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.

FOX News [4/8/2025 8:53 PM, Greg Wehner, 46189K] reports Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem spent Tuesday morning with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Arizona law enforcement agents going after illegal immigrant criminals in the Phoenix area. Standing with a gun in her hands, Noem said in a video posted to X that she was going out with ICE to pick up someone facing charges of human trafficking. She also said she went out earlier with agents and swept up a person wanted for murder. "I appreciate the work that they do every day, and we appreciate them working to keep America safe," Noem said. In another post, Noem shared images of her standing with law enforcement officials and sitting in an ICE vehicle while wearing a Kevlar vest. She also shared pictures of law enforcement officials arresting two men, one who had no shoes and the other who was wearing a pair of Crocs. "Arizona is safer this morning after a successful operation getting criminal illegal aliens and gang members off our streets," Noem wrote. "Thank you to our brave law enforcement officers. If you are in this country illegally, we will find you, arrest you, and send you back.” Noem has taken a hands-on approach to her role as the DHS secretary since President Donald Trump appointed her to the position. She recently traveled to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, where hundreds of migrant criminals were deported last month. Noem toured the facility where she met face-to-face with alleged Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gang members, all of whom were wearing white prison suits and had shaved heads. She also sent a message from the prison to illegal immigrants who are still in the U.S. or plan to visit anytime soon. "First of all, do not come to our country illegally: You will be removed, and you will be prosecuted," she said while standing with her back to the inmates. "But know that this facility is one of the tools in our toolkit that we will use if you commit crimes against the American people.” NewsMax [4/8/2025 5:36 PM, Nicole Weatherholtz, 4998K] reports that Noem reportedly greeted agents from ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration in an underground parking garage, shaking hands with and thanking officers for their work while pledging to get them necessary resources. The New York Post [4/8/2025 1:58 PM, Jennie Taer and Chris Nesi, 54900K] reports the Post was there as [Noem] dodged kicks from a suspect wearing slip-on shoes and gamely told him, "You’re not scaring me with your Croc." The multi-agency task force — led by Phoenix Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and joined by a coterie of federal law enforcement and immigration agencies — nabbed three illegal immigrant felons with extensive criminal histories. Noem, clad in police tactical gear including a flak jacket, sported her two-tone gold Rolex as she greeted agents from ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI, and the Drug Enforcement Administration in a dingy underground parking garage. She shook hands with officers as she thanked them for their work and pledged to get them the resources they need to do their jobs better. Breitbart [4/8/2025 7:43 PM, Elizabeth Weibel, 2923K] reports that according to the New York Post, Noem "led about 100 federal agents on an early morning raid" in Phoenix. During the "multi-agency" raid, which was led by Phoenix ICE agents, three illegal aliens who were wanted on charges relating to "weapons and drug offenses to running a money laundering operation," were captured, according to the outlet. Noem told the outlet that "the effort of cooperation" there was "between agencies is getting turned onto steroids," and added that anyone in the United States illegally "that’s committing crimes and has broken our laws will face consequences.” "The effort of cooperation we have between agencies is getting turned onto steroids," Noem told the outlet. "We have this being multiplied across the country exponentially. Now anyone who’s in this country illegally that’s committing crimes and has broken our laws will face consequences.” Per the outlet, one of the suspects who was arrested was Bonifacio Renteria-Cruz, who is an illegal alien "felon from Mexico with ties to the Sinaloa Cartel." Another suspect who was arrested was Jose Escobar-Robles, who was "identified as helping run Monroy Enterprises, a money service business believed to be illegally funneling money to Mexico to benefit cartels.” The first suspect arrested was Bonifacio Renteria-Cruz, an illegal migrant felon from Mexico with ties to the Sinaloa Cartel, according to DHS. His lengthy rap sheet includes prior convictions for aggravated assault, weapons charges, and an active arrest warrant in Mexico for homicide.

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NBC 12 Phoenix [4/8/2025 8:54 PM, Staff]
FOX News [4/8/2025 7:18 PM, Staff, 46189K] Video: HERE
FOX 10 Phoenix [4/8/2025 7:20 PM, Staff]
Arizona Republic [4/8/2025 8:33 PM, Patrick Breen] Video HERE

Arizona Republic [4/8/2025 11:52 PM, Raphael Romero Ruiz] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem praised her department’s rollout of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts and tougher border security measures during a keynote speech at the Border Security Expo in downtown Phoenix. In her hourlong address, Noem recounted to a crowd of about 800 private sector businesspeople and federal and local law enforcement attendees about her decision to lead the Department of Homeland Security and the efforts to implement new tools that "are going to change the way that we operate in this country." "We’re going to deploy new technologies, not only at the border, but at our ports of entry and in our interior to make sure that we’re sharing information with other agencies at all levels," Noem said. "We’re also going to be sharing more information, biometrics, DNA testing, and being much more efficient, working to get everybody more authorities that they need to be able to take action in every single interdiction that we have." The Homeland Security Department has made it a top priority to equip federal law enforcement officers across its agencies to be able to deal with whatever illicit activity they may face in the field, Noem said.

Arizona Republic [4/8/2025 8:02 PM, Raphael Romero Ruiz and Ray Stern] reports U.S. border czar Tom Homan delivered the opening keynote address at the Border Security Expo at the Phoenix Convention Center, where he praised a steep drop in apprehensions at the southern border and called for more resources to hire immigration officers and boost collaboration with local agencies. Homan doubled down on recent controversial immigration enforcement actions and dismissed critics who have labeled him a racist, saying, “I don’t care.” He contrasted the early weeks of President Donald Trump’s second term with previous administrations, crediting Trump for allowing federal authorities to enforce immigration laws, he said. “Border Patrol under the Trump administration secured the border in a matter of weeks. They did what the Biden administration couldn’t or wouldn’t do in 4 years," Homan told the crowd April 8. According to a preliminary release from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Border Patrol agents recorded 7,180 arrests between ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border in March. Homan called the roughly 94% drop in illegal crossings compared with the same time last year an “unprecedented success.” “I’m happy with the numbers, but I’m not satisfied," Homan said. "We need more, and that’s where the budget comes in.”

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ABC News [4/8/2025 1:20 PM, Benjamin Siegel and Luke Barr, 34586K] reports that the IRS and Department of Homeland Security have reached a data-sharing agreement to support the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement agenda, according to a court filing late Monday night. Under the terms of the agreement, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would submit names and addresses of immigrants living in the United States without legal status who have final removal orders, which would be used to check against IRS taxpayer records. A spokesperson for the Treasury Department confirmed the MOU and said the basis is legal. "The Internal Revenue Service and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement have entered into a memorandum of understanding to establish a clear and secure process to support law enforcement’s efforts to combat illegal immigration," the Treasury spokesperson said. "The bases for this MOU are founded in longstanding authorities granted by Congress, which serve to protect the privacy of law-abiding Americans while streamlining the ability to pursue criminals," the spokesperson added. "After four years of Joe Biden flooding the nation with illegal aliens, President Trump’s highest priority is to ensure the safety of the American people." A senior DHS official said that under the Trump administration, "the government is finally doing what it should have all along: sharing information across the federal government to solve problems." "Biden not only allowed millions of illegal aliens to flood into our country -- he lost them due to incompetence and improper processing," a DHS official said. NewsNation [4/8/2025 3:15 PM, Taylor Delandro, 6900K] reports that “Information sharing across agencies is essential to identify who is in our country, including violent criminals, determine what public safety and terror threats may exist so we can neutralize them, scrub these individuals from voter rolls, as well as identify what public benefits these aliens are using at taxpayer expense,” said Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin in a statement to NewsNation. The New York Post [4/8/2025 4:50 PM, Diana Glebova, 54900K] reports that “Under President Trump’s leadership, the government is finally doing what it should have all along: sharing information across the federal government to solve problems,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told The Post. The new interagency sharing mechanism will be used to determine which migrants are not legally in the country, as well as what benefits they are using, McLaughlin said. “[Former President Joe] Biden not only allowed millions of illegal aliens to flood into our country—he lost them due to incompetence and improper processing,” the spokesperson added. “Information sharing across agencies is essential to identify who is in our country, including violent criminals, determine what public safety and terror threats may exist so we can neutralize them, scrub these individuals from voter rolls, as well as identify what public benefits these aliens are using at taxpayer expense.” The AP [4/8/2025 3:21 PM, Fatima Hussein, 48304K] reports that the Internal Revenue Service has agreed to share immigrants’ tax data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the purpose of identifying and deporting people illegally in the U.S., according to a document signed by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The new data-sharing arrangement was signed on Monday in the form of a "memorandum of understanding" — found in federal court filings — and will allow ICE to submit names and addresses of immigrants inside the U.S. illegally to the IRS for cross-verification against tax records. Treasury argues that the agreement will help carry out President Donald Trump’s agenda to secure U.S. borders and is part of his larger nationwide immigration crackdown, which has resulted in deportations, workplace raids, and the use of an 18th century wartime law to deport Venezuelan migrants. Advocates, however, say the IRS-DHS information sharing agreement violates longstanding privacy laws and diminishes the privacy of all Americans. Representatives from DHS and ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment. CBS News [4/8/2025 5:02 PM, Staff, 51661K] reports that the IRS disclosed its memorandum of understanding with the Department of Homeland Security in a court filing in a lawsuit filed by Public Citizen, which seeks to bar the Treasury Department from disclosing tax return information to immigration enforcement authorities. According to the exhibit, the IRS will review all requests and account for disclosures made under the memorandum. While some of the memo is highly redacted, it reveals that the IRS will disclose to ICE the names and addresses of immigrants, among other information. The new data-sharing arrangement will allow ICE to cross-verify the names and addresses of immigrants inside the U.S. illegally with their IRS tax records. Todd Lyons, acting ICE director, told reporters at the Border Security Expo in Phoenix on Tuesday that the agreement would help ICE find people who are collecting benefits they aren’t entitled to and are "kind of hiding in plain sight" using someone else’s identity. Working with Treasury and other departments is "strictly for the major criminal cases," Lyons said. NBC News [4/8/2025 3:46 PM, Suzanne Gamboa, 44742K] reports that according to the DHS’ court filing, ICE, in its requests to the IRS, must ask for the name and address of the person whose information it wants, the tax periods relating to its request, the federal criminal statute under which the individual is being investigated or relating to any nontax-related criminal proceeding involving the individual, and reasons why disclosing the information might be relevant to the nontax-related criminal investigation or proceeding.

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The AP [4/8/2025 8:50 PM, Fatima Hussein, 48304K] reports the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service is resigning over a deal to share immigrants’ tax data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the purpose of identifying and deporting people illegally in the U.S., according to two people familiar with the decision. Melanie Krause, who had served as acting head since February, will step down over the new data-sharing document signed Monday by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The agreement will allow ICE to submit names and addresses of immigrants inside the U.S. illegally to the IRS for cross-verification against tax records. The Treasury Department says the agreement will help carry out President Donald Trump’s agenda to secure U.S. borders and is part of his larger nationwide immigration crackdown, which has resulted in deportations, workplace raids and the use of an 18th century wartime law to deport Venezuelan migrants. Advocates, however, say the IRS-DHS information-sharing agreement violates privacy laws and diminishes the privacy of all Americans. Todd Lyons, acting ICE director, told reporters at the Border Security Expo in Phoenix on Tuesday that the agreement will help ICE find people who are collecting benefits they aren’t entitled to and are “kind of hiding in plain sight” using someone else’s identity. Working with Treasury and other departments is “strictly for the major criminal cases,” Lyons said. The Wall Street Journal [4/8/2025 10:30 PM, Richard Rubin, 646K] reports Krause took a deferred-resignation offer available to many federal employees, and is expected to depart the government April 28. She is concerned about the consequences of recent Trump administration decisions about the IRS and doesn’t think she can affect those decisions, one of the people said. Krause will become the third IRS chief to exit this year, and her replacement would be the agency’s fourth leader in four months. Danny Werfel, who had been nominated and confirmed to the job under President Joe Biden, left on Inauguration Day. His successor, longtime agency official Douglas O’Donnell, exited in late February. President Trump has nominated Billy Long to run the IRS, but he hasn’t yet had a Senate confirmation hearing. The New York Times [4/8/2025 9:04 PM, Andrew Duehren, 153395K] reports that the two agencies have not yet shared any information, the filings said. Federal law tightly controls taxpayer information, protecting home addresses, earnings and other data from disclosure even to other government agencies. I.R.S. officials have for weeks raised concerns about the Trump administration’s plan to use the agency to help with deportations, warning it could be illegal in negotiations over the agreement. The deal has fueled further turmoil at the top of the agency, which had already been rocked by mass layoffs and several leadership changes during its busiest period of the year, when millions of Americans file their taxes. Among those leaving is Melanie Krause, the acting leader of the I.R.S., who is expected to take the administration’s latest deferred resignation offer, according to five people familiar with her plans.

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Politico [4/8/2025 3:43 PM, Ali Bianco, 11600K] reports the Trump administration is revoking parole status for immigrants who entered the U.S. via the Biden-era CBP One app, in a push to get immigrants to voluntarily leave the country. “Under federal law, Secretary [Kristi] Noem — in support of the president — has full authority to revoke parole. Canceling these paroles is a promise kept to the American people to secure our borders and protect national security,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told POLITICO in a statement. Some immigrants began receiving formal email notices from the DHS on Tuesday stating that the department would be using its discretionary authority to revoke parole. The move could leave over 900,000 immigrants vulnerable to deportation. The Daily Caller [4/8/2025 2:10 PM, Jason Hopkins, 1082K] reports that foreign nationals paroled into the U.S. through the CBP One app have received final termination notices and must self-deport or else face daily fines and forcible removal, DHS confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation Tuesday. Since January 2023, more than 900,000 non-citizens successfully scheduled asylum appointments through the CBP One before it was scrapped by the Trump administration in January. "The Biden Administration abused the parole authority to allow millions of illegal aliens into the U.S. which further fueled the worst border crisis in U.S. history," a DHS spokesperson said in a statement provided to the DCNF. "Formal termination notices have been issued, and affected aliens are urged to voluntarily self-deport using the CBP Home App," the spokesperson continued. "Those who refuse will be found, removed, and permanently barred from reentry." "Illegal aliens should use the CBP Home app to self deport and leave the country now," the DHS spokesperson stated to the DCNF. "If they don’t, they will face the consequences." FOX News [4/8/2025 7:26 PM, Michael Dorgan Fox, 46189K] reports that the app was used by nearly 1 million migrants to schedule appointments at official ports of entry before they were paroled into the U.S. The migrants were permitted to seek asylum and given temporary work authorization for two years while they waited for the outcomes of their respective proceedings. Trump ended the use of the CBP One app to parole migrants on his first day in office. His administration has also paused applications for parole programs and allowed ICE to cancel parole statuses of migrants. The Trump administration has now begun notifying migrants who used the app, telling them their legal status has been revoked, according to a report by CBS, citing a Homeland Security message the outlet obtained. "If you do not depart the United States immediately you will be subject to potential law enforcement actions that will result in your removal from the United States — unless you have otherwise obtained a lawful basis to remain here," the message reads, per the outlet. The notification encourages migrants to sign up for self-deportation through the CBP One app, which is now called CBP Home. "Again, DHS is terminating your parole. Do not attempt to remain in the United States — the federal government will find you," the notice says. "Please depart the United States immediately.” "Formal termination notices have been issued, and affected aliens are urged to voluntarily self-deport using the CBP Home App," a DHS spokesperson said, per the outlet. "Those who refuse will be found, removed, and permanently barred from reentry.”

Reuters [4/8/2025 11:16 AM, Ted Hesson and Kristina Cooke, 41523K] reports the Trump administration plans to fine migrants under deportation orders up to $998 a day if they fail to leave the United States and to seize their property if they do not pay, according to documents reviewed by Reuters. The fines stem from a 1996 law, that was enforced for the first time in 2018, during President Donald Trump’s first term in office. The Trump administration plans to apply the penalties retroactively for up to five years, which could result in fines of more than $1 million, a senior Trump official said, requesting anonymity to discuss non-public plans. The Trump administration is also considering seizing the property of immigrants who do not pay the fines, according to government emails reviewed by Reuters. In response to questions from Reuters, U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that immigrants in the U.S. illegally should use a mobile app formerly known as CBP One - rebranded as CBP Home under Trump - to "self deport and leave the country now.” "If they don’t, they will face the consequences," McLaughlin said. "This includes a fine of $998 per day for every day that the illegal alien overstayed their final deportation order.” DHS warned, of the fines in a March 31 social media post. Emails reviewed by Reuters show the White House has pressed U.S. Customs and Border Protection to handle the issue of penalties, property seizures for migrants who don’t pay, and the sale of their assets. The Department of Justice’s civil asset forfeiture division could be another option for the seizures, one email said. President Donald Trump kicked off a sweeping immigration crackdown after taking office in January, testing the bounds of U.S. law to increase arrests and deportations. The planned fines target the roughly 1.4 million migrants who have been ordered removed by an immigration judge. Trump invoked the 1996 law during his first term to levy fines of hundreds of thousands of dollars against nine migrants seeking sanctuary in churches. The administration withdrew the penalties, but then proceeded with smaller fines of about $60,000 per person against at least four of the migrants, according to court records. President Joe Biden stopped issuing the fines and rescinded, related policies when he took office in 2021. Scott Shuchart, a top ICE policy official under Biden, said migrants and their supporters could challenge the fines in court but that the threat alone could have a chilling effect. "Their point isn’t really to enforce the law, it’s to project fear in communities," he said. DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Daily Wire [4/8/2025 2:35 PM, Spencer Lindquist] reports that the administration says it will enforce the penalties retroactively to cover up to five years, resulting in fines of more than $1 million against offenders. The government could even seize the assets of migrants who refuse to leave the United States on their own accord despite having an order of removal. U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin explained that migrants can inform the government of their intent to depart the country via the Customs and Border Patrol Home app, an overhauled version of the CBP One app that the Biden administration used to streamline the flow of migrants into the United States.

