Prepared for the Office of Public Affairs (OPA)
U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Editorial Note: The DHS Daily Briefing is a collection of news articles related to Department’s mission. The inclusion of particular stories is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse the political viewpoints or affiliations included in news coverage.

The New York Times [4/12/2025 3:02 AM, Hamed Aleaziz, 330K] reports the Trump administration will end temporary protections for more than 10,000 people from Afghanistan and Cameroon, putting them on track for deportation in May and June, Department of Homeland Security officials said on Friday. The Afghans and Cameroonians had been living in the United States legally under Temporary Protected Status, which is meant to shield migrants from being returned to countries facing conflict or natural disasters. People who have the protected status are also allowed to work in the United States. The Trump administration has targeted T.P.S. as part of its broad crackdown on immigration. Trump officials say the program is being used improperly, to allow people to stay in the United States indefinitely. Already this year, the administration has tried to cut off Venezuelans from T.P.S. and shortened the time that Haitians can have the protections. Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, head of Global Refuge, a refugee resettlement organization, said sending immigrants back to Afghanistan was “unconscionable.” “For Afghan women and girls, ending these humanitarian protections means ending access to opportunity, freedom, and safety,” Ms. Vignarajah said. “Forcing them back to Taliban rule, where they face systemic oppression and gender-based violence, would be an utterly unconscionable stain on our nation’s reputation.” Gustavo Torres, the executive director of Casa de Maryland, an immigrant advocacy organization, said in a statement that Cameroonian nationals were unable to return and reside safely in their country because of an armed conflict. “The ongoing violence, human rights violations, and humanitarian crises in Cameroon continue to place its citizens at severe risk,” he said. Julia Gelatt, an immigration expert at the Migration Policy Institute, said the move would have far-reaching effects in the Afghan community. “Revoking T.P.S. for Afghans would be a stark reversal in the country’s treatment of Afghan allies who fought and worked alongside the U.S. government. Most Afghans in the U.S. have strong asylum cases based on their U.S. affiliation. This is even more true for Afghan women,” she said. “Revoking their T.P.S. will push thousands of Afghans into our backlogged asylum system — if they can find a lawyer with capacity to support their application.” Already this year, the administration has tried to cut off Venezuelans from T.P.S. and shortened the time that Haitians can have the protections. More than 9,000 Afghans and 3,000 Cameroonians had T.P.S. as of late last year, according to the Congressional Research Service. On March 21, “the secretary determined that Afghanistan no longer continues to meet the statutory requirements for its T.P.S. designation and so she terminated T.P.S. for Afghanistan,” said Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the agency, in an email. NPR [4/11/2025 9:37 PM, Juliana Kim, 29983K] reports that [McLaughlin] added that the decision was based on a review from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), as well as a consultation between USCIS and the Department of State. The DHS also plans to revoke TPS for people from Cameroon, New York Times reported on Friday. The Hill [4/11/2025 6:01 PM, Rebecca Beitsch, 6866K] reports that the move was swiftly condemned by Afghan advocates, who pointed to deteriorating conditions in the country that have accelerated since the U.S. withdrawal in 2021, including widespread food insecurity. “TPS exists for a reason: to protect people whose return to their country would place them in grave danger. Afghanistan today is still reeling from Taliban rule, economic collapse, and humanitarian disaster. Nothing about that reality has changed,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president of Global Refuge, a refugee resettlement agency, in a statement. “Terminating protections for Afghans is a morally indefensible betrayal of allies who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with us to advance American interests throughout our country’s longest war.” The Afghan-American Foundation also condemned the move, calling it a betrayal of those who assisted the U.S. during its 20 years in the country. The decision could still face challenges on the grounds that it is unsafe to return Afghan nationals to the country. Bloomberg [4/11/2025 7:01 PM, Alicia A. Caldwell, 16228K] reports CASA, an advocacy group for Cameroonian and other Black and Latino migrants, said it would sue to restore TPS protections. “By ending TPS for Cameroon, President Trump has again prioritized his instincts for ethnic cleansing by forcibly returning people to violence, human rights violations and a humanitarian crisis,” CASA Executive Director Gustavo Torres said in a statement. For Afghans, TPS protections will end in mid-May. The Hill [4/11/2025 6:01 PM, Rebecca Beitsch, 12829K] reports that many of the roughly 80,000 Afghans who came to the U.S. after the fall of Kabul have adjusted their status, either securing asylum or a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) given to those who assisted U.S. military efforts there. But many are still protected under TPS. The decision could still face challenges on the grounds that it is unsafe to return Afghan nationals to the country.

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The New York Times [4/12/2025 3:03 AM, Jonah E. Bromwich, 330K] reports an immigration judge in Louisiana found on Friday that the Trump administration could deport Mahmoud Khalil, granting the government an early victory in its efforts to crack down on pro-Palestinian demonstrations on U.S. college campuses. The ruling is far from the final word on whether Mr. Khalil, a Columbia University graduate and legal permanent resident, will be deported. His lawyers will continue their fight in Louisiana and New Jersey, arguing that he has been targeted for constitutionally protected speech. The constitutional issues at the heart of the case will most likely get a fuller hearing in federal court in New Jersey than they did in Louisiana on Friday. For the time being, the decision by the judge there, Jamee E. Comans, affirmed the extraordinary power that the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has asserted to target any noncitizen for deportation. “The department has met its burden to establish removability by clear and convincing evidence,” Judge Comans said toward the end of a hearing at an immigration court in Jena, La. Mr. Khalil led pro-Palestinian demonstrations on Columbia’s campus last year, and Mr. Rubio relied on a rarely cited law, declaring that his presence in the United States harmed the American foreign policy interest of stopping antisemitism. Judge Comans found that the government had met the burden of evidence that the law requires, which effectively amounted to a memo from Mr. Rubio declaring that Mr. Khalil’s presence in the country enabled antisemitism. The Homeland Security Department appears not to have submitted any other concrete evidence substantiating the claim, although it has not publicly released the documents it has filed in his case. After Judge Comans delivered her ruling, Mr. Khalil, who was otherwise silent throughout the hearing, criticized her harshly. “I would like to quote what you said last time, that there’s nothing that’s more important to this court than due process rights and fundamental fairness,” he said. “Clearly, what we witnessed today, neither of these principles were present today or in this whole process. This is exactly why the Trump administration has sent me to this court, 1,000 miles away from my family.” CBS News [4/11/2025 4:46 PM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, 51661K] reports Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Jamee Comans ruled that the administration’s determination that Khalil poses "adverse foreign policy consequences" for the U.S. is "facially reasonable" and makes Khalil deportable. The judge gave Khalil’s lawyers until April 23 to file applications for relief to stop his deportation to Syria or Algeria on this ground. Khalil was born in Syria but is a citizen of Algeria, according to court documents. Comans held in abeyance the second deportation ground cited by the Trump administration: a claim that Khalil committed immigration fraud because he allegedly omitted information about his work history in his green card application. Comans made the determinations Friday afternoon, inside the courtroom of the privately operated U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Jena where Khalil has been held for weeks. Khalil, a vocal member of the protests at Columbia University over the war in Gaza, was arrested in early March by ICE, outside of his New York City apartment, where he lived with his pregnant U.S. citizen wife. After Comans issued her ruling, Khalil, attired in a blue uniform and sandals, asked to be allowed to give remarks. After the hearing, Marc van der Hout, an attorney for Khalil, said in a statement, "Today, we saw our worst fears play out: Mahmoud was subject to a charade of due process, a flagrant violation of his right to a fair hearing, and a weaponization of immigration law to suppress dissent. This is not over, and our fight continues." "If Mahmoud can be targeted in this way, simply for speaking out for Palestinians and exercising his constitutionally protected right to free speech, this can happen to anyone over any issue the Trump administration dislikes," van der Hout added. The government hasn’t charged Khalil with any crime, but it has argued in immigration court that he should be stripped of his green card and deported on two civil immigration grounds. The AP [4/11/2025 9:28 PM, Sara Cline and Kate Brumback, 34586K] reports Khalil, a legal U.S. resident, was detained by federal immigration agents March 8 in the lobby of his university-owned apartment, the first arrest under President Donald Trump’s promised crackdown on students who joined campus protests against the war in Gaza. Within a day, he was flown across the country to an immigration detention center in Jena, far from his attorneys and wife, a U.S. citizen due to give birth soon. Khalil’s lawyers have challenged the legality of his detention, saying the Trump administration is trying to block free speech protected by the First Amendment. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has cited a rarely used statute to justify Khalil’s deportation, which gives him power to deport those who pose “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”

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Washington Examiner [4/11/2025 11:09 AM, Brady Knox, 2296K] reports Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil’s lawyers requested that Secretary of State Marco Rubio testify in Khalil’s deportation case to expand on the Department of Homeland Security’s evidence submitted Thursday. DHS lawyers released a two-page memo from Rubio on Tuesday at the request of a judge. The memo outlined the Trump administration’s case for Khalil’s deportation. Khalil’s lawyers argued the memo lacked evidence, and they requested that Rubio testify in court to explain the administration’s decision. "Mr. Khalil has the right under due process to confront the evidence against him, and that’s what we want to examine Secretary of State Rubio about," said Marc Van Der Hout, one of Khalil’s lawyers, according to the New York Times. In the memo, Rubio said that while Khalil didn’t commit a crime, his presence in the United States endangered its foreign policy objectives. Khalil’s continued presence in the U.S. "undermines U.S. policy to combat anti-Semitism around the world and in the United States, in addition to efforts to protect Jewish students from harassment and violence in the United States," he said. DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin told the Associated Press in a statement that the "DHS did file evidence, but immigration court dockets are not available to the public.” Rubio’s memo included charges against at least one other person, but the names were blocked out. His lawyers acknowledged the judge is unlikely to grant Khalil’s request, according to the New York Times. His immigration hearing is scheduled for Friday, when the judge will rule whether he must be released or can be deported.

AP [4/12/2025 12:06 AM, Staff, 48304K] reports an immigration judge has ruled that a Palestinian Columbia University graduate student who participated in protests against Israel can be deported. Mahmoud Khalil’s attorneys said they will appeal Friday’s ruling. Federal immigration agents detained Khalil last month, the first arrest under President Donald Trump’s crackdown on students who joined campus protests against the war in Gaza. Khalil, a legal U.S. resident, was taken to an immigration detention center in Jena, Louisiana, thousands of miles from his attorneys and wife, a U.S. citizen who is due to give birth soon. Here’s a look at what has happened so far in Khalil’s legal battle and what happens next: Khalil, a 30-year-old international affairs graduate student, had served as a negotiator and spokesperson for student activists at Columbia University who took over a campus lawn last spring to protest Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. The university brought police in to dismantle the encampment after a small group of protesters seized an administration building. Khalil is not accused of participating in the building occupation and wasn’t among the people arrested in connection with the demonstrations. But images of his maskless face at protests, along with his willingness to share his name with reporters, have made him an object of scorn among those who saw the protesters and their demands as antisemitic. The White House accused Khalil of "siding with terrorists" but has yet to cite any support for the claim. He was detained March 8 in the lobby of his university-owned apartment. Khalil isn’t accused of breaking any laws during the protests at Columbia. The government has said noncitizens who participate in such demonstrations should be expelled from the country for expressing views that the administration considers to be antisemitic and "pro-Hamas," referring to the Palestinian militant group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Khalil’s lawyers have challenged the legality of his detention, saying the Trump administration is trying to deport him for an activity that is protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Bloomberg [4/10/2025 5:01 PM, David Voreacos, 16228K] reports that Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil should be deported because his presence in the United States harms the country’s foreign policy interests even if his beliefs and statements are “otherwise lawful.” The US submitted a two-page memo from Rubio ahead of a deportation hearing Friday in Jena, Louisiana, where Khalil is being held, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, which released the document Thursday. ACLU lawyers said they will ask the immigration judge conducting the hearing for a chance to question Rubio. Khalil, who led anti-Israel protests as a Columbia graduate student, faces deportation after his arrest near the university campus. His case has emerged as a symbol of the Trump administration’s crackdown on campus protests over Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza. Khalil say his detention violates his constitutional rights to free speech and due process. In the memo, Rubio said Khalil’s presence in the US “would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences,” a determination based on his “past, current, or expected beliefs, statements or associations that are otherwise lawful.” Rubio said Khalil had participated in “antisemitic protests and disruptive activities, which fosters a hostile environment for Jewish students,” and those actions “undermine US policy to combat antisemitism.”

AP [4/11/2025 8:21 PM, Michael Kunzelman, Rebecca Santana, Ben Finley] reports that a federal judge on Friday lambasted a government lawyer who couldn’t explain what, if anything, the Trump administration has done to arrange for the return of a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported last month to a notorious prison in El Salvador. The U.S. government attorney also struggled to provide any information about the whereabouts of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, despite Thursday’s ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court that the Trump administration must bring him back. “Where is he and under whose authority?” U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis asked in a Maryland courtroom. “I’m not asking for state secrets,” she said. “All I know is that he’s not here. The government was prohibited from sending him to El Salvador, and now I’m asking a very simple question: Where is he?” Drew Ensign, a deputy assistant attorney general, said the government doesn’t have evidence to contradict the belief that Abrego Garcia is still in El Salvador. Xinis sounded exasperated that Ensign couldn’t tell her where Abrego Garcia is, what the government has done to arrange for his return or what more it plans to do to get him back to the U.S. “That is extremely troubling,” she said. The judge repeatedly asked Ensign about what has been done, asking pointedly: “Have they done anything?” — to which Ensign said he didn’t have personal knowledge of what had been done. “So that means they’ve done nothing,” the judge said, adding later: “Despite this court’s clear directive, your clients have done nothing to facilitate the return of Mr. Abrego Garcia. President Donald Trump indicated Friday evening that he would return Abrego Garcia to the U.S. If the high court’s justices said to bring him back, “I would do that,” the president said. “I have great respect for the Supreme Court,” Trump told reporters traveling on Air Force One. Meanwhile, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele is expected to visit Washington on Monday. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked Friday if Trump wanted Bukele to bring Abrego Garcia. But Leavitt said Bukele is visiting to speak about the cooperation between the two countries “that is at an all-time high.”

NPR [4/11/2025 12:50 PM, Joel Rose, 29983K] reports that a federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Friday to provide her with daily updates on its efforts to return a Maryland man who was wrongly deported to El Salvador back to the United States. The mood was tense in the courtroom as the judge, Paula Xinis, chastised Justice Department lawyers and expressed frustration with the government’s efforts to comply. The hearing followed Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling largely upholding Xinis’ original order to bring Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. Within hours of the high court’s decision, Xinis issued a new order, directing the federal government to "take all available steps to facilitate the return" of Abrego Garcia to the United States as soon as possible. And she ordered the Justice Department to provide an immediate update on his location and status, what steps the government has taken so far to bring him back and what additional steps it is considering. In response, the Trump administration asked for more time to answer the judge’s questions, arguing that the government needs "a meaningful opportunity to review the Supreme Court’s decision before it is ordered to report what steps it will take in response to that decision." "Foreign affairs cannot operate on judicial timelines, in part because it involves sensitive country-specific considerations wholly inappropriate for judicial review," the lawyers wrote in another filing. That tension carried over into Friday’s status conference. "I’m not asking for state secrets," Xinis said. "He’s not here. The government was prohibited from sending him to El Salvador. And now I’m asking just a very simple question. Where is he?" Drew Ensign, a deputy assistant attorney general, said repeatedly that he did not have the answers Xinis was seeking. "We intend to comply with Supreme Court’s order," Ensign told the judge. "We’re actively taking steps to do so. We are not able to meet the court’s deadlines because they’re impracticable." The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Trump administration to "facilitate" Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador, and to "be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps." The unsigned order marked a rare win for those challenging the administration’s deportation orders. There were no dissents, though Justice Sonia Sotomayor in a statement accompanying the order wrote that "to this day, the Government has cited no basis in law for Abrego Garcia’s warrantless arrest, his removal to El Salvador, or his confinement in a Salvadoran prison. "Nor could it." The court’s two other liberal justices joined her. The Supreme Court sent the case back to Xinis with instructions to clarify the wording of her original order — in particular, her use of the word "effectuated" in her directions to the Trump administration. Xinis’s order — now relying only on the word "facilitate" — seems intended to address the Supreme Court’s question. The justices also wrote that the intended scope of that term is "unclear," and that it might exceed the lower court’s authority. They instructed the lower court to "clarify its directive, with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs." The Department of Homeland Security emphasized that section of the order in its response. "SCOTUS agreed with us that the District Court improperly interfered with the President’s foreign affairs power," said Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs, in an emailed statement. "The District Court was overbearing and, as SCOTUS said, should clarify its directive with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs. We look forward to continuing to advance our position in this case." The Trump administration has admitted that Abrego Garcia was deported because of what it calls an "administrative error," but has argued that there is nothing it can do because Abrego Garcia was already out of the U.S. in the custody of the Salvadoran government when the mistake was discovered.

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The Wall Street Journal [4/11/2025 9:17 PM, Joseph De Avil and C. Ryan Barber, 646K] reports a federal judge on Friday said she was troubled by the Trump administration’s inability to provide information on a migrant mistakenly sent to a Salvadoran prison and ordered daily reports on the government’s efforts to facilitate the man’s return. Judge Paula Xinis said that the Justice Department has so far made no meaningful effort to comply with her earlier request for an update. The daily report will need to describe the whereabouts of Kilmar Abrego Garcia and what steps the government has taken to seek his return. During a court hearing earlier on Friday, the judge aired her frustration over the lack of information provided by Justice Department lawyers. “I’m not asking for state secrets,” she said. Justice Department lawyer Drew Ensign responded, “Your honor, I don’t have that information provided to me.” Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, Abrego Garcia’s lawyer, said the lack of information from the government showed the administration was “playing a game” with its own lawyers. On Thursday, the Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador. Soon after, Xinis, the Maryland judge, ordered the government to take all available steps to return Abrego Garcia; file a report by 9:30 a.m. on Friday on those steps; and attend a status conference in the afternoon. The Washington Examiner [4/11/2025 3:15 PM, Ashley Oliver, 2296K] reports a judge on Friday ordered the Department of Justice to provide her with daily updates about actions the Trump administration is taking to return to the United States a man it mistakenly deported to El Salvador. Judge Paula Xinis’s demand came during a court hearing where she sparred with a DOJ attorney about what the Trump administration needed to do to comply with an order the Supreme Court issued one day prior. The Supreme Court had directed the Trump administration on Thursday evening to "facilitate" the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who was mistakenly deported from Maryland to a prison in El Salvador on March 15. The Trump administration has said it has no ability to bring Abrego Garcia back because it has no control over a foreign country. Xinis grilled Drew Ensign, the DOJ attorney present for the hearing, about where Abrego Garcia was and if the government had done anything to attempt to bring him back to the United States, according to courtroom reports from Lawfare. Ensign repeatedly said he did not have any answers to those questions. Ensign’s lack of knowledge led Xinis to speculate that Trump administration officials were "playing a game" with Ensign to ensure he showed up uninformed to the hearing. The heated exchanges in Maryland on Friday come after the Trump administration was sued by Abrego Garcia’s family last month for abruptly arresting him on March 12 and deporting him within 72 hours to a foreign prison without any due process.

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FOX News [4/11/2025 4:25 PM, Audrey Conklin, Jake Gibson, 430301K] reports the Department of Justice on Friday said the whereabouts of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland-based Salvadoran immigrant wrongly deported to an El Salvador megaprison with hundreds of criminals and gang members last month, are unknown. The admission comes after the Supreme Court upheld a lower federal court’s decision Thursday to facilitate Garcia’s return from the Central American prison. It also comes after U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered the DOJ to submit more information about Garcia following the SCOTUS ruling. Xinis on Thursday evening ordered the DOJ to file the following information no later than 9:30 a.m. on Friday: "(1) the current physical location and custodial status of Abrego Garcia; (2) what steps, if any, Defendants have taken to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s immediate return to the United States; and (3) what additional steps Defendants will take, and when, to facilitate his return.” Later on Friday, she asked for daily updates regarding Abrego Garcia’s location and what the government is doing to facilitate his return. DOJ officials and AbregoGarcia’s attorneys had a hearing in federal court on Friday afternoon, at which point Judge Xinis repeatedly asked DOJ attorney Drew Ensign about Garcia’s whereabouts. "I am asking a very simple question. Where is he?" Xinis repeated. "I do not have any information," Ensign said again. "I do not have plaintiffs’ assertion that he is in El Salvador under the control of that government. The government has not submitted any evidence that would be contrary to that.” Justice Department attorneys on Friday said they are unaware of Maryland immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s whereabouts after he was deported to a Salvadoran prison last month. Ensign said the government is "evaluating what can be shared and is not yet prepared to resolve that question.” The two went back and forth repeatedly about the details of Abrego Garcia’s case. Xinis said it is "quite clear the government is playing a game with their own lawyers.” The DOJ also submitted a written response in the federal case Friday stating that "[d]efendants are unable to provide the information requested by the Court on the impracticable deadline set by the Court hours after the Supreme Court issued its order.” "The Supreme Court’s order directs the Court to ‘clarify its directive…’ The Court has not yet clarified what it means to ‘facilitate’ or ‘effectuate’ the return as it relates to this case, as Plaintiff is in the custody of a foreign sovereign," DOJ lawyers wrote. "Defendants request— and require—the opportunity to brief that issue prior to being subject to any compliance deadlines. Needless to say, Defendants were under no obligation to take action under the court’s order while it was administratively stayed by the Chief Justice of the United States.”

Bloomberg [4/11/2025 4:49 PM, David Voreacos, Chris Strohm, and Greg Stohr, 16228K] reports a Trump administration lawyer refused to tell a judge what the government is doing to bring back a Maryland man wrongly deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador. US District Court Judge Paula Xinis clashed Friday with Justice Department lawyers a day after the Supreme Court said the government must “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Federal officials have conceded he was deported despite a 2019 order saying he shouldn’t be sent to El Salvador. After the high court ruled Thursday night, Xinis ordered US lawyers to tell her Abrego Garcia’s location and status in prison, and what they were doing to facilitate his return. She gave them until Friday morning to answer her questions in writing, but they said that wasn’t enough time.

