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 Washington Post [4/17/2025 2:55 AM, Andrew Jeong, 31735K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem on Wednesday demanded that Harvard University submit records before next month on foreign students alleged to have engaged in “illegal and violent activities,” or face losing its Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification, which allows U.S. universities to admit international students. The threat comes as scores of international students and scholars have learned that their visas were abruptly revoked, leaving college officials scrambling to understand what is happening. More than 1 million international students attend colleges in the United States every year, contributing nearly $44 billion to the economy, Washington Post previously reported. Noem also said in a news release Wednesday that her department was terminating two previously awarded grants to Harvard worth more than $2.7 million, and repeated accusations by the Trump administration that the university condoned antisemitism and embraced “radical ideology.” The Department of Homeland Security said funding was rescinded for the Implementation Science for Targeted Violence Prevention grant, worth about $800,000, and the Blue Campaign Program Evaluation and Violence Advisement grant, worth around $1.9 million. In a statement released Wednesday to the media, Harvard said that it was aware of Noem’s announcement but that the school stands by its earlier statements, in which it said it would not relinquish its rights or independence. “We will continue to comply with the law and expect the Administration to do the same,” said the emailed statement said. While Harvard’s endowment — worth more than $53 billion as of June 2024 — covered nearly 40 percent of its $6.4 billion operating expenses in the 2024 fiscal year, the university said it relies on other sources, “such as federal and nonfederal research grants, student tuition and fees, and gifts from alumni, parents, and friends,” to finance the rest of its costs. The New York Post [4/16/2025 10:04 PM, Victor Nava and Ryan King, 54903K] reports that the United States Government understands that Harvard University relies heavily on foreign student funding from over 10,000 foreign students to build and maintain their substantial endowment," the DHS chief added. "At the same time, your institution has created a hostile learning environment for Jewish students due to Harvard’s failure to condemn antisemitism.” Earlier this week, Harvard said it would not comply with demands issued by the Trump administration aimed at curtailing antisemitism on campus, resulting in the White House freezing $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and $60 million in multi-year contracts. Noem, on Wednesday, also announced DHS canceled two grants from the department to the university, totalling another $2.7 million and declared Harvard "unfit" to receive taxpayer money. "Harvard bending the knee to antisemitism — driven by its spineless leadership — fuels a cesspool of extremist riots and threatens our national security," she said in a statement. "With anti-American, pro-Hamas ideology poisoning its campus and classrooms, Harvard’s position as a top institution of higher learning is a distant memory. America demands more from universities entrusted with taxpayer dollars.” Reuters [4/16/2025 11:56 PM, Kanishka Singh, 41523K] reports "And if Harvard cannot verify it is in full compliance with its reporting requirements, the university will lose the privilege of enrolling foreign students," Noem said in a statement. A Harvard spokesperson said the university was aware of Noem’s letter "regarding grant cancellations and scrutiny of foreign student visas." The spokesperson said the university stood by its statement earlier in the week to "not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights" while saying it will comply with the law. President Donald Trump’s administration has threatened universities with federal funding cuts over pro-Palestinian campus protests against U.S. ally Israel’s devastating military assault on Gaza after a deadly October 2023 attack by Palestinian Hamas militants. Trump casts the protesters as foreign policy threats who are antisemitic and sympathetic to Hamas. Protesters, including some Jewish groups, say the Trump administration wrongly conflates their advocacy for Palestinian rights and criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza with support for extremism and antisemitism. The Trump administration is also attempting to deport some foreign protesters and has revoked hundreds of visas across the country. "With a $53.2 billion endowment, Harvard can fund its own chaos - DHS won’t," Noem said, adding an "anti-American, pro-Hamas ideology" existed at Harvard.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [4/16/2025 9:16 PM, Tara Suter, 430301K]
Reuters [4/16/2025 8:15 PM, Kanishka Singh, 48128K]

The Washington Post [4/16/2025 7:12 PM, Marianne LeVine, Spencer S. Hsu, Salvador Rizzo, and Jeremy Roebuck, 31735K] reports that Chief U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg of Washington, D.C., on Wednesday said he would launch proceedings to determine whether any Trump administration officials defied his order not to remove Venezuelan migrants from the country based on the wartime Alien Enemies Act and should face criminal contempt charges. “The Constitution does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial orders — especially by officials of a coordinate branch who have sworn an oath to uphold it,” the judge said in a written ruling. Allowing political leaders to defy court judgments would make “a solemn mockery” of “the constitution itself,” he said. Still, Boasberg said that ruling did not excuse Trump administration officials from following his orders while they were still in place. He characterized the administration’s decision to proceed with removal flights on March 15 and 16 despite his order not to as “a willful disregard… sufficient for the Court to conclude that probable cause exists to find the Government in criminal contempt.” Discussing Boasberg’s order Wednesday, Steven Cheung, White House communications director, said in an emailed statement the administration plans to “seek immediate appellate relief,” adding that “the President is 100% committed to ensuring that terrorists and criminal illegal migrants are no longer a threat to Americans and their communities across the country.” Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, said in an emailed statement: “The Supreme Court already rebuked him. Lawless.” A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately return requests for comment. The New York Times [4/16/2025 5:15 PM, Alan Feuer, 145325K] reports Boasberg said he would begin contempt proceedings against the administration unless the White House did what it has failed to do for more than a month: give scores of Venezuelan men deported to El Salvador under the expansive authority of a wartime law called the Alien Enemies Act a chance to challenge their removal. “The court does not reach such conclusions lightly or hastily,” wrote Judge Boasberg, who sits as the chief judge in Federal District Court in Washington. “Indeed, it has given defendants ample opportunity to explain their actions. None of their responses has been satisfactory.” Judge Boasberg’s threat of contempt proceedings, coupled with another federal judge’s move on Tuesday to open a similar inquiry in a separate deportation case, represented a remarkable attempt by jurists to hold the White House accountable for its apparent willingness to flout court orders. The twin decisions also showed that judges remain willing to push back against the administration’s broader inclination to probe the traditional, but increasingly fragile, balance of power between the executive and judicial branches. Should administration officials slow-walk his efforts, Judge Boasberg warned that he could make a criminal referral to the Justice Department or even appoint an outside prosecutor. Roll Call [4/16/2025 3:53 PM, Chris Johnson, 503K] reports Boasberg determined the actions of the U.S. government "demonstrate a willful disregard" to his temporary restraining order, which he said is "sufficient for the Court to conclude that probable cause exists to find the Government in criminal contempt." Boasberg, in an accompanying two-page order, gives the U.S. government two options: If it chooses to purge its contempt, it must file a legal brief explaining the steps it has taken and will take to fulfill that action. If, however, the Trump administration decides not to purge its contempt, it must file a legal brief identifying which individuals with knowledge of the court order made the decision not to halt the transfer of individuals out of U.S. custody on March 15 and 16. Both legal briefs would be due April 23. The AP [4/16/2025 6:32 PM, Alanna Durkin Richer, Mark Sherman and Michael Kunzelman, 48304K] reports that the White House says it’s planning to appeal. It’s the latest standoff between the administration and the judiciary, which has blocked a slew of President Donald Trump’s sweeping executive actions around immigration and other matters. The case stems from Trump’s invocation of a 1798 wartime law, the Alien Enemies Act, to deport Venezuelan migrants it accuses of being gang members. During an emergency hearing last month after several migrants sued, Boasberg had ordered the administration not to deport anyone in its custody under the act. When told there were already planes in the air headed to El Salvador, which has agreed to house deported migrants in a notorious prison, the judge said the aircraft needed to be returned to the United States. That didn’t happen. Hours later, El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, announced that the deportees had arrived in his country. In a social media post, he said, "Oopsie...too late" above an article referencing Boasberg’s order. The Justice Department has argued the judge’s order didn’t apply to planes that had already left U.S. airspace by the time his command came down. B

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(B) Newsline [4/16/2025 1:06 PM, Staff]

ABC News [4/16/2025 5:43 PM, Laura Romero, 34586K] reports the Department of Justice filed notice Wednesday that it will appeal the order from a federal judge requiring the government to take all available steps to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States after he was wrongly deported to El Salvador. The notice comes a day after U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered government officials to testify under oath because, she said, they had "done nothing to aid in Abrego Garcia’s release from custody and return to the United States," despite the Supreme Court directing the Trump administration to "‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador." Per Judge Xinis’ orders, the Trump administration on Wednesday submitted its daily status update on Abrego Garcia, saying that were "no further updates."

Los Angeles Times [4/16/2025 2:58 PM, David G. Savage, 13342K] reports that President Trump’s lawyers have set a new legal hurdle before the Maryland man who was wrongly deported to El Salvador. Even if Kilmar Abrego Garcia is returned to the United States, he will be held as an illegal immigrant and can be deported again because he is member of a foreign criminal gang, they said. The uncompromising statement presented to a Maryland judge echoed the Oval Office meeting between Trump and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Monday. U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi insisted Abrego Garcia will not be allowed to enter or remain in this country. "He’s not a Maryland man. He’s part of foreign terrorist organization. He’s a member of MS-13," she said. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis launched a two-week effort to dig into the administration’s refusal to "facilitate" his return. Her findings could propel the case back to the Supreme Court. Last week, the justices agreed the government must "facilitate Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador." But a statement from the top attorney at the Department of Homeland Security warns that returning to this country could be a limited victory. The Department of Homeland Security "is prepared to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s presence in the United States," Joseph Mazzara, the acting general counsel at DHS, said in a sworn statement. If he arrives "at a port of entry," DHS "would take him into custody ... and either remove him to a third country or terminate his withholding of removal because of his membership in MS-13, a designated foreign terrorist organization, and remove him to El Salvador."

The Hill [4/16/2025 7:57 AM, Lauren Irwin, 12829K] reports Vice President Vance defended the Trump administration’s move to deport Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia, criticizing legal efforts to secure his return to the U.S. In a lengthy post on the social platform X on Tuesday, Vance argued that former President Biden allowed approximately 20 million undocumented immigrants into the country, which he said has placed "extraordinary burdens" on U.S. schools, hospitals and housing. "The American people elected the Trump administration to solve this problem," Vance said. "The President has successfully stopped the inflow of illegal aliens, and now we must deport the people who came here illegally.” Vance’s post came just hours after a federal judge ordered Trump officials to deliver depositions about its failure to retrieve Abrego Garcia, who is a legal U.S. resident and was wrongfully deported to a prison in El Salvador. The administration acknowledged that Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported last month, but a Supreme Court order has provided wiggle room around the efforts to return him. Officials have argued that the administration cannot push a foreign country to release someone and that Abrego Garcia may be deported again if he returns to the U.S. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers have accused the Trump administration of skirting responsibility and the Supreme Court’s order in securing his return. Democrats, including Sen. Chris Van Hollen (Md.) have also argued that Abrego Garcia did not receive due process in his arrest and removal. All U.S. residents are entitled to due process, including review by a judge, before being sentenced to time in prison. But, in his Tuesday post, Vance questioned this argument. "Here’s a useful test: ask the people weeping over the lack of due process what precisely they propose for dealing with Biden’s millions and millions of illegals. And with reasonable resource and administrative judge constraints, does their solution allow us to deport at least a few million people a year?" Vance questioned. "If the answer is no, they’ve given their game away. They don’t want border security. They don’t want us to deport the people who’ve come into our country illegally. They want to accomplish through fake legal process what they failed to accomplish politically: The ratification of Biden’s illegal migrant invasion," he continued.

FOX News [4/16/2025 6:01 AM, Alex Nitzberg, 46189K] reports Vice President JD Vance asserted that he and President Donald Trump will not allow the "illegal migrant invasion" that occurred during President Joe Biden’s White House tenure to be ratified via "fake legal process.” He suggested that if the people crying "lack of due process" regarding the deportation of illegal aliens do not have a proposed solution that allows the nation to remove at least several million illegal aliens annually, they do not actually want to achieve border security and expel the illegal immigrants. "When the media and the far left obsess over an MS-13 gang member and demand that he be returned to the United States for a *third* deportation hearing, what they’re really saying is they want the vast majority of illegal aliens to stay here permanently," Vance wrote in the lengthy Tuesday night post on X. "Here’s a useful test: ask the people weeping over the lack of due process what precisely they propose for dealing with Biden’s millions and millions of illegals. And with reasonable resource and administrative judge constraints, does their solution allow us to deport at least a few million people per year?" he noted. "If the answer is no, they’ve given their game away. They don’t want border security. They don’t want us to deport the people who’ve come into our country illegally. They want to accomplish through fake legal process what they failed to accomplish politically: The ratification of Biden’s illegal migrant invasion. President Trump and I will not stand for [it]," Vance declared. The vice president asserted that American voters elected the Trump administration to fix the illegal immigration issue. "Consider that Joe Biden allowed approximately 20 million illegal aliens into our country. This placed extraordinary burdens on our country--our schools, hospitals, housing, and other essential services were overwhelmed. On top of that, many of these illegal aliens committed violent crimes, or facilitated fentanyl and sex trafficking. That is the situation we inherited," he wrote. "The American people elected the Trump administration to solve this problem. The President has successfully stopped the inflow of illegal aliens, and now we must deport the people who came here illegally," he declared. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Daily Signal [4/16/2025 12:07 PM, Jacob Adams, 495K] reports that Vice President JD Vance took aim yesterday at the some in the legacy media and on the far Left for demanding the return of illegal alien Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to the United States from his home country of El Salvador, where he is currently imprisoned. The president of El Salvador said in a press conference on Monday with President Donald Trump that he would not be returning Abrego Garcia, who has been accused of being an MS-13 gang member, to the United States. "When the media and the far Left obsess over an MS-13 gang member and demand that he be returned to the United States for a *third* deportation hearing, what they’re really saying is they want the vast majority of illegal aliens to stay here permanently," Vance said in a post on X. The Daily Signal depends on the support of readers like you. Donate now. The vice president raised concerns that the Trump administration would not be able to deport millions of illegal aliens in the country if the far Left had its way. "Here’s a useful test: Ask the people weeping over the lack of due process what precisely they propose for dealing with [former President Joe] Biden’s millions and millions of illegals. And with reasonable resource and administrative judge constraints, does their solution allow us to deport at least a few million people per year?" he wrote.

Breitbart [4/16/2025 4:35 PM, Olivia Rondeau, 2923K] reports President Donald Trump’s White House team has shot back at left-wing calls for the return of a deported alleged MS-13 gang member from El Salvador, stating that the man is "already home" back in his country. Kilmar Abrego-Garcia, a 29-year-old Salvadoran national who entered the United States illegally when he was 16, has become the Democrat Party’s latest sweetheart since he was arrested by immigration officials in Maryland and transported to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in March, Breitbart News reported. Taking time away from his job that Marylanders elected him to do in Washington, D.C., the senator arrived in El Salvador on Wednesday morning to "talk to people here about the release" of the illegal alien — who was confirmed to be a member of MS-13 by two different American judges, according to Homeland Security Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin.

NewsNation [4/16/2025 10:52 PM, Staff, 6900K] reports Kilmar Abrego Garcia remains in an El Salvador prison after he was mistakenly deported by the Trump administration. Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary for public affairs, joined “CUOMO” to discuss the case. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [4/16/2025 10:05 PM, Ezra Klein, 153395K] reports DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin discusses the outrage from Democrats over the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia on ‘The Evening Edit.’ [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The New York Post [4/16/2025 8:54 PM, Anna Young, 54903K] reports Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the alleged MS-13 gang member who was wrongly deported to El Salvador’s notorious megaprison last month, held the rank "Chequeo" and the street name "Chele" within the vicious criminal organization, newly released documents revealed. US Attorney General Pam Bondi shared additional evidence Wednesday to support President Trump’s claims that Abrego Garcia is a member of the violent international gang – after cops found him socializing with confirmed MS-13 gangbangers at a Maryland Home Depot parking lot in March 2019. Following the March 28 incident in Hyattsville, a past proven and reliable source told a Hyattsville City Police Department detective that Abrego Garcia is an active member of MS-13 with the Western cliques, according to the gang field interview sheet shared on X. The confidential source further advised that Abrego Garcia carried the rank of "Chequeo" and the moniker "Chele," the report states. Officers also noted that the illegal migrant’s clothing — a Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie with rolls of money covering the eyes, ears and mouth of the presidents on the different denominations — is "indicative of the Hispanic gang culture.” "The meaning of the clothing is to represent ‘ver, oir y callar’ or ‘see no evil, hear no evil and say no evil’," the report states. The Bulls hat Abrego Garcia was wearing also had less to do with the sports team and more about internal happenings within the Latin gang, cops claimed in the report. "Wearing the Chicago Bulls hat represents that they are a member in good standing with the MS-13.” The feds have claimed he is part of the notorious MS-13 gang and that he was illegally in the country — despite never being charged with a crime and repeatedly denying the gang accusations. Earlier Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security revealed that Abrego Garcia was previously accused of physically abusing his wife, a US citizen who has been fiercely advocating for his release, in an effort to rebut claims by "the media" that he was an "upstanding ‘Maryland Man’.” "This MS-13 gang member is not a sympathetic figure," DHS said. The Daily Caller [4/16/2025 5:54 PM, Katelynn Richardson, 1082K] reports the Department of Justice (DOJ) released documents Wednesday demonstrating Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia’s membership in the MS-13 gang. Abrego Garcia’s police interview, immigration court rulings and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) deportable/inadmissible alien record highlighting his membership in the gang, which he has disputed in court, are included in the release. In a December 2019 decision, the Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed Abrego Garcia’s challenge to an immigration judge’s factual finding that he is "a verified member of MS-13.” The board found the immigration judge "appropriately considered allegations of gang affiliation against the respondent in determining that he has not demonstrated that he is not a danger to property or persons.” Officers found Abrego Garcia loitering in a Home Depot parking lot on March 28, 2019, wearing "a Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie with rolls of money covering the eyes, ears and mouth of the presidents on the separate denominations," the initial Prince George’s County Police Department Gang Field Interview Sheet states. "Wearing the Chicago Bulls hat represents that they are a member in good standing with the MS-13," the document states. "Officers contacted a past proven and reliable source of information, who advised Kilmar Armando ABREGO-GARCIA is an active member of MS-13 with the Westerns clique. The confidential source further advised that he is the rank of ‘Chequeo’ with the moniker of ‘Chele.’". The administration became embroiled in a legal dispute after Abrego Garcia, who entered the country illegally in 2011, was deported in March to El Salvador as a result of an error. In court records, they argued Abrego Garcia could not "relitigate the finding that he is a danger to the community.” A lower court ordered his return, but the Supreme Court required it to clarify the order and directed the administration to "facilitate" Abrego Garcia’s release. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also released court filings Wednesday showing Abrego Garcia’s wife requested a domestic violence restraining order against him.

Breitbart [4/16/2025 5:33 PM, Olivia Rondeau, 2923K] reports the deported El Salvadoran migrant now being defended by Democrats was arrested with "rolls of cash and drugs" according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), backing up prior court findings that he is a member of the violent gang MS-13. Shooting back at left-wing sympathy for Kilmar Abrego-Garcia, the 29-year-old illegal migrant who was arrested and deported back to El Salvador from Maryland in March, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the evidence points to him being part of the gang. She also thanked El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele for holding Abrego-Garcia in the country’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT). DHS Sec. Kristi Noem also issued a statement, saying the "liberal left and fake news" are carrying water for an "MS-13 gang member" who has "trafficking in his background."

CBS News [4/17/2025 12:02 AM, Faris Tanyos, 51661K] reports the wife of a 29-year-old Maryland man who was mistakenly deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador last month filed a protective order against him back in 2021 over allegations of domestic violence, according to court records obtained by CBS News Wednesday. Jennifer Vasquez sought and received a temporary protective order against Kilmar Abrego Garcia in May 2021, per court records filed in Prince George’s County District Court. The Department of Homeland Security posted a document Wednesday it said was from the case, which alleged Abrego Garcia "punched and scratched" Vasquez, "ripped off" her shirt, and "grabbed and bruised" her. At the time, the judge in the case ordered Abrego Garcia not to contact Vasquez, vacate their home, and stay away from the home of another family member. He was also ordered to surrender firearms. The case, however, was dismissed in June 2021 after Vasquez failed to appear for a final hearing, according to court records. The two returned to living together. In a statement provided to CBS News Wednesday evening, Vasquez confirmed seeking the court order. "After surviving domestic violence in a previous relationship, I acted out of caution after a disagreement with Kilmar by seeking a civil protective order in case things escalated," Vasquez said. "Things did not escalate, and I decided not to follow through with the civil court process. We were able to work through this situation privately as a family, including by going to counseling. Our marriage only grew stronger in the years that followed. No one is perfect, and no marriage is perfect. That is not a justification for ICE’s action of abducting him and deporting him to a country where he was supposed to be protected from deportation. Kilmar has always been a loving partner and father, and I will continue to stand by him and demand justice for him." Vasquez is a U.S. citizen and Abrego Garcia is a Salvadoran national. The Trump administration has admitted that an "administration error" led to Abrego Garcia’s deportation on March 15. The case has prompted a string of legal wrangling that made its way to the Supreme Court, which last week upheld a lower court decision that the Trump administration be required to "facilitate" his release.

FOX News [4/16/2025 9:53 PM, Peter Pinedo, Greg Wehner and Bill Melugin, 46189K] reports a now-deported illegal alien accused of being an MS-13 gang member that was living illegally in Maryland has a record of being a "violent" repeat wife beater, according to court records filed in a Prince George’s County, Maryland, district court by his wife. Fox News obtained the written domestic violence allegations filed in court against 29-year-old Kilmar Abrego Garcia by his wife, Jennifer Vasquez, in 2021. In the filing, written in Vasquez’s own handwriting, she alleges Abrego Garcia repeatedly beat her, writing: "At this point, I am afraid to be close to him. I have multiple photos/videos of how violent he can be and all the bruises he [has] left me." Vasquez alleged that Abrego Garcia punched and scratched her on her eye, leaving her bleeding. He also allegedly threw her laptop on the floor. She wrote that on another day, Abrego Garcia got angry again, started yelling, and ripped her shirt and shorts off before grabbing her arm and leaving marks. Vasquez recalled two times in 2020 that Abrego Garcia hit her. "In November 2020, he hit me with his work boot," she wrote. "In August 2020, he hit me in the eye leaving a purple eye." Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released court documents regarding Abrego Garcia, which cast further doubt on the Democrats’ narrative about his innocence. On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security doubled down, saying Abrego Garcia has a "history of violence and was not the upstanding ‘Maryland Man’ the media has portrayed him as.” DHS shared court filings in which Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez, sought a domestic violence restraining order against him, claiming he "punched, scratched, and ripped off her shirt.” DHS bashed Van Hollen for advocating Abrego Garcia’s release, saying the senator "has done more to bring a MS-13 gang member, human trafficker and illegal alien back to Maryland than he has to help keep his American constituents safe or advocate for the victims of these vicious gangs like MS-13.” "While Sen. Van Hollen and the mainstream media peddle a sob story about a brutal MS-13 gang member, Secretary Noem stands with the victims of illegal alien crime," said DHS. "We hear far too much about the gang members and criminals’ sob stories and not enough about their victims.” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin posted some more details about his arrest, saying, in addition to being apprehended with other MS-13 members, he was found with "rolls of cash and drugs" and "wearing what is effectively MS-13’s uniform.” The Washington Examiner [4/16/2025 3:20 PM, Jenny Goldsberry, 2296K] reports the Department of Homeland Security released new information about Kilmar Abrego Garcia on Wednesday to dispel the democratic narrative that the El Salvador native is a "Maryland man." Abrego Garcia, a man the Department of Justice has classified as an MS-13 member, was deported to his home country of El Salvador last month. Democratic lawmakers have pointed to a lack of paperwork as evidence that he was mistakenly deported. Abrego Garcia will remain in El Salvador’s terrorism confinement center, Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, as President Nayib Bukele has committed to keep him. The post included a screenshot of the restraining order filed in May 2021. NewsNation [4/16/2025 5:35 PM, Jeff Arnold, Kevin Bohn, 6866K] reports Abrego Garcia’s attorney, Benjamin Osorio, told NewsNation on Wednesday that Abrego Garcia’s legal team is aware of the allegations that DHS "is pushing in the media". He said that the allegations of domestic violence made in the 2021 filing never resulted in a conviction. The order was filed by Jennifer Vasquez Sura in 2021 in a Maryland court, according to the documents shared by DHS. The affidavit for the temporary restraining order alleges that Abrego Garcia punched and scratched his wife, ripped her shirt and grabbed and bruised her. Osorio said that attorneys have not been able to discuss the allegations made in the 2021 court documents with Abrego Garcia because they have been denied access to him.

