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

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

The AP [8/4/2025 2:34, Matthew Lee, 56000K] reports the State Department is proposing requiring applicants for business and tourist visas to post a bond of up to $15,000 to enter the United States, a move that may make the process unaffordable for many. In a notice to be published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, the department said it would start a 12-month pilot program under which people from countries deemed to have high overstay rates and deficient internal document security controls could be required to post bonds of $5,000, $10,000 or $15,000 when they apply for a visa. The proposal comes as the Trump administration is tightening requirements for visa applicants. Last week, the State Department announced that many visa renewal applicants would have to submit to an additional in-person interview, something that was not required in the past. In addition, the department is proposing that applicants for the Visa Diversity Lottery program have valid passports from their country of citizenship. A preview of the bond notice, which was posted on the Federal Register website on Monday, said the pilot program would take effect within 15 days of its formal publication and is necessary to ensure that the U.S. government is not financially liable if a visitor does not comply with the terms of his or her visa. FOX News [8/4/2025 5:08 PM, Greg Wehner, 46878K] reports that the notice also said the program is necessary to ensure the U.S. government is not financially liable if a visitor does not comply with the visitor’s visa terms. Once the program takes effect, the countries affected will be listed. The notice also notes that the bond could be waived based on individual circumstances. Citizens of countries enrolled in the Visa Waiver Program, which provides for business travel or tourism for up to 90 days, will not be required to pay the bond. The New York Times [8/4/2025 2:15 PM, Michael Crowley, 153395K] reports that, citing Department of Homeland Security data from 2023, the notice said that more than 500,000 people admitted to the United States through air or sea ports of entry most likely remained in the country past the end of their authorized stay. Visitors who are made to deposit bonds will be required to arrive and depart the United States from airports chosen to participate in the program, which the State Department said it would announce 15 days before the bonds were put in place. The 12-month pilot program will also apply to foreign nationals from countries where “screening and vetting information is deemed deficient,” according to the notice, as well as people granted citizenship on the basis of promised investments or without a residency requirement. Consular officers granting visas will determine the amount of the bond, according to the notice. The program is meant to test the department’s past assumption that bond payments are “too cumbersome to be practical,” as the notice put it. The Washington Post [8/4/2025 7:29 PM, Hannah Sampson, 32099K] reports that according to a Department of Homeland Security report on overstays in fiscal year 2023, several countries in Africa as well as Haiti, Myanmar and Yemen have some of the highest overstay rates for business or leisure travel visas. People from countries that participate in the visa waiver program — those who do not have to apply for visas, in other words — would not be required to post visa bonds. That exempts travelers from 42 countries, including much of Europe, Australia, Taiwan, Qatar and Israel. For couples or families, the potential up-front cost of $10,000 or $15,000 for each adult and $5,000 for accompanying children could be prohibitive. The bonds would be canceled for travelers who leave the country in the time frame allowed and comply with all the conditions of their visa. According to the public notice, scheduled to be formally published Tuesday, the department assumes bonds would be required for 2,000 potential travelers during the pilot. The notice says the initial cost to travelers would be $20 million total, if the average bond were $10,000. "However, assuming all nonimmigrants for whom bonds are posted comply with the terms and conditions of the bond, the actual bond amount is a temporary expenditure that will be fully refunded if cash bonds are posted," the notice says.

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Reuters [8/4/2025 6:54 PM, Courtney Rozen, 51390K] reports the Trump administration on Monday reversed course on requiring U.S. cities and states to rebuke boycotts of Israeli companies in order to receive disaster funds, according to a statement, and deleted the earlier policy from its website. The Department of Homeland Security removed its statement that said states must certify they will not sever "commercial relations specifically with Israeli companies" to qualify for the funding. Reuters reported on Monday that the language applied to at least $1.9 billion that states rely on to cover search-and-rescue equipment, emergency manager salaries and backup power systems, among other expenses, according to 11 agency grant notices reviewed by Reuters. This is a shift for the administration of President Donald Trump, which has previously tried to penalize institutions that don’t align with its views on Israel or antisemitism. The disaster funding requirement took aim at the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement designed to put economic pressure on Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian territories. The campaign’s supporters grew more vocal in 2023, after Hamas attacked southern Israel and Israel invaded Gaza in response. "FEMA grants remain governed by existing law and policy and not political litmus tests," said DHS Spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin in a statement on Monday afternoon. DHS oversees the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA in grant notices posted on Friday said states must follow its "terms and conditions" to qualify for disaster preparation funding. The New York Times [8/4/2025 2:10 PM, Maxine Joselow, 153395K] reports Tricia McLaughlin, a D.H.S. spokeswoman, said the policy had not originated with FEMA and had not prevented any states from receiving grants. “There is no FEMA requirement tied to Israel” and “no states have lost funding,” she wrote in an email. “FEMA grants remain governed by existing law and policy and not political litmus tests.” Ms. McLaughlin added that “D.H.S. will enforce all anti-discrimination laws and policies, including as it relates to the B.D.S. movement, which is expressly grounded in antisemitism,” referring to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Backers of B.D.S. efforts call them a nonviolent way to pressure Israel over its treatment of Palestinians, while opponents call the concept antisemitic. The Daily Caller [8/4/2025 4:56 PM, Melissa O’Rourke, 1010K] reports Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding guidelines indicated that cities and states boycotting Israeli companies would be ineligible for federal disaster preparedness aid, but the Trump administration subsequently removed that specific language from the rules on Monday. A series of grant notices posted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on Friday required applicants to comply with the "terms and conditions" issued by the DHS in April, which prohibit participation in boycotts against Israel; the requirement would have affected at least $1.9 billion in FEMA funding, according to Reuters. After news of the policy spread Monday, the guidance in question was changed to no longer include specific language about anti-Israel boycotts while retaining language pertaining other types of discriminatory policy. Under the initial set of DHS guidelines, any grant applicant that engaged in a "discriminatory prohibited boycott" is ineligible for funding. The policy defined a prohibited boycott as "refusing to deal, cutting commercial relations, or otherwise limiting commercial relations specifically with Israeli companies or with companies doing business in or with Israel or authorized by, licensed by, or organized under the laws of Israel to do business." A spokesperson for the DHS told the Daily Caller News Foundation that "no states have lost funding, and no new conditions have been imposed" in its guidance. The grants to which these terms apply include over $300 million in funding to assist state, local, tribal and territorial emergency management agencies in implementing emergency preparedness systems. Major cities will also have to comply with the Israeli policy to access a portion of the more than $1 billion set aside to help prevent terrorism and other catastrophic events.

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CBS News [8/4/2025 8:53 PM, Nicole Sganga, 51860K] Video: HERE reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says "Alligator Alcatraz" will serve as a model for state-run migrant detention centers, and she told CBS News in an interview that she hopes to launch a handful of similar detention centers in multiple airports and jails across the country, in the coming months. Potential sites are already under consideration in Arizona, Nebraska and Louisiana. "The locations we’re looking at are right by airport runways that will help give us an efficiency that we’ve never had before," Noem said, adding that she’s appealed directly to governors and state leaders nationwide to gauge their interest in contributing to the Trump administration’s program to detain and deport more unauthorized migrants. "Most of them are interested," Noem said, adding that in states that support President Trump’s mission of securing the southern border, "many of them have facilities that may be empty or underutilized.” The Department of Homeland Security strategy builds on the opening of a 3,000-bed immigration detention center at a jetport in South Florida last month. Dubbed Alligator Alcatraz by state and federal officials, the makeshift facility will cost an estimated $450 million to operate in its first year. Up and running in just 8 days, the tents and trailers at Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport are surrounded by 39 square miles of isolated swampland, boasting treacherous terrain and wildlife. For her part, Noem called the Alligator Alcatraz model "much better" than the current detention prototype, which largely contracts out its Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention capacity to for-profit prison companies and county jails. ICE is an agency that falls under DHS. This model relies on intergovernmental service agreements (IGSAs) negotiated and signed between ICE and individual localities. She called the Florida facility – with an eventual price tag of $245 per inmate bed, per night, according to DHS officials – a cost-effective option. "Obviously it was much less per-bed cost than what some of the previous contracts under the Department of Homeland Security were."

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New York Times [8/4/2025 12:05 PM, Hiroko Tabuchi and Mira Rojanasakul, 153395K] reports the day President Trump toured “Alligator Alcatraz,” the sprawling new immigrant detention center in Florida’s Everglades, he quipped that any escapees would need to learn “how to run away from an alligator.” That danger is exaggerated, experts say. But the vast, subtropical wilderness of the Everglades poses other grave risks to detainees, particularly hurricanes and tropical storms. The detention site, designed to hold several thousand people, is built mainly of tent-like temporary structures and trailers on swampland that’s roughly a dozen feet above sea level. Over the past 35 years, a tropical storm or hurricane has passed through the region roughly once every two years, on average. “Say a Cat 5 comes through Central Florida,” said Jason Houser, former chief of staff at United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, referring to a Category 5 hurricane, which whips up winds of more than 150 miles per hour. “You’re looking at massive winds, flooding and you’re going to get officers killed,” he said. “You’re going to get migrants killed.” The area is also subject to other risks including intense rainfall, extreme heat and humidity, and wildfires during the dry season, when water levels tend to recede. The Florida Division of Emergency Management, which operates the facility, did not respond to questions about evacuation plans, the ability of the buildings to withstand wind and other matters. Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement that, “as with any facility, ICE has plans in case of emergency, including a hurricane plan.”

Telemundo [8/4/2025 1:25 PM, Staff, 3352K] reports that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) denied on Monday that immigrants at the Alligator Alcatraz immigration detention center have been on a hunger strike for nearly two weeks, as Florida activists claim. "Fake news. There is no hunger strike at Alligator Alcatraz," DHS said on social media about the facility, which has a capacity of 2,000 people and is located in the middle of the Everglades, a natural area surrounded by alligators and swamps west of Miami. The Department denied press reports about an alleged hunger strike begun about 12 days ago by immigrants, particularly Cuban nationals, to protest alleged abuses there. Activists from the Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC), who have documented at least six hospitalizations since the center opened on July 3, witnessed ambulances entering the facility on Sunday while holding an interfaith vigil calling for its closure. "These false accusations about the detention centers denigrate our brave ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) officers, who are already facing an 830% increase in attacks against them," the DHS stated. But DHS Secretary Kristi Noem argued in an interview with CBS on Monday that the site is a model for future detention centers that will open in the coming months, with Arizona, Nebraska, and Louisiana as possible locations.

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AP [8/4/2025 12:31 PM, Staff, 56000K] reports U.S. Politics Today (USPT), an independent Substack publication offering European-informed insights into American politics, has published a revealing new investigation titled “Inside Alligator Alcatraz.” Written and reported by Newsmatics Staff Writer Issac Morgan, the article dives into the controversy behind a new immigration detention center in Florida—built in the middle of alligator and python infested swampland, just miles from Miami. It was only weeks ago, in July, when Florida officials broke ground on the facility, which critics argue is operating in violation of due process rights. The center has rapidly become a flashpoint for political and humanitarian controversy, with growing scrutiny over both its purpose and its conditions. In the piece, Morgan interviews Democratic Florida state Sen. Shevrin Jones, who toured the site after filing a lawsuit. Jones described overcrowded cages, unsanitary toilets, and detainees crying out for help. “It was not environmentally smart to build anything on that land and anybody who has ever been out to the Everglades or… any person with common sense would know that building something in the Everglades is not a good idea,” Jones said. Lawmakers, activists, and legal experts are now raising serious concerns—not only about who is being detained, but also about the transparency and oversight of the entire operation. The nickname “Alligator Alcatraz” reflects both the physical isolation of the facility and the secrecy surrounding it.

CBS Miami [8/4/2025 7:18 PM, Tania Francois, 51860K] reports dozens of emergency calls made from inside the federal detention center known as Alligator Alcatraz are offering a rare look at what’s happening behind the walls of one of the nation’s most controversial immigration facilities. The nearly 70 calls were released to CBS News Miami after a public records request to the Collier County Sheriff’s Office. They include reports of medical emergencies, internal confusion over procedures, and a large number of accidental 911 calls placed from staff members’ phones. Among the most serious calls was one requesting help for someone who had fallen: Caller: "Hey, I was wondering if we can get EMS out to the jet port. The Miami Collier jet port. They totally tripped and busted their face.” Another emergency involved a woman experiencing distress: Operator: "Is she still actively choking?". Caller: "She is not, she’s like, she passed out and she’s breathing again and she’s kind of going in and out.” It remains unclear whether that call was regarding a detainee or a staff member. Other calls reflected uncertainty about security protocols. Several lawsuits—including a class action—have been filed over conditions at Alligator Alcatraz and the limited access detainees have to legal representation. Despite growing concerns, only staff have been allowed to see the inside of the facility, which is housed on the grounds of the former Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in the Everglades. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told CBS News she hopes to open more detention centers modeled after Alligator Alcatraz.

