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.

AP [4/29/2025 6:53 PM, Michelle L. Price and Farnoush Amiri, 48304K] reports the Trump administration has told Congress that it intends to designate Haitian gangs as foreign terrorist organizations, people familiar with the notification told The Associated Press. The State Department similarly labeled eight Latin American crime organizations in February as it ratcheted up pressure on cartels operating in the U.S. and anyone assisting them. The new move indicates that the administration plans to put similar pressure on gangs from Haiti. The designation carries with it sanctions and penalties for anyone providing "material support" for the group. It comes after a series of steps against the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which was designated a foreign terror organization and then dubbed an invading force under an 18th-century wartime law to justify the deportation of Venezuelan migrants to a notorious El Salvador prison under President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown. That invocation of the Alien Enemies Act is significant because it gives the president wide powers to imprison and deport noncitizens who otherwise would have the right to ask for asylum in the U.S. or have their cases heard in immigration courts. Trump, at a rally in Michigan on Tuesday, touted his designation of the six Latin American crime groups as foreign terrorist organizations, including MS-13 and Tren de Aragua. "They’ve been designated the highest level of terrorist, and that lets us do a lot of things that you wouldn’t be able to do," Trump said. According to the notification sent to congressional committees on April 23, the Trump administration said it intends to designate the Haitian gangs Viv Ansanm and Gran Grif as foreign terrorist organizations, according to two people familiar with the message, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details that have not yet been made public. A third person confirmed that the foreign relations committees in the House and Senate received the notification. The State Department and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The designation follows a Trump administration move in February to nix protections that shielded half a million Haitians from deportation.

Reported similarly:
Reuters [4/29/2025 5:57 PM, Jasper Ward, 41523K]

NewsMax [4/29/2025 1:23 PM, Jim Mishler, 4998K] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported that its agents have been arresting illegal aliens at a rate approaching 700 per day since President Donald Trump took office. ICE released a report Tuesday that showed arrests totaled 66,463 illegal aliens over the first 100 days under Trump’s management, of which 65,682 were removed from the U.S. ICE said it has been "putting the worst first." Three in four of the arrests involved illegal alien criminals. ICE acting Director Todd Lyons said the agency has taken a lot of bad actors off the streets of America, "including 2,288 gang members from Tren de Aragua, MS-13, 18th Street, and other gangs. Additionally, 1,329 were accused or convicted of sex offenses, and 498 were accused or convicted of murder." Lyons said that ICE has kept its focus on criminal aliens. "The criminal records of those arrested include convictions or charges for 9,639 assaults, 6,398 DWIs or DUIs, and 1,479 weapon offenses." FOX News [4/29/2025 4:16 PM, Alexandra Koch, Bill Melugin, 46189K] reports ICE arrested 66,463 illegal immigrants and removed 65,682, including those accused of threatening public safety and national security, according to a news release from ICE. Three in four arrests of illegal immigrants involved someone accused of committing a crime, according to the agency. The total number of ICE illegal immigrant arrests includes 2,288 gang members from Tren de Aragua, MS-13, 18th Street and other gangs, Lyons said. Arrests and removals surged with help from state and local law enforcement agencies through the 287(g) Program, which allows local authorities to enforce federal immigration laws. Officials said ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which also focuses on transnational crime and threats, has been zeroing in on worksite operations to protect American businesses. The Wall Street Journal [4/29/2025 2:27 PM, Tarini Parti, 646K] reports that the Trump administration’s daily average is about 660, according to the data released Tuesday. The previous administration arrested 113,500 in the last fiscal year, or an average of 310 migrants a day. Trump has more than doubled that daily number in the first 100 days. When Trump first took office, the administration started releasing daily ICE arrest numbers. But officials were frustrated with the slow start and eventually stopped releasing those numbers regularly. ICE officials were also given target quotas for arrests. Officials have said they are prioritizing arresting those with criminal records. Gang members affiliated with groups such as Tren de Aragua and MS-13, those accused or convicted of sex offenses and murders were among those arrested by ICE, the agency said. “ICE is using every tool at its disposal to enforce our country’s immigration laws and protect our communities,” ICE acting Director Todd M. Lyons said. ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations has also been ramping up workplace enforcement, arresting more than 1,000 people working illegally and proposing more than $1 million in fines against businesses, the agency said.

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Blaze.com [4/29/2025 2:55 PM, Julio Rosas, 1668K]

New York Post [4/29/2025 3:34 PM, Jared Downing, 54903K] reports Kristi Noem shook hands with border agents, cruised around on an ATV, and hitched a ride in a helicopter — action hero-style — as the Department of Homeland Security secretary celebrated the drastic plunge in illegal crossings at the southern border. The glam shots of Noem’s border visit, posted to the DHS X account on Tuesday, celebrated "the most secure border in American history" after President Trump’s first 100 days in office. Only nine illegal migrants were released into the U.S. during Trump’s first 100 days, according to Trump’s border czar Tom Homan — a 99.99% decrease compared to the same period last year when 184,000 so-called "gotaways" were allowed to flow into the country under former President Joe Biden. Illegal crossings at the US-Mexico border have indeed plunged this year. Last month border agents barely saw 7,000 migrants enter illegally – a record low. That’s down 94% from the 137,000 people who poured across the border in the same month of last year. It follows February crossings of roughly 8,300 illegal migrants — the lowest in at least 25 years. Yet the number of deportations has lagged in comparison to last year – possibly because officials have fewer people to deport.

Breitbart.com [4/29/2025 4:09 PM, Warner Todd Huston, 2923K] reports there has been a huge rise in the number of local law enforcement agencies joining with the administration on immigration enforcement in the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency. The federal 287(g) program has often been an afterthought in the fight against illegal immigration in past presidential eras, but as the Trump era continues to gear up, the federal government has made a major effort to enhance this program for the help locals can lend to immigration policies. But as of the end of April, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has signed program agreements with more than 450 local agencies, most being county sheriff’s departments.

Breitbart [4/29/2025 3:26 PM, John Binder, 2923K] reports President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has deported hundreds of illegal alien gang members, now classified as foreign terrorists, in the first 100 days of the new administration. On Tuesday, DHS officials detailed the extent to which the Trump administration has revamped interior immigration enforcement since former President Joe Biden gutted such tools. In the administration’s first 100 days, nearly 300 members of Tren de Aragua and MS-13, both designated terrorist organizations, have been deported to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT). As Breitbart News reported, DHS has arrested more than 150,000 illegal aliens since Trump took office on January 20. Of those, 75 percent are illegal aliens with criminal convictions or pending criminal charges. About 600 of those arrests are members of the violent Tren de Aragua gang, which flourished in the United States under Biden. Deportations, under Trump, have already exceeded 142,000 thus far, which is more than all illegal aliens deported under Biden in his first two fiscal years.

Washington Examiner [4/29/2025 6:00 AM, Anna Giaritelli, 2296K] reports that, on Day One, the Trump administration began to wipe out policies of the Biden era that Republicans claimed triggered the most significant influx of immigrants at the border in national history. Doris Meissner, former commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, said Trump has taken 175 major actions on immigration since Jan. 20 — six times more than in his first term and far beyond former President Joe Biden’s nearly 100 actions in the same time span. "The pace and the intensity of immigration events have been far greater than most people would have expected," said Meissner, senior fellow at the Washington office of the Migration Policy Institute, during a webinar with reporters Thursday. "The breadth and the sweep of what we are seeing are unmatched.” Trump declared a national emergency at the border and surged federalized troops there, ended "catch and release," ordered the continuation of border wall projects, designated cartels and foreign gangs as foreign terrorists, suspended refugee resettlement, ended birthright citizenship, and barred migrants from seeking asylum at the southern border — all of which occurred in his first few days in office. The White House said the early results on the southern border are due to Trump’s immediate actions since his first day back in office. "The American people delivered a resounding Election Day mandate to end the Biden administration’s border and illegal immigration nightmare," White House spokesman Kush Desai wrote in an email Friday. "The entire Trump administration has been aligned on a whole-of-government approach to deliver on this mandate, and the results have been historic: border encounters are at record lows and the most heinous killers, rapists, traffickers, and other criminal illegal aliens who terrorized American communities are being swiftly deported off of American soil.” Based on immigration analysts’ comments and a review of border statistics, the Washington Examiner gave Trump an "A" for following through on his promise to shut down illegal entries between the ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border. Border Patrol arrests of immigrants who illegally entered the country peaked at an all-time high of 250,000 in December 2023. In March, just 7,200 arrests were recorded by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The last time monthly figures averaged at less than last month was 55 years ago. The conservative-leaning Border Security Alliance championed Trump’s work on the border in such a short period. "The drastic decrease in encounters since President Trump returned to the White House is a testament to what we already knew: the Border Can Be Secured," BSA President Jobe Dickinson said in a statement. "These executive actions have significantly alleviated the workload of Border Patrol agents so they can focus on stopping the criminal cartel activity occurring along the southern border, including the smuggling of drugs, people, and counterfeit goods.”

NPR [4/29/2025 9:56 PM, Martin Kaste, 29983K] reports President Trump has signed two executive orders promising to "unleash high-impact local police forces" and to step up law enforcement pressure on "criminal aliens." While the orders are separate, they share a White House vision of reinvigorated local police who work closely with federal law enforcement. The order on policing calls on federal agencies to provide "new best practices" to state and local police, improve police training and pay, and improve the tracking and reporting of crime statistics, among other measures popular with law enforcement. The order doesn’t specify how to achieve those goals, but Peter Moskos, a former police officer and now professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, says on its face the first portion of the executive order is positive. "These are indeed things the federal government can do to make communities safer," says Moskos, who wrote Back From The Brink, an oral history of New York’s historic decline in crime in the 1990s. But he doesn’t like other portions of the order. One section, titled "Holding State and Local Officials Accountable," calls on the attorney general to pursue "legal remedies" against state and local officials for "discrimination or civil-rights violations" connected to DEI initiatives, as well as "obstruction" of law enforcement officers carrying out their duties. "As a total package, it’s worrisome, because of the excessive reach of the Feds trying to control local policing," Moskos says. The threat of action over "obstruction" coincides with the signing of a second executive order on Monday that tells the attorney general and the secretary of homeland security to come up with a list of states and cities they believe are obstructing federal immigration enforcement. It’s the latest step in the administration’s campaign against what it calls "sanctuary" jurisdictions. Previously, local jurisdictions that didn’t cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement have faced the threat of funding cuts; now the White House says it may also pursue "legal remedies" for potential violations of federal law. "It’s quite simple: obey the law, respect the law, and don’t obstruct federal immigration officials and law enforcement officials when they are simply trying to remove public safety threats," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said of the order on Monday. On Friday, the FBI arrested Wisconsin judge Hannah Dugan for allegedly trying to help a man avoid being arrested by ICE in her courtroom at the Milwaukee County Courthouse. "When you cross that line to impedement (sic) or knowingly harboring, concealing an illegal alien from ICE, you will be prosecuted," White House Border Czar Tom Homan said during the same press briefing. "Judge or not.” With these executive orders, local law enforcement officials may wonder if they, too, could face that kind of prosecution.

FOX News [4/29/2025 12:55 PM, Danielle Wallace and Bonny Chu, 46189K] reports the State Department revoked the visas of 4,000 foreign students – 90% of whom have serious criminal records – during the first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s second term, a senior State Department official confirmed to Fox News Digital. "Our visa system has lacked oversight and accountability," a senior State Department official told Fox News Digital. "Over the past 100 days, the Trump Administration has worked to fix a broken system." "Secretary [Marco] Rubio has led the State Department to take a surgical vetting approach to ensure individuals in America as visitors are abiding by ours laws," the source said. "We established an action working group, which has resulted in thousands of visas being revoked because these individuals broke our laws. This is what effective governance looks like." Those serious crimes included arson, wildlife and human trafficking, child endangerment, domestic abuse, driving under the influence and robbery, according to the New York Post, which first reported the number. More than 500 of those impacted students whose visas were revoked have criminal assault records, according to the Post. When reached by Fox News Digital, a State Department spokesperson said the department "revokes visas every day in order to secure America’s borders and keep our communities safe – and will continue to do so." "The Trump Administration is focused on protecting our nation and our citizens by upholding the highest standards of national security and public safety through our visa process," the spokesperson continued. "Every prospective traveler to the United States undergoes interagency security vetting. Prohibiting entry to the United States by those who might pose a threat to U.S. national security or public safety is key to protecting U.S. citizens at home. The Department of State will continue to work closely with the Department of Homeland Security to enforce zero tolerance for aliens in the United States who violate U.S. laws, threaten public safety, or in other situations where warranted. "

Reported similarly:
Breitbart.com [4/29/2025 5:02 PM, Katherine Hamilton, 2923K]
Blaze.com [4/29/2025 4:10 PM, Candace Hathaway, 1668K]

CNN [4/29/2025 3:21 PM, Tierney Sneed, 22131K] reports the Trump administration was forced to reveal new information Tuesday about its ham-handed and legally dubious operation to cancel the immigration records of thousands of international students that a federal judge described as a blatant due process violation that "concerned" and "troubled" her. A Department of Homeland Security official who was deeply involved in the maneuver said in court that the administration had relied on the National Crime Information Center, a registry recording individuals’ interactions with law enforcement. The approach meant that international students who had very minor run-ins with the law – including driving citations, misdemeanor charges that were ultimately dismissed, and arrests that never resulted in charges – were put in a legal limbo that prompted at least 100 of them to sue in recent weeks. A team of 10 to 20 people were tasked with running the names of the 1.3 million international students through the database, Andre Watson, a senior official within the DHS’ National Security Division for the Homeland Security Investigations, told Judge Ana Reyes. The only individualized review was then to verify the name in the law enforcement database was the same person as the name in a portal known as "SEVIS," which schools use to ensure their international students are meeting the requirements of their educational visas. Even after the administration announced Friday that it was backtracking on the effort and reinstating the records for all the students caught up in the law enforcement database sweep, Reyes and other judges moved forward with their plans to scrutinize what had driven the terminations.

AP [4/29/2025 4:56 PM, Lisa Mascaro] reports as part of their big tax bill, Republicans in Congress are pumping billions of dollars into President Donald Trump’s mass deportation and border security plan with nearly 20,000 new officers, stark new fees starting at $1,000 on migrants seeking asylum and $46.5 billion for a long-sought border wall. Tuesday launched the first of back-to-back public hearings as House Republicans roll out the fine print of what Trump calls his “ big, beautiful bill “ — which is focused on $5 trillion in tax breaks and up to $2 trillion in slashed domestic spending. But it also pours some $300 billion to beef up the Pentagon and border security as the Trump administration says it’s running out of money for deportations. House Speaker Mike Johnson is pushing to have the bill wrapped up by Memorial Day and then send it to the Senate, which is drafting its own version. As Trump rounds his 100th day in office, the GOP’s stiff border security and deportations provisions come as Americans are showing unease with the president’s approach, with just half saying he’s focused on the right priorities. Central to the Homeland Committee’s section of the legislation is $46.5 billion to revive construction of Trump’s wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, with some 700 miles of “primary” wall, 900 miles of river barriers, and more. There’s also $4 billion to hire an additional 3,000 new Border Patrol agents as well as 5,000 new customs officers, and $2.1 billion for signing and retention bonuses.

Bloomberg [4/29/2025 2:46 PM, Linda Poon and Rthvika Suvarna, 16228K] reports President Donald Trump signed new executive orders bolstering his anti-immigration agenda on Monday afternoon. One order targets sanctuary cities with a mandate to the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security to publish a list of "states and local jurisdictions that obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration law" and to identify federal funds that can be stripped from them as a consequence. The directive comes less than a week after a federal judge in California temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s funding freeze for local governments with sanctuary policies. A second order aims to "strengthen and unleash" law enforcement to pursue criminals — including by equipping local agencies with surplus military equipment — while a third requires truck drivers to be proficient in English, Kate Sullivan and Skylar Woodhouse report today on CityLab. The push comes just ahead of Trump’s 100th day in office, marking the last of his 142 executive orders signed before hitting the milestone.

Daily Wire [4/29/2025 4:07 AM, Leif Le Mahieu, 4672K] reports President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday to crack down on sanctuary jurisdictions impeding federal immigration enforcement. The directive requires the Justice Department to compile a list of all sanctuary city jurisdictions and then take action to cut off or suspend federal funding to those places. Under Trump, cities across the country, like Boston, have already made it difficult for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to apprehend illegal immigrants. “This invasion at the southern border requires the Federal Government to take measures to fulfill its obligation to the States,” Trump wrote in the executive order. “Yet some State and local officials nevertheless continue to use their authority to violate, obstruct, and defy the enforcement of Federal immigration laws. This is a lawless insurrection against the supremacy of Federal law and the Federal Government’s obligation to defend the territorial sovereignty of the United States.” After the list of sanctuary jurisdictions is published, those entities would be given the chance to comply with federal law. If they don’t comply, they could lose federal funding. The executive order also directs the Justice Department and Homeland Security to ensure that federal benefits are not provided to illegals in sanctuary jurisdictions and to “take appropriate action to stop the enforcement of State and local laws, regulations, policies, and practices favoring aliens over any groups of American citizens that are unlawful, preempted by Federal law, or otherwise unenforceable.”

Univision [4/29/2025 8:56 AM, Staff, 5325K] reports President Donald Trump on Monday signed a series of executive orders focused on immigration. The new orders affect everything from "sanctuary cities" to commercial vehicle drivers, such as non-English speaking truck drivers, and are part of "the initial stages of carrying out the largest deportation campaign in U.S. history," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt warned Monday at a conference. According to the White House, in the first 100 days of the Trump administration approximately 139,000 people have been deported. We tell you what the executive orders related to immigration consist of. One of the executive orders signed by Trump on Monday targets "sanctuary cities," those that do not cooperate with federal immigration officials. The presidential directive directs Pam Bondi, the attorney general, and Kristi Noem, the secretary of Homeland Security, to publish within 30 days a list of states and local jurisdictions that obstruct federal immigration enforcement and to notify each "sanctuary city of its noncompliance, giving it an opportunity to correct it." "Sanctuary jurisdictions that fail to comply with federal law may lose federal funding," threatens the order. Trump also ordered Bondi and Noem to "implement all necessary legal remedies and enforcement actions" to bring sanctuary cities into compliance with the law. In addition, the president ordered that they develop mechanisms to adequately verify "eligibility in sanctuary jurisdictions in order to prevent illegal aliens from receiving federal public benefits." The Trump administration justified its move by saying that "millions of illegal aliens entered the United States under President Joe Biden, including human smugglers, gang members, criminals, and terrorists" and that the "sanctuary cities" that harbor them violate federal criminal laws, "creating enormous risks to national security," the order said. In any case, the Trump administration’s campaign attempts to criminalize immigration, implying that it is this group that commits the most crimes, when the truth is that it is Americans who are responsible for the greatest number of crimes, especially violent ones. Data from local police agencies corroborate this.

Wall Street Journal [4/29/2025 10:59 PM, Victoria Albert, 646K] reports the Trump administration must temporarily keep funding lawyers for unaccompanied migrant children, a federal judge in California said Tuesday. In March, the Trump administration terminated parts of a contract that provides congressionally appropriated funds to legal-service providers to help children navigate the immigration court system. Several of the nonprofits sued, saying 26,000 children would be at risk of losing their representation if the government doesn’t pay. The preliminary injunction from Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin allows the funding for legal representation for minor children to continue while the case proceeds. The nonprofits say they provide a crucial service to children in immigration court, who lack the legal knowledge to properly defend themselves. They say their efforts also prevent the disorder of immigration court judges trying to steer children, or even infants, through legal proceedings. The government said it ended parts of its contract with the Acacia Center for Justice, which subcontracts the work to the nonprofits, to better prioritize its resources and focus on pro-bono providers. It preserved funding for “know your rights” presentations and legal screening consultations, which it is required by law to provide. In the lawsuit, the nonprofits alleged the government is violating a 2008 law requiring it to ensure “to the greatest extent practicable” that unaccompanied migrant children are represented. It said the administration is also running afoul of a 2024 Office of Refugee Resettlement rule requiring it to pay for attorneys when pro bono providers weren’t available. The government said it has discretion to end such programs and is required by law to give priority to pro-bono work. The administration said it would be possible to fill the representation gap with lawyers working for free, which the nonprofit groups vehemently dispute. In a Tuesday night order, Martinez-Olguin said the government hadn’t done enough to ensure it was still meeting its legal obligations.

NPR [4/29/2025 5:15 AM, Zimena Bustillo, 29983K] reports President Trump is chipping away at the right to due process within the immigration court system, immigration lawyers and former judges say, in an effort to fast-track deportations. Over the course of his first few months in office, the administration has removed some protections from deportation, cancelled grants that provided legal representation to children, fired dozens of the judges responsible for hearing cases, and moved individuals to far-flung locations — including to prisons out of U.S. jurisdiction. The onslaught of explicit policy changes and messaging show a rapid effort to make it easier to remove certain migrants from the country. "I hope we get cooperation from the courts, because we have thousands of people that are ready to go out and you can’t have a trial for all of these people," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office last week. The Department of Homeland Security says it abides by the Constitution but that it has the right to revoke visas. "We have said time and time again that if you are in this country on a visa or green card and have committed a crime then you may be subject to visa revocation," Tricia McLaughlin, the department’s assistant secretary for public affairs, said in an email to NPR. "We are absolutely following due process under the US Constitution." And there’s some evidence the Department of Homeland Security is more actively trying to encourage people to skip going to court. Across different court waiting rooms in Texas and Chicago, the Homeland Security Department has put up signs that read: "Message to illegal aliens: a warning to self-deport." Across different court waiting rooms in Texas and Chicago, the Homeland Security Department has put up signs that read: "Message to illegal aliens: a warning to self-deport."

CNN [4/29/2025 7:23 PM, Shimon Prokupecz and Rachel Clarke, 22131K] reports the Trump administration ordered international students to be effectively designated as criminals without checking if the information was true, court records reviewed by CNN show, along with new information that was revealed by a government official at a court hearing Tuesday. Thousands of visa holders had their records changed in databases, leading to them being barred from classes and work, disenrolled from universities and even being advised to leave the country, when they were fully in compliance with immigration rules, lawyers have said, and court records show. The common thread for dozens of students mentioned in federal court cases reviewed by CNN is that at some point they had contact with law enforcement. The cases were all minor – going 10 mph over a speed limit, underage drinking on spring break or shoplifting – certainly not of the severity to justify losing their status under the Code of Federal Regulations, which specifies someone can lose a right to stay for "a crime of violence for which a sentence of more than one year imprisonment may be imposed.". Indeed, many never made it to court, were dismissed or the accused were found not guilty. With no proven wrongdoing, the students’ records were clear – records were even sealed, but they still existed in the massive government repositories of data where they appear to have been accessed by Trump administration officials. Government officials have acknowledged in court they have not followed the basic innocent until proven guilty foundation of US law and launched the mass exercise without individual reviews. Internal reviews were underway at the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State to reassess the change of student statuses. At least one federal court case is seeking information on any involvement of the Office of Biometric Identity Management, which supplies the technology for storing, comparing, and sharing biometric data as part of DHS. The OBIM webpage says it controls an identification system and "currently holds more than 320 million unique identities and processes more than 400,000 biometric transactions per day.". On Tuesday, a senior Department of Homeland Security official, Andre Watson, was forced to appear in a Washington DC, courtroom before US District Judge Ana Reyes to disclose new details about how DHS were terminating Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) records through a program he revealed is called the "student criminal alien initiative." He told the judge it was done "at the instruction of leadership.".

FOX News [4/29/2025 8:47 AM, Preston Mizell, 46189K] reports a new piece of legislation was introduced in both the House and the Senate on Tuesday that would allow fentanyl dealers connected to distribution resulting in death to be charged with felony murder. Under current U.S. law, there is a mandatory minimum of 20 years in prison for the same offense, but the legal process of prosecution is not tried as a murder case. The legislation would increase the severity and consequences of dealers to further crackdowns on the fentanyl crisis that has taken roughly 280,000 thousand American lives since 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIH). Senator Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Representative Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, unveiled the Felony Murder for Deadly Fentanyl Distribution Act as a bicameral bill on Tuesday, which also marks National Fentanyl Awareness Day. The legislation will now head to committee in both chambers. "Drug cartels have taken advantage of loopholes at our borders to peddle illicit drugs into our country, meanwhile, our communities pay the price," Gonzales told Fox News Digital. "My bill sends a strong message to those who work with cartels and other bad actors—if you sell the drug and take an innocent life, justice will be delivered. Our law enforcement agencies are in overdrive combating the drug epidemic in America, it’s time to take action and up the penalties for fentanyl dealers." While the number of deaths is in the hundreds of thousands, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) estimates that "nearly 64,000 pounds of fentanyl have been seized at the southern border," which is enough to "kill 14 billion people."

