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.

AP [12/23/2025 6:51 PM, Aamer Madhani, 852K] reports the Trump administration is deploying 350 National Guard troops to New Orleans ahead of the New Year, launching another federal deployment in the city at the same time that an immigration crackdown led by Border Patrol is underway. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Tuesday that Guard members, as they have in other deployments in large cities, will be tasked with supporting federal law enforcement partners, including the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security. Parnell added that the National Guard troops will be deployed through February. Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, praised President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for coordinating the deployment and predicted the Guard’s presence would have a positive impact. “It’s going to help us further crack down on the violence here in the city of New Orleans and elsewhere around Louisiana,” Landry said in an appearance on the Fox News’ “The Will Cain Show.” “And so a big shoutout to both of them.” Critics have argued a National Guard deployment is unwarranted and could cause fear in the community, and they point out that New Orleans has actually seen a decrease in violent crime rates. The deployment of the National Guard to the Democrat-led city comes as Border Patrol agents have been carrying out an immigration crackdown since the beginning of the month. According to the Department of Homeland Security, agents have arrested several hundred people during the first couple weeks of what is expected to be a months-long operation that has a goal of 5,000 arrests. The president has also taken a shine to Landry. Trump on Sunday announced he was appointing the governor to serve as his special envoy to Greenland, the strategic, vast, semi-autonomous territory of Denmark that Trump has said the U.S. needs to take over.

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Bloomberg [12/23/2025 4:54 PM, Jen Judson, 18207K]

The New York Times [12/23/2025 4:10 PM, Ann E. Marimow, 153395K] reports the Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to allow President Trump to deploy hundreds of National Guard troops in the Chicago area over the objection of Illinois officials, casting doubt on the viability of similar deployments in other American cities. The justices’ order is preliminary, but it blocks the Trump administration for now from ordering the state-based military force to the Chicago area, where an immigration crackdown led to thousands of arrests and confrontations between residents and federal agents. In its three-page unsigned ruling against the administration, the court refused to grant the president broad discretion to deploy the military in U.S. cities, citing an 1878 law, which bans the use of the military for domestic policing. It represented a rare departure from recent cases, in which the conservative majority has overwhelmingly sided with Mr. Trump in preliminary tests of presidential power. At this stage in the litigation, the court said the Trump administration had not shown that the statute at issue “permits the president to federalize the Guard in the exercise of inherent authority to protect federal personnel and property in Illinois.” Three conservative justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch — noted their objections in lengthy dissents, with Justice Alito writing that “the protection of federal officers from potentially lethal attacks should not be thwarted.” In response to the ruling, Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said the president had promised to “work tirelessly to enforce our immigration laws and protect federal personnel from violent rioters.” She added: “He activated the National Guard to protect federal law enforcement officers, and to ensure rioters did not destroy federal buildings and property. Nothing in today’s ruling detracts from that core agenda.” Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois called the ruling a victory for democracy. CNN [12/23/2025 4:53 PM, John Fritze] reports that in a statement Tuesday, a White House spokeswoman said the ruling will not stop Trump’s efforts to enforce immigration laws, protect federal personnel and "safeguard the American public." In its order, the court said that the term "likely" refers to the standing military. Further, the court said the ability to federalize the guard under the law Trump attempted to invoke "likely applies only where the military could legally execute the laws." In other words, the court suggested, it does not apply to protecting agents enforcing immigration laws. The decision leaves Trump with few options if he wants to continue to deploy soldiers into cities — but not zero options. It appears likely that the president could still invoke the Insurrection Act, for instance, to deploy regular forces to Chicago and other cities. That may be a politically fraught move, however, because it challenges the longstanding prohibition on the military being used for law enforcement. Politico [12/23/2025 5:01 PM, Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney, 2100K] reports that in their ruling Tuesday, the justices noted that federal law generally bars use of the military for law enforcement, and they declared that the law Trump used to activate the Guard is likely to apply only when regular armed forces — the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines — are insufficient to maintain order. “At this preliminary stage, the Government has failed to identify a source of authority that would allow the military to execute the laws in Illinois,” the high court said in an unsigned order released more than two months after the administration asked the justices to weigh in. Three conservative justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch — dissented, while another conservative, Brett Kavanaugh, voted to deny Trump’s request but declined to join the majority’s explanation of the ruling. The Supreme Court’s decision turned down the administration’s bid to lift lower court orders that halted the president’s plan to use 500 National Guard soldiers from Illinois and Texas to respond to protests and unrest at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in suburban Chicago.

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Wall Street Journal [12/23/2025 4:59 PM, James Romoser, 646K]
Washington Post [12/23/2025 4:03 PM, Mark Berman and Julian Mark, 24149K]
Roll Call [12/23/2025 4:17 PM, Michael Macagnone, 548K]
AP [12/23/2025 7:07 PM, Mark Sherman, 31753K]
NBC News [12/23/2025 4:40 PM, Lawrence Hurley, 34509K]
Chicago Tribune [12/23/2025 6:40 PM, Jason Meisner, Jeremy Gorner, and Madeline Buckley, 4829K]
Washington Examiner [12/23/2025 4:05 PM, Jack Birle, 1394K]

CBS Chicago [12/23/2025 11:04 AM, Adam Harrington and Jessica Popowcer, 39474K] reports that the U.S. Department of Justice is suing Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Attorney General Kwame Raoul over a state law restricting immigration arrests. The recently signed Illinois Bivens Act (HB 1312) bans civil immigration arrests at courthouses, and allows people to file civil lawsuits if they believe federal agents have violated their constitutional rights. The Justice Department said states may not limit the work done by the federal government. The DOJ also said the Bivens Act threatens the safety of federal officers. "The Department of Justice will steadfastly protect law enforcement from unconstitutional state laws like Illinois’ that threaten massive punitive liability and compromise the safety of our officers," Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division said in a news release. In signing the act on Tuesday, Dec. 9, Pritzker said the state was "protecting people and institutions that belong here in Illinois." "Dropping your kid off at day care, going to the doctor, or attending your classes should not be a life-altering task," Pritzker said in part in a news release. "Illinois — in the face of cruelty and intimidation — has chosen solidarity and support." Thousands of people were arrested and detained by U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection agents during two and a half months of heightened enforcement action the Trump administration dubbed Operation Midway Blitz. NewsMax [12/23/2025 3:37 PM, James Morley III, 4109K] reports that, in a statement announcing the case, DOJ targeted the Illinois Bivens Act and the Court Access, Safety, and Participation Act, describing them as illegal efforts to "regulate and discriminate against the federal government" by creating new causes of action and allowing punitive damages against federal officers. DOJ said the measures could chill enforcement by threatening "ruinous liability" for agents carrying out federal duties and for steps taken to protect their identities and families, citing what it characterized as an "unprecedented wave" of harassment and doxing. The lawsuit is the latest flash point in a wider federal-state clash over enforcement of immigration law.The AP [12/23/2025 4:58 PM, Christine Fernando and John O’Connor, 852K] reports Democrat Pritzker has led the opposition to the Trump administration’s crackdown on migrants in Illinois, particularly because of the indiscriminate and sometimes-violent way they’re apprehended. Through a spokesperson, he reiterated that he’s not opposed to taking action on migrants who commit violent crimes and are in the country illegally. “However, the Trump administration’s masked agents are not targeting the ‘worst of the worst’ — they are harassing and detaining law-abiding U.S. citizens and Black and brown people at daycares, hospitals and courthouses,” spokesperson Jillian Kaehler said. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s “Operation Midway Blitz,” which appears to have largely wound down for now, arrested more than 4,000 people. Data on those arrested from early September through mid-October showed only 15% had criminal records, with traffic offenses, misdemeanors or nonviolent felonies comprising the vast majority. At issue are laws Pritzker signed earlier this month that ban civil arrests at and around courthouses statewide and require hospitals, day care centers and public universities to have procedures for handling civil immigration operations and protecting personal information.

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FOX News [12/23/2025 9:31 PM, Landon Mion, 40621K]

Reuters [12/23/2025 6:45 PM, Nate Raymond] reports a federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit the U.S. Department of Justice filed challenging a New York law that President Donald Trump’s administration said was impeding immigration enforcement. U.S. District Judge Anne Nardacci in Albany rejected the Justice Department’s arguments a New York law that bars the Democratic-led state from ⁠sharing vehicle and address information with federal immigration authorities violated the U.S. Constitution. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the lawsuit at a press conference in February as part of a legal campaign the Republican president’s administration has waged over laws adopted by so-called "sanctuary jurisdictions" run by Democrats. The lawsuit took aim at a state ⁠law known as the Driver’s License Access and Privacy Act, or the "Green Light Law," which the state enacted in 2019. The Justice Department under Trump alleged the law was impeding its ability to address a "crisis of illegal immigration" and argued the law interfered with the enforcement of federal immigration laws in New York. It argued the federal immigration law preempted the state law and that New York’s law impermissibly regulates the federal government in violation of the U.S. Constitution. The Justice Department asked the judge to block its enforcement. But Nardacci, who was appointed by Democratic former President Joe Biden, said the administration had failed to plausibly allege the law ran afoul of the Constitution. She said the administration could point to no federal statute requiring New York to provide DMV information for standard license applicants to federal immigration authorities.

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FOX News [12/24/2025 4:48 AM, Landon Mion, 153395K]

New York Post [12/23/2025 3:39 PM, Josh Koehn, 42219K] reports two suspects in a far-left "anti-capitalist, anti-government" extremist group have been charged with plotting to detonate weapons of mass destruction in and around Los Angeles in a bombshell grand jury indictment. Their alleged attack was designed to "completely pulverize" tech companies and logistics firms, prosecutors announced Tuesday. A federal grand jury slapped four members of the radical "Turtle Island Liberation Front" with terrorism charges, including conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, providing material support to terrorists and possession of unregistered firearms. Zachary Aaron Page, a 32-year-old trans woman, and Audrey Illeene Carroll, a 30-year-old who goes by the nickname "Black Moon," were both charged with one count of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction. All four defendants — Page, Caroll and Dante James Anthony-Gaffield, 24, and Tina Lai, 41 — are being held without bond. Page was denied a request to transfer to a women’s prison in a hearing last week. Micah James Legnon, a 29-year-old transgender Marine vet, was also arrested in Louisiana in connection with the alleged plot. After bombings on New Year’s Eve, the group planned to target Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and vehicles with firearms and pipe bombs.

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FOX News [12/23/2025 7:52 PM, Bonny Chu, 40621K]

AP [12/23/2025 7:16 PM, Staff, 31753K] reports a group of immigrant truckers sued California’s Department of Motor Vehicles on Tuesday, alleging the state violated thousands of workers’ rights when officials took action to revoke their commercial driver’s licenses. California officials said last month that the state notified about 17,000 truckers that their commercial driver’s licenses would be revoked because the expiration dates went past when the drivers were legally allowed to be in the U.S. That number has since grown to 21,000. The move came after the Trump administration started cracking down on states’ issuance of the licenses to immigrants. The federal government has threatened to withhold money from California, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and New York over the issue. The Sikh Coalition, a national group defending the civil rights of Sikhs, and the San Francisco-based Asian Law Caucus filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of the California drivers. "These drivers have spent years anchoring their lives to these careers, only to now face potential economic ruin through no fault of their own — they deserve better, and California must do better," said Munmeeth Kaur, the Sikh Coalition’s legal director, in a statement.

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San Francisco Chronicle [12/23/2025 8:58 PM, Bob Egelko, 4722K]

CBS News [12/23/2025 7:09 PM, Staff, 39474K] reports the man accused of shooting two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., last month has been charged with five additional federal felonies, according to a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national, is now facing charges of first-degree premeditated murder while armed, assault with intent to kill while armed, possession of a firearm during crime of violence or dangerous offense, transporting or receiving firearms in interstate or foreign commerce with the intent to commit a felony and transporting or shipping a stolen firearm in interstate or foreign commerce. Lakanwal had previously been charged with murder, assault with intent to kill while armed and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence for the shooting in Washington, D.C., Superior Court. He pleaded not guilty to those charges and has a court appearance scheduled for Jan. 2. Lakanwal is accused of shooting Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom and Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, both members of the West Virginia National Guard who had been deployed to the nation’s capital, in an ambush-style attack on Nov. 26. Beckstrom, 20, was shot in the head and died from her wounds the next day. Wolfe, 24, was also shot in the head and critically wounded. As of earlier this month, he was able to breathe on his own and could stand with assistance. His medical team said on Dec. 12 that he was ready to transition from acute care to inpatient rehabilitation, noting in a statement that he had made "extraordinary progress.". Lakanwal entered the United States in 2021, multiple law enforcement sources previously told CBS News. He came to the U.S. under a Biden-era program for Afghan nationals called Operation Allies Welcome, according to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. He and his family fled Taliban threats in Afghanistan’s Khost province and relocated to Kabul before being transferred to the United States, multiple U.S. officials told CBS News.

Washington Post [12/23/2025 9:52 AM, Steve Thompson, Olivia George, Emma Uber, and John D. Harden, 24149K] reports more than four months after President Trump declared a crime emergency in Washington, federal officers remain deeply involved in policing the city. As National Guard troops dressed in camouflage create the most visible federal presence, less-seen squads of federal police agents continue to patrol the streets alongside local officers. About a third of arrests in recent weeks examined by The Washington Post involved federal law enforcement, nearly matching the portion of federally assisted arrests during the first four weeks of Trump’s crackdown in D.C. that began in August, The Post found. The figures don’t include more than 1,100 people picked up by immigration officers in the city from early August to mid-October. Arrest reports show agents with the FBI, DEA, Homeland Security Investigations and other federal agencies riding in unmarked cars alongside D.C. Metropolitan Police officers, often stopping people on minor infractions in an effort to find drugs or guns. The Post has gathered more than 6,000 arrest reports filed in D.C. Superior Court since Trump’s crackdown began with a 30-day federal takeover of D.C. police. While arrests involving federal officers occur across all eight city wards, they are most heavily concentrated in neighborhoods that have historically experienced higher levels of poverty and violent crime. Many also have occurred in low-crime areas highly visible to the president and tourists, such as around the National Mall, the White House and Union Station. D.C. police did not respond to questions about how collaboration with federal agents has changed since the end of the crime emergency. Daniel Gleick, a spokesman for the mayor, declined to answer questions about the persisting presence of federal law enforcement on D.C. streets or what residents can expect in the new year. D.C. police data show violent crime in the District is down 29 percent compared to this time last year and 54 percent compared to 2023, when Pamela A. Smith was appointed police chief amid a generational spike in violence. National Guard members, while perhaps serving as a crime deterrent, have participated directly in few arrests, and their participation has consisted mainly of briefly detaining suspects during unfolding incidents until federal agents or local police officers arrive. As of Dec. 15, there were 2,527 Guard members in the city from 10 states and the D.C. National Guard. Their presence has prompted a legal challenge from D.C.’s attorney general. An appeals court on Dec. 17 allowed the troops to remain while litigation continues.