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NewsMax [4/16/2025 6:53 PM, James Morley III, 4998K]

CNN [4/16/2025 10:35 PM, Michael Williams, Priscilla Alvarez and Jake Tapper, 22131K] reports the wife of the Maryland man who the US government mistakenly deported to El Salvador acknowledged that she had filed a civil protective order against him four years ago, but said it was out of an abundance of caution and that the couple had worked through their issues. The statement Wednesday from Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, came after the Department of Homeland Security posted on X a copy of a protective order that Vasquez Sura requested against her husband in 2021. The Department of Homeland Security posted portions of the order on X Wednesday, and described Abrego Garcia as an "MS-13 gang member" who "is not a sympathetic figure." The Trump administration’s release of the document comes as part of its renewed push to portray Abrego Garcia, who has not been charged with or convicted of any crime, as a violent and dangerous criminal and a member of MS-13. Abrego Garcia’s wife and lawyers have denied he is part of a gang. In a statement to CNN, Vasquez Sura said she sought a civil protective order after a disagreement with Abrego Garcia. Vasquez Sura noted she had survived a previous relationship that included domestic violence. She did not appear at a court hearing and the matter did not proceed. "Things did not escalate, and I decided not to follow through with the civil court process," she said in the statement. "We were able to work through this situation privately as a family, including by going to counseling. Our marriage only grew stronger in the years that followed. No one is perfect, and no marriage is perfect.” "That is not a justification for ICE’s action of abducting him and deporting him to a country where he was supposed to be protected from deportation," she added. "Kilmar has always been a loving partner and father, and I will continue to stand by him and demand justice for him.” The Trump administration has criticized what they have described as an overtly rosy media portrayal of Abrego Garcia.

Daily Wire [4/16/2025 7:18 AM, Zach Jewell, 4672K] reports that Trump officials should "cancel vacations" and "other appointments" until they prove that they have taken steps to return Salvadoran man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, to the United States, a federal judge ordered on Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis told Trump administration lawyers during a hearing that they have two weeks to comply with her discovery requests and prove that the administration has sought to bring Abrego Garcia back to the United States, Fox News reported. The White House maintains that his deportation was justified, alleging that the Salvadoran man who was living in Maryland is a member of the violent gang MS-13. Xinis said that in two weeks, she would look at the Trump administration’s discovery submissions and determine whether it has complied with her order or is in contempt of court. "Just so everyone knows what my current thinking is, Abrego Garcia already won his injunctive proceedings," Xinis told Trump’s lawyers. "We’re here today to talk about scope of the remedies." "You made your jurisdictional arguments. You made your venue arguments. You made your arguments on the merits. You lost," the judge added. Just before the hearing on Tuesday, Department of Homeland Security acting General Counsel Joseph Mazzara said in a court filing that if Abrego Garcia is returned to the United States, he will immediately be taken into custody by DHS agents and deported to another country, according to Fox News.

The Hill [4/16/2025 6:20 AM, Alexis Simendinger and Kristina Karisch, 12829K] reports the legal battle over the Trump administration’s efforts — or lack thereof — to return a mistakenly deported Maryland migrant may eventually wind up back before the Supreme Court as President Trump tests the limits of his executive power. The case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia already reached the high court, but on Tuesday, it was the centerpiece of a tense hearing in Greenbelt, Md., where U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said the Justice Department’s foot-dragging means she will now seek sworn depositions from federal officials "to determine whether you are abiding by the court order. My court orders.” The judge has appeared exasperated since last week, when Abrego Garcia’s limbo as a migrant without U.S. legal status landed back in her court after the Supreme Court largely endorsed her order that the administration work to bring him back to the U.S. Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi on Monday suggested the U.S. is powerless to gain the release of Abrego Garcia if the Salvadoran government refuses. A Justice Department lawyer previously conceded the former Maryland resident was deported in error on March 15. The government says he’s been incarcerated for a month along with Venezuelan migrants sent to El Salvador under a $6 million prison contract paid by the U.S. government. "It is a fact now of this record that every day Mr. Garcia is detained in CECOT is a day of irreparable harm," the judge said, referring to the Salvadoran prison facility. "HE SHOULD GET HIS DUE PROCESS": Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D) said he will travel today to El Salvador to try to discuss Abrego Garcia’s case with officials there and attempt to visit him in prison, despite not receiving a response from Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele during his Washington visit with Trump on Monday. "I do intend to go to El Salvador … to show solidarity with his family. … He should get his due process," the senator told CNN, referring to his constituent. Van Hollen said he believes the administration’s stance is "unsustainable" because the government admitted a deportation "mistake" and as a result was later instructed by the Supreme Court to work to reverse its error.

News Max [4/16/2025 11:54 AM, Charlie McCarthy, 4998K] reports that attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday said a deported illegal migrant whom the Supreme Court and President Donald Trump’s critics say should be sent back to the U.S. will not be returning. The Trump administration has acknowledged that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran migrant who was living in Maryland and has had a work permit since 2019, was deported in March in violation of an immigration judge’s order blocking his removal to El Salvador. U.S. officials, though, said in court filings on Sunday that they were not obligated to help Abrego Garcia get out of prison despite a Supreme Court ruling directing the government to "facilitate" his return to the U.S. During a press conference Wednesday to announce a lawsuit against Maine, Bondi took that a step further. She said that despite "one additional step in paperwork" that failed to be completed before the deportation, Abrego Garcia is not returning. "He is an illegal alien who has been living illegally in our country from El Salvador. ICE testified, an immigration judge ruled he was a member of MS-13. An appellate judge ruled he was a member of MS-13. Hard stop," Bondi told reporters. "He should not be in our country. "He was deported. They needed one additional step in paperwork, but now, MS-13 is characterized as they should be as an FTO, as a foreign terrorist organization. So he is not coming back to our country." FOX News [4/16/2025 10:31 AM, Breanne Deppisch, 46189K] reports Bondi reiterated her earlier claim that it is up to El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele whether his country opts to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S., even though officials acknowledged in court his deportation was an administrative error. "He is not coming back to our country," Bondi told Fox News on Wednesday, in response to a question about his legal status during the briefing. Bondi made clear Wednesday that they continue to see the issue as squarely in the purview of Bukele. "President Bukele said he was not sending him back. That’s the end of the story," she said. "If he wanted to send him back, we would give him a plane ride back. There was no situation, ever, where he was going to stay in this country. None." [Editorial note: consult video at source link] Yahoo News [4/16/2025 12:47 PM, Chris Benson, 430301K] reports Abrego Garcia, 29, is currently being held in El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center after he was abducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He is married to an American citizen and migrated at age 16 to work and was granted residency in 2019. On Monday, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-M.D., sent a letter to Salvadoran Ambassador Milena Mayorga requesting a meeting with President Nayib Bukele to discuss Kilmar Abrego Garcia. "President Bukele said he was not sending him back. That’s the end of the story," added Bondi, claiming Abrego Garcia is an "illegal alien" who has been "living illegally" in the United States.

The New York Times [4/16/2025 6:01 PM, Miriam Jordan, 145325K] reports a new Trump administration policy urges immigration judges to swiftly deny asylum to migrants whose applications they deem unlikely to succeed. The swift denials would circumvent the normal hearing process, which typically takes years to wind through the backlogged courts. The guidance from the Justice Department, which took effect April 11, states that judges should consider dropping “legally deficient” asylum cases without holding a hearing. Doing that would keep some people who claim to be fleeing persecution in their home countries from having any opportunity to present their case to a judge. The memo, sent to staff members, says that immigration judges should take “all appropriate action to immediately resolve cases on their dockets that do not have viable legal paths for relief or protection from removal.” The new policy would inevitably result in judges issuing deportation orders before fully holding what are known as merits hearings, in which asylum applicants can present their claims in detail. Bloomberg [4/16/2025 7:35 PM, Alicia A. Caldwell, 16228K] reports that speeding up the flow of cases through immigration court could bolster the administration’s effort to expand its mass arrest and deportation effort, which President Donald Trump has vowed to make the biggest in US history. Deportation orders are issued for asylum seekers whose cases are denied, with or without a hearing. Immigration judges are Justice Department employees, not members of the independent judiciary. As many as half of the pending cases in the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review are believed to be from asylum seekers, although the exact number is unclear. Trump complained about the backlog in a Wednesday posting on Truth Social after a federal district judge blocked him earlier this week from revoking humanitarian protections for about 530,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who arrived during the Biden administration. The Trump administration also is trying to rapidly expand its detention capacity, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement offering contracts valued at as much as $45 billion for new immigration jails. And in El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele plans to double the capacity of the prison where his government is holding US deportees, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Hill [4/16/2025 6:01 AM, Al Weaver, 12829K] reports Congressional Democrats are growing concerned that their hopes of bringing home a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to a high-security prison in El Salvador may be slipping away, even as they struggle with how to push for his return. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele declared during his Monday visit to the U.S. that the country would not release Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. This has left the minority party fretting about where to go from here, according to multiple Democratic sources. One Senate Democratic aide told The Hill that a number of Senate Democrats have been texting back and forth about a possible forceful response against President Trump’s handling of the situation, but worry that swinging too hard could play into the administration’s hands. "That’s a concern. Most people are pretty devastated," the aide said. "No one has been able to give us an answer of ‘what happens now.’ You’re not going to send troops to get him or anything.” The aide also added that there’s a "realism" setting in among some that Abrego Garcia probably won’t be coming home anytime soon. The chances of Abrego Garcia being returned to the U.S. hit an apex on Friday when the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration must "facilitate" his return. That came on the heels of administration lawyers admitting they made a mistake in sending him to El Salvador. But since then, it’s been all downhill. The White House has made clear that they believe the ball is squarely in El Salvador’s court and has leaned on what they believe is a loose interpretation of the Supreme Court’s order to "facilitate" his return. "Deporting him back to El Salvador was always going to be the end result. There is never going to be a world in which this is an individual who is going to live a peaceful life in Maryland," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at Tuesday’s briefing. Joseph Mazzara, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s general counsel, wrote in a filing on Tuesday that if Abrego Garcia’s returns to the U.S., he will either be detained and removed to a third country or have his order "terminate[d]" and sent back to El Salvador. Nevertheless, Senate Democrats are pulling on all available levers, no matter how limited. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) has led those efforts. He told reporters on Monday that he was seeking a meeting with Bukele during his visit to Washington, and that he would travel to El Salvador midweek if Abrego Garcia was not released immediately. On Tuesday, he announced he would travel to the country on Wednesday. "Following his abduction and unlawful deportation, U.S. federal courts have ordered the safe return of my constituent Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States," Van Hollen said in a Tuesday statement.

NBC News [4/16/2025 4:56 PM, Suzanne Gamboa, 44742K] reports the Trump administration has not complied with a federal court order directing it to continue funding legal representation for unaccompanied immigrant children, attorneys in the case allege. Several groups sued the Department of Homeland Security on March 28 after the federal government refused to renew a contract that funds attorneys who help young migrant children who came to the United States alone or were separated from their parents go through the immigration process. The funding cutoff forced many of the immigrant legal groups to lay off workers, withdraw from cases and scramble to find other legal help for children in immigration court proceedings.

Washington Examiner [4/16/2025 4:42 PM, Kaelan Deese, 2296K] reports a federal judge in Washington appeared doubtful Tuesday that immigrant advocacy groups had made a strong enough case to justify halting a new Trump administration plan that will allow immigration authorities to access taxpayer information from the IRS. At a hearing before U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, the plaintiffs, two Illinois-based groups representing undocumented immigrants, urged the court to issue a preliminary injunction blocking a data-sharing agreement between the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security. The agreement, signed last month by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, would allow DHS to request information from the IRS about immigrants who have final deportation orders or are under criminal investigation. But Friedrich, an appointee of President Donald Trump who has already declined to issue a temporary hold on the plan, repeatedly questioned whether the undocumented plaintiffs had shown an imminent risk of harm, noting that no information has been exchanged yet under the agreement.

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Bloomberg Law [4/16/2025 3:26 PM, Tristan Navera, 1085K]
(B) Chris Jansing Reports [4/16/2025 2:49 PM, Staff]

CBS News [4/16/2025 10:34 AM, Graham Kates, 51661K] reports that the IRS supervisor made famous for speaking out about alleged political influence in the Hunter Biden tax investigation has been sworn in as the agency’s acting commissioner, CBS News has confirmed. Gary Shapley took an unusual path to the top IRS job. He was a supervisory special agent leading dozens of staff, in his 14th year at the agency, when he came forward in a 2023 interview with CBS News chief investigative correspondent Jim Axelrod. Shapley revealed internal misgivings about what he described as improper pressure to go easy on the president’s son. Shapley was the first of two IRS whistleblowers to make this case before congress. Biden ultimately pled guilty to tax crimes and was pardoned by his father. They alleged the Department of Justice "slow-walked" the investigation and instructed them not to pursue leads related to Joe Biden. They were removed from the case and temporarily sidelined with pay. Shapley was given the top IRS post as President Trump’s pick for the job, Billy Long, has been awaiting Senate confirmation. Long, a former congressman from Missouri, has faced questions about his qualifications. Shapley and another agent who said they faced retaliation after blowing the whistle to Congress and speaking out to CBS News about their investigation have already retained high ranking positions in the Trump administration. Shapley and Joseph Ziegler were assigned to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s office as senior advisers for IRS reform, and Shapley was named deputy director of criminal investigations at the agency.

Reported similarly:
Washington Examiner [4/16/2025 11:36 AM, Emily Hallas, 2296K]
National Review [4/16/2025 10:19 AM, James Lynch, 109K]

Los Angeles Times [4/16/2025 6:00 AM, Michael Hiltzik, 13300K] reports in so many ways the Trump administration has given us a window into a dystopian world — flouting a unanimous decision by the Supreme Court, elevating scientific myth into healthcare policy and so on. But its latest attack on the Social Security system is arguably the most frightening of all. Reportedly pressured by Elon Musk’s DOGE team and by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, the current stewards of Social Security have allowed the government to declare 6,300 people “dead” in a crucial Social Security database, even though they’re very much alive. The initial reports of this action were reported by the New York Times and Washington Post, but it was confirmed for me, if somewhat obliquely, by a White House spokeswoman. “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,” the spokeswoman, Elizabeth Huston, told me by email. The White House claims that “DHS identified over 6,300 temporarily paroled aliens on the terrorist watch list or with FBI criminal records,” and as of April 8 “terminated” their right to hold Social Security numbers or receive benefits.

NPR [4/16/2025 11:56 AM, Brian Mann, 29983K] reports that President Trump says his administration is actively exploring a proposal to detain U.S. citizens and send them to prisons in El Salvador. Speaking Monday, minutes before a press briefing alongside El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, Trump could be heard embracing the concept. "The homegrowns are next, the homegrowns. You’ve got to build about five more places," Trump said to Bukele, an apparent reference to prison space that would be needed in El Salvador to house U.S. citizens. El Salvador is already holding hundreds of people in a maximum-security prison, flown from the U.S. in recent weeks after being detained for allegedly lacking legal status or having gang affiliations. Critics say many of those individuals were deported with limited or no due process, some in defiance of court orders by U.S. judges. Responding to Trump on Monday, Bukele suggested his country is prepared to incarcerate American citizens. "Yeah, we’ve got space," El Salvador’s president said. The proposal has drawn condemnation from legal scholars across the political spectrum, who said it would represent an unprecedented encroachment on the civil liberties of U.S. citizens. "It’s obviously unconstitutional, obviously illegal. There’s no authority in any U.S. law to deport U.S. citizens and certainly not to imprison them in a foreign country," said David Bier at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank based in Washington, D.C.

Daily Wire [4/17/2025 5:04 AM, Luke Rosiak] reports Nejwa Ali, a former spokeswoman for the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) who the Department of Homeland Security hired and put in charge of vetting asylum seekers, was fired by the Trump administration in February after the Biden administration declined to do so for 14 months after she pledged her support for Hamas. Former President Joe Biden’s Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, removed Ali from duty on October 19, 2023, days after The Daily Wire documented her celebration of the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel. But instead of firing her, Mayorkas continued to pay her, placing her on paid leave for an “investigation” even as she repeatedly and proudly affirmed her hatred of Jews and allegiance to the Palestinian cause, and used the paid leave to protest Israel during work hours. Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin told The Daily Wire this week that Ali was removed from federal service on February 10, meaning she received 16 months of salary without having to work. Ali worked in 2016 and 2017 as a public affairs officer for the “PLO office in D.C,” according to her LinkedIn. That office was expelled from the country because it is a designated terror organization. But Ali landed on her feet, securing a job at DHS as an “Asylum Officer,” where she was tasked with “applying immigration laws and regulations to asylum applications.” Ali posted incessantly about her affinity for the Palestinian cause on social media, with increasingly over-the-top rhetoric after the October 7 terror attack. The Daily Wire’s initial report on Ali highlighted how she repeatedly posted pictures of Hamas terrorists parachuting in with guns and writing, “F*** Israel and any Jew who supports Israel.” Ali threatened to call the police on The Daily Wire for writing about her. Then, after the story ran, she said by phone: “I abso-f***ing-lutely celebrate [Palestinian terrorist hang-gliders], a**hole, f*** you!” The Daily Wire provided audio of that call to Mayorkas’s DHS.

New York Times [4/17/2025 4:09 AM, Hamed Aleaziz and Jonah E. Bromwich, 330K] reports the Trump administration is seeking to deport a Columbia student because his activities could “potentially undermine” the Middle East peace process, according to a memo from Secretary of State Marco Rubio that was reviewed by New York Times. The student, Mohsen Mahdawi, 34, is a legal permanent resident who has spent a decade in the United States. Until this week, he had been in hiding, for fear that the administration would seek to deport him after he led pro-Palestinian demonstrations at the school. But on Monday he showed up at an immigration services center in Vermont, expecting to take the test that would allow him to become a naturalized citizen. Instead, he was detained by Department of Homeland Security agents, who relied on Mr. Rubio’s memo as the justification for the arrest. Mr. Rubio cited the same law that has been used to justify the detention of Mr. Mahdawi’s fellow Columbia protester, Mahmoud Khalil. The law, which Mr. Khalil’s lawyers have challenged in federal court, allows Mr. Rubio to initiate deportation proceedings against anyone whose presence in the United States can reasonably be considered to hurt American foreign policy goals. Last week, an immigration judge found that Mr. Rubio’s memo alone allowed the Trump administration to meet the burden of proof necessary for deporting Mr. Khalil, whom the secretary accused of undermining the fight against antisemitism. The judge’s decision affirmed, for the time being, Mr. Rubio’s power to pick and choose which noncitizens — even those with legal residency — can be deported. Evidence submitted by the Department of Homeland Security and reviewed by The Times did not include any allegations of antisemitism against Mr. Khalil himself, apart from the flat declaration in Mr. Rubio’s memo.

New York Times [4/16/2025 6:54 AM, Emily Bazelon, 145325K] reports lawyers for the federal government are saying some astonishing things in court. Yesterday, in a Maryland courtroom, a deputy assistant attorney general told a judge that the government is following her order to facilitate the return of a mistakenly deported Maryland man. If the man were to show up at a port of entry, the lawyer said, the government would not turn him away. The problem is the man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, has no way to get to the border on his own. He has been held in a brutal prison in El Salvador since mid-March — because the government deported him there by mistake. Yesterday, the judge rebuked the government for doing nothing to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return. Scenes like this have played out in courtrooms around the country since President Trump took office. Defending the deportations of more than 200 Venezuelans to the same Salvadoran prison last month, the same deputy assistant attorney general told a judge that the government had complied with his order to turn flights around in the air. “It seems to me that there is a fair likelihood that that is not correct,” said the judge in that case, James Boasberg, “and in fact, that the government acted in bad faith.” Government lawyers called off the prosecution of New York’s mayor by saying he couldn’t enforce immigration laws while the charges were pending (even though he was clearly doing so). They also said the E.P.A. was rife with fraud and criminality but couldn’t come up with any proof. In today’s newsletter, I’ll explain how the administration’s lawyers have created a conundrum for the judiciary.

Daily Wire [4/16/2025 9:03 AM, Spencer Lindquist, 4672K] reports the federal judge who temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s decision to revoke the temporary legal status of half a million migrants volunteered for and donated to prominent Democrat politicians, including former President Barack Obama and Senator Elizabeth Warren. United States District Judge Indira Talwani was the latest left-wing judge to stonewall Trump’s agenda after she stopped his administration from revoking the legal status of migrants from Haiti, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba who were allowed into the country by the Biden administration. The decision temporarily prevents Trump from issuing removal orders against the migrants. An estimated 530,000 migrants from the four countries were paroled by the Biden administration and are currently allowed to live and work in the United States. The immigration parole program was responsible for the massive influx of Haitian migrants to Rustbelt towns like Springfield, Ohio, and Charleroi, Pennsylvania. Talwani, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, has a history of partisan political activity, both donating to and volunteering for Democratic politicians. The federal judge donated a total of $1,725 to Democrat politicians and the Democratic Party, including $1,000 to former Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), $350 to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and $100 to Obama. Talwani also gave another $275 to the Democratic National Committee. Talwani explained on her Senate questionnaire that she also volunteered to knock on doors for Obama in 2008 and volunteered to canvass on behalf of Elizabeth Warren in 2012. She also volunteered for former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick during his 2006 campaign and for failed Senate candidate Martha Coakley in 2010. The federal judge has a history of issuing rulings that impede Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda. Talwani ruled earlier this year that the administration’s Department of Homeland Security had to provide the court with advanced notice before it removed Turkish national Rumeysa Ozturk from the state. The administration revoked Ozturk’s visa due to her involvement in anti-Israel protests.

The Hill [4/16/2025 8:46 AM, Lauren Irwin, 12829K] reports President Trump lashed out a former President Biden early Wednesday, invoking the previous administration’s border policies while touting his own. "Sleepy Joe Biden, THE WORST PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, has allowed millions and millions of Criminals, many of them murderers, drug dealers, and people released from prisons and mental institutions from all around the world, to enter our Country through it’s very dangerous and ill conceived Open Border," Trump posted on Truth Social. "Sorry, but it’s my job to get these killers and thugs out of here," he continued. "THAT’S WHAT I GOT ELECTED TO DO.” His comments come as the president’s sweeping immigration agenda has been under the microscope. The Trump administration is currently locked in a fiery legal battle over the mistaken deportation of a man from Maryland to an infamous prison in El Salvador. The Supreme Court earlier this month ruled that the administration must facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. The White House has pushed back on the notion, suggesting the authority to make the return rests on El Salvador. While the administration has previously admitted Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported, top officials have seemingly walked that back in recent days. Trump’s latest defense of his immigration moves follows Biden’s first speech since leaving the White House in January. In his remarks, Biden criticized his successor and said it has been "breathtaking" to see how much damage and destruction has been done since Trump returned in January. Since returning to the Oval Office, Trump has issued a bevy of border security actions, including signing executive orders to seal the border and ramp up enforcement against illegal immigration. In doing so, he has also targeted longstanding legal pathways including birthright citizenship, Deferred Action from Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and the asylum process. Vice President Vance also recently invoked Biden in a post online. He criticized the former president for allowing "approximately 20 million illegal aliens" into the U.S. and said there were "extraordinary burdens" on the country because of it.

Axios [4/16/2025 7:00 AM, Courtenay Brown, 13163K] reports U.S. courts have the potential to be the biggest threat yet to the central tenet of President Trump’s economic agenda. Legal groups representing Main Street businesses want judges to block some tariffs as lawsuits against the levies make their way through the judicial system. Bigger names in corporate America are reluctant to take Trump on in court. A trade group representing major retailers has pulled back on a potential tariff lawsuit, Bloomberg reported this month. Its members were hesitant to proceed. Small businesses, however, are involved in multiple lawsuits seeking to block Trump’s tariffs. The legal groups that represent them admit it is impossible to know how — and how quickly — courts might respond. The latest lawsuit, filed by Liberty Justice Center on Monday on behalf of five small businesses, alleges Trump does not have the power to impose across-the-board worldwide tariffs without congressional approval. The White House relied on untested emergency powers to impose tariffs, a move that at least three lawsuits now argue is executive overreach. Trump invoked authorities under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which gives the president wide-ranging powers in an emergency. Trump signed executive orders saying that illegal drugs, undocumented immigration and "large and persistent" trade deficits constituted national emergencies. IEEPA has never been used to implement tariffs since its creation in 1977. "Even if you declare an emergency, it doesn’t let you tax the American people. It doesn’t let you impose a tariff," says Andrew Morris of New Civil Liberties Alliance, which filed a lawsuit against the China tariffs on April 3 in a Florida district court on behalf of a local retailer. White House spokesman Harrison Fields told Reuters, "Never Trumpers will always oppose him, but President Trump is standing up for Main Street by putting an end to our trading partners — especially China — exploiting the U.S." While use of the emergency law to impose tariffs is unprecedented, courts have previously granted presidents other wide authorities under IEEPA. Liberty Justice Center tells Axios it is preparing to file for a preliminary tariff relief that, if granted, could result in suspended across-the-board tariffs The risk is if a small business goes under before a judge rules on the tariffs that threaten the business. "In six months or a year from now, these businesses could look really different and monetary damages aren’t going to be able to make that up," says Jeffrey Schwab, lead attorney on the case. Tariffs are the latest policy under legal scrutiny, posing a test for how the administration handles potential fallout from the judicial branch.

