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 Wall Street Journal [12/22/2025 10:33 AM, Jack Morphet, 646K] reports immigrants living in the U.S. illegally will be paid $3,000 if they leave the country voluntarily by the end of the calendar year, a tripling of the “exit bonus” currently paid to those who self-deport. Homeland Security billed the increased payment a “limited time offer” as part of a holiday season campaign aimed at accelerating removals. A poster released by Homeland Security warned it was “checking names off our naughty list” and warned “don’t be the next name we find.” In May, the department announced plans to pay immigrants a $1,000 stipend to self-deport. The increased stipend still represents a significant saving for the government, which earlier this year estimated the average cost to arrest, detain, and remove immigrants living in the U.S. illegally to be $17,121. Homeland Security claimed “tens of thousands” of people have already self-deported using the government’s CBP Home smartphone app, which also qualifies them for free airline tickets and the waiver of hefty fines for ignoring deportation orders. Announcing the decision Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that undocumented migrants who don’t self-deport will be found, arrested and “they will never return.” The Daily Signal [12/22/2025 10:58 AM, Virginia Allen, 549K] reports "During the Christmas Season, the U.S. taxpayer is so generously TRIPLING the incentive to leave voluntarily for those in this country illegally, offering a $3,000 exit bonus, but just until the end of the year," Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement Monday morning. DHS has been offering illegal aliens $1,000 to self-deport through a Customs and Border Protection app, an offer many illegal aliens have accepted, according to Noem. "Since January 2025, 1.9 million illegal aliens have voluntarily self-deported and tens of thousands have used the CBP Home program," the secretary said. In addition to the $3,000 stipend, illegal aliens who use the CBP Home app will also receive a free flight "home in time for Christmas." "Illegal aliens should take advantage of this gift and self-deport because if they don’t, we will find them, we will arrest them, and they will never return," Noem said. DHS is calling Christmastime self-deportation "the best gift that an illegal alien can give themselves and their families this holiday season. It’s a fast, free, and easy process: Just download the app, fill out your information, and DHS will take care of the rest—including arranging and paying for your travel back home." Bloomberg [12/22/2025 5:43 PM, Hadriana Lowenkron, 18207K] reports that the policy announcement is part of a holiday-season campaign aimed at speeding up deportations. One post on the Homeland Security Department’s X account warned people living illegally in the US that they are “GOING HO HO HOME.” “Illegal aliens should take advantage of this gift and self-deport because if they don’t, we will find them, we will arrest them, and they will never return,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement. Since January 2025, 1.9 million undocumented migrants have voluntarily self-deported and tens of thousands of them have used CBP Home, according to Noem. Those figures could not be independently verified. The app was created during the Biden administration for migrants to schedule asylum interviews but President Donald Trump’s team re-branded it and transformed its purpose. Officials have called the program a more efficient alternative to costly arrests and removals. Even the increased bonus payments would save money for the government, which estimated the average cost to arrest, detain, and remove a migrant at roughly $17,000 per person. DHS didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on how that calculus changes with the increased stipend. But “each self-deportation saves taxpayers up to a million dollars (or more) in future benefits,” Trump adviser Stephen Miller said in a post on X without elaborating.

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FOX News [12/22/2025 11:43 AM, Taylor Penley Fox, 40621K] reports the Trump administration’s push to recover missing migrant children is paying off, with more than 127,000 minors now located after being lost under the Biden administration, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said Monday. "The best thing for this holiday season is that we have found over 127,000… of the almost half-million children Biden facilitated coming into this country and getting trafficked. We’re finding them, and we’re returning them back to their families and bringing them to safety.” Noem touted the Trump administration’s – and Homeland Security’s – role in enacting policies that "keep people safe.” "That’s why I love this job, because I get the chance to get up every day and do something that matters," she said. While Noem referenced nearly 500,000 unaccompanied children, that figure appears to reflect government estimates reported last year of the total number of migrant minors – more than 448,000 – who entered the U.S. and were released to sponsors between 2019 and 2023, not an official tally of children confirmed missing or trafficked. The same report from the Homeland Security Inspector General’s office said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lacked reliable data to consistently monitor the location and status of many of the unaccompanied migrant children after their release to sponsors, citing failures such as missing notices to appear in immigration court and gaps in follow-up communication between federal agencies. Newsweek [12/22/2025 11:24 AM, Billal Rahman, 52220K] reports Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem wrote on X that under the Trump administration, the agencies had identified these children, many of whom had previously been lost or untracked. She added that efforts would continue until every child was accounted for. "Too many of these children were exploited, trafficked and abused," Noem wrote on social media. A source familiar with the matter told Newsweek that the Biden administration did not prioritize follow-up once the children entered the country. The source said multiple federal agencies were involved in ongoing efforts to locate the children, including daily attempts to verify addresses and in-person visits conducted by partner agencies and HHS field specialists. According to the source, the increase in reported figures reflects newly received court data from the Executive Office for Immigration Review and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, rather than a sudden change in enforcement activity. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem wrote on X on Friday: "We will continue to ramp up efforts and will not stop until every last child is found." DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a news release in November: "Many of the children who came across the border unaccompanied were allowed to be placed with sponsors who were smugglers and sex traffickers."

FOX News [12/22/2025 9:22 AM, Staff, 40621K] Video: HERE reports DHS Secretary Kristi Noem joins ‘Fox & Friends’ to discuss the suspension of the green card lottery due to crime, the U.S. pressure on Venezuela and more.

FOX News [12/22/2025 11:19 AM, Preston Mizell, 40621K] reports the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) revealed new figures detailing the results of the Trump administration’s first year of cracking down on illegal immigration and removing criminal migrants from the country. The agency, which handles lawful immigration under the umbrella of Secretary Kristi Noem’s Department of Homeland Security, told Fox News Digital that since President Donald Trump’s inauguration, USCIS has referred more than 14,000 immigration cases to ICE for national security and fraud concerns, with 182 being confirmed or suspected to be national security risks. USCIS also told Fox that the agency’s Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate (FDNS) completed 19,300 fraud cases and identified fraud in roughly 65% of reviewed cases. Additionally, FDNS completed more than 6,500 site visits and conducted 19,500 social media checks for potential immigrants’ online posts. "USCIS has taken an ‘America First’ approach, restoring order, security, integrity, and accountability to America’s immigration system, ensuring that it serves the nation’s interests and protects and prioritizes Americans over foreign nationals," USCIS Director Joseph B. Edlow told Fox News Digital in a statement. Edlow’s agency issued a record-breaking 196,000 Notices to Appear (NTAs) to put migrants into removal proceedings. The agency’s actions are reflective of a campaign promise made by Trump to rein in what he called former President Joe Biden’s "flawed immigration policies" during his address to the nation last week. "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," Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement over the weekend. "In record-time we have secured the border, taken the fight to cartels, and arrested thousands upon thousands of criminal illegal aliens," Noem added. "Though 2025 was historic, we won’t rest until the job is done.”

Reuters [12/22/2025 5:35 PM, Ted Hesson, Kristina Cooke, and Jeff Mason, 36480K] reports U.S. President Donald Trump is preparing for a more aggressive immigration crackdown in 2026 with billions in new funding, including by raiding more workplaces — even as backlash builds ahead of next year’s midterm elections. Trump has already surged immigration agents into major U.S. cities, where they swept through neighborhoods and clashed with residents. While federal agents this year conducted some high-profile raids on businesses, they largely avoided raiding farms, factories and other businesses that are economically important but known to employ immigrants without legal status. ICE and Border Patrol will get $170 billion in additional funds through September 2029 - a huge surge of funding over their existing annual budgets of about $19 billion after the Republican-controlled Congress passed a massive spending package in July. Administration officials say they plan to hire thousands more agents, open new detention centers, pick up more immigrants in local jails and partner with outside companies to track down people without legal status. The expanded deportation plans come despite growing signs of political backlash ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

CBS News [12/22/2025 8:25 PM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, 39474K] reports a federal judge on Monday gave the Trump administration two weeks to submit a plan to either return a group of Venezuelan men previously held at a notorious Salvadoran prison to the U.S., or give them a hearing to contest allegations of gang membership. U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg issued the order after finding that 137 Venezuelan men deported to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 and held at the infamous CECOT megaprison had been denied their due process rights. Boasberg determined that the men were in the legal custody of the U.S. during the months they spent detained at CECOT, and that they should’ve been given a chance to challenge the Trump administration’s allegations that they were gang members. "On the merits, the Court concludes that this class was denied their due-process rights and will thus require the Government to facilitate their ability to obtain such hearing. Our law requires no less," Boasberg wrote in his opinion Monday. The group of 137 men who could benefit from the ruling is a subset of more than 200 Venezuelan deportees sent to CECOT in March, some of whom were deported to El Salvador under traditional immigration procedures. All of the Venezuelan men held at CECOT were released this summer and returned to Venezuela as part of a U.S.-brokered prisoner swap. Boasberg said the U.S. government could comply with his order by allowing the men to return to the U.S. or otherwise offering them a hearing. The administration, he wrote, could "theoretically offer Plaintiffs a hearing without returning them to the United States so long as such hearing satisfied the requirements of due process.” Boasberg gave the government until Jan. 5 to file a plan to comply with his order. CBS News reached out to the Department of Homeland Security seeking comment. The Trump administration has argued that the men ceased to be in U.S. custody after they were sent to El Salvador, so U.S. courts do not have jurisdiction to hear legal claims challenging their detention. But Boasberg wrote that the U.S. effectively maintained control over the men because El Salvador held them in prison at the U.S.’s behest, and the administration paid for them to be detained at CECOT. USA Today [12/22/2025 11:01 PM, Thao Nguyen, 67103K] reports that the Trump administration must submit a plan to allow for their return within two weeks, Boasberg ruled. The ruling is the latest development in a monthslong legal saga, in which federal courts have released various decisions on the Trump administration’s interpretation of the Alien Enemies Act. Some federal judges have ruled against Trump’s use of the law to deport Venezuelans. In May, a federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled the U.S. can use the Alien Enemies Act to expedite the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members. Over 200 immigrants sent back to Venezuela in prisoner swap. More than 200 immigrants were deported from the United States to El Salvador on March 15, officials previously said. The federal government sent several planeloads of men to CECOT after Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act to fast-track the deportation of accused gang members without going through standard immigration procedures. The deportations immediately drew criticism from human rights groups and sparked a legal battle with the Trump administration over allegations that due process was not followed. In July, a group of immigrants was released back to Venezuela as part of a coordinated prisoner exchange, with 10 Americans held in Venezuela returned to the United States, officials said. Venezuela’s government said 252 Venezuelans held in El Salvador had been freed. Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro celebrated the arrival of two airplanes. At the time, Venezuela’s government said the men would receive a full medical before being released to go home. The government noted that only seven of the men had a serious criminal record. Politico [12/22/2025 8:36 PM, Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein, 2100K] reports that Boasberg, who has become a favorite target of the Trump administration and congressional Republicans, stopped short of ordering the Trump administration to facilitate the immediate return of the men to the U.S. Rather, he concluded that the men could receive due process from abroad and left it to the administration to propose a path forward in the next two weeks. Boasberg rested his decision on a finding that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appeared to have foreknowledge that the men would end up in CECOT, and that the U.S. government appeared to maintain a degree of control over El Salvador’s decision to house them there. Noem repeatedly suggested that U.S. deportees could end up in CECOT, filmed social media videos at the prison and declared that the imposing facility was part of the Trump administration’s immigration “toolkit,” Boasberg found. “These statements strongly undermine the Government’s contention that El Salvador retains complete discretion over what to do with individuals removed from the United States,” Boasberg wrote. “If it did, how could a United States official ensure that an individual removed to El Salvador would be placed in CECOT?”

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The AP [12/23/2025 3:01 AM, Staff, 31753K] reports the U.S. military said Monday that it had conducted another strike against a boat it said was smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing one person. In a social media post, U.S. Southern Command said, "Intelligence confirmed the low-profile vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations." Southern Command provided no evidence that the vessel was engaged in drug smuggling. A video posted by U.S. Southern Command shows splashes of water near one side of the boat. After a second salvo, the rear of the boat catches fire. More splashes engulf the craft and the fire grows. In the final second of the video, the vessel can be seen adrift with a large patch of fire alongside it. Earlier videos of U.S. boat strikes showed vessels suddenly exploding, suggesting missile strikes. Some strike videos even had visible rocket-like projectiles coming down on the boats. The Trump administration has said the strikes were meant to stop the flow of drugs into the U.S. and increase pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. At least 105 people have been killed in 29 known strikes since early September. The strikes have faced scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers and human rights activists, who say the administration has offered scant evidence that its targets are indeed drug smugglers and say the fatal strikes amount to extrajudicial killings. Meanwhile, the U.S. Coast Guard has stepped up efforts to interdict oil tankers in the Caribbean Sea as part of the Trump administration’s escalating campaign against Maduro. CNN [12/22/2025 10:26 PM, Clay Voytek, 606K] reports that "On Dec. 22, at the direction of @SecWar Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a low-profile vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations in international waters," SOUTHCOM wrote on X. SOUTHCOM added no US service members were harmed in the strike. At least 105 people have now been killed in strikes on suspected drug boats as part of a campaign, dubbed Operation Southern Spear, that the Trump administration has said is aimed at curtailing narcotics trafficking. The US military most recently struck two alleged drug-trafficking boats in the eastern Pacific Ocean last week, killing 5 people. The administration has labeled those killed "unlawful combatants" and claimed the ability to engage in lethal strikes without judicial review due to a classified Justice Department finding. The strikes are part of increased US military action in South America in recent months amid a pressure campaign on Venezuela, a nation that President Donald Trump has accused of stealing US "oil, land and other assets.” Trump last week ordered a "total and complete blockade" of sanctioned oil tankers coming to and leaving Venezuela. The US has so far intercepted two other tankers off the coast of Venezuela this month and remains in pursuit of another. Those interdictions have come amid a massive US naval and troop buildup in the Caribbean as Trump applies pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, including those attempts to cut off his oil revenues. Trump on Monday declined to answer a question about his endgame in Venezuela, even as he again raised the threat of land strikes and said it’d be "smart" for Maduro to step down. "There’s no answer. He can do whatever he wants. We have a massive armada — the biggest we’ve ever had, and the biggest we’ve ever had in South America," Trump said. "He can do whatever he wants. It’s all right, whatever he wants to do. If he wants to do something, if he plays tough, it’d be the last time he’s ever able to play tough.” Venezuela claimed on Monday that the naval blockade ordered by the United States would disrupt global energy supplies in a letter signed by Maduro and read by Foreign Minister Yván Gil. Maduro also criticized the US military deployment in the Caribbean, which the US has said is aimed at combating drug trafficking, calling it "a direct threat involving the use of force." The letter condemned the US attacks on vessels in the Caribbean and the Pacific, describing them as part of a "systematic practice of lethal force" outside international law.

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CBS News [12/23/2025 12:59 AM, Joe Walsh, 39474K]

AP [12/22/2025 5:20 PM, Aamer Madhani, Regina Garcia Cano and Emma Burrows, 31753K] reports President Donald Trump is gathering with top national security officials on Monday, a meeting that comes as the U.S. Coast Guard steps up efforts to interdict oil tankers in the Caribbean Sea as part of the Republican administration’s escalating pressure campaign on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Navy Secretary John Phelan are scheduled to join Trump, who is vacationing at his Mar-a-Lago resort, for what the White House called a “major announcement.” Trump announced plans to build two new, large warships that he called battleships as part of his larger vision to create a “Golden Fleet.” But Trump’s gathering of key members of his national security team also comes at yet another inflection point in his four-month pressure campaign on the Maduro government, which began with the stated purpose of stemming the flow of illegal drugs from the South American nation but has developed into something more amorphous. Russia’s Foreign Ministry has started evacuating the families of diplomats from Venezuela, according to a European intelligence official speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information. The official told The Associated Press the evacuations include women and children and began on Friday, adding that Russian Foreign Ministry officials are assessing the situation in Venezuela in “very grim tones.” The ministry said in an X posting that it was not evacuating the embassy but did not address queries about whether it was evacuating the families of diplomats.

