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www.desitalkchicago.com – that’s all you need to know 15 IMMIGRATION/BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP July 4, 2025 TECHNOLOGY permanent legal resident. The ban is just one of the Trump administration’s initiatives to dramatically restrict illegal and legal im- migration. Trump has barred the entry of travelers to the United States frommore than a dozen countries and has taken steps to fast-track deportations of alleged gang members fromVenezuela, suspend refugee admissions and remove legal protections for more than 530,000 migrants. On his first day back in theWhite House, Trump signed an executive order to end automatic citizenship for the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants and foreign visitors. Twenty-two states and immigrant ad- vocacy groups sued, saying the order conflicts with the Constitution and past court rulings. The 14th Amendment, adopted after the Civil War, established citizenship for freed Black Americans as well as “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” The citizenship clause reversed the Supreme Court’s infamous decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford, which had denied citizenship to Black Americans. Trump and his allies say they can ban birthright citizenship because unauthorized immigrants are in the country without permanent legal status and, therefore, are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S. govern- ment. But most legal scholars, as well as the Democrat-led states and immigrant rights groups challenging the policy, say Trump’s argument would require a reinterpre- tation of the 14th Amendment – and conflicts with settled Supreme Court precedent that protects citizenship for most everyone born on U.S. soil, except for the children of foreign diplomats. The Supreme Court upheld the guarantee of birthright citizenship in 1898, when it ruled thatWong Kim Ark, a child born in San Francisco, was a citizen even if his im- migrant parents were “subjects of the Emperor of China.” -TheWashington Post Crypto Platform Kraken, Led By Co-Executive Arjun Sethi, Plans To Launch Competitor To Venmo, Block’s Cash App C rypto exchange Kraken is devel- oping a financial services app targeting remittances and pay- ments, further diversifying the company’s revenue streams ahead of a potential stock market debut. The new app, named Krak, will allow businesses and consumers globally to send and receive both crypto and tradi- tional currencies across borders at little to no cost, Kraken said in a statement Thursday. At launch the app will support more than 300 assets, but will operate in a partially closed system where customers can only send cash to other Krak users or withdraw to their own bank account. Physical and virtual debit cards allow- ing Krak users to spend the money in their accounts will be launched in the coming weeks, Kraken Co-Chief Executive Of- ficer Arjun Sethi said in an interview. The company is also planning a range of credit services, including loans and credit card programs. “One of the reasons why I invested in Kraken and came here was around how to be able to make much more evenly dis- tributed products,” said Sethi, who is also chairman of venture capital firmTribe Capital Partners LLC. The app deepens Kraken’s expan- sion into financial services, and puts the company in closer competition with other neobanks and money transfer apps like Revolut Ltd., Block Inc.’s Cash App and PayPal Holdings Inc.’s Venmo. The crypto exchange, which plans to go public early next year, rolled out commission- free trading for US-listed stocks and exchange-traded funds in April, after acquiring retail futures platform Ninja- Trader for $1.5 billion a month earlier. Crypto companies are increasingly focused on developing more bank-like services, blurring the lines between digi- tal assets and fintech. Coinbase Global Inc. launched an e-commerce payments platform earlier this month, partnering with Shopify to allow merchants to accept the Circle Internet Group Inc. stablecoin USDC. Circle also launched a payments network for cross-border transactions in April. Krak will allow users to earn rewards of up to 10% on certain digital assets, the company said in its statement. For ex- ample, eligible users will earn up to 4.1% on balances of USDG, a stablecoin issued by the Global Dollar Network consortium of which Kraken is a member. Kraken won’t be charging fees for transactions, Sethi said, or lending against customer assets. Instead he sees Krak as another avenue to acquiring customers who don’t already trade crypto, but want to reap the benefits that digital assets can bring. “I’m able to leverage my exchange and my liquidity to be able to offer these products to a larger distribution base,” Sethi said. “In the same vein as YouTube being free and monetizing it another way – at least for their first, formative years before they went into premiumTV – I’m doing the same thing here, which is these products already exist for my customers for free, and I monetize them differently,” he added. “I want to make this free to every customer worldwide for this very specific value proposition. There’s no reason why we can’t.” -Bloomberg By Emily Nicolle PHOTO:BloombergYouTubevideo screengrab Arjun Sethi Mineralys’ Drug Significantly Cut Blood Pressure In Key Study, Author Manish Saxena Says A n experimental drug fromMin- eralys Therapeutics Inc. signifi- cantly lowered blood pressure in patients with treatment-resistant hypertension in a new study, though several stopped taking it because of side effects. Patients taking the drug, called lo- rundrostat, saw their blood pressure fall twice as much as those given standard care in a key study needed to get US ap- proval, according to the findings pub- lished Monday in JAMA. The medicine targets aldosterone, the main hormone that controls blood pressure. The study involved 1,083 patients, one of the largest conducted on novel drugs like lorundrostat for high blood pressure, said Manish Saxena, an author of the paper and a cardiovascular physician at Barts Health NHS Trust in London. There’s an unmet need for new therapies that target the hormone, a key driver in hyper- tension and treatment-resistant hyperten- sion, he said. “The drug works consistently in all types of patients,” lowering blood pressure regardless of sex, age, race and body mass index, Saxena said. “It’s just about trying something novel, which could make a big difference to your blood pressure.” Mineralys didn’t respond to a request for comment. The drug, a tablet taken once daily, works by reducing production of aldo- sterone in the adrenal glands. All of the participants were taking between two and five hypertension drugs and still had elevated blood pressure. In the study, lorundrostat lowered sys- tolic blood pressure, the first number in the reading, by 16 mm Hg, or millimeters of mercury, compared with a decline of just under 8 mm Hg for those who took a placebo for three months. A normal blood pressure reading is 120 mm Hg over 80 mm Hg. Saxena said the results were excit- ing because of the need for new therapies for hard-to-treat hypertension. Nine patients given the drug dropped out of the study because of side effects, including high potassium levels, low sodium and impaired kidney function. Roughly half of those in the study experi- enced mild-to-moderate side effects after starting treatment. Most were transient, Saxena said. About one in three people globally have high blood pressure, one of the main risk factors for heart disease, the researchers wrote. -Bloomberg By Michelle Amponsah PHOTO:LINKEDIN @MANISH-SAXENA Manish Saxena, Speciality Research Co-Lead, Cardiovascular, North London Research Delivery Network. Supreme Court Limits Nationwide Orders That Have Blocked Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Ban - Continued From Page 14