Bloomberg [4/16/2025 8:04 PM, Jordan Robertson, 16228K] reports Chris Krebs, the onetime director of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, is vowing to fight the Trump administration full-time after it stripped him and his employer of their security clearances. Krebs said he has resigned from SentinelOne Inc., where he worked as chief intelligence and public policy officer, in order to challenge the administration and its actions. The executive, who had served under Donald Trump during the president’s previous term, was the subject of an April 9 executive order suspending his security clearance pending an investigation. Krebs — fired by Trump from CISA in 2020 after disputing claims that the election that year was stolen — wrote in a LinkedIn post on Wednesday that he has resigned from SentinelOne of his own volition. “For those who know me, you know I don’t shy away from tough fights,” he wrote. “But I also know this is one I need to take on fully — outside of SentinelOne. This will require my complete focus and energy. It’s a fight for democracy, for freedom of speech, and for the rule of law. I’m prepared to give it everything I’ve got.”

Washington Post [4/17/2025 5:00 AM, Ben Brasch and Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, 31735K] reports Harvard University stands to lose billions in federal funding, but the government’s actions against one of the world’s top research institutions were applied with vague accusations and no proof of specific legal violations, documents show. The Trump administration’s decision Monday to freeze $2.2 billion to Harvard after the school announced it would not yield to demands to change admissions, hiring and governance practices did not follow procedures set out in civil rights law, a Post review found. Trump administration officials have publicly said that Harvard has violated students’ civil rights and mentioned Title VI, which is the federal law that says any school found to violate civil rights is not eligible for federal funding. Harvard, according to the letter the administration sent the school on April 11, was not keeping Jewish and pro-Israel students safe and allowed antisemitism on campus. The letter also said the university had diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs that could not stand. But the government’s notice did not list or explain the specific violations that occurred at Harvard. The administration’s action skipped over requirements that say the government must identify and list violations, offer a hearing, notify Congress and then wait 30 days before applying penalties. The actions against Harvard and several other elite colleges reflect the manner in which the administration is handing out other harsh penalties across the government, such as the growing number of undetailed student visa revocations, as well as how President Donald Trump is applying the Alien Enemies Act to deport immigrants. The Trump administration’s alleged disregard for federal procedure is part of the basis for separate lawsuits filed by the faculty unions at Harvard and Columbia University. “These procedures exist because Congress recognized that allowing federal agencies to hold funding hostage, or to cancel it cavalierly, would give them dangerously broad power in a system in which institutions depend so heavily upon federal funding,” attorneys for the American Association of University Professors wrote in the Harvard faculty union lawsuit.

New York Times [4/16/2025 10:15 PM, Andrew Duehren and Maggie Haberman, 145325K] reports the Internal Revenue Service is weighing whether to revoke Harvard’s tax exemption, according to three people familiar with the matter, which would be a significant escalation of the Trump administration’s attempts to choke off federal money and support for the leading research university. President Trump on Tuesday publicly called for Harvard to pay taxes, continuing a standoff in which the administration has demanded the university revamp its hiring and admissions practices and its curriculum. Some I.R.S. officials have told colleagues that the Treasury Department on Wednesday asked the agency to consider revoking Harvard’s tax-exempt status, according to two of the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal conversations. An I.R.S. spokeswoman declined to comment. The Treasury Department did not respond to a request for comment. CNN first reported that the I.R.S. was looking at potentially rescinding Harvard’s tax-exempt status. Federal law bars the president from either directly or indirectly requesting the I.R.S. to investigate or audit specific targets. The I.R.S. does at times revoke tax exemptions from organizations for conducting too many political or commercial activities, but those groups can appeal the agency’s decision in court. Any attempt to take away Harvard’s tax exemption would be likely to face a legal challenge, which tax experts expect would be successful. Harrison Fields, a White House spokesman, said the I.R.S.’s scrutiny of Harvard began before the president’s social media post. “Any forthcoming actions by the I.R.S. are conducted independently of the President, and investigations into any institution’s violations of their tax status were initiated prior to the President’s TRUTH,” Mr. Fields said in a statement, referring to Mr. Trump’s website Truth Social. In a statement, Harvard said there is no legal basis for rescinding its tax status. “Such an unprecedented action would endanger our ability to carry out our educational mission,” the university said. “It would result in diminished financial aid for students, abandonment of critical medical research programs, and lost opportunities for innovation. The unlawful use of this instrument more broadly would have grave consequences for the future of higher education in America.”

NewsMax [4/16/2025 6:29 PM, Theodore Bunker, 4998K] reports the New York City Law Department will not represent Mayor Eric Adams or his administration in the lawsuit filed by the City Council over his executive order to allow federal immigration authorities to operate on Rikers Island, the city’s largest jail complex. "The New York City Law Department has advised that they will not be representing any party in this litigation, and the respondents are accordingly in the process of identifying outside counsel to represent them in this matter," Allison Stoddart, the mayor’s chief counsel, wrote in an emailed letter to the Manhattan Supreme Court clerk on Tuesday evening, which was obtained by the New York Daily News. Muriel Goode-Trufant, who heads the Law Department as the city’s corporation counsel, said in a statement: "Due to the fact that the New York City Law Department has provided advice to both sides of City Hall on the scope of the city’s sanctuary city laws, it has removed itself from representing either side of City Hall in this litigation.” The Daily News and Gothamist note that the city’s law department typically represents the city and its elected officials, including the mayor, in legal matters such as lawsuits and generally does not represent the City Council when it files a lawsuit against the administration.

FOX News [4/16/2025 2:11 PM, Alex Nitzberg, 46189K] reports that in a video message about the Federal Aviation Administration doing "drone-detection testing" in New Jersey, Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy indicated that the Trump administration is committed to "radical transparency," juxtaposing that approach with what he referred to as the Biden administration’s "drone fiasco." The FAA noted in a post on its website last week that the testing is slated to occur "in Cape May, New Jersey, between April 14-25." "The FAA will operate several large drones and more than 100 commercial off-the-shelf drones during the two-week period. Testing will take place over the water and near the Cape May Ferry Terminal during the daytime on weekdays only. The public should not fly recreational drones near this area during the test period," the post stated. In a video message shared on social media this week, Duffy explained that the testing is being performed "to ensure we can properly detect drones in our airspace and make sure they don’t interfere with aircraft navigation systems.” Many Americans were concerned by a spate of sightings in the skies last year. A joint Department of Homeland Security, FBI, FAA, and Department of Defense statement in December addressed the issue, declaring that "we assess that the sightings to date include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones. We have not identified anything anomalous and do not assess the activity to date to present a national security or public safety risk over the civilian airspace in New Jersey or other states in the northeast." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The New York Times [4/16/2025 8:42 PM, David E. Sanger, 145325K] reports that, just hours after a federal judge threatened a contempt-of-court investigation over the Trump administration’s deportation flights, the White House sought to freeze the legal debate by reminding Americans of a heartbreaking case of a mother killed by an unauthorized immigrant. White House officials called a special briefing on Wednesday in the press room to bring Patty Morin, the mother of Rachel Morin, who was killed while jogging on a trail in Maryland in 2023, to the podium. She recounted in detail how her daughter, a 37-year-old mother of five, was seized, raped and bashed in the head with rocks and ultimately strangled. Members of her family also appeared at the Republican National Convention last July. An immigrant from El Salvador, Victor Martinez-Hernandez, was convicted in the case this week. The story was a tragic one, and it has fueled Mr. Trump’s arguments about dangers posed by migrants and a debate about capital punishment. Nonetheless, the invitation of Ms. Morin seemed a somewhat transparent effort to suspend the arguments about whether the administration could lawfully send migrants to El Salvador with no due process, and whether it can defy the orders of district judges who order the flights halted. CBS News [4/16/2025 8:08 PM, Paulina Smolinski, 51661K] Video: HERE reports Patty Morin, whose daughter Rachel was raped and murdered by a fugitive from El Salvador in 2023, joined Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt at a White House briefing on Wednesday. Morin described in detail the murder of her daughter, a 37-year-old mother of five, as she was exercising on a hiking trail outside of Baltimore. Victor Martinez-Hernandez, 24, was convicted of the attack on Monday. "This person took my daughter so violently and so gruesomely and so graphically that they sealed the pictures because I don’t want my granddaughters to see these pictures," said Morin. President Trump has highlighted Rachel Morin’s story, arguing the media should focus more on her death rather than the mistaken deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who lived in Maryland before he was sent to a notorious Salvadoran prison last month. "There is no Maryland father," said Leavitt at the beginning of the briefing, "Kilmar Abrego Garcia is an illegal alien, MS-13 gang member, and foreign terrorist who was deported back to his home country.” The government has claimed Abrego Garcia is linked to Salvadoran gang MS-13, which his attorneys deny. Abrego Garcia has also not been charged with any crime, and his case is separate from the one involving Rachel Morin. The Trump administration — which previously called his deportation an "administrative error" — has been ordered by a federal judge to "facilitate" his return, which the Supreme Court has backed. The Daily Wire [4/16/2025 12:45 PM, Virginia Kruta, 4672K] reports Leavitt criticized Maryland Democrat Senator Chris Van Hollen, who flew to El Salvador to "check on" Garcia and attempt to get him released and returned to the United States. "Today, we have officially learned Democrat officials still refuse to accept the will of the American people. Maryland’s Democrat Senator Chris Van Hollen rushed to Dulles Airport this morning to fly to El Salvador, potentially using taxpayer dollars to demand the release of deported, illegal alien, MS-13 terrorist," Leavitt said. "The Democrats and media in this room have routinely and wrongly labeled this man — Kilmar Abrego Garcia — as a Maryland father. There is no Maryland father. Let me reiterate: Kilmar Abrego Garcia is an illegal alien, MS-13 gang member and foreign terrorist who was deported back to his home country.” "And when Abrego Garcia was originally arrested, he was wearing a sweatshirt with rolls of money covering the ears, mouth, and eyes of presidents on various currencies and denominations," Leavitt continued. "This is a known MS-13 gang symbol of hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil. Abrego Garcia was also arrested with two other well-known members of the vicious MS-13 gang. And two separate judges found Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13 and that finding has never been disputed.” Leavitt went on to lay out details from several newer reports indicating that Garcia’s wife had filed multiple protection orders against him, alleging domestic violence.

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DailySignal [4/16/2025 6:06 PM, Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell, 495K]

CBS News [4/16/2025 8:32 PM, Jo Ling Kent, 52225K] reports Emily Ley has spent the last 17 years building Simplified, her small stationery business based in Pensacola, Florida. The company produces its planners in China, but for American shoppers. "I would love to make them here, but the U.S. simply doesn’t have the infrastructure or the supply chain to do it," Ley told CBS News. That stationery is now subject to the recent slew of sky-high tariffs. "We don’t have the same options as large businesses," Ley said. "We don’t have the same capital or ability to pivot." After President Trump raised tariffs on China this month, eventually totaling 145%, Ley, with the help of the nonpartisan, conservative-funded New Civil Liberties Alliance, filed a federal lawsuit against the president, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and acting U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Commissioner Pete Flores, alleging illegal use of emergency powers illegally to enact the fees. Ley said that because Congressional approval was bypassed to impose the tariffs, she and other voters didn’t have their positions represented. "Had (Congress) had a chance to debate, discuss, vote, be involved, I would’ve then had the opportunity to make my voice heard," she explained. "And same for other Americans who were gonna be impacted by the tariffs. That didn’t happen." "If this is the end of my American dream, I’m gonna go down swinging," Ley said.

Breitbart [4/16/2025 1:43 PM, Warner Todd Huston, 2923K] reports that radical, left-wing Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson accused President Trump of being a racist and vowed not to "negotiate with a terrorist" concerning the president’s immigration policies. During his press conference Tuesday, Johnson shrilly claimed that Trump was engaging in "terrorism" against "working people" with his deportation policies. "Trying to force your will to break the spirit of working people in order to have a conversation, that’s terrorism. We’re not going to negotiate with terrorists," the self-proclaimed "progressive" Democrat mayor said, according to the Chicago Tribune. The Trump administration has warned Democrat-run cities such as Chicago that federal funding could be halted until city officials stop interfering with the president’s lawful immigration policies. The Windy City in particular could lose all or part of the $3.5 billion in federal funds it receives. That includes $1.5 billion that is earmarked for the troubled Chicago Public School system. During the same presser, Johnson tried to backtrack from calling President Trump a terrorist by trying to redefine what he originally said. He insisted that, "What I’m saying is trying to hold people hostage and manipulating them to succumb to his will and then hold up our tax dollars, that is how terrorists behave. These aren’t threats anymore, right? These are real, adversarial attacks against working people."

Washington State Standard [4/16/2025 4:15 PM, Jake Goldstein-Street] reports Washington Attorney General Nick Brown defended state law on how local police must approach federal immigration enforcement in a sharply worded letter to members of Congress this week. He also justified his lawsuit against an eastern Washington county over alleged violations of that law. The letter to the House Judiciary Committee underscores Washington’s place near the center of Republicans’ crusade against so-called "sanctuary" immigration policies, like the one enshrined in the Keep Washington Working Act passed in 2019.

Washington Post [4/16/2025 3:33 PM, Maeve Reston, 31735K] reports California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) are suing the Trump administration in federal court — claiming that President Donald Trump exceeded his authority in imposing tariffs that they say are creating immediate and irreparable harm to California’s economy, the fifth-largest in the world. In the lawsuit that will be filed Wednesday morning in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Bonta and Newsom are challenging Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977. They say the president cannot impose tariffs or direct Customs and Border Protection and the Department of Homeland Security to enforce them without the consent of Congress. “The President’s chaotic and haphazard implementation of tariffs is not only deeply troubling, it’s illegal,” Bonta said in a statement. “As the fifth largest economy in the world, California understands global trade policy is not just a game.” Newsom argued that the tariffs have already inflicted billions of dollars in damage on the state’s economy. The duties “are wreaking chaos on California families, businesses, and our economy — driving up prices and threatening jobs,” he added in a statement. “We’re standing up for American families who can’t afford to let the chaos continue,” the Democratic governor said. Last week, after touching off panic in the financial markets, Trump paused some of the large-scale tariffs that were slated to go into effect on more than 70 nations. He said he would suspend the tariffs for 90 days to allow his advisers to negotiate deals with individual countries and that they had started talks with nations that included Vietnam, Japan, South Korea and Israel. But Trump imposed a 10 percent tariff on virtually all imports and increased tariffs on China to more than 100 percent. The president declared a national emergency to impose the tariffs, pointing to the annual merchandise trade deficit that the United States has run each year since 1975. Bonta and Newsom are asking the court to immediately halt enforcement of the tariffs, invoking the Supreme Court’s “major questions” doctrine holding that the executive branch and federal agencies must have clear authorization from Congress when taking actions that have significant economic and political consequences.

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FOX News [4/16/2025 12:21 PM, Elizabeth Elkind, 46189K] reports that successfully ridding the U.S. of the effects of Mexico’s criminal cartels operating along the southwestern border would be a 20-year ordeal, Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, said – but argued Congress could begin having an impact in a matter of weeks to months. "Look, there’s places we can boost right now to help the administration – the administration is refocusing a lot of efforts, especially in the [Department of Defense (DOD)], on the cartel situation, but there’s no extra money for that. That is something we could produce in reconciliation," Crenshaw told Fox News Digital. "I already know what programs need to be boosted, I just need to know the numbers. And that will come from [the Office of Management and Budget] that’ll come from the Department of Homeland Security, it’ll come from the DOD, it’ll come from [Department of Justice]. And so over the next couple of weeks, even while we’re in recess, we’re working on getting those numbers." Fox News Digital spoke with Crenshaw days after he was tapped to lead a new task force on combating Mexico’s drug cartels. It’s operating under the House permanent select committee on intelligence, which Crenshaw sits on. He said it differs from his initiative last year, a similar task force, albeit with few resources to execute his goals, according to the congressman.

CBS News [4/16/2025 9:05 AM, Staff, 51661K] reports federal authorities said Tuesday that they have indicted the top two leaders of a Mexican drug cartel and are offering up to $8 million rewards for information leading to their capture and conviction. Johnny Hurtado Olascoaga and Jose Alfredo Hurtado Olascoaga, are accused of participating in a conspiracy to manufacture cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl and importing and distributing the drugs in the United States, authorities said during a news conference in Atlanta. The newly unsealed three-count indictment was returned by a grand jury in September. The two brothers are the leaders of La Nueva Familia Michoacana, a Mexican cartel that was formally designated by the U.S. government in February as a "foreign terrorist organization," authorities said. "If you contribute to the death of Americans by peddling poison into our communities, we will work relentlessly to find you and bring you to justice," Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. The State Department is offering up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Johnny Hurtado Olascoaga and up to $3 million for information about Jose Alfredo Hurtado Olascoaga, who also goes by the name "The Strawberry." Both men are believed to be in Mexico, officials said. Separately the U.S. Treasury announced new sanctions Wednesday against the two men and well as two other alleged leaders of the cartel, which the U.S. designates as a "foreign terrorist organization." In addition to drug trafficking, the Familia Michoacana cartel has also engaged in extortions, kidnappings and murders, according to U.S. prosecutors. Last year, a Mexican human rights organization reported that a community in the southern state of Guerrero was attacked by drones and gunmen allegedly from La Familia Michoacana drug cartel. At least six people were killed and 13 others injured, the state prosecutor’s office said. In 2023, the cartel is suspected of leaving a severed human leg found hanging from a pedestrian bridge just west of Mexico City. Officials said the trunk of the body was left on the street below, near the city’s center, along with handwritten signs signed by the Familia Michoacana cartel. The cartel "has utilized drones to drop bombs on its rivals, with utter disregard for Mexico’s civilian population.," the U.S. Treasury Department said Wednesday. "They also terrorize local communities through kidnappings, killings, and extortion."

Yahoo News [4/16/2025 6:02 PM, Daniel Borunda, 430301K] reports two El Paso teenagers kidnapped outside a Juárez restaurant were rescued along with three migrants from China, Guatemala and Mexico being held for ransom, the Chihuahua Attorney General’s Office and an FBI spokesperson said. The two U.S. citizens had been held for about three days after being abducted in front of at least one witness about 9 p.m. on Friday, April 11, outside a restaurant, the Chihuahua Attorney General’s Office said in a news release. The location and name of the restaurant were not disclosed. A woman from China, a Guatemalan man and a woman from the southern Mexican state of Tabasco were also rescued on Monday, April 14, during a state police operation, the state attorney general’s office said. The FBI in El Paso worked with their Mexican law enforcement counterparts by providing technical assistance and support from the FBI’s violent crime and gang squad, El Paso FBI spokeswoman Special Agent Jeanette Harper said. Two U.S. citizens from El Paso, Texas, along with three migrants, were allegedly held for ransom by kidnappers at this house in the Manuel J. Clothier neighborhood of southeastern Juárez, Mexico, until being rescued by Chihuahua state police on Monday, April 14, 2025. Some of the victims had marks on their necks from being strangled and knife-cuts to their ears after their abductors tortured them while demanding ransom payments from their families in exchange for letting them go, the attorney general’s office stated. The state police anti-kidnapping unit, working with Juárez municipal police and assisted by the FBI, found the abducted persons at a house in the Manuel J. Clothier neighborhood in southeastern Juárez, the attorney general’s office stated.

CBS News [4/16/2025 12:08 PM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, 51661K] reports that a government memo obtained by CBS News shows the Trump administration created broad rules outlining which migrants can be held at Guantanamo Bay, allowing officials to send non-criminal detainees there despite a vow to hold "the worst" offenders at the naval base. As part of his aggressive crackdown on immigration, President Trump in late January directed officials to convert facilities inside the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, into holding sites for migrants living in the country illegally. At the time, Mr. Trump said "the worst" migrants would be held at the base, directing officials to make space for "high-priority criminal aliens." But a previously undisclosed agreement between the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense indicates that the Trump administration gave officials wide-ranging discretion to decide who to send to Guantanamo Bay, enacting criteria not predicated on the severity of detainees’ criminal history or conduct. Instead, the agreement, signed on March 7 by top DHS and Pentagon officials, says the departments agreed to use the Guantanamo base to detain migrants with final deportation orders who have "a nexus to a transnational criminal organization (TCO) or criminal drug activity." Department of Defense spokeswoman Kingsley Wilson confirmed the existence of the memo, saying it "strengthens DoD and DHS collaboration by clarifying roles and responsibilities, and fostering efficient and coordinated operations at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay." CBS News reached out to DHS representatives for comment. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The New York Times [4/16/2025 10:42 PM, Robert Jimison, 145325K] reports that Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, on Wednesday tried and failed to secure a meeting in El Salvador with Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran immigrant and Maryland resident who was mistakenly deported by the Trump administration and remains imprisoned in his native country. Mr. Van Hollen’s trip was the latest chapter in an intensifying political battle over the case of Mr. Abrego Garcia, who was removed from the United States last month in what immigration officials acknowledged was an error. Although the Supreme Court has instructed the U.S. government to facilitate his return, both American and Salvadoran authorities have so far refused to do so. Mr. Van Hollen met with El Salvador’s vice president, Félix Ulloa, as well as officials at the U.S. embassy there, but he came away with no assurances that he would be able to see or even speak to Mr. Abrego Garcia, who is being held in a notorious maximum security prison known for human rights violations. And his visit did little to change the minds of the Trump administration or Salvadoran officials who have refused to release Mr. Abrego Garcia. After his meeting with Mr. Ulloa, Mr. Van Hollen told reporters that the explanation the vice president provided for continuing to keep Mr. Abrego Garcia in detention in the absence of a criminal charge against him was that the Trump administration was paying El Salvador to do so. “I’m asking President Bukele under his authority as president of El Salvador to do the right thing and allow Mr. Abrego Garcia to walk out of a prison — a man who’s charged with no crime, convicted of no crime and who was illegally abducted from the United States,” Mr. Van Hollen told reporters in San Salvador, the capital. FOX News [4/16/2025 5:07 PM, Greg Wehner, 46189K] reports Van Hollen spoke to reporters from El Salvador on Wednesday afternoon, when he vowed to continue pressing for access to Abrego Garcia. He met with Vice President Félix Augusto Antonio Ulloa Garay because President Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez was out of the country, though Van Hollen said he was grateful to speak about the case of Abrego Garcia. He told Ulloa that he was not interested in taking a tour of CECOT and that he just wanted to meet with Abrego Garcia. When Van Hollen asked if he could come back next week to see Abrego Garcia, Ulloa told him he could not promise that, either. Ulloa also told the U.S. senator that he could not even arrange for him, or Abrego Garcia’s family to speak with the inmate over the phone. Van Hollen is not the only Democrat discussing visiting Abrego Garcia and other imprisoned migrants. Far left Reps. Maxwell Frost, D-Florida, and Robert Garcia, D-California, issued a joint letter on Tuesday in which they said they are "prepared to travel as soon as possible." Axios [4/16/2025 2:40 PM, Sareen Habeshian, 13163K] reports Van Hollen told reporters he asked El Salvador Vice President Félix Ulloa during a meeting Wednesday why Abrego Garcia is being held if U.S. courts and the government of El Salvador have found no evidence that he’s a member of the MS-13 gang. "His answer was that the Trump administration is paying El Salvador, the government of El Salvador to keep him at CECOT," the senator said, referring to the prison Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo. The White House and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to Axios’ request for comment. What he’s saying: Van Hollen said he asked to see Abrego Garcia or to speak to him on the phone to check on his condition. The vice president told Van Hollen he needs to make earlier provisions to visit CECOT, the senator said. Asked if he could visit Abrego Garcia if he returns next week, the vice president said he can’t make that promise, per Van Hollen. Roll Call [4/16/2025 12:57 PM, Chris Johnson, 503K] reports Van Hollen said in a video posted on social media that the goal of his trip is to put a spotlight on the Trump administration’s actions, which critics contend amounts to ignoring an order from the Supreme Court to "facilitate" the return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia. "We are going to keep fighting to bring Abrego Garcia home until he returns to his family," Van Hollen said.

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Breitbart [4/16/2025 3:14 PM, Olivia Rondeau, 2923K] reports the Trump administration denounced Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s (D-MD) mission to return a deported MS-13 gang member to the United States from El Salvador, calling him out for caring about illegal aliens over American citizens like Rachel Morin. Democrats have continued to drum up support for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old Salvadoran national who entered the U.S. illegally when he was 16, since he was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Maryland and transported to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in March. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin shared the facts on X, reporting that the man was identified as a member of MS-13 by two different judges. Other Democrats threw their support behind Van Hollen, with Reps. Maxwell Frost (D-FL), Robert Garcia (D-CA), and Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) signaling they will "organize other members of the House to do the same." Van Hollen landed in El Salvador on Wednesday morning, stating that he hopes to "meet with Salvadoran officials and with Kilmar himself."