Reported similarly:
The Hill [4/29/2025 3:01 PM, Elizabeth Crisp, 12829K]

Washington Post [4/29/2025 5:33 PM, Jacob Bogage and Hannah Natanson, 31735K] reports the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, a little-known police and investigative force for the mail agency, recently joined a Department of Homeland Security task force geared toward finding, detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of professional reprisals. Immigration officials are seeking photographs of the outside of envelopes and packages — an Inspection Service program known as "mail covers" — and access to the postal investigation agency’s broad surveillance systems, including Postal Service online account data, package- and mail-tracking information, credit card data and financial material and IP addresses, the people said. The postal collaboration is a significant escalation in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Homeland Security officials have previously partnered with tax, housing and public health authorities. But the involvement of the Postal Inspection Service, the nation’s oldest law enforcement agency, means efforts to pursue undocumented immigrants have expanded into one of the most mundane government activities: delivering the mail.

Federalist [4/29/2025 7:18 AM, M.D. Kittle, 1033K] reports the first 100 days of Trump 2.0 have been robust, to say the least. As of mid-afternoon Monday, the 47th president had signed 137 executive orders, according to the Federal Register. The A to Z orders cover everything from Artificial Intelligence to Zero-based regulatory budgeting. While President Donald Trump’s second nonconsecutive term is a work in progress, there’s no doubt the aggressive executive has doggedly pursued an ambitious agenda in pursuit of his campaign mission statement to "Make America Great Again." He seems to have succeeded in driving the left and its corporate media partners more unhinged than ever. If that was Trump’s goal, well, as President George W. Bush once said in a case of premature declaration, mission accomplished. Arguably the commander-in-chief’s greatest successes in the opening three-plus months of his second tour of duty have come in the administration’s work to secure the border. Trump wasted no time on that front. The president immediately declared a national emergency on the crisis at the U.S. southern border, confronting head-on the illegal immigration mess that his predecessor, President Joe Biden, left. The declaration directed the secretary of defense to send more military personnel to the border and ordered Defense and the Department of Homeland Security to finish the wall begun in the first Trump administration and stymied under Biden. It notes the "record-shattering 8.72 million" encounters that occurred at the southern border from Fiscal Year 2021 to FY ‘24, "overwhelming border resources and endangering communities.” Now 100 days in, the border has effectively been closed down to illegal immigrants, as Trump pledged on the campaign trail. "Essentially nobody is coming across that border illegally anymore," Ira Mehlman, media director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), told The Federalist Monday in an interview. "And Trump did it with the same authority that Biden had claimed he didn’t have. Biden insisted he needed legislation with all kinds of amnesties because he couldn’t [stop illegal immigration] as the president. That was exposed as the lie that we knew it was.”

Reuters [4/29/2025 6:20 AM, Jack Queen, 41523K] reports key parts of Donald Trump’s agenda have met resistance in court from federal judges, who have issued more than 70 rulings impeding the Republican president’s efforts on a range of issues. These have included deportations, birthright citizenship, government spending, transgender service in the military, punitive directives against law firms and diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Here is a look at some of the more than 200 lawsuits filed by various plaintiffs to try to block Trump policies as he approaches the 100-day mark of his second term as president on Wednesday. The U.S. Supreme Court on April 19 temporarily barred Trump’s administration from deporting Venezuelan men in immigration custody after their lawyers said they were at imminent risk of removal without the judicial review previously mandated by the justices. The administration has alleged that the Venezuelans are members of the Tren de Aragua criminal gang. Family members and lawyers for the migrants have disputed this. Three federal judges subsequently criticized the administration’s approach to immigration and temporarily halted new deportations in their judicial districts under the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law historically used only in wartime that Trump invoked as justification to remove certain people without hearings or other legal safeguards. One of the judges, overseeing the case of a Salvadoran man living in Maryland who the administration has acknowledged was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, rebuked the government for trying to circumvent an order blocking additional deportations and misleading the court about its actions. The two other judges voiced doubts about the legality of the administration’s moves and temporarily barred it from removing additional detainees while they consider longer-lasting orders. Federal judges have issued at least 19 orders halting or curtailing for now the administration’s ability to conduct mass deportations, defund refugee resettlement programs and restrict automatic birthright citizenship. Many of those rulings are under appeal. The administration has won at least nine rulings in cases in which judges have declined to block the government from carrying out immigration raids in places of worship, mothballing an entry app for migrants and sending certain detainees to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

FOX News [4/29/2025 10:00 AM, Emma Colton, 46189K] reports President Donald Trump delivered his second Inauguration Day speech on Jan. 20, when he previewed the steps his administration would take to unleash "the golden age of America," which stretched from locking down the border and streamlining the federal government through the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). "From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world. We will be the envy of every nation, and we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer. During every single day of the Trump administration, I will, very simply, put America first," Trump declared at the start of his speech. "Our sovereignty will be reclaimed. Our safety will be restored. The scales of justice will be rebalanced," he added. Fox News Digital looked back at the top vows and declarations Trump made during his speech and where they stand 100 days later after his return to the Oval Office.

ABC News [4/29/2025 9:39 PM, Fritz Farrow, 34586K] Video: HERE reports that, in an exclusive interview with ABC News to mark his 100th day in office, President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he "could" secure the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man his administration said in court was mistakenly deported to El Salvador. "Now the Supreme Court has upheld an order that you must return him to the-- facilitate his return to the United States. What are you doing to comply?" ABC News anchor and Senior National Correspondent Terry Moran asked Trump in the Oval Office. "Well, the lawyer that said it was a mistake was here a long time, was not appointed by us-- should not have said that, should not have said that," Trump argued. The president then said that Abrego Garcia is a member of the criminal MS-13 gang and "is not an innocent, wonderful gentleman from Maryland." Abrego Garcia’s lawyers have maintained he’s not MS-13 and has not been charged with or convicted of a crime. "I’m not saying he’s a good guy. It’s about the rule of law. The order from the Supreme Court stands, sir," Moran told the president. "He came into our country illegally," Trump maintained. "You could get him back. There’s a phone on this desk," Moran told Trump, pointing to the phone on the Resolute Desk. "I could," Trump conceded. "You could pick it up, and with all--" Moran began to say. "I could," Trump said again. "--the power of the presidency, you could call up the president of El Salvador and say, ‘Send him back right now,’" Moran explained. "And if he were the gentleman that you say he is, I would do that," Trump offered, before saying, "I’m not the one making this decision.” "You’re the president," Moran told him. "I-- no, no, no, no. If-- follow the law. You want me to follow the law. If I were the president that just wanted to do anything, I’d probably keep him right where he is—" Trump said. "The Supreme Court says what the law is," Moran said. Trump replied, referencing immigration, saying he "was elected to take care of a problem" that was an "unforced error that was made by a very incompetent man," – an apparent jab at President Joe Biden.

Reported similarly:
New York Times [4/30/2025 12:23 AM, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, 145325K]

New York Times [4/29/2025 6:00 AM, Robert Jimison, 145325K] reports Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, made a personal request on Tuesday to President Trump to return a Salvadoran national and Maryland resident who was mistakenly deported last month and remains imprisoned in El Salvador, accusing Mr. Trump of “gross violations of the Constitution and due process rights” in Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia’s case. In the lengthy letter, Mr. Van Hollen scolded Mr. Trump for willfully ignoring a Supreme Court decision instructing his administration to “facilitate” the man’s return. Justice Department lawyers said not long after Mr. Abrego Garcia’s removal that his deportation had been an “administrative error.” Mr. Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador last week and was allowed to meet briefly with Mr. Abrego Garcia after the government arranged for him to be temporarily released from a Salvadoran detention center. Mr. Van Hollen gave Mr. Trump a detailed recounting of his meeting with Vice President Félix Ulloa of El Salvador, noting that their conversations made clear that his country had “no independent legal basis” to imprison Mr. Abrego Garcia and had done so only because of a financial deal with the Trump administration to hold any deportee it sends. “The Trump administration’s whole argument is this sham claim that El Salvador is a sovereign country and it’s up to them whether or not Abrego Garcia gets released,” Mr. Van Hollen said in an interview. “But the government of El Salvador says exactly the opposite.” In the letter, Mr. Van Hollen wrote that he believed that Salvadoran officials would release Mr. Abrego Garcia if the Trump administration requested it. “Obviously, your administration could say El Salvador was no longer contractually obligated to imprison Mr. Abrego Garcia. Then El Salvador can release him, and Attorney General Bondi can, as promised, send the plane,” Mr. Van Hollen wrote, referencing remarks Ms. Bondi made during an Oval Office meeting between Mr. Trump and President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador earlier this month. But Ms. Bondi later told reporters that Mr. Abrego Garcia would not be returned, asserting that Salvadoran officials were unwilling to release him. “He is not coming back to our country,” she said during a news conference at the Justice Department. “President Bukele said he was not sending him back. That’s the end of the story.”

Breitbart [4/30/2025 1:17 AM, Elizabeth Weibel, 2923K] reports deported illegal alien Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia was described as a gang member in a 2018 family court dispute. Custody filings between Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, and her ex, Edwin Ramos, show that Ramos "filed for an emergency custody hearing in August 2018.” He claimed that his children were in "serious danger" because his ex was involved with a "gang member," though no specific gang is mentioned, according to Fox45 News: Custody filings obtained by Fox45 News show the man who appears to be the father of Vasquez Sura’s two youngest children filed for an emergency custody hearing in August 2018. The man, Edwin Ramos, claimed the children were in serious danger because Vasquez Sura "is dating a gang member.” A month later, a judge concluded that it was "not an emergency" and later dismissed "the issue" in 2019 "for a lack of jurisdiction," according to the outlet. The New York Post’s Jennie Taer revealed that the "obtained court docs from 2018 show" Abrego Garcia "was being accused of gang membership" by Ramos. Attorney General Pam Bondi has shown court documents that claim Abrego Garcia "crossed the border illegally near McAllen, Texas, in March 2012" at the age of 16 and that he went on to live with his brother in Maryland, according to NBC News. Years later, in 2016, Abrego Garcia met Vasquez Sura, an American citizen, and the two moved in with each other in 2018 and got married in June 2019, while Abrego was "being held in an immigration center," according to the New York Post: The assertion is the latest piece of evidence to surface alleging links between the 29-year-old Salvadoran national to the vicious MS-13 gang. The Justice Department previously highlighted a March 2019 police report in which a confidential informant told the Prince George’s County Police Department gang unit that Abrego Garcia was part of the gang.

New York Post [4/29/2025 6:08 PM, Jennie Taer, Josh Christenson and Chris Nesi, 54903K] reports Kilmar Abrego Garcia was accused of being a gang member in 2018 court papers, The Post can reveal — as the fight continues over whether the deported illegal immigrant dad was a part of MS-13. Abrego Garcia’s wife’s ex made the claim when he filed documents seeking an emergency court hearing on the custody of the couple’s two children. "She is dating a gang member," Jennifer Vasquez Sura’s ex, Edwin Trejo Ramos alleged in the petition filed in Prince George’s County Circuit Court in Maryland. Ramos, who is currently incarcerated in Maryland, went on to claim that he feared for his children’s lives, alleging that Sura had tried to kill herself and had left the kids with an 11-year-old babysitter, the August 2018 documents said. The petition, first obtained by Fox 45 News, does not identify the gang member by name, and a judge denied the emergency hearing the following month, and later dismissed the petition in early 2019 over jurisdictional issues. Abrego Garcia and Sura — a US citizen — met in 2016, according to NBC News. The couple moved in together in 2018, and in June 2019, they got married while Abrego Garcia was being held in an immigration center, standing on opposite sides of a security glass wall. Sura gave birth to their son a few months later. The timeline of Abrego Garcia and Sura’s relationship suggests the claim in the petition referred to Abrego Garcia. Both Abrego Garcia and his family have asserted he is not a member of the notorious gang. The assertion is the latest piece of evidence to surface alleging links between the 29-year-old Salvadoran national to the vicious MS-13 gang. The Justice Department previously highlighted a March 2019 police report in which a confidential informant told the Prince George’s County Police Department gang unit that Abrego Garcia was part of the gang. At the time, Abrego Garcia was arrested for loitering in a Home Depot parking lot in Hyattsville, Maryland with three other men. A detective with the gang unit noted in their report that Abrego Garcia was wearing a Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie at the time of his arrest, which he said "represents [that] they are a member in good standing with MS-13.". The officers said they also contacted a proven reliable source who confirmed Abrego Garcia was an "active member" of the gang with the Western clique, holding the rank of "Chequeo" and going by the street name "Chele," according to the police report.

Breitbart.com [4/29/2025 4:01 PM, John Binder, 2923K] reports House Democrats are claiming that many suspected gang members deported by President Donald Trump’s administration were simply seeking "a better life" in the United States. In a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Bennie Thompson (D-MS), and Gerald Connolly (D-VA) are seeking information regarding the Trump administration’s historic deal with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele. The deal allows the United States to deport suspected MS-13 and Tren de Aragua gang members, now designated as foreign terrorists, to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) — a mega-prison with high security in El Salvador. According to the Democrats, many of the suspected gang members deported by the Trump administration were simply seeking "a better life" for themselves in the United States. The Democrats also claim that because many of the suspected gang members do not have criminal convictions in the U.S., they ought not to be classified as MS-13 or Tren de Aragua members.

Newsweek [4/30/2025 5:08 AM, Billal Rahman] reports The attorney for an "inconsolable" mother deported from the United States told Newsweek she disputes a claim by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that her client voluntarily chose to leave her one-year-old daughter behind. Heidy Sánchez, 44, a resident of Hillsborough County, was one of 82 Cuban migrants deported from Miami to Cuba on Thursday morning, according to the Miami Herald. Claudia Cañizares, Sánchez's lawyer, told Newsweek: "Since her removal, Heidy has been inconsolable. Their child is unaware of her mother's absence and continues to ask to be breastfed." President Donald Trump has directed federal and state agencies to apprehend migrants without legal status as part of an aggressive push toward conducting large-scale deportations. An AP-NORC poll, conducted between April 17 and 21 with 1,260 adults, found that 53 percent of respondents disapproved of Trump's handling of immigration policy. Likewise, an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll, conducted from April 18 to 22, revealed that 53 percent of Americans disapproved, while 46 percent approved. The DHS had said Sánchez chose to leave her child behind. "In this case, the parent stated they wanted to be removed without the child and left the child in the care of a safe relative in the United States," Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Newsweek. But Cañizares said that the DHS account is inaccurate and that her client was not given the option to bring her child with her during her deportation. She said: "She was not given the option to have her child accompany her. Instead, she was instructed to immediately arrange for her husband [Carlos Yuniel Valle] to pick up their child. Her husband was not allowed to enter the ICE office, and ICE agents directed the attorney to bring the child to him outside." "I have confirmed with Carlos that Heidy specifically asked if she could remain with her child, to which ICE responded, "no, your child is a US Citizen," she added. Earlier, Valle had told the Miami Herald: "The baby is distressed and does not want to eat. Imagine, they ripped the child from her mother's arms at the immigration office; the cries of that woman in there could be heard back in Cuba. "I am here at the store trying to buy things so that I can send her a package with toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, sanitary pads and clothes." Sánchez was detained during a check-in appointment at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in Tampa. The following day, Valle, posted a video on Facebook, holding their daughter and pleading for help to prevent his wife's deportation. Last-minute appeals from Sánchez's attorney and Tampa U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor to halt the deportation were unsuccessful, Valle said. Sánchez arrived in the U.S. in 2019, while her husband came to the country in 2006. Cañizares said federal immigration authorities failed to disclose where her client was being held. She noted that ICE agents were aware Sánchez had a one-year-old daughter, as the child had accompanied her to a prior appointment. In the less than 72 hours between Sánchez's detention and deportation, Cañizares and her team worked frantically to contact her and request a stay of removal to prevent her deportation on humanitarian grounds. Although they suspected Sánchez had been transferred to Miami, they could not locate her at ICE facilities in Broward or Miami. In a final attempt, Cañizares went to Miami International Airport after finding Sánchez listed in a migrant locator system under U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody. Airport officials denied she was there, and when Cañizares tried to reach a supervisor, a female officer hung up on her, according to the Miami Herald. Sánchez is currently staying with her mother in Cuba after being deported from the U.S. However, the family has been asked to vacate the property, leaving them without stable housing. As a result, they are facing a difficult situation regarding their child's future. The family is now grappling with whether the child should remain in the U.S. with her father or join her mother in Cuba. Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Newsweek: "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. "The Trump Administration is giving parents in this country illegally the opportunity to self deport and take control of their departure process with the potential ability to return the legal, right way and come back to live the American dream."

New York Times [4/29/2025 7:14 PM, Julie Turkewitz and Isayen Herrera, 153395K] reports Venezuelan family is calling for a 2-year-old to be returned to her mother after the U.S. authorities deported the mother to Venezuela on Friday without the child. The girl’s father was sent to a prison in El Salvador in March. The toddler, Maikelys Antonella Espinoza Bernal, remains in foster care in the United States, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Officials said in a statement that the child was removed from her parents and from the manifest of her mother’s deportation plane for her own “safety and welfare.” The Trump administration claims the girl’s parents are members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang, but it has not offered evidence to back this up. The girl, known to many in her family as Antonella, is one of several children who have been swept up in President Trump’s immigration crackdown in recent days. According to the couple’s relatives, the authorities told them their tattoos looked suspicious, took them into custody and sent the girl to foster care.

ABC News [4/29/2025 8:32 PM, Laura Romero, 34586K] reports that, after being in a detention center for several months in Texas, Yorely Bernal Inciarte got the news she had been praying for: She was going to be deported back to her home country. But when she boarded her deportation flight to Venezuela last week, her worst nightmare came true, she said: Her two-year old daughter was not on the flight. "I started yelling at the officers asking where my baby was," Inciarte told ABC News. "[Immigration and Customs Enforcement] officers ignored me.” When Inciarte, her partner Maiker Espinoza Escalona and their child entered the U.S. last year and surrendered to authorities, the three were separated, Inciarte told ABC News. Inciarte and Escalona were placed in separate detention centers in Texas and their daughter was placed in government custody, Inciarte said. She told ABC News she was able to speak with her daughter on video calls and with Escalona over the phone. The two adults were placed in asylum proceedings but they eventually asked for a deportation order to be reunited with their child, who is not a U.S. citizen, one of their attorneys told ABC News. But that would never happen. Escalona was transferred to Guantanamo Bay and then sent to the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador on March 30 under Title 8 authorities, according to the family and their attorney. "When I saw him in a video in El Salvador, I was in shock," Inciarte said. "I couldn’t stop crying and yelling.” Last week, Inciarte was deported to Venezuela without her daughter, a move that has outraged government officials in Venezuela. The Department of Homeland Security over the weekend labeled Inciarte and Escalona as "Tren de Aragua parents," alleging the two are members of the Venezuelan gang. "The child’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," DHS said in a statement over the weekend. "The child’s mother, Yorely Escarleth Bernal Inciarte oversees recruitment of young women for drug smuggling and prostitution.” "The child remains in the care and custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement and is currently placed with a foster family," DHS added. Inciarte, her attorney and the family deny the accusations by DHS. "If it’s true, release the evidence," Inciarte told ABC News. "Release the proof that we are Tren de Aragua. They took a child away from their mother and they’re telling lies about us." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

New York Times [4/29/2025 6:49 AM, German Lopez and Anupreeta Das,, 145325K] reports that, over the past week, President Trump has shown us what mass deportations look like. His administration sent three American children from two different families to Honduras along with their undocumented mothers on Friday. One of the kids, a 4-year-old boy, is in the fourth stage of a rare form of cancer. As Trump ramps up deportations, more sympathetic cases like these are likely to pop up. Trump wants to deport all undocumented immigrants. Some of them are genuine criminals who have done awful things while staying in the United States illegally. Most of them are not. They are people who came to this country looking for work or fleeing horrible conditions back home. They might be pregnant, as one of the deported moms is, or ill or parents of U.S. citizens. Still, they are undocumented, so they’re on Trump’s deportation list. The administration says that it has a mandate to carry out campaign promises and restore law and order. Most Americans, however, believe that only some unauthorized migrants should be deported, polling suggests. In the cases of the three American children, the courts may get a say. Officials detained the families during routine check-ins with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The authorities took the mothers and their children — 2, 4 and 7 years old — hours away from the site of their appointments in New Orleans, the families’ lawyers said. Within days, they were gone. The lawyers couldn’t reach the mothers until after they arrived in Honduras. A Trump-appointed federal judge, Terry Doughty, issued a brief order in the case of the 2-year-old on Friday, setting a hearing to get more information. The 2-year-old’s father reportedly said that he wanted his daughter to remain in the United States. Doughty said that he had a “strong suspicion that the government just deported a U.S. citizen with no meaningful process.” The administration insists that it didn’t deport U.S. citizens. Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, said that officials gave the mother of the 2-year-old a choice to leave her child in the United States or take the girl to Honduras. And Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the kids, but not the mom, could come back if their father or someone else took them. The administration is seemingly trying to avoid the kinds of family separations that drew widespread criticism during Trump’s first term, but it also doesn’t want to show mercy to unauthorized migrants. It criticizes migrants for using birthright citizenship to enter the United States and “anchor” themselves through a child born here. “Having a U.S. citizen child after you enter this country illegally is not a get-out-of-jail-free card,” Homan said.

Washington Examiner [4/29/2025 11:14 AM, Asher Notheis, 2296K] reports White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller celebrated how he says the Trump administration is strong-arming the press into covering the "atrocities" committed by illegal immigrants in the United States, slamming the "left-wing corporate press" for not covering these stories previously. The White House debuted 100 lawn signs on Monday morning, each showing the mug shot of an illegal immigrant detained by the Trump administration as well as the crime they are accused of committing within the U.S. Miller detailed how he has seen daily examples of the "heinous, unthinkable crimes" that these immigrants committed against U.S. citizens from "[former President] Joe Biden’s border invasion," accusing most of the press for not showing "an ounce of human empathy" to the victims of these crimes. "So President Trump’s White House has forced, brilliantly, these outlets to acknowledge these crimes, to acknowledge these atrocities by putting these posters, these mug shots and their criminal histories, right behind them as they stand there and do their shots every single day," Miller stated on Fox News’s Hannity. "And we’re going to keep forcing the media to cover the atrocities committed by the illegal aliens that Joe Biden and the Democrat Party have brought into our country." Miller proceeded to detail the roadblocks that the Trump administration faces in its deportation efforts, including a California law preventing police departments from handing over illegal immigrants to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He also namedropped Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL), the "monstrous mess of a governor," for also refusing to cooperate with ICE in handing over illegal immigrants, including those "charged with serious criminal offenses." Tuesday marks President Donald Trump’s 100th day back in the Oval Office, which Miller argued saw the president accomplish his "first job" of sealing the southern border. Under the new administration’s watch, Miller said "99.99%" of people have been blocked from entering the country, and only three people have been allowed to enter in the last month for "legitimate medical purposes.".

Washington Examiner [4/29/2025 12:03 PM, Emily Hallas, 2296K] reports Trump administration officials are threatening polygraph tests on staffers to cut down on leakers who paint an unfavorable image of the White House. Most recently, the FBI began using the tool, according to comments first reported by the Washington Post and confirmed by the Washington Examiner. "We can confirm the FBI has begun administering polygraph tests to identify the source of information leaks within the bureau," the statement said. Other members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, including Homeland Security Director Kristi Noem, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Attorney General Pam Bondi, have also discussed and deployed polygraph testing to root out leakers in their departments. "The seriousness of the specific leaks in question precipitated the polygraphs, as they involved potential damage to security protocols at the bureau," an FBI spokesperson told the Washington Post. Over at Noem’s DHS, the agency changed how it was polygraphing employees in March, per NBC News. While it has long carried out lie detector tests, the DHS began adding specific questions about leaking classified documents or sensitive law enforcement information on federal immigration enforcement operations. The news came after the DHS and Trump border czar Tom Homan expressed frustration that multiple media leaks had put the administration’s attempts to arrest gang members in the country illegally in jeopardy. The leaks put federal immigration enforcement officials, local law enforcement, and community members at risk as Immigration and Customs Enforcement attempted to carry out operations, Homan worried. "The Department of Homeland Security is a national security agency. We can, should, and will polygraph personnel," the DHS said. Noem has vowed to prosecute individuals accused of leaking.

NPR [4/29/2025 7:49 PM, Leila Fadel, Jan Johnson, and Kaity Kline, 29983K] Audio HERE reports the April 14 detention of Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi was caught on video as he flashed a peace sign while being taken from an immigration office in Colchester, Vt. He told NPR’s Morning Edition he’d arrived thinking an interview there would be his final step to becoming a U.S. citizen after 10 years of living and learning in the United States. Instead, after sitting for a naturalization interview and signing a document pledging allegiance to the U.S. and to protecting and defending the Constitution, he was arrested by masked agents in Homeland Security jackets. In the first media interview with any of the Trump administration’s student detainees – all at risk of deportation — Mahdawi spoke to Leila Fadel in the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans, Vt., where he’s awaiting a court hearing Wednesday in a petition that argues government officials violated his First Amendment right to free speech and his right to due process. Editor’s note: After this segment aired, Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, responded to our request for comment. She said: "It is a privilege to be granted a visa or green card to live and study in the United States of America. When you advocate for violence, glorify and support terrorists that relish the of killing Americans, and harass Jews, that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country." [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

Axios [4/29/2025 6:20 AM, Steph Solis, 13163K] reports President Trump’s first 100 days are a case study in how a flood of executive actions meant to remake a nation can slow to a trickle in the courts. Depending on where you stand, you can partly thank (or blame) Massachusetts residents and their attorneys. Federal courts are wading through hundreds of lawsuits challenging Trump’s various executive orders. Questions about alleged constitutional violations — including civil rights violations against members of marginalized groups — have created a bottleneck for the administration’s efforts to swiftly shrink and overhaul the government, legal experts say. Trump plans to mark his 100 days in office with an executive order identifying "sanctuary cities" — which would probably include the Boston area — and another order that would "strengthen and unleash law enforcement to pursue criminals," the Guardian reported. If previous lawsuits are any indication, Massachusetts officials and attorneys will probably challenge those orders in court. That doesn’t mean Trump’s challengers will prevail, but it may stem the flow of his agenda, legal experts say. Trump filed more than 139 executive orders in his first 100 days, more than any other president. Those orders have been met with hundreds of lawsuits — more than 50 class-action or group lawsuits challenging the orders and related policies on immigration alone.