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Reuters [4/8/2025 7:55 PM, Jonathan Allen and Luc Cohen, 41523K] report an immigration judge on Tuesday gave the U.S. government a day to show evidence that Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil should be deported and said she would rule on the case on Friday, a month after his arrest in New York and transfer to a rural Louisiana jail 1,200 miles (1,931.21 km) away. "If he’s not removable, I’m going to be terminating this case on Friday," Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Jamee Comans said during a hearing at the LaSalle Immigration Court in Jena, Louisiana. If the government’s deportation case is terminated at the hearing scheduled for Friday afternoon, Khalil, 30, is free under immigration law. The government cannot challenge the termination, but if the judge terminates the case without prejudice it can attempt to file the removal case again. Khalil sat at a table in the courtroom, wrapping prayer beads around his right hand as he listened to his attorney Marc Van Der Hout appear remotely from California on a nearby screen to tell the court he had not received a single document of the government’s evidence. "There’s nothing more important to this court than Mr. Khalil’s due process rights," Comans told Van Der Hout after he asked for more time to review the government’s evidence. "I’m also not going to keep Mr. Khalil detained while attorneys go back and forth about documents." Department of Homeland Security lawyers told Comans they would provide the evidence by her 5 p.m. Wednesday deadline. In a statement later, Khalil’s attorney Van Der Hout said he was concerned the judge would rule without giving the defense time to respond to the government’s case, a concern he had raised earlier in court. "What this case is really about is whether lawful permanent residents — and other immigrants to this country — can speak out about what is happening in Gaza, or any other important matters of discussion in the national discourse without fear of deportation for expressing beliefs that are completely protected by the First Amendment," Van Der Hout said. "Are U.S. citizens going to be next?" ABC News [4/8/2025 4:50 PM, Armando Garcia and Nadine El-Bawab, 34586K] reports Khalil, a leader of the encampment protests at Columbia last spring, was detained on March 8, then taken to an immigration detention facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, before ending up in a Louisiana detention center, his attorneys said. At an immigration hearing in Jena, Louisiana, on Tuesday, Judge Jamee Comans set another hearing for Friday to give Khalil’s team time to review the evidence and respond to it. Comans said she will then make a determination whether he is removable or order him to be released. Comans conveyed a sense of urgency to get these issues resolved, noting Khalil had already spent several weeks in detention. She told both parties she was "not going to keep him detained" while they argued over his removability. The AP [4/8/2025 5:55 PM, Sara Cline and Jake Offenhartz, 48304K] reports that on March 8, Khalil became the first in a growing number of foreign-born students targeted for deportation by the Trump administration for participating in campus protests against Israel and the war in Gaza. As Khalil’s immigration case plays out in Louisiana, his attorneys have also challenged his detention and potential deportation before a federal judge in New Jersey. That judge last week rejected the Trump administration’s effort to transfer jurisdiction of the legal battle to Louisiana, but has yet to rule on the petition for his release.

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FOX News [4/9/2025 4:39 AM, Elizabeth Pritchett, 46189K] reports U.S. attorneys for six southwestern border districts charged nearly 1,000 illegal aliens with immigration-related crimes during the first week of April under Operation Take Back America, the Department of Justice said on Tuesday. The districts involved include Arizona, Central California, Southern California, New Mexico, Southern Texas and Western Texas. The District of Arizona brought charges against 204 illegal aliens; 83 of whom were charged with illegal reentry and 107 were charged with illegal entry. Fourteen people, including Ivan Mauricio Hernandez-Mosqueda, were also charged with smuggling humans into and within the district. Hernandez Mosqueda, a Mexican national, was sentenced to 46 months in prison for smuggling more than 100 illegal aliens into the U.S., the DOJ said, adding that he coached some of them to "claim asylum under false pretenses" when entering the country. The Southern District of California filed 97 cases, bringing charges against defendants for transporting illegal aliens, bringing them in for financial gain, bribery by a public official, illegal reentry and bringing in controlled substances. One of the illegal immigrants charged is Mexican national Francisco Anguiano Rios, who attempted to bring 209 packages containing 547 pounds of cocaine across the border at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry. There were 24 defendants charged in the Central District of California for reentering the U.S. following removal, including criminals who were found guilty of felonies prior to previous deportation.

Wall Street Journal [4/8/2025 11:33 PM, Douglas Belkin and Meridith McGraw, 646K] reports the Trump administration has frozen more than $1 billion in federal funding for Cornell and $790 million for Northwestern, according to a Trump administration official. The federal government is investigating both schools for alleged civil-rights violations, as part of a rapidly expanding crackdown on elite research universities across the U.S. The latest funding at issue relates to grants and contracts with the departments of agriculture, defense, education and health and human services. A Northwestern University spokesman said the school hasn’t received any official notification about a freeze. Cornell President Michael I. Kotlikoff said in a letter to the school community that while the university hadn’t received information confirming the $1 billion figure, earlier Tuesday the school had “received more than 75 stop work orders” from the Department of Defense related to national defense, cybersecurity, and health research. “The affected grants include research into new materials for jet engines, propulsion systems, large-scale information networks, robotics, superconductors, and space and satellite communications, as well as cancer research,” Kotlikoff said. More than $10 billion in funding has now been pulled, paused or is under review at prominent schools including Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Brown and the University of Pennsylvania. President Trump has vowed to go after campuses that his team views as liberal hotbeds that failed to protect Jewish students during the pro-Palestinian protests that have disrupted campuses over the last two academic years. The administration also has targeted funding in university diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives and other programs it says aren’t aligned with the Trump team’s priorities.

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AP [4/8/2025 3:08 PM, Steve Karnowski, 48304K] reports a federal judge on Tuesday rejected requests for new trials for two men convicted on human smuggling charges in the deaths of four members of a family from India who froze to death while trying to cross the Canadian border into Minnesota during a blizzard in 2022. U.S. District Judge John Tunheim declined to set aside the guilty verdicts that a jury returned last November against Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel and Steve Anthony Shand. His order clears the way for the two defendants to take their cases to a federal appeals court after he sentences them on May 7. Attorneys for both men argued that the evidence was insufficient. The judge found that there was sufficient evidence for the jury to find both Shand and Patel guilty on all four counts. He said the failure of prosecutors until late in the trial to disclose a prior disciplinary action against a Border Patrol agent who testified, while troubling, had a minimal impact on the overall case. He also stood by his decision to try the defendants together rather than separately.

The Hill [4/8/2025 3:22 PM, Tara Suter, 12829K] reports Senate Democrats demanded the return of a wrongfully deported Maryland man in a Tuesday letter. "We write to express our concerns regarding the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, an action which the Administration admitted in a recent court filing was an ‘administrative error,’" reads the letter, addressed to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting Director Todd Lyons. The senators also pressed Lyons and Noem on whether there are other similar cases and asked for how the administration would make certain protected immigrants receive "appropriate due process."

ABC News [4/8/2025 4:32 PM, Laura Romero, 34586K] reports the government says it can’t get Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia back. The attorney for Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who was deported in error to El Salvador, said Tuesday that he expects Abrego Garcia to be returned to the U.S. Abrego Garcia -- despite having protected legal status preventing his deportation to El Salvador, where he escaped political violence in 2011 -- was sent to that country’s notorious CECOT mega-prison following what the government said was an "administrative error." Trump administration officials have said Abrego Garcia is a member of the criminal gang MS-13, but his attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg has disputed that, saying the government has provided no proof of their allegations. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered the Trump administration to return Abrego Garcia from El Salvador by Monday at midnight, before Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Monday issued a temporary administrative stay delaying the midnight deadline in order to give the court more time to consider the arguments presented by both sides.

AP [4/8/2025 2:57 PM, Ben Finley, 48304K] reports as it stands, Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s story begins and ends in his native El Salvador. When he was a boy, a local gang extorted his family, tried to indoctrinate him and threatened to kill him, according to his immigration case. He fled to the U.S. at 16. He was forced back last month at 29, mistakenly deported by President Donald Trump’s administration to a notorious prison that observers say is rife with abuse. In between was his American life: Working construction, getting married and raising children with disabilities, according to court records. He was also accused by local police in Maryland of being an MS-13 gang member. Abrego Garcia denied the allegation and was never charged, according to court records. A U.S. immigration judge ultimately granted him protection from being deported back to El Salvador in 2019 because he likely faced persecution there by local gangs. Abrego Garcia is now at the center of a legal battle that has reached the U.S. Supreme Court and raises questions about due process and the Trump administration’s ability — or willingness — to retrieve him from El Salvador.

CNN [4/8/2025 2:53 PM, John Fritze, 22131K] reports the Supreme Court ruling that permits President Donald Trump to use a centuries-old wartime authority to speed deportations is drawing sharp criticism from immigration experts who fear the decision could erode migrants’ due process rights to have their cases reviewed before they’re sent to a foreign prison. The court’s 5-4 ruling Monday night requires those challenging Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to rely on a complicated and rarely successful legal process known as habeas corpus, and to potentially file those claims in some of the most conservative federal courts in the nation. The lack of clarity around how people facing deportation under the 1798 law will be notified and whether they’ll be able to access a lawyer to help them navigate that process is prompting questions about whether Trump’s targets under the act will actually receive the due process the Supreme Court majority promised in its unsigned opinion.

AP [4/8/2025 4:07 PM, Tim Sullivan and Mark Sherman, 48304K] reports the Supreme Court has allowed the Trump administration to use a 1798 wartime law, the Alien Enemies Act, to deport Venezuelan migrants it accuses of being gang members, ending the temporary halt on deportations ordered by a federal district judge. But the court also ruled that the administration must give Venezuelans it claims are gang members the chance to legally fight any deportation orders. The ruling did not address the constitutionality of the act. The Monday ruling came after the wartime law was used last month to fly more than 130 men accused of being members of the gang Tren de Aragua to El Salvador, where the U.S. has paid to have the men held in a notorious prison. The Trump administration argues that the gang has become an invading force. The Venezuelans deported under the act under the act did not get a chance to challenge the orders, and attorneys for many of the men say there’s no evidence they are gang members. It remains unclear how the ruling will affect those men. American Civil Liberties Union attorney Lee Gelernt said it was an “important victory” that people must now be given the right to challenge their removal orders.

AP [4/8/2025 4:04 PM, Lindsay Whitehurst and Alanna Durkin Richer] reports the Trump administration is touting a Supreme Court ruling allowing it to resume deportations under the Alien Enemies Act as a major victory, but the immigration fight is far from over. The divided court found that President Donald Trump can use the 18th century wartime law to deport Venezuelan migrants accused of being gang members to a notorious prison in El Salvador, a finding Trump called a "GREAT DAY FOR JUSTICE IN AMERICA!" in a social media post. But the justices also decided people accused of being members of the Tren de Aragua gang have to get a chance to challenge their removals — a finding their lawyers called an "important victory." The legal landscape could be more challenging, though, since it appears the people being held will have to file individually and in the district where they are detained. For many, that’s in Texas. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is also weighing another case against a Maryland man deported by mistake that could shed light on the fate of more than 100 men accused of being gang members who have already been sent to prison in El Salvador. The ruling doesn’t let the deportations under the law resume right away.

USA Today [4/8/2025 5:56 PM, Aysha Bagchi and Eduardo Cuevas, 75858K] reports that a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration from deporting migrants to a notorious Salvadoran mega-prison under an obscure 18th-century law was tossed out by the Supreme court Monday – but that doesn’t mean the Supreme Court was actually rubber-stamping the deportations. In mid-March, Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to expedite deportations. The administration zeroed in migrants alleging they were criminals or members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang the administration labeled a terrorist organization. Last month, officials placed the first of more than 200 Venezuelan migrants in El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, also known as CECOT. The prison has been criticized by human rights observers for its harsh and dangerous conditions, as well as its treatment of people held in custody without due process. Family members and advocates of the expelled Venezuelan migrants have said the evidence of their alleged ties to gangs is scant, as USA TODAY reported, focusing on tattoos of images such as crowns. The Supreme Court didn’t rule on whether the evidence in the government’s possession was enough to justify the deportations. Administration officials celebrated the ruling. Federal officials have said the U.S. paid the Salvadoran government $6 million to house the migrants. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has said the U.S. will play little to house them for one year that is "renewable." Kristi Noem, Homeland Security secretary, visited the facility in late March after officials flew the first migrants to El Salvador and placed them in the prison. CECOT doesn’t allow visitations or outdoor recreation. It’s located at the base of a volcano in a rural region southeast of the capital San Salvador.

FOX News [4/8/2025 8:00 AM, Breanne Deppisch, 46189K] reports a federal judge is weighing whether to hold Trump administration officials in civil contempt after they defied a court order blocking deportation flights last month – even as the Supreme Court on Monday handed the administration a temporary legal victory, allowing it to resume use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport illegal immigrants. President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda is colliding with the federal judiciary as his administration races to fulfill a central campaign promise: mass deportations. The aggressive pace – which has included the removal of alleged members of violent transnational gangs – has triggered a wave of legal challenges from critics who claim the administration is unlawfully ejecting migrants from the country. The high court’s 5–4 decision, which Trump praised on X as a "great day for justice in America," lifted a lower court’s injunction and allows deportations to resume for now, though with added due process protections. The unsigned, four-page ruling focused narrowly on the lower court’s order and permits the administration to invoke the wartime-era Alien Enemies Act to expedite removals. However, the ruling does little to halt the escalating feud between the Trump administration and U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who has signaled he may hold administration officials in contempt for defying his order last month to ground deportation flights. Boasberg is set to preside over a hearing Tuesday to address the administration’s use of the state secrets privilege to block the court from accessing information about the flights. It will mark the judge’s first opportunity to respond since the Supreme Court sided with Trump. Though Trump and his allies celebrated the Supreme Court’s intervention, the decision offers only a narrow and potentially short-lived reprieve. The ruling requires the administration to provide detainees slated for removal with proper notice and an opportunity to challenge their deportation in court. However, the justices said those legal challenges must be filed in Texas – not in Washington, D.C. – a jurisdictional shift that injects fresh uncertainty into the lower court proceedings. The decision drew a scathing dissent from Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who warned that the ruling would make it significantly harder for individuals to contest their removals on a case-by-case basis. "We, as a Nation and a court of law, should be better than this," she said.

The Hill [4/8/2025 4:05 PM, Rebecca Beitsch, 12829K] reports the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a suit on behalf of two Venezuelan migrants who expect to be deported under the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) and face possible removal to a Salvadoran prison. The suit is the first in the wake of a Supreme Court decision lifting a temporary restraining order from a lower court that had blocked the Trump administration from using the law to deport people. The two men were parties to the original suit from the ACLU seeking to bar the Trump administration from using the Alien Enemies Act as a basis for deportations. A late Monday ruling from the Supreme Court determined that the D.C. court did not have jurisdiction over the matter, saying that the men would have to sue where they were detained, promoting the suit in New York, where both men are being held in the Orange County Correctional Facility. But the decision also made clear the Trump administration must provide reasonable notice for Venezuelans to challenge their deportation — an instruction that comes as many of those deported have denied any affiliation with the gang. The new suit alleges the Trump administration has failed to do so now that it is free to resume deportation flights under the Alien Enemies Act.

Roll Call [4/8/2025 4:58 PM, Chris Johnson, 503K] reports civil liberties groups filed a new lawsuit Tuesday to challenge the Trump administration’s use of the 1798 law known as the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged members of a Venezuelan gang, the day after the Supreme Court clarified how migrants can bring those legal challenges. The American Civil Liberties Union and others asked a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to halt the removal of two migrants in detention in the area and stop President Donald Trump’s effort to use the old national security law against others in their situation. The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to move forward on enforcing a presidential proclamation to remove members of Tren de Aragua, but said the government must give them a chance to challenge their detention in the court with jurisdiction over where they are being held. The Washington Post [4/8/2025 6:57 PM, Maria Sacchetti and Marianne LeVine, 31735K] reports immigrant advocates re-upped their legal challenges Tuesday to the Trump administration’s use of a wartime powers act to swiftly deport alleged Venezuelan gang members, fighting the issue in court districts where immigrants are being held one day after the Supreme Court dismissed their nationwide legal challenge on technical grounds. As the Trump administration celebrated the Supreme Court ruling, lawyers for immigrants said the justices made clear they could challenge the expulsions in areas where immigrants are being detained pending deportation, and they filed the first lawsuit in Manhattan on behalf of two immigrants being held in New York. Others could follow in federal judicial districts that house thousands of detainees, such as Texas and Louisiana. In the lawsuit, lawyers asked the court to declare President Donald Trump’s proclamation last month invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to summarily deport immigrants “unlawful” and bar him from removing anyone from the court’s district under the act. U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, scheduled a hearing for 10 a.m. Wednesday in New York, and immediately barred the government from deporting the plaintiffs in the case, immigrants identified only by their initials, G.F.F. and J.G.O. The president secretly signed the proclamation targeting alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, enabling officers to deport more than 130 men without a hearing — or advance warning — to a mega-prison in El Salvador on March 15 in one of the most shocking and high-profile acts of Trump’s term. “Contrary to the administration’s wishful characterization, the Supreme Court emphatically rejected the government’s position that they could whisk people away without giving them an opportunity to challenge their removal to a foreign prison,” said American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Lee Gelernt, who is arguing the case. “The Court simply issued a technical ruling that the challenges should be by habeas corpus, but in no way remotely suggested the Trump administration would win these challenges.” A Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement Tuesday that the department “has vigorously defended President Trump’s policies and will continue to do so whenever challenged in federal court by rogue judges who think they can control the President’s foreign policy and national security agenda. The Supreme Court’s recent decisions have validated the DOJ’s ongoing arguments to this end in court.”