FOX News [12/23/2025 9:50 PM, Staff, 40621K] reports the FBI revealed Tuesday that total arrests for violent crimes have skyrocketed under the Trump administration compared with the same period under Biden. According to documents obtained by Fox News Digital, annual arrests remained steady under former President Joe Biden but quickly doubled in Trump’s first year in office. FBI Director Kash Patel said the staggering increase was directly driven by local bureaus receiving more resources to make America safer. "This is a direct result of the FBI prioritizing taking down violent crime and reorienting the Bureau to the focus off of Washington DC and give field personnel more tools they need to be successful in states and localities across the country," Patel said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "In just one year we have essentially doubled our number of violent crime arrests and made massive strides in helping make America safer than ever before.” Authorities noted that the reported arrests — which encompasses gang activity, transnational organized crime and child human trafficking — were tracked across 17 key field offices. Total arrests jumped to nearly 14,000 from Jan. 20 to Dec. 22, compared with roughly 6,000 to 7,000 annually over the previous four years, according to the statistics. Documents show arrests have skyrocketed across its key FBI bureaus. Buffalo led the nation with a staggering 400% jump, soaring from 125 to 642. Jackson’s arrests more than tripled, rising 264.5% from 248 to 904. New York, which recorded the highest volume of arrests, saw a 175.2% increase, climbing from 621 to 1,709. Nashville’s arrests surged 160% to 871, and Detroit saw a 150.8% rise, from 305 to 765. Outside of the top five offices, nearly every other bureau also saw increases including New Orleans, Miami, Houston and Dallas. The only decrease was in Seattle, where arrests fell by 7.5% from 320. The FBI also noted that total arrests, excluding crimes against children, more than doubled from 5,778 to 12,901.

NBC News [12/23/2025 2:00 PM, Lawrence Hurley, 34509K] reports that in his almost 45 years as a federal judge, John Coughenour has seen it all, including high-profile criminal trials that put his own safety at risk. But this year, the 84-year-old senior district judge did something he hadn’t considered for a long time: He retrieved a gun he had stored at the federal courthouse in Seattle years ago and brought it back to his home in case he needed it to defend himself. Coughenour is one of dozens of federal judges who have found themselves at the center of a political maelstrom as they have ruled against President Donald Trump or spoken up in defense of the judiciary. With Trump administration officials vilifying judges who rule against the government, a wave of violent threats and harassment has often followed. On Jan 23, just three days after Trump took office, Coughenour blocked an executive order aimed at limiting birthright citizenship, calling the proposal "blatantly unconstitutional." He was the first of several judges to rule against the administration on the issue, which is now before the Supreme Court. "They put it before a certain judge in Seattle I guess, right? And there’s no surprises with that judge," Trump said in the Oval Office later that same day. Coughenour was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981. The negative reaction soon followed. Within days, Coughenour was "swatted," which is when someone calls police with a false claim about a purportedly serious ongoing situation, sometimes with dangerous consequences when armed police arrive. In this instance, an anonymous person told the local sheriff’s department that the judge was barricaded into his house and had murdered his wife. Then, another caller told law enforcement there was a bomb in Coughenour’s mailbox.

FOX News [12/23/2025 8:42 AM, David Rutz, 40621K] Video: HERE reports viewers got a chance to see the "60 Minutes" segment about CECOT that divided CBS News, after the segment aired in Canada and quickly spread online Monday. The "Inside CECOT" segment that CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss pulled from airing on Sunday’s "60 Minutes" episode, leading to a sharp rebuke from its correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, was delivered to Canada’s Global TV app. Internet figures recorded it to make it available across the web before it could be pulled down again. Independent journalist Yashar Ali, who posted the video, reported this was "only part of the overall story" but this is what exists so far. Alfonsi interviews two Venezuelan men who were deported by the Trump administration to the notorious El Salvador prison. She said they endured "four months of hell," with the subjects describing assaults, disgusting living conditions and constant degrading behavior by guards. The segment that’s being spread online has no sit-down interviews with Trump officials or any administration statements beyond brief clips of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and President Donald Trump. Axios reported that the White House, Department of Homeland Security and State Department all provided statements to CBS, but none of them were included in the story. Alfonsi notes the Department of Homeland Security declined an interview request and referred CECOT questions to the El Salvadoran government, which didn’t respond to its request. Alfonsi recounted that the prison’s cramped conditions and reputation for brutal treatment have put it under the microscope of human rights watchdogs. At one point, she repeated a report that "nearly half" of the 252 Venezuelans sent to the prison didn’t have a criminal history, and she interviewed deputy Human Rights Watch Director Juan Pappier, who authored a report about torture at CECOT. In another portion, the segment airs Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s March speech in front of the prison, which featured silent, heavily tattooed prisoners behind her and drew harsh criticism from administration foes. Alfonsi then interviewed an "intrepid team of students" at the University of California-Berkeley’s Human Rights Center who she said proved that the men behind her during the speech were El Salvadorans, not the deported Venezuelans. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reported similarly:
New York Times [12/23/2025 5:54 PM, Michael M. Grynbaum, 135475K]

FOX News [12/23/2025 9:54 PM, Lindsay Kornick, 40621K] reports the White House sent CBS a statement that it did not use for the "60 Minutes" CECOT segment that was delayed by network editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, in which it called on the show to amplify stories of Angel Parents. "As ‘60 Minutes’ finalized its ‘Inside CECOT’ report last Thursday, CBS sent the White House a request for comment. A WH spokesperson responded within a few hours. The quote was not included in the ‘60’ report – so, judge for yourself whether it should have been included," CNN media analyst Brian Stelter wrote on X Tuesday. The statement from White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said, according to New York Times, "60 Minutes should spend their time and energy amplifying the stories of Angel Parents, whose innocent American children have tragically been murdered by vicious illegal aliens that President Trump are [sic] removing from the country.” Fox News Digital reached out to CBS and the White House for comment. Hours before "Inside CECOT" was set to air on Sunday, "60 Minutes" released a statement saying that the segment was being delayed after it was "determined it needed additional reporting." The segment, which was leaked online after airing in Canada, features correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi interviewing Venezuelan deportees who were sent to the El Salvador’s maximum-security prison after being deported by the Trump administration. Fox News Digital reported that CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss made the decision to delay the segment after determining that, while the interviews were "powerful," the story ultimately did not "advance the ball" and "was not ready.” While the segment omitted the White House statement, it included a clip of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying in March of the deported Venezuelan men, "These are heinous monsters, rapists, murderers, kidnappers, sexual assaulters, predators, who have no right to be in this country and they must be held accountable.” Alfonsi accused Weiss of spiking the story based on politics and suggested in a memo that the administration had been silent when she sought interviews. However, it’s been reported that the State Department and Department of Homeland Security, as well as the White House, sent on-the-record statements that weren’t included in the segment.

NewsMax [12/23/2025 11:09 PM, Staff, 4109K] reports Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons told Newsmax on Tuesday that a now-withdrawn "60 Minutes" segment alleging misconduct in the deportation of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador misrepresented how U.S. immigration enforcement operates and ignored key facts about those removed from the country. Lyons responded on "Rob Schmitt Tonight" to reports that "60 Minutes" had pulled a segment scheduled to air Sunday examining the deportation of roughly 250 Venezuelan nationals to El Salvador’s high-security CECOT prison. The segment, portions of which later circulated on social media, suggested the migrants were improperly detained despite committing no serious crimes beyond entering the U.S. illegally. "What’s frustrating for me is the fact that we don’t just randomly pick people to go to some country or some prison," Lyons said. "These were individuals that were either known or suspected gang members, had committed a crime in the United States, or were in the country illegally.” CECOT, El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, is a maximum-security prison built under President Nayib Bukele to house suspected gang members as part of his administration’s crackdown on violent crime. According to Lyons, the individuals highlighted in the "60 Minutes" segment could not be returned to Venezuela at the time because the Maduro government would not accept them. "For each one of those individuals, I don’t exactly know the specifics," Lyons said. "But what I’m saying is, we have a great third-country national system.” Lyons rejected claims that migrants were labeled gang members solely because of tattoos, saying ICE determinations are based on long-standing intelligence practices. "This is my fifth time working under a different administration," he said. "Gang intelligence is what we’ve been doing for so long. It’s based on solid criminal intelligence and solid investigative work, and we’ll stand by it.” He said ICE is enforcing the Immigration and Nationality Act as written, adding that criticism often intensifies when the agency carries out its mission. "When people see we’re actually enforcing the law the way it’s written, they get frustrated," Lyons said. Host Rob Schmitt criticized "60 Minutes" and other mainstream media outlets for prioritizing the El Salvador story while failing to investigate child sex trafficking linked to the open border policies of the Biden administration. Lyons agreed, citing a recent ICE raid in California that uncovered child labor trafficking at a marijuana grow operation. "We were out there with an actual criminal warrant, and we found children working underage," Lyons said. "But nobody covered that.” Lyons said ICE will continue its enforcement efforts regardless of political or media pressure. "We’re not going to let stuff like this stop us," he said.

FOX News [12/23/2025 1:04 PM, Breanne Deppisch Fox, 40621K] Video: HERE reports a federal judge on Monday ordered the Trump administration to provide due process to a class of Venezuelan migrants deported to El Salvador in March, and gave it two weeks to detail how it will do so – setting up another high-stakes clash between the White House and the federal courts. In March, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered the Trump administration to halt its plans to immediately use the 1798 Alien Enemies Act wartime immigration law to quickly deport hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to CECOT, a Salvadoran maximum-security prison. That did not happen, and the planes landed in El Salvador hours later. Boasberg concluded that the Trump administration’s actions were illegal, conducted in defiance of the court, and deprived the migrants in the CECOT class of their due process protections – including prior notice of removal, a "meaningful opportunity" to contest their removal from the U.S., and the ability to dispute their designation as a member of the Tren de Aragua gang. He ordered the Trump administration to submit to the court by Jan. 5 its plan to provide due process protections to the CECOT class – which he said the administration could do by either returning the migrants to the U.S. to have their cases heard in person, or to otherwise facilitate hearings abroad with members of the class that "satisfy the requirements of due process." "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," Boasberg said Monday. "Our law requires no less." The Justice Department is almost certain to appeal the order. Boasberg said Monday that the U.S. appeared to be operating with the knowledge that it had some level of constructive custody over the migrants detained at CECOT, citing the terms of an agreement made between the U.S. and El Salvador to house the migrants for at least a one-year period. He also cited multiple public remarks from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other senior DHS officials, which appear to cast CECOT as an "extension" of U.S. detention facilities. "These statements strongly undermine the Government’s contention that El Salvador retains complete discretion over what to do with individuals" removed from the U.S., he noted. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

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CBS News [12/23/2025 8:46 AM, Vlad Duthiers, 39474K]

ABC News [12/23/2025 8:43 AM, David Brennan and Caleigh Bartash, 30493K] reports U.S. Southern Command said in a statement late on Monday that a strike "at the direction" of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in the Eastern Pacific hit a vessel and killed one man it alleged to be a "narco-terrorist." "Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a low-profile vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations in international waters," the statement 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," it continued. "One male narco-terrorist was confirmed killed during this action." Monday’s strike brings the death toll to at least 105 people from known U.S. strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Eastern Pacific and Caribbean, which began in early September. FOX News [12/23/2025 6:01 AM, Alex Nitzberg, 40621K] Video: HERE reports War Secretary Pete Hegseth reposted U.S. Southern Command’s post on his personal X account. Trump has indicated that the U.S. will start conducting strikes on land. "And soon we’ll be starting the same program on land. The land is much easier," Trump said on Monday, claiming that each of the "boats that we knocked out saved 25,000 lives."

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NPR [12/23/2025 6:50 AM, Leila Fadel, 28013K] Audio: HERE

Reuters [12/23/2025 9:36 PM, Idrees Ali, Jonathan Saul, and Trevor Hunnicutt, 36480K] reports the U.S. Coast Guard is waiting for additional forces to arrive before potentially attempting to board and seize a Venezuela-linked oil tanker it has been pursuing since Sunday, a U.S. official and a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. The ship, which maritime groups have identified as the Bella 1, has refused to be boarded by the Coast Guard. That means that the task will likely fall to one of just two teams of specialists - known as Maritime Security Response Teams - who can board vessels under these circumstances, including by rappelling from helicopters. The days-long pursuit highlights the mismatch between the Trump administration’s desire to seize sanctioned oil tankers near Venezuela and the limited resources of the agency that is mainly carrying out operations, the Coast Guard. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment and Reuters could not determine what, if any other reasons, have led to the Coast Guard not seizing the vessel yet. Breitbart [12/24/2025 4:30 AM, Christian K. Caruzo, 2416K] reports President Donald Trump confirmed on Monday that the U.S. remains in active pursuit of the Bella 1 and detailed that the vessel “came from the wrong location, it came out of Venezuela.” The vessel was sanctioned by the United States in 2024 for its links to a Hezbollah-linked company that engaged in activities in support of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF). “The ship, which maritime groups have identified as the Bella 1, has refused to be boarded by the Coast Guard. That means that the task will likely fall to one of just two teams of specialists – known as Maritime Security Response Teams – who can board vessels under these circumstances, including by rappelling from helicopters,” Reuters wrote. Reuters, citing an unnamed U.S. official that spoke with the outlet on condition of anonymity, said that U.S. Coast Guards presently aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier “were from a Maritime Security Response Team and at the time too far from Bella 1 to carry out a boarding operation.”

Daily Wire [12/23/2025 2:22 PM, Tim Pearce, 2494K] reports the Trump administration moved more troops and military assets into the South Caribbean this week as the president continues to ratchet up pressure on Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro. The U.S. military moved a large number of special operations aircraft, soldiers, and more equipment into the area this week, according to The Wall Street Journal. The deployment comes as the United States has begun to seize oil tankers known for transporting sanctioned Venezuelan oil. In a press conference on Monday, Trump warned Maduro against playing "tough" with the U.S. military. "He can do whatever he wants. We have a massive armada formed, the biggest we’ve ever had – by far the biggest we’ve ever had in South America. He could do whatever he wants. It’s alright. Whatever he wants to do, if he wants to do something. If he plays tough, it’ll be the last time he’s ever able to play tough," said Trump. Maduro has accused the Trump administration of pursuing colonialism in South America and of violating international law. U.S. military operations against drug trafficking began in international waters off the coast of Venezuela over the summer and have resulted in dozens of drug boats being sunk by U.S. missiles.

Reuters [12/23/2025 3:16 PM, Mariana Parraga and Arathy Somasekhar, 36480K] reports that Venezuela’s state-run oil company PDVSA (PDVSA.UL) has started filling up tankers with crude and fuel oil it has in storage as inventories mount amid moves by the U.S. to seize Venezuela-linked ships, according to company documents and shipping data. The U.S. Coast Guard this month intercepted the Skipper and Centuries tankers in the Caribbean Sea, both fully loaded with Venezuelan crude, and was this week pursuing a third empty vessel that was approaching the OPEC country’s shore. The actions targeting some vessels of a so-called "shadow fleet" of ships carrying sanctioned oil, coupled with President Donald Trump’s announced blockade of all vessels subject to U.S. sanctions, has scared many ship owners away and left more than a dozen cargoes stuck in Venezuelan waters waiting to depart. The emerging backlog, as PDVSA produces about 1.1 million barrels of crude per day, is quickly filling the company’s onshore tanks, especially at the Jose terminal, which receives extra heavy oil from the country’s main output region, the Orinoco Belt, according to the documents. PDVSA began draining part of those inventories to oil tankers over the past weekend, shipping and company data showed, a strategy it has resorted to in past years to avoid cutting back oil production.