CBS News [12/22/2025 7:25 PM, Staff, 39474K] Video: HERE reports an elite unit of the Coast Guard seized control of a second tanker the U.S. said was carrying sanctioned oil in the waters off the coast of Venezuela. President Trump said he will not back down from his pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Willie James Inman reports.

FOX News [12/22/2025 6:40 PM, Staff, 40621K] Video: HERE reports Fox News correspondent Madison Scarpino reports on the latest in the rising U.S.-Venezuelan tensions on ‘Special Report.’

ABC News [12/22/2025 10:30 AM, Staff, 30493K] reports ABC News’ Anne Flaherty and contributor Mick Mulroy discuss the latest in the U.S. Coast Guard’s pursuit of a third ship off the coast of Venezuela. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Wall Street Journal [12/22/2025 9:27 PM, Shelby Holliday, Dustin Volz, and Costas Paris, 646K] reports the U.S.’s pursuit of oil tankers around Venezuela is part of a new legal strategy under the Trump administration to seize ships that transport black market oil around the world, according to Justice Department officials. The fresh approach has been seen in recent days by the Coast Guard’s pursuit of the Bella 1, a sanctioned oil tanker whose crew refused to be boarded on Sunday. The Bella 1 is the third tanker to be targeted after the U.S. took control of two other very large crude carriers, the Skipper and the Centuries. Unlike the Skipper and the Centuries, which were full of nearly 2 million barrels of Venezuelan oil at the time the U.S. boarded them, analysts at Kpler, a shipping data and analytics provider, say the Bella 1 was likely empty when the U.S. began pursuing it. A few days after the Skipper was seized by the U.S., the Bella 1 initially made a U-turn away from Venezuela before turning back toward the country, the analysts say. While the U.S. has previously targeted sanctioned oil, it is now increasingly focused on seizing ships that make up the so-called “ghost fleet” and serve the global black market for oil, the officials said. Venezuela has called the U.S. actions blatant theft and an international act of piracy. It accused President Trump of seeking to seize Venezuelan oil and plunder the country’s energy resources. Behind the hunt for tankers is a specialized group known as the Threat Finance Unit that falls under the National Security Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. “These oil seizures come out of the United States Attorney’s Office in DC because of the expertise within the Threat Finance Unit of my National Security Section and for jurisdictional reasons,” said D.C.’s U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro in a statement to The Wall Street Journal. “Under President Trump’s strong leadership, we dramatically have increased the pace and volume of these operations to make the world a safer place.”

New York Times [12/23/2025 3:32 AM, Genevieve Glatsky, 330K] reports that, as the U.S. Coast Guard continued to pursue an oil tanker in the Atlantic Ocean on Monday, the Trump administration made clear that its targeting of ships carrying Venezuelan oil was intended to push Nicolás Maduro, the country’s president, from power. “We’re not just interdicting these ships, but we’re also sending a message around the world that the illegal activity that Maduro is participating in cannot stand,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in an interview on Fox News on Monday. “He needs to be gone.” The campaign to interdict oil tankers is reverberating beyond the Caribbean, drawing criticism from foreign governments, warnings about threats to global energy markets and pushback inside the United States over the risk of escalation. U.S. officials say the Coast Guard on Saturday attempted to intercept a tanker, Bella 1, in the Caribbean after determining that it was not flying a valid national flag, making it subject to boarding under international law. The ship did not comply, however, and continued sailing. Officials said they had obtained a seizure warrant based on the vessel’s previous involvement in the Iranian oil trade. The Coast Guard has repeatedly tried to hail the Bella 1 and direct it to stop, but the vessel has ignored those calls, according to a U.S. official briefed on the operation who requested anonymity to discuss the situation. In a separate episode also on Saturday, the Coast Guard boarded the Centuries, a Panamanian-flagged tanker that had recently loaded Venezuelan crude oil, reportedly for a Chinese trader. U.S. officials said they did not have a seizure warrant and were checking the ship’s registration, leaving unclear how long it might be detained. The United States seized a third tanker, on Dec. 10, which is now at a port in Texas. Panama’s foreign minister told a local news outlet on Monday that the Centuries had violated Panama’s maritime rules by disconnecting its transponder. Videos released by the Trump administration show U.S. military helicopters deploying boarding teams onto tankers using “fast ropes,” a tactic that allows forces to land quickly with little warning regardless of sea conditions, while helicopters and nearby aircraft provide security. The Navy and Coast Guard have used such operations before, including in the Persian Gulf in the 1990s under a U.N.-authorized effort to enforce sanctions on Iraq. China, which is the biggest importer of Venezuelan oil, condemned the continued seizure of ships in the Caribbean, calling it a serious violation of international law. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said on Monday that Beijing opposes any actions that “infringe on the sovereignty and security of other countries, or constitute acts of unilateral bullying.”

Breitbart [12/22/2025 10:45 AM, Frances Martel, 2416K] reports the Chinese Foreign Ministry condemned the administration of President Donald Trump on Monday for operations to stop Venezuela’s illicit trafficking of sanctioned oil, claiming that the seizures, not the trafficking, were the true international crime. President Trump announced on December 16 that the United States would declare the Venezuelan socialist regime, led by dictator Nicolás Maduro, a foreign terrorist organization. As a result, Washington would impose a "total and complete blockade" on tankers carrying sanctioned oil into and out of the country. Shortly thereafter, the U.S. government announced its first seizure of an oil tanker believed to be heading to Cuba with sanctioned Venezuelan oil. On Sunday, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem confirmed a second such vessel capture. While President Trump’s efforts to contain the malignant influence of the Maduro regime have been welcomed warmly by other heads of state in South America, some of Venezuela’s closest allies elsewhere in the world have vocally protested the American counter-terror operations, primarily Russia and China. The Chinese Communist Party, in particular, is heavily invested in Venezuela, having offered Maduro a $5 billion credit line in 2018 payable back in oil. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters that his regime opposed what he described as American "unilateralism and bullying" and that Venezuela had the "right to independently develop" its bilateral relations with countries such as China. "By arbitrarily seizing other countries’ vessels, the U.S. has seriously violated international law," Lin declared. "China stands against unilateral illicit sanctions that lack basis in international law or authorization of the U.N. Security Council, and against any move that violates the purposes and principles of the U.N. Charter, infringes upon other countries’ sovereignty and security, and constitutes unilateralism and bullying.”

Reuters [12/22/2025 2:09 PM, Staff, 36480K] reports that Panama’s foreign minister said on Monday that a tanker recently intercepted by the U.S. that was under Panama’s flag did not respect the country’s maritime rules and had disconnected its transponder while navigating out of Venezuelan waters carrying a crude cargo. Foreign minister Javier Martinez-Acha added in a TV interview that Panama would take measures accordingly. He did not elaborate further. A country providing its flag to a vessel officially added to its registry can cancel the ship’s registration if an investigation determines that it did not follow maritime rules. The supertanker Centuries, targeted by the U.S. Guard Coast Guard on Saturday after leaving Venezuela’s, was flying Panama’s flag.

Bloomberg [12/22/2025 1:26 PM, Courtney McBride, 18207K] reports a US campaign that has involved deadly strikes against alleged drug-trafficking vessels and intercepts of oil tankers carrying Venezuelan crude is meant to deter illicit activity and to signal that the US wants Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro out of power, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said. “We’re not just interdicting these ships, but we’re also sending a message around the world that the illegal activity that Maduro is participating in cannot stand, he needs to be gone, and that we will stand up for our people,” Noem said Monday on Fox News’s Fox and Friends. Later Monday, Venezuela’s foreign minister appeared on state television to read a statement from Maduro in which the president described the “theft” of two vessels as “aggression,” and called for an end to what he described as “acts of piracy.”

AP [12/22/2025 11:14 PM, Aamer Madhani, Regina Garcia Cano, and Emma Burrows, 31753K] reports President Donald Trump on Monday delivered a new warning to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as the U.S. Coast Guard steps up efforts to interdict oil tankers in the Caribbean Sea as part of the Republican administration’s escalating pressure campaign on the government in Caracas. Trump was surrounded by his top national security aides, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, as he suggested that he remains ready to further escalate his four-month pressure campaign on the Maduro government, which began with the stated purpose of stemming the flow of illegal drugs from the South American nation but has developed into something more amorphous. “If he wants to do something, if he plays tough, it’ll be the last time he’ll ever be able to play tough,” Trump said of Maduro as he took a break from his Florida holiday vacation to announce plans for the Navy to build a new, large warship. Trump levied his latest threat as the U.S. Coast Guard on Monday continued for a second day to chase a sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration describes as part of a “dark fleet” Venezuela is using to evade U.S. sanctions. The tanker, according to the White House, is flying under a false flag and is under a U.S. judicial seizure order.

CBS News [12/22/2025 11:11 PM, Staff, 39474K] Video: HERE reports that, over the weekend, the U.S. military seized a second tanker, and now the Coast Guard is actively pursuing a third oil tanker connected to Venezuela.

CNN [12/22/2025 6:47 PM, Kevin Liptak and Donald Judd, 606K] reports President Donald Trump said Monday the US remains in active pursuit of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, more than 24 hours after the chase began, while repeating his threats against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. "It’s moving along and we’ll end up getting it," Trump told CNN’s Samantha Waldenberg during remarks in Palm Beach. He said the ship "came from the wrong location, it came out of Venezuela," though the vessel — called Bella 1 — was in fact sailing toward Venezuela when the US Coast Guard attempted to interdict it. The US has intercepted two other tankers off the coast of Venezuela this month. Those interdictions have come amid a massive US naval buildup in the Caribbean Sea as Trump applies pressure on Maduro, including attempts to cut off his oil revenues. Trump on Monday declined to answer a question about his endgame in Venezuela, even as he again raised the threat of land strikes and said it’d be "smart" for Maduro to step down. "There’s no answer. He can do whatever he wants. We have a massive armada — the biggest we’ve ever had, and the biggest we’ve ever had in South America," Trump said. "He can do whatever he wants. It’s all right, whatever he wants to do. If he wants to do something, if he plays tough, it’d be the last time he’s ever able to play tough.” Pressed on whether he’s trying to force Maduro from power, Trump added, "Well, I think it probably would. I can’t tell that," adding: "That’s up to him what he wants to do. I think it’d be smart for him to do that.” On Saturday, the US Coast Guard intercepted the Centuries tanker in international waters off the coast of Venezuela. A White House spokeswoman, Anna Kelly, said it was carrying sanctioned Venezuelan oil, though the ship itself did not appear on a list of sanctioned vessels.

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Reuters [12/22/2025 8:12 PM, Steve Holland, 36480K]
NewsMax [12/22/2025 7:30 PM, Staff, 4109K]

Daily Caller [12/22/2025 12:10 PM, Wallace White, 835K] reports the U.S. is actively pursuing an oil tanker fleeing into the Atlantic after it was stopped while attempting to load oil from Venezuela in violation of sanctions. The ship, Bella 1, was most recently spotted fleeing the U.S. Coast Guard in the Atlantic Ocean after attempting to dock in Venezuela to transport oil, with the ship failing to fly a valid national flag, sources told The New York Times Sunday. The Trump Administration has instituted a naval blockade of Venezuela to enforce previous sanctions and strangle the Maduro regime’s main source of income: oil exports. “The United States Coast Guard is in active pursuit of a sanctioned dark fleet vessel that is part of Venezuela’s illegal sanctions evasion,” a U.S. official told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “It is flying a false flag and under a judicial seizure order.” The ship began broadcasting distress signals, sending 75 alerts by Sunday evening, sources told the NYT. The Trump administration obtained a seizure warrant on the ship due to it’s role in the illicit trade of oil to Iran, for which it was sanctioned by the U.S. last year.

(B) NBC News Daily [12/22/2025 2:05 PM, Staff] reports that the US Coast Guard is pursuing another sanctioned oil tanker in the Caribbean. It is the third vessel connected to Venezuela the US has attempted to seized in recent weeks. On Saturday, the Defense Department intercepted a second oil tanker which the White House said contained sanctioned oil.

ABC News [12/22/2025 8:14 PM, Staff, 30493K] reports it marks the third time in less than two weeks that the U.S. has targeted oil tankers linked to Venezuela - ramping up pressure on the country’s oil exports. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The Hill [12/22/2025 6:48 PM, Filip Timotija, 12595K] reports President Trump said on Monday that the U.S. government will, for now, keep the oil and two oil tankers that the U.S. Coast Guard seized off the coast of Venezuela this month. “We’re going to keep it. Maybe we’ll sell it. Maybe we’ll keep it. Maybe we’ll use it in the strategic reserves,” Trump said while speaking to reporters at Mar-a-Lago. “We’re keeping the ships, also,” the president added. The U.S. Coast Guard, with the assistance of the U.S. Navy, has seized two oil tankers near the coast of Venezuela in recent weeks as the Trump administration ratchets up pressure against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. U.S. personnel first seized a massive vessel, called “Skipper,” that was carrying about 1.8 million barrels of crude oil and falsely flying Guyana’s flag on Dec. 10. Days later, Trump announced the administration would impose a “blockade” on all sanctioned oil tankers coming in and out of Venezuela. This weekend, U.S. personnel seized another oil-carrying ship, called “Centuries,” that was suspected of carrying sanctioned oil. The ship recently loaded about 2 million barrels of crude oil at the Port of Jose Oil Terminal in Venezuela, according to Kpler, a global real-time data and analytics provider.

Daily Wire [12/22/2025 7:37 PM, Kassy Akiva, 2494K] reports President Trump announced on Monday that the United States Navy will begin building massive battleships for the first time since 1944, to join the "Golden Fleet.” Trump announced that the new Trump-class battleships will include two ships to be built immediately, with the first named USS Defiant. He said the vessels will be 100 times more powerful than the Iowa-class battleships from WWII and will be equipped with missiles, hypersonic weapons, railguns, high-powered lasers, nuclear-armed cruise missiles, and AI technology. "There’s never been anything like these ships," Trump said. "These are the best in the world. They will be the fastest, the biggest, and by far 100x more powerful than any battleship ever built.” He says they will be larger than ever and have "100x the power" of the Iowa-class battleships. The Golden Fleet is the Navy’s "bold investment to revitalize America’s maritime industrial base," according to the initiative’s newly launched website. "America’s next battleship, the USS Defiant, will be part of a new class of large surface combatants with the most destructive fire power of any surface ship to ever sail — having the ability to strike an adversary at 80x the range of the previous class," the website states. "The Trump-class Battleship will be the first-ever guided missile battleship with the ability to deploy with nuclear and hypersonic missiles.” The USS Defiant is expected to take 2.5 years to build and is projected to measure 840 to 880 feet long, with a beam of 105 to 115 feet and a draft of 24 to 30 feet, displacing over 30,000 to 40,000 tons. The ship is designed to reach speeds greater than 30 knots and will accommodate 650 to 850 crew members.

Reported similarly:
Wall Street Journal [12/22/2025 6:29 PM, Lara Seligman and Marcus Weisgerber, 646K]
CNN [12/22/2025 5:35 PM, Kevin Liptak, 18595K]
Univision [12/22/2025 2:35 PM, Staff, 5004K]

NewsMax [12/22/2025 12:12 PM, Solange Reyner, 4109K] reports criticism from some Republicans over the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against Venezuela misrepresents the scope and intent of U.S. actions in the region, Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., said Monday. Appearing on Newsmax TV’s "National Report," Steube responded to objections raised by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and others who have warned that increased enforcement against Venezuela could drag the U.S. into another foreign conflict. Steube said those concerns echo past arguments that have repeatedly failed to materialize. "And you heard these same individuals, him and others, that have this issue of getting involved in foreign affairs when the president bombed Iran’s nuclear sites and everybody claimed that we were going to be in World War III," Steube said. "Everybody claimed they were going to be in an armed conflict with Iran and we would have boots on the ground there, and that none of that came to fruition. Steube argued that the administration’s actions demonstrate a targeted strategy, not an open-ended military commitment. "We were able to strike targets deep in enemy area and do what we needed to do and get out," he said. Turning to Venezuela, Steube framed the campaign as a matter of regional security and law enforcement rather than foreign adventurism. He described Venezuela as a criminal state whose economy relies on illicit activity. "Venezuela is a state that makes its money off sanctioned oil and makes its money off drug trafficking," Steube said, adding that drug trafficking has "killed 800,000 Americans since 2014.” The U.S. on Saturday intercepted an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela in international waters, said U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, a move that comes just days after President Donald Trump announced a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela.

