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.

FOX News [12/27/2025 8:55 PM, Sophia Compton, 40621K] reports Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin on Saturday took aim at Kilmar Abrego Garcia for "making TikToks" while DHS remains constrained by an "activist judge.” McLaughlin was reacting to a minute-long video that appears to show Abrego Garcia, an El Salvadoran illegal immigrant who became a flashpoint in the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign, filming himself lip-syncing to a song in Spanish. "So we, at [DHS], are under gag order by an activist judge and Kilmar Abrego Garcia is making TikToks," McLaughlin wrote. "American justice ceases to function when its arbiters silence law enforcement and give megaphones to those who oppose our legal system.” A court order had previously been issued by an Obama-appointed federal judge that restricts DHS and other Trump administration officials from publicly discussing Abrego Garcia’s human smuggling case. That order was later narrowed, according to The Tennessee Star. Abrego Garcia had repeatedly sought to curb public criticism from Trump administration officials, arguing the remarks threaten his right to a fair trial, Politico reported. Abrego Garcia’s case has drawn national attention since March, when he was deported to his home country of El Salvador in violation of a 2019 court order and in what Trump officials acknowledge was an "administrative error.” Upon his return to the U.S., Abrego Garcia was immediately taken into federal custody and detained on human smuggling charges from a 2022 traffic stop. The Trump administration has claimed he is a member of MS-13, which Abrego Garcia denies. A federal judge this week canceled Abrego Garcia’s trial and scheduled a hearing to review whether prosecutors pursued the human smuggling charges vindictively, according to The Associated Press. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis on Monday also extended a temporary restraining order preventing the Trump administration from immediately detaining Abrego Garcia again after failing to produce a final removal order. The ruling keeps in place an earlier order that secured his release from ICE custody. DHS and a defense attorney for Abrego Garcia did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. [Editorial note: consult video at source link] The Washington Examiner [12/28/2025 12:10 AM, Zach LaChance, 1394K] reports U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, an Obama appointee, extended a pause barring his detention on Monday, ensuring he remains out of custody until at least late December. Abrego Garcia’s case has been one of the most highly charged of the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation agenda. After living illegally in the United States for about 14 years, the Trump administration deported Abrego Garcia to El Salvador despite him having a withholding of removal order barring him from being deported to that country. That order does, however, permit his deportation to any other country. But after what was called an "administrative error" and Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S., he instead faced human smuggling charges. After he pleaded not guilty, he was released from custody only to be arrested by federal immigration officers days later and held until Dec. 11, when Xinis ordered his release. The Trump administration is still searching for another country to deport Abrego Garcia to. His lawyers, meanwhile, have suggested Costa Rica, a country they said has agreed to take him, as his preferred country. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Washington Post [12/28/2025 5:00 AM, Marianne LeVine, Emmanuel Martinez, and Álvaro Valiño, 24149K] reports the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign has led to a significant change in strategy, as federal officers shift away from focusing on arresting immigrants already held in local jails to tracking them down on the streets and in communities, according to a Washington Post analysis of government data. The result has been a huge surge of such at-large arrests, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement tallying about 17,500 in September and on pace to exceed that in October. (The data The Post examined had been updated through the middle of that month.) That was far more than any other month included in the data, which dated back to October 2011. Before this year, the highest number of at-large arrests came in January 2023, when the Biden administration made more than 11,500. ICE is making more than four times as many at-large arrests per week as it did in President Donald Trump’s first term, the analysis found. The Post’s analysis highlights a broader pattern in how the Department of Homeland Security is approaching enforcement, even as authorities insist that immigration officers are focusing on violent criminals who they describe as “the worst of the worst.” Government data shows that more than 60 percent of the people detained in at-large arrests since June did not have criminal convictions or pending charges. Former DHS officials said the effort demonstrates a less targeted approach and reflects mounting pressure from senior White House and DHS officials to boost deportation totals. “That is consistent with their mandate to remove anybody in the country who doesn’t have authorization,” said Sarah Saldaña, who served as ICE director under President Barack Obama. “To me, that is a waste of resources.” The administration’s new approach began to take shape in June, when federal immigration agents launched a large-scale enforcement operation in Los Angeles. In the ensuing five months, ICE’s at-large arrests in communities nationwide totaled 67,800, more than twice the total number during the previous five months. In June, September and October, such arrests — which include people detained in their homes, at work sites, during immigration check-ins, or in other public spaces — accounted for more than half of ICE’s total number of monthly arrests for the first time since April 2023. In a statement, DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said 70 percent of the immigrants arrested by ICE have criminal convictions or pending criminal charges in the United States and that some have convictions or charges in their home countries. The Post’s examination found that from Jan. 20, when Trump took office, through Oct. 15 about 36 percent of ICE detainees had criminal convictions and 30 percent had pending charges. “This story only reveals how the media manipulates data to peddle a false narrative that DHS is not targeting the worst of the worst,” McLaughlin said. “Nationwide our law enforcement is targeting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens — including murderers, rapists, gang members, pedophiles, and terrorists.”

NewsMax [12/27/2025 10:26 AM, Sandy Fitzgerald, 4109K] reports President Donald Trump, pointing Saturday to recent reports that crime levels are dropping in the United States, said the success comes mainly because of his administration’s focus on bringing immigration under control at the nation’s southern border and rising employment rates. According to data released this week, roughly 70% of the illegal immigrants arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since Trump took office last January had either been convicted of criminal offenses or were facing charges. The Department of Homeland Security reports that out of the approximately 595,000 illegal immigrants arrested by ICE between Jan. 20 and Dec. 11, roughly 416,000 had "criminal convictions or pending criminal charges" in the United States. Meanwhile, FBI Director Kash Patel said this week that the FBI is on pace to arrest twice as many violent offenders as it did last year under former President Joe Biden.