Breitbart [12/23/2025 1:08 PM, Christian K. Caruzo, 2416K] reports that Martínez-Acha stressed that Panamanian authorities are acting on clear and verifiable alerts regarding the vessels intercepted by the United States in the Caribbean, including oil tankers flying the Panamanian flag reported for alleged irregularities and links to illegal activities. On Saturday, the U.S. Coast Guard, in a joint operation with the Department of War, seized an oil tanker last docked in Venezuela. The U.S. Coast Guard identified the tanker as the Panama-flagged Centuries, and suggested it was bound for Asia, presumptively towards China. Similarly, reports published on Sunday indicated that the U.S. Coast Guard is actively in pursuit of the Bella 1 Panama-flagged oil tanker sanctioned by the United States in 2024 due to its links to a Hezbollah-linked company in support of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF). "The United States Coast Guard is in active pursuit of a sanctioned ‘dark fleet’ vessel that is part of Venezuela’s illegal sanctions evasion," an unnamed U.S. official told Reuters. "It is flying a false flag and under a judicial seizure order." President Donald Trump confirmed in remarks to a CNN reporter on Monday evening that the U.S. remains in active pursuit of the Bella 1 and detailed that the vessel "came from the wrong location, it came out of Venezuela." "It’s moving along and we’ll end up getting it," President Trump said.

Reuters [12/23/2025 1:30 PM, Staff, 36480K] reports Venezuela’s ruling-party controlled National Assembly unanimously approved a law on Tuesday that allows prison sentences of up to 20 years for anyone who promotes or finances what it describes as piracy or blockades. The law, which includes "other international crimes", comes after recent U.S. actions against Venezuelan oil shipments. The U.S. Coast Guard seized a sanctioned supertanker carrying Venezuelan crude earlier this month and attempted to intercept two other vessels linked to Venezuela over the weekend, U.S. officials said. The interceptions mark Washington’s toughest blow to state oil company PDVSA since its Treasury Department sanctioned the oil company’s former trading partners, two subsidiaries of Russia’s Rosneft, in 2020, forcing it to cut production and exports. PDVSA was already under sanctions since 2019. The draft "Law to Guarantee Freedom of Navigation and Commerce Against Piracy, Blockades, and Other International Illicit Acts" was introduced on Monday by pro-government lawmaker Giuseppe Alessandrello. National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez said at the end of the session the bill will be sent to the executive for approval and will take effect once published in the Official Gazette.

FOX News [12/23/2025 12:24 PM, Max Bacall, 40621K] reports that Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., defended the Trump administration’s seizure of oil tankers off the coast of Venezuela, arguing the enforcement of U.S. sanctions is legal, overdue and already hitting the Maduro regime’s bottom line. "This is illegal oil being moved in illegal tankers. We have judicial warrants to seize those tankers. It’s about time we did it," Kennedy said on "Hannity" Monday. Kennedy dismissed claims that the seizures were unlawful. "Sanctions are worthless unless you enforce the sanctions," Kennedy said, adding that the oil and ships were sanctioned and "flying under a false flag." "They’ve been doing that for a long time. And we didn’t enforce the sanctions," Kennedy said. "So now we’re doing it. And it is hurting the Maduro regime. Good. I’ll take a dozen of them." Kennedy called the Venezuelan government a "criminal organization," accusing President Nicolás Maduro of profiting "by selling poison to our kids" and trafficking illegal oil. He claimed Venezuela’s oil is being funneled to China, India and Cuba, singling out Havana as particularly vulnerable. "Cuba gets 40 to 50% of its oil from Venezuela," Kennedy said. "Without that oil, the communist regime in Cuba will eventually fail." "I think we ought to choke off Venezuela’s money. We got them down. Let’s choke them to death." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reuters [12/23/2025 9:29 PM, Kanishka Singh, 36480K] reports the U.S. on Tuesday said Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau spoke to Palau President Surangel Whipps about transferring third-country nationals to the Pacific Island nation, even after its lawmakers rejected a previous request from Washington on the matter. President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, including his administration’s deportation drive, have been broadly condemned by human rights advocates on concerns about due process. The Trump administration has also sent hundreds of people to third countries to which they have no ties, a tactic that was rarely used in the past. Trump has said the measures are aimed at improving domestic security. "The leaders discussed a new U.S.-Palau Memorandum of Understanding regarding the transfer of third-country nationals with no known criminal histories," the State Department said in a statement after Tuesday’s call. In late July, Palau’s Congress said it "cannot accept" a U.S. proposal for it to accept asylum seekers from other countries. Palau, with a population of 17,000, has a compact of free association with the U.S., which provides economic assistance in return for allowing American military access to its territory. Palau is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention. U.S. Catholic bishops have condemned Washington’s immigration enforcement activities and in October, Pope Leo XIV lamented the mistreatment of immigrants. Last week, a federal judge signaled a willingness to again rule that the Trump administration cannot swiftly deport migrants to countries other than their own without providing meaningful notice and an opportunity for them to raise fears of persecution or torture if they are sent there.

Daily Wire [12/23/2025 7:49 AM, Hank Berrien, 2494K] reports the White House said that President Donald Trump’s massive deportation operation will go on as planned after Florida’s Catholic bishops sent in a formal request on Monday, asking for a pause on immigration enforcement during the Christmas season. Led by Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski, the bishops appealed to Trump and Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, arguing that a temporary reprieve would show "decent regard for the humanity" of families. Archbishop Wenski contended that since the border is secure and high-priority criminals have largely been removed, current "maximum enforcement" operations are now sweeping up industrious, non-criminal workers. He referred to the "climate of fear and anxiety" among both illegal immigrants and their legal neighbors, particularly at facilities like "Alligator Alcatraz" in the Everglades. While the White House did not address the holiday pause specifically, spokeswoman Abigail Jackson stated, "President Trump was elected based on his promise to the American people to deport criminal illegal aliens. And he’s keeping that promise." Reuters [12/23/2025 3:38 PM, Jasper Ward, 36480K] reports Florida’s Catholic bishops are calling on U.S. President Donald Trump to halt immigration enforcement activities until after the Christmas holidays. In response, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said on Tuesday, "President Trump was elected based on his promise to the American people to deport criminal illegal aliens. And he’s keeping that promise." The appeal by the Florida bishops comes more than a month after the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a rare condemnation of the Trump administration immigration crackdown and advocated for "meaningful immigration reform." And in October Pope Leo decried mistreatment of immigrants.

Breitbart [12/23/2025 12:36 PM, Joshua Klein, 2416K] reports that on Sunday, Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) appeared on Newsmax, where he voiced support for President Donald Trump’s recent remarks about Democrat "Squad" member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and outlined his plans to pursue formal action against her in the U.S. House of Representatives. During a rally in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Donald Trump sharply criticized Omar, accusing her of fabricating stories and committing immigration fraud. "Ilhan Omar should be sent out of our country," Trump said. "She married her brother either to stay or to get him into the country… She’s a con person. She’s full of con." Responding to the remarks, Fine said he fully agreed with the president. "I agree with the president 100%," he said, describing Omar as "a walking example of everything that is wrong with our legal immigration policy." Fine said he believes Omar should not only be removed from Congress but expelled from the United States entirely. "We imported tens of thousands of people who hate America, add no value to it, rob and steal from us, and we’re supposed to be okay with it?" the Florida Republican asked. "I don’t think Ilhan Omar should be expelled from Congress. I think she should be expelled from the United States."

Blaze [12/23/2025 11:00 AM, Joe Abraham, 1442K] reports one of my daughter’s favorite parts of the holidays was being together with our entire family. She had a way of drawing everyone in, captivating us with her stories and adventures. She loved the lights, the sounds, and the energy of the season — the warmth and joy that made the holidays feel alive. This Christmas will my family’s first without her joy and her warmth. Her life was taken too soon by someone who shouldn’t have been here to begin with. It didn’t have to be this way, and those responsible should be held accountable. My daughter Katie Abraham was just 20 years old on January 19, when she was killed on the streets of Urbana, Illinois, by an illegal alien. Every day since has been marked by a void that cannot be filled — a pain that deepens as we approach the first anniversary of her death. Her life was stolen by Julio Cucul-Bol, an illegal alien using an alias, who fled on foot after slamming into the vehicle she was riding in at nearly 80 miles per hour. Bol was driving drunk and had previously been deported. In federal court, through an interpreter, he stated that he had no formal education, could not read or write in any language, and did not speak English — even after years in this country. I refuse to accept that what happened to my little girl was accidental. The factors that caused her death were deliberate, reckless, and completely avoidable. They are the direct result of extreme sanctuary policies championed by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) and his political allies. Illinois leaders deliberately ignore the harm these policies cause families like mine because acknowledging it would expose their recklessness. Compassion, in Illinois, seems reserved exclusively for illegal aliens — while victims and citizens are forgotten. Bol was eventually apprehended by U.S. marshals two days after President Trump took office, caught in south Texas while heading for the border. I am grateful to the president, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Department of Homeland Security, and ICE for securing the border immediately. Had Joe Biden and Alejandro Mayorkas remained in charge, I firmly believe Bol would have escaped into Mexico and would never have been held accountable.

FOX News [12/23/2025 5:48 PM, Peter Pinedo, 40621K] reports a Christmastime U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation named Operation "Angel’s Honor" in tribute to murdered Georgia nursing student Laken Riley netted over 1,000 criminal illegal aliens, according to the agency. In a Monday statement, ICE announced the "successful conclusion" of a 14-day enforcement operation that it said resulted in over 1,030 criminal illegal aliens arrested under the Laken Riley Act. The agency said the operation was codenamed "Angel’s Honor" in memory of Riley, who was murdered by Venezuelan illegal alien Jose Ibarra in 2024. Congress passed the Laken Riley Act with bipartisan support in January, and the measure was signed into law by President Donald Trump shortly after he took office. The law stipulates mandatory detention of non-citizens charged with specific crimes, including burglary, theft, larceny, shoplifting, assault on a law enforcement officer, or any crime causing serious bodily injury or death. In the Monday statement, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that Trump "empowered us to arrest and remove the millions of violent criminal illegal aliens unleashed on the United States by the previous administration." "Now, these criminals will face justice and be removed from our country," said Noem. "We can never bring Laken back, but we can do everything in our power to bring these heinous criminals to justice," she went on, adding, "I am so proud of what our brave men and women of ICE have done to remove these criminals from America’s streets." ICE highlighted some of the criminal illegals arrested during the operation, which included individuals who raped and tortured children.

Daily Wire [12/23/2025 8:26 AM, Leif Le Mahieu, 2494K] reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested more “worst of the worst” illegal aliens this week as Americans prepare to celebrate Christmas. Those arrested on Monday included illegals convicted of sex crimes, human trafficking, and assault. The arrests come as the Trump administration is looking to increase deportations before Christmas and offering a $3,000 stipend and free flight home for those who choose to self-deport. “This Christmas season, Americans can rejoice that these criminal illegal aliens are off their streets,” Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told The Daily Wire. ”Just yesterday, ICE arrested convicted sex abusers, violent assailants, and human traffickers. Our ICE law enforcement delivered the best gift for all Americans this year: safer neighborhoods.” Over the past two weeks, ICE arrested over 1,000 illegal aliens while conducting an operation in honor of Laken Riley, the 22-year-old nursing student who was murdered while out on a job by an illegal alien from Venezuela. The arrests were conducted under the authorization of the Laken Riley Act, which was signed by President Donald Trump in January. The law requires federal officials to arrest non-citizens accused of violent and theft-related crimes in the United States. “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,” said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Reported similarly:
Blaze [12/23/2025 5:27 PM, Candace Hathaway, 1442K]

FOX News [12/23/2025 12:34 PM, Staff, 10085K] reports that Former Acting I.C.E. Director Jonathan Fahey joins ‘Varney & Co.’ to break down new DHS data showing nearly 2 million migrants choosing self-deportation and a sharp rise in immigration court no-shows. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NewsMax [12/23/2025 10:56 AM, James Morley III, 4109K] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) posted a holiday-themed message on its official X account late Monday urging illegal aliens to "self-deport" using the government’s CBP Home app or face enforcement action. The post, accompanied by a brief AI-generated video portraying a hyper-stylized, physically fit Santa Claus in ICE gear, warns migrants to avoid "ICE Air" and Santa’s "naughty list," framing voluntary departure as a seasonal alternative to arrest and removal. In the video, the buff Santa processes an illegal alien at a federal facility before loading him onto an "ICE Air" plane for deportation. The message fits within a broader Department of Homeland Security effort to encourage voluntary departures by offering financial incentives through the CBP Home app, an approach officials say is intended to reduce the costs associated with detention and deportation operations. DHS has promoted the program as a faster and less resource-intensive option than traditional enforcement. The AI Santa video followed a Monday announcement by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem offering a $3,000 stipend and a free flight back to their home countries for illegal aliens willing to self-deport.

Reported similarly:
New York Post [12/23/2025 7:41 AM, Emily Crane, 42219K]
Breitbart [12/23/2025 2:14 PM, Alana Mastrangelo, 2416K]

Washington Post [12/23/2025 5:00 AM, Joyce Sohyun Lee and Drew Harwell, 24149K] reports for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement public affairs team, the nighttime operation across metro Houston in October was a gold mine. An ICE video producer shadowed agents as they pulled over and handcuffed more than 120 suspected undocumented immigrants, then sent the footage to a private team chatroom. Across thousands of internal ICE messages reviewed by Washington Post, this kind of celebration has become commonplace. The messages show how the team has worked closely with the White House, which has urged them to produce videos for social media of immigrant arrests and confrontations to portray its push for mass deportation as critical to protecting the American way of life. Before officials could post the Houston video, they had to figure out how to frame it. Officials did not know if all the arrestees had criminal records, they wrote in the chats, undermining a slogan the team had worked to promote on social media: that ICE targeted the "Worst of the Worst." After some discussion, the team decided on a compromise. Instead of arguing they’d snared hardened criminals, officials wrote a caption saying the arrests showed the dangers of "illegal aliens ... behind the wheel." Then, to maximize the video’s chances of going viral, they needed a soundtrack think country songs.. . this is Houston after all. They settled on a rap song by Nbhd Nick, which his label would later tell The Post was used without permission, that starts, "Oh, you thought this was a game, huh?" The video was posted to ICE’s social media channels, where it has been viewed more than 1 million times in total. For years, this ICE team had run like a routine government communications shop, dispensing public service announcements and press releases few Americans would see. But during President Donald Trump’s second term, ICE’s public affairs arm has rapidly transformed into an influencer-style media machine, churning out flashy videos of tactical operations and immigration raids. The internal communications reviewed by The Post show how the ICE team has coordinated with the White House, working to satisfy Trump aides’ demands to "flood the airwaves," as one official urged in the messages, with brash content showing immigrants being chased, grabbed and detained. DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said the White House had given the communications wings of DHS and ICE "autonomy to create content that is effectively reaching the American public." The social media posts that used copyrighted material without permission had been preapproved by administration lawyers, she said. DHS public affairs officials, she added, were proud to break with the strategies of past administrations because their work has proven more successful at getting people’s attention. "They were irrelevant," she said, "and we’ve made it matter."

