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.

CBS News [4/21/2025 7:12 PM, Anna Alejo, 51661K] Video: HERE reports a showdown in federal court in Denver could help shape the legal landscape surrounding deportations. A high-stakes hearing in Denver in a case filed by immigrants’ rights groups against the Trump administration concluded Monday morning. Attorneys for the Trump administration argued that people facing deportation should be allotted 24 hours’ notice to be able to fight their deportation order in court, but attorneys for the ACLU and Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network argued that 24 hours isn’t "reasonable," as ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court. Charlotte Sweeney, U.S. District judge for the District of Colorado, said on Monday she wouldn’t rule on the case for 24 hours. During that hearing, attorneys for the ACLU and Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network said 11 people have been deported from Colorado to El Salvador and about 85% of people being held in the Aurora ICE Processing Center have not yet been able to retain legal counsel, which those groups argue is a violation of their due process rights. Court records show the hearing lasted just over an hour. In addition to President Trump, the defendants named in the case include U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, ICE Director Todd Lyons, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, ICE Denver Field Office Director Robert Gaudian, and Dawn Ceja, warden of the ICE Processing Center in Aurora. Reuters [4/21/2025 6:22 PM, Luc Cohen, 41523K] reports U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney said during a court hearing in Denver that notices of looming deportations given to Venezuelan migrants held at the Bluebonnet Detention Facility in Texas made no mention of habeas corpus, which refers to the right of detainees to challenge the legality of their detention. "You’re acting as if these individuals - many of whom don’t speak the language - would know there’s something called habeas relief," said Sweeney, an appointee of former Democratic President Joe Biden. "I’m looking at the notice now. It gives no indication of any right to seek any type of relief.” Sweeney said she would rule by Tuesday on whether to extend her order protecting two Venezuelan men in immigration custody in Colorado from being deported under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act. Lawyers for Venezuelan migrants are trying to persuade judges across the country to require the government to give migrants 30 days’ notice before deporting them under the 1798 act, after the high court this weekend temporarily blocked the federal government from deporting a group of Venezuelans held at Bluebonnet. Meanwhile, in a Monday filing to the Supreme Court, the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the migrants, urged the justices to maintain the block, writing that officials had not provided the migrants at Bluebonnet the required notice or opportunity to contest the removals before many were loaded on buses headed to the airport. At the Denver hearing, Justice Department lawyer Michael Velchik said the government would give migrants notice that they were being targeted for removal under the law. Any migrant who then says they wish to challenge their removal would be given 24 hours to do so, Velchik said. ABC News [4/21/2025 2:44 PM, Laura Romero, Armando Garcia, and Katherine Faulders, 34586K] reports that regarding individuals who file for habeas corpus, the DOJ attorney said "the government, at this time, has no intent to remove those individuals pending litigation.” In response, ACLU Colorado Legal Director Tim Macdonald argued that it is "preposterous" to suggest that a 24-hour notice would be enough time to allow people to file a habeas petition. "I guess we should be peppering this court with hundreds of habeas petitions to the extent the government even allows us in the facility to talk to those people," said Macdonald. "That’s not the way the rule of law should work.” The hearing came two days after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the AEA deportations of Venezuelan migrants being held in northern Texas after attorneys for the men said the accused gang members had received notices saying they were about to be deported. Macdonald on Monday argued that the notices are "chilling to anyone who cares about due process" and requested the judge grant a temporary restraining order blocking such deportations in Colorado. "If your honor were to deny the TRO, [the government] could either begin removing people immediately from the District of Colorado or find another jurisdiction where they don’t yet have a TRO and begin removing people there," Macdonald said. "This has life or death consequences.”

Reuters [4/21/2025 6:22 PM, Luc Cohen, 41523K] reports that Venezuelan migrants will seek to bolster their protections against deportation under a wartime law this week, after the Supreme Court temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting a group of migrants with an emergency ruling over the weekend. At a court hearing scheduled for Monday, two Venezuelan men in immigration custody in Denver, Colorado are expected to ask U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney to extend her order preventing them and other Venezuelans within her jurisdiction from being deported under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act. It is the first of several similar hearings at courthouses across the country scheduled for this week as the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing Venezuelan migrants, seeks to require Republican President Donald Trump’s administration to provide migrants with 30 days’ notice of their looming deportations under the law and the opportunity to challenge their removals in court. Trump, who won election last November after promising to take a hard line on illegal immigration, on March 15 invoked the Alien Enemies Act - best known for being used to intern and deport people of Japanese, German and Italian descent during World War Two - to swiftly deport hundreds of alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua outside of normal immigration procedures.

USA Today [4/21/2025 10:46 AM, Bart Jansen, 75858K] reports that lawyers for Venezuelan immigrants threatened with being deported filed an emergency request asking the Supreme Court to continue blocking the removals and provide guidance about how they can fight their removal. The lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union acknowledged in the filing April 21 they were making "an extraordinary request." But they said the emergency filing was justified because the administration flew hundreds of alleged gang members to a notorious prison in El Salvador on March 15 and loaded more Venezuelans onto buses on April 18. "The information was not a false alarm," the lawyers wrote. The case is one of several pending against the administration after President Donald Trump declared the criminal gangs MS-13 and Tren de Aragua foreign terrorist organizations and invoked the Alien Enemies Act to deport them briskly. But migrants have argued they had no opportunity to dispute their membership in the crime gangs or otherwise fight deportation. Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia was among the migrants deported March 15 despite an immigration court order barring his removal, under what the administration called an error. The Supreme Court temporarily blocked the removal of Venezuelans under the Alien Enemies Act early on April 19. "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 a brief, unsigned decision. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas opposed the order.

Washington Examiner [4/21/2025 5:52 PM, Anna Giaritelli, 2296K] reports the Trump administration debuted new video advertisements that will run nationally and internationally, ordering illegal immigrants in the United States to self-deport immediately or face steep consequences. The Department of Homeland Security released 30-second and 60-second ads Monday afternoon that laid out the retribution illegal immigrants will face if they do not heed the government’s orders to leave the country. "If you are here illegally, you’re next. You will be fined nearly $1,000 a day, imprisoned, and deported," Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in the video. "You will never return.” The ads are identical except that the longer one contains more information about the Trump administration’s border security efforts. They will run on television and online starting Monday. The videos each feature criminals that the government has deported since Jan. 20, and they urge illegal immigrants to use the DHS agency U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s phone app, CBP Home, to notify the government of plans to leave the U.S. "Child molesters. Rapists. Murderers. These are just a few of the illegal alien scumbags who have been fined, imprisoned, and deported thanks to President Trump," Noem said in a statement. "President Trump and I have a clear message to those in our country illegally: LEAVE NOW. If you do not self-deport, we will hunt you down, arrest you, and deport you. Download the FREE CBP Home app today to self-deport.” Noem claimed in the video that the department has arrested 100,000 people over the past three months.

The Los Angeles Times [4/21/2025 5:51 PM, Kate Linthicum, 13342K] reports Mexico’s president said Monday that her government has asked television stations to pull a commercial produced by the Trump administration warning against undocumented migration to the United States. Calling the ad “discriminatory,” President Claudia Sheinbaum also vowed to send legislation to Congress that would ban the commercial and others that are similar. In the ad, which has aired periodically on major TV stations here, including during the broadcast of two major soccer games over the weekend, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem shares a message that she says comes from President Trump. Sheinbaum, who addressed the matter at her daily news conference, also said she was sending a bill to Congress that would bar foreign governments from purchasing commercials that insult Mexico. Breitbart [4/21/2025 1:16 PM, Staff, 2923K] reports, reading the letter at her morning news conference, Sheinbaum said that the ad "contains a discriminatory message that violates human dignity" and could encourage "violence against people on the move." The ad is part of a multimillion-dollar international campaign announced by Trump’s Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in February in radio, broadcast and digital formats in multiple countries. "If you are considering entering America illegally, don’t even think about it," Noem warns in the message, which in Mexico has Spanish subtitles. If a migrant commits a crime, "we will hunt you down" because "criminals are not welcome," she adds. Sheinbaum said that she would submit a proposal to Congress to ban foreign governments from paying for advertising on Mexican television networks.

AP [4/21/2025 12:46 PM, Staff, 48304K] reports that President Donald J. Trump has announced the appointment of Bo Dietl, former NYPD detective, decorated crime-fighter, and renowned security expert, to the Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC). The Homeland Security Advisory Council, under the leadership of Secretary Kristi Noem, is a strategic body tasked with advising on critical national security priorities including border security, the fight against fentanyl and other deadly drugs, the removal of criminal illegal aliens, and policies to Make America Safe Again. Bo Dietl’s appointment brings decades of law enforcement, investigative, and private security experience to the table. A lifelong New Yorker with residences in Manhattan and the Hamptons, Dietl is widely recognized as one of the most decorated detectives in NYPD history. His work on high-profile cases such as the East Harlem convent assault and the Palm Sunday Massacre earned national praise and helped bring justice to New York’s most vulnerable communities. "I’m deeply honored to once again serve my country," said Dietl. "President Trump has always stood strong for law enforcement and public safety. I look forward to working with Secretary Noem to keep America safe, fight back against the flow of fentanyl, and bring law and order back to our streets." Dietl’s term on the Homeland Security Advisory Council will span three years.

CNN [4/21/2025 10:29 PM, Josh Campbell and Kit Maher, 22131K] reports Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem fell victim to a thief while eating dinner at a downtown Washington, DC, restaurant Sunday night, the secretary confirmed Monday. Noem, who was asked about the theft at the White House Easter Egg Roll, acknowledged the incident and said the matter has not been resolved. The Secret Service, which provides security for Noem, reviewed security camera footage at the Capital Burger restaurant and saw an unknown white male wearing a medical mask steal her bag and leave the restaurant, a law enforcement source said. The thief got away with Noem’s driver’s license, medication, apartment keys, passport, DHS access badge, makeup bag, blank checks, and about $3,000 in cash. The Secret Service has launched an investigation to trace any use of Noem’s financial instruments, the person added. "Her entire family was in town including her children and grandchildren – she was using the withdrawal to treat her family to dinner, activities, and Easter gifts," a DHS spokesperson said. The Washington Post [4/21/2025 6:01 PM, Derek Hawkins, 31735K] reports Secret Service agents reviewed security camera footage that showed a person wearing a medical mask take Noem’s bag and exit the restaurant, according to CNN, which first reported the theft. DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin declined to discuss the details surrounding the incident, but said she could confirm CNN’s story, which said the stolen bag contained checks, medication and keys, in addition to the cash and identification documents. It was not immediately clear when Noem noticed her bag missing or how the thief evaded Noem’s security detail. A Secret Service spokesman referred questions about the theft to DHS. A D.C. police spokesman, Tom Lynch, said local police were not involved in the investigation. A representative from Darden Restaurants, which owns Capital Burger, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. DHS said in an earlier emailed statement that Noem had withdrawn a large amount of cash because her children and grandchildren were in town for the holiday. "She was using the withdrawal to treat her family to dinner, activities, and Easter gifts," the statement read. The service’s probe will focus in part on whether the thief targeted Noem specifically and whether she faced any threats, according to one of the people familiar with the matter. Noem is one of several high-ranking members of President Donald Trump’s administration who receive round-the-clock Secret Service protection. Agents accompany her wherever she goes, though her detail is significantly smaller than that of the president, vice president or first lady. Noem’s detail on Sunday would have included agents with her motorcade, shift agents posted around the restaurant, and a site agent who secured the space ahead of time, according to Don Mihalek, a former agent who protected presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He said it is common for protectees to ask their agents to keep a lower profile at private family outings than they would at official events. Mihalek said Secret Service probably moved swiftly to change Noem’s locks and cancel her passport, DHS credentials and checks after the theft. The investigation may also involve looking online and elsewhere for anyone trying to sell her identification materials, he said. CBS News [4/21/2025 2:54 PM, Nicole Sganga, 51661K] reports that the Secretary of Homeland Security, in keeping with her predecessors, receives 24/7 Secret Service protection, and members of her detail were stationed at the restaurant at the time of the incident, according to multiple law enforcement officials. The Department of Homeland Security has not yet replied to request for comment.

Reported similarly:
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New York Post [4/21/2025 6:25 PM, Ryan King and Joe Marino, 54903K]
Bloomberg [4/21/2025 12:45 PM, Myles Miller, 16228K]
The Hill [4/21/2025 12:05 PM, Sarah Fortinsky, 12829K]
ABC News [4/21/2025 11:52 AM, Luke Barr, 34586K]
Axios [4/21/2025 5:26 PM, Anna Spiegel, 13163K]
NBC News [4/21/2025 5:14 PM, Laura Strickler, Gary Grumbach, Yamiche Alcindor, and Rebecca Shabad, 44742K]
FOX News [4/21/2025 12:57 PM, Cameron Arcand, 46189K]
USA Today [4/21/2025 1:46 PM, Sudiksha Kochi, 75858K]
Newsweek [4/21/2025 5:51 PM, Nick Mordowanec, 3973K]
NewsNation [4/21/2025 2:01 PM, Ali Bradley, 6866K]
NewsMax [4/21/2025 11:42 AM, Jim Mishler, 4998K]
Washington Examiner [4/21/2025 12:32 PM, Anna Giaritelli, 2296K]
Washington Times [4/21/2025 12:57 PM, Matt Delaney, 1814K]
(B) Good Day Seattle at 9am [4/21/2025 12:09 PM, Staff]

CBS Austin [4/21/2025 5:06 PM, Kristine Frazao, 602K] reports the Bluebonnet Detention Center in Anson, Texas, is just the latest backdrop in the debate over immigration. Over the weekend, NBC News obtained video of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement bus filled with Venezuelan migrants reportedly headed to the airport. The Trump Administration has insisted they were members of Tren de Aragua, which most of the men deny, instead asserting they were targeted for their tattoos. The plan was to deport them, under the Alien Enemies Act, but after departing the detention facility for the airport, the bus can be seen abruptly returning. That same night, the Supreme Court issued this order: "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.” While unsigned, it made clear, "Justice Thomas and Justice Alito dissent from the Court’s order. ". In a separate statement, Justice Samuel Alito wrote, wrote, "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.” ICE officials, meanwhile, have been releasing names of those it’s arrested and crimes associated with them.

The Hill [4/21/2025 9:51 AM, Rebecca Beitsch, 12829K] reports Border czar Tom Homan on Sunday claimed migrants deported under the Alien Enemies Act have "less" due process but argued that no one has been removed based solely on their tattoos. "The length of due process is not the same under the Alien Enemies Act," Homan said Sunday while appearing on ABC News’s "This Week.” Homan’s comments come as the Trump administration has removed more than 200 Venezuelan and Salvadoran men to a notorious prison in El Salvador after accusing them of having gang ties. None of the men had a chance to challenge their removal or accusation of gang affiliation in court, and the Trump administration has argued it has no ability to seek the return of any man once they are in Salvadoran custody. Host Jonathan Karl pushed back on Homan, noting the Supreme Court has held that all those within the U.S. are guaranteed the due process protections of the Constitution regardless of their immigration status. "I’m not arguing over here that nobody should get due process, I’m just saying there’s a different process under Alien Enemies Act, less of a process than you see through Title 8," he said, referencing immigration authorities. Documents from immigration officials shows many of the men removed to El Salvador were cited for having tattoos. One man was accused of being a member of the Tren de Aragua gang based on having tattoos reading "mom" and "dad" in Spanish beneath a crown, these documents show. Friends have said the crown was a nod to the Three Kings Day celebrations his hometown is known for, not the gang. Homan argued it wasn’t just the tattoos that led to the deportations or the conclusions the men were members of the gang. "That’s not the only one. You can’t say, OK, tattoo, gang member. No, there’s other indices added to that tattoo. Tattoo’s one factor that adds to other factors that makes that determination. What I’m saying is, you can’t ignore a tattoo," Homan said. "It’s based on a lot of other things, but tattoo is one of many. But no one’s removed just because of a tattoo.”

Washington Post [4/21/2025 5:26 PM, Ann E. Marimow, 31735K] reports that the American Civil Liberties Union asked the Supreme Court on Monday to broaden its extraordinary weekend order that temporarily blocked the Trump administration from using a wartime power to deport dozens of alleged gang members detained in Texas. Lawyers for the Venezuelan migrants say the Trump administration is not complying with an earlier Supreme Court directive to provide detainees with a real opportunity to challenge their planned deportations to a notorious megaprison in El Salvador. They want the Supreme Court to take up the broader question of whether the administration can lawfully invoke the Alien Enemies Act when, they argue, the United States is not actually at war with the targeted Venezuelan gang, known as Tren de Aragua. The government “cannot by any stretch be said to comply” with the court’s April 7 order, which said that detainees are entitled to sufficient notice and time to actually seek review before a federal judge, the ACLU’s court filing said. The case illustrates the growing tension between the Trump administration and a judiciary that has pushed back on many of President Donald Trump’s initiatives to reshape the government and immigration policy. The administration has taken a defiant tone in response to adverse court rulings, particularly after the Supreme Court ordered Trump officials to take steps to return Kilmar Abrego García, a longtime Maryland resident wrongly deported last month to El Salvador.

NewsMax [4/21/2025 7:26 PM, Jim Thomas, 4998K] reports the American Civil Liberties Union is asking the Supreme Court to block deportation flights under the Trump administration, arguing that Venezuelan migrants were given less than 24 hours’ notice before possibly being sent without due process to a notorious Salvadoran prison, The Hill reported. Attorneys for Venezuelan migrants are pleading with the high court to intervene in the White House’s latest round of deportations, arguing the federal government is violating due process and defying an earlier court order. In an emergency filing, the ACLU accused the administration of rushing deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, giving individuals "a mere 24 hours (or less)" notice and failing to disclose that the migrants, although Venezuelan, could be removed to El Salvador. The ACLU described a chaotic 48-hour stretch in which government officials moved quickly to remove dozens of migrants. According to the filing, notices were delivered in English only and were not provided to attorneys. The group asserts that the notices gave "no information about the person’s right to seek judicial review, much less the process or timeline for doing so.” "Whatever due process may require in this context, it does not allow removing a person to a possible life sentence without trial, in a prison known for torture and other abuse, a mere 24 hours after providing an English-only notice form (not provided to any attorney) that gives no information about the person’s right to seek judicial review," the ACLU wrote. The case returns to the high court less than a month after justices ruled the administration must give migrants "reasonable" notice to file habeas petitions. Early Saturday, the court issued an emergency order blocking deportation flights pending further review. The ACLU said the Trump administration has not denied its plans to remove migrants on Friday evening or to transfer them to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center. It also stated that the administration would claim that individuals could not be returned, even if they were removed unlawfully. "The government does not deny that dozens of class members were set to be removed Friday evening. Nor does the government deny that if it had delivered class members to the notorious Salvadoran CECOT prison, it would have taken the position that they cannot be returned, even if unlawfully removed," the filing said.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [4/21/2025 4:21 PM, Rebecca Beitsch, 12829K]

NBC News [4/21/2025 4:45 PM, Staff, 44742K] reports NBC News Senior Homeland Security Correspondent Julia Ainsley explains the latest legal challenges in the Trump administration’s deportation plan. NBC News Correspondent David Noriega reports from El Salvador on Kilmar Abrego Garcia. ACLU Immigrants Rights Project Deputy Director Lee Gelernt joins Meet the Press Now to discuss the next steps in challenging the Trump agenda. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reuters [4/21/2025 12:02 PM, Andrew Chung, 41523K] reports that President Donald Trump’s administration was prepared to carry out deportations of dozens of Venezuelan migrants detained in Texas under a 1798 law historically used only during wartime without judicial review and contrary to the U.S. Supreme Court’s prior orders, lawyers told the justices Monday. American Civil Liberties Union attorneys representing the migrants urged the Supreme Court in a written filing to maintain its block on the deportations to a prison in El Salvador. The ACLU filing said that administration officials had not provided the migrants the required notice or opportunity to contest the removals before many were loaded on buses headed to the airport. The filing is the latest development in a high-profile legal battle involving the Republican president’s immigration crackdown that has raised questions about his administration’s willingness to comply with limits set by the top U.S. judicial body. "Whatever due process may require in this context, it does not allow removing a person to a possible life sentence without trial, in a prison known for torture and other abuse, a mere 24 hours after providing an English-only notice form (not provided to any attorney) that gives no information about the person’s right to seek judicial review, much less the process or timeline for doing so," the ACLU’s filing stated.

