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 [12/29/2025 1:03 PM, Louis Casiano, 40621K] reports that federal authorities were conducting a "massive" investigation in Minnesota on Monday, days after a video posted online by an independent journalist on alleged fraud involving daycare centers. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were on the ground in Minneapolis, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on X. Fox News Digital has reached out to DHS, as well as ICE and the FBI. A video Noem posted online showed HSI agents questioning someone outside a building, but it was not clear what type of business the person was involved in. Another video posted by ICE showed investigators going door-to-door at various sites. "The American people deserve answers on how their taxpayer money is being used and ARRESTS when abuse is found. Under the leadership of @Sec_Noem, DHS is working to deliver results," the agency wrote on X. Still reeling from a $250M fraud scheme in which several people have been charged, Minnesota was thrust into the spotlight again this weekend after independent journalist Nick Shirley on Friday posted a 42-minute video on YouTube, documenting visits to several daycare centers in the blue state. On Sunday, the White House reposted an X post from Education Secretary Linda McMahon, who called the alleged fraud a "breathtaking failure that has happened under the watch" of Walz. [Editorial note: consult video at source link] The New York Post [12/29/2025 1:38 PM, Steven Vago and Chris Nesi, 42219K] reports "DHS is on the ground in Minneapolis, going DOOR TO DOOR at suspected fraud sites," the Department of Homeland Security posted on X along with a video of a pair of DHS agents entering Nicollet Tobacco & Vape in Burnsville, about 17 miles south of Minneapolis. "The American people deserve answers on how their taxpayer money is being used and ARRESTS when abuse is found." Authorities are looking into as much as $9 billion that may have been stolen in a widespread social-services scam predominantly orchestrated by members of the state’s Somali community. "Right now in Minneapolis, Homeland Security Investigations and ICE are on the ground conducting a large-scale investigation on fraudulent daycare and healthcare centers, as well as other rampant fraud," DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to The Post. In another video posted on X by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, the same two agents ask a man outside an unidentified business about any subcontractors they work with. "Are there any subcontractors you guys deal with, say any other business partners you use for services, transportation or anything like that?" the agent asks. "Homeland Security Investigations are on the ground in Minneapolis right now conducting a massive investigation on childcare and other rampant fraud," Noem wrote on X in a post accompanying the video. [Editorial note: consult video at source link] CBS News [12/29/2025 8:05 PM, Staff, 39474K] reports that the video, posted by conservative YouTuber Nick Shirley, alleged nearly a dozen day care centers in Minnesota that are receiving public funds are not actually providing any service. As of Monday, the video had been viewed more than 1 million times, according to YouTube’s metrics, and was seen by tens of millions more on X. "While we have questions about some of the methods used in the video, we do take the concerns that the video raises about fraud very seriously," said Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families commissioner Tikki Brown. In addition to the DHS investigations, state officials also visited some of the sites on Monday. They told CBS News two of the centers featured in the video already shut down earlier this year, although one of those centers informed the state late Monday that it plans to remain open. CBS News conducted its own analysis of nearly a dozen day care centers mentioned by Shirley: all but two have active licenses, according to state records, and all active locations were visited by state regulators within the last six months. One, Sweet Angel Child Care, Inc., was subject to an unannounced inspection as recently as Dec. 4. CBS News’ review also found dozens of citations related to safety, cleanliness, equipment, and staff training, among other violations, but there was no recorded evidence of fraud. CBS News visited and called several of the day care centers on Monday but received no responses. Monday’s DHS visits come amid what prosecutors allege is a $9 billion COVID-era fraud scandal in Minnesota. Gov. Tim Walz and other state officials have disputed that figure and defended their handling of the crisis. CNN [12/29/2025 10:07 PM, Zoe Sottile, Andy Rose, Holmes Lybrand, 606K] reports that on Sunday, FBI director Kash Patel said the bureau had already "surged" resources to Minnesota even "before the public conversation escalated online.” "Fraud that steals from taxpayers and robs vulnerable children will remain a top FBI priority in Minnesota and nationwide," he said in a post on X. "The FBI believes this is just the tip of a very large iceberg. We will continue to follow the money and protect children, and this investigation very much remains ongoing.” Officials at DHS have announced their own investigation into alleged fraud. "DHS is on the ground in Minneapolis, going DOOR TO DOOR at suspected fraud sites," said the agency on X, along with a video of people in jackets marked "Police - HSI." "The American people deserve answers on how their taxpayer money is being used and ARRESTS when abuse is found.” FOX News [12/29/2025 3:39 PM, Preston Mizell, 40621K] reports Senator Jim Banks, R-Ind., is pushing for a federal investigation after sending a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) calling for the agency to construct investigative reports of Somali networks as the roughly $9 billion fraud scandal in Minnesota continues to unfold. The Indiana senator pointed out that the Minnesota Child Care Assistance Program is administered by the state government, but is largely funded by federal tax dollars through two programs that provide roughly $300 million in federal childcare subsidies to Minnesota.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [12/29/2025 2:10 PM, Sarah Fortinsky, 12595K]
Breitbart [12/29/2025 7:14 PM, Elizabeth Weibel, 2416K]
AP [12/29/2025 8:16 PM, Staff, 31753K]
Axios [12/29/2025 4:47 PM, Herb Scribner, 12972K]
CBS News [12/29/2025 3:00 PM, Cole Premo, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, 39474K]
Daily Wire [12/29/2025 2:31 PM, Zach Jewell, 2494K]
NewsMax [12/29/2025 4:43 PM, Jim Mishler, 4109K]
Telemundo [12/29/2025 6:18 PM, Staff, 2218K]

Daily Wire [12/29/2025 5:22 PM, Virginia Kruta, 2494K] reports Attorney General Pam Bondi said that the fraud uncovered thus far in Minnesota — largely linked to the Somali community — was just the tip of what appears to be a very large iceberg, and she promised many more arrests and prosecutions in the coming weeks. In a post shared to X on Monday afternoon, Bondi praised the work done by independent journalist Nick Shirley, who shared a lengthy video exposing the depth of the fraud in the childcare and health care industries — and she said that the Justice Department had already begun investigating the fraud months earlier. "MINNESOTA FRAUD: [Nick Shirley]’s work has helped show Americans the scale of fraud in Tim Walz’s Minnesota," Bondi posted. "@TheJusticeDept has been investigating this for months. So far, we have charged 98 individuals – 85 of Somali descent – and more than 60 have been found guilty in court. We have more prosecutions coming … BUCKLE UP, LAWMAKERS!". FBI Director Kash Patel also responded to the story: The FBI is aware of recent social media reports in Minnesota. However, even before the public conversation escalated online, the FBI had surged personnel and investigative resources to Minnesota to dismantle large-scale fraud schemes…— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) December 28, 2025.

NBC News [12/29/2025 6:17 PM, Corky Siemaszko and David Ingram, 34509K] Video: HERE the FBI went into overdrive to investigate suspected fraud at nearly a dozen Minnesota social services after a YouTube video purporting to show day care facilities that aren’t operational but receiving state and federal funding went viral over the weekend. FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X that he was aware of the video, created by right-wing influencer Nick Shirley, but insisted the FBI had already "surged" investigative resources and personnel to Minnesota as part of its ongoing fraud investigation that has largely targeted Somali immigrants. "The FBI believes this is just the tip of a very large iceberg," Patel posted Sunday on X. Meanwhile, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s office defended its ongoing efforts to crack down on fraud when it was asked about the video. "The governor has worked for years to crack down on fraud and ask the state legislature for more authority to take aggressive action," a spokesperson for the governor’s office said in an email. "He has strengthened oversight — including launching investigations into these specific facilities, one of which was already closed.” The Justice Department has been running a sprawling fraud investigation involving some members of Minnesota’s Somali community for years. In 2022, during the Biden administration, federal prosecutors announced initial indictments in what they called a $250 million scheme to defraud a federally funded child nutrition program. As of last month, prosecutors had charged 77 people. They described Aimee Bock, who is white, as the mastermind of the operation. A jury convicted her in March. Shirley, 23, who describes himself as an independent journalist, put the subject of Minnesota fraud in the spotlight of conservative media in recent days. His report out of Minneapolis was quickly championed by Vice President JD Vance, Elon Musk and various right-wing outlets. His video has been viewed millions of times on X and YouTube. "Here is the full 42 minutes of my crew and I exposing Minnesota fraud, this might be my most important work yet," Shirley said online. "We uncovered over $110,000,000 in ONE day.”

Daily Caller [12/29/2025 11:09 AM, Caden Olson, 835K] reports that Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s office said on Sunday it launched new investigations in response to a viral video further documenting evidence of fraud in the state. A new documentary produced by independent journalist Nick Shirley highlights visits to more than 20 licensed childcare and healthcare providers participating in state-funded assistance programs that appeared to be non-operational during the visits. Walz’s office responded to the video in a statement provided to FOX News, claiming his administration has "strengthened oversight," in response to the documented fraud schemes. "The governor has worked for years to crack down on fraud and ask the state legislature for more authority to take aggressive action," Walz’s office told Fox News on Sunday night. "He has strengthened oversight — including launching investigations into these specific facilities, one of which was already closed." Walz’s office added that the administration had "hired an outside firm to audit payments to high-risk programs, shut down the Housing Stabilization Services program entirely, announced a new statewide program integrity director, and supported criminal prosecutions."

FOX News [12/29/2025 7:00 PM, Lindsay Kornick, 40621K] reports New York Times writer Mara Gay appeared to downplay the growing fraud allegations in Minnesota, suggesting that the Somali community was being "scapegoated" by a politicized Department of Justice (DOJ). Gay’s comments on MS NOW’s "Morning Joe" on Monday came after a video from independent journalist Nick Shirley went viral, depicting visits to multiple Minnesota childcare facilities that appeared largely inactive despite receiving millions in state funding. While she agreed that any fraud in the state should "absolutely" be investigated, no matter what party is in charge, Gay claimed that federal investigations into Minnesota are likely politically motivated. "The question is, why is this a priority in a different kind of way?" Gay asked. "The politicization of the DOJ and the FBI is undeniable. So whether they are reliable narrators is the big question. This is what happens when you weaponize and politicize federal agencies that are not meant to be politicized. I think the American people are right to ask the question: Can we trust you? And that’s a sad thing to say as an American.” She added fraud scandals were "not unique to politics," pointing to a recent welfare scandal in Mississippi, and claimed that the Somali community, which has been implicated in recent scandals, is being persecuted to appease a far-right base. "But of course, the other factor here is that because it looks like the Somali population in Minnesota—the Somali immigrant population—may have been involved in some way, those people are being scapegoated," Gay said. "That community is being scapegoated in a way that certainly serves the far right, and that’s also something to keep an eye on. And that’s inappropriate, absolutely.” In a comment to Fox News Digital, the Justice Department pointed to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s latest X post saying they have charged 98 individuals, including 85 of Somali descent, since investigations began. On Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem revealed on X that Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were on the ground in Minneapolis to conduct a "massive" investigation.

Reuters [12/29/2025 4:10 PM, Andrea Shalal, Idrees Ali, and Erin Banco, 36480K] reports that President Donald Trump said on Monday that the U.S. had "hit" an area in Venezuela where boats are loaded with drugs, marking the first known time Washington has carried out land operations in Venezuela since a pressure campaign began against President Nicolas Maduro’s government. "There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs," Trump said. "We hit all the boats, and now we hit the area... it’s the implementation area. That’s where they implement, and that is no longer around." It was not immediately clear what target was hit nor which part of the U.S. government acted. Asked if the CIA had carried out the attack, Trump said: "I don’t want to say that. I know exactly who it was but I don’t want to say who it was." Trump has previously said that he has authorized the CIA to carry out covert operations in Venezuela. On a radio show last week, Trump made vague comments about an apparent U.S. operation against a "big facility" in Venezuela. The Central Intelligence Agency, the White House and the Pentagon have not publicly elaborated on those comments and declined to comment on questions posed by Reuters. The Venezuelan government has not commented on the incident Trump described and there have been no independent reports from Venezuela of it. CNN [12/29/2025 8:30 PM, Natasha Bertrand, Zachary Cohen, and Jim Sciutto, 18595K] reports the drone strike, the details of which have not been previously reported, targeted a remote dock on the Venezuelan coast that the US government believed was being used by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to store drugs and move them onto boats for onward shipping, the sources said. No one was present at the facility at the time it was struck, so there were no casualties, according to the sources. Two sources said US Special Operations Forces provided intelligence support to the operation, underscoring their continued involvement in the region. But Col. Allie Weiskopf, a spokesperson for US Special Operations Command, denied that, saying, "Special Operations did not support this operation to include intel support.” President Donald Trump appeared to first acknowledge the attack in an interview last week that initially attracted little notice, though he offered few specifics, including when reporters asked directly about it on Monday. The strike could significantly escalate tensions between the US and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who the US has been pressuring to step down through an aggressive military campaign. CBS News [12/29/2025 2:23 PM, Kathryn Watson, 39474K] reports that the president didn’t offer the location of the facility, but he has been threatening land strikes in Venezuela following a string of U.S. military strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. "We just knocked out, I don’t know if you read or you saw, they have a big plant or a big facility where they send, where the ships come from," Mr. Trump said after calling into "Sid and Friends in the Morning" on 77 WABC Friday. "Two nights ago, we knocked that out, so we hit them very hard." On Monday, he added that it had struck what he called "the implementation area," adding, "that is no longer around.” The New York Times reported that president was referring to a drug facility in Venezuela. The Pentagon referred questions to the White House. The White House has yet to respond to CBS News’ request for comment. Breitbart [12/29/2025 1:08 PM, John Hayward, 2416K] reports Trump made his remarks in a surprise cell phone call to John Catsimatidis, a billionaire Republican businessman and radio host. Catsimatidis was guest-hosting on WABC for another radio personality, Sid and Friends in the Morning host Sid Rosenberg, when he told listeners that his phone was ringing and President Trump was on the line. Catsimatidis revealed that he had been texting with Trump about military action against Islamic State terrorists in northern Nigeria the previous evening, and Trump had decided to surprise him with an on-air call to discuss Nigeria and other security situations around the world, including Trump’s war against narco-terrorist boats in the Caribbean and Pacific. In the course of the latter discussion, Trump rather casually remarked that the first ground strike against smugglers in Venezuela had already been made. NBC News [12/29/2025 1:51 PM, Megan Lebowitz, 34509K] reports that the administration has ramped up pressure on Venezuela in recent months. In October, Trump confirmed that he had authorized the CIA to take unspecified action in Venezuela, an unusual acknowledgement about covert action. The president told White House reporters that he took the action because the country "emptied their prisons into the United States of America," a frequent accusation he has made without providing evidence, and also because of narcotics trafficking. In a December phone interview with NBC News, Trump declined to rule out a war with Venezuela. Days earlier, he ordered a blockade of "sanctioned oil tankers" to and from the country and the military seized an oil tanker off of Venezuela’s coast. In the interview with WABC radio, the station’s owner, John Catsimatidis, argued that "Venezuela is going to provide a lot more oil to the United States of America if Maduro leaves," referring to Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. "Well, it’s about a lot of things," Trump said. "It’s about that. It’s about, you know, they took our oil, they took it, and they also sent millions of people in there from jails into our country, from jail, some of the worst people on Earth.” Trump then went on to talk about drug trafficking, which the administration has consistently pointed to as the rationale behind the boat strikes.

Reported similarly:
Bloomberg [12/29/2025 8:33 AM, Magan Crane, 18207K]
Bloomberg [12/29/2025 2:06 PM, Staff, 18207K]
ABC News [12/29/2025 12:23 PM, Hannah Demissie, 30493K] Video: HERE
CNN [12/29/2025 9:22 AM, Kevin Liptak, Donald Judd, 606K]
FOX News [12/29/2025 4:01 PM, Morgan Phillips, 40621K]
USA Today [12/29/2025 10:53 AM, Cybele Mayes-Osterman, 67103K]

CBS News [12/29/2025 7:10 PM, Kathryn Watson, 39474K] reports the U.S. military said it launched another strike Monday on a vessel allegedly carrying drugs in the eastern Pacific, killing two people. U.S. Southern Command claimed in a post on X that the vessel was "operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations in international waters." The military didn’t say which organization, but the Trump administration has categorized several Latin American drug cartels as terror groups. "Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations. Two male narco-terrorists were killed," Southern Command said. The U.S. military has hit at least 30 alleged drug vessels in the region since early September, killing 107 people — part of a monthslong campaign of boat strikes near Latin America. President Trump has argued that boat strikes have been effective at quelling drug trafficking in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean Sea, but critics have questioned the president’s legal authority to carry out the strikes. Earlier Monday, Mr. Trump said the United States "knocked out" a "big facility" last week linked to alleged drug boat operations. "There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs," Mr. Trump said when speaking to reporters at Mar-a-Lago in Florida. The president also said it had struck what he called "the implementation area," adding, "that is no longer around.” Mr. Trump had said Friday in a radio interview that the U.S. hit the facility "very hard" two nights before. The president didn’t offer the location of the facility, but he has repeatedly floated land strikes on alleged drug traffickers in Venezuela and other countries. New York Times reported that Mr. Trump was referring to a drug facility in Venezuela. CBS News has reached out to the White House for comment.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [12/29/2025 6:43 PM, Filip Timotija, 12595K]
CNN [12/29/2025 9:30 PM, Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, 18595K]
FOX News [12/29/2025 7:33 PM, Greg Wehner, 40621K]
Washington Examiner [12/29/2025 10:15 PM, Brady Knox, 1394K]
Telemundo [12/29/2025 7:04 PM, Staff, 57K]

Breitbart [12/29/2025 12:50 PM, Frances Martel, 2416K] reports that Argentine President Javier Milei emphasized his admiration and support for American counterpart Donald Trump in an interview with the British Telegraph on Monday, praising Trump as a peacemaker and clear-minded leader. Milei also suggested that he would support American military efforts against the illegitimate narco-regime in Venezuela, led by dictator Nicolás Maduro – and, further, that the demise of both the Venezuelan regime and its patrons in Cuba would bring a net benefit to humanity. President Trump has authorized significant military action against drug traffickers linked to the Maduro regime in the Caribbean, including "Operation Southern Spear" targeting drug-carrying boats believed to be trafficking cocaine. He also announced in December that he would declare the Maduro regime itself a terrorist organization and blockade Venezuela’s attempts to transport sanctioned oil, citing the expropriation of American company properties by Maduro and predecessor Hugo Chávez. Milei spoke to the Telegraph in the context of that newspaper’s world leader rankings, which placed Milei in third place; the newspaper has yet to reveal who it placed in the top two spots, though Milei was preceded by Syrian jihadist President Ahmed al-Sharaa in fourth place. Milei responded to questions about his assessment of the second Trump administration and his relationship with the American head of state, asserting that he "deeply admires Trump" and praising him for having "managed to end nine wars."