NewsMax.com [4/29/2025 7:29 AM, Kathy McCormack, 4998K] reports a federal appeals court has paused a judge’s order to bring a Turkish Tufts University student from a Louisiana immigration detention center back to New England this week so it can consider an emergency motion filed by the government. The U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New York, ruled Monday that a three-judge panel would hear arguments on May 6 in the case of Rumeysa Ozturk. She’s been detained for five weeks as of Tuesday. A district court judge in Vermont had earlier ordered that the 30-year-old doctoral student be brought to the state by Thursday for hearings to determine whether she was illegally detained. Ozturk’s lawyers say her detention violates her constitutional rights, including free speech and due process. The U.S. Justice Department, which is appealing that ruling, said that an immigration court in Louisiana has jurisdiction over her case. Congress limited federal-court jurisdiction over immigration matters, government lawyers wrote. Yet the Vermont judge’s order "defies those limits at every turn in a way that irreparably harms the government.” Ozturk’s lawyers opposed the emergency motion. "In practice, that temporary pause could last many months," they said in a news release. Immigration officials surrounded Ozturk as she walked along a street in a Boston suburb March 25 and drove her to New Hampshire and Vermont before putting her on a plane to a detention center in Basile, Louisiana. Ozturk was one of four students who wrote an op-ed in the campus newspaper, The Tufts Daily, last year criticizing the university’s response to student activists demanding that Tufts "acknowledge the Palestinian genocide," disclose its investments and divest from companies with ties to Israel. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in March, without providing evidence, that investigations found that Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group.

Axios [4/29/2025 9:49 PM, Sareen Habeshian, 13163K] reports Columbia University alumnus Mahmoud Khalil’s lawsuit arguing he’s being detained unlawfully can proceed, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. Khalil, a legal U.S. resident and a leader of Columbia’s pro-Palestinian protests, has been in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for more than a month. U.S. District Court Judge Michael Fabiarz didn’t address the substance of the case but said in his ruling that it can proceed in his New Jersey courtroom, rather than an immigration court in Louisiana which previously ruled Khalil can be deported. "If there needs to be fact-finding here, it may potentially be sprawling, and it may potentially involve sensitive evidence, or (renewed) requests to depose senior officials," Fabiarz wrote. The same judge has previously denied the Trump administration’s attempts to move Khalil’s case out of New Jersey. FOX News [4/29/2025 7:20 PM, Sarah Rumpf-Whitten and Lindsey Reese, 46189K] reports that the ruling by the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey came after a Louisiana judge ruled that the U.S. government could deport the Ivy League graduate. Khalil has separate court cases playing out in two states – the Louisiana case is focused on his deportation order and the New Jersey case is focused on his habeas petition challenging the legality of his detention. Federal authorities attempted to dismiss Khalil’s case, arguing that provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act stripped the court of jurisdiction to review his constitutional claims at this stage. Judge Claire C. Cecchi disagreed on Tuesday, ruling that Khalil’s lawsuit must be heard. Khalil, who was approved for deportation by a U.S. immigration judge, has argued that his free speech rights were being "eroded" by the Trump administration. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) attorneys have argued that Khalil’s free speech claims were a "red herring," saying that the 30-year-old green card holder lied on his visa applications. Khalil, they said, willfully failed to disclose his employment with the Syrian office in the British Embassy in Beirut when he applied for permanent U.S. residency. Federal officials alleged that Khalil was "inadmissible at the time of his adjustment" because of "fraud or willful misrepresentation of material fact" in his status application. The agency also accused Khalil of failing to disclose his work with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees and membership in Columbia University Apartheid Divest. He was accused of being a ringleader of pro-Palestinian protests at the university. The DHS has also alleged that he "led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization," though Khalil has denied the allegations. Following the ruling, Khalil’s immigration attorney, Sabrine Mohamah, called the decision "unjust as it is alarming.". "This is a blatant violation of the First Amendment and a dangerous precedent for anyone who believes in free speech and political expression," she said. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem also weighed in on the ruling, saying that the Columbia University graduate "hates America.". "It is a privilege to be granted a visa or green card to live and study in the United States of America. When you advocate for violence, glorify and support terrorists that relish the killing of Americans, and harass Jews, that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country," she said. "Good riddance.".

NPR [4/29/2025 11:15 PM, Ayana Archie, 29983K] reports a suspect has been arrested and charged in connection with last week’s theft of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s purse. Mario Bustamante Leiva, 49, was arrested Saturday and charged with wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and robbery, the Justice Department announced Monday. Noem was dining at Capital Burger, a restaurant in Washington, D.C., on Easter when her purse went missing. She told her Secret Service detail, who alerted the field office. She said her government ID card was gone, as well as several of her credit cards. Leiva was allegedly seen on surveillance footage sitting in a chair close to Noem at a nearby table, according to the DOJ in a document outlining the arrest. He allegedly scooted his chair back closer to her purse, bent down with a jacket over his arm and picked up her purse from the floor, according to the document. He then allegedly tossed Noem’s driver’s license before more footage shows him boarding and exiting a city bus, and using her credit card to make food and alcohol purchases that totaled more than $200, the Justice Department said. "Thank you to @SecretService @ICEgov and our law enforcement partners for finding and arresting the criminal who stole my bag on Easter Sunday as I shared a meal with my family at a Washington DC restaurant," Noem said in a post on X Sunday. Capital Burger declined to comment on the incident. The Justice Department said Leiva is from Chile, and that he is in the U.S. illegally. NPR has not been able to independently verify that claim. Leiva also is a suspect in two other purse thefts that occurred in D.C. this month, said the DOJ, in which a man used the same tactic of covering his hand with a jacket before retrieving the bags. He allegedly used the two women’s credit cards to make $900 in purchases, the DOJ said. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has issued an immigration detainer against Leiva. An immigration detainer instructs an agency to hold an undocumented suspect for an additional 48 hours after their release while it decides next steps, according to ICE. Leiva’s attorney, Ubong Akpan, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

CBS News [4/29/2025 7:47 AM, Tony Dokoupil, Caitlin Yilek, 51661K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she’s "very confident" that the two people arrested in connection with the theft of her purse are in the country illegally. "These are career criminals," Noem told CBS News in an interview at the U.S.-Mexico border on Monday. "They have perpetuated crimes against many people in this country for many years illegally." Noem’s purse was stolen April 20 when she was at a restaurant in Washington, D.C., with her family. She said the bag was sitting between her feet when it was taken. Noem said she does not believe she was targeted and it was just a coincidence that her purse was taken. "But he was professional in how he took it," she said. "So, you know, this is what Americans shouldn’t have to live with. It’s not about me and it’s not about my family, as much as it is about, you know, that people live in communities that have been going through this for many, many years. So the more that we can bring these people in and have them face consequences and get them out of our country, the safer America will be." Mario Bustamante Leiva, 49, was arrested in Washington, D.C., on Saturday and has been charged with wire fraud, identity theft and robbery in connection with three purse snatchings this month, the Department of Justice said Monday. The department alleged Leiva, a Chilean national, was in the U.S. illegally. The Secret Service confirmed a second suspect, Cristian Rodrigo Montecino-Sanzana, 51, was arrested at a Walgreens in South Beach. Immigration and Customs Enforcement lodged immigration detainers for both suspects. Neither suspect had an attorney listed in the D.C. federal court database. Noem’s bag contained a number of sensitive personal items, including her driver’s license, passport, DHS access badge, checks and roughly $3,000 in cash, three law enforcement sources previously told CBS News. Noem’s cellphone was not in her bag, but credit cards, makeup and medication were among the items stolen. The Justice Department alleged the suspects charged more than $200 to Noem’s credit card. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

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NewsMax [4/29/2025 10:41 AM, Sandy Fitzgerald, 4998K]
Washington Examiner [4/29/2025 11:22 AM, Luke Gentile, 2296K]

FOX News [4/29/2025 8:25 AM, Michael Dorgan Fox, 46189K] reports the illegal migrant accused of snatching Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s purse was arrested in New York City weeks earlier and released from custody, according to a New York Post report. Chilean national Mario Bustamante Leiva, 49, was arrested in Times Square after he swiped a fanny pack from an international student from India inside a Times Square dosa shop -- and then the perp racked up $1,200 in credit card charges in just 20 minutes, the victim told the outlet. The NYPD gave Bustamante-Leiva a desk appearance ticket on fourth-degree felony grand larceny charges and released him. The city’s sanctuary city laws meant that the NYPD was prohibited from telling federal immigration officials that they had busted an illegal migrant. Meanwhile, Bustamante-Leiva didn’t show up for his court date and officers went looking for him, law enforcement sources told the outlet. That allowed Bustamante-Leiva to target Noem on Easter Sunday when she was dining with her family at The Capital Burger in Washington, D.C., although he denied knowing that the bag belonged to the Homeland Security chief, a hardline immigration enforcer. Bustamante-Leiva is accused of nabbing Noem’s luxury Gucci bag containing around $3,000 cash as well as her driver’s license, passport, medication, makeup bag, blank checks, DHS badge, apartment keys and a Louis Vuitton Clemence wallet. The bag was on the floor at her table when it was stolen, according to a complaint filed with local police. He was arrested on Saturday by members of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and the Secret Service and initially charged with two counts of robbery, officials said. On Monday, the U.S. Secret Service filed federal criminal charges against Bustamante-Leiva, accusing him of committing three robberies between April 12, 2024, and April 20, 2025, and after each robbery, making fraudulent purchases using the credit cards obtained from each victim. Charging documents from the U.S. Attorney’s office in D.C. allegedly showed Bustamante-Leiva caught on camera blowing $205.87 on food and alcohol at an Italian restaurant just minutes after he made off with Noem’s shoulder bag. Security footage captured a white man in a N95 surgical mask, dark pants and a baseball cap grabbing the bag before leaving the restaurant. Bustamante-Leiva is a reported career criminal whose rap sheet also includes a 2021 shoplifting arrest in Utah and a huge bust in London in 2015, where he was arrested for a months-long theft spree and charged with swiping $28,000 in phones, wallets, and computers, according to the Post. A second man, believed to be Bustamante-Leiva’s accomplice, was also arrested in the Noem theft case. The identity of the alleged accomplice has not been released, but officials said the suspect is currently being held on an immigration detainer as charges are finalized. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

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NewsNation [4/29/2025 12:08 PM, Anna Kutz, 6866K]

AP [4/29/2025 3:40 PM, Alanna Durkin Richer] reports a key player in the U.S. government’s battle to combat the flow of deadly fentanyl is a team at a little-known research lab in northern Virginia that’s working to analyze seized narcotics and gather intelligence to find ways to stop the supply. Attorney General Pam Bondi traveled to the Drug Enforcement Administration lab on Tuesday to meet with chemists who are tasked with identifying the ever-evolving tactics employed by cartels to manufacture drugs flowing across the southern border. Bondi donned a blue DEA lab coat as she toured the facility in an effort to put a spotlight on a key Trump administration priority to combat the illicit flow of fentanyl that’s blamed for tens of thousands of overdose deaths every year. The chemists showed Bondi the ease with which cartels are able to produce fentanyl, and detailed how their team is working to identify new compounds to help law enforcement keep illicit drugs off the street.

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New York Post [4/29/2025 4:04 PM, Josh Christenson, 54903K]

CNN [4/29/2025 1:05 PM, John Fritze, 22131K] reports the Supreme Court signaled Tuesday that it will revive a lawsuit from a suburban Atlanta family that was mistakenly held at gunpoint in their bedroom after the FBI accidentally conducted a predawn raid at the wrong address. After about an hour of oral argument, it seemed clear that conservative and liberal justices were prepared to send the case back to a federal appeals court that barred the suit from moving forward. That would represent a narrow win, at least, for the family. Curtrina Martin, her partner and her then-7-year-old son were startled awake in 2017 when a six-agent SWAT team – believing that they were targeting the home of a gang member – smashed her front door with a battering ram, detonated a flashbang grenade and rushed in. Martin’s lawyers said her address was “clearly visible” on her mailbox. At issue for the Supreme Court is whether the family may sue the government for damages. In 1974, Congress expanded the ability of Americans to sue federal law enforcement agents following other high-profile raids at the wrong house. One of the questions for the justices was whether that expansion should apply in Martin’s case.

USA Today [4/29/2025 3:32 PM, Bart Jansen, 75858K] reports the Supreme Court sounded willing to allow an Atlanta family to sue the FBI for compensation over the mistaken search of their home, but reluctant to define how much protection law enforcement officers deserve in carrying out their jobs. Trina Martin, her son Gabe and her partner Toi Cliatt awoke one morning in October 2017 to what she called the “monstrous noise” of a half-dozen FBI agents barging into their home with guns drawn. But the FBI agents were at the wrong home, 436 feet from a similar beige, split-level house where a suspected gang member lived. The justices sounded willing to allow a lawsuit for compensation for the mistake, after lower courts dismissed the case. “You are begging the question, which is, how far does this discretionary exception goes?” Justice Sonia Sotomayor told the government lawyer.

AP [4/29/2025 5:50 PM, Lindsay Whitehurst, 48304K] reports the Supreme Court seemed likely Tuesday to rule narrowly in favor of a family trying to hold federal law enforcement accountable in court after an FBI raid wrongly targeted their Atlanta home. The justices seemed open to giving them another chance to sue over the raid, but wary of handing down a more sweeping ruling on federal liability in law enforcement cases. The case was filed after FBI agents broke down Trina Martin’s door before dawn in 2017. They pointed guns at Martin and her then-boyfriend and terrified her 7-year-old son before realizing they were in the wrong place. The FBI team quickly apologized and left, with the leader later saying that his personal GPS device had led him to the wrong place. The government says judges shouldn’t be second-guessing decisions made in the absence of a specific policy and Martin can’t sue over an honest mistake. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, tossing out the lawsuit in 2022. Both liberal and conservative justices appeared skeptical of the government’s position, with Justice Neil Gorsuch asking incredulously, “No policy says, ‘Don’t break down the door of the wrong house? Don’t traumatize its occupants?’”

AP [4/29/2025 6:40 PM, David Fischer, 2923K] reports a federal judge told attorneys for the state of Florida on Tuesday that an order freezing the enforcement of a new state immigration law absolutely did apply to all of the state’s local law enforcement agencies, despite a recent letter to the contrary from the state’s attorney general. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams said during a hearing in Miami that she planned to issue a preliminary injunction against a state statute that makes it a misdemeanor for undocumented migrants to enter Florida by eluding immigration officials. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the legislation into law in February as part of President Donald Trump’s push to crack down on illegal immigration, though many of Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts are currently mired in battles with federal judges. The judge had issued a 14-day temporary restraining order on April 4, shortly after the lawsuit was filed by the Florida Immigrant Coalition and other groups with support from the American Civil Liberties Union. She then extended it another 11 days after learning the Florida Highway Patrol had arrested more than a dozen people, including a U.S. Citizen. The lawsuit claims the new law violates the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution by encroaching on federal duties. During Tuesday’s hearing, Williams asked Jeffrey DeSousa, who is representing the Florida Office of the Attorney General, why Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier released a memo to law enforcement agencies last week saying they didn’t need to follow her order. DeSousa said his office’s position is that a judge’s order can only apply to the named parties in the lawsuit being tried. Williams asked what would be the point of allowing law enforcement officers to arrest people without probable cause when prosecutors weren’t allowed to prosecute them, though DeSousa didn’t directly answer. DeSousa also argued that the immigrant groups filing the lawsuit could have named the individual law enforcement agencies in their complaint, rather than just the Florida attorney general, the statewide prosecutor and Florida’s 20 state attorneys. ACLU attorney Oscar Sarabia Roman said it would not have been practical to individually name all 373 of the state’s law enforcement agencies in their complaint. He added that the judge’s order should have the authority to prevent local police from enforcing the new law. After Williams issued her order extension April 18, Uthmeier sent a memo to state and local law enforcement officers telling them to refrain from enforcing the law, even though he disagreed with it. But five days later, he sent another memo saying that the judge was legally wrong and that he couldn’t prevent local police officers and deputies from enforcing the law. No additional arrests have been reported since Uthmeier’s second memo.

New York Times [4/29/2025 7:40 PM, Patricia Mazzei, 145325K] reports the year had barely begun when Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida demanded legislation cracking down on illegal immigration — before President Trump was inaugurated, and before any other state could beat him to it. The Republican governor got his wish. And now, the impact of the state’s new, aggressive enforcement powers is starting to become clear. The Trump administration has boasted of making hundreds of immigration arrests in Florida, with the state’s help. A South Florida detention center has added a plexiglass structure with rows of cots to deal with overcrowding. Mr. DeSantis and his handpicked attorney general, James Uthmeier, threatened to remove members of a City Council who initially opposed working with federal officials on immigration enforcement, accusing them of embracing “sanctuary policies.” In recent weeks, Mr. Uthmeier also seemed to defy a federal judge’s order on one of the new state laws. The judge, Kathleen M. Williams of the Federal District Court in Miami, temporarily blocked part of one law that makes it a state crime for unauthorized immigrants to enter Florida. Despite the judge’s order, Mr. Uthmeier told police officers that he “cannot prevent” them from making arrests under the law in question. Such has been the tumult playing out in Florida since Mr. DeSantis signed two sweeping immigration laws in February, saying that he wanted to be on the front lines of helping the Trump administration carry out mass deportations. The measures have entangled every level of state government and unnerved residents who had long considered Florida an immigrant haven. “I’ve never seen so many people so scared or concerned in 50 years that I’ve been working in Miami,” said Wilfredo O. Allen, an immigration lawyer. The tension has been most palpable in South Florida, which is heavily Hispanic. The region’s politicians largely avoid anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies, given that about 54 percent of Miami-Dade County residents are foreign-born and three-quarters speak a language other than English at home. Of particular concern is the federal government’s attempt to end deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans and Haitians, many of whom live in the region. But Mr. Trump and Mr. DeSantis both handily won Miami-Dade County, flipping it red and showing how even in one of the nation’s most heavily Hispanic regions, sentiment has shifted in favor of stricter immigration enforcement. South Florida’s Republican members of Congress have done little to push back against the administration’s crackdown. A new political group began publishing ads against some of them last week. “Deporting good immigrants back to dictatorships is cruel,” one of the ads says. Pictured in it are Representatives Mario Díaz-Balart, Carlos A. Giménez and María Elvira Salazar, as well as Secretary of State Marco Rubio. All are Cuban Americans from Miami.

FOX News [4/29/2025 4:51 PM, Emma Colton and Brooke Singman, 46189K] reports President Donald Trump signed an executive action Tuesday softening auto tariffs. Senior administration officials said Tuesday while previewing the executive action during a call with the media that the current 25% tariff leveled on imported cars will remain intact but that other similar tariffs, such as tariffs on steel and aluminum, will not stack on top of the 25% auto tariff. Trump signed the executive order Tuesday afternoon, Fox Business confirmed, while he was traveling to a Michigan rally near Detroit — the U.S.’ former auto manufacturing capital. Tuesday marks Trump’s 100th day in office. Additionally, domestic auto manufacturers that finish building cars in the U.S. will receive an offset for automobile part tariffs equal to 3.75% of the Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price of a manufacturer’s U.S. production for the next 12 months and 2.5% of U.S. production for year following. The figures were calculated to reflect the tariff that would be owed when a 25% duty tax is applied to 15% of the value of a U.S.-assembled car, Fox Digital learned. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [4/29/2025 12:23 PM, Deirdre Heavey, 46189K] reports Gov. J.B. Pritzker, D-Ill., reignited speculation about his 2028 presidential ambitions this weekend, but his call for "mass protests" dominated headlines as Republicans accused him of "inciting violence." Speaking at the New Hampshire Democratic Party’s annual fundraising gala this weekend, Pritzker became the first potential Democratic candidate to visit New Hampshire, or any early primary state, since Democrats’ big November losses. "Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption. But I am now. These Republicans cannot know a moment of peace. They have to understand that we will fight their cruelty with every megaphone and microphone that we have. We must castigate them on the soapbox and then punish them at the ballot box," Prtizker said, triggering outrage among President Donald Trump’s supporters. "His comments, if nothing else, could be construed as inciting violence," Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security advisor, told reporters outside the White House on Monday. Pritzker told the first-in-the-nation primary crowd this weekend, "It’s time to fight everywhere and all at once," in a comment that seemed to refer to political action, like protesting, voting and challenging the Trump administration in the courts. Pritzker later clarified to reporters he was referring to political action, but Trump’s base wasn’t so convinced. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

AP [4/29/2025 8:05 PM, Todd Richmond, 48304K] reports the Wisconsin Supreme Court suspended a judge accused of helping a man evade immigration authorities, saying Tuesday that it is in the public interest to relieve her of her duties as she faces two federal charges. The FBI took Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan into custody Friday morning at the county courthouse. She has been charged with concealing an individual to prevent his discovery and arrest and obstructing or impeding a proceeding. In its two-page order, the court said it was acting to protect public confidence in Wisconsin courts during the criminal proceedings against Dugan. The order noted that the court was acting on its own initiative and was not responding to a request from anyone. Liberal justices control the court 4-3. “It is ordered ... that Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah C. Dugan is temporarily prohibited from exercising the powers of a circuit court judge in the state of Wisconsin, effective the date of this order and until further order of the court,” the justices wrote. Dugan is accused of escorting Eduardo Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer from her court through the jury door last week after learning that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were in the building and seeking his arrest. Flores-Ruiz, who court documents say illegally reentered the U.S. after being deported in 2013, was taken into custody outside after a foot chase.

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Univision [4/29/2025 7:00 PM, Staff, 5325K]

NBC News [4/29/2025 8:32 PM, Tim Stelloh, 44742K] reports the Wisconsin judge accused of obstructing federal authorities who were seeking to detain an undocumented immigrant for deportation was temporarily relieved of her duties Tuesday, an order from the state’s high court shows. The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s order bars Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan from her position while the federal charges are adjudicated. The court, which said it was acting on its own and not in response to a request from anyone, said the order was intended to protect public confidence in Wisconsin courts. A criminal complaint shows Dugan was charged with obstructing or impeding a proceeding before a department or agency of the United States, a felony, and concealing an individual to prevent his discovery and arrest, a misdemeanor. She could face a maximum prison sentence of six years. The FBI arrested Dugan, who was first elected to the circuit court in 2016, last week in the parking lot of the Milwaukee County Courthouse, a senior law enforcement official has told NBC News. Her attorneys declined to comment to NBC News on Tuesday, but her legal team told The Associated Press that it was disappointed "the Court acted in unilateral fashion. We continue to assert Judge Dugan’s innocence and look forward to her vindication in court.” A statement previously issued on her behalf said she would defend herself "vigorously and looks forward to being exonerated.” An affidavit in the case alleges that on April 18, agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement planned to detain a man who was set to appear in Dugan’s courtroom in a domestic violence case. Eduardo Flores-Ruiz had previously been deported from the United States, and an immigration official found probable cause to believe he could be removed from the country, according to the affidavit. Dugan and another unnamed judge are alleged to have confronted the agents in the hallway, asking whether they had a judicial warrant and telling them to speak with the chief judge, according to the affidavit. After Dugan escorted Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer through a jury door, agents pursued them by foot and took Flores-Ruiz into custody, according to the affidavit. The Trump administration accused Dugan of "intentionally misdirecting federal agents" in an act a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson called "shocking and shameful.” Her arrest prompted protests outside the local FBI office, where a state lawmaker told demonstrators over the weekend that the judiciary acts "as a check to unchecked executive power. And functioning democracies do not lock up judges.”

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Washington Post [4/29/2025 11:48 PM, Patrick Marley and Jeremy Roebuck, 31735K]
New York Post [4/30/2025 12:42 AM, Staff, 54903K]

Reuters [4/29/2025 6:28 PM, David Thomas] reports a Wisconsin judge charged with helping a man in her court briefly evade immigration authorities has added prominent conservative lawyer and leading U.S. Supreme Court advocate Paul Clement to her defense team. Hannah Dugan, a Milwaukee County circuit judge, was charged on Friday with obstructing a government proceeding and concealing an individual to prevent arrest. The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday temporarily relieved Dugan of her duties while her case proceeds. Dugan’s arrest on Friday was part of an escalating dispute between the Trump administration and local officials over immigration enforcement. The government did not seek to detain Dugan after her arrest and she was released from custody on Friday by a federal magistrate judge in Milwaukee. She is scheduled to enter a plea on May 15.

