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.

Reuters [4/20/2025 10:12 PM, Staff, 41523K] reports El Salvador President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed sending 252 Venezuelans deported from the U.S. and imprisoned in his country to Venezuela, in exchange for taking "political prisoners" held by Venezuela. In a post on X, Bukele asked that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro hand over 252 "of the political prisoners you are holding," under his proposed deal. The Salvadoran leader did not say whether the prisoners would be incarcerated again upon an exchange. Venezuela’s chief prosecutor Tarek William Saab criticized Bukele’s proposal and accused El Salvador of unlawfully detaining 252 Venezuelans. In a statement, Saab demanded to know what crimes the detainees are accused of, whether they have appeared before a judge, have access to legal counsel, or have been allowed to contact family members. Among those Bukele proposed for release from Venezuela were journalist Roland Carreno, human rights lawyer Rocio San Miguel and Corina Parisca de Machado, mother of Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who he said is subjected to daily threats at her home. He also mentioned nearly 50 detainees of other nationalities, including U.S., German and French citizens, as part of the proposed exchange. Adam Boehler, U.S. special envoy for hostage response, praised the move in a post on X, and said that 10 Americans were among the 50 detainees proposed for the exchange. Bukele said his Foreign Ministry would formally present the proposal to the Venezuelan government through diplomatic channels. The AP [4/20/2025 7:06 PM, Marcos Aleman And Megan Janetsky, 4830K] reports “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that includes the repatriation of 100% of the 252 Venezuelans who were deported, in exchange for the release and surrender of an identical number (252) of the thousands of political prisoners you hold.” Among those he listed were the son-in-law of former Venezuelan presidential candidate Edmundo González, a number of political leaders seeking asylum in the Argentine embassy in Venezuela, and what he said were 50 detained citizens from a number of different countries across the world. Bukele also listed the mother of opposition leader María Corina Machado, whose house the political leader has said was surrounded by Venezuelan police in January. Bukele said he would ask El Salvador’s foreign ministry to be in contact with the Maduro government, which did not immediately respond to the post. The proposal comes as El Salvador has come under sharp international scrutiny for accepting Venezuelans and Salvadorans deported by the Trump administration, which accused them of being alleged gang members with little evidence. Deportees are locked up in a “mega-prison” know as the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), built by the Bukele government during his crackdown on the country’s gangs. Controversy has only continued after it was revealed that a Maryland father married to a U.S. citizen, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, was among those deported, and court battles have broken out fighting over his return. Breitbart [4/21/2025 2:25 AM, Staff, 2923K] reports Attorney General Tarek William Saab of Venezuela issued a statement Sunday night rejecting the proposal while demanding a full list identifying the 252 alleged gang members being held, their legal status, proof of life and a medical report for each of them. In the statement, he called Bukele a “neofascist” and said the offer demonstrates “that these citizens are being held hostage at the unilateral discretion of an individual acting outside the law, who publicly and through the media tells the world that he tyrannically decides who can enjoy life and freedom in El Salvador.” Saab added that he has asked El Salvador’s attorney general and its Supreme Court to formally inform him of what crimes the Venezuelan prisoners have committed, when they were presented before a judge, whether they have had access to a lawyer and whether they have been allowed to communicate with anyone during their detention. “The entire world should be repulsed by the fact that CECOT (the Terrorism Confinement Center) is no longer just a torture center created by Bukele’s twisted mind to punish criminals in his country, but has become a site of enforced disappearance for innocent Venezuelans (as arranged with his imperial partners), whom he, as an expert in human trafficking, uses in exchange for millions of dollars,” he said.

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Yahoo News [4/20/2025 11:10 PM, Jaroslav Lukiv, 430301K]

FOX News [4/20/2025 7:11 AM, Staff, 46189K] reports DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin discusses illegal immigration and border security reform under the Trump administration on ‘Sunday Morning Futures.’ [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [4/20/2025 9:36 PM, Stepheny Price, David Spunt, 46189K] reports Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant with alleged ties to a violent gang who was deported to El Salvador, had been transferred from the country’s notorious mega prison, Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT), days before U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., arrived in the country last week to push for his freedom. Van Hollen told reporters after returning to the U.S. on Friday and again on Sunday that Abrego Garcia, 29, is no longer in CECOT, a claim that was filed in the government’s daily update, obtained by Fox News, and now confirmed in writing by the State Department. The filing states, "Abrego Garcia told Sen. Van Hollen on April 17 that he had been transferred from CECOT to the detention facility ‘Centro Industrial’ in Santa Ana about eight days prior. Abrego Garcia told Sen. Van Hollen that he had been placed in the administrative building of Centro Industrial, in a room of his own with a bed and furniture, and that he was not in a cell.” In an X post Sunday, Van Hollen called out President Donald Trump, writing, "When you defy court orders and deny one man his Constitutional rights, you threaten them for ALL.” "Trump can post all he wants, but a federal judge said there’s ‘no evidence linking Abrego Garcia to MS-13 or to any terrorist activity.’ Trump needs to put up or shut up IN COURT.” Trump has argued that "radical, lunatic, Democrats" are portraying a false narrative of who Abrego Garcia really is. "Radical Lunatic Democrats and their Comrades in the Fake News Media are falsely making Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia out to be a very sweet and innocent person, which is a total, blatant, and dangerous LIE," Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social. Abrego Garica’s deportation has caused uproar among Democrats, many of whom have referred to him as a wrongfully deported "Maryland man.” Last week, Van Hollen flew to El Salvador where Abrego Garcia was being held at CECOT, and was mocked by Trump for being a "fool." Other Democrat lawmakers reportedly made plans to visit Abrego Garcia after Van Hollen’s announcement. "Garcia has been found by two separate Courts to be a member of the violent, killer gang MS-13, was in our Country illegally, and is under a Deportation Order. It is despicable and unAmerican for Liberals and the Mainstream Media to hate our Country so much, and be obsessed with protecting criminals, instead of working to keep our Border, streets, and families safe. Those lying to the American People on behalf of violent criminals have to be held responsible by the Agencies and the Courts. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" — President Donald Trump.

NPR [4/20/2025 3:50 PM, Luke Garrett, 29983K] reports the Trump administration received bipartisan criticism on Sunday for its deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia — a Salvadorian citizen who lived in Maryland and was deported to a prison in El Salvador due to an "administrative error.” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., called the deportation a "screw up" though he stopped short of pushing for Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. Meanwhile, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. — who recently visited Abrego Garcia in El Salvador — said the case marks a "constitutional crisis." The Maryland senator also called for a pressure campaign on El Salvador’s government to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S. The Trump administration has refused to bring back Abrego Garcia despite a Supreme Court order to "facilitate" his return. The Salvadoran citizen entered the country illegally; an immigration judge said he should not be deported to El Salvador because Abrego Garcia was able to prove he was likely to suffer persecution in his home country. The White House has said it can’t force the Salvadoran government to release one of its citizens, while El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele called the idea of Abrego Garcia’s release "preposterous.” On Thursday, a federal court denied the Trump administration’s appeal on the court’s return-order. ‘Put up or shut up in court’. Sen. Van Hollen defended his recent trip to El Salvador Sunday after President Trump criticized his meeting with Abrego Garcia. On Friday, Trump posed with a photo of a man’s hand with tattooed knuckles. "This is the hand of the man that the Democrats feel should be brought back to the United States," Trump wrote on X the day Van Hollen returned from his trip. "They said he is not a member of MS-13, even though he’s got MS-13 tattooed onto his knuckles.” Van Hollen said he didn’t see the markings on Abrego Garcia’s hand and that the president’s criticism and posts are beside the point. Last week, the Trump administration posted previously unshared documents on X regarding a 2021 protective order against Abrego Garcia and a 2022 traffic stop. But Van Hollen said these documents should be tested in court and the posts on social media are meant to "change the subject" away from the administration’s mistake. When asked whether his advocacy for Abrego Garcia is a political risk and might turn off voters — who largely support President Trump’s deportation efforts — Van Hollen said he isn’t worried. "I think voters support the idea of making sure that we respect constitutional rights because if we deny them for one person, they could be next," Van Hollen said. "I think conservatives and libertarians, when they think about it, they’ll recognize how dangerous it is to deprive someone of their personal liberty without due process.” Sen. Kennedy, a Republican, called the Trump administration’s deportation of Abrego Garcia a "screw up," but also criticized Van Hollen’s words as "rage bait.” "The administration won’t admit it," Kennedy said on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press with Kristen Welker’. "But this was a screw-up. Mr. Garcia was not supposed to be sent to El Salvador. He was sent to El Salvador.” The Louisiana lawmaker also said Abrego Garcia should have received a hearing before his deportation to El Salvador’s notorious mega-prison, CECOT. But, Kennedy threw cold water on the idea that Abrego Garcia’s case marks what Van Hollen called a "constitutional crisis.” "The Democrats say, ‘Look, you know, we told you Trump is a threat to democracy. This is going to happen every other Thursday afternoon,’" Kennedy said mocking his liberal colleagues. "But I don’t see any pattern here. I mean, you know, some day pigs may fly. But I doubt it.”

NBC News [4/20/2025 11:50 PM, Alexandra Marquez, 44742K] report Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., accused President Donald Trump on Sunday of sending the United States into a constitutional crisis, saying members of the Trump administration “are very much flouting the courts as we speak.” Asked directly on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” whether the United States is in a constitutional crisis, Van Hollen said, “Yes, we are.” Van Hollen recently returned from a trip to El Salvador, where he met with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who the Trump administration admitted was mistakenly deported to El Salvador last month. Abrego Garcia has become the center of a weekslong legal and political battle, with the government contending in court multiple times that he is now in the custody of El Salvador and that there’s nothing it can do to bring him back. That is the argument members of the Trump administration are making in court filings and public statements, also alleging that Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers have insisted that he was never convicted of any crimes. Meanwhile, Democrats like Van Hollen are citing due process concerns, arguing Abrego Garcia didn’t have a chance to dispute his deportation before he was removed to El Salvador. So far, courts are siding with Democrats and Abrego Garcia’s legal team, with an appeals court Thursday rejecting a bid by the Trump administration to block an order that directed the government to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the Trump administration was trying to claim “a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process.” The court ruled days after the Supreme Court, in an unsigned decision, ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release from the Salvadoran prison and his return to the United States. “Donald Trump and his administration need to put up or shut up in court,” Van Hollen told moderator Kristen Welker on Sunday, accusing members of the administration of “litigating this through social media.” He cited a judge’s comments about the lack of evidence of Abrego Garcia’s ties to the MS-13 gang, saying: “If you have evidence, take it to the court. That’s where we litigate these things, and otherwise just shut up on social media.” In an Easter message Sunday on Truth Social, Trump slammed "radical left lunatics" and "ineffective judges."

Reported similarly:
UPI [4/20/2025 5:15 PM, Adam Schrader, 1500K]
Yahoo News [4/20/2025 4:49 PM, John Bowden, 430301K]

Daily Wire [4/20/2025 11:02 AM, Daniel Chaitin, 4672K] reports Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) said on Sunday he did not bother to press Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant deported from the United States and sent to prison in his home country of El Salvador, to answer whether he is or has ever been a member of MS-13 when the two met last week. The Democrat, who contends that Abrego Garcia is a "constituent" of Maryland who was unlawfully deported, told CNN’s Dana Bash he did not ask "because I know what his answer is: what he told me was he was sad and traumatized that he was being in prison because he has committed no crimes, and that goes to the heart of this issue because he’s being denied his due process rights.” The Trump administration accuses Abrego Garcia of being a member of MS-13, which has been designated as a foreign terror organization, and has released documents to substantiate the affiliation. Among them was a 2019 interview sheet in which police wrote that a confidential informant identified Abrego Garcia as a member of the gang. Abrego Garcia’s attorneys deny the claim. President Donald Trump then posted on social media a photo of himself holding a photo of a hand. It was titled "Kilmar Abrego Garcia MS-13 Tattoo" and showed a close-up picture of a hand with a cannabis leaf, smiley face, cross, and skull tattooed across four knuckles. In his post, Trump alluded to the 2019 immigration case and a 2021 restraining order that shows Abrego Garcia was accused of beating his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, who now says they worked through the incident. "This is the hand of the man that the Democrats feel should be brought back to the United States, because he is such ‘a fine and innocent person.’ They said he is not a member of MS-13, even though he’s got MS-13 tattooed onto his knuckles, and two Highly Respected Courts found that he was a member of MS-13, beat up his wife, etc. I was elected to take bad people out of the United States, among other things. I must be allowed to do my job. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!".

