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.

Politico [4/26/2025 8:05 PM, Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein, 2100K] reports a federal judge is raising alarms that the Trump administration deported a two-year-old U.S. citizen to Honduras with “no meaningful process,” even as the child’s father was frantically petitioning the courts to keep her in the country. U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, a Trump appointee, said the child — identified in court papers by the initials “V.M.L.” — appeared to have been released in Honduras earlier Friday, along with her Honduran-born mother and sister, who had been detained by immigration officials earlier in the week. The judge on Friday scheduled a hearing for May 16, which he said was “in the interest of dispelling our strong suspicion that the Government just deported a U.S. citizen with no meaningful process. The child, whose redacted U.S. birth certificate was filed in court and showed she was born in New Orleans in 2023, had been with her mother and sister during a regular immigration check-in at the New Orleans office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Tuesday. Officials there detained them and queued them up for deportation. Trump administration officials said in court that the mother told ICE officials that she wished to take V.M.L. with her to Honduras. The filing included a handwritten note in Spanish they claimed was written by the mother and confirmed her intent. But the judge said he had hoped to verify that information. “The Government contends that this is all okay because the mother wishes that the child be deported with her,” Doughty wrote. “But the Court doesn’t know that.” “This parent made the decision to take the child with them to Honduras. It is common that parents want to be removed with their children,” Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children or ICE will place the children with someone the parent designates. In this case, the parent stated they wanted to be removed with the children.” “We take our responsibility to protect children seriously and will continue to work with federal law enforcement to ensure that children are safe and protected,” she added. CBS News [4/26/2025 7:22 PM, Faris Tanyos, 51661K] reports that according to a petition filed Thursday by Trish Mack, a friend of child’s mother, the girl, her 11-year-old sister and mother were taken into custody Tuesday morning while attending a routine check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at an ICE office in New Orleans. The mother had attended meetings like this regularly for four years, often bringing her daughters with her. They were taken to the meeting by the girl’s father, the petition reads. After being detained, the mother and her two daughters were transported to an ICE field office in New Orleans, court documents state. When the father arrived at that office, ICE officers gave him papers stating that the mother "was under their custody," documents read, and that she "would call him soon." That day, an attorney for the family contacted ICE and informed authorities that the girl was a U.S. citizen, the petition said, and also emailed a copy of the girl’s U.S. birth certificate to ICE. But that night, an ICE agent called the father and informed him that "they were going to deport his partner and daughters," documents read. In an effort to halt the deportation of the two daughters, the father on Tuesday filed for a temporary transfer of legal custody, which under Louisiana law would give his sister-in-law, a U.S. citizen who resides in Baton Rouge, custody of both. On Wednesday, an ICE agent spoke with the family’s attorney, and "refused to honor a request to release" the girl "to her custodian, stating that it was not needed because" she "was already with her mother," court documents read. The ICE agent further said that the "father could try to pick her up, but that he would also be taken into custody." Doughty has scheduled a hearing for May 16 in the case. Telemundo [4/26/2025 3:14 PM, Staff, 164K] reports that the mother, of Honduran origin, had been released from the ICE detention center in 2021 under that program, they wrote. VML’s father, a U.S. resident, filed for custody of VML following her mother’s arrest this week and requested that the child be released to a guardian who is "ready and willing" to care for her in the U.S., the guardian’s attorneys wrote. VML was born in Baton Rouge on Jan. 4, 2023, and is a U.S. citizen, attorneys for the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild wrote. The other girl is 11 years old and was born in Honduras. Attorneys who tried to stop the girl’s deportation argued that her deportation violates the Constitution and her rights as a U.S. citizen. The government lawyers claimed that the girl’s mother has legal custody of the child and that she indicated in a letter that she would take her to Honduras. The letter, in Spanish, reads, "I will take my daughter...with me to Honduras." An image of the handwritten letter is dated Thursday at 6:23 p.m., when the woman and child were in ICE custody and before being deported on Friday.

Reported similarly:
Wall Street Journal [4/26/2025 12:14 PM, Ginger Adams Otis, 646K]
NPR [4/26/2025 1:12 PM, Alana Wise, 29983K]
The Hill [4/26/2025 9:01 AM, Ashleigh Fields, 12829K]
USA Today [4/26/2025 12:50 PM, Sarah D. Wire, 75858K]
Washington Examiner [4/26/2025 2:47 PM, Barnini Chakraborty, 2296K]
Univision [4/26/2025 12:17 PM, Staff, 5325K]

The AP [4/26/2025 6:02 PM, Marc Levy, 48304K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have in recent days deported the Cuban-born mother of a 1-year-old girl — separating them indefinitely — and three children ages 2, 4 and 7 who are U.S. citizens along with their Honduran-born mothers, their lawyers said Saturday. The three cases raise questions about who is being deported, and why, and come amid a battle in federal courts over whether President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has gone too far and too quickly at the expense of fundamental rights. Lawyers in the cases described how the women were arrested at routine check-ins at ICE offices, given virtually no opportunity to speak with lawyers or their family members and then deported within three days or less. The American Civil Liberties Union, National Immigration Project and several other allied groups said in a statement that the way ICE deported children who are U.S. citizens and their mothers is a “shocking — although increasingly common — abuse of power.” Gracie Willis of the National Immigration Project said the mothers, at the very least, did not have a fair opportunity to decide whether they wanted the children to stay in the United States. “We have no idea what ICE was telling them, and in this case what has come to light is that ICE didn’t give them another alternative,” Willis said in an interview. “They didn’t gave them a choice, that these mothers only had the option to take their children with them despite loving caregivers being available in the United States to keep them here.” The 4-year-old — who is suffering from a rare form of cancer — and the 7-year-old were deported to Honduras within a day of being arrested with their mother, Willis said. In the case involving the 2-year-old, a federal judge in Louisiana raised questions about the deportation of the girl, saying the government did not prove it had done so properly. Lawyers for the girl’s father insisted he wanted the girl to remain with him in the U.S., while ICE contended the mother had wanted the girl to be deported with her to Honduras, claims that weren’t fully vetted by U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty in Louisiana. Doughty in a Friday order scheduled a hearing on May 16 “in the interest of dispelling our strong suspicion that the Government just deported a U.S. citizen with no meaningful process,” he wrote. Breitbart [4/26/2025 10:17 PM, Staff, 2923K] reports "The New Orleans ICE Field Office deported at least two families, including two mothers and their minor children," the National Immigration Project said in a Saturday statement, referring to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. It said the deportations were hastily ordered, and carried out in the early hours of Friday. "One of the mothers is currently pregnant," the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a separate statement, describing the deportations as "illegal and inhumane.” One of the US children removed from the country has "a rare form of metastatic cancer" and was deported without medication or medical consultations, the ACLU said. It added that ICE agents held the families "incommunicado" and failed to facilitate communication between the women and lawyers. Gracie Willis of the National Immigration Project said in the statement: "What we saw from ICE over the last several days is horrifying and baffling. Families have been ripped apart unnecessarily.” "We should be gravely concerned that ICE has been given tacit approval to both detain and deport US citizen children.” In the case of one woman and her two-year-old who were deported to Honduras, Federal District Judge Terry Doughty has set a May 16 hearing "in the interest of dispelling our strong suspicion that the government just deported a US citizen with no meaningful process.” "The government contends that this is all okay because the mother wishes that the child be deported with her. But the court doesn’t know that," wrote Doughty in a court order dated Friday, highlighting that it is illegal to deport a US citizen. The girl has only been identified by the initials VML. Attorneys for her father filed an emergency request for a temporary restraining order aimed at obtaining the girl’s return. The Trump administration has butted heads with federal judges, rights groups and Democrats who say he has trampled or ignored constitutional rights in rushing to deport migrants, sometimes without the right to a hearing. In a post on social media Saturday, Trump claimed that undocumented migrants in the United States were "wreaking havoc like we have never seen before.” He dismissed due judicial process around deportations, saying: "It is not possible to have trials for millions and millions of people.” "We know who the Criminals are, and we must get them out of the U.S.A. — and FAST!". On Friday, federal agents arrested a US judge in Wisconsin for allegedly shielding an undocumented migrant. The White House has also defied a Supreme Court ruling that the Trump administration must "facilitate" the return of Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to a maximum security prison in El Salvador. The Washington Post [4/26/2025 6:06 PM, Emmanuel Felton and Maegan Vazquez, 31735K] reports that the cases have renewed concerns that the Trump administration’s expedited deportations are violating the due process rights of both citizens and noncitizens. The government is not disputing the immigration status of any of the three children. Instead, officials contend that the undocumented mothers opted to take their citizen children with them back to Honduras. In their court filing, Justice Department lawyers attached a note they say was written by V.M.L.’s mother saying that she was taking the child with her to Honduras. “It is common that parents want to be removed with their children,” Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, told The Washington Post.

NewsNation [4/26/2025 9:27 PM, Julian Resendiz, 6866K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem took to X on Friday to tout recent arrests of migrants accused of sex assaults and violent crimes such as murder and robbery. "Every day I get a report of individuals we have arrested in this country and gotten out that have been perpetuating violence against our communities and endangering families," Noem said. In her 50-second monologue, she made a claim that drew scrutiny. "Since President Trump has been in office – just a few short weeks – we have arrested and deported over 150,000 individuals, many of them incredibly dangerous, (so) that now communities are much safer," Noem said. Flipping over photos of some of the offenders, she thanked President Trump for "his leadership so dirtbags like these are no longer in the United States of America.” Migrant apprehensions at the Southwest border have been falling since last June and have outright plummeted since Trump took office on Jan. 20. U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported barely 7,181 migrant encounters in March, a 95 percent decrease from the 137,473 apprehended in March 2024. The previous month, February 2025, border apprehensions totaled only 8,346. Critics surmised that this would require the administration’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to deport a massive number of people from the country’s interior. "I do not believe this number is an ICE arrest number. There have been 93 full days since (the) inauguration. One-hundred and fifty thousand would mean average daily ICE arrests of 1,613," tweeted Aaron Richlin-Melnick, an immigration attorney and senior fellow at the American Immigration Council. He said reports suggest ICE has struggled to reach a goal of 1,000 arrests per day. "So, something fishy is going on here," he said. In a report released on Thursday, the nonpartisan Washington, D.C.-based Migration Policy Institute said ICE arrests have more than doubled from an average of 310 a day in 2024 to 650 a day as of mid-March. Reichlin-Melnick later said ICE arrests plus CBP encounters potentially add up to the 150,000 Noem touted. "Of course, using CBP inadmissible data in a tally of ‘arrests’ is deceptive since it includes people with visa issues turned around at the border at land and air ports-of-entry — and that’s quite a high number, around 20,000 a month," Reichlin-Melnick tweeted. "It would be 40 percent of Noem’s 150,000 figure.”

