AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EDT

Trump wants those who ‘invade’ sent right back

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday compared people entering the U.S. from Mexico to invaders and said they should be immediately sent back without appearing before a judge.

The American Civil Liberties Union said in response that such a step would be illegal and violate the Constitution that Trump swore to uphold,

“We cannot allow all of these people to invade our Country,” the president said on Twitter as he was being driven to his private golf club in Northern Virginia. “When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came. Our system is a mockery to good immigration policy and Law and Order.”

“Most children come without parents … Our Immigration policy, laughed at all over the world, is very unfair to all of those people who have gone through the system legally and are waiting on line for years!” he continued. “Immigration must be based on merit – we need people who will help to Make America Great Again!”

“What President Trump has suggested here is both illegal and unconstitutional,” said Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. “Any official who has sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution and laws should disavow it unequivocally.”

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Reunification prospects unclear for freed immigrant parents

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — A Texas charitable organization says 32 immigrant parents separated from their children after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border were freed into its care Sunday, but they don’t know where their kids are or when they might see them again despite government assurances that family reunification would be well organized.

The release is believed to be the first, large one of its kind since President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday that preserved a “zero-tolerance” policy for entering the country illegally but ended the practice of separating immigrant parents and children. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement offered no immediate comment.

Ruben Garcia, director of Annunciation House in El Paso, said the group of both mothers and fathers includes some from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras who arrived to his group after federal authorities withdrew criminal charges for illegal entry. He didn’t release names or personal details to protect the parents’ privacy, and Homeland Security officials said they needed more specifics in order to check out their cases.

A Saturday night fact sheet by the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies said authorities know the location of all children in custody after separating them from their families at the border and are working to reunite them. It called the reunification process “well co-ordinated.”

It also said parents must request that their child be deported with them. In the past, the fact sheet says, many parents elected to be deported without their children. That may be a reflection of violence or persecution they face in their home countries.

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Pentagon says 2 bases to house immigrants

EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska (AP) — The Pentagon is preparing to build temporary camps for immigrants at two military bases, Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said Sunday.

He did not name the two bases, but said the details are being worked out, including how much capacity is needed. The Pentagon had initially talked about four potential bases, but Mattis indicated the number is now two.

The Pentagon last week said it would make space available on military bases for as many as 20,000 unaccompanied migrant children detained after illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. It wasn’t clear Sunday if the housing would be limited strictly to children or if it would also involve families.

Speaking to reporters travelling with him to Asia on Sunday, Mattis said the military has housed people in the past, including Vietnamese fleeing their country as well as Americans needing shelter in the wake of natural disasters.

“We consider that to be a logistics function that’s quite appropriate” for the department, Mattis said.

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Erdogan proclaimed winner of Turkey’s presidential election

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was proclaimed the winner early Monday of a landmark election that ushers in a government system granting the president sweeping new powers and which critics say will cement what they call a one-man rule.

The presidential vote and a parliamentary election, both held more than a year early, completed NATO-member Turkey’s transition from a parliamentary system to a presidential one, a process started with a voter referendum last year.

“The nation has entrusted to me the responsibility of the presidency and the executive duty,” Erdogan said in televised remarks from Istanbul after a near-complete count carried by the state-run Anadolu news agency gave him the majority needed to avoid a runoff.

The head of Turkey’s Supreme Election Council, Sadi Guven, declared Erdogan the winner early Monday after 97.7 of votes had been counted. The electoral board plans to announce final official results on June 29.

Based on unofficial results, five parties passed the 10 per cent support threshold required for parties to enter parliament, Guven said.

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College sports doctors under new scrutiny amid scandals

Allegations of sexual abuse carried out over decades by team physicians at Michigan State and Ohio State are sending ripples through university athletics departments, with some schools exploring whether more oversight is needed for figures in such powerful positions.

The scandals involving former Michigan State team doctor Larry Nassar, who was also a physician for USA Gymnastics, and Richard Strauss, a former Ohio State doctor, reveal how the trust and intimacy granted to team physicians can also provide cover for sexual predators.

“It’s almost this god figure that people don’t want to question,” said Dani Moffit, who leads a master’s program in athletic training at Idaho State University and researches sexual harassment in college sports. “They are thought to be these people who are not going to make mistakes.”

Groups that represent team doctors say it’s hardly the only profession shaken by sex scandals, and they largely blame the recent cases on a couple bad seeds. Still, the fallout has left some doctors and colleges scrutinizing their practices.

Some are ramping up the use of exam chaperones — medical staff who are brought into the room to monitor the doctor’s work. Purdue University says it’s crafting a new policy requiring chaperones for team doctors, even if students don’t request one. Michigan State updated a similar policy last year.

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Mattis seeks less contentious visit with Chinese

EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska (AP) — Defence Secretary Jim Mattis laid out plans for a less contentious, more open dialogue with Chinese leaders as he travels to Asia, less than a month after he slammed Beijing at an international conference for its militarization of islands in the South China Sea.

