Prepared for the Office of Public Affairs (OPA)
U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Editorial Note: The DHS Daily Briefing is a collection of news articles related to Department’s mission. The inclusion of particular stories is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse the political viewpoints or affiliations included in news coverage.

CBS News [8/19/2025 9:42 PM, Staff, 45245K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Tuesday that the entire wall along the U.S.-Mexico border is going to be painted black to make it hotter and deter illegal immigration — an idea she said was "specifically at the request" of President Trump. Noem spoke during a visit to a portion of the wall in New Mexico, where she also picked up a roller brush to help out with the painting. She touted the height of the wall as well as its depth as ways to deter people seeking to go over or under the walls. And Noem said Homeland Security was going to be trying black paint to make the metal hotter. "That is specifically at the request of the president, who understands that in the hot temperatures down here when something is painted black it gets even warmer and it will make it even harder for people to climb. So we are going to be painting the entire southern border wall black to make sure that we encourage individuals to not come into our country illegally," Noem said. U.S. Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks, who attended the event with Noem, said the paint would also help deter rust. During Mr. Trump’s first term, building the wall was a central focus of his hardline immigration policy, though construction on the wall faced some legal and logistical delays. During his second term, his mass deportation agenda with arrests in the interior of the country has been the main focus, but Homeland Security will be getting about $46 billion to complete the wall as part of new funding passed by Congress in the Trump-backed "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" this summer. The Trump administration has sought to fortify the southern border in other ways, too. Thousands of military personnel have been sent to the U.S.-Mexico border, and Mr. Trump has authorized the military to take control of narrow strips of public land along the border. Crossing into those territories is considered entering a military base, allowing them to be detained by both Border Patrol and the Defense Department, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said earlier this year. Noem said the federal government has been building about a half mile of barrier every day. "The border wall will look very different based on the topography and the geography of where it is built," she said. She said that in addition to barriers like the one she visited Tuesday, the department is also working on "water-borne infrastructure." Long sections of the roughly 2,000-mile border between the U.S. and Mexico sit along the Rio Grande River in Texas. The Trump administration is pushing forward with completing the wall at the same time that the number of people crossing the border illegally has plummeted. In the month of June, just over 6,000 migrants were apprehended along the southern border, a decades-long low — and a steep dropoff from the Biden administration, when border arrests peaked at upwards of 6,000 per day. FOX News [8/19/2025 8:17 PM, Peter Pinedo, 40019K] reports "If you look at the structure that’s behind me, it’s tall, which makes it very, very difficult to climb, almost impossible. It also goes deep into the ground, which would make it very difficult, if not impossible, to dig under. And today we are also going to be painting it black," said Noem. "So, we are going to be painting the entire southern border wall black to make sure that we encourage individuals to not come into our country illegally, to not break our federal laws, but that they will abide and come to our country the right way so that they can stay and have the opportunity to become United States citizens and pursue the American dream.” Noem credited the ‘one big, beautiful bill’ that was passed by Congress in July for allocating "an incredible amount of resources" that she said is "going to allow us to continue construction" of the wall. The secretary said that construction on the wall is advancing at a pace of close to half a mile per day. Besides additional wall and the new paint job, Noem said the administration is also investing in technology, cameras, sensors and waterborne infrastructure that she said will ensure the border "will be secure far into the future and that will be efficient as well.” She also mentioned that the administration is not just focused on the southern border but also the northern as well, saying, "We’re doing due diligence in securing every single inch of our border.” "Remember that a nation without borders is no nation at all," she said. "We’re so thankful that we have a president that understands that and understands that a secure border is important to our country’s future.” Noem was joined by several Border Patrol agents and officials, including Interim Chief Patrol Agent for the El Paso Sector Walter Slosar. He shared that agents in the sector are now apprehending an average of 41 people per day, compared to 2,300 a day under the Biden administration in 2023. Slosar said the seven-day average for gotaways in the sector is currently nine. He said the majority of those apprehended are single adults from Mexico, Guatemala and Ecuador. The AP [8/19/2025 8:21 PM, Rebecca Santana, 37974K] reports U.S. Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks, who attended the event with Noem, said the paint would also help deter rust. Long sections of the roughly 2,000-mile border between the U.S. and Mexico sit along the Rio Grande River in Texas. The Trump administration is pushing forward with completing the wall at the same time that the number of people crossing the border illegally has plummeted.

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The Hill [8/19/2025 8:03 PM, Filip Timotija, 24K] reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Tuesday the opening of a migrant detention facility in Nebraska as President Trump’s administration ramps up the expansion of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) detention capabilities. The new facility, located in the southwest part of the state, was dubbed “Cornhusker Clink” and will house “criminal illegal aliens” arrested by ICE, DHS said in a press release. The detention center came as a result of a partnership between the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services and ICE, expanding the capacity by up to 280 beds. The officials are using the existing minimum security prison work camp in McCook, located around 210 miles west of Lincoln. “Today, we’re announcing a new partnership with the state of Nebraska to expand detention bed space by 280 beds,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement. “Thanks to Governor Pillen for his partnership to help remove the worst of the worst out of our country. If you are in America illegally, you could find yourself in Nebraska’s Cornhusker Clink. Avoid arrest and self-deport now using the CBP Home App.” The administration has continued adding detention buildings nationwide to help hold migrants whom agencies have arrested. DHS opened “Alligator Alcatraz” in the Florida Everglades last month and an East Montana detention facility in El Paso, Texas, this week. DHS will also hold up to 1,000 migrants in a “Speedway Slammer” detention facility in Indiana. Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen announced Tuesday that the Nebraska National Guard will provide “administrative and logistical” support to ICE officials based in Nebraska to help enforce immigration laws. About 20 Army National Guard soldiers will be a part of the mission, with training beginning next week, according to DHS. “I am also proud that the Nebraska State Patrol and National Guard will be assisting ICE enforcement efforts, as well,” Pillen said in a statement. “Homeland security starts at home, and, just as when I twice deployed troops to secure our southern border during the failed Biden administration, Nebraska will continue to do its part.” The Washington Examiner [8/20/2025 2:28 AM, Christopher Tremoglie, 1563K] reports "Today the State of Nebraska is stepping up its support of President Trump’s and Secretary Noem’s immigration enforcement initiatives in several key ways," Pillen said. "I am pleased that our facility and team in McCook can be tasked with helping our federal partners protect our homeland by housing criminal illegal aliens roaming our country’s communities today.” "I am also proud that the Nebraska State Patrol and National Guard will be assisting ICE enforcement efforts, as well," he added. "Homeland security starts at home, and, just as when I twice deployed troops to secure our southern border during the failed Biden administration, Nebraska will continue to do its part.” The Cornhusker Clink is being funded because of provisions in the "One Big Beautiful Bill." The legislation set aside the financial resources needed to establish the detention center and the necessary equipment to house the detainees. It is an integral part of the Trump administration’s efforts to combat illegal immigration in the U.S. "This agreement was made possible by the One Big Beautiful Bill," read a release by DHS. "This law fully funded the 287(g) program and provided funding to secure 80,000 new beds for ICE to utilize when detaining and deporting the worst of the worst.” FOX News [8/19/2025 10:57 PM, Greg Wehner, Emma Bussey, 40019K] reports that with ICE arrests down and data showing removals are up, the new venue combines 200 beds with the 280 already in place at the Work Ethic Camp in McCook, which opened in 2001 as a prison. Acknowledging the facility as part of an agreement between Nebraska and the federal government, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem warned that illegal aliens in the region could find themselves at Cornhusker Clink. Trump’s "One Big Beautiful Bill" provided funding for 80,000 new beds for ICE to use, which has contributed to an increase in facilities across the country. "Alligator Alcatraz," one of the better-known facilities, was opened in the Florida Everglades and can house up to 3,000 migrants, while the East Montana Detention Center at Fort Bliss outside El Paso, which opened on Sunday, will be able to hold up to 5,000. "Speedway Slammer" in Indiana will also hold up to 1,000 migrants. Back in Nebraska, the National Guard is also helping ICE officials enforce immigration laws, involving 20 or so soldiers. In a statement supporting Trump’s immigration crackdown, Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen said he was "pleased that our facility and team in McCook can be tasked with helping our federal partners protect our homeland by housing criminal illegal aliens roaming our country’s communities today.”

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BorderReport [8/19/2025 5:28 PM, Melissa Luna] reports U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem arrived in Ruidoso, New Mexico, on Tuesday, Aug. 19, to see and assess the flood damage with local officials. Noem was seen walking around the Ruidoso area and talking with officials on Tuesday. Ruidoso faced flash flooding in July as heavy rain fell in the burn scar areas from last year’s South Fork and Salt fires. Three people died from the flooding, 65 swift water rescues were conducted, and around 200 to 400 homes were impacted. The federal government also issued a Major Disaster Declaration for New Mexico in July to provide funding for communities that experienced damage from the floods. The declaration has made financial assistance available to individuals, households, and businesses in Lincoln County with losses or damage caused by the flooding. [Editorial note: consult video at source link] KOB 4 Albuquerque [8/19/2025 8:33 PM, Monica Logroño] reports Department of Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem, visited Ruidoso Tuesday to assess the damage from July’s deadly flooding, and met with village leaders. But, no one has shared what help could come from that meeting. KOB 4 was there for the secretary’s visit, but did not get an opportunity to ask questions or even talk to her. During the tour, Noem received a briefing from village leaders and her team told us it was up to Noem to talk to media afterward, but she left. This all comes as many in the village are left wondering about financial assistance from the federal disaster declaration to help their recovery. Noem’s tour of the damage lasted about 20 minutes. Ruidoso Mayor Lynn Crawford joined her, along with officials from our state Department of Homeland Security and New Mexico’s Emergency Management director. We could see them pointing out issues like how high the water rose in the river Ruidoso back on July 8 when two children drowned in the flooding. That was all we could observe since we had to stay about 30 feet away, and could not put a microphone on anyone in the tour.

FOX Business [8/19/2025 9:42 AM, Morgan Phillips, 9194K] reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is expanding its crackdown on Chinese imports suspected of using forced labor in their supply chains. Products like steel, copper, lithium, caustic soda and red dates coming from China are now designated "high priority" for inspection and will come under the microscope by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in line with the Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act (UFLPA). Caustic soda, or sodium hydroxide, is an industrial chemical used in everything from aluminum production, paper-making, textiles and soap to petroleum refining. Red dates, a fruit grown in China, are often dried and used in teas and snacks. "The use of slave labor is repulsive, and we will hold Chinese companies accountable for abuses and eliminate threats its forced labor practices pose to our prosperity," Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement. As of Aug. 1, CBP has stopped 16,700 shipments, worth around $3.7 billion, for further examination under the UFLPA Congress passed in 2022. Of those, around 10,000 shipments worth almost $900 million have been turned away. Some 144 entities are listed on an entity list under the UFLPA as using slave labor in their supply chains, in sectors like agriculture, batteries, electronics, food additives, metals, plastics and textiles. President Donald Trump has already placed 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum, arguing that foreign nations were flooding the U.S. market with cheap, subsidized products and jeopardizing national security by making the U.S. reliant on foreign sources for such products. Reuters [8/19/2025 10:29 AM, Susan Heavey and Bhargav Acharya, 45746K] reports that the Uyghur-related law restricts the import of goods tied to what the U.S. describes as China’s human-rights abuses and ongoing genocide in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. U.S. authorities say Chinese authorities have established internment camps for Uyghurs and other religious and ethnic minority groups in China’s western Xinjiang region. Beijing has denied any abuses.

CBS News [8/19/2025 3:13 PM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, 45245K] reports that internal government documents obtained by CBS News show the Trump administration has expanded its campaign to persuade countries around the world to aid its crackdown on illegal immigration by accepting deportations of migrants who are not their own citizens. The documents indicate Uganda in East Africa recently agreed to accept deportees from the U.S. who hail from other countries on the continent, as long as they don’t have criminal histories. It’s unclear how many deportees Uganda would ultimately accept under the arrangement with the U.S. government. Honduras’ government has also agreed to receive deportees from other Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America, including families traveling with children, the documents show. The government of Honduras agreed to a relatively small number of deportations — just several hundred over two years — but the documents indicate it could decide to accept more. Both agreements are based on a "safe third country" provision of U.S. immigration law that allows officials to reroute asylum-seekers to countries that are not their own if the U.S. government makes a determination that those nations can fairly hear their claims for humanitarian protection. Representatives for the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests to comment on CBS News’ reporting. A senior State Department official said, "We don’t comment on the content of private diplomatic negotiations, but the State Department is doing everything possible to support the President’s policy of keeping Americans safe by removing illegal aliens who have no right to be in the United States."

Washington Examiner [8/19/2025 4:55 PM, Molly Parks, 1563K] reports Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced his department is investigating last week’s deadly motor vehicle crash in Florida, in which Harjinder Singh, an undocumented immigrant, made an illegal U-turn in a semi-truck on the Florida Turnpike and killed three people in an oncoming minivan. Preliminary results of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration investigation show Singh, the driver of the 18-wheeler, failed an English language proficiency exam. He answered two of 12 questions correctly and identified one out of four road signs. The DOT is investigating both Singh and the motor carrier company involved, White Hawk Carriers Inc. The initial findings of the FMCSA investigation, which began two days after the crash on Aug. 14, have shown that both Washington state and New Mexico broke federal motor carrier safety rules, according to the DOT press release. A DOT official told the Washington Examiner that the Florida Department of Transportation is complying with the U.S. DOT. The official said the investigation "could take weeks." The initial findings of the investigation also show that in July 2024, California issued Singh "a term-limited/non-domiciled" commercial driver’s license. The FMCSA is currently investigating whether California broke federal law by issuing the license, according to the press release.

Blaze [8/19/2025 10:26 AM, Paul Sacca, 1559K] reports an illegal alien accused of killing three people on a Florida highway was previously processed for deportation — but was able to stay after claiming he feared being sent back to his home country of India, according to reports. The illegal migrant suspect was allegedly granted a license in Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom’s California despite having no legal right to be in the United States. Harjinder Singh, 28, was arrested on Saturday after authorities said he made an illegal U-turn on the Florida Turnpike near Fort Pierce while driving a tractor-trailer. The St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement, "The incident involves a semi-truck and trailer that jackknifed and came to rest on top of a passenger vehicle at the 170-mile marker northbound side of the Florida Turnpike.” The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles stated in a press release, "Based upon our initial, but ongoing criminal investigation, it is evident that the driver of the commercial semi-truck recklessly, and without regard for the safety of others, attempted to execute a U-turn utilizing an unauthorized location. As a result of his actions, the three occupants of the mini-van are now deceased.” Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier proclaimed, "There will be accountability for this illegal alien’s reckless disregard for human life. He will not escape justice in Florida. Not on my watch.” The DHS said on Monday, "Singh obtained a commercial driver’s license in California, despite having no legal right to be in the United States.” "Governor Newsom put Americans’ lives directly at risk by arming this illegal alien with the ability to operate a 40-ton killing machine on U.S. highways," the statement proclaimed. "This reckless policy gave Singh the keys, and three innocent people paid with their lives.” In 2013, California passed a law allowing residents to obtain driver’s licenses, regardless of their immigration status. Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the DHS, torched Newsom over his "asinine" governance. "Three innocent people were killed in Florida because Gavin Newsom’s California Department of Motor Vehicles issued an illegal alien a Commercial Driver’s License — this state of governance is asinine," McLaughlin asserted. "How many more innocent people must die before Gavin Newsom stops playing games with the safety of the American public? We pray for the victims and their families. Secretary Noem and DHS are working around the clock to protect the public and get these criminal illegal aliens out of America.” McLaughlin stressed that Singh’s work authorization for the United States was "rejected under the Trump Administration on September 14, 2020.” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem stated on Monday, "3 innocent people were killed in Florida because Gavin Newsom’s California DMV issued an illegal alien a Commercial Driver’s License. This gut-wrenching tragedy should have never happened. My team at the DHS will work with the U.S. Department of Transportation to root out and prevent illegal aliens from obtaining these licenses from sanctuary jurisdictions that put American drivers and passengers in danger.” DHS Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar said, "This is personal to me. When I was mayor of Los Alamitos, I fought against California’s insane ‘sanctuary’ status. Now, those anti-American policies have resulted in the deaths of 3 innocent Americans in Florida. When will it be enough, Gov. Gavin Newsom?".

Daily Caller [8/19/2025 5:16 PM, Jason Hopkins, 985K] reports the illegal migrant truck driver accused of killing three in a highway accident failed an English proficiency and traffic sign test administered by investigators. Harjinder Singh, an Indian national living unlawfully in the United States, was charged with three counts of vehicular homicide after allegedly making an illegal U-turn along a Florida highway earlier in August — resulting in the death of three people. Investigators have since determined that Singh has incredibly poor knowledge of both the English language and American road signs. DOT Secretary Sean Duffy declared that the individual should have never been allowed to obtain a Commercial Driver’s License. He also took a swipe at sanctuary laws for allegedly allowing Singh to continue operating as a truck driver. Singh allegedly made his deadly turn through an "Official Use Only" access point in St. Lucie County, blocking all lanes with his truck and causing the wreck. Florida State Troopers obtained a criminal arrest warrant for the Indian national on three counts of vehicular homicide, according to a press release from the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Through their investigation in coordination with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, state investigators determined Singh entered the U.S. illegally in 2018 through the U.S.-Mexico border and subsequently obtained a Commercial Driver’s License in California. The deadly car crash has reignited debate around illegal immigration enforcement and highway safety standards.