Washington Examiner [12/27/2025 2:23 PM, David Zimmermann, 1394K] reports President Donald Trump took to social media on Saturday to tout his record so far on the economy, border security, and crime despite experiencing low approval ratings since he took office this year. Boasting of his successes as the first year of his second term closes, Trump claimed his tariffs are resulting in “no inflation” and generating “great wealth” on top of “unprecedented national security.” "Trade deficit has been cut by 60%, totally unheard of," he wrote in one Truth Social post. "4.3% GDP, and going way up. No inflation!!! We are respected as a Country again." Contrary to Trump’s claim of zero inflation, a November report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed the current inflation rate stands at 2.7% year-over-year. The rate was lower than expected. Economists forecasted inflation would remain around 3%. While inflation has not disappeared, it also hasn’t accelerated as it did under his predecessor, former President Joe Biden. Trump is also pleased with a new government report that showed real gross domestic product increasing at an annual rate of 4.3% in the third quarter. The president attributed the GDP growth to his wide-ranging tariff policies. "The TARIFFS are responsible for the GREAT USA Economic Numbers JUST ANNOUNCED…AND THEY WILL ONLY GET BETTER! Also, NO INFLATION & GREAT NATIONAL SECURITY," he said on Tuesday ahead of the Supreme Court’s highly anticipated ruling on the legality of tariffs. Despite the promising figures, unemployment and living costs remain high as economic issues are front of mind for Americans. Trump has boasted of how many government jobs are being killed, while private sector jobs are being created. He said that he could bring unemployment down if he wanted to by simply hiring more government workers. Public opinion on the state of the economy doesn’t reflect well on Trump, according to YouGov data consistently updated by the Economist. Trump has a net approval rating of -17%, both overall and economic, as he finishes out the year. Inflation/prices is his worst-performing issue, which happens to be the most electorally decisive issue facing America today. Conversely, Trump has better net approval numbers on immigration and national security. He alluded to both issues in another Truth Social post on Saturday.

FOX News [12/27/2025 10:28 PM, Olivia Palombo, 40621K] reports a Honduran national had an "unlucky" encounter with Border Patrol enforcement on Friday. The woman allegedly ran a red light in Slidell, Louisiana, and rammed into an Immigration, Customs and Enforcement (ICE) vehicle, U.S. Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino wrote on X. "Apparently she never learned the lesson that red means stop," Bovino wrote. "Not ‘accelerate and collide with a government vehicle actively enforcing federal law.’". No injuries were reported as a result of the crash, according to the post, but Bovino said she was "certainly taken into custody" following the accident. "Unlucky for her. Lucky for us," Bovino continued in the post. Federal agents were reportedly in the area as part of the Operation Catahoula Crunch. The operation targets illegal immigrants in the New Orleans area, according to officials. "Catahoula Crunch targets include violent criminals who were released after arrest for home invasion, armed robbery, grand theft auto and rape," Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. ICE has reportedly apprehended approximately 370 people in the area, according to a Dec. 18 update. "DHS is making the New Orleans community safer as it continues to arrest illegal alien drug dealers, hit-and-run criminals, and one monster who was convicted for arson and threatening a person with intent to terrorize," McLaughlin said. The DHS reported that it has deported more than 622,000 individuals in 2025 as of Dec. 19. The department also reported that 2.5 million illegal immigrants have left the country, and an estimated 1.9 million self-deportations have occurred since President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration. Details about the Honduran woman were not made publicly available. DHS did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reported similarly:
New York Post [12/27/2025 7:50 PM, David Spector, 42219K]

Telemundo [12/28/2025 1:16 AM, Cinthya Gómez, 57K] reports that, with just a few days left before the deadline, the United States government is maintaining an economic incentive aimed at people who are in the country without legal documentation and who decide to leave voluntarily, a process known as self-deportation. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has temporarily increased its support to $3,000, in addition to providing a return flight to the country of origin and waiving fines or civil penalties for failing to leave the country on time. The program will be available until December 31, and applications can be submitted through the CBP One app. However, activists on the border say the impact of this measure has been limited and there has been no significant increase in people choosing this option. One of the migrants who decided to leave the United States on his own was Fortino Quiñones, who lived 12 years in California before returning to Mexico, without receiving any financial incentive. “I left, nobody kicked me out, because I saw things. Over there, people are hiding, and here in Mexico, they let us go free,” he said. Fortino explained that he made the decision after noticing that his immigration situation was becoming increasingly complicated. “I saw the things that weren’t going well and I said: I’d better get out,” he told Telemundo 20. His departure occurred years before the current program existed, which the federal government has described as a "Christmas gift," offering financial support to those who decide to leave the United States voluntarily. For migrant advocacy organizations, money is not a decisive factor for many people who have spent years building a life in the United States. “I think many won’t make that decision so easily, because their lives have been established for many years and they won’t choose to self-deport, even if there were more financial resources to return to their country,” explained José María Lara, coordinator of the organization Alianza Migrante. According to an official statement, approximately 1.9 million people have self-deported in 2025 using the CBP One app. However, activists on the country’s northern border say these figures are not being reflected in the official statistics. “There haven’t been any voluntary departures. At first, they gave a thousand dollars and a return flight, but at least here, in the two shelters we have, we haven’t seen an increase. Deportees always arrive, and some families left voluntarily, but they are very few,” Lara added. Migrants like Fortino say they don’t fully trust these new immigration policies because they believe the incentive doesn’t compensate for the losses involved in returning. “Not me. Actually, if they were going to deport me, let them deport me. Selling what you own, no way,” he concluded. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