AP [12/22/2025 3:27 PM, Gary Fields and Travis Loller] reports a federal judge on Monday questioned whether government officials could be trusted to follow orders barring them from taking Kilmar Abrego Garcia into immigration custody or deporting him. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis noted that Abrego was already deported without legal authority once and said she was "growing beyond impatient" with government misrepresentations in her court. "Why should I give the respondents the benefit of the doubt?" she asked, referring to the government attorneys. Xinis ordered Abrego’s released from immigration custody on Dec. 11 after determining that the government had no viable plan for deporting him. She followed that with a temporary restraining order the next day barring Immigration and Customs Enforcement from immediately taking him back into custody. The Monday hearing was to determine if the temporary restraining order should be dissolved. Xinis said she would leave the restraining order in place for now while she considers the issue. In court Monday, Abrego’s attorneys reiterated that he is prepared to go to Costa Rica "today." Abrego would prefer to stay in Maryland with his family, but absent that, he would willingly self-deport to Costa Rica, which offered him refugee status months ago, Sandoval-Moshenberg said. In addition to the Maryland case, Abrego is fighting the human smuggling charges in Tennessee. His attorneys in that case on Friday asked the judge for sanctions after Border Patrol’s Gregory Bovino made disparaging comments about their client on national news. The judge previously ordered Justice Department and Homeland Security officials to cease making comments that could prejudice Abrego’s right to a fair trial.

Reported similarly:
Reuters [12/22/2025 5:02 PM, Andrew Goudsward, 36480K]
ABC News [12/22/2025 4:48 PM, Arthur Jones II and Armando Garcia, 30493K]
FOX News [12/22/2025 4:45 PM, Breanne Deppisch, Wyatt Dobrovich Fago, 40621K]
Washington Examiner [12/22/2025 5:12 PM, Jack Birle, 1394K]

CNN [12/22/2025 3:47 PM, Staff, 18595K] reports an apparently frustrated federal judge pressed the Trump administration Monday to share what it was going to do next in the fast-moving saga over Kilmar Abrego Garcia days after she found he was being unlawfully held in immigration custody. During an hour-long hearing that at times grew testy, US District Judge Paula Xinis repeatedly pressed an attorney for the government about its shifting plans for Abrego Garcia, an El Salvadoran national whose wrongful deportation to the Central American country in March kicked off a monthslong legal battle that has come to represent the administration’s hardline approach to immigration. But Ernesto Molina, a Justice Department attorney, struggled on Monday to tell Xinis what could happen next to the father of three. He explained that the Department of Homeland Security would have the authority to detain Abrego Garcia had she not issued an order preventing that for now, and urged her to undo that temporary ruling. When Xinis asked Molina specifically whether a final decision had been made to re-arrest Abrego Garcia, he said he didn’t have any information to provide her on that query.

Reported similarly:
CBS News [12/22/2025 4:48 PM, Jacob Rosen, 39474K]

Politico [12/22/2025 11:34 AM, Cheyanne M. Daniels, 2100K] reports CBS News abruptly pulled a “60 Minutes” investigation featuring Venezuelan men deported to El Salvador’s CECOT prison on Sunday, sparking swift backlash within the newsroom, including from the story’s veteran correspondent. The canceled segment, yanked at the behest of newly appointed editor in chief Bari Weiss, focused on the notorious El Salvador prison that President Donald Trump has deported immigrants to despite reports of human rights violations within the prison. Several men now released from the prison were featured in the segment describing the conditions they endured within CECOT. But Weiss nixed the segment just hours before it was set to air after calling for multiple additions, according to The New York Times, including an interview with top Trump adviser Stephen Miller or another top official in the Trump administration. CBS said in a statement that the segment will air at a later date, and Weiss defended the decision to hold the segment in a statement to POLITICO. “My job is to make sure that all stories we publish are the best they can be,” Weiss said. “Holding stories that aren’t ready for whatever reason — that they lack sufficient context, say, or that they are missing critical voices — happens every day in every newsroom. I look forward to airing this important piece when it’s ready.” But Sharyn Alfonsi, the veteran correspondent on the story, condemned Weiss’ decision. In an email obtained by The New York Times and later shared on social media by Times reporter Michael M. Grynbaum, Alfonsi told her CBS colleagues that reporters on the segment had requested comment from the White House, the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department. She added that the segment had also already undergone a rigorous review and fact-checking process. To pull the story so close to airtime, Alfonsi said, is “not an editorial decision, it is a political one.” “Government silence is a statement, not a VETO,” Alfonsi wrote. “Their refusal to be interviewed is a tactical maneuver designed to kill the story.”

Reported similarly:
CBS News [12/22/2025 7:33 PM, Staff, 39474K] Video: HERE
USA Today [12/22/2025 11:38 AM, Melina Khan, 67103K]

Wall Street Journal [12/22/2025 11:38 PM, Isabella Simonetti, 646K] reports CBS News Editor in Chief Bari Weiss had a tough message for the executive producer of “60 Minutes” on Saturday: She had decided to hold a segment that was set to run the next day. The story focused on a maximum-security prison in El Salvador where the Trump administration sent hundreds of Venezuelan migrants, including alleged gang members. Weiss said the piece would be better served by further attempts at interviews and another voice in it, according to a transcript of executive producer Tanya Simon’s Monday meeting with “60 Minutes” staff where she recounted the events. “It was not a ‘let’s talk about this’ kind of thing,” Simon told staff. She also said she had a good relationship with Weiss, according to the transcript, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. CBS News had sought—and received—responses from the Department of Homeland Security, the White House and the State Department, according to people familiar with the matter. The segment, which was available to some viewers in Canada and seen by the Journal, didn’t include the fresh comments those agencies provided. A person close to the show said the administration’s point of view was represented six times in the segment, including prior public comments from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt about the deportees and that DHS had declined a request for an interview. By Sunday evening, what Weiss felt was a necessary editorial call became a national political story. Sharyn Alfonsi, the correspondent on the piece, called the editor in chief’s decision political in a weekend email to colleagues. “Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. It is factually correct,” Alfonsi wrote to a group of colleagues including Anderson Cooper and Lesley Stahl. Weiss’s detractors view her decision as a sign that she is willing to intervene in stories critical of the Trump administration. Defenders say she is holding the newsroom to a necessary high standard.

FOX News [12/22/2025 11:26 AM, David Rutz and Joseph A. Wulfsohn, 40621K] reports CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss addressed the growing furor on Monday over her decision to delay the airing of a "60 Minutes" segment about the brutal El Salvador prison CECOT, telling staffers the story was "not ready" and it was unacceptable to engage in disagreements without respect. Weiss has angered CBS staffers, in particular "60 Minutes" correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, by delaying the airing of a planned segment, "Inside CECOT," that featured interviews with Venezuelan men deported by the Trump administration to the notorious prison. Alfonsi lashed out at Weiss in a note to fellow "60 Minutes" staffers that accused Weiss of "political" meddling and corporate censorship. Weiss addressed the elephant in the room, according to a CBS News source, on Monday morning. "I want to say something about trust: our trust for each other and our trust with the public. The only newsroom I’m interested in running is one in which we are able to have contentious disagreements about the thorniest editorial matters with respect, and, crucially, where we assume the best intent of our colleagues. Anything else is absolutely unacceptable," she said, according to CNN, in comments confirmed to Fox News Digital. "I held a ‘60 Minutes’ story because it was not ready. While the story presented powerful testimony of torture at CECOT, it did not advance the ball — the [New York] Times and other outlets have previously done similar work. The public knows that Venezuelans have been subjected to horrific treatment at this prison. To run a story on this subject two months later, we need to do more. And this is ‘60 Minutes.’ We need to be able to get the principals on the record and on camera. Our viewers come first. Not the listing schedule or anything else. That’s my north star and I hope it’s yours, too.” Alfonsi’s memo to her colleagues quickly went viral on Sunday night. She insisted her story had met rigorous standards and was being delayed because of politics. According to The New York Times, Weiss viewed the segment on Thursday and raised concerns about the lack of a Trump voice in the story, and ultimately decided on Saturday to hold it from airing. Alfonsi added she had reached out to the White House, Department of Homeland Security and State Department for interviews, and their silence was effectively a statement that shouldn’t veto the story from airing. "We have been promoting this story on social media for days," Alfonsi wrote. "Our viewers are expecting it. When it fails to air without a credible explanation, the public will correctly identify this as corporate censorship. We are trading 50 years of ‘gold standard’ reputation for a single week of political quiet.”

Reported similarly:
Axios [12/22/2025 11:08 AM, Sara Fischer, 12972K]

NBC News [12/23/2025 3:28 AM, Phil Helsel and Daniel Arkin, 34509K] reports that, while the furor over CBS News’ decision to delay a planned "60 Minutes" report about deportees sent by the Trump administration to a notorious Salvadoran prison continued Monday, the intended segment was already circulating online, having been streamed in Canada. The report, titled "Inside CECOT," was streamed by Canada’s Global Television Network. In the U.S., its broadcast was postponed by CBS under its new editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss. It includes interviews from people who were deported from the U.S. to the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism, or CECOT, under the Trump administration. The interviewees described torture and physical and sexual abuse at the complex. "When we got there, the CECOT director was talking to us. The first thing he told us was that we would never see the light of day or night again," Luis Munoz Pinto, a college student in Venezuela who went to the U.S. to seek asylum, told the TV news magazine. "He said, ‘Welcome to hell. I’ll make sure you never leave,’" said Munoz, who the report noted has since been released. He told the program that he was awaiting a decision on his asylum claim when he was deported to CECOT this year — one of 252 Venezuelans sent there between March and April. Neither CBS nor Global Television Network immediately responded to respective requests for comment late Monday and early Tuesday. The segment featured a clip of President Donald Trump describing El Salvador’s prisons as "great facilities, very strong facilities, and they don’t play games," while seated next to Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele during a meeting at the White House earlier this year. It also showed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s visit to CECOT in March in which she thanked Bukele and El Salvador for their "partnership" with the U.S. to incarcerate what she called "terrorists" at the facility. Neither the White House nor the Department of Homeland Security immediately responded outside regular business hours early Tuesday to emailed requests for comment about the contents of the segment that aired in Canada. "Inside CECOT" was anchored by correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, who was critical of the decision to delay the segment’s broadcast. In a note to colleagues seen by NBC News, she accused the network of pulling the segment for "political" reasons. In the note, she said it was pulled because the Trump administration refused requests for comment — a standard that she said, if adopted, would amount a government "kill switch" to stop publication of a story. "Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices," Alfonsi wrote in the note. "It is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now, after every rigorous internal check has been met, is not an editorial decision, it is a political one," she said.

Reported similarly:
Reuters [12/22/2025 10:29 PM, Siddharth Cavale and Helen Coster, 36480K]

Federal News Network [12/22/2025 6:14 PM, Justin Doubleday, 986K] reports Republicans on the Senate Appropriations Committee have put forward a 2026 homeland security spending bill that would staunch some workforce cuts at the Department of Homeland Security. The committee released a draft version of the fiscal 2026 homeland security appropriations measure on Friday. Lawmakers will return to Capitol Hill after the holidays with a deadline to pass annual spending bills for most federal agencies by Jan. 30, when the current continuing resolution expires. Lead appropriators in the House and Senate reached an agreement on funding allocations for the remainder of fiscal 2026 over the weekend. While they did not release specific numbers, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said the allocations would fall below projected spending levels under the CR. "This pathway forward aligns with President Trump’s clear direction to rein in runaway, beltway-driven spending," Cole said in a statement. "We will now begin expeditiously drafting the remaining nine full-year bills to ensure we are ready to complete our work in January.” Senate appropriators’ draft homeland security spending bill includes $92.3 billion for DHS in fiscal 2026, including nearly $66 billion in discretionary spending and $26.3 billion for the Disaster Relief Fund. Those totals roughly align with what House Appropriations included in their homeland security spending package over the summer. It also comes after DHS received $165 billion in additional funding through fiscal 2029 under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed in July. However, Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) slammed the Senate committee’s draft proposal, calling it a "partisan bill" and saying Republicans didn’t work with Democrats to finalize a negotiated bill. "We need more accountability from President Trump’s out-of-control Department of Homeland Security, and as we proceed to conference negotiations on this bill and the remainder of our bills, I am going to keep working to produce the strongest possible legislation," Murray said. "American families should be able to count on their own government to support them through serious natural disasters and to enforce our immigration laws humanely and in accordance with the law.” The report on the draft homeland security spending bill, however, shows committee Republicans have some concerns about workforce cuts at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

New York Times [12/22/2025 10:11 AM, Annie Karni, 135475K] reports when Representative Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, became an American citizen in 2000, she viewed her U.S. passport with pride. But ever since President Trump was first elected in 2016, she said, she has come to view it as a “document of safety.” “I have carried my passport with me since he first became president,” Ms. Omar, a Somali-born refugee who emigrated to the United States when she was 12, said in an interview on Capitol Hill this week, where she reflected on the latest cycle of dehumanizing personal attacks on her by the president. Mr. Trump had recently called her “garbage” at a cabinet meeting and said of Somalis, generally: “I don’t want them in our country. Their country is no good for a reason.” At a Dec. 9 rally in Pennsylvania, Mr. Trump mocked Ms. Omar’s hijab, which he called a “little turban,” and complained that she “does nothing but bitch.” He added: “Why is it we only take people from shithole countries?” And back at home in Minnesota, the Trump administration surged Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to her community in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region for the latest stage in its deportation efforts. Among those caught up in the enforcement push was Ms. Omar’s own son, an American citizen who is 20 and was stopped briefly on Dec. 13 by ICE agents. “It is clear to me that this surge came in direct response to Trump’s racist comments about Somali people, and about me in particular,” Ms. Omar wrote on Dec. 12 to Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary. In Congress, she has long been a target of Republicans writ large. In 2023, House Republicans voted to remove Ms. Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee over past comments about Israel that were widely condemned as antisemitic. Personal attacks on Ms. Omar, 43, have been an ugly staple of Mr. Trump’s speeches since she was first elected in 2018 and made history, alongside Representative Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, as one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress. Ms. Omar was 8 when her family fled Somalia because of its civil war. She lived in a refugee camp in Kenya for four years before immigrating to the United States. “I remember him implementing the Muslim ban and my first thought was, ‘Where are my documents?’” she recalled of life during the first Trump administration. “I believe that was the thought for a lot of people, of immigrants, and even first generation: ‘Are we safe? Do we know where our documents are?’” These days, it’s one of the first pieces of advice she gives to her own children and to her constituents, amid the stepped-up ICE operations. The Department of Homeland Security has branded its efforts there “Operation Metro Surge,” and claims to have arrested more than 400 undocumented immigrants in Minnesota.

