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

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

The Washington Post [12/19/2025 6:41 PM, Andrew Jeong and Maria Sacchetti, 24149K] reports President Donald Trump ordered the suspension of the U.S. green-card lottery program on Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem said. The decision comes after authorities said the suspected gunman in the recent shootings at Brown University and the home of an MIT professor used the system to gain entry into the United States. Two students were killed and nine others injured at Brown University on Saturday when a man opened fire inside an engineering building. Two days later, Nuno Loureiro, 47, a professor of nuclear science and engineering, and of physics, was found shot at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, about 40 miles from Brown. The same gunman was responsible for the fatal shootings, authorities said. The Diversity Immigrant Visa program, known as DV1, allows up to 55,000 visas a year from countries with a low immigration rate to the U.S. to apply to come to the country. The suspect, 48-year-old Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, entered the U.S. in 2017 through that program, according to law enforcement. “This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” Noem said in a social media post that announced the decision. At Trump’s direction, Noem ordered U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to immediately “pause” the program, she said. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to questions about why Noem believed Valente should not have been admitted. His entry to the U.S. under that program occurred during Trump’s first term. Critics say the Trump administration’s pattern of enacting immigration restrictions that potentially affect millions based on violence perpetrated by a few people, suggests the changes could be being made for other reasons — namely, Trump and his party’s desire to reduce all forms of immigration to the United States. “These are horrible acts of gun violence. But none of these suspensions seem truly tied to the incidents they claim to respond to,” said Andrea Flores, an immigration policy adviser to the Biden and Obama administrations. “The violence is not a function of our immigration system. The policy changes are extensions of what Trump was doing in his first term: suspending legal immigration.” Congress initially created the diversity lottery system in 1990 to attract more immigration from Northern Europe and Ireland. In recent decades, however, it’s been a primary vehicle for people from some of the smallest and remotest nations to come to the U.S. legally and obtain a green card for legal residency. To be eligible, applicants must have at least a high school education and two years of work experience that requires skills training. House members from both parties have tried to repeal the program, most recently in 2021. But those efforts have largely been blocked by Senate Democrats. Conservative think tanks have derided the program as fraudulent — a government watchdog report that said the program was susceptible to fraud was cited during Trump’s first term, when the administration sought to curtail it. Supporters have held the lottery up as an example of what the immigration system should look like: bringing skilled people into the country from every corner of the world. The State Department receives more than 20 million applications each year for a random chance to claim up to 55,000 open visas, the agency’s data shows. Once selected, recipients are given a short window to claim it and undergo vetting. The lottery suspension is part of a broader Trump administration campaign, immigration experts said, that would lower immigration from nations in Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Travel bans for more than 30 countries, the suspension and elimination of refugee and family reunification programs, new restrictions for student and work visas and denaturalization threats, among other changes, could reshape U.S. demographics in favor of other groups such as Afrikaners from South Africa, those experts said. FOX News [12/19/2025 6:11 AM, Alex Nitzberg, 40621K] Video: HERE reports "In 2017, President Trump fought to end this program, following the devastating NYC truck ramming by an ISIS terrorist, who entered under the DV1 program, and murdered eight people," [Noem] continued. "At President Trump’s direction, I am immediately directing USCIS to pause the DV1 program to ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous program." Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, a Portuguese national who was found dead on Thursday from "a self-inflicted gunshot wound," according to officials, was the suspect in both the Brown University shooting and in the separate murder of an MIT professor. [Editorial note: consult video at source link] CNN [12/19/2025 11:45 AM, Kaanita Iyer and Priscilla Alvarez, 18595K] reports that "At President (Donald) Trump’s direction, I am immediately directing USCIS to pause the DV1 program to ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous program," Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on X late Thursday. DHS oversees the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Claudio Neves Valente, the suspect in Saturday’s shooting at Brown University who is also accused of killing a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor on Monday, was found dead Thursday night. Valente was identified as a 48-year-old former Brown University student and Portuguese national. Noem said Thursday that he came to the United States in 2017 on a DV1 visa and received a green card. The State Department runs the diversity visa program, which is designed for individuals in countries that are determined by a formula to have a low enough level of immigration to the US. Those who arrive to the US under the program are also issued green cards. The issuance of those green cards is handled by DHS. The bulk of the program falls under the State Department, which would presumably be charged with pausing the program. It’s unclear what direction Noem could provide, aside from pausing the issuance of green cards for those in the program. "The horrific incidents this week demonstrate the threat the diversity visa program poses to American security and safety, which President Trump has long worked to fix. The Department of State is working closely with Department of Homeland Security to put in place all necessary measures to protect America from this threat," a State Department spokesperson said in a statement.

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New York Times [12/20/2025 3:18 AM, Madeleine Ngo and Miriam Jordan, 330K] reports the Trump administration is suspending the immigration program that granted permanent residency to the man suspected of killing two Brown University students and an M.I.T. professor, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on Thursday night. But some immigration law experts said it was unclear what authority the administration had to take such a step, as the diversity visa program was established by Congress. Under the program, up to 55,000 visas can be awarded annually through a lottery to people from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. It is a small part of overall immigration to the United States. Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, the suspected gunman, was issued a diversity visa in 2017 and became a legal permanent resident of the United States that year, according to immigration records in an affidavit filed by the police in Providence, R.I. “This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” Ms. Noem said in a post on social media. Several immigration law experts said the president was unlikely to have the authority to suspend the program. Stephen Yale-Loehr, a retired Cornell University professor of immigration law, said the program was created by Congress and presidents “cannot unilaterally negate or terminate an immigration program.” Although he said the Trump administration was likely to argue that the president could bar the entry of any foreign national who posed a national security risk, the courts would have to decide whether that authority allowed the president to suspend the diversity visa program entirely. “This is another example of the Trump administration acting first and letting the courts figure out the legality later,” Mr. Yale-Loehr said. Jennifer Ibañez Whitlock, a senior policy counsel at the National Immigration Law Center, an advocacy organization, said it was unclear how the Department of Homeland Security would carry out the program’s suspension. In her social media post, Ms. Noem directed U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to pause the program. But the State Department also runs major aspects of the program, Ms. Whitlock said. “I think there’s still a lot of open questions,” she said. “The executive branch has a lot of authority, but they don’t necessarily have the authority to just ignore law.”

DailySignal [12/19/2025 4:21 PM, Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell, 549K] reports the Trump administration plans to fix the diversity visa program and then resume it, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told The Daily Signal Friday. After the alleged shooter of students at Brown University and an MIT professor was found to have entered the country using a diversity visa, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem paused the program. The Daily Signal asked Rubio if the State Department is considering permanent changes to the diversity visa program. Noem announced late Thursday that the Trump administration will pause the diversity visa lottery program after it was found to have been used eight years ago by the man accused of killing an MIT professor and two Brown University students, including College Republicans Vice President Ella Cook. The suspected shooter, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, entered the United States through the lottery in 2017 and was issued a green card. The diversity visa lottery allows 50,000 people per year from countries with low rates of immigration to America to obtain visas. Rubio said it’s "wise" to suspend the program until the administration has determined if there’s a deficiency.

Breitbart [12/19/2025 4:00 PM, John Binder, 2416K] reports the Diversity Visa Lottery program, created by the Immigration Act of 1990, imports nearly half a million migrants to the United States every decade for no other reason than to add so-called "diversity" to the American population. On Friday, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem revealed that Portuguese national Claudio Manuel Neves Valente — accused of carrying out deadly shootings at Brown University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) — arrived in the U.S. in 2017 after being awarded a diversity visa. From Fiscal Year 2012 through Fiscal Year 2022, for instance, the Diversity Visa Lottery resettled more than 461,000 foreign nationals in American communities. Now, in response to the Brown University shooting, Noem said the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is shutting down the Diversity Visa Lottery for the time being.

ABC News [12/19/2025 4:47 PM, Aaron Katersky, 30493K] reports it was Thursday morning when investigators definitively determined the same individual opened fire on a study group at Brown University and, two days later, murdered an MIT professor -- raising fears among law enforcement officials that the killer may have had other intended targets, according to the top federal law enforcement official in Boston. Foley said that the suspect, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, was found dead in the New Hampshire storage unit with two 9mm Glock firearms equipped with green laser sights, five magazines with nearly 200 rounds of ammunition and nearly $900 in cash. In his car, investigators said they found more ammunition and body armor. Neves Valente, 48, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said, with authorities finding him Thursday night. He is estimated to have died two days earlier, on Tuesday, based on the findings from an autopsy conducted on Friday and the investigation’s findings so far, according to the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office. Investigators were also searching through the contents of three USB thumb drives found in the suspect’s car to see if they contained clues about a motive. It is unclear at this time if the suspect had any other potential targets, according to people familiar with the investigation. Foley said investigators believe Brown University and the MIT professor -- Nuno F.G. Loureiro -- were intentional targets, but they do not know why.

CNN [12/19/2025 5:27 PM, Andy Rose, 18595K] reports the discovery of the body of Claudio Neves Valente in a New Hampshire storage facility Thursday night capped days of terror following two deadly shootings on two separate major university campuses. But the story, investigators say, began decades earlier. Here is a timeline of the 48-year-old suspected gunman’s movements from when he first may have encountered one of the victims, according to prosecutors. Neves Valente is estimated to have died by suicide on December 16, the New Hampshire Department of Justice Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said after conducting an autopsy Friday morning. ABC News [12/19/2025 9:35 PM, Chris Looft, 30493K] reports that a motive in the shootings remains under investigation, according to police and federal officials. According to two former classmates and his university in his native Portugal, Neves Valente was a brilliant student. He was remembered as, at times, friendly and kind, though one former classmate recalls that Neves Valente was prone to frustration and even anger and bullying. Neves Valente was the top student in his graduating class in 2000 in the physics engineering program at Lisbon’s prestigious Instituto Superior Técnico, a spokesperson for the school told ABC News. Following closely behind Neves Valente, the IST spokesperson said, was Loureiro. The accomplished Portuguese scientist joined the MIT faculty in 2016 and was a faculty member in MIT’s departments of Nuclear Science & Engineering and Physics and the director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center at the time of his death. Dr. Bruno Nobre, now a professor and dean at the Catholic University of Portugal who graduated from IST alongside Neves Valente and Loureiro in 2000, told ABC News in an email that he remembers Neves Valente well. "Claudio was a brilliant student and a very friendly colleague," Nobre said. "At that time nothing suggested that he could commit the acts he is accused of," he added. He said that while they studied at IST, Neves Valente and Loureiro had a "very normal" relationship as classmates. "I don’t believe they were very close," he said. Nobre said he had last seen Neves Valente more than 20 years ago and that he didn’t know what his former classmate did after he arrived in the United States. Brown officials confirmed that Neves Valente was enrolled at the university from the fall of 2000 through the spring of 2001 as a graduate student in physics, entering Brown’s graduate program in September 2000. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Washington Examiner [12/19/2025 9:57 PM, Brady Knox, 1394K] reports the suspect accused of killing two Brown University students and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor was ruled to have committed suicide in a storage unit two days before he was found. An autopsy found that Claudio Manuel Neves Valente shot himself in a Salem, New Hampshire, storage unit on Tuesday, according to the New Hampshire Department of Justice Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. That was two days after the Brown University mass shooting and one day after the murder of MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro, 47, in his own home. Neves Valente’s death leaves more questions than answers, especially regarding his motive, which authorities are still seeking to establish. Since finding Neves Valente’s corpse, authorities have established that the killer and Loureiro studied physics at the same Portuguese university at the same time in the 1990s. "My understanding is that they did know each other," said Leah Foley, U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts. The shootings drew additional national attention because of the botched investigation around them. After initially announcing a suspect was in custody on Sunday, police soon revealed they had arrested the wrong person, and the suspect was still on the run. The inability of police to apprehend the mass shooter invited a barrage of criticism on local law enforcement, something acknowledged by Providence Police Chief Col. Oscar L. Perez Jr. "There was a lot of criticism, too, as far as, like, how long has the investigation taken," he said. "And sometimes, you know, it’s just that when you’re not a police officer, you don’t understand how this works," he said, explaining that investigators have to evaluate all the leads and physical evidence, which can be a painstaking process. "And so it takes work and…you can’t do that within minutes. Sometimes it takes days," Perez added. Police also initially dismissed a link between the Brown University shooting and Loureiro’s murder. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

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AP [12/20/2025 12:07 AM, Matt O’Brien, 30493K] reports that, more than a decade ago, a frenzied 5-day search for the Boston Marathon bombers left some lessons in its aftermath. One was that increasingly pervasive surveillance technology could help catch the culprits. Another was that amateur online sleuths on Reddit could not. But the intense search this week for a suspect in a Brown University shooting that killed two students and wounded nine other people turned the tables on those expectations. Sweeping surveillance, now found in doorbells, cars and a vast network of vehicle-tracking cameras, did eventually help track down the whereabouts of Claudio Neves Valente, the 48-year-old former Brown graduate student investigators believe was responsible for the Dec. 13 shooting and another killing two days later of an MIT professor in Brookline, Massachusetts. But the latest artificial intelligence-powered surveillance was of little use in the early search for a gunman who walked away from the Brown campus after the shooting and slipped unnoticed into the surrounding neighborhoods of Providence, Rhode Island. He evaded detection for days, using a hard-to-trace phone, avoiding facial recognition software by obscuring his face with a medical-type mask and switching the license plates on his rental cars. It wasn’t until a local Reddit user "blew this case right open" with an old-fashioned tip first posted on the social media platform that police were able to connect a car to Neves Valente, said Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha. They finally found the suspect dead Thursday in Salem, New Hampshire, days after he likely killed himself. The Reddit tipster known only as John is "no less than a hero," Providence Mayor Brett Smiley wrote Friday to FBI Director Kash Patel, asking for the entirety of the FBI’s $50,000 award for information leading investigators to the suspect. Strangers have invited him to Christmas dinner and suggested he get a "key to the city and free coffee and doughnuts for life," according to fellow contributors to Reddit’s Providence forum. It was a stark turn from 2013 when commentators on Reddit and other online discussion boards falsely smeared a Brown University student as a potential suspect in the deadly attack at Boston’s famed marathon, just an hour’s north of Providence, because of a supposed resemblance to a grainy suspect image. "Hey Reddit, enough Boston bombing vigilantism," declared a headline in The Atlantic at the time. "It definitely went sideways in the Boston Marathon situation," said Liza Potts, a professor at Michigan State University and director of a digital humanities lab that studied the online response. "That’s why folks will jokingly refer to the ‘Reddit Detective Agency’ or the ‘Reddit Bureau of Investigations.’".

New York Times [12/19/2025 7:00 AM, Mark Arsenault, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs and Thomas Gibbons-Neff, 330K] reports the first police officers arrived just after 4 p.m. last Saturday after reports of an active shooter at Brown University. They found a lecture room full of gunshot victims in one of the science buildings. The body of Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov was near the back doors of the sloped, auditorium-style hall. Another student, Ella Cook, had died on the floor between rows of seats. Nine others were bleeding and injured, some critically, and needed rescue. And the killer? He had already slipped away, escaping a vast police dragnet imposed on the campus and the surrounding streets in the East Side neighborhood of Providence, R.I. There would be no armed standoff, no negotiation: Investigators were going to have to track the gunman down. The scene inside the lecture hall was nightmarish, but also teeming with potential evidence. Investigators said they collected 44 spent 9-millimeter shell casings and an additional unfired round from inside the lecture room and the hallway just outside it, in the Barus and Holley science building, a 1960s-style concrete and brick midrise. The story of the manhunt and the ultimate resolution of the investigation, pieced together through affidavits filed in the case, interviews and statements by officials, and a review of social media posts, suggests an investigation that regrouped after a false start, aided by a crucial tip that finally broke open the case. The shooter had apparently left behind two high-capacity magazines, each able to hold about 30 rounds. DNA from the shell casings was sent out for an expedited analysis. It did not match anyone in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s national DNA database. The eyewitnesses to the chaos told investigators that the shooter was a man, medium build, dressed in black, wearing a medical mask and wielding a handgun with a green laser sight. The killer might have howled a barking noise before he started firing, according to some witnesses, though others did not remember him saying anything before spraying the auditorium with bullets. But investigators had not yet received back scientific test results on evidence, and by that evening, when the tests came back, it was clear they had the wrong man. On Monday, while investigators in Providence continued to sift through tips, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Nuno F.G. Loureiro, was fatally shot in his home in Brookline, Mass. The killer had fled. Then on Tuesday, a tip pointed the police to a Reddit post that grabbed their attention: “I’m being dead serious,” an anonymous poster had written about the Brown shooting. “The police need to look into a grey Nissan with Florida plates, possibly a rental.” The Nissan, the poster said, had been parked on a street corner in a residential neighborhood near Brown, sheltered by trees and bushes. A day after the Reddit post was made, a man the authorities confirmed was the writer approached law enforcement officials and told them about the car and an odd encounter he had with a suspicious man in Brown’s Barus and Holley building.

