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.

The AP [8/1/2025 12:19 AM, Janie Har and Jaimie Ding, 31733K] reports a federal judge ruled on Thursday against the Trump administration’s plans and extended Temporary Protected Status for 60,000 people from Central America and Asia, including people from Nepal, Honduras and Nicaragua. Temporary Protected Status is a protection that can be granted by the Homeland Security secretary to people of various nationalities who are in the United States, preventing from being deported and allowing them to work. The Trump administration has aggressively been seeking to remove the protection, thus making more people eligible for removal. It’s part of a wider effort by the administration to carry out mass deportations of immigrants. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem can extend Temporary Protected Status to immigrants in the U.S. if conditions in their homelands are deemed unsafe to return due to a natural disaster, political instability or other dangerous conditions. Noem had ruled to end protections for tens of thousands of Hondurans and Nicaraguans after determining that conditions in their homelands no longer warranted them. The secretary said the two countries had made "significant progress" in recovering from 1998’s Hurricane Mitch, one of the deadliest Atlantic storms in history. The designation for an estimated 7,000 from Nepal was scheduled to end Aug. 5 while protections allowing 51,000 Hondurans and nearly 3,000 Nicaraguans who have been in the U.S. for more than 25 years were set to expire Sept. 8. U.S. District Judge Trina L. Thompson in San Francisco did not set an expiration date but rather ruled to keep the protections in place while the case proceeds. The next hearing is Nov. 18. In a sharply written order, Thompson said the administration ended the migrant status protections without an "objective review of the country conditions" such as political violence in Honduras and the impact of recent hurricanes and storms in Nicaragua. If the protections were not extended, immigrants could suffer from loss of employment, health insurance, be separated from their families, and risk being deported to other countries where they have no ties, she wrote, adding that the termination of Temporary Protection Status for people from Nepal, Honduras, and Nicaragua would result in a $1.4 billion loss to the economy. "The freedom to live fearlessly, the opportunity of liberty, and the American dream. That is all Plaintiffs seek. Instead, they are told to atone for their race, leave because of their names, and purify their blood," Thompson said. The San Francisco Chronicle [7/31/2025 8:47 PM, Bob Egelko, 4120K] reports that U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson of San Francisco said the revocation [of Temporary Protection Status] was clearly based on Trump’s executive order to "protect the American people against invasion" by undocumented immigrants. She cited Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s declaration that immigration was "an invasion happening on purpose … to remake the foundations of this country.” "By stereotyping the TPS program and immigrants as invaders that are criminal, and by highlighting the need for migration management, Secretary Noem’s statements perpetuate the discriminatory belief that certain immigrant populations will replace the white population," wrote Thompson, an appointee of former President Joe Biden. The Daily Caller [7/31/2025 10:40 PM, Jason Hopkins, 1010K] reports that in her ruling, the Biden-appointed judge appeared to accuse the Trump administration of racism. "The freedom to live fearlessly, the opportunity of liberty, and the American dream. That is all Plaintiffs seek," Thompson stated. "Instead, they are told to atone for their race, leave because of their names, and purify their blood. The Court disagrees.” The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation. A federal authority first established in the Immigration Act of 1990, TPS grants sweeping deportation protections and work eligibility to foreign nationals living in the country, including illegal migrants whose home countries are experiencing any number of conflicts or devastating natural disasters, making it potentially unsafe for them to return, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Hondurans and Nicaraguans were granted TPS for the first time in 1999 after Hurricane Mitch caused major destruction to the region, according to court documents. Nepal, a landlocked country nestled in the Himalayan Mountains, was added to the TPS list after an earthquake in 2015. A major critique of TPS is that it’s a program that is "temporary" in name only, with TPS designations for countries repeatedly being renewed over the years. Since returning to power, the Trump administration has worked to finally end TPS for a number of other countries, including Haiti, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Cameroon and Venezuela. Noem earlier in July declared the conditions in Nicaragua and Honduras safe for return, noting that both countries made "significant progress" in recovering from Hurricane Mitch’s devastation and are now enjoying popular tourism and other burgeoning industries. "TPS was never intended to be a de facto asylum program, yet it has been abused as one for decades," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin stated to the DCNF earlier in July, following a court victory that allowed the Trump administration to move forward with ending TPS designations for Afghan and Cameroon nationals. TPS designations for around 7,000 Nepali nationals was scheduled to end Aug. 5, and protections for roughly 51,000 Honduran nationals and 3,000 Nicaraguans was set to end Sept. 8, according to court documents. Thompson’s court ruling, however, has extended these deadlines — for now. The Biden-appointed judge has set a new court hearing scheduled for Nov. 18, according to the ruling. CBS News [7/31/2025 11:25 PM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, 51860K] reports The TPS program for Nepal was announced in 2015, after an earthquake hit the small Asian country. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has said all three countries have recovered from those environmental disasters. But Thompson, the San Francisco-based federal judge, said the TPS holders who sued the Trump administration were likely to succeed in their arguments that Noem’s decisions were "preordained" actions that did not fully consider lingering conditions in Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua. NPR [7/31/2025 9:16 PM, Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, 37958K] reports that the environmental situation has improved enough that it is safe enough for Nicaraguan citizens to return home.” At the same time, the Department of State has advised U.S. citizens to: "Reconsider travel to Nicaragua due to arbitrary enforcement of laws, the risk of wrongful detention, and limited healthcare availability.” Regarding the ending of TPS for Hondurans, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stated in a press release earlier this month: "It is clear that the Government of Honduras has taken all of the necessary steps to overcome the impacts of Hurricane Mitch, almost 27 years ago.” "Honduran citizens can safely return home, and DHS is here to help facilitate their voluntary return," Noem said. Judge Thompson said in her ruling that the Trump administration’s decisions to end the programs "were based on a preordained determination to end the TPS program, rather than an objective review of the country conditions.” Courts across the country, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have heard challenges to the termination of TPS for different groups.

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AP [7/31/2025 6:18 PM, Staff, 56000K] reports that the United States and Ecuador on Thursday signed a bilateral agreement aimed at strengthening their collaboration against transnational criminal networks. The agreement, signed during a visit of U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to the South American country, facilitates the exchange of information on suspected criminal offenders and risk assessments of cargo and travelers. Noem told reporters the efforts are “crucial steps to improve security and ensure that migration is carried out within the framework of the law.” The deal with Ecuador comes as the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump seeks to bolster regional cooperation in its clampdown against immigration and transnational criminal groups, including Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan gang designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the White House earlier this year. On Wednesday, Noem signed a similar agreement with Chile, which she visited as part of her latest tour of Latin America. That agreement allows Chilean officials to identify potentially dangerous migrants entering or exiting the country and share their fingerprints, iris scans and other biometric data with Homeland Security to prevent such individuals from traveling to the U.S.

AP [7/31/2025 6:22 PM, Staff, 56000K] reports that the United States and Ecuador on Thursday signed a bilateral agreement aimed at strengthening their collaboration against transnational criminal networks. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Blaze [7/31/2025 11:18 AM, Julio Rosas, 1805K] reports that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem signed an agreement with Chilean ministers on Wednesday to continue the Latin American country’s full integration into the Biometric Identification Transnational Migration Alert Program. BITMAP is a program being used to enhance information-sharing between Chile and the United States when it comes to hardened criminals attempting to enter the United States. This is significant not only because it will help combat the sophisticated Chilean theft rings within the United States, but it will also help prevent Venezuelans who are part of Tren de Aragua from gaining access to North America. There are over 1 million Venezuelans in Chile, and the nation has had problems with Tren de Aragua since prior to the Biden-Harris border crisis. "Data-sharing benefits everyone — except bad actors who wish to do us and our people harm," Noem said about the agreement in a statement given to Blaze News. "Today, we kick-started a Biometric Identification Transnational Migration Alert Program to help both nations better track criminals, terrorists, other dangerous individuals who try to cross our borders and do us harm. America, Chile, and the entire Western Hemisphere will be safer because of these efforts."

New York Post [7/31/2025 5:04 PM, Jennie Taer, 49956K] reports Panama’s Darien Gap, once a hotbed for US-bound migrants, is now completely deserted as President Trump’s illegal immigration crackdown has been in full swing. Migrant crossings in the dangerous jungle path connecting Colombia to Panama have plummeted to almost zero, according to Panama’s migration agency. Only 10 migrants traversed the Darien Gap in June, according to the data. Under President Joe Biden, crossings peaked at 37,166 in February 2024, according to data provided by the Department of Homeland Security. The Trump administration attributes the massive drop to its border crackdown and mass deportation campaign. “In Panama’s Darien Gap, migrants are turning BACK before they even reach our border— only 10 migrants crossed in June,” Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Axios. “The world is hearing our message that America’s borders are closed to lawbreakers,” she added.

AP [7/31/2025 5:23 PM, Rebecca Santana, 56000K] reports the agency responsible for carrying out President Donald Trump’s mass deportations agenda says it has already made tentative job offers to more than 1,000 people as it ramps up hiring following the passage of legislation earlier this month giving the agency a massive infusion of cash. The agency’s spokeswoman, Tricia McLaughlin, said in a statement Thursday that the offers had been made after July 4. That’s when Trump signed into law a broad package of tax breaks and spending cuts that also included about $170 billion for border security and immigration enforcement, spread out over five years. “ICE has already issued over 1,000 tentative job offers since July 4. Many of these offers were to ICE officers who retired under President Biden because they were frustrated that they were not allowed to do their jobs,” she said. “Now under President Trump and Secretary Noem, ICE is excited to get back to work to remove rapists, murderers, gang members and pedophiles from our communities.” The anticipated hiring boom has also raised concerns about whether standards will be lowered in order to meet the growing demand. McLaughlin rejected suggestions that the agency would lower recruitment standards.

NBC News [7/31/2025 7:13 PM, Jesse Kirsch, Didi Martinnez, and Laura Strickler 44540K] reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is newly flush with billions from the "One Big Beautiful Bill" spending legislation and under pressure to rapidly hire 10,000 new agents. But one tactic it recently tried to do that hiring — aggressively recruiting new agents from some of its most trusted local law enforcement partners — may have alienated some of the leaders it needs to help execute what the Trump administration wants to be the largest mass deportation in U.S. history. "We’re their force multipliers, and this is the thanks we get for helping them do their job?" Polk County, Florida, Sheriff Grady Judd said in an interview. Judd said he’s not happy about a recruitment email ICE’s deputy director sent to hundreds of his deputies, and he blamed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who oversees ICE. "Kristi Noem needs to get on her big girl pants and do what’s right. She needs to make sure that there’s an apology," said Judd, who also made it clear that he wants to "support President Trump’s mission." NBC News spoke to local law enforcement leaders in four states whose agencies participate in ICE’s 287(g) program, under which local officers are deputized to help in immigration enforcement, and whose deputies ICE targeted for recruitment. The recruitment email, sent this week, appears to have targeted law enforcement officers whose agencies participate in the 287(g) program.

ABC News [7/31/2025 5:12 PM, Mike Levine and Laura Romero, 31733K] reports leadership at some local and state law enforcement agencies across the country -- including agencies that have been supportive of federal immigration enforcement efforts -- grew frustrated this week with efforts by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to recruit new deportation officers and investigators from their ranks, according to several sources familiar with the matter. Earlier this week, ICE sent a recruiting email blast directly to officers at sheriffs’ offices and other agencies who were trained by ICE to support the federal 287(g) program that allows local officers to perform certain law enforcement functions related to federal immigration enforcement. The email left some local law enforcement leaders upset that after agreeing to have their officers help ICE, the agency was now trying to pull those officers away, sources said. The email said that new recruits can receive a signing bonus of $50,000, paid over five years. One Trump administration official told ABC News that the administration understands the frustration and values its partners, and that ICE would love to attract quality law enforcement officers who wouldn’t need to be trained for as long as a new hire off the street. Not everyone was upset by ICE’s latest recruitment effort.

Telemundo52 [7/31/2025 8:45 PM, Jesse Kirsch, Didi Martinez and Laura Strickler, 103K] reports an email to officials whose agencies collaborate with ICE has outraged even some sheriffs who support the Trump administration and its crackdown on immigration. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently received billions of dollars from the "One Big Beautiful Bill" spending bill and is under pressure to quickly hire 10,000 new agents. However, one tactic it recently tried to accomplish that task - aggressively recruiting new agents from some of its most trusted local law enforcement partners - may have alienated some of the leaders it needs to help execute what the Trump administration wants to be the largest mass deportation in U.S. history. "We are their force multipliers, and this is the thanks we get for helping them do their job," Polk County, Florida, Sheriff Grady Judd said in an interview. Judd expressed displeasure with a recruitment email that the ICE deputy director sent to hundreds of his agents, and blamed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who oversees ICE. "Kristi Noem must act responsibly and do the right thing. She should make sure there is an apology," said Judd, who also made it clear that he wants to "support President Trump’s mission." NBC News spoke with local law enforcement leaders in four states whose agencies participate in ICE’s 287(g) program, under which local agents are assigned to assist in immigration enforcement, and whose agents were recruited by ICE. The recruitment email, sent this week, appears to be targeted to law enforcement officers whose agencies participate in the 287(g) program. The email, obtained by NBC News, reads, in part, "As someone who currently supports ICE through the 287(g) program, you understand the unique responsibility we have to protect our communities and enforce federal law. Your experience in state or local law enforcement brings invaluable knowledge and skills to this mission, qualities we need now more than ever." It also promotes possible $50,000 hiring bonuses as an incentive to join ICE, and links to a government recruiting website with an image of Uncle Sam, the headline "UNITED STATES NEEDS YOU" and the possibility of up to $60,000 in student loan payments in addition to the hiring bonuses. "For ICE to actively attempt to use our partnership to recruit our staff is wrong, and we have expressed our concern to ICE leadership," the Pinellas County, Florida, Sheriff’s Office stated in a release. The Pinellas County sheriff is a Republican, as is Judd.

(B) Today [7/31/2025 11:27 AM, Staff] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement is sweetening the deal when it comes to new recruits as the federal government is trying to crack down on illegal immigration across the country. On ICE’s recruitment website, the agency is looking for deportation officers, immigration investigators, and lawyers. The agency is adding up to $50,000 signing bonus, $60,000 in student loan repayment or forgiveness, 25% premium pay, opportunities for overtime, and enhanced retirement benefits.

FOX News [7/31/2025 12:53 PM, Charles Creitz, 46878K] reports that Congressional Republicans are pushing to close a loophole that prevents illegal immigrants convicted of DUI from being automatically deported — a gap they say has been overlooked and could be exploited by less aggressive administrations. Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., will introduce a measure this week to prevent illegal immigrants convicted of DUI from entering the U.S. and also make those living here clearly deportable. The Protect Our Communities From DUIs Act would clarify existing law under the Immigration and Nationality Act that already makes illegal immigrants deportable for aggravated felonies and "crimes of moral turpitude.” Not every DUI case is the same, as some are misdemeanor offenses and some are charged as felonies, though all are considered crimes of moral turpitude. Hagerty’s bill would make any DUI conviction a deportable development regardless of misdemeanor or felony charges. Immigration hawks have long been concerned that administrations less eager to deport illegal immigrants may use loopholes or vague categorizations in existing code to make the argument that they don’t have to or cannot deport certain people. The bill makes clear that "any alien" who has been convicted of or admits committing "acts constituting the essential elements of an offense for driving while intoxicated or impaired … regardless of whether such conviction or offense is classified as a misdemeanor or felony under Federal, State, tribal, or local law" is deportable."

