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

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

CBS News [12/17/2025 10:28 PM, Staff, 39474K] reports four people were killed in a U.S. military strike Wednesday on an alleged drug-running boat in the Eastern Pacific, the Pentagon said. It marks the latest in a series of strikes dating back to early September that the U.S. has conducted on what it claims are drug-trafficking vessels in the region. In a social media post, U.S. Southern Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in Central and South America, said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the "lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organizations in international waters.” As has been the case with previous such strikes, Southern Command also posted unclassified video showing the boat as it was struck. "Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations," Southern Command said. The victims were described as "four male narco-terrorists." The U.S. military provided no evidence to support allegations that the boat was ferrying drugs. The U.S. military has conducted 26 strikes on alleged drug-trafficking vessels in the Eastern Pacific or Caribbean since Sept. 2, killing at least 99 people, according to the Pentagon. FOX News [12/17/2025 9:22 PM, Jasmine Baehr, 40621K] reports that the operation was initiated at the direction of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth after intelligence verified the vessel’s mission. Joint Task Force Southern Spear was established to help unify Navy, Coast Guard, intelligence and special operations assets to rapidly strike time-sensitive targets at sea. Fox News confirmed that 98 casualties have resulted from these strikes since they began Sept. 2. The Pentagon has not released the identities of the four narco-terrorists killed or the specific terrorist organization involved. The Department of War did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. [Editorial note: consult video at source link] CNN [12/17/2025 8:38 PM, Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, 606K] reports that "On Dec. 17, at the direction of @SecWar Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by a Designated Terrorist Organizations in international waters," SOUTHCOM wrote on X. SOUTHCOM added no US service members were harmed in the strike. Wednesday’s attack marks the second this week, after the US struck three alleged drug-trafficking boats in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Monday, killing 8 people. At least 99 people have now been killed in strikes on suspected drug boats as part of a campaign, dubbed Operation Southern Spear, that the Trump administration has said is aimed at curtailing narcotics trafficking. The strikes are a part of increased US military action in South America, focused on Venezuela, a nation that President Donald Trump has accused of stealing US "oil, land and other assets.” The administration has moved thousands of troops and a carrier strike group into the Caribbean, and Trump on Tuesday ordered a "total and complete blockade" of sanctioned oil tankers coming to and leaving Venezuela. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro responded to Trump earlier Wednesday, accusing the US of seeking regime change along with ownership of Venezuela’s territory and resources. "It is simply a warmongering and colonialist pretense, and we have said so many times, and now everyone sees the truth. The truth has been revealed," Maduro said in Caracas. NBC News [12/17/2025 10:29 PM, Marlene Lenthang and Courtney Kube, 34509K] reports President Donald Trump signed an executive order this week designating fentanyl and its core precursor chemical as weapons of mass destruction. The strikes also come at a time of tension between the U.S. and Venezuela. Trump announced a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers on Venezuela on Tuesday and said on Truth Social that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is using oil revenue to finance illicit operations, including "drug terrorism." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The AP [12/17/2025 6:44 PM, David Klepper and Aamer Madhani, 31753K] reports President Donald Trump demanded Wednesday that Venezuela return assets that it seized from U.S. oil companies years ago, justifying anew his announcement of a "blockade" against oil tankers traveling to or from the South American country that face American sanctions. Trump cited the lost U.S. investments in Venezuela when asked about his newest tactic in a monthslong pressure campaign against leader Nicolás Maduro, suggesting his administration’s moves to confront leaders in Caracas are at least somewhat motivated by disputes over oil investments, along with accusations of drug trafficking. Some sanctioned tankers already are diverting away from Venezuela. "We’re not going to be letting anybody going through who shouldn’t be going through," Trump told reporters of his call for a blockade. "You remember they took all of our energy rights. They took all of our oil not that long ago. And we want it back. They took it — they illegally took it.” U.S. oil companies dominated Venezuela’s petroleum industry until the country’s leaders moved to nationalize the sector, first in the 1970s and again in the 21st century under Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez. Compensation offered by Venezuela was deemed insufficient, and in 2014 an international arbitration panel ordered the country’s socialist government to pay $1.6 billion to ExxonMobil. While Venezuela’s oil has long dominated relations with the U.S., the Trump administration has focused on Maduro’s links to drug traffickers, accusing his administration of facilitating the shipment of dangerous drugs into the U.S. In his social media post Tuesday night, Trump said Venezuela was using oil to fund drug trafficking and other crimes. Maduro called United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday for a conversation "regarding the current tensions in the region," U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said. "During the call, the secretary-general reaffirmed the United Nations’ position on the need for member states to respect international law, particularly the United Nations Charter, exert restraint and de-escalate tensions to preserve regional stability," Haq said. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil demanded in a letter to the U.N. Security Council, which was obtained by The Associated Press, that the U.S. immediately release the "kidnapped crew" and return the oil illegally confiscated on the high seas. In addition to urging the Security Council to condemn the taking of the tanker, Gil urged the U.N.’s most powerful body for a written statement stating that it hasn’t authorized actions against Venezuela "or against the international commercialization of its oil.” The Los Angeles Times [12/17/2025 6:56 PM, Patrick J. McDonnell, Ana Ceballos and Kate Linthicum, 14862K] reports “Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America," Trump said in a rambling post Tuesday night on his social media site. "It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before.” Not long after Trump announced the blockade Tuesday night, the government of Venezuela denounced the move and his other efforts as an attempt to "rob the riches that belong to our people.” Leaders of other Latin American nations called for calm and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, after a phone call with Maduro, called on U.N. members to "exert restraint and de-escalate tensions to preserve regional stability.” Also Wednesday, Trump received rare pushback from the Republican-dominated Congress, where some lawmakers are pressuring the administration to disclose more information about its deadly attacks on alleged drug boats. The Senate gave final approval to a $900-billion defense policy package that, among other things, would require the administration to disclose to lawmakers specific orders behind the boat strikes along with unedited videos of the deadly attacks. If the administration does not comply, the bill would withhold a quarter of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget. The bill’s passage came a day after Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed lawmakers on Capitol Hill about the U.S. military campaign. The meetings left lawmakers with a mixed reaction, largely with Republicans backing the campaign and Democrats expressing concern about it. The White House has said its military campaign in Venezuela is meant to curb drug trafficking, but U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration data show that Venezuela is a relatively minor player in the U.S.-bound narcotics trade. Trump also declared that the South American country had been designated a "foreign terrorist organization." That would apparently make Venezuela the first nation slapped with a classification normally reserved for armed groups deemed hostile to the United States or its allies. The consequences remain unclear for Venezuela

New York Times [12/17/2025 2:37 PM, Edward Wong, Anatoly Kurmanaev and Eric Schmitt, 135475K] reports Nicolás Maduro, the leader of Venezuela, ordered his navy to escort ships carrying petroleum products from port, risking a confrontation with the United States on the high seas as he defied President Trump’s declaration of a “blockade” aimed at the country’s oil industry. Several ships sailed from Venezuela toward Asia with a Venezuelan naval escort between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, said three people familiar with the transits. None of the commercial vessels are on the list of sanctioned tankers the United States is threatening to target. But the recent cascade of events, set off by the Trump administration’s seizure of a tanker last week and then by the president’s order of a partial “blockade” on Tuesday, increased the likelihood of a violent conflict. In the months since Mr. Trump began carrying out a pressure campaign against Venezuela, which includes lethal boat strikes that are widely deemed illegal by law experts, Mr. Maduro has refrained from answering with force. But that is being tested as Mr. Trump aims to drain the country’s oil revenues, the lifeblood of Venezuela’s economy, by cutting off some tanker traffic and seizing the oil. Mr. Trump has talked repeatedly over the years about taking oil from Venezuela and the Middle East, and one of his envoys pushed Mr. Maduro to give greater access to American oil companies in secret negotiations this year. Venezuelan oil has become a focus of Mr. Trump’s pressure campaign aimed at ousting Mr. Maduro, though publicly the administration frames it as a counternarcotics effort. The three ships that left the Port of José on the Caribbean coast of Venezuela carried urea, petroleum coke and other oil-based products, said two of the people familiar with the transits, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivities. The third person familiar with the matter, a U.S. official, said Washington was aware of the escorts and was considering various courses of action. The vessels leaving the port were not on a list of sanctioned vessels maintained by the Treasury Department, according to a review by New York Times. Venezuela’s state oil company, known as PDVSA, said in a statement on Wednesday that ships connected to its operations were continuing to sail “with full security, technical support and operational guarantees in legitimate exercise of their right to free navigation.” About 40 percent, or nearly 180, of the tankers that have transported Venezuelan crude in recent years have been placed under U.S. sanctions, according to Samir Madani, co-founder of TankerTrackers.com. There were more than 30 such vessels operating in Venezuela earlier this month, the group said. The vessels have a history of transporting oil from countries under U.S. sanctions.

FOX News [12/17/2025 8:24 AM, Efrat Lachter, 40621K] Video: HERE reports the Trump administration has moved its hemispheric security doctrine into full force in Venezuela, ordering a sweeping naval blockade on sanctioned oil tankers and labeling Nicolás Maduro’s government a Foreign Terrorist Organization — a dramatic escalation aimed at choking off the regime’s primary source of revenue and confronting what the White House calls a growing threat of cartel-driven "drug terrorism" and foreign influence in the region. Announcing the move on social media, Trump said Venezuela was now "completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the history of South America," a strike at an oil sector that accounts for roughly 88% of the country’s export earnings. The administration’s new National Security Strategy (NSS) places the Western Hemisphere at the center of U.S. national security planning, elevating regional instability, mass migration, cartels and foreign influence as direct challenges to American security. While the document does not single out Venezuela by name, its framework positions crises like Venezuela’s collapse as central to protecting what the strategy calls America’s "immediate security perimeter." According to the NSS, U.S. policy toward the hemisphere now focuses on preventing large-scale migration, countering "narco-terrorists, cartels, and other transnational criminal organizations," and ensuring the region remains "reasonably stable and well-governed enough to prevent and discourage mass migration." It also pledges to assert a "Trump Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine, aimed at blocking "hostile foreign incursion or ownership of key assets" by strategic competitors. A senior White House official said the Western Hemisphere chapter is designed to "reassert American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere" by strengthening regional security partnerships, curbing drug flows and preventing pressures that fuel mass migration. The official said the strategy situates the hemisphere as a foundational element of U.S. defense and prosperity. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The New York Post [12/17/2025 4:29 PM, Caitlin Doornbos, 42219K] reports House Democrats are set to force a pair of votes Wednesday in Congress to rein in Trump’s ability to attack Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro — a day after Trump declared the Caracas government a "foreign terrorist organization" and called for a "total and complete blockade" of the country’s oil imports and exports. The House will vote on two separate war powers resolutions to block additional military action without Congress’ explicit OK — one aimed at pulling US forces out of any conflict with Venezuelan forces, and another insisting that any new land offensive must be approved by Congress first. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) introduced a bill that would remove US troops "from hostilities with any presidentially designated terrorist organization in the Western Hemisphere" without lawmakers’ authorization. A second bill by Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) is less specific, and would remove the American forces "from hostilities within or against Venezuela that have not been authorized by Congress." CBS News [12/17/2025 2:35 PM, Caitlin Yilek, 39474K] reports that House Democrats plan to force votes Wednesday on two war powers resolutions amid escalating tensions with Venezuela as President Trump has warned that land strikes against the country could commence "soon." Mr. Trump’s threats come amid a monthslong military campaign against alleged drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean that have killed at least 95 people. The first measure, introduced by Democratic Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, would remove U.S. armed forces "from hostilities with any presidentially designated terrorist organization in the Western Hemisphere," unless Congress has declared war or authorized the use of military force for such purposes. A second measure from Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts would remove the armed forces "from hostilities within or against Venezuela that have not been authorized by Congress.” McGovern’s resolution could face the best chance of potential adoption, since it has three GOP co-sponsors — Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Don Bacon of Nebraska. Bacon said he also would vote in favor of Meeks’ measure. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth held two separate classified briefings Tuesday for all senators and House members. The House and Senate Armed Services Committee received a more detailed briefing on Wednesday with Navy Adm. Frank Bradley, who ordered a second strike killing survivors of the initial Sept. 2 strike.

AP [12/17/2025 5:33 PM, Stephen Groves, 31753K] reports the Senate gave final passage Wednesday to an annual military policy bill that will authorize $901 billion in defense programs while pressuring Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to provide lawmakers with video of strikes on alleged drug boats in international water near Venezuela. The annual National Defense Authorization Act, which raises troop pay by 3.8%, gained bipartisan backing as it moved through Congress. It passed the Senate on a 77-20 vote before lawmakers planned to leave Washington for a holiday break. Two Republicans — Sens. Rand Paul and Mike Lee — and 18 Democrats voted against the bill. The White House has indicated that it is in line with President Donald Trump’s national security priorities. However, the legislation, which ran over 3,000 pages, revealed some points of friction between Congress and the Pentagon as the Trump administration reorients its focus away from security in Europe and toward Central and South America. The bill pushes back on recent moves by the Pentagon. It demands more information on boat strikes in the Caribbean, requires that the U.S. keep its troop levels in Europe at current levels and sends some military aid to Ukraine. But overall, the bill represents a compromise between the parties. It implements many of Trump’s executive orders and proposals on eliminating diversity and inclusion efforts in the military and grants emergency military powers at the U.S. border with Mexico. It also enhances congressional oversight of the Department of Defense, repeals several years-old war authorizations and seeks to overhaul how the Pentagon purchases weapons as the U.S. tries to outpace China in developing the next generation of military technology. “We’re about to pass, and the president will enthusiastically sign, the most sweeping upgrades to DoD’s business practices in 60 years,” said Sen. Roger Wicker, the Republican chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

NewsMax [12/17/2025 12:05 PM, Jim Mishler, 4109K] reports several Republican senators are pressing War Secretary Pete Hegseth to release video from a Sept. 2 follow-up strike that involved a U.S. military attack on a Venezuelan boat suspected of drug smuggling. The Hill reported that Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he favors making the video available to lawmakers and potentially to the public. "My bias would be to make it available. That would be the best thing to do," Cornyn said, adding that releasing the footage could blunt Democratic claims that Hegseth is concealing wrongdoing. Cornyn said withholding the video fuels speculation but acknowledged the decision rests with Hegseth. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the footage should at least be shared with the full Congress, which Hegseth has so far declined to do. "I think the video should be given to everybody in Congress," Graham said, adding that while public interest may be limited, lawmakers should be able to review it. Hegseth told reporters Tuesday that the unedited video is too sensitive for public release under Department of War and Department of Defense policy. "We’re not going to release a top secret, full, unedited video of that to the general public," Hegseth said after a briefing.

AP [12/17/2025 5:44 PM, Regina Garcia Cano, 4722K] reports that U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to cut off Venezuelan oil sales could devastate a country already wrangling with years of spiraling crises. The prospect added to Venezuelans’ collective anxiety over their country’s future on Wednesday. But after years of political, social and economic challenges, Venezuelans also treated the threat like another inconvenience — even when it could bring back the shortages of food, gasoline and other goods that defined the country last decade. “Well, we’ve already had so many crises, shortages of so many things — food, gasoline — that one more ... well, one doesn’t worry anymore,” Milagro Viana said while waiting to catch a bus in Caracas, the capital. Trump on Tuesday announced he was ordering a blockade of all “sanctioned oil tankers” into Venezuela, ramping up pressure on President Nicolás Maduro, who has been charged with narcoterrorism in the U.S. Trump’s escalation came after U.S. forces last week seized an oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast after a buildup of military forces in the region. Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves and produces about 1 million barrels a day. The country’s economy depends on the industry, with more than 80% of output exported. Maduro’s government has relied on a shadowy fleet of unflagged tankers to smuggle crude into global supply chains since 2017, when the first Trump administration began imposing sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry.

Reuters [12/17/2025 2:54 PM, Staff, 36480K] reports foreign currency flows to Venezuela’s private sector, both in cash and cryptocurrency, could fall in the coming weeks after Washington ordered a blockade of oil tankers under sanctions, analysts and business leaders said, likely stoking inflation in the OPEC member. U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the blockade on Tuesday, Washington’s latest move to pressure Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government by targeting its main income source. Trump’s campaign against Maduro has included a military buildup in the region and more than two dozen strikes on boats in the Pacific and Caribbean that the U.S. says were trafficking drugs, killing at least 90 people. Trump has said repeatedly that U.S. ground attacks on Venezuela could begin soon and that Maduro should leave office, but the Venezuelan president appears to have firm military support and the backing of his cabinet and allies such as Russia. Maduro and his government have always denied any connections to drug trafficking and say the U.S. is seeking a leadership change to take control of Venezuela’s natural resources, especially its huge crude reserves.

Breitbart [12/17/2025 1:28 PM, Staff, 2416K] reports that Venezuela struck a defiant note Wednesday, insisting that crude oil exports were not impacted by US President Donald Trump’s announcement of a blockade. Trump’s announcement on Tuesday marked a new escalation in his months-long campaign of military and economic pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Venezuela, which has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, shrugged off the threat of more pain, insisting that it was business as usual. "Export operations for crude and byproducts continue normally. Oil tankers linked to PDVSA operations continue to sail with full security," state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) said in a statement. Trump said on Tuesday that he was imposing "a total and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going into and out of Venezuela." Referring to the heavy US military presence in the Caribbean — including the world’s largest aircraft carrier — Trump warned "Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America." Oil prices surged in early trading Wednesday in London on the news of the blockade, which comes a week after US troops seized a sanctioned oil tanker near the coast of Venezuela. Venezuela’s battered economy relies heavily on petroleum exports. But the country’s military, which supports hard-left leader Maduro, said it was "not intimidated."

