Immigration Crackdown, Health Officials Muted, Oscar Nominations
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On day four of his presidency, Congress is giving Trump his first legislative win. A bill was sent to the president's desk that will make it easier to detain and deport people without legal status. I'm Leila Falded. That's Michelle Martin, and this is Up First from NPR News.

Scientists around the country started getting emails yesterday. The National Institutes of Health was canceling meetings where scientists try to figure out what research needs federal funding. It was pretty vague. It said that it's canceled, that they can't

offer any further explanation at the time. How will this impact health research? And if there are two delays because of wildfires in the L.A. area, today Oscar nominations are finally announced. Who will make the list? Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.

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Visit HubSpot.com slash marketers to see how companies like yours are generating 110 percent more leads in just 12 months. President Trump's promise to crack down on illegal immigration is moving forward on two more fronts this morning. Yeah, NPR has learned the Pentagon will be sending roughly 1,500 active duty troops to the U.S. border with Mexico. And on Capitol Hill, Congress passed the Lake and Riley Act.

a bill that makes it easier to detain and deport anyone in the U.S. without legal status if they've been charged with a crime. NPR immigration policy reporter Jimena Bustillo has been following all this, and she's with us now in our studios in Washington, D.C. to tell us more about it. Good morning, Jimena. Good morning. So let's start with the Lake and Riley Act. This will be the first immigration bill that President Trump will sign. What exactly will it do? The bill makes it easier for federal immigration authorities to detain and deport anyone without legal status for crimes like

shoplifting, assaulting a police officer, or causing bodily harm to another person. The bill is named after a Georgia woman who was killed last year by a Venezuelan man who was in the U.S. without legal status. Supporters argue that this will increase public safety. The man, who is sentenced to life in prison for

killing Riley had previously been charged with shoplifting. Proponents say that if he had been detained by immigration officials sooner, Riley might still be alive. But others oppose the bill and say that it bypasses due process since a person won't have to be convicted of a crime to be detained or deported.

You know, most Democrats opposed the bill, but some did support it. I mean, enough that it

can credibly say it passed with bipartisan support. What does that say about the politics of immigration right now? Right. This time around, 46 Democrats in the House joined Republicans in supporting it. When the bill passed the Senate, 12 Democrats voted for the bill. That is one sign of how some Democrats are shifting on immigration, especially after Trump made immigration a central plank of his campaign.

So in terms of enforcement, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, will have to do a lot of heavy lifting here. How well will they be able to implement this? Do they have the resources to do all this? It's going to be very difficult. ICE is one of the federal agencies responsible for deportations. In a memo obtained by NPR, the agency warned that implementation of the bill was impossible to execute within existing resources.

They said that it would cost $26 billion to implement in the first year. This money is needed for more than 100,000 new beds and hiring more than 10,000 enforcement and removal personnel, which all, of course, takes time to scale up. The agency also warns that it expects some state and local law enforcement agencies to refuse to cooperate.

And have Republicans answered this? What have they said about this concern? Republican senators told me last night that they're looking to give ICE the resources it needs through the budget process. Okay, let's turn back to those troops that are headed to the southern border. What do we know about what they're going to be doing there? What's their assignment? The acting Secretary of Defense said on Wednesday that roughly 1,500 ground personnel, as well as helicopters and intelligence analysts, will be going to the southern border to increase detection and monitoring efforts.

They will also help with building physical barriers along the border and provide military airlifts to support the Department of Homeland Security with deportation flights. This comes after the White House effectively closed off asylum at the southern border, ordering agents to immediately deport anyone who crosses between ports of entry. That is NPR's Germana Bustillo. Germana, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Turning now to science, researchers around the country are concerned after the National Institutes of Health canceled key meetings. The move comes after federal health officials were told to halt all public communications until they could be reviewed by a Trump appointee. And we have Selina Simmons-Duffin is here to tell us more. Good morning, Selina. Morning, Michelle. So what do we know about what's behind these cancellations?

Well, what happened is that scientists around the country started getting emails yesterday about travel and meetings that had been set up being suddenly canceled with very little explanation. Remember, NIH is the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world. It invests more than $40 billion in research every year, and it gathers together scientists outside the agency into what are called study sections to help them figure out how to spend that money, what research is the most important to fund.

Dr. Crystal Starbird is a cancer researcher and a professor at UNC Chapel Hill, and yesterday she got an email about her study section that was scheduled for next week. It was pretty vague. It said that it's canceled, that they can't offer any further explanation at the time, and it thanked us for our service to the NIH. Okay, this may be basic, too basic, Selena, but could they be rescheduled a little later on?

Well, Dr. Starbird told me that these are not the kinds of meetings that can easily be rescheduled. There are a lot of moving parts, different institutions, different timetables, and a delay, especially an indefinite delay like this one, could really have a negative impact on important cancer research.

The full scope of these cancellations isn't clear at this point, but a lot of scientists are concerned that biomedical research of all kinds could be disrupted. Also this week, the Department of Health and Human Services put a freeze on external communication. Could that be the reason that these meetings were canceled or suspended or postponed?