FOX News [7/31/2025 3:00 PM, Elizabeth Elkind, 46878K] reports that a Republican lawmaker is moving to block states from allowing people who come to the U.S. illegally or are residing here illegally to become police officers. Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., introduced a bill this week to halt federal funds to law enforcement agencies that employ illegal immigrants as officers. "My husband, Matt, he serves our community as a first responder, as a firefighter, and as a SWAT medic. And so we have really close ties to the law enforcement community. And it’s been really frustrating to see the challenges that they’ve undergone in the last decade," Cammack told Fox News Digital in an interview Thursday. "And, you know, being a conservative, we’ve watched the entire defund police movement—and now it’s come around to where, because of retention and recruitment challenges as a result of the regressive left’s actions, now departments are so desperate that they’re looking to hire illegals to fill their ranks. And it is horrifying." In addition to blocking funds for police departments if they hire illegal immigrants as officers, the bill would mandate that only U.S. citizens can serve as law enforcement officers. Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told local outlet WMTW that the department’s "reckless reliance on E-Verify" did not "absolve" it of its "legal duty to verify documentation authenticity.” Meanwhile, multiple states, including California, Illinois and Colorado, have laws allowing non-citizens with work authorization, such as DACA recipients, to become police officers.

AP [7/31/2025 7:01 PM, Juan A. Lozano, 2106K] reports that the brother of an Afghan refugee who helped U.S. forces defuse bombs during the war in Afghanistan expressed frustration Thursday that it took more than three months for the Texas man accused of fatally shooting his sibling over a parking dispute to be indicted in the case. When Abdul Rahman Waziri, 31, was shot while getting his mail at his Houston apartment complex on April 27, police knew who the alleged shooter was as the man had identified himself to officers at the scene, according to authorities. Katia Trevon Bougere, 31, told officers “he and Waziri were arguing over parking,” police said. “After consulting with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, the male was released and the investigation continued,” Houston police said in a statement a day after the shooting. On June 17, police said the case would be referred to a grand jury. Bougere was indicted on Monday on a murder charge. Bougere was not arrested after his murder indictment but issued a summons to appear in court on Aug. 5. Abdullah Khan, Waziri’s older brother, said he and his family were upset that months had passed without any developments in the case. “It was heartbreaking … it was really hopeless. I couldn’t imagine if someone is killing someone senselessly. And then the person walking free for months and months. It’s just terrible,” Khan, 36, told The Associated Press during a phone interview.

ABC News [7/31/2025 2:02 PM, Luis Martinez, 31733K] reports that the Pentagon has announced that 1,350 more federalized members of the California National Guard will be withdrawn from the security mission in Los Angeles that started in early June following protests against immigration raids carried out by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). A remaining force of 250 National Guardsmen will remain in place to continue protecting federal government buildings and personnel in Los Angeles. Close to 5,000 National Guard members and Marines were deployed to Los Angeles on June 7 for a mission that could potentially last up to 60 days, a time limit that ends next week. "On Wednesday, Secretary Hegseth ordered the release of approximately 1,350 California National Guardsmen from the federal protection mission," Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, said in a statement provided to ABC News. "Approximately 250 California National Guardsmen remain in Los Angeles to protect federal personnel and property," Parnell said. "We greatly appreciate the support of the more than 5,000 Guardsmen and Marines who mobilized to Los Angeles to defend Federal functions against the rampant lawlessness occurring in the city." In recent weeks the Pentagon had announced the withdrawals of 2,000 Guard members and 700 Marines, along with the reassignment of 150 Guard members to firefighting duty. [Editorial note: consult video at source link] The AP [7/31/2025 3:55 PM, Jaimie Ding and David Klepper] reports that the rest will remain to protect federal personnel and property, according to the statement attributed to Sean Parnell, chief Pentagon spokesperson. Roughly 4,000 National Guard soldiers and 700 Marines were deployed to Los Angeles in early June over the objections of state and local officials. Half of the Guard were pulled back roughly two weeks ago, and the Marines were ordered to leave a few days later. The presence of Guard troops in the city had been mostly limited to two locations with federal buildings in Los Angeles, including the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office and detention facility downtown. Some soldiers have been protecting federal agents during immigration raids.

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FOX News [7/31/2025 6:00 AM, Elizabeth Elkind, 46878K] reports a House Democrat is moving to block the Trump administration from being able to use military-grade drones to surveil protests in the U.S. Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., introduced the bill in response to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reportedly using MQ-9 Reaper drones to monitor the protests in Los Angeles earlier this year. "The U.S. government should never use military drones to spy on its own people. Not under Trump. Not under anyone," Gomez told Fox News Digital in a statement. "This bill would stop Trump’s abuse of power and get these combat drones out of our neighborhoods.” The White House said it would not get ahead of President Donald Trump on pending legislation. Fox News Digital also reached out to DHS for comment. Protests, some of which turned into violent riots, rocked Los Angeles for several days last month. They began as demonstrations against Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) implementing Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants in predominantly Hispanic or Latino neighborhoods in the Southern California city. Images of cars burning and protesters clashing with police soon went viral across the country, with both Republicans and Democrats blaming each other for escalating tensions. Like other Democrats at the time, Gomez criticized Trump for sending the National Guard into Los Angeles to take control of the situation, despite objections from Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. "What Trump is doing in LA is a dangerous abuse of power. It escalates tensions, puts lives at risk, and violates our constitutional values. We’re united — not just as Californians, but as Americans — because if it can happen in LA today, it can happen anywhere in the country," Gomez wrote on X at the time. His district includes significant portions of Los Angeles and is situated entirely inside Los Angeles County. It’s not likely the Republican-controlled House will take up his new bill, which has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee.

(B) Good Morning America [7/31/2025 10:57 AM, Staff] reports that Avelo Airlines announced it will close its west coast base at Burbank Airport by December, cutting operations to one place before then. The Texas-based budget carrier is struggling financially amid protests over its contract with the Department of Homeland Security to fly deportation flights. The company says the closure decision is driven by financial factors, not the protests. Activists plan to continue protesting at Burbank Airport later this month.

CNN [7/31/2025 3:25 PM, Rene Marsh, 875K] reports that President Donald Trump has vowed to carry out the largest deportation operation in American history, and his administration has been tapping employees from across the government to aid his ambitions of removing a million immigrants a year. That now includes, for the first time, using Federal Air Marshals to guard some of the thousands of deportation flights operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement this year. The Federal Air Marshal Service was created in response to a rise in airplane hijackings in the 1960s and tasked with stopping terrorists after the 9/11 attacks. But since June, some 200 Air Marshals have also been redeployed to provide security on flights filled with detainees in ICE custody, who are being shuffled from detention centers around the US, or deported to a growing number of ICE Air destination countries, according to sources and documents seen by CNN. The Air Marshal National Council, a group that lobbies for Air Marshals’ interests, this month sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration, which oversees the Federal Air Marshals, accusing the Trump administration of undermining security on commercial aircraft by redeploying Air Marshals onto ICE Air flights. The group says they’ve also filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general.

Bloomberg [7/31/2025 12:19 PM, Ellen M. Gilmer, 88K] reports that the Department of Homeland Security hasn’t violated federal appropriations law by terminating almost all employees in its civil rights office and other oversight teams, a government watchdog says. The Government Accountability Office on Thursday found DHS didn’t violate the Impoundment Control Act—which limits when the president can withhold congressionally appropriated funds—in dismantling the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman, and Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman. [Editorial note: consult extended commentary at source link]

CNN [7/31/2025 2:59 PM, Devan Cole, 21433K] reports that the federal judge in Tennessee overseeing Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s criminal case told the Trump administration on Thursday that officials must moderate their public comments about him to ensure he received a fair trial. The order from US District Judge Waverly Crenshaw comes a week after attorneys for Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador earlier this year and brought back to the US in June to face human smuggling charges, complained to the judge about "inflammatory" comments Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and others made about him earlier this month. "To ensure that Abrego receives a fair trial, all counsel are subject to" rules prohibiting extrajudicial statements that could interfere with a criminal defendant having a fair trial, Crenshaw, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, wrote in the brief order. "All counsel and those working with counsel shall ensure that any proper public communications include that the Indictment only contains allegations," the judge added. "Our Constitution requires that Abrego is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt by a jury."

Daily Wire [7/31/2025 9:22 AM, Spencer Lindquist, 3816K] reports that crossings over the treacherous landbridge that connects South and Central America, called the Darien Gap, have plummeted to near-zero amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration. The Darien Gap, which connects Colombia and Panama, witnessed hundreds of thousands of migrants traveling north through it in 2023 during the Biden administration. But just 10 migrants traveled north through the dangerous stretch of jungle in June, marking a stunning drop after six months of the Trump administration. The Department of Homeland Security celebrated the precipitous decline in crossings through the Darien Gap. "In Panama’s Darien Gap, migrants are turning BACK before they even reach our border — only 10 migrants crossed in June," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said, adding that the new figures amount to more than a 99.8% drop from migration through the region under the Biden administration. "The world is hearing our message that America’s borders are closed to lawbreakers." The figures come as migrant encounters on the southern border of the United States continue to drop dramatically, with officials recording fewer encounters in the month of June than were seen in single days under the Biden administration. Not only are migrants not traveling through the jungle passageway — which is replete with alligators and snakes — many even turned around and went south through the region at the start of President Donald Trump’s term.

USA Today [7/30/2025 2:21 PM, Susan Tompor, 75552K] reports that, more than likely, you’ve never been to Mexico. And you never expected to receive a shipment of drugs from there or anywhere else. No matter, a crook is bound to try to convince you otherwise. Scammers who claim to be an agent from U.S. Customs and Border Protection are dialing for data and dollars. The caller often asks if you’re expecting a package from Mexico — and then will claim that U.S. Customs has intercepted your drug-filled package at the border. As might be expected, all sorts of scams that impersonate government officials continue to be making the rounds. The crooks know we’re hearing plenty about immigration, drug trafficking, tariffs, Medicare and more. And they’ve never been at a loss for ways to push our buttons. U.S. Customs and Border Protection warns that crooks who claim to be employees of the agency tell potential victims that a warrant is out for their arrest or that "a box of drugs and money being shipped has your name on it and has been intercepted.” If you stay on the line about that so-called package delay, according to an alert from the Federal Trade Commission, the odds are high that the caller impersonating Customs and Border Protection is going to demand that you pay using cryptocurrency, gift cards, or wire transfers, or tell you to give them your banking account or Social Security number. Don’t trust caller ID. Remember, the crooks can make their phone numbers look real even if they’re not. Scammers impersonate Social Security, FTC officials. From January through April, the Federal Trade Commission received more than 75,000 reports of government imposter scams. The scammers most frequently reached out to potential victims by phone and asked for payment on gift cards. But scammers also text and ask for cryptocurrency and cash, too. The median loss for all government impersonation scams was $650, according to FTC data. In all, nearly $204 million was reported lost from January through April. Among those reports, according to the FTC, Customs and Board Protection impostors ranked as the fourth most common with 3,466 reports in the first four months of 2025. The median loss to Customs and Border Protection imposters, according to the FTC, was $1,000. Consumers reported losing $1.62 million to customs scams from January through April. The most common government impersonation scam so far this year involves scammers who pretend to be toll road operators, according to the FTC. The FTC received 26,811 reports about toll road scams this year through April. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services warns online that some businesses and websites pretend to be immigration experts or say they have special connections to the government. "They might also ‘guarantee’ that you can get a visa, Green Card, or work permit faster if you pay a fee," according to the agency. But it’s a scam. Elaborate immigration scams, according to an alert from the Federal Trade Commission, can start with someone impersonating attorneys and law firms, offering immigration services through posts on Facebook and other platforms. The service reportedly offers to help you with immigration paperwork. The consumer is often then asked to send money using Western Union or Zelle. In return, the con artists claim they’ll supposedly get you an appointment with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services or USCIS. "People who paid report having virtual appointments on Zoom or WhatsApp with a ‘USCIS officer’ in uniform — all part of the scam," according to an FTC alert issued in December 2024.

National Review [7/31/2025 8:32 PM, Staff, 109K] reports the Department of Homeland Security has sent a proposed rule for review to the Office of Management and Budget as a first step to reforming America’s H-1B visa program for specialty occupations. The change would end the current lottery approach and use instead a wage-based selection algorithm — in other words, employers who offer higher wages would be considered first. Selection would move down the wage scale until the annual visa limit is reached. This would be a vast improvement on the current system, which is too random to correspond in any way with the merit of the applicants, and too easily gamed. The practice now is for canny employers to hire “body shops” — staffing firms that flood the lottery with duplicate applications, using shell companies to hide their behavior. These employers exploit the H-1B visa program to bring in foreign workers to work at below-market salaries. Another, stranger abuse is the practice of “benching” H-1B workers. That is, a company will bring in a foreign worker on this visa but have the employee do no work while either charging a third-party client for the use of his labor, or not paying the laborer at all. An H-1B system that favors the highest salaries would favor the most valuable skills. It would incentivize employers to offer top dollar to highly skilled workers. That would make it all but impossible to use the system to undermine the American labor market, which provides a quality of life that Americans want to maintain and enhance, not lower.

Houston Chronicle [7/31/2025 7:00 AM, Staff, 1982K] reports that, in the days before the July 4 floods in Central Texas, forecasts were still mild. Across some 44 counties there was a chance of 1-3 inches of rain, maybe 5-7. Of course, in the Hill Country, even a couple inches of rain over a short enough period can cause flash flooding but with such a big footprint, it was hard for emergency officials to know what to expect. Even so, the forecasts became increasingly specific and provided a brief window to save lives. Early Friday morning, a weather alert went out at 1:06 am: "very heavy rain," for several counties, including Kerr. Then, less than 10 minutes later at 1:14 am: "flash flood warning" — the first — for Ingram and Hunt. The messages started getting more dire. Shortly after 3:00 am: "very dangerous flood event" in Kerr County, read one. And then, roughly 10 minutes later: the Guadalupe River at Hunt is 11 feet, "expected to crest at 16.6.” Less than an hour later: "expected to crest at 23.8.” Last week, lawmakers heard from the head of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, Nim Kidd, who shared the information above as part of a timeline of relevant social media notices from the National Weather Service. "We didn’t know anything that nobody else knew," he told the special joint committee on flooding. Still, his division had resources, including high-water rescue boats, staged around the region two days before the flood. It is hard to square this testimony with what we’ve heard so far out of Kerrville, among the hardest hit areas in the July 4 floods that killed more than 130 people. The forecasts were imperfect, but local leaders should have known to be on alert. So why were city and county officials seemingly caught off guard? "It happened so rapidly that nobody, nobody could have anticipated it," Kerrville city manager, Dalton Rice, told NBC News. When he went out for a run around 3:30 am that morning, he said everything looked normal. By then, however, the National Weather Service had already shared a "dangerous flood event" warning. Still, it wasn’t until two hours later that he started getting messages about rising water and then sprang into action. Maintaining local control during emergencies makes sense. But there are still far too many communication gaps between state and local officials that prevent Texans from acting decisively to protect themselves. For instance, Kidd said at Wednesday’s hearing, that the state has 3-5 people watching the weather every hour of the day. "Their job is to be the alarm bell for the rest of us.” But when asked by Sen. José Menéndez whether that up-to-date information is relayed to local officials, Kidd said it wasn’t. "There is no system in place to ensure that county judge x or mayor y or emergency manager z is getting the same information that we are getting from the national weather service," Kidd said, adding that his agency doesn’t even have cell phone numbers for every emergency coordinator.