NPR [8/4/2025 11:59 PM, Staff, 37958K] Audio HERE reports the controversial immigration detention center — dubbed by Florida officials and the Trump administration, "Alligator Alcatraz"-- has already hit some legal snags since opening earlier this month. Civil rights groups are suing the Trump administration over due process complaints. The lawsuit alleges detainees are being held without charges and aren’t being given access to their attorneys. It comes after reports of overcrowded cells, overflowing toilets, and no access to prescription medications. The center was constructed in only eight days at an airport in the Everglades. Three weeks after it opened, around 100 people have already been deported straight from the center. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

(B) Good Morning America [8/4/2025 8:57 AM, Staff] reports Indiana police could be gaining a number of immigration enforcement powers. Under a new governor’s order, ICE is reviewing a plan for the Indiana Department of Homeland Security and the state’s Department of Correction to be granted immigration enforcement powers.

Breitbart [8/4/2025 10:48 AM, Hannah Knudsen, 3077K] reports United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is committed to debunking the leftist media that is trying to stifle what the federal agency is doing, ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons said during an interview on Breitbart News Daily. Host Mike Slater lauded the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE for their PR operation, which is continually engaging in rapid debunking of the left’s lies. "I’ve never seen anything like it," Slater said. …"You have totally humiliated them." "It’s an amazing action. Our web team here at ICE … is outstanding. And we have the leadership of Tricia McLaughlin, who’s … the Secretary for Public Affairs and press secretary for Secretary Noem. They’re amazing," Lyons said, explaining that they "fought on the ropes so long a defensive posture in that we would have to wait for a story to come out and then try to debunk it, and then only one or two outlets would pick it up." "Now we’re a full court press, because the big thing we have to do is we have to combat the left side media that just totally stifles what ICE is really doing, right? They’re not out there highlighting the great work, the bad actors we get every day, known suspected terrorists …. gang members, crushing these foreign terrorist organizations, these FTOs the president designated under Executive Order," Lyons explained. Instead, Lyons said the leftist media tries to "pull at the heartstrings and show that ICE is bad" and portray the men and women of ICE as "wrong" in what they are doing.

FOX News [8/4/2025 9:50 AM, Staff, 46878K] reports Fox News correspondent CB Cotton has the details of the deadly crash. Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons explains why the incident was ‘totally avoidable’ on ‘America’s Newsroom.’ [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NewsMax [8/4/2025 12:03 PM, Theodore Bunker, 4622K] reports Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, told Newsmax on Monday that the Trump administration is "turbocharging" recruitment for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Trump administration secured about $165 billion in additional funding for the DHS in the wide-ranging tax and spending bill passed last month, and the agency recently released a new recruitment push aimed at hiring as many as 10,000 new ICE officers by offering various benefits and pay packages. McLaughlin said on "National Report" that the response to the hiring push "has really been overwhelming." She added, "So far we have 1,000 final offers out, but we’re going to really be turbocharging those numbers and getting those 10,000 officers" that the Trump administration aims to hire. McLaughlin said, "There’s really strength in numbers and our ICE officers have a tall task ahead of them," which is why the administration is "offering great incentives," including a "$50,000 signing bonus" and "up to $60,000 in student loan forgiveness" on top of a six-figure salary for some officers. "And we are so proud of our men and women of ICE," McLaughlin continued. "And we’re going to bring even more talented, brave men and women on board." She later said, "We’re adding more than 10,000" ICE officers, "That’s almost 50% addition to the workforce. But we make sure that our men and women and ICE are taken care of, that they are safe." McLaughlin also criticized a recent opinion piece published by The Wall Street Journal that described the Trump administration’s immigration policy as "a case study in unimaginable cruelty that makes no distinction between legal immigrants and the undocumented, that targets undocumented people who have been here for decades, and that uses brute force police tactics to intimidate communities." McLaughlin defended ICE, saying that the agency mostly arrests illegal immigrants who have been previously convicted of crimes or have charges pending against them.

FOX Business [8/4/2025 9:40 AM, Staff, 10702K] reports DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin reacts to ICE raid restrictions in Los Angeles and discusses the manhunt for an illegal immigrant accused of ramming his car into ICE agents. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Breitbart [8/4/2025 8:53 PM, Warner Todd Huston, 3077K] reports the Trump administration is reportedly activating more National Guard troops to process deportation paperwork. After authorizing the use of National Guard troops to work with immigration officials, the Trump administration is assigning the Guard to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) fill out the mountains of paperwork required in their apprehension and deportation duties. Thus far, the Department of Homeland Security has announced that Guard troops will be deployed in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Virginia, according to The Intercept. The parameters of the Guard’s use on immigration issues are being formalized now. "We’re engaged with the Department of Defense and we’re figuring out the next steps," ICE spokesperson Tanya Roman told the outlet. The plan is for Guard troops to assist in "alien processing" and fulfilling the administrative duties for detention and deportation in order to free up ICE officers to get back into the field. These duties are scheduled to begin this month. The Pentagon has confirmed that the Guard troops will be deployed under an exegesis of Title 32, which leaves them answerable to state authorities, not federal. According to The Intercept, the Trump administration has activated 20,000 federal and National Guard troops since he took office this year. Federal forces of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines have been deployed in the states of Arizona, California, Florida, New Mexico, and Texas. The Pentagon announced its plans to rely on Guard troops under Title 32 to replace Marine Corps and Naval Reserve units that had been assisting ICE. "Through active planning and collaboration with our ICE partners, the Department determined that specific operational needs may require direct interaction with individuals in ICE custody," said chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell. ICE spokesperson Tanya Roman added, "The Department of Homeland Security is engaged with the Department of Defense and working out final details on a partnership that will enable the National Guard to supplement a wide range of immigration enforcement activity in the U.S. interior.”

FOX News [8/4/2025 8:04 AM, Staff, 46878K] reports National Border Patrol Council president Paul Perez discusses ICE detaining an illegal immigrant being accused of drunk driving after killing a mother and child in New Jersey as July sees record low migrants encounters. National Border Patrol Council president Paul Perez discusses ICE detaining an illegal immigrant being accused of drunk driving after killing a mother and child in New Jersey as July sees record low migrants encounters.

Breitbart [8/4/2025 11:38 AM, John Binder, 3077K] reports a federal judge, appointed by former President Joe Biden, is blocking President Donald Trump’s administration from quickly deporting migrants imported by Biden through a highly publicized parole pipeline. Judge Jia Cobb, appointed by Biden to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, ruled that Trump’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) cannot quickly begin deporting hundreds of thousands of migrants brought to the U.S. by the Biden administration through its parole pipeline. The case centered around the Trump administration’s shutting down of Biden’s parole pipeline, dismissing parole migrants’ cases, and then placing them into expedited removal. In response, DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said Cobb "is flagrantly ignoring the United States Supreme Court, which upheld expedited removals of illegal aliens by a 7-2 majority." "This ruling is lawless and won’t stand," McLaughlin said. Indeed, in 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that federal judges cannot interfere with the Trump administration’s deportations of migrants. The Biden administration imported more than 530,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to the U.S. through its CHNV program, also known as the administration’s parole pipeline.

Reuters [8/4/2025 5:37 PM, Daphne Psaledakis, 51390K] reports the United States and Rwanda have agreed for the African country to potentially accept hundreds of migrants deported from the U.S., the spokesperson for the Rwandan government and an official told Reuters, as President Donald Trump’s administration takes a hardline approach toward immigration. The agreement, under which Rwanda would accept up to 250 migrants, was signed by U.S. and Rwandan officials in Kigali in June, said the Rwandan official, speaking on condition of anonymity, adding that Washington had already sent an initial list of 10 people to be vetted. Rwanda has in recent years positioned itself as a destination country for migrants that Western countries would like to remove, despite concerns by rights groups that Kigali does not respect some of the most fundamental human rights.

Daily Caller [8/4/2025 12:26 PM, Staff, 1010K] reports Harvard University is reportedly not willing to settle with the Trump administration and will instead focus on challenging its actions in court. Harvard President Alan Garver reportedly pushed back against claims that the Ivy League school was close to reaching a deal with the administration and said Harvard may seek to resolve the ongoing dispute through the courts rather than direct negotiations, according to The Harvard Crimson, which cited three sources familiar with the talks. The university president claimed the reports about Harvard considering the $500 million deal were "false" and were started by White House officials. Talks of the potentially imminent deal were first reported by The New York Times, which cited four sources familiar with the negotiations. The Times reportedly stands by the accuracy of the report, according to The Crimson. Unlike Columbia University, which recently settled with the administration in a $200 million deal, Harvard is reportedly not willing to appoint an outside monitor to oversee the university. The White House did not directly address the claims made by Garber, but principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields told the DCNF they are "continuing to negotiate with Harvard to deliver on POTUS’s agendas including combatting antisemitism, eliminating illegal racial preferences, and protecting our national security."

Breitbart [8/4/2025 10:56 PM, Neil Munro, 3077K] reports Democratic Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL) told a meeting of foreign Latinos in Mexico, "I’m a proud Guatemalan before I’m an American," and the Department of Homeland Security wants citizens to see her confession of foreign loyalty. "Wow. I wonder how @repdeliaramirez’s constituents in Illinois feel about her loyalty being to Guatemala rather than to them," noted the Immigration Accountability Project. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) quickly reminded Americans of President Teddy Roosevelt’s rejection of foreign loyalties: One of the tasks of the DHS is to remove citizenship from migrants who gain citizenship via fraud and deception. DHS also administers the naturalization process, during which migrants are required to declare loyalty to the United States: I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same … Ramirez, however, did not have to take the oath because she was born in the United States after her foreign parents’ illegal migration into the United States. CNN reported Ramirez’s story in 2023: By subscribing, you agree to our terms of use & privacy policy. You will receive email marketing messages from Breitbart News Network to the email you provide. You may unsubscribe at any time. "I am the wife of a DACA recipient. I am the daughter of Guatemalan working immigrants. I know firsthand the challenges and constant fear our families live every single day," Ramirez tells reporters. According to the story Ramirez grew up hearing, when her mom crossed the Rio Grande, strong currents nearly swept her away. She’d hidden her pregnancy from others on the journey, but in that moment she called out in desperation, "Help! Help! Save me! Save my daughter!" A man did, Ramirez says, but after that day, her mom never saw him again. That origin has shaped her political priorities, which include placing the interests of Americans’ needs below those of migrants, even after taking the Oath of Office when being elected to Congress: I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God. Her diverse origin does not prevent the Democratic representative from posing as a champion of law and order. In May, for example, Ramirez challenged DHS chief Kristi Noem, asking: "When you took your oath, did you swear to support and uphold the Constitution of the United States of America? ". "Yes, I did," responded Noem. "I find that laughable," said Ramirez.

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New York Times [8/4/2025 3:20 AM, Jesus Jiménez, 138952K] reports President Trump plans to create a task force Tuesday that would boost the federal government’s hand in preparations for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, a city where officials have a strained relationship with the president. On Tuesday, Mr. Trump is scheduled to sign an executive order creating a White House task force for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, a White House official said. The task force will focus on security along with other logistics for the Olympic Games, which are scheduled to begin in July 2028 and will be followed by the Summer Paralympics in August. The Department of Homeland Security has classified the games as a National Special Security Event, a designation given to high-profile events to coordinate security plans with the F.B.I., the Secret Service and other federal agencies. It was unclear how closely the task force will work with local officials in Los Angeles, a city led by Democrats. The Trump administration has had a strained relationship with leaders across Southern California, which has been the target of widespread immigration raids that began in June. A temporary restraining order has barred federal agents from making immigration arrests in the region without probable cause, and Los Angeles and several other cities joined a lawsuit seeking to stop the raids. Planning for the Olympics comes as Los Angeles faces a budget crisis worsened by two devastating wildfires in January that destroyed thousands of homes in Pacific Palisades and Altadena. Organizing the Olympics in any city is a massive undertaking that involves preparing for thousands of athletes and tourists, but officials in Los Angeles have said they are confident the games will be a success. In a statement on Monday, Casey Wasserman, the chairman of the Los Angeles Olympics organizing committee, thanked Mr. Trump and his administration for their “leadership and unwavering support” ahead of the games. The games will mark the first time an American city has hosted the Summer Olympics since Atlanta did in 1996. A deadly pipe bomb exploded during the games at Centennial Olympic Park and injured many. Los Angeles had previously hosted the games in 1932 and 1984. The 2028 Olympics will be held at venues across Southern California, including Long Beach, Inglewood, Carson and Arcadia. At least two events, canoe slalom and softball, will be played outside of California in Oklahoma City.