The Hill [4/11/2025 2:09 PM, Julia Mueller, 12829K] reports that the White House on Friday responded to the Supreme Court’s ruling that the Trump administration must “facilitate” the return of a Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador, rather than “effectuate” the return. “The Supreme Court made their ruling last night very clear that it’s the administration’s responsibility to facilitate the return, not to effectuate the return,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. Leavitt had been asked whether President Trump wants the leader of El Salvador to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who was deported from the U.S. to a prison in his home country, with him when he visits the White House next week. “I believe the Department of Justice just filed another brief in the lower board. I would defer you to that for any updates,” Leavitt said. As Leavitt was briefing reporters, the federal judge overseeing the case in lower court tore into the Justice Department at a hearing for refusing to comply with her order for more information about the man mistakenly deported to El Salvador. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign repeatedly indicated he had no update as to the status of Abrego Garcia or any efforts to return him, saying the administration was still assessing the Supreme Court’s Thursday evening ruling in his case. In a post on social platform X sharing a clip of Leavitt’s response, the Trump White House Rapid Response page referred to Abrego Garcia as a “deported MS-13 gang member and human trafficker.” But the White House has yet to offer any evidence he has links to the gang or that he has a criminal record, which is typically public information. The Supreme Court refused to lift a federal judge’s earlier order requiring the administration to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia, who lives in Maryland and was protected by an immigration judge’s 2019 order preventing his deportation over concerns he would face violence in El Salvador. The administration has acknowledged that Abrego Garcia was wrongly removed from the U.S. but pointed to an “administrative error” and argued that the courts could not mandate his return once he was in the hands of Salvadoran authorities. El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele is set to visit the White House on Monday “to talk about the cooperation that is at an all time high” between the two countries, Leavitt said Friday, as they work together on “the repatriation of El Salvadoran gang members who the previous administration allowed to infiltrate our country.” Leavitt has previously said the two leaders will talk about the use of a supermax prison for deported migrants as Trump cracks down on immigration, though the facility has been hit with allegations of human rights violations.

New York Times [4/12/2025 3:02 AM, Alan Feuer and Aishvarya Kavi, 330K] reports the Trump administration on Friday continued to pursue its stubborn fight against securing the freedom of a Maryland man it inadvertently deported to a Salvadoran prison last month despite a court order that expressly said he could remain in the United States. Taking an increasingly combative stance, the administration defied a federal judge’s order to provide a written road map of its plans to free the man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia. Trump officials then repeatedly stonewalled her efforts to get the most basic information about him at a court hearing. During the hearing, in Federal District Court in Maryland, the judge, Paula Xinis, called the administration’s evasions “extremely troubling” and demanded that the Justice Department provide her with daily updates on the White House’s progress in getting Mr. Abrego Garcia back on U.S. soil. “The court finds that the defendants have failed to comply with this court’s order,” Judge Xinis wrote in a ruling Friday afternoon. The conflict between the judge and the White House arose just one day after the Supreme Court unanimously ordered the administration to “facilitate” Mr. Abrego Garcia’s release from Salvadoran custody and only a few days before President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador was set to arrive in Washington for an official visit. Asked about the case on Friday, President Trump appeared in no hurry to take steps to ensure Mr. Abrego Garcia’s return, despite repeated court orders and a Supreme Court intervention. “If the Supreme Court said, ‘Bring somebody back,’ I would do that,” he said, seeming to ignore the court’s order. “I respect the Supreme Court.” The public recalcitrance on the part of Mr. Trump and his officials highlighted questions about why they have been so reluctant to follow the orders or leverage the president’s relationship with Mr. Bukele to simply ask for Mr. Abrego Garcia to be freed. Judge Xinis, by ordering the government to detail its progress in getting Mr. Abrego Garcia out of El Salvador, managed to avoid an immediate showdown with the White House. But the fiery clashes left open the possibility of a future standoff.

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Reuters [4/11/2025 8:31 PM, Jeff Mason, 24727K]

Washington Examiner [4/11/2025 3:06 PM, Anna Giaritelli, 2296K] reports the White House is not under orders to "effectuate" the return of deported Maryland resident and immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, only to "facilitate" it, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Friday afternoon. Leavitt was asked during a press briefing if Trump wanted Abrego Garcia to accompany Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele during his trip to visit President Donald Trump next week. Abrego Garcia was deported to a megaprison in El Salvador last month and has since been ordered returned to the United States after being wrongly removed from the country. "The Supreme Court made their ruling last night very clear," Leavitt said. "That is the administration’s responsibility to facilitate the return, not to effectuate the return.”

NewsMax [4/11/2025 5:03 PM, Jim Morley III, 4998K] reports Border Czar Tom Homan told Newsmax on Friday that Kilmar Abrego Garcia "is to blame" for the complicated predicament he finds himself in after being deported to a prison in El Salvador by the Trump administration. In March, Garcia was arrested in Maryland and deported from the country following what prosecutors say was an administrative error in associating him with the violent MS-13 gang. On Thursday, the Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to "facilitate" the return of Garcia, a Salvadoran married to an American citizen. Homan was unsympathetic to Garcia’s situation, saying he shouldn’t have entered the U.S. illegally to begin with.

AP [4/11/2025 6:10 PM, Valerie Gonzalez and Larry Neumeister, 34586K] reports federal judges in New York and Texas ruled Friday that temporary restraining orders in place to stop the removal of Venezuelans from the U.S. would be expanded to protect more people in both states. The rulings come in class-action lawsuits filed to stop the government from removing Venezuelans accused of being gang members under the Alien Enemies Act. The judges granted temporary restraining orders earlier this week that prevented the U.S. government from removing Venezuelans held at a detention facility in Raymondville, Texas, and those held within the federal jurisdiction of the Southern District of New York. On Friday, Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. in Texas broadened his ruling to protect all Venezuelans detained in his judicial district, which includes the cities of Houston, Galveston, Laredo, McAllen, Brownsville, Corpus Christi and Victoria. Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein in the Manhattan federal court amended his initial order to include protection for “individuals subject to the Presidential Proclamation who are in state or local custody.” The judicial activity happened after the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled the administration can resume removals under the Alien Enemies Act, but detainees must be afforded some due process before they are flown away, including reasonable time to argue to a judge that they should not be removed. Judge Rodriguez asked the government on Friday if it will be providing proper notice to affected Venezuelans facing removals as the Supreme Court had ordered. “We’re not prepared to say that we would be giving more than 24 hours notice,” Sarah Wilson, the lead attorney for the government, said and added that they are working to determine that. “It would be proper to give 30 days notice as it was done in World War II,” Lee Gelernt, ACLU’s attorney, said. “Our concern is that the government has not said what the notice will look like.”

Reported similarly:
Washington Times [4/11/2025 5:10 PM, Stephen Dinan, 1814K]

Breitbart [4/11/2025 9:05 PM, Pam Key, 2923K] reports former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance said Friday on MSNBC’s "The Beat" that the Supreme Court ruling the federal government must facilitate return a man deported to El Salvador had become a "full-blown confrontation" between the administration and the courts. Vance said, "The question I think we’re all asking ourselves this week, watching event after event after event, is will the fever dream ever break? Right. We’re already watching today an administration that’s in open defiance of a court order, a judge who said, update me on the status of this man who you have conceded you unlawfully deported. And the. Government responded, oh, judge, it’s not convenient for us to do that. So I think we really are at this moment. I mean, we’ve watched this progressively, Ari. There’s been the debate about are we in a constitutional crisis? And the answer to that question is now very clear.” She added, "We are in a full-blown confrontation between this White House and the courts. And the question is, do the courts have the serious level of, of teeth of enforcement ability at some point? Will they step in and tell the White House we said it, and we mean it?".

Blaze [4/11/2025 12:40 PM, Candace Hathaway] reports that the Department of Government Efficiency announced Thursday that it discovered the former Biden administration paroled 6,300 foreign nationals who were either on the terrorist watchlist or had a criminal history. The Trump administration has reportedly pulled their parole as a result of the DOGE’s findings. Further, of the 6,300 foreign nationals, 905 received Medicaid, and 41 collected unemployment insurance — benefits totaling $318,000. Additionally, 22 individuals took out $280,000 in federal student loans. In 2024, 409 received $751,000 worth of tax refunds. The DOGE also reported that some of the foreign nationals collected food stamp benefits, though the final number has not yet been determined. The department indicated that there could be more individuals who were paroled despite being on the FBI’s Terrorist Screen Center watchlist or having a criminal past. The department detailed its findings in a post on social media. "Under the Biden administration, it was routine for Border Patrol to admit aliens into the United States with no legal status and minimal screening. So far, [Customs and Border Protection] identified a subset of 6.3k individuals paroled into the United States since 2023 on the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center watchlist or with criminal records," the DOGE wrote. "These paroles have since been terminated with immediate effect." "Despite having no other legal status, paroled aliens are able to file for work authorization and receive social security numbers. Among these 6.3k paroled aliens with criminal or terrorist records (all have a social security number)," the DOGE added. A White House official confirmed to the Daily Caller that the Trump administration had revoked parole for the 6,300 foreign nationals. The administration has also moved to yank parole for foreign nationals admitted into the country through several of the Biden administration’s programs. Earlier this week, the Trump administration announced that those who entered the U.S. under the CBP One app — approximately 985,000 — would have their parole revoked. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told Politico, "Under federal law, Secretary [Kristi] Noem — in support of the president — has full authority to revoke parole. Canceling these paroles is a promise kept to the American people to secure our borders and protect national security."

Breitbart [4/11/2025 4:37 PM, John Binder, 2923K] reports a bombshell report from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) revealed that migrants on the federal government’s "Terrorist Watch List" were able to secure Medicaid after being released into the United States by former President Joe Biden’s administration. According to DOGE officials, about 6,300 of Biden’s migrants — paroled into the U.S. interior with no immigration status — were either on the Terrorist Watch List or had criminal records and yet were still rewarded work permits and Social Security numbers. The DOGE report found that 905 of the migrants, including four on the Terrorist Watch List, had been collecting Medicaid benefits totaling $276,000 in American taxpayer dollars. Another 41 were collecting unemployment benefits totaling $42,000. Similarly, 22 of the migrants received tax refunds in 2024 totaling $751,000 and several more received food stamp benefits. The report comes as President Donald Trump’s administration revoked parole of those 6,300 migrants with criminal records or on the Terrorist Watch List, making them priorities for deportation.

Politico [4/11/2025 5:24 PM, Sophia Cai, 2100K] reports DOGE’s bread and butter has been slashing headcounts but it is now wielding its influence deep inside the nation’s immigration system — an initiative led by one of Elon Musk’s closest friends, three Trump administration officials granted anonymity to discuss internal dynamics told POLITICO. Antonio Gracias, a Musk confidante whose history with the billionaire goes back more than 20 years, is quietly heading up a specialized DOGE immigration task force that’s embedded engineers and staffers across nearly every nook of the Department of Homeland Security, two of the people said. The task force is also working with DOGE operatives stationed at other agencies like the Social Security Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services, which house sensitive data on undocumented immigrants. With Musk’s trusted friend and fixer at the helm, the task force marks a significant expansion of DOGE’s portfolio — from primarily working on agency-wide layoffs to executing the president’s most hardline immigration policies. It’s also a test for how far DOGE’s reach can extend. Key DOGE engineers now embedded at DHS include Kyle Schutt, Edward Coristine, (aka “Big Balls”) and Mark Elez, according to their government email addresses. At least two others, Aram Moghaddassi and Payton Rehling also have access to DHS data, as DOGE fingerprints are spread throughout DHS, including Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure and Security Agency. They are providing the technical infrastructure for a sweeping set of actions aimed at revoking parole, terminating visas, and later on, reengineering the asylum adjudication process, according to the officials. “DOGE is working in all the agencies. We are looking at our books, at people who don’t belong here that Joe Biden allowed in with bogus claims,” said a White House official. “They shouldn’t be receiving federal tax dollars in the form of government benefits.” “The government is finally doing what it should have all along,” said Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary for public affairs. “Information sharing across agencies is essential to identify who is in our country, including violent criminals, and determine what public safety and terror threats may exist.”

DailySignal.com [4/11/2025 3:49 PM, Virginia Allen, 495K] reports under the leadership of President Donald Trump, border czar Tom Homan promises that the Mexican criminal cartels are going to be "exterminated." Pressed on whether it would be possible for the U.S. to dismantle Mexico’s criminal cartels, Homan said, "Yes, look what President Trump did to the caliphate. Look what he did to ISIS. If he can do that halfway across the world, he can that at our southern border." If the U.S. took steps to dismantle the cartels, Homan said, he thinks Mexico would be willing to help because it would make the country safer and increase tourism.

FOX News [4/11/2025 4:04 PM, Haley Chi-Sing, Jake Gibson, 46189K] reports a Maryland federal judge lambasted government attorneys Friday during a hearing over efforts to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national and Maryland resident, from a prison in El Salvador. Abrego Garcia, 29, was deported to El Salvador last month for being an alleged MS-13 gang member. His attorneys, however, have maintained that he does not have any ties to the violent gang. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis questioned DOJ attorney Drew Ensign as to Abrego Garcia’s whereabouts after the Supreme Court upheld Xinis’ order that federal officials must coordinate his return back to Maryland. Xinis asked Ensign where Abrego Garcia was, and under "whose authority," to which Ensign responded, "I do not have that info." The judge was unsatisfied with the government’s answer. The high court proceeded to say that Xinis’ order "properly requires the government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador." Ensign made clear during the Friday hearing that the government intended to comply with the Supreme Court’s order. When asked what had been done thus far to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return, Ensign said it was "unclear."

The Hill [4/11/2025 2:56 PM, Rebecca Beitsch, 6866K] reports the Trump administration directed the Social Security Administration (SSA) to place more than 6,300 migrants on its list for tracking dead people, blocking their ability to work in a move it hopes will encourage them to “self-deport.” The request from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to place the migrants on the “Ineligible Master File” maintained by the SSA would bar migrants from receiving benefits or being able to work in the United States. The move targeted those who were legally permitted to enter the country under President Biden and were given taxpayer identification numbers and work authorizations but who have since had their status revoked by the Trump administration. “President Trump promised mass deportations and by removing the monetary incentive for illegal aliens to come and stay, we will encourage them to self-deport. He is delivering on his promise he made to the American people,” White House spokesperson Liz Huston said in a statement. The White House has asserted those who have had their status revoked and their Social Security number moved to the “death list” were either on the terrorist watch list or were found to have criminal records through the FBI. It’s a move that may run afoul of SSA policy, as the Ineligible Master File is reserved for those who the agency knows are dead. The SSA did not respond to request for comment, but according to New York Times, SSA acting Commissioner Leland Dudek, wrote in an email to staff that the “financial lives” of those on the list would be “terminated.” Breitbart [4/11/2025 5:32 AM, Neil Munro, 2923K] reports that the move, requested by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem, is aimed at putting pressure on the undocumented immigrants to leave the country, according to a White House official. The action marks the start of a major campaign by the Trump administration to force out potentially hundreds of thousands who are living in the U.S. illegally but who have a Social Security number, allowing them to collect Medicaid, Medicare, unemployment insurance, federal loans or other benefits, the people said. The next target for inclusion in the database will be 92,000 undocumented immigrants with some kind of criminal conviction, the White House official said, but the effort will expand to undocumented immigrants without criminal histories after that. "The goal is to cut [migrants] off from using crucial financial services like bank accounts and credit cards, along with their access to government benefits," New York Times reported on Thursday. "President Trump promised mass deportations, and by removing the monetary incentive for illegal aliens to come and stay, we will encourage them to self-deport," White House spokeswoman Elizabeth Huston said in a statement. "He is delivering on his promise he made to the American people," she added. By subscribing, you agree to our terms of use & privacy policy. You will receive email marketing messages from Breitbart News Network to the email you provide. You may unsubscribe at any time. The SSNs are managed by the Social Security Administration (SSA), which now has the names of roughly 800,000 migrants who have not left the country after being ordered out by federal judges. The AP [4/11/2025 5:39 PM, Fatima Hussein, 48304K] reports that the move will make it much harder for affected immigrants to use banks or other basic services where Social Security numbers are required. The White House says that "by removing the monetary incentive for illegal aliens to come and stay, we will encourage them to self-deport." However, the affected individuals newly added to the Social Security Administration’s "Death Master File" are in the country legally. Immigrant advocates say the administration is committing "digital murder." A Trump administration official said the SSA moved roughly 6,300 immigrants’ names and Social Security numbers to a database that federal officials normally use to track the deceased after the Department of Homeland Security identified them as temporarily paroled aliens on the terrorist watch list or with FBI criminal records. The administration has not provided evidence of this assertion. The Washington Examiner [4/11/2025 4:03 PM, Jack Birle, 2296K] reports that the Department of Homeland Security, under the Trump administration, has attempted to facilitate easier self-deporting by changing the CBP One app to the CBP Home app, which illegal immigrants can use to notify the government of their self-deportation plans. The report also suggested the Social Security Administration would provide the last known addresses of 98,000 people to Immigration and Customs Enforcement via an agreement reached between the agencies in February.

Reported similarly:
Univision [4/11/2025 9:33 AM, Staff, 5325K]

New York Times [4/12/2025 3:03 AM, Alexandra Berzon, Hamed Aleaziz, Nicholas Nehamas, Ryan Mac and Tara Siegel Bernard, 330K] reports that, since taking office, the Trump administration has moved aggressively to revoke the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants who were allowed into the country under President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Now, the administration is taking drastic steps to pressure some of those immigrants and others who had legal status to “self-deport” by effectively canceling the Social Security numbers they had lawfully obtained, according to documents reviewed by New York Times and interviews with six people familiar with the plans. The goal is to cut those people off from using crucial financial services like bank accounts and credit cards, along with their access to government benefits. The effort hinges on a surprising new tactic: repurposing Social Security’s “death master file,” which for years has been used to track dead people who should no longer receive benefits, to include the names of living people who the government believes should be treated as if they are dead. As a result of being added to the death database, they would be blacklisted from a coveted form of identity that allows them to make and more easily spend money. Earlier this week, the names of more than 6,300 migrants whose legal status had just been revoked were added to the file, according to the documents. The initial names are limited to people the administration says are convicted criminals and “suspected terrorists,” the documents show. But officials said the effort could broaden to include others in the country without authorization. Their “financial lives,” Leland Dudek, the Social Security Administration’s acting commissioner, wrote in an email to staff members, would be “terminated.”

Washington Post [4/12/2025 6:00 AM, Hannah Natanson, Lisa Rein and Meryl Kornfield, 31735K] reports two days after the Social Security Administration purposely and falsely labeled 6,100 living immigrants as dead, security guards arrived at the office of a well-regarded senior executive in the agency’s Woodlawn, Maryland, headquarters. Greg Pearre, who oversaw a staff of hundreds of technology experts, had pushed back on the Trump administration’s plan to move the migrants’ names into a Social Security death database, eliminating their ability to legally earn wages and, officials hoped, spurring them to leave the country. In particular, Pearre had clashed with Scott Coulter, the new chief information officer installed by Elon Musk. Pearre told Coulter that the plan was illegal, cruel and risked declaring the wrong people dead, according to three people familiar with the events. But his objections did not go over well with Trump political appointees. And so on Thursday, the security guards in Pearre’s office told him it was time to leave. They walked Pearre out of the building, capping a momentous internal battle over the novel strategy — pushed by Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service and the Department of Homeland Security — to add thousands of immigrants ranging in age from teenagers to octogenarians to the agency’s Death Master File. The dataset is used by government agencies, employers, banks and landlords to check the status of employees, residents, clients and others. The episode also followed earlier warnings from senior Social Security officials that the database was insecure and could be easily edited without proof of death — a vulnerability, staffers say, that the Trump administration has now exploited. The warnings and Pearre’s removal have not previously been reported. This account of how the Trump administration pushed Social Security to wrongly declare thousands of living immigrants dead is based on interviews with 15 people, including current and former Social Security officials, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, as well as more than two dozen pages of records obtained by Washington Post.

Politico [4/11/2025 10:00 AM, Ali Bianco, 2100K] reports immigration advocates are fighting the Trump administration’s policies one by one in court. But after scoring some early wins, activists say they’re overwhelmed as the Trump administration’s flood-the-zone approach gains momentum — and reaches the Supreme Court. Activists have launched what are likely to be long-drawn-out court battles against President Donald Trump in his second term. But many fear what the administration will do next to enact his immigration agenda, especially as these cases make their way to the nation’s highest court. “This is just devastating, I mean it’s just horrible,” said Nicolette Glazer, an immigration lawyer and advocate who’s been following the legal challenges. “It’s just going to be a complete massacre.” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told POLITICO that the district court decision pausing the end of TPS protections “is yet another example of an activist judge trying to obstruct President Trump’s agenda.” “Secretary Noem will continue fighting to return integrity to the TPS system, which has been abused and exploited by illegal aliens for decades. We will return TPS to its original status: temporary,” McLaughlin said in a statement. The White House did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story.

Politico [4/11/2025 4:54 PM, Dasha Burns and Myah Ward, 2100K] reports former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince and a team of defense contractors are pitching the White House on a plan to vastly expand deportations to El Salvador — transporting thousands of immigrants from U.S. holding facilities to a sprawling maximum security prison in Central America. The proposal, exclusively obtained by POLITICO, says it would target “criminal illegal aliens” and would attempt to avoid legal challenges by designating part of the prison — which has drawn accusations of violence and overcrowding from human rights groups — as American territory. It’s unclear how seriously the White House is considering the plan by Prince, who has drawn scrutiny for his firm’s role in a deadly massacre in Iraq two decades ago. But it would give Prince’s group an unprecedented and potentially highly lucrative role in an expanded version of a transnational operation that has elicited its own web of controversies, in part because it has swept up immigrants who do not have criminal records in the United States. The group has had multiple talks with administration officials, and the ideas laid out in the proposal are likely to be a top subject in the bilateral meetings with El Salvador at the White House next week, according to two people familiar with the Prince proposal and an administration official, granted anonymity to discuss information that has not previously been made public. Administration officials have already discussed the idea of the U.S. owning some of the prison complex, the administration official said, adding that the White House continues to weigh a number of options and that the plan would be in line with the goal of getting “dangerous people as far away from the continental U.S. as possible.”