New York Times [12/17/2025 3:00 PM, Robert Jimison, 135475K] reports that the House Armed Services Committee is “done” examining a U.S. military strike on a boat in the Caribbean where two survivors were killed in a follow-up attack, the panel’s chairman said on Wednesday after viewing video from the mission in a classified briefing. Representative Mike Rogers, Republican of Alabama and the panel’s chairman, said that the Pentagon had fully met his expectations for congressional oversight and that he would not pursue additional hearings or briefings. “I’m satisfied everybody answered all the questions and I’m also satisfied that this was a lawful process that was followed,” Mr. Rogers said after a classified briefing led by Adm. Frank M. Bradley. “My committee is done.” Lawmakers emerged from classified briefings on Capitol Hill sharply divided after viewing video of the Sept. 2 follow-up strike, with Republicans largely expressing confidence in the Pentagon’s legal rationale and Democrats questioning the strike’s legality and pressing for greater transparency. Representative Don Bacon, Republican of Nebraska, said he was satisfied with the intelligence and the legal justification presented by Pentagon officials during the closed-door House briefing, describing what he said was a rigorous decision-making process.

CNN [12/18/2025 5:02 AM, Betsy Klein, 18595K] reports in President Donald Trump’s telling, a land strike on Venezuela could come “soon.” He’s been saying that since mid-September. In that time, he’s publicly hinted or outright promised US military action on land at least 17 times, according to a CNN analysis of his appearances. The president’s rhetorical threat has been backed up by a massive show of force in the region, including roughly 15,000 US troops and more than a dozen warships, plus at least 12 strikes launched against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean. Last week, the US seized a tanker full of Venezuelan crude off the country’s coast. And on Tuesday, Trump announced a “total and complete blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers coming to and leaving from Venezuela, applying new economic pressure on Caracas. The Trump administration has sold its boat strikes as an effort to crack down on illegal flows of drugs and migrants from Venezuela. But its actions have also pointed to a sweeping pressure campaign on President Nicolás Maduro — whose ouster White House chief of staff Susie Wiles has suggested is the administration’s real goal. “He wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle. And people way smarter than me on that say that he will,” Wiles said of Trump in an interview with Vanity Fair that published this week. Trump has been briefed by his team on a range of options for Venezuela, including airstrikes on key military or government facilities or drug trafficking routes — or a more direct attempt to take out Maduro. But as the president appears to still be weighing a decision, he’s repeatedly invoked the threat of land strikes — even bringing them up unprompted at unrelated events. “We’re telling the cartels right now. We’re going to be stopping them, too. When they come by land, we’re going to be stopping them the same way we stopped the boats. And you’ll see that,” Trump said at a September 15 event on federal assistance for Memphis law enforcement in the days after the boat strikes began.

Breitbart [12/17/2025 10:09 AM, Frances Martel, 2416K] reports José Antonio Kast, the conservative president-elect of Chile, told reporters on Tuesday that he would support “any situation that ends a dictatorship,” referring to a potential American military operation to oust Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro. Kast, who won his country’s presidency in a historic landslide against Communist Party candidate Jeannette Jara on Sunday made the remarks during a press availability in Buenos Aires where he traveled to meet with fellow right-wing Argentine President Javier Milei. Milei and Kast have supported each other for years, long before each won their respective elections. Given the physical proximity of the two countries, Kast made Argentina his first international stop following his victory. The president-elect’s support for ousting the Maduro regime, an illegitimate socialist narco-state that has maintained itself in power for over two decades through violent oppression and alliances with terrorists, follows Maduro himself lamenting Kast’s win in Chile and threatening the country in the event that Kast follows through with his campaign promise to restrict immigration. Chile, a country of an estimated 20 million people, has experienced a population boom following the collapse of the Venezuelan economy. According to the United Nations, nearly 8 million Venezuelans have been forced to flee socialism, most staying elsewhere in South America, including Chile. Asked about military interventions against Venezuela in the context of President Donald Trump’s actions to enforce sanctions on the country, Kast expressed support. “Clearly we cannot intervene in that because we are a small country,” Kast observed, “but if someone is going to do it, have it be clear to them that they would solve for us and for all of Latin America, for all of South America, a giant problem.”

The Washington Examiner [12/17/2025 12:30 PM, Timothy Nerozzi, 1394K] reports Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, a consistent opponent of President Donald Trump on foreign policy since the beginning of his second administration, made an explicit call for the United Nations to intervene against U.S. military operations in the region. Trump’s saber-rattling against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has exasperated political divisions in South America, with some leaders welcoming military action and others pleading for international protection. "I call on the United Nations to fulfill its role. It has not been present. It must assume its role to prevent any bloodshed," Sheinbaum said on Wednesday morning during a press conference. "The entire world must ensure that there is no intervention and that there is a peaceful solution." Trump designated the Venezuelan government as a foreign terrorist organization on Tuesday, accusing the Maduro government of supporting "terrorism, drug smuggling, and human trafficking." "Because of President Trump’s declaration and the situation in Venezuela, we reiterate Mexico’s position, in accordance with the Constitution, of non-intervention or foreign interference, self-determination of peoples, and peaceful resolution of disputes," Sheinbaum explained. NewsMax [12/17/2025 6:25 PM, Michael Katz, 4109K] reports Venezuela relies overwhelmingly on oil exports for revenue, and the blockade strikes at the heart of the country’s economy. By cutting off sanctioned oil shipments, the U.S. seeks to tighten pressure on Maduro and weaken his grip on power. "Beyond opinions about the Venezuelan regime and the Maduro presidency, Mexico’s position must always be ‘no’ to intervention, ‘no’ to foreign interference, peaceful resolution of conflicts, and dialogue for peace," Sheinbaum said. The White House defended Trump’s actions, pointing to his campaign pledge to confront cartel violence and drug trafficking. "On the campaign trail, President Trump promised to take on the cartels — and he has taken unprecedented action to stop the scourge of narco-terrorism that has resulted in the needless deaths of innocent Americans," White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told Newsmax. "All of these decisive strikes have been against designated narco-terrorists bringing deadly poison to our shores, and the President will continue to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into our country.” Sheinbaum also offered Mexico as a venue for talks between Venezuela and the United States, according to El País. "We can be a meeting point if the parties so choose," she said. "And if not, we can seek mediators to prevent any conflict in the region.”

FOX News [12/17/2025 5:40 PM, Staff, 40621K] Audio: HERE reports Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, joined The Guy Benson Show today to discuss several high-profile immigration and public safety cases, including the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant accused of crimes such as human trafficking and domestic violence who was freed despite DHS efforts to deport him. Benson and McLaughlin also discussed the outrageous case of Edis Renan Diaz, an illegal immigrant convicted of raping a disabled woman who was controversially praised by an Obama federal judge for his “family devotion” and willingness to do work others would not. McLaughlin also addressed the misleading portrayal of Sae Joon Park by a member of Congress, clarified the status of Guan Heng, and more. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

New York Post [12/17/2025 12:36 PM, Vaughn Golden and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon, 42219K] reports the Chinese national charged in a deadly tour bus wreck on a Tennessee highway had entered the US illegally — but was still issued a driver’s license by New York state, The Post has learned. Huang Yisong, 54, crossed the US-Mexico border in 2023 and was released under Biden administration policies, eventually ending up in Brooklyn and snagging a commercial driver’s license from the state, federal homeland security and transportation officials said. "Far too many innocent Americans have been killed by illegal aliens driving semi-trucks and big rigs," Homeland Security Secretary Kirsti Noem said in a statement to The Post. "And yet, sanctuary states around the country have been issuing illegal aliens commercial driver’s licenses." Yisong was taken into custody on vehicular homicide charges following last week’s crash on Interstate 40 West that killed a 31-year-old truck driver and injured several others, officials said. The feds said Yisong admitted to US Border Patrol agents that he had entered the States illegally, but was released with work papers and a Social Security card — which allowed him to get a NYS commercial driver’s license earlier this year. The New York State Department of Motor Vehicles, which has denied that the agency wrongfully approved Yisong for the license, said Wednesday that it was issued to him on April 11, 2025, after he presented legit federal documents. The issuing of commercial licenses to migrants in sanctuary states like New York has been an issue pushed to the forefront by the Trump White House, part of the president’s crackdown on illegal immigration. "The Trump Administration is ending the chaos," Noem said. "The brave men and women of ICE are working nonstop to get criminal illegal aliens out of our communities and off our roads.”

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [12/17/2025 6:33 PM, Bob Price, 2416K]
Breitbart [12/17/2025 3:44 PM, John Binder, 2416K]
Blaze [12/17/2025 4:45 PM, Candace Hathaway, 1442K]
FOX News [12/17/2025 6:47 PM, Bonny Chu, 40621K]
Daily Caller [12/17/2025 4:29 PM, Jason Hopkins, 835K]

Breitbart [12/17/2025 4:26 PM, Warner Todd Huston, 2416K] reports Homeland Security officials are taking aim at Washington state sanctuary-supporting politicians after an illegal alien truck driver allegedly caused a multi-vehicle accident that killed an American citizen. In a December 16 press release, DHS blasted Washington state’s Democrat establishment for refusing to hand over Indian national Kamalpreet Singh after he caused a December 11 accident that took the life of American citizen Robert Pearson. DHS cited local reports that said the incident occurred when Singh, 25, failed to slow down while driving a semi-truck and his vehicle struck the rear of another car, pushing that vehicle into a third car. The vehicle Singh hit burst into flames. The driver, Robert Pearson, died at the scene. The wreckage blocked the highway for about seven hours. Despite having an immigration detainer on him, officials in Washington State ignored the ICE request and allowed Singh to walk right out of jail and back into the population. "These demented and dangerous sanctuary policies have deadly consequences," said DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin in a statement. "Robert Pearson would still be alive today if the Biden administration hadn’t released this illegal alien into our country. How many more Americans have to be killed before Democrat politicians start to put the public’s safety ahead of politics?"

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [12/17/2025 4:05 PM, John Binder, 2416K]

CBS Colorado [12/17/2025 4:48 PM, Anna Alejo, 39474K] reports a federal judge in Denver on Wednesday gave federal immigration authorities and the Justice Department until Dec. 24 to hold a bond hearing for detained immigration activist Jeanette Vizguerra. The judge ordered the government to bring Vizguerra "before an impartial immigration judge for a constitutionally adequate bond hearing, in which the Government bears the burden of establishing by clear and convincing evidence that Petitioner presents a flight risk or danger to the community, such that continued detention is justified." The order came as Vizguerra and her supporters were marking her ninth month in detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the GEO facility in Aurora. ICE officials in Denver said they are working on providing a response to the order. Previously, an ICE spokesperson said, "Vizguerra has a final order of deportation issued by a federal immigration judge. She illegally entered the United States near El Paso, Texas, on Dec. 24, 1997, and has received legal due process in U.S. immigration court."

NewsMax [12/17/2025 3:07 PM, Nicole Weatherholtz, 4109K] reports White House border czar Tom Homan says the Trump administration is investigating Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., for alleged immigration fraud, reviving long-standing claims about how the progressive lawmaker became a U.S. citizen. Homan made the remarks last week on Newsmax’s "Rob Schmitt Tonight," saying he had recently been advised by a fraud investigator to examine Omar’s immigration history. Homan added that the investigator told him there was no doubt that immigration fraud was committed and said that anyone convicted of such violations would be deported. The allegations stem from claims made previously by President Donald Trump and others that Omar married her brother to obtain U.S. citizenship — accusations Omar has repeatedly denied, and which have not been proved.

The Hill [12/17/2025 1:39 PM, Ryan Mancini, 12595K] reports that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) on Wednesday called White House border czar Tom Homan "sick" after he said the Trump administration is investigating her for alleged immigration fraud. Independent journalist Nicholas Ballasy asked Omar on Capitol Hill if she had a response to recent comments Homan made during a Newsmax interview. Ballasy later inquired why the Minnesota Democrat thought he brought up the probe. "Because they’re sick," Omar said before entering an elevator. She also noted that she does not know what is being investigated in connection with her and that investigators will "absolutely not" find anything incriminating. Homan told "Rob Schmitt Tonight" on Dec. 8 that he was "advised by a fraud investigator the other day" to look into Omar. The claim stems from allegations made by President Trump and others without evidence that she married her brother to obtain U.S. citizenship — claims she has denied. "You know, there was immigration fraud involved," Homan said. "The statute of limitation became an issue in the last four years when this was first brought up. Who was president? Who ran [the Department of Justice]?". The Trump official added that the investigator claimed there was "no doubt" immigration fraud was being committed. He also claimed anyone convicted of it will be deported.

Blaze [12/17/2025 7:00 PM, Staff, 1442K] reports that, on December 10, border czar Tom Homan announced that investigators were working to determine if Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) had committed immigration fraud by lying on her marriage certificate — which has been a source of rumors for years now. "She’s on her third marriage now. She really loves getting married here in America, which, like, as a Muslim, I’m pretty sure is frowned upon. The marrying the brother thing, actually I don’t think that’s frowned upon in the Muslim world," BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales comments on "Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.” When Omar was later confronted by journalist Nicholas Ballasy, who asked her for any response to the allegations, she said, "I have no response because I don’t know what they’ll be investigating.” When pressed further, Omar responded that the reason they’re investigating her for immigration fraud is because "they’re sick.” "She’s like, ‘I don’t even know what they would be investigating.’ Uh, that you married your brother. I think that’s pretty obvious. I think it’s weird that you say, ‘I don’t know what they’d be investigating.’ I think a response from someone who, like, hadn’t just married their freaking brother would be like, ‘Uh, yeah. I mean, this guy was very clearly not my brother. They’re welcome to investigate that,’" Gonzales says. "That seems to be what a normal person would say in response to, ‘Hey, did you marry your brother?’" she adds. However, the fraud might go even deeper than just her marriage. "Omar was caught lying about her birth year, and Minnesota legislative records corroborate that," Gonzales explains, pulling up Omar’s page in the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library. "It listed her birth date. It says October 4, 1981, but an updated version of the page lists her birth year as 1982," she says. "Could be nothing. But what this also could mean is that it would call into question the legitimacy of her citizenship actually," she continues, explaining that Omar once told Mehdi Hasan on his podcast "Deconstructed" that she became a citizen before she turned 18, through the process of her father becoming a citizen. And according to Gonzales, there are three pathways to citizenship Omar could have taken. "Number one is acquisition. Well, that wouldn’t apply to Ilhan Omar because neither of her parents were U.S. citizens when she was born in Somalia. All right, so cross that one off the list. Number two is the derivation of citizenship, which requires foreign-born children to turn 18 on or after February 27, 2001," Gonzales explains. "Well, you can check that one off the list also because it would not apply to Ilhan because she would have been older than 18, even if we used her possibly fake birth year of 1982. So that one also would not apply," she says. "Number three, application for citizenship under section 322 of the Immigration and Naturalization Act. Now, pay attention. This is the — ding, ding, ding — this is the one that matters because Ilhan Omar’s family first arrived in the United States in 1995, which means 2000 would be the first year her father would be eligible for citizenship," she continues. "So, if Omar was born in 1981, she would have been 18 years old up until October 2000 and 19 years old after October 2000. Meaning she — if that’s her birthday — was an adult, and not eligible for this path of citizenship. If that was her birthday, she was not eligible for the only path of citizenship she would have been eligible for at that time," she says.

AP [12/18/2025 12:05 AM, Michael Biesecker, Jaimie Ding, Christine Fernado, Claire Rush and Ryan J. Foley, 31753K] reports the federal agent described her wounds as "boo-boos.” Nevertheless, the Justice Department aggressively pursued the alleged perpetrator. They jailed Sidney Lori Reid on a charge of felony assault, accusing her of injuring the agent during a July protest of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in Washington, D.C. When grand jurors thrice declined to indict the 44-year-old on the felony, prosecutors tried Reid on a misdemeanor. Body camera footage played at trial revealed that Reid had not intentionally struck the agent. Instead, the agent had scratched her hand on a wall while assisting another agent who had shoved Reid and told her to "shut the f—- up" and "mind her own business.” It took jurors less than two hours to acquit the animal hospital worker. "It seemed like my life was just going to be taken away from me," said Reid, who spent two days in jail and worried she would lose her new job and apartment. "It broke my heart because this is supposed to be a good and fair country and I did not see anything surrounding my case that was good or fair at all for anybody.” Reid’s case was part of the Justice Department’s months-long effort to prosecute people accused of assaulting or hindering federal officers while protesting Trump’s immigration crackdown and military deployments. Attorney General Pam Bondi has ordered prosecutors to charge those accused of assaulting officers "with the highest provable offense available under the law." In a recent statement, Bondi pledged that offenders will face "severe consequences.” The Justice Department has struggled to deliver on that commitment, however. In examining 166 federal criminal cases brought since May against people in four Democratic-led cities at the epicenter of demonstrations, The Associated Press found of the 100 people initially charged with felony assaults on federal agents, 55 saw their charges reduced to misdemeanors, or dismissed outright. At least 23 pleaded guilty, most of them to reduced charges in deals with prosecutors that resulted in little or no jail time. More than 40% of the cases involved relatively minor misdemeanor charges, a figure that appears to undermine Trump’s claims that many of those accused are domestic terrorists. All five defendants, including Reid, who went to trial so far were acquitted. Prosecutors have successfully secured felony indictments against at least 58 people, some initially charged with misdemeanors. Those people have been accused of an assortment of assaults that include throwing rocks at federal vehicles, and punching or kicking officers. Those cases are awaiting trial. Several factors help explain the mixed record. Sometimes prosecutors have failed to win grand jury indictments required to prosecute someone on a felony. In other instances, videos and testimony have called into question the initial allegations, resulting in prosecutors downgrading offenses. In dozens of cases, officers suffered only minor injuries, or no injuries at all, undercutting a key component of the felony assault charge that requires the potential for serious bodily harm. "Rioters and other violent criminals have threatened our law enforcement officers, thrown rocks, bottles, and fireworks at them, slashed the tires of their vehicles, rammed them, ambushed them, and even shot at them," said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.

