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

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

The New York Times [12/7/2025 11:30 PM, Farnaz Fassihi, 153395K] reports the Trump administration deported a planeload of Iranian citizens on a chartered plane on Sunday, according to two Iranian officials familiar with the details, in just the second time the United States has ever done so. The plane — carrying about 50 Iranian citizens, as well as deportees from Arab countries and Russia — departed from an airport in Mesa, Ariz. and will make stops in Egypt and Kuwait, said the two Iranian officials, who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The U.S.-chartered deportation flight for Iranians was the second of its kind, after the first took off in September, after months of negotiations between Tehran and Washington. Iran and the United States have not had diplomatic relations since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and for decades the United States has provided refuge to Iranian dissidents, religious and ethnic minorities; members of the L.G.B.T.Q. community; and others fleeing persecution in their homeland. But as part of the Trump administration’s pursuit of mass deportations, it reached a deal with Tehran to coordinate the return of Iranian citizens facing deportation — currently estimated at about 2,000 people — and send them on chartered planes to Tehran. In the past, the United States deported Iranians individually on commercial planes. The identities of Sunday’s deportees and their individual circumstances — including whether they had voluntarily accepted deportation or had been forced onto the plane — were not immediately clear. One of the Iranian officials familiar with the list of Iranians on the flight said they had entered the United States through the southern border, lingered in detention facilities for months and had their asylum requests denied. The Department of Homeland Security did not comment on the flight. A U.S. official, who asked not to be named to discuss the issue, confirmed the flight had taken off on Sunday and described it as a routine deportation flight that included nationals from other countries, not just Iran. The AP [12/8/2025 2:10 AM, Nasser Karimi and Jon Gambrell, 2416K] reports that a second flight carrying Iranians deported from the United States has left America, Iranian officials said, as Washington reportedly planned to send hundreds of prisoners back to the Islamic Republic. The deportations come as tensions remain high between Iran and the U.S. after America bombed Iranian nuclear sites during Tehran’s 12-day war with Israel in June. Activists abroad also have expressed concern about deportees returning to Iran, whose theocracy has been cracking down on intellectuals and executing prisoners at a rate unseen in decades. A report published Monday by the Mizan news agency, the official mouthpiece of the Iran’s judiciary, quoted Iranian Foreign Ministry official Mojtaba Shasti Karimi acknowledging the deportation of 55 Iranians. "These individuals announced their willingness for return following continuation of anti-immigration and discriminative policy against foreign nationals particularly Iranians by the United States," Karimi reportedly said. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei also said Sunday there were plans for 55 Iranians to return to the Islamic Republic. Based on the U.S. claims, "the Iranians were repatriated because of legal reasons and breach of immigration regulations," Baghaei said. The U.S. government did not immediately acknowledge the deportation flight and it wasn’t clear whether the plane had arrived yet in Tehran. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press early Monday. The deportations represent a collision of a top priority of President Donald Trump — targeting illegal immigration — against a decades-long practice by the U.S. of welcoming Iranian dissidents, exiles and others since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. In September, Iranian officials acknowledged as many as 400 Iranians could be returned under the Trump administration policy. That month, the first such flight arrived in Tehran. In the lead up to and after the 1979 revolution, a large number of Iranians fled to the U.S. In the decades since, the U.S. had been sensitive in allowing those fleeing from Iran over religious, sexual or political persecution to seek residency. Iran has maintained only those facing criminal charges face prosecution, while others can travel freely. However, Tehran has detained Westerns and others with ties abroad in the past to be exchanged in prisoner swaps. Iran has criticized Washington for hosting dissidents and others in the past. U.S. federal prosecutors have accused Iran of hiring hitmen to target dissidents as well in America. USA Today [12/7/2025 11:32 PM, Thao Nguyen, 67103K] reports U.S. and Iranian officials previously told Reuters in September that about 400 Iranians were expected to be deported from the U.S. The first flight, carrying 120 people, arrived in Qatar in late September before they were transferred to a Tehran-bound flight. The group included both convicted criminals and people who had entered the country illegally, an unnamed U.S. official told Reuters at the time. The deportation flights came after negotiations between Tehran and Washington, which have no formal diplomatic relations. The two countries do not have a direct line of communication, Baghaei said, adding that they communicated through their respective interest protection offices or through intermediaries. Baghaei also criticized Washington for not facilitating visas for the entire Iranian soccer delegation for the World Cup draw held in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 5, where Trump received FIFA’s Peace Prize at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. "We have expressed our protest against the U.S.’s decision not to give visas for our team dispatched to the World Cup draw," Baghaei said. While Iran had applied for nine visas for its delegation, Iranian soccer federation spokesman Amir Mehdi Alavi was quoted as saying that the U.S. had granted only four visas, including for coach Ardeshir Amir Ghalenoei. The United States has long-standing, strict visa restrictions on Iranians.

FOX News [12/7/2025 9:53 PM, Staff, 40621K] reports DHS press affairs assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin breaks down the Trump administration’s push to curb the U.S. fentanyl crisis on ‘Sunday Night in America.’ [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NPR [12/7/2025 2:31 PM, Joe Hernandez, 28013K] reports Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the Defense Department is reviewing the video of several Sept. 2 strikes against an alleged drug boat off the Venezuela coast to determine whether it will be released to the public. The Sept. 2 attack and the decisions that led to it have come under growing scrutiny by lawmakers in recent days, prompting calls for the footage to be made public. But Hegseth says national security officials first must determine whether revealing the video could endanger ongoing operations. "We’ve got operators out there doing this right now, so whatever we were to decide to release, we would have to be very responsible about, so we’re reviewing that right now," he said Saturday during an appearance at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. President Trump previously said he would be willing to release the full video, but that he didn’t know what it included. Democrats and some Republicans have grown frustrated with the administration for its campaign of boat strikes in the Caribbean conducted without Congressional approval. In the Sept. 2 strikes, the military conducted a second strike on several crew members who had survived the initial attack, leading to criticism that the Trump administration had killed people who no longer posed a threat. Hegseth has said he authorized the first strike, but that military commander Adm. Frank M. Bradley approved the second. Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, was among the lawmakers who saw the video last week in a briefing with Bradley. Himes told CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday that even if Americans support the administration’s stated goal of thwarting drug trafficking, they deserve to see how it’s being done.

Washington Examiner [12/7/2025 3:37 PM, Jenny Goldsberry, 1394K] reports Democratic members of Congress united Sunday to call for the release of footage of a strike against survivors to dispute the Republican defense of the Sept. 2 operation against a Venezuelan vessel. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) reiterated his stance supporting the subsequent strike against the vessel, which was allegedly trafficking drugs. Immediately after being briefed by Adm. Mitch Bradley, who was in charge of the operation, Cotton told reporters that "the first strike, the second strike, and the third and the fourth strike on Sept. 2, entirely lawful." Cotton repeated his support Sunday on NBC News’s Meet the Press. "[The two survivors] were sitting or standing on top of a capsized boat. They weren’t floating helplessly on the water, and of course, I don’t think it matters all that much what they were trying to do," Cotton said. "It doesn’t really matter what they were trying to do. What matters is that they were not in a shipwreck state, distressed, dog-paddling in the water at all. And therefore that boat, its cargo, and those drug traffickers remained valid targets," Cotton added. War Secretary Pete Hegseth said he was not in the control room when Bradley ordered the second strike. Shortly after Cotton’s segment, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) appeared on the same program to dispute Cotton’s analysis. "[These strikes are] unlawful. They’re unconstitutional, and killing two people who are shipwrecked at sea is morally repugnant," Schiff said. "And frankly, if the Pentagon and our defense secretary are so proud of what they’re doing, let the American people see that video. Let the American people see two people standing on a capsized boat, or sitting on a capsized boat, and deliberately killed and decide for themselves whether they’re proud of what the country is doing. I can’t imagine people would be proud of that," Schiff added.

CNN [12/7/2025 1:21 PM, Zane Heinlein, 18595K] reports Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended the Trump administration’s military actions against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean during remarks at the Reagan National Defense Forum on Saturday. Republican senator asked if he would vote again to confirm Pete Hegseth. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

The AP [12/7/2025 4:05 PM, Bill Barrow, 31753K] reports a video of a U.S. military strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean that killed two survivors of the initial attack shows “nothing remarkable,” the Republican who leads the Senate Intelligence Committee said Sunday, and he would not oppose its public release if the Pentagon were to declassify it. Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, who backs President Donald Trump’s campaign against suspected drug smugglers, is partially aligning himself with Trump and top Democrats in favor of releasing the video of the Sept. 2 attack. It was the first in what has become a monthslong series of American strikes on vessels near Venezuela that the administration says were ferrying drugs. At least 87 people have been killed in 22 known strikes. But Cotton, among the top lawmakers on national security committees who were briefed Thursday by the Navy admiral commanding those strikes, is splitting with Democrats over whether military personnel acted lawfully in carrying out a second strike to kill the two survivors. The nine others aboard the boat also were killed. “I think it’s really important that this video be made public. It’s not lost on anyone, of course, that the interpretation of the video ... broke down precisely on party lines,” said Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. He said he has spent “years looking at videos of lethal action taken, often in the terrorism context, and this video was profoundly shaking.” When Trump was asked Wednesday whether he would release the video of that follow-on strike, he told reporters, “I don’t know what they have, but whatever they have we’d certainly release. No problem.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a Fox News interview Saturday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California that officials were reviewing the video. “Whatever we were to decide to release, we’d have to be very responsible” about it. “That boat was still a valid target,” Cotton said, arguing that releasing the video would prove that the two survivors of the initial strike remained a threat. “It’s not gruesome. I didn’t find it distressing or disturbing,” he said, explaining why he does not have a problem with releasing all the footage. “It looks like any number of dozens of strikes we’ve seen on jeeps and pickup trucks in the Middle East over the years.” He added that “there’s nothing remarkable on that video, in my opinion.” The Daily Wire [12/7/2025 10:24 AM, Tim Pearce, 2494K] reports that the Arkansas senator appeared on NBC News’ "Meet The Press" on Sunday and defended the actions taken by the U.S. military to curb the flow of fentanyl and other drugs into the United States, specifically striking vehicles used to ferry drugs in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. One incident in September has sparked accusations from Democrats that War Secretary Pete Hegseth committed a war crime after a second military strike was ordered on a drug boat that was not destroyed by an initial missile. The accusations against Hegseth began after The Washington Post reported that the War secretary gave an order to "kill them all." Top military officials have since testified to Congress that no such order was given, and Republican lawmakers who have seen the mission order have said that no such language exists in the order that would direct military personnel to commit war crimes. Senate Republicans, including Cotton, have also reviewed the footage of the second strike on the drug boat and said that the strike did not constitute a war crime because the vessel, though damaged and capsized, still represented a valid military target and could have been used to call in additional narcoterrorists. Cotton said Sunday that he would have "no problem" releasing the video to the public, though the military may have national security reasons for not wanting the footage public.

NBC News [12/7/2025 11:19 AM, Megan Lebowitz, 34509K] reports Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., defended the Trump administration’s Sept. 2 strike that killed the survivors of an initial strike on an alleged drug boat, telling NBC News’ "Meet the Press" that the survivors "were not incapacitated.". The senator also argued that President Donald Trump did not have to seek congressional approval if he continued boat strikes past the window designated by the War Powers Resolution, which puts checks on the president’s ability to use the armed forces without congressional approval. Cotton, who serves as the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was briefed by Adm. Frank M. Bradley last week on the September strikes. Bradley briefed the leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees and the leaders of the House and Senate armed services committees. Asked whether there was evidence indicating that the alleged drug boat was headed to the U.S. before the military struck it twice, killing survivors, Cotton said, "That didn’t come up in my briefing.". "But again, there’s very reliable multiple sources of intelligence that tells us that this boat had drugs on it, that everyone on that boat was associated with these designated foreign terrorist organizations that are trying to kill American children," Cotton said. Asked whether he was comfortable with the U.S. targeting a boat when he has not seen evidence that it is heading to the U.S. or an imminent threat, Cotton said he wanted the strikes to continue. "Any boat loaded with drugs that is crewed by associates and members of foreign terrorist organizations that are trying to kill American kids, I think, is a valid target," he said. "I’m not just comfortable with it, I want to continue it.". Cotton also said he did not "have any problem" with releasing video of the strikes, though he noted that the Defense Department "may have valid concerns about revealing" alleged cartel tactics or U.S. sources or methods. The department has repeatedly released videos of other strikes on alleged drug boats. NBC News reported that U.S. intelligence showed that the boat was traveling toward the South American nation of Suriname, which was first reported by CNN, and that the drugs were ultimately heading to Europe or Africa. Cotton said that the survivors of the initial strike, who were killed in the second strike, were not "incapacitated.". "They were not in the water, surviving only because they had a life jacket or hanging to a plank of wood," Cotton said. "They were sitting on that boat. They were clearly moving around on it.". Cotton alleged that the survivors appeared at one point to try to flip over the capsized boat, "presumably to rescue its cargo and continue their mission," he added.

ABC News [12/7/2025 11:30 AM, Quinn Scanlan and Nicholas Kerr, 30493K] reports the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee said Sunday that surveillance video of U.S. military strikes targeting an alleged drug trafficking vessel in the Caribbean Sea on Sept. 2 would contradict how Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and other Republicans have described it. "When they [the survivors] were finally taken out, they weren’t trying to flip the boat over. The boat was clearly incapacitated. A tiny portion of it remained, capsized, the bow of the boat. They had no communications device. Certainly, they were unarmed," Rep. Adam Smith, one of the Democratic lawmakers who saw the video, said. "Any claim that the drugs had somehow survived that attack is hard, hard to really square with what we saw.". Smith called the video "deeply disturbing" and said "it did not appear that these two survivors were in any position to continue the fight.". That’s counter to how Hegseth and Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee who also viewed the video, have described the circumstances preceding the second strike. Cotton told reporters he had no doubt about the legality of the strike and said he "saw two survivors trying to flip a boat loaded with drugs bound for the United States back over so they could stay in the fight.". On Saturday, Hegseth recounted what he had been told about the subsequent strike. "I was told, ‘hey, there had to be a reattack, because there were a couple folks who could still be in the fight. Access to radios. There was a link up point of another potential boat, drugs were still there. They were actively interacting with them,’" the secretary said at the Reagan National Defense Forum. Asked by "This Week" anchor George Stephanopoulos about Hegseth’s comments, Smith said, "That’s ridiculous. There are no radios.". "They ought to release the video," Smith said. "If they release the video, then everything that the Republicans are saying will clearly be portrayed to be completely false. And people will get a look at it, and they will see. The boat was adrift. It was going where the current was going to take it, and these two were trying to figure out how to survive.". President Donald Trump has said the administration would have "no problem" releasing the video of the strike in question, but Hegseth was noncommittal when asked Saturday. On Saturday, Hegseth said designating cartels as terrorist organizations makes them a "target" just like al-Qaida. But the legality of the entire operation targeting these vessels has been a central debate, and legal experts have questioned the administration’s justification.