New York Times [12/23/2025 1:49 AM, Francesca Regalado, 135475K] reports the Justice Department sued the governor and attorney general of Illinois on Monday in an effort to strike down a new state law that limits federal immigration enforcement. The law, signed by Gov. JB Pritzker in early December, prevents immigration officers from making arrests outside courthouses and makes it easier for Illinois residents to sue immigration agents if they believe their rights have been violated. The measure was passed by the Democratic majority in the state legislature in October. Democrats in Illinois said the law was a necessary response to an immigration crackdown in Chicago that has led to thousands of arrests and clashes between residents and federal agents. The federal lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of Illinois, is the latest legal action by the Trump administration against states that have sought to limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. The Justice Department sued California in November over two state laws that bar federal law enforcement officers from wearing face coverings and require them to display their identification during operations. On Monday, the Justice Department said in a statement that the Illinois law was an illegal attempt to regulate the federal government, and that it placed immigration agents in physical harm and at financial risk. A person found to have violated the law would be liable for at least $10,000 in damages. “Threatening officers with ruinous liability and even punitive damages for executing federal law and for simply protecting their identities and their families also chills the enforcement of federal law and compromises sensitive law enforcement operations,” the Justice Department said. Representatives for Governor Pritzker and Attorney General Kwame Raoul of Illinois did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside business hours. Other state lawmakers have also experimented with allowing private residents to enforce the law through lawsuits. In Texas, abortion law allows residents to sue medical providers who violate the state’s restrictions. Earlier this month, Democratic lawmakers in New York introduced legislation that would bar federal agents from detaining, without a warrant, anyone attending a hearing at an immigration court. California lawmakers have proposed, but not enacted, similar expansions of civil liability for federal officers.

FOX News [12/22/2025 4:10 PM, Emma Colton, 40621K] reports the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) will ratchet up the Trump administration’s crackdown on highly addictive fentanyl flowing from China, building on President Donald Trump’s ongoing effort to stop the flow of the illicit drug that has devastated U.S. communities. Trump signed the NDAA into law Thursday, which includes provisions from Barr’s legislation, H.R. 747. The provisions amend the existing Fentanyl Sanctions Act to expand the definition of "foreign opioid trafficker" to include Chinese entities and officials involved in the opioid industry who fail to stop trafficking. The NDAA is a roughly $901 billion package that includes defense policy unlocking funding for several of the Trump administration’s national defense priorities, including regarding decades-old war authorities, strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean, Ukraine, lifting sanctions and Washington, D.C.’s, airspace.

The AP [12/22/2025 6:01 PM, David Crary, 31753K] reports Florida’s Catholic bishops appealed to President Donald Trump on Monday to pause immigration enforcement activities during the Christmas holidays. The White House, in response, said it would be business as usual. Responding via email, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson did not mention the holiday season in her two-sentence reply. "President Trump was elected based on his promise to the American people to deport criminal illegal aliens. And he’s keeping that promise," Jackson wrote. FOX News [12/23/2025 3:29 AM, Landon Mion Fox, 40621K] reports that the appeal to President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was issued by Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski and signed by seven other members of the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops. "The border has been secured," Wenski wrote. "The initial work of identifying and removing dangerous criminals has been accomplished to a great degree. Over half a million people have been deported this year, and nearly two million more have voluntarily self-deported.” "At this point, the maximum enforcement approach of treating irregular immigrants en masse means that now many of these arrest operations inevitably sweep up numbers of people who are not criminals but just here to work," he continued. "It should be noted that a significant majority of those detained in Alligator Alcatraz have no criminal background.”

CBS Miami [12/22/2025 5:47 PM, Steven Yablonski and Marybel Rodriguez, 39474K] reports religious leaders in Miami held a news conference on Monday urging President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to pause immigration enforcement during the holiday season. This comes after a recent statement by Pope Leo XIV condemning the treatment of migrants in the U.S. as "extremely disrespectful." "A temporary halt to mass deportations would allow families to remain together during Christmas and prevent unnecessary trauma to children," Archbishop Thomas Wenski said in a statement.
Christmas is a time to celebrate with family and friends, but unfortunately during this holiday season many people won’t be doing to due to the fears of being arrested. That’s why Wenski, along with the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops is asking for the temporary halt to the immigration enforcement, saying the pause will allow families to stay together for Christmas and prevent unnecessary trauma to children.

NewsMax [12/22/2025 11:40 AM, Nicole Wells, 4109K] reports Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, warned Sunday that the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement is creating "fear in a rather widespread manner" across the country. Coakley, who serves as archbishop of Oklahoma City, said the administration should take a more compassionate approach to immigration, while he acknowledged the importance of national sovereignty. "We certainly have a right and a duty to respect borders of our nation," Coakley told CBS’ "Face the Nation.” "This is kind of a fundamental principle in Catholic social teaching regarding immigration and migrations: People have a right to remain in their homeland," he added. "But they also ought to be allowed to migrate when conditions in their homeland are unsafe and necessitate moving to a place where they can find peace and security.” Elected last month to a three-year term leading the bishops’ conference, Coakley has often aligned with the church’s socially conservative wing. Still, he has emerged as a vocal critic of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, joining other Catholic leaders in raising concerns about enforcement tactics.

FOX News [12/22/2025 9:00 PM, Rachel del Guidice Fox, 40621K] reports Pope Leo XIV has announced a pro-immigration pastor as bishop of Palm Beach, Florida, which is home to President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago. On Friday, Pope Leo named Rev. Manuel de Jesús Rodríguez, pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Queens, New York, as the new bishop of Palm Beach, Florida. Rodríguez, born in the Dominican Republic and ordained a priest in 2004, has been described as a supporter of immigrant rights. In an interview with the Associated Press, Rodríguez said, "I never, never, never expected anything even close to this," and added, "I’m even a little bit scared. But I trust in God’s assistance. One thing I can tell you is that this diocese is a diocese of hard-working priests and hard-working people, and I’m here to help.” Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate is located in the Diocese of Palm Beach, and Rodríguez said he wants to "help" Trump when it comes to immigration. "The president is doing really good things, not only for the United States, but for the world. But when it comes to the migrant, the immigration policy, we want to help," Rodriguez told the AP. "We want to assist the president as a church because we believe that we can do better… than the way we’re doing this right now.” Rodríguez said he believes it isn’t appropriate to enforce immigration policy on minors. "When it comes to enforcing immigration laws, we shouldn’t be enforcing them by focusing on deporting 5-year-olds, 12-year-olds, 9-year-old kids, people that have never committed any crime," Rodriguez said. "So, we’re here to help. We’re willing to help, and God willing, we will.” In November, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a "special message" on immigration, which said in part: "Catholic teaching exhorts nations to recognize the fundamental dignity of all persons, including immigrants. We bishops advocate for a meaningful reform of our nation’s immigration laws and procedures. Human dignity and national security are not in conflict. Both are possible if people of good will work together.” It added, "We recognize that nations have a responsibility to regulate their borders and establish a just and orderly immigration system for the sake of the common good. Without such processes, immigrants face the risk of trafficking and other forms of exploitation. Safe and legal pathways serve as an antidote to such risks." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Washington Post [12/22/2025 6:30 AM, Max Boot, 24149K] reports the Trump administration has been reallocating scarce federal resources to combating drug cartels (“narco-terrorists”), the Venezuelan state (“a foreign terrorist organization”) and leftist groups like antifa (a “violent fifth column of domestic terrorists”). Aside from obvious concerns about legality, these actions also raise serious questions about the administration’s priorities and distribution of resources. Drug cartels may be evil, but they are ultimately driven by profit and not by a murderous ideology like the Islamic State is. Antifa is a loose-knit group of activists who may be guilty of scattered acts of violence, but they’re not plotting mass casualty events like al-Qaeda does. The Venezuelan regime is complicit in human rights violations and drug trafficking, but it is not a state sponsor of terrorism like, say, Iran. While the administration focuses on pseudo-terrorists, it risks losing focus on the battle against actual no-kidding terrorists. Just a week ago, a father-son team of ISIS-inspired terrorists killed 15 people at Sydney’s Bondi Beach during a Hanukkah celebration, shortly after an ISIS fighter in Syria killed two U.S. service members and an American civilian. (On Friday, U.S. forces bombed dozens of sites in Syria in retaliation.) Other recent terrorist attacks by Islamic State adherents include the Jan. 1 truck attack in New Orleans, which killed 14 people, plus the perpetrator; an Oct. 2 attack at a synagogue in England, which killed two, including a man shot by police; a June 22 suicide bombing on a Greek Orthodox church in Syria, which killed 25; and a March 22, 2024, attack on a concert hall in Moscow, which killed more than 140. Many other schemes have been foiled, including a plan last year to attack a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna and a recent alleged vehicle-ramming plot in Germany. Though the Islamic State has lost its “caliphate” in Syria and Iraq, the organization continues to propagate jihadist ideology, primarily online, with the recent Israel-Gaza war drawing fresh recruits to its cause. It has affiliates from Afghanistan to Africa to the Philippines (where the Bondi Beach suspects traveled last month). Al-Qaeda also has affiliates across the globe, including one that is on the verge of seizing power in Mali. A March U.S. intelligence report warned that Islamic State “will continue to seek to attack the West, including the United States,” and that al-Qaeda also “maintains its intent to target the United States and U.S. citizens.” Two terrorism experts note that there are now “five times as many Salafi-Jihadi terrorist groups designated by the U.S. Department of State” as there were on Sept. 11, 2001.

New York Post [12/22/2025 10:26 PM, Phillip Linderman, 42219K] reports it is an uncomfortable but undeniable fact that the United States government was complicit in child trafficking during Operation Allies Refuge, the evacuation mission that began in July of 2021 when the United States withdrew from Afghanistan. What is most distressing, aside from the heinous nature of the crimes committed, is that the government quickly swept claims of forced marriage and sexual assaults under the rug. The Associated Press reported that, during the evacuation, several young girls at the Humanitarian City in Abu Dhabi, one of the largest temporary evacuation hubs, alleged that they had been sexually assaulted by older men that they had been forced to marry against their will. Others reported being forced into a marriage in order to obtain a spot on an evacuation flight. Similar claims arose from evacuees who had been taken to Fort McCoy in Wisconsin. These claims echoed equally infuriating but equally ignored earlier reporting, such as a 2015 article that Afghan "allies" fighting alongside US troops committed serious atrocities, including keeping boys as sex slaves. Despite these credible claims, the government appeared reticent to hold Afghan men responsible for their disturbing crimes. Instead of ensuring that no child trafficker set foot on US soil, the State Department sought to punt the decision to other agencies. In a cable titled "Afghanistan Task Force SitRep No. 63," the State Department noted that "intake staff at Fort McCoy reported multiple cases of minor females who presented as ‘married’ to adult Afghan men, as well as polygamous families." The report goes on to state that the "Department of State has requested urgent guidance.” Rather than vigorously investigate these claims, the State Department waved them away, saying they "are anecdotal.” This particularly galling response raises a number of sobering questions: If sexual assaults that would render a person inadmissible to the United States weren’t important enough to investigate when the victim was literally in the hands of the US government, what other issues were overlooked? The State Department’s Afghan resettlement office, known by the acronym CARE, deserves much of the blame for the lack of attention given to these grave crimes.

New York Post [12/22/2025 5:46 PM, Josh Christenson and Ryan King, 42219K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials apprehended over 1,030 illegal aliens using its authority under the Laken Riley Act during its two-week Operation Angel’s Honor, The Post has learned. The sweeping operation, which wrapped up Monday, was conducted in memory of Laken Riley, a nursing student who was brutally bludgeoned to death last year by an illegal immigrant while out for a jog. “These criminals will face justice and be removed from our country,” Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said in a statement. “We can never bring Laken back, but we can do everything in our power to bring these heinous criminals to justice. I am so proud of what our brave men and women of ICE have done to remove these criminals from America’s streets.” The Laken Riley Act, which was named after Riley, sought to prevent repeats from happening by mandating that illegal immigrants who get caught committing crimes such as theft, assaulting a law enforcement officer, and more are arrested. The law is intended to prevent illegal immigrants such as Ibarra, who have a record, from roaming the streets. Some of the illegal immigrants nabbed by ICE under Operation Angel’s Honor had committed egregious crimes such as rape, assault with intent to cause injury to an officer, indecent liberties with a child, and more.

Blaze [12/22/2025 5:20 PM, Candace Hathaway, 1442K] reports the weekend leading into Christmas, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested more violent criminal illegal aliens, according to a press release exclusively obtained by Blaze News. The Department of Homeland Security highlighted 15 illegal aliens with criminal histories who were recently captured across the country by federal immigration officials. "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) continues to deliver on its promise this Christmas season to make America safe again and remove the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens from our communities," the press release read. "While many Americans began wrapping presents and preparing for the joyous holy holiday, ICE was hard at work arresting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens convicted of horrific crimes including lewd and lascivious acts with [a] child, child neglect, obscene communication, and attempted murder," it added.

FOX News [12/22/2025 11:58 AM, Staff, 40621K] Video: HERE reports Acting ICE director Todd Lyons joins ‘America’s Newsroom’ to discuss sanctuary policies and cases involving illegal immigrants being released by local jurisdictions.

FOX News [12/22/2025 10:02 PM, Greg Wehner, Bill Melugin, 40621K] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested more than 100 illegal alien truck drivers on California highways in Operation Highway Sentinel, launched after a string of deadly crashes linked to commercial driving licenses (CDLs) issued under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s policies. Federal authorities said the sweep was launched after multiple fatal crashes across several states involving illegal alien truck drivers licensed in California, underscoring growing concerns that the state’s commercial licensing policies are putting motorists nationwide at risk. Those arrested included illegal aliens from India, Mexico, Colombia, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Nicaragua, Russia, Georgia, Venezuela, El Salvador and Honduras. "Gavin Newsom’s sanctuary state policies are costing American lives," ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan said. "His government knowingly issued thousands of CDLs to illegal aliens who had no business driving at all, let alone behind the wheel of a massive semi-truck. These drivers get their licenses, leave California, then terrorize roads all over the country.” "ICE is stepping in where his state failed," Sheahan added. "Just like our operations in Oklahoma and Indiana, we are taking these dangerous illegal alien truckers off the roads and making California streets safe again.” ICE said in a press release that Operation Highway Sentinel was launched in direct response to growing concerns that criminal illegal aliens driving commercial vehicles on U.S. roads cause multiple fatal accidents in states like California, Florida and Oregon, claiming "eight innocent lives.” The agency accused California, under Newsom’s leadership, of issuing thousands of CDLs to illegal aliens, some of whom could not read English or understand road signs. Fox News Digital has reached out to Newsom’s office for comment on the matter. Similar operations targeting illegal aliens have been executed in Indiana, New York and Oklahoma, and have resulted in the arrest of over 200 illegal immigrant truck drivers who were issued CDLs. "This week HSI, along with our partners, conducted enforcement operations targeting illegal alien commercial truck drivers across California’s Central Valley in the interest of public safety," Tatum King, the special agent in charge at Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) San Francisco, said. "In the wake of multiple deadly motor vehicle accidents involving illegal aliens operating as commercial truck drivers, federal law enforcement is taking action to prevent further tragedy.” The latest operation in California targeted trucking companies in central and northern portions of the state that were suspected of engaging in criminal activity, ICE said. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Axios [12/23/2025 4:50 AM, Brittany Gibson, 12972K] reports ICE has turned green card interviews into nightmares for some families, as immigrants leave in handcuffs instead of with paths to legal status. For years, people felt safe showing up for court cases and green card interviews as ICE targeted "the worst of the worst" for arrests. But federal buildings are no longer safe(ish) spaces for undocumented immigrants. Some people arrested in this process are eligible for bond or can become eligible through a habeas corpus petition. Otherwise, a detainee ends up seeing out the legal immigration application from immigration detention. Some USCIS offices have received written guidance with instructions about notifying ICE when a person of interest comes in for an interview. That includes a directive to notify ICE agents when an interview is close to ending, according to a source with knowledge of the document. ICE and an investigative division at USCIS pre-screen cases for potential arrests and use the interviews as opportunities to make them, the source said "The Trump administration has been abundantly clear: aliens must respect our laws or face the consequences. Overstaying a visa is an immigration law violation that can result in deportation," USCIS Spokesman Matthew J. Tragesser said in a statement. Critics of this policy say it will drive more people living in the country undocumented into the shadows.