Dallas Morning News [4/29/2025 11:15 PM, Aarón Torres, 2800K] reports the Justice Department charged a migrant man in a West Texas federal court for failing to register his undocumented status with the federal government. The charge comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January requiring migrants to register based on a rarely used provision from a 1952 law. The executive order directed the Homeland Security secretary to “announce and publicize information about the legal obligation of all previously unregistered aliens in the United States to comply.” The Justice Department charged Hugo Moreno-Mendez with two misdemeanors. One was for refusing to provide DNA and the other was for willful failure to register. The second charge confused Moreno-Mendez’s attorney. “This is not a charge I’ve ever seen before,” said Lauren McLeod, who has practiced law for 17 years, the last eight as a criminal defense attorney in Waco. Moreno-Mendez is accused of illegally entering the United States more than two decades ago and failing to register with the federal government. It’s unclear if his case is related to Trump’s executive order. In February, Department of Homeland Security officials announced they would create a registry for people who were in the U.S. illegally. DHS set a deadline of April 11 for people to comply with the new rule. Anyone who did not register with the federal government could be criminally prosecuted or fined. Officials with the Justice Department and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas, where his case is pending, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday afternoon. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for DHS, said failing to comply with registering is a crime. The agency does not comment on specific cases, she said. “The Trump administration will enforce all our immigration laws — we will not pick and choose which laws we will enforce,” McLaughlin said in a statement. “We must know who is in our country for the safety and security of our homeland and all Americans.”

NewsNation [4/29/2025 7:38 PM, Luisa Barrios, 6866K] reports a former New Mexico judge and his wife, who were arrested after reportedly allowing an alleged Tren de Aragua member to live in a small home in the back of their house in Las Cruces, were released from jail on Tuesday, April 29, under a $10,000 secured bond after appearing in court. As we previously reported, former Doña Ana County Magistrate Joel Cano and his wife, Nancy Cano, were arrested on Thursday, April 24, at their home on North Reymond Street in Las Cruces, Jason T. Stevens, special agent in charge for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) El Paso, said. They were then booked into the Doña Ana County Detention Center on a tampering with evidence charge. The couple’s arrest followed the investigation in which it is alleged that Joel Cano rented out his "casita" to Cristhian Ortega-Lopez, who is a reported Tren de Aragua member, at the behest of his wife last year. They met Ortega-Lopez when his wife hired him to do housework, according to a criminal complaint. The District Attorney’s Office said Cano’s daughter had multiple firearms and let Ortega-Lopez hold, shoot, and pose with them in pictures that were posted on social media. The feds seized those firearms and arrested Ortega-Lopez in February. Homeland Security Investigations said Ortega-Lopez admitted to entering the country illegally in 2023. After Ortega-Lopez’s arrest, documents revealed that Joel Cano and his wife maintained communication with him and admitted to destroying evidence relating to this case. Cano and his wife both made their initial court appearance on Friday morning, April 25, in a Las Cruces court. And on April 29, the couple stood before Judge Gregory Fouratt at the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico, where they were released under the secured bond and several conditions. Fouratt added that the couple is allowed to live together and allowed to work. However, Joel Cano is no longer allowed to work as a judge. As of April 29, there is no future court date scheduled.

Los Angeles Times [4/29/2025 6:00 AM, Kevin Rector, 13342K] reports that, at a hearing in Boston in March, U.S. District Judge Myong J. Joun asked attorneys for a coalition of states what they stood to lose if he didn’t immediately intervene to block hundreds of millions of dollars in Trump administration cuts to teacher training programs nationwide. "Your Honor, the situation is dire," California Deputy Atty. Gen. Laura Faer responded. "Right now, as we speak, our programs across the state are facing the possibility of closure and dissolution and termination.” Joun quickly issued a temporary restraining order blocking the cuts as "arbitrary and capricious," a victory for the states. But less than a month later, the Supreme Court reversed that decision, finding the states had failed to refute an administration claim that it would be "unlikely to recover" the funds if they were disbursed amid the litigation. It was a loss for the state, but not the end of the fight over the teacher training. It was also just one of many ongoing court battles in a much larger legal war being waged against the Trump administration by California and its allies. During President Trump’s first 100 days in office, California has on average challenged the administration in court more than twice a week, according to an analysis by The Times. It has filed 15 lawsuits against the administration, all but one alongside other states, and filed briefs in support of other litigants suing the federal government in at least 18 additional cases. Attorneys in California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta’s office have been working at a blistering pace to draft and file complex legal arguments opposing Trump’s policies on immigration, the economy, tariffs, LGBTQ+ rights, federal employee layoffs, government oversight, the allocation of federal funding to states and localities, the limits of the president’s executive authority and the slash-and-burn budgetary tactics of his billionaire advisor Elon Musk. Along the way, the state has won victories that have slowed Trump’s agenda and could block some of his policies permanently. It has won multiple temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions blocking Trump policy measures, including a sweeping freeze of trillions of dollars in federal funding that Congress had already allocated to the states, and a Trump executive order to end birthright citizenship for the U.S.-born children of certain immigrants.

Los Angeles Times [4/29/2025 6:21 PM, Patrick J. McDonnell, 13342K] reports the discovery in March of a "death ranch" in western Jalisco state sparked a national outcry: Some labeled it "Mexico’s Auschwitz" after civilian searchers found charred bones and what appeared to be makeshift crematoria. Piles of abandoned shoes, backpacks and clothing became vivid symbols of Mexico’s crisis of the disappeared, now officially numbering more than 120,000 vanished individuals, most presumed victims of organized crime. Mystery has continued to swirl about the site — and, on Tuesday, Mexican Atty. Gen. Alejandro Gertz Manero briefed journalists on the long-awaited findings of the federal investigation. But his responses left more questions than answers about the grisly find that garnered both domestic and international headlines — and became an embarrassment for the government of President Claudia Sheinbaum, who vowed that Mexicans would know "the truth" about what went on at the ranch. Gertz confirmed that the ranch — situated in an agricultural zone about 37 miles outside Guadalajara, Mexico’s second largest city — had operated as a training and operations hub for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, among Mexico’s most powerful criminal syndicates. But a forensic investigation found "not a shred of proof" that corpses were burned at the site, Gertz told reporters, dismissing the notion that the ranch had been a cartel extermination center. The origins of the charred bones found at the locale, known as Rancho Izaguirre, remained unclear, and Gertz said forensic analysis was continuing. No bodies or complete sets of bones were found, he said. The attorney general’s findings drew criticism from advocates for the disappeared. "I feel great indignation with the attorney general and with President Sheinbaum for this insult against us and so many families who believed there would be a real investigation," said Raúl Servín, a member of the group Warrior Searchers of Jalisco, whose visit to the site in March triggered the public outcry about the ranch. "This is a great deception.”

Reported similarly:
AP [4/29/2025 6:54 PM, Fabiola Sánchez, 48304K]

Reuters [4/29/2025 5:43 PM, Mario Fuentes and Dave Sherwood, 41523K] reports U.S. immigration officials’ deportation of a woman to Cuba last week, separating her from her 1-year-old daughter, has drawn fresh attention to what critics say is the Trump administration’s willingness to split up families as part of its migration crackdown. Heidy Sanchez, interviewed by Reuters on Monday, said she was told she would be deported and separated from her still-breastfeeding daughter, a U.S. citizen. Her account is disputed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which contends that parents are given a choice of taking their child with them and that Sanchez had elected to leave her daughter with a relative. Democrats and immigrant advocates have argued that due process rights of immigrants are being violated during the deportation drive of U.S. President Donald Trump - and that young children are being caught up in it. In the case of Sanchez, she told Reuters she was surprised at a routine check-in at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Tampa last Thursday, and that she was given no choice but to leave behind her daughter. "They told me to call my husband, that our daughter had to stay and that I would go," she said in an interview at a family member’s home near the Cuban capital, Havana. "My daughter got nervous and agitated and began to ask for milk, but it didn’t matter to them." The Department of Homeland Security told Reuters that Sanchez’s statement was inaccurate and contradicted standard ICE protocol. "Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children or ICE will place the children with someone the parent designates," Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in an emailed response late on Monday. "In this case, the parent stated they wanted to be removed without the child and left the child in the care of a safe relative in the United States. DHS did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for evidence that Sanchez had been offered the choice to take her child with her. Sanchez said she arrived in her home country hours after being detained, with no passport or identification and no documentation from the United States explaining the reason for her deportation Democratic U.S. Representative Kathy Castor called the treatment of the Sanchez family "unconscionable and wrong" and urged Trump on Monday to reunite the family in Florida. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Breitbart.com [4/29/2025 3:08 PM, Christian K. Caruzo, 2923K] reports socialist dictator of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro announced that his regime will use the upcoming "May Day" Marxist holiday to demand the "liberation" of a two-year-old Venezuelan girl allegedly "kidnapped" by the U.S. — whose illegal alien parents are Tren de Aragua members — and the release of 252 Venezuelan illegals who also belong to the foreign terrorist organization and were deported from the U.S. to El Salvador. The Maduro regime on Monday issued an official statement accusing the U.S. government of allegedly "kidnapping" a two-year-old Venezuelan girl identified as Maikelys Antonella Espinoza Bernal after her mother was recently deported from the United States, demanding the immediate "release" of the child and her return to Venezuela. According to the Maduro regime, the child’s father was also "kidnapped" and sent to a "concentration camp" in El Salvador.

AP [4/30/2025 12:14 AM, Regina Garcia Cano, 48304K] reports a global human rights watchdog on Wednesday urged the United States and other governments to bolster their support for people seeking democratic change in Venezuela and to hold President Nicolás Maduro accountable for the crackdown on dissent he intensified after the country’s presidential election last year. Human Rights Watch specifically called on the U.S. to consider imposing additional sanctions on Venezuelan government officials and members of state security forces. HRW also called for sanctions on ruling party-loyal armed groups linked to the widespread rights violations that followed the July 28 vote that Maduro claims to have won despite credible evidence to the contrary. At the same time, the organization recommended the U.S. rescind an executive order President Donald Trump signed in February imposing sanctions on the International Criminal Court over investigations of Israel. The order, according to the watchdog, could affect an ongoing investigation by the court’s prosecutor into possible crimes against humanity committed in Venezuela. “While the Trump administration has not specifically objected to the Court’s engagement with the situation in Venezuela, the sanctions program appears designed in part to chill broader cooperation with the ICC and intimidate Court officials, and will likely affect the rights of victims globally,” Human Rights Watch said in a report published Wednesday. The report is the latest work from human rights advocates documenting Venezuela’s post-election repression campaign against members of the political opposition, protesters, bystanders and others. Their findings have implicated state security forces and ruling party-loyal armed groups in killings, torture and other abuses across the country during and after demonstrations that followed the election. Venezuela’s National Electoral Council, stacked with government loyalists, declared Maduro the winner of the July 28 election. But unlike in previous contests, electoral authorities did not provide detailed vote counts to back the announced result.

Wall Street Journal [4/29/2025 5:48 PM, Staff, 646K] reports every dispute between the Trump Administration and the judiciary these days becomes a political morality play about a looming “constitutional crisis.” But the facts of each case matter, and most of the time they don’t support the crisis narrative. That’s the way it looks to us so far in the case of last week’s arrest by federal agents of Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan for allegedly helping an illegal migrant evade Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Judge Dugan was charged with obstructing a federal proceeding and concealing an individual to prevent an arrest. A federal magistrate found probable cause for the arrest upon reviewing a 13-page criminal complaint. The alleged facts as laid out in the complaint by FBI special agent Lindsay Schloemer don’t look good for the judge. Judge Dugan was scheduled to preside over a hearing in a case against Mexican national Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, who has been charged with criminal battery. The complaint says Judge Dugan was “angry” upon hearing the ICE plans and raised objections with other judges. Witnesses say she then invited Mr. Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer to leave through the “jury door” so he could avoid arrest. The deportation agents nonetheless spotted Mr. Flores-Ruiz in a public area of the courthouse and arrested him as he attempted to flee down the street. It’s especially concerning that, in the process of allegedly helping Mr. Flores-Ruiz, Judge Dugan canceled her hearing on his alleged domestic crime without informing the prosecutor or the alleged victims. They were left sitting unaware in the courtroom, according to the complaint. If Mr. Flores-Ruiz had managed to escape arrest, how would his victims have received their day in court?

Washington Examiner [4/30/2025 12:01 AM, Staff, 2296K] reports Wisconsin’s highest-ranking Democratic officeholders, Gov. Tony Evers and Sen. Tammy Baldwin, issued statements attacking President Donald Trump for arresting a state judge in Milwaukee last week. The facts of the case show not only that the arrest was justified but also that Democrats still have no interest in doing what voters want, which is enforcing our nation’s immigration laws. Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, a citizen of Mexico, was arrested for illegally crossing the southern border near Nogales, Arizona, in 2013 and was issued a valid order of removal by Border Patrol. Some time later, he illegally entered the United States again but was not caught and established a residence in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. On March 12 this year, Flores-Ruiz was arrested by Milwaukee police for hitting his roommate approximately 30 times and hitting his roommate’s girlfriend when she tried to intervene in their dispute over loud music. An ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officer in Milwaukee ran Flores-Ruiz’s fingerprints and found that he was illegally in the country. On April 18, six federal agents, including an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, a Customs and Border Protection officer, and two FBI agents, went to Milwaukee County Circuit Court to arrest Flores-Ruiz after his hearing on the battery charges stemming from his March arrest. The hearing did not happen, however, because when Judge Hannah Dugan heard there was an ICE agent in the hall outside, she left her courtroom to confront him. She first asked the ICE officer to leave. When he told her the hallway was public space and that he had every right to be there, Dugan told him to see the chief judge. While the ICE officer talked to the chief judge, who agreed that hallways are public places where ICE officers may make arrests, Dugan returned to her chambers. Instead of conducting judicial business, she snuck Flores-Ruiz and his attorney out of a courtroom side entrance to help him evade ICE. Flores-Ruiz was arrested outside the courthouse by one of the other agents after a foot chase. Dugan said nothing publicly about the incident, leaving the City of Milwaukee attorney who was there to prosecute the battery charges confused when the judge ended business for the day without calling Flores-Ruiz’s case. The two witnesses there to testify against Flores-Ruiz, and the victims witness specialist hired by the city to help the prosecution, were also not informed by Dugan that she had let Flores-Ruiz go free.

Bloomberg [4/29/2025 7:30 AM, Mark Gongloff, 16228K] reports Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas has never done anything bad to President Donald Trump, as far as we know. In fact, she was his loyal White House press secretary for nearly two years. She runs a state that voted for Trump over Kamala Harris by a 30 percentage point margin. But after a mid-March outbreak of tornadoes, high winds and hail that killed three people, injured many more and damaged hundreds of homes and businesses in Arkansas, Sanders wrote to her former boss and asked him to help by declaring a disaster that would unlock federal aid. She called the recovery “beyond the capabilities of the State and affected local governments.” Trump’s answer: Sarah Huckabee who? He denied Sanders’ request, a decision she appealed earlier this month, noting Arkansas had subsequently suffered another barrage of storms that was even more destructive than the first, doing at least $25 million in damage to infrastructure alone. Arkansas’ congressional delegation, as red-pilled a group as you’ll ever encounter, backed up her request. Maybe these appeals will finally move Trump to help his many Arkansas voters. But they’re a taste of what’s to come as his administration hacks away at the size and capability of federal disaster response and preparedness, even as climate-fueled catastrophes are on the rise — and another busy hurricane season is about to begin. State and local governments will be left to handle tasks for which many lack the ability, delivering yet another self-inflicted wound to the country’s health, safety and economy. Trump has sent hostile signals about his plans for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Department of Homeland Security arm that helps states prepare for and recover from disasters and manages the National Flood Insurance Program. He’s mused about making FEMA “go away.” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has said she wants to eliminate it. Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s blueprint for Trump’s second term, calls for whittling the agency’s focus down to merely responding in the short term to disasters. To that end, Trump has already shut down FEMA grants for making places more disaster-resilient — an investment that Sandra Knight, a deputy administrator at FEMA under President Barack Obama, told me has a return of $8 for every $1 spent.

The Hill [4/29/2025 10:30 AM, Arturo McFields, 12829K] reports ports are power, and Mexico has announced a massive plan to invest in Manzanillo — its largest port infrastructure and the third-most important port in Latin America. The expansion represents a double threat to Mexico’s relationship with the U.S., because it would increase trade with China and opens the door for greater fentanyl-related chemicals coming from Beijing. China has deployed and developed its own technology and trade across America’s backyard in a highly strategic manner. It already has a strong presence and power in ports of the Caribbean (Bahamas), South America (Peru), Central America (Panama) and North America (Mexico). According to the Drug Enforcement Agency, there is a long history of alliances between drug trafficking organizations in the Mexican state of Colima, a region where the Sinaloa Cartel operates and has access to the Port of Manzanillo — strategically important infrastructure, due to its location on the central Pacific coast and its high volume of maritime traffic. The Port of Manzanillo is located just south of the rival stronghold of the Jalisco Cartel, which, according to the DEA, increases tensions between the two main Mexican cartels. Numerous trucking companies collaborate with the Sinaloa Cartel to transport illicit drugs and precursor chemicals essential for producing fentanyl and methamphetamines. The U.S. government has stated that the Chinese government is behind a powerful precursor chemical industry used by cartels to produce the drugs, which are then brought into America. In December, Mexican authorities seized a shipment containing 25 tons of drug precursors at the port of Manzanillo — a quantity sufficient to produce thousands of doses of fentanyl that were heading for the U.S. How many tons of precursors fail to be seized and end up reaching their final destination?

Politico [4/29/2025 8:13 PM, Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein, 2100K] reports a botched effort by the Trump administration to raise red flags about thousands of foreign students studying in the United States began with a rushed project by immigration officials dubbed the “Student Criminal Alien Initiative,” according to new details revealed in court Tuesday. Beginning in March, as many as 20 Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, aided by contractors, ran 1.3 million names of foreign students through a federal database that tracks criminal histories, missing persons and other brushes with the law. The search found about 6,400 “hits” that officials concluded were solid matches for names and other biographical details in the students’ records, Homeland Security officials said during a hearing. But many of those hits flagged students who had minor interactions with police — arrests for reckless driving, DUIs and misdemeanors, with charges often dropped or never brought at all — far short of the legal standard required to revoke a student’s legal ability to study in the U.S. Nevertheless, ICE officials used that data to “terminate” the students’ records in an online database schools and ICE use to track student visa holders in the U.S. Those terminations led schools to bar students from attending classes — some just weeks from graduation — and warn that they could be at risk of immediate deportation. The action spawned more than 100 lawsuits, resulting in dozens of restraining orders issued by judges across the country, who called the effort unlawful. On Friday, with more legal pain looming, the administration reversed the terminations and said it was drafting a new policy to vet foreign students in the U.S. But Tuesday’s hearing revealed the hurried nature of the overall effort. Hundreds of the terminations, an ICE official who helped oversee the effort said, came less than 24 hours after an April 1 email exchange between his office and the State Department, with little sign of review of individual cases to ensure the decisions were accurate. In addition, the State Department relied on the data to revoke the visas of 3,000 people. “When the courts say due process is important, we’re not unhinged, we’re not radicals,” U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said during an hourlong hearing. “I’m not on a lark questioning why students who have been here legally, who paid to be in this country by paying their universities … they’re cut off with less than 24 hours of consideration and no notice whatsoever.”

NewsMax.com [4/29/2025 4:00 PM, Mark Swanson, 4998K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement has dismantled a nationwide marriage fraud operation that resulted in four people being hit with federal charges in connection with facilitating visa and marriage fraud. The sham marriages were arranged to help those who entered the U.S. illegally gain immigration benefits, ICE announced Monday. Ella Zuran, 65, Tatiana Sigal, 74, and Alexandra Tkach, 41, of New York City, along with Shawnta Hopper, 33, of Sicklerville, New Jersey, are alleged to have been the ringleaders of the operation. Zuran, Sigal, and Tkach were arrested and charged in March. ICE Homeland Security Investigations began the investigation in April 2022 with assistance from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Department of State Diplomatic Security Service. The inquiry resulted in 10 more arrests last Thursday. The accused have had their immigration benefits revoked.

Univision [4/29/2025 6:46 PM, Jorge Cancino, 5325K] reports Tom Homan, the border bush, said Monday that in the first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s second term, the government has deported 139,000 immigrants, most of them with criminal records and/or final deportation orders. The official also said that the numbers of expelled persons registered by the Administration show people who have been detained inside the country and not on the southern border with Mexico when they tried to enter undocumented. But in the face of the secrecy maintained since January 20, when Trump again took control of the White House, the identities of the totality of the deportations or the charges they were charged, nor if they were granted reasonable time, as the Supreme Court has recently said, to appeal or challenge their expulsions from United States and defend their permanence rights. In the first 100 days, Trump has drastically transformed the U.S. immigration system, notes a recent report by the Migration Policy Institute (MPI). But he is not meeting the targets of mass deportation promised by Trump during the campaign and ratified after winning the November 5-2024 election. The biggest damage, in these first 100 days of Trump’s second administration, is the creation of a collective psychological trauma where every immigrant feels under attack and insecure on his own and on his property, says Juan José Gutiérrez, executive director of the organization Wholesive Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles, California. With the fact that judges have been arrested, deported undocumented without respect for due process, everything points to the fact that the situation of immigrants will not improve in the short term. If we continue to wait for this behavior to be corrected, something should happen that, to everyone’s surprise, create the conditions for Congress to act in a legislative way," he added. However, Gutierrez’s hope for now has no visible signs. As far as the current administration is concerned, the immigration system has been dramatically modified to the coup d’état of executive orders, a power concentrated in Trump’s hands.

CBS Austin [4/29/2025 5:31 PM, Nick Minock, 602K] reports that, in partnership with the Virginia State Police, Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested a Guatemalan national in Chantilly who had been deported twice before and is now facing a third removal from the country. ICE said Wilmer Osmany Ramos-Giron’s criminal record includes a federal firearms conviction. 7News was the first to report that Wilmer Ramos-Giron, received a plea deal from Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano’s office that dropped his felony charge for allegedly strangling a woman in exchange for a guilty plea for brandishing a machete/blade in January, which is a misdemeanor, according to court documents. Originally, the charges Ramos Giron faced in January 2025 were felony abduction by force, felony strangulation, and misdemeanor assault on a family member, which would have been a sentence of up to 15-16 years in prison, court documents showed. ICE announced they arrested Wilmer Osmany Ramos-Giron in Chantilly last week after Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano and Sheriff Stacey Kincaid released him back into community in March. In the case of Ramos-Giron, officers with ICE Washington, D.C., and VSP arrested him on April 24 in Chantilly. Ramos-Giron remains in ICE custody. "Wilmer Ramos-Giron represents a significant threat to our Virginia residents," said ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Washington, D.C. Field Office Director Russell Hott. "He has displayed a blatant disregard for our immigration laws, and more importantly, for the safety and well-being of our community. He is a violent and recidivist threat to public safety that ICE Washington, D.C., cannot tolerate. Regardless of the obstacles placed in our way, we remain committed to prioritizing public safety. The men and women of ICE Washington, D.C. will continue to arrest and remove criminal alien threats from our Washington, D.C. and Virginia neighborhoods, and ensure their victims receive the justice they so rightly deserve.”

AP [4/29/2025 6:41 PM, Gary D. Robertson, 48304K] reports North Carolina Republicans who last fall enacted their long-sought policy ordering local sheriffs to cooperate with federal agents seeking to deport certain jail inmates already want it tightened further as President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown builds nationwide. The GOP-controlled state House approved a measure Tuesday that would subject people accused of more categories of crimes in the ninth-largest state to inquiries about their immigration status and potential deportation. After then-Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto was overridden, a law took effect in December that directed jails to hold for 48 hours certain defendants whom U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement believe are in the country illegally, allowing time for ICE to pick them up. The alleged offenders are the subject of ICE detainers and administrative warrants to temporary hold inmates suspected of violating immigration laws. The latest legislation also would make clear that jail officials must contact federal immigration agents if they are holding someone with these documents and tell them when they would otherwise be released. Backers of the 2024 law — new House Speaker Destin Hall among them — said it would make communities safer, and that for years several sheriffs in predominantly Democratic counties were disregarding detainers. Cooper, a Democrat, had vetoed successfully similar immigration measures since 2019. calling them unconstitutional and divisive. But the GOP held veto-proof majorities in 2024. Some behind the new bill say the law needs to be upgraded to align more closely with efforts by Trump and other Republicans in Washington to keep defendants from being released back onto the streets where they could possibly commit more crimes. State Rep. Carson Smith, a bill sponsor and former Pender County sheriff, pointed recently to the new federal Laken Riley Act, which requires the detention of unauthorized immigrants accused of theft and violent crimes. Hall said during Tuesday’s floor debate that about five of the state’s 100 sheriffs are still "certainly violating the spirit that was behind" the 2024 state law. Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden has been in a public feud with ICE leaders over whether he must alert agents about people in his jail who are subject to detainers. North Carolina sheriffs usually operate county jails. "This bill fixes any perceived loophole and resolves a dangerous problem in this state," Hall said before Tuesday’s 70-45 vote. The current law and the new proposal states that if the jailer determines that ICE has issued a detainer and administrative warrant, the inmate must be taken before a judicial official before they could be otherwise released. The current law says that once the judicial official determines the inmate is subject to the detainer, the person must be held up to 48 hours after the detainer’s receipt. Otherwise, the inmate can be released. But under the new bill, the 48-hour period would begin once the time the person otherwise would have been released has come to an end. The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration.

