that if the tariffs stay in place, they will become the “biggest tax increase we have seen in a long, long, long time.”

Even so, Cruz isn’t moving away from the president’s tariff plan. He sees a possibility world leaders come to the president, ask for the tariffs to be removed, and offer to reverse their own tariffs on American products.

On Wednesday, Cruz joined most Republicans in voting against a bill to block Trump’s tariffs on Canada – a measure that passed the chamber with the support of four Republicans and every Democrat. With chances unlikely in the House, it remains a mostly symbolic way for senators to express concerns about the Trump trade policy. Cruz has also not moved to support plans to limit a president’s ability to implement tariffs without the backing of Congress.

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Ideally, Cruz said, countries will decrease tariffs on American goods and the Trump administration would respond by eliminating the tariffs on those countries. He said this would be a good outcome for small businesses, manufacturers and workers.

“If that happens, I will say Donald Trump had a vision on trade that very few people in the world saw, and this was a friggin home run,” Cruz said.

The senator also acknowledged that this broad approach to tariffs hasn’t been tried since the 1930 Smoot-Hawley tariffs — a move that likely worsened the Great Depression. But, Cruz said the size of the American economy now might give the country more leverage and lead to a better outcome than the 1930 tariffs.

Cruz – chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation – focused much of his concern in the podcast episode on the impact tariffs could have on American car manufacturing. He said that one of the “big three” American car manufacturers this week told him that the tariffs will cause American car prices to increase and that foreign manufacturers may benefit more.

This week, Cruz said, could be the most consequential in Trump’s entire second term.

“I’m seeing a lot of Republican cheerleaders that are kind of reflexively defending what the White House is doing,” Cruz said. “Listen, I love President Trump, I’m his strongest supporter, and I think he’s doing incredible things as president. But here’s one thing to understand, a tariff is a tax.”

Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.

AUSTIN (AP) – A district court judge has awarded more than $6 million combined to four whistleblowers in their lawsuit against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton who were fired shortly after they reported him to the FBI.

“By a preponderance of the evidence,” Travis County Judge Catherine Mauzy says in her judgment, the plaintiffs proved liability, damages and attorney’s fees in their complaint against the attorney general’s office.

“Because the Office of the Attorney General violated the Texas Whistleblower Act by firing and otherwise retaliating against the plaintiff for in good faith reporting violations of law by Ken Paxton and OAG, the court hereby renders judgment for plaintiffs,” Mauzy states.

The court found that the former employees were fired in retaliation for reporting allegations that Paxton was his using his office to accept bribes from an Austin real estate developer who employed a woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair.

The judgment also stated that the employees made their reports to law enforcement “in good faith” and that Paxton’s office did not dispute any claims or damages in the lawsuit.

“After litigating for more than four years due to OAG’s many delay tactics, Ken Paxton finally admitted to breaking the law to avoid being questioned under oath, but also because he had no defense,” said Tom Nesbitt, an attorney for plaintiff Blake Brickman and TJ Turner, an attorney for David Maxwell, in a joint statement. “It should shock all Texans that their chief law enforcement officer, Ken Paxton, admitted to violating the law, but that is exactly what happened in this case.”

The Office of the Texas Attorney General did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.

Paxton was at center of federal investigation after eight employees reported his office to the FBI in 2020 for bribery allegations. He agreed to settle the lawsuit for $3.3 million that would be paid by the Legislature. However, the House rejected his request and conducted its own investigation and impeached Paxton in 2023. He was later acquitted in the Senate.

In November, the Texas Supreme Court overturned a lower-court ruling that Paxton testify in the lawsuit.

The U.S. Justice Department decided not to pursue its investigation into Paxton in the final weeks of the Biden administration, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A crackdown on foreign students is alarming college leaders, who say the Trump administration is using new tactics and vague justifications to push some students out of the country.

College officials worry the new approach will keep foreigners from wanting to study in the U.S.

Students stripped of their entry visas are receiving orders from the Department of Homeland Security to leave the country immediately — a break from past practice that often permitted them to stay and complete their studies.

Some students have been targeted over pro-Palestinian activism or criminal infractions — or even traffic violations. Others have been left wondering how they ran afoul of the government.

At Minnesota State University in Mankato, President Edward Inch told the campus Wednesday that visas had been revoked for five international students for unclear reasons.

He said school officials learned about the revocations when they ran a status check in a database of international students after the detention of a Turkish student at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. The State Department said the detention was related to a drunken driving conviction.