FOX News [4/26/2025 8:30 PM, Staff, 46189K] reports ‘The Big Weekend Show’ breaks down liberal judges, current and former, being arrested for allegedly hiding illegal migrants from authorities and DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin’s response. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [4/26/2025 10:26 PM, Stepheny Price, 46189K] reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is firing back after it says the Venezuelan government spread false information that the Trump administration was separating children from parents who are members of the violent Tren de Aragua gang (TdA). A spokesperson for DHS shared a news release that said, despite the Venezuelan government claiming the U.S. "kidnapped" a child, "the truth is DHS took action because both her parents are part of Tren De Aragua.” The child in question’s father, Maiker Espinoza-Escalona, is a lieutenant of Tren De Aragua who oversees homicides, drug sales, kidnappings, extortion, sex trafficking and operates a torture house, the agency said. DHS added that, in addition to the father, the child’s mother, Yorely Escarleth Bernal Inciarte, oversees the recruitment of young women for drug smuggling and prostitution. "These criminal illegal aliens entered the country illegally and had final orders of removal from a judge," DHS said. The department thanked Trump for removing the TdA gang member from the country. "President Trump and Secretary Noem take their responsibility to protect children seriously and will continue to work with federal law enforcement and the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure that children are safe from abuse, sexual exploitation and trafficking," the statement added. DHS said the "previous administration allowed many children who came across the border unaccompanied to be placed with sponsors who were actually smugglers and sex traffickers.” "In less than 100 days, Secretary Noem and Secretary Kennedy have already reunited over 5,000 unaccompanied children with a relative or safe guardian," DHS said. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin joined Fox News Channel’s "The Big Weekend Show" last week and shared her reaction to the far-left media trying to criticize the Trump administration for deporting a 2-year-old citizen, even though DHS says the mother wanted to take the toddler with her when she was deported to Honduras. "The mother had the option that if she wanted to take both children back with her to Honduras," McLaughlin explained. "This is very common practice, but I do think it also shows that this administration, we really care about the safety of these children. And we’ve put together further safeguards, such as biometrics testing and DNA, to ensure that the children are actually children or relatives of these guardians and parents, because we’ve seen way too much of drug mules, human traffickers, sex traffickers exploiting these migrant children for their own disgusting gain.”

Breitbart [4/26/2025 7:10 PM, Elizabeth Weibel, 2923K] reports the White House released a video that encourages illegal aliens in the United States to self-deport, and it showed several messages from President Donald Trump and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem warning them to either self-deport or risk deportation the hard way. In the video posted to X by the White House account, a person can be seen laying on a couch while watching messages from Trump, Noem, and Border Czar Tom Homan. The song, Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver can be heard playing in the video. "People in our country illegally can self-deport the easy way, or they can get deported the hard way," Trump can be heard saying before a video of Noem plays. "Leave now. If you don’t, we will find you and we will deport you, you will never…," Noem says before the video on the television again changes. "Entering this country illegally is a crime and we’re not going to forgive it," Homan says in a video from the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Another video then plays, showing Border Patrol chief Mike Banks talking during an interview on CBS News’s Face the Nation. In the video, Banks warns that for people who "cross the border" the "chances of being apprehended are much greater.” "If you cross the border, your chances of being apprehended are much greater, and if you are apprehended, you’re going to be removed from the country," Banks says. Knocking can then be heard in the video shared by the White House, before someone can be heard saying, "United States Border Patrol! Open the door." The video then ends by showing a screen on a home for the CBP Home app. Breitbart News’s John Nolte previously reported that in March, Trump announced the arrival of the CBP Home app, to help illegal aliens self-deport.

NewsMax.com [4/26/2025 6:41 PM, James Morley III, 4998K] reports Mexico’s government has instructed its broadcasters to ban the Trump administration’s ad featuring Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, labeling the campaign against illegal immigration "propaganda.” In February, shortly after she was confirmed in the Senate, Noem announced a multimillion-dollar ad campaign directed at illegal immigrants, warning them they will be found and deported under President Donald Trump. Released in both domestic and international versions, the $200 million, two-year ad campaign will target both the illegal immigrant already in the U.S. and the one thinking of crossing the border illegally. The commercials have already run internationally in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. "Thank you, President Donald J. Trump, for securing our border and putting America first. President Trump has a clear message: If you are here illegally, we will find you and deport you. You will never return. But if you leave now, you may have an opportunity to return and enjoy our freedom and live the American dream," Noem says to open the one-minute spot that will run on radio, broadcast, and digital in multiple languages and territories. This week, Washington Post reported that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is gearing up to ban the broadcast of the ads on TV and radio networks. "Mexico stands for diversity, inclusion, and rights," Sheinbaum told reporters this week. "Our sovereignty must be respected.” She added that the Trump administration’s ads are "discriminatory" and said her proposed law will prohibit foreign "propaganda in media that use public airwaves.” While the Biden administration released its own immigration ad campaign in 2022, the "Say No to the Coyote" messaging was decidedly softer and did not feature a Cabinet official. Kate Mills, a former senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement official in the Obama administration, told the outlet the new strategy feels like more like a campaign effort. "It is more political messaging than we’ve seen in the past, to have a secretary there, and giving so much credit to the president," Mills said. Martha Barcena, a former Mexican ambassador to Washington, said the Noem ads "appeared to undercut this narrative about sovereignty" and worked against the shared sense of cooperation the two nations have worked toward. "President Sheinbaum has acceded to almost everything Trump has asked of her. At the same time, she’s maintained a narrative of [Mexico’s] sovereignty, of respect, that they [the Trump team] treat us well," Barcena said.

ABC News [4/26/2025 11:07 AM, Armando Garcia, Soo Rin Kim, and Deena Zaru, 34586K] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is reinstating the status of some international students whose records they terminated on a Department of Homeland Security database, court records suggest. In an email submitted in federal court, U.S. Attorney Mark Sauter told Brad Banias, a lawyer representing some of these students, that some records were being restored in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, a database that schools and government agencies use to confirm if foreign students are abiding by the conditions of their stay. But DHS clarified this reinstatement applies only for "people who had not had their visa revoked." "We have not reversed course on a single visa revocation. What we did is restore SEVIS access for people who had not had their visa revoked," a spokesperson for the DHS wrote in a statement to ABC News when asked how many of the SEVIS statuses it had terminated in recent weeks will be restored. Having one’s SEVIS record terminated doesn’t necessarily mean a student’s visa is automatically revoked, but it can lead to the visa being revoked. The major reversal comes as dozens of cases representing hundreds of students have popped up across the country in recent weeks. Lawyers accused the government of abruptly terminating the records on SEVIS.

Washington Post [4/26/2025 6:56 PM, Maegan Vazquez and Teo Armus, 31735K] reports a U.S. district court judge has ordered two Venezuelan nationals living in D.C. to be released from immigration custody, saying the federal government has failed to provide substantial evidence to declare either of them was an “alien enemy” warranting removal under President Donald Trump’s order invoking the Alien Enemies Act. The decision, issued Friday by El Paso-based Senior U.S. District Judge David Briones, marks the first time a judge has ruled that the Trump administration had erred in classifying someone as an “alien enemy” and ordered a release. Many of the relatives and attorneys for men the Trump administration has sent to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act have strongly denied that they are Tren de Aragua gang members. The Supreme Court ruled that the government needed to give anyone labeled an “alien enemy” a chance to contest that designation. The judge in El Paso also went a step further in specifying that going forward, the government must provide detainees 21 days to contest their status, and they must be given a notice in a language they can understand. The Trump administration, in a separate case, recently shared a sample notification form, in which those labeled “alien enemies” were given 12 hours to state whether they planned to contest that designation. Briones also barred the removal of any noncitizen being held in federal immigration custody within his district — a jurisdiction that includes El Paso and several counties along the U.S.-Mexico border eastward into San Antonio and Austin — under Trump’s order. Sirine Shebaya, an attorney at the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers’ Guild who is representing the couple, said Friday’s ruling was the first to address the question of what standard of evidence should apply to the federal government’s determinations under the Alien Enemies Act — and what threshold the government has to meet in those determinations. “That is such a fundamental and critical due process protection,” Shebaya said, “so they have a meaningful opportunity … to understand what the government is saying about them, and to be able to challenge that in a meaningful way.”

Newsweek [4/27/2025 4:00 AM, Billal Rahman, 52220K] reports President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration is deepening a crisis in America’s caregiving system, straining the already limited workforce that supports the country’s rapidly aging population, experts have warned. Trump pledged to remove millions of undocumented migrants as part of his aggressive immigration agenda. Yet immigrants are integral to the U.S. care workforce, accounting for 28 percent of workers in nursing homes and 32 percent in home care, according to nonpartisan organization KFF (formerly Kaiser Family Foundation). "The crisis in the home care industry is here, whether the elected officials choose to acknowledge it or not. It’s no secret that we have a shortage of workers in the care industry and that immigrants play a critical role in filling that gap," Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Secretary-Treasurer Rocío Sáenz told Newsweek. Without immigrant caregivers, experts fear that the nation’s elderly could face rising costs, reduced quality of care and fewer options for aging with dignity. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin rejected this notion. "If people want to come to our country to be caregivers for our seniors, they need to do that by coming here the legal way. The days of open borders releasing unvetted aliens into American communities and allowing criminals to terrorize American citizens are over," she said. She referred to recent news reports about Alfredo Orellana, a green card holder who is facing deportation and who is caregiver to a young man in Virginia with severe autism. McLaughlin described Orellana as "a violent criminal whose record included charges for distributing drugs, drug possession, assault and battery, failure to appear to court (twice), theft at the second degree, and larceny." "The assertion that the only way we can take care of our seniors is by allowing unvetted illegal aliens and foreigners with criminal records to remain in the country is grossly false and lazy," she added.

New York Post [4/26/2025 7:53 PM, Cameron Arcand, 54903K] reports the United States Department of Agriculture is demanding that states ensure illegal immigrants are not using food stamps. The department wants states to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order from February that seeks improved methods to check that those in the country illegally do not receive federal benefits, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The measure is meant to crack down on fraud and serve as a safeguard because illegal immigrants are already not allowed to use SNAP benefits. Only citizens and some legal noncitizens can do so. “We’ve already made arrests in Minnesota and New York and Colorado, and we’re just getting started,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told Fox News Digital in an interview. “We’re going to be extremely, extremely aggressive. Now, hopefully it acts as a deterrent also.” The USDA is asking states to cross-check Social Security numbers with a death master file and to use the free Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system provided by the Department of Homeland Security for noncitizens applying for the benefits, among other steps to verify immigration status. Rollins said it’s “the president’s vision to ensure that we’re being the most efficient and effective with taxpayer dollars.” “So, we think we’ll be able to cut down on billions of fraud and save the taxpayers a lot of money,” she said. John Walk, acting deputy under secretary for food, nutrition, and consumer services, wrote in a letter Thursday to state SNAP agencies, explaining the existing law. “By law, only United States citizens and certain lawfully present aliens may receive SNAP benefits. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-193) established that ‘aliens within the Nation’s borders not depend on public resources to meet their needs.’ SNAP is not and has never been available to illegal aliens,” Walk wrote. The crackdown comes as there is heightened scrutiny on the eligibility of illegal immigrants for benefits, such as California’s Medicaid program that allows people to enroll without their immigration status being considered, even though it’s funded by state and federal taxpayer dollars.

Daily Wire [4/26/2025 6:24 AM, Amanda Prestigiacomo, 4672K] reports Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer warned states on Friday that if they allow illegal immigrants to collect unemployment benefits, they could lose federal funding. Chavez-DeRemer sent a letter to all governors, telling them to comply with President Donald Trump’s directives to make sure illegals are not getting American tax dollars and illegal immigration is not incentivized. The letter notes that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem recently informed states that they are allowed to use the DHS immigration database known as SAVE. The system "helps verify the immigration status of benefit claimants and is a critical tool in the toolbox in ensuring that illegal immigrants do not access our nation’s unemployment benefits," Chavez-DeRemer said.