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CBS News [8/4/2025 9:41 PM, Staff, 51860K]

Breitbart [8/4/2025 6:15 PM, Amy Furr, 3077K] Video: HERE reports two lawmakers in Alabama want the death penalty in child rape cases after authorities arrested several people for allegedly abusing children in an "underground bunker.” The case out of Bibb County saw seven taken into custody regarding charges that include rape, sexual torture, and human trafficking, WSAZ reported on Saturday. The suspects in the case are identified as 21-year-old William Chase McElroy, 21-year-old Dalton Terrell, 23-year-old Timothy St. John, 44-year-old Ricky Terrell, 29-year-old Andres Trejo-Velazquez, 29-year-old Rebecca Brewer, and 41-year-old Sara Louis Terrell, per the Daily Mail. The outlet said, "And at least one of the seven has been connected to a Mexican gang that uses sex trafficking as its main source of income.” In regard to the push for the death penalty, the WSAZ article said: "When you have situations like what happened in Bibb County, that would be up to the Bibb County prosecutor, but this would be a tool that they would have in their belt that they could if they decided to use that," Alabama Rep. Matt Simpson said.

CBS Chicago [8/4/2025 6:23 PM, Megan De Mar, 51860K] reports two federal judges recently fired by the Trump administration are speaking out and calling for answers about why they were abruptly let go. Both immigration judges say they were notified by email that they’d been fired, effective immediately, and were given no explanation for why. Although both have their theories about why they believe they were let go by the Attorney General. "I served over nine years in the Department of Justice. I cared about my job, and I was good at it," said Judge Jennifer Peyton, former Assistant Chief Immigration. Judge Peyton was fired by email on July 3. "No cause, no notice, no reason," she said. It came less than two weeks after Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin visited the Immigration court, and Judge Peyton took the time to show him the court and explain its functions. Shortly after that, she received an email from the Department of Justice that said she should not directly communicate with members of Congress. "When you’re not given a reason, you wake up at three in the morning wondering why," she said. She questions if Durbin’s visit and her work on the pro bono steering committee were behind her firing. "I certainly have concerns about me being a female, having a Hispanic last name, whether that had something to do with my termination," said former immigration judge Carla Espinoza. Espinoza was fired on July 15, and said she specifically asked her bosses why she was fired. "I specifically asked whether my gender, or sex, and heritage had anything to do with it. I’m waiting for a response," she said. CBS News Chicago contacted the Executive Office for Immigration Review for an interview or statement on the firings. A spokesperson declined the requests. Judge Peyton said there are now roughly 600 immigration judges doing the work of 700, which will only exacerbate the backlog. Both judges said they were never directed to rule a certain way, but they received some directives they found concerning.

Washington Times [8/4/2025 4:33 PM, Rep. Tom McClintock, 2106K] reports Democrats are outraged that the largest illegal mass migration in history, which they unleashed on our country, must now be followed by the largest repatriation in history. They insist they don’t object to removing violent criminals, but that’s a demonstrable lie. The whole point of the Democrats’ sanctuary laws is to protect criminal illegal aliens from being turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation. Instead, they release them back into our communities, where many have gone on to commit even more heinous crimes. Recently, when federal officers served a criminal warrant on a Southern California marijuana farm, activists staged a riot. Officers liberated 12 minors who had been forced to work at this facility. Eight of them were among the 465,000 unaccompanied alien children whom Democrats had placed with poorly or unvetted sponsors under the Biden-Harris administration. The marijuana farm appeared to be employing scores of illegal aliens to undercut the competition in flagrant violation of U.S. labor and immigration laws. Let’s start with some simple truths. If we don’t enforce our immigration laws, we have no immigration laws. If we have no immigration laws, we have no border. And if we have no border, we have no country. We have had a glimpse of what that means as foreign flags are waved by violent mobs setting fires, ransacking businesses and terrorizing motorists in our sanctuary cities. What do our immigration laws actually say? They say clearly and unambiguously that any and every adult who illegally enters our country “shall be detained.” Those are the exact words of the law: “shall be detained.” The Democrats simply ignore it. They have the right to challenge their detention through a writ of habeas corpus. If they are charged with a crime, they have the right to a trial by jury, but they do not have the right to be released into our communities. Again, under the law, they “shall be detained.” Unless they are charged with a crime, they have the right to leave detention anytime they want for any country that will admit them. What they don’t have is the right to remain in our country, unless a judge determines otherwise. That’s why the administration is expanding detention facilities, because that’s what the law requires if our borders are to mean anything. Democrats call them “concentration camps,” but the detainees are free to leave for home anytime they choose. Indeed, that’s their purpose: to provide temporary shelter while transportation is arranged. Deportation is not a punishment, and it requires no criminal charges. It is a simple administrative act. Challenging it does not invoke a right to freely enter and stay indefinitely. You either wait here in detention, or you wait in another country that will accept you. Those are your options.

Bloomberg [8/4/2025 3:31 PM, Myles Miller, 19320K] reports the Trump administration is backing away from a widely cited immigration enforcement target, telling a federal appeals court there is no formal policy requiring agents to arrest 3,000 people a day. The statement was made in a Justice Department court filing last week, defending the administration’s expanded enforcement campaign in Greater Los Angeles, where a judge has temporarily barred agents from targeting individuals based on race, language or location. The case marks a major legal test of President Donald Trump’s second-term immigration agenda and could set limits on how Immigration and Customs Enforcement operates in other US cities. “The allegation that the government maintains a policy mandating 3,000 arrests per day appears to originate from media reports quoting a White House advisor,” Yaakov Roth, a Justice Department lawyer, wrote. “No such goal has been set as a matter of policy, and no such directive has been issued to or by” the Department of Homeland Security or ICE, its enforcement arm. The case was brought by LA-area residents, workers and advocacy groups who say immigration agents have been stopping and questioning people based on how they look, what language they speak, or where they happen to be.

NewsMax [8/4/2025 8:32 AM, Charlie McCarthy, 4622K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have not been directed to meet a daily quota for arrests or deportations, according to a court filing by a Trump administration attorney. In the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, Department of Justice attorney Yaakov Roth on Friday filed a letter in which he said that "neither ICE leadership nor its field offices have been directed to meet any numerical quota or target for arrests, detentions, removals, field encounters, or any other operational activities that ICE or its components undertake in the course of enforcing federal immigration law." Roth said the allegation ICE has been mandated to compile 3,000 arrests per day "appears to originate from media reports quoting a White House adviser." "That quotation may have been accurate, but no such goal has been set as a matter of policy, and no such directive has been issued to or by DHS or ICE," Roth wrote in his letter to the court. Axios reported in late May that ICE goals of 3,000 arrests per day were laid out by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in a "tense" May 21 meeting. Roth’s filing came four days after three Democrat-appointed federal appeals court judges demanded an explanation as to whether the Trump administration has an official policy that requires the daily arrests of 3,000 migrants.

Axios [8/5/2025 4:45 AM, Russell Contreras, 13599K] reports arrests by U.S. immigration agents dropped by nearly 20% in July, amid the backlash to President Trump’s push to dramatically boost the number of detentions, according to new data that the Trump administration disputes. The decline followed protests over the waves of raids by masked immigration agents in June — particularly in Southern California — that led to court orders that have hindered some Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations, at least for now. Another factor in the falling arrest numbers: Trump’s own flip-flop on whether to pause raids targeting the agriculture and hospitality industries. Meanwhile, removals of immigrants from the U.S. rose in July to an average of 84 more per day compared to June. NBC News reported that more than 18,000 immigrants were removed in June. ICE agents booked an average of 990 arrests per day from July 1 to July 27, according to data collected by the nonpartisan Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC). That was down from an average of 1,224 daily arrests in June — and well short of senior White House adviser Stephen Miller’s stated goal of at least 3,000 immigration arrests per day. The Trump administration appears to have backed off that goal — at least in court. In a case challenging expedited removals of immigrants, a Justice Department attorney told the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals last week that ICE leadership hasn’t been directed to meet any numerical quota for arrests, Politico first reported. The 56,945 people currently in ICE custody also mark a slight decrease from the 57,861 detainees reported four weeks earlier, according to the TRAC data. The Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin confirmed to Axios that arrests were down in July but said they were only down 10% — from 31,000 in June to 27,000. "Despite a historic number of injunctions — including the (temporary restraining order) in Los Angeles — ICE continues to arrest the worst of the worst," McLaughlin said. "From gang members and terrorists to pedophiles, everyday ICE is removing these barbaric criminal illegal aliens from American communities. Secretary [Kristi] Noem has been clear: nothing will stop us from carrying out the President and American people’s mandate to carry out the largest deportation of criminal illegal aliens in American history."

Washington Examiner [8/4/2025 5:00 AM, Anna Giaritelli, 1934K] reports the Trump administration has come under fire in recent weeks for appearing to target noncriminals who are in the United States illegally, but internal government data shared with the Washington Examiner revealed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is still apprehending primarily criminals. Since January, ICE has taken nearly 150,000 people into federal custody — 100,000 of whom either had pending criminal charges filed against them or had been previously convicted of a crime, according to ICE. About 67% of illegal immigrants arrested had a criminal charge pending or had been convicted. The 67% figure is down slightly from roughly 75% in the first 100 days of the Trump administration. However, President Donald Trump’s promise to go after the "worst of the worst" remains far from completion, and his opponents, largely Democrats and immigrant-rights advocates, want to see less focus on noncriminals. Recent arrests indicate the Trump administration is increasingly focused on illegal immigrants, regardless of criminal background. Trump and Vice President JD Vance have also said there are 500,000 to 1 million criminal illegal immigrants residing in the country. In addition to criminals, the Trump administration wants to remove the people who have already been ordered by a federal immigration judge to be removed. At last count, roughly 1.5 million people have been ordered deported but have yet to be removed from the U.S., according to a July report by the New York Post. The same report cited 425,000 criminal illegal immigrants still at large in the U.S. and under ICE’s scope. In the first 100 days, ICE began going after criminals. However, White House "border czar" Tom Homan warned of collateral arrests, or detaining people found in vehicles, workplaces, or homes with people whom their officers were out to arrest. ICE’s data showed that between February and April, roughly one-quarter of arrestees did not have a criminal history compared to the three-quarters who did. In May, nearly one-third of illegal immigrants arrested were not criminals, a slight increase from the beginning of the year.

USA Today [8/4/2025 6:03 AM, Elvia Díaz, 75552K] reports Americans are still firmly behind President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, but it appears that at least some of them are getting cold feet as his brutal tactics come into view. The spectacle of masked agents smashing car windows, detaining folks with no court hearings and deporting some of them to dangerous countries like El Salvador and South Sudan is starting to splinter public support. The reality is jarring, and for a growing number of Americans, it’s becoming too much to stomach. I just wish more of them would see it now before more people get swept under Trump’s indiscriminate campaign against migrants – legal or not. A recent Wall Street Journal poll found that 62% of voters still support deporting undocumented immigrants, and just over half approve of Trump’s overall handling of immigration. But beneath that top-line support is mounting discomfort. Most Americans say Trump administration is going too far. Nearly 6 in 10 Americans opposed deporting people without court hearings or legal review. Independents, a key voting bloc, are especially critical. Most say the administration has gone too far, specifically when it comes to detaining and deporting individuals who’ve never had a chance to see a judge. The policy of offloading migrants to third-world countries – even countries that they are not from – should strike many more as not just impractical, but also fundamentally un-American. This tells us something important and gives me a bit of hope. Americans want stronger border security, but enough of them aren’t ready to abandon due process. They might have begun to reject the spectacle of lawlessness cloaked in the language of "law and order." Americans have watched as Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in full tactical gear raid workplaces, pull people from their cars and drag individuals off the streets. Even a sitting U.S. senator, Alex Padilla of California, was tackled to the ground on national television simply for demanding answers. Legal residents and even U.S. citizens are being swept up, too. Due process isn’t just being denied – it’s being erased.

NPR [8/5/2025 4:09 AM, Ximena Bustillo, 37958K] reports ICE is hoping to boost hiring by recruiting retired federal workers and local law enforcement to join its ranks, but a massive increase in its staff will still take time. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

Telemundo [8/4/2025 5:37 PM, Marina E. Franco, 3352K] reports as the new school year approaches, the typical worries of getting supplies and organizing schedules have been compounded by a new fear for families with mixed immigration status: wondering whether to send their children to school in the event of a raid. The fear isn’t just coming from parents. This weekend, the Los Angeles Teachers Union demonstrated to demand that the district do more to protect students from immigrant families. And fears from last semester resulted in more students missing school in states like California, says Thomas S. Dee, a specialist in the School of Education at Stanford University, in an interview with Noticias Telemundo. Dee published an analysis in June showing that truancy rose 22 percent at the beginning of the year in California’s Central Valley, an area rich in agriculture and therefore home to many farmworker families. The absences were especially notable among preschool and elementary school students, whose students are at an age when parents are more likely to be responsible for taking them. Beyond California, in places like Washington state, there were districts that saw similar situations. In Chicago, Illinois, high schools, educators also reported 20% lower attendance compared to the previous year.