AP [12/18/2025 12:05 AM, Todd Richmond, 13945K] reports a Wisconsin judge accused of helping a Mexican immigrant evade federal authorities is set to present her case as her trial on obstruction and concealment charges winds down. Prosecutors rested their case against Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan on Wednesday after three days of testimony. Dugan’s defense attorneys said they planned to call four witnesses starting Thursday morning. It wasn’t clear whether Dugan would take the stand. Closing arguments could begin as early as Thursday afternoon. The highly unusual charges against a sitting judge are an extraordinary consequence of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. Dugan’s supporters say Trump is looking to make an example of her to blunt judicial opposition to immigration arrests. Prosecutors have tried to show that Dugan intentionally interfered with members of a federal immigration task force’s efforts to arrest 31-year-old Eduardo Flores-Ruiz at the Milwaukee County Courthouse. Members of the task force testified that they learned Flores-Ruiz was in the country illegally after he was arrested in Milwaukee on state battery charges. He was scheduled to appear for a hearing in front of Dugan on April 18. Six agents and officers staked out Dugan’s courtroom that morning, ready to arrest him when he emerged from the hearing. Don’t let Google decide who you trust. Make SFGATE a preferred source so your search results prioritize writing by actual people, not AI. They testified that Dugan and another judge, Kristela Cervera, stepped into the hallway wearing their robes. Dugan angrily told four members of the team to report to the chief judge’s office. As Cervera led them to the office, Dugan went back to her courtroom and led Flores-Ruiz out a private door into the hallway. Prosecutors produced transcripts of audio recordings from microphones in her courtroom that show Dugan told her court reporter that she’d take "the heat" for showing Flores-Ruiz out the private door. Two agents Dugan missed during her confrontations with the team followed Flores-Ruiz outside and a foot chase through traffic ensued before he was finally arrested. Members of the team testified that Dugan divided them and forced them out of position, leaving them too short-handed to make a safe arrest in the hallway. Cervera, for her part, testified that she was uncomfortable backing up Dugan during her confrontations with the arrest team. She said she was shocked when she heard Dugan led Flores-Ruiz out a private door, adding that judges shouldn’t help defendants evade arrest. Cervera also testified that Dugan told her three days after the incident that Dugan was "in the doghouse" with the chief judge, Carl Ashley, because she "tried to help that guy.” Dugan’s attorneys have countered during cross-examinations that Dugan didn’t intend to obstruct the arrest team and was trying to follow a draft courthouse policy from Ashley that called for court employees to refer immigration agents looking to make an arrest in the courthouse to supervisors. They’ve also argued that the arrest team could have apprehended Flores-Ruiz at any point after he emerged from the courtroom and Dugan shouldn’t be blamed for their decision to wait until he got outside.

NBC News [12/17/2025 3:58 PM, Lucia Walinchus, Suzanne Gamboa and Joe Murphy, 34509K] reports more than 117,000 immigrants — at least half of whom have lived in the country a decade or more — face potential deportation after the Trump administration pushed to reopen cases previously paused by an immigration judge, an NBC News analysis shows. Most of those requests to reopen, also known as "re-calendaring" cases, were filed in Arizona, California, Florida and New York. But the Trump administration argued in a memo in April that administrative closure has been used as a policy tool by administrations "opposed to robust immigration enforcement." The memo stated it contributes to immigration case backlogs, because it "kicks the can down the road." In an email to NBC News, the Department of Justice’s Executive Office of Immigration Review stated that administrative closure has made dockets worse by creating "a possibly unconstitutional and unlawful amnesty program that allows aliens to remain in the country indefinitely but does not definitively resolve their immigration status." The administration’s recalendaring requests have left attorneys scrambling to find clients that they have not been in touch with for years, or who have died or left the country, several lawyers and judges told NBC News. Some attorneys said they were trying to piece together cases without the original lawyer. Tricia McLaughlin, Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary for communications, said in a statement to NBC News that Trump and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem "are following the law and resuming these illegal aliens’ removal proceedings while ensuring their cases are heard by a judge."

Telemundo [12/17/2025 6:38 PM, Albinson Linares, 2218K] reports U.S. federal agencies keep dozens of fugitive criminals under close surveillance who are considered extremely dangerous. Among them, some Latin Americans and Hispanics lead the lists of the most wanted criminals for crimes ranging from drug trafficking and terrorism, to murder and human trafficking. Quantious rewards, phone lines and emails enabled to receive complaints, possible sightings and any data are some of the tools implemented by the security forces in order to arrest and prosecute all the people who appear on their official lists. The rewards for information leading to your catches reach 15 million dollars in some cases. News Telemundo reviewed the official lists of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the DEA (Administration for Drug Control), ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and the ATF (Office of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) to identify some of the Latinos who, year after year, remain classified as the most wanted by the United States Government.

AP [12/17/2025 3:51 PM, Gary Fields, 31753K] reports that Veteran police officer Jeffery Carroll will take over as interim chief of Washington’s police force, Mayor Muriel Bowser said Wednesday, after it was announced earlier this month that the department’s leader was stepping down. Carroll, who joined the Metropolitan Police Department in 2002, takes over as a federal law enforcement surge is underway in the nation’s capital, launched by President Donald Trump in August. Trump’s Republican administration says the operation is meant to tackle crime rates that for years were surging but had been on the decline. In his current role as executive assistant chief of specialized operations, Carroll is responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of the department. He was appointed to the position by outgoing police Chief Pamela Smith in 2023. Carroll’s profile has risen recently as he joined Bowser at press conferences in connection with the shooting last month of two National Guard troops as they patrolled a subway station three blocks from the White House. Carroll provided details of the shooting during the initial press conference, including that the attack had been carried out by a lone gunman. As a career MPD officer, Carroll joins a line of other chiefs who have risen through the ranks of the department.

Chicago Tribune [12/17/2025 2:15 PM, Jeremy Gorner, 4829K] reports that the 300 Illinois National Guard troops under Republican President Donald Trump’s control since early October — despite Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker’s objections — will remain federalized until mid-April, even though the Guard members have carried out no significant operational missions and have spent most of their time stationed at a northern Illinois base. A spokesperson for the Pritzker administration and U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth each told the Tribune that the Trump administration plans to keep the Illinois National Guard members federalized until April 15, and a Pentagon official said the troops would remain under federal control until that month. They were deployed to support the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement personnel participating in the Republican president’s deportation efforts in the Chicago area. The revelation comes as the Oct. 4 order by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth federalizing Guard troops to support the Department of Homeland Security’s Operation Midway Blitz has long passed the initial 60-day deadline. It also comes as a wave of additional Border Patrol agents arrived in Chicago this week and began detaining and arresting people.

Wall Street Journal [12/17/2025 12:53 PM, Jess Bravin, 646K] reports a federal appeals court on Wednesday allowed President Trump to continue deploying National Guard units on the streets of the capital city at least temporarily, rejecting the District of Columbia’s argument that the military mission is unlawful without assent from Washington’s elected mayor. Writing for a unanimous three-member panel, U.S. Circuit Judge Patricia Millett said the Trump administration is likely to prevail in its argument that the president possesses a unique power within the nation’s capital to mobilize the Guard “because the District of Columbia is a federal district created by Congress, rather than a constitutionally sovereign entity like the fifty States.” Trump has been mobilizing National Guard units to support immigration crackdowns and law-enforcement surges in several Democratic-run cities. Some state and local officials, representing areas where Trump is deeply unpopular, have protested the moves as a political stunt. Lawsuits over the deployments have produced mixed results in cities from Los Angeles to Chicago, with the latter now pending before the Supreme Court. In his lawsuit, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb, a Democrat, argued that Trump exceeded his powers both in mobilizing the district’s local Guard force and in sending to Washington units from several Republican-led states, including Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi. About 2,000 Guardsmen have been deployed, about equally divided between D.C. and the state forces. A spokesman for Schwalb noted that the ruling was preliminary and that litigation over the dispute would continue while the Guard remained deployed. “We look forward to continuing our case both in the District and appellate courts,” the spokesman said. Wednesday’s decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit stressed that the capital city is a federal enclave where the president holds greater powers over the National Guard. Millett suggested that the district’s unique legal status meant that the decision may have little relevance for the states fighting Trump’s decision to take charge of their Guard units.

Reuters [12/17/2025 6:00 AM, Mike Spector, M.B. Pell, Benjamin Lesser, Ned Parker, and Isaac Vargas, 36480K] reports the Capitol riot of January 2021 set off the largest criminal investigation in the Justice Department’s history. For federal prosecutor Ashley Akers, it was a defining moment in a seven-year career spent untangling complex cases, from wire fraud to domestic terrorism. She helped put away dozens of rioters – including some who swung bats and beat police officers. Then the tables turned. On his first day back in office, U.S. President Donald Trump granted clemency to every criminally charged January 6 rioter. Akers resigned. And as rioters celebrated their freedom, a chilling threat arrived. One so grotesque it still lingers, said Akers: an online message invoking Seven, the 1995 thriller, imagining her decapitated head in a box. Now, Akers and other prosecutors who handled Capitol riot cases face a new threat. Reuters has learned that pardoned January 6 rioters have been advising Justice Department officials how to pursue – and perhaps prosecute – the very prosecutors who helped put them behind bars. Inside the Justice Department, a "Weaponization Working Group," led by Ed Martin, a former defense lawyer for January 6 rioters, is drafting a previously undisclosed report that is re-examining the Capitol attack, according to four January 6 prosecutors and a review of government documents. When presented with Reuters’ findings, a department spokesperson confirmed the report is being drafted. Martin and other Justice Department officials have held talks individually with at least three people charged in the Capitol attack since Trump’s inauguration, the three pardoned defendants said. During those meetings, the former defendants urged officials to pursue charges against prosecutors, FBI agents and judges who presided over their cases. One ex-defendant drafted a sample indictment at the request of a Justice Department official. Half a dozen January 6 prosecutors told Reuters they fear that the report and Martin’s investigators could allege widespread wrongdoing by Capitol riot prosecutors, creating a pretext for taking legal action against them or to justify government payouts to rioters. Told that the Justice Department is drafting a report re-examining the January 6 attack, U.S. Representative Bennie Thompson, the Mississippi Democrat who led the House committee that investigated the riot, said he was "absolutely shocked." Capitol riot prosecutors were "doing their job," Thompson said in an interview. Prosecutors should be insulated from political interference, he added.

Washington Post [12/17/2025 6:00 AM, Isaac Arnsdorf, 24149K] reports the Department of Homeland Security fast-tracked a contract worth almost $1 billion to a company led by a donor to a pro-Trump nonprofit group where one of the officials overseeing the deal previously worked, according to records reviewed by The Washington Post. That donor, William Walters, leads another company that received a separate $140 million contract from DHS to purchase six Boeing 737 planes to use for deportations, The Post reported last week. The larger contract involves a DHS program called Project Homecoming that offers cash bonuses, free flights and a “concierge service” at airports for departing migrants. The program arose from an executive order on the first day of President Donald Trump’s second term directing DHS to develop policies to encourage immigrants to leave the country voluntarily, a process the administration calls “self-deportation.” The agency said nonpartisan professionals control its contracting decisions. But in the case of the Project Homecoming contract, political appointees coordinated the process, emails obtained by The Post show. That contract went to an Arlington-based company called Salus Worldwide Solutions, according to an official with direct knowledge of the matter. The company was incorporated in June 2023. Its website describes experience coordinating international travel, disaster aid and secure facilities. Salus had never received a federal contract before, according to government spending records. It served as a subcontractor on two State Department contracts, according to a lawsuit challenging the Project Homecoming contract. Walters, the company’s CEO, was a donor to the America First Policy Institute, according to government documentation reviewed by The Post. AFPI does not publicly disclose its donors. The nonprofit recognized Walters as one of three recipients of a “Patriot Award” at its annual gala in November 2024.

Los Angeles Times [12/17/2025 10:33 PM, Clara Harter, 14862K] reports federal agents arrested 16 alleged members of Puente-13 — a violent San Gabriel Valley-based gang known for carrying out killings "greenlighted" by the Mexican Mafia, kidnapping enemies and trafficking significant amounts of methamphetamine and fentanyl, authorities said. The suspects were arrested Wednesday on federal complaints alleging their involvement in a kidnapping, two shootings, illegal firearms sales and the trafficking of narcotics, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The complaints name 20 alleged members and associates, three of whom remain at large and one who was already in state custody. The at-large defendants are Larry Castillo, 42, a.k.a. "Lil Dee," of Victorville; Soo Kang, 31, a.k.a. "Easy," of Koreatown; and Bryan Gordian-Padilla, 24, a.k.a. "Goon," of West Covina. Authorities said others arrested Wednesday had aliases including "Pollo," "Ghost," "Snowbella," "Lil Speedy" and "Monkey.” During the investigation, authorities seized 71 firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition, prosecutors said. They confiscated thousands of pills containing fentanyl and carfentanil — a synthetic drug more than 100 times as potent as fentanyl by weight — and 10 pounds of methamphetamine. In addition to drug trafficking and illegal firearm sales, the complaints link alleged Puente-13 members to three violent crimes — a December 2022 shooting of rival gangsters at a Covina residence; a July 2023 kidnapping of two victims, one of whom was beaten with a metal pole; and a May 2025 shooting outside a La Puente liquor store. Puente-13 is a multigenerational Latino street gang that was founded in the early 1950s in La Puente, according to an affidavit filed with the complaints. Over the years, it has expanded its membership to about 600 affiliates and its territory to the communities of Hacienda Heights, Walnut, Industry, Pomona and West Covina, the affidavit states. There are at least 14 known subsets, or "cliques," with names such as Ballista Street, Blackwood Street, Northam Street and Dial Avenue, taken from areas where leaders live. The "13" in the gang’s name denotes its affiliation with the Mexican Mafia, as the letter "M" is the 13th letter in the alphabet. The Mexican Mafia gang originated within the prison system to control and direct the activities of Southern California Latino street gangs, according to the affidavit. "The Mexican Mafia leaders issued directions and orders, including orders to kill rival gang members, which were referred to as ‘green-lights,’" the affidavit states. "Those orders were to be executed by California street gang members, including members of Puente-13, and were understood by Puente-13 gang members as opportunities to gain elevated status.” Mexican Mafia leaders also collected a share of Puente-13 members’ profits in drug and firearm sales as a form of tax, the affidavit states.

Bloomberg [12/17/2025 12:48 PM, Maya Averbuch, 18207K] reports that the US Treasury added Mexico’s Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel to its sanctions list, blaming the criminal group for fuel theft that undercuts global energy markets. The group operates near a refinery run by state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, in Guanajuato state, stealing fuel from pipelines to sell on a black market that spans the US, Mexico and Central America, according to the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. The US Treasury added Mexico’s Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel to its sanctions list, blaming the criminal group for fuel theft that undercuts global energy markets. CBS Miami [12/17/2025 10:15 AM, Nicole Sganga, 39474K] reports that the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated the Guanajuato-based group known as the "Cartel de Santa Rosa de Lima," or CSRL, after U.S. officials found the enterprise turned a profit by stealing fuel and crude oil from Mexico’s state-owned energy company, Pemex. OFAC also sanctioned Jose Antonio Yepez Ortiz. Dubbed "El Marro," or "the sledgehammer," the leader of CSRL is currently serving out a 60-year sentence in Mexico, but U.S. officials have accused him of orchestrating cartel operations from behind bars by "sending instructions and orders to his collaborators through his lawyers and family members." Fuel theft — more commonly known as huachicol in Mexico — has risen to the second most profitable revenue stream for Mexican cartels behind drug trafficking, according to the U.S. Treasury. U.S. officials allege that members of CSRL steal fuel and crude oil from Pemex by bribing insiders, tapping pipelines, siphoning refineries, hijacking tanker trucks, and intimidating employees. The stolen fuel is then sold across Mexico, the United States and Central America, while crude oil is smuggled north via complicit brokers — frequently disguised as "waste oil" to evade taxes and environmental scrutiny, the U.S. Treasury discovered.

Wall Street Journal [12/17/2025 4:38 PM, James Freeman, 646K] reports it’s bad enough when a lone federal district judge presumes to set policy for the entire United States. Even worse is a county judge presuming to decide when and where federal law can be enforced. Regular readers may recall activist Hannah Dugan, the circuit judge in Wisconsin’s Milwaukee County who was indicted in federal court in April for allegedly helping a man avoid immigration law enforcement. Ms. Dugan pleaded not guilty. Her trial began on Monday, and while she deserves the presumption of innocence when it comes to criminal charges, it’s already clear that her actions were outrageous. The feds say that because of the judge’s alleged actions, officers had to chase down Mr. Flores-Ruiz and arrest him outside while avoiding traffic. While some may be tempted to view Ms. Dugan’s dangerous tantrum as a response to a unique situation created by President Trump, other testimony suggests that’s not the case. Regardless of the outcome of the case, spare a thought for the citizens of Milwaukee who have been forced to rely on someone so lacking in good judgment and judicial temperament.

