My dad's passport is among his most valuable possessions, a document that not only establishes that he's a U.S. citizen but holds the story of his life.

It states that he was born in Mexico in 1951 and is decorated with stamps from the regular trips he takes to his home state of Zacatecas. Its cover is worn but still strong, like its owner, a ...Read more

On Sept. 2, the Donald Trump administration killed 11 people by destroying a boat that allegedly was being used by the Venezuela-based Tren de Aragua gang to transport narcotics to the United States. The strike came with a message from Secretary of State Marco Rubio: Those who dare to ship drugs to the United States risk their lives.

But if the...Read more

When I was a young UCLA constitutional law major, we learned that the Constitution wasn’t just parchment behind glass: It was a living promise, fragile and ferocious, meant to protect the people when power overreached.

But on Monday morning, the Supreme Court taught me something new: that those promises, in the hands of a certain kind of ...Read more

It doesn’t make any sense. Last week, the Trump administration executed the largest single-site immigration raid in U.S. history at a Hyundai Motor Co.-LG Energy Solution Ltd. battery plant in Ellabell, Georgia.

The surprise raid antagonized South Korea, one of America’s closest allies and a country that had signed a $350 billion trade pact...Read more

Something feels wrong. American Democracy is supposed to be the beacon of hope that leads the free world. But for far too many, it feels like our votes do not elect leaders who truly represent what is best for our families and our communities.

Affordability of basic necessities is out of reach, and issues that have over 70% support from the ...Read more

The American workforce is now short 1.2 million workers — the result of the harshest, most aggressive campaign ever waged to drive immigrants from this country.

President Donald Trump promised that ridding the country of illegal or unworthy immigrants would usher in a golden age. Deporting millions of immigrants would lead to plentiful jobs,...Read more

President Donald Trump likes to brand himself a business genius. But for average Americans staring at flat paychecks, shrinking opportunities, and higher grocery bills, his “Art of the Deal” looks more like a private equity raid: strip the assets, juice the numbers, and leave someone else holding the bag.

Economic policymaking under Trump ...Read more

In fall 2020, I woke up in an apocalypse. It was 8 a.m., but the world outside was dark and blanketed by an angry red sky. With all the lights on in the house, we watched specks of smoke and debris float down outside from a nearby wildfire in Northern California. I will never forget driving down the freeway to the grocery store, watching a fire ...Read more

I’ve lived the first half of my adult life in darkness. Prison, gangs, conflict, violence. By the time I turned 30, I had spent more than 13 years in correctional facilities, including a total of nearly a decade in solitary confinement.

That same year, education saved my life. A grant from the Sunshine Lady Foundation funded a two-year degree...Read more

One of the first lessons I learned when I tried to run for local office is that politics is less about ideas than it is about paperwork.

I was in my early 20s, excited to run for alderman. I thought I could bring fresh energy to my community. At the time I had the encouragement of my political party, but I had no roadmap. To get on the ballot I...Read more

It’s a tale as old as time — or at least, the past three decades. Whether Democratic or Republican, members of Congress angry with the president and searching for some way to fight back against the White House decide to wield the constitutional power of the purse and shut down the federal government.

“We have leverage,” lawmakers have ...Read more

A lot of Democratic voters are looking for a fight, and a lot of Democratic politicians are looking to accommodate them. As it happens, the legislative calendar can oblige both sides: Democrats should be willing to risk a government shutdown, which looms at the end of the month, in order to save health insurance subsidies for millions of ...Read more

Two winners in Missouri and Texas split the $1.787 billion Powerball jackpot (with a cash option of $820 million), which is the second largest ever recorded. The Mega Millions lottery jackpot is also quite large, reaching over $358 million (with a cash option of $164 million), as of Monday afternoon’s estimate. All these numbers are far beyond...Read more

Pols and pundits were mostly amused when President Donald Trump mused aloud back in his first term about making Greenland part of America. But now Trump has remade America into ICEland.

And it is no laughing matter. Team Trump has done what the boss ordered – which meant doing it rashly, inhumanely and certainly injudiciously.

Google’s ...Read more

California’s leaders will readily acknowledge their state needs more housing. But they haven’t succeeded in cutting down the thicket of regulations that limit construction.

In 2017, then-gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom promised to “lead the effort to develop the 3.5 million new housing units we need by 2025, because our solutions ...Read more

At about the time President Donald Trump issued his Aug. 25 Executive Order entitled “Prosecuting Burning of the American Flag,” I happened to be reading “A Gentleman in Moscow,” Amor Towles’ droll novel about life under the Bolsheviks in the 1920s through the 1950s.

A secondary character, Mishka, is a passionate, idealistic writer ...Read more

I have no problem with renaming the Department of Defense into the Department of War, as Donald Trump is trying to do. (It’s technically not up to the president but to Congress, but the Republicans there will oblige him.) After all, that martial label was good enough from George Washington to Harry Truman. And “war” is more honest and ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sneha Revanur has been called the “Greta Thunberg of AI,” which depending on your politics, is an insult or, as the youngs would say, means she’s eating.

That’s good.

Either way, Revanur, a 20-year-old Stanford University senior who grew up in Silicon Valley, isn’t worried about personal attacks, though she’...Read more

In 1972, I taught at a Boston prep school where one of my students, Chantal, had been sent from Haiti by her privileged family to complete her secondary education. She was poised, serious, and ambitious. But what I remember most was her fear — and her warning.

"You Americans don't know how lucky you are," she would say, speaking in hushed ...Read more