CBS News [12/29/2025 9:30 PM, Kati Weis, 39474K] reports a National Guard deployment in New Orleans authorized by President Trump will begin Tuesday as part of a heavy security presence for New Year’s celebrations, a year after a terror attack on revelers on Bourbon Street killed 14 people, officials said Monday. Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry requested troops to be sent to the city to support local law enforcement during year-end events and remain there through at least February. The deployment in New Orleans follows high-profile National Guard missions the Trump administration launched in other cities this year, including in Washington and Memphis, Tennessee. But the sight of National Guard troops is not unusual in New Orleans, where troops earlier this year also helped bolster security for the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras. "It’s no different than what we’ve seen in the past," New Orleans police spokesperson Reese Harper said. The Guard is not the only federal law enforcement agency in the city. Since the start of the month, federal agents have been carrying out an immigration crackdown that has led to the arrest of at least several hundred people. Harper stressed that the National Guard will not be engaging in immigration enforcement. "This is for visibility and just really to keep our citizens safe," Harper said. "It’s just another tool in the toolbox and another layer of security.” Approximately 142 Louisiana National Guard members will assist the New Orleans Police Department with road closures in and around the French Quarter and other event locations, according to the city’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. Hundreds of Guard members are expected to be part of the deployment, and will operate similarly to earlier this year when they patrolled the area around Bourbon Street following the vehicle-ramming attack on Jan. 1. Flags will be flown at half-staff across the state this week to honor the lives lost in the attack. Jan. 1 through Jan. 4 is also now an official mourning period across the state for all the victims of the attack. Landry has asked churches, public buildings and other institutions across Louisiana to ring their bells 14 times at 3:15 p.m. on Jan. 4 in honor of those who lost their lives. The family of 21-year-old Hubert Gauthreaux told CBS News they hope people will honor his memory in a way that serves others. "I want [others] to be inspired by his light. Maybe think of a small thing that would bring light to somebody else the way that he would ... Just small thoughtfulness would be a beautiful way to remember him," Gauthreaux’s sister, Brooke, said. The Guard members will stay through Carnival season, when residents and tourists descend on the Big Easy to partake in costumed celebrations and massive parades before ending with Mardi Gras. Louisiana National Guard spokesperson Lt. Col. Noel Collins said in a written statement that the Guard will support local, state and federal law enforcement "to enhance capabilities, stabilize the environment, assist in reducing crime, and restoring public trust.” In total, more than 800 local, state and federal law enforcement officials will be deployed in New Orleans to close off Bourbon Street to vehicular traffic, patrol the area, conduct bag searches and redirect traffic, city officials said during a news conference Monday. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reported similarly:
AP [12/29/2025 7:11 PM, Sara Cline and Jack Brook, Jack Brook, 31753K]
NewsMax [12/29/2025 7:38 PM, Sara Cline, Jack Brook, 4109K]

FOX News [12/29/2025 8:54 PM, Peter Pinedo, Bill Melugin, 40621K] reports a trucker who allegedly killed three in a reckless driving incident in Virginia immigrated to the U.S. illegally in the nineties, according to a federal law enforcement source. El Hadji Karamoko Ouattara, a 58-year-old immigrant from Africa, is being charged in connection with the fatal crash after running his tractor-trailer off the side of Interstate 81 and striking a minivan, killing three individuals, including a two-year-old child, and injuring three others, according to local outlet WFXR. The outlet reported that the victims were transported to a nearby hospital. 65-year-old Lorraine Renee Williams, 49-year-old Ebony Latasha Williams and 2-year-old Shazziyah Lesley died of their injuries. A 63-year-old male, a 73-year-old male and a 10-year-old female were also injured but survived, according to the outlet. WFXR reported that Ouattara was originally charged with reckless driving. However, according to the Roanoke County Sheriff’s Office, Outtara is now being charged with three counts of involuntary manslaughter as a result of the incident, which took place on Dec. 22. The office said he is a resident of Montgomery Village, Maryland. A federal law enforcement source told Fox News that Ouattara is a naturalized U.S. citizen from the Ivory Coast. The source stated that, despite originally entering the United States illegally in the 1990s, Ouattara was eventually able to obtain a green card and become a naturalized citizen. This comes amid heightened awareness and national concern about untrained, unqualified illegal immigrant drivers on U.S. roads. Earlier this month, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy offered an update on his agency’s work alongside the Department of Homeland Security in cracking down on an influx of illegal immigrants given a non-domiciled commercial driver’s license (CDL) without proper vetting, which has led to several deaths on America’s highways. Duffy sprang into action earlier this year after an Indian national named Harjinder Singh, who authorities said was issued a CDL by California, allegedly killed a carload of people after he attempted an illegal U-turn on Florida’s Turnpike. Duffy said that DOT has pressed for compliance from problem states offering illegals CDLs, sharing that California has since revoked 17,000 problematic non-domiciled CDL licenses. "We are going to use every resource, every tool that we have at DOT, to make sure that we have the right people on our road that are well qualified, well licensed. That are proficient in the English language to make sure we’re maximizing safety," Duffy said.

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [12/30/2025 12:33 AM, Elizabeth Weibel, 2416K]

USA Today [12/29/2025 10:25 PM, Thao Nguyen, 67103K] reports a federal judge has dismissed the charges against a Los Angeles-based TikTok creator who was accused of assaulting an officer before being shot by a federal agent during an immigration enforcement operation, court records show. Carlitos Ricardo Parias, a 44-year-old TikTok streamer who documents immigration enforcement activity around Los Angeles, was charged with assault on a federal officer in connection to an Oct. 21 confrontation, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. He was indicted by a grand jury and was scheduled to go on trial on Dec. 30. Prosecutors accused Parias, a Mexican national living in South Los Angeles, of ramming into law enforcement vehicles in "an attempt to dislodge his car during an immigration arrest." During the incident, prosecutors said a federal agent opened fire and wounded Parias and a deputy U.S. Marshal, who was hit by a ricochet bullet. U.S. District Judge Fernando M. Olguin dismissed the case with prejudice on Dec. 27. That means that prosecutors cannot refile the same charges against Parias. The judge cited constitutional violations in his decision, saying Parias was deprived of his access to counsel while being held in detention. Olguin also noted that the government did not comply with discovery deadlines, including the release of body camera footage of the shooting. The footage, which was captured by a camera worn by the officer who shot Parias, was released on Dec. 10 − five days after the deadline. "By delaying production of the body camera footage, the government eliminated any possibility for the defense to review the footage with Mr. Parias," Olguin wrote. "And with each passing day, the ability of defense counsel to meet with their client and prepare for trial was further undermined, resulting in even more prejudice to defendant.” Though the indictment against him has been dismissed, Parias could remain in detention as his immigration case moves forward. He is living in the U.S. without legal permission, federal authorities say. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles said in a statement to CBS News that it "strongly" disagrees with the ruling and will explore options for appeal. Federal agents surveilled TikTok streamer’s neighborhood before arrest. On the morning of Oct. 21, federal agents were surveilling Parias’ neighborhood and saw him leaving his home, according to a criminal complaint. Prosecutors said Parias was the "subject of an administrative immigration arrest warrant and had avoided capture before.” After he got into his car, prosecutors said agents followed him and boxed Parias’ car in with their vehicles, leaving him "with no reasonable means of escape." Parias then drove his vehicle forward and back, hitting two law enforcement vehicles, according to the complaint. "Parias still refused to submit to arrest, and then drove ... more aggressively, forwards towards one law enforcement vehicle," prosecutors alleged. "Parias’s aggressive driving escalated to the point that large plumes of smoke formed around the (vehicle) apparently caused by the spinning of the car’s tires." [Editorial note: consult video at source link] Telemundo20 [12/29/2025 10:43 AM, Missael Soto, 57K] reports that Carlitos Richard Parias, known as Richard LA on social media, was shot along with a U.S. Marshals Service agent in October during what the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) described as a "traffic stop for immigration enforcement purposes." Federal agents arrested Parias after accusing him of erratically driving his car and crashing into police vehicles that had cornered him. Authorities indicated that Parias was trying to evade an immigration arrest. The Department of Homeland Security stated that Parias was in the country illegally, but details about when and where he entered the United States were not immediately available. Prosecutors stated that, during the confrontation, a federal agent fired his weapon, wounding Parias in the elbow, and a ricocheting bullet struck a U.S. Marshal in the head. In a statement, Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said, “During an immigration traffic stop in the Los Angeles area, Carlito Ricardo Parias, who had previously escaped from custody, attempted to evade arrest again. ICE officers, with assistance from U.S. Marshals, apprehended the undocumented immigrant from Mexico in a standard police procedure. The undocumented immigrant used his vehicle as a weapon and began ramming the police vehicle in an attempt to flee. Fearing for the safety of the public and law enforcement officers, our officers followed their training and fired defensive shots.” In a statement, the Los Angeles Federal Prosecutor’s Office expressed its disagreement with Olguin’s ruling and confirmed that Parias remains in the custody of immigration authorities. CBS Los Angeles [12/29/2025 2:25 PM, Austin Turner, 39474K] reports acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli claimed that Parias is a Mexican National living in the U.S. illegally, and that he refused to follow orders given by federal agents before ramming them with his vehicle. At that point, the agents opened fire on Parias, wounding him. A deputy U.S. Marshal was struck by a ricochet bullet during the exchange, suffering minor injuries. Parias’ trial was scheduled to begin this week. In his decision, Olguin wrote that Parias was illegally deprived of his access to counsel while held in custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He also said the government failed to meet deadlines during the discovery process, including body-worn camera footage, which was released on Dec. 10, five days after the deadline.

Reported similarly:
AP [12/29/2025 3:25 PM, Staff, 1538K]
NBC News [12/29/2025 9:14 AM, Missael Soto, 34509K]

CBS Los Angeles [12/30/2025 1:21 AM, Staff, 39474K] Video: HERE reports newly released body cam video shows the moments surrounding the violent confrontation during which popular Los Angeles-based TikTok influencer "RichardLA," otherwise known as Carlitos Ricardo Parias, was arrested by immigration agents in October. A federal judge dismissed the case against him despite claims from agents that he used his car as a weapon.

FOX News [12/29/2025 2:29 PM, Diana Stancy, 40621K] reports that President Donald Trump and his administration are reviving the Monroe Doctrine — more than a decade after former President Barack Obama’s Secretary of State John Kerry said the centuries-old policy was dead. The restoration of the Monroe Doctrine, which sought to limit European influence in Latin America and to protect U.S. influence in the region, comes as the Trump administration released its National Security Strategy this month that redirects U.S. attention to the Western Hemisphere in an intentional effort to better prioritize protecting the U.S. homeland amid the Trump administration’s crusade against the influx of drugs into the U.S. from Latin America. "President Trump has prioritized enforcing the Monroe Doctrine unlike any other President in decades," White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "He was elected on his promise to eliminate the scourge of drug deaths in our country, including his commitment to secure the southern border and take on the cartels. He has delivered on both fronts by stopping the flow of drugs by land and by sea." "The President will continue to put Americans first by securing our Hemisphere, protecting our homeland, and striking designated narcoterrorists bringing deadly poison to our shores, just as he was elected to do," Kelly said.

Breitbart [12/29/2025 11:43 AM, Bob Price, 2416K] reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed to Breitbart Texas that the man who allegedly kidnapped a teenage girl and her dog on Christmas Day is a Salvadoran migrant who was given a green card during the Obama administration. The 15-year-old girl was reportedly kidnapped at knifepoint by 23-year-old Giovanni Rosales-Espinoza as she was walking her dog. "Giovanni Enrique Rosales-Espinoza, a national from El Salvador, was granted a green card under the Obama Administration," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in response to an inquiry from Breitbart. "The crimes this alien are alleged to have committed are heinous: kidnapping a girl on Christmas is wicked.” On Sunday, Breitbart Texas’s Randy Clark reported that the girl’s father used his cell phone’s family app to track down the missing girl and her kidnapper. He found his daughter with the partially nude man and rescued her and her dog. Following the tracking information available through the parental control features on his child’s cell phone, the father was led to a secluded area nearly two miles from the site of the kidnapping. The father located his daughter and her dog inside a maroon-colored pickup truck, accompanied by a partially nude 23-year-old male. The father rescued his daughter from the truck and provided the information to law enforcement authorities, who began the search for the suspect and the vehicle. According to authorities, there were several witnesses at the scene of the kidnapping who were also able to provide a detailed description of the truck used during the abduction. Montgomery County Sheriff’s deputies located the suspect’s vehicle and arrested 23-year-old Giovanni Rosales-Espinoza without incident. According to authorities, Rosales-Espinoza is now facing charges of Aggravated Kidnapping and Indecency with a Child. The suspect is being held without bond in Montgomery County Jail. According to authorities, a preliminary investigation into the incident revealed the suspect had threatened the young girl with a knife and abducted her from the street. Detectives with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit are continuing the investigation into the suspected kidnapping. Montgomery County Sheriff Wesley Doolittle said, "Christmas is a day meant for joy, but this man chose to shatter that joy by targeting a child. I am incredibly proud of our deputies and detectives who worked tirelessly to ensure this dangerous predator was swiftly apprehended and is now off our streets.” DHS officials did not say where, how, or when the suspect entered the United States. McLaughlin concluded her remarks to Breitbart, saying, "Following his conviction, he will be placed in removal proceedings.”

New York Post [12/29/2025 5:53 AM, Richard Pollina, 42219K] reports the Texas teen who mysteriously vanished from her home early Christmas Eve is feared to be in "imminent danger," as investigators say the case may lead them outside the United States. Camila "Cami" Mendoza Olmos, 19, was last seen outside her San Antonio home just before 7 a.m. Wednesday, wearing pajama shorts and a hoodie. Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said deputies and volunteers have been searching around the clock for the teen, adding that investigators are "not ruling out that this case may take us outside the borders of the continental United States," CBS News reported. "We definitely don’t want to miss anything," Salazar said. Authorities are exploring all possibilities in Olmos’ disappearance, including kidnapping, human trafficking or the chance she left on her own, Salazar said. The sheriff noted the teen had recently gone through a breakup but said it was mutual, adding that investigators do not suspect anything "nefarious" and that those close to her are cooperating. Salazar also confirmed that Olmos was not detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, noting that she is a US citizen. "That was a personal concern," he said. "So I had it checked to make sure there were no stops, no detentions, and that she’s not somewhere in a federal detention facility. That is something we needed to check.” Olmos was captured on video outside her home rummaging through her car before the footage cut off, according to the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities said she never returned home and left her car behind, leading investigators to believe she departed on foot with only her car keys and possibly her driver’s license. Olmos’ mother, Rosario, woke up Wednesday unable to find her daughter, who typically took an early-morning walk. By 9:30 a.m., she grew concerned and tried calling her daughter, only to find Olmos’ phone on a bed with a dead battery. Salazar said it was "highly unusual" for Olmos — who leads an active lifestyle — to leave her phone behind and not return. "That’s why we’re working basically around the clock on this case," he told CBS News. While Salazar declined to share specific details, he said investigators fear the teen may be in "imminent danger.” Federal authorities, including the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, are assisting in the search by monitoring border crossings and international travel. Olmos’ childhood best friend, Camila Estrella, said the two spoke on the phone Tuesday about going dress shopping for an outfit for Estrella’s boyfriend’s family event. "She said, ‘Bye Cami, I love you,’" Estrella recalled. "She was someone who was just full of love.” Anyone with information on her whereabouts is urged to contact the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office at (210) 335-6000 or email the BCSO Missing Persons Unit at missingpersons@bexar.org.