Bloomberg [7/31/2025 6:30 AM, Patricia Lopez, 19320K] reports Tae Heung “Will” Kim, a scientific researcher who has lived in the US since he was five and who holds a valid green card, traveled to his native South Korea recently for his kid brother’s wedding. But when Kim attempted to re-enter the country, immigration officials blocked him at San Francisco International Airport, taking him into custody. He got no explanation and no access to his attorney, Eric Lee, who said his client slept in a chair for seven days. The agency recently confirmed in a statement to Washington Post that “This alien is in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.” An accused shoplifter would have more rights than have been afforded Kim, who is researching a vaccine for Lyme disease as he pursues a PhD at Texas A&M University. A toxic combination of secrecy, arrogance and an unsettling recklessness is pervading a newly emboldened Immigration and Customs Enforcement as it pursues President Donald Trump’s goal of mass deportation at any cost. Agents’ identities are secret; they appear in public wearing black ski masks and street clothes while conducting raids and roundups. Their cars are unmarked. Courtroom arrests have become commonplace. Once in the system, detainees’ locations can be difficult to determine, leaving family and friends frantic. Those who dare to ask for a warrant or identification may find themselves charged with obstructing or even assaulting an officer, as happened to hospital staffers in Oxnard, California. The cruelty — and the fear it creates — has become an essential part of ICE operations. In his first term, Trump laid the groundwork for greater secrecy and less public accountability with a 2020 memo that designated ICE a security/sensitive agency, on par with the Federal Bureau of Investigation or Secret Service. Months earlier he had done the same for Customs and Border Protection. The change ensured that names and personal information of not just agents, but all employees, would be kept secret and not subject to public information requests. In his second term, ICE has become resistant to congressional oversight. Democrats who question agency officials get flippant or downright curt answers. Lawmakers who attempt oversight by visiting detention centers have found themselves turned away. Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested for attempting to enter such a facility in his own city.

FOX News [8/1/2025 5:00 AM, Mehek Cooke, 46878K] reports America’s immigration crisis is something even more dangerous—the deliberate erosion of the rule of law. Over 560 jurisdictions now operate as sanctuary cities, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Sanctuary city policies don’t just ignore federal authority—they embolden criminals, handcuff law enforcement, and leave innocent Americans to pay the price. These cities believe they’re untouchable, but there is a solution hiding in plain sight. President Trump already showed the nation how to deal with institutions that defy federal law. When Columbia University refused to address antisemitism, the Trump administration froze its federal funding and won. That same strategy can dismantle sanctuary policies city by city. We need a Trump-style course correction—one that applies financial pressure and legal accountability to restore the rule of law. And make no mistake, sanctuary cities don’t just resist immigration enforcement, they force taxpayers to subsidize, feed, and house an invasion force that is causing riots and flooding our streets with crime. Socialism flows from the top down—through blue cities, blue states, and leftist institutions. These cities normalize defiance, celebrate lawlessness, and place politics above public safety. I speak not only as an attorney but as a legal immigrant who deeply believes in the American Dream and in the laws that protect it. Between June 2023 and July 2024, the New York City Department of Correction only enforced 4% of ICE detention requests. This means they allowed thousands of violent criminals to walk free after being flagged for criminal deportation. Two of them later murdered an off-duty Customs and Border Protection officer. America is a nation of laws, not loopholes. However, the growing sanctuary city movement to elevate ideology over enforcement threatens that foundation. If these cities ignore immigration laws today, what stops them from ignoring federal civil rights protections, environmental rules, or national security directives tomorrow? Nothing.

San Diego Union Tribune [7/31/2025 9:10 AM, Sanya Dhama, 1611K] reports empty waiting rooms. Missed appointments. A palpable sense that something is wrong. Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security quietly rolled back protections for sensitive locations, allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to resume enforcement actions near hospitals and clinics — with immediate and devastating consequences. ICE raids have sent shockwaves through Southern California neighborhoods, leaving many community members afraid to seek the care they desperately need. Health care must be a source of healing, not surveillance. Safe care is a human right — and realizing that right means ensuring our clinics and hospitals serve as sanctuary spaces. As a medical student, I have seen the consequences of fear in our exam rooms. At a free clinic in Pomona, I met a woman with symptoms of a urinary tract infection. She had spent two years in a border detention center, where clean drinking water was scarce and she had no control over what or how much she could drink. Her vitals revealed dangerously elevated blood sugar. She was in acute hyperglycemia, worsened by dehydration — likely minutes from organ failure — but she hesitated. I didn’t ask about her immigration status — it wasn’t relevant. What mattered was her safety, and the terror in her eyes was undeniable. No one should have to choose between seeking care and staying safe. Health is collective. From preschool to medical school in Riverside County, I lived and learned alongside immigrant — documented and otherwise — classmates and neighbors, less than 150 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. We are bound not only by the land beneath us, but by our shared vulnerability — to communicable diseases, to policy decisions, to fears — and by the people beside us, whose labor and lives shape our communities. In California, over one-third of physicians and nurses are immigrants. My own parents are immigrant health care workers. But our well-being also depends on those who harvest our food, prepare our meals, and build our homes — the people who support the infrastructure of public health itself. To protect our neighbors’ health is to protect our own. Unchecked law enforcement in health care settings puts all of us at risk, regardless of immigration status, according to the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities. Physical health is at risk, with growing reports of excessive force. Mental health suffers, with heightened distress and diminished senses of safety. Social trust deteriorates, contributing to more provider bias and patient silence. Policing in places meant for healing turns hospitals into sites of surveillance and becomes a negative determinant of health for all. Patients should feel safe to share their stories. California mandates reporting of abuse, neglect, violence and communicable disease to protect public safety — not to target undocumented individuals. Immigrants are not threats to our communities. They are our communities. As future physicians, we must not forget our duty to serve them.

Daily Caller [7/31/2025 11:45 AM, Jason Hopkins, 1010K] reports that a dozen congressional Democrats are suing the Trump administration to gain unfettered access to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the District of Columbia’s federal court, accuses ICE and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of improperly blocking congressional oversight into immigration detention centers and ICE field offices, according to court documents. The Trump administration, in turn, is accusing Democrats of not following protocol and grandstanding for fundraising purposes. "Nevertheless, since June 2025, each Plaintiff, in his or her official capacity as an individual member of Congress, has attempted to obtain information about conditions at a DHS facility used to detain or otherwise house noncitizens," the lawsuit stated. "Each Plaintiff has done so by visiting a facility in person, or by giving DHS notice of imminent plans to do so, for the purpose of conducting real-time oversight of that facility." The lawsuit further claimed that "each of those attempted oversight visits has been blocked by Defendants.” Laws ensuring members of Congress the right to visit DHS facilities have been on the books since 2019, according to court documents. However, details around oversight policy have become a major point of contention. "These members of Congress could have just scheduled a tour; instead, they’re running to court to drive clicks and fundraising emails," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin stated to the Associated Press (AP). DHS did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Telemundo [7/31/2025 5:33 PM, Staff, 3352K] reports instances of agents violently smashing vehicle windows to make arrests have become more common in the past six months, according to a ProPublica investigation published Thursday, which documents nearly 50 incidents of immigration officers shattering windows, including those with pregnant women and crying children inside. Use-of-force experts and former Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers cited in the investigation say this tactic has rarely been used under previous administrations. They say there is no known policy change that would have allowed officers to break windows. Rather, it is part of a broader breach of established norms. The report asserts that minimum arrest quotas exist and that methods have become increasingly aggressive. Officers who break windows aren’t being disciplined—they’re being promoted, ProPublica says. When ProPublica asked the White House about the tactics and specific cases, the response defended the officers’ conduct. Department of Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Tricia McLaughlin also defended the tactic in response to questions about the Border Patrol.

Politico [7/31/2025 6:30 PM, Lindsey Holden, 16523K] reports Democratic leaders in California and other blue states are taking aim at the masks federal immigration officers use to conceal their identities — laying the groundwork for all-but-inevitable court battles over their ability to rein in the Trump administration’s deportation tactics. Los Angeles County this week joined state and local governments across the country that are fighting the use of ski masks, gaiters and balaclavas during large raids that have caused fear and panic in cities like Los Angeles. Legislative efforts are also underway in New York, Illinois and Massachusetts to limit the face coverings law enforcement can wear and require officers to wear badges or some form of ID. Even some proponents admit it’s a legally questionable proposal that will likely be litigated in court. But it may be one of Democrats’ few options for resisting Trump’s immigration crackdown beyond lawsuits. Federal lawmakers, including California Sen. Alex Padilla, have introduced their own anti-mask legislation, but it’s unlikely to go anywhere in the Republican-controlled Congress. “People wearing ski masks are grabbing people, throwing them into unmarked cars and sending them to Alligator Alcatraz or El Salvador or Libya,” said California state Sen. Scott Wiener, who authored a bill to ban certain kinds of face coverings for law enforcement. “It’s really terrifying, and there should be a deep, broad-based movement to put a stop to this kind of fascist secret police.” A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security called the efforts “repulsive messaging bills that stoke dangerous anti-ICE rhetoric for cheap political points and fundraising emails” in a statement to POLITICO, adding that federal officers “clearly identify themselves as law enforcement” and need the masks to shield themselves from violence and online harassment. Even in California, which is dominated by a Democratic supermajority, lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom aren’t entirely sold on Wiener’s anti-mask bill. That’s due in large part to opposition from powerful state and local law enforcement lobby groups, whose members resent being lumped in with federal immigration officials and questions about its legality. Newsom has slammed federal agents’ use of face coverings — but also publicly questioned whether the state can regulate federal law enforcement. The governor’s team in a statement also echoed moderate Democrats’ concerns about its scope. “This is a critical issue facing our communities,” said Diana Crofts-Pelayo, a Newsom spokesperson. “Consistent with the Governor’s direction, we want to ensure the bill doesn’t disrupt the important work of state and local law enforcement, which doesn’t involve immigration operations.”

Axios [7/31/2025 6:25 AM, Sabrina Moreno, 13599K] reports federal immigration agents would be required to show their faces and be clearly identifiable when making arrests under a soon-to-be-introduced bill from Virginia Democratic Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine. The proposal, shared exclusively with Axios Richmond, is partly in response to recent incidents in Chesterfield and Charlottesville, where media outlets have reported masked ICE officers in plainclothes detaining people. Under the legislation, any law enforcement officer conducting immigration enforcement operations — both federal and local — must: Visibly show their name and which law enforcement agency they’re with. Not be masked, with exceptions for some operations and for health purposes. The Immigration Enforcement Identification Safety Act (IEIS, pronounced ICE) would also cover the costs of services to remove personal information from the internet that could be used to threaten officers or their families. Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, told Axios Richmond that ICE agents "always have credentials visible and clearly announce who they are" — which immigrant rights advocates have disputed. Kaine and Warner’s bill is the latest in a string of Democratic lawmakers, including in states and cities, seeking to ban ICE agents’ masking. ICE agents are currently not required to provide badge numbers or identify themselves, reports Axios’ Russell Contreras. They can cover their faces, arrive in unmarked cars and they don’t need a warrant from a judge to detain someone. Nationwide, raids by ICE agents in plain clothes have sometimes led nearby residents to believe that people were being kidnapped. And there have been reports of ICE impersonators harassing people, creating more chaos and uncertainty in some communities — which McLaughlin said the agency condemns. Democratic U.S. Rep. Jennifer McClellan, who represents the Richmond area, is also pushing for more transparency around ICE arrests. McClellan met with local leaders at the Chesterfield courthouse this week to talk about concerns with ramped-up enforcement tactics. Whether Virginia’s legislature follows New York and Massachusetts in introducing bills that would make ICE agents more identifiable. Though McLaughlin has said any state and local restrictions on ICE agents would "demonize" the agents.

CBS News [7/31/2025 6:00 AM, Jared Ochacher, Camilo Montoya-Galvez and Julia Ingram, 51860K] reports most of the more than 109,000 arrests carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the first five months of President Trump’s second term took place in border and Southern states, according to a CBS News analysis of government data. States in the southern U.S., as well as those along the border with Mexico, saw the highest levels of ICE arrests between the start of Mr. Trump’s second term on Jan. 20 and June 27, the figures show. That continued a trend that predates the current administration, though ICE arrests have increased sharply across the country since last year. During the same time period in 2024, under the Biden administration, ICE made over 49,000 arrests, meaning that arrests by the agency have increased by 120% under the Trump administration. The statistics indicate that Texas saw nearly a quarter of all ICE arrests during that time period. About 11% of ICE arrests occurred in Florida and 7% in California, followed by 4% in Georgia and 3% in Arizona. ICE made the fewest arrests in Vermont, Alaska and Montana, about 100 total apprehensions combined. The locations of a small percentage of the arrests could not be discerned from the dataset, which was obtained by a group known as the Deportation Data Project through litigation. Overall, the individuals arrested by ICE between Jan. 20 and June 27 came from nearly 180 countries, but most were from Latin America or the Caribbean, according to the data. Mexico was the most common country of citizenship, with nearly 40,000 of those taken into ICE custody listed as Mexican citizens. Nationals of Guatemala and Honduras followed with around 15,000 and 12,000, respectively. Nearly 8,000 were citizens of Venezuela and over 5,000 of El Salvador. Immigration experts said the concentration of arrests in Southern and border states is not necessarily surprising and can largely be attributed to geography, demographics and the extent to which local law enforcement agencies cooperate with ICE. Kathleen Bush-Joseph, a policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, explained that ICE tends to focus its resources in areas where local policies permit law enforcement interaction with federal immigration authorities, such as Texas and Florida. Other places, like California, may also see high levels of ICE arrests because they have large communities of immigrants, including those in the U.S. illegally, even though state and local policies limit collaboration with ICE. "It’s easier for ICE to be picking people up from state and local jails where there’s cooperation," Bush-Joseph said. In cities and states with so-called sanctuary policies, "ICE has to spend more resources picking up people for at-large arrests," she added. Todd Lyons, the acting ICE director, told CBS News recently that while his agents are still prioritizing the arrest of violent offenders who are in the U.S. illegally, anyone found to be in the country in violation of federal immigration law will be taken into custody. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Washington Examiner [7/31/2025 8:38 PM, Christopher Tremoglie, 1934K] reports that, as liberals, Democrats, and their left-wing accomplices in the legacy media and political punditry vilified illegal immigration enforcement efforts, the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement were making the country safe by arresting illegal immigrants who endanger the citizens of the country. ICE arrested Yehia Elham Badawi this week, whose crimes were so heinous that he was previously a suspect on "America’s Most Wanted" for his role in a "violent armed robbery at a Philadelphia supermarket" in 1994. Badawi and an accomplice were in a shootout with Philadelphia Police officers in which one was seriously wounded. According to ICE, Badawi had a substantial criminal history, including "robbery, aggravated assault, and multiple violent felonies," related to the shootout with police. He was eventually arrested in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1996 and sentenced to decades in prison. He was taken into custody this week by ICE and will be scheduled for deportation. Once again, ICE and DHS are protecting the country’s citizens and making it safer for everyone. Yet, as ICE removes dangerous criminals such as Badawi, Democrats actively seek to obstruct their efforts to uphold justice. It is an important distinction that must be remembered. ICE and DHS are guarding innocent people from dangerous criminals who are not supposed to be in the country. Liberals, Democrats, and others on the Left are actively working to keep them here. Moreover, their agitprop foot soldiers sow chaos and discontent throughout the country to aid in the Left’s efforts. So while ICE agents and DHS officers have to risk their lives to protect the country, they must also deal with unruly citizens, often violent, who prohibit them from completing their tasks and doing their jobs. But ICE’s guardianship didn’t stop there. As Democrats sue ICE and visit facilities to ensure violent criminal illegal immigrants are given five-star treatment at taxpayers’ expense, ICE and DHS are taking people who pose threats to innocent American citizens off the streets. In addition to the America’s Most Wanted suspect, ICE arrested Juan Ocana-Sanchez, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who, according to DHS, was "convicted of lewd acts with a child under 14 in Vista, CA.”

Washington Post [7/31/2025 4:22 PM, Praveena Somasundaram, 32099K] reports federal authorities said they arrested a police officer in Maine last week for overstaying his visa — even as the agency that hired him said the Department of Homeland Security had verified his eligibility to work in the United States weeks earlier. Jon-Luke Evans, a Jamaican citizen, allegedly overstayed his visa for more than two years by the time Maine’s Old Orchard Beach Police Department hired him this year, according to U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement. He then tried to buy a firearm for his new job, which ultimately led to his arrest on Friday, ICE said. The situation is the result of “the Old Orchard Beach Police Department’s reckless reliance on E-Verify to justify arming an illegal alien,” said Tricia McLaughlin, the DHS assistant secretary for public affairs. E-Verify is a long-standing DHS program for employers to confirm a prospective hire’s eligibility to work in the United States. But the police department says the federal government, which since President Donald Trump’s return to office has launched an unusually aggressive immigration crackdown, is in the wrong. They say Evans submitted a work authorization form that was approved by DHS through E-Verify. The police department called Evans’s work approval and subsequent arrest, both overseen by DHS, an “apparent error on the part of the federal government,” suggesting a disconnect between state and federal authorities. Caught in the middle is Evans, whose immigration status could not be independently confirmed by The Washington Post on Thursday. McLaughlin said Thursday that using E-Verify “does not absolve employers of their legal duty to verify documentation authenticity.”