AP [4/16/2025 8:12 PM, Mary Clare Jalonick, Yolanda Magaña and Matt Brown, 48304K] reports Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador on Wednesday and met with the country’s vice president to push for the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man who was sent there by the Trump administration in March despite an immigration court order preventing his deportation. Van Hollen said at a news conference in San Salvador that Vice President Félix Ulloa said his government could not return Abrego Garcia to the United States and declined to allow Van Hollen to visit him in the notorious gang prison where he is being held. “Why is the government of El Salvador continuing to imprison a man where they have no evidence that he’s committed any crime and they have not been provided any evidence from the United States that he has committed any crime?” Van Hollen told reporters after the meeting. “They should just let him go.” Van Hollen’s trip became a flashpoint in the U.S. The Trump administration sharply criticized it, while Democrats have rallied around Abrego Garcia. President Donald Trump and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said this week that they have no basis to send him back, even as the U.S. Supreme Court has called on the administration to facilitate his return. Trump officials have said that Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen who was living in Maryland, has ties to the MS-13 gang, but his attorneys say the government has provided no evidence of that and Abrego Garcia has never been charged with any crime related to such activity. “We have an unjust situation here,” said Van Hollen, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “The Trump administration is lying about Abrego Garcia. The American courts have looked at the facts.” Trump officials reiterated Wednesday that he would not be returned to the United States. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt held a press briefing with the mother of a Maryland woman, Rachel Morin, who was killed by a fugitive from El Salvador in 2023. “It’s appalling and sad that Sen. Van Hollen and the Democrats applauding his trip to El Salvador today are incapable of having any shred of common sense or empathy for their own constituents and our citizens,” Leavitt said at the briefing.

New York Times [4/16/2025 5:57 PM, Annie Correal, 145325K] reports Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, said El Salvador’s vice president, Félix Ulloa, told him on Wednesday that the country was not sending back to the United States a mistakenly deported Salvadoran man because the Trump administration was paying the government to detain him. The man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, has become a flashpoint in the battle between the Trump administration and the federal courts, as the White House has refused a judge’s demand to “facilitate” his return. President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador has said he will not return him to the United States, and the Trump administration has said it cannot compel the Salvadoran government to do so. The White House has said that it is paying the Salvadoran government $6 million to hold detainees sent by the United States in its prison system for at least a year. Mr. Bukele has not publicly cited the financial agreement as his reason for not returning Mr. Abrego Garcia, as Mr. Van Hollen said he heard from Mr. Ulloa. A White House spokeswoman said in March that El Salvador would receive that sum for taking in deportees who she said were members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. The Associated Press, citing an internal memo, reported on March 15 that the $6 million was meant to cover the detention of 300 members of Tren de Aragua. As part of the same operation, the administration has also sent dozens of Salvadorans whom it accuses of having links to the gang MS-13. Officials have not said, or specified, whether the payment also covers the cost of holding those detainees, and the White House has not made clear if the U.S. government is paying the Salvadoran government to detain Mr. Abrego García, as Senator Van Hollen said. A spokeswoman for the Salvadoran presidency, Wendy Ramos, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Mr. Van Hollen’s remarks. The precise terms of the agreement between the United States and El Salvador have not been made public. Mr. Abrego Garcia, along with the dozens of other deportees from the United States, is being held at a prison intended for criminals convicted of crimes related to terrorism, the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT.

The Hill [4/16/2025 11:28 PM, Tara Suter, 430301K] reports Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) has requested a congressional delegation to visit a prison in El Salvador where the Trump administration has sent numerous deportees. In a Wednesday letter addressed to House Homeland Security Committee Chair Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), Ramirez asked "that the House Committee on Homeland Security authorize a Congressional Member Delegation (CODEL) to conduct an oversight visit to the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) in Tecoluca, El Salvador.” In the first few months of President Trump’s second presidency, his administration has sent hundreds of deportees to the Salvadoran maximum-security prison CECOT. "Given that the Administration’s use of CECOT for illegal and unconstitutional deportations is rife with ‘administrative errors’ and many of those who have been deported to CECOT are not, in fact, violent criminals, as a Member of the House Committee on Homeland Security Committee, I urgently request a CODEL to conduct oversight of CECOT. Thank you for the consideration of this request," Ramirez said in her letter, which Axios first obtained. The story of one of the deportees sent to CECOT, a wrongfully deported Maryland man named Kilmar Abrego Garcia, has recently made political waves in Washington, D.C. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a rising star among Democrats, called Abrego Garcia’s case "the constitutional crisis" in a video posted on Tuesday on the social platform X. In the video, Murphy argued that Abrego Garcia should not have been deported because he was previously given protected status by a U.S. court. "Donald Trump ignored that court order and deported him," Murphy said in the video. "It was such a brazen violation of the law that the Supreme Court weighed in. In a rare 9-0 ruling, the Supreme Court said that Trump had to bring this individual back to the United States, but he still didn’t do it. This is the constitutional crisis.” The Hill has reached out to Green’s office for comment.

FOX News [4/16/2025 11:52 AM, Taylor Penley, 46189K] reports that Border czar Tom Homan tore into Democrats Wednesday as Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen headed to El Salvador, seeking to bring home suspected MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whom he says was "wrongfully abducted" from the U.S. "He wasn’t abducted. He’s an MS-13 gang member, classified as a terrorist that was removed from this country, so we got rid of a dangerous person," Homan told "Fox & Friends." "An El Salvadoran national was returned to the country of El Salvador, so he’s home." Homan echoed rhetoric from other Trump officials who have called Abrego Garcia a "public safety threat," insisting his removal was "exactly what should have happened" while fighting his return to the U.S. Homan said he’s "disgusted" to see a member of Congress run to Abrego Garcia’s aid in El Salvador as illegal immigrants commit crimes in the U.S., including in Van Hollen’s own state. The Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s order last week, requiring "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.” Democrats and Abrego Garcia’s attorney have also disputed the Trump administration’s claims that he was a member of the violent gang. Both Trump officials and Bukele agreed that they didn’t have the authority to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S., with Bukele saying it would be "preposterous" to do so.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [4/16/2025 1:05 PM, Lauren Irwin, 12829K]

Wall Street Journal [4/16/2025 3:44 PM, Vera Bergengruen and Michelle Hackman, 646K] reports El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele plans to double the size of the maximum-security prison where his government is holding U.S. deportees. Bukele plans to expand the Terrorism Confinement Center, the sprawling compound known as Cecot that is already the largest prison in the world, he told Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem when she visited last month, people familiar with the discussion said. Opened in 2023 to house up to 40,000 inmates during Bukele’s crackdown on El Salvador’s gangs, the facility currently holds roughly 15,000 people, including hundreds of alleged gang members the Trump administration has recently deported from the U.S. Doubling the prison’s capacity would create space for a total of 80,000 inmates. “We have no plans to bring them back, this is a long-term solution,” Noem told The Wall Street Journal after her visit with Bukele. “He has plans to double the size. He has 80-plus acres there that he’s going to continue to build on.” In mid-March, the U.S. deported more than 250 alleged gang members to El Salvador—most of them Venezuelan—after President Trump invoked a rarely used wartime law. The U.S. is paying Bukele’s government $6 million to incarcerate them at the facility for a year.

New York Times [4/16/2025 7:15 AM, Annie Correal, 145325K] reports that, siding with the Trump administration, El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, said on Monday that he would not send back a Salvadoran migrant, whom the U.S. authorities deported from Maryland in error last month, an expulsion that set off a legal battle that has reached the Supreme Court. “How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? I don’t have the power,” Mr. Bukele said, sitting in the Oval Office beside a beaming President Trump. Latin America experts scoffed at the idea that Mr. Bukele, whose government has ordered mass arrests and seized control of the country’s courts, would suggest he could not return one man — if he wanted to. “I have no words,” said Ana María Méndez Dardón, the Central America director at the Washington Office for Latin America, a human rights group. “If he has any remaining commitment to democratic norms, he has an obligation to resolve this case.” A federal judge in Maryland ordered the return of the migrant, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, to the United States, a decision that the Supreme Court unanimously upheld last week. In refusing to return Mr. Abrego Garcia, Mr. Bukele is falling in line with the Trump administration and its deportation plans, helping to cement a strategy for dealing with legal challenges. The administration is arguing that deportees to El Salvador belong to terrorist gangs — and that after it turns the men over to a sovereign foreign nation, it has no right to interfere. In the process, the administration is relying on Mr. Bukele’s cooperation — and on how powerful he has become in his country since he took office in 2019. “President Bukele has, over the course of his administration, captured control over state institutions and eliminated any checks on power,” said Noah Bullock, the executive director of the Salvadoran human rights group Cristosal. Crucially, according to Mr. Bullock and others, Mr. Bukele has an extraordinary degree of control over who is imprisoned because of a state of emergency he imposed — and has repeatedly extended — that suspends normal due process rights.

NewsMax [4/16/2025 10:58 AM, Sandy Fitzgerald, 4998K] reports that it makes "no sense at all" for Democrats to be fighting for the return of El Salvador national Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States, as he was not denied due process before his extradition, Rep. Beth Van Duyne insisted on Newsmax Wednesday. "The whole purpose of having laws is that they are followed, you know, that they are enforced, and we are the rulemakers, right?" the Texas Republican said on Newsmax’s "Wake Up America." "We’re the lawmakers, and then we complain when our agencies are trying to do that." Her comments come after Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said earlier this week that he will fly to El Salvador to secure the release of Garcia from the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (Terrorism Confinement Center), a maximum security prison in El Salvador. The White House is insisting that Garcia is an alleged member of the MS-13 gang, while the Supreme Court has ruled that the administration must facilitate his return to the United States. But Van Duyne told Newsmax that Garcia "got to go through the court process. He got to appeal it, this appeal was denied, and he’s being sent back to El Salvador." She added that Garcia did not go through the official asylum process to enter the United States, even while the Justice Department has acknowledged that he was deported by mistake.

Wall Street Journal [4/16/2025 5:41 PM, Staff, 646K] reports you wouldn’t know it from the lack of coverage, but President Trump has already accomplished one of his top priorities—controlling the U.S. border with Mexico. Now if Mr. Trump wants a more lasting legacy, he has a political opening to lead on legislation that could fix America’s broken immigration system well past his four-year term. As the nearby chart shows, the border turnaround is remarkable, and it happened with equally remarkable speed. According to data released Monday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 7,181 illegal migrants were detained crossing the Southwest land border in March, while another 3,836 aliens showed up at ports of entry. That total of 11,017 “encounters” compares with 189,359 in March 2024, and it’s lower than even during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. Border apprehensions shot up shortly after President Biden took office, as he repealed Mr. Trump’s first-term policies. Then Mr. Biden abdicated enforcement. Political pressure amid the 2024 election made him change course last June, and border crossings began to drop. Yet the nosedive since vindicates Mr. Trump’s view that presidential messaging matters. Potential migrants saw who won in November. Two days after the election, a Reuters report noted that a migrant caravan in Mexico “had shrunk to about half its original size,” shedding 1,400 people. “I had hoped [Kamala Harris] would win, but that didn’t happen,” a Venezuelan woman told the wire service. Two months ago New York City said the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown, which had been the intake site for 173,000 migrants, will quit being used for that purpose by June. The sounds you don’t hear anymore after Mr. Biden’s exit are complaints by big-city mayors, mostly Democrats, about the influx of migrants they can’t afford to house.

Washington Post [4/16/2025 7:30 AM, Philip Bump, 31735K] reports that, however much President Donald Trump and his allies would like Americans to focus on the scale of what he presents as an unprecedented crackdown on illegal immigration in the United States, much of the country is instead focused on one particular immigrant: El Salvador-born Kilmar Abrego García, who was sent back to his native country as part of a high-profile federal operation last month. Abrego García was not supposed to be sent to El Salvador, as the government has repeatedly acknowledged. His family had been the target of criminal gangs in that country, and an immigration judge determined that he had a “well-founded” fear for his life should he have had to return. Yet there he is today, a prisoner in El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) — along with dozens of other people shipped to the facility in the extensively documented and promoted operation. Abrego García was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement near his home in Maryland on March 12, three days before the federal government rushed to ship him and more than 200 others to CECOT. In prior immigration hearings, Abrego García had been accused — on strikingly flimsy evidence — of association with the gang MS-13, but he was given no chance to rebut any claims of gang affiliation before his removal. Instead of adjudicating that question, in fact, the government used Abrego García and the others to reinforce how forcefully the administration was dealing with gangsters. Those shipped to CECOT were “heinous monsters, rapists, murderers, kidnappers, sexual assaulters [and] predators,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted on March 17. Analysis from Bloomberg News later determined that 9 in 10 of those flown to the prison on March 15 had no criminal record. The simple fact is that criminal immigrants are not as pervasive in the United States as Trump insisted on the campaign trail. (As though to emphasize that point, the Justice Department recently removed a link to a study demonstrating that immigrants were less likely to commit crimes than native-born U.S. residents.) Partly because of that, the administration’s high-profile effort to target the purported immigrant threat as a staggering success relies on a tried-and-true Trump tactic: using unverified, false or decontextualized datapoints as rhetorical anecdotes.

The Hill [4/16/2025 7:30 AM, Max Burns, 12829K] reports that, on Monday, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele joined Donald Trump in the Oval Office for a summit that will live on in national infamy. It will be remembered as the day Trump revealed the next phase of his attack on America’s bedrock legal principles. "Homegrown criminals are next," Trump told the assembled reporters. "I said homegrowns are next, the homegrowns. You gotta build about five more places. I’d like to include them in the group of people to get them out of the country.” My fellow Americans, he’s talking about us. The idea that Trump would deport U.S. citizens to specially built foreign mega-prisons outside the reach of the American justice system should cause a national shockwave. After all, Trump’s definition of a "criminal" deportable to such a place includes 179 men who may not have committed crimes at all. If Trump can willfully violate a unanimous Supreme Court order and strip due process rights from legal non-citizens, there is nothing stopping him from doing the same to Americans. Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s unending nightmare is not some bizarre legal freak of nature. It is a warning that once a president has discarded the rule of law for some people, nothing stops him from discarding the rule of law for anyone. According to the government’s latest arguments, the detainees sent to El Salvador exist in a legal black hole — unreachable by the courts, by Congress, even by Trump himself. That they were denied their due process rights is now a matter of Supreme Court record. That the White House doesn’t care is also a matter of public record. Soon we will see this same grim dance play out again. Next time it will likely be American citizens who are forcibly disappeared. A word exists for a prison that "functions outside a judicial system" and where "prisoners are not indicted or convicted of any crime by judicial process." According to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the word for that kind of place is a concentration camp. On Monday, Trump pledged to dedicate taxpayer funds to the construction of even more Salvadoran concentration camps, with Bukele’s enthusiastic blessing. Bukele’s sprawling CECOT mega-prison has earned a horrific reputation for violence and torture. Many legal migrants who have committed no crimes now live in fear of being black-bagged and shipped off to El Salvador. This is part of the cultural terrorism Trump hoped to inflict. If Trump gets his way, American citizens could also soon find themselves cut off from the rule of law, trapped inside one of the world’s most brutal prisons. We are facing one of the most acute constitutional crises in American history. As Jonathan Last at The Bulwark grimly and accurately argues, a failure of Congress and the courts to act would create "a de facto extralegal policy of imprisonment in a foreign gulag for enemies of the regime." At that point, a detainee’s American citizenship becomes little more than a detail on the manifest of a prison plane bound for El Salvador.

New York Times [4/17/2025 5:05 AM, Ezra Klein, 153395K] reports the emergency is here. The crisis is now. It is not six months away. It is not another Supreme Court ruling away from happening. It’s happening now. Perhaps not to you, not yet. But to others. Real people. We know their names. We know their stories. The president of the United States is disappearing people to a Salvadoran prison for terrorists. A prison known by its initials — CECOT. A prison built for disappearance. A prison where there is no education or remediation or recreation, because it is a prison that does not intend to release its inhabitants back out into the world. It is a prison where the only way out, in the words of El Salvador’s so-called justice minister, is a coffin. On Monday, President Trump said, in the Oval Office, in front of the cameras, sitting next to President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, that he would like to do this to U.S. citizens, as well. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

USA Today [4/17/2025 5:07 AM, Sara Pequeño, 75858K] reports that, last September, Hurricane Helene decimated western North Carolina, nearly destroying entire towns and killing 107 people in the state. In February, the state reported that it would cost $60 billion to repair the region. Despite these costly repairs, President Donald Trump’s administration recently denied the state’s request to extend a Federal Emergency Management Agency program that matched 100% of the costs for eligible recovery expenses. This is after he lied about former President Joe Biden’s response to the tragedy. On April 11, FEMA’s acting administrator sent a letter to Gov. Josh Stein, telling him the extension was "not warranted." At the time, Stein was visiting people in Newland, North Carolina, who had lost their homes during Hurricane Helene. The state will have 30 days to appeal the decision. "I am extremely disappointed and urge the President to reconsider FEMA’s bad decision, even for 90 days," the governor said in a statement. "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.” I wish I could say that the Trump administration’s decision shocked me. Instead, it’s the exact sort of thing I’ve come to expect from a man who seems to lack empathy for people who aren’t billionaires, even if those people voted for him. On the presidential reelection campaign trail, Republican nominee Trump talked about how Biden’s administration was not moving fast enough to assist North Carolina after Hurricane Helene and falsely claimed that this was because it’s a Republican area. He continued to peddle this falsehood as president. Since Helene hit North Carolina in September, FEMA has spent $861 million on public assistance and money sent directly to households. "This has been very slow," Trump said during a January briefing in Fletcher, North Carolina. "I don’t know if that was for political reasons because they lost the state. You know, Biden lost the state. Maybe he felt ‒ he doesn’t care. Maybe there were other reasons.” While Trump may assume that everyone else is as vindictive as he is, he is the one in charge now. It’s clear from this denial of funding that all of his complaints about Biden were just to score political points.

San Diego Union Tribune [4/16/2025 9:20 AM, Kelly Mckinney, 1682K] reports that Monday morning, Southern Californians were reminded of just how fragile the ground beneath them really is. A 5.2-magnitude earthquake rattled San Diego County, sending shockwaves as far as Los Angeles. San Diegans were lucky: No deaths or major damage have been reported. But luck isn’t a plan. And with our national disaster system melting down, they could be on their own when the real one hits. Last month, President Trump signed Executive Order 14239, seeking to offload responsibility for disaster response to state and local governments. A few days later, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she planned to "eliminate" the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). This isn’t reform. It’s abandonment. It’s chaos by design. This matters deeply for San Diego County, which is at risk from several fault zones. The California Earthquake Authority says there is a 75% chance of a magnitude 7.0 or greater earthquake striking Southern California in the next two decades. If the really big one hit today, would we be ready? Not even close. The United States has the resources, the people and the expertise. What we don’t have is someone in charge to make things happen. We need FEMA — now more than ever — to manage the increasingly complex and severe disasters of a polycrisis age. A refocused and empowered FEMA would forge strong public-private partnerships, leading a response that is government-led but not government-centric. It would become the national disaster machine we so desperately need: fast, coordinated, relentless.

Daily Caller [4/16/2025 9:01 AM, Jason Hopkins, 1082K] reports that Congressional GOP leaders are demanding a non-profit organization explain how it has used taxpayer money after an undercover video purportedly showed its employees instructing audience members how to avoid Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrest. The Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC), a behemoth non-profit group based in New York City, must hand over documentation and communication relating to its immigration seminars and explain how roughly a million dollars in taxpayer funds were used in the past several years, according to a House Homeland Security Committee letter first obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The demands come as the Trump administration has made clear that overtly obstructing ICE operations will not be tolerated. "The Committee on Homeland Security (Committee) is investigating the potential use of federal funds by non-government organizations (NGOs) to facilitate illegal immigration," the House Homeland Security Committee letter began. "The Committee is deeply concerned that CPC and other NGOs that receive taxpayer dollars may be advising or training illegal aliens on strategies to avoid cooperation with immigration officials."

New York Times [4/16/2025 6:59 PM, Tim Arango, Chelsia Rose Marcius and Jesus Jiménez, 145325K] reports in the early days of the first Trump administration, immigration agents arrested Daniel Ramirez Medina at his family’s apartment in a suburb of Seattle and accused him of being a gang member. Their evidence was a tattoo on his left forearm of a five-point star that read, “La Paz — BCS.” Born in Mexico and raised in California, Mr. Ramirez had been able to work and raise his son without fear of deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Even so, he spent six weeks in a detention center, as the government tried to deport him. A judge eventually ruled that the tattoo was a reference to his birthplace and ordered him released. This time around, the second Trump administration appears to be relying more heavily on tattoos to summarily deport Venezuelan migrants that it says are members of the gang Tren de Aragua, in a move that some critics argue ignores decades of police and legal protocol. Tattoos are often just a starting point in an investigation, many law enforcement officials say. And Tren de Aragua is still relatively new in the United States, so any indicators of affiliation might be less reliable than what officials have been able to gather over the years about more longstanding street gangs. In February of last year, the New York Police Department began to receive reports from federal authorities about members of Tren de Aragua traveling from Denver and Colorado toward the East Coast. The Police Department had little information on the Venezuelan gang, which was new in the country and in New York City. But one indicator, the police learned, were the tattoos that members bore to show their allegiance. Among them were images of clocks to denote how long they had spent behind bars, and insignia related to the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan, whose jersey number was 23 — a reference to 23 de Enero, a neighborhood in Caracas, Venezuela. Then there were images of trains, which in Spanish is trenes, paying homage to the gang’s name. But for decades, law enforcement officials have treated tattoos only as an indication of possible gang affiliation, said Joseph Kenny, chief of detectives of the Police Department. A tattoo itself, he said in an interview last year, is never sufficient evidence to prove a person is a member of a criminal group, and neither should a tattoo ever be the sole basis for bringing criminal charges.

AP [4/16/2025 6:24 PM, Michael Casey and Rodrique Ngowi, 48304K] Video: HERE reports a Massachusetts family is demanding answers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, complaining its agents smashed a car window with a hammer and detained a man who they claim had applied for asylum. A lawyer for the family also claims agents were not looking for Juan Francisco Mendez when they grabbed him Monday in New Bedford, Massachusetts, as he drove to a dental appointment. The lawyer, Ondine Galvez-Sniffin, told The Associated Press during an interview that the agents claimed they were looking for another man with a different name before they dragged him and his wife out of the car. The incident, recorded on video by Mendez’s wife Marilu Domingo Ortiz, shows ICE agents using a hammer to smash the car window and then seize Ortiz. The family believes Mendez is being held at a facility in Dover, New Hampshire.

NBC News [4/16/2025 11:05 AM, Alysha Palumbo, 44742K] reports Marilu Mendez said when ICE vehicles began following her and her husband Monday and then surrounded their car on Tallman Street in New Bedford, she took out her cell phone and started recording. Marilu said the agents were focused on her husband, Juan, but kept calling him "Antonio" — the name of another man who lives in their building. Thinking this was just a case of mistaken identity, the Mendezes called their lawyer, who told them to stay in the car and not give the agents any information until she got there. Their attorney, Ondine Galvez Sniffin, told NBC10 Boston that Juan Mendez is a Guatemalan immigrant who is undocumented but in the process of changing his immigration status and has no criminal record. Marilu is in the country on asylum. But instead of waiting for their lawyer, the ICE agents smashed the car window, broke into the vehicle and dragged the couple out. "They looked for a hammer and they broke the car window and dragged us out of the car," Marilu told Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra in Spanish. "Three ICE agents held my husband. They took us out unjustly... I tried to talk to them and ask them if they had an order to detain him. They didn’t respond or show me anything. They had no reason to detain him. We’ve been following the rules of this country. We are doing things the right way. That’s why we have a lawyer.” Their attorney said Juan Mendez is now being held in a detention facility in Dover, New Hampshire, with a hearing scheduled for May 7. "My clients were within their rights, they were very respectful and following and exerting their rights and stating their right to remain silent and stating their right to have legal representation and they were met with brutality," Galvez Sniffin said. "They were met with violence.”

Breitbart [4/16/2025 6:00 PM, Warner Todd Huston, 2923K] reports when police raided a factory in Georgia, they found dozens of Chinese nationals being kept in near slave-like conditions, and authorities say they were pressed into service by a forced labor trafficking ring. Last month, agents from several agencies raided Wellmade Industries in Cartersville, Georgia, 40 miles north of Atlanta, and what they found shocked them, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Federal officials said that around 60 Chinese nationals were being held in tiny rooms and forced to work long hours in the flooring manufacturing plant. The exploited workers at Wellmade are just a few of the many exploited workers the Trump administration has rooted out. ICE Homeland Security Investigations Atlanta Special Agent in Charge Steven N. Schrank said the conditions these workers were living in was "horrific," and noted that he and his fellow agents were investigating eight other locations for similar offenses. Three Wellmade Industries officers were arrested, including company owner, Zhu Chen, his nephew, Jiayi Chen, and company associate Jian Jun Lu. At the bond hearings for the suspects, assistant district attorney Austin Waldo claimed that officials of the company immediately confiscated the workers’ travel and ID documents as soon as they arrived at the plant to make it harder for them to leave. Prosecutors also say that the workers were required to work 12-hour shifts and then were not allowed to leave the plant or the rooms they were being housed in. "This operation underscores our steadfast commitment to combat labor trafficking and hold accountable those who exploit vulnerable individuals for profit," Special Agent in Charge Schrank said in a press release. "The arrests of Zhu Chen and Jiayi Chen, along with the rescue of numerous victims, reflect the tireless efforts of HSI and our law enforcement partners. We will continue to leverage all available resources to dismantle these criminal networks and bring perpetrators to justice.”