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Washington Examiner [4/20/2025 12:32 PM, Jack Birle, 2296K]

ABC News [4/20/2025 12:50 PM, Isabel Danzis and Quinn Scanlan, 34586K] reports Trump administration border czar Tom Homan criticized Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s trip to El Salvador to visit deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia, accusing the Democrat of traveling "on the taxpayer dime to meet with an MS-13 gang member, public safety threat, [and] terrorist.” "What concerns me is Van Hollen never went to the border the last four years under Joe Biden," Homan said in a Friday interview with "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl that aired Sunday. "What shocks me is he’s remained silent on the travesty that happened on the southern border. Many people died, thousands of people died.” In a separate interview on "This Week," Van Hollen, D-Md., responded to Homan’s criticism, saying that he has long supported fighting gang violence. "[Homan] is lying through his teeth on many places in that -- in that record. And I have been actually fighting MS-13, probably longer than Donald Trump ever uttered the name MS-13. For 20 years in this region, I helped stand up the anti -- you know, gang -- anti-gang task force. But the idea that you can’t defend people’s rights under the Constitution and fight MS-13 and gang violence is a very dangerous idea. That’s the idea the president wants to put out. That’s why they’re spreading all these lies.” Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador last week and met with Abrego Garcia, whose wife is a U.S. citizen and constituent of Van Hollen’s, on Thursday after initially being denied access to him. Van Hollen stressed that for him, this case is about protecting constitutional rights, telling Karl, "I am not defending the man. I’m defending the rights of this man to due process.” But Homan defended the administration’s actions so far, arguing that under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, which the administration invoked to deport hundreds of Venezuelan migrants including Abrego Garcia, due process rights are more limited. "I stand by the fact I think we did the right thing here. We removed a public safety threat, a national security threat, a violent gang member from the United States," Homan said. "We have followed the Constitution. We have followed the law. I am confident that everything we’ve done is follow laws within the constitutional constructs, absolutely.” He continued, "The length of due process is not the same under the Alien Enemies Act. That’s why the Alien Enemies Act was created. President Trump invoked the authorities he had under the Alien Enemies Act, an act written and passed by Congress and signed by a President. We’re using the laws on the books.”

Daily Wire [4/20/2025 7:36 AM, Daniel Chaitin, 4672K] reports on Sunday, Trump border czar Tom Homan condemned Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) for making a taxpayer funded trip to El Salvador to meet with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant who was deported from the United States last month. Homan redirected a question from ABC’s "This Week" by anchor Jonathan Karl when pressed about Abrego Garcia, who has been imprisoned in El Salvador, his home country. Abrego Garcia’s legal team has been fighting the federal government in a high-profile court to secure his return to the United States. Van Hollen, who claims Abrego Garcia is a Maryland "constituent" who endured an "abduction and unlawful deportation," met the man on Thursday. "Sen. Van Hollen is — obviously got a chance to meet with [Abrego Garcia], but he had to travel to El Salvador to get any information. Is (sic) that concern you at all? I mean, these are people sent by — I mean, in his case, sent by the United States, and not even a U.S. senator could get any information about his whereabouts, or the condition of his incarceration, without actually going down and making the trip to El Salvador himself?" Karl asked. "Well, he obviously knew his whereabouts, because he went there to see him. But you know, what bothers me more than that is a U.S. senator traveled to El Salvador on taxpayer dime to meet with an MS-13 gang member, public safety threat, terrorist. I mean, in the meantime, the day before he traveled, an illegal alien was arrested for murder, was released to the streets rather than honoring an ICE detainer in his very own state," Homan retorted.

FOX News [4/20/2025 12:48 PM, Stephen Sorace, 46189K] reports Border czar Tom Homan defended sending "designated terrorists" to prisons like the one in El Salvador, saying that the "travesties" he’s seen during his decades-long career in border security justify the Trump administration’s move. Homan appeared on ABC’s "This Week" in a pre-recorded interview that aired Sunday, where he was asked if he had any qualms about sending people to El Salvador’s notorious Terrorist Confinement Center (CECOT) even if they have no criminal record. "If people wore my shoes for the last 40 years and seen the travesties I’ve seen, they would understand that the worst of the worst need to be sent to a prison like that because we got to protect American citizens," Homan said. "We got to protect this country." Homan said his four decades of experience working in border security informed his belief. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

Miami Herald [4/20/2025 6:06 PM, Carson Swick, 3973K] reports Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s diplomatic mission to El Salvador culminated in a face-to-face meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the mistakenly deported man whose case has inflamed national immigration debates in recent weeks. Van Hollen, a Democrat, framed the trip as a success, telling the world he did what he set out to do by speaking with Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran citizen who was deported from Maryland last month. But President Donald Trump and his allies lashed out at Van Hollen’s visit and subsequent news conference upon landing Friday afternoon at Dulles International Airport, criticizing him for not responding forcefully to the murder of a Maryland woman by an illegal immigrant. Before photos of his meeting with Abrego Garcia surfaced online, Van Hollen’s journey to El Salvador seemed poised to end in failure. His first request for a meeting was denied Wednesday by Salvadoran Vice President Félix Ulloa, and state security forces stopped his entourage about 2 miles from the CECOT prison earlier on Thursday. But during a news conference on Thursday afternoon, Van Hollen saw his chance to frame Abrego Garcia’s case around human rights and transcend the situation’s inherent political tensions. He told reporters that El Salvador has ratified the United Nations’ International Covenant on Political and Civil Rights, an international agreement which, in part, requires prisoners to be able to communicate with their attorneys. "I want to point out that this inability with his lawyers is a violation of international law," Van Hollen said. "El Salvador is a party to the International Covenant on Political and Civil Rights. The covenant says, and I quote, ‘A detained or imprisoned person shall be entitled to communicate and consult with his legal counsel.’". Upon his return to the U.S., Van Hollen did not specify how Salvadoran officials arranged his meeting with Abrego Garcia, but he believes President Nayib Bukele was pressured by his presence in the country.

NBC News [4/20/2025 7:58 AM, Vaughn Hillyard, Julia Ainsley, Kayla McCormick, Sarah Dean, and Rebecca Cohen, 46189K] reports video from Friday night shows Immigration and Customs Enforcement buses full of Venezuelan migrants headed toward an airport in North Texas and abruptly turning around before the Supreme Court ruled the Trump administration must, for now, refrain from deporting Venezuelan men based in the state under the Alien Enemies Act. At least 28 detainees — most, if not all, understood to be Venezuelan nationals — were placed on buses Friday evening at ICE’s Bluebonnet Detention Center in Anson, Texas, and driven toward Abilene Airport, about 30 miles away. The motorcade — including at least 18 squad cars from various law enforcement agencies with flashing lights along the North Texas highways — left the ICE facility, with some men on board being told they were being deported to El Salvador and some that they were headed to Venezuela, according to the wife of one of the detainees and two lawyers representing other detainees at the facility. Before they departed, it was not clear what their destinations would be. The video, obtained exclusively by NBC News, shows the ICE motorcade pass the airport’s exit and then turn around, looping back to return to the Bluebonnet detention facility. The Trump administration is seeking to deport the men, who it says are members of the Tren de Aragua gang. It remains unclear whether the government has the authority to apply the Alien Enemies Act to gang members outside of a war situation and whether adjudications about gang membership are accurate. The administration has asked the Supreme Court to stop its pause on the would-be deportation flights. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

ABC News [4/20/2025 10:37 PM, Laura Romero, 430301K] reports that, after his deportation was temporarily blocked by a Supreme Court order, 19-year-old Venezuelan migrant Alessandro Paredes spoke to ABC News from a detention center in Texas. "This is not being done by law, this is totally illegal and it’s out of the blue," Paredes said, recounting the attempted deportation on Friday. "We get grabbed in the morning, about four in the morning, and just get taken into a van. They tried to put us into a plane," he said from Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Bluebonnet Detention Center in Anson, Texas. Paredes said that before arriving at an airport, the van he was in suddenly turned around and returned him and other detainees to Bluebonnet. In a statement to ABC News, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt blasted the order from the Supreme Court that blocked deportations from the Northern District and said the White House is confident the actions by the administration are lawful. "President Trump promised the American people to use all lawful measures to remove the threat of terrorist illegal aliens, like members of TdA, from the United States. We are confident in the lawfulness of the Administration’s actions and in ultimately prevailing against an onslaught of meritless litigation brought by radical activists who care more about the rights of terrorist aliens than those of the American people," Leavitt said in her statement. Paredes claimed to ABC News he and others were "forced to sign a paper" saying they are part of a gang. On Friday, the ACLU submitted a document they say their clients at Bluebonnet received from immigration officials. The document, titled "Notice and Warrant of Apprehension and Removal under the Alien Enemies Act," says, "You have been determined to be... a member of Tren de Aragua."

Reuters [4/20/2025 6:51 PM, Daniel Trotta, 41523K] reports U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito criticized the court majority for "hastily and prematurely" blocking the Trump administration from deporting a group of Venezuelan migrants with an emergency ruling in the early morning hours of a holiday weekend. Alito’s five-page dissent arrived late Saturday night, nearly 24 hours after the Supreme Court temporarily barred the government from deporting a group of accused Venezuelan gang members under a rarely used wartime law known as the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. "In sum, literally in the middle of the night, the Court issued unprecedented and legally questionable relief without giving the lower courts a chance to rule, without hearing from the opposing party, within eight hours of receiving the application, with dubious factual support for its order, and without providing any explanation for its order," Alito wrote in the dissent, which was also joined by Justice Clarence Thomas. Alito and Thomas are members of the court’s 6-3 conservative majority. American Civil Liberties Union lawyers had asked the high court to intervene on an emergency basis, arguing that dozens of Venezuelan migrants faced imminent deportation without having a realistic opportunity to contest their removal, despite a previous Supreme Court ruling that they must be allowed judicial review. "The Government is directed not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order of this Court," the justices said in an unsigned decision issued around 12:55 a.m. (0455 GMT) on Saturday. The White House responded that President Donald Trump would stay the course in his immigration crackdown but gave no immediate indication that the administration would defy the Supreme Court, appearing for now to avert a potential constitutional crisis between coequal branches of government. Breitbart [4/20/2025 7:48 PM, Elizabeth Weibel, 2923K] reports Alito explained that he "refused to join the Court’s order" because the Supreme Court "had no good reason to think that, under the circumstances, issuing an order at midnight was necessary or appropriate.” The dissent of Alito comes after the Supreme Court directed the Trump administration "not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States.” "Shortly after midnight yesterday, the Court hastily and prematurely granted unprecedented emergency relief," the justices wrote in their dissenting opinion. "Proceeding under the All Writs Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1651, the Court ordered ‘[t]he Government’ not to remove a ‘putative class of detainees’ until this Court issues a superseding order.” Alito continued to note that the Supreme Court issued this decision, though it was "not clear that the Court had jurisdiction.” "The All Writs Act does not provide an independent grant of jurisdiction," Alito continued. "See 28 U.S.C. §1651(a) (permitting writs ‘necessary or appropriate in aid of’ a court’s jurisdiction); Clinton v. Goldsmith, 526 U.S. 529, 534-535 (1999) (‘the express terms’ of the All Writs Act ‘confine the power of [a court] to issuing process ‘in aid of’ its existing statutory jurisdiction; the Act does not enlarge that jurisdiction’ (quoting §1651(a)).” Alito added that it was also "questionable whether the applicants complied with the general obligation to seek emergency injunctive relief in the District Court before asking for such relief from an appellate court.” "When this Court rushed to enter its order, the Court of Appeals was considering the issue of emergency relief, and we were informed that a decision would be forthcoming," Alito added. "This Court, however, refused to wait.” In sum, literally in the middle of the night, the Court issued unprecedented and legally questionable relief without giving the lower courts a chance to rule, without hearing from the opposing party, within eight hours of receiving the application, with dubious factual support for its order. FOX News [4/20/2025 4:49 PM, Andrea Margolis, Shannon Bream, and Bill Mears, 46189K] reports "[T]he Court issued unprecedented and legally questionable relief without giving the lower courts a chance to rule, without hearing from the opposing party, within eight hours of receiving the application, with dubious factual support for its order, and without providing any explanation for its order," Alito wrote. The justice, who has served on the court since 2006, was joined by Justice Clarence Thomas in his dissent. "I refused to join the Court’s order because we had no good reason to think that, under the circumstances, issuing an order at midnight was necessary or appropriate," Alito continued. "Both the Executive and the Judiciary have an obligation to follow the law. The Executive must proceed under the terms of our order in Trump v. J. G. G., 604 U. S. ___ (2025) (per curiam), and this Court should follow established procedures." [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