NewsMax [12/7/2025 9:52 AM, Staff, 4109K] reports a secondary strike on an alleged drug trafficking boat in the Caribbean on Sept. 2, taking out survivors of an initial hit by U.S. forces, was conducted within established rules of engagement, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Berney Flowers said on Newsmax Sunday. "Before the first boat leaves the port, before the first airplane launches, we’ve got rules of engagement," Flowers on Newsmax’s "Wake Up America Weekend." "Commanders know that you need to stay within those rules of engagement.". Flowers said he agrees with both U.S. Navy Adm. Frank "Mitch" Bradley, who testified last week to lawmakers that he’d ordered the second strike on the boat, and with Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., who defended the strikes as being "entirely lawful.". Asked whether Adm. Bradley followed the law when he ordered additional strikes, Flowers said commanders operate under predetermined rules set before any mission begins. Flowers said he did not expect commanders to deviate from those rules and agreed with Cotton’s defense of the strikes. "There is no expectation that the commander went outside of those rules of engagement," Flowers said. "So yes, the senator is correct.". The discussion later shifted to the Russia-Ukraine war and whether a peace deal could be near. Saturday, U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said at the Doha Forum in Qatar that negotiators were "close" to peace, while also noting any agreement would require acceptance by Ukraine and a "sincere desire" from Russia to end the war. Flowers said he welcomes the possibility of movement but cautioned that predicting a near-term breakthrough was difficult. "That’s a tough one," Flowers said, adding that progress can be incremental, "like three yards and a cloud of dust.". Flowers also warned that the conflict remains costly and risky, calling it a dangerous model for U.S. involvement.

AP [12/7/2025 5:36 PM, Jim Mustian and Jack Brook, 19051K] reports state and federal authorities are closely tracking online criticism and demonstrations against the immigration crackdown in New Orleans, monitoring message boards around the clock for threats to agents while compiling regular updates on public "sentiment" surrounding the arrests, according to law enforcement records reviewed by The Associated Press. The intelligence gathering comes even as officials have released few details about the first arrests made last week as part of "Catahoula Crunch," prompting calls for greater transparency from local officials who say they’ve been kept in the dark about virtually every aspect of the operation. "Online opinions still remain mixed, with some supporting the operations while others are against them," said a briefing circulated early Sunday to law enforcement. Earlier bulletins noted "a combination of groups urging the public to record ICE and Border Patrol" as well as "additional locations where agents can find immigrants.". Immigration authorities have insisted the sweeps are targeted at "criminal illegal aliens." But the law enforcement records detail criminal histories for less than a third of the 38 people arrested in the first two days of the operation. Local leaders told the AP those numbers — which law enforcement officials were admonished not to distribute to the media — undermined the stated aim of the roundup. They also expressed concern that the online surveillance could chill free speech as authorities threaten to charge anyone interfering with immigration enforcement. "It confirms what we already knew — this was not about public safety, it’s about stoking chaos and fear and terrorizing communities," said state Sen. Royce Duplessis, a Democrat who represents New Orleans. "It’s furthering a sick narrative of stereotypes that immigrants are violent.". The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions about the intelligence gathering and referred the AP to a prior news release touting "dozens of arrests." The agency has not released an accounting of the detainees taken into custody or their criminal histories. "Americans should be able to live without fear of violent criminal illegal aliens harming them, their families or their neighbors," DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said.

Breitbart [12/7/2025 1:00 PM, Bob Price, 2416K] reports anti-immigration-enforcement thugs assaulted independent journalist Nick Sortor in New Orleans on Saturday night during a protest at a federal building. The violent assault on the journalist happened after Sortor dared to ask one of the speakers why she thinks the National Guard is racist — a statement she made on the stage. "No racist troops in our street," a woman spoke while leading the protest. Sortor, later, politely asked the woman if she could give an example of the National Guard being racist. She ignored his question. "How about Andrew Wolf and Sarah Beckstrom? Were they racist when they were protecting the people of DC?" he asked. She continued to ignore him. A short time later, a woman wearing a yellow vest attempted to grab Sortor and his phone, leading to a brief melee of violence from the leftists. Several of the agitators began grabbing, hitting, and screaming at the journalist, simply for asking questions. In another video, Sortor approaches a woman attending the protest while wearing a Honduran flag. Sortor asks, "That’s not the American flag is it?" after saying,"That’s a cool flag.” The woman responds by striking the journalist and grabbing at his phone. Sortor responds, saying, "You might be able to do that in Honduras, but you can’t do that here.” Sortor confronts some of the people who appear to be leaders of the protest, telling them his people are assaulting him, and they need to get the violent people who cannot control themselves away from the protest. At one point, some of the people wearing yellow vests attempt to shove Sortor out of the area of the protest violently. Sortor executes a flanking move and gets around a "blockade" of protesters trying to keep him at bay. After someone eventually reported Sortor, a New Orleans police officer confronts the journalist and says, "I don’t want you here antagonizing them and creating a problem.” "There’s no reason for you to even ask them questions," the officer tells the journalist. "If you want to film them, stand by your vehicle and film them.” "By asking them questions and starting a dialogue, you’re creating a problem," the officer continues. This is the second time in recent months that Sortor has been assaulted by protesters and confronted by police for his actions as a journalist. In October, Portland Police Bureau officers arrested Sortor after a protester attacked him, Breitbart Texas. The Portland Police Bureau reported Sortor’s arrest in a statement, saying they observed three men fighting. They arrested all three men and booked them into the Multnomah County Detention Center on charges of Disorderly Conduct in the Second Degree. Police later dismissed the charges.

FOX News [12/7/2025 11:59 AM, Michael Dorgan Fox, 40621K] reports a series of sprawling fraud schemes involving hundreds of millions of dollars stolen from Minnesota taxpayers — from COVID-relief programs to housing and autism services — have placed the state’s Somali community under a renewed, intense spotlight, raising uncomfortable questions about whether some who found refuge here are robbing their new neighbors blind. These swirling fraud cases — and claims that some ill-gotten gains were diverted to the Somali terrorist organization Al-Shabaab — have now prompted a House investigation, a Treasury Department probe and mounting political pressure on state leaders, including Democrat Gov. Tim Walz, over why Minnesota failed to safeguard taxpayer money. The fraud revelations, combined with a string of violent crimes and revived terror concerns involving Somali-linked defendants, have shaken public confidence and raised urgent questions about why Minnesota failed to stop the schemes sooner. The developments have also deepened public unease and revived long-standing questions about assimilation, oversight and public safety in Minnesota. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., told Fox News Digital that the fraud scandal represents "a catastrophic failure of oversight" under Walz and characterized some of the culprits involved as a "Somali criminal enterprise crew.". "People can focus on an ethnic group if they want, but the real issue is the lack of leadership and accountability in the state of Minnesota with Tim Walz and his administration. This wasn’t about Somalis; this was about government incompetence and lack of accountability," Emmer said. "We have been trying to sound the alarm on this fraud… for more than three years.".

CBS News [12/7/2025 3:03 PM, Kaia Hubbard, 39474K] reports Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar said Sunday that any link between allegations of fraud by members of the Somali community and terrorism would be a "failure of the FBI" amid calls to investigate a series of multimillion-dollar alleged pandemic fraud schemes in Minnesota. During the Biden administration in 2022, federal prosecutors in Minnesota filed charges in what they described as the "largest pandemic fraud in the United States," which revolved around a welfare program that partnered with the Minnesota Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to distribute meals to children. The Treasury Department said last week that it will investigate whether tax dollars from Minnesota’s public assistance programs made their way to the al Qaeda affiliate al Shabaab, which is based in Somalia. And House Republicans on the Oversight Committee launched an investigation last week into Democratic Gov. Tim Walz’s handling of the fraud cases. Omar said on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" Sunday that she’s "pretty confident" that the alleged link to terrorism is a false claim, citing prosecutions and sentences that have already taken place. "If there was a linkage in the money that they have stolen going to terrorism, then that is a failure of the FBI and our court system in not figuring that out," Omar said. The Minnesota Democrat said the accusations have been around for many years. But she added, "if that is the case, if money from U.S. tax dollars is being sent to help with terrorism in Somalia, we want to know.". "And we want those people prosecuted," Omar said. "And we want to make sure that that doesn’t ever happen again.". Minnesota is home to the largest Somali-American population in the U.S. The vast majority of the foreign-born Somali population have U.S. citizenship, according to 2024 Census Bureau figures. The bulk of those charged in the fraud scheme were of Somali descent, though the founder of the group, called Feeding Our Future, is White and was convicted at trial earlier this year. The president has blamed the fraud on the Somali people, while saying in recent days that Somali immigrants do "nothing but complain." He called Omar, and "friends" of the Minnesota congresswoman who was born in Somalia and came to the U.S. as a teenager, "garbage.". Omar called the president’s comments "disgusting.". "These are Americans that he is calling garbage, and we feel like there is an unhealthy obsession that he has on the Somali community, and an unhealthy and creepy obsession that he has with me," Omar said. "I think it is also really important for us to remember that this kind of hateful rhetoric and this level of dehumanizing can lead to dangerous actions by people who listen to the President.". Omar said the fraud scheme also has an impact on Somalis, "because we are also taxpayers in Minnesota.".

Daily Caller [12/7/2025 5:19 PM, Anthony Iafrate, 835K] reports Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar appeared to suggest Sunday on CBS News that the victims of a massive COVID relief fraud scheme in the state — in which nine-in-ten of those charged were Somali — were other Somali. During an appearance on "Face the Nation," Omar told host Margaret Brennan it is "frustrating" to her that people do not acknowledge Minnesota’s Somali community is "upset" about the COVID relief fraud — which reportedly resulted in taxpayer money winding up in the hands of a Somali radical Islamic terrorist group. The scheme’s alleged perpetrators "stole nearly $1 billion" from a nonprofit which claimed to feed hungry schoolchildren, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer stated. "The Biden-era Justice Department called it the largest COVID fraud scheme in the country, and this was pocketing COVID-era welfare funds, more than a billion dollars in taxpayer money that was stolen," Brennan told the Somali-born congresswoman. "Of the 87 people charged, all but eight are of Somali descent, and that has added to the spotlight being put specifically on your community. Why do you think this fraud was allowed to get so widespread?" "I want to say, you know, this also has an impact on Somalis, because we are also taxpayers in Minnesota," Omar said in response. "We also could have benefited from the program and the money that was stolen. And so it’s been really frustrating for people to not acknowledge the fact that we’re also — as Minnesotans, as taxpayers — really upset and angry about the fraud that has occurred."

New York Post [12/7/2025 12:43 PM, Ryan King, 42219K] reports "Squad" Rep. Ilhan Omar outlandishly accused Stephen Miller, an observant Jew, of espousing "white supremacist rhetoric" akin to the way the "Nazis described Jewish people in Germany.". "When I think about Stephen Miller and his white supremacist rhetoric, it reminds me of the way the Nazis described Jewish people in Germany," Omar (D-Minn.) chided on CBS News’ "Face the Nation" on Sunday. Omar, a first-generation immigrant from Somalia, was reacting to an X post by Miller, widely seen as the architect of President Trump’s immigration agenda, in which he tore into mass migration. "You are not just importing individuals. You are importing societies. No magic transformation occurs when failed states cross borders," Miller wrote in the X post. "At scale, migrants and their descendants recreate the conditions, and terrors, of their broken homelands.". Lefty critics have long tried to pin Miller to white supremacism, despite his Jewish heritage. The Minnesota Democrat has been incensed by the Trump administration’s targeting of her home state over an eye-watering $1 billion fraud scandal in which dozens of people fraudulently took taxpayer dollars for social services they never provided. The fraud was centered around members of the Somali-American community in Minnesota, a fact that drew Trump’s wrath last week. In the days that followed Trump’s incendiary attack on Somali-Americans, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) stepped up its enforcement operations in Minnesota. "It’s completely disgusting. These are Americans that he is calling garbage," Omar fired back against Trump’s broadsides. "It’s also really important for us to remember that this kind of hateful rhetoric and this level of dehumanizing can lead to dangerous actions by people who listen to the president.". Like Trump, Miller had been outspoken about the so-called Feeding Our Future fraud scandal, which has prompted scrutiny from the administration.

Reported similarly:
FOX News [12/7/2025 9:30 PM, Hanna Panreck, 40621K] Video: HERE

Breitbart [12/7/2025 9:26 AM, Amy Furr, 2416K] reports Minnesota’s leftist governor, Tim Walz, got a stern warning from a Trump official on Friday regarding the potential loss of Medicaid funding unless he gets a handle on alleged fraud. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said in a social media post authorities in the state including Walz (D) needed to be investigated "because they’ve been asleep at the wheel," Fox News reported Saturday. "Based on what we know now, this is a clear dereliction of duty," Oz wrote: In recent years, Minnesota Medicaid launched several new programs, including Housing Stabilization Services, which helped disabled homeless individuals, and Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention, which reimbursed therapy costs for families with autistic children. Some bad actors in Minnesota’s Somali community decided to game the system. And when they got away with it, they decided to go bigger. The housing program was supposed to cost $2.6 million dollars annually. Last year, it paid out over $100 million. The autism program ballooned from $3 million in 2018 to nearly $400 million in 2023. Oz pointed out some of the allegedly stolen taxpayer money may have gone to the Somalian terrorist group Al-Shebab. Indeed, Breitbart News reported "The stolen billion in Medicaid and welfare money didn’t merely go into the pockets of corrupt Somalian migrants. They also went to fund terrorism in Africa.".

Breitbart [12/7/2025 2:32 PM, Lowell Cauffiel, 2416K] reports a scandal involving hundreds of millions of dollars stolen from a federally funded nutrition program may starve Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s (D) chances of a political future, the Hill reported Saturday. The controversy, involving Minnesota’s influential Somali community, focuses on millions stolen from the program and has led to more than 50 convictions. Federal prosecutors accused dozens of people of stealing funds from a government program that was to feed children during the coronavirus pandemic. The New York Times put the story on the radar of legacy media outlets on November 29, with a report that federal prosecutors said as much as $1 billion in taxpayer money may have been stolen in separate fraudulent schemes. Longtime allies are reportedly wondering if the governor should walk away from a reelection attempt for a third term as governor, according to the D.C. political news outlet. "The governor, I think, has done a very respectable job, a good job, in Minnesota for the years that he’s been here. But he clearly is vulnerable and in my view, he is riskier than any Democratic candidate that might run," said Ember Reichgott Junge, a former Minnesota Democratic state senator and a political analyst in the state. Reichgott Junge said fraud "happened on his watch" and that Walz "can’t erase that." While she said the governor is taking steps to rectify it, including audits, those investigations will "probably uncover more.".

