Trump 2nd term updates: Trump says USAID is run by 'radical lunatics'

The Department of Homeland Security is allowing certain law enforcement components from the Department of Justice to carry out the "functions" of an immigration officer, according to a new memo.

The memo, sent by acting DHS Secretary Benjamine Huffman, grants the DOJ agencies the "same authority already granted to the FBI," and says that agents from those agencies can enforce immigration law.

The agencies listed in the memo are the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

DEA and ATF have had little experience historically in carrying out immigration enforcement and the U.S. Marshals have typically only been involved in cases where a migrant is being sought as a fugitive.

-ABC News' Luke Barr

Officials in the Trump Justice Department have ordered a temporary freeze on any ongoing cases being litigated by the Civil Rights Division, according to a new directive reviewed by ABC News.

The memo to the current acting head of the Civil Rights Division, Kathleen Wolfe, says that current career officials in the division must not file any new civil complaints or other civil rights-related filings in outside ongoing litigation. The memo was first reported by The Washington Post.

The memo does not detail a specific timetable for how long the freeze will last. But it comes as Trump's nominee to lead civil rights enforcement at DOJ -- conservative firebrand Harmeet Dhillon -- awaits a confirmation vote in the Senate.

Dhillon has long been a vocal Trump loyalist who has brought litigation to advance Republican causes, including curtailing COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and opposing transgender-affirming care.

She is expected to reorient the civil rights division's priorities in line with what they were in the first Trump administration, when ongoing investigations into widespread police misconduct were virtually shuttered and the department withdrew from multiple Obama-era challenges to anti-trans state laws around the country.

Wolfe was separately directed to notify Trump-appointed department leaders of any consent decrees the Biden administration reached with cities in the final 90 days leading up to the inauguration.

Following the 2024 election, now-former Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke traveled the country announcing a series of last-minute agreements with several cities' police departments that the DOJ had investigated for potential violations of citizens' constitutional rights.

-ABC News' Alexander Mallin

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday the head of his protective security detail would serve as the new director of the U.S. Secret Service.

Sean Curran, a longtime Secret Service agent, began his career with the agency in 2001 as a special agent in the Newark Field Office, previously served as assistant special agent in charge of the Presidential Protective Division and was part of Trump's personal protective detail on July 13 when a gunman attempted to assassinate him.

"Sean is a Great Patriot, who has protected my family over the past few years, and that is why I trust him to lead the Brave Men and Women of the United States Secret Service," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

He added, "He proved his fearless courage when he risked his own life to help save mine from an assassin’s bullet in Butler, Pennsylvania. I have complete and total confidence in Sean to make the United States Secret Service stronger than ever before."

The former director of the agency, Kimberly Cheatle, came under scrutiny over the agency's failure to prevent the assassination attempt and later resigned.

In the wake of President Trump’s pardons of Jan. 6 rioters, Democrats joined with two men who were assaulted by the mob -- retired U.S. Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn and Washington Metro Police Department officer Daniel Hodges -- to denounce the president’s actions.

“On Monday, Donald Trump decided that he wants to whitewash history, pretend that the riot of January 6 never happened, and that it was simply a peaceful walk through the Capitol. Unfortunately for him, video and photographs don't lie,” Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., said. “You cannot say you back the blue if you are going to let out of jail violent criminals who assaulted the blue.”

California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell added, “Nothing erases what they did, but we should erase this concept that Donald Trump and the Republican Party have the backs of law enforcement officers. “Donald Trump does not back the blue. He backs the coup, and this action makes that absolutely clear.”

Dunn, who retired from the USCP and ran an unsuccessful bid for Congress, denounced Trump’s actions.

“The Republican Party has long claimed to be the party of law and order, back the blue, however many lawmakers’ silence and refusal to push back against Donald Trump's actions make it incredibly hard to take that claim serious,” he said. “The winner writes history. He didn’t win. He's not going to. I'm not going away. That's it.”

After Republicans launched their own select subcommittee to investigate the events surrounding Jan. 6, Rep. Jason Crow, a member of the January 6 select committee who received a preemptive pardon from former President Joe Biden in the final moments of his presidency, called the newly minted panel “a farce that is intended to try to cover up their abuse of process.”

“It's another diversion. It's another distraction in an attempt to rewrite history, but also to confuse folks,” Crow, D-Colorado, said. “But you heard pretty clearly today that we're not confused and we're not distracted, nor will we be. We're going to continue to tell the story loudly, clearly, repeatedly, about the criminality, about the abuse, not just of power, but of our law enforcement of the blue and we're not going to stop.”

-ABC News’ John Parkinson