Roll Call [12/17/2025 1:05 PM, Chris Johnson, 548K] reports a federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked Department of Homeland Security guidance that placed new limits on members of Congress seeking to visit and inspect immigration detention facilities. Judge Jia M. Cobb of the U.S. District Court for the District of Colombia sided with Democratic lawmakers, in an opinion that found the Trump administration policy that effectively required members of Congress to give a seven-day notice before making a visit is likely "contrary to law and in excess of DHS’s statutory authority.” "Congress not only prohibited DHS and ICE from preventing Members of Congress from entering covered ICE facilities upon request, but also from making temporary modifications that would alter what a visiting Member sees when they visit," Cobb wrote, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. DHS announced the new policy in June amid a flurry of high-profile clashes and denials of entry as Democratic members of Congress and other officials sought to visit facilities. The new guidance, in addition to requiring a seven-day notice for congressional visits, gave immigration officials the power to end a visit if the protocol is not followed. Twelve members of Congress sued in July, contending they were unlawfully prohibited from touring immigration detention facilities as part of their oversight duties. They argued that for years Congress has included provisions in spending law requiring that DHS allow congressional access to its facilities. The plaintiffs include Rep. Joe Neguse of Colorado; Rep. Adriano Espaillat of New York, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus chair; Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee; and Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. In a joint statement, the lawmakers hailed the judge’s decision as a win that would enable them to "conduct essential congressional oversight on behalf of the American people.” CNN [12/17/2025 4:30 PM, Angélica Franganillo Díaz, 18595K] reports that the lawmakers argue that unannounced inspections are a critical tool for monitoring detention conditions and enforcement practices, and that the restrictions violate both constitutional separation of powers principles and federal statutes protecting legislative oversight. ICE and DHS have defended the policy as necessary to maintain operational security and safety at facilities, while still permitting congressional oversight under structured conditions. The government is expected to appeal. The AP [12/17/2025 5:09 PM, Staff, 31753K] reports U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb, who was nominated to the bench by Democratic President Joe Biden, concluded that the seven-day notice requirement likely exceeds the Department of Homeland Security’s statutory authority. “Plaintiffs have an interest in facts about whether facilities are overcrowded or unsanitary, whether the staff is engaging in abuse, or the location of constituents or their family members,” the judge wrote. Twelve Democratic members of Congress sued in Washington, D.C., in July to challenge ICE’s amended visitor policies after they were denied entry to detention facilities. They also challenged a policy excluding ICE field offices as facilities that members of Congress are entitled to visit without notice. Their lawsuit accused Republican President Donald Trump’s administration of obstructing congressional oversight of the centers during its nationwide surge in immigration enforcement operations. Government attorneys argued that the plaintiffs don’t have legal standing to bring their claims. They also said it’s merely speculative for the legislators to be concerned that conditions in ICE facilities change over the course of a week. The judge rejected those arguments. Reuters [12/17/2025 5:17 PM, Daniel Wiessner, 36480K] reports that the representatives who sued come from California, Colorado, Maryland, Mississippi, New York and Texas. In a joint statement, they said the decision was a critical step toward restoring congressional oversight. Cobb, an appointee of Democratic former President Joe Biden, agreed on Wednesday, noting that the law explicitly bars ICE from requiring members of Congress "to provide prior notice of the intent to enter a facility ... for the purpose of conducting oversight."

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CBS News [12/17/2025 7:04 PM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, 39474K]

NewsMax [12/17/2025 7:52 PM, Staff, 4109K] reports Todd Lyons, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, defended President Donald Trump’s decision to expand U.S. travel restrictions to 20 more countries, telling Newsmax on Wednesday the move is about public safety, not race, after the fatal shooting of two National Guard troops in Washington last month. On "Rob Schmitt Tonight," Lyons responded to criticisms from Democrats and immigrant advocacy groups who have labeled the expanded restrictions racist. Trump announced the new measures Tuesday, bringing the total number of affected countries to 39, after authorities said the Nov. 26 shooting raised renewed concerns about terrorism and border security. "You know, it’s not racist. We have to go ahead, and we have to take care of the American people," Lyons said. "We have to make sure that we’re properly vetting the right people.” Lyons said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has made clear that the administration will block entry to anyone deemed a potential threat. "She’s not going to allow anyone in this country that is going to be a potential harm or potential threat," he said. He pointed to attacks overseas as examples of what the administration is trying to prevent. "We’ve seen it all across the globe where free immigration and no immigration constraints have led to attacks on individuals, knife attacks in major cities, car rammings, you know, bombings," he said. "We can’t have that in the United States.” Lyons also reacted to reports that Paris canceled its New Year’s Eve celebration over security concerns tied to a possible terrorist attack, calling the move an example of what the U.S. should avoid. "That’s what we shouldn’t be doing. We shouldn’t be giving in to terrorism," he said. He contrasted the French decision with U.S. law enforcement preparedness, noting ICE’s origins after the Sept. 11 attacks. "ICE is an agency that’s born out of 9/11, [the] second-largest law enforcement agency in the U.S.," Lyons said. "So, we know that we can go out there and counter these terrorist threats.” Lyons criticized what he described as lax immigration enforcement under the Biden administration, saying a porous border requires constant vigilance, particularly involving people from what he called high-threat countries. "We have to constantly vet these people, especially from high-threat countries like Afghanistan, Somalia, and other countries," he said, warning that terrorists could exploit U.S. immigration pathways if safeguards are weakened.

New York Times [12/17/2025 1:09 PM, Madeleine Ngo, 135475K] reports that last month, Adam Gonzalez, a lawyer at a nonprofit in Chicago, pulled into his son’s day care and noticed something unusual. Two cars were parked directly in front of the school, blocking the entrance. Worried about bringing his 17-month-old son into a potentially dangerous situation, he locked his car and walked toward the building. He said his “heart sank” when he saw officers with tactical gear indicating that they were with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and he started recording with his phone. A teacher at the Spanish immersion day care and preschool was in the back seat of one of the cars. As he got closer, Mr. Gonzalez said he stopped recording and backed away. He thought about news reports about ICE agents deploying tear gas, and he worried that officers could ask for proof of his status, even though he is a citizen. He brought his son inside once the cars left, but said the incident made him question whether the school, Rayito de Sol, was still safe for his child. Trump administration officials have said that ICE does not target or raid schools. “ICE is not going to schools to arrest children,” Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement. “If a dangerous or violent illegal criminal alien felon were to flee into a school, or a child sex offender is working as an employee, there may be a situation where an arrest is made to protect the safety of the student. But this has not happened.”

FOX News [12/17/2025 4:06 PM, Max Bacall, 40621K] reports Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), pushed back on criticism that federal agents are "harassing" communities during enforcement operations, arguing that ICE personnel are forced into communities by sanctuary jurisdictions that routinely release offenders. Lyons asserted that ICE officers are "doing targeted enforcement on these individuals that were actually released after a law enforcement agency deemed them a public safety threat." Lyons said the political decisions of sanctuary cities directly force ICE personnel into riskier environments, leading to heightened confrontations and increased violence against officers. He cited a 1,150% increase in assaults and an 8,000% surge in death threats against ICE agents. He emphasized that ICE prefers to make arrests in "secure settings" rather than put officers and immigrants at risk and "deal with these agitators who are fueled by the political rhetoric that’s out there right now." Statistics posted on ICE’s website show that 50.8% of people it arrested in fiscal year 2024 had criminal convictions, while 20.8% had pending criminal charges. In 2023, those numbers were 31.5% and 11.8%, respectively, and in 2022 they were 25.4% and 7.1%. The remaining arrests are labeled as "other immigration violators."

Breitbart [12/17/2025 5:01 PM, Jasmyn Jordan, 2416K] reports the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has launched a new national campaign titled Defend the Homeland aimed at bringing in thousands of new agents and officers by the end of the year. An ICE spokesperson told Breitbart News that the campaign has already attracted significant attention. "We’ve had over 200,000 American patriots apply for positions at ICE and a goal of hiring 10,000 new ICE officers and agents before the New Year," the agency said.

Univision [12/17/2025 4:00 PM, Marcos Martínez Chacón, 5004K] reports an immigrant advocacy organization is preparing a lawsuit against ICE after a Tennessee lawyer found what appears to be a list of lawyers on an official website who may be targeted by the agency for litigating against the government. Arlene Amarante, founder of the immigrant advocacy organization Adelante Knox, based in Knoxville, Tennessee, told Univision News that she found a list of immigration lawyers’ names while browsing the website of ICE’s Enforcement and Deportation Operations (ERO) unit called ERO e-file. Amarante said she immediately took screenshots of the list, which primarily included the names of Hispanic, Asian, and Black lawyers. The list does not appear on the platform, which is only accessible to advocates through registration with an email and password, she added After finding the list, which included her name, Amarante said she shared the images she captured with the organization Al Otro Lado, which also advocates for immigrants and is based in San Diego, California. But after Amarante’s discovery, Andrew Fels, a lawyer for Al Otro Lado, sent a request for information to ICE asking them to clarify why their site displayed—even briefly—the names of immigration lawyers on their page. ICE responded to the organization on Tuesday saying that the request needed to be more specific, the lawyer told Univision News. Fels, to avoid further delays in discovering what is behind the list, said that Al Otro Lado will sue the government to explain what this “watch list” is about and why it showed personal data of lawyers.

NPR [12/18/2025 4:43 AM, Meg Anderson, 34837K] reports in its push for more immigrant detention space, the Trump administration is reopening shuttered prisons in several states. Many of these facilities, closed amid allegations of abuse and mismanagement. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

Daily Wire [12/17/2025 1:24 AM, Cameron Arcand, 2494K] reports Maine will be limiting how its state and local authorities interact with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, further amplifying how immigration is becoming a key issue in northeastern races in the 2026 midterm elections. Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat running for Senate, announced on Tuesday that she would allow LD 1971 to go into effect next month. The proposal allows for authorities to comply with federal immigration officials only for an additional criminal probe, not just for immigration reasons, according to Bangor Daily News. "As a former District Attorney and Attorney General and now as Governor, I carefully considered this bill. I’ve weighed my concerns that it imposes confusing restraints on law enforcement about when they can and can’t interact with Federal authorities against the extraordinary and horrifying actions of a Federal agency that has been weaponized by the President to undermine the rights of us all. And I also agree with the bill’s aim of ensuring that Maine law enforcement are enforcing Maine laws, not Federal immigration law," Mills wrote in a Portland Press Herald op-ed. She said the bill is "imperfect," but Maine law allows the bill to go into effect if she chooses not to directly veto it days after the Legislature comes back, according to a press release.

Daily Caller [12/17/2025 5:12 PM, Derek VanBuskirk, 835K] reports plainclothes federal officials have been conducting sting operations in New York’s Penn Station bathrooms since June, according to reports. The Amtrak Police Department (APD) has arrested almost 200 people on allegations of sexual activity in the men’s bathroom, the WYNC reported Sept. 25. They turned over more than 20 of those arrested to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the outlet reported, citing a police officer familiar with the operation. Due to New York City’s sanctuary city laws, these operations were conducted in the train station’s bathrooms. Amtrack Police are federal law enforcement officers who are not restricted by the city’s sanctuary policies, according to The City. Amtrak told the outlet it was merely aiming to "reinforce public safety" while "effectively curbing disruptive activity across the station." Officers had made 23 arrests for "public lewdness" by the end of June, The City reported.

FOX News [12/17/2025 12:50 PM, Staff, 40621K] reports that Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons joins ‘The Faulkner Focus’ to discuss Democratic pushback against immigration operations in Chicago and the surge in threats targeting federal officials. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

New York Times [12/17/2025 5:01 AM, Ernesto Londoño and Hamed Aleaziz, 153395K] reports urgent messages began circulating Saturday morning in group chats tracking immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota. Federal agents had cordoned off a house under construction in a Minneapolis suburb. Two men hunkered down on the partially built roof in subzero weather, refusing to come down. Some two dozen agents wearing masks shifted on their feet, looking cold. Within minutes, immigrant rights activists began arriving by the dozen, armed with blankets, hand warmers and coffee, blowing whistles and yelling at agents. The hourslong standoff that followed became a marathon of endurance on one of the coldest days of the year in a state known for brutal winters. “It was going to be a battle of willpower,” said Alex Falconer, a Democratic state representative, who was among the first demonstrators to arrive at the house in Chanhassen, west of Minneapolis. Since the Trump administration deployed scores of immigration agents to Minnesota two weeks ago in the latest phase of its deportation push, activists have ramped up efforts to gum up the agents’ work and make them feel unwelcome. The surge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers began the first week of December, as President Trump was railing against Somali immigrants, many of whom live in Minnesota and are U.S. citizens or legal residents. The Trump administration has described the Minnesota crackdown, which it calls Operation Metro Surge, as an effort to remove “vicious” criminals in a state where it says Democratic leaders have supported policies that encouraged illegal immigration. The Department of Homeland Security said its agents had detained more than 670 people in Minnesota this month. The department has released the names of a relatively small number who had been convicted of violent crimes. “Minnesota is safer with these thugs off their streets,” Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.

Techdirt [12/17/2025 3:36 PM, Tim Cushing, 193K] reports Trump was always going to target Minnesota and, specifically, the home of its most liberal residents, Minneapolis. Trump hates the state’s governor, Tim Walz. He also hates one of the state’s congressional reps, Ilhan Omar, who was born in Somalia. The DHS also made some noise about an arrest that supposedly justified the violent actions taken by ICE officers (who not only deployed chemicals but also arrested two people who were simply recording ICE officers and/or asserting their Fourth Amendment rights). But the statement seems extremely light on facts, as is often the case when DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin decides to open her mouth: The Department of Homeland Security’s Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in an emailed statement that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers arrested Jesus Saucedo-Portillo, whom she described as an unauthorized immigrant, on Dec. 6 while he was getting into his vehicle in a campus parking lot. In a divergence from what school officials have said about the incident, McLaughlin said officers had a warrant and were obstructed by a university administrator and campus security during the encounter. McLaughlin said Saucedo-Portillo “is a registered sex offender and has a previous arrest for driving while intoxicated.” A search of Minnesota court records by the Minnesota Star Tribune found no record of a DWI case under that name, and Saucedo-Portillo does not appear in the national sex-offender registry. Some journalists who got an inside look at this operation could have tried to undercut McLaughlin’s narrative about targeted arrests and “worst of the worst.” Instead, NBC News embedded with ICE for a day and ended up generating an article headlined “ICE operation shows the difficulty of immigration arrests amid pushback in frigid Minnesota.” The article isn’t nearly as bad as the headline, but it allows ICE and their spokespeople to flat out lie about what’s been happening all over this nation, but has most recently focused almost exclusively on cities or states run by members of the Democratic Party.

AP [12/17/2025 5:57 PM, Sarah Raza] reports Minneapolis’ police chief is criticizing federal immigration agents after a confrontation with protesters and an attempted arrest of a woman in which an officer kneeled on her back as she lay atop a snow bank and then tried to drag her to a car. Tensions have been rising in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area as federal authorities continue an immigration crackdown focused on the region’s Somali community, the largest in the country. Onlooker video of the confrontation Monday in a Minneapolis neighborhood showed people yelling at Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to release the woman, claiming she is pregnant and couldn’t breathe. After kneeling on her, an agent later dragged the woman by one arm on her back toward a vehicle. Police Chief Brian O’Hara told a news conference Tuesday that city police were called to the confrontation by a federal agent who said officers needed help. When police arrived, they did not see violence against federal officers and left in an effort to de-escalate the situation, O’Hara said. He added that "other law enforcement agencies" may have been using "questionable methods." Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said federal officers were targeting a vehicle when protesters "threw rocks, chunks of ice, assaulted officers and used pepper spray" against the officers. The officers sustained multiple injuries including cuts, McLaughlin said in a statement, adding that two people were charged with assaulting federal officers and remain in custody. Officers tried to arrest the woman shown in the video because she "rushed an ICE vehicle and attempted to vandalize it," but the officers abandoned the arrest after being swarmed by protesters, McLaughlin said.

Reported similarly:
Reuters [12/17/2025 5:10 PM, Ted Hesson, 36480K]

Breitbart [12/17/2025 2:30 PM, Pam Key, 2416K] reports that Wednesday on CNN’s “The Situation Room,” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) said Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations were “state-sanctioned violence.” Host Wolf Blitzer said, “What’s it like on the ground right now not just for you, but your fellow Somali Americans and I’ve known many of them over the years, they’re very hardworking, very decent people and to hear the President of the United States call them garbage?” Omar said, “I mean, many in Minneapolis and certainly in Minnesota are experiencing a state-sanctioned violence. We’re seeing people being stopped, dragged out of their cars, people detained for hours, many who are citizens. And it is really terrifying. But what we are also seeing is people showing just how resilient and united Minnesotans are in defending their neighbors, documenting the actions, the unlawful actions that we’re seeing from ICE agents. And we’re seeing them come together.” Blitzer said, “I know that the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has become very personal for you, even though you’re a member of Congress. You’ve said that federal immigration agents actually pulled over your son on Saturday and asked him to prove his citizenship. He is, of course, a U.S. citizen, as are you. The Department of Homeland Security says, and I’m quoting them, ‘ICE has absolutely zero record of its officers or agents pulling over Congresswoman Omar’s son,’ and have accused you of seeking, to, quote, ‘demonize ICE as part of a PR stunt.’ Their words. What do you say to that?”

