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 AP [2/18/2025 5:30 PM, Staff] reports arrests for illegal border crossings from Mexico plummeted 39% in January from a month earlier, authorities said Tuesday, an early gauge of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. The Border Patrol made 21,593 arrests during the month, down from 47,316 in December and the lowest mark since May 2020 near the peak of the COVID-19 epidemic, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Border arrests fell sharply well before Trump took office from an all-time high of 250,000 in December 2023. Mexican authorities increased enforcement within their own borders and then-President Joe Biden introduced severe asylum restrictions in June. Arrests sank even further after Trump was sworn in on Jan. 20 and issued a slew of orders on immigration, including one to suspend asylum on grounds that the United States is under "invasion" at the southern border. Border czar Tom Homan said Monday that there were 229 border arrests in a 24-hour period, the lowest he remembered since becoming a Border Patrol agent in 1984. Homeland Security Department officials say they want to drive that to zero. Homeland Security said Tuesday that it launched a multimillion-dollar video ad campaign in the U.S. and internationally that features Secretary Kristi Noem warning people to leave or not to come. "If you are here illegally, we will find you and deport you. You will never return," she said in the video. CBS Austin [2/18/2025 4:52 PM, Cory Smith, 581K] reports that Homan said interior arrests by ICE agents are up more than 137% under Trump. Arrests of illegal immigrants with gang affiliations have doubled, he said. The White House said the "Trump Effect" has deterred migrants from even trying to cross the border. Reuters [2/18/2025 10:01 AM, Ted Hesson, 48128K] reports Pete Flores, acting CBP commissioner, said in a statement that fewer crossings meant "more officers and agents are now able to conduct the enforcement duties that make our border more secure and our country safer.” The Washington Examiner [2/18/2025 11:11 AM, Anna Giaritelli, 2365K] reports U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a press release Monday morning, pointing to the days since President Donald Trump’s inauguration. CBP attributed the decline to its "no longer catching and releasing illegal aliens into the U.S." "CBP is leveraging legal authorities to take every reasonable step to ensure illegal aliens are placed in detention and expediently removed from the country," CBP said in a statement. "In simple terms, illegal aliens are being arrested, detained, and then rapidly removed." In total, federal Border Patrol agents stationed at the southern border intercepted 29,116 illegal immigrants in January, down from more than 47,000 in December 2024 and upward of 124,000 in January 2024.

Reported similarly:
CBS Austin [2/18/2025 5:01 PM, Kristine Frazao, 581K]
FOX News [2/18/2025 4:00 PM, Michael Lee Fox, 49889K]
Miami Herald [2/18/2025 12:29 PM, Dan Gooding, 6595K]
Yahoo! News [2/18/2025 7:13 AM, Luke Barr, 57114K]

Washington Examiner [2/18/2025 10:58 AM, Jenny Goldsberry, 2365K] reports that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that as the number of people trying to illegally enter the United States is at a historically low level, she is now focusing on those who are already in the country. President Donald Trump took office promising to clamp down on immigration, and now, fewer migrants are reported at the border, as recently witnessed by the Washington Examiner. Noem appeared Monday on Fox News’s Jesse Watters Primetime to unveil a new advertisement directed toward the illegal immigrants who remain in the country. "It has been incredible to see the numbers trickle down almost to zero, you know, we are talking less than a couple hundred people that we are encountering a day when it was literally over 10, 11,000 under Joe Biden," Noem said. "So it has been remarkable just what President Trump has been able to accomplish in these first few weeks of his administration." The secretary lamented that Trump still does not have his full Cabinet in place. Noem was among the first confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate. She continues to face opposition from Democratic mayors and governors who are clinging to their respective sanctuary statuses, but she said federal statutes on immigration are "more powerful than some of the laws that these cowards are standing behind."

FOX News [2/18/2025 4:56 PM, Peter Pinedo, 57114K] report the Trump administration sent a list of over half a dozen drug cartels to Congress last week that it plans to designate as foreign terrorist organizations, Fox News confirmed on Tuesday. The list sent to Congress includes the international Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua – Spanish for "Train from Aragua" – that has ties to the socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro and has been terrorizing U.S. cities in recent months. Other groups included in the Trump administration’s list are the Salvadoran gang Mara Salvatrucha – also known as MS-13 – as well as several Mexican cartels, including the Sinaloa, Jalisco, Zetas, the Gulf Cartels, Cartel Unidos and "La Nueva Familia Michoacana.” New York Times reported last week that the State Department has already informed several congressional committees of the organizations it plans to designate as terror groups. This comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office to direct the State Department and other executive agencies to move to designate cartels and other criminal groups as foreign terrorist organizations. The order specifically mentioned Tren de Aragua – which is also known as "TdA" – as well MS-13 as groups needing to be designated as terror organizations. It gave Secretary of State Marco Rubio 14 days to make policy recommendations – in consultation with the secretaries of the Treasury and Homeland Security as well as the U.S. attorney general and director of national intelligence – to make a recommendation regarding the designation of criminal groups to be designated as terrorist organizations. The U.S. Attorney’s Office and law enforcement agencies in Tennessee announced the indictment of multiple people in the state with ties to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA).

The Washington Post [2/18/2025 7:38 PM, Teo Armus and Arelis R. Hernández, 40736K] reports the Trump administration on Tuesday cut off funding to legal service providers who give advice and legal representation to children who crossed the border without their parents, according to a memo obtained by Washington Post. The memo, issued by a division of the Interior Department, ordered the Acacia Center for Justice — a nonprofit through which the program is funded — to “stop all work” associated with its contract for legal services for unaccompanied minors, effective immediately. The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) contract for more than $200 million each year funds nonprofits around the country that represent about 26,000 unaccompanied minors in immigration court and offer “Know Your Rights” trainings and legal screenings for tens of thousands more. The order comes as the U.S. DOGE Service — run by billionaire Elon Musk — is in the process of terminating a wide array of federal contracts that it has labeled wasteful and counter to its mission of streamlining the federal government. Two people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly said the order did not come from ORR. A spokesperson for ORR, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The White House also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Immigrant advocates say the directive threatens to leave children and teenagers who benefit from the federal funds to navigate the immigration court system on their own at a time when the Trump administration is working to increase deportations. “What this is going to do is really leave children vulnerable to exploitation and to further abuse,” Shaina Aber, executive director of the Acacia Center for Justice, said in an interview Tuesday. The program ensures “children are provided with the legal knowledge and representation they need to have their rights protected.” CNN [2/18/2025 11:01 PM, Priscilla Alvarez and Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, 57114K] reports ORR, which falls under the Health and Human Services Department, is charged with the care of unaccompanied migrant children. “The administration’s decision to suspend this program undermines due process, disproportionately impacts vulnerable children, and puts children who have already experienced severe trauma at risk for further harm or exploitation,” Shaina Aber, executive director of the Acacia Center for Justices, said in a statement. The Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project, which provides “Know Your Rights” presentations for children in government custody as well as other legal services, also condemned the move. “Without the services the Florence Project provides through the Unaccompanied Children Program, children, no matter their age, will be forced to represent themselves in immigration court alone. This is an unprecedented attack on immigrant children,” said Roxana Avila-Cimpeanu, Florence Project deputy director, in a statement.

Washington Post [2/18/2025 9:57 PM, Michelle Boorstein, 40736K] reports the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops sued the Trump administration on Tuesday, asking a judge to declare the suspension of aid to refugees unlawful and demand the White House pay millions it owes the Church for refugee care. The suit by the USCCB, which represents the leadership of the Catholic Church in the United States, comes as the Trump administration is in a standoff with faith-based groups. Such groups provide much of the domestic and foreign aid the administration has halted or seeks to — particularly around the care of refugees and migrants. The Church’s longtime partnership with the U.S. government “has helped nearly a million individuals find safety and build their lives in the United States,” USCCB spokeswoman Chieko Noguchi wrote to Washington Post on Tuesday night, in reference to its work with refugee resettlement. “We are urging the government to uphold its legal and moral obligations to refugees and to restore the necessary funding to ensure that faith-based and community organizations can continue this vital work that reflects our nation’s values of compassion, justice and hospitality.” Last month, Vice President JD Vance criticized the U.S. Catholic Church’s efforts to help immigrants and refugees, suggesting the Church is motivated by money, and alleged without evidence that it works with millions of “illegal immigrants.” Elon Musk, a top adviser to Trump, shared a tweet earlier this month calling “illegal” multiple Lutheran organizations that work in the United States to provide health care to homeless people, run food pantries, and help migrants and refugees. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, names as defendants the State Department, the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration and the Department of Health and Human Services. It says the bishops have partnered with the U.S. government for nearly 50 years, and that the bureau has committed to provide $65 million to the USCCB “for the immediate physical needs and integration of refugees into their new communities.” “But now, after refugees have already arrived and been placed in USCCB’s care, the government is attempting to pull the rug out from under USCCB’s programs by halting funding.”

Washington Examiner [2/18/2025 1:07 PM, Alan Wooten, 2365K] reports that nearly half a billion dollars is being requested to respond to an increase in antisemitic and Islamophobic threats and violence nationally and in North Carolina. Addressed to the Appropriations Committee leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives, four congressmen asked for $454.5 million for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program. The embattled Federal Emergency Management Agency, a part of the Department of Homeland Security led by Secretary Kristi Noem, is the administrator. The Nonprofit Security Grant Program helps provide resources for security improvements against potential terrorist attacks at nonprofits. This includes faith-based organizations. Four North Carolinians write, "Since Hamas’ appalling attack on October 7, 2023, we have seen an unprecedented rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia in our country. Our Jewish and Muslim neighbors continue to face threats to their families, communities, and houses of worship.” The 2025 Homeland Threat Assessment, as authored by Homeland Security, notes domestic violent extremists and homegrown violent extremists. The report says, "We particularly are concerned about the likelihood of violence motivated by developing domestic and global events, including the 2024 election cycle and the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict."

Border Report [2/18/2025 1:07 PM, Fernie Ortiz, 153K] reports that the Department of Homeland Security is warning undocumented immigrants that if they get deported they won’t be able to come back. "You will never return," said DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. However, those who decide to leave on their own might be allowed back in the future. Noem announced a series of ads that will run on radio, broadcast and digital, and in multiple countries, regions and dialects warning migrants not to come and those here to leave. According to a news release, the multimillion-dollar ad campaign will be "hyper-targeted," including through social media, text message and digital to reach immigrants in the interior of the United States, as well as internationally. DHS said the ads will warn undocumented aliens to leave the U.S. country now or face deportation with the inability to return. In contrast, the international ads warn criminals not to come to America or "they will be hunted down and deported." "President Trump has a clear message: if you are here illegally, we will find you and deport you," Noem said in a statement. "But if you leave now, you may have an opportunity to return and enjoy our freedom and live the American Dream.” Added Noem: "If you are a criminal alien considering entering America illegally: Don’t even think about it… Criminals are not welcome in the United States."

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CBS Austin [2/18/2025 11:50 AM, Staff, 581K]
Washington Examiner [2/18/2025 10:09 AM, Anna Giaritelli, 2365K]
Telemundo20 [2/18/2025 6:13 PM, Eduardo Orbea, 34K]
Yahoo! News [2/18/2025 6:11 PM, Eric Mayer, 57114K]

The Hill [2/18/2025 4:40 PM, Zack Budryk, 16346K] reports three Democratic senators led a letter to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) personnel Tuesday asking for details on Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) access to disaster victims’ data. In a letter Tuesday to acting FEMA Administrator Cameron Hamilton, Sens. Peter Welch (Vt.), Adam Schiff (Calif.) and Alex Padilla (Calif.) asked for details on who has been granted access to victim data between Jan. 20 and Feb. 14, including which of those people are White House, FEMA or DOGE employees. The senators also requested details on what use those people were authorized to make of the data and FEMA’s protocols for ensuring that data is not misused. President Trump has indicated plans to eliminate FEMA outright and return its functions to state governments, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose department includes the agency, said Sunday that while "we still need the resources and the funds and the finances to go to people that have these types of disasters, like Hurricane Helene and the fires in California," she supports getting "rid of FEMA the way it exists today."

FOX News [2/18/2025 8:00 AM, Adam Shaw, Brooke Taylor, 49889K] reports the Biden administration spent tens of billions of dollars on grants to migrants and refugees through one of its government agencies, including over $10 billion in just one year, according to a new watchdog report. The watchdog group Open the Books looked at grants to nonprofits awarded by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement. Its responsibilities include caring for unaccompanied migrant children who crossed the southern border illegally and refugees entering legally. The watchdog found that in FY 2021, it distributed $2.4 billion in grants to nonprofits. In FY 2022, it distributed $3.4 billion, then that number skyrocketed up to $10 billion in FY 2023 before being reduced to $4.2 billion in FY 2024. The numbers surged amid a historic migrant crisis at the southern border which plagued the Biden administration between 2021 and 2024. According to the watchdog, the money included spending to help migrants save for car and home purchases, while another gave out business and personal loans, along with other programs for legal aid and cultural orientation. "We’re hurting American taxpayers. People in places like North Carolina, Los Angeles that have lost everything," Open the Books CEO John Hart told Fox News. "How is it moral to ask them to pay the bill for someone who wants to come to this country illegally? That’s outrageous.” The revelation comes amid a government-wide scrutiny of funding, including funding for migrants, by the Trump administration and led by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced last week that it had taken back $59 million in FEMA funds earmarked for hotels housing migrants in New York City and had fired four FEMA employees involved in the payments being distributed. "There will not be a single penny spent that goes against the interest and safety of the American people," a DHS spokesperson said. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has been ramping up border security and cracking down on releases into the interior. It has suspended refugee resettlement, taken off limits imposed on Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and declared a national emergency at the southern border. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reuters [2/18/2025 6:58 PM PM, Jasper Ward, 89965K] reports U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he has instructed the Justice Department to terminate all remaining Biden-era U.S. attorneys, asserting that the department had been "politicized like never before." "We must ‘clean house’ IMMEDIATELY, and restore confidence. America’s Golden Age must have a fair Justice System - THAT BEGINS TODAY," Trump said in a post on Truth Social. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Last week, the White House sent termination notices to several U.S. Attorneys around the country who had been appointed by Democratic former President Joe Biden. On Monday, several U.S. attorneys appointed by Biden announced they were stepping down. Others left the government last week. While it is customary for U.S. Attorneys to step down after a change in the presidential administration, usually the incoming administration asks for their resignations and does not issue tersely worded termination letters, current and former Justice Department lawyers say. The termination of the U.S. attorneys, who serve as the top federal law enforcement officers in their districts, is the latest in shake-ups at the Justice Department since Trump took office last month. Career Justice Department officials normally remain in office from one administration to the next. Yet dozens in cities including Washington and New York have been fired or quit since Trump took office. Trump campaigned on a vow to end the "weaponization" at the Justice Department that he says was used against him during his years out of power.