Breitbart [4/8/2025 8:09 PM, Staff, 2923K] Video: HERE reports on Tuesday’s "Alex Marlow Show," host and Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow discussed the Supreme Court’s deportation ruling. Marlow stated that "the most important part of this decision…it was clear from the context…the court’s opinion is that Boasberg went out of his jurisdiction. His jurisdiction should have been confined to a district, he’s a district judge, this case should have been brought in Texas. Instead, it was brought in D.C. … to judge-shop…this is the beginning of the court pushing back on the idea that these district judges can overwhelm the executive branch and have, essentially, a veto over President Trump’s executive actions.”

FOX News [4/8/2025 8:00 AM, Andrew Mark Miller, 46189K] reports that, as House Republicans move forward with legislation this week that they say would wrangle "rogue" judges across the country who have been blocking President Trump’s agenda, Fox News Digital spoke to GOP Rep. Abe Hamadeh about the importance of that quest. "If you look at what President Trump has been going through compared to previous presidents, it’s unheard of," Hamadeh told Fox News Digital about the dozens of injunctions already issued against Trump since taking office. "It’s unprecedented the amount of injunctions trying to stop President Trump’s America First agenda, which, overwhelmingly, the American people support, and to have one district court judge be able to determine the direction of our country is not what the judiciary is meant for." The No Rogue Rulings Act (NORRA), introduced by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., would limit district court judges’ ability to issue orders blocking Trump policies nationwide, and Republicans are expected to advance the legislation out of the House Rules Committee and vote this week. Hamadeh says he supports Issa’s bill, which Issa told Fox News Digital when he introduced it was introduced in February, will push back on the current judge-shopping climate in the United States that he says represents "judicial tyranny" and "weaponization of courts." Hamadeh explained that he has signed onto several efforts to impeach some of the judges who have issued nationwide injunctions, knowing that the efforts are unlikely to succeed but to send the message that the sentiment in Congress and with Trump voters is one that believes "enough is enough." One of those judges facing impeachment calls, U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg, issued an emergency order temporarily halting the Trump administration’s deportation flights under the Alien Enemies Act, which Hamadeh took particular issue with. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [4/8/2025 4:59 PM, Cameron Arcand, 46189K] reports legislation will be introduced Tuesday to expand the list of crimes that would require a migrant to be taken into custody. The "Safeguarding American Property Act" would add arson, vandalism and trespassing to the crimes that would require those in the country illegally to be placed into federal custody. Specifically, it would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act. The Montana Republican’s legislation is meant to help rural communities, which could have limited law enforcement resources to protect property.

NPR [4/8/2025 4:58 PM, Ximena Bustillo, 29983K] Audio: HERE reports these judges, and their staff, are caught in the crosshairs of Trump’s twin efforts to increase deportations — and reduce the size of the federal government.

The AP [4/8/2025 3:24 PM, Rebecca Santana, 48304K] reports the Department of Homeland Security is offering buyouts and early retirement options to staffers, as the Trump administration pushes forward with efforts to reduce and reshape the federal workforce, according to an email obtained by The Associated Press. In the email, titled "Reshaping of the DHS Workforce," Secretary Kristi Noem said the department would give staffers who want to leave three options: deferred resignation, early retirement and a voluntary separation payment. The email, which was sent Monday night, said the last option offers a lump-sum payment of up to $25,000 in some cases. Staff have until April 14 to decide on whether to apply for the offer. Homeland Security has so far avoided the widespread, sweeping layoffs seen in other agencies across the federal government. In fact, the department has been advertising on social media that it’s looking for more staff in areas critical to immigration enforcement, such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations. Some areas of the department have seen cuts, including at a center focused on reducing targeted violence and terrorism. Also, 200 probationary FEMA employees were fired earlier this year, and three offices designed to provide oversight of the department were gutted. Noem said that law enforcement officials would generally be exempt from the buyout offer. FOX News [4/8/2025 11:44 AM, Danielle Wallace, 46189K] reports "I am writing to share important news regarding new voluntary workforce transition programs approved for immediate implementation across the Department," Noem wrote, according to Politico. She said the options "reflect our commitment to aligning our workforce with the evolving mission needs while supporting the personal and professional goals of our dedicated employees.” "By offering these options, we intend to provide flexibility for employees who may be considering a change, retirement or new career opportunities while also supporting the Department’s operational readiness," Noem added, according to Axios. A DHS spokesperson told Axios about the voluntary exit offers that "the American people deserve a government that works for them, something President Trump has promised.” "Every dollar spent and position filled at DHS should be focused on our core mission of securing our homeland and keeping the American people safe," the spokesperson reportedly added. Noem is aiming to reduce the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) by as much as a third, and if the voluntary offers don’t adequately shrink the agency, "reduction in force" notices could come next, Axios reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. At a Cabinet meeting last month, Noem said she would "eliminate" the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), as the Trump administration moves to hand powers on disaster response back to the states.

Reported similarly:
(B) WJLA 24/7 News ON YOUR SIDE at 2 [4/8/2025 2:52 PM, Staff]

NextGov/FCW [4/8/2025 10:26 AM, Alexandra Kelley, 92K] reports the Department of Homeland Security halted all funding to grants and cooperative agreements housed in its Science and Technology Directorate, part of a larger transformation effort to realign the directorate’s mission areas of focus, according to two sources familiar with the decision. In a memo sent to S&T staff last week and obtained by Nextgov/FCW, titled “Termination of the Centers of Excellence,” DHS leadership called for cutting all S&T financial assistance. S&T’s Centers of Excellence program is a collaborative research effort composed of nine centers that pairs government resources with colleges and universities. The letter was signed by DHS Acting Undersecretary Julie Brewer and sent to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. As justification for terminating the COEs, the memo cited a risk of “potential misalignment with current strategic priorities” and conflict with new departmental guidance. “The purpose of this memorandum is to request your approval to terminate all current and pending grants and cooperative agreements administered by the Science and Technology Directorate, including all Centers of Excellence cooperative agreements and any other S&T grants managed through the DHS grants and Financial Assistance Division,” the memo said. While ongoing funding for select S&T programming has been halted, the Trump administration identified new national security priorities the directorate will focus on, according to a second memo obtained by Nextgov/FCW and dated March 4 that was also sent by Brewer.

Miami Herald [4/8/2025 8:51 AM, Veronica Egui Brito and Syra Ortiz Blanes, 3973K] reports that dozens of Democratic federal lawmakers slammed the Department of Homeland Security for shuttering key agency watchdogs amid reports of overcrowding and civil rights violations of immigrant detainees at the Krome Detention Center, among other facilities. In a letter Tuesday to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, 49 members of the House said the "closure of these offices raises serious questions about DHS’s transparency and compliance with the law." The lawmakers’ correspondence highlighted a Miami Herald investigation about detainees at Krome suffering overcrowding, guard-perpetrated mistreatment, and days-long confinement in small rooms with delayed access to medical care, showers, and legal counsel. The letter also comes as the Trump administration ramps up immigration arrests as part of its mass deportation efforts. The lawmakers said they were outraged that Homeland Security had "effectively closed" several oversight offices on March 21, including the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman, the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, and the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told NPR that said the reason for shutting down the offices was because they have obstructed immigration enforcement by "adding bureaucratic hurdles and undermining the mission," and that "rather than supporting law enforcement efforts, they often function as internal adversaries that slow down operations."

Washington Examiner [4/8/2025 2:58 PM, Christian Datoc, 2296K] reports White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to answer questions about how President Donald Trump’s yet-to-be-launched External Revenue Service will work, just hours before he’s set to enact a wave of tariffs on nearly 90 countries. In January, Trump signed an executive order directing Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to establish the ERS to collect revenue from the president’s tariffs and potentially even supplant the Internal Revenue Service. White House officials, including Leavitt, had previously stated the administration would deliver more details about the ERS when Trump’s tariffs went into effect but directed inquiries on the agency to the Department of Commerce when pressed for information Tuesday. Currently, U.S. Customs and Border Protection handles tariff oversight, including revenue collection and evasion enforcement. Experts warned the Washington Examiner after Trump’s "Liberation Day" announcement last week that CBP might not be fully equipped to take on the increase in responsibilities. CBP officials, however, told the Washington Examiner that the agency is fully equipped to continue its tariff oversight, including potentially housing the ERS itself.

Union Leader [4/8/2025 9:47 PM, Jonathan Phelps] reports a Dartmouth College doctoral student from China filed a lawsuit against federal authorities after his student immigration status was “unlawfully and abruptly terminated” last week, the ACLU of New Hampshire said. Xiaotian Liu, 26, worked with the American Civil Liberties Union and Shaheen & Gordon law firm to file the suit against Kristi Noem, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, and Todd Lyons, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in federal court. Dartmouth College is aware of two students who have had their records terminated in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), college spokeswoman Jana Barnello said in a statement. “Dartmouth is in direct contact with the two affected individuals, and, more broadly, is committed to helping impacted community members connect with legal and support resources,” she said. Students at other universities across the country have faced similar status changes. The college told Liu that the system could have found that he failed to maintain his status because of a criminal records check or that his visa was revoked, according to the lawsuit. Liu, who has been in New Hampshire since September 2023, has no criminal record, no traffic violations and has never participated in any protest, according to the lawsuit.

Miami Herald [4/8/2025 1:05 PM, Julia Marnin, 3973K] reports that an international student’s future in America is uncertain after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security suddenly revoked his student immigration status, jeopardizing his doctoral program at Dartmouth College and putting him at risk of deportation, a new federal lawsuit says. Xiaotian Liu, who’s been working toward a PhD degree since he enrolled as a doctoral student at Dartmouth in September 2023, is one of several students in the U.S. who had their F-1 student status revoked without warning or reason by DHS on April 4, according to the lawsuit filed on his behalf by the ACLU of New Hampshire and Shaheen & Gordon P.A. law firm. Now, the ACLU of New Hampshire and the law firm are challenging DHS’ authority, arguing that Liu’s student status was protected by the Student and Exchange Visitor program, which is managed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "Xiaotian’s dream of finishing his doctoral program and obtaining a Ph.D. at Dartmouth College is now in severe jeopardy because of DHS’s decision to abruptly terminate his F-1 student status under the (Student and Exchange Visitor) system without affirmatively notifying him or even his school on or about Friday, April 4, 2025," a federal complaint filed April 7 says. DHS and ICE didn’t immediately return McClatchy News’ request for comment April 8. With his student immigration status no longer valid, Liu could potentially be detained and deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the filing, which names DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons as defendants.

The AP [4/8/2025 3:18 PM, Anthony Izaguirre, 48304K] reports the Trump administration canceled $188 million in federal grants meant to reimburse New York City for sheltering migrants, saying the money was being spent to support illegal immigration and leading the city’s mayor to vow to fight the clawback. In a letter sent April 1 and shared with The Associated Press on Tuesday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency informed city officials that it was canceling the grants, which included roughly $80 million that the agency withdrew from city’s bank account in February. The latest move would require the city to return an additional $106 million that officials said was used to house and care for migrants. Mayor Eric Adams, whose administration has sued for the return of the initial $80 million, said his office would also fight the wider grant cancellations. In his letter to city officials, FEMA’s acting director, Cameron Hamilton, wrote that the grant program is inconsistent with Trump administration priorities and that "individuals receiving these services often have no legal status and are in the United States unlawfully." Blaze [4/8/2025 1:35 PM, Candace Hathaway, 1668K] reports that the action prompted Mayor Eric Adams (D) to take legal action against the administration, which remains ongoing. "Like their previous actions clawing back appropriated funds, these steps are unlawful, and the New York City Law Department is currently determining the best legal recourse to take to ensure that this money remains in New York City, where it was allocated and belongs," Adams stated. "As I have repeatedly said, New York City did not create this crisis — it was caused by decades of federal inaction and failure to pass comprehensive immigration reform," he added. Cameron Hamilton, FEMA acting administrator, stated that the funding is "not consistent" with Trump’s mission to clamp down on illegal immigration and secure the border. "The Department, consistent with President Trump’s direction, is focused on advancing the essential mission of enforcing immigration laws and securing the border," Hamilton stated. "Consequently, grant programs that support, or have the potential to support, illegal immigration through funding illegal activities or support illegal aliens that is not consistent with DHS’s enforcement focus do not effectuate the agency’s current practices," he said. The New York Times [4/9/2025 3:18 AM, Jeffery C. Mays, 330K] reports that the city’s lawsuit to recoup the $80 million is still active. “Like their previous actions clawing back appropriated funds, these steps are unlawful, and the New York City Law Department is currently determining the best legal recourse to take to ensure that this money remains in New York City, where it was allocated and belongs,” the mayor said in a statement. The saga is part of an effort by the Trump administration to claw back money granted to the city under FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program, which was designed to help cities and others groups who were helping migrants once they were released from federal custody after crossing the border to seek asylum. The federal government is allowed to recover grants if it determines that the payments were improper, according to the Congressional Research Service. The New York Post [4/8/2025 7:00 AM, Craig McCarthy and David Propper, 54903K] reports that the federal funding was first congressionally appropriated during the Biden presidency in response to New York’s migrant crisis, in which more than 230,000 asylum seekers had descended on Gotham. Adams called the federal plan "unlawful" and said the city’s law department is "currently determining the best legal recourse to take to ensure that this money remains in New York City, where it was allocated and belongs.” He added the grants from the feds are the "bare minimum New York taxpayers deserve," and the federal dollars are to reimburse the city for money already spent on migrants. "As I have repeatedly said, New York City did not create this crisis — it was caused by decades of federal inaction and failure to pass comprehensive immigration reform. Yet, New Yorkers — and residents of other major cities across the country — have been forced to pay the price," Adams said in a statement. "With minimal help from the federal government, our administration has skillfully managed an unprecedented migrant crisis, during which more than 234,000 people have entered our city seeking shelter, costing taxpayers over $7.5 billion in just three years.”

Washington Examiner [4/8/2025 12:31 PM, Ross O’Keefe, 2296K] reports that Trump administration officials notified New York City that it is cutting $188 million in federal funding for migrants and $325 million in disaster relief grants. Included in the $188 million is the $80 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency funds that the Trump administration previously clawed back from the city, citing its support for illegal immigrants. Another $106 million is now at risk, and an additional $37 million has been paused. The cuts leave the city with just $106 million of the original $223 million earmarked in its budget. New York Mayor Eric Adams blasted the efforts in a statement to the Washington Examiner, blaming Congress and President Donald Trump’s predecessors for failing to take action against illegal immigration. "Like their previous actions clawing back appropriated funds, these steps are unlawful, and the New York City Law Department is currently determining the best legal recourse to take to ensure that this money remains in New York City, where it was allocated and belongs," he said. "As I have repeatedly said, New York City did not create this crisis — it was caused by decades of federal inaction and failure to pass comprehensive immigration reform," Adams added. "Yet, New Yorkers — and residents of other major cities across the country — have been forced to pay the price.” "The Department, consistent with President Trump’s direction, is focused on advancing the essential mission of enforcing immigration laws and securing the border," acting FEMA administrator Cameron Hamilton wrote. "Consequently, grant programs that support, or have the potential to support, illegal immigration through funding illegal activities or support for illegal aliens that is not consistent with DHS’s enforcement focus do not effectuate the agency’s current priorities."

New York Times [4/8/2025 5:03 PM, Jonah E. Bromwich, 145325K] reports lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday renewed their efforts to prevent the Trump Administration from deporting Venezuelan migrants under a wartime powers act, asking a Manhattan judge to again block the White House from using the law. The filing followed a Supreme Court decision on Monday that had allowed the government to resume deportations, an early ruling on an issue that has set up a major clash between President Trump and the federal judiciary. The Supreme Court addressed few of the case’s substantive issues. Instead, it ruled on narrow procedural grounds: The justices said that, because the migrants were confined in Texas, the A.C.L.U.’s case should have been filed there, rather than in Washington. But on Tuesday, the A.C.L.U. filed a similar petition in a New York federal court, noting that two migrants who were subject to deportation were being held in a jail in Goshen.

Axios [4/8/2025 7:55 PM, Jeremy Duda and Jessica Boehm, 13163K] reports two high-profile members of President Trump’s administration — border czar Tom Homan and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — visited the Arizona Capitol on Tuesday. Homan’s trip comes as the administration continues its immigration and border security crackdowns, which he said have drastically reduced the number of people entering the country illegally. Homan told lawmakers and guests that Trump gave him three priorities — secure the border, carry out the largest deportation operation in U.S. history, and find hundreds of thousands of missing migrant children brought into the country. Homan touted a 94% drop in illegal border crossings under Trump — a statistic reflected in U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s reported decrease from February 2024 to February 2025. But "I’m not satisfied … I want more," he said of the administration’s immigration arrests from the dais as he addressed the Arizona Legislature. Homan said Trump has prioritized deporting people who are public safety or national security threats, but "if we find a non-criminal illegal alien, they’re coming, too." "If you’re in the country illegally, you should be looking over your shoulder ... It’s a crime," he warned.

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(B) NBC News Daily [4/8/2025 3:23 PM, Rachel Cole]

DailySignal [4/8/2025 3:18 PM, Jacob Adams, 495K] reports a border state congressman has introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives to recognize and declare members and affiliates of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua as "alien enemies" under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 and the criminal organization itself as a "terrorist organization perpetrating an invasion of the United States directly and at the direction of a foreign government." Biggs’ measure would make clear in law that the president "is exercising his constitutional and legal authority to repel an invasion of alien enemies by apprehending, restraining, securing, and removing members and affiliates of Tren de Aragua from the United States of America."