Blaze [8/4/2025 2:05 PM, Julio Rosas, 1805K] reports that CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten laid out how President Donald Trump has been one of the most influential presidents so far this century as net migration to the United States drops to historic levels. Enten showed data during a segment on CNN noting that the United States is on track to have negative net migration for the first time in 50 years. Not only has Trump’s deportation efforts ramped up since January, but the administration says recent labor data shows there have been over 1 million self-deportations so far. "It’s going to be down at least 60%. We may be dealing with, get this, negative net migration to the United States in 2025. ... We’re talking down from 2.8 million in 2024," Enten said in a video posted to X on Sunday. 2024 marked the final full year of the Biden-Harris border crisis. Enten explained that Trump is also an influential president because tariff rates are at an all-time high, currently sitting at 18% compared to 2% during the same time last year. The negative net migration could be further boosted by the massive spending increase for the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Secretary Kristi Noem told Blaze Media during her recent tour of South America that her department has made job offers to 1,000 applicants to join ICE, with some of those offers being sent to former officers who left ICE during the Biden-Harris administration out of frustration. The goal is to hire 10,000 new ICE agents to bolster the manpower needed to carry out Trump’s promise of mass deportations. To meet that recruiting goal, the White House and DHS have gone all in on promoting the new benefits the One Big Beautiful Bill Act had for ICE agents once it was signed into law.

CNN [8/4/2025 10:58 AM, Karina Tsui and Yoonjung Seo, 21433K] reports Yeonsoo Go, a South Korean student at Purdue University and the daughter of a beloved Episcopal priest in New York, told a friend she was nervous about a visa hearing last week, given the stream of headlines about the Trump administration’s aggressive pursuit of immigration enforcement. Her fears were realized when she and her mother left her hearing in Manhattan on Thursday to find US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents waiting for her. Go, 20, was arrested and placed in federal detention nearby, before eventually being moved – like so many recent ICE detainees – to a facility in Louisiana. Now, church communities in New York and South Korea are condemning her treatment by US immigration authorities and rallying for her release. The Department of Homeland Security accuses Go of overstaying her visa "that expired more than two years ago," according to a statement from Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin to CNN affiliate WABC. "ICE arrested her on July 31 and placed her in expedited removal proceedings," McLaughlin said. But an attorney for the Episcopal Diocese in New York, where Go’s mother serves as a priest, said Go’s current visa doesn’t expire until December, and Thursday’s hearing was part of her application to extend it. "They thought they had come for a routine hearing, for due process, and they really fell into a blackhole of unknown," attorney Mary Davis told CNN affiliate WCBS. Davis did not specify what type of visa Go has or was seeking, but described the young woman as being "absolutely terrified."

Reported similarly:
ABC 7 New York [8/4/2025 6:27 AM, Crystal Cranmore, 51860K] Video: HERE
NBC 13 Indianapolis [8/4/2025 10:04 PM, Mike Potter and Alex Almanza]

News 12 Westchester [8/4/2025 6:13 PM, Matt Trapani] reports News 12 is learning new information about a man accused in a deadly head-on collision that claimed the lives of a mother and her 11-year-old daughter in Lakewood on July 26. The Department of Homeland Security says that Raul Luna-Perez is a “criminal illegal alien” from Mexico with a long rap sheet. The department says that Luna-Perez was arrested in Red Bank two years ago for domestic violence and was arrested twice in Red Bank this year on DUI charges. "[Gov. Phil] Murphy and his sanctuary policies released this serial criminal into New Jersey communities,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin wrote in a statement. “Now, this innocent family is shattered by their failed leadership. President [Donald] Trump and Secretary [Kristi] Noem will continue to do everything in their power to remove these criminal illegal aliens before they destroy more lives.” Luna-Perez has been charged with two counts of vehicular homicide and assault. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has initiated removal proceedings.

Breitbart [8/4/2025 1:31 PM, John Binder, 3077K] reports that an illegal alien with a history of drunk driving is accused of killing a woman and her 11-year-old daughter in a car crash in Lakewood Township, New Jersey. Raul Luna-Perez, a 43-year-old illegal alien from Mexico, has been arrested by the Lakewood Township Police Department and charged with two counts of vehicular homicide and assault. On July 26, police responded to a fatal crash allegedly caused by Luna-Perez after he reportedly crossed into an oncoming lane of traffic and hit a woman with two 11-year-old girls in her vehicle head-on. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene, while her 11-year-old daughter was rushed to a nearby hospital and later pronounced dead. The other 11-year-old passenger is in serious but stable condition in a New Jersey hospital. Luna-Perez had two passengers in his vehicle as well, but both suffered only minor injuries. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has since lodged a detainer against Luna-Perez, requesting custody of him if he is released from local police custody at any time. ICE officials revealed that Luna-Perez has had multiple run-ins with the law, but New Jersey’s sanctuary state policy protected him from being turned over to their custody. "Governor Murphy and his sanctuary policies released this serial criminal into New Jersey communities," the Department of Homeland Security’s Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. "Now, this innocent family is shattered by their failed leadership.” "President Trump and Secretary Noem will continue to do everything in their power to remove these criminal illegal aliens before they destroy more lives," McLaughlin said.

Axios [8/4/2025 6:20 AM, Kathryn Varn, Alex Fitzpatrick, and Kavya Beheraj, 13599K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests of people without criminal charges or convictions recently surged in Florida, newly obtained data shows. The numbers mirror a national trend that coincides with the Trump administration’s May 21 decision to triple ICE’s arrest quota. In June, people without criminal charges or convictions made up more than a third (36%) of arrests in ICE’s Miami Field Office region, which covers Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. That’s up from May, when the share was about a quarter (24%) and April, when it was about 1 in 5 (21%). That’s according to agency data obtained by UC Berkeley School of Law’s Deportation Data Project. Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to Axios that 70% of ICE arrests were for immigrants with criminal convictions or pending charges, but did not elaborate on that figure. Ron DeSantis has pledged to support the Trump administration’s efforts and has pressured local law enforcement leaders to get their agencies on board or risk suspension. The Florida Highway Patrol will soon launch a unit dedicated to identifying and apprehending undocumented people, the governor announced Friday, per the Tallahassee Democrat.

Washington Post [8/5/2025 3:31 AM, Grace Moon, 32099K] reports that, Yeonsoo Go, a 20-year-old South Korean student at Purdue University who was detained by immigration officials and sent to federal detention in Louisiana after attending a visa hearing in late July, was released and safely returned home on Monday. Mary Rothwell Davis, an attorney for the Episcopal Diocese of New York, where Go’s mother serves as a priest, confirmed to Washington Post that, “in a wonderful turn of events,” Go was reunited with her community on Monday at a federal plaza immigration court in Lower Manhattan. She had been placed in federal detention at Richwood Correctional Center in Louisiana before she was released, ICE records showed. An emotional video of the reunion, captured by a photojournalist, was shared to social media late Monday. Go was seen sobbing and embracing her mother and loved ones. “I’m just so grateful for the support I’ve had,” Go said in the video. “I’m just happy that she’s with me,” Go’s mother, Rev. Kyrie Kim, said in the video. News of Go’s release cued a flood of celebratory posts online, including from New York State Assembly member Amy Paulin (D), who said she spoke with Go on Monday night. In a statement shared with The Post, Paulin described Go as “happy, relieved and finally free,” adding that a prayer vigil that had been scheduled for Thursday was canceled following Go’s release. In recent days, faith leaders across the nation — and in South Korea — had fiercely banded together alongside immigration advocates, demanding Go’s release after the university student was detained by ICE officials upon exiting a courtroom in Manhattan on July 31. Davis said the court hearing had gone “very well” that day and the judge had granted her a hearing date for late August, as Go was in the process of applying to convert her current visa to a student visa. “She really did not know why she was being detained. And because of the way in which people are detained here, we did not know either,” Davis said. “The fact of the matter is those who are in our country illegally have a choice — they can leave the country voluntarily or be arrested and deported,” the statement read. DHS did not immediately respond to follow-up questions on its decision to release Go or whether it still stands by its latest statement. According to Davis, Go had entered the U.S. lawfully and had a visa that was valid until December 2025. “We still haven’t really laid eyes on charging papers or a real explanation of why DHS believes it has reason to feel that she overstayed a visa,” Davis said. It was not clear why authorities made the decision to detain and transfer Go to a facility in Louisiana then fly her back home five days later.

FOX News [8/4/2025 1:40 PM, Greg Norman and Brooke Taylor, 46878K] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement lodged detainers against three migrants from Venezuela who have been charged with capital murder in Texas. Yosguar Aponte Jimenez, Jose Trivino-Cruz and Jesus Bellorin-Guzman allegedly were involved in the June 20 shooting death of 48-year-old Santiago Lopez Morales at a Motel 6 in Garland, according to the Department of Homeland Security. "Three depraved criminal illegal aliens from Venezuela were released into the U.S. under the Biden administration and are now facing capital murder and robbery charges for shooting and killing a man at a motel in Dallas County, Texas," Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement provided to Fox News. "Thanks to the brave men and women of ICE law enforcement, these criminal illegal aliens’ crime spree is OVER. These vicious criminals have no place in the U.S. ICE has lodged a detainer to ensure they are removed from our country after they face justice for their heinous crimes," she added. The DHS, citing local media reports, said investigators linked the June 20 shooting to an aggravated robbery at a Deluxe Inn located about a mile away from the Motel 6. The Daily Wire [8/4/2025 6:30 PM, Spencer Lindquist, 3816K] reports that two of the three men, Jose Trivino-Cruz and Jesus Bellorin-Guzman, were released into the United States by the Biden administration through the Customs and Border Patrol One app, an online platform that allowed migrants to remotely schedule asylum appointments and expedited the entry of thousands of migrants into the United States. The third Venezuelan national charged in connection with the murder, named Yosguar Aponte-Jimenez, entered the United States illegally in 2023 before ultimately being released into the country by the Biden administration. Two of the men are also believed to have held a woman at gunpoint at a different hotel that same day, allegedly robbing and sexually assaulting her.

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [8/4/2025 5:13 PM, Bob Price, 3077K]

Houston Chronicle [8/4/2025 11:15 AM, Matt deGrood, 1982K] reports after defying national trends with a spike in homicides early in the year, Houston through June is now seeing fewer homicides than it did at the same point in 2024, records show. Unlike most major cities across the United States, Houston had seen an uptick in homicides in 2025. But that trend reversed itself after the Houston Police Department released numbers from June. As of the end of June, the department saw a 5% decline in the number of murder and non-negligent manslaughter investigations, records show. In 2024, the agency saw 159, compared to 151 at the same point this year. This year is continuing a trend of fewer homicides in many cities across the United States after reaching highs in 2021, records show. Through June, the country saw around 2,800 homicides compared to 3,460 at the same point in 2024, according to a survey of 68 police departments by the Major Cities Chiefs Association. Officials inside President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security this month attributed a nationwide decline in crime rates to ICE’s efforts to ramp up mass deportations, but experts say it’s unlikely ICE is making a significant impact. An expert in public safety data rejected the administration’s claims, saying 2025’s numbers fall in line with a trend that began several years ago of declining crime rates.

CBS News [8/4/2025 7:52 PM, Steve Pickett, 51860K] Video: HERE reports as the final countdown to the start of the school year begins, in districts throughout North Texas, there’s an unspoken reality: there are thousands of kids and their families who don’t have legal status. It is a national right that all children in the U.S. can receive a public education without regard to citizenship status. The enhanced efforts by the Trump administration to remove and/or detain undocumented persons in the U.S. with raids at courthouses, job sites and neighborhoods have not targeted parents or educators at schools so far. What, if anything, could happen to them under the current spike in undocumented migrant enforcement actions? "We are the statue of liberty. We take them all. We love them all. We teach them all," said Dallas Public Schools Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde. Elizalde said there are thousands of children filling schools who are not required to fill out forms validating their status as American citizens. "Well, I certainly think that we have to understand that there are concerns in our community, and we continue to host community meetings and meet with parents so that we can continue to reassure them that our approach is what it’s always been," said Elizalde. "We will follow to the fullest extent of the federal law, which says that federal ICE agents are not allowed on school grounds, they are not allowed to walk halls. We have not received any such inquiries.” Dallas is not alone in the education of children who may or may not have legal status. Garland, Richardson, Mesquite, Irving, Fort Worth and others have large numbers of students categorized as "English language learning students.”

CBS Colorado [8/4/2025 12:13 PM, Jesse Sarles, 51860K] reports a spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement says one of two suspects who they say tried to ram a vehicle being used during enforcements operations in Colorado is under arrest. ICE agents arrested Francisco Zapata-Pacheco on Thursday afternoon, the agency spokesperson said on Monday. That’s the same day that the alleged crime took place. It happened in El Paso County in the Black Forest area to the northeast of Colorado Springs. ICE says its agents shot at the vehicle when it attempted to ram them, and the two suspects ran away. No one was injured. The other suspect is Jose Mendez-Chavez, according to ICE. He remains at large and the agency says he is in the country illegally and has a criminal record. ICE says Mendez-Chavez is wanted for assault on a federal officer.