USA Today [2/18/2025 11:57 AM, Zachary Schermele, 89965K] reports that a federal judge on Monday denied a request from college students to prevent Elon Musk’s government efficiency team from accessing U.S. Department of Education databases, a move they said placed the confidential records of millions in jeopardy. U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss permitted the agency’s six-person detail from the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to access systems with millions of students’ personal and financial information while the privacy lawsuit unfolds. The Education Department had agreed to bar DOGE from the agency’s databases for a week while awaiting the judge’s decision. In a 13-page order, Moss called fears that DOGE’s entry into the Education Department’s internal systems could lead to identity theft and targeted immigration enforcement "entirely conjectural.” The students provided "no evidence, beyond sheer speculation, that would allow the Court to infer that (the Education Department) or DOGE staffers will misuse or further disseminate this information," the judge wrote in his order.

New York Times [2/18/2025 2:12 PM, Somini Sengupta, 161405K] reports that Numerous programs aimed at averting violence, instability and extremism worsened by global warming are ensnared in the effort to dismantle the main American aid agency, U.S.A.I.D. One such project helped communities manage water stations in Niger, a hotbed of Islamist extremist groups where conflicts over scarce water are common. Another helped repair water-treatment plants in the strategic port city of Basra, Iraq, where dry taps had caused violent anti-government protests. U.S.A.I.D.’s oldest program, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, ran a forecasting system that allowed aid workers in places like war-torn South Sudan to prepare for catastrophic floods last year. The fate of these programs remains uncertain. The Trump administration has essentially sought to shutter the agency. A federal court has issued a temporary restraining order. On the ground, much of the work has stopped. “They were buying down future risk,” said Erin Sikorsky, director of the Center for Climate and Security and a former U.S. intelligence official. “Invest a little today so we don’t have to spend a lot in the future when things metastasize.” The German government this week released a report calling climate change “the greatest security threat of our day and age,” echoing a U.S. intelligence report from 2021, which described climate hazards as “threat multipliers.”

NBC News [2/18/2025 2:03 PM, Staff, 50804K] reports that the Trump administration is preparing to fire hundreds of senior leaders at the Department of Homeland Security, according to three sources familiar with the matter. NBC News’ Vaughn Hillyard reports on the pending decision on lawsuits challenging Elon Musk and DOGE’s ability to decide what workers and agencies to cut. [Editorial note: consult video at source link] Newsweek [2/18/2025 10:42 AM, Billal Rahman, 6595K] reports that President Donald Trump is set to make sweeping cuts to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). "Under President Trump’s leadership, we are making sweeping cuts and reform across the federal government to eliminate egregious waste and incompetence that has been happening for decades at the expense of the American taxpayer," a spokesperson for DHS told Newsweek. Newsweek understands that more than 400 employees will be let go in the cuts. The Trump administration’s effort to cut high-level DHS employees is part of a broader push to reshape the federal workforce, driven by Trump and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk’s plot to downsize the government. The cuts could significantly impact DHS, the agency responsible for enforcing immigration laws through Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). With Trump relying heavily on CBP to secure the southwest border and ICE to conduct arrests and deportations of undocumented immigrants, the shake-up could reshape immigration enforcement and federal governance. The Trump administration plans to dismiss hundreds of senior DHS officials this week to reshape the nation’s third-largest agency by removing individuals perceived as not aligning with its objectives, according to NBC News.

New York Times [2/19/2025 3:00 AM, Jonah E. Bromwich and Benjamin Weiser, 161405K] reports a federal judge on Wednesday is expected to scrutinize the Trump administration’s extraordinary attempt to abandon corruption charges against New York City’s mayor, a decision that shook the legal community and led to calls for the mayor’s resignation. The judge, Dale E. Ho, ordered the Washington prosecutors who sought a dismissal of the case last week to appear in a Manhattan courtroom to address the Justice Department’s effort to shut down the case, just months before the mayor, Eric Adams, was scheduled to go to trial. Last week, the acting deputy attorney general, Emil Bove III, directed prosecutors to seek an end to Mayor Adams’s prosecution. Mr. Bove said explicitly that his directive was based not on the case’s legal merits. The case, he said, was detracting from the mayor’s ability to aid President Trump’s program of mass deportation. At least seven prosecutors resigned rather than obey, including Danielle R. Sassoon, the interim head of the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan. In a two-page order on Tuesday, Judge Ho told prosecutors and Mayor Adams’s lawyers to be prepared to address, among other things, the reason the government was seeking to throw out the case and “the procedure for resolution” of its request. That phrasing, legal experts said, suggested that the judge was unlikely to rubber-stamp the government’s effort. The judge acknowledged that a federal rule says the executive branch is best suited to decide whether to drop a prosecution and that a judge should not meddle unless a dismissal is “clearly contrary to manifest public interest.” But he seemed prepared to investigate that public-interest question. Ms. Sassoon accused Mr. Adams of offering to use his position to aid President Trump’s immigration agenda in exchange for a dismissal of his case. She said in a letter to the U.S. attorney general that the arrangement “amounted to a quid pro quo.” “Because I am confident that Adams has committed the crimes with which he is charged, I cannot agree to seek a dismissal driven by improper considerations,” Ms. Sassoon wrote.

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Washington Post [2/18/2025 5:19 PM, Shayna Jacobs and Jeremy Roebuck, 40736K]
Los Angeles Times [2/18/2025 10:54 AM, Larry Neumeister, 17996K]
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NBC News [2/18/2025 8:30 AM, Staff, 50804K]
FOX News [2/18/2025 1:48 PM, Danielle Wallace, 49889K]
Newsweek [2/18/2025 5:04 PM, Natalie Venegas, 56005K]

Newsweek [2/18/2025 4:55 PM, Martha McHardy, 56005K] reports that Conservative lawyers are criticizing President Donald Trump after seven Department of Justice (DOJ) officials resigned in protest over an attempt to drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Adams was indicted in 2024 on charges of fraud and bribery after allegedly accepting more than $100,000 in luxury gifts and illegal campaign contributions from Turkish officials and businesspeople in exchange for opening a consulate in New York without proper fire inspections. He has strongly denied any wrongdoing. Last week, the DOJ ordered federal prosecutors in Manhattan not to prosecute Adams. That prompted accusations on Wednesday that Adams agreed to support the Trump administration’s aggressive anti-immigration agenda in exchange for the charges against him to be dropped, accusations he has denied. The scandal led seven DOJ officials to resign, as well as four of Adams’ top deputies. According to acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, the charges against Adams should be dismissed because federal prosecutors behind the case "threatened the integrity of the proceedings, including by increasing prejudicial pretrial publicity" and "unduly restricted" the mayor’s ability to "devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime that has escalated under the policies of the prior Administration." On Thursday, during a closed-door meeting with Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, Adams agreed to allow U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to operate at New York City’s Rikers Island prison. Homan has denied any quid pro quo, while Trump has denied that he had ordered the Justice Department to dismiss the indictment against Adams.

The Hill [2/18/2025 9:38 AM, Jared Gans, 16346K] reports that New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (D) called on Mayor Eric Adams (D) to resign from his office, becoming the latest local official to raise concerns about his ability to govern after the Justice Department (DOJ) moved to drop corruption charges against him. The Speaker, who has no relation to the embattled official, said in a statement Monday that the mayor should prioritize the city and its residents in stepping aside. She argued that the resignations of four deputy mayors in protest made clear that Mayor Adams lost the trust of his staff, colleagues and constituents. "This administration no longer has the ability to effectively govern with Eric Adams as mayor," Speaker Adams said. "These resignations are the culmination of the mayor’s actions and decisions that have led to months of instability and now compromise the City’s sovereignty, threaten chaos, and risk harm to our families." The firestorm surrounding Mayor Adams comes after acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove directed prosecutors to drop the case in which he was accused of accepting and seeking bribes for years from wealthy businesspeople and a Turkish government official. The indictment states that the illegal activity went back to 2014 and continued up through his current mayoral term.

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CBS Austin [2/18/2025 8:49 AM, Alexx Altman-Devilbiss, 581K]
Washington Examiner [2/18/2025 8:38 AM, Annabella Rosciglione, 2365K]

AP [2/18/2025 3:54 PM, Lea Skene, Holly Ramer, and Patrick Whittle, 12036K] reports that the leader of a cultlike group connected to six killings in three states was ordered held without bail Tuesday in Maryland, where she faces trespassing and other charges. Jack LaSota, 34, and two others arrested with her on Sunday appeared via videoconference for bail hearings in Allegany District Court. A judge ordered all three held without bail, describing them as dangerous flight risks. Allegany County State’s Attorney James Elliott said during the hearing Tuesday that LaSota has faked her own death in the past and “appears to be the leader of an extremist group” called the Zizians that has been linked to multiple deaths. But LaSota, who is known online as Ziz, asked for pretrial release, saying she was homeless with no means of traveling. Speaking haltingly, she also repeatedly requested a vegan diet, saying she could starve otherwise and was already “in a mild state of delirium” due to lack of food. “I haven’t done anything wrong,” she told the judge. Members of the group have been tied to the death of a woman during an attack on a California landlord in November 2022, the landlord’s subsequent slaying in January, and the deaths of a Pennsylvania couple in between. Most recently, the group has been linked to a highway shootout in Vermont that left a U.S. Border Patrol agent and a car passenger dead. The Pennsylvania victims were the parents of Michelle Zajko, who was arrested with LaSota and Daniel Blank.

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CBS Austin [2/18/2025 1:51 PM, Winston Rogers, 581K]

USA Today [2/18/2025 7:50 PM, Trevor Hughes, 89965K] reports a homicide suspect and two other people sought in connection with multiple deaths were caught after parking at the end of a remote dirt road in Maryland and asked the property owner if they could live there, court records show. Maryland police on Monday afternoon arrested Jack "Ziz" Lasota, 34, Michelle Zajko, 32, and Daniel Blank, 26, in a rural area after the property owner called police to report the black-clad suspects on his land. They were collectively armed with a rifle and two handguns, including a loaded pistol tucked into Zajko’s waistband, police said. "All of the subjects involved are to be questioned regarding other crimes that have occurred across the country," Master Trooper Brandon Jeffries wrote in an arrest affidavit for the three. Court records and interviews indicate Lasota is the ideological leader of a small group of highly educated computer experts and vegans who called themselves "Zizians," lived in box trucks in California and North Carolina, and are connected to at least six deaths nationally. Some of the group members are transgender. The FBI is investigating but has declined to reveal details, and one expert said the group has some hallmarks of a religious cult, with Lasota as a charismatic leader who has inspired seemingly disconnected actions. "They’re not all necessarily all connected in one overarching plan. It’s not necessarily like a Manson Family-type of plan," said Mark Pitcavage, a senior research fellow and policy adviser at the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism. "When you look at his writings, it’s all about the mind and consciousness. He doesn’t really seem interested in left-wing political issues the way most people would understand it.” Blank is a suspect in the late 2022 shooting deaths of Zajko’s parents in Pennsylvania, and authorities say Lasota and Zajko are being investigating in connection with other multiple deaths nationally, including the Jan. 20 shooting death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Vermont. Authorities said Zajko may have supplied the guns used in the shootout that ended with the death of Border Patrol agent David Maland and a German national, Ophelia Bauckholt. Arrested in that shooting was Teresa Youngblut, who is jailed and faces charges of using a deadly weapon.

Washington Examiner [2/18/2025 2:19 PM, Paul Bedard, 2365K] reports that a legal watchdog that has led the campaign to peel away the secrecy cloaking Democratic planning for the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots has turned its attention to calls hosted by retired Gen. Mark Milley with top Pentagon, Justice, Interior and Homeland Security officials. Judicial Watch today said that after being stonewalled by the Pentagon for details about conference calls hosted by Milley and two other Pentagon officials, it has filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to get access to reports and transcripts. It is unclear what those calls covered, although Judicial Watch said that the targeting of "far right" groups has been reported. The Pentagon and other security agencies have long been at the heart of investigations into how the government readied for protests, but the details of their actions and planning have been sketchy, and Judicial Watch is eager to nail down what the Pentagon wanted and planned and what it was coordinating with Justice and other agencies. Milley told congressional investigators that he was involved in key calls the week of the riots that came as Congress was certifying former President Joe Biden’s victory over President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.