NPR [12/22/2025 5:00 AM, Ximena Bustillo and Rahul Mukherjee, 28013K] Audio: HERE reports an immigration judge issues a stern warning: "If you don’t show up, there is a good chance the court will order you removed.". She speaks to an immigrant from El Salvador in a quiet immigration courtroom in Hyattsville, Md., in November. Clad in an all-black dress jacket and shirt, the immigrant — who was identified only by the number of his case — swears that his last immigration notice was lost in the mail. The judge tells him to check his mail regularly, ahead of his next appearance in January. As the room empties out, the judge says out loud that there are a number of no-shows that day. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, attorney in court files motions to remove five people "in absentia." The judge grants it. Those people can now be deported. A similar scene has played out, and increasingly so, in nearly every immigration court nationwide over the past year, according to immigration attorneys and NPR’s early analysis of court data. More immigrants are not showing up for their mandatory immigration court hearings, allowing the government to order their immediate deportation. "What happened is that the word spread that if you go to court, you could get picked up from ICE," said Ruby Powers, an immigration lawyer based in Texas with cases all over the country. In 2025, ICE turned to arrests directly from federal or immigration courtrooms in order to meet arrest quotas set by the Trump administration. "Those instances weren’t consistent around the country, but at least the word had spread, the fear had spread. And so individuals were really hesitant to go into court," Powers said. The number of in absentia removals was generally already on an upward trend each year since 2022, said Andrew Arthur, resident law and policy fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, a nonprofit that advocates for lower levels of migration. Still, the number of such removal orders in fiscal year 2025 nearly tripled that of the previous year — topping over 50,000.

AP [12/22/2025 11:56 AM, Holly Ramer, 19051K] reports a Massachusetts college student who was deported while trying to visit family for Thanksgiving said an immigration officer told her it wouldn’t matter if she spoke to a lawyer, she was going to be removed from the country anyway. Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, a 19-year-old freshman at Babson College, was flown to Honduras on Nov. 22, two days after she was detained at Boston’s airport and one day after a judge ordered that she remain in the country. In a court document filed Saturday, she described two sleepless nights — first, staying awake with excitement in anticipation of seeing her family, and then later, being crammed with 17 other women in a cell "which was so small that we did not even have enough space to sleep on the floor.” Lopez Belloza, who is now staying with her grandparents, came to the U.S. in 2014 at age 8 and was ordered deported several years later. Though the government has argued that she missed multiple opportunities to appeal, Lopez Belloza said her previous attorney told her there was no removal order. "If I had been aware of my 2017 deportation order, I would not have traveled with my valid passport," she wrote. "I would have dedicated significant time and effort during the past eight years to hiring an attorney who could help me resolve my immigration situation.” The government also argues that the judge who issued the Nov. 21 order preventing her removal lacked jurisdiction because by then, Lopez Belloza was already in Texas on her way out of the country. But lawyers for the student argue that Immigration and Customs Enforcement made it all but impossible to locate her. According to Lopez Belloza, when she refused to sign a form consenting to deportation and asked to call her parents or a lawyer, a "tall, muscular, intimidating" ICE officer "said it didn’t matter if I spoke to a lawyer because I was going to be deported anyway." She later was allowed to call her family from Massachusetts, but that was before she knew she would be flown to Texas and then Honduras.

NPR [12/22/2025 5:50 PM, Staff, 28013K] Audio: HERE reports the Trump administration has removed over 600,000 people without legal status from the U.S. through deportation this year, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The Trump administration has also been busy revoking legal status for immigrants who entered the country through legal pathways — affecting at least 1.6 million people — by canceling programs and protections like CBP One, Temporary Protected Status, humanitarian parole and student visas. That legal limbo means they too now fear the constant threat of deportation. NPR’s Sergio Martinez-Beltran and Ximena Bustillo recap the largest effort to delegalize immigrants in U.S. history.

Univision [12/22/2025 4:31 PM, Staff, 5004K] reports the growing fear of being arrested by agents in or around immigration courts led to the number of immigrants who failed to appear for their hearings nearly tripling in 2025 compared to the previous year, according to an analysis by National Public Radio (NPR). This regularly results in deportation orders in absentia issued by immigration judges, authorizing the government to remove immigrants from the country who did not attend their hearings. According to NPR’s analysis, the number of deportation orders in absentia in fiscal year 2025 increased to more than 50,000 cases when compared to the previous fiscal year. The situation is being replicated in nearly every immigration court in the country and with increasing frequency, according to an NPR analysis. Powers told NPR that in addition to fear of ICE, there are other reasons why immigrants are avoiding appearing in court. One of them is the possibility of not winning their case or being deported to a third country. Other barriers have to do with logistical issues, such as the fact that summonses are sent to incorrect addresses because immigrants changed their address and did not notify the court in time. It is also possible that errors occur in sending hearing notifications simply because the correct address was not registered or was not written properly.

AP [12/22/2025 8:56 PM, Did Tang, 31753K] reports the Department of Homeland Security has dropped its plan to deport a Chinese national who entered the country illegally, two rights activists said Monday, after his plight raised public concerns that the man, if deported, would be punished by Beijing for helping expose human rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang region. Rayhan Asat, a human rights lawyer who assisted in the case, said Guan Heng’s lawyer received a letter from DHS stating its decision to withdraw its request to send Guan to Uganda. Asat said she now expects Guan’s asylum case to "proceed smoothly and favorably." Zhou Fengsuo, executive director of the advocacy group Human Rights in China, also confirmed the administration’s decision not to deport Guan. "We’re really happy," Zhou said. The Department of Homeland Security didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s database lists Guan, 38, as a detainee. His legal team is working to secure his release from an ICE detention facility in New York on bond, both Zhou and Asat said.

NBC News [12/22/2025 1:25 PM, Nicole Acevedo, 34509K] reports that a Chinese man who was detained in New York and separated from his 6-year-old son for weeks has been deported to China, along with his son, according to an advocate who worked closely with him. Fei Zheng and his son, Yuanxin, arrived in China on Friday night, according to Jennie Spector, a community activist who was in touch with Zheng before and during his detention. She said she confirmed with Zheng’s friend in China that the father and son had arrived there. "We are happy to report we were able to remove the family back to their home country," Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told The New York Times in an email. DHS did not respond to NBC News’ questions about his deportation. Spector previously told NBC News that both were detained during a routine check-in at ICE offices in New York City on Nov. 26. It was Zheng’s third time being detained after he crossed into the U.S. from the Mexican border with his son in April, she said, adding that he expressed fear of returning to China. Spector did not offer specifics on what he feared. Zheng was placed in immigration detention at the Orange County Correctional Facility, and Yuanxin was transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which holds unaccompanied immigrant children, according to the DHS.

Breitbart [12/22/2025 5:04 PM, John Binder, 2416K] reports an illegal alien is accused of murdering a 66-year-old cab driver in upstate New York, a sanctuary jurisdiction, after a dispute over cab fare. Santos Paulino Vasquez-Ramirez, a 28-year-old illegal alien from Guatemala, has been arrested by the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office and charged with second-degree murder and first-degree robbery. According to police, on December 1, 66-year-old Aurelio Zhunio-Orbez was driving his cab when he picked up Vasquez-Ramirez in Brewster, New York. Later that day, Zhunio-Orbez’s cab was found abandoned in a nearby parking lot. On December 7, Zhunio-Orbez’s body was found in the Croton Falls Reservoir. Police later arrested Vasquez-Ramirez and said that the illegal alien confessed to strangling Zhunio-Orbez, killing him, and dumping his body in the lake. Now, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is seeking custody of Vasquez-Ramirez to ensure he is not released by the sanctuary state of New York.

(B) Katy Tur Reports [12/22/2025 2:39 PM, Staff] reports that the Department of Homeland Security provided an update on the man who was detained with his six-year-old son in New York City before Thanksgiving. They were temporarily separated. They were deported to China last week. Their detention and separation sparked criticism and protests from New York City residents and Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. The father and son came from China via the Mexican border. The father said that they feared for their lives in China. The DOJ did not agree.

Telemundo Washington DC [12/22/2025 12:22 PM, Rosbelis Quinonez, 61K] reports that a Maryland mother, whose family claims she was born in the United States, was arrested by federal agents in Baltimore and now faces possible deportation. Her family and lawyers say they have provided all the evidence of her U.S. citizenship, but 22-year-old Dulce Consuelo Díaz Morales remains in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Her family argued that they don’t know why Díaz Morales, who lives in Baltimore with her family and her 5-year-old son, was arrested on Sunday, December 14. However, ICE contradicted this claim, stating that Díaz Morales is undocumented and from Mexico. In an emailed statement, an ICE spokesperson said: "Dulce Consuelo Madrigal Díaz is NOT a U.S. citizen; she is an illegal immigrant from Mexico. She did NOT provide a U.S. birth certificate or any evidence to support her claim of being a U.S. citizen." "On December 14, 2025, ICE arrested Dulce Consuelo Madrigal Díaz, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, in Baltimore, Maryland," the statement continued. "On October 20, 2023, when CBP encountered her near Lukeville, Arizona, Madrigal-Díaz claimed to be a citizen of Mexico and to have been born on October 18, 2003. Her case is being adjudicated, and she is being afforded all due process. Any claims that ICE does not allow detainees to contact legal counsel are FALSE. All detainees have access to telephones to contact attorneys," they added.

CBS Chicago [12/22/2025 5:19 PM, Chris Tye, Dan Kraemer, and Dylan Olsen, 39474K] reports four Democratic members of Congress made a surprise visit to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in west suburban Broadview on Monday. The ICE facility in Broadview is officially a processing center that critics have said operates more like a holding facility, with people detained by federal agents in the Chicago area spending multiple nights there. The ICE footprint in Broadview is expected to grow in the new year. U.S. Reps. Chuy García, Danny Davis, Delia Ramirez, and Jonathan Jackson were allowed inside the Broadview facility on Monday, six months after being turned away. This time, they came armed with a federal judge’s ruling that members of Congress must be granted access inside at any time – without a prior appointment – to provide oversight. The lawmakers said their visit was unannounced, and what they found during their 40 minutes inside the building surprised them. "There were three Christmas trees in the front part," Jackson said. "I saw an autographed photo of [Homeland Security] Secretary Kristi Noem in there. That’s political propaganda. You’re not supposed to use these facilities for political stages and backdrops." At the time of their first attempt to inspect the Broadview facility in June, it was the subject of daily protests and at its maximum head count, when an estimated 140 people were being held. On Monday, only two people were being held in the Broadview facility. When the first member of Congress was allowed inside last month – U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood – no one was being held there. The facility has been a key part of the Trump administration’s months-long immigration enforcement effort in the Chicago area, known as "Operation Midway Blitz." Ramirez said the facility is not fit for holding large numbers of people. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [12/22/2025 6:28 PM, Greg Wehner, 40621K] reports Federal immigration officers were injured in St. Paul, Minnesota, after a Cuban illegal alien rammed ICE vehicles and struck agents during a violent encounter Sunday. ICE officers identified Juan Carlos Rodrigues Romero, an illegal alien from Cuba, as he entered a white SUV near Westminster Street in St. Paul, Minnesota, then conducted a lawful traffic stop on Dec. 21. When officers ordered Romero to roll down his window, he allegedly refused, prompting warnings they would break it if he continued to disobey lawful commands. Instead, Romero drove off and allegedly struck one of the officers while attempting to flee. ICE officers pursued Romero until he pulled into a parking lot near his residence, striking two parked vehicles. Officers again stopped Romero and ordered him out of the vehicle, but he allegedly rammed an ICE unit and struck another officer. The officer who was struck defensively fired two rounds from his service weapon at Romero’s vehicle, ICE said, but no one was hit and Romero drove off. Romero then drove to the front entrance of his apartment complex, rammed another ICE vehicle and attempted to flee on foot toward his apartment. Officers chased Romero down and brought him to the ground, where he violently resisted arrest and bit one of the officers, ICE said. Romero was eventually subdued and placed in handcuffs. Two officers sustained non-life-threatening injuries and were taken to a hospital for evaluation. Romero, who remains in ICE custody, was also transported to a hospital for evaluation. ICE said Romero was admitted into the U.S. in 2024 under the Biden administration’s CBP One app. In April, migrants who entered the U.S. under CBP One had their protections terminated and were ordered to leave the U.S. immediately or face a permanent ban from reentering the U.S.

CNN [12/22/2025 1:24 PM, Chelsea Bailey, 606K] reports that the chaotic apprehension of an undocumented man in St. Paul, Minnesota, ended violently Sunday after the man allegedly struck two federal officers with his vehicle during a stop – causing one officer to fire "defensive shots" – before the man was ultimately apprehended, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The arrest comes as the Trump administration continues its immigration enforcement efforts across the Twin Cities, which have stoked controversy in recent weeks over Immigration and Customs Enforcement tactics and concerns over racial profiling. But Sunday’s pursuit points to a troubling trend that’s emerged during the administration’s immigration enforcement efforts, which left some officials warning about the potential for escalation and violence. It began when agents tried to detain a man DHS later identified as Juan Carlos Rodrigues Romero, an undocumented Cuban immigrant, during a stop. "Romero was noncompliant and refused to roll down his window, causing officers to warn that they would have to break the window if he continued to not comply with lawful orders," the agency said in a statement posted online. That’s when Romero drove off, DHS said, and a chaotic chase began. As Romero fled the scene, he allegedly struck one of the ICE officers with his vehicle. He then drove into a nearby parking lot and hit two parked cars, according to DHS.

AP [12/22/2025 2:38 PM, Colleen Slevin, 31753K] reports that supporters of a prominent Colorado immigration and labor activist say an immigration judge has ruled that she can post bond and be released after spending nine months in detention. The judge issued a written ruling Sunday allowing Jeanette Vizguerra to post $5,000 bond, said Jennifer Piper of the American Friends Service Committee, who has been working with Vizguerra’s lawyers and her family. Vizguerra’s family and a nonprofit group that helps pay bonds for people in immigration detention were working Monday to post the bond, which can take a day or more to process, she said. Emails seeking comment from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security were not immediately returned. Vizguerra gained prominence after she took refuge in churches in Colorado to avoid deportation during the first Trump administration. She was arrested in the parking lot of the Denver-area Target store where she worked on March 17. Vizguerra, who came to Colorado in 1997 from Mexico City, has been fighting deportation since 2009 after she was pulled over in suburban Denver and found to have a fraudulent Social Security card with her own name and birth date but someone else’s actual number, according to a 2019 lawsuit she brought against ICE. Vizguerra did not know the number belonged to someone else at the time, it said. Vizguerra’s lawyers have said ICE was attempting to deport her based on an order that was never valid and challenged her detention in federal court.

CBS Colorado [12/22/2025 7:15 PM, Staff, 39474K] Video: HERE reports Colorado immigration activist Jeanette Vizguerra was released from detention on Monday, nine months after she was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the American Friends Service Committee.

NBC 8 Portland [12/23/2025 12:33 AM, Jamie Parfitt, 43603K] reports the city of Newport is suing the Trump administration, asking a judge to stop federal officials from constructing an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility at the city’s municipal airport. Newport’s lawsuit names the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and its Secretary Kristi Noem, ICE and its acting director Todd Lyons, and the U.S. Coast Guard and its acting commandant Admiral Kevin Lunday. This new complaint, filed Monday in the federal U.S. District Court in Eugene, dovetails with successful attempts by Lincoln County and the nonprofit Newport Fisherman’s Wives to block the administration from relocating a U.S. Coast Guard rescue helicopter from the Newport Airport. A federal judge handed the plaintiffs a preliminary injunction in that case Monday. The federal government operates a 3.5-acre Coast Guard property at the airport known as the Coast Guard Air Facility, or AIRFAC Newport, where a rescue helicopter has been based for years. The property was granted by the city to the feds in 1992 on a deed "for the primary purpose of a United States Coast Guard aviation facility," the city’s lawsuit states. Citing findings from the helicopter lawsuit, Newport now alleges that the Trump administration stopped using the AIRFAC for that primary purpose in May 2025, and under the terms of the deed, the property will revert to the city "no later than May 2026." Regardless, the city says, the Trump administration has demonstrated it has other ideas for that property.