Miami Herald [4/16/2025 4:23 PM, Clara-Sophia Daly and Ana Ceballos, 4000K] reports police departments at 11 universities and colleges across Florida have signed on to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement enforce immigration laws on Florida campuses. The institutions that have enrolled to participate in the collaborative program between campus police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement include Florida International University, University of North Florida, Tallahassee State, Florida A&M University, Florida Atlantic University, Florida Gulf Coast University, New College of Florida, University of Central Florida, University of Florida, University of South Florida and University of West Florida, according to the Herald and Inside Higher Education. The collaborative program, dubbed 287(g), empowers these agencies to stop and interrogate people about their immigration status in the course of routine police work. The head of each university police department would be responsible for determining how many officers they would want to put through the training, which involves a 40-hour online course. Campus police officers need to be trained and certified by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement before they can have the authority to stop, question and detain students or people who they suspect are in the country illegally.

FOX News [4/16/2025 12:40 PM, Michael Lee, 46189K] reports that the vice mayor of a Florida town that is home to one of the country’s largest population of Venezuelan migrants is supporting a deal that will allow the city’s law enforcement to cooperate with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE). "I support this agreement because I believe it is essential to strengthening our Police Department’s ability to carry out their duties effectively and responsibly," Doral, Florida, Vice Mayor Maureen Porras told Fox News Digital. "By moving forward with this, we are ensuring that the City of Doral remains in full compliance with both state and federal mandates—an important step in maintaining public trust and upholding the rule of law.” The comments come as Doral, a key Florida hub for Venezuelan immigrants, is set to vote on a potential agreement with ICE on Wednesday that would allow the city’s law enforcement to carry out some immigration-enforcement operations. Members of the City Council will vote Wednesday on whether to ink a 287(g) program deal with ICE, which would allow Doral police officers to assist ICE with detentions, questioning and processing individuals suspected of breaking federal immigration laws.

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Telemundo51.com [4/16/2025 4:48 PM, Ana Cuervo, 171K]

91.5 FM Chicago [4/16/2025 7:00 AM, Adriana Cardona-Maguigad, 268K] reports it’s been a month since a young woman named YD last spoke with her partner, Yeison Rodrigo Jaimes-Rincon. YD, a 33-year-old Venezuelan migrant living in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood, spends her days scrolling through her phone. She hopes to hear news from her partner, wishing he could meet their newborn son. To protect her privacy and her family’s safety, WBEZ is not using YD’s full name. Jaimes-Rincon had been under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement supervision; he was arrested and taken into ICE custody on Jan 31. The couple communicated regularly over the phone while he was in detention, but after they spoke on the morning of March 15, her phone went silent. YD had no idea Jaimes-Rincon had been deported to a prison in El Salvador until she saw a list published by CBS News with the names of 238 Venezuelans who had reportedly been flown there by the Trump administration. Panicked, YD frantically searched online for more information on the whereabouts of her partner. That’s when she discovered a video, shared widely on social media, of U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem touring the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT. It’s a maximum security prison in El Salvador accused of widespread human rights violations, including lack of access to legal counsel, adequate food and health care. YD easily recognized her partner, standing behind bars, with Noem standing in front. In that moment, YD discovered that Jaimes-Rincon had been deported to the maximum security prison by the United States without his family’s knowledge and without due process. He had no access to a lawyer, the legal system or any way to communicate with his family.

Yahoo News [4/16/2025 10:00 PM, Kilat Fitzgerald, 430301K] reports the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) condemned the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrest of a hospital employee in Marshall, Minnesota. MNA officials released a statement saying, "We are not agents of law enforcement, nor do we serve any role in immigration enforcement. Our Duty is to our patients — to their health, their dignity and well-being.” The statement continued by saying, "We recognize that immigrants, refugees, and other vulnerable populations often face systemic barriers, targeted discrimination, and heightened fear when seeking medical care. Let us be clear: every individual deserves access to safe, unbiased, and confidential healthcare. No one should ever hesitate to seek medical attention out of fear of exposure, judgment, or reprisal.” Aditya Wahyu Harsono, 33, is currently in ICE custody at Kaniyohi County Jail, according to the online ICE detainee locator. Court records show Harsono paid restitution for a misdemeanor vandalism conviction after he admitted to spray-painting semi-trailers and a bridge overpass in the summer of 2022. FOX 9 reached out to ICE and the law firm representing Harsono for more information and will update this story when it becomes available. This story used information from a news release sent by the Minnesota Nurses Association and public information on law endorsement websites.

New York Times [4/16/2025 8:39 PM, Jesus Jiménez, 153395K] reports when federal agents arrived at two Los Angeles elementary schools last week to conduct welfare checks on students who the agents said were undocumented, fear and outrage spread among parents, teachers and administrators. For the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, the visit by federal agents was something more. It was personal. Alberto Carvalho, the leader of the second-largest public school system in the country, was once undocumented, too. “Their journey is no different than my own,” Mr. Carvalho said in an interview, referring to the estimated one in four migrant students who are believed to be undocumented in his district. “Maybe the country of origin is different, but in many, many instances, the journey is exactly the same.” At a news conference after the visit, he condemned the agents’ actions. His speech drew national attention on social media, and his acknowledgment of his own former status as undocumented represented a rare moment in an era of immigration crackdowns. The agents, who were with the Homeland Security Investigations agency, were ultimately turned away from the two schools — the Russell and Lillian Street elementary schools in the Florence-Graham neighborhood in South Los Angeles. Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement that the agency has been conducting welfare checks on children who came across the border unaccompanied “to ensure that they are safe and not being exploited, abused and sex trafficked.” Ms. McLaughlin said that any claims that the agents lied were false. “Our law enforcement clearly identified themselves and made it clear this was a welfare check and not an immigration enforcement action,” Ms. McLaughlin said. The attempt by federal agents to enter Los Angeles schools prompted more than a dozen members of Congress to write a letter to Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary. They asked her to justify the operation in Los Angeles and to stop immigration enforcement activity that focuses on children who do not pose public safety threats.

Los Angeles Times [4/16/2025 6:00 AM, Libor Jany, 13342K] reports activists rallied outside LAPD headquarters on Tuesday to denounce department policies that allow information sharing with federal agencies, a concern amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. In a letter to the LAPD’s civilian Police Commission, several watchdog groups said public assurances by city officials that L.A. won’t cooperate in deportations ring hollow. Federal authorities, the letter said, already have access to the vast trove of information gathered by the LAPD’s license plate readers, body-worn cameras and other surveillance methods. The Police Department’s frequent collaborations with federal law enforcement on investigations "means that any data that is obtained by LAPD will become accessible to federal immigration authorities," the activist group Stop LAPD Spying and others wrote in the letter. Since President Trump returned to office, city officials have considered different proposals to protect the city’s immigrant communities, even in the face of White House threats to withhold federal funds. In December, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass announced a sanctuary law barring city employees and city property from being used to "investigate, cite, arrest, hold, transfer or detain any person" for the purpose of immigration enforcement. The activists said they obtained department reports through public records requests that shed light on how interconnected police departments are with one another. As as example, they said, details about a motorist who has been pulled over by the LAPD — such as their name, date of birth, social media handles and other biographic details — could be turned over to intelligence-gathering offices called fusion centers, which local police and federal authorities use to share information on potential threats or terrorist attacks. In recent years, fusion centers like the one in Norwalk have focused more on routine street crime. The ability of federal authorities to access the LAPD’s information from the centers undermines the city’s promises to protect immigrants, said Stop LAPD Spying organizer Hamid Khan at a rally before the commission’s regular meeting on Tuesday. "And it’s not [like] LAPD has to pick up the phone: It’s baked in. It’s on autopilot," Khan said. "The only way this will be a sanctuary city is if the source of information is stopped.”

Univision [4/16/2025 6:13 PM, Staff, 5325K] reports a coalition of activists has publicly denounced the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) for allegedly collaborating with federal agencies in operations targeting the immigrant community, in contradiction to its “sanctuary city” policies. According to the coalition, the LAPD has granted federal authorities access to surveillance systems such as automatic license plate readers, body cameras, and police databases containing addresses, arrest records, and other sensitive information. As part of its legal fight, the coalition has filed 16 lawsuits against the LAPD and the city of Los Angeles, seeking to force the authorities to release documents proving this alleged covert collaboration. This is despite the fact that Mayor Karen Bass signed City Ordinance 188441 in November 2024, which prohibits the use of city resources for immigration enforcement activities. The ordinance, however, provides exceptions for cases involving serious or violent crimes.

New York Times [4/16/2025 7:47 PM, Ryan Mac and Hamed Aleaziz, 153395K] reports members of Elon Musk’s government-slashing task force are building a system for the United States to sell special immigration visas, which President Trump has labeled “gold cards,” for $5 million apiece. Engineers associated with Mr. Musk’s team have been working with employees from the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to create a website and application process for the visas, according to three people familiar with the discussions and documents seen by The New York Times. The project represents something of a shift in mission for Mr. Musk’s team, the Department of Government Efficiency, from its initial task of cutting government costs toward a new goal of generating revenue. In late February, Mr. Trump announced his idea for a gold card to give “very high-level people” a “route to citizenship.” The president and his commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, provided few details at the time about who would qualify for the program but noted that it would replace the EB-5 visa, which grants permanent residence to foreign nationals willing to invest in U.S. businesses. That program provided green cards to individuals who invested either $800,000 or $1.05 million, creating at least 10 jobs for American workers. It raised about $4 billion for the federal government last year. The gold card project is being led from the DOGE side by Marko Elez and Edward Coristine, who have been working on it since at least last month. Mr. Elez and Mr. Coristine have met with officials at various agencies that oversee facets of the visa and immigrant vetting process to understand which existing processes can be incorporated into their new system. The State Department referred requests for comment to the White House. The White House and Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment.

Miami Herald [4/16/2025 6:07 PM, Verónica Egui Brito and Syra Ortiz Blanes, 3973K] reports Secretary of State Marco Rubio, once a stalwart champion of Venezuelans immigrants, supports President Donald Trump’s decision to end the deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of people already in the United States who fled dictatorship and humanitarian crises in their home country. Newly released court documents show that Rubio, the Miami-born child of Cuban exiles, endorsed the Trump administration’s move to end Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelan nationals shortly after the president took office. "Designating Venezuela under TPS does not champion core American interests or put America and American citizens first. Therefore, it is contrary to the foreign policy and the national interest of the United States," Rubio wrote in a Jan. 31 letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Los Angeles Times [4/16/2025 6:06 AM, Rainer Ebert and Guaiqiong Li, 430301K] reports that, for some, it’s as routine as paying at the checkout counter. For others, it’s as nerve-racking as a root canal. Which experience you have depends largely on one thing: where you were born. We’re talking about international travel. Since President Trump took office, Western travelers trying to enter the United States have been getting a taste of what it can be like to be a traveler from the Global South. German tourist Lucas Sielaff was handcuffed and shackled at the border in Tijuana, held in detention for 16 days and then deported at his own expense, apparently because he misspoke when questioned in English, not his first language. A second German tourist and a Canadian on a work visa were stopped at the same border and detained for more than six weeks and 12 days, respectively, without explanation. Fabian Schmidt, a third German and green card holder, was stopped at Boston Logan International Airport and reportedly subjected to harsh interrogation tactics and shoved into a cold shower, naked. He was sent to a detention facility in Rhode Island, where he remains, without clear charges. Another incident involves a French scientist denied entry reportedly because messages critical of Trump were found on his phone. The United States has a visa waiver program: Citizens of 43 nations — including longtime allies Britain, Germany, Canada and France — are allowed to enter the U.S. and stay for up to 90 days without a visa. But after the recent border incidents, Britain and Germany updated their U.S. travel advisories with warnings that the welcome mat is being withdrawn. For travelers used to strolling past immigration counters without hassles, this is a new paradigm. But for travelers with "weak passports," struggling to cross borders has long been a fact of life. If you are from, say, Bangladesh or Tanzania and want to visit another country, including the United States, you will be figuratively, if not literally, stripped naked like Schmidt. You’ll likely be grilled on your job, finances, family, past travel and even your social media posts. You will need to plan far ahead, as it can take months, even years to get a visa interview. According to the latest data, the wait times for an interview for a visitor visa to the U.S. in, for example, Bogotá, Colombia; Dhaka, Bangladesh; Lagos, Nigeria; and Mexico City are 507, 228, 377 and 350 days, respectively. If you get an appointment, you’ll find yourself at the mercy of a consular officer who decides whether or not to approve your visa application. If your visa is refused, you’ll be handed a boilerplate notice stating that the decision is final and cannot be appealed. What you’ll not receive, of course, is a refund for the hefty application fee you’ve already paid. Things are set to get even worse for some potential travelers to the U.S. The Trump administration reportedly is planning a new edition of the infamous Muslim ban, which resulted in chaos at airports, protests and lawsuits during Trump’s first term. The new travel ban could target 43 countries, more than half of them in Africa. Many Americans will be OK with that, as the right of sovereign nations to set their immigration policies as they see fit is rarely questioned. This is because international travel is seen as a privilege rather than a right. But is it?

ABC News [4/16/2025 8:11 AM, Armando Garcia, 34586K] reports evidence submitted by Department of Homeland Security lawyers attempts to support the government’s accusations that Mahmoud Khalil should be deported on the grounds that he lied on his green card application. The evidence -- which included reporting by some conservative news outlets -- centers on accusations that he withheld information about his employment history and his participation in pro-Palestinian groups. ABC News has reviewed over 100 pages of evidence submitted in immigration court by both DHS lawyers and those representing Mahmoud Khalil. On Friday, Judge Jamee Comans, an immigration judge based in Louisiana, where Khalil is being held agreed with the government’s stance that Khalil is deportable under a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that says a person can be deemed deportable "if the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe that the alien’s presence or activities in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.” But Comans did not rule on the government’s allegations that he lied on his green card application. Accusation: Khalil failed to disclose he’s a ‘member’ of CUAD. According to a Notice to Appear submitted in federal court filings, DHS has claimed Khalil "failed to disclose that you were a member of Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD).” CUAD has been prominently involved in protests against the war in Gaza held at Columbia University. To support their allegations, government lawyers submitted articles that were published in April 2024, which feature Khalil as a lead negotiator between student protesters who had set up encampments on campus and university administration officials. However, Khalil’s green card application, reviewed by ABC News and included in the government’s evidence, shows it was submitted on March 29, weeks before the articles were published. "These articles from late April 2024 cannot possibly support an allegation that Mahmoud failed to disclose any affiliation with CUAD on that application. Furthermore, CUAD is a collection of organizations and there is no individual membership, so the allegation would be completely meritless even if all of the government’s evidence were not from a month after Mahmoud submitted his application," Marc Van Der Hout, Khalil’s immigration attorney, told ABC News.

New York City Patch [4/16/2025 6:04 PM, David Luces, 10700K] reports more than 200 migrants were apprehended in New York City last week by ICE agents — many of those arrested had extensive criminal records, according to a report. In total 206 migrants were arrested — 121 of them had criminal convictions or were facing charges including murder, assault, arson and rape, among other offenses, the New York Post reported. Other notable arrests include members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, MS-13, Sureños and the 18th Street crew. The raids were mainly focused on NYC, but some arrests were also made on Long Island and the Lower Hudson Valley region, according to the report. “The success of this enhanced operation highlights the resolve of ICE and our federal partners in keeping our country safe from violent criminal aliens,” ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations New York City Acting Field Office Director Judith Almodovar said in a statement. In February, more than 100 migrants were apprehended in the city during ICE deportation raids, Patch previously reported. Beginning on Jan. 28, federal ICE agents raided a number of locations in the Bronx and were joined by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Telemundo Washington DC [4/16/2025 1:55 PM, Dominique Moody, 38K] reports that a group of protesters took to the streets at Georgetown University on Friday to denounce the Trump administration and its immigration and student visa measures. In Washington, DC and across the United States, students claim the government is targeting those who participated in the protests against the war in Gaza. "Stop these kidnappings, stop these visa revocations, stop all attacks, not just against pro-Palestinian students; we are attacking all migrants, all citizens, really," demanded one student, who declined to give his name. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that the Trump administration has revoked hundreds of student visas and will renew more. "We gave them a visa to come study and earn a degree, not to become social activists who vandalize our college campuses. And if we gave them a visa and they decide to do that, we will take it away," he declared. The administration claims the Secretary of State can deport foreigners if failure to do so could have “serious consequences for the foreign policy of the United States.”

NewsNation [4/16/2025 1:39 PM, Mariah Ellis, 6866K] reports that a bold message in an email — it’s how some people said they received a letter ordering them to leave the United States almost immediately. One man living in Wake County, who came to the U.S. seeking asylum after he was nearly executed by the Taliban in Afghanistan, said he received the notice Friday morning. With teenage boys enrolled in school, he asked not to be identified out of concern and fear for the safety of his family. He said coming to the U.S. was not just about living the ‘American dream’—it was about safety and life. The notice of termination of parole appears to be from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that first reads "It’s time for you to leave the United States … DHS is now exercising its discretion to terminate your parole. Unless it expires sooner, your parole will terminate 7 days from the date on this notice." Lower in the email, the order states that individuals must depart the country immediately and on their own. They could face law enforcement action, civil fines, and penalties otherwise. "These notices were informing them that they had seven days to depart the country and if they did not, that they would be found. It was a pretty alarming message," said Amanda Herbert, the Chief Communications Officer with Refugee Hope Partners. The non-profit in Raleigh works alongside resettlement agencies and offers families everything from education and mentorship to healthcare support. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CNN [4/16/2025 8:12 AM, Rafael Romo, 22131K] reports a new federal lawsuit against the Trump administration offers a glimpse into the reasons why international students in the United States believe they have had their visas revoked. The lawsuit, filed at the US District Court of Northern Georgia in Atlanta, seeks to stop the revocation of visas to international students and to reinstate those that have already been revoked. More than 500 international students, faculty and researchers around the country have had their visas revoked with little or no explanation in recent weeks as the Trump administration continues its immigration crackdown. The lawsuit, which currently includes the cases of 133 foreign students, was filed by Kuck Baxter, an Atlanta-based legal firm, focusing on immigration. CNN has obtained copies of both the complaint and the adjoining motion for a temporary restraining order filed at the same federal court on Friday. A modified complaint to add more students was filed at the same court late Tuesday night. The original complaint included the cases of 17 international students. Nine of the original 17 students in the lawsuit are citizens of India and five are from China. The other three come from Colombia, Mexico, and Japan, according to the complaint and Dustin Baxter, one of the filing attorneys. In the complaint, the students are not identified by name, but a “pseudonym due to fear of retaliation by Defendants.” The lawsuit names three Trump administration officials as defendants: US Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons. The White House and DHS have not responded to CNN’s request for comment. The complaint alleges that ICE has abruptly and unlawfully terminated the students’ legal status in the United States “(…) stripping them of their ability to pursue their studies and maintain employment in the United States and risking their arrest, detention, and deportation.” The administration, the suit says, has terminated their status by removing the students from the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) used by the Department of Homeland Security to maintain information mainly regarding international students and their status in the country.

The State News [4/16/2025 5:57 PM, Emilio Perez Ibarguen, 6K] reports a Michigan State University student, alongside nine other international students from various institutions, is suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, arguing that his student visa record was unlawfully terminated. The Department of Homeland Security "did not provide the students or their schools any meaningful explanation for terminating their F-1 student status," according to the complaint filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan. The lawsuit names Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Todd Lyons, and Robert Lynch, the director of ICE’s Detroit field office. The Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to requests for comment. Carolyn Ann Almassian, the attorney representing all three defendants, also did not respond to requests for comment. The lawsuit, a copy of which was obtained by The State News, comes amid the Department of Homeland Security’s recent ramping up in the termination of students’ records in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS). Across the country, colleges have reported hundreds of international students’ SEVIS records being terminated for widely varying reasons. MSU said Friday that it is aware of 12 international students whose SEVIS records were terminated, although there may be more. MSU is not being contacted by the Department of State when a student record is terminated, meaning it can’t know about a termination until the affected student contacts the university, MSU spokesperson Amber McCann said. The students, represented by East Lansing attorney Adriana Klemish, are demanding that the court require the Department of Homeland Security to reinstate their SEVIS records or provide them with a reasonable period to maintain their statuses. The students are not contesting the department’s revocation of their F-1 visas, which the U.S. Department of State has the legal right to do. What they are challenging is the Department of Homeland Security terminating students’ visa records within SEVIS.

Spectrum News 1 [4/16/2025 5:21 PM, Kelsey Leffingwell, 479K] reports five international University of Texas Rio Grande Valley students sued the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday after their visas were revoked. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons are also being sued. The lawsuit comes after nine international students at the university had their SEVIS records terminated by federal authorities two weeks ago. The lawsuit aims to overturn DHS’s decision to terminate their visas.

Washington Examiner [4/16/2025 7:00 AM, Anna Giaritelli, 2296K] reports the Trump administration is beginning to hand hundreds of miles of land along the southern border over to the Department of Defense in a novel immigration strategy that would treat the territory as one long military base. Last week, the Trump administration instructed the Interior Department to start transferring the land, a 60-foot-wide tract that runs through California, Arizona, and New Mexico, to the Pentagon, with a test site established to the east of Fort Huachuca. The move amounts to a test of the new policy, with the executive order giving the Pentagon 45 days to assess the operation, but should the Trump administration decide to proceed with its plan, it would amount to a dramatic escalation in its attempts to militarize the border. The White House has already surged troops to assist Border Patrol and started using military aircraft to repatriate migrants early in President Donald Trump’s second term, but the latest proposal could drastically expand troops’ ability to detain illegal border crossers, who would be treated as trespassers if they stepped foot on the military’s land.

NBC News [4/16/2025 2:53 PM, Lori Ann LaRocco, 44742K] reports that U.S. Customs and Border Protection appears to be contradicting President Donald Trump’s comments on the daily revenue generated by his latest slate of tariffs. The agency said in a statement to CNBC on Monday, "Since April 5, CBP has collected over $500 million under the new reciprocal tariffs, contributing to more than $21 billion in total tariff revenue from 15 presidential trade actions implemented since Jan 20, 2025.” The update comes after a 10-hour glitch in the finance system prevented U.S. importers from inputting a code that would have exempted freight that was already on the water from being subject to the higher duties. "Even during the brief glitch, CBP’s average $250 million/day revenue stream remained uninterrupted," CBP said in its statement. Trump has repeatedly said the United States is taking in $2 billion per day from tariffs, including revenues directly resulting from his so-called "reciprocal" tariffs. The most recent data released Monday by the Treasury Department shows the department’s daily statement of total deposits listed under "Customs and Certain Excise Taxes" as $305 million. All tariffs are collected by U.S. Customs at the point of entry. In early April, the Trump administration imposed steep tariffs on dozens of countries. Hours later, it temporarily lowered most tariff rates to a universal 10%, except for tariffs on China, which it ratcheted up. Meanwhile, the administration maintained sector-specific tariffs on the automotive industry and is expected to announced new trade policies for the pharmaceutical industry.

Reported similarly:
Washington Examiner [4/16/2025 4:56 PM, Ross O’Keefe, 2296K]

FOX News [4/16/2025 1:16 PM, Greg Norman, 46189K] reports that U.S. Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks told Fox News Wednesday that morale at his agency is "going through the roof" under the Trump administration. Speaking to "America’s Newsroom," Banks said, "We’ve had the handcuffs taken off" and "we’re allowed to actually do our job, which is go out and enforce the law. "Under this administration, they have literally taken the handcuffs off and allowed us to enforce law instead of policies that were created to contradict the law and so our morale has continued to rise," he continued. Banks’ remarks come following a new report by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that revealed there were fewer apprehensions at the southern border in the entire month of March than there were in the first two days of the month in 2024 under the Biden administration. "Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, Border Patrol agents are now back to doing the jobs they signed up for: securing the border, rather than serving as travel agents for illegal aliens," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier this month. "The Los Angeles Times captured the Trump effect on the border with a recent article. Their headline read ‘California, Mexico border, once overwhelmed, is now nearly empty with so few migrants coming into the U.S.’ They wrote, ‘shelters that once served migrants have completely closed.’"