CBS News [2/18/2025 7:44 PM, Scott MacFarlane, 52225K] reports that the head of the criminal division in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C, has resigned her post, the latest in a string of Justice Department officials to leave under the Trump administration. In an email obtained by CBS News, Denise Cheung notified her colleagues Tuesday morning that she is stepping down. "I took an oath of office to support and defend the Constitution and I have executed this duty faithfully during my tenure, which has spanned through numerous Administrations," the email said. Cheung did not specify a reason for her departure in her email. Her decision follows a flurry of resignations by prosecutors in New York and officials at Justice Department headquarters last week, who stepped down to protest a directive from the acting deputy attorney general to drop the case against New York Mayor Eric Adams. As leader of the criminal division at the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office, Cheung had sweeping oversight over national security cases, violent crimes prosecutions and other major investigations, including many of the cases related to the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Her resignation comes one day after President Trump announced he would nominate Ed Martin to become the U.S. attorney in the nation’s capital. Martin has been serving in the role in a temporary capacity since Mr. Trump took office. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [2/18/2025 10:46 AM, Alec Schemmel, 49889K] reports that the man who helped organize a planeload of illegal immigrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard during the Biden administration has been tapped to lead Florida’s new immigration enforcement board. Larry Keefe, a longtime trial attorney who served previously as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s "public safety czar" since 2021, will have $250 million at his discretion to help bolster the state’s immigration enforcement efforts. Keefe was at the center of helping private contractor Vertol Systems Company earn a $1.5 million contract to fly dozens of mostly Venezuelan migrants from San Antonio to the ritzy Massachusetts island in 2022. At the time, illegal crossings along the southern border were surging under the leadership of former President Joe Biden, with more than 2 million during FY 2022. The new board that Keefe will be heading was created during a recent special legislative session, called by DeSantis last month, to advance efforts at implementing President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.

AP [2/18/2025 5:09 PM, Kate Payne] reports days after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed off on immigration legislation he says is the toughest in the nation, Florida’s Republican leaders have named the director of the new state board of immigration enforcement: an architect of the controversial effort to fly migrants from Texas to a Massachusetts resort town. Florida officials aren’t wasting time implementing their new legislation, which increases penalties for crimes committed by immigrants in the country without legal authorization and allocates nearly $300 million toward beefing up state and local participation in federal immigration enforcement. The legislation increases legal penalties for immigrants in the country without authorization who commit crimes, including mandating the death penalty for those who are convicted of a capital offense such as first-degree murder. The measures also create a new state crime of entering Florida after coming to the country without legal permission. And under the new legislation, Florida students who are in the country illegally will no longer be able to qualify for in-state tuition at public colleges and universities.

CBS News [2/18/2025 6:47 AM, Staff, 52225K] reports Mexico announced Monday the seizure of 440 pounds of methamphetamine in a cartel heartland, as it comes under mounting pressure from President Donald Trump to tackle drug trafficking. The discovery was made during a weekend operation to dismantle illegal drug laboratories in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, a government statement said. The value of the drugs seized was nearly $40 million, it said, adding that more than 3,170 gallons of chemical precursors used to make methamphetamine were also confiscated. The Latin American nation has announced a series of major drug discoveries in recent weeks in an apparent attempt to highlight increased efforts to combat drug smuggling. Trump has cited illegal flows of the deadly opioid fentanyl as one of the reasons for a threatened 25% tariff on Mexican goods. He put the trade levies on hold for a month, until early March, after Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum agreed to deploy 10,000 more soldiers to the countries’ shared border to tackle smuggling. Since February 5, when the deployment began, Mexican authorities have seized 4.9 tons of methamphetamine, 453 kilos of cocaine, 55 kilos of fentanyl and 489 firearms, the government said. Last month, Mexico’s government announced that it had seized 18 kilos of fentanyl hidden in a bus, and in December, the government announced what it called "the largest seizure of fentanyl in history," totaling more than one million pills. The synthetic opioid, which is 50 times more potent than heroin, has been linked to tens of thousands of overdose deaths in the United States. Mexico is one of the main trafficking routes for the drug and for the chemicals to manufacture it, most of which come from China, according to U.S. authorities. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said that Mexican cartels are "at the heart" of a synthetic narcotics crisis in the United States. The powerful Sinaloa Cartel "dominates the fentanyl market through its manipulation of the global supply chain and the proliferation of clandestine fentanyl labs in Mexico," it said in its 2024 National Drug Threat Assessment. But Sheinbaum has said authorities have found no proof that fentanyl is being produced in the country. Last week, Sheinbaum warned U.S. gunmakers they could face fresh legal action and be deemed accomplices if Washington designates Mexican drug cartels as terrorist groups. "If they declare these criminal groups as terrorists, then we’ll have to expand our U.S. lawsuit," Sheinbaum said at a daily press conference. A new charge could include alleged "complicity" of gunmakers with terror groups, she said.

New York Times [2/18/2025 9:15 AM, Julian E. Barnes, Maria Abi-Habib, Edward Wong and Eric Schmitt, 161405K] reports the United States has stepped up secret drone flights over Mexico to hunt for fentanyl labs, part of the Trump administration’s more aggressive campaign against drug cartels, according to U.S. officials. The covert drone program, which has not been previously disclosed, began under the Biden administration, according to U.S. officials and others familiar with the program. But President Trump and his C.I.A. director, John Ratcliffe, have repeatedly promised more intense action against Mexican drug cartels. Increasing the drone flights was a quick initial step. The C.I.A. has not been authorized to use the drones to take lethal action, the officials said, adding that they do not envision using the drones to conduct airstrikes. For now, C.I.A. officers in Mexico pass information collected by the drones to Mexican officials. The flights go “well into sovereign Mexico,” one U.S. official said. The Mexican government has taken steps to address the Trump administration’s concerns about fentanyl, deploying 10,000 troops to the border this month to thwart smuggling. But the Trump administration wants Mexico to do more to destroy or dismantle fentanyl labs and to seize more of the drug. The drones have proved adept at identifying labs, according to people with knowledge of the program. Fentanyl labs emit chemicals that make them easy to find from the air. However, during the Biden administration, the Mexican government was slow to take action against labs identified by the Americans, although it did use the information to make arrests, according to two of the officials. The officials all spoke on the condition their names not be used so they could discuss a classified intelligence program and sensitive diplomacy between Mexico and the United States. The surveillance flights have already caused consternation in Mexico, which has long been wary of its northern neighbor after multiple U.S. invasions and land grabs. In addition to the C.I.A.’s efforts, the U.S. military’s Northern Command is also expanding its surveillance of the border. But the U.S. military, unlike the spy agency, is not entering Mexican airspace.

Reported similarly:
CNN [2/18/2025 7:09 AM, Natasha Bertrand, Katie Bo Lillis and Zachary Cohen, 22417K]
FOX News [2/18/2025 8:50 PM, Greg Wehner, Jennifer Griffin, 49889K]

VOA News [2/18/2025 5:23 PM, Jeff Seldin, 2717K] reports the United States has more than doubled the number of detainees — both those deemed to be a "high threat" as well as others slated for deportation — at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. As of Tuesday, there were more than 120 of what the administration calls "criminal aliens" under guard at the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, according to a U.S. defense official. Approximately 50 other individuals are also being held at the base’s migrant facility, which was being readied to hold nonviolent individuals. Separately, a second U.S. defense official told VOA that as of Monday, the U.S. military had sent a total of 13 flights of undocumented migrants to Guantanamo aboard a mix of C-17 and C-130 military cargo jets. So far, none of the detainees brought to the facilities at Guantanamo Bay have been deported to other countries.

ABC News [2/19/2025 5:02 AM, Laura Romero and James Hill, 33392K] reports that, early this month, as part of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, the first flight carrying "high threat" migrants landed at Guantanamo Bay, home of the notorious U.S. prison camp that administration officials said would house the most violent "worst of the worst" migrants apprehended on American soil. ABC News, however, has spoken with the families of two migrants who say they’re being held there despite having no criminal record. "President Donald Trump has been very clear: Guantanamo Bay will hold the worst of the worst. That starts today," said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after releasing photos of the migrants boarding a C-17 military plane in Texas on Feb 4. The move followed an executive order by Trump directing the secretaries of the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security to "expand the Migrant Operations Center at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to full capacity" for "high-priority criminal aliens unlawfully present in the United States.” "There’s a lot of space to accommodate a lot of people," Trump said in the Oval Office last month when he signed the order. "So we’re going to use it.” But in the weeks that have followed, as more migrants have been sent to Guantanamo, immigrant advocacy groups and some relatives of those detained claim the administration has provided no evidence that those detained are "high-threat" -- and that people are being sent to the military base without access to legal counsel or the ability to communicate with relatives. "It’s troubling enough that we are even sending immigrants from the U.S. to Guantanamo, but it’s beyond the pale that we are holding them incommunicado, without access to attorneys, family or the outside world," said Lee Gelernt, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. A federal lawsuit, filed in Washington, D.C., last week and backed by the ACLU, says this is the first time in U.S. history that the government has detained noncitizens on civil immigration charges at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. A DHS spokesperson told ABC News last week that in addition to holding violent gang members and other "high-threat" migrants, the military is also holding other undocumented migrants with final deportation orders.

Yahoo! News [2/18/2025 12:35 PM, Jerod MacDonald-Evoy, 57114K] reports that amid an increase in drug cartel drones flying over the states’ southern border, GOP lawmakers and the Democratic attorney general say that local police should be able to shoot them out of the sky without fear they’ll be sued. And that’s precisely what a proposal by Rep. David Marshall, R-Snowflake, would do. His House Bill 2733 would give local law enforcement immunity from liability for damage to personal property if they are shooting down a drone they believe is engaged in criminal activity. But even if state law is expanded to allow cops to shoot down drones, federal law still bans shooting at any aircraft — including drones. Attorney General Kris Mayes, who said she worked with Marshall on the proposal, said it’s a critical change to the law that will directly aid in combating the flow of drugs into Arizona. "These drones are on an increase," Mayes said at a Feb. 17 press conference, telling reporters that cartels have been using them to both transport drugs and conduct surveillance on Border Patrol agents. Drones have long been a growing concern for both local and federal law enforcement at the border. Customs and Border Protection uses specialized "drone jammers" to disable unmanned aircraft that are flying illegally.

AP [2/18/2025 5:03 PM, Marlon González] reports Honduran President Xiomara Castro on Tuesday reversed course on a decision to end a long-running extradition treaty with the United States after reaching an agreement with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration. The reversal came as the Trump administration has struck agreements with a number of Central American nations to receive deported migrants from other nations, often after pressure was applied or offers of support made on other issues. On Tuesday, Honduran Foreign Minister Eduardo Enrique Reina said the extradition treaty was part of direct talks with the White House, in which the governments discussed five key issues: migration, military agreements, free trade agreements, investment in trade infrastructure in Honduras and extradition. It wasn’t immediately clear what, if anything, Honduras would get from the agreement.

CBS Austin [2/18/2025 2:36 PM, Alexx Altman-Devilbiss, 581K] reports that Costa Rica announced Monday that it will receive a flight Wednesday from the United States as the Trump administration ramps up deportations of illegal immigrants. "The Government of Costa Rica agreed to collaborate with the United States in the repatriation of 200 illegal immigrants to their country," the Costa Rican president’s office said in a statement, adding "Costa Rica will continue to be a world leader in humanitarian issues." The flight will carry 200 migrants from Central America and India, making it the second nation in Central America to accept deportees. Panama received three U.S. deportation flights last week with migrants from China, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and other countries. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio traveled through the Caribbean and Central America earlier this month and received assurances from Panama and Costa Rica that they were committed to working with the Trump administration on migrant issues. Costa Rica added it would "serve as a bridge to help them reach their countries of origin" and that the repatriation process would be "fully funded by the U.S. government, under the supervision of the International Organization for Migration."

The AP [2/18/2025 7:30 PM, Juan Zamorano, 4368K] reports Panama is detaining in a hotel nearly 300 people from various countries deported under U.S. President Donald Trump, not allowing them to leave while waiting for international authorities to organize a return to their countries. More than 40% of the migrants, authorities say, won’t voluntarily return to their homeland. Migrants in the hotel rooms held messages to the windows reading “Help” and “We are not save (sic) in our country.” The migrants hailed from 10 mostly Asian countries, including Iran, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and others. The U.S. has difficulty deporting directly to some of those countries so Panama is being used as a stopover. Costa Rica was expected to receive a similar flight of third-country deportees on Wednesday. Panama’s Security Minister Frank Abrego said Tuesday the migrants are receiving medical attention and food as part of a migration agreement between Panama and the U.S. The Panamanian government has now agreed to serve as a “bridge” or transit country for deportees, while the U.S. bears all the costs of the operation. The agreement was announced earlier this month after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit. Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino, who faces political pressure over Trump’s threats of retaking control of the Panama Canal, announced the arrival of the first of the deportation flights last Thursday. The confinement and legal limbo the deportees face has raised alarm in the Central American country, especially as images spread of migrants peaking through the windows of their rooms on high floors of the hotel and displaying the notes pleading for help. Abrego denied the foreigners are being detained even though they cannot leave the rooms of their hotel, which is being guarded by police. The New York Times [2/18/2025 7:36 AM, Julie Turkewitz, Hamed Aleaziz, Farnaz Fassihi, Annie Correal and Federico Rios, 161405K] reports that at the hotel, at least one person tried to commit suicide, according to several migrants. Another broke his leg trying to escape. A third sent a plaintive missive from a hidden cellphone: “Only a miracle can save us.” On Wednesday, U.S. officials began flying hundreds of people, including people from Asian, Middle Eastern and African countries, to Panama, which is under intense pressure to appease Mr. Trump, who has threatened to take over the Panama Canal. Now it will be Panamanian officials who decide what happens to them. Because the deported migrants are no longer on U.S. soil, Washington is not legally obligated to make sure they are treated humanely or have the chance to seek asylum. Costa Rica announced on Monday that it would also receive a flight from the United States, carrying 200 deportees from Central Asia and India. Panama and Costa Rica have said that the operations would be supervised by United Nations agencies and financed by the United States.