NewsMax [12/7/2025 9:10 PM, Brian Freeman, 4109K] reports Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defended the administration’s expanding investigation into a massive Minnesota welfare fraud scheme, allegedly carried out mainly by Somalis living in the state, telling CBS News’ "Face the Nation" on Sunday that federal authorities are now tracking overseas money transfers linked to the case — including funds sent to Somalia and the Middle East. In the interview, Bessent suggested that new immigrants must adapt to both cultural and legal norms in the U.S. "When you come to this country, you’ve got to learn which side of the road to drive on. You’ve got to learn to stop at stop signs, and you’ve got to learn not to defraud the American people." Bessent emphasized that the probe began with the IRS Criminal Investigations Unit, not state officials. He said the federal government had to "clean up the mess" after Minnesota failed to detect large-scale abuse within its nutrition and childcare programs, a scandal that has already led to dozens of indictments. "The initial fraud ... was discovered by IRS Criminal Investigations. This was not an endogenous thing that the state of Minnesota decided," Bessent said. "We had to go in and clean up the mess for them, and this is part of the continued cleanup.". Bessent said investigators have identified substantial sums moving from individuals implicated in the fraud — including some who donated to Gov. Tim Walz, Rep. Ilhan Omar, and Attorney General Keith Ellison — into what he described as "money-bureau services," unregulated wire-transfer networks operating outside the formal banking system.

Washington Times [12/7/2025 10:27 AM, Seth McLaughlin, 852K] reports White House border czar Tom Homan on Sunday brushed off criticism of immigration raids in Minnesota’s Somali communities, insisting that federal agents are looking for criminal aliens and U.S. citizens have nothing to fear. The raids, which Mr. Homan says could result in 600,000 deportations nationwide, have sparked backlash from Democrats and local leaders, including in the Twin Cities, where roughly 80,000 Somalis live. Mr. Homan pushed back against claims of heavy-handed tactics, saying Sunday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are following the law and anyone who doesn’t will be held accountable. “There’s a large illegal Somali community there, there is a large illegal alien community there,” he said of Minnesota on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “We are looking for criminal aliens.” Democratic leaders in Minnesota say the vast majority of the Somalis living there are U.S. citizens. President Trump last month said he was immediately terminating temporary deportation protections for Somalis in Minnesota, apparently in response to reports that some Somalis had defrauded Minnesota of hundreds of millions of dollars in social services funds. Mr. Trump sharpened his rhetoric last week. In a Cabinet meeting, he described Somali immigrants as “garbage” and claimed they “contribute nothing.” “I don’t want them in our country,” he said. “I’ll be honest with you.” Mr. Homan defended the president’s remarks, saying Mr. Trump was referring to “public safety” and “national security threats” from Somalia and other countries. “He was put in the Oval Office to run the biggest deportation operation this country’s ever seen, and that is exactly what we’re doing,” the border czar said on CNN.

Reported similarly:
Reuters [12/7/2025 3:09 PM, David Morgan, 19051K]

Daily Caller [12/7/2025 11:22 AM, Mariane Angela, 835K] reports White House border czar Tom Homan pushed back Sunday after CNN’s Dana Bash suggested federal immigration agents are stopping suspected illegal immigrants based on their skin color. Earlier this week, the Trump administration rolled out a major Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, surging about 100 federal agents into Minneapolis and St. Paul to target undocumented Somali nationals with final deportation orders. Appearing on "State of the Union With Jake Tapper and Dana Bash," Homan pushed back after Bash claimed Somali individuals were being stopped and questioned simply based on appearance. "No, they’re not. You know, the law requires agents are trained to Fourth Amendment training every six months. Border Patrol is trained in Fourth Amendment training," Homan said when Bash asked if ICE agents were stopping people resembling Somalis. "They stop. You can detain and question people for a short period of time based on a reasonable suspicion.". "And what is that suspicion? Is it based on how they look?" Bash asked. Homan responded that a person’s race or appearance alone can never meet that legal threshold. "Their appearance alone can’t raise reasonable suspicion. It’s articulable facts, a lot of different facts taking consideration, and the Supreme Court just backed the Trump administration up on this. I know a lot of the media said, ‘Oh, the Supreme Court just justified racial profiling,’" Homan continued. "That’s not what the Supreme Court said. [The] Supreme Court said they agree with the way these operations are being conducted because the standard of reasonable suspicion is being used by both ICE and the Border Patrol in the interior operations.".

FOX News [12/7/2025 9:26 AM, Staff, 40621K] Video: HERE reports Border czar Tom Homan joins ‘Fox & Friends Weekend’ to react to a twice-deported Honduran migrant, Oscar Solarzano, allegedly stabbing a Charlotte resident while aboard the city’s light rail and the effort to rescue unaccompanied migrant children.

New York Post [12/7/2025 1:59 PM, Ryan King, 42219K] reports more than 62,000 migrant children have been rescued by the Trump administration and saved from evil conditions, including sex trafficking and forced labor after they crossed the border without parents under the Biden admin, border czar Tom Homan said. "Over half a million children were smuggled into this country under Joe Biden," Homan said on "Fox & Friends" Sunday. "They lost track of 300,000. President Trump committed on day one that we will do everything we can to find every one of these children.". "We know many of them are in sex trafficking. Many are in forced labor. Many are being abused," Homan added. "I can’t discuss some of the mistreatment we found out about. President Trump again proved why he’s the greatest president in my lifetime. Over 62,000 children rescued.". Homan said that the Biden administration had ignored the migrant kids and wasn’t "looking for" them. The 62,000 children had been rescued between the start of the Trump administration and last Friday, according to Homan. Republicans and whistleblowers have alleged that 300,000 and 500,000 migrant children were "missing" or "lost" under the Biden administration. Critics say that statistic comes from a Department of Homeland Security report last year, which concluded that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released some 291,000 migrant children without notices to appear in court between fiscal year 2019 and May 2024 — and has no way to track them after they arrived in the country as unaccompanied minors.

Reuters [12/7/2025 3:09 PM, David Morgan, 36480K] reports White House border czar Tom Homan on Sunday defended President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota, saying the state is home to a large illegal Somali community despite local officials’ comments that the vast majority of Somalis in the U.S. are American citizens. Homan denied, however, that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had stepped up its deportation campaign in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area in response to Trump’s comments last week about Somali immigrants, whom the president called "garbage" that should be removed from the country. Homan also said ICE agents are not targeting people based on their appearance. "I’m not aware of what President Trump was thinking when he said that," Homan told CNN’s "State of the Union" program. "But I agree with President Trump. From day one, he has said we are concentrated on public safety threats and national security threats.". "We also know there’s a large illegal Somali community there, that there’s a large illegal alien community there," he said, without providing evidence. "We’re going to arrest every illegal alien that we find there.". U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar, the Minnesota Somali community’s most high-profile member and a target of Trump’s ire, on Sunday reiterated her criticism of the president’s comments about Somalis. "It’s completely disgusting," Omar told the CBS "Face the Nation" program, echoing comments she made to Reuters, earlier this week. "These are Americans that he is calling garbage, and we feel like there is an unhealthy obsession that he has on the Somali community and an unhealthy and creepy obsession that he has with me.". About 80,000 Somalis live in Minnesota, mostly in the Twin Cities metro region. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has said the vast majority are U.S. citizens.

FOX News [12/7/2025 7:00 PM, Lindsay Kornick Fox, 40621K] Video: HERE reports White House border czar Tom Homan defended the tactics of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on Sunday, telling CNN’s Dana Bash that they are receiving death threats and attacks daily. Homan was asked about a recent viral video of a U.S. citizen allegedly being arrested by ICE officers in Florida despite his insistence that ICE doesn’t arrest legal citizens. He said that while he was not aware of every specific case, citizens may be briefly detained and questioned if there’s "reasonable suspicion" they committed a crime. "So there’s reasonable suspicion that you’re talking about, there is releasing somebody once they’re comfortable that they are a U.S. citizen and then there’s just the aggressive tactics that we are seeing in video after video," Bash said. "You’re comfortable with those tactics? Tactics that we’re all seeing with our own eyes?". "Look, threats on ICE officers are up 1,200%," Homan answered. "They’re being doxxed on social media. They’re getting death threats every day. They’ve been attacked. They’ve been shot at. And you know, these officers are out there looking for the worst of the worst. So they’re protecting themselves. And I think they’re following the law. And if any ICE officer acts out of policy or does something inappropriate, they’ll be held accountable." He continued, "But we’ve got to remember, I mean, they’re under attack. And we’re at a place in this country where, all of a sudden, the ones who enforce law are the bad guys and the ones who broke the laws are victims. I’m going to trust the men and women of ICE and Border [Patrol] who have been trained very well to do the right thing. But I’ll say again, if someone does something inappropriate, out-of-policy [or] illegal, they need to be held accountable. But I simply think I haven’t seen that." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Univision [12/7/2025 11:21 PM, Claudia Uceda, 5004K] reports Tom Homan, President Donald Trump’s so-called "border czar," said that although he is not present at every arrest or operation, "I trust that the men and women of ICE are doing the right thing" and assured that his agents receive death threats every day. Those words do not convince the relatives of those who have been violently arrested, as shown in several videos of immigration raids.

Blaze [12/7/2025 12:30 PM, Candace Hathaway, 1442K] reports Border czar Tom Homan fired back at a heckler during a Turning Point USA conference at the University of Texas at El Paso on Thursday. During the event, Homan spoke and answered questions from the audience, which numbered roughly 500. He compared the border security under the Trump administration to that of the previous White House, describing the difference between them as "night and day.". "There was 12,000 a day sometimes crossing the border illegally," Homan said, referring to illegal crossings under the Biden administration. "You know what it was yesterday — 106 across 2,000 miles of border. And those 106, not a single one of those were released into the United States.". The audience erupted in applause. Homan debunked the legacy media’s narrative claiming that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is disproportionately arresting non-criminals. He stated that the most recent stats indicated that 64% of immigration arrests were of criminals. He slammed the media and immigration enforcement critics for labeling him the architect of "family separations.". "It wasn’t done to punish. It was done in an attempt to save lives and stop sexual assaults, and maybe control the border," Homan said.

Univision [12/7/2025 10:37 AM, Staff, 5004K] reports a federal judge rejected a request by the Trump administration to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the detention of migrants at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo, in the eastern tip of Cuba. In a decision issued Friday, Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan denied the federal government’s motion to file the case and scheduled a hearing for this week, in which the parties will discuss the next steps. In January, Trump announced that his administration would use a detention center at Guantanamo to retain tens of thousands of “worst foreign criminals” as part of its harsh and extensive immigration offensive. Between February and June, the federal government kept about 500 immigrants at Guantanamo, according to Sooknanan, while authorities used the base as a stopover for immigrants with final removal orders. American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) attorney Lee Gelernt, who argued the case, said in a statement Saturday that he hopes the ruling “will end the Trump administration’s “illegal policy of sending immigrants to military bases in the middle of nowhere solely for its theatrical value.” The ACLU and other advocacy groups have argued that moving immigrants to Guantanamo is illegal. The Trump administration has claimed it has broad authority to hold immigrants with final deportation orders in the facility. In a statement, Tricia McLaughlin, deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said, “We look forward to a superior court’s claim of our use of this facility to keep criminals off the streets of America.”

NewsMax [12/7/2025 4:05 PM, Staff, 4109K] reports the United States can enforce immigration laws while also treating people humanely, as it is a "false narrative" that Americans must choose between the rule of law and compassion, Sen. John Curtis said Sunday. However, the Utah Republican, appearing on CNN’s "State of the Union," said immigration debates too often become "painful" as the country is "really struggling with compassion" even as enforcement ramps up. He pointed to the Biden administration’s border approach as an example of rhetoric not matching reality. "We were told it was compassion to have an open border," Curtis said. "It wasn’t.". Curtis, a former mayor, said local leaders should work directly with federal immigration authorities with a focus on public safety, arguing cities should prioritize removing criminals while reducing fear among law-abiding residents and immigrant communities. "If I were mayor, the very first thing I would do is, I’d sit down with ICE, and I say, ‘I want the bad guys out of my city, and I want my citizens to feel safe,’" he said. Curtis also criticized what he described as an "us against them" mindset around immigration enforcement. He said a lack of transparency from immigration authorities can "bring this fear into a community," while protests that obstruct enforcement do not necessarily reflect compassion. The Utah Republican was pressed about President Donald Trump’s rhetoric toward Somali immigrants, with Trump having recently described Somali immigrants as "garbage" and saying they should return to their home countries. Curtis said he cannot control others’ language, but urged political leaders to focus on their own conduct. "All of us need to wake up every morning, look in the mirror and say, what are we doing ... to make this country a better country, to make all of our immigrants feel more welcome?" he said. In other matters, Curtis, when asked whether he would vote again to confirm Secretary of War Pete Hegseth amid renewed scrutiny over the use of a Signal chat and questions surrounding a Caribbean "double tap" strike, declined to give a yes-or-no answer.

New York Times [12/7/2025 4:24 PM, Christopher Flavelle, 135475K] reports in the weeks after Joseph R. Biden Jr. was elected president, advisers delivered a warning: His approach to immigration could prove disastrous. Mr. Biden had pledged to treat unauthorized immigrants more humanely than President Donald J. Trump, who generated widespread backlash by separating migrant children from their parents. But Mr. Biden was now president-elect, and his positions threatened to drastically increase border crossings, experts advising his transition team warned in a Zoom briefing in the final weeks of 2020, according to people with direct knowledge of that briefing. That jump, they said, could provoke a political crisis. “Chaos” was the word the advisers had used in a memo during the campaign. They offered a range of options to avert that crisis, by better deterring migrants. Mr. Biden seemed to grasp the risk. But he and his top aides failed to act on those recommendations. The warnings came true, and then some. After Mr. Biden became president, migrant encounters at the southern border quickly doubled, then kept rising. New arrivals overwhelmed border stations, then border towns, and eventually major cities like New York and Denver. Anger over illegal migration helped return Mr. Trump to the presidency, and he has enacted even more aggressive policies than those Mr. Biden first campaigned against. Mr. Trump has drawn outrage from Democrats by sending masked agents to target immigrants, often aided by National Guard soldiers. But a New York Times examination of Mr. Biden’s record found that he and his closest advisers repeatedly rebuffed recommendations that could have addressed the border crisis faster, and eased what became a potent issue for Mr. Trump as he sought to return to the White House and justify the aggressive tactics roiling American cities today.

New York Times [12/7/2025 4:27 PM, Christopher Flavelle, 135475K] reports a New York Times examination of former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s actions on immigration found that he and his closest advisers ignored early warnings about a border surge and rejected policies that might have eased a crisis that engulfed much of the Biden administration. Their decisions created an opening for Donald J. Trump to win back the White House and adopt a more aggressive approach to immigration, the Times review found. In a statement, a spokeswoman for Mr. Biden blamed Republicans for blocking efforts to address the border crisis. “When it became clear Congress wouldn’t act, Biden took decisive action on his own,” the statement said. Before Mr. Biden took office, advisers warned that his approach could lead to “chaos” at the border. In August 2020, while Mr. Biden was still campaigning against President Trump in part by promising a more welcoming approach on immigration, his policy advisers wrote a memo warning that his proposals, coupled with pent-up migration demand under the Trump administration and economic hardship from the Covid pandemic, could lead to a huge increase in border crossings. The Biden team misread the politics of immigration. As border encounters surged at the start of the Biden administration, policy advisers continued to push the White House to focus more on border enforcement and deterring migrants. But top aides to Mr. Biden worried that doing so would alienate Latino and progressive voters, former administration officials said. And they believed that the crisis was not a significant concern for people outside of border states. Both assumptions proved to be wrong. The White House rejected pleas to help Democratic cities cope with migrants. Soon after Mr. Biden took office, as border crossings began to spike, policy advisers in his administration argued for the federal government to transport migrants to their final destinations, in coordination with local officials. Proponents said that such a plan would relieve pressure on border communities, as well as northern cities struggling to manage the flow of migrants. Mr. Biden kept waiting for Congress to act — a strategy that failed. Mr. Biden considered acting unilaterally to reduce border crossings as early as 2022, according to Ron Klain, his chief of staff at the time. But he held off because Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, at the time a Democrat, was in talks with Republicans about an immigration bill. Those discussions did not lead to an agreement.