NewsMax [8/19/2025 1:49 PM, Nicole Weatherholtz, 4779K] reports that the migrant truck driver who allegedly killed three people in a Florida crash involving an illegal U-turn was reportedly cleared to drive by the Biden administration, which gave him work papers that had previously been denied by the first Trump administration. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sources told the New York Post that Harjinder Singh illegally entered California in September 2018 and was fast-tracked for deportation by the first Trump administration. After being processed for deportation, the Indian national reportedly claimed he feared being returned to his home country and was later released on a $5,000 immigration bond in January 2019. His asylum case is still pending. Using his work permit, which was granted in June 2021, Singh obtained his commercial driver’s license in California. On Monday, DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin blasted California Gov. Gavin Newsom on X after his office accused the Trump administration of issuing Singh’s work permit. Singh allegedly attempted to perform an illegal U-turn with his tractor-trailer at an "Official Use Only" median access point on the Florida Turnpike near Fort Pierce around 3 p.m. on Thursday, DHS said. U.S. Marshals in California apprehended Singh on Saturday and he faces three counts of vehicular homicide. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a detainer for the illegal migrant to ensure he remains in custody after his state prosecution.

Breitbart [8/19/2025 2:48 PM, John Binder, 2608K] reports that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials are blaming Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and his continued support for sanctuary policies after an illegal alien trucker, who was given a driver’s license in California, was charged with making an illegal U-turn that killed three Americans this month. As Breitbart News reported, Harjinder Singh, an illegal alien from India, was driving a semi truck in St. Lucie County, Florida, when he made an illegal U-turn that ultimately left three Americans dead. Singh has since been arrested and charged with three counts of vehicular homicide. Video footage posted online of the fatal crash shows Singh making the U-turn and having no reaction once the vehicle with the three passengers hits the semi truck. In the sanctuary state of California, Singh was able to obtain a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) despite being an illegal alien thanks to a law passed in 2013 and expanded by Newsom in 2022. By 2023, as Breitbart News detailed, California officials had issued driver’s licenses to more than a million illegal aliens since 2015. DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin blamed Newsom for supporting the state’s sanctuary policies that ultimately led to Singh getting a driver’s license and allegedly killing three Americans in Florida. "Three innocent people were killed in Florida because Gavin Newsom’s California Department of Motor Vehicles issued an illegal alien a Commercial Driver’s License — this state of governance is asinine," McLaughlin said.

Breitbart [8/19/2025 11:51 AM, Joel B. Pollak, 2608K] reports CLAIM: Trump allowed in a migrant truck driver now charged with killing three people in an illegal U-turn. VERDICT: FALSE. The driver, who entered illegally, obtained a work permit after being denied by Trump. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is at it again, this time trying to deflect blame for his state granting a commercial driver’s license (CDL) to Harjinder Singh, who allegedly killed three other drivers on August 12. Tricia LcLaughlin, the Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security, then responded, pointing out that Singh had in fact been denied a work permit during Trump’s first term, but was granted one under President Joe Biden’s loose immigration policy.

(B) The National News Desk [8/19/2025 8:09 AM, Staff] reports that the Transportation Department is cracking down on states that issue drivers’ licenses to illegal aliens after Florida authorities say an illegal alien driving a semitruck caused a deadly crash on a Florida highway. 28-year-old Indian national Harjinder Singh illegally entered the US in 2018 through California where he was issued a work permit and received a commercial driver’s license. Video shows Singh trying to make an illegal U-turn on the Florida Turnpike last week, causing the truck to jackknife and a van to crash under the truck’s trailer, killing three Florida residents.

CNN [8/19/2025 3:04 PM, Haley Britzky, Brian Todd, 23245K] reports West Virginia National Guard troops have begun to arrive in Washington, DC, to assist with President Donald Trump’s crime crackdown in the nation’s capital, a defense official told CNN on Tuesday. The troops could begin assisting the DC National Guard operationally as soon as Wednesday after they have completed their in-processing, the defense official added. Their arrival comes after the Republican governors of six states — West Virginia, South Carolina, Ohio, Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee — announced they will send guard members to Washington, DC. The deployment of other states’ troops marks an escalation of Trump’s efforts to amass forces in the capital. The president previously announced that he was deploying DC National Guard troops to the city, surging federal agents into the streets, and federalizing DC’s police force. The president has repeatedly complained about rising crime in DC, but overall crime numbers are lower this year than in 2024. The defense official said Tuesday that while there are roughly 2,400 personnel in the DC National Guard, assistance from other states was needed because of how many troops are either undergoing training elsewhere or are on leave. The defense official said the National Guard is operating at 10 Metrorail stations in the city. They are not carrying firearms and have not been requested to do so, the official added. As of Monday morning, 896 DC soldiers and airmen were mobilized on the mission. Asked whether they will deploy to high-crime areas of the capital, the defense official said, "That’s not the request" and that it would be more the focus of law enforcement, not the National Guard. Meanwhile, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the federal law enforcement operation is "working," highlighting 52 arrests Tuesday night, a similar figure to the number of average adult arrests per day in Washington, DC, in 2024. Leavitt added that "a significant number of the arrests have been in high-crime areas of DC." And in another escalation in the city’s battle against a federal law enforcement takeover, the Justice Department is investigating whether the DC police department manipulated crime data, according to two sources.

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FOX News [8/19/2025 3:30 PM, Cameron Arcand, 40019K] reports an MS-13 gang member previously convicted of driving while intoxicated and drug possession was one of the 52 arrests in Washington, D.C., on Monday night as the Trump administration fires back at critics who have been downplaying their effectiveness. "At the direction of [President Donald Trump], our nation’s capital is a SAFER place—and we are just getting started. 52 arrests were made last night, including an MS-13 gang member, and 9 firearms were taken off the streets," Bondi posted to X on Tuesday morning. "Since our mission began, there have been a total of 465 arrests, 68 guns seized, and charges for homicide, narcotics, and firearm offenses. Nearly half of these arrests occurred in the high-crime areas of DC. Residents and tourists alike appreciate this extraordinary effort by our DC and Federal law enforcement partners," she continued. "Make DC Safe Again!". On Friday, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is playing a critical role in the federal police takeover of the city. "Under President Trump and Secretary Noem’s leadership, ICE law enforcement is being unleashed to keep America safe from dangerous criminals. As the secretary has announced, ICE and CBP have been deployed to help clean up the streets of our nation’s capital," McLaughlin stated. "Our message is clear: Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the United States," she continued.

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Daily Caller [8/19/2025 2:06 PM, Nicole Silverio, 985K]
Washington Examiner [8/19/2025 6:43 PM, Heather Hunter, 1563K]

FOX News [8/19/2025 2:33 PM, Staff, 40019K] Video: HERE reports Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin joins ‘America Reports’ to react to Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s anti-ICE speech after an illegal immigrant allegedly killed three in a Florida car accident.

The Hill [8/19/2025 6:06 PM, Staff, 12414K] reports just how big could the presence of National Guard troops become in our nation’s capital? Perhaps it will double in size in the coming days, as some Republican Governors have pledge sending in personnel from their states. But another question has emerged as well: could the National Guard members patrol D.C. streets armed? [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The Hill [8/19/2025 6:00 AM, Ellen Mitchell, 12414K] reports the number of National Guard troops patrolling Washington, D.C., will more than double in the coming days after Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina and West Virginia in the past several days committed troops to President Trump’s federal takeover of the city. Coupled with indications that the guard members may soon be carrying weapons — a reversal of their initial orders — the new deployments mark a major escalation of Trump’s efforts to take over law enforcement in Washington, D.C. The roughly 800 D.C. National Guard troops already deployed in the capital will be joined by about 200 personnel from Mississippi, between 300 and 400 from West Virginia, 150 from Ohio and 200 from South Carolina, beefing up a presence that has largely stood idle around typically low-crime, tourist-heavy areas in the city. "Crime is out of control there, and it’s clear something must be done to combat it," Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said in a statement Monday, becoming the latest Republican governor to answer to a Trump administration request to send guard members to Washington. West Virginia, Ohio and South Carolina, meanwhile, pledged their state troops over the weekend, bolstering Trump’s federal crackdown on crime and homelessness in the Democratic-led city. Trump launched the federal takeover of D.C. via an executive order that declared a "crime emergency" in the city, grabbing control of the city’s police department and sending federal agents — including some from the Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, FBI and Secret Service — to the streets despite a sharp drop in crime since 2023. Critics say the effort is merely a photo op and a gross militarization of Washington, with D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on Monday pushing back on Trump’s characterization of the city.

New York Times [8/19/2025 3:15 PM, Helene Cooper, 143795K] reports that the 800 National Guard troops sent into Washington last week will soon be augmented by hundreds more, as several states with Republican governors commit to supporting President Trump’s crackdown in the city. But Army officials appear to be trying to keep the troops on the sidelines of the mission, despite the tough-on-crime image that Mr. Trump has sought to project. The troops have joined an array of federal agents who appeared on city streets after Mr. Trump declared last week that the federal government was assuming law enforcement responsibility in the capital, which he has falsely claimed is essentially lawless. The first wave of troops sent to the city all came from the D.C. National Guard, which the president can call out directly. National Guard troops from Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina and West Virginia will soon also be deployed, according to the governors of those states. National Guard officials said that there were 869 troops in Washington as of Monday night; the Republican-led states so far have pledged 1,000 more. The Republican governors said they were providing the additional troops at the request of the Trump administration. Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio said that Army Secretary Dan Driscoll had asked for the extra troops. “When the secretary of the Army asks for backup support to our troops that are already deployed, yes, we will back up our troops,” Mr. DeWine told the Columbus Dispatch. The number is still expected to grow. But the role of the additional troops appears vague, and the answers to even basic questions, including whether they will be armed, have shifted. “Guard members may be armed consistent with their mission and training,” Maj. Melissa L. Heintz, an Army National Guard spokeswoman, said in the statement.

Washington Post [8/19/2025 5:08 PM, Olivia George and Emma Uber, 29079K] reports President Donald Trump’s crusade against crime in the nation’s capital has resulted in more than 450 arrests since Aug. 7, the White House announced Tuesday morning. Those arrests, fueled by an increase in federal agents on city streets, run the gamut of charges, from murder and assault to driving under the influence. But a full picture about who has been arrested, where, for what and by whom is not yet clear. Every day, the White House issues a summary of the previous night’s operation, including the number of arrests and some examples of arresting causes. Numbers of illegal firearms seized (68 overall as of Tuesday morning) and encampments cleared (48 overall) are included, too. The Washington Post repeatedly reached out to the White House for the arrest records undergirding their statistics and has not received answers to questions about the specific details of each arrest. As a result, there’s a black hole instead of the usually readily accessible basic information surrounding an arrest.

NewsMax [8/19/2025 5:03 PM, Jim Mishler, 4779K] reports the Trump administration has opened the sprawling "Lone Star Lockup," the largest immigration enforcement detention site in the country. It opened with a 1,000-bed capacity, but will be expanding to 5,000 within about 18 months. The Washington Examiner reported that the new detention site within the boundaries of the U.S. Army’s Fort Bliss, just outside El Paso, brought praise from Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn, and a heap of criticism from outspoken Texas Democratic Rep. Veronica Escobar. The new "Lone Star Lockup" is just the latest in a series of detention centers to be opened by the Trump administration as it moves aggressively to find and deport criminal illegal aliens. Local El Paso Matters reported that the site at Fort Bliss began accepting detainees at the start of the month and, as of Monday, was near the current capacity of 1,000, and all of those held at the site are men.

The Hill [8/19/2025 12:05 PM, Zach Schonfeld, 12414K] reports a federal judge late Monday dismissed portions of a lawsuit brought by Alligator Alcatraz detainees, handing the Trump administration a partial win in its pushback on allegations that the migrants aren’t being given sufficient access to attorneys. U.S. District Judge Rodolfo Ruiz agreed the administration’s new designation of a Miami-based immigration court to handle the detainees’ cases makes their Fifth Amendment claims against the federal government moot. "This is a classic case of mootness," wrote Ruiz, who was appointed to the bench by President Trump. As for the detainees’ separate First Amendment claims, which allege they aren’t able to communicate confidentially with counsel, Ruiz said those remain a live controversy that can proceed. Still, the judge agreed with the administration that those issues should go before the federal judicial district in Florida that covers the Alligator Alcatraz site, rather than Ruiz’s courtroom in Miami. Ruiz was assigned the case filed by a group of migrants detained at Alligator Alcatraz and several immigration legal services organizations. They are represented by Americans for Immigrant Justice and the American Civil Liberties Union. They sued soon after officials opened Alligator Alcatraz in early July to house thousands of migrants in the facility surrounded by the Florida Everglades. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has cast it as a model for state-run immigrant detention facilities elsewhere in the country.

AP [8/19/2025 4:16 PM, David Fischer, Mike Schneider, and Freida Frisaro, 56000K] reports a federal judge in Miami dismissed part of a lawsuit that claimed detainees were denied access to the legal system at the immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” and then moved the remaining counts of the case to another court. Claims that the detainees were denied hearings in immigration court were rendered moot when the Trump administration last weekend designated the Krome North Processing Center near Miami as a site for their cases to be heard, U.S. District Judge Rodolfo Ruiz said in a 47-page ruling Monday night dismissing a Fifth Amendment count. The judge granted the state defendants a change of venue motion to the Middle District of Florida, where the remaining claims of First Amendment violations will be addressed. Those include allegations of delays in scheduling meetings between detainees and their attorneys and an inability for the detainees to talk privately with their attorneys by phone or videoconference at the facility whose official name is the South Detention Facility.

FOX News [8/19/2025 4:21 PM, Ashley Oliver, 40019K] reports the Trump administration’s migrant detention center in the Everglades has become the subject of two lawsuits, which are threatening to derail the facility’s operations as the government employs novel tactics to crack down on immigration enforcement. The new facility, nicknamed Alligator Alcatraz, is facing allegations that its hundreds of detainees are unable to properly communicate with lawyers, did not have access to an immigration court until recently and are living in inhumane conditions. A second lawsuit alleges that the makeshift detention center, made up of tents and trailers and surrounded by wetlands and wildlife, is also being built unlawfully within a sensitive habitat for endangered species. The American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the first complaint on behalf of several detained migrants, saw a small setback Monday night when Judge Rodolfo Ruiz said its claims should have been brought in the Middle District of Florida rather than in the Southern District. Ruiz, a Trump appointee, said the case must be transferred to that district, finding that the alleged violations occurred at the facility, which is located in Collier County, about 50 miles from Miami. The ACLU, along with other groups, argued in their lawsuit that some detainees were not given the ability to communicate confidentially with an attorney and that up until recently, the Trump administration had not designated any immigration court as having jurisdiction over the detained migrants, of which there were about 700. The Department of Homeland Security, which is working in coordination with the state of Florida to build Alligator Alcatraz, disputed claims by detainees of poor conditions.

NPR [8/19/2025 5:01 AM, Greg Allen, 34837K] Video HERE reports immigration lawyers say Florida and the Trump administration are violating the rights of detainees held at a Florida detention center officials have dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz." [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

AP [8/19/2025 3:31 PM, María Verza, 37974K] reports Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum denied her administration had an agreement with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Tuesday, a day after the U.S. agency announced “a major new initiative” to collaborate in the fight against drug cartels. Sheinbaum was referring to “Project Portero,” an effort announced Monday by the DEA, calling it a “flagship operation” against smuggling routes that move drugs, guns and money across the border. “The DEA put out a statement yesterday saying that there is an agreement with the Mexican government for an operation called Portero,” Sheinbaum said during her morning news briefing. “There is no agreement with the DEA. The DEA puts out this statement, based on what we don’t know. We have not reached any agreement, none of the security institutions (have) with the DEA.” The U.S. embassy in Mexico and the DEA did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Sheinbaum said the only thing happening was a workshop in Texas attended by four members of Mexico’s police force. The DEA statement mentioned that workshop, saying it had brought Mexican investigators to one of its intelligence centers to train with U.S. prosecutors, law enforcement, defense officials and members of the intelligence community. The visibly annoyed president made her comments just days after generally positive exchanges between the two governments following another extension to ward off threatened U.S. tariffs and another shipment of 26 drug cartel figures to the U.S. from Mexico. Mexico had seemed to be repairing the security relationship with the United States after six years of tension under Sheinbaum’s predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who had reined in DEA agents operating in Mexico and accused the agency of wholesale fabrication when it arrested Mexico’s former defense secretary.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [8/19/2025 4:53 PM, Ashleigh Fields, 12414K]

AP [8/19/2025 3:33 PM, Mike Pesoli, Aamer Madhani and Jorge Rueda, 56000K] reports the United States is deploying three Aegis guided-missile destroyers to the waters off Venezuela as part of President Donald Trump’s effort to combat threats from Latin American drug cartels, according to a U.S. official briefed on the planning. The USS Gravely, the USS Jason Dunham and the USS Sampson are expected to arrive soon, said the official, who was not authorized to comment and spoke Tuesday on the condition of anonymity. A Defense Department official confirmed that the military assets have been assigned to the region in support of counter narcotics efforts. The official, who was not authorized to comment about military planning, said the vessels would be deployed “over the course of several months.” The deployment of U.S. destroyers and personnel comes as Trump has pushed for using the U.S. military to thwart cartels he blames for the flow of fentanyl and other illicit drugs into American communities and for perpetuating violence in some U.S. cities. Trump has also pressed Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to cooperate more on security than her predecessor, specifically being more aggressive in pursuit of Mexico’s cartels. But she has drawn a clear line when it comes to Mexico’s sovereignty, rejecting suggestions by Trump and others of intervention by the U.S. military. Trump in February designated Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, MS-13 in El Salvador and six groups based in Mexico as foreign terrorist organizations. His Republican administration has also stepped up immigration enforcement against alleged gang members. The designation is normally reserved for groups like al-Qaida or the Islamic State group that use violence for political ends — not for money-focused crime rings such as the Latin American cartels. But the Trump administration argues the international connections and operations of the groups — including drug trafficking, migrant smuggling and violent pushes to extend their territory — warrant the designation.

CNN [8/19/2025 3:32 PM, Gonzalo Zegarra, 23245K] reports Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced on Monday the deployment of 4.5 million militiamen throughout the country, assuring that "no empire will touch the sacred soil of Venezuela," after the United States doubled the reward for information leading to his arrest and increased the number of troops sailing around Latin America and the Caribbean. Last week, the US government confirmed to CNN that it had ordered naval movements in the region to contain the threat from drug trafficking groups. On Monday, Reuters reported that three US Navy destroyers and some 4,000 military personnel would arrive at the edge of Venezuela’s territorial waters within the next 36 hours. On Tuesday, however, a US Department of Defense official said there are currently no US ships in the area and nor have the ships received orders to head there. Venezuelan territory has almost 2,500 miles of coastline. The president described the "extravagant, bizarre and outlandish" US threats as "rotten rehashes," without specifying what he was referring to.