Reported similarly:
Newsweek [2/18/2025 5:16 PM, Jesus Mesa, 56005K]

Reuters [2/19/2025 1:59 AM, Elida Moreno, 2717K] reports Panama’s security minister said on Tuesday that more than half of the migrants deported from the United States to transit points Panama in recent days had accepted voluntary repatriations to their home countries, largely in Asia or the Middle East. U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration recently deported the migrants on three flights, part of his crackdown on unlawful migration. The 299 migrants have been staying at a hotel in Panama City under the protection of local authorities and with the financial support of the United States through the International Organization for Migration and the U.N. refugee agency, Security Minister Frank Abrego said. "Today I can tell you that 171 of the (migrants) have accepted to return voluntarily," said Abrego, adding that the others will leave gradually when the U.N. provides them with their return transportation. In the interim, those migrants will likely be transferred to a shelter near the Darien Gap jungle in southern Panama that connects Central America with South America. After talks with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio this month, Panama’s President Jose Raul Mulino announced that a deal signed in July with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security could be expanded so that Venezuelan, Colombian and Ecuadorean migrants could also be repatriated from Panama. The New York Times [2/18/2025 5:44 PM, Annie Correal and Julie Turkewitz, 161405K] reports that the Trump administration has been pressing countries in Latin America to accept those migrants as it steps up deportations amid a crackdown on unauthorized immigration. To date, only Panama and Costa Rica are known to have accepted such migrants. In Panama, the migrants have been locked in a soaring, glass-paneled downtown hotel, the Decapolis Hotel Panama. Reporters from The New York Times managed to speak to several people there — including some from Iran and China — who said they had left their countries for the United States because their lives were in danger. Around 150 migrants who had not agreed to be deported would be relocated from the hotel to a camp near the jungle known as the Darién Gap, according to Panama’s security minister, Frank Ábrego. He said at a news conference on Tuesday that the migrants would remain at the camp, San Vicente, until they were offered asylum in a third country “where they felt safe.” Mr. Ábrego said that no one had applied for asylum in Panama. Panamanian authorities have not permitted the deportees to leave the hotel, and a lawyer seeking to represent several migrants, Jenny Soto Fernández, told The Times that officials had blocked her from entering the building at least four times.

Reported similarly:
Univision [2/18/2025 5:46 PM, Staff, 7281K]

Yahoo! News [2/18/2025 6:45 PM, Staff, 57114K] reports Panama’s government denied Tuesday that migrants deported by the United States who were seen holding up signs to hotel windows pleading for help were being held against their will. Public Security Minister Frank Abrego said the migrants were not being "deprived of their freedom" while they await repatriation. "They are in our custody for their protection," he said. Police were seen guarding the Decapolis Hotel in Panama City, where women believed to be part of the group held up handwritten signs to journalists below saying "Please help us" and "We are not safe in our country.” According to Abrego, the group includes migrants from China, India, Iran and Vietnam. Those who do not go home voluntarily would be transferred to a shelter in the Darien jungle, near the border with Colombia, while the International Organization for Migration and the UN refugee agency organize their relocation to another country, Abrego said. "We’re providing them with all the necessary medical care and comforts, and we will continue to do so until the last of them leaves our country, which is what was agreed with the United States government," he added. Panama has complied "with all international regulations," Abrego said.

Wall Street Journal [2/18/2025 5:22 PM, Jason L. Riley] reports will the Supreme Court rescue President Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship, a constitutional provision that grants automatic citizenship to almost anyone born on U.S. soil? Perhaps. But first it must agree to hear the case. The Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment, which was ratified in 1868, states in part: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” The Trump administration argues that the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” excludes children born to people in the country unlawfully or temporarily. Although the Supreme Court has never addressed the issue directly, lower courts have interpreted birthright citizenship to include the children of illegal immigrants. The court typically decides to hear a case when there are conflicting lower-court rulings on an issue, but so far there has been little if any such disagreement. Last week, U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin became the fourth federal judge to block Mr. Trump’s order. “In a lengthy 1898 decision, the Supreme Court examined the Citizenship Clause,” he wrote, “rejecting the interpretation expressed in the [Trump executive order]. The rule and reasoning from that decision were reiterated and applied in later decisions, adopted by Congress as a matter of federal statutory law in 1940, and followed consistently by the Executive Branch for the past 100 years, at least.” Judge Sorokin was appointed by Barack Obama, but judges appointed by Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Joe Biden have offered the same interpretation of the Citizenship Clause in blocking Mr. Trump’s order. The “Executive Order contradicts the text of the Fourteenth Amendment and the century-old untouched precedent that interprets it,” wrote U.S. District Judge Joseph N. Laplante, a Bush appointee, in a ruling earlier this month. It is generally agreed the birthright citizenship rule excludes the children of foreign ambassadors and foreign enemies who are occupying the country. Before the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, it also excluded most Native American children. The Trump administration and some of its supporters say that Congress never intended for the children of people here illegally to be on that list, but lawmakers living in the late 1800s may have disagreed. The 14th Amendment was adopted after the Civil War to overturn the Supreme Court’s notorious 1857 Dred Scott ruling and grant birthright citizenship to former slaves and their offspring.

The Hill [2/18/2025 10:00 AM, Nolan Rappaport, 16346K] reports that immigrants in removal proceedings who know their hearings are going to end badly may be able to salvage their situation by requesting voluntary departure. They would still have to leave the U.S., but they wouldn’t be deported. It’s an important distinction: Deportation would bar them from entering the U.S. lawfully for between five and 20 years. Voluntary departure, which carries no such sanction, might be a benefit not only to the immigrant, but also to President Trump. Trump’s enforcement objective is to return "millions and millions of criminals back to the places from which they came." An immigration court backlog crisis makes it impossible to put that many immigrants through removal proceedings. The backlog has reached more than 4 million cases. Voluntary departure only reduces the backlog if it is granted at a master calendar hearing. That is when immigrants in removal proceedings appear before an immigration judge to have their cases scheduled for a merits hearing, which is when deportability and any available form of relief from deportation is adjudicated. If voluntary departure is granted at a master calendar hearing, there is no merits hearing, which takes cases off of the immigration court’s backlog docket. Trump is likely to do whatever he can to encourage migrants in removal proceedings to take advantage of the benefits they can get from voluntary departure.

SFGate [2/18/2025 9:02 AM, Francisco I. Pedraza, 14282K] reports that one of President Donald Trump’s major promises during the 2024 presidential campaign was to launch mass deportations of immigrants living in the U.S. without legal authorization. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has said that, since January 2025, it is detaining and planning to deport 600 to 1,100 immigrants a day. That marks an increase from the average 282 immigration arrests that happened each day in September 2024 under the Biden administration. The current trend would place the Trump administration on track to apprehend 25,000 immigrants in Trump’s first month in office. On an annual basis, this is about 300,000 – far from the "millions and millions" of immigrants Trump promised to deport. A lack of funding, immigration officers, immigration detention centers and other resources has reportedly impeded the administration’s deportation work. The Trump administration is seeking US$175 billion from Congress to use for the next four years on immigration enforcement, Axios reported on Feb. 11, 2025. If Trump does make good on his promise of mass deportations, our research shows that removing millions of immigrants would be costly for everyone in the U.S., including American citizens and businesses.

Bloomberg [2/18/2025 3:39 PM, Jason Kao and Alicia A. Caldwell, 21617K] reports US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained about 10,000 people in the first two weeks of the Trump administration, according to federal data, underscoring the White House’s early efforts to ramp up deportations. The new detentions represent almost a tripling from the average two-week period during former President Joe Biden’s final year in office, according to an analysis of data from ICE. His administration has said it’s prioritizing removing people with criminal records, though the data show that about 14% of those detained between Jan. 25 and Feb. 8 had no criminal record, beyond immigration violations.

Even as book-ins increased, ICE released about 10,400 people from immigration jails — a daily average of 740 releases, which is about the same level as under the Biden administration. ICE, the Department of Homeland Security agency in charge of arresting and deporting immigrants living in the country without permission, has set a goal of at least 1,000 arrests per day, according to a person familiar with the discussions. Some ICE operations have been leaked in advance, drawing public scrutiny and disrupting efforts. Internally, officials have expressed frustration that the proportion of criminal arrests has been lower than expected, according to the person, who asked not to be identified discussing private information.

NBC News [2/19/2025 5:00 AM, Laura Strickler, 50804K] reports the Trump administration has promised to prioritize the "worst first" when it comes to arrests and deportations of immigrants, but the number of detainees in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody without a criminal conviction or pending criminal charges increased by more than 1,800 in the first two weeks of February, representing 41% of the 4,422 total new detainees in that period, according to new data obtained by NBC News. During federal fiscal year 2024, the Biden administration made 113,431 immigration arrests, and of those, only 28% were of people who had no criminal convictions or pending criminal charges. Asked for comment on the data, Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, said immigrants without criminal records are often "far from innocent" but declined to provide further data. The new detention data from ICE, which is a snapshot from late last week, shows that its detention centers are at the upper limits of their capacity. The number of people detained went from 39,238 in early February to 41,169 in mid-February. ICE’s detention capacity nationwide is 41,500. It’s unclear how many people who had been in detention were deported or were released through the Alternatives to Detention monitoring program during these two weeks. NBC News previously reported that President Donald Trump was frustrated by the slow pace of immigrant arrests and deportations, and that two top ICE officials were demoted in response. One factor in the pace has been the lack of detention space in ICE facilities. And the new data paints a much clearer picture of the dilemma that administration officials face as they try to clear out existing detainees to make room for more new arrestees.

Newsweek [2/18/2025 8:41 AM, Billal Rahman, 56005K] reports that proposed legislation to reward bounty hunters with $1,000 per deportation is getting traction nationwide, a Missouri state senator has told Newsweek. "I’m finding a tremendous amount of support. It’s actually gaining support across the country," said Senator David Gregory (R-St. Louis). GOP lawmakers in Mississippi and Missouri have proposed expanding powers for bounty hunters to assist ICE with immigration enforcement. The legislation has sparked debate, supporters arguing it strengthens immigration policy, while critics warn it could lead to racial profiling and civil rights violations. President Donald Trump centered his successful presidential campaign around immigration. While most Americans support immigration reform, they disagree on how policies such as mass deportation should be conducted. Gregory, who proposed the bounty hunter system, wants to allow bail bond agents to be certified to go after those believed to have crossed the border illegally. Gregory introduced Senate Bill 72 on December 1, which would also bar migrants without permission to live in the U.S. from receiving benefits, a driver’s license, or becoming legal residents of Missouri, which has a Republican governor and Republican-controlled senate and house.

The Hill [2/18/2025 10:16 AM, Tara Suter, 16346K] reports that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shot back at President Trump’s "border czar" Tom Homan on Monday after he insulted her intelligence. Homan, in an interview Monday with Newsmax’s Rob Finnerty, called the New York Democrat "the dumbest congresswoman ever [elected] to … Congress, and she proves that every day." "And look, bottom line is, I can’t believe … any member of Congress, Republican, Democrat, independent, would want to educate criminal illegal aliens who are in the country illegally, been convicted of a violent crime and had been ordered removed by an immigration judge after due process at great taxpayer expense," Homan continued. He added, "You got a… congresswoman that does not want ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] to do the job that Congress has mandated them to do, and funds them to do." Ocasio-Cortez responded to the comments in a post on the social platform X. "This is why you fight these cowards," she wrote. "The moment you stand up to them, they crumble. Homan has nothing. The Fourth Amendment is clear and I am well within my duties to educate people of their rights." "He can threaten me with jail & call names all he wants. He’s got nothing else," the lawmaker added. "You can claim you [are] educating [them about] constitutional rights," Homan said on Fox News, also saying, "But what [Ocasio-Cortez] is, in fact, doing is telling people, ‘Don’t open the door, hide in your home, don’t talk to ICE.’" Newsweek [2/18/2025 11:21 AM, Billal Rahman, 56005K] reports "She wants to tell these people how to evade arrest, how to evade lice. And we still got child predators we’re looking for in New York, in her district, people convicted of child sex crimes, people who have been convicted of rape," Homan told Fox News. President Donald Trump made strict immigration measures a core component of his return to the White House. Along with carrying out mass deportations, his second administration has vowed to prosecute anyone who impedes their immigration enforcement operations. The "Know Your Rights With ICE" virtual event was broadcast live on Ocasio-Cortez’s Facebook page, offering migrants guidance on responding to ICE search requests if officers visit their homes or workplaces. Yahoo! News [2/18/2025 9:15 AM, Janna Brancolini, 57114K] reports that during not one but two Fox News appearances on Monday, Homan said the deputy attorney general was "looking into" whether the Democratic lawmaker had "crossed a line" and was "aiding and abetting" criminal activity. Since last week, Homan has repeatedly called for the DOJ to come after Ocasio-Cortez for sharing information with her constituents about the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures. "Go ahead. Let the people see you for what you are," Ocasio-Cortez wrote on the social media platform Bluesky in response to his latest attacks.

Yahoo! News [2/18/2025 7:23 PM, Maria Papadopoulos, 57114K] reports a Massachusetts court twice ignored an immigration detainer lodged by ICE and twice released a Guatemalan national convicted of assault and other crimes in the Bay State, federal immigration authorities said Tuesday. Wilber Chinic-Villagran, 27, was previously convicted in Massachusetts of three counts of assault and battery on a family member, intimidation, and violation of the Abuse Prevention Act, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Boston said in a statement. Federal officers arrested Chinic-Villagran on Jan. 26, in Framingham, officials said. He remains in ICE custody. "Wilber Chinic-Villagran illegally came to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and committed some horrendous crimes," ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston acting Field Office Director Patricia Hyde said in a statement. "We simply will not tolerate such a threat to the residents of our Massachusetts communities. ICE Boston will continue to prioritize public safety by arresting and removing egregious alien offenders from New England," Hyde said. The case highlights the ongoing issue facing federal immigration officials who are often at odds with the courts regarding immigration detainers, which are intended to hold persons who are in the country illegally and accused or convicted of crimes until federal officers can arrest them. Court officials do not have the authority to hold an individual in custody solely on the basis of a Federal Civil Immigration Detainer, Jennifer Donahue, spokesperson for the Massachusetts Trial Courts, said in a statement to Boston 25 on Tuesday.