Blaze [4/11/2025 11:00 AM, Candace Hathaway, 1668K] reports that House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) sent letters to several "sanctuary governors" on Thursday, inviting them to testify before lawmakers as part of the committee’s ongoing probe into the public safety impact of sanctuary policies. Comer requested Democratic Governors Kathy Hochul of New York, Tim Walz of Minnesota, and JB Pritzker of Illinois testify before the committee during a May 15 hearing. The letters stated, "The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is continuing to investigate sanctuary jurisdictions across the United States and their impact on public safety and the effectiveness of federal efforts to enforce the immigration laws of the United States." "Sanctuary jurisdictions and their obstructionist policies hinder the ability of federal law enforcement officers to effectuate safe arrests and remove dangerous criminals from American communities," it continued. "This threatens Americans’ safety." Comer requested several documents from the state leaders, including all materials and communications related to sanctuary policies. The committee previously heard testimony in March from Democratic mayors of sanctuary cities, including Eric Adams of New York, Michelle Wu of Boston, Brandon Johnson of Chicago, and Mike Johnston of Denver.

Reported similarly:
NewsMax [4/11/2025 2:02 PM, Sam Barron, 4998K]
DailySignal [4/11/2025 3:55 PM, Fred Lucas, 495K

Washington Post [4/11/2025 6:00 AM, Glenn Kessler, 31735K] reports Trump signaled that he will soon take the legally dubious step of denying federal funds to sanctuary cities, claiming that they are “death traps.” He attempted to do something similar in his first term, but his executive order was blocked by the courts, Now, apparently he will take another stab at it. This is one of Trump’s policies that is largely based on anecdotes — a horrific crime committed by an undocumented immigrant who was released from custody without the Homeland Security Department being notified so the person could be deported. Each individual case may be heartbreaking and infuriating, but that does not mean that sanctuary cities are inherently more dangerous — or, as Trump put it in his first term, “breed crime.” Under the Biden administration, the number of undocumented immigrants grew substantially. As of mid-2023, the Migration Policy Institute, a D.C. think tank that does research and analysis to improve immigration and integration policies, estimated from a U.S. census survey that there are 13.7 million undocumented immigrants. That indicates a sharp jump from a steady, years-long estimate of about 11 million people before the pandemic, the group said in a February report. As we have noted before, there is little evidence (though the data is slim) that immigrants — or even undocumented immigrants — cause more crime. But a surge like that is obviously going to contain some bad apples. Meanwhile, there’s no official definition of “sanctuary,” but it generally refers to rules restricting state and local governments from alerting federal authorities about people who may be in the country illegally. Immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility, and state and local law enforcement can decide how much they want to cooperate with the federal government for immigration enforcement. The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), which supports stricter immigration limits and a merit-based immigration system, lists 13 states and dozens of cities and counties as “having laws, ordinances, regulations, resolutions, policies, or other practices that obstruct immigration enforcement and shield criminals.”

Blaze [4/11/2025 2:48 PM, Julio Rosas, 1700K] reports the Department of Homeland Security revealed that the New York Times did not tell the full story in its write-up of a green card holder being detained for his past criminal history that goes beyond what was written in the piece. The Times reported the case of Alfredo Orellana, who worked as a caregiver for a man with severe autism in Northern Virginia named Luke. The family who employed Orellana said he worked for them for four years. "It’s like Luke got a bro to hang out with," they said. The Times goes on to report that Orellana, a permanent resident, was detained for 12 hours in January after returning from El Salvador with his wife, who is an American citizen. They were told to return to Dulles International Airport the next month with court documents. When they returned in February, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents took Orellana into custody. “We were so shocked. We just could not believe it. We were both sobbing,” his wife recalled. The Times reported that Orellana’s detainment and possible deportation stemmed from when he "swindled" a store out of $200 eight years ago when he was struggling with substance abuse. Tricia McLaughlin, Homeland Security’s assistant secretary for public affairs, posted on X that Orellana is subject to deportation because he has a much longer criminal history than the Times described. "Of course [the NYT] failed to mention this guy had multiple charges from 2012-2019: distributing drugs, drug possession, assault and battery, failure to appear to court (twice), theft at the second degree, and larceny. Startling that he was a caregiver given he had violent charges on his record," McLaughlin said. "More fake sob stories," she added.

New York Times [4/12/2025 5:00 AM, Miriam Jordan, 145325K] reports that, during President Trump’s first term in the White House, Nadene Casteel’s students at an elementary school near Houston lamented that his border wall, as they understood it, would prevent them from seeing their grandmothers and other relatives in Mexico. These days, she said, they are terrified that immigration agents will take away their parents. “I have had kids coming to school saying, ‘Daddy’s gone — Daddy can’t come home,’” she said. Mr. Trump focused his immigration crackdown on the southern border during his first term. His administration separated thousands of migrant children from their parents after they had crossed into the United States. The policy was intended to discourage family migration, and it set off public outrage as images surfaced of weeping toddlers pulled from their mothers’ arms. This time, Mr. Trump has shifted his attention to the interior of the country, as he seeks to fulfill his pledge to carry out mass deportations — a goal that has drawn relatively broad support. And teachers, parents and other caregivers say the very public detention and deportation effort is taking a particularly heavy toll on young people in immigrant families. “Every day I worry they could take my mom,” Ximena, 11 — who was born in California and whose Mexican mother has lived in the United States for decades — said before breaking into tears. Nine million children, 17 percent of all 5- to 17-year-olds, live in a U.S. household with at least one noncitizen adult who could be affected by immigration enforcement, according to a report released this month by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The share is one in three children in California and about one in four in Nevada, New Jersey and Texas. Within hours of his inauguration, Mr. Trump’s administration rescinded a longstanding policy that had generally barred immigration agents from entering schools, houses of worship and other “sensitive” locations. “Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” said a statement issued by the Homeland Security Department that ricocheted across social media and news outlets. There have been no reports of ICE actions inside schools. But rumors and, in some cases, sightings of agents around schools have stirred anxiety among parents and children. “You say my child can be safe with you,” read a text from a parent to Ms. Casteel that she shared with The Times, “but the problem will be for us to go drop him off and pick him up later.”

Breitbart [4/10/2025 11:38 PM, Ian Hanchett, 2923K] reports that during a town hall on CNN on Thursday, Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-CT) said she regrets her vote in favor of the Laken Riley Act and said that she thought the Trump administration "wanted to have border security, they wanted to work with Democrats, that we could actually move forward. I’m not really sure of that, because I’ve seen the rhetoric that has come out and the attacks that have been targeted towards immigrants." And also maintained Democrats aren’t opposed to deporting criminals. Hayes said, "I voted for that piece of legislation because of a very specific provision, and it was if it caused injury or death to a police officer, which was one small piece of it. There were other things about, to your point, Kaitlan, someone who…was charged but hadn’t been convicted. As I’ve thought about it, over the last couple of months, I probably would have voted differently. It’s a vote that I regret. But coming into this Congress, I trusted that this administration, we would have some — that they wanted to have border security, they wanted to work with Democrats, that we could actually move forward. I’m not really sure of that, because I’ve seen the rhetoric that has come out and the attacks that have been targeted towards immigrants. So, I am very cautious and careful when I’m negotiating my votes moving forward." Later in the town hall, Hayes stated that "Democrats are not opposed to someone who has committed a crime, or is here illegally" being deported. But the opponents of the Laken Riley Act had due process concerns.

Reported similarly:
Blaze [4/11/2025 11:45 AM, Julio Rosas, 1668K]
Daily Wire [4/11/2025 6:34 AM, Hank Berrien, 4672K]

Federal News Network [4/11/2025 6:13 PM, Justin Doubleday, 1089K] reports tens of thousands of Department of Homeland Security employees have until Monday night to decide whether to voluntarily step away from their jobs, and in many cases, long careers at DHS. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem sent details of the offer to DHS employees on Monday, April 7, in an email, “Reshaping of the DHS Workforce.” The “Workforce Transition Program” gives DHS employees who want to leave three options: deferred resignation, early retirement or a voluntary separation payment. DHS employees who are eligible to participate have until Monday, April 14, at 11:59 p.m. EST to decide whether to take one of the options. Noem wrote that DHS components would send out more specific guidance tailored to their individual workforces. Most DHS components did not follow up until Tuesday at the earliest, meaning employees have had less than a week to consider their future. Many of DHS’ 260,000 employees are exempt from participating in the program. Noem said law enforcement officers are exempt “as a general rule.”

Breitbart [4/10/2025 4:30 PM, Olivia Rondeau, 2923K] reports that President Donald Trump ordered the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate two former officials from his first administration who openly betrayed him, saying he thinks one of them is "guilty of treason." The orders to review the activities and revoke security clearances of former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Christopher Krebs and former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Chief of Staff Miles Taylor were signed by Trump in the Oval Office on Wednesday. Krebs was fired via a Trump tweet in November 2020 for releasing a statement claiming the presidential election "was the most secure in American history," and denouncing "unfounded claims" that Joe Biden was not the true winner. Trump’s post at the time read: The recent statement by Chris Krebs on the security of the 2020 Election was highly inaccurate, in that there were massive improprieties and fraud — including dead people voting, Poll Watchers not allowed into polling locations, ‘glitches’ in the voting machines which changed votes from Trump to Biden, late voting, and many more. Therefore, effective immediately, Chris Krebs has been terminated as Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

FOX News [4/11/2025 7:55 PM, Haley Chi-Sing, 46189K] reports a Maryland federal judge on Friday told the Trump administration to comply with a Supreme Court order "in good faith" regarding the ordered return of an alleged MS-13 gang member erroneously deported to El Salvador. Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national and Maryland resident, was deported to El Salvador last month for being an alleged MS-13 gang member. His attorneys have maintained that he does not have any ties to the violent gang. In a Friday hearing, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered the government to provide daily updates as they comply with Thursday’s Supreme Court order upholding her previous order to return Abrego Garcia to U.S. soil. "I hope you will, in good faith, comply and we’ll take it from there," Xinis said Friday. "I want daily updates until this matter is resolved." Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign and Xinis made clear during the hearing that they did not agree on their understanding of the high court’s order. On Thursday, the Supreme Court wrote that Xinis’ order "properly requires the government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NPR [4/11/2025 11:15 AM, Sarah Ventre, 29983K] reports more than 130 Jewish students, staff and alumni from Georgetown University have signed a public letter opposing the arrest and detention of researcher Badar Khan Suri, saying that President Trump’s policies make Jews on campus less safe. The Jewish students who have signed call Suri’s arrest and detention "an authoritarian move that harms the entire campus community." The letter was published on Friday in Georgetown’s newspaper, "The Hoya." Suri, a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown and an Indian national, was arrested by masked federal agents following a Ramadan iftar in March. He is being accused by Department of Homeland Security officials of spreading Hamas propaganda. Department of Homeland Security’s Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said on X: "Suri was a foreign exchange student at Georgetown University actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media. Suri has close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior advisor to Hamas." Suri’s father-in-law was formerly an advisor to Hamas, according to the New York Times. Suri’s lawyers deny that he has spread propaganda, and accuse the Trump administration of retaliating against Suri and his wife for their support for Palestinians and ties to Gaza. NPR reached out to the administration for comment on the letter’s assertion -- that the prominent detentions and deportation threats weaponize antisemitism. DHS’ Tricia McLaughlin responded, "Pretty absurd mental gymnastics to believe that revoking visas of individuals who glorify and support terrorists, harass Jews and do the bidding of organizations that relish the killing of Americans and Jews, is in fact, making Jewish students less safe."

Reported similarly:
NBC News [4/11/2025 12:51 PM, Kimmy Yam, 44742K]

AP [4/11/2025 5:00 PM, Kate Payne] reports the police departments of at least three public universities in Florida are seeking agreements with the federal government to carry out immigration enforcement on campus. It’s a significant shift in policy for schools that had previously been considered "sensitive locations" to be insulated from such law enforcement activities, under a federal policy the Trump administration rescinded. The change comes as federal officials are revoking the visas of international students and using what critics say are new tactics with vague justifications to push some students out of the country. Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, the University of Florida in Gainesville and the University of South Florida in Tampa are all seeking to deputize their campus police for immigration enforcement, representatives for the schools confirmed to The Associated Press. Joshua Glanzer, a spokesperson for FAU, said "all state schools" in Florida are expected to pursue the expanded immigration enforcement authority.

Yahoo News [4/11/2025 3:19 PM, Christian Olivier, 430301K] reports that, six people, including one person accused of being affiliated with the Gulf Cartel, were arrested on Thursday following a joint operation headed by FBI New Orleans. FBI officials say they’ve developed information that the cartel has been trafficking large amounts of fentanyl, cocaine and heroin from Houston, Texas, to Louisiana. With the help of the New Orleans Police Department, the Louisiana State Police, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, St. Bernard Parish Office deputies, K-9 agents with Customs and Border Patrol and Enforcement and Removal Operations, "high-risk" search warrants were executed at North Tonti and Mandeville streets, and Franklin Avenue. Three of the six individuals arrested are immigration detentions. The other three were arrested by the NOPD and face state charges. The investigation remains ongoing. No further information was provided.

CBS 62 Detroit [4/11/2025 8:52 AM, Paula Wethington, 51700K] Video HERE reports the ACLU of Michigan announced Thursday it had filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of four international students attending Michigan schools whose student visa status was revoked. The lawsuit includes a request for an emergency injunction; and asks the court to reinstate the legal status of the students so they can complete their studies in the United States. The defendants named in the case are Kristi Noem, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement; and Robert Lynch, field office director of Detroit, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. This is one of the latest developments in circumstances taking place over the past few weeks, after universities across the country discovered some of their international students’ visas had been terminated. University of Michigan had stepped up review of its student visa status reports in the government’s Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), and through those efforts learned some of its students and recent graduates were affected. Wayne State University, Michigan State University and Central Michigan University also reported international student visa revocations among some of their students. While the reported cases involve a small number of the nearly 38,000 international students studying in Michigan, or even on an individual campus, they got attention because of the similar instances across the country. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said March 27 that at least 300 student visas across the country had been revoked by that point.

AP [4/11/2025 11:12 AM, Uriel J. Garcia, 48304K] reports that the Texas Senate on Thursday approved a proposal that would create a homeland security division within the state’s Department of Public Safety to focus on immigration enforcement, organized crime and protecting the state’s infrastructure from security risks. If passed into law, Senate Bill 36 would make Texas’ immigration enforcement efforts a permanent part of the state’s criminal justice system. SB 36, which passed in the Senate on a 26-4 vote, will now go before the state House of Representatives. For the past four years, Texas legislators have plowed more than $11 billion into Operation Lone Star, Gov. Greg Abbott’s ongoing border crackdown that deployed state police and Texas National Guard along the state’s nearly 1,300 miles of border with Mexico. OLS, launched shortly after Joe Biden’s presidency began, also paid to build sections of border wall, deploy miles of razor wire along the Rio Grande and open facilities to house National Guard troops and process apprehended migrants. But even more enforcement is needed, said state Sen. Tan Parker, R-Flower Mound, the bill’s sponsor. He added that the state needs its own homeland security office because it would "safeguard our border, our residents and our economic engines. "It strikes the right balance between providing for our security and respecting the roles of our local and federal partners," Parker said.

Breitbart [4/11/2025 3:23 PM, John Binder, 2923K] reports the rape and murder of 13-year-old Oscar Hernandez — allegedly at the hands of an illegal alien — in the sanctuary state of California is the result of "failed border policies," United States Attorney Bill Essayli said. "This was an avoidable crime and the result of failed border policies," Essayli told NBC Los Angeles of Hernandez’s rape and murder. "We cannot and will not tolerate illegal aliens who flout our nation’s immigration laws then prey on children. Federal law enforcement will continue to be very aggressive in locating, apprehending, and prosecuting criminal illegal aliens.” This week, 41-year-old illegal alien Mario Edgardo Garcia-Aquino of El Salvador was arrested and charged by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office with raping Hernandez and then murdering him, leaving his body on the side of a road in Ventura County, California. Hernandez was first reported missing by his family on March 28 after he had taken a train to Lancaster, California, to visit Garcia-Aquino — a youth soccer coach to young boys. Police allege that Garcia-Aquino murdered Hernandez while raping him before dumping his body. More alleged victims of Garcia-Aquino are now coming forward, upset that law enforcement did not take the illegal alien off the streets for reported child sex crimes before Hernandez’s murder. In December 2022, for example, Garcia-Aquino was accused of sexually assaulting a 14 or 15-year-old boy, but the case was not presented to prosecutors until a year later. Until Hernandez’s murder, prosecutors said there was not enough evidence to charge Garcia-Aquino. Then, in February 2024, a boy identified as John said Garcia-Aquino also sexually assaulted him when he was 16 years old, just three years after he met the illegal alien through a local soccer club. "He allegedly killed this young boy. I thought it could have been me," John told NBC Los Angeles. Garcia-Aquino, who remains in police custody, could face either the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole. If convicted of sexually assaulting John, he faces six years in prison. Near Nashville, Tennessee, a similar case has played out. Illegal alien Camilo Hurtado Campos, a 65-year-old soccer coach, was accused in July 2023 of drugging, then raping, several young boys and filming the assaults on his phone. His alleged victims ranged from 9 to 17 years old. Campos has since been indicted on several dozen state and federal charges.

The Latin Times [4/11/2025 3:14 PM, Pedro Camacho, 1500K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem defended the Trump administration’s decision to take over 200 Venezuelan migrants in a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, saying those imprisoned should remain there permanently. "We’re confident that people that are [imprisoned in El Salvador] should be there, and they should stay there for the rest of their lives," Noem said following an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) event reported by Axios. She cited intelligence from immigration enforcement, the State Department, and other agencies as the basis for the decision. Noem’s comments come days after the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to resume using the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan migrants accused of gang affiliations. In a 5-4 decision, the Court ruled, however, that deportees must be given a "reasonable time" to challenge their removal in court, but affirmed the administration’s authority to proceed under the wartime statute. Legal experts consulted by the outlet raised due process concerns upon Noem’s comments. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council stated that "nothing in U.S. immigration law would permit indefinite imprisonment without court decisions."

The New York Post [4/11/2025 12:46 PM, Jennie Taer, 54903K] reports that migrant crossings through the once-overrun and dangerous Darien Gap have plummeted 99% under President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, The Post has learned. Just 408 migrants were recorded traversing the treacherous Panamanian jungle path in February, compared to when crossings peaked at 37,166 in February 2024 under President Joe Biden, according to data provided by the Department of Homeland Security. Before-and-after photos of the Darien Gap show the small river port of Lajas Blancas — inundated by hordes of migrants just a year ago — now sitting empty as crossings plummet. Panamanian authorities were seeing an average of 16,400 migrants making the grueling trek each week at their peak in 2022, according to DHS. Massive tents previously packed with migrants now sit vacant, and a river where migrants would cross by foot is abnormally quiet, according to the photos taken by the Associated Press. Just a few migrants from Venezuela, Angola and Nigeria were seen sleeping on the ground of the Lajas Blancas camp while being watched by cops. And the aid groups have all left. "Doctors Without Borders, the Red Cross, no one comes here anymore," Venezuelan Hermanie Blanco, 33, who arrived in Panama days after Trump took office, told the outlet. The Blaze [4/11/2025 5:00 PM, Candace Hathaway, 1668K] reports that days before Trump’s inauguration in January, border czar Tom Homan vowed to shut down the Darién Gap in order to "protect our national security." The Associated Press reported that over 500,000 individuals traveled through the crossing in 2023. During a peak period in 2022, an average of 16,400 individuals passed through every week. Now, only about 10 people trickle through per week. The AP’s most recent photos revealed a ghost town. The news outlet reported that humanitarian organizations that previously frequented the area have since shut down operations. Panamanian authorities now reportedly strictly control access.

Blaze [4/11/2025 5:00 PM, Candace Hathaway, 1668K] reports under President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, a once heavily trafficked jungle passage between Colombia and Panama experienced a 99% drop in crossings in February. Days before Trump’s inauguration in January, border czar Tom Homan vowed to shut down the Darién Gap in order to "protect our national security." The Associated Press reported that over 500,000 individuals traveled through the crossing in 2023. During a peak period in 2022, an average of 16,400 individuals passed through every week. Now, only about 10 people trickle through per week. The AP’s most recent photos revealed a ghost town. The news outlet reported that humanitarian organizations that previously frequented the area have since shut down operations. Panamanian authorities now reportedly strictly control access.

The Hill [4/11/2025 8:00 AM, Kimiko Hirota, 12829K] reports that, in December 1941, my great-great grandfather, Sawaichi Fujita, a 58-year-old tinsmith who had lived in Hawaii for 36 years, was torn away from his family, marking the first of his 1,432 days incarcerated by the U.S. government. Invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the internment of him and thousands of others based on their ancestry. When he finally returned home after World War II, my grandfather said he was never the same. Soon after he was wrongfully jailed, Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which authorized the forced removal of all people deemed a threat to national security. As a result, men, women and children of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast were forced to leave their homes. Between 1941 and 1945, the United States forcibly incarcerated more than 125,000 people of Japanese descent. In 1983, the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians determined that their incarceration was caused by "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.” Four decades later, the commission’s findings are more relevant than ever. On Day 1 of his second administration, President Trump ordered the State and Homeland Security Departments to prepare for him to put into effect the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 — the same law used to intern my great-great grandfather and 31,000 other noncitizens of Japanese, German and Italian descent during World War II. When he invoked the archaic wartime authority on March 15, Trump sought to target members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang. In reality, judges, lawyers and journalists have found that the administration used the act to disappear immigrants to a maximum-security mega-prison in El Salvador with little if any evidence of gang membership or criminal history. The majority have no criminal records and some were in the middle of asylum case proceedings. Mere tattoos, including an autism awareness ribbon and the words "mom" and "dad" beside crowns, were used to justify some removals. The Trump administration’s actions have upended human rights and basic due process. Immigrants are being held incommunicado, unable to contact their families or access lawyers. Alone and terrified, they do not know how long they will be held in detention after being taken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement or where they are being sent when boarded onto a plane in chains.

AP [4/11/2025 5:02 PM, Lindsay Whitehurst and Michael Kunzelman, 48304K] reports a federal judge on Friday sided with the Trump administration in allowing immigration agents to conduct enforcement operations at houses of worship for now, despite a lawsuit filed by religious groups over the new policy. U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich in Washington refused to grant a preliminary injunction to the plaintiffs, more than two dozen Christian and Jewish groups representing millions of Americans. She found that the plaintiffs lack standing, or the legal right to sue, since only a handful of immigration enforcement actions have been conducted in or around churches or other houses of worship and that the evidence at this point doesn’t show “that places of worship are being singled out as special targets.” The plaintiffs are reviewing the decision and assessing their options, said their lead counsel, Kelsi Corkran. “We remain gravely concerned about the impacts of this policy and are committed to protecting foundational rights enshrined in the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act,” said Corkran, the Supreme Court Director at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy & Protection. The religious groups argued the policy violated the right to practice their religion. Since President Donald Trump took office in January, attendance has declined significantly, with some areas showing double-digit percentage drops, they said. The judge, though, found that the groups had not shown their drops were definitively linked to the church policy specifically, as opposed to broader increased actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement or other agencies.