DailySignal [12/27/2025 2:00 PM, James Varney, 549K] reports more than a million Americans may unwittingly hold second jobs—because that work is being performed by an illegal alien using their stolen social security number. News of the identity theft can come as a rude shock to citizens like the Minnesota factory worker who had crushing tax bills because of a thrice-deported illegal immigrant in Missouri who was working under his name for years. Or Iowa taxpayers who learned that the superintendent of the Des Moines school system was an illegal immigrant facing a deportation order. A RealClearInvestigations analysis has found that the federal and state governments bear some responsibility for this harm to American citizens because of their failure to address long-acknowledged weaknesses in the primary tool used to limit this identity theft—E-Verify.

Politico [12/27/2025 11:21 AM, Rachel Umansky-Castro, 2100] nearly a year into his second term, Trump’s promise to carry out the largest mass deportation agenda faces two realities: Some on the right say the White House needs to go further than it has, while many on the left warn Trump’s crackdown is spreading fear and confusion in immigrant communities. Trump on the campaign trail pushed an intense focus on immigration, vowing to upend the system once again. While the administration has driven border crossings to historically low figures, the number of deportations has fallen well short of the 1 million that Trump set out as the benchmark. The administration this year deported more than 600,000 unauthorized immigrants, and another 1.9 million self-deported, according to DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. She also said DHS has arrested more than 595,000 unauthorized immigrants since Jan. 20. A recent NYT analysis of government data put the number of deportations around 500,000. The White House is touting the progress. “President Trump is delivering on his promise to Make America Safe Again and deport criminal illegal aliens,” White House deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson said in a statement. “In record time, we have totally secured the border and are carrying out the largest mass deportation operation of criminal illegal aliens in history.” Conservative allies, though, say Trump’s results have yet to match his campaign promise. “The numbers aren’t on a trajectory to be anywhere close to anything that could be credibly called mass deportations,” said Mike Howell, a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

DailySignal [12/27/2025 10:30 AM, Harold Hutchison, 549K] reports CNN host Dana Bash admitted Thursday that President Donald Trump had turned around the situation on the U.S.-Mexico border in his first year since returning to the White House. Upon taking office, Trump issued several executive orders to address illegal immigration, including designating Mexican drug cartels, the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua and the El Salvadoran prison gang MS-13 as foreign terrorist organizations. Bash put up a series of charts showing the difference on the border between the Joe Biden administration and the Trump administration. The Border Patrol encountered millions of illegal immigrants during the Biden administration, according to figures released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, many of whom were released into the United States. The Trump administration touted in a Dec. 15 release that no illegal immigrants had been released into the United States for seven straight months. The Department of Homeland Security announced that over 2.5 million illegal immigrants have left the United States, of which 1.9 million elected to self-deport, in a Dec. 10 release. DHS also noted in a Dec. 19 release summarizing operations for the entire year that it had accounted for over 129,000 unaccompanied minors that the Biden administration had been unable to account for, while also touting operations across the country, including those in the areas of Chicago, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon.

Chicago Tribune [12/28/2025 6:00 AM, Andrew Carters, Caroline Kubzansky, Gregory Royal Pratt, and Laura Rodríguez Presa, 4829K] reports after 64 days, they celebrated. They gathered at one of Chicago’s most beloved landmarks, in the middle of a city where they’d wrought so much fear and pain, and they celebrated. It was the second Monday in November and early in the morning, the season’s first snowfall still fresh, when they parked along Monroe Street and made their way toward Millennium Park, more than 150 strong. Some carried weapons. Two of them led dogs on long leashes. Some wore the camouflaged fatigues of military battle and others dark green uniforms. They all displayed markings that made clear their status as agents with the U. S. Border Patrol, and they’d arrived to complete one final Chicago mission — for the moment — to pose for the camera. One last made-for-social-media moment. At least 100 agents, including their leader, Cmdr. Gregory Bovino, would return to Chicago six weeks later to continue a mission that President Donald Trump said hadn’t “gone far enough.” They would bring their cameras again. They would post their tweets. And they would argue with residents as they patrolled city and suburban streets in the days leading up to Christmas. “We’re here to do a legal, ethical, moral mission,” Bovino would tell the Tribune outside a Home Depot on a cold December morning as bystanders blew whistles to warn of his whereabouts. “We’re going to keep doing that.” Bovino’s mere presence — accompanied by his previous threat to return again in the spring and detain even more people — would renew the sense of alarm in a metropolitan area that has been demonstrably changed by the 64-day federal incursion and evoke memories of the most surreal autumn in recent local history. The tear-gassing of Chicago neighborhoods. The rousing of suburban mothers in bathrobes, drawn into streets to yell at agents and shame them. The attempted deployment of the Texas National Guard, on Trump’s command, only for a federal judge to order the troops to stand down almost immediately upon their arrival in Illinois. The agents who pointed guns and other weapons at bystanders. The arrests of more than 4,500 people in a mission, the Department of Homeland Security said targeted “the worst of the worst.” The reality is that most of them were people with brown skin who were at the right place — their landscaping jobs, the hardware store, a Dunkin’ Donuts drive-thru — at the wrong time. The Trump administration, though, has steadfastly defended its mission, even when the facts did not support its claims or federal judges outright refuted them. Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, sent a statement to the Tribune for this story praising the operation and providing the names of seven convicted felons who were detained as part of Midway Blitz. “This operation targeted the criminal illegal aliens who flocked to Chicago and Illinois because they knew Governor (JB) Pritzker and his sanctuary policies would protect them and allow them to roam free on American streets,” the statement said. “So far Operation Midway Blitz has resulted in the arrest of more than 4,500 illegal aliens. There is no way to say Operation Midway Blitz has not been a success with these results.” Yet the government’s own data shows the agents failed to meet their stated goal: In what data the government has so far released, covering the first half of the blitz, a Tribune analysis found only about 1.5% of those detained for immigration-related reasons had been convicted of a violent felony or sex crime.