NewsMax [12/7/2025 9:36 AM, Charlie McCarthy, 4109K] reports former President Joe Biden and his advisers repeatedly rejected recommendations that could have addressed the southern border migrant crisis, The New York Times reported Sunday. According to the Times’ review of internal debates and interviews with former officials, Biden entered office determined to reverse the toughest Trump-era policies — and did it quickly — despite early warnings from advisers that a rapid shift could ignite "chaos" at the border and trigger a political crisis. Those warnings proved prescient as migrant encounters surged early in 2021, border facilities were overwhelmed, and the consequences spread far beyond Texas and Arizona into big-city budgets and public services. The Times reported that Biden’s inner circle misjudged both the scale of migration and the political backlash that would follow, underestimating how sharply public opinion would turn as images of crowded processing centers and strained communities dominated headlines. Former officials told the newspaper that the White House also worried that stronger enforcement would anger progressive activists and alienate key voting blocs. In hindsight, that political calculation helped hand Donald Trump and Republicans a potent issue through 2024. The result, former Biden advisers argued, was paralysis when decisive action was most needed. The Times detailed how proposals to tighten asylum processing, expand temporary holding capacity, coordinate transfers, or apply tougher deterrence measures were often debated — then delayed, diluted, or dropped altogether. One former official said plans for a border speech were even scrapped, reinforcing the impression that the White House hoped the problem would fade from view. The Biden White House "had no strategy, because they had no goal," said Scott Shuchart, who joined the administration in 2022 as a senior adviser at Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

NewsMax [12/7/2025 10:40 PM, Brian Freeman, 4109K] reports the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) sent out an email to all medical providers warning them not to share any data with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for immigration purposes. The email stated that "the purpose of this communication is to inform all Medicaid Providers that the United States Department of Health and Human Services (USDHHS), including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), is currently prohibited by a preliminary injunction from sharing Michigan’s Medicaid data with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), for immigration enforcement purposes.” The notification went on to state that "MDHHS has become aware that some Medicaid providers have raised questions and concerns about the recent notices and actions of USDHHS, CMS, and DHS related to demands for and potential use of beneficiary-level State Medicaid data being shared with DHS’ Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).” The email stated that a hearing is scheduled for December "related to whether USDHHS, CMS, and DHS will continue to be prohibited from using Michigan’s state Medicaid data for immigration enforcement purposes.” The MDHHS notice added that it "will provide further notice if there are changes to what is considered permissible use, disclosure, or sharing of Michigan’s Medicaid data by USDHHS or CMS because of this hearing.”

Univision [12/7/2025 5:43 PM, Staff, 5004K] reports that, amidst the joy of thousands of families who received a Christmas tree and chants protesting immigration raids, Chicago experienced a stark contrast on Saturday during Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s visit to the traditional "Christmas Tree Boat" event. [Editorial note: consult photos at source link]

Univision [12/7/2025 8:37 PM, Staff, 5004K] reports an immigration operation carried out on Saturday in Elgin, Illinois, led to moments of tension after federal agents used irritating chemicals against a crowd that had gathered in the area, according to videos posted on social media. The operation lasted several hours and the community demanded the withdrawal of the agents. Join our WhatsApp channel: Click here to stay up to date with the latest news and never miss an update. According to a police report, during immigration control activities, a traffic accident was reported in which a person fled from one of the vehicles involved. The incident occurred in the 1600 block of West Highland Avenue. A federal agent contacted the Elgin Police Department to report the incident, indicating that the crash occurred in the middle of the operation and that the suspect had fled toward Maple Lane. Around 10 a.m., police received another report of masked individuals on a property in the 1600 block of Maple Lane, who claimed to have a court order. When officers arrived at the scene, they encountered federal agents and cleared the area. Later, around 12:22 p.m., alleged gunshots were reported in the same area. The Elgin Police Department determined that there had been no gunshots; however, it confirmed that federal agents had deployed irritating chemicals to disperse the crowd. A crowd gathered at the 1600 block of South Maple around 3 p.m., according to several videos posted on social media. Authorities reported that seven people were treated for chemical exposure, with assistance from the Elgin Fire Department. All were released at the scene. The police received around 30 calls related to the incidents. In a Facebook post, the Elgin Police Department reiterated that it will continue to respond to emergency calls, but will act within the limits of the Illinois Trust Act, which prohibits its officers from cooperating with federal immigration operations. A video recorded with a cell phone showed at least one man being detained by federal agents while protesters looked on. However, the detention has not been confirmed. Univision contacted the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for an official statement, but no response has been received. Elgin Mayor David Kaptain spoke out about the events on Maple Lane: "I am disheartened and upset by the actions of the federal agents who came to our city. This city was founded on diversity, self-respect, and mutual respect among our residents. The people at ICE have not shown that respect to this community, and that really angers me. We need to come together." Kaptain assured that, as on previous occasions, this problem will be resolved. That same day, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem attended the Christmas Tree Ship event in Chicago, where protesters also showed up to protest the recent federal raids. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

New York Times [12/7/2025 8:22 AM, Jeh C. Johnson, 135475K] reports with its strikes on suspected drug couriers in the Caribbean, our government is conducting extrajudicial killings on the high seas — plain and simple. Some Americans may wonder how this is any different from the targeted killings of other bad guys around the world by previous administrations, including that of Barack Obama, in which I served. There is a world of legal and moral differences. First, President Trump has effectively unilaterally declared war against Mexican and Venezuelan drug cartels, without authorization from Congress. In contrast, following the Sept. 11 attacks, Congress authorized President George W. Bush and his successors to treat terrorist members of Al Qaeda as enemy combatants in war and to use lethal military force against them. Second, implicit in Congress’s 2001 authorization was the understanding that terrorist members of Al Qaeda and its affiliates were hiding in places such as Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen, beyond the reach of law enforcement. But drug smuggling and drug cartels, even those international in scope, are routine targets for law enforcement. The Mexican drug kingpin known as El Chapo, Joaquín Guzmán, was arrested and brought to justice in a U.S. court. Before President Trump pardoned him last week, the former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández was convicted in a U.S. court and was serving a 45-year sentence in an American jail for drug trafficking. The Coast Guard, supported by the U.S. Navy, routinely interdicts and arrests drug couriers on the high seas. Our military’s new precision weaponry allows for targeted lethal force with the single tap of a device. But that capability should never become a convenient and expedient substitute for law enforcement. That is the very definition of “extrajudicial killing.” Third, there is a huge difference between the approaches of the Obama and Trump administrations to the use of lethal force. The Obama administration viewed lethal operations as necessary to protect American lives; officials in the Trump administration seem to revel in them. The general tenor of Mr. Hegseth’s comments suggests that he relishes, rather than agonizes over, the approval of these lethal operations, and that others below him should do the same. In his Sept. 30 speech at a large gathering of the military’s top brass, he called for creating a “warrior ethos,” promoting “maximum lethality,” and untying “the hands of our war fighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill the enemies of our country.” He also ranted about “overbearing” and “stupid” rules of engagement. Such rhetoric encourages abuses of authority, and makes incidents like the “double tap” attack on Sept. 2 — in which our military struck a speedboat said to be carrying drugs a second time, killing the survivors of the first blast as they clung to the boat’s wreckage — almost inevitable. In its aftermath, Secretary Hegseth’s best explanation for the multiple strikes that day was the “fog of war.” Congress should demand public release of the video of the second strike on Sept. 2. The House and Senate Armed Services Committees should demand public, sworn testimony from those in the chain of command about the events of that day and the boat attacks generally. Lawmakers should not be content with closed-door, unsworn briefings by select administration officials. The public has a right to hear the explanations for the extrajudicial killings the Trump administration is committing on our behalf.

Bloomberg [12/7/2025 8:00 AM, Noah Feldman, 18207K] reports the Trump administration’s latest outrage is firing immigration judges and replacing them with military lawyers who lack experience in immigration law. The move combines two of President Donald Trump’s signature initiatives: It’s part of his war on immigrants and also part of his effort to make civil servants obey the administration’s policies — or be fired. To make sense of what’s happening, let’s start with the curious legal status of immigration judges. They aren’t part of the federal judiciary established by Article III of the Constitution — such judges have life tenure, and even the Trump administration hasn’t claimed it can fire them. Rather, immigration judges are essentially civil servant lawyers who work for the Department of Justice. They fall under the DOJ’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). Their job is to decide cases involving asylum, deportation, removal and detention under the Immigration and Nationality Act. Once immigration judges have completed a two-year probationary period, they are covered by the Civil Service Reform Act, which prohibits their dismissal for political reasons. This protection dates back to 1883, with the landmark Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act. Before civil service reform, the president could fire all executive branch employees on the day he took office and replace them with patronage appointees. Known as the “spoils system,” this way of doing things was grossly inefficient and invited widespread corruption. If any modern government innovation were thought to be impossible to overturn, it was civil service reform. Enter Trump 2.0. Since January, the EOIR has been firing immigration judges hired during the Joe Biden administration who are within the two-year probationary period; telling judges who’ve just finished their two years that they won’t be continuing; and firing judges who’ve completed their probationary period and thus have full civil service protections. The scale of the firings appears unprecedented: at least 90 of 600 immigration judges have been fired this year. And the replacement of immigration judges by military lawyers certainly seems calculated to recruit judges who might be unsympathetic to immigrants. The current Trump administration came into office already believing that the Biden administration had tried to hire more liberal immigration judges. Andrew Arthur, a former immigration judge and fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, helpfully pointed me to allegations that the previous administration had deliberately sought to change the composition of the immigration courts to be more pro-immigrant. In 2022, the Washington Times alleged that “the Biden administration has been quietly packing the nation’s immigration courts, ousting Trump-hired judges and installing judges deemed to be friendlier to the immigrants whose cases they hear.” And in February 2025, the Trump official heading the EOIR issued a memo objecting to “questionable and problematic personnel practices” under Biden. Trump’s desire to control the nonpartisan civil service dates back to day one of the administration, when he issued an executive order titled “Restoring Accountability to Policy-Influencing Positions within the Federal Workforce.” The order created so-called Schedule F, designed to reclassify career civil servants as fireable political appointees.

New York Post [12/7/2025 10:00 PM, Miranda Devine, 42219K] reports the arrest of the alleged J6 pipe bomber just lumps mystery on top of mystery. What we know from court documents and media reports since his arrest Thursday is that suspect Brian Cole Jr., is a black, 30-year-old loner who lives in his mom’s basement in the middle-class suburb of Woodbridge, Va., a 20-minute drive from Washington, DC. According to his family, he is borderline autistic, and incapable of such a crime. In interviews, Cole’s grandmother, Loretta Cole, has said he is "very naïve . . . He’s almost autistic-like because he doesn’t understand a lot of stuff. "He’s slow. He may be 30, but he’s got the mind of a 16-year-old.” Yet we are told this alleged criminal mastermind evaded the FBI for almost five years. But surely there’s more to it than that. Patel hinted on Friday at a reason the FBI under Wray during the Biden administration may not have wanted to solve the case: "intentional negligence.” This, after all, was the FBI that managed to round up and charge 1,500 Trump supporters who set foot anywhere vaguely near the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, tracking them down through cellphone pings and video footage. Yet, with all their technical ability, Wray’s FBI somehow missed the phone used by the suspect in the vicinity of the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee on the evening of Jan. 5 when the pipe bombs were planted. Surveillance footage shows the suspect, wearing a gray hoodie and COVID-style white mask, seemingly talking on the phone while walking around that night less than half a mile from the Capitol. According to a FBI document presented to the DC District Court during Cole’s arraignment Friday, Cole’s cellphone "engaged in approximately seven data session transactions with [his cell phone provider’s] towers between 7:39 p.m. and 8:24 p.m. . . . in the area of the RNC and DNC on January 5, 2021" locating him at the right time and right place. That information was obtained by the FBI within weeks of the discovery of the pipe bombs the next day. Investigators found 186 cellphone numbers "of interest" and 130 "devices of interest," according to the congressional report released this January by Oversight and Judiciary House subcommittees chairmen, Barry Loudermilk and Thomas Massie. It took the FBI over five years to track down and arrest Cole Jr. By early February 2021, according to the subcommittees, FBI agents had been assigned to interview people associated with 36 of the 186 phone numbers; 98 still "required additional investigative steps." A further 51 phone numbers were identified as "not needing further action" because, curiously enough, the phones "belong[ed] to law enforcement officers or persons on the exclusion list.” The FBI never told Congress what came of those leads.

CNN’s State of the Union With Jake Tapper and Dana Bash [12/7/2025 9:54 AM, Staff] reports ICE raids in Minnesota are sparking widespread fear and uncertainty among people in the Somali community in the Twin Cities. The Somali community in Minnesota is about 80,000 people. The vast majority are U.S. citizens or legal residents. What is the reason for sending ICE there? "Look, we also know there’s a large illegal Somali community there. There’s an illegal alien community, a large illegal alien community there. You know, if you’re a U.S. citizen, you will have nothing to fear. We’re looking for criminal aliens. And, also, if you’re a resident alien, you have a -- like a felony conviction, by statute, you could be set up for deportation." Homan states. Homan goes on to say that nothing has changed, from day one they are looking for public safety threats, national security threats, and illegal aliens.

CNN’s State of the Union With Jake Tapper and Dana Bash [12/7/2025 9:54 AM, Staff] reports Senator John Curtis of Utah believes its a false narrative that there can’t be a rule of love and compassion at the same time. "For instance, going back to the Biden administration, we were told it was compassion to have an open border. It wasn’t. That’s not compassion. And now what’s happening in our cities also feels like it’s not compassion." Curtis comments. When asked should they be doing to make it better, he had this to say: "Well, listen, you know I was a mayor. If I were mayor, the very first thing I would do is, I’d sit down with ICE and I say, I want the bad guys out of my city and I want my citizens to feel safe. Now let’s do that. And too much of that isn’t happening. It’s like us against them. I don’t think these protesters are compassionate. I think, to the extent that ICE is not transparent, it brings this fear into a community, and we have got to get rid of that fear. We have got to get rid of the bad guys and to be compassionate at the same time. We can do it."