Washington Examiner [2/18/2025 1:18 PM, Alan Wooten, 2365K] reports that faith-based institutions, schools and hospitals have been proposed as sanctuaries statewide in North Carolina in response to the increased arrests, detainers and warrants served since Jan. 20 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The bill is in the state House of Representatives. A day after its first reading, it moved to the Committee on Rules, Calendar and Operations of the House where it likely will rest in peace away from the full Republican majority chamber. Democratic Reps. Maria Cervania of Wake County, Pricey Harrison of Guilford County, Deb Butler of New Hanover County and Renee Price of Orange County led sponsorship of Prohibit LEO w/ICE Churches/Schools/Hospitals. The bill would "prohibit law enforcement agencies and officers from participating in immigration enforcement in North Carolina places of religious worship, elementary and secondary schools, and hospitals." Two parts of Section 1 in the legislation intrigue. In one, "Any current or future memorandum, agreement, or contract made between a criminal justice agency or sheriff’s office and United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement shall be void to the extent that the performance of the memorandum, agreement, or contract would violate subsection (a) of this section." And, "Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit criminal justice agencies, sheriffs’ offices, criminal justice officers, or justice officers from enforcing the laws of this state to the extent authorized by the law."

Yahoo! News [2/18/2025 5:14 PM, Laurel Stone, 57114K] reports a felony forgery charge was dropped after prosecutors say its dismissal would expedite the deportation proceedings for the man who was facing it. Diego Lopez Gomez, 23, was initially scheduled for a pretrial hearing in court Tuesday, but before that could happen, prosecutors dismissed the third-degree forgery charge he was facing. Lopez Gomez was first charged after he attempted to present fake documents to a Boardman BMV in an attempt to get an Ohio ID, according to incident reports. The prosecutor’s office said the dismissal allows U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to take over the case and proceed with deportation in a more efficient manner. "I think it was great coordination with local law enforcement and federal agents to make sure that someone in the country illegally was handled appropriately," Mahoning County Prosecutor Lynn Maro told First News.

FOX News [2/18/2025 11:43 AM, Michael Lee Fox, 49889K] reports that local governments which defy President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown could soon face the wrath of their governor under a bill making its way through the Indiana legislature. Indiana House Bill 1531, which allows local law enforcement agencies the ability to carry out federal immigration laws and threatens to withhold funding from local governments who fail to comply with federal immigration laws, passed through the committee on a party line vote after hours of tense testimony and now moves to the full House, according to a report from the Indy Star Monday. The bill would also allow the state’s attorney general to impose civil penalties if a local government agency fails to comply with a federal immigration detention request, requires state judges to report any non-U.S. citizen convicted of a crime to federal authorities, prohibits employers from recruiting or hiring illegal immigrants and grants immunity to government bodies or employees for action taken on immigration detainer requests. "We’ve been doing as much as we can with existing authority under labor trafficking laws to go after this issue of illegal aliens being employed in the state," Assistant Chief Deputy Attorney General Blake Lanning told the Indy Star. "But in many ways, Indiana law was not designed for this problem, to address this problem."

Border Report [2/18/2025 6:47 PM, Sandra Sanchez, 153K] reports a clamp down by the Trump administration on the Southwest border is reflected in recent data showing the largest drop in migrants encountered in five years. Meanwhile, border communities are "anxious," community leaders say, about ICE arrests and patrols north of the Rio Grande. U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Tuesday reported 29,116 illegal border crossings by U.S. Border Patrol along the Southwest border in January. That’s down nearly 50% from 47,316 migrant encounters in December, and down from 249,740 encounters in December 2023. The number of migrants encounters by Border Patrol agents and CBP officers from the Office of Field Operations — which includes ports of entry — was 61,465 in January, down 44% from December. The January data does not yet reflect a full month of Trump administration changes toward asylum and border entries since President Donald Trump didn’t take office until Jan. 20. Nevertheless, it shows a stark difference in the number of immigrants coming to the border, or at least of those being encountered by law enforcement on U.S. soil without proper documentation. The decrease in number of immigrants crossing from Mexico into the United States is also reflected in a visible decrease in activity in Southwest border communities, where migrants are fearful of being arrested. In South Texas, there has been an increase in immigrants attending free "know your rights" workshops put on by the nonprofit organization La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE) to learn what to do if approached by an officer with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Yahoo! News [2/18/2025 5:14 PM, Melissa Luna, 57114K] reports a man from Mexico was recently extradited from Mexico City to El Paso on criminal charges related to his alleged involvement in human smuggling operations through the El Paso corridor, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas. The U.S. Attorney’s Office says Osvaldo Coronel-Fernandez, also known as "Omero" of Ciudad Juarez, is being charged with one count of aiding and abetting bringing in migrants without authorization for financial gain and one count of conspiracy to encourage and induce migrants to come into the U.S. for financial gain. Coronel-Fernandez was indicted by a federal grand jury in El Paso on Nov. 20, 2019, for offenses that allegedly occurred between July 2015 and August 2016, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. If convicted, Coronel-Fernandez faces three to 10 years in federal prison for the aiding and abetting charge and up to 10 years in prison for the conspiracy charge. Homeland Security Investigations is investigating the case with assistance from the U.S. Border Patrol and U.S. Marshals Service.

Yahoo! News [2/18/2025 10:35 AM, Tim Carpenter, 57114K] reports that the Kansas Bureau of Investigation formally agreed to dedicate agents to enhance collaboration with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the search for people without documentation to legally be in the country. Under the state-federal partnership, an unspecified number KBI agents would receive ICE training that enabled them to issue immigration detainers, serve warrants for some immigration violations and arrest people allegedly in the United States without authorization. "The KBI is pleased to have another tool at our disposal to get known criminal offenders out of our communities," said Tony Mattivi, director of the state law enforcement agency. "This agreement will not shift KBI investigative priorities, but will allow us to more swiftly achieve justice in cases in which the KBI currently focuses." The KBI’s authority would stem from a federal law known as Section 287(g). It enabled ICE to delegate to state and local law enforcement officers authority to perform specific immigration officer functions under the federal agency’s oversight. For example, the program permitted ICE to partner with state and local agencies to identify incarcerated individuals amenable to removal from the U.S. before released into a community.

FOX News [2/18/2025 4:28 PM, Greg Wehner, 49889K] reports newly released video shows U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Seattle, Washington, preparing a group of illegal, undocumented immigrants to be flown back to their home countries. The video begins with ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) agents standing on the tarmac of the airport, as other agents pull chains attached to handcuffs out of a plastic crate. In a post on X, ICE Seattle said the undocumented aliens are flown out of Seattle as part of a process to return them to their home countries. The video does not make it clear where the undocumented immigrants are being flown.

Telemundo [2/18/2025 11:35 PM, Tania Luviano Hurwitz, 34K] reports the desperation of stepping on U.S. soil leads many migrants to not measure the danger and because of that, many fall into the hands of people who are engaged in human smuggling. This is the case of Viviana Elizabeth Aguirre Estrada, 22 years old, who has been wanted since December 5 when she left Tijuana bound for San Diego. The family of this migrant has not stopped looking for her and both in the streets of San Diego and Tijuana have distributed flyers with the photo of Viviana, who thought she would arrive in San Diego to meet her father and husband, but who they say ended up kidnapped. "I always told her that it was very risky, to wait. I had a bad feeling," said Lucía, Viviana’s sister, who said that she had received calls where her sister talked and told her that she had been kidnapped and that she was being asked for $30,000 to free her. From December 5 through December 8, the alleged kidnapper spoke to them and sent endless messages asking for the money and threatening to kill her, "My sister would talk and say, mom they kidnapped me, they are asking for $30,000 so they can release me," she said. According to Lucia, it was her sister Viviana’s husband, who made arrangements with the same smuggler who 6 months earlier had illegally crossed him from Tijuana to San Diego. "The last message I had from my sister was, she told me, sister I love you very much, my mom left me", expressed Lucia. Lucia, is one of 7 sisters, and says that her 3 year old girl and Viviana were very close. She explained that the night before she was put in the hands of the alleged smuggler, her family sent her away, without ever imagining what would happen in 24 hours. "My sister was beaten, she was hit with a strong closed fist, in a video she was kicked on the floor", detailed Lucia. She said that they sent $11,000 thousand to the kidnapper, but they never heard anything from Viviana. "She was surely in the hands of a coyote linked to a drug cartel that does cross people but also uses migrants as mules to cross drugs and kidnap, abduct and murder," said Victor Clark-Alfaro, professor of Latin American studies at SDSU. He said that human trafficking networks for sexual purposes are recurrent cases on the border.

CBS News [2/18/2025 11:37 PM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, 52225K] reports the Trump administration has enacted a pause on all immigration applications filed by migrants from Latin America and Ukraine allowed into the U.S. under certain Biden-era programs, citing fraud and security concerns, according to two U.S. officials and an internal memo obtained by CBS News. The application freeze will remain in place indefinitely while government officials work to identify potential cases of fraud and enhance vetting procedures to mitigate concerns related to national security and public safety, according to the directive. The move, which had not been previously reported, threatens to cast a cloud of uncertainty over many migrants who were in the process of applying for various immigration benefits that would allow them to stay in the U.S. legally and, in some cases, permanently. While the exact number of affected migrants is unclear, the hold on applications applies to several Biden administration programs that allowed hundreds of thousands of foreigners to come to the U.S. legally through an immigration law known as parole. That law empowers the U.S. government to welcome foreigners quickly on humanitarian or public benefit grounds. The Biden administration used parole at an unprecedented scale, partially to encourage migrants to sign up for legal migration channels instead of crossing the southern border unlawfully. The Trump administration moved swiftly to suspend those efforts, arguing that they abused the parole authority. The Trump administration had previously halted new entries under Biden-era parole policies. But in a memo dated Feb. 14, Andrew Davidson, a top U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services official, ordered an agency-wide "administrative pause" on all "pending benefit requests" filed by migrants already allowed into the U.S. under three Biden administration programs.

Reuters [2/18/2025 7:42 PM, Jonathan Landay, 48128K] reports that the State Department office overseeing the resettlement of Afghans in the United States has been told to develop plans to close by April, according to a U.S. official, a leading advocate and two sources familiar with the directive, a move that could deny up to an estimated 200,000 people new lives in America. Family members of Afghan-American U.S. military personnel, children cleared to reunite with their parents, relatives of Afghans already admitted and tens of thousands of Afghans who worked for the U.S. government during the 20-year war are among those who could be turned away if the office is shut, the advocate and the U.S. official said. "Shutting this down would be a national disgrace, a betrayal of our Afghan allies, of the veterans who fought for them, and of America’s word," said Shawn VanDiver, founder of #AfghanEvac, the main coalition of veterans and advocacy groups and others that coordinates resettlements with the U.S. government. The White House and the U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

CBS News [2/18/2025 4:37 PM, Kiki Intarasuwan, 52225K] reporst Border Patrol aircraft have been targeted by lasers at least six times since October, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Tuesday. The agency said its Air and Marine Operations helicopter was most recently hit by a laser on Feb. 9 while Air Interdiction Agents conducted border security missions near the McAllen International Airport in Texas. The patrol AS-350 helicopter was struck three times by a laser that reportedly came from a car on the Mexican riverbank, the CBP said in a news release Tuesday. Another incident was reported in Jacksonville, Florida, on Jan. 9 where the same type of helicopter was targeted. One person was arrested in the incident, according to the news release. Officials at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey said there were at least 15 laser strikes in 10 days that month. They said the incidents occurred due to people on the ground who believed they saw an unmanned aircraft system or a drone. Laser incidents have been climbing in recent years, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. In 2024, there were 12,840 reported incidents, slightly down from the record high reported in 2023.

Reported similarly:
FOX News [2/18/2025 3:07 PM, Michael Lee Fox, 49889K]

FOX News [2/18/2025 4:00 AM, Michael Lee, 57114K] reports that, as President Donald Trump steps up border security and deportation efforts, agents with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are finding themselves under alarmingly sophisticated threats to their safety, an expert tells Fox News Digital. "The cartels are losing business. The encounters at the border are the lowest they’ve been in decades, and the cartels are not just going to give up that business quietly," Lora Ries, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, told Fox News Digital. The comments come after it was reported over the weekend that CBP agents will no longer wear body cameras during field operations, a response to a post on Reddit that claimed it could help people track agents wearing the cameras with an application called BLE Radar, which uses Bluetooth to scan for such devices within a 100-yard radius. "Pending completion of investigation and risk mitigation, all Agents will stand down the use of their BWCs [body worn cameras] until further notice. Additional guidance and information will be disseminated as it is received," a directive over the weekend announced. While the tracking of agents was presented as a way to help immigrants find soft spots on the border, it also opened up agents to threats to their safety, including from improvised explosive devices. Cartels could also make use of the tracking information to threaten the lives of agents, Ries noted. "It is possible that they could use the cameras… the low-level frequency interception to track the agents, harm the agents, and attack the agents," Ries said. Ries also noted that the cameras played an important role in protecting field agents from false claims of abuse, providing key evidence they now won’t have after encounters with migrants. An ICE agent monitors hundreds of asylum seekers being processed upon entering the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building on June 6, 2023, in New York City. "I anticipate the number of claims of abuse are about to jump to exploit this lack of camera use," Ries said.