Washington Examiner [12/28/2025 5:00 AM, Staff, 1394K] reports for years, liberal Supreme Court justices have decried the dangers of what is known as the "shadow docket," but when it suits their short-term political ends, suddenly the docket is their friend. In a short three-page decision written with little briefing and no oral argument, a 6-3 majority denied the Justice Department’s request to stay a district court restraining order preventing President Donald Trump from deploying the National Guard in Chicago. The court’s holding is tenuously founded, rushed, and will endanger the lives of federal law enforcement officers. After winning the presidential election by promising thorough enforcement of federal immigration law, Trump launched Operation Midway Blitz on Sept. 6 to speed deportation in and around the Windy City. A key component of this campaign was the Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in the suburb of Broadview, Illinois. Within days, the center became a focal point of Democratic Party performance protests against immigration law enforcement. Two candidates vying to replace retiring Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) filmed themselves obstructing federal officers. After rioters threw rocks at federal law enforcement agents and tear gas was deployed to protect the officers and maintain access to the building, Trump activated the Illinois National Guard on Oct. 3, against the wishes of Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL), an open borders fanatic. He opposes all cooperation with federal immigration law enforcement. Pritzker and Chicago’s socialist mayor, Brandon Johnson, sued in federal court seeking a stay to prevent deployment of the National Guard in Chicago. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granted a stay, and the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed it. Similar suits have been filed in the District of Columbia, California, Oregon, and Tennessee. The Justice Department filed an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court on Oct. 17, the court asked for a response on Oct. 20, and opening briefs and reply briefs were due on Nov. 17. Then nothing for over a month until a three-page decision on the late afternoon of the day before Christmas Eve. There are many problems with the majority’s decision, the biggest being that the holding is based on an argument the plaintiffs did not even make in the lower courts — that the term "regular forces" in the statute authorizing the president to federalize members of the guard, refers only to the military, not federal law enforcement officers. In other words, the court held that even though past presidents have federalized the National Guard on many occasions when federal officials were overwhelmed, the majority now wants us to believe that the National Guard can be activated only after the military itself has proved unable to execute federal laws.

USA Today [12/28/2025 6:02 AM, Will Thomas, 67103K] reports on Dec. 13, the community that I love most was shattered. Attending class, eating meals, seeing friends ‒ nothing at Brown University will ever be the same. As I sheltered in place from an active shooter, first in a grocery store and then in a friend’s off-campus house, hundreds of texts flew through my phone. I saw videos of students bleeding out on the ground, just steps from my dorm. Friends were barricaded in tiny rooms with no water, food or access to a bathroom. With helicopters thundering overhead and sirens blaring throughout the neighborhood, all I could think about was the victims’ families, waiting nervously to hear about their loved ones, not knowing they were about to receive the worst possible news: The gunman killed two students and injured nine that Saturday. I finally fell asleep at 4 a.m., still under a shelter-in-place order. I awoke, after a restless few minutes of sleep, to a 5:42 a.m. text from Brown’s emergency management system telling us that police had ended the shelter-in-place order for Brown’s campus but were still actively investigating and maintaining a perimeter around key buildings. This only fueled more confusion. Initially, we had been told a suspect was in custody, only to learn later that it was no longer the case. On Dec. 18, authorities found the body of Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, 48, in a New Hampshire self-storage unit. Neves Valente is the suspected gunman in the Brown shooting on Dec. 13 and another two days later that left an MIT professor dead. Now that the apparent shooter is no longer a threat, Brown and the city of Providence can finally take a deep breath. But friends who live in Providence tell me the community remains shaken to the core. Part of me wants to ask why we keep allowing guns to terrorize the places we love. But having been an advocate in the movement to prevent gun violence for the past four years, I know the answer. It’s because we have a gun industry that continues to prioritize its next billion dollars at the expense of our public safety. Young people like myself and my friends at Brown continue to have our voices silenced when it comes to what needs to be done around gun violence. I say, with every fiber in my being, this has to end now.

Chicago Tribune [12/28/2025 6:00 AM, Grace Miserocchi, 4829K] reports after his inauguration, President Donald Trump quickly got to work fulfilling a campaign promise by increasing arrests and deportations of immigrants in the United States. Looking back now, the immigration raids in other cities, subsequent protests and National Guard response in Los Angeles gave Chicago a sense of what was to come in the fall. The Department of Homeland Security launched Operation Midway Blitz on Sept. 8 to target “criminal illegal” immigrants and, it said, honor Katie Abraham, who was killed in a drunken driving accident by an immigrant lacking permanent legal status. Masked Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs and Enforcement agents spread out on the streets of Chicago and its suburbs to ramp up arrests, and their often brutal tactics were met with resistance. Protests increased at the Broadview detention facility, and neighbors in Chicago and its suburbs blew whistles and created informal community groups. Our commentary from this chaotic time examined the actions and decisions of federal immigration agents, whether the operation honored or marred Abraham’s legacy, and how Chicagoans responded and found solidarity during the worst moments of the blitz.

