US Domestic News Roundup: Immigration raids coming; Lawsuit against Kevin Spacey dropped

Trump says immigration raids coming 'fairly soon'

President Donald Trump said on Friday mass deportation roundups would begin "fairly soon" as U.S. migrant advocates vowed their communities would be "ready" when immigration officers come. Trump, who has made a hardline immigration stance a key issue of his presidency and 2020 re-election bid, postponed the operation last month after the date was leaked, but on Monday he said it would take place after July 4.

Recount in New York City Democratic primary to begin Tuesday

A recount will begin on Tuesday in the Democratic primary race for district attorney in the New York City borough of Queens, a contest that drew national attention, an official said on Friday. Tiffany Caban, a progressive Democrat endorsed by U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, declared victory last week, but her rival, Melinda Katz, did not concede.

Actor Kevin Spacey's alleged sex assault victim drops lawsuit

The man that former "House of Cards" star Kevin Spacey is accused by prosecutors of sexually assaulting in Massachusetts three years ago has dropped a civil lawsuit he filed against the Oscar-winning actor only last week. Mitchell Garabedian, the alleged victim's lawyer, on Friday said his client filed papers on Wednesday to voluntarily dismiss a lawsuit in Nantucket County Superior Court that accused Spacey of "explicit sexual behavior and lewd and lascivious conduct."

Oregon state senator faces hearing on 'heavily armed' comment

An Oregon state senator who was among Republican lawmakers who fled the Capitol last month to scuttle a vote on a bill to fight climate change faces a conduct hearing over remarks tinged with threats of violence about any efforts to force the senators to return. Senator Brian Boquist, who is a former U.S. Army special forces officer, ahead of the Republicans' departure said on June 19 to the state Senate's Democratic president: "If you send the State Police to get me, hell is coming to visit you personally."

Pope moves America's 'first televangelist' closer to sainthood

The late Archbishop Fulton Sheen, a charismatic figure of U.S. Roman Catholicism in the 20th century and a pioneer in using media for religious purposes, is one step closer to sainthood. A Vatican statement on Saturday said the pope had approved a decree recognizing a miracle attributed to Sheen's intercession, meaning he will be beatified. No date for the ceremony was given.

Democrat Klobuchar announces plan to help U.S. teachers and students

Democratic presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar rolled out a plan on Friday to provide additional resources for America's public school teachers and students as she and her rivals seek the support of teachers' unions. Klobuchar, a U.S. senator from Minnesota whose mother was a teacher, was due to announce a plan that provides federal funding for states that take certain actions, including increasing teacher pay.

U.S. demands $12.7 billion in judgment against 'El Chapo'

U.S. authorities said on Friday they were seeking a court order requiring Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman to forfeit $12.7 billion following his conviction for racketeering and drug trafficking crimes earlier this year. The sum represents the total amount of cocaine, marijuana, and heroin that a jury found Guzman to have trafficked, multiplied by the average prices of those drugs, according to a filing by prosecutors in Brooklyn federal court.

House panel chair asks watchdog for probe of Homeland Security leaders

The chairman of a U.S. House panel asked an internal watchdog on Friday to investigate whether top officials at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. border service knew about a Facebook group where agents posted racist and misogynistic comments. "Such vile and threatening behavior from agents of the United States government is entirely unacceptable" and "should be grounds for immediate dismissal," Representative Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said in a letter to the DHS's acting inspector general.

Trump presses for contentious census citizenship question despite legal uncertainty

The Trump administration on Friday refused to back down over its bid to put a contentious citizenship question on the 2020 U.S. census, meaning a court case will move forward over whether officials were motivated by racial bias in seeking to add it. The Department of Justice told Maryland-based U.S. District Judge George Hazel it has not made a final determination on whether to add the question even as President Donald Trump told reporters he was considering issuing an executive order to do it.

California desert braces for aftershocks from major 7.1 quake

Emergency officials in Southern California's high desert braced for strong, potentially dangerous aftershocks from a major earthquake that damaged buildings, ruptured gas lines and sparked numerous fires near the quake's remote epicenter. The powerful magnitude 7.1 tremor rocked the Mojave Desert town of Ridgecrest near Death Valley National Park as darkness fell on Friday night, jolting the area with eight times more force than a 6.4 quake that had struck the same area 34 hours earlier.