Military commanders will be told to identify troops in their units who are transgender or have gender dysphoria, then send them to get medical checks in order to force them out of the service, officials said Thursday.

A senior defense official laid out what could be a complicated and lengthy new process aimed at fulfilling President Donald Trump’s directive to remove transgender service members from the U.S. military.

The new order to commanders relies on routine annual health checks that service members are required to undergo. Another defense official said the Defense Department has scrapped — for now — plans to go through troops’ health records to identify those with gender dysphoria.

Instead, transgender troops who do not voluntarily come forward could be outed by commanders or others aware of their medical status. Gender dysphoria occurs when a person’s biological sex does not match up with their gender identity.

The defense officials spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details of the new policy. The process raises comparisons to the early “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which at times had commanders or other troops outing gay members of the military who — at the time — were not allowed to serve openly.

20K Guard members sought for border duty

The Department of Homeland Security has requested more than 20,000 National Guard members to help with the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, according to two U.S. officials with knowledge of the plans.

The request to the Defense Department came after President Donald Trump asked the Department of Homeland Security last week to increase its ranks by pulling in 20,000 officers from state or federal agencies.

Lawyers at the Pentagon were reviewing the request with “interior immigration enforcement,” according to a Defense Department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations. It was unclear what role state National Guard members would play and whether they would be involved in rounding up people for deportation, the official said.

It was not immediately clear if the states would also have to approve the plan.

Judge tosses charges in ‘defense zone’ cases

A federal judge this week dismissed charges against nearly 100 people detained under a Trump administration effort to arrest migrants for trespassing on a newly declared “national defense” zone along New Mexico’s border with Mexico.

The order from a federal magistrate judge, Gregory B. Wormuth, added to the confusion and legal turmoil that have gripped New Mexico in the month since President Donald Trump declared a ribbon of land along the state’s southern border to be an Army base.

Around 400 migrants had been charged with willfully violating security regulations — misdemeanor charges that can carry up to a year in jail. The arrests had swamped local jails and every day brought dozens of shackled migrants into a federal courtroom.

DHS seeking new jet for use by Noem, others

The Department of Homeland Security wants to spend about $50 million to buy a new long-range Gulfstream jet to replace an aging one used by Secretary Kristi Noem and top Coast Guard and DHS officials.

The request for funding, to come from the Coast Guard’s 2025 fiscal year budget, came up during a House appropriations subcommittee meeting on Wednesday. Democratic Rep. Lauren Underwood of Illinois said she was “horrified” to receive a “last-minute addition” to the service’s budget proposal for the jet, noting Noem has another Gulfstream to use.

The request for a new jet comes as President Donald Trump considers accepting a luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet as a gift from the ruling family of Qatar.

FBI disbanding public corruption squad

The FBI is disbanding a squad that handles investigations into members of Congress and fraud by federal employees, according to people familiar with the matter, a move that comes as the Trump administration seeks to eliminate or marginalize units responsible for public corruption cases.

The squad’s members are likely to be reassigned, potentially asked to do immigration work, and its work is expected to be merged with one of the other corruption units in the bureau’s Washington field office, according to a person familiar with the changes.

The special agent in charge of criminal matters at the field office was also pushed out of his job.

Senate kills resolution on Salvador deportees

The Senate on Thursday rejected a resolution written by Democrats that would have required that the Trump administration tell Congress what steps it has taken to comply with court orders involving U.S. deportees imprisoned in El Salvador and to report on the country’s human rights record.

The measure failed on a party-line vote of 45-50. Republicans were unanimously opposed.

Though the measure had little chance of success in the Republican-controlled Senate, the Democratic minority forced a vote anyway, their latest maneuver to resist the president’s policies and make Republicans cast votes on highly charged political issues. Democrats used the same tactic to force votes on a number of Trump’s previously announced tariffs.

Newark mayor accuses DOJ of intimidation

Ras J. Baraka, the mayor of Newark, N.J., accused the Department of Justice on Thursday of selectively prosecuting him nearly a week after federal officials arrested him and charged him with trespassing.

Baraka, a Democrat running for governor of New Jersey, appeared in federal court for the first time since his arrest on Friday outside a new immigration detention facility in Newark that is expected to play a crucial role in President Donald Trump’s deportation efforts.

The Trump administration has accused Baraka, who has for weeks protested the opening of the facility, known as Delaney Hall, of barging past its entrance gates and refusing to leave. The mayor has vehemently denied the accusations.

Judge rescinds order on refugee admission

A judge on Thursday rescinded an order that would have required the Trump administration to admit some 12,000 refugees into the United States.

U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead in Seattle issued the order earlier this month, following instructions from a federal appeals court that said the government must process refugees who before Jan. 20 already had “arranged and confirmable” travel plans to enter the U.S. That’s the day President Donald Trump took office and suspended the nation’s refugee admissions program.

But last Friday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals clarified the order: Refugees should be admitted on a case-by-case basis, if they could show they had relied on promises from the U.S. before Jan. 20 that they would be able to travel to America.

— News service reports