Daily Wire [12/27/2025 3:16 PM, Amanda Prestigiacomo, 2494K] reports over Christmas, our men and women serving as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers continued with arrests, targeting criminal illegal aliens who’ve committed murder, drug trafficking, robbery, and more. "While families across the country joined together for Christmas celebrations, ICE continued delivering the American people the greatest gift of all: getting criminals out of our neighborhoods and protecting our families," Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told The Daily Wire. "On Christmas Eve and Christmas, our ICE officers arrested gang members, murderers, drug traffickers, and violent thugs," she added. "We are thankful for our law enforcement who sacrifice time with their family and put their lives on the line to remove the worst of the worst."

USA Today [12/28/2025 6:03 AM, Jeff Abbott, 67103K] reports an altar in Lucía Pedro Juan’s modest home here pays homage to her husband of 25 years. There are candles and photos of Francisco Gaspar Cristóbal Andrés, surrounded by vases of white daisies and calla lilies. A banner on a nearby wall depicts him with his arms outstretched and Jesus at his shoulder. She and Cristóbal Andrés left their childhood homes and built lives together in Homewood, Florida, owning a nursery and raising five daughters. He sent money home to his parents to build the concrete home where his memory is now enshrined. But though the pair paid American taxes, they never managed to become citizens. On Labor Day, heading to the grocery store, they were stopped by the Florida State Highway Patrol and when they couldn’t produce paperwork, turned over the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Pedro Juan expected to be deported back to the home she hadn’t seen in more than 18 years She expected Cristóbal Andrés would be there with her. Instead, he became a statistic, one of at least 30 people to die in ICE custody this year. According to an ICE news release, he died from liver and kidney failure on Dec. 3 – a week after his 48th birthday. Cristóbal Andrés had suffered from medical issues since his detention, ICE officials said. Pedro Juan insists he was healthy before being detained. Now, after the family raised money to bring his body home, she’s waiting to see him one more time. The pair was initially held in Florida and then flown to Texas, becoming among the first to be held at Camp East Montana in El Paso. She described the treatment in El Paso as cruel and conditions as so dirty the women were getting sick. “We asked them to bring us a broom. They didn’t,” she said. "This kind of detention is only going to accelerate that harm, and it is gravely unfortunate that this man has passed," Marisa Limón Garza, the director of the El Paso-based immigrant rights advocacy group Las Americas said during a Dec. 12 news conference. "I am confident that this will not be the last (death in the facility)." Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin described claims of mistreatment in ICE detention as "fear-mongering clickbait." McLaughlin also said that immigrants are allowed to meet with lawyers and family members and are receiving dietitian-approved food. "No lawbreakers in the history of human civilization have been treated better than illegal aliens in the United States," McLaughlin said. "Get a grip.”

Univision [12/27/2025 6:45 PM, Staff, 5004K] reports that, while many people were preparing to celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, social media reported that Dulce Consulo Díaz Morales had been deported and her family was struggling to find out where the Maryland-born mother was, detained by ICE. Since Dulce Consuelo was detained on December 14, 2025 in Baltimore, Maryland, by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents as she was returning from Taco Bell with her sister, her family has feared that she will be deported. The fear has intensified because after being taken to an immigration detention center in Baltimore, she was transferred to the Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe, Louisiana , without her family or lawyers being notified, they said in separate statements. In addition, in the past few days, when the rumor intensified, they did not know her whereabouts , until, according to CBS Baltimore , they searched the ICE database and discovered that she had been transferred to a detention center in Texas. It was during an interview with CNN that lawyer Victoria Slatton reported that her client had been transferred to Texas , which they found out through the pager. In addition to complaining that she has not been able to speak with her , she said that when she was going to have a confidential meeting with Dulce Consuelo, she was told that she had been transferred. “Her family was told she was being deported, but thankfully that wasn’t the case,” she said in an interview with CNN . Univision DC conducted several searches for the young mother of a 5-year-old boy in the arrest database, but found no results. They even searched using the last name the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) uses to identify her: Madrigal Díaz. Dulce Consuelo’s defense has presented several pieces of evidence to prove that she is a U.S. citizen , including a birth certificate from Laurel, Maryland, a vaccination record, and sworn statements from witnesses. herefore, Maryland District Court Judge Brendan Hurson issued an order preventing the 22-year-old mother from being deported, although her lawyers fear it will be ignored as has happened in other cases. Despite the evidence presented, the DHS maintains that Dulce Consuelo was not born in the United States, but in Mexico , and arrived in the country without documents. Slatton told Washington Post that Dulce Consuelo lived in Mexico for 13 years – from 2010 to 2023 – but returned from the country where her family originated to escape cartel violence. Another version states that Diaz Morales returned to the United States due to an emergency, which is why she did not bring her documents with her. According to her lawyers, the young woman was detained by immigration agents upon re-entering the country. In January, he received a deportation order from the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) . Slatton said the order is invalid because the agency has no jurisdiction over U.S. citizens. Tricia McLaughlinA DHS spokesperson insists that Morales Díaz is not a U.S. citizen and that no valid evidence has been presented to prove otherwise. She also indicated that in 2023, Morales Díaz was detained by Border Patrol in Arizona and claimed to have been born in Mexico. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NewsMax [12/27/2025 2:56 PM, Jim Mishler, 4109K] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions are disrupting the construction industry in South Texas. Builders attribute it to a previous period of large-scale deportations as a warning of pending economic consequences. Industry leaders say arrests at or near construction sites have caused many workers to stay home, slowing projects and tightening labor availability across the Rio Grande Valley. ICE has arrested more than 9,100 people in South Texas since President Donald Trump took office, nearly one-fifth of related arrests statewide during that period, according to ICE data obtained through a public records request and analyzed by the Texas Tribune. Mario Guerrero, executive director of the South Texas Builders Association, said concerns escalated after he viewed video of ICE agents detaining workers at a construction site in the region. Builders say the resulting labor shortages have slowed construction activity and could push housing costs higher as supply falls.