NewsMax [12/23/2025 12:28 PM, Staff, 4109K] reports that Federal immigration enforcement officials said they have not used taxpayer data obtained from the IRS to carry out deportations, according to a new batch of court filings that shed light on how the Trump administration is navigating the line between immigration enforcement and long-standing tax privacy rules. The filings, submitted in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts in a lawsuit brought by the Community Economic Development Center of Southeastern Massachusetts, described Immigration and Customs Enforcement cross-referencing taxpayer information with a list of roughly 1.2 million illegal aliens who have final removal orders. ICE said the effort produced about 33,000 updated addresses earlier this year, Politico reported. But the agency contends it did not act on the data, even after its technology office made it available to personnel supporting enforcement and removal operations. In one sworn statement, an ICE Homeland Security Investigations official said the IRS data is currently "residing" on a government-issued computer belonging to a single "lead architect," who serves as the conduit for transferring data among stakeholders. The filing said, "At this juncture, only the lead architect has access" to the IRS data.

Daily Caller [12/23/2025 11:20 AM, Jason Cohen, 835K] reports "Takedown" host Chris Hansen said in a resurfaced video that he consistently caught illegal immigrant sexual predators during sting operations throughout the United States. Fox News originally posted the clip to Instagram on Feb. 12, but X user Wall Street Apes reshared it on Monday, where it garnered roughly 400,000 views as of Tuesday morning. Hansen, who became famous for his "To Catch A Predator" series on NBC News’ "Dateline," made the remarks just weeks after former President Joe Biden left office on Jan. 20, asserting that he had observed a surge in illegal immigrant predators caught during his stings regardless of location. "We have seen an increase in illegal immigrants being caught in our stings across the country," Hansen said. "And it seems today that we can’t do a sting whether we’re in the South or the Midwest or West Coast or East Coast without catching somebody who’s in this country illegally.". Around 11 million border encounters occurred from February 2021 until December 2024 under Biden, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data. The New York Times found in a December 2024 analysis that Biden oversaw the largest net migration in American history, with a majority of U.S.-bound migration occurring unlawfully. Hansen also discussed his work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on "Jesse Watters Primetime" in October. "In the last month, we have caught 45 predators seeking to exploit children. Seven of those were for a new investigative series we have going on with ICE ERO [Enforcement and Removal Operations]," Hansen said at the time. "They go out after these people who are here illegally but have also been convicted of crimes against children.".

Politico [12/23/2025 11:52 PM, Danny Nguyen, 2100K] reports federal immigration enforcement officials say they have not used taxpayer data obtained from the IRS to carry out deportations, according to a new batch of court filings. The disclosure late Monday, filed in the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, offered clarity into how Immigration and Customs Enforcement used taxpayer information to execute the Trump administration’s deportation blitz. ICE said it cross-referenced taxpayer data with a list of 1.2 million undocumented immigrants “with final removal orders and identified approximately 33,000 updated addresses” earlier this year. But the immigration enforcement agency said it did nothing with the data, even after its technology office made it available to a team responsible for “enforcement removal operations.” The filings were part of a lawsuit the advocacy group Community Economic Development Center of Southeastern Massachusetts filed against the IRS, Treasury, Social Security Administration, ICE and Homeland Security looking to stop the federal government from sharing taxpayer information like addresses with immigration enforcement. This data, the Massachusetts group argued, is typically protected from disclosure by a provision in the tax code.

CNN [12/23/2025 11:11 AM, Kara Harris, 18595K] Video: HERE reports Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales’ attorney says her client has a US birth certificate and other records proving citizenship. In a statement, Homeland Security claims the woman is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico and provided no evidence to support her citizenship status.

CBS New York [12/23/2025 6:08 PM, Carolyn Gusoff, 39474K] reports with detentions surging, CBS News New York’s Carolyn Gusoff went inside Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations on Long Island for a rare view of how, where and why arrests are made. Gusoff was invited to witness and document a targeted enforcement action with ICE before dawn at an undisclosed location in Nassau County, as well as question Long Island’s ICE boss without any restrictions, except not to show the faces of officers involved.

CBS New York [12/23/2025 6:05 PM, Staff, 39474K] Video: HERE reports CBS News New York’s Carolyn Gusoff got a rare view of a targeted ICE operation on Long Island to see how, where and why arrests are made.

New York Times [12/23/2025 8:17 PM, Mark Bonamo, 135475K] reports Representative LaMonica McIver on Tuesday returned to the migrant detention center in Newark where seven months ago she clashed with federal agents as they tried to arrest the city’s mayor.

The latest stop at the center, Delaney Hall, unfolded less dramatically, with Ms. McIver and two other members of Congress spending more than three hours touring the troubled, privately run detention center and emerging with stories of neglect and harsh conditions. In a news conference after the visit, Ms. McIver, Democrat of New Jersey, urged federal immigration officials to shut down the center, where a detainee suffered a fatal medical emergency recently and where four inmates in June staged a jailbreak through a flimsy wall. “There is not adequate food,” she said. “There is not adequate medical care. Women are not having access to OB-GYN or female products.” Ms. McIver was joined during the oversight visit by Representatives Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Yvette Clarke of New York, both Democrats. Mr. Menendez described detainees who were sick and coughing. “I saw grown men crying,” he said. “It breaks my heart. What you see inside that facility is a betrayal of the American dream.” The Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, defended conditions inside immigration detention centers, saying that migrants received medical, dental and mental health screening within 12 hours of arriving. The members of Congress “need to stop with the smears,” Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement. “ICE takes its commitment to promoting safe, secure, humane environments for those in our custody very seriously.”

Washington Examiner [12/23/2025 9:03 PM, David Zimmermann, 1394K] reports Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) on Tuesday advocated in support of the closure of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Newark, New Jersey, where she was arrested and charged in May for assaulting officers. The congresswoman described revisiting Delaney Hall as "traumatic" and claimed she was the one assaulted, not federal law enforcement. "We’re going to continue to say that this facility should not be open," she told reporters. "When we left out of there, a detainee told us, ‘This is not the America that we dreamed of.’". McIver’s public appearance outside the detention center comes nearly two weeks after an illegal Haitian immigrant died at Delaney Hall. ICE said the detainee, identified as 41-year-old Jean Wilson Brutus, died of "suspected natural causes" on Dec. 12. He was taken into custody the previous day. Democratic lawmakers suspect ICE may have played a role in events leading to Brutus’s death. "This tragedy is not an isolated incident, and we have seen neglect, abuse, and cruelty from this administration as they strip people of the rights this country affords everyone, including those in detention," McIver previously said. "Delaney Hall must be closed immediately and a full, independent, investigation needs to take place.” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) made a similar statement, calling out the "inhumane conditions" and "mismanagement" at the ICE facility, which, like Mike McIver, called for its closure. Reps. Rob Menendez (D-NJ) and Yvette Clarke (D-NY) joined McIver on Tuesday’s oversight visit. ICE is investigating the detainee’s death, Menendez said after the lawmakers asked about the matter. He accused the Trump administration of taking "advantage of a broken immigration system … for profit.” Clarke called attention to reports of four deaths in ICE facilities over a four-day period this month, casting blame on the Trump administration. She said it’s an "insult" if anyone argues the recent deaths are "isolated.” Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin defended ICE’s treatment of illegal detainees, saying they have "higher standards than most U.S. prisons that hold U.S. citizens.” "All detainees are provided with meals certified by dietitians and comprehensive medical care — often the best healthcare that many aliens have received in their entire lives," she noted. McIver has pleaded not guilty to the assault charges, which she alleges were politically motivated. A federal judge denied the defendant’s bid to dismiss her case last month. Two of the three charges are now set to proceed. The federal case has yet to go to trial.

NewsMax [12/23/2025 8:22 PM, Jim Thomas, 4109K] reports Illinois Democrat lawmakers said they gained entry this week to a Chicago-area Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility after months of resistance, marking a renewed flashpoint in the national debate over congressional oversight of immigration enforcement. A group of Illinois Democrats said Tuesday they were allowed into the Broadview ICE facility after earlier attempts were blocked, citing their authority as members of Congress to conduct oversight of federal detention operations. "@repdeliaramirez @RepDannyDavis @RepChuyGarcia and I finally were able to enter the Broadview ICE Facility after being denied entry in June," Rep. Jonathan Jackson, D-Ill., wrote on X. "It’s our right as members of congress to conduct oversight and bring to light the conditions our communities are being subjected to," Jackson added. The visit comes after a federal judge earlier this month blocked a Department of Homeland Security policy that sought to limit unannounced visits by lawmakers to immigration detention centers.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [12/23/2025 6:17 PM, Tara Suter, 12595K]

Breitbart.com [12/23/2025 10:58 AM, Amy Furr, 2416K] reports there are now reportedly 101 fewer illegal alien truck drivers on California highways following a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation. Operation Highway Sentinel saw illegals arrested from India, Mexico, Colombia, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Nicaragua, Russia, Georgia, Venezuela, El Salvador and Honduras, Fox News reported Monday. The arrests came after there were several deadly crashes linked to commercial driving licenses (CDLs) issued under the state’s Democrat governor, Gavin Newsom. California is the number one hub for illegal CDL licensing, which has caused a safety crisis for people across the nation, Breitbart News reported December 13. According to Fox, ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan explained: “Gavin Newsom’s sanctuary state policies are costing American lives. 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. 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.”

San Diego Union Tribune [12/23/2025 6:56 PM, Staff, 1538K] reports an anti-sex trafficking operation carried out by law enforcement agencies in San Diego, Chula Vista and National City earlier this month resulted in 10 arrests and the recovery of 19 alleged trafficking victims, authorities announced Tuesday. Operation Home for the Holidays was conducted over a three-day period and involved undercover officers posing as sex buyers in order to encounter potential traffickers and trafficking victims. Those arrested during the operation include four men charged with pimping, pandering and violating a protective order, who face anywhere between six and 20 years in prison if convicted, according to the District Attorney’s Office. Six others were issued misdemeanor citations for allegedly attempting to purchase sex. The 19 recovered individuals were offered support services, which the prosecutor’s office said will “help them escape and heal from exploitation and human trafficking.” Operation Home for the Holidays is an annual initiative conducted by the multi-agency San Diego Human Trafficking Task Force, which includes local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.

Bloomberg [12/23/2025 11:00 AM, Max Rivera, 18207K] reports that a California charter school operator has asked for permission to miss a financial cushion target required to cover its bond payments after enrollment slid at its mostly Hispanic campuses amid President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. Aspen Public Schools said that enrollment fell by 95 students in the academic school year that ended in May, costing it about $2 million in revenue, mostly from per-pupil state funding, according to regulatory filings. The operator runs three charter schools in Fresno, roughly 200 miles (321 kilometers) north of Los Angeles, in a region known for agriculture and farming. [Editorial note: consult extend commentary at source link]

Reuters [12/23/2025 11:22 AM, Nate Raymond, 36480K] reports immigrant rights advocates have filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s decision last month to end the temporary protections from deportation granted to more than 200 South Sudanese nationals. Four migrants from South Sudan, along with the non-profit African Communities Together, alleged in a lawsuit, filed in Boston federal court on Monday that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was unlawfully putting them at risk of losing their temporary protected status after January 5. The lawsuit argues the agency’s action violated the statute governing the TPS program, ignored the dire humanitarian conditions that remain in South Sudan, and was motivated by discrimination against migrants who are not white in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment. "This pattern reveals the administration’s true agenda: stripping protections from immigrant communities of color regardless of the dangers they face," Amaha Kassa, the executive director of African Communities Together, said in a statement. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The AP [12/23/2025 5:17 PM, Joey Cappelletti, 31753K] reports the Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday it was replacing its longstanding lottery system for H-1B work visas with a new approach that prioritizes skilled, higher-paid foreign workers. The change follows a series of actions by the Trump administration aimed at reshaping a visa program that critics say has become a pipeline for overseas workers willing to work for lower pay, but supporters say drives innovation. “The existing random selection process of H-1B registrations was exploited and abused by U.S. employers who were primarily seeking to import foreign workers at lower wages than they would pay American workers,” said U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman Matthew Tragesser. Earlier this year, President Donald Trump signed a proclamation imposing a $100,000 annual H-1B visa fee on highly skilled workers, which is being challenged in court. The president also rolled out a $1 million “gold card” visa as a pathway to U.S. citizenship for wealthy individuals. A press release announcing the new rule says it is “in line with other key changes the administration has made, such as the Presidential Proclamation that requires employers to pay an additional $100,000 per visa as a condition of eligibility.” Historically, H-1B visas have been awarded through a lottery system. This year, Amazon was by far the top recipient, with more than 10,000 visas approved, followed by Tata Consultancy Services, Microsoft, Apple and Google. California has the highest concentration of H-1B workers. Bloomberg Law [12/23/2025 10:35 AM, Andrew Kreighbaum, 803K] reports "The new weighted selection will better serve Congress’ intent for the H-1B program and strengthen America’s competitiveness by incentivizing American employers to petition for higher-paid, higher-skilled foreign workers," Matthew Tragesser, a spokesman for US Citizenship and Immigration Services, said in a statement. The annual lottery for 85,000 H-1B visa slots will be replaced—including 20,000 reserved for workers who hold at least a master’s degree—with a selection process that gives workers greater odds based on where they fall in four wage levels. Workers would be entered into the selection pool four times if assigned to the highest wage level, three times if in the third wage level, twice in the next wage level, and only once if assigned to the lowest wage band. The rule released Tuesday doesn’t make substantial changes from draft regulations released in September. Employer groups and think tanks warned USCIS that the proposal (RIN 1615-AD01) would undercut the administration’s intended goal of prioritizing the most economically valuable workers.

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [12/23/2025 11:07 PM, Staff, 2416K]
Blaze [12/23/2025 1:25 PM, Candace Hathaway, 1442K]

Bloomberg [12/24/2025 3:09 AM, Staff, 18207K] reports Bloomberg Daybreak Europe is your essential morning viewing to stay ahead. Live from London, we set the agenda for your day, catching you up with overnight markets news from the US and Asia. And we’ll tell you what matters for investors in Europe, giving you insight before trading begins. On today’s show, a federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration can go ahead with imposing a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visa applications. The decision is a setback for US tech companies that rely on hiring skilled foreign workers. The Trump administration has imposed visa sanctions on former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton and four other people for trying to make American tech companies police political speech.