Breitbart.com [4/29/2025 3:33 PM, John Binder, 2923K] reports an illegal alien, already deported from the United States once, was sentenced this week after pleading guilty to raping a woman in a Madison County, Mississippi, restaurant. Jose Rigoberto Mejia-Cubias, a 37-year-old illegal alien from El Salvador, was sentenced to 25 years in prison without parole or early release for raping a woman at Fernando’s Mexican Grill in Madison County. According to prosecutors, on January 30 at around 1:00 a.m., a woman called police to report she had been raped at the restaurant by the bartender who had been serving her drinks all night. The bartender was Mejia-Cubias. He pleaded guilty to one count of sexual battery this week. Mejia-Cubias also faces federal immigration charges after he illegally re-entered the U.S. through the southern border despite having been deported in 2010.

Reuters [4/29/2025 7:39 PM, Jasper Ward, 41523K] reports a Haitian woman died in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in Florida last week, the agency said on Tuesday. The death of Marie Ange Blaise, 44, who was pronounced dead by medical professionals at the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach, Florida, on Friday, is under investigation, according to ICE. ICE said it has notified the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other agencies of Blaise’s death. It said it also provided email notification to the Haitian Consulate in Miami. Blaise, who entered the United States at an unknown date and place, encountered U.S. Customs and Border Protection while attempting to board a flight to North Carolina from the U.S. Virgin Islands in February, according to ICE. CBP later issued a notice of expedited removal for Blaise, ICE said. It added that she was transferred to its custody from CBP at a staging facility in Puerto Rico. Blaise was detained at a correctional facility in Louisiana before ultimately being transferred to Florida, where she died, according to the immigration agency. Telemundo [4/29/2025 8:23 PM, Staff, 171K] reports that the cause of death remains under investigation. Blaise received a High-profile Deportation Notice and on February 14, CBP transferred her to the custody of ICE’s Customs Deportation and Control Operations in Miami, at the San Juan Detention Center, Puerto Rico. On February 21, she was transferred to the Richwood Correctional Centre in Oakdale, Louisiana, and on April 5, to the Broward Transition Center. While saying: "ICE remains committed to ensuring that all people in their custody reside in safe, protected and human environments." He also stated in the statement that "full medical care is provided from the moment of his arrival and throughout his stay. All persons in ICE custody receive medical, dental and mental health assessments, as well as 24-hour emergency care in each detention centre. At no time during the arrest is emergency care denied to an undocumented foreigner in detention." CBS News [4/29/2025 8:47 PM, Sergio Candido, 51661K] reports ICE said it notified the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Office of Inspector General, and the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility. The Haitian consulate in Miami was also informed of Blaise’s death. ICE policy mandates that in-custody deaths be reported to Congress, advocacy groups, and the media within two business days. A full report is also required within 90 days, per federal law. The agency stated that all detainees receive comprehensive medical care throughout their custody, including 24-hour emergency services.

AP [4/29/2025 6:40 PM, David Fischer, 48304K] reports a federal judge told attorneys for the state of Florida on Tuesday that an order freezing the enforcement of a new state immigration law absolutely did apply to all of the state’s local law enforcement agencies, despite a recent letter to the contrary from the state’s attorney general. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams said during a hearing in Miami that she planned to issue a preliminary injunction against a state statute that makes it a misdemeanor for undocumented migrants to enter Florida by eluding immigration officials. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the legislation into law in February as part of President Donald Trump’s push to crack down on illegal immigration, though many of Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts are currently mired in battles with federal judges. The judge had issued a 14-day temporary restraining order on April 4, shortly after the lawsuit was filed by the Florida Immigrant Coalition and other groups with support from the American Civil Liberties Union. She then extended it another 11 days after learning the Florida Highway Patrol had arrested more than a dozen people, including a U.S. Citizen. The lawsuit claims the new law violates the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution by encroaching on federal duties. During Tuesday’s hearing, Williams asked Jeffrey DeSousa, who is representing the Florida Office of the Attorney General, why Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier released a memo to law enforcement agencies last week saying they didn’t need to follow her order. DeSousa said his office’s position is that a judge’s order can only apply to the named parties in the lawsuit being tried. Williams asked what would be the point of allowing law enforcement officers to arrest people without probable cause when prosecutors weren’t allowed to prosecute them, though DeSousa didn’t directly answer. DeSousa also argued that the immigrant groups filing the lawsuit could have named the individual law enforcement agencies in their complaint, rather than just the Florida attorney general, the statewide prosecutor and Florida’s 20 state attorneys.

Washington Examiner [4/29/2025 12:10 PM, Asher Notheis, 2296K] reports Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) expressed gratitude to the Trump administration for working with Florida to deport illegal immigrants in the state, which has led to a "first of its kind joint operation.". Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced over the weekend that almost 800 illegal immigrants had been detained within Florida, made possible through cooperation with the state’s law enforcement under the name "Operation Tidal Wave." The governor said President Donald Trump’s opposition to illegal immigration made a "world of difference" after Florida received no help on this matter under former President Joe Biden. "However, we have a lot of millions and millions of people who shouldn’t be here!" DeSantis said on Fox News’s Hannity. "Many of them let in intentionally under Biden, and so Operation Tidal Wave is the first of its kind joint operation where the feds are leading, but all of our state agencies and relevant local law enforcement agencies are assisting. So it’s been a huge force multiplier. That operation is ongoing. I think that number is going to be higher when they update it.". DeSantis explained that after Trump won the 2024 election, he called a special session in Florida’s legislature to require all local law enforcement to cooperate with ICE. DeSantis said he faced opposition from Florida’s House of Representatives but that "fortunately," the state’s residents voiced their support and helped pave the way for Florida to work with Trump.

Telemundo [4/29/2025 7:54 AM, Staff, 171K] reports the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed Monday the arrest of at least 800 undocumented immigrants in a single five-day coordinated operation between several federal and state agencies in Florida last week, including police departments. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday that those arrested included a suspected Colombian killer, alleged MS13 and MS18 street gang members, and a Russian man with a red alert for involuntary manslaughter. The operation became the first coordinated immigration enforcement effort by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents with Florida law enforcement. "This is what’s coming up in this country: large-scale operations that employ our state and local partners to drive criminal illegal immigrants off our streets," Leavitt said. Adding to the 800 undocumented immigrants detained is the arrest in a single day of more than 100 undocumented immigrants Saturday night at a bar in the state of Colorado. As Trump marks his 100th day in office this week, Leavitt and Tom Homan, the appointed border czar, today highlighted the U.S. president’s efforts to carry out his promise of mass deportations. The raids took place in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, and in the cities of Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville, Stuart, Tallahassee and Fort Myers, according to information cited by the Miami Herald newspaper. Immigration authorities have focused on detaining "criminal or immigration violators" with final deportation orders.

The Hill [4/29/2025 7:16 PM, Spencer Humphrey, 12829K] reports a woman says her family’s fresh start in Oklahoma turned into a nightmare after federal immigration agents raided their home, taking their phones, laptops and life savings — even though they were not the suspects the agents were looking for. The agents had a search warrant for the home, the woman said, but the suspects listed on it do not live there. The woman, whom Nexstar’s KFOR will refer to as "Marisa," had just moved to Oklahoma City from Maryland with her family about two weeks earlier. They rented a house in a seemingly safe neighborhood, looking for a slower, more affordable pace of life. "I was like, ‘OK, Oklahoma’s my home now,’" Marisa said. But any sense of comfort they began to feel in Oklahoma City disappeared Thursday morning, when about 20 men, armed with guns, busted through the door. "I don’t know who they were," Marisa told KFOR through tears. "It was dark. All the lights were off.". Marisa said the men identified themselves as federal agents with the U.S. Marshals, ICE, and the FBI. On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the U.S. Marshals Service denied having agents present during the raid, telling KFOR they were "aware of the operation before it happened," but did not assist in any capacity. "I keep asking them, ‘Who are you? What are you doing here? What’s happening?’" Marisa said. "And they said, ‘We have a warrant for the house, a search warrant.’". She said the agents then ordered her and her daughters outside into the rain before they could even put on clothes. "They wanted me to change in front of all of them, in between all of them," she said. "My husband has not even seen my daughter in her undergarments — her own dad, because it’s respectful. You have her out there, a minor, in her underwear.". Marisa eventually learned the names on the search warrant did not belong to her or anyone in her family. Instead, she recognized them as names listed on mail still arriving at the house, likely former residents. "We just moved here from Maryland," she said. "We’re citizens. That’s what I kept saying. ‘We’re citizens.’". She said the agents didn’t care. Before they left, Marisa said one of the agents made a comment acknowledging that the ordeal must be "a little rough" for her. Marisa told KFOR the agents wouldn’t even leave her a business card, and gave her no instructions or contacts for reclaiming the items they confiscated. Marisa told KFOR the U.S. Marshals Service and the FBI were involved in this raid. However, the U.S. Marshals Service has denied its involvement. A spokesperson for Homeland Security said that they would look into the incident and get back, but have yet to follow up. As for Marisa’s phones, electronics, and cash, they had no idea which agency was in possession of those belongings or how to get them back.

Univision [4/29/2025 9:34 PM, Staff, 5325K] reports a woman and her three daughters, all U.S. citizens, say they were traumatized after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents mistakenly raided their Oklahoma City home. The woman, identified as Marisa, told News 4 that on Thursday of last week about 20 armed agents showed up at her home with a search warrant, but the names on the document did not live in the house. "I just kept asking them, ‘Who are you? What are you doing here? What’s going on?" the woman told the network. "And they told me, ‘We have a warrant for the house, a search warrant.’" Marisa recounted that the agents took her and her three minor daughters out of the house without giving them a chance to put on clothes. The woman claims that the agents took her cell phones, laptops and cash during the raid. "One of them said to me, ‘I know this morning has been a little rough,’" Marisa recounted. "It was so demeaning. For them to do all this to a family, to women, to their fellow citizens. They literally traumatized me and my daughters for life. We’re going to have to get help or get through this somehow." Marisa told the network that the agents arrived very early in the morning at her house in Oklahoma City, when it was still dark, she did not detail at what time the operation took place. According to the woman, the agents were apparently looking for the former residents of the house. She and her three daughters had moved into the home two weeks earlier and mail was still arriving from the former residents, matching the names on the FBI agents’ search warrant. Marisa tried to explain to the agents that she and her three daughters had moved from Maryland. "‘We are citizens. We are citizens,’ I repeated to them several times," but she said the agents didn’t care and continued to inspect her home.

ABC 2 Portland [4/30/2025 1:31 AM, Vasili Varlamos] reports a coalition of churches, labor advocates, and interfaith organizations filed a federal lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over the rescinding of a decades-old policy limiting where federal immigration officers can operate. On Jan. 20, the Trump administration rescinded the policy that protected certain "sensitive" areas, such as churches, schools, and hospitals from immigration enforcement. The lawsuit, filed Sunday in a federal court in Oregon, accuses the Trump administration of unlawfully ending the long-standing protections. The lawsuit alleges that DHS’s actions violate the First Amendment, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act by infringing on religious freedoms and the right to free assembly. In a statement to KATU News addressing the lawsuit, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said: "We are protecting our schools, places of worship by preventing criminal aliens and gang members from exploiting these locations and taking safe haven there because these criminals knew law enforcement couldn’t go inside under the Biden Administration. DHS’s directive gives our law enforcement the ability to do their jobs. Our officers use discretion. Officers would need secondary supervisor approval before any action can be taken in locations such as a church or a school. We expect these to be extremely rare." KATU also reached out to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection for comment.

FOX News [4/29/2025 8:38 PM, Alexandra Koch, 46189K] reports a California judge on Tuesday demanded Border Patrol agents allow people they think are living in the U.S. illegally to stay in the country, unless authorities have a warrant or reason to believe the person may flee before they can get a warrant. U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Thurston ruled on Tuesday that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents in the Eastern District of California cannot stop illegal immigrants without reasonable suspicion, or deport them via "voluntary departure," unless that person is explained their rights and agrees to leave, according to a report from The Associated Press. The decision comes after dozens of people were arrested in January during Border Patrol’s "Operation Return to Sender.” The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem and CBP officials, claiming Border Patrol agents unconstitutionally detained people who looked like farmworkers, regardless of their actual immigration status or "individual circumstances," over the span of a week, according to the report. Detainees were allegedly taken by bus to the border, held without being able to communicate with family or legal representation, and forced to sign documents that stated they waived their right to see an immigration judge and voluntarily agreed to leave the U.S., the ACLU said. Thurston wrote that the evidence showed Border Patrol agents "engaged in conduct that violated well-established constitutional rights," The AP reported. The agency will be required to submit a report showing who is being held and who was arrested, along with the reasoning for both, every 60 days until the lawsuit is resolved. CBP claimed Thurston did not have jurisdiction to make the ruling, but said it wouldn’t matter if she did because the agency had already issued new guidance and training to its agents, "detailing exactly when people may be stopped or arrested without warrants, and what rights detainees have after their arrest," according to the report.

San Francisco Chronicle [4/29/2025 1:25 PM, Shira Stein, 5046K] reports the Trump administration is considering building an immigration detention center at Travis Air Force Base, KQED reported Tuesday. Homeland Security and Defense Department officials discussed efforts to evaluate military installations for potential immigration detention and removal operations in early April, according to emails obtained by KQED, including at the Solano County base. Discussions over how to expand detention capacity come amid Trump’s efforts to deport as many immigrants as possible — some of which have ensnared U.S. citizens and have been halted by federal courts. On Monday, Trump doubled down on targeting sanctuary jurisdictions that forbid local police from aiding in federal immigration enforcement. The Trump administration plans to detain immigrants at military bases around the country, including Fort Bliss near El Paso, Texas, Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll told reporters March 26. While there were no details on the scope of the potential installation at Travis, the operation at Fort Bliss could hold as many as 10,000 immigrants, NPR reported. An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson declined to confirm whether Travis was under consideration for new detention facilities, but said the agency is "exploring all options in California to meet its current and future detention requirements, which include new detention facilities and possible support from partner agencies." Defense Department acting Press Secretary Kinsley Wilson declined to comment on the use of land or facilities other than Fort Bliss, to support the Department of Homeland Security. A Travis Air Force Base spokesperson referred the matter to ICE.

New York Post [4/29/2025 5:51 PM, Jennie Taer, 54903K] reports Homeland Security agents in California rescued two teenage migrant sisters from the clutches of alleged sex traffickers after they came across the border as unaccompanied minors. It’s the latest effort by the Trump administration to track down more than 320,000 migrant children who went missing under President Joe Biden’s watch — kids whom whistleblowers have warned are vulnerable to exploitation. Special agents with Homeland Security Investigations saved the girls, ages 16 and 18, Saturday from captivity at a hotel in West Covina, California, where Christopher Ramirez was allegedly "pimping" the young sisters out, sources told The Post. Cops with the West Covina Police Department initially found the girls and arrested Ramirez on local charges. The feds are still looking for co-conspirators who helped move the migrant girls, who are from Honduras, from Texas to California and forced them into prostitution, sources said. The feds are also working to hit Ramirez with their own charges.

FOX News [4/29/2025 6:12 AM, Elizabeth Pritchett, Bill Melugin, 46189K] reports a Venezuelan illegal alien, and alleged leader of the violent Tren de Aragua gang, was arrested in Los Angeles County last week, the Trump administration told Fox News on Monday. Yonaiker Gallegos, who had been using the name Yoniaker(sic) Rafel Martinez-Ramos, was already in local custody on misdemeanor charges for blank checks and possession of a deceptive government ID. He was located by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) on April 22, according to a senior Trump administration official. Agents were able to determine that Martinez-Ramos was likely a fake identity after obtaining information about the items in his possession when he was arrested by local authorities. He was positively identified as Gallegos on April 23 after HSI’s National Gang Unit obtained pictures of Martinez-Ramos’ tattoos and booking photos. Analysts were also able to locate his social media posts and pictures, which ultimately confirmed his real identity as Yonaiker Gallegos through facial recognition technology, the official said. A video shared with Fox News from Gallegos’ social media allegedly showed him flaunting grenades and a rifle. He was arrested on April 25 for Title 8 (immigration) violations, according to the senior official, who also said he was "identified as a leader of TDA based in California.” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) also confirmed Gallegos’ arrest. HSI Los Angeles coordinated with state and local authorities to take Gallegos into federal custody on immigration-related charges.

NBC News [4/29/2025 4:51 PM, Mekahlo Medina, 44742K] reports Alfredo Linares and his American wife left Culver City, California, eight weeks ago fearing arrest, detention and deportation. When Linares was a teenager, he immigrated to the U.S. without legal permission. Two years ago, he and his wife, Raegan Kline, went into business together operating a street vending pop-up and catering business. They got married, hoping to correct his immigration status, but that would have required him to return to Mexico for at least a decade. But his hopes were dashed with the election of President Donald Trump, and the couple decided they wanted to avoid the chaos of possible deportation and instead leave L.A. on their own terms.

NBC News [4/29/2025 5:25 PM, Kimmy Yam and Chloe Atkins, 44742K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement has indicated it could start terminating a person’s legal status because of visa revocation. An internal memo to all Student and Exchange Visitor Program personnel, which falls under ICE, shows an expanded list of criteria for ICE to terminate foreign-born students’ legal status in the U.S., including a "U.S. Department of State Visa Revocation (Effective Immediately)." It was filed in court by the Justice Department on Monday night and dated Saturday. Previously, there were a variety of reasons for students to lose legal status, including if they stop attending school, lose work authorization or commit certain crimes. But typically students would have the right to due process before the legal status is terminated, attorneys say. Now, according to the memo, visa revocation itself is grounds for the termination of status. The memo shows expansion of power for ICE. Houston-based immigration attorney Steven Brown said the new policy "against at least 15 years of SEVP guidance," referring to the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, which falls under ICE. "Historically, the Department of State has revoked visas for many reasons," Brown said. "But it doesn’t impact your non-immigrant status in the US. It’s just now they’re trying to do that part of it.” The Trump administration announced Friday at a hearing that the legal statuses of international students whose records were terminated in recent weeks would be restored. In the meantime, the Trump administration said ICE would craft a new policy that will "provide a framework for status record termination.” According to the memo, SEVIS records can now be terminated for a number of reasons, ranging from "exceeded unemployment time" to "violation of change of status requirements.” "When SEVP has objective evidence that a nonimmigrant visa holder is no longer complying with the terms of their nonimmigrant status for any reason, then the SEVIS record may be terminated on that basis," the memo said. Using its discretion, ICE can also conduct further investigations or initiate removal proceedings based on that evidence. The memo affirmed an existing rule that the State Department can "at any time, in its discretion, revoke an alien’s visa.”

ABC News [4/29/2025 6:23 PM, Soo Rin Kim, 34586K] reports a federal judge blasted the Trump administration’s termination of immigration records for thousands of foreign students in the United States as "arbitrary and capricious," demanding that the government provide detailed explanations as to why and how the records were terminated and what this means for students. "I think we all agree it was arbitrary and capricious," Judge Ana Reyes said about the Trump administration’s move to terminate records of foreign students in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), a database that schools and government agencies used to confirm if foreign students are abiding by the conditions of their stay, during a court hearing for an international student’s case in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. "This was not ideal by any stretch of the imagination," she continued. Akshar Patel, a computer science student from India, sued the Trump administration after his SEVIS record was recently terminated based on a speeding ticket from a few years ago. On the heels of the Trump administration’s recent announcement that it is reinstating SEVIS records for some international students whose records had been terminated, Patel sought a preliminary injunction to ensure he can maintain his status and won’t be detained or deported. "It still boggles my mind that we’re firing tens of thousands of federal workers on no notice and then take 10 to 20 of them to run a bunch of names through a database to see if there are students -- if they have a speeding record," Reyes said. Reyes, who is overseeing Patel’s case, did not rule on the motion for a preliminary injunction from the bench on Tuesday after hearing from the government that Patel’s legal status as a student has not been terminated and that he’s not facing any immediate threat of deportation. The judge suggested that the plaintiff and the government could come up with language to ensure Patel’s status in the United States.

Blaze [4/29/2025 9:33 AM, Joseph MacKinnon, 1668K] reports the Oversight Project sent a Freedom of Information request earlier this year to the U.S. Selective Service System seeking data on illegal aliens who failed to register for the draft. Now with the responses in, it appears that the watchdog group’s hypothesis — both that the SSS during former President Joe Biden’s tenure made little effort to ensure that male illegal aliens ages 18-26 were registered for the draft, as required by law, and that multitudes of military-age male illegal aliens likely slipped through the cracks as a result — was right on the money. Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project, told Blaze News, "The fact that the Biden administration purposefully ignored having the biggest invasion of military-age males in American history fulfill their legal obligations is a massive scandal." Immigrant men ages 18-25 must register for the draft within 30 days of arriving in the country. According to the SSS, this includes parolees, illegal aliens, legal permanent residents, asylum-seekers, refugees, and all men with visas of any kind that expired more than 30 days ago. Those on current non-immigrant visas are exempt so long as their visas remain valid until they turn 26. The Oversight Project filed a FOIA request in late January for documents pertaining to whether inadmissible and deportable aliens have been registering for the Selective Service.

Miami Herald [4/29/2025 12:20 PM, Verónica Egui Brito, 3973K] reports millions of legal immigrants, many of them Hispanic, have faced renewed uncertainty about their future in the U.S. during the first 100 days of the Trump administration, as the government launched an aggressive effort to challenge the legality of their status. The Trump administration is not only intensifying immigration enforcement against unauthorized immigrants, as promised during his presidential campaign, but has also enacted sweeping measures that are deeply affecting legal immigrants — as many as four million people, according to estimates from the Migration Policy Institute, a non-partisan think tank. The actions are undermining the sense of security even temporary visa holders and green card holders once felt in the United States. As of July 21, 2024, there were over 660,000 non-citizens with criminal histories in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s national docket, according to a letter the agency sent to Congress last year. Yet despite Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s claim that her department has arrested more than 150,000 immigrants — referring to them as the “worst of the worst” — not all fall into that category. Many are asylum seekers, individuals admitted at the U.S.-Mexico border while seeking refuge, recipients of humanitarian parole, or even people with pending or approved applications for temporary protection from deportation. The crackdown has disproportionately affected communities in South Florida, home to one of the largest concentrations of Hispanic immigrants in the country.

AP [4/30/2025 12:03 AM, Tim Sullivan, 48304K] reports the truck driver is cutting his lawn on a windy afternoon, in a town so quiet you can take afternoon walks down the middle of Main Street. Kevenson Jean is leaving the next day for another long haul and wants things neat at the two-bedroom home he shares with his wife in the Texas Panhandle town fittingly called Panhandle. So after mowing he carefully pulls grass from around the flagpoles in his front yard. One holds the Haitian flag, the other American. Both are fading in the sun. The young couple, who fled the violence that has engulfed Haiti, thought until a few months ago that they could see the American dream, somewhere in the distance. Now they are caught up in the confusion and fear that are rippling through the immigrant communities that dot this region. Newcomers have come here for generations to work in immense meatpacking plants that emerged as the state became the nation’s top cattle producer. But after President Donald Trump moved to end legal pathways that immigrants like the Jeans have used, their future — as well as the future of the communities and industries they are a part of — is uncertain. “We are not criminals. We’re not taking American jobs,” said Jean, whose work moving meat and other products doesn’t attract as many U.S.-born drivers as it once did. He’s been making more money than he ever imagined. He’s discovered the joys of Bud Light, fishing and the Dallas Cowboys. When she’s not at one of her two food service jobs, his wife, Sherlie, works on her English by reading paperback romances, the covers awash in swooning women. “We did everything that they required us to do, and now we’re being targeted.” The message was blunt. “It’s time for you to leave the United States,” the Department of Homeland Security said in an early April email to some immigrants who had legal permission to live in the U.S. “Do not attempt to remain in the United States — the federal government will find you.”

NBC News [4/29/2025 12:15 PM, Yamiche Alcindor and Fredlyn Pierre Louis, 44742K] reports thousands of people who fled Haiti could be forced back to a country dealing with vast gang violence and political turmoil if a judge clears the runway for the Trump administration to end a Biden-era immigration program. Kevinson Jean, 28, said receiving a letter from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services informing him that he needed to self-deport was terrifying. “I didn’t know what to do. It felt like a nightmare,” he said. In 2023, the Jeans were granted entry under Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela (CHNV) Humanitarian Sponsorship Program, which provided temporary legal status for more than 500,000 people to stay in the U.S. An executive order from President Donald Trump revoking the program was to go into effect April 24, with the administration describing the program as a “broad abuse” of the immigration parole system. A judge temporarily blocked Trump’s order earlier this month. The Trump administration appealed the ruling, and the First Circuit court could rule on the program’s status imminently. The Jeans’ home country, however, is in the middle of a security and humanitarian crisis. Gangs now control most of Port-au-Prince and violence displaced more than 60,000 people in February alone, according to the United Nations. Trump told NBC News on April 21, that if the Jeans came to the U.S. “legally, then they’re going to be in good shape” to remain. A statement to NBC News from the Department of Homeland Security described the CHNV program as “an unlawful scheme.”