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Univision [4/20/2025 3:47 PM, Staff, 5325K]

Wall Street Journal [4/20/2025 5:00 AM, Victoria Albert and Mariah Timms, 646K] reports President Trump’s immigration crackdown is moving at a breakneck pace and is testing the limits of his administration’s authority to quickly remove those it doesn’t think should be in the country. Here are the individuals whose cases could help define the scope of immigration enforcement: The case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia raises a key question as the Trump administration carries out its fast-moving immigration policy: What happens when it makes a mistake? The case of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University Ph.D. student, involves a series of rapid interstate custody transfers and a critical question about how much power the government has to decide in which jurisdiction such cases are decided. Mahmoud Khalil, a 30-year-old Columbia University student, was arrested in New York City in early March as part of a crackdown on antisemitism on college campuses. His case sets up a novel clash between two fundamental principles: the First Amendment and the executive branch’s authority to carry out foreign policy. Y.S.M. was born in Venezuela and entered the U.S. in 2022 as an unaccompanied minor to rejoin his father. The two applied for asylum, but their cases hadn’t yet been heard when they were detained by immigration authorities in March. Officers this week attempted to pressure Y.S.M. to sign paperwork attesting to his gang membership but he refused, lawyers for the migrants said in court documents.

New York Times [4/20/2025 9:00 AM, Tim Balk, 145325K] reports at the heart of two major legal cases challenging the Trump administration’s deportation actions are two related but distinct concepts: due process and habeas corpus. In one case, the government last month deported Venezuelan immigrants accused of being gang members, denying them a court hearing before they were expelled. The Trump administration used an 18th-century law that allows the government to deport immigrants, without giving them their day in court, when the United States is invaded or at war. The matter reached the Supreme Court this weekend after lawyers said the Trump administration was preparing to deport another group of detained Venezuelan migrants in Texas without giving them a chance to contest their removal. The Supreme Court temporarily blocked their removal, apparently concerned that their access to a form of court hearing — habeas corpus relief — might be denied. In another case, the Trump administration deported a Maryland man to El Salvador in what the administration initially acknowledged was a mistake. A federal judge ordered the government to facilitate the return of the man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, but it has not done so. Due process is the idea that people should have access to fair treatment before the law. It forbids convictions without a fair trial, for example, and it requires law enforcement officials to make criminal suspects aware of their right against self-incrimination and their right to have a lawyer present. The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says that no person shall be “deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” The 14th Amendment contains a similar clause. The Trump administration has sought to skirt the promise of due process by invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a powerful but rarely used law. The administration alleges that a Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, is invading the United States. The administration’s critics say the government is manufacturing an emergency to trample on core rights. Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat who visited Mr. Abrego Garcia in El Salvador last week, said his case was about the “fundamental principle in the Constitution” of due process. At an anti-Trump protest in Manhattan on Saturday, one sign carried two words: “Due Process.”

Newsweek [4/20/2025 11:17 AM, Kate Plummer, 3973K] reports President Donald Trump’s administration will on Sunday learn whether a report by its top officials recommends using the Insurrection Act in response to immigration concerns. Since assuming office, Trump has made curbing illegal immigration a top priority and has dispatched troops to the southern U.S. border to support Customs and Border Patrol operations. To a similar end, January, Trump issued an executive order declaring a border emergency and requesting a report from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem within 90 days on whether to invoke the act. The request said he wanted a "joint report to the president about the conditions at the southern border of the United States and any recommendations regarding additional actions that may be necessary to obtain complete operational control of the southern border, including whether to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807.” Former Assistant Attorney General for Virginia Gene Rossi told Newsweek that Trump was likely to invoke the act. "Emboldened with a second term and a popular vote victory, President Trump will likely invoke the Insurrection Act for immigration and other purposes," he said. "That these likely invocations, if any, will come from a convicted felon with his own J6 insurrection tendencies means that we are entering ‘1984’ territory that would make George Orwell pea-green with envy.” Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, with the president facing accusations of having incited the insurrection, which he has always strongly denied. The 19th-century statute, would allow the use of active-duty military personnel to perform law-enforcement duties within the United States, including arresting migrants. It is a combination of different laws enacted by Congress between 1792 and 1871. It has not been used often and in the past was invoked by President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and by President Ulysses S. Grant against the Ku Klux Klan. Despite Trump’s wishes, Hegseth and Noem are not expected to recommend invoking the act, according to CNN. The expected recommendation says that migrant crossings have significantly decreased—under 300 per day, compared to well over 1,000 in previous years—and that current levels are sufficient for managing the situation. "At the president’s direction, the DHS and DOD [Department of Defense] are developing a joint report assessing the conditions at the U.S. southern border and recommending actions to achieve full operational control of the border," the DHS said in a statement issued to the press.

Reported similarly:
Univision [4/20/2025 1:51 PM, Grettel Reinoso, 5325K]

Politico [4/20/2025 11:03 AM, Zack Stanton, 2100K] reports that on his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring a national emergency along the U.S.-Mexico border. It gave Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem 90 days to submit a report to him advising on conditions there and “whether to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807.” Welcome to Day 90. That deadline is here, and the Hegseth-Noem recommendation is due. CNN’s Natasha Bertrand, Haley Britzky, Jake Tapper and Priscilla Alvarez report that Hegseth and Noem are not expected to recommend invoking the act, and will tell the president “that border crossings are currently low and that they don’t need additional authorities at this point to help control the flow of migrants.” That reporting has not yet been matched by other outlets. Invoking the Insurrection Act could allow the president to “use active-duty forces trained for combat overseas or federalized National Guard troops to suppress a ‘rebellion,’ temporarily suspending the Posse Comitatus Act, which typically restricts the use of military involvement in domestic law enforcement,” WaPo’s Dan Lamothe and Marianne LeVine write.

Washington Examiner [4/20/2025 7:00 AM, Mia Cathell, 2296K] reports the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia has shone a spotlight on the Democrat-linked legal industry that invests resources into shielding migrants from deportation, helping them find relief. After entering the country illegally and evading law enforcement detection for years, Abrego Garcia was apprehended by immigration authorities in 2019 and, with the help of a lawyer, successfully claimed fear of deportation to his home country of El Salvador. Abrego Garcia, a suspected gang member, told a judge he was afraid of being persecuted by Barrio 18, the rival Salvadorian gang of MS-13. The judge granted Abrego Garcia’s request for "withholding of removal" based on this "well-founded" fear, which let him linger in the U.S. until his recent deportation by the Trump administration despite his unlawful status. Abrego Garcia, like other illegal migrants facing the prospect of removal proceedings, achieved this legal feat because he had the counsel of Lucia Curiel, an immigration lawyer who ultimately helped him win the "withholding" order. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The Wall Street Journal [4/20/2025 11:11 AM, Margherita Stancati, 646K] reports Pope Francis met briefly Sunday with Vice President JD Vance, the Vatican said, before the pontiff in his Easter message called for better treatment of migrants and other vulnerable and marginalized people and urged a “just and lasting peace” in Ukraine. The brief but symbolic meeting showed a desire by the Vatican and the White House to ease tensions after a public row earlier this year over the Trump administration’s plans for large-scale deportations of immigrants. Also on Sunday, the pope—still frail after a near-fatal bout of pneumonia this winter—called for a cease-fire in Gaza and for an end to the wars in Ukraine and Sudan. “I would like us to renew our hope that peace is possible,” Pope Francis said in a message read out by an aide to a crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square. The meeting between Francis and Vance drew global attention because of the pope’s outspoken recent criticism of U.S. immigration policies. Francis said early this year that President Trump’s mass deportation plan “damages the dignity of many men and women.” His remarks didn’t go down well with the new administration, with Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, inviting the pope to “stick to the Catholic Church and fix that and leave border enforcement to us.” The pope condemned hard-line immigration policies again in his Easter message: “How much contempt is stirred up at times towards the vulnerable, the marginalized, and migrants!” The AP [4/20/2025 12:26 PM, Nicole Winfield, 48304K] reports that the 88-year-old pope offered the Catholic vice president three big chocolate Easter eggs for Vance’s three young children, who did not attend, as well as a Vatican tie and rosaries. "I know you have not been feeling great but it’s good to see you in better health," Vance told the pope. "Thank you for seeing me.” Vance’s motorcade entered Vatican City through a side gate while Easter Mass was being celebrated in St. Peter’s Square. Francis had delegated the celebration of the Mass to another cardinal. The Vatican said they met for a few minutes at the Domus Santa Marta "to exchange Easter greetings.” Vance’s office said the vice president "expressed his gratitude to Pope Francis for inviting him to meet on Easter Sunday and for the hospitality the Vatican has extended to his family.” "I pray for you every day," Vance said as he bid Francis farewell. "God bless you.” In all, Vance’s motorcade was on Vatican territory for 17 minutes.

Breitbart [4/20/2025 1:19 PM, Nick Gilbertson, 2923K] reports President Donald Trump torched "Radical Left Lunatics" in an Easter message on Sunday as Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and other Democrats fight for the return of deported illegal alien Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Trump took to Truth Social and wished all a Happy Easter before trolling Democrats. "Happy Easter to all, including the Radical Left Lunatics who are fighting and scheming so hard to bring Murderers, Drug Lords, Dangerous Prisoners, the Mentally Insane, and well known MS-13 Gang Members and Wife Beaters, back into our Country," he wrote. His last two references to "MS-13 Gang Members and Wife Beaters" seem to be indirectly hinting at Abrego Garcia, who allegedly assaulted his wife and, according to the Department of Homeland Security, is suspected of being in MS-13. Van Hollen and other Democrats, who believe Abrego Garcia was wrongly deported to El Salvador in March, have pushed for his release, while the Trump administration has fought an order to "facilitate" his return to the United States. However, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said he had no intention of returning Abrego Garcia to the United States, even after Van Hollen visited him in El Salvador. Trump also blasted judges in his post. "Happy Easter also to the WEAK and INEFFECTIVE Judges and Law Enforcement Officials who are allowing this sinister attack on our Nation to continue, an attack so violent that it will never be forgotten!" he added.

Wall Street Journal [4/20/2025 8:28 PM, Douglas Belkin and Liz Essley Whyte, 646K] reports the Trump administration has grown so furious with Harvard University after a week of escalating dispute between the two sides that it is planning to pull an additional $1 billion of the school’s funding for health research, according to people familiar with the matter. Trump administration officials, the people said, thought the long list of demands they sent Harvard last Friday was a confidential starting point for negotiations. They were surprised on Monday when Harvard released the letter to the public. Before Monday, the administration was planning to treat Harvard more leniently than Columbia University, but now officials want to apply even more pressure to the nation’s most prominent university, according to the people. People familiar with Harvard’s response say there was no agreement to keep the letter private, and that its contents—including requirements that Harvard allow federal-government oversight of admissions, hiring and the ideology of students and staff—were a nonstarter. The letters to Harvard and other schools are coming from a new Trump panel called the Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism. In an open letter to the community, Harvard President Alan Garber said the list of demands made clear that “the intention is not to work with us to address antisemitism in a cooperative and constructive manner.” And, he added, “we have informed the administration through our legal counsel that we will not accept their proposed agreement.” People close to Harvard say the task force is now escalating the fight to protect its own reputation. The government’s demand letter to Harvard received blowback after the university released it, including from some on the right who publicly said it was overreach. FOX News [4/20/2025 9:47 PM, Andrea Margolis, 46189K] reports that last week, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) canceled $2.7 million in DHS grants to the university. In a recent social media post, Trump claimed that Harvard had "lost its way" and didn’t deserve federal funding. "Harvard has been hiring almost all woke, Radical Left, idiots and ‘birdbrains’ who are only capable of teaching FAILURE to students and so-called ‘future leaders,’" Trump wrote. "Look just to the recent past at their plagiarizing President, who so greatly embarrassed Harvard before the United States Congress. "Harvard is a JOKE, teaches Hate and Stupidity, and should no longer receive Federal Funds.” Earlier last week, Fox News Digital spoke with students at Harvard about Trump’s recent measures – and got mixed results. "In my personal opinion, it’s that Harvard kind of deserves everything that’s happened, everything that is coming to it," Carter Stewart, a classics major and campus Republican, said. "I think Harvard is faced with a choice, and it seems like they’re making the wrong choice, which is to double down on these crazy ideas that most Americans don’t agree with and to pay the price for that.” "So, I think it’s a good thing that Harvard’s being forced to put its money where its mouth is," Stewart added. Ryan Enos, a Harvard professor of government, offered a different take, and said that he supported the school’s defiance against the federal government. "You shouldn’t have the government coming in and telling a private institution what it can do in its internal affairs like that," Enos said. "People have a right to protest whatever they want. I think we need to be really careful not to conflate those two things, because otherwise we have a danger of doing things like shutting down free speech.”