Free Beacon [12/19/2025 6:50 PM, Jessica Schwalb, 411K]
Brown University president Christina Paxson sent a lengthy statement to the "Brown community" addressing the Saturday shooting that left two students dead. She condemned "gun violence," lamented "harmful doxxing activity," and praised local law enforcement. She did not address the school’s handling of the shooting and its aftermath, which prompted serious questions about how the Ivy League school let the gunman leave campus and kill another individual—a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology—before he was found dead. "Nothing can fully bring closure to the lives that have been shattered by last weekend’s gun violence," Paxson wrote in her Friday message. "Now, however, our community has the opportunity to move forward and begin a path of repair, recovery and healing. I want to thank the dedicated city, state and federal law enforcement agencies that worked tirelessly on this case. We hope this brings an increased sense of safety for our community.". "In the aftermath of the shooting, we have seen harmful doxxing activity directed toward several students, faculty and staff, and multiple offices have been committed to providing support," Paxson continued. "We also have worked aggressively to combat disinformation in online media and activity that has gone as far as to threaten individuals in our community.". It’s unclear on what basis Paxson believes the school’s response to the shooting should bring an increased sense of safety rather than a decreased one. Brown and Providence authorities began facing scrutiny soon after a gunman, now identified as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, opened fire on campus. Brown refused to sound its alarm system and took nearly 20 minutes to send an emergency alert out to students. It also released and retracted a series of contradictory notices, including that the shooter was in custody when he was not.

CBS News [12/19/2025 7:00 PM, Kerry Breen, 39474K] reports by the time it finally ended, five full days after the shooting, the manhunt for the Brown University gunman surpassed the four-day search for the Boston Marathon bombers and was on par with the five-day pursuit of Luigi Mangione in the UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting case. In the days the gunman was on the run, investigators say he went on to shoot and kill prominent MIT professor Nuno Loureiro at his home in the Boston area. The suspect, identified as former Brown grad student Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, was found dead by suicide in a New Hampshire storage unit Thursday night, police said. The manhunt was complicated by the early misidentification of a person of interest and limited, low-quality video footage. A timeline of the events shows a few key points where the investigation struggled — until a Reddit tipster provided crucial information that police say led them to the shooter. The morning after the shooting, FBI Director Kash Patel announced on X that authorities had detained a person of interest overnight. Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said in a news briefing that the city could "breathe a little easier.". But later in the day, officials released the person after determining that he had no involvement in the shooting. Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said that some evidence had "pointed to" the initial person of interest, but that the investigation now "points in a different direction." Providence Police Chief Colonel Oscar L. Perez Jr. said the detention was "not a mistake" but "just how investigations work.". Multiple law enforcement sources told CBS News on Monday that the investigation had fully moved away from that person, and that investigators "had to effectively restart after early missteps" set the process "back by several hours." Officials acknowledged that the case was behind, especially as leads typically narrow after an early window. Patel and the FBI have faced scrutiny before for their use of social media in high-profile cases, notably after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, when Patel posted on X that a suspect was in custody, then backtracked two hours later.

The Daily Caller [12/19/2025 8:24 AM, Harold Hutchison, 835K] reports a federal jury Thursday convicted a Milwaukee judge who helped an illegal immigrant briefly evade capture by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. The jury’s verdict came after a four-day trial, in which Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan was convicted on the felony obstruction charge, but acquitted of a misdemeanor count of concealing an individual to prevent an arrest, according to CBS News. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrested Dugan in April on felony obstruction charges after she allegedly misdirected ICE agents seeking to arrest an illegal immigrant by escorting the illegal immigrant out through a back door. "Former Wisconsin state judge Hannah Dugan betrayed her oath and the people she served when she obstructed federal law enforcement during an immigration enforcement operation," Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche posted on X. "Today, a federal jury of her peers found her guilty and sent a clear message: the American people respect law and order." Bloomberg Law [12/18/2025 10:54 PM, Alex Ebert, 803K] reports a federal jury in Milwaukee convicted a Wisconsin state judge of obstructing ICE officers—a first-of-its-kind verdict as courts adjust to President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement policies. The novel conviction means Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan faces up to five years in prison for intentionally interfering with a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest of a migrant who appeared in her courtroom as a defendant on domestic violence charges. She was convicted on felony obstruction, but acquitted of unlawfully concealing a migrant. "This Department will not tolerate obstruction, will enforce federal immigration law, and will hold criminals to account—even those who wear robes," Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said. Dugan is expected to appeal, raising arguments about whether state judges are legally required to aid federal immigration officers, and whether judges have criminal immunity for the actions they take in their courtrooms. "While we are disappointed in today’s outcome, the failure of the prosecution to secure convictions on both counts demonstrates the opportunity we have to clear Judge Dugan’s name and show she did nothing wrong in this matter," Dugan’s legal team said in a statement. The four-day trial offered a unique glimpse inside a bustling state court, with testimony from judges and staff describing how shifting immigration policy impacted day-to-day operations. Evidence presented showed Wisconsin judges were confused about their roles when Trump’s demands to deport more migrants translated into ICE arrests in the public areas of government buildings. This worried judges and court staff, who saw key witnesses or parties apprehended before their matters finished—sometimes arrested in court elevators or the galleries inside active courtrooms. In emails, Dugan openly worried about how defendants’ appearances at her proceedings had dropped due to these arrests. So too had the attendance of witnesses and even plaintiffs. The Daily Wire [12/19/2025 9:45 AM, Leif Le Mahieu, 2494K] reports that a jury found Hannah Dugan guilty of felony obstruction after officials said that she tried to help an illegal immigrant from Mexico evade immigration authorities back in April. She was found not guilty of a misdemeanor charge of concealing a wanted person. "We weren’t trying to make an example out of anyone. This was necessary to hold Judge Dugan accountable because of the actions she took," said interim U.S. Attorney Brad Schimel. "There’s not a political aspect to it.". "Some have sought to make this about a larger political battle. While this case is serious for all involved, it is ultimately about a single day – a single day – in a public courthouse," he added. Dugan’s legal team plans to seek to overturn her conviction. Following her arrest, the Wisconsin Supreme Court suspended her from the bench while the case proceeded. She could face more than five years in prison at sentencing. Blaze [12/19/2025 8:55 AM, Joseph MacKinnon, 1442K] reports "There was certainly potential for many other dangers as well." Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, noted at the time, "Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, a previously removed illegal alien, has a laundry list of violent criminal charges, including strangulation and suffocation, battery, and domestic abuse. Judge Hannah Dugan’s actions to obstruct this violent criminal’s arrest take ‘activist judge’ to a whole new meaning.".

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The New York Times [12/19/2025 2:58 PM, Ann E. Marimow, 135475K] reports that the Supreme Court on Friday declined to immediately halt a lawsuit brought by immigration judges challenging restrictions on their public speaking engagements. The court’s order, a placeholder, rejects a request by the Trump administration that the justices said had “not demonstrated that it will suffer irreparable harm” at this stage of the litigation. There were no noted dissents. Immigration judges sued over a Biden-era policy that prohibits them from making statements in their personal capacities about immigration or the agency that employs them. The National Association of Immigration Judges said such restrictions violated the judges’ First Amendment rights and interfered with their ability to guest lecture at universities and to speak to community groups about matters of public importance. But the immediate issue for the Supreme Court concerned the proper venue for resolving employee complaints. It is a question that took on new meaning after President Trump fired the head of the Office of Special Counsel and the chair of the Merit Systems Protection Board, administrative agencies that are typically the first stop for such claims by federal employees. The outcome could have implications for other claims brought by federal government officials related to the conditions of their employment. The Trump administration has separately fired immigration judges across the country. The AP [12/19/2025 4:03 PM, Lindsay Whitehurst, 31753K] reports that immigration judges are federal employees, and the question at the center of the appeal is about whether they can sue to challenge a policy restricting their public speeches or if they are required to use a separate complaint system for the federal workforce. Trump’s Republican administration asked the Supreme Court to intervene after an appeals court found that Trump’s firings of top complaint system officials had raised questions about whether it’s still working as intended. The Justice Department said the firings are within the president’s power and the lower court had no grounds to raise questions. The solicitor general asked the Supreme Court to quickly freeze the ruling as he pushes to have the immigration judges’ case removed from federal court. The justices declined, though they also said the Trump administration could return if the lower courts moved too fast.

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CNN [12/19/2025 1:24 PM, John Fritze, 18595K]

Washington Examiner [12/19/2025 6:02 AM, Staff, 1394K] reports the United States announced two more strikes on vessels suspected of transporting drugs on Thursday. The strikes mark the 27th and 28th boats targeted by the military, which were believed to have been transporting illegal narcotics in the Pacific Ocean. U.S. Southern Command announced the strikes in a post on X on Thursday night. Five more suspected "narco-traffickers" were killed in the incident. "On Dec. 18, at the direction of @SecWar Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted lethal kinetic strikes on two vessels operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations in international waters," read the post. "Intelligence confirmed that the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and were engaged in narco-trafficking operations," Southern Command noted. "A total of five male narco-terrorists were killed during these actions – three in the first vessel and two in the second vessel. No U.S. military forces were harmed." Thursday’s strike on the two boats brings the total number of victims killed in Operation Southern Spear to at least 104 suspected drug traffickers. There have been three attacks this week, all of them occurring in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. They were the first strikes in Operation Southern Spear since Dec. 4, and they come as the illegal drug trafficking enforcement operation has encountered increased scrutiny from members of Congress.

FOX News [12/19/2025 9:44 AM, Alec Schemmel, 40621K] reports the Trump administration says "sanctuary politicians" in Northern Virginia "have blood on their hands" after an illegal immigrant with a lengthy criminal history was released by police and allegedly killed a man in his home a day later. A man was found shot dead in his Northern Virginia home on Wednesday. The suspected shooter, 23-year-old Marvin Morales-Ortez — an illegal immigrant from El Salvador residing in the United States — had been in custody Tuesday on malicious wounding and brandishing a firearm charges, but police released him after the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office dropped the charges. Officers investigated the murder scene Wednesday afternoon and night, according to local media. Following a manhunt, Morales-Ortez was eventually tracked down and arrested. Court records showed Morales-Ortez had been charged with at least seven crimes in Fairfax County at the time of his latest arrest and was a suspected MS-13 member. "The charges were nolle prossed due to insufficient evidence to move forward with the criminal case," a spokesperson for the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Office, headed by George Soros-backed Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano, told Fox News Digital. "The victim told police that they had moved out of the country and would not be coming to court to cooperate in proceedings, regardless of timing. Sadly, without the victim’s necessary testimony, we could not move forward." Both Fairfax County Police and Descano’s office said that the decision on whether to follow Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers ultimately falls under the purview of the sheriff’s office, led by Stacey Kincaid. Fox News Digital reached out to the sheriff’s office for an explanation about how it handles ICE detainers and whether it cooperates, or not, with federal immigration enforcement. "The Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office follows all local, state, and federal laws when determining whether a person is subject to release from the ADC. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is automatically notified any time a person is booked into the ADC. In this instance, ICE was aware of Morales Ortez’s incarceration and elected not to seek a judicial warrant to ensure he remained in custody," Fox News Digital was told. "Accordingly, and consistent with our policies and the law, once the court issued an order dismissing his cases, Mr. Morales Ortez was released.".

AP [12/19/2025 9:40 AM, Gary Fields and Alanna Durkin Richer, 4722K] reports when President Donald Trump launched a law enforcement operation in Washington, D.C., four months ago, he billed it as a mission to fight rampant crime. But activists and local leaders say that description belies what has emerged as a simultaneous crackdown on immigrants, who have grown increasingly concerned for their status and safety in the city. One-third of all arrests made during the operation were immigration-related, according to official figures reviewed by The Associated Press. Activists and immigrants say arrests are frequent and frightening. A lawsuit alleges they are often unlawful. And with no end in sight to the surge in law enforcement in the city, there is no indication the immigration arrests will end. The threat to immigrants in the city has now become routine, the activists and local leaders say. Immigration enforcement sweeps are "not making the nightly news anymore because it’s business as usual," said Washington council member Brianne K. Nadeau. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said arrests in Washington and beyond are carried out lawfully and all detainees receive due process.

AP [12/19/2025 2:24 PM, Todd Richmond And Scott Bauer, 30493K] reports Wisconsin Republicans threatened Friday to impeach embattled judge Hannah Dugan if she doesn’t resign immediately after she was convicted of obstruction for helping an immigrant evade federal officers, saying her time serving the people of the state is over. Federal prosecutors in April accused the judge of distracting federal officers trying to arrest a Mexican immigrant outside her courtroom and leading the man out through a private door. A jury convicted her of felony obstruction late Thursday after a four-day trial. Dugan faces up to five years in prison when she’s sentenced, though federal judges have discretion to go lower. No sentencing date has been set. The Wisconsin Constitution bars convicted felons from holding public office. The state Judicial Commission, which disciplines state judges, and Milwaukee County Chief Judge Carl Ashley, Dugan’s boss, haven’t responded to questions Friday about when Dugan’s office will officially become vacant. Under state law, a vacancy doesn’t begin until a convicted office holder is sentenced. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Majority Leader Tyler August, both Republicans, on Friday morning threatened to impeach Dugan if she doesn’t immediately resign. They cited a legal opinion issued by then-Attorney General Bronson La Follette in 1976 that a state senator lost his seat the moment he was convicted of a felony. “Wisconsinites deserve to know their judiciary is impartial and that justice is blind,” Vos and August said in a joint statement. “Judge Hannah Dugan is neither, and her privilege of serving the people of Wisconsin has come to an end.”

Washington Examiner [12/19/2025 11:07 AM, David Zimmermann, 1394K] reports a federal judge in Florida decided on Thursday to reject a detained immigrant’s lawsuit seeking to close "Alligator Alcatraz" with his request for a preliminary injunction. U.S. District Judge Kyle Dudek determined that the plaintiff, identified as M.A., failed to demonstrate he suffered irreparable harm at the state-run immigration detention center. Dudek said he wanted to be cautious in denying the request because no court decision has been made yet on the facility’s legality. The Trump-appointed judge said while the facility may have "deficiencies," the plaintiff did not meet the high burden required for immediate relief while his case proceeds in federal court. The request for a preliminary injunction is one of three federal lawsuits that are challenging Alligator Alcatraz, located at a remote airstrip in South Florida’s Everglades. The detention center is run by the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), who appeared at the July grand opening alongside President Donald Trump and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. In partnership with Florida, the Department of Homeland Security transfers illegal immigrants to Alligator Alcatraz and provides significant federal funding for it through a $608 million reimbursement. Since its inception, Alligator Alcatraz has been repeatedly challenged in court. One lawsuit was semi-successful after a federal judge ordered Florida to shut down the site over the summer. However, an appeals court paused that decision, and the facility remains open.

