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Key appointees of United States President Donald Trump to major positions in government, including Tulsi Gabbard and Kashyap Patel, face Senate hearings on Thursday to approve their appointments.
On Wednesday, Robert F Kennedy Jr faced a barrage of questions during a contentious Senate hearing on his nomination to be Trump’s health secretary.
Trump also made major announcements about immigration and deportation policies including plans to send undocumented immigrants to Guantanamo Bay and signing the Laken Riley Act into law, granting federal authorities greater power to deport undocumented immigrants accused of crimes.
Here’s what we know about these latest announcements and the forthcoming hearings.
Guantanamo Bay
Trump has announced plans to transform the notorious US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, into a holding centre for 30,000 undocumented immigrants.
Tom Homan, who Trump announced as “border czar” in November, said the existing Guantanamo facility – distinct from the military prison – will be expanded and operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Trump has said 30,000 beds will be available to house “the worst” undocumented immigrants – meaning those with criminal records – saying his administration “didn’t trust” their countries of origin to hold them.
Cuban’s president criticised the plan. “In an act of brutality, the new US government announces the imprisonment at the Guantanamo Naval Base, located in illegally occupied territory Cuba, of thousands of migrants that it forcibly expels, and will place them next to the well-known prisons of torture and illegal detention,” Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel wrote on X.
En acto de brutalidad, nuevo gobierno de EEUU anuncia encarcelamiento en Base Naval en Guantánamo, ubicada en territorio de #Cuba ilegalmente ocupado, de miles de migrantes que expulsa forzosamente, a los que ubicará junto a las conocidas cárceles de tortura y detención ilegal.
— Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (@DiazCanelB) January 29, 2025
Guantanamo Bay, located on the southeastern tip of Cuba, has housed a US military base since 1898, following its seizure during the Spanish-American War.
Following the 2001 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers in New York City, the centre was used to detain hundreds of men with suspected links to “terrorism”. Nearly all have ultimately been released without charge but many languished in the prison for up to 20 years.
Laken Riley Act
Separately, Trump also signed the Laken Riley Act into law on Wednesday, granting federal authorities greater powers to deport undocumented immigrants accused of crimes.
The bipartisan act, the first legislation passed during Trump’s second term, was named after Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student from Georgia who was killed last year by a Venezuelan man who had arrived in the US illegally.
“She was a light of warmth and kindness,” Trump said during a ceremony attended by Riley’s parents and sister. “What’s happening today is a tremendous tribute to your daughter – that’s all I can say. It’s so sad that we have to be doing this.”
The legislation will require federal authorities to “detain an individual who (1) is unlawfully present in the US or did not possess the necessary documents when applying for admission; and (2) has been charged with, arrested for, convicted of, or admits to having committed acts that constitute the essential elements of burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting”.
Robert F Kennedy Jr’s Senate hearing
Robert F Kennedy Jr faced a barrage of questions during a contentious Senate hearing on his nomination to be Trump’s health secretary.
Kennedy, who has been picked to lead the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), spent most of Wednesday’s hearing seeking to dispel the idea that he is “anti-vaccine”.
“News reports have claimed that I am anti-vaccine and anti-industry – I am neither. I am pro-safety,” he told the Senate Finance Committee. “I believe that vaccines play a critical role in healthcare,” he added.
However, Kennedy, a former environmental lawyer and son of the late US Senator Robert F Kennedy, has become a politically polarising figure and one of Trump’s most controversial cabinet nominees. He will face a second hearing on Thursday at 15:00 GMT.
How many votes does he need to be confirmed?
He needs 51 votes for Senate confirmation. With Republicans holding 53 seats, he has a good chance.
However, before reaching the full Senate, Kennedy must first pass the Senate Finance Committee, where Republicans hold a narrow majority with 14 members to the Democrats’ 13.
Which other confirmation hearings are happening on Thursday?
On Thursday at 14:30 and 15:00, Kennedy and two other Trump nominees will have hearings for their jobs in the administration.
One of them is Tulsi Gabbard.
She was nominated for: the Director of National Intelligence (DNI).
What is this role for? The DNI oversees 18 spy agencies and advises the president, the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council on matters of national security.