Daily Caller [12/17/2025 10:42 AM, Harold Hutchison, 835K] reports Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar whined about United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in Minneapolis during a Friday podcast appearance, claiming they were terrorizing the community. ICE is surging into the Minneapolis area to target illegal immigrants from Somalia after revelations into at least $1 billion in fraud, with the Treasury Department investigating whether some of the proceeds from the scheme went to the radical Islamic terrorist group Al-Shabaab, which is based in the East African nation. Omar told "Democracy-Ish" co-hosts Wajahat Ali and Danielle Moodie she was proud of the community’s response, saying it would eventually ensure "accountability" during the episode. "What the community is doing is that they, they, are all collectively keeping each other informed on where ICE raids are happening," Omar told Ali and Moodie. "And it is allowing for people to show up um, uh, to be able to document, to be able to push back, to be able, um, to urgently get whatever documentation the person who they are trying to uh, abduct is saying that they have." "And, and, that I think at the moment we just need to make sure that we are protecting one another and that we are documenting every single action, because there will be accountability," Omar continued. "There will, there will be accountability."

NBC News [12/17/2025 5:26 PM, Meredith Yeomans, 34509K] reports a letter addressed to Miguel Garcia arrived in the mail this week, approving his request to move forward with obtaining legal status in the United States. But Garcia didn’t live to see it. The 31-year-old Mexican national was killed two months ago during a sniper attack at the Dallas ICE facility where he was being held in federal custody. The latest reminder arrived on Monday, when she opened a letter from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The approval letter grants Garcia the ability to begin applying for a visa or green card — something the couple had hoped would allow them to live without fear of deportation. Garcia was arrested for DWI in Arlington in August. In September, while detained at the Dallas ICE facility, he was killed along with another detainee when a rooftop sniper opened fire. She questioned why U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services would send a letter dated Dec. 9 — two months after her husband’s death.

Politico [12/17/2025 4:05 PM, Lindsey Holden, 2100K] reports California immigrants’ medical data has been pulled into a fight over Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts — one that could come to a head just after the holidays. A federal judge recently indicated that as soon as Jan. 5, he may allow U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to use data from those enrolled in Medicaid — a government-funded health care program for the poorest Americans. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria indicated he could end a freeze on ICE access to data he put in place this summer as soon as Jan. 5. This could include home addresses, phone numbers and other information. This could be especially concerning for undocumented immigrants enrolled in Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program. California uses state funding to provide coverage to those who aren’t eligible for the federal program because of their immigration status. Even though California is footing the bill for undocumented immigrants’ health care, those patients are still part of the federal Medicaid program, which puts their data at risk.

Los Angeles Times [12/17/2025 4:59 PM, Brittny Mejia, 14862K] reports a man held at California’s newest and largest immigration detention center could face "imminent death," attorneys argued in an emergency motion filed late Tuesday, asking a federal judge to order ICE to immediately provide lifesaving medical care to him and another detainee. In a motion for a temporary restraining order, attorneys said that Yuri Alexander Roque Campos and Fernando Viera Reyes — plaintiffs in a federal class action lawsuit alleging "inhumane" and "punitive" conditions at California City Detention Facility in the Mojave Desert — are experiencing "acute medical distress and need immediate specialized medical attention." At a hearing Wednesday morning, U.S. District Judge Maxine M. Chesney gave the government until 4 p.m. on Monday to resolve the issue or file an opposition, according to Tess Borden, a lawyer with the Prison Law Office, which brought the class action lawsuit, along with the American Civil Liberties Union, the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice and Keker, Van Nest & Peters LLP. The judge set a hearing, if needed, for next Tuesday in San Francisco. The class action lawsuit, filed last month in the Northern District of California against the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, alleges "decrepit" conditions inside the detention facility. Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin previously told The Times that "no one is denied access to proper medical care." Roque Campos and Viera Reyes are among seven plaintiffs who sued the Trump administration over conditions at the detention facility. They alleged inhumane conditions, including inadequate food, water and medical care.

San Francisco Chronicle [12/17/2025 5:38 PM, David Hernandez, 4722K] reports a San Francisco woman accused of slashing the tires of a federal immigration enforcement van during a tense protest was sentenced to probation as part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors, according to the Bay Area News Group. Angelica Guerrero, 35, pleaded guilty to causing damage to U.S. government property, a misdemeanor offense. She was sentenced on Dec. 8. The length of the probation term imposed was not available. The case stemmed from the protest outside Department of Homeland Security offices in San Francisco’s Financial District the morning of Aug. 20. As Enforcement and Removal Operations officers with DHS tried to get an arrestee into the van, Guerrero walked into the street and slashed the front left tire and walked away, prosecutors said. Prosecutors also alleged Guerrero made repeated threats against one of the officers. Guerrero was arrested, and a knife was recovered. Guerrero, who was detained at Santa Rita Jail for a day, told ABC7 after her release that her cell was covered in feces and blood. She called the conditions "barbaric" and "miserable." She added that she was not afforded the opportunity to call her family or lawyer.

NewsMax [12/17/2025 10:30 PM, Michael Katz, 4109K] reports federal agents arrested 44 protesters Tuesday after demonstrators chained themselves to the entrance of San Francisco’s immigration courthouse, blocking access to the building. The courthouse has been the site of immigration-related arrests and is where many people attend immigration hearings, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Protesters blocked entrances and exits to prevent anyone from entering or leaving. Police issued an order to disperse shortly before 10 a.m. local time, and many demonstrators said they were willing to be arrested. Rabbis, priests, and fellow community members began blocking both entrances of the United States Appraisers Building, singing protest songs such as "This Little Light of Mine" and "We Shall Not Be Moved," according to SFGate. A banner stretching across the building’s facade behind them read, "Our Faiths Teach Us: Love Thy Neighbor & Disrupt Injustice.” More than 100 people chanted outside the building as Department of Homeland Security agents worked to clear the entrances. City firefighters assisted agents by using bolt cutters to remove the chains. KRON-TV reported the fire department said it used "proper tools" to remove them. "So, we need to have accountability," Gala King, co-executive director of Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, an immigrant rights advocacy group, told KGO-TV. "San Francisco is supposed to be a sanctuary city. "That means no city or county resources are supposed to be helping.” In a statement to KGO, the fire department said it "works with numerous agencies at the local, state, and federal levels. When called upon to assist those in need-protecting life, property, and the environment-we do so with respect and integrity.” DHS said a total of 44 arrests were made. An organizer told the Chronicle that faith leaders have been coming to the courthouse since July to support illegal aliens as they arrive for check-ins and other court appointments. The protesters were demanding "love over cruelty," according to KGO. Demonstrators said their goal was to shut down the courts in response to what they claimed were unjust arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement over the past several months. During the demonstration, several dozen people were lined up outside the building waiting for immigration court appointments. A DHS official later informed them their appointments were canceled and instructed them to go home, the Chronicle reported. Several DHS officers stood outside the courthouse as demonstrators continued singing in the street, holding signs reading, "Dignity and human rights for all," and "Grandmothers protect dignity for all.” In a statement to Newsmax, DHS rejected claims the demonstration was peaceful. "On December 16th, over 200 rioters obstructed law enforcement outside the ICE processing center in San Francisco, California," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. "Rioters chained themselves to the building’s front gate and doors, impeding law enforcement operations. "The San Francisco Fire Department arrived on the scene and assisted in cutting the chains. ICE officers and FPS then arrested 44 of the obstructing rioters, all of whom appear to be U.S. citizens. This is a developing situation under an ongoing investigation, and ICE will update as necessary.”

New York Times [12/17/2025 5:10 PM, Hamed Aleaziz, 135475K] reports the Trump administration plans to ramp up efforts to strip some naturalized Americans of their citizenship, according to internal guidance obtained by The New York Times, marking an aggressive new phase in President Trump’s immigration crackdown. The guidance, issued on Tuesday to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services field offices, asks that they “supply Office of Immigration Litigation with 100-200 denaturalization cases per month” in the 2026 fiscal year. If the cases are successful, it would represent a massive escalation of denaturalization in the modern era, experts said. By comparison, between 2017 and this year to date, there had been just over 120 cases filed, according to the Justice Department. Under federal law, people may be denaturalized only if they committed fraud while applying for citizenship, or in a few other narrow circumstances. But the Trump administration has shown a zeal for using every tool at its disposal to target legal and illegal immigrants, leading activists to warn that such a campaign could sweep up people who had made honest mistakes on their citizenship paperwork and sow fear among law-abiding Americans. The guidance comes as Mr. Trump has spent much of this year closing loopholes in the immigration system and throwing up roadblocks for people seeking to enter and stay in the country. A targeted campaign to increase the number of American immigrants stripped of their citizenship represents an escalation of an already ambitious campaign.

Breitbart [12/17/2025 2:07 PM, Staff, 2416K] reports that the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement holds a hearing on abuse of the temporary protected status (TPS) program for migrants on Wednesday, December 17. The Trump administration has moved to end TPS for foreign nationals from a number of countries, including Ethiopia, Burma, Venezuela, and Somalia to allow deportations to resume. Activist judges have tried repeatedly to block the administration from revoking these deportation protections, with the latest ruling coming from an Obama-appointed judge in November against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revoking TPS for Syrian nationals. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NPR [12/17/2025 3:05 PM, Emily Feng, 28013K] reports Guan Heng, a native of landlocked north-central China, was so desperate to reach the United States in October 2021 that he decided to buy a small inflatable boat, and set sail from the Bahamas. He had just published a roughly 20-minute video drawn from footage he had filmed in China’s Xinjiang region where people were reportedly being detained. Guan believed the film would lead to his arrest in China, so he hoped to reach the U.S. and ask for asylum. Battling severe seasickness and despite having no prior boating experience, he reached the shores of Florida 23 hours later, he later told Human Rights in China, a U.S.-based advocacy group, which has been raising awareness about Guan’s case. This week, after months of being held in U.S. immigration detention in upstate New York, the 38-year-old appeared via a video link before an immigration court in upstate New York on his asylum application. His asylum case is still pending. If asylum is denied, he could face deportation to Uganda, which a Department of Homeland Security lawyer argued in favor of during a Monday hearing on Guan’s case. Such third-country deportations, in which people are removed to countries where they are not from, were cleared by the Supreme Court in July. A second hearing for Guan is scheduled for Jan. 12. The story of Guan’s desperate escape to the United States, only to end up in detention, raises fresh questions over the scope of an expanding immigration crackdown in the U.S.

CBS Miami [12/17/2025 6:28 PM, Staff, 39474K] Video: HERE reports “If you can prove you’ve been here for more than 10 years, that you have a family member who’s a U.S. citizen or green card holder, if you are to be removed you have the opportunity for the judge to issue you a green card,” said Patricia Elizee, attorney.

New York Times [12/17/2025 8:30 AM, Lynsey Chutel, 153395K] reports the authorities in South Africa said on Wednesday that they had arrested and would deport seven Kenyan nationals who were working illegally at a center processing refugee applications for the United States. President Trump has drastically cut the number of refugees that the United States will accept but has prioritized white Afrikaners, the descendants of Dutch, German and French settlers to South Africa, after falsely claiming that they were victims of a genocide. South African law enforcement officials on Tuesday arrested the Kenyans in an operation at a processing center in Johannesburg, the Department of Home Affairs said in a statement. It said that they had entered South Africa on tourist visas and were working illegally “at a center processing the applications of so-called ‘refugees’ to the United States.” The seven Kenyans will not be allowed to return to South Africa for five years. The Department of Home Affairs added that their applications to work in South Africa had previously been rejected and that no American officials had been detained. The arrests come as relations between South Africa and the Trump administration have plunged over its policy of prioritizing Afrikaners. Mr. Trump has used his claim that they are facing racial persecution to punish South Africa, imposing high tariffs, cutting aid and making Afrikaners one of the only groups allowed to seek refugee status in the United States.

Breitbart [12/17/2025 7:05 PM, John Hayward, 2416K] reports South African immigration police on Tuesday raided a U.S. refugee processing center in Johannesburg and arrested seven Kenyans who were allegedly working there illegally, along with two U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) officers. A source told Reuters on Wednesday that the two USCIS officers were only "briefly detained and then released during the operation.” The seven Kenyan employees, on the other hand, were immediately given deportation orders. According to the South African Home Affairs Ministry, the Kenyans held tourist visas that did not allow them to work in South Africa. The Johannesburg site that was raided on Tuesday was established as part of President Donald Trump’s initiative to accept white South African refugees who claim to have been persecuted in their own country. The refugee applications were processed by a Kenya-based company called RSC Africa, which is operated by a U.S.-based non-governmental organization called the Church World Service (CWS). The U.S. Embassy in South Africa announced its partnership with RSC Africa to process refugee applications last month. The South African Home Ministry claimed the Kenyans resorted to abusing tourist visas to work at the Johannesburg refugee processing facility because South Africa previously refused to issue work visas for them. South Africa said it has "initiated formal diplomatic engagements" with both the U.S. and Kenya to resolve the matter. "The presence of foreign officials apparently coordinating with undocumented workers naturally raises serious questions about intent and diplomatic protocol," the South African government said. "We are seeking immediate clarification from the South African government and expect full cooperation and accountability. Interfering in our refugee operations is unacceptable," State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement on Wednesday. The incident was the latest milestone in a rocky relationship between the Trump administration and South Africa, which denies President Donald Trump’s allegations of persecuting white citizens. The U.S., and several other countries, chose not to attend the G20 summit in Johannesburg in November. Trump said the boycott was due to Afrikaners (white South Africans) "being killed and slaughtered, and their land and farms being illegally confiscated.” After South Africa handed the rotating presidency of the G20 over to the United States for 2026, President Trump said South Africa would not be invited to next year’s summit in Miami. "South Africa has demonstrated to the world they are not a country worthy of membership anywhere, and we are going to stop all payments and subsidies to them, effective immediately," Trump said on November 26.

Bloomberg [12/17/2025 6:45 PM, Anthony Capaccio, 18207K] reports some US Army troops posted along the southern border as part of the Trump administration’s heightened immigration enforcement efforts are living under substandard conditions in Texas and New Mexico, according to a report by the Pentagon’s Inspector General. The problems include “leaking raw sewage, non-functional toilets, and general disrepair of facilities,” according to the report published Wednesday and signed by Bryan Clark, assistant Inspector General for Evaluations. The document included a photograph said to show “a dried layer of raw sewage that was leaking from the bathroom toilets.” In addition, the report’s authors said, “multiple soldiers living in the barracks informed us of electrical capacity concerns and continually nonfunctioning air conditioning.” The troops affected are part of the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team — a Colorado unit deployed to Fort Bliss, Texas, and the Doña Ana Range Complex in New Mexico, according to the report. The unit mobilized about 2,400 soldiers in a high-profile deployment to assist Customs and Border personnel from Yuma, Arizona to Big Bend National Park in Texas. “Additionally, during our site visits we observed unsanitary conditions in bathroom facilities at Fort Bliss and the Doña Ana Range Complex housing facilities,” the authors wrote. The inspector general’s office, according to the report, notified US Northern Command and Joint Task Force Southern Border about “health and safety concerns for housing conditions,” adding that it would be issuing a “management advisory” about the findings. Management Advisories, unlike standard audits, are designed to more quickly alert officials about an immediate, acute problem that requires rapid attention. The report may be used by critics of President Donald Trump’s decision to engage the military in immigration operations, but it also provides fodder for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who in October created a task force to identify and improve substandard housing. In addition to the bathroom conditions, the Wednesday report also found that some soldiers were housed in barracks with as little “as 45 square feet per soldier living space,” less than the required 72 square feet (6.7 square meters). The Inspector General said it had asked Northern Command to “provide comments within 30 days describing the specific actions” it will take “to develop and implement a plan with milestones that ensures soldiers assigned” to the Southern Border Task Force “have adequate housing conditions” that meet minimum standards.

FOX News [12/18/2025 12:43 AM, Staff, 40621K] reports the Trump administration has awarded $8 billion in contracts to build a h h-tech border barrier called a "Smart Wall." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CNN [12/17/2025 3:03 PM, Elisabeth Buchwald, 18595K] reports the US government has collected $1 billion in de minimis tariff revenue since rolling back the exemption on low-value packages this spring, according to new data that Customs and Border Protection shared exclusively with CNN. Since the loophole was closed on goods from China and Hong Kong, “seizures of unsafe and non-compliant low-value goods have increased by 82%. These included counterfeits, narcotics, faulty electronics, and goods containing hazardous chemicals,” CBP said in a statement shared with CNN. Before the de minimis loophole was closed, CBP said an average of 4 million packages a day came through customs. But in late August, before the exemption went into effect for all countries’ goods and was just applicable to China and Hong Kong, CBP said an average of 1 million packages a day entered the country. However, in closing the loophole, Trump cited the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a law he’s used to impose the bulk of new tariffs during his second term. His ability to impose tariffs in that way could soon be reined in, with the Supreme Court set to issue a verdict by early next year on whether he holds such authority. If the court rules against him, it could result in importers, including individual American consumers who’ve paid duties on low-value packages, receiving refunds.

Reuters [12/17/2025 9:43 AM, Neil Issar, Davis Price Shugrue, and Brianne Wylie, 36480K] reports a series of recent federal enforcement actions targeted at tariff evasion exemplify how the Trump administration is aiming its enforcement crosshairs at customs fraud. On Sept. 30, 2025, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the indictment of two Colorado-based companies and three executives for conspiring to misrepresent the origin and value of Chinese-made forklifts to evade customs duties and defraud the federal government. And on Nov. 17, 2025, the DOJ announced the filing of a criminal complaint against an Indonesian jewelry company, its co-owner, and two employees for similarly conspiring to misrepresent the origin of Indonesian-made jewelry to avoid applicable tariffs. These schemes are alleged to have enabled the perpetrators to evade an estimated $1 million and $86.4 million in customs duties, respectively. The government’s increasing focus on customs fraud means companies should closely monitor their import activities and representations to ensure compliance and avoid potential investigations or enforcement actions.