Breitbart [12/23/2025 1:00 PM, Lucas Nolan, 2416K] reports that business Insider reports that tech giants Google and Apple have issued internal memos advising their employees who hold visas to refrain from traveling outside the United States. The companies’ law firms have warned that visa stamping appointments at U.S. embassies and consulates are experiencing significant delays, with some reported to be as long as 12 months. The memos, reviewed by Business Insider, were sent by BAL Immigration Law, representing Google, and Fragomen, representing Apple. Both firms strongly recommended that employees who require a valid visa stamp to re-enter the U.S. should avoid international travel to prevent the risk of an extended stay abroad. The delays are attributed to a new social media screening requirement implemented by the U.S. government, which applies to H-1B visa workers and their dependents, as well as students and exchange visitors. The Department of State confirmed that it is conducting "online presence reviews for applicants," and appointments may be rescheduled based on available resources. Applicants can request expedited slots on a case-by-case basis. A spokesperson for the Department of State emphasized that embassies and consulates worldwide, including those in India, are now prioritizing thorough vetting of each visa case above all else, even if it means longer wait times. Appointments in Ireland and Vietnam have also been postponed, according to the immigration firm Reddy Neumann Brown PC.

CBS News [12/23/2025 11:25 AM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez and Julia Ingram, 39474K] reports the Trump administration has mounted a nationwide campaign to void the asylum claims of thousands of immigrants with active cases in immigration court by arguing that they can be deported to countries that are not their own, according to internal government data obtained by CBS News. The effort appears to have intensified in recent weeks, targeting asylum-seekers with pending cases in immigration courts in Atlanta, New York, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Texas and elsewhere across the U.S., multiple immigration lawyers and certified legal representatives told CBS News. Immigration courts are not part of the judicial branch. Instead, they are administrative entities run by the Justice Department, which employs and oversees the judges that adjudicate the cases of people facing deportation. Lawyers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement represent the government in the proceedings. The administration’s new tactic involves ICE attorneys asking the immigration judges to toss out asylum claims without hearing them on the merits. In these requests, known as "pretermit" motions, ICE argues that asylum-seekers fearing persecution in their home countries can instead be deported to one of several nations the Trump administration has persuaded to accept deportees who are not their citizens. As part of the effort, ICE attorneys have asked immigration judges to order asylum-seekers deported to third countries like Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador and Uganda, according to court documents reviewed by CBS News and interviews with immigration lawyers. If granted, those petitions nullify asylum-seekers’ claims and clear the way for them to be deported to third countries, absent any appeals. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reported similarly:
Reuters [12/23/2025 10:23 AM, Staff, 31753K]

NewsMax [12/23/2025 4:47 PM, James Morley III, 4109K] reports U.S. immigration officials are detaining illegal aliens in green card interviews, turning what is typically a final step toward legal status into a point of arrest for some applicants, Axios reported Tuesday. Immigration attorneys told the outlet that in recent weeks, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have detained people at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services field offices immediately after marriage-based green card interviews, sometimes on the same day the underlying petition was approved. USCIS spokesman Matthew J. Tragesser defended the approach in a statement: "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." Immigration advocates and attorneys warn the arrests could deter otherwise eligible applicants from pursuing legal status.

FedScoop [12/23/2025 4:15 PM, Lindsey Wilkinson, 56K] reports nearly 50 House Democrats, led by New York’s Yvette Clarke, are requesting the Department of Homeland Security reconsider a proposed rule that would expand biometric data collection and allow its reuse across migration and naturalization processes. The expansion of biometric data collection for the department was introduced in a notice of proposed rulemaking published to the Federal Register in November. The proposal laid out plans to broaden DHS’s authorities by amending regulations governing biometrics use and collections and widening the scope. “The proposed rule provides no meaningful detail on how DHS will secure, limit, or oversee the new and expansive datasets it would create,” the congressional members said in the December letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow. “It lacks information on cybersecurity protections, retention limits, access controls, independent auditing, or transparency mechanisms.” The group of Democrats, which represent 19 states and the District of Columbia, warned of eroding privacy and public trust, pointing to recent breaches of biometric systems, the dangers of surveillance infrastructure and the lack of safeguards. “DHS must adopt a framework that protects individuals — not one that exposes millions of U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and immigrant families to unnecessary and unmitigated risk,” the lawmakers said.

DailySignal [12/23/2025 2:19 PM, Virginia Allen, 549K] reports that White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller says birthright citizenship is essentially an "illegal" immigration program. "One point not made enough on immigration: when you have a national program (an illegal suicidal one) of granting ‘birthright’ citizenship to the child of any and every foreigner who sets foot on your soil, you must be infinitely more cautious about who to allow into your country," Miller wrote on X Tuesday. The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Construction established birthright citizenship in 1868, stating: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." "Birthright citizenship also renders so many statistics invalid or absurd," Miller continued. "If any foreign national comes to the US and has a child, and that child uses welfare, fails a state test, commits a crime, goes to jail, etc. those outcomes are all recorded in the ‘American’ column." President Donald Trump thrust the issue into the news on his first day back in office on Jan. 20, when he signed the executive order "Protecting the Value and Meaning of American Citizenship" which aims to end automatic birthright citizenship. Trump’s executive order focuses on the phrase "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" and claims that children born to illegal immigrants are not subject to U.S. jurisdiction and thus are not legal citizens.

AP [12/23/2025 8:05 PM, Fatima Hussein, 28013K] reports the State Department announced Tuesday it was barring five Europeans it accused of leading efforts to pressure U.S. tech firms to censor or suppress American viewpoints. The Europeans, characterized by Secretary of State Marco Rubio as "radical" activists and "weaponized" nongovernmental organizations, fell afoul of a new visa policy announced in May to restrict the entry of foreigners deemed responsible for censorship of protected speech in the United States. "For far too long, ideologues in Europe have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose," Rubio posted on X. "The Trump Administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship.” The five Europeans were identified by Sarah Rogers, the under secretary of state for public diplomacy, in a series of posts on social media. They include the leaders of organizations that address digital hate and a former European Union commissioner who clashed with tech billionaire Elon Musk over broadcasting an online interview with Donald Trump. Rubio’s statement said they advanced foreign government censorship campaigns against Americans and U.S. companies, which he said created "potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences" for the U.S. The action to bar them from the U.S. is part of a Trump administration campaign against foreign influence over online speech, using immigration law rather than platform regulations or sanctions. The five Europeans named by Rogers are: Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate; Josephine Ballon and Anna-Lena von Hodenberg, leaders of HateAid, a German organization; Clare Melford, who runs the Global Disinformation Index; and former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton, who was responsible for digital affairs. Rogers in her post on X called Breton, a French business executive and former finance minister, the "mastermind" behind the EU’s Digital Services Act, which imposes a set of strict requirements designed to keep internet users safe online. This includes flagging harmful or illegal content like hate speech. She referred to Breton warning Musk of a possible "amplification of harmful content" by broadcasting his livestream interview with Trump in August 2024 when he was running for president. Breton responded Tuesday on X by noting that all 27 EU members voted for the Digital Services Act in 2022. "To our American friends: ‘Censorship isn’t where you think it is,’" he wrote.

Los Angeles Times [12/23/2025 11:29 AM, Andrea Castillo, 14862K] reports barely half an hour had passed since the flight landed at O’Hare International Airport, and the Army combat veteran’s palms were already sweating. Spencer Sullivan, 38, situated himself at the front of a crowd of people waiting near the exit for international arrivals. He knew it could be hours before his friend got through customs. Still, he said, "I’ve been waiting so long for this moment. I don’t want to miss it." It had been just over 13 years since Sullivan, who now works in corporate development, first began helping his former interpreter in Afghanistan petition for a visa to live in the U.S. The process had been full of big hopes and bigger letdowns. Then, after finally securing the visa in September, an Afghan immigrant was accused of shooting two National Guard members in Washington. In the politicized aftermath, Sullivan wondered, would his friend get in?

Houston Chronicle [12/23/2025 9:51 AM, Bayliss Wagner, 2983K] reports welcoming Afghan refugees used to be a rare point of unity for Republicans and Democrats. But in the aftermath of a deadly shooting last month, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and his GOP challenger, U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt, are abandoning their past support for resettling Afghan nationals, many of whom helped the U.S. in its longstanding war against the Taliban. Cornyn, a Republican who once touted his work on a 2021 law that smoothed out the vetting process for Afghan allies seeking special visas, has since deleted his office’s press release celebrating the effort. Hunt, who when asked about visas in 2024 told NOTUS that "we should be loyal back" to all of the Afghans "who were loyal to us," recently introduced legislation to shutter a visa program for Afghans who worked for U.S. forces. The shifting positions come as the two men are vying with Attorney General Ken Paxton for an endorsement from President Donald Trump, who has recently made the Afghan community a top target in his bid to crack down on immigration.

Federalist [12/23/2025 6:30 AM, Shawn Fleetwood, 785K] reports how many Chinese nationals with access to America’s university system have to be prosecuted before President Trump shuts off their ability to attend such institutions? It’s a question worth asking given the recurring nature of these individuals being charged by U.S. officials for alleged actions that could harm the security and national interests of the United States. On Friday, FBI Director Kash Patel announced that Youhuang Xiang, a J-1 visa holder and post-doctoral researcher from China, has been "charged with smuggling Escherichia coli (E. coli) into the U.S. and making false statements about it." Xiang was conducting post-doctoral research at Indiana University. "This is yet another example of a researcher from China – given the privilege to work at a U.S. university – who then allegedly chose to take part in a scheme to circumvent U.S. laws and receive biological materials hidden in a package originating from China," the FBI director said in an X post. Friday’s announcement came more than a month after the Justice Department charged two Chinese nationals with "conspiracy to smuggle biological materials into the United States." A third was charged with providing false statements to U.S. border officials. Similar to Xiang’s situation, these individuals were "conducting research" at the University of Michigan. Patel concluded his Friday statement by advising American colleges to "be vigilant of this trend" after noting "[t]he FBI will not tolerate any attempt to exploit our nation’s institutions for illegal activity." But it’s hard to take the administration’s warnings seriously when Trump is insistent on granting hundreds of thousands of Chinese nationals access to these premier research institutions every year.

CNN [12/23/2025 7:38 PM, Jennifer Hansler, 18595K] reports the US State Department on Tuesday imposed visa sanctions on a former top European Union official and employees of organizations that combat disinformation for alleged censorship – sharply ratcheting up the Trump administration’s fight against European regulations that have impacted digital platforms, far-right politicians and Trump allies, including Elon Musk. In a statement, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused the five sanctioned people of leading "organized efforts to coerce American platforms to censor, demonetize, and suppress American viewpoints they oppose.". Top Trump administration officials have repeatedly condemned European nations for alleged censorship, and the latest State Department human rights report alleged "significant human rights issues" in allies like the United Kingdom, France, and Germany over "serious restrictions on freedom of expression.". Among those sanctioned Tuesday are Thierry Breton, a former European commissioner involved in the Digital Services Act (DSA), a sweeping EU law that requires Big Tech platforms to take meaningful steps to reduce illegal and harmful content. In a social media post on Tuesday, Breton questioned: "Is McCarthy’s witch hunt back?", referencing the late senator’s Cold-War era inquisition of alleged communists who he claimed had infiltrated American government institutions. "To our American friends: ‘Censorship isn’t where you think it is,’" he said on X. The State Department also targeted the CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, Imran Ahmed. The organization says it "works to stop the spread of online hate and disinformation through innovative research, public campaigns and policy advocacy."

Telemundo [12/23/2025 9:30 PM, Michel R. Sisak, 2218K] reports a federal judge on Tuesday gave the green light to New York’s so-called Green Light Law, rejecting the Trump Administration’s request to prevent the state from issuing driver’s licenses without requiring applicants to prove they are in the country legally. Federal District Judge Anne M. Nardacci, in Albany, ruled that the Republican administration—which challenged the law as part of President Donald Trump’s campaign against illegal immigration—had failed to demonstrate that the state law usurped federal law or that it unlawfully regulated or discriminated against the federal government. The Justice Department sued the state over this law in February, naming Governor Kathy Hochul and state Attorney General Letitia James as defendants. At a press conference announcing the lawsuit, Attorney General Pam Bondi accused the officials, both Democrats, of prioritizing "illegal aliens over U.S. citizens." "As I’ve said from the beginning, our laws protect the rights of all New Yorkers and keep our communities safe," James said in a statement Friday. "I will always stand up for New Yorkers and the rule of law." A message was sent to the Department of Justice requesting comments. Nardacci, appointed by President Joe Biden, wrote that her job was not to assess the political merits of the Green Light Act. Rather, she said in a 23-page opinion, it was to evaluate whether the Trump administration’s arguments established that the law violates the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which gives federal laws precedence over state laws. The Administration, he wrote, "has failed to prove such a claim." The Green Light Act was enacted in part to improve public safety on the roads, as people without driver’s licenses sometimes drive without the required document or without having passed the driving test. The state also makes it easier for licensed drivers to obtain car insurance, which reduces accidents involving uninsured drivers. Under the law, people without a valid National Insurance number can present alternative forms of identification, such as valid passports and driving licenses issued in other countries. Applicants must obtain a permit and pass a practical driving test to be eligible for a standard driving license. This does not apply to commercial driving licenses. The Justice Department’s lawsuit sought to overturn the law, calling it "a frontal assault on federal immigration laws and the federal authorities that administer them." It highlighted a provision requiring the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles commissioner to report individuals who are in the country illegally when a federal immigration agency requested their information.

San Francisco Chronicle [12/23/2025 7:00 AM, Christian Leonard and Hanna Zakharenko, 4722K] reports the flow of immigrants to California was halved this year compared to last year, new estimates show, throttling the state’s post-pandemic population recovery. California’s net immigration — the estimated number of people moving from outside the U.S. to California minus the number leaving the U.S. from the state — was less than 130,000 from July 2024 to July 2025. From 2023 to 2024, the state saw a net flow of nearly 260,000 immigrants, according to new data from the California Department of Finance. The decline was seen across the state, with net immigration to San Francisco falling from 6,300 to 3,800 and even bigger drops in the Central Valley. The estimates, which mostly include immigrants accessing legal pathways and social services, indicate that President Donald Trump’s efforts to restrict immigration are having profound effects on California’s population. From July 2024 to July 2025, the state grew by just 0.05%, compared to almost 0.6% over the previous yearlong period. California has historically depended on immigration to counterbalance its population loss to other parts of the country. During Trump’s first term, his immigration policies contributed to California’s population decline, which experts said damaged the state’s economy and threatened its representation in Congress. The effects of Trump’s second term are likely to be even more far-reaching. His administration has sent immigration enforcement to schools, slashed options for asylum-seekers and made it much more expensive for companies to hire skilled immigrant workers.

