People wave U.S. flags during a 2017 naturalization ceremony at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

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Jae C. Hong/AP

People wave U.S. flags during a 2017 naturalization ceremony at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Jae C. Hong/AP

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services is changing its mission statement to eliminate a passage that describes the U.S. as “a nation of immigrants.”

The agency’s new mission statement as it appears on the agency’s website reads:

“U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services administers the nation’s lawful immigration system, safeguarding its integrity and promise by efficiently and fairly adjudicating requests for immigration benefits while protecting Americans, securing the homeland, and honoring our values.”

Here is USCIS’s previous mission statement:

“USCIS secures America’s promise as a nation of immigrants by providing accurate and useful information to our customers, granting immigration and citizenship benefits, promoting an awareness and understanding of citizenship, and ensuring the integrity of our immigration system.”

The removal of the phrase “nation of immigrants” was announced to agency staff in an email letter from Director L. Francis Cissna.

In the letter, Cissna said, “I believe this simple, straightforward statement clearly defines the agency’s role in our country’s lawful immigration system and the commitment we have to the American people.”

He also explained why the new mission statement deletes the reference to agency applicants as “customers.”

“What we do at USCIS is so important to our nation, so meaningful to the applicants and petitioners, and the nature of the work is often so complicated, that we should never allow our work to be regarded as a mere production line or even described in business or commercial terms. In particular, referring to applicants and petitioners for immigration benefits, and the beneficiaries of such applications and petitions, as “customers” promotes an institutional culture that emphasizes the ultimate satisfaction of applicants and petitioners, rather than the correct adjudication of such applications and petitions according to the law. Use of the term leads to the erroneous belief that applicants and petitioners, rather than the American people, are whom we ultimately serve.”

Ending the use of the word “customer,” writes Cissna, is “a reminder that we are always working for the American people.”

Cissna did not explain his rational for dropping the words “America’s promise as a nation of immigrants.”

Cissna was sworn in as the agency’s Director in October 2017. He had been the Director of Immigration Policy with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Policy.

Opponents of the Trump administration’s immigration policies criticized the change. In a statement, Eleanor Acer, Senior Director for Refugee Protection at the D.C.-based Human Rights First said:

“Our nation is one built by immigrants—removing this language does nothing to change that fact, it only reveals the insidious racism harbored by those in this administration. It is clear from the language and policies put forth by President Trump and his hard-line immigration extremists that they will stop at nothing to demonize and dehumanize immigrants and refugees, who have often fled violence and persecution in search for a better life for themselves and their children.”

USCIS officials say the new mission statement reflects Cissna’s focus on “fairness, lawfulness, efficiency, as well as protecting American workers and safeguarding the homeland.”

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WHITTIER, Calif. — Police said Wednesday that they discovered two AR-15 rifles, two handguns, and 90 high capacity military-grade magazines at the home of a student who allegedly planned to shoot up his Southern California high school. 

According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, a security guard at El Camino High School in Whittier overhead a “disgruntled student” threaten to open fire on the school on Friday, just two days after 17 people were gunned down at a Florida high school.

LASD Sheriff Jim McDonnell said his department takes seriously threats of violence on school campuses. School-related threats are on the increase in LA county, and are regularly investigated by his department, he said.

In the El Camino case, McDonnell said a security guard overheard the student say he was going to shoot up the school sometime in the next three weeks. The student had an “extensive” disciplinary record and officials found that a semi-automatic weapon was registered to the student’s home address, McDonnell said.

The student was arrested Tuesday on charges of making criminal threats. The teen’s brother, 28, has also been arrested on weapons charges. One of the rifles was registered to the brother, but the other was unregistered, McDonnell said.

The brother claimed responsibility for having the weapons, McDonnell said. The brother said he was in the military and had shipped the weapons over from Texas, where he had been stationed, a deputy said. The weapons were found in the home unsecured near the loaded magazines, according to the deputy.

Marino Chavez, the security officer with the Norwalk La Mirada School District who reported the threat, said he felt it was important to immediately contact the sheriff’s department to “possibly prevent another tragic event.”

“The sheriff’s department can only respond if they are told,” Chavez said.

Chavez said it was after lunch break and students were returning to class when he heard the threat about a school shooting within the next three weeks. He approached the student, questioned him and brought him to the office.The student confirmed what he said, but apologized and said he was only kidding, Chavez said.

“I said, well you can’t say those things on a school campus,” Chavez said.

The student said he was angry with a teacher’s issue about headphones in class and because wasn’t allowed to go to the teacher’s class the next day, Chavez said.

McDonnell thanked Chavez for coming forward, calling him an “unsung hero.”