NBC News [7/31/2025 5:42 PM, Daniella Silva, 44540K] reports a Maine resort town is challenging the Trump administration’s criticism of its police department after a seasonal reserve officer was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week. The incident is putting renewed focus on the accuracy of E-Verify, the system the federal government created for employers to check if prospective employees have legal authorization to work in the United States. Federal immigration officials have asserted that the Old Orchard Beach Police Department either “knowingly” hired an unauthorized immigrant as a reserve officer or did not do enough independent verification of the man’s status. The department has said it thoroughly checked the background of Jon-Luke Evans, and he was approved to work there as an officer in May through the Department of Homeland Security’s E-Verify Program. ICE said it arrested Evans, a Jamaican citizen, last Friday after he unlawfully attempted to buy a firearm, triggering an alert with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which worked with ICE to make the arrest. ICE said that Evans overstayed a visa that required him to leave in October 2023. But the town’s police department said E-verify cleared Evans’ work eligibility until March of 2030. The joint statement came after DHS said earlier Wednesday that using E-Verify “does not absolve employers of their legal duty to verify documentation authenticity, and all employers should take necessary steps to effectively verify legal employment status.” “The Old Orchard Beach Police Department’s reckless reliance on E-Verify to justify arming an illegal alien, Jon Luke Evans, violates federal law, and does not absolve them of their failure to conduct basic background checks to verify legal status,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in the statement. After McLaughlin issued the DHS statement, Old Orchard Beach released a statement of its own detailing the steps it took to verify Evans’ immigration status and eligibility to work. The town said that before the police department hired Evans, it compiled a 153-page personnel file on him that included background checks, driving records, copies of identification cards, education and medical records, and personal references. Evans provided required information including an I-9 federal immigration and work authorization form, as well as his Jamaican birth certificate, Massachusetts driver’s license, U.S. social security card, work authorization card, among other documents, according to the statement. “The Old Orchard Beach Police Department thoroughly checked Mr. Evans’ background and verified that all information and documentation he provided was accurate. The depth of his personnel file shows the diligence the Town takes in hiring,” Police Chief Elise Chard said.

FOX News [7/31/2025 6:00 PM, Peter Pinedo, Andrew Mark Miller, 46878K] reports a transgender illegal alien is being charged with child rape in the sanctuary city of New York, according to the Department of Homeland Security. DHS told Fox News Digital that the illegal alien, Nicol Alexandra Contreras-Suarez, a Colombian biological man who identifies as a woman, is being charged with rape of a minor and stalking. According to the agency, Contreras-Suarez was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection for illegally entering the country in San Ysidro, California, in March 2023. Contreras-Suarez was released into the country under the Biden administration’s "catch and release" policy and then went on to commit several serious crimes in American communities. Contreras-Suarez had been arrested by the Medford Police Department in Massachusetts for armed robbery, prostitution and assault with a dangerous weapon. However, "due to local sanctuary policies," DHS said, Contreras-Suarez was once again released. Contreras-Suarez is now facing criminal charges in New York for first-degree rape of a child less than age 17 and stalking. Contreras-Suarez has a preliminary criminal hearing in New York City this week and is set to have his case heard by the New York Supreme Court Sept. 10. Commenting on the arrest, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin lamented that "this creep should’ve never been released into our country."

Daily Signal [7/31/2025 10:30 AM, Elizabeth Troutman aMitchell, 558K] reports that combating human trafficking is a priority for the Trump administration’s Health and Human Services Department, but the agency can’t do it alone. That’s why HHS partnered with state and local officials in Mississippi to carry out a two-week human trafficking sting leading to 72 felony and misdemeanor arrests and 29 victim rescues, 15 of whom opted to receive rehabilitation resources, according to data provided first to The Daily Signal. "We’ve been going after human traffickers, sex-offender registry, trying to make sure they’re in compliance, and trying to get the drug dealers of fentanyl, and we’ve had about 400 local, state, and federal law enforcement partners that have helped us in all these five different locations across the state," Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch told The Daily Signal. Operation Guardian Force ran from July 14 to July 29. Perpetrators were charged with crimes including human trafficking of a minor, child exploitation, promoting and procuring prostitution, 28 various felony narcotics charges, failure to comply with sex offender registry, and felon in possession of a firearm. A runaway minor was rescued in Southern Mississippi after her being trafficked from Louisiana. Traffickers were on their way to take her to Mobile, Alabama to be trafficked when authorities found her. Andrew Gradison, acting assistant secretary at HHS’s Administration for Children and Families, flew to Mississippi to watch the sting in action. "When we were in Mississippi last week on a Wednesday night, over an eight-hour period, while the sun was still out, they were able to make three arrests and charge criminals with trafficking offenses," Gradison told The Daily Signal in an interview, "and they were able to get nine victims off the streets. Five of them accepted services."

AP [7/31/2025 6:37 PM, Dánica Coto, 56000K] reports a federal immigration judge in Miami ordered on Thursday that wealthy Haitian businessman and one-time presidential hopeful Pierre Réginald Boulos remain in custody in the United States, where he is held over accusations of supporting violent gangs in Haiti. Boulos was arrested at his home in South Florida earlier in July, accused of being “engaged in a campaign of violence and gang support that contributed to Haiti’s destabilization,” the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has said. A well-known member of Haiti’s elite, he is the most high-profile Haitian arrested to date under the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Thursday’s hearing at the Krome North Service Processing Center was held behind closed doors, with authorities barring journalists and others from the courtroom and the detention center itself. U.S. authorities have not provided any details on Boulos’s case, and no documents have been made public. Days after his arrest, ICE also said Boulos failed to disclose in his residency application his involvement in the creation of a political party or that Haiti’s government had referred him for prosecution for misusing loans. It added that the State Department “has determined that certain individuals with U.S. lawful permanent resident status have supported and collaborated with Haitian gang leaders connected to Viv Ansanm, a Haitian foreign terrorist organization.” “The United States will not allow individuals to enjoy the benefits of legal status in our country while they are facilitating the actions of violent organizations or supporting criminal terrorist organizations abroad,” the statement said.

Univision [7/31/2025 9:15 PM, Staff, 4992K] reports that, during Donald Trump’s second term in office, Florida has established itself as one of the most active anti-immigrant enforcement states in the country. Since January 2025, the state has recorded more than 10,800 arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an increase of more than 200% over the previous year, according to information from the Deportation Data Project. While the increase has been widespread, seven cities stand out as hotspots for large-scale immigration operations: Miami, Tallahassee, Orlando, Jacksonville, Fort Myers, Stuart and Tampa. These cities, located in Miami-Dade, Leon, Orange, Duval, Lee, Martin and Hillsborough counties, accounted for most of the reported raids in 2025, including the massive Operation Tidal Wave raid conducted in April. According to ICE, that operation was the largest in Florida’s history, with more than 1,100 people arrested in a five-day period. Miami (Miami-Dade County) continues to be the epicenter of immigration activity in Florida. Near the Krome detention center and other federal facilities, multiple raids have been reported. ICE has worked closely with local law enforcement under 287(g) agreements, which allow state agents to act as federal agents. Tallahassee (Leon) has been the scene of targeted operations, including arrests at construction sites and the detention of suspected gang members. In May, more than 100 arrests were recorded in the state capital. Orlando (Orange) and Tampa (Hillsborough) were part of "Operation Tidal Wave," with coordinated arrests in residential areas and workplaces. Although exact numbers per city were not disclosed, reports indicate an active participation of local agencies. Jacksonville (Duval) has seen an increase in arrests under new state laws criminalizing unlawful presence, although one of these was blocked by the Supreme Court in July. Fort Myers (Lee) and Stuart (Martin) were also included as target areas in April raids. In both cities, ICE made arrests in neighborhoods with high concentrations of immigrant populations. One of the most controversial aspects is the profile of those arrested. Data obtained by the Deportation Data Project reveals that 36% of those arrested in June 2025 had no criminal record, an increase of 457% compared to June of last year. Organizations such as Human Rights Watch and the Florida Immigrant Coalition have denounced erroneous detentions, separation of families and inadequate conditions in detention centers, such as the new "Alligator Alcatraz" in the Everglades. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

New York Times [7/31/2025 5:17 PM, Pooja Salhotra, 138952K] reports that, after nearly two months in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, Paola Clouatre, 25, secured her release from a Louisiana detention center this week following an intervention from an unlikely source: a Republican lawmaker who has allied himself with President Trump. Officials who work in the office of Senator John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, requested that the Department of Homeland Security release Ms. Clouatre from detention after an immigration judge halted her deportation order, according to emails reviewed by New York Times. Ms. Clouatre, a Mexican citizen, had been detained by ICE agents on May 27 while she was at a routine appointment in New Orleans related to her application for a green card and permanent resident status. Ms. Clouatre first entered the United States as a teenager to seek asylum with her mother and brother. The family was processed at the border in Tijuana, according to Ms. Clouatre and her lawyer, and was granted parole, which allows migrants to remain temporarily in the country. In 2018, Ms. Clouatre’s mother failed to show up for a court hearing in California, leading a judge to issue a deportation order against Ms. Clouatre. By then, Ms. Clouatre was homeless and estranged from her mother, she said. She did not discover the deportation order until earlier this year, when she was already in the process of applying for a green card. Ms. Clouatre is married to Adrian Clouatre, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran with whom she has two young children. Ms. Clouatre’s apprehension came amid growing pressure from the White House to ramp up arrests to fulfill Mr. Trump’s pledge of mass deportations. ICE agents have raided farms, swept through factories and targeted immigration courthouses across the country, in some cases arresting immigrants as they attend routine hearings. Mr. Kennedy, the junior Louisiana senator, has been a vocal supporter of these efforts, appearing on conservative radio shows and cable television to decry sanctuary cities and applaud ICE agents’ enforcement. “If you’re in our country illegally, you’re a criminal,” Mr. Kennedy said during a July 17 Fox News interview. “Illegal immigration is illegal, duh.” So the Clouatres were surprised to learn that people in his office were fighting to reunite their family. In an email on Tuesday morning, Christy Tate, the constituent services representative in Mr. Kennedy’s office, wrote to Mr. Clouatre to confirm that his wife had been released from ICE custody after her office had made a formal request to the federal agency. “I am so happy for you and your family,” Ms. Tate wrote. “We will continue to keep you, your family and others that are experiencing the same issues in our prayers.” Ms. Tate did not respond to phone calls or emails, and representatives of Mr. Kennedy’s office did not reply to a request for comment from The Times. Ms. Clouatre was released from a north Louisiana detention center on Monday and is back home with her family in Baton Rouge. She is wearing an ankle monitor and awaits a court date to continue immigration proceedings. Her lawyer, Carey Holliday, said she was likely to obtain a green card.

Federalist [7/31/2025 4:59 PM, Abigail Nichols, 1142K] reports that the Houston branch of ICE alone arrested 214 "criminal illegal aliens in the past six months who have been charged or convicted of a sex offense involving a minor," a Tuesday DHS press release said. "Of the 214 criminal illegal aliens arrested, 179 had final orders of removal from an immigration judge. 141 have already been removed," according to the press release. Some of the criminals highlighted by the department range from ages 25-76. One convicted molester, 25-year-old Gabriel Julio Velazquez Lopez from Mexico, "illegally entered the U.S. four times since 2016" until he was arrested and deported in April. Roberto Antonio Caballero-Garcia from El Salvador was "arrested for three counts of sexual assault of a child" in Dallas County, "convicted in 2017," and "given 10 years deferred adjudication." He was deported in May, according to the DHS. Meliton Gonzalez from Mexico has been illegally in the U.S. since 1976, "convicted of child sexual assault in 2015 and sentenced to 10 years," and deported in June. Mario Ramirez Martinez from Mexico was deported in June after serving 10 years in prison for "two counts of sexual assault of a child." "President Trump and Secretary Noem will not allow these sickos to prey on children in the U.S.," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. "Our message to these depraved criminals is clear: LEAVE NOW. If you don’t, we will hunt you down and deport you." The ICE Houston Field Office under the Biden administration arrested a total of 211 illegal immigrants "charged or convicted" of child sex crimes for the whole 2024 fiscal year, according to the DHS.

NewsNation [7/31/2025 4:37 PM, Ali Bradley, Jeff Arnold, 5801K] reports a Texas military installation is on track to become the largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in the nation for migrants facing deportation, but one local official is vehemently opposed to the facility coming to the region. El Paso County Commissioner David Stout told NewsNation that he isn’t sure why the 5,000-bed ICE facility, which NewsNation sources say could open on a limited basis within the next few weeks, is being set up at U.S. Army base Fort Bliss in the first place. This week, a Virginia company was awarded a $1.26 billion contract to construct the facility, according to multiple media reports. The Department of Defense allocated nearly $232 million to be paid by the U.S. Army up front for the detention center, which is expected to include 5,000 beds for migrants being held by ICE. The Department of Defense said it expects the ICE facility to be up and running by the end of September 2027. But as ICE looks to add bed space for migrants facing deportation amid constraints to its current collection of migrant detention centers, sources within DHS told NewsNation that a limited number of detainees could begin arriving over the next few weeks.

NBC News [7/31/2025 3:23 PM, Nicole Acevedo, 44540K] reports five sheriff’s deputies from Colorado are being disciplined after a college student spent two weeks in a federal immigration detention center last month after a routine traffic stop. An administrative review concluded that Sheriff’s Deputy Alexander Zwinck shared information on a Signal group chat that included federal immigration agents after he had pulled over Caroline Dias-Goncalves, 19, a student at the University of Utah, Mesa County Sheriff Todd Rowell said in a statement Wednesday. The agents then used that information to track Dias-Goncalves down and arrest her. She was taken to a detention facility in Aurora, where she was held for 15 days before being released on bond. In interviews conducted as part of the review, Zwinck claimed he did not know he was violating any laws or policies when he shared Dias-Goncalves’ information and location with federal authorities in a group chat meant to discuss drug crackdown efforts. According to the review’s findings, Zwinck was involved in at least four other incidents last month in which the information he shared on the group chat following his traffic stops led to federal immigration enforcement actions. Zwinck also told investigators that he had received and read two department-wide emails from the sheriff’s office last year and in January, both outlining how deputies should interact with immigration authorities. The review concluded there was "a preponderance of evidence" showing that Zwinck as well as Sheriff’s Deputy Erik Olson, who was on the group chat, and their supervisor, Sgt. Joe LeMoine, "acted outside of agency policy." Earlier this month, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser filed a lawsuit against Zwinck, alleging that he had violated Colorado laws limiting cooperation between local and federal immigration authorities.