Los Angeles Times [4/8/2025 6:37 PM, Sandra McDonald, 13342K] reports California legislators announced several bills to protect the state’s immigrants being targeted by President Trump’s aggressive new policies, including federal enforcement raids at schools, hospitals and religious buildings. Members of the influential California Latino Legislative Caucus, made up of 35 Democratic lawmakers, announced the proposals to protect undocumented immigrants as among their top priorities in the upcoming session. "It’s unfortunate that at the national level, we are seeing deliberate efforts to crash our economy, deport our communities and continue to villainize our Latino communities, and these bills are efforts to combat all of that," state Sen. Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach), caucus chair, said at a news conference at the Capitol on Tuesday. The legislative package included Assembly Bill 1261 by Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D-Alameda), which would establish a right to legal representation for unaccompanied children in federal immigration court proceedings. In March, the Trump administration ended a federal contract that provides legal representation to nearly 26,000 migrant children who entered the country without a parent or guardian. The decision was criticized immigration attorneys, who said it would leave the children, many of whom do not read or speak English or are too young to read or speak at all, vulnerable to rapid deportation. A federal judge in Northern California last week ordered the Trump administration to temporarily restore legal funding for migrant children in immigration court. A separate bill by Gonzalez, SB 48, would expand existing laws and require school officials to deny federal immigration officials access to school records and school grounds without a judicial warrant. It also keeps local law enforcement from working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials near school grounds. "California’s school resources and spaces should be dedicated to educating young minds and should never be utilized to tear apart families," Gonzalez said, adding that immigration actions around schools cause a chilling effect on school attendance. Legislation proposed by Sen. Sasha Renée Peréz (D-Alhambra), SB 98, would require schools and universities to notify students, staff and parents when immigration officers are on campus. "This bill will give our communities the peace of mind that they deserve while also maintaining the state’s commitment that schools are safe places," Renée Peréz said.

Telemundo [4/8/2025 6:42 PM, Dan De Luce, Ken Dilanian and Courtney Kube, 11K] reports President Donald Trump’s administration is considering launching drone strikes against drug cartels in Mexico as part of an ambitious effort to combat drug gangs that traffic narcotics across the southern border, according to six current and former U.S. officials in the military, law enforcement and intelligence fields with knowledge of the matter. Discussions between White House officials, the Defense and Intelligence Department, who are still at an early stage, have included possible drone strikes against cartel figures and their logistics networks in Mexico with the cooperation of the Mexican government, the sources said. Still, the government has not made a final decision or reached a final agreement on how to counter the cartels. And the unilateral covert action, without Mexico’s consent, has not been ruled out and could be an option of last resort, the sources said. It is unclear whether U.S. officials have raised the possibility of drone strikes on the Mexican government. If Mexico and the United States come together with drone strikes or other action, it would not be the first time they have launched a joint effort to confront the cartels, nor would it be the first time the U.S. military and intelligence have worked in concert with the application of the law and the Mexican army. But what the Trump administration is contemplating could be unprecedented in both the number of U.S. personnel involved and the use of U.S. drones to bomb the cartel’s personnel and assets. Government officials and nominees have repeatedly refused to rule out drone strikes in public statements.

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Los Angeles Times [4/8/2025 6:29 PM, Patrick J. McDonnell, 13342K] reports amid reports that the Trump administration is considering drone strikes against cartels, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum reiterated her staunch opposition to any such military action. "We do not agree with any kind of intervention or interference," Sheinbaum told reporters Tuesday at her daily morning news conference. "This has been very clear: We coordinate, we collaborate, [but] we are not subordinate and there is no meddling in these actions.” The president’s comments, reaffirming her already-stated views on the sensitive topic, come as various reports have suggested the Trump administration may be considering aerial strikes on cartel targets — and that the administration is prepared to act unilaterally if Washington cannot secure Mexican support. On Tuesday NBC News cited six current and former U.S. officials saying that the Trump administration was weighing drone strikes in Mexico "to combat criminal gangs trafficking narcotics across the southern border.” The Trump White House has already designated six Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, a move that Mexico opposed vociferously. Many in Mexico viewed the designation as moving the United States toward its first military strike on neighboring Mexico in more than a century. Sheinbaum has agreed to stepped-up military and Central Intelligence Agency surveillance flights over Mexico in a bid to gather intelligence on cartel operations, officials have said. But military strikes would probably cross a red line and could trigger a sharp deterioration in U.S.-Mexico relations — and, experts say, could result in curtailed cooperation in battling illegal immigration and drug smuggling, and resolving other cross-border issues. "Unilateral U.S. strikes on Mexican soil would be devastating for the bilateral relations and could be detrimental to the objective of fighting drug cartels," Gustavo A. Flores-Macías, professor of government at Cornell University, wrote via email. "The Mexican government would face tremendous domestic pressure to respond in the strongest possible terms — including severing diplomatic relations with the U.S. and collapsing binational cooperation on migration and security, among other topics," wrote Flores-Macías. Sheinbaum has won widespread praise at home and abroad for her administration’s "cool-headed" talks with the Trump administration on the contentious issue of tariffs. The White House has imposed duties on imports of automobiles, steel and aluminum from Mexico, but has largely maintained the free-trade regimen of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, signed in 2020, during Trump’s first White House term. Under the leadership of Sheinbaum, who took office in October, Mexico has stepped up actions against organized crime, arresting scores of alleged traffickers, making record busts of fentanyl and other illicit drugs, and shipping 29 purported cartel capos to the United States to face trial. She has quietly dropped the "hugs not bullets" approach of her predecessor and mentor, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who reduced U.S.-Mexico coordination on anti-drug efforts and was widely criticized for not taking a more aggressive stance toward cartels that dominate wide swaths of Mexican territory. Trump has praised Sheinbaum’s actions, calling her a "marvelous woman." But the U.S. president has still insisted that the United States should "wage war" against drug cartels.

AP [4/8/2025 7:08 PM, Lolita C. Baldor, 48304K] reports a top Pentagon official said Tuesday that special operations forces do not have the authority to launch drone attacks at drug cartels in Mexico, even though President Donald Trump has designated them foreign terrorist organizations. Colby Jenkins, who is currently working as the assistant defense secretary for special operations, told a Senate committee that Trump’s designation doesn’t automatically give the U.S. military the authority to take direct action against the cartels. Under questioning from Sen. Elissa Slotkin, a Michigan Democrat, Jenkins said it “helps us unlock the doors” for a broader government approach to the drug problem. Slotkin noted that Elon Musk, a top adviser to Trump on overhauling the federal government, has said the foreign terrorist designation means the U.S. can conduct drone strikes against the cartels. Musk posted that on Feb. 19 on X. Jenkins said it doesn’t, but that now the military can provide options and be ready if Trump needs more done to protect the border. U.S. Northern Command has increased manned surveillance flights along the U.S.-Mexico border to monitor drug cartels and the movement of fentanyl and is increasing its intelligence sharing with Mexico from those flights, Gen. Gregory Guillot told senators in February. There are also unmanned U.S. drones conducting surveillance over Mexico’s airspace, according to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.

New York Post [4/8/2025 1:26 PM, Jennie Taer and Chris Nesi, 54903K] reports that Kristi Noem said tens of thousands more criminal migrants could be rounded up and sent to El Salvador’s brutal Center for Terrorism Confinement (CECOT) prison following a ruling by the Supreme Court this week. "You’ll see us continuing to partner with El Salvador. CECOT has the capacity for 40,000 individuals, and [El Salvador President Nayib Bukele] has said they’ll take as many as we want to send," the Department of Homeland Security secretary said. "There’s 14,000 there now, and he said he plans to build another prison right next to it." The revelation came during a federal raid in Phoenix Tuesday morning led by Noem in which three convicted felon migrants were busted. Noem told The Post that there’s plenty of room in the notorious hellhole prison, and that the Trump administration won’t shy away from using the 1798 Alien Enemies Act after getting the green light from the high court on Monday. "We’re going to continue using that act in order to return people from these terrorist organizations to face consequences and be removed from our country," she said. Noem also highlighted new provisions of the Alien Registration Act of 1940, which are set to go into effect on April 11. The law requires foreign nationals who have been in the US 30 days or longer to register with the federal government or be subject to fines, imprisonment or deportation. As a result of that act, she said, "everyone in this country illegally" will be subject to criminal charges. She also highlighted that following the expiration of the Alien Registration Act, "everyone in this country illegally" is now subject to criminal charges.

Daily Wire [4/8/2025 4:34 PM, Nathan Gay] reports following a successful federal raid in Phoenix Tuesday morning, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem revealed that tens of thousands more criminal migrants are likely to be sent to El Salvador’s brutal CECOT prison. “You’ll see us continuing to partner with El Salvador. CECOT has the capacity for 40,000 individuals, and [El Salvador President Nayib Bukele] has said they’ll take as many as we want to send,” Noem stated after the DHS operation in which three convicted felon migrants were busted. According to Noem, “There’s 14,000 there now” and the President of El Salvador “plans to build another prison right next to it,” per the New York Post. A crucial component in the Trump administration’s deportation strategy has been the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, which significantly expedites the deportation process for suspected gang members, giving the president significant authority to protect the country against “invasion or predatory incursion.” The DHS Secretary also emphasized that new provisions under the Alien Registration Act of 1940 will take effect on April 11, requiring foreign nationals who have resided in the United States for more than 30 days to register with the federal government or risk severe penalties. “Everyone should know that because we’re enforcing the Alien Registration Act, if you’ve been here longer than 30 days and haven’t registered with the government, we are now coming after you criminally,” Noem warned. She added that violations could result in fines “up to $1,000 per day” and stressed that federal agencies would now fully enforce the law “to make sure American citizens are the only ones afforded the rights of being in this country.”

NPR [4/9/2025 3:00 AM, Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, Gene Demby, Christina Cala, Courtney Stein, Dalia Mortada, Luis Trelles, Xavier Lopez, Jess Kung, B.A. Parker, Veralyn Williams, 29983K] reports one of President Trump’s main campaign promises was carrying out mass deportations. Now, the administration has removed legal protections for people from certain countries, like Venezuela, invoked a 18th century wartime law, and arrested immigrants regardless of their legal status or criminal record. We look at how the Trump administration is testing the U.S. legal system to make good on its promise, starting with the story of one family trying to find their 18-year-old son after immigration agents showed up at their doorstep. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

Washington Examiner [4/8/2025 8:11 PM, Brady Knox, 2296K] reports the United States has lowered El Salvador’s travel advisory to its lowest level in another sign of warm relations between the two countries. The travel advisory change was long a concern for El Salvador as the country looks to boost its new tourism industry. Throughout most of the Biden administration, El Salvador was granted a Level 3 travel advisory, "Reconsider Travel," the second-highest rating possible. On Nov. 12, the advisory was reduced to Level 2 following protests from the newly formed congressional El Salvador Caucus. On Tuesday, the Trump administration gave it the lowest rating possible, Level 1, reflecting the growing alliance between Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele and the new administration. "Keeping Americans safe overseas is our highest priority. President @nayibbukele’s leadership has been crucial in improving the security of his country for foreign travelers," Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote in a post on X on Tuesday. "Gang activity, violent crime, and murders in El Salvador have significantly dropped. The Trump Administration updated our Travel Advisory.” Bukele was quick to celebrate the change, hailing it as the "U.S. State Department’s travel gold star.” He shared an analysis from Santander, highlighting El Salvador’s "impressive tourism potential.” "Now, with the updated travel advisory from @StateDept, unmatched security, new infrastructure, and fresh destinations in the works, we’re aiming for new all-time highs," Bukele said, attaching a rocket emoji. The El Salvador Caucus took credit for the move in a post on X, telling possible tourists, "Enjoy your vacation to surf city!". Homeland security adviser Stephen Miller joined the celebrations on X. "El Salvador is now certified as one of the safest tourism destinations on planet earth. Congrats @nayibbukele!" he said. El Salvador’s ambassador to the United States, Milena Mayorga, said the change was a "recognition of the achievements" of Bukele, adding they were working on a similar change with Australia, Japan, and Switzerland.

New York Times [4/8/2025 3:23 AM, Rebecca Hanson, David Smilde and Verónica Zubillaga, 330K] reports the Trump administration last month deported scores of Venezuelan men to El Salvador, sending them to a maximum-security prison for gang members. The administration claimed that most of the men were members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, a group that, according to the executive order decreeing the deportations, is “conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States.” Tren de Aragua is not invading America. While the research organization InSight Crime, which has tracked the gang for years, has found that it does have a limited presence in the United States, researchers have seen no evidence that it has organized cells in the country that cooperate with one another, much less receive directions from abroad. The exaggerated government claims and ensuing public concern about the group’s activities in the United States amount to a classic moral panic, in which a handful of crimes are cited by politicians as evidence of an urgent threat to society. To be sure, Tren de Aragua is a dangerous group, responsible for horrendous crimes in Venezuela and elsewhere in South America. The three of us have spent decades studying violence in Venezuela precisely because we understand its ability to destroy lives, families and neighborhoods. But central to creating a more secure world is getting the facts, causes and solutions right. So far, many American politicians, police officers and journalists have failed to do so, and instead have perpetuated significant misconceptions about Tren de Aragua. The biggest misconception concerns the group’s organizational capacity. Tren de Aragua was recently designated a terrorist organization by the United States, alongside much more established groups like the Mara Salvatrucha in El Salvador and cartels in Mexico. Calling criminal groups terrorist is always a stretch since they usually do not aim at changing government policy.

Breitbart [4/8/2025 2:38 PM, John Binder, 2923K] reports President Donald Trump’s administration is looking to hugely expand detention space for illegal aliens, a move that will cost billions but is still far cheaper than the annual cost of illegal immigration to American taxpayers. A federal proposal by the Trump administration, detailed in the New York Times, suggests that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is seeking to open new detention facilities across the United States that agents could readily use to hold arrested illegal aliens. That $45 billion in spending over two years is vastly less than the annual cost of illegal immigration to American taxpayers, which totals more than $150 billion.

Washington Post [4/8/2025 7:35 PM, Robin Givhan, 31735K] reprots in the complicated calculus of immigration, asylum and visas, life-altering decisions now can seem predicated on whether the Trump administration likes the looks of you or, put simply, does not. Family man? Hard worker? Nonviolent offender? Complete unknown? So what. But one thing that most certainly matters for those presenting themselves at the border — or simply going about their life as best as they can once they’ve been given the green light to be in this country legally — is having forearms covered in tattoos. The U.S. government can’t get over tattoos as a kind of bodily evidence of membership in violent gangs. The administration displays them at every turn as if they are all smoking guns of guilt. To be clear, some gang members are known to etch out their allegiances on their body, just as others signify their violent affiliations through their attire. Sometimes those symbols are read accurately. Sometimes they are not. Sometimes they remain in dispute. Just ask President Donald Trump’s own Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. He knows what it’s like to be demonized for tattoos. His have been interpreted as celebrating white nationalism and Islamaphobia. Hegseth begs to differ. The tattoos of the greatest concern are those of crowns, which the Trump administration has linked to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, although many experts have cautioned that tattoos are not a reliable indicator of anything. Nonetheless, the government has presented pictures of detainees with these crown tattoos in immigration court as evidence that they are the “bad hombres” about whom Trump began warning in 2016. And that circumstantial evidence, the government has argued, gave the administration license to banish these men to an El Salvador mega prison. This seems to be the case with Andry Hernandez Romero. The Venezuelan hairdresser had sought asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego. Romero, the administration argued, was part of a Venezuelan gang that was essentially at war with the United States. The evidence against Romero boiled down to the tattoos. The gang Tren de Aragua does favor crown ink. But so, too, do those who simply like tattoos. Or, as Romero did, work in the world of beauty pageants.

NPR [4/8/2025 2:28 PM, Allison Sherry and Martin Kaste, 29983K] reports that the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed the Trump administration a victory, backing the legality of the administration’s effort to deport accused members of the Venezuelan criminal gang known as Tren de Aragua under the Alien Enemies Act. The court also required the government to give the Venezuelans "reasonable time" to contest their deportations. Federal officials have framed the gang as a national scourge and an "invasion," something gang experts say is likely overstated. To justify the deportations, the federal government has relied heavily on clothing and tattoos to identify people as Tren de Aragua, for purposes of summary deportation — which eliminates the right to appear before a judge or to apply for legal status — under the Alien Enemies Act, according to court filings. The global roster of Tren de Aragua gang members is unclear -- though the administration has cited the arrest of migrants with past alleged connections as reason for the drive to remove Tren de Aragua from the United States. Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, in a statement to NPR took issue with experts and local officials who argue the gang’s presence in the U.S. is overstated. "You should ask the families of those killed, raped and maimed by gang members if they think the threat these terrorists pose to Americans are ‘overstated,’" she said. "ICE’s mission is public safety," ICE Denver Field Office Director Robert Guadian said in a post on X. "Criminal aliens will not be allowed to roam free."

CNN [4/8/2025 1:42 PM, Alisha Ebrahimji, 22100K] reports a mother and her three children are on their way back home to New York following their detention by immigration enforcement officials last month at a dairy farm, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Monday. The third grader, two teenagers and their mother, who have not been named publicly, were taken into custody March 27 as officials carried out a search warrant at the farm for a person accused of having “child sexual abuse materials,” Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, wrote on X Monday. During the operation at Old McDonald’s Farm in Sackets Harbor, officials “encountered seven additional illegal aliens on the premises,” including the mother and her children,” McLaughlin said. The mother and her children were taken to the Karnes County Detention Facility in Texas, nearly 1,800 miles away, according to the New York Immigration Coalition.

NPR [4/8/2025 1:41 PM, Bill Chappell, 29983K] reports when the three children come back to Sackets Harbor Central School, they’ll find signs and decorations celebrating their return — and the end of an ordeal that started in late March. "We’ve had third graders bringing in cards and leaving it on their classmate’s desk," principal Jamie Cook told NPR. "And the third grade class has created a large welcome back sign that they have hung in their classroom." Hundreds of people — kids, parents, teachers and neighbors — have called for federal authorities to bring the students and their mother back. And now, their call has been heeded. They were being held in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Karnes County, Texas. The children and their mother weren’t charged with a crime; they were swept up during an operation to arrest a South African man accused of using his cell phone to share child pornography. The criminal search warrant centered on Old McDonald’s Farm, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement to NPR. The children’s mother works at the family-owned farm and lives nearby. During the operation there, Homeland Security says, officers "arrested seven illegal aliens, including a mother and her three children."