Axios [2/18/2025 6:29 AM, Lucille Sherman, Zachery Eanes, 16349K] reports arrests of undocumented immigrants by members of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Durham last week raised concerns from neighbors and advocates, who showed in videos and said in statements that the agents were masked and not identifying themselves. President Trump has pledged to significantly increase the number of deportations of people who are not authorized to be in the U.S. — though the plans have hit logistical hurdles due to a lack of funds and infrastructure to handle such a large increase. Still, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement are arresting up to 1,100 people a day — including 11 people from Venezuela in Raleigh on Feb. 8, one of whom was a suspect in a shooting in Chicago. The arrests in Durham detained three men from India living in the Northgate Park neighborhood, Siembra NC, an immigrant rights group, shared with Axios. Several neighbors said in a press conference held by Siembra that the scene made them feel less safe because the agents wore tactical gear, had guns and were not identifying themselves. CBP confirmed the arrests but didn’t share many details. "U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers conducted a targeted enforcement operation in the Durham, NC, area today, resulting in the detention of several individuals identified as illegal aliens," the agency said in a statement. ICE can enter into private dwellings by presenting an arrest warrant or search warrant with a judge’s signature. ICE can enter if they receive consent, which can be obtained through trickery but not coercion, according to Andres Guerra, an immigration attorney with the Coalition for Human Immigrant Rights. ICE can enter if they hear or detect an emergency happening inside the premises. Administrative warrants, which are issued by ICE officers, do not give ICE authority to enter a private home. In public spaces, agents can use arrest warrants or a deportation order signed by a judge — but individuals have no obligation to identify themselves.

Yahoo! News [2/18/2025 1:24 PM, Aaron Martinez, 57114K] reports that federal agents arrested four men on suspicion of housing migrants illegally in the U.S. at two El Paso hotels, authorities said. U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested Yair Alejandro Aguilar-Flores, Angel Eduardo Carrillo-Carrillo, Jorge Alfredo Lopez-Acevedo and Jesus David Reyes-Villagran on Feb. 4 at a motel in the 900 block of Yarbrough Drive in East El Paso, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas officials and court documents state. Border Patrol agents descend from a C-17 plane after loading migrants to be deported back to Guatemala on Jan. 30, 2025 at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. The aircraft is designed to transport 134 passengers, but only carried 80 migrants. The men were arrested on federal charges of bringing in and transporting aliens. The men face up to 10 years in prison if convicted. U.S. Border Patrol Ysleta Station’s Disrupt Unit agents were conducting surveillance operations on a motel known to be used by human smugglers, a federal complaint affidavit states. The motel is not named in the affidavit.

NewsNation [2/18/2025 4:24 PM, Jorge Ventura] reports in a historic moment in Texas border security, the Texas National Guard has now been officially deputized under Title 8, giving them the authority to execute immigration enforcement duties. On Friday, the first 300 Texas Military Department soldiers were sworn in, taking an oath to assist the Border Patrol in enforcing immigration laws. Now, they can apprehend and detain individuals who cross illegally, no longer just monitoring and waiting for the Border Patrol to take action.

AZCentral [2/18/2025 7:21 PM, Staff, 6018K] reports Border Patrol installs concertina wire along Arizona border despite low illegal crossings. [Editorial note: consult photos at source link]

Miami Herald [2/18/2025 10:08 AM, Antonio Maria Delgado, 6595K] reports that finding the U.S. border effectively closed to them by drastic measures put in place by the Trump administration, thousands of Latin American migrants trapped in Mexico are gearing up for the hard trek back to their countries, with some already crossing into Guatemala, the first stop in Central America, while others are trying to earn enough money for the trip home. Conditions are difficult for the estimated 350,000 migrants who have found themselves trapped in Mexico after President Donald Trump shut down CBP One, an app that permitted asylum seekers to initiate the process before reaching the border. The measure ended in one fell swoop the aspirations of thousands who for months had been waiting for an appointment with an immigration official to plead their cases. While no one has an official breakdown of the different nationalities that make up the mass wave of migrants who are stranded in Mexico, in the past few years the trend of people moving towards the border has been dominated by Venezuelans, Haitians, Colombians, Ecuadorians and Cubans as well as nationals from different Central American countries. Many of those stranded don’t quite know what to do next. Some are considering seeking asylum in Mexico, but those are relatively few.

USA Today [2/18/2025 9:00 AM, Christopher Cann, 89965K] reports investigators have begun working to identify what caused a Delta Air Lines regional jet to flip on its roof while landing at Canada’s Toronto Pearson Airport, injuring 18 of the 80 people on the flight from Minnesota. The passenger jet carrying 76 passengers and four crew members crashed as it was attempting to land around 2:45 p.m. local time, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a preliminary statement. The CRJ-900 plane had departed from Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport. Eighteen injured passengers were transported to area hospitals, mostly with minor to moderate injuries, officials said. Of those injured, two adults were taken to two different trauma centers by air ambulance and one child was transported to a children’s hospital. Immediately after the crash, Canada’s busiest airport shut down all of its runways. The airport resumed departures and arrivals by 5 p.m. but cancellations and delays have since piled up. Hours before the plane flipped over, the airport said on social media that it was dealing with frigid temperatures, high winds and snow leftover from a weekend storm. It remains unclear what role, if any, the weather had in the crash. Todd Aitken, Toronto Pearson Airport’s fire chief, said he could not comment on the investigation but noted that the "runway was dry and there was no cross wind conditions." Toronto Pearson International Airport said on Tuesday that it remains open with flights arriving and departing, but advised passengers to check the status of their flight before heading to the airport. About 145 flights in and out of the airport were canceled by 8 a.m. Tuesday; 72 were delayed, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking website. On Monday, the airport saw nearly 400 cancellations and 362 delays. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reuters [2/18/2025 8:06 PM, Allison Lampert, David Shepardson and Eric Cox, 57114K] reports Canadian investigators said on Tuesday they sent black boxes for lab analysis from a Delta Air Lines (DAL.N), regional jet that flipped upside down upon landing in Toronto a day earlier, as they probe causes of the crash that injured 21 people. Following initial impact on the runway at Toronto’s Pearson Airport, parts of the CRJ900 aircraft separated and a fire ensued, Transportation Safety Board of Canada Senior Investigator Ken Webster said in a video. The team of over 20 Canadian investigators are leading the probe into the jet operated by Delta’s Endeavor Air subsidiary and are getting assistance from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and regulators Transport Canada and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. Webster echoed other aviation safety officials in saying it was too early to tell what happened to Flight 4819 from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, which had 80 people on board including crew.

New York Times [2/18/2025 5:03 PM, Niraj Chokshi, 161405K] reports that the family of one of the 67 victims of a plane crash last month near Washington filed two legal claims against the federal government on Tuesday, seeking compensation and signifying the beginning of what is expected to be a long and complex legal fight. The claims, which appear to be the first against the U.S. government over the collision, were filed by the family of Casey Crafton, an airline passenger who died in the crash, according to Robert A. Clifford, the lawyer representing the family. Mr. Clifford said he had also asked several companies associated with the crash to preserve evidence. “I don’t know who caused this crash, but I know the passengers sure didn’t, and the families are entitled to answers,” Mr. Clifford said in an interview. “This was preventable.” The crash occurred on the night of Jan. 29 when an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with American Airlines Flight 5342 near Ronald Reagan National Airport, plunging both the plane and the helicopter into the icy Potomac River and killing everyone on both aircraft. It was the worst plane crash in the United States in nearly a quarter-century. The cause has not yet been identified, but the National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading a federal investigation, said last week that it was looking into what appeared to be missed instructions sent from an air traffic controller to the helicopter pilots. Aviation experts say the investigation will probably identify multiple safety failures, as is often the case with plane crashes.

Washington Post [2/18/2025 6:03 PM, Brianna Sacks, 40736K] reports the mass firings started over Presidents’ Day weekend, part of what federal employees in text groups and online forums called the "St. Valentine’s Day Massacre," which has created chaos across the federal government. For FEMA, which operates with about 25,000 people, the cuts will affect disaster victims seeking individual assistance funds, rural and tribal communities trying to bolster their infrastructure, and towns trying to obtain large grants to help them rebuild, according to nine current and former FEMA officials, who like others interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation. Critics of FEMA have long called for a better, less-complicated disaster response system, pointing out that the agency often is tasked with doing too much, which hinders its ability to respond swiftly and efficiently. While the losses have been hard to track given FEMA’s various staffing sources and layers, agency officials have estimated they’ll be short about 1,000 employees because of the terminations and the deferred resignation program put in place by Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service. FEMA is actively responding to more than 100 disasters and emergencies across the United States, including hurricanes Milton and Helene and the historic fires in Los Angeles.

Washington Post [2/18/2025 7:21 AM, Ben Noll, 40736K] reports areas from Kansas to Virginia will be hit with heavy snow and ice from Tuesday through Thursday, leading to moderate to major winter storm impacts. As frigid air from the polar vortex meets warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico, a wave of precipitation will form and track from the Plains to the Mid-Atlantic from Tuesday through Thursday. The range of conditions — from snow to freezing rain and blustery winds — will be hazardous in spots, creating challenges for travel and the potential for power outages and dangerous cold. Winter storm watches, warnings and advisories cover this 1,300-mile corridor, including areas affected by deadly flooding over the weekend. Snowfall of 3 to 6 or 6 to 12 inches is forecast in eastern Kansas, northeastern Oklahoma, southern Missouri, northern Arkansas, southern Illinois, Kentucky, southern West Virginia, southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. Freezing rain will create icy conditions in a number of places, including southern Oklahoma, northern Texas, southern Arkansas, northern Louisiana, northern Mississippi, northern Alabama and the Carolinas. Gusty winds will cause blowing and drifting snow and the potential for whiteout conditions, particularly in the Plains and Midwest, leading to dangerous roads and the potential for flight delays and cancellations. Once the storm passes, a very cold but more settled pattern will arrive. The storm’s heaviest snow is forecast across southern Missouri and far northern Arkansas, where more than a foot could fall in some communities. That swath of the country is where relatively warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico will ride over the top of the incoming frigid air mass. This meteorological process, known as overrunning, can cause heavy bands of snow to form. To help prepare for the storm, here are forecasts for the areas around eight cities that will be in the thick of it. Each forecast starts with a storm-impact rating — a subjective assessment of the severity of the conditions expected, with zero being the least impactful and 10 the most.

Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle [2/18/2025 4:39 PM, Kenya Anderson] reports Gov. Bill Lee and other officials traveled to Clarksville on Tuesday morning to survey the damage left behind by severe flooding over the weekend. Lee was joined by Clarksville Mayor Joe Pitts and Tennessee Emergency Management Agency Director, Patrick Sheehan as they toured the city hit with the water, visiting affected areas around Elberta Drive and Spees Drive. He said that while he has spoken with Secretary of Homeland Security and is coordinating with TEMA, the real focus is making sure everyone is safe. Lee said that they are still determining the full extent of the damage caused by the flooding, he cannot declare a state of emergency at the moment.

Reported similarly:
Jackson Sun [2/18/2025 5:10 PM, Sarah Best]

Newsweek [2/18/2025 4:47 PM, James Bickerton, 6595K] reports that the Trump administration has turned down a request from Georgia Governor Brian Kemp for a second deadline extension to apply for relief from the state following Hurricane Helene, which struck in September. Newsweek contacted the White House and FEMA for comment via email and Kemp by phone on Tuesday outside of regular office hours. Swathes of the Southeast were devastated in late September by Hurricane Helene, which left 219 people dead and caused billions of dollars’ worth of damage. Helene was the deadliest hurricane to strike the mainland U.S. since Katrina in 2005, with Florida, Georgia, North Carolina South Carolina and Virginia particularly badly hit. On Wednesday, Cameron Hamilton, acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), told Kemp that his request for a second deadline extension for local authorities in Georgia to apply for assistance related to the storm had been denied. Kemp, a Republican, had requested the deadline extension in January. Initially, Georgia had been given a 120-day extension for FEMA applications that came to an end on February 3. FEMA had given 180-day extensions to Florida and South Carolina. Kemp’s request for an extension had been supported by Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns and Agricultural Commissioner Tyler Harper, both Republicans.

CBS Miami [2/18/2025 11:07 AM, Staff, 52225K] reports that the former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency will ask a U.S. district judge to clear her in a lawsuit alleging the agency violated civil rights of Florida supporters of President Donald Trump in the aftermath of hurricanes Helene and Milton. Deanne Criswell, who led FEMA during the Biden administration, will argue that she is shielded from the lawsuit by what is known as "qualified immunity," according to a court document filed Friday. Quoting two U.S. Supreme Court precedents, the document said qualified immunity "protects government officials ‘from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights.’" Then-Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody filed the lawsuit in November after reports that a FEMA supervisor directed aid workers to avoid going to homes in Lake Placid that had yard signs supporting Trump. The lawsuit named as defendants Criswell and former FEMA supervisor Marn’i Washington. Gov. Ron DeSantis last month appointed Moody to the U.S. Senate to succeed Marco Rubio, who became Trump’s secretary of state. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Fort Pierce, alleged that a conspiracy existed that violated the rights of Trump supporters. It sought damages and a declaration that the defendants "conspired to interfere with the civil rights of Trump supporters in Florida" in violation of a federal law.

Yahoo! News [2/18/2025 12:45 PM, Thomas Tracy, 57114K] reports that an angry archer took aim at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building early Tuesday, shooting three arrows at a glass door, police said. The unidentified suspect rolled up to the building at Broadway and Worth St. at about 2:30 a.m. in a light-colored sedan. The man was caught on surveillance video stepping out of the car and firing off the arrows from a crossbow before jumping back into the vehicle. The arrows shattered the building’s glass door, police said. No injuries were reported. The federal building holds the city’s federal immigration court, as well as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices. It also contains offices for the FBI and Department of Homeland Security. It was not immediately clear why the suspect decided to fire arrows at 26 Federal Plaza, which is the tallest federal building in the country. The FBI was investigating the incident, officials said. No arrests have been made.