New York Post [4/21/2025 10:08 AM, Patrick Reilly, 54903K] reports that shocking footage shows immigration buses taking suspected Tren de Aragua gang members to a Texas airport being forced to turn around just before the Supreme Court ordered the deportations to be paused. At least 28 migrants from Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Bluebonnet Detention Center in Anson were bound for Abilene Airport when they suddenly made a U-turn as legal battles raged in Washington over the Trump administration’s use of an 18th-century wartime law to deport migrants without a trial, NBC News footage shows. The buses, followed by a large motorcade of at least 18 police cruisers from multiple agencies, unexpectedly drove past the airport and hauled it back to the detention center. As the bus was heading to the airport, US District Judge James Boasberg heard an emergency request from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for a temporary restraining order requiring 30 days’ notice from the Trump administration before any of their clients were deported under the Alien Enemies Act after learning they had been issued removal notices. After ACLU lawyers informed Boasberg just before the hearing that buses were heading to the airport right then to deport the migrants in Texas, the judge asked a Justice Department lawyer to ensure no flights were deporting migrants from Bluebonnet under the 1798 law, according to NBC News. Boasberg ultimately denied the ACLU’s request, but the Supreme Court paused the deportation flights in a 7-2 emergency order just after midnight early Saturday. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The Hill [4/21/2025 8:54 AM, Rebecca Beitsch, 12829K] reports Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito faulted his colleagues for temporarily halting deportation flights under the Alien Enemies Act "literally in the middle of the night.” Alito’s dissent, also sent out at nearly midnight Saturday, came after the court agreed in the early hours of the morning to block for now any additional flights that would transport migrants to a Salvadoran prison. "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," he wrote. "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.” The court took the unusual step of issuing its ruling without waiting for Alito to share his dissent — another detail demonstrating the swiftness of the court’s actions after it was asked to intervene. While the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) had challenged the suspected removals in lower courts, it quickly launched appeals seeking emergency relief. "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 Supreme Court’s order reads.

Roll Call [4/21/2025 11:09 AM, Chris Johnson, 503K] reports the Supreme Court could soon say more about the legal process for migrants whom the government decides to remove from the country expeditiously under a centuries-old wartime law, in one of several legal challenges happening in federal courts. The justices early Saturday put a pause on the Trump administration’s efforts to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members from a Texas facility, after the American Civil Liberties Union filed an emergency application that said the government’s "lightning-fast timeline" did not giving the migrants "a realistic opportunity to contest their removal.” Justices issued the administrative stay without any accompanying formal opinion, directing the Trump administration "not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order of this Court.” The case returns the issue to the Supreme Court just two weeks after the justices issued a ruling in a separate case that allowed the use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 under President Donald Trump’s proclamation. That ruling also required the government to give migrants a chance to contest their detention at the court with jurisdiction over where they are held. The ACLU on Monday told the justices in a filing that the U.S. government failed to provide individuals threatened with deportation the sufficient time to content the claims against them. "Instead of providing timely notice that would allow putative class members to seek habeas relief prior to removal, the government gave detainees an English-only form, not provided to any attorney, which nowhere mentions the right to contest the designation or removal, much less explain how detainees could do so," the ACLU filing states. "And officers told detainees they would be removed within 24 hours—in many cases, even less than 24 hours," the ACLU wrote. "Under no plausible understanding of this Court’s ruling is that notice protocol satisfactory.” The Trump administration in a filing Saturday said the Supreme Court should allow the legal process to play out at lower courts.

The Hill [4/21/2025 12:20 PM, Zach Schonfeld, 12829K] reports that Patience is running thin in the intensifying battle between the Supreme Court and President Trump, with the president’s allies heightening their criticisms as the justices burn midnight oil. Just before 1 a.m. Saturday, the high court temporarily blocked the administration from deporting a group of alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador under the rarely used Alien Enemies Act. Trump’s supporters responded to the ruling with fury, with some calling for the administration to ignore the emergency decision. Paul Ingrassia, the White House liaison to the Department of Homeland Security, wrote on the social platform X that generations of judges "have been infected with parasitical ideology." "The judges in law courts today, including the majority in the nation’s Highest Court, telegraph with these decisions that they have no understanding of law and its proper function and role," wrote Ingrassia. Within the court, the order reflected a remarkable intervention. The court handed down its decision at a later hour than any other emergency application this term. It came during a holiday weekend, less than eight hours after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed its request and without waiting for the government to respond. Also, the ruling broke with normal practice as the court did not wait for conservative Justice Samuel Alito to finish drafting his written explanation of his dissent.

CBS Austin [4/21/2025 11:59 AM, Ryan Minnaugh, 602K] reports the Democrats are crying foul when it comes to talking about the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland appeared on ABC’s This Week show and had this to say to anyone listening. "Don’t put everything out on social media, the issue should be decided by the judges.” Van Hollen’s claims are that the administration is trying to change the narrative and distract Americans. Meanwhile, the Trump Administration is releasing any and all information to the public so the issue is transparent to all. It’s a move that makes sense to Van Hollen and Democrats, since a large number of Americans have come out in support of rapid deportation. Abrego Garcia was originally ordered deported in 2019, but a judge kept him from going for fear of gang retaliation. The allegations against him are piling up, he is a suspected MS-13 gang member and his wife filed a protective order against him at one point. Friday, The Department of Homeland Security released a report detailing a traffic stop of Abrego Garcia that led law enforcement officers to suspect his involvement in human trafficking.

CBS Austin [4/21/2025 9:56 AM, Kristine Frazao, 602K] reports the ongoing U.S. immigration debate is spotlighted by the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who has lived in Maryland since 2011. Last month, he was deported to a supermax prison in El Salvador, despite a Supreme Court order for his return and a ruling blocking the use of the Alien Enemies Act for deportations. Senator Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who recently visited El Salvador to meet with Abrego Garcia, said, "I don’t think it’s ever wrong to fight for the constitutional rights of one person because if we give up on one person’s rights, we threaten everybody’s rights.” The White House has criticized Van Hollen’s actions and released information about Abrego Garcia, including a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee where he was pulled over for speeding. The officer suspected human trafficking when eight people were found in the car. Additionally, a temporary protective order filed by his wife in 2021, which was not pursued, claimed he hit her, leaving her with "a purple eye." In 2019, he was arrested for loitering and assessed to have possible ties to the gang MS-13, a claim his attorneys dispute. Chris Newman, attorney for Abrego Garcia’s wife, said, "The reality is that Kilmar is a Union Member, not a gang member. The reality is he is a father.” Republicans, however, view the situation differently. Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., said, "I’ve got a president who wants to protect U.S. citizens from violence, from crime, having their children solicited, murdered, etc., versus Democrats who seem to want to protect illegal aliens in this country.”

FOX News [4/21/2025 1:24 PM, Kristine Parks, 46189K] reports that white House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt blasted Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen on Monday after he admitted that his trip to El Salvador to meet a deported illegal immigrant was paid for by taxpayers. Van Hollen took heat from Republicans and one of his constituents, Angel Mom Patty Morin, after he flew to El Salvador in an effort to bring home deported illegal immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whom the White House maintains is an MS-13 gang member. On "Fox & Friends" Monday, Leavitt rebuked Van Hollen and said the American public should know "the truth" about Abrego Garcia. "He is an illegal alien, a foreign terrorist and a criminal MS-13 gang member who violated our country’s laws by coming here in the first place," Leavitt told Fox News host Brian Kilmeade. "Shame on Sen. Chris Van Hollen and the entire Democratic Party, who wasted Easter Sunday going on every television show in the country to advocate for the return of an illegal criminal gang member," she declared. Leavitt said there was a "litany" of evidence proving Garcia’s ties to the gang that had been confirmed by "two different courts" and by "multiple" law enforcement officers. "This is who the Democratic Party is advocating for. It is ridiculous," she slammed. Leavitt said President Donald Trump would continue to do what voters elected him to do in enforcing immigration laws and deporting illegal criminals from the country.

Washington Times [4/21/2025 5:11 PM, David Keene, 1814K] reports Sen. Chris Van Hollen should be ashamed of himself. Last week, the Maryland Democrat descended on El Salvador to seek the return of an MS-13 gang member he claimed the Trump administration kidnapped and illegally deported. Like other liberal Democrats, Mr. Van Hollen claims Kilmar Abrego Garcia, though illegally in the U.S., is an innocent resident of his state whom the president and his team have mistreated. Mr. Van Hollen can’t be naive enough to believe such nonsense. The senator has access to information proving that Mr. Abrego Garcia is just what President Trump’s team says he is: an MS-13 gang member and abuser of women who was in Maryland illegally. Mr. Van Hollen should have applauded his capture and deportation because Mr. Abrego Garcia and his fellow MS-13 thugs routinely victimize the senator’s constituents. As a congressman before ascending to the Senate, Mr. Van Hollen participated as long ago as 2006 in a House Government Reform Committee hearing in Maryland to dramatize the growing gang violence traceable to this same Salvadoran gang. He was there when Prince George’s County police Capt. Bill Lynn testified: "As we are well aware, the most notable gang in our area is MS-13. This group has been active throughout the region, in D.C., Virginia and Maryland. No community has escaped its influence, burden and violence, and no one community is the central hub for its occupation." Mr. Van Hollen expressed concern about MS-13 violence in Maryland at the time and supported measures to deal with it. Then, Mr. Trump declared MS-13 a terrorist organization and targeted gang members for prosecution and deportation. When liberals decided to make Mr. Abrego Garcia a hero, a "Maryland father" who was an innocent victim of the Trump administration’s overreach, the senator went all in.

Breitbart [4/21/2025 8:00 AM, Dale Wilcox, 2923K] reports Senator Chris Van Hollen’s (D-MD) recent trip to El Salvador to advocate for the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a deported Salvadoran national, has sparked intense debate and drawn sharp criticism. The lawmaker’s journey to the Central American nation, where he was denied access to Garcia at the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) maximum security prison, showed the disturbing true colors of anti-borders politicians: an instinct to prioritize the interests of illegal aliens over those of legal American citizens. Van Hollen’s trip was ostensibly to address what he called the "illegal abduction" of Garcia, who was deported in March 2025 despite a court order preventing his removal. The senator met with El Salvador’s Vice President, Félix Ulloa, pressing for Garcia’s release and alleging that the Trump Administration was paying El Salvador to detain him. Yet, the Department of Homeland Security and the White House have consistently labeled Garcia an MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, and illegal alien—a characterization supported by a 2019 police report citing a confidential informant’s accusation of Garcia’s gang affiliation. While Garcia has not been convicted of gang-related crimes, the Trump Administration and Salvadoran authorities maintain that his deportation was justified, with Attorney General Pam Bondi declaring that Garcia is "not coming back" to America. The senator’s actions reflect an insufferable pattern among anti-borders politicians, who loudly champion the cause of illegal aliens with a zeal that often overshadows the needs of their own constituents. Van Hollen’s decision to fly to El Salvador, potentially using taxpayer funds, to advocate for an alien accused of ties to a violent gang stands in stark contrast to his limited engagement with issues affecting legal Marylanders. Patty Morin, the mother of Rachel Morin—a Maryland woman brutally murdered in 2023 by an illegal alien from El Salvador—publicly criticized Van Hollen for his failure to acknowledge her daughter’s death while expending time and resources on Garcia’s case. Morin’s remarks at a White House press briefing highlighted the senator’s apparent indifference to the victims of crimes committed by illegal aliens, noting that he "didn’t even bother to contact" her family after her daughter’s murder. Van Hollen’s trip, coupled with his vocal defense of Garcia, shows a willingness to overlook serious allegations of criminality in favor of a narrative that portrays deportees as victims of injustice. His mixed voting record on immigration—such as his opposition to the Laken Riley Act, which aimed to strengthen deportation policies—further reinforces the growing perception that he and his like-minded colleagues are more concerned with protecting illegal aliens than addressing the concerns of American families.

The Washington Post [4/21/2025 5:43 PM, Hannah Natanson, 31735K] reports a team of roughly a half-dozen DOGE "advisors" placed at the Justice Department won approval from senior officials at the agency on Friday to access the ECAS system, according to the documents reviewed by The Post. Justice Department staff members were instructed to begin preparing ECAS accounts for the DOGE team, the documents show, including former hedge fund staffer Adam Hoffman as well as Payton Rehling and Jon Koval, both of whom work at a private-equity firm tied to Elon Musk. The team also includes Marko Elez, who resigned from the government in February after the Wall Street Journal linked him to a social media account that had made racist posts. He was rehired after Musk dismissed the significance of the posts. The push to access the Justice Department system is the latest attempt by the Trump administration to claw deeper into vast troves of federal data to advance the president’s aggressive deportation efforts. Yahoo News [4/21/2025 11:35 PM, Josh Marcus, 430301K] reports the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency has reportedly received permission from the Justice Department to access a sensitive system containing detailed information about immigrants’ interactions with the U.S. government. The system, the Executive Office for Immigration Review’s Courts and Appeals System, contains records dating back at least to the 1990s on millions of legal and undocumented immigrants, including addresses, case histories, court testimony, and confidential interviews from asylum seekers. DOGE was given permission on Friday to access the system, Washington Post reports. The Justice Department declined to comment on the Post’s reporting. DOGE has pursued and used immigration-related data across U.S. agencies including the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Internal Revenue Service. It has also reportedly been granted access to sensitive Labor Department data on immigrants and farm workers. The DOGE effort reportedly prompted the acting chief of the IRS to resign earlier this month after the agency struck a deal to share undocumented immigrants’ taxpayer data with the Department of Homeland Security. The initiative persuaded the Social Security Administration to add thousands of immigrants to the agency’s “death file” to cut them off from legal and financial resources and pressure them into self-deporting, even though it was known they weren’t actually dead. DOGE is reportedly working with the Department of Homeland Security to build a master database to track and surveil undocumented immigrants, incorporating information obtained from the IRS, Social Security Administration, and other government agencies, according to WIRED. “They are trying to amass a huge amount of data,” a senior Homeland Security official told the outlet. “It has nothing to do with finding fraud or wasteful spending … They are already cross-referencing immigration with SSA and IRS as well as voter data.”

DailySignal.com [4/21/2025 8:30 AM, Bradley Devlin, 495K] reports Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an alleged MS-13 gang member and citizen from El Salvador, has become an avatar of The Resistance 2.0. The story of his deportation to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 has been twisted into an allegory for life under the second Trump administration. In the words of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-N.Y.: “Kilmar is all of us.” Nevertheless, the Trump administration continues to plow forward with the application of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to remove criminal illegals from the country—even as lower court judges have tried to stop the practice and are now threatening the administration with criminal referrals. Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff for policy, has taken a primary role in arguing the administration’s justification for the use of the Alien Enemies Act. Miller’s argument centers on the president’s prerogative in foreign affairs as enshrined in Article II of the Constitution. “The president of the United States and his administration reserve all rights under the Constitution to conduct national security operations in defense of the United States,” according to Miller. Thus, Miller has argued that “a district court judge can no more enjoin the expulsion of foreign terrorists to foreign soil, than he can direct the movement of Air Force One, than he can direct the movement of an aircraft carrier.” While the main thrust of Miller’s argument focuses on Article II powers, the Trump consigliere has repeatedly incorporated a historical appeal to the founding era. The “Alien Enemies Act has been on the books and has been upheld for over 200 years,” Miller said. “And by the way, the fact that it’s a 200-year-old law makes it stronger. This was adopted by the founding generation of our country.” Meanwhile, the Left has claimed the Trump administration is abusing presidential authority not only by contesting decisions from federal courts but by the employment of the Alien Enemies Act itself. Under this line of argument, the president’s use of the Alien Enemies Act is incumbent on a formal declaration of war by Congress or by foreign military action against the United States. Furthermore, the Left has argued the administration has stretched the meaning of “invasion” beyond the statute by applying it to gangs like MS-13 and Tren De Aragua.

The Hill [4/21/2025 10:27 AM, Lexi Lonas, 12829K] reports that the Trump administration is looking to pull another $1 billion from Harvard University amid an escalating fight with the university as it stands in open defiance of the president’s demands to change many of its policies. The additional $1 billion would target health research, people familiar with the issue told The Wall Street Journal. The cut would follow some $2.2 billion in federal funding already frozen after the Ivy League school rejected the administration’s demands, which including changes to hiring and admissions policies, as well as eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. President Trump is also threatening Harvard’s tax-exempt status, and the Department of Homeland Security is looking into cutting off its ability to enroll foreign students. The Hill has reached out to the White House and Harvard for comment. "No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue," Harvard President Alan Garber said in his message rejecting the administration’s demands last week. The Journal reports the White House saw that list as the starting point of negotiations and is furious that the school shared it with the public. Harvard is all but certain to file legal challenges to the administration’s funding cuts, but it has yet to announce doing so. Yahoo.com [4/21/2025 7:30 AM, Charlie McKenna, 430301K] reports that the news comes after Harvard said it would not accept a series of demands set forward by the Trump administration, putting $9 billion in federal funding at risk. But, the journal reported, Trump officials believed their demands were the starting point for negotiations and were surprised when the university disclosed a letter outlining the government’s requests. Over the weekend, New York Times reported the letter was sent in error, citing several Trump administration officials. The letter demanded, among other things, the university shutter diversity, equity and inclusion programs, implement a mask ban and adopt merit-based admissions and hiring policies to end preferences based on race, color or national origin. Harvard President Alan Garber said the administration’s demands go "beyond the power of the federal government," violate Harvard’s First Amendment rights and are over "the statutory limits of the government’s authority." In rejecting the administration’s demands, Harvard became the first major university to push back against the government’s efforts to restructure top schools in the country. The Trump administration’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, which sent the demands to Harvard, said the university’s rejection of its demands "reinforces the troubling entitlement mindset that is endemic in our nation’s most prestigious universities and colleges – that federal investment does not come with the responsibility to uphold civil rights laws.”

Wall Street Journal [4/21/2025 8:39 PM, Douglas Belkin and Sara Randazzo, 646K] reports Harvard University filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration Monday, arguing it has violated the university’s constitutional rights by freezing billions of dollars in federal funding and imperiling its academic independence. The suit sets up a legal showdown between America’s most prominent university and the U.S. president, who has been on an escalating campaign to reorder elite higher education. “The consequences of the government’s overreach will be severe and long-lasting,” Harvard President Alan Garber said in a community message announcing the lawsuit. Research at risk by the funding cuts, Garber said, includes work on child cancer, infectious disease outbreaks, and easing the pain of soldiers wounded in battle. Harvard argues in the suit that the government has cut off funds “as part of its pressure campaign” to force the university “to submit to the government’s control over its academic programs." The government’s actions flout the First Amendment by seeking to control what university faculty may teach and whom the school may hire, Harvard says. It also argues that the federal government is disregarding laws and regulations around how to pursue civil-rights investigations. The suit asks the court to halt the funding freeze and declare as illegal both the freeze and the demands asked of the university. In recent weeks, a new government task force has shaken top American universities, pausing or freezing billions of dollars in federal grants and contracts at premier institutions such as Columbia and Harvard, and putting many schools on high alert. The task force says it is targeting schools that failed to adequately protect Jewish students during pro-Palestinian protests that disrupted campuses last year. It is also seeking to push Harvard to incorporate a broader diversity of ideas on its campus. White House spokesman Harrison Fields said Monday in response to the lawsuit: “Taxpayer funds are a privilege, and Harvard fails to meet the basic conditions required to access that privilege.” In the suit, Harvard argues the government “may not interfere with private actors’ speech to advance its own vision of ideological balance.”