FOX News [12/19/2025 10:47 AM, Deirdre Heavey , Breanne Deppisch and Charles Creitz, 40621K] reports Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., said she has no regrets about supporting the MEALS Act during the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the program becoming linked to Minnesota’s alleged $250 million "Feeding Our Future" fraud scheme. "Do you regret pushing for that bill, the MEALS Act? Do you think it led to the fraud?" Nicholas Ballasy for Fox News Digital asked Omar on Capitol Hill. "Absolutely not, it did help feed kids," Omar said. Omar introduced the MEALS Act on March 11, 2020, to modify the Department of Agriculture’s food and nutrition programs to allow certain waivers on requirements for school meal programs, including those that raised federal costs during school closures related to the pandemic. Minnesota has faced scrutiny for alleged mismanagement of federal funds accessed through these waivers, including in distributing money for the "Feeding Our Future" program, which authorities believe to be the largest fraud scheme in the history of the pandemic. The scheme allegedly exploited the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s decision to waive many of its standard requirements for the Federal Child Nutrition Program during the pandemic, including relaxing its requirement for non-school-based distributors to participate in the program. Fox News Digital first reported on the status of the fraud in July. FBI Director Kash Patel described it at the time as "one of the worst" in Minnesota history — and as of November 2025, more than 75 individuals have been charged in connection with the scheme, according to federal prosecutors. President Donald Trump has recently announced a flurry of new actions to crack down and investigate fraud schemes in Minnesota, which he has assailed as a "hub of money laundering activity," and cited as the basis of his decision to terminate deportation protections for hundreds of Somali migrants. Senior Trump administration officials announced fresh investigations this month, including a new Treasury Department probe into how taxpayer dollars were allegedly diverted to the terrorist organization al-Shabaab, according to Secretary Scott Bessent. Omar had told CBS’ Twin Cities affiliate that her son was subjected to a traffic stop-type encounter by ICE agents but was ultimately let go without further issue after he was able to produce a U.S. passport or passport card. Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons pushed back on the assertion on Tuesday, telling Fox News Digital the incident never happened. "How do they know that?" Omar countered. "How do they know that? Is he saying he has documentations of all the people they pulled over? Because we’ve been asking for that information. We haven’t gotten it from them, so if ICE is confirming now that they collect data and refusing to provide it to members of Congress, then that’s an interesting admission.". "ICE has absolutely zero record of its officers or agents pulling over Congresswoman Omar’s son," Lyons said.

AP [12/19/2025 12:28 PM, Joshua Goodman, 31753K] reports a U.S. Army Reserve lawyer detailed as a federal immigration judge has been fired barely a month into the job after granting asylum at a high rate out of step with the Trump administration’s mass deportation goals, The Associated Press has learned. Christopher Day began hearing cases in late October as a temporary judge at the immigration court in Annandale, Virginia. He was fired around Dec. 2, the National Association of Immigration Judges confirmed. It’s unclear why Day was fired. Day did not comment when contacted by the AP, and a Justice Department spokeswoman declined to discuss personnel matters. But federal data from November shows he ruled on asylum cases in ways at odds with the Trump administration’s stated goals. Of the 11 cases he concluded in November, he granted asylum or some other type of relief allowing the migrant to remain in the United States a total of six times, according to federal data analyzed by Mobile Pathways, a San Francisco-based non profit. Such favorable outcomes for migrants have become increasingly rare as the Trump administration seeks to slash a massive backlog of 3.8 million asylum cases by radically overhauling the nation’s 75 immigration courts. As part of that drive, the Trump administration has fired almost 100 judges viewed as too liberal and over the summer eased rules allowing any attorney, regardless of their legal background, to apply to become what recent recruitment ads refer to as a "Deportation Judge." In response, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in September approved sending up to 600 military lawyers to hear asylum cases. The goal, migrant advocacy groups say, is to redefine a judge’s traditional duties as a fair, independent arbiter of asylum claims into something akin to a rubber stamp in a robe for the White House’s mass deportation goals. The American Immigration Lawyers Association has decried the influx of military officers lacking expertise in immigration law, likening them to cardiologists attempting to do a hip replacement. But Pentagon and White House officials have defended the move, saying that a campaign to rule on pending asylum claims was something that all federal workers — as well as migrants sometimes in limbo for years — should rally behind.

Daily Signal [12/19/2025 6:00 PM, Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell, 549K] reports the Trump administration made a series of moves this week to crack down on the fraud which has allegedly occurred in Minnesota under Democrat Gov. Tim Walz’s watch. "Under President Trump’s leadership, the federal government is fully exposing and aggressively prosecuting the rampant fraud that was allowed to happen for years under failed Democrat leadership in the great state of Minnesota," White House spokeswoman Liz Huston told The Daily Signal. "The Trump administration will not rest until all the damaged caused by incompetent Tim Walz and his Democrat allies has been reversed," Huston continued. The Department of Agriculture sent a letter to Walz requiring Minnesota to conduct recertifications for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients in four counties. Secretary Brooke Rollins demanded Minnesota participate in a pilot program to root out fraud and abuse. Rollins took this action after the Department of Justice found that members of the Somali community through the fake nonprofit Feeding Our Future allegedly defrauded taxpayers of at least $1 billion under Walz’s administration. HHS sent eight letters to Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, and the largest Head Start provider in Minneapolis requiring citizenship or incoming eligibility data for recipients of benefits. Head Start is a program helping children from low-income families to enter kindergarten. The Department of Labor launched an investigation into Minnesota’s Unemployment Insurance Program.

Breitbart [12/19/2025 1:33 PM, Warner Todd Huston, 2416K] report that People come from all over the world to steal millions from U.S. government Medicaid, housing, and other programs, he added. “Minnesota has become a magnet for fraud, so much so that we have developed a fraud tourism industry — people coming to our state purely to exploit and defraud its programs,” Thompson said. “This is a deeply unsettling reality that all Minnesotans should understand.” Thompson explained that “traditional Medicare and Medicaid fraud is that people overbill,” but said the fraud in Democrat Gov. Tim Walz’s Minnesota has been unique in that thieves are not providing any services, just creating fake companies and filing wholly fake bills to the state. Thompson revealed that charges have been filed against Anthony Waddell Jefferson, Lester Brown, Hassan Ahmed Hussein, Ahmed Abdirashid Mohamed, Kaamil Omar Sallah, and Asha Farhan Hassan, who collectively filed more than eleven million dollars in fake bills for non-existent people with disabilities and autism, which included housing procurement services, wire fraud, and other fraudulent activities. The fraud cases have already resulted in many prosecutions and convictions. A dozen people have been convicted in the Feeding Our Future scam, in which members of Minnesota’s Somali community filed fake bills to the state supposedly for feeding needy children, but the services were never performed and the money was stolen with some of it even sent to Africa to fund terrorist groups in Somalia.

CBS News [12/19/2025 10:59 AM, Staff, 39474K] reports Federal prosecutors unveiled charges Thursday against another six people, accusing them of defrauding public assistance programs in Minnesota — including two men they allege traveled to the state for that express purpose. The latest indictments add fuel to a scandal that has now led to charges against more than 90 people who have been accused, and in many cases convicted, of bilking hundreds of millions of dollars from the Midwestern state, putting Gov. Tim Walz’s administration in the hot seat and drawing attacks from President Trump. Thursday’s charges focus on housing assistance and autism services. And the pandemic-era food aid fraud case that set off the scandal is still brewing. Minnesota is far from the only state that has grappled with allegations of public assistance fraud, especially scams targeting pandemic aid funds. But Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said Minnesota faces a particularly large problem, pointing to 14 different Medicaid programs that the state has flagged for "significant fraud problems." He suggested total losses could reach into the billions. "The fraud is not small. It isn’t isolated. The magnitude cannot be overstated," Thompson said at a press conference Thursday. "What we see in Minnesota is not a handful of bad actors committing crimes. It’s a staggering, industrial-scale fraud.". Walz, whose administration has faced scrutiny for its handling of the issue, has vowed to crack down. Meanwhile, Mr. Trump has sharply criticized Minnesota — and he’s lashed out at the state’s large Somali-American community as most, but not all, of the defendants are of Somali descent. An alleged fraud scheme involving a now-defunct housing stabilization program in Minnesota expanded Thursday, as federal prosecutors charged five new people with wire fraud — including two Philadelphia men who allegedly traveled from halfway across the country because they heard the state programs presented "a good opportunity to make money.".

Reported similarly:
Wall Street Journal [12/19/2025 6:38 PM, Scott Calvert, 646K]

AP [12/19/2025 1:35 PM, Collin Binkley, 2416K] reports the Trump administration will appeal a federal judge’s order reversing billions of dollars in funding cuts to Harvard University, extending a standoff over the White House’s demands for reforms at the Ivy League school. The Justice Department filed a notice of appeal late on Thursday in a pair of consolidated lawsuits brought by Harvard and the American Association of University Professors. The case has tested the government’s power to sway the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university, which has resisted a pressure campaign targeting elite colleges around the country. U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs ruled in September that the Trump administration’s sweeping funding cuts violated Harvard’s First Amendment rights. The judge said the government put unconstitutional conditions on Harvard’s federal funding and failed to follow federal procedures allowing the government to sanction universities for civil rights violations. The Trump administration cut more than $2.6 billion from Harvard over allegations that it had been slow to deal with anti-Jewish bias on campus. Burroughs rejected that notion, saying the government was using antisemitism “as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault on this country’s premier universities.” The notice of appeal is a first step in the government’s effort to have the ruling overturned. It does not provide legal arguments behind the appeal. Liz Huston, a White House spokesperson, said Harvard has failed to protect students from discrimination on campus. “Harvard is not entitled to taxpayer funding, and we are confident the university will be held fully accountable for their failures,” Huston said in a statement.

Reported similarly:
Washington Post [12/19/2025 2:17 PM, Susan Svrluga, 24149K]

AP [12/19/2025 7:49 PM, Josh Funk, 30493K] reports a number of Mexican train crews who had just hauled trains over the border to American rail yards in Texas had trouble understanding important safety information in English during recent focused inspections the Trump administration ordered. Railroads Union Pacific and CPKC routinely rely on foreign crews at times to bring trains over the border to their rail yards in the U.S. before switching to American engineers and conductors. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen union said handoffs used to happen right at the border. The engineers union has been worried about using foreign crews for some time because of safety, security and job concerns. The Federal Railroad Administration sent letters to both railroads urging them to reexamine their practices and make sure that Mexican crews can speak English and don’t operate a train more than 10 miles (16 kilometers) inside America. Union Pacific and CPKC said the railroads are committed to ensuring safety and security and will work to ensure they are complying with the rules. The Trump administration has also been cracking down on truck drivers who don’t speak English to make sure crews can communicate in an emergency and understand crucial instructions. "Whether you’re operating an 80-ton big rig or a massive freight train, you need to be proficient in our national language — English," Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said. "If you aren’t, you create an unacceptable safety risk.” The Transportation Department has already withheld $40 million from California for not enforcing the English proficiency requirement, and Duffy has threatened to sanction several other states for incorrectly giving immigrants who are in the country illegally commercial driver’s licenses. That became a key concern after several deadly crashes occurred involving semitrucks driven by immigrants who shouldn’t have had licenses. FRA Administrator David Fink told both railroads they could face enforcement action if inspectors find additional occurrences of train crews operating in the U.S. without being proficient in English. Inspectors found problems in Union Pacific’s Eagle Pass rail yard and CPKC’s facility in Laredo. Union Pacific had a translator on hand to help its Mexican crews, but Fink said the railroad might try to remove that in the future, and inspectors worried about how well the crews understood operating rules and required brake tests.

Los Angeles Times [12/19/2025 11:56 AM, Carlos De Loera, 14862K] reports on Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 4371, also known as the Kayla Hamilton Act. The official summary of the bill notes it would "require the Department of Health and Human Services to consider additional information when it makes placement determinations for unaccompanied alien children in its custody.". Health and Human Services defines "unaccompanied alien children" as those under age 18 who have no "lawful" immigration status in the U.S. and who have no parent or legal guardian in the U.S. available to provide care or physical custody. The legislation was introduced by Rep. Russell Fry (R-S.C.) in July and aimed at providing a way to "prevent tragedies like the murder of Kayla Hamilton," Fry’s news release for the bill stated. Hamilton was a 20-year-old woman living in Maryland who was sexually assaulted and killed by an undocumented Salvadoran, Walter Javier Martinez, then 16, in 2022. Martinez was convicted of first-degree murder in 2024 and sentenced to 70 years in prison. Her death became a cause celebre for Republican politicians, who pointed to what they saw as the failings of the previous administration’s immigration policies. "The tragedy that took the life of Kayla Hamilton was a senseless and predictable consequence of President Biden’s wide-open border and dangerous, morally indefensible policies," House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) wrote Wednesday on X after the bill passed. "The Kayla Hamilton Act puts an end to this madness so no future administration can make such reckless decisions.". The bill passed by a vote of 225 to 201, with all 218 voting Republicans in favor as well as seven Democrats — including Texas Reps. Vicente Gonzalez and the recently pardoned Henry Cuellar. All 201 "no" votes were cast by Democrats. Sarah Mehta, the American Civil Liberties Union’s deputy director of policy and government affairs, spoke with The Times about what’s built into the legislation. "It allows the authorities to prolong the detention of children who have family in the U.S. by prohibiting their release to parents and sponsors unless they are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents," she said. "It gives the secretary of the DHS, who is not a judge, the authority to declare a child as a flight risk and put them in a secure facility — meaning a prison — with no evidentiary standard or basis," she said, referring to the Department of Homeland Security.

New York Times [12/19/2025 12:18 PM, Helene Cooper, 153395K] reports the U.S. military on Thursday killed another five people accused by the Trump administration of trafficking narcotics by sea, Pentagon officials said. The two strikes bring the known death toll in the administration’s lethal campaign to 104 people since early September. The strikes are the 27th known lethal operation since President Trump authorized military action against drug cartels. U.S. Southern Command announced the strike on social media with an accompanying video that showed a boat apparently being blown up. Southern Command said in the post that the two boats were transiting along “known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific” when they were hit. There were three men in the first boat and two in the second, the announcement said. The strikes come as some lawmakers continue to press the Trump administration and the Pentagon to provide more information justifying its deadly campaign against accused smugglers in the Pacific and the Caribbean. The United States military is also enforcing a partial naval blockade of Venezuela, where the Trump administration continues to increase pressure on President Nicolás Maduro. President Trump has said he wants the Venezuelan leader to leave office, for reasons that remain unclear.

New York Post [12/19/2025 11:45 AM, Ariel Zilber, 42219K] reports Mark Zuckerberg has formally cut ties with the pro-immigration group he helped launch more than a decade ago as his philanthropy retreats from political advocacy and narrows its focus to science amid President Donald Trump’s return to power. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the philanthropy founded by Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, ended its relationship with FWD.us earlier this year, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News. The split leaves the immigration and criminal justice reform group without funding from Zuckerberg, Chan or CZI for the first time since its founding in 2013. FWD.us received no funding from Zuckerberg, Chan or CZI in 2025, according to Bloomberg News. Jordan Fox, CZI’s chief of staff, also stepped down from FWD.us’ board earlier this year, leaving the group without any active representative from Zuckerberg’s philanthropy for the first time in its history. The separation became formal in April, when FWD.us removed CZI from its internal bylaws, according to a tax filing with the Internal Revenue Service seen by Bloomberg News. The move closes a chapter for Zuckerberg, who for years positioned himself as a leading corporate voice in favor of immigration reform, especially policies benefiting immigrants working in technology.

NPR [12/19/2025 5:39 PM, Mark Betancourt, 28013K] Audio: HERE reports employees in the government agency that deals with unaccompanied minors who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border say an order has been given not to release those children to their relatives here in the U.S.

Washington Post [12/20/2025 6:00 AM, Staff, 24149K] reports a visa lottery permits lawful entry of up to 55,000 people annually from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. The Trump administration swiftly suspended that program for everyone after announcing that Claudio Neves Valente, who murdered two Brown University students and an MIT professor, entered from Portugal in 2017 with such a visa. He had previously studied at Brown on a student visa but dropped out of his physics PhD program, apparently fueling resentment and disaffection, but investigators do not believe he had any prior criminal record. Using awful tragedies as a pretext for far-reaching policy changes has become a pattern. Last month, President Donald Trump suspended all immigration processing for anyone from Afghanistan after Rahmanullah Lakanwal’s attack on two National Guard members in D.C. The government believes the suspect, who assisted U.S. forces, became radicalized after entering this country. Next, a potential war with Venezuela could be used by Homeland Security Adviser Stephen Miller to justify invoking the Alien Enemies Act to deport hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants and refugees, The Post reported Thursday. Never mind that these people fled the regime of Nicolás Maduro that the administration hopes to change. Plenty needs reforming in the immigration system. The routes to becoming American are complex, onerous and include dozens of visa categories, with endless exemptions. In addition to the case of the Portuguese madman, who killed himself, the merits of a lottery system are debatable. Scrutinizing how immigrants are vetted is worthwhile, especially after an evildoer slips through the cracks. At the same time, it does not follow that the U.S. government should cut off an entire pathway for legal immigration because of the actions of one man.