Reported similarly:
USA Today [12/29/2025 12:06 PM, Kate Perez, 67103K]
Telemundo 48 El Paso [12/29/2025 11:05 AM, Staff, 10K]

Breitbart [12/29/2025 7:12 PM, Randy Clark, 2416K] reports more than a hundred volunteers, family members, and law enforcement personnel are widening the search for 19‑year‑old Camila Mendoza‑Olmos, who vanished from her Northwest San Antonio neighborhood on Christmas Eve. Search teams pushed nearly four miles beyond the point where she was last seen as the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, FBI, and DHS intensify efforts to locate the missing young woman. Family members and more than a hundred volunteers have rallied since her disappearance in hopes of finding the young woman and are expanding the search area. Family members, friends, and volunteers formed into teams early Sunday morning at the Wildhorse HOA Sports Park nestled in the center of the neighborhood where Mendoza-Olmos went missing. Breitbart Texas met with search organizer Frank Trevino at the park and discussed the ongoing efforts to find the missing young woman. Trevino told Breitbart Texas that the search has expanded as the days pass and is moving outward from the Wildhorse neighborhood, which sits on the Northwest side of San Antonio. "We’re moving closer to four miles out from where she went missing and are searching through brushy areas close to the route where she walked on most days," he emphasized. Organizers of the search used a topographical map to mark off areas already searched and to track the progress of the search. Teams of volunteers gathered around the map using it to identify additional areas of interest in hopes of finding clues that may lead to the young woman’s whereabouts. On Monday afternoon, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar conducted a press conference at a mobile command post set up at a school close to the scene of Mendoza-Olmos’ disappearance. According to Salazar, additional video evidence captured on the dash camera of a passing motorist appeared to show a young woman wearing clothing that matched Mendoza-Olmos’s walking alongside a road two blocks from her disappearance. Salazar told reporters his office would provide all available resources to assist in the search effort. On Monday, a group of cadets from the department’s police academy and the office’s mounted agents were scouring the area. Salazar says the FBI continues to assist in examining digital evidence, and the Department of Homeland Security has monitored border crossings as part of the larger investigation into the circumstances surrounding the young woman’s disappearance.

New York Post [12/29/2025 8:01 PM, Zoe Hussain and Paige Kahn, 42219K] reports the ex-boyfriend of Camila "Cami" Mendoza Olmos has been assisting in the search for the missing Texas teen — and vowed to continue doing so until she’s found. Nathan Gonzales spoke to local media on Saturday as he and other members of the community came together to look for Olmos, who mysteriously vanished just before 7 a.m. on Christmas Eve and was last seen outside her home in San Antonio. "They’re going through a nightmare," Gonzales said of Olmos’s family during a search party for the missing teen. Gonzales, who had dated the missing 19-year-old, told Fox San Antonio on Saturday that he’s fully committed to searching for Olmos — whom he described as exceptionally "loving" — until the moment she’s found. "So that’s why we’re all out here to support her family and be there for them, because not only do they need us right now. But they need the Lord Jesus to be with her and protect Cami because we know with the Lord that she’s gonna come back home. "She’s a very loving person. She’s the person that always puts others before herself, and she loves everybody no matter what, and you know, this is just not like her because like I said, she’s just a loving person and would’ve never thought that something like this would happen," Gonzales continued. "I’ll be here all day… We’ve been here for three days, going on four days straight, and we’re not going to stop until we find her.” Gonzales has since dedicated much of his social media presence to happy pictures of the couple together and flyers asking for members to join search efforts as the teen’s disappearance moves into its fifth day. Local police have been collaborating with both the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to detect whether she crossed the border.

Univision [12/29/2025 7:05 PM, Staff, 5004K] reports Bexar County authorities have released a new video that could show 19-year-old Camila Mendoza Olmos before her disappearance, which occurred the morning of Dec. 24 in northeast San Antonio. During a news conference, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar reported that the material was captured around 7:00 a.m. by a woman on her way to work and was carrying a camera installed in her vehicle. “This day we are sharing the video with their stations. Apparently the person who was captured in the video may be this girl,” Salazar said, while clarifying that the investigation remains open and without definitive conclusions. According to the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, Camila left her home on the morning of December 24 and did not return. A first record captured by a residential camera shows the young woman near a vehicle at home, although that system only takes intermittent images and not continuous video. Authorities said Camila’s vehicle remained in the house and that the only items he is known to carry were the key to the car and possibly his driver’s license. Subsequently, the new video released Sunday shows a person walking down a sidewalk, several blocks from his home, on a schedule consistent with the time he was last seen.

Chicago Tribune [12/29/2025 6:00 AM, Sam Charles, 4829K] reports that, when it comes to Chicago and crime, perception isn’t always reality. At times, 2025 brought deadly chaos to Chicago’s shimmering downtown: An 18-victim mass shooting in River North, the worst the city’s seen in years. The annual Christmas tree lighting marred by two more shootings, including the murder of a teen boy. A young woman from Indiana set on fire while riding the CTA Blue Line through the Loop. Those crimes were red meat for those who revel in the city’s reputation as a lawless wasteland helmed by liberal politicians. But despite the headline-grabbing mayhem — which often distracts from the day-to-day violence that plays out in poorer neighborhoods across the city — in 2025 Chicago’s gun violence fell to levels not seen in a decade. In fact, Chicago’s murder total in 2025 will be roughly half what it was just four years ago. As of Tuesday, the city had logged 403 murders on the year, a 30% decrease from the same period in 2024, according to Chicago police. At the same time, 1,430 more people suffered nonfatal gunshot injuries, compared with 2,169 in the same period a year earlier — a 34% reduction. That will make 2025 the fourth consecutive year of declines in Chicago’s entrenched gun violence, though the continuing drop is cold comfort to the scores of families still affected by shootings every year. Predictably, perhaps wisely, no one is taking a victory lap. "I feel like we still have work to do," Police Department Superintendent Larry Snelling, now in his third year leading the department, said during a recent interview with the Tribune. "You can always appreciate the decline and the decrease for those who have not been harmed and (are) feeling that things are getting safer, but you can never be happy until things are safe — completely safe.” "I don’t know if we’ll ever get there, but as long as we continue to work toward that, we’ll have less people who are victimized (and) we’ll create a better and safer environment for everybody in Chicago," he added. The violence totals in 2025 are the lowest seen in Chicago since 2014, when the city ended the year with 425 murders and about 2,000 more shooting victims, according to city violence data. 2025 marked the fourth consecutive year of marked declines in shootings, keeping with a trend seen in major cities across the country since the abatement of the COVID-19 pandemic and the unrest that followed George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020. What’s more, in 2025 the Chicago Police Department reported double-digit declines in robberies, car thefts, burglaries and batteries.

Bloomberg [12/29/2025 1:05 PM, Jonnelle Marte, 18207K] reports that Government data measuring declines in the immigrant population are overstated likely due to a drop in the number of immigrants willing to participate in surveys, according to a new analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The US immigrant population fell this year through November by 123,000 to 627,000, St. Louis Fed researchers estimated using employment data. That’s much less than the drop of 1.86 million people measured by the Current Population Survey, which also implies an “implausibly large” increase in the native population by 3.8 million people, the researchers said. “This suggests that the major force for the large negative net immigration in the CPS is a drop in participation of non-naturalized immigrants who remain in the country but may be wary of participating in government data collection,” St. Louis Fed researchers Alexander Bick and Kevin Bloodworth II wrote in a blog post published Monday. Survey responses for the CPS fell notably for several groups from January to November 2025. But participation among non-naturalized immigrants declined by about 10 percentage points more than they did for native-born workers and naturalized citizens, the analysis pointed out.

Bloomberg [12/29/2025 8:00 AM, Alicia A. Caldwell, 18207K] reports one of the most ardent supporters of President Donald Trump’s promise to implement a mass-deportation campaign has a message for the White House: Try harder. The Trump administration’s focus on deporting immigrants with criminal records – “the worst of the worst” in its words — is too narrow, said Mike Howell, a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation. He’s pushing for large-scale workplace raids to drive deportations much higher. “I am not happy about the deportation numbers, and I am not happy about what I see as fake deportation stats,” Howell said in an interview. “Just focus on the workplace and the numbers would be far more what they should be.” Heritage laid out its road map for mass deportations in its Project 2025 report, which has served as a guide for much of Trump’s first year back in office. It’s a vision that has been championed by Trump adviser Stephen Miller, who’s one of the most influential figures in the White House, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Howell’s critique highlights a growing tension inside Trump’s coalition: how to pursue aggressive immigration enforcement without undermining the economy ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The debate has played out within the MAGA movement and conservative circles, including at Heritage where staff departures and leadership disputes underscore wider divisions on the right. Asked about his comments, the Department of Homeland Security said work-site enforcement has been a “cornerstone” of its efforts. “In record time we have secured the border, taken the fight to cartels, and arrested thousands upon thousands of criminal illegal aliens,” said DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson added that “we aren’t taking our foot off the gas as we head into 2026.”

NewsMax [12/29/2025 12:04 PM, Charlie McCarthy, 4109K] reports that nearly 2 million illegals have self-deported under the second Trump administration, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The striking figure, 1.9 million voluntary departures between January and mid-December, was announced by DHS in a year-end release on the department’s accomplishments in 2025. The Washington Examiner reported that the self-deportation total was evidence that President Donald Trump’s White House strategy of pressuring illegal aliens to leave on their own is producing results, even as Democrats and activist groups denounced the messaging as harsh. The administration, however, argued it is a cost-effective way to restore order after years of what Republicans describe as open-border chaos. "President Trump is delivering on his promise to make America safe again and deport criminal illegal aliens," White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told the Examiner, calling the crackdown the "largest mass deportation operation of criminal illegal aliens in history." The outlet also reported that an additional 600,000 illegal aliens, most with criminal histories, have been deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Together, the totals suggest the administration is leaning heavily on a combination of enforcement and deterrence. Analysts cited by the Examiner noted that ICE’s roughly 6,500 deportation officers simply do not have the manpower to arrest and remove millions of people quickly — making voluntary departures a key pressure release valve for a system overloaded during the years under former President Joe Biden.

Daily Signal [12/29/2025 9:00 AM, Virginia Allen, 549K] reports that, seven weeks after Inauguration Day, President Donald Trump stood before America and declared the U.S. southern border secure. “The media and our friends in the Democratic Party kept saying we needed new legislation. We must have legislation to secure the border. But it turned out that all we really needed was a new president,” Trump said to loud applause during his address to a joint session of Congress on March 4. Now, 11 months into Trump’s second term, the administration, under the leadership of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and border czar Tom Homan, has largely succeeded in the aggressive implementation of Trump’s border and immigration agenda. “President Trump is delivering on his promise to Make America Safe Again and deport criminal illegal aliens,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told The Daily Signal. “In record time, we have totally secured the border and are carrying out the largest mass deportation operation of criminal illegal aliens in history. Next year, the administration will continue to build upon our historic successes with even more deportations,” Jackson said. Pen in hand, Trump signed an executive order during his first hours as the 47th president to declare the situation at the southern border a national emergency. The order allowed Trump to deploy additional military personnel and resources to the border. From January to February 2025, encounters with illegal aliens between the ports of entry at the southern border fell by over a third. In addition to the emergency declaration, Trump signed executive orders on his first day in office ending “catch and release” at the border, reinstating the “Remain in Mexico” policy, temporarily suspending processing of refugee applications, and more. Arguably, the most controversial executive order Trump signed not just on his first day in office, but over the course of his first 11 months sitting back behind the Resolute Desk, was his order ending automatic birthright citizenship. The 14th Amendment states: “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.” Trump’s executive order focuses on the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” and holds that those born to parents who are not in the U.S. legally are not subject to U.S. jurisdiction and are therefore not legal citizens. Legal action was immediately taken to block Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order, and on Dec. 5, the Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments in the case next year in what is expected to be the biggest Supreme Court case of 2026.

FOX News [12/29/2025 10:00 AM, Emma Colton, 40621K] reports President Donald Trump kicked off his first day back in the Oval Office of his second term with a flurry of immigration directives aimed at reviving hard-line border enforcement. He reinstated Immigration and Customs Enforcement priorities as the administration looked to deport thousands of illegal immigrants who flooded the nation under former President Joe Biden. Amid the past year of deportation efforts and immigration crackdowns, Democrats, most notably on the West Coast, have had public meltdowns against the president and immigration officials. As Americans prepare to celebrate the new year, Fox News Digital took a look back at the top five Democrat meltdowns in 2025 as they related to Trump’s ICE raids and deportation efforts. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., was handcuffed and removed from a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) press conference in June as he loudly spoke over Secretary Kristi Noem while approaching the podium where she was standing. Noem was in Los Angeles in June to hold a press conference on the ongoing anti-ICE riots that rocked the city amid federal law enforcement’s raid of the city in search of illegal immigrants for removal from the U.S. She was in the midst of explaining DHS was "staying here to liberate this city from the socialist and the burdensome leadership that this governor and this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into this city.” Padilla interrupted the DHS chief amid the presser and was handcuffed. DHS said at the time that Padilla did not identify himself as a senator and was not wearing his official Senate pin at the time of the removal. "I’m Senator Alex Padilla, I have questions for the secretary," he said, according to footage captured by Fox News. Noem said the pair later met in a private room, where they spoke for about 15 minutes, including regarding his concerns over the ICE raids, and exchanged phone numbers. Padilla later said that his removal from the press conference should be a wake-up call for Americans about how the Trump administration operates. "It was clear to me that if that’s how this administration would respond to a senator with a question, imagine not just how they could treat so many other people, but how they are treating so many other people when the cameras are not on. This should be a wake-up call," he told New York Times in October of the viral incident. Grijalva, the daughter of late Democratic House lawmaker Raúl Grijalva, claimed on X earlier in December that she was "pushed aside and pepper sprayed" by federal authorities while seeking information about the raid near the Taco Giro restaurant. "ICE just conducted a raid by Taco Giro in Tucson — a small mom-and-pop restaurant that has served our community for years," Grijalva wrote. "When I presented myself as a Member of Congress asking for more information, I was pushed aside and pepper sprayed.” ICE and other federal law enforcement arrested 46 illegal immigrants during the operation, which stemmed from a "multiyear investigation into a transnational criminal organization involved in labor exploitation, tax violations, and immigration violations," according to the agency. The operation took a turn, according to ICE, when "over 100 agitators" arrived on the scene and "quickly turned violent, assaulting officers and slashing tires.” DHS and ICE both pushed back on Grijalva’s claims. "If her claims were true, this would be a medical marvel," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin responded on X. "But they’re not true. She wasn’t pepper sprayed. She was in the vicinity of someone who was pepper sprayed as they were obstructing and assaulting law enforcement.” "During the operation, U.S. Representative Adelita Grijalva joined the rioting crowd and attempted to impede law enforcement officers, then took to social media to slander law enforcement by falsely claiming she was pepper sprayed," ICE said in response to Grijalva’s claims.

New York Times [12/29/2025 6:51 PM, Michael Gold, 135475K] reports when they return to Washington next week, House Democrats plan to mark the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol with an informal hearing that will highlight Republicans’ efforts to rewrite the history of a riot by a pro-Trump mob. Because Democrats are in the minority, they cannot call an official congressional hearing. But throughout Mr. Trump’s second term, Democratic lawmakers have held informal events meant to draw public attention to their criticisms of the administration. In a letter sent Monday to the Democratic caucus, Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the minority leader, said the hearing, set for Tuesday of next week, would highlight Mr. Trump’s broad clemency to rioters seeking to reverse his loss in the 2020 election, some of whom have been rearrested on other charges. He also said that lawmakers would explore “ongoing threats to free and fair elections posed by an out-of-control Trump administration.” But with Democrats preparing for midterm elections in which they seek to win control of the House, Mr. Jeffries made clear that the hearing was meant to counter Republicans’ efforts to sanitize the storming of the Capitol. “In the years since that disgraceful day, far-right Republicans in Congress have repeatedly attempted to rewrite history and whitewash the events of Jan. 6,” Mr. Jeffries wrote. The mob of Trump loyalists that attacked the Capitol that day caused millions of dollars in damage, injured more than 140 police officers and, for the first time in U.S. history, interrupted the certification of a presidential election. Next Tuesday’s hearing will be led by Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi, who led the bipartisan House select committee that investigated the attack, held widely viewed hearings in 2022 and issued a report on Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn his election loss. But the coming hearing, held by a party with little power to conduct oversight or compel action, will likely demonstrate just how much the dynamics around Jan. 6 have shifted in the year since Mr. Trump returned to power. Though he once disavowed the rioters, Mr. Trump during his 2024 presidential campaign increasingly called them patriots and suggested they had been unfairly treated by the Justice Department. The president opened his second term by granting clemency to all of the nearly 1,600 people charged in connection with the attack, including those who had assaulted police officers as they tried to disrupt the peaceful transfer of presidential power.

FedScoop [12/29/2025 4:30 PM, Lindsey Wilkinson, 56K] reports the Department of Homeland Security will require people submitting Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act requests to do so electronically, rather than mailing them in, as directed by a new rule going into effect Jan. 22. Paper requests can be tedious and time-consuming. The updated procedures are aimed at increasing workers’ efficiency by speeding up the initial data-entry processes and directing more time to searching and reviewing records corresponding to related requests, according to DHS. “This rule will not impose any new costs on the government or the public,” the department said in the final rule published last week. “Electronic submission via web portal is also more efficient than using the U.S. Postal Service and allows for better tracking of the submission and quicker response by the Government.” The agency will consider exceptions in “limited circumstance,” such as for requesters without internet access.

Wall Street Journal [12/29/2025 5:55 PM, Staff, 646K] reports much of the media seems to want a “split” between President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This was all the talk until they joined to strike Iran’s nuclear program in June, and lately we hear it again. But as the two met Monday at Mar-a-Lago, their sixth meeting of 2025, no such split was in evidence. Asked about the relationship, Mr. Trump answered with common sense. “I don’t think it can be better. We just won a big war together,” he said. Israel’s Mr. Netanyahu was effusive in turn, but more important was their convergence on key policy questions, beginning with Iran. The Iranian regime has been racing to rebuild its ballistic-missile capacity, which Israel named an existential threat at the outset of the 12-day war in June. If Iran accumulates enough missiles, it could overwhelm the air defenses of Israel and other U.S. allies even without a nuclear weapon. Mr. Trump, focused on the nuclear program, was presumed to be less gung-ho about addressing the conventional missile threat. Yet when asked whether he’d support another Israeli attack on Iran, Mr. Trump was clear: “If they continue with the missiles? Yes. The nuclear? Fast. One will be ‘yes, absolutely’; the other will be ‘we’ll do it immediately.’” A united front on Iran is the best way to pressure the regime to come to a deal limiting its nuclear and missile programs, so Israel doesn’t have to strike again. But if Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “is trying to build up again,” Mr. Trump said, “we’re going to have to knock ‘em down. We’ll knock the hell out of them.” As the President pointed out, Iran is weak. “They have tremendous inflation. Their economy is bust,” he said. Iran’s currency fell to another all-time low Monday, trading at more than 1.4 million rials to the dollar. In 1979, before the Islamic Revolution, a dollar traded at about 70 rials. Press reports say public protests have broken out in cities over the currency plunge and inflation.