Miami Herald [4/20/2025 4:58 PM, Staff, 3973K] reports Alfonzo Castillo came to the U.S. in 2019, fleeing the oppressive Venezuelan regime with his wife, daughter and a dream to keep his restaurant alive. He’s done more than just that - graduating from a food truck to two restaurants, one in Orlando and one in Tampa, and adding a son to his family. But now his stay in the country where he rebuilt his business and life is fraught with uncertainty. Amid a turbulent series of deportation initiatives from the Trump administration, the Venezuelan community - numbering 98,000 in Central Florida - finds itself at the center of the storm. The administration is ending a special temporary protective status for immigrants from unsettled countries, known as TPS, under which many Venezuelans including Castillo came to the U.S. And it has dispatched alleged members of a notorious Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, to an El Salvador prison, based on seemingly scant evidence that some say smears law-abiding immigrants as well. Both efforts are being challenged in court, but that only deepens the uncertainty. "We have invested in this country, we have worked on the restaurant and we want to keep being here," said Castillo, who asked that the name of his restaurant not be disclosed, noting the publicity has already harmed his business. The fear has enveloped even fellow Venezuelan-Americans whose immigration status should make them secure. "It’s to a point that I … carry my passport every single day, and I’m a U.S. citizen for 31 years," said William Diaz, founder of Casa De Venezuela, a nonprofit that aids the Venezuelan community with branches across the country. "For me to be holding my passport in my pocket, it’s a sign of fear of what’s happening.” Giuseppe Fiorentino, a naturalized citizen who owns Daninos Trattoria, a Venezuelan-Italian restaurant in Orlando, said he’s seen a big dip in the Venezuelan portion of his clientele in recent weeks. "I think people are not leaving their homes and coming to restaurants because they’re afraid to be stopped in the street and deported," he said.

Los Angeles Times [4/21/2025 12:00 PM, Staff, 13342K] reports i was a board member for the Capistrano Unified School District during the first Trump administration (“House Democrats demand briefing after immigration agents try to enter L.A. elementary schools,” April 14). Bullying of Latino students and children from Middle Eastern regions shot up in our schools. There was also concern that the Border Patrol might come onto campuses to deport families. I asked our district’s attorneys what protections, if any, exist to prevent border agents from entering classrooms and removing children. First, I learned that all children in the U.S. have a right to an education regardless of their family’s immigration status. Children cannot be denied an education because they or their parents are undocumented. I also learned that our district prohibits anyone from taking a child away from school who is not authorized by the child’s family or guardian. This is to prevent child abduction and abuse. Now the Trump administration has dismissed a long-standing policy of preventing arrests in “sensitive areas,” such as schools. Yet even so, immigration agents must properly identify themselves and cannot detain children without a judicial warrant. Those L.A. Unified principals were right to deny federal agents access to vulnerable kids without a warrant. Undocumented or not, children have a right to due process in this country.

ABC’s This Week With George Stephanopoulos [4/20/2025 11:57 AM, Staff, 2420K] reports just hours before the Supreme Court stopped the administration from deporting a group of Venezuelans using the centuries-old Alien Enemies Act, the president’s border czar was fiercely defending the law’s use. Tom Homan comments about Senator Van Hollen’s meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Senator Van Hollen has obviously got a chance to meet with Kilmar Abrego Garcia. But he had to travel to El Salvador to get any information. Is that a concern to Tom Homan at all? These are people sent by the sent by the United States and not even a U.S. Senator could get any information about his whereabouts or the condition of his incarceration without actually going down and making the trip to El Salvador himself. Border Czar Homan had this to say, " Well, he obviously knew his whereabouts because he went there to see him. But you know what’s -- what bothers me more than that is a U.S. Senator traveled El Salvador on taxpayer dime to meet with a MS-13 gang member, public safety threat terrorist. I mean, in the meantime, the day before he traveled, an illegal alien was arrested for murder was released in the streets rather than honoring an ICE detainer in his very own state. What concerns me is Van Hollen never went to the border last four years under Joe Biden, when he had a 600 percent increase in sex trafficking women and children. You have a record number of non-suspected terrorists cross that border. You had a quarter million Americans die from fentanyl overdose because of open border. You had over 4,000 illegal aliens died making that journey, which is an historic record. What shocks me is he has remained silent on the travesty that happened in our southern border. Many people died, thousands of people died. I met with hundreds of angel moms and dads who buried their children that were murdered by illegal alien. How many angel moms and dads has he met in the state of Maryland? That’s what concerns me."

ABC’s This Week With George Stephanopoulos [4/20/2025 11:57 AM, Staff, 2420K]
reports Senator Van Hollen speaks on his visit to El Salvador to do a well fair check on Abrego Garcia. When he got there he says that when he demanded to see Abrego Garcia he was flat out denied then suddenly Abrego was brought to see Hollen. Van Hollen says that when he got to the prison a solider waved him to the side of the road and said they were given orders not to allow him in. Because of this denial there were a number of press conferences in El Salvador pointing out that they were complicit in an illegal scheme with the Trump administration pointing out that its illegal under international law to prevent any communication with a prisoner. Hi family had not heard from him in weeks. So how did Van Hollen end up meeting with Abrego? " I think at some point, the president of El Salvador realized it was looking really bad to have this person who had been absconded from America, from the streets of Maryland, in one of their prisons and not able to communicate. So I ended up getting a call saying, we will bring him to your hotel and that’s how we met. My goal was to meet with him. And make sure I could tell his wife and family he was OK. That was my goal. And I achieved that goal. You’re absolutely right that the Salvadoran authorities tried to deceive people. They tried to make it look like he was in paradise. They actually wanted to have the meeting by the hotel pool originally." Van Hollen states.

CNN’s State of the Union With Jake Tapper and Dana Bash [4/20/2025 9:37 AM, Staff] reports after a rare post-midnight emergency ruling from the Supreme Court blocking the Trump administration in no uncertain terms from using the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members, it comes amid blistering criticism from my first guest this morning, who just got back to the United States from El Salvador after meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the undocumented immigrant who the Trump administration admitted in a court filing was deported by mistake. Senator Van Hollen at first was blocked from meeting with Abrego Garcia, but Salvadoran officials relented and brought him to the senator’s hotel. After Van Hollen returned on Friday, he told reporters that he was detained in Maryland, moved to Texas, and then flown to El Salvador. What more was said about his deportation? And since he’s no longer in the CECOT supermax prison there, what did he say about where he is being held now? "He told me that, when he was in Baltimore, he asked the authorities if he could make a phone call to let others know where he was and what had happened to him. And he was denied that opportunity. So, very early on in this process, it was clear that nobody was telling him why he was being taken or where he was being taken. And that’s the thing about this case, because the Trump administration has admitted in court, admitted in court that he was wrongfully abducted and taken to El Salvador, and yet they refuse to follow the court order, the U.S. Supreme Court order, to facilitate his return." Van Hollen comments. President Trump says that some of Abrego Garcia’s tattoos signify that he’s a member of MS-13. In 2019, police alleged a confidential informant claimed that Abrego Garcia was an active MS-13 member. His wife and his attorney deny that, of course. Senator Van Hollen had this to say, "What Donald Trump is trying to do here is change the subject. The subject at hand is that he and his administration are defying a court order to give Abrego Garcia his due process rights. They are trying to litigate on social media what they should be doing in the courts. They need to put up or shut up in the courts. Let me tell you -- and I decided to write this down so I could be absolutely accurate as to what federal district court Judge Xinis said about these allegations by the Trump administration -- quote -- "No evidence linking Abrego Garcia to MS-13 or any terrorist activity has been presented to the court."

FOX News Sunday [4/20/2025 12:24 PM, Staff] reports Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., on visiting Kilmar Abrego Garcia in an El Salvadoran megaprison, the importance of due process rights and Patty Morin’s criticism of his trip.

CBS’ Face The Nation [4/20/2025 12:24 PM, Staff, 4740K] reports last week, the Trump administration froze $2.2 billion in multi-year grants, $60 million in multi-year contracts to Harvard, and that’s after the university rejected some of the administration’s demands in order to keep that money flowing. We saw the impact was swift, everything from research to staffing. Is the university going to be able to withstand this funding freeze? "Here’s what’s happening on the ground as a result of those actions. And really, let’s go back six weeks when the first cuts were announced for NIH funding. Massachusetts, we’ve got a number of colleges and universities, research institutions. These are entities that actually have pioneered for decades. Cures to diseases, cancer, working right now on treatments for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and so much more. In addition, they’ve often been the ones that have been leading the research when it comes to our defense industry. I could go through the various sectors, but basically what Donald Trump is doing by cutting off this funding, a few things are happening. Research labs are shutting down, scientists and researchers are leading the United States and going to other countries to do their work. And essentially, Donald Trump is giving away intellectual assets. The other thing that’s happening real time right now, and it’s incredibly sad, Weijia, I was in a hospital here just the other week, and this is a Hospital Boston Children’s, where some of the sickest kids in the country go for care. And there have been cuts to Boston Children’s and other hospitals as a result of Donald Trump’s actions, because these are part of a teaching hospital system. These cuts to universities have significant ripple effects, because they result in people being laid off, scientists being laid off, doctors being laid off, clinical trials for things like cancer treatments have been shut down, and this is really bad. It’s bad for patients, it’s bad for science, and it’s really bad for American competitiveness. As Governor, I want Massachusetts soaring. I want America soaring. And what Donald Trump is doing is basically saying to China and other company- other countries, come to the United States, take- take our scientists, take our researchers and that, and that’s what’s happening, and it’s really it’s terrible, on top of what he’s done to the economy, and in just dismantling and wrecking the economy right now, I’m working hard every day to lower costs in my state, cut taxes, build more housing, and Donald Trump is just making life more expensive for all of us, making life harder for all of us, and by coming after colleges and universities Weijia, this is really going to have an impact on American competitiveness. There’s a reason this country has led the world, remember, and it’s because we’ve invested in science and innovation for decades." Democratic governor Maura Healey states.

FOX News Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo [4/20/2025 12:24 PM, Staff] reports White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller on the administration’s tariff policy regarding electronics, the 90-day tariff pause, and the threat China poses to economic and national security.

Yahoo News [4/20/2025 5:48 PM, Anthony Ha, 430301K] reports one of the founders of startup accelerator Y Combinator offered unsparing criticism this weekend of the controversial data analytics company Palantir, leading a company executive to offer an extensive defense of Palantir’s work. The back-and-forth came after federal filings showed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — tasked with carrying out the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation strategy — is paying Palantir $30 million to create what it’s calling the Immigration Lifecycle Operating System, or ImmigrationOS, to help ICE decide who to target for deportation, as well as offering “near real-time visibility” into self-deportations. Y Combinator founder Paul Graham shared headlines about Palantir’s contract on X, writing, “It’s a very exciting time in tech right now. If you’re a first-rate programmer, there are a huge number of other places you can go work rather than at the company building the infrastructure of the police state.” In response, Palantir’s global head of commercial Ted Mabrey wrote that he’s “looking forward to the next set of hires that decided to apply to Palantir after reading your post.” Mabrey did not discuss the specifics of Palantir’s current work with ICE, but he said the company started working with the Department of Homeland Security (under which ICE operates) “in the immediate response to the murder of Agent Jaime Zapata by the Zetas in an effort dubbed Operation Fallen Hero.”