Daily Caller [12/22/2025 2:47 PM, Mark Tanos, 835K] reports that a federal jury acquitted a California tow truck driver Friday after he was accused of towing away a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) vehicle amid an immigration apprehension earlier in 2025. Prosecutors charged Bobby Nuñez, 33, with theft of government property, which could have led to up to ten years in prison if convicted, ABC7 Eyewitness News reported. The U.S. Attorney’s Office addressed the outcome in a statement. "The trial lasted four days. The jury deliberated for more than three hours. We have no further comment," they said. The charges were in connection with an Aug. 15 incident at a downtown Los Angeles apartment complex, according to NBC4 Los Angeles. Federal agents arrived to arrest 23-year-old Tatiana Martinez, a Colombian TikTok influencer, KTLA 5 reported. She was in the country illegally, authorities said. The woman reportedly livestreamed the encounter to thousands of followers. The jury may have acquitted him, but guess what Bobby wasn’t doing the last few months while awaiting trial: obstructing our ICE agents. Nuñez’s lawyer issued a statement to NBC4. "We are pleased to confirm that the jury exonerated our client Bobby Nunez. We thank the jurors for their service as an essential backstop against prosecutorial overreach in our constitutional system," the attorney wrote. The Daily Caller has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment.

The Hill [12/22/2025 12:25 PM, Rebecca Beitsch, 12595K] reports more than 125 Democrats in Congress are urging the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to withdraw a rule that would open the door to denying a green card to those who use public benefits like Medicaid or food stamps. President Trump’s latest crack at a so-called public charge rule would strike down the Biden-era version of the rule, which in 2022 returned the country to long-standing criteria that allowed rejections of green cards for those "primarily dependent" on government assistance, such as those who received cash assistance or help with nursing home care. In striking down the rule without offering a replacement, critics fear Trump is opening the door to widespread rejection of green cards for those who would otherwise qualify, while also prompting immigrants to not seek assistance for which they could qualify. "This proposal punishes families for caring for their children. It would scare parents away from health care, food assistance, and early education that U.S. citizen children are legally entitled to, putting kids at risk and destabilizing entire communities. Congress never intended public charge to be used this way, and we are demanding DHS withdraw this harmful proposal before it inflicts real and lasting damage on American families," said Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), chair of Congressional Hispanic Caucus and one of the members who spearheaded the formal comments, in a statement.

Reported similarly:
FOX News [12/22/2025 9:46 PM, Landon Mion, 40621K]
Daily Caller [12/22/2025 2:56 PM, Jason Hopkins, 835K]

NewsMax [12/22/2025 9:52 PM, Sam Barron, 4109K] reports Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., told Newsmax on Monday that people like Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., do not belong in the United States and certainly do not belong in Congress. Fine appeared on "Finnerty" to discuss his motion to expel Omar from Congress, claiming the Somali-born representative engaged in immigration fraud and is covering up Medicaid fraud. "We’ve got to ask ourselves, why do we want a community in this country where 80% of the people who’ve been here for decades are on welfare, and they’re stealing billions of dollars?" Fine said. "I want Ilhan Omar to lead the transit back home of all of these people," Fine said. He wants a thorough investigation into any alleged fraud Omar committed, especially after it was revealed that 50% of Somalis in Minnesota engaged in immigration fraud to get their citizenship. "There’s clearly a culture, whether it’s immigration fraud or Medicaid fraud or welfare fraud with this community," Fine said. "And think about it, look at where they’re coming from," Fine added. "I mean, that’s the culture of the place they’ve come from.” "We need to get to the bottom of it with Ilhan Omar," Fine continued. "And if it turns out she lied, then she needs to be sent home.” The Florida congressman said too many people are immigrating to the United States simply for free stuff. "I’ve introduced a bill that would ban all legal immigrants from welfare," Fine said. "Not just illegal, but legal, because you should not be coming here and then asking our children and our grandchildren to go into debt to give you free things.” "If you want free stuff, stay home. If you want to come here for freedom and opportunity, if you love America, if you share our values, if you want to go to work, and you want to add value, that’s a discussion that we can have," Fine added. "But if you hate America, if you want to change America, if you don’t share our values, and you don’t want to assimilate, and you’re just here to see how much free stuff you can get, stay where you’re from," Fine continued. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Breitbart [12/22/2025 5:00 PM, John Binder, 2416K] reports House and Senate Democrats are demanding that President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) rescind a new regulation that will prevent welfare-dependent foreign nationals from resettling in the U.S. USCIS Director Joe Edlow has issued a final rule that will reinstate Trump’s "public charge" rule from his first term, which enforced Clinton-era laws from 1996 that delegated all financial responsibility to a family member or business sponsor of a foreign national seeking a green card when they had previously used welfare programs. House and Senate Democrats are now writing to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Edlow, urging them to halt the public charge rule, claiming it will have a "chilling effect" on migrant communities.

Washington Examiner [12/22/2025 8:00 AM, Kaelan Deese, 1394K] reports on a warm spring night in Dallas, nearly 50,000 fans were already inside AT&T Stadium when the announcement went out: the show was off. Julion Alvarez, one of Mexico’s most popular regional music stars, would not be taking the stage. His U.S. visa had been revoked without warning, just hours before the concert was scheduled to begin. In a video posted to Instagram, Alvarez apologized directly to fans. “It is not possible for us to go to the United States and fulfill our show promise with all of you,” he said. “It’s a situation that is out of our hands. I apologize to all of you, and if God permits, we will be in touch to provide more information.”

Washington Examiner [12/22/2025 6:43 PM, Anna Giaritelli, 1394K] reports the head of the Border Patrol has vowed to "completely" secure the border for the first time in United States history, anticipating a day in the near future where not a single person who crosses illegally will get away. Border Patrol’s national chief Mike Banks declared in an interview with the Washington Examiner nearly a year into President Donald Trump’s term that he expects to achieve full operational control of the U.S.-Mexico border, a feat that no leader of the 101-year-old organization has achieved. "With the level of support we’ve been getting from President Trump and [Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem], we have the most secure border we’ve ever had. I truly believe, for the first time in my career, that we can absolutely gain operational control. We are so close," Banks said. "I have no doubt that we’re going to secure this border completely for the first time in American history.” The Trump administration has taken a whole-of-government approach to bolstering security at the southern border. It has enlisted the Department of War, as have other administrations. The administration has also sent in the Department of Justice’s agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. On Dec. 18, Banks said, just 17 people who crossed the southern border evaded arrest, a decrease from the hundreds, even "thousands" that he estimated slipped past federal agents at the height of the border crisis in 2022 and 2023. Border Patrol arrests of illegal immigrants peaked in late 2023 at more than 14,000 per day.

CBS Chicago [12/22/2025 2:09 PM, Staff, 39474K] reports that Customs and Border Protection officials at Chicago O’Hare International Airport seized some very odd items from a passenger’s suitcase last week. In a post to X.com, CBP said that a passenger from Congo brought in 11 lbs. of beans that were infested by pests, 17 lbs. of unknown plants and 4 lbs. of non-human primate meat. Pictures shared by the agency showed several mummified small primates that were taken from the luggage. CBP said the passenger "believed the food they were bringing in was fine," but it was in fact prohibited. The agents seized and destroyed the items, CBP said. NewsNation [12/22/2025 4:06 PM, Will Conybeare, 8017K] reports that according to CBP Chicago, a passenger from Congo "believed the food they were bringing was fine" to enter the United States at O’Hare International Airport. "It was not," CBP bluntly stated on social media earlier this week. CBP Chicago said that agriculture specialists at O’Hare found 11 pounds of beans – with pests – and a further 17 pounds of "unknown plants." The most harrowing discovery, though, was the four pounds of "nonhuman primate meat." Photos posted by the department show the carcass of the animal, which appeared to be a small monkey. The carcass had been dried and bound with fasteners. All of the findings were deemed prohibited to enter and were subsequently seized and destroyed.

Axios [12/22/2025 11:59 AM, Marc Caputo, 12972K] reports the U.S. Treasury Department is investigating 100 money-services companies along the Mexico border by using new technology to spot potential law-breaking, Axios has learned. The effort is another aspect of President Trump’s wide-ranging border crackdown aimed at stopping illegal immigration and the cartels and companies that profit from it. The operation is led by Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, called FinCEN, as it examines whether scores of money services businesses violated or failed to comply with anti-money laundering laws and rules. The businesses are not formal banks but provide financial services like them, and so far FinCen has issued: Six notices of investigation, Dozens of referrals to the Internal, Revenue Service, More than 50 compliance outreach letters. Aside from adding a new tool to border enforcement, a Treasury official said, the "data-driven operation" shows how the administration is harnessing new technology that enabled FinCen to review: Over 1 million currency transactions, 87,000 Suspicious Activity Reports that financial institutions are required to submit to the network to ensure compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act.

CNN [12/23/2025 3:34 AM, Gustavo Valdes, 18595K] reports that, every year during the holidays, crossing points along the Mexico-USA border are crowded with paisanos -- travelers heading south. Thousands of vehicles, many trucks loaded to the max, wait for hours to cross into Mexico. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

(B) CNN News Central [12/22/2025 3:15 PM, Staff] reports AAA is projecting more than 122 million Americans are set to travel over this 13-day holiday period. TSA says 2.8 million people were screened at airports on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. TSA says the busy days are still ahead as so many people come home after the holiday also intersecting with people leaving for New Year’s.

USA Today [12/22/2025 2:46 PM, Jay Stahl, 67103K] reports all travelers want for Christmas is to reach their destinations, reuniting safely with family and friends. And fresh off the federal government shutdown, a group of TSA workers went viral for their rendition of Mariah Carey’s "All I Want for Christmas Is You" at the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in Linthicum, Maryland. "The best welcome home greeting," a TikTok user captioned the video, adding that "TSA Carolers at BWI airport are top tier!". The caroling follows the longest government shutdown in history, which lasted 43 days and left federal workers – including TSA agents – without paychecks while Congress struggled to reach an impasse to reopen the government. Ultimately, a bipartisan compromise ended the shutdown on Nov. 12, preventing catastrophic travel uncertainty during the Thanksgiving holiday. One video of the TSA carolers garnered over 800,000 likes and over 12,000 comments so far, 57,000 saves and 48,000 shares, spreading joy to passengers and posters alike. In their uniforms – royal blue shirts, black pants and black shoes – the agents sang carols by baggage claim as fliers waited for their luggage. Another video shows the same cluster of TSA agents singing "All I Want for Christmas" – the Billboard Hot 100 hit –outside of the TUMI store in the airport. The TSA caroling appears to be an annual affair at BWI airport. The workers caroled last year in front of a gate, on a moving walkway and near a Delta Airlines entrance.

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ABC News [12/22/2025 8:39 AM, Staff, 30493K]

USA Today [12/22/2025 9:54 AM, Irene Wright, 67103K] reports a 59-year-old man is accused of bringing a firearm into Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport before shooting himself at the baggage claim, police say. About 3:30 p.m. on Dec. 21, a man later identified as Douglas E. Smith, entered the Atlanta airport with a handgun, according to the Atlanta Police Department. Smith went up the escalators to the upper level of the baggage claim area, police said, before firing the weapon at himself. He suffered a gunshot wound in the upper right torso, according to police. Smith "fell to the ground," and another airport patron was able to kick the gun out of his hands while calling police. When officers arrived, Smith was "alert, conscious, breathing and was transported to the hospital for treatment," police said. He was in stable condition as of Sunday evening. Due to the public nature of the shooting, and the fact that Smith is a convicted felon, charges have been brought against him.

Bloomberg Law [12/22/2025 7:02 PM, Quinn Wilson, 91K] reports a former Federal Emergency Management Agency employee failed to revive his defeated claims of age and sex discrimination, hostile work environment, and retaliation, a federal appeals court ruled Monday. The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed a lower court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the US Department of Homeland Security. The "evidence in the aggregate does not otherwise give rise to an inference that his age or sex played an animating role in the adverse employment actions the" DHS secretary took against him, Judge Ilana Diamond Rovner said.

FOX News [12/22/2025 5:39 AM, Landon Mion Fox, 40621K] reports Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, on Sunday accused President Donald Trump of playing "political games" after the federal government denied disaster declaration requests following wildfires and flooding this year in the Centennial State. The governor received two denial letters from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) late on Saturday. The letters came after Polis’ requests for major disaster declarations following wildfires and mudslides in August and what Polis called "historic flooding" across southwest Colorado in October. Polis denounced the administration’s denials and said the state would appeal the decision. "Coloradans impacted by the Elk and Lee fires and the flooding in Southwestern Colorado deserve better than the political games President Trump is playing," the governor said in a statement. Colorado’s two U.S. senators, Democrats Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, also blasted the administration for the denials. "FEMA’s denial of Colorado’s request for federal disaster assistance is unacceptable," Bennet wrote on X. "Western Colorado communities need help recovering after the historic flooding and wildfires this year, and federal assistance should be available to every state and county that needs it."

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NewsMax [12/22/2025 4:50 PM, Solange Reyner, 4109K]

UPI [12/22/2025 5:54 PM, Sheri Walsh, 2416K] reports Colorado lawmakers have called on President Donald Trump to reverse a recent decision denying state disaster aid requests in the wake of "life-threatening flooding and historic wildfires.” In a statement Sunday, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis announced Trump had rejected the state’s requests for help and accused the president of playing "political games." He said the state would be appealing the decision. "Coloradans impacted by the Elk and Lee fires and the flooding in Southwestern Colorado deserve better than the political games President Trump is playing," Polis said. "I call on the president’s better angels, and urge him to reconsider these requests. This is about the Coloradans who need this support, and we won’t stop fighting for them to get what they deserve," the Democratic governor added. Polis declared a disaster emergency on Aug. 3, for the Elk Fire and added the Lee Fire three days later. He filed an executive order by the end of August as the state revealed initial damage estimates from the fires and mudslides totaled more than $27 million. In October, Polis declared a disaster emergency to unlock $6 million in state funding for flood response and recovery in Western Colorado. While a president can tap additional federal assistance with a major disaster under the Stafford Act, the Trump administration has recently denied some states’ requests for aid as it works to downsize the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The White House said Monday, "there is no politicization to the president’s decisions on disaster relief." White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson explained Trump’s decision, adding that the administration sent two firefighting planes to Colorado to help fight the fires. "The president responds to each request for federal assistance under the Stafford Act with great care and consideration," Jackson said, "ensuring American tax dollars are used appropriately and efficiently by the states to supplement — not substitute, their obligation to respond to and recover from disasters.”

SFGate [12/22/2025 6:02 PM, Gillian Mohney, 13945K] reports one person was killed this weekend when major floods brought by a powerful storm swept through Northern California. Redding Mayor Mike Littau said in a Facebook post that a person alerted 911 when they became stuck and water entered their vehicle. Though a Redding police officer was able to swim to the vehicle, break the windows, bring the individual to shore and perform CPR, the person did not survive, and an investigation into a cause of death is ongoing. The Redding Police Department issued a warning to motorists to "use extreme caution" on Sunday, as heavy rain led to flash flooding on multiple streets. The department said it had received "numerous" calls for stranded motorists. An atmospheric river has soaked Northern California in recent days. A National Weather Service map of rainfall totals from Saturday and Sunday showed much of the region got 3 to 4 inches, with some areas getting as much as 7 inches.

CBS News [12/22/2025 7:19 PM, Staff, 39474K] Video: HERE reports dangerous storms unleashed flooding across parts of California, leaving roads underwater and prompting rescues. Andres Gutierrez reports the severe weather comes as a record number of Americans are expected to travel for the holidays this year. Rob Marciano has the forecast.

CNN [12/22/2025 6:06 PM, Karina Tsui, Chris Dolce, and Mary Gilbert, 18595K] reports an even more potent atmospheric river-fueled storm is on a collision course with California after a first storm triggered deadly flooding and evacuations over the weekend in Northern California. The new storm and another after it are prompting new evacuations in the Los Angeles area’s burn scars and a rare high risk for flooding from forecasters with months’ worth of rain and life-threatening flooding expected in Southern California. At least one person is dead after flash floods from the first storm inundated Redding, roughly 150 miles north of Sacramento, according to Redding Mayor Mike Littau, who said police and fire crews carried out water rescues Sunday. A police officer pulled the victim from a flooded vehicle, Littau said Monday morning, though the official cause of death is still under investigation. Officials have not said how many water rescues were carried out in the city. Shasta County, where Redding is located, was hit particularly hard Sunday evening, with heavy rain flooding multiple roadways, including parts of Interstate 5, according to officials.