NewsMax [12/29/20256:17 PM, Ziva Dahl, 4109K] reports the Muslim Brotherhood has never hidden its ambitions. In 2011, its leader, Mohammed Badie, vowed to crush "Zio-American arrogance" and impose Islam’s "mastership of the world" through a global caliphate under Sharia law. Fifteen years later, that message remains unchanged. While Congress stalls legislation designating the Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) for its political, financial, and logistical support to terror affiliates like Hamas, Texas and Florida have already branded both the Brotherhood and the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as terrorist entities. Now, President Donald Trump is directing federal agencies to consider FTO designations for the movement’s branches in Jordan, Egypt, and Lebanon. For decades, Western policymakers clung to the delusion that the Muslim Brotherhood is moderate — somehow distinct from the violent jihadism destabilizing the Middle East and infiltrating the West. That dogma is slowly collapsing. Governments increasingly recognize the Brotherhood as a toxic breeder of jihadism. Its own internal documents describe a disciplined, long-term strategy of "civilizational jihad"— exploiting our democratic freedoms and civil liberties to dismantle Western society from within. This threat is not new. After Muhammad’s death in 632 A.D., successive Islamic caliphates expanded across Europe, Asia, and Africa until the Ottoman Empire collapsed after World War I. In 1928, Egyptian Hassan al‑Banna founded the Muslim Brotherhood to resurrect an even larger empire of Islamic supremacy. Al‑Banna explained that Islam is an all-encompassing, cradle-to-grave, way of life. He defined jihad as a binding duty to battle unbelievers, loot their wealth, and destroy their houses of worship. The Brotherhood’s slogan — shared with its offshoot Hamas — leaves no ambiguity: "Allah is our objective… Jihad is our way; dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.” Violence is foundational to Brotherhood ideology. From assassinations to mass-casualty attacks, the record is long and bloody. Hamas itself admits to being "one of the wings of the Muslim Brotherhood," calling it "the largest Islamic movement in modern times.” The Brotherhood functions as the ideological mothership, spawning a sprawling network of over 70 branches worldwide, including al-Qaida, ISIS, Jabhat-al-Nusra, and Boko Haram. While operationally independent, all are united by a commitment to Sharia totalitarianism and hatred of the West, Jews, and Israel.

Washington Post [12/29/2025 7:00 AM, Staff, 24149K] reports the H-1B skilled worker visa, the most popular route for foreign workers seeking nonseasonal employment in the United States, is facing an overhaul. Born out of the Immigration Act of 1990, this visa system draws criticism from all sides decades later: U.S. employers hiring foreign workers face huge uncertainties due to the lottery; foreign wage earners find it too difficult to work legally in this country given the slim chance; meanwhile, American employees lost jobs as a small number of companies exploited the lottery system to bring in foreign workers at a lower pay rate. The decision by DHS to change the random lottery to a weighted lottery will award visa applicants paid at higher wage levels (based on location and occupation category) a higher chance of winning to “better protect American workers,” but it raises new questions. Does an experienced exercise physiologist at wage level four (the highest of four tiers the government uses to evaluate pay for all jobs) deserve three more times the chance of getting selected than a software developer at wage level one? What about foreign graduates getting entry-level jobs? They are likely to make a livable salary and contribute taxes over their lifetime, but a lottery weighted by wage levels would diminish their chances. Is the current salary a good indicator of the worker’s earning potential and future contributions to the economy? Stakeholders in the immigration debate want different things, and policymaking is often a compromise among them. If you could design the selection process that decides who gets in, what demands would you prioritize? As an immigrant coming to the U.S. on a student visa and then on an H-1B, I view these priorities as important for National Interest — except the one advocating for getting everyone a chance. An immigration system prioritizes the host country’s interest. It is by nature unfair. A lottery fakes fairness while introducing uncertainties. It’s costly for American employers and even more detrimental for immigrants whose life often hangs on the lottery decision. It also makes it possible for bad players to game the system because in a lottery the player placing most bets has a greater chance of winning. Running all possible orders of priorities without the lottery, we can see that no matter how you rank, the results would increase the overall pay of visa workers as compared to the current system. Meanwhile, prioritizing certain occupations and more experienced workers lowers international students’ chance of getting the work visa. The new change hurts this group the most. Skilled legal immigration is popular among the U.S. public, though it’s extremely difficult for Congress to enact comprehensive reform. Revising the selection process from a random lottery to a weighted one is a good first step to align the system’s design with policy goals, but as the simulated results show, it won’t satisfy everyone.

Washington Post [12/29/2025 6:45 AM, Jack Crovitz, 24149K] reports an agent of the Chinese domestic security state recently asked an artificial intelligence model to plan a sophisticated surveillance system targeting the minority Uyghur population. This system would compile police records, real-time transportation data and other information to help the Chinese government track and control Uyghurs. The agent called it a “Warning Model for High-Risk Uyghur Individuals.” You might assume that the AI model in question was produced by a Chinese lab such as DeepSeek, Zhipu AI or Moonshot AI, all of which cooperate closely with the Chinese government. Yet the model the Chinese Communist Party agent chose to plan this instrument of oppression came not from China but from Silicon Valley. It was OpenAI’s ChatGPT. OpenAI quickly banned that user from accessing ChatGPT. (Washington Post has a content partnership with OpenAI.) But this was not the first time the CCP has used American frontier AI models for its authoritarian agenda — and unless the United States acts now to set basic security standards for its AI labs, such exploitation will continue apace. That would be a grave danger to American freedom and security. In recent months, OpenAI and Anthropic have caught Chinese operatives using American AI models to publish Spanish-language newspaper articles that “denigrated the United States,” hack into Vietnamese government agencies and create a “social media listening tool” to help Chinese authorities monitor Western social media networks. A few weeks ago, Anthropic reported catching state-sponsored Chinese hackers using Claude, the company’s AI model, to cyberattack Western tech companies, banks and government agencies. Many of these attacks succeeded in stealing sensitive information. These incidents expose a blind spot in the AI race between the U.S. and China. American policymakers often assume that building the world’s most advanced AI models constitutes victory in that race. The true competition, however, involves not only capabilities but also control. Even if U.S. labs achieve technological dominance in AI development, America will lose the larger strategic contest if the CCP and other hostile actors can freely abuse its frontier AI models for their malicious purposes. Indeed, the more advanced American AI models become, the greater the danger that adversaries will exploit them for anti-American ends. It would be a tragedy if Silicon Valley and the U.S. government invested hundreds of billions of dollars in developing the world’s most advanced AI, only for our rivals to use it to degrade American freedom and national security. We can reverse this dangerous trajectory.

Daily Caller [12/29/2025 6:29 PM, Gordon Chang, 835K] reports “We have signed agreements with investors regarding a new TikTok U.S. joint venture, enabling over 170 million Americans to continue discovering a world of endless possibilities as part of a vital global community,” TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew reported in a memo to employees on December 18. In response to intense American pressure, ByteDance, the privately owned Chinese company that owns TikTok, agreed to spin off TikTok’s U.S. operations. According to Chew, the joint venture, named TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, would be “majority owned by American investors, governed by a new seven-member majority-American board of directors, and subject to terms that protect Americans’ data and U.S. national security.” The deal, however, is not good for America. The Trump administration should either close TikTok or seize the extremely popular video-sharing app without compensation. TikTok has posed two national security threats. First, TikTok and its owner ByteDance have repeatedly made promises about the security of personal data of Americans, but they have not honored pledges and have broken U.S. statutes. The company settled charges that it violated U.S. child privacy laws. Second, the Chinese regime uses TikTok’s curation or recommendation algorithm, which determines the distribution of videos, to propagate its narratives as well as spread hate, sow disinformation, glorify self-harm, and promote illicit drug use. TikTok videos turn Americans against Americans and America itself. The TikTok deal, as revealed by Chew, would solve the data security issues. Oracle, which will own 15% of the new joint venture, will store user data in the U.S. in its cloud computing data centers. The arrangement, however, does not adequately eliminate the algorithm problem. Chew stated in his memorandum that the joint venture will be responsible for “retraining the content recommendation algorithm on U.S. user data to ensure the content feed is free from outside manipulation.”

Politico [12/29/2025 9:58 PM, Tyler Katzenberger, 13586K] reports a federal judge ruled Monday that the Trump administration can resume sharing location data about undocumented immigrants receiving public health insurance benefits with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, starting next month. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria’s ruling is a victory for President Donald Trump’s mass-deportation agenda as it allows ICE to use Medicaid data in deportation cases beginning Jan. 6. The agency had been blocked from doing so for months amid a legal challenge from blue states. “The sharing of such information is clearly authorized by law and the agencies have adequately explained their decisions,” Chhabria wrote in a seven-page order. The decision marks a significant setback for California Attorney General Rob Bonta and 21 of his Democratic counterparts, who sued in July to prevent the Trump administration from using Medicaid data obtained from the Department of Health and Human Services to target immigrants. A spokesperson for the California Department of Justice said after the ruling that people signed up for the state’s health care program with the understanding that their personal information would be used for that purpose alone. “The Trump Administration’s effort to use Medicaid data for immigration enforcement is a violation of their trust and will lead to fewer people seeking vital healthcare,” they said in a statement. Chhabria’s order is narrowly tailored to six categories of “basic” personal information: citizenship, immigration status, address, phone number, date of birth and Medicaid ID. The Trump administration is only allowed to share Medicaid data about people unlawfully living in the United States, meaning ICE can’t access personal information collected from other immigrants receiving Medicaid. NBC News [12/29/2025 10:23 PM, Phil Helsel and Joe Kottke, 34509K] reports "We are disappointed in the court’s decision allowing for the sharing of some Medicaid data with ICE," the office of California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement Monday. "Though we are gratified that the court enjoined DHS’s broader efforts to obtain more sensitive health data; data of citizens, lawful permanent residents, and other people with lawful status; and data from other CMS administered health programs," Bonta’s office said, referring to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Monday’s order notes that the Medicaid services agency, CMS, has said in a notice that it "will share the minimum required information," such as "citizenship and immigration status, location, and phone numbers.” Immigrants unlawfully in the United States are largely not eligible for Medicaid. All states are required to offer emergency Medicaid — temporary coverage that pays only for lifesaving services in emergency rooms — to anyone, regardless of immigration status. Emergency Medicaid spending accounts for less than 1% of the program’s expenses, according to a study published in October in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Chhabria’s order notes that basic information is something that the Department of Homeland Security, the agency that governs ICE, has always had the authority to request. Chhabria also said in his partial order that there are many unanswered questions. "Beyond the basic information discussed above, the policies are totally unclear and do not appear to be the product of a coherent decisionmaking process," he wrote.

Reported similarly:
Telemundo [12/29/2025 7:28 PM, Staff, 2218K]

Washington Examiner [12/29/2025 8:00 AM, Anna Giaritelli, 1394K] reports the Department of Homeland Security announced this month that 1.9 million immigrants who were illegally living in the country have voluntarily departed between January and mid-December, a feat that the White House touted as a crowning achievement thus far. "President Trump is delivering on his promise to Make America Safe Again and deport criminal illegal aliens," White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson wrote in an email. "In record time, we have totally secured the border and are carrying out the largest mass deportation operation of criminal illegal aliens in history. Next year, the Administration will continue to build upon our historic successes with even more deportations.” An additional 600,000 illegal immigrants, most of whom have criminal histories in the U.S., have been deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The self-deportations figure would suggest that the Trump administration has found a way to convince those unlawfully present in the country to leave on their own accord rather than expend costly government resources to find, detain, and remove the "millions and millions" of people that President Donald Trump vowed to round up and deport during his Inauguration speech. However, some immigration analysts are concerned that the figure is inflated. David Bier, director of immigration studies at the libertarian Cato Institute think tank in Washington, D.C., said the real number of self-deportations is likely slightly lower than the one DHS reported. "It’s likely a little high, just because some people won’t respond to government surveys right now, and some people who are leaving are legal immigrants who could stay, so I don’t know if it’s fair to characterize them as ‘self-deportations,’" Bier wrote in an email. The illegal immigrant population in the U.S. soared to an all-time high of 14 million people in 2023 as millions of people who illegally crossed into the country from Mexico during the Biden administration’s border crisis were released into the country and resettled across the nation, according to the Pew Research Center. Trump won the 2024 presidential election and the popular vote by promising an immigration crackdown and closing the porous southern border. Upon taking office, he issued a wave of executive orders designed to make illegal entry more difficult and ordered ramped-up deportation efforts. Trump also promised to deport 1 million people in his first year. Within months of taking office, it became apparent that ICE would not meet its 1 million deportations target in its first year, based on projections. An analysis by the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute concluded that even though arrests climbed after Trump took office, the "current pace of deportations suggests the administration will fall well short of its stated goal of one million deportations annually.” Around the same time, the Trump administration began to promote self-deportation. Self-deportations give White House new path forward. Former immigration judge Andrew Arthur explained that convincing the illegal immigrant population to depart voluntarily was part of the Trump administration’s plan all along because ICE’s 6,500 deportation officers did not have the capacity to track down millions of people. "DHS can’t arrest and deport 15.4 million illegal aliens, but if it simply enforces the law, many aliens will get the message and leave on their own, as hundreds of thousands apparently already have," wrote Arthur, resident fellow in law and policy at the restrictionist Center for Immigration Studies organization in Washington.

FOX News [12/29/2025 2:49 PM, Peter Pinedo, 40621K] reports that a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers "continued delivering the American people the greatest gift of 2025" by keeping up operations over Christmas weekend, arresting a murderer and child predators. In a statement to Fox News Digital, DHS said that "while Americans celebrated the Christmas season and prepare for the new year," ICE "continued arresting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens across the country." Among those arrested on Sunday was a Cuban criminal illegal alien named Julio Miguel Gonzalez, who was convicted of homicide-willful kill in Miami. Another, Juan Perez-Tello, from Mexico, was arrested by ICE and had been convicted of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14 years old in Santa Barbara, California. Jose Barrera-Bolanos, another criminal illegal alien from Mexico, was arrested on Sunday. He has a conviction for sexual assault of a child in Denver. "While Americans across the country spent time with their families this Christmas season, ICE continued delivering the American people the greatest gift of 2025: getting criminals out of our neighborhoods and protecting our families," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Digital. "ICE officers arrested heinous criminal illegal aliens yesterday, including monsters who sexually abused children and murderers," McLaughlin continued, adding, "Under President Trump and Secretary Noem criminal illegal aliens have NO PLACE in our country."

San Diego Union Tribune [12/29/2025 12:05 PM, Michael Smolens, 1538K] reports the Trump administration is stepping up its deportation efforts by hiring people-tracking companies, a move critics call a "bounty hunter" program that will undoubtedly increase controversy surrounding immigration control tactics. According to various reports, the federal government, which is offering up to $280 million, has recently signed at least two contracts with private surveillance companies to locate immigrants in their homes and workplaces. One of the companies, BI Incorporated, is a subsidiary of the GEO Group, a for-profit prison company that currently works with the government to incarcerate detained immigrants, according to The Intercept. The Trump administration’s proposals to use private tracking and investigation services have been circulating for months. Lawmakers in two states, Missouri and Mississippi, introduced bills to create their own "bounty hunter" programs, but these initiatives did not succeed. The new federal contracts expand the administration’s use of the private sector in enforcing immigration laws. For example, BI Incorporated has already had previous government contracts for monitoring immigrants using electronic ankle bracelet tracking devices. The new contracts, one of which was awarded to a company called AI Solutions 87, focus primarily on software and artificial intelligence services for investigations, but also contemplate the possibility of field tracking. However, reports from The Intercept and 404 Media suggest that once immigrants are located, federal agents would intervene to detain and arrest them. In requesting bids, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) indicated that it was seeking private services for "locating and notifying individuals using government-provided case data with identifiable information, commercial data verification, and physical observation services..." In general, locating individuals involves tracking down people who are missing, untraceable, or difficult to find, according to Bosco Legal Services. This practice is often used to find people with unpaid debts or who have failed to meet other obligations and may have absconded. ICE considered "performance-based incentives" for contractors, but the final request proposal apparently did not include clauses on bonuses or specific rewards per person, according to Snopes, nor did it include the term "bounty hunter." However, the contracts do contemplate searching for people in exchange for money. "Under the system proposed by ICE, vendors would be assigned 10,000 non-citizens to identify, verify, and/or notify them of documents, with the possibility of receiving ‘additional increments of 10,000 foreigners,’" according to the Immigration Policy Tracking Project. Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat from Illinois and a prominent member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has been a vocal critic of the private tracking program, which he says would "effectively establish a ‘bounty hunter’ model."