“Any time we can get a chance to prevent something like that from happening, I think we all come away very relieved,” McDonnell said.  

As Americans mourned the death of the Rev. Billy Graham on Wednesday, most remembered him as a pastor with the ability to lead thousands to Jesus, take presidents under his wing and console a nation after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

But it was in the suburbs of Chicago where he learned how to amplify his voice as a preacher.

It didn’t take long for Graham and the congregation of Western Springs Baptist Church, his first pulpit after graduation from Wheaton College, to conclude he was better suited to preach in stadiums than sanctuaries.

“This is where he got a taste of glory, a taste of fame and the gratification that comes from speaking to huge crowds,” said Grant Wacker, author of “America’s Pastor: Billy Graham and the Shaping of a Nation,” a biography of the national icon. “And he got the response he was looking for.”

Wheaton’s president, the Rev. Philip Ryken, said commemorating Graham’s significant contributions to Christian ministry for the many generations born after his heyday would remain a long-term commitment of the flagship evangelical institution.

“I think Billy Graham will be regarded as one of the greatest Christian leaders of the 20th century,” Ryken said, “and that legacy will last a very long time.”

Graham, a native of North Carolina, was already an ordained Southern Baptist pastor and graduate of Florida Bible Institute (now Trinity College of Florida) when he sought a liberal arts education and bachelor’s degree at west suburban Wheaton College in 1940.

“Sen. Rubio, my daughter, running down the hallway at Marjory Douglas, was shot with an assault weapon, the weapon of choice,” Guttenberg said after Rubio voiced his opposition to such legislation. “It is too easy to get. It is a weapon of war. The fact that you can stand here and can’t say that, I’m sorry.”

Kentucky Democrats on Tuesday reclaimed a rural district in the state House of Representatives that went heavily for President TrumpDonald John TrumpTillerson: Russia already looking to interfere in 2018 midterms Dems pick up deep-red legislative seat in Missouri Speier on Trump’s desire for military parade: ‘We have a Napoleon in the making’ MORE in 2016.

Linda Belcher (D), a former state legislator who lost her seat in the Trump landslide in Kentucky, reclaimed the Bullitt County district by a more than two-to-one margin, defeating her GOP opponent Rebecca Johnson 68 percent to 32 percent.

The Democrat had lost her seat in 2016 by just 150 votes, or less than 1 percentage point, even as Trump carried the district with 72 percent of the vote there compared to Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham ClintonTrump touts report Warner attempted to talk to dossier author Poll: Nearly half of Iowans wouldn’t vote for Trump in 2020 Rubio on Warner contact with Russian lobbyist: It’s ‘had zero impact on our work’ MORE‘s 23 percent. Sen. Rand PaulRandal (Rand) Howard PaulPentagon: War in Afghanistan will cost billion in 2018 Overnight Finance: Senators near two-year budget deal | Trump would ‘love to see a shutdown’ over immigration | Dow closes nearly 600 points higher after volatile day | Trade deficit at highest level since 2008 | Pawlenty leaving Wall Street group Rand Paul calls for punishment if Congress can’t reach a long-term budget deal MORE (R-Ky.) also won the district in 2016 with 64 percent of the vote.

Tuesday’s special election in the state’s House District 49 was held to replace former state Rep. Dan JohnsonDan JohnsonKentucky state lawmaker kills himself after denying sexual misconduct allegations: report MORE (R), who killed himself in December. Johnson, a pastor at a local church, had been accused of sexual abuse against a member of his congregation. He strongly denied the accusations, though he killed himself just days after local media reported the allegations.

Johnson’s widow, Rebecca Johnson, said she would run to replace her husband less than 24 hours after his death.

Belcher previously held the seat from 2008 to 2012 and from 2014 to 2016, when she lost to Dan Johnson.

Her victory Tuesday is the latest in a series of Democratic victories in special elections across the country over the past year.

The Kentucky district is the 18th formerly Republican-held district to fall into Democratic hands in a special election since Trump won election, a growing trend Democrats see as proof of their party’s momentum heading into the midterm elections. In 2018 alone, Democrats have won Republican-held state legislative districts in Missouri, Wisconsin and Florida.

“Flipping a seat that Trump won by such a considerable margin in 2016 shows the sea change happening across America in 2018,” said Jessica Post, the executive director of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee. “Voters are speaking up about what they want to see in their elected leaders and volunteering their time and money to change the election maps.”

“When you have great candidates like Linda Belcher, results like tonight’s win are no surprise,” said Rocky Adkins, the Kentucky state House Democratic leader. “Tonight’s victory is also the first step of our journey to take back the Kentucky House of Representatives, and a week from tonight, during the next special election, we intend to take the second step.”