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FOX News [4/21/2025 10:28 AM, Jeffrey Clark, 46189K] reports that the Trump administration is again instructing Harvard University to deliver on its anticipated report on antisemitism concerns at the elite institution. Larry Summers, former president of Harvard, told The Free Press that he did not understand the delay from his alma mater. "It’s baffling to me why it has taken more than 18 months to complete and release a report," Summers said. "We’re approaching half as long as it took America to win World War II." In a letter sent from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights, Harvard was instructed to send reports from Harvard’s Antisemitism Task Force to the government. The demands on Harvard to deliver on its report come amid pressure from Congress over the university’s use of taxpayer funds. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is currently investigating how Harvard University uses taxpayer money as the school faces scrutiny on civil rights issues like antisemitism. "I certainly am not serene about Harvard and antisemitism, but I have seen no credible basis for believing that the decline in the Jewish fraction of the Harvard student body results from anti-Jewish discrimination," Summers said when confronted by The Free Press about the effects of antisemitism concerns at the institution on its declining Jewish student body.

Breitbart [4/21/2025 10:55 PM, Staff, 2923K] reports the US Justice Department on Monday announced it was charging 27 people accused of being connected to Venezuelan drug gang Tren de Aragua with an array of serious crimes, including drug conspiracy, sex trafficking and murder. Acting US Attorney for New York’s Southern District Matthew Podolsky said those charged included alleged members, former members, and associates of Tren de Aragua," a gang designated by US President Donald Trump as a "foreign terrorist organization.” Of the 27 defendants, 21 were in federal custody and five more were arrested Sunday and Monday in New York and other jurisdictions, the statement said. The charges include murder, shootings, human trafficking of women into sex work, extortion and drug trafficking, the department said. Tren de Aragua became a high-profile target of law enforcement under the Trump administration after the president declared the group a "terrorist" organization and invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, saying the United States was facing an "invasion.” Since then, Trump has sent two planeloads of alleged members to a prison in El Salvador on March 15 — a case that led to a standoff with US courts. Attorneys for several of the deported Venezuelans have said that their clients were not members of Tren de Aragua, had committed no crimes and were targeted largely on the basis of their tattoos. Despite facing challenges, the US Supreme Court lifted a lower court order barring the deportations on April 7, handing Trump a long-sought political victory. The court did note, however, that the deportees must be given an opportunity to legally challenge their removal — a requirement that Trump has called unworkable. "We cannot give everyone a trial, because to do so would take, without exaggeration, 200 years," the US president said in a social media post on Monday.

NPR [4/21/2025 10:24 PM, Adrian Florido, 29983K] reports immigration authorities denied an urgent request by Mahmoud Khalil to be temporarily released from detention, under monitoring, so he could attend the birth of his first child. His wife, Noor Abdalla, delivered their son on Monday in New York. Khalil, who is being held at a remote Louisiana detention center, instead experienced part of the birth through a phone call. Khalil’s legal team wrote to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement official overseeing his detention on Sunday and informed her that his wife had gone into labor in New York that morning, emails obtained by NPR show. They asked her to grant Khalil a two-week conditional release so he could be present for the birth. "Mr. Khalil would be open to any combination of conditions that would allow furlough from ICE’s perspective, including a GPS ankle monitor and/or scheduled check-ins," the lawyers wrote. A half-hour later, Mellissa Harper, the director of ICE’s New Orleans Field Office, denied the request. Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student, was the first student protester that the Trump administration arrested in its crackdown on pro-Palestinian activists. Its attempt to deport him has become a major flashpoint in a growing fight over immigrants’ free speech and due process rights in the second Trump term. Since the Trump administration arrested and began deportation proceedings against Khalil last month, his lawyers had been urgently working to get him released in time for his son’s birth. They’ve asked the federal judge hearing his challenge to his detention on constitutional grounds to release him on bail or at least have him moved back to the New York area. The judge has yet to rule on either request. Marc Van Der Hout, one of Khalil’s attorneys, said in an interview with NPR that for Khalil, his son’s birth on Monday was bittersweet. "He is happy to be a father, but he’s extremely disappointed that he couldn’t be there to support his wife, be there to hold his first child," Van Der Hout said. "And he had certainly hoped and expected that the government would show some humanity. But they did not.” Both Abdalla and the baby are healthy. In a statement, Abdalla wrote that the denial of her husband’s request "was a purposeful decision by ICE to make me, Mahmoud, and our son suffer.” She added: "My son and I should not be navigating his first days on earth without Mahmoud. ICE and the Trump administration have stolen these precious moments from our family in an attempt to silence Mahmoud’s support for Palestinian freedom.” The New York Times [4/21/2025 7:31 PM, Jonah E. Bromwich, 145325K] reports that the lawyers proposed several ways for Mr. Khalil, 30, to be monitored. They said he could wear an ankle monitor and make scheduled check-ins. “A two week furlough in this civil detention matter would be both reasonable and humane so that both parents can be present for the birth of their first child,” the lawyers wrote. Less than an hour after they made their request, Melissa Harper, the director of the New Orleans field office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, denied it. She wrote that the decision had been made “after consideration of the submitted information and a review of your client’s case.” Mr. Khalil was able to communicate with his wife for some portion of the delivery, said one of his lawyers, Marc Van Der Hout. Dr. Abdalla and the baby, who was born early Monday morning, are both healthy.

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New York Times [4/21/2025 9:37 PM, Anvee Bhutani, 145325K] reports about 10 demonstrators chained themselves to Columbia University’s campus gates at 116th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in New York on Monday afternoon, protesting the detention of two Palestinian student activists by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. They were part of a larger contingent that sat down outside the gate. The protest followed the detention last week of Mohsen Mahdawi, who is finishing undergraduate studies in philosophy at Columbia’s School of General Studies. Mr. Mahdawi was taken into ICE custody during his naturalization appointment in Vermont. Federal immigration officials detained Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate of the School of International and Public Affairs, last month. Both were organizers of pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia. Demonstrators on Monday called for the immediate release of Mr. Mahdawi and Mr. Khalil. They held signs reading, “Free all our political prisoners” and chanted, “We want justice, you say how? Free Mohsen Mahdawi now!” They also read aloud Mr. Khalil’s writings from the detention center in Jena, La., where he is being held. A Columbia spokesperson said Monday that the university was “monitoring a disruption” and that its public safety officers had cut the locks of about 10 demonstrators. “We will follow all applicable policies and procedures for addressing potential violations,” the Columbia spokesperson said. “This small disruption has not impeded the ability of our students to attend classes as normal; all scheduled campus activities have proceeded as planned.” The New York Police Department said Monday evening that an unspecified number of people had been taken into custody and were being processed. It was unclear what charges they would face. One of those who was detained had been trying to pitch a tent, the police said. It was the second protest this month in which demonstrators attached themselves to Columbia’s gates.

AP [4/21/2025 7:36 PM, Jonathan Mattise, 12335K] reports Republican lawmakers in Tennessee have paused a bill meant to challenge the constitutional right for children to attend public schools regardless of their immigration status. Instead, with time waning in the legislative session, they are asking U.S. officials for guidance on whether the bill would jeopardize federal education funding. The direction announced Monday by House Majority Leader William Lamberth, the bill sponsor, diminishes the chances for the bill to pass this year as lawmakers prepare for a likely adjournment this week. The Tennessee Journal first reported on Lamberth’s decision. Hundreds of children have packed the Tennessee Capitol this year to oppose the bill that takes aim at the protection established by the landmark 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Plyler v. Doe. That decades-old decision struck down a Texas law that sought to deny enrollment to any student not “legally admitted” into the country. The Republican-controlled Tennessee Senate has already passed a version of the bill, which would require proof of legal residence to enroll in public K-12 public schools and would give school districts the option — but not the requirement — of turning away students who fail to provide proper documentation or to charge them tuition. The House version, which remains idle in a subcommittee, differs by letting public schools check immigration status, rather than requiring it.

Florida Phoenix [4/21/2025 4:51 PM, Jackie Llanos] reports the federal government is blaming a U.S. citizen for his arrest during a traffic stop in Leon County last week under a temporarily blocked state immigration law. A senior official with the Department of Homeland Security said Monday that Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez, a 20-year-old born in Georgia, was detained Wednesday after he told a Florida Highway Patrol trooper that he was in the country illegally. The trooper charged Lopez-Gomez following a traffic stop with illegally entering the state as an "unauthorized alien," under a new state law that a federal judge temporarily suspended on April 4. Lopez-Gomez, released from Leon County jail Thursday evening, insists he told the trooper he was a U.S. citizen born in Georgia, handed over his Social Security card and Georgia ID, which meets federal security standards under the REAL ID Act of 2005. Although Attorney General James Uthmeier argues the federal prohibition on enforcement of the law, SB 4C, doesn’t apply to law enforcement, he sent a memo Friday to FHP, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, police chiefs, and sheriffs stating that they shouldn’t arrest or detain anyone under the suspended law. U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Williams extended her prohibition on the enforcement of Florida’s immigration law until April 29.

Yahoo.com [4/21/2025 7:03 PM, Sara Wilson, 430301K] reports the Colorado Senate approved a bill on Monday that would put data protections in place for immigrants and limit where federal immigration authorities can physically access without a warrant. The legislation comes in direct response to the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts. Senate Bill 25-276 passed on a 22-13 vote and now heads to the House for consideration in the final weeks of the legislative session. "The question of who actually gets to be an American, or who actually gets to be protected by the Constitution, is a matter of debate right now in this country and in this state. We’ve had conversations with teachers and with school districts that are concerned about students being too afraid to come to class and about parents being afraid to go to parent teacher conferences. We can do better than that," said bill sponsor Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Denver Democrat. The bill would prevent Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers from going into non-public spaces in jails, hospitals, schools and child care centers without a signed, valid warrant. An amendment on the Senate floor added libraries to that list of locations. It also clarifies that local law enforcement cannot cooperate with ICE to land a person in custody through a detainer request by holding that person in jail beyond their ordered release without a warrant. The bill also deals heavily with personally identifiable information, or data about a person that is not publicly available such as birthday, addresses, vehicle registration information and immigration status, which federal authorities might want access to in order to identify people to detain and deport. Local governments would not be allowed to share that type of information with ICE under the bill.

Yahoo.com [4/21/2025 8:03 AM, Sydnee Chapman, 430301K] reports Carlos Trujillo, a partner at Trujillo Acosta Law, poses for a photo outside his office in South Jordan on Thursday, April 17, 2025. The following story was reported by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project in partnership with Utah News Dispatch. Carlos Trujillo couldn’t sleep despite it being well past midnight. As both an immigrant and an immigration lawyer, Trujillo has been acutely tuned into the volatile nature of the Trump administration’s immigration policies. That night, in the early hours of April 11, as has often been the case lately, Trujillo’s mind drifted to worries about how the changes will impact his clients and what he can do to assist them. Those thoughts weren’t helped by an email that arrived in his inbox at 1 a.m. The opening line got straight to the point. "It is time for you to leave the United States," reads the email from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It ends with a promise: "The federal government will find you.” Trujillo initially assumed the email was for one of his clients. Then he realized the only name on the email was his own. "I was in a little bit of a shock," said Trujillo, who became a citizen over a decade ago. "I was like, why is this happening?". Carlos Trujillo, a partner at Trujillo Acosta Law, shows an email he received from the Department of Homeland Security telling him to leave the country at his office in South Jordan on Thursday, April 17, 2025. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch). Trujillo is one of several U.S. citizens on the receiving end of what appears to have been a mass email campaign. The emails stated that the recipients’ parole had been terminated. But Trujillo has never had immigration parole, which allows immigrants to temporarily remain and, in some cases, work in the country. It is separate from the kind of parole used in a criminal justice context. Immigration lawyers in Massachusetts, Ohio, Arizona, Michigan and Pennsylvania, as well as a doctor in Connecticut — all of whom are also citizens — reported receiving the same email as Trujillo. Customs and Border Patrol said in a statement that it used the "known email addresses" of immigrants to send the notices, which it acknowledged could have included immigration attorneys’ emails. "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 statement reads. "CBP is monitoring communications and will address any issues on a case-by-case basis.” To Trujillo, the motivation behind the emails is clear. "This is part of a new practice, and the practice is to instill fear in the Latino or the minority communities," Trujillo said. "Why am I a part of the email? Was it a mistake? Was it that I am born and raised in Venezuela? I don’t know. It could be, because I know there have been mistaken communications by DHS, but because I don’t know — that unknown makes you worry."

FOX News [4/21/2025 1:59 PM, Pilar Arias, 46189K] reports that a New Mexico judge resigned from the bench after an alleged Tren de Aragua gang member was arrested at his home. Doña Ana County Magistrate Judge Joel Cano’s resignation letter is dated March 3, but a spokesman for the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) told Fox News Digital it was not received by the Supreme Court and 3rd Judicial District Court until March 31. Back in January, Homeland Security Investigations Las Cruces began looking into Venezuelan native Cristhian Ortega-Lopez, "an illegal alien from Venezuela and a suspected member of a criminal gang" who was "residing with other illegal aliens" and "in possession of firearms," according to court documents obtained by Fox News Digital. On Feb. 28, two search warrants were executed at a home investigators identified as owned by Cano’s wife, Nancy Cano. Ortega-Lopez and his roommates were taken into custody, and agents "seized four firearms from April Cano’s residence." April Cano is the daughter of Nancy and Joel, court documents state. Ortega-Lopez was found by investigators posing with weapons in social media posts, some of which he said were owned by April Cano, who "allowed him to hold and sometimes shoot various firearms." Ortega-Lopez admitted to illegally entering the U.S. from Mexico in December 2023, according to court documents. He allegedly told investigators he was living in an El Paso apartment with five others when he met Nancy Cano "to install a glass door for her." "He continued to do a few jobs for Nancy Cano, and after being evicted from the apartment in April, 2024, Nancy Cano offered her ‘casita’ in the back of the residence she shared with her husband Joel Cano," court documents state.

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Blaze [4/21/2025 1:27 PM, Cortney Weil, 1668K]
Daily Wire [4/21/2025 5:02 AM, Hank Berrien, 4672K]

Univision [4/21/2025 3:45 PM, Staff, 5325K] reports José Hermosillo, 19, was not carrying his immigration documents when he was arrested by immigration agents in or near Nogales, Arizona, on April 8. Court records reviewed by Univision News indicate he had admitted to illegally entering the United States from Mexico on April 7. But a report by local public radio station AZPM tells a different story. The radio station reports that Hermosillo, a Mexican-American resident of Albuquerque, was visiting family in Tucson, Arizona, with his girlfriend. They say he got lost while walking near the Border Patrol station and was arrested when he couldn’t show his documents when asked. He didn’t have them on him. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin wrote on her social media account on Monday that Hermosillo told the agents who found him on April 8 that "he wanted to turn himself in." She said he claimed in a sworn statement that he was Mexican and had entered the country illegally. The charges were dropped, and he was released. Hermosillo’s case was closed by the court on April 17 after a court hearing and his subsequent release.

Reuters [4/21/2025 11:21 AM, Staff, 41523K] reports four Democratic U.S. representatives arrived in El Salvador on Monday hoping to compel the Trump administration to release Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man mistakenly deported and now held in a notorious prison in that country. U.S. Representatives Maxwell Frost of Florida, Robert Garcia of California, Yassamin Ansari of Arizona and Maxine Dexter of Oregon are in El Salvador to facilitate Garcia’s return to the United States, they said in a statement. "Donald Trump and his administration are running a government-funded kidnapping program – illegally arresting, jailing, and deporting innocent people with zero due process," Frost said in the statement. The U.S. government sent Abrego Garcia, 29, to El Salvador on March 15 despite an order protecting him from deportation to El Salvador. Abrego Garcia left El Salvador at age 16 to escape gang-related violence, his lawyers said. He has never been charged with or convicted of any crime. The U.S. Supreme Court directed the Trump administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return, after Washington acknowledged he was deported to El Salvador due to an administrative error. The Trump administration says Abrego Garcia belongs to the criminal gang MS-13, but his lawyers have denied the allegation. UPI [4/21/2025 12:38 PM, Ian Stark, 1500K] reports Garcia said in a press release Monday that the four have also made the journey to "remind the American people that kidnapping immigrants and deporting them without due process is not how we do things in America." "We are in a constitutional crisis," Ansari posted to X Monday. "I’m in El Salvador to shine a light on Kilmar’s story and keep the pressure on Donald Trump to secure his safe return home." Despite the Supreme Court order that the United States "facilitate" Abrego Garcia’s return, the White House has continued to claim that he is a gang member. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin purported in a press release Friday that Abrego Garcia is an "MS-13 gang member, illegal alien from El Salvador, and suspected human trafficker," though he was never charged or jailed over these allegations. The AP [4/21/2025 7:04 AM, Matt Brown, 48304K] reports that the quartet’s trip comes after Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland traveled to El Salvador last week and met Abrego Garcia and Salvadoran officials. Abrego Garcia had lived in Maryland with his wife and three children, who are American citizens, before he was deported on March 15. Abrego Garcia’s protected legal status prohibited him from being deported to El Salvador. He was deported on one of three planes filled with alleged migrant gang members. Garcia said he and Frost sent a letter last week to House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., requesting that an official delegation go to El Salvador to investigate Abrego Garcia’s condition and push for his return, but received no response. Ansari said more Democrats would be traveling to El Salvador in the coming days and weeks. "Those of us in the House who are here greatly admire and support what Sen. Van Hollen did," Garcia said. Of Abrego Garcia, he said, "His family knew that he was safe, but he’s not home, and so we’ve got to continue the pressure, and we’ve got to ensure that the rule of law in the United States is allowed.” Justice Department lawyers said in court last week that they have no power to advance Abrego Garcia’s return because he is in a foreign country’s custody. Administration officials also claimed in public comments that Abrego Garcia was engaged in human trafficking and terrorism and therefore correctly deported. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that if Abrego Garcia were to return to the U.S., "he would immediately be deported again.” Van Hollen unsuccessfully lobbied the Salvadoran government for Abrego Garcia’s return. He told NBC’s "Meet the Press" on Sunday that the United States is facing a "constitutional crisis" if the Trump administration does not follow the Supreme Court’s order to push to bring Abrego Garcia back.

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New York Times [4/21/2025 6:00 AM, Robert Jimison and Annie Correal, 145325K]
Washington Post [4/21/2025 6:00 AM, Marianna Sotomayor, 31735K]
NPR [4/21/2025 6:00 AM, Luke Garrett, 29983K]
Breitbart [4/21/2025 5:04 PM, Olivia Rondeau, 2923K]
Breitbart [4/21/2025 4:35 PM, John Binder, 2923K]
CBS News [4/21/2025 3:50 PM, Kaia Hubbard, 51661K]
Washington Examiner [4/21/2025 9:45 AM, Jenny Goldsberry, 2296K]

Daily Caller [4/21/2025 10:47 AM, Jason Hopkins, 1082K] reports that four Democrats landed Monday in El Salvador in support of a deported illegal migrant accused of beating his wife and being an MS-13 gang member. Democrat Reps. Robert Garcia of California, Yassamin Ansari of Arizona, Maxwell Frost of Florida and Maxine Dexter of Oregon traveled to the Central American country to demand the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, according to a press release by the lawmakers. The trip is the latest back-and-forth between the Trump administration and congressional Democrats, who have vehemently demanded Abrego Garcia be brought back into the United States. "Donald Trump and his Administration are running a government-funded kidnapping program – illegally arresting, jailing, and deporting innocent people with zero due process," Frost claimed in a prepared statement. "Kilmar Abrego Garcia is Trump’s latest victim.” "We cannot and will not let Donald Trump get away with this," Frost continued. The congressional trip follows a recent visit by Maryland Democrat Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who was able to speak with Abrego Garcia in person and has vowed to keep fighting for his return.