Daily Caller [12/17/2025 6:48 PM, Mariane Angela, 835K] reports federal authorities arrested a former U.S. Marine in Louisiana Friday after investigators say he plotted violence against federal immigration agents and maintained ties to a left-wing extremist network linked to a foiled New Year’s Eve bombing scheme. The FBI arrested Micah James Legnon as he traveled toward New Orleans with tactical gear in his vehicle, charging him with making threats in interstate commerce. Investigators say Legnon, who once served in the Marine Corps and later worked as a New Iberia police officer, posed a "considerable threat" based on his online activity, group-chat messages, and movement toward the city, according to multiple reports. Court documents show Legnon operated online under the alias "Black Witch" and belonged to the Turtle Island Liberation Front, an extremist organization the FBI links to multiple organized terror plots nationwide, WDSU reported. Authorities say Legnon aligned with a more radical faction within the network known as The Black Lotus. Investigators say Legnon posted on social media that he wanted to "recreate Waco" against Border Patrol agents and shared videos displaying firearms, gas canisters, body armor, and other tactical equipment. In one group chat, he allegedly announced he was en route to New Orleans, prompting agents to track his movements and intercept him before he reached the city. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said the case highlights the threat posed by domestic extremists targeting immigration enforcement.

FOX News [12/17/2025 9:09 PM, Jasmine Baehr Fox, 40621K] reports a heated confrontation unfolded Wednesday in Evanston, Illinois, where city Mayor Daniel Biss — a progressive Democrat and congressional candidate — confronted Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino during a street-level Title 8 immigration enforcement operation that drew "a couple dozen" protesters and quickly turned chaotic, according to video and accounts posted on X. The standoff occurred around 11:30 a.m. near Green Bay Road and Dodge Avenue in the city outside Chicago, where an 11-vehicle Border Patrol convoy had arrived to detain multiple individuals. Eyewitness Mark Weyermuller wrote that agents "appeared to detain at least two" people as the crowd formed. Video shared by FOX 32 Chicago reporter Paris Schutz shows Biss, dressed in a dark tailored coat and dress shoes, visibly standing out from the bundled-up crowd, stepping directly toward Bovino as protesters yell and blow whistles around them. Biss confronted him immediately, declaring, "The abuse has not been acceptable. The racism has not been acceptable. The violence has not been acceptable.” Bovino, surrounded by agents wearing protective masks and tactical gear, fired back, "Yeah, that’s why we’re here in your community.” A nearby protester then shouted repeatedly at the commander, "Hey Bovino, we don’t want you here, bro! We don’t want you!". As the shouting intensified, multiple protesters tried to block the roadway while police from Evanston and Chicago worked to keep a corridor open for vehicles to leave the area. Biss, who is running for Congress as a "pragmatic progressive," later amplified his criticism in a post on X, writing, "The only ‘violent mob’ in Evanston today was Greg Bovino and his masked thugs, terrorizing innocent people and then lying about our city to try and sow chaos.” He added that Evanston is "safe in spite of ICE/CBP, not because of it," praised residents who "chased you out of town" and concluded with, "Don’t come back.” Bovino disputed Biss’ claims and described the encounter as productive. He wrote that agents were in Evanston "to make his city a safer place through Title 8 immigration enforcement" and said the mayor "fell back into the divisive talking points that we’ve heard ad nauseam." Bovino called it an "excellent day in Evanston.” The Evanston Police Department and Chicago Police Department assisted with crowd control and ensuring federal vehicles could exit safely, according to Bovino’s account. In the video, officers directed traffic and created space as protesters attempted to approach the convoy.

Chicago Tribune [12/17/2025 4:36 PM, Rebecca Johnson, Caroline Kubzansky and Gregory Royal Pratt, 4829K] reports Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino and dozens of federal immigration agents spent hours Wednesday driving around Chicago and the suburbs, appearing to make minimal arrests but facing continued pushback from enraged community members. Bovino spoke with a Tribune photographer at a Home Depot in Evanston around noon. He said he’s “taking criminals off the street” and that “luckily we’re, for the first time, receiving some assistance from both Chicago PD and Evanston Police Department.” Although Bovino did not say what kind of assistance police had given them, Chicago’s self-declared “sanctuary city” status and the Illinois TRUST Act both generally prohibit state and local law enforcement agencies from assisting federal agents with immigration enforcement. The Chicago Police Department said in a statement that they did not assist federal authorities with immigration enforcement and that they had been responding to a call from a federal agent who said another vehicle was “attempting to ram them.” Minutes later, Bovino started arguing with Evanston mayor and congressional candidate Daniel Biss at the store’s parking lot about whether the agents had a warrant to conduct arrests. Bystanders continued yelling and blowing whistles as agents loaded a man in a black hoodie into their vans. Roughly 100 people surrounded the convoy near a PetSmart, chanting “shame” and demanding agents provide their identities. Residents also blew whistles and hurled insults at the officers at a gas station earlier in the day. Wednesday marks the second day in a row that masked federal immigration agents combed the city and suburbs for a return of force. A federal source told the Tribune that at least 100 agents, Bovino included, were active in the Chicago area for its latest wave of enforcement activity, which comes about a month after the Border Patrol chief and scores of agents left town. Although the Department of Homeland Security has declined to comment on any specific operations, it appeared Bovino’s latest stint in Chicago won’t last as long as his first. Several local federal law enforcement sources told the Tribune that the latest surge of Border Patrol agents are expected to be in Chicago for only a few days. Other immigration sources said the deployment would be for a week or two. DHS said in an emailed statement only that operations are “ongoing.”

Univision Chicago WGBO [12/17/2025 5:54 PM, Staff, 5004K] reports Gregory Bovino, chief of the Border Patrol, returned to Chicago on Tuesday, December 16, where ‘Operation At Large ‘has been ongoing since September, as part of the immigration policies of Trump and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). On Wednesday, December 17, Bovino was seen in Evanston, a suburb of Chicago; there the community confronted him about an arrest he was making: "What is your crime?", a person can be heard asking. Bovino replied, "We’re looking into it now." The person insisted, "Why don’t you tell me?" Bovino concluded, "I don’t know right now." According to lawyers, in 2022, the Department of Homeland Security signed and agreed to comply with the Castañón Nava consent decree, in which DHS commits to not making arrests without warrants or probable cause. The decree was for a period of 3 years and expired in May 2025, but because the federal government did not comply with it, Illinois lawyers’ and immigrant rights advocacy organizations filed a lawsuit on October 7, and District Judge Jeffrey Cummings ruled in favor of the plaintiffs. In the ruling, Judge Cummings also determined that DHS must reimburse detainees for expenses they have incurred, such as attorney services or bail.

Bloomberg [12/17/2025 12:53 PM, Miranda Davis, Isis Almeida, and Shruti Singh, 18207K] reports that President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown is returning to Chicago, with raids carried out by US Border Patrol threatening to disrupt businesses before the holidays. Gregory Bovino, the agency’s at-large commander who became the face of violent clashes in Chicago, was back in the city on Tuesday, carrying out raids in neighborhoods including Little Village. The area dotted with taquerias and Mexican stores saw sales tax collection drop more than 30% in October, at the height of an immigration operation dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz.” The strengthening of enforcement threatens to further disrupt businesses in Chicago, the third-largest US city. Restaurants faced absenteeism of about 20% during raids earlier this year and foot traffic tumbled in some neighborhoods. The impact of the crackdown on the economy caught the attention of Republicans in the city including Craig Duchossois, a major GOP donor. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said ongoing operations are achieving their purpose to curb crime and “remove the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens.”

Economic Impact

DailySignal [12/17/2025 1:26 PM, Virginia Allen, 549K] reports that Customs and Border Protection has thwarted a large drug smuggling attempt in Texas. CBP officers in the Lone Star State discovered a tractor trailer filled with cereal ingredients. More than $10.3 million in alleged methamphetamine was found hidden inside the cereal bags. "Our front-line CBP officers shut down a significant meth smuggling attempt hidden within ingredients that shouldn’t grace anyone’s breakfast table," Port Director for the Hidalgo/Pharr/Anzalduas Port of Entry Carlos Rodriguez said. "As this seizure perfectly illustrates, our officers continue to use their inspections skills and technological tools to prevent this poison from reaching American streets," Rodriguez added. The bust took place on Dec. 12 at Pharr International Bridge in Pharr, Texas, along the border of Mexico and 160 miles south of Laredo. CBP used "nonintrusive inspection equipment" and canines to inspect the tractor trailer. During a "physical inspection," agents found "64 packages of alleged methamphetamine with a combined weight of 1,156.32 pounds (524.50 kg) concealed within the shipment of oat flakes." CBP’s Office of Field Operations seized the tractor trailer and the narcotics. "We know for a fact that less drugs are crossing our border, but we watch our seizures go up, and so… during the previous four years, those large seizures we’re seeing were the large seizures that weren’t happening, and they were getting to the United States, and they were infecting our communities," U.S. Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks said at a recent press conference in Washington, D.C.

Breitbart [12/17/2025 1:04 AM, Ildefonso Ortiz and Brandon Darby, 2416K] reports authorities in South Texas arrested a human smuggler who had allegedly dragged a sick migrant out of a stash house and dumped him on a rural road, expecting him to die. The incident took place on Saturday near the border town of Roma, Texas, where deputies with the Starr County Sheriff’s Office responded to calls of a body having been dumped on the side of a road in a rural area. When authorities arrived, they discovered that the body was a migrant from Mexico who was still alive but was in poor health and had been left to die. Authorities saved the man and rushed him to a local hospital. Investigators eventually identified the man and contacted his family in Mexico. According to a criminal complaint filed by U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, at approximately the same time that sheriff’s deputies were responding to the call of the body on the side of the road, HSI agents were responding to an apartment complex for a call about a group of men dragging a body out of a house and placing it inside a car. Agents went to the house where the body was dragged out of and spoke with a man whom they identified as an illegal alien from Mexico. He revealed that he had been smuggled into Roma with three other men and had been taken to the stash house under the care of Elias Vasquez. At the house, the migrant stated that there was another migrant gotaway who was sick, and Vasquez had been trying to deal with the situation. He claimed that a doctor had gone to the house and put IV bags on the man, but that eventually Vasquez had other migrants take the man away. The migrant revealed that he had been ordered to clean up the house and wipe up the blood from the sick migrant. As a result of the investigation, HSI agents tracked down Vasquez and arrested him in McAllen. Since then, a U.S. Magistrate Judge charged him with one count of harboring illegal aliens and ordered that he be held without bond. It remains unclear if he could face additional charges.

Telemundo [12/17/2025 8:25 PM, Staff, 57K] reports the State Department revealed some of its intelligence strategies and agreements with Mexico to curb drone attacks on the border, potential attacks that the Border Patrol in San Diego says it is constantly monitoring. Border Patrol Chief Justin de la Torre stated that in recent weeks they had observed cartels launching improvised explosive devices (IEDs) against their rivals using drones. He considered this a worrying threat that could be used against them. “We continually anticipate violent tactics from the cartel. This is nothing new, really. When they get frustrated, they’ve thrown rocks at us, they’ve shot at us. So we anticipate that when they get frustrated, they’ll resort to violence against us,” said Justin de la Torre, chief of the Border Patrol in San Diego. Telemundo 20 asked the Border Patrol how frequently they identify drones on the Mexican side attempting to cross into San Diego and how many they have shot down or destroyed. They reported in a statement that: “The San Diego Sector continues to experience drone activity on a weekly basis. During these incursions, drones have primarily been used to monitor the locations and movements of agents. While uncommon, drones have been used in the past to smuggle small quantities of narcotics.” However, researchers in Mexico assert that drone attacks from Mexico into the United States are unlikely due to the technologies available in the U.S. to intercept or destroy them. “You’re unlikely to see them used for attacks; we don’t really see that happening on the border. Yes, they’ve been used in Mexico, in other areas, to attack rivals or authorities, but not on the border,” said Andrés Sumano, a researcher at El Colegio de la Frontera Norte. However, concerns about these technologies are growing due to the information these groups can acquire remotely and from Mexican territory. “There is concern, obviously the Mexican government is more concerned about the criminal use of drones in attacks, as a weapon. And the United States government is more concerned about the use of drones as a surveillance or espionage tool,” added Andrés Sumano. Therefore, the State Department assured that these efforts to prevent drone attacks are a set of strategies that hope not only to end the illicit trafficking of fentanyl but also to improve security on both sides of the border. “Our agents are very well trained to mitigate these attacks. We are also constantly evaluating what new technologies or capabilities we can implement to protect our agents,” said the chief of the Border Patrol in San Diego. Those who work near the Otay Mesa border crossing in San Diego say they have noticed increased militarization and constant surveillance by the U.S. government along the border. “Suddenly, the drone flies by here; you can hear it early in the morning, I turn around and it’s up here,” said Nemesio Palos, who has worked as a mechanic in Otay for years and says he can now see the U.S. government drones and the increased surveillance. “I found out about it because I have clients who work there and they told me that they have sensors on the hill and they don’t let anything through anymore,” Nemesio added. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [12/17/2025 4:16 PM, Ashley J. DiMella, 40621K] reports an airport tradition of years gone by is slowly making its way back to certain locations in the U.S., following massive changes in air travel security procedures after the terror attacks of Sept. 11. Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport (OAK) in California announced this week it will be introducing guest passes for "non-passengers," for example. Visitors can proceed to the post-security side of the passenger terminal to accompany friends or loved ones who are flying out, the airport notes on its website. "Non-passengers" must apply online for security clearance up to seven days in advance of the day they want to visit the airport, according to the new process. After people fill out the form, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will approve the visit by sending the "non-passengers" an OAK guest pass. "Non-passengers" have to present the pass along with a TSA-approved photo ID, such as a passport or Real ID. A few other airports have begun to offer "non-passenger" passes, while others plan to roll them out in the future. The Oakland airport noted on its site about the new initiative, "The OAK Guest Pass is not a permanent program. In response to exigent circumstances or operational needs, the Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to cancel the program, cancel approved OAK Guest Passes or modify program rules at any time without prior notice."

Wall Street Journal [12/17/2025 3:48 PM, Anvee Bhutani, Christopher Kuo, and Marcus Weisgerber, 646K] reports the Senate approved a sweeping defense-policy package despite alarm over a provision that rolls back safety measures put in place following the fatal midair collision in January between a military helicopter and passenger plane at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The Senate passed the $901 billion National Defense Authorization Act on a vote of 77-20, codifying more than a dozen of President Trump’s executive orders, while placing new limits on his ability to act unilaterally overseas. The House passed the annual measure last week 312 to 112, and it now goes to Trump’s desk for his signature. While the bill sets specific spending levels for the Pentagon, it doesn’t appropriate any money, which is done through separate legislation. Lawmakers added $8 billion to the Pentagon’s budget request. The legislation would increase America’s total national-security budget by less than 1% from last year’s $895 billion authorization bill. It also raises troop pay 3.8%. The legislation would withhold some Pentagon funds until Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth provides Congress the unedited video footage of strikes against suspected drug smuggling vessels in the Caribbean, reflecting growing bipartisan frustration on Capitol Hill. The NDAA typically passes with large bipartisan majorities. The 20 “noes” votes this year was the highest in over a decade, driven by senators from California, Oregon and Illinois. protesting Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to their states.

Federal News Network [12/17/2025 6:30 PM, Justin Doubleday, 986K] reports FEMA staff who signed the "Katrina Declaration" were put back on leave despite an agency legal finding that their disclosure was protected by the law. Senior House Democrats are calling on the Office of Special Counsel to investigate potential whistleblower retaliation after the Federal Emergency Management Agency renewed suspensions for FEMA employees who signed a public letter. The FEMA staff were placed back on administrative leave despite an agency legal finding, referenced by the letter, that found the employees’ disclosure was protected by law. In a Dec. 17 letter to acting Special Counsel Jamieson Greer, ranking members on several House committees said OSC should review the FEMA situation. OSC’s primary mission is to protect federal employees from prohibited personnel practices, especially whistleblower retaliation. The letter comes after FEMA placed 14 signers of the "Katrina Declaration" back on administrative leave after briefly reinstating them earlier this month. At the time, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman said the employees "were wrongly and without authorization reinstated by bureaucrats acting outside their authority," and that "the unauthorized reinstatement was swiftly corrected by senior leadership.” More than 190 current and former FEMA employees signed the letter in August. FEMA subsequently placed staff who signed the letter with their names on administrative leave. "We expect that the Office of Special Counsel will find clear evidence of whistleblower retaliation, reinstate the FEMA employees, and pursue disciplinary action against all officials who retaliated against them," the Democrat letter states. "Should FEMA or DHS refuse to comply with your recommended actions, we urge that the case be referred to the Merit Systems Protection Board for proper enforcement.” The letter was signed by House Homeland Security Committee Ranking Member Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Ranking Member Rick Larsen (D-Wash.), Committee on Oversight and Reform Ranking Member Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) and Rep. Greg Stanton (D-N.Y.), ranking member on the infrastructure committee’s subcommittee on public buildings, economic development and emergency management. Their letter references a Nov. 25 email from an employee in FEMA’s human resources branch to the supervisor of one of the suspended staff members. The email, shared with Federal News Network, references a report of investigation (ROI) and recommends the FEMA manager close the issue without any disciplinary action. The Katrina Declaration letter pushes back against many changes at FEMA enacted under the Trump administration and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. It warns that staffing cuts, a lack of experienced leadership, and other shake-ups at the agency have left it less ready to respond to a major disaster than at any time since Hurricane Katrina. Noem shot back at the letter, arguing that "the same bureaucrats who presided over decades of inefficiency are now objecting to reform.”