Reported similarly:
New York Times [4/11/2025 5:29 PM, Zach Montague, 145325K]
Reuters [4/11/2025 5:18 PM, Brendan Pierson, 41523K]
Washington Examiner [4/11/2025 4:29 PM, Jack Birle, 2296K]

New York Post [4/11/2025 1:44 PM, Jennie Taer, 54903K] reports that the Trump administration has ordered immigration agents to verify whether migrants have submitted their names and personal information to an online registry as part of an expansion of the president’s mass deportation effort. If migrants fail to register or don’t carry proof of their registration with them, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are being told to "treat the alien’s case as an immigration enforcement priority" and to "refer the case to the US Department of Justice for criminal prosecution," according to the memo. An ICE source said they believe many illegal migrants won’t register, becoming prime targets for arrest and deportation. Trump signed an executive order — Protecting the American People Against Invasion — on his first day back in the White House, paving the way for the registry that now requires migrants to submit personal information or face fines and arrest. Illegal migrants ages 14 and older must submit fingerprints and home addresses to the registry or potentially face criminal prosecution or deportation, according to US Citizens and Immigration Services. "Most aliens in the United States have already registered, as required by law," according to USCIS. "However, a significant number of aliens present in the United States have had no direct way in which to register and meet their obligation under INA [section] 262. "In order that unregistered aliens may comply with their duty under INA [section] 262, USCIS is establishing a new form and process by which they may register. No alien will have an excuse for failure to comply with this law." Migrants who don’t register could face fines of up to $1,000 per day, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told The Post Tuesday.

Arizona Republic [4/11/2025 8:03 AM, Raphael Romero Ruiz, 68K] reports the Trump administration is looking to overhaul how it carries out deportations by modeling its operations after delivery companies like Amazon and FedEx, the acting director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said. “We need to get better at treating this like a business,” acting Director Todd Lyons, speaking at the Border Security Expo in Phoenix, said, explaining he wants to see a quick-turn deportation process similar to how Amazon can deliver within 24 hours. “So, trying to figure out how to do that with human beings.” Lyons said the agency was effective at removals but faced logistical challenges as the number of migrants in custody grows and court cases pile up. Lyons made the comments, first reported by the Arizona Mirror, during the “State of the Border" panel discussion with several other leaders of the Trump administration’s immigration law enforcement agencies – including U.S. border czar Tom Homan – after Homan’s April 8 opening keynote for the expo. The border czar and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem spoke directly to private industry leaders as they laid out their vision for a nationwide deportation operation backed by the private sector.

Yahoo! News [4/11/2025 1:30 PM, Matthew Petti, 430301K] reports the Trump administration insists that its crackdown on pro-Palestinian students is not an attack on freedom of thought. "This is not about free speech. This is about people that don’t have a right to be in the United States to begin with," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in defense of detaining Columbia University protest spokesman Mahmoud Khalil in March. But on Thursday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said that its job was to stop ideas along with people. "If it crosses the U.S. border illegally, it’s our job to stop it. People. Money. Products. Ideas," said the since-deleted social media graphic. After the statement sparked an uproar, ICE quickly claimed that it was a mistake. "That post was sent without proper approval and should never have been shared," ICE Media Operations Unit Chief Mike Alvarez tells Reason via email. "‘Ideas’ should have said ‘intellectual property.’" Mistake or not, the post reflects the Trump administration’s philosophy that free speech stops at the border. The same day as the ICE post, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it would begin screening foreign students’ and immigrants’ social media accounts for "antisemitic ideologies" or "terrorist sympathizers."

USA Today [4/12/2025 6:01 AM, Trevor Hughes and Lauren Villagran, 75858K] reports a British backpacker. A Harvard researcher. A Canadian actress. An Australian mixed martial arts coach. Dozens of international college students. The Trump administration’s sweeping immigration-and-visa crackdown has begun ensnaring a class of people long-accustomed to being welcomed with open arms into the United States. And those uncommon detainees are bringing new attention to the often-harsh U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention system, where people can be held without charge indefinitely, sometimes in shocking conditions, or abruptly removed from the country. This type of treatment has long been the case in ICE detention, but the people held by the government often didn’t have the resources ‒ the access, language or middle-class expectations ‒ to denounce the conditions. Now, with Trump’s crackdown, native English speakers, people with PhDs, and others are getting the word out to a broader public about a system they describe as arbitrary and punishing ‒ although ICE detention is not supposed to resemble prison. "It’s insane how easily someone can take away your freedom, lock you in a federal prison, without a clear reason. No explanation. No warning," Australian MMA coach Renato Subotic wrote in an Instagram post after being detained in early April. "Just like that, you’re treated like the worst criminal.” Like the other detained travelers, Subotic said he was trying to enter the U.S. with a visa and was handcuffed after customs officers identified a paperwork problem. Instead of being refused entry to the United States and put on a flight back home, Subotic said he was taken to a chaotic federal detention center for 24 hours. USA TODAY asked ICE whether foreign travelers should expect to be detained on an infraction of customs or immigration law. The agency didn’t respond to a request for comment regarding its detention practices. Because immigration and visa violations are civil, not criminal matters, ICE detention is supposed to be "non-punitive," according to the agency’s own guidelines. But conditions vary widely in the sprawling detention network overseen by ICE, which includes government-run and contracted facilities, said Deb Fleischaker, a former ICE official who served under Biden and the first Trump administration. "Legally, it is civil detention, not criminal detention," Fleischaker said. But "by and large, people are treated like they are in jail.”

Boston Herald [4/11/2025 5:34 PM, Flint McColgan, 1200K] reports the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security targeted Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s stance on immigration policy following an ICE arrest of an alleged pedophile with more than 20 charges. “Does Boston’s Mayor Michelle Wu think these pedophiles are above the law? Imagine what our ICE officers could do without Sanctuary City policies that protect illegal alien criminals including child predators, murders, and rapists,” Secretary Kristi Noem posted on X Friday morning. The post included a picture of Gilberto Avila-Jara, 64, who federal agents arrested on April 1. The arrest was made by agents of the New England field offices of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Avila-Jara was arrested in Lawrence, not Boston, according to the arresting agencies, despite Noem’s post. The agencies provided no further details on Avila-Jara besides the two-sentence post on X. Noem’s post is the latest in a long line of statements from members of the President Trump administration who deal with immigration that target Massachusetts, Boston or Wu specifically. The administration has appeared to attempt to make Boston its example of failed “sanctuary city” policies.

Washington Post [4/11/2025 11:49 AM, Joanna Slater, 31735K] reports a Turkish graduate student detained outside her apartment by masked ICE agents last month was not told why she was being arrested and feared she was being abducted as she was transferred between cars and moved out of Massachusetts, a court document says. Rumeysa Ozturk, a 30-year-old doctoral student at Tufts University, did not know that the State Department had revoked her visa when she was apprehended on March 25 near Boston. Ozturk was on the phone with her mother when several men surrounded her on the sidewalk and she screamed, Ozturk wrote in a sworn declaration submitted in her case. One flashed a badge but too quickly for Ozturk to see what it said. “I didn’t think that they were the police because I had never seen police approach and take someone away like this,” Ozturk wrote. “I thought this was a strange situation and was sure they were going to kill me.” Ozturk’s lawyers say she was targeted for co-authoring an op-ed last year in a student newspaper criticizing the university’s response to the Israel-Gaza war. The Department of Homeland Security has said Ozturk engaged in activities “in support of Hamas” but neither the agency nor prosecutors have provided evidence for that claim.

The Daily Wire [4/11/2025 12:35 PM, Nathan Gay, 4672K] reports Trump-appointed interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba launched an investigation into New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and state Attorney General Matt Platkin for obstructing federal immigration enforcement, warning other officials who refuse to assist federal agencies that they will face criminal charges. “I want it to be a warning for everybody: that I have instructed my office today to open an investigation into Gov. Murphy, to open an investigation into Attorney General Platkin, who has also instructed the State Police not to assist any of our federal … agencies that are under my direction,” Habba announced on Fox News Thursday night. “[U.S. Attorney General] Pam Bondi has made it clear, and so has our president, that we are to take all criminal[s] — violent criminals and criminals — out of this country and to completely enforce federal law,” Habba said. “And anybody who does get in that way, in the way of what we are doing, which is not political, it is simply against crime, will be charged in the state of New Jersey for obstruction, for concealment, and I will come after them hard.” The investigation centers on a memo from State Police Superintendent Col. Patrick Callahan reminding New Jersey law enforcement of the state’s 2018 “Immigrant Trust Directive,” which limits cooperation with federal immigration authorities. “These Administrative Warrant messages appear in NCIC in a method that ALL members are to note they are NOT to be broadcast as ‘NCIC Hits,’” the memo states. “NJDSP members are NOT permitted to contact ICE via the phone numbers provided.” Under Murphy’s directive, state and local police are barred from detaining someone solely based on immigration status, and are prohibited from even communicating with federal immigration officials save for “violent or serious offense[s]” and court orders. [Editorial note: consult video at source link] FOX News [4/11/2025 12:36 PM, Michael Ruiz, 46189K] reports Habba said the investigation will look at Murphy as well as New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin over alleged instructions to state police not to cooperate with any federal agencies on immigration enforcement. Under a 2018 "Immigrant Trust Directive" issued by former New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, "voluntary cooperation" between state and local police with federal authorities is limited – ostensibly so that illegals who are the victims of crimes are not afraid to report incidents to police. While handcuffing state police on immigration enforcement, Platkin has also ordered an investigation into the department led by Obama-appointee Preet Bharara into allegations that they slowed down traffic enforcement after being accused – by Platkin’s office – of racial profiling. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reported similarly:
AP [4/11/2025 2:58 PM, Mike Catalini, 34586K]
National Review [4/11/2025 3:48 PM, David Zimmerman, 109K]

(B) Today [4/11/2025 8:27 AM, Staff] reports Cambria County is looking to work more closely with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The commissioners are voting Thursday to approve an agreement between ICE, Homeland Security, and the county prison. Under that agreement, inmates arrested and booked at the prison who are identified as illegal immigrants will be held for up to 48 hours to allow federal agents time to pick up that inmate.

CNN [4/12/2025 5:00 AM, Polo Sandoval and Linh Tran, 430301K] reports that, to Karen Cruz Berrios, her mother is a hard-working, devoted single parent. To the Department of Homeland Security, she is " … an associate of the vicious MS-13 gang.” However, nearly two weeks after Elsy Noemi Berrios, 52, was taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, DHS has yet to disclose any evidence to substantiate its claim against the Salvadoran woman to the public or, her attorneys say, to them. Noemi Berrios was arrested by federal agents in Westminster, Maryland, on the morning of March 31 as she drove to work with her daughter, according to her family. Cell phone video, shot and shared by Cruz Berrios, shows authorities demanded her mother step out of the vehicle. She’s heard refusing and asking the officers to show her a detention order. "I do not need to show you the warrant," responded one of the officers wearing a tactical vest marked "Federal Agent.” Seconds later, officers shattered her driver’s side window to unlock the door and removed Noemi Berrios from the car before handcuffing her hands behind her back. Noemi Berrios’ attorneys said they have not seen any detention order nor received any explanation from DHS about why their client is in custody. Her attorneys told CNN they only became aware of DHS’ allegations that she was an affiliate of MS-13 through news reports. Her attorneys requested a bond hearing, scheduled for Monday, to seek her release from detention and compel the government to hand over any evidence they have against their client. "DHS has not provided us with any evidence to substantiate their allegations that our client is associated with MS-13 and our client denies any association or involvement," said Raymond Griffith, one of the lawyers representing Noemi Berrios. A CNN search of public records shows Noemi Berrios has no criminal history. "Whether he is in El Salvador or a detention facility in the U.S., he should be locked up," said DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin in a statement to CNN. Though the cases of Abrego Garcia and Noemi Berrios differ, Salvadoran-native and Maryland resident Jorge Benitez Perez says he is worried. "We know that when Salvadorans were first coming here, that was the number one argument used against us. That we were all MS-13. That we were all part of some gang," said Benitez Perez, an immigration activist who helped spearhead efforts to make Prince George’s County a Maryland sanctuary jurisdiction in 2019. "To see these insults and these attacks coming towards our people and seeing our people being sent back to a country that they fled is disappointing and it’s angering," added Benitez Perez. According to ICE, Noemi Berrios remains detained at one of the agency’s processing centers in rural Pennsylvania. Her family and attorneys say they are doing everything they can to have her released out of fear that the government will initiate deportation proceedings.

(B) Good Morning America [4/11/2025 9:57 AM, Staff] reports two brothers have been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement following a rape investigation in Opelika. Police say 20-year-old Artemio Perez was arrested by the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta. Police say he will be sent to Lee County and charged with rape in the first degree. Police say Artemio’s brother Jose Perez was arrested for hindering prosecution.

New York Times [4/11/2025 5:30 PM, Ellen Barry, 153395K] reports a barracks-style detention center in Louisiana is jammed with around 90 immigrant women, mostly undocumented workers from central and South America, sharing five toilets and following orders shouted by guards. There is also, among them, a Russian scientist. She is 30 years old, shy and prone to nervous laughter. She cannot work, because her laptop was confiscated. She plays chess with other women when the guards allow it. Otherwise, she passes the time reading books about evolution and cell development. For nearly eight weeks, Kseniia Petrova has been captive to the hard-line immigration policies of the Trump administration. A graduate of a renowned Russian physics and technology institute, Ms. Petrova was recruited to work at a laboratory at Harvard Medical School. She was part of a team investigating how cells can rejuvenate themselves, with the goal of fending off the damage of aging. On Feb. 16, customs officials detained her at Logan International Airport in Boston for failing to declare samples of frog embryos she had carried from France at the request of her boss at Harvard. Such an infraction is normally considered minor, punishable with a fine of up to $500. Instead, the customs official canceled Ms. Petrova’s visa on the spot and began deportation proceedings. Then Ms. Petrova told her that she had fled Russia for political reasons and faced arrest if she returned there. This is how she wound up at the Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe, La., waiting for the U.S. government to decide what to do with her.

Detroit Free Press [4/11/2025 7:08 AM, Niraj Warikoo, 4124K] reports Jackson County has become the first municipality in Michigan to enter into an agreement with a federal immigration agency to execute warrants without judicial approval. The recent move concerns immigrant rights advocates who fear the program will lead to racial profiling and increased detentions and deportations of immigrants who don’t have criminal records. Known as the Warrant Service Officer program, the agreement allows deputies with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department to effectively act as federal agents by helping U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in targeting immigrants who may be jailed or in the custody of the sheriff’s department. Jackson County has about 160,000 residents and is located about 40 miles west of Ann Arbor. Advocates worry the agreement, signed by the sheriff’s department last month, could spread to other parts of the state. As of Thursday, Jackson County was the only municipality in Michigan listed on ICE’s website as participating. "It’s kind of a dark day for Michigan because it’s the first one we’ve had in our state," Christine Sauvé, a manager at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, told the Free Press this week. "It signals that this municipality is willing to pursue and uproot community members in a way that ... jurisdictions in our state haven’t done before, participating in this machine aimed at deporting folks who have been long-standing community members, curtailing due process.” There’s also a fear it could lead to deputies making judgments about a person’s immigration status based on their appearance, leading to them being transferred to ICE custody. In 2018, the ACLU raised concerns about a U.S. citizen and Marine veteran who was Latino, Jilmar Ramos-Gonzalez, being handed over to ICE. Civil rights advocates and some law enforcement leaders say that a judicial warrant should be required before ICE can take inmates into custody, while ICE has said it only needs an administrative warrant to detain inmates.

Detroit Free Press [4/11/2025 1:36 PM, Darcie Moran, 4124K] reports that four international students at the University of Michigan and Wayne State University are suing to regain student status in the country and prevent deportation amid an immigration crackdown by the Trump administration. The ACLU of Michigan on Thursday filed a lawsuit on behalf of the individuals from India, China and Nepal against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court Eastern District of Michigan, also names Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Todd Lyons and the Detroit field office director for ICE enforcement and removal operations, Robert Lynch, as defendants. Loren Khogali, executive director of the ACLU of Michigan, said in a statement that the Trump administration is acting as if basic constitutional requirements don’t apply to them and did not afford the students due process to challenge the revocation of student statuses. “The aim of this administration is to sow chaos and fear by attacking some people to terrorize us all,” Khogali said. “Now, they are coming for international students who provide critical perspectives and contributions to our academic communities and, through their spending, make a major contribution to our economy.” Representatives for the White House, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Department of State, and ICE did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

FOX News [4/12/2025 5:48 AM, Elizabeth Pritchett, 46189K] reports a former governor and presidential candidate in Mexico serving a federal prison sentence in the U.S. for money laundering was deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) this week. Tomas Jesus Yarrington Ruvalcaba, 68, was removed by ICE on Wednesday and turned over to Mexican authorities, whom he was wanted by, the agency announced on Friday. Yarrington was the governor of Tamaulipas, Mexico, from 1999 to 2005, and ran as a presidential candidate for Mexico’s Institutional Revolutionary Party in 2005. Before he was transferred to ICE custody last summer, he was serving a 108-month sentence in the Federal Correctional Institution Thomson in Illinois after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering in 2021. Yarrington was moved from the Illinois prison to continue immigration hearings, and on Feb. 27, a judge with the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review ordered his removal. The ex-politician waived his right to appeal. Mexican authorities were awaiting his arrival at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in California to take him into custody for charges he is facing there, which include organized crime and transactions with illegally obtained resources. Court documents showed that he accepted bribes from individuals and private companies in Mexico during his time as governor of Tamaulipas to do business with the state, ICE said. He used the bribery money to purchase properties in the United States, but used nominee buyers in an attempt to hide his involvement. "Yarrington laundered his illegally obtained bribe money in the United States by purchasing beachfront condominiums, large estates, commercial developments, airplanes and luxury vehicles," ICE said. Yarrington was caught traveling in Italy in April 2017 under an assumed name and fake passport. He was taken into custody there on a provisional arrest warrant following a May 2013 indictment for various money laundering and drug-related charges. Italian authorities ultimately authorized his extradition to the U.S., which he fought, and he arrived in the states in April 2018.

CNN [4/11/2025 6:44 PM, Natasha Bertrand and Haley Britzky, 908K] reports the US Army’s base in El Paso, Texas — Fort Bliss — has been chosen as a site to detain and house potentially thousands of migrants, and contracts have already been signed to start the construction of migrant facilities on the base, three defense officials told CNN. The US Army has now taken control of contracts supporting the construction and maintenance of the facilities on Fort Bliss, as well as a contract to oversee a central processing center in El Paso, the officials said. Those contracts were originally awarded to private entities by US Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The current plan for Fort Bliss is to build facilities that can hold as many as 5,000 migrants, one of the defense officials said. "Regarding ICE building a facility on Bliss, I can say that the Secretary of Defense has authorized the US Army to assume control and management of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement contracts supporting the facility construction, maintenance and upkeep at the CBP El Paso Central Processing Center and on Army land at Fort Bliss," another of the defense officials said. While the facilities will be on US military property, Army personnel will not be manning them due to laws barring military personnel from engaging in law enforcement activity. ProPublica reported earlier on Friday that ICE had awarded a contract to a private company to operate a migrant detention camp on Fort Bliss. It is unclear if Fort Bliss would be used instead of Guantanamo Bay, or in addition to the naval base. Fort Bliss has previously been used to temporarily house migrants, including during the surge of unaccompanied migrant children under the Biden administration. Fort Bliss was also used to house thousands of Afghan nationals during Operation Allies Welcome, an initiative launched under the Biden administration to support and resettle more than 11,000 Afghans after the US pulled troops out of Afghanistan in 2021.

The Washington Post [4/11/2025 12:16 PM, Andrea Sachs, 31735K] reports Avelo Airlines, an ultra-low-cost carrier based in Houston, has agreed to operate deportation flights for the Department of Homeland Security out of Phoenix-Mesa Airport starting next month. The contract is unconventional for a commercial airline because the federal government relies mostly on private charter companies. Andrew Levy, Avelo’s founder and chief executive, described the company’s decision to participate in the flights as financial. It has generated criticism from Democratic lawmakers, the largest flight attendants union and thousands of travelers who signed a Change.org petition to boycott the carrier. “We realize this is a sensitive and complicated topic,” Levy said in a statement. “After significant deliberations, we determined this charter flying will provide us with the stability to continue expanding our core scheduled passenger service and keep our more than 1,100 Crewmembers employed for years to come.” Avelo provided details of its “long-term charter program” in a statement to The Washington Post. The airline will use three Boeing 737-800s, which can seat up to 189 passengers, to transport people deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to facilities or staging grounds in the United States or to final destinations abroad. A spokesperson for Homeland Security confirmed to The Post that Avelo will begin a subcontract through CSI Aviation on May 14. Public records show that ICE awarded CSI Aviation a contract with a potential value of more than $151 million to be performed in Mesa, Arizona, the strategic center of ICE Air Operations. It is estimated to run from March through February. No subcontractors are named. USA Today [4/11/2025 11:16 PM, Daniel Gonzalez and Michael Loria, 75858K] reports that the boycott of the Texas-based airline comes as federal agents carrying out Trump’s sweeping immigration enforcement actions put women in detention centers described as “hell on earth,” detain people legally allowed to work in the U.S. and sent a Maryland man whom a judge had barred from deportation to a notorious prison in El Salvador. The New Haven Immigrants Coalition, an immigrant rights group based in Connecticut where Avelo has a location, created the petition this week for the airline to end the federal contract. The deportation flights depart from an airport in Arizona. "We demand that AVELO AIR halt plans to carry out deportation flights in cooperation with the Trump Administration," the petition says. "We pledge to boycott the airline until they stop plans to profit off ICE flights that are tearing families and communities apart and removing some legal residents, such as Maryland father Kilmar Abrego Garcia, with no recourse for returning to their families." Abrego Garcia is the Maryland man the Trump administration mistakenly deported to El Salvador even though he had a protective order barring his expulsion. Avelo’s entry into the deportation business comes as the Trump administration needs more planes to move detainees from one state to another and then to deport them from the U.S. to other countries. Avelo announced the contract with immigration authorities in early April. The company pushed back at criticism it faced for accepting the federal contract. “We acknowledge the weight of these concerns and have received the feedback,” spokesperson Courtney Goff told USA TODAY. “Regardless of the administration or party affiliation, as a U.S. flag carrier when our country calls and requests assistance our practice is to say yes.”