Telemundo [4/26/2025 6:36 PM, Staff, 34K] reports President Donald Trump said Saturday that all criminals who have entered the United States cannot be prosecuted, but must be quickly removed from the country. "Corrupt Joe Biden will have destroyed our country with his open borders madness, allowing criminals of all kinds to enter without punishment. Murderers, drug dealers, gang members and even the mentally ill will settle in our country, sowing unprecedented chaos. It is not possible to judge millions and millions of people. We know who the criminals are and we must get them out of the U.S. AND FAST!" he wrote on his social network, Truth Social. This month, federal judge James Boasberg initiated proceedings to hold the Trump administration in contempt for ignoring a court order and sending more than 200 migrants, mostly Venezuelans, to a mega-jail in El Salvador. However, on Friday an appeals court in Washington D. C. temporarily blocked the federal judge’s attempt. Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act of 1798, used during wartime, on March 14 to expel hundreds of Venezuelans he accuses of belonging to the Tren de Aragua criminal organization. A day after he invoked the law, Boasberg blocked its use just as two planes were on their way to Central America with the migrants and ordered the return of those flights. The planes did not turn back and landed in El Salvador, sparking an unprecedented legal battle in which even Trump suggested impeaching the judge. The sending of migrants to El Salvador has provoked a series of lawsuits against the Trump administration and rejection by international organizations. The NGO Human Rights Watch, in a report published last week, accused the US and El Salvador of subjecting these people to "forced disappearance". The Trump Administration has defended the expulsions by accusing the migrants of having links to the Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gangs, recently labeled by Washington as terrorist groups. However, multiple investigations by US media have shown that most of those expelled to El Salvador have no criminal record.

DailySignal.com [4/26/2025 6:00 PM, Joshua Arnold, 495K] reports a new task force within the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) convened Tuesday to rectify the "anti-Christian bias" perpetrated by the federal government under President Joe Biden. Attorney General Pam Bondi created the task force with President Donald Trump’s Feb. 6 executive order, "Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias.” "My Administration will not tolerate anti-Christian weaponization of government or unlawful conduct targeting Christians," Trump’s order stated. "The law protects the freedom of Americans and groups of Americans to practice their faith in peace, and my Administration will enforce the law and protect these freedoms. My Administration will ensure that any unlawful and improper conduct, policies, or practices that target Christians are identified, terminated, and rectified.” At its inaugural meeting Tuesday, the task force heard from "peaceful Christian Americans who were unfairly targeted by the Biden Administration for their religious beliefs," the DOJ stated. This included Michael Farris, former head of Alliance Defending Freedom and an elder at Cornerstone Chapel in Leesburg, Virginia, which Biden’s IRS investigated over alleged violations of the Johnson Amendment by its senior pastor, Gary Hamrick. The second witness was Liberty University Provost Scott Hicks, who described how the Biden administration singled out his university and Grand Canyon University—the two largest Christian colleges in the nation—for crippling fines. The task force also heard from Phil Mendes, a Navy Seal who was "relieved of duty during Biden Administration for not taking the COVID-19 vaccine due to religious exemption requests that were denied by the Department of Defense.” Trump’s executive order tasked this force with reviewing "the activities of all executive departments and agencies … over the previous Administration" to "identify any unlawful anti-Christian policies, practices, or conduct" and recommend relevant steps to reverse those injustices, either through executive or legislative action. Pursuant to this end, Trump ordered the task force to "solicit information and ideas from a broad range of individuals and groups" and "share information and develop strategies to protect the religious liberties of Americans.” The task force is supposed to issue three reports at intervals of 120 days, one year, and the dissolution of the group (scheduled to come after two years unless its mandate is extended). Trump assigned at least 17 different departments and agencies to the task force. In addition to the attorney general, it also consists of the secretaries of State, the Treasury, Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), Housing and Urban Development, Education, Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security. It also includes the director of the Office of Management and Budget, the U.S. Representatives to the U.N., the administrator of the Small Business Administration, the FBI director, the head of the White House Domestic Policy Council, the FEMA administrator, the chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and other officials at the attorney general’s discretion.

NBC News [4/26/2025 1:29 PM, Tyler Kingkade, 44742K] reports after freezing $2.2 billion in funding, the Trump administration has also singled out Harvard in other key ways: It threatened the university’s nonprofit status and its ability to host international students and faculty, who comprise roughly a quarter of the student body and help fuel research in every part of the school. One Harvard scientist was detained and at least 11 other people affiliated with the university have lost their visas in recent weeks, though some were restored by the government on Friday. In an interview Wednesday, two days after the university filed suit to try to win back its federal funding, Harvard President Alan Garber stood by the school’s decision to take a stand.

AP [4/26/2025 7:47 AM, Adriana Gomez Licon] reports a few dozen women gathered at a posh Miami brewery on a recent evening to listen to U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart outline the Republican plans to retain their slim House majority in next year’s elections. Diaz-Balart is one of three House Republicans in South Florida with roots in Cuba. Together, they are treading carefully in discussing President Donald Trump’s immigration offensive, which includes directly targeting some Cubans and Venezuelans, key parts of the GOP’s base in Florida. Diaz-Balart, Salazar and Rep. Carlos Gimenez have defended Trump despite the president’s efforts to eliminate protections that allow hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans, Cubans, and other migrants to live and work legally in the United States.

Los Angeles Times [4/26/2025 10:22 PM, Michael Biesecker and Lolita C. Baldor, 13342K] reports the wife of an active-duty Coast Guardsman was arrested this week by federal immigration authorities in the family residential section of the U.S. Naval Air Station at Key West, Fla., after she was flagged in a routine security check, officials said Saturday. "The spouse is not a member of the Coast Guard and was detained by Homeland Security Investigations pursuant to a lawful removal order," Coast Guard spokesperson Lt. Cmdr. Steve Roth said in a statement confirming Thursday’s on-base arrest. "The Coast Guard works closely with HSI and others to enforce federal laws, including on immigration.” According to a U.S. official, the woman’s work visa expired around 2017, and she was marked for removal from the United States a few years later. She and the Coast Guardsman were married early this year, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an enforcement incident. Though the Trump administration has made immigration arrests a top priority for federal law enforcement, it did not immediately appear that the on-base arrest of the military spouse was part of a broader sweep. The official said that when the woman and her Coast Guard husband were preparing to move into their on-base housing on Wednesday, they went to the visitor control center to get a pass so she could access the Key West installation. During the routine security screening required for base access, the woman’s name was flagged as a problem. Base personnel contacted the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which looked into the matter, said the official. NCIS and Coast Guard security personnel got permission from the base commander to enter the installation and then went to the Coast Guardsman’s home Thursday, the official said. They were joined by personnel from Homeland Security Investigations, a unit within Immigration and Customs Enforcement. HSI eventually took the spouse into custody, and the official said they believe she is still being detained. Officials did not give the name of her native country. The Coast Guard referred questions about the woman’s identity, immigration status and charges to ICE, which did not respond to a request for comment Saturday. The Department of Homeland Security also did not respond to a request for comment.

Washington Examiner [4/26/2025 9:31 PM, Zach LaChance, 2296K] reports a Wisconsin judge is now threatening not to hold court after the FBI arrested Milwaukee-based Judge Hannah Dugan on Friday on obstruction charges. Judge Monica Isham of Sawyer County made the stunning claim in an email sent to all state judges on Saturday, Wisconsin Right Now reported. Isham claimed she no longer "feels protected or respected as a Judge" after the arrest of Dugan and will "refuse" to hold court without new "guidance" or "support.” "I no longer feel protected or respected as a Judge in this administration. If there is no guidance for us and no support for us, I will refuse to hold court in Branch 2 in Sawyer County. I will not put myself or my staff who may feel compelled to help me or my community in harms [sic] way," she wrote. Isham added that she has "no intention of allowing anyone to be taken out of my courtroom by ICE and sent to a concentration camp, especially without due process, as BOTH of the constitutions we swore to support requires," even threatening to "start raising bail money" for defendants. Isham’s email follows the arrest of Dugan after she allegedly misdirected Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in mid-April to help an illegal immigrant evade arrest. According to a 13-page criminal complaint, Dugan directed officers away from Mexico native Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, who was in court for a hearing in a domestic violence case, sneaking him out a back door of the courtroom typically reserved for jurors and in-custody defendants. That action led to Flores-Ruiz leaving the courthouse for about 22 minutes before he was captured by immigration officials. Officials had an arrest warrant for Flores-Ruiz, who was already deported over a decade ago and at some point reentered the country illegally. Isham defended Dugan’s alleged conduct in her email on Saturday. "Yesterday, Judge Hannah Dugan of Milwaukee County stood on her Oath in the very building she swore to uphold it and she was arrested and charged with felonies for it. Enough is enough," she wrote. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NewsMax.com [4/26/2025 6:15 PM, Jim Mishler, 4998K] reports Wisconsin Republican state legislators are considering whether they should act against arrested Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Wisconsin Republican legislative leaders are waiting to ensure the charges against Dugan are "confirmed" before proceeding with an attempt to remove her from her position. But they are laying the groundwork. Dugan was arrested on Friday by the FBI. She is accused of assisting an illegal migrant to avoid being captured by federal agents at the county courthouse and charged with "concealing an individual to prevent his discovery and arrest" and obstructing or impeding a proceeding. Attorney General Pam Bondi said, "I think some of these judges think that they are beyond and above the law. They are not.” A short time after the announcement of Dugan’s arrest, former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, posted: "The Members of the Wisconsin Legislature should vote to remove disgraced Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan from office. It requires a two-thirds vote. They should come in for an extraordinary session ASAP and remove her from office.” The Sentinel reported that state Assembly Majority Leader Tyler August, R-Lake Geneva, said the developing case is being closely watched. "These charges are serious, deeply troubling, and strike at the core of public trust. Assembly Republicans stand prepared to act decisively if these serious allegations are confirmed," he said. The American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Wisconsin issued a joint statement in defense of Dugan. "Judges have a duty to maintain order in their courtrooms and ensure the fair administration of justice, and federal law does not require state judges to act as agents of federal immigration enforcement," the statement read. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Washington Post [4/26/2025 7:24 PM, Patrick Marley and Jeremy Roebuck, 31735K] reports the escalating fight between President Donald Trump and the judiciary took a new form Friday. After weeks of mounting questions about whether Trump was defying court orders, the administration arrested a Wisconsin judge and accused her of helping a Mexican immigrant evade arrest by federal agents. Officers handcuffed Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan in public. Attorney General Pam Bondi bragged on the Fox News show “America Reports” about the administration’s willingness to go after judges who “think they’re above the law.” FBI Director Kash Patel began the day by announcing Dugan’s arrest on social media and ended it by posting a photo of agents leading her away. While many Republican supporters of the president cheered the aggressive actions, critics of the administration said the spectacle sent a chilling message. “The obvious purpose of the arrest of Judge Dugan on criminal charges is to intimidate and threaten all judges, state and local, across the country,” said J. Michael Luttig, a conservative former U.S. appeals court judge. Many scholars have dubbed the standoff between Trump and the courts a constitutional crisis. Judges have increasingly expressed alarm at the administration’s dismissive response to orders blocking Trump’s efforts to dismantle federal programs, fire government workers and fast-track deportations. The clash has been starkest in the case of Kilmar Abrego García, wrongly deported to a megaprison in El Salvador last month despite a 2019 order saying he could not be sent to that country. The Supreme Court ruled the administration must facilitate his return, but the administration has dragged its feet, arguing that it is powerless to bring back Abrego García because he’s in foreign custody. Trump has been quick to denounce judges who rule against him, including calling for the impeachment of a federal judge who ordered the administration not to use a wartime authority to deport alleged members of a Venezuelan gang. The president’s demand drew a rebuke from Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. Charles Geyh, an Indiana University law professor who studies judicial conduct, said Dugan’s arrest must be viewed in the broader context of these interactions with the court system. He called the arrest part of a pattern: “An attempt to bludgeon, an attempt to coerce, an attempt to weaken the one branch of government that stands between the executive — the Trump administration — and it doing whatever it wishes to do.”