Houston Chronicle [12/27/2025 5:52 PM, Ashley Soebroto, 2983K] reports a Dallas attorney, salon owner and Project 2025 writer was recently appointed by the Trump administration to a key role overseeing passport and visa operations. Mora Namdar, a 39-year-old Iranian-American, was sworn in this week as the assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Consular Affairs. Under her new role, she will look after the department’s visa and passport programs, as well as provide assistance to Americans in distress overseas — such as help with arrests, deaths, births, adoptions, welfare checks and medical emergencies. Namdar had been appointed to the same role during the last couple of months of President Donald Trump’s first term. More recently, she served as a senior bureau official Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs in the Department of State from May 19 to Dec. 1, "leading U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and North Africa," according to the Department of State’s website. "During her tenure as the head of NEA, Ms. Namdar led the bureau’s important work of supporting the President’s policy of peace through strength," the executive department’s website stated. According to the Dallas Morning News, Namdar had previously said visa decisions were a national security matter in prepared testimony for her Senate confirmation hearing in October. She said consular officers should have authority to deny or revoke visas when individuals violate their terms or undermine U.S. foreign policy. “If confirmed,” Namdar told senators, “I will ensure that your inquiries are met with transparency, responsiveness and a spirit of shared service to the American people.”

Lawyer and salon owner Namdar received her law degree from American University and is licensed to practice law in Texas and Washington, D.C., according to her law firm’s website. Namdar Law is not active while its owner serves in government. She is also the owner of hair salon BAM Beauty Bar, as indicated by Voyage Dallas, withlocations in Dallas, Fort Worth and Plano. In Project 2025’s "Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise," Namdar criticized the U.S. Agency for Global Media for mismanagement. That organization is an independent federal agency that broadcasts news and information about the U.S. and other parts of the world to audiences abroad. Namdar described the agency as "mismanaged, disorganized, ineffective, and rife with waste and redundancy," calling for it to be reformed or shut down. She stated it was "vulnerable to exploitation by foreign spies" and abusing the J-1 Visa program by allowing foreign journalists and "foreign nationals to transition easily into jobs that American citizens with cultural and linguistic expertise could satisfy." Namdar received her bachelor and master degree in international relations and affairs at Southern Methodist University and American University, according to her LinkedIn profile. She briefly studied as well at Oxford University in England.

Breitbart [12/27/2025 6:30 PM, Pranshu Verma, 2416K] reports India’s government is escalating its protests against the State Department’s new curbs on rampant visa fraud by migrant workers at U.S. embassies. “While we do understand … that visa-related issues pertain to the Sovereign Domain of any country, we have flagged those issues and our concerns of our nationals to the U.S. side, both in New Delhi and in Washington D.C.” an Indian government spokesman said on December 26. “There are several people who have been stranded in India for an extended period of time … These [delays] have also caused hardship to their families … and also to the education of their children,” he said. The “several” Indian workers are stuck in their home nation because Secretary of State Marco Rubio has suddenly curbed the U.S. embassy’s rapid-fire process of granting new visas and visa extensions to Indian migrants. The migrants must now wait for several months before traveling to their U.S. jobs. India’s protest is just one corner of a lobbying campaign to preserve the controversial visa programs. The Indian government is aggressively championing the visa programs because it wants to maximize the flow of Indian workers into jobs in the United States, as well as Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, the Gulf States, and even wartime Russia. India’s economy is deliberately built on the wealth extracted by its migrant workers. For example, India gains at least $40 billion in remittances from the United States — plus huge investments from many U.S. companies that are now run by legalized Indian migrants. At least one million Indian graduates are working in U.S. white-collar jobs, via the H-1B, L-1, B-1, OPT, and CPT programs, often as subcontractors to major companies. That huge population is an economic boon for India’s tax collectors and for hiring managers in the corrupt program, but it is a lifetime disaster for American graduates, professionalism, productivity, and innovation. Since January 2025, President Donald Trump’s deputies have been tweaking the H-1B visa program to help raise hiring among Americans, amid closed-door objections by pro-business lobbies in D.C. Trump is zig-zagging between the voters he needs to win the 2026 election, the business leaders that he needs to keep growing the economy, and the Indian government officials who can shrink U.S. exports to India. The State Department has said little about the impact and scale of its new visa curbs. On December 17, the department responded to questions from Breitbart News with a vague statement: “Under the Trump Administration, the Department of State is using all available tools to rigorously screen every visa applicant. While in the past the emphasis may have been on processing cases quickly and reducing wait times, our embassy and consulates around the world, including in India, are now prioritizing thoroughly vetting each visa case above all else. They do not issue a visa unless the applicant can credibly demonstrate they meet all requirements under U.S. law – including that they intend to engage only in activities consistent with the terms of their visa. As part of this effort, the Department is conducting online presence reviews for applicants who will spend substantial periods of time within American communities, including students, exchange visitors, specialty occupation temporary workers, and their dependents. We will not allow foreigners who pose a risk to Americans or U.S. national interests to abuse our immigration system.”