AP [4/11/2025 6:21 PM, Staff, 34586K] reports a North Dakota judge on Friday dismissed a charge against a man accused of impersonating an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, leading to the improper removal of a man from jail. State District Judge Kirsten Sjue dismissed the misdemeanor count of impersonating officials against Shane Al Randall of Williston. She ordered his iPhone and $3,000 cash bond returned to him. The judge’s order, which doesn’t specify why the case was dismissed, came during a hearing about the prosecutor’s motion to dismiss the case. Williams County Assistant State’s Attorney Nathan Madden had filed to drop the charge in late February, citing “prosecutorial discretion.” The Associated Press left a phone message and emailed Madden for comment. Phone and email messages also were left with Randall’s attorney. Randall was charged in February and pleaded not guilty. Court documents said jail staff of the Williams County Correctional Center in Williston had told an inmate that ICE was coming to pick him up. The inmate then called Randall “to have him come pick him up,” authorities said. Randall arrived, and staff released the inmate to him, court papers said. Jail staff soon learned that Randall was not an ICE agent when the real officer arrived, Williams County Sheriff Verlan Kvande previously said. Officers subsequently found and arrested Randall and the inmate. A phone message was left for the sheriff.

Yahoo! News [4/11/2025 2:17 PM, Rashaad Thomas, 430301K] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations officers execute criminal search warrants and arrest more than 100 employees on federal immigration violations at a trailer manufacturing business in Sumner in 2018. Photo by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement In the name of public safety, Arizona lawmakers, led by Republican Senate President Warren Petersen, want to force police departments to hold undocumented crime suspects with federal immigration detainers. “Go back to Africa!” and “Go back to Mexico!” are phrases that countless Black and Brown adults recall hearing during their childhoods, a reminder that many still see us as criminals and outsiders. These slurs, wielded as weapons, send the clear message that we do not belong in our own country. I’ve had “Go Back to Africa” yelled at me repeatedly from childhood through adulthood. The Trump administration has already said it wants to send U.S. prisoners — which means Black Americans, given how Black people disproportionately make up prison populations — to a maximum security prison labor camp in El Salvador, from which they may never return. It’s not a stretch to expect that the Trump administration will soon do whatever it can to deport Black Americans to countries they’ve never been to, merely the latest extension of the targeting by law enforcement of Black and Brown communities — targeting we see in action through School Resource Officers and ICE enforcement in places that should be safe, like schools. Now, Arizona lawmakers are reinforcing the same exclusion with Senate Bill 1164, also known as the Arizona Immigration, Cooperation, and Enforcement Act (Arizona ICE Act). The measure, which would mandate state and local law enforcement work with ICE, targeting individuals under ICE detainers and banning policies that limit immigration enforcement, cleared its final legislative hurdle and now awaits its fate with Gov. Katie Hobbs.

NewsNation [4/11/2025 11:21 AM, Austin Turner, 6866K] reports that Federal agents tried to enter Los Angeles schools this week, in what is believed to be their first attempt in the city since the administration of President Donald Trump announced plans to carry out immigration enforcement. The agents were denied entry. Two federal officials attempted to enter Lillian Street Elementary School and Russell Elementary School on Monday — both located in L.A.’s Florence-Graham neighborhood. School administrators turned them away, following Los Angeles Unified School District protocols.The agents were from the Department of Homeland Security, the district later confirmed. Agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement were not involved. Two schools at the LAUSD denied entry to agents with the Department of Homeland Security amid an immigration crackdown from the Trump administration. (KTLA). The Department of Homeland Security has not commented publicly on the matter. As of Thursday morning, the exact goal of the agents at the L.A. schools was unclear. The attempt to enter two LAUSD schools comes after Trump’s administration authorized federal agents to enter "sensitive areas" to conduct immigration-related investigations — something that was against the Biden administration’s guidelines.

AP [4/11/2025 5:19 PM, Staff, 48304K] reports Homeland Security officers visited two Los Angeles public elementary schools this week to do a welfare check on migrant children, not for immigration enforcement, the department said Friday. The officers were denied access by both principals. The department’s explanation followed harsh criticism by Superintendent Alberto Carvalho of the Los Angeles Unified School District, who said the agents lied to school staff that they had been authorized by the children’s parents and caretakers to go to their schools. DHS stated in an email to The Associated Press that agents with its Homeland Security Investigations agency "were at these schools conducting wellness checks on children who arrived unaccompanied at the border. This had nothing to do with immigration enforcement."

Breitbart [4/11/2025 3:23 PM, John Binder, 2923K] reports that the rape and murder of 13-year-old Oscar Hernandez — allegedly at the hands of an illegal alien — in the sanctuary state of California is the result of "failed border policies," United States Attorney Bill Essayli said. "This was an avoidable crime and the result of failed border policies," Essayli told NBC Los Angeles of Hernandez’s rape and murder. "We cannot and will not tolerate illegal aliens who flout our nation’s immigration laws then prey on children. Federal law enforcement will continue to be very aggressive in locating, apprehending, and prosecuting criminal illegal aliens." This week, 41-year-old illegal alien Mario Edgardo Garcia-Aquino of El Salvador was arrested and charged by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office with raping Hernandez and then murdering him, leaving his body on the side of a road in Ventura County, California. Hernandez was first reported missing by his family on March 28 after he had taken a train to Lancaster, California, to visit Garcia-Aquino — a youth soccer coach to young boys. Police allege that Garcia-Aquino murdered Hernandez while raping him before dumping his body. More alleged victims of Garcia-Aquino are now coming forward, upset that law enforcement did not take the illegal alien off the streets for reported child sex crimes before Hernandez’s murder.

Univision [4/12/2025 2:24 AM, Staff, 5325K] reports Hedilberto Núñez Garay, 41, was deported to Mexico on April 9 on suspicion of having committed a murder. The deportation was through Bridge II in the city of Laredo, where he was handed over to Mexican authorities. The murder was of Eladio Carrasco Corral, a Mexican national who was 63 years old, and the crime took place on September 3, 2020, according to a statement from ICE. He was wanted from the state of Durango. The suspect was in federal agency custody at the Montgomery processing facility in the Houston area. According to the ICE statement, Nunez Garay had entered the U.S. illegally several times, his first arrest being in 2007 in Yorkville, Illinois, for driving without a license. He then left the country for an undetermined date. He then re-entered the country a third time on a date and location unknown to authorities. ICE said it located Nunez Garay on June 4, 2024, after receiving a tip from the National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center. Both the Waco Police Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety detained him. An immigration judge ordered him deported on Oct. 30, 2024. That decision was appealed by Nunez Garay, but the Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed it on March 20 of this year. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NewsMax [4/11/2025 1:15 PM, Theodore Bunker, 4998K] reports that a family of Russian refugees who fled their home country after protesting against the invasion of Ukraine told The Guardian that they are planning to leave the United States after the father was arrested and placed in detention despite their having "never broken any rules.” Sergei and Marina, whose names were withheld from publication to avoid reprisals from the U.S. or Russian governments, told the newspaper that they legally entered the United States via the Mexico border three years ago, while she was pregnant with their two-year-old daughter. They told immigration officials at the time that Marina had been arrested in Russia for protesting against the invasion of Ukraine and feared that she could be arrested and imprisoned if they returned, or that Sergei could be drafted to fight in the war. The couple told the Guardian that they have remained in the U.S. while waiting to argue their case before an immigration judge, living in the San Francisco area. Last month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement summoned Sergei to an ICE office in San Francisco where he was arrested, allegedly for missing a previous summons, and placed in a detention center about 250 miles from his family and told he would have to reapply for asylum. Marina said that she and Sergei, who is allowed phone calls from the detention center, have discussed relocating to Serbia so the family can be together.

Breitbart [4/11/2025 6:52 PM, Olivia Rondeau, 2923K] reports in the latest act of immigration-related lawfare against the Trump administration, a federal judge blocked the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan migrants with temporary protected status (TPS) after it was revoked. As Breitbart News reported in March, the Trump administration removed the legal status of more than 500,000 migrants who entered the U.S. through a Biden administration parole program, with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) warning impacted migrants that they will have 30 days to self-deport before law enforcement authorities go searching for them. “DHS has determined that a 30-day wind-down period provides affected parties sufficient notice while also preserving DHS’s ability to enforce the law promptly against those CHNV parolees lacking a lawful basis to remain in the United States,” the notice reads. “Accordingly, DHS is opting not to increase the wind-down period to more than 30 days.” Obama-appointed U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani of the District of Massachusetts ruled Thursday that she would issue a stay on the order, which was set to cancel the TPS for approximately 532,000 migrants on April 24, the Associated Press reported.

Reported similarly:
AP [4/11/2025 4:25 PM, Michael Casey, 908K]
FOX News [4/11/2025 9:37 AM, Adam Sabes, 46189K]

The Latin Times [4/11/2025 6:00 AM, Maria Villarroel, 1500K] reports a new Department of Homeland Security task force is using data analytic tools to scour the social media histories of the estimated 1.5 million foreign students studying in the United States for potential grounds to revoke their visas. The move is being criticized by immigration-law and free-speech experts, arguing the government could use it to target political speech it dislikes. Among the speech being looked out for by the new task force is what the agency deems to be antisemitic activity on social media and "physical harassment of Jewish individuals" as grounds to revoke or deny immigration benefits. "This will immediately affect aliens applying for lawful permanent resident status, foreign students and aliens affiliated with educational institutions linked to antisemitic activity," the announcement said. The new guidance, effective immediately, affects immigrants applying for lawful permanent residence, foreign students and immigrants "affiliated with educational institutions linked to antisemitic activity," the agency said. Social media content that indicates an immigrant is "endorsing, espousing, promoting, or supporting antisemitic terrorism, antisemitic terrorist organizations, or other antisemitic activity," will negatively impact their immigration application. "There is no room in the United States for the rest of the world’s terrorist sympathizers, and we are under no obligation to admit them or let them stay here," Tricia McLaughlin, the Department of Homeland Security’s assistant secretary for public affairs, said in a statement. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem "has made it clear that anyone who thinks they can come to America and hide behind the First Amendment to advocate for anti-Semitic violence and terrorism— think again. You are not welcome here."

Breitbart [4/11/2025 12:34 PM, Amy Furr, 2923K] reports that President Donald Trump’s administration now has the green light to require illegal aliens in the United States to register with the federal government, following a federal judge’s decision. The news comes as President Trump has been working to remove criminal illegals from the nation in a mass deportation effort after former President Joe Biden’s (D) disastrous open border policies. The Associated Press (AP) on Thursday said the registration requirements take effect on Friday and also mandates those individuals carry documentation. Judge Trevor Neil McFadden — a Trump appointee — sided with the administration, which had argued that officials were simply enforcing a requirement that already existed for everyone who is in the country but isn’t an American citizen. Immediately after the ruling, Department of Homeland Security officials emphasized in a news release that the deadline to register for those who’ve already been in the country for 30 days or more is Friday and that going forward, the registration requirement would be enforced to the fullest. The AP report cited a statement from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who said, "The Trump administration will enforce all our immigration laws—we will not pick and choose which laws we will enforce. We must know who is in our country for the safety and security of our homeland and all Americans." Meanwhile, deportations have reportedly reached over 100,000 since Trump took office a second time in January, per Breitbart News.

News From The States [4/11/2025 11:55 AM, Ariana Figueroa] reports millions of immigrants in the country without legal authorization are required as of Friday to register with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security after a federal judge rejected advocacy groups’ request to pause the requirement. They’ll also have to carry documents proving their registration. The Thursday decision from U.S. District Court Judge Trevor Neil McFadden of the District of Columbia allows the Trump administration to issue hefty fines and potential prison sentences if those subject to the registration requirement do not comply. McFadden, who was appointed by President Donald Trump in 2017, said in his ruling that the advocacy groups lacked legal standing – meaning they had not shown how they would be harmed by the requirement – to bring the suit. “As organizations, many of their harms are too speculative, and they have failed to show that the Rule will erode their core missions,” McFadden wrote in his order. In a statement, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem cheered the order. “President Trump and I have a clear message for those in our country illegally: leave now. If you leave now, you may have the opportunity to return and enjoy our freedom and live the American dream,” Noem said.

Washington Examiner [4/11/2025 3:05 PM, Haisten Willis, 2296K] reports the White House on Friday called out the "myth" that the recently passed Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE Act, could prevent married women from voting if they change their last name. "This act is a commonsense measure that would require proof of citizenship for voting in our elections," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. "The Democrats have been fearmongering about this bill," she continued. "They have been saying that married women if their name has changed and they didn’t change it on their identification, would not be able to vote. That is a complete fallacy.” Four Democrats joined all House Republicans on Thursday to pass the bill, which requires proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. While Democrats said such measures are unnecessary because noncitizen voting is extremely rare, Republicans said they are needed for election integrity purposes. However, Democrats and other critics also raised concerns that the bill could disenfranchise married women who take their spouse’s name because their last name would no longer match their birth certificate. Leavitt flatly rejected those concerns.

The Hill [4/11/2025 8:32 AM, Jeff Arnold, 12829K] reports some U.S. couples could face a minimum of $3,000 in a "birth tax" under President Trump’s executive order that seeks to end birthright citizenship, according to a cost analysis conducted by a non-partisan think tank. The National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) used current government fee structures for proving U.S. citizenship to calculate the "tax." Nearly half of the costs ($1,385) would go toward completing the required 14-page Application for Certificate of Citizenship through U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the group estimated. At least another $1,500 would go for legal fees associated with completing the government form — or one like it — if Trump’s executive order were to go into effect for children born in the U.S. to parents who are not Americans or legal permanent residents. The fees compiled by NFAP are contingent on Trump’s executive action clearing legal hurdles. The birthright citizenship executive order is currently under a temporary nationwide ban, but the Trump administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to lift the ban. The nation’s highest court has not yet ruled on the matter. Margaret Stock, an immigration and citizenship attorney with Cascadia Cross Border Law Group who worked with NFAP on the study, told NewsNation that the $3,000 estimate is "very conservative". She said families could pay much more depending on how complicated the immigration status of the child’s parents is considered by government officials and other unforeseen costs. To determine estimated costs, Stock said NFAP used the fees associated with the N-600 citizenship form that is used by parents in the U.S. whose children are born overseas but are seeking American citizenship and are required to file paperwork with USCIS.

USA Today [4/11/2025 4:28 PM, Trevor Hughes, 75858K] reports nineteen Democratic state attorneys general are asking a federal judge to stop the Trump administration from cancelling hundreds of international student visas ‒ a move that’s sent shockwaves through the collegiate community. Although there’s been no comprehensive accounting of how many students have seen their visas revoked, in some cases weeks before graduation, Trump officials say they have been in part targeting students they accuse of harboring ill-will toward the United States. In some cases, the students participated in protests or otherwise gained attention for pro-Palestinian stances. Other visas appear to have been cancelled over paperwork issues or traffic violations. The amicus brief filed April 11 by AGs from Arizona, California, Michigan and New York, among others, says an estimated 700 international students have lost their visas. The cancellations have forced students to leave the United States essentially on the spot, in some cases sending university administrators scrambling to figure out how to help them complete their degrees from their home countries.

Alaska Beacon [4/11/2025 3:27 PM, Corinne Smith] reports U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, is calling on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to allow Ukrainians with temporary protected status to remain in the country, following reports people had received an email that their status was revoked and they had seven days to leave the U.S. The agency has said the April 3 notice was issued by mistake, and the Ukrainians’ designation under what’s known as "humanitarian parole status" has not been terminated. They had been granted the status under the "Uniting for Ukraine" program. But Murkowski penned a strongly worded letter on Sunday, with U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-New Hampshire, ranking Democrat on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem condemning the move, even if it was "apparently an error.”

Axios [4/11/2025 6:20 AM, Mike Deehan, 13163K] reports Cape Cod’s critical summer tourism sector faces new workforce challenges this year as the Trump administration’s immigration policies collide with years of persistent housing shortages. Why it matters: The Cape’s $1.2 billion tourism industry, the region’s economic backbone, depends heavily on J-1 visa workers from Eastern Europe, the Caribbean, Central Asia and other regions. Businesses may have to reduce service or close if they can’t staff up enough to meet summer demand. The J-1 program provides temporary visas for foreign students to live and work in the U.S. The big picture: The Cape has around 2,100 J-1 workers, far more than in the low point of 2020, but not even half of the 5,000 foreign students employed in 2018. What they’re saying: "That leaves potentially a 3,000-person permanent hole in our seasonal workers," Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce CEO Paul Niedzwiecki said at a recent housing forum, according to the Cape Cod Times. Zoom in: President Trump’s second term has brought enhanced vetting procedures that have extended visa processing times. The administration’s proposed travel restriction system could affect several of the countries sending J-1 workers to Cape Cod, such as Russia, Belarus, Cape Verde, Haiti and other Caribbean nations. Threat level: Even approved J-1 applicants face Cape Cod’s worsening housing shortage. Stricter enforcement of regulations for J-1 students has cut into the amount of housing employers have been able to provide. Chamber of Commerce workforce housing coordinator Christina Arabadzhieva told WCAI that J-1 sponsoring agencies directed 3,000 students away from Cape Cod in 2022 because of the lack of proper housing. 22 seasonal workers employed at the Four Points Sheraton in Eastham shared two bedrooms last year, the Provincetown Independent reported.

Axios [4/11/2025 3:07 PM, Sabrina Moreno and Steph Solis, 13163K] reports that Federal immigration authorities have revoked the visas of at least 25 international students and three recent graduates from Virginia universities. Why it matters: The lives of international students are being upended as the Trump administration expands its revocation of student visas nationwide, often without immediate explanation. The big picture: The affected Virginia students reported so far are from four schools: VCU, UVA, Virginia Tech and George Mason. That means the actual figure could be far greater, as not every university is publicly sharing whether its students have been impacted — and many are finding out by monitoring their international student databases. But those four schools enroll over half of the more than 21,000 international students in higher education statewide. State of play: UVA was the first Virginia school to publicly announce the revocation of a student visa, doing so on April 4. Virginia Tech shared Wednesday that seven current international students and two alumni had their legal status terminated. VCU told Axios on Thursday that two international students and one recent grad received visa terminations. George Mason has the most revocations so far — 15 as of Thursday — a spokesperson told Axios.

Yahoo! News [4/11/2025 1:09 PM, Kyler Swaim, 430301K] reports the U.S. Department of Homeland Security terminated the exchange visitor system records of five University of Arkansas students, according to a university spokesperson. No reason was given, however, the spokesperson said some international students across the country are experiencing changes to their immigration status. The news comes after other schools across the U.S. reported international students having their visas revoked. Nexstar’s KFOR reported a total of 14 students at colleges in Oklahoma have had their visas revoked. International students on F-1 visas must prove financial support and stay in good academic standing, according to the Associated Press. After arriving in the U.S., their status is managed by Homeland Security. If their visa is revoked, they must leave immediately, whereas previously, they could finish their studies before leaving.

Houston Chronicle [4/11/2025 8:09 PM, Samantha Ketterer, 1769K] reports the federal government has revoked the student visas of five international members of the Rice University community – three current students and two recent graduates, according to the institution. University President Reginald DesRoches confirmed the revocations in a candid letter to students, faculty and staff Friday evening. The sudden terminations have shaken universities across the country, creating fear among international populations that make up significant portions of their student bodies. The number of foreign scholars being stripped of their legal status is only growing: As of Thursday, almost 1,000 people reportedly had their student visas or their status as students revoked, effectively ending their ability to stay in the U.S., according to NAFSA: Association of International Educators. Known cases in Texas have surpassed 120 international students, not including Rice, according to a count by the Texas Tribune. "These members of the international community are a part of the Rice family, and we will safeguard their dignity and support their aspirations because that is what this difficult moment requires of a great university," DesRoches said. At Rice, 1 in 4 of the school’s 8,300 students hail from other countries. International students make up 13% of undergraduate enrollment and more than 40 percent of graduate student enrollment, according to school data. University leadership is in "personal, constant contact" with legal, government and policy advisers to stay up-to-date on changes to immigration law and immigration enforcement, DesRoches said. The private institution has also made general legal resources available to students, including by posting information sessions, online FAQs and recently published international travel and immigration guidance. The school’s Office of International Students and Scholars is directly communicating with affected students, DesRoches said. If visa problems complicate their ability to stay at Rice, the university "stands ready" to identify other ways they can continue their progress toward a degree, he said. "Rice continues to believe it can both follow the law and honor the long-held values that guide how we treat each other - and warmly welcome people of all backgrounds to the very international city of Houston," DesRoches said. "Within the bounds of the law, we are also doing all we can to support students who have been personally impacted.”

Yahoo News [4/11/2025 6:31 PM, Keila Szpaller, 430301K] reports Montana State University welcomes students back to campus for the first day of the Fall 2023 semester. (Provided by Montana State University). Three international students attending Montana State University had their F-1 visa status revoked "under the authority of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security," MSU said in a notice Friday to the campus community. One international student from the University of Montana also had their F-1 visa revoked, a UM spokesperson said. However, that student has graduated and is living out of state. The F-1 visa generally allows nonimmigrant international students to enter the country as a full-time student at an accredited institution and enroll in a program that culminates in a degree, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Stephanie McCalla, chairperson of the MSU Faculty Senate, said Friday she had not yet spoken with any students who are affected, but she and other faculty are upset at the news. "These are members of our community, and they’re being ripped away for no apparent reason," McCalla said. A story earlier this month from Inside Higher Ed said the Trump administration is revoking student visas every week, and it appears federal immigration officials are also terminating their student residency status, "paving the way for arrest and deportation.” MSU in Bozeman has an estimated 400 students from 64 countries, and the vast majority of them are on F-1 visas, said spokesperson Tracy Ellig in an email. Ellig said the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act prohibits the university from providing additional information, such as where the students with revoked visas are from, their enrollment status or their ability to remain on campus. In her message to the campus community, President Waded Cruzado said the three students from MSU whose visas were revoked have been notified and received information regarding their status and available resources. "The university will follow all applicable laws while exercising the necessary duty of care to our students," Cruzado said in the email. She said MSU was sharing the information with the campus "given the heightened attention to the topic.” "We value every student in our campus; this appreciation includes our international students who make Montana State University their university of choice," Cruzado said. UM spokesperson Dave Kuntz said the university has 145 students on F-1 visas and 29 on J-1 visas. J-1 visas are for nonimmigrants participating in an exchange program, according to the U.S. Department of State.