AP [4/26/2025 1:40 PM, John Raby, 16228K] reports a federal judge in west Texas joined other courts in temporarily blocking the deportations of Venezuelan immigrants under an 18th-century wartime law known as the Alien Enemies Act. U.S. District Judge David Briones in El Paso, Texas, issued the ruling Friday while he ordered the release of a couple accused of being members of a Venezuelan criminal gang. Briones wrote that government lawyers “have not demonstrated they have any lawful basis” to continue detaining the couple on a suspected alien enemy violation. A message left with an attorney for the couple wasn’t immediately returned Saturday. The couple is accused of being part of Tren de Aragua, which the Trump administration has designated a foreign terrorist organization. Trump has invoked the Alien Enemies Act from 1798 that lets the president deport noncitizens 14 years or older who are from a country with which the U.S. is at war. Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked, for now, the deportations of any Venezuelans held in northern Texas under the act. The high court also ruled anyone being deported under Trump’s declaration deserved a hearing in federal court first and are given “a reasonable time” to contest their pending removals. Briones’ ruling applies only to Venezuelan immigrants in federal custody in his judicial district. Federal judges in Colorado, south Texas and New York previously issued similar rulings. Briones ordered the government to give a 21-day notice before attempting to remove anyone in west Texas — in contrast to the 12 hours that the government contends is sufficient. The El Paso case comes as the Trump administration and local authorities clash over the president’s sweeping immigration crackdown. Briones’ ruling occurred the same day as the FBI’s arrest of a Milwaukee judge accused of helping a man evade immigration authorities. Briones, who was nominated to the court in 1994 by President Bill Clinton, said that “due process requirements for the removal of noncitizens are long established” under the Immigration and Nationality Act as well as previous U.S. Supreme Court rulings. “There is no doubt the Executive Branch’s unprecedented peacetime use of wartime power has caused chaos and uncertainty for individual petitions as well as the judicial branch in how to manage and evaluate the Executive’s claims of Tren de Aragua membership, and the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act as a whole,” Briones wrote. The couple, Julio Cesar Sanchez Puentes and Luddis Norelia Sanchez Garcia, was granted temporary protected status after entering the United States from Mexico in October 2022. They were notified that their status was terminated on April 1. They were arrested April 16 at the El Paso airport as the couple prepared to return to their home in Washington, D.C., where they live with their three children. They had flown to Texas for an April 14 pretrial hearing related to removal proceedings. That case was continued until June 23, and the couple was allowed to remain free on bail, according to court documents.

Reported similarly:
Telemundo [4/26/2025 6:55 PM, John Raby, 11K]

Breitbart.com [4/26/2025 11:54 AM, Randy Clark, 2923K] reports a family in Pittsburg, Kansas, is claiming their mother was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at a United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) hearing on a pending petition for her to become a Lawfully Admitted Permanent Resident. Her United States citizen husband filed the petition. On Wednesday, the family says they were told their mother has an outstanding final order of deportation. The woman, Rosmery Alvarado, an illegal alien from Guatemala, is now being held in an ICE detention center several hours from the family home. According to her daughter, Carina Moran, she faces imminent removal to Guatemala. The existence of the order, according to current immigration law, makes Alvarado’s pathway to becoming a Lawfully Admitted Permanent Resident extremely difficult, if not impossible. Moran says the family has filed a legal action seeking to stop Alvarado’s removal.

San Francisco Chronicle [4/26/2025 3:50 PM, Warren Pederson, 5046K] reports California Attorney General Rob Bonta has announced felony charges against three men in a suspected identity theft ring operating in seven California counties, including three in the Bay Area. From March to July 2023, Anthony Limas, Johnny Nicklas and Steve Randy Nicklas applied for retail credit cards using stolen identities to obtain more than $100,000 in merchandise in Alameda, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, as well as Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties in Southern California, Bonta said Friday in a news release. "This was not a one-off shoplifting offense, it was a malicious, coordinated scheme," Bonta said. "These crimes hurt our businesses and pose a serious threat to our communities.” The investigation began with a referral from a Signet Jewelers corporate fraud investigator, Bonta said. It expanded to include other high-end retailers, including Harbor Freight Tools and jewelers Zales, Jared and Kay, according to a 34-count felony complaint. Several Southern California law enforcement agencies participated in the investigation, as well as the California Highway Patrol and the federal Department of Homeland Security. Charges against Limas, Johnny Nicklas and Steve Randy Nicklas include retail theft, grand theft and identity theft of 13 victims. "I am committed to using the full force of the California Department of Justice to fight organized retail crime both in the field and in the courtroom," said Bonta, who encourages the public to submit complaints and tips to oag.ca.gov/bi/retail-crime.

AP [4/26/2025 9:33 PM, Morgan Lee, 34586K] reports immigration and civil rights advocates have renewed concerns that immigrants detained at Guantanamo Bay are being held in extreme isolation, cut off from meaningful access to legal counsel or candid communication with relatives, according to a new court filing Saturday. In a lawsuit brought on behalf or two Nicaraguan immigrants held at the U.S. Navy base on Cuba, attorneys say there is a climate of “extreme fear and intimidation” that interferes with constitutional rights to due process and legal counsel. The revised lawsuit asks a federal judge in Washington to intervene on behalf of all future immigrants at Guantanamo, which authorities have used as a way station for immigrants whom President Donald Trump calls “the worst,” with final removal orders, as his administration seeks to ramp up mass deportations. “Officers at Guantánamo have created a climate of extreme fear and intimidation where immigrant detainees are afraid to communicate freely with their counsel,” the lawsuit says, adding that conditions are more restrictive than at mainland detention facilities, prisons and in some instances law-of-war military custody at Guantanamo Bay. U.S. Southern Command, which oversees the base, declined to comment on the lawsuit and referred requests to the Department of Homeland Security, which did not immediately respond to an email Saturday. In March a federal judge ruled against advocates’ attempts to help migrants at Guantanamo and prevent further transfers there, days after the administration moved all migrants out of the facility. Two Nicaraguans who arrived since then have submitted court declarations charting their journey through detention centers in Louisiana to Cuba and describing their anguished concerns that phone conversations are being monitored and might lead to punishment or reprisals. Attorneys have no in-person contact with clients at the base and say they are chained and placed in restraints during legal calls that are broadcast on speakerphone with officers seated outside an open doorway. That undermines the right to confidential communication and attorney-client privilege, the lawsuit says.

Washington Post [4/27/2025 6:30 AM, Jason Willick, 31735K] reports Joe Biden’s tit-for-tat relaxation of border enforcement after Trump’s first term handed the current president the core issue for his political comeback. Now, just months into his second term, Trump is embroiled in the most acute presidential standoff with the judiciary since the 1930s, over (what else?) immigration. Trump forced this standoff with his decision to invoke the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th-century war-powers law, to send migrants to an El Salvador prison. I’ve argued that the administration’s legal arguments are specious and the whole arrangement barbaric. But as the judicial confrontation grinds on, the administration is settling on a new rearguard defense of its war with the courts that’s worth examining. The left, the argument goes, has made immigration a one-way ratchet. Democratic presidents can unilaterally suspend border enforcement measures, and Republican presidents have to jump through hoops to reverse the resulting transfer of people. "How can Biden let Millions of Criminals into our Country, totally unchecked and unvetted, with no Legal authority to do so, yet I, in order to make up for this assault to our Nation, am expected to go through a lengthy Legal process, separately, for each and every Criminal Alien," Trump posted last week, amplifying an argument that is striking a chord on the right. But there’s an enormous mismatch between this Republican political claim and the judicial clash the claim is meant to justify. The due-process brawl between the Trump administration and the Supreme Court is mostly about the Alien Enemies Act (AEA); the Supreme Court frustrated the White House this month by holding that individual migrants targeted under that 1798 law are entitled to a hearing (what Trump denounces as a "lengthy Legal process"). The only migrants affected by that dispute, though, are Venezuelans whom the administration says are members of the Tren de Aragua gang. According to the American Sheriff Alliance, the Latin American gang has "over 5,000 members." The Department of Homeland Security hasn’t said how many it believes are in the United States, so the New York Post’s 2024 estimate of 600 is as good as any. Trump has gone to war with the judiciary over 137 AEA removals his administration executed last month, and a few dozen it attempted this month (the Supreme Court blocked them in an extraordinary middle-of-the-night order). That’s out of more than 100,000 deportations the Trump administration told Newsweek it completed by the start of April. The greatest number of people the first Trump administration removed in one fiscal year was 347,000, according to DHS data, and this time the White House is more ambitious. But whatever the target number, the population covered by the AEA is a rounding error.

Wall Street Journal [4/26/2025 8:00 AM, Joseph De Avila, 646K] reports Chicago native Julio Noriega was walking down a street in Berwyn, Ill., in January when immigration agents grabbed him and stuffed him in a van, he said in court documents. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents didn’t give Noriega, 54 years old, an opportunity to explain that he was a U.S. citizen—and didn’t present him with a warrant, according to his lawsuit against the Trump administration. “I was so in shock and terrified about what was happening,” Noriega said in a court declaration. The officers took Noriega to a processing center where he was held for several hours. Eventually, the officers reviewed the identification in his wallet and released him, the lawsuit said. ICE declined to comment on the lawsuit or Noriega’s account. President Trump’s aggressive push for mass deportations of illegal immigrants is raising the likelihood that more U.S. citizens and people living in the country legally will get swept up in enforcement actions, legal experts said. While previous administrations have picked up Americans in error during raids, the current administration’s drive for more arrests and faster deportations increases the risk of mistakes, including the detainment and arrests of U.S. citizens, said Deborah Fleischaker, former acting chief of staff for ICE under the Biden administration. “There isn’t enough time to think about what you’re doing and who you’re doing it to,” Fleischaker said. ICE officials began implementing daily arrest targets in January. The Trump administration has been fighting in court over its use of expedited removal proceedings, where people can be quickly deported without a hearing. ICE’s new collaboration with local law-enforcement agencies and other federal agencies not trained in immigration enforcement also raises the possibility of more detentions of U.S. citizens, Fleischaker said.