Wall Street Journal [12/19/2025 1:43 PM, Staff, 646K] reports does hatred for President Trump and all his works justify breaking the law? A Wisconsin jury answered with a resounding “no” on Thursday in finding state Judge Hannah Dugan guilty of obstructing federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in a state courthouse. The Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge was on trial for helping illegal immigrant Eduardo Flores-Ruiz escape ICE agents seeking to arrest him. While agents waited in the hallway, Judge Dugan allegedly confronted them, sent them down the hall to the chief judge’s chambers, and then ushered Mr. Flores-Ruiz out the jury door of her courtroom into a separate hallway. ICE agents were able to apprehend Mr. Flores-Ruiz as he tried to flee on foot in the street outside the courthouse. The Justice Department arrested Judge Dugan, and the indictment says she “knowingly concealed” Mr. Flores-Ruiz despite notice “that a warrant and process had been issued for [his] apprehension.” At this week’s trial, Customs and Border Protection officer Joseph Zuraw said Judge Dugan jerked her thumb over her shoulder and told the agents to “get out.” Milwaukee County Judge Kristela Cervera testified that she was “shocked” by Judge Dugan’s conduct and that “judges shouldn’t help defendants evade arrest.” The jury also heard audio of Judge Dugan telling her court reporter, “I’ll get the heat.” Judge Dugan became a cause celebre for progressives furious at Mr. Trump’s deportation policies and eager to cheer any form of resistance. But Mr. Flores-Ruiz was no choir boy. He was in court charged with misdemeanor battery stemming from a fight in which he punched a roommate multiple times and allegedly hit a woman. He was deported in November after he pleaded no contest. Judge Dugan pleaded not guilty, and a jury acquitted her on a misdemeanor charge of concealing a wanted person. But they convicted her on the felony charge of obstructing federal agents who were trying to make an immigration arrest. She could serve up to five years in jail but is likely to get a milder sentence. As an officer of the court, Judge Dugan had a special obligation to obey the law. If she and others so loathe Mr. Trump that they want to commit acts of civil disobedience, they can do so, but they have to be willing to face the legal consequences. Her conviction is a warning to others that the way to oppose Mr. Trump’s policies is at the ballot box.

Houston Chronicle [12/19/2025 7:00 AM, Staff, 2983K] reports “What does a migrant look like?” It was a deceptively simple question, posed by U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, D-La., last week in Washington. One that the nation’s top brass in national security couldn’t answer. Speaking at a congressional hearing before the House Homeland Security Committee, Carter’s question was intended for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem. Except Noem — in a scene all too reminiscent of Houston City Hall — had slipped away mid-hearing. Answering for Noem were two men: Michael Glasheen, operations director of the Federal Bureau of Intelligence national security branch, and Joe Kent, National Counterterrorism Center director. "The masked officers you sent into the streets of New Orleans are attempting to arrest and abduct and detain anyone they think looks like a migrant," Carter pressed. He wanted to know what a newly recruited immigration agent, flush with a $50,000 bonus, might be told to look for. A red-faced Glasheen admitted he didn’t know. Kent smirked, immediately launching into a well-worn recitation: "These are targeted raids…you have to stop them, you have to check their identification…" It was a threadbare assertion. Reassigning agents who previously pursued drug traffickers and child abusers to round up handyman dads with spotless records isn’t "targeted" — it’s just going after anyone driving a white work van.

New York Post [12/19/2025 1:43 PM, Andrew Arthur, 42219K] reports that what do the following immigrants have in common? Hesham Hedayet, an Egyptian national who gunned down several people, killing two, before being killed himself during an attack on the El Al counter at Los Angeles International Airport on July 4, 2002. Sayfullo Saipov, an Uzbekistan national who drove a truck down the Hudson River Bike Path in Manhattan on Halloween 2017, killing eight and critically injuring many others, including a 14-year-old, who was sentenced to life for the attack, carried out in the name of ISIS. Claudio Neves Valente, the Portuguese national who’s alleged to have carried out the mass shooting last Saturday at Brown University, and to have shot and killed MIT Prof. Nuno Loureiro, also from Portugal, on Monday. The answer: They all received green cards through a 1990s program specifically created to bring foreign nationals with no family and no ties to the United States to this country and place them on a path to citizenship, all in the name of “diversifying” the immigrant pool. As if there’s something so wrong, inequitable, or unfair about a system that favors newcomers with a job or a family here (the “normal” avenues for immigration) before they arrive that it had to be subverted in the name of “diversity.” Congress created the lottery in 1990, and more than 22 million qualified entrants applied for the “DV-2024” program alone, the last available statistic.

Washington Examiner [12/20/2025 5:00 AM, Staff, 1394K] reports one might have more sympathy for Democratic Party objections to President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts if it would just work with the administration to help remove illegal immigrant criminals from the country. But, as the case of Marvin Morales-Ortez in Fairfax County, Virginia, shows, Democrats refuse to cooperate with federal immigration law enforcement on even the most violent of cases, and innocent people are dead as a result. It remains unclear when exactly Morales-Ortez, a citizen of El Salvador, first entered the United States. But, authorities have confirmed that he had no legal authorization to be in the country. It’s also known that he has been living in Fairfax County since 2020, and during that time, he has racked up seven arrests ranging from petty larceny to assault to first-degree murder. In all but one of these cases, George Soros-funded District Attorney Steve Descano chose not to prosecute Morales-Ortez. Even when Morales-Ortez was convicted of theft, he was sentenced to just a fine, which he never paid. Most recently, Morales-Ortez was arrested by the Fairfax County Police Department for brandishing a gun and assaulting and injuring someone. Again, Descano chose not to prosecute him, at which point Sheriff Stacey Kincaid, another Democrat, chose not to honor an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer for Morales-Ortez’s arrest. As an illegal immigrant, ICE could have swiftly moved him out of Fairfax County and back to his native El Salvador. Instead, Kincaid released Morales-Ortez back onto the streets, where, less than 24 hours later, he allegedly shot and killed a man in Reston. “The sanctuary politicians of Fairfax County, VA have blood on their hands,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.

The Hill [12/19/2025 9:30 AM, Dov Zakheim, 12595K] reports the perpetrators of the horrendous Bondi Beach massacre of Jews in Sydney had traveled to the Philippines, according to Australian authorities, where they appear to have come under the influence of the Islamic State or ISIS terrorist group. Last week, an individual linked to ISIS ambushed and killed two American servicemen and an interpreter, as well as a Syrian security officer in Homs, in Syria’s Palmyra province. Three service members and two Syrian fighters were wounded in the attack. This terrorist group refuses to die, even after its defeat in Syria and Iraq. It poses an ongoing threat to American interests abroad, and especially to the roughly 5.5 million Americans who live outside the U.S. Indeed, as the Sydney attack clearly indicates, ISIS influence extends far beyond its Middle Eastern base. Americans live abroad for a host of reasons. Some have retired to their ethnic homelands. Others may be studying or are conducting research abroad. Still others may work in the overseas operations of American companies. For those reasons, isolating America from the world simply is impossible. Protecting American citizens and interests overseas has long been a major American strategic and military priority. It underlies America’s longstanding desire to promote stability wherever Americans are to be found — which is to say, everywhere. This mission calls for maintaining American military dominance worldwide. The reported impending changes in the Unified Command Plan will affect how American forces carry out that mission in the next several years.

Houston Chronicle [12/19/2025 7:00 AM, Staff, 2983K] reports regarding "He is a handyman, not a criminal. Houston must face our immigration reality. | Editorial," (Dec.16): The Chronicle editorial board conflates the unfortunate but correct arrest of "Luis the handyman" with its desire for legal "pathways to citizenship" for other undocumented immigrants in similar circumstances. The board now wants it both ways: immigration reforms "that both strengthen enforcement" while providing amnesty for the Luises of America. Whew! This paper was quiet as a mouse as hordes of undocumented immigrants poured into the U.S. during the Biden administration in violation of immigration laws and in the face of promised deportation from any future Republican administration. There is no statute of limitations for illegal entry into the U.S. Any mildly intelligent observer would have known such reckless handling of our immigration problem would lead to where we are today. We didn’t then, and haven’t, in many past administrations needed grand changes to our immigration laws. We only needed politicians willing to enforce what we had, what they swore an oath to enforce. President Donald Trump has proven this. Every adult undocumented immigrant knows they are subject to arrest, deportation or both when they illegally cross our border. Bad choices have consequences. Nobody picks up stakes, travels thousands of miles, sometimes crossing oceans, to replicate the conditions that they fled. Immigrants come to the beacon of liberty because they don’t like things the way they are and want to live here in freedom and prosperity. Republicans keep trying to pretend that immigrants want to reproduce the conditions they fled. They want to come here precisely because things are different. We need such people. Similarly, Republicans pretend that people who are successful where they are would like to pull up stakes and move. That’s dreamland. It must be remembered that the Democrats and Republicans in Congress agreed to immigration reform, and Trump told them not to pass it as he needed the immigration issue for his campaign. If all the immigrants in Houston like Luis were deported, our vibrant community and culture would be devastated along with our economy.

Reuters [12/19/2025 3:51 PM, Ted Hesson and Susan Heavey, 36480K] reports four immigrants died in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in the past week, according to the agency, as deaths in 2025 reached a two-decade high. The four detainees, from Haiti, Nicaragua, Eritrea and Bulgaria, died between December 12 and 15, ICE notices said. While the incidents remain under investigation, ICE said two followed medical emergencies and two were believed to be the result of natural causes. At least 30 people have died in ICE detention this year, according to agency notices. The total for 2025 - which still has 12 days remaining - is the highest level since 2004, according to ICE statistics.

New York Times [12/19/2025 1:05 PM, Luis Ferré-Sadurní and Olivia Bensimon, 135475K] reports that for months, the Trump administration repeatedly blocked members of Congress from visiting federal immigration holding cells in New York City that had grown overcrowded with detained migrants, prompting concerns about squalid conditions. That changed on Friday, when the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency allowed two Democratic congressmen from New York to get a firsthand look at the cells on the 10th floor at 26 Federal Plaza, in Lower Manhattan. Representative Daniel Goldman arrived at the building, trailed inside by a throng of reporters and armed with a court ruling that ordered ICE this week to allow federal lawmakers to visit detention centers without notice. After knocking on the 10th-floor doors for a few minutes, Mr. Goldman was escorted inside by the leaders of the ICE field office in New York, while journalists waited outside. Another Democratic congressman, Adriano Espaillat, showed up shortly after and was also let in. Emerging from their visit, the lawmakers said that the four cells, which have held thousands of migrants this year, were holding just nine detainees on Friday. They said that federal workers, probably because of the congressional visit, were mopping the floors: “It was spick and span,” Mr. Goldman said. The conditions, they said, appeared to have improved since a federal judge ordered ICE in August to limit the number of migrants being held to 22, following reports that hundreds of migrants had spent days at a time there earlier this year.

New York Times [12/19/2025 6:43 PM, Ana Ley and Hamed Aleaziz, 135475K] reports a father and his 6-year-old son who were separated by immigration officials in New York City have been deported to China, weeks after their case drew outrage. The child, Yuanxin Zheng, is among the youngest migrants in New York to be taken from a parent by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials during a routine check-in. He and his father, Fei Zheng, who lived in Queens, were detained on Nov. 26; President Trump’s deportation crackdown has swept up increasing numbers of migrant families and children. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said in an email that the family was sent to China on Wednesday. “We are happy to report we were able to remove the family back to their home country,” Ms. McLaughlin wrote in an email. Jennie Spector, a community activist and family friend who spoke with Mr. Zheng two days before he was deported, said that he complied with the deportation order because he wanted to be reunited with his child. He had resisted previous attempts to force him and Yuanxin back to China. Mr. Zheng had told ICE officials that he had tried to kill himself while in detention and was later put on suicide watch, according to a person familiar with the case who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about it. “It is quite sad,” Ms. Spector said on Friday. “He came here wanting to give his son a different and better life than he might have had in China. That’s what they were coming for. And they had a lot to offer.”

Reuters [12/19/2025 6:52 PM, Michael Martina, 36480K] reports the U.S. on Friday dropped its effort to deport a Chinese national who helped document Beijing’s alleged abuses against Uyghur Muslims to Uganda, the man’s lawyer told Reuters. Guan Heng, a Chinese citizen-journalist, fled the U.S. in 2021 after taking video of alleged concentration camps in China’s western Xinjiang region. He released the video after arriving in the U.S., where he applied for asylum. Guan was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in August for illegally entering the country, part of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. He remains in a New York state detention center. His detention and threatened deportation to Uganda has stirred controversy, not least because he helped document abuses in China that the U.S. government during Trump’s first term deemed "genocide.". His supporters and lawyer say Guan faced almost certain persecution if deported to Uganda. The East African country, where Beijing has considerable political and economic clout, this year entered into an agreement with the U.S. to take in nationals from third countries. "We just got a letter informing that DHS (Department of Homeland Security) will not seek to remove Mr. Guan to Uganda," his lawyer Allen Chen told Reuters. Chen said it was not clear if Washington would continue to pursue Guan’s removal, either to China or another country, but said sending such a "high-profile dissident" back to China would be unlikely. Under Department of Homeland Security (DHS) policies, migrants may be deported to third countries if immigration authorities either have "credible" diplomatic assurances they will not be persecuted or tortured if sent there or have given the migrants as little as six hours of notice ahead of time that they are being sent to such a place.

New York Times [12/19/2025 5:44 PM, Tracey Tully and Luis Ferré-Sadurní, 135475K] reports a 41-year-old man from Haiti who had been detained by immigration officials died last week after a medical emergency, federal officials said, in what is believed to be the first death linked to the troubled, privately run migrant detention facility in Newark where he was held. The man, Jean Wilson Brutus, was taken to a hospital within hours of arriving at Delaney Hall, a two-story jailhouse where six months ago four men escaped through a flimsy wall during unrest over crowded conditions and a lack of regular meals. He died last Friday, according to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Mr. Brutus was one of four men detained by ICE and facing deportation to die in custody in the past week across the country. Deaths of migrant detainees have spiked this year as ICE has ramped up its deportation campaign, filling detention centers to record levels. The agency was holding more than 65,700 people as of Nov. 30. The three other men, who were 39, 46 and 56 years old, were being held in detention facilities in Mississippi, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

Politico [12/19/2025 6:04 PM, Madison Fernandez, 2100K] reports New Jersey Democrats are calling for Delaney Hall, an immigrant detention facility in Newark, to shut down after a detainee died last week. Immigration and Customs Enforcement stated on Thursday that Jean Wilson Brutus, a 41-year-old from Haiti who was detained at Delaney Hall on Dec. 11, “experienced a medical emergency” at the facility and was transported to the hospital, where he died the next day “from suspected natural causes.” Brutus “had no signs of distress during intake nor a medical history of cardiovascular issues,” according to the agency. This is the first reported death at Delaney Hall, which is run by the private prison company GEO Group, since it reopened earlier this year. Delaney Hall, the first immigration detention center to open under the second Trump administration, has been at the center of the immigration debate both in New Jersey and nationally. The facility was the scene of the high-profile arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka in May, when Rep. LaMonica McIver was also charged with assaulting law enforcement officers as she and two other members of the congressional delegation sought to conduct an oversight visit. Weeks later, four detainees escaped from the facility as concerns emerged about improper conditions. New Jersey Democrats have long been opposed to the facility, and are ramping up their criticism in light of Brutus’ death.