CNN [4/8/2025 9:43 PM, Taylor Romine, 908K] reports an annual festival in Philadelphia dedicated to celebrating Mexican culture and history has been cancelled, with organizers citing fear that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement might be present and target attendees. Since President Donald Trump’s inauguration, ICE has detained thousands of people, using aggressive methods like the rarely-used Alien Enemies Act to deport them quickly and chilling the immigrant community. El Carnaval de Puebla, which saw about 15,000 spectators from across the US and Mexico in 2024, has been held in April for the past 18 years. But the community "does not feel safe" attending a large gathering this year, organizer Olga Renteria said. People in the community, regardless of if they have legal status or are undocumented, are afraid that ICE will detain people in the crowd, she told CNN. "We are not going to take a chance," Renteria said. "Everyone is being cautious, no celebrating, no big gatherings.” Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker’s office declined to comment as the event is not city sponsored. The festival had also been cancelled in 2017, months after Trump first took office when organizers were worried about the community’s safety from ICE. In 2017, ICE told CNN its "actions are targeted and lead driven" and it doesn’t "conduct sweeps or raids that target aliens indiscriminately.” "We don’t want any incidents. There’s a little bit of fear in the community," organizer Edgar Ramirez told CNN in 2017. "It’s sad to cancel the event, but we don’t want difficulties for anyone.” Organizers are considering a smaller event for the community to celebrate, but details have not been officially decided, she said. In the meantime, she encourages those who wanted to come for the festival to still visit Philadelphia and its many Mexican businesses.

Washington Examiner [4/8/2025 2:20 PM, Anna Giaritelli, 2296K] reports that Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) is weighing whether to sign into law a recently passed bill from the Maryland state legislature that would block federal immigration officers from accessing parts of schools, libraries, and state government buildings, his office told the Washington Examiner. The Maryland Senate passed Senate Bill 828 by a vote of 34-13 shortly after 11:45 p.m. local time Monday, advancing a state effort to safeguard child and adult illegal immigrants from arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at sensitive locations. The bill prohibits "certain schools, libraries, and units of State government that operate at certain sensitive locations from allowing certain federal personnel to access certain areas, subject to certain exceptions." It doesn’t specify whether it will honor ICE’s administrative warrants. "As Governor Moore reviews the hundreds of bills put forward this session, he will continue to work with the State Legislature, local leaders, and all partners involved to ensure that we are passing legislation that will make Maryland safer, more affordable, more competitive, and the state that serves," Carter Elliott, IV, Moore’s press secretary, said Tuesday when asked whether the governor would sign the bill into law. The legislation also includes House Bill 1222, which would strip local police’s ability to work with federal immigration authorities through the 287(g) program in arresting and detaining illegal immigrants. ICE did not respond to a request for comment.

NBC News [4/8/2025 5:16 PM, Matt Lavietes, 44742K] reports police believed Kilmar Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang for two reasons: He was wearing a Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie, and an unnamed informant had told them so. The two pieces of evidence were not enough to keep Abrego Garcia in federal immigration custody in 2019, when authorities in Maryland arrested him, according to a court filing last month. Nearly six years later, they appear to be the basis for shipping him to a foreign megaprison with no legal recourse. The Trump administration admitted last week that his deportation was an "administrative error" due to his protected status, but refused to commit to bringing him home.

Breitbart [4/8/2025 7:12 PM, Warner Todd Huston, 2923K] reports the Maryland legislature quietly dropped plans to prohibit state law enforcement agencies from working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The bill to prevent 287(g) agreements between local law enforcement agencies and ICE was filed in March as a reply to the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, according to CBS News. A 287(g) agreement authorizes the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to deputize local law enforcement to act as adjuncts to help enforce federal immigration policy. Local officials receive training in interviewing migrants to determine status, access, and to use federal computer systems to input data. They can also be used to serve warrants and notices to appear. Like Democrats elsewhere, Maryland legislators sought to prevent the cooperation between local authorities and federal officers and proposed the Maryland Values Act, Protecting Sensitive Locations Act, and the Maryland Data Privacy Act to prevent it. Several Maryland sheriff’s offices have already entered into such agreements with federal officials, according to the Baltimore Banner.

FOX News [4/8/2025 7:18 PM, Greg Wehner, 46189K] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained a man in Maryland as local investigators searched for his girlfriend, who was last seen March 31. The Charles County Sheriff’s Office said it is investigating the disappearance of Lesbia Mileth Ramirez Guerra, 23, of Waldorf, Maryland. While Guerra was last seen on the night of March 31 at her home on Adams Court, her boyfriend, who the sheriff’s office has not named, reported her missing on April 2. Along with living with several other individuals at the residence, Guerra also reportedly lived with her boyfriend, who is the father of her two children. During the investigation, detectives reportedly learned about "unusual and suspicious activity" at the residence on the day Guerra was last seen, and the sheriff’s office said it believes foul play is suspected in her disappearance. Detectives executed a search warrant on Guerra’s home, but she was not found during the search. But what they did find were federal documents belonging to Guerra’s boyfriend, which the sheriff’s office said appeared to be counterfeit. Detectives reached out to ICE to verify the boyfriend’s identity and learned the documents in the home were fraudulent and that he was not in the country legally. As a result, ICE agents responded and took the boyfriend into custody.

Dallas Morning News [4/8/2025 12:16 PM, Matt Kyle] reports a North Texas man was arrested last week and faces both federal and state charges after police said he made several posts on social media threatening to shoot U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Robert Wilson King, 35, also allegedly made posts wishing death and harm on government officials, including President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., investigators said in a federal arrest affidavit. In several posts, King compared the U.S. government and government officials to Nazi Germany. In another post, King allegedly wrote that the “current director of the FBI” should be shot and killed. “I hope he sees this I’m so serious. I dare you to arrest me...” King wrote in the post. King was arrested Wednesday on a third-degree felony charge of terroristic threat in Kaufman County. He also faces a federal charge of transmitting an interstate threat. He remained in the Kaufman County jail on Tuesday, and records show a hold from the U.S. Marshals was added to his charges on Friday.

FOX News [4/8/2025 6:03 AM, Elizabeth Pritchett, 46189K] reports an illegal immigrant convicted of killing his own child is in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody after he encountered ICE officers in a Montana prison last month. Carlos Ambriz, a 53-year-old Mexican national, made contact with ICE officers while serving a 40-year sentence in the Montana State Prison for a deliberate homicide conviction and was served a notice to appear before an immigration judge. He was arrested near his residence in Catoosa, Oklahoma, on March 25, ICE said. Josh Johnson, acting director for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Dallas Field Office, said Ambriz poses a "significant danger" to the community, especially because he was convicted of killing his own child. "This subject’s criminal record underscores the significant danger he represents to our community, particularly with the serious charge and conviction for killing his own child," Johnson said. "Our officers remain committed to enhancing public safety by apprehending and removing criminal aliens who violate immigration laws.” Ambriz will remain in ICE custody until he is sent back to Mexico, and his upcoming deportation will not be his first. He was ordered removed on July 3, 1999, by an immigration judge near Seattle, Washington. He was physically deported to Mexico near the Paseo Del Norte, Texas, Bridge on Jan. 26, 2006, according to ICE.

San Francisco Chronicle [4/8/2025 8:16 PM, Aidin Vaziri, 5046K] reports Avelo Airlines will cease its operations at Sonoma County’s Charles M. Schulz Airport on May 1, just one year after launching services in the North Bay. The decision comes in the wake of the Houston-based budget carrier’s recent agreement with the Department of Homeland Security to conduct deportation flights for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from Mesa, Ariz., starting next month. "We realize this is a sensitive and complicated topic," Andrew Levy, Avelo’s founder and CEO, said in a statement. "After significant deliberations, we determined this charter flying will provide us with the stability to continue expanding our core scheduled passenger service and keep our more than 1,100 Crewmembers employed for years to come.” The airline will operate flights using three Boeing 737-800 aircraft, which will be based at Mesa Gateway Airport. In a job listing for flight attendants, Avelo noted that the "flights will be both domestic and international trips to support DHS’s deportation efforts," adding that "our DHS charter service may consist of local day trips and/or overnights.” Avelo will continue three of its eight routes that currently operate from the Bay Area’s smallest commercial airport in Santa Rosa, but these will now depart from Burbank. The remaining routes include Las Vegas, Palm Springs and Bend/Redmond, Ore., with the latter two being seasonal. The airline is discontinuing flights to Boise, Salt Lake City, Ontario (Riverside County) and Kalispell, Mont.

New York Post [4/8/2025 3:00 PM, Jared Downing and Richard Pollina, 54903K] reports the Los Angeles area soccer coach charged with the murder of a 13-year-old player whose body was found in a ditch more than 70 miles from his home is reportedly an illegal migrant from El Salvador — who is also accused of sexually assaulting another teen boy. Mario Edgardo Garcia Aquino, 43, was residing in the United States illegally when he allegedly killed teen Oscar Omar Hernandez, "multiple law enforcement sources" told Bill Melugin of Fox News. Hernandez "was an innocent child who was exploited and killed by this depraved illegal alien who should have never been in this country," Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told the outlet. The LA County Sheriff’s Office, District Attorney’s Office and Los Angeles Police Department have not officially confirmed Garcia Aquino’s immigration status, but unidentified sources also told the Los Angeles Times that the accused killer is in the country illegally.

CNN [4/8/2025 4:57 PM, David Culver, Abel Alvarado, Evelio Contreras and Rachel Clarke, 22131K] reports men deported by the United States to El Salvador’s notorious Cecot prison are living in "the same" conditions as convicted gangsters, prison director Belarmino García said on Tuesday, during an exclusive tour for CNN, the first US news organization to visit the facility since the latest deportation flight. That would mean the deportees’ heads have been shaved and they are kept in communal cells holding up to 100 men each for 23½ hours a day. Two sources told CNN the situation is less regimented for the deportees, but the facilities are the same. The cells have no privacy, and no furniture beyond rows of stacked metal bunks with no mattresses or pillows. Some 278 men have been deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador, accused of being members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang or Salvadorans who are said to be part of MS-13. But they also include Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a sheet metal worker and father-of-three from Maryland, who was mistakenly removed from the US through an "administrative error."

USA Today [4/8/2025 3:25 PM, Trevor Hughes, 75858K] reports the Trump administration has revoked hundreds of international student visas across the country, setting off a desperate scramble for them to leave the United States within days. Universities have reported some students being forced to leave immediately, in many cases after discovering their visas were cancelled in the federal Student Exchange and Visitor Information System, or via an unexpected text or email. The cancellations reflect a small percentage of the estimated 1.5 million international students studying in the United States, but have sent shockwaves through the collegiate community. Some of the cancellations appear to be connected to things as minor as roommate disputes or as off-campus traffic tickets, university officials said, while others appear to be connected to pro-Palestinian protest participation.

Wall Street Journal [4/8/2025 7:32 PM, Jsoeph Pisani, Michelle Hackman, and Sara Randazzo, 646K] reports colleges and universities across the country say the visas of some international students have been revoked in recent days without notice, causing confusion on campuses and panic among students, some of whom have filed lawsuits. Schools including Columbia University, Harvard University and University of California, San Diego, said they weren’t told the visas were being revoked or even given a reason why. The schools found out by monitoring their databases of international students, or in some cases because immigration agents have made arrests. At least 300 visas had been revoked, Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed last month, adding that the department would continue to identify student visa holders who it felt had abused its parameters. There are roughly 1.1 million international student visa-holders in the U.S. When international students lose their visas, they are immediately vulnerable to deportation.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in an interview Tuesday that universities should do more to vet whether students have any terrorist leanings or “are not necessarily supportive of the United States” before they come to campuses. She cited the increased activity by Rubio in taking away student visas. The Trump administration has been escalating its crackdown on international students, which began with arrests of several students who participated in pro-Palestine protests. Though the number of visas revoked remains relatively small, recent cases have created widespread fear among foreign students that they could be targeted for unpredictable reasons.

Axios [4/8/2025 2:03 PM, Steph Solis, 13163K] reports that the feds are expanding their revocation of student visas nationwide, sidestepping the regulations governing visa status, attorneys say. The big picture: The Trump administration has moved beyond penalizing international students over pro-Palestinian activism and stripped scores of students’ visas without explanation, university officials and attorneys say. A student at Emerson College and a doctoral candidate at Dartmouth College who never partook in protests or had any criminal record were among those stripped of their visas. Catch up quick: Schools across the country, including Boston University, Emerson and Harvard University, learned that some students abruptly had their visas revoked without explanation. This comes weeks after the Trump administration made international headlines for detaining Columbia University graduates and Tufts University student Rumeysa Öztürk over pro-Palestinian activism. The move surprised university officials, who usually are the ones who start the revocation process if they suspect a student violated the terms of their visa. State of play: International students and their attorneys are scrambling to find out why their visas were revoked and how to avoid meeting the same fate as Öztürk and other detainees. In the weeds: Khan and attorneys representing Liu, the Dartmouth student, say another unusual factor is that the Department of Homeland Security terminated the visa statuses.

Bloomberg Law News [4/8/2025 10:48 AM, Andrew Kreighbaum, 120K] reports that a spree of visa cancellations by the Trump administration imperils enrollment of foreign students across the country and threatens the long-term international recruitment that is critical to colleges and employers in the US. The State Department in recent weeks began quietly revoking hundreds of F-1 student visas. Many of those terminations were linked to students’ participation in campus protests or pro-Palestinian activism, but others may be based on a variety of infractions—even if they were never convicted of a crime. That’s been followed by Homeland Security officials deleting records in the Student Exchange Visitor Program, attorneys and college officials say, effectively ending their F-1 status. Colleges and foreign students, who may not even be directly notified of the terminations, are scrambling to figure out their options. Higher education associations are pressing the Trump administration for clarity on its student visa policies. The uncertainty students suddenly face could stymie growth in international enrollment that had slowed even before Trump’s election, threatening the bottom line of schools that rely on their tuition money. "They want certainty that they’ll be able to stay here and finish their degree," said Sarah Spreitzer, vice president and chief of staff for government relations at the American Council on Education. Colleges in many cases are having to identify those terminations themselves. The American Council on Education and other higher ed groups requested a briefing on visa policies in an April 4 letter to Rubio and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.

Breitbart [4/8/2025 7:53 AM, Alana Mastrangelo, 2923K] reports Harvard is reportedly advising foreign students to reconsider travel outside of the United States, as well as warning them of the consequences that may stem from pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel protests. During a "Know Your Rights" webinar on Wednesday, Harvard International Office Director of Immigration Services Maureen Martin and Harvard Representation Initiative Staff Attorney Jason Corral discussed "hypothetical scenarios" with students, according to a report by the Harvard Crimson. After being asked about international students engaging in protests, Corral said he would advise foreigners to take more caution during President Donald Trump’s second term, claiming, "The difference is we have seen situations where it seems as though people’s visas are being revoked" due to protests. Corral also suggested that international students go through their previous public statements and academic work in order to assess their travel risk. "If you have a bunch of photos on your phone that suggest something that may be contrary to what they deem as a foreign policy interest and a reason for why they’re revoking these student visas — pictures of protests or something like that — that could go into their discretionary decision-making too," he said. But deleting images or messages could also raise suspicion among Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents, Corral added. Corral also advised students to "consider for themselves how essential their travel is and do a risk assessment based on the importance of the travel," claiming he feels "very concerned about international students traveling at this time.”

San Francisco Chronicle [4/8/2025 8:22 PM, Anna Bauman, St. John Barned-Smith and Bob Egelko, 5046K] reports federal officials have terminated visa eligibility for at least 121 international students across at least a dozen college campuses in California since last week, a move that immigration advocates denounced as an unlawful attempt to intimidate foreign students into leaving the country. California State University confirmed Tuesday that the government revoked visas for 36 current and former students, while the University of California said roughly 50 students and recent graduates had their visas voided. Representatives from several California universities said they were not provided detailed reasons for the terminations. "The government has not coordinated with UC leaders on their decisions or provided advance notice to us, but has indicated in government databases that the terminations were due to violations of the terms of the individuals’ visa programs," UC President Michael V. Drake said in a statement Tuesday, noting that international students have "enriched our excellence" and are "integral to our academic and civic life.” Drake said the visa revocations were not preceded by on-campus visits from federal law enforcement agencies, including Immigration and Customers Enforcement, so far as he was aware. In most cases, university officials said the federal government provided no rationale for terminating the student visas. A growing number of lawsuits in California and other states claim the revocations have been unjustified. The suits also offer a glimpse into the circumstances of the students whose lives could be upended by the visa revocations. The administration has revoked at least 300 visas, including student visas, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last month at a news conference in Guyana. The more than 100 student visa revocations in California as of Tuesday represent about a third of that total. That’s a small fraction of the more than 1.5 million international students who study in the U.S. every year, but the visa revocations have nevertheless alarmed international students and their advocates. U.S. Department of State spokesperson Tammy Bruce declined to answer specific questions about the reasons behind similar student visa revocations across the country during a Tuesday press briefing. She also declined to release the number of visa revocations due to the "fluidity of the situation.” "The department revokes visas every day in order to secure our borders and to keep our communities safe, and we’ll continue to do so," she said.

CNN [4/8/2025 11:53 AM, Nimi Princewill, 908K] reports that South Sudan has reversed its decision to deny entry to a man it said was a Congolese national deported by the United States after Washington imposed a blanket visa ban on South Sudanese citizens. In a dramatic U-turn on Tuesday, South Sudan’s foreign ministry said the government had chosen to admit the deportee, identified as Makula Kintu, "in the spirit of the friendly relations between South Sudan and the United States." US President Donald Trump has heavily cracked down on immigration since his return to power in January and has launched a series of deportation actions in recent months. On Saturday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that visas held by South Sudanese citizens were being revoked and no new visas would be granted to people from the country over their government’s failure to receive deportees "in a timely manner." South Sudan, the world’s youngest nation and one of its poorest is already troubled by armed conflict in its northern region that threatens to plunge it back into another civil war. On Monday, the South Sudanese foreign ministry clarified that Kintu arrived at the Juba International Airport in the country’s capital on Saturday with a travel document that was not his. The South Sudanese foreign ministry cited information on Kintu’s travel history supplied by the US Department of Homeland Security which stated that he initially arrived in the US in 2003 "and voluntarily departed for the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2009."