Breitbart [4/20/2025 11:13 AM, Bob Price, 2923K] reports a Democrat judge in New Mexico resigned from his bench last month after immigration agents arrested an alleged Tren de Aragua gang member living in his home. The illegal alien entered the U.S. in Eagle Pass, Texas, before being released on an immigration parole due to overcrowding. He eventually moved to New Mexico. Federal prosecutors in the District of New Mexico allege that 23-year-old Cristhian Ortega-Lopez was illegally in possession of a firearm and has ties to the hyperviolent Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua. Earlier this year, President Donald Trump and the U.S. State Department declared the gang to be a foreign terrorist organization. Police arrested Orgega-Lopez while executing a search warrant on February 28 at the home of Dona Ana County, New Mexico, Magistrate Judge Joel Cano and his wife, Nancy, the Albuquerque Journal reported this week. The report follows a detention hearing where prosecutors claim the illegal alien is a flight risk and an alleged Tren de Aragua gang member. Cano, a former police officer, allowed Ortega-Lopez to file a request for immigration relief using the judge’s residential address. Court exhibits also posted social media posts of the foreign national posing with the judge. Court records obtained by revealed that Ortega-Lopez, a Venezuelan national, entered the United States illegally in Eagle Pass, Texas, during the peak of the Biden Border Crisis in December 2023. Due to overcrowding in the Eagle Pass detention facility, he was released three days later. Social media posts obtained by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico showed Ortega-Lopez and other illegal aliens at a shooting range. They appeared to be in possession of multiple firearms and a large quantity of handgun and rifle ammunition. In one image, the man is holding an AR-15-style rifle in one hand and a semi-automatic pistol in the other. A video showed the Venezuelan migrant in possession of another AR-15 equipped with a suppressor. He fired the rifle until it was empty and then reloaded it with a new magazine, which he continued to fire, prosecutors stated. The photos and videos showed Ortega-Lopez displaying Tren de Aragua gang tattoos. The United States government recently declared this violent gang to be a Transnational Criminal Organization. Investigators found additional firearms in a neighboring home owned by Nancy Cano’s daughter. Ortega-Lopez was seen in possession of several of these firearms. It is not clear if Judge Cano or his wife, Nancy, will be charged with harboring an illegal alien or providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization.

CNN [4/21/2025 3:00 AM, Dakin Andone, 22131K] reports scores of foreign students across the country are included in a pair of sweeping lawsuits that allege the Trump administration unlawfully stripped them of their legal status amid a broader crackdown on immigration. By CNN’s tally, more than 1,000 students and graduates have had their visas or statuses revoked, undermining their ability to remain in the US and continue their studies. Cases have ranged from high-profile instances involving alleged support of terror organizations to relatively minor offenses, like years-old misdemeanors. While some affected students have brought individual cases, at least two federal lawsuits aim to represent large swaths of students at once – more than a hundred in each. "I can file 133 lawsuits, but I think the court wouldn’t be happy about that, so we’re filing one," Charles Kuck, the attorney for one of the cases and former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told CNN Sunday. Lawyers are expensive; grouping the cases together, Kuck said, made it possible for the plaintiffs to afford representation while ensuring his firm, Kuck Baxter, could litigate the case. Both cases are focused on the plaintiffs’ lawful status as foreign students, which the lawsuits argue is distinct from the visa allowing them entry into the United States: The complaints allege the government unlawfully stripped the students of their status, leaving them vulnerable to detention or deportation. Kuck told CNN he was aware of at least 10 other lawsuits filed on behalf of international students that made similar arguments. At the heart of both lawsuits is the difference between a foreign student’s visa and their legal status as a student. There are several types of visas for international students studying in the United States. Both lawsuits deal with F-1 visas, among the most common type of student visa. The visa, however, is distinct from a student’s status, these lawsuits argue: The visa allows foreign students to enter the United States. Once admitted, they must "maintain" their status by pursuing their course of study, avoiding unauthorized employment and adhering to other rules. While a person’s legal status – their ability to remain in the United States – is determined by US Citizenship and Immigration Services, part of the Department of Homeland Security, visas are issued by the State Department. DHS may initiate the termination of status for several reasons, one of the lawsuits notes, including by revoking a special waiver issued on the individual’s behalf, the introduction of a private bill to make them a permanent resident, or following a notification to the federal register citing national security, diplomatic or public safety reasons.

FOX News [4/20/2025 2:25 PM, Staff, 46189K] Video: HERE reports Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, discusses the Supreme Court’s upcoming ruling on President Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship case on ‘Sunday Morning Futures.’

Los Angeles Times [4/20/2025 9:30 AM, Andrew J. Campa, 13342K] reports the then-19-year-old Peruvian woman arrived in the United States 20 years ago and overstayed her tourist visa. She traded a potential career in South America as a graphic designer for the hard work of cleaning hotel rooms and offices in Los Angeles. She paid taxes, made friends and took courses at a local community college with the hope she’d eventually gain legal status. The latter never happened. During the first few months of the second Trump administration, Celeste — concerned for her safety, she asked to be referred to by only her first name — acknowledged being unnerved by the images. Undocumented immigrants have been loaded onto planes, shackled like violent criminals, en route to their home country and even countries not their own. The thought of being ripped from her home, without time to pack up belongings or say goodbye to friends, shakes her to the core. So, Celeste has decided to return to Peru by year’s end. Celeste is not alone as there’s a growing sentiment among the immigrant community that it’s best to leave on their own terms rather than against their will. My colleague Rebecca Plevin documented Celeste’s case and the factors leading some immigrants to self-deport. Trump promised the largest deportation effort in U.S. history prior to winning a second term. The day he was inaugurated, Trump disabled the CBP One mobile app the Biden administration had utilized since 2023 to create a more orderly process of applying for asylum from the U.S.-Mexico border. Thousands of migrants had their asylum appointments canceled. Instead, the Trump administration launched a replacement app, CBP Home, that allows immigrants to notify the U.S. government of their intent to leave the country. The agency launched an ad campaign urging people without authorization to leave immediately. This week, Trump told Fox Noticias he’s formulating a plan to give a stipend and an airplane ticket to immigrants in the country illegally who opt to "self-deport.” The administration isn’t just targeting undocumented immigrants. In recent weeks, Homeland Security has messaged migrants who entered using the CBP One app, telling them their temporary legal status has been terminated and they should leave "immediately.”

AP [4/20/2025 2:46 PM, Staff, 48304K] reports Global Immigration Partners, a leading international immigration law firm, announces the latest updates to the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program for 2025. These changes come at a pivotal time, as the U.S. government considers significant alterations to its investment-based immigration pathways. Minimum Investment Thresholds: $1,050,000 for standard investments. $800,000 for investments in Targeted Employment Areas (TEAs), including rural regions, high-unemployment zones, or government infrastructure projects. In a recent development, President Donald Trump introduced the “Gold Card” initiative—a proposed alternative to the EB-5 program. This plan suggests offering U.S. residency and a pathway to citizenship for a $5 million investment, eliminating the traditional job creation requirement. While the proposal aims to attract high-net-worth individuals, it has sparked debates regarding its implications and legality .

NBC News [4/20/2025 8:00 AM, Matt Lavietes, 44742K] reports U.S. immigration authorities issued a blunt warning in an unprecedented mass email to people living in the country under specific immigration protections: "It is time for you to leave the United States.” Titled "Notice of Termination of Parole," the email declared: "If you do not depart the United States immediately you will be subject to potential law enforcement actions that will result in your removal from the United States — unless you have otherwise obtained a lawful basis to remain here." It also states that "any benefits you receive in the United States connected with your parole — such as work authorization — will also terminate.” "Do not attempt to remain in the United States — the federal government will find you," the email, a copy of which was reviewed by NBC News, concludes. The Department of Homeland Security email was intended for the millions of people living in the U.S. who fled unrest in countries such as Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua. But in the days following the email’s distribution, shocking reports surfaced that U.S. citizens in Massachusetts, Arizona and Connecticut all received the notices. Nicole Micheroni, an immigration attorney from Boston and a U.S.-born citizen, said she received the notice last week. "At first I thought it was for a client, and then I kind of laughed about it a little bit, and then I was a little concerned," she said. "It was a range of emotions that happened pretty quickly.” A senior DHS official said in a statement that Customs and Border Protection was "monitoring communications and will address any issues on a case-by-case basis.” "If a non-personal email — such as an American citizen contact — was provided by the alien, notices may have been sent to unintended recipients," the official said. Micheroni and other immigration experts agree that U.S. citizens who receive the email should not legitimately worry that they could face deportation. "This email was specifically addressed to people that entered the United States on parole, and parole means that the United States has agreed to let you into the United States and you don’t otherwise have a visa or a reason to be here," Micheroni said. "So, if you’re a U.S. citizen, you shouldn’t be entering the United States on parole.” Still, experts caution that U.S. citizens should take steps to protect themselves in the unlikely event that they are approached by immigration authorities contesting their citizenship. Kristen Harris, an immigration attorney in Chicago, advised that U.S. citizens who receive the notice should immediately seek counsel from an immigration attorney. "There is certainly no legal effect under current statute or regulation for a citizen to be ‘parole terminated’ given that especially a U.S. citizen would never, ever have been paroled in his or her life," she said. "On the other hand, given how ... fluid the current administration’s interpretation is of existing law, I think checking in with private immigration council would actually be advisable.”

Yahoo News [4/20/2025 9:13 PM, Josh Sanchez, 430301K] reports three Western Michigan University international students are part of a growing lawsuit coming in the wake of federal officials terminating records in a system that tracks their enrollment status. Students from Missouri, Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan schools are part of a federal lawsuit filed in the Western District of Michigan on April 14 against the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Immigration Enforcement. They claim the termination of their status in the Student and Exchange Visitor System was unlawful. Attorneys say more than 50 other students could be added to the case. In a redacted complaint sent to News 8, the student SEVIS status was terminated earlier this month. The reason government officials stated in an email was "OTHERWISE FAILING TO MAINTAIN STATUS: Individual identified in criminal records check and/or has had their VISA revoked. SEVIS record has been terminated.” Some students were notified by federal officials; others were only told after university staff checked on SEVIS status. Attorneys believe federal officials looked for any instance participating students interacted with law enforcement. Then, their SEVIS status was changed. "They never told universities that they were terminating the records, and they never informed the university that this termination reason meant they are not eligible to continue classes," said Adriana Kemish, an associate attorney for the Law Office of Amy Maldonado. Last week, WMU leaders shared that six students so far had their SEVIS status terminated, with one student’s visa revoked that the university is aware of. Student interactions with police noted in the lawsuit ranged from dismissed traffic tickets to a wrongful accusation. According to the complaint, one WMU student is a 27-year-old man from India who is expected to graduate this year with a master’s in industrial engineering. He completed probation in January and a misdemeanor retail fraud case was dismissed. A speeding violation was also dismissed. Attorneys in the complaint said that whether or not the dismissal is considered a "conviction" in immigration law, it does not make the student removeable or inadmissible form the U.S. Federal officials have already pushed back on the complaint in a filing submitted Friday. "Being granted a visa to live and study in the United States is a privilege not a right. The State Department makes specific determinations about visa revocations when an individual poses a threat to national security," said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. The lawsuit is expected to be heard in court on Tuesday where attorneys for the students will be arguing for a temporary restraining order.