CBS Baltimore [12/19/2025 10:20 PM, Mike Hellgren, 39474K] reports a woman is fighting deportation after her lawyer said ICE agents arrested her in Baltimore and ignored her claims she is a United States citizen. 22-year-old Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales’ family said she was pulled over by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents last Sunday, held in Baltimore, and then flown to Louisiana, where she remains in detention. Her lawyers said they have a birth certificate and other documentation to back up her U.S. citizenship. Diaz Morales’s lawyer, Victoria Slatton,’s videos have gone viral on TikTok. She has repeatedly pleaded for the release of her client and said she fears for her client’s safety. Diaz Morales was taken into custody as she headed home from Taco Bell, and ICE agents placed her in a van, her family said. Her lawyer said Diaz Morales was born at a hospital in Laurel, Maryland. "It is an indisputable fact that she was born inside the United States. I’ve seen her birth certificate. We have immunization records. We have multiple affidavits from people who were there at her birth," Slatton said. "I’ve personally called the hospital, and they confirm they do have records. They just cannot release them at this time. But we are working on getting additional evidence, but we have her birth certificate. That should be enough. She never should have been picked up in the first place.” Diaz Morales was first held in Baltimore, then taken to Louisiana. This week, Maryland District Court Judge Brendan Hurson sided with them and ruled she cannot be removed from the United States for now. "Specifically, respondents, including all those acting for them or on their behalf, are enjoined from removing Petitioner Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales from the United States or altering her legal status during the pendency of this action, subject to further order of this Court," Judge Hurson wrote. "I’m doing everything I can on the legal side, but I am at a loss because this is so far beyond what I ever thought I would be fighting for," Slatton said. WJZ Investigates reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment. Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin insisted Diaz Morales "is not a U.S. citizen" and claimed "she did not provide a valid U.S. birth certificate or any evidence in support of her claim that she is a U.S. citizen.” McLaughlin also said Diaz Morales was questioned by border patrol in 2023 near the Arizona-Mexico border and told authorities then that she was a Mexican citizen. She also responded to Slatton’s claims that she could not get in touch with her client. "Any allegation that ICE does not allow detainees to contact legal assistance is false," McLaughlin told WJZ. "All detainees have access to phones to communicate with lawyers.” [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [12/19/2025 5:53 PM, Alec Schemmel, 40621K] reports the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is calling out both the Biden administration and one Northern Virginia county’s "sanctuary policies" after an illegal immigrant with a lengthy criminal history was released by police and allegedly killed a man in his home a day later. A man was found shot dead in his Northern Virginia home in Fairfax County on Wednesday. The suspected shooter, 23-year-old Marvin Morales-Ortez — an immigrant from El Salvador residing illegally in the United States — had been in custody Tuesday on malicious wounding and brandishing a firearm charges, but police released him after the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office dropped the charges and Morales-Ortez committed a murder the next day. Morales-Ortez illegally entered the United States in September 2016, along with his mother, near Hidalgo, Texas, according to DHS. Morales-Ortez was then "released into the country by the Obama administration," the agency added. Meanwhile, in 2022, the Biden administration dismissed Morales-Ortez’s immigration proceedings and eventually marked him as "a non-enforcement priority," according to DHS. "There is blood on the hands of Fairfax County politicians for pushing policies that released this illegal alien from Salvadoran from jail and onto the streets of Virginia," said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. "Fairfax county refused to honor ICE’s detainer and release him into their custody. Just hours after being released from jail, he committed murder in cold blood. Sanctuary policies have deadly consequences. We pray for the victim and his family."

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [12/19/2025 2:51 PM, Bob Price, 2416K]

Blaze [12/19/2025 4:26 PM, Carlos Garcia, 1442K] reports an illegal alien from El Salvador allegedly killed a U.S. citizen the day after being released, despite a detainer request from federal immigration officials. Marvin Fernando Morales-Ortez was released from a Fairfax, Virginia, jail after county officials dropped several violent criminal charges against him in addition to ignoring the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer. Morales-Ortez allegedly shot and killed a 40-year-old man, Marvin Ernesto Morales, at a residence in Reston. After he fled, police were able to find and arrest him. He was charged with second-degree murder and use of a firearm in commission of a felony. A spokesperson for ICE blamed local officials for the preventable death. After Morales-Ortez was released from jail on Tuesday, a Community Services Board did obtain an emergency order to have police take him into custody, according to the Fairfax County Police. However, the order was valid for only eight hours, and police were unable to find him before it expired. Prosecutors are accused of ignoring the detainer, not notifying federal officials when Morales-Ortez was being released, and dropping criminal charges against him in numerous cases. Morales-Ortez is being held at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center.

Chicago Tribune [12/19/2025 3:06 PM, Meredith Colias-Pete, 4829K] reports a Lake County judge sentenced a man from Honduras to a maximum 16 years Friday for stabbing a 13-year-old girl in the hand as she was watching her brother’s Little League game near Lowell. Dimas Yanes, 27, pleaded guilty in August to aggravated battery, a Level 3 felony. She later noted Yanes was diagnosed with two mental health disorders at the Lake County Jail. He is expected to be deported. A Lake County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman said she was checking for answers at press time on when he might be taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Deputy Prosecutor Maureen Koonce asked for a maximum 16-year sentence. She acknowledged they may not have been able to prove the original attempted murder charge at trial. Koonce noted he was deported twice since 2015. Yanes had a pending battery case in Georgia against a minor.

FOX News [12/19/2025 2:40 PM, Charles Creitz, 40621K] reports that from Milwaukee to Maui, AmericaFest attendees told Fox News Digital they back DHS’ "mass deportation" push and said they would welcome ICE operations in their own hometowns. Mother and daughter Karen and Christina from Milwaukee said they wholeheartedly support ICE’s operations, particularly in nearby Chicago. "We need to get the illegals out because they are taking all our services that should be for the people who really need it," Karen said. Looking south, they faulted Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker for not welcoming federal assistance, saying Springfield is trying to pass "all these weird laws" to create roadblocks for them. "We need to clean up the city, it’s such a dump over there," added Christina, who attends college in Illinois. Reached for comment in response to criticisms, a spokeswoman for O’Connell maintained that immigration enforcement is a federal matter and that "Metro Nashville upholds the law – and as we have always done, works with state and federal law enforcement to detain dangerous criminals and keep our community safe.". "Our work, under the leadership of Mayor O’Connell, has led to reductions in violent crime in our city not seen in decades, with crime down in every major category and in every police precinct in Nashville," Julie Smith said. Pritzker’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Houston Chronicle [12/19/2025 2:55 PM, Staff, 2983K] reports that law enforcement and KIPP Texas Public Schools officials confirmed Friday that reports of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at an East End charter campus on Thursday were untrue. Parents and East End community members flew into a panic Thursday morning after photos circulated on social media of law enforcement officers in tactical gear huddled in the parking lot of the U.S. Post Office across the street from three KIPP charter schools on Lawndale Street. On Facebook, parents claiming to have spoken to the principal at one KIPP school said that ICE had tried to enter the building but were denied by the principal. By the end of the day Thursday, various elected officials put out statements on social media advising community members that the ICE reports were a false alarm. KIPP charter school leaders sent a message to parents debunking the claim that ICE had tried to enter one of the schools and said that all students and staff were safe, though they did write that the charter school network had confirmed the presence of agents "in the vicinity" of the campus. Multiple elected officials later confirmed that the agents photographed Thursday were part of the U.S. Marshals Service Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force, which includes officers from various law enforcement agencies across the region. It was not immediately clear whether ICE was actually present elsewhere in the neighborhood on Thursday.

NewsMax [12/19/2025 10:23 PM, Jim Thomas, 4109K] reports President Donald Trump said sales of his administration’s new immigration "gold card" fast-track residency program have topped $1 billion, signaling strong early demand for the seven-figure visa option aimed at attracting wealthy immigrants, capital, and jobs to the United States. Sales have reached about $1.3 billion since the online portal went live earlier this month, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and White House officials said Friday, as Trump touted the initiative as a major revenue source and a tool to attract global investment. The administration framed the initiative as a way to strengthen the U.S. economy. Trump spoke about the program’s revenue figures during a White House event, saying proceeds will go to the U.S. Treasury and help reduce national debt. "It’s essentially the green card on steroids," Trump said in public remarks that circulated widely in news coverage and social media posts. The TrumpCard.gov site launched on Dec. 10. Lutnick said all applicants will undergo vetting by the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies as part of the process before receiving residency rights. Under the executive order that created the program, individuals must make an unrestricted gift of $1 million to the U.S. government to establish eligibility for an expedited immigrant visa, with corporations contributing $2 million for sponsored employees. Additional mandatory fees, including a $15,000 processing charge per applicant, also apply. Some international reporting notes that interest in the "gold card" varies by region, with potential applicants in countries such as India showing more interest in established investor visa routes like EB-5, which have clearer legal paths to residency and citizenship.

New York Times [12/20/2025 5:04 AM, Jazmine Ulloa, Allison McCann, and Hamed Aleaziz, 153395K] reports the Trump administration is intensifying efforts to deport people to countries where they have no connections. Last month, lawyers for the Department of Homeland Security filed almost 5,000 motions to dismiss asylum cases and force applicants to seek protection elsewhere, a staggering increase from the few hundred such motions filed each month this summer. The surge, documented in an analysis of public immigration court data, comes as federal officials have been working out new asylum agreements with a handful of nations, including Honduras and Uganda. Under these “safe third country” accords, foreign governments are offering to take in limited numbers of asylum seekers from the United States, promising that the U.S. deportees will be able to apply for asylum in those nations instead. In immigration courts across the country, government lawyers are now increasingly asking judges to “pretermit,” or dismiss, asylum cases without hearings, asserting that applicants can seek asylum in those “safe third countries.” Judges appear receptive to the requests, according to the court data analysis. In November, at least 230 asylum seekers who were not citizens of Honduras were ordered expelled to Honduras, as compared with 40 such people in October and one in September. Homeland Security officials say the process will allow people to pursue asylum claims in countries where they do not fear persecution. “D.H.S. is using every lawful tool available to address the backlog and abuse of the asylum system,” the agency said in a statement.

FOX News [12/19/2025 3:42 PM, Jasmine Baehr, Gillian Turner, 40621K] reports the State Department confirmed to Fox News on Friday that over 95,000 visas have been revoked thus far under the leadership of Secretary of State Marco Rubio. This is an escalation from the 85,000 visas revoked previously reported earlier this month, citing safety concerns. New policies under the Trump administration for visas have included stricter scrutiny surrounding the H-1B program and expanded travel restrictions. More than 8,000 of the visas revoked belong to international students, according to previous reporting from Fox News Digital.

CNN [12/19/2025 5:32 AM, Natalie Barr, 18595K] reports the U.S. has shut down a visa program to promote diversity in the wake of the Brown University mass shooting. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Axios [12/19/2025 5:35 PM, Brittany Gibson, 12972K] reports President Trump’s overnight crackdown on diversity visas is the latest use of his 2025 strategy to scale down legal immigration. The Trump administration is leveraging collective punishment by halting or trying to scuttle entire legal immigration programs after high-profile incidents. "[T]hey are using them fully as a pretext for ... undoing so many aspects of the immigration system," said Doris Meissner, who formerly led the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and is now at the non-partisan Migration Policy Institute. The alleged shooter at Brown University and MIT entered the U.S. from Portugal through the diversity lottery immigrant visa program, which allows roughly 50,000 people entry a year. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced that program is now paused. Trump had called to end this visa program several times in his first term. Trump also ordered the termination in November of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Somalis over reports of widespread fraud in Minnesota. The Somali decision will impact less than 1,000 people, according to data shared with Congress earlier this year. But it’s created justification to surge immigration enforcement in the state, particularly in Minneapolis. DHS did not respond to questions about its broad crackdown on legal immigration program in reaction to acts of violence or alleged fraud. In a statement, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin blamed President Biden for restarting the diversity visa lottery after Trump’s first term.

Roll Call [12/19/2025 3:44 PM, Chris Johnson, 548K] reports a federal judge had tough questions during a hearing Friday for attorneys representing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in a legal challenge to President Donald Trump’s new $100,000 fee hike on companies seeking to hire foreign workers on H-1B visas. Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia, an Obama appointee, sounded skeptical of the business organization’s request to either block enforcement of the presidential proclamation against its members or strike it down completely. Howell raised issues of a president’s broad authority under immigration law and cited an example of a company that had opted to hire an American worker instead of a foreign national with the new fee structure in place. Howell said it’s "pretty hard to see limiting principles" in provisions in the law and questioned whether the chamber should redirect its efforts from litigation to lobbying Congress. Howell also had questions on whether the chamber had the right to file the lawsuit in the first place, and said nonprofits with no cap on H-1Bs have "more clear standing." The chamber lawsuit is one of several challenging the fee.

San Francisco Chronicle [12/19/2025 2:29 PM, Sarra DiNatale and Sophia Bollag, 4722K] reports that the Trump administration has blocked California’s plan to resume issuing commercial driver’s licenses to asylum-seekers, the latest snag in an ongoing battle between the U.S. Department of Transportation and the state Department of Motor Vehicles. Roughly 20,000 immigrant drivers, largely asylum-seekers or DACA recipients, have received notices their trucking licenses will be cut off in the new year — even though many of them hold valid federal work permits. California said it would start issuing new licenses, including to impacted drivers with up-to-date documents, starting Wednesday. That didn’t happen. "A lot of these folks are in limbo," said Diana Crofts-Pelayo, a spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom. Many of the drivers are their families’ only wage-earners. Rig owners often finance their trucks, and fear they’ll be left unable to make payments if they are no longer allowed to drive. The federal government refused to accept fixes the state made in response to an audit by the U.S. Department of Transportation, and said it therefore would not allow the state to begin issuing new licenses this week as planned, Crofts-Pelayo said. The department did not respond to the Chronicle’s request for comment or clarification about why it rejected the DMV’s plan. Eva Spiegel, a spokesperson for the California DMV, said the agency "stands ready to resume issuing commercial driver’s licenses, including corrected licenses to eligible drivers."

AP [12/20/2025 1:32 AM, Staff, 31753K] reports the Trump administration restricted visas for two leftist Honduran election officials, citing interference in the Central American country’s special vote count. The U.S. State Department said in a statement Friday it revoked the visa of Mario Morazán, a magistrate of the Electoral Justice Tribunal, and denied a visa application from Marlon Ochoa, a member of the National Electoral Council. Both belong to the leftist ruling LIBRE, or Liberty and Refoundation, party. "The United States will not tolerate actions that undermine our national security and our region’s stability," the statement said. "We will consider all appropriate measures to deter those impeding the vote count in Honduras.” Nearly 20 days after the elections were held, Hondurans still do not know the results of the presidential race. Due to the narrow margin between the two leading candidates, electoral officials have carried out a special revision of 2,792 ballot boxes that show alleged inconsistencies and errors. Officials began the special vote count on Thursday after more than a week of the count being paralyzed. With 99.85% of the vote counted so far, conservative candidate Nasry Asfura of the National Party — whom U.S. President Donald Trump had backed in the lead-up to the election, fueling accusations of election intervention by his opponents — is narrowly leading with 40.24% of the vote. Fellow conservative Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party followed with 39.64%. In a distant third place is the ruling party’s candidate, Rixi Moncada of Liberty and Refoundation, with 19.12% of the vote. Moncada has not recognized the results. This is the latest example of the Trump administration weighing in on Honduran affairs throughout the election. Over the past year in office, it has wielded its power in Latin America more aggressively than most U.S. governments in recent history. Trump has openly offered support and funds to right-wing allies, while applying punishing pressure to adversaries, often on the left. Trump had also pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, sentenced last year to 45 years in prison for his role in a drug trafficking operation by a U.S. court.

Washington Post [12/19/2025 9:48 AM, Pranshu Verma, 24149K] reports Indian H-1B visa holders who traveled back to India this month to renew their American work permits are now stranded far from home after their appointments were abruptly canceled by U.S. consular offices and rescheduled for months later, according to three immigration lawyers who specialize in H-1B cases. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of high-skilled workers had appointments canceled between Dec. 15 and 26, the lawyers said, a period many H-1B holders target for renewal since it coincides with the U.S. holiday season. In emails viewed by The Washington Post, the State Department told visa holders their interviews were being delayed after the implementation of the Trump administration’s new social media vetting policy, “to ensure that no applicants … pose a threat to U.S. national security or public safety.” The sudden cancellations have upended lives, the lawyers said, leaving workers on expired visas fearful of losing their jobs. Emily Neumann, a partner at the Houston-based immigration firm Reddy Neumann Brown PC, said she had at least 100 clients stranded in India. Veena Vijay Ananth, an immigration attorney in India, and Charles Kuck, who practices immigration law in Atlanta, said they each had more than a dozen similar cases. Many of those affected are tech workers in their 30s and 40s, the lawyers said, who have lived in the United States for years. They are now scrambling to find alternative work arrangements with their U.S. companies. Some who traveled to India with their kids must now decide whether to keep them out of school or send them home alone; others are separated from their families entirely. “This is the biggest mess we have seen,” said Ananth, who has worked on H-1B cases for over 20 years. “I’m not sure there is a plan.”