Federalist [4/16/2025 10:47 AM, Brianna Lyman, 1033K] reports that between 2021 and 2024, the Biden administration allowed the U.S. southern border to spiral into an unprecedented crisis. But this wasn’t merely bureaucratic failure or negligence — it was a calculated political strategy to overwhelm the immigration system in order to bolster Democrats political power. Data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) shows more than 10.8 million encounters nationwide between fiscal year 2021 through fiscal year 2024. In response, the Biden administration didn’t move to secure the border or enforce the law. Instead, the administration did things like create — out of thin air — a new parole program to funnel in approximately 530,000 foreign nationals from nations like Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The CHNV parole program was temporarily halted following fraud. As reported by Fox News, "several recipients were also arrested for high-profile crimes, including multiple child rapes." Trump moved to cancel the program. On Monday, District Court Judge Indira Talwani — an Obama appointee — in Boston blocked the administration from "revoking the legal status of over half a million migrants who flew in the U.S. via President Biden’s CHNV mass parole program," Fox News’ Bill Melugin said in a post on X. The judge ruled, as described by Melugin, that "there needs to be a case by case evaluation on each of the individual 530,000+ migrants who flew into the US via this program, and that parole cannot just be blanket revoked across the board as a whole."

Washington Examiner [4/16/2025 3:58 PM, Anna Giaritelli, 2296K] reports the Trump administration’s decision to put a floating barrier in the middle of the river comes after Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) made the unprecedented move in 2023 to install a mile of buoys further upstream between Eagle Pass, Texas, and Mexico’s Piedras Negras, Coahuila. "Buoys are a great border barrier concept," White House border czar Tom Homan told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday. "[Border Patrol] was studying their use at the end of Trump 45 and thought they were an excellent method to secure the border and save lives. They were not deployed because the administration changed hands. Gov. Abbott deployed them soon after and proved that they were very effective. Border barriers such as walls and buoys work. The data proves it." Two officials added that Customs and Border Protection has "hundreds of miles of wall being planned" and that the buoys in the Rio Grande Valley were "just the start" to enhancing border security.

Yahoo News [4/16/2025 8:18 PM, Allen Cone, 430301K] reports Border Patrol agents in Michigan seized 339 pounds of cocaine from a Canada-bound commercial vehicle. The cocaine has a street value of about $14 million. On Tuesday, agents with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection selected the truck for examination at the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Detroit with Windsor, Ontario, across the Detroit River. A physical inspection revealed bricks of white powdery substance in two duffel bags and four moving boxes, the agency said in a news release. Testing determined the substance to be cocaine at 153.8 kilograms. The truck and trailer were also seized, and the driver, an Indian citizen, faces federal prosecution. "Our ports of entry are not throughfares for illegal drugs and we will continue to hold the line against transnational criminal activity," Acting Port Director David Beculheimer said. Normally, Border Patrol agents seize illicit drugs at the border with Mexico. Since Oct. 1, 2024, more than 1,500 pounds of cocaine at Michigan ports of entry have been seized. "We work diligently to enable fair, competitive, and compliant trade and a significant part of that is stopping those who seek to exploit import and export processes for illicit gain," Director of Field Operations Marty C. Raybon said. "With the support of our regional law enforcement partners, we will continue to hold these bad actors accountable.” On Feb. 1, President Donald Trump imposed a 25% tariff on goods from Canada, citing "the extraordinary threat posed by illegal aliens and drugs, including deadly fentanyl.” Canada said on on Dec. 18, 2024, it is "investing $1.3 billion to bolster security at the border and strengthen the immigration system, all while keeping Canadians safe.” Earlier this month, Canada Border Services Agency officers seized 17.6 kg, or 51.75 pounds, of cocaine at the Montreal-Trudeau airport on a flight from Rio Hato, Panama. The street value is $1.6 million in U.S. dollars.

CBS News [4/16/2025 8:44 PM, Jason Allen, 51661K] reports President Trump last week authorized the military to take control of a 700-mile-long and 60-foot-deep strip of federal land along the U.S.-Mexico border stretching from California to New Mexico in an order that claims the U.S. is "under attack from a variety of threats." It’s an attempt to get around the prohibition on using the military for domestic law enforcement because the land will now be an Army base. Ahead of the order, the Army on April 5 delivered more than 50 armored Stryker fighting vehicles to Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. Designed for the battlefield, they are a centerpiece of Mr. Trump’s plan to seal the southern border. "No weapons system, we’re just using the capability of the cameras for scanning and detecting," said Sgt. 1st Class Carlos Zamorra, one of the soldiers using thermal and infrared cameras on the Stryker, watching for the tiniest movements along the border. The Stryker can detect even "a little mouse up to like a mile out," Zamorra said. With the Strykers and soldiers, Mr. Trump is creating a border barrier that is more than just a wall. It means migrants will be crossing from Mexico into a military installation, allowing soldiers to make apprehensions. Until now, that job has been reserved for U.S. Border Patrol and state and local police. The Strykers can carry as many as nine people. The ones that are at Fort Bliss have been stationary, but they can go on patrol if that is something Border Patrol needs. Immediately after beginning his second term, the president declared a national emergency at the nearly 2,000-mile-long southern border and ordered the Defense Department to deploy troops there. About 7,000 Marines and Army soldiers have so far been sent to secure it. Border Patrol agent Orlando Marrero-Rubio explains that even though southern border crossings have plummeted drastically since January, agents still need the extra observational help provided by the Strykers. "Yes we do, because the terrain is very tricky," Marrero-Rubio said. Marrero-Rubio showed CBS News how improved access to busy crossing zones have helped drastically cut border crossings before the Army arrived. There were about 7,200 illegal border crossings during the entire month of March, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. In 2023, there were some days when more than 10,000 people crossed. And on a recent morning on Mount Cristo Rey in Sunland Park, New Mexico, where foot trails have been worn into a hillside, a CBS News crew didn’t see a single person trying to cross. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Axios [4/16/2025 5:12 PM, Jessica Boehm, Jeremy Duda, 13163K] reports Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs is open to supporting President Trump’s recently announced plans to put a strip of land along the U.S.-Mexico border under military control, but she has some reservations and hasn’t yet received details from the administration. The governor’s office contacted the Trump administration after the order was issued but hasn’t gotten information back, Hobbs spokesperson Christian Slater told Axios. The Trump administration announced Friday it was putting the Department of Defense in charge of a 60-foot-wide land stretch known as the Roosevelt Reservation, which runs along the border in California, Arizona and New Mexico. The Arizona governor wants to ensure the Defense Department mission is dedicated to genuine border security and not just messaging, Slater said; but as long as it meets her criteria, she’s open to it. Slater said federal respect for tribal lands was among Hobbs’ biggest concerns with Trump’s order. Hobbs also wants to ensure that private property rights along the border are respected, Slater said.

The Hill [4/16/2025 12:33 PM, Filip Timotija, 12829K] reports that two U.S. service members were killed and a third is in "serious condition" after being involved in a vehicle accident near the U.S.-Mexico border, the military said in a release Tuesday night. The accident happened at about 8:50 a.m. local time Tuesday near Santa Teresa, N.M., according to the Joint Task Force-Southern Border. The cause of the accident is under investigation. The military did not release the names of the individuals involved. The military’s Northern Command said the three service members were deployed to back the Joint Task Force-Southern Border, which assumed control of the southern border mission on March 14. The service members were deployed in the area after President Trump’s executive order "Protecting the American People Against Invasion." In early March, the Pentagon said it would send more than 5,000 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border. Stryker brigade combat team and a general support aviation battalion were dispatched, the Defense Department said at the time. The accident occurred near the Santa Teresa Border Patrol Station on Highway 9 at mile marker 115, KTSM reported. The three service members involved in the crash were Marines, The New York Times reported, citing a U.S. military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The Hill has reached out to the Marines for comment.

Reported similarly:
New York Post [4/16/2025 10:41 AM, Jennie Taer, 54903K]
CBS News [4/16/2025 6:33 AM, Staff, 51661K]
Telemundo20.com [4/16/2025 5:51 PM, Staff, 41K]

Breitbart [4/16/2025 10:18 AM, Bob Price, 2923K] reports that the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) transferred control and administrative jurisdiction of nearly 110,000 acres of federal land along the New Mexico-Mexico border to the Department of the Army. The move by the Interior Department is to comply with President Donald Trump’s order for the U.S. military to take control of federal land along our southern border. "Securing our border and protecting our nation’s resources go hand in hand," Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in an announcement on Tuesday. "The American people gave President Trump a mandate to make America safe and strong again. This transfer reflects Interior’s commitment to public safety, national security, and responsible stewardship of our public lands." The transfer of control of the New Mexico border region is designed to facilitate the Army’s support of the U.S. Border Patrol in securing the border and cracking down on illegal immigration. On Friday, President Trump ordered the United States Armed Forces to repel the invasion and seal the southern border from unlawful entry, Breitbart Texas reported. According to a statement from the White House, Trump ordered the Secretaries of Defense, Interior, Agriculture, and Homeland Security to begin the initial phase of this operation within 45 days. He also granted the Secretary of Defense the authority to extend the activities to other federal lands along the southern border.

570 AM Seattle [4/16/2025 5:42 PM, Staff, 149K] reports while national attention remains fixed on the U.S. Southern Border, a growing chorus of voices is sounding the alarm about increasing vulnerabilities at the northern border, particularly in Washington State. Independent journalists, including Jonathan Choe, have been documenting what many believe is a dangerously overlooked issue. In recent months, reports have surfaced of individuals crossing the U.S.-Canada border at the Peace Arch in Blaine, Washington—a popular tourist attraction that, due to its open design, allows people to walk freely between countries. In some instances, illegal aliens are reportedly using ride-sharing services like Uber or Lyft to gain access deeper into the U.S. after crossing. To address these concerns, The Ari Hoffman Show welcomed Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), for an exclusive interview. McLaughlin emphasized that DHS is taking the northern border seriously under the leadership of Secretary Kristi Noem and former President Donald Trump. “Secretary Noem was just at the northern border about a month ago,” said McLaughlin. “She’s ensuring our border agents have the resources they need—including something as basic as snow-ready tires.”

San Diego Union Tribune [4/16/2025 8:03 AM, Alexandra Mendoza, 1682K] reports a $150 million federal grant needed to kick off construction of the long-awaited Otay Mesa East Project border facility was finalized Tuesday in a new agreement that does away with environmental requirements set by the Biden administration. The funds will be used for the construction of the "state-of-the-art inspection facilities," which will be operated by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Department of Transportation officials said in a news release. The Otay Mesa East border crossing project, which will accommodate both commercial and passenger vehicles, is slated for completion by the end of 2027. "This is the money we’ve been waiting for to be able to begin construction," said María Rodríguez-Molina, director of megaprojects, border and goods movement for the San Diego Association of Governments, or SANDAG, which is sponsoring the project along with Caltrans. Construction of the inspection facility is expected to begin in the fall, she said. The finalized grant is considered the first action the Trump administration has taken on the Otay Mesa East project. The new agreement removes the Green New Deal requirements set by the Biden administration, which included an electric vehicle charging station. Department officials called it "a waste of taxpayer funds and irrelevant to CBP’s national security mission.” "Thanks to the prior administration’s lack of focus, this critical project sat in limbo for two years. No more. We moved to finalize this deal so we can help protect our southern border and crack down on drug trafficking while preventing tax dollars subsidizing pointless Green New Deal priorities," U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy said in a statement. "This department will continue to clear the previous administration’s unprecedented grants backlog and deliver results.”

ABC 10 San Diego [4/16/2025 7:58 PM, Kimberly Hunt, 728K] reports the international border between the U.S. and Mexico serves as the frontlines for law enforcement, but San Diego’s land and sea face an ongoing environmental crisis. The Tijuana River has long carried sewage and chemical pollution into San Diego, affecting not only residents but also the members of the military and first responders who work and train in the area. It’s one of the biggest issues Terra Lawson-Remer, the acting chair for the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, wants to address. ABC 10News has covered it extensively over the years and decades it’s been a problem. "We have customs and border control, we have coast guard, we have marines, we have EOD, all these elements of various law enforcement and military services," said retired Navy Captain Dan’l Steward.

Reuters [4/16/2025 10:15 AM, Staff, 41523K] reports that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Wednesday that she had sent a diplomatic memo to the United States about security collaboration at the two countries’ shared border. A day earlier, the U.S. government announced an emergency transfer of nearly 110,000 acres of federal land along the U.S.-Mexico border to the Army to help prevent illegal immigration.

CubaHeadlines [4/16/2025 7:20 AM, Ava Castillo] reports the flow of Cuban migrants into the United States through unauthorized channels saw a significant drop in March 2025, with only 132 individuals entering illegally, according to official figures released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The CBP’s Nationwide Encounters system includes apprehensions, inadmissibles, and expulsions under U.S. Code Titles 8 and 42. Out of the total Cuban migrants, 73 crossed the southern border with Mexico, 10 entered via the northern border with Canada, and 49 arrived by sea. This figure signifies a decrease from February, which saw 150 Cuban crossings, continuing a downward trend that started after the Trump administration reinstated stricter border policies earlier this year. The steep decline in Cuban entries is largely attributed to the termination of the humanitarian parole program and the CBP One app, which previously provided a legal entry pathway for thousands of migrants. In December 2024, over 8,900 Cubans entered through various borders. However, by January 2025, that number had fallen to 6,314, and by February, it plummeted to 150, marking a dramatic 93% decrease in just three months.

Breitbart [4/16/2025 1:23 PM, Frances Martel, 2923K] reports that Canadian media reported this week that immigration attorneys and LGBTQQIAAP2S+ activists have noticed a significant spike in the number of requests for information from Americans identifying as transgender seeking to move to Canada, claiming persecution under the administration of President Donald Trump. The Globe and Mail quoted multiple Canadian lawyers on Tuesday who said they were "overwhelmed" by the number of calls from alarmed transgender Americans seeking a way to claim political asylum in Canada. Some calls are also from parents whose children are being subjected to medical procedures in response to alleged gender dysmorphia, which the Trump administration has referred to as "child sexual mutilation" and vowed to eradicate. One transgender activist accused President Trump of launching an "existential assault" on transgender individuals and condemned the leftist government of unelected Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney for not updating travel advisories to warn transgender Canadians to stay out of America.

(B) NBC News Daily [4/16/2025 2:22 PM, Staff] reports that three weeks from today, people will not be permitted to board an airplane without a REAL ID. The Transportation Security Administration will begin enforcing the new policy on May 7th. The Department of Homeland Security is enforcing the 2005 REAL ID Act to boost safety at airports by making it more difficult to travel with fake or forged documents. The TSA says 81% of travelers at checkpoints already have been presenting an acceptable identification.

WPXI [4/16/2025 3:18 PM, Sierra Rehm] reports TSA officers at Pittsburgh International Airport stopped a gun and dozens of bullets from getting past a security checkpoint at the Pittsburgh International Airport on Wednesday. The officers say the Sewickley man claimed to have forgotten he had the .22 caliber handgun and 30 bullets with him as he went through the checkpoint. When officers caught the gun, they notified police, who confiscated the weapon before releasing the man. This was the 12th gun stopped at Pittsburgh International Airport in 2025.

The Hill [4/16/2025 12:55 PM, Sarah Fortinsky, 12829K] reports that a conservation group on Wednesday named the Mississippi River the "most endangered river of 2025," citing threats to abolish the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which plays a key role in federal flood management. American Rivers, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group, said the Mississippi River in recent years has faced "increasingly frequent and severe floods," which have damaged homes and businesses and worsened the health of the river, which provides drinking water for 20 million people. The organization said the federal government plays a key role in protecting the river and helping homeowners prepare for, and rebuild after, major flooding. Amid concerns about further layoffs at FEMA and as government officials — including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who oversees FEMA — threaten to abolish the agency, the conservation group said the risk to the Mississippi River is exceptionally high. "Communities along the river need significant support for disaster prevention and response, as well as river restoration – but the fate of the Federal Emergency Management Agency hangs in the balance," the report read. The group called on the Trump administration to "modernize FEMA to improve river health and maximize the safety, security, and prosperity of Mississippi River communities."

ABC News [4/16/2025 10:35 AM, Shawnie Caslin Martucci, 34586K] reports that millions in the Southwest are on alert for fire weather through the end of the week due to extreme or critical risks posed by warmer temperatures, high winds and a low relative humidity, officials said. Red flag warnings are in place for 4.5 million people -- beginning on Wednesday and continuing through the rest of the workweek -- due to the combination of warmer-than-normal temperatures, a relative humidity of around 10% to 15% and winds gusts between 25 to 40 mph, officials said. In New Mexico, portions of the state, including Albuquerque, are under an extreme threat -- the highest warning by the National Weather Service -- due to wind gusts that could reach 60 mph on Thursday, along with a relative humidity between 5% and 10%. The extreme warning means a "threat to life and property from existing or potential wildfires due to weather and fuel conditions.” Portions of eastern Arizona and New Mexico are under a critical fire risk, the second-highest level, including Tucson, Catalina Foothills, Las Cruces and Roswell, officials said. These dry, gusty conditions will increase the threat of wildfires to these areas and will continue to intensify on Thursday, with most of New Mexico, western Texas, southeastern Colorado and the Oklahoma Panhandle under a critical threat, officials said. The conditions should ease heading into the weekend, but portions of New Mexico and the Southwest could still remain in a critical wildfire threat through Friday, officials said.

ABC 13 Hampton [4/16/2025 12:00 AM, Kathleen Lundy, 515K] reports several Virginia lawmakers are urging the Trump administration to reverse its decision to cancel millions of dollars in federal funding intended to safeguard the state’s drinking water. On Monday, U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, along with Representatives Bobby Scott and Jennifer McClellan, sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, asking her to preserve the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program. According to the lawmakers, the Homeland Security Department plans to terminate the infrastructure program entirely, canceling all current funding applications, including projects that had already received approval. In their letter, the lawmakers emphasized that the program’s funds are critical for helping Virginia communities address urgent hazard risks that threaten public safety. "The mission of the BRIC program is to build more resilient communities to prevent the need for reactive and more costly disaster spending," the letter stated. "Terminating this program – and many of the awards made in recent years – will make communities in Virginia less resilient and more vulnerable to disaster events. We urge you to maintain this critical funding for localities in Virginia."

Queen City News [4/16/2025 6:17 PM, Andy Weber] reports a North Carolina congressman is looking to make changes at FEMA. US Rep. Chuck Edwards rolled out a detailed plan Tuesday. The 62-page report recommends several actions the federal government should take to increase federal assistance and eliminate red tape that is apparently delaying the recovery in Western North Carolina. FEMA, which is tasked with disaster response, has faced a lot of criticism for its response following Hurricane Helene last year. His report, addressed to the White House, has several recommendations including increasing funding for the repair of private roads and bridges. 7,000 bridges and roads were damaged or destroyed during the storm. Edwards also wants to see the feds pay a greater share of the cost to repair Interstate 40. Four miles of the highway’s eastbound lanes near the Tennessee Border were washed away. Edwards is asking the Executive Branch to support the passage of the Helene Small Business Recovery Act, which would allow businesses to qualify for both loans and grants, not one or the other. Additionally, he wants to see technology upgrades at FEMA. The agency’s system that tracks disaster data and government response is over 25 years old.

BlueRidgeNow [4/16/2025 11:04 AM, George Fabe Russell, 6K] reports U.S. House Rep. Chuck Edwards released his report on Tropical Storm Helene recovery April 15, detailing obstacles to rebuilding as well as suggestions for how to ramp up the process. Edwards’ report recommends legislation and executive orders to manage the aftermath of severe flooding from Tropical Storm Helen that devastated many communities in the 11th Congressional District, which covers much of Western North Carolina. The storm in late September caused nearly $60 billion in damage and killed more than 100 people across the state. The report also recommends federal assistance for infrastructure repair and changes to the way that the Federal Emergency Management Agency operates. Edwards, a second-term Republican representing a large portion of Western North Carolina, was appointed by President Trump to a FEMA task force in January, citing the agency’s response to Helene and other recent disasters that “demonstrate the need to drastically improve” it. The goal of the task force was to look at North Carolina’s flooding damage and rebuilding effort, submitted the report to his fellow task force members and Trump before releasing it publicly, he said in a press release.

Axios [4/16/2025 7:20 AM, Carlie Kollath Wells and Alex Fitzpatrick, 13163K] reports Louisiana, Texas and Florida could face the greatest financial burdens in a world with less federal relief assistance, a new analysis finds. President Trump earlier this year floated "fundamentally overhauling or reforming" FEMA, or "maybe getting rid" of it entirely — fueling concerns that U.S. disaster relief could be thrown into chaos just a few months before Atlantic hurricane season starts. The tropics have been the focus of the National Hurricane Conference that’s happening in New Orleans this week. The gathering comes during uncertain times in the meteorological world, with cuts and changes being made to NOAA and its agencies, including the National Weather Service. Advocates are voicing concerns about reduced forecasting abilities. NOAA and FEMA officials typically attend the conference, but they didn’t this year due to travel restrictions, according to The Times-Picayune. Trump signed an executive order last month that empowers state and local governments to handle disaster readiness and relief. FEMA and other federal agencies, including the Department of Housing and Urban Development, already funnel billions of dollars to individuals and communities. It’s unclear how or whether Trump’s order might change that, or if it would result in fewer federal dollars for disaster-wracked states. Some FEMA reform advocates call for giving states "block grants" of relief money to spend as they see fit, rather than to meet specific needs — but others worry that would lead to fraud and abuse, or that many states lack the resources and expertise to rebuild without help. Certain states — many of them red — would be hit especially hard by reductions in federal relief funding, per a new analysis from the Carnegie Disaster Dollar Database. Louisiana, for example, received an average of about $1.4 billion annually in FEMA and HUD relief funding from 2015 to 2024, covering 14 disasters. That’s equal to 6.3% of the state’s approximately $21.9 billion in overall spending in fiscal 2023. Florida received $2.1 billion a year on average during that time, equal to 2.8% of the state’s 2023 spending. And Texas got $1.4 billion, equal to 1.8% of its 2023 spending.

Yahoo News [4/16/2025 8:02 AM, Austin Corona, 430301K] reports that in 2016, a flood left the tiny community of Yarnell without water services for four days. Around that time, Yavapai County began assembling a drainage plan for the Yarnell area and finding ways to manage frequent flooding. In 2024, the county applied for a federal grant to install a storm drainage system that would protect Yarnell’s water system. But that application is now in limbo after the Federal Emergency Management Agency canceled the relevant grant program on April 4, calling it "wasteful" and "politicized." The Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program has become one of the latest in a series of government programs shuttered by President Donald Trump’s administration. While local and state governments seek alternative funding for disaster-related projects, the reasons for the program’s termination remain unclear. Federal officials have not specified cases of waste or politicization in the program, which state officials have characterized as "critical." Meanwhile, a bipartisan pair of legislators, including one from Arizona, is trying to restore the program, arguing that communities in their districts, Republican and Democratic, cannot pay for necessary disaster mitigation projects on their own. In the release, the agency states: "Ending this program will help ensure that grant funding aligns with the President’s Executive Orders and Secretary Noem’s direction and best support states and local communities in disaster planning, response and recovery." Why was this program not an effective means of supporting states in disaster planning?

CBS News [4/16/2025 10:16 PM, Staff, 51661K] Video: HERE an island-wide blackout hit Puerto Rico on Wednesday as the largely Catholic residents of the U.S. territory prepared to celebrate the Easter weekend, a power company spokesman said. All hospitals on the island are operating on generators after the power went out at 12:38 p.m. Eastern Time, Veronica Ferraiuoli, acting governor and secretary of state for Puerto Rico, said at a news conference. All 1.4 million clients on the island were without power, Hugo Sorrentini, spokesman for Luma Energy, which oversees the transmission and distribution of power, told The Associated Press. "The entire island is without generation," he said. The source of the outage was in the southern part of the island where a transmission line was affected, according to Josué Colón, executive director of Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority. Late Wednesday, Luma said "a combination of factors" led to the blackout, the latest in a string of major outages on the island in recent years — with the last major blackout occurring less than five months ago on New Year’s Eve. Preliminary analysis points to a failure in the protection system as the initial trigger, followed by the presence of vegetation on a transmission line between Cambalache and Manatí," Luma said in an update. "This sequence of failures triggered a chain of events that resulted in an island-wide outage." Restoring most of the power will likely at least 48-72 hours, Luma said Wednesday evening. At least 78,000 customers were also without water, according to the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority. Gov. Jenniffer González, who was traveling, said officials were "working diligently" to address the outage. Ferraiuoli said the governor is trying to return as soon as possible.

