Immigration freeze, Fed cutbacks, and an albino alligator

The Federal Reserve in Washington, DC. Keystone/swissinfo

Welcome to our press review of events in the United States. Every Wednesday we look at how the Swiss media have reported and reacted to three major stories in the US – in politics, finance and science.

“We don’t want them in our country” said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday. Who was he talking about?

I’ll give you a clue: it’s not albino alligators. Trump’s views on melanin-challenged reptiles are unknown, at least to me, but Claude, who lived in San Francisco, was hugely popular – as seen in the countless news reports around the world following his death.

A reporter in front of a makeshift memorial in Washington, DC, on Monday near where two National Guard members were shot. Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

The Trump administration has suspended all immigration applications from 19 countries deemed to be high-risk a few days after a fatal shooting involving an Afghan national, the US Department of Homeland Security said on Tuesday.

The Tribune de Genève reported on Wednesday how the suspension applies to people from the 12 countries whose nationals have not been allowed to travel to the United States since June and to nationals from seven other countries previously subject to visa restrictions. Applications for green cards from nationals of the countries concerned have been halted, as have applications for naturalisation.

The list includes some of the world’s poorest and most unstable countries. In June US President Donald Trump ordered a ban on entry into the US for nationals of Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. The seven other countries concerned are Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

The official memorandum outlining the new policy cites the attack in Washington, DC, on November 26 in which one member of the National Guard was killed and another was critically wounded. An Afghan national has been charged with murder. He has pleaded not guilty.

The Tribune de Genève explained how Trump had made the fight against illegal immigration a top priority, referring to an “invasion” of the US by “criminals from abroad”. It pointed out, however, that his programme of mass deportations “has been thwarted or curbed by numerous court rulings, notably on the grounds that the people targeted should be able to assert their rights”.

On Tuesday, Trump launched into a diatribe against Somalia, describing Somali migrants as “garbage” and saying “we don’t want them in our country”. The Tages-Anzeiger in Zurich followed this outburst, highlighting the response by Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, who said the Somali community in Minneapolis would be supported in every way possible by local authorities.

“To villainise an entire group is ridiculous under any circumstances. And the way that Donald Trump is consistent in doing it, I think calls into question major constitutional violations,” Frey said. “It certainly violates the moral fabric of what we stand by in this country as Americans.”

• Report in the Tribune de GenèveExternal link (French)

• External linkReport in the Tages-AnzeigerExternal link and the Neue Zürcher ZeitungExternal link (German, paywall)

• CoverageExternal link on Swiss public broadcaster SRF (German)

The Federal Reserve is getting a new look inside and out: protective construction wrapping on the façade on October 23. Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved

The Federal Reserve, the US central banking system, wants to cut a third of its bank supervisors. ‘We will remember this day’ warns a critic quoted by the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ).

The Fed’s banking supervision is to become more efficient, the NZZ wrote in an analysis on Wednesday. The banks and the Trump administration support this – but, the paper asked, will there be enough supervisors to keep the world’s largest financial centre safe?

Michelle Bowman, who was appointed to the Fed board of governors by US President Donald Trump in 2018 and has headed the Department of Banking Supervision since June, is currently instigating a revolution at the Fed. She wants to relax capital rules, cut 150 of 500 bank supervisors by the end of 2026 and impose tighter restrictions on the remaining regulators on how they should seek out and tackle problems at banks supervised by the Fed.

Peter Corey, market strategist at fintech company Pave Finance and a long-time Fed observer, said in the NZZ that the reduction was a step in the wrong direction. “We will remember this day and say to ourselves: ‘We needed more people’.”

Corey feared that the Fed would recognise future banking crises too late owing to staff cuts and a narrower focus. He pointed to a number of warning signs, including the bankruptcy of Silicon Valley Bank at the beginning of 2023, which quickly caused other medium-sized banks to collapse. The crisis, which, the NZZ pointed out, unfolded at the same time as the demise of Credit Suisse, could only be brought under control with comprehensive state guarantees.

“Banking crises generally always start with smaller, less heavily regulated institutions,” Corey said. “I’ve been around long enough to know that it’s hard to predict what triggers crises like these. But if the regulations are relaxed, the risk increases that we’ll be hit by such a surprise.”

• Analysis of the Federal ReserveExternal link – NZZ (German, paywall)

Claude and friend at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco in April. Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

Claude, one of fewer than 200 albino alligators in the world, has died in San Francisco at the relatively young age of 30. An investigation will try to clarify what caused his death.

Claude was a favourite with schoolchildren and international tourists, noted the Tages-Anzeiger in Zurich on Wednesday. “Many children took home a small Claude stuffed animal as a souvenir at the end of their visit.”

Claude lived at the Science Museum in Golden Gate Park, and over the years he became the unofficial mascot of San Francisco. He also appeared in a children’s book and was featured in adverts at bus and tram stations. His death was announced by the California Academy of Sciences on Tuesday.

The three-metre, 136kg reptile was recently treated for a suspected infection after showing signs of loss of appetite, the Tages-Anzeiger wrote. The University of California School of Veterinary Medicine will now perform an autopsy to determine possible causes of death. The museum is planning a public memorial service.

Claude was born with albinism, a genetic mutation that results in a lack of the pigment melanin, making him appear white. He hatched on an alligator farm in Louisiana in 1995 and joined the California Academy of Sciences in 2008.

Albino alligators rarely survive long in the wild, but American alligators can live up to 70 years in captivity, according to the Tages-Anzeiger. In September, the museum in San Francisco celebrated Claude’s 30th birthday with festivities, speeches “and a special alligator birthday cake made of fish and ice cream”.

• Report of Claude’s deathExternal link – Tages-Anzeiger (German, paywall)

The next edition of ‘Swiss views of US news’ will be published on Wednesday, December 10. See you then!

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