The New York Times [4/26/2025 8:17 PM, Hamed Aleaziz, 145325K] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, along with state law enforcement officials, arrested about 780 immigrants in Florida in an operation this week, according to ICE data obtained by New York Times. The operation began on Monday and targeted undocumented immigrants with final deportation orders, according to an ICE official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the operation. The officers picked up more than 275 migrants with final removal orders, the data showed. ABC News and Fox News earlier reported news of the arrests, which took place over four days. It was the latest move by the Trump administration to seek to accelerate deportations of undocumented immigrants, which have so far been well below the administration’s goals. Since President Trump took office, ICE officials have worked with various federal agencies to conduct raids across the United States. The effort this week in Florida was the first to be conducted as part of a formal arrangement with state law enforcement known as a 287(g) agreement, according to the official. The Trump administration has sought to recruit local authorities to help in immigration operations in an effort to speed deportations. The administration has resumed collateral arrests during such operations, which allows officers to pick up migrants who were not initially targeted but were around an individual who was sought by ICE. Generally, people must have received an order of removal from an immigration judge before they are deported, a process that can take weeks or stretch into years. But since the start of 2024, 70 percent of these removal orders were issued to someone who did not attend their hearing before a judge, according to a Times analysis of court records. “It’s going to break up families,” said Tessa Petit, the executive director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, said of the arrests this week. “And that is not the welcoming state that Florida has been for immigrants for decades.” Given the scale of the operation, Ms. Petit said, there is a chance that many of those arrested were in the country on some sort of legal status and did not possess criminal records. Breitbart [4/26/2025 4:45 PM, Bob Price, 2923K] reports that the round-up came as part of a multi-agency immigration enforcement crackdown, ICE officials stated. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said this is a warning to criminal illegal aliens across the country. "We’re coming for you," Noem said in a post on social media. Florida Highway Patrol troopers teamed up with the federal task force as part of "Operation Tidal Wave," ICE officials reported. The nearly 800 arrests took place during the first four days of the targeted enforcement operation. ICE officials called it a "first-of-its-kind" partnership between state and federal partners. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis posted a comment on social media on Saturday, saying, "Florida is leading the nation in active cooperation with the Trump administration for immigration enforcement and deportation operations.” Fox News journalist Bill Melugin reported the arrests included a Colombian murders, MS-13 and 18th Street gang members, and a Russian spy wanted by Interpol. "Operation Tidal Wave" continues. ABC News [4/26/2025 7:13 AM, Luke Barr, 34586K] reports that the operation, dubbed "Operation Tidal Wave" uses ICE’s 287(g) authority, which allows for state and local law enforcement agencies to be deputized and to arrest those in the U.S. illegally. State and local agencies allow for ICE to be in jails and on task forces, according to the agency. "I think the main reason why this operation is significant is because it’s the first of its kind," Todd Lyons, the acting ICE director, told ABC News. "It’s one that not only we’ve been doing what we have, but we have surged all our federal partners together along with Homeland Security Investigations and Enforcement [and] Removal Operations, which are all the enforcement arms of ICE, but we’re also using all our 287(g) partners in the state of Florida. We’re using state, local and county law enforcement agencies to assist us in our operations. So this is one of the first large-scale missions we’ve done like this ever," he added. "We brought a ‘whole the government’ approach with cooperative jurisdictions that want to help ICE secure communities in neighborhoods and remove public safety threats from our neighborhoods." The partnerships are a "force multiplier," he said. ICE and officials from Florida law enforcement, which includes the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, arrested 275 people in four days with final orders of removal -- meaning they can be removed from the country in short order. Madison Sheahan, who serves as the ICE deputy director, told ABC News that the partnerships will continue.

FOX News [4/26/2025 5:47 PM, Alexandra Koch, Bill Melugin, 46189K] reports that, in a groundbreaking joint effort, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Miami and Florida law enforcement agencies arrested nearly 800 illegal immigrants during the first four days of Operation Tidal Wave, a massive, multi-agency immigration enforcement crackdown. Fox News obtained information on some of the ICE arrests from the ongoing operation, which include a convicted Colombian murderer, alleged MS-13 and 18th Street gang members and a Russian with an Interpol Red Notice for manslaughter. Jose Sanchez Reyes, a Colombian illegal immigrant who entered the U.S. as a getaway, was convicted of homicide in his home country. Rafael Juarex Cabrera, a Guatemalan illegal immigrant and alleged MS-13 gang member, has illegally reentered the U.S. three times and was convicted of felony reentry. Savva Klishchevskii, a Russian illegal immigrant, has an Interpol Red Notice out of Russia for vehicular manslaughter. Aron Isaak Morazan-Izaguirre, a Honduran illegal immigrant, is a known or suspected terrorist member of the 18th Street gang and has allegedly reentered the U.S. illegally two times. Operation Tidal Wave remains ongoing, and Florida continues to work with ICE to enhance President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda. Officials said Customs and Border Protection (CBP) provided "extraordinary support" during the operation, which they claim was highly successful. "We appreciate our [Department of Homeland Security (DHS)] partner’s commitment to public safety," ICE wrote in a statement posted to X. The announcement was made after two judges were arrested this week for allegedly hiding illegal immigrants from ICE. Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan is charged with obstruction of an official proceeding and concealing an individual to prevent discovery and arrest for allegedly shielding a migrant from ICE agents. Former Doña Ana County Magistrate Judge Joel Cano, 68, and his wife, Nancy Cano, 67, were charged with evidence tampering amid allegations they harbored a member of Venezuela’s violent Tren de Aragua gang, Cristhian Ortega-Lopez.

The Daily Caller [4/26/2025 10:08 PM, Harold Hutchinson, 1100K] reports Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin described the arrest records of some illegal immigrants arrested by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as part of “a large-scale operation” during a Saturday evening appearance on Fox News. Federal, state and local law enforcement carried out Operation Tidal Wave in Florida, arresting nearly 800 illegal immigrants during the four-day operation, according to a post on X by Fox News reporter Bill Melugin. McLaughlin said the sweep was a “preview” of additional operations. “This was a major success, it was a large-scale operation. And to your point, this is a preview of what is to come throughout the nation,” McLaughlin said. “We have partnerships under 287(g) authorities that Secretary [of Homeland Security Kristi] Noem signed, and this empowers state and local law enforcement to actually be able to use their enforcement authority to carry out immigration enforcement.” “What that means is they can actually make arrests and clean up our streets get these criminal aliens off our streets,” McLaughlin said. “So, like you said, almost 800 aliens including MS-13 gang members, convicted murderers, rapists, all of these people are now off of our streets who otherwise have been acting with impunity and terrorizing U.S. communities. You are going to be seeing this throughout the country, and I think that Americans are going to be really thrilled with the results under this administration in the next 100 days.” “This success and massive operation is a window into what is to come throughout the country for the next 100 days of the Trump administration,” McLaughlin told the DCNF when reached for comment. “Our state and local law enforcement are heroes as we execute on the president’s mandate to secure the border, remove illegal aliens and make America safe.”

Houston Chronicle [4/26/2025 7:00 AM, Tanya Babbar, 1769K] reports a 51-year-old grandmother from Spring has been in ICE custody for over a month after a mail carrier accused her of assault. But Margarita Ávila’s family said she was just defending herself and does not deserve to be deported to her native country Belize. Lisbet Ávila said she believes her mother was wrongfully arrested by Precinct 4 Constable deputies -- an assertion Constable Mark Hermann denies -- March 12, after she was accused of assaulting a postal worker. Margarita Ávila was taken into ICE custody the next day, and has since remained in ICE detention.

CBS Austin [4/26/2025 12:36 AM, George Acosta, 602K] reports as immigration and customs enforcement sightings increase across southern Nevada so have reports of scams and cases of fraud targeting vulnerable communities throughout the valley who may already be on high alert. With well more than 50 ‘Know your rights’ informational sessions helping inform vulnerable immigrant communities across the state another free immigration resource fair ‘Unidos con la Comunidad’ put on by the Nevada Immigrant Coalition at United Nissan brought several immigration resource officials together to help inform concerned southern Nevadans. "Right now it’s a struggle for every immigrant. My mom has anxiety about it and so does my dad.” That is the reality of a sixth grade Las Vegas boy who with his parents permission to not disclose his identity spoke with News 3 about his and his family’s fears surrounding the uncertainty of being undocumented within the United States. "So, we are trying to be aware of ICE like spot points of border patrol so they don’t come to us. So ,we are here to take some notes for the future in case that happens.” With an already vulnerable population on high alert, during Friday night’s immigration resource fair. Several Nevada organizations such as; Make the Road Nevada, Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN), Chicanos Por La Causa, Fuente de Vida, ACLU, UNLV Immigration Clinic, and Mexican Consulate officials helped shine a light one valuable resources in light of the recent increase in sightings as well as scams targeting immigrant communities. "We are seeing it as a relatively common place, there will be false reports of ice showing up to different events to discourage turnout there. We’ve seen ones that advise people that require them to pay a certain amount of money in order for them to be able to stay in the country." said ACLU Executive Director, Athar Haseebullah. "Lots of confusion for the community. So it’s always important to be aware of who is calling you, what you are signing and if you don’t know or don’t understand it, speak to a trusted organization or an attorney before taking any action,"added PLAN Organizing Director Erkia Castro. Within the past week, officials with the Nevada Immigrant Coalition have also confirmed reports of ICE agent sightings throughout the Las Vegas Valley. "It was mainly on the east side, but what we do know is that they weren’t necessarily big raids or sweeps or anything like everything was very targeted so a lot of those targets were more on the east side," Castro said.

Newsweek [4/26/2025 3:53 PM, Mandy Taheri, 52200K] reports Heydi Sánchez Tejeda, a Cuban immigrant married to a United States citizen with whom she shares a baby daughter, was detained earlier this week and deported to Havana on Thursday on a flight carrying dozens of Cuban migrants, the Miami Herald reported on Saturday. Her husband, Carlos Yuniel Valle, said in Spanish in an emotional video posted on his Facebook account, "They separated a girl from her mother. They killed a mother, a father, and the future of a girl while she was still alive." Newsweek has reached out to Valle for comment via Facebook Messenger and filled out an online contact form with Tejeda’s attorney. Newsweek also emailed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Saturday for comment. Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin previously told Newsweek: "The Trump administration is enforcing immigration laws—something the previous administration failed to do. Those who violate these laws will be processed, detained and removed as required."

NPR [4/26/2025 8:00 AM, Gustavo Sagrero, 29983K] Audio: HERE reports Alex Villatoro is finishing high school in the U.S. without his parents after his father was deported back to Guatemala in January and his mother decided to move there with her three younger children. As immigration enforcement ramps up, families like Villatoro’s are being confronted with hard choices.

NPR [4/26/2025 9:37 PM, Juliana Kim, 29983K] reports the Department of Homeland Secretary will not renew temporary protections for thousands of Afghans in the U.S. — setting them up for potential deportation starting on May 20. Temporary protected status, or TPS, is a government protection for people from countries experiencing conditions such as war or natural disasters, who cannot return there safely. TPS shields them from deportation and grants them work authorizations. Over 9,000 people from Afghanistan were covered by TPS as of September 2024. The Biden administration first designated people fleeing Afghanistan as eligible for TPS in 2022 in response to turmoil in the country under Taliban rule, which began after the withdrawal of U.S. troops a year earlier. In 2023, the Biden administration extended TPS for Afghans, noting that the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan remained too dangerous for them to return to the country. But in a Friday statement, DHS assistant secretary of public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said upon review of conditions in Afghanistan, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem made the decision to end TPS for those who had fled the country. "The Secretary determined that Afghanistan no longer continues to meet the statutory requirements for its TPS designation and so she terminated TPS for Afghanistan," McLaughlin said. She added that the decision was based on a review from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), as well as a consultation between USCIS and the Department of State. The DHS also plans to revoke TPS for people from Cameroon, the New York Times reported on Friday.