Washington Post [4/8/2025 7:55 PM, Gaya Gupta and Angie Orellana Hernandez, 31735K] reports when Amir Makled, a civil rights lawyer representing a pro-Palestinian activist, handed over his passport for review at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Sunday, he was immediately flagged and led to an interview room for further questioning. The federal border officers told Makled, a U.S. citizen, that they knew he was a lawyer with prominent cases, the Dearborn-based attorney recounted in an interview with The Washington Post. The officers told him he could either hand over his phone and passcode, or they would confiscate it and return the device back to him later. Makled refused, and after nearly two hours, he said, he was allowed to leave with his phone. But Makled and other legal experts said they believe that his questioning is part of an alarming pattern of American lawyers facing retribution for representing clients whose interests conflict with President Donald Trump’s agenda. Makled represents Samantha Lewis, an activist who was arrested and charged by Michigan’s attorney general in connection with a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Michigan. Lewis is a U.S. citizen and therefore not at risk of deportation, Makled added. There’s “no question in my mind that this was an attempt by Trump regime agents to intimidate Mr. Makled,” said Patrick G. Eddington, a senior fellow in homeland security and civil liberties at the Cato Institute, calling the situation an improper detention. “And in my view, if they tried this tactic in Detroit, they’ll try it elsewhere if they think they can get away with it.” Hilton Beckham, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection assistant commissioner who also worked in Trump’s first administration, confirmed that Makled was held and questioned but said in a statement that his accusations are “blatantly false and sensationalized,” calling his inspection “a routine, lawful process that occurs daily, and can apply for any traveler.” “Claims that this was an attack on his profession or were politically motivated are baseless. Our officers are following the law, not agendas,” she wrote.

News Max [4/8/2025 10:13 AM, Charlie McCarthy, 4998K] reports that increased security at the U.S. borders appear to be affecting the tourism industry, it was reported. With increased scrutiny at the border since President Donald Trump took office in late January, Canadian flight reservations to the U.S. are down 70% from last year, and European bookings this summer are down 25%, Bloomberg reported. That could result in a $9 billion loss in tourist spending, the outlet added. The tourism industry contributed $2.3 trillion to the U.S. economy in 2022 and supported about 9.5 million jobs, but the current border policies may lead to a decade-long slump in international visitors, Bloomberg reported. Adam Sacks, president of Tourism Economics, told the media outlet that travel won’t normalize until 2029. "That will essentially be an entire decade between pre-pandemic and full recovery," said Sacks, who predicted a 20% reduction from Canada, and 9.4% overall, compared with 2024. Besides the increased border security, Trump’s tariffs could incentivize Europeans and Canadians to travel elsewhere. Many Canadians also are peeved due to the president’s suggestion that the country should become the 51st state. "All of those things are compounding one another and making the US somewhat of a global pariah when it comes to tourism," Sacks said. "Another irony is that tariffs are being designed to help right the U.S. trade deficit, but the immediate effects in terms of travel is to hurt the U.S. trade balance."

The Washington Examiner [4/8/2025 10:16 AM, Anna Giaritelli] reports the Department of Homeland Security gave U.S. Customs and Border Protection permission to ignore environmental and land regulations and immediately begin constructing a border wall between the United States and Mexico in Southern California, the Washington Examiner confirmed. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem issued the department’s first waiver since taking office in January. The waiver allows the federal government to bypass environmental rules to build 2.5 miles of barrier in Jacumba Hot Springs and San Diego, California — regions that experienced high levels of illegal immigration during the Biden administration. “Acting under President Trump’s Executive Orders, Secretary Noem is taking bold, decisive steps to secure the southern border and achieve full operational control,” the DHS said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “To cut through bureaucratic delays, DHS is waiving environmental laws — including the National Environmental Policy Act — that can stall vital projects for months or even years.” The Federal Register published the waiver Tuesday, which allows the government to construct physical barriers quickly where they are needed most rather than wait for studies to ensure the land will not be negatively affected, according to the DHS. Noem cited her authority under Section 102 of the Illegal Immigration Reform And Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to waive the regulations. The AP [4/8/2025 4:24 PM, Staff, 48304K] reports that it’s the first environmental waiver of President Donald Trump’s second term. Officials said the decision will fast-track U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s construction of about 2 1/2 miles (4 kilometers) of the wall south of San Diego and further east near Jacumba Hot Springs, California. "This waiver clears the path for the rapid deployment of physical barriers where they are needed most, reinforcing our commitment to national security and the rule of law," the statement said. The advocacy group Earthjustice derided the decision to sidestep environmental laws. "Waiving environmental, cultural preservation, and good governance laws that protect clean air and clean water, safeguard precious cultural resources, and preserve vibrant ecosystems and biodiversity will only cause further harm to border communities and ecosystems," Cameron Walkup, an associate legislative representative for Earthjustice, said in a statement.

Reported similarly:
Los Angeles Times [4/8/2025 9:51 PM, Andrea Castillo, 13342K]
The Hill [4/8/2025 11:50 AM, Rebecca Beitsch, 12829K]
NewsMax [4/8/2025 2:34 PM, James Morley III, 4998K]

Univision [4/8/2025 6:30 PM, Staff, 5325K] reports two border inspectors, assigned to the port of entry of San Ysidro, were charged with receiving bribes to allow vehicles to pass with undocumented migrants across the border between Mexico and California. The officers, identified as Farlis Almonte and Ricardo Rodriguez, allegedly informed their accomplices in Mexico about their shifts and the lanes they supervised, to facilitate the illegal crossing of people without documentation. The investigation was initiated following the arrest of traffickers who claimed to have collaborated with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers. Inspectors were charging thousands of dollars for every vehicle they allowed entry without immigration review, prosecutors said. Evidence presented in the criminal complaint includes text messages exchanged with human traffickers, unjustifiable cash deposits in their accounts and recordings that capture vehicles entering with undocumented passengers. One of the surveillance videos showed a vehicle with two occupants, where only the driver had entry documents. In addition, the phone of an alleged dealer contained a message from "Farli USA," allegedly linked to Almonte. During Almonte’s arrest, investigators confiscated nearly $70,000 in cash, which his partner allegedly tried to move to Tijuana. Prosecutors said additional charges could be filed for money laundering and obstruction of justice. Border inspectors now face charges of conspiracy to bring foreigners to the United States for profit and acceptance of bribes. Both remain in custody while the appeal on their bail conditions is resolved. In the past two years, at least five CBP agents assigned to the San Diego region have faced similar charges. Among them, an inspector who was sentenced to 23 years in prison for crimes related to drug trafficking and people.

Federal News Network [4/8/2025 5:37 PM, Dean Parsons, 1089K] reports in November 2024, the Transportation Security Administration published a notice of proposed rulemaking about potentially mandating cyber risk management and reporting requirements for surface transportation owners and operators. The proposed rule calls for certain pipeline, passenger and freight rail operators and rail system companies with high-risk profiles to develop comprehensive cyber risk management programs. Pipeline, rail and certain bus transportation or transit systems would be required to report cybersecurity incidents to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the sectors would report any physical security risk concerns to TSA. The proposed mandates follow years of work to strengthen cybersecurity oversight on industrial control system (ICS) and operational technology (OT) environments, which were accelerated after the 2020 SolarWinds SUNBURST attacks and the 2021 Colonial Pipeline breach. However, today’s threats extend far beyond traditional ransomware. Modern attack frameworks like Pipedream demonstrate adversaries’ growing capability to not just encrypt data, but potentially destroy physical infrastructure. These threats are increasingly scalable and capable of targeting multiple regions and system types simultaneously, raising the stakes for ICS/OT security. While the TSA’s new requirements would establish a crucial governance framework, stricter compliance alone isn’t enough to secure U.S. critical infrastructure from accelerating threats. Alongside meeting regulatory requirements, it is crucial for organizations to align their cyber defense strategies with the unique intricacies of industrial security environments, starting with the five critical controls to effective ICS/OT security. The five critical controls that every industrial control system environment should implement serve as both tactical defense measures and strategic enablers of compliance. But their implementation requires careful consideration of operational realities and safety implications.

NewsNation [4/8/2025 8:00 PM, Isabella Cheng, 6866K] reports TSA officers at the Shreveport Regional Airport security checkpoint discovered a cache of weapons hidden inside a metal cane last week. According to the news release, ‘The cane contained a gutting knife, a double-edged blade, and a knife that could function as a small machete. Any of these could be used to incapacitate or kill. Each knife was screwed into part of the cane structure. The handle of the cane was also fashioned into the type of escape hammer used to smash glass.’. "Our officers receive expert training on identifying threats that could be camouflaged as an everyday object or hidden inside a seemingly innocent belonging," said TSA Spokesperson Sari Koshetz. "Our officers frequently find stun guns fashioned to appear like a cell phone, knives hidden in belt buckles, and knives hidden in the handles of combs and hairbrushes.”

New York Post [4/8/2025 9:38 AM, Steven Yablonski, 54903K] reports that a deadly barrage of severe weather, tornadoes, and torrential rain has come to an end, but the danger is far from over in communities across the Midwest and South as angry rivers continue to rise, forcing families from their homes. At least 24 people in seven states have been killed due to the severe weather or flooding, including children and first responders. President Donald Trump approved emergency disaster declarations for Arkansas, Tennessee, and Kentucky, allowing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to provide additional support for communities grappling with the scope of the historic disaster. "I just want to stress that we do not want to lose another individual," Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said at a news conference on Monday. "Remember. This event is not over until the waters have receded. Until the areas that are flooded are fully dry. Until we don’t have saturated ground that could create mudslides over roads and bridges.” The National Guard, Kentucky State Police, and other state and local leaders have been working tirelessly to keep people safe and have urged people to avoid travel if possible. Beshear said on Monday that more than 500 roads across the state were closed due to historic flooding, mudslides, and landslides. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NPR [4/8/2025 5:15 PM, Justin Hicks, 29983K] Audio: HERE reports storms have caused flooding and deaths in the Midwest and South over the past several days. Kentucky was one of the hard-hit areas, and some creeks and rivers are still on the rise.

NBC 5 Seattle [4/8/2025 9:08 PM, Drew Mikkelsen, 1600K] reports when the federal government awarded the cities of Hoquiam and Aberdeen with more than $80 million in grants in 2023, Hoquiam City Administrator Brian Shay called the funding a “game-changer.” Last week Shay found out the grants could be cut. “If it is lost, it would be the biggest gut punch ever,” Shay said Tuesday. As the Trump administration weighs the future of the federal agency tasked with responding to disasters, it is ending a key program that has been used by communities across the country to pay for projects designed to help them prepare for natural disasters like flooding and fires. In a news release Friday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said it was ending the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, calling the move part of efforts to eliminate “waste, fraud and abuse.” “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," the agency said in a statement.

FOX News [4/8/2025 9:20 PM, Louis Casiano, 46189K] reports a California man angry about abortion and gun rights cases pleaded guilty on Tuesday to attempting to kill U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh at his Maryland home, the Justice Department said. Nicholas John Roske, 29, of Simi Valley, admitted to flying from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., on June 7, 2022 with a firearm and ammunition in his suitcase in an effort to target the high court justice, federal prosecutors said. "This calculated attempt on the life of a sitting U.S. Supreme Court Justice was a heinous attack on the Court itself," said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. "Anyone who thinks they can use violence or intimidation to influence our courts will be met with the full force of the law and face up to life in prison.” After arriving in Washington, Roske took a taxi in the middle of the night to Montgomery County, Maryland, with the intention of killing Kavanaugh, authorities said. At around 1:05 a.m. on June 8, 2022, two Deputy U.S. Marshals protecting Kavanaugh’s home saw Roske arrive in front of the residence. He was wearing black clothing and had a backpack and suitcase, prosecutors said. The U.S. Marshals, who were in a vehicle, got out as Roske began to walk down the street. Shortly after, Roske called the Montgomery County Emergency Communications Center saying he was having homicidal and suicidal thoughts, had a gun in his suitcase, and flew from California to kill Kavanaugh. Local authorities arrived at the scene where they searched Roske’s suitcase and found a firearm; black tactical chest rig and tactical knife; two magazines, each containing 10 rounds of ammunition; 17 additional rounds; pepper spray; zip ties; a hammer; screwdrivers; a nail punch; a crowbar; a pistol light; duct tape; hiking boots with padding on the outside of the soles; and lock-pick tools, along with other items.

Reported similarly:
New York Post [4/8/2025 6:25 PM, Ryan King, 54903K]
Axios [4/8/2025 1:13 PM, Avery Lotz, 13163K]

CBS News [4/9/2025 3:56 AM, Jacob Rosen, Scott MacFarlane, 51661K] reports federal prosecutors say Ryan Routh, the man accused of trying to assassinate President Trump as he golfed last September during the 2024 campaign, also attempted to acquire an anti-aircraft weapon to shoot down Mr. Trump’s plane. In a filing Monday, the government said that in August, "Routh sought to purchase the devices online from an associate Routh believed to be a Ukrainian with access to military weapons.” Routh allegedly told an associate to "‘send me an rpg [rocket propelled grenade] or stinger and I will see what we can do,’" according to the court document. "I need equipment so that Trump cannot get elected," Routh told his associate. The government said Routh also sought to purchase a .50 caliber rifle the same month, and this rifle would have been an even more destructive and powerful version of the one he had already allegedly obtained. Prosecutors said Routh hoped to purchase the .50 caliber rifle at a gun show, but his contact was ultimately not able to locate the type of gun Routh wanted until after the assassination attempt at the golf course. Routh is suspected of hiding in some bushes with a gun near Trump International, about 300-500 yards away from Mr. Trump, who was then the Republican presidential nominee, while he was playing golf in West Palm Beach in September 2024. A member of Mr. Trump’s Secret Service detail spotted his rifle in the tree line and opened fire at the suspect, who didn’t fire back. He fled by car, and Routh was detained about 50 miles north of the golf course. According to the Secret Service, Routh did not have a line of sight to Trump, who was playing a few holes away from where Routh was allegedly located. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Blaze.com [4/8/2025 5:36 PM, Staff, 1668K] reports an elderly man in Florida was arrested after making threats to kill President Donald Trump on social media, according to a press release from Jupiter police. Police said 73-year-old Glen DeCicco was arrested on Friday on a charge of making written threats to kill after he allegedly posted on Facebook that the president should be assassinated. Police said they were tipped off about the threats and reviewed DeCicco’s posts before coordinating the arrest with the United States Secret Service. Federal and local officers interviewed the man and arrested him without incident. He was booked into the Palm Beach County jail. The probable cause statement said DeCicco appeared agitated about politics in the interview and tried to downplay the threats as creative wordplay. When asked why he said he wrote that he would kill the president, DeCicco reportedly responded, "It was a thought that I had."

Breaking Defense [4/8/2025 11:06 AM, Lee Ferran, 464K] reports while it’s “exciting” to hear President Donald Trump promise dozens of new, big icebreakers, current assessments show that eight or nine of that size would do for now, a senior Coast Guard officer said this week. “Whenever your boss is interested in 40 icebreakers, you are very happy, right? I mean, this has been something that we’ve been trying to do for a long time,” Vice Adm. Thomas Allan, the Coast Guard’s acting deputy commandant for operations, said at the Sea Air Space conference Monday in response to a question from Breaking Defense. “I will tell you that when you look at what the strategic studies have said for the Coast Guard, I kind of go back to that eight or nine [number], right? Eight or nine big, heavy icebreakers — at least three of them in that role,” he said, echoing a fleet size determined in a 2023 analysis. In addition to the “at least” three heavy icebreakers, Allan said elsewhere during a polar security panel that the Coast Guard would need at least another three or so “medium” polar-capable icebreakers. Still, he emphasized, “I’d just say it’s very exciting to see your boss point towards a vision that we’ve had for a long time.”

National Defense Magazine [4/8/2025 10:56 AM, Stew Magnuson] reports Coast Guard National Security Cutters will receive all new vertical take-off and landing drones as early as this summer, an executive with the new provider, Shield AI, said April 8. The new Shield AI V-BAT drones have been altered for Coast Guard missions, Brandon Troup, the company’s business development executive, said in an interview on the sidelines of the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space symposium. “It’s our most updated aircraft,” he said. It has increased endurance over the company’s previous versions, which have flown with the Marine Corps and several overseas customers. The Coast Guard wanted about 24 hours of flight time, he added. Other changes to the drone include a diesel engine, which matches the fuel the cutters bring aboard, he said. However, Troup noted that the public won’t be seeing a V-BAT overhead painted in the Coast Guard’s traditional bright orange, as was the case for the model in the Shield AI booth at the trade show. That was just for display, he noted. The Coast Guard wants the V-BATs to be gray so they are harder to spot, he added.

Maritime Executive [4/8/2025 11:06 PM, Staff, 325K] reports the U.S. Coast Guard is set to save $32.7 million following the termination of an information technology program that was once deemed critical in “integrating capabilities,” but which is now said to be ineffective. In a move instigated by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and in line with the Coast Guard’s Force Design 2028 (FD 2028) initiative, the agency announced the termination of the Logistics Information Management System (CG-LIMS), with its program activities expected to cease no later than May 1, 2025. With the termination of the “ineffective” program, the agency is expected to save $32.7 million, funds that have already been appropriated and which will now be redirected to address emerging needs. “Another win for government efficiency,” said Kristi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security. “$32 million in taxpayer savings thanks to the Coast Guard eliminating an ineffective IT program. I’m proud of the men and women of the Coast Guard, who continue to deliver on the President’s agenda and deliver efficiency while securing our borders and maritime approaches.”