CNN’s State of the Union With Jake Tapper and Dana Bash [12/7/2025 9:54 AM, Staff] reports Secretary Hegseth defended his actions again yesterday. He compared the operation in the Caribbean to the fight against terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hegseth said: "What people think is cavalier or cowboy about it is the exact opposite. These are the most professional Americans going through specific processes about what they can and cannot do, understanding all the authorities, all the laws of war, all the capabilities, and applying it to deter our adversaries. The catch-and-release program of the pat them on the head and release them so they can go back to the fight didn’t work in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it’s not going to work in the Caribbean." Democratic Senator and Army combat veteran Tammy Duckworth is an Iraq War veteran. "There was actually a vote by Congress to put us at war in Iraq and Afghanistan. There was no such a vote, there was no such debate here in this situation. So the fact that we do have professionals, our military men and women are the utmost professionals. The problem is, they have not been authorized to be at war. And, by the way, the individuals in that boat were not even aimed at the United States. So, everything that they have done has been illegal. It’s illegal under international law. It’s illegal under the Geneva Convention. And it certainly is even illegal under domestic law. It was essentially murder with that double tap strike." Duckworth states. Duckworth says what happened is a war crime and illegal.

ABC’s This Week With George Stephanopoulos [12/7/2025 10:34 AM, Staff, 2526K] reports Rep. Adam Smith has seen the videos and was briefed by Admiral Bradley and others. Today he describes what he saw and heard from the videos. "I think Jim Himes described it really well. There were two -- survivors on an overturned boat, and Senator Cotton’s description of it is simply not accurate. When they were finally taken out, they weren’t trying to flip the boat over. The boat was clearly incapacitated. A tiny portion of it remained capsized, the bow of the boat. They had no communications device. Certainly they were unarmed. Any claim that the drugs had somehow survived that attack is hard to really square with what we saw. So it was deeply disturbing. It did not appear that these two survivors were in any position to continue the fight. And then you get into the larger issue, which you previewed of what is the fight exactly? They were trying to bring drugs, and not even to the United States, by the way. There’s no evidence, I mean, the drugs were going to some other point." Smith states.

ABC’s This Week With George Stephanopoulos [12/7/2025 10:34 AM, Staff, 2526K] reports Senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri, a member of the Armed Services Committee in the Senate is asked if he supports the pardon of the former Honduran president. "I’m not familiar with the facts or circumstances, but I think what’s telling here is to try to imply that somehow President Trump is soft on drug smuggling is just ridiculous. It’s totally ridiculous. He’s the -- he has provided border security like we’ve never seen before. And the fact is, these cartels now, because the southern border is closed, they’ve gone to the high seas. So, President Trump is acting with his core Article II powers. No serious legal expert would doubt that the president has authority to blow narco terrorists out of the water, who are poisoning a hundred thousand Americans every year." Schmitt states.

NBC’s Meet the Press [12/7/2025 11:00 AM, Staff, 2351K] reports NBC News is reporting this morning that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, his order was to kill all 11 individuals on that boat because they were on a list of narco-terrorists who intelligence and military officials determined could be legally targeted. Was Secretary Hegseth’s order to kill everyone on the boat because they were on a target list. Senator Cotton says that the order and entire operation is to destroy drug boats that are running drugs into our country. "You know, of course before our military conducts such a strike, they have multiple sources of intelligence. They give high confidence that everyone on that boat is a foreign drug trafficker, not an innocent civilian who’s being human trafficked for instance. And therefore, Secretary Hegseth said, and I agree, they’re all valid targets. Now this controversy, let’s remember, all started with a Washington Post story about nine days ago that said after the first strike, there were two survivors that were helpless. And then they were ordered to kill these helpless survivors. That is simply not the case. They were not floating in the ocean on a wooden plank or in life jackets. They were on a capsized vessel. They were not incapacitated in any way. It was entirely appropriate to strike the boat again to make sure that its cargo was destroyed. It is in no way a violation of the law of war." Cotton states.

NBC’s Meet the Press [12/7/2025 11:00 AM, Staff, 2351K] reports Senator Cotton says the boat was a threat to the United States. And yet NBC is reporting that Admiral Bradley told the lawmakers the drugs were heading first to Suriname, that’s another South American country, and then ultimately to Europe or Africa. How is a boat that’s not heading to the United States an imminent threat to the U.S. "Well, that’s one possibility based on the tactics and techniques that we’ve observed of these drug cartels. They send smaller boats to sea. And then they link up with a larger boat where they continue their mission. I didn’t hear that specifically from Admiral Bradley in my briefing. But what we know is that these drug cartels, which are designated foreign terrorist organizations, are trafficking drugs to our shores. And when we have an opportunity to strike one of these boats, or the intelligence gives us high confidence that everyone on the boat is a valid target because they are associated with these cartels, then I think we need to strike it." Cotton comments.

NBC’s Meet the Press [12/7/2025 11:00 AM, Staff, 2351K] reports Senator Adam Schiff hasn’t seen the video on the boat strikes but from what he knows, he thinks they are unlawful and unconstitutional. "They’re unlawful. They’re unconstitutional. And killing two people who are shipwrecked at sea is also morally repugnant. I agree with Tom, we should do everything lawfully that we can to stop the scourge of drugs coming into this country. But this is not at all lawful or constitutional. And frankly, if the Pentagon and our defense secretary are so proud of what they’re doing, let the American people see that video. Let the American people see two people standing on a capsized boat, or sitting on a capsized boat, and deliberately killed and decide for themselves whether they’re proud of what the country is doing. I can’t imagine people would be proud of that. And as you pointed out, the Manual on the Law of War makes it explicit that killing people who are shipwrecked is illegal, is a violation of law" Schiff states.

FOX News Sunday [12/7/2025 11:00 AM, Staff] reports Fox News’ Lucas Tomlinson shares his conversation with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth after his keynote address at the Reagan National Defense Forum.

FOX News Sunday [12/7/2025 11:00 AM, Staff] reports Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., and Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., discuss calls for transparency on the Trump administration’s strikes on alleged drug boats and the state of Russia-Ukraine peace talks on ‘Fox News Sunday.’

Breitbart [12/7/2025 10:55 AM, Pam Key, 2416K] reports Sunday on CNN’s "State of the Union," Trump border czar Tom Homan said threats against Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) officers are up 1200%. Homan said, "Threats on ICE officers are up 1200%. They’re being doxxed on social media. They’re getting death threats every day. They’ve been attacked. They’ve been shot at. And you know, these officers out there are looking for the worst of the worst. So they’re protecting themselves. And I think they’re following the law. And if any ICE officer acts out of policy or does something inappropriate, they’ll be held accountable.". He added, "But we’ve got to remember, I mean, they’re under attack. And we’re at a place in this country where all of a sudden the ones who enforce law, the bad guys and the ones who broke the laws are victims. I’m going to trust the men and women of ICE and Border Patrol who have been trained very well to do the right thing. But I’ll say again: if someone does something inappropriate, out of policy, illegal, they need to be held accountable by simply thinking, "I haven’t seen that." And again, I’m not in every arrest. I’m not in every operation. I trust the men and women of ICE and Border Patrol do the right thing.".

Breitbart [12/7/2025 12:42 PM, Alana Mastrangelo, 2416K] reports the White House used a clip of Sabrina Carpenter on NBC’s Saturday Night Live (SNL) after the pop star complained about the Trump administration using one of her songs in a recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) video. "PSA: If you’re a criminal illegal, you WILL be arrested & deported," the White House wrote in a Friday X post, sharing a video clip of Carpenter appearing SNL, where her voice is altered to say, "I think I might need to arrest someone for being too illegal.". "Oh, well, I turn myself in," actor Marcello Hernández then says, to which the "Espresso" singer replies by declaring, "You’re under arrest!". The White House’s video then cuts to a montage of short clips showing ICE agents carrying out arrests while "I Get the Bag" by Gucci Mane plays in the background. In the original video from Carpenter’s October 18 SNL appearance, the pop star said, "I think I might need to arrest someone for being too hot.". The White House’s Friday X post comes days after Carpenter attacked the Trump administration for using her song "Juno" in a similar video featuring ICE arrests, suggesting the agency is "inhumane," "evil and disgusting" for apprehending criminals, rapists, and murderers. "This video is evil and disgusting," the "Feather" singer wrote in a Tuesday X post, adding, "Do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda.". The White House had captioned its X post with "Have you ever tried this one?" quoting a lyric from Carpenter’s song. "Bye-bye," the White House added, followed by a pair of waving and heart eyes emojis. In the video, the lyrics "Wanna try out some freaky positions, have you ever tried this one?" from "Juno" are heard during a montage of clips showing ICE agents chasing down and arresting fleeing suspects. The White House’s X post featuring the pop star’s "Juno" song has since been deleted. It remains unclear why the video has been removed. "Here’s a Short n’ Sweet message for Sabrina Carpenter: we won’t apologize for deporting dangerous criminal illegal murderers, rapists, and pedophiles from our country," White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told Fox News, reacting to the singer’s backlash while.

Reported similarly:
FOX News [12/7/2025 4:35 PM, Tracy Wright Fox, 40621K]

New York Post [12/7/2025 3:50 PM, Anthony Blair, 42219K] reports Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani offered advice to illegal immigrants on how to evade ICE in a video message Sunday — calling on illegal immigrants to "stand up" to the federal agents and "know your rights.". The democratic socialist positioned himself as the mayor of "more than 3 million immigrants" as he spoke following last weekend’s ICE raid in Chinatown, which was disrupted by protesters. "Last weekend, ICE attempted to raid Canal Street and detain our immigrant neighbors," Mamdani said in a video posted on X on Sunday. "As mayor, I’ll protect the rights of every single New Yorker. And that includes the more than 3 million immigrants who call this city their home. "But we can all stand up to ICE if you know your rights," the Queens congressman added, standing in front of a flip chart with the words "Know your rights" scrawled on it. "ICE cannot enter into private spaces like your home, school, or private area of your workplace without a judicial warrant signed by a judge," Mamdani said, bringing up an example of such a warrant on the screen. "You have the right to say, ‘I do not consent to entry,’ and the right to keep your door closed," he added, before showing an example of the non-binding legal paperwork he said ICE may show instead of a judicial warrant. "ICE is legally allowed to lie to you. But you have the right to remain silent. If you are being detained, you may always ask, ‘Am I free to go?’ repeatedly until they answer you," Mamdani said. "You are legally allowed to film ICE, as long as you do not interfere with an arrest," he added. "New Yorkers have a constitutional right to protest, and when I’m mayor, we will protect that right," Mamdani said. His video sparked an outcry from many on the right — as many anticipate riled tensions with the Trump administration once Mamdani takes office.

Reported similarly:
AP [12/7/2025 5:40 PM, Staff, 31753K]
FOX News [12/7/2025 7:54 PM, Greg Wehner, 40621K] Video: HERE

Washington Post [12/8/2025 12:03 AM, Kelly Kasulis Cho, 24149K] reports New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani encouraged city residents to know their rights when dealing with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, in a video message posted to his social media accounts Sunday. “We can all stand up to ICE if you know your rights,” Mamdani said in the video address, adding that New Yorkers “have a constitutional right to protest,” which he vowed to protect once he is formally inaugurated next month. In the video, Mamdani advised that ICE agents “cannot enter into private spaces” such as homes, schools or nonpublic areas of the workplace without a judicial warrant signed by a judge. He also alleged that ICE agents sometimes show false paperwork suggesting they have the right to make an arrest, which he showed a visual example of in the video. “ICE is legally allowed to lie to you, but you have the right to remain silent. If you’re being detained, you may always ask, ‘Am I free to go?’ repeatedly until they answer you,” Mamdani said in the video. “You are legally allowed to film ICE as long as you do not interfere with an arrest. It is important to remain calm during any interaction with ICE or law enforcement — do not impede their investigation, resist arrest, or run.” Mamdani, New York’s first Muslim mayor, will be sworn in on Jan. 1. He was born in Kampala, Uganda, to parents of Indian origin. The family moved to New York City when he was 7, and he became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2018. Mamdani has vowed to protect the rights of the city’s foreign-born residents amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. “New York will always welcome immigrants,” he said in the video. “I will fight each and every day to protect, support, and celebrate our immigrant brothers and sisters.” Throughout his campaign, Mamdani was the target of frequent insults from President Donald Trump, who repeatedly characterized him as a “communist” and falsely suggested that he was in the United States “illegally.” Ahead of the mayoral election, Trump threatened to cut funding to New York and “take over” the city in the event of a Mamdani victory. Trump also threatened to arrest Mamdani if he were to block ICE raids in New York. Trump appeared to warm to Mamdani during a meeting in the Oval Office two weeks ago, however, even declaring that he would finally feel comfortable moving back to New York with the 34-year-old democratic socialist running things. “We agree on a lot more than I thought,” Trump said. “I want him to do a great job, and we’ll help him do a great job.”

Univision [12/7/2025 2:55 PM, Staff, 5004K] reports Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani this weekend released a public message after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tried to raid Canal Street to detain immigrant residents. The future president said his administration will “protect the rights of every New Yorker,” including the more than three million immigrants who consider the city their home. The attempted operation, denounced by community organizations, prompted Mamdani to spread a basic rights guide for anyone facing immigration agents on the public road, workplaces or residential areas. The mayor-elect stressed that ICE cannot enter private spaces without a court order signed by a judge, a document that residents must know how to identify to avoid abuse. In his message, Mamdani warned that ICE may show forms or notifications that appear to be court orders, but they are not. “If it’s not an order signed by a judge, New Yorkers have the right to say, ‘I don’t give consent to enter’ and keep their door closed,” he said. He also recalled that people have the right to remain silent and can repeatedly ask whether they are free to leave if they are held.

New York Times [12/8/2025 3:23 AM, Ed Shanahan and Stella Raine Chu, 330K] reports hundreds of people gathered at a Queens playground on Sunday to protest the federal government’s forced separation of a 6-year-old migrant boy from his father after the two were arrested last month amid President Trump’s deportation crackdown. The boy, Yuanxin Zheng, is among the youngest migrants to be stripped from a parent by federal immigration authorities in New York City since the crackdown began. He and his father, Fei Zheng, were detained at what they believed was a routine check-in on Nov. 26. Yuanxin was enrolled at Public School 166 in Astoria at the time, and some of those who came out in the chilly sunshine to join the rally, at the playground on 35th Avenue, had a connection to the school. Camille Hlavka, who helped organize the event and was in the crowd, has a 6-year-old son who attends the school. “Taking children from their families is not normal,” Ms. Hlavka said. “It is cruelty. It doesn’t matter if it’s one child, it doesn’t matter if it’s a child you know. This is a human being, and he is being traumatized.” Addressing the demonstrators, Sam Rasiotis, whose 6-year-old son also attends P.S. 166, condemned the Trump administration’s actions as antithetical to the ideals of a country shaped by waves of immigrants. “Many of us can trace back our roots several generations, and some of those generations were persecuted and mistreated when they came to this country, to the city,” Mr. Rasiotis, a union organizer, said. “But here we are again. I never thought my son’s generation would face such barbarism.” Government records show that after Mr. Zheng failed to comply with an order to leave the country, he and his son were separated, in line with a Trump administration tactic meant to pressure undocumented immigrants to follow such orders. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency arrested at least 140 children in the New York City area since Mr. Trump’s second term began in January through mid-October, according to federal data obtained by the Deportation Data Project at the University of California, Berkeley. More than 2,600 were arrested nationwide in that time. Mr. Zheng and Yuanxin were initially taken into custody in April after they entered the United States illegally via Mexico and were discovered by a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Dulzura, Calif., according to federal documents. Mr. Zheng told federal agents that he had come to America because he was afraid of being tortured in his native China. Immigration officials ruled that his fear was not credible, and an immigration judge affirmed the determination. Mr. Zheng does not have a criminal history, according to government records. He and his son had been in and out of detention at least twice before being taken into custody last month at ICE’s New York City offices at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan, according to government records and Mr. Zheng’s lawyer. The lawyer, Mike Gao, said his client had refused to board an ICE flight to China in September because he feared government retribution there. ICE tried to get Mr. Zheng on a China-bound plane again in October, but again he refused, documents show. When ICE agents arrested Mr. Zheng and Yuanxin last month, Mr. Zheng became aggressive with officers and hit his forehead against a wall, according to internal records. Several officers put him in handcuffs, and Mr. Zheng said he wanted to die, records show.