Speaking to reporters on his plane Sunday en route to a stop in Alaska, Mattis avoided any of the sharp criticism of China that he had voiced recently. Instead, he insisted that he is going into the talks with Chinese leaders without any preconceived notions, and wants to focus on larger, more strategic security issues.

According to officials, a key topic of the discussions later this week will be the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and the role China can play, considering its longstanding friendship with North Korea.

“I want to go in right now without basically poisoning the well at this point. I’m going there to have a conversation,” said Mattis. “I do not want to immediately go in with a certain preset expectation of what they are going to say. I want to go in and do a lot of listening.”

Mattis’ more diplomatic tack reflects the U.S. administration’s recognition of China’s crucial influence on Korea as negotiations move ahead to get North Korea to abandon its nuclear program.

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‘Ready, fire, aim’ – critics see pattern to Trump’s approach

WASHINGTON (AP) — Maybe it’s not so easy after all. President Donald Trump’s struggles to push immigration legislation through Congress and his about-face on breaking up immigrant families are putting a spotlight on his competence in carrying out his policies.

The fallout from Trump’s handling of the separation of immigrant children from their families, which led to a sharp reversal from the president, has been reminiscent of the chaos sparked when Trump opened his administration by imposing a travel ban on immigrants entering from majority Muslim countries.

Taken together, the events demonstrate how little Trump appears to have learned or adjusted his approach after that first rocky encounter with governing. From issue to issue, from immigration to health care to trade and more, Trump’s pattern has been to outline a plan with scant concern or preparation for its immediate impact or consequences, and to make changes on the fly with the same lack of planning.

The result has often gone far beyond bureaucratic confusion, and has, at times, inflicted painful and unexpected consequences on people’s lives.

“It’s not something that appreciates these young children and was certainly done in a ‘ready, fire, aim’ way, obviously,” said Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, describing the administration’s immigration policy. “There was no preparation for it.”

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California wildfires destroy buildings, force evacuations

CLEARLAKE OAKS, Calif. (AP) — Wind-driven wildfires destroyed buildings and threatened hundreds of others Sunday as they raced across dry brush in rural Northern California.

The Pawnee Fire that broke out Saturday near the community of Clearlake Oaks has destroyed 12 buildings and threatened an additional 600 as it burned out of control across about 12 square miles (31 sq. kilometres). Authorities ordered people to evacuate all homes in the Spring Valley area, where about 3,000 people live.

“What we’re stressing is that people, when they get the evacuation order, they heed it immediately and get out and stay out until it is safe to return,” state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Battalion Chief Jonathan Cox said. “This is one of four large fires burning in Northern California. It’s a good reminder that fire season is upon us.”

Erratic wind and heat gripping a swath of California from San Jose to the Oregon border drove the flames, which were north of the wine country region where devastating wildfires killed 44 people and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses last October.

Farther north, a fire spanning about three-quarters of a mile in Tehama County destroyed “multiple residential and commercial buildings,” Cal Fire said. But firefighters appeared to be making good progress — the Stoll Fire was halfway contained and some evacuees were allowed to return home, authorities said.

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Trump tells Jimmy Fallon to ‘be a man’ over hair-mussing

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is telling “Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon to “be a man” and stop “whimpering” about the personal anguish he felt over the backlash he received after messing up Trump’s hair during a 2016 campaign appearance on Fallon’s late-night talk show.

Fallon recently told The Hollywood Reporter that he “made a mistake” on the Sept. 15, 2016, episode and would do it differently.

The comments didn’t appear to sit well with Trump.

The president tweeted Sunday: “.@jimmyfallon is now whimpering to all that he did the famous “hair show” with me (where he seriously messed up my hair), & that he would have now done it differently because it is said to have “humanized” me-he is taking heat. He called & said “monster ratings.” Be a man Jimmy!”

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Yolanda Adams, Ledisi honour singer Anita Baker at BET Awards

Legendary singer Anita Baker was honoured at the BET Awards with impressive performances that nearly brought the eight-time Grammy winner to tears.

Baker earned the Lifetime Achievement Award on Sunday at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, where Ledisi, Marsha Ambrosius and Yolanda Adams — in superior form — sang the singer’s well-known hits onstage.

The 60-year-old, who dominated the R&B charts from the early ’80s to mid-90s with smooth songs like “Sweet Love” and “Giving You the Best That I Got,” used her speech to encourage the artists in the room to keep music alive.

“I would ask that the music be allowed to play, that singers are allowed to sing, and rappers are allowed to rap, and poets are allowed to rhyme,” Baker said.

Rising singer H.E.R. had the night’s best performance, as she sang the R&B hit “Focus,” played the electric guitar like a rock star and sang softly during the sweet love song “Best Part,” where she was joined by Daniel Caesar.