Yahoo! News [4/11/2025 12:48 PM, Rhea Caoile, 430301K] reports after a student at San Diego State University was stripped of their F-1 visa earlier this week, the institution confirmed others experienced a similar fate. On Thursday, the university confirmed a total of four SDSU students have had their visas revoked. All students were subsequently notified of the changes, according to a spokesperson for the university. This follows days after five students at the University of California, San Diego also had their F-1 student visas abruptly revoked and another was deported at the southern border. A rally was held on the UCSD campus Wednesday to protest the revocations. SDSU is one of 23 academic institutions in the California State University system. As of Thursday, a total of 48 students across all CSU campuses have been impacted by visa revocations since the beginning of the year.

Yahoo! News [4/12/2025 1:27 AM, Dominique LaVigne, 430301K] reports dozens of college and university campuses across the country reported the federal government has revoked hundreds of international student visas, including at least three campuses in San Diego. The University of San Diego reports one student lost their visa. Five students at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) and four students at San Diego State University (SDSU) also had their visas canceled. Studying electrical engineering at SDSU for the past five years has felt like a scene out of a movie for Abdudllah Alabbas. “We’ve known all about the United States [since] when we were kids in the movies, and it’s like a dream to us. So when we go there and study, we feel like we’re obligated to do our best,” he said. But, when he received an email confirming the state department revoked the student visas from four of his peers, fear began to kick in. “Oh my God! What’s going to happen? Is it for real?” he said. This isn’t a unique experience. Per some estimates, more than 160 universities and colleges across the country have reported canceled international student visas. “I think a big part of the anxiety is coming from the lack of disclosure as to why these visas are being revoked,” said Benjamin Gonzalez O’Brien, an associate professor of political science at SDSU.

The Wall Street Journal [4/11/2025 8:22 PM, Annie Linskey and Nancy A. Youssef, 646K] reports President Trump authorized the U.S. military to take jurisdiction over a strip of public land at the border that spans three states, a key step toward having U.S. troops play a larger role enforcing immigration laws at the southern border. In a presidential memorandum released Friday evening, Trump ordered the Defense Department to have authority over the Roosevelt Reservation, among other public lands. American-Indian reservations are exempt from the order. “Our southern border is under attack from a variety of threats,” Trump’s order read. “The complexity of the current situation requires that our military take a more direct role in securing our southern border than in the recent past.” The move would ultimately mean that the military’s massive budget can be more directly tapped for border security. The administration had been planning for weeks to transfer control of such lands to the military and potentially use the zone as a place to temporarily hold migrants who enter the U.S. illegally, according to defense officials. Many U.S. detention centers have been at their highest levels in years, creating a bottleneck for the White House goals of mass deportations. The order authorizes the military to construct a border barrier and install detection and monitoring equipment on the lands, according to the memo. The military’s initial phase of activities will be assessed in 45 days. CNN [4/11/2025 10:10 PM, Kit Maher, 22131K] reports that the memo, sent to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Agricultural Secretary Brooke Rollins, states that the military must “take a more direct role” in efforts to secure the border and calls on the secretaries to act to provide the Defense Department “use and jurisdiction” over certain federal lands “to enable military activities” on military installations. The memo states that the Defense Department should be provided jurisdiction over lands including the Roosevelt Reservation – a 60-foot-wide swath of land along the border – for military purposes including border wall construction and installing detection and monitoring equipment. Bloomberg [4/11/2025 10:03 PM, Josh Wingrove, 16228K] reports Trump ordered several cabinet secretaries to give the Defense Department jurisdiction over federal lands along the border. Those areas include the Roosevelt Reservation — a narrow strip of land along the southwest border in the states of Arizona, New Mexico and California — but exclude federal Indian reservations. It opens the door to “enable military activities directed in this memorandum to occur on a military installation” along the border, according to the directive. Trump authorized the military to undertake tasks “including border-barrier construction and emplacement of detection and monitoring equipment” and to designate the areas as “National Defense Areas.” The order also allows the secretary of Defense to “exclude persons from a military installation” in keeping with previous authorities — a power that potentially tees up powers to expel migrants. The powers will initially be implemented on a “limited sector of federal lands,” with an assessment after 45 days of the Friday order. Trump has escalated deportations of undocumented migrants since retaking office, as he looks to deliver on his campaign promises to crack down on illegal immigration and secure the southwestern border. CBS News [4/11/2025 9:46 PM, Paulina Smolinski, Kierra Frazier, 51661K] reports Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is directed to start with the phased implementation of the military on limited sections of public land. But Hegseth has the authority to expand beyond that to any of the public land on the southern border. During a cabinet meeting with Mr. Trump this week, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem touted low numbers of illegal crossings at the southern border. Noem said that for the second month in a row, the U.S. broke the record for the lowest number of encounters at the border.

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The Hill [4/11/2025 10:05 PM, Filip Timotija, 12829K]
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Washington Post [4/11/2025 6:00 AM, Dan Lamothe, 31735K] reports Sgt. 1st Class Carlos Zamora and his fellow soldiers stood alongside their 20-ton Stryker combat vehicle overlooking a labyrinth of dusty trails and cliffs, an inhospitable desertscape that for years has proved difficult for U.S. authorities to patrol amid the surge in illegal border crossings and drug smuggling from Mexico. Although U.S. Border Patrol agents had detained two migrants nearby a few hours earlier, Zamora’s deployment — a key facet of President Donald Trump’s militarization of the U.S.-Mexico frontier — has been quiet so far, he said. A veteran of four combat deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq, Zamora recalled how he and his team recently observed other potential border crossers who appeared to change their plans abruptly once they spotted the olive-drab armored vehicle on a hill. “Ever since the Stryker came into play,” he said, “we see more turn-backs than anything.” Zamora’s unit — the 4th Infantry Division’s 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, from Fort Carson in Colorado — is serving on the front lines of Trump’s aggressive bid to crack down on illegal migration and secure the southern border. Since his return to office less than three months ago, the administration has rapidly assembled a force of about 10,000 troops and positioned them across the porous hinterland spanning Texas to California, the centerpiece of an expansive initiative that also includes more drone flights and an unusually robust maritime presence off Mexico. Such hardware typically is reserved for missions overseas. Under Trump, it is being used to track the movement of people and narcotics bound for the United States, monitor cartel activity and send an unambiguous message that the status quo has changed. The moves to bolster the Department of Homeland Security’s enforcement efforts have coincided with a sharp drop in illegal crossings, though the president’s political opponents question whether this is an appropriate use of the military and relations with Mexico are at a low. In March, Customs and Border Protection recorded 7,180 — down from 28,654 in February and a peak of 370,883 in December 2023 during the Biden administration.

Yahoo! News [4/12/2025 12:08 AM, Oliver O’Connell, 430301K] reports two Delta Air Lines flights from Mexico heading to Boston on Thursday were forced to divert to Alabama, where they were stuck on the tarmac for hours due to a customs issue. Flight DL 1828 from Los Cabos International Airport departed at 5:17 p.m., while flight DL 599 from Mexico City took off nearly an hour later. The two flights were scheduled to stop in Atlanta — Delta’s hub and headquarters — before continuing on to Boston. But they were forced to divert to Montgomery, Alabama, due to bad weather, according to Boston 25. Both flights landed at the airport in Montgomery around 10:30 p.m. local time, a Delta spokesperson told the network. Since they were coming from an international point of origin, passengers were forced to sit on the tarmac for hours, unable to leave the plane due to a lack of Customs and Border Protection staff at the airport. At around 5 a.m., after seven hours on the tarmac in Montgomery with only cookies and water, passengers were permitted to disembark in groups of 20. Passenger Lauren Forbes told Boston 25: “They had roped off a square area and both flights were in there. If you needed to use a restroom, there was a police officer in front of the restroom.” They waited for another eight hours before taking off for Atlanta. Forbes and her boyfriend then had to rebook a connecting flight to Boston on their own. Forbes said Delta has already reached out to her about reimbursement, but she added: “I think this is just an eye opener for maybe more substantial protocols in place.” Delta said the plane doors remained open while passengers waited and explained that the lightning in the area forced them to hold the flights in Montgomery longer than expected, as flight crews had exceeded permitted working hours. “We sincerely apologize to our customers for this experience,” a Delta Air Lines spokesperson said in a statement. “We fell short of how we aspire to serve and care for our customers amid thunderstorms in the Southeast U.S. Thursday evening. We are reaching out to each customer with a full refund of their booking.” The airline confirmed that at 5:15 a.m. and 5:23 a.m., some passengers were allowed to disembark and go into the airport, but had to stay in a certain area. Alabama’s Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport, which would have had appropriate customer staffing, was not suitable as a diversion airport because it was also experiencing severe thunderstorms.

AP [4/11/2025 6:42 PM, Staff, 48304K] reports a Cuban woman who had come to the United States illegally was sentenced Friday to 7 1/2 years in prison for her part in a human smuggling operation that led to the deaths of 16 people. Yaquelin Dominguez-Nieves, 26, who had been living in Sebring, Florida, was sentenced in Miami federal court, according to court records. She pleaded guilty in January to conspiring to smuggle people into the U.S. According to court documents, Dominguez-Nieves and her then-boyfriend, who was still living in Cuba, organized a human smuggling operation in November 2022. Dominguez-Nieves collected at least $11,500 from the migrants’ family members in South Florida with the promise to bring the migrants from Cuba into the U.S. The boyfriend, who has not been arrested, loaded about 18 migrants onto a small fishing vessel with no life jackets and with a captain who did not appear to know how to operate the vessel, according to the two survivors. The vessel sank about 30 miles (50 kilometers) into its journey. The victims included children ranging from nine months to seven years old, as well as two 16-year-olds, officials said. Four of the migrants’ bodies were recovered at sea, and their cause of death was ruled drowning.

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Yahoo! News [4/11/2025 9:35 PM, Sierra Rains, 430301K]

Breitbart [4/11/2025 12:19 PM, Randy Clark, 2923K] reports that West Texas Sheriff Thad Cleveland knows better than anyone that you can’t take your eyes off the border, even in the most remote parts of the Lone Star State. Despite the slowdown in illegal alien crossings nationwide and an increase in deportations, Cleveland tells Breitbart Texas, "Even though crossings have decreased, we are still tracking groups of illegal aliens hoping to get away from authorities, some we fear may attempt to return after recent removals.” Cleveland says the slowdown in border crossings has been drastic and noticeable even in the remote parts of West Texas’ Terrell County, where he serves as the Sheriff. The county includes 90 miles of Rio Grande west of the county seat of Sanderson, which has less than 1,000 residents. More than two thousand square miles of harsh, brushy terrain features level plains in the east and mountainous areas with canyons in the west. Portions of the county vary in elevation and rise in some parts from 1,300 to 4,000 feet above sea level. The harsh, sparsely populated terrain makes crossing and attempting to traverse the county on foot extremely dangerous.

FOX News [4/11/2025 5:30 AM, Elizabeth Pritchett, 46189K] reports two American women were arrested at a California immigration checkpoint after border patrol agents determined they were attempting to smuggle two children into the United States. The women were arrested by Border Patrol agents assigned to the El Centro Sector on Tuesday at an immigration checkpoint on Highway 86 near Westmorland, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said in a news release on Thursday. Authorities reported one woman was driving while the other was in the front passenger seat, and two little girls, ages 10 and 12, were asleep in the back. The identities of the adults were not released. The woman driving initially told agents they were traveling to California from Arizona, but later told authorities they had come to the U.S. from Mexico through the San Luis Port of Entry. Discrepancies in the driver’s story prompted an Indio Station Border Patrol agent to refer their vehicle for secondary inspection, which is where it was discovered that the children’s photos and names did not match what was on their ID cards. During questioning, agents learned that the girls were not related to either woman in the vehicle and that the driver did not know their mother. The little girls were ultimately identified as unaccompanied minors from Mexico, CBP said. Chief Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino, of the El Centro Sector, said this incident is "how the trafficking of children starts.” "It’s almost unbearable to think about what heinous crimes await children who aren’t with their parents," Bovino said. "The border environment has been rife with this type of activity over the past several years, however, the focus has now shifted, and heavy sentences await smugglers who hurt kids.” Both adult women have been charged with alien smuggling and their vehicle was seized as evidence.

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Yahoo! News [4/12/2025 12:48 AM, Anna Ashcraft, 430301K]

CBS News [4/11/2025 9:02 AM, Staff, 51661K] reports that a French court on Thursday sentenced eight people to up to five years for smuggling eel larvae destined for Asian markets, in a scheme worth over $2 million that prosecutors likened to cocaine trafficking. The translucent larvae of the European eel, fished in Atlantic waters and often sent out to Asian markets, is an endangered species and its trade is prohibited. The Creteil court outside Paris sentenced two men who had previously been detained to the heaviest sentences of five years in prison. Two defendants facing heavier jail time were at large, while the four others got lower sentences. This case is "extraordinary, due to the quantities seized but also the extremely thorough nature of the investigations," a prosecutor said during the trial, comparing the trafficking of the larvae to that of cocaine. One prosecutor described eel larvae as "prohibited goods that increase in value with each border crossing, such as cocaine.” At the heart of this case was the seizure in February 2023 in a clandestine warehouse in the Val-de-Marne department southeast of Paris of more than 300 kilograms (660 pounds) of the eel larvae. This represented almost double the total amount — 154 kilograms — seized by French customs in all of 2024. In November, two men were sentenced to prison for illegally smuggling live eels from Puerto Rico about nine months after U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Coast Guard identified and intercepted the two suspects.

Breitbart [4/11/2025 5:38 PM, Elizabeth Weibel, 2900K] reports Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem encouraged Americans to get ‘Real IDs’ prior to May 7, and explained that the ID’s would keep the United States safe. In a video posted on X, Noem explained that beginning on May 7, 2025, people will “need a Real ID to travel by air or to visit federal buildings.” “If you plan on traveling we need your help to prevent delays and to prove your identity,” Noem explained. “Get a Real ID. Starting May 7th, you will need a Real ID to travel by air or to visit federal buildings in the United States. These ID’s keep our country safe, because they help prevent fraud and they enhance security. Please do your part to protect our country.” NPR News explained that on May 7, “federal agencies” such as the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) “will accept only state-issued driver’s licenses and IDs that meet Real ID requirements.” “On that date, federal agencies including the TSA say they will accept only state-issued driver’s licenses and IDs that meet Real ID requirements, which include having applicants provide certain identifying information such as Social Security numbers,” the outlet noted. While “state-issued driver’s licenses that aren’t Real ID-compliant” won’t be accepted, people can still use “a passport or passport card, an enhanced driver’s licensed issued by some states, a permanent resident card or one of many other forms of ID allowed by the TSA,” according to the outlet.

AP [4/11/2025 5:06 PM, Staff, 48304K] reports today, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced the imminent implementation of its REAL ID enforcement measures at TSA checkpoints nationwide. "Secretary Noem and the Trump administration are enforcing the 2005 REAL ID Act and regulations on May 7, as directed by Congress and the American people," said Adam Stahl, TSA Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Administrator. "The Real ID requirement bolsters safety by making fraudulent IDs harder to forge, thwarting criminals and terrorists. TSA will implement REAL ID effectively and efficiently, continuing to ensure the safety and security of passengers while also working to minimize operational disruptions at airports." On May 7, TSA will no longer accept state-issued identifications that are not REAL ID compliant at TSA security checkpoints. All airline passengers 18 years and older, including TSA PreCheck® members, must present REAL ID-compliant identification or another acceptable ID, such as a passport, at TSA security checkpoints. Noncitizens illegally present in the U.S. who are voluntarily self-deporting on international flights will not be denied boarding under this requirement. Passengers who present a state-issued identification that is not REAL ID compliant and who do not have another acceptable alternative (e.g., passport) can expect to face delays, additional screening and the possibility of not being permitted into the security checkpoint. Currently, 81% of travelers at TSA checkpoints present an acceptable identification including a state-issued REAL ID. TSA expects the number of passengers obtaining REAL IDs to steadily increase and will continue with additional screening measures for those without a REAL ID until it is no longer considered a security vulnerability.

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Yahoo News [4/11/2025 4:53 PM, Michael Rudisill, 430301K]

Reuters [4/11/2025 4:25 PM, David Shepardson, 41523K] reports the Transportation Security Administration said it will begin enforcing long-delayed stricter ID requirements at U.S. airports starting May 7 and warned passengers could be denied access to flights. On May 7, TSA will no longer accept state-issued identifications that are not REAL ID compliant. Congress in 2005 approved new, stricter federal standards for issuing identification cards but enforcement has been pushed back repeatedly. TSA said Friday that next month passengers 18 or older without passports or the enhanced ID "can expect to face delays, additional screening and the possibility of not being permitted into the security checkpoint."

Yahoo News [4/11/2025 6:46 PM, Paul Feely, 430301K] reports Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport (MHT) found a loaded firearm during routine passenger security screening this week. The firearm was located in a 45-year-old male passenger’s carry-on bag during a screening process performed Wednesday, April 11. TSA officers immediately notified the Londonderry Police Department, which responded and took possession of the loaded 9mm firearm. The passenger told officials he forgot the weapon was in his possession, TSA officials said. "Bringing a loaded firearm through a security checkpoint poses a serious safety risk and can cause delays or shut down lanes," said Elizabeth Selecky, TSA’s federal security director for New Hampshire. "There are clear and straightforward rules for flying with firearms, and we encourage passengers to familiarize themselves with these guidelines to avoid delays, fines, and potential legal consequences.” This marks the first firearm detection at MHT in 2025, and the second firearm discovery at a New Hampshire airport this year. A loaded 9mm handgun was found in a 26-year-old male passenger’s backpack at Lebanon Municipal Airport in February. So far in 2025, TSA officers have detected 15 firearms at New England airports: 6 at Boston Logan (BOS), 2 at Portland International Jetport (PWM), 2 at Burlington International Airport (BTV), 2 at T.F. Green Airport (PVD), 1 at Bradley International Airport (BDL), 1 at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport (MHT), and 1 at Lebanon Municipal Airport (LEB). TSA regulations also prohibit ammunition in carry-on bags. TSA officials said gun owners should visit the TSA website for instructions on how to properly travel with a firearm. TSA reserves the right to issue a civil penalty to travelers who have guns and gun parts with them at a checkpoint. A typical first offense for carrying a loaded gun into a checkpoint is $3,000 and can go as high as $15,000 depending on the circumstances. This applies to travelers with or without concealed gun carry permits, because even though an individual may have a concealed carry permit, it does not allow for a firearm to be carried onto an airplane. Passengers are permitted to travel with firearms in checked baggage if they are properly packaged and declared at their airline ticket counter. Checked firearms must be unloaded, packed in a hard-sided case, locked and packed separately from ammunition.

Spectrum News [4/11/2025 1:53 PM, Maddie Gannon, 889K] reports a dozen senators representing states in the Northeast wrote to President Donald Trump seeking information on reports his administration is considering shuttering the Federal Emergency Management Agency regional office in their area. The lawmakers warned against any potential consolidation of such offices, which comes as Trump has pledged a major shake-up – and potentially a complete elimination – of the agency tasked with leading the on-the-ground federal response to natural disasters across the country. In the letter sent this week, the 12 senators representing Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont – a group that includes 11 Democrats and one Republican, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine – argued that FEMA regional offices offer “critical, on-the-ground assistance to disaster-affected communities.” FEMA has 10 regional offices assigned to specific states based on geographical areas of the country. “FEMA must be improved to benefit recovering communities, but regional office consolidations will leave state, local, and tribal governments stranded when disaster strikes, and make federal disaster assistance less effective in the long term,” the senators wrote. “In the wake of a disaster, our communities should not be forced to navigate critical federal disaster assistance programs with only the limited counsel of staff far removed from conditions on the ground.” The group made the case that the FEMA office in Region 1, which encompasses the six states represented by the senators, has developed an “intimate familiarity” with the area and its specific need after a disaster. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose department includes FEMA, reiterated such an intent during a Cabinet meeting last month in which she said, “We’re going to eliminate FEMA.” Noem as well as Senior Official Performing the Duties of FEMA Administrator Cameron Hamilton were copied on the senators’ letter.

90.9 FM Philadelphia [4/11/2025 6:45 AM, Sophia Schmidt, 863K] reports when heavy rain sends water gushing into Philadelphia’s combined sewer overflow system, the pipes that carry both sewage and stormwater can fill up, forcing raw sewage into rivers and sometimes, basements. The Philadelphia Water Department has a plan to fix the problem in the Northern Liberties, South Kensington and Ludlow neighborhoods. The utility plans to build 1,600 feet of new sewers, which officials say will double the capacity of the current system, reducing the risk of flooding to 1,000 basements. The department expected the federal government to help pay for the Cohocksink Storm Flood Relief Project. Federal Emergency Management Agency had committed to contributing roughly $25 million, which would cover 70% of the project costs, according to publicly available FEMA data. “The City worked hard to secure this grant with our state and federal partners because it will fund vital work and sustain good-paying jobs while helping to reduce the costs of infrastructure investments that residents support through their water bills,” Mayor Jim Kenney said in a 2023 press release announcing the funding. “It’s a powerful example of what we can do when all levels of government are working together.” But last week President Donald Trump’s administration announced it is ending the Building Resilience Infrastructure and Communities, or BRIC, grant program that would have helped fund the project, cancelling applications from the last three fiscal years and returning any money not yet distributed to grant recipients back to other parts of the federal government. “The BRIC program was yet another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program,” a press release posted to FEMA’s website reads. “It was more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans affected by natural disasters.”