Reuters [4/21/2025 1:36 PM, Staff, 41523K] reports that El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele proposed a deal on Sunday to send 252 Venezuelans deported by the United States and imprisoned in his country back to Venezuela in exchange for the release of detainees in the South American nation, a suggestion roundly rejected by the Venezuelan government. Many lawyers and relatives of the Venezuelans detained in El Salvador claim they were not gang members and were denied due process. The U.S. Supreme Court on Saturday temporarily barred the Trump administration from deporting a similar group. Although Bukele in his post on X called the people detained in Venezuela political prisoners, the Venezuelan government has consistently denied that it detains people for political reasons and argues, usually without providing evidence, that activists and opposition members are planning attacks against the country. Human rights groups and lawyers have denied the charges against those mentioned by Bukele and reported that they lack private defense and are experiencing delays in their court hearings.

Wall Street Journal [4/21/2025 5:16 PM, Staff, 646K] reports no doubt the Beltway press would love to knock Pete Hegseth out as Defense secretary, but that doesn’t come close to explaining the mess at the Pentagon. The staff infighting, dismissals, and leaks over Signal app chats look to be the self-inflicted mistakes of a management neophyte. Three advisers were dismissed last week and hit social media to claim ill-treatment. Another departed adviser published an account of what he called “a month of total chaos at the Pentagon” in Politico. According to multiple media accounts, Mr. Hegseth ran a chat on the Signal messaging app that discussed a military strike and included his wife and other associates. Sen. Tom Cotton quipped on social media that President Trump won’t be taking staffing advice from Politico, and that is for sure. Mr. Hegseth was typically dismissive. “A few leakers get fired and suddenly a bunch of hit pieces come out, from the same media that peddled the Russia hoax,” Mr. Hegseth said Monday. But the media didn’t make up the staff turmoil, or the embarrassing Signal chat that Mr. Hegseth didn’t deny. Can you imagine Bob Gates talking about a military strike on an app with friends and family? All of this is news because it relates to whether Mr. Hegseth can handle the job. As GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell warned in voting against Mr. Hegseth’s confirmation, the desire to be a change agent isn’t a sufficient credential to run the giant Pentagon bureaucracy. If Mr. Hegseth is wise, he’ll use the staff shakeup to hire some loyal grownups who know the building, instead of the self-promoting isolationists he first brought in. What is harder to know is how much these first two months on the job have hurt Mr. Hegseth’s credibility inside the military. His calling card is enforcing high standards and accountability at every military level. He’s relieved several general officers to make his point, sometimes firing indiscriminately without checking his scope. Is the secretary accountable himself? President Trump gave Mr. Hegseth a vote of public confidence Monday. But it’s no credit to either man that the Defense chief has spent his first weeks in office validating the confirmation concerns of his critics.

The Hill [4/21/2025 7:00 AM, Becket Adams, 12829K] reports is there anything more useless than a journalist who deliberately muddles crucial facts? Perhaps a four-cornered wheel? The latest example of our press being supremely unhelpful comes in the form of one Salvadoran national named Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whom ICE officials and deported to a Salvadoran prison earlier this year, against orders from a U.S. court. The details of the case are complicated, both legally and morally, and, unfortunately, we don’t have a meticulous and thoughtful media to help readers develop informed opinions, giving them accurate descriptions and addressing obvious questions. No one could blame you if your first brush with the coverage of Garcia’s story left you with the impression that the Trump administration had wrongly arrested and deported a U.S. citizen. Our media bizarrely insist on referring to Garcia, a Salvadoran national, as a "Maryland man." But he is not a "Maryland man." He is a Salvadoran national who has been living in the U.S. illegally since 2011, most recently residing in the state of Maryland. Yet you’d hardly know this from casually following the news. The unwillingness to distinguish between lawful and unlawful immigration — or perhaps the inability to do so, based on political changes to journalistic style guides — seems to have corrupted the media’s ability to tell this story at all. "Outrage grows over Maryland man’s mistaken deportation to El Salvador prison," reported the Associated Press. Said New York Times, "U.S. Renews Opposition to Bringing Back Maryland Man Wrongly Deported to El Salvador.” "Bukele rejects returning Maryland man Trump officials mistakenly deported," reported Washington Post. If one didn’t know any better, one would assume that this story was about bureaucratic incompetence or even racial profiling, resulting in the arrest and deportation of a Hispanic U.S. citizen. This "Maryland man" tick is neither new nor exclusive to the Garcia case. Our press has previously deployed "Indiana man" to describe an undocumented 43-year-old Mexican national. It has used "Athens man" to describe the Venezuelan national who murdered University of Georgia student Laken Riley. Also, a personal favorite: Members of the press have used "ice cream man" to refer to a 71-year-old Lebanese national and suspected war criminal. It is as funny as it is nonsensical. For perspective, consider the case of U.S. "influencer" Sam Jones, who called down the collective wrath of Australia earlier this year after she forcibly removed a baby wombat from its mother. Australian authorities threatened Jones with immediate deportation. Rather than go through the rigmarole of legal removal, Jones fled the country. Now, let’s pretend Jones had insisted on staying, residing in Toowoomba. It’d be crazy for those covering the wombat story, including the threats of deportation, to refer to Jones as a "Toowoomba woman," right? The media were not so wedded to her having a natural right to reside in Australia. Instead, headlines from New York Times to Washington Post to the Associated Press accurately and succinctly referred to Jones as an "American," because she is an American national. Why, then, do these same organizations insist on referring to a Salvadoran national as a "Maryland man?" Why "Athens man" for a Venezuelan national? Why "ice cream man" for a Lebanese national?

The Hill [4/21/2025 12:30 PM, Harlan Ullman, 12829K] reports that most people turn off when they hear terms like "national security strategy." In some ways, this rather esoteric use of language is purposely made obscure so that only so-called "experts" can debate and talk or write about it. But national security affects all of us and thus must be of great concern. Since the end of World War II and the start of the Cold War, national security strategy rested on three simple principles. The first was a strong economy; the second was a system of alliances and allies determined to defend themselves against a common enemy — in the first instance, the Soviet Union. Third, and especially in a thermonuclear age when war could be existential to society, the capability to deter conflict. Left unsaid was what would be needed to fight and win a world war, assuming winning were possible. These basic principles made great sense. And while many lesser wars and conflicts were fought and not deterred around the world, world war between the West and the Soviet Union was prevented. Some believe that it was the military might of the U.S. and its allies that was responsible when, in fact, the irrational nature of the Soviet system could not be sustained. When Mikhail Gorbachev took the reins of power in 1986, he attempted to reform and modernize his country through perestroika(restructuring) and glasnost (openness).

New York Times [4/22/2025 3:21 AM, Yarimar Bonilla, 330K] reports that, during last week’s Holy Week observations, Puerto Rico was plunged once more into darkness. One image quickly went viral: a woman at a supermarket, plugging her respiratory machine into an outlet. A private act turned into a public indictment of a broken system. Like many in the Puerto Rican diaspora, I experienced the blackout from afar through dropped calls and frantic texts, part of an all-too-familiar loop of state failure. I stayed on the phone with my mom as night fell on Wednesday, hoping to ease her sense of abandonment. Near tears, she recalled how she had spent her life working multiple jobs, saving carefully as a single mother for a modest but dignified retirement. Now she was heating a meal on a camping stove she could barely light with her arthritic hands. “I don’t think I deserve this,” she said. She’s right. This isn’t the life Puerto Ricans were promised. The latest islandwide blackout is not just a technical failure; it is the most recent sign that Puerto Rico’s colonial bargain has collapsed. For over half a century, its commonwealth status — under U.S. federal control but lacking full political rights — was justified by promises of security, stability and the material comforts of modern life. But through storms and earthquakes, bankruptcy and blackouts, displacement and austerity, that promise has steadily unraveled. Each flicker of the failing power grid reveals a deeper truth: the waning promise of American empire, the hollow performance of local politicians and the growing conviction that Puerto Ricans must — and will — forge a different path. At her first news conference after the blackout, Puerto Rico’s newly elected governor, Jenniffer González-Colón, declared, “Puerto Rico cannot be the island where the power is constantly going out,” and cast herself as a mere inheritor of the island’s longstanding energy crisis. Yet, as a career politician, staunch Republican and public supporter of President Trump, she spent the past eight years as Puerto Rico’s nonvoting member of the U.S. House — a period defined by congressionally mandated financial austerity in the wake of the island’s 2015 debt default, failed disaster relief and the controversial privatization of the power grid. During this time, Puerto Rico has become exactly what she now decries. That was never supposed to be the deal. In 1952, as anticolonial movements arose worldwide, Puerto Rico was cast as a showcase of American-led progress through the creation of the commonwealth status. In exchange for limited self-rule, the island received paved roads, public schools, hospitals, industry and electricity reaching even the most remote mountain towns. Power lines and reinforced concrete came to symbolize a broader political promise: that under U.S. oversight, Puerto Rico would thrive.

Washington Post [4/21/2025 6:15 AM, Angela Shen and Jordan Schneider, 31735K] reports that, as President Donald Trump is escalating the competition with China, he risks handing it a generation-defining victory by cutting off America’s ability to recruit the best talent in the industries of the future. In the past month, roughly 1,400 international students and scholars have had their visas revoked or exchange records terminated. Students are being forced out for infractions as minor as dismissed traffic tickets with no link to antisemitism, protesting, criminal charges or anything else labeled a safety threat by the White House. With no clear logic or public explanation behind who is detained or deported, the result is a climate of confusion and fear. The administration is also threatening the admissions process, with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem warning she could block Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students entirely. Existing students are facing additional upheaval from the sudden freeze and elimination of research grants throughout the higher-education system. This newly chaotic environment jeopardizes a vital talent pipeline that underpins America’s technological edge — and that, if it isn’t fixed, will have deep repercussions for U.S.-China competition for decades to come. Foreign talent is a core contributor to the scientific discovery and technological progress that have upheld American leadership over the past century. International students make up about 42 percent of STEM PhD graduates in the United States, and rather than “stealing seats,” they are subsidizing Americans’ education by paying full tuition. Their presence generates revenue that sustains academic programs, lowers the trade deficit and funds financial aid that supports increased domestic enrollment. In recent years, about 75 percent of these students have been choosing to stay. And they have delivered when they do: One study by the National Bureau of Economic Research attributed 36 percent of American innovation (accounting for quantity, quality and value generated from patents, as well as spillover effects) in recent decades to immigrants. One-half of advanced STEM graduates working in the defense industrial base were born abroad, and 60 percent of top U.S. artificial intelligence companies were co-founded by immigrants — most of whom arrived on student visas. And far from taking jobs from Americans, immigrants with STEM education fill skill gaps in critical fields such as health care and technology and occupy complementary roles that support U.S.-born workers.

New York Post [4/21/2025 8:03 PM, Victor Nava, 54903K] reports the Trump administration reupped a $5 million reward Monday for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of Yulan Adonay Archaga Carías, the alleged leader of MS-13 in Honduras. Archaga Carías, who also goes by "Porky," directs several of the notoriously violent gang’s criminal activities, including drug trafficking, money laundering, murder and kidnappings, according to the State Department. The US government’s $5 million bounty for Archaga Carías was first offered in 2023 under the State Department’s Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program but is being highlighted once again as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to combat the gang, which earlier this year President Trump designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization. "This terrorist leader can no longer be allowed to live free as MS-13’s evil devastates communities in America and throughout the western hemisphere," Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. "If you can contribute information leading to his arrest – come forward now.” Targeting the gang and its leadership is one of the Trump administration’s top priorities, and FBI Director Kash Patel pledged Monday that Archaga Carías will eventually be captured. "Dismantling and ultimately eliminating MS-13 continues to be one of the FBI’s highest priorities, and we’re not stopping until that mission is complete," Patel said in a statement. "Alongside our dedicated law enforcement partners, the FBI will find Archaga Carías — a terrorist whose reign of terror at the helm of MS-13 is coming to an end.” The at-large Honduran gang leader – already one of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives – is also directly responsible for the importation of "large amounts" of cocaine into the US, the State Department said. Drug Enforcement Administration Acting Administrator Derek Maltz warned that anyone harboring Archaga Carías will also get taken down by the Trump administration. "With MS-13 now officially designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, the rules have changed — and so has the mission," Maltz said in a statement. "Archaga Carías isn’t just a fugitive — he’s a foreign terrorist waging war on innocent Americans through murder, trafficking, and terror.” "Let me be clear: under this Administration, we will dismantle MS-13 piece by piece — and anyone protecting him will fall with him. A $5 million reward is on the table. Turn him in. End this threat.” Archaga Carías, 43, was previously hit with federal racketeering, narcotics trafficking and firearms charges in a 2021 superseding indictment out of the Southern District of New York. Only one of the five MS-13 leaders, all Honduran nationals, charged in the New York indictment, is in US custody. "MS-13 remains one of the most dangerous criminal organizations in the world, and the recent designation of MS-13 as a Foreign Terrorist Organization underscores this reality," Acting US Attorney Matthew Podolsky for the Southern District of New York said in a statement. "This Office, working closely with our law enforcement partners, will continue to investigate, prosecute and track down MS-13’s leadership, no matter where in the world they may be hiding.”

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USA Today [4/21/2025 10:49 PM, Krystal Nurse, 75858K]
Telemundo [4/21/2025 11:03 PM, Staff, 171K]

Breitbart [4/21/2025 11:10 AM, Bob Price, 2923K] reports that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sent a simple message on Monday to members of the hyperviolent Venezuelan Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang, saying, "TdA’s time is up." The message follows the arrest of hundreds of known or suspected members of the Venezuelan gang. DHS officials posted a video on social media showing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations around the country targeting members of TdA. "TdA’s time is up," the message makes clear. Last week, a magistrate judge in Dona Ana County, New Mexico, was forced to resign after ICE officers arrested an alleged TdA gang member for illegal possession of firearms, Breitbart Texas reported. The judge and his wife reportedly allowed the Venezuelan illegal alien to reside on their property in Las Cruces. Police arrested Orgega-Lopez while executing a search warrant on February 28 at the home of Magistrate Judge Joel Cano and his wife, Nancy, the Albuquerque Journal. The report follows a detention hearing where prosecutors claim the illegal alien is a flight risk and an alleged Tren de Aragua gang member. Police in Polk and Osceola County, Florida, arrested five TdA gang members last week. The Venezuelan illegal aliens were alleged to be part of a TdA robbery crew, the sheriff said. "The suspects are linked to over three dozen retail thefts across the central Florida area in five judicial districts with total losses estimated at over $30,000," Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said.

Breitbart [4/21/2025 7:13 PM, John Binder, 2923K] reports President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration is successfully getting illegal aliens to self-deport from the United States, a concept once mocked by the establishment media. According to interviews with illegal aliens and immigration attorneys, published in the Los Angeles Times and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, many of the nation’s 11 million to 22 million illegal aliens are deciding to self-deport rather than face deportation under the Trump administration. "The more likely candidates for self-deportation are younger immigrants who arrived to the U.S. relatively recently and don’t yet have children. Anyone with deeper roots in the country is likely less mobile," the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported: According to [Stacy Ehrisman, an Atlanta-area immigration attorney], several of her clients have made the decision to leave. "They’ve just said, ‘I’m not going to live in fear,’ and returned home," she said. [Emphasis added]. The Los Angeles Times reported a similar trend where even in the sanctuary state of California, illegal aliens are deciding to return to their native countries rather than be deported by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). On Monday, Trump’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a nationwide ad campaign encouraging illegal aliens to self-deport from the U.S. "Child molesters. Rapists. Murderers. These are just a few of the illegal alien scumbags who have been fined, imprisoned, and deported thanks to President Trump," DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement.

The Hill [4/21/2025 1:30 PM, Mark Dow, 12829K] reports that on Friday in Vermont, District Court Judge William Sessions ordered that Rumeysa Ozturk be brought back from Louisiana for a hearing. She will still be in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Ozturk is the Turkish doctoral candidate in Child Study and Human Development at Tufts University in Boston whose student visa was revoked because of her support for Palestinians. As her case moves forward, it is important to remember why the judge had to make such a ruling. At a hearing last week, while Ozturk was detained far away, the lawyers spoke calmly. The judge thanked both sides for their professionalism, and the government’s extremism was almost hidden in the politeness. The government argues that even if Ozturk’s rights to free speech and due process were violated, the Vermont judge cannot hear her case and cannot order her release. (A hearing now scheduled for May would address the possibility of release on bail.). Ozturk’s lawyers had originally filed a habeas corpus petition in Massachusetts, where their client was arrested. The Massachusetts judge sent the case to Vermont because it turned out that Ozturk was in the government’s custody there — somewhere in a government vehicle — by the time the case was filed. The government didn’t want the case heard in Massachusetts or Vermont, near Ozturk’s lawyers, her community, her school and her work.

AP [4/21/2025 10:46 PM, Jake Offenhartz, 44742K] reports a New York judge has ordered city officials to temporarily halt a plan allowing federal immigration agents to operate within the Rikers Island jail complex ahead of a hearing later this week. In a written order Monday, Judge Mary Rosado barred the city from “taking any steps toward negotiating, signing, or implementing any Memorandum of Understanding with the federal government” before an April 25 hearing in a suit challenging the plan. That hearing will focus on a lawsuit brought last week by the New York City Council against Mayor Eric Adams that seeks to block his recent executive order permitting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies to maintain office space at the jail complex. The suit accuses Adams, a Democrat, of entering into a “corrupt quid pro quo bargain” with the Trump administration in exchange for the Justice Department dropping criminal charges against him. Adams has repeatedly denied making any deal with the administration over the criminal case. He has said the presence of ICE and other federal agencies within the jail complex will allow them to assist in gang and drug-related investigations but that they would have no role in civil immigration enforcement. A spokesperson for Adams said the city would not execute any agreement with the Trump administration ahead of the hearing. Adams previously announced he would deputize his first deputy mayor, Randy Mastro, to handle all decision-making on the return of ICE to Rikers Island in order to “ensure there was never even the appearance of any conflict.” Mastro said last week that discussions with the federal government over the plan were ongoing. ICE agents previously had a presence at the Rikers Island facility, which is on a hard-to-reach island in the East River. But they were effectively banned from operating there in 2014 under New York City’s sanctuary laws limiting cooperation with immigration enforcement. “The Council stands firm in our efforts to protect the rights and safety of all New Yorkers against attacks by the Trump administration and its agents,” said Julia Agos, a spokesperson for City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who is running for mayor. “We appreciate Judge Rosado’s decision to prevent any negotiation or execution on an agreement between the administration and federal agencies until this Friday’s hearing to ensure communities are protected.”