NBC News [8/19/2025 4:32 PM, Jonathan Lloyd, 43603K] reports Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez Jr. has been deported from the United States and jailed in Mexico about one month after he was taken into custody by federal agents in Los Angeles’ Studio City area. Arrest documents from Mexico’s National Detention Registry show Chávez Jr. was taken into custody Monday. He was transferred from a border checkpoint to police custody and jailed in Sonora, Mexico. Chávez Jr. was arrested in July outside his home by federal agents in Los Angeles’ Studio City area in connection with an active warrant in Mexico, the Department of Homeland Security said. The 39-year-old former WBC middleweight world champion was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents just days after he was defeated by influencer-turned-boxer Jake Paul in 10-round cruiserweight fight at Honda Center in Anaheim. The arrest stemmed from allegations of links to the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel, according to the DHS. After Chávez Jr.’s arrest, Sheinbaum confirmed the country has had a warrant for his arrest since 2023 that was part of an investigation that began in 2019. Sheinbaum said Mexico hadn’t previously arrested the boxer on a 2023 arrest order because he had been mostly been in the United States since. He is accused of multiple "fraudulent statements" on the application for lawful permanent residence, according to the DHS, which deemed him removable from the United States on June 27. The Washington Examiner [8/19/2025 7:34 PM, David Zimmermann, 1563K] reports ICE agents arrested Chávez on July 2, days after he fought Jake Paul in the boxing ring. The detainee possesses ties to the Sinaloa cartel, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization, and had an active arrest warrant on criminal charges in Mexico. "There was an arrest warrant [against Chávez Jr.]. This was communicated several weeks ago," Sheinbaum said. "When he was arrested there [in Los Angeles], there was an arrest warrant in Mexico from the Attorney General’s Office.” The president previously said she hoped the United States would deport Chávez to Mexico to serve time in prison. Despite having the arrest warrant since 2023, Mexican authorities couldn’t arrest Chávez because he primarily resided in the U.S. The Mexican attorney general’s investigation began in 2019. Chávez faces numerous charges for organized crime, human trafficking, arms trafficking, and drug trafficking in his native country, according to the Department of Homeland Security. He also had a criminal record in the U.S. In 2012, he was convicted in Los Angeles for driving under the influence of alcohol and served a 13-day sentence with a 36-month probation. He was also convicted in 2024 for illegally possessing an assault weapon and manufacturing or importing a short-barreled rifle. Additionally, the boxer reentered the U.S. illegally this January in the final days of the Biden administration after his visa expired in February 2024. In addition to overstaying his visa, he was deemed an "egregious" public safety threat by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in its December 2024 referral to ICE. The warning was ignored until the Trump administration took over. Chávez also allegedly lied on his green card application by submitting fraudulent statements when requesting lawful permanent residency in April 2024 based on his marriage to a U.S. citizen. His wife, Frida Muñoz, is connected to the Sinaloa cartel through her prior relationship with the son of the infamous Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who remains in prison for murder and drug trafficking. Following his arrest last month, Chávez’s family issued a joint statement in defense of him. The father, a boxer himself, claimed in an interview with a Colombian newspaper that his son "is not a criminal and less everything he’s being accused of.”

Reported similarly:
New York Times [8/19/2025 10:06 PM, Darnell Mayberry, 153395K]
New York Post [8/19/2025 5:20 PM, Christian Arnold, 43962K]
AP [8/19/2025 4:44 PM, Fabiola Sánchez, 37974K]

Breitbart [8/19/2025 5:48 PM, John Binder, 2608K] reports Doug Quets, the father of United States Marine Corps veteran Nicholas Quets, who was murdered in Mexico by Sinaloa Cartel members, is praising President Donald Trump’s actions against the Mexican Drug Cartels. As Breitbart News reported in October of last year, 31-year-old Nicholas Quets was traveling to Rocky Point Beach in Mexico — a popular destination for American tourists — when he was stopped at a roadblock along the highway. Sinaloa Cartel gunmen opened fire on Nicholas, shooting him in the back and through his heart. He died at the scene. Since then, Trump administration officials have said Nicholas’s murder has been the catalyst for the Justice Department, the State Department, and the Treasury Department targeting the Mexican Drug Cartels in ways that the federal government had not done before. Most significantly, in February, the State Department designated the Mexican Drug Cartels — including the Sinaloa Cartel — foreign terrorist organizations. Doug Quets told Fox News Digital that since Trump took office, the president has been diligent in trying to get justice for his son. Thus far, two suspects have been arrested and charged with Nicholas’s murder.

DailySignal [8/19/2025 11:45 AM, Virginia Allen, 668K] reports the Biden administration placed thousands of illegal alien children in the care of unvetted sponsors, according to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley. The Iowa Republican has released Department of Health and Human Services data showing that during President Joe Biden’s administration, over 11,000 unaccompanied alien children were placed with unvetted sponsors who were not the children’s parents or legal guardians. Additionally, no home visits were conducted for over 79,000 illegal immigrant children. Moreover, some children were "allowed to be placed with sponsors who were actually smugglers and sex traffickers," according to the Department of Homeland Security. "My oversight continues to expose disturbing evidence that the Biden-Harris administration turned a blind eye to tens of thousands of kids who needed proper supervision and care," Grassley said in a statement. "It’s appalling to prioritize speed and optics over the safety and well-being of children," the senator continued. Grassley requested the HHS data during the Biden administration but did not receive the data until President Donald Trump returned to the White House, according to the senator’s office. "I appreciate the Trump administration’s efforts to undo the damage caused by the last administration’s failed border policies, and I’ll continue my oversight of the issue to ensure abuse like this never happens again," Grassley pledged.

CBS News [8/19/2025 8:14 PM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, 45245K] reports lawyers for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador only to be brought back to the U.S. to face smuggling charges, asked a federal judge in Nashville on Tuesday to dismiss his indictment, calling it a "vindictive and selective prosecution" by the Trump administration. The attorneys claimed the Trump administration is only prosecuting Abrego Garcia for alleged human smuggling crimes because he challenged his deportation to El Salvador, where he was initially held at the notorious mega-prison known as CECOT. His lawyers have said their client was beaten at that prison before being transferred to a lower-level security facility. Abrego Garcia entered the U.S. illegally in 2011 at age 16 and was granted legal protection from being deported to his home country of El Salvador in 2019. But he was still arrested by immigration officials and deported there earlier this year. While the Trump administration initially conceded in federal court that his deportation to El Salvador had been a mistake, it has since sought to undermine Abrego Garcia’s case in the court of public opinion, accusing him of being a gang member, highlighting domestic violence allegations and charging him with smuggling. Abrego Garcia has remained in pre-trial detention since he was flown back to the U.S. in early June. The Justice Department has alleged in its criminal indictment that before his deportation to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia transported immigrants, including minors, who had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally as part of a smuggling conspiracy. One of the main pieces of evidence cited by prosecutors is a 2022 traffic stop during which Tennessee troopers stopped Abrego Garcia as he was driving nine people without any luggage across state lines. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers said it was telling that the federal government did not prosecute him until after his deportation, which gained widespread national attention. "Indeed, the only possible explanation for the timing of the charges here is that the government chose to use this prosecution to punish Mr. Abrego for exercising his right to challenge the violations of due process that led to his unconstitutional deportation, incarceration, and torture in El Salvador," the lawyers said in a legal filing. "This, coupled with the government’s statements clearly showing the intent to retaliate against Mr. Abrego for pursuing civil remedies for his illegal deportation, unquestionably establishes discriminatory intent," the filing continued. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers said the Trump administration had "gone to extreme lengths to make a criminal case," including by using a convicted smuggler who has been deported five times as its "star cooperator." They said the witness was getting lenient treatment from the government in exchange for his cooperation, even though he was purportedly the head of a smuggling business and Abrego Garcia was "allegedly a mere driver.” Abrego Garcia’s lawyers are also asking the federal court in Nashville to order their client’s release from pre-trial detention once a stay on that order lapses on Friday, Aug. 22. While the court ordered Abrego Garcia’s pre-trial release earlier this summer, it paused that order after his lawyers expressed concerns that their client would be immediately detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and processed for deportation. In a statement, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said Abrego Garcia "will never walk America’s streets again," calling him a "gang member and human trafficker." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reported similarly:
New York Times [8/19/2025 6:10 PM, Alan Feuer, 143795K]
Washington Post [8/19/2025 9:04 PM, Jeremy Roebuck, 29079K]
CNN [8/19/2025 9:59 PM, Devan Cole, 662K]

New York Times [8/19/2025 5:11 PM, Ana Ley, 143795K] reports federal officials shared a post on social media last weekend that wrongly accused a Connecticut state lawmaker of publishing detailed location information about deportation efforts by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, triggering a torrent of harassment against him. The lawmaker, Corey P. Paris, of Stamford, said that he had received threats against his life and his relatives. A spokesman with the Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection said the State Police were investigating the incident. In a message posted on Instagram, Mr. Paris, a Democrat, told followers on Friday that he had learned of immigration enforcement efforts in his district and wanted to warn residents to “remain vigilant.” In an email, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, did not respond to a question about Mr. Paris’s safety concerns, instead pointing to an increase in harassment against ICE agents. When asked why ICE’s account had republished the Libs of TikTok post, Ms. McLaughlin said, “We frequently share posts from groups outside of government.” Other people singled out by Libs of TikTok have been threatened with violence, often through bomb threats, according to an investigation last year by NBC News.

FOX News [8/19/2025 8:02 PM, Louis Casiano, 40019K] reports an illegal immigrant accused of exporting shipments of firearms, ammunition and other military items that were concealed inside shipping containers to North Korea was sentenced Monday to eight years in prison. Shenghua Wen, 42, of the Los Angeles suburb of Ontario, had been in federal custody since December 2024 before pleading guilty in June to one count of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and one count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government. Wen, a Chinese citizen, entered the United States in 2012 on a student visa and remained in the U.S. illegally after the visa expired in December 2013, the Justice Department said. Before entering the U.S., Wen met with North Korean government officials at that country’s embassy in China, where they asked him to procure goods on behalf of the communist state. "Wen and some co-conspirators successfully shipped firearms and ammunition to North Korea by concealing the items inside shipping containers that were shipped from Long Beach, California, through Hong Kong, China, to North Korea," federal prosecutors said. On Aug. 14, authorities seized two devices — a chemical threat identification device and a hand-held broadband receiver that detects eavesdropping devices — at Wen’s home that he intended to send to North Korea, the Justice Department said. On Sept. 6, law enforcement seized approximately 50,000 rounds of 9mm ammunition that Wen allegedly obtained to send to North Korea. Messages retrieved from Wen’s cellphones revealed discussions with co-conspirators about shipping military-grade equipment to North Korea. Some of these messages included photographs that Wen sent of items controlled for export under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a December news release. From January to April 2024, Wen sent emails and text messages to a U.S.-based broker about obtaining a civilian plane engine. There also were several text messages on Wen’s iPhone about price negotiations for the plane and its engine. North Korean officials wired Wen $2 million to get the firearms and other items. He told investigators that he believed the North Korean government wanted the weapons and ammunition for a potential attack on South Korea. With the money, Wen was able to pay for an armory and a federal firearm license for $150,000 and listed his partner’s name as the business owner to register with the Texas secretary of state. In an effort to fly under the radar and avoid detection by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), he had others buy guns for him, authorities said. "Once the straw purchasers gave Wen the firearms, he transported them to California, packed the firearms into a shipping container, and shipped the container to China, knowing that it would be transferred to North Korea," court documents state.

The Hill [8/19/2025 2:22 PM, Lindsey Granger, 12414K] reports that when House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries promised that Kristi Noem would be one of the first called before Congress if Democrats take the majority in 2026, he wasn’t just previewing political theater — he was signaling a long-overdue accountability moment. Because what we’ve seen under Noem’s watch as Homeland Security secretary isn’t just controversial policy, it’s a collision between power and the Constitution. Listen, the government has every right to deport violent criminals. But what we’re talking about here isn’t that. These are families being ripped apart, U.S. citizen children deported to countries they’ve never known, and raids on churches, swap meets and sidewalks that read less like lawful arrests and more like kidnappings in broad daylight. Armed, masked agents storming neighborhoods — it looks less like "law and order" and more like a scene from a dystopian movie. Except it’s not fiction. It’s happening here. And at the center of it is Secretary Noem, who, when asked to define "habeas corpus" earlier this year — which, by the way, is a bedrock constitutional right — got it flat-out wrong. She described it as the president’s power to deport people. That’s not just a slip of the tongue; that’s a fundamental misunderstanding of the very principle that protects all of us from government overreach. Habeas corpus is the right of a person to challenge their detention. Without it, the government could lock up anyone indefinitely. Even Abraham Lincoln had to go to Congress before suspending it during the Civil War. Yet somehow, Kristi Noem thinks she can redefine it on the fly.

Reported similarly:
USA Today [8/19/2025 2:46 PM, Zachary Schermele, 64151K]

NewsMax [8/19/2025 6:04 PM, Jim Thomas, 4779K] reports that President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security is using social media to reach tens of millions of Americans weekly, aiming to communicate directly with the public rather than relying on traditional news outlets, according to Breitbart. The agency has seen explosive growth in online engagement since Trump took office in January. According to figures shared with Breitbart News, DHS’s weekly social media impressions climbed from 3.5 million in February to more than 46 million in July. Officials say the approach mirrors Trump’s communication style, which relies heavily on direct, spin-free outreach to voters, rather than relying on the typically biased legacy media platforms. DHS officials argued that the surge in engagement validates the president’s long-standing belief that directly communicating with Americans is the most effective way to connect. "This growth is proof that a direct-to-Americans strategy, as the president has long done, is the most effective way to engage with the public," one official told Breitbart News. At the same time, major legacy media outlets have criticized the department’s social media posts. CNN accused DHS of appealing to "white identity," while Washington Post ran a headline declaring, "DHS is posting Americana paintings and migrant mug shots. The art world is not happy.” NBC News and ABC News have also published stories scrutinizing the department’s online presence.

FOX News [8/19/2025 11:11 AM, Charles Creitz, 40019K] reports the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) invoked President Franklin Roosevelt’s internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II as the Trump administration was set to open a massive detention center at Fort Bliss in Texas on Monday. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) torched the comparison, with a top official left wondering why an organization with such a name "care[s] more about illegal aliens than U.S. citizens," in comments to Fox News Digital. "Comparisons of illegal alien detention centers to internment camps used during World War II are deranged and lazy. The ACLU’s smears against our brave ICE law enforcement are no doubt contributing to the more than 1,000% increase in assaults against them," Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. "[The ACLU] should change their name. The facts are ICE is targeting the worst of the worst—including murderers, MS-13 gang members, pedophiles, and rapists. 70% of ICE arrests are of criminal illegal aliens who have been convicted or have pending charges in the U.S. — that doesn’t even include known or suspected terrorists, foreign gang members, convictions for violent crimes in foreign countries, or INTERPOL notices." On Sunday, before Fort Bliss’ "Camp East Montana" center was to open at the historically pivotal military base near the U.S.–Mexico and New Mexico borders, the ACLU’s regional affiliates released a joint statement calling the move "another shameful chapter" in the base’s history. "The renewed use of this base to detain immigrants and stage deportations comes as the Trump administration continues to misuse military resources to deport long-standing residents and other immigrants," the release read, calling the president’s mass-deportation agenda "dystopian." "President Trump’s use of Fort Bliss for the nation’s largest immigrant detention site is cruel and a reminder of a shameful detention legacy," added Sarah Mehta, a top official in the ACLU’s Equality Division – who also called on Congress to stop DHS’ agenda.

NewsMax [8/19/2025 1:04 PM, Staff, 4779K] reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has arrested a notorious illegal alien gang member with a staggering rap sheet, alongside several other violent sex offenders, as part of its latest crackdown on criminal aliens, Newsmax has learned. ICE officers took into custody Alejandro Lima-Ramirez, 46, a Mexican national and member of the violent Florencia 13 street gang, according to a Department of Homeland Security release provided exclusively to Newsmax. Lima-Ramirez’s record includes 24 arrests across California and Oregon and 16 convictions for crimes ranging from drug trafficking and robbery to fraud and weapons charges. "This illegal alien gang member with 24 arrests was allowed to terrorize American citizens because of sanctuary politicians," Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Newsmax in a statement. "We will no longer allow sanctuary politicians to put American lives at risk." McLaughlin hailed President Donald Trump and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem for the campaign to rid American streets of the "worst of the worst." "President Trump and Secretary Noem are restoring law and order to our communities," her statement continued. "If you come to our country illegally and break our laws, we will find you, we will arrest you, and you will never return." ICE officials say the arrests underscore the dangers posed by sanctuary city policies that allow repeat offenders to remain at large despite serious criminal histories. The Department of Homeland Security is also using the announcement to call on patriotic Americans to consider careers in federal immigration enforcement.

ABC News [8/19/2025 5:06 AM, Arthur Jones II, 27036K] Video HERE reports many of the nation’s school districts are returning to the classroom with immigrant families fearful of the Trump administration’s targeting of undocumented migrants, according to educators, experts and parents who spoke to ABC News. Los Angeles and Chicago’s school districts -- the nation’s second- and third-largest public school systems, respectively -- have returned with new guidance and protections for immigrant families wary of the federal government’s measures to curb illegal immigration. Chicago Public Schools (CPS) said it will prohibit Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents or federal law enforcement from accessing its facilities unless the agents produce a criminal warrant signed by a federal judge. More than half a million Los Angeles Unified students are back in school with the district’s police force partnering with local law enforcement in an effort to protect its immigrant students. LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho stressed the district will provide students with a safe space "regardless of immigration status." This comes as immigrants nationwide are afraid of deportation from school campuses as the administration continues to tout its signature campaign promise. But as families and school officials brace for potential crackdowns this school year, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told ABC News that no arrests have been made on K-12 school grounds during Trump’s second term and ICE has yet to raid any K-12 campuses. According to McLaughlin, the majority of DHS’ arrests so far either have prior criminal convictions or pending criminal charges against them. McLaughlin also warned that no K-12 students who are U.S. citizens should fear deportation or ICE raids, even if their parents are undocumented. "If you are here in the United States legally, there’s no immigration enforcement, because you’re here in the country legally," she said.