NewsNation [7/31/2025 1:50 PM, Heather Willard, 5801K] reports that Mesa County Sheriff Todd Rowell is apologizing after one of his deputies may have illegally shared a 19-year-old’s information with federal immigration officers, resulting in her detainment outside Fruita. The sheriff’s office first addressed the matter in June, saying it was not involved with immigration efforts. The office said it learned that a "communication group," later revealed to be a Signal app chat, may have been used for immigration purposes. The group was meant only for drug interdiction efforts. At least one deputy from the sheriff’s office was in that group, including Deputy Alexander Zwinck. The deputy’s conversations in the chat may have led to the detention of Caroline Dias-Goncalves on June 5 in Mesa County by Homeland Security Investigations. "As Mesa County Sheriff, I take full responsibility for this incident," Rowell wrote on Wednesday. "The Mesa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) has well-established practices limiting our involvement in immigration enforcement. However, the Administrative Review conducted in response to Miss Dias-Goncalves’ detainment highlighted the need for enhanced training and clarification of evolving legal responsibilities under Colorado Senate Bill 25-276, which had been signed into law 13 days prior to this stop. "Based on our findings, the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office should not have had any role in the chain of events leading to Miss Dias-Goncalves’s detention, and I regret that this occurred," Rowell continued. "I apologize to Miss Dias-Goncalves." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Breitbart [7/31/2025 4:18 PM, Warner Todd Huston, 3077K] reports activists for illegal aliens in Washington State deleted a fundraiser for a migrant arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after news broke that the man is wanted for murder in Mexico. The activists initially claimed that the migrant, whom they identified as "Paco," was an innocent businesses owner in Olympia, Washington, who was "abducted" off the streets by ICE officers on June 24. They had raised about $12,000 to help the migrant with legal fees and other expenses before the campaign was deleted. However, as the facts of "Paco’s" case began to emerge, the activists cancelled and deleted the fundraiser. The Department of Homeland Security had already reported the arrest of "Paco," whose real name is Yussef Zarate-Borbon, and noted that he was wanted for murder in Mexico and illegally withheld that information when he entered the United States, a violation of his terms of admission into the country.

Daily Caller [7/31/2025 10:58 AM, Hudson Crozier, 1010K] reports that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has dramatically ramped up prosecutions stemming from anti-deportation riots in central California that erupted in June, a local federal prosecutor said Wednesday. Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, a President Donald Trump appointee, said in a X post that his office has charged 53 people with "assaults on [federal] agents or interference with immigration enforcement" since rioters began setting fires and assaulting law enforcement in Los Angeles in response to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids. The number represents a large jump from June 17, when Essayli said his team had charged "more than 20" defendants. There’s a lot of misinformation going around about the great work being done by our amazing federal prosecutors here in the Central District of California. Nine cases have proceeded to a grand jury indictment, seven others waived an indictment and four have pleaded guilty, Essayli said. Seven others have been dismissed with a chance to be refiled, while 26 others "are making their way through the court process and are at various stages," he said. The acting U.S. attorney, who took office in April, gave the updates to counter what he called "misinformation going around about the great work being done by our amazing federal prosecutors." Legacy media outlets reported in recent weeks that some of the cases lacked evidence or were failing to pass muster in court. "It’s not uncommon for a complaint to be dismissed so that law enforcement can conduct additional investigation and collect more evidence," Essayli added.

Houston Chronicle [7/31/2025 4:03 PM, Julián Aguilar, 1982K] reports a doctoral student at Texas A&M University who was held by immigration agents at a San Francisco airport for a week is now detained in Arizona and remains in removal proceedings, his attorneys said Thursday. Customs and Border Protection agents detained Tae Heung "Will" Kim at the airport after he returned from a two-week trip to South Korea to attend his brother’s wedding. Kim has lived in the country since he was 5 and is a legal permanent resident. He is a part of a research team at the university working on a vaccine to treat Lyme disease. Kim’s detention possibly stems from a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge in 2011, the Washington Post first reported Tuesday. Customs and Border Protection officials told the publication that if a green card recipient is convicted of a drug offense and violated their status, they are transferred to ICE custody pending removal proceedings. Kim’s attorneys told reporters Thursday they had no contact with Kim while he was detained at the airport, and that he should have been transferred to Houston for questioning instead of being held at the airport, which is not equipped to hold people for several days. A spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection told the Houston Chronicle that generally, an immigrant who wants to enter the country bears the burden of proof "to establish that they are clearly eligible to enter the U.S."

USA Today [7/31/2025 12:16 PM, Terry Collins, 75552K] reports Lupe Lopez can’t help but notice that business and foot traffic are painfully slow these days in the predominantly Hispanic neighborhood of East San Jose, California. "A lot more people are either staying closer to home or not coming out at all," said Lopez, 69, whose family owns nine Arteagas Food Center supermarkets, one of which is in East San Jose. Young people are buying in bulk, she said, because their parents are afraid of being outside, where they might be picked up by immigration agents. "We’re seeing a change in shopping habits," said Lopez, co-founder of Avanzando, a nonprofit helping Latinos make advances through education. Even as the Trump administration prepares to ramp up its immigration enforcement nationwide, the focus so far in California has already hurt local economies, research and anecdotal reports suggest. One recent study estimated that the hit to California, the world’s fourth-largest economy, could be as much as $275 billion. "It’s a pretty massive amount that even took us by surprise," said Bay Area Council Economic Institute Research Director Abby Raisz, author of the nonprofit’s June report. "We anticipated it would be big, but we didn’t realize how expansive and significant a role undocumented workers play in sustaining California’s economy. It’s bigger than we thought.” Immigration raids led to drop in California’s workforce. Since the report’s release, the Trump administration has expanded immigration raids to include many more people without criminal records. The Department of Homeland Security said nearly 2,800 undocumented immigrants have been arrested in Greater Los Angeles. Local media reported that many were between June 6 and 22. The raids had a dramatic and immediate impact on the workforce. Almost 465,000 California workers fled from the labor ranks during the week of June 8, as immigration authorities raided worksites across the Los Angeles area, according to a July University of California, Merced study. As a result, people working in private-sector jobs in California dropped by 3.1%, a decline not seen since the COVID-19 pandemic, the study noted, though it’s unclear whether they left permanently or just for a short time. California Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis said immigrants are the backbone of the state’s economic workforce. "They are the workers who feed us, the caretakers who support us, the entrepreneurs who drive innovation, and the neighbors who strengthen our communities," Kounalakis said in a statement. "The ripple effects of mass deportation in California would be felt nationwide and beyond.”

Washington Post [7/31/2025 7:23 AM, Samantha Schmidt, Helena Carpio, María Luisa Paúl, Silvia Foster-Frau, Teo Armus and Aaron Steckelberg, 32099K] reports one detainee was beaten unconscious. Others emerged from the dark isolation room covered in bruises, struggling to walk or vomiting blood. Another returned to his cell in tears, telling fellow detainees he’d just been sexually assaulted. “Let’s hit him like a piñata,” guards shouted amid the beatings, detainees recalled, the blows echoing against the metal walls. They called it "La Isla" — The Island — the cell where Venezuelans deported from the United States by the Trump administration said they suffered some of the worst abuse of their 125 days in El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT. The matching firsthand accounts across multiple interviews offer the most complete view yet of conditions inside the mega prison, where inmates are denied access to lawyers and almost all contact with the outside world — and where about 14,000 Salvadorans remain incarcerated. Few detainees have ever left CECOT, and fewer have spoken publicly of their experience there. Washington Post interviewed 16 of the more than 250 men who were deported by the United States to CECOT, held there for four months and then released this month to Venezuela as part of an international prisoner swap. The Venezuelans, rounded up in President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign, told The Post they were subjected to repeated beatings that left them bruised, bleeding or injured. They said prison staff restricted medical care for detainees suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure or kidney failure. The men slept on metal bunks — usually with no cushions — in group cells where overhead lights blazed 24 hours a day. They were expected to bathe and relieve themselves using a water tank and toilets that offered no privacy from cellmates. They were rarely allowed out of their cells. Three Salvadoran government spokespersons, provided with detailed accounts of the detainees’ allegations, did not respond to requests for comment. Damian Merlo, a U.S.-based lobbyist for Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, described the detainees as criminals who belong in prison, and said their claims are "baseless.” "Additionally, footage made available on social media of their departure from El Salvador showed them in good spirits," Merlo said, "happily … heading back home to Venezuela.” Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, provided a statement that repeated administration claims that the detainees were members of the Tren de Aragua gang — though government officials have acknowledged in court that many of those sent to CECOT had no criminal record. Robert L. Cerna, an acting field office director at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in a court filing in March that the "lack of a criminal record does not indicate they pose a limited threat" and that the limited information about each individual "actually highlights the risk they pose.” "President Trump and [DHS] Secretary [Kristi L.] Noem will not allow criminal gangs to terrorize American citizens," McLaughlin said. "Once again the media is falling all over themselves to defend criminal illegal gang members. We hear far too much about gang members and criminals’ false sob stories and not enough about their victims.”

Reuters [7/31/2025 4:20 PM, Susan Heavey and Matt Spetalnick, 51390K] reports that the U.S. imposed sanctions on Palestinian Authority officials and members of the Palestine Liberation Organization on Thursday, accusing them of undermining peace efforts with Israel even as other Western powers moved toward recognition of Palestinian statehood. The State Department said it would deny visas for travel to the U.S. by those it was targeting, although it did not name any specific individuals. "It is in our national security interests to impose consequences and hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments and undermining the prospects for peace," the State Department said in a statement. The State Department said the two Palestinian organizations had "taken actions to internationalize" their conflict with Israel, including through the International Criminal Court, and said both had continued "to support terrorism.” The PA and PLO serve as representatives for the Palestinian people and have long pushed for recognition of a Palestinian state by international organizations and foreign nations. The two groups had no immediate comment on the U.S. move. The State Department made its announcement just a day after Canada said it planned to recognize the State of Palestine at a meeting of the United Nations in September, ratcheting up pressure on Israel as starvation spreads in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza.

CBS Boston [7/31/2025 6:14 PM, Samantha Chaney, 51860K] reports that international students at Harvard University are scrambling to obtain their visas before the start of the fall semester in Massachusetts and some are having more success than others, who’ve run into last-minute roadblocks. Last month, WBZ introduced you to Magaga Enos, a Kenyan educator whose grandmother sacrificed everything, including her land and cows, to get him to Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. "There are so many unknowns". His future was uncertain as President Trump and the university continue to fight it out, but now, he’s finally made it to Cambridge. Now that he’s here, he told WBZ-TV that he’s working to help another international classmate, Repha Uhuru, do the same. "Because it’s not easy," said Enos. "There are so many emotions invested in this because there are so many unknowns.” Uhuru was set to start classes at Harvard next week, "To pursue learning design, innovation, and technology," she said. However, she told WBZ-TV that her dream was cut short Monday morning, when her visa was denied at the Nairobi Embassy, following an interview including financial questions and ones about her marital status. According to Uhuru, she received a pink slip that said she didn’t show enough ties to her home country, despite her having a son and family there. "So, maybe according to them, I was not going to come back to Kenya," she said. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Bloomberg [7/31/2025 10:13 AM, Andrew Kreighbaum, 1707K] reports that a group of Haitian immigrants has filed suit to preserve temporary protections for 350,000 people from the country living in the US. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said last month she would terminate Temporary Protected Status for Haitians after previously truncating existing protections. TPS allows immigrants from designated countries to remain in the US with legal work authorization for up to 18 months at a time when it’s unsafe to return to their home countries. [Editorial note: consult extended commentary at source link]

Bloomberg [7/31/2025 12:36 PM, Laura Curtis, 88K] reports that President Donald Trump entered office in January pledging to unleash prosperity by raising tariffs and cutting red tape. Six months later, the back-office systems connecting the US and global economies face their toughest test yet against an onslaught of both. Importers, customs brokers and the broader logistics industry are bracing for a deluge of fine print on tariffs before Friday, when Trump has pledged higher country-specific duties amid a number of import taxes targeted at certain products and materials. Hours before the deadline, key details needed to keep goods flowing and the paper trail compliant are unclear: What will dozens of still-unspecified levies be, will they apply to merchandise already in transit, and how and when will some of Trump’s recent deals be implemented? "If there is no formal notification before Aug. 1, does that mean the current rates are being assessed? The April 2 tariff rates? We don’t know," said Cindy Allen, chief executive officer of Trade Force Multiplier LLC, an international trade and customs consulting firm. US Customs and Border Protection, the federal agency that enforces tariffs and the nation’s trade laws, can’t implement anything based on Trump’s letters, Truth Social posts or administration fact sheets that have outlined his negotiated deals and unilateral pronouncements. CBP needs a more formal notice, such as an executive order or proclamation. That’s paralyzing companies and their customs brokers who face mounting electronic paperwork, using software that hadn’t been updated as of early Thursday.

New York Times [7/31/2025 11:32 AM, Douglas Main, 138952K] reports a Trump administration plan to build 25 miles of wall along a remote stretch of rolling grasslands and mountains in Arizona would block one of the largest and most important remaining wildlife corridors on the state’s border with Mexico, according to a report this month by the Center for Biological Diversity, a conservation group. “A barrier here would block species movement, destroy protected habitats, and inflict irreversible damage on critical ecological linkages,” the report said. Wildlife cameras have photographed 20 species of wildlife moving freely across the border in this area — including black bears, mountain lions and mule deer — movement that would be sharply curtailed by the planned 30-foot-tall wall, researchers say. This part of the borderlands, which includes the San Rafael Valley and the Patagonia and Huachuca Mountains, also contains critical habitat for endangered jaguars, at least three of which have been recorded in the area over the past decade. At least 16 other threatened and endangered species are found there. “It’s a good perspective of what’s going and what’s going to happen,” Gerardo Ceballos, an ecologist and a senior researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said of the report. If this wall and a few others are built, he said, “there will be no jaguars in the U.S. soon.” The homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, cleared the way for construction on this stretch of wall in June by issuing waivers that exempt contractors from more than 30 federal laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act. Ganesh Marín, a biologist who studies wildlife movement with Conservation Science Partners, a scientific nonprofit group, said a border wall could also cause smaller prey animals to avoid the area. That, in turn, could lead to cascading negative effects within the ecosystem, according to a study that Dr. Marín published with John Koprowski, a researcher at the University of Wyoming. The border wall doesn’t just prevent animal movement, Dr. Marín said, but “modifies the whole ecosystem around that community.” In a time of drought, it’s especially important for large animals to be able to move long distances to find sustenance, which the border wall hampers, said Emily Burns, director of programs at Sky Island Alliance, an environmental group that monitors animal movements in the valley with a network of cameras. The federal government had already built more than 220 miles of wall across Arizona’s southern border during the first Trump administration. Those 30-foot barriers consist of steel beams placed four inches apart, which halt most wildlife movement. The border barriers in the San Rafael area now — low barbed wire fencing and chest-high vehicle barriers — allow animals to cross, according to Myles Traphagen, a researcher and coordinator with Wildlands Network, a conservation group. Two nonprofit conservation organizations, the Center for Biological Diversity and Conservation CATalyst, filed suit on July 8 in United States District Court for the District of Arizona challenging Ms. Noem’s move to bypass environmental laws. Some ability to waive federal laws to construct border infrastructure is granted by the Real ID Act of 2005, which helped the first Trump administration wall off much of Arizona’s southern border. Previous legal challenges to stop such activity have largely failed.

New York Post [7/31/2025 4:25 PM, Priscilla DeGregory, 49956K] reports a New York State parole officer who moonlights as a therapist has been indicted after he was found with child pornography on his cellphone during a stop at JFK airport earlier this year. Colin Kowlessar, 53, was arrested when Customs and Border Protection agents found videos and photos of child porn on his iPhone during a stop at the airport after returning from a trip to Guyana on Feb. 27, according to a complaint from the time. Kowlessar, who worked as a parole officer with the new York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, is expected to be arraigned next week in Brooklyn federal court after a grand jury indicted him Wednesday in the same case on one count of possession of child pornography. Kowlessar, a husband and father living in Freeport, Long Island, has been free on $250,000 bond since his February court appearance.