Yahoo! News [2/18/2025 8:55 PM, Staff, 57114K] reports Ohio State Highway Patrol (OSHP) troopers found over $1,500 in counterfeit money during a traffic stop in December. Troopers from the Canton Post pulled over a car that was reported stolen on Dec. 27 just before 3 p.m., according to an OSHP social media post. Body camera video shows troopers ordering the driver to get out of the car and walk towards them with her hands up. Troopers found cash and change on the driver while making sure she had no weapons. The video shows troopers looking through a stack of money, and then noticing several $100 bills had the same serial number. "Those do not look real," one trooper said. The troopers search the car and find a piece of luggage with a printer inside. The driver was arrested for receiving stolen property and for a warrant, according to the body camera video.

Cherry Hill Courier-Post [2/18/2025 3:56 PM, Joseph P. Smith] reports the U.S. Coast Guard and partner agencies responded to a tugboat on fire near Pea Patch Island on the Delaware River on Tuesday morning. The Coast Guard reported that all four crew members were safely evacuated from the vessel by good Samaritans. The fire since was extinguished, and the vessel taken under tow. Coast Guard Sector Delaware Bay launched crews from Station Philadelphia and a MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew from Air Station Atlantic City to assist with the incident, which occurred near the river’s shores in Salem County, New Jersey. The cause of the fire remains under investigation. No additional information was immediately available.

CBS Sacramento [2/18/2025 1:52 PM, Cecilio Padilla, 52225K] reports that U.S. Coast Guard officials say the search for a missing crew member from the cutter Waesche has been suspended. Seaman Bryan K. Lee – a 23-year-old from Rancho Cordova – was discovered unaccounted for back on the morning of Feb. 4, officials say. The Waesche was operating in the Eastern Pacific Ocean about 300 nautical miles south of Mexico at the time, doing routine counter-drug patrols. A comprehensive search effort began immediately once the crewman was discovered missing, officials say. Search crews spent nearly 190 hours looking for Lee, the Coast Guard says, covering an area of about 19,000 square nautical miles. The search effort was called off the following Saturday. "Our most heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Seaman Lee," said Cmdr. David Stern, search and rescue mission coordinator for Coast Guard District Eleven, in a statement. "Considering all pertinent factors and available information, we made the difficult decision to suspend the search." A number of aircraft from the Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection, and the U.S. Air Force joined the search effort. A vessel and aircraft from the Mexican Navy also helped with the search.

Federal News Network [2/18/2025 6:30 PM, Anastasia Obis, 470K] reports the Coast Guard is in the midst of investigating a data breach within its personnel and payroll system that delayed bi-weekly pay for 1,135 service members. The Coast Guard said it temporarily shut down its Direct Access system as it investigates the breach. "Workforce access will be restored as soon as possible," the Coast Guard told Federal News Network in a statement. Some service members’ direct deposit account and routing information was compromised. It is unclear what types of data besides service members’ bank information may have been exposed or how widespread the breach is. "If the investigation determines that any additional information was compromised, impacted members will be notified and updated," said the Coast Guard. "The Coast Guard is still investigating the source and scope of the breach. Due to the diligence of a junior Petty Officer who reported anomalous activity affecting their account to the Coast Guard Cyber Command, we were able to minimize the impact of the breach.” Direct Access is the service’s primary system for human resources and payroll support for active duty, reserve, and retired active duty and retired reserve Coast Guard personnel. It provides military assignment processing, supports recruitment and accession processes, schedules training, processes promotions and disciplinary actions and provides payroll, among other functions. DA, built on a legacy system, has been prone to frequent outages for maintenance and updates, making it unusable for most users for extended periods of time.

Reported similarly:
MilitaryTimes [2/18/2025 6:00 PM, Riley Ceder]

Newsweek [2/18/2025 8:15 AM, Jasmine Laws, 56005K] reports a man arrested in Miami Beach on Saturday has been charged with two counts of attempted second-degree murder. According to an arrest report seen by NBC 6 South Florida, Mordechai Brafman, 27, opened fire on the victims’ vehicle 17 times. He told detectives in an interview that he "was driving his truck, saw two Palestinians and shot and killed both," according to an arrest report cited by the outlet. Newsweek has contacted the Miami-Dade Police Department and the Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Center both by email and phone for comment. Neither was immediately available each time Newsweek called. On Saturday, at around 9:30 p.m. local time, surveillance video captured Brafman’s car driving down Pine Road on Saturday, according to NBC 6, and caught him making a U-turn at 48th Street where the two victims were in a vehicle. Per the outlet, Brafman, who has been described as Jewish by sources including the New York Post, drove past them and stopped directly in front of them. He then reportedly got out his car and opened fire on the two victims’ vehicle as it drove past him. Both people in the vehicle were hit by the gunfire. One had a gunshot wound on their left shoulder, while the other had a graze wound on their left forearm, NBC 6 reported. According to the local news channel WPLG, authorities said the shooting was unprovoked and the victims and Brafman did not know each other. The identity of the victims, and whether they were Palestinian or not, has not been officially shared as of yet, but law enforcement sources said that they were visiting from Israel, the Miami Herald reported. A video shared on X, formerly Twitter, by the news outlet The Palestine News Network allegedly showed a video of the victims. The caption claimed they were an Israeli father and son.

New York Times [2/18/2025 8:14 PM, Eric Schmitt and John Ismay, 161405K] reports Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency has asked the Pentagon to provide it with the names of all probationary employees at the Defense Department, according to three senior military officials. The officials said that they believed most of those employees would soon be laid off, and that each branch of the armed forces would be required to submit waiver requests to keep probationary employees they felt were necessary for ongoing operations. One of the officials said that the Pentagon was asked to provide Mr. Musk’s team with a list of those employees by the end of the day on Tuesday. The hardest-hit part of the Pentagon’s work force, one official said, would most likely be new employees who are young and eager to contribute to the department’s mission whom military leaders would want to keep in government. The official added that he feared the Defense Department would lose a generation of talent as a result of mass layoffs. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the request, which was reported earlier by Washington Post. On Tuesday evening, a Pentagon spokesman referred questions about Mr. Musk’s actions to the Office of Personnel Management, which serves as the federal government’s chief human resources agency. In response to a question about how many employees might be laid off as a result of the Musk team’s request, a spokesman said he did not have any information to provide. The length of a probationary trial period can vary and supervisors are supposed to use that time to verify an employee’s fitness for federal service, according to the personnel office’s website. “Removing probationary employees based on conduct and performance issues is less cumbersome as they are not entitled to most of the procedures and appeal rights granted to employees who have completed probationary period,” according to the personnel office. Exactly how the Pentagon could lay off thousands of junior employees without harming national security is unclear.

VOA News [2/18/2025 2:26 PM, Kate Bartlett, 2717K] reports that South Africa will host a meeting of foreign ministers from the G20 group of major economies later this week, but the chief diplomat for the world’s largest economy, the U.S., is skipping it. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on X earlier this month that he would not attend the meeting, taking place Thursday and Friday in Johannesburg, because he objected to the meeting’s agenda, which he described as anti-American. He said South Africa was "using G20 to promote ‘solidarity, equality, & sustainability.’ In other words: DEI and climate change. My job is to advance America’s national interests, not waste taxpayer money or coddle anti-Americanism." DEI is short for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and in President Donald Trump’s first week in the White House, he signed an executive order to end DEI policies and hiring practices in the federal workforce. "I think the whole topic of the G20 gathering is one that I don’t think we should be focused on, talking about global inclusion, equity, and these sorts of things," Rubio later told the press. He continued by saying the forum should be focused on issues "like terrorism and energy security and the real threats to the national security of multiple countries."

Washington Post [2/18/2025 6:35 AM, Missy Ryan, 40736K] reports Rubio was joined at a cavernous Saudi palace by national security adviser Michael Waltz and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. The Saudi foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud, and national security adviser, Musaad al-Aiban, joined the U.S. and Russian officials at a sprawling table to open the meeting but were expected to depart when the talks began in earnest. The Riyadh talks have deeply unsettled Ukraine, where fears are mounting that U.S. officials are overly comfortable discussing the country’s future without Kyiv at the table. They have also unnerved European allies, who worry that President Donald Trump will embrace a deal that emboldens President Vladimir Putin at a time when Washington appears poised to withdraw its security umbrella, a cornerstone of the West’s post-World War II order. U.S. officials have downplayed the significance of Kyiv’s exclusion, depicting the meeting as preliminary to explore the prospects for later negotiations that would include Kyiv and to pave the way for an expected Trump-Putin summit. But it marked a sharp break with the "nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine" mantra embraced by President Joe Biden and his Western allies. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is due to visit the Saudi capital on Wednesday, but he does not plan to meet with U.S. officials there, according to one Ukrainian official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the situation candidly. "It’s a weak path, to talk to Russia behind Ukraine’s back," the official said. Trump administration officials "haven’t told us what they wanted to talk about, and we have no perspective on what Ukrainian interests they want to trade.” The discussions come just days after Trump’s top aides shocked European leaders by ruling out NATO membership for Ukraine and declaring Kyiv must give up on recovering all Russian-controlled territory. Trump, alone among the vast majority of NATO leaders, has long voiced positive views about Putin; the men had a lengthy call last week. Nearly three years after Moscow’s full-scale invasion, Russia controls roughly a fifth of Ukraine. While the pace of Russian gains has increased in recent weeks, Kyiv maintains a foothold in southwestern Russia. The war has also taken a major toll on Russia’s economy and its military. Moscow, seeking to cement new partnerships and avoid widening enlistment at home, signed a military agreement with Pyongyang, resulting in the deployment of more than 10,000 North Korean troops to battle Ukrainians in Russia’s Kursk region.

Wall Street Journal [2/18/2025 7:01 PM, Michael R. Gordon, Brian Schwartz, and James Marson] reports the U.S. and Russia agreed to appoint teams to negotiate a settlement to the war in Ukraine, marking an end to three years of U.S. policy that focused on isolating Moscow and supporting Kyiv for as long as it was willing to keep fighting. The announcement Tuesday of a formal process to try to halt the war followed top-level talks between Washington and Moscow in Riyadh aimed at resetting Washington’s tense relationship with Moscow. “We haven’t really had much engagement with the Russians for almost three years, and it sets the table for future conversations,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said of the Tuesday meeting. “How that turns out will be up to the parties and their willingness not just to make commitments, but to live by them. That’ll be tested in the weeks to come.” Speaking to reporters at Mar-a-Lago later on Tuesday, President Trump said the U.S.-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia were “very good.” The meetings Tuesday between U.S. and Russian officials ended without announcement of a summit meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. But asked Tuesday whether such a meeting could take place by the end of this month, Trump said, “Probably.” Trump also signaled he supports holding elections in Ukraine if it wants to take part in negotiations, a move that’s likely to further isolate Kyiv as Moscow and Washington move forward with talks. “I would say that, you know, when they want a seat at the table…wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have to say, like, ‘You know, it’s been a long time since we’ve had an election,’” Trump said. “That’s not a Russia thing, that’s something coming from me and many other countries also.” Trump’s remarks echo aspects of Putin’s prior statements, saying Ukraine should hold elections. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s term expired in 2024, but elections were postponed as Ukrainian legislation prohibits holding elections while the country is under martial law.

NBC News [2/18/2025 11:46 AM, Courtney Kube and Carol E. Lee, 50804K] reports that as the Trump administration begins preliminary talks with Russian officials about ending the war in Ukraine, intelligence from the United States and close allies shows that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wants to control all of Ukraine, according to four Western intelligence officials and two U.S. congressional officials. "We have zero intelligence that Putin is interested in a real peace deal right now," one of the congressional officials said. Putin is sending representatives to Saudi Arabia for negotiations Tuesday with the U.S. that are aimed at ending the war. But, the six officials said, current intelligence shows Putin still believes he can wait out Ukraine and Europe to eventually control all of Ukraine. "He thinks he’s winning," one of the Western intelligence officials said, adding that Russian losses on the battlefield are not pressuring Putin to stop fighting. All of the officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the intelligence. Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said in response to a request for comment: "President Trump’s leadership has created the first opening for talks in years, and he did this after only four weeks in office. The Trump Administration will continue to pursue a deal that advances American interests and brings this conflict to a permanent resolution."

Washington Examiner [2/18/2025 10:21 AM, Mike Brest, 2365K] reports that Senior diplomats from Russia and the United States agreed Tuesday in Saudi Arabia to initial steps toward ending the war in Ukraine and improving relations between Moscow and Washington. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff, and national security adviser Mike Waltz represented the U.S. in the meeting, while Russia was represented by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud and Saudi national security adviser Mosaad bin Mohammad Al Aiban also participated in the conversation. The two sides agreed to four points that will figure heavily into the next steps in ending the conflict, according to a State Department readout of the meeting. They agreed to establish a consultation mechanism to address "irritants to our bilateral relationship" with the goal of normalizing the diplomatic missions in both countries, to appoint "high-level teams to begin working on a path to ending the conflict," to lay the groundwork for future cooperation, and for both sides "to remain engaged to make sure the process moves forward in a timely and productive manner." No Ukrainian officials were present at the high-stakes meeting on Tuesday at Diriyah Palace in Riyadh.