We don't know yet if it's related, but yes, the acting HHS secretary on Tuesday sent a memo instructing the leaders of NIH and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, all the other health agencies to refrain from most external communication until they can be approved by, quote, a presidential appointee. NPR obtained that memo and several internal emails that indicate travel is suspended for HHS staffers as well, in addition to the government-wide hiring freeze.

So workers I've heard from at HHS are quite concerned about all of this. Several said they weren't sure if information in papers that were set to be submitted and published this week will be delayed. So we're waiting to see if infectious disease dashboards will be updated on schedule. And, you know, Michelle, looming over all of this is the fact that in Trump's first term, there were instances of

political appointees attempting to alter CDC reports on COVID-19. So some worry that these developments are a sign that political appointees intend to exert a new kind of control on the federal health and research agencies. And all this is coming while the leadership at HHS is still in limbo. What do we know about what's next for Trump's nominee, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.?

Well, his confirmation hearing was just scheduled for next Wednesday. There has been a big lobbying effort to block his confirmation. It's not clear if he does have the support in the Senate to be confirmed, particularly because of his positions in favor of abortion access and against vaccine requirements.

And adding to that uncertainty is an ethics document posted online yesterday that appears to show Kennedy can still financially benefit from lawsuits against Merck's vaccine that prevents cervical cancer. So definitely it's going to be an interesting hearing next week, and I'll be here to cover it. That is NPR's Selena Simmons-Deffin. Selena, thank you. You're welcome.

The Oscar nominations will be announced this morning. The ceremony was delayed twice due to the fires raging through Los Angeles. Just yesterday, two new wildfires broke out. Tens of thousands of people were placed under evacuation orders and warnings.

NPR Entertainment correspondent Mandelit Delbarco covers Hollywood's awards season, and she's with us now to tell us more about it. Hi, Mandelit. Hi, Michelle. So obviously, this year's awards season feels different because of the fires. Can you give us a sense of how the entertainment industry is doing? Yeah, you know, there's been some debate over how awards season should carry on in Hollywood. Some people think that these awards ceremonies should be canceled or toned down or maybe transformed into fundraisers for the fire survivors and the first responders involved.

But, you know, there are a lot of people who work in film and TV who were affected by the fires, not just those A-list actors who lost their houses in the Pacific Palisades and Malibu, but so many people behind the scenes from screenwriters to costume designers, caterers and local businesses that really rely on the industry. Many of them lost their homes or were displaced by the fires.

And during the worst of it, film and TV production stopped and most have now resumed. But, you know, productions also stopped for a while during the COVID pandemic. And then again, during the Hollywood writers and actors strikes. So this just feels like the latest in a series of really tough moments for the industry and for L.A. Yeah, I can imagine. OK, so the list is finally coming out. What should we be listening for this morning?

Well, we might start with Emilia Perez. That's Netflix's Spanish-language musical drama about a trans drug lord in Mexico. It's France's entry to the Oscars, and it stars Zoe Saldana, Selena Gomez, and Carla Sofía Gascon. Here are two of them singing. I'm Emilia Perez, a Mexican woman, a woman like a shame. Look at the Secretary of Education of the Republic, a specialist.

Another film, the drama The Brutalist, is a sure bet for many nominations, including for actor Adrian Brody. He plays an architect who immigrates to the U.S. after World War II. And, of course, the musical Wicked with Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. Sing it with me, Michelle. Oh!

Nobody wants to hear me sing, but thanks for the invitation. All of these films have already gotten love at the Golden Globes. And after we learn about the nominations today, comedian and former late night host Conan O'Brien will emcee the Oscar ceremony on March 2nd.

And, Rendaleen, I take it that a lot of folks are going to head away this week into the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. That stayed on schedule this year. I think you get to go. Jealous. But what are you going to be watching there? Well, I'm planning to see a few different documentaries, including one about John Lennon and Yoko Ono, one about Pee Wee Herman, and another about Sly Stone. That one was made by Questlove. Come this way.

So I was the creator. Writer. Innovator. Poet. Genius. When it came together, the sound, it was so future. Now.

Mondele, you were telling us that a lot of folks in the film industry are directly affected by these fires. Some of them have lost their homes. Are they still planning to go to Sundance? Yeah, they are. In fact, one filmmaking team behind a zombie apocalypse film called Didn't Die is planning on going. I talked to producer Erica Fishman. We've created this plan to be in this place to celebrate this thing that we built together, and it feels essential and comforting that we are able to do that still.

So this really is a moment for the filmmaking community to come together during a really hard time. And Sundance is the first time we'll see some of the indie films that might just be nominated for next year's Oscars. That is NPR Entertainment correspondent, Mondeleet Delbarco. Mondeleet, thank you. Thank you. And that's up first for Thursday, January 23rd. I'm Michelle Martin. And I'm Layla Faldin.

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