Kentucky Democrats have a lot more than two steps to go before they get within shouting distance of control of the state House. The chamber –– controlled by Democrats for a century before Republicans took over after the 2016 elections –– now has just 37 Democrats among its 100 members.

Updated: 8:29 p.m.

They have yet to be sentenced and have committed to cooperating with the special counsel. It was unclear on Tuesday to what extent Mr. van der Zwaan is cooperating, but his plea agreement does not compel him to do so.

Mr. van der Zwaan’s gilt-edged life was based in London, where he worked for Skadden and lived with his wife after they were married last summer in a lavish English countryside wedding featured in the Russian edition of Tatler magazine. A 2006 law school graduate of King’s College London, he speaks four languages: Russian, Dutch, English and French.

His father-in-law, German Khan, who was born in Ukraine, is an owner of Alfa Group, Russia’s largest financial and industrial investment group. He was on a recent Treasury Department roster of prominent Russian officials and oligarchs.

Tuesday’s court hearing left many questions unanswered about Mr. van der Zwaan, including why he failed to be forthcoming to federal investigators about his communications with Mr. Gates and a second person who was identified by prosecutors only as “a longtime business associate of Manafort and Gates in Ukraine.”

Mr. van der Zwaan’s lies involved a 2012 report prepared by Skadden and used to defend Mr. Yanukovych, then the Russia-aligned president of Ukraine, from international criticism over the prosecution and incarceration of one of his political rivals, former Prime Minister Yulia V. Tymoshenko. State Department officials criticized the report, which purported to be the result of the law firm’s independent research, as a misleading account of the actions of Mr. Yanukovych’s government.

Mr. Mueller’s team scrutinized the report as part of its examination of the business dealings of Mr. Manafort and Mr. Gates in Ukraine, where Mr. Manafort worked for about a decade as a political consultant before he joined the Trump campaign. Among other charges, both men have been accused of “using one of their offshore accounts to funnel $4 million to pay secretly” for the report. It is unclear how much, if any, of that money went to Skadden or other firms with which they worked.

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The Ukrainian authorities had begun their own investigation into payments for the report after Mr. Yanukovych fled Ukraine for Russia amid a popular uprising in 2014.

Mr. van der Zwaan told the special counsel on Nov. 3 that he had not spoken to Mr. Gates since mid-August 2016, even though Mr. Gates had called him the following month instructing him to get in contact with an unidentified mutual acquaintance, court papers show.

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He also told prosecutors that he had not talked to that same acquaintance since 2014, even though he called that person in September 2016 to discuss possible criminal charges against Mr. Manafort, a law firm and a former Ukrainian justice minister. The phone conversation, conducted in Russian, was important enough that Mr. van der Zwaan recorded it, according to court papers. Mr. van der Zwaan followed up by calling Mr. Gates, recording that conversation as well.

One of those conversations involved payments that were described as “the tip of the iceberg,” Andrew Weissmann, a prosecutor in Mr. Mueller’s office, said in court. He did not elaborate.

Mr. van der Zwaan also acknowledged that he lied when he told investigators that he had only a “passive role in the rollout of the report,” according to court papers. In fact, prosecutors said, he had discussed with Mr. Gates and others how to publicize the report to make it appear less damning to Mr. Yanukovych’s government, including describing any mishandling of Ms. Tymoshenko’s prosecution as no more than “procedural” errors. Part of the strategy, Mr. Weissmann said in court, was to give an advance copy of the report to The New York Times.

The law firm’s work was being investigated by Ukraine’s top prosecutor, which asked the Department of Justice for help in questioning eight lawyers named as authors of the report, including Mr. van der Zwaan, according to documents reviewed by The Times.

Among the others were Gregory B. Craig, who served as President Barack Obama’s White House counsel, and Clifford M. Sloan, who also worked in the Obama administration. Both Mr. Craig and Mr. Sloan declined to comment.

The Ukrainian officials claimed that Mr. Yanukovych’s government circumvented contracting rules by initially agreeing to pay Skadden a fee that was less than the threshold for competitive bidding — reportedly about $12,000 — then later paying the firm a total of nearly $1.1 million.

Last year, the law firm refunded $567,000 to the Ukrainian government. The firm said the refund represented “the balance of Ukraine’s payment, which had been held in escrow for future work.”

A sentencing hearing for Mr. van der Zwaan was set for April 3.