FOX News [12/19/2025 9:20 PM, Michael Sinkewicz, 40621K] reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Friday that more than 2.5 million illegal immigrants have left the United States since President Donald Trump returned to office this year, citing a sweeping immigration crackdown it says has led to the "most secure border in American history.” In a year-end report highlighting the agency’s accomplishments, DHS claimed that illegal border crossings plunged 93% year-over-year, fentanyl trafficking was cut in half and hundreds of thousands of criminal illegal immigrants were either arrested or deported, amounting to a dramatic shift from the Biden administration. "In less than a year, President Trump has delivered some of the most historic and consequential achievements in presidential history, and this administration is just getting started," Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement. "Under President Trump’s leadership, we are making America safe again and putting the American people first. In record time we have secured the border, taken the fight to cartels and arrested thousands upon thousands of criminal illegal aliens.” While Trump’s first year back in office was "historic," the administration "won’t rest until the job is done," Noem added. Of the 2.5 million illegal immigrants who left the country since Trump took office Jan. 20, an estimated 1.9 million self-deported and more than 622,000 were forced out, according to DHS. The Trump administration has encouraged anyone living in the United States illegally to return to their native countries using the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Home Mobile App, which allows users to claim a complimentary plane ticket home and a $1,000 exit bonus upon their return. CBP seized nearly 540,000 pounds of drugs this year, almost a 10% increase compared to the same time frame in 2024, DHS said, adding that the U.S. Coast Guard has retrieved roughly 470,000 pounds of cocaine, enough to kill 177 million people. Taxpayers have saved more than $13 billion at DHS, the agency said, noting that several agencies, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Secret Service have returned "to their core missions.” Secretary Noem awarded $10,000 bonuses earlier this year to TSA officers and personnel who displayed exemplary service, overcame hardships and displayed the utmost patriotism during the 43-day government shutdown. DHS touted the administration’s achievements, asserting that "countless lives have been saved" this year, and "the American people have been put first again.”

FOX News [12/19/2025 10:42 AM, Rachel Wolf Fox, 40621K] reports FBI Director Kash Patel announced on Friday that a post-doctoral researcher in the U.S. on a visa was charged with allegedly smuggling Escherichia coli (E. coli) into the country and making false statements about it. Patel identified the post-doctoral researcher as Youhuang Xiang, but did not name the university involved in the case. "This is yet another example of a researcher from China, given the privilege to work at a U.S. university, who then allegedly chose to take part in a scheme to circumvent U.S. laws and receive biological materials hidden in a package originating from China," Patel wrote on X. "If not properly controlled, E. coli and other biological materials could inflict devastating disease to U.S. crops and cause significant financial loss to the U.S. economy," he added. Patel applauded the FBI Indianapolis and Chicago field offices for their work on the case and thanked U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The FBI director also sent a warning to universities, urging them to be "vigilant of this trend.". "Ensure your researchers know that there is a correct and legal way to obtain a license to import/export approved biological materials, and it must be followed without exception," Patel said. This is not the first time visa holders have been busted for allegedly smuggling materials for research since the Trump administration began its immigration crackdown in January 2025. Petrova’s attorney, Gregory Romanovsky, told Fox News that his client was bringing back the embryos at the request of a professor at a French lab that was collaborating with Harvard. He said the sample was picked up in Paris and was supposed to be brought to Harvard. Romanovsky added that Petrova did not know she needed to claim the embryos at customs. "The individual was lawfully detained after lying to federal officers about carrying substances into the country," the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) wrote in a post on X about Petrova. "A subsequent K9 inspection uncovered undeclared petri dishes, containers of unknown substances, and loose vials of embryonic frog cells, all without proper permits.".

Reported similarly:
Washington Examiner [12/19/2025 2:11 PM, David Zimmermann, 1394K]
Daily Caller [12/19/2025 11:32 AM, Christine Sellers, 835K]
NewsMax [12/19/2025 11:04 AM, Jim Mishler, 4109K]

Blaze [12/19/2025 2:25 PM, Candace Hathaway, 1442K] reports that federal agents charged another Chinese national with allegedly trying to smuggle biological materials into the United States. On Friday morning, FBI Director Kash Patel announced that the agency had filed charges against Youhuang Xiang, a postdoctoral researcher who is in the country on a J-1 visa. These visas are issued to exchange visitors approved to participate in certain programs, such as studying or conducting research, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. J-1 visas are provided to professors, research assistants, and students. Xiang allegedly smuggled Escherichia coli, commonly referred to as E. coli, into the country. He is also accused of making false statements about the smuggling scheme. Patel explained that E. coli, when not properly controlled, can "inflict devastating disease to U.S. crops and cause significant financial loss to the U.S. economy.". Xiang was listed on Indiana University’s website as a postdoctoral fellow. His "research interests" included "recognition specificity in host-pathogen interactions and engineering crop resistance to pathogen," according to the website. As of Friday afternoon, the university removed Xiang from its Department of Biology webpage. "This is yet another example of a researcher from China — given the privilege to work at a U.S. university — who then allegedly chose to take part in a scheme to circumvent U.S. laws and receive biological materials hidden in a package originating from China," Patel wrote in a post on social media. The FBI director noted that the agency and Customs and Border Protection partners "are committed to enforcing U.S. laws put in place to protect against this global threat to our economy and food supply." "The FBI will not tolerate any attempt to exploit our nation’s institutions for illegal activity — as we have seen in this case and the three Chinese nationals charged in Michigan in November for allegedly smuggling biological materials into the U.S. on several occasions," Patel continued.

Washington Examiner [12/19/2025 1:19 PM, Robert Schmad, 1394K] reports that global trade data indicate that Chinese manufacturers have been drastically increasing the volume of illegal vapes imported to the United States in recent months. To counter this, U.S. authorities have intensified their enforcement efforts by raiding warehouses, cracking down on smoke shops, and blocking illicit shipments at ports. Illegal vape shipments originating in China have risen steadily from a low point of 2.2 million kilograms of product in June of this year to nearly 15 million kilograms as of October, according to Chinese trade data. In concert with the uptick in Chinese exports, the Food and Drug Administration told the Washington Examiner that it undertook an "exponential" increase in import refusals of tobacco products during fiscal 2025. The FDA said it refused over 9,000 shipments of tobacco products during fiscal 2025, up from roughly 1,600 in fiscal 2024 and just around 100 in fiscal 2023. Customs and Border Protection, which often conducts joint operations with the FDA to seize illicit shipments, previously shared some details with the Washington Examiner regarding how the agencies have improved their efficiency. "Our most valuable asset is our officers," a CBP spokesman told the Washington Examiner earlier this month. "Their knowledge and experience allow us to identify potential violative incoming shipments. Another resource CBP leverages to combat illicit products from entering the United States is the government and private vendor advanced targeting and analytical systems. CBP uses these decision support tools to compare cargo and conveyance information against law enforcement, intelligence, and other enforcement data using risk-based scenarios and assessments."

Reuters [12/19/2025 6:00 AM, Heather Schlitz, 36480K] reports Allyson Lopez had been hoping for business to bounce back at her dress shop in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, which specializes in ballgowns for quinceaneras, a coming of age ritual in many Latino communities celebrating a girl’s 15th birthday. Instead, this week brought the return of the federal immigration raids that have emptied the normally vibrant streets. The first phase of the Department of Homeland Security deportation campaign, named "Operation Midway Blitz," racked up over 4,200 arrests across the city in under three months. The operation rattled Chicago, but for Little Village, the working-class Mexican neighborhood that was repeatedly targeted, the effect has been catastrophic. The return of roving U.S. Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino on Tuesday in a large convoy of agents in camouflage, some with assault rifles peeking through car windows, was met by jeers and whistles from dozens of protesters who livestreamed the encounters on social media. At Estela’s Bridal, a second-generation family business, Lopez specializes in custom designs, which sell for an average of $1,000. It can take 16 hours to make a dress, fitting the shimmering fabrics to size, and adding embroidered flowers, rhinestones and sequins. She said she lost 90% of her clients during the first wave of arrests as people decided to stay home out of fear of immigration agents. "We’re going to suffer again as businesses," Lopez said. "We didn’t even make the rent this month, so it’s scary." For one family, the aftershocks of the fall raids have lingered for weeks. Kamila, 15, said she has been afraid to leave her apartment other than to go to school after her cousin was detained by immigration agents in November while on his way to a job as a rug installer. He had been living in the U.S. for 18 years without legal status. "I’m scared. We can’t step outside because they might be waiting for us," she said. Asked for comment, Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said: "There’s no reason to be afraid of law enforcement, unless you are breaking the law."

FOX News [12/19/2025 1:39 PM, Alex Nitzberg, 40621K] reports that Evita Duffy-Alfonso, a daughter of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, called for the abolition of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on Thursday, asserting that she had been treated poorly by agents and endured an "absurdly invasive pat-down." "TSA = unreasonable, warrantless searches of passengers and their property. That means it violates the Fourth Amendment and is therefore unconstitutional. Pls abolish," she wrote in a post on X, tagging President Donald Trump and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem. In another post, she explained her negative experience. "I nearly missed my flight this morning after the TSA made me wait 15 minutes for a pat-down because I’m pregnant and didn’t feel like getting radiation exposure from their body scanner. The agents were passive-aggressive, rude, and tried to pressure me and another pregnant woman into just walking through the scanner because it’s ‘safe.’ After finally getting the absurdly invasive pat-down, I barely made my flight. All this for an unconstitutional agency that isn’t even good at its job," Duffy-Alfonso wrote in a post on X. "Perhaps things would have gone more smoothly if I’d handed over my biometric data to a random private company (CLEAR). Then I could enjoy the special privilege of waiting in a shorter line to be treated like a terrorist in my own country. Is this freedom? Travel, brought to you by George Orwell — and the privilege of convenience based solely on your willingness to surrender biometric data and submit to radiation exposure? The ‘golden age of transportation’ cannot begin until the TSA is gone," she added. Fox News Digital reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Transportation for comment.

Reported similarly:
New York Times [12/19/2025 5:24 PM, Christine Chung, 135475K]
AP [12/19/2025 3:21 PM, Staff]
USA Today [12/19/2025 3:15 PM, Zach Wichter, 67103K]

The Hill [12/19/2025 10:38 AM, Rachel Frazin, 12595K] reports more than $900 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grants and loans are awaiting Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s approval under her controversial policy of personally reviewing major expenditures, an agency source told The Hill. This represents a significant backlog at the emergency management agency, which provides funding that both helps communities prepare for disasters and assists with short- and long-term recovery. This is in line with a figure reported last week by an "Alt-FEMA" Substack newsletter. The newsletter’s inaugural edition earlier this year was signed by an anonymous FEMA employee "on behalf of the Alt-FEMA Editorial Team.". The $900 million figure gives clues about how Noem’s policy of personally approving all major expenditures that cost $100,000 or more is actually playing out. The policy, which applies to the entire Department of Homeland Security — not just FEMA — is one that has received significant scrutiny, especially at the high-profile disaster agency that has found itself in the Trump administration’s crosshairs. "Holding up that much money will be adversely affecting recovery in states across the country," said Michael Coen, who was FEMA’s chief of staff during the Obama and Biden administrations. He added that the agency’s grants — which are subject to Noem’s review — can fund things like debris removal and repairs to infrastructure like schools, roads and bridges. A FEMA spokesperson did not directly address The Hill’s question about whether $900 million in grants and loans were awaiting Noem’s review. Instead, the spokesperson said that "since taking office, Secretary Noem has reviewed more than 5,000 contracts and reviews all contracts within 24 hours.".

Reported similarly:
NewsMax [12/19/2025 8:50 PM, Jim Thomas, 4109K]

New York Times [12/19/2025 1:26 PM, Hannah Dreier, 153395K] reports the federal government has known for years that wildfire fighters, who spend weeks at a time in poisonous smoke, can develop deadly cancers from the exposure. Now, they will be eligible for a payment of nearly $450,000 and college tuition for their family if they die or become debilitated from a smoke-related cancer, under a law signed by President Trump on Thursday. The measure is part of a bipartisan push in Congress to overhaul how the government protects and compensates firefighters who work in toxic wildfire smoke — with multiple bills pending that would enforce the use of masks, expand benefits and recognize smoke exposure as a major occupational hazard. Worsening fire seasons have meant that firefighters spend more time in dense smoke, and many are developing serious diseases at young ages. “The reality is that they are being exposed to stuff that puts them at greater risk to save us,” said Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, who sponsored the bill alongside Senator Kevin Cramer, Republican of North Dakota. The legislation, which passed as part of a larger military spending bill, requires that some 20 smoke-related cancers be automatically treated as line-of-duty injuries or deaths for all firefighters who work for public agencies. The aid includes a one-time tax-free payment of $448,575 and four years of financial support for the firefighter’s children or spouse to pursue higher education. Families who have lost loved ones within the last six years will be eligible to file for benefits retroactively.

NewsMax [12/19/2025 8:22 PM, Mark Swanson, 4109K] reports President Donald Trump said Friday that he is approving an emergency declaration for Montana in the wake of severe storms that ravaged the state earlier this week. Trump made the announcement in a post on Truth Social. "I just spoke with Governor Greg Gianforte, of the Great State of Montana, and informed him that I will be approving an Emergency Declaration for Montana for severe storms they experienced this month. I LOVE MONTANA!" Trump said in the post. Severe storms tore across Montana late Tuesday into early Wednesday, bringing damaging winds, heavy rain, and hail that knocked out power and caused widespread disruption. Authorities reported downed trees, damaged buildings, and flooded roadways in several communities as the storms moved through overnight. Emergency crews worked through the early morning hours to restore power and clear debris, while residents were urged to stay indoors. An emergency declaration allows the federal government to quickly respond to a crisis by unlocking federal funding and resources for state and local officials. Under the declaration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency can provide direct support for lifesaving operations, debris removal, sheltering, and other urgent needs. It also allows federal agencies to deploy personnel and equipment faster, helps cover emergency response costs, and can include waivers of certain rules to streamline efforts.

CBS News [12/19/2025 7:34 AM, Staff, 39474K] reports the Senate confirmed Admiral Kevin Lunday as Coast Guard commandant Thursday night after agency guidance on the display of hate symbols such as swastikas and nooses was clarified. Democrats objecting to the guidance had been holding up the confirmation. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, of South Dakota, called for and got senators to approve Lunday unanimously in remarks before the chamber adjourned for the year. After references to the hate symbols as "potentially divisive" were removed from Coast Guard policy, Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada said she was lifting a hold she’d placed on Lunday’s nomination for the agency’s top job. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose agency oversees the Coast Guard, said on social media that the latest changes were made so no one can "misrepresent" the branch’s position. "The pages of superseded and outdated policy will be completely removed from the record so no press outlet, entity or elected official may misrepresent the Coast Guard to politicize their policies and lie about their position on divisive and hate symbols," Noem said. The move capped back-and-forth revisions of the Coast Guard policy on swastikas, nooses and other hate symbols that had sparked an uproar. The Department of Homeland Security has asserted there "was never a ‘downgrade’" in policy language.

DefenseScoop [12/19/2025 12:00 PM, Jon Harper, 150K] reports Coast Guard Adm. Kevin Lunday — whose nomination for commandant was temporarily held up by lawmakers amid a political controversy about policies related to hate symbols — was confirmed by the Senate on Thursday night to lead the sea service. Lunday had been serving as acting commandant since January after Adm. Linda Fagan was fired from her post. He was formally nominated by President Donald Trump in October to hold the role on a more permanent basis. Notably, his previous leadership roles in the sea service gave him a strong background in cyber. “Experienced in operational and technical cyberspace operations, Admiral Lunday served as Commander, U.S. Coast Guard Cyber Command where he directed the operation, maneuver, and defense of the Coast Guard Enterprise Mission Platform as part of Department of Defense (DoD) networks. He also directed remote and deployable cyberspace operations to protect U.S. maritime critical infrastructure from cyberattack. Prior to this role he served as Director of Exercises and Training (J7), U.S. Cyber Command where he directed the joint training and certification of the DoD Cyber Mission Force, the nation’s cyberspace warriors,” his Coast Guard bio states.

Washington Examiner [12/19/2025 12:33 PM, David Zimmermann, 1394K] reports that the U.S. Navy is preparing to roll out the first warship in its new frigate class by 2028 as part of President Donald Trump’s newly authorized "Golden Fleet." Secretary of the Navy John Phelan directed construction of the new class based on an existing U.S. Coast Guard ship design, he announced in a video on Friday. "To expand capacity and production across our maritime industrial base, we will acquire these ships using a lead yard and competitive follow-on strategy for multi-yard construction," Phelan said. "Shipyards will be measured against one outcome: delivering combat power to the [Golden Fleet] as fast as possible." Huntington Ingalls Industries, the nation’s largest military shipbuilder, was selected by the Navy to design and build the small surface combatant ship. The Mississippi-based company previously built the Legend-class national security cutter for the Coast Guard. "We look forward to supporting the Navy on this critical program," HII President and CEO Chris Kastner said in a statement. "Speed matters, and the NSC ship design is stable and produceable and will lead to predictable schedules. I have great confidence in the Ingalls team to execute this program, and in our ongoing efforts with our partners to successfully expand the U.S. shipbuilding industrial base to meet the Navy’s needs."