FOX News [4/29/2025 11:41 AM, Beth Bailey, 46189K] reports a leaked budget proposal sent on April 10 from the White House Office of Management and Budget to the U.S. State Department highlighted the Trump administration’s posture toward Afghan allies, particularly those awaiting transportation to the U.S. through the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts (CARE) as part of Enduring Welcome. The OMB budget proposes ceasing additional funds to CARE and using the program’s $600 million balance "for the orderly shutdown of the CARE program by end of [fiscal year] 2025." The National Security Council and State Department did not answer Fox News Digital’s questions about whether these funds would be used to transport additional Afghans in the Special Immigrant Visa and the suspended U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) pipelines to the U.S., or simply to disassemble processing platforms in the Philippines, Qatar and Albania. But a State Department spokesperson did tell Fox News Digital, "The Department is actively considering the future of our Afghan relocation program and the Office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts (CARE). At this time, no final decisions have been made. CARE continues to provide support to Afghan allies and partners previously relocated to our overseas case processing platforms." Veteran experts told Fox News Digital that the shutdown of CARE would be a problem for America’s reputation and for the allies who believed in U.S. promises of safety. U.S. Navy veteran Shawn VanDiver, founder and president of the #AfghanEvac, told Fox News Digital that Operation Enduring Welcome is "the safest, most secure legal immigration pathway our country has ever seen" and allows well-vetted Afghans "to show up in our communities and start businesses and become job creators… in a time when we have a labor shortage." VanDiver emphasized that "President Trump has an opportunity to be a hero to veterans and our wartime allies, and demonstrate that when the United States makes a deal, it keeps its promise." In an open letter sent on April 23 to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and national security advisor Michael Waltz, #AfghanEvac states that "over 250,000 Afghans remain in the relocation pipelines."

NBC News [4/30/2025 5:00 AM, Dan De Luce and Rich Schapiro, 44742K]reports Mohammad stepped toward the riverbank and felt his stomach drop. He was somewhere in western Guatemala, traveling with a group of migrants hoping to reach the U.S. He was hungry, dehydrated and sick, with painful sores all over his body from some kind of infection. He now faced a more pressing problem: He couldn’t swim. He was three weeks into a brutal journey that had spanned nine countries and 4,000 miles. He was robbed four times in Brazil and Colombia, extorted by police officers in Guatemala and nearly drowned while crossing a different river, this one in Panama. But for him, there was no turning back. Mohammad was not from a Central American country. He was an Afghan who had worked with a U.S. military contractor during the war. After the chaotic American troop withdrawal in 2021, Taliban fighters dragged him out of his home and threw him in prison, where he was tortured over three days. He was convinced that returning to Afghanistan meant certain death. But how was he going to make it across another river? A smuggler leading his group made clear there was no choice. “If you don’t cross, I’ll throw you in,” the smuggler barked in Spanish. Mohammad eased his body into the rushing water with the help of an inner tube. He managed to cross the river. And months later, he made it into the U.S legally. But this is not a feel-good story, not yet and maybe not ever. After entering the country in February 2024, Mohammad learned that his application for a special immigrant visa — made available to Afghans who aided the U.S. military in Afghanistan after 9/11 — had been denied by the Biden administration. He has applied for asylum, but that process can take years. And the Trump administration has already moved to revoke the legal status of migrants like Mohammad who were allowed into the country on a temporary basis for “urgent humanitarian reasons.” That means he could be swept up by federal immigration agents before — or even at — his first court hearing, scheduled for early May. Those in Mohammad’s corner include the refugee advocates who helped him make it to the U.S., the Midwestern couple who welcomed him into their home and his former boss in Afghanistan, a no-nonsense Alabama native who is incensed over the way the U.S. government has treated the Afghans who worked for him.

NewsNation [4/29/2025 3:14 PM, Adam Schwager, 6866K] reports according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (USCBP), border agents has 11,709 "encounters" in February and 11,017 in March. Encounters refers to the amount of people not lawfully in the country that USCBP apprehended or those who have turned themselves into a port of entry and are deemed "inadmissible." From October 2021 to December 2024, the Biden administration had 186,825 encounters per month, 94% more than the 11,363 average in Trump’s first two months back in office. This week in Austin, the SWBSC is having their bi-annual meeting. This year, the topic of conversation is how everything is evolving rapidly.

AP [4/29/2025 6:41 PM, Rebecca Santana, 48304K] reports a federal judge Tuesday expressed skepticism over the Trump administration’s assertions that its decision to declare an invasion at the U.S.-Mexico border and suspend asylum access was not something courts had the authority to review. U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss heard arguments in a Washington courtroom over a lawsuit brought by immigrants rights organizations, which are challenging a key executive order that banned the ability for migrants crossing the southern border to seek protections in the United States. In the Jan. 20 order, President Donald Trump declared that the situation at the southern border constitutes an invasion of America and that he was "suspending the physical entry" of migrants. Trump’s order asserts that the Immigration and Nationality Act gives presidents the authority to suspend entry of any group that they find "detrimental to the interests of the United States.". The government has argued in court that the Republican president’s determination that the U.S. is facing an invasion is not subject to court review, calling it "an unreviewable political question" in a filing. Moss, who was nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama, repeatedly questioned the government’s lawyer on that point. At one point, he posed a hypothetical question about whether the president — upset with northerners taking up residence in sunny Florida where he has a home — could declare their presence an invasion. At another point, he asked, "Is there just never any judicial review?". Advocates say the right to request asylum is enshrined in the country’s immigration laws and that denying migrants that right puts people fleeing war or persecution in grave danger. Critics say relatively few people coming to America seeking asylum actually end up qualifying and that it takes years for overloaded immigration courts to come to a determination on such requests. People seeking asylum must demonstrate a fear of persecution at home on a fairly narrow grounds of race, religion, nationality or by belonging to a particular social or political group. In the lawsuit, the migrant rights groups argued that immigration "even at elevated levels" does not constitute an invasion and noted that the number of people entering the country between the ports of entry had fallen to lows not seen since August 2020.

New York Times [4/29/2025 10:56 PM, Edgar Sandoval, 145325K] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in San Antonio arrested a man said to be an undocumented immigrant after a roughly eight-hour standoff that unfolded on Tuesday in a backyard where he tried to evade arrest by climbing a tree. The man, who immigration officials identified as Raul Ical, a 29-year-old from Guatemala, attracted a large crowd of residents and journalists. “You don’t have to sign anything,” yelled Jose Montoya, an activist with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a local advocacy group, as Mr. Ical climbed down a ladder that federal agents had placed in the backyard. When Mr. Ical surrendered, looking defeated, he was quickly handcuffed by agents. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, said the episode was part of the Trump administration’s efforts to combat illegal immigration. “You can run, but you can’t hide,” she said in a statement. “Whether in a tree or harbored in an activist judge’s house, if you are here illegally, ICE will find you, arrest you and you will be deported.” ICE said that deportation officers in San Antonio and state police tried to serve Mr. Ical what the agency described as a “criminal warrant” on Tuesday morning before he left his vehicle and fled on foot. He ran into a backyard and climbed a tree, where he remained for hours, the authorities said. It was unclear Tuesday afternoon whether Mr. Ical had a prior criminal record or if he had legal representation. News of the standoff spread around the west San Antonio neighborhood as agents tried to persuade Mr. Ical to climb down. Gabriel Rosales, the director of the Texas chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said the treatment of the migrant appalled him when he arrived at the scene. “This is something that concerns me,” Mr. Rosales said. “They are coming into our communities and coming after people that look like us.”

Breitbart.com [4/29/2025 5:50 PM, Alana Mastrangelo, 2923K] reports at least two dozen people were reportedly put on a "Do Not Sail" list after a massive brawl broke out among Carnival Cruise ship passengers while they disembarked in Galveston, Texas, on Saturday. In the video, multiple passengers can be seen pushing their way past barriers to engage in the scrimmage. The confrontation reportedly transpired after a week-long cruise in the Caribbean. Security guards rushed to the scene to break up the brawl, but appeared unable to immediately quell the altercation, according to the video footage. The fight resulted in at least two dozen people being placed on a "Do Not Sail" list and banned from the cruise line for life, according to a report by the New York Post. The spokesperson added, "The incident occurred in the debarkation area under the authority of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol," and noted that "the matter was turned over to law enforcement." Police told the New York Post that at least one person was arrested as a result of the incident. Charges that individual may be facing have yet been revealed. The reason for why so many people came to blows as they disembarked the cruise ship also remains unclear.

Reported similarly:
FOX News [4/29/2025 5:22 PM, Greg Wehner, 46189K]

Reuters [4/29/2025 7:28 PM, Rich McKay and Andrew Hay, 41523K] reports the U.S. Department of Justice has begun the first prosecutions of migrants for illegally entering a military zone created along the U.S.-Mexico border as part of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, according to court filings. Some 28 migrants were charged in U.S. District Court in Las Cruces, New Mexico, on Monday for crossing into the 170-mile-long (274-km-long) buffer zone patrolled by U.S. troops, according to court filings. Creation of the 60-foot-wide (18.3-meter-wide) strip this month along the base of New Mexico gave U.S. troops the authority to detain migrants in the area north of border barriers. Troops have yet to arrest any migrants or other trespassers within the so-called New Mexico National Defense Area, according to Major Geoffrey Carmichael, a U.S. Army spokesman. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth visited the area last week and said it was phase one of a plan to extend the buffer zone. "Any illegal attempting to enter that zone is entering a military base, " Hegseth said in video posted on social media. "You will be interdicted by U.S. troops and Border Patrol working together.". U.S. Customs and Border Protection maintains jurisdiction over illegal border crossings in the area and troops would hand over migrants they detained to U.S. Border Patrol or other civilian law enforcement, according to the Defense Department. The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico in a statement called the defense area a "dangerous erosion of the constitutional principle that the military should not be policing civilians.".

Reported similarly:
Washington Post [4/29/2025 1:50 PM, Maria Sacchetti, Jeremy Roebuck and Dan Lamothe, 31735K]
AP [4/29/2025 9:31 PM, Morgan Lee and Valerie Gonzalez, 48304K]

Breitbart [4/29/2025 10:06 PM, Elizabeth Weibel, 2923K] reports the Department of Justice (DOJ) charged more than 20 migrants for illegally entering the United States through land that is now controlled by the U.S. military. Prosecutors were reported to have hit "at least 28 migrants" with an additional charge of "violating security regulations in U.S. District Court in Las Cruces," along with the "more common misdemeanor of entering" the U.S. illegally, Washington Post reported. Per the outlet, while "both crimes are classified as misdemeanors," the additional charge "increases the possible penalties to up to a year in custody and $100,000 in fines": Both crimes are classified as misdemeanors. But the new charge increases the possible penalties to up to a year in custody and $100,000 in fines, whereas the traditional illegal-entry charge carries only a maximum six-month jail term and up to $5,000 in fines. This comes after President Donald Trump had ordered the U.S. Armed Forces to take control of public land along the U.S.-Mexico border in an effort to protect the border from migrants attempting to enter the nation unlawfully. The U.S. military was ordered to "ensure the safety and security of the military and other Federal personnel in areas of military operations within Federal lands along the southern border": President Trump ordered military troops specifically to "ensure the safety and security of the military and other Federal personnel in areas of military operations within Federal lands along the southern border, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Agriculture, and the Secretary of Homeland.” Several Trump administration officials such as Border Czar Tom Homan and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem have, over the course of the first 100 days, encouraged illegal aliens in the U.S. to self-deport or risk deportation the hard way. Homan has warned that officials or judges who are knowingly harboring illegal aliens, "will be prosecuted.”

The Hill [4/29/2025 3:07 PM, Ali Bradley, 12829K] reports controversial buoy barriers that have been used along the southern border may also be deployed along the U.S.-Canada border, NewsNation has exclusively learned. Now NewsNation has learned that the same buoys may be deployed at the northern border, specifically in a Montana lake that stretches into Canada. The Trump administration is weighing this latest move, which could see floating buoy barriers stretching across lakes that border our neighbors to the north. Jason Liebe, with the Spokane sector, told NewsNation the barriers will help agents monitor waterways into the U.S.

Los Angeles Times [4/29/2025 7:24 PM, Rachel Uranga, 13342K] reports a federal judge ordered the U.S. Border Patrol halt illegal stops and warrantless arrests in the Central Valley after agents detained and arrested dozens of farm workers and laborers — including a U.S. Citizen — earlier this year. The days long raid around Bakersfield sparked outrage after video circulated of agents slashing the tires of a gardener who was a citizen on his way to work and raised fears that tactics could become the become the new norm in the largely agricultural area. Jennifer Thurston, a U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, said in an 88-page order that evidence presented by ACLU lawyers established "a pattern and practice" of violating people’s constitutional rights when detaining people without reasonable suspicion. And then violating federal law by executing warrantless arrests without determining flight risk. "The evidence before the Court is that Border Patrol agents under DHS authority engaged in conduct that violated well-established constitutional rights," she wrote. Thurston’s ruling allows the ACLU to bring a class action lawsuit against the government for the raids. It also requires the Border Patrol to submit detailed documentation of any stops or warrantless arrests in the Central Valley, and show clear guidance and training for agents on the law. "This sends a powerful message that the raids Border Patrol conducted in and around Kern County in January were illegal," said Bree Bernwanger, an attorney at ACLU Foundation of Northern California. "You cannot be pulled over and grabbed on the street because of the color of your skin. Border Patrol is going to be held accountable for those practices and for violating people’s rights.". Government lawyers in a court hearing on Monday did not dispute the accounts of individuals arrested and detained in the raid, but had asked the court to throw out the case, saying it lacked jurisdiction and argued the raid did not constitute systemic behavior.

San Francisco Chronicle [4/29/2025 7:39 PM, Ko Lyn Cheang, 5046K] reports a federal judge in California sharply curtailed U.S. Border Patrol agents’ practices targeting Central Valley farmworkers Tuesday. In a case filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Kern County farmworkers, U.S. District Judge Jennifer Thurston ruled that practices used by Border Patrol agents during a January immigration raid dubbed "Operation Return to Sender," including stopping farmworkers without reasonable suspicion of having broken immigration law and arresting them without evaluating if they posed a flight risk, demonstrated "imminent, irreparable harm" to the people affected. The judge certified the case as a class action lawsuit, extending protections from orders in the lawsuit to two groups of people: those who were stopped without suspicion and those arrested without a warrant in the immigration raid. The ACLU sued in February on behalf of five farmworkers and the United Farm Workers, a union representing about 7,000 farmworkers, against U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Border Patrol’s El Centro sector, which conducted the raid and is based near the U.S.-Mexico border in Imperial County, about 300 miles south of Bakersfield. The raid took place under President Joe Biden but was the first major workplace immigration raid in California after the election victory of President Donald Trump, and appeared to target Hispanic farmworkers. It resulted in at least 78 arrests. The ACLU said that at least 40 longtime Kern County residents were transported to Mexico as a result of the raid and remain there. U.S. Border Patrol said it had conducted a "targeted enforcement" action focused on those with criminal histories. But none of the five plaintiffs have criminal records. The judge also noted that the Border Patrol’s own published data stated that for 77 of the 78 arrested individuals, their "criminal and/or immigration history was not known prior to the encounter.". U.S. Border Patrol and Department of Homeland Security officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The government argued in court documents that the court lacked jurisdiction over claims that challenged its decision to detain people in the first place or seek removal.

AP [4/29/2025 3:45 PM, Rebecca Boone, 24727K] reports a federal judge in California has barred Border Patrol agents from arresting someone suspected of living in the U.S. illegally unless they have a warrant or a reason to believe the person might flee before a warrant can be obtained. Tuesday’s ruling from U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Thurston also says Border Patrol agents can’t stop people without having reasonable suspicion or return them to their countries of origin via "voluntary departure" unless that person is informed of their rights and agrees to leave. The ruling only applies to people within the court’s Eastern District of California, Thurston said, where dozens of people were swept up in January after the Border Patrol launched an immigration enforcement action dubbed "Operation Return to Sender.” The American Civil Liberties Union sued Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and U.S. Border Patrol officials on behalf of the labor union United Farm Workers and people who were targeted during the Border Patrol raids. The ACLU said border patrol agents spent nearly a week unconstitutionally detaining people who "appeared to be farmworkers or day laborers, regardless of their actual immigration status or individual circumstances." The detainees were bussed to the border, held without any way to contact family or attorneys, and coerced into signing papers that said they had waived their right to see an immigration judge and voluntarily agreed to leave the country, the ACLU said. "The evidence before the Court is that Border Patrol agents under DHS authority engaged in conduct that violated well-established constitutional rights," Thurston wrote. She said the Border Patrol would have to provide a report showing exactly who is detained or arrested without warrants, and why, every 60 days until the lawsuit is concluded.

Breitbart [4/29/2025 10:42 AM, Bob Price, 2923K] reports U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Air and Marine Operations agents interdicted an attempted human smuggling incident off the coast of California, according to Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks. A video posted on X shows the agents ramming the alleged smuggler’s boat in an attempt to stop them. Chief Banks said they received information from the Mexican Navy about a vessel that refused to stop for them and the U.S. Coast Guard a few days earlier. AMO agents attempted to stop the boat near the San Diego coastline, but the driver refused to heave, Banks stated in a post on social media. “Even in the open ocean, the border has a line- and we will defend it,” Banks stated. The AMO agents “disabled the vessel” and took two alleged human smugglers into custody. They two are facing charges of failure to heave (18USC2237) and inadmissible alien (8USC1182). A few days earlier, Banks reported the arrest of 19 illegal aliens, including three alleged human smugglers. Border Patrol and the U.S. Coast Guard teamed up to interdict a smuggling vessel off the coast of Oceanside, California. Banks said the smugglers face federal alien smuggling charges (8USC1324). Others on the boat were charged with felony illegal re-entry (8USC1326).

NewsMax.com [4/29/2025 3:53 PM, Jim Mishler, 4998K] reports U.S. Customs and Border Patrol posted a video Monday of a patrol boat intercepting and ramming a suspected human smuggling craft off the California coast. Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks said the operation to intercept the border-crossing criminals might not have happened if not for a tip from the Mexican navy. Banks credited Mexican military commanders with passing along information about a boat Border Patrol was unable to stop and figured it was heading for the U.S. Banks said CBP’s West Coast Air and Marine Operations agents spotted the boat in open water off San Diego and ordered the operators to stop. The boat continued at a high rate of speed. A few moves later the evasion ended. All was caught on video. Banks initially reported that two suspected human smugglers were being detained after the stop. In a later post, Banks updated the case and reported that there were three apparent smugglers onboard who were trying to sneak 16 others on the vessel to shore.

Border Report [4/29/2025 6:56 PM, Julian Resendiz, 117K] reports it was a little over two years ago that the U.S. government reached a deal with Mexico to turn back at the border up to 30,000 third-country migrants per month. The agreement with the Biden and Lopez Obrador administrations came after U.S. officials encountered 251,487 migrants at the Southwestern border in December 2022. Processing centers were overwhelmed and only 1 in 5 newly arrived migrants were tagged for mandatory expulsion under the now-defunct Title 42 public health rule. Others were walking out of processing centers with a future date in U.S. immigration court. Fast-forward 28 months. Migrant encounters have plummeted during President Donald Trump’s first 99 days in office. And despite anticipation over the president’s campaign pledge of mass deportations, the administration has sent fewer than 6,000 third-country migrants to Mexico in those three months and change. The overwhelming majority of the 38,757 migrants removed to Mexico by the U.S. since Trump took office have been Mexican citizens, that country’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Tuesday. Mexico has taken in 5,446 foreign nationals since Jan. 20 for “humanitarian reasons,” Sheinbaum said. That’s an average of 55 a day. “Fewer are coming because the United States is sending airplanes directly to (the migrants’) countries,” the Mexican president said. “Most who are coming are Mexicans.” Most of the foreign nationals opt for returning to their countries, Sheinbaum said.

Telemundo [4/29/2025 10:00 PM, Daniel Andrade, 41K] reports a hundred days after Donald Trump’s administration, the same number of days since the closure of the CBP One application was ordered to be closed, leaving people who arrived in Tijuana directly to seek to get the so-called American dream. Some of them have described this government as tough and inhuman. I felt tough, sadness. "He is inhuman, for all he is doing," said Juana Isabel. She left Guatemala for Tijuana, as on January 22 she had her appointment to apply for asylum, however, it was cancelled. He says that, at 63, it is one of the most shocking news he has received. Now, a hundred days after a government that, he says, changed his life in a negative way, implores for new opportunities. "Let them reopen," although perhaps not the same one anymore because many say they are not going to open the same application of CBP One, which is going to be another application, we ask God very much to touch the president so that he can give us the opportunity to pass to the other side and fulfill our dreams, Juana Isabel added. Although the wish is for a miracle to come, they see it far away. That’s why they now hope to continue renewing their permits in Mexico. We want to be positive, but we think they’re not going to change things. "And now our only hope is to stay here in Mexico, because of the situation we were fleeing Guatemala we could not return, but we do not believe that something will change," Joshua Carlos told Telemundo 20. Although they recognize that the President of the United States has controlled the border and the number of illegal crossings has been drastically reduced during this period, the director of the hostel Ágape believes that some actions are carried out without respecting the procedures. "For me it has been a failure, I know you want to strengthen immigration laws and everything, but it’s a price that’s being paid for that, because it’s violating the constitution of the United States when there’s a migration judge who says I want to look at the case and everything and not sports someone and you don’t sports it anyway because you come in a constitutional crisis," Albert Rivera said.

FOX News [4/29/2025 12:08 PM, Morgan Phillips, 46189K] reports in the years following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, policymakers’ intense focus on national security led to sweeping changes in air travel; however, more than two decades later, one major requirement born out of that era has still not fully taken effect. On May 7, Americans will finally be required to present a REAL ID-compliant identification card to board domestic flights. The law mandating REAL ID passed in 2005, but its implementation has been delayed repeatedly over the years. The Trump administration argued that the deadline had already been postponed long enough, asserting that travelers had ample time to gather the necessary documents for the more rigorously verified form of identification. Critics, however, contend that if the deadline could be pushed back by nearly 20 years without any flight-based terrorist attacks during that time, the urgency and necessity of the measure are questionable. At its core, the REAL ID Act aimed to close security gaps that terrorists could exploit. Before 9/11, standards for issuing driver’s licenses and other IDs varied widely among states, with little coordination or verification of critical documents like birth certificates and Social Security numbers. Several of the 9/11 hijackers were able to obtain legitimate state IDs using fraudulent documents, enabling them to move freely and board planes without detection. "American people need to know that Real ID will be required to travel on May 7th, so those governors have been notified to communicate that at home. We don’t want anybody to get delayed and not be able to travel when they get to an airport," Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said at a Cabinet meeting earlier this month. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

USA Today [4/29/2025 3:22 PM, Amaris Encinas, 75858K] reports the last place anyone, especially those without a REAL ID, want to be right now is the DMV. After years of delays, the Transportation Security Administration will finally be enforcing REAL ID, a federal standard for identification, for domestic travel on May 7. Many Americans, much to the dismay of their local DMV offices, are scrambling to get paperwork in order before the deadline to increase their chances of getting it by the deadline. Some DMV offices have extended their hours or set aside special appointment times to anticipate a surge in potential customers. State driver’s licensing agencies have also encouraged applicants to ask themselves whether they need a REAL ID right away or whether they can hold off until the surge passes.

The Hill [4/29/2025 1:10 PM, Ashleigh Fields, 12829K] reports House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) released a budget reconciliation proposal Tuesday that would allocate $15 billion for the modernization of air traffic control technology. The funds would go to the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) efforts to improve the nation’s aviation infrastructure by replacing outdated technology, modernizing the air traffic control radar systems and enhancing the hiring of air traffic controllers. The move comes two months after Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy implemented plans to streamline the air traffic control hiring practices and create a “supercharge” in staffing amid shortages. “President Trump and Secretary Duffy are committed to the long-delayed modernization of our antiquated air traffic control system to strengthen American aviation safety, and this proposal begins the work of meeting that goal,” Graves said in a statement.