NewsMax [4/20/2025 11:50 AM, Jim Mishler, 4998K] reports U.S. Customs and Border Control has reported the number of border crossings between the U.S. and Mexico in March were the "lowest in history.” The report highlighted, "U.S. Border Patrol’s apprehensions along the southwest border for the entire month of March 2025 were lower than the first two days of March 2024.” The contrast in apprehensions from illegal border crossing attempts under the Trump administration compared to the previous year is startling. "March is the second consecutive month in which U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) averaged the lowest daily nationwide apprehensions in history at approximately 264 per day in March. This is 20% lower than the 330 daily nationwide average apprehensions in February and 94% lower than 4,488 per day average from March 2024.” The headline of a Wall Street Journal report on Saturday makes the point, "Border Crossings Grind to Halt as Trump’s Tough Policies Take Hold.” The Journal reported one man it interviewed had hoped to be approved for legal immigration but he felt that opportunity is at least for now, not an option. "The door is closed," he said. The Venezuelan added, "There’s no more hope for entering legally as long as Donald Trump is there, and anyone telling you otherwise is lying.” The Journal reported that many would-be immigrants who thought they might have been able to gain entry to the U.S. are now stuck in Mexico. Many are turning around to return to their home country.

Yahoo News [4/20/2025 8:01 AM, Brandon Loomis, 430301K] reports from atop the south end of Arizona’s Huachuca Mountains, the borderland paths of America’s solitary jaguars and ocelots sprawl across Sonoran Desert scrublands To the south: Mexican wildlands shelter breeding cats that periodically send bachelor scouts into their once-and-maybe-future strongholds in the United States. To the east: a border wall stretching for 70 miles from the foothills almost to New Mexico blocks the path of these rarest of American mammals, especially at what might otherwise be prime cat-cloaking tree cover along the shallow San Pedro River. But to the west, a back door of sorts: Arizona’s remote San Rafael Valley rolls out, fortified by a chest-high fence of horizontal steel rail barriers that block vehicles but not four-legged wanderers. President Donald Trump and previous presidential administrations have yet to wall off the rippling wilds spreading toward the Patagonia Range. Beyond there, the wall picks up again at Nogales but gives out in the rugged Pajaritos and then again at the Baboquivaris, where a mountain sacred to the region’s O’odham people has welcomed multiple meandering jaguars in recent decades. An ocelot that has triggered trail cams for several years in the southern Huachucas likely trotted north from oak to oak through the San Rafael to reach this place from a small breeding population some 30 miles to the south. “This is Ground Zero right here,” Myles Traphagen said, gazing westward across the wild southern end of the San Rafael Valley, the place where that spotted little big cat must have crossed into Arizona. “This is one of the places where I’d proverbially fall on my sword.” The valley — and the Huachuca and Patagonia ranges that bound it — are that back door, still cracked open for a potential rebirth of American jaguar and ocelot breeding populations. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem traveled to Nogales in March to film a video announcing the restart of wall construction elsewhere along the U.S.-Mexico border. Doing so does not require the environmental reviews or endangered species protections typical of major federal projects because Congress granted presidential administrations the power to waive laws at the border in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. "Everybody, I’m here in Arizona, and right at this spot you can see where the border wall ends," Noem said in a video shared to X. "As of today, we’re starting 7 new miles of construction. We’re going to continue to make America safe again."

Wall Street Journal [4/21/2025 12:50 AM, Kimberley Kao, 646K] reports Deutsche Post is suspending high-value shipments to the U.S., effective Monday, as it struggles with delays from customs clearances amid the new U.S. rules. The company, which trades as DHL DHL -1.27%decrease; red down pointing triangle Group, said in a statement that a “surge in formal customs clearances, which we are handling around the clock” for goods valued at more than $800, regardless of where they were shipped from, may cause multiday delays. The action comes as new U.S. Customs regulations have required goods above $800 in value to undergo tighter customs processing, which took effect April 5, DHL said. That is down from the $2,500 threshold previously. To manage the delays, “we will temporarily suspend [business-to-consumer] shipments to private individuals in the U.S. where the declared value exceeds $800” until further notice, the company said. Business-to-business shipments aren’t affected but could face delays. DHL’s move came less than a week after Hong Kong’s postal service said it was halting shipments bound for the U.S. “The U.S. is unreasonable, bullying and imposing tariffs abusively,” Hongkong Post said Wednesday. “Hongkong Post will definitely not collect any so-called tariffs on behalf of the U.S. and will suspend the acceptance of postal items containing goods destined to the U.S.”

Yahoo News [4/20/2025 11:58 AM, Lia Tobin, 430301K] reports Rural & Migrant Ministry and the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester held a prayer vigil on Good Friday at U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Rochester on Pattonwood Drive. “While there are many important protests taking place around our region, this is a gathering with a different approach, one rooted in love and seeking another pathway through stories of humanity, the power of prayer, and silence,” organizers with Rural & Migrant Ministry said. The vigil was held in effort to find the empathy and courage to recognize and affirm the humanity of all immigrants and their families. Those who attended also stood in solidarity and prayed for government officials in the Rochester area and those who work for Homeland Security. “There is a fear that our political system is forcing those who work for the government to deny their own humanity as they seek to carry out their jobs of protecting and serving,” organizers said. “We gather to reclaim and reconnect the humanity and empathy of all people.”

NBC News [4/21/2025 12:19 AM, Dennis Romero, 44742K] reports two service members killed during a border security mission in New Mexico last week were identified as U.S. Marines based at Camp Pendleton in San Diego County. The 1st Marine Division identified them as Lance Cpl. Albert A. Aguilera, 22, of Riverside, California, and Lance Cpl. Marcelino M. Gamino, 28, of Fresno, California. They were pronounced dead at University Medical Center of El Paso, Texas, the division said in a statement. A third Marine injured alongside them was in critical condition at the medical center, it said. The three were in a vehicle that was a part of a caravan when it crashed Tuesday morning, the division said. The crash in an area just north of El Paso was reported shortly before 9 a.m. on New Mexico’s Highway 9 near the Santa Teresa Border Patrol Station in Santa Teresa, NBC affiliate KTSM of El Paso reported. The Marines were part of the military’s Joint Task Force Southern Border, which seeks to increase security along the U.S.-Mexico border. This year U.S. forces there came under consolidated military command after President Donald Trump declared an emergency and tapped the defense budget for the effort. The 1st Marine Division said in a statement that Aguilera and Gamino were combat engineers with the 1st Combat Engineer Battalion at Camp Pendleton. Gamino was decorated with the National Defense Service Medal and a Sea Service Deployment Ribbon. He deployed to Darwin, Australia, as part of a rotational force last year, the division said. Last month, nearly 3,000 active-duty troops were deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border as part of Trump’s effort to halt migrant and drug traffic. Trump has not commented formally on the Marines’ deaths. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, who represents El Paso, said in a statement: "I am saddened by the loss of two U.S. service members who were killed in yesterday’s accident in Santa Teresa. I’m praying that the third service member who remains in serious condition recovers, and I’m thinking of the families of all involved.” Marine Lt. Col. Tyrone A. Barrion, commander of the 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, said in the 1st Marine Division statement that the loss of the two lance corporals "is deeply felt" in the military branch. "I extend my heartfelt condolences and prayers to the families of our fallen brothers," he said. "Our top priority right now is to ensure that their families, and the Marines affected by their passing, are fully supported during this difficult time.” The cause of the crash remained under investigation, the division said.

FOX News [4/20/2025 12:26 PM, Emma Colton, 46189K] reports Americans are scrambling to obtain a state-issued REAL ID in order to travel by plane ahead of a federal deadline next month, which comes after states from coast to coast changed their laws surrounding driver’s licenses to permit illegal immigrants to drive. Americans will need to obtain a REAL ID, which is a federally-compliant driver’s license or other identification that meets higher standards than state-issued licenses, in order to easily travel by air, the Department of Homeland Security explains on its website. Only legal U.S. citizens or residents can obtain the identification card, while valid U.S. passports can also still be used instead of a REAL ID for domestic air travel. Congress passed the REAL ID Act in 2005 to heighten security requirements for driver’s licenses in response to the attacks on 9/11. Though some states began complying with the law more than a decade ago, enforcement for all states had been repeatedly delayed due to the pandemic, DMV backlogs, as well as some states, such as South Carolina, initially refusing to comply. The move to officially enforce REAL IDs at the national level for domestic air travel comes after 19 states and Washington, D.C., put laws on the books allowing illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses. Tricia McLaughlin, the DHS assistant secretary for public affairs, told Fox News Digital in a statement last week: "REAL IDs make identification harder to forge, thwarting criminals and terrorists. 81% of air travelers hold REAL ID-compliant or acceptable IDs. DHS will continue to collaborate with state, local, and airport authorities to inform the public, facilitate compliance, curb wait times and prevent fraud."

NBC News [4/20/2025 8:42 PM, Mirna Alsharif, Christine Rapp and Dennis Romero, 44742K] reports one person died during a tornado, and two others — including a 12-year-old — died amid floodwaters as a severe storm system continues to hover from the South to the Northeast, authorities said. In Spaulding, Oklahoma, a tornado took the life of one person, injured two others and destroyed two homes and several small structures Saturday night, Hughes County Emergency Management said in a statement Sunday. In Moore, about 11 miles south of Oklahoma City, a woman and a 12-year-old boy were found dead after two vehicles were stranded in floodwaters Saturday night, police said. Rescuers successfully pulled some of the occupants from the vehicles but were unable to save the woman and child, the Moore Police Department said in a statement. “This was a historical weather event that impacted roads & caused dozens of high-water incidents across the city,” it said. The slow-moving system of roiling air, thunderstorms, large hail, flash floods and tornadoes continued marching east Sunday, shifting the threat to 11 million people in Little Rock, Arkansas; St. Louis; Shreveport, Louisiana; Columbia, South Carolina; and Springfield, Illinois. All modes of severe weather are possible, including 70 mph wind gusts, severe thunderstorms, quarter-size hail and a few tornadoes, especially across Missouri and Arkansas, according to the National Weather Service. The threat of damaging winds and 111 mph and up (EF2) tornadoes will increase Sunday afternoon and night, forecasters said. The severe weather threat will gradually weaken overnight and diminish by Monday morning.

AP [4/20/2025 6:53 PM, Hannah Fingerhut, 48304K] reports a slow-moving storm system brought heavy rain, large hail and tornadoes to parts of Texas and Oklahoma and left two people dead as severe weather warnings Sunday continued to threaten parts of the south-central and Midwest U.S. On Easter Sunday, communities in Texas and Oklahoma were beginning to assess the damage wreaked by tornadoes. There were 17 reported events Saturday, according to Bob Oravec, lead forecaster with the National Weather Service’s weather prediction center. Five were confirmed in south-central Oklahoma, including one that inflicted at least EF1 damage on a small town that was still recovering from a March tornado. The storm also brought heavy rain to a broad swath from north-central Texas to east-central Oklahoma, which saw 2 to 4 inches accumulate Saturday into Sunday. Police in Moore, Okla., about 10 miles south of Oklahoma City, received dozens of reports of "high-water incidents" over the weekend, including two cars stranded in floodwaters Saturday evening. One car was swept away under a bridge, and police said they were able to rescue some people, but a woman and 12-year-old boy were found dead. "This was a historical weather event that impacted roads and resulted in dozens of high-water incidents across the city," the Police Department in Moore, a town of about 63,000 people, said in a statement Sunday.

CBS News [4/20/2025 7:08 PM, Dawn White, 51661K] reports a possible tornado tore through a Parker County neighborhood late Saturday evening, leaving mounds of debris behind and residents to pick up the pieces of their homes Sunday. A roof was completely torn off a home and ended up in another home’s driveway. The people who live there said they’re unable to leave because their car is trapped in the garage with their neighbor’s roof in front of it. "It looks like something almost took a bite out of the roof. I’m still kind of in awe and kind of in shock as I continue to walk around and look at everything," Ann-Marie Shallcross said. She assessed the damage to her home and remained shell-shocked to see all the destruction around her. "I think this is my furniture over here," Shallcross said. "Oh, there’s another part of the chair right there. My fence is down, and just looking at it for the first time, the posts are just completely bent over, not even broken or pulled up, just bent over completely.” Kristen Dunn and her family went to their safe spot after getting tornado warnings on their phones. "We went into the closet in the master bedroom. Five of us went in there. We brought helmets for the kids. We padded it with some mattresses," Dunn said. "We did hear one really loud rumble, and I think that’s when that roof came off.” "I thought somebody was going to be dead. That’s what I was afraid of," Zane Nixon said. Nixon owns multiple homes along Johnson Bend Road, built last summer. "All the concentration is on how to get people out here on Easter Sunday and just start getting the people that can stay in their homes, dry where they don’t have water coming in when it starts raining later," Nixon said. Shallcross knows houses can be rebuilt. "It’s this whole street. They’re brand new," she said. She spends this Easter Sunday thankful and amazed that no one was hurt. The National Weather Service will be in the neighborhood Monday to survey the damage and determine if a tornado touched down.