The charges against him were the seventh criminal case that Mr. Mueller’s team has brought since October. Last week, the special counsel’s office indicted 13 Russians and three companies on charges of interfering in the 2016 United States election with a sophisticated influence campaign on popular social media platforms. An American, Richard Pinedo, of Santa Paula, Calif., also pleaded guilty to identity fraud regarding some bank accounts used by the Russians in their influence campaign.

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In Florida on Tuesday, the State House rejected efforts to immediately consider a bill to ban assault rifles even as students from Stoneman Douglas High School watched from the gallery. But the vote was on an unusual procedural motion, and legislative leaders said they would consider other gun control measures before the session ends in March.

At the White House, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the president’s spokeswoman, said the president was determined to find ways to protect Americans, and especially children, from gunmen. Asked about a broader ban on assault weapons, Ms. Sanders said the White House has not “closed the door on any front.”

Despite the day’s developments, there was deep skepticism in Washington that anything would change because of the long history of inaction by state and federal politicians after similar mass shootings. Gun control activists said they were braced for another disappointing battle with lawmakers.

The president, they noted, promised unwavering fealty last year to the National Rifle Association, drawing thunderous applause at its annual convention by declaring, “To the N.R.A., I can proudly say I will never, ever let you down.” The group in turn enthusiastically endorsed Mr. Trump and spent $30 million on his campaign.

Senator Christopher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, who sponsored the latest background check measure with Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, said he was unimpressed by Mr. Trump’s openness to it. “Let’s not pretend this is some huge concession on his part,” he said. “If this is all the White House is willing to do to address gun violence, it’s wholly insufficient.”

The background check bill, which seeks to improve the existing database used to prevent gun purchases by criminals and the mentally ill, is a small nod in the direction of gun control that does nothing to close loopholes that allow millions of gun sales without a background check. Last year, N.R.A. officials said they were fine with it.

It is also unclear whether Mr. Trump’s statement of support for the measure, which included a desire for some “revisions,” might be linked to other legislation that the N.R.A. backs. In the House, a similar background check measure was combined with legislation that would effectively allow people to legally carry concealed weapons in all 50 states.

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That legislation is the top priority for the N.R.A., and gun control activists have promised to fight it aggressively.

“That normalizes the carrying of guns on all American streets,” said John Feinblatt, the president of Everytown for Gun Safety, a group that advocates gun control measures. He said joining the two measures would be a “craven” bait-and-switch and “disrespectful for all the families” of the Florida school that suffered through last week’s shooting.

The president’s bump stock announcement surprised the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which did not appear to have been informed of the pending remarks from Mr. Trump. The Justice Department announced a review of the devices in early December. Led by the A.T.F., the review sought to determine whether the bureau — which is responsible for policing firearms — was able to regulate the devices without action from Congress.

Under the Obama administration, the bureau had determined it could not regulate them. Given that prior position, A.T.F. officials had indicated privately in the months after the Las Vegas massacre that any ban of bump stocks would require new legislation.

Bump stocks were not used on the rifle in the shooting last week in Florida, the authorities said.

Mr. Trump’s announcement on Tuesday appeared to short-circuit the agency’s review. The A.T.F. had not yet determined whether it had the authority to ban the devices when Mr. Trump directed Mr. Sessions to draft a regulation doing so.

In a statement, an A.T.F. official said she was “not authorized to comment on pending legislation, legislative proposals or the possibility of executive action.” A Justice Department spokesman said that the department “understands this is a priority for the president.”

The shooting in Florida prompted the White House to highlight the administration’s actions as students from the school included Mr. Trump among the politicians they criticized for failing to keep them safe.

In an impassioned speech on Saturday, Emma Gonzalez, a senior at the school, assailed the president’s N.R.A. ties and accused him of setting a crass monetary value on the lives of gunshot victims by taking so much money from the gun-rights group.

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“If you don’t do anything to prevent this from continuing to occur, that number of gunshot victims will go up and the number that they are worth will go down,” Ms. Gonzalez said on Saturday at a rally for gun control. “And we will be worthless to you.”

With funerals underway for those who died at the Florida high school, Mr. Trump said that he plans to host a “listening session” on Wednesday with high school students and teachers at the White House. He is scheduled to meet on Thursday with state and local officials to discuss school safety.

Ms. Sanders told reporters on Tuesday that the session on Wednesday will include students and parents from the Florida school as well as people affected by school shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado and Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. She did not say whether any of the student activists who have been critical of Mr. Trump were invited to the White House.

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In an opinion earlier in February, the state Supreme Court wrote that Pennsylvania’s congressional districts need, at minimum, to be compact and contiguous, to contain roughly the same number of people, and to not split counties and other communities unnecessarily. A map was unconstitutional, the court said, when it prioritized partisan advantage over those criteria.

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