NewsNation [8/19/2025 5:51 AM, Salvador Rivera, 6811K] reports in what migrant advocates are calling "a major victory for the rights and dignity of immigrant children," a federal court struck down the Trump’s administration’s bid to end a law that mandates children held in federal custody be housed in humane and safe conditions. The Flores Agreement of 1997, requires the federal government to treat children in immigration custody humanely, hold them in the least restrictive settings, prioritize release to family, and provide access to basic necessities such as clean water, food, medical care, and safe, sanitary living conditions. Last Friday, a judge ruled that children, whether accompanied by their families or arriving alone, are entitled to these basic human rights and blocked the government from detaining children indefinitely in inhumane, unlicensed, or dangerous facilities. U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee issued her ruling, finding that, "the court remains unconvinced — There is nothing new under the sun regarding the facts or the law. Thus, it is the Government that continues to bind itself to the Flores Settlement Agreement by failing to fulfill its side of the Parties’ bargain. In light of the foregoing, the Court again DENIES Defendants’ MTT."

Daily Caller [8/19/2025 12:40 PM, Nicole Silverio, 985K] reports Democrat Virginia Rep. Suhas Subramanyam stated during a Monday town hall that illegal immigrants who are being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have not committed any crimes. Subramanyam distinguished between the Laken Riley Act, which mandates that federal immigration authorities detain illegal immigrants who committed theft-related crimes, and the arrests of illegal immigrants who allegedly did not commit any crimes. The congressman accused ICE of approaching innocent illegal immigrants and arresting them despite no crime being committed, despite them having entered the U.S. illegally in the first place. "I think that’s different than going up to people without telling them what they’ve done, in masks, and putting them in detention facilities. And I think the people that are being approached did not commit any crimes, weren’t even suspected of any crimes," Subramanyam said. "They’re going to workplaces, restaurants, they’re going to churches, courthouses … I think that’s very different, which is why I have been very much pushing back forcefully on what ICE is doing now." Since the beginning of Trump’s second term, ICE has arrested over 300,000 illegal immigrants who have committed heinous criminal acts, including homicide and the sexual assault of minors. Illegal border crossings have reached their lowest levels in history as a result of Trump’s hawkish border policies. A slew of recent high-profile murders have been committed at the hands of illegal immigrants. A jury convicted Jose Ibarra, an illegal migrant from Venezuela, in November 2024 for the murder of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley outside of the University of Georgia’s campus in February. In Washington, D.C., Trump’s federal takeover led to the arrest of dozens of illegal immigrants who had committed crimes in the nation’s capital. Illegal immigrants have made up about 40% of the arrests made as of Monday, according to The Washington Post.

NPR [8/19/2025 2:32 PM, Alina Selyukh and Liz Baker, 34837K] reports that Ray Hudson arrived at his local Home Depot in Los Angeles preparing for a move. He picked up plastic crates. Usually, he would also hire help — one of the men who tend to gather nearby looking for work. But they weren’t there. Earlier that day, on August 6, federal agents in tactical gear sprung out of a rented moving truck, going after day laborers and food sellers in an immigration raid. Hudson heard about it on the news. "It’s just not right," Hudson said. "They’re out here trying to make an honest living. They’re not hurting nobody, they’re not bothering nobody." If there’s a company most caught up in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, it’s Home Depot, after numerous raids near stores around Los Angeles and the country. But the home-improvement giant has largely stayed quiet. During Tuesday’s earnings call with Wall Street analysts, executives said nothing — and received no questions about — immigration raids or day laborers. Last week, after a man died as he ran from one of the raids onto a freeway and was struck by a car, Home Depot representatives did not respond to NPR’s inquiry on the death. Earlier in the month, Home Depot replied to questions about the company’s position on raids and interaction with federal authorities with a statement it has issued repeatedly: "We ask associates to report any suspected immigration enforcement operations immediately and not to engage for their own safety," the statement reads, in part. In a statement to NPR, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin also said Home Depot has no role in their operations and businesses don’t get notified in advance of enforcement actions.

The Hill [8/19/2025 2:34 PM, Tara Suter, 12414K] reports that the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is urging Home Depot to limit the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers at its stores amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration. LULAC, in a Tuesday press release, said its national president, Roman Palomares, asked Home Depot CEO Ted Decker "to establish a nationwide corporate policy denying Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal enforcement agencies access to Home Depot properties unless presented with a valid court-issued warrant and proper advance notice." "Day laborers and families must not be subjected to the fear of being hunted down in parking lots while pursuing honest work," Palomares said in the release. He also noted that the Fortune 500 company benefits from labor from the communities that have been targeted by an uptick in deportation orders. "With its size, reach, and influence, the company cannot claim neutrality — it has both the authority and the obligation to act decisively," Palomares continued. "To allow ICE to operate unchecked on its properties is not passive; it is complicity." Earlier this month, the Los Angeles Times reported that an immigration raid in Los Angeles involved a Penske truck driver at a Home Depot saying he was seeking workers, according to a day laborer. Multiple Border Patrol agents leaped from the back of the truck while workers surrounded it and more than a dozen were arrested, according to the L.A. Times.

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Telemundo52 [8/20/2025 2:14 AM, Staff, 93K]

USA Today [8/19/2025 8:00 AM, Margaret Buranen, 64151K] reports an old sports maxim states that "defense wins championships." The same can be said for the fight against counterfeit sports memorabilia. A unit of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), The National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center), has been running Operation Team Player since 2013. As of early 2025, the task force has seized more than $455 million in counterfeit sports merchandise and apparel, making it the largest anti-counterfeiting initiative within the federal government. A prime example of the IPR Center’s efforts was announced prior to Super Bowl LIX. The yearlong collaborative operation, which also involved Customs and Border Patrol, HSI and the New Orleans Police Department, seized more than 214,507 counterfeit items including jerseys, T-shirts, hats, jewelry and other memorabilia valued at more than $39.5 million. In a statement addressing the multiagency collaboration, NFL Senior Vice President for Legal Affairs Dolores F. DiBella said: "The continued success of Operation Team Player would not be possible without their tireless efforts and ongoing commitment to protecting NFL fans from counterfeit crimes both on the ground and online."

Los Angeles Times [8/19/2025 12:45 PM, Patrick Whittle, 12715K] reports that a Maine police officer arrested by immigration authorities has agreed to voluntarily leave the country, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Monday. ICE arrested Old Orchard Beach Police Department reserve Officer Jon Luke Evans, of Jamaica, on July 25, as part of the agency’s effort to step up immigration enforcement. Officials with the town and police department have said federal authorities previously told them Evans was legally authorized to work in the U.S. An ICE representative reached by telephone told the Associated Press on Monday that a judge has granted voluntary departure for Evans and that he could leave as soon as that day. The representative did not provide other details about Evans’ case. Evans’ arrest touched off a dispute between Old Orchard Beach officials and ICE. Police Chief Elise Chard has said the department was notified by federal officials that Evans was legally permitted to work in the country, and that the town submitted information via the Department of Homeland Security’s E-Verify program prior to Evans’ employment. Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin then accused the town of "reckless reliance" on the department’s E-Verify program. ICE’s detainee lookup website said Monday that Evans was being held at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, Rhode Island. However, a representative for Wyatt said Evans had been transferred to an ICE facility in Burlington, Massachusetts. ICE officials did not respond to requests for comment on the discrepancy. It was unclear if Evans was represented by an attorney, and a message left for him at the detention facility was not returned.

Reported similarly:
(B) NBC News Daily [8/19/2025 1:53 PM, Staff]

Wall Street Journal [8/19/2025 6:18 PM, Roshan Fernandez, 646K] reports the mayor of New England’s biggest city on Tuesday delivered a message to the Trump administration: Hands off. Boston has been a focus of the White House’s illegal-immigration crackdown. The Justice Department this month included the blue city on a revised list of so-called sanctuary jurisdictions it says aren’t providing sufficient assistance with enforcement. Then, last week, Attorney General Pam Bondi portrayed Boston as obstructing federal law in a letter to Democratic Mayor Michelle Wu. Bondi sent similar messages to mayors in some 30 other cities and demanded they reply—with a commitment to comply—by Tuesday. “Here is our response: Stop attacking our cities to hide your administration’s failures,” Wu said, addressing a crowd at City Hall Plaza. “Boston follows the law, and Boston will not back down from who we are and what we stand for.” Bondi has said the federal government could pull funding from cities deemed uncooperative and dispatch law enforcement to them, like what happened in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. She threatened criminal charges and prosecution of local leaders in her recent letters to public officials, who are predominantly in blue areas. “You better comply, or you’re next,” Bondi said on a Fox Business show. Other Democrats, including Washington’s governor, have pushed back on Bondi’s letter. But in Boston, Wu, a 40-year-old first term mayor running for re-election, has emerged as one of the most vocal defenders of her city’s law-enforcement policies during the Trump administration. She has traded public barbs with President Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, who has said, “I’m coming to Boston; I’m bringing hell with me.” Wu recently suggested Homan should “take a timeout.” Boston has drawn Trump administration ire because of the city’s Trust Act, an ordinance that prevents local police from complying with federal immigration detention requests unless a person is wanted for a serious crime. It was signed into law in 2014 and reaffirmed in December 2024. Boston officials say the ordinance builds trust between local police and immigrants, regardless of status. Immigrants, say local authorities, are more likely to report crimes and cooperate with law enforcement if they don’t fear deportation. Nearly 80% of Boston voters have a somewhat favorable view of the policy, according to a poll last month from Suffolk University and the Boston Globe. “Courts have consistently held, as recently as last month, that local public safety laws like the Boston Trust Act are valid exercises of local authority and fully consistent with federal law,” Wu said Tuesday in a written response to Bondi.

The Washington Examiner [8/19/2025 5:02 PM, Heather Hunter, 1563K] reports Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is defying the Trump administration’s demand that sanctuary cities comply with federal immigration enforcement, declaring the city "will not back down" despite threats of funding cuts and lawsuits. On Tuesday, Wu responded to United States Attorney General Pam Bondi’s letter requiring Boston to submit a compliance plan by the federal deadline. The Department of Justice warned that failure to comply could result in civil suits and the loss of federal funding. Last week, Bondi issued letters to 32 mayors and governors nationwide, targeting jurisdictions with sanctuary policies. Boston was given until Aug. 19 to confirm compliance with federal law. Federal officials blasted Wu’s stance. DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said on Tuesday: "It’s a bizarre press conference, but the lives of Americans is no joking matter. Sanctuary city politicians, like Mayor Wu, are playing Russian roulette with the American public’s lives." The Blaze [8/19/2025 3:43 PM, Julio Rosas, 1559K] reports Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, said Wu’s unwillingness to deport illegal aliens from her city puts lives in danger. McLaughlin further promised that the DHS will send even more federal agents to arrest illegal aliens since Wu will not provide the help needed for mass deportations. Due to the massive increase in funding for the DHS, ICE is in the process of hiring an additional 10,000 new agents, she noted.

FOX News [8/19/2025 3:17 PM, Charles Creitz, 40019K] Video: HERE reports Boston Mayor Michelle Wu held a raucous press conference in Beantown on Tuesday, daring Attorney General Pam Bondi to follow through on her letters to blue-city leaders threatening federal action over sanctuary city policies. Wu, a Democrat, accused the Trump administration of being a party that "doesn’t follow the law.” "At a time when this federal administration is already causing so much fear and harm in our communities, these threats are serious and consequential," she said. The remarks came after the Trump administration warned it could sue or cut federal funds if cities refused to cooperate on immigration enforcement. Wu noted Bondi demanded all recipients respond by Tuesday and offered her formal response verbally: "Stop attacking our cities to hide your administration’s failures. Unlike the Trump administration, Boston follows the law… You are wrong on the law, and you are wrong on safety.” Wu went on to say the political right has it "wrong on cities." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

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The Hill [8/19/2025 3:02 PM, Elizabeth Crisp, 12414K]

FOX News [8/19/2025 3:26 PM, Charles Creitz, 40019K] reports numerous migrant suspects have been arrested on charges involving abuse of children in recent years in eastern Massachusetts. The cases have returned to the fore as Boston Mayor Michelle Wu fired back Tuesday at Attorney General Pam Bondi over her letter threatening potential withholding of federal funds or civil action if the city doesn’t cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. A child under 16 was allegedly raped at a migrant shelter by Haitian national Cory Bernard Alvarez, who was arrested in August 2024, according to ICE’s Boston field office. A 10-year-old was allegedly molested by his neighbor, a Haitian migrant, in a Boston suburb. Akim Marc Desire, 18, was arrested in September on the charge, and was further detained by ICE. Desire reportedly entered the country via plane in Miami and then traveled to Boston. Another minor of unconfirmed age in the Boston area was also allegedly "horrifically victimized" by Guatemalan national Mynor Stiven De Paz-Munoz. In February, Jose Fernando-Perez was charged with three counts of forcible rape of a child and three counts of aggravated rape of a child. Three other illegal immigrants accused of raping minors were arrested on Nantucket in September of last year. Also in 2024, a Colombian national was arraigned in the Charlestown section of Boston on charges of enticing a child under 16, distribution of obscene matter and lascivious posing and exhibiting of a child in the nude.

USA Today [8/19/2025 4:39 PM, Eduardo Cuevas, 64151K] reports a 6-year-old student and her family were deported just before the start of the new school year in New York, a case sparking uproar across the state − including from the governor and officials in the nation’s largest public school system. The second-grade New York City public school student, went with her mother and older brother on Aug. 12 to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement check-in at a federal building in lower Manhattan when agents detained them, a family lawyer told USA TODAY. New York City officials confirmed the student and her mother, who were living in Queens, were deported the morning of Aug. 19. The Ecuadorian family, who sought asylum in the country after arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border in December 2022, were among migrants detained in controversial tactics by the Trump administration while people attend routine immigration court hearings or ICE check-ins. The student’s mother, Martha, consistently attended check-ins after a deportation order was issued in June 2024 after her family’s asylum application was denied, Avedissian said. Avedissian’s teenage client escaped abuse in her home country. Their native Ecuador has seen a surge in violence. Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, said Martha and two of her children "all received final orders of removal from an immigration judge." On Aug. 19, New York City Councilmember Shekar Krishnan and state Assemblymember Catalina Cruz, both representatives in Queens, confirmed the student and her mother were deported. ICE records show her brother, Manuel, 19, is still in custody.

CBS New York [8/19/2025 6:48 PM, Carolyn Gusoff, 45245K] Video: HERE reports dozens of alleged MS-13 gang members have been arrested on Long Island, and Nassau County officials say they’re working with United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement to have many of them deported. Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said a weeklong intensive search resulted in 42 arrests. According to officials, the alleged gang members are responsible for a recent spike in crime. They believe a recent indictment may have triggered retaliation between rival gangs, and that a quick response will prevent it from getting out of control. "We saw a little gang activity start up, and we said we’re going to nip it in the bud. We’re going to put it to an end immediately," Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman said. Gang violence played out at a Hempstead park when a young parkgoer was mistaken for a rival, officials said. "He was an innocent kid, suffers from a cognitive issue," Ryder said. "They tried to rob him. They hit him with the machete. And then this kid ran a good two miles chased by these thugs. So those thugs are now gonna be in jail.” Then, in early August, gang-on-gang violence including a home invasion, a stabbing and a shooting were met with a focused response. "You’re not going to poison our children with your evil works and evil doings here in Nassau County," Blakeman said. "We promised in the beginning that we were going to go after the worst of the worst". MS-13’s presence on Long Island dates back more than a decade, officials say.

CBS New York [8/19/2025 6:38 PM, Marcia Kramer, 45245K] Video: HERE reports New York City Mayor Eric Adams is siding with the city’s 3 million immigrants, filing suit to stop the Trump administration’s campaign of courthouse arrests. He’s calling for an immediate stop to the actions by ICE agents. The steady stream of arrests - one day a 20-year-old high school student, another day a 6-year-old child and her mother - has the city filing a friend of the court brief to stop the practice once and for all. "You can’t snatch people off the courthouse steps anymore. That’s wrong. Don’t do it. And we’re asking a court to say they can’t do that anymore," First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro said. Mastro said the city is simply fed up with the heavy handed actions of ICE agents arresting people who show up for court hearings. Mastro was moved by pictures that show a sign reading "Mom" in pink glitter, along with a play kitchen and other toys, that were left behind by three members of an Ecuadorian family who left for a recent immigration hearing and never returned. Martha, a mother, and her 6-year-old daughter Dayra, were sent to an ICE detention center in Texas and feared deported. "These situations are tragic," Mastro said. The suit, filed as an amicus brief, or friend of the court, seeks an immediate halt to courthouse arrests by ICE, saying the practice has taken a "heavy toll" on a city where 3 million - 40% of the population - are immigrants. "The sheer number of individuals detained is remarkable: in just a two-week period between late May and early June, federal officers arrested more than 130 people in a lower Manhattan immigration courthouse building," city officials wrote in the suit.

Telemundo51 [8/19/2025 6:00 PM, Maylin Legañoa, 144K] reports the greatest fear of a Cuban migrant facing deportation came true this Monday for Raynel Rodríguez Delgado. According to María Carla Labrada, his daughter’s mother, Rodríguez Delgado was detained after attending his supervision appointment at the immigration offices in Miramar and transferred to the detention center known as "Alligator Alcatraz." Rodríguez Delgado has had a deportation order since 2019, after entering the country seeking asylum, a process that was denied. Later, as part of the Remain in Mexico (MPP) program, he was able to enter the United States on temporary parole, which allowed him to apply for residency under the Cuban Adjustment Act. Although the initial case was denied, it was reopened and has been awaiting resolution for more than 900 days. According to Chaviano, Rodríguez Delgado remains eligible and, if Immigration and Customs approves his application, he could be released from detention despite his current deportation order. Legally, Rodríguez Delgado has a request to stay his deportation, and his ability to remain in the United States will depend on the final decision of the appeals board, which will evaluate whether the immigration judge erred in not permanently reopening the case.