AP [7/31/2025 4:40 PM, Olga R. Rodriguez and Christopher Weber, 24051K] reports that a researcher at Texas A&M University flying home from abroad was detained for more than a week by immigration authorities at the San Francisco International Airport, sleeping in a chair and living off food sold in the airport, his family and attorneys said Thursday. It was unclear why Tae Heung "Will" Kim, who is a legal permanent resident with a green card, was detained July 21, his attorney Karl Krooth said at a news conference. Kim, who went to South Korea to attend his brother’s wedding, is now in removal proceedings to be deported and is being held at an immigration detention facility in Arizona, Krooth said, adding that he has yet to talk to his client. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement that any green card holder who has a drug offense is in violation of their legal status and can be detained. His attorneys said Kim was charged in 2011 with misdemeanor marijuana possession in Texas, where recreational use is illegal. His attorneys declined to discuss those charges Thursday. But one attorney told the Washington Post, which first reported on Kim’s detention, that he fulfilled a community service requirement and successfully petitioned for nondisclosure to seal the offense from the public record.

AP [7/31/2025 7:42 AM, Staff, 31733K] reports Tropical Storm Gil has formed in the eastern Pacific Ocean and isn’t expected to threaten land as it strengthens, forecasters said Thursday. The storm is forecast to remain over open water and become a hurricane on Friday, the Miami-based U.S. National Hurricane Center said. It’s about 785 miles (1,263 kilometers) south-southwest of the Baja California peninsula of Mexico. Gil had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (72 kph) and was moving west at 15 mph (24 kph). There were no coastal watches or warnings in effect. The storm is expected to turn to the west-northwest in the coming days. Gil is strengthening during a busy period for storms in the eastern Pacific. Tropical Storm Iona is churning westward in the ocean, about 860 miles (1,384 kilometers) southwest of Honolulu with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (80 kph). It was earlier a hurricane but has since weakened. It isn’t threatening land. And other storms could develop in the coming days in the eastern Pacific, forecasters said.

Reported similarly:
USA Today [7/31/2025 7:53 AM, Gabe Hauari, 75552K]

HS Today [7/31/2025 10:51 AM, Staff, 38K] reports the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has published two Notices of Funding Opportunity, making millions in federal funding available to help states and territories protect their communities from floods and earthquakes. Both floods and earthquakes can happen nearly anywhere with little warning, and they both can cause mass devastation to American communities. These funds demonstrate how FEMA is returning to its core mission: safeguarding the American people and increasing state, local, tribal and territorial capability to respond to and recover from disasters. “With these funding opportunities, we are empowering states to take charge of their disaster preparedness,” said Senior Official Performing the Duties of the FEMA Administrator David Richardson. “States and local governments know what their communities need, and they can use this money to get it. The more we build resilience at the state and local level, the more prepared our nation will be.” The announcement comes after a critical evaluation of all grant programs and recipients to root out waste, fraud and abuse and deliver accountability for the American taxpayer. Unlike the previous administration, recipients of grants will no longer be permitted to use federal funds to house illegal immigrants at luxury hotels, fund climate change pet projects or empower radical organizations with unseemly ties that don’t serve the interest of the American people.

The Hill [7/31/2025 5:24 PM, Saul Elbein, 18649K] reports communities hit by the deadly Independence Day floods face a desperate and confused recovery bereft of state and federal aid, survivors told a field hearing of the Texas Legislature in Kerrville on Thursday. With no resources to drain Lake Ingram, it "has become a toxic pit," resident Ann Carr told the legislators. Now, the city of Kerrville is refusing to drain the lake, which bubbles with oil from submerged automobiles, Carr said. Others pointed to the consequences of the catastrophic flood damages, which hit a region where about 99 percent of residents didn’t have flood insurance. With as much as $25 billion in uninsured losses, "many landowners are at high risk of losing their land," said Terri Hall, a Kerrville resident who runs an anti-property tax group. Hall said landowners lost outbuildings that neither insurance nor the Federal Emergency Management Agency will pay for, leaving them as easy pickings for private equity. State leaders mostly listened and murmured their support to survivors. But earlier in the hearing, they were unsparing in their criticism of local officials on the subject of training and warnings. In addition to the need for state and federal aid, residents and survivors coalesced around a few consistent themes, including a muddled and chaotic official disaster response, which survivors testified sometimes featured state resources showing up too late or not at all — or sometimes being sent away by locals.

New York Times [7/31/2025 6:09 PM, Edgar Sandoval and Desiree Rios, 138952K] reports that as soon as the raging waters receded on July 4 in Central Texas, Mike Richards led a group of volunteers to his property along the Guadalupe River to search for survivors. Instead, they found corpses, 10 of them, including a man that appeared to have bled to death as he waited for help. Mr. Richards, 67, has been waiting for help ever since, from federal, state or local officials who could aid in the search, pitch in money for those who need it or help clear land that, he said, “still looks like a bomb went off.” “Not a damned penny came through this gate from my taxpaying dollars,” he said on Tuesday as he looked at the twisted trees and piles of debris that still litter his property and beyond. “And I don’t understand why.” Mr. Richards was one of hundreds of residents who packed a Texas legislative committee hearing on Thursday in Kerr County, which suffered the brunt of the 136 known deaths in the Texas Hill Country. Kerr County’s 108 dead included at least 27 counselors and campers from devastated Camp Mystic, most of them from two cabins near the river. From the early days of the tragedy, officials in Kerr County have faced questions about the weak local government response and lack of alarms systems along the river. They have been at a loss to explain why they failed to secure grant funding for a flood warning system in recent years. After waiting for more than seven hours to speak, Mr. Richards did not hold back when it was his turn. With his straw hat sitting on the black table in front of him, he told lawmakers, “There are so many different things that are wrong. For instance, FEMA sucks,” suggesting the Federal Emergency Management Agency had done little for local residents.

CNN [7/31/2025 4:18 AM, Rebekah Riess, Shimon Prokupecz, Rachel Clarke, Alaa Elassar, 875K] reports all key leading officials from the Texas county hardest hit by the July 4 flash flooding that killed at least 136 people were absent from an emergency briefing call held before the tragedy unfolded, questioning from state lawmakers on Thursday revealed. Kerr County officials were sharply confronted during the committee hearing in Kerrville, Texas, about their disaster preparedness and response following the deadly storm that swept away homes, children’s camps, and RVs primarily in their county, killing 37 children and 71 adults. Two people are still missing. The officials faced strong criticism as lawmakers pressed for accountability in the aftermath of the catastrophe, intensifying their scrutiny since last week’s 12-hour special hearing over whether more should have been done prior to the storm or how efficiently life-saving efforts were carried out. Over 100 people signed up to speak during the public comment portions of Thursday’s hearing. Emails from the Texas Division of Emergency Management — two asking local leaders to be on briefing calls about the weather and one showing predicted danger areas — are part of a series of opportunities local officials had to prepare. "I didn’t see those emails," Kerrville Mayor Joe Herring Jr. told CNN on Thursday. "I wish I had seen it. I didn’t see it.” The Kerr County emergency management coordinator, who had been accused of being asleep in the critical morning hours of the deadly flood, said he also missed the emergency briefings because he was home sick. "In my absence, my supervisors and sheriff’s office leadership were aware that I was off duty," William B. "Dub" Thomas told a hearing in Kerrville of the state Select Committees on Disaster Preparedness and Flooding. The emergency management coordinator said he stayed in bed throughout July 3 and did not participate in the regularly scheduled 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Texas Emergency Management coordination center coordination calls. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called out Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly specifically following his testimony, highlighting the judge’s absence on July 4, while also mentioning several officials who were there. "I don’t know where you were on day one on July 4, but you should have been here. You should have been here directing that response. That’s your responsibility," Patrick said. "Everyone was here that day, working their a** off, and you were nowhere to be found."

NPR [7/31/2025 6:11 PM, Blaise Gainey and Larry Kaplow, 37958K] reports that Texas lawmakers and flood survivors criticized local officials for disorganization and bureaucratic holdups during a public hearing in the area that saw the most fatalities in the July 4 floods in central Texas. The flood was sudden, and officials have agreed it was unpredicted. Kerr County emergency coordinator William Thomas told a select committee of the Texas Legislature that he was ill and asleep as the flood waters were building in the pre-dawn hours. Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said he was asleep until he was woken by deputies on duty before dawn. Judge Rob Kelly, the top county official with oversight of emergency management, said he was out of town. While acknowledging the surprising volume of rain, some lawmakers questioned what appeared to be confusion at the local level. "The three guys in Kerr County who were responsible for sounding the alarm were effectively unavailable," said Democratic State Rep. Ann Johnson, who said she was told about "little girls with water around their feet" at 2 a.m. that night. "We have a lot of folks who have titles but when the time came to act they did not take action," Republican State Rep. Drew Darby said.

CBS News [7/31/2025 5:01 PM, Cara Tabachnick, 51860K] reports Kerr County’s emergency manager testified at a hearing Thursday that he was sick and asleep when the deadly flash floods hit Central Texas on July 4, killing at least 135 people. William B."Dub" Thomas, who has been serving as Kerr County emergency management coordinator since 2015, said at the start of a hearing held by state lawmakers in Kerrville that he was in bed on July 3, the day before the floods. Officials have faced questions over their preparedness and the speed of their initial actions. Most deaths during the floods were along the Guadalupe River in Kerr County, including at least 27 campers and staff from Camp Mystic. Many of the campers who died were the camp’s youngest attendees. Following testimony from officials, the committee heard from several residents, advocates and counselors about how events unfolded during the flooding, as well as challenges residents are still facing and how counties can better prepare for future disasters. Educators and mental health counselors also spoke about the resources available for Kerr County residents.

CNN [7/31/2025 9:03 AM, Will Ripley, 21433K] reports that, Wednesday evening in Waikiki ended in classic Hawaiian style, with a stunning red, orange and gold sunset, children laughing and splashing in waves lapping at the shore – and parents sipping cocktails from plastic cups. But just a day earlier, the mood was starkly different. A massive, 8.8 magnitude earthquake off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula – tied for the sixth-strongest quake ever recorded – had triggered tsunami alerts across the Pacific. The alerts sparked frantic evacuation efforts in Hawaii, where many recall the horror of the catastrophic tsunamis that caused unimaginable damage and untold loss of life around the Indian Ocean in 2004 and in Japan in 2011. On Tuesday, residents and tourists were taking no chances. "It’s crazy … everyone is evacuating all at the same time," said one tourist in a viral TikTok clip, capturing the chaos as crowds rushed for higher ground. Sirens blared. Rain drizzled. Panic spread. While some ran, others were stranded. Norwegian Cruise Line’s Pride of America was among the vessels that left port early to escape the looming threat. Jeffery Booker, a passenger from Orlando, missed the cruise ship’s hasty departure. "One of the tour operators said, ‘Get back to the ship as fast as you can,’" he recalled. "But we knew we weren’t gonna make it.” The tsunami advisory was lifted for all of the Hawaiian Islands as of 8:58 a.m. Wednesday local time, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center – and the ship returned to port. Cheers and hugs greeted those reboarding. One of the most striking stories came from Doan Trang, a surfer and mom from Dana Point, California. When the sirens started, she grabbed her son, checked an evacuation map, and started walking uphill, continuing for nearly two hours. "We weren’t panicked, but we knew we had to move," she said. "Once we crossed the bridge and saw the tsunami zone sign behind us, I felt peace.” They waited out the advisory at a Vietnamese restaurant. She says the authorities did a good job warning everybody. "Because you do have to warn people. You know, the Thailand and everything in 2004. It’s a big thing.” After the advisory was lifted, beaches reopened. But authorities still urged caution, saying strong currents may linger. Trang returned to the water, exhausted but thankful. "I watched the waves and thought, wow … what a night," she said. "Could have been a lot worse. It could have been a lot of damage. And you know how it would’ve affected an area like this – but it didn’t.” By the time sunset came 24 hours later, Waikiki had bounced back. Droves of tourists splashed in the surf. Children built sandcastles and couples posed by the iconic Duke Kahanamoku statue. Hawaii had weathered a tsunami. And everyone woke up to another day in paradise.

Washington Examiner [7/31/2025 2:40 PM, Haisten Willis, 1934K] reports President Donald Trump will leave a big mark on the White House — literally. After installing two new flag poles and reworking the Rose Garden, Trump will construct a massive ballroom extending from the East Wing, press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced Thursday. "We are proud to announce that the construction of the new White House ballroom will begin," Leavitt said. "For 150 years, presidents, administrations, and White House staff have longed for a large event space on the White House complex that can hold substantially more guests than currently allowed. President Trump has expressed his commitment to solving this problem on behalf of future administrations and the American people.” Currently, the largest permanent event space on the grounds is the East Room, which the Trump administration said can accommodate 200 people. However, for larger events, a massive, "unsightly" tent must be temporarily placed on the South Lawn. Beginning in September, a permanent ballroom will be built, spanning 90,000 square feet, which is about the size of 1 1/2 football fields. Once completed, the ballroom will have a capacity of 650 people, according to the White House. Trump has been holding meetings with staff, the National Park Service, the White House Military Office, and the Secret Service to discuss design features and planning. The White House said Trump is financing the $200 million construction cost himself, along with "other patriot donors.” The White House grounds have remained mostly untouched since the Truman administration in the early 1950s, lead architect Jim McCrery said in a release, which also promised that the new structure will match the White House’s existing architecture. Clark Construction will build the facility, and AECOM will handle engineering. The White House said it will be completed "long before" Trump leaves office. "President Trump is a builder at heart and has an extraordinary eye for detail," White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said in a release. "The president and the Trump White House are fully committed to working with the appropriate organizations to preserving the special history of the White House while building a beautiful ballroom that can be enjoyed by future administrations and generations of Americans to come.”

Reported similarly:
New York Times [7/31/2025 6:34 PM, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, 138952K]
NPR [7/31/2025 3:12 PM, Tamara Keith, 37958K]
ABC News [7/31/2025 4:55 PM, Hannah Demissie and Alexandra Hutzler, 31733K]
CBS News [7/31/2025 6:03 PM, Caroline Linton, 51860K]
CNN [7/31/2025 3:26 PM, Kevin Liptak, 21433K]

FOX News [7/31/2025 6:30 PM, Diana Stancy, 46878K] reports that the Secret Service must move to "course correct" after reports a Secret Service agent attempted to smuggle his wife onto a Secret Service cargo plane accompanying President Donald Trump on his trip to Scotland, according to a former agent. Tim Miller, who served as a Secret Service agent during the administrations of presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, said the alleged incident was unusual and that the agency must "step up" to address growing threats against Trump. "The threats to the President are serious and growing," Miller said in an email Thursday to Fox News Digital. "This agency must step up to address these threats. … Imagine a world where our elected leaders are not safe to lead the critical issues facing our world? "The mission that they have been given requires the absolute best people available who have the highest level of commitment, experience, professionalism and skill." While Miller predicted conduct like this would have previously resulted in a suspension or firing of the agent, Miller said that is unlikely given that the Secret Service did not fire those on duty during the assassination attempt against Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024. The agency did, however, announce that it suspended six of its agents due to their response to the attempt.

U.S. Naval Institute [8/1/2025 3:50 AM, Bill Hamblet] reports as the Coast Guard celebrates its 235th birthday this month, it is working through some challenges to meeting its 11 statutory missions and global responsibilities. In January, Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Linda Fagan was relieved of her duties, and it was a few months before the administration nominated acting Commandant Admiral Kevin Lunday as her successor. And as part of the effort to find government efficiencies, 25 percent of the service’s flag officer positions will be eliminated by the end of the year. These changes will cause heavy seas in the Coast Guard for a while, but the service has two successful shipbuilding programs—the national security and fast response cutters—and Coast Guard Lieutenant Commander Keith Blevins argues to “Keep Coast Guard Production Lines Open to Grow the National Fleet.” He’s not the first author to argue for upgunning the Legend- and Sentinel-class ships for the Navy, but given the Navy’s struggles to put more players on the field, the argument bears repeating.