Reported similarly:
CBS New York [12/7/2025 11:36 PM, Andrew Ramos, 39474K]

USA Today [12/7/2025 12:05 PM, Karissa Waddick, 67103K] reports police in Charlotte, North Carolina, arrested a 33-year-old man in connection with a stabbing aboard a light rail train, just four months after a Ukrainian refugee was killed in a separate attack on the city’s transportation system. Authorities on Dec. 6 charged Oscar Solarzano with three felonies, including attempted first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, and breaking and entering a motor vehicle, as well as several misdemeanors. Solarzana is accused of breaking into a commuter train car and stabbing 24-year-old Kenyon Kareem-Shemar Dobie with a large knife, according to court documents. An arrest warrant alleges Solarzano, appearing intoxicated, shouted unintelligibly at Dobie and challenged him to fight before stabbing him. Dobie was transported to a local hospital and is currently in critical but stable condition, according to police. Magistrate Judge Rebecca Howell wrote in court filings that Solarzano was in the United States illegally and had previously been deported. He is being held without bond. In a Dec. 6 news release, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it had requested that local police hold Solarzano until they are able to take custody of him. According to the release, Solarzano is from Honduras and was removed from the United States in 2018. He was apprehended at the border in 2021 and was removed again, before reentering the country at "an unknown date and location.". "This heinous stabbing by this twice-removed illegal alien should have NEVER happened. ICE lodged an arrest detainer to ensure Oscar Gerardo Solorzano-Garcia is not released back into North Carolina neighborhoods," Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement. She accused officials in North Carolina’s Mecklenburg County of not cooperating with ICE enforcement in the past. Experts previously told USA TODAY that North Carolina has some of the strictest immigration provisions in the country, including a mandate requiring local jails to hold arrested immigrants so federal authorities can collect them.

Reported similarly:
Daily Wire [12/7/2025 8:20 AM, Jennie Taer, 2494K]

Breitbart [12/7/2025 11:18 AM, Lowell Cauffiel, 2416K] reports not four months after the fatal stabbing of young Ukrainian refugee on Charlotte’s light rail, an illegal immigrant with a long rap sheet and who was deported twice, has been arrested for allegedly stabbing a man on the same line. Police arrested Oscar Solarzano, reportedly a homeless illegal alien, and charged him with first degree attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, breaking and entering, carrying a concealed weapon and being intoxicated and disruptive, the New York Post is reporting from court records. Solarzano, 33, is being held without bond. Solarzano, a Honduran national, on late Friday afternoon allegedly broke into the light rail on the system’s blue line while drunk and challenged his victim to a fight before stabbing him with a large knife. Authorities are saying it was not a "random act of violence" but part of an altercation between the two men that escalated. The man is hospitalized in stable condition at Novant Health Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte, ABC News reported. The alleged perpetrator’s address on court records matches a location of a Charlotte homeless shelter, the Post reported. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has issued a detainer that seeks to prevent Solarzano from being released back into the community but that’s no guarantee he won’t be back on the street. "This heinous stabbing by this twice removed illegal alien should have NEVER happened," Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Saturday. "ICE lodged an arrest detainer to ensure Oscar Gerardo Solorzano-Garcia is not released back into North Carolina neighborhoods. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee the county will honor the detainer since they have a history of not cooperating with ICE.". The Washington Times [12/7/2025 12:39 PM, Matt Delaney, 852K] reports Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Solorzano-Garcia was previously convicted of robbery and illegally reentering the country. He has prior arrests for aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, destroying evidence, resisting arrest and using a false ID, she said.

CBS News [12/7/2025 5:18 PM, Kiki Intarasuwan, 39474K] reports another stabbing on a commuter train in Charlotte, North Carolina, has drawn the attention of President Trump amid his administration’s crackdown on immigration. The incident occurred on Friday after 33-year-old Oscar Solarzano allegedly entered the Charlotte Area Transit System’s Blue Line light rail train and got into an argument with another passenger, according to authorities. The victim was in critical but stable condition, police said. "It does not appear this was a random act of violence, but an altercation between two individuals that escalated," a transit spokesperson said in a statement. Mr. Trump on Saturday posted to Truth Social, reacting to the incident, "Another stabbing by an Illegal Migrant in Charlotte, North Carolina. What’s going on in Charlotte? Democrats are destroying it, like everything else, piece by piece!!!" Solarzano was arrested nearby by Charlotte-Mecklenburg police on Friday evening and taken into custody, officials said. In court records from Solarzano’s release hearing, a court appearance where a judge determines if a suspect can leave jail before trial, a magistrate noted Solarzano is undocumented and "has been deported previously.". Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin on Saturday said Solarzano is being charged with attempted first-degree murder "after he stabbed a victim with a large knife." She also confirmed that Solarzano had been removed from the U.S. twice.

Telemundo [12/7/2025 7:31 PM, Johana Suárez, 182K] reports Daniel Alejandro Escobar, a 25-year-old Cuban man with a political asylum application, was detained last Thursday in an immigration building in Miami, according to his wife, Belixa Cubena, who claims she received no explanation from the authorities. “Life can change in a matter of seconds,” Belixa told Telemundo , visibly shaken by the arrest. The couple arrived in the United States in 2022, and after being released on an I-220A visa , Escobar began building a new life in South Florida. He works as a pet groomer and recently opened a jewelry store with his wife. Now, Escobar remains detained at the detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz ,” where, according to Belixa, he faces difficult conditions: “He hasn’t been able to bathe, he receives very little food, and he is completely surrounded by swamps. It’s a very painful situation for all of us . “ Immigration attorney Eduardo Soto, who is not involved in the case, explained that the I-220A form does not constitute parole, which complicates the legal situation for many migrants. Soto recommends that those with ICE appointments and asylum proceedings seek proper legal counsel before appearing in immigration court. Meanwhile, Belixa continues to nurture the life project they both started, hoping to be reunited with her husband soon: “I just want to ask for justice, so we can continue together outside, because he is giving his all in this country, working and doing things right. We only came here to get ahead, fleeing a horrible regime . “ [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

New York Post [12/7/2025 2:33 PM, Chris Nesi, 42219K] reports federal immigration agents chasing a suspect who ran off after being involved in a car crash near Chicago were targeted by protesters who pelted them with snowballs. Video of the fracas shows dozens of demonstrators shouting at the masked agents on the snowy streets of Elgin, a Windy City suburb, with the feds responding by deploying tear gas to clear the mob. The unruly protesters then start throwing icy snowballs at the agents. The federal forces can be heard on the footage giving verbal warnings before lobbing their tear-gas canisters on nearby front lawns. The demonstrators quickly grab the devices and bury them in the snow to reduce their efficacy. The clash began when federal agents called local police for assistance after they were involved in a traffic crash while conducting immigration enforcement activities Saturday morning. A subject of their investigation was involved in the crash and fled the scene, high-tailing it to a nearby residential street, Elgin Police said in a statement. Cops responded to the area after receiving an emergency call reporting "subjects in masks" on their property saying they had a warrant. The officers cleared the area after determining there were federal law enforcement agents at the scene. Fewer than two hours later, approximately 30 more calls came in, including several reporting shots had been fired. Social-media users claimed at least one arrest was made. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for confirmation Sunday. "The Elgin Police Department will continue to respond to any calls for service and determine the appropriate action within the parameters of the Illinois Trust Act which prohibits Elgin officers from assisting with federal immigration enforcement operations," the local cops said in a statement on Facebook.

New York Times [12/7/2025 5:38 PM, Annie Correal, 135475K] reports on Sunday, immigration agents appeared at the family home of a recently deported college student in Austin, Texas, according to the family and their lawyer. The agents arrived in three unmarked vehicles, and one agent in a green vest marked E.R.O. — Enforcement and Removal Operations — rushed toward the student’s father, Francis López, as he washed his car, Mr. López said. He ran into his backyard and closed a latched gate. The agent forced open the gate and proceeded to enter the backyard. Mr. López entered his house and locked the back door, he said. After about two hours, the agents left, without ever trying to communicate with the family or knocking on the door. Any Lucía López Belloza, a 19-year-old freshman at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., was traveling home to surprise her family for Thanksgiving when she was detained by immigration authorities at Logan International Airport in Boston on Nov. 20. She was deported two days later to Honduras, the Central American country from which she and her parents fled more than a decade ago. Ms. López’s case has drawn attention to the expanding scope of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants in the country illegally. Immigration authorities cited a 2015 order of deportation in justifying the removal of Ms. López. Her lawyer, Todd Pomerleau, said he found no record of such an order and that she had been deported in violation of a court order that a federal judge signed on Nov. 21 that said Ms. López could not be removed from the United States while her case was pending. It was not clear why agents from E.R.O., which is part of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, appeared at Ms. López’s parents’ home on Sunday, but Ms. López and her father have spoken broadly to the media about the case. Their home appeared to be the only one where the unmarked vehicles stopped, according to a lawyer for the family, Kristin Etter. Ms. López’s parents’ legal status could have come to the attention of authorities because of media reports about her case, according to immigration groups. The López family’s petition for asylum was denied around a decade ago, but the family says that they were never notified of a deportation order. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not respond to a request for comment on Sunday afternoon. U.S. Representative Greg Casar, the progressive Democrat who represents the López family’s district, said on Sunday that the visit was meant to send a message. “To be clear, the Trump administration is targeting a college student’s family because that college student spoke out about the unjust way that she was treated by the federal government,” Mr. Casar said.

New York Times [12/7/2025 12:09 PM, Allison McCann and Cheney Orr, 135475K] reports the inmates housed at the minimum-security state prison in McCook, Neb., could often be seen around town, working on road paving, weeding cemeteries, taking down Christmas lights and mowing the high school football field before games. They took classes at the local community college, and an art gallery displayed work from 13 prisoners this summer. For more than two decades, the prison, known as the Work Ethic Camp, was Nebraska’s only state prison geared solely toward rehabilitation. The facility held nonviolent felony offenders who were nearing the end of their sentences and prepared them, with counseling, schooling and job training, to return to the outside world. That changed this fall, after state officials announced that the Work Ethic Camp would be replaced with a 300-bed, high security Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center to support President Trump’s national crackdown on illegal immigration. And so a place that had been devoted to second chances now had a very different mission, and a new name to go with it: “The Cornhusker Clink.” In McCook, a conservative town of about 7,500 that voted overwhelmingly for President Trump, some residents have objected. Many said they support Mr. Trump’s stance on illegal immigration but also liked what they had before: A prison that didn’t feel like a prison. With its close ties to the community, it was a place that helped Nebraskans get back on their feet. Other residents said they were in favor of the new ICE facility, viewing McCook as doing its part for the president’s agenda and potentially benefiting from 50 to 60 added jobs. But opponents said they were frustrated by Gov. Jim Pillen’s unilateral decision to change the facility and turn it into a place to detain immigrants. City officials are also worried about the potential strain on resources if hundreds of detainees are transported in and out through the town’s small airport, which has one full-time employee. “Now when people think of McCook, this is all it is — it’s ICE detention,” said Nate Schneider, the city manager and a registered Republican who said he has voted for both parties over the years. “But for us, it’s a lot more than that. McCook is home. McCook is a place that I want my kids to think is a good place to live. We’ve been working so hard to make McCook a draw, and now this.” The Trump administration, aiming to deliver on a campaign promise of deporting one million people this year, has sought to expand its detention capacity. Federal authorities took the rare step of seeking detention space in state prisons, signing agreements with Indiana, Louisiana, Florida and Nebraska, all states where Republican governors have agreed to assist. McCook officials said they were given no advance notice of the state’s decision to repurpose the Work Ethic Camp, nor have they been told that the city can expect any revenue from the ICE agreement with the state, which Mr. Pillen has said will bring in about $14 million annually, after expenses to run the facility.

Breitbart [12/7/2025 5:08 PM, Amy Furr, 2416K] reports the Idaho saloon owner who promised free beer to citizens willing to help U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) identify and deport illegal aliens is now facing death threats, but he remains undeterred in his mission. Bar owner Mark Fitzpatrick told Fox News, "At Old State Saloon, we really aren’t strangers to speaking out boldly about conservative Christian values and truth and putting the truth out there," the outlet reported Sunday. The saloon’s announcement about free beer ignited a firestorm online with people applauding and criticizing the move, per Breitbart News. Fitzpatrick came up with the idea after four years of former President Joe Biden’s (D) open border policies that wreaked havoc on American communities. Now, the saloon owner said he is being attacked for assisting ICE, with some people saying he should die. Despite the violent rhetoric being spewed at him and his business, Fitzpatrick said many people have shown support.

Breitbart [12/7/2025 9:40 AM, Lowell Cauffiel, 2416K] reports claiming Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) might play the role of Scrooge, organizers have canceled an annual Christmas parade held in Santa Barbara, California’s largely Hispanic east side. The Milpas Street Holiday Parade, a decades-long tradition the coastal city’s east end, was scheduled for December 13. But now organizers claim that potential immigration raids could ruin the event and worry parade goers will be targets whether they are illegal or not. "Although ICE raids may no longer dominate daily headlines, the threat to our Latino families documented or undocumented remains very real," Santa Barbara Eastside Society, which organizes the parade, said in a statement to news outlets. "The presence of immigration enforcement in our region, the fear it generates, and the uncertainty families continue to face are real, immediate, and deeply felt.". There has been no statement from the Department of Homeland Security that indicates it plans to target the Santa Barbara event. The parade traditionally features folklorico dancers, norteño musicians and lowrider bikers. Santa Barbara Eastside Society Board President Sebastian Aldana Jr. and Milpas Street Holiday Parade Director Tere Jurado announced the decision to cancel the event earlier last week. Jurado told the Santa Barbara Independent: With heavy hearts and profound respect for our neighbors, we, the Santa Barbara Eastside Society, must share a difficult decision: The 2025 Milpas Street Holiday Parade will not take place this year. This choice follows many weeks of listening, truly listening, to families, parade participants, parade volunteers, local leaders, and immigrant-rights partners who help us understand the lived experiences of our community. The cancellation is the second large scale public event organizers have suspended this year while blaming ICE and the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal aliens with criminal records.