Reported similarly:
New York Times [4/16/2025 6:03 PM, Patricia Mazzei, 145325K]

AP [4/17/2025 2:58 AM, Dánica Coto, 48304K] reports crews worked early Thursday to restore power to Puerto Rico after a blackout across the entire island that affected the main international airport, several hospitals and hotels filled with Easter vacationers. The outage that began past noon Wednesday left 1.4 million customers without electricity and 328,000 without water. At least 175,000 customers, or 12%, had power back at the end of the day. Officials expected 90% of customers to have power back within 48 to 72 hours after the outage. "This is a shame for the people of Puerto Rico that we have a problem of this magnitude," said Gov. Jenniffer González, who cut her weeklong vacation short and returned to Puerto Rico on Wednesday evening. The blackout snarled traffic, forced hundreds of businesses to close and left those unable to afford generators scrambling to buy ice and candles. It’s the second islandwide blackout to hit Puerto Rico in less than four months, with the previous one occurring on New Year’s Eve. "Why on holidays?" griped José Luis Richardson, who did not have a generator and kept cool by splashing water on himself every couple of hours. The roar of generators and smell of fumes filled the air as a growing number of Puerto Ricans renewed calls for the government to cancel the contracts with Luma Energy, which oversees the transmission and distribution of power, and Genera PR, which oversees generation. González promised to heed those calls. "That is not under doubt or question," she said, but added that it’s not a quick process. "It is unacceptable that we have failures of this kind.” González said a major outage like the one that occurred Wednesday leads to an estimated $230 million revenue loss daily. Ramón C. Barquín III, president of the United Retail Center, a nonprofit that represents small- and medium-sized businesses, warned that ongoing outages would spook potential investors at a time that Puerto Rico urgently needs economic development. "We cannot continue to repeat this cycle of blackouts without taking concrete measures to strengthen our energy infrastructure," he said.

Axios [4/16/2025 6:05 PM, Brittany Gibson, 13163K] reports President Trump told Fox Noticias that he "doesn’t know what to believe" about a pair of assassination attempts against him during his 2024 presidential campaign. The president’s comments, which included a suggestion that he might release more investigative findings to the public, indicate that Trump isn’t yet satisfied with what he’s been told about law enforcement’s probes. Congress launched investigations of the security failures by the Secret Service and others after the first shooting. The last update from the FBI, on Aug. 28, said the agency had conducted almost 1,000 interviews so far and was still following up on all potential leads.

Yahoo News [4/16/2025 9:32 AM, Susan Crabtree, 430301K] reports that former Acting Secret Service Director Ron Rowe, who helmed the agency in the tumultuous aftermath of two assassination attempts against President Trump last year, remains on the Secret Service payroll holding the title of senior adviser, according to three sources in the Secret Service community. News that Rowe has not fully retired and left the agency nearly three months after Trump elevated Sean Curran, his protective detail leader during the campaign, to the director position is fueling concerns about the new leaderships commitment to truly cleaning house and implementing much-needed agency reforms. In the wake of the assassination attempts and a frenetic campaign in which the Secret Service was operating with a severe manpower shortage, the agency is hemorrhaging employees and desperately trying to hire and retain agents and officers with recruitment bonuses up to $60,000 paid over four years. Despite these incentives, hundreds of fed-up agents have applied for lateral moves with the Drug Enforcement Agencyto escape the travel and long workday demands, according to two knowledgeable sources. A week and a half ago, news of impending DOGE cuts rattled the Secret Service as all employees braced for an email from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem outlining how big the cuts would be and exactly who would be impacted.

Yahoo News [4/16/2025 12:02 PM, Trevor Miller, 430301K] reports that police are asking for the public’s help in identifying a man suspected of using counterfeit currency at a State College business Saturday night. The incident happened around 9 p.m. on April 12. Investigators say the suspect was seen operating a vehicle pictured in surveillance footage released by the State College Police Department. Authorities are encouraging anyone with information about the suspect or the incident to contact the department at (814) 234-7150, email at police@statecollegepa.us, or through an anonymous tip. No further details have been released, but police continue to investigate the incident and hope the public can help identify the individual.

DVIDS [4/16/2025 5:55 PM, Staff, 777K] reports U.S. Coast Guard and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) came together to celebrate two decades of success and dedication in maritime law enforcement training. The milestone event recognized the enduring partnership between agencies and their commitment to preparing law enforcement professionals for the unique challenges of securing the nation’s waterways. Past and present members who have served both in and out of uniform came together in celebration of the USCG Maritime Law Enforcement Academy’s 20th anniversary at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Charleston, SC on March 14, 2025. The anniversary celebration featured remarks key leaders and tribute to the instructors and staff who have contributed to its success.

Yahoo News [4/16/2025 12:32 PM, Matt Jaworowski, 430301K] reports that the U.S. Coast Guard Detroit Sector says icebreaking season on the lower Great Lakes is officially over. "Operation Coal Shovel began on January 6 and officially concluded on April 14 due to lack of ice coverage and complete waterway availability for commerce," the sector said in a news release. The operation covers a key stretch of the Great Lakes system, running from the St. Lawrence Seaway, through Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, the Detroit and St. Clair rivers and the southern portion of Lake Huron. Four U.S. Coast Guard cutters annually partner with the Canadian Coast Guard to keep the route clear for cargo ships and help them whenever they get stuck. "U.S. ice breaking assets assigned to Op Coal Shovel combined to deliver over 900 hours of icebreaking assistance and preventative icebreaking support to establish and maintain tracks in ice covered waterways," the sector said. "In total, the operation directly assisted 141 vessel transits, ensured commercial vessel safety." The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway runs more than 2,300 miles, from the Atlantic Ocean all the way to the heart of the Great Lakes. According to the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation, more than 200 million net tons of cargo flows through the system each year. In 2021, Great Lakes shipping accounted for more than $22 billion of gross domestic product.

CBS 5 Charleston [4/16/2025 4:15 PM, Colt Yeargin, 715K] reports United States Coast Guard officials responded on Wednesday to a distress call involving a sailboat in Winyah Bay. Coast Guard Station Georgetown and Coast Guard Air Station Savannah responded to a 41-foot sailboat that had struck jetties and was taking on water, according to U.S. Coast Guard Public Affairs Specialist Ryan Dickinson. The man on the sailboat was assisted off the boat by a good Samaritan using a dinghy because the water was too shallow for the Coast Guard boat to approach. The Station Georgetown safely took the man to shore and the sailboat’s owner will coordinate its salvage. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

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NBC 32 Myrtle Beach [4/16/2025 2:52 PM, Staff, 329K]

Homeland Preparedness News [4/16/2025 8:12 AM, Liz Carey] reports the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC) in Charleston recently hosted an interagency collaboration of the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The training was aimed at optimizing the agencies’ ability to detect and disrupt illicit contraband smuggling in the commercial maritime environment. USCG participated in the CBP’s two-week Sea Cargo Examination Course at FLETC Charleston, while CBP will participate in the USCG’s one-week Container Inspection Training and Assistance Team (CITAT)course in USCG Sector Charleston. The initiative is the beginning of a partnership between the USCG’s Maritime Law Enforcement Academy (MLEA), USCG Training Yorktown CITAT, CBP’s Trade and Cargo Academy and the FLETC-Charleston Training Delivery Point. “We’re building a shared foundation that supports unified and effective maritime security operations,” Capt. James Corbett, Commander at MLEA, said. “This partnership reflects our commitment to safeguarding U.S. ports and commerce through collaboration, innovation, and the understanding that if we train together, we win the fight together.”

FOX News [4/16/2025 10:42 AM, Julia Bonavita, 46189K] reports that Florida beach-goers received an unlikely visitor after an unmanned vessel washed ashore last weekend. A 50-foot shrimp boat named "Miss Montie" ran aground on Beverly Beach, located approximately three miles north of Flagler Beach on Florida’s east coast, on Sunday evening, according to the Flagler Beach Fire Department. Authorities responding to the scene of the beached vessel were initially unable to make contact with the crew, the department said in a social media post. The Flagler Beach Fire Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. Upon contacting the U.S. Coast Guard, officials learned the crew was, in fact, accounted for and had been removed from the boat prior to Sunday, Coast Guard Marine Science Technician Brandan Blackwell, who responded to the scene, told the Daytona Beach News-Journal. "We are just making sure that everything looks like it’s buttoned up, the vessel is still upright, it’s not capsizing or anything," Blackwell said. "It’s a steel hull, so it shouldn’t fall apart overnight or anything crazy like that." The ship lost power on Friday night, Corey Thomas, the captain of Miss Montie, told the News-Journal. Thomas reportedly called the Coast Guard after realizing his spare anchor would not hold the ship’s weight. The Coast Guard reportedly took Thomas and his crew to shore, where Thomas found a boat owner willing to tow his shrimp boat. However, Miss Montie had drifted eight miles in three hours, and the waves were too rough for the ship to be towed, the News-Journal reported. The Coast Guard and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

ABC 3 Corpus Christi [4/16/2025 7:37 PM, Sam Huerta, 114K] reports the United States Coast Guard sounding the alarm tonight after a laser was pointed at an aircraft putting those inside of it in danger. According to Nueces County Precint Five an aircraft was flying over the area of FM 1889 and County Road 44 on Tuesday when someone pointed a laser at the aircraft. That is against federal law and poses serious safety risks. The Coast guard investigative services is asking anyone with information on who pointed the lasers to please contact them.

ABC 4 Honolulu [4/17/2025 1:58 AM, Kristen Consillio] reports the U.S. Coast Guard suspended its efforts following a massive six-day search to find a missing Big Island fisherman, but his family isn’t giving up hope on bringing him home. "I just want to bring him home. Nobody should have to go through this," said his daughter Makalapua Hind. "And just please help. If you guys know anybody or just anything, just please let us know or the Coast Guard. We really need help. My dad needs help." Earl "Oa" Hind’s daughter Makalapua is desperate to bring her father home. "My dad, it’s like he has nine lives. I mean he’s a survivor. He has so much supplies on his boat and we have so much faith that he’s still alive, he’s still pushing. He’s still just waiting to be found and it’s just a matter of time." Hind vanished on Thursday off the southern end of the Big Island. His family said he has enough food and water to last at least several weeks and the skills and will to survive. They’re pleading for the public’s help in securing long-range airplanes and boats to help navigate the vast ocean near the Hawaiian islands. "We just need planes. We need someone that has connection to planes that has a 1,000-mile range. We need some of the bigger boats if they can that port out of Oahu," Manu said. "Every minute is crucial right now." Before suspending its search, the Coast Guard said it scoured more than 200,000 square nautical miles equal to just about 50 Big Islands. But the family’s still holding out hope that Oa’s 24-foot force vessel will be found and that aloha is what’s driving him.

Reuters [4/16/2025 8:56 AM, Raphael Satter, 41523K] reports that U.S. officials will extend support for 11 months for a database of cyber weaknesses that plays a critical role in fighting bugs and hacks, a spokesperson said on Wednesday, just as the funding was due to run out. The expected cut-off of payments for the non-profit MITRE Corp’s Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures database had spread alarm across the cybersecurity community. The U.S.-backed database acts as a catalog for cyber weaknesses and allows IT administrators to quickly flag and triage the different bugs and hacks discovered daily. The last-minute change of plan after the importance of the service was highlighted publicly is another instance of the confusion across government as U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration makes deep cuts to public spending. Yosry Barsoum, vice president and director at the Center for Securing the Homeland at MITRE, said in a statement that a break in service for the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures Program and the Common Weakness Enumeration Program had been avoided. "We appreciate the overwhelming support for these programs that have been expressed by the global cyber community, industry, and government over the last 24 hours," Barsoum said. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said in an email the CVE program was invaluable and that it had executed an "option period on the contract to ensure there will be no lapse in critical CVE services." A spokesperson for the agency told Reuters in an email the funding would continue for another 11 months. The government’s last-minute change drew "a sigh of relief," said John Hammond, a researcher with the managed security company Huntress who was among the many who opposed the move to stop funding.

Federal News Network [4/16/2025 6:39 PM, Justin Doubleday, 1089K] reports the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has inked a last-minute funding extension for a key cyber vulnerability management program. CISA’s contract with MITRE to manage the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures, or CVE, program was set to expire on Wednesday. But after an outcry from the cybersecurity community, CISA executed an 11-month option period for MITRE’s contract on Tuesday night. "The CVE program is invaluable to the cyber community and a priority of CISA," a CISA spokesperson said on Wednesday. "Last night, CISA executed the option period on the contract to ensure there will be no lapse in critical CVE services. We appreciate our partners’ and stakeholders’ patience.” The CVE program is a public database of known security vulnerabilities in software and hardware. It’s relied on by organizations across the world to manage cyber vulnerabilities in products and services. CISA’s "Known Exploited Vulnerabilities" database, for instance, relies on CVEs to prioritize how quickly federal agencies must patch bugs on the list. A lapse in funding could have led to the "deterioration of national vulnerability databases and advisories, tool vendors, incident response operations, and all manner of critical infrastructure," according to a MITRE letter widely shared on social media Tuesday. Scores of cyber leaders, including former CISA Director Jen Easterly, rallied around the program. Ben Radcliff, senior director of cyber operations at Optiv, said the CVE program’s role as a central repository of vulnerability management alerts and tools for security researchers is unique. "MITRE is really in a class by itself in this context, so reconfiguring these tools to pull threat and vulnerability data from secondary sources would not be a trivial task, and achieving the same level of reliability and quality of alerts would not be guaranteed," Radcliff said. "Additionally, the security community’s ability to respond to zero-day events would be significantly weakened," he continued. "Bug hunters would need to revert to notifying software vendors directly and security teams would be entirely reliant on the vendors themselves to issue security bulletins.”

FOX News [4/16/2025 10:00 AM, Kurt Knutsson, 46189K] reports healthcare data breaches are common for two main reasons. Healthcare organizations are easy targets due to poor cybersecurity practices, and the data they store is extremely valuable. Bad actors can often demand and receive whatever ransom they want for the stolen information. In 2025 alone, there have already been half a dozen data breaches affecting healthcare institutions. The latest addition to this list involves a U.S.-based lab testing provider. Laboratory Services Cooperative (LSC) has released a statement confirming it suffered a data breach in which hackers stole sensitive information belonging to approximately 1.6 million individuals from its systems. In October 2024, LSC, a nonprofit providing lab testing services to reproductive health clinics like Planned Parenthood across 31 U.S. states, was hit with a significant data breach. On Oct. 27, a threat actor gained unauthorized access to LSC’s network, stealing sensitive personal and medical information belonging to approximately 1.6 million individuals, including patients and workers. The breach was discovered the same day, but LSC notified affected individuals starting April 10, 2025, after completing a data review by February 2025, according to a notice shared by the nonprofit. The stolen data varies by individual but may include a wide range of sensitive information. This includes personal details such as names, addresses, emails, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, driver’s license or state ID numbers, passport numbers and dates of birth. Medical information may also have been compromised, including dates of service, diagnoses, treatments, lab results, medical records, patient numbers, provider names and treatment facility details. Plus, financial information such as billing details, bank account numbers, routing numbers, payment card details and claim numbers may have been exposed. The breach could also involve insurance-related data, including health insurance plan types, insurer details and member or group ID numbers. The LSC data breach affected individuals across multiple states, including more than 1,800 Mainers, and involved select Planned Parenthood centers in regions like Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Washington and possibly Texas, Massachusetts and California. The breach raises significant risks of identity theft, financial fraud and misuse of medical information, such as opening fraudulent accounts or accessing healthcare services under stolen identities.

Washington Examiner [4/16/2025 10:34 PM, Elaine Mallon, 2296K] reports Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has declassified a Biden administration plan to counter domestic terrorism established in the months following the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. Gabbard declassified former President Joe Biden’s Strategic Implementation Plan for Countering Domestic Terrorism at the prompting of conservative groups, including America First Legal. AFL wrote in a letter to Gabbard on April 2 about its concerns regarding the Biden administration’s "weaponization" of its power in the name of maintaining national security through "censoring disfavored speech on the Internet by labeling such speech ‘misinformation,’ ‘disinformation,’ ‘hate speech,’ ‘domestic terrorism.’". Gabbard wrote on X on April 5 in response to the AFL letter thanking the group "for your work.” "We are already on this, and look forward to declassifying this and other instances of the government being weaponized against Americans," she wrote, vowing to "bring transparency and accountability to end the weaponization of our intelligence community.” The 15-page declassified plan from June 2021 established four pillars it hoped to achieve: understand and share domestic terrorism-related information, prevent domestic terrorism recruitment and mobilization to violence, disrupt and deter domestic terrorism activity, and confront long-term contributors to domestic terrorism. The plan called to "drive other executive and legislative action, including banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines," a frequent effort from Democrats. The Biden administration also called for sharing with "relevant technology and other private-industry companies" information concerning domestic terrorism. The proposal also encouraged the "teaching and learning of civics education that provides students with the skill to fully participate in civic life," including by promoting "literacy education for both children and adult learners and existing proven interventions to foster resiliency to disinformation.” The plan also talked about "advancing inclusion in the nation’s COVID-19 response" and working to "increase voter participation and service as nonpartisan poll workers.” Biden’s summer 2021 outline even garnered the criticism of the American Civil Liberties Union, which called it a reflection of the "ever-expanding authority to surveil and monitor American communities.”

The Hill [4/16/2025 1:54 PM, Sarah Fortinsky, 12829K] reports that the suspect arrested in connection to the arson attack on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s (D) home cited the plight of Palestinians as his motivation, according to a probable cause affidavit filed by the Pennsylvania State Police. The affidavit relays details of a 911 call that the suspect, Cody Allen Balmer, allegedly placed to Dauphin County 911 after the arson attack this weekend. Police say Balmer identified himself by name and told the 911 operator that Shapiro "needs to know that he… ‘will not take part in his plans for what he wants to do to the Palestinian people,’" the affidavit read. The affidavit continued: "BALMER continues saying he needs to stop having my friends killed, and… ‘our people have been put through too much by that monster.’" Balmer, according to the call log and state police, referred to the damage done to the governor’s mansion and said "all he has is a banquet hall to clean up." "You all know where to find me. I’m not hiding, and I will confess to everything that I had done," Balmer told the 911 operator, according to the affidavit. Balmer was arrested Sunday in connection to the attack and is facing multiple charges, including attempted murder, terrorism, aggravated arson and aggravated assault against an enumerated person, burglary, among other charges. The attack occurred at approximately 2 a.m. Sunday, after the governor held a Seder at his house for the first night of Passover. Shapiro — a rising star in the Democratic party who nearly became then-Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate in the 2024 presidential election — is Jewish. Search warrants issued for residences and locations connected to Balmer instructed officials to search and seize various electronic devices in addition to "any writings or notes that contain any of the following: the name of Josh Shapiro; reference to Palestine, Gaza, Israel or the current conflict in Gaza." The AP [4/16/2025 10:59 AM, Mark Scolforo and John Seewer, 5269K] reports that exactly what the man was trying to say and who he was referencing isn’t clear from the partial quotations included in the search warrants. Police quoted Balmer as saying “our people have been put through too much by that monster,” and that Shapiro “needs to know that he will not take part in his plans for what he wants to do to the Palestinian people.” During a police interview after turning himself in, Balmer “admitted to harboring hatred towards Governor Shapiro,” according to a police affidavit that did not expand on that point. Police obtained search warrants for Balmer’s electronic devices and a storage locker seeking any writings or notes that contain “the name of Josh Shapiro (or a) reference to Palestine, Gaza, Israel or the current conflict in Gaza.” Shapiro declined to talk about a motive on Wednesday, saying prosecutors will ultimately determine what prompted the attack. “It’s not for me to answer that,” he said. ABC News [4/16/2025 9:21 AM, Aaron Katersky and Sasha Pezenik, 34586K] reports Balmer, 38, targeted Shapiro "based upon perceived injustices to the people of Palestine," one of the warrants said. Attorney General Pam Bondi strongly condemned the attack in remarks at the Department of Justice on Wednesday, but she declined to label the act "domestic terrorism" or commit to opening a separate federal case against the suspect. "It is absolutely horrific what happened to him," Bondi said. "We have been praying for Josh, for his family. Those photos, it was horrible. I firmly believe that they wanted to kill him. The defendant allegedly said he was going to use a hammer if he could have gotten to the governor. I’ve known the governor many, many years. It is horrible, and yes, we are working with state authorities to do -- it’s now a pending investigation -- anything we can to help convict the person that did this and keep them behind bars as long as possible." Bondi did not answer a direct question from a reporter about whether she would label the action "domestic terrorism," as she has repeatedly described the wave of attacks carried out on Teslas and dealerships around the country in recent months. [Editorial note: consult video at source link for video]

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Reuters [4/16/2025 2:21 PM, Rich McKay, 41523K]
Axios [4/16/2025 4:35 PM, Isaac Avilucea, 13163K]
Free Beacon [4/16/2025 12:10 PM, Matthew Xiao, 475K]

Yahoo News [4/16/2025 12:27 PM, Sierra Rehm, 430301K] reports that as the investigation into arson and attempted homicide at Gov. Josh Shapiro’s official residence continues, officials are involving a third-party expert for a security review. Pennsylvania State Police says this expert’s independent review will consist of a risk and vulnerability assessment of the Governor’s Residence and grounds. The review is directly connected to the security breach early Sunday morning, when investigators say Cody Balmer, 38, of Dauphin County, hopped a seven-foot-tall fence, broke a window and threw a Molotov cocktail inside the residence. He then broke a second window, entered the residence and threw another Molotov cocktail. The governor, his wife, his children and a family staying with them were woken up by police and evacuated safely as crews worked to put out the fire. They were not hurt. A retired Secret Service agent that Channel 11 spoke to previously called this breach a security failure, saying Balmer should never have gotten that close to the governor’s home. "He should have been stopped by a K9 or a person approaching him," John Hudson said. Details from the independent review are expected to be released in the coming days.

New York Times [4/16/2025 7:08 PM, Neil Vigdor, 145325K] reports a 17-year-old who opened fire at a Dallas high school on Tuesday, wounding five students, was able to bypass metal detectors by entering through an unsecured door that another student had opened for him, the authorities said. The gunman, Tracy Denard Haynes Jr., was charged with aggravated assault as part of a mass shooting, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. He turned himself in to the authorities on Tuesday night. The shooting at Wilmer-Hutchins High School, about 10 miles southeast of downtown Dallas, was the second episode of gun violence to occur there in almost exactly one year. Last April, a student was charged with shooting one of his classmates in the leg while they were in class. Around 1 p.m. on Tuesday, investigators said, Mr. Haynes began shooting indiscriminately at a group of male students in a hallway after getting inside the school. The gunfire sent people running for cover, but one student was not able to get away, a school police officer said in the affidavit, citing security camera footage. That was when Mr. Haynes “appeared to take a point-blank shot,” the officer said. Investigators said that five students were struck by the gunfire, which led the authorities to place the high school and a nearby elementary school on lockdown. Classes were canceled for the rest of the week at the high school. A motive for the shooting was not immediately clear. Four of the students who were injured in the shooting were taken to hospitals, said Jason L. Evans, a spokesman for Dallas Fire-Rescue. As of Wednesday, two of them had been released, and the other two were being kept for observation, he said. It was unclear whether the fifth student who investigators had said had been struck by gunfire had received medical treatment. A sixth student, a 14-year-old girl, was also taken to the hospital for anxiety-related symptoms, Mr. Evans said.

CNN [4/16/2025 2:07 PM, Chris Boyette and Emma Tucker, 908K] reports that five students were injured in a shooting Tuesday afternoon at Wilmer-Hutchins High School in southeast Dallas when a 17-year-old allegedly snuck into the school and fired "indiscriminately," according to a state affidavit for the suspect’s arrest warrant. The injured, aged 15 to 18, were taken to a hospital for treatment, with their injuries ranging from non-life-threatening to serious, Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesperson Jason Evans told CNN affiliate WFAA. The Dallas Independent School District Police initially said four students were injured, but the affidavit later increased the number of victims to five. The teen is being held at a Dallas County jail on a first-degree aggravated assault mass shooting charge, a felony, with a $600,000 bond, according to county records. It is unclear if he has obtained an attorney or made an initial court appearance. The shooting began just after 1 p.m., and an officer at the school responded within two minutes, followed by officers from numerous agencies, Stephanie Elizalde, superintendent of the Dallas Independent School District, said at a Tuesday news conference. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called Elizalde to receive a status report and offer any necessary state resources, the superintendent said. All evacuated students were subsequently reunified with their parents and guardians, she added. "Our hearts go out to the victims of this senseless act of violence at Wilmer-Hutchins High School," Abbott said in a release. "I offered to support the school district families, students, and staff and to provide law enforcement with the tools they need to arrest the criminals involved and bring them to justice," he said.

Breitbart [4/16/2025 7:41 PM, Elizabeth Weibel, 2923K] reports the suspect behind an arson attack on the headquarters building of the New Mexico Republican Party and the firebombing of a New Mexico Tesla dealership has been revealed to be an Antifa supporter. Jamison Wagner, 40, was charged in connection with a February 9 arson attack at the Tesla Albuquerque Showroom, and a March 30 arson attack at the New Mexico GOP headquarters office, which left the entryway to the building destroyed, according to a press release from the Department of Justice (DOJ). "Let this be the final lesson to those taking part in this ongoing wave of political violence," Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. "We will arrest you, we will prosecute you, and we will not negotiate. Crimes have consequences.” The criminal complaint notes that one Tesla vehicle was "significantly damaged during the fire, while the second exhibited lesser damage.” Responding investigators found two Tesla Model Y vehicles involved in a fire in the parking lot outside the Tesla Showroom. One Tesla was significantly damaged during the fire, while the second exhibited lesser damage. A fire scene examination was conducted, and based upon the data collected during the examination, an ATF Fire Investigator classified the fire as incendiary, meaning an intentional human act resulted in a fire occurring in a location when and where fire should not have occurred. The criminal complaint also notes that "there were obvious signs of vandalism on the property," such as graffiti that was "spray painted onto the structure walls" and several vehicles, along with graffitied words such as, "Die Elon," "Tesla Nazi Inc," and "Die Tesla Nazi.”