Newsmax [4/8/2025 9:19 PM, Staff] reports even Trump administration’s most vocal critics cannot possibly dispute the fact that the southern border is more secure now than at any other point, at least in recent memory. The U.S. Coast Guard reported that during the period from December to March, some 200 boats filled with migrants. from adversarial countries, were encountered near San Diego. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

ABC 8 New Haven [4/8/2025 4:08 PM, Bailey Wright, 1000K] reports the United States Coast Guard is searching for a sailboat they say is missing after it left New Haven with three people aboard. In a social media post Tuesday, Coast Guard officials said they’re seeking any information about the overdue sailing vessel named “HOT CHOCOLATE.” The boat was headed to Ocracoke, North Carolina, operating off the continental shelf. Officials did not say when the group departed from New Haven.

Reported similarly:
New Haven Register [4/8/2025 11:58 AM, Liz Hardaway]

ABC 10 Miami [4/8/2025 4:26 PM, Andrea Torres] reports after a U.S. Coast Guard crew reported a suspicious go-fast boat in the Bahamas, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers joined a pursuit. Yordany Capote-Leon and Yuniel Cabrera departed in the boat from the U.S. before the USCG Coast saw them picking up a group of migrants, according to prosecutors. The Oct. 24 pursuit ended with officers arresting Capote-Leon, Cabrera, and three Ecuadorians who had been deported from the U.S., according to Homeland Security Investigations. The USCG Cutter Manowar crew returned 15 out of the 18 undocumented migrants to the Bahamas, according to the USCG. Border Protection officers reported firing “warning shots” at the cuddy-cabin-style boat after Capote-Leon, 31, and Cabrera, 44, ignored their orders to stop off Key Largo.

Reported similarly:
NBC 6 Miami [4/8/2025 4:33 PM, Staff]
FOX 7 Miami [4/8/2025 2:30 PM, Patrick Chalvire, 864K]
Telemundo51 [4/8/2025 3:06 PM, Staff, 171K]

600 AM San Diego [4/8/2025 8:10 AM, Staff] reports another human smuggling attempt off the cost of San Diego has been broken up the U.S. Coast Guard and Navy. Eight people, all of whom claimed Mexican nationality were arrested and turned over to the Department of Homeland Security. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

ABC 10 San Diego [4/8/2025 10:57 AM, Staff] reports the Coast Guard said they intercepted a ship over the weekend carrying 22 undocumented migrants. The Coast Guard transferred all them to Border Patrol in Imperial Beach. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CNN [4/9/2025 5:00 AM, Bob Ortega, 908K] reports that, Misha Pride, then the mayor of South Portland, Maine, was greeting voters early on Election Day when police cars suddenly swarmed outside the city’s community center with lights flashing. "Possible shooting," the city manager texted Pride. Officers locked down the center. Authorities quickly determined the call to police was a hoax, one of hundreds of threats and cyberattacks last November aimed at disrupting the presidential election – some pushed by partisan zealots, others perpetrated by foreign state actors including Russia and China. Voting at the community center was delayed by only ten minutes. The attacks in Maine, and elsewhere across the US, had minimal impact because of strong preparation and quick work by an information-sharing and analysis network of hundreds of federal, state and local election, cybersecurity and law-enforcement officials. But now key parts of this network, much of it built over the past eight years, are being systematically dismantled by the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, a CNN investigation has found – leaving election offices across the country scrambling to protect against future threats. In early February, Musk’s team laid off 130 staffers at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, including 10 regional security specialists who worked with local and state election officials. The Trump administration is also advancing plans to strip civil service protections from 80% of the remaining CISA workforce, potentially allowing them to be fired for political reasons. Attorney General Pam Bondi that month disbanded a key FBI task force charged with investigating foreign efforts to influence elections. She also left in the wind the fate of another FBI task force that investigated threats against election workers and polling places. Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem, meanwhile, on March 6 canceled the funding for national information sharing efforts that helped state and local election officials detect and ward off coordinated hacking attacks and other threats. Those moves come as Trump has appointed to key positions officials who embrace his false claims of widespread voting fraud, including Bondi, Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel, among others – and as Trump has cashiered the head of the National Security Agency and the US Cyber Command, Gen. Timothy Haugh, who was involved in countering Russian interference in past elections. Trump officials argue that some of the election security agencies targeted for cuts were improperly hurting the president’s allies. During her confirmation hearing in January, Noem said that CISA has "gotten far off mission" in trying to combat foreign disinformation. She pledged to help "rein in" the agency, which critics say pushed social media companies to target conservative commentators. Bondi said disbanding the Foreign Influence Task Force was necessary to end the "risk of further weaponization … of prosecutorial discretion.”

Bloomberg [4/8/2025 3:00 PM, Margi Murphy and Jake Bleiberg] reports hackers intercepted about 103 bank regulators’ emails for more than a year, gaining access to highly sensitive financial information, according to two people familiar with the matter and a draft letter to Congress seen by Bloomberg News. The attackers were able to monitor employee emails at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency after breaking into an administrator’s account, said the people, asking not to be identified because the information isn’t public. OCC on Feb. 12 confirmed that there had been unauthorized activity on its systems after a Microsoft Corp. security team the day before had notified OCC about unusual network behavior, according to the draft letter. OCC on Tuesday notified Congress about the compromise, describing it as a "major information security incident." The incident was reported to the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and there was no indication of any impact on the financial sector "at this time," OCC said in its initial disclosure.

FOX News [4/8/2025 6:31 PM, Louis Casiano, 46189K] reports the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which regulates and supervises national banks, on Tuesday said it notified Congress of a February hack that it called a "major information security incident.” The breach was first disclosed in February when it learned of "unusual interactions between a system administrative account in its office automation environment and OCC user mailboxes," an OCC news release states. According to Bloomberg, the hackers had access to more than 150,000 emails after breaching the system in June 2023. "The confidentiality and integrity of the OCC’s information security systems are paramount to fulfilling its mission," said Acting Comptroller of the Currency Rodney Hood. The OCC first learned of the incident on Feb. 11. Compromised administrative accounts were shut off the next day. "The OCC discovered that the unauthorized access to a number of its executives’ and employees’ emails included highly sensitive information relating to the financial condition of federally regulated financial institutions used in its examinations and supervisory oversight processes," the agency said. The OCC said it has reached out to third-party cybersecurity experts to conduct a review of IT security protocols to prevent future attacks.

CyberScoop [4/8/2025 5:54 PM, Matt Kapko] reports Microsoft addressed 126 vulnerabilities affecting its systems and core products, including a zero-day in the Windows Common Log File System (CLFS) that’s been actively exploited in a series of ransomware attacks, the company said in its latest security update Tuesday. A group Microsoft tracks as Storm-2460 has exploited CVE-2025-29824 to initiate ransomware attacks “against a small number of targets,” Microsoft Threat Intelligence said in a research note released Tuesday. Victims include organizations in the IT and real estate sectors in the United States, the financial sector in Venezuela, a Spanish software company and the retail sector in Saudi Arabia, according to Microsoft. Microsoft said it’s unsure how Storm-2460 gained initial access to devices on these networks, but noted successful exploitation of the software defect allows an attacker running a standard user account to escalate privileges. The zero-day, which Storm-2460 deployed via PipeMagic malware, has a CVSS score of 7.8. Mike Walters, president and co-founder at Action1, said CVE-2025-29824 “is significant because it affects a core component of Windows, impacting a wide range of environments, including enterprise systems and critical infrastructure.” Attackers can exploit the vulnerability to gain the highest privilege on a Windows system, Walters said. This allows attackers to install malware, modify system files and registry settings, disable security features, access sensitive data and maintain persistent access, resulting in full system compromise and lateral movement across networks, Walters added.

Reuters [4/8/2025 2:07 PM, Andrew Goudsward, 48128K] reports a top U.S. Senate Democrat pressed the FBI on Tuesday to explain why it reassigned staff from domestic terrorism investigations, accusing Republican President Donald Trump’s administration of imperiling efforts to confront violent extremists in the U.S. Reuters reported last month that the FBI transferred about 16 agents and intelligence analysts from its Domestic Terrorism Operations Section, which supports investigations run by the FBI’s 55 field offices and provides information on domestic threats. The letter from Senator Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, asked the FBI how many personnel remain in the section and how the agency is managing investigations previously assigned to its staff. “I strongly urge you to put the safety of the American people first, reverse these resource reallocations, and reaffirm the Administration’s commitment to tackling domestic violent extremism with the full force and attention this significant threat demands,” Durbin of Illinois wrote to FBI Director Kash Patel and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The move raised fears that investigations into violence fueled by white supremacist and anti-government ideologies may be a lower priority under Patel, who has criticized the FBI’s past work on domestic terrorism.

RiverBender.com [4/8/2025 2:27 PM, Josh Sorbe] reports U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, pressed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel to reverse course on their deprioritization of domestic terrorism prevention efforts, which leaves our nation less secure and Americans less safe. Durbin began by condemning recent actions, writing: “I write to strongly object to the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) recent diversion of agency resources and institutional focus away from domestic terrorism prevention efforts.” The FBI has reassigned staff from the Domestic Terrorism Operations Section (DTOS), which provides operational support to all 55 FBI field offices in investigating domestic terrorism threats, and is contemplating disbanding it entirely. DHS has dismantled a national database used to help curb domestic terrorism and hate crimes, as well as gutted funding for key domestic terrorism prevention programs that help support community groups and law enforcement agencies. Durbin outlined the vulnerabilities exacerbated by the changes, writing: “Taken together, these moves represent a broad institutional pullback from confronting the full scope of domestic terrorism threats at a time when experts continue to warn about intensifying danger, and the data points to the rising threat of attacks motivated by anti-government ideologies.”

NewsNation [4/8/2025 7:00 PM, Patrick Djordjevic, 6866K] reports President Donald Trump has committed to going to war with Mexican drug cartels and is reportedly considering a drone strike. According to NBC News, the president is mulling over an attack against the cartels to combat drug trafficking into the U.S. Last month, Bill O’Reilly told NewsNation’s "On Balance" that he expected Trump to carry out a weaponized drone attack should cartels not end their operations in the U.S. Arguably the most far-reaching of its kind from Mexico, the Sinaloa cartel was formerly led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who now resides in prison at ADX Florence, Colorado, where he is serving a life sentence. On March 31, the United States Treasury sanctioned six people and seven companies for alleged money laundering for factions of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel. It followed a collaborative investigation between U.S. and Mexican government agencies. The Sinaloa cartel and seven other criminal groups across Latin America were designated as "Foreign Terrorist Organizations" by President Trump after his return to office. This week, a longtime fugitive and associate of El Chapo was caught by Mexican special forces commandos in Mexico City.

AP [4/8/2025 9:57 PM, Staff, 48304K] reports three people have been killed and three others have been injured in a shooting in Virginia Tuesday evening, according to law enforcement. At about 5:30 p.m., law enforcement received 911 calls about a shooting at a town house complex in Spotsylvania County, about 65 miles southwest of Washington, D.C., said Major Elizabeth Scott, spokesperson for the Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Office. No arrests have been made. "There’s dozens upon dozens of officers out actively looking for suspects and preserving the crime scene," Scott said. The people injured in the mass shooting have been taken to hospitals. Their condition is unknown. No additional information about the victims was immediately available. Scott said they are urging the public to stay clear of the area.

NewsMax [4/8/2025 4:00 PM, Mark Swanson, 4998K] reports the FBI is investigating another alleged case of vandalism on a Tesla charging station, this time near Olympia, Washington, according to local reports. Reports of a fire followed by an explosion came in early Tuesday in Lacey, Washington, according to Seattle’s KOMO-TV. FBI agents from the Seattle field office joined Lacey Police Department detectives in probing the latest in a rash of attacks on Tesla-based properties and products linked to protests against White House senior adviser Elon Musk, CEO of the electric vehicle giant. The FBI on March 24 launched a multiagency task force to investigate 50 reported attacks on Tesla vehicles, charging stations, and dealerships. Attorney General Pam Bondi has described the vandalism as domestic terrorism.

The Hill [4/8/2025 9:07 PM, Lauren Irwin, 12829K] reports Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced Tuesday that she was creating a task force to investigate the intelligence community to increase "transparency and accountability.” The Director’s Initiatives Group (DIG) has plans to execute President Trump’s executive order "aimed at rebuilding trust" in the intelligence community, according to a statement from Gabbard. The group will be "investigating weaponization, rooting out deep-seeded politicization, exposing unauthorized disclosures of classified intelligence, and declassifying information that serves a public interest.” The group will target "wasteful spending" in addition to "streamlining outdated processes, reviewing documents for declassification, and leading ongoing efforts to root out abuses of power and politicization," Gabbard said. So far, the task force is "well underway" reviewing documents for potential declassification on various topics including the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation, Anomalous Health Incidents, the Biden administration’s "domestic surveillance" and censorship against Americans. The group is also in the process of revoking security clearances for individuals who "no longer have an active role in national security," including former President Biden, former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "President Trump promised the American people maximum transparency and accountability. We are committed to executing the President’s vision and focusing the Intelligence Community on its core mission," Gabbard’s statement said.

FOX News [4/8/2025 8:19 AM, Michael Dorgan Fox, 46189K] reports the Trump administration has sacked a senior NATO official who was recommended by a conservative research group to be fired as part of a broader effort to purge wokeness from the Pentagon. Navy Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield, the only woman on NATO’s military committee, was dismissed from the alliance over the weekend without explanation, according to multiple reports. She is one of only a handful of female Navy three-star officers and was the first woman to lead the Naval War College, a job she held until 2023. Chatfield reportedly got a call from Adm. Christopher Grady, the acting chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and was told the administration wanted to go in a different direction with the job, according to the Associated Press, citing officials. The officials said they believe the decision was made last week by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, but it was unclear whether he received any direction from President Donald Trump. Reuters was first to report on her termination. It was unclear if her firing was related to any U.S. policy direction on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Trump and Hegseth have been vocal in their insistence that so-called woke policies are dead and have vigorously sought to remove leaders who promoted diversity, equity and inclusion and to erase DEI programs and online content. The U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, is ditching almost 400 books from its library with DEI content. In December, the American Accountability Foundation (AAF), a conservative research group, sent a letter to Hegseth with a list of 20 general officers or senior admirals whom it said were excessively focused on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and other similar left-wing initiatives. AAF wrote that focusing on such policies is an impediment to national security and Chatfield was one of eight women who made the list. Chatfield made the list due in part to a 2015 speech where she bemoaned that lawmakers in the House of Representatives at the time were 80% males, proclaiming that "our diversity is our strength." The group said she also quoted a slide from a presentation by the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute highlighting "Investing in gender equality and women’s empowerment can unlock human potential on a transformational scale.”

Reuters [4/8/2025 9:11 AM, Alexandra Ulmer, Marisa Taylor, Jeffrey Dastin and Alexandra Alper, 41523K] reports Trump administration officials have told some U.S. government employees that Elon Musk’s DOGE team of technologists is using artificial intelligence to surveil at least one federal agency’s communications for hostility to President Donald Trump and his agenda, said two people with knowledge of the matter. While much of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency remains shrouded in secrecy, the surveillance would mark an extraordinary use of technology to identify expressions of perceived disloyalty in a workforce already upended by widespread firings and severe cost cutting. The DOGE team is also using the Signal app to communicate, according to one other person with direct knowledge of the matter, potentially violating federal record-keeping rules because messages can be set to disappear after a period of time. And they have “heavily” deployed Musk’s Grok AI chatbot – an aspiring ChatGPT rival – as part of their work slashing the federal government, said that person. Reuters could not establish exactly how Grok was being used. The White House, DOGE and Musk did not respond to requests for comment. The use of AI and Signal reinforces concerns among cybersecurity experts and government ethicists that DOGE is operating with limited transparency and that billionaire Musk or the Trump administration could use information gathered with AI to further their own interests, or to go after political targets. Kathleen Clark, a government ethics expert at Washington University in St. Louis, said DOGE’s use of privacy-focused Signal adds to growing concerns over data security practices after top Trump administration officials came under fire last month for the mistaken inclusion of a journalist in a group chat about high-level planning for military operations in Yemen. “If they’re using Signal and not backing up every message to federal files, then they are acting unlawfully,” she said. Reuters’ interviews with nearly 20 people with knowledge of DOGE’s operations – and an examination of hundreds of pages of court documents from lawsuits challenging DOGE’s access to data – highlight its unorthodox usage of AI and other technology in federal government operations. At the Environmental Protection Agency, for instance, some EPA managers were told by Trump appointees that Musk’s team is rolling out AI to monitor workers, including looking for language in communications considered hostile to Trump or Musk, the two people said.

NBC News [4/8/2025 9:21 PM, Allan Smith, 44742K] reports Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former Facebook employee who alleged misconduct and sexual harassment at the company in a memoir published last month, will testify before Congress on Wednesday that Meta executives undermined U.S. national security and briefed Chinese officials on emerging technologies like artificial intelligence. In her introductory statement, obtained by NBC News, Wynn-Williams will tell the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism that Meta executives “lied about what they were doing with the Chinese Communist Party to employees, shareholders, Congress, and the American public.” “I saw Meta executives repeatedly undermine US national security and betray American values,” she will say, according to the prepared remarks. “They did these things in secret to win favor with Beijing and build an $18 billion dollar business in China,” her statement says, referring to China-based advertisers. Wynn-Williams, a former New Zealand diplomat, worked at Facebook from 2011 to 2017. She believes she was fired in 2017 as retaliation for accusing her boss, Joel Kaplan, who at the time was a vice president for global public policy, of sexual harassment. Meta, which owns Facebook, said that an investigation cleared Kaplan in 2017 and that Wynn-Williams’ book, “Careless People,” included “false accusations about our executives.” Meta also said other claims in the book were “out-of-date and previously reported,” and a former supervisor said she was fired for performance reasons. In a statement Tuesday night, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone criticized Wynn-Williams’ planned remarks. “Sarah Wynn-Williams’ testimony is divorced from reality and riddled with false claims,” Stone said in a statement. “While Mark Zuckerberg himself was public about our interest in offering our services in China and details were widely reported beginning over a decade ago, the fact is this: we do not operate our services in China today.” Wednesday’s hearing is an indication of the scrutiny that Meta continues to receive in Washington, despite a monthslong effort by Meta and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, to pivot the company’s politics to the right, aligning more closely with the Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Congress.