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New York Post [4/21/2025 1:08 PM, Craig McCarthy, 54903K]
Washington Examiner [4/21/2025 10:30 PM, Emily Hallas, 2296K]
Univision [4/21/2025 2:46 PM, Staff, 5325K]

Virginia Mercury [4/21/2025 6:10 PM, Markus Schmidt, 156K] reports a high-profile crackdown on immigration violations and gang activity in Virginia hit a milestone this week, as officials announced more than 500 arrests since the launch of the Virginia Homeland Security Task Force (VHSTF) in late February. But while Gov. Glenn Youngkin and federal partners hailed the operation as a national model, some researchers and critics warn that the data used to justify such crackdowns often paints an incomplete — and potentially misleading — picture. Launched through a partnership between the U.S. Department of Justice and Virginia, the VHSTF is a sprawling initiative involving more than 200 officers from agencies including the FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Virginia State Police and the Department of Corrections, among others. The task force has made 521 arrests to date, according to Youngkin’s office. Of those, 132 individuals were identified as gang-affiliated, including members of MS-13 and Tren de Aragua. “Thanks to the brave men and women of our federal and state law enforcement, more than 500 criminal illegal immigrants, including more than 130 gang-members, are off of Virginia’s streets and facing justice for their crimes,” Youngkin said in a statement Monday. “All Virginians should be proud. … What’s happening in Virginia is a model that should be replicated all across the country.” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi echoed that sentiment, calling the effort “the product of unprecedented collaboration” between state and federal law enforcement and praising the Youngkin administration’s alignment with President Donald Trump’s “Make America Safe Again” agenda. FBI Director Kash Patel said the task force’s early results had been “a tremendous success,” while ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons highlighted the expansion of ICE’s controversial 287(g) program in Virginia.

NBC News [4/21/2025 7:21 PM, Jean Lee, 44742K] reports a groundbreaking microscope at Harvard Medical School could lead to breakthroughs in cancer detection and research into longevity. But the scientist who developed computer scripts to read its images and unlock its full potential has been in an immigration detention center for two months — putting crucial scientific advancements at risk. The scientist, the 30-year-old Russian-born Kseniia Pertova, worked at Harvard’s renowned Kirschner Lab until her arrest at a Boston airport in mid-February. She is now being held at ICE’s Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe, Louisiana, and fighting possible deportation to Russia, where she said she fears persecution and jail time over her protests against the war in Ukraine. Petrova’s case and the detention of academics across the country has damaged the ability of universities in the United States to recruit and retain leading talent, experts and Petrova’s colleagues said. In fields where expertise is often highly specialized, the loss of talent could have dire consequences globally for the future of medicine and scientific discovery. Scientists and faculty members are planning to leave institutions across the country, legal experts said, because they’re worried that their visas could be revoked or that they could be swept up in immigration actions. "I would call it a grinding machine," Petrova, who spoke with NBC News from the Louisiana facility, said about being detained. "We are in this machine, and it doesn’t care if you have a visa, a green card, or any particular story. ... It just keeps going.” Petrova’s first immigration court hearing in Louisiana is scheduled for Tuesday morning. Her lawyer, Gregory Romanovsky, said that they expect to have more information on her asylum case after the hearing. Dr. Leon Peshkin, a principal research scientist at Harvard’s Department of Systems Biology and Petrova’s manager and mentor, received a call from Customs and Border Protection on Feb. 16 after agents detained Petrova at Logan International Airport in Boston for failing to declare samples of frog embryos to be used in scientific research. A DHS spokesperson told NBC News on Monday that Petrova had been "lawfully detained after lying to federal officers about carrying substances into the country.”

AP [4/21/2025 3:18 PM, Scott Bauer] reports guidance from the Democratic governor of Wisconsin’s administration to state employees about what to do if immigration officials or other federal agents show up at their workplace drew fire Monday from Republicans, who said it was in defiance of the law and President Donald Trump. The memo from Gov. Tony Evers’ administration sent Friday afternoon comes as Trump’s administration has ramped up efforts to deport people living in the country illegally, setting off a string of lawsuits and resistance among Democrats. Anne Hanson, deputy secretary at Evers’ Department of Administration, said in the email to state employees that the guidance was sent after receiving questions about how to respond if Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents or other federal agents show up at their workplace. Hanson, the Evers official, says that the guidance was offered similar to what other public entities have done.

New York Post [4/21/2025 12:56 PM, Anthony Blair, 54903K] reports that two Mexican nationals pulled over in a routine traffic stop in Colorado were found with 180,000 illegal rounds of ammunition in the back of their van, according to federal prosecutors. Caesar Ramon Martinez Solis, 41, and Humberto Ivan Amador Gavira, 24, were pulled over late last month for failing to dim their headlights and using a turn signal in Canon City, 35 miles southwest of Colorado Springs, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado. Officers then found 180 boxes stacked in the back of the van — each labeled as having 1,000 rounds of ammo, mostly .308 but also 30 boxes of 7.62, the feds said. The men, from Durango in Mexico, were in the US on nonimmigrant visas, according to an affidavit obtained by the Canon City Daily Record. After speaking to a translator, Solis, the driver, agreed to waive his rights and speak without an attorney to Homeland Security agents, the affidavit said. Solis and Gavira were both charged with unlawful possession of ammunition by aliens admitted under a nonimmigrant visa, the feds said. Both men were transported to a local Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility. Solis was hit with a further citation for operating an uninsured vehicle, transporting hazardous materials without a permit, improper use of auxiliary lighting, failure to dim his lights, operating a vehicle without license plate lamps and failing to use a turn signal. Gavira was also cited for aiding in the violation of hazardous materials laws. Their case is part of Operation Take Back America — a nationwide scheme that brings together the full resources of the Department of Justice to end illegal immigration, destroy drug cartels and transnational criminal organizations, and protect the American people from violent criminals.

NBC News [4/21/2025 10:19 AM, Minyvonne Burke and Joe Kottke, 44742K] reports that Immigration agents detained a U.S. citizen for 10 days after he was accused of illegally entering the United States while reportedly visiting Arizona this month, his family said. But the Department of Homeland Security said Jose Hermosillo’s arrest "was the direct result of Hermosillo’s own actions and statements." Hermosillo, 19, who lives in Albuquerque, was detained near Nogales, Arizona, on April 8, court documents say. They allege that he illegally entered the country from Mexico and was found "without the proper immigration documents." According to the court documents, Hermosillo "admitted to illegally entering the United States of America from Mexico on or about April 7, 2025." Arizona Public Media reported that Hermosillo and his girlfriend went to Tucson to visit family. The outlet reported that Hermosillo was lost and walking near Border Patrol headquarters when he was detained. He did not have identification on him and denied being in Nogales, according to Arizona Public Media. Tricia McLaughlin, spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said that "the narrative being pushed about Jose Hermosillo is false." McLaughlin said on X that Hermosillo approached Border Patrol agents in Tucson and said that he had illegally entered the country through Nogales and that wanted to turn himself in and complete "a sworn statement identifying as a Mexican citizen who had entered unlawfully." "He was processed and appeared in court on April 11. Afterward, he was held by the U.S. Marshals in Florence, AZ. A few days later, his family presented documents showing U.S. citizenship," McLaughlin said. "The charges were dismissed, and he was released to his family."

Yahoo News [4/21/2025 8:34 PM, Ashlie Rodriguez, 430301K] reports there’s more uproar over the Trump administration’s immigration policies, and this time it comes after the arrest of a man at the Tucson border. Initial reports said Jose Hermosillo, 19, was a U.S. citizen who was detained for 10 days just because he didn’t have his ID. His case got the attention of Arizona’s governor and attorney general. However, the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security says this narrative is false. Advocates aren’t buying it though, and say this is further proof Trump’s immigration policies are violating constitutional rights. Hermosillo’s family told the media the Albuquerque resident was arrested and taken away for 10 days because he didn’t have his ID at the Tucson border on April 8. "It’s appalling. It’s disheartening. It’s saddening. It’s sickening to see our rights being stripped away," said Randy Parraz, president of Organizing Institute for Democracy. "This is completely unacceptable. I will be in contact with @DHSgov and expect immediate answers for their wrongful detention of an American citizen," Gov. Katie Hobbs wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "My office has reached out to ICE for answers on how this was allowed to happen to an American citizen. It is wholly unacceptable to wrongfully detain US citizens," Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said. My office has reached out to ICE for answers on how this was allowed to happen to an American citizen. It is wholly unacceptable to wrongfully detain US citizens.
The Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) came back with its own statement, calling the reports a narrative, saying that Hermosillo approached border patrol saying he entered illegally and wanted to turn himself in. "Days later, his family presented documents showing proof of U.S. citizenship. The charges were dismissed and he was released. Mr. Hermosillo’s arrest and detention were a direct result of his own actions and statements," DHS said. On April 8, Jose Hermosillo approached Border Patrol in Tucson Arizona stating he had ILLEGALLY entered the U.S. and identified himself as a Mexican citizen. Border enforcement processed Mr. Hermosillo lawfully. "They’re taking action and asking questions later. Why are you talking to somebody if they haven’t done anything wrong to ask them for their ID?" Parraz said. The confusion over the arrest is only inflaming fears that U.S. citizens are being illegally detained without due process.

Source New Mexico [4/21/2025 4:11 PM, Austin Fisher] reports Arizona’s top state prosecutor is seeking more information about immigration officials’ arrest of a U.S. citizen from New Mexico earlier this month. A federal prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona on April 9 filed a criminal complaint against 19-year-old Jose Hermosillo, of Albuquerque. The complaint alleges that on April 8, immigration agents found Hermosillo "without proper immigration documents" near Nogales, Arizona. Arizona Public Media reports that Hermosillo and his girlfriend were visiting from Albuquerque to see family in Tucson, Arizona. The radio station reports that Hermosillo said he has never been to Nogales and that he was held in the Florence Correctional Center for 10 days. A few days after the U.S. Marshals took Hermosillo to Florence, his family presented documents showing his U.S. citizenship, according to a statement provided to Source on Monday in response to an emailed inquiry to its Office of Public Affairs email address. A federal judge dismissed the case on April 17, court records show. The DHS official said Hermosillo was then released to his family.

NewsMax [4/21/2025 10:53 PM, Nick Koutsobinas, 4998K] reports that, on Monday, United States District Judge Michael McShane issued a 14-day temporary restraining order blocking the federal government from deporting two University of Oregon students or having them transferred from the state, Oregon Live reported. McShane began the hearing by requesting federal lawyers to present reasons why the students’ legal status had been removed. "How is this occurring?" the judge asked. "There has to be some regulations for when it’s appropriate and not appropriate. What regulation is ICE following here?" Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Conti, representing the Department of Homeland Security, responded he didn’t have time to gather evidence. The American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon and an immigration law firm filed lawsuits against the Trump administration on behalf of the students: Aaron Ortega Gonzalez, a 32-year-old Mexican citizen pursuing a doctoral degree in rangeland ecology, and a 29-year-old British graduate student identified only as Jane Doe. The ACLU argued the students’ visas were terminated "without any notice or meaningful explanation."

FOX News [4/21/2025 4:20 PM, Louis Casiano, Brooke Taylor, 46189K] reports an Indian citizen who is one of the most wanted fugitives in his home country for his alleged connections with terrorist activities, including planning more than a dozen grenade attacks on police officials, has been arrested by immigration officials for being in the United States illegally. Harpreet Singh was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents last week, Fox News has learned. Singh entered the U.S. illegally on Jan. 27, 2022, in Arizona. He was arrested by a U.S. Border Patrol agent from Tucson’s sector, placed in removal proceedings, and then released into the interior of the country. He was arrested by ICE on April 16 in Sacramento, Calif., and will remain in ICE custody pending immigration proceedings. Singh is wanted in India over his alleged links to Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), a foreign terrorist organization that was created in the 1970s. The group has been involved in political assassinations and armed attacks and terrorist bombings to further its terrorist goals, authorities said. Singh allegedly provided terrorist funds, recruitment, and planning of a grenade attack on an Indian Police Station and on a retired Punjab police officer’s house with the intent to kill and instill fear among law enforcement officers. He is also wanted by the Indian government for multiple violent extortion and threatening operations in India. "The Biden Administration not only let a wanted terrorist into our country, but after he was arrested by Border Patrol agents, they released him into the interior of our country," said Tricia McLaughlin, the Homeland Security assistant secretary for public affairs. "While shocking, it’s not surprising given the Biden administration routinely released unvetted terrorists and criminals into American communities," she added. "Under President Trump and Secretary Noem’s leadership, ICE is unleashed to remove these violent criminals from America’s streets and put an end to catch and release. We will hunt down, arrest, and lock up foreign terrorists and criminals who have operated with impunity on American soil."

AP [4/22/2025 12:06 AM, David A. Lieb, 34586K] reports that, as drivers on U.S. highways cross from one state to another, they often are greeted by a large "Welcome to ...." sign. But not all drivers are welcome in every state. In Florida, motorists with special out-of-state driver’s licenses issued to those in the U.S. illegally are not welcome to drive. Wyoming’s governor enacted a comparable ban this year. And Tennessee’s governor said he will sign similar legislation sent to his desk recently. The message, though not literally printed on metal, is clear: "The sign says, `Welcome to Tennessee, illegal immigrants are not welcome,’" Tennessee House Majority Leader William Lamberth declared during debate. As President Donald Trump cracks down on illegal immigration, Republican lawmakers in many states are pushing new laws targeting people lacking legal status to live in the U.S. The measures contrast with policies in 19 other states and Washington, D.C., which issue driver’s licenses regardless of whether residents can prove their legal presence. The Justice Department is seeking to strike down one such law in New York, which shields its driver’s license data from federal immigration authorities. States are taking drastically different approaches to licensing drivers even as the federal government attempts to standardize the process. On May 7, the U.S. will start enforcing a law passed 20 years ago that sets national standards for state driver’s licenses to be accepted as proof of identity for adults entering certain federal facilities or traveling on domestic commercial flights. Licenses compliant with the REAL ID Act are marked with a star and require applicants to provide a Social Security number and proof of U.S. citizenship or legal residency.

DailySignal.com [4/21/2025 5:36 PM, Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell, 495K] reports the Trump administration may "soon" institute a plan for illegal immigrant farm workers to leave the country then return legally to work, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said Monday. Rollins hopes deals will be "struck pretty quickly" with foreign countries facing Trump administration tariffs so bailouts to farmers will be unnecessary.

NPR [4/21/2025 4:43 PM, Ximena Bustillo, 29983K] Audio: HERE reports employers hope to still get them Employers in the horse-racing industry rely heavily on workers with H-2B visas and are closely watching changes as they brace for staffing needs next season.

Reuters [4/21/2025 12:17 PM, Staff, 41523K] reports the fate of Yonathan Betancourt, a 28-year-old Venezuelan detained in the United States, remains uncertain after his reported transfer to El Salvador was suspended, a relative said. Betancourt’s brother, Juan, said Yonathan was taken to an airport on April 18 but returned the next morning to the Bluebonnet Detention Center in Texas. "They tried to force him to sign papers. He thought he was being sent to Venezuela, but it was El Salvador," Juan told Reuters. On Saturday, the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting another group of Venezuelan migrants accused of gang ties under a rarely used wartime law, issuing a stay after the American Civil Liberties Union asked the court to intervene on an emergency basis. Betancourt, a barber, entered the United States legally about 18 months ago and holds Temporary Protected Status until 2028, his brother said. He added that Yonathan was detained due to his tattoos but has no criminal record or ties to the Tren de Aragua gang targeted for deportation by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. On Sunday, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele proposed a prisoner exchange to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro involving 252 deported Venezuelans.

KTSM [4/21/2025 3:31 PM, Luisa Barrios] reports a 27-year-old wanted man out in Amarillo was arrested at the Paso Del Norte international crossing in El Paso on an outstanding warrant for charges of online solicitation of a minor, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a news release. The man, who was not identified by CBP, was recently featured as the Amarillo Crime Stoppers fugitive of the week, CBP said. According to Amarillo Crime Stoppers, the man was identified as Aurelio Ezequiel Cardenas and was wanted by the Potter County Sheriff’s Office for sex offenders’ duty to register. CBP said the arrest was made just after midnight on Monday, April 21, when the 27-year-old wanted man, a U.S. citizen, arrived as a pedestrian from Mexico. CBP said officers took the man into custody and confirmed the warrant details. He was turned over to the El Paso Police Department to await criminal proceedings. In addition to this arrest, CBP officers working at the El Paso ports made five other NCIC fugitive arrests Saturday and Sunday. Those people were being sought on a variety of charges to include assault, smuggling and human smuggling, according to the news release.

NewsMax [4/21/2025 8:10 PM, Jim Thomas, 4998K] reports Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff, called birthright citizenship "the biggest, costliest scam in financial history" in an interview Monday on Newsmax, just weeks ahead of a Supreme Court hearing on the issue. Miller criticized birthright citizenship on "Carl Higbie FRONTLINE," ahead of the court’s scheduled May hearing on President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to limit or redefine birthright citizenship. "An illegal alien can come here nine months pregnant or on a tourist visa, nine months pregnant, have a baby. That baby is then declared an automatic citizen, which then entitles the entire family to come here and live here," Miller said. "And every one of them can get welfare. Yes, they can get unlimited welfare. Applying as the custodian of this citizen, so-called child.” Miller argued that the current interpretation of the 14th Amendment is being misused in ways that place a significant financial and national security burden on the United States. He called birthright citizenship "the biggest financial rip-off of Americans in history, not to mention the fact that it is the number one magnet for illegal immigration and invasion.” MIller said foreign governments are also exploiting the policy for espionage purposes. "It is used by foreign governments to conduct espionage against the United States," he said. "Now we can keep out a foreign spy who has a visa, who’s trying to get permission to board an airplane. But what happens when a foreign government uses this ridiculous birthright scam in order to create automatic citizens who then grow up as assets of a foreign government? So it’s a major national security threat.” Miller also challenged the historical application of the 14th Amendment, arguing that its original intent has been misinterpreted. "The 14th Amendment, the provisions in question, were ratified for the children of freed slaves," he said. "You can go read the minutes of the debate. They were talking about the children of freed slaves after the Civil War. This was not meant to provide illegal alien children with automatic citizenship.”

Yahoo News [4/22/2025 12:31 AM, David Ferrara, 430301K] reports a University of Cincinnati international student is suing the Trump administration after his visa was revoked despite having never been convicted of a crime and spending more than a decade studying in the United States, according to a recent lawsuit. Jiarong Ouyang, a doctoral candidate in statistics at UC, is joining three other international students from China in suing the Department of Homeland Security for canceling their immigration status to study in the country, according to the federal lawsuit filed in California this month. Ouyang’s visa was revoked at the beginning of April, putting his degree and work on hold while he faces the risk of being deported. He’s the first of "a small number" of UC international students whose visas were revoked to come forward, and is joined by hundreds more students nationwide whose visas have been revoked in recent weeks. Ouyang and his peers want the court to force the Trump administration to reinstate their visas – and those of all international students in similar situations – so they can finish their studies. More: UC says ‘small number’ of international students whose visas were revoked had legal issues. UC and other schools across the country have said their international students have had visas revoked due to legal issues, ranging from minor traffic infractions to criminal charges. Federal officials affirmed this, saying in court documents they revoked Ouyang’s visa because he was identified in criminal records after a 2019 domestic violence arrest. The charge was later dropped, and Ouyang was never convicted. After being arrested, Ouyang’s visa was revoked, but he was able to legally stay in the country, court documents show. He later applied for a new visa and was approved. Ouyang and his attorneys in California did not respond to requests for comment from The Enquirer. ‘Overwhelming setback’ for student who has studied in the US since 2012. A graduate assistant at Cincinnati Children’s, Ouyang has been studying in the United States since 2012, when he enrolled at the University of California, Riverside, for his bachelor’s degree in computing statistics, the lawsuit says. He earned that degree and a master of science in applied statistics in California before coming to Cincinnati to study for his doctorate in statistics. He has already had one co-authored journal article, a notable milestone for those in academia. Last year, he was awarded by the local chapter of the American Statistical Association for his contributions to the field.