The Washington Post [4/16/2025 1:08 PM, Dan Lamothe, 31735K] reports that three senior aides to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, all political appointees, have been suspended amid a Pentagon inquiry into the apparent leak of sensitive information, defense officials said. Dan Caldwell, a senior adviser to Hegseth; Darin Selnick, the secretary’s deputy chief of staff; and Colin Carroll, chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg, were removed from the Pentagon this week, officials said on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel shake-up that has roiled the building’s inner sanctum. One official said Tuesday that it appeared Caldwell and Selnick would be the only government officials targeted in the inquiry “for now,” but then Carroll joined the list Wednesday, raising questions about whether the purge will continue to widen. The Pentagon under Hegseth’s leadership has experienced an uncustomary amount of tumult, drawing fierce criticism from Democrats and former top Defense Department leaders alarmed by the apparent politicization of what is expected to remain a nonpartisan institution. Last month, administration officials sidelined another senior Defense Department political appointee, John Ullyot, who had clashed with colleagues at the Pentagon. He was moved to a special projects role after serving as press secretary. The New York Post [4/16/2025 8:13 PM, Victor Nava, 54900K] reports Carroll’s suspension follows the removal of Dan Caldwell, a senior adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Darin Selnick, the Pentagon chief’s deputy chief of staff, from their posts on Tuesday. “We can confirm that Mr. Carroll, Mr. Caldwell and Mr. Selnick have been placed on administrative leave pending investigation,” a defense official told The Post. Selnick had been under investigation in the same leak probe that implicated Caldwell, according to reports. Both men were escorted out of the Pentagon by security. The defense official on Wednesday would not say whether Carroll’s suspension was related to the leak probe. The Daily Wire [4/16/2025 10:38 AM, Virginia Kruta, 4700K] reports Darin Selnick, DoD deputy chief of staff, was reportedly suspended and escorted from the Pentagon just one day after Dan Caldwell, an aide to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, was also removed from the building under suspicion that he was involved in leaking information. Both Selnick and Caldwell have previously worked with Hegseth at a veterans group the defense secretary headed, Concerned Veterans for America. An investigation into the matter was announced last month, citing “recent unauthorized disclosures of national security information,” which, according to reports, included revealing details regarding billionaire Elon Musk’s visit to the Pentagon and the defense secretary’s recent trip to Panama. DOD Chief of Staff Joe Kasper said when the probe was announced, “The use of polygraphs in the execution of this investigation will be in accordance with applicable law and policy. This investigation will commence immediately and culminate in a report to the Secretary of Defense.” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced a similar probe in March, with DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin telling Fox News Digital that the Department of Homeland Security would also utilize polygraph testing in its effort to root out any potential leakers. “Under Secretary Noem’s leadership, DHS is unapologetic about its efforts to root out leakers that undermine national security. We are agnostic about your standing, tenure, political appointment or status as a career civil servant – we will track down leakers and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law,” McLaughlin said at the time.

Reported similarly:
Politico [4/16/2025 1:37 PM, Daniel Lippman and Jack Detsch, 11599K]
The Hill [4/16/2025 3:54 PM, Filip Timotija, 12829K]

New York Times [4/17/2025 4:09 AM, Edward Wong, 330K] reports Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his aides shut down a State Department office on Wednesday that tracks and counters global disinformation from foreign actors, including the governments of China, Russia and Iran, U.S. officials said. The closing of the office, the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference Hub, had been in the works for weeks. Mr. Rubio put all 40 or so of its employees on paid leave on Wednesday morning, the first step in firing them this spring. The State Department fired about 80 contractors working for the office in March and cut almost all contracts related to its work. The office had been tracking disinformation campaigns by rival powers of the United States, as well as terrorist groups, and publishing reports on them. Some Republican lawmakers in recent years have accused federal employees and nongovernment experts working on tracking disinformation of trying to stifle the views of right-wing political groups around the world and trying to coordinate with social media companies to do so. Russian disinformation often circulates in far-right online channels. Mr. Rubio released a statement before noon on Wednesday announcing the closure, saying that the office and its precursor in the Biden administration had “spent millions of dollars to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving.” Mr. Rubio did not present any evidence to support the claim. James P. Rubin, a former State Department official who ran the precursor to the office in the Biden administration, pushed back on the move to shutter the operation. “This amounts to a form of unilateral disarmament in the information warfare Russia and China are conducting all over the world,” he said on Wednesday. He added that on his watch, “no efforts were made inside the United States — only international. All of our efforts were focused on Russian and Chinese operations in Latin America, Europe and Africa.” The office now falls under the authority of Darren Beattie, a political appointee who is the senior official acting as the under secretary for public diplomacy. Mr. Beattie was organizing the firings, said two U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly discuss actions by senior aides to President Trump.

NBC News [4/17/2025 5:00 AM, Courtney Kube, 44742K] reports Defense Department officials will soon brief President Donald Trump on a variety of options for him to fulfill his pledge to protect the United States with something modeled on Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile defense, according to U.S. officials and experts familiar with the initiative. Like former President Ronald Reagan’s push for the Strategic Defense Initiative, which was proposed to protect the United States from Soviet nuclear missiles, Trump’s call for an "Iron Dome for America," more often referred to as Golden Dome, is a signature endeavor that could sew together multiple air defense systems with the idea of keeping the country and perhaps eventually U.S. assets around the world safe. The Strategic Defense Initiative, which has come to be known by its mocking nickname, "Star Wars," was never operational, and it was all but canceled years after Reagan left office. Trump’s plan is seen as more realistic than SDI was, given technological advances since the 1980s, but the biggest vision the administration is contemplating — including stopping nuclear missiles fired from another continent — would most likely be extremely expensive and take years. The intercontinental ballistic nuclear missiles Reagan wanted to protect against can now be stopped to some extent, at least in theory. Israel’s Iron Dome has largely been seen as successful in its job warding off small rocket and artillery attacks. Iron Dome has a clearer and easier task than any U.S. system would, however — a country less than 1% as large as the United States to protect from enemies next to it, rather than oceans away. Trump’s Golden Dome would most likely be a patchwork of systems that would need to stop a wide variety of threats, including cruise missiles fired from ships off the coast, ballistic missiles launched from countries like Russia or China, attacks from drones inside the continental United States and state-of-the-art hypersonic missiles that can travel hundreds of miles in a single minute. Some elements of Golden Dome would involve simply repurposing existing parts of the U.S. arsenal, like surface-to-air defenses, destroyers and fighter jets. Smaller-scale moves like those could be completed in months or even weeks in some cases, officials said. But depending on the option Trump chooses, the United States might find itself spending hundreds of billions of dollars to develop new technologies that would become part of the defense system years down the road.

Bloomberg Law [4/16/2025 2:09 PM, Cassandre Coyer, 120K] reports that the Department of Justice’s steps to delay active enforcement and clarify implementation of its bulk data transfer rule brought a sigh of relief to US businesses whose compliance approach was in limbo amid the transition to the Trump administration. The agency released its initial guidance for how to comply with its final rule restricting US companies’ transfers of certain types of data to countries that pose national security concerns including China, Cuba, North Korea, Russia, Iran, and Venezuela, on April 11—a few days after the rule went into effect. [Editorial note: consult extended commentary at source link]

Washington Post [4/16/2025 7:30 AM, Lori Aratani, 31735K] reports Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner jet is a multinational concoction, made of parts from around the globe. Wings from Japan. Doors from France. Portions of the fuselage are built in Italy before they are shipped to the United States to be assembled by workers in South Carolina. It’s an arrangement made possible by a nearly 50-year-old trade agreement that allowed Boeing and other players in the U.S. aerospace industry to sell airplanes and buy parts from anywhere in the world, duty-free. Now President Donald Trump’s global tariffs threaten to disrupt this interlocking supply chain. For the first time in nearly half a century, Boeing will pay a levy to import those wings, doors and other components. For now, there is a new 10 percent tax on most imports. But that levy could rise depending on what the president decides during a 90-day reprieve he declared before stiffer tariffs land on most countries. While Trump has said his sweeping protective tariffs will reduce the U.S. trade deficit, the levies on Boeing’s parts supply line will tax a company that is America’s biggest exporter of goods. About 80 percent of Boeing’s multimillion-dollar planes are shipped to overseas customers. Trump’s trade war also is causing retaliatory moves that could hurt Boeing. On Wednesday, conflicting news reports suggested China had directed its national carriers to stop ordering or accepting new Boeing planes. Trump then posted on Truth Social that China “just reneged on the big Boeing deal, saying they will ‘not take possession’ of fully committed to aircraft.” Trump did not elaborate on what deal he was referencing, adding to the confusion. Boeing, based in Arlington, Virginia, did not respond to requests for comment. “These tariffs and trade restrictions have unleashed chaos in the global aerospace and airline industry,” said Ken Quinn, a partner at Clyde & Co and former general counsel at the Federal Aviation Administration. “It’s only harmful and destructive.”

Reuters [4/17/2025 1:04 AM, Staff, 41523K] reports top Ukrainian officials flew on Thursday for a previously unannounced visit to Paris, where Europeans were assembling to plead Kyiv’s case to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff. The high level diplomacy reflects Europe’s mounting concern over the U.S. administration’s overtures towards Moscow, after the failure so far of Trump’s efforts to arrange a ceasefire in the three-year-old Russia-Ukraine war. The U.S. officials were also due to discuss nuclear talks with Iran during their visit to Paris rump, who has long said he aims to swiftly end the Ukraine war, has indicated he is frustrated with both Moscow and Kyiv, even as his administration has shifted U.S. rhetoric towards accommodating the Russian account of the conflict. Ukraine agreed to a Trump proposal last month for a ceasefire which Russia rejected. The sides have agreed only to curbs on attacks against energy targets and at sea, which both accuse each other of violating. Kyiv and its European allies say Moscow is to blame for rejecting Trump’s proposal of a ceasefire last month, and are hoping to persuade Washington to take a tougher line. They have pressed the case since a Russian attack that killed civilians including Ukrainian Christian worshippers in the city of Sumy on Sunday. "I’m just trying to get it stopped so that we can save a lot of lives," Trump said of the war on Sunday. The arrival of a Ukrainian delegation in Paris was not previously announced ahead of what Washington had described as planned talks between Rubio, Witkoff and French officials. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said his delegation, which also included Ukraine’s foreign minister and defence minister, would meet a U.S. delegation as well as French, British and German officials, without specifying whether they would meet either Rubio or Witkoff. "We are working on important issues for the security of Ukraine and the whole of Europe," Yermak said on X. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said: "The parties will discuss ways to achieve a complete ceasefire, the involvement of a multinational military contingent to guarantee sustainable peace, further development of Ukraine’s security architecture and ensuring the security of our country.” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s foreign policy adviser Jens Ploetner will also be in Paris for the meetings.

New York Times [4/16/2025 3:22 PM, Jonathan Wolfe, 145325K] reports that an American pastor who was abducted in South Africa last week was rescued on Tuesday after a dramatic shootout between the police and his kidnappers, which left three suspects dead, the South African police said. The pastor, Josh Sullivan, from Tennessee, was kidnapped on Thursday by four masked men as he was giving a sermon at the Fellowship Baptist church in Motherwell, a township in the Eastern Cape Province. He was then taken a few miles into the city of Gqeberha, formerly known as Port Elizabeth, the police said in a statement, and held in a safe house — a gated, concrete building. The police, after gathering intelligence, zeroed in on the house, said Lt. Col. Avele Fumba, a spokesman for the South African Police Service. When they arrived, they found a vehicle outside the building with several men inside. “Upon seeing the police approaching, we believe that they panicked, and started opening fire,” Mr. Fumba said. A “high-intensity” gun battle erupted and three suspects, whom the police have not identified, were killed, the police said. While some kidnappings in South Africa are orchestrated by sophisticated transnational organized crime groups that seek out high-value targets, most are conducted by local crime groups, according to I.S.S.

Washington Post [4/17/2025 5:00 AM, Abigail Hauslohner and Karen DeYoung, 31735K] reports that, as President Donald Trump ponders the withdrawal of U.S. troops based in Syria and has stopped some humanitarian aid programs to the war-battered country, he is increasingly at odds with allies in Europe and the Middle East that have moved to shore up the new Syrian government. The influence of Iran and Russia in what was once their most subservient regional partner has quickly dissipated since forces led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, once an al-Qaeda-allied militant, ousted longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad in December. Though nominally only Syria’s interim leader, Sharaa has reached out to the West in what many U.S. allies — with the notable exception of Israel — see as an opportunity to score a win in a troubled and dangerous region. But the Trump administration, which still maintains Assad-era sanctions on Damascus, is sitting on the fence. “We continue to approach Syria with a lot of caution” until Sharaa proves he has rid his government of foreign Islamist militants and vestiges of al-Qaeda, and demonstrates he can unite Syria’s disparate minorities, a senior administration official said. “We’re not necessarily looking at saving Syria for the Syrian population,” said the official, one of several U.S. and foreign officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity about sensitive diplomacy. “We’re looking at Iran not coming back and [the Islamic State] not coming back as the crucial interest of the American people there.” Many allies, regional experts and U.S. lawmakers of both parties say the Trump administration’s indecision may guarantee the very things it is trying to prevent. “Too much engagement too soon could create more security dilemmas,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman James E. Risch (R-Idaho) said at a hearing in February. “But no or too little engagement would give Russia and Iran the ability to wield substantial influence again.” “Time is of the essence here,” Risch said. “The door is ajar, but it’s going to close on us if we don’t take advantage of where we are.” Two months later, the administration still has not decided whether to step through the door or shut it. “The Americans are clear to us that, unfortunately, they don’t have a policy,” said a European diplomat who has urged Washington’s involvement in Syria’s rehabilitation. At an international meeting in Brussels last month, a mid-level Trump administration official handed Syria’s new foreign minister a list of eight “confidence-building” steps his government would need to take to be considered for partial sanctions relief. The list, a copy of which was seen by Washington Post, includes allowing the U.S. government to conduct anti-terrorism operations on Syrian soil against anyone Washington deems a national security threat.

Washington Examiner [4/16/2025 2:53 PM, Timothy Nerozzi, 2296K] reports that negotiations between Iran and the United States are hitting a rough patch over divergent visions for the future of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi made clear on Wednesday that Iran is open to assuring that its nuclear enrichment is kept below the levels necessary for weaponization, but would not be willing to denuclearize completely. "Iran’s enrichment is a real, accepted matter," Araghchi told reporters. "We are ready to build confidence in response to possible concerns, but the issue of enrichment is non-negotiable." The statement is a direct rebuke of U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, who said on Tuesday that nuclear enrichment is a requirement for any deal with President Donald Trump’s administration. "A deal with Iran will only be completed if it is a Trump deal," Witkoff said via social media on Tuesday. "Any final arrangement must set a framework for peace, stability, and prosperity in the Middle East — meaning that Iran must stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponization program." The statement Witkoff released to social media was a reversal from his own comments just a day before in an interview with Fox News, during which he alluded to the idea that the U.S. would be satisfied keeping Iranian nuclear enrichment at approximately 3.7%.

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [4/16/2025 7:59 AM, Joel B. Pollak, 2923K]

FOX News [4/16/2025 7:43 PM, Greg Wehner, 46189K] reports a naturalized U.S. citizen living in Great Falls, Virginia, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to working with Iranian government and intelligence officials on their behalf in the U.S. as a contractor for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) between 2017 and 2024. The Department of Justice (DOJ) said 42-year-old Abouzar Rahmati pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiring to act and acting as an agent of the Iranian government in the U.S. without prior notification to the Attorney General. Rahmati previously was an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) 1st Lt., a branch of the Iranian Armed Forces, from June 2009 to May 2010. The IRGC is a designated terrorist group by the U.S. government. Court documents show that from at least December 2017 through June 2024, Rahmati worked with Iranian intelligence operatives and government officials on their behalf in the U.S. During that period, Rahmati met with Iranian intelligence in Iran, communicated with Iranian authorities using a cover story to hide his conduct, obtained employment with an FAA contractor with access to sensitive, non-public information about the U.S. aviation sector, and obtained and provided open-source and non-public materials about the solar energy industry in the U.S. to intelligence officers. The DOJ said Rahmati offered his services to Iran in August 2017 through a former colleague who was a senior Iranian government official who previously worked at the country’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security. Rahmati traveled to Iran four months later and met with intelligence operatives and government officials, the DOJ said. He also agreed to gather and provide Iranian officials with information about the solar industry in the U.S. While working as an FAA contractor in the U.S., Rahmati downloaded at least 175 GB of files, including sensitive access-controlled FAA documents relating to the National Aerospace System (NAS), NAS Airport Surveillance Radar systems and radio frequency data, the DOJ said. Rahmati stored the files on removable media, which he took to Iran in April 2022 and provided to government officials, according to the DOJ.

Reuters [4/16/2025 7:34 PM, Daphne Psaledakis, 41523K] reports the United States on Wednesday issued new sanctions targeting Iran’s oil exports, including against a China-based "teapot" oil refinery, as President Donald Trump’s administration seeks to ramp up pressure on Tehran. "Teapot" is an industry term for small independent oil refiners. The U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement the action would increase pressure on Chinese importers of Iranian oil as Trump seeks to restore his "maximum pressure" campaign on Iran, which includes efforts to drive its oil exports down to zero. The action comes as the Trump administration has relaunched negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme this month, with talks in Oman last weekend and a second round expected in Rome this weekend. The Treasury on Wednesday said it imposed sanctions on a China-based independent teapot refinery it accused of playing a role in purchasing more than $1 billion worth of Iranian crude oil. It was the second small independent Chinese refinery hit with sanctions by the Trump administration so far. The United States has not in the past focused on Chinese teapot refiners in part because they have little exposure to the U.S. financial system. Chinese state-run oil firms have stopped buying Iranian crude, on concerns of running afoul of sanctions. Washington also issued additional sanctions on several companies and vessels it said were responsible for facilitating Iranian oil shipments to China as part of Iran’s "shadow fleet." Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, called on the U.S. to immediately stop its "unwarranted suppression" of Chinese entities and individuals.

New York Times [4/17/2025 4:09 AM, Tripp Mickle, Ana Swanson, Meaghan Tobin and Cade Metz, 330K] reports that, two months after DeepSeek, China’s artificial intelligence star, rattled Washington and shook Wall Street, U.S. officials are taking steps to crack down on the Chinese start-up and its support from America’s leading chip maker, Nvidia. The Trump administration this week moved to restrict Nvidia’s sale of A.I. chips to China. It also is weighing penalties that would block DeepSeek from buying U.S. technology and debating barring Americans’ access to its services, said three people with knowledge of the actions who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Congressional leaders are also putting pressure on Nvidia. On Wednesday, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, which focuses on national security threats from China, opened an investigation into Nvidia’s sale of chips across Asia. It is trying to assess whether the U.S. chip maker knowingly provided DeepSeek with critical technology to develop A.I., potentially in violation of U.S. rules. It is the first congressional investigation into Nvidia’s business. It comes as the Trump administration wrestles with how to carry out a Biden-era rule that limits the number of A.I. chips that companies can send to different countries. The attacks on DeepSeek and Nvidia are an outgrowth of fear in Washington that China could leapfrog the United States in A.I., which would have wide-ranging implications for national security and geopolitics. If China took the lead, it could more quickly use A.I. systems to design next-generation weapons like autonomous missiles and drones. It also could persuade other countries to use its technology for their network of A.I. systems and infrastructure, weakening U.S. influence across the world. Klon Kitchen, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who focuses on national security and technology, said the United States’ strategy with A.I. had been to use its current lead in making A.I. chips and systems to persuade countries to ally with it. A Nvidia spokesman John Rizzo said the company followed the U.S. government’s directions on what products it could sell and where it could sell them “to the letter."

Federalist [4/16/2025 7:29 AM, Ben Weingarten, 1033K] reports that, if the status quo in global trade were to persist, would America remain the world’s dominant power, or would we more likely be eclipsed by our worst adversary, Communist China? That is the key question the globalists, financiers, and their corporate media mouthpieces who ginned up hysteria and market panic in the days following President Donald Trump’s announcement of reciprocal tariffs on dozens of trade partners should have to answer. For they have developed and been the primary beneficiaries of a distinctly unfree and unfair trade architecture that has left America reliant on other nations, namely China, for critical military components and the necessities of life. They have also eroded our dominant position in manufacturing and industry, created vulnerable supply chains, and hollowed out our country’s heartland with generational consequences for our people. While this de facto China First policy has played out, the U.S. has continued to provide a security umbrella to myriad countries that have not only slapped tariffs and imposed non-tariff barriers on us but have also grown more economically and politically intertwined with Communist China and other foes. Trump laid much of this out in his "Liberation Day" executive order and subsequent amendment to it, justifying reciprocal tariffs on the grounds that the trade deficits resulting from the status quo "constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and economy of the United States." His critics have largely failed to grapple with this argument, suggesting a bad-faith position that favors their own self-interest over America’s national interest. The administration has dramatically ratcheted up tariffs on Chinese goods. It has also threatened to impose significantly higher rates on other trade partners, only to freeze them at 10 percent as a reported 75-plus countries rushed to the negotiating table. These maneuvers have made clear the three goals of Trump’s trade policy. First, the president wants to develop a bloc of genuine free-trade partners not only to benefit America’s economy but to serve our geopolitical aims by forming a unified front against China. The threat of heightened tariffs effectively separated the wheat from the chaff in this regard. As the president noted in his April 9 executive order modifying the tariff regime, the clamoring of dozens of nations, including those in China’s immediate orbit, "to address the lack of trade reciprocity in our economic relationships and our resulting national and economic security concerns" constituted a "significant step by these countries toward remedying non-reciprocal trade arrangements and aligning sufficiently with the United States on economic and national security matters" (emphasis mine).

NewsMax [4/16/2025 7:35 AM, Lee Barney, 4998K] reports China is open to negotiating trade with the United States but will only begin talks if U.S. leaders show respect, a former top Chinese economic official said in an interview in Singapore, Bloomberg reports. "If the U.S. wants China to totally accept the U.S. proposal, to accept the U.S. conditionality, I think there’s no negotiation," said Zhu Guangyao, who was China’s Vice Minister of Finance from 2010 to 2018. Zhu said teams from the U.S. and Bejing have been in contact since the trade war began two weeks ago, but discussions over Trump’s reciprocal tariffs must be based on mutual respect, peaceful co-existence, and the aim of benefitting each nation. Chinese imports to the U.S. are now being tariffed 145%, while American exports to China are being hit with a 125% rate — levies so high that trade between the world’s two biggest economies is likely to come to a complete halt. China is already facing the economic pressures of deflation, sluggish consumer demand and a real estate slump. UBS forecasts China’s economy will expand only 3.4% this year. Zhu, however, said China has "full confidence" its gross domestic product will grow 5% this year, adding that China has "full capacity" to ramp up spending. As deputy finance minister until 2018, when he retired, Zhu oversaw the Customs Tariff Department and negotiated with the U.S. on trade. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said President Trump expects to enter direct trade negotiations with China "at some point," though "we’re not there yet.” Trump has said he’s waiting for China’s President Xi Jinping to call him, repeatedly calling Xi a friend for whom he has "great respect.” Zhu criticized the U.S. tariffs as being highly damaging to China’s national interests and said Beijing will not give in to external pressure. He added that coercion from Washington, D.C., will not resolving the trade dispute.

NewsMax [4/16/2025 6:56 AM, Staff, 4998K] reports three U.S. senators are visiting Taiwan this week and will have talks with senior Taiwanese leaders to discuss issues including trade, the de facto U.S. embassy in Taipei said Wednesday, as Taipei pushes ahead with tariff talks with Washington. The United States is Taiwan’s most important international backer and arms supplier, despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties. Taiwan, which had been due to be hit with 32% tariffs as part of President Donald Trump’s now paused tariff regime, held its first round of direct talks with U.S. officials last week to discuss the issue. The American Institute in Taiwan said in a statement that Sens. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb.; Ted Budd, R-N.C.; and Chris Coons, R-Conn., were visiting until Saturday as part of a broader visit to the region. "The delegation will engage in a series of high-level meetings with senior Taiwan leaders to discuss U.S.-Taiwan relations, regional security, trade and investment, and other significant issues of mutual interest," it said. "Their visit underscores the United States’ commitment to its partnership with Taiwan and reaffirms our shared commitment to strengthening a Free and Open Indo-Pacific.” Ricketts is chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy.

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