Bloomberg [12/17/2025 1:54 PM, Linda Poon, 18207K] reports that Xcel Energy will begin shutting off electricity on Wednesday for about 50,000 customers in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain region, including Denver, amid high-wind advisories and warnings from National Weather Service. The move is intended to reduce the risk of fires from toppled power lines as the area experiences a stretch of dry conditions and near-record warm weather. Once a California phenomenon, a growing number of utilities across the country are opting to turn off power to prevent their equipment from sparking catastrophic wildfires — and to avoid being held liable for the billions of dollars in damages that result from them. In the fire-prone US West, companies serving about 24 million homes and businesses have such plans in place. In Colorado, overlapping storms in some areas mean some customers could be without power for more than three days, Josh Saul and Brian K. Sullivan report.

FOX News [12/17/2025 2:55 PM, Kieran Sullivan, 3739K] reports that thousands of Washington residents have been forced to evacuate their homes in the days after major flooding swamped areas across the state, forcing them to relocate themselves, family members, essential belongings and in many cases, animals. Snohomish County resident Mai Vongpany faced a similar threat that hundreds of other livestock owners faced amid historic flooding in Washington state. As floodwaters advanced and threatened land and livestock, Vongpany went to a state fairground like hundreds of other Washingtonians facing the same threat. Since Dec. 8, Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe, Washington, has offered free emergency stabling to provide refuge for all kinds of livestock jeopardized by flooding, including Vongpany’s chickens, before their coup was completely submerged in floodwater. "Most of the time, we’re known for the fair and our fun events and all the fun stuff, and this is the other side of the work that we do, is being able to offer a safe place for the community," Evergreen State Fair Park Marketing Specialist Amy Craven said. "They’re worried about their animals, but they also have a farm that they’re worrying about, so if we make sure that their animals are safe, then they can focus on the other things and be able to kind of rebuild once the floodwaters go down."

NPR [12/18/2025 4:43 AM, Casey Martin, 34837K] reports hundreds of families across Washington state have been displaced by severe flooding, with some seeking safety in emergency shelters. Recovery may take years as rain continues to fall in the region. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

The Washington Post [12/17/2025 11:32 PM, Tara Copp, Marianne LeVine, and Michelle Boorstein, 24149K] reports at least two U.S. senators have put holds on the nomination of Adm. Kevin Lunday to lead the U.S. Coast Guard, citing concerns with a new workplace harassment policy that downgrades the definition of swastikas and nooses from hate symbols to “potentially divisive.” The move upends Lunday’s confirmation, which the Senate was due to vote on this week, and raises new questions about the decision to implement the policy revisions after Lunday in November had forcefully denounced such symbols and declared a wholesale prohibition on them. The holds on Lunday’s promotion were exercised by Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois) and Jacky Rosen (D-Nevada). They follow a series of Washington Post reports detailing plans to include the incendiary language within the Coast Guard’s new workplace harassment manual — and the policy’s quiet implementation this week despite the admiral’s explicit directive last month. The manual is posted online and specifies that the document’s previous version “is cancelled.” In a statement, Duckworth expressed incredulity at the situation and questioned why Lunday would not update the policy manual “to delete the absurd characterization that clearly states a noose and swastika are merely potentially divisive symbols.” She said that the admiral had affirmed “directly to me” that both “are symbols of hate.” A spokeswoman for DHS, Tricia McLaughlin, said that by placing a hold on Lunday’s nomination, Duckworth and Rosen were attempting to “extort” the Coast Guard to score “cheap political points.” “At a time when the threat of antisemitic violence is as widespread as it is right now, using this to politicize one of President Trump’s military nominations is simply disgusting,” McLaughlin said. The AP [12/17/2025 8:00 PM, Lisa Mascaro and Ben Finley, 30493K] reports that the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Coast Guard, said there "was never a ‘downgrade’" in policy language. Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS spokesperson, said in a statement that the change in fact "strengthens our ability to report, investigate, and prosecute those who violate longstanding policy.” "The symbols listed in the policy include, but are not limited to, nooses, swastikas, and any symbols or flags that have been adopted by hate-based groups to represent supremacy, racial or religious intolerance, antisemitism, or any other form of bias," McLaughlin said.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [12/17/2025 7:04 PM, Ellen Mitchell, 12595K]
NewsMax [12/17/2025 8:55 PM, James Morley III, 4109K]

Federal News Network [12/17/2025 2:34 PM, Terry Gerton, 986K] reports that guest: Shelby Oakley. Title: Director, GAO Contracting and National Security Acquisitions team. Summary: The Coast Guard urgently needs 25 Offshore Patrol Cutters to replace aging ships. But in its most recent review, GAO found serious challenges, from unstable designs to unclear cost baselines, putting the $17 billion program at risk. Here’s a closer look at the troubled program and what’s needed to make improvements. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

MeriTalk [12/17/2025 2:42 PM, Lisbeth Perez, 22K] reports that the U.S. Coast Guard plans to roll out its digital transformation strategy within the next few weeks, aiming to shift the service from largely analog processes to a fully digital military organization, a senior official said during a recent panel session. Lindsay Abbott, chief of the Coast Guard’s Technical Readiness Transformation Office, said the strategy is tied to major technology investments under the service’s Force Design 2028 effort and recent congressional funding. "We’re looking to make sure that those technology investments are sustainable and that the workforce is well equipped to really capitalize on those investments, and not just have to rely on our IT service centers to deliver technology," Abbot said Dec. 16 during SAP’s Public Sector Summit in Washington, D.C. A key priority will be identifying parts of the organization that still rely on manual, paper-based processes. Abbott cited interactions between boarding agents and the public, such as routine boat inspections, that are still conducted with pen and paper. She said the Coast Guard is seeking to automate those processes incrementally, rather than waiting years to complete large platform modernizations. The goal, Abbott said, is to "improve daily operations for service members while broader modernization efforts continue.” Abbott also highlighted automation efforts related to workforce growth.

CyberScoop [12/17/2025 4:30 PM, Greg Otto, 122K] reports federal prosecutors in Michigan say they have dismantled online infrastructure tied to an alleged money laundering operation that moved tens of millions of dollars in proceeds from ransomware and other cybercrime, along with indicting the service’s creator. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan announced a coordinated action with international partners and the Michigan State Police targeting E-Note, a cryptocurrency exchange and payment processing service used to launder illicit funds. The announcement coincided with the unsealing of an indictment charging a Russian national, Mykhalio Petrovich Chudnovets, with one count of money laundering conspiracy. Authorities allege that Chudnovets controlled and operated E-Note and offered money-laundering services to cybercriminals for years, first as a more personal operation and later through a more scalable online platform. Prosecutors say he began providing laundering services in 2010 and ran a network between about 2011 and 2025. Court documents describe an evolution common in cybercrime ecosystems: services that start as ad-hoc arrangements using “money mules” can become streamlined online businesses that lower the barriers for criminals looking to move funds quickly and quietly across borders. Authorities did not say whether Chudnovets is in U.S. custody, and the announcement did not indicate that he had been arrested, suggesting he may still be in Russia. The FBI said it identified more than $70 million in illicit proceeds from ransomware attacks and account takeovers transferred via the E-Note service and associated money-mule network since 2017. The government said the funds included money stolen or extorted from U.S. victims, including organizations in health care and critical infrastructure — sectors that have faced mounting pressure from ransomware groups because of the potentially severe consequences of disrupted services.

CyberScoop [12/17/2025 6:30 PM, Matt Kapko, 122K] reports fallout from React2Shell — a stubborn vulnerability that impacts wide swaths of the internet’s scaffolding — continues to spread as public exploits and stealth backdoors proliferate and worrying details emerge about the targets attackers are pursuing. Threat researchers and incident responders are reacting to swift-moving developments on React2Shell with mounting concern. Cybercriminals, ransomware gangs and nation-state threat groups are all swarming to exploit the maximum-severity vulnerability. Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42 puts the latest victim count at more than 60 organizations, which have been impacted by attacks involving exploitation of CVE-2025-55182, which Meta and the React team publicly disclosed Dec. 3. Microsoft said it found “several hundred machines across a diverse set of organizations” that were compromised via exploitation resulting in remote-code execution. Post-exploitation activity in those attacks includes reverse shell implants, lateral movement, data theft and steps that allowed attackers to maintain access to targeted networks, Microsoft said in a research blog Tuesday. The full scope of attacker interest in the vulnerability is magnified by an unparalleled number of publicly available exploits — underscoring the relative ease and myriad ways unauthenticated attackers can trigger the defect to elevate privileges and pivot into other parts of targeted networks.

NBC News [12/17/2025 8:00 AM, Kevin Collier, 34509K] reports Google is suing a Chinese-speaking cybercriminal group it says is responsible for a massive wave of scam text messages sent to Americans this year, according to a legal complaint filed Tuesday. The group, known as Darcula, sells software that allows users to send phishing text messages en masse, impersonating organizations like the IRS or the U.S. Postal Service in scams. The lawsuit is designed to give Google legal standing so U.S. courts will allow it to seize websites the group uses, hampering their operations, a spokesperson said. Darcula is possibly the most prominent name in an emerging, loosely affiliated cybercrime world that creates and sells hacking programs for aspiring scammers to use. Darcula’s signature program, called Magic Cat, provides an easy-to-use, intuitive way for cybercriminals without advanced hacking skills to quickly spam millions of phone numbers with links to fake websites impersonating businesses like YouTube’s premium service, then steal the credit card numbers victims put in. The complaint asks for a temporary restraining order against Darcula’s web infrastructure, which would allow Google to legally seize control of it and shut it down. The identities of Darcula members, who operate largely in simplified Chinese, are largely unknown. The legal complaint names as a leader Yucheng Chang, who could not be reached for comment. It also accuses 24 other defendants who are unnamed and whose identities Google does not know. Google says Chang resides in China, while other group members live in China or other foreign countries.

FOX News [12/17/2025 11:36 AM, Morgan Phillips, 40621K] reports a terrorist assault on a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, combined with Germany’s arrest of five suspected Islamist militants accused of plotting a Christmas-market attack, is renewing fears that Western democracies are entering a more volatile era marked by ideologically driven violence. The incidents, striking symbolic holiday gatherings on opposite sides of the world, have intensified debate across the United States and Europe over whether open societies are prepared for a resurgence of extremist threats. The sense of unease deepened further after an ISIS-affiliated gunman in Syria killed two U.S. service members and wounded an American civilian working alongside American forces. While the attack took place overseas, national security analysts say it reflects a pattern troubling Western governments: individuals able to inflict harm quickly with minimal planning, animated by broader ideological movements rather than directed by terrorist networks.

NPR [12/17/2025 5:01 AM, Scott Neuman, 28013K] reports just over a decade ago, the self-proclaimed Islamic State (ISIS) held vast swaths of territory across Iraq and Syria, carried out attacks that shocked the world, and regularly flooded social media with gruesome videos depicting the beheadings of orange-jumpsuited Western captives. The Islamic State was declared wiped out by the U.S., but recent attacks linked by officials to the group suggest it continues to be viable, experts say. At its peak, the group, also known under its Arabic acronym Daesh, had more than 40,000 foreign fighters from 120 countries, according to an estimate by the Wilson Center, a congressionally chartered think tank. But by 2019, the ISIS "caliphate" that briefly ruled millions of people in Iraq and Syria over an area about the size of Kentucky, had largely collapsed, following years of U.S.-led operations aimed at dismantling its leadership, reclaiming its territory, and crippling its ability to launch attacks. When the U.S. announced the death of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi that year, President Trump proclaimed, "we obliterated his caliphate, 100 percent.” Yet recent attacks believed to be inspired, at least in part, by ISIS raise questions.

New York Times [12/17/2025 8:55 AM, Adam Goldman, Eric Schmitt, and Lizzie Dearden, 153395K] reports in Australia, a father and son gunned down 15 people celebrating a Jewish holiday at the beach. In England, a Syrian-born British citizen rammed a car into people and attacked others with a knife outside a synagogue on Yom Kippur. On Tuesday, the Polish authorities arrested a law student suspected of plotting to attack a Christmas market. All of them were accused of supporting the Islamic State, a terrorist group whose deadly ideology continues to inspire adherents to commit atrocities years after its core organization was badly degraded. The recurring bloodshed shows the group has adapted to a post-caliphate era. It is weakened compared with a decade ago, when it held large swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria, and instead now wields propaganda as its most potent tool to inspire deadly attacks. “A resurgence would be too strong of a word,” said Colin P. Clarke, a counterterrorism analyst at the Soufan Group, a global intelligence and security firm based in New York. “But the essence of terrorism, beyond the lethality, is the psychological impact, which makes a group like ISIS seem stronger and more omnipresent than it actually is.”

Washington Examiner [12/17/2025 10:17 PM, Molly Parks, 1394K] reports Israeli officials are investigating the killing of Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro, according to a Jerusalem Post report. Loureiro was shot inside his Brookline, Massachusetts, home on Monday and pronounced dead on Tuesday at a local hospital. Police are still searching for the suspect as part of the homicide investigation. Loureiro, who was originally from Portugal, taught at MIT as a professor of physics and of nuclear science and engineering. He also directed the university’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center. According to the Jerusalem Post report, Israeli officials are investigating a reported possible connection between the shooting and Iran. The report says Israel’s investigation is taking place "against the backdrop of Loureiro’s sensitive field of research.” "This is an assessment that has not yet been verified and is not supported at this stage by official findings from the investigative authorities in the United States," the report reads. The FBI declined to comment on the report. A professor of engineering at MIT, Dennis Whyte, who also previously served as the director of the Plasma Science and Fusion Center, told MIT News that Loureiro was a "brilliant" scientist and person. "He shone a bright light as a mentor, friend, teacher, colleague, and leader, and was universally admired for his articulate, compassionate manner. His loss is immeasurable to our community at the PSFC, NSE, and MIT, and around the entire fusion and plasma research world," Whyte said. In statements on Wednesday, local officials advised following updates from the Brookline Police Department and the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office, as it is an open homicide investigation. "This remains an active and ongoing homicide investigation. In order to protect the integrity of the investigation, we are limited in the information we can share at this time and ask for the community’s understanding and patience. While we investigate this incident, we will have dedicated patrol cars, officers, and unmarked units in the Gibbs Street neighborhood," Brookline Police Chief Jennifer Paster said. Brookline Select Board Chairman Bernard Greene also asked the community to remain patient during the investigation. "We understand that, in the absence of concrete information, rumors and fear can spread among community members," Greene said in a statement. "We also understand your frustration with what we can say at the present time, but respectfully ask that law enforcement be given the space it needs to bring the perpetrator of this crime to justice, and that the victim’s loved ones be given privacy and shelter from rumors or misinformation.” The shooting occurred days after a gunman opened fire at Brown University, killing two students. Authorities were also still searching for the gunman from the Brown University mass shooting, but said there is no evidence to suggest the incidents are related.

National Review [12/17/2025 2:34 PM, Kamden Mulder, 109K] reports authorities have made their fifth arrest in the alleged pipe bomb plot that was set to take place on New Year’s Eve, taking 29-year-old transgender-identifying Marine veteran Micah James Legnon into custody for his alleged involvement in the foiled plan. Legnon, who was active in chat groups with fellow members of the the far-left extremist group Turtle Island Liberation Front, wrote that he wanted to “recreate Waco” by attacking U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. In the chats, Legnon posted photos of assault rifles and body armor, going by the names “Kateri TheWitch” and “DarkWitch She/Her.” He planned to carry out attacks in New Orleans, to accompany the planned New Year’s Eve bombings in southern California, the criminal complaint alleges. Federal agents raided Legnon’s home and found “sniper training manuals, SWAT training manuals, assault rifles, and multiple rounds of ammunition,” the complaint reads. Further, on December 4, Legnon posted a Facebook story in which he called ICE agents “masked f****.” Legnon is being held at the Iberia Parish Jail and was charged with making threats over interstate commerce. His arrest was first reported by independent journalist Andy Ngo. The complaint noted that Legnon has combat experience, as he previously served in the Marines, and now uses she/her pronouns. Four other co-conspirators — Audrey Carroll, 30, Zachary Page, 32, Dante Garfield, 24, and Tina Lai, 41 — and members of the Turtle Island Liberation Front were arrested in Los Angeles, the FBI announced Monday. The group was discovered in the Mojave Desert, testing out explosives. All five of the members arrested were all a part of the same chat group, coined “Order of the Black Lotus,” an offshoot of the Turtle Island Liberation Front.

AP [12/17/2025 4:05 PM, Patrick Whittle and Leah Willingham] reports the investigation into the Brown University mass shooting has dragged on for more than four days with no named suspect, motive, weapon or even a clear image of the assailant’s face that might help bring them to justice. Investigators have been hobbled by the lack of clear eyewitness accounts of the shooter and few, if any, cameras in the wing of the building where the attack happened. Despite these difficulties, frustration was mounting Wednesday over the lack of progress. The attack on Saturday killed two students and wounded nine others. They were studying for a final in a first-floor classroom in an older section of the engineering building when the gunman walked in and opened fire. The students who were killed were 19-year-old sophomore Ella Cook and 18-year-old freshman MukhammadAziz Umurzokov. As for the wounded, one remained hospitalized in critical condition Wednesday and six were in stable condition, Rhode Island Hospital said. The other two were discharged.