Yahoo News [4/21/2025 8:27 PM, Taryn Simmons, 430301K] reports families are concerned that their loved ones may be deported after the Trump administration threw out protections for Haitians— as some of them came to the United States to escape violence. A woman from Fowlerville, who spoke to 6 News on the condition of anonymity, says her daughter-in-law’s sisters are under temporary protected status (TPS) and reside in California. This status allows people to work within the United States and protects them from deportation back to their home country if it’s unsafe to return. She says that her family tried for ten years to get her daughters-in-law approved for permanent residency in Canada and work toward getting their citizenship, but they were denied. Then, the United States granted Haitian migrants temporary protected status because of the violence in their country. The woman’s family members were approved and came to the United States in 2023. However, after taking office, Trump promised to deport many noncitizens and revoked the Biden-era expansion of TPS. A U.S. judge recently ruled against these changes, blocking them for the time being, but many Haitians are still worried. "Where are they gonna go? Where are they gonna live? Where are they gonna work? There’s no jobs," said the woman. "The entire country, especially Port-au-Prince, where they work, is overrun by street gangs.” Many are worried they may be forced to go back to the war-torn country. "My one daughter-in-law, she worked at the University, and one day they were getting ready to go home. Her boss offered to give her a ride home, and she said ‘Sure,’" said the woman. "So, they were going to get into the car when a street gang came up. One of the men held a gun to her head, and told her boss ‘You’re coming with us, and she’s coming with us, and I’m taking the car.’". While TPS gives people legal authority to live in the United States, but it doesn’t grant them citizenship. People under TPS are reliant on the government to renew their status once it expires.

NBC News [4/21/2025 5:10 PM, Kimmy Yam, 44742K] reports a Brigham Young University student from Japan discovered that his visa was reinstated last week after it had been abruptly revoked a few weeks ago, his attorney told NBC News. Suguru Onda, a doctoral student and father of five, had received a notice from government officials that his legal status was terminated because he was "identified in criminal records check and/or has had their VISA revoked." Adam Crayk, his attorney, told the NBC News affiliate KSL-TV in Salt Lake City that Onda has no record aside from a few speeding tickets and a fishing-related citation, and that he believes AI software likely mistakenly terminated the visa. But he’s been given little explanation for the reversal. The attorney told KSL that he suspects officials are not thoroughly checking the names that are being pulled by the AI software.

Yahoo News [4/21/2025 5:25 PM, Nick Longworth, 430301K] reports a lawsuit filed on behalf of five Concordia University post-grad students in St. Paul alleges that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revoked their F-1 student status without warning or any "meaningful explanation.” According to the filing on April 21, on behalf of Salma Rameez Shaik, Akhil Pothuraju, Nithish Babu Challa, Shyam Vardhan Reddy Yarkareddy, and Almas Abdul – they were informed by the school of their status termination from the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), which leaves them without lawful status to remain in the U.S. Concordia University instructed them to "stop working immediately and to consider leaving the country," the lawsuit alleges. Collectively, the students challenge the "arbitrary and lawless" termination of their F-1 student status, saying that being provided no notice to object violated due process under the Fifth Amendment, and that the government had no grounds to terminate them. According to the lawsuit, Concordia notified the students of the status revocation in an email that stated, "the U.S. government believes you have violated your status" while also encouraging its recipients to "consult with an immigration attorney immediately.” All five students range from 24 to 27 years old and were either studying or interning for companies in the information technology and management fields. As part of their post-grad training they worked or interned at jobs directly relevant to their degree, in time "becoming Minnesota community members" and "contributing valuable skills to American companies," the lawsuit states. However, the lawsuit alleges the "timing and uniformity of these terminations leave little question that DHS has adopted a nationwide policy, whether written or not, of mass termination of student status.” An F-1 student visa refers only to the document that non-citizen students receive to enter the U.S., while an F-1 student status refers to students’ official immigration classification once they enter. An academic institution must obtain formal approval from DHS before it can sponsor a student’s F-1 status. There have been 10 such immigration lawsuits filed in Minnesota since January 30.

Reuters [4/21/2025 10:36 PM, Liz Lee and Larissa Liao, 41523K] reports that, when 25-year-old biology student Yao’s PhD program enrollment was deferred due to funding cuts at her U.S. university, she joined a growing list of Chinese students exploring other destinations. Visa revocations and university funding cuts by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump have become a source of anxiety for international students. Those from China face additional challenges due to Washington’s trade war with Beijing and the increasing vilification of Chinese citizens, students and industry insiders said. "I used to think politics was far away from me, but this year I really felt the impact of politics on international students," Chicago-based Yao said, declining to give the name of her prospective university. China had accounted for the biggest international student body in the U.S. for 15 years, until it was overtaken by India last year. The economic impact of Chinese students on the American economy was $14.3 billion in 2023, according to Open Doors data. But within the United States, the community has been portrayed as a national security threat - likened to spies sent across by the Chinese Communist Party - and threatened with proposed legislation that could bar them from universities. Reuters spoke to 15 Chinese students, eight of whom were in the U.S., who said the compounded issues have spiked safety concerns and intensified financial constraints, forcing them to rethink their American dream. Since Trump returned to the White House, more than 4,700 students have been deleted from a U.S. immigration database, making them vulnerable to deportation. Chinese students have accounted for 14% of 327 visa revocation reports collected so far by the American Immigration Lawyers Association. China’s foreign ministry urged the U.S. to "stop brandishing national security as a false pretext" for discriminatory and restrictive measures targeting its students. Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have also proposed the "Stop Chinese Communist Prying by Vindicating Intellectual Safeguards in Academia Act" that would halt student visas for Chinese nationals. New York-based non-profit Committee of 100, a grouping of prominent Chinese Americans, has said the bill betrays American values and weakens the U.S.’s leadership in science, technology and innovation. Duke University Professor Chen Yiran said the idea that Chinese students rush home to help Beijing compete with the U.S. was a fallacy. "Most of them still want to stay in the U.S.," Chen said. "They’re from middle-class families, they pay the millions (in yuan) for these few years, they want to get the investment back.”

New York Post [4/21/2025 1:43 PM, Jennie Taer, 54903K] reports that illegal crossings along the busiest section of the US-Canadian border — which encompasses parts of New York, Vermont and New Hampshire — have plummeted thanks to President Trump’s immigration crackdown. Just 54 migrants were apprehended in the Swanton sector, which stretches almost 300 miles, in March. It is a drastic 95% drop from the 1,109 border crossers caught in March 2024, according to US Customs and Border Protection. This area recorded more than 80% of all apprehensions along the northern border during the 2024 fiscal year, according to CBP figures. Stark before-and-after photos posted by Swanton sector Border Patrol chief Robert Garcia on X on Monday show lines of migrants carrying backpacks traversing the woods a year ago, versus a lone deer grazing in the same spot now. Under the Biden administration, illegal crossings at the northern border hit record highs as migrants were being released into the US en masse. In the Swanton sector, more than 1,400 border crossers were caught in April 2024 — eclipsing the totals from fiscal years 2021 and 2022 combined, according to CBP figures. When Trump returned to the White House, he ended the previous administration’s use of the problematic "catch and release" border policy and commenced a mass deportation effort.

NewsMax [4/21/2025 4:34 PM, Solange Reyner, 4998K] reports illegal migration at the U.S.-Mexico border has decreased by 97% and illegal drug activity by 60% or more since President Donald Trump took office, Air Force Gen. Gregory Guillot told Newsmax. Stopping the cartels has been a challenge, he said, but his team has handled it.

NPR [4/21/2025 4:02 PM, Joe Hernandez, 29983K] reports the global shipping company DHL says it will stop shipping packages over $800 in value to U.S. consumers in response to new, more stringent U.S. customs rules. The carrier cited the 10% tariffs implemented by the Trump administration in early April, which it says had the effect of subjecting parcels worth over $800 to increased scrutiny by U.S. customs inspectors. That has led to shipping backlogs, DHL said. DHL said its new temporary policy, which took effect on Monday, would apply to packages of over $800 sent from any foreign country to U.S. consumers. The company said it will continue to ship business-to-business packages valued over $800 to U.S. companies, but those shipments may face delays.

SFGate [4/21/2025 12:49 PM, Alejandro Serrano, 12335K] reports that Texas’ massive, multibillion-dollar mission to reinforce its border with Mexico helped Terrell County Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland hire two full-time deputies and three part-timers. It gave him the money to buy equipment and new vehicles. In the lawman’s words, it "kept us alive" as the number of illegal border crossings skyrocketed under the Biden administration to record highs. And Cleveland, who became sheriff after 26 years as a Border Patrol agent, still has needs. He said he hopes and prays to be able to hire more deputies. But he also has worries about the state plowing billions of more taxpayer dollars into border security as the border gets quieter and quieter — and President Donald Trump vows mass deportations of undocumented immigrants living throughout the country. "With President Trump being in the White House, I would foresee the federal government spending more money. The state Legislature surely shouldn’t have to spend that much more money," he said in an interview. "Why are we asking (for) that?" Three hundred and thirty-five miles east of Terrell County, state lawmakers and leaders in Austin are asking for just that. As the Legislature irons out the details of the state’s spending plan for the next two years, $6.5 billion for border security has sailed through both chambers with little fanfare. If approved, the appropriation would increase the tab for the state’s border security spending to nearly $18 billion since 2021, when Gov. Greg Abbott began the state’s own crackdown, Operation Lone Star, in response to the Biden administration’s immigration policies.

Telemundo Amarillo [4/21/2025 5:46 PM, Nelly Ramirez, 2K] reports U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers working at the Paso del Norte international crossing in El Paso arrested a man who was wanted by police in Amarillo. Amarillo police have been searching for Aurelio Cárdenas since January. He is believed to have been with a missing 2-year-old boy and the boy’s mother. In March, the boy was found at a border crossing station in El Paso. However, Cardenas was not found on this date. Just after midnight today, officers caught Cardenas as he tried to return to the United States from Mexico. Officers conducting their primary inspection received an alert from the National Crime Information Centre that they were searching for him in Amarillo. The officers arrested him and he was handed over to the El Paso Police Department to wait for criminal proceedings. The CBP inspection process routinely identifies people fleeing law enforcement, said CBP El Paso port director Ray Provencio.

Reported similarly:
Telemundo 48 El Paso [4/21/2025 5:03 PM, Staff, 11K]

Washington Examiner [4/21/2025 10:59 PM, Emily Hallas, 2296K] reports the U.S. Army’s authority was expanded in parts of New Mexico to target illegal immigration. The Department of Defense declared a 60-foot-wide zone of New Mexico land that runs along the U.S.-Mexico border is now part of Arizona’s Fort Huachuca. The change allows the Army’s U.S. Northern Command additional powers to target illegal immigrants on military territory, according to a DOD press release on Monday. U.S. Northern Command is the military’s operational lead to carry out President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border. "Through these enhanced authorities, U.S. Northern Command will ensure those who illegally trespass in the New Mexico National Defense Area are handed over to Customs and Border Protection or our other law enforcement partners," Gen. Gregory Guillot, USNORTHCOM commander, said in a statement. "Joint Task Force-Southern Border will conduct enhanced detection and monitoring, which will include vehicle and foot patrols, rotary wing, and fixed surveillance site operations.” Now that the shift is being made, Army troops will be allowed to further assist U.S. Customs and Border Protection in patrolling their areas and stop any illegal activity at the border. Once notified by troops, Border Patrol agents will arrest whomever has been detained by the Army, a CBP spokesperson told a local news outlet. The latest expansion of the Army’s powers comes as part of Trump’s executive order allowing the military to occupy public land spanning three border states in a bid to advance his administration’s crackdown on illegal border crossings. The public land to be handed over "for the use and jurisdiction by the Department of Defense" includes the Roosevelt Reservation, which borders Mexico and covers parts of Arizona and New Mexico. The land now declared by the DOD to be part of Fort Huachuca was part of the Roosevelt Reservation.

Reported similarly:
FOX News [4/21/2025 5:30 PM, Louis Casiano, 46189K]

NewsNation [4/21/2025 5:15 PM, Patrick Djordjevic, 6866K] reports a Mexican man with links to the notorious Jalisco cartel has been found guilty of trafficking hundreds of pounds of fentanyl, methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine into the states of Washington and Montana. Luis Esquivel-Bolanos, 45, was found guilty of several drug trafficking and firearms charges after a unanimous verdict from a federal jury, per a U.S. Attorney’s Office Eastern District of Washington release. He will be sentenced July 16 with life imprisonment and removal from the U.S. both possibilities. Evidence presented at the trial alleges Esquivel-Bolanos said the Jalisco cartel, which provided him with the drugs, would kill an informant. Per the release, a raid led to the seizure of more than 160,000 fentanyl pills, 80 pounds of methamphetamine, 6 pounds of heroin and 2 pounds of cocaine. In addition, 12 firearms were confiscated.

NewsNation [4/21/2025 12:09 PM, Amber Coakley, 6866K] reports that according to the Department of Justice, a Houston man was sentenced in federal court Friday for smuggling endangered baby Mexican spider monkeys into the United States. Sarmad Ghaled Dafar, 33, was handed down a four-month stay in custody, followed by 180 days of home confinement. He was also ordered to pay $23,501.70 in restitution for the cost of quarantining three of the trafficked monkeys at the San Diego Zoo. According to court records, Dafar orchestrated the illegal trafficking of six protected baby Mexican spider monkeys from Mexico to the U.S. between June 2022 and August 2023. He communicated with suppliers, arranged the smuggling, received the animals once they crossed the border, and offered them for sale via Facebook messages. Following their seizure and quarantine, the three baby spider monkeys—now named Chrissy, Jack and Janet—were transferred to the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. They’ve since joined a group that includes Frankee and Bucees, two spider monkeys rescued from a separate border smuggling case.

USA Today [4/21/2025 12:12 PM, Zach Wichter, 75858K] reports that a pair of German teenagers was turned away at the border in Honolulu last month because they were unable to present lodging confirmation to Customs and Border Protection officers. The incident was first reported by Ostsee-Zeitung, a major German daily newspaper. According to the paper, Charlotte Pohl, 19, and Maria Lepere, 18, arrived in Honolulu without hotel reservations for their planned five-week stay on the island. Although both travelers had approval to travel to the U.S. from the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), that does not guarantee entry into the country. Customs and Border Protection said officials acted properly based on the situation. "These travelers were denied entry after attempting to enter the U.S. under false pretenses. One used a Visitor visa, the other the Visa Waiver Program," CBP Assistant Commissioner Hilton Beckham said in a statement. "Both claimed they were touring California but later admitted they intended to work – something strictly prohibited under U.S. immigration laws for these visas." It’s not unusual for arriving visitors, or even permanent U.S. residents or citizens, to have to attest to their accommodations at the border. Other countries similarly require proof of lodging, or at least an address, on entry paperwork at the border.

Reported similarly:
New York Post [4/21/2025 4:36 PM, Alex Oliveira, 54903K]
Yahoo.com [4/21/2025 8:23 AM, James Liddell, 430301K]

CBS News [4/21/2025 6:18 PM, Kris Van Cleave and Taylor Johnston, 51661K] reports in less than a month, Americans and permanent residents will only be able to pass through airport security or enter a federal government building if they have a Real ID. Most states are not yet fully compliant, though they’ve had 18 years to prepare for this deadline. A CBS News data analysis conducted from April 7-18 found that at least 16 states are less than 50% compliant with the law, which goes into effect May 7. The Transportation Security Administration currently plans to treat that date as an "all hands on deck" day because of the looming potential for disruptions at airport checkpoints. The chart below the article lists the states and their compliance so far with the Real ID requirement. The Real ID is an enhanced ID card issued by state drivers license agencies. To obtain one, people are required to show a valid ID, as well as proof of identity, such as a passport or certified birth certificate, proof of a Social Security number and date of birth, plus two documents showing state residency, including a utility bill, credit card statement or rental agreement. So far, 28 states are less than 70% compliant. That means that in more than half the country, as many as three in every 10 travelers may not be able to pass through an airport checkpoint in just a few weeks. As of last week, New Jersey had the lowest compliance rate in the nation — just 17% of its state-issued IDs are Real IDs. Pennsylvania reported 26%, while Washington and Maine tell CBS News they are at 27% compliance. New York reports 43% compliance, and California has reached nearly 55% compliance. CBS News recently traveled to a Real ID Super Center in Chicago with a line extending out the door. In Illinois, two out of three residents lack a Real ID, which prompted the state to open the downtown location in an old Walgreens, aiming to process up to 1,500 new IDs a day as it tries to catch up with surging demand. States mail the new IDs, however, so it can take up to two weeks to receive the new credential (a temporary paper license will not be considered a Real ID). Thirteen states reported compliance rates above 90%, with seven states — Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming and the District of Columbia — saying they’re virtually 100% compliant. Texas reports 98% compliance, Mississippi 97%, Hawaii 96%, Utah 96% and Vermont 92%. TSA says it’s seeing about 81% compliance at airport checkpoints — meaning passengers are showing up with either a Real ID-compliant driver’s license or state ID, a passport, a valid military ID, an "enhanced" ID issued by a handful of states or other valid identification.

CBS Austin [4/21/2025 1:46 PM, Staff, 602K] reports the deadline for Americans to get a REAL ID-compliant license is quickly approaching after years of delays, setting off a scramble across the country to update driver’s licenses and ID Cards with limited or unavailable appointment windows at government offices. The Transportation Security Administration estimates about 20% of travelers still use a form of identification that does not comply with REAL ID and that travel experts have warned could lead to delays at airports across the country. Legislation mandating REAL IDs was passed in 2005 with a 2020 deadline to implement that has been delayed until May 7, 2025, due to the coronavirus pandemic. After the deadline passes, anyone who wants to fly within the U.S. will need a REAL ID or other compliant document like a passport to board a plane, risking delays or a refusal to travel altogether. Some lawmakers have been pressing the administration for how it plans to ensure the 20% of people without a real ID will not facing delays and if the airline system is ready to handle the issue. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem earlier this month asking for details on how the deadline would not impact services from proceeding effectively. "Since it seems likely that many travelers will not have a compliant ID by May 7th, please describe how you will ensure that there are not delays at TSA security checkpoints and what steps the TSA is taking to process travelers who arrive at airport security checkpoints without REAL ID compliant identification," Reed wrote in a letter. Between all the delayed deadlines, 19 states and the District of Columbia passed laws allowing people living in the country without legal status to obtain driver’s licenses and state IDs. Proponents of the change argued it would improve safety on roadways by ensuring everyone driving has passed road safety tests and being able to access auto insurance. States that allow immigrants in the U.S. illegally to obtain driver’s licenses include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and Washington. Some of the states that allow it are now running into backlogs as residents try to get a REAL ID with the deadline nearing. Until the May 7 deadline, travelers in the U.S. illegally could show several different kinds of documents or identification to board a domestic flight, which will change once the REAL ID requirement hits. "Under Biden, illegal aliens used non-compliant IDs from sanctuary cities to board flights, but REAL ID’s higher security standards make it nearly impossible to forge legitimate documents, ensuring only verified travelers can fly," a DHS memo says. According to the DHS memo, closing the loophole will help expand safety during air travel.

USA Today [4/21/2025 6:03 AM, Jeanine Santucci, 75858K] reports that, after years of delays, the final, very real deadline to have a Real ID while flying in the U.S. is right around the corner, and some states are in a scramble to make sure everyone has a compliant ID. Real ID, a standard for travel identification first passed by Congress in 2005, will be a requirement to fly domestically starting May 7, after multiple delays from the original deadline in 2020. Anyone who wants to get on a plane will need either a Real ID or another compliant document like a passport starting that date, or risk facing delays or refusal to board altogether. Though Real IDs have been available in most states for several years, travelers could still use standard driver’s licenses or state ID cards to fly within the country until now. The Department of Homeland Security estimated that by May 2025, somewhere between 61% and 66% of ID-holders would have Real IDs. The good news is that in some states like Florida, most people with licenses already have Real IDs because anyone who got a new license or renewed their license there since 2010 has gotten the Real ID. Of all Marylanders with state IDs, 99% have Read ID. But in many states, the Real ID rollout has been optional, with some choosing a standard license, which might require fewer documents or a lower fee. They will now need to upgrade if they plan to travel by air domestically. Now that the deadline is creeping up, there’s a last-minute scramble overwhelming some Department of Motor Vehicle offices. In some states, DMVs have added special Real ID-only appointments to satisfy demand and in others, appointments are hard to come by altogether. Anticipating a surge of customers looking for Real IDs, several states have extended their DMV hours or set aside special appointment times for the final push before the deadline. The Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles started offering walk-in appointments for Real ID-seekers at all its locations, the agency said in an announcement. As of April 8, about 57% of IDs in the state were Real IDs, the USA TODAY Network in New England reported. Oklahoma and California have both extended DMV hours at some locations to serve Real ID customers. Eighteen California locations will open an hour early at 7 a.m. through June 27 on every day of the week except Wednesdays, reported the Victorville Daily Press. In Oklahoma, some of the state’s ID centers located in busy metro areas will stay open until 8 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays for the rest of the year for Real IDs, according to the Oklahoman.