The Daily Caller [4/26/2025 5:38 PM, John Oyewale, 1100K] reports the Trump administration is mulling over exempting Afghan Christians living as refugees in the U.S. from deportation following pressure from prominent Christian leaders and groups, days after the U.S. ordered an end to temporary protected status for thousands of Afghan refugees, according to reports. The leaders and nonprofit groups warned the administration that hundreds of Christian Afghan refugees risked facing persecution in Afghanistan that fell under Taliban rule after the Biden administration’s chaotic execution of President Donald Trump’s agreement for U.S. troops to withdraw from Afghanistan, Politico reported Friday. The outlet cited unnamed officials. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revoked parole for several Afghans April 11 and said they must leave the U.S. in seven days, the outlet reported. It was not clear how many Afghans received the emailed notice, according to the outlet, although NPR reported that thousands could be affected as over 9,000 Afghans were in the U.S. under the temporary legal status as of September 2024. The parole revocation could affect roughly 300 Christian Afghan refugees, according to the Christian media outlet CBN. Franklin Graham, Evangelical titan and part-time personal pastor to Trump, recently met with the president and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, according to Politico. A coalition of Christian advocacy groups also reportedly urged Noem, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republican lawmakers to temporarily pause the parole revocation for Christian Afghan refugees.

The Huntington News [4/26/2025 8:14 PM, Frances Klemm, 2K] reports several international Northeastern students have had their Student and Exchange Visitor Information System records restored, allowing them to continue their studies in the United States, according to an April 25 update from the university. The restorations come after officials from the Trump administration announced that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, would restore the Student and Exchange Visitor Information, or SEVIS, status of international students whose visas had not already been revoked. According to Northeastern’s FAQ page, “some” Northeastern students’ SEVIS records had been previously terminated. The Department of Homeland Security “tracks and monitors” all international students through their SEVIS record, which determines whether a student is legally allowed to study in the U.S. Recently, records permitting students to be in the country. have been terminated without formal notification to Northeastern or the students affected, according to Northeastern’s “Navigating a New Political Landscape” FAQ page; a student’s record being canceled can put them at risk of arrest or deportation. However, an anonymous senior Department of Homeland Security official told The New York Times that students who’ve had their legal status restored are still at risk for it being removed again once the government comes up with a system to standardize the revocations. The Department of Homeland Security was facing mounting legal pressure after a wave of students with terminated SEVIS records sued the Trump administration for allegedly denying them due process. Immigration officials are working on a new system for processing SEVIS record terminations and won’t make additional changes or further revocations in the meantime, according to a statement read in a Washington federal court April 25 by Justice Department lawyer Joseph Carilli. It is unclear when the new system will be implemented. “We have not reversed course on a single visa revocation,” Tricia McLaughlin, a Homeland Security Department spokesperson, told The New York Times. “What we did is restore SEVIS access for people who had not had their visa revoked.”

Breitbart [4/26/2025 2:51 PM, Ian Hanchett, 2923K] reports that, on Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “The Story,” Senior Adviser to U.S. Customs and Border Protection Ron Vitiello stated that ICE agents wouldn’t need to go to the courthouse to make arrests as often if Milwaukee County would give them access to the jail and Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, the individual at issue in the Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan case, could’ve been arrested in the jail or when he made bail. In response to a statement on the Dugan case from Senate Minority Whip Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Vitiello stated, “Those law enforcement officers were there doing their job. They’re going to that courthouse, most likely because Milwaukee won’t let them in the jail. When the guy was arrested the first time for the battery that he committed, they could’ve arrested him in the jail after he got arrested the first time or when he made bail, he would’ve been turned over to ICE.” He continued, “But Dick Durbin, he wants to have it both ways. He says he’s for law and order, he says he’s for the people, but he’s not for the victims of illegal aliens who also commit crimes in the United States. He’s not for the rule of law, because that arrest would’ve been completely lawful, and it wouldn’t have interfered at all, if she would have done her job and heard that case or whatever the hearing was, they would have taken that man into custody after the hearing, safely, without incident. She’s the one that screwed up here.” [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NewsNation [4/26/2025 8:27 PM, Jorge Ventura, 6866K] reports Border Patrol agents in Tucson, Arizona, shared real-time intelligence with the Mexican government, leading to a major dismantling of cartel lookout sites on the U.S. southern border. Mexican forces arrested four suspects and seized a stockpile: 10 loaded magazines, 300 rounds of ammunition, a bulletproof vest and 30 blue wrappers filled with methamphetamine. There was another bust along a popular tourist route, just north of Puerto Peñasco, less than an hour’s drive from the U.S. border at Lukeville. There, authorities found an AR-15 rifle, multiple solar panels and radio communication gear ready to guide cartel smuggling ops across the border. The solar panels and radios were critical tools for cartel scouts, lookouts stationed in the desert to spy on Border Patrol movements and guide smugglers through gaps along the Arizona border. But this joint operation sent a loud message: Cartels can set up shop, but the U.S. and Mexico will tear it down. That’s why the U.S. is ramping up its own defenses. Friday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth visited a newly created National Defense Area in New Mexico, a 100,000-acre stretch now under military control, warning that any illegal crossing there is now considered trespassing onto a U.S. military base. "They know we mean business, but they weren’t counting on a national defense area. They weren’t counting on a, effectively, a military base along the border," Hegseth said. This new military zone is a direct strike against cartels, smugglers, and criminal gangs that have been exploiting the southern border for years. Mexico is also taking big action inside its borders, dismantling drug labs, costing the cartels millions of dollars as part of an effort called "Operation Frontera Norte — Northern Border Operation.” It launched in February, after Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum reached an agreement with President Trump to deploy 10,000 National Guard troops across 18 northern Mexico cities, aiming to stop drug trafficking right at the source. Since then, Mexican forces have arrested more than 2,700 people, seized more than 2,300 guns, 376,000 rounds of ammunition and more than 66,000 pounds of drugs, including more than 350 pounds of fentanyl. And a major hit in the mountains of Durango this week: Mexican Marines dismantled two hidden meth labs in Tamazula, seizing about 330 pounds of meth, along with nearly 3,200 gallons and 770 pounds of chemical precursors, the raw materials cartels use to flood U.S. streets with drugs. Authorities say these busts strike right at the cartels’ wallets, costing them millions of dollars and preventing thousands of doses of dangerous drugs from reaching young people.

FOX News [4/26/2025 12:00 PM, Charles Creitz, 46189K] reports New Jersey, like all states and territories, is fully legally compliant with the Department of Homeland Security’s new standards, which require a driver’s license to have a star affixed to a corner to confirm the holder has provided additional identifying documentation in order to board a domestic flight. But the Garden State ranked last out of 49 states that responded to a CBS News survey on the percentage of residents who have actually obtained REAL IDs. In that regard, Greenwald said he will introduce a bill in Trenton to direct the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC) to begin online processing of REAL ID applications to help fix the backlog and other issues. A source familiar with New Jersey’s REAL ID rollout told Fox News Digital that because it is one of a handful of states where illegal immigrants can get "status-neutral" licenses, its low personal compliance proportion differs from states where only citizens can get drivers’ licenses — so there is a baseline percentage of drivers who cannot get a REAL ID to start with. An agency spokesperson said the MVC has been working "nonstop" to help as many residents as possible.

NewsMax.com [4/27/2025 6:09 AM, Hannah Fingerhut, 4998K] reports a slow-moving, active storm system brought heavy rain, large hail and tornadoes to parts of Texas and Oklahoma and left three people dead as severe weather warnings Sunday continue to threaten parts of the south-central and Midwest U.S. On Easter Sunday, communities in Texas and Oklahoma were beginning to assess the damage wreaked by tornadoes. There were 17 reported events Saturday, according to Bob Oravec, lead forecaster with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center. Five were confirmed in south-central Oklahoma, including one that inflicted substantial damage on a small town that was still recovering from a March tornado. The storm also brought heavy rain to a broad swath of north-central Texas across central-eastern Oklahoma, much of which saw 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 centimeters) accumulate Saturday into Sunday. Police in Moore, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of Oklahoma City, received dozens of reports of "high-water incidents" over the weekend, including two cars stranded in flood waters Saturday evening. One car was swept away under a bridge, and police said they were able to rescue some people, but a woman and 12-year-old boy were found dead. "This was a historical weather event that impacted roads and resulted in dozens of high-water incidents across the city," Moore police said in a statement Sunday. Moore has about 63,000 residents. The storm also killed one person about 80 miles (129 kilometers) farther southeast after a tornado touched down in Spaulding, according to the Hughes County Emergency Management. The department wrote on Facebook that several homes and structures were destroyed and there were "numerous washouts" of county roads. The National Weather Service said the preliminary survey of damage showed that tornado was at least EF1, with wind speeds between 86 and 110 mph (138 to 177 kph), as was another south of Oklahoma City in Love County. Oravec said the system wasn’t moving much over Texas and Oklahoma Saturday, leaving the area stuck under a very active thunderstorm pattern that produced large hail, flash flooding and tornadoes.

Telemundo Amarillo [4/26/2025 4:10 PM, Raquel Martinez, 2K] reports the city of Canyon has confirmed that a tornado touched down in the Madison Park neighborhood during Friday’s storm. Officials say no injuries or fatalities have been reported. According to the National Weather Service (NWS), the tornado was classified as an EF-1 with winds up to 110 miles per hour. The National Weather Service is expected to issue an official report soon. City officials estimate that approximately 20 homes were severely damaged, with most of the destruction along Willeford Avenue. Emergency response teams from the Canyon Police and Fire Departments, Amarillo Area Office of Emergency Management, Xcel Energy, Atmos Energy, Republic Services and the Randall County Sheriff’s Office are on the scene, along with dozens of community members volunteering to assist with recovery efforts. Residents are asked to stay away from the Madison Park area unless they have been specifically asked to help. At this time, the city is not accepting any donations. Storm debris can be taken to the Lawyer’s Title parking lot at 2100 FM-2590. Madison Park residents may also leave large items at the curb for pickup. The Republic Services landfill will open Monday to accept storm debris, but hazardous materials such as chemicals and paint will not be allowed.