New York Post [12/17/2025 1:21 PM, Chris Nesi, 42219K] reports that the Providence Police Department has widened its search to include a person who was "in proximity" to the at-large Brown University gunman who murdered two students and wounded seven others on Saturday. "Investigators are asking for the public’s help in identifying and speaking to the individual shown in these photos who was in proximity of the person of interest," the Rhode Island department wrote on X alongside several photos. "Anyone with information is urged to contact the tip line at 401-272-3121." The individual featured in the newly released grainy surveillance camera captures is wearing a blue jacket with a green hood, dark pants and is holding what appears to be a light-colored satchel slung over their right shoulder. It appears to be the same person spotted in surveillance footage previously released by FBI Boston, which also shows the unidentified suspect walking down a suburban Providence street less than two hours before the shooting. In the footage, the suspect appears to look to his right and spot the backpack-wearing individual before breaking into a sprint down a side street at 2:16 p.m. Dec. 13. The department said in a statement that the investigation remains ongoing, and that it’s working closely with law enforcement partners with the Rhode Island State Police, Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office, FBI, ATF, IRS, DEA, US Secret Service, US Department of Homeland Security, and the US Marshals Service.

New York Post [12/17/2025 6:34 PM, Chris Nesi, 42219K] reports Rhode Island authorities admitted on Wednesday that the Brown University gunman "could be anywhere" after five days of searching for the killer – but insisted they aren’t discouraged about the slow pace of their investigation. Officials provided what little updates they have during their latest press briefing, during which Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha got defensive at times and the local police chief offered up contradictory information about their probe. Providence Police Chief Col. Oscar Perez called the ongoing search for the suspect in Saturday’s mass shooting "the most intense investigation going on in this nation" that will require the public’s assistance as well as "good old-fashioned police work" to crack. Reporters peppered Perez with questions about evidence uncovered during the investigation, the chief initially saying they’ve "found no items of interest so far." But Perez later said after conducting extensive searches both inside and outside the academic building where the shooting took place "we have both seized and found physical evidence." Five days since the shooting and the only leads made public so far are a handful of grainy security camera stills and video showing the apparent suspect walking the streets of Providence both before and after the shooting. Investigators have so far come up empty in the search for the suspect who murdered two Brown University students and wounded seven others. Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said another victim has been discharged, leaving one hospitalized survivor in critical but stable condition and five others in stable condition.

The Hill [12/17/2025 10:49 AM, Ryan Mancini, 12595K] reports that President Trump on Wednesday attacked Brown University over what he claimed was a lack of security cameras after the FBI faced criticism for arresting a person in connection with a fatal shooting who was later released because of insufficient evidence. "Why did Brown University have so few Security Cameras?" Trump wrote on Truth Social. "There can be no excuse for that. In the modern age, it just doesn’t get worse!!!" University spokesperson Brian Clark told The Hill in a statement that the campus has "an expansive network of security cameras, with more than 1,200 cameras installed across campus buildings and spaces in both interior and exterior locations." He added that the cameras are deployed in high-traffic areas such as streets, sidewalks and campus hallways, as well as the entry and exit points of buildings. "Brown’s security cameras do not extend to every hallway, classroom, laboratory and office across the 250+ buildings on campus," Clark said. "For security reasons, it is not prudent to share where cameras are and are not relative to individual buildings and locations." The spokesperson continued, "What we can share is that Brown has and will continue to cooperate fully with the law enforcement agencies conducting this investigation." He also noted that the university has and "will continue to provide investigators with any and all security camera footage they need, including from the engineering complex of three connected buildings that includes Barus & Holley, the Engineering Research Center and Prince Lab."

Reported similarly:
USA Today [12/17/2025 9:15 AM, Bailey Allen, 67103K] r

NewsMax [12/17/2025 10:01 AM, Staff, 4109K] reports the investigation into the deadly shootings at Brown University has been "unacceptable," according to Rep. Brad Knott, R-N.C., who told Newsmax on Wednesday that there are serious concerns about the failures by local and campus law enforcement, signaling that Congress may need to review campus security standards. "As a former prosecutor who worked with all levels of law enforcement, my questions go more toward the local police, the local law enforcement, the campus police," Knott told "Wake Up America Early." "They are the ones who are supposed to be proficient." However, officials still lack a clear picture of what happened in the shooting that left two people dead and several others injured at the Rhode Island school, he noted. Questions have surfaced about Brown University’s campus alert system, which reportedly failed to notify students and staff for more than 17 minutes, as well as whether security cameras were operational at the time of the attack. The lack of cameras and or clear video of the gunman, who has not yet been captured, has been condemned as the investigation unfolds. Brown President Christina H. Paxson confirmed Tuesday that the campus has 1,200 cameras, but law enforcement says there is no clear video of the shooter from inside the engineering building.

New York Post [12/17/2025 5:23 PM, Chris Nesi, 42219K] reports the Brown University mass shooting is raising questions about how an Ivy League college with an $8 billion endowment has no security cameras in the area where two students were killed and eight wounded — or any near where the gunman went. The failure to capture the gunman after five days has resulted in New England on edge — and critics growing louder about the security and investigative failures by leaders of both Brown and the Providence, Rhode Island, Police Department. Since the shooting on Saturday, Providence cops and the FBI have released numerous grainy captures from doorbell cameras in the area showing the "person of interest" in the case, and have fielded over 200 "actionable" tips, but so far no concrete identifying information has been released. State Attorney General Peter Neronha told reporters Wednesday that authorities have "zero" information regarding a potential motive in the killings. Authorities described the suspect as a man with a stocky build standing approximately 5 feet, 8 inches tall. In the footage released by authorities he’s seen wearing a black hat, medical mask, dark pants and a two-tone winter jacket. "The Providence Police Department continues to work closely with our law enforcement partners, including the Rhode Island State Police, Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office, FBI, ATF, IRS, DEA, U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Marshals Service," a department spokesperson wrote.

CNN [12/17/2025 3:14 PM, Evan Perez, 18595K] reports on Sunday morning, as investigators rushed to prepare a search warrant for a hotel room in Coventry, Rhode Island, FBI Director Kash Patel broke the news on social media celebrating that a person of interest had been detained in the Brown University mass shooting. It turned out to be the wrong man. The man detained was released later Sunday. After tensions over the weekend, officials regrouped Monday and Patel dispatched more resources to Providence to support the investigation. The FBI is now offering a $50,000 reward for tips leading to the identification and conviction of the shooter. The FBI director’s social media post angered local and state officials in Rhode Island who viewed it as premature and damaging to the probe.

San Francisco Chronicle [12/17/2025 1:56 PM, Annie Vainshtein, 4722K] reports that a Bay Area engineer was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison Tuesday for blowing up two Pacific Gas & Electric Co. transformers in 2022 and 2023 with homemade bombs, U.S. Department of Justice spokespeople said. Peter Karasev, 39, pleaded guilty in April to two counts of willful destruction of an energy facility, admitting that between Dec. 2022 and Jan. 2023, he blew up two PG&E transformers in San Jose. Karasev previously worked at Zoox, a robotaxi company, as an engineer. Officials have not stated any particular motive for the attacks. The attacks caused significant destruction — $200,000 in damages — and widespread power outages to more than 1,500 households in the San Jose area, federal officials said. At least 15 households impacted by the disrupted service were enrolled in a program that required continued electrical service for life-sustaining medical needs, officials said. Some customers were left without power for almost 16 hours, officials said

“Karasev’s attacks on critical infrastructure were direct threats to public safety and national security,” said U.S. Attorney Craig H. Missakian for the Northern District of California. “He aimed to inflict widespread disruption and harm, but we remain steadfast in our commitment to holding accountable those who threaten the safety and well-being of the residents of San Jose.”

Washington Examiner [12/17/2025 9:39 AM, Emily Hallas, 1394K] reports that Australian authorities on Wednesday announced that they charged the gunman accused of targeting Jews at a recent Hanukkah celebration with committing a terrorist act. The New South Wales Police revealed a total of 59 counts against Naveed Akram, including 15 counts of murder, 40 counts of causing wounding or grievous bodily harm to a person with intent to murder, and causing a public display of a prohibited terrorist organization’s symbol, among other charges. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted, as Australia abolished the death penalty in 1985. Akram, 24, is accused of carrying out the anti-Jewish massacre at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday, which killed 15 Jews and left at least 40 with injuries. His father, fatally shot by police, is accused of carrying out the attack alongside his son. Among those who died was Holocaust survivor Alex Kleytman, who was killed while protecting his wife, Larisa, who was also a Holocaust survivor. Alex escaped the gas chambers by fleeing to Siberia, later spending decades in the Soviet Union before immigrating to Australia, where he attended Bondi Beach’s Hanukkah celebration for years. Australian authorities on Tuesday said the "terrorist attack" was inspired by ISIS, revealing "the presence of Islamic State flags in the vehicle that has been seized.”

NewsMax [12/17/2025 7:27 AM, Staff, 4109K] reports there is no evidence indicating that the two suspects involved in the Bondi Beach attack received any form of military training while in the Philippines, the Philippines’ National Security Adviser said on Wednesday. In a statement, Eduardo Año said that a mere visit to the country does not substantiate allegations of terrorist training, and the duration of their stay would not have permitted any meaningful or structured training. The alleged father-and-son gunmen opened fire on a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday, killing 15 in an attack that shocked Australia and heightened fears of antisemitism and violent extremism.Año said the government was investigating the two men’s travel from November 1 to 28 and coordinating with Australian authorities to determine the purpose of the visit, dismissing media reports portraying the southern Philippines as a hotspot for violent extremism as "outdated" and "misleading."

CNN [12/17/2025 12:29 PM, Morgan Rimmer, 606K] reports the Senate passed the annual defense policy bill, sending it to President Donald Trump’s desk for his signature. Democrats and Republicans in the Senate voted overwhelmingly, 77-20, to approve the National Defense Authorization Act, which authorizes nearly $900 billion in funding for military programs, including a 3.8% pay raise for service members, and sets out the nation’s defense policy agenda. The House of Representatives approved the package last week, and Trump is expected to sign it, having previously urged its passage. Among the massive bill’s more controversial measures is a provision that pressures the Pentagon to provide more information on military strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean, which was added after the revelation of a follow-up strike conducted on September 2. The package would cut Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget by 25% until unedited videos of the strikes are released to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees. Earlier this week, Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio held classified briefings for all House members and Senators on the strikes. Hegseth told reporters on Tuesday the Pentagon will not release to the public the full video of the controversial September strike.

Breitbart [12/17/2025 5:34 AM, Christian K. Caruzo, 2416K] reports far-left President of Colombia Gustavo Petro, still reeling from conservative President-elect José Antonio Kast’s sweeping victory in Chile, called Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro a dictator in yet another unhinged rant at Kast. The incident marks the first time Petro publicly refers to Maduro as a dictator. "Maduro is a dictator because he concentrates power," Petro wrote on social media before claiming that "there is no evidence in Colombia that he is a drug trafficker. That is the U.S. narrative." "Kast is the son and believer of the Nazis. He belongs to the German generation that fled Germany not to save themselves from Hitler but to save themselves from Hitler’s defeat, which is very, very different," he continued. Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president ever and an avid pro-cocaine advocate, appears to have been greatly affected by the results of Chile’s 2025 presidential runoff election. On Sunday, Kast, a 59-year old conservative politician and former lawmaker, became elected as the next president of Chile. The conservative President-elect obtained 58.16 percent of the votes and won in all of Chile’s 16 regions (states).

Breitbart [12/17/2025 4:59 AM, Staff, 2416K] reports the United States has designated Colombia’s Clan de Golfo as a terrorist organization, the latest drug-trafficking cartel or gang to be blacklisted by the Trump administration during its war on drugs. The State Department designated the group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist on Tuesday. "The United States will continue to use all available tools to protect our nation and stop the campaigns of violence and terror committed by international cartels and transnational criminal organizations," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement. "We are committed to denying funding and resources to these terrorists." According to nonprofit think tank InSight Crime, Clan de Golfo is primarily involved in transnational drug trafficking and controls territories where it regulates or directs the coca paste production market and guards shipments on trafficking routes. The Trump administration describes the group as a violent and powerful criminal organization with thousands of members. Its primary revenue source is cocaine trafficking. It is the 10th gang or cartel the Trump administration has designated as a terrorist organization since February.

FOX News [12/17/2025 1:22 PM, Efrat Lachter, 40621K] reports that Yemen’s Southern Transitional Council (STC) claims its forces now control all eight southern governorates and are prepared to serve as Washington’s frontline partner against Iran-backed Houthis, al Qaeda affiliates and Muslim Brotherhood factions. In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, Ahmed Atef, the STC’s representative to the United States and United Nations, said STC hopes for expanded cooperation with Washington — militarily, diplomatically and economically. "All kinds of support are welcome," he said. "President Trump is very courageous and very strong, and we are really looking forward to his support." The STC has emerged as the dominant power in southern Yemen, and is reportedly backed by significant Emirati funding and military support. Formed in April 2017, it unites factions seeking to reestablish an independent South Yemen — reviving the state that existed from 1967 until unification in 1990. Last week, the head of Yemen’s internationally recognized government called on STC to withdraw from territories they have recently captured in the southeastern parts of the country, The Associated Press reported. On Wednesday, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned that Yemen was facing a dangerous new escalation following recent advances by forces affiliated with the STC in the eastern governorates of Hadramawt and al-Mahra. Guterres said such unilateral actions risk deepening divisions, hardening positions and accelerating fragmentation, with potential spillover effects on regional security, including the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Horn of Africa.

Axios [12/17/2025 10:50 PM, Barak Ravid, 12972K] reports Russian President Vladimir Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev is expected to visit Miami this weekend for talks with White House envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump’s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner on the U.S. plan to end the war in Ukraine, a White House official and a source with knowledge said. Trump’s advisers are expected to inform Putin’s envoy of progress made in talks between U.S. and Ukrainian officials and try to get Russia’s government to agree to the updated proposal on ending the war. A Ukrainian delegation headed by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky’s national security adviser Rustem Umerov is also expected to arrive in Miami later this week for talks with Witkoff and Kushner. At the moment there is no plan for a trilateral meeting between U.S., Ukrainian and Russian officials, sources say. Dmitriev’s visit will take place after intense negotiations last weekend in Berlin between U.S. and Ukrainian officials over Trump’s peace plan. Officials from both countries said these talks made significant progress on the security guarantees Ukraine will get in a future peace deal, but gaps still remain on the issue of territory. Russian officials are demanding that Ukraine cede all the territory it still controls in Donbas. Dmitriev’s visit comes more than two weeks after Witkoff and Kushner met in Moscow with Putin and discussed Trump’s peace plan. Dmitriev started discussing the plan with Trump’s advisers two months ago.

AP [12/17/2025 1:52 PM, David Klepper and Didi Tang, 31753K] reports China is exploiting partnerships with U.S. researchers funded by the Department of Energy to provide the Chinese military with access to sensitive nuclear technology and other innovations with economic and national security applications, according to a congressional report published Wednesday. The authors of the report say the U.S. must do more to protect high-tech research and ensure that the results of taxpayer-funded work don’t end up benefiting Beijing. They recommended several changes to better protect scientific research in the U.S., including new policies for the Department of Energy to use when deciding whether to fund work that involves Chinese partnerships. The investigation is part of a congressional push to raise a firewall blocking U.S. research from boosting China’s military buildup when the two countries are locked in a tech and arms rivalry that will shape the future global order. Investigators from the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and the House Committee on Education and the Workforce identified more than 4,300 academic papers published between June 2023 and June of this year that involved collaborations between DOE-funded scientists and Chinese researchers. About half of the papers involved Chinese researchers affiliated with China’s military or industrial base.

Reuters [12/17/2025 3:57 PM, Alexandra Alper, 36480K] reports that Republican lawmakers accused Intel (INTC.O) this week of threatening U.S. national security after Reuters revealed the chipmaker was evaluating chipmaking equipment made by a company with deep ties to China and overseas units sanctioned by the U.S. government. Intel, whose CEO came under pressure from President Donald Trump to resign in August over his alleged ties to China, got the tools from ACM Research, a Fremont, California-based producer of chipmaking equipment. The tools were tested for possible use in Intel’s most advanced chipmaking process, known as 14A. Two of ACM’s units were among a number of firms barred last year from receiving U.S. technology over claims they supported Chinese government efforts to harness commercial technology for military use and making advanced chips or chipmaking tools. ACM denies the allegations. Shares of its Shanghai unit rose 8% the day the story was published. "Testing Chinese-linked tools for U.S. chip manufacturing opens the door for the (Chinese Government) to manipulate or compromise our most advanced semiconductor capabilities," Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn said in a statement to Reuters. "It is egregious that Intel would put American national and economic security at risk." Blackburn called for the passage of legislation she co-sponsored to bar chipmakers that have received billions in U.S. government subsidies from using Chinese equipment as part of their government-backed expansion plans.

Washington Times [12/17/2025 12:08 PM, Bill Gertz, 852K] reports that China’s Ministry of State Security intelligence service disclosed in October that the U.S. National Security Agency has been engaged in a three-year cyber campaign to break into the official National Time Service Center. The center is located in the north central city of Xian and provides precision time services that state media says are vital for military systems, communications, finance, electricity, transportation and mapping. The NSA had no comment on the report, but defense analysts say the Chinese report is a significant clue to one of the most secret programs in support of an advanced form of strategic missile defense called “left of launch.” Left-of-launch refers to a timeline for using various military tools, such as cyberattacks that could cause missiles to blow up in silos when launch buttons are pushed, special operations commandos and on-the-ground sabotage after a missile is detected being readied for firing.

The project to conduct pre-launch attacks and sabotage of missile systems has been underway for at least a decade, and its elements are among the American military’s most closely guarded secrets. Asked recently how left-of-launch will be used in President Trump’s forthcoming Golden Dome defense system to prevent a missile from being fired, Space Force Gen. Michael A. Guetlein, vice chief of space operations, said cryptically: “Can’t talk about it.” Gaining access to China’s central time system would provide a major advantage to the U.S. military and military intelligence services during a conflict by allowing hackers to disrupt missile strikes before launch or shortly after launch, known as boost phase.

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