Washington Examiner [12/29/2025 2:26 PM, Anna Giaritelli, 1394K] reports that some Democrats are trying to cut ties between local police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as a record-high number of cities and states have stepped up to help federal police track down illegal immigrants in their communities. As President Donald Trump prepares to begin his second year in office, three House Democrats have reintroduced legislation to end the 287(g) program, which originated from the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, an amendment to the Immigration and Nationality Act. The program gives ICE the authority to delegate specific immigration officer duties to state and local police. Local police departments must opt in to participate in the program. As of Dec. 23, ICE has signed 1,255 agreements with local jurisdictions across 40 states — more than at any other point in its history, according to ICE’s website. That means local and state police in more than 1,250 departments nationwide are turning people they suspect to be illegal immigrants over to ICE or Border Patrol for federal officials to determine if they are in the country illegally. The partnerships extensively expand ICE’s presence by repurposing state and local police to support the Trump administration’s overarching goal of carrying out the largest-ever deportation operation. However, Democrats have said they are concerned the cooperation is hurting local policing operations. Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE) said the 287(g) program has led to more racial profiling by local police, and the Protecting the Rights of Towns Against Federal Enforcement Contrary to Constitutional Tenets Immigration Act would cut the partnerships.

Washington Examiner [12/29/2025 6:27 PM, Jack Birle, 1394K] reports Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) announced Monday she would appeal a federal judge’s ruling denying her effort to toss charges for allegedly assaulting law enforcement outside a federal immigration facility earlier this year. U.S. District Judge Jamel Semper denied McIver’s efforts to toss the case on claims of vindictive prosecution, while also denying her bid from November to dismiss two of the three charges on claims of immunity under the Speech or Debate Clause. McIver announced she would appeal the ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, claiming in a statement that the Justice Department’s case against her is "baseless" and "dangerous.” "This appeal is for everyone who is standing up to this administration as they try to operate without oversight, silence the people who oppose them, and shut down those who protect the vulnerable," McIver said. "They want to make an example out of me, but I will not let them.” "I will not be bullied out of doing my job and protecting our communities. Not now, not ever," she added. The Justice Department charged the Democratic congresswoman, who was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2024, with three counts of assaulting, resisting, impeding, and interfering with a federal officer in May, after an incident at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Newark, New Jersey, that month. McIver was indicted by a grand jury in June and pleaded not guilty to all three charges later that month. The DOJ alleges that McIver, who said she was there to inspect the facility, slammed a federal agent with her forearm, grabbed him, and struck another agent during a scuffle between Democratic officials and federal law enforcement outside the facility. McIver has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration’s immigration policies and alleges that poor conditions exist for illegal immigrants at ICE detention centers. McIver attempted to toss the charges, but Semper, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, rejected tossing two of the three charges. Semper said he would reserve ruling on the remaining count until he sees more evidence as the case develops in federal court. "The alleged criminal conduct did not occur during Defendant’s inspection of Delany Hall; instead, it occurred during an inexplicable delay of Defendant’s oversight inspection," Semper said in the November ruling. "Although Defendant bears no fault in the delay, her alleged intervention into the Mayor’s questionable arrest had no cognizable connection to any legislative function protected by the Speech or Debate Clause.”

CBS Baltimore [12/29/2025 6:46 PM, Dennis Valera, 39474K] Video: HERE reports standing on a street corner in Downtown Baltimore Monday, a group of protesters pushed for the removal of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in all of Maryland. The People’s Power Assembly (PPA) organized the protest in direct response to the ICE officer shooting that happened in Glen Burnie on Christmas Eve. In that incident, ICE maintains its officers only acted in self-defense. While one of the protesters’ goal was to raise awareness of ICE’s activity locally, PPA organizers told WJZ they want to pressure state leaders to act. Protesters gathered on the corner of Hopkins Place and Baltimore Street, which is near where the ICE Baltimore Field Office, holding signs and calling for ICE to be abolished. They chanted, "ICE out of Baltimore! ICE out of Maryland!". "All they had on the [people involved in Glen Burnie] was they were suspected of being [undocumented] immigrants. We reject that," said PPA organizer Andrew Mayton. In a statement, ICE said officers shot Tiago Alexandre Sousa-Martins -- who the agency says is an undocumented Portuguese immigrant -- when Sousa-Martins tried to ram other vehicles and the officers. ICE said the officers first tried to get him to turn off the engine, which he refused to do. Solomon Antonio Serrano-Esquival, who ICE has identified as a Salvadoran undocumented immigrant, was in the passenger seat with Sousa-Martins. PPA organizers hopes Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and other state lawmakers move to ban cooperation agreements some counties have with ICE, as well as 287(g) agreements. A bill to ban 287(g) agreements failed to reach Gov. Moore’s desk in the 2025 legislative session, but several lawmakers have expressed interest in introducing another similar bill in the upcoming session. "ICE is its own department, there is no other kinds of collaborative efforts similar to this. All it does is put communities in danger," Mayton said.

FOX News [12/29/2025 11:40 AM, Sarah Rumpf-Whitten Fox, 40621K] reports two illegal immigrants were involved in an attack at a Christmas get-together in Georgia, with one attacking the other with a machete, police said. According to the Hall County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO), patrol deputies arrived at the home in Gainesville, Georgia, on Saturday at 3 a.m. Carlos Hernandez Nicolas, 42, and the victim, 38-year-old Jose Turcios Garcia, got into a verbal argument beforehand that turned into a physical fight, HCSO said. During the fight, Hernandez Nicolas allegedly grabbed a machete and assaulted Turcios Garcia. The victim was transported to Northeast Georgia Medical Center Gainesville for injuries that included an amputated left thumb. The HCSO said the machete used in the attack was later found at the scene. Hernandez Nicolas was taken into custody and remains in jail without bond on a felony count of aggravated battery. Turcios Garcia was released from the hospital after treatment of his injuries, and HCSO said he was jailed on a failure to appear charge. Both men were placed under immigration holds.

Washington Examiner [12/29/2025 2:10 PM, Emily Hallas, 1394K] reports that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Monday announced that she is surging federal agents from her department to investigate suspected fraud sites in Minnesota. The agents are "conducting a massive investigation on childcare and other rampant fraud," she said in a statement to X. For months, Minnesota has been under Washington’s scrutiny due to accusations that the state has allowed sweeping fraud schemes to corrupt publicly funded programs, stealing roughly $1 billion in taxpayer dollars. The FBI and the Education, Labor, and Housing and Urban Development departments are among the agencies now investigating the fraud reports. This week, Noem posted a video of agents from the Homeland Security Investigations unit, which is part of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as they investigated businesses in Minnesota suspected of funneling state funds for nefarious purposes. "DHS is on the ground in Minneapolis, going DOOR TO DOOR at suspected fraud sites," read a post from the DHS accompanying another video depicting federal agents questioning businesses. "The American people deserve answers on how their taxpayer money is being used and ARRESTS when abuse is found." The development comes after the FBI on Sunday became the latest agency to expand staff and "investigative resources" to Minnesota as the fraud scandal grips the state. The Washington Examiner reached out to DHS for comment.

(B) CBS Mornings [12/29/2025 8:59 AM, Staff] reports that the Minnesota Department of Public Safety is calling out the Department of Homeland Security over reports of misuse of license plates on unmarked vehicles. State officials say they have received reports that ICE agents have swapped or duplicated Minnesota license plates on marked vehicles. The director of Driver and Vehicle Services says this violates state law and warns ICE to stop immediately or risk losing access to undercover vehicle programs.

Univision Chicago WGBO [12/29/2025 1:46 PM, Staff, 5004K] reports for a Guatemalan family in Illinois, this year the most important thing about Christmas was not the gifts, but the freedom of a loved one. After nearly seven months in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Marina López returned home this Wednesday, December 24. On June 4, what began as an appointment with her immigration officer at a Chicago courthouse ended with the family being separated. Marina was detained by ICE after receiving a text message just two days earlier requesting her to appear in person. Although Marina claims to have no criminal record, she was allegedly deported at the border when she entered the country in 2014 to request asylum. Despite having a valid work permit, she was arrested and taken first to Broadview, Illinois , and later to a detention center in Kentucky, where she remained for almost seven months. This Monday, Marina will meet with her legal team to continue her immigration process.

The Hill [12/29/2025 7:41 AM, Amber Coakley, 12595K] reports a multi-agency human trafficking operation conducted earlier this month rescued 19 victims in just three days across San Diego County, according to the District Attorney’s Office. Last week, District Attorney Summer Stephan announced the results of the annual “Home for the Holidays” Human Trafficking Task Force Operation, which took place Dec. 10–12 at motels in Chula Vista, National City and San Diego. All 19 victims were offered services aimed at helping them leave exploitation and begin the recovery process. The operation also led to the arrest of four adult men — including a registered sex offender — on charges including pimping, pandering, and violating a protective order. In addition, six misdemeanor citations were issued to people accused of attempting to buy sex. “The ugly truth is that sex trafficking remains a lucrative criminal industry fueled by demand, generating over $810 million a year in San Diego County,” Stephan said. She praised law enforcement and victim advocates for working together to recover victims, some as young as 12, and for holding traffickers and buyers accountable. “Law enforcement will not tolerate this modern-day slavery of vulnerable victims who are bought and sold like a slice of pizza,” she continued. The “Home for the Holidays” operation is part of a yearly, multi-jurisdictional effort designed to identify trafficking victims, connect them with support services, arrest traffickers, and reduce demand for commercial sex. During the sting, officers worked undercover as buyers and responded to online advertisements in order to identify both victims and those exploiting them. California Attorney General Rob Bonta called the operation a critical part of keeping communities safe during the holidays and year-round. “Together, we will continue to disrupt human trafficking operations and achieve meaningful results that uplift vulnerable Californians,” he stated. Law enforcement officials also highlighted upcoming changes in state law. Beginning Jan. 1, Assembly Bill 379 will make buying sex from a minor a felony offense, restore criminal penalties for buyers who loiter for prostitution, create a Survivor Support Fund for victim services, and increase civil penalties for certain trafficking-related violations by businesses. Homeland Security Investigations San Diego Acting Special Agent in Charge Kevin Murphy emphasized a victim-centered approach. “Our collaborative efforts have led to the removal of dangerous offenders from the community and ensured that the 19 victims received the support and services they need,” Murphy said. Those arrested were arraigned on Dec. 19 and Dec. 22. If convicted, they could face sentences ranging from six to 20 years in prison. The Human Trafficking Task Force is led by the California Department of Justice and includes local, state and federal agencies throughout San Diego County. Officials say the task force conducts similar operations throughout the year.

Reported similarly:
New York Post [12/29/2025 3:38 PM, Emily Crane, 42219K]

Telemundo [12/29/2025 5:45 PM, Pilar Niño, 20K] reports following a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s policy that ended the right to bail, a federal court issued a nationwide ruling on December 18 stating that it is illegal to deny that right. This ruling only benefits undocumented people who entered the country without inspection. “A judge ruled that people who entered the United States undetected at the border today may qualify for an immigration bond,” explained Angel Rodriguez, an immigration lawyer. This measure will benefit many who are currently in detention, Rodríguez assured. “Because not many were detained at the border, most entered undetected,” Rodríguez said. The announcement brings some hope to those with family members detained by immigration authorities.

Univision [12/29/2025 11:37 PM, Staff, 5004K] reports that, on Wednesday, December 24, federal judge P. Casey Pitts ordered a halt to the arrests of migrants in immigration courts in Northern California. The judge noted that the arrests in recent months at immigration courts had been unjustified and caused some people to not attend their hearings , which he described as critical. Join our WhatsApp channel: Click here to stay up to date with the latest news and stories from your community . The order states that these arrests were having “a chilling effect on non-citizens’ participation in deportation proceedings and their ability to challenge their deportation.” Pitts also noted that the administration of President Donald Trump and its officials offered no “reasoned” explanation regarding the arrests or their claim that the arrests protected the general public from dangerous individuals. On the other hand, the judge said that migrants had faced two major harms: appearing before an immigration court and then being detained, or failing to attend their appointment and losing the opportunity to file their applications for asylum or other types of protection that would allow them to remain in the country. In response to the Supreme Court ruling that prohibits federal judges from issuing nationwide court orders, Judge P. Casey Pitts limited his order to courts within the jurisdiction of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) headquarters in San Francisco. According to the judge’s order, the courts where ICE will not make arrests are in San Francisco, Sacramento, and Concord. It is possible that Justice P. Casey Pitts will extend his ruling nationwide at a later stage of the case, since the Supreme Court did not decide on the limits of the law in question. Furthermore, the Trump administration could appeal this decision, and in any case, the matter would return to the US Supreme Court.

Politico [12/29/2025 2:00 PM, Myah Ward and Eric Bazail-Eimil, 13586K] reports the Trump administration has long seen asylum requests as “a huge loophole” in its effort to close the border. Over the last two months, it’s become apparent how it intends to close it. The Department of Homeland Security is asking courts to summarily dismiss asylum claims without a hearing and send migrants to a third country where they can pursue relief, even if they have no connection to that place. The federal government is relying on so-called safe third country agreements Trump officials have reached with a number of nations, including Uganda, Honduras and Ecuador — countries that have a reputation for destabilizing gang violence or a history of human-rights abuses. The effort represents the latest attempt by the Trump administration to curtail immigration to the United States and meet its ambitious annual deportation goal of 1 million people. And it comes as asylum claims have increased significantly: There were nearly 900,000 asylum claims before the Executive Office of Immigration Review in Fiscal Year 2024, up from roughly 200,000 per year during Trump’s first term. “Asylum was not designed to provide people a backdoor way to get to a country of their choosing,” said a senior administration official, granted anonymity to discuss internal thinking about the strategy. “If the United States is confident that they can be successfully removed to another country where they will not be threatened, then there’s no reason or expectation that they should be allowed to remain here.” The Trump administration’s strategy was bolstered in October when the Justice Department’s Board of Immigration Appeals, an administrative body that oversees immigration courts, said judges should weigh third-country removal before an asylum case is considered in the U.S. The endorsement turbocharged the effort, and in November, DHS attorneys asked judges to dismiss nearly 5,000 cases, more than twice the amount in October and four times the amount in September, according to a recent analysis of immigration court data. It is not clear that all 5,000 were because DHS wanted to send someone to a third country.

Bloomberg [12/29/2025 3:25 PM, Peter Blumberg, 18207K] reports the US Chamber of Commerce is appealing a federal court’s refusal to block the Trump administration’s $100,000 fee on applications for H-1B visas that are heavily relied on by American technology companies for hiring skilled foreign workers. The national business group filed a notice of appeal Monday in Washington federal court, where a judge ruled on Dec. 23 that President Donald Trump’s effort to radically increase the cost of the popular visa is lawful. The escalating fight in Washington comes as the September proclamation by Trump imposing the fee faces separate challenges filed in Massachusetts by more than a dozen mostly Democratic-led states and in California by a global nurse-staffing agency and several unions. The dispute is expected to ultimately go to the US Supreme Court.

Daily Caller [12/29/2025 8:42 PM, Jason Hopkins, 835K] reports temporary Indian workers sidelined by the Trump administration’s tighter vetting policies are organizing by the thousands to keep the pipeline of cheap, foreign labor flowing. The State Department’s new social media vetting policies for foreigners, requiring a more thorough review of an each individual’s online activity, has resulted in mass H-1B renewal appointment cancellations, with new appointments rescheduled for months later. In response, tens of thousands of Indian nationals have taken to Reddit, launched WhatsApp and Telegram groups and spoken to media outlets in attempt to return to the U.S. or remain in the country longer. Indian H-1B holders are bouncing ideas online, such as asking others still in the U.S. to cancel their own appointments in hopes of opening up resources for their compatriots stuck in India, organizing petitions to demand U.S. consulates open up more interview slots or changing visa categories entirely. "For now I am working to go back to U.S., but this definitely has woken me up and made me realize I need to have a plan B which I didn’t up until this point," an Indian national who wished to remain anonymous in order to speak freely told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Like many others, the individual worked in the U.S. under an H-1B visa, but is now stuck in India. Thousands of other Indian nationals are searching for a "plan B" online. The DCNF unearthed numerous WhatsApp and Telegram groups boasting tens of thousands of members, all created in response to the recent wave of H-1B visa rescheduling.

Reuters [12/29/2025 12:02 PM, Ted Hesson, 36480K] reports the U.S. could deny migrants access to asylum on the grounds they present a public health risk under a newly finalized regulation drafted during the COVID-19 pandemic in President Donald Trump’s first term. The regulation, effective on Wednesday, allows U.S. authorities to bar asylum based on "emergency public health concerns generated by a communicable disease," according to a copy posted in the Federal Register on Monday. The restrictions would not have any immediate effect but would provide the Trump administration with another tool to turn away would-be asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border. The number of migrants caught crossing illegally dropped to the lowest levels in decades after Trump took office in January and implemented a sweeping asylum ban at the border. When COVID-19 took root in 2020 during Trump’s first term, his administration used a U.S. health authority known as Title 42 to rapidly send migrants caught crossing the border back to Mexico, saying it was needed to limit the spread of the virus. Former President Joe Biden, a Democrat who followed Trump in 2021, kept the Title 42 restrictions in place until 2023, partly due to legal challenges that stalled attempts to end it. Advocates have criticized the use of health emergencies to broadly deny access to asylum, saying U.S. law has been twisted to fulfill Trump’s goal of turning away migrants. "Considering the large amount of discretion the regulation grants the administration, and the president’s hyperfixation on immigration enforcement, we can expect this new authority to be overused and abused," said Sarah Pierce, director of social policy at the center-left group Third Way. The Biden administration postponed the effective date of the regulation five times, but did not take steps to terminate it. In addition to asylum, the measure also allows federal agencies to deny another form of protection known as "withholding of removal.”