CNN [4/27/2025 2:12 AM, Josh Campbell, Kit Maher and John Miller, 908K] reports an arrest has been made in the investigation of the theft of a high-end Gucci bag belonging to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation tells CNN. One person is in custody and multiple additional arrests are expected in a theft ring recently targeting Washington, DC’s, Penn Quarter area, the source said. Authorities have not yet released specific details about the man’s identity, but the arrest came after the US Secret Service launched an investigation to find the perpetrator who stole her bag as she ate dinner with her family on Easter Sunday. “For the safety of our agents and officers, we are not in a position to confirm or comment at this time. Should criminal charges be filed, the Department of Homeland Security will provide public information in accordance with established procedures,” said Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi. As CNN previously reported, surveillance footage of the incident at The Capital Burger restaurant in Washington, DC, showed the suspect purposefully moving close to Noem as he zeroed in on her Gucci bag near her feet, a second law enforcement source said. The thief, dressed in dark clothing, sat down at an empty table next to Noem with his back facing her and used his left foot to slide the bag away, the source said. He surveyed the restaurant before eventually picking up the bag, covering it with his jacket and leaving. Only when Noem got up from the table did she realize her bag was missing, the source said. Items inside the bag included a Louis Vuitton Clemence wallet, Noem’s driver’s license, medication, apartment keys, passport, DHS access badge, makeup bag, blank checks, and about $3,000 in cash, multiple sources said. CNN reached out to The Capital Burger’s parent company, Darden Restaurants, which did not respond to a request for comment. It remains unclear whether the thief knew Noem’s identity or whether she was a random target. The Secret Service was inside the restaurant with Noem, who was dining at a table with her family, according to a source familiar. The source didn’t specify how many agents accompanied Noem or where they were inside the restaurant. Commenting on the large sum of cash Noem was carrying immediately following the incident, a DHS spokesperson said: “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.” The New York Post [4/26/2025 11:51 PM, Joe Marino, Anna Young and Jennie Taer, 54903K] reports that the suspect, whose identity was not immediately available, was busted by the DC Metro Police and the Secret Service, sources said. The perp, who is believed to be part of a large east coast robbery crew, is expected to appear in court early next week as law enforcement hunt for his accomplice, sources said. Officials are also looking for a second suspect who is also reportedly an illegal migrant. DC US Attorney Ed Martin noted it is unlikely Noem was targeted based on her high-profile position. "There is no indication it was because of that," Martin told NBC News. "It was frankly, it was a nice looking purse. This was not an amateur. This was a person, a thief, that knew how to do this. You could see how he scouted the room out.” The bag, available for $4,400 per the label’s website, was on the ground at the former South Dakota governor’s table when it was taken, according to a complaint filed with local police. The high-end purse also contained a Louis Vuitton Clemence Purse inside, which sells for $600, according to the report. Security footage captured a white man in a N95 surgical mask, dark pants, a "fur-type" collar and a ball cap lift the DHS honcho’s bag before leaving the restaurant located about a mile from the White House. The suspect glanced around the restaurant before grabbing Noem’s bag, covering it with his jacket and then hustling out of the restaurant, according to sources who described the video. "It was kind of shocking, actually, because it was sitting right by my feet. I actually felt my purse — he hooked with his foot and drug it a few steps away and dropped a coat over it and took it," Noem, who oversees the Secret Service, US Customs and Border Protection and the Coast Guard, recounted to podcaster Vince Coglianese. "I thought it was my grandkids kicking me in the legs, but it was very professionally done," she added on the "Vince" podcast. "It tells me that this happens all the time to people, and that they live in communities where this is a danger and it reaffirms why I’m here.” The Secret Service provides security for the secretary, as it does for the president and other high-ranking officials. It was unclear whether the detail was inside the restaurant at the time of the robbery. FOX News [4/27/2025 1:00 AM, Landon Mion, 46189K] reports that authorities are still searching for a second suspect in connection with the incident. The two are both in the U.S. without authorization and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is now involved in the case, Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ed Martin told NBC 4. Martin said there is no indication Noem was targeted for her role at DHS. The suspect in custody is scheduled to appear in court early this week, according to the New York Post. The Secret Service has declined to confirm reports that the suspect was arrested on Saturday. "For the safety of our agents and officers, we are not in a position to confirm or comment at this time," Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi wrote on X. "Should criminal charges be filed, the Department of Homeland Security will provide public information in accordance with established procedures.” Fox News Digital has reached out to DHS, which referred back to Guglielmi’s statement. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reported similarly:
Bloomberg [4/26/2025 10:51 PM, Yi Wei Wong, 16228K]
NBC News [4/26/2025 10:48 PM Laura Strickler, Jonathan Dienst, Ted Oberg, and Rebecca Cohen, 44742K]
Newsweek [4/27/2025 4:50 AM, Kate Plummer, 52220K]
Telemundo [4/26/2025 11:00 PM, Laura Strickler and Rebecca Cohen, 2454K]

FOX News [4/27/2025 1:39 AM, Staff, 46189K] reports Noem’s purse, which contained $3,000 in cash and her DHS access card, was stolen from DC restaurant last week. It’s not clear if the suspect targeting Noem or it was a random crime. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Portland Press Herald [4/26/2025 1:07 PM, Drew Johnson, 734K] reports the U.S. Coast Guard has proposed the removal of over 100 navigation aids in Maine waters, along with many more along the East Coast. In a notice posted earlier this month, the Coast Guard said the removals are intended to modernize and rightsize the setup of buoys, most of which were deployed before modern GPS systems. "This effort will result in the most sustainable navigation risk reduction to support and complement modern mariners, today’s much larger ships, ECS system availability and requirements, and powerful smartphone navigation subscription apps affordably accessible to virtually all waterway users," the Coast Guard wrote.

NBC 10 Boston [4/26/2025 7:35 PM, Mary Markos and Mike Pescaro, 1100K] reports one of two crew members seriously hurt when a rope snapped on a fishing boat off Nahant, Massachusetts, has died, officials confirmed Saturday. The U.S. Coast Guard said it responded to a distress call at 3:55 p.m. reporting two injured crew members of the vessel, named "25 TO LIFE," about 25 nautical miles east of Nahant. The call reported that a snapped rope hit both of them — one had a contusion and possible broken ribs, and the other was intermittently unresponsive with a suspected broken neck. An EMS team rushed both of them to Beverly Hospital with life-threatening injuries. The Gloucester police chief confirmed Saturday that one of the crew members has died. A family friend identified him as Jaxson Marston, a 26-year-old father of one with another child on the way. The tragedy happened just days before the end of the fishing season. Massachusetts State Police and the USCG continue to investigate. [Editorial note: consult video at source link] Yahoo News [4/26/2025 8:56 PM, Staff, 59943K] reports that the two crew members were transported to Beverly Hospital. One of the victims sustained a concussion and broken ribs, while the other had suffered a suspected broken neck and was intermittently unresponsive. A spokesperson for the Coast Guard said, “Our hearts are with his family, friends and loved ones during this incredibly difficult time.” There is no word on the status of the second crewmember.

AP [4/26/2025 6:15 PM, Michael Biesecker and Lolita C. Baldor, 2923K] reports the wife of an active-duty Coast Guardsman was arrested earlier this week by federal immigration authorities inside the family residential section of the U.S. Naval Air Station at Key West, Florida, after she was flagged in a routine security check, officials said Saturday. “The spouse is not a member of the Coast Guard and was detained by Homeland Security Investigations pursuant to a lawful removal order,” said Coast Guard spokesperson Lt. Cmdr. Steve Roth in a statement confirming Thursday’s on-base arrest. “The Coast Guard works closely with HSI and others to enforce federal laws, including on immigration.” According to a U.S. official, the woman’s work visa expired around 2017, and she was marked for removal from the United States a few years later. She and the Coast Guardsman were married early this year, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an enforcement incident. Though the Trump administration has made immigration arrests a top priority for federal law enforcement, it did not immediately appear the on-base arrest of the military spouse was part of a broader sweep. The official said that when the woman and her Coast Guard husband were preparing to move into their on-base housing on Wednesday, they went to the visitor control center to get a pass so she could access the Key West installation. During the routine security screening required for base access, the woman’s name was flagged as a problem. Base personnel contacted the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which looked into the matter, said the official. NCIS and Coast Guard security personnel got permission from the base commander to enter the installation and then went to the Coast Guardsman’s home on Thursday, the official said. They were joined by personnel from Homeland Security Investigations, a unit within Immigration and Customs Enforcement. HSI eventually took the spouse into custody, and the official said they believe she is still being detained. Officials did not provide the name of the country she is from. The Coast Guard referred questions about the woman’s identity, immigration status and charges to ICE, which did not respond to a request for comment on Saturday. The Department of Homeland Security also did not respond to a request for comment. The husband of the arrested woman is a Coast Guardsman assigned to the USCGC Mohawk, a 270-foot-long cutter based at Key West. The couple was moving into U.S. government housing at the nearby Naval Air Station. An online database that tracks ship movements shows the Mohawk has been docked in its home port since mid-March. A March 16 media release says the ship had recently returned following a 70-day deployment to the Eastern Pacific Ocean on a mission to intercept shipments of illegal drugs. In a statement, the Navy said that it “fully cooperated with federal law enforcement authorities on this matter. We take security and access at naval installations seriously.”

ABC 12 San Antonio [4/26/2025 3:09 PM, Staff, 1300K] reports the United States Coast Guard detained 12 fishermen and seized hundreds of pounds of illegally caught fish and sharks off the South Texas coast. Authorities found the men illegally fishing on three lanchas north of the Maritime Boundary Line on Wednesday, according to a press release. The U.S. Coast Guard seized approximately 850 pounds of shark and 550 pounds of red snapper from the fishermen, the release said. The fishermen were taken into custody and transferred to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials for further processing.

Reported similarly:
NBC 4 San Antonio [4/26/2025 9:05 PM, Staff]

Yahoo News [4/26/2025 7:43 PM, Christina J. Harris, 59943K] reports three people were rescued after a sport fishing boat caught fire Saturday afternoon. The U.S. Coast Guard responded to the scene off of Fort Morgan near Plash Island around 1:30 p.m. The Coast Guard said Fort Morgan Volunteer Fire Department used jet skis to rescue three people from the water. They were then taken to Lulu’s Gulf Shores restaurant. No injuries have been reported. Several other agencies responded, including Gulf Shores Police Department, Bon Secour Fire Rescue, Orange Beach Fire Rescue, and Gulf Shores Fire Rescue. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Hoodline [4/26/2025 2:39 PM, Mateo Castillo] reports in a quick response effort, the U.S. Coast Guard MSST Honolulu crew, moments after completing a boarding on a passenger vessel, rushed to assist two swimmers in distress off the western side of American Samoa. A USCG Hawaii Pacific Instagram post detailed the March 27 incident, where a wave swept the swimmers into a cove and onto sharp rocks. The local Marine Patrol rescued one individual, while the other remained in a precarious situation. The second swimmer, stranded on the rocks, stood as an urgent challenge for the rescuers. In a coordinated effort with the American Samoa Marine Patrol, the U.S. Coast Guard directed the man to leap off the rocks and seize a life ring thrown to him. By directing the man as they did, the individual was safely reeled in by the Marine Patrol, far from the unforgiving rocks that threatened his life. Such seamless integration of efforts between USCG and their counterparts is not an occurrence of chance but the fruit of rigorous, consistent training. The USCG Hawaii Pacific extolled the virtues of their preparedness, "The ability to team up and coordinate seamlessly with our agency partners is one of the reasons our crews train so hard." Through practice, they turn potential tragedy into a tapestry of triumph.

NPR [4/27/2025 3:00 AM, Maravi Post, 29983K] Audio: HERE reports NPR’s cybersecurity correspondent Jenna McLaughlin recently broke a story about a whistleblower inside the federal government who says DOGE representatives appear to have taken sensitive data, then covered their tracks. Daniel Berulis works for the National Labor Relations Board and he has shared evidence that DOGE engineers disabled security protocols, exported reams of sensitive data and used a "hacker’s toolkit" to hide their activities. And he thinks his agency is not alone. Today on The Sunday Story, what this possible breach could mean for the private data of millions of Americans.

The Hill [4/26/2025 2:25 PM, Steff Danielle Thomas, 12829K] reports Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday said his brief meeting with President Trump in Vatican City was "good" and "symbolic," as the U.S. continues to facilitate peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv. "Good meeting. We discussed a lot one on one," Zelensky wrote on social platform X, just hours after the two met ahead of Pope Francis’s funeral. "Hoping for results on everything we covered.” "Protecting lives of our people. Full and unconditional ceasefire. Reliable and lasting peace that will prevent another war from breaking out. Very symbolic meeting that has potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results," he added, sharing a photo of the two. "Thank you @POTUS.” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung, without providing more detail, also touted the exchange as "productive.” The meeting marked the first one-on-one interaction between the two world leaders following a contentious meeting in the White House earlier this year. Trump has also railed against Zelensky in recent days, accusing him of waffling on a looming mineral deal, criticizing the Ukrainian leader for refusing to accept Crimea as Russian territory and blaming the war partially on Ukraine’s push to join the NATO security alliance. In the wake of his harsh criticisms, Russia launched deadly drone strikes on Kyiv earlier this week — a move that left Trump questioning Putin’s endgame. He blasted the Russian president in a Thursday post on his Truth Social platform, calling the strikes "not necessary" and "very bad timing.” On Saturday, the president upped the ante, acknowledging that the Russian leader could be "tapping him along." The sentiment is a turn from what he said nearly a week earlier. "There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days," Trump posted online, while en route back to the U.S. from Rome. He added, "It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!".