The New York Times [4/20/2025 11:54 PM, Amanda Holpuch, 145325K] reports three people, including a 12-year-old boy, died after severe weather struck Oklahoma on Saturday as part of a sprawling storm system that was bringing damaging winds and the threat of tornadoes to the South and Midwest on Sunday. Wind gusts of up to 70 miles per hour and pea-size hail swept through parts of Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri and Oklahoma on Sunday, and thunderstorms were expected across south-central Texas, posing a risk for travelers on the Easter holiday weekend, according to the National Weather Service. In towns across Missouri and Arkansas, powerful winds damaged roofs and brought down power lines. Residents in those places spent Sunday afternoon under tornado watches and warnings, which persisted into the evening. On Saturday night, one person was killed and another was injured after a tornado touched down in Spaulding, Okla., according to Hughes County Emergency Management. Two homes were destroyed, county officials said. In Moore, Okla., which is about 11 miles south of Oklahoma City, a woman and a 12-year-old boy were found dead after a vehicle they were in became stranded in floodwaters. The vehicle was swept under a bridge, the Moore Police Department said. Rescue workers responded to the stranded vehicle around 9 p.m. on Saturday and were able to rescue all but two people who were inside. The authorities first declared the two people missing, but they were later found dead, the authorities said. “This was a historical weather event that impacted roads and resulted in dozens of high-water incidents across the city,” the Police Department said. The severe storms were expected to move across Missouri through Sunday night and could produce hail the size of golf balls, winds up to 70 miles per hour and strong tornadoes, according to the Weather Service. CBS News [4/20/2025 7:52 PM, Emily Mae Czachor, 51661K] Video: HERE reports severe weather threatened more than 45 million Americans on Easter Sunday, as a treacherous string of thunderstorms continued to strike parts of the southern and midwestern United States, causing flooding and at times tornado risks across a substantial block of the country from East Texas to southeastern Iowa and Illinois. In Oklahoma, people braced for more rain after a deluge turned deadly earlier in the weekend. "This was a historical weather event that impacted roads and resulted in dozens of high-water incidents across the city," said Moore Police in a statement. "The Moore Police Department would like to extend a thank you to our neighboring agencies who assisted in rescue efforts. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of the victims.” Moore Police had launched a search for the people washed away in floodwaters, sending dive teams, ground crews and drones to probe a creek running under the bridge after their truck slid beneath it, CBS News affiliate KWTV reported. With the vehicle pinned under the bridge and two occupants missing, dramatic video shared by the station showed an emergency responder suspended by a harness over the creek’s rushing current, seemingly trying to access the truck and those inside from above.

Reported similarly:
Reuters [4/20/2025 2:03 PM, Kanishka Singh, 41523K]

Washington Examiner [4/20/2025 10:47 AM, Jenny Goldsberry, 2296K] reports Secret Service Director Sean Curran claimed he’s spent more time with President Donald Trump "more than anybody else in my life.” Trump was the target of two assassination attempts just months ahead of the November election. The head of the Secret Service at the time resigned following the first attempt, and Trump named Curran to run the service upon his inauguration. Curran was among the Secret Service officers with Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July when a bullet struck Trump in the ear. "We built a very strong relationship. We’ve been through a lot, obviously. From start to finish, it was quite incredible. Stuff that I think the both of us never thought we would see or experience in our entire lives, but we were there with and for one another," Curran said on Fox News’s My View with Lara Trump on Saturday. "He’s just an incredible person, and I got to see sides of him that most don’t get to see. If those were billable hours, I’d probably be a rich man. We spent a lot of time together, more than anybody else in my life.” "My entire family is grateful for you in this role," Lara Trump told the Secret Service Director.

FOX News [4/20/2025 10:05 AM, Taylor Penley, 430301K] reports U.S. Secret Service Director Sean Curran is seeking out the "best and brightest" to leave the agency better than he found it when President Donald Trump appointed him to take the lead, and he isn’t about to lower any standards. "It’s a different life that you live [as an agent]. You live [by] somebody else’s schedule," Curran said during an exclusive sit-down with "My View" host Lara Trump featured during Saturday’s show. Finding a person willing to abide by someone else’s schedule at all times, he said, is far from easy. "This job is surrounded by great people, great moments, and just trying to find that right person… sometimes it’s them finding you," he added. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

ABC 5 Minneapolis [4/20/2025 7:38 AM, Staff, KTSP] reports the U.S. Navy says one of its newest shops, named for the Twin Cities, played a big role in stopping two alleged drug smuggling operations. The Navy says the crew of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul, working with the U.S. Coast Guard, seized nearly 1300lbs of cocaine and 2500lbs of marijuana on the Caribbean Seas. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

Yahoo News [4/20/2025 5:28 PM, Dominique Woods, 430301K] reports the North Shreveport Lions Club will host an event commemorating Coast Guard Appreciation Day. North Shreveport Lions Club will host an event to honor the Coast Guard, veterans, and first responders in the area. Guests will have a chance to tour the U.S. Coast Guard’s 65-foot vessel during the event. There will be special proclamations from the mayors of Shreveport and Bossier City. Magnolia High School Band will also perform the National Anthem. The event will be held on Thursday, May 22, at the Stoner Boat Launch, from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

ABC 5 Weslaco [4/20/2025 1:45 PM, Gloria Walker, 122K] reports no injuries were reported Sunday after a fire broke out at the U.S. Coast Guard Station in South Padre Island, according to Petty Officer 2nd Class Alejandro Rivera, a spokesperson for the U.S. Coast Guard. Multiple agencies provided mutual aid to battle the fire that was reported Sunday at around 11:30 a.m. at 1 Wallace L Reed Rd. James Farris, a spokesperson for the U.S. Coast Guard, said a generator caught on fire. "This morning, a fire occurred in their waterside building," Rivera said in a statement. "Thanks to the swift action of local fire departments, the damage was confined to a portion of the facility, and thankfully, no one was injured. They remain prepared to respond to any urgent Search and Rescue or Maritime Law Enforcement needs in the area."

Reported similarly:
CBS 4 Brownsville [4/20/2025 6:25 PM, Mia Morales, 175K]

FOX News [4/20/2025 9:44 AM, Stephen Sorace, 46189K] reports two Mexican nationals in the U.S. on nonimmigrant visas were arrested during a traffic stop in Colorado last month while transporting 180,000 rounds of ammunition, authorities said Wednesday. Caesar Ramon Martinez Solis, 41, and Humberto Ivan Amador Gavira, 24, both of Mexico, were pulled over in Canon City on March 26, the U.S. Attorney’s Office – District of Colorado said in a news release. Two Fremont County detectives had spotted a white Chevrolet van passing them without dimming its headlights, in violation of state law, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by the Canon City Daily Record. The detectives said the van also failed to signal when turning into a gas station and had a defective license plate lamp. During the traffic stop, the detectives discovered approximately 150 boxes of .308 ammunition and approximately 30 boxes of 7.62 ammunition, officials said. Each box was labeled as containing 1,000 rounds. The Denver Field Office of Homeland Security Investigations and the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office are investigating the case with help from the Denver Field Office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. Officials said the case is part of Operation Take Back America, a federal initiative designed "to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations."

DVIDS [4/21/2025 12:41 AM, Chief Warrant Officer Sara Muir, 777K] reports the U.S. Coast Guard suspended the active search for Mr. Jeffery Hattori, a 58-year-old boater missing west of Guam aboard his 14-foot skiff, the Lady G, effective the evening of April 19, 2025, pending new information. Lt. Chelsea Garcia, search and rescue mission coordinator, expressed the weight of the decision. “Suspending this search is heartbreaking, as we’ve poured every available resource and ounce of resolve into finding Mr. Hattori for his family and community. The immense ocean and the absence of any sign have tested us. Our partners—Guam Fire Rescue, the U.S. Navy, and local supporters—remain ready to act on any new lead and are deeply grateful for the community’s vigilance and support.” Despite comprehensive efforts covering over 90,800 square nautical miles across 48 search patterns, Mr. Hattori remains missing, and the skiff is unlocated. Hattori departed Hagåtña Boat Basin at 5:30 a.m. local time on April 12 and was expected back by 4 p.m. Guam Fire Rescue initially notified the U.S. Coast Guard Forces Micronesia/Sector Guam’s Joint Rescue Sub-Center (JRSC) team of the situation. The team then coordinated a multi-day, multi-agency response.

AP [4/20/2025 8:24 AM, David Klepper, 48304K] reports hackers linked to Russia’s government launched a cyberattack last spring against municipal water plants in rural Texas. At one plant in Muleshoe, population 5,000, water began to overflow. Officials had to unplug the system and run the plant manually. The hackers weren’t trying to taint the water supply. They didn’t ask for a ransom. Authorities determined the intrusion was designed to test the vulnerabilities of America’s public infrastructure. It was also a warning: In the 21st century, it takes more than oceans and an army to keep the United States safe. A year later, countries around the world are preparing for greater digital conflict as increasing global tensions and a looming trade war have raised the stakes — and the chances that a cyberattack could cause significant economic damage, disrupt vital public systems, reveal sensitive business or government secrets, or even escalate into military confrontation. The confluence of events has national security and cyber experts warning of heightened cyberthreats and a growing digital arms race as countries look to defend themselves. At the same time, President Donald Trump has upended America’s digital defenses by firing the four-star general who led the National Security Agency, shrinking cybersecurity agencies and slashing election cybersecurity initiatives. Businesses now are increasingly concerned about cyberattacks, and governments have moved to a war footing, according to a report this month by NCC Group, a British cybersecurity firm. “The geopolitical dust is still settling,” said Verona Johnstone-Hulse, a London-based expert on government cybersecurity polices and the report’s co-author. “What the new normal looks like is still not yet set.” Many in the U.S. are already calling for a more muscular approach to protecting the digital frontier. “Hybrid war is here to stay,” said Tom Kellermann, senior vice president of cyberstrategy at Contrast Security. “We need to stop playing defense — it’s time to make them play defense.”

CNN [4/20/2025 8:42 AM, Ray Sanchez, 908K] reports a 20-year-old Florida State University student and son of a Leon County sheriff’s deputy is accused of killing two people and wounding five others on campus with a handgun that belonged to his mother. The tragedy on the university’s campus in Tallahassee on Thursday occurred just over a year after the father and mother of a teenager who killed four students in a 2021 school shooting in Oxford, Michigan, were each sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison – the first parents to be held criminally responsible for a mass school shooting committed by their child. In Michigan, prosecutors used a novel and unusual legal theory to bring manslaughter charges, accusing the killer’s parents – James and Jennifer Crumbley – of disregarding the risks when they bought a gun for their son days before the shooting, even though he was struggling with his mental health and contemplating violence. The boundaries of who’s responsible for a mass school shooting continued to be pushed with the indictment last year of the father of an alleged Georgia school shooter. Whether the mother of alleged FSU shooter Phoenix Ikner can be charged criminally "is going to depend on a lot of information we currently do not have," Misty Marris, a trial attorney and legal analyst, told CNN. Marris said Florida prosecutors would have to consider a number of critical questions, among them: How did the alleged shooter access his mother’s gun? Did she let him use it? Did she know or should have known that he had a propensity for violence? Were there warning signs he would use a gun to shoot someone? Did she know he could access the gun? "This is particularly important because if there was an awareness that he may be violent and the gun was left accessible then there could certainly be legal consequences for his mother on a civil negligence or possibly criminal negligence theory," Marris said.