Campus Reform [12/29/2025 5:09 PM, Michael Duke] reports Secretary Kristi Noem has announced that a “diversity lottery immigrant visa program (DV1),” which allowed the Brown University gunman to obtain a green card, has been paused. In a Dec. 19 post uploaded onto Secretary Noem’s X account, she stated that “The Brown University shooter, Claudio Manuel Neves Valente entered the United States through the diversity lottery immigrant visa program (DV1) in 2017 and was granted a green card. This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country.” Noem added that President Trump fought to end the program in 2017 after a ISIS terrorist who also granted a visa under the DV1 program rammed a truck in New York City, and subsequently received a life sentence for his actions. Ending the statement, Noem added that: “At President Trump’s direction, I am immediately directing USCIS to pause the DV1 program to ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous program.” Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Campus Reform that “President Trump has repeatedly tried to end the Diversity Visa Program.” Providing a timeline of President Trump’s actions, McLaughlin outlined that between 2017 to 2021, “POTUS Trump supported legislative efforts like the RAISE Act to eliminate the diversity visa lottery. This was stopped by Chuck Schumer and Democrats.” McLaughlin added that in 2019, “POTUS Trump Implemented a passport requirement for lottery applicants, significantly reducing applications. This was halted by the courts,” and that in 2020, President Trump suspended diversity visa processing, “And then, of course, President Biden turned it back on.”

USA Today [12/29/2025 5:00 AM, Kathleen Wong, 67103K] reports Face ID makes it easy to unlock your phone, including for U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents when you’re entering the country. CBP has long had the authority to search the contents of electronic devices to verify someone’s identity or assess whether they’re a risk to national security. Travelers’ rights against warrantless searches are weakened within 100 miles of any port of entry, so any person is subject to being questioned and their electronic devices – including phones, tablets and laptops – searched by border agents regardless of immigration status. Travelers can still take steps to better protect their digital privacy at borders, including turning off biometrics to unlock their phones. Here’s what to know. Technically, no, but what happens next depends on your immigration status. U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents cannot be denied entry into the country if they refuse to hand over or unlock their devices with their passwords, according to the American Civil Liberties Union’s Know Your Rights: U.S. Airports and Ports of Entry. But CBP might seize your phone and even keep it for weeks or months. (In this case, make sure you write down the name and badge number of the officer and ask for a receipt.) Noncitizen visa holders and tourists, however, might be denied entry if they don’t give their passwords. If you decide to unlock your phone with your password, enter it yourself instead of giving it to the agent. "They still might demand that you share it, but it’s a precaution worth trying to take," according to the ACLU website. Technically, yes, since biometrics are less secure. "Agents can hold your phone up to your face to unlock it without your consent," according to the ACLU’s website. However, doing this is legally murky. Though the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) believes Face ID or fingerprints to lock devices should be protected under the Fifth Amendment, which protects against self-incrimination, some courts have ruled otherwise. There have also been instances when law enforcement has forced people’s fingers onto their phones to unlock them. The main takeaway is that biometrics are not as protected as a long password or encryption, so they’re not the best idea if you’re crossing borders.

USA Today [12/29/2025 8:52 PM, Marc Ramirez, 67103K] reports a New York man who tried to send hundreds of live turtles falsely labeled as plastic animal toys to Hong Kong has been sentenced to two years in federal prison. Wei Qiang Lin, a 55-year-old Chinese national living in Brooklyn, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Buffalo on Dec. 23, following his guilty plea in August. He was also fined $2,339 – the amount of U.S. currency he was pocketing when he was arrested, federal authorities said. While it wasn’t your classic shell game, Lin’s operation was upended after customs inspectors intercepted more than 200 parcels destined for Hong Kong between August 2023 and November 2024. Inside the shipping boxes were about 850 turtles worth about $1.4 million, bound and taped within socks that were tied in knots. The creatures were primarily eastern box turtles and three-toed box turtles, colorfully marked species native to the U.S. and highly prized among exotic pet traders in China − Hong Kong especially, the Justice Department said. "Turtle and reptile enthusiasts collect North American species of box turtles due to their handsome appearance and the wide variety of unique color variations," wrote Ryan Bessey, a special agent for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in an affidavit supporting the federal complaint. "In fact, no two box turtles have the same markings.” Federal investigators also intercepted shipments containing rare Cora mud turtles – a recently discovered species endemic to Western Mexico. The latter have been increasingly targeted by the black market pet trade, according to the Buffalo Zoo, which took in the seized Cora mud turtles and set up an "assurance colony" to help repopulate the species should its wild population become unsustainable. "It is sadly a case of a newly described species being collected to extinction," the zoo said. Other shipments sent by Lin included alligator lizards, venomous green tree vipers and palm pit vipers, all protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Lin was investigated and charged as part of Operation Terrapene, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service project to uncover turtle smugglers and dismantle syndicates. The operation was conducted in cooperation with other agencies including U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Postal Inspections Service and Homeland Security Investigations. Lin faced a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 or twice the gain or loss from his illegal activity. As part of his plea, Lin also agreed to abandon any property interest in the reptiles seized during the investigation.

Newsweek [12/29/2025 12:01 PM, Billal Rahman, 52220K] reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responded to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass following her TV remarks about a rise in Latino recruitment among U.S. Border Patrol agents. CNN Host Wolf Blitzer asked Bass, "But first, let me get your reaction to that report from David Culver we just heard. What did you think?" "Well, in a way, I think it’s sad," Bass said in response to a CNN report on new Border Patrol recruits on December 26. The comments were reported following a line of questioning about recent increases in Latino hires. In a statement to Newsweek, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for DHS said that Bass’ comments “only reveal how detached she is from reality and how averse she is to the rule of law and public safety,” and accused her of “race-baiting for media clicks.” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on "The Situation Room" on Friday: "I think that those Border Patrol agents are going to have a difficult time when they’re out in the field and they see what actually happens in real life separate from their training. But I do understand that their primary incentive is financial. I think it just speaks to the financial situation that millions of Americans find themselves in. And I definitely am concerned about that report." In response, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told Newsweek: "The patriotic men and women joined Border Patrol because they want to defend our homeland, help secure our borders, and catch drug traffickers, gang members, pedophiles, rapists, and murderers trying to illegally enter our country. Mayor Bass should stop race-baiting for media clicks and start thanking our law enforcement officers for making California communities safe again—something she refuses to do.”

FOX News [12/29/2025 4:31 PM, Kelly McGreal, 40621K] reports a viral TikTok video has sparked heated debate about whether airplane travelers should stack used airport security bins themselves — or leave the housekeeping task to airport staff. In the clip, a traveler is seen gathering several empty security bins after clearing the checkpoint and stacking them into a pile. The comments reflected widely varying experiences and opinions among travelers.

Federal News Network [12/29/2025 1:10 PM, Jesus Aragon, 986K] reports that from the airport to the DMV, government employees are required to provide efficient and accurate services while also verifying identities at several touchpoints with the public. Despite this need, many agencies still rely on physical identification materials, such as driver’s licenses, passports and Social Security cards. As the demand for faster, modernized services grows, this outdated approach limits agencies’ ability to keep pace with mission demands. However, since the implementation of smartphones and a federal push toward customer experience, agencies are adopting digital identity and biometrics solutions through initiatives like the General Service Administration’s Login.gov, and the Department of Homeland Security and Transportation Security Administration’s REAL ID. A digital ID is a collection of data that represents an individual or entity in the digital world, often including information like usernames, passwords and personal details. Used for authentication and access control in various online services and systems, a digital ID serves as identity in the palm of a user’s hand. Through initiatives like Login.gov, users have just one account to log in to several federal websites, requiring them to remember fewer passwords, streamlining data integrity, and improving mission efficiency. Biometrics and digital identity technology utilize unique biological traits, such as fingerprints, facial features and iris patterns, to verify who a person claims to be. By linking a physical identifier to digital credentials, there’s an additional level of assurance and security that traditional identity tools can’t compete with.

CNN [12/29/2025 7:15 PM, Briana Waxman, Chris Dolce, 18595K] reports a powerful, rapidly intensifying winter storm sweeping across the central and eastern United States is knocking out power and snarling travel during one of the busiest stretches of the holiday season. The wide-ranging storm has brought blizzard conditions, strong winds, an ice storm and tornadoes and is being followed by extreme temperature drops that are plunging millions back into the throes of winter. The storm adds to an already challenging travel period, with more than 100 million people expected to drive for end-of-year trips. At least one person died in a traffic crash on Interstate-35 in north-central Iowa, Iowa State Patrol spokesperson Alex Dinkla said. No additional details about the incident were provided, but whiteout conditions forced the road to close from Ames, Iowa, to the Minnesota border Sunday into Monday afternoon and caused a 14-vehicle crash on the roadway on Sunday. There have also been hundreds of crashes in Minnesota since the storm began Sunday, including 31 with injuries, according to the state patrol. Minneapolis-St. Paul has seen nearly 6 inches of snow and wind gusts over 30 mph. Sunday and Monday were also expected to be two of the busiest air travel days of a holiday period that may set records, according to the Transportation Security Administration. More than 3,000 flights in the US on Monday have been delayed and over 500 canceled after similar impacts Sunday, according to FlightAware. Chicago, Detroit and Minneapolis-St. Paul are some of the major hubs that have been impacted by storms. The storm’s powerful winds knocked out power to more than 250,000 customers in the Great Lakes and Interior Northeast, most of them in Michigan and New York, Monday morning, according to PowerOutage.us. Wind gusts as strong as 79 mph have hit Buffalo Niagara International Airport in New York. That’s the strongest wind gust measured there since June 1980, according to the National Weather Service. Parts of Michigan have received close to 2 feet of snow: Marquette picked up 11.5 inches on Sunday alone, a new daily record, on its way to 22.3 inches of snow and counting. As if a blizzard weren’t enough, the storm’s cold front also sparked a line of severe thunderstorms Sunday afternoon and evening, with damaging winds and a few tornadoes reported in parts of Illinois, including one that destroyed structures just outside of Decatur.

Reuters [12/29/2025 5:50 PM, Aatreyee Dasgupta and Shivansh Tiwary, 36480K] reports Winter Storm Ezra disrupted holiday travel across the U.S. Northeast, Midwest and Great Lakes for a third straight day on Monday, causing thousands of flight delays and hundreds of cancellations as airlines scrambled to recover and meteorologists warned of a brewing "bomb cyclone" that could further snarl trips ahead of the New Year’s holiday. Nearly 6,000 flights were delayed and 751 canceled as of 3:25 p.m. ET, according to flight tracking website FlightAware. Since Friday, weather disruptions have canceled over 3,600 flights and delayed more than 30,000 others. The storm hit during one of the year’s busiest travel periods, when airlines operate near capacity with limited flexibility to rebook passengers. Holiday travelers faced long waits, rebooking difficulties and accommodation challenges as airlines coped with severe winter weather. AccuWeather meteorologists warned the powerful storm would intensify into a "bomb cyclone" through Monday night, bringing blizzard conditions, dangerous ice, flooding rain and strong winds from Wisconsin to Maine. Major travel disruptions, regional power outages and hazardous conditions were expected through early Tuesday. The Federal Emergency Management Agency warned travelers that driving could be dangerous as blizzard-like conditions, high winds and ice descend across the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes.

NPR [12/30/2025 4:44 AM, Laura Hackett, 34837K] reports people in North Carolina who lost their homes during Hurricane Helene are still waiting for FEMA to step in and help. State officials say the agency is stalling applications for relief. [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

CBS Chicago [12/29/2025 7:19 PM, Staff, 39474K] reports some homeowners in central Illinois were dealing with damage they didn’t expect in December, after a tornado touched down on Sunday amid severe storms.

Los Angeles Times [12/29/2025 6:00 AM, Tony Briscoe, 14862K] reports The primary federal contractor entrusted with purging fire debris from the Eaton and Palisades fires may have illegally dumped toxic ash and misused contaminated soil in breach of state policy, according to federal government reports recently obtained by The Times. The records depict harried disaster workers appearing to take dangerous shortcuts that could leave hazardous pollution and endanger thousands of survivors poised to return to these communities. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers allocated $60 million to hire personnel to monitor daily cleanup operations and document any health and safety risks. The Times obtained thousands of government oversight reports that detail these federal efforts to rid fire-destroyed homes of toxic debris between February and mid-May. The records, which were obtained on a rolling basis over several months, include dozens of instances in which oversight personnel flagged workers for disregarding cleanup procedures in a way that likely spread toxic substances. The latest batch of reports — turned over to The Times on Dec. 1 — contained allegations of improper actions involving Environmental Chemical Corp., the primary federal contractor, and the dozens of debris-removal crews it supervised. For example, on April 30, federally hired workers were clearing fire debris from a burned-down home in the Palisades burn scar. According to the Army Corps of Engineers, after the last dump truck left, an official with Environmental Chemical Corp., a Burlingame, Calif., company hired to carry out the federal debris removal mission, ordered workers to move the remaining ash and debris to a neighboring property. The crew used construction equipment to move four or five “buckets” worth of fire debris onto the neighboring property. It’s unclear if that property was also destroyed in the Palisades fire, and, if so, whether it had been already remediated. “I questioned if this was allowable and then the crew dumped material into the excavator bucket and planned to move it on the lowboy with material in bucket,” a federal supervisor wrote in a report intended to track performance of contractors. “Don’t think this is allowed.” According to the report, the workers also left glass, ash and other fire debris on the property the crew had been clearing, because they “were in a rush to get to the next site.” Experts who reviewed the reports said the behavior described may amount to illegal dumping under California law. Other reports obtained by The Times describe federal cleanup workers, on multiple occasions, using ash-contaminated soil to backfill holes and smooth out uneven portions of fire-destroyed properties in the Palisades burn scar. If that were true, it would be a breach of state policy that says contaminated soil from areas undergoing environmental cleanup cannot be used in this way. The reports also cite multiple occasions where workers walked through already cleared properties with dirty boot covers, possibly re-contaminating them. The inspectors also reported crews spraying contaminated pool water onto neighboring properties and into storm drains, and excavator operators using toothed buckets that caused clean and contaminated soil to be commingled.

New York Post [12/29/2025 7:25 PM, Jorge Fitz-Gibbon, 42219K] reports a pair of illegal immigrants tried to dodge the law by jumping into the ocean after stowing away on a barge off the coast of Puerto Rico — only to get fished out of the water by the US Coast Guard. The botched escape attempt unfolded when the tugboat "Southern Dawn" was towing a barge into the harbor off San Juan around 10 a.m. Sunday, the Coast Guard said in a press release Monday. The two immigrants suddenly jumped out of the boat and plunged into the water, officials said. When the tugboat crew tipped off the maritime enforcement agency, a boat was launched and corralled the fugitives, plucking them out of the water and slapping on the cuffs. "I cannot stress enough how dangerous it is for stowaways to board or jump from a moving barge," said Matt Romano, head of the response team at the Coast Guard Sector in San Juan said in a statement.

WorkBoat [12/29/2025 7:45 PM, Staff] reports two contracts to build up to six Arctic Security Cutter icebreakers in shipyards in Finland and the United States were announced Dec. 29 by the Coast Guard. Expected in 2028 and 2029, the initial ships will be the first newbuilds for the U.S. Arctic fleet since the medium icebreaker Healy was delivered in 1990. The contracts were awarded Dec. 26 to Rauma Marine Constructions Oy, Rauma, Finland, and Bollinger Shipyards Lockport, L.L.C., Lockport, La. “Our adversaries continue to look to grow their presence in the Arctic, equipping the Coast Guard with Arctic Security Cutters will help reassert American maritime dominance there,” said Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. “Revitalizing the U.S. Coast Guard’s icebreaking capabilities is crucial for our security and prosperity, and today’s announcement is an important step in that direction.” "These awards represent decisive action to guarantee American security in the Arctic,” said Adm. Kevin E. Lunday, Coast Guard acting commandant. “The Arctic Security Cutters will deliver the essential capability to uphold U.S. sovereignty against adversaries’ aggressive economic and military actions in the Arctic. These cutters will ensure the Coast Guard’s ability to control, secure, and defend our northern border and maritime approaches – without question." The contract with Rauma Marine Constructions calls for up to two ASCs to be built in Finland, with a first vessel in 2028; the Bollinger contract includes up to four ASCs to be built in the United States, with first delivery in 2029. “This plan is designed to take immediate advantage of our Finnish partners’ icebreaker expertise while coordinating the onshoring of that expertise in the United States in the long run,” according to a Coast Guard statement. Bollinger will construct its ASCs based on the Multi-Purpose Icebreaker design by Seaspan Shipyards, Vancouver, British Columbia, jointly developed with Aker Arctic Technology Inc., Helsinki, Finland.

(B) Today [12/29/2025 8:58 AM, Staff] reports Lee County deputies are investigating after a boater found a body on the Caloosahatchee. The body was found floating in the water Sunday afternoon, just north of the Midpoint Bridge. The US Coast Guard arrived at Horton Park to help secure the area. Investigators say the death does not appear suspicious. Florida Fish and Wildlife believe it was not boating-related. The medical examiner is working to determine the cause of death.