FOX News [12/27/2025 4:33 PM, Staff, 40621K] reports CBP senior advisor Ron Vitiello joins ‘Fox Report’ to discuss the positive changes border patrol agents are experiencing under the Trump administration. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Telemundo [12/27/2025 11:39 PM, Ignacio Dominguez, 57K] reports that, beginning on December 26, 2025, the United States government implemented a new immigration control that requires the collection of facial biometric data from all foreigners entering or leaving the country, whether by air, sea, or land. Until now, biometric data collection operated as a pilot program at various points of entry. However, starting this week, the requirement is officially extended to all non-citizens, raising concerns about the potential impact on wait times, especially at land border crossings. “I think it’s fine if it’s about security,” commented Salvador Ruiz, one of the travelers interviewed. “It’s so the country is safer.” According to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the use of facial comparison technology will allow for more efficient identification of criminals, terrorists or suspected terrorists, as well as people with expired visas or who entered the country without inspection. Frequent travelers express their concern. “It’s understood that it’s for security, but in the end it means longer wait times, both to enter and to leave,” said José Rodríguez, who regularly crosses by land. In an official statement, the agency explained: “The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), through Customs and Border Protection (CBP), has been collecting biometric data from some foreign nationals entering the United States since 2004. This rule simply amends the regulations to establish that DHS may require all foreign nationals to be photographed upon entering or leaving the United States.” According to data published in the Federal Register , pilot programs for facial comparison at departures allowed the identification of more than 444,552 people who overstayed their visas and 12,669 individuals who had entered the country without inspection. U.S. citizens are not required to participate in this process, although they may choose to do so voluntarily. In those cases, the photos taken are deleted within 12 hours. In contrast, images of foreigners may be retained.

Breitbart [12/27/2025 3:02 PM, Ian Hanchett, 2416K] reports during portions of an interview with CNN Senior National Correspondent David Culver that aired on Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “OutFront,” Chief Border Patrol Agent for the Rio Grande Valley Sector Jared Ashby stated that he has never seen the government move as fast as it has with changes on the border and cited a change on pursuit policy. Culver said that there have been curriculum changes before playing a clip of Ashby saying, “This is the fastest I’ve ever seen government move.” Culver then stated, “One of the biggest changes, a new pursuit policy” before playing video of Ashby saying, “Our last pursuit policy, we would let them go, so they knew that the Border Patrol would not pursue them.” Culver then said, “That’s no longer the case.”

USA Today [12/27/2025 11:40 AM, Kathleen Wong, 67103K] reports air travelers across the Midwest and Northeast are facing widespread delays and cancellations this weekend as an Arctic blast brings multiple rounds of dangerous cold and lake-effect snow. Forecasters warn that a pair of powerful cold fronts will sweep across the northern U.S. as 2025 ends and 2026 begins, sharply dropping temperatures and intensifying snow near the Great Lakes. Subfreezing air could reach as far south as the Gulf Coast by Tuesday, Dec. 30. By 11:30 a.m. ET on Dec. 26, there were over 3,700 U.S. flights delayed and more than 700 canceled, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware. New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport are the most impacted, accounting for 20%, 19% and 17% of canceled outbound flights, respectively.

Los Angeles Times [12/27/2025 10:37 AM, Rong-Gong Lin II and Laurence Darmiento, 14862K] reports a tornado did, in fact, spin through Los Angeles on Christmas, the National Weather Service confirmed, damaging a home and a commercial strip mall. With a wind speed of up to 80 mph, the brief tornado traveled for about a third of a mile in Boyle Heights just after 10 a.m. Thursday. It was classified as an EF-0 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, the weakest kind of tornado, in which three-second gusts can be 65 to 85 mph. The tornado first hit a home on Lee Street, damaging the roof and allowing rainwater to leak inside. It then hit a strip mall on the northeast corner of Whittier Boulevard and South Lorena Street, breaking some windows and tree branches, bending a utility pole and destroying several business signs, the weather service said in a statement Friday evening. Just north of the shopping plaza off of Lorena Street, damage could be seen on the roofs of some homes and metal chain link fences. The confirmation that a tornado, albeit a small one, had struck Los Angeles was the latest illustration of the power of the Christmas Eve-Christmas Day Pineapple Express storm, which brought record amounts of rain to a wide swath of Southern California for the two-day holiday period. Authorities on Friday reported another possible storm-related death — the fourth reported in California in recent days.

New York Post [12/27/2025 7:42 AM, Geoff Earle, 42219K] reports the Secret Service continues to endanger the president’s life with lax security, and the government is sitting on information that might expose recent failures which allowed President Trump to get shouted down by Code Pink protesters during a recent outing to a Washington DC restaurant, advocates fear. The watchdog group has been trying for three months to get information on how the protesters got advance notice about Trump’s closely-held movements — at an event intended to demonstrate that the city was thriving under new federal security protection. The government allegedly ignored a Dec. 9 deadline to provide the information under the Freedom of Information Act, according to court papers. None of the protesters were accused of violence but Fitton fears anyone armed with key information about the president’s movements — as Code Pink apparently was — could potentially harm the commander in chief. Trump survived two assassination attempts during the 2024 campaign – one in Butler, Pennsylvania in July, and the other in September at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida — and a subsequent House task force found inexperienced personnel "did not clearly understand the delineation of their responsibilities." Judicial Watch is also seeking Secret Service documents in connection with those close calls. In yet another concerning incident, the Secret Service failed to detect a guest who brought a Glock handgun onto the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va. while the president was there.