What is Gabbard’s background? She was a Democratic congresswoman representing Hawaii. She is also an Iraq war veteran, having served in the US military. Gabbard was also deployed to Kuwait from 2008 to 2009 as a platoon leader in the military police. Last year, she joined the Republican Party.
Tulsi Gabbard attends a campaign rally of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump [Jeenah Moon/Reuters]Gabbard does not have direct experience in an intelligence position and, unlike other DNIs, has not held any senior government roles. She served for two years on the House Committee on Homeland Security.
Gabbard has spoken in favour of whistleblowers Edward Snowden and Julian Assange and against US intervention abroad, including in the Syrian war. She has also been accused of amplifying Russian propaganda.
Three days after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Gabbard posted a video on her X account urging the US, Russia and Ukraine to “put geopolitics aside” and accept that Ukraine “will be a neutral country” without being a member of military alliances such as NATO.
In March 2022, she posted another video on X saying there are more than 25 US-funded biolabs in Ukraine. She wrote it after a claim originated in Moscow that US-backed bioweapons labs were operating in Ukraine.
In 2015, she criticised former Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration for supporting the Syrian opposition movement against Bashar al-Assad. In 2017, during a secret trip to Syria, Gabbard met al-Assad, she told CNN.
Gabbard has also criticised pro-Palestine protesters in the US in recent months, describing them as “puppets” of a “radical Islamist organisation” in an apparent reference to Hamas.
As a former CIA case officer, I saw the men and women of the U.S. intelligence community put their lives on the line every day for this country — and I am appalled at the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard to lead DNI. (1/3)
— Archive: Rep. Abigail Spanberger (@RepSpanberger) November 13, 2024
While lawmakers from both parties have raised concerns about Gabbard’s nomination, Republicans have increasingly come to support her. Given thin Republican margins in the Senate, she will need almost all Republican senators to vote yes to win confirmation.
Kashyap Patel, known as Kash, is also facing a hearing.
He was nominated for: Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
What is this role for? According to the bureau’s website, “the FBI has a range of legal authorities that enable it to investigate federal crimes and threats to national security, as well as to gather intelligence and assist other law enforcement agencies”.
Alongside the deputy director, the director oversees all FBI activities, including criminal investigations, counterterrorism efforts, cybercrime, counterintelligence and national security threats.
What is Patel’s background? As a 40-year-old lawyer with little government experience, Patel joined the administration of then-President Trump in 2019, rising rapidly from the ranks by showing what some media described as his “complete devotion” to Trump.
Patel served in key roles during Trump’s first term, including overseeing the counterterrorism division at the National Security Council and later serving as chief of staff at the Department of Defense.
Like his boss, he is an outspoken critic of the FBI and has been entrusted to lead the country’s most important federal law enforcement agency.
Trump said Patel would restore “fidelity, bravery and integrity” to the agency. Under Patel, Trump said, the FBI would “end the growing crime epidemic in America, dismantle the migrant criminal gangs, and stop the evil scourge of human and drug trafficking across the border”.
He is expected to highlight missteps by the agency when he appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee tomorrow.
Kash Patel speaks to reporters in a park across the street from former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York [File: Seth Wenig/AP]Which Trump nominees have been confirmed so far?
Trump’s picks have been bolstered by a narrow but largely united Republican majority in the Senate – one that has shown little desire to contradict the president’s wishes.
Republicans hold 53 seats in the chamber, compared to 47 for Democrats and independents.
Here is a list of the six nominees that have been confirmed so far:
Trump’s immigration crackdown
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reported on Wednesday that it had arrested 1,016 individuals and issued 814 detainers in a single day. This was an increase from 969 on Tuesday.
The Trump administration is also rolling back extended deportation protections for Venezuelans, reversing a Biden-era decision and clearing the way for making more people eligible for deportation. The move stands to affect more than 600,000 Venezuelans already in the US.
According to a report by The New York Times, the Temporary Protected Status is intended to help people in the US who cannot return safely and immediately to the country because of a natural disaster or an armed conflict. The decision is a major setback for thousands who had previously expected protection from deportation.
US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she was working with Secretary of State Marco Rubio to find ways to deport Venezuelans and other migrants from nations that limit the number of deportees they accept. When asked about the possibility of sending migrants to the naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, she said that was being evaluated by the administration.
— U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (@ICEgov) January 29, 2025