Reported similarly:
New York Post [12/7/2025 4:46 PM, Alex Oliveira, 42219K]

San Francisco Chronicle [12/7/2025 7:00 AM, Eli Benton Cohen, 4722K] reports Keneth Mena Torres had just woken up early one morning this summer, when he looked out his bedroom window and saw officers in tactical gear swarming outside his house in Oakland. "Open the f—ing door!" he heard one shout. As Mena Torres, 20, cracked open the front door and peered through an exterior gate, masked federal agents pointed rifles at his face, he later recounted. He saw "ICE" written on an agent’s clothing. When one officer raised a crowbar to the door’s hinge, Mena Torres decided to unlock the gate. A Honduran national, Mena Torres had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border as an unaccompanied minor when he was 11. He soon joined his mother, who was already living in the Bay Area, and who was later granted asylum. Mena Torres’ own application for asylum, though long delayed, was in process. He was following the law — working with a permit, paying taxes and helping his mother with the mortgage on the home they owned. So what, he wondered, would Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents want with him? Mena Torres said officers took him and his 38-year-old mother outside, forced them to the ground and handcuffed them. Four more people were pulled from the house, three from a garage unit that Mena Torres was renting to a relative. All nine were lined up on their knees as an agent scanned their faces with a phone. Inside, officers tore through the home, flipping furniture, breaking cabinets and ripping mattresses apart, Mena Torres said. When his mother asked to see a warrant, he said an agent snapped: "Don’t tell me how to do my job.". Officers left his mother, but shoved Mena Torres and three others from the main house into a van, including his friend Hector Lopez Rojop, who has intellectual and developmental disabilities. Though President Trump recently called off a planned Bay Area "surge" in immigration enforcement, the Aug. 12 raid on Mena Torres’ home shows how the administration has been steadily waging its campaign of mass deportations: by casting a wide dragnet that can pick up asylum seekers with no criminal history, causing them what a judge in Mena Torres’ case would later deem irreparable harm. But his story also demonstrates the growing importance of a judicial order once unusual in immigration cases — a writ of habeas corpus — in fighting back against unlawful detentions. When ICE agents raided Mena Torres’ home, they weren’t in charge. They were tagging along with Drug Enforcement Administration officers targeting two suspected dealers visiting a tenant in the garage, warrant documents show. But ICE arrested Mena Torres too, despite his lack of involvement with the drug dealers, he said. The raid’s targets were two men said to be in Mena Torres’ garage. According to a federal affidavit, Michael Aguilera-Cabrera and Carlos Sierra-Gonzalez had allegedly sold fentanyl to an undercover DEA agent three weeks earlier. Agents tracked their vehicle to Mena Torres’ address and obtained a warrant. But neither Mena Torres nor anyone in the main house was mentioned in the warrant.

CBS News [12/8/2025 5:00 AM, Arielle Zionts and Phillip Reese, 30493K] reports Bekki Holzkamm has been trying to hire a lab technician at a hospital in rural North Dakota since late summer. Not one U.S. citizen has applied. West River Health Services in Hettinger, a town of about 1,000 residents in the southwestern part of the state, has four options, and none is good. The hospital could fork over $100,000 for the Trump administration’s new H-1B visa fee and hire one of the more than 30 applicants from the Philippines or Nigeria. The fee is the equivalent of what some rural hospitals would pay two lab techs in a year, said Holzkamm, who is West River’s lab manager. West River could ask the Department of Homeland Security to waive the fee. But it’s unclear how long the waiver process would take and if the government would grant one. The hospital could continue trying to recruit someone inside the U.S. for the job. Or, Holzkamm said, it could leave the position unfilled, adding to the workload of the current "skeleton crew." The U.S. health care system depends on foreign-born professionals to fill its ranks of doctors, nurses, technicians, and other health providers, particularly in chronically understaffed facilities in rural America. But a new presidential proclamation aimed at the tech industry’s use of H-1B visas is making it harder for West River and other rural providers to hire those staffers. "The health care industry wasn’t even considered. They’re going to be collateral damage, and to such an extreme degree that it was clearly not thought about at all," said Eram Alam, a Harvard associate professor whose new book examines the history of foreign doctors in the U.S. Elissa Taub, a Memphis, Tennessee-based attorney who assists hospitals with the H-1B application process, has been hearing concerns from her clients. "It’s not like there’s a surplus of American physicians or nurses waiting in the wings to fill in those positions," she said. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Telemundo [12/7/2025 6:14 PM, Ignacio Dominguez, 57K] reports USCIS announces the creation of a center that will review every application for entry into the United States. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

San Diego Union Tribune [12/7/2025 8:01 AM, Michael Smolens, 1538K] reports several weeks ago, the Trump administration announced new border wall segments would be constructed in San Diego County. More recently, the plan to do that in Laredo, Texas, gained some attention. The projects received some scattered criticism, but the general response seemed to be, "Oh, that.". Remarkably, what was once the centerpiece of President Donald Trump’s immigration policy and politics is now almost an afterthought. The past battles over Trump’s wall may have diminished, though the price tag hasn’t. Earlier this year, Congress approved $46.5 billion for the project, up from the $5 billion Trump requested in 2018 during his first term. The "build the wall" ethos has been eclipsed by the focus on Trump’s interior immigration enforcement, with tough, high-profile raids in cities that have at times snared U.S. citizens and people with a legal right to be in the country, in addition to undocumented immigrants. Support them or not, those sometimes brutal actions have sent an unmistakable warning to would-be border crossers, while asylum restrictions and other measures at the border make it nearly impossible to come here — illegally and, to an increasing degree, legally. Chad Wolf, Trump’s acting homeland security secretary during his first administration, recently told The New York Times he had not expected the numbers to drop so low so quickly. "Deterrence actually does work," he said. "And so I think for the most part, people are thinking twice about coming illegally.". Illegal crossings have plunged along the southwestern border. The Border Patrol’s San Diego sector was the busiest along the Southwest border in migrant encounters for most of 2024, according to Alexandra Mendoza of The San Diego Union-Tribune. In August, the sector recorded 715 encounters, a 95 percent decrease from August 2024. San Diego has long had a fence and a more heavily fortified border than other regions, but the massive drop in crossings is a nationwide trend. Border Patrol agents made just over 6,000 arrests in June, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Adam Isacson, a border expert at the Washington Office on Latin America, told the Times border crossings that month were the lowest since the 1960s. It was a different picture during President Joe Biden’s administration. Monthly arrests reached nearly 250,000 in December 2023, though the numbers dropped under 50,000 when Biden limited asylum toward the end of his White House tenure. There had not been much new border wall construction when arrests began falling off the charts this year. That raises an obvious question: If this happened without continued expansion of the fence, why build it?

Washington Post [12/7/2025 8:10 AM, Jaclyn Peiser, 24149K] reports for almost a year, most of the largest U.S. retailers have spoken openly about the impact tariffs are having on their margins as they justify price increases for customers. Executives have addressed the issue on earnings calls, in TV interviews and onstage at conferences. But only one has made its dissent known in court: Costco. The warehouse club last week became the largest company — and the first major retailer — to sue the Trump administration, seeking a full refund for the levies it has paid this year. The Supreme Court heard arguments in November on whether President Donald Trump has legal authority to impose tariffs on goods from nearly all countries, and it is expected to rule in the coming weeks or months. If it rejects the administration’s case that tariffs are justified as an emergency, the companies could be entitled to hefty refunds. While some analysts point to Costco’s lawsuit as a smart business decision to ensure it gets its money back, others note the chain is uniquely positioned to weather any backlash from Washington regardless. And that’s what’s setting it apart from retailers that are reluctant to make waves with the administration. “They’re not alone in being impacted by tariffs,” said Michael Baker, a retail analyst at D.A. Davidson. “But Costco has the size and the clout with consumers, suppliers — and really everyone within the retail ecosystem — to potentially take action that won’t be viewed favorably by the administration.” The Issaquah, Washington-based retailer has a track record of not yielding to the administration. Earlier this year, Costco was one of the few holdouts in the industry to maintain its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. While the grassroots efforts to boycott Target for ending its DEI programs led to weakening foot traffic and diminished financial outlooks for consecutive quarters, Costco saw a boost. Net sales for the 2025 fiscal year (which ended Aug. 31) increased 8 percent over 2024 to $269.9 billion. Net sales for November were also up 8.1 percent over last year, reaching $23.6 billion, the company reported last week. Costco releases its first-quarter earnings this week. “Unlike all the other major retailers, [Costco] pushed back and said: ‘No, we believe that diversity, inclusivity and inclusion are important tenets of our brand,’ and they won because of that,” said Glenn McMahon, a former global retail executive and now founder of McMahon Advisory Consultants. ostco, which filed suit in the Court of International Trade, joins dozens of other businesses that are also suing U.S. Customs and Border Protection for refunds ahead of the Supreme Court decision — including canned foods maker Bumble Bee, motorcycle manufacturer Kawasaki, beauty conglomerate Revlon and Ray-Ban parent EssilorLuxottica. All want legal assurance that they will be paid if the Supreme Court rules Trump’s tariffs are unlawful.

CBS News [12/7/2025 8:00 PM, Scott MacFarlane, 39474K] reports the brief federal criminal trial last month of Sean Dunn, the man who threw a "submarine-style sandwich" at a Customs and Border Protection officer in downtown Washington, D.C., was only a misdemeanor case. But the courtroom was filled, and the overflow room was crowded, too. The 12 jurors didn’t realize initially that Dunn’s case — and their verdict — would garner national attention. One juror thought the deliberations would last under an hour. The juror, a longtime resident of Washington, D.C., also noted that some people in the courtroom struggled to "keep a straight face" during the trial and even laughed openly. "It seemed to me like an open and closed type of thing," another juror said. "It was kind of ridiculous." After roughly seven hours of deliberation, the jury acquitted Dunn. It was the second time a group of D.C. citizens rejected the Justice Department’s claim that Dunn, who was fired from his job at the Justice Department after the incident, had committed a crime in tossing a sandwich at a federal agent. A separate grand jury had rejected the prosecutors’ request to indict Dunn on a felony charge earlier this year. Three jurors who sat on the panel spoke with CBS News about the deliberations, revealing how the politically charged case played out behind closed doors in the jury room of the E. Barrett Prettyman federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., near the U.S. Capitol. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

DailySignal [12/7/2025 2:00 PM, Susan Crabtree and Philip Wegmann, 549K] reports FBI Director Kash Patel is back in the safe zone again. The on-again, off-again MAGA media lynch mobs gunning for Patel to be ousted from the key Cabinet post over his perceived mishandling of several high-profile investigations and unmet demands for transparency have crested and fallen too many times to count during his tumultuous nine months in office. But on Thursday, Patel instantly regained any lost footing after announcing the arrest of the alleged Jan. 6, 2021, pipe-bombing suspect. In a major breakthrough in one of the FBI’s most high-profile unsolved cases, the FBI Thursday morning arrested Brian Cole Jr., 30, in his family’s Woodbridge, Virginia, home and accused him of placing pipe bombs outside the Republican and Democratic Party headquarters in Washington, D.C., the day of the U.S. Capitol riot. Cole has been charged with transporting an explosive device and attempted malicious destruction using explosive materials, according to court documents. The bombs never detonated, and there’s a lingering question about whether they were capable of doing so. Regardless of the level of danger, the pipe bombs have fueled a flood of conspiracy theories over who planted them and why no law enforcement officers found the device placed at the Democratic National Committee headquarters, even though the Secret Service had swept the site before then-Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ visit that day. As video footage of FBI agents surrounding Cole’s house played on several cable TV stations, Patel, surrounded by Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, and a phalanx of top federal law enforcement officials gathered under the klieg lights at the Justice Department press room for a victory lap on the arrest. The Trump administration investigators had pinpointed Cole not because of any new tip, but just old-fashioned police work, Patel said. Meanwhile, the Biden administration’s FBI let the case gather dust for years, Trump officials argued. "This cold case languished for four years until Kash and Bongino came to the FBI," Bondi told reporters Thursday.

NewsMax [12/7/2025 11:42 AM, Staff, 4109K] reports retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt told Newsmax that President Donald Trump’s stepped-up pressure campaign against drug cartels is beginning to disrupt their financial and logistical networks. But he warned that cartel-linked retaliation inside the United States remains a "clear and present danger.". The cartels should be understood as more than violent trafficking organizations, describing them as "the vascular system to everything illegal on this planet," Holt told Newsmax’s "Sunday Report," including "co-opted politicians, paid-off staffers, lobbying firms that work on their behalf.". He said signs of growing pressure are not limited to maritime interdictions, adding that the impact is showing up in the cartels’ bottom line. "It’s not the boats," Holt said. "What it is, is we’re starting to see cost, impositions, things that hurt them monetarily, that their supply chains are breaking down.". Holt said intensifying pressure can trigger broader reactions, including international and political ripple effects. He pointed to foreign intelligence tensions and organized demonstrations, and he suggested that exposure of corruption could accelerate as cartel finances are squeezed. "Those who are hiding behind the shadows, who are the real players in this laundering mess," he said. "They’re the ones who are going to start picking up phones and calling politicians.". In discussing Venezuela, Holt said removing Nicolás Maduro could produce instability in the short term, predicting "chaos" and "cartel versus cartel" conflict. He also said that if Maduro were forced out, Venezuela could require international assistance to stabilize.

Politico [12/7/2025 6:11 PM, Paul McLeary, 13586K] reports Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Saturday launched a full-throated attack on post-Cold War U.S. foreign policy, castigating former presidents and generals by name while declaring the age of American “utopian idealism” over. Hegseth, speaking at the annual Reagan Defense Forum, outlined a new military focus on the Western Hemisphere, demanded allies fend for themselves and took a more conciliatory approach to China’s armed forces. His remarks underscored the new National Security Strategy released late Thursday and previewed the Pentagon’s own upcoming strategy, which will lay out the military’s global priorities. “Out with idealistic utopianism,” he said. “In with hard-nosed realism.” The Defense secretary’s speech revealed an administration moving toward a policy that recognizes zones of influence led by great powers — China in the Pacific, the U.S. in the Western Hemisphere and Europe broadly, although he made only a passing reference to Russia. The U.S. should not be “distracted by democracy building, interventionism, undefined wars, regime change, climate change, woke moralizing and feckless nation-building,” Hegseth said. “We will instead put our nation’s practical, concrete interests first.” The Pentagon chief also used the defense industry-focused forum to more forcefully outline the Trump administration’s strategic refocus closer to home. It comes amid a military campaign in the Caribbean that has sunk more than 20 small boats allegedly carrying drugs and killed around 80 people. The administration has said it is combating “narco-terrorists,” though some lawmakers and experts have decried it as illegal. Hegseth also suggested the military would become more involved in patrolling the southern border with Mexico. “We’ll secure the border in part by organizing training and equipping units specifically for border defense missions, including operations in the land, maritime and air,” he said. While defense strategies in recent years have focused on deterring China, Hegseth suggested the upcoming one would take a softer approach. “President Trump and this administration seek a stable peace, fair trade and respectful relations with China,” he said. The U.S. will follow a policy of “respecting the historic military buildup [China is] undertaking,” he added, while the Pentagon “maintains a clear-eyed appreciation of how rapid, formidable and holistic their military buildup has been.” Hegseth praised countries such as South Korea, Poland and Germany for increasing defense spending in recent years, citing President Donald Trump’s push to ensure countries pay more on their own defense. “Allies are not children,” he said. “We can and should expect them to do their part.” The Defense secretary also reiterated a point he emphasized in a November speech about “supercharging the U.S. defense industrial base.” This includes new investments in ships, drones and air defense systems such as the nascent Golden Dome project. They are part of the $1 trillion defense budget that includes a $150 billion boost from the megabill passed by Congress this year.

