Liberty Case

Washington, USA – The foreign ministers of Australia, India, and Japan are expected to convene with the U.S. Secretary of State in Washington on Tuesday, just a day after President Donald Trump’s inauguration for his second term, sources familiar with the matter said.

This high-profile meeting marks the first major diplomatic event of the Trump administration’s second term and underscores continuity in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad), a strategic grouping aimed at addressing shared concerns about China’s rising influence.

RELATED NEWS : Some immigrants are already leaving the US in ‘self-deportations’ as Trump’s threats loom

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, and Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar are also expected to attend Trump’s inauguration on Monday. Republican Senator Marco Rubio, who is likely to be confirmed as Secretary of State on the same day, will join the Quad meeting, according to sources.

Signal of Continuity Amid Indo-Pacific Challenges

Experts view the timing of the Quad meeting as a significant signal of the grouping’s commitment to fostering Indo-Pacific collaboration. “What they’re going to be doing is getting to know each other, reviewing where the Quad stands, signaling continuity, and beginning to outline ideas for future cooperation,” said Charles Edel, an Indo-Pacific expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

While new initiatives are unlikely, the meeting reinforces the Quad’s position as a counterbalance to China’s growing regional dominance. Analysts emphasize that the grouping promotes Indo-Pacific democracies as an attractive alternative to China’s influence, despite Beijing’s portrayal of the Quad as an anti-China alliance.

Bilateral Engagements on the Agenda

The ministers are also expected to hold bilateral discussions with Rubio. Topics include the future of the AUKUS defense pact for Australia, which Wong is keen to see progress, and Japan’s economic and national security contributions to the U.S., highlighted by Iwaya.

India is set to focus on enhancing cooperation in technology and green energy, emphasizing that the Quad is neither an anti-China coalition nor akin to NATO, as China frequently suggests.

Trump-Xi Dialogue Sets the Stage

President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke by telephone on Friday, discussing trade, fentanyl, and TikTok. Trump expressed optimism about resolving issues, while Xi conveyed hopes for a positive start to the administration’s second term, according to Chinese media.

At his Senate confirmation hearing, Rubio stressed the need for the U.S. to confront Beijing’s influence and reduce dependence on China.

Reassuring Allies of U.S. Commitment

John Lee, a former Australian official now with the Hudson Institute, noted that the Quad meeting offers an opportunity for allies to ensure the U.S. remains committed to a free and open Indo-Pacific. “This is a chance for the other members to confirm that the second Trump administration views the Quad as a cornerstone of Indo-Pacific strategy,” he said.

The Quad meeting, though unlikely to deliver major breakthroughs, is set to reaffirm the group’s shared vision and reinforce its role in shaping regional dynamics.

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TRACY, Calif. — Michel Bérrios left the United States a few days before the new year, giving President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign for mass deportations a small victory before they even started.

A former leader of a Nicaraguan student uprising, Bérrios had been in the U.S. legally, with nearly a year remaining under President Joe Biden’s unprecedented use of humanitarian parole authority for citizens of certain vulnerable countries. But harsh talk during the U.S. election campaign filled her with anxious memories of hiding from authorities back home.

RELATED NEWS : As migration surges in Americas, ‘funds simply aren’t there’ for humanitarian response, UN says

Advocates and immigration experts who have noticed such departures say Bérrios’ decision to leave the U.S., despite her legal status, shows how uncertainty and threats have led a growing number of people to leave the U.S. before Trump takes office on Monday.

There isn’t data on these departures, but history has seen other eras of public backlash that drove migrants — with or without legal status — out.

Trump and his allies are counting on this “self-deportation,” the idea that life can be made unbearable enough to make people leave.

“Because (the U.S.) is not a third world country like the ones many of us come from, I thought there would be a different culture here, and it was a rude awakening to realize that you and your family are not welcome,” Bérrios, 31, said days before her departure.

Self-deportation helps Trump to achieve his goals without the government having to spend or do anything in such cases. Trump has long said he wanted to deport millions of migrants but never deported more than 350,000 a year in his first term. Only 41,500 detention beds are funded this year, so carrying out massive deportations has significant logistical hurdles.

“If you wanna self-deport, you should self-deport because, again, we know who you are, and we’re gonna come and find you,” Trump’s incoming border czar Tom Homan has said.

Bérrios had been living legally with her cousin in California, east of San Francisco, working at the front desk of an auto repair shop with Trump supporters, but she knew it was temporary — especially once Trump was elected. Anti-immigrant comments by her colleagues increased, and her discomfort grew.

In Nicaragua, “I spent five years hiding. I had to change my routine. I had to completely change my life. I stopped visiting my parents, my friends,” Bérrios said of President Daniel Ortega’s crackdown on dissent. With Trump returning to power, “that uncertainty has returned.”

Such fear is natural for anyone without permanent legal status, said Melanie Nezer, vice president for advocacy and external relations at the Women’s Refugee Commission. People with temporary permission to live and work, like Bérrios, may see that status end soon.

“Many, many people are in this situation,” she said. About 1 million people have temporary protected status and about another 500,000 like Bérrios have humanitarian parole granted to asylum-seekers from four countries: Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. Trump has said he wants to end both.

“I felt like Ireland was a country of opportunity,” she said.

Asylum systems in the European Union are largely standardized, but some differences make Ireland attractive, said Susan Fratzke, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute’s International Program.

The resolution of asylum cases is faster than in the U.S., Fratzke said, and Ireland has not seen the strong pushback against asylum-seekers that has occurred in some other European countries.

At Dublin’s airport, Bérrios handed her passport to an immigration official and said she was requesting humanitarian protection. She was quizzed on the name of Ireland’s president, answering correctly, and had her photo and fingerprints taken.

She got a government-issued identification card the next morning, valid for a year, and now shares a room with women from Somalia, Egypt and Pakistan in a hotel in a nearby town. They are free to come and go as they please, and the government pays for her lodging.

Bérrios looks forward to enrolling in school while she waits for her work permit. An in-depth interview about her case should come in eight or nine months and a decision on her asylum request would follow.

If all goes well, she could receive permanent residency in as soon as a year, she said.

Bérrios was buoyant as she marveled at her journey with the self-deportation twist: “You make sacrifices and always hope that things will turn out like you think, maybe not exactly, but pretty close.”

SOURCE : AP NEWS |  Follow Us: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Youtube | Sherman reported from Mexico City.