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The Trump administration has cut millions of dollars in federal funding from two cybersecurity initiatives, including one dedicated to helping state and local election officials. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, known as CISA, has ended about $10 million in annual funding to the nonprofit Center for Internet Security, a CISA spokesperson said in an email Monday. It's the latest move by Trump administration officials to rein in the federal government's role in election security, which has prompted concerns about an erosion of guardrails to prevent foreign meddling in U.S. elections. CISA announced a few weeks ago that it was conducting a review of its election-related work, and more than a dozen staffers who have worked on elections were placed on administrative leave. That followed an administration move to disband an FBI task force focused on investigating foreign influence operations, including those that target U.S. elections. I have grave concern for .
While the election was over a month ago, voters in some parts of the country are discovering that having their say at the ballot box is not necessarily the final word. Lawmakers in several states have already initiated or indicated plans to alter or nullify certain results. Republican lawmakers in North Carolina are moving to undercut the authority of the incoming Democratic governor, Republicans in Missouri are taking initial steps to reverse voter-approved abortion protections, and Democrats in Massachusetts are watering down an attempt by voters to hold the Legislature more accountable. The actions following the Nov. 5 election continue a pattern that has accelerated in recent years and has been characterized by critics as undemocratic. I think certainly when you're a voter and you're voting on the issue, you're not thinking about whether someone's then going to overturn or just ignore the things that you voted on, said Anne Whitesell, an assistant professor of political science
Last time Donald Trump was president, rumours of immigration raids terrorised the Oregon community where Gustavo Balderas was the school superintendent. Word spread that immigration agents were going to try to enter schools. There was no truth to it, but school staff members had to find students who were avoiding school and coax them back to class. People just started ducking and hiding, Balderas said. Educators around the country are bracing for upheaval, whether or not the president-elect follows through on his pledge to deport millions of immigrants who are in the country illegally. Even if he only talks about it, children of immigrants will suffer, educators and legal observers said. If you constantly threaten people with the possibility of mass deportation, it really inhibits peoples' ability to function in society and for their kids to get an education, said Hiroshi Motomura, a professor at UCLA School of Law. That fear already has started for many. The kids are still comin