DailySignal [8/4/2025 5:17 PM, Virginia Allen, 558K] reports New Mexico’s governor is reportedly eyeing legislation to ban federal immigration detention centers in the state, causing both Republicans and Democrats to raise concerns over the possible move. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, has expressed a strong "appetite" for a special session, telling local news outlet KOB-TV, the NBC affiliate in Albuquerque, that her agenda for such a session would include addressing federal budget cuts that could affect health care benefits for New Mexicans, and legislation pertaining to federal immigration detention centers. If called, the special session is anticipated for early September. During the session, the New Mexico state legislature considered a bill that would ban state and local governments from entering contracts with the federal government to detain illegal aliens. The proposed legislation also prevented renewal of contracts already in place. The Democrat-controlled New Mexico House passed the bill in March, but it stalled in the Senate. Now, Lujan Grisham might seek to renew efforts to pass the legislation, or similar legislation.

Los Angeles Times [8/4/2025 6:51 PM, Andrea Castillo, 14672K] reports federal immigration authorities are attempting to quickly deport an Arizona woman who has lived in the U.S. for nearly 30 years, in what her lawyers are calling the first test of a federal law holding that longtime immigrants cannot be removed until they’ve had a chance to plead their case before a judge. Lawyers for Mirta Amarilis Co Tupul filed a lawsuit Saturday night in U.S. district court in Arizona and are seeking an emergency stop to Co Tupul’s imminent deportation to Guatemala while the case plays out in court. "Only this administration would go this far," said Co Tupul’s lead attorney, Chris Godshall-Bennet, "because at the core of it is an underlying complete disrespect for the rule of law.” Godshall-Bennet said the government’s move against Co Tupul is just the latest of many illegal actions being attempted by the Trump administration in its effort to remove as many immigrants as possible. If Co Tupul’s deportation is allowed to proceed, her defenders said, it could have wide implications for millions of other immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for many years and are at risk of deportation. The lawsuit was filed against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi, Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons and Phoenix ICE Field Office Director John Cantu. The Department of Homeland Security didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. In the Federal Register notice announcing the change, then-acting Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman wrote that it "restores the scope of expedited removal to the fullest extent authorized by Congress.” "First they expanded the geographical area, and now they seem to be challenging the two years," said Godshall-Bennet.

FOX News [8/4/2025 11:32 AM, Charles Creitz, 46878K] reports Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon signed an agreement last week with ICE, enabling local law enforcement in select counties to work alongside federal agents in tracking and detaining illegal immigrants. Limited members of the Wyoming Highway Patrol in five counties – all of which encompass major interstates – will be able to assist ICE with enforcement during the execution of their day-to-day work and at the direction of and under the oversight of the federal law enforcement agency, according to a statement from Gordon’s office. The agreement marks only the second such pact made directly between a state and ICE. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was the first to sign a similar "memorandum of agreement," while several individual counties around the country have also approved methods of cooperation with ICE. "Wyoming has been firm in our commitment to helping secure the border, and this is another step in that process," Gordon said in a statement. "Our nation’s security depends upon effective immigration enforcement, and I am proud that our Wyoming Highway Patrol continues to support this effort and is now formalizing their commitment to this work through our agreement with ICE." Wyoming Highway Patrol, under ICE oversight, will be able to take action and develop evidence against people who violate federal immigration law. A January executive order from President Donald Trump allows Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to forge such agreements with state and local authorities.

Reported similarly:
Blaze [8/4/2025 4:40 PM, Candace Hathaway, 1805K]

Daily Signal [8/4/2025 9:30 AM, Hans von Spakovsky and Olivia Hodge, 558K] reports what happens when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement rescues 14 children from labor exploitation and exposure to sex offenders in marijuana fields? Surely, this would be a moment for mental clarity and political cohesion, where federal law enforcement officials are recognized for their good work. That was not what happened. Instead, Democrat leaders rushed to their soapboxes to condemn the agents. They decried the raid as "militarized," "traumatizing" and "disproportionate" and framed ICE’s enforcement effort as the problem. What ICE found when it raided two marijuana farms in Ventura County, California, on July 10 was not a peaceful agricultural operation; it was a crime scene where they were met with hostility and violence. Fourteen children were found working in the fields (the youngest was 14), along with more than 360 illegal alien workers, including multiple felons convicted of crimes involving kidnapping, rape and child molestation. Protesters at the scene responded by throwing rocks and asphalt at ICE vehicles. A masked demonstrator even fired a gun at agents before fleeing. Yet Democrats focused not on the horrible working conditions and threats to children but rather on condemning the ICE raid. Rep. Salud Carbajal, California Democrat, deemed it "unacceptable" and falsely claimed the use of "disproportionate force." His priority is the optics of federal enforcement and its effect on what amounts to the modern equivalent of slave labor with low pay and no benefits. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, criticized the federal agents. He described the scenario as children being "rip[ped] from their parents" and "running from tear gas." Nowhere did he clarify that 10 of the 14 minors found were unaccompanied minors or acknowledge that it is illegal for anyone younger than 21 to work at a marijuana farm in the state of California. Tear gas was deployed only after 500 protesters obstructed ICE operations and attacked federal officers. Rep. Jimmy Gomez, California Democrat, mocked the raid as a heartless assault on "the immigrant workers who feed America," but these weren’t his imaginary, innocent strawberry pickers. Among those arrested were convicted rapists, child molesters and kidnappers working alongside exploited minors in what Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin describes as criminal conditions. Mr. Gomez ignores this reality to preserve the comforting narrative of the doe-eyed refugee laborer. His deflection mirrors that of James Mason of Virginia, the architect of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act.

Los Angeles Times [8/4/2025 9:35 PM, Jessica Garrison and Melissa Gomez, 14672K] reports one of California’s largest legal cannabis companies announced Monday that it would radically revamp its labor practices in the wake of a massive immigration raid at two company facilities last month. The raid led to the death of one worker and the detention of more than 360 people, including, according to government officials, 14 minors. Glass House Brands announced it had "terminated its relationship" with the two farm labor contractors who had provided workers to the cannabis greenhouse operations in Camarillo and Carpinteria. It also announced that it had "made significant changes to labor practices that are above and beyond legal requirements.” Those include hiring experts to scrutinize workers’ documents as well as hiring the consulting firm Guidepost Services to advise the company on best practices for determining employment eligibility. The firm is led by Julie Myers Wood, a former ICE director under President George W. Bush. The company also said it had signed a new "labor peace" agreement with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Glass House officials declined to comment publicly beyond what was in a news release, but a source close to the company said that officials wanted to "make sure we never have a situation that we had on July 10. We can’t have this ever happen again.” On that day, federal agents in masks and riot gear stormed across Glass House operations in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties in the state’s largest ICE workplace raid in recent memory. Agents chased panicked workers through vast greenhouses and deployed tear gas and less-lethal projectiles at protesters and employees. One worker, Jaime Alanis Garcia, died after he fell three stories from the roof of a greenhouse trying to evade capture. Others were bloodied from shards of broken glass or hid for hours on the roofs or beneath the leaves and plastic shrouding. More than 360 people — a mix of workers, family members of workers, protesters and passersby — were detained, including at least two American citizens, one of them a U.S. Army veteran. In the wake of the raid, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that Glass House had been targeted because "we knew, specifically from casework we had built for weeks and weeks and weeks, that there was children there that could be trafficked, being exploited, that there was individuals there involved in criminal activity.” To date, neither Homeland Security nor the U.S. Department of Justice have announced any legal action regarding the alleged trafficking and exploitation of juveniles. In its news release, Glass House said that just nine of its direct employees were detained; all others picked up either were employees of its labor contractors or were "unassociated with the company.” With regards to the government’s contention that it had found children working in cannabis, the company said: "while the identities of the alleged minors have not been disclosed, the company has been able to determine that, if those reports are true, none of them were Glass House employees." California labor law allows children as young as 12 to work in agriculture, but workers must be 21 to work in cannabis. The raid devastated Glass House and its workforce. Numerous workers were detained or disappeared, terrified to return. Those who remained were so distraught the company called in grief counselors.

San Diego Union Tribune [8/4/2025 10:30 PM, Alexandra Mendoza, 1611K] reports the message for the dozens of volunteers who would soon be supporting immigrants at their court hearings was clear. "We’re not there to obstruct or prevent any arrest," said the Rev. Hung Nguyen, associate pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Logan Heights. "We’re there to accompany people.” The orientation meeting Monday was a precursor to the launch of The Faithful Accompaniment in Trust and Hope, or FAITH, a pilot program that will have religious leaders and volunteers present at San Diego’s immigration court to offer spiritual support, comfort and prayer to those who need it. The program is set to begin Tuesday and will run through at least the end of the month as a salve to asylum seekers and immigrants navigating the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration. Since late May, in an effort to ramp up deportations, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been detaining people as they exit immigration courts, often after a judge has dismissed their cases at the request of government attorneys. The tactic has affected individuals who have been in the country for less than two years and now face expedited removal. The program is being organized by the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego, Our Lady of Guadalupe church and the San Diego Organizing Project, a network of faith and spiritual congregations. Other faith communities are expected to join the effort. The plan continues the work done by several other human rights advocates who have volunteered to be present in courtroom hallways over the past several weeks. On June 20, as part of World Refugee Day, San Diego Catholic Bishop Michael Pham led a coalition of religious leaders that accompanied immigrants and asylum seekers. But on that day, the federal immigration agents who usually wait in the hallway left shortly after the group arrived. There were no arrests, according to the volunteers who regularly join immigrants. Pham said at the time he would consider returning if needed. He is expected to do so on Tuesday. When asked if he expected a day without arrests again, he noted that "as we enter the court, anything could happen.” "But we are being present. And that’s what is important for the people to see that there is support, that the people do care. That’s what is needed," the newly installed bishop added. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement on Monday that the ruling "is lawless and won’t stand.” The effect of the ruling could be reflected in courtrooms — some of the immigrants who were being arrested following hearings had arrived in the U.S. through CBP One.

Reuters [8/4/2025 4:16 PM, Janina Nuno Rios, 51390K] reports the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced on Monday it has updated its immigration policy to restrict visa eligibility for transgender women seeking to compete in women’s sports. Under the policy update, USCIS will consider "the fact that a male athlete has been competing against women" as a negative factor when evaluating visa petitions in categories such as O-1A for extraordinary ability, EB-1 and EB-2 green cards for highly skilled workers, and national interest waivers. The move aligns with broader efforts by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump to regulate transgender participation in athletics and follows similar policies enacted at the state level across the country. The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee last month updated its policy to align with an executive order signed earlier this year by Trump barring transgender women from competing in women’s sports. Trump signed the "Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports" order in February, a directive that supporters said will restore fairness but critics argue infringes on the rights of a tiny minority of athletes.

Daily Wire [8/4/2025 10:00 AM, Mary Margaret Olohan, 3816K] reports President Donald Trump is directing the Department of Homeland Security to develop policies to block male international athletes from competing against women in the United States, The Daily Wire can exclusively report. On Monday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will issue guidance building off Trump’s Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports executive order, ensuring that certain athlete-related petitions and applications will be available only to women. "Men do not belong in women’s sports," USCIS spokesman Matthew Tragesser told The Daily Wire. "USCIS is closing the loophole for foreign male athletes whose only chance at winning elite sports is to change their gender identity and leverage their biological advantages against women." "It’s a matter of safety, fairness, respect, and truth that only biological female athletes receive a visa to come to the U.S. to participate in women’s sports," he added. "The Trump administration is standing up for the silent majority who have long been victims of leftist policies that defy common sense." The agency’s update will clarify and revise guidance related to the visa categories "O-1A aliens of extraordinary ability," "E11 aliens of extraordinary ability," "E21 aliens of exceptional ability," and "national interest waivers (NIWs)."

Federal News Network [8/4/2025 5:50 PM, Jason Miller, 2346K] reports Shane Barney, the former CISO at USCIS and currently the CISO for Keeper Security, said the move to zero trust received wide support from the program leaders. Shane Barney knew he had successfully changed the culture at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service when it was time to debate the next year’s budget. Barney, who left USCIS in May after serving the last almost seven years as the agency’s chief information security officer, said when the agency program offices fully funded his request for zero trust capabilities, he knew a transformation had occurred. "When the zero trust executive order first hit under the previous administration, it was a huge cost to federal agencies. The day that they were discussing the funding needs that we had for zero trust, and they were significant. I mean, they were tens of millions of dollars, I couldn’t be there. I couldn’t advocate for it. I was out of the office, and I was really worried about it," said Barney, who now is the CISO for Keeper Security, for an exit interview on Ask the CIO. "Well, the directorate heads decided ahead of time that zero trust was the most important thing for the agency to be doing. They had all allocated all the money I had asked for without me even being present or even defending it. That’s when I knew we had done something right.” Barney called his boss, then USCIS chief information officer Bill McElhaney, and asked what happened at the meeting. "He said, ‘You got all the money.’ And I was like, ‘What do you mean? I got all the money?’ We weren’t even there. He goes, ‘No, it was actually decided before the meeting even started. In fact, it was never even discussed. It was assumed,’" he said. "That told me everything I needed to know about where the culture of the agency was. They valued security so much that they understand the connection between what the business is trying to accomplish, and the importance of securing that at the same time, and it sold itself. I think part of me actually knew at that point that maybe my time at USCIS was probably coming to an end.” Barney said he believes the program offices understood the value of security because USCIS was both an early adopter of zero trust concepts and because the agency survived a potentially catastrophic cyber incident.