Yahoo! News [2/18/2025 8:52 PM, Staff, 57114K] reports US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has assured European allies that the United States will not lift sanctions against Russia at least until an agreement on ending the war in Ukraine is reached. Rubio made this statement during a phone conversation with a group of European officials on 18 February, following talks between US and Russian delegations in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Earlier that same day, he emphasised that any agreement to end the war would require concessions from all sides, including on the issue of sanctions. "In order to bring an end to any conflict, there has to be concessions made by all sides," Rubio told journalists in Riyadh. He also stated that reaching an agreement would open "incredible opportunities that exist to partner with the Russians, geopolitically on issues of common interest and frankly economically". "Many of the sanctions were put in place in partnership with European allies. A US decision to remove the restrictions early would deal a serious blow to Europe’s effort to deny Putin the money he needs to fund his war machine.” Experts warn that a shift in US policy on sanctions could have serious consequences. Andrea Kendall-Taylor, a former senior intelligence official who’s now director of the Transatlantic Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, expressed concern over a possible shift in the US administration’s approach. "If Trump wants this to be over so badly – and he seems to be looking at economic opportunities with Russia – there really could be a quick and terrible end to the conflict," she noted. "Allied officials were encouraged last month when Trump threatened to tighten limits on Moscow to force Putin to negotiate. But there’s been no mention of such steps since the two leaders spoke by phone last week, the first such call since Russia’s invasion. Russian asset prices jumped on news of the conversation.”

Washington Examiner [2/18/2025 9:28 AM, Jack Birle, 2365K] reports that Russia has agreed to release an American who was arrested on drug charges earlier this month at a Moscow airport as talks begin between U.S. and Russian officials. Kalob Byers was arrested on Feb. 7 after being found with a small amount of marijuana at a Moscow airport, but the detained American was released as a goodwill gesture ahead of the talks that began Tuesday in Saudi Arabia, according to the New York Times. Byers was released shortly after Marc Fogel, an American teacher accused of a similar drug-related crime, was released back to the U.S. after being detained in the country since August 2021. The release of Byers came as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Secretary of State Marco Rubio met in the Middle East to discuss various topics. The State Department billed the meeting as a follow-up to President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s phone call last week. Officials said they agreed to "establish a consultation mechanism" to address troubles as they work toward normalization of diplomatic missions, appoint teams to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, "lay the groundwork" for working in mutually beneficial areas after the war ends, and keep talks going on ending the war.

Wall Street Journal [2/18/2025 9:34 AM, Anat Peled and Summer Said] reports Hamas said it would release three living hostages ahead of schedule on Saturday as Israel agreed to begin negotiations to permanently end the war in Gaza and free the remaining hostages held there. Hamas leader Khalil Al-Hayya said Tuesday that the U.S.-designated terrorist group agreed to release six living hostages, three more than originally stipulated by the deal, after successful negotiations between the two sides. It is also handing over the bodies of dead hostages for the first time on Thursday. In exchange for the four bodies, Israel will release all Palestinian women and minors under the age of 19 who were detained in Gaza after Oct. 8, 2023, and who weren’t involved in the fighting, Arab mediators said. Al-Hayya said that the living hostages will include two men who have been held by Hamas for around a decade and that the bodies include members of the Bibas family who were taken hostage in the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Hamas said they were killed in an Israeli airstrike during the start of the war. The Israeli prime minister’s office confirmed the exchange of living and dead hostages after negotiations in Cairo. Mobile homes which have been held up by Israel from entering the enclave in recent days are also expected to enter the Strip as soon as Tuesday, mediators said. Hamas had previously accused Israel of violating the agreement by refusing to allow the entry of the caravans. Hamas agreed to release the living hostages ahead of schedule in exchange for Israel allowing the mobile homes into Gaza and for agreeing to begin negotiations on the second phase of the deal, mediators said. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said Israel’s security cabinet decided on Monday night to open negotiations on the second phase of the cease-fire deal this week, more than two weeks after discussions on it were supposed to begin, according to the terms of the deal. When asked about Sa’ar’s comments, Israel’s prime minister’s office pointed to a comment released Sunday that said after the security cabinet meeting, the negotiating team “will receive instructions for the continuation of the negotiations on phase two issues.”

Washington Examiner [2/18/2025 11:47 AM, Timothy Nerozzi, 2365K] reports that Israel and Hamas are behind schedule on the progression of their ceasefire deal as the release of hostages and return of remains continues through a tense, fragile peace. Hamas is preparing to return the bodies of four dead hostages to Israeli authorities on Thursday, followed by "six living hostages" on Saturday, according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office. Kfir and Ariel Bibas, 1 year old and 4 years old, respectively, are the youngest Israelis taken hostage following the Oct. 7 attacks and are expected among the deceased returnees. Israel has returned close to 2,000 Palestinian captives in exchange for the hostages as part of the first phase of the fragile ceasefire deal struck earlier this year with U.S.

AP [2/18/2025 7:06 AM, Michael Biesecker, Sam Mednick and Garance Burke, 30936K] reports U.S. tech giants have quietly empowered Israel to track and kill many more alleged militants more quickly in Gaza and Lebanon through a sharp spike in artificial intelligence and computing services. But the number of civilians killed has also soared, fueling fears that these tools are contributing to the deaths of innocent people. Militaries have for years hired private companies to build custom autonomous weapons. However, Israel’s recent wars mark a leading instance in which commercial AI models made in the United States have been used in active warfare, despite concerns that they were not originally developed to help decide who lives and who dies. The Israeli military uses AI to sift through vast troves of intelligence, intercepted communications and surveillance to find suspicious speech or behavior and learn the movements of its enemies. After a deadly surprise attack by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, 2023, its use of Microsoft and OpenAI technology skyrocketed, an Associated Press investigation found. The investigation also revealed new details of how AI systems select targets and ways they can go wrong, including faulty data or flawed algorithms. It was based on internal documents, data and exclusive interviews with current and former Israeli officials and company employees. “This is the first confirmation we have gotten that commercial AI models are directly being used in warfare,” said Heidy Khlaaf, chief AI scientist at the AI Now Institute and former senior safety engineer at OpenAI. “The implications are enormous for the role of tech in enabling this type of unethical and unlawful warfare going forward.” As U.S. tech titans ascend to prominent roles under President Donald Trump, the AP’s findings raise questions about Silicon Valley’s role in the future of automated warfare. Microsoft expects its partnership with the Israeli military to grow, and what happens with Israel may help determine the use of these emerging technologies around the world. The Israeli military’s usage of Microsoft and OpenAI artificial intelligence spiked last March to nearly 200 times higher than before the week leading up to the Oct. 7 attack, the AP found in reviewing internal company information. The amount of data it stored on Microsoft servers doubled between that time and July 2024 to more than 13.6 petabytes — roughly 350 times the digital memory needed to store every book in the Library of Congress. Usage of Microsoft’s huge banks of computer servers by the military also rose by almost two-thirds in the first two months of the war alone. Israel’s goal after the attack that killed about 1,200 people and took over 250 hostages was to eradicate Hamas, and its military has called AI a “game changer” in yielding targets more swiftly. Since the war started, more than 50,000 people have died in Gaza and Lebanon and nearly 70% of the buildings in Gaza have been devastated, according to health ministries in Gaza and Lebanon.

Newsweek [2/19/2025 3:45 AM, Ryan Chan, 56005K] reports China warned on Tuesday that the Asia-Pacific region is not a "chessboard of geopolitical confrontation" as the United States continues to strengthen its military buildup in the region. The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a written request for comment. The U.S. military has viewed the Indo-Pacific region, or what China calls the Asia-Pacific region, as its so-called "priority theater of operations," where it deploys its most capable forces and weaponry, such as aircraft carriers, nuclear-powered submarines and even a laser-armed warship. Leaders at the Pentagon have viewed China as its "pacing threat" and "pacing challenge" since 2020. The former means a direct, consequential, and near-term peril to U.S. security and values, while the latter poses a long-term risk to U.S. influence, position and power. Guo Jiakun, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, was asked about whether Beijing is concerned that a peace agreement in the Russia-Ukraine war would lead to a stronger U.S. pivot to Asia, freeing up its military resources to concentrate in the region. "We believe that the Asia-Pacific is a stellar example of development," said the Chinese spokesperson, adding that China hopes that a lasting peace can be realized in Europe, as well as the establishment of a "balanced, effective, and sustainable security architecture" there. "Pivot to Asia" became U.S. foreign policy under the Obama administration, in which the U.S. focused its military, economic and diplomatic resources on Asia to address China’s threat. The Biden administration revived and modernized it as the Indo-Pacific Strategy. The Chinese Foreign Ministry’s remarks came after U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s speech at the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting last week, in which he demanded European allies lead Europe’s security as the U.S. "prioritizes its attention" to threats.

Yahoo! News [2/18/2025 7:22 AM, Imran Rahman-Jones, 57114K] reports South Korea has accused Chinese AI startup DeepSeek of sharing user data with the owner of TikTok in China. "We confirmed DeepSeek communicating with ByteDance," the South Korean data protection regulator told Yonhap News Agency. The country had already removed DeepSeek from app stores over the weekend over data protection concerns. The Chinese app caused shockwaves in the AI world in January, wiping billions off global stock markets over claims its new model was trained at a much lower cost than US rivals such as ChatGPT. Since then, multiple countries have warned that user data may not be properly protected, and in February a US cybersecurity company alleged potential data sharing between DeepSeek and ByteDance. DeepSeek’s apparent overnight impact saw it shoot to the top of App Store charts in the UK, US and many other countries around the world - although it now sits far below ChatGPT in UK rankings. In South Korea, it had been downloaded over a million times before being pulled from Apple and Google’s App Stores on Saturday evening. Existing users can still access the app and use it on a web browser. The data regulator, the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), told South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency that despite finding a link between DeepSeek and ByteDance, it was "yet to confirm what data was transferred and to what extent".

Reuters [2/18/2025 11:56 AM, Michelle Nichols, 48128K] reports that China supports all efforts conducive to peace talks in Ukraine, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday, and stressed that Gaza and the West Bank are "not a bargaining chip in political trade-offs." After Russian and U.S. officials met in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday and agreed to press ahead with efforts to end the war in Ukraine, Wang told the Security Council: "China supports all efforts conducive to peace talks." He said Beijing would continue to follow four points outlined by Chinese President Xi Jinping on what should be done. China’s official Xinhua news agency listed these as respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries; observance of the purposes and principles of the U.N. Charter; paying due regard to legitimate security concerns of all countries, and supporting efforts conducive to the peaceful settlement of the crisis.

Wang chaired a meeting of the 15-member Security Council on multilateralism because China is president for February. Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said that with regard to efforts to end the conflict in Ukraine, it was "becoming clear who genuinely advocates a more fair, more equal world, and who are living in the past and are striving at any cost to make their geopolitical agendas a reality."

Newsweek [2/18/2025 4:57 PM, Micah McCartney, 56005K] reports that North Korea has fired back after a senior U.S. military commander warned that the country likely has the capability to strike North America with nuclear weapons. Newsweek reached out to the North Korean Embassy in China by email with a request for comment. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s regime has been steadily modernizing its missile fleet, flouting U.N. Security Council sanctions and further straining ties with U.S.-allied South Korea. One recent addition is the Hwasong-18, the country’s first intercontinental ballistic missile to be solid-fueled—a significant advancement that allows for faster launches and improved mobility. Another is the even more powerful Hwasong-19, launched in October, just days before the U.S. election. Both are believed to be nuclear-capable. "North Korea continues to defy the international nonproliferation regime and advance its strategic weapons program," General Gregory Guillot, head of U.S. Northern Command, warned in his statement before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday. He stressed that the Hwasong-19 "probably can deliver a nuclear payload to targets throughout North America while minimizing our ability to provide pre-launch warning due to the shortened launch preparation timelines afforded by its solid-propellant design." Newsweek [2/18/2025 6:26 AM, Daniel Orton, 6595K] reports North Korea has denounced the U.S. and its allies for pursuing what it called the "absurd" goal of denuclearization, vowing instead to bolster its nuclear capabilities under leader Kim Jong Un. The statement, issued Tuesday by North Korea’s Foreign Ministry via state media, follows a meeting in Germany where top diplomats from the U.S., South Korea, and Japan reaffirmed their commitment to countering Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions through military cooperation and sanctions.

Washington Post [2/18/2025 10:37 PM, Christian Shepherd, 40736K] reports a Chinese military helicopter made "dangerous flight maneuvers" close to an aircraft from the Philippines’ Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources on Tuesday, said Jay Tarriela, spokesperson for the Philippine Coast Guard. Video of the incident taken by a Filipino journalist showed the Chinese Navy helicopter flying closer until it was nearly above the wing of the aircraft, before pulling away again. "This reckless action posed a serious risk to the safety of the pilots and passengers," Tarriela wrote on X, adding that they encounter was a violation of international aviation regulations. Dangerous Encounter with PLA-Navy Helicopter During BFAR Maritime Domain Awareness Flight. At approximately 0700 hours today, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) conducted a Maritime Domain Awareness Flight over the territorial airspace of Bajo De Masinloc,… pic.twitter.com/h371xxnDmX. Beijing’s claims over the strategic waterway also conflict with those of Vietnam’s, Malaysia’s and Brunei’s. But it is with the Philippines, an American ally and close security partners, that tensions have run highest. The Chinese Coast Guard has repeatedly used water cannons and direct collisions to prevent the Philippine ships from reaching disputed islands, including Second Thomas Shoal, where the Filipino troops are stationed on a dilapidated warship beached there in the 1990s. The Philippines has responded to Chinese aggression by stepping up patrols and public condemnation of Beijing, which has dismissed the accusations as a tactic to drum up additional support from the United States. China dismissed the Philippines’ complaint as "false" and accused Manila of illegally entering Chinese-claimed airspace above the disputed Scarborough Shoal, which China calls Huangyan island. "The Philippines’ attempt to pursue its illegal sovereignty claims through military provocations and mislead international opinion through propaganda and hype is doomed to fail," Tian Jun, spokesperson for China’s Southern Theater Command, said on Tuesday. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

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