AP [4/21/2025 12:37 AM, Morgan Lee and Jamie Stengle, 34586K] reports the gunman who killed 23 people in a racist attack at a Texas Walmart — one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history — is expected to accept a plea deal in a state court on Monday to avoid the death penalty. Patrick Crusius has acknowledged he targeted Hispanics on Aug. 3, 2019, when he opened fire in the store crowded with weekend shoppers from the U.S. and Mexico in the border city of El Paso. Under the offer, Crusius would plead guilty to capital murder and receive life in prison with no possibility of parole, El Paso County District Attorney James Montoya has said. Texas prosecutors declined to pursue the death penalty. Montoya says the decision was driven by a majority of victims’ relatives who want the case to be over. Crusius already has been sentenced to 90 consecutive life terms at the federal level after pleading guilty to hate crimes and weapons charges. If the plea arrangement proceeds, families will be able to give victim impact statements. Dozens of people made emotional statements during a similar hearing in federal court in 2023 that lasted three days. Crusius, a white community-college dropout, was 21 years old when police say he drove more than 700 miles (1,100 kilometers) to El Paso from his home near Dallas. Not long after posting a racist rant online warning of a Hispanic "invasion," he opened fire with an AK-style rifle inside and outside the store. Police arrested Crusius shortly after. Joe Spencer, a defense attorney in the state and federal cases, said Crusius was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder that can be marked by hallucinations, delusions and mood swings and has suffered from debilitating mental illness for most of his life. "You are talking about an individual with a broken brain," he said Thursday. The people killed at Walmart ranged in age from a 15-year-old high school athlete to elderly grandparents. They included immigrants, a retired city bus driver, a teacher, tradesmen including a former iron worker and several Mexican nationals who crossed the U.S. border on routine shopping trips.

Reported similarly:
Yahoo News [4/20/2025 6:59 PM, Adam Fullerton, 430301K

The New York Times [4/20/2025 8:01 PM, Greg Jaffe, Eric Schmitt, Maggie Haberman, 330K] reports Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared detailed information about forthcoming strikes in Yemen on March 15 in a private Signal group chat that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer, according to four people with knowledge of the chat. Some of those people said that the information Mr. Hegseth shared on the Signal chat included the flight schedules for the F/A-18 Hornets targeting the Houthis in Yemen — essentially the same attack plans that he shared on a separate Signal chat the same day that mistakenly included the editor of The Atlantic. Mr. Hegseth’s wife, Jennifer, a former Fox News producer, is not a Defense Department employee, but she has traveled with him overseas and drawn criticism for accompanying her husband to sensitive meetings with foreign leaders. Mr. Hegseth’s brother Phil and Tim Parlatore, who continues to serve as his personal lawyer, both have jobs in the Pentagon, but it is not clear why either would need to know about upcoming military strikes aimed at the Houthis in Yemen. The previously unreported existence of a second Signal chat in which Mr. Hegseth shared highly sensitive military information is the latest in a series of developments that have put his management and judgment under scrutiny. Unlike the chat in which The Atlantic was mistakenly included, the newly revealed one was created by Mr. Hegseth. It included his wife and about a dozen other people from his personal and professional inner circle in January, before his confirmation as defense secretary, and was named “Defense | Team Huddle,” the people familiar with the chat said. He used his private phone, rather than his government one, to access the Signal chat. The continued inclusion following Mr. Hegseth’s confirmation of his wife, brother and personal lawyer, none of whom had any apparent reason to be briefed on operational details of a military operation as it was getting underway, is sure to raise further questions about his adherence to security protocols. Mr. Hegseth created the separate Signal group initially as a forum for discussing routine administrative or scheduling information, two of the people familiar with the chat said. The people said Mr. Hegseth typically did not use the chat to discuss sensitive military operations and said it did not include other cabinet-level officials. Mr. Hegseth shared information about the Yemen strikes in the “Defense | Team Huddle” chat at roughly the same time he was putting the same details in the other Signal chat group that included senior U.S. officials and The Atlantic, the people familiar with Mr. Hegseth’s chat group said. The Wall Street Journal [4/20/2025 10:12 PM, Nancy A. Youssef and Alexander Ward, 646K] reports that the disclosure of the Signal chat comes after an unusual number of top political appointees have either been removed from the Pentagon or resigned just in the past few weeks, some with little explanation. President Trump’s national-security team, meanwhile, is attempting to broker sensitive deals with Russia, Ukraine and Iran, putting enormous pressure on a group that is largely inexperienced in sensitive foreign-policy diplomacy. The latest Signal chat group, a defense “Team Huddle,” included 13 people, one person familiar with it said. The chat included Hegseth’s brother, a Department of Homeland Security liaison who has traveled with the defense chief. The chat also included Hegseth’s personal lawyer. Hegseth began the chat around the time of his confirmation hearing and it was used, in part, to craft strategies ahead of his appearance on Capitol Hill, the person said. Shortly after the New York Times earlier reported on the new Signal chat, John Ullyot, a former top Pentagon spokesman working under Hegseth, wrote in Politico that the Pentagon is in “total chaos” and “disarray” under the secretary’s leadership. Ullyot alleged that three fired Pentagon officials—all loyal to Hegseth—were wrongly smeared by anonymous officials as leakers who failed polygraph tests. “While the department said that it would conduct polygraph tests as part of the probe, not one of the three has been given a lie detector test,” Ullyot wrote. “Unfortunately, Hegseth’s team has developed a habit of spreading flat-out, easily debunked falsehoods anonymously about their colleagues on their way out the door.”

Reported similarly:
AP [4/20/2025 10:14 PM, Tara Copp, 48304K]
Reuters [4/21/2025 4:15 AM, Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart, 48128K]
CNN [4/20/2025 8:41 PM, Natasha Bertrand, et al., 908K]
Newsweek [4/20/2025 9:01 PM, Adeola Adeosun, 52200K]

Newsweek [4/21/2025 3:37 AM, Ellie Cook, 52200K] reports the White House has insisted no classified information has been shared on messaging platform Signal after reports emerged that U.S. Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, shared information about upcoming military strikes in a second group chat that included his wife and brother. U.S. President Donald Trump’s top defense official shared flight schedules for U.S. military F/A-18 Hornets targeting Houthi rebels in Yemen in a Signal group chat on the same day he shared attack plans in a separate group chat that had mistakenly included the editor of The Atlantic, according to a Sunday report by The New York Times. The group chat included Hegseth’s wife, a former producer for Fox News, his brother and his personal lawyer, the newspaper reported, citing four people with knowledge of the matter. "No matter how many times the legacy media tries to resurrect the same non-story, they can’t change the fact that no classified information was shared," White House deputy press secretary, Anna Kelly, said in a statement carried by multiple outlets. "Recently-fired ‘leakers’ are continuing to misrepresent the truth to soothe their shattered egos and undermine the President’s agenda, but the administration will continue to hold them accountable," she added. NewsMax [4/20/2025 10:18 PM, Brian Freeman and Eric Mack, 4998K] reports Sean Parnell, assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, called the Times report a resurrection from the dead on Easter Sunday. "Another day, another old story—back from the dead," Parnell wrote in a statement to Newsmax. "The Trump-hating media continues to be obsessed with destroying anyone committed to President Trump’s agenda. "This time, New York Times — and all other Fake News that repeat their garbage — are enthusiastically taking the grievances of disgruntled former employees as the sole sources for their article. They relied only on the words of people who were fired this week and appear to have a motive to sabotage the secretary and the President’s agenda. "There was no classified information in any Signal chat, no matter how many ways they try to write the story. What is true is that the Office of the Secretary of Defense is continuing to become stronger and more efficient in executing President Trump’s agenda.

Washington Post [4/20/2025 4:57 PM, Hannah Natanson, 31735K] reports government officials under both Joe Biden and Donald Trump improperly shared sensitive documents with thousands of federal workers, including potentially classified floor plans of the White House, according to internal records reviewed by The Washington Post. Career employees at the General Services Administration, which provides administrative and technological support for much of the federal bureaucracy and manages the government’s real estate portfolio, were responsible for the oversharing, which spurred a cybersecurity incident report and investigation last week. The records show that the employees inadvertently shared a Google Drive folder containing the sensitive documents with the entire GSA staff, which totals more than 11,200 people, according to the agency’s online directory. The information shared also included the details of a proposed blast door for the White House visitor center, the records show, as well as bank account information for a vendor who assisted with a Trump administration news conference.

AP [4/21/2025 4:16 AM, Christopher Bodeen, 48304K] reports Indonesia and China said Monday they committed to maritime cooperation promoting safety and security in the South China Sea, amid longstanding Indonesian suspicions about China’s actions in waters controlled by Jakarta. The sides agreed to cooperate in infrastructure building, minerals development and joint security, the last being the most significant because of Indonesia’s concerns over Chinese development near the Natuna island group in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims virtually in its entirety. While neither side mentioned the islands directly, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the officials agreed to further enhance their security cooperation in a comprehensive and sustainable way. “We will enhance law enforcement and security cooperation to jointly combat transnational (inaudible) cooperation,” Wang said following the first joint meeting of foreign and defense ministers from the two sides in Beijing. “We agreed that safeguarding peace and stability in the South China Sea is in line with the interests of all parties, and we will set up an example in maritime cooperation,” Wang said, adding that the coast guards signed a memorandum of understanding on maritime security and safety.

Yahoo News [4/21/2025 3:21 AM, Tina Teng, 430301K] reports Beijing has warned of retaliatory measures against countries that reach trade agreements with the United States at the expense of China’s interests, as other nations are dragged into the trade war between the world’s two largest economies. In its latest response to the steeply increased US tariffs, China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement that Beijing “respects all parties’ efforts to resolve their trade disputes with the US through equal consultation.” However, China will not accept any US-led trade deals that harm its interests and will “respond resolutely and reciprocally with countermeasures” to safeguard its rights and interests. In the statement, China described the US tariffs as “unilateral bullying” in international trade, adding that “if international trade regresses to the law of the jungle where the strong prey on the weak, all countries will become victims.” Last week, the Trump administration was reportedly planning to pressure US trading partners to limit deals with China in ongoing tariff negotiations. Countries with close trade ties to China may face so-called secondary tariffs. Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi last week visited major trade partners in Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, Malaysia, and Cambodia, on his first overseas trip of the year. The visit signalled “China’s renewed push to reinforce regional stability and prosperity, and its determined support for regional economic integration as global protectionism and unilateralism continue to mount,” the state news agency Xinhua reported. The tariff war appears to have reached a peak between the US and China, as both sides have indicated no further hikes. Thus far, the US has imposed a total of 145% duties on Chinese goods, while pausing reciprocal tariffs on other nations. China responded with 125% tariffs on US goods and has said it will “ignore” any further increases, calling them a “meaningless numbers game.” Trump has also signalled that no further tariff hikes are likely, citing concerns that additional measures would stall trade between the two countries.

Bloomberg [4/21/2025 2:34 AM, Soo-Hyang Choi, 16228K] reports South Korea and the US will kick off trade negotiations this week as the Asian export powerhouse seeks to persuade Donald Trump’s administration to ease the punitive levies that are starting to bite the economy. Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will meet with South Korea’s Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok and Industry Minister Ahn Duk-geun in Washington at 8 am local time Thursday, Ahn’s office said. South Korea will do its best “to find a win-win solution for both countries through calm and serious consultations,” Acting President Han Duck-soo said in a meeting with top policymakers on Monday to discuss strategies going into the negotiations. South Korea’s export-reliant economy is vulnerable to Trump’s aggressive import levies and the early trade data released Monday revealed how damaging a prolonged trade war could be for Asia’s fourth-biggest economy. Preliminary trade data showed South Korean shipments to the US slumped 14.3% in the first 20 days of April. Securing trade concessions from the US is vital to stabilize an economy that has been hamstrung by a political crisis unleashed by former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s failed marital law attempt. With Yoon permanently removed from office, South Korea will hold a snap presidential election on June 3. It remains to be seen how far the acting president in Seoul can carry the negotiations forward when the country is preparing to elect a new leader. Main opposition Democratic Party’s Lee Jae-myung is currently leading in polls. South Korea, along with Japan, is among the first nations to sit down with the US for tariff negotiations. The outcome of the talks will be closely watched by other nations for clues on what concessions Trump will try to extract as they prepare for their own deals to lower the import duties. South Korea, a key US ally, was slapped with a 25% across-the-board tariff that has been temporarily reduced to 10% for 90 days. As with other nations, South Korea also faces a 25% levy on shipments of cars, steel and aluminum.

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