DailySignal [8/4/2025 1:08 PM, Rebecca Downs, 558K] reports that last December, Imam Ayman Soliman, who had been living in Cincinnati and at one point served as a chaplain at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, saw his asylum status change. Last month, he was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and faces possible deportation. Now, he’s suing over his status. Soliman came into the U.S. on a temporary visa in March 2014 and was granted asylum status in 2018 during the first Trump administration. He applied for green card status in 2019, which was denied six years later. It was the Biden administration, which was particularly lax on immigration enforcement, that started to revoke Soliman’s status last December. Soliman’s attorneys recently sued the federal government in a bid to regain his asylum status. According to the Ohio Capital Journal, the federal government brought up concerns that Soliman was connected to the Muslim Brotherhood. "He said the government used a set of inaccurate claims and misinterpreted academic articles to revoke it in the first place. The academics themselves agreed, according to documents filed in a Cincinnati federal court last week," the Ohio Capital Journal reported. The federal government also claimed Soliman provided "material support of terrorism." The Daily Signal reached out to the DHS and ICE for comment on Soliman’s lawsuit.

Newsweek [8/4/2025 4:41 PM, Billal Rahman, 52220K] reports a Los Angeles doctor has told how she watched on FaceTime as her husband, a Tunisian musician with a pending green card application, was arrested by federal immigration agents on what she called "probably the worst day of my life." Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents pulled over Rami Othmane while he was driving to a grocery store in Pasadena on July 13, the Associated Press (AP) reported, before he pulled out paperwork he was carrying. His wife, Dr. Wafaa Alrashid, who is a U.S. citizen and chief medical officer at Huntington Hospital, told the AP she watched events unfold over the video call, "They didn’t care, they said, ‘Please step out of the car," she recalled. Confirming the arrest, Department of Homeland Secuity’s (DHS) assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Newsweek via email on Monday that Othmane’s "B-2 tourist visa expired more than nine years ago. He will remain in custody at ICE’s Eloy Detention Center pending his removal proceedings." Alrashid said her husband has since been subjected to "inhumane treatment." The DHS told California news station KABC in a statement that detainees receive "proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with lawyers and their family members." Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Newsweek in an emailed statement on Monday: "Rami Jilani Othmane, an illegal alien from Tunisia, was arrested by CBP on July 13. His B-2 tourist visa expired more than nine years ago. He will remain in custody at ICE’s Eloy Detention Center pending his removal proceedings. "President Trump and Secretary Noem are committed to restoring integrity to the visa program and ensuring it is not abused to allow aliens a permanent one-way ticket to remain in the U.S. "The fact of the matter is those who are in our country illegally have a choice—they can leave the country voluntarily or be arrested and deported. The United States taxpayer is generously offering free flights and a $1,000 to illegal aliens who self-deport using the CBP Home app. If they leave now, they preserve the potential opportunity to come back the legal, right way. The choice is theirs."

CBS News [8/4/2025 8:00 PM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, 51860K] reports U.S. border agents have been directed to stop deporting migrants under President Trump’s ban on asylum claims, following a federal court order that said the measure could not be used to completely suspend humanitarian protections for asylum-seekers, two Department of Homeland Security officials told CBS News. The move effectively lifts a sweeping policy that had closed the American asylum system to those entering the U.S. illegally or without proper documents. It’s a measure the second Trump administration has credited for a steep drop in illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border, where officials last month reported the lowest monthly level of migrant apprehensions on record. Mr. Trump’s asylum crackdown was unprecedented in scope. The proclamation underpinning it, issued just hours after he returned to the White House in January, gave U.S. border officials the power to summarily deport migrants without allowing them to request asylum, a right enshrined in American law for decades. Mr. Trump said the extraordinary action was necessary due to what he called an "invasion" of migrants under the Biden administration, which faced record levels of illegal crossings at the southern border until it too restricted asylum last year. On Friday, a federal appeals court lifted its pause on a lower judge’s ruling that found Mr. Trump’s decree violated U.S. asylum laws. While the appellate court narrowed the lower court’s order, saying Mr. Trump’s proclamation could be used to pause access to the asylum system, it also ruled the U.S. government could not disregard other laws that bar officials from deporting migrants to places where they could be tortured or persecuted. Those laws require the U.S. to grant legal protections — known as "withholding of removal" and protection under the United Nations Convention Against Torture — to migrants who prove they would likely face persecution or torture if deported to their home countries. Unlike asylum, those protections do not allow recipients to get permanent U.S. residency or protect them from being deported to a third party country. Officials at Customs and Border Protection were instructed this weekend to halt deportations under Mr. Trump’s proclamation and to process migrants under U.S. immigration law, which affords foreigners on American soil the right to request humanitarian refuge, the two DHS officials said, requesting anonymity to discuss an internal directive.

Reported similarly:
Reuters [8/4/2025 10:08 PM, Christian Martinez, 51390K]

FOX Business [8/4/2025 10:52 AM, Amanda Macias, 9940K] Video HERE reports the U.S. collected more than $29 billion in tariff revenues in July, the highest monthly total to date so far this year. That figure pushes the total tariff revenue for the year to more than $152 billion, according to the latest "Customs and Certain Excise Taxes" data released by the Treasury Department. Tariff revenues rose steadily from $17.4 billion in April to $23.9 billion in May, before climbing to $28 billion in June. The revelation comes as President Donald Trump approaches the final days before a series of global tariff rate changes are set to take effect on Thursday. Last week, the White House said the new tariff rates, originally slated to take effect Aug. 1, will come into force on Aug. 7 in order to give U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials additional time to prepare to collect the duties. In the days leading up to the Aug. 1 deadline, Trump unveiled a wave of major trade agreements with key U.S. partners — including Japan, the European Union and South Korea. To date, 11 of the nation’s top 15 trading partners have signed broad trade deals. Trump administration officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, have previously said the tariffs could generate more than $300 billion in revenue for the federal government. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Houston Chronicle [8/4/2025 5:00 AM, Jason Buch, Benjamin Wermund, and Matt Zdun,, 1982K] reports Maverick County Attorney Jaime Iracheta works in a freshly refurbished, wood-paneled office with a matching desk and leather couch set. He holds meetings in a video-equipped conference room and drives to work in a heavy-duty Chevy Silverado 4X4 pickup with a premium trim and towing package. It cost $83,000, and it’s one of six pickups the office owns. That doesn’t include the two Polaris Ranger Crew all-terrain vehicles purchased in December for $25,000 apiece. One of them is a Texas Edition “offering enhanced capability along with exclusive Texas Edition badging and premium paint,” procurement records show. Texas taxpayers paid for all of this — and more — through Operation Lone Star, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s much-touted border security initiative. With less fanfare, the state also has doled out more than $100 million since 2021 to counties and cities to cover border enforcement costs. The grants were supposed to pay for more police officers and sheriff’s deputies, added jail capacity and the cost of prosecuting migrants on state trespassing charges. Much of the grant money has been spent for those purposes. But over the last four years, millions of dollars have gone to fund routine government operations and other expenses that in some cases were unrelated to border security, an investigation by the San Antonio Express-News and Houston Chronicle found.

NewsMax [8/4/2025 2:13 PM, Sam Barron, 4622K] reports that Senate Republicans are accusing the Transportation Security Administration of helping kill a bill that would limit face scanning technologies, Politico reported. The bill, which has bipartisan support, would require TSA to clearly notify every passenger of their right to opt out of facial screenings at the airport and limit their ability to store biometric information of passengers scanned, Politico said. The senators charge that TSA worked with the travel industry to lobby against the bill, causing it to be discarded at the last minute while it was under consideration in the Senate Commerce Committee, sources told Politico. "The short answer is yes; the long answer is hell yes," Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., a sponsor of the bill said to the outlet about TSA’s efforts to stymie the bill. "They’re working like an ugly stripper to kill this bill, which tells me we’re doing the right thing." An aide to Senate Republicans told Politico that TSA’s lobbying would work against the confirmation prospects of Ha Nguyen McNeill, who serves as acting head of the agency and recently was an executive at a company that supplies AI-powered facial recognition software to airports. TSA’s lobbying could also put it in the crosshairs of Kristi Noem, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, who is not opposed to the bill, a senior DHS official told Politico.

Reported similarly:
Daily Caller [8/4/2025 11:53 AM, Ireland Owens, 1010K]

Axios [8/4/2025 4:44 PM, Alayna Alvarez, 13599K] reports Denver International Airport’s brand new 17-lane east security checkpoint opens Tuesday, replacing the heavily trafficked south checkpoint. Travelers will now be routed through either the east or west checkpoints, both on Level 6. The new checkpoint — a mirror image of the west security checkpoint, which opened in early 2024 — has three separate entrances categorized by traveler group. The new checkpoint "will improve the safety and security of the screening process and provide a more efficient experience for passengers," Douglas Cruz, TSA’s federal security director for Colorado, said in a statement. DIA is now the third busiest airport in the U.S. and sixth worldwide. Its $2 billion renovation is aimed at scaling up for continued growth. Eight more security lanes are slated to open on the north end of Level 5 in late summer 2026.

(B) Good Morning America [8/4/2025 8:59 AM, Staff] reports Federal Emergency Management Agency is planning to release nearly $1 billion of funding. In a notice to states, FEMA announced it was taking applications for more than a dozen grant programs for disaster preparedness and homeland security across the country. This comes one week after CNN reported on the agency’s proposed plan to slash those grants. The Department of Homeland Security says the funds are being released after a thorough review of the programs.

NBC News [8/4/2025 3:33 PM, Denise Chow, 44540K] reports millions of people across the Upper Midwest and the Northeast are under air quality alerts Monday, as smoke from wildfires in Canada drift over the region. Hazy skies are expected in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, northern Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Delaware and Maine, according to the National Weather Service. Almost 200 wildfires are burning out of control in Canada, including 81 in Saskatchewan, 159 in Manitoba and 61 in Ontario. Figures from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center indicate that more than 16.5 million acres have been scorched so far this year in what will likely be the country’s second-worst wildfire season on record. A high-pressure system parked over the Midwest is trapping the smoke in place, causing air quality issues to linger for several days, according to the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy. The air quality index Monday across 14 states in the Midwest and the Northeast ranged from "moderate" to "unhealthy" for the general public. Wildfire smoke is of particular concern because it contains small particles that are less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter — around 4% of the diameter of an average strand of human hair. This type of air pollution is dangerous because the particles are small enough to reach deep inside the lungs, which can exacerbate or increase the risk of asthma, lung cancer and other chronic lung diseases. Exposure to high levels of air pollution can also cause inflammation and weaken the immune system. Infants, children, seniors and pregnant women are especially vulnerable to unhealthy air quality conditions.

San Francisco Chronicle [8/4/2025 2:48 PM, Staff, 4120K] reports the Gifford Fire burning in Los Padres National Forest torched over 72,000 acres and prompted evacuations as of Monday morning, officials said. the fire was 3% contained as of 9 a.m., according to a morning update from the U.S. Forest Service. Around 1,000 firefighting personnel were battling the blaze roaring across Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. Three individuals who were injured in the blaze were treated for minor to moderate injuries, and 460 structures were threatened, officials said. According to the Forest Service, one person had suffered minor burn injuries, and two contractors were hospitalized after their vehicle rolled over in the area. Plumes of smoke soared as the fire reached high temperatures, fueled by the area’s dry vegetation and rugged terrain. Some of the smoke drifted across state lines Monday into the Las Vegas Valley, impacting air quality and leading to hazy skies, according to the National Weather Service.

AP [8/4/2025 7:53 PM, Staff, 56000K] reports a massive wildfire on Monday was threatening hundreds of homes in central California after injuring at least three people as it tore through Los Padres National Forest. The Gifford Fire scorched more than 100 square miles (260 square km) of coastal Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, and was still burning out of control, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire. A motorist was hospitalized with burn injuries after getting out of his vehicle and being overrun by flames, said Flemming Bertelson, a spokesperson for the U.S. Forest Service. Two contract employees assisting firefighters were also hurt when their all-terrain vehicle overturned. The blaze threatened about 450 structures and forced the closure of the highway in both directions east of Santa Maria, a city of about 110,000 people in Santa Barbara County. About 65 miles (105 kilometers) northwest of Santa Barbara and 150 miles (240 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles, the hilly agricultural region is dotted by sprawling California live oaks and Sycamore trees and is known for its wine industry. The blaze grew out of at least four smaller fires that erupted Friday along State Route 166 between Santa Maria and Bakersfield.