Reuters [12/24/2025 3:27 AM, Sudip Kar-Gupta, 36480K] reports the French government condemned on Wednesday a visa ban imposed by the Trump administration on Thierry Breton, a former European Union commissioner who helped drive the EU’s Digital Services Act, which has recently targeted top U.S. tech companies. The Trump administration on Tuesday imposed visa bans on Breton and other anti-disinformation campaigners who it says were involved in censoring U.S. social media platforms, in the latest move in a campaign aimed at European rules that U.S. officials say go beyond legitimate regulation. "France strongly condemns the visa restriction imposed by the United States on Thierry Breton, former minister and European Commissioner, and four other European figures," wrote French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on X on Wednesday. Breton, a former French finance minister and the European commissioner for the internal market from 2019 to 2024, was the most high-profile individual targeted. Breton was replaced in the internal market role at the EU by another French politician, Stephane Sejourne, who is the EU Commission’s executive vice president. Sejourne also criticised the U.S. visa ban and defended the EU’s Digital Services Act. "No sanction will silence the sovereignty of the European peoples. Total solidarity with him and all the people of Europe affected by this," wrote Sejourne on X. U.S. Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers, when outlining the bans on Tuesday, described Breton as a "mastermind" of the Digital Services Act, which was again defended by Barrot on Wednesday. This month, Elon Musk’s X platform was fined 120 million euros by the EU for breaching online content rules. "The Digital Services Act was democratically adopted in Europe to ensure that what is illegal offline is also illegal online. It has absolutely no extraterritorial reach and in no way affects the United States," wrote Barrot on X. Breton himself also condemned the visa ban against him. "Is McCarthy’s witch hunt back? As a reminder: 90% of the European Parliament — our democratically elected body — and all 27 Member States unanimously voted the DSA. To our American friends: Censorship isn’t where you think it is," wrote Breton on X.

Washington Examiner [12/24/2025 4:00 AM, Anna Giaritelli, 1394K] reports Border Patrol agents spent much of 2025 enforcing immigration laws inside the United States, far from the nation’s borders with Canada and Mexico. Michael Banks, the Border Patrol’s national chief, told the Washington Examiner that the public can expect to continue seeing an unprecedented level of cooperation between Border Patrol and the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in President Donald Trump’s second year in office. “We are the United States Border Patrol, who will go anywhere in the United States of America, apprehend illegal aliens, prosecute them, and return them to their country or to a country that are amenable to be returned to,” Banks said. “Gone are the days where, if you got past the U.S. Border Patrol, you were free to go, you were free to live out your life and not have to worry about deportation,” Banks said. The Border Patrol has traversed the West Coast, East Coast, north and south over the past six months, going deep inside the country. Agents are normally stationed along the border to guard against people, goods, and vehicles that attempt to enter unchecked between ports of entry.

FOX Business [12/23/2025 5:16 PM, Staff, 10085K] Video: HERE reports Border Patrol chief Michael Banks discusses the Trump administration’s continued efforts to secure U.S. borders on ‘Kudlow.

NewsMax [12/23/2025 12:17 PM, Jim Mishler, 4109K] reports that the U.S. Department of the Treasury has launched an enforcement operation targeting more than 100 money services businesses operating along the southwest border. They were hit for potential violations tied to money laundering and illicit finance. The effort is being led by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which oversees compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act for nonbank financial institutions, including money transmitters, currency exchangers, and check cashers. Treasury said the review focuses on businesses operating in high-risk areas near the U.S.-Mexico border that may be exposed to proceeds from drug trafficking, human smuggling, and other criminal activity. According to FinCEN, the operation has resulted in six notices of investigation, dozens of examination referrals to the Internal Revenue Service, and more than 50 compliance outreach letters. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the enforcement effort follows direction from President Donald Trump to disrupt cartel-related financial activity and strengthen border security. Treasury said the actions are intended to address vulnerabilities created by money services businesses that appear to be out of compliance with federal anti-money-laundering laws. FinCEN said the operation is based on an analysis of more than 1 million Currency Transaction Reports and about 87,000 Suspicious Activity Reports submitted by financial institutions.

Bloomberg [12/23/2025 1:41 PM, Adam M. Taylor, 803K] reports that a federal judge denied Masmo Corp.’s request to block Apple Watch imports as part of its lawsuit against US Customs and Border Protection over an earlier import ban related to patents covering blood-oxygen sensors. Judge Ana C. Reyes denied as moot Masimo’s August motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction in a minute order issued Tuesday. Reyes paused the lawsuit in the US District Court for the District of Columbia last month after the US International Trade Commission launched a new proceeding examining changes to Apple Inc.’s smartwatch designs to determine if they should be covered by... [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

New York Times [12/23/2025 8:17 PM, Guy Trebay, 135475K] reports “He is one of those people that make this small town click,” said Nelson Hammell, who runs an antiques shop in West Palm Beach, Fla. Mr. Hammell was referring to José Gonzalez, the manager and public face of Bice Ristorante, an upscale Italian restaurant in Palm Beach, the winter home to President Trump and some of the world’s wealthiest people. On Dec. 10, Mr. Gonzalez, 53, was stopped by Florida Highway Patrol while driving a nephew’s pickup truck. The apparent offense was having tinted car windows. Mr. Gonzalez was arrested and turned over to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Then, as has happened to thousands of others in Florida, he was taken deep into the Everglades to the state-run immigration detention center known as Alligator Alcatraz. On Monday, nearly two weeks after his arrest, Mr. Gonzalez was released. Jeffrey Devore, the lawyer representing Mr. Gonzalez, said he had done nothing wrong. “He has a valid work permit and driver’s license,” Mr. Devore said, “so we hope this is the end of this.” He added that Mr. Gonzalez has “a pending asylum case,” dating to before his detention. In a statement on Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security said of Mr. Gonzalez: “All of his claims will be heard before an immigration judge, and he will receive full due process.”

Washington Examiner [12/23/2025 6:00 AM, Anna Giaritelli, 1394K] reports the Trump administration will soon install more than 500 miles of buoy barrier at the United States-Mexico border, marking the first time the U.S. government has used a water-based defense system to stop illegal immigration, the Border Patrol’s national chief told the Washington Examiner. Construction teams will start dropping the red-orange floating devices in the Rio Grande along Texas’ southern border in early 2026, Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks said. "We’re going to start laying the first string of those buoys down in the Rio Grande Valley in the first part of 2026," Banks said in a video interview on Dec. 19. "We’ve contracted over 500 miles of it. We’re looking at probably, ultimately, around 900 miles in the river in Texas." The only buoys used in border security in national history stretched roughly one mile in length and were installed by Texas during the Biden administration. This hefty addition will link up with Texas’s smaller project in Eagle Pass, and is expected to further reduce illegal border crossings, which are at 55-year lows. The project was funded with money that Congress included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law in July. The line of buoys is the latest flashy action that the Trump administration will take to carry out the president’s campaign promise of regaining control of the southern border following the Biden-era border crisis. The buoys are intended to prevent migrants in Mexico from wading across the river and entering the United States illegally. Trump is "very aware" of the buoy project and has endorsed the plan, Banks said. He also said it is backed by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. "I have never seen this much support from a president and a secretary," Banks said. "The support is even greater than it was in his first administration, as he’s continued to learn and grow in his understanding and knowledge on the border." The White House reiterated the president’s support for the Border Patrol.

NewsMax [12/23/2025 3:26 PM, Theodore Bunker, 4109K] reports the Trump administration plans to install about 900 miles of floating buoy barriers in the Rio Grande along Texas’ southern border, a major expansion of a water-based border deterrent that has been the subject of years of legal and humanitarian debate. U.S. Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks said construction is expected to begin in early 2026, with the first phase covering roughly 500 miles and a second phase adding another 400 miles. Banks described the project as a "first line of defense" intended to prevent migrants from crossing the river into the United States and to speed agent response through added detection technology that alerts authorities to movement. The project carries an estimated cost of $500 million and is funded through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law by Trump in July. The buoy plan would extend from near the Gulf by Brownsville westward along the Rio Grande, according to Banks. The system will not be installed in shallow stretches, and officials said the placement can be adjusted as river conditions change.

Breitbart [12/23/2025 10:14 AM, Randy Clark, 2416K] reports Border Patrol agents in Southern California arrested nearly 50 illegal aliens operating semi‑trucks with state‑issued commercial driver’s licenses in just three weeks, exposing what federal officials say is a growing public‑safety crisis tied to California’s rubber‑stamped licensing system. The arrests—made at El Centro Sector highway checkpoints and during a multi‑agency trucking sweep—come as the U.S. Department of Transportation threatens to withhold millions in highway funds unless the state reins in its improper issuance of commercial licenses to non‑citizens. The drivers were observed operating semi-tractor-trailers at checkpoints within the Border Patrol’s El Centro Sector on state highways 86 and 111. Between November 23 and December 12, agents assigned to the Indio, California, station working at the two checkpoints arrested 42 illegal aliens with commercial driver’s licenses. In another simultaneous multi-agency operation, an additional seven illegal aliens were found with valid commercial driver’s licenses in Ontario and Fontana, California by Indio Station agents. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), of those arrested, 30 were Indian citizens, two were from El Salvador, and the remainder were from China, Eritrea, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Russia, Somalia, Turkey, and Ukraine. Of the 31 commercial driver’s license holders encountered at border checkpoints, 31 were issued by the State of California. The remainder were issued by Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington. Acting Border Patrol Chief Joseph Remenar of the El Centro Sector commented on the results of the operation, saying, "El Centro Sector personnel are stalwart defenders of our nation’s security, whether that occurs at the border or in the interior of the United States. Since the beginning of Fiscal Year 2026, El Centro Sector’s arrests of individuals in the interior have surpassed those at the border, directly illustrating what can be accomplished when a secure border is achieved.".

Federal News Network [12/23/2025 4:46 PM, Justin Doubleday, 986K] reports TSA has said it plans to end the collective bargaining agreement and implement a new "labor framework" for airport screeners starting Jan. 11. House Democrats are urging the Transportation Security Administration to abandon efforts to do away with a collective bargaining agreement covering some 47,000 TSA airport screeners. In a Dec. 23 letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and acting TSA Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill, 12 Democrats on the Homeland Security Committee say they have "deep concern" about the latest attempt to overturn TSA’s union agreement. The letter signees include Homeland Security Committee Ranking Member Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and subcommittee on transportation and maritime security Ranking Member LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.). Their letter points to an ongoing case in federal court over the Department of Homeland Security’s directive to end TSA’s collective bargaining agreement. The judge in that case issued a preliminary injunction in June blocking DHS’s previous efforts to dissolve the agreement. TSA has said it plans to eliminate the collective bargaining agreement and implement a new "labor framework" for the agency starting Jan. 11.

The Hill [12/23/2025 1:34 PM, Max Rego, 12595K] reports that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is prepared for a record-breaking holiday travel season, the agency noted Monday. TSA said in a press release that it is fully staffed and is ready to screen a projected 44.3 million travelers from Friday, Dec. 19, through Sunday, Jan. 4. The agency expects the busiest day of travel to be Sunday, Dec. 28 — with roughly 2.86 million people projected to fly — followed by Dec. 19, 20, 21, 27 and 29. So far Tuesday, more than 2,800 flights within, into or out of the U.S. have been delayed, with more than 80 such flights canceled, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware. A winter storm is sweeping through the Northeast early this week, although it is unclear how many of the disrupted flights have been impacted by the weather. Last year, the agency screened nearly 39 million passengers during the two-week holiday season, calling it the agency’s “busiest end of year holiday travel period ever.” The latest projections come after TSA screened 3.13 million people on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, a new single-day record. Each of the 10 busiest travel days occurred in the last two years. Air travel was significantly impacted by the 43-day government shutdown in October and November, as TSA agents and air traffic controllers missed multiple paychecks and many elected to take second jobs. Amid the funding lapse and resulting staffing shortages, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reduced flight capacity at 40 major airports around the country. The FAA lifted the restrictions days after the federal government reopened on Nov. 13.

New York Post [12/23/2025 1:16 PM, Brooke Steinberg, 42219K] reports that shine bright this holiday season — just not at the airport. The Transportation Security Administration issued a timely reminder against wearing sparkly clothes while traveling this holiday season. "TSA PSA: The body scanners don’t love sparkles. We don’t want to dull your holiday shine but we don’t recommend wearing your sparkly holiday sweater to the airport," the organization’s memo read. Items commonly featured on holiday sweaters, such as glitter, metallic threads, sequins, and rhinestones, can trigger the scanner and lead to extra screening from the TSA. "Sparkles or sequins? Cause those are two different things, darling," one person jokingly asked — before the TSA clarified that they indeed meant both. Turns out, this faux pas is more common than one may think. Many travelers wrote in the comment section about times their festive garb caused a stir at airport security. "Sadly, this is true," one person said, sharing that they have a shirt with "sparkly yarn pieces" sporadically running through it. "They ended up having to have me be completely patted down because they couldn’t determine anything on the scanner.". "I learned this lesson years ago when the pockets on my jeans had embellishments and I had micro bead extensions in," someone commented. "I got asked to never wear my metallic pineapple pants to the airport again," another admitted.

Breitbart [12/24/2025 2:52 AM, Staff, 2416K] reports a judge in Oregon ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration cannot require states to account for how deportations have affected their populations in order to receive emergency or disaster preparedness funds. U.S. Magistrate Judge Amy Potter’s ruling came in response to a lawsuit from 11 states challenging new requirements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which they argued created undue burdens on access to hundreds of millions of dollars that could be used to prepare for floods, storms, acts of terrorism and other potential catastrophes. The ruling is a setback for President Donald Trump as he has sought to remake the federal agency that is central to responding to disasters after earlier calling for it to be dissolved. The ruling concerned a new FEMA policy that shortened the duration of grants to states from three years to one. The agency argued that the shorter period would allow it to better gauge the effectiveness of how states were using the money. FEMA also required states to provide updated figures on their populations to reflect the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation efforts. Population counts have traditionally been the responsibility of the U.S. Census Bureau. A group of 11 states – including Michigan, Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, Wisconsin and Kentucky – sued in response to the new requirements. They argued that the requirements violated the Administrative Procedures Act and imperiled funding used for outreach programs in Hawaii, the deployment of emergency management personnel in North Carolina during tropical storms and staff to respond to flash floods in Maryland. "This abrupt change in policy is particularly harmful to local emergency management," wrote Potter. In Oregon, affected funds were used to help cover the expenses of local emergency managers across the state, she wrote. Axios [12/24/2025 1:39 AM, Rebecca Falconer, 12972K] reports New York’s attorney general called the Trump-appointed judge’s ruling that was scathing of the administration a "significant win" for N.Y. and the 10 other Democratic-run states and D.C., which brought the lawsuit. The grants were from the Homeland Security Grant Program, which provides states and local governments with "critical resources to plan for and prevent natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and other emergencies," N.Y. Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. A George W. Bush-appointed judge in September struck down a Trump administration policy of withholding funding from states unwilling to cooperate with ICE, after D.C. and 20 states sued the DHS and FEMA. D.C. and the 11 states filed a fresh lawsuit that month, saying the DHS had indicated it was reallocating hundreds of millions of dollars of anticipated awards to "sanctuary jurisdictions" elsewhere. Others to join the suit U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy ruled on Tuesday are the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. McElroy wrote in her ruling, which the DHS has indicated it will appeal, that the case marked "another example" of the administration tying federal grant funding to state and local government assistance with federal immigration enforcement. "Defendants’ wanton abuse of their role in federal grant administration is particularly troublesome given the fact that they have been entrusted with a most solemn duty: safeguarding our nation and its citizens," wrote McElroy in the ruling in Rhode Island, which found the administration had violated the Administrative Procedure Act. To "hold hostage funding" for programs that are designed to protect Americans "based solely on what appear to be Defendants’ political whims is unconscionable and, at least here, unlawful," McElroy added. James said in her statement the Trump administration’s "attempt to play politics" with funding that’s designed to keep people safe "was illegal and put our state at risk" and the ruling would help in state officials’ efforts to protect residents "from reckless funding cuts." "This judicial sabotage threatens the safety of our states, counties, towns, and weakens the entire nation," DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to AP. "We will fight to restore these critical reforms and protect American lives." NewsMax [12/23/2025 11:01 AM, Jim Mishler, 4109K] reports McElroy was appointed to the federal bench by President Donald Trump in 2019 after being nominated in May of that year and confirmed by the Senate in September. The final ruling followed a temporary restraining order that McElroy issued on Sept. 30, soon after the lawsuit was filed. That order blocked the Federal Emergency Management Agency from reallocating $233 million in Homeland Security Grant Program funds away from states with policies limiting cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. The temporary order signaled the direction of the court’s final decision and halted the funding shifts while the case proceeded. In her summary judgment ruling, McElroy held that the federal government may not condition or withhold grant funding based on whether states or local governments cooperate with federal immigration enforcement without clear authorization from Congress.