Washington Examiner [4/21/2025 6:00 AM, Anna Giaritelli, 2296K] reports the law was intended to create a new federal standard for identification documents following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but it could catch many Americans by surprise despite years of federal government warnings to prepare for that date. "The Real ID requirement bolsters safety by making fraudulent IDs harder to forge, thwarting criminals and terrorists," said Adam Stahl, TSA senior official performing the duties of the administrator, in a statement. "TSA will implement Real ID effectively and efficiently, continuing to ensure the safety and security of passengers while also working to minimize operational disruptions at airports.” Airport security checkpoints are not the only place Americans and lawful immigrants could find themselves in a predicament trying to enter. The law states that state- and territory-issued driver’s licenses and government-issued identification cards must meet new federal standards in order for the carrier to enter federal buildings and nuclear power plants, as well as board commercial aircraft. It was put forward in Congress following the 9/11 terrorist attacks at the recommendation of the 9/11 Commission. The commission called for a streamlined federal standard for identification documents, given that there was none, and states could choose what documents they deemed necessary to issue a license or ID.

FOX News [4/21/2025 2:00 PM, Deirdre Heavey, 46189K] reports that Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem’s announcement that REAL IDs will be required to fly starting May 7 has forced Americans to finally get compliant – 20 years after Congress passed the law. On May 11, 2005, President George W. Bush signed the REAL ID Act into law to enhance national security in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Passed by the U.S. Congress, the act set federal standards for issuing identification cards, like driver’s licenses. Starting next month, REAL ID will be required to access federal facilities, enter nuclear power plants and board commercial aircraft. REAL ID’s rollout has faced nearly two decades of political pushback, setbacks and delays. In the two years after it was passed, the National Governors Association (NGA), the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) and the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) called for delaying its implementation, citing logistical concerns. Since its passing, states and advocacy groups have rejected its implementation. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) – a longtime opponent of REAL ID implementation – called it "discriminatory, expensive, burdensome, invasive, and ultimately counterproductive" in 2007 as disapproval grew nationwide. By 2009, at least 25 states had enacted legislation opposing the REAL ID Act. Noem announced the May 7, 2025, deadline would hold as the Trump administration seeks to prevent illegal immigrants from traveling within the United States. "Starting May 7, you will need a REAL ID to fly. REAL IDs make identification harder to forge, thwarting criminals and terrorists. If you plan to fly, make sure you get a REAL ID so you won’t be denied from your flight or face travel delays!" Noem said.

Washington Post [4/21/2025 2:00 PM, Matthew Cappucci and Ben Noll, 31735K] reports that After an Easter weekend of severe weather across portions of Arkansas, Missouri and western Illinois, more stormy weather is expected in the region this week, with parts of the southern Plains expecting three days of back-to-back rotating thunderstorms. The Mid-South — and particularly the region that includes East Texas, Louisiana and southwest Arkansas — has borne the brunt of repeated barrages of severe thunderstorms and flooding over the past two months. The hardest hit areas this week will be rural West Texas and the High Plains, where thunderstorm chances increase Tuesday and won’t diminish until the end of the week. Thereafter, an even more widespread severe thunderstorm risk will materialize over much of the south central U.S. by Sunday, with the chance of tornadoes in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Until then, the leftovers of Sunday’s storm will continue to deliver a marginal severe weather risk to parts of the Appalachians and Deep South, but most storms will remain below severe limits. Between March and June, the United States typically averages 810 tornadoes. The season has been among the most active in the past 15 years, contributing to the windiest start to spring in nearly 50 years. A total of 95 tornadoes have been reported in Mississippi, the highest of any state. There have been 59 in Missouri, 58 in Illinois, 49 in Alabama, 43 in Indiana, 35 in Arkansas, 35 in Texas, 31 in Kentucky, 25 in Tennessee and 22 in Georgia.

Reported similarly:
Yahoo News [4/21/2025 12:47 PM, Alex Sosnowski, 430301K]

Yahoo News [4/21/2025 7:15 AM, Marcos Carranza, 430301K] reports that Homeowners and renters in Kentucky who have suffered uninsured or underinsured damage from February’s severe storms now have a few weeks left to apply for federal disaster assistance. FEMA has extended the application deadline to Monday, May 25. Assistance for individuals affected be the severe weather can cover rental assistance, temporary housing, home repairs, personal property loss, as well as other disaster-related needs not covered by insurance. To apply for assistance, visit DisasterAssistance.gov, download the FEMA app or call the FEMA Helpline at 800-621-3362.

(B) NBC News Daily [4/21/2025 1:24 PM, Staff] reports Kentuckians impacted by flooding in February have extra time to apply for FEMA assistance. They have until next Monday to fill out individual assistance requests. The deadline is only for the February flooding. A resource center is open in Frankfort for flood relief effort.

The Detroit News [4/21/2025 5:49 PM, Max Reinhart, 52K] reports Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said communities still are recovering from a devastating ice storm, with some residents still without power, that blew into northern Michigan three weeks ago, so the state needs more time to determine how much federal aid it might request for restoration. On Monday, Whitmer sent a letter to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, seeking an extension to submit a request for a major disaster designation. The governor said local jurisdictions and municipalities need more time to complete response activities and assess the storm’s impacts and damages. “The historic ice storms in Northern Michigan have required an all-hands-on-deck approach to help get the power back on, clear roads and keep people safe,” Whitmer said in a statement. “With recovery efforts still ongoing, I am asking FEMA for an extension to submit a major disaster declaration request, so we can get a complete picture of what resources and support these local communities need as they recover from this devastating storm." In the letter, Whitmer asked Keith A. Turi, acting associate administrator of FEMA’s Office of Response and Recovery, to give the state until May 29 to submit the request, which is due April 28.

KLST [4/21/2025 3:53 PM, Shawn Torres] reports the National Weather Service has confirmed three tornadoes touched down during Saturday’s severe weather outbreak across West Texas. The strongest of the three struck Grape Creek between 9:29 p.m. and 9:31 p.m., according to damage surveys released by the weather service. The tornado was rated an EF-1 tornado with estimated peak winds of 90 mph; the twister carved a short path of 0.18 miles and measured about 100 yards wide. Some of the recorded damage was two uprooted trees, shingles torn from rooftops and it displaced a metal carport by at least 15 feet. Two additional tornadoes were reported by trained storm spotters but have not been rated due to a lack of visible damage. One tornado was observed south of Sterling City, and another was reported 24 miles west of Arden. Both appear to have touched down in open fields and did not impact any structures.

New York Post [4/21/2025 9:56 AM, Zoe Hussain, 54903K] reports that a mother and her 12-year-old son were among three killed in "historical" storms that slammed Oklahoma when their car was swept away in flood waters. Erika Lott, 44, and her 12-year-old son Rivers Bond were inside one of two stranded vehicles in flood waters in Moore, south of Oklahoma City, late Saturday, the Moore Police Department said. The mother and son were eventually found dead in their swept-away car at around 2 a.m. Sunday after an extensive search, KOCO reported. Another person inside the vehicle was able to be rescued, the outlet said. Bond was a sixth-grade student at Apple Creek Elementary, which is near the location of the crash, the school told the outlet. The county responded to dozens of other reports of "high water incidents," police said. "This was a historical weather event that impacted roads and resulted in dozens of high-water incidents across the city," Moore police said in a statement Sunday. The storm also killed one person about 80 miles southeast in Spaulding after tornadoes touched down in the area, according to the Hughes County Emergency Management. Several homes and structures were destroyed, and there were "numerous washouts" of county roads, the department wrote in a Facebook post.

(B) Good Morning America [4/21/2025 11:56 AM, Staff] reports that almost a year after the Burrell Fire destroyed parts of Kern County, the Federal Emergency Management Agency recently announced it will not provide disaster relief to the impacted areas. Last summer, the Burrell Fire burned through almost 60,000 acres of land and destroyed more than 200 structures in the Kern River Valley, making it the largest in Kern County history. It is now up to the community and local organizations to lend a helping to those who are planning to rebuild.

Washington Examiner [4/21/2025 1:19 PM, Jenny Goldsberry, 2296K] reports that the Secret Service is renewing its effort to construct a White House replica "inch by inch." The James J. Rowley Training Center, a 500-acre center in Laurel, Maryland, is the anticipated location of a White House replica for Secret Service agents’ training. In the past, agents have resorted to utilizing Tyler Perry’s replica of the residence in his film studio in Atlanta, Georgia. "In order for our officers and agents to train up properly, they have to see what it’s like to be at the White House. It’s an important complex to know. There’s a lot of ins and outs, and something as simple as the local fire department showing up to help with a fire, and they need to know where they are going," said Sean Curran, the newly appointed Secret Service director under President Donald Trump, on Fox News’s My View with Lara Trump. "So it is critical to our mission to have a training facility that reflects the white house inch by inch and detail by detail, it’s just critical to our mission, and that’s what we hope to have." An $8 million plan to build a White House replica has been in the works since 2015 to no avail. Curran claimed the difference this time is he has "a lot of support on the hill, and a lot of support from the president, and certainly a lot of support from the Secretary of DHS." Curran also provided a glimpse inside the training village at the JJRTC. There agents train for rallies that occur in cities "new to us." Curran noted the training simulates a rally situation "our agency wasn’t quite used to because it was a large event."

South Florida Sun Sentinel [4/21/2025 3:15 PM, Angie DiMichele] reports a 13-year-old boy from Palm Beach County has been identified as the person who died in an accidental drowning off of Fort Lauderdale beach on Friday amid dangerous rip current conditions, officials said. Jerry Hyppolite and at least two of his friends were swimming near the 800 block of Seabreeze Boulevard just before 5 p.m. when they began struggling in the rough water, according to Fort Lauderdale Police, Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue and the U.S. Coast Guard Southeast. Lifeguards rescued the boy’s friends from the water, but they weren’t able to find Hyppolite, said Frank Guzman, a spokesperson for Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue. They "immediately called for an all-out search." Fire rescue crews, law enforcement and the U.S. Coast Guard searched with boats, jet skis and a helicopter for nearly two hours into Friday evening. Fort Lauderdale Police’s Dive Team found the boy’s body shortly after 8 p.m., department spokesperson Casey Liening said. Detectives determined there was no foul play.

Reported similarly:
Miami Herald [4/21/2025 4:15 PM, David Goodhue, 3973K]

FOX 15 Lafayette [4/22/2025 1:04 AM, Staff, 56K] reports a tugboat struck a railroad bridge that crosses the Atchafalaya River in St. Landry Parish, causing significant damage to the barge it was pushing. Authorities reported that the tugboat hit the railroad trestle in Melville while moving barges down the river. There have been no immediate reports of injuries. Officials are evaluating the bridge to ensure its structural integrity remains intact. "At this present time, they feel there’s no need to panic ‘cause it felt like that it is no, any risk or anything right now at this present time," said Melville Police Chief Phillip Lucas. "Okay? So, we just waiting until DEQ and everybody go out downstream to make the decision on what we need to do." The US Coast Guard is investigating to determine what led to the collision.

FOX 60 Harlingen [4/21/2025 1:22 PM, Andrea Lopez] reports officials Confirm No Injuries Following Morning Blaze Linked to Generator Malfunction South Padre Island fire crews responded early this morning to a blaze that engulfed a U.S. Coast Guard building, completely consuming the structure. The fire, which broke out at a Coast Guard facility located along the island’s shoreline, is believed to have been caused by a generator malfunction, according to initial reports. Emergency responders arrived quickly but were unable to save the building, which was entirely destroyed by the flames. Fortunately, no injuries have been reported. Officials said personnel were able to evacuate safely. Authorities are continuing to investigate the cause of the fire and assess the extent of the damage. Additional updates will be released as more information becomes available.

FOX News [4/22/2025 4:00 AM, Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, 46189K] reports the renowned crystal-clear waters of the Bahamas act as a "springboard" for illegal immigration to South Florida, an expert said. Fox News Digital spoke with retired Rear Adm. Peter Brown, former Homeland Security advisor to President Donald Trump, about illegal immigration from the Bahamas to Florida. "Normally, when we think of maritime migration, we think about Haiti or Cuba, maybe the Dominican Republic, but the unknown in that equation is the Bahamas," he said. "The Bahamas presents a special case, not so much because Bahamians want to get to the U.S., although a few do, but because the Bahamas ends up being a springboard for others who want to reach the U.S." Brown, who was the commander of the Coast Guard’s Seventh District in Miami, said the tropical archipelago serves as a transit point for illegal immigration and human smuggling due to its geography and tourism-friendly policies. The Bahamas consists of more than 700 islands, with some only 50 miles from Florida’s coastline. The proximity, combined with the abundance of recreational boats, makes illicit travel hard to detect​, Brown explained. "In addition, the Bahamas’ economy is so dependent on tourism they offer visa-free travel to citizens of 160 different countries around the world," he said. The availability of visa-free travel is in sharp contrast to the U.S., which allows people from only 40 countries to travel visa-free. This enables individuals from these countries to enter the Bahamas legally and attempt illegal entry into the U.S.​, he explained. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CyberScoop [4/21/2025 12:39 PM, Derek B. Johnson] reports two top officials at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency who worked with the private sector to manufacture secure products and technology are leaving the agency. Bob Lord, senior technical adviser and Lauren Zabierek, senior advisor at CISA, were two of the chief architects behind CISA’s Secure by Design initiative, which garnered voluntary commitments from major vendors and manufacturers to build cybersecurity protections into their products at the design stage. On Monday in dueling posts on LinkedIn, Lord and Zabierek both said they are departing the agency. Neither offered a rationale or motivation for the decision, with Lord simply calling it a “difficult decision” and Zabierek saying it was “not an easy choice.” Lord said he would continue “contributing” to Secure by Design after a short break. Both specifically praised the program in their announcements, with Zabierek arguing it has impacted the way product manufacturers and policymakers approach cybersecurity. “Being part of this initiative has been one of the most meaningful experiences of my career, one that truly embodies the spirit of public-private partnership and both interagency and international collaboration,” said Zabierek. “One of government’s most important roles is to catalyze innovation that serves the public, and then find a way for it to scale, adapt, and endure. What started as a government-led call to action has quickly become a global movement and we look forward to continuing the momentum.”

New York Times [4/21/2025 4:02 PM, Edgar Sandoval, 145325K] reports that a state judge sentenced Patrick Crusius, a self-described white nationalist with a history of mental illness, to life in prison on Monday for killing 23 people and injuring 22 others in 2019 at a Walmart store in El Paso, one of the deadliest attacks on Hispanic civilians in American history. Judge Sam Medrano Jr. handed down the sentence before hearing impact statements from family members and survivors. “You traveled nine hours to a city that would have welcomed you with open arms,” Judge Medrano told the gunman. “You brought not peace but hate. You came to inflict terror, to take innocent lives.” “Your mission failed,” the judge continued. “You did not divide this city. You strengthened it.” Mr. Crusius, looking disheveled in a white and orange prison jumpsuit, did not betray any emotions as the judge read his sentence, other than to say that he pleaded guilty to capital murder, with its automatic life sentence, and to 22 counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He has no chance of parole. He replied, “Yes, your honor” when asked if he accepted his fate. The sentence was handed down in a large room, usually used by the county commission, that was converted to a courtroom to accommodate a large crowd. Some relatives of victims could be heard quietly crying. James Montoya, the El Paso district attorney, read the names of the victims aloud as the gunman looked in his direction.

Reuters [4/21/2025 3:30 PM, Rich McKay, 41523K] reports the gunman who killed 23 people and injured 22 others in a 2019 mass shooting aimed at Latinos at a Texas Walmart pleaded guilty to murder on Monday and was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole, prosecutors said. At the hearing on Monday, El Paso’s District Attorney James Montoya read the names of each of the 23 people killed in the attack, as well as the 22 wounded, local media reported. Montoya told reporters last month that he would no longer seek the death penalty if Patrick Crusius, 26, pleaded guilty. Judge Sam Medrano sentenced Crusius to life in prison without the possibility of parole for capital murder of multiple persons, and life in prison for each of 22 counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, the prosecutor said in a statement.

Wall Street Journal [4/21/2025 2:08 PM, Nancy A. Youssef and Alexander Ward, 646K] reports Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth created a Signal chat with his wife, his personal lawyer and others, and posted sensitive military information into it, people familiar with the matter said Sunday, a revelation that has added to the increasing scrutiny of the novice leader. Hegseth was already facing questions for writing flight plans and other details about a military operation ahead of U.S. strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen into a Signal chat with senior Trump administration officials. Hegseth posted nearly the same information into another chat featuring his wife and other aides that don’t require real-time knowledge of the mission, a person familiar with the chat said. 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. Trump told reporters at the White House Easter Egg Roll on Monday that Hegseth was “doing a great job.” “It’s just fake news,” the president added. “You know, he was put there to get rid of a lot of bad people, and that’s what he’s doing. You don’t always have friends when you do that.” “This is what the media does,” Hegseth said. “They take anonymous sources from disgruntled former employees and then they try to slash and burn people and ruin their reputations.” Hegseth added that he and Trump were “on the same page all the way.” 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.

Yahoo News [4/21/2025 1:24 PM, Dave Goldiner, 430301K] reports that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth hit back at critics Monday over new reports that he shared secret U.S. military attack plans with his wife, brother and lawyer in real time on the Signal app. The embattled Pentagon chief called the explosive story a smear concocted by "disgruntled employees," suggesting three ousted top aides might be responsible for telling journalists about the scandalous new group chat revelations. "A few leakers get fired and some hit pieces come out," he said during an early morning appearance at the White House Easter Egg Roll. "They take disgruntled employees and they try to slash and burn people." But Hegseth didn’t actually deny sharing details of U.S. attacks on Houthi rebels in Yemen with more than a dozen pals in an extraordinary breach of security protocol. President Donald Trump also brushed aside the idea that he might push Hegseth out amid the embarrassing new revelations. "I don’t know why you would even ask that question," Trump told reporters as he greeted some of the thousands of participants in the annual rite of spring. Hegseth was already facing questions about his sharing of details about the March attack on Houthi rebels in a separate group chat that included several senior administration officials. That chat became public because National Security Adviser Mike Waltz mistakenly added Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg to the group. The new reports said the controversial former Fox News host created a second chat group on the publicly available Signal app on which he included 13 friends, relatives and allies.