The Federal News Network [4/29/2025 2:32 PM, Michele Sandiford, 1089K] reports President Donald Trump has appointed new members to a group that will recommend reforms to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Trump on Monday formally appointed 20 members to the FEMA Advisory Council. They include Governor Glenn Youngkin (R-Va.), Governor Greg Abbott (R-Texas) and Robert Fenton Jr., the regional administrator for FEMA Region 9. The council is co-led by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. It has yet to meet more than three months after Trump set it up. The Daily Wire [4/29/2025 1:29 PM, Leif Le Mahieu, 4672K] reports President Donald Trump announced Monday the members of his FEMA review council, which he tasked with returning power to state-level emergency managers. Trump, who has been very critical of FEMA’s handling of recent natural disasters, signed an executive order in January aimed at bringing serious reform to the agency. In previous interviews, Trump has floated the idea of getting rid of FEMA all together, and handing back responsibility to the states to handle their own emergencies with federal funding. "I am proud to announce the formation of the FEMA Review Council, comprised of Top Experts in their fields, who are Highly Respected by their peers," Trump posted on Truth Social. "I know that the new Members will work hard to fix a terribly broken System, and return power to State Emergency Managers, who will help, MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN. Congratulations to all!" Members of the task force include Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, former Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant, RNC Chair Michael Whatley, and Tampa Mayor Jane Castor. "As a proud son of Western North Carolina, I have seen first-hand the incredible work of the Trump Administration to help the region recover from Hurricane Helene and look forward to working with these great leaders to bring much-needed reforms to federal emergency response across the country," Whatley said in response to the news. In his executive order, Trump said the council will assess "the existing ability of FEMA to capably and impartially address disasters occurring within the United States and shall advise the President on all recommended changes related to FEMA to best serve National Interest." The executive order stipulates that the council develop proposals to improve FEMA, survey states and other stakeholders impacted by natural disasters, and produce a comprehensive report on the agency and how disaster relief was handled before its creation.

(B) 21 News Mid-Day Report [4/29/2025 12:18 PM, Staff] reports President Trump has appointed several new members to the Federal Emergency Management Agency review council. Trump appointed Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth as co-chairs for the council. Other members include Texas Governor Greg Abbott and former Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant. The council was created in January to oversee the nation’s emergency management and disaster response systems. President Trump has said he wants the group to evaluate, reform, and restructure FEMA and return power to state emergency managers.

Wall Street Journal [4/29/2025 5:55 PM, Jennifer Calfas and Ken Thomas, 646K] reports the Trump administration has discharged a group of scientists and researchers working on the federal government’s evaluation of the impact of climate change, citing the need to re-evaluate its approach to the project. The move to dismiss the participants in the report, called the National Climate Assessment, raises doubts about the future of the review, which has been required by Congress for more than three decades, climate scientists and environmental groups said Tuesday. Researchers involved with the 6th National Climate Assessment received an email Monday stating: “At this time, the scope of the NCA6 is currently being reevaluated in accordance with the Global Change Research Act of 1990. We are now releasing all current assessment participants from their roles.” “As plans develop for the assessment, there may be future opportunities to contribute or engage. Thank you for your service.” A White House official confirmed that the scope of the assessment was being re-evaluated. The decision was reported earlier by the New York Times. The notice effectively halts work on the report, which began in 2024 and was set to publish in late 2027 or early 2028. Produced every four years, the National Climate Assessment is considered an authoritative document on climate change used by stakeholders and policymakers. The decision Monday affected hundreds of researchers, scientists and experts who were contributing to the report, according to the authors. The most recent version, released in November 2023, found that extreme weather events cost the U.S. economy nearly $150 billion each year and disproportionately hurt poor and disadvantaged communities.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [4/29/2025 6:56 PM, Rachel Frazin, 12829K]

CBS New York [4/29/2025 11:20 AM, Renee Anderson, 51661K] reports The New Jersey man facing arson charges in the Jones Road Wildfire remains in custody in Ocean County. Joseph Kling was scheduled to appear in court Tuesday for a detention hearing to determine whether he will be eligible for bail while awaiting trial, but the hearing was pushed back to later this week. State and county authorities say the 19-year-old from Waretown started a bonfire using wooden pallets and then left the area without fully putting it out. He was arrested days later on arson and aggravated arson charges. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison. "The message in this arrest and the message for everybody... Have a conversation with your kids that starting a fire out in the woods, when the conditions are dry in the forest, could lead to widespread damage, loss of life, loss of property and potentially criminal charges," Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said announcing his arrest. "It’s a very dangerous thing, and we were taught as kids not to play with fire, but starting a fire in a forest is such a dangerous thing."Kling is now due in court on Friday. Kling is now due in court on Friday. The stubborn wildfire is still burning after it broke out a week ago, forcing thousands of residents in Ocean and Lacey townships to evacuate for a night. The New Jersey Forest Fire Service posted an update Monday afternoon, saying the fire was 75% contained after scorching 15,300 acres. "Smoke is expected to remain present until significant rain falls over the fire area," the state fire service wrote. "Visitors to the area should exercise caution, as trees within the fire area may be weakened." No injuries have been reported, but one business was destroyed in an industrial area of Lacey. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CNN [4/29/2025 7:55 PM, Mary Gilbert, 22131K] reports new rounds of severe thunderstorms are underway and life-threatening, potentially catastrophic flooding risks are brewing in the central and eastern United States Tuesday, putting more than 50 million people at risk of dangerous weather this week. The threats come on the heels of Monday’s storms, which unleashed damaging wind gusts, hail bigger than baseballs, and tornadoes. Storms Tuesday morning prompted severe thunderstorm warnings across six states as well as a flash flood warning for Oklahoma City. More of the same is expected to unfold as multiple rounds of storms move through the Southern Plains, Mississippi Valley and Northeast into the evening hours. A massive, 1,800-mile stretch of the US from West Texas to Vermont is within a level 2-of-5 risk of severe thunderstorms on Tuesday, according to the Storm Prediction Center. Two smaller but more significant level 3-of-5 risks are in place for parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York and portions of Texas and Oklahoma. Storms are already having major impacts across western Pennsylvania Tuesday evening. The Washington Post [4/29/2025 11:42 AM, Matthew Cappucci, 31735K] reports that the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center has drawn two enhanced (Level 3 out of 5) severe-weather risk zones: One stretches from Upstate New York to northwest Kentucky and southeast Illinois; the other covers parts of western Central Texas, including Midland, Wichita Falls and Lubbock, as well as Fort Sill, Oklahoma. The southern Plains will face more severe storms Wednesday, with a chance of tornadoes around the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. The stormy pattern over the central U.S. should simmer down by Thursday, and then a renewed severe-weather threat crops up early next week.

Reported similarly:
FOX Weather [4/29/2025 7:21 AM, Julian Atienza, 3500K]

The Hill [4/29/2025 3:47 PM, Tara Suter, 12829K] reports the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been cleared of wrongdoing in a probe focusing on anti-Trump bias, according to a Monday court document. According to a Justice Department email in the document, a FEMA probe investigating bias against Trump-supporting homes allegedly displayed by a Florida-based FEMA employee in the wake of Hurricane Milton and Helene "found no evidence that this was a systemic problem, nor that it was directed by agency or field leadership." The document came as part of a case in which Florida sued former FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell and the employee, Marn’i Washington, but Florida and Criswell have now come to a settlement. NewsMax [4/29/2025 1:05 PM, James Morley III, 4998K] reports that the investigation found "no evidence" the agency’s upper management had told field workers to purposely avoid homes with Trump yard signs thereby denying them federal disaster relief benefits, following the devastation caused by back-to-back Hurricanes Helene and Milton in the fall of 2024. In November it was reported that Marn’i Washington, a FEMA official, gave a directive both verbally and via a Microsoft Teams chat used by relief workers to pass over homes with signage supporting then candidate Donald Trump. FEMA employees told the Daily Wire that a minimum of 20 homes displaying Trump signs were passed over. The order regarding Trump supporters was given second priority in a list of instructions advising workers to not "go anywhere alone," to practice de-escalation, to stay hydrated, and to "follow the rules." A FEMA spokesperson confirmed that orders to bypass the homes of Trump supporters were given and said that the agency was "deeply disturbed by this employee’s actions." Washington was fired by the agency in November. The GOP then opened its own investigation into alleged systemic bias by the agency against conservatives lead by Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., chair of the Committee on Homeland Security. Yet, this week the investigation by FEMA’s Office of Professional Responsibility "found no evidence that this was a systemic problem, nor that it was directed by agency or field leadership."

Reported similarly:
Politico [4/29/2025 10:35 AM, Thomas Frank, 2100K]

CBS News [4/29/2025 7:31 PM, McKenna King and Lauren Bostwick, 51661K] reports a First Alert Weather Day is in effect Tuesday night through Wednesday in North Texas. We’re watching the threat of strong to severe thunderstorms Tuesday evening and night, primarily in our west-northwestern area. This is ahead of a dryline back through West Texas, and a frontal boundary draped across the Panhandle. This has prompted a severe thunderstorm watch that butts up to the west sides of North Texas, but does not currently include our area. A tornado watch is issued for Cooke, Grayson, Jack, Montague, Wise and Young counties until 1 a.m. For Tuesday night, we’ll primarily be watching for a damaging wind and large hail threat, as storms roll into our western and northwestern counties. The storms are expected to die down close to midnight, followed by a brief lull in activity early overnight.

NewsMax [4/29/2025 11:24 AM, Charlie McCarthy, 4998K] reports the Trump administration has informed Denver, Colorado, officials it no longer will pay the sanctuary city roughly $24 million in grant money expected to cover migrant shelter costs. Denver’s Department of Finance said Monday that the city received notice of the administration’s decision in a letter on April 1. "The [Department of Homeland Security], consistent with President [Donald] Trump’s direction, is focused on advancing the essential mission of enforcing immigration laws and securing the border," read the letter obtained by The Denver Post. Denver Budget Director Justin Sykes told city council members that the Finance Department hasn’t included canceled or possibly canceled federal grant dollars in the upcoming 2026 city budget. Under then-President Joe Biden, the Federal Emergency Management Agency awarded Denver $32 million. Only $8 million has been sent to the city so far. The Post reported it was unclear whether federal officials will require Denver to return the money so far received. Denver provided temporary shelter to migrants beginning in late 2022, including many sent by Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. The sanctuary city closed the shelters last year.

SFGate [4/29/2025 3:00 AM, Sarah Stierch, 12335K] reports a federal program to support nearly $50 million in wildfire mitigation and home-hardening projects in the unincorporated community of Brooktrails was canceled by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Mendocino County said earlier this month. In 2018, FEMA created the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, or BRIC, in response to major natural disasters, including the 2017 wildfires in Northern California. The program sought to help communities across the country be better prepared for natural disasters. The grant has funded projects including infrastructure upgrades for bridges and levees, undergrounding power lines and home-hardening and wildfire preparedness projects. In 2021, Congress allocated $1 billion to fund projects over the course of several years, FEMA said. Mendocino County was one of the grant recipients for the program, said Mendocino County Supervisor John Haschak. In 2024, the county was awarded a multi-year grant totaling almost $50 million to retrofit 750 homes with ignition-resistant construction materials and build defensible spaces and reduce fuels on thousands of acres of land in the Brooktrails community north of Willits. According to the county, Brooktrails is the largest residential development in Mendocino County, with approximately 6,000 parcels and a population of over 3,300 residents. The area fell victim to 2020’s Oak Fire, which started in Brooktrails. The fire destroyed 56 structures and burned over 1,100 acres before being contained. The wildfire resulted in the evacuation of over 3,200 people, Cal Fire said. Brooktrails comprises homes interspersed with dense forests. There is only one main two-lane road, Sherwood Road, that connects it with the city of Willits. Limited road access and a dense wildland-urban interface make Brooktrails one of California’s most high-risk wildfire communities, Haschak said. On April 4, FEMA released a press release announcing the cancellation of the BRIC program. "The BRIC program was yet another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program. It was more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans affected by natural disasters," a FEMA spokesperson said. The announcement came as President Donald Trump’s administration continues to divest itself of what it alleges is "waste, fraud and abuse" in the government. Days later, on April 21, the county received an update from FEMA stating that the program was canceled and approved grants would not be awarded. The grant funds were expected to not only improve wildfire risk condition in Brooktrails but also be used to invest millions in the local economy to implement the projects, Haschak said. For now, the county will continue to work with the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council, a nonprofit that implements wildfire mitigation projects and education programs, to help with select projects, including vegetation management projects and a program to expand the county’s emergency alert system.

New York Post [4/29/2025 6:47 PM, Alex Oliveira, 54903K] reports the illegal migrant who stole Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s Gucci purse got "within an arm’s reach" of the cabinet member — despite a Secret Service detail standing guard, federal documents show. Mario Bustamante-Leiva, 49, strolled into the Capital Burger in the heart of Washington, DC, on the evening of April 20 and took a seat mere feet from Noem, 53, who was enjoying a family dinner accompanied by her Secret Service detail, according to charging documents from the US Attorney’s Office of DC. "Bustamante-Leiva entered the business at approximately 7:52 p.m. and sat down within arm’s reach of [Noem]," the documents read. "Bustamante-Leiva sat down in the chair closes to [Noem] and pushed the chair back from his table in the direction of [Noem].". Restaurant security footage in the documents shows the suspect sitting at a large empty table in the well-lit dining room with his back to Noem before he used his leg to snake her cash-filled bag close enough to snatch. That means Bustamante-Leiva — an illegal migrant, homeless alcoholic and serial criminal with a laundry list of crimes going back years — was able to get within grabbing distance of the woman who has become the face of President Trump’s campaign to purge the country of violent illegal migrant gangs. It’s a blunder some security experts characterized as a "definite lapse" for the Secret Service. "[The agents] should have done their job better," said Chris Ragone, the owner of Virginia-based Executive Security Concepts and a Navy veteran who has worked security for the likes of former presidential candidate Bob Dole and Saudi Arabian royalty. "There should have been agents close enough to keep that guy from getting her purse like that," he said, explaining that the suspect could easily have done far worse than snatch a purse. "If I had a [client] in that environment, some member of that team would have had eyes on her that whole time to make sure nobody was close enough to do that," Ragone said. The Secret Service has faced critical recent scrutiny ever since a gunman’s bullet struck Trump in the ear while he was campaigning in Butler, Pa., in July. The full extent of Noem’s security detail at the restaurant remains unclear — she was only described as "under the protection of the United States Secret Service" in Bustamante-Leiva’s charging documents. Cabinet members generally do not have the same level of protection that the commander-in-chief, the first lady and the vice president are given.

CBS News [4/29/2025 10:24 AM, Emily Mae Czachor, 51661K] Video HERE reports a U.S. Coast Guard crew seized roughly 10,000 pounds of cocaine from a fishing boat in the Atlantic Ocean, the agency said on Monday. The haul was worth an estimated $74 million. The drug seizure took place in mid April, after the crew of the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Calhoun identified what the agency described as a suspicious fishing vessel some 1,200 miles west of Las Palmas in the Canary Islands. Sailing through international waters, the boat’s behavior raised alarms about narcotic trafficking, according to the Coast Guard, which sent a small cutter to intercept it and ultimately found the contraband on board. Five suspected smugglers were apprehended and are in U.S. custody, the Coast Guard said. "This interdiction demonstrates the Coast Guard’s unwavering commitment to combating transnational criminal organizations," said Vice Adm. Nathan Moore, commander of the Coast Guard Atlantic Area, in a statement. "Our dedicated crews, in close coordination with interagency and international partners, continue to disrupt the flow of illicit narcotics, which serves as a critical strategic action that disrupts the financial networks of TCOs, undermining their ability to fund further illicit activities that threaten our communities." Coast Guard crews have intercepted multiple massive drug hauls over the last few months, in several different regions. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

ABC 28 Tampa [4/29/2025 9:41 AM, Leilyn Torres, 799K] reports the US Coast Guard said a man who went missing while kayaking near Anclote Park was found safe on Tuesday. Stephan Bungartz, 36, reportedly told officials that he dropped his phone in the water and didn’t have a way to contact friends or family. The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office said Bungartz went missing around 4 p.m. on Monday in the Gulfview Drive area of New Port Richey. He was last seen launching his kayak from the clubhouse just north of Anclote Park before he was found safe.

NBC 6 Miami [4/29/2025 4:34 PM, Staff] reports authorities seized over half a ton of narcotics and arrested two suspects after intercepting a vessel suspected of smuggling in Miami-Dade. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said Tuesday that officers were patrolling in Miami-Dade County when they spotted the vessel and escorted it to the Coast Guard in Miami Beach. There, a K-9 sweep uncovered 1,150 pounds of narcotics hidden inside the cabin, FWC officials said. Two people were arrested, and authorities seized the drugs. The arrests were part of what Florida officials call Operation Tidal Wave, a massive, multi-agency immigration enforcement crackdown.

Yahoo News [4/29/2025 8:38 PM, Evyn Moon, 59943K] reports one man is dead, and 10 others were injured after a 37-foot boat, operated by Jeffry Knight, the owner of Jannus Live, crashed into the back of the Clearwater Ferry. In a letter sent to investigators and obtained by FOX 13 on Tuesday, Knight’s attorney aimed to address what he described as "misinformation" surrounding the incident, particularly claims that Knight fled the scene. The letter reads, in part: "Immediately after the accident, Mr. Knight directed a passenger on his vessel to call 911, and that passenger remained on the line with 911 for 12 minutes… Mr. Knight tied his vessel to the ferry in order to stabilize it and render aid. He used his boat to maneuver the ferry closer to shore so that first responders would have easier access to the passengers." The letter goes on to say Knight"told the captain of the ferry boat he was able to transport injured individuals by water to Morton Plant Hospital … this offer was declined." The attorney said Knight only departed when emergency responders arrived, and his boat began taking on too much water. Additionally, the letter notes that Knight voluntarily submitted to a breath-alcohol test, which returned a result of 0.00 — confirming what the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) had previously disclosed. Authorities said the investigation, being conducted jointly by the FWC and the U.S. Coast Guard, is expected to take time due to the complex nature of maritime accidents.

NBC 6 New Orleans [4/29/2025 1:22 PM, Erin Lowrey, 730K] reports the Coast Guard is responding to a vessel collision that caused a barge to break away and another to sink on the Lower Mississippi River Sunday night. The incident happened near New Orleans around 9:20 p.m. A Panamanian vessel, named ISLA DE BIOKO, and U.S. towing vessel named GINNY STONE collided near mile marker 110. According to the Coast Guard, six barges broke free and drifted down the river while another barge loaded with urea sank. Four barges were secured and two others became lodged on anchor lines to two other vessels. According to the Coast Guard, elevated river levels are contributing to challenging conditions, but the Coast Guard is actively coordinating with the responsible party to assess the incident and salvage planning. The cause of the incident remains under investigation. CBS 4 New Orleans [4/29/2025 1:14 PM, Kenny Kuhn, 495K] reports that there were no reported injuries, wildlife impacts, or shoreline damage. The incident occurred around 9:20 p.m. Sunday near mile marker 110, when the Panamanian-flagged ISLA DE BIOKO collided with the U.S.-flagged towing vessel GINNY STONE, according to a news release from Coast Guard Sector New Orleans. The river reopened to traffic with restrictions at approximately 3 p.m. Monday after the remaining barges were removed. The Coast Guard continues to coordinate with responsible parties to assess the incident and plan for salvage operations. The cause of the incident remains under investigation.

Chicago Tribune [4/29/2025 1:55 PM, Doug Ross, 5269K] reports the body of a missing fisherman was recovered near shore on Lake Michigan Monday afternoon. Indiana Conservation Officer Tyler Brock said the man was identified as Michael Barnes, 67, of Valparaiso. Barnes had gone underwater about 60 yards from shore near Burns Waterway while he was attempting to retrieve a boat, which had drifted from a beach area as he fished from the shore, Brock said. Indiana Department of Natural Resources conservation officers used an unmanned remotely operated vehicle equipped with sonar and video to locate Barnes at 1:40 p.m., nearly two hours after Porter County Central Communications received a 911 call reporting the incident. Divers from the Portage Fire Department water rescue unit retrieved Barnes’ body. He was pronounced dead at the scene, Brock said. Multiple private fishing boats helped in the search, joined by an Indiana Dunes National Park ranger who boarded one of the boats and relayed information to the U.S. Coast Guard and the Lake County Sheriff’s Department marine and aviation units as well as state conservation officers, Brock said.

NBC 9 Denver [4/29/2025 9:10 PM, Marc Sallinger, 2700K] reports the U.S. Coast Guard has conducted multiple flights at Centennial Airport near Denver over the past week, using large cargo planes to transport Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees to Texas and California for subsequent deportation. At least three Coast Guard C-130 aircraft landed at the Colorado airport last Thursday, Friday and Monday to transport individuals in custody, according to the Coast Guard. "These flights were conducted in support of a Department of Homeland Security led operation," a statement from the Coast Guard to 9NEWS read in part. "National transport of aliens to designated locations, where the Department of Defense will transport the aliens internationally." The unusual sight of Coast Guard aircraft at the landlocked Colorado facility, which typically serves private flights and expensive jets, has drawn attention to the operation. Key details about the operation remain unclear, including where the detainees originated from and whether they were being transferred from Colorado detention facilities or transported into the state specifically for these flights. Questions persist about why the Trump administration is utilizing Department of Defense resources for international deportation flights, given that both the Coast Guard and ICE operate under the Department of Homeland Security. When reached for comment, ICE did not provide answers to specific questions about the identity of passengers, the total number of people deported or the origin points of individuals boarding planes in Denver.

Honolulu Star-Advertiser [4/29/2025 5:37 PM, Staff] reports the U.S. Coast Guard this morning continued its search for Jared Willeford, 42, whose unmanned kayak was found drifting south of Keauhou on Hawaii island. Willeford was last seen launching a yellow kayak from the Keauhou boat ramp at 8 :15 a.m. Sunday, and paddling offshore. Security cameras at the Outrigger Kona Resort & Spa spotted the yellow kayak unmanned and drifting south at 9 :04 a.m. Sunday, with orange bib pants visible on board. Contrary to earlier reports, the USCG said, Willeford is not currently wearing the orange bib pants. Watchstanders launched search efforts at about 10 a.m. Sunday after receiving a report of the unmanned kayak. Family confirmed that Willeford’s truck and trailer were still at the Keauhou boat ramp in Kailua-Kona. The USCG has launched an airplane and a helicopter crew, and the Coast Guard Cutter Oliver Berry crew, to aid in the search. The Hawaii County Fire Department is also searching for Willeford.

BigIslandNow [4/29/2025 4:52 PM, Tiffany DeMasters, 94K] reports Hawaiʻi Island police are renewing their request for information regarding a fisherman who went missing off South Point earlier this month. Earl Kekuanaoa "Oa" Hind launched his vessel, named Makalapua Onalani, from the South Point boat ramp on April 7. He was last seen in waters around Miloli’i on April 9 at around noon, heading in a northerly direction. The search for Oa Hind and his vessel began the following day on April 10. The U.S. Coast Guard and partnering agencies suspended their search on April 15 as there was no evidence of Oa Hind’s whereabouts after scouring 200,048 square nautical miles for more than 242 combined hours. The Miami Herald [29/25 6:24 PM, Sara Schilling, 4000K] reports Earl Kekuanaoa Hind was “last known to have launched his vessel from the South Point area” of the island of Hawaii on April 7, the Hawaiʻi Police Department said in an April 29 news release. Hind and his boat were spotted April 9 offshore “near the Miloli’i area, heading in a northerly direction,” police said. But, despite “extensive search and rescue operations” by the Hawaiʻi Fire Department and United States Coast Guard, “Hind and his vessel’s current whereabouts are still unknown at this time,” police said. The Coast Guard said in an April 15 news release that its crews and partners logged more than 240 hours searching 200,000-plus square nautical miles looking for Hind. The Coast Guard suspended its search that day, per the release.

CyberScoop [4/29/2025 9:12 PM, Greg Otto] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem outlined her plans Tuesday to refocus the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on protecting critical infrastructure from increasingly sophisticated threats — particularly from China — while distancing the agency from what she characterized as mission drift under previous leadership. Speaking at the 2025 RSAC Conference, Noem provided the most detailed vision yet of how the current administration is pushing CISA to a “back-to-basics” approach aimed at hardening defenses against adversaries who have demonstrated capabilities to infiltrate critical systems. “We’re going to make sure that we need to put CISA back to focusing on its core mission,” Noem said. “They were deciding what was truth and what was not. And it’s not the job of CISA to be the ‘Ministry of Truth.’ It’s to be a cybersecurity agency that works to protect this country.” The “Ministry of Truth” comment is a reference to CISA’s misinformation and election security efforts, which have been inflamed in recent weeks after President Donald Trump signed an executive order stripping former CISA leader Chris Krebs of his security clearance and calling for a review of Krebs’ actions as a government employee. Krebs had played a key role in protecting the 2020 election from hacking and misinformation, consistently debunking baseless claims of widespread electoral fraud made by Trump and his allies. During Krebs’ tenure, CISA created a “rumor control” website, which addressed conspiracy theories about stolen votes and votes cast by deceased individuals. Noem called that work “inappropriate” in an accompanying on-stage interview with José-Marie Griffiths, the president of Dakota State University. “That’s not what the mission set was for CISA to be doing. They shouldn’t have been involved in that at all,” she said.