“These are troubling times, and this situation is unlike any we have navigated before,” Inch wrote in a letter to campus.

President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to deport foreign students involved in pro-Palestinian protests, and federal agents started by detaining Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, a green-card-holder and Palestinian activist who was prominent in protests at Columbia last year. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week students are being targeted for involvement in protests along with others tied to “potential criminal activity.”

In the past two weeks, the government apparently has widened its crackdown. Officials from colleges around the country have discovered international students have had their entry visas revoked and, in many cases, their legal residency status terminated by authorities without notice — including students at Arizona State, Cornell, North Carolina State, the University of Oregon, the University of Texas and the University of Colorado.

Some of the students are working to leave the country on their own, but students at Tufts and the University of Alabama have been detained by immigration authorities — in the Tufts case, even before the university knew the student’s legal status had changed.
Feds bypass colleges to move against students

In this new wave of enforcement, school officials say the federal government is quietly deleting foreigners’ student records instead of going through colleges, as was done in the past.

Students are being ordered to leave the country with a suddenness that universities have rarely seen, said Miriam Feldblum, president and CEO of the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration.

In the past, when international students have had entry visas revoked, they generally have been allowed to keep legal residency status. They could stay in the country to study, but would need to renew their visa if they left the U.S. and wanted to return. Now, increasing numbers of students are having their legal status terminated, exposing them to the risk of being arrested.

“None of this is regular practice,” Feldblum said.

At North Carolina State University, two students from Saudi Arabia left the U.S. after learning their legal status as students was terminated, the university said. N.C. State said it will work with the students to complete their semester from outside the country.

Philip Vasto, who lived with one of the students, said his roommate, in graduate school for engineering management, was apolitical and did not attend protests against the war in Gaza. When the government told his roommate his student status had been terminated, it did not give a reason, Vasto said.

Since returning to Saudi Arabia, Vasto said his former roommate’s top concern is getting into another university.

“He’s made his peace with it,” he said. “He doesn’t want to allow it to steal his peace any further.”
Database checks turn up students in jeopardy

At the University of Texas at Austin, staff checking a federal database discovered two people on student visas had their permission to be in the U.S. terminated, a person familiar with the situation said. The person declined to be identified for fear of retaliation.

One of the people, from India, had their legal status terminated April 3. The federal system indicated the person had been identified in a criminal records check “and/or has had their visa revoked.” The other person, from Lebanon, had their legal status terminated March 28 due to a criminal records check, according to the federal database.

Both people were graduates remaining in the U.S. on student visas, using an option allowing people to gain professional experience after completing coursework. Both were employed full time and apparently had not violated requirements for pursuing work experience, the person familiar with the situation said.

Some students have had visas revoked by the State Department under an obscure law barring noncitizens whose presence could have “serious adverse foreign policy consequences.” Trump invoked the law in a January order demanding action against campus antisemitism.

But some students targeted in recent weeks have had no clear link to political activism. Some have been ordered to leave over misdemeanor crimes or traffic infractions, Feldblum said. In some cases, students were targeted for infractions that had been previously reported to the government.

Some of the alleged infractions would not have drawn scrutiny in the past and will likely be a test of students’ First Amendment rights as cases work their way through court, said Michelle Mittelstadt, director of public affairs at the Migration Policy Institute.

“In some ways, what the administration is doing is really retroactive,” she said.

The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities is requesting a meeting with the State Department over the issue. It’s unclear whether more visas are being revoked than usual, but officials fear a chilling effect on international exchange.

Many of the association’s members have recently seen at least one student have their visa revoked, said Bernie Burrola, a vice president at the group. With little information from the government, colleges have been interviewing students or searching social media for a connection to political activism.

“The universities can’t seem to find anything that seems to be related to Gaza or social media posts or protests,” Burrola said. “Some of these are sponsored students by foreign governments, where they specifically are very hesitant to get involved in protests.”

There’s no clear thread indicating which students are being targeted, but some have been from the Middle East and China, he said.

At Texas A&M, officials who looked into why three students had their status terminated said they had long-resolved offenses on their records, including one with a speeding ticket.

America’s universities have long been seen as a top destination for the world’s brightest minds — and they’ve brought important tuition revenue and research breakthroughs to U.S. colleges. But international students also have other options, said Fanta Aw, CEO of NAFSA, an association of international educators.

“We should not take for granted that that’s just the way things are and will always be,” she said.

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The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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Associated Press writers Steve Karnowski in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Angeliki Kastanis in Los Angeles contributed to this report.