NBC News [12/29/2025 11:36 AM, Dennis Romero, 34509K] reports that a body found Saturday off California’s Central Coast is that of a local triathlete who went missing amid a weekly swim in Monterey Bay, her father confirmed. Erica Fox, 55, from nearby Pebble Beach was reported missing on Dec. 21 as she swam with fellow athletes. Two people told authorities they witnessed a shark in the water and what appeared to be an attack on one of the swimmers. A body was found near Davenport in Santa Cruz County, roughly 30 miles north of where she went missing on Dec. 21, Sgt. Ryan Farotte of the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office said. Fox’s father confirmed to NBC Bay Area that it was his daughter’s body. Several agencies helped to set up a hoist system atop bluffs south of Davenport to recover the body from the beach below, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection unit for San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties said in posts on X early Saturday afternoon. On Dec. 22, the initial attempt to find Fox was suspended after 15 hours of searching that included aircraft, drones, boats and divers from the Coast Guard, Pacific Grove police, the city of Monterey Fire Department, the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office, and Cal Fire, authorities said. One of the witnesses reported that they were driving to work and paused at a stop sign when, in the distance, they saw a shark breaching the water with what appeared to be a body in its jaws, Coast Guard spokesperson Christopher Sappey said on Dec. 22. The shark went under and didn’t immediately resurface, Sappey said, citing the witness. Breitbart [12/29/2025 3:39 PM, Amy Furr, 2416K] reports that officials had been working to locate Fox since she went missing, and when her body was found, they set up a hoist system on the bluffs to recover her body, which had apparently washed up on a beach below. USA Today [12/29/2025 7:10 PM, Thao Nguyen, 67103K] reports Fox’s husband, Jean-Francois Vanreusel, told The Mercury News that Fox was still in her wetsuit and wearing a Garmin watch and a "shark band" − designed to deter attacks − that was attached to her ankle. "She didn’t want to live in fear," Vanreusel told the newspaper. "She lived her life fully.” Police believe ‘shark was involved’ in triathlete’s disappearance. At around noon on Dec. 21, the Pacific Grove Police Department and Monterey Fire Department responded to a report of a missing swimmer who had been with swimming with more than a dozen people off Lovers Point, a city near Monterey about 115 miles south of San Francisco. Two witnesses reported that the "swimmer may have encountered a shark while swimming offshore near Lovers Point," officials said. The Coast Guard later identified the missing swimmer as Fox. Pacific Grove Police Cmdr. Brian Anderson confirmed to USA TODAY on Dec. 23 that investigators believe a "shark was involved.” Authorities launched a search-and-rescue operation, which was suspended after 15 hours after crews covered more than 84 square nautical miles, the Coast Guard said. Anderson said detectives will continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding Fox’s death. On Dec. 27, a body was found near Davenport in Santa Cruz County, about 30 miles north of where Fox went missing, according to the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office. In posts on social media, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection unit for San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties said firefighters assisted several agencies in a recovery operation on a beach south of Davenport. CalFire shared photos showing a rope system being used to recover the body.

Reported similarly:
Los Angeles Times [12/29/2025 10:17 PM, Gavin J. Quinton, 14862K]

Reuters [12/30/2025 3:36 AM, Soren Jeppesen, 36480K] reports Finland’s Rauma Marine Constructions has signed a deal to build two icebreaker ships for the U.S. Coast Guard with delivery in 2028, the company said in a statement, as President Donald Trump seeks to boost his country’s national security in the Arctic. The vessels are the first to be constructed under a memorandum of understanding signed in October by Trump and Finnish President Alexander Stubb laying the foundation for commercial agreements on icebreakers. Under that memorandum, Finland will build four medium sized "Arctic Security Cutters" at Finnish shipyards, with the U.S. later constructing up to seven more vessels domestically using Finnish expertise. RMC did not disclose the contract value of the two ships. The procurement of 11 icebreakers is expected to cost about $6.1 billion in total, a White House official said in October. "Due to our fast delivery time, we are the most affordable option on the market," CEO Mika Nieminen of RMC said in a statement late on Monday, calling the deal a historic milestone. The U.S. Coast Guard currently operates only two polar icebreakers while Russia has around 40, officials have said, prompting Washington to bolster its Arctic presence. "Finnish shipyards build the world’s best icebreakers and largest cruise ships. Securing this icebreaker order is a great thing for Finland and our entire maritime industry," said Finnish Minister of Economic Affairs Sakari Puisto.

Daily Caller [12/29/2025 11:34 AM, Hudson Crozier, 835K] reports that a foreign leftist association showing "solidarity" for a U.S.-designated Antifa terrorist group said Tuesday that two German banks cancelled its accounts. Rote Hilfe e.V., or "Red Aid," received the news from GLS Bank and Sparkasse around the time that the Trump administration declared Antifa Ost a foreign terrorist organization in November, criminalizing financial support for the group, Red Aid spokesperson Alex Schneider told the leftist outlet Neues Deutschland. Red Aid says it funds left-wing activists’ legal defense against prosecutions worldwide, including suspected members of Antifa Ost, some of whom have been convicted of violent attacks in Germany. These European-based Antifa groups are U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations. "We show solidarity with the people being persecuted under [the Antifa Ost] label, and the bank fears coming under pressure itself if it continues to work with us," Schneider said, claiming Red Aid received no clear explanation for the account closures. Red Aid and the two banks did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment. The State Department referred the DCNF to the Treasury Department, which did not respond to a request for comment. "Banks are always encouraged to examine their risk-based approach to ensure full compliance with U.S. sanctions, and [they often] will take certain steps in accordance with that risk-based approach," a U.S. official told the DCNF.

New York Times [12/30/2025 3:22 AM, Alan Feuer, 330K] reports the Virginia man arrested this month on charges of placing two pipe bombs in Washington on the night before a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has given a detailed confession, according to court papers released on Sunday night. In the public first hint at a motive in the case, the documents said that the man, Brian J. Cole Jr., felt he needed to “speak up” after he began to suspect that the 2020 election, in which President Trump was defeated, had been “tampered with.” The papers, filed by the Justice Department in Federal District Court in Washington, gave an extensive description of Mr. Cole’s initial interview with the F.B.I. after his arrest. At first, the government’s filing said, Mr. Cole denied planting the bombs outside the Republican and Democratic Party headquarters on the eve of the Capitol attack. But the filing said he admitted to doing so after agents displayed an image captured from surveillance cameras that they said showed him in a hooded sweatshirt carrying a backpack on the same route the bomber took that night. “The interviewing agents reminded the defendant that lying to them was an additional criminal offense and asked the defendant again whether he was the individual on the surveillance video,” prosecutors said in the filing. “This time, the defendant paused for approximately 15 seconds, placed his head face down on the table, and answered, ‘yes.’” The government’s assertion that Mr. Cole confessed to planting the bombs came just two days before he was scheduled to appear in court for a hearing to determine his bail. In their papers, federal prosecutors asked that Mr. Cole remain in custody as he awaits trial. His lawyers, who say he has severe autism, have not yet filed their own court papers laying out their views on their client’s pretrial detention. The question of who planted the pipe bombs on the night before the Capitol was attacked has long stood as a kind of Rorschach test for wider views about the events of Jan. 6. For years, conspiracy theorists have seized on the pipe bomb case, alleging that shadowy government forces had planted the explosives as a distraction to make it easier for the Capitol to be stormed, in an effort to ultimately blame the breach on Mr. Trump and his supporters. The arrest of Mr. Cole, who has no apparent connections to the government, clearly contradicted those conspiracy theories, even though they had long been promoted by some of the very same F.B.I. officials unveiling a breakthrough in the case this month. Chief among those officials was Dan Bongino, the bureau’s deputy director, who accused the F.B.I. of covering up the pipe bomb case when he was working as a podcaster. Mr. Bongino recently announced that he was resigning from his post as the bureau’s No. 2 official.

FOX News [12/29/2025 9:29 PM, Emma Bussey, 40621K] reports newly released FBI records connected to the Covenant School shooting in Nashville include writings made by shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale that shed further light on her motivations, planning and personal finances. The FBI released more than 100 pages of Hale’s writings following litigation, which included journal entries believed to date back to late 2021, handwritten notes outlining preparations for a school shooting and references to weapons Hale intended to acquire. Some of the writings list "Christian school (hate religion)" as a reason for targeting the Covenant School. Hale, 28, carried out the March 27, 2023, attack at the Christian elementary school she once attended, killing six people before being shot dead by responding Metro Nashville Police Department officers. The victims were identified as school staff members Katherine Koonce, 60; Cynthia Peak, 61; and Mike Hill, 61; along with students Hallie Scruggs, Evelyn Dieckhaus and William Kinney, all age 9. Surveillance footage released by police following the attack showed Hale moving through the school armed with multiple firearms. Authorities have said Hale entered the building through a side entrance and moved through several areas of the school before being confronted by officers. Shortly before the shooting, Hale sent a text message to a friend describing the planned attack as a "suicide mission" and stating the friend would likely "hear about me on the news after I die," according to summaries released by officials. Among the newly released FBI materials is a handwritten page seen by Fox News Digital and labeled "Account Savings Record," and referenced federal student financial aid. In the entry, Hale wrote that "FAFSA [sic] grant checks started at $2,050.86," followed by ledger-style notes documenting payments from Nossi College of Art and Design in Nashville, where Hale was enrolled at the time. The financial entries appear alongside extensive notes about firearms Hale planned to purchase and use in the attack. The Tennessee Star also reported those records may lend support to statements Hale’s parents made to Metro Nashville Police Department detectives shortly after the shooting. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

AP [12/29/2025 11:41 PM, Staff, 30493K] reports a 21-year-old Texas man who authorities say provided bomb materials and money to people he believed were affiliated with the Islamic State group has been federally charged with international terrorism, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday. John Michael Garza Jr. of Midlothian, Texas, is accused of giving bomb-making materials to an undercover federal agent who he believed was an "ISIS brother," the Justice Department said, using a different abbreviation for the Islamic State group. No attorney was listed for Garza in court records and the federal public defender’s office in Dallas did not immediately respond to phone messages seeking comment. If convicted, Garza could face up to 20 years in federal prison. The Dec. 22 sting operation came after an undercover New York City Police Department employee found a social media account belonging to Garza that followed several accounts supporting the Islamic State group, authorities said. The New York employee began messaging with Garza in October, and the Justice Department said Garza soon shared that he "ascribed to the ISIS ideology." Garza is accused of sending the undercover employee small amounts of cryptocurrency in November and December, allegedly believing his money was supporting the Islamic State group. During the Dec. 22 meeting, investigators say Garza described to an undercover FBI agent how to mix explosives he provided and offered to share an instructional video on bomb-making. Garza was arrested shortly after he left the meeting. "Today’s announcement underscores the FBI’s commitment to combatting terrorism and demonstrates our continuous work to disrupt and thwart terrorist plots against the American public," FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement. "Let this serve as a warning to those who plan to conduct attacks against the United States on behalf of terrorist organizations – you will be brought to justice.” Garza made an initial court appearance on Dec. 23 in U.S. District Court for Northern Texas. Federal prosecutors are expected to lay out their evidence against him at a probable cause and detention hearing on Tuesday.

Reported similarly:
New York Post [12/30/2025 12:15 AM, Zoe Hussain, 42219K]
CBS News [12/29/2025 6:06 PM, Giles Hudson, 39474K]
FOX News [12/29/2025 6:52 PM, Andrea Margolis Fox, 40621K]
NewsMax [12/29/2025 9:06 PM, Sam Barron, 4109K]

Washington Examiner [12/30/2025 5:00 AM, Mia Cathell, 1394K] reports guilty pleas are piling up in the first-known federal terrorism case in American history brought against antifa militants, as prosecutors continue to close in on more convictions. A group of gun-wielding antifa radicals is accused of carrying out a July 4 terrorist attack on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Alvarado, Texas, about half an hour south of Fort Worth. More than a dozen members of the heavily armed cohort — many of whom have already admitted guilt — allegedly lured law enforcement officers outside and opened fire on them from various vantage points. A local Alvarado police officer was shot in the neck by the black-clad assailants after he arrived on the scene to answer a call for help from the guards under attack at the Prairieland Detention Center. Following the coordinated shooting, federal authorities filed a slew of terrorism-related charges against 16 codefendants believed to be cell operatives or associates of the Dallas-area antifa cell, including alleged accomplices who either helped hide suspects or tampered with evidence in the days after the attack.

Breitbart [12/29/2025 11:31 AM, Frances Martel, 2416K] reports the head of the largest organization representing the Tiv people of central Nigeria told local media he sent a letter to President Donald Trump this weekend thanking him for approving airstrikes against jihadists exterminating Christian communities nationwide. Chief Iorbee Ihagh, the head of the Mzough U Tiv organization, told Nigeria’s Leadership newspaper that he hoped to see further American action in the Tiv heartland, Benue state — a predominantly Christian region experiencing some of the most severe genocidal attacks by Fulani jihadist terrorists seeking to eliminate the Christian presence in the country. The Tiv, who are mostly located in Benue, are overwhelmingly Christian but represent a small community compared to the three largest ethnic groups in Nigeria: the Fulani, the Igbo, and the Yoruba. In Benue state, Christians of a wide variety of denominations have protested for years that jihadist terrorists described as Fulani "herdsmen" have overrun their communities, displacing thousands of people, burning down churches and homes, and stealing land from the indigenous people of the Middle Belt. As Father Remigius Ihyula of Makurdi, Benue state, told Breitbart News in 2023, Christians have experienced discrimination from the jihadists and the federal government twice over because of their status as ethnic minorities. "It is a way of perpetuating injustice over minority tribes and they are comfortable with that so that even in the leadership of Nigeria," he explained, "they feel that if you are not Hausa Fulani you are not qualified to be leader to Nigeria, or you’re not from the Yoruba tribe you are not qualified.” Chief Iorbee Ihagh, speaking from Makurdi, told Leadership that President Trump’s actions to protect Christians in anticipation of the Christmas holiday, despite occurring in the northwest of the country, brought hope to central Nigeria. "With what the U.S. troops started in the North West, I am glad that the end to terrorism is here. I have written to the American president to thank him for his bold step," Ihagh was quoted as saying, "and to ask that his troops come to Benue, where priests, lay faithful, and church members are being killed inside churches every other day. We are weighed down by the bloodbath that has engulf our lands.” Ihagh described what the Tiv people and Christians are experiencing in the Middle Belt as "genocide.” "For over 16 years we have been displaced, farms destroyed, schools and hospitals razed by herdsmen terrorists, we can no longer access our ancestral homes, anyone who attempts going there is killed," he explained. President Trump announced on Christmas Day that he had approved a "powerful and deadly strike" against "ISIS terrorist scum" in northwest Nigeria. Nigeria’s north is primarily Muslim, while its southern states are majority Christian; the jihadist group Boko Haram is most commonly known to operate in the northeast of the country. Benue lies in the "Middle Belt" that marks the border between the Christian and Muslim regions. "I have previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was," President Trump announced in a message on his website, Truth Social. "The Department of War executed numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing. Under my leadership, our Country will not allow Radical Islamic Terrorism to prosper.”

FOX News [12/29/2025 9:36 AM, Diana Stancy Fox, 40621K] reports President Donald Trump is taking action against Islamic State militants in northwest Nigeria, following through on previous threats and signing off on airstrikes targeting the group on Thursday. While the Christmas strikes zeroed in on ISIS militants, there are a number of violent extremist organizations operating in Africa’s Sahel region, where U.S. officials claim they are continuing to grow in influence and strength as violence surges there. The strikes conducted on Christmas occurred in Nigeria’s Sokoto State on the border of neighboring Niger. The area is where the Islamic State’s (IS) Sahel Province, which is largely based in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, has "made inroads into Nigeria," according to Caleb Weiss, an editor with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies’ Long War Journal. "In Sokoto, it has carried out attacks against both government forces and civilians, representing just one jihadist group operating in Nigeria," Weiss said in a statement Thursday. Additionally, other ISIS branches like IS West Africa Province, as well as organizations tied to other violent extremist groups like al Qaeda, are also active in the region, he said. These include Boko Haram, a Nigerian-based group that the State Department designated a foreign terrorist organization in 2013, as well as offshoots of al Qaeda like Ansaru and The Group for Support of Islam and Muslims, also known as Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin, or JNIM. "In addition to IS Sahel, there is also IS West Africa Province, which supports and coordinates with IS Sahel in NW Nigeria; the so-called Boko Haram; and the Al-Qaeda groups of Ansaru and the Group for Support of Islam and Muslims, which, like IS Sahel, is a group mainly based in Mali and Burkina Faso, but in recent years have also made inroads into Nigeria that has effectively made the Sahelian and Nigerian conflicts one large conflict," Weiss said. Meanwhile, the Sahel region, which primarily includes Nigeria, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali, is ripe for terrorist activity, and U.S. officials have long cautioned about the threat that these groups pose to the U.S. homeland. For example, Marine Corps Gen. Michael Langley, who is the head of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), told reporters in May that extremist groups are gaining ground and "expanding their ambitions," meaning the threat to the U.S. homeland is increasing as these groups gain "capability and capacity" in the Sahel region. "It is the flashpoint of prolonged conflict and growing instability. It is the epicenter of terrorism on the globe," Langley said. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

AP [12/30/2025 10:33 PM, Rod McGuirk, 18595K] reports an investigation that extended to the Philippines of two men accused of shooting dead 15 people at a Sydney Jewish festival has found no evidence that they were part of a “broader terrorist cell,” police said on Tuesday. Sydney residents Sajid Akram, 50, and his 24-year-old son Naveed Akram spent most of November in Davao City in the southern Philippines, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said. They returned on a flight from Manila on Nov. 29. Two weeks later, they are accused of killing 15 and wounding another 40 in a mass shooting that targeted a Hannukah festival at Bondi Beach. Philippine National Police determined the pair rarely left their hotel during the visit, Barrett said. “There is no evidence to suggest they received training or underwent logistical preparation for their alleged attack,” Barrett told reporters. “These individuals are alleged to have acted alone. There is no evidence to suggest these alleged offenders were part of a broader terrorist cell, or were directed by others to carry out an attack. However, I want to be clear, I am not suggesting that they were there for tourism,” Barrett added. Barrett did not detail a motive for the visit, which began on Nov. 1. Police allege the pair were inspired by the Islamic State group. The southern Philippines once drew small numbers of foreign militants aligned with the Islamic State group or al-Qaida to train in a secessionist conflict involving minority Muslims in the largely Catholic nation. Barrett said she was limited in what she could disclose about the investigation in the Philippines because she did not want to prejudice Naveed Akram’s trial. He has yet to enter pleas to dozens of charges including 15 counts of murder and one of committing a terrorist act. Police shot him in the abdomen during a gunfight at Bondi on Dec. 14 and he spent a week in a hospital before he was transferred to a prison. Police shot his father dead at Bondi. Authorities are promising the largest police presence ever at New Year’s Eve festivities at Sydney Harbor on Wednesday. More than 2,500 officers will be on duty. Many will be openly carrying automatic rifles, a sight rarely seen on Sydney streets. The first police responders to the Bondi massacre were armed with Glock pistols that lacked the lethal range of the Akrams’ rifles and shotguns. Two police officers were among the wounded. New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said the state was not moving toward a more militarized police force in response to the attack. “Given we’ve just had the worst terrorism event in Australia’s history inside the last month, it would be self-evidently the case that things need to change and the security needs to change,” Minns said. “I understand that there’ll be some people that oppose this or regard it as the militarization of the police. My sense is far more families would fully support that kind of police operation because they will feel far safer in that environment,” Minns added.