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [4/26/2025 2:48 PM, Staff, 2923K]

AP [4/26/2025 2:16 PM, Darlene Superville, Aamer Madhani, 6866K] reports President Donald Trump said Saturday that he doubts Russia’s Vladimir Putin wants to end his war in Ukraine, expressing new skepticism that a peace deal can be reached soon. Only a day earlier, Trump had said Ukraine and Russia were " very close to a deal.” "There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days," Trump said in a social media post as he flew back to the United States after attending Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican, where he met briefly with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump also hinted at further sanctions against Russia. "It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through "Banking" or "Secondary Sanctions?" Too many people are dying!!!" Trump wrote. The new doubts aired by Trump come as the president and top aides intensify their push to come to a deal to end the war that began in February 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine. The comments also sharply contrasted with Trump’s positive assessment that the two sides were "very close to a deal" after his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, met with Putin in Moscow on Friday. The Trump-Zelenskyy conversation on the sidelines of the pope’s funeral was the first face-to-face encounter between the two leaders since they argued during a heated Oval Office meeting at the White House in late February. That confrontation led the White House to briefly pause U.S. military assistance and intelligence sharing with Ukraine. Days after ordering the pause, Trump also announced he was "strongly considering" imposing new sanctions and tariffs on Russia to try to prod Putin to negotiate in earnest. Trump has not yet followed through on the threat — something even some of his staunch Republican allies are now pressuring him to do. In fact, when Trump announced new global tariffs this month, one major economy he excluded was Russia’s. U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, on Friday urged Trump to "put the toughest of sanctions on Putin," arguing there is "clear evidence that he is playing America as a patsy.” It’s the second time in a matter of days that Trump has rebuked Putin, whom the American president rarely publicly criticizes. On Thursday, Trump publicly urged the Russian leader to "STOP!" after a deadly barrage of attacks on Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital. After their brief meeting Saturday, Zelenskyy’s office had said the U.S. and Ukrainian teams were making arrangements for the leaders to talk again Saturday. But Trump went directly to the Rome airport after the funeral and boarded Air Force One for the 10-hour flight back to the United States. Zelenskyy’s spokesperson, Serhii Nykyforov, said Trump and Zelenskyy did not meet again in person because of their tight schedules. Zelenskyy called it a "good meeting" on social media after the funeral.

New York Times [4/26/2025 12:51 PM, Peter Baker, 145325K] reports that, if President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia drafted a shopping list of what he wanted from Washington, it would be hard to beat what he was offered in the first 100 days of President Trump’s new term. Pressure on Ukraine to surrender territory to Russia? Check. The promise of sanctions relief? Check. Absolution from invading Ukraine? Check. Indeed, as Mr. Trump met with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on the sidelines of the funeral of Pope Francis on Saturday, the president’s vision for peace appeared notably one-sided, letting Russia keep the regions it had taken by force in violation of international law while forbidding Ukraine from ever joining NATO. But that is not all that Mr. Putin has gotten out of Mr. Trump’s return to power. Intentionally or not, many of the president’s actions on other fronts also suit Moscow’s interests, including the rifts he has opened with America’s traditional allies and the changes he has made to the U.S. government itself. Mr. Trump has been tearing down American institutions that have long aggravated Moscow, such as Voice of America and the National Endowment for Democracy. He has been disarming the nation in its netherworld battle against Russia by temporarily halting cyberoffensive operations and curbing programs to combat Russian disinformation, election interference, sanctions violations and war crimes. He spared Russia from the tariffs that he is imposing on imports from nearly every other nation, arguing that it was already under sanctions. Yet he still applied the tariff on Ukraine, the other party he is negotiating with. And in a reversal from his first term, Politico reported that Mr. Trump’s team is reportedly discussing whether to lift sanctions on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Europe, a project he has repeatedly condemned. “Trump has played right into Putin’s hands,” said Ivo Daalder, the chief executive of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and a former ambassador to NATO under President Barack Obama. “It’s hard to see how Trump would have acted any differently if he were a Russian asset than how he has acted in the first 100 days of his second term.” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, rejected the notion that Mr. Trump’s actions have been to Russia’s advantage. “The president only acts in the interest of the United States,” she said in an interview. She added that there was no connection between Russia and the cuts to various organizations that have been orchestrated by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, or similar efforts to pare back government.

New York Post [4/26/2025 5:29 PM, Rich Calder, 54903K] reports President Trump said he pushed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week on the aid blockage to the Gaza Strip, telling him "We’ve got to be good to Gaza.” "Those people are suffering," Trump told reporters Friday on Air Force One as he revealed what he said to Netanyahu during a phone on Tuesday. Trump, in his first public comments about the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the region, said there’s a "very big need" for food and medicine in the region. "We’re going to take care of that," he added. When asked how Netanyahu responded, Trump said the prime minister "felt well about it.” The Palestinian enclave hasn’t received aid since March 2 as Israel has previously said it wouldn’t allow goods into Gaza until Hamas terrorists release remaining hostages. The United Nations’ World Food Programme, a main provider of food to Gaza, said it "delivered its last remaining food stocks to hot meals kitchens" on the strip on Friday. Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces warned Saturday it’s was preparing to expand its offensive against Hamas in Gaza if hostage negotiations continue to stall. The military plans to call up a large number of reservists and secure new sections in Gaza, according to the IDF. As long as the hostage talks drag on, Israel’s offensive against Hamas will only grow, the military said.

New York Post [4/26/2025 6:00 PM, Jack Richards, 54903K] reports the US and Iran made "very serious" progress toward a new nuclear deal during marathon negotiations Saturday in Oman — with both sides exchanging written proposals for the first time and eyeing further talks as soon as next week. A senior US official told The Post the four-hour talks with Tehran were "positive and productive" but still cautioned that "there is still much to do.” "We agreed to meet again soon, in Europe, and we thank our Omani partners for facilitating these talks," the official added. US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Oman fresh off a Friday meeting in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin, underscoring the high-level stakes at play. President Trump said the situation is "coming out very well" during conversations aboard Air Force One on Saturday, warning that there should be a peaceful deal rather than the alternative. "We’ve had a lot of talks with them and I think we’re going to have a deal. I’d much rather have a deal than the other alternative," Trump said. "That would be good for humanity.” The discussions in the capital city of Muscat marked a major shift from the previous two meetings, diving much further into technical details on limiting Iran’s nuclear program and lifting US sanctions, Iranian Foriegn Minister Abbas Araghchi said. "This time, the negotiations were much more serious than in the past, and we gradually entered into deeper and more detailed discussions," Araghchi told Iranian state media, adding, however, that differences still remain on major issues. While Tehran has suggested a follow-up meeting could happen as soon as next weekend in Europe, Trump administration officials have only said they expect talks to continue soon. Omani Foreign Minister Badr Al-Busaidi, who mediated the talks, said the two sides identified a "shared aspiration" to reach an agreement based on "mutual respect and enduring commitments.” "Talks will continue next week with a further high-level meeting provisionally scheduled for May 3rd," he posted to X. The negotiations came against the backdrop of fresh unrest inside Iran, where a massive explosion at a southern port Saturday killed at least eight people and injured more than 700. Iranian authorities said the blast appeared tied to the mishandling of combustible chemicals used to make missile fuel that were stored at the port. Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian ordered an investigation of the incident.

AP [4/26/2025 3:55 PM, Jon Gambrell, 48304K] reports Iran and the United States held in-depth negotiations in Oman over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program on Saturday, ending the discussions with a promise for more talks and perhaps another high-level meeting next weekend. The talks ran for several hours in Muscat, the mountain-wrapped capital of this sultanate on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula. A person close to Steve Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, acknowledged that the meeting had started and later ended. The source spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door talks. Iranian state television also reported their conclusion. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told state television after the talks that the parties exchanged written points throughout the day in discussions that he described as “very serious and work-focused.” “This time, the negotiations were much more serious than in the past, and we gradually entered into deeper and more detailed discussions,” he said. “We have moved somewhat away from broader, general discussions — though it is not the case that all disagreements have been resolved. Differences still exist both on major issues and on the details.” A senior U.S. administration official said that the talks were “positive and productive.”

Reuters [4/26/2025 11:55 AM, Parisa Hafezi, 41523K] reports Iran and the United States have agreed to continue nuclear talks next week, both sides said on Saturday, though Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi voiced "extreme cautious" about the success of the negotiations to resolve a decades-long standoff. U.S. President Donald Trump has signaled confidence in clinching a new pact with the Islamic Republic that would block Tehran’s path to a nuclear bomb. Araqchi and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff held a third round of the talks in Muscat through Omani mediators for around six hours, a week after a second round in Rome that both sides described as constructive. "The negotiations are extremely serious and technical ... there are still differences, both on major issues and on details," Araqchi told Iranian state TV. "There is seriousness and determination on both sides ... However, our optimism about success of the talks remains extremely cautious." A senior U.S. administration official described the talks and positive and productive, adding that both sides agreed to meet again in Europe "soon"

AP [4/27/2025 2:51 AM, Jim Gomez and Joeal Calupitan, 34586K] reports the U.S. military has deployed an anti-ship missile launcher for the first time on Batan Island in the Philippines, as Marines unloaded the high-precision weapon on the northern tip of the archipelago, just a sea border away from Taiwan. U.S. and Philippine forces separately unleashed a barrage of missile and artillery fire that shot down several drones acting as hostile aircraft in live-fire drills on Sunday in Zambales province facing the disputed South China Sea. The mock battle scenarios over the weekend in the annual Balikatan exercises between the U.S. and its oldest treaty ally in Asia, the Philippines, not only simulated real-life war. They were also staged near major geopolitical hotspots, which have become delicate frontlines in the regional rivalry between China and the U.S. under former President Joe Biden and now Donald Trump. About 9,000 American and 5,000 Filipino military personnel took part in the combat maneuvers. At least 260 Australian personnel also joined, with smaller observer delegations from Japan and other countries. China has fiercely opposed the combat drills as provocative. Its aircraft carrier group sailed by a few days earlier near Batanes, where the U.S. military had deployed the Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System on Saturday on Batan near the Bashi Channel just south of Taiwan, a critical trade and military route that the U.S. and Chinese militaries have tried to gain strategic control of. “The introduction of NMESIS into the first island chain for sea denial, sea control is another step in our force design journey,” U.S. Marine Lt. Gen. Michael Cederholm told a small group of journalists, including from The Associated Press, who were invited to witness the transport of the missile system aboard a C-130 Air Force aircraft to Batanes. The U.S. and the Philippines have denied the annual combat maneuvers — which both said would focus on a “full-scale battle scenario” this year — were aimed at China or any adversary. The lines between what’s mock and real, however, have been at times murky. Asked if U.S. forces would pull out the anti-ship missile system from Batanes after the combat drills, Cederholm did not reply clearly. “We don’t broadcast when we’re going in, when we’re coming out and how long things are going to stay,” Cederholm said. “All I’ll say is we’re here at the invitation and with the support of the Philippine government.” “But I’m glad it’s here,” he said. “We’re not here practicing a war plan,” said Cederholm. “We’re practicing for the defense of the Philippines.”

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