AP [7/31/2025 2:31 PM, Patrick Whittle, 4120K] reports rotten wood and poor inspections appear to have played roles in the collapse of the mast of a historic Maine schooner in an accident that killed one person and injured several others, the U.S. Coast Guard said in a report made public on Thursday. The Coast Guard launched a formal investigation after the main mast of the Grace Bailey splintered and fell onto the deck in October 2023 as the 1882-built schooner was returning from a four-day cruise. The report stated that “deterioration went unnoticed and unaddressed” due to a lack of thorough inspections. It also said oversight and reporting about mast inspections and inspection processes were not adequately documented. “Inspections were not adequately documented, and there were no formal expectations set for reporting inspection findings. This lack of oversight likely contributed to delayed or inadequate responses to emerging issues, allowing hazards to persist and escalate unchecked,” the report states. The collapse killed Rockland physician Dr. Emily Mecklenburg, 40, who was on board. The report states that “it is not recommended that criminal prosecution be taken against any person or entity.” But the report faults not just the operators of the vessel but also the Coast Guard itself. It states that Coast Guard mast inspection procedures were “insufficient for detecting rotted conditions in Grace Bailey’s masts.” The owners of the vessel, the Grace Bailey Navigation Company of Rockland, said in a statement that the Grace Bailey crew “continues to hold Emily closely in our hearts and minds.” The owners said they fully cooperated with the investigation and are they appreciate the focus on increasing safety for wooden sailing vessels. “After a thorough overhaul of the Grace Bailey and passing a regular safety inspection by the Coast Guard, the Grace Bailey is back sailing, allowing our passengers to enjoy the beauty of Maine’s coastline,” the statement said. The report includes nine recommendations for the Coast Guard to implement to try to prevent mast collapses in the future. The top recommendation states there should be broad collaboration with sailing industry organizations and others to identify wooden mast material characteristics and conditions that can contribute to decay. The Grace Bailey is one of a group of vessels commonly called the windjammer fleet, which provide excursions along the Maine coast. The vessel is 118 feet (36 meters) and can carry 29 passengers.

Detroit Free Press [7/31/2025 1:53 PM, Jalen Williams, 4241K] reports that crew members on a Detroit Coast Guard helicopter crew rescued three people from Middle Bass Island off Ontario, Canada, on July 31, the Coast Guard said. All three people were in stable condition after being transported to shore, the Coast Guard said. The Detroit based Coast Guard said it received an initial notification at 12:13 a.m. that a 29-foot sailing vessel ran aground in Lake Erie with three people aboard. The Coast Guard then issued an urgent marine information broadcast and launched Station Marblehead’s Response Boat. The helicopter crew arrived at the scene, deployed a rescue swimmer who assessed the situation before hoisting all three individuals into the helicopter. The air station MH-65 Dolphin transported the individuals to Port Clinton, Ohio. Middle Island is in Lake Erie, just south of Pelee Island. The site is part of Point Pelee National Park in Canada.

The Hill [7/31/2025 10:08 AM, Sharon Udasin, 18649K] reports two environmental groups announced their intent Wednesday to sue the federal government for failing to protect whales off California’s coast from fatal ship strikes. The Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Earth sent a notice to the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Coast Guard, accusing the latter and the National Marine Fisheries Service of neglecting to address how shipping lane designations contribute to collisions with whales and sea turtles. At least eight gray whales have been killed by suspected ship strikes in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2025 alone, the groups warned. "It’s been a terrible year for whales off the West Coast, and we can’t afford to let federal officials waste any more time delaying action on ship strikes," David Derrick, a staff attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in an accompanying statement. Ship strikes are a primary cause of death for gray, blue, fin and humpback whales that frequent California’s coasts, according to the groups. The number of ship strikes, they noted, could be much higher than observed incidents — since whales sink — with one study estimating that about 80 perish in this manner each year. In December 2022, a federal judge ruled in favor of the two organizations in a prior lawsuit challenging the same government agencies. That case focused on the alleged failure of the government entities to protect endangered whales from being struck by vessels in the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach and San Francisco Bay areas. Regarding the designated shipping lanes — the focus of the potential forthcoming lawsuit — the groups explained that these routes cross through several areas where whales congregate, including the Santa Barbara Channel and the northern approach to the San Francisco Bay. Although the Fisheries Service concluded in a 2017 biological opinion that the lanes would cause no "take" of whales or turtles, the 2022 court ruling rejected those conclusions, the groups stated. Specifically, the ruling determined that the conclusion "defies logic" and that the deaths of whales by strikes within the lanes remains "undisputed.” While the court in its ruling invalidated the biological opinion, the environmental groups said that the agencies have neither taken steps to complete a new one nor have they evaluated other measures for reducing ship strikes. "A decent plan for routing and slowing ships down is long overdue, and this federal foot-dragging has been deadly for whales," Derrick said. "The law is clear that the agencies must go back to the drawing board and come back with something that will actually protect whales and sea turtles," he added. In response to a query from The Hill, Steve Roth, a spokesperson for the Coast Guard, said the agency "does not comment on pending or ongoing litigation." Rachel Hager, a spokesperson for the Fisheries Service, similarly stated that her office is "unable to comment on matters of litigation.”

CyberScoop [7/31/2025 1:12 PM, Tim Starks] reports federal analysts are still sizing up what the Chinese hackers known as Volt Typhoon, who penetrated U.S. critical infrastructure to maintain access within those networks, might have intended by setting up shop there, a Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency official said Thursday. “We still don’t actually know what the result of that is going to be,” said Steve Casapulla, acting chief strategy officer at CISA. “They are in those systems. They are in those systems on the island of Guam, as has been talked about publicly. So what [are] the resulting impacts going to be from a threat perspective? That’s the stuff we’re looking really hard at.” Casapulla made his remarks at a Washington, D.C. event hosted by Auburn University’s McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security. Some believe that Chinese penetration of U.S. telecommunications networks by another Chinese hacking group, Salt Typhoon, have overshadowed the machinations of Volt Typhoon, which could eventually have a bigger impact. U.S. officials have warned that China could be prepositioning in critical infrastructure should conflict break out between the United States and Beijing. Other federal officials have said Volt Typhoon might not have been as successful at maintaining their access as they hoped. Casapulla said CISA is looking at how to mitigate the threat as well as determining the end goal of the hackers.

Federal News Network [7/31/2025 3:43 PM, Terry Gerton, 2346K] Video: HERE reports a stealthy cyber group known as Salt Typhoon has quietly infiltrated Army National Guard networks, exploiting vulnerabilities and evading detection for months. The group’s “living off the land” tactics allowed them to blend in with legitimate activity, raising alarms about the resilience of U.S. military and civilian infrastructure. Experts warn that this breach marks a dangerous escalation in cyber espionage — and is a wake-up call for national defense.

CyberScoop [7/31/2025 9:13 AM, Tim Starks] reports a bipartisan pair of senators are introducing legislation Thursday that would direct a White House office to develop a strategy for reckoning with the cybersecurity ramifications of quantum computers, and require agencies to begin pilot programs on quantum-safe encryption. Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., say the National Quantum Cybersecurity Migration Strategy Act is meant to get ahead of rapidly advancing quantum computers that could bypass modern encryption standards and leave important data unprotected. “It’s critical that the federal government be prepared for any threat posed by quantum computing technology, especially when it concerns our national security,” said Peters, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. “My bill would help keep Americans safe by ensuring we have a quantum cybersecurity migration strategy to stay ahead of our adversaries and protect Americans’ personal data.” Blackburn added that “the National Quantum Cybersecurity Migration Strategy Act would ensure the federal government creates a road map to protect sensitive data and national security from emerging data security threats fueled by quantum computing.” It’s a follow-up to two quantum computing laws passed in recent years: one devoted to developing U.S. quantum research and another devoted to pushing agencies to acquire IT systems with post-quantum cryptography. The latest legislation, which CyberScoop is first to report, would lean on the expertise of the Subcommittee on the Economic and Security Implications of Quantum Science (ESIX) — which is a part of the National Science and Technology Council that coordinates federal government technology policy — to develop the strategy.

Axios [7/31/2025 2:08 PM, Sam Sabin, 13599K] reports that Jen Easterly, the former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency during the Biden administration, said Thursday that her rescinded offer to teach at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point was "a casualty of casually manufactured outrage." Why it matters: These are Easterly’s first public comments since the Army decided to revoke her teaching role amid pressure from far-right activist Laura Loomer. Driving the news: Easterly, a West Point graduate, made the comments in an essay published on LinkedIn on Thursday — noting that she is a "lifelong independent" who has served in combat under both Republican and Democratic administrations. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll ordered West Point to revoke the offer to be the next Distinguished Chair in the Department of Social Studies. What they’re saying: "I’ve worked my entire career not as a partisan, but as a patriot — not in pursuit of power, but in service to the country I love and in loyalty to the Constitution I swore to protect and defend, against all enemies," Easterly wrote. "But this isn’t about me. This is about something larger." "The U.S. military — including its academies — must remain an institution above politics, grounded in service to the Constitution," she added. "When outrage is weaponized and truth discarded, it tears at the fabric of unity and undermines the very ethos that draws brave young men and women to serve and sacrifice: Duty, Honor, Country." The Army did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

CBS News [7/31/2025 6:40 PM, Elanor Watson, 51860K] reports that Jen Easterly, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency during the Biden administration, said her appointment to a position at West Point was "unfortunately" rescinded. Easterly referred CBS News to a LinkedIn post she wrote on Thursday: "Unfortunately, the opportunity to serve again at my alma mater was rescinded —a casualty of casually manufactured outrage that drowned out the quiet labor of truth and the steady pulse of integrity." Army Secretary Dan Driscoll on Wednesday rescinded an agreement for Easterly to be a chair in West Point’s social sciences department after pro-Trump activist Laura Loomer posted on social media about the hire. Easterly was named the Robert F. McDermott Distinguished Chair in the Department of Social Sciences in an X post, now deleted, by the dean of West Point, who referred to her appointment as a "homecoming worth celebrating." Loomer pointed to the post, saying Biden administration holdovers were "undermining the Trump administration." The next day, Driscoll shared on X his memo directing West Point to rescind its agreement with Easterly, pause outside groups from hiring faculty and request the United States Military Academy Board of Visitors conduct a top-down vetting process of its hiring.

Bloomberg [8/1/2025 12:41 AM, Jane Lanhee Lee and Mark Anderson, 19320K] reports China accused the US of exploiting a flaw in Microsoft Corp.’s email servers to steal military data and launch cyberattacks on its defense sector. The Cyber Security Association of China said in a statement Friday that US actors had been linked to two major cyberattacks on Chinese military companies, without naming them. They exploited flaws in Microsoft Exchange to control the servers of a key company in the defense sector for nearly a year, it added. The association is a little-known entity backed by the powerful Cyberspace Administration of China. Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft has repeatedly blamed China for major cyberattacks involving the same software. In 2021, an alleged Chinese operation compromised tens of thousands of Microsoft Exchange servers. In 2023, another alleged Chinese attack on Microsoft Exchange compromised senior US officials’ email accounts. A US government review later accused Microsoft of a “cascade of security failures” over the 2023 incident. And last month, Microsoft said Chinese state-backed hacking groups had exploited vulnerabilities in its SharePoint file-sharing software. “Every nation state in the world carries out offensive cybersecurity campaigns against others,” said Jon Clay, vice president of threat intelligence at Trend Micro. “I’m assuming at this point, because of the recent SharePoint vulnerability that Microsoft attributed to China, they are coming out and saying, hey, the US has been targeting us with exploits.” Representatives of the US embassy in Beijing did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Ben Read, director of strategic threat intelligence for Wiz.io, in a recent blog noted that “public attribution of cyber activities” was a technique China was using increasingly to pressure Taiwan and shape “the international dialogue around cybersecurity.” Earlier this year, China had several releases alleging cyberattacks out of Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing deems part of its territory. In April, China accused three NSA employees of hacking the Asian Winter Games held in Harbin, saying they targeted systems that held vast amounts of personal information on people involved in the event. While the US has repeatedly published names of alleged Chinese hackers and filed criminal charges against them, China has historically refrained from making similar accusations about American spies.

CNN [7/31/2025 2:00 PM, Michael Williams, 21433K] reports that the Senate on Wednesday confirmed Joe Kent to a top counterterrorism role, overcoming opposition from Democrats who described the retired Army Green Beret as a conspiracy theorist who has associated with White nationalists and other far-right extremists. Kent will lead the National Counterterrorism Center, which is tasked with analyzing terrorism-related intelligence and maintains a database of known and suspected terrorists. He most recently served as a top aide to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and previously mounted two unsuccessful bids for Congress in Washington state. The GOP-controlled Senate voted 52-44 in favor of Kent’s confirmation. The only Republican who voted against it was Sen. Thom Tillis, who announced last month he would not seek reelection a day after voting against President Donald Trump’s domestic-policy bill. Kent will serve in a crucial role at an organization tasked with monitoring intelligence associated with long-existing terrorist organizations in the Middle East as well as drug cartels and international gangs that Trump recently designated as terrorist organizations.

Free Beacon [7/31/2025 3:20 PM, Alana Goodman, 773K] reports that the State Department on Thursday imposed sanctions on Palestinian leadership officials in the West Bank for "continuing to support terrorism, including incitement and glorification of violence.” The department said the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), which govern the West Bank, have failed to comply with the 1989 PLO Commitments Compliance Act and the 2002 Middle East Peace Commitments Act. The violations include "taking actions to internationalize its conflict with Israel such as through the International Criminal Court (ICC)," the "incitement and glorification of violence (especially in textbooks)," and "providing payments and benefits in support of terrorism to Palestinian terrorists and their families," according to a statement from the State Department. The PA has long had a policy of offering financial support to terrorists who kill Israelis, known as "pay for slay." While PA president Mahmoud Abbas announced the end of the policy earlier this year, he also said that "even if we have [only] one penny left, it is for the prisoners and Martyrs." There is no evidence, according to the Council on Foreign Relations’ Elliott Abrams, that the PA ever stopped providing financial support to terrorists. The Trump administration announced that it will "deny visas to PLO members and PA officials" as part of the sanctions.

The Hill [7/31/2025 10:17 AM, Mira Wassef, 18649K] reports antipsychotic medication and a suicide note to his parents were found in the apartment of the gunman who killed multiple people in a mass shooting in Manhattan earlier this week. New York Police Department (NYPD) detectives searched Shane Tamura’s studio apartment in Las Vegas and found several medications, 100 9mm rounds, a tripod for the rifle used in the shooting, and an empty hand box for the revolver, police said Wednesday. Several prescription bottles for antipsychotic, antiepileptic, and anti-inflammatory drugs were also recovered, according to an NYPD spokesperson. Tamura, 27, also left behind a suicide note to his parents, saying in part, "I love you, mama. I’m sorry.” In the suicide notes found at the scene, Tamura mentioned a man named Rick, who was the suspect’s supervisor at the Horseshoe Las Vegas, where he worked as a security officer, police said. "I’m sorry, Rick," the note found in the shooter’s wallet said. Rick sold Tamura the AR-15 assault rifle used in the mass shooting for $1,400, as well as the BMW the gunman drove across the country from Nevada to New York City, police said. Rick, whose last name is being withheld, has not been charged with any crimes. Four people were shot and killed when Tamura opened fire at around 7 p.m. Monday in the lobby and the 33rd floor of the Park Avenue skyscraper that houses the offices of the NFL, Blackstone and Rudin Management, authorities said. NYPD officer Didarul Islam, Blackstone executive Wesley LePatner, security guard Aland Etienne, and Julia Hyman were killed in the incident. NFL employee Craig Clementi was also injured in the shooting, Commissioner Roger Goodell said. Tamura, a former high school football player from Las Vegas, shot himself in the chest and died at the scene, police said. Authorities said Tamura left behind three suicide notes blaming the NFL for his brain injury. The three-page handwritten suicide note was found folded inside the shooter’s wallet and written on preprinted planner-style paper, including a page labeled "My Daily Affirmations" and another with "Plan, Pause, Reflect, and Flourish" printed in the center, police said.