FOX News [8/20/2025 4:20 AM, Elizabeth Pritchett, 40019K] Video HERE reports a Nicaraguan man in the United States illegally is facing "enhanced" charges – due to his immigration status – in Florida for a drunken hit-and-run over the weekend, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff Grady Judd said deputies arrested Roberto Sandobal-Lopez, 34, on Saturday after he crashed his white Honda into someone’s fence in Winter Haven at around 7 p.m. and walked off. Deputies were alerted to the crash after witnesses called the sheriff’s office to report the incident. Sandobal-Lopez was found by law enforcement walking in the nearby area shortly after the crash and deputies determined he was intoxicated. His eyes were described as "watery" and "bloodshot," and deputies said they could smell alcohol. Sandobal-Lopez was taken to the Polk County Jail and charged with DUI with property damage, driving under the influence, leaving the scene of the crash with property damage and not having a driver’s license. His charges have been upgraded by one degree because he is in the U.S. illegally, which makes his "DUI with property damage" charge a third-degree felony. The remaining charges are all first-degree misdemeanors. The sheriff also reiterated that being in the U.S. illegally is a crime and, in Florida, immigration status will impact the severity of criminal charges. "In Florida, if you’re committing the crime of being here illegally, your other criminal charges are enhanced one degree; he’s now facing a serious felony because he caused damage to property while driving under the influence," Judd said. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Detroit Free Press [8/19/2025 2:57 PM, Niraj Warikoo, 3744K] reports on a Friday in June, Alexa was driving her Ford Focus on Interstate 94 when a Romulus police officer pulled her over for allegedly speeding. Instead of just writing the Ypsilanti woman a ticket, police took her to the police station and contacted Border Patrol, who then took the immigrant from Honduras to the Gibraltar station of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Despite having no criminal record, she was held for eight days in a cell where the lights remained on 24 hours day, making sleep almost impossible, and she was not allowed to shower, her attorney Ruby Robinson said. Things got worse for Alexa, a trans woman, after she was transferred to a county jail in southwestern Ohio where, she alleges, she faced groping and an attempted assault after she was denied a request to be housed with other female inmates. The Spanish-speaking inmate was also mistakenly assumed to be suicidal when asked questions in English and denied her hormonal treatment that some trans people take, which led to health problems, Robinson said. A CBP spokesman and Butler County (Ohio) Chief Deputy Sheriff Anthony Dwyer told the Free Press she was not mistreated and they do not have reports she was abused or discriminated against. "There was no record of an incident," Dwyer said. An immigration judge has denied her attorney’s requests for her to be freed on bond while her case is being heard. The case of Alexa illustrates the unique challenges that trans immigrants are facing as the administration of President Donald Trump vows to carry out a record number of arrests and deportations, according to immigrant and LGBTQ+ advocates. In addition to the crackdown on immigrants, Trump issued an executive order in January restricting gender-affirming care in prisons that affects some immigration detention centers. Alexa’s challenges have alarmed civil rights and immigrant advocates in Michigan, who say it’s part of a growing pattern. "This is an ongoing problem," Jay Kaplan, staff attorney for the ACLU of Michigan’s LGBTQ+ Project, told the Free Press. "A county jail, if they were to deny her medical treatment, that would be highly problematic." The ACLU filed a lawsuit in March challenging Trump’s order against gender-affirming care that includes facilities overseen by the Department of Homeland Security; in June, the ACLU got an injunction from a federal judge blocking Trump’s order. In June, a report from the Vera Institute said ICE is excluding data on transgender inmates as required by a congressional mandate.

Daily Caller [8/19/2025 8:30 AM, Jason Hopkins, 985K] reports as the Trump administration continues its war on sanctuary jurisdictions across the country, Texas GOP Rep. Chip Roy introduced anti-sanctuary city legislation with the toughest provisions to date. The Sanctuary Penalty and Public Protection Act would strip federal funding from sanctuary jurisdictions that have policies in place that limit cooperation between their government officials and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to the legislation. Introduced by Roy and co-sponsored by a slate of Republican lawmakers, the bill goes further than past anti-sanctuary city proposals. If passed and signed into law, the bill would block federal funding from localities that not only block cooperation with federal immigration authorities and fail to comply with immigration detainers, but also target jurisdictions that prohibit the Attorney General or the Department of Homeland Security Secretary from interviewing an incarcerated migrant to determine lawful status and potential criminal activity, according to the bill. "Upholding law and order should be THE top priority for government," Roy said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation. "For too long, sanctuary jurisdictions have abandoned their commitment to public safety by protecting illegal aliens, including dangerous actors, from arrest and removal by federal authorities, allowing these individuals to again violate the law in our communities."

One American News [8/19/2025 7:04 PM, Brooke Mallory] reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Monday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents recently dismantled “a violent, criminal illegal alien-run massive human trafficking ring in Nebraska.” The operation, authorities say, was based out of motels and eyebrow salons across the Omaha metro area. On August 12th, ICE agents rescued 27 victims, including 10 children under the age of 12, from what officials described as harrowing conditions. Victims were packed into cockroach-infested rooms, deprived of basic sanitation, and subjected to sexual exploitation. Both children and adults were forced into sex trafficking, while the motels also served as hubs for drug trafficking, according to investigators. “Our brave ICE law enforcement rescued these children and women who were being sexually exploited and trafficked,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “President Trump and Secretary Noem will not allow children and women to be victims of these heinous human trafficking rings. Our message to human traffickers is clear: we will dismantle your networks, and you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. That’s a promise.” Five illegal aliens have now been charged with multiple federal offenses stemming from an alleged conspiracy to engage in labor trafficking, sex trafficking, and harboring of other undocumented non-citizens at motels across the Omaha metropolitan area and into central Nebraska. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has since issued immigration detainers for all five illegals, who are “of Indian nationality,” to prevent their release into the community following the resolution of their federal criminal cases.

Washington Examiner [8/19/2025 5:00 AM, Warren Petersen, 1563K] reports out of all the evils in our world today, human trafficking stands among the vilest. As a father, I cannot fathom how degraded one’s mind must become to exploit another human being — especially a child — created in the image of God. And yet, even as we make incredible advancements in technology and innovation, we see more men, women, and children being preyed upon, exploited, and trafficked around our country and across the globe. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) put it best: "More than 150 years after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, slavery is illegal almost everywhere. But it is still not abolished – not even here, in the land of the free. On the contrary, there is a cancer of violence, a modern-day slavery growing in America by the day, in the very places where we live and work. It’s called human trafficking." We would do well to take these words to heart — and resolve at every level of government and civil society to eradicate this evil wherever it exists. Human trafficking affects hundreds of thousands of people in our country, not to mention the world around us, where almost 30 million individuals are victimized. According to the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline, approximately 12,000 cases were reported in 2024 within the United States, involving almost 22,000 victims. Protecting the innocent and vulnerable must always be a top priority for public servants. That’s why, as Arizona’s Senate President, I created the Human and Sex Trafficking Task Force — bringing together partners from across the state, including law enforcement, prosecutors, advocates, and survivors. This task force continues Arizona’s standing as one of the states leading the charge in our union to proactively safeguard citizens from what would be a tragic fate at the hands of deranged individuals. The information we’ve gathered is already informing future legislative priorities to help dismantle the systems and behaviors that allow trafficking to persist.

Axios [8/19/2025 5:21 PM, Melissa Santos, 14595K] reports Washington state won’t roll back its law limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities, despite the Trump administration’s threats to criminally charge state and local officials who follow it, Gov. Bob Ferguson said Tuesday. Ferguson’s public statement came in response to a letter he received last week from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, telling him to submit a plan by Tuesday to end Washington’s so-called "sanctuary" policy. "Washington State will not be bullied or intimidated by threats and legally baseless accusations," Ferguson wrote in a letter formally responding to Bondi on Tuesday.

Reuters [8/19/2025 4:50 PM, Nate Raymond, 45746K] reports a federal appeals court on Tuesday overturned an order blocking Washington state from enforcing a law intended to boost oversight and improve living conditions at the state’s only privately run, for-profit immigration detention facility. A three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a lower-court judge wrongly held that a state law imposing new requirements on Geo Group’s Northwest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Processing Center in Tacoma was inconsistent with federal law. Washington’s law, which the Democratic-led state adopted in 2023, requires Geo’s center to provide nutritious food in a clean and safe facility. It also authorized inspections related to these requirements and the assessment of monetary penalties. Geo sued state officials two months after the law took effect, claiming it was being singled out while Washington spared state-run facilities from tighter oversight. The company argued that by doing so, the state law ran afoul of the so-called doctrine of intergovernmental immunity, a principle derived from the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause that generally prevents states from directly regulating the federal government or discriminating against it. U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle in Tacoma last year agreed, saying the law impermissibly discriminates against Geo by imposing burdens on the federal contractor’s center that do not apply to state-owned prisons. But Senior U.S. Circuit Judge William Fletcher, writing for the panel, said state prisons holding criminals were the wrong comparison and that instead Geo’s center should be assessed against private facilities holding civil detainees. The 9th Circuit panel sent the case back to Settle to reassess the question based on a comparison to private facilities.

Telemundo20 [8/19/2025 2:48 PM, Shelby Bremer, 51K] reports ICE agents detained a San Diego man during their annual check-in Wednesday, serving a decades-old deportation order stemming from a 1989 conviction handed down when he was a teenager. His wife pleaded for clemency while awaiting a hearing to overturn the conviction, which her lawyer said was "flawed" from the start. Chuong Dong arrived in the United States in 1981 as a refugee from Vietnam at age 12 and received permanent residency shortly after. Enduring abuse from his family, he stated in a court filing, he dropped out of school in ninth grade and began hanging around with "the wrong crowd." Because of his conviction, Dong was ordered removed in 1999, but he was never deported; instead, he was released and required to check in regularly with immigration officials. He was transferred to the Otay Mesa Detention Center. Regarding the motion to vacate his conviction, a hearing was scheduled for August 26 in San Diego County Court. Klugman stated that even if the conviction is vacated, it would not mean he would automatically be released from ICE custody.

Breitbart [8/19/2025 2:05 PM, Sean Moran, 2608K] reports that a Colombian illegal alien influencer that documented efforts to crack down on illegal immigration was arrested by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency while livestreaming. Leidy Tatiana Mafla-Martinez filed inside her Tesla when ICE officials apprehended her last Friday in Los Angeles, California. The migrant reportedly screamed, "no, no, no," over and as well as, "wait, wait," in Spanish as ICE agents ordered her out of the car. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said, "On August 15, ICE arrested Leidy Tatiana Mafla-Martinez, a criminal illegal alien from Colombia who was convicted for driving under the influence in Los Angeles." "This criminal illegal alien entered the country in 2022 and was RELEASED by the Biden administration," she added. "During her arrest, Martinez claimed to experience shortness of breath. She was given proper medical treatment and will be held in ICE custody pending removal proceedings," the DHS official continued. DHS said that some witnesses tried to interfere with the arrest, with one person towing away a government vehicle. McLaughlin stated, "During the arrest, an individual unlawfully towed a government police vehicle. He mocked and videotaped ICE officers chasing after him." Martinez, who has over 40,000 followers on TikTok, grew her following while posting videos about immigration raids and anti-ICE protests around California.

Los Angeles Times [8/19/2025 6:25 PM, Hannah Fry, 12715K] reports officials in Anaheim issued a warning to the public Monday after a spate of immigration raids over the weekend that they called "the most significant and disruptive federal enforcement" the city has seen in weeks. Anaheim has seen targeted enforcement and "larger activity" since mid-July, when a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking federal agents from using racial profiling to carry out random immigration arrests across the region, officials said. Around midday on Saturday, agents in three or four black SUVs and a white van arrived at Euclid Car Wash, deploying what appeared to be a smoke canister before detaining one person. The individual was a bystander, not an employee at the car wash, according to the city. Video of the incident posted on social media showed uniformed, masked agents tackling a man to the ground as he tried to flee through the parking lot. The man was later released. "I think everybody in the community feels targeted," said Anaheim City Councilmember Carlos Leon. "There’s just a lot of fear and uncertainty, and it’s really a very destabilizing thing to go through as a city.” Officials say it was the third time the car wash, on Euclid Street near La Palma Avenue, has seen immigration enforcement activity since early July. Several employees were detained during previous operations. "Those concerned need to be aware and alert," the city wrote in a news release. A day earlier, on Friday, Customs and Border Protection agents took three undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Guatemala into custody outside the Home Depot on Brookhurst Street, according to federal officials. The site has been a frequent target of immigration enforcement. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said the "targeted operation" included a man who has been convicted twice for driving under the influence and has "illegally entered" the country multiple times. Anaheim has the second-highest Latino population of any Orange County city, behind Santa Ana. More than 121,000 people, roughly 35% of Anaheim’s population, were born outside the United States, according to census data. Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that Dominguez impeded the investigation and assaulted federal law enforcement. "He threw an object at a government police vehicle and when approached by agents, attempted to punch them," McLaughlin said, adding that the two individuals targeted in the sweep have not been found. Video shows Dominguez calling out that he "can’t breathe" as an agent pins him down. Dominguez, in the interview with CBS Los Angeles, denied assaulting any law enforcement officers and said he feigned throwing a water bottle but did not actually do it. Dominguez could not be reached for additional comment.

(B) NBC News Daily [8/19/2025 3:23 PM, Staff] reports that the City of Anaheim is issuing a warning about an uptick in immigration enforcement operations. Over the weekend, agents detained people at a Home Depot and Euclid car wash. Anaheim leaders said this is the third time agents have been at the car wash. Homeland Security officials said they took three people from Mexico and Guatemala into custody Saturday, including one man who they say has been convicted twice of DUI and entered the US illegally multiple times.

CBS News [8/19/2025 12:05 PM, Kathryn Watson, 45245K] reports the State Department says it has revoked more than 6,000 student visas for overstays and violations of the law. The vast majority of those violations or alleged violations entailed assault, driving under the influence, burglary, and "support for terrorism," according to a State Department official, although the State Department didn’t say whether those were accusations, arrests, charges or convictions. Two-thirds of the recently revoked visas were because the students violated the law, the official said. Fox News first reported the student visa revocations. Those roughly 6,000 students represent a fraction of the 1.1 million foreign students who studied at colleges and universities in the U.S. in the 2023-2024 academic year, the most recently available data. The State Department official said between 200 and 300 of the visas pulled were over accusations that they engaged in "support for terrorism" under federal statute. The Trump administration has been cracking down on foreign students participating in pro-Palestinian protests on U.S. campuses, as well as universities that allow such protests. In one high-profile incident, Tufts University doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk’s visa was revoked after she wrote an op-ed criticizing U.S. policy in the Middle East, and then was taken into custody by ICE. Her visa was restored and she was released after she spent six weeks in ICE detention. The Hill [8/19/2025 11:05 AM, Lexi Lonas Cochran, 12414K] reports that in the spring, thousands of foreign students were taken off the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, a reporting system that gives information about international students to the Department of Homeland Security, before having their status restored weeks later. Along with revoking visas, the Trump administration has tried to take away the ability of Harvard University to enroll foreign students, has froze visa interviews and implemented a new social media vetting policy for international students.

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Breitbart [8/19/2025 4:29 PM, Amy Furr, 2608K]

New York Post [8/19/2025 6:16 PM, Chris Nesi, 43962K] reports the US State Department has revoked thousands of student visas — most of them for overstays and various law violations ranging from DUIs and assaults to supporting terrorist organizations, including Hamas. The visas were pulled amid President Trump’s ongoing crackdown on illegal immigrants and foreign-born college students, particularly those who have expressed support for terror groups. Of the 6,000 rescinded student visas, around 4,000 were because the holder broke the law, a department spokesman told The Post, with the "vast majority" of the crimes committed included assault, DUI and burglary. Around 800 of the revocations were due to the visa holder being arrested or charged with assault, an official told Fox News Digital, which first reported the news. Troublingly, approximately 200 to 300 of the visas were revoked for "support for terrorism" — the department said, citing "INA 3B," a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) pertaining to activities that justify the State Department denying someone a visa, such as "inciting terrorist activity" and "providing material support to terrorists." The department did not elaborate on how specifically those whose visas were being revoked were supporting terrorism; however, the official reportedly said they had engaged in behaviors such as "raising funds for the militant group Hamas."

The Hill [8/19/2025 12:43 PM, Ashleigh Fields, 12414K] reports Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on Tuesday ripped the State Department for halting visitor visas for people from Gaza. "We need to be the America that allows war torn children to come here for life-saving surgeries and the America that never releases a foreign child sex predator that our great LEO’s caught," Greene wrote in a post on the social media platform X, referring to Tom Artiom Alexandrovich, Israel’s National Cyber Directorate, who was arrested Monday in connection to a Las Vegas child sex trafficking sting. "Would it be antisemitic to drag [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s Cyber Executive Director back and prosecute this [sic] to the full extent of the law and at the same time let Palestinian kids who had their limbs and bodies blown apart receive surgeries in America?" she added. Among the groups halted from obtaining U.S. visas last Saturday were those seeking temporary medical-humanitarian visas for children. Greene, in recent weeks, has joined a chorus of other lawmakers who have railed against the Trump administration and Israel over the humanitarian conditions in Gaza. "I’m not saying bring in refugees or use tax payer dollars, not at all, but when did America’s heart grow so cold to refuse innocent children privately funded surgeries and then they return home after they recover?" she added in her Tuesday social media post.