Reuters [4/8/2025 7:33 PM, A.J. Vicens, 41523K] reports Western intelligence agencies warned on Tuesday of an increasing threat from Beijing’s security services to use malicious mobile phone applications to surveil Taiwanese independence activists, Tibetan rights advocates and others opposed by the Chinese government. An advisory, issued late on Tuesday warned of "the growing threat" posed by malicious surveillance software deployed by a Chengdu-based contractor reported to have ties to China’s Ministry of Public Security. The advisory was signed by cybersecurity agencies in Britain, the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Germany. Those most at risk include people connected to Taiwanese independence, Tibetan rights, Uyghur Muslims and other minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, democracy advocates (including in Hong Kong) and the Falun Gong spiritual movement, according to Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre in the advisory. The warning comes amid increasing tensions surrounding Taiwan, including April 1 Chinese military drills around the island and a March 28 visit to the Philippines by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in which he reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to deterring Chinese aggression in the region. The Chengdu-based contractor, Sichuan Dianke Network Security Technology Co., Ltd., was linked to the deployment of a pair of distinct malware packages. They were tracked as "BADBAZAAR" and "MOONSHINE" and used to ferret sensitive information from mobile devices while also giving operators remote access to devices’ cameras, microphones and location data, the advisory said. The warning is for non-governmental organizations, journalists, businesses and other individuals who advocate for or represent the groups, the NCSC said in the advisory. "The indiscriminate way this spyware is spread online also means there is a risk that infections could spread beyond intended victims," it said. Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, told Reuters that China "firmly opposes the smear attacks against China without any factual basis," and that the tracing of cyberattacks is complex. "We hope that relevant parties will adopt a professional and responsible attitude when characterizing cyber incidents, basing their conclusions on sufficient evidence rather than unfounded speculation and accusations.”

New York Times [4/8/2025 6:09 PM, Matthew Cullen, 145325K] reports aust hours from now, at midnight, President Trump is set to impose steep new tariffs on many of America’s biggest trading partners. The fee on imports from China, for example, will rise from 30 percent to at least 104 percent. America’s top trade official defended the levies today as “a moment of drastic, overdue change.” At least 70 governments have already approached the U.S. to discuss rolling back the tariffs, and the administration signaled today that it was ready to negotiate. But the president and his advisers have been clear that the appeals will not stop the tariffs from going into effect. China has vowed to “fight to the end”; other countries, like Japan, indicated a willingness to compromise; the E.U. is trying to do a bit of both. Billionaire investors, worried that the tariffs will drag down the economy, have been calling the White House to push Trump to reverse course — though it’s not clear that they’ve had any effect. That uncertainty has translated into massive volatility in the stock market. This morning, the S&P 500 was up 4 percent; it finished down about 1.6 percent. The early rally, seemed “to be pinned, in part, on the prospects for deals to lower tariffs,” Jason Karaian, our deputy business editor, said. That optimism may have faded. Trump signed an executive order this afternoon aimed at expanding the use of coal in the U.S. It will direct federal agencies to remove barriers to coal leasing and mining and loosen environmental reviews of coal projects. The president’s push appears designed to reverse a decades-long decline in the use of coal, the most polluting of all fossil fuels and the main driver of global warming. But utilities have switched to cheaper and cleaner electricity sources like natural gas, wind and solar power, and some analysts said a major coal revival is unlikely.

Washington Examiner [4/9/2025 12:01 AM, Christian Datoc, 2296K] reports President Donald Trump’s wave of tariffs went into effect at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday as the vast majority of U.S. trading partners look to head off the barrier taxes with last-minute deals with the White House. Trump’s "Liberation Day" announcement outlined a two-phased rollout of the new tariffs, which Trump has described as reciprocal. First, the 10% flat tariff on all trading partners was put into effect over the weekend, with a midnight deadline for "tailored" rates for 86 individual countries. The new tariff regime, on friends and foes alike, upended years of global trade relationships and prompted rare voices of dissent from congressional Republicans concerned about risks of inflation, recession, and executive overreach. Trump, however, sought to reassure House Republicans at a fundraising dinner Tuesday night that tariffs will work by bringing countries to the negotiating table. "I really think we’re helped a lot by the tariff situation that’s going on, which is a good situation, not a bad," Trump said at a National Republican Congressional Committee dinner. "It’s going to be legendary. You watch — legendary in a positive way.”

NewsMax [4/8/2025 9:26 PM, Nick Koutsobinas, 4998K] reports the whole world is coming to the United States to negotiate as a result of President Donald Trump’s tariff policy, White House deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller told Newsmax on Tuesday. "Because of President Trump’s action to protect and defend our national security and our manufacturing base, the entire world that has abused and misused and mistreated the United States, is now coming to the table to establish a new and fair global trading framework," Miller told "Rob Schmitt Tonight." Throughout Miller’s eight-minute interview, the White House deputy covered a range of topics, mainly concerning the U.S.’s trade relationship with China and the implementation of a permanent tariff policy. When asked by Schmitt if the goal of the tariffs was to negotiate fair trade deals or make them permanent to fund the government, Miller replied both levers should be used. "I don’t think" those methods are the "contradiction that people have portrayed them to be," Miller said. He went on to add, giving the example of Europe, that the continent operates on a "20%" value-added tax on all imports. "Most advanced economies in the world collect some kind ... of revenue off imports," he added. "So the United States, without preordaining what the final outcome of different negotiations will be, can always maintain a baseline of import collection to fund the general treasury." "At the same time, where you see some of these countries that have engaged in the worst practices — that have higher rates of tariffs — they can enter into negotiations with the United States to come down to where the rest of the world is. So the answer is that, of course, you can do both of these things, and both of these goals, in fact, work in concert."

The Hill [4/8/2025 1:37 PM, Julia Manchester, 12829K] reports that House Democrats used a DOGE subcommittee hearing to target President Trump on tariffs on Tuesday. "Unfortunately, Republicans in Congress want to debate office space and furniture while the president torches the global economy," said Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), flanked by a sign depicting a dip in the market with a picture of Elon Musk jumping. In her closing remarks, the committee’s ranking member, Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), argued that DOGE’s approach is "troubling" because, like Trump’s handling of the economy, it does not have a plan. "It goes along with the troubling theory of the case that Donald Trump seems to have about the economy overall because as my colleague pointed out, we’re sitting here talking about microphones and furniture in an office building while the economy is tanking and trillions of dollars in losses are happening and we know that a potential for both a recession and costs are going to go up which will cost the federal government more money," Stansbury said. "One of my colleagues quoted Milton Friedman which I found actually quite funny because Elon Musk himself has also been quoting Milton Friedman over the weekend because he thought that international trade was good and tariffs were bad," Stansbury said. "Anybody? Anybody? Donald Trump is crashing the economy over tariffs.” Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) accused Republicans of being "hellbent" on firing government workers and setting fire to government programs like Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare.

The Hill [4/8/2025 7:01 PM, Ellen Mitchell, 12829K] reports Hegseth, who was in Panama on Tuesday to meet with its government officials, spoke from a new U.S.-financed pier at the Vasco Nuñez de Balboa Naval Base on the canal. He said Beijing would not be allowed to "weaponize" the waterway via a commercial presence. "The United States of America will not allow communist China or any other country to threaten the canal’s operation or integrity," he said. He noted that the U.S. and Panama strengthened their defense and security cooperation in recent weeks and together "will take back the Panama Canal from China’s influence.” "China did not build this canal. China does not operate this canal and China will not weaponize this canal," Hegseth said from the pier. "Together, with Panama in the lead, we will keep the canal secure and available for all nations.” The message had a more conciliatory tone compared with that of his boss, President Trump, who has vowed to take back the Panama Canal from Panama. Trump has claimed that China effectively controls the trade route via two major ports on either end of the shipping lane. Panama has rejected these assertions, pointing to its withdrawal earlier this year of its Belt and Road Initiative agreements with Beijing, made in 2017. Trump has not ruled out the use of military force in taking over the canal, and last month NBC News reported that the White House had directed the Pentagon "to draw up options to increase the American troop presence in Panama.”

NBC News [4/8/2025 12:00 PM, Mithil Aggarwal, 44742K] reports that a huge deal touted by President Donald Trump as a victory in his campaign to "take back" the Panama Canal from China could be on the rocks amid pushback from Beijing. The $23 billion sale involving two ports run by CK Hutchison, a private company based in the Chinese territory of Hong Kong, to a consortium led by U.S. investment firm BlackRock had originally been scheduled to be signed last week. But an agreement between the two has been delayed under pressure from China, whose market regulator launched a review of the deal as state-run newspapers attacked it as undermining China’s national interests. NBC News takes a look at the sale and what it may mean politically and economically for the United States and China, the world’s two biggest economies. During Trump’s inaugural speech in January, he claimed without providing evidence that China controlled the 50-mile canal, and vowed that the U.S. will take back the waterway, which he said was "vital" to national security. Trump did not rule out military action and has directed the Defense Department to draw up plans to send more troops to Panama to "reclaim" the canal, through which 40% of U.S. trade passes. Panama denies Trump’s accusations about the neutrality of the canal, which is enshrined in its constitution. But in an attempt to relieve the pressure from Washington, in January the country launched an audit of CK Hutchison’s Panama Ports Company (PPC), which since 1997 has operated two ports along the canal, Balboa on the Pacific side and Cristóbal on the Atlantic side. On Monday, Panama’s comptroller general said the audit had found that the contract was overly favorable to Hutchison PPC, costing Panama $1.3 billion in revenue, and that authorities would file a lawsuit against officials involved in its renewal in 2021.

Reuters [4/8/2025 8:45 PM, Jasper Ward, 41523K] reports the U.S. warned on Tuesday that Chinese intelligence was using deceptive methods to target current and former U.S. government employees for recruitment. The warning from the National Counterintelligence and Security Center comes amid mass federal firings led by Elon Musk’s Department of Government of Efficiency. "Foreign intelligence entities, particularly those in China, are targeting current and former U.S. government (USG) employees for recruitment by posing as consulting firms, corporate headhunters, think tanks, and other entities on social and professional networking sites," the center said in a bulletin. The center said deceptive online job offers and other approaches have become more sophisticated in targeting individuals with U.S. government backgrounds seeking new employment. It warned current and former federal employees of such approaches. It added that clearance holders were obligated to protect classified data even after leaving federal employment. The Chinese foreign ministry said on Wednesday it was not aware of the situation and accused the U.S. of spying on China. Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian called the U.S. actions "irresponsible practices" and said it was engaging in "global espionage without any disguise". Reuters previously reported about a network of companies operated by a secretive Chinese tech firm that had been trying to recruit recently laid-off U.S. government workers.

AP [4/8/2025 7:25 AM, Staff, 13342K] reports China said Tuesday it would “fight to the end” and take countermeasures against the United States to safeguard its own interests after President Donald Trump threatened an additional 50% tariff on Chinese imports. The Commerce Ministry said the U.S.’s imposition of “so-called ‘reciprocal tariffs’” on China is “completely groundless and is a typical unilateral bullying practice.” China, the world’s second-largest economy, has announced retaliatory tariffs and the ministry hinted in its latest statement that more may be coming. “The countermeasures China has taken are aimed at safeguarding its sovereignty, security and development interests, and maintaining the normal international trade order. They are completely legitimate,” the ministry said. “The U.S. threat to escalate tariffs on China is a mistake on top of a mistake and once again exposes the blackmailing nature of the U.S. China will never accept this. If the U.S. insists on its own way, China will fight to the end,” it added. Trump’s threat Monday of additional tariffs on China raised fresh concerns that his drive to rebalance the global economy could intensify a financially destructive trade war. Stock markets from Tokyo to New York have become more unstable as the tariff war worsens. Trump’s threat came after China said it would retaliate against U.S. tariffs he announced last week. “If China does not withdraw its 34% increase above their already long term trading abuses by tomorrow, April 8th, 2025, the United States will impose ADDITIONAL Tariffs on China of 50%, effective April 9th,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Additionally, all talks with China concerning their requested meetings with us will be terminated!” If Trump implements his new tariffs on Chinese products, U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods would reach a combined 104%. The new taxes would be on top of the 20% tariffs announced as punishment for fentanyl trafficking and his separate 34% tariffs announced last week. Not only could that increase prices for American consumers, it could also give China an incentive to flood other countries with cheaper goods and seek deeper relationships with other trading partners, particularly the European Union.

CNN [4/8/2025 11:53 PM, Elisabeth Buchwald and Nectar Gan, 908K] reports President Donald Trump is set to impose an astounding 104% in levies across all Chinese imports on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on Tuesday. This comes on top of Chinese tariffs that were in place prior to Trump’s second term. China was already set to see tariffs increase by 34% on Wednesday as part of Trump’s "reciprocal" tariffs package. But the president tacked on another 50% after Beijing didn’t back off on its promise to impose 34% retaliatory tariffs on US goods by noon Tuesday, adding an additional 84% in duties. Earlier Tuesday, China’s Commerce Ministry said it "firmly opposes" the additional 50% tariffs on Chinese imports, calling it "a mistake upon a mistake." The ministry vowed to escalate its retaliation on US exports. US stocks, which soared Tuesday morning, began moving lower following Leavitt’s comments. Markets ultimately ended the day markedly lower. The Dow fell 320 points, or 0.84%. The broader S&P 500 fell 1.57%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slid 2.15%. "Countries like China, who have chosen to retaliate and try to double down on their mistreatment of American workers, are making a mistake," Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday. "President Trump has a spine of steel, and he will not break.” "The Chinese want to make a deal, they just don’t know how to do it," she added. She declined to share what, if any, terms Trump would consider to lower tariffs on China. Asian markets largely tracked Wall Street’s losses, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 opening about 3% lower on Wednesday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng also fell 3%. South Korea’s Kopsi and Australia’s benchmark ASX 200 index were each down about 1%. Along with increasing China’s overall tariff rate, President Trump also signed an executive order Tuesday night tripling tariffs on goods worth less than $800 from the country. As it stands, packages under $800 have been exempt from tariffs through the so-called "de minimus" exemption.

Bloomberg [4/8/2025 7:00 AM, Shawn Donnan, 16228K] reports that, for a quarter century at least the world has been living with the effects of an epochal economic shock as China’s rise has reshaped whole industries and communities around the world. But that jolt to the global economy has been joined by another over the past week: The Trump Shock is truly here. The initial impact has been on markets and been manifested in the turmoil that has rolled over trading floors and investors around the world since President Trump last week announced the largest package of US tariffs in a century. But as we write in today’s Big Take, that’s just the beginning of the story. The flow of goods and capital around the world is set to undergo a fundamental change over the next five years, a new Bloomberg Economics analysis finds. That’s exactly what Trump and his cheerleaders are unabashedly aiming for. They want to rewrite the rules of global commerce in America’s favor. Supply chains will be tangled, investment plans rewritten, prices for imports will spike, and trade and security relationships with both allies and rivals will be remade. Trump’s whole bold gamble hinges on upheaval. The thing is that tariff-driven Trump Shock is also likely to amplify the enduring China Shock as the world’s second largest economy will be forced to find a replacement for a US market that remains a significant destination for its exports. That in turn will lead to countries putting up their own tariffs against Chinese goods. Think of that rolling shock that hit financial markets over the past week turning into a wave of tariffs circulating around the world. It’s a tale of twin shocks that are not just colliding but hitting the rest of the global economy. The new story is who is getting shocked hardest by whom. It seems unlikely to have a happy ending for a world that only just escaped the human and economic carnage of a pandemic.

Newsweek [4/8/2025 3:47 PM, Micah McCartney, 52220K] reports that Chinese coast guard ships repeatedly attempted to ram Philippine vessels over the weekend, according to Manila. The incidents, captured on video, took place west of the Philippines’ main island of Luzon, where Chinese ships have maintained a steady presence since early this year in what analysts call a show of force. China claims more than 90 percent of the South China Sea under its self-declared ten-dash line, citing vague historical rights that overlap with claims by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, and Taiwan. A 2016 international tribunal sided with the Philippines and rejected Beijing’s claims. China has dismissed the ruling as invalid and continues to send its heavily armed coast guard, naval warships, and paramilitary maritime militia hundreds of miles from its coast to enforce its claims. Newsweek reached out to the Chinese Foreign Ministry and Philippine Coast Guard for comment. In a statement posted to X (formerly Twitter), Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson Jay Tarriela accused Chinese ship CCG-3302 of "reckless and dangerous maneuvers" on Saturday and Sunday, including multiple attempts to ram the BRP Cabra, a smaller Philippine patrol vessel. Manila released a video showing the Cabra’s crew hailing the Chinese vessel and warning it had no right to patrol within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

The Hill [4/8/2025 11:40 AM, Julia Shapero, 12829K] reports that the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee warned Monday that President Trump’s additional extension for TikTok’s parent company to divest from the app, as well as a potential divestment deal on the table, may violate the law. In a letter to Trump, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said he has "deep reservations with how you and other involved parties are carrying out the negotiations around the sale of TikTok." He emphasized that the law passed by Congress last April, which required TikTok’s parent company ByteDance to divest from the app or face a U.S. ban, allowed a single 90-day extension. "This second delay is a clear violation of the law, while also continuing to leave Americans vulnerable to malign influence operations conducted by an adversary country," Warner wrote. Trump signed an executive order Friday halting enforcement of the law for another 75 days, saying his administration had made "tremendous progress" toward a deal but that it "requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed." He initially gave TikTok a 75-day reprieve from the divest-or-ban law shortly after taking office with aspirations of reaching a deal to keep TikTok available in the U.S. A source familiar with the negotiations told The Hill that a deal was finalized last week that would have seen TikTok’s U.S. operations spun off into a new company owned and operated by a majority of American investors. ByteDance would maintain a minority stake in the company under the agreement.

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