Federal News Network [12/29/2025 1:56 PM, Terry Gerton, 986K] reports that guest: William Turton. Title: Investigative reporter, ProPublica. Summary: New reporting shows FBI Director Kash Patel granted polygraph waivers to Deputy Director Dan Bongino and two senior aides. That’s an unprecedented step in the Bureau’s clearance process. What might that decision mean for security, vetting standards and oversight? [Editorial note: consult audio at source link]

Washington Times [12/29/2025 11:37 AM, Alex Swoyer, 852K] reports that a federal judge in Washington has ruled against President Trump’s attempt to cancel a security clearance for an attorney who represents whistleblowers — specifically, government employees critical of Mr. Trump. U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali last week rejected the government’s claim that the executive branch retains sole authority over issuing security clearances in the case of attorney Mark Zaid, who has been in the whistleblower practice for more than three decades. Judge Ali, a Biden appointee, issued a preliminary injunction ordering the government to restore Mr. Zaid’s security clearance — but the order won’t go into effect until Jan. 13 to give the government time to appeal. “The Constitution forbids government officials from using their power to retaliate against people for their speech, and that is so even when the speech is critical of the government,” the judge wrote in his Dec. 23 order. “This court joins the several others in this district that have enjoined the government from using the summary revocation of security clearances to penalize lawyers for representing people adverse to it.” Mr. Trump issued in March an order that did away with security clearances for Mr. Zaid and more than a dozen other individuals, saying it was not in the nation’s security interest for them to retain the access. The president later went on to deny former national security and government officials the same access, as well as certain law firms.

Wall Street Journal [12/29/2025 2:23 PM, Anastasiia Malenko and Georgi Kantchev, 646K] reports Ukraine said President Trump had offered to provide it with security guarantees for 15 years after the end of the war, a duration that Kyiv wants at least doubled to deter Russia from future aggression. Trump said he “would think about it,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters on Monday. The two presidents met the day before in Florida to discuss the security guarantees as well as a so-called prosperity package for postwar Ukraine and other parts of the 20-point plan to bring an end to Russia’s full-scale invasion—now approaching the four-year mark. Zelensky said an agreement on security guarantees for Ukraine had been reached, though its duration was still under discussion. Trump said he expected Kyiv’s allies in Europe to contribute significantly to the effort, with U.S. backing. “There will be a security agreement, it’ll be a strong agreement and the European nations are very much involved,” Trump said Sunday. Ukraine views strong, legally binding American security guarantees as crucial for any agreement to end the war and to prevent Moscow from launching another assault on its territory. Neither president has spelled out exactly what the security guarantees would constitute, but Zelensky said Trump had confirmed to him the details and had said they would require congressional approval. The White House declined to comment beyond its statements made Sunday. Trump on Monday held a second phone call in two days with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a conversation that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described as “positive” in a post on X. The Russian president used the call to accuse Kyiv of launching a long-range drone attack on his residence in Russia’s Novgorod region, an allegation his foreign minister had made earlier in the day without providing evidence. Ukraine denied such an attack. Putin told Trump that the incident wouldn’t go unanswered, according to Putin aide Yuri Ushakov.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [12/29/2025 7:56 AM, Sarah Fortinsky, 12595K]
AP [12/29/2025 12:22 PM, Illia Novikov, 19051K]
Washington Times [12/29/2025 9:44 AM, Jeff Mordock, 852K]

Bloomberg [12/29/2025 10:42 AM, Olesia Safronova and Daryna Krasnolutska, 18207K] reports Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he asked Donald Trump for US security guarantees lasting as long as half a century to help deter any future Russian invasion. Current proposals under discussion as part of a peace plan set out a 15-year term with the possibility for an extension, though “I would like the guarantee to be much longer,” Zelenskiy said Monday in an audio message to reporters. “We would like to consider the possibility of 30, 40, 50 years and then it will be a historic decision by Trump.” US security guarantees that had been confirmed by Congress would combine with pledges by nations in the so-called Coalition of the Willing to form an effective protection for Ukraine, Zelenskiy said. European Union membership would also be part of the security arrangements for his country, he said. “Monitoring the ceasefire — our partners will provide it, technical monitoring and presence. All these details will be in the security guarantees,” Zelenskiy said. Both negotiating teams had agreed on the need for “strong” US security guarantees for Ukraine, he said. The comments came after Zelenskiy and Trump held talks at the US president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Sunday. While Trump said “a lot of progress” was made toward a deal to end Russia’s almost four-year full-scale war on Ukraine, both leaders acknowledged that key issues remained unresolved. They included the status of territories in the east of Ukraine, and the fate of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant that’s occupied by Russia. Zelenskiy said no consensus was reached at his talks with Trump on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demand for Ukraine to withdraw from the Donbas region that’s partially occupied by Moscow’s troops. There was a lack of clarity over US proposals to create a demilitarized or free economic zone in the area of eastern Ukraine, including on who would control the territory. Trump said he was confident a deal was “getting a lot closer” though it might take a few weeks to conclude and there’s no set timeline. Zelenskiy said Sunday the peace plan was “90% agreed.” Trump said he held “very productive” phone talks with Putin shortly before he met with Zelenskiy. The US and Ukrainian presidents spoke with European leaders after their discussion. Putin and Trump will hold another phone call “very soon,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday. Ahead of that call, Putin on Monday held his seventh televised meeting with Russia’s army command since October, highlighting what he described as advances on the battlefield in Ukraine and ordering his forces to continue efforts to seize more territory. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that Ukraine attempted to attack a presidential residence in the Novgorod region more than 400 kilometers (249 miles) northwest of Moscow overnight with 91 drones, and Russia would retaliate, adding the targets were already selected, according to audio comments published by the state-run Tass news agency. Lavrov said Moscow would reassess its position in the negotiations, but had no intention of withdrawing from talks. Zelenskiy called the claim the residence was attacked a “new lie,” and warned Russia could be using it as a pretext to prepare an attack on government buildings in Kyiv.

CNN [12/29/2025 10:45 AM, Issy Ronald, Lauren Kent, and Jonny Hallam, 18595K] reports Ukraine emphatically denied a Russian allegation Monday that a Ukrainian drone attack targeted one of President Vladimir Putin’s residences. President Donald Trump said Putin told him of the alleged attack in a phone call early Monday. Trump indicated that he took Putin at his word before allowing, in response to a reporter’s question about the Ukrainian denial, that the attack may not have occurred. As a result of the alleged attack in the Novgorod region, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who first publicly aired the allegation, said "Russia’s negotiating position will be revised" in the ongoing peace talks seeking to end Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Lavrov said no damage or casualties resulted from the incident but that the Russian military has selected targets for "retaliatory strikes.” He appeared to be referring to the heavily fortified Valdai presidential residence, which is situated on the shores of Lake Valdai in Novgorod Oblast in northwestern Russia. Lavrov did not claim that Putin was in Novgorod at the time. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky immediately rejected the claimed drone attack as "a complete fabrication" from Russia. Zelensky pointed out that the claim came a day after he met with Trump for almost three hours in Florida. Although the talks did not yield a major breakthrough, the two leaders agreed in the latest version of the peace plan that the US would guarantee Ukrainian security for 15 years, with an option to extend those guarantees, Zelensky said earlier Monday.

Daily Caller [12/29/2025 2:13 PM, Derek VanBuskirk, 835K] reports that journalists and residents in Nigeria alleged that a U.S. strike said to be targeting Islamic terrorists landed in a field near a village and caused no casualties. The strikes, conducted by the U.S. in coordination with the Nigerian government, allegedly caused panic among residents in a village, according to Truth Nigeria. Beginning at 11:45 p.m. on Christmas Day and ending 45 minutes later, the U.S. fired at least 12 Tomahawk missiles with a cost estimated between $18 million and $22 million, the outlet reported. A U.S. military official told The New York Times that missiles struck two ISIS camps in Sokoto State in northwestern Nigeria. The Nigerian Information Ministry called the attack successful and said "debris from expended munitions fell in Jabo" and near a hotel in Kwara State. However, a Nigerian lawmaker told CNN one projectile struck a field near Jabo village in Sokoto without causing casualties. "There was a loud explosion, and people ran out of their houses in fear," a Jabo farmer told Truth Nigeria. "But nobody was killed, and no house collapsed. Later we saw a crater outside the village." "I went to the exact spot where the bomb landed," a local journalist said. "There were no bodies, no injured persons and no signs of civilians being harmed — just a clear impact point." AFRICOM and the Nigerian Ministry of Defense have not responded to the Daily Caller’s request for comment.

Los Angeles Times [12/29/2025 5:34 PM, Nabih Bulos, 14862K] reports that when Israel and Hamas signed a ceasefire earlier this year, it brought into question the fate of militias Israel cultivated during the devastating two-year war as an alternative ruling force in Gaza. Many expected that Hamas — still the dominant force in the Strip — would hunt them down. Instead, Israel has shifted the militias to the half of Gaza from which it has yet to withdraw, east of the so-called Yellow Line, the military boundary that divides Gaza in two. In the Israeli-controlled half, five factions, still supported by Israel with arms and aid, have established what are essentially tiny fiefdoms, even as they continue to wage a harassment campaign across the Yellow Line to stop Hamas from reasserting its rule. For its part, Israel wants to use the factions as local proxies to secure parts of the enclave under its control, ensure they’re free of any hostile groups, then set up humanitarian distribution points to keep residents there. "The objective," according to a June report on Israeli-supported militias in Gaza from the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, "is to sever Hamas’s access to both the local population and to the incoming humanitarian aid." But the militias, which first arose as criminal gangs exploiting the security vacuum during the war and include members with questionable links to Islamic State, have larger plans: They tout themselves as an integral part of any post-conflict plan.

Wall Street Journal [12/29/2025 9:00 PM, Daniel Michaels and Sune Engel Rasmussen, 646K] reports Chinese research submarines for the first time traveled thousands of feet beneath the Arctic ice this summer, a technical feat with chilling military and commercial implications for America and its allies. U.S. national-security officials say the Chinese undersea expeditions offer fresh evidence of a growing threat from China in the Arctic region, known as the High North. This year, Chinese military and research vessels have operated around Alaska’s Arctic waters in unprecedented numbers, the Dept. of Homeland Security reported in November. For China, mastery of Arctic travel could yield valuable data about the natural resources awaiting below melting ice caps, significantly reduce travel time for commercial shipping and position nuclear-armed submarines closer to potential targets, including the U.S., say Western marine strategists and military officials. “The Chinese are being more and more aggressive” across the High North, said U.S. Air Force Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, the top military leader of North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Chinese vessels on research missions often give cover to military purposes, he said. China has declared itself a “near-Arctic power,” an informal designation Beijing hopes will place it alongside the U.S. and Russia. China’s Foreign Ministry says its activities in the Arctic are reasonable and lawful, “contributing to the maintenance and promotion of peace, stability, and sustainable development in the region.” Beijing views future sea routes through the High North as a shortcut for global commerce, a so-called Polar Silk Road. China this summer sent a cargo ship to the Polish port of Gdansk by skirting the North Pole, a route twice as fast as travel times using the Suez Canal. Chinese officials have said they plan to expand trans-Arctic cargo traffic with Russia, particularly imports of liquefied natural gas.

AP [12/29/2025 12:09 PM, Kanis Leung, 1538K] reports China’s military on Monday dispatched air, navy and missile units to conduct joint live-fire drills around the island of Taiwan, which Beijing called a “stern warning” against separatist and “external interference” forces. Taiwan said it was placing forces on alert and called the Chinese government “the biggest destroyer of peace.” Taiwan’s aviation authority said more than 100,000 international air travelers would be affected by flight cancellations or diversions. The drills came after Beijing expressed anger at what could be the largest-ever U.S. arms sale to the self-ruled territory, and at a statement by Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, saying its military could get involved if China takes action against Taiwan. China says Taiwan must come under its rule. China’s military did not mention the United States and Japan in its statement on Monday, but Beijing’s foreign ministry accused Taiwan’s ruling party of trying to seek independence through requesting U.S. support. Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said rapid response exercises were underway, with forces on high alert. “The Chinese Communist Party’s targeted military exercises further confirm its nature as an aggressor and the biggest destroyer of peace,” it said. Beijing sends warplanes and navy vessels toward the island on a near-daily basis, and in recent years it has stepped up the scope and scale of the exercises. Senior Col. Shi Yi, spokesperson of China’s People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command, said the drills would be conducted in the Taiwan Strait and areas to the north, southwest, southeast and east of the island. Shi said activities would focus on sea-air combat readiness patrol, “joint seizure of comprehensive superiority” and blockades on key ports. It was the first large-scale military drill where the command publicly mentioned one goal was “all-dimensional deterrence outside the island chain.” “It is a stern warning against ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces and external interference forces, and it is a legitimate and necessary action to safeguard China’s sovereignty and national unity,” Shi said. China’s command on Monday deployed destroyers, frigates, fighters, bombers and unmanned aerial vehicles, alongside long-range rockets, to the north and southwest of the Taiwan Strait. It carried out live-fire exercises against targets in the waters. Among other training, drills to test the capabilities of sea-air coordination and precise target hunting were conducted in the waters and airspace to the east of the strait. Hsieh Jih-sheng, deputy chief of the general staff for intelligence of the Taiwanese Defense Ministry, said that as of 3 p.m. Monday, 89 aircraft and drones were operating around the strait, with 67 of them entering the “response zone” — airspace under the force’s monitoring and response. The ministry detected 14 navy ships around the strait and four other warships in the Western Pacific, in addition to 14 coast guard vessels.

Reported similarly:
Reuters [12/29/2025 7:07 AM, Joe Cash, Yimou Lee and Wen-Yee Lee, 67103K]
FOX News [12/29/2025 10:22 AM, Morgan Phillips Fox, 40621K] r

NBC News [12/30/2025 4:42 AM, Jennifer Jett and Peter Guo, 43603K] reports China fired rockets, massed assault ships and flew bombers around Taiwan on Tuesday, simulating a military blockade in an apparent warning to the United States against supporting the Beijing-claimed island. The second day of the large-scale war games, called “Justice Mission 2025,” saw the Chinese military encircle Taiwan in its biggest such exercise in eight months. President Donald Trump said Monday that Chinese President Xi Jinping had not told him about the exercises but that they did not worry him. “They’ve been doing naval exercises for 20 years in that area,” he told reporters. Analysts said the intense activity and accompanying rhetoric were aimed at demonstrating China’s ability to pressure and isolate Taiwan, but also at deterring U.S. involvement. Though the U.S. has no official relations with Taiwan, it is the self-governing democracy’s most important international backer and is legally bound to provide it with defensive weapons. The issue has long strained U.S.-China relations, though it has taken a backseat under Trump amid a trade war between the world’s two largest economies. The Chinese Ministry of Defense says the two-day exercises are necessary to defend national security and territorial integrity and “serve as a stern warning against the ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces and interference by external powers.”

Breitbart [12/29/2025 2:36 PM, Frances Martel, 2416K] reports that Communist dictator Kim Jong-un of North Korea reportedly led the testing of long-range cruise missiles, the country’s state media outlets revealed on Monday, intended to preserve Pyongyang’s ability to conduct nuclear bombings. Kim’s reported appearance at the "strategic cruise missile" launches followed his emergence at the site of the construction of what North Korea claims will be a nuclear-powered submarine, an apparent attempt to establish the ability to launch nuclear weapons from underwater. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on the submarine event on Christmas Day in apparent response to the arrival of a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine to the port city of Busan, South Korea. The Kim regime, one of the most oppressive communist governments in the world, consistently threatens war against South Korea, the United States, and Japan, often suggesting the use of nuclear weapons against them. Kim Jong-un’s reign has coincided with a slight de-intensification of this language and a decreased prevalence in propaganda videos suggesting the destruction of mainland American cities using nuclear weapons, but the threat remains a critical part of the North Korean political message. Pyongyang has remained belligerent despite a dramatic change in policy in Seoul, where conservative former President Yoon Suk-yeol, who publicly mused about South Korea developing nuclear weapons, was impeached and replaced by leftist current President Lee Jae-myung. Lee’s appeals to dialogue with Pyongyang have not resulted in any meaningful contact with the Kim regime at press time.

{End of Report} RETURN TO TOP