Asheville Citizen Times [4/11/2025 10:16 PM, Jacob Biba, 687K] reports the Federal Emergency Management Agency has denied North Carolina’s request for an 180-day extension on a 100% cost match for eligible Tropical Storm Helene recovery expenses, Gov. Josh Stein said in an April 11 announcement. On Sept. 29, two days after Helene ripped through Western North Carolina, then-President Joe Biden approved a federal disaster declaration for North Carolina, which made federal funding available for public assistance, hazard mitigation, and other needs assistance, with a federal cost-share of 75%. The storm caused an estimated $60 billion in damages and resulted in more than 100 deaths. A few days later, on Oct. 2, Biden approved an amendment that increased the federal cost share for debris removal and emergency response to 100% for the first 180 days of the incident period, starting Sept. 25. When the incident period ended in March, the federal match dropped to 90% for eligible expenses, with the state and local government responsible for the remaining costs. In December, Biden had increased the federal cost share for public assistance projects from 75% to 90% after the 180-day period. Stein said he had received the news about the denial while in Newland, in Avery County, with families who lost their homes to Helene. In February, Stein requested the extension of the 100% federal cost share for debris removal and emergency protective measures, including direct federal assistance for 180 additional days. According to the denial letter obtained by the Citizen Times, FEMA’s acting Administrator Cameron Hamilton said the extension request was “not warranted” based on the agency’s review. The state has 30 days to appeal the decision. A spokesperson for FEMA did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Citizen Times.

Yahoo News [4/11/2025 8:22 PM, Staff, 430301K] reports Gov. Josh Stein expressed his frustration upon learning that the Federal Emergency Management Administration denied the state’s request for an extension on the 100 percent match for Helene disaster recovery. Stein was in Avery County Friday visiting Helene victims when the announcement came on his 100th day in office. “Today, I learned that FEMA refused our request to extend its 100% reimbursement period for another 180 days,” he said in a statement. “I got this news while I was in Newland with families who lost their homes in the storm. The need in western North Carolina remains immense — people need debris removed, homes rebuilt, and roads restored. I am extremely disappointed and urge the President to reconsider FEMA’s bad decision, even for 90 days. Six months later, the people of western North Carolina are working hard to get back on their feet; they need FEMA to help them get the job done.” Last month, Stein signed into a law a $524 million relief package that will go to farmers, home reconstruction and repair and an education program. At that time, he lamented that the federal government had not distributed its own relief funds. “It’s really complicated because the federal government has appropriated funds but it hasn’t allocated funds and even when it has allocated funds, it has not distributed the funds,” he said.

Louisiana First News [4/11/2025 9:29 PM, Andrew Epperson, 193K] reports as Louisiana braces for another hurricane season, concerns are rising over the future of federal emergency assistance that many residents rely on after natural disasters. Last week, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced it will end the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program—a major funding source for natural disaster mitigation projects across the state. According to FEMA data, nearly 150 Louisiana applications for BRIC funds, totaling more than $720 million, have now been canceled or placed on hold. In a statement, a FEMA spokesperson called the BRIC program “wasteful and ineffective,” claiming it was “more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans affected by natural disasters.” The decision drew bipartisan pushback in Louisiana. U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) spoke on the Senate floor for 14 minutes last week, urging FEMA to reconsider. “I would ask FEMA to reconsider the impact cuts to the BRIC program,” Cassidy said. “Without BRIC funding, none of these projects would happen—whether it’s East Baton Rouge Parish, Ascension Parish, Lafourche Parish, or the Coushatta Tribe.” Cassidy and others argue that mitigation efforts funded through BRIC ultimately save taxpayer dollars by preventing costly disaster damage before it happens. The BRIC cuts are part of broader FEMA reforms pushed by the Trump administration. Acting FEMA Administrator Cameron Hamilton and Secretary Noem have indicated the agency may scale back or eliminate other programs, raising new questions about how future recovery efforts will be handled. Congressional Democrats from Louisiana, including Reps. Troy Carter and Cleo Fields, have condemned the move, calling FEMA’s dismantling “reckless and dangerous.” They point to more than 500,000 Louisiana households that have applied for federal disaster funding since 2021.

Yahoo! News [4/11/2025 3:08 PM, Leslie Bonilla Muñiz, 430301K] reports Indiana Gov. Mike Braun on Friday declared a 30-day state of disaster emergency for 18 counties facing tornado and flood damage — a day after the state recorded its 44th tornado of the year. The declaration allows the Indiana Department of Homeland Security to start providing financial assistance to the impacted communities under Indiana’s disaster relief fund, Braun explained in a news release. “It is my hope that this step enables residents, businesses, and local government to access needed resources and assistance as they assess and recover from these devastating weather events,” he said. The declaration covers Bartholomew, Brown, Clark, Crawford, Dearborn, Delaware, Gibson, Hamilton, Harrison, Lake, Madison, Marshall, Martin, Owen, Perry, Posey, Spencer and Warrick counties.

The New York Times [4/11/2025 7:37 PM, Hank Sanders, 145325K] reports a Pennsylvania man was arrested this week after the authorities said he threatened to assassinate President Trump, Elon Musk and other government officials in comments that he posted on YouTube. Google, which owns YouTube, alerted the F.B.I. on Tuesday to the threatening comments, which were posted by someone using the username “Mr Satan,” whom the authorities later identified as Shawn Monper, of Butler, Pa., according to a criminal complaint. Mr. Monper, 32, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with four counts of influencing, impeding or retaliating against a federal official and a federal law enforcement officer. According to the court documents, Mr. Monper wrote, “im going to assassinate him myself” in the comments under a livestream of Mr. Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress on March 4. In a comment on another YouTube video on Feb. 17, according to the complaint, Mr. Monper wrote, “Nah, we just need to start killing people, Trump, Elon, all the heads of agencies Trump appointed, and anyone who stands in the way.” On Feb. 26, according to the complaint, Mr. Monper wrote that he had “bought several guns” and had been stocking up on ammunition since Mr. Trump took office for a second time, promising “to do a mass shooting.” Butler, Pa., where Mr. Monper lives, was the site of a campaign rally where Mr. Trump was injured in an assassination attempt on July 13. The complaint did not mention that episode. Mr. Monper’s lawyer did not respond to requests for comment on Friday. In addition to Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were also a target of Mr. Monper’s threats, federal prosecutors said. As the Trump administration has ramped up its deportation efforts, ICE and Department of Homeland Security agents have come under scrutiny for detaining students and legal immigrants. On Friday, an immigration judge in Louisiana found that the Trump administration could deport a Columbia University graduate and legal permanent resident, Mahmoud Khalil, for his role in pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus last year. In a statement on Friday, Attorney General Pam Bondi thanked the F.B.I. and the Butler Township police for their work on the investigation. “Rest assured that whenever and wherever threats of assassination or mass violence occur, this Department of Justice will find, arrest, and prosecute the suspect to the fullest extent of the law and seek the maximum appropriate punishment,” she said. National Review [4/11/2025 6:07 PM, David Zimmerman, 109K] reports that the suspect lives in Butler, Pa., the same town where Trump survived a would-be assassin’s bullet that grazed his ear during a campaign rally in July. “I want to applaud the outstanding and courageous investigative work of the FBI and the Butler Township Police Department, who thankfully identified and apprehended this individual before he could carry out his threats against President Trump’s life and the lives of other innocent Americans,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement Friday afternoon. “Rest assured that whenever and wherever threats of assassination or mass violence occur, this Department of Justice will find, arrest, and prosecute the suspect to the fullest extent of the law and seek the maximum appropriate punishment.” Yahoo! News [4/11/2025 2:25 PM, Jess Shannon, 430301K] reports that in February, investigators said that Monper commented using his “Mr Satan” account saying, “I have bought several guns and been stocking up on ammo since Trump got in office.” In March 2025, Monper commented using his account: “Eventually im going to do a mass shooting.” Authorities said One week later, Monper commented: “I have been buying 1 gun a month since the election, body armor, and ammo.” On Wednesday, the FBI, with the assistance of the Butler Township Police Department, arrested Monper. “I want to applaud the outstanding and courageous investigative work of the FBI and the Butler Township Police Department, who thankfully identified and apprehended this individual before he could carry out his threats against President Trump’s life and the lives of other innocent Americans,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “Rest assured that whenever and wherever threats of assassination or mass violence occur, this Department of Justice will find, arrest, and prosecute the suspect to the fullest extent of the law and seek the maximum appropriate punishment.”

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Breitbart [4/11/2025 7:45 PM, Elizabeth Weibel, 2923K]
Reuters [4/11/2025 5:04 PM, Andrew Goudsward, 41523K]
Blaze [4/11/2025 4:15 PM, Staff, 1668K]

Yahoo! News [4/11/2025 10:01 PM, Bria Jones, 430301K] reports that, after an FBI investigation revealed a conspiracy to assassinate President Donald Trump, FOX6 News asked a national security expert about what it means for the White House. Nikita Casap, 17, is accused of killing his mother, Tatiana Casap, and stepfather, Donald Mayer, at their village of Waukesha home in February. Casap was arrested in Kansas days later with a gun, driving Mayer’s stolen SUV. As part of the homicide investigation, Casap’s cellphone and other electronic devices were seized and searched. A search warrant, filed with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, outlines an FBI investigation that uncovered a conspiracy to kill Trump as part of an effort to start a "political revolution." Brian Dorow served with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security during Trump’s first term. "There were two attempted assassinations on the president. Certainly, there is no room for error," he said. FOX6 News asked Dorow if he believes the conspiracy to kill the president is on the White House’s radar. "One hundred percent," he said. "Anytime there is anything to harm the president of the United States, President Trump, that information is shared through the appropriate means – the Secret Service all the way to everyone close to the president." According to the federal warrant, investigators uncovered material on Casap’s cellphone related to "The Order of Nine Angles." The group is described in FBI documents as a "satanic cult" with "strong anti-Judiac, anti-Christian, and anti-Western ideologies" that claims to "incite chaos and violence." "These groups are looking to recruit," said Dorow. "If they are going to carry out something chaotic, weapon of mass destruction, they don’t act alone. They built their team."

(B) Texas Today [4/11/2025 7:34 AM, Staff] reports that in Killeen, a federal investigation turned deadly yesterday. A 24-year-old man was shot multiple times during a joint operation between US Secret Service agents and Killeen Police when they went to interview the man. While patting him down, officers found a gun in his front pocket. This led to some type of fight, ending with two Killeen officers shooting him. The man is in the hospital in critical condition.

HS Today [4/11/2025 6:30 AM, Staff, 38K] reports the Coast Guard announced Friday the termination of the Logistics Information Management System (CG-LIMS), which will save approximately $32.7 million, according to a press release. This action is an early milestone in the Coast Guard’s Force Design 2028 (FD 2028) initiative, and advances the work of DOGE. Fulfilling the President’s direction to maximize efficiencies and cost savings, the Coast Guard will terminate acquisition activities to deliver CG-LIMS, an enterprise logistics information technology (IT) solution. “Another win for government efficiency at the Department of Homeland Security,” said Kristi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security. “$32 million in taxpayer savings thanks to the Coast Guard eliminating an ineffective IT program. I’m proud of the men and women of the Coast Guard, who continue to deliver on the President’s agenda and deliver efficiency while securing our borders and maritime approaches.” Program activities will end no later than May 1, 2025, and are the result of the program’s inability to deliver on its full requirements in the foreseeable future. Like the other armed services, the Coast Guard continues to experience challenges in the Service’s attempts to replace outdated legacy logistics IT systems due to the number and complexity of business-related tasks and transactions required to maintain the fleet of assets and capabilities. With the program’s termination, the Coast Guard will realign approximately $32.7 million in previously appropriated funding to address emergent Coast Guard needs, and CG-LIMS personnel will be reassigned to fill critical personnel shortages within the Service. The Coast Guard is exploring alternatives to resolve logistics IT gaps and achieve the necessary functionality originally envisioned by the Service.

CBS 3 Norfolk [4/11/2025 6:14 PM, Colter Anstaett] reports Congresswoman Jen Kiggans has proposed a bill that would help Coast Guard members get retirement benefits and prevent them from being forced to retire early. The bill would prevent Coast Guard members who have served for at least 18 years from being forced to retire before they get to 20 years. Twenty years is when they become eligible for retirement benefits. The bill also calls for Coast Guard members who are eligible for retirement benefits get the same benefits as the other branches of the military. “Our Coast Guard members, too, are playing a vital role these days in national security. We have so many of them in Hampton Roads," said Kiggans. "So, we’re always trying to advocate for them and be a voice for them. We’ve included them in the Pay Our Troops Act, so in the case of a government shutdown make sure not only our military but also our Coast Guard men and women would get paid."

ABC 5 Boston [4/11/2025 6:03 PM, Veronica Haynes, 2000K] reports three people were rescued Friday after their scallop boat ran aground off an island in Boston Harbor, the United States Coast Guard said. Officials are investigating whether the captain fell asleep at low tide. At about 7:40 a.m. Friday, the 86-foot Eileen Rita out of New Bedford ran aground at Green Island, just north of Boston Light, the Coast Guard said. "They knew they were in trouble because they literally ran aground onto the island and then put out a distress call," said Coast Guard Capt. Jamie Frederick. "We were able to get some vessels out on scene, Coast Guard vessels, and from some of our partners. In fact, it was the Boston Police Department that was able to get their small boat alongside and take the captain of the vessel and the two crewmen safely off." The crew immediately put on their survival gear when the vessel began taking on water. No injuries were reported, and the crew was transferred to EMS when they returned to land. The incident remains under investigation, but the Coast Guard said the captain was asleep, and it was low tide. "We will conduct an investigation to figure out what the cause or the factors were," Frederick said. The USCG’s Incident Management Division is managing potential environmental hazards. The boat has "a potential discharge of 4,000 gallons of diesel fuel and 50 gallons of lube oil," the USCG said. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

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AP [4/11/2025 5:27 PM, Staff, 48304K]
NBC 10 Boston [4/11/2025 11:55 AM, Marc Fortier]
CW 7 Boston [4/11/2025 10:03 PM, Staff]
Maritime Executive [4/11/2025 10:10 PM, Staff, 325K]

New Haven Register [4/11/2025 2:54 PM, Peter Yankowski] reports a fishing boat rescued the three people on the "Hot Chocolate" sailboat that was found Tuesday hundreds of miles from its destination and four days after departing from New Haven, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. The 32-foot recreational sailboat, "Hot Chocolate," departed New Haven on April 4 intending to sail to Ocracoke in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, the Coast Guard’s public affairs office in New York said. A "be on the lookout" message published on boatwatch.org said the three people onboard the sailboat were in their 30s. The trip to North Carolina was expected to take five days and cover some 575 miles. During the period of time that the boat was missing April 4-8, a series of fronts brought unsettled weather to the area. Gusty winds and rapid changes in weather conditions led to rough seas and decreased visibility, especially on Saturday, April 5. The conditions the survivors experienced likely were rough. The Coast Guard said its New York, Long Island Sound, Delaware Bay and North Carolina sectors issued broadcasts in their areas. Around 1:55 p.m. Tuesday, the Coast Guard in New York heard radio communications from the "Hot Chocolate," which confirmed "the vessel was disabled and adrift," the Coast Guard said. A Coast Guard HC-144 airplane out of Cape Cod was able to establish communication with the boat, the Coast Guard said. A larger Coast Guard aircraft then helped to locate the missing boat, which was found around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday about 46 miles south of Fire Island. The Melissa K, a fishing boat that was in the area, picked up the three people onboard. The Coast Guard said there were no injuries reported.

FOX 4 Dallas [4/11/2025 8:06 AM, Staff] reports a sightseeing helicopter plummeted into the Hudson River in New York, killing six people. Federal Investigators are now trying to piece together exactly how this helicopter fell apart mid-air. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [4/11/2025 10:52 AM, Julia Bonavita, 46189K] reports that new details have emerged regarding the final moments of the helicopter that plunged into the Hudson River in Jersey City, New Jersey, on Thursday afternoon. The pilot of the doomed aircraft reportedly radioed about needing to refuel minutes before the helicopter crashed into the chilly waters, according to New York Helicopter Tour CEO Michael Roth, whose company operated the helicopter. "[The pilot] called in that he was landing and that he needed fuel, and it should have taken him about three minutes to arrive, but 20 minutes later, he didn’t arrive," Roth told The Telegraph. All six people on board – including five members of the same family – did not survive. "The only thing I know by watching a video of the helicopter falling down, that the main rotor blades weren’t on the helicopter," Roth told the New York Post. "I haven’t seen anything like that in my 30 years being in business, in the helicopter business. The only thing I could guess – I got no clue – is that it either had a bird strike or the main rotor blades failed. I have no clue. I don’t know." The five passengers have been identified as Siemens executive Agustin Escobar, Mercé Camprubi Montal, an energy technology company global manager, and the couple’s three young children, according to The Associated Press. The pilot’s identity had not been released as of Friday morning.

ABC 10 Miami [4/11/2025 8:29 PM, Janine Stanwood] reports a judge in Miami federal court Friday sentenced a 25-year-old woman who admitted to helping smuggle a group of Cuban migrants -- including a 9-month-old baby, children, and teenagers -- who died at sea. Yaquelin Dominguez-Nieves collected about $11,500 from the migrants’ families in South Florida with the promise of a voyage across the Florida Straits to the United States, according to federal prosecutors. Earlier this year, Dominguez-Nieves, of Sebring, pleaded guilty to conspiring to smuggle aliens into the U.S. She was back in court Friday before U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom, who read the names of 16 victims. “Not a single day goes by without me feeling the loss of those people,” Dominguez-Nieves said through tears while shackled at the wrists and wearing a tan jail jumpsuit during the sentencing hearing. Bloom sentenced Dominguez-Nieves to 7½ years in prison and three years of supervised release. The grief-stricken families of the victims said the November 2022 tragedy at sea changed their lives. After the boat sank roughly 30 miles into the voyage, the U.S. Coast Guard rescued the only two survivors and they reported the boat captain did not seem to know what he was doing. Verdecia, 28, and 15 others, according to prosecutors. Three of their bodies washed up in Monroe County after drowning. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

HS Today [4/11/2025 6:30 AM, Staff, 38K] reports the crew of U.S. Coast Guard Cutter James offloaded more than 44,550 pounds of cocaine and 3,880 pounds of marijuana valued at approximately $509.9 million in Port Everglades, Wednesday. This patrol resulted in 11 interdictions in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and the detainment of 34 suspected drug traffickers who were transferred ashore to face federal prosecution. All of these interdictions are tied to criminal investigations by federal partners and are linked to transnational criminal and foreign terrorist organizations including the Clan del Golfo, Sinaloa Cartel, and Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion. “This is a key example of the Department of Justice working with our law enforcement partners to fight crime and keep drugs from flowing into America,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “Thanks to the incredible work of the Coast Guard and FBI, these drugs will help lock up criminals instead of ruining lives.”

FOX News [4/11/2025 10:03 PM, Alexandra Koch, 46189K] reports the Navy recently deployed another warship, which successfully repelled multiple Iranian-backed Houthi attacks, to secure the southern border. USS Stockdale, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, left Naval Base San Diego on Friday to support U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) southern border operations, in accordance with President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders. The executive orders included a national emergency declaration and clarification of the military’s role in protecting the territorial integrity of the U.S. "Stockdale’s departure reinforces the Navy’s role in the Department of Defense’s coordinated efforts to comply with the order," according to a statement from the Navy. The ship will continue operations with an embarked U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment. In February, Stockdale returned to San Diego after a seven-month independent deployment to the U.S. 3rd, 5th and 7th Fleet areas of operation. It joined the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and remained in 5th Fleet following the departure of the ABECSG. While in the 5th Fleet, Stockdale "successfully repelled multiple Iranian-backed Houthi attacks" during transits of the Bab el-Mandeb strait and escorted operations of U.S.-flagged vessels in the Gulf of Aden, according to the Navy. It also engaged and defeated one-way attack uncrewed aerial-ship cruise missiles, according to officials. Stockdale sustained no damage and its personnel were uninjured. Stockdale will join the USS Spruance and USS Gravely, two other Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers, which were sent to the border in March, Fox News Digital previously reported. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

HS Today [4/11/2025 6:30 AM, Staff, 38K] reports crewmembers aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Terrell Horne (WPC 1131), with support from the USS Spruance (DDG 111) and Department of Homeland Security partners interdicted a suspected maritime smuggling vessel carrying eight Mexican nationals approximately 27 miles west of San Diego, Saturday. At approximately 11 p.m. Friday, a CBP Air and Marine Operations (AMO) aircraft detected an estimated 40-foot cuddy cabin-style vessel traveling northwest about 37 miles south of Point Loma. The AMO aircraft coordinated a handoff with a Navy SH-60 Seahawk helicopter launched from the USS Spruance, which maintained visual contact with the vessel overnight. At approximately 7 a.m. Saturday, the vessel crossed the U.S.-Mexico maritime boundary line.

Maui Now [4/11/2025 7:50 PM] reports The search continues for an overdue vessel with one person aboard offshore the Island of Hawaiʻi. Hawaiʻi Island police say 42-year-old Earl Kekuanaoa Hind, of Kona, a local fisherman, was last known to have launched his vessel from the South Point area on Monday, April 7, 2025. Coast Guard Sector Honolulu watchstanders received a report at 2:17 p.m. Thursday, from Hawaiʻi County Fire Department dispatchers regarding an overdue 23-foot recreational fishing vessel named Makalapua Ona Lani. The vessel has a white hull, blue trim and twin outboard engines. Hind was scheduled to return from his fishing trip in the vicinity of South Point Wednesday morning. Hind’s family members confirmed that his truck and trailer are still located at the boat ramp. Police say Hind and his vessel were last observed on Wednesday, April 9, around 12 p.m., offshore near the Miloliʻi area heading in a northerly direction. Sector Honolulu watchstanders coordinated the launch of a Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point HC-130 Hercules airplane crew and diverted the Coast Guard Cutter Joseph Gerczak to aid in the search.

Reported similarly:
Star Advertiser [4/11/2025 12:23 PM, Staff]

Bloomberg Government [4/11/2025 11:37 AM, Ellen M. Gilmer and Chris Cioffi, 75K] reports that the Department of Homeland Security and General Services Administration have suspended work on a $524 million construction project of a new Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency headquarters. DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin confirmed the work stoppage in an email Friday, saying it would result in "MASSIVE savings." Bloomberg Government first reported on the halt. The stoppage is the latest of several Trump administration actions to eliminate government spending by slashing the federal workforce, downsizing agencies, and moving to reduce government real estate. The CISA construction project has been in the works for years as DHS seeks to centralize more of its .