(B) GMA3 [12/22/2025 1:27 PM, Staff] reports police say they found 20 credit card skimming devices in stores and gas stations. Detectives and Secret Service agents searched 278 terminals, 158 ATMs, and 46 gas pumps. Police say people should check for hidden cameras and cover the keypad while typing PIN.

New York Post [12/22/2025 11:11 AM, Emily Crane, 42219K] reports the frantic search for an uncle and his nephew who vanished while fishing off the coast of Florida continued Monday — as one of the missing boater’s heartbroken wives begged for help finding them. Randall Spivey, 57, and Brandon Billmaier, 33, were reported missing after they failed to return from a fishing trip near Fort Meyers on Friday, authorities said. The US Coast Guard later discovered their empty boat, the engine of which was still running, some 70 miles from the shore. Billmaier’s wife, Deborah Billmaier, flooded social media with updates and pleas over the weekend — and has called for anyone with a boat to help trawl the waters as the search continued Monday. "Thank you to all the local heroes who are working to bring my husband Brandon and uncle Randy home," she said in an Instagram post. "We cannot thank you enough, and are eternally grateful. They have yet not been found, but we are staying positive and know they will come home, please continue to pray for us.” "We are asking for vessels capable of a 225-mile range to assist in a major offshore search," she added. The Coast Guard, however, warned that uncoordinated crews could potentially "create unsafe conditions and hinder response efforts.” The saga unfolded after the duo set off first thing Friday but failed to return, as expected, by afternoon. "I am heartbroken posting this. My husband, Brandon, went out fishing yesterday with his uncle off the coast of Fort Myers," Billmaier’s wife wrote in an initial Instagram post. "They left early in the morning on Friday, Dec. 19 and were meant to come back that afternoon. At 7:30 we had not heard back from them, and we contacted the US Coast Guard.” She noted the search crews discovered the empty vessel at roughly 1:30 a.m. Saturday.

Reported similarly:
FOX News [12/22/2025 2:00 PM, Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, 40621K]

The New York Times [12/22/2025 8:31 PM, Emiliano Rodríguez Mega and Livia Albeck-Ripka, 135475K] reports the Mexican Navy said at least five people were killed on Monday when one of its medical aircraft crashed into Galveston Bay in Texas. The navy said the aircraft, a King Air ANX-1209, was carrying four civilians and four crew members. It later said in a statement that there were two survivors and a rescue operation was underway for one person on board who had gone missing. The aircraft was carrying out a medical support mission with the Michou and Mau Foundation, a nonprofit that assists Mexican children with severe burns, the Mexican Navy said. The aircraft “experienced an incident” upon approach to Galveston. The Galveston County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that it was assisting at the scene, and that the Texas Department of Public Safety was leading an investigation into the crash. The area was experiencing heavy fog on Monday. The U.S. Coast Guard said that its watch standers received a call at about 3:17 p.m. reporting a plane crash west of the Galveston Causeway, with eight people aboard. The Coast Guard said it responded to the scene with a rescue boat and helicopter, and that the Galveston Police and Fire Departments, Beach Patrol and life guards were also assisting. Flight record data shows that the plane flew from Mérida, in the Yucatán Peninsula, to Galveston. The cause of the crash is under investigation. The Texas Department of Public Safety directed inquiries about the crash to the Federal Aviation Administration, which did not immediately respond to a request for information. The sheriff’s office also did not immediately respond to requests for comment. FOX News [12/22/2025 8:17 PM, Greg Wehner, 40621K] reports that according to the Mexican Navy, eight people were on board the aircraft – four naval crew members and four civilians – when it crashed during its approach near Galveston. Search and rescue protocols were immediately activated following the crash in coordination with the U.S. Coast Guard, which has rescued six people so far. Four were found alive, while two deaths have been confirmed. Efforts remain underway to rescue two additional people still believed to be inside the wreckage, the Mexican Navy said. According to the Michou and Mau Foundation’s website, its vision is to "provide assistance so that children with severe burns have the best advanced treatment programs and multidisciplinary care.” The Mexican Navy added that search and rescue efforts were immediately activated in coordination with local authorities. The Galveston County Sheriff’s Office said its personnel also responded to the plane crash near the base of the causeway. "Sheriff’s Office personnel, including the dive team, crime scene unit, drone unit and patrol are assisting at the scene," the sheriff’s office said, adding that the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) is leading the crash investigation with the help of the sheriff’s office and Galveston Police Department. Fox News Digital has reached out to DPS and the Michou and Mau Foundation for additional information about the crash. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

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Washington Post [12/23/2025 3:09 AM, Andrew Jeong, 24149K]
Houston Chronicle [12/22/2025 5:40 PM, John Wayne Ferguson, Caroline Wilburn, 2983K]

Los Angeles Times [12/22/2025 3:02 PM, Karen Garcia, 14862K] reports a woman swimming off the coast of Monterey Bay over the weekend vanished after witnesses say she may have encountered a shark, authorities said. The woman was swimming with a group on Sunday afternoon when "two witnesses indicated the swimmer may have encountered a shark while swimming offshore near Lovers Point," the U.S. Coast Guard and cities of Pacific Grove and Monterey said in a joint media statement. "By 8:00 p.m., the swimmer was still not sighted." Members of the Pacific Grove Police Department, Monterey County Fire Department, U.S. Coast Guard, Monterey County Sheriff’s Office and California State Parks have all been searching for the missing swimmer. The Coast Guard sent out a helicopter from Air Station San Francisco as well as a small boat from its Monterey station to search for the swimmer Monday, said Chris Sappey, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesperson. The family of the swimmer has been notified of the situation, authorities said. Authorities have issued advisories for Monterey County beaches due to safety concerns; Lovers Point, MacAbee and San Carlos beaches are also closed.

USA Today [12/22/2025 11:23 AM, Natalie Neysa Alund, 67103K] reports officials continued to search for a missing swimmer on Monday, Dec. 22, following a reported shark sighting over the weekend in Northern California that closed beaches. About noon on Sunday, Dec. 21, the Pacific Grove Police Department and Monterey Fire Department responded to a report of a missing swimmer off Lovers Point, according to a joint Statement from the City of Pacific Grove, City of Monterey and U.S. Coast Guard. "Two witnesses indicated the swimmer may have encountered a shark while swimming offshore near Lovers Point," the release reads. Lovers Point is in Pacific Grove, a coastal city near Monterey about 115 miles south of San Francisco. Emergency response teams then began conducting a search and rescue mission with support from the United States Coast Guard, Monterey County Sheriff’s Office, and California State Parks, but by 8 p.m. local time, the swimmer was still not sighted. Rescuers conducted search efforts but reported they found no sign of the swimmer and planned to continue the search on Monday, Dec. 22. The family of the swimmer "has been notified of the situation," the release continues.

Wall Street Journal [12/22/2025 8:43 PM, Alyssa Lukpat and Neil Mehta, 646K] reports the Education Department said Monday that it is reviewing Brown University’s security systems following a shooting that killed two students this month. Universities that receive federal student aid must follow certain security requirements. The department said it would investigate whether Brown met those standards. “In the hours after the shooting, public reporting appeared to show that Brown’s campus surveillance and security system may not have been up to appropriate standards, allowing the suspect to flee while the university seemed unable to provide helpful information about the profile of the alleged assassin,” the department said. Brown said last week that it planned to review its campus security and that it had a large network of security cameras. A Brown spokesman said Monday that the school was taking steps to ensure its campus security and inform its emergency-response protocols. A gunman broke into a campus building on Dec. 13 and shot 10 students, killing two. He evaded capture while authorities released surveillance footage and asked the public to help identify him. None of the footage appeared to be from inside the building where the shooting happened. Authorities haven’t discovered why the shooter targeted Brown. Law enforcement found Claudio Neves Valente dead on Thursday about 65 miles north of the Providence, R.I., campus. After escaping Brown, Neves Valente killed Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro in his apartment near Boston, officials said. The federal Clery Act mandates that universities collect and disclose information about campus crimes and security. The Education Department can fine or bar schools in violation of the Clery Act from participating in federal student aid programs. “Students deserve to feel safe at school, and every university across this nation must protect their students and be equipped with adequate resources to aid law enforcement,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said.

New York Times [12/22/2025 8:19 PM, Mark Arsenault, 153395K] reports the Department of Education said Monday that it would investigate whether Brown University violated the law by failing to provide proper campus safety before and immediately after a fatal shooting killed two students earlier this month. The department’s Office of Federal Student Aid will investigate whether the Ivy League school violated the Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Act, which requires colleges to meet “certain campus safety and security-related requirements” in order to receive federal student aid, according to a statement from the Department of Education. Shortly after the department announced its investigation, Brown University’s president, Christina Paxson, announced new security-related measures at the school. Her statement did not refer to the federal investigation. Brown also placed its vice president for public safety and emergency management, Rodney Chatman, on administrative leave while the school commissions an “after action review” of the shooting, Dr. Paxson said in the statement. Hugh T. Clements, former chief of police of the Providence Police Department, will take over the role on an interim basis, Dr. Paxson said. The Education Department cited public reporting after the shooting that appeared to show that “Brown’s campus surveillance and security system” may not have been up to standards. Investigators had said there was no video inside the Barus and Holley building that would have been useful in identifying the gunman. Investigators found images of him by canvassing the surrounding neighborhood for video from home security and doorbell cameras.

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USA Today [12/22/2025 8:37 PM, Katherine Gregg, 67103K]

CNN [12/22/2025 6:06 PM, Michelle Watson, 606K] reports Brown University announced on Monday it placed its police chief on administrative leave while an after-action review of a shooting earlier this month that left two students dead and nine others wounded takes place. Rodney Chatman, Brown’s vice president for public safety and emergency management, will be on leave effective immediately, Brown President Christina Paxson said in the statement. Hugh T. Clements, former chief of police of the Providence Police Department, will take over as interim and also oversee the after-action review, Paxson said. "A thorough After-Action Review is an essential part of any recovery and response following a mass casualty event like the one that has devastated our campus," she added. The school is working to add enhanced security measures to the campus, according to the statement. "The concerns our community has about safety and security are real. And I share them," Paxson said. Separately, the Department of Education said it would review whether the Ivy League school violated the Clery Act, which "requires institutions of higher education to meet certain campus safety and security-related requirements as a condition of receiving federal student aid," according to the Monday release. The Trump administration "will fight to ensure that recipients of federal funding are vigorously protecting students’ safety and following security procedures as required under federal law," Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said. A Brown University spokesperson said the school would respond directly to the Department of Education. Paxson’s note said all but two of the injured victims have since been released from the hospital. "As we work to heal and recover, our primary focus is to nurture a thriving campus by attending to the psychological and social health of all members of our community while we also demonstrate that Brown is still Brown — a safe, inclusive, caring community of talented students and scholars and dedicated staff.” Earlier Monday, CNN affiliate WJAR also reported Brown University has retained former federal prosecutor Zachary Cunha in the wake of the shooting. "Brown works routinely with outside counsel whose expertise complements that of the University’s Office of the General Counsel," a statement obtained by WJAR said. Brown said it retained Cunha to "assist the University in coordinating with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.” Brown University has over 1,200 surveillance cameras.

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Free Beacon [12/22/2025 9:00 PM, Jessica Schwalb, 411K]

New York Post [12/22/2025 11:48 PM, Ryan King, 42219K] reports IRS criminal investigators played a pivotal role in tracking down the Brown University shooter, ultimately leading the FBI and other law enforcement agencies right to him, sources told The Post. After the homeless Reddit poster hero known as John helped authorities ID Claudio Neves-Valente as the suspect, following several false trails, the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) team began combing through his financial records. "At that point, the criminal investigations team became involved and determined where he had obtained the [storage] facility in which he was ultimately located," a senior official told The Post. "Once the location was identified, they issued an alert to the FBI with information on where he could be found.” Neves-Valente had proven difficult to trace after he was identified because he used European SIM cards and a gizmo that made it harder to track phones, according to officials. That’s part of why the IRS-CI team proved to be so critical. "Secretary Scott Bessent and with the help of IRS CEO Frank Bisignano directed all possible resources to assist the FBI in their pursuit of justice for this unspeakable tragedy," a Treasury Department spokesperson told The Post. "IRS Criminal Investigations agents worked tirelessly on this effort.” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is currently serving in a dual role as Commissioner of Internal Revenue. The IRS’ law enforcement arm has powerful tools that enable its agents to look through sales financial transactions, bank account records, and more when working on a criminal case. "They do a lot more work than that. But that’s the short version," the senior official added. Once the IRS-CI helped pinpoint the Salem, New Hampshire, storage facility, the FBI deployed its agents to carry out a search warrant, where they found Neves-Valente dead with a satchel and two firearms on Dec. 18. Neves-Valente is believed to have killed himself after shooting Massachusetts Institute of Technology physics professor Nuno Loureiro in his $1.4 million townhouse. The two had been in the same academic program in Portugal between 1995 and 2000. Neves-Valente then went to Brown University between 2000 and 2001.

Washington Times [12/22/2025 3:30 PM, Matt Delaney, 852K] reports U.S. counterterrorism officials said they helped arrest a Jalisco New Generation Cartel affiliate in Mexico who had a hand in the syndicate’s drug and human trafficking operations and is also accused of gunning down a Texas teenager. The National Counterterrorism Center, which is under the umbrella of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said it provided intelligence to U.S. and Mexican authorities to track down Alfredo Ezequiel Galaviz Jr. earlier this month in the city of Chihuahua. He was quickly brought to the U.S., with the knowledge and cooperation of Mexican authorities. NCTC officials said Mr. Galaviz was involved in trafficking fentanyl, methamphetamines and cocaine on behalf of the cartel.

Breitbart [12/22/2025 1:20 PM, Christian K. Caruzo, 2416K] reports that the office of El Salvador’s attorney general announced on Sunday that 248 members of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang were sentenced to up to 1,335 years in prison for multiple crimes. Collectively, all 248 MS-13 members were convicted of roughly 240 different counts of crimes committed between 2014 and 2022. The attorney general’s office published a breakdown of the sentencing and additional information in a series of social media posts in which it detailed that among the most serious crimes committed by the convicted criminals is the December 2021 disappearance and murder of siblings Karen and Eduardo Guerrero Toledo, the October 2021 disappearance and murder of Salvadoran soccer player Jimena Granados, and the disappearance and murders of two students in 2019 and 2020. Most notably, the Attorney General’s Office detailed that a man identified as Marvin Abel Hernández Palacios was sentenced to 1,335 years in prison on aggravated homicide, aggravated femicide, disappearance of persons, extortion, illicit trafficking, and illicit association charges. Ten other men received sentences ranging from 463 years to 957 years on similar charges. The office detailed that the 248 men were convicted of 43 counts of aggravated homicide, 42 count of disappearance of persons, 3 counts of aggravated femicide, 86 counts of extortion, 29 count of solicitation and conspiracy to commit murder, 32 counts of preparatory acts for illicit trafficking, 5 counts of illegal use or occupation of real estate, among other crimes committed by these criminals.