CBS News [7/31/2025 6:03 PM, Caroline Linton, 51860K] reports Shane Tamura, the gunman who drove from Las Vegas to Manhattan and opened fire in a New York City office building Monday and killed four people, was issued a concealed carry permit in Nevada, despite a documented history of mental health incidents. Sources said the gunman had at least two mental health incidents in 2022 and 2024. He was also arrested for trespassing in 2023. Law enforcement sources confirmed that he obtained the concealed carry permit in spring 2022. Tamura, 27, bought the fully assembled AR 15-style rifle for $1,400 from his supervisor at the Las Vegas casino where he worked. The NYPD said the supervisor’s purchase of the rifle was legal, but it hasn’t yet determined whether Tamura broke any law in buying it from him. The NYPD also said they found a handgun in his car, which was purchased legally with the concealed carry permit in June from a gun store in Las Vegas. A tipster told law enforcement that same month that the shooter had purchased a large amount of ammunition and an aftermarket trigger.

Daily Wire [7/31/2025 6:09 AM, Zach Jewell, 3816K] reports that a judge in Traverse City, Michigan, raised the bond for mass stabbing suspect Bradford James Gille to $1 million on Wednesday, following public outcry over a previous judge’s decision to set the bond at $100,000. At a bond review hearing on Wednesday, Judge Michael Stepka of the 86th District Court pointed to the seriousness of the charges and the risk that Gille would potentially skip future court dates to justify the increase, The Detroit News reported. Stepka said that raising the bond "will assure the victims and the public in general that it’s unlikely Mr. Gille is going to get out." The day before Gille allegedly went on a stabbing rampage, wounding 11 people at a Traverse City Walmart last Saturday, authorities in Petoskey, Michigan — which is around 70 miles north of Traverse City — obtained a court order to place Gille in protective custody. The order was issued after Gille had multiple concerning encounters with Petoskey police, and authorities were actively searching for him when the mass stabbing took place. The prosecution asked the judge during Wednesday’s hearing to completely revoke Gille’s bond, but Stepka said that Michigan’s Rules of Criminal Procedure require a defendant to be charged with murder or to have two previous convictions for violent felonies in the past 15 years for bond to be revoked, according to The Detroit News. Gille was charged with 11 counts of assault with intent to murder and terrorism. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.

CBS News [7/31/2025 8:39 PM, Megan Cerullo and Joe Walsh, 51860K] reports President Trump on Thursday formally announced higher tariffs against more than 60 U.S. trading partners starting next week — just hours before the administration’s self-imposed midnight deadline. The president signed an executive order listing out tariff rates for imports from dozens of countries, including a handful that have cut trade deals with the administration and dozens that haven’t reached a deal yet. The duties range as high as 41% for Syria and 40% for Laos and Myanmar, while almost no country’s imports will face tariffs below 10%. The new tariffs apply to imports that are "entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption," in seven days, the order said. Mr. Trump had vowed to impose higher tariffs starting just after midnight on Friday, Aug. 1. A White House official told CBS News the extra seven days were intended to give Customs and Border Protection enough time to implement the new tariff rates. "[F]or most economies and most of our trading partners, the cost of doing trade tomorrow will be higher than it is today," Greg Daco, chief economist at management consulting firm EY-Parthenon, said prior to the release of Thursday’s list. Mr. Trump set the latest deadline for trade agreements in April after announcing — and later suspending for 90 days — what he described as "Liberation Day" tariffs on more than 90 countries. A July 9 deadline for deals came and went, with the White House again stalling for time. But Mr. Trump had since vowed not to extend the deadline beyond Aug. 1 for most nations. Almost 70 trading partners are included on Thursday’s list, and goods from countries that weren’t listed will face 10% tariffs — the same baseline that Mr. Trump imposed in April. For some countries, Thursday’s tariff list features lower rates than the ones that were threatened on Liberation Day. But other countries’ tariffs were adjusted up slightly. For example, Madagascar was threatened with 47% tariffs in April and just 15% tariffs on Thursday, but Switzerland’s rate jumped from 31% to 39%. For the handful of trading partners that have reached agreements with Mr. Trump in recent weeks — including Japan, South Korea and the European Union — the new tariff list reflects the terms of those trade deals. A senior administration official told reporters Thursday the new tariff list separates U.S. trading partners into three buckets. If the United States has a trade surplus with a country — meaning the U.S. exports more goods to the country than it imports — that nation’s goods will face a 10% tariff rate. If the U.S. has a small trade deficit, imports from that country will generally face 15% tariffs. And countries that the U.S. has larger deficits with face higher tariffs, typically based on either the "Liberation Day" rate, a rate hashed out in a trade deal with the U.S. or a rate floated by Mr. Trump in a letter. Tariffs on the United States’ three largest trading partners — Mexico, Canada and China — are treated separately. Duties on Canadian goods will jump from 25% to 35% starting Friday, the White House announced Thursday, following through on a threat from earlier this month. Mr. Trump is also threatening tariff hikes for Mexico and China, but the U.S.’ southern neighbor got a 90-day extension on Thursday, and an Aug. 12 deadline to strike a deal with China is expected to be extended for three months, as well. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

New York Times [7/31/2025 3:27 PM, James Wagner, Emiliano Rodríguez Mega and Ian Austen, 330K] reports President Trump on Thursday night imposed a 35 percent tariff on Canada, deepening his attack on a country that had long been a close American partner, but that Mr. Trump has consistently disparaged since taking office in January as having taken advantage of the United States. His attacks have ruptured the relationship between the two countries, stoked an intense anti-American feeling among many Canadians and prompted Canada to start finding ways to shift away from its once-reliable economic partner and find other countries to make deals with. At the same time, Mr. Trump earlier on Thursday offered a reprieve to the United States’ southern neighbor and largest trading partner, Mexico. The two countries agreed to keep talking about a potential trade deal for 90 more days, averting the heavier tariffs Mr. Trump had threatened to impose on Mexico just before they were set to begin. The news of the pause, announced by Mr. Trump and President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico on social media, came after the two leaders spoke by phone on Thursday morning. It also followed months of painstaking negotiations between the two sides that had left many Mexicans apprehensive about what Mr. Trump would ultimately decide. Mexico has so far managed to fend off many of Mr. Trump’s threats and forged — somewhat improbably, analysts say — a relationship of respect with him. “More and more, we are getting to know and understand each other,” Mr. Trump said on Thursday on social media. But Canada’s efforts to achieve a deal ahead of a Friday deadline Mr. Trump had set for raising tariffs on countries across the globe failed. Instead, the tariff on the United States’ second-largest trading partner is now set to rise to 35 percent from 25 percent. The new levies do contain exclusions — goods that meet the definition of North American products under a preexisting trade agreement among the United States, Canada and Mexico, will be exempt from tariffs. RBC Economics estimates that covers about 94 percent of the items Canada exports. Still, products like steels and automobiles that are crucial to Canada’s economy will still face separate, heavy levies, and could lead to severe financial pain for Canada in the coming months.

Washington Examiner [7/31/2025 10:21 AM, Kaelan Deese, 1934K] reports the newly declassified annex to special counsel John Durham’s 2023 report reveals that the Obama-era FBI failed to investigate credible intelligence indicating the Hillary Clinton campaign was orchestrating a plan to link President Donald Trump to Russia falsely, with indications that she expected the FBI would aid in the effort. The 24-page annex, declassified Thursday at the direction of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA), sheds additional light on what Durham called one of the most serious episodes of political weaponization in modern intelligence history. The release follows a recent string of disclosures from CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who earlier this month declassified dozens of pages of Trump-Russia documents. These include intelligence showing that by the spring and summer of 2016, the FBI had acted as "an accelerant" to Clinton-backed opposition research, chiefly the Steele dossier, that falsely portrayed Trump as a Russian asset. "This was a Hillary Clinton plan," Ratcliffe told Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures this week, "but part of it was an FBI plan to be an accelerant to that fake Steele dossier … pouring oil on the fire, amplifying the lie, and burying the truth.” The newly released annex contains memos detailing "confidential conversations" between then–Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and senior officials at George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, collected in early 2016. According to the annex, a March 2016 memo referenced a Clinton campaign plan to link Trump to Russian organized crime to distract from her own email scandal. That same memo said that "[the Democratic Party’s] opposition is focused on discrediting Trump," and Clinton campaign staff, "with support from special services," were preparing "scandalous revelations" about Trump’s alleged ties to the "Russian Mafia.” According to the annex, FBI analysts reviewing the memo in 2016 interpreted "special services" as a possible reference to U.S. intelligence or law enforcement, including the FBI, or to dossier author Christopher Steele, a former member of British intelligence. By July 2016, the FBI had received additional intelligence indicating that Clinton operatives expected media and FBI-linked cybersecurity firms to plant and amplify the false narrative. "Later," one email from a Clinton ally said, "the FBI will put more oil into the fire." Another said that "[Hillary Clinton] approved the idea about Trump and Russian hackers hampering U.S. elections" to shift public attention from her own missing emails. Durham said, "The FBI was fully alerted to the possibility that at least some of the information it was receiving about the Trump campaign might have its origin either with the Clinton campaign or its supporters, or alternatively, was the product of Russian disinformation.” Yet, according to Durham, the FBI "appears to have dismissed the intelligence information as not credible without any investigative steps actually having been taken to either corroborate or disprove the allegations.”

Reported similarly:
Daily Caller [7/31/2025 11:26 AM, Emily Kopp, 1010K]

CNN [8/1/2025 5:01 AM, Natasha Bertran and Zachary Cohen, 21433K] reports the Pentagon has scheduled its first major test of the multibillion-dollar Golden Dome missile defense system for just before the 2028 election, according to two sources familiar with the matter, setting an aggressive deadline for military officials to prove they can turn President Donald Trump’s vision for a space-based shield that can protect the entire US into a reality. The timeline lines up with Trump’s pledge in May to “have it done in three years.” “Once fully constructed, the Golden Dome will be capable of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from other sides of the world,” he said at the time. Missile tests are typically scheduled well in advance, one of the sources, a defense official, told CNN. But the timing of the test, which is currently scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2028, also suggests “they want a win to point to in November [2028],” the official said. “And DoD wants to avoid anything they perceive will slow them down.” The MDA is planning to call the test FTI-X, the defense official said. “FTI” stands for Flight Test Integrated, indicating that the test will involve Golden Dome’s many sensors and weapons systems working together to engage multiple targets. The Missile Defense Agency, which would carry out the testing, did not return a request for comment.

Los Angeles Times [7/31/2025 11:20 AM, Michelle L. Price, 14672K] reports that President Trump said Canada’s announcement that it will recognize a Palestinian state "will make it very hard" for the U.S. to reach a trade agreement with its northern neighbor. Trump’s threat, posted in the early hours Thursday on his social media network, is the latest way he has sought to use his trade war to coerce countries on unrelated issues and is a swing from the ambivalence he has expressed about other countries making such a move. The Republican president said this week that he didn’t mind British Prime Minister Keir Starmer taking a position on the issue of formally recognizing Palestinian statehood. And last week he said that French President Emmanuel Macron’s similar move was "not going to change anything." But Trump, who has heckled Canada for months and suggested it should become the 51st U.S. state, indicated on Thursday that Prime Minister Mark Carney’s similar recognition would become leverage ahead of a deadline he set in trade talks. "Wow! Canada has just announced that it is backing statehood for Palestine," Trump said in his Truth Social post. "That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them. Oh’ Canada!!!" Trump has threatened to impose a 35% tariff on Canada if no deal is reached by Friday, when he’s said he will levy tariffs against goods from dozens of countries if they don’t reach agreements with the United States.

Breitbart [7/31/2025 1:51 PM, Christian K. Caruzo, 3077K] reports that the administration of President Donald Trump identified Brazil as a national security threat on Wednesday and imposed human rights sanctions on Brazil’s Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) Justice Alexandre de Moraes. The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned de Moraes under the Global Magnitsky Act over a consistent pattern of persecuting conservative political activity, including arbitrary detentions, denial of fair trial guarantees, censorship, punishing free speech, and other serious human right abuses. As per the terms of the Global Magnitsky Act, all of de Moraes’ U.S.-based assets are frozen and all transactions between the Justice and U.S. persons involving any of his property or interests are strictly prohibited. "Alexandre de Moraes has taken it upon himself to be judge and jury in an unlawful witch hunt against U.S. and Brazilian citizens and companies," Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said. "De Moraes is responsible for an oppressive campaign of censorship, arbitrary detentions that violate human rights, and politicized prosecutions — including against former President Jair Bolsonaro. Today’s action makes clear that Treasury will continue to hold accountable those who threaten U.S. interests and the freedoms of our citizens."

Washington Post [7/31/2025 7:11 PM, Adam Taylor and Karen DeYoung, 32099K] reports that the Trump administration on Thursday said it will send senior U.S. officials into war-ravaged Gaza to inspect food distribution sites and develop a plan to ensure more aid gets to civilians amid growing international anger over mass starvation there. Special envoy Steve Witkoff and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee will travel inside the Palestinian enclave Friday to hear “firsthand about this dire situation,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. The escalating scenes of starvation in Gaza have deepened a global backlash against Israel, which has tightly controlled the amount of assistance distributed by the United Nations and other aid organizations during its ongoing war with Hamas. That prompted President Donald Trump to say this past weekend that the United States will step in to set up food centers in Gaza to address “real starvation.” It was unclear if Trump’s remarks referred to expansion of the U.S.-Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which for the past two months has distributed boxes of food rations at four sites in southern Gaza, protected by armed U.S. security contractors. Critics, including a number of governments and humanitarian organizations, have called for an end to the GHF program — saying it is an effort to corral Gazans into the southern end of the enclave in furtherance of Israeli war aims — and a resumption of full U.N. distribution throughout Gaza. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed, allegedly by Israeli forces, trying to get to the GHF distribution sites.

Bloomberg [7/31/2025 12:35 PM, Patrick Howell O’Neill, 1707K] reports that a notorious Russian hacking group is impersonating a prominent cybersecurity firm and using the country’s internet providers to spy on foreign embassies, according to a report published Thursday by Microsoft Corp. The attackers, a group known as Turla or Secret Blizzard, engaged in a "large scale" cyber-espionage campaign in which they used Russian internet service providers, or ISPs, to conduct their hacks, according to Microsoft. Turla hackers also disguised their malware to impersonate cybersecurity software from the Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky. [Editorial note: consult extended commentary at source link]

FOX Business [7/31/2025 7:46 PM, Sophia Compton, 9940K] reports tech giant Nvidia said on Thursday that its chips do not contain any "backdoors" that would allow others to remotely access or control them, following concerns from China over the security of the company’s H20 artificial intelligence chip. "Cybersecurity is critically important to us," a Nvidia spokesperson told FOX Business in an email. "Nvidia does not have ‘backdoors’ in our chips that would give anyone a remote way to access or control them.” China’s internet watchdog, the Cyberspace Administration of China, reportedly summoned the world’s largest chip manufacturer for a meeting on Thursday to discuss whether there were any backdoor security risks to its H20 AI chip — referring to secret ways of bypassing authentication or security controls, Reuters reported. The Chinese regulator, citing fears over user data and privacy rights, expressed concerns about a U.S. proposal to add tracking features to American-made chips sold overseas. Both the White House and Congress have floated the idea of requiring U.S. chipmakers to incorporate location-verification technology into their chips, but no laws have been passed, according to Reuters. Earlier this month, a private meeting between President Donald Trump and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang led to the undoing of a ban on transferring its H20 AI chip to China, a multibillion-dollar boon for the company. The Commerce Department had restricted sales of the chip in April, costing Nvidia billions of dollars, and undoing the ban was meant as a concession in a minerals deal in which China would stop restricting access to its rare earths. Nvidia’s products are in high demand across China, including among tech companies, the military, universities and AI research institutes, Reuters reported. China has previously accused U.S. tech companies of posing threats to security, and in 2023, the country prohibited key infrastructure operators from buying products from American memory chipmaker Micron, according to Reuters. Last week, Huang said in an interview that the Trump administration’s artificial intelligence plan was poised to boost innovation and AI deployment in the U.S.

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