Reported similarly:
NewsMax [12/27/2025 7:12 PM, Jim Mishler, 4109K]

CBS Colorado [12/27/2025 6:56 PM, Christa Swanson, 39474K] reports a grand jury in Colorado indicted two suspected leaders of the Venezuelan gang Tren De Aragua on Thursday in connection with a series of crimes in the state. Brawins Dominique Suarez Villegas, also known as "Chino San Vicente," and Giovanni Vicente Mosquera Serrano, also known as "Jovani San Vicente" or "El Viejo," are facing several charges, including violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act. According to the State Department, Mosquera Serrano was the first alleged TdA member to be added to the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted List and was indicted in January with international cocaine trafficking conspiracy in Texas. According to Thursday’s indictment, Suarez Villegas and Mosquera Serrano were involved in robbery, extortion, kidnapping, money laundering and controlled substance offenses in Colorado between May 2024 and March 2025 as part of their alleged involvement with the transnational criminal organization. The two men are facing charges of conspiracy to commit robbery, two counts of Hobbs Act Robbery and firearms offenses in connection with armed robberies at two Denver area jewelry stores last year. Another man charged in the robbery of Joyeria El Ruby, Newman Castillo-Delgado, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 240 month sin prison on Dec. 17. CBS Colorado is working to confirm the suspects’ whereabouts. The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado said that Castillo-Delgado, Suarez Villegas and Mosquera Serrano robbed the jewelry store in June 2024, taking nearly $4 million worth of jewelry and gold. They say the men brutally beat several employees with a firearm, and that multiple victims were injured in the attack. According to the DPD, Suarez Villegas was also involved with the kidnapping, ransom, torture and disfigurement of a victim in Oct. 2024. They said he is facing charges for conspiracy to commit kidnapping, kidnapping, cyberstalking and a firearms offence in connection with the crime. Other suspects are also facing charges related to this incident. Authorities said the investigation is being handled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Denver Field Office, and the Denver Police Department, with assistance from the Colombian National Police GAULA ELITE unit and DEA Bogota Country Office - Group 3. Over the last year, the District of Colorado has announced two other federal indictments charging 30 alleged TdA leaders and members with drug trafficking, murder for hire and firearms offenses.

FOX News [12/27/2025 6:52 PM, Staff, 40621K] reports Foundation for Defense of Democracies adjunct senior fellow Peter Doran discusses President Donald Trump’s warning that the United States could take further action if Christians continue to be targeted in Nigeria on ‘Fox Report.’ [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CNN [12/28/2025 4:03 AM, Natalie Barr, 18595K] reports U.S. Africa Command said it conducted the strikes on what it claims were ISIS positions in Sokoto state, which borders Niger to the north, “in coordination with Nigerian authorities.” But as CNN’s Larry Madowo reports, villagers say the area is not known for terrorist activity and that local Christians coexist peacefully with the Muslim majority. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [12/27/2025 3:56 PM, Staff, 40621K] reports former U.S. special envoy James Jeffrey joins ‘Fox News Live’ to discuss the U.S. strikes targeting ISIS forces in Nigeria and what to expect ahead of President Donald Trump’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Mar-a-Lago. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Breitbart [12/27/2025 3:58 PM, Staff, 2416K] reports the FBI Hoover headquarters in Washington soon will be vacant as the federal law enforcement agency prepares to make a permanent exit in favor of a more modern structure. FBI Director Kash Patel plans to make a permanent move into the former headquarters of the recently closed U.S. Agency for International Development sometime soon, according to Bloomberg. "After more than 20 years of failed attempts, we finalized a plan to permanently close the FBI’s Hoover headquarters and move the workforce into a safe, modern facility," Patel said in a social media post on Friday. Moving into the former USAID headquarters will save taxpayers almost $5 billion, which was allocated to build a new FBI headquarters that would not have opened until 2035, Patel said. "We scrapped that plan," he explained. "Instead, we selected the already-existing Reagan Building, saving billions and allowing the transition to begin immediately with required safety and infrastructure upgrades underway.” When the improvements are done, Patel said the FBI staff will move into the Reagan Building, which is located at 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., between the White House and the Capitol. He did not say when the move might occur. The Hoover Building will be shut down after the FBI vacates it, the FBI director added.

New York Times [12/27/2025 3:00 PM, Edward Wong, Tyler Pager, Charlie Savage, Julian E. Barnes, and Maria Abi-Habib, 153395K] reports on a spring night in the Oval Office, President Trump asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio how to get tougher on Venezuela. It was just before Memorial Day, and anti-leftist Cuban American lawmakers whose votes Mr. Trump needed for his signature domestic policy bill were urging him to tighten a vise on Venezuela by stopping Chevron’s oil operations there. But Mr. Trump did not want to lose the only U.S. foothold in Venezuela’s oil industry, where China is the biggest foreign player. The president was considering allowing Chevron to continue. But he told Mr. Rubio, a longtime hawk on Venezuela and Cuba, that they had to show the lawmakers and other doubters they could bring the hammer down on Nicolás Maduro, the leftist autocratic leader of Venezuela, whom Mr. Trump had tried to oust in his first term. Another aide in the room, Stephen Miller, said he had ideas. As Mr. Trump’s homeland security adviser, he had been talking with other officials about Mr. Trump’s campaign vow to bomb fentanyl labs. For various reasons, that notion had faded, and in recent weeks Mr. Miller had turned to exploring attacks on boats suspected of carrying drugs off the shores of Central America. Mr. Miller’s deliberations had not focused on Venezuela, which does not produce fentanyl. But three separate policy goals began merging that night — crippling Mr. Maduro, using military force against drug cartels and securing access to Venezuela’s vast oil reserves for U.S. companies.

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