Wall Street Journal [12/19/2025 9:11 AM, Marcus Weisgerber and Lara Seligman, 646K] reports the U.S. Navy will commission a new class of frigates, the first in a series of warships that will make up President Trump’s envisioned “Golden Fleet.” The Navy chose HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding to build the new ship, it announced Friday in a video posted on social media. The new ship will be based on the Coast Guard’s Legend-class National Security Cutter, which Ingalls builds in Pascagoula, Miss., and will replace the Constellation-class frigate that the Navy canceled last month after years of delays. “Recent operations from the Red Sea to the Caribbean make the requirement undeniable—our small surface combatant inventory is a third of what we need,” Adm. Daryl Caudle, the Chief of Naval Operations, said in the video. “We need more capable blue water small combatants to close the gap and keep our [destroyers] focused on the high end fight.” While HII will build the lead ship, the Navy plans to complete construction of additional vessels at other shipyards so that they can get into the fleet faster, Navy Secretary John Phelan said in the video. The Navy wants the first ship in the water by 2028. “We know this frigate design works, we know it operates with the fleet, and most importantly, we know how to build it, now,” he said. Trump has been personally involved in drawing up plans for the new fleet, which will be designed to better counter China and other threats. The president approved the Navy’s plan for “Golden Fleet” in a Dec. 3 Oval Office meeting with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Phelan and Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Phelan told The Wall Street Journal on the sidelines of the Reagan National Defense Forum earlier this month. A new frigate will be a key piece of that fleet, tasked with protecting larger vessels and sea lanes from threats like enemy aircraft and surface ships. The canceled Constellation-class was designed as a multimission, guided-missile frigate that could keep pace with aircraft carriers. During the original competition, which was announced in 2020, HII had proposed a modified version of the cutter for what would become the Constellation class.

Government Executive [12/19/2025 3:08 PM, David Dimolfetta, 652K] reports the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said it will make 100 internship opportunities available to students participating in a government scholarship program that’s been hampered by federal hiring freezes enacted by the Trump administration. The move announced Wednesday would allow undergraduate and graduate students to enter the cyber defense agency under the CyberCorps: Scholarship for Service Program, a longstanding workforce pipeline used to place top student talent into U.S. cybersecurity positions. The announcement comes after the Office of Personnel Management said last month it would pursue a “mass deferment” of deadlines for CyberCorps students to land qualifying jobs, following reports showing the program has been hobbled by recent federal employment logjams and is leaving many recruits burdened by debt. Scholarship terms stipulate that students must secure a qualifying job approved by OPM within an 18-month window after completing their studies. If they don’t meet that deadline, their scholarship funding converts into a loan, obligating them to repay the full amount they received. Nextgov/FCW has asked OPM about the status of mass deferment deadlines and if other agencies will post CyberCorps job openings. CISA opportunities for participants with both undergraduate and graduate degrees were recently posted on USAJobs. The agency said eligible students have until Feb. 27 of next year to submit application materials. “We are unwavering in our commitment to the OPM’s Scholarship for Service (SFS) program,” CISA acting Director Madhu Gottumukkala said in a statement. “It is a cornerstone of our strategy to cultivate a robust pipeline of elite cybersecurity professionals who will protect the nation’s digital and physical frontiers.”

Cyberscoop [12/19/2025 3:40 PM, Derek B. Johnson, 122K] reports the FBI said that unknown actors have continued to deploy AI voice cloning tools in an ongoing effort to impersonate U.S government officials and extract sensitive or classified information or conduct scams. The bureau initially warned back in May that the campaign had been ongoing since at least April 2025. In an update Friday, they revised that initial timeline and said there was evidence of such activity dating back to 2023. “Activity dating back to 2023 reveals malicious actors have impersonated senior U.S. state government, White House, and Cabinet level officials, as well as members of Congress to target individuals, including officials’ family members and personal acquaintances,” the FBI said in a public service announcement. These communications include the use of encrypted apps like Signal and AI-powered voice cloning tools to trick victims into believing they’re speaking with high-level government officials, who have regularly used Signal to discuss government business under the Trump administration. The FBI’s updated timeline would mean that such impersonation efforts may have stretched back to the Biden administration, though the bureau does not specify how many individuals, groups or actors may have been involved over the years. The update also includes new details around the specific tactics and talking points the impersonators use to ensnare victims.

CyberScoop [12/19/2025 4:37 PM, Matt Kapko, 122K] reports former cybersecurity professionals Ryan Clifford Goldberg and Kevin Tyler Martin pleaded guilty Thursday to participating in a series of ransomware attacks in 2023 while they were employed at cybersecurity companies tasked with helping organizations respond to ransomware attacks. Goldberg, who was a manager of incident response at Sygnia, and Martin, a ransomware negotiator at DigitalMint at the time, collaborated with an unnamed co-conspirator to attack victim computers and networks and use ALPHV, also known as BlackCat, ransomware to extort payments. The plea deals mark a relatively quick turnaround as prosecutors successfully persuaded the pair to cop to their crimes less than three months after they were indicted in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Goldberg was arrested Sept. 22 and Martin was arrested Oct. 14.Goldberg and Martin confirmed in their respective plea agreements that the total losses caused by their crimes exceeded $9.5 million, according to federal court records. A spokesperson for DigitalMint said the company cooperated with the Justice Department throughout its investigation and supports the outcome as a step toward accountability. “We strongly condemn his actions, which were undertaken without the knowledge, permission or involvement of the company,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “His behavior is a clear violation of our values and ethical standards.” Sygnia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Cyberscoop [12/19/2025 5:30 PM, Matt Kapko, 122K] reports Artem Aleksandrovych Stryzhak, a 35-year-old Ukrainian national, pleaded guilty Friday to multiple crimes stemming from his involvement in a string of ransomware attacks targeting U.S. and Europe-based organizations from mid 2018 to late 2021. He faces up to 10 years in jail for conspiracy to commit fraud, including extortion. Stryzhak was arrested in Spain in June 2024 and extradited to the United States in April. Authorities are still looking for his alleged co-conspirator Volodymyr Tymoshchuk and announced a $11 million reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction. “The defendant used Nefilim ransomware to target high-revenue companies in the United States, steal data and extort victims,” Joseph Nocella, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement. “We remain determined to capture Stryzhak’s codefendant and partner in crime, Volodymyr Tymoshchuk, and bring him to justice in a U.S. courtroom,” Nocella added. Officials accuse Tymoshchuk of acting as an administrator of the Nefilim ransomware group and described him as a serial cybercriminal associated with multiple ransomware strains.

NPR [12/19/2025 4:20 PM, Linah Mohammad, Patrick Jarenwattananon, Mary Louise Kelly, 28013K] Audio: HERE reports the Islamic State lost its territorial stronghold in the Middle East years ago, but its influence didn’t disappear. NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Aaron Zelin about how ISIS looks now.

Blaze [12/19/2025 10:15 AM, Jared Whitley, 1442K] reports a second 9/11 wasn’t prevented by Marines kicking in doors or drone strikes overseas. It was prevented by accountants. After the attacks, the Bush administration issued an executive order to freeze the assets of organizations tied to terrorism, cutting off their ability to operate. The strategy worked. The United Nations and other international bodies soon joined the financial front in the war on terror, targeting money flows instead of just militants. It wasn’t glamorous. There were no dramatic accounting-themed visuals, let alone battlefield footage. But it starved terrorist networks of oxygen — and it saved lives. That same approach now needs to be applied at home. With Antifa finally designated a domestic terrorist organization, the administration should be treating these violent, unhinged groups the same way it treated Al-Qaeda: by dismantling their financial infrastructure, freezing assets, and prosecuting leadership. That makes the president’s nomination of Ken Kies as chief counsel and assistant secretary for the Internal Revenue Service baffling at best — and dangerous at worst. Kies is a Washington hired gun with divided loyalties. He has operated inside the revolving door since 1981, moving between government and lobbying, registering more than 500 times on behalf of various clients. His political contributions suggest close ties to the Pence wing of the party — precisely the faction that has resisted President Trump’s effort to dismantle the IRS deep state and confront politicized nonprofit networks. Instead of cleaning house, Kies appears to be preserving it. He has been reluctant to remove entrenched IRS officials tied to past abuses, including Holly Paz (top deputy of Lois Lerner), Robert Choi, and Anthony Sacco. Paz and Choi were deeply involved in the Tea Party targeting scandal. Sacco publicly pledged to "resist" President Trump. Paz, an Obama donor, was accused of lying to Congress by Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) in 2013 — yet she remained in a senior IRS role until being placed on leave in August. To this day, there is no public confirmation that any of these officials have been officially terminated.

Breitbart [12/19/2025 10:57 AM, Bob Price, 2416K] reports the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York charged four Venezuelan nationals, including suspected leaders of the violent Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang and one of FBI Houston’s "Top Ten" fugitives, as part of a nationwide crackdown that has now netted more than 70 alleged members tied to murders, kidnappings, and drug trafficking. TdA is designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. "Hector Guerrero Flores is the alleged leader of a Venezuelan foreign terrorist organization sowing violence, murder, and misery into communities and nations throughout the Western Hemisphere," said FBI Houston Special Agent in Charge Douglas Williams. "Under the leadership of Guerrero Flores, Tren de Aragua translates the suffering and death of thousands into profits for its members. Tren de Aragua, under the guidance of Guerrero Flores, saw members commit murders; violent robberies; sex trafficking; and weapons and narcotics trafficking impacting communities across the United States.". Guerro Flores, known as "Niño Guerrero," "El Cejón," and "El Innombrable," was indicted in the Southern District of New York, according to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He is charged with his alleged role as a leader in the TdA transnational criminal organization. His whereabouts are currently not known, prosecutors stated. The DOJ announced a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest and/or conviction. "As alleged, Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores has been the mastermind of Tren de Aragua’s evolution from a Venezuelan prison gang into a transnational terrorist organization that committed countless acts of violence, extortion, and drug trafficking all over North America, South America, and Europe," said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. "In the Southern District of New York, we have now charged over 30 members or associates of Tren de Aragua with federal crimes, and we are committed to bankrupting the cartels and transnational gangs who flood our streets with deadly drugs and pursue death, violence and corruption as a way of life.".

Breitbart [12/19/2025 9:50 AM, Randy Clark, 2416K] reports federal prosecutors say the Sinaloa Cartel hired two 15‑year‑old members of a Mexican Mafia‑affiliated gang to carry out a pair of assassination attempts in Chula Vista, California, attacks that left one man dead and several wounded before the teens fled back to Los Angeles. Andrew Nunez and Johncarlo Quintero pleaded guilty in federal court to murder and attempted murder charges, admitting they made two attempts to kill a cartel target on behalf of the Sinaloa Cartel. According to the Department of Justice, the two teenagers, who were 15 years old at the time the cartel ordered assassinations, are members of the Mexican Mafia-affiliated Westside Wilmas gang. The pair of teenage gang members pleaded guilty to the charges on Thursday, admitting they made two attempts in five hours to kill a Sinaloa cartel target in Chula Vista, California, just outside San Diego. The first attempt took the life of one person and injured two at a restaurant and later at a nearby luxury apartment where the cartel target was allegedly residing. According to court documents, on March 26, 2024, then 15-year-old Andrew Nunez and Johncarlo Quintero of the greater Los Angeles area drove from Wilmington, California, to a Chili’s restaurant in the border town of Chula Vista, where the Sinaloa cartel target was dining with his family. As the target and his family were leaving the restaurant, both teens pulled up behind the family in the parking lot. According to court documents, Quintero exited the teens’ vehicle and fired a single bullet that struck the target’s legs. According to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California, Quintero’s gun jammed, and he was unable to remedy the malfunction and continue firing at the target. After Quintero’s gun jammed, he and Nunez engaged in a failed attempt to hit and kill the victim with their vehicle. After the failed attempt to kill their target with the vehicle, the two teens fled the scene. According to the Department of Justice, the pair travelled to the target’s home to complete the contracted hit later that night. The pair was joined by an accomplice identified as 28-year-old Ricardo Sanchez. The trio was to be paid approximately $50,000 each to eliminate the cartel as requested by the Sinaloa cartel, prosecutors stated.

Reported similarly:
Daily Caller [12/19/2025 6:24 PM, Mariane Angela, 835K]
Telemundo [12/19/2025 6:54 PM, Staff, 57K]

Washington Times [12/19/2025 5:53 PM, Bill Gertz, 852K] reports the House intelligence oversight committee is investigating what the panel’s chairman says were faulty intelligence analyses on the mysterious brain injuries known as Havana Syndrome. Rep. Rick Crawford, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said in the year since the committee published its initial findings, the panel has reaffirmed that the intelligence community mishandled analyses of cases involving “anomalous health incidents,” or AHIs. The committee report a year ago concluded there is direct evidence the 2023 intelligence community assessment, or ICA, on the incidents was corrupted and produced using poor analytical standards and facts. That 2023 assessment concluded that most intelligence agencies believed the incidents were “very unlikely” caused by foreign adversary attacks. “I stand by my original statements from last year that the 2023 ICA was developed in a manner inconsistent with analytic integrity standards, and I strongly encourage my colleagues in the executive branch and the [intelligence community] to reassess the ICA,” Mr. Crawford said in a statement. “Fast forward to today, our investigation continues on pace, more aggressively than ever before,” the Arkansas Republican said Thursday. Congressional investigators determined in 2024 in an interim report that is it increasingly likely a foreign adversary is behind some of the incidents. Suspects include the intelligence services of Russia or China that may have conducted directed energy attacks against U.S. personnel. The malady surfaced publicly in late 2016 when several diplomats based in Havana reported experiencing debilitating brain injuries. The incidents led to the affliction being labeled Havana Syndrome. Since then, hundreds of diplomats, intelligence personnel and some law enforcement officers have reported being affected by AHIs. Incidents have been reported domestically by one FBI agent and overseas at U.S. facilities in China, Austria, Colombia, Georgia, Germany, India, Poland, Russia and Vietnam, the House report said.

Reuters [12/19/2025 10:54 AM, Scott Nuzum, 36480K] reports as 2025 draws to a close, national security discussions on the surface continue to center on geopolitical rivalry, technological competition, and the pace of innovation. These themes remain important, but as we enter 2026, a subtler, though increasingly consequential, reality is taking shape. Legal and regulatory frameworks that once operated largely in the background of national security strategy and technical deployment are now evolving more directly in response to how national security objectives are actually being pursued. Over the past decade, the United States has confronted a series of challenges and constraints that cannot be resolved through policy aspirations alone. These include operational limitations, environmental and permitting barriers, supply chain fragility, and the legal complexity of a deeply interconnected, but increasingly strained, global economy. The response now emerging is not a sharp break from prior approaches, but a turn toward pragmatism, one that relies on law in new ways to protect interests, manage vulnerability, allocate risk, and operate deliberately within those constraints. The defense technology sector has proven a robust area for private-sector investment, with significant capital inflows across U.S., European, and Australian markets. While investment in this sector is likely to remain strong in 2026, the criteria for what constitutes an attractive company are shifting.