Reported similarly:
New York Times [12/23/2025 9:44 PM, Scott Dance, 135475K]
AP [12/23/2025 6:01 PM, Kimberlee Kruesi, 4722K]
Univision [12/24/2025 3:44 AM, Staff, 5004K]

Federal News Network [12/23/2025 10:38 AM, Michele Sandiford, 986K] reports the Federal Emergency Management Agency would be required to create a universal disaster assistance application under a bill passed by the Senate last week. The goal of the Disaster Assistance Simplification Act is to make it easier for disaster survivors to access federal aid. Lawmakers say the current process is complex and time consuming, with different agencies using different forms. The bill would also require all information shared between FEMA and partner agencies to meet federal data security standards. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

Bloomberg Law [12/23/2025 10:12 AM, Staff, 803K] reports the Federal Emergency Management Agency diverted counterterrorism and security grants away from so-called "sanctuary" states in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, a Rhode Island federal district court ruled. The government’s decision to "hold hostage funding for programs" that protect Americans "based solely on what appears to be Defendants’ political whims" is unlawful, said Judge Mary S. McElroy of the US District Court for the District of Rhode Island in a Monday order.

Washington Examiner [12/23/2025 4:28 PM, David Zimmermann, 1394K] reports New York Attorney General Letitia James boasted about her new legal victory on Tuesday against the Department of Homeland Security over disaster funding cuts to the state. James was one of 12 Democratic attorneys general who sued the Trump administration after their states were alerted they would receive reduced funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The funding cuts were made in response to the "sanctuary" states’ refusal to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. Funding for the $1 billion Homeland Security Grant Program was intended to protect national security and emergency response programs, the New York official argued. DHS reallocated that funding in September, prompting James and others to file an additional lawsuit after winning a previous case. U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy, who was appointed by President Donald Trump in 2019, sided with the plaintiffs in this case. She concluded that the funding set aside for counterterrorism and law enforcement programs was indeed "vital." As a result, DHS was ordered to return the money originally allocated to the plaintiff states.

CBS Colorado [12/24/2025 12:27 AM, Spencer Wilson, 39474K] reports that, after a destructive summer full of wildfires, and now being denied federal support, leaders in Rio Blanco County said they are still searching for answers and relief and are left with one big question, "Why?". Back in August, the Lee Fire tore through more than 137,000 acres of Rio Blanco County, forcing evacuations and putting the town of Meeker at serious risk. County Commissioner Callie Scritchfield remembers just how close it came. "It was nip and tuck for a couple of days, saving the town of Meeker," Scritchfield said. When the flames finally died down, the focus shifted to recovery. That included rebuilding critical infrastructure, including power lines damaged or destroyed by the fire. White River Electric, the cooperative that serves much of the county, moved quickly to restore service. The system is back on, but strained and the cost has been steep. "We’re talking about $25 million," Scritchfield said, referring to the scale of repairs needed. Rio Blanco county commissioners said they were hopeful Gov. Jared Polis’ submission for a federal disaster declaration request would be granted in order to help cover wildfire and flood recovery costs across western Colorado. That request was ultimately denied by the federal government. "There was a lot of hope and anticipation that we would be approved," Scritchfield said. "It was definitely a downer, very frustrating and a lack of understanding of why.” County officials said the costs the power company has racked up repairing power lines destroyed in the fire should have qualified them for federal public assistance. Scritchfield points to damage estimates well above FEMA’s usual threshold. "To qualify for public assistance is roughly 10 million dollars," Scritchfield said. "We’re talking about $25 million -- just from White River Electric." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

San Francisco Chronicle [12/23/2025 9:36 PM, Anthony Edwards, 4722K] reports as officials warn of damaging winds, flooding rain and blizzard-like snow, California also may face another form of severe weather: tornadoes. A rare alignment of atmospheric conditions will set the stage for potential waterspouts and tornadoes along the California coast Tuesday night through Friday. That window for potential twisters is much longer than usual and, while risk is low for any specific place, meteorologists and climate scientists say it is possible that someplace will see a tornado. The Central Valley also is at risk of funnel clouds and tornadoes Wednesday. This is "the most favorable setup for more than a couple waterspouts/brief tornadoes than I’ve seen in quite some time in this part of the world," said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UC Agriculture and Natural Resources.

NewsNation [12/23/2025 1:04 PM, Sophia Fanning, 8017K] reports that on Monday evening, the U.S. Coast Guard officially suspended the search for two missing boaters who took off on a fishing trip from Fort Myers last week and never returned. USCG said the search covered around 6,700 square miles, based on the boater’s last known position. Randall Spivey, 57, and his nephew Brandon Billmaier, 33, left early Friday morning from a residential dock and were supposed to return home that afternoon. When the men hadn’t come back by Friday night, Billmaier’s wife, Deborah Billmaier, contacted the U.S. Coast Guard, she wrote on Facebook. A few hours later, their 42-foot boat was discovered, still in gear, roughly 70 miles offshore, but the men were nowhere to be found. By Saturday morning, an extensive search had been launched, and local boaters had begun volunteering to join the efforts. So many offered to help that USCG asked civilian searchers to coordinate with them so they wouldn’t interfere with the official Search and Rescue crews. On Sunday, Deborah Billmaier wrote on Facebook that USCG informed her that the vessel’s Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) was still onboard, meaning Spivey and Billmaier would not be able to signal their position to rescuers. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Breitbart [12/23/2025 11:50 AM, Bob Price, 2416K] reports that authorities say a Mexican Navy King Air carrying eight people—including a pediatric burn patient en route to Shriners Children’s Hospital—crashed into Galveston Bay Monday afternoon amid dense coastal fog. Two survivors were pulled from the wreckage as Texas DPS, the Coast Guard, and local agencies launched a large‑scale rescue and recovery operation. According to the Mexican Consulate in Houston, six people died as the Mexican Navy medical aircraft crashed into Gavleston Bay. The dead included all four naval crew members, a patient, and a doctor, Fox 26 Houston reported. Consular officials said a companion of the patient and a nurse survived the crash. KHOU, CBS 11, reports that fast-acting residents of nearby communities were able to pull the survivors from the water of Galveston Bay. One of the survivors is described as a woman who was trapped in the wreckage of the aircraft. The Mexican Navy Beechcraft King Air 350 crashed while attempting to land in zero visibility fog at Galveston’s Scholes International Airport on Monday afternoon. The aircraft was assigned to transport a child burn patient to Shriners’ Children’s Hospital in Galveston. The flight departed from Mérida, Mexico, for the flight to Galveston. Initial reports attributed the dense fog as a contributing factor in the fatal crash. The National Transportation Safety Board and Texas Department of Public Safety will conduct a full investigation into the crash.

AP [12/23/2025 1:41 PM, Hallie Golden and Megan Janetsky, 31753K] reports air traffic controllers lost communication for about 10 minutes with a small Mexican Navy plane carrying a young medical patient and seven others before it crashed off the Texas coast, killing at least five people, Mexico’s president said Tuesday. Authorities initially believed the plane had landed safely at its destination in Galveston, near Houston, before learning it had gone down Monday afternoon, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said. The cause of the crash remains under investigation. A search-and-rescue operation in waters near Galveston pulled two survivors from the plane’s wreckage, while one remained missing, Mexico’s Navy said. Four of the eight people aboard were Navy officers and four were civilians, including a child, Mexico’s Navy said. Two of the passengers were affiliated with a nonprofit that helps transport Mexican children with severe burns to a hospital in Galveston. "My condolences to the families of the sailors who unfortunately died in this accident and to the people who were traveling on board," Sheinbaum said in her morning press briefing, without elaborating on a possible cause. "What happened is very tragic.". U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Luke Baker said at least five aboard had died but did not identify which passengers. The plane crashed Monday afternoon in a bay near the base of the causeway connecting Galveston Island to the mainland. Emergency responders rushed to the scene near the popular beach destination about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Houston. It’s not immediately clear if weather was a factor. The area was experiencing foggy conditions over the past few days, according to Cameron Batiste, a National Weather Service meteorologist. He said that at about 2:30 p.m. Monday a fog came in that had about a half-mile visibility. Teams from the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board were at the crash site Monday, the Texas Department of Public Safety said, and a spokesperson for the NTSB said the agency was gathering information about the crash. Mexico’s Navy said the plane was helping with a medical mission in coordination with the Michou and Mau Foundation. In a social media post, the foundation offered condolences to the families and said it shared their grief "with respect and compassion.".

NBC News [12/23/2025 7:03 AM, Elmira Aliieva, 34509K] reports hundreds of job applications from suspected North Korean operatives have been blocked by Amazon, according to the U.S. tech giant’s chief security officer, amid growing concerns over cyber scams connected to Pyongyang. "Their objective is typically straightforward: get hired, get paid, and funnel wages back to fund the regime’s weapons programs," Stephen Schmidt wrote in a LinkedIn post on Friday, adding that applicants were using fake or stolen identities to pursue remote IT jobs in the U.S. and worldwide. "We’ve stopped more than 1,800 suspected DPRK operatives from joining since April 2024," he said, using the acronym for the secretive communist state’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. "We’ve detected 27% more DPRK-affiliated applications quarter over quarter this year," he added. The fraud was detected by Amazon’s AI-powered application screening system combined with manual verification by its staff, he said. Schmidt said that the agents often use so-called "laptop farms" — computers physically based in the U.S. but operated remotely from abroad — to conceal their true locations. In June, the Department of Justice said it uncovered 29 illegal "laptop farms" across the U.S. which were being used by North Korean IT workers.

CNN [12/23/2025 1:34 PM, Dakin Andone, 606K] reports that with questions swirling about Brown University’s security after this month’s fatal shooting on the Providence, Rhode Island, campus, the Department of Education on Monday announced it would probe whether the school violated federal law. The department said in a news release it would investigate potential violations of the Clery Act, a law the department said conditions the receipt of federal student aid on a college or university’s ability to meet certain safety standards. "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," Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement announcing the review. Brown faced tough questions in the days after the shooting, which left two students dead and nine wounded, as the search for the suspect initially appeared to stall. Tips eventually led police last Thursday to a New Hampshire storage facility, where the 48-year-old suspect, Claudio Neves Valente, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Particular scrutiny was given to Brown’s security cameras, which seemingly failed to capture actionable images of the suspect. Officials also faced questions about the security of the Barus & Holley building, where the shooting took place and where the doors were unlocked when the gunman entered. And they have sought to clarify what a university spokesperson described as "misunderstanding" about the campus emergency alert system.

FOX News [12/23/2025 11:35 AM, Adam Sabes, 40621K] reports that Brown University placed its police chief on leave after a deadly campus shooting claimed the lives of two people and left another nine injured. Vice President for Public Safety and Emergency Management Rodney Chatman was placed on administrative leave, Brown University President Christina H. Paxson announced on Monday. Her action comes just over a week after authorities said 48-year-old Claudio Manuel Neves Valente opened fire at the university’s Barus and Holley engineering and physics building on Dec. 13. Five victims remain at Rhode Island Hospital in stable condition. Former Providence Police Department Chief Hugh T. Clements was appointed to replace Chatman on an interim basis. Paxson’s decision came as the Department of Education opened an investigation into Brown University for potential violations of the Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Act (Clery Act). The Clery Act requires colleges to meet certain campus safety and security-related requirements as a condition of receiving federal student aid. "After two students were horrifically murdered at Brown University when a shooter opened fire in a campus building, the Department is initiating a review of Brown to determine if it has upheld its obligation under the law to vigilantly maintain campus security," Education Secretary Linda McMahon said.

Daily Caller [12/23/2025 11:47 AM, Caden Olson, 835K] reports that a Brown University janitor said he noticed suspicious behavior of the Dec. 13 campus shooting suspect nearly a dozen times over the weeks leading up to the fatal attack. Derek Lisi, who has served as a custodian at Brown University for 15 years, claims he saw now-deceased Portuguese national Claudio Neves Valente, 48, "pacing the hallways, peering into classrooms, and ducking into a bathroom to avoid being seen," according to a Tuesday Boston Globe report. "I had caught him the last time on Dec. 1, and I was right behind him as he was coming in the building," Lisi said in a recent interview. "I was coming back for my break, and I went right to the [Event Staffing Services] staff and I had said to the ESS staff member, ‘Hey, this guy looks suspicious… He just went in the bathroom, you should go check him out.’ He’s like, ‘I’m not here for that.’" On Dec. 13, Neves Valente allegedly opened fire at Brown University in Providence, R.I., killing two students and wounding nine others. He also allegedly killed Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nuno Loureiro at Loureiro’s home in Brookline, Mass. two days after the Brown shooting. Neves Valente was found dead with gunshot wound to the head on Dec. 18 after a five day manhunt. Autopsy results released the following day confirmed the manner of death was suicide.

Blaze [12/23/2025 7:25 PM, Carlos Garcia, 1442K] reports a Delaware state trooper was killed in a shooting Tuesday at a DMV facility in New Castle County, according to police. Law enforcement officials responded to an active shooter situation at the facility in Minquadale on Hessler Boulevard at about 2 p.m. "Law enforcement acted swiftly to secure the scene, and the shooter has been confirmed deceased," Gov. Matt Meyer (D) wrote on social media. "State and local law enforcement are on the scene and coordinating response efforts. Please avoid the area and follow guidance from authorities.". He added that there was no active threat to the public.

CBS News [12/23/2025 10:35 AM, Dan Raby, 39474K] reports a Kenyan man will spend the rest of his life in prison for plotting what prosecutors called a "9/11-style attack" on Atlanta’s tallest building on behalf of an Africa-based terrorist organization. On Monday, a federal judge sentenced 34-year-old Cholo Abdi Abdullah to two consecutive life sentences as well as a lifetime of supervised release for planning to hijack a commercial airliner and targeting Atlanta’s 55-story Bank of America Plaza as part of a campaign by Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen, commonly known as al-Shabaab. In 2024, a jury in Manhattan found Abdullah guilty on six counts: conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, conspiring to murder U.S. nationals abroad, conspiring to commit aircraft piracy, conspiring to destroy aircraft, and conspiring to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries. Federal prosecutors said Abdullah joined al-Shabaab in 2015 and went through extensive training in explosives and how to operate in secret and avoid detection. "He agreed to join al-Shabaab’s international scheme to execute a mass-casualty terrorist attack, which would involve Abdullah training to become an airline pilot so that he could hijack a commercial plane and crash it into a building in the U.S.," the Department of Justice wrote in a release.