Reuters [12/7/2025 9:12 PM, Patricia Zengerle and Julia Harte, 36480K] reports U.S. lawmakers on Sunday unveiled an annual defense policy bill authorizing a record $901 billion in national security spending next year, billions more than President Donald Trump’s request, and provides $400 million in military assistance to Ukraine. The sweeping 3,000-page bill includes a 4% raise for enlisted troops but excludes a bipartisan effort to spur housing construction that some lawmakers had hoped to include in the final bill. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said in a statement that the legislation would advance Trump’s agenda by "ending woke ideology at the Pentagon, securing the border, revitalizing the defense industrial base, and restoring the warrior ethos." The measure is a compromise between versions of the National Defense Authorization Act passed earlier this year by the Senate and House of Representatives, both controlled by Trump’s fellow Republicans. Trump in May asked Congress for a national defense budget of $892.6 billion for fiscal year 2026, flat compared to 2025 spending. That includes funding for the Department of Defense, as well as other agencies and programs involved with security and defense.

Blaze [12/7/2025 3:10 PM, Cooper Williamson, 1442K] reports with the first year of the second Trump administration coming to a close, Present Donald Trump has articulated a new national security strategy that will "build upon" his substantial achievements thus far. On Friday, the Trump administration published a document that lays out the National Security Strategy to put America first going forward. The 33-page document highlights President Trump’s successes and frames his time in office as a correction of failed policies from past administrations and conventional wisdom. Looking to the future, the document asks a simple question: what should the United States want? It goes on to highlight the core tenets of what the Trump administration will work to achieve, including the "survival and safety" of U.S. citizens, control over our borders and freedom from "destructive propaganda and influence operations," a strong military, economy, energy grid, and a "robust industrial base.". The document goes into more detail and lists other wants of the country, but it also issues a reimagining of "soft power" entails: "‘Soft power’ that serves America’s true national interest is effective only if we believe in our country’s inherent greatness and decency.". In our dealings with the world, the strategy reiterates its desire to control the Western Hemisphere without foreign incursions and to have unimpeded strategic access in the hemisphere, thus asserting a "Trump Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine. In addition, the strategy highlights the desire to avoid "forever wars," maintain primacy in the tech sector, and to restore a Europe, it says, that is in danger of "civilizational erasure" thanks to institutions which have "undermined political liberty and sovereignty.".

AP [12/7/2025 7:47 PM, Susie Blann, 14862K] reports President Donald Trump on Sunday claimed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “isn’t ready” to sign off on a U.S-authored peace proposal aimed at ending the Russia-Ukraine war. Trump was critical of Zelenskyy after U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators completed three days of talks on Saturday aimed at trying to narrow differences on the U.S. administration’s proposal. But in an exchange with reporters on Sunday night, Trump suggested that the Ukrainian leader is holding up the talks from moving forward. “I’m a little bit disappointed that President Zelenskyy hasn’t yet read the proposal, that was as of a few hours ago. His people love it, but he hasn’t,” Trump claimed in an exchange with reporters before taking part in the Kennedy Center Honors. The president added, “Russia is, I believe, fine with it, but I’m not sure that Zelenskyy’s fine with it. His people love it. But he isn’t ready.” To be certain, Russian President Vladimir Putin hasn’t publicly expressed approval for the White House plan. In fact, Putin last week had said that aspects of Trump’s proposal were unworkable, even though the original draft heavily favored Moscow. Trump has had a hot-and-cold relationship with Zelenskyy since riding into a second White House term insisting that the war was a waste of U.S. taxpayer money. Trump has also repeatedly urged the Ukrainians to cede land to Russia to bring an end to a now nearly four-year conflict he says has cost far too many lives. Zelenskyy said Saturday he had a “substantive phone call” with the American officials engaged in the talks with a Ukrainian delegation in Florida. He said he had been given an update over the phone by U.S. and Ukrainian officials at the talks. “Ukraine is determined to keep working in good faith with the American side to genuinely achieve peace,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media. Trump’s criticism of Zelenskyy came as Russia on Sunday welcomed the Trump administration’s new national security strategy in comments by the Kremlin spokesman published by Russia’s Tass news agency. Dmitry Peskov said the updated strategic document, which spells out the administration’s core foreign policy interests, was largely in line with Moscow’s vision. “There are statements there against confrontation and in favor of dialogue and building good relations,” he said, adding that Russia hopes this would lead to “further constructive cooperation with Washington on the Ukrainian settlement.” The document released Friday by the White House said the U.S. wants to improve its relationship with Russia after years of Moscow being treated as a global pariah and that ending the war is a core U.S. interest to “reestablish strategic stability with Russia.”

CNN [12/7/2025 11:48 PM, Kara Fox, Daria Tarasova-Markina, Tim Lister, Billy Stockwell, 606K] reports Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet with European leaders in London on Monday, in a show of solidarity, after US President Donald Trump accused him of not reading the latest peace proposal and as the Kremlin praised America’s new harder posture towards Europe. Trump criticized Zelensky on Sunday after talks between US and Ukrainian negotiators over the weekend in Miami ended with unresolved questions over security guarantees, territorial issues and continued concern that the US proposal tilts in Russia’s favor. "We’ve been speaking to [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin and we’ve been speaking to Ukrainian leaders, including… President Zelensky, and I have to say that I’m a little bit disappointed that President Zelensky hasn’t yet read the proposal, that was as of a few hours ago," Trump said. He added that Russia would prefer to have all of Ukraine and that he believes Moscow is "fine" with the peace plan, but "I’m not sure that Zelensky’s fine with it.” Trump’s remarks came as the Kremlin welcomed his administration’s new national security strategy, a foreign policy realignment that adopts an unprecedentedly confrontational posture toward Europe. The US security strategy document has dropped the language of past administrations describing Russia as a threat, says European nations regard Moscow as "an existential threat," and casts Washington as the central broker in re-establishing "conditions of stability within Europe and strategic stability with Russia.” Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov appeared to applaud the strategy and praised the American president, calling him "strong.” "The adjustments we are seeing, I would say, are, in many ways, consistent with our vision," Peskov said, adding: "Perhaps one can hope that this may be a modest guarantee that it will be possible to continue working constructively together to find a peaceful settlement for Ukraine, at the very least.” For European leaders, the timing is unsettling: the US is steering the Ukraine peace talks just as its posture toward Europe hardens, raising fears that this shift could influence negotiations at a critical moment. These issues will likely be on the table Monday when Zelensky travels to London, where he is set to meet French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. The European leaders will "take stock together of the situation and the ongoing negotiations within the framework of the American mediation," Macron said. Talks in Miami between US and Ukrainian negotiators came to a stopping point Saturday with no breakthroughs, Ukrainian officials said, noting that key questions went unanswered.

Politico [12/7/2025 10:18 AM, Nahal Toosi, 13586K] reports Donald Trump Jr. criticized corruption in Ukraine and suggested Sunday that his father may walk away from the country if it doesn’t make peace with Russia. Trump Jr., the eldest son of President Donald Trump, was speaking at the Doha Forum, a major gathering of government officials and other international players. Trump Jr. stressed that Ukraine has long been hamstrung by corruption in its official ranks and argued that such graft is fueling the war in both Moscow and Kyiv. He also took shots at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The Ukrainian leader is under political threat because of a corruption investigation that has ensnared some of his top aides. One such aide, Andriy Yermak, recently resigned. Yermak often led Ukraine’s international negotiations. Zelenskyy himself has not been accused of corruption. “Because of the war, and because he’s one of the great marketers of all times, Zelenskyy became a borderline deity, especially to the left, where he could do no wrong, he was beyond reproach,” Trump Jr. said. When asked if the U.S. president could walk away from Ukraine, the younger Trump said, “I think he may.” “What’s good about my father, and what’s unique about my father, is you don’t know what he’s going to do,” he added. “The fact that he’s not predictable … forces everyone to actually deal in an intellectually honest capacity.” President Trump has long had a difficult relationship with Ukraine and Zelenskyy in particular, often showing sympathy toward Russia and Russian leader Vladimir Putin instead. The Trump administration has been pushing both countries to sign on to a peace deal, but with little luck. “We want peace. We want to stop the death,” Trump Jr. said. Trump Jr. also defended his father’s military campaign against drug cartels, including airstrikes against boats in the Caribbean that are alleged to be carrying drugs. He said the American deaths caused by the drug cartels could not be ignored. “That’s a far greater clear and present danger to the United States than anything going on in Ukraine and Russia,” he said. Trump Jr. appeared onstage in Doha with business partner Omeed Malik of 1789 Capital, a growth equity investment firm. He laughed when asked if his father would run for a third term, which is constitutionally not allowed. “We’ll see what happens,” Trump Jr. said, adding that the president’s unwillingness to rule it out could be some “trolling.”

Reuters [12/7/2025 11:16 AM, Guy Faulconbridge and Lidia Kelly, 36480K] reports the Kremlin on Sunday welcomed U.S. President Donald Trump’s new national security strategy and said it largely accorded with Russia’s own perceptions, the first time that Moscow has so fulsomely praised such a document from its former Cold War foe. The U.S. National Security Strategy described Trump’s vision as one of "flexible realism" and argued that the U.S. should revive the 19th century Monroe Doctrine, which declared the Western Hemisphere to be Washington’s zone of influence. The strategy, signed by Trump, also warned that Europe faces "civilizational erasure", that it was a "core" U.S. interest to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, and that Washington wanted to reestablish strategic stability with Russia. "The adjustments that we see correspond in many ways to our vision," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state television reporter Pavel Zarubin when asked about the new U.S. strategy. Such fulsome public agreement between Moscow and Washington on the tectonic plates of global politics is rare, though they did cooperate closely after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union on returning nuclear weapons from former Soviet republics to Russia, and after the deadly Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. During the Cold War, Moscow portrayed the United States as a decadent capitalist empire doomed by the historical certainties of Marxism, while U.S. Ronald Reagan in 1983 called the Soviet Union an "evil empire" and the "focus of evil in the modern world.". After the Soviet collapse, Moscow expressed hopes for a partnership with the West but as Washington moved to support the enlargement of the NATO alliance, as outlined in President Bill Clinton’s 1994 strategy, tensions began to mount. They were pushed to breaking point under President Vladimir Putin, who rose to the top Kremlin job on the last day of 1999. Asked about the pledge in the U.S. document to end "the perception, and preventing the reality, of the NATO military alliance as a perpetually expanding alliance", the Kremlin’s Peskov said it was encouraging. But Peskov also cautioned that what he said was the U.S. "deep state" saw the world differently to Trump, who has used the term to refer to an allegedly entrenched network of U.S. officials who seek to undermine those who challenge the status quo, including Trump himself. Critics of Trump say there is no such thing as a "deep state," and that Trump and his allies are trafficking in a conspiracy theory to justify an executive-branch power grab.

Reuters [12/8/2025 4:38 AM, Lewis Jackson, 36480K] reports China on Monday pledged to defend its sovereignty and warned against "external interference" after the U.S. unveiled a new security strategy aimed at building up military power to deter conflict with Beijing over Taiwan. Washington laid out its approach to one of the world’s most sensitive diplomatic issues in its official National Security Strategy released on Friday. The document came as Beijing last week deployed a large number of naval and coast guard vessels across East Asian waters in its largest show of maritime force to date. Taiwan is the first red line that must not be crossed in China-U.S. relations and China brooks no external interference, Guo Jiakun, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, told reporters in Beijing when asked about the document. "The U.S. side should ... handle the Taiwan question with the utmost prudence, and stop indulging and supporting ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces in seeking independence by force or resisting reunification by force," he said. Guo added that China was willing to work with Washington to promote stable ties while safeguarding its sovereignty, security and development interests.

Reuters [12/8/2025 2:29 AM, Joyce Lee and Jack Kim, 36480K] reports U.S. President Donald Trump’s new global security roadmap has dropped any reference to denuclearising North Korea as a goal, fuelling speculation that Washington may be angling to boost the chances of a diplomatic breakthrough with Pyongyang in 2026. The target of ending North Korea’s nuclear threat had been a constant in the National Security Strategy of every U.S. president since the emergence of Pyongyang’s programme in 2003, but was conspicuously absent in Friday’s document. The omission of any mention of North Korea and its accelerating programme to build nuclear weapons that can be delivered by ballistic missiles capable of striking the mainland U.S. is fanning expectations of a potential revival of talks between Trump and Kim Jong Un, last held in 2019. Trump has spoken of his willingness to sit down with the North Korean leader in a "proactive" way, indicating he "wants to get something done by taking some action," said Hong Min of the Korea Institute for National Unification. "Then I think there is a certain degree of conscious intent there, that the idea of denuclearisation ... really doesn’t need to be brought up here," said Hong, an expert on Pyongyang’s strategic thinking. In Trump’s previous security blueprint issued during his first term in 2017, North Korea was mentioned 16 times as a threat to "our homeland" and a rogue state that could "use a nuclear weapon against the United States." This year’s document lays out Trump’s vision of "flexible realism", which focuses on containing conflict with China over Taiwan by boosting the military power of its allies in Asia, chiefly South Korea and Japan. Both South Korea and the United States on Monday denied there was any policy shift on North Korea, stressing denuclearisation remains the goal. Still, Kim has made clear that the issue of whether he could come back for talks hinges on their nature, and that he and Trump would have to meet as equal leaders of nuclear states. "The concept of ‘denuclearisation’ has already lost its meaning. We have become a nuclear state," Kim told parliament in September. "I say ‘denuclearisation’ is the last, last thing to expect from us." "If the United States, freeing itself from its absurd pursuit of others’ denuclearisation and recognizing the reality, wants genuine peaceful coexistence with us, there is no reason for us not to come face to face with it," Kim said. Analysts say peace talks with Trump would cement Kim’s standing at home as a world leader and prove to his impoverished people that he had delivered on a promise that his father and grandfather were unable to keep. The pair held summits in 2018 and 2019 before negotiations collapsed over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons arsenal. North Korea is under heavy international sanctions over those weapons and its ballistic missiles programme. Since the U.S. document release, South Korea has emphasised that it believes the stars may align for the restart of talks with North Korea next year and that signals from key players, ranging from the U.S. to China and Japan, are good. "What we’ve done so far has produced results in terms of creating the right conditions to advance the peace process on the Korean peninsula," Wi Sung-lac, South Korea’s national security adviser, said on Sunday. Meanwhile, South Korea has been quietly bolstering its own defensive power, pledging to boost military spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2035 with a 7.5% increase for next year in keeping with demands from Trump. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth praised South Korea on Saturday for being a "model" ally that "will receive our special favour" for agreeing to "assume the leading role in ... conventional defence. We are optimistic that other Indo-Pacific allies will follow suit." In talks with Trump in October, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung won approval to build nuclear-powered submarines with U.S. help in supplying fuel, given Seoul’s commitment to be free of nuclear weapons.

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