Cyberscoop [4/11/2025 5:30 PM, Tim Starks] reports the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency must brief Congress on proposed deep cuts to agency personnel, a top Democrat said in a letter to its acting director. California Rep. Eric Swalwell, ranking member of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection, wrote in the letter to acting Director Bridget Bean on Thursday that CISA is obligated to notify Congress of its plans. CISA reportedly plans to cut agency staff by nearly 40%, or 1,300 people. “It is difficult to convey in writing the full extent of my concern regarding the rumored plans to decimate CISA, but it suffices to say that upending an agency that plays such an important role in defending the homeland while keeping Congress in the dark is wholly unacceptable,” he wrote. “At no point has CISA provided the Subcommittee any justification for the drastic reorganization that is apparently well underway, nor has it explained how CISA will execute its congressionally mandated mission with a fraction of the workforce and resources.”

Blaze [4/11/2025 12:58 PM, Joseph Mackinnon, 1668K] reports that U.S. officials and tech companies have long understood that the communist regime in Beijing has orchestrated numerous significant cyberattacks on American institutions and critical infrastructure. In a secret December meeting, Chinese officials apparently admitted as much and identified a major reason for doing so: America’s continued support for the island nation of Taiwan. A pair of anonymous sources said to be familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal that Chinese officials met with elements of the outgoing Biden administration during a December summit in Geneva that was led by Nate Fick, the State Department’s then-ambassador at large for cyberspace and digital policy. Whereas previously, China has played off Volt Typhoon — its hacker outfit tasked with espionage and information gathering — as a criminal crew of rogue hackers or the product of Western fantasy, the Chinese delegation apparently acknowledged that it was indeed a state-backed enterprise. According to Microsoft, Volt Typhoon has pursued "development of capabilities that could disrupt critical communications infrastructure between the United States and Asia region during future crises.”

New York Times [4/11/2025 7:45 PM, Carol Rosenberg, 145325K] reports a military judge on Friday threw out the confession that a man accused of conspiring in the Sept. 11 attacks made to federal agents in 2007 at Guantánamo Bay, ruling the statements were the product of a campaign of torture and isolation carried out by the C.I.A. The ruling by Col. Matthew N. McCall was the latest setback to prosecutors in their long-running quest to bring the death-penalty case to trial, despite the years the five defendants had spent in secret C.I.A. prisons. Ammar al-Baluchi, 47, was so thoroughly psychologically conditioned through abuse and threats during his time at the agency’s overseas prisons, or black sites, from 2003 to 2006 that he involuntarily incriminated himself in 2007, the judge wrote in a 111-page decision. Mr. Baluchi, who is charged in the case by the name Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, is accused of sending money and providing other support to some of the hijackers who carried out the attack that killed nearly 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001. He is the nephew of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the man accused of masterminding the attack. Mr. Mohammed and two other defendants in the case reached plea agreements with prosecutors that are now being contested in federal court. A fifth defendant was found mentally unfit to stand trial, a condition his lawyer blames on his torture at the hands of the C.I.A. Testimony derived from C.I.A. documents showed that Mr. Baluchi was routinely kept naked and beaten during his first days of agency custody in a program of “enhanced interrogation,” which was designed by two psychologists on contract to the C.I.A. Student interrogators took turns slamming his head against a wall. He was deprived of sleep for 82 straight hours by shackling him at the ankles and wrists in a way that forced him to stand, naked, with a hood on his head. He was made to fear he would be drowned in a mock waterboarding technique in which he was laid out on a tarp as cold water was poured onto a towel covering his face. By the time he reached Guantánamo, he had undergone 1,100 rounds of interrogation in C.I.A. custody, some with agency debriefers asking questions provided by the F.BI. “Just as the C.I.A. psychologists had planned, Mr. Ali learned that he was helpless to resist the torture, and that cooperation meant a lessening of abuse and an increase in rewards,” Colonel McCall wrote.

Daily Caller [4/11/2025 2:19 PM, Hudson Crozier, 1082K] reports that a Florida mosque tied to radical Muslim figures has received federal funding for a program aimed at preventing terrorist attacks. The Biden administration’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) awarded more than $440,000 to the Valrico-based Deen Center in Fiscal Year 2024, Florida records show. The Deen Center’s staff have promoted individuals who have defended violent “jihad,” called Jews “oppressors” and said “the Jews… control the whole world by the money,” among other extreme rhetoric, the Washington Free Beacon first reported. The Deen Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation. The funding for the Deen Center was awarded under the DHS’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program, designed to support “physical security enhancements and activities to nonprofit organizations that are at high risk of terrorist attack.” The DHS’s media office did not immediately respond to an inquiry.

Free Beacon [4/11/2025 5:00 AM, Chuck Ross, 475K] reports the Department of Homeland Security recently awarded anti-terrorism grants to a Florida mosque linked to pro-terror Islamic clerics, 9/11 conspiracy theorists, and an anti-Semitic pastor who claims "the Jews" conduct "secret rituals" at holy sites in Jerusalem. DHS gave nearly $300,000 to the Deen Center, Inc. on Jan. 31 as part of its Nonprofit Security Grant Program, according to the federal spending database USASpending. The grants to the Tampa-area mosque were approved by the Biden administration in October, according to Florida state records. While the program—overseen by FEMA—is designed to help religious institutions protect against terrorist attacks, the Deen Center has embraced clerics, activists, and Muslim scholars who have promoted terrorist attacks against the United States and Israel and has pushed anti-Semitic tropes. Eddie Redzovic, the founder of the Deen Center, has repeatedly featured anti-Semites on his popular YouTube channel, The Deen Show.

Detroit Free Press [4/11/2025 6:10 AM, Matt Mencarini, 4124K] reports a Michigan State University student who faces potentially decades in prison will challenge the charge prosecutors brought against her in February by arguing that it’s unconstitutional. Hope Duncan, 18, faces one count of making a false report or threat of terrorism and one count of using a computer to commit a crime. The case stems from a Feb. 26 social media post in which, according to court records, Duncan said "there’s going to be another shooting" at the school. Her post prompted about 100 MSU students to call police. Duncan was charged in February and last week 54B District Court Judge Lisa Babcock ruled there was enough evidence against Duncan to move the case to Ingham County Circuit Court, where she could face trial or reach a plea agreement with prosecutors. Mike Nichols, Duncan’s attorney, first tried to have the case dismissed in March. He argued that a Court of Appeals decision in February in a Wayne County case that found Michigan’s false report or threat of terrorism charge was unconstitutional should apply in Duncan’s case. Babcock ordered Nichols and prosecutors to file written arguments on his motion to dismiss, but ultimately ruled prosecutors could use the charge in Duncan’s case. Whether the charge will continue in Michigan long-term remains to be seen. On March 28, the state Supreme Court vacated the Court of Appeal’s ruling and ordered the appellate judges to reassess the case under specific guidelines. That review is pending. "We believe that the breadcrumbs that the Supreme Court left (in its ruling) ... tells me that this fight needs to continue and, as applied, the statute here can’t cover Hope Duncan’s conduct," Nichols told the State Journal this week. He said he plans to file a motion to quash Babcock’s ruling. Ingham County Prosecuting Attorney John Dewane declined to comment because the case is ongoing. Attorney will challenge charge on First Amendment grounds. Duncan’s social media post came within weeks of the second anniversary of the Feb. 13, 2023, campus shooting that left three students dead and five others wounded. "There’s going to be another shooting at michigan state (sic)," Duncan wrote, according to court records. "I’m so glad, this school definitely deserves it and everyone here should die.”

Bloomberg [4/11/2025 9:13 AM, Swati Gupta, 16228K] reports that the US extradited a man long-sought by India for his alleged role in the 2008 Mumbai attacks as the two countries work together to combat the "global scourge of terrorism," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said. Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a Canadian citizen, was accused of masterminding the three-day seige of gun and grenade attacks on luxury hotels, a popular tourist spot and a Jewish center in Mumbai, which left more than 160 people dead, including six Americans, and hundreds injured. Nine militants were also killed. US extradited a man long-sought by India for his alleged role in the 2008 Mumbai attacks as the two countries work together to combat the “global scourge of terrorism,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said. Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a Canadian citizen, was accused of masterminding the three-day seige of gun and grenade attacks on luxury hotels, a popular tourist spot and a Jewish center in Mumbai, which left more than 160 people dead, including six Americans, and hundreds injured. Nine militants were also killed. Rana was extradited to India on April 9, Rubio said in a statement Friday, and was arrested by Indian authorities shortly after his arrival in the country. “The United States has long supported India’s efforts to ensure those responsible for these attacks are brought to justice,” Rubio said.

Blaze [4/11/2025 10:30 AM, Rebecka Zeljko, 1668K] reports that the Senate confirmed retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan Caine to serve as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Friday during an overnight vote. Caine was confirmed in a 60-25 vote after President Donald Trump abruptly fired Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. in February. Although his confirmation was bipartisan, several Democratic senators, like Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, protested his nomination in light of Brown’s firing. Even still, 16 Democrats joined Republicans to confirm Caine right before Congress’ two-week recess. "General Caine is an accomplished pilot, national security expert, successful entrepreneur, and a ‘warfighter’ with significant interagency and special operations experience," Trump said in a Truth Social post. "During my first term, Razin [Caine] was instrumental in the complete annihilation of the ISIS caliphate," Trump added. "It was done in record setting time, a matter of weeks. Many so-called military ‘geniuses’ said it would take years to defeat ISIS. General Caine, on the other hand, said it could be done quickly, and he delivered.” Trump credited Caine for his prior military experience and "America First" worldview, which Secretary Pete Hegseth has also embraced in his role heading the Department of Defense.

Washington Examiner [4/11/2025 7:37 AM, Jamie McIntyre, 2296K] reports America’s four-star commanders responsible for deterring and, if it comes to war, defeating China and North Korea spent this week on Capitol Hill warning Congress that the U.S. military is falling behind both adversaries as they rapidly build their conventional and nuclear capabilities. North Korea is "focused on advancing their cruise missile and hypersonic glide vehicle research and development programs," Army Gen. Xavier Brunson, the U.S. Forces Korea commander, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on his second day of congressional testimony alongside his "boss," U.S. Indo-Pacific Commander Adm. Samuel Paparo. "Kim Jong Un also has two highly publicized visits to nuclear sites," Brunson said, noting that last year, North Korea conducted 47 ballistic missile launches and one failed satellite launch. "In the coming year, we expect the DPRK to further develop hypersonic and multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle MIRV capabilities to complete his eighth party Congress goals.” Brunson testified that Kim is no longer interested in reconciliation with South Korea or denuclearizing to appease the West but is instead focused solely on building his military, with help from his new close ally, Russia. "The DPRK continues to build its nuclear weapons program and boast a Russian-equipped, augmented, modernized military force of over 1.3. "I’m telling you, these countries are calling us up, kissing my ass. They are. They are dying to make a deal. ‘Please, please, sir, make a deal. I’ll do anything. I’ll do anything, sir.’".

Politico [4/11/2025 10:00 AM, Michael Hirsh, 11599K] reports Donald Trump has been obsessed with preventing a nuclear holocaust since he was a bumptious boy builder back in the 1980s. Back then Trump reportedly proposed, with typical grandiosity, that if President Ronald Reagan appointed him “plenipotentiary ambassador” he would end the Cold War “within one hour.” Since then, Trump has rarely stopped talking about mitigating the danger of nuclear weapons. In his first presidential term, shortly before heading off to what would become an infamous 2018 summit with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Trump called nukes “the biggest problem in the world” and summed up for reporters what he hoped to accomplish: “No more nuclear weapons anywhere in the world.” Trump has repeatedly sounded the theme in his second term as well, warning over and over of “World War III.” In mid-February he declared: “There’s no reason for us to be building brand new nuclear weapons. We already have so many.” So it’s more than a little curious to consider that, in less than three months as president, Trump has already set in motion the opposite trend: potentially the fastest and most dangerous acceleration of nuclear arms proliferation around the world since the early Cold War. The new nuclear powers aren’t just the rogue nations that have long been the focus of U.S. concern, countries like Iran and North Korea. Increasingly, the nations considering going nuclear are longtime U.S. allies, from Germany to South Korea, Japan to Saudi Arabia. Faced with the threat of U.S. withdrawal from its defense commitments, more and more countries are now openly talking about embracing the bomb — and just as worrisome, actually deploying nukes if hostilities break out. Nor is there any evidence that in the flurry of activity marking what Trump has called “the most successful” start of any presidency in U.S. history, his administration has even begun reckoning with the implications of these seemingly contradictory policies. A National Security Council spokesperson, James Hewitt, did not respond directly to questions about whether Trump means to open the way for allies to obtain nuclear weapons as they assume more of the defense burden in their regions. But Hewitt said: “President Trump has repeatedly warned that nuclear destruction is the biggest threat to humanity and is committed to a policy that promotes nuclear nonproliferation around the world.” Nuclear experts, however, note that the administration has few personnel in place to address nuclear proliferation. Several nominees from the Defense and State departments to the Nuclear National Security Administration are awaiting confirmation. At the National Security Council, the post of senior director for arms control hasn’t yet been named.

Wall Street Journal [4/11/2025 10:51 AM, Jared Malsin and Nancy A. Youssef, 646K]
reports the Pentagon has removed the commander of an American military base in Greenland after she sent an email pushing back on comments by Vice President JD Vance during a March visit that the U.S. should take control of the Arctic island. Col. Susannah Meyers, the commander of Pituffik Space Base, was removed from command on Thursday for “loss of confidence in her ability to lead,” a Space Force spokeswoman said. “Commanders are expected to adhere to the highest standards of conduct, especially as it relates to remaining nonpartisan in the performance of their duties,” the spokeswoman added. Meyers was replaced by Col. Shawn Lee, according to the Space Force. During his visit to the remote base on March 28, Vance defended President Trump’s push for the U.S. to take control of Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark. In remarks to assembled American servicemen and women at the base, he argued that Denmark wasn’t doing a good job of securing the massive island. On March 31, Meyers sent an email to staff at the base distancing the base’s leadership from Vance’s comments. “I do not presume to understand current politics, but what I do know is the concerns of the U.S. administration discussed by Vice President Vance on Friday are not reflective of Pituffik Space Base,” Meyers wrote in the email, according to a defense official. The message was a rare moment of pushback from within the military ranks to the Trump administration, which has realigned U.S. foreign policy by pushing to normalize U.S. ties with Moscow and distancing the U.S. from traditional allies in Europe and elsewhere.

Reported similarly:
ABC News [4/11/2025 8:00 AM, Luis Martinez and David Brennan, 34586K]

CNN [4/12/2025 2:37 AM, Alex Marquardt, Abbas Al Lawati, and Kylie Atwood, 908K] reports Iran and the United States begin high-stakes talks to reach a new nuclear deal on Saturday foreshadowed by President Trump’s threat of military strikes as a consequence of failure and Tehran’s warning any attack on it would drag the US into a broader Middle Eastern conflict. The meeting, to be held in the Gulf Arab nation of Oman, could be the first direct talks between Iranian and American officials in a decade, though Iran insists they will be indirect – with mediators acting as go-betweens for the two nations. An Iranian delegation led by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Oman’s capital, Muscat, on Saturday morning, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported. President Donald Trump has given Iran a two-month deadline to accept a deal that would lead to Iran shrinking its nuclear footprint or eliminating its program altogether. “I want them not to have a nuclear weapon. I want Iran to be a wonderful, great, happy country, but they can’t have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said aboard Air Force One on his way to Florida on Friday night. The talks come after the Islamic Republic has seen its regional power projection significantly weakened over the past 18 months by Israeli strikes on its proxies, the toppling of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, and unprecedented attacks inside its own borders. The stakes on Saturday are high: Trump said military strikes are possible against Iran if a new nuclear deal isn’t reached, though he said Israel – which has been advocating for an attack on Iran – would take the lead.

CBS News [4/11/2025 10:41 AM, Staff, 51661K] reports that Iran is seeking a "real and fair" agreement with the United States on its nuclear program, a senior aide to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Friday, ahead of talks over the weekend. "Far from putting up a show and merely talking in front of the cameras, Tehran is seeking a real and fair agreement, important and implementable proposals are ready," Khamenei adviser Ali Shamkhani said in a post on X. The talks between the longtime adversaries are set to take place on Saturday in Oman, aimed at reaching a deal on Tehran’s nuclear program. President Trump has said they will be "direct talks," while Iran’s foreign minister referred to them as "indirect high-level talks" through a mediator. President Trump sent a letter to Khamenei last month urging negotiations, warning of possible military action if Iran refuses. In the lead-up to the talks this week, Mr. Trump reiterated his warning that military action was "absolutely" possible if talks failed. Iran responded by saying it could expel U.N. nuclear inspectors, prompting another U.S. warning that such action would be an "escalation." Iran has consistently denied that it is trying to acquire nuclear weapons and has said for decades that its program is peaceful. Its officials, though, have increasingly threatened to pursue a nuclear weapon.

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [4/11/2025 5:20 AM, Staff, 2923K]

New York Times [4/12/2025 12:01 AM, Lara Jakes, 145325K] reports a brief handshake may be the most likely outcome from preliminary diplomatic talks set for Saturday between American and Iranian officials. It would probably be enough to keep the discussions going, and potentially lead to the first official face-to-face negotiations between the two countries since President Trump abandoned a landmark nuclear accord seven years ago. The talks, scheduled to be held in Oman, will serve as a feeling-out session to see whether the Trump administration and Iran’s clerical government could move to full negotiations to limit Iran’s nuclear program. Both sides come in with high distrust, given that Mr. Trump walked away from the 2015 accord that Iran had brokered with the United States and other world powers, and slapped harsh sanctions on Tehran during his first term. Mr. Trump now wants to strike a deal — both to showcase his negotiating skills and to keep simmering tensions between Iran and Israel from escalating into a more intense conflict that would further roil the Middle East. Iranian officials are skeptical but “ready to engage in earnest and with a view to seal a deal,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote in Washington Post this week. The goals of Saturday’s meeting are modest, reflecting the gap between the two sides: to agree on a framework for negotiations and a timeline. It is not clear whether the envoys will speak directly, as Mr. Trump has insisted, or pass messages through Omani intermediaries shuttling between rooms, as Mr. Araghchi has indicated. The Iranian delegation plans to convey that it is open to talking about reductions to its enrichment and allowing outside monitoring, according to two senior Iranian officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. But, they said, the negotiators are uninterested in discussing dismantlement of the nuclear program, which Trump administration officials have insisted on. “They have an opportunity to tie Israel and the United States in knots by getting into negotiations in which they dupe Witkoff into thinking that negotiations will produce a lot,” said Elliott Abrams, who served as Mr. Trump’s Iran envoy during his first term. “And so the negotiations start, which holds Israel off, and they continue, and they continue.”

Washington Examiner [4/11/2025 5:45 AM, Jamie McIntyre, 2296K] reports that, in a bid to, in the words of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, “do the world a favor” by restoring freedom of navigation to the Middle East, the U.S. military has gone all in on a strategy that rarely works. Fed up with the ability of the Houthi rebels to disrupt shipping in the vital waterway that connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden for the last year and a half, on March 15, President Donald Trump authorized an "unrelenting" aerial bombardment of the Houthis until they stop shooting at commercial ships and U.S. military vessels. Trump warned Iran to stay out of the fight while predicting a speedy victory. "Either way they lose, but this way they lose quickly," he posted on Truth Social. "Watch how it will get progressively worse — It’s not even a fair fight.” Former President Joe Biden’s administration, which conducted some 112 days of airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen between Oct. 7, 2023, and Jan. 20, 2025, had to admit that despite striking hundreds of targets and expending tens of millions of dollars in munitions, it left office with the Houthis degraded but not defeated. "We have taken a heavy toll on much of their capabilities, but clearly, we have not eliminated that," John Kirby, Biden’s national security spokesman, ruefully told reporters at his last White House briefing. This time would be different, said Trump national security adviser Mike Waltz, who has dismissed the Biden effort as a series of "pinprick, back-and-forth, feckless attacks.” "This was an overwhelming response that actually targeted multiple Houthi leaders and took them out," Waltz said on ABC that day after the attacks began. "And the difference here is, one, going after the Houthi leadership and, two, holding Iran responsible.”

New York Times [4/12/2025 3:02 AM, Alexandra Stevenson, 330K] reports China on Friday said it was raising its tariffs on American goods to 125 percent, retaliating for the third time in the escalating trade war between the two superpowers. The brinkmanship between President Trump and Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, threatens to rip apart trade ties between the world’s two largest economies after years of simmering tensions. China accompanied its announcement of the higher levies, which take effect on Saturday, with a mocking statement calling Mr. Trump’s tariff policies “a joke.” The announcement by the State Council, China’s cabinet, followed a clarification on Thursday by the Trump administration that Chinese goods imported to the United States now face a minimum tariff rate of 145 percent. Over the past two weeks, China and the United States have been engaged in a fast-moving tit-for-tat that has resulted in ever-higher barriers to trade, churning markets and threatening economies around the world. This week, Mr. Trump reversed course on the so-called reciprocal tariffs he had placed on dozens of countries. But instead of pausing the levies on China, he chose to raise the tariffs to 125 percent as a penalty for what he called China’s “lack of respect.” The move followed Beijing’s decision to tax American goods at 84 percent. “There are no winners in a tariff war and going against the world will only result in self-isolation,” said Mr. Xi, who was meeting with the prime minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez. The European Union, of which Spain is a member, has taken China to task over its overproduction of products like electrical vehicles and its dumping of cheap goods in other countries.

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [4/11/2025 8:36 AM, Staff, 2923K]

Bloomberg [4/12/2025 1:45 AM, Staff, 16228K] reports Chinese Trade Minister Wang Wentao said the continuous introduction of tariffs by the US will cause great harm to the developing world and may even trigger a humanitarian crisis. China’s “decisive countermeasures” are to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests, and to also uphold fairness and justice in the international community, Wang told Ngozi Okonjo, director-general of the World Trade Organization, in a video call on Friday. WTO members should unite to counter unilateralism, protectionism, and bullying practices with open cooperation and multilateralism, Wang was cited as saying in a Ministry of Commerce statement on Saturday. Least developed countries face some of the greatest risks from the US tariffs, he said. Separately, Wang also held a video call with with Geraldo Alckmin, Brazil’s minister of development, industry, foreign trade and services. The two sides exchanged views on issues such as strengthening economic and trade cooperation between China and Brazil and responding to the tariffs imposed by the US, according to the commerce ministry.

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