Blaze [8/19/2025 2:20 PM, Joseph MacKinnon, 1559K] reports that there are approximately 25 million foreign-born individuals in the U.S. who are naturalized citizens. The country naturalized roughly 8 million citizens over the past decade. Last year, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services welcomed 815,500 new citizens during naturalization ceremonies. To successfully secure U.S. citizenship, these individuals had to evidence GMC — "good moral character" — especially in the five years immediately preceding the filing of their applications. Up until this month, GMC meant not having a record of certain criminal offenses — such as a murder conviction or an aggravated felony conviction — or of disqualifying conduct such as taking part in prostitution or commercialized vice, practicing polygamy, earning a living off of illegal gambling activities, failing to support dependents, or being a drunkard. The Trump administration is taking steps to ensure that prospective citizens aren’t just meeting the bare minimum for civility but are actually poised to make a positive contribution. The USCIS issued a new policy on Friday in a memo titled "Restoring a Rigorous, Holistic, and Comprehensive Good Moral Character Evaluation Standard for Aliens Applying for Naturalization" that instructs officers to consider positive behavior along with possible disqualifying behavior. USCIS spokesman Matthew Tragesser said in a statement, "U.S. citizenship is the gold standard of citizenship — it should only be offered to the world’s best of the best."

FOX News [8/19/2025 7:48 PM, Staff, 40019K] reports officers with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) must consider the "positive contributions" of immigrants applying to become U.S. citizens as part of a more "holistic" approach, according to an agency memo. The new policy directs USCIS officers to account for an applicant’s positive attributes, rather than simply the absence of misconduct. "Becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen means being an active and responsible member of society instead of just having a right to live and work in the United States," the Aug. 15 memo states. "Among other eligibility factors, aliens applying for naturalization must demonstrate that he or she has been and continues to be an individual of good moral character (GMC).” "Evaluating GMC involves more than a cursory mechanical review focused on the absence of wrongdoing," the memo continues. "It entails a holistic assessment of an alien’s behavior, adherence to societal norms, and positive contributions that affirmatively demonstrate good moral character.” Applicants with convictions for serious violent crimes have long been barred from obtaining U.S. citizenship. Friday’s memo expands the list of offenses to include drug use or two or more convictions for driving under the influence. Officers are also encouraged to consider conduct that may not be illegal but considered inconsistent with civic responsibility within the community, including "reckless or habitual traffic infractions, or harassment or aggressive solicitation.” "U.S. citizenship is the gold standard of citizenship—it should only be offered to the world’s best of the best," USCIS spokesman Matthew Tragesser told Fox News Digital. "USCIS is adding a new element to the naturalization process that ensures America’s newest citizens not only embrace America’s culture, history, and language but who also demonstrate Good Moral Character.”

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Axios [8/19/2025 10:17 AM, Avery Lotz, 14595K]

AP [8/19/2025 6:30 PM, Corey Williams and Valerie Gonzalez, 20690K] reports that immigrants seeking a legal pathway to live and work in the United States will now be subject to screening for "anti-Americanism’," authorities said Tuesday, raising concerns among critics that it gives officers too much leeway in rejecting foreigners based on a subjective judgment. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said officers will now consider whether an applicant for benefits, such as a green card, "endorsed, promoted, supported, or otherwise espoused" anti-American, terrorist or antisemitic views. "America’s benefits should not be given to those who despise the country and promote anti-American ideologies," Matthew Tragesser, USCIS spokesman, said in a statement. "Immigration benefits—including to live and work in the United States—remain a privilege, not a right.” It isn’t specified what constitutes anti-Americanism and it isn’t clear how and when the directive would be applied. "The message is that the U.S. and immigration agencies are going to be less tolerant of anti-Americanism or antisemitism when making immigration decisions," Elizabeth Jacobs, director of regulatory affairs and policy at the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that advocates for immigration restrictions, said on Tuesday. Jacobs said the government is being more explicit in the kind of behaviors and practices officers should consider, but emphasized that discretion is still in place. "The agency cannot tell officers that they have to deny — just to consider it as a negative discretion," she said.

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Washington Post [8/20/2025 4:45 AM, Andrew Jeong, 32099K]
Telemundo [8/19/2025 8:42 PM, Staff, 17K]

Telemundo [8/19/2025 8:42 PM, Staff, 17K] reports the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has tightened policies governing the use of social media and the opinions of those seeking immigration benefits to settle in the United States. As announced in a statement, USCIS will more closely monitor social media posts that reflect an anti-American stance. They will also review past requests for special permits or parole. "USCIS has reiterated its guidance stating that an alien’s compliance with immigration laws is a relevant factor when determining whether a favorable exercise of discretion is warranted and has updated the Policy Manual to provide additional guidance in circumstances where the alien has endorsed, promoted, supported, or sympathized with the views of a terrorist organization or group, including aliens who support or promote anti-American ideologies or activities, anti-Semitic terrorism, or anti-Semitic terrorist organizations, as well as those who promote anti-Semitic ideas," the statement said. "This update also clarifies how an exercise of discretion applies when adjudicating an EB-5 investor petition or application in cases involving threats to National Interest, fraud, deceit, misrepresentation, and criminal misuse." "U.S. benefits should not be given to those who despise the country and promote anti-American ideologies. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is committed to implementing policies and procedures that root out anti-Americanism and support rigorous measures of background checks and security investigations to the greatest extent possible," said Matthew Tragesser, USCIS spokesman. The new guidelines "will take effect immediately and apply to applications pending or filed on or after the date of publication".

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Telemundo [8/19/2025 2:54 PM, Staff, 2782K]

The Washington Examiner [8/19/2025 2:02 PM, Anna Giaritelli, 1563K] reports that the Trump administration has issued a notice stating the federal agency responsible for deciding requests for immigration benefits, such as work documents or citizenship, will begin to factor in whether applicants hold "anti-American" sentiments. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a Department of Homeland Security agency, announced a change to its policy manual on Tuesday that states USCIS officers should examine whether applicants are connected or supportive of anti-American or terrorist organizations when deciding immigration benefit requests. "America’s benefits should not be given to those who despise the country and promote anti-American ideologies," USCIS spokesman Matthew Tragesser said in a statement. "Immigration benefits - including to live and work in the United States - remain a privilege, not a right." Immigration benefits include the granting of U.S. citizenship to someone who is eligible to naturalize, allowing a person to reside in the United States on a permanent basis, and providing documents to work in the country legally. Benefits in this case are not meant to refer to taxpayer-subsidized benefits, such as Social Security or unemployment benefits. "USCIS is reiterating its guidance that an alien’s compliance with immigration laws is a relevant factor when determining if a favorable exercise of discretion is warranted and updating the Policy Manual to provide additional guidance in circumstances where an alien has endorsed, promoted, supported, or otherwise espoused the views of a terrorist organization or group, including aliens who support or promote anti-American ideologies or activities, antisemitic terrorism and antisemitic terrorist organizations, or who promote antisemitic ideologies," the agency said in a statement. The Wall Street Journal [8/19/2025 9:16 PM, Jack Morphet, Victoria Albert, and Michelle Hackman, 646K] reports that the Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday that it would no longer turn a blind eye to those who seek to live and work in the U.S. but criticize its policies. “If you hate America, don’t try to live in America. It’s that simple,” a DHS spokesperson said. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, a national immigrant advocacy group, said relying on broad phrases to determine eligibility to live and work in the U.S. could be problematic. “The term anti-American is ill-defined and malleable,” he said. “What one person may consider anti-American another person might consider pro-American.”

Breitbart [8/19/2025 5:04 PM, Neil Munro, 2608K] reports President Joe Biden’s pro-migration deputies allowed at least 400,000 foreign students at U.S. colleges to take U.S. white-collar jobs in 2024. Biden’s 400,000 giveaway in 2024 was a huge 45 percent jump from the 275,000 job approvals by President Donald Trump’s deputies in 2020. Trump’s deputies had pushed the giveaways down by 7 percent from President Barack Obama’s 294,000 giveaways in 2016. Edlow told Breitbart News on August 11 that the OPT program "has been one of the largest programs used to get around H-1B [visa] requirement caps, to hire aliens who are graduating with STEM degrees in a way that makes me concerned that the US students coming out of the same universities are not necessarily able to find [jobs]."

FOX News [8/19/2025 2:30 PM, Alec Schemmel, 40019K] reports that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a new nationwide push to purge illegal immigrants from public health insurance programs on Tuesday. Under the new initiative, CMS will issue monthly enrollment reports to states that identify any Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) enrollees whose citizenship or immigration status cannot be confirmed through federal databases. These databases will include the Social Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program, among others. The first of those monthly reports was sent out Tuesday, CMS indicated in an announcement about the new initiative. Every single state will receive an individual report over the course of a month. Meanwhile, states will be expected to report back to CMS on the results of their verification reviews. "We are tightening oversight of enrollment to safeguard taxpayer dollars and guarantee that these vital programs serve only those who are truly eligible under the law," Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Tuesday. "Every dollar misspent is a dollar taken away from an eligible, vulnerable individual in need of Medicaid and CHIP," added CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz. "This action underscores our unwavering commitment to program integrity, safeguarding taxpayer dollars, and ensuring benefits are strictly reserved for those eligible under the law."

Axios [8/19/2025 6:10 PM, Jason Lalljee, 14595K] reports federal health officials announced a new push on Tuesday to ensure that Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) enrollees are U.S. citizens or have a satisfactory immigration status. The effort could create new administrative hoops for enrollees to jump through. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will begin providing states with "monthly enrollment reports identifying individuals whose citizenship or immigration status could not be confirmed through federal databases," the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement. The reports will draw on data from sources including the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program. HHS emphasized that states are responsible for reviewing cases, verifying the immigration status of individuals on the CMS’ reports, and "taking appropriate actions." All states will receive these reports within the next month, per the HHS. The change looks to put the burden of proof on the individuals whose immigration statuses the CMS cannot verify through the databases.

Bloomberg Law [8/20/2025 4:30 AM, Abigail Healey, Grace Cullinane, and Lucia Cipolat, 19320K] reports in an era of geopolitical flux, so-called golden visas have become a passport to stability for high-net-worth individuals. By injecting capital into a country’s economy, wealthy foreigners can secure residency—and sometimes even citizenship—in return. As wealthy individuals seek to protect their assets, golden visa programs may be a way for them to take advantage of more favorable tax regimes in other countries. As such, golden visas can be a tool of migration policy that yields real economic outcomes, not only for the country but for the individual. But these visa programs, once viewed as quiet pathways to global mobility, are now facing sharper scrutiny. For golden visa applicants and/or holders, proactive reputation management is no longer optional—it’s essential. This includes monitoring one’s digital footprint, requesting the removal of inaccurate or outdated content, and correcting public misunderstandings where necessary. For the media and society generally, it means recognizing that these programs, when properly managed, represent legitimate pathways to global mobility—not automatic red flags.

The Hill [8/19/2025 3:30 PM, Filip Timotija, 12414K] reports the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning consumers not to eat, sell or serve frozen shrimp sold at Walmart due to potential radioactive contamination. The FDA was alerted by U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP) about the detection of Cesium-137, a radioactive isotope, in shipping containers at four U.S. ports: Los Angeles, Houston, Miami, and Savannah, Ga. The FDA collected multiple samples for analysis and the results confirmed the presence of Cs-137 in one sample of breaded shrimp distributed by Indonesia’s BMS Foods, the agency said in a news release Tuesday. None of the shrimp that has entered the U.S. food supply has tested positive for Cs-137, the FDA said. The FDA suggested all products from BMS Foods sent after the firm’s containers tested positive for Cs-137 should be recalled, despite the products not testing positive for the radioactive isotope. Consumers should not eat or serve the following Great Value shrimp products sold at Walmart stores in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas and West Virginia.

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ABC News [8/19/2025 12:08 PM, Sony Salzman and Bill Hutchinson, 27036K]
Axios [8/19/2025 5:14 PM, Herb Scribner, 14595K]
Daily Caller [8/19/2025 4:16 PM, Tayte Christensen, 985K]

Bloomberg [8/19/2025 3:41 PM, Laura Curtis, 19085K] reports President Donald Trump stunned the logistics industry on Friday by widening his steel and aluminum tariffs to include more than 400 types of consumer items that contain the metals, such as motorcycles and tableware. Customs brokers and importers in the US were given little notice to account for the change, which went into effect Monday and did not exclude goods in transit. The new tariff inclusion list was posted by US Customs and Border Protection just as many were leaving for the weekend and appeared in the Federal Register on Tuesday, creating fresh headaches for trade professionals. Official guidance has been muddled, especially for goods already on their way to the US, and it’s unclear whether the metals levies stack on top of country-by-country tariffs. Having weathered six months of Trump’s trade war and a pandemic that triggered mass supply disruptions, it’s hard to rattle the freight carriers, cargo owners and middlemen that keep cross-border commerce moving. But the scope and implementation speed of this latest notice took many by surprise.

CNN [8/19/2025 2:05 PM, Elisabeth Buchwald, 662K] reports that Hundreds of different goods just got a lot more expensive to import into the United States, now that President Donald Trump’s 50% tariff on steel and aluminum has kicked in. Butter knives, baby strollers, spray deodorants and fire extinguishers, considered “derivative” steel and aluminum products, were previously excluded from the 50% tariff, though they were still subject to the higher country-specific tariffs Trump enacted over the last several months. However, on Friday, US Customs and Border Protection and a division of the US Commerce Department published notices informing US importers that 407 categories of goods containing steel and aluminum would immediately be subject to the 50% tariffs at 12:01 a.m. ET on Monday. The non-steel and non-aluminum components of the products face other applicable levies. The abrupt move leaves many US-based importers between a rock and a hard place, with goods they already paid for currently in transit. If they decide to accept the goods, the importers will have to pay considerably higher tariffs. But if they, for instance, tell cargo operators not to unload their orders at US ports to avoid paying tariffs, they’ll likely lose money.

New York Post [8/19/2025 1:34 PM, Josh Christenson, 43962K] reports that Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is demanding an investigation of US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials who allegedly retaliated against whistleblowers who flagged failures to fingerprint potentially dangerous criminal migrants, The Post can exclusively reveal. The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman fired off a letter Monday to CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott naming and shaming those "bureaucrats" who were promoted even after they sidelined whistleblowers Fred Wynn, Mike Taylor and Mark Jones. "To ensure that retaliation does not happen again at [Department of Homeland Security], CBP, or any of the Department’s other component agencies, the bureaucrats that retaliated against Mr. Wynn, Mr. Taylor, and Mr. Jones must be held accountable," Grassley told Scott. "Although it’s unclear to me whether all retaliators have faced consequences, I’ve been made aware that some have been promoted," he added. The Iowa Republican singled out Ronald Ocker, assistant commissioner of CBP’s Office of Intelligence, and Juan Fernandez, the executive director of that office, for having "improperly removed" the whistleblowers nearly a decade ago from a pilot program to implement the DNA Fingerprint Act of 2005. Reps for CBP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Telemundo [8/19/2025 11:23 PM, Staff, 144K] reports the Archdiocese of Miami denounced on Tuesday the "unjust" detention of a priest of its diocese, identified as Father Gustavo Santos. The religious, who was returning from an international trip via London, was detained by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents and denied entry into the United States, despite having a valid visa. According to the statement, Santos has an R-1 religious worker visa valid until November 2025 and is a priest in "good standing" within the Archdiocese. The situation was resolved thanks to the immediate intervention of Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski, along with attorneys from Catholic Legal Services, including Mary Kramer and Jose W. Alvarez, who were able to bring the case before a federal judge. Upon review, CBP reconsidered its decision and allowed the priest to re-enter the United States. "We are grateful for the prompt resolution and welcome Father Santos back to his ministry in the Archdiocese," the institution said in its statement. With this clarification, Father Gustavo Santos will be able to continue his pastoral work in South Florida.

CBS Los Angeles [8/19/2025 9:07 AM, Nicole Comstock and Dean Fioresi, 45245K] reports a group of protesters gathered in San Bernardino on Monday to denounce the federal immigration enforcement operation that included shots being fired at a family’s vehicle over the weekend. It happened at around 8:40 a.m. on Saturday, when U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents pulled a car over during what they called a "targeted immigration enforcement operation." They say that the man behind the wheel, an undocumented immigrant, drove his vehicle at the agents and struck two of them before driving away from the area. In response, at least one of the agents opened fire on the car, which had three passengers. No one was struck by gunfire. In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security says that the CBP officer was forced to discharge his firearm in self-defense. Video from the backseat of the vehicle, taken by the driver’s son-in-law, Martin, shows the masked agents shattering the driver’s side and passenger side windows moments before the car speeds off. He claims that the video is proof that the agents were never in harm’s way and that his father-in-law fled because he feared for his life. He says that the agents refused to identify themselves, present a warrant or explain why they had pulled them over at any point during the interaction. A short time later, agents arrived outside of the family’s home, where they waited for several hours before leaving without making any arrests, the family told CBS News Los Angeles. They said that they refused to allow the agents in, as they were never presented with a warrant or reason for their presence. They have not provided the man’s identity out of concern for their safety. Demonstrators said that Saturday’s series of events was another in an unnecessary escalation of violence during immigration operations in Southern California.

The Hill [8/19/2025 4:06 PM, Addy Bink, 12414K] reports the Transportation Security Administration has already done away with requiring travelers to take off their shoes during screenings, and the agency has introduced lines dedicated for families. Now, TSA is launching a futuristic means of getting through security. On Tuesday, the tech firm CLEAR announced a pilot, public-private partnership with TSA to bring biometric "eGates" to select U.S. airports to "expedite the passenger experience and enhance security" ahead of next year’s FIFA World Cup and America’s 250th anniversary celebration. The eGates use "real-time biometric verification" by matching your face with the facial image on your identity document and your boarding pass. The gates will be overseen by TSA, with agents capable of "triggering gate access, conducting security vetting, and enforcing government security requirements." According to CLEAR, eGates are debuting at three airports this month. The company intends to bring eGates to airports nationwide, but did not give an exact timeline on Tuesday.