SFGate [8/4/2025 12:47 PM, Gillian Mohney, 11859K] reports a wildfire that started Friday exploded over the weekend in Central California, burning over 65,000 acres, according to Cal Fire, with incoming warm weather possibly making it even harder to fight the blaze. Smoke from the growing fire has started to impact air quality in the southern region of the state. On Monday, the smoke was affecting air quality in Los Angeles, Ventura and Kern counties, according to Robbie Munroe, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Los Angeles. He said warming weather this week could make fighting the blaze more difficult. "There’s potential for building heat later in the week, especially around Thursday and Friday," Munroe told SFGATE. "With that, we could see plume-dominated fire behavior become more common. That can create erratic and dangerous fire behavior as well.” Currently, 1,091 firefighters are battling the blaze, dubbed the Gifford Fire, which spans both Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. It is currently 3% contained. "All personnel are working vigilantly to gain full suppression of this incident, though there are many challenges such as inaccessible, rugged steep terrain, and hot and dry weather conditions," officials from the Gifford Fire public information line wrote to SFGATE in an email.

Breitbart [8/4/2025 3:02 PM, Amy Furr, 3077K] reports a whale died after boaters saw it make contact with at least two boats in New Jersey’s Barnegat Bay on Saturday. The whale caused one boat to tip over and a passenger fell off the vessel. Per the Fox article, the creature was identified as a 20-foot minke whale that had swum into shallow waters near the Double Creek Channel. The whale died before rescuers could save it. More video shows the whale in distress as it tried to move into deeper water. It apparently hit the boats as it tried to do so, per the ABC 7 report. The outlet noted the woman who was thrown from her boat was not hurt during the incident: "The Marine Mammal Stranding Center (MMSC) in Brigantine was contacted by the New Jersey State Police Marine Unit about the whale in Barnegat Bay near the inlet," the Fox report said. "A multiple-agency response was coordinated with the U.S. Coast Guard, New Jersey Fish and Wildlife Conservation, marine police and Sea Tow with a stranding coordinator from MMSC." However, "Before MMSC could arrive, Sea Tow officials reported the whale was dead," the article noted. Officials later found the whale on a sandbar in shallow water. It could not be reached on Saturday due to tidal conditions, but the whale will later be moved to a state park for a necropsy.

FOX News [8/4/2025 12:33 PM, Emilee Speck, 3708K] reports that a 20-foot Minke whale stranded in very shallow waters in Barnegat Bay this weekend in the Jersey Shore area later died before marine rescuers could make it to the distressed whale. Video from nearby boaters showed the black-and-white Minke whale in Barnegat Bay near the Double Creek Channel on Saturday splashing in shallow waters. Witnesses told FOX Weather the whale came in contact with at least two boats while in the bay. Boater John Barrett said the whale was "flopping around" and flopped onto a pontoon boat. Another video showed the whale coming in contact with a boat, causing it to tip and a passenger to fall off the vessel. Barrett told FOX Weather he saw the whale around noon in the inlet, where the water is about 20 feet deep, but several hours later, it was in the Double Creek Channel, where the water is only a few feet deep. "Some boats were trying to get a picture, getting closer and closer," Barrett said. "They were getting too close to get a picture.” Experienced boaters like Barrett, who is out on the water four days a week, said encountering whales in Barnegat Bay is rare. The Marine Mammal Stranding Center (MMSC) in Brigantine was contacted by the New Jersey State Police Marine Unit about the whale in Barnegat Bay near the inlet. A multiple-agency response was coordinated with the U.S. Coast Guard, New Jersey Fish and Wildlife Conservation, marine police and Sea Tow with a stranding coordinator from MMSC. According to the MMSC, this is the third whale stranding this year in New Jersey. A long-finned pilot whale and a humpback whale were also stranded this year. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS Miami [8/4/2025 12:33 PM, Staff, 51860K] Video: HERE reports Chelsea Jones reports Mila Yankelevich, one of the three girls who died as a result of the crash, was the daughter and granddaughter of a prominent Argentine family.

(B) Early Today [8/4/2025 6:09 AM, Staff] reports that a third girl has died after last week’s sailing accident near Miami. The 10-year-old had been in critical condition after a barge struck a sailboat carrying campers in Biscayne Bay on Monday. The US Coast Guard said the girl was surrounded by family when she passed away on Sunday at Jackson Memorial Hospital. Two other girls ages 7 and 13 were also killed. The Coast Guard is investigating the cause of that deadly crash.

Federal News Network [8/4/2025 6:50 PM, Justin Doubleday, 2346K] reports cybersecurity experts say Sean Cairncross faces a litany of key tasks as the White House’s new national cyber director, including championing the reauthorization of a key information sharing law and grappling with China-linked hacks into U.S. critical infrastructure networks. The Senate voted 59-35 to confirm Cairncross’s nomination on Saturday. He’s now the third Senate-confirmed national cyber director since Congress established the position in 2021. "As the cyber strategic environment continues to evolve, we must ensure our policy efforts and capabilities deliver results for our national security and the American people," Cairncross said in a statement provided by the White House after the Senate voted to confirm him. "The United States must dominate the cyber domain through strong collaboration across departments and agencies, as well as private industry. Under President Trump’s leadership, we will enter a new era of effective cybersecurity policy.” Cairncross served as a senior advisor to the White House chief of staff during President Donald Trump’s first term. He also previously served as CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corporation and as chief operating officer for the Republican National Committee. As national cyber director, he’ll be responsible for serving as the president’s principal cybersecurity advisor and for coordinating cyber policy across government. In the near term, cyber experts expect Cairncross will play a key role in championing the reauthorization of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015. The law facilitates the sharing of cyber threat data between government and industry. It expires on Sept. 30. "It seems to be the one law pretty much everyone agrees with, but we need to make sure that there is a champion pulling it over the goal line," Frank Cilluffo, director of Auburn University’s McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security, said in an interview. In a statement applauding his confirmation, House Homeland Security Chairman Andrew Garbarino (R-New York) said Cairncross’s "experience in both the public and private sectors and his support for reauthorizing the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 gives me full confidence in his leadership, which comes at a pivotal moment for both the office’s role as the president’s cyber policy advisor and for responding to increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.”

CyberScoop [8/4/2025 1:20 PM, Matt Kapko] reports BlackSuit’s technical infrastructure was seized in a globally coordinated takedown operation last month that authorities touted as a significant blow in the fight against cybercrime. The ransomware group’s leak site has displayed a seizure notice since July 24. The takedown followed a long investigation, which allowed authorities to confiscate “considerable amounts of data,” and identify 184 victims, German officials said in a news release last week. The group’s total extortion demands surpassed $500 million by August 2024, with demands typically in the range of $1 million to $10 million, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said in an advisory last year. U.S. authorities were heavily involved in the operation, but have yet to share details about the investigation or its results. BlackSuit’s extortion site was seized by the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigation department, a unit of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A spokesperson for ICE told CyberScoop the Justice Department has been waiting for court documents to be unsealed before releasing any information about the law enforcement action dubbed “Operation Checkmate.” The FBI, Secret Service, Europol and cyber authorities from the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Ireland, Ukraine, Lithuania and Romania-based cybersecurity firm Bitdefender were also involved in the operation. German officials said the takedown prevented the spread of malware and disrupted BlackSuit’s servers and communication. BlackSuit’s data leak site contained more than 150 entries before the takedown, Bitdefender said in a blog post. The majority of BlackSuit’s victims were based in the U.S. and the industries most impacted by the ransomware group’s attacks included manufacturing, education, health care and construction, according to Bitdefender. The company did not respond to a request for comment.

CyberScoop [8/4/2025 5:20 PM, Matt Kapko] reports Google addressed six vulnerabilities affecting Android devices in its August security update, marking a months-long lull in the number of software defects disclosed and patched in the mobile operating system this summer. The company issued no security patches in its update last month. Yet, monthly Android security bulletins typically address dozens of vulnerabilities. Google’s Android security update covered 34 vulnerabilities in June, 47 defects in May, 62 in April and 43 in March. The summer break suggests Android partners and customers have experienced a temporary respite from a larger pool of vulnerabilities. Google notifies Android partners of all software defects affecting the mobile operating system at least a month before public disclosure. Google said the most severe defect in this month’s security update — CVE-2025-48530 — is a critical remote code execution vulnerability in the Android system that doesn’t require user interaction or additional execution privileges for exploitation. The advisory also addressed two high-severity vulnerabilities — CVE-2025-22441 and CVE-2025-48533 — affecting the Android framework. Google said user interaction and additional privileges aren’t required to exploit the elevation of privilege defects. None of the vulnerabilities addressed in this month’s security update are under active exploitation, according to Google. The company hasn’t included an actively exploited defect in its monthly batch of patches since May.

CyberScoop [8/4/2025 3:15 PM, Tim Starks] reports Vietnamese-speaking hackers are carrying out a “highly evasive, multi-stage operation” to steal information from thousands of victims in more than 62 countries, researchers said in a report published Monday. The attackers emerged late last year but have evolved with novel techniques this year, with SentinelLABS of SentinelOne and Beazley Security ultimately identifying 4,000 victims, most commonly in South Korea, the United States, the Netherlands, Hungary and Austria. “The evolving tradecraft in these recent campaigns demonstrates that these adversaries have meticulously refined their deployment chains, making them increasingly more challenging to detect and analyze,” reads the report. In particular, attacks just last month demonstrated tailored capabilities to bypass antivirus products and mislead security operations center analysts, according to the companies. The hackers’ motives, apparently, are financial in nature. “The stolen data includes over 200,000 unique passwords, hundreds of credit card records, and more than 4 million harvested browser cookies, giving actors ample access to victims’ accounts and financial lives,” according to the two companies.

CBS New York [8/4/2025 12:58 PM, Christina Fan, Jennifer Bisram and Lisa Rozner, 51860K] Video: HERE the New York City office building where a gunman fatally shot four people and himself reopened Monday, one week after the deadly rampage. Workers returned to 345 Park Ave., in Midtown Manhattan under the watchful eyes of NYPD officers and a surplus of additional security following the mass shooting. According to investigators, gunman Shane Tamura was targeting the National Football League headquarters when he unloaded 47 rounds from an assault rifle, killing four people, including an off-duty NYPD officer, before turning the gun on himself. Many companies inside the building, which is owned by Rudin Management, left it up to employees to decide whether they were ready to return on Monday. The NFL told its employees to work remotely until the end of the week, and Blackstone officials said their workers were given the option to work from home. "You think about your family. You think about your loved ones. You think about the lives that were lost and all the fear that came to us on Monday. But, again, we are here and it feels so much better to be in the office today to kind of go through this together," Blackstone employee Erma Hernandez said. "People find this to be a little bit of a surreal experience, but we’re trying to work through it," building employee George Letterman said. One woman said she did not realize 345 Park Ave., was the site of the shooting when she went to the bank there on Monday. "If I had known it was this branch I wouldn’t have gone in," the customer said. The shooting victims were identified as NYPD Det. Didarul Islam, Blackstone executive Wesley LePatner, Rudin Management employee Julia Hyman and security officer Aland Etienne. LaPatner, Hyman and Islam were laid to rest last week. Etienne’s funeral will be held on Saturday. An NFL employee who was shot is still recovering and is said to be stable and improving.

CBS News [8/4/2025 3:40 PM, Staff, 51860K] reports an Arkansas man who killed four people and injured 11 others in a mass shooting at a grocery store last year was sentenced Monday to life in prison without parole. A state judge sentenced Travis Eugene Posey to four life sentences for each count of capital murder. Posey was also sentenced to 220 years in prison for 11 counts of attempted capital murder. Posey pleaded guilty last month to four counts of capital murder and 11 counts of attempted capital murder, one of his attorneys confirmed to CBS News, for the shooting that occurred last summer at the Mad Butcher grocery store in Fordyce, a city of about 3,200 people located 65 miles south of Little Rock. Judge Spencer Singleton handed down the sentence after testimony from the victims’ family members during a hearing in Fordyce. Posey, who did not speak during Monday’s hearing, has been held without bond since the shooting and previously pleaded not guilty to the same charges. Prosecutors and police have not publicly identified any motive for Posey, who was shot and injured by officers who exchanged fire with him. Police have said he did not appear to have a personal connection to any of the victims. The four people killed were identified as Shirley Taylor, 62, Callie Weems, 23, Roy Sturgis, 50, and Ellen Shrum, 81.