Reported similarly:
USA Today [12/23/2025 11:43 AM, Irene Wright, 67103K]

FOX News [12/23/2025 9:00 AM, Peter Pinedo Fox, 40621K] Video: HERE reports after designating two prominent Islamic groups "foreign terrorist organizations," Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott gave insight into his plan to "purge" both terrorists and terror supporters from his state. Abbott, who is a close ally of President Donald Trump and is running for a fourth term as governor, recently issued a proclamation designating the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Muslim Brotherhood as "foreign terrorist organizations" and "transnational criminal organizations" under Texas law. In an interview with Fox News Digital, Abbott explained that the designation means that CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood and their affiliates are prohibited from purchasing or acquiring land in Texas. The proclamation also authorizes state agencies to take heightened enforcement measures and legal action against the two organizations. In response, two Texas CAIR chapters filed a federal lawsuit against Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, arguing that the proclamation violates the U.S. Constitution by exceeding state authority and infringing on due process rights. Abbott, however, appeared undaunted. He said that the "very important point" of his actions is to show that "when we as a state or we as a country step up and show there are legal consequences for you trying to violate religious freedom, when you try to impose your religion on somebody else, or whether you may be supporting some type of terror group, that there’s going to be consequences to it, that you will be brought into a court of law and be held accountable." "Any organization that supports terrorism, that harbors people who have provided material support for terrorism, is not allowed to exist in our state," said Abbott, adding, "We will purge them from our state, they should be purged from our country, and they definitely should not be receiving tax-exempt status in our country." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The Hill [12/23/2025 10:06 AM, Ashleigh Fields, 12595K] reports President Trump on Tuesday condemned a New York Times report outlining his proximity to Jeffrey Epstein amid the disgraced financier’s illegal activities tied to an underground sex trafficking ring. “The Failing New York Times, and their lies and purposeful misrepresentations, is a serious threat to the National Security of our Nation,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “Their Radical Left, Unhinged Behavior, writing FAKE Articles and Opinions in a never ending way, must be dealt with and stopped. THEY ARE A TRUE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE! Thank you for you attention to this matter,” he added. The president has adamantly denied all accusations on wrongdoing linked to Epstein and signed a law last month requiring the release of all information tied to the disgraced financier’s estate. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal attorney who is helping to oversee the release of the files, said materials involving the president will be included in the data dump. However, the Times’s report asserted the president’s closeness to Epstein has been improperly characterized.

Reported similarly:
New York Post [12/23/2025 12:05 PM, Alexandra Steigrad, 42219K]
Daily Wire [12/23/2025 8:16 AM, Leif Le Mahieu, 2494K]

Reuters [12/23/2025 5:14 PM, Courtney Rozen, 36480K] reports that roughly 25,000 people have expressed interest in joining the Trump administration’s cadre of engineers known as Tech Force, a senior Trump administration official said on Tuesday, as the U.S. government looks to install staff with artificial intelligence expertise in federal roles. The Trump administration will use that list to recruit software and data engineers, in addition to other tech roles, said Scott Kupor, director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, in a post on X. Reuters could not independently verify the 25,000 figure. The interested candidates will compete for 1,000 spots in the first Tech Force cohort. The recruits will spend two years working on technology projects inside federal agencies, including the Departments of Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, and Justice, among other government offices, Kupor said previously. The hiring initiative is part of the Trump administration’s AI agenda. Previous U.S. presidents have launched similar initiatives to bring tech talent into government, including former President Joe Biden. President Donald Trump, in the first months of his second term, focused on eliminating government jobs, with exceptions for positions his administration said were necessary to maintain "national security." Tech Force is a departure from the downsizing campaign.

Reuters [12/23/2025 6:58 AM, Steve Holland, 42219K] reports President Donald Trump reasserted on Monday that the United States needs Greenland for its national security and said a special envoy he appointed to the Arctic island would "lead the charge." Trump named Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry on Sunday as his special envoy to Greenland, drawing renewed criticism from Denmark and Greenland over Washington’s interest in the mineral-rich Arctic island. Trump has advocated for Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory, to become part of the United States, citing its strategic importance and mineral resources. Landry, who took office as governor in January 2024, publicly supports the idea. "We need Greenland for national security, not for minerals ... If you take a look at Greenland, 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 told reporters in Palm Beach, Florida, adding that Landry wanted to "lead the charge." Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen earlier said in a joint statement that Greenland belongs to Greenlanders. "You cannot annex another country. Not even with an argument about international security," they said. "Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders and the U.S. shall not take over Greenland." Landry, in a post on X, thanked Trump: "It’s an honor to serve ... in this volunteer position to make Greenland a part of the U.S. This in no way affects my position as Governor of Louisiana!" The Trump administration put further pressure on Copenhagen on Monday, when it suspended leases for five large offshore wind projects being built off the East Coast of the U.S., including two being developed by Denmark’s state-controlled Orsted. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

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NewsMax [12/23/2025 6:47 AM, Staff, 4109K]

NewsMax [12/23/2025 7:35 PM, Jim Mishler, 4109K] reports Denmark pushed back against President Donald Trump’s renewed interest in Greenland after he named Republican Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry as the administration’s special envoy to the territory, despite Copenhagen’s insistence that the Arctic island is not for sale. "President Trump’s announcement about the appointment of a special envoy to Greenland — and in particular its statements about the purpose hereby — is completely unacceptable," Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in a post on Facebook that was translated by the social media platform. "That’s why we are now convening the US ambassador to the Department of State for a discussion. "The Danish Kingdom — which consists of Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands, where I am right now — is sovereign and cannot accept that others question it," Rasmussen said. He has used similarly strong language to describe the effort in the past.

Washington Examiner [12/23/2025 11:32 AM, Timothy Nerozzi, 1394K] reports European leaders have rushed to the defense of Greenland after President Donald Trump resurrected discussions of annexing the island territory for national defense purposes. French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday “reaffirmed France’s unwavering support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Denmark and Greenland.” "Greenland belongs to its people. Denmark stands as its guarantor. I join my voice to that of Europeans in expressing our full solidarity," he said. Trump said on Tuesday that the United States "needs Greenland for national security — not for minerals or oil, but national security." "If you take a look at Greenland, there are Russian and Chinese ships all over the place. So, we need this for protection," he said. Trump named Gov. Jeff Landry (R-LA) as a special envoy with the purpose of "integrating Greenland into the United States." The selection of a sitting governor as envoy is highly unusual, not least because Landry is set to hold his office until 2028. However, he said the appointment will not interrupt his duties.

Reuters [12/23/2025 7:06 AM, Staff, 36480K] reports a prominent American Islamist journalist who has been critical of Syria’s new government and its nascent partnership with the United States has been detained by Syrian security forces, two people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. Bilal Abdul Kareem, a former stand-up comedian in the U.S. turned war journalist who has lived in Syria since 2012 and worked with many foreign media outlets, was detained in Al-Bab in northern Aleppo province on Monday, they said. Syria’s information ministry, an interior ministry spokesperson and a spokesperson for the U.S. special envoy to Syria did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Abdul Kareem has been a prominent voice among foreign Islamists in Syria, giving air to hardliners who view President Ahmed al-Sharaa - who once commanded Al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria - as compromising too much on Islamic values since taking power.

AP [12/23/2025 7:17 PM, Edith M. Lederer, 31753K] reports Iran and the United States reaffirmed their commitments to diplomacy at a contentious meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday, but the gap between the Trump administration and the Islamic Republic on a nuclear deal remains wide and deep. The sixth round of negotiations between Washington and Tehran had been scheduled for soon after Israel’s 12-day war with Iran in June, during which the U.S. joined Israel in bombing Iranian nuclear sites. The talks were canceled, and in September Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rejected any direct nuclear negotiations with the United States. But Iran’s U.N. Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani told the Security Council that "Iran remains fully committed to principled diplomacy and genuine negotiations." And said it’s now up to France, Britain and the U.S. "to reverse course and take concrete, credible steps to restore trust and confidence.". He said Iran remains committed to the core principles of the 2015 nuclear deal aimed at preventing Tehran from developing nuclear weapons, in which Iran had agreed to limit its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. President Donald Trump in 2018 pulled the U.S. out of the agreement between Iran and the five permanent members of the Security Council, plus Germany. In a rare public exchange between diplomats from the two countries, U.S. Mission counselor Morgan Ortagus, a Trump ally and former State Department spokesperson, said, "The United States remains available for formal talks with Iran but only if Tehran is prepared for direct and meaningful dialogue.". Ortagus said Trump extended "the hand of diplomacy" to Iran during both of his administrations.

Daily Wire [12/23/2025 8:09 AM, Hank Berrien, 2494K] reports the Federal Communications Commission announced on Monday that it is adding new foreign-made unmanned aircraft systems, including drones and their critical components, to its "Covered List" of communications equipment deemed to pose "unacceptable risks to U.S. national security.". The move follows a Trump administration review, which found that foreign-produced drones could enable unauthorized surveillance, data theft, and disruptions, threatening U.S. homeland security and the domestic drone industry. The action, in line with President Donald Trump’s Restoring American Airspace Sovereignty and Unleashing American Drone Dominance executive orders, reflects the administration’s goal of strengthening American drone manufacturing and reducing dependence on foreign — particularly Chinese — technologies. The decision arrives ahead of major upcoming international events hosted in the United States, such as the 2026 FIFA World Cup, America’s 250th anniversary celebrations, and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, when airspace security risks will be elevated. The updated Covered List includes Chinese drone manufacturers DJI and Autel, as well as all other foreign drone producers. Under U.S. law, the FCC cannot update this list independently and must act based on national security agencies’ determinations under the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act. Equipment placed on the Covered List is barred from receiving new FCC equipment authorizations, effectively preventing new models from entering the U.S. market. However, this decision does not affect existing drones, meaning consumers and retailers may continue to use, sell, or trade models previously authorized by the FCC. U.S. officials framed the action as critical to national and economic security.

CBS News [12/23/2025 7:39 AM, Staff, 39474K] 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 didn’t 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.".

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Washington Examiner [12/23/2025 11:17 AM, Mike Brest, 1394K]

Washington Post [12/23/2025 1:18 PM, Cate Cadell, 24149K] reports that the Federal Communications Commission has banned the sale of new models of foreign drones, including widely used Chinese DJI aircraft, citing concerns they pose a national security threat and could undermine U.S. drone production. The ban adds DJI to the FCC’s “Covered List” — a designation that blocks authorization of new equipment — effectively preventing U.S. consumers from buying new models of the Chinese company’s drones. Existing models already approved for sale, as well as those currently in use, are not affected by the ban. The designation deals a major blow to the world’s leading consumer drone maker, as well as other top brands including Shenzhen-based Autel Robotics. It comes after years of pressure from lawmakers and FCC officials, who have argued that DJI’s dominance of the consumer drone market exposes the United States to surveillance risks and gives Chinese firms control over a technology with potential future military applications. The FCC notice, posted Tuesday, says the Chinese-made devices pose an “unacceptable national security risk.” It also cited President Donald Trump’s recently released National Security Strategy, which calls for the United States to strengthen its defense industrial base with an emphasis on dual-use technology. In June, Trump issued an executive order directing the U.S. intelligence community to accelerate security reviews of foreign drone makers and to prioritize the production of U.S.-made drones “to the maximum extent permitted by law.”

Reuters [12/23/2025 4:17 PM, Alexandra Alper and Akash Sriram, 36480K] reports President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday said it will slap tariffs on Chinese semiconductor imports over Beijing’s "unreasonable" pursuit of chip industry dominance, but would delay the action until June 2027. The tariff rate will be announced at least 30 days in advance, according to the filing, which follows a year-long "Section 301" unfair trade practices investigation into China’s exports of "legacy," or older-technology chips to the U.S., launched by former President Joe Biden’s administration. "China’s targeting of the semiconductor industry for dominance is unreasonable and burdens or restricts U.S. commerce and thus is actionable," the U.S. Trade Representative said in its release. The Chinese Embassy in Washington expressed opposition to any tariffs. "To politicize, instrumentalize and weaponize trade and tech issues and destabilize the global industrial and supply chains will benefit no one and will eventually backfire," it said in a statement to Reuters. "We will take all measures necessary to firmly safeguard our lawful rights and interests," it added. The move, which preserves Trump’s ability to impose the duties, seeks to dial down tensions with Beijing in the face of Chinese export curbs on the rare earth metals that global tech companies rely on and which China controls.

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New York Times [12/23/2025 2:02 PM, Ana Swanson, 135475K]

Reuters [12/24/2025 2:31 AM, Ethan Wang and Ryan Woo, 36480K] reports China said on Wednesday that it opposed the United States’ "indiscriminate use of tariffs" and "unreasonable suppression" of Chinese industries when asked about Washington’s plan to impose tariffs on Chinese semiconductor imports. China urges the U.S. to correct its "wrong practices", and will take measures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests if the U.S. persists in its actions, Lin Jian, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, said at a regular press briefing.

Bloomberg [12/24/2025 12:25 AM, Hyonhee Shin, 18207K] reports South Korea and the US have agreed to pursue a separate agreement to formalize Seoul’s right to build nuclear-powered submarines, and working-level talks will begin early next year, the Asian country’s national security adviser said Wednesday. Speaking to reporters after visiting Washington, Wi Sung-lac said he discussed the issue and other security arrangements with senior officials including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Energy Secretary Chris Wright. His trip was aimed at accelerating the implementation of commitments outlined in a joint fact sheet released after a summit between President Lee Jae Myung and Donald Trump in October, including cooperation on enriched uranium, spent-fuel reprocessing and nuclear-powered submarines. “We agreed that a separate agreement is necessary for nuclear submarine cooperation and decided to pursue it,” Wi said at a briefing. South Korea is seeking to equip submarines with a reactor using low-enriched fuel at levels of 20% or less, and has no plans to adopt highly enriched uranium, he said, adding that he had highlighted Lee’s commitment to non-proliferation. A working-level US delegation is likely to visit Seoul early next year to follow up on the agreements listed in the joint fact sheet, and both sides will set some milestones for performance reviews later next year, Wi said. South Korea is largely banned from enriching uranium under a civilian nuclear energy deal with the US. Wi has said Seoul was looking at Australia’s case where it had obtained an exemption through a standalone accord with Washington, allowing Canberra to sign an Aukus accord with the US and UK in 2021. Seoul’s defense minister has said he aims to conclude negotiations with the US within two years on securing an arrangement for the supply of nuclear fuel. Wi also said he and his US counterparts explored ways to revive talks with North Korea possibly around the first half of next year, though he wasn’t targeting specific diplomatic occasions. “We are considering various opportunities and won’t rule out any in order to engage with North Korea. I won’t go into specifics, but if there are any opportunities next year, we would try to utilize them,” he said.

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