Reported similarly:
Axios [8/19/2025 5:30 AM, Kelly Tyko, 14595K]

Federal News Network [8/19/2025 2:18 PM, Michele Sandiford, 1147K] reports that federal employees traveling for business will not see an increase in the rates the government will pay for hotels, meals and incidentals in fiscal 2026. The General Services Administration said the per diem rates for the continental United States will stay the same for next fiscal year. GSA said the decision not to increase the rates reflects the government’s commitment to being a responsible steward of taxpayer dollars, ensuring that federal funds are utilized appropriately, cost-effectively and for core mission-related activities. The standard rate applies to most of CONUS, which for lodging is $110. There are 296 non-standard areas with individual rates that are higher than the standard rate. The meals and incidental rates range from $59 to $92. The Transportation Security Administration is reevaluating its insider threat program after a critical audit. The Department of Homeland Security inspector general found TSA did not coordinate allegations of employee misconduct, potentially compromising the integrity of investigations. The IG specifically found gaps in communication between TSA’s Investigations office and the agency’s Insider Threat program. TSA agreed to evaluate the best placement for the Insider Threat office and to update insider threat training. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Houston Chronicle [8/19/2025 11:25 AM, Justin Ballard, 2356K] reports Hurricane Erin prompted mandatory evacuations along North Carolina’s Outer Banks as the threat of coastal flooding began Tuesday. The storm is expected to brush the North Carolina coast after lashing the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos with tropical storm conditions Monday. Hurricane-force winds stretched 80 miles from Erin’s center and tropical-storm-force winds reached 205 miles, the National Hurricane Center said Tuesday morning. Erin is a strong Category 2 hurricane Tuesday morning, producing peak sustained winds of 110 mph, just 1 mph shy of being a Category 3. Moving at only 7 mph, Erin is only going to slowly pull away from the southeastern Bahamas Tuesday. A turn toward the north-northwest is expected to occur as Erin picks up speed later Tuesday. Tropical storm warnings and watches are still in place Tuesday morning in the Bahamas, especially for the southern and central islands. Tropical storm conditions are expected to continue through Tuesday, with an additional 1 to 3 inches of rain possible. Conditions should improve in the Bahamas by Wednesday as Erin moves further away.

AP [8/19/2025 4:27 PM, Allen G. Breed, John Seewer, Ben Finley, and Hallie Golden, 56000K] reports Hurricane Erin chugged slowly toward the eastern U.S. coast Tuesday, stirring up treacherous waves that already have forced dozens of beach rescues days before the biggest storm surges are expected. While forecasters remain confident the center of the monster storm will remain far offshore, the outer edges are likely to bring damaging tropical-force winds, large swells and life-threatening rip currents. Warnings about rip currents have been posted from Florida to the New England coast with New York City closing its beaches to swimming on Wednesday and Thursday. Several Long Island and New Jersey beaches also will be off-limits. Erin has become an unusually large and deceptively worrisome storm while moving through the Caribbean, with its tropical storm winds stretching 200 miles (320 kilometers) from its core. Forecasters expect it will grow larger in size as it moves through the Atlantic and curls north. Rough ocean conditions already have been seen along the U.S. coast — at least 60 swimmers were rescued from rip currents Monday at Wrightsville Beach, near Wilmington, North Carolina. The biggest swells along the East Coast are expected to develop Wednesday and last into Thursday.

USA Today [8/19/2025 11:31 AM, Jeanine Santucci, 64151K] reports lifeguards have rescued dozens of people from the churning waters along East Coast beaches even as Hurricane Erin moves hundreds of miles offshore. Authorities in North Carolina said about 60 people had to be rescued from rip currents at Wrightsville Beach, prompting a no-swim order through the rest of the week, according to the Wilmington Star-News, part of the USA TODAY Network. Another person was rescued from rip currents at a South Carolina beach, and a dozen rip currents were reported at South Carolina and Georgia beaches Aug. 18, the National Weather Service in Charleston, South Carolina, said. Erin has made conditions prime along East Coast beaches for life-threatening rip currents that can catch people off guard, National Hurricane Center Director Mike Brennan said in a news briefing over the weekend. Weather conditions might look ideal for a beach trip, but dangerous rip currents can be hard to spot.

CBS News [8/19/2025 7:48 PM, Staff, 45245K] Video: HERE reports Holly Andrzejewski hadn’t yet welcomed her and her family’s first guests to the Atlantic Inn on Hatteras Island when she had to start rescheduling them — as Hurricane Erin neared North Carolina’s Outer Banks on Tuesday and threatened to whip up wild waves and tropical force winds. Andrzejewski and her husband purchased the bed-and-breakfast, known as the oldest inn on the island, less than a week ago. By Monday they had brought in all the outdoor furniture and made sure their daughter and her boyfriend, who are the innkeepers, had generators, extra water and flashlights as they stayed behind to keep an eye on the property. "It’s just one of those things where you know this is always a possibility and it could happen, and you just make the best out of it. Otherwise you wouldn’t live at the beach," said Andrzejewski, who will also remain on the island, at her home about a 15 minutes’ drive away. Although the season’s first Atlantic hurricane is expected to stay offshore, evacuations were ordered on barrier islands along the Carolina coast as authorities warned the storm could churn up dangerous rip currents from Florida through the Mid-Atlantic to the New England coast. Tropical storm and surge watches were issued for much of the Outer Banks. Coastal flooding was expected to begin Tuesday and continue through Thursday.

ABC News [8/19/2025 4:26 PM, Samantha Wnek, Jon Haworth, and Emily Shapiro, 27036K] Video: HERE reports Hurricane Erin, now a Category 2 hurricane, has prompted a state of emergency in North Carolina and is expected to bring dangerous waves and rip currents to beaches along the East Coast. "To folks on the coast, now is the time to prepare," North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein warned on Tuesday. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS Baltimore [8/19/2025 6:15 PM, Leif Le Mahieu, 45245K] Video: HERE Maryland Gov. Wes Moore is appealing the White House’s denial of funding assistance after severe flash flooding in May that damaged homes, infrastructure, and utilities across Western Maryland. Moore requested the declaration in June, to aid the recovery effort after the Federal Emergency Management Agency validated $15.8 million in damages. A Presidential Disaster Declaration would allow Maryland to receive help from FEMA. The flash flooding on May 13 struck Allegany and Garrett counties, damaging more than 200 homes and affecting roads, public buildings, and power systems. Some residents had to be rescued from flooded schools, while others were trapped overnight during power outages. At Westernport Elementary School, 150 students and 50 staff members were moved to the second floor of the building until they were evacuated by water rescue teams. Critical infrastructure was also impacted. Due to the floods, Columbia Gas of Maryland made the decision to proactively shut down the entire natural gas system in Westernport as a safety measure, leaving 116 residences without gas service for more than 24 hours. Gas system repairs alone were estimated at over $3.5 million. Initially, the state said there was $15.8 million in damage. On Tuesday, the governor’s office said an additional $17.9 million in losses had been confirmed, raising the total estimated damage to $33.7 million. In the appeal, Moore said the cost of the flood damage is nearly triple Maryland’s FEMA damage threshold of $11.7 million. "Maryland has met longstanding criteria for FEMA support in the wake of historic floods across Mountain Maryland," Moore said. "This appeal isn’t simply justified — it’s necessary.”

NewsNation [8/19/2025 10:46 AM, Jorge Ventura, 6811K] reports weeks after heavy rains caused devastating floods over the Fourth of July weekend, some communities in central Texas are still struggling. The floods left at least 135 people dead, and officials are still searching for two people who remain missing. Grieving and coping with the trauma, survivors are now working to rebuild. In hard-hit Kerrville, memorials honoring the dead have taken shape, including wooden crosses with green ribbons, a symbol of support for the victims and their families. Despite the tragedy and pain, some residents said they had never seen such a display of unity and compassion from people all across the country who volunteered in rebuilding efforts. Survivors also said they’ve received help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and nonprofit groups, as well as a benefit concert.

Washington Examiner [8/19/2025 4:32 PM, Sydney Topf, 1563K] reports an Indiana woman who traveled to Washington, D.C. for a protest criticizing the increase in law enforcement in the nation’s capital was arrested Saturday and charged with allegedly making death threats online against President Donald Trump, the United States Attorney’s Office announced Monday. Nathalie Jones, 50, of Lafayette, Indiana, was arrested after allegedly making threats on Facebook to harm the president and transmitting threats across state lines, according to the press release. The U.S. Secret Service found social media accounts linked to Jones that had a collection of posts in early August, calling for the president’s removal, labeling him as a "terrorist," and referring to the administration as a "dictatorship." According to the press release, Jones told the Secret Service in a voluntary interview on Friday that Trump is a "nazi," and she wanted to "avenge" all the lives lost during the COVID-19 pandemic, which she attributed to the president’s administration and its vaccine policy. The Secret Service revealed that during the interview, Jones said she had access to a "bladed object" and that, "if she had the opportunity, she would take the President’s life and would kill him at ‘the compound’ if she had to." "Refuse Fascism" organized a rally in Dupont Circle over the weekend, followed by a march to the White House, which Jones attended. The Secret Service interviewed Jones for a second time following the march, where she admitted she made threats to Trump in her interview the day prior, but denied having any desire to harm the president. Jones confirmed to law enforcement that she was the owner of the "nath.jones" Facebook account and that she posted the threatening statements, after she was arrested.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [8/19/2025 12:48 PM, Elizabeth Crisp, 12414K]
NewsMax [8/19/2025 3:14 PM, Jim Mishler, 4779K]

AP [8/19/2025 4:07 PM, Lea Skene, 56000K] reports investigators on Tuesday were trying to determine what caused an explosion aboard a cargo ship laden with coal as it departed Baltimore’s harbor for East Africa. Officials said no one was injured in the blast Monday evening, which prompted a mayday call when it was reported near the site of last year’s Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse. Video of the explosion showed flames shooting high into the air, followed by a large plume of dark smoke billowing over the Patapsco River. The Port of Baltimore’s main shipping channel was closed Tuesday morning. "The U.S. Coast Guard is the lead agency in the response and will determine when the channel can safely reopen, as well as the timing of vessel arrivals and departures," port officials said in a news release. The 751-foot (229-meter) merchant vessel W-Sapphire was en route from Baltimore to East Africa, according to marine tracking websites. It was expected to arrive in the Port of Mauritius in about a month. Built in 2012, the ship is currently sailing under a Liberian flag. Officials said it was transporting coal. There were 23 crewmembers and two pilots aboard at the time of the explosion, according to Coast Guard officials. Baltimore Fire Department spokesperson John Marsh said the agency responded to a fire below deck. There were no reports of property damage beyond the ship, according to the Maryland Department of Emergency Management.

Daily Caller [8/19/2025 1:15 PM, Mark Tanos, 985K] reports that the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) rescued four young sisters from a Lake Superior island early Sunday morning after they became stranded during a paddleboard excursion near Silver Bay, Minnesota, officials said. The girls, ages 14, 13, 10 and 8, paddled to the island from Black Beach on Saturday but lost their paddles and couldn’t return to shore, according to a Lake County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) press release. Law enforcement received a report shortly after 8 p.m. alerting them to the dangerous situation. Lake County deputies initially attempted a rescue using their boat but large waves and rough water conditions forced them to switch vessels. The Silver Bay Marina manager provided his former USCG boat, which could better handle the extreme conditions. Deputies reached the island’s coast and made visual contact with the girls, instructing them to remain in place, according to the press release. The Minnesota Air Rescue Team couldn’t fly because of the weather conditions. The deputies secured use of a helicopter from the Coast Guard in Traverse City, Michigan. While waiting for the USCG’s helicopter, rescuers used ropes to deliver food and blankets to the girls, who only had swimsuits in the dropping temperature. The USCG helicopter arrived around 1 a.m. Sunday. The crew lowered a rescue team member and basket onto the island, then hoisted all four girls aboard, according to KARE 11. The helicopter landed in a zone prepared by the Silver Bay Fire Department on the mainland, officials said. The girls reunited with their parents after the approximately five-hour ordeal. No injuries were reported.

USA Today [8/19/2025 4:15 PM, Taylor Ardrey, 64151K] reports footage shows the U.S. Coast Guard saving four young girls stranded on a small island near Lake Superior in Minnesota over the weekend. Coast Guard members were captured in the video hoisting the children to safety after the Lake County Sheriff’s Office stated that it received a call from one of the girls’ parents just after 8 p.m. local time on Saturday, Aug. 16. The group, ages 8 to 14, was paddleboarding from Black Beach Trailhead in Silver Bay and "lost their paddles" in the process, officials said in a news release. The Lake County Sheriff’s Office traveled to the small island in a former USCG watercraft, where they were able to communicate with the girls. Children returned to their parents safely, authorities say. The sheriff’s office said it reached out to the Minnesota Air Rescue Team for help, but they couldn’t assist due to weather conditions. However, the USCG was able to respond via helicopter departing from Traverse City, Michigan. The rescue took a few hours.

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CNN [8/19/2025 8:10 AM, Louis Leeson, 23245K]

NewsNation [8/19/2025 12:02 PM, Alex Baker, 6811K] reports the whereabouts of a man who seemingly disappeared from a fishing vessel along the coast of Oregon and Washington last week remain a mystery. According to the United States Coast Guard, the 65-year-old man was last heard from at 7:30 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 8. Days earlier, the Coast Guard said the man had departed alone on his fishing vessel, the Karolee. Officials said the boat could be seen via its automatic identification system (AIS) and was traveling a constant southerly course at around 4 knots (nautical miles) for several days. The Coast Guard said it made numerous call outs to the Carolee and asked marines to do the same. However, no communication was ever received from the vessel. At 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 13, the Coast Guard Cutter Sea Lion intercepted the Karolee and the crew boarded the vessel. No one was onboard and all the safety equipment was located aboard, the Coast Guard said. The Coast Guard suspended the search around 1:30 p.m. and the Sea Lion towed the Karolee to Eureka, where it is now moored. "Suspending a search for someone is the toughest decision we make in the Coast Guard," said Coast Guard Cmdr. Chelsey Stroud, search and rescue coordinator for the Coast Guard Northwest District. "Our crews diligently search hundreds of miles. We are grateful for the numerous Coast Guard crews along the West Coast who assisted in this search. We send our deepest condolences to the family, friends, and loved ones of the missing man.”

Federal News Network [8/19/2025 4:48 PM, Justin Doubleday, 1147K] reports the House Homeland Security Committee will mark up a reauthorization bill for CISA 2015, a key information sharing law that expires at the end of September. The House Homeland Security Committee plans to convene in early September to mark up a reauthorization bill for a soon-to-expire cybersecurity law that’s viewed as critical to cyber collaboration across government and industry. In a statement, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) confirmed the committee will mark up a reauthorization bill for the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 once Congress returns from August recess. CISA 2015, as it’s known, expires at the end of September. The law provides liability protections and privacy guardrails to especially encourage private sector organizations to voluntarily share data with each other and government agencies. The reauthorization of CISA 2015 is also expected to be a priority for new National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross.

Homeland Preparedness News [8/19/2025 7:50 AM, Melina Druga] reports the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) recently released new guidance to help operational technology (OT) owners and operators create and maintain comprehensive OT asset inventories and taxonomies. “OT systems are essential to the daily lives of all Americans and to national security,” Madhu Gottumukkala, acting director of CISA, said. “They power everything from water systems and energy grids to manufacturing and transportation networks. As cyber threats continue to evolve, CISA through this guidance provides deeper visibility into OT assets as a critical first step in reducing risk and ensuring operational resilience.” Guidance was released in partnership with the National Security Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Environmental Protection Agency, Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre, Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security, Netherlands’ National Cyber Security Centre, and New Zealand’s National Cyber Security Centre. “The joint asset inventory guide we published with our U.S. and international government partners is a valuable resource that helps organizations effectively identify and secure their most vital assets, reduce the risk of cybersecurity incidents, and ensure the continuity of their mission and services,” said Chris Butera, CISA acting executive assistant director for cybersecurity.

Federal News Network [8/19/2025 12:59 PM, Terry Gerton, 1147K] reports that guest: Stephanie Kostro. Title: President, Professional Services Council. Summary: The Trump administration is tightening the leash of sort to push contractors on complying with cybersecurity requirements, as well as ensuring their charging the government a fair price. This comes at a time when the government’s biggest purchaser is conducting a whirlwind of new activities. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS News [8/19/2025 5:10 PM, Kiki Intarasuwan, 45245K] reports an Oregon man is facing federal charges over allegations he orchestrated multiple large-scale cyberattacks over the course of several years, federal authorities announced Tuesday. Ethan Foltz, 22, allegedly developed the "Rapper Bot" botnet, a network of devices such as digital video recorders and WiFi routers that have been infected with malware and used to conduct distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks — a type of cyberattack aimed at slowing or shutting down websites, servers or other devices by sending large amounts of requests and overloading the system — since at least 2021, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Alaska said. Prosecutors said the network is "one of the most sophisticated and powerful DDoS-for-hire Botnets currently in existence." Prosecutors said law enforcement officials stopped the attacks on Aug. 6 after executing a search warrant at Foltz’s home in Eugene, Oregon, and obtaining administrative control of his botnet. Court documents allege Foltz loaned "Rapper Bot" to paying customers who targeted victims in more than 80 countries, including a U.S. government network, a social media platform and U.S. tech companies. The Department of Justice did not disclose the specific victims. "Rapper Bot" was allegedly controlling approximately 65,000 to 95,000 infected devices and using them to send a massive amount of data, about 2 to 3 terabits per second, in order to overwhelm the target’s bandwidth, according to prosecutors. At least five infected victim devices were believed to be in Alaska, investigators said. Foltz is charged with one count of aiding and abetting computer intrusions, prosecutors said. If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison.