FOX News [8/4/2025 10:12 AM, Greg Norman, 46878K] Video: HERE reports the fugitive Army veteran who allegedly shot and killed four people at a bar in Montana could return to the town where the "heinous" crime unfolded, posing a "concern for the public," the state’s attorney general is warning. The whereabouts of Michael Brown, 45, remain unknown Monday following the Friday morning shooting at The Owl Bar in Anaconda, which claimed the lives of residents Daniel Edwin Baillie, 59, Nancy Lauretta Kelley, 64, David Allen Leach, 70 and Tony Wayne Palm, 74. "We’ve got tremendous cooperation from Homeland Security, from our federal partners, the FBI, the U.S. Marshal Service. We want to find this guy. This is a dangerous individual who has committed an absolutely heinous crime against this community and these victims," Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said. "Absolutely there [are] concerns he might come back into town. By all indications, this is an unstable individual who walked in and murdered four people in cold blood for no reason whatsoever. So there absolutely is concern for the public," Knudsen added. It is unclear what led to the shooting, but Knudsen said investigators believed Brown used one of his own personal rifles in the attack.

USA Today [8/4/2025 11:36 AM, Natalie Neysa Alund and Thao Nguyen, 75552K] reports that four days after authorities said a lone gunman walked into a Montana bar, brazenly opened fire and killed a bartender and three patrons, the suspected shooter, identified as a former U.S. Army solider, remained on the run. The quadruple shooting, officials from multiple law enforcement jurisdictions reported, took place on Friday, Aug. 1 at The Owl Bar in the rural town of Anaconda in Deer Lodge County, just over a 100-mile drive west of Bozeman. The Montana Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) reported the killings took place at about 10:30 a.m. local time and, during a weekend press conference in southwest Montana, State Attorney General Austin Knudsen identified the four victims as local residents aging in range from 59-75 including a 64-year-old woman who tended the bar. Officials are pursuing murder suspect Michael Brown, 45, who they said lived next door to the bar, in connection to the victims’ deaths. The suspect in the case remained a fugitive from justice, an Anaconda Deer Lodge County Police Department spokesperson confirmed to USA TODAY on Monday, Aug. 4. Law enforcement identified the suspect as a 45-year-old Michael Paul Brown. On Aug. 3, the Granite County Sheriff’s Office, also investigating the case, reported Brown’s house next door to the bar had been cleared by SWAT but were warning people to avoid the area.

Los Angeles Times [8/4/2025 3:26 PM, Christopher Buchanan, Hannah Fry, and Libor Jany, 14672K] reports that two people were killed and six others were wounded at a warehouse party in downtown Los Angeles early Monday, the latest incident to turn violent stemming from unsanctioned gatherings in the area, authorities said. About 11 p.m. Sunday, a “big party” was shut down at a warehouse in the 1100 block of 14th Place after officers saw a person possibly armed with a gun go inside, said Los Angeles Police Officer Norma Eisenman. That person was arrested at the scene, she said. But about two hours later, at 1 a.m. Monday, officers were summoned to the area again after reports of gunfire, Eisenman said. Police said someone opened fire outside the warehouse and responding officers found eight people shot. A partygoer who did not want to be named out of fear of retaliation said it sounded like “100 shots” were fired outside the event, causing people to stampede out of the warehouse and scatter into the street. One man in his late 20s was declared dead at the scene, and seven others were taken to the hospital, where a woman in her early 50s died of her injuries, police said. “This senseless violence and loss of life is devastating and those who are responsible must be held accountable,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement. “There will be no tolerance for violence in this city. My thoughts are with the victims and their families. We will continue to work together to keep L.A. safe.”

Authorities are trying to piece together what led up to the shooting. No suspects have been identified.

Reported similarly:
Daily Caller [8/4/2025 10:43 AM, Melanie Wilcox, 1010K]

Washington Post [8/4/2025 6:00 AM, Marie-Rose Sheinerman, 32099K] reports in dozens of U.S. cities, the next time you call 911, a drone might show up before an officer does. The technology behind that — “Drone as First Responder,” or DFR — has skyrocketed in popularity among police departments nationwide since the Federal Aviation Administration streamlined the process for agencies to adopt the program this spring. While it could previously take up to a year to get approval, it now often takes just days. Law enforcement and drone industry leaders praise the technology as lifesaving, with the potential to help authorities in situations ranging from missing persons cases to active shooter incidents. But critics worry the programs encourage mass surveillance and violate the public’s privacy. When you have a camera in the sky that can see things that police officers can’t normally see, that offers a huge potential for privacy invasion,” said Beryl Lipton, a senior researcher with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group. DFRs serve as an “eye in the sky,” police say, streaming footage to officers before they enter a potentially dangerous situation. One of the hardest aspects of policing is that in calls for service, “we don’t have crystal balls, we don’t know what we’re going into,” said Roxana Kennedy, chief of the police department in Chula Vista, California. There is no public list of law enforcement agencies that have adopted the programs, and gray areas around what constitutes a DFR versus a different kind of drone program makes creating a definitive count difficult. Around 50 agencies launched DFR programs between 2018 and 2024, said Charles Werner, a retired Charlottesville fire chief who founded DroneResponders, an advocacy group that promotes responsible drone use. But the technology is gaining ground fast: “A handful of departments per week” are adopting it, said Divy Shrivastava, CEO of Paladin Drones, a DFR manufacturer. The FAA has approved waivers for at least 300 agencies to adopt drone first-responder programs so far this year, according to Werner, who said he meets regularly with representatives of the federal regulatory agency.

Breitbart [8/5/2025 4:15 AM, Paul Bois, 3077K] reports the Department of Justice (DoJ) has reportedly opened a federal grand jury investigation into several former Obama administration officials for allegedly conspiring to push the false Trump-Russia collusion story during the 2016 election campaign. The investigation opens possible criminal charges for several of the former president’s cabinet members, including Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey, per the New York Post. National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard alleged in July that files and records showed former President Barack Obama colluded with intelligence services to undermine the election of Donald Trump by falsely linking him to Russia. “There was a treasonous conspiracy in 2016 committed by officials at the highest level of government,” Gabbard said. “Their goal was to subvert the will of the American people and enact what was essentially a years-long coup with the objective of trying to usurp the president from fulfilling the mandate bestowed upon him by the American people,” she added. Gabbard further accused the Obama administration of an “egregious abuse of power and blatant rejection of our Constitution” that “threatens the very foundation and integrity of our democratic republic.” She further asserted that the former president and his national security cabinet members “manufactured and politicized intelligence to lay the groundwork” for falsifying claims that Russia influenced the 2016 election in favor of Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton.

Reuters [8/4/2025 6:05 AM, Jan Wolfe and Dietrich Knauth, 51390K] reports a federal appeals panel on Thursday appeared skeptical of U.S. President Donald Trump’s argument that a 1977 law historically used for sanctioning enemies or freezing their assets gave him the power to impose tariffs. Regardless of how the court rules, the litigation is almost certainly headed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The litigation challenges the tariffs Trump imposed on a broad range of U.S. trading partners in April, as well as tariffs imposed in February against China, Canada and Mexico. It centers around Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which gives the president the power to address "unusual and extraordinary" threats during national emergencies. Trump has said that trade imbalances, declining manufacturing power and the cross-border flow of drugs justified the tariffs under IEEPA. A dozen Democratic-led states and five small U.S. businesses challenging the tariffs argue that IEEPA does not cover tariffs and that the U.S. Constitution grants Congress, not the president, authority over tariffs and other taxes. A loss for Trump would also undermine the latest round of sweeping tariffs on dozens of countries that he unveiled late Thursday.

AP [8/4/2025 6:16 PM, Edith M. Lederer, 56000K] reports after decades of inaction and frozen negotiations, the issue of an independent Palestinian state living in peace with Israel returned to the spotlight at a high-level U.N. conference — and France and Saudi Arabia, which spearheaded the effort, are determined to keep up the momentum. But hurdles for a two-state solution that would see Israel living side-by-side with an independent Palestine are very high. War in Gaza — a crucial part of a hoped-for Palestinian state — drags on with escalating violence in the West Bank, the other main component. And Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government vehemently oppose an independent Palestinian state, which the Israeli leader says would be a reward for terrorism after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks against his country. Nonetheless, after eight decades of conflict between Israel and Palestinians, pressure is growing for a two-state solution, as last week’s high-level U.N. conference co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia demonstrated — even if it was boycotted by Israel and its close ally, the United States. The French U.N. ambassador, Jerome Bonnafont, conceded in an Associated Press interview that without a Gaza ceasefire and massive humanitarian aid for over 2 million Palestinians sliding toward famine, "it will be extremely difficult to move forward to define a new way of administering Gaza as part of Palestine" – and he said these are priority issues. But the conference demonstrated that a majority of the U.N.’s 193 member nations are "convinced that there is a possibility of a political solution," he said, and that is "what its follow-up will continue to promote.” An independent state of Palestine is recognized by over 145 countries, and the meeting sparked new pledges of recognition by three of the seven members of the powerful Group of Seven — France, United Kingdom and Canada — as well as Malta. A statement by seven others, including Australia, New Zealand, Finland and Portugal, expressed "positive consideration" of following suit. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farham are determined not to let the spotlight fade. They are planning "an event" during the annual gathering of world leaders at the General Assembly, which starts Sept. 23, when the new pledges are expected to be officially announced. The conference was notable for being co-chaired by an Arab and Western nation, and for setting up eight working groups with diverse chairs to make proposals on key issues for a two state solution — security for Israel and an independent Palestine, political reforms, legal problems, humanitarian assistance, economic development and Gaza reconstruction, to name some.

CNN [8/4/2025 1:58 PM, Elisabeth Buchwald and Michael Rios, 21433K] reports President Donald Trump said on Monday that he will "substantially" raise tariffs on India because it’s still buying Russian oil. "India is not only buying massive amounts of Russian Oil, they are then, for much of the Oil purchased, selling it on the Open Market for big profits," the president posted on his social media network, Truth Social. "Because of this, I will be substantially raising the Tariff paid by India to the USA.” But India pushed back, saying it is being unfairly targeted by the United States and European Union for importing oil from Russia. Tariffs are taxes directly paid by importers, though countries exporting goods could indirectly get harmed, as higher prices tend to drive demand down, leading countries to buy more from other countries with lower tariffs or to increase domestic production. Last week, Trump threatened a minimum 25% tariff on goods coming from India, set to take effect at the end of this week. Indian goods are currently subject to a 10% minimum rate. Trump did not specify what new tariff rate goods from India could be charged if it continues to purchase Russian oil. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs said the country began importing from Russia because traditional supplies were diverted to Europe after the start of Russia’s war on Ukraine. "India’s imports are meant to ensure predictable and affordable energy costs to the Indian consumer. They are a necessity compelled by (the) global market situation," a statement posted on social media from the ministry’s spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal read.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [8/4/2025 11:21 AM, Alex Gangitano, 18649K]

FOX News [8/4/2025 6:28 PM, Staff, 46878K] reports Fox News chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin has the latest on tensions in the region as President Trump’s deadline for peace draws near on ‘Special Report.’

Federalist [8/4/2025 7:32 AM, Helen Raleigh, 1142K] reports in March, the American financial powerhouse BlackRock announced that a group of investors it led had reached a deal with Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings to secure U.S. control over two strategically located ports operated by Hutchison at the Panama Canal. In response, China has been attempting to undermine this agreement. Beijing’s latest stance is to withhold its approval unless a Chinese state-owned enterprise is included as a partner in the deal. China views the Panama Canal as a strategic asset for expanding its economic and geopolitical influence in Latin America. In recent years, Beijing has significantly increased its investments in Panama through its "One Belt, One Road" global infrastructure initiative, making it the second-largest user of the canal. This growing presence has raised national security concerns in the United States. Sen. Ted Cruz has pointed out that the two ports operated by CK Hutchison Holdings could serve as "ready observation posts" for China to monitor U.S. military and commercial activities passing through the canal. In the event of military conflict between the U.S. and China, such as a dispute over Taiwan, there are fears that the Chinese military could block the passage of civilian and military ships through the canal. This disruption could threaten the U.S. economy and compromise national security.
It is concerning that BlackRock, CK Hutchison, and other investors are in discussions to include a strategic partner from China, namely COSCO, in the Panama ports deal. Alarmed by this situation, Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., chair of the Select Committee on the CCP, expressed his concerns in a letter to a senior Panamanian official. He stated, "The inclusion of COSCO — or any other Chinese company—in port operations or control along the canal would represent an unacceptable risk to the national security of both our nations. … A Panama Canal free of malign CCP influence would benefit the security of Panama, the United States, and Latin America as a whole.”

Reuters [8/4/2025 6:20 AM, Staff, 51390K] reports China’s military conducted patrols in the South China Sea from August 3 to 4, a spokesperson for the Southern Theatre Command said on Monday. The Philippines said on Monday that its navy and that of India had sailed together for the first time in the South China Sea, which China claims nearly the whole of, overlapping with maritime zones of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. The spokesperson described the Chinese patrol as "routine" but said the Philippines "so-called ‘joint patrol’ disrupted regional peace and stability". The Philippine embassy in Beijing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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