Reuters [12/20/2025 1:08 AM, Steve Holland and Simon Lewis, 36480K] reports U.S. negotiators are set to meet Russian officials in Florida on Saturday for the latest talks aimed at ending Russia’s war in Ukraine, as President Donald Trump’s administration tries to coax an agreement out of both Russia and Ukraine to end the conflict. The meeting follows U.S. talks on Friday with Ukrainian and European officials, the latest discussions of a peace plan that has sparked some hope of a resolution to the conflict that began when Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. President Vladimir Putin’s envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, is leading the Russian delegation that will meet with property tycoon-turned-diplomat Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Marco Rubio, Trump’s top diplomat and national security advisor, said he may also join the talks. Previous meetings have taken place at Witkoff’s golf club in Miami’s Hallandale Beach. U.S., Ukrainian and European officials earlier this week reported progress on security guarantees for Kyiv as part of the talks to end the war, but it remains unclear if those terms will be acceptable to Moscow. A Russian source told Reuters that any meeting between Dmitriev and the Ukrainian negotiators had been ruled out. U.S. intelligence reports continue to warn that Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to capture all of Ukraine, sources familiar with the intelligence said, contradicting some U.S. officials’ assertions that Moscow is ready for peace. Putin offered no compromise during his annual press conference in Moscow, insisting that Russia’s terms for ending the war had not changed since June 2024, when he demanded Ukraine abandon its ambition to join NATO and withdraw entirely from four Ukrainian regions Russia claims as its own territory. Kyiv says it will not cede land that Moscow’s forces have failed to capture in nearly four years of war. Ukraine’s top negotiator Rustem Umerov said U.S. and European teams on Friday held talks and agreed to pursue their joint efforts. "We agreed with our American partners on further steps and on continuing our joint work in the near future," Umerov wrote on Telegram of the discussions in the United States, adding that he had informed President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of the outcome of the talks.

Reuters [12/19/2025 12:35 PM, Simon Lewis, 36480K] reports the United States has received pledges of up to 7,500 security personnel for a gang suppression force in Haiti, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday. The U.N. Security Council agreed at the end of September to more than double the size of a 15-month-old, underfunded and understaffed international security mission combating armed gangs in Haiti and rename it a gang suppression force. "We were looking for 5,500 forces. We already have pledges of up to 7,500 forces from a variety of countries. We’ve seen donors step up to fund that effort," Rubio told reporters. Gangs - largely armed with illicit weapons from the U.S. - have seized almost all of Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince in a conflict that has forced 1.3 million people from their homes, and fueled hunger. UNICEF said in August that make up an estimated 50% of gang members in the Caribbean country. The U.S. and Canada hosted a closed-door pledging conference for the gang suppression force at the United Nations on December 9. They said in a statement that 18 entities had pledged personnel, resources and technical support. The initial, Kenya-led Multinational Security Support mission deployed in Haiti in June 2024 but has struggled to make headway in curbing violent armed gangs - some of which Washington has designated as terrorist organizations.

CNN [12/19/2025 8:45 PM, Michael Rios, 606K] reports an oil and chemical tanker sanctioned by the United States has entered Venezuelan waters, ship tracking data showed, despite US President Donald Trump declaring a "total and complete blockade" of such vessels transiting the country. The Gambia-flagged ship, named the Hyperion, was seen near a refinery off Venezuela’s Amuay Bay on Friday after sailing through the Caribbean, according to ship tracking data. The ship had been sanctioned by the US on January 10, 2025, as part of efforts to reduce Russian revenues from energy. CNN has reached out to the US State Department for comment. Venezuela slammed the blockade earlier this week, calling it "a reckless and serious threat." It said it would continue to defend its sovereignty and national interests. Trump ordered the blockade after the US seized a sanctioned oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast last week. Blockades are considered an act of war under some international treaties. Last week, the US announced sanctions on shipping companies and vessels it says help move Venezuelan oil. Three nephews of President Nicolás Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, as well as another Maduro-affiliated businessman were also named in the sanctions list. The US imposed additional sanctions Friday on other Maduro family members, including his sister-in-law. The sanctions are part of a monthslong pressure campaign against the Venezuelan government. The US has carried out deadly military strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific and mounted economic pressure against Caracas as part of what it has described as a war against drug trafficking. Maduro has said that the US is seeking regime change along with ownership of Venezuela’s territory and resources. The US has resisted that characterization, accusing Maduro of being illegitimate and a narco-trafficker.

New York Times [12/20/2025 5:00 AM, Riley Mellen and Anatoly Kurmanaev, 153395K] reports an escalating standoff between the United States and Venezuela has led both countries’ militaries to jam satellite navigation signals in the Caribbean to guard against a potential attack, data show, putting air and sea traffic in the region at greater risk of a collision or accident. At least some of the U.S. warships that have deployed to the Caribbean in recent months have been jamming GPS signals in their vicinity, according to an analysis of data provided by Stanford University and a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters. The Trump administration says the warships, which include the Navy’s most modern aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford, are targeting drug trafficking to the United States orchestrated by the Venezuelan government. In response to U.S. military pressure, the armed forces of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela have jammed the GPS signals around the country’s critical infrastructure, including military bases, oil refineries and power plants, according to an analysis by Spire Global, a satellite data firm. Signals experts said both militaries appeared to be trying to protect assets against attacks by drones and precision munitions, which can be guided by GPS or similar positioning systems. “It is defensive in nature,” said Logan Scott, a radio frequency expert who helped build the world’s first digital GPS receivers in the 1980s, referring to the sources of jamming shown in the data. “You’ve got a military emplacement and you want to keep drones, and whatnot, from getting to it.” The similar tactics employed by the two adversaries, he added, are amplifying the range and intensity of the jamming. “The only difference is which side of the line you’re on,” Mr. Scott said. These military tactics have come at the cost of disrupting civilian transport that relies on GPS. The prolonged spike in GPS interference in the Caribbean is one of the starkest examples of the regional effect of President Trump’s pressure campaign against Mr. Maduro.

NewsMax [12/19/2025 12:42 PM, Staff, 4109K] reports that Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday defended the Trump administration’s stepped-up military pressure on Venezuela, arguing the U.S. is targeting "narco-terrorists" and confronting what he called an illegitimate regime that cooperates with America’s enemies. Rubio’s comments came during a rare, end-of-year news conference at the State Department that stretched more than two hours and touched on multiple flashpoints, including Russia’s war on Ukraine and ongoing ceasefire efforts in the Middle East and Africa. But Rubio’s sharpest language was reserved for Venezuela’s leftist leader Nicolás Maduro, who has been charged in the U.S. with narco-terrorism. Rubio has been a leading proponent of U.S. military operations against suspected drug-running vessels that the Pentagon has targeted in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific since early September, as the Trump administration ramps up pressure on Maduro’s government. Asked about the administration’s intentions, Rubio sidestepped a direct question about whether Washington is seeking "regime change" in 2026. Still, he described Maduro’s government as "illegitimate" and accused it of cooperating with Iran and Hezbollah while enabling narcotics networks. "We have a regime that’s illegitimate, that cooperates with Iran, that cooperates with Hezbollah, that cooperates with narco-trafficking and narco-terrorist organizations," Rubio said, adding that the Maduro government not only protects drug shipments and allows cartel activity "with impunity," but also permits some groups to control territory.

CNN [12/19/2025 5:11 PM, Jennifer Hansler] reports US Secretary of State Marco Rubio decried the "status quo" with the Maduro government as "intolerable" as the Trump administration on Friday announced new sanctions on family members of the embattled Venezuelan leader. For months, the administration has carried out a campaign of deadly military strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific and mounting economic pressure against Caracas as part of what they have described as a war against drug trafficking. They have resisted saying that they are actively seeking regime change in Venezuela but have accused President Nicolas Maduro of being illegitimate and a narco-trafficker. On Friday, Rubio doubled down on those accusations. On Friday, the Treasury Department announced new sanctions on Maduro’s family members – the second round against his relatives in as many weeks. Officials have argued that their campaign of punitive financial tactics and controversial and deadly military strikes is to stop drug trafficking, not necessarily to oust the regime in Caracas.

NewsMax [12/19/2025 3:50 PM, Jim Mishler, 4109K] reports the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced Thursday that it has imposed new sanctions targeting family members and associates tied to Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, citing corruption and narcotics-linked activity that supports his regime. The action, carried out by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, focuses on family networks connected to individuals linked to Venezuela’s state-run oil sector and financial dealings with the Maduro government. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the sanctions are intended to disrupt what the department described as a narco-corruption structure that sustains Maduro’s rule. According to the Treasury Department, the sanctions target close relatives of individuals accused of using government positions and family ties to profit from corrupt transactions involving the Venezuelan government and its programs. The department said the newly designated individuals include immediate family members of a relative of Maduro’s wife who has been repeatedly linked to corruption involving Petróleos de Venezuela, the country’s state-owned oil company. The Treasury Department also expanded sanctions connected to a Panamanian businessman previously designated for corruption-related activity involving the Maduro government, adding additional family members to the sanctions list. The Treasury Department said the measures are designed to increase pressure on financial and family networks that enable corruption tied to the Maduro government.

Reported similarly:
FOX News [12/19/2025 3:17 PM, Jasmine Baehr, 40621K]

The Wall Street Journal [12/19/2025 7:57 PM, Michael R. Gordon, Lara Seligman, and Jared Malsin, 646K] reports the U.S. military conducted a large-scale attack against Islamic State targets in Syria as the Trump administration retaliated for the killing of three Americans last week. A U.S. military official said Friday that more than 70 targets were being struck by U.S. F-15E and A-10 warplanes, Apache attack helicopters and Himars rockets. The operation is being dubbed “Hawkeye Strike” in honor of the Iowa National Guard soldiers who were killed and wounded in an ambush the Trump administration has blamed on ISIS. The gunman who ambushed the Americans was killed in the original attack. But President Trump on Sunday vowed to take military action against the group. The strikes were the biggest American attack against ISIS in Syria since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad late last year. “Because of ISIS’s vicious killing of brave American Patriots in Syria, whose beautiful souls I welcomed home to American soil earlier this week in a very dignified ceremony, I am hereby announcing that the United States is inflicting very serious retaliation, just as I promised, on the murderous terrorists responsible,” Trump said in post on Truth Social. Jordan’s F-16 jet fighters were also involved in the operation, according to U.S. officials. A spokeswoman for the Jordanian Embassy in Washington had no immediate comment. The strikes, which involved the delivery of more than 100 precision guided munitions. were carried out in central Syria and targeted ISIS infrastructure and weapons sites, U.S. officials said. U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for U.S. forces in the Middle East, in a statement sent after 2.a.m. local time said that a “massive strike” had begun on Islamic State weapons and infrastructure sites in Syria. “The Dec. 13 attack took place as a local U.S. commander and a Syrian Ministry of Interior official were meeting in Palmyra. That meeting, in combination with related coordination between the U.S. and Syrian government, produced new intelligence on ISIS activities and weapons storage caches about which the U.S. military were previously unaware,” according to a senior U.S. official. The New York Times [12/20/2025 3:18 AM, Eric Schmitt, 330K] reports “This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance,” Mr. Hegseth said on social media. “The United States of America, under President Trump’s leadership, will never hesitate and never relent to defend our people.” Mr. Hegseth added: “Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue.” He offered no other details about the strikes. In a rally-style speech on Friday night in North Carolina, Mr. Trump called the attacks “very successful.” “We hit the ISIS thugs in Syria who were trying to regroup after their decimation by the Trump administration five years ago,” he said. “We hit them hard.” The soldiers slain last Saturday were the first American casualties in the country since the fall of the dictator Bashar al-Assad last year. They were supporting counterterrorism operations against the Islamic State in Palmyra, a city in central Syria, when they came under fire from a lone gunman, American and Syrian officials said. The U.S. strikes on Friday, and the likelihood of more counterterrorism operations in the coming days, signal a sharp military escalation in Syria at a time when the United States has reduced its presence there to about 1,000 troops, half of what it started with at the beginning of the year. The decision to draw down forces had reflected the shifting security environment in Syria after Mr. al-Assad’s government collapsed.

Reported similarly:
New York Times [12/20/2025 3:18 AM, Eric Schmitt, 330K]
AP [12/19/2025 8:11 PM, Konstantin Toropin, Ben Finley and Aamer Madhani, 4829K]
Axios [12/19/2025 6:37 PM, Barak Ravid, 12972K]
CBS News [12/19/2025 6:20 PM, Staff, 39474K] Video: HERE
CBS News [12/19/2025 6:32 PM, Staff, 39474K] Video: HERE

FOX News [12/19/2025 6:18 PM, Staff, 40621K] reports Fox News chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin reports on the Trump administration’s strikes on ISIS targets in Syria following the deaths of three Americans on ‘Special Report.’ [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [12/19/2025 8:56 PM, Staff, 40621K] reports Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst reports live from Tel Aviv, Israel on the U.S. strikes against 50 ISIS targets and the ongoing fight against this organization on ‘Special Report.’ [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [12/19/2025 7:00 AM, Morgan Phillips and Diana Stancy, 40621K] Video: HERE reports a deadly insider attack that killed two U.S. service members in Syria is prompting fresh scrutiny of the Trump administration’s counter-ISIS approach and its rapid embrace of Syria’s new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa. While Republican lawmakers largely urge a stronger campaign to contain ISIS, the shooting has exposed vulnerabilities inside Syria’s fledgling security institutions and raised new questions about whether the U.S. can rely on Syrian forces as the administration seeks to stabilize the country. The incident has now become a flash point in a broader debate: whether the administration is underestimating ISIS’s resilience, overestimating the reliability of Syria’s fledgling institutions and potentially risking a withdrawal that could give the terror group room to rebound. Syrian officials say the gunman was part of the new post-Assad security apparatus and had been flagged internally for extremist leanings. He reportedly was in the process of being reassigned when he opened fire on American personnel, killing two service members and injuring an American civilian before being shot dead. The attack immediately raised questions about the strength of U.S.–Syrian cooperation — a partnership that hinges on Washington’s willingness to trust a government led by a man who was, until recently, a wanted terrorist himself. Trump officials have argued that al-Sharaa is essential to stabilizing Syria after Bashar al-Assad’s downfall, but critics say the weekend shooting reveals glaring cracks in that strategy. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

New York Times [12/19/2025 7:02 AM, Abdi Latif Dahir and Reham Mourshed, 153395K] reports President Trump signed a law late Thursday repealing a final batch of crippling economic sanctions on Syria, raising hopes for the country’s recovery a year after the fall of dictator Bashar al-Assad ended the family’s half-century of autocratic rule. The repeal of the measure, known as the Caesar Act, follows the earlier removal of other U.S. sanctions. It bolsters the new government’s efforts to attract foreign investment, rebuild a nation in ruins and revive an economy long crippled by corruption and cronyism. But the path to recovery remains long and uncertain, as the government must address rampant inflation, widespread unemployment and the destruction of infrastructure — all exacerbated by years of conflict and international isolation. American sanctions on Syria trace back to the 1970s, when Washington labeled the country a state sponsor of terrorism. Additional punitive measures were imposed in the past 14 years as civil war ravaged Syria, and Mr. al-Assad’s brutal crackdown intensified. Among the toughest measures was the 2019 Caesar Act, named after a photographer who smuggled out images of torture in Syrian prisons. The legislation, signed into law by Mr. Trump, imposed severe financial restrictions on Syria’s economy in an effort to hold the regime accountable for its atrocities. The removal of those sanctions is a victory for President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former Al Qaeda leader who broke with the group years ago and whose forces toppled the Assad regime last December.

Los Angeles Times [12/19/2025 9:49 AM, Harriet Morris, 14862K] reports President Vladimir Putin emphasized Friday that Moscow’s troops were advancing across the battlefield in Ukraine and voiced confidence the Kremlin would achieve its goals militarily if Kyiv doesn’t agree to Russia’s conditions in peace talks. Speaking at his tightly orchestrated annual news conference that lasted more than four hours, Putin declared that Russian forces have "fully seized strategic initiative" and would make more gains by year’s end. In the early days of the conflict in 2022, Ukraine’s forces thwarted an attempt by Russia’s larger, better-equipped army, to capture the capital of Kyiv. But the fighting soon settled into grinding battles, and Moscow’s troops have made slow and steady progress over the years. Putin frequently touts this progress — even though it’s not the lightning advance many expected. "Our troops are advancing all across the line of contact, faster in some areas or slower in some others, but the enemy is retreating in all sectors," Putin said at the live news conference, which is combined with a nationwide call-in show that offers Russians across the country the opportunity to ask questions of their leader. Putin, 73, has ruled the country for 25 years and uses the event to cement his power and air his views on domestic and global affairs during a broadcast that mixes criticism of the West with promises of more social payments. Although he is sometimes asked about his personal life, he gives scant details. This year, the news conference took place against the backdrop of a peace plan in Ukraine put forward by President Trump. Despite the extensive diplomatic push, Washington’s efforts have run into sharply conflicting demands from Moscow and Kyiv. While the event has previously focused heavily on domestic questions — and has offered Putin a chance to expound on topics as diverse as the price of eggs and water cuts — Ukraine dominated it this year. Since it is highly choreographed, that could reflect the Kremlin’s desire to assuage the public after nearly four years of fighting.

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