The AP [8/19/2025 6:37 AM, Kelvin Chan, 56000K] reports Britain abandoned its demand that Apple provide so-called backdoor access to any encrypted user data stored in the cloud, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Monday. Gabbard indicated London and Washington had resolved their high-stakes dispute over electronic privacy, writing on X that she and President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance spent the "past few months" working with the U.K. government. "As a result, the UK agreed to drop its mandate for Apple to provide a ‘back door’ that would have enabled access to the protected encrypted data of American citizens and encroached on our civil liberties," she said. The dispute surfaced at the start of the year with a news report that British security officials had issued the U.S. tech giant with a secret order requiring the creation of backdoor access to view fully encrypted material. Apple challenged the order, which raised fears of electronic spying by national security officials. The British government reportedly served Apple with what is known as a "technical capability notice" ordering it to provide the access under a sweeping law called the Investigatory Powers Act of 2016, which has been dubbed the snoopers’ charter. The U.K. Home Office did not respond directly to Gabbard’s statement, saying it "does not comment on operational matters, including confirming or denying the existence of such notices.” NBC News [8/19/2025 1:52 PM, Ryan Browne, 43603K] reports that the story of Apple’s U.K. privacy battle started earlier this year, when it was reported that the British government had demanded access to the company’s encrypted cloud service via a technical "back door." Such a back door has long been contested by Apple. In 2016, the Federal Bureau of Investigation tried to get Apple to create software that would enable it to unlock an iPhone it recovered from one of the shooters involved in the 2015 terror attack in San Bernardino, California. The Monday news could have broader implications for the debate around end-to-end encryption globally. Governments and law enforcement agencies have long pushed for methods to break such encryption systems to assist with criminal investigations into terrorism and child sexual abuse. It is not yet clear if Apple will reintroduce its ADP service to the U.K. market. CNBC has reached out to Apple and the U.K. government for comment. The New York Post [8/19/2025 1:57 PM, Diana Nerozzi, 43962K] reports Vice President JD Vance successfully negotiated to have the UK to drop its demand to access Apple user data during rounds of conversations with the British government, a US official said Tuesday. The UK was originally demanding Apple provide a "back door" so the government would have access to user cloud-storage data, which would aid it in getting information about terrorism and other crimes. The demand from the Brits raised concern in the US, as Republican lawmakers argued it would breach the privacy of people including US citizens. Vance — who has stressed the need for digital privacy — led the effort in speaking to the British to drop their demands, the official said. The VP took a particular interest in the issue because of his background in technology, as he worked in the tech sector in San Francisco under PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. Vance has also raised concern about the prevalence of AI and how it impacts romantic relationships and has been an advocate against social-media censorship, too, especially in Europe. He raised the censorship issue during his first major speech abroad as veep, telling Europeans at the Munich Security Conference in February that the threat of censorship on the continent is a bigger issue than Russia or China.

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Blaze [8/19/2025 12:25 PM, Andrew Chapados, 1559K]
CyberScoop [8/19/2025 11:20 AM, Greg Otto] r

Washington Post [8/20/2025 2:59 AM, Grace Moon, 29079K] reports the Texas Capitol was evacuated late Tuesday in response to a shooting threat that forced people — including those protesting a Republican order for police to escort Democratic lawmakers to their homes — to leave the building. Earlier that day, protesters mobilized in support of state Rep. Nicole Collier (D), who spent the night hunkered down in the Capitol building after refusing to sign a “permission slip” to allow the police escort, part of a broader fight over congressional redistricting. A spokesperson for the Department of Public Safety said in an emailed statement that the evacuation was triggered around 6:30 p.m. after “an individual posted a message on social media regarding the ongoing political situation at the Texas Capitol.” In the message, the individual — who has not been identified — called on others to head to the Capitol building and “take action by shooting and killing those who will not allow lawmakers to leave,” according to authorities. The DPS did not provide any additional information, citing an ongoing investigation as authorities work to identify the individual responsible for posting the message. The incident comes alongside a heated redistricting battle. Democrats in the Texas legislature fled the state earlier this month in efforts to stall a plan backed by President Donald Trump that would redraw congressional districts in the state in favor of Republicans. The two-week boycott ended Monday, after Collier returned to the Capitol. When she returned, Texas Republicans told the Democrats that they would not be able to leave the Capitol unless they agreed to be accompanied by police. Democratic lawmakers have faced similar threats in recent months. In June, the DPS said it had arrested one person in connection to “credible threats” made to lawmakers planning to attend an anti-Trump “No Kings” rally in Austin. The Texas House Democratic Caucus released a statement after the incident saying that “all representatives, staff, and members of the public were safe.” “We unequivocally condemn any threats against public servants or law enforcement, regardless of political differences,” the statement said, which was attributed to Collier and Texas House Minority Leader Rep. Gene Wu (D). In an interview with Washington Post, Rep. Salman Bhojani (D) said he had planned to deliver homemade food to Collier that evening but was barred entry after an officer told him “there’s a lockdown.” Bhojani said he was able to enter the chamber through an entrance designated for lawmakers instead of the main doors, which had been closed off. Daniel Segura-Kelly, precinct chair of the Travis County Democratic Party, told The Post that Capitol officers had entered the Rotunda earlier to announce that the Capitol would be shut down immediately due to a credible active shooter threat. “The crowd was confused and upset, believing they were being told to leave without any cause,” he said. (Most Texans over 21 are allowed to carry handguns in most public places without a license, but civilians are not allowed to carry guns inside the Texas Capitol). The Capitol building remained closed to the public for the remainder of the day, according to the DPS.

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NewsMax [8/19/2025 8:48 PM, Staff, 4779K]

New York Times [8/20/2025 3:21 AM, Julian E. Barnes and Maggie Haberman, 330K] reports President Trump revoked the security clearances of 37 current and former national security officials, many of whom worked on Russia analysis or foreign threats to U.S. elections, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Mr. Trump has stripped security clearances throughout his administration, including from his best-known rivals like former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. But the actions announced on Tuesday were a deeper cut, pushing far into the national security establishment. At least three current senior officials at various intelligence agencies, all with reputations for nonpartisan work, are among those who lost their clearances and their jobs. They included Shelby Pierson, a senior intelligence official who warned Congress about Russian meddling in the 2020 election; a senior C.I.A. analyst currently serving undercover; and Vinh X. Nguyen, a senior National Security Agency data scientist. Rescinding security clearances appears to be part of a campaign by Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, to reveal what she sees as flaws in intelligence assessments about Russian malign influence operations during the 2016 election. Ms. Gabbard’s attention to that issue has won praise from Mr. Trump, who has long claimed without evidence that the Obama administration tried to undermine him in that vote. Critics also say that Mr. Trump has turned the focus onto the 2016 election to distract from questions about the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. “Gabbard’s move to yank clearances from a seemingly random list of national security officials is a reckless abuse of the security clearance process and nothing more than another sad attempt to distract from the administration’s failure to release the Epstein files,” said Senator Mark Warner, the Virginia Democrat who is vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Mr. Warner said he had introduced legislation to create standards for security clearances and prevent political abuse of the system. Current and former officials said they were particularly distraught by the removal of Mr. Nguyen, a gifted mathematician, from the N.S.A.

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CNN [8/19/2025 4:51 PM, Josh Campbell and Katie Bo Lillis, 23245K]
Daily Caller [8/19/2025 6:45 PM, Ashley Brasfield, 985K] r

CNN [8/19/2025 11:24 AM, Zachary Cohen, 662K] reports that the US Air Force chief of staff, Gen. David Allvin, abruptly announced Monday that he will retire halfway through his four-year term. The move came after Allvin learned that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth planned to push him out of the job, according to a source familiar with the decision. The move marks yet another early ouster of a senior military officer under Hegseth and President Donald Trump. The Air Force issued a statement Monday disclosing Allvin’s plans to retire in November but provided no explanation as to why he is leaving just two years into his term. "I’m grateful for the opportunity to serve as the 23rd Air Force Chief of Staff and I’m thankful for Secretary Meink, Secretary Hegseth and President Trump’s faith in me to lead our service," Allvin said in a statement released by the Air Force. "More than anything, I’m proud to have been part of the team of Airmen who live out our core values of integrity, service and excellence every day as we prepare to defend this great nation.” Secretary of the Air Force Troy E. Meink also praised Allvin in a statement. "The Air Force is fortunate to have leaders like General Dave Allvin. During his tenure, the Air Force has undertaken transformational initiatives that will enable Airmen to answer their nation’s call for decades to come," Meink said. "General Allvin has been instrumental in my onboarding as the department’s 27th Secretary and I’m forever grateful for his partnership as well as his decades of exemplary service to our nation." One defense official said they were surprised by the announcement, telling CNN that there was no indication Allvin planned to retire early.

Breitbart [8/19/2025 6:27 AM, Staff, 2608K] reports a Russian national living in New Jersey has been sentenced to 2 1/2 years for his role in helping the Kremlin illegally acquire ammunition and sensitive dual-use electronics, the Justice Department said. U.S. District Judge Hector Gonzalez sentenced Vadim Yermolenko, who is in his mid-40s, in a Brooklyn courtroom Monday to 30 months in prison for his role in the international procurement and money laundering scheme. "The defendant lied to banks, facilitated the illegal export of ammunition and sensitive technology and evaded income taxes, all as part of a global procurement and money laundering network operated on behalf of the Russian Government," U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella of the Eastern District of New York said in a statement. "Today’s sentence should send a message to all who would consider abusing the financial system to commit crimes on behalf of foreign nations: This office will find you, prosecute you and, if you are convicted, seek a significant prison sentence." Yermolenko pleaded guilty to several conspiracy charges, including conspiracy to commit bank fraud and to defraud the United States.

NBC News [8/20/2025 5:03 AM, Freddie Clayton, 43603K] reports United States and NATO officials were set to meet Wednesday to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine as the White House worked to arrange a summit between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Ukraine and its European allies appeared buoyed after Trump promised during their meeting in Washington that the U.S. would provide security guarantees as part of any settlement with Russia — a red-line issue for Kyiv. Trump made clear Tuesday that this would not include U.S. “boots on the ground” but could see the U.S. provide air support as part of such an arrangement. Military chiefs from NATO’s 32 member countries will meet virtually later Wednesday to discuss the way forward. That comes after Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, hosted several European Chiefs of Defense on Tuesday evening, a defense official told NBC News. Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio will be leading the effort to coordinate security guarantees among allies, according to a White House official. Meanwhile, the White House is actively looking to secure a meeting location and date for a Putin-Zelenskyy summit to discuss an end to the Kremlin’s war, according to a senior administration official. Trump is pushing to arrange a meeting between the two leaders, convinced it can break the deadlock.

Politico [8/19/2025 1:26 PM, Dasha Burns and Paul McLeary, 14810K] reports the White House is planning for a possible trilateral meeting between the U.S., Russian and Ukrainian presidents in the Hungarian capital of Budapest as the next steps in negotiating an end to the years-long war, according to a Trump administration official and a person close to the administration. The U.S. Secret Service is preparing for the summit in the Central European nation led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has been close with President Donald Trump since the American president’s first term in office. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said “I’m not going to confirm or deny locations” when asked about Budapest during Tuesday’s White House media briefing. While the Secret Service often scouts multiple locations and the ultimate venue could change, Budapest is emerging as a first choice for the White House, said the two people, both granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. Russian President Vladimir Putin told Trump he preferred Moscow and French President Emmanuel Macron pushed for Geneva as ideal meeting spots. Not to be left out, the Swiss foreign minister promised “immunity” to Putin for an outstanding war crimes warrant if the nation known for neutrality was chosen for peace talks. Hungary would be an uncomfortable choice for Ukraine as it harkens back to the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, during which the U.S., the United Kingdom and Russia promised to uphold Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and respect for its border in exchange for relinquishing its nuclear weapons. Putin’s 2014 assault on Ukraine proved the agreement meaningless when none of the signatories provided military forces to counter the attacks. But the summit itself is uncertain. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Monday following the European leaders’ meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House that a follow up talk between Putin and Zelenskyy could occur within weeks. Trump then announced on social media that he’d join the two for a trilateral meeting as a final step in the peace talks that gained momentum after Trump joined the Russian president in Alaska last week. Now Russian officials are starting to slow walk any such encounter between Zelenskyy and Putin. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during an interview on state-controlled TV Tuesday that Moscow wouldn’t rule out talks with Ukraine, but insisted on following a process that would unfold “step by step, gradually, starting from the expert level and then going through all the necessary stages.”

The Hill [8/19/2025 8:50 PM, Filip Timotija, 12414K] reports Secretary of State Marco Rubio will lead a newly formed joint commission that will work on forging a security guarantees proposal for Ukraine, an administration official told The Hill’s sister network NewsNation on Tuesday. The commission will be made up of U.S., Ukrainian, European and NATO officials. The agreement for the commission came during Monday’s White House meeting between President Trump and the seven European leaders who visited Washington. The news of Rubio as the commission’s head was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. The outlet reported Monday night that Ukraine’s security assurances will be made up of four parts: air defense, a military presence, tracking the cessation of fighting and armaments, citing European officials familiar with the matter. Rubio, who is also Trump’s national security advisor, was one of three U.S. officials to participate in a closed-door meeting with the Russian delegation on Friday in Alaska, headed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump talked to Putin over the phone on Monday after the meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders at the White House. Neither Zelensky nor European officials were in the room when the president spoke with the Kremlin leader. "I didn’t do it in front of them — I thought that would be disrespectful to President Putin. I wouldn’t do that, because they have not had the warmest relations," Trump told Fox News’s "Fox & Friends" on Tuesday. The call lasted for around 40 minutes, with the president telling Putin that the administration will set up a meeting between the Kremlin leader and Zelensky, which Russia has so far refused to commit to. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Kremlin is not turning down talks with Ukraine and added that Trump has an invitation to come to Moscow. Trump, who has pressed to help end the Russia-Ukraine war, one that has been raging for about three-and-a-half years, floated on Tuesday providing air support for Kyiv as part of security guarantees. "We’re willing to help them with things, especially, probably, if you talk about by air because nobody has stuff we have," the president said. The Russian foreign minister warned NATO leaders against summoning NATO forces to Ukraine as part of a peace deal.

ABC News [8/20/2025 4:35 AM, David Brennan, 31733K] reports two German fighter jets were scrambled to the Romanian-Ukrainian border on Tuesday night in response to a Russian drone attack in the frontier region, Romania’s Defense Ministry said in a statement. Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 93 drones and two ballistic missiles into the country overnight, of which 62 drones and one missile were shot down or suppressed. The air force reported drone and missile impacts across 20 locations. Oleg Kiper, the head of the regional Odesa administration, said drones hit infrastructure and production facilities in the city of Izmail on the Danube river, at the border with Romania -- a NATO member. Fires broke out at the site of the attacks and at least one person was injured, Kiper said. The attack prompted the scrambling of two German Air Force Typhoon fighters "to monitor the air situation in the border area with Ukraine, in the north of Tulcea County," Romania’s Defense Ministry said in a statement posted to social media.

Bloomberg [8/19/2025 12:57 PM, Eltaf Najafizada, 19085K] reports the Afghan Taliban will host a trilateral meeting with China and Pakistan in Kabul on Wednesday — the first such high-level gathering since it regained power four years ago — in a bid to bolster its push for international legitimacy. "Comprehensive discussions will be held on a number of important issues, including political, economic, and regional cooperation among the three countries," Hafiz Zia Ahmad, a deputy spokesman for Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a series of posts on X. “Participants will exchange views on relations, based on common interests, mutual understanding, and broad cooperation,” he said. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will join the day-long meeting with Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and Ishaq Dar, Pakistan’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister. Wang’s trip to Kabul follows his meetings in New Delhi. The gathering offers a boost to the Taliban’s push for legitimacy on the world stage, showing that key regional players are willing to engage despite the group’s lack of formal recognition. Russia recently became the first country to formally recognize the Taliban administration in Afghanistan.

Washington Times [8/19/2025 1:33 PM, Bill Gertz, 964K] reports China is working against President Trump’s Golden Dome plan for a nationwide strategic missile defense system covering the United States as destabilizing and threatening its large missile forces, an Air Force think tank report says. Chinese Defense and Foreign Ministry officials also criticized the missile defense system, announced in February, which is expected to include space weapons, as likely leading to an arms race in space. “The initial responses in the People’s Republic of China to Golden Dome have been overwhelmingly negative, with Beijing raising both strategic and normative objections to the U.S. reviving its past efforts to build a strategic missile defense system,” says the report by the Air Force’s China Aerospace Studies Institute. China’s objections include claims that the missile shield will undermine strategic stability by weakening mutual deterrence despite Beijing’s massive expansion of its nuclear forces and missile programs. According to the report, leaders of the Chinese Communist Party and its People’s Liberation Army have voiced specific concerns about Golden Dome’s plans for “active launch suppression,” viewed by Beijing as a U.S. threat to conduct preemptive attacks on Chinese nuclear missile forces. Chinese officials also have criticized Golden Dome as reflecting what the report said is a U.S. “Cold War mentality,” which is Beijing’s code for anti-communist security policies. Chinese sources “sometimes portray U.S. missile defense as a protection racket, with allies forced to pay in or suffer consequences,” the report said. In addition, China is promoting U.S. and foreign critics of the missile shield in propaganda outlets by raising questions about whether Golden Dome is affordable and technically feasible. Details about Golden Dome remain closely held within the Pentagon. The plan calls for an integrated air and missile defense system to be deployed by 2029. The plan will include a four-layer system of defenses against multiple types of missiles, aircraft and drones, according to government briefing slides disclosed by Reuters last week.

Washington Examiner [8/19/2025 5:37 AM, Staff, 1563K] reports the U.S. and South Korea began their annual summer joint military drills in South Korea on Monday. Ulchi Freedom Shield, a cooperative military exercise between the two nations, "aims to enhance the combined, joint, all-domain, and interagency operating environment, thereby strengthening the alliance’s response capabilities." It will involve over 21,000 troops — 18,000 of which are from South Korea — and will focus on defensive maneuvers in case of aggressive military action from North Korea. It goes from Aug. 18 to Aug. 28 and will reportedly focus on fortifying response capabilities in an emergency hostile event on the Korean peninsula. "UFS25 is a defense-oriented exercise featuring live-fire, constructive, and field training exercises that engage alliance forces and governmental agencies," said a release attributed to Josephine Pepin-Rust, a U.S. Air Force public affairs specialist. "Key aspects of the training focus on conducting all-domain operations leveraging component assets." The release noted that this year’s drills will feature a special component focusing on space military strategies.

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