FOX News [12/22/2025 10:40 AM, Anders Hagstrom, 40621K] reports Australian authorities say the suspects in the Bondi Beach shooting filmed a video manifesto that was littered with antisemitism and Islamic State leanings. Investigators say that the father-son pair accused of carrying out the attack, 50-year-old Sajid Akram and 24-year-old Naveed Akram, may have been planning it for several months. Only the son survived the attack, and he now faces charges of murder and terrorism. Police referenced a video found on the son’s phone that displayed the pair’s "political and religious views and appear to summarise their justification for the Bondi terrorist attack.” The men are seen in the video "condemning the acts of Zionists" while they also "adhere to a religiously motivated ideology linked to Islamic State," police said. "There is evidence that the Accused and his father meticulously planned this terrorist attack for many months," police allege. Some of the footage, shot in October, shows the pair firing shotguns in the woods and "moving in a tactical manner.” The two hurled four improvised explosive devices toward a crowd but the devices failed to detonate, authorities said. The attack has placed heightened scrutiny on rising antisemitism in Australia and what Jewish leaders say was the government’s refusal to act against it. Australian Prime Minister Anthony AlbaneseAnthony Albanese was met with boos while attending a vigil honoring the victims of the Bondi Beach shooting on Sunday.

AP [12/22/2025 4:42 PM, Matthew Daly, 28013K] reports the Trump administration said Monday it is pausing leases for five large-scale offshore wind projects under construction along the East Coast due to what it said were national security risks identified by the Pentagon. The pause, effective immediately, is the latest step the administration has taken to hobble offshore wind in its push against renewable energy sources. It comes two weeks after a federal judge struck down President Donald Trump’s executive order blocking wind energy projects, calling it unlawful. The administration said the pause will give the Interior Department, which oversees offshore wind, time to work with the Defense Department and other agencies to assess the possible ways to mitigate any security risks posed by the projects. "The prime duty of the United States government is to protect the American people," Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement. "Today’s action addresses emerging national security risks, including the rapid evolution of the relevant adversary technologies, and the vulnerabilities created by large-scale offshore wind projects with proximity near our east coast population centers.” The statement did not detail the national security risks. Wind proponents slammed the move, saying it was another blow by the administration against clean energy. The administration said leases are paused for the Vineyard Wind project under construction in Massachusetts, Revolution Wind in Rhode Island and Connecticut, Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, and two projects in New York: Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind. The Interior Department said unclassified reports from the U.S. government have long found that the movement of massive turbine blades and the highly reflective towers create radar interference called "clutter." The clutter caused by offshore wind projects obscures legitimate moving targets and generates false targets in the vicinity of wind projects, the Interior Department said.

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ABC News [12/22/2025 1:50 PM, Michelle Stoddart, 30493K] Video: HERE
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Daily Caller [12/22/2025 11:00 AM, Audrey Streb, 835K]

The AP [12/22/2025 7:17 PM, Didi Tang, 19051K] reports the Federal Communications Commission on Monday said it would ban new foreign-made drones, a move that will keep new Chinese-made drones such as those from DJI and Autel out of the U.S. market. The announcement came a year after Congress passed a defense bill that raised national security concerns about Chinese-made drones, which have become a dominant player in the U.S., widely used in farming, mapping, law enforcement and filmmaking. The bill called for stopping the two Chinese companies from selling new drones in the U.S. if a review found they posed a risk to American national security. The deadline for the review was Dec. 23. The FCC said Monday the review found that all drones and critical components produced in foreign countries, not just by the two Chinese companies, posed "unacceptable risks to the national security of the United States and to the safety and security of U.S. persons." But it said specific drones or components would be exempt if the Pentagon or Department of Homeland Security determined they did not pose such risks. The FCC cited upcoming major events, such as the 2026 World Cup, America250 celebrations and the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, as reasons to address potential drone threats posed by "criminals, hostile foreign actors, and terrorists.” Michael Robbins, president and chief executive officer of AUVSI, the Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International, said in a statement that the industry group welcomes the decision. He said it’s time for the U.S. not only to reduce its dependence on China but build its own drones. "Recent history underscores why the United States must increase domestic drone production and secure its supply chains," Robbins said, citing Beijing’s willingness to restrict critical supplies such as rare earth magnets to serve its strategic interests. DJI said it was disappointed by the FCC decision. "While DJI was not singled out, no information has been released regarding what information was used by the Executive Branch in reaching its determination," it said in a statement. The Wall Street Journal [12/22/2025 8:46 PM, Heather Somerville, 646K] reports that the push to outlaw Chinese drones goes back to at least 2017, when the Army ordered soldiers to stop using DJI drones due to cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Washington has over the years flagged risks that the Chinese Communist Party could access data collected by DJI drones and potentially manipulate or interfere with the drones. Federal officials cautioned utility operators against using DJI drones to inspect dams and power grids, and the Defense Department labeled DJI a Chinese military company, a designation DJI unsuccessfully sued to get revoked. The FCC said that a White House-led group informed the commission on Sunday that drones from foreign countries posed “unacceptable risks,” prompting Monday’s ban. DJI has said the company welcomes a national-security review, and that independent reviews, including those from U.S. government bodies, have found its drones are secure. Its users can fly the drones without an internet connection and any collected images and data are stored locally. In a statement Monday, DJI said it was disappointed in the FCC decision and reiterated the security of its products. “Concerns about DJI’s data security have not been grounded in evidence and instead reflect protectionism, contrary to the principles of an open market,” the statement said. Autel didn’t respond to a request for comment. The ban has been met with uproar from large swaths of the nearly half a million certified American commercial drone pilots. DJI accounts for around 70% to 90% of commercial, local-government and hobbyist drones in the U.S. Many pilots are hoarding DJI drones and parts, sending last-ditch letters to their congressional representatives and the White House, and forecasting the demise of their livelihoods that rely on China-made drones for which they say there is no Western replacement.

Reported similarly:
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The Hill [12/22/2025 7:09 PM, Max Rego, 12595K]
CNN [12/23/2025 2:11 AM, John Liu, 606K]
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USA Today [12/22/2025 7:57 PM, Michael Loria, 67103K] reports President Donald Trump is renewing calls to take Greenland, the massive island controlled by Denmark, adding that a special envoy he appointed to the Arctic island would "lead the charge.” "We need Greenland for national security," Trump told reporters on Dec. 22, during an announcement that the U.S. would build a "new "Golden Fleet" of "Trump-class" battleships. "You look up and down the coast, you have Russian and Chinese ships all over the place. We need it for national security. We have to have it.” Trump’s comments come on the heels of appointing Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry as the United States’ special envoy to Greenland. Trump signalled he appointed Landry because "he’s a deal-maker-type guy.” Denmark, which bristled at Trump’s aims to take the island, summoned the U.S. ambassador in response to Landry’s appointment. "Out of nowhere, there is now a special U.S. presidential representative, who, according to himself, is tasked with taking over Greenland. This is, of course, completely unacceptable," Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told TV2. At the news conference on Dec. 22, Trump dismissed Denmark’s claims to Greenland. "Denmark has spent no money there, they have no military protection," the president said. "They say Denmark was there 300 years ago or something with a boat. Well, we were there with boats too, I’m sure.”

Breitbart [12/22/2025 12:33 PM, Jasmyn Jordan, 2416K] reports President Donald Trump has appointed Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry the United States Special Envoy to Greenland in a move that reflects his continued focus on the island’s strategic significance to United States national security. President Trump made the appointment official via a Truth Social post, stating: "I am pleased to announce that I am appointing the GREAT Governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, as the United States Special Envoy to Greenland. Jeff understands how essential Greenland is to our National Security, and will strongly advance our Country’s Interests for the Safety, Security, and Survival of our Allies, and indeed, the World. Congratulations Jeff!". Shortly after the president’s announcement, Governor Landry acknowledged the appointment on X, writing: "Thank you @realDonaldTrump! It’s an honor to serve you in this volunteer position to make Greenland a part of the U.S. This in no way affects my position as Governor of Louisiana!"

Axios [12/22/2025 11:22 AM, Barak Ravid and Avery Lotz, 12972K] reports U.S. ambassador to Denmark Ken Howery was summoned to the foreign ministry in Copenhagen on Monday after President Trump’s newly appointed envoy for Greenland called for making the island part of the U.S., according to Danish officials. The Danish government wasn’t informed in advance about the appointment of Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry as Greenland envoy, the officials said. It is not even clear whether the State Department knew about the appointment in advance of Trump’s announcement on Sunday.

Soon afterward, Landry said the mission of his part-time role was "to make Greenland a part of the U.S." Trump’s appointment and Landry’s statement renewed the tension between the U.S. and Denmark over Greenland after several months of calm. In his Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump said Landry — who will remain as governor while taking on the envoy role — "understands how essential Greenland is to our National Security." Landry has previously backed Washington’s push for jurisdiction over Greenland, writing in January: "We need to ensure that Greenland joins the United States." Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said the appointment was unacceptable, stressed he was upset by Landry’s comments, and summoned the U.S. ambassador in protest. Danish officials said the appointment and Landry’s remarks contradicted other messages they’ve received from U.S. officials over the last several months and as recently as two weeks ago.

Wall Street journal [12/22/2025 9:08 PM, Sune Engel Rasmussen, 646K] reports President Trump’s appointment of a special envoy for Greenland drew an angry response from Denmark and reignited its concerns about U.S. efforts to control the strategic Arctic territory. Trump on Sunday appointed Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry as envoy for Greenland, an autonomous island that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, saying on social media that Landry “understands how essential Greenland is to our National Security.” Landry on X called it an honor to take up the voluntary position “to make Greenland a part of the U.S.” Speaking to reporters Monday, Trump said Greenland was vital for the U.S.’s national security. “We need Greenland for national protection. They have a very small population. They say Denmark, but Denmark has spent no money. They have no military protection. They say Denmark was there 300 years ago or something with a boat,” he said. “Well, we were there with boats too I’m sure….not for its minerals. If you look up and down the coast of Greenland, you can see Russian and Chinese ships all over the place.” Denmark said it wasn’t informed about the appointment, adding to a sense in the Scandinavian nation that it is being kept in the dark about Washington’s real ambitions for Greenland, which constitutes 98% of the Kingdom’s territory. “We have said it before. Now, we say it again. National borders and the sovereignty of states are rooted in international law,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a joint statement. “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders, and the U.S. shall not take over Greenland. We expect respect for our joint territorial integrity.” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said he would summon the U.S. ambassador to express his discontent and demand an explanation for the appointment, which Rasmussen said came “out of nowhere.”

ABC News [12/22/2025 6:00 PM, Meredith Deliso, 30493K] reports President Donald Trump’s appointment of a United States special envoy to Greenland has drawn backlash from Danish and Greenlandic officials, who continue to push back against the president’s desire to take over the autonomous Danish territory. Trump announced on Sunday that he is appointing Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry as the U.S. special envoy to Greenland, saying in a social media post that the governor "understands how essential Greenland is to our National Security, and will strongly advance our Country’s Interests for the Safety, Security, and Survival of our Allies, and indeed, the World.” In response, Landry said on X that the special envoy position would be "a volunteer position to make Greenland a part of the U.S.” Following Trump’s announcement, the prime ministers of Denmark and Greenland reiterated that "national borders and the sovereignty of states are rooted in international law.” "You cannot annex another country. Not even with an argument about international security," the leaders said in a joint statement. "Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders and the U.S. shall not take over Greenland.” Denmark’s foreign affairs minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, also reacted strongly to the appointment and Landry’s remarks, telling reporters on Monday, "I am very upset about this appointment of a special envoy. And I am particularly upset about the envoy’s statements, which we find completely unacceptable.” Rasmussen said he would summon the U.S. ambassador to Denmark -- Ken Howery -- over the appointment to "once again make it clear that there are some lines being crossed here, but of course also to get an explanation.” "We thought that we now had a U.S. ambassador in Denmark, with whom we would have a relationship throughout the Kingdom," Rasmussen said. "I think we have already developed a good working relationship, and it is also my impression that the ambassador has that opinion. Out of nowhere, there is now a special U.S. presidential representative, who, according to himself, is tasked with taking over Greenland. This is, of course, completely unacceptable.” Landry appears to be the first U.S. special envoy to Greenland. He said Sunday that his role will not affect his current job as governor.

NewsMax [12/22/2025 10:57 PM, Michael Katz, 4109K] reports President Donald Trump gave a stern warning Monday to Colombian President Gustavo Petro, accusing him of allowing cocaine production to flourish and telling him to "watch it" after Petro asserted that parts of the southwestern U.S. were "invaded" territory. Trump was speaking with reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after announcing a plan to develop a new line of battleships. His remarks aired live on Newsmax and the Newsmax2 free online streaming platform. A reporter asked Trump about remarks Petro made over the weekend that Texas, California, and other parts of the southern United States were "invaded" territories, comments that escalated already strained relations between Washington and Bogotá. "He has to watch [it] because he has drug factories," Trump said. "They make cocaine in Colombia. "He’s no friend of the United States. He’s a very bad guy, and he’s got to watch his [expletive] because he makes cocaine, and they send it into the United States of America from Colombia." Trump emphasized his support for the Colombian people while criticizing the country’s leadership.

Reuters [12/22/2025 1:18 PM, Staff, 36480K] reports the U.S. has been conducting intelligence-gathering flights over large parts of Nigeria since late November, according to flight tracking data and current and former U.S. officials, in a sign of increased security cooperation between the countries. Reuters could not determine what information the flights are meant to obtain. But the flights in West Africa follow U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats in November to militarily intervene in Nigeria over what he says is its failure to stop violence targeting Christian communities. The flights also are occurring just months after a U.S. pilot working for a missionary agency was kidnapped in neighboring Niger. The U.S. contractor-operated aircraft used for the surveillance operations typically takes off from Ghana and flies over Nigeria before returning to Accra, the Ghanaian capital, the tracking data for December shows. Flight tracking data shows the operator is Mississippi-based Tenax Aerospace, which provides special mission aircraft and works closely with the U.S. military, according to the company’s website. Tenax Aerospace did not respond to a request for comment.

Daily Caller [12/22/2025 6:43 PM, Derek VanBuskirk, 835K] reports the U.S. has been conducting intelligence-gathering operations in Nigeria since late November, following Trump’s calls to investigate Christian persecution and prepare for possible intervention in the region, according to a Monday report. December flight data showed a U.S. contractor, Mississippi-based Tenax Aerospace, operating aircraft that took off from Ghana before surveilling Nigeria, according to Reuters. A former U.S. official told Reuters the aircraft is one of many assets that was moved to Ghana in November. He added that the team’s missions include tracking down a U.S. pilot who was kidnapped in Niger while working with a missionary agency, along with gathering information on terrorist organizations in Nigeria. Possible terrorists being surveilled could include Boko Haram, ISIS of West Africa, and the Fulani ethnic militia. These groups, which are based in Sharia law following northern states, often focus their attacks on the northern belt of the country, targeting Christians and moderate Islamists. The flight’s targeted information is unknown, according to Reuters. A current U.S. official confirmed the aircraft has been flying over Nigeria but declined to comment with further information, citing diplomatic sensitivity, according to Reuters. The Trump administration is working with Nigeria to "address religious violence, anti-Christian attacks, and the destabilizing spread of terrorism," another official told the outlet.

NewsMax [12/22/2025 6:38 PM, Staff, 4109K] reports Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., says U.S. defense assistance to Israel delivers massive returns for America’s national security, arguing the alliance provides intelligence, counterterrorism capabilities, and advanced technology the United States cannot replicate on its own. Speaking to reporters in Israel on Sunday after a two-day visit that included meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, U.S. military officials, and intelligence briefers, Graham urged the two nations to pursue a formal defense pact to cement cooperation beyond individual administrations. Graham dismissed claims that support for Israel among Republicans is weakening, calling the allegations disconnected from political reality. "There is no strong anti-Israel movement in the Republican Party," he said. "Loud voices do not represent the majority.” Citing South Carolina, Graham said more than 75% of Republican voters strongly support the U.S.-Israel relationship, a figure he said reflects broader national GOP sentiment. Supporting Israel, he added, remains a foundational Republican position. Graham described Israel as one of America’s most valuable strategic allies. "Israel is a great deal for America. The money we give Israel comes back tenfold in security, intelligence, and economic cooperation — especially in AI," he said. He pointed to intelligence sharing and counterterrorism expertise, warning that the U.S. would be severely disadvantaged in the region without Israel’s capabilities. "If Israeli intelligence disappeared tomorrow, America would be blind in the region," Graham said, noting the Israeli military’s experience cannot be duplicated by U.S. forces.

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