FOX News [4/21/2025 9:39 AM, Emma Colton and Morgan Phillips, 46189K] reports that the White House hit back at recent news reports detailing Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s reported involvement in a second Signal group chat where he discussed military strikes on Yemen as a "nonstory" while also slamming recently fired Department of Defense staffers. "No matter how many times the legacy media tries to resurrect the same nonstory, they can’t change the fact that no classified information was shared," White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told Fox News Digital Monday morning. "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.” Kelly’s response followed Fox News Digital inquiring about media stories Sunday reporting that Hegseth was part of another Signal group chat that allegedly included his wife, personal attorney and brother, where he discussed upcoming military strikes on Yemen. The AP [4/21/2025 5:05 PM, Tara Copp and Eric Tucker, 1682K] reports that the White House expressed support Monday for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth following media reports that he shared sensitive military details in another Signal messaging chat, this time with his wife and brother. Neither the White House nor Hegseth denied that he had shared such information in a second chat, instead focusing their responses on what they called the disgruntled workers whom they blamed for leaking to the media and insisting that no classified information had been disclosed. "It’s just fake news. They just bring up stories," President Donald Trump told reporters. "I guess it sounds like disgruntled employees. You know, he was put there to get rid of a lot of bad people, and that’s what he’s doing. So you don’t always have friends when you do that," Trump said. The administration’s posture was meant to hold the line against Democratic demands for Hegseth’s firing at a time when the Pentagon is engulfed in turmoil, including the departures of several senior aides and an internal investigation over information leaks. The White House also tried to deflect attention from the national security implications of the latest Signal revelation by framing it as the outgrowth of an institutional power struggle between Hegseth and the career workforce. But some of the recently departed officials the administration appeared to dismiss as disgruntled were part of Hegseth’s initial inner circle, brought in when he took the job.

The Hill [4/21/2025 12:04 PM, Brett Samuels, 12829K] reports that President Trump on Monday defended Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth amid new reporting about a Signal app chat and criticism from former Pentagon officials. "He is doing a great job… Ask the Houthis how he’s doing," Trump told reporters on the south lawn of the White House during the annual Easter Egg Roll. Trump touted strong military recruitment numbers under Hegseth and waved off the latest controversies. "It’s just fake news," Trump said. "They just bring up stories. I guess it sounds like disgruntled employees. You know, he was put there to get rid of a lot of bad people." The New York Times reported Sunday that Hegseth shared sensitive information about planned strikes in Yemen in a private chat on the Signal app that included his wife, his brother and his personal lawyer. News of the second chat came roughly a month after the editor in chief of The Atlantic detailed how he was mistakenly added to a group chat of administration officials discussing plans for military strikes on the Houthis. While national security adviser Mike Waltz took responsibility for that chat, Hegseth shared details about planned strikes in the discussion. Administration officials have insisted there was no classified information shared in either chat.

FOX News [4/21/2025 6:13 PM, Emma Colton, 46189K] reports sDisgusting," said Navy SEAL veteran Rob Sweetman in describing the smell and mist of Mexican sewage spewing into U.S. waters as he stood on a hill overlooking the Tijuana River estuary in California. Sweetman, a Navy veteran who served on the SEALs for eight years, spoke to Fox News Digital to sound the alarm on a water crisis rocking the San Diego area, including where SEALs train, taking a camera with him to show viewers firsthand how the contaminated water flows into the U.S. Just one mile away from where Sweetman spoke, SEALs and candidates train in the same water, which has sickened more than 1,000 candidates in a five-year period, per a Department of Defense watchdog report released in February. San Diego and the surrounding area are in a clean-water crisis that has raged for decades, but it is finding revived concern from the Trump administration as SEALs and local veterans warn of a "national security crisis" that they say is on par with the Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, water crisis. Thousands of Marines and others were sickened at North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune base between 1953 and 1987 as a result of water contaminated by industrial solvents used to drink, bathe and cook at the training facilities and on-base housing. Kate Monroe, a Marine Corps veteran and CEO of VetComm — which advocates for disabled veterans and those navigating the VA’s complicated health system — told Fox Digital in an April Zoom interview, "San Diego County is as big as some states. It’s giant. Millions of people live here and are breathing the air of this water. It goes well beyond the military. It’s a crisis. It’s a FEMA-level travesty, and we have just been hiding it.” The sewage problem flowing from neighboring Mexico into the U.S. has percolated in San Diego for years. But the water crisis hit crisis level when it was reported in 2024 that 44 billion gallons of contaminated water imbued with raw sewage was released along the California coast in 2023, the most on record since at least 2000, the Los Angeles Times reported at the time. The issue of sewage water flowing into U.S. waters is largely attributed to outdated wastewater infrastructure across the southern border, local media outlets recently reported, with Mexico reportedly in the midst of addressing its infrastructure to curb the leaks of sewage water.

Bloomberg [4/21/2025 11:31 AM, Alberto Nardelli, Alex Wickham, and Daryna Krasnolutska, 16228K] reports that the US will hold talks Wednesday in London with Ukrainian and European officials as President Donald Trump pushes for a deal to halt Russia’s full-scale invasion. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s special envoys Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg are expected to meet with the foreign ministers and national security advisers from France, Germany, the UK and Ukraine, people familiar with the matter said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations. “Ukraine, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States — we are ready to move forward as constructively as possible, just as we have done before, to achieve an unconditional ceasefire, followed by the establishment of a real and lasting peace,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Monday on the platform X after a phone call with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “An unconditional ceasefire must be the first step toward peace, and this Easter made it clear that it is Russia’s actions that are prolonging the war.” A spokesperson for the US National Security Council didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Yahoo News [4/21/2025 12:09 PM, Ed McConnell, 430301K] reports that the US is likely to hold talks with Ukrainian and European officials in London this week on ending the war in Ukraine, Bloomberg reports. As President Donald Trump pressures Russia and Ukraine to end their conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s special envoys Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg are expected to meet on Wednesday with the foreign ministers and national security advisers from France, Germany, the UK and Ukraine, according to people familiar with the matter. It comes as the Kremlin said that it is "satisfied" with the US negotiating stance on ending the war in Ukraine after news emerged that Washington had agreed to ban Ukraine from joining Nato. "We have heard from Washington at various levels that Ukraine’s membership in Nato is excluded," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday. "Of course, this is something that causes our satisfaction and coincides with our position," he said. The Kremlin statement comes after fighting restarted after a 30-hour ceasefire which saw a significant reduction in contact on the front lines. Unconfirmed news reports suggest that the US is prepared to recognise Russian control of Crimea and rule out Nato membership for Ukraine, as Washington pushes for a quick peace deal. Donald Trump said on social media that he expected a deal by the end of the week, saying that both Russia and Ukraine would then enjoy access to US markets.

Reuters [4/21/2025 8:10 AM, Dmitry Antonov and Guy Faulconbridge, 41523K] reports the Kremlin said on Monday that the position of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on ruling out NATO membership for Ukraine gave Moscow satisfaction, but declined to comment on Trump’s hopes for a peace deal this week. Trump, seeking to be remembered as a peacemaker, has repeatedly said he wants to end the "bloodbath" of the three-year conflict in Ukraine - which his administration casts as a proxy war between the United States and Russia. U.S. envoy General Keith Kellogg said on Sunday that NATO alliance membership was "off the table" for Ukraine. Trump has said past U.S. support for that was a cause of the war. "We have heard from Washington at various levels that Ukraine’s membership in NATO is excluded," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "Of course, this is something that causes us satisfaction and coincides with our position." Ukrainian membership of the U.S.-led alliance would threaten Russian interests, Peskov added. "And, in fact, this is one of the root causes of this conflict." President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in 2022, triggering the worst confrontation between Moscow and the West since the depths of the Cold War. Former U.S. President Joe Biden, Western European leaders and Ukraine cast the invasion as an imperial-style land grab and repeatedly vowed to defeat Russian forces. Putin casts the war as a watershed moment in Moscow’s relations with the West which he says humiliated Russia after the Soviet Union fell in 1991 by enlarging NATO and encroaching on what he considers Moscow’s sphere of influence. At the 2008 Bucharest summit, NATO leaders agreed that Ukraine and Georgia would one day become members. Ukraine in 2019 amended its constitution committing to the path of full membership of NATO and the European Union. Putin has repeatedly said Russia would be willing to end the war if Ukraine drops its NATO ambitions and withdraws troops from the entirety of four Ukrainian regions claimed and mostly controlled by Russia. Reuters reported in November that Putin was ready to negotiate a deal with Trump, but would refuse to make major territorial concessions and would insist Kyiv abandon ambitions to join NATO. Trump said on Sunday he hopes Russia and Ukraine will make a deal this week to end the conflict.

Reuters [4/21/2025 11:56 AM, Staff, 41523K] reports that one of the Kremlin’s most senior hawks, Nikolai Patrushev, said on Monday that trust between the two "great powers" of Russia and the United States should be restored and that Moscow was ready to resume cooperation with America in the Arctic. U.S. President Donald Trump has pivoted towards Russia in a bid to end the three-year war in Ukraine as he and his administration view China as the biggest threat to the United States. The Kremlin has welcomed the chance to restore ties with the United States after the confrontation over Ukraine triggered what diplomats from both countries said was the worst crisis in the history of their relations. "Russia and the United States, as great powers, historically bear special responsibility for the fate of the world," Kremlin aide Patrushev, a Cold War warrior who crafted the Kremlin’s national security strategy, told the Kommersant newspaper. "And the experience of past decades or even centuries shows that in the most difficult crisis moments our countries have always managed to overcome their differences.” Trump’s pivot towards Russia has deeply concerned many traditional European allies of the United States who fear Washington may be turning its back on Europe.

Reuters [4/22/2025 4:50 AM, Anthony Deutsch and Bart Meijer, 41523K] reports Russia is increasing its hybrid attacks aimed at undermining society in the Netherlands and its European allies, and Russian hackers have already targeted the Dutch public service, Dutch military intelligence agency MIVD said on Tuesday. "We see the Russian threat against Europe is increasing, including after a possible end to the war against Ukraine," MIVD director Peter Reesink said in the agency’s annual report. "The conflict in the grey zone between war and peace has become a reality. More and more, state actors try to undermine our society with hybrid attacks. Russia especially ... is increasingly prepared to take risks," he said. The MIVD said it had for the first time detected an attack by Russian hackers against the digital operating system of an unspecified Dutch public service last year. It said it had also found a Russian cyber operation against critical infrastructure in the Netherlands, possibly as preparation for sabotage. Hybrid threats span everything from physical sabotage of critical infrastructure to disinformation campaigns. The MIVD described such attacks as combining traditional acts of espionage with cyber attacks and other attempts at influencing and undermining society. The agency repeated its warnings of Russian entities mapping infrastructure in the North Sea for espionage, and acts of sabotage aimed at internet cables, water and energy supplies. Britain’s foreign spy chief accused Russia in November of waging a "staggeringly reckless campaign" of sabotage in Europe, ranging from repeated cyber attacks to Moscow-linked arson. Moscow has denied responsibility for all such incidents, saying accusations against it are baseless and unproven.

New York Times [4/22/2025 3:21 AM, Anupreeta Das and Pragati K.B., 330K] reports India is searching for any sign that it will be able to dodge the steep tariffs threatened by the Trump administration as it rushes to reorder global trade. So on Monday, as Vice President JD Vance began a four-day visit, Indians closely examined the images that emerged for any clues — and many liked what they saw. First there were Mr. Vance’s three young children, dressed in Indian attire as they stepped one by one from the airplane. Then there was the family photo outside a marble-and-sandstone temple, with Mr. Vance, his Indian American wife, Usha Vance, and their children draped in garlands. Capping it all was Mr. Vance’s warm embrace of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who presented the Vance children with peacock feathers. Given the fickleness of Mr. Vance’s boss, President Trump, it is impossible to know whether these gauzy images indicate that the Trump administration is ready to strike a deal. But senior Indian officials and some analysts took Mr. Vance’s presence in India as a sign that the United States intended to continue working toward the bilateral trade agreement outlined by Mr. Trump and Mr. Modi when the Indian leader visited Washington in February. “This visit is very significant, coming at a time when there is unease internationally about what the Trump administration has been doing to friendly countries, including India,” said Happymon Jacob, an associate professor of diplomacy and disarmament at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. “This is a visit to reassure India that the relationship is not going to completely go astray.” In recent years, India has sought to make its ties with the United States a pillar of its foreign policy strategy, as the American government looked to India to help counter a rising China. But India has found itself on uncertain ground with Mr. Trump back in office. The president has both praised Mr. Modi’s leadership and harangued the Indian government for high tariffs that make it tough for U.S. companies to enter the market.

New York Times [4/22/2025 3:21 AM, Vivian Wang, 330K] reports the Chinese government on Monday warned other countries against curbing trade with China in order to win a reprieve from American tariffs, promising to retaliate against countries that do so. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce said it was responding to foreign media reports that President Trump’s administration was trying to pressure other countries on their trade with China as a negotiating tactic. “Appeasement will not bring peace, and compromise will not earn respect,” the ministry said in a statement. “Seeking so-called exemptions by harming the interests of others for one’s own selfish and shortsighted gains is like negotiating with a tiger for its skin. In the end, it will only lead to a lose-lose situation.” China “firmly opposes any party reaching a deal at the expense of China’s interests,” it said, adding that China would “resolutely take countermeasures.” The Trump administration has not officially said it would pressure countries to limit trade with China in return for relief from tariffs. But Mr. Trump has signaled that he is open to the idea. Last week on a Spanish-language Fox News program, the host asked Mr. Trump whether Latin American countries should be forced to choose between Chinese and American investment. “Maybe, yeah, maybe,” Mr. Trump responded. “They should do that.” The United States was the biggest single-country market for Chinese goods before the latest tariffs, but the Chinese government had been working for years to diversify its export markets, in part to hedge against rising tensions with Washington. Since the latest escalation, China has been working furiously to shore up those ties with other countries, both to send a message that it will not be isolated, and to cast itself as a reliable alternative to an unpredictable America.

Bloomberg [4/21/2025 5:48 AM, Staff, 16228K] reports China and Indonesia held their first meeting of senior ministers under a format agreed to last year, a sitdown that coincides with Beijing’s push to woo Asian nations and offset trade tensions with the US. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in a briefing in Beijing after the talks Monday that the international landscape faced the “severe impact of unilateralism and hegemonism,” adding that “the more complex and volatile the external environment is, the more significant for China and Indonesia to pursue solidarity and cooperation.” Wang was joined by Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun, and Foreign Minister Sugiono and Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin of Indonesia. Sjamsoeddin said the meeting showed “the value of deepening Indonesia-China cooperation in the defense sectors,” pointing to “regular, high-level military exchange, joint training,” and collaboration between the nations’ militaries and defense industries. The two sides also announced plans to hold joint military exercises this year in a sign of growing security ties between countries that have longstanding differences in the disputed South China Sea. While Jakarta is not a formal claimant in the sea dispute, Indonesia has typically refrained from recognizing China’s vast claims. The upcoming drills focused on counterterrorism echo strategies long employed by the US to deepen military ties in Southeast Asia, particularly in the Philippines. They come as Beijing steps up its military diplomacy in the region, vying with Washington for strategic influence as tensions mount in the Indo-Pacific. China and Indonesia want the new “2+2” mechanism, a reference to the number of top officials joining from each side, to act as a platform for political, defense and security matters.

New York Post [4/21/2025 11:58 AM, Thomas Barrabi, 54903K] reports that China’s move to impose strict export controls on rare earth elements used in auto manufacturing has reportedly sparked fears of potential shortages of cars. Earlier this month, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s regime enacted limits on shipments of seven rare earth metals and magnets that are essential to building electric vehicles – as well as military hardware like fighter jets and drones, electronics and other key products. The move has left many Western firms with stockpiles of key materials that will last six months or less, the Financial Times reported, citing interviews with government officials, auto executives and metals traders. "If we don’t see magnet deliveries to the EU or Japan in that time or at least close to that, then I think we will see genuine problems in the automotive supply chain," Jan Giese, a trader at Frankfurt-based firm Tradium, told the outlet. Elsewhere, a senior auto executive who requested anonymity told the FT that the restrictions would be "consequential" for car manufacturers, including Elon Musk’s Tesla. China’s export controls – the latest in a series imposed by Beijing – were retaliation against President Trump’s to impose total tariffs of 145% on imports of Chinese goods. China had already banned exports of gallium, germanium and antimony and restrictions on shipments of graphite. The latest export controls require rare earth firms in China to secure licenses from the Chinese Communist Party in order to ship the materials internationally.

Bloomberg [4/21/2025 6:36 PM, Dan Strumpf, Akayla Gardner, and Sudhi Ranjan Sen, 16228K] reports US Vice President JD Vance held trade talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Monday as the South Asian nation looks to strike an early deal with Washington that spares it from President Donald Trump’s additional tariff hikes. The White House said in a statement that the talks yielded “significant progress in the negotiations” for a bilateral trade agreement, and that the sides had finalized a roadmap for a possible deal to reduce the tariff burden. The pair also discussed cooperation in defense, critical technologies and energy, the Prime Minister’s office said in a statement. The two leaders “called for dialogue and diplomacy as the way forward” after discussing regional and global security issues, the statement said. “India’s constructive engagement so far has been welcomed and I look forward to creating new opportunities for workers, farmers, and entrepreneurs in both countries,” US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement. The meeting included bilateral talks between Vance and Modi, a larger meeting with staff and a dinner with the vice president’s wife Usha Vance and their three children. A video released by the prime minister’s office showed Vance’s sons in traditional kurta pajamas and Modi gifting the children peacock feathers. Modi also said he looks forward to a visit by Trump to India later this year, referring to an invitation he conveyed to the American president during his visit to Washington in February. The meeting caps the first day of a four-day visit to India by Vance and his family, a trip that underscores India’s importance among countries seeking trade talks with the US during the 90-day pause on Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs. Following the dinner, Vance departed New Delhi for Jaipur. The US has threatened to slap a 26% tariff on Indian exports — up from a baseline 10% covering exports from all nations — if no deal is reached during the tariff pause that stretches until July. Trump administration officials have named India as one of several countries the US is prioritizing negotiations with during the pause, and hopes are running high in New Delhi that the country can secure a quick agreement.

AP [4/21/2025 6:14 AM, Jim Gomez, 430301K] reports thousands of allied American and Filipino forces opened annual combat drills Monday that are set to include repelling an island attack to simulate the defense of the Philippine archipelago and seas in a "full-scale battle scenario" that has antagonized China. The annual Balikatan military exercises between the longtime treaty allies are scheduled from April 21 to May 9 with about 9,000 American and 5,000 Filipino military personnel. Fighter jets, warships and an array of weaponry including a U.S. Marine anti-ship missile system will be involved, U.S. and Philippine military officials said. China has steadfastly opposed such war drills in or near the disputed South China Sea and in northern Philippine provinces close to Taiwan, especially if they involve U.S. and allied forces that Beijing says aim to contain it and, consequently, threaten regional stability and peace. "We are ready," U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. James Glynn told a news conference when asked if U.S. and Philippine forces have built up the capability to address any major act of aggression in the Taiwan Straits or the South China Sea after years of joint combat exercises. "Our combined strength … possesses a degree of lethality for a force that possesses an indomitable warrior ethos and spirit," Glynn said in a speech in the opening ceremony of the annual combat-readiness exercises. "It’s all dedicated to one purpose, to ensure the defense of the Philippines and to maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific.” "All of us want to resolve any regional conflict peacefully but should deterrence fail, we need to be prepared," said Glynn, who previously helped lead special operations forces against the Islamic State and served in Fallujah, Iraq. Philippine army Maj. Gen. Francisco Lorenzo said the excercises during Balikatan, meaning shoulder to shoulder in Tagalog, are not aimed at any particular country. "It’s joint training with the U.S. forces to increase our capability in securing our territory and, of course, it will increase our capabilities and our preparedness and responsiveness to any eventuality," Lorenzo said. The exercises are set to include a mock allied counter-assault against an enemy attack on an island, the use of a barrage of artillery and missile fire to sink a mock enemy ship, joint navy sails in or near the disputed South China Sea and aerial combat surveillance, according to the Philippine military. A Philippine military statement described this year’s largescale combat exercises as "a full-scale battle scenario meticulously designed to rigorously test and enhance the combined capabilities of both nations’ armed forces under the most realistic and challenging conditions.”

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