NextGov [4/28/2025 8:36 PM, David DiMolfetta] reports DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has vowed to rework America’s core cyber defense agency amid GOP accusations of conservative censorship. Many in the cyber community have deemed the reductions a national security risk.Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told a crowd of hundreds of cybersecurity practitioners Tuesday that, despite headlines about significant cuts being levied against the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the cyber community should look forward to new changes that will make the nation’s cyber defense agency more robust. “I know the press has covered the role of Homeland Security and what we have done in CISA — as far as some of the reforms and efficiencies and some of the initiatives and task forces and advisory councils that were changing — as a bad thing,” she said in a speech at the RSAC Conference in San Francisco, California, adding she would “encourage” the cyber community to “just wait” to “see what we’re able to do, that there are reforms going on that’s going to be much more responsive.” Several recent CISA efforts have sought to reduce the agency’s workforce, in addition to dissolving the Critical Infrastructure Partnership Advisory Council and other bodies like the Cyber Safety Review Board. The moves have been widely criticized by former officials. “Instead of just talking about cybersecurity, we’re going to do it,” she said, adding that her staff are conducting a broad reassessment of the office with the aim of getting it back on mission and away from work focused on tapering false information online. CISA has drawn vast criticism from both President Donald Trump and other members of the GOP for its past efforts to combat mis- and disinformation posted about the 2020 election, COVID-19 and other flashpoint issues on social media. Its former director, Chris Krebs, is still an active target of the Trump administration after Krebs in 2020 defied baseless claims that the election that year was rigged against the president. Legal challenges, raised in 2023, argued that the government’s role in flagging posts deemed misleading or false resulted in the suppression of politically conservative viewpoints. That viewpoint has prevailed in Trump’s second term, where Noem has vowed to curtail the size and scope of CISA. More cyber-focused priorities will be outlined in the coming days in Trump’s federal budget proposals, Noem said. Around $10 million has already been “saved” from activities cut within the cyber agency, she noted. She also told the conference audience that DHS will demand more secure products that have baseline security baked into them by default, in a nod to earlier CISA Secure by Design efforts. How that plays out is not entirely clear, as two senior CISA advisors who helped lead the agency’s Secure by Design initiative resigned last week. Hundreds of staff at CISA were notified recently that the agency discontinued one cybersecurity threat hunting tool and is preparing to retire another, Nextgov/FCW reported earlier this month. In February, CISA employees focused on countering disinformation, misinformation and related influence operations were recently put on administrative leave.

CyberScoop [4/29/2025 2:11 PM, Matt Kapko] reports threat intelligence flowing from private companies to cybersecurity authorities and law enforcement agencies is critical to the disruption of malicious activities and the arrests of cybercriminals, security leaders at Amazon and CrowdStrike said Monday during the RSAC 2025 Conference. When the private sector and governments interact well, actively participating and sharing resources to advance the common goal of keeping bad things from happening to good people, the positive outcomes are clear, said CJ Moses, Amazon’s chief information security officer. Cybersecurity companies and the industry at large have learned how difficult and time consuming it is for the FBI and Department of Justice to disrupt cybercriminal activities and bring a case against those involved. Moses explained that by proactively sharing intelligence, technology companies can hand off nearly finished cases to authorities, reducing investigative workloads and speeding up justice. “We’ll work together in order to be able to put a bow on a case and hand it to the FBI and DOJ, such that they don’t have to expend a great amount of resources in order to go forward and try to figure things out that we already know,” Moses said. Technology and cybersecurity companies are uniquely positioned to see and share information that’s either unavailable or at diminished scale to governments. “We’re on the front lines. We get to see that stuff, and therefore we have the expertise, or need to have the expertise, in order to defend,” Moses said.

CyberScoop [4/29/2025 6:13 PM, Derek B. Johnson] reports cyber experts are urging Congress to ensure that a planned reorganization of the State Department continues to integrate cyber diplomacy at the highest levels of decision-making, while providing the resources, staffing and structure necessary to project American digital security policy abroad with both allies and adversaries. Secretaryof State Marco Rubio’s reorganization plan would split up the Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, with its economic team and portfolio reporting to the undersecretary of economic growth, energy and environment, while its cybersecurity mission and personnel would go to a newly created Bureau of Emerging Threats and report to the undersecretary for arms control and international security. But in a House Foreign Affairs Europe subcommittee hearing Tuesday, Democrats blasted the planned split while experts urged lawmakers and the Trump administration to avoid the urge to fix what isn’t broken in the department’s cyber mission. Annie Fixler, director of the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation at the Washington D.C.-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank, told the committee that the State Department’s planned reorganization “appears to put its cybersecurity efforts at risk and contradict congressional guidance to integrate cybersecurity and digital economy efforts.” She also said that if the Trump administration is seeking to go on offense in cyberspace against its adversaries while improving its defense, the Cyberspace and Digital Policy bureau can play a “pivotal role” in both areas.

CyberScoop [4/29/2025 11:15 AM, Derek B. Johnson] reports the House passed a bill Monday evening that would criminalize using a person’s likeness to create nonconsensual deepfake pornography. The Take It Down Act sailed through the chamber on a vote of 402-2, marking one of the first major pieces of legislation passed by Congress to address AI-generated deepfakes. The bill makes it a federal crime to publicize nonconsensual imagery of others, both real and AI-generated, and requires companies to remove any images hosted or shared on their platforms within 48 hours of receiving notice. It also empowers the Federal Trade Commission to investigate and enforce compliance. A version of the Take It Down Act has already passed the Senate, and is now just a presidential signature away from becoming law. The original Senate bill, co-sponsored by Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, picked up an unusual mix of bipartisan support in today’s Washington, with all House Democrats voting in favor of a measure that received endorsements from both First Lady Melania Trump and former Biden-era disinformation official Nina Jankowicz. The generation of nonconsensual deepfake pornography, using the faces or bodies of real people, is a scourge that is as likely to victimize famous celebrities as it is anonymous high school students. The overwhelming majority of deepfakes on the internet are nonconsensual nudes or pornography, many of which swap out the faces or likenesses of real people, according to numerous studies.

StateScoop [4/29/2025 8:16 AM, Sophia Fox-Sowell, 29K] reports a ransomware group released millions of files they said were stolen from Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, Oregon Public Radio reported Friday. The outlet reports that Rhysida, the ransomware group that claimed responsibility for a April 9 cyberattack that forced DEQ officials to pause most of services, including vehicle emissions testing, published 1.3 million files, roughly 2.4 terabytes of data, to the dark web. The files appear to contain sensitive employee information. “We tried to contact them, but they chose to ignore us,” a message posted to Rhysida’s website last Thursday read. “And now their files have been released.” Lauren Wirtis, an agency spokesperson, provided little additional information. “DEQ is aware of these claims and they are under investigation,” Wirtis wrote in an email.

(B) KTVU Mornings on 2: The Nine [4/29/2025 12:06 PM, Staff] reports that today, the Secretary of Homeland Security is expected to speak at a cybersecurity conference in San Francisco. Secretary Kristi Noem is one of several federal officials expected to talk about cybersecurity. Ten of thousands of people are visiting San Francisco for the conference. This is the 34th year for the convention.

Axios [4/29/2025 3:36 PM, Chelsea Brasted, 13163K] reports a suspected ISIS member was arrested in Iraq for allegedly "inciting" the Jan. 1 terrorist attack on Bourbon Street that killed 14 bystanders and injured dozens of others, according to a report from Al Arabiya. A spokesperson for the FBI’s New Orleans office says the agency maintains that its suspect, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, acted alone, so it’s not clear how the Iraqi suspect may or may not fit into the picture. Citing information from Iraq’s top court, the Supreme Judicial Council, Al Arabiya reported on Sunday that authorities had arrested a person who is "a member of the external operations office of the [ISIS] terrorist organization." The suspect will be tried in Iraq under its anti-terrorism law, the outlet reports. Al Arabiya is a state-owned news organization based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The FBI’s investigation "remains active and ongoing," according to a Tuesday afternoon statement from a spokesperson for its New Orleans office. "While we continue to work with our law enforcement partners, both in the U.S. and internationally, based on the information to date, we continue to believe that Shamsud Din-Jabbar acted alone in carrying out the attack on Bourbon Street," the statement says. The FBI said earlier this year that Jabbar was "100% inspired by ISIS," and he traveled outside the country at least twice in the years before the Jan. 1 attack. He visited Canada and Egypt in the summer of 2023, the FBI has said, but it’s not yet clear whether those trips were related to the attack. Officials have said Jabbar’s views became "extreme" by the spring of 2024. USA Today [4/30/2025 1:11 AM, Thao Nguyen, 75858K] reports that the arrest was first reported on April 27 by Al Arabiya, a state-owned news television channel based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The Federal Bureau of Investigation reiterated on April 29 that it believes the man who rammed his truck into crowds of revelers on New Orleans’ famed Bourbon Street acted alone, NOLA.com and CBS News reported. The agency previously identified the driver as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, an Army veteran and U.S.-born citizen from Texas. "While we continue to work with our law enforcement partners, both in the U.S. and internationally, based on the information to date, we continue to believe that Shamsud Din-Jabbar acted alone in carrying out the attack on Bourbon Street," the FBI said in a statement, according to NOLA.com and CBS News. The investigation into the attack remains ongoing, the agency said. The FBI did not immediately respond to USA TODAY’s request for comment. During an April 29 news conference announcing an economic development project, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said he had been briefed on the arrest in Iraq and directed questions to the FBI’s field office in New Orleans.

NBC News [4/29/2025 5:41 PM, Rebecca Shabad, 44742K] reports Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday that he will move to end a Department of Defense program for women created during and promoted by the first Trump administration. The bill that established the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) program — a government-wide effort in the diplomatic and national security spaces to expand opportunities for women — was written by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem when she served in the House and co-sponsored by Secretary of State Marco Rubio when he served in the Senate. "WPS is yet another woke divisive/social justice/Biden initiative that overburdens our commanders and troops — distracting from our core task: WAR-FIGHTING," wrote Hegseth, who has come under fire for saying that women shouldn’t hold combat roles. He added that the program, which had wide bipartisan support in Congress, was "pushed by feminists and left-wing activists." Despite stating that he was ending the program, Hegseth said the department would have to execute the "minimum of WPS required by statute" and then "fight to end the program for our next budget." Reuters [4/29/2025 4:16 PM, Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart, 41523K] reports that in his first term, Trump signed into law the Women, Peace and Security Act, which supported the participation of women in preventing and resolving conflict, countering violent extremism and building post-conflict stability. On Tuesday, Hegseth said he was proud to have ended the program. "WPS is yet another woke divisive/social justice/Biden initiative that overburdens our commanders and troops — distracting from our core task: WAR-FIGHTING," Hegseth said on X. "(Department of Defense) will hereby executive the minimum of WPS required by statute, and fight to end the program for our next budget," he added. "GOOD RIDDANCE WPS!" He later wrote a post saying, without evidence, that the prior administration of Democratic President Joe Biden had "distorted & weaponized the straight-forward & security-focused WPS initiative launched in 2017." Hegseth has taken aim at diversity, equity and inclusion at the Pentagon since he took office. The Hill [4/29/2025 12:10 PM, Ellen Mitchell, 12829K] reports Hegseth also called WPS a “UNITED NATIONS program pushed by feminists and left-wing activists,” claiming that “troops HATE it.” As the program is under federal statute and can’t be outright killed by Hegseth alone, he said the Pentagon would comply with the minimum requirements of the WPS and fight to end the program during the department’s next appropriations process. Hegseth’s move to dismantle the program is particularly notable given that Trump signed the program into law in 2017, after it was backed by multiple members of his current Cabinet while they were members of Congress.

Reported similarly:
New York Post [4/29/2025 6:16 PM, David Propper, 54903K]
AP [4/29/2025 4:02 PM, Tara Copp and Farnoush Amiri, 48304K]
CBS News [4/29/2025 7:04 PM, Eleanor Watson and Caitlin Yilek, 51661K]
CNN [4/29/2025 1:09 PM, Haley Britzky, 22131K]
NewsMax [4/29/2025 2:00 PM, Staff, 4998K]
Washington Examiner [4/29/2025 12:18 PM, Mike Brest, 2296K]

The Hill [4/29/2025 11:38 AM, Rebecca Beitsch and Filip Timotija, 12829K] reports Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are asking a trio of Pentagon officials forced out in the wake of a leak investigation to sit for questioning about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of Signal to discuss sensitive information. The request asked for transcribed interviews with Dan Caldwell, Colin Carroll, and Darin Selnick, who have protested being booted from the department, as well as two other Hegseth aides who have resigned in recent days. “Because of your senior role in the Office of the Secretary and your participation in at least one Signal chat with Secretary Hegseth during your tenure at the Department of Defense, as well as the fact that you were recently placed on leave from the Department following an internal investigation into unauthorized leaks, we require your participation in a transcribed interview to examine the extent of this concerning incident and other potentially reckless disclosures of highly sensitive national security information,” Rep. Gerry Connolly (Va.), the top Democrat on the panel, wrote to the men in a letter. The investigation from Oversight Democrats comes after reports about a second Signal group chat that discussed a pending strike on Houthi targets in Yemen. The second chat was started by Hegseth, who shared details about the attack with his wife, brother, and personal lawyer.

Washington Examiner [4/29/2025 5:40 PM, Naomi Lim and Christian Datoc, 2296K] reports President Donald Trump put his politics aside to praise Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI), a potential 2028 presidential candidate, for helping him save Michigan’s Selfridge Air National Guard Base. "You know, I’m not supposed to do it. She’s a Democrat. They said, ‘Don’t have her here.’ I said, ‘No, she’s going to be here,’" Trump said Tuesday during an event on the base in Harrison Township. "She’s done a very good job, frankly, and she was very much involved with the Republicans. They worked together on saving it, and it was not easy. So I want to thank you very much, Gretchen. Good job.". Whitmer initially declined Trump’s request to speak but later thanked the president for his support in recapitalizing the base on the 100th day of his second administration. "Well, I hadn’t planned to speak, but I’m on behalf of all the military men and women who serve our country and serve so honorably on behalf of the State of Michigan, I am really damn happy we’re here to celebrate this recapitalization at Selfridge," she said. "It’s crucial for the Michigan economy, it’s crucial for the men and women here, for our homeland security, and our future. So thank you.". Whitmer greeted Trump upon his arrival at the base amid windy conditions, with the president having to hold on to his red "Gulf of America" baseball cap. The governor then shook Trump’s hand again in a nearby plane hangar before the pair addressed a group of roughly 250 guardsmen. "After years of hard work, we’ve secured a new fighter squadron to protect operations at Selfridge Air National Guard Base for decades to come," Whitmer posted on social media. "That means jobs, a stronger economy, and a bright, lasting, and secure future for Selfridge and the entire state of Michigan.". Whitmer’s appearance alongside Trump came weeks after a photo of her attempting to shield herself from photographers in the White House’s Oval Office went viral. The governor was in Washington, D.C., seeking recovery aid for Michigan after an ice storm, but could not depart before the president started an executive order signing ceremony.

The Hill [4/29/2025 6:26 PM, Ellen Mitchell, 12829K] reports President Trump on Tuesday announced Selfridge National Guard base in Michigan will receive 21 F-15EX Eagle II fighters, newer generation jets meant to replace the installation’s aging A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, effectively guaranteeing the base’s future. The Boeing-made aircraft, previously purchased by the Air Force, will go to Selfidge after years of lobbying from Michigan lawmakers to shore up the future of the 106-year-old Harrison Township base, an installation that has an estimated $850 million impact on the state’s economy. "I’ve come in person to lay to rest any doubts about Selfridge’s future and the vital role it’ll play in our initial defense," Trump said in a speech at the base, during a visit to Michigan to mark the 100th day of his second term in office. "As commander and chief, I’m proud to announce that very soon, we will replace the retiring A-10 Warthogs with 21 brand-new F-15EX Eagle II fighter jets. The best in the world; brand new," he said to applause. Trump said new aircraft "will keep Selfridge at the cutting edge of Northern American airpower," after the Air Force is expected to begin phasing out the A-10, also known as the Warthog, starting next year. The announcement follows a surprise appearance at the White House by Democrat Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer earlier this month, a visit Trump alluded to in his speech. Whitmer was present at Selfridge during the announcement. "She came to see me. That’s the reason she came to see me, by the way, to save Selfridge. And she was very effective along with some of the other politicians and some of the military people," Trump said.

New York Post [4/29/2025 7:10 PM, Josh Christenson, 54903K] reports National security adviser Mike Waltz told The Post Tuesday the US can’t afford to "subsidize" its NATO allies anymore — and added that the defense of Ukraine "must be European-led.". In a wide-ranging interview to mark President Trump’s first 100 days in office, Waltz affirmed that the administration would back Europe militarily and diplomatically — but would be "demanding at every level.". "Case in point, look at the issue with the Houthis [in Yemen]," he said. "The vast majority of that shipping [through the Red Sea] goes to Europe, and when you have a situation where they haven’t invested in their navies to be able to handle — or at least assist us in a much greater way — then at some point this is going to affect their way of life, their trade, their commerce, their ability to keep their economies going.". "We’ve made it clear that assistance to Ukraine going forward in the future must be European-led," the national security adviser added. "And that is just a fundamental outcome of these negotiations.". On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov set diplomatic efforts back by demanding a fully "demilitarized" Ukraine and refused to offer any territory occupied by Vladimir Putin’s war machine back to Kyiv. Special presidential envoy Steve Witkoff visited Moscow April 25 for talks which Trump said at the time were "going smoothly" — after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected a new proposed peace agreement that demanded the recognition of the Crimean peninsula as Russian territory. Waltz has echoed President Trump’s calls that NATO members hike their defense budgets to at least 5% of GDP, pointing out that few were willing to meet a "bare minimum" of 2% in the Republican’s first administration. "We have to take a step back and remember that it was 11 years ago that NATO — as a group, all of its members — committed to 2%. That was a bare minimum in 2014," he said. "What also happened in 2014? The first invasion of Ukraine, the taking of Crimea," he went on. "That should have been a wake up call to get everybody to 100% [of the] bare minimum.". The national security adviser added that it was "really astounding that now, with the largest land war in Europe since World War II" NATO nations are still lagging behind.

CBS News [4/29/2025 9:07 AM, Megan Cerullo, 51661K] reports shipments of goods from China to the U.S. are dropping sharply with the Trump administration’s steep tariffs in place, leading major U.S. retailers to warn about impending supply shortages. The trade war between China and the U.S. has escalated over the past few weeks, with each nation hiking its import duties multiple times in a tit-for-tat. While Trump has given other countries a 90-day pause on the tariffs, as their leaders pledged to negotiate with the U.S., China has remained the exception. U.S. import duties on Chinese products now stand as high as 145%. China, meanwhile, has hit back with 125% tariffs on U.S. products. At the Port of Los Angeles, which, along with the Port of Long Beach, receives roughly 40% of all imports from Asia, shipments last week were down 10% compared with the same period one year earlier. That number is expected to keep falling. "We are now beginning to see the flow of cargo to the Port of Los Angeles slow," Port of Los Angeles executive director Eugene Seroka said at a Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners meeting on April 24. "It’s my prediction that in two weeks time, arrivals will drop by 35%," he added. U.S. retailers had rushed to import goods into the country ahead of President Trump’s sweeping tariffs going into effect, leading to a spike in imports since last summer. Now, with the 145% tariffs making goods from China roughly two-and-a-half times more expensive than they were last year, "essentially all shipments out of China for major retailers and manufacturers have ceased," Seroka said. By another estimate, container bookings from China to the U.S. are down by as much as 60%, according to Flexport, a supply chain management company. The dip comes during what is usually a busy period for imports to the U.S. "We would normally see an increase in bookings across the board, because this is the beginning of the shipping year," said Nathan Strang, director of ocean freight at Flexport. "It’s when back-to-school items and Halloween items start to come in." What’s more, retailers have likely stockpiled sufficient inventory to last a couple of months, Seroka said, adding that come summer, consumers could find that many products are out of stock. All manner of goods flow through the Port of Los Angeles to end up in households across the U.S. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX Business [4/29/2025 6:09 PM, Eric Revell, 10702K] reports Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday the Trump administration will take into account China’s lack of compliance with a trade deal from the president’s first term when it finalizes a new trade deal. Bessent was interviewed on FOX Business Network’s "Kudlow" after President Donald Trump raised tariffs on Chinese imports to upward of 145%, prompting China to slap 125% tariffs on U.S. exports to the country. Host Larry Kudlow asked whether the phase one trade deal with China from 2020, which was agreed upon to end the U.S. trade war with China at that time, could be used as a starting point or if the administration will take on negotiations with a fresh start. "I think we’ll have to take into account that they didn’t adhere to the phase one deal and, you know, I note with great interest that the Biden administration liked the tariffs, but they didn’t enforce the purchase agreements," Bessent said. The "phase one" trade deal signed in January 2020 stipulated China would buy an additional $200 billion in U.S. exports over 2020 and 2021, though it fell well short of those levels and was unable to import enough from the U.S. to meet its pre-trade war import levels from 2017. The phase one trade deal also featured other agreements, such as China committing to remove technical barriers to U.S. agricultural exports, protecting the intellectual property rights of U.S. firms and ending forced technology transfers. "Since then, over the past four years, trade has not gotten fairer with China," Bessent added. "President Trump believes that economic security is national security. And we got a beta test for that during COVID, when I think Americans were shocked to see the vulnerability of the supply chain for such strategic things as medicines, as semiconductors, steel. So, one of the most important things that we will be doing over the coming years is fortifying the supply chain.". Bessent reiterated he thinks the tariffs on China, one of the three largest U.S. trading partners, aren’t sustainable, and the two sides will eventually come to an agreement on easing them.

Bloomberg [4/30/2025 2:13 AM, Staff, 16228K] reports China’s factory activity slipped into the worst contraction since December 2023, revealing early damage from Donald Trump’s tariffs and prompting calls for a speedy policy boost. The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index fell more than expected to 49 from 50.5 in March, the National Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday. The non-manufacturing measure showed activity in construction and services grew less than forecast. The indicators offer a gloomy first official look at the health of China’s economy after the Trump administration imposed sweeping tariffs of 145% on Chinese products, a level expected to hurt a sector that contributed to nearly a third of the economy’s growth last year. “It’s definitely worse than expected. It shows tariffs started to bite,” Robin Xing, chief China economist at Morgan Stanley, said on Bloomberg Television. He forecast a significant economic slowdown this quarter that could trigger more stimulus. The offshore yuan extended its drop against the dollar after the data missed expectations, before paring back losses and rising 0.1% to around 7.26 per dollar in the afternoon on the greenback’s decline. The onshore stock benchmark CSI 300 Index was little changed. The trade war has prompted many major financial institutions, including UBS Group AG and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., to lower their forecasts for China’s 2025 growth to around 4% or lower in recent weeks. The downbeat indicators for factories followed an earlier warning sign for China’s exporters, with cargo shipments plunging possibly by as much as 60%, according to one estimate. “We believe Beijing needs to take bolder moves,” Lu Ting, chief China economist at Nomura Holdings Inc., wrote in a note. He urged policymakers to address structural challenges such as the property market slump, reform the pension system and improve relationships with other economies. “Beijing has remained calmer than markets expected, but the risk is a worse-than-expected demand shock.” New export orders fell to the lowest since December 2022 and recorded the biggest drop since April that year, when Shanghai entered a citywide pandemic lockdown. A subgauge indicated that employment in the manufacturing sector contracted at the worst pace since February last year, adding pressure on authorities to stabilize the job market.

The Hill [4/29/2025 6:37 PM, Tara Suter, 12829K] reports President Trump said in an interview broadcasting late Tuesday that China “will probably eat those tariffs” when talking about the 145 percent overall tariff on its products. The president got into a heated back-and-forth with ABC’s Terry Moran when talking about the import tax, with Moran arguing the tariff is going to “raise prices on everything from electronics, to clothing, to building houses.” “You don’t know that, you don’t know whether or not China’s going to eat it,” Trump cut in at the end of Moran’s statement. “That’s mathematics,” Moran said, also cutting in at the end of Trump’s response. “China probably will eat those tariffs,” Trump replied. “But at 145, they basically can’t do much business with the United States. And, they were making from us a trillion dollars a year, they were ripping us off like nobody’s ever ripped us off.” Trump’s tariff policy in the first few months of his presidency has rattled markets across the globe, raised economic anxiety and strained relationships with trading partners across the globe. Chinese officials have gone after the Trump administration’s approach to negotiating tariff policy. “They make up bargaining chips out of thin air, bully and go back on their words,” Zhao Chenxin, deputy director of China’s main economic planning agency, said Sunday. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was asked by reporters at the White House on Monday about trade talks with China. He did not detail the type of talks, if any, Trump’s administration was participating in alongside China but said that the tariffs would cause pain for Beijing instead of the U.S. “I think that, over time, we will see that the Chinese tariffs are unsustainable for China,” Bessent said.

AP [4/30/2025 4:11 AM, Jim Gomez, 48304K] reports the Philippines signed a military pact with New Zealand Wednesday, allowing their forces to hold joint exercises as Manila continues to build security alliances as it faces an increasingly aggressive China in the disputed South China Sea. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. witnessed the ceremony in Manila, where Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr and and his New Zealand counterpart, Judith Collins, inked the Status of Visiting Forces Agreement. The treaty sets the legal framework to allow military engagements of both countries, including joint drills in each other’s territory and other cooperative activities. It has been approved by New Zealand officials, but still needs to be ratified by the Philippine Senate for it to take effect. China has frowned on the security alliances being pursued by the Philippines